All You Need to Know About Microsoft’s Surface Book

Microsoft surprised the tech community at its recent press conference by unveiling the Surface Book, the company’s first attempt at a more traditional laptop. The Surface Book combines the features that made its Surface Pro tablets popular — such as the ability to run a full version of Windows — with features that some traditional laptop users need that may have prevented them from considering the tablet devices like the Surface RT.

The laptop’s display measures in at 13.5 inches, over an inch larger than the newest Surface Pro 4 tablet and almost 3 inches larger than previous models. It also has about twice the screen resolution of previous Surface devices, aiming to compete with Apple’s MacBook Pro line and high-end displays.

The Surface Book also includes more storage space, and an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor depending on the model you select — all features that you’d find on a traditional laptop, as opposed to a tablet. Where it differentiates itself is in its versatility: It can be used as a traditional laptop, or detached or flipped for use as a tablet.

With these additional features comes a premium price: The cheapest configuration sets you back $1,499. It is worth it? We’ll take a look at what you need to know about Microsoft’s latest device.

What’s better

We’ve already compared some of the specs to previous Surfaces and shown what a drastically better device the Surface Book is. It does seem as if Microsoft intends for this device to cater to the person looking for the versatility of a tablet, without sacrificing the power of a traditional laptop.

Compare the amount of RAM for example. Previous Surfaces had either 2 or 4GB of RAM, which puts them in line with the average tablet. The RAM in the Surface Book is four times that (8 or 16GB) — this is more than sufficient for not only basic computing but also more intensive applications like video editing.

Indeed the Surface Book includes a separate graphics processor in higher end models, something you’d want for not only gaming but better performance in other applications like video and photo editing (Photoshop, for example). If that’s what you think you’d do, opt for these models.

What’s useful

 

The Surface Book holds true to its tablet roots in allowing you to detach the screen itself from the keyboard completely or flip it around to use the keyboard like a stand (see the photo above). The Surface Book also works with touch input and comes packaged with a stylus like previous Surfaces have.

You’ll also find 2 USB ports and a MicroSD slot, and a Mini DisplayPort that allows you to connect to a traditional desktop monitor. All storage drives in the Surface Book are solid-state based, meaning they use flash memory for storage. This is a better option as SSD drives can access data faster than traditional hard drives, and sizes of up to 1TB will be offered.

The device runs a full version of Windows 10 and includes a 30-day free trial of Office. That’s somewhat of a disappointment considering the Surface Book’s price, but one of the few negatives we can find.

(For more specific specs, see Microsoft’s page on their website.)

How it’s priced

As we said at the beginning, the base model Surface Pro is $1,499. This includes a 128GB drive, 8GB of RAM and an Intel Core i5 processor with integrated graphics. Upgrading to the 256GB drive is an additional $200, and another $200 on top of that if you want the dedicated graphics processor instead. Beyond that you can get two core i7 processor models: one with 256GB of storage for $2,099, and another model with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for a staggering $2,699.

At least at the moment 1TB models aren’t available for pre-order (shipping begins October 26), but we’re willing to bet these models will easily surpass $3,000 when they go on sale later this year.

The bottom line

If you’re in the market for a higher end laptop, Microsoft’s Surface Book is certainly a worthwhile contender. Its features and specs stack up pretty nicely against the MacBook Pro, which seems to be the type of laptop buyer Microsoft’s targeting. At most of the price points, they’re fairly close to the MacBook Pro in terms of specifications.

That said, if you’re not a power user, it’s hard to justify the Surface Book’s additional cost. Microsoft, along with the launch of the new Surface Book and Surface 4, dropped the cost of its older model to $499, so that’s a better option if you’d like a laptop-like device with tablet portability.

Do remember though, if you choose a tablet-based Surface instead, you’ll need to purchase the keyboard ($130) and stylus ($60) separately. This may put it out of your price range, and you may be able to find a lower end tablet with the capability to swivel the display to give you that tablet-like functionality.

Either way, it’s hard not to be impressed with Microsoft’s first true laptop — if you can afford it.

Source: CheatSheet

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Apple TV: Why It Is Not the Future of TV

Apple finally refreshed its Apple TV set-top box, and it just opened preorders for the next-generation version of the device. True to form for new Apple releases, the new Apple TV has gotten a lot of press. Almost everyone’s had something to say about the new set-top box, and many have claimed that Apple TV is the future of television. But if you consider what the future of TV should really look like, that claim doesn’t seem to hold up.

Apps aren’t the future of TV, great content is

Arthur Greenwald reports for Re/code that when Apple previewed the new Apple TV, chief executive Tim Cook said, “We believe the future of television is apps.” But Greenwald notes that the fact that the top four broadcast networks have signed on with Apple TV is hardly a sign that times are changing. He notes that the “most popular content on leading apps most often comes from traditional television networks.” All of the major networks have deals in place with some combination of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

Netflix, and most other video apps, feature a wide array of logos, the most familiar ones being ones that users recognize from traditional TV. TV networks’ shows have a big advantage over the original series produced by streaming services in that networks have time and space to promote their shows. Local affiliates of major networks provide another important venue for promotion, and Greenwald notes that it’s no accident that the major broadcast networks have withheld Apple TV apps until they could confidently include livestreaming of their local affiliates.

But Greenwald thinks Apple knows that apps are only a temporary gateway to the real future of television — particularly if rumors about Apple’s potential streaming service come true. Apple just announced that all apps for the Apple TV’s new tvOS must support the Siri remote in their “core functionality” in order to be listed in the forthcoming Apple TV App Store. But even the requirements Apple will use to ensure consistent user experience across Apple TV apps can’t make apps into the future of TV, since apps aren’t going to revolutionize the way you watch TV. In fact, if you imagine the TV of the future, you probably think of a TV that can at least partially eliminate the need for you to scroll through channels or navigate a screen full of apps in search of something to watch.

The TV of the future will have to surface content you want to watch

Forrester Research analyst Jim Nail tells Wired’s David Pierce that the real potential for set-top boxes is to eliminate the need for channel-flipping by figuring out what you want to watch before even you know. Netflix is an early pioneer of that functionality, and uses a deep archive of data on what you watch and when you watch it to choose original content that you’ll like and offer an endless scroll of recommendations via bizarrely specific, descriptively-named categories.

But Pierce notes that what it isn’t doing is using that data to “just pick something, and put it on as soon as I launch Netflix,” in order to save users from endlessly scrolling through options when all they want to do is just sit down and watch something. Pierce explains, “These boxes should serve up the right thing for right now, no matter what it is or where it comes from.” But while Pierce tries that in an ideal world, all of the various sources of the shows and movies you like would combine their data “into an algorithmically perfect understanding of what you want to watch, and then just show it you,” he acknowledges that that’s never going to happen.

While Apple might have a decade’s worth of iTunes data, plus information on how you use your Apple devices, to try to figure out what shows or movies you might want to watch, its understanding of your interests would be even better if it could take into account the information that Netflix, for instance, has collected on you. Unfortunately, that kind of data-sharing is extremely unlikely to happen, so Apple TV is already settling for the next-best option — even though settling doesn’t sound like a promising way to build the TV of the future.

Users will have to settle for the next-best thing: Universal search

Universal search, when implemented well, will enable you to easily find what you’re looking for across all of the apps and channels that are available to you. That doesn’t solve the problem of figuring out what you want to watch, of course, but it’ll make it easier for you to find either specific series or movies, or even content on a given topic, featuring a specific cast or crew member. Pierce notes that there’s been some significant progress on this front, and he characterizes Roku’s search functionality as excellent, Amazon’s as improving, and Apple TV’s universal search through Siri good enough to be “a core feature of the new TV.”

But to succeed, universal search really has to be universal. There isn’t a single place to get all of the movies and shows you want, and you can’t watch everything you want without signing up for at least a handful of accounts and subscriptions. But the TV of the future should make all of that content available to you, seamlessly and with such a consistent interface and streaming quality that it doesn’t matter where a show or movie is hosted. But Pierce points out that that kind of universal search will treat everything the same, and the corporations that own the content will do everything they can to prevent their content from being unbundled in that manner.

Source: CheatSheet

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Owner hears 'kaboom,' finds car on roof of Michigan home

 When Joyce Kingsley heard "kaboom" while at her Michigan home, she immediately thought about extreme weather.

The 83-year-old needed to look up: A Ford Mustang was parked on the roof of her home after the driver had a medical problem Monday and lost control on Interstate 69 in Shiawassee County.

Kingsley's home about 20 miles northeast of Lansing is built next to a hill, and the roof is nearly level with the ground, The Argus-Press of Owosso reported.

"I was just watching TV inside. I had it up pretty loud — but this was much louder," Kingsley said.

State police said the Mustang went through several bushes, trees and a fence before stopping on the roof. The driver was treated for low blood sugar but wasn't hurt.

"The driver is extremely lucky," Trooper Ben Rowell said.

Kingsley plans to put a tarp over the damaged roof until it can be fixed.

"It could've been a lot worse," she said. "I'm glad everyone is all right."

Source: Yahoo

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ODD: 97 Year Old Woman Receives High School Diploma

 A 97-year-old woman has received an honorary diploma from a Michigan high school, eight decades after she was forced to drop out to help her family.

Margaret Thome Bekema finally was able to don a mortarboard and fulfill her lifelong goal in front of her friends and family on Thursday. School administrators from Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids presented her with the diploma at the Yorkshire and Stonebridge Manor senior community in Walker.

Bekema would have graduated with the Class of 1936, but she left during her junior year to care for her three younger siblings because her mother was ill with cancer.

She said leaving school at age 17 broke her heart and she's thankful for the recognition.

Grand Rapids is about 160 miles northwest of Detroit.

Source: Yahoo

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Social Media Mistakes That Can Get You Fired

Sometimes, a social media faux pas is more than embarrassing. Failing to police your online behavior could get you into big trouble at work if you’re not careful. An ill-timed tweet or a thoughtless Facebook post might earn you a stern talking-to from your boss. In the worst-case scenario, a social media blunder might cost you your job.

Everyone’s heard the stories of people who’ve been fired because of their social media screw-ups. But until you find yourself in the hot seat, it’s easy to forget that your actions online may come back to haunt you.

“Social media is now so woven into the fabric of young people’s lives that they forget not everything is suitable to put out there,” Alison Green, a former hiring manager who runs askamanager.org, told Time.

A healthy dose of common sense is usually enough to stop most social media blunders before they start. Yet given our culture of constant sharing, it’s easy for a momentary lapse in judgement to turn into a big problem. Short of shutting down all your profiles, your best approach is to think before you post. That should help you avoid these seven big social media screw-ups, which are potential career killers.

1. Making racist, sexist, or other offensive comments

Posting inflammatory content online is a quick route to a pink slip, a lesson many people have learned the hard way. Back in 2013, PR rep Justine Sacco tweeted an insensitive comment about AIDS just before getting on a plane to South Africa. By the time she landed a few hours later, her job was history and her reputation was toast. That’s how quickly things can spin out of control.

Sacco’s hardly the only person who’s had a career go up in smoke because of an offensive or thoughtless post. In Little Rock, Ark., the owner of travel agency fired an employee for making homophobic comments online. The employee’s remarks were not only offensive, but they were costing the company business.

Policing what an employee says outside of work may seem unfair, no matter how despicable their comments. But a company that ignores those comments may be putting themselves at risk.

“[Employers] are required by law to maintain a diverse and respectful workplace,” Nicholas Woodfield, an attorney with The Employment Law Group in Washington, D.C., told the Associated Press.

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2. Complaining about your job

Everyone needs to vent sometimes, but publicly sharing your true feelings about your job on social media can land you in hot water. While valid complaints about working conditions are protected speech in many cases, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), general gripes about your boss probably aren’t.

Employees are allowed to engage in “concerted activity” to improve their pay and working conditions, says the NLRB. So, when a group of construction workers posted a YouTube video sharing their concerns about unsafe working conditions, the NLRB said they were within their rights to do so. But if your complaint is that your job is boring or your boss is a jerk, you should probably keep it to yourself.

“Be very careful what you write,” Kathleen Lucas, labor and employment attorney at Lucas Law Firm in San Francisco, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Not only can there be consequences, you can really create a problem in your workplace.”

3. Sharing confidential information

 Accidentally sharing your company’s secrets online may be easier than you realize. While posting confidential reports and documents is an obvious no-no, even innocent updates may inadvertently reveal information that your employer would prefer to keep private.

Say your company is planning a merger that hasn’t been formally announced yet, but you tweet something that gives away the big news. Or a big deal you’ve been working on falls apart and you post about your disappointment on LinkedIn, even though your bosses would prefer to keep the news under wraps.

“[O]ften employees don’t recognize the crossover between their professional and personal worlds and the ways that seemingly personal updates can reveal business information,” noted Inside Counsel, a magazine for corporate lawyers.

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4. Posting something stupid on behalf of your company

It pays to think twice about what you post if you’re in charge of your company’s social media. Just ask the American Apparel employee who tweeted a photo of the Challenger explosion to mark the Fourth of July (it turns out the employee, who was born after 1986, didn’t realize they were sharing a photo of a national tragedy). Or the Houston Rockets employee who posted a tweet with some inappropriate emojis during the playoff series with the Dallas Mavericks (the employee was later fired).

If you’re tweeting or sharing on behalf of your employer, remember that whatever you do reflects on them. While some mistakes are truly innocent, post anything wildly out of line and you’re likely to be shown the door.

5. Sharing when you should be working

 Not only does using social media while working make you less productive, it could reflect poorly on you as an employee. Some old-school employers may still look unkindly on any kind of social media activity during the workday. More forgiving bosses are likely to understand that you might occasionally check Twitter from your phone. They may even want you to use your personal accounts to promote the company. But getting too caught up in the online world and ignoring projects at work could spell trouble.

“Are you blogging or Facebooking during work hours when you shouldn’t be? Your boss or a vindictive, catty co-worker can easily catch on, landing you a warning or a meeting with the HR department,” CEO and co-founder of Strikingly.com David Chen told CIO.

6. Posting drunk photos from work gatherings

You and your co-workers hit the bar after a long day at the office, and everyone indulges in a few too many drinks, including your boss. You snap a few goofy picks of everyone and share them on Instagram, not thinking anything of it. That is, until the next day, when your boss sobers up and isn’t so happy that those photos are out there in the world for anyone to see.

When it comes to work gatherings that involve alcohol, remember that the rules are different from hanging out with friends. The best move is to stay sober, but if you do find yourself a little tipsy at an office gathering, try to keep your phone in your pocket.

“In college, getting drunk is rewarded. But when you’re in a workplace, there are different consequences,” Michael Ball, founder of CareerFreshman.com, told NBC News.

7. Broadcasting your job search

 

 Social media is a key tool in the modern-day job search. But if you’re on the hunt for a new gig and your current boss sees that you’ve suddenly connected with half a dozen recruiters on LinkedIn, it could make for an uncomfortable situation at the office. You may find yourself passed over for plum assignments or even first on the list of employees to be let go in the next round of layoffs.

“[Your boss] will assume that you’re unhappy and worst case scenario, may start taking steps to terminate you. Supervisors want employees who are committed to the job, not to a job search,” Andy Teach, the author of From Graduation to Corporation, told Forbes.

That doesn’t mean you should take your job search offline, or give up looking for a new position. After all, you’ll find it easier to get hired if you’re currently employed. You just need to be savvy about your social media moves. Adjusting your LinkedIn privacy settings will help you keep your job search secret from your boss and coworkers.

Source: CheatSheet

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Famous skateboarding dog Tillman dies at age 10 in California

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tillman, the English bulldog who in 2009 set a Guinness World Record as the fastest skateboarding canine and starred in videos that demonstrated his four-wheeled prowess, has died in Southern California at age 10, his owner said on Thursday.

Tillman, who suffered from an irregular heartbeat, died on Tuesday night after lapsing into a sudden bout of labored panting, according to his owner, Ron Davis, 46.

Davis, who lives in the coastal town of Oxnard just northwest of Los Angeles, said he rushed Tillman to a veterinary hospital and performed cardiovascular resuscitation in a failed attempt to revive his beloved pet.

"He was my best friend, my brother and my shadow, and when it was show time, it was amazing. He made millions and millions of people smile throughout the world," Davis said of his pooch. "He was a little 60-pound (27.2 kg) butterball of inspiration for a lot of people."

Tillman gained legions of fans with his appearance in a 2007 YouTube video that showed him pushing his skateboard with his paws and riding around a concrete path at a beachside park, tilting his body to steer.

Surfer Dog Tillman rides a wave at the Surf City surf dog contest in Huntington Beach, California in …

The video has been seen more than 20 million times on YouTube and was featured in an early commercial for Apple Inc's iPhone to demonstrate the video-playing abilities of the device.

Recognized for his light brown coat, white face and white chest, Tillman also appeared in the Hallmark channel's reality television series "Who Let the Dogs Out."

In 2009, Tillman's talents landed him a Guinness World Record as the fastest skateboarding dog after he rolled across 100 meters (yards) in 19.678 seconds at the X Games in Los Angeles.

Tillman's Guinness World Record was narrowly eclipsed in 2013 by a dog named Jumpy who posted a time of 19.65 seconds.

Davis said that as part of Super Bowl festivities in Phoenix earlier this year he had Tillman try to reclaim his record, but rainfall made the rubber-like surface chosen for the event too slow.

Tillman, aside from skateboarding, enjoyed snowboarding, surfing and riding in his special seat in an all-terrain vehicle, Davis said.

Davis said he never managed to teach Tillman traditional canine tricks such as to roll over or beg, but the English bulldog took naturally to skateboarding. Even so, it took hundreds of hours of training for him to master it, Davis said.

Source: Yahoo

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Zuckerberg's Fwd.us slams Trump's deportation plan as 'absurd'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's political action group is very much against mass deportation.

I worry about postelection, prerobot America.

Will this really be a country that gets a neighbor to build a wall and then deports 11 million undocumented immigrants in order, supposedly, to give more opportunities to documented Americans?

This is the promise of leading (in many polls) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

During Wednesday night's Republican debate, he didn't seem to waver from that intention. He did, however, deny referring to fellow candidate Marco Rubio as "Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator" for advocating for expansion of the H1-B visa program, which US tech companies use to attract skilled workers from overseas. The denial came despite the "personal senator" remark being plainly written on the Trump website.

Zuckerberg, the CEO of social-networking giant Facebook, has been the leading light in supporting the political action group Fwd.us, which vows to "fix our country's broken immigration system." Tech luminaries such as Bill Gates and Marissa Mayer have also lent their support to the organization.

So in response to the debate, Fwd.us CEO Todd Schulte posted a robust response to Trump's plan. He described the plan as "horrible."

"It is astounding that some in a party that espouses smaller government wants one big enough to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and millions of their US citizen family members," he said. "Mass deportation is absurd on its face and these policies are indefensible on human, economic and political grounds."

How many new government hires would it take to deport 11 million people? Trump's immigration plan already calls for the hiring of three times as many Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Or is the idea to hire people to deport themselves?

Mass deportation may strike more than a few as especially inhumane and un-American, especially many who are from immigrant families who arrived in the US via disparate routes. America has long welcomed people as people, rather than as foreigners.

However, Schulte decided to focus rather on the "astronomical costs" of such an idea. He doesn't suggest what these costs might be. Indeed, has anyone even attempted to calculate such costs? The Trump campaign wasn't immediately available for comment.

Fwd.us has insisted from its very inception that US immigration policy is,in Zuckerberg's words, "unfit for today's world." It wants more H1-B visas to be granted so that hiring can be easier and swifter, while Trump wants more restrictions on the program.

Those of a drier nature might suggest that bringing in more foreign workers on H1-B visas ties them more easily and more cost-effectively (for their employers) to the tech company that sponsors them.

Indeed, Trump's immigration plan suggests raising the prevailing H1-B salary.

"More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than 80 percent for its bottom two," it says. "Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the US, instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas."

Schulte, whose organization claims allies on both sides of politics, insists that 75 percent of Americans support "common sense immigration reform."

The problem, though, is that there's little common ground on what constitutes common sense. As election candidates pander to their perceived audiences, they might say anything that they believe will have visceral appeal.

American politics simply isn't geared toward planning. Instead, it's a series of cycles punctuated by excessive dramas that suck energy from the task of actually governing.

Indeed, Congress and the whole lobbying system are one of the best advertisements for government by algorithm.

Related: Zuckerberg vows to fix annoying  Facebook game invites

Source: Yahoo

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Einstein's Riddle

A fellow encountered a bear in a wasteland. There was nobody else there. Both were frightened and ran away. Fellow to the north, bear to the west. Suddenly the fellow stopped, aimed his gun to the south and shot the bear. What color was the bear?
If you don't know, this may help you: if the bear ran about 3.14 times faster than the fellow (still westwards), the fellow could have shot straight in front of him, however for the booty he would have to go to the south.

THE ANSWER WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST

One Thing You Need, But Most People Lack in the Workplace

Your résumé may be solid. You can stay cool under pressure. You may have the necessary business and social skills to propel you to the top — you may even be as honest and loyal of an employee that anyone could ask for. Yet, there’s one important trait that you could be missing, that can really make all the difference in the world and renders everything else useless.

Confidence.

Without a sense of confidence, people are always going to be second-guessing and questioning your decision making. They may not see you as a leader, and it could hurt your prospects. Needless to say, confidence is one of the cornerstones of a successful professional career. So, it’s important to build yourself up, and walk the walk with a sense of bold self-assurance.

Oh, and it can also earn you more money.

The question is, how do you develop confidence? Particularly if you haven’t strung together a series of professional victories, or if you’re still in the infancy of your career? The answer, surprisingly, has less to do with scientifically-proven, bulletproof techniques, and more to do with the kinds of things you learn in an improv class. In short, building confidence can be as simple as ‘fake it until you make it.’

Seriously. You may have heard this before, but a good way to actually start from square one in building your confidence is to simply act confident. No matter how you’re feeling inside — insecure, nervous, etc. — if other people see you keeping your cool in the face of intense pressure or scrutiny, they’ll be impressed. That, in turn, will make you more confident. It’s essentially knocking over the first domino in your confidence-building scheme.

If you go into the process with some solid self-esteem and a positive image of yourself, but still feel unsure or unproven when it comes to your professional life, faking it (or just putting on a confident act) can be the perfect place to start.

Of course, if you’re not feeling good about yourself for any number of reasons, you can put in some work to help you with that. A good way to start is to exercise. Not only has lifting weights and getting in shape been proven to help boost productivity and creativity, but a higher level of fitness has also been linked to higher confidence levels. It’s one of the most basic and primal ways to prove yourself — set some goals for yourself, and physically go after them. You’ll see results, accomplish what you set out to do, and those victories should leave you more confident and self-assured.

The trick, then, is to take that nugget of confidence, and apply it to the rest of your life — in relationships and in your career, specifically.

That’s not to say that science doesn’t have a say in all of this. After all, there are plenty of experts and psychological data out there who can point you in the right direction. There are a number of actual tips and tricks you can apply to your daily life to appear more confident.

Physically, work on your posture. Standing up straight and moving with purpose conveys some powerful non-verbal communicative cues. People will see you coming, and know that you’re a man on a mission — not another meandering interloper, wasting your time and talents. Also, you can speak with a sense of authority. Think about what you’re going to say before you say it, and speak calmly, directly, and make eye contact. It’ll leave an impression, and you’ll walk away feeling in command.

Do you think that history’s greatest leaders, like Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, or Winston Churchill slouched around, avoiding eye contact? If they had, nobody would have listened to them. If you’re falling into those physical ‘security’ traps, there’s a good chance nobody is listening to you, either.

So, the trick here is to balance yourself. If you’re starting from scratch, building confidence will start with building self-esteem. You’ll then carry that over into your physical actions, and literally ‘fake it’, if you have to. You don’t want to be dishonest, per se, but summoning the courage to face the world with a sense of sternness and self-assurance should blossom into you actually developing those feelings.

Own yourself, speak and walk with confidence, and eventually you’ll stop pretending — that will be you. And everyone else will see it.

Source: Cheatsheet

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Halloween Skies to Include Dead Comet Flyby

This animated GIF was generated using radar data collected by the National Science Foundation's 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The six radar images used in the animation were taken on Oct. 30, 2015, and the image resolution is 25 feet (7.5 meters) per pixel.

Credits: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF

The large space rock that will zip past Earth this Halloween is most likely a dead comet that, fittingly, bears an eerie resemblance to a skull

. 

Scientists observing asteroid 2015 TB145 with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun.

The belated comet has also been observed by optical and radar observatories around the world, providing even more data, including our first close-up views of its surface. Asteroid 2015 TB145 will safely fly by our planet at just under 1.3 lunar distances, or about 302,000 miles (486,000 kilometers), on Halloween (Oct. 31) at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT, 17:00 UTC).

The first radar images of the dead comet were generated by the National Science Foundation's 305-meter (1,000-foot) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar images from Arecibo indicate the object is spherical in shape and approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter and completes a rotation about once every five hours.   

"The IRTF data may indicate that the object might be a dead comet, but in the Arecibo images it appears to have donned a skull costume for its Halloween flyby," said Kelly Fast, IRTF program scientist at NASA Headquarters and acting program manager for NASA's NEO Observations Program.

Managed by the University of Hawaii for NASA, the IRTF's 3-meter (10 foot) telescope collected infrared data on the object. The data may finally put to rest the debate over whether 2015 TB145, with its unusual orbit, is an asteroid or is of cometary origin.

Source: NASA

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Jaw Dropping Pics Of Pluto released by NASA

NASA has presented us with yet another stunning, backlit view of Pluto, taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during its flyby in July. The photo adds to the growing repertoire of Pluto images that are slowly being downloaded from the probe and released by the space agency. This one shows Pluto's crescent in full, spectacular detail, completing the partial crescent image that NASA released in mid-September.

In September, the New Horizons team released a stunning but incomplete image of Pluto’s crescent. Thanks to new processing work by the science team, New Horizons is releasing the entire, breathtaking image of Pluto.

This image was made just 15 minutes after New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, as the spacecraft looked back at Pluto toward the sun. The wide-angle perspective of this view shows the deep haze layers of Pluto's atmosphere extending all the way around Pluto, revealing the silhouetted profiles of rugged plateaus on the night (left) side.

 The shadow of Pluto cast on its atmospheric hazes can also be seen at the uppermost part of the disk. On the sunlit side of Pluto (right), the smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum is flanked to the west (above, in this orientation) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline.  Below (east) of Sputnik, rougher terrain is cut by apparent glaciers.

The backlighting highlights more than a dozen high-altitude layers of haze in Pluto’s tenuous atmosphere. The horizontal streaks in the sky beyond Pluto are stars, smeared out by the motion of the camera as it tracked Pluto.  The image was taken with New Horizons' Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto. The resolution is 700 meters (0.4 miles). 

Source:NASA

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Fake Apple iPhone 6S Available In China For Just $37

Apple’s iPhone 6s is very popular and hence successful in China, which is now making replicas of the device at a fraction of the cost. What’s surprising is that the fake devices, which are 20 times cheaper than the real one, are pretty similar in appearance, and they no longer have antennas and TV tuners, says a report from RT.

Not much in common in fake and real iPhone 6s

The fake iPhone has a 5-inch screen and is available in three colors – silver, gold and rose gold. There is nothing much in common between the fake and the original except the screen size and the color. The cloned device has a screen resolution of 960×540, while the original has 1334×750.

The replica iPhone 6s runs on Android instead of iOS. These devices run on a quite weak speadtrum SC773 processor and have 4GB of internal storage and 512MB of RAM, the report says. The minimum storage capacity of the real iPhone 6s is 16GB, which can be expanded up to 128GB, and has 2GB of RAM.

Apart from the price, the Chinese replica scores over Apple’s iPhone 6S on another count. It comes with a feature that is very much in demand among the Chinese, which is two SIM slots. The $37 model has the 3G module as well.

Fake Apple Stores in China too

It’s not only iPhones that are being faked in China but Apple Stores are also being mimicked. As of Sept. 24, there were more than 30 fake Apple Stores on the busy streets in China’s southern boom town of Shenzhen. They all carried Apple’s iconic white logos and were accepting preorders for the new iPhones, says a report from Reuters.

The fake stores look very similar to the signature Apple outlets. Even the sales staff in the stores wore blue T-shirts with a white logo of the company. The stores displayed the sample iPads and the Apple Watch on sleek wooden tables.

Apple released the new iPhones on Sept. 25, and within three days of launch, the company sold more than 13 million units of its two new models –the  iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus – setting a new record. “Sales … have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” said CEO Tim Cook.

Source: ValueWalk

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Apple's Ipad Pro Rumored Release Date

We haven't heard very much about the iPad Pro since Apple first showed it off last month. Apple said to expect the 12.9-inch tablet in November, but when?

According to the latest rumors from 9to5Mac, Apple will start selling the iPad Pro on Nov. 11 online and in stores. The blog didn't mention a pre-order option.

On that date, Apple will also start selling the iPad Pro's two big accessories: a Smart Keyboard and a stylus, the Apple Pencil. The latter, as we just found out today, will require its own special adapter to charge using a standard Lightning cable. No word on how much that might cost, though it's certainly possible Apple might slip the adapter into an iPad Pro bundle as a free accessory.

The Smart Keyboard will set you back $169 (see video below) and the Apple Pencil is $99. That's on top of the iPad Pro's fairly commanding price of $799 for a basic 32GB version with Wi-Fi. If you want all the bells and whistles, it'll cost you as much as $1,079 (more than a MacBook Air) for the 128GB version with built-in LTE connectivity.

"The iPad Pro is definitely in an uncanny valley for tablets," PCMag's Sascha Segan wrote in September, after he got some hands-on time with the tablet.

"It is not something you want to stand around using. It is not a small, cozy thing for your lap and the couch. It is not like curling up with a book. And yet, it doesn't run "real" multi-window desktop apps like the Surface Pro 3 does. With its 2,732-by-2,048 screen, I can see iPad Pro being a big deal for artists, architects, educators, and CAD designers. As for everyone else, I think the enterprise software needs to come before we can see this one flourish."

Be sure to check out PCMag's recent comparison of the iPad Pro versus Microsoft's Surface Pro 4. And if you love really big tablets, see our hands on with the 18.4-inch Samsung Galaxy View.

Source: Pcmag

written by David Murphy

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JUST IN: 200 Feared dead in Russian plane crash in Egypt

A Russian plane carrying more than 200 passengers from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has crashed in central Sinai with most of those on board feared dead.

 The Russian airline Kogalymavia’s Airbus A321 with a tail number of EI-ETJ on an airstrip of Moscow’s Domodedovo international airport. Photograph: Marina Lystseva/Itar-Tass/Corbis

The jet, operated by the Russian company Kogalymavia and branded as Metrojet, was “completely destroyed with all on board likely to have died”, a security officer from the search and rescue team said.

But officers at the scene said the voices of trapped passengers could be heard from a section of the crashed plane. Destined for St Petersburg, it was carrying 224 people, including 17 children and seven crew members.

“The plane split into two, a small part on the tail end that burned and a larger part that crashed into a rock. We have extracted at least 100 bodies and the rest are still inside,” an anonymous officer told Reuters.

“There is another section of the plane with passengers inside that the rescue team is still trying to enter and we hope to find survivors, especially after hearing pained voices of people inside.”

Egypt’s health ministry had dispatched 45 ambulances to the scene to “evacuate the dead and wounded” which could indicate the possibility of survivors, though this remains unconfirmed. At least five of the children on board are feared dead.

Live Russian passenger plane crashes in Egypt’s Sinai - latest

Follow the latest updates after a plane carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed 20 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh

The crash site was found on Saturday morning in southern Arish, a mountainous area of central Sinai, but poor weather conditions were making it difficult for some rescue crews to reach the scene, the security officer said.

Northern Sinai is home to groups of Islamist militants, many affiliated to Islamic State, but there were no indications the plane was shot down, Egyptian security sources told Reuters.

A statement from the Egyptian prime minister’s office said Sherif Ismail formed a cabinet-level crisis committee to deal with the crash, which was believed to have been caused by a mechanical failure. The prime minister has since departed for the crash site with several cabinet ministers on a private jet, the tourism ministry said.

The plane, which had a tail number of EI-ETJ, lost contact 23 minutes after takeoff while flying at more than 30,000 ft above sea level, according to the plane tracker website Flight Radar. It had begun to make a steep descent at a rate of 6,000 feet per minute shortly before communications were lost.

Russia’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, said flight 7K9268 had left at 03:51 GMT and was due into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport at 12:10, it told TASS news agency. The plane had failed to make scheduled contact with Cyprus air traffic control and disappeared from the radar.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest condolences to the families of victims of the crash of a Russian airliner in Egypt, Russian news agencies reported. Putin also ordered government ministries to offer immediate assistance to relatives of those killed.

The Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is a popular destination for Russian tourists and it is believed the majority of those on board were Russians. Distraught friends and family began arriving at St Petersburg airport on Saturday.

 People arrive at Pulkovo airport for news of the plane crash. Photograph: Alexander Demianchuk/Itar-Tass Photo/Corbis

“I am meeting my parents,” said 25-year-old Ella Smirnova. “I spoke to them last on the phone when they were already on the plane, and then I heard the news. I will keep hoping until the end that they are alive, but perhaps I will never see them again.”

Source: The Guardian 

How The New Microsoft Phones Put Android and iOS to Shame

Source: Microsoft

At its October 6 hardware event, Microsoft unveiled an array of new devices. But the most significant one could turn out to be one of the smallest: the palm-sized Display Dock that enables a new feature called Continuum and turns a Windows 10 Mobile device into a PC with the use of the monitor, keyboard, and mouse you probably already have on your desk.

Tom Warren reports for The Verge that the feature works surprisingly well, as he learned when attaching the new Lumia 950 XL to a Display Dock through a USB Type-C connection. “Continuum is pretty basic right now, but the features it has work well.” The interface instantly looks like a Windows 10 PC — though typing in the Start Menu, splitting apps side-by-side, and minimizing windows are PC features that don’t yet work with Continuum. Each app launches in a fullscreen view, and Windows 10’s task view feature enables you to switch between apps. You can also use keyboard shortcuts, like alt-tab to switch apps or ctrl+c and ctrl+v to copy and paste.

While this is going on, you can still pick up and use your phone as you normally would. If you open an app that’s currently displayed on the monitor, it will minimize on the monitor and resume on your phone. That means that you can’t run Outlook, for instance, on both screens. But you can complete a variety of other concurrent tasks, like sending SMS messages while you’re working on a Word document or editing a PowerPoint presentation.

Continuum is primarily designed to work with Microsoft’s own Windows 10 Mobile apps, but will also work with third-party apps whose developers have created universal apps that can scale up in Continuum mode. Microsoft says that resolution support maxes out at 1920×1200 at 60fps in “compatible apps,” though we’re not sure yet how many or which apps will be compatible.

Chris Davies reports for Slash Gear that the Display Dock — the piece of hardware that makes all of this possible in the first place — features a single USB Type-C port on one side and three full-size USB ports plus one USB Type-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort on the other side. Power is provided by the second USB Type-C port, which can both power the box and recharge the connected phone simultaneously. A USB Type-C port is able to combine power, data, and video signals into one “high-bandwidth pipeline,” which makes it possible to connect your phone to a desktop full of peripherals through a single port.

Davies reports that with the advent of the Display Dock, regardless of its limitations, a future when your smartphone will be both your phone and your “dockable computer” is in sight. Continuum is a crucial piece of making Windows 10 into a universal operating system you’ll want to use on your phone as well as on your computer. As CNET reported at the time, Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of the operating systems group, said at the company’s annual developer conference, “With Continuum for phones, we believe any phone can be your PC.”

While the implementation of Continuum is basic so far, it still puts the option on other operating systems to shame. Joe Levi reports for PocketNow that many Android phones, for instance, already use Qualcomm processors that have long been capable of driving multiple displays, and the Android operating system has been able to handle various layouts since version 3.0. While Android could enable a Continuum-like experience, Levi notes that most Android apps won’t run well on both a phone and a tablet. “Developers simply haven’t built their apps to work on both platforms — let alone desktop-sized monitors. That’s the true failing.”

Apple has implemented a variety of Continuity features — including AirDrop, iPhone calling and SMS messages on iPad and Mac, and Handoff — to link software across Apple devices. As Apple’s website explains, you can start an email, edit a document, or surf the web on one device and pick up where you left off on another. Despite the similar names, Continuity is very different from Continuum in that Apple’s version links tasks on two different operating systems and keeps those operating systems separate, while Microsoft’s makes its possible to use the same operating system on multiple devices and gives you the flexibility to choose how you want to use the software on a given device. That’s something that neither Google nor Apple seems to be trying to accomplish.

Source: Cheat Sheet

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The Apple Pencil will need an adapter to charge from a Lightning cable

The default way to charge Apple's stylus for the forthcoming iPad Pro is a bit awkward. The stylus, otherwise known as the Apple Pencil, has a male Lightning connector hidden under a cap at one end. Users are supposed to plug the device in to the bottom of the iPad Pro and leave it sticking out like a little antenna. This isn't uncommon for styluses and the Pencil does charge fast (30 minutes use after a 15 second charge, says Apple), but it's not handy for every situation. However, according to leaked training documents published by 9to5 Mac, Apple will be remedying this by offering users an adapter, letting them plug the Pencil directly into any Lightning cable to charge.

The training document showing a lightning cable on the left, adapter in the middle, and Apple Pencil on the right. (via 9to5Mac)

It's not clear whether the adapter will be bundled with the iPad Pro or sold separately when the device launches next month, but it's a sensible solution. Leaving the stylus dangling out the end of the iPad would be an accident waiting to happen, and this way users can charge the Pencil from their laptop or from a wall outlet (as long as they have a Lightning cable and adapter handy). And at least it's more convenient than charging the new Magic Mouse

Source: The Verge

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Toyota Set To Preview A Production Ready Concept Of It's SUPRA In 2016

Anticipation for Toyota’s Supra successor is about as high as it gets for a new sports car. Years of rumors, teasers, and finally, concepts has built enthusiasm for the follow-up to one of the best front-engine, rear-wheel drive cars ever to come out of Japan.

Enthusiasts were rewarded last year when Toyota introduced its FT-1 Concept at the Detroit Motor Show, and if the latest word from the automaker’s sports car division head is true, we can expect to see a new, more production-ready concept early next year. Tetsuya Tada was careful not to give an exact date for the concept’s reveal, but January’s Detroit Motor Show seems like a fitting timeline.

Tada hinted that the FT-1 replacement will use a sequential gearbox and a powertrain that won’t try to break any horsepower records. Instead, the Supra concept will be designed to deliver a fun-first driving experience.

Toyota FT-1 Concept

“There are so many high-end sport cars available in the world with 700 horsepower or more [that are] not so special anymore,” said Tada. “That kind of horsepower makes no sense for our car. Almost all customers are not like professional racing drivers. They just want to enjoy, to feel something fun.”

Don’t interpret that to mean Toyota won’t gun for rivals like the Porsche 911. Expect the new Supra to be as much of an upset to the sports car market as the A80 generation was in 1992.

Co-developed with BMW, the new Supra should be about the size of a Porsche 911 and will be powered by an inline six-cylinder 3.0-liter turbocharged engine with at least 335 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque. There will also be a more power plug-in hybrid version with 473 horsepower.

When Toyota introduces the production version Supra successor in 2017, the Toyota brand will have three sports car tiers, starting with the production version of the brand’s S-FR concept, working up the second generation of the GT-86, and finally to the range-topping Supra.

How bad is the cracked smartphone screen epidemic? Motorola gives us the lowdown

Motorola shocked the world, or shall I say “shattered” the world, a few days ago when the company introduced the Droid Turbo 2, the first smartphone with a shatterproof display. Thanks toMoto ShatterShield, consumers never have to worry about cracking or shattering their phone’s display again.

Now you might be one of the lucky few who never had to deal with a cracked display, but unfortunately a lot of people have suffered through it. Heck, my wife cracked her screen on two different phones in the same month.

So how bad is this epidemic? Motorola conducted a survey and shared the results in a monster infographic detailing just how bad things are, and quite frankly, it only reinforces our excitement for this new technology.

The bottomline is that 50 percent of people globally have experienced a cracked smartphone screen at least once. Ironically the U.S. has the smallest overall percentage at 34 percent, and India has the highest with 65 percent.

Right now, 21 percent of smartphone owners have a cracked screen. In the U.S., that number is much higher, at 30 percent.

Motorola also notes that 23 percent of those with cracked screens continue to use their phone, even after cutting their finger. Why don’t they do something about it? Many feel that the expense of fixing it isn’t worth it, so 43 percent of people don’t bother. They either continue using it or throw it away.

So how do we break our screens? If you were playing Family Feud, you would have to guess dropping as the number one way, and that would be correct. Fifty percent of cracked or shattered screens come from a simple drop. However, there are other ways as well. 32 percent of people say their phone fell out of their pocket, and 27 percent say it fell out of their lap when standing. However, there are some crazier reasons too. 7 percent say their phone’s screen broke while taking a selfie, and 5 percent said it happened when throwing their phone at something.

Would you rather post a private selfie to social media accidentally than deal with a cracked screen? Seven percent of people say yes.

One can only hope that other manufacturers will follow suit with something similar to Moto ShatterShield, but until then, the Droid Turbo 2 is your only option if you want that peace of mind.

Have you cracked your screen before? If so, let us know your story in the comments.

Source: Yahoo

Why the Bugatti Veyron is the most expensive car to own in the world

Unlike Ace Hood, I’ve never had the pleasure of unexpectedly waking up in a new Bugatti. Which works out well for me because the upkeep and maintenance on Bugatti’s high-performance cars are enough to make them prohibitively expensive for most everyone on the planet.

Just this past week, Floyd Mayweather dropped a hefty $3.5 million on a brand-new 2015 Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, a beast of a car that can reach a top speed of 254 mph. Clearly, purchasing a Bugatti is a pleasure only enjoyed by the wealthiest amongst the wealthy. But what makes the Bugatti so intriguing is that it’s not just an expensive car to buy, but an exorbitantly expensive car to maintain as well.

Recently, a car collector and YouTuber who goes by the name ofSalomondrin detailed the immense expenses that come along with owning a Bugatti.

Right off the bat, there’s a huge tax hit. Let’s say you pick up a Bugatti for $2.4 million. If we assume a tax rate of 10%, you’re paying $240,000 extra right off the top.

But since you have to pay tax on every big-ticket purchase, let’s dive into some of the more Bugatti-specific expenses.

Want to change the tires on your brand new Bugatti? That’s $30,000 at a minimum, though the price can go up to $40,000 depending on your tire set. If you need to replace the tires and the rims as well, that will set you back $120,000.

As to why the tires are so expensive, a user on Quora explains, “Michelin had to design and manufacture tires specifically for the Veyron. They had to fit staggered rims, be rated for speeds above 250mph, handle 1.3G on the skidpad, and last a whole lot longer than the seventy miles required of race car tires.”

Tires aside, let’s talk about getting your car serviced. Well, making sure your car is running in tip-top shape will put a $30,000 hole in your wallet. An oil change alone runs at about $20,000.

Now we should point out that Bugatti does offer drivers a maintenance program where drivers can pay $50,000 up front and be covered for all maintenance and service costs for a period of three years. I never thought I’d say this, but that $50,000 quasi-insurance plan is a no-brainer.

And last but not least, we have auto insurance, which might end up costing you anywhere from $30,000 – $50,000.

With a Bugatti Veyron costing an arm and two legs, you might be wondering what makes the car so special.

Well for starters, it’s insanely fast. Not only that, but all Bugatti’s come with a specialized stability control system which enables drivers to maintain complete control over the steering wheel even at speeds higher than 180 mph. Interestingly enough, the only thing preventing the car from going faster than advertised is that Michelin’s hasn’t yet figured out a way to keep its tires from exploding once they reach a consistent speed of 270 mph.

With respect to the care and craftsmanship that goes into creating a Bugatti, the leather interior inside the car may very well be nicer than anything you’ve ever seen inside a car before. To this point, Bugatti gets its leather from cows which are specifically raised at altitudes high enough to prevent insects like mosquitos and bees from tarnishing their hides. We’re talking about premium leather to the nth degree, with not a blemish in sight.

A photo of this exquisite leather, from the interior of a Bugatti Veyron L’or Blanc, can be seen below.

 

Bugatti’s Facebook page also adds a number of other interesting details about its famed supercar.

·         The entire engine of Veyron is made by its two technicians, who assemble entire components with their hand only. No automatic machines are used for the complete assembly.

·         There is a special tool used to remove the wheel from the Veyron, and it is found only in France. So it is the only place where you can remove the wheel from Veyron.

·         Buggati Veyron at top speed, Veyron consumes the amount air equal to the air consumed by a single man in four days.

·         Near top speed, its special spoiler pivots to effectively become an air brake. This spoiler works about as hard as a standard car’s brakes.

·         It only takes about 10 seconds for the Bugatti Veyron to come to a complete stop from top speed.

·         The Bugatti Veyron has 10 radiators working overtime to keep those 1,200 horses cool. Very few hypercars even come close to packing that much in the stable.

And lastly, here’s a shot of Mayweather’s $3.5 million Bugatti. And knowing him, he might have dropped all cash for this bad boy.

Source: Yahoo

written by: Yoni Heisler

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Which James Bond is the best-dressed?

From Roger Moore’s yellow all-in-one to George Lazenby’s ruffle-fronted dinner shirt, and Sean Connery’s slim suits, who had the clothes to die for?

Timothy Dalton

Look, you don’t get to choose your Bond. Your Bond is the first one you watch in the cinema as a giddy hormonal teenager, rather than on the telly on Boxing Day. The Living Daylights came out in 1987. I was 14. Ergo, I got Dalton. I remember thinking how suave he looked in his flamboyantly baggy trousers, like a new recruit to Spandau Ballet. With hindsight, he looked shocking, actually: it was the 80s, and they were going for that unstructured, Armani thing with the suits, which ended up just looking too big for him. Casualwear has always been tricky for Bonds, and while Craig can rock a Harrington, Dalton in a leather blouson looks more cab driver than Her Majesty’s Secret Service. But at least he looked good in a tux. JCM

Daniel Craig

What Daniel Craig lacks in pretty-boyness – try un-reading Peter Bradshaw’s review, which likens him to Shrek – he makes up for in pure henchness, which, when poured into an Armani suit, a pair of Orlebar Brown swimshorts or a Prada-inspired poloneck, is quite a sight. But really, Craig’s physique isn’t his Bond USP, rather it’s the way he does normcore Bond. He likes a boring grey suit, naff old aviators and a tight black snoozefest of a tee. Why? Because the most effective spies tend to blend in and look a bit blah. Rest assured, though, his version of normcore is pretty expensive. MF

Roger Moore

Thanks to the current catwalk love-in with the 70s and 80s, Roger Moore is the Bond who strikes the most fashionable note today. Moonraker is a case in point – what could be more 2015, as we whip ourselves into a Star Wars episode VII frenzy, than an intergalactic look? Moore’s yellow astronaut suit (Rog is from the school of go big or go home, as his shirt collars attest) has next season, JW Anderson vibes. In general, he is not a man afraid of a banana-coloured all-in-one (hello, Craig Green SS16) – see also the Spy Who Loved Me, arguably the best skiwear exit of any Bond. In For Your Eyes Only, his ski look again turns heads: a black V-neck sweater with white stripe layered over a white rollneck, under a blue Puffa-style jacket with a B zip pull – so damn cool, with notes of vintage Prada and Raf Simons. But if you think it’s all ski and no après with Roger, you’d be wrong: for this mission he wears a very Hermès taupe suede bomber accessorised with a Lotus. And of course, his services to the polo neck go without saying. HS

Sean Connery

As a child of the 90s I should have graciously accepted Piers Brosnan as my Bond, but when I later discovered Sean Connery I was blown away by his suaveness. It’s pretty simple, really: the hair is in a perennially slick side parting; for special occasions he wears a tux; otherwise, a slim suit. Occasionally he will chill out in a neat polo shirt, though – like an off-duty Apprentice contestant – dressed down isn’t really his oeuvre. His most Bond-y look, though, is post-coital: a towel, or a white furry rug, and a whole lot of chest hair. Like so many snappy dressers – and, let’s face it, so many Bond films – he sticks to a winning formula. HM

Pierce Brosnan

There can’t be too much more of a 1995 combination of talent than Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean – as seen in Golden Eye. Brosnan as Bond is a slightly rumpled proposition, in suits a little bit too big. He’s best when in action adventure gear, like padded jackets and hiking boots, all the better to slide down zip wires, enjoy a motorcycle race and hang off the bottom of helicopters. He stuck with this formula through his three Bonds, with a camel overcoat inTomorrow Never Dies a high point, and shirts unbuttoned to his stomach probably best consigned to history. Brosnan’s arched eyebrow and slightly quizzical expression will remain his most significant contribution to the Bond look. LC

George Lazenby

The best dressed men in Bond films are clearly never actually Bond: that it is almost always the villains – hello Christopher Walken, Christopher Lee, Javier Bardem. However, George Lazenby gets my vote as best dressed Bond based purely on the lace-ruff-and-kilt combo he donned for the excellent On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), even if it was sported as part of a disguise. Note: a vogue for lace is bubbling in menswear just now – see Gucci and Burberry – making him a thoroughly in-vogue pinup. Lazenby was no one-trick sartorial Bond pony either. There is the ruffle-fronted dinner shirt, which seems to me to be a brilliantly off choice for the usually sleek 007, and what about the baby-blue ski clobber complete with bright white slope goggles? In my head, those ski frames are totally a precursor to Kurt Cobain’s bug-eyed sunglasses of the 90s. And if off-ruffles and snazzy ski goggles leave you cold, there is always a camel cardigan with football buttons. This is a piece of clothing that is pure Ben Whishaw-Q, and Whishaw’s Q is arguably one of the best-dressed characters to ever have graced the 007 franchise. So you see. George, actually a striking one-off, with ahead-of-the-curve moves. Snappy. SC

Source: The Guardian

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There’s More To Life – And People – Than Academic Skills by Tim Lott

 Heritability appears to prop up the status quo – people at the top made it because they were the smartest, not because they are privileged. Photograph: Alamy

I often listen to The Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4, and just as often switch it off after 15 minutes because I can’t follow the science. This is probably because I’m not quite intelligent enough. Or was I simply raised in an insufficiently nurturing environment? Last week, Jim Al-Khalili interviewed Prof Robert Plomin, a behavioural geneticist who specialises in the inheritability of intelligence. His subject is a taboo for many because it raises the spectre of the discredited “science” of eugenics.

Plomin has spent the last several decades examining 10,000 pairs of identical twins, as well as adopted children. His conclusion, and he considers it cast iron, is that DNA accounts for up to two thirds of your intelligence, while environment – whether educational, familial or societal – accounts for only around 20% of variation.

I’m less interested in the subject itself than how uncomfortable we are talking about it. We are happy to attribute other familial characteristics – sense of humour, looks, disposition and so on – to inheritance. Even with intelligence we are ready, in privacy, to accept the idea that if our children are clever, they got their smarts from us. However, in the public arena, this view is an embarrassment. Children, from an institutional stand, are equal and tractable lumps of clay, capable of being moulded into any appropriate shape.

 Prof Robert Plomin. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

Rather than take a firm view on the heritability of intelligence, I would pose this question: what if it were true? Heritability seems to condemn us to the destinies written in our genes. Furthermore, it appears to prop up the status quo – people at the top made it because they were the smartest, not because they are privileged. Their children can be expected to perform similarly. Thus inequality is entrenched.

But Plomin points out that this is not a problem with the evidence, but with policy. The outcome might not be elitist but quite the reverse – a government perhaps choosing to spend the most money on those who struggle, rather than concentrating resources on educating the smartest.

Suspicion of heritability remains, for good reason – not the least of which is the question of what constitutes intelligence. However, the prestige of those who achieve highly in examinations (Plomin’s studies focused on academic results) has much to do with our collective overvaluing of learning ability as a society.

Academic skills are just a relatively small component of a whole nexus of traits that make up a well-rounded human being – including such qualities as empathy, emotional intelligence, imagination, kindness and curiosity. I have met many highly intelligent people who were ill-functioning and dislikable human beings, and many people, not the sharpest tools in the box, who nevertheless had dignity, integrity and self-respect. Perhaps we would be more open to thinking about the subject if we valued such qualities more and the power of abstraction less.

I think evidence has to be respected. Conclusions must be arrived at through reason and research, not wishful thinking. The jury is still out about heritable intelligence – but a lot of the evidence is in, and it points strongly in a direction many of us would find invidious to our hopes and values. Therefore we refuse to countenance it.

If heritability is key, as Plomin strongly asserts, we must nonetheless swallow our prejudice. For this to happen, we have to find a way of setting “intelligence” on an equal level with all the other qualities that we collectively value in human beings. Or perhaps we just should carry on not talking about it. It’s been working out so far, right?

Quite.

Source: The Guardian

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