AMR urges court to back restructuring despite antitrust suit

An American Airlines passenger jet glides in under the moon as it lands at LaGuardia airport in New YorkNew York, August 28, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz

By Nick Brown

NEW YORK | Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:43pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American Airlines and its creditors' committee on Friday urged a bankruptcy judge to approve the airline's restructuring plan despite an antitrust challenge from the Department of Justice.

In court papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, American's bankrupt parent, AMR Corp (AAMRQ.PK), said failing to approve the restructuring would add "a destabilizing factor" to its proposal to merge with US Airways Group (LCC.N) and pay back creditors.

AMR's creditors' committee, in a separate filing, said refusal by Judge Sean Lane to give the plan his blessing could threaten creditor support for the plan, which includes AMR's unions and most of its creditors.

"While the DOJ enforcement action has unsettled creditor and stockholder expectations, deferring entry of the confirmation order ... would only exacerbate this uncertainty," the committee said.

The U.S. government also filed a brief on Friday, but did not, as might have been expected, urge Lane to not approve the restructuring plan. Instead the government, through U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, said it took "no position as to whether" Lane should confirm the plan, but cited the "attendant risk that a confirmed plan may not be able to become effective for a considerable time, if at all."

AMR and US Airways agreed to merge in February in an $11 billion deal that would end AMR's bankruptcy and create the world's largest airline. Experts had expected the deal to enjoy a smooth ride through the regulatory process.

But on August 13, two days before the restructuring plan was to gain final court approval, the DOJ sought to block it, filing a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., alleging a stifling of competition that would harm consumers though higher fares.

Judge Lane, overseeing AMR's bankruptcy in New York, held off confirming the plan in the face of the DOJ's lawsuit, giving the parties until Friday to brief him on the best course of action.

AMR, in its court papers, stressed that the merger agreement, which Lane already approved, contains "a mechanism" to account for this very scenario. If the parties cannot obtain regulatory approval, the deal would eventually be terminated, AMR said.

Lane voiced hesitation to rubber-stamp a deal that might later change due to a settlement with the DOJ. But AMR said future changes to the plan, namely divestitures, are expressly required to go back before Lane for approval.

The creditors' committee said Lane's job is to make sure the plan meets standards under the bankruptcy law. Worrying about antitrust concerns is the DOJ's job.

"They are separate processes, before different courts, and on different schedules," the committee said.

If the Justice Department ultimately succeeds in blocking the merger, it would put AMR's restructuring back at square one, requiring it to forge new strategies for paying back creditors.

AMR shareholders, who stand to receive a 3.5 percent stake in the new entity under the merger, would likely be wiped out under any plan that excludes a merger, restructuring experts have said.

AMR's unions also support a merger. The Transport Workers Union, representing ground crew members, on Thursday filed court papers urging Lane to approve the deal.

But not everyone is in favor of Lane signing off. A group of plaintiffs in a separate antitrust lawsuit against US Airways filed a brief on Thursday in AMR's bankruptcy, saying the judge cannot under bankruptcy law confirm a plan that may prove not to be feasible. AMR appears "unable to articulate a ‘Plan B' which would resolve" antitrust risks, the group said in its filing.

Regardless of Lane's decision, the issue will come down to the sides' ability to resolve matters with the DOJ. Chapter 11 merger plans require both bankruptcy court approval and regulatory approval, and one does not impact the other.

At a hearing last week, Lane did not seem opposed to the restructuring plan on its face, his hesitation instead rooted in concerns that the deal he was being asked to approve might look different a few months down the road.

The DOJ antitrust suit will take months to resolve, and possibly longer if it goes to trial.

(Reporting by Nick Brown; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Apple battles U.S. over scope of e-books injunction

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Apple battles U.S. over scope of e-books injunction

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Argentina loses U.S. appeal in $1.33 billion bondholder fight

By Nate Raymond and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK | Fri Aug 23, 2013 5:57pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Argentina on Friday lost its appeal of a U.S. court order requiring it to pay $1.33 billion to hedge funds that refused to accept steep discounts when the nation restructured its debt.

The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York is the latest in a standoff between U.S. courts and the Argentine government that some investors fear could lead Argentina to default. The court stayed the decision pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court, giving Argentina a reprieve and nervous investors some relief.

While Argentina and its supporters have said a ruling against it could threaten future sovereign debt restructurings, the court said the case was an "exceptional one" that would have little impact on future transactions.

The court also had harsh words for the government of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, which has called the hedge funds vultures and vowed not to pay them.

"Argentina's officials have publicly and repeatedly announced their intention to defy any rulings of this Court and the district court with which they disagree," Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote for a three-judge appeals panel.

Argentina did not comment on the decision on Friday. Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino, asked about the decision during a trip to Chile, declined to comment.

The case stems from Argentina's $100 billion default on its debt in 2001. In two subsequent restructurings, in 2005 and 2010, creditors holding about 93 percent of the debt received 25 cents to 29 cents on the dollar.

Dissident bondholders led by the hedge funds NML Capital Ltd, which is a unit of Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp, and Aurelius Capital Management refused to go along with the restructurings, arguing in court that they should be paid in full.

The case came to a head in November 2012, when U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in New York ordered Argentina to pay $1.33 billion into a court-controlled escrow account for the dissident bondholders.

He also ordered Argentina not to pay its other bondholders without making the payment, raising the prospect that Argentina could go into default.

The U.S. Supreme Court starts its new term in October and, if it agrees to take the case, may not rule until the next June.

Initially, investors in Argentine assets breathed a sigh of relief, but by the end of the day the Merval index .MERV of Argentine blue chips had closed lower.

For the longer term, investors signaled continued worries.

The cost to protect $10 million of Argentine sovereign debt against default for five years rose to $2.53 million annually from $2.28 million on Thursday, according to Markit. The cost suggests that many investors consider it likely the debt will go into default.

"The court's decision against Argentina is what we have been expecting," said Stuart Culverhouse, head of research at Exotix in London. "Market disappointment may be tempered though by the continuation of the stay with the Supreme Court appeal."

In the decision, Parker wrote that the court believed "it is equitable for one creditor to receive what it bargained for, and is therefore entitled to, even if other creditors, when receiving what they bargained for, do not receive the same thing.

"Because the district court's decision does no more than hold Argentina to its contractual obligation of equal treatment, we see no abuse of discretion," Parker added.

'NOT ABOUT THE LAW'

Friday's ruling rejected Argentina's arguments that the order to pay the holdout bondholders would unjustly hurt itself, participants in the bond payment system and the public.

It also rejected a claim by bondholders who agreed to the restructuring that Griesa's ruling would prevent them from being paid, based on Argentina's refusal to pay the holdouts.

"This type of harm - harm threatened to third parties by a party subject to an injunction who avows not to obey it - does not make an otherwise lawful injunction 'inequitable,'" Parker wrote.

Sean O'Shea, a lawyer for a group of bondholders including Gramercy Funds Management LLC who participated in the debt restructuring, said the opinion "unfortunately glosses over" the impact on his clients.

But Theodore Olson, a lawyer for NML, one of the dissident hedge funds, said the ruling "confirms that Argentina is not above the law."

At times, Friday's ruling reflected seeming frustration of the court with Argentina.

Parker said that in light of the "unusual nature of this litigation," the court had invited Argentina to propose an alternative payment formula that it was willing to commit. Argentina put forward "no productive proposals," he wrote.

The opinion quoted Jonathan Blackman, Argentina's lawyer, as even telling the court during arguments that the country "would not voluntarily obey" Griesa's injunctions if they were upheld.

NEXT STOP: SUPREME COURT

Argentina has already sought Supreme Court review of a ruling by the 2nd Circuit in October last year that Argentina had broken a contractual obligation to treat bondholders equally. A footnote to Friday's ruling suggested that the Supreme Court justices may wait instead for an appeal from the more recent decision.

That would delay the high court taking action on the appeal, although it could still potentially decide the case by the end of the court's next term, which starts in October and runs until June 2014.

Resolution of the case could be delayed further if the justices ask the Obama administration to weigh on whether they should hear the case. Then, the court might not rule on the case, if it decides to hear it, until the term that starts in October 2014.

In Friday's ruling, the 2nd Circuit also said that New York's status as a financial center depended on enforcing the ruling.

"We believe that the interest - one widely shared in the financial community - in maintaining New York's status as one of the foremost commercial centers is advanced by requiring debtors, including foreign debtors, to pay their debts," Parker wrote.

The case is NML Capital Ltd et al v. Republic of Argentina, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-105.

(Additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Buenos Aires and Lawrence Hurley in Washington; Editing by Eddie Evans, Dan Grebler and Bernard Orr)

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Argentina markets give back gains after U.S. court stay

By Jorge Otaola and Walter Bianchi

BUENOS AIRES | Fri Aug 23, 2013 4:10pm EDT

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentine markets initially rose on Friday after a U.S. appeals court put a hold on injunctions against the government in its legal battle with "holdout" bond investors, but stock and bond price gains were soon erased as concerns over the case persist.

The South American grains-exporting country lost its appeal of a judge's order requiring it to pay $1.33 billion to bondholders who refused to take part in two debt restructurings.

But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York delayed implementing the decision pending a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, sparking a brief market rally in Buenos Aires.

"After the appeals court decision was analyzed, the realization set in that Argentina has only bought itself some time," a local stock broker told Reuters, asking not to be named. "So sellers started showing up to take profits."

The U.S. high court is likely to consider whether to hear the case in the fall. If the justices agree to hear the case, a ruling would be issued by the end of June.

"All this does is extend the fight to next year," said Rodolfo Rossi, an economist and former central bank president.

The MerVal .MERV blue-chip stock index ended the day 0.7 percent lower at 3,916.8 points after rising 1.53 percent earlier in the session.

The case still threatens to push Argentina toward a debt default if the country is finally ordered to pay holdouts the 100 cents on the dollar that they are demanding.

President Cristina Fernandez vows never to pay on those terms. She characterizes the holdouts as "vultures" out to profit on her country's catastrophic 2002 bond default.

The holdouts bought their Argentine bonds at steep discounts, refused to restructure the obligations and are demanding repayment at face value.

The international bond market seesawed on news of the appeals court decision, with Argentina's country risk premium initially tightening by 21 basis points and then widening by 43 basis points to 1,066 basis points over comparable U.S. Treasuries, according to JP Morgan's Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus.

The index as a whole was at a much tighter spread of 357 basis points over safe-haven U.S. Treasury paper, showing the market sees Argentina three times as likely as other emerging market countries to default.

If final judgment goes against Argentina and the government nevertheless refuses to pay the holdouts what they want, the courts could block it from paying holders who accepted big writedowns as part of debt restructurings in 2005 and 2010.

Missing interest payments to the holders of restructured bonds would put the country in technical default.

"The appeals court decision means the Argentine government can continue paying bondholders who participated in the restructurings at least until there is a final decision," said Ignacio Labaqui, who analyzes the country for emerging markets consultancy Medley Global Advisors.

The ruling nonetheless marked a potential victory over the long term for holdouts led by NML Capital Ltd, a unit of billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer's Elliott Management Corp, and Aurelius Capital Management.

U.S. Circuit Judge Barrington Parker, writing for the three-judge panel, said the court believed "it is equitable for one creditor to receive what it bargained for, and is therefore entitled to, even if other creditors, when receiving what they bargained for, do not receive the same thing."

(Additional reporting by Brad Haynes and Alejandro Lifschitz, writing by Hugh Bronstein; editing by Dan Grebler, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)

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A sex scandal to beat Profumo: It's hard to keep up with this story of Swedish corruption, but you'll be glad you did

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Almost orbital, solar-powered drone offered as “atmospheric satellite”

A model of the Solara 50, Titan Aerospace's commercial "atmospheric satellite," hangs above the company's booth at the AUVSI Unmanned Systems conference booth.

WASHINGTON—At the AUVSI Unmanned Systems conference, New Mexico-based startup Titan Aerospace unveiled the company's prototypes for "atmospheric satellites"—autonomous unmanned aircraft powered purely by solar energy and capable of staying aloft at high altitude for up to five years. The first commercially manufactured long-endurance solar drone, the Solara 50, is under construction now and is expected to fly next year. A bigger drone, the Solara 60, will soon follow.

While solar-powered flight has been a reality since the early 1980s, Titan is the first company to work on commercially manufacturing solar-powered drones. And unlike some of the prototypes that have been flown by the established players in the aerospace and unmanned systems field, the Solara drones are based on well-worn technologies and simplicity in design.

If successful, Titan could change the economics of businesses that have previously depended on low-orbit satellites and allow for a persistent coverage closer to what satellites in geostationary orbit provide.

Solar-powered flight has been a reality since AeroVironment took the lessons from the human-powered aircraft Gossamer Albatross—which flew across the English Channel in 1979—and applied them in the Gossamer Penguin and Solar Challenger aircraft in the early 1980s. But complexity and durability issues have dogged most efforts to create the holy grail of solar aircraft—a drone that can stay aloft indefinitely.

AeroVironment has built a number of solar-powered aircraft for the government, including the Helios prototype—a giant drone with a wingspan of 247 feet powered by solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells. The Helios crashed off of Hawaii in 2003 when it suffered structural failure due to turbulence.

The early success of Helios partially inspired the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Boeing's "Vulture" program in 2008, an effort to create a drone that could spend up to five years on station at 60,000 to 90,000 feet with a thousand-pound payload. Qinetq's Zephyr, one of the program's competitors, flew for 336 hours and 22 minutes, setting the endurance record for unmanned aircraft—but it set the record after DARPA cut the funding for the Boeing contract and reduced the program's scope to work on solar cells and energy storage systems.

That didn't end the Defense Department's appetite for long-flying drones. But the alternative paths chosen so far haven’t paid off. Another AeroVironment aircraft, the Global Observer—a purely hydrogen-powered drone with a 70-foot wingspan designed for week-long missions—crashed in 2011, resulting in the termination of the program by the Pentagon. Boeing has its own hydrogen-powered, long-endurance drone, the Phantom Eye, in development; so far its longest flight has been just over two hours.

A model of Boeing's Phantom Eye at Boeing's AUVSA conference booth.

Titan's aircraft plans are more modest and much more ambitious at the same time. Solara 50 will have a payload of just 70 pounds—though depending on the time of year and location of the flight, longer daylight hours could sustain flights with heavier payloads. The next design, the Solara 60, will carry up to 250 pounds. Instead of using hydrogen fuel cells, the Solara aircraft use batteries charged from solar panels to power flight at night and provide about 100 watts of power to the aircraft's payload, as well.

The Solara 50 has a 50 m (164 feet) wingspan. The upper surfaces of its wings and tail are packed with over 3,000 photovoltaic cells capable of generating up to 7 kilowatts. It is launched by catapult and can land (when it has to) by skidding on its Kevlar-coated underside. Unlike the giant flying-wing configurations of the Helios and Zephyr, which had large numbers of propellers, the Solara has a single, high-efficiency motor.

In theory, a solar-powered drone capable of withstanding long flights at high altitude—in what Titan executives call the "sweet spot" in the Earth's atmosphere between 60,000 and 70,000 feet, above nearly all weather patterns in a zone where winds are typically less than 5 knots (5.75 miles/hour)—would be able to perform tasks usually reserved for satellites at a much lower cost.

For example, during a presentation by Titan at AVUSA, a company spokesperson compared using a satellite for multispectral Earth imagery—say, like Landsat's—to using an atmospheric satellite. A drone could be put up quickly, for much less initial capital. At the same time, it would provide targeted imagery at a cost of less than $5 per square kilometer—versus $35 per square kilometer from a satellite—while still offering the large area of coverage of a satellite.

Enlarge / Artist's rendering of Solara 50 at high altitude. Enlarge / The coverage area of a Solara 50, superimposed over New York.

As a communications relay, the Solara offers about an 18-mile radius of coverage—easily covering all of New York City's five boroughs, as shown in the map above. A "constellation" of Solara craft could create a persistent communication network for disaster relief efforts or could provide long-term services.

Titan already has customer reservations for the first three of its Solara drones, two of which are intended to serve as communications relays (though the customer has not been identified). The first will be delivered in February, with manufacturing ramping up for monthly delivery starting in April.

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Big School review: David Walliams' show is a comedy masterclass, says Christopher Stevens

By Christopher Stevens

PUBLISHED: 20:02 EST, 15 August 2013 | UPDATED: 03:15 EST, 16 August 2013

Britain’s classic sitcoms are so well-loved that the repeats are never off our screens. After 30 years, Only Fools And Horses still tops every poll of our favourite TV shows. 

Entire books have been written to analyse the success of Dad’s Army or Fawlty Towers. And Porridge is such a national treasure that in Aylesbury, Bucks, there’s a statue in its honour, depicting Ronnie Barker as Fletch.

So what happened to British sitcom? Why don’t we make them like that any more — have we forgotten how?

Enlarge   David Walliams' (second right) love of old fashioned British humour comes to the fore in Big School, a sitcom with a stellar cast including (left to right) Philip Glenister, Catherine Tate and Frances De La Tour

David Walliams is a fan of old-fashioned humour. As a boy, the comedian who found fame with Matt Lucas in their sketch show  Little Britain, was a starstruck nerd who queued for hours to get autographs from stars like Frankie Howerd, famous for the bawdy  sitcom Up Pompeii.

Walliams grew up wanting to mine that rich comic vein. Little Britain, which ran from 2004 to 2006, was often compared with a ruder, coarser version of Seventies shows starring Dick Emery or Benny Hill, with plenty of scope for broad humour and dressing up in women’s clothes.

Emery’s most popular character was a lusty spinster who could send men reeling with a swing of her handbag and her battlecry: ‘Oooh you are awful?.?.?.?but I like you!’ Little Britain paid homage, with Walliams and Lucas in outrageous drag and declaring: ‘We are ladies!’

Critics complained that this sort of comedy should have died out with the music hall, but audiences paid no attention to that, and Little Britain won the comedy Bafta two years running.

So this year, when Walliams announced that he was co-writing and starring in a BBC sitcom, one prediction seemed certain: this was going to be a show that celebrated the humour of his childhood.

But a sneak preview reveals it’s not just old-fashioned comedy that Walliams is nostalgic for.

Big School, a series of six half-hour episodes, launches tonight on BBC1 at 9pm. Set in a secondary school, it stars Walliams as an inept chemistry master who falls hopelessly in love with the new French teacher, played by Catherine Tate, but doesn’t know how to tell her.

It features a stellar cast, including the veteran from Seventies sitcom Rising Damp, Frances de la Tour, as the headmistress. Philip Glenister, who was dirty copper Gene Hunt in Life On Mars, is the pot-bellied gym master, and Joanna Scanlan, best known for The Thick Of It, is the lesbian drama teacher.

Big School opens with a rush of warmth and sympathy for old-fashioned teaching methods. Walliams plays a chemistry teacher who is down on his luck

From the first moments, it’s plain that Walliams has deep affection for teachers. But the children?.?.?.?well, he’s not quite so keen on them.

Earlier this year, he made a one-off documentary for ITV, going back to his former school, Reigate Grammar in Surrey, and meeting old classmates and teachers. There was an instant rapport between him and the staff, and an awkwardness with his own peers.

He had been bullied as a teenager, and we got a strong sense that he’d be happiest at a school with no pupils at all, just teachers.

Of course, thousands of teachers would heartily concur.

So it is no surprise that Big School opens with a rush of warmth and sympathy for old-fashioned teaching methods. Keith Church, a chemistry master with a bouffant combover,  is trying to engage a bunch of  listless, sarky students by staging  an explosion.

He drops a container of liquid nitrogen and a sack of ping pong balls into a tub of water, and the innocent awe and glee on his face is touching. He’s so excited that he can’t even sense the boredom  blanketing his class.

Before the chemical reaction can occur, however, the bell rings for the end of lessons, and the children are gone. Poor Keith looks like he’s about to cry with disappointment.

And then, with a bang and a flash, the classroom is inch-deep in ping pong balls.

Give the youngsters rulers and ink pellets to play with, instead of mobile phones, and it’s a scene that would fit neatly into Carry On Teacher, the black-and-white 1959 movie with Ted Ray and Leslie Phillips.

If we were expecting old-fashioned comedy, we’re certainly getting it.

The traditional approach brings benefits. There’s no wobbly handheld camera work, no improvised dialogue, no barrage of foul language, no filthy single entendres

David Walliams played a disgruntled teacher in his sketch show Little Britain with every teacher's worst nightmare Vicky Pollard, played by Matt Lucas. It's clear from both shows that Walliams has a great sympathy for teachers, but not students

Instead, there’s a brisk script with plenty of jokes. Some fall flat, and tonight’s opening episode on occasion plays for cheap laughs, but the show soon settles down. This has the feel of a sitcom that will win viewers over.

For a start, we want to know if Keith will summon the nerve to tell Sarah Postern, Catherine Tate’s French teacher, that he fancies her rotten. She can see that, of course, but she wants him to pluck up the nerve to say something.

The trouble is, there’s a leery, cocky gym teacher in the staffroom too, and Miss Postern seems to enjoy flirting with him.

Tate’s Postern suffers from the classic sitcom character flaw: she thinks she’s wonderful, despite all the evidence. She’s desperate to be liked, and she can’t see what an idiot she’s making of herself. Miss Postern is David Brent in a dress.

This show could be the lift that Tate’s career has badly needed since she lost her way as the Doctor’s  mismatched companion in Dr Who. She’s in her element here, as a needy, nervy woman who tries to put on  a daffy act.

It’s hard to play vulnerable without seeming weak, but in next week’s episode there’s a lovely moment when Miss Postern’s courage fails her altogether, in front of a packed assembly hall, until Keith steps in to save her.

Philip Glenister isn’t known for sitcom, but he’s doing double-takes and reaction shots like a veteran here. His character, Mr Gunn, is Sid James without the charm — his first attempt at a chat-up is to tell Tate that he lives with his mum, who does all his cooking and cleaning.

In recent years, Walliams has been spent more time judging on Britain's Got Talent that creating comedy

‘I’m living the dream,’ he boasts, and adds: ‘Obviously, if I get married, I’ll put her in a home.’

But it’s Frances de la Tour whose comedy pedigree really tells. She glides through scenes like she’s on castors. We last saw her as the ghastly Violet, a one-joke character in Vicious who was overshadowed by the show’s theatrical megastars, Derek Jacobi and Ian McKellen.

Here, she dominates effortlessly, playing a headteacher whose only joy in life is humiliating her staff.

She sits in her office, drinking whatever alcohol she can confiscate from the pupils, and honing her putdowns.

When Miss Postern starts  enthusing about the French, the head cuts her dead: ‘Dirty people, dirty country.’

Funny lines, endearing characters: this is a sitcom that will grow on us. Which is a relief, given some of the pretentious twaddle that Walliams has been spouting during publicity interviews this week.

The 41-year-old comic said he was inspired to write a story of unresolved love after seeing The Remains Of The Day, the 1993 film starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, adapted from a Booker Prize-winning novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.

It might have been more honest if he’d admitted he was trying to write a cross between Are You Being Served? and Grange Hill.

Big School isn’t our first taste of retro laughter on BBC1 recently, not by a long way. Miranda Hart has revived slapstick, and Mrs Brown’s Boys stems from a long tradition of cross-dressing ribaldry.

Even Ben Elton’s execrable  council sitcom, The Wright Way, was intended to revive an old-fashioned format.

But Walliams goes much further than any of them. Keith’s car looks like a prop from a historic comedy, such as Terry And June or Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em — it’s a 1970 Austin Maxi.

The car belongs in a motor museum, but it’s the kind of vehicle Walliams’s teachers used to drive.

He’s recreating his life at Reigate Grammar, reimagining it through comedy. They might have been tough first time around, but now David  Walliams is determined to make  his schooldays the happiest days  of his life.

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Bleak tale of the life of a porn star: Linda Lovelace's experiences in adult films make for grim viewing

By Chris Tookey

PUBLISHED: 17:02 EST, 22 August 2013 | UPDATED: 07:41 EST, 23 August 2013

Lovelace tells of the punishing ordeal endured by porn star Linda Lovelace at the hands of her pornographer husband Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard). 

Sarsgaard is terrific as an out-and-out scumbag, and a surprisingly gutsy Amanda Seyfried evokes a world of suffering as the na?ve and not terribly bright Linda.

It’s a bit like the 1993 Ike and Tina story, What’s Love Got To Do With It, without the relief of the songs.

Peter Sarsgaard is terrific as Lovelace's scumbag of a husband. Amanda Seyfried delivers a gutsy performance as the naive Lindalovelace

I suppose it has elements of a cautionary tale; the trouble is that the trajectory of the plot is so relentlessly grim that, around half way in, you start wishing everyone’s suffering would end, especially your own.

Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman evoke the Seventies efficiently enough; what’s missing is the kind of visual panache and colourful characterisation that made a hit of Boogie Nights.

Also absent is any sense that Lovelace’s story is the tip of an iceberg.

As a result of her experiences, she spent her life campaigning against pornography; the directors never tackle the issue, which is whether or not porn degrades women and the people who use it. It’s one hell of an oversight. 

The film has elements of a cautionary tale and tells a thoroughly grim tale

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Carol McGiffin quits her day job on Loose Women after ten years

By Jason Chester

PUBLISHED: 03:55 EST, 25 August 2013 | UPDATED: 11:17 EST, 25 August 2013

She became a household name thanks to her daily appearances on Loose Women, but after more than a decade on the panel Carol McGiffin has quit the show for pastures new.

The 53-year-old TV personality was the longest serving member on the panel, but admits she won’t be returning to the long-running ITV show when the new series kicks off later this year.

Speaking to the Sunday People, she said: ‘I’m sure some of you will rejoice but those who might not be so pleased deserve some sort of explanation. 

Bowing out: Carol McGiffin has quit her ten year presenting role on ITV daytime show Loose Women

‘I’d been thinking about it for at least a year. It seems mad to quit one of the best jobs in the world – you talk for an hour with like-minded women and get paid.

‘But I felt I’d completely plundered my private life and exhausted my repertoire of anecdotes to the point of boring myself.’

Carol made 1,172 appearances on the show before bowing out when the 17th series came to an end in June.

Her personal highlights include chats with singers Bryan Ferry and Robbie Williams and a trip to Spain, where she visited the set of sitcom Benidorm – her favourite TV show. 

Familiar faces: Loose Women panelists Carol Vorderman, Lisa Maxwell, Carole McGiffin and Denise Welch chat to actress Kym Lomas, one of hundreds of guests to appear on the show

She added: ‘I had so many laughs, made so many friends. It’s been such a big part of my life.’

Carol is currently following in Loose Women colleague Denise Welch’s footsteps by taking part in Celebrity Big Brother – and she’s already won an unlikely admirer in TOWIE star Mario Falcone.

Speaking in the Diary Room shortly after entering the house, he said: ‘She has got amazing legs for an older woman. Amazing. Her legs are the ideal legs on a woman.

Bit of a gap: Carol McGiffin with fiance Mark Cassidy, who is 23-years her junior

‘It is weird for me. When I am out with my friends they are all boys. Carol is completely different for me, she has come in tonight and got proper p***ed.’

The TV presenter is engaged to Mark Cassidy, who is 22-years her junior, but Mario admitted he still fancied his chances.

‘She is engaged to a 31-year-old which means I am six years out,’ he said. ‘But if her engagement doesn’t work out...Carol, I am single and I am a changed man.

'There have been a few moments tonight where something could have happened but she is an engaged woman.’

Fancying his chances: TOWIE star Mario Falcone has developed a crush on fellow Celebrity Big Brother housemate Carol McGiffin

While Carol has already quit Loose Women, fellow panellist Carol Vorderman could be facing the axe as producers plan to give the show a radical shake-up following a drop in viewing figures.

According to The Sun, show regulars Vorderman, Denise Welch and Jane McDonald have been given short-term contracts with their positions set to come under review in January.

The ITV mainstay is understood to have lost more than 700,000 viewers during the last series.

Under threat: Carol McGiffin has quit Loose Women, but her fellow panelist have reportedly given short term contracts following a steep decline in viewing figures during the last series

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China aiming to be newest—and largest—space superpower

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Connor Cruise attempts to paddleboard in the Pacific...with mixed results

By Jason Chester

PUBLISHED: 06:23 EST, 25 August 2013 | UPDATED: 11:18 EST, 25 August 2013

Connor Cruise made a splash on Saturday when he attempted to paddle-board in the Pacific – with mixed results.

The 18-year-old – one of two children adopted by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman – tried his hand at the popular sport during the Oakley Learn to Ride event in Los Angeles.

Wearing a pair of dark blue shorts, Connor was seen wading around in the choppy waters as he attempted to navigate his board with a large paddle – but his efforts repeatedly saw him crashing into the ocean before gamely clambering aboard for another try. 

King of the ocean: Connor Cruise tries his hand at paddle-boarding during the Oakley Learn to Ride event in Los Angeles on Saturday

Despite his struggles, Connor was still on hand to give pretty actress Annet Mahendru a few paddle-boarding pointers.

The teenager was seen chest deep in water as he advised the 24-year-old - best known for her recurring role as Nina in TV show The Americans – how best to stay afloat.

For her part Annet saw the funny side as she kneeled on her board in lilac bikini bottoms and a black Oakley top. 

Floundering: Connor clambers onto his paddle board during an outing on the choppy Pacific waters for the Oakley Learn to Ride event

This is how you do it: Connor, 18, is on hand to give pretty actress Annet Mahendru a few pointers

Connor recently made his big-screen debut in box-office flop Red Dawn – a remake of the cult 1984 film in which the US is invaded by the Soviet Union and their South American allies.

While Connor’s role was fleeting, it was perhaps more remarkable than the film – which failed to emulate the original’s success and saw Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer take a heavy loss on their $65 million investment.

Away from acting the teenager has been making a more successful name for himself as a DJ, a gig that sees him command anything from $5,000 to $10,000 a set.

So far he has spun disks at parties for the American Music Awards and the Oscars viewing party AIDS Project Los Angeles.

Sports equipment manufacturer Oakley’s annual Learn to Ride event sees a host of celebrities attempt different sports, with Vanessa Hudgens and Twilight star Ashley Greene recently trying their hand at surfboarding in Bali, Indonesia. 

Seeing the funny side: Something's tickled Annet as she attempts to paddle-board on Saturday

Washed up: Annet makes her way out of the choppy pacific waters on Saturday

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Considering a pick-and-mix model of dark matter

Dark matter is the physical mystery of our time. We know from many different results that a fair percentage of the Universe consists of matter that doesn't seem to interact in any way other than gravity. But with every statement like that, there is a limit: our measurements are only so sensitive, which leaves space for dark matter to interact. If it does, the interactions have to be weak. Hence, most physicists think that dark matter consists of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).

Not all candidate dark matter particles fit with experimental data, so they can be discarded, right? Maybe not, according to physicists at Harvard. "Wait," I hear you say, "data is king, so they can't be right." But they actually can, because when data gets turned into models, assumptions often get involved. The underlying reason for kicking dark matter proposals out is the assumption that the entirety of dark matter consists of a single type of particle (or, more accurately, many different types of particles with very similar properties). But who is to say that dark matter doesn't consist of a mix of different particles with vastly different properties?

Setting off for the shores of a universe that has a complex distribution of dark matter particles begins with a journey of small steps. In this case, the researchers considered a population that has a mixture of standard WIMPs and a population of dark matter that doesn't interact with ordinary matter, but does interact with itself. Think of this second population as a mirror universe of protons and neutrons that can clump together through electromagnetic-like forces but are almost untouchable by ordinary matter. A universe composed of these two populations of dark matter will look very different from one composed of only WIMPs.

There is some room to produce a more familiar universe—as long as there isn't too much of this new dark matter, the universe won't mind—so the researchers calculated just how much dark matter could be strongly interacting. They found that this comes out to about five percent, which is roughly the amount of ordinary matter that is in the Universe. An interesting coincidence, if nothing else.

Interacting dark matter has observational consequences, though, which is what makes it interesting. In a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, it will accumulate in a disk. That means that our dark matter detection experiments, like Fermi and PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics), should see more dark matter than expected. And although the results are uncertain, both Fermi and PAMELA have reported possible dark matter signals that are stronger than expected.

But the dark matter disk doesn't have to be oriented in the same plane as ordinary matter. So the expected excess experienced by an observer in a galactic disk can vary from zero upward to some maximum amount, depending on the relative orientation of the ordinary matter and dark matter disks, adding yet another free parameter into the mix. This, I think, is a bad thing.

This richer model of dark matter may really come into its own, though, in explaining some odd results. For instance, the bullet cluster observations can be explained by either standard WIMP dark matter or by a mixture of different dark matter components. But the Abel 520 cluster observations are not so easily explained by WIMPs alone, though a more complex version of dark matter might make sense of it.

Unfortunately, we don't yet know. This paper was more about the bounding possibilities: how much freedom is there in the mixture? We would still need a more developed model before dark matter distributions can be compared to real astronomical observations. But this model is timely, because the Planck and Gaia missions will shine an awful lot of light on dark matter.

So where does that leave us? Well, we still don't know what dark matter is, but this paper shows that the possibilities are much wider than the ones we've generally considered. In some ways, that's a lot of fun, because it opens data to new interpretation and should result in a more consistent model. On the downside, our limited observational power may mean that we have to wait a long time to arrive at a unique description of dark matter.

Physical Review Letters, 2013, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.211302

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Draft IPCC report has increased confidence in human influence on climate

Today, a draft of the upcoming report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was leaked to major news organizations including Reuters and The New York Times. The draft is scheduled to go through one more round of revisions at a meeting with both diplomats and scientists later this year. Typically, this changes the wording of passages but not the basic conclusions of the scientists who wrote the draft.

For those who have followed scientific results in the years since the previous report was released, the new report won't be much of a surprise. As the Times emphasizes, our confidence in humanity's influence on the recent warming has only increased. In the report's terms, it jumps from a 90 percent confidence to 95 percent. In addition, further studies of the behavior of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, along with reconstruction of past sea levels, has led to a better understanding of the expected future sea level rise. The new report will suggest that the end of the century will see ocean levels 30-80cm (one to three feet) higher than at present.

The Reuters report largely corroborates the outline, but it emphasizes other things. These include a detailed look at where the heat added to the climate system over the last decade has gone, given that surface temperatures have varied within a relatively narrow range during that span (the report suggests a number of factors, including volcanic aerosols and ocean warming, may all have contributed). It also mentions that regional forecasting, which is essential for any plans to adapt to the changing climate, remains a weak spot.

Neither report actually describes the climate sensitivity or the amount temperatures will rise if CO2 levels are doubled, although the Times notes that the low-end of the likely range has dropped slightly, from 2°C to 1.5°C. However, without any numbers on the upper end of the range, it's hard to give that number much context.

In any case, the worst-case scenario, which involves emissions growing at their current pace and higher climate sensitivity, would mean temperatures at the end of the century would increase by 5°C. There's a new low-end estimate (1°C by century's end), but that would involve the entire globe decarbonizing by 2070, a path that seems incredibly unlikely. In that light, the report will almost certainly indicate that the stated goal of many international climate efforts—keeping the temperature rise below 2°C—has almost certainly slipped out of reach.

This report initially published with a Fahrenheit/Celsius error that has since been corrected.

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Finding the limits of speciation

Despite their small size, organisms smaller than a thousandth of a meter (1 mm) contribute greatly to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Unfortunately, categorizing small organisms—even defining those categories—is difficult. Do small organisms form discrete species? Advances in DNA sequencing, combined with large surveys of small organisms, suggest that they may not.

The process of defining a species is a historical practice. Biologists have agreed on a few rules, but from time to time, biology offers a surprise that means we must break the rules. Now, in a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Axel Rossberg and colleagues propose mathematical models that look at how new species are formed.

They start by asking a biological question: are there circumstances where species formation breaks down? They find that in some situations, the concept of a species doesn’t seem to apply to small organisms. Their work directly affects our understanding of how ecosystems function and how to interpret the increasing amount of data pouring in from DNA sequencing machines.

Studying the relationship of organisms to one another and their environment helps define something as a “species.” This definition seems simple when discussing large, discrete organisms, such as elephants or trees. But this is not always the case at smaller scales, where organisms are often asexual or cryptic (difficult to tell apart). In this study, the authors rely on two concepts of species: ecological species, a group occupying a niche that is different from other co-existing groups, and genetic species, where species boundaries are determined by how different their DNA sequences are.

DNA sequencing technology is advancing at such a dizzying pace that biologists increasingly rely on mathematical models to understand complex systems. In this case, Rossberg’s team built a model of speciation that has five parts: organisms, population (their size and the distance between individuals), birth (asexual reproduction with mutation), competition (which increases when organisms are similar), and fitness.

While the authors' model is comprehensive, they fully admit it simplifies reality, echoing the principle by George Box, a British statistician: “All models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful.” The model the authors have developed, however, is very useful.

For both ecological and genetic versions of the model, the higher the mutation rate or population size, the less likely it was for a species to form. Since population size depends on biomass, small species tend to have very large numbers. As a result, small organisms generally have large genetic variation within a species, which suppresses the formation of new species.

Other evidence also suggested that small organisms may not form distinct species. Groups that formed species showed a distinct pattern when the mathematical model was used to track how lineages evolve over time, with specific changes in the shape of the resulting plots that caused two inflection points. This pattern was observed in experimental data from larger organisms, such as some butterflies (Astraptes) and beetles (Rivacindela).

In contrast, this pattern was missing for organisms smaller than 1 mm from marine shorelines and tropical rainforests. Applying these mathematical models to real data suggested that the concept of a species as a cohesive unit breaks down for small organisms.

Next-generation DNA sequencing of environmental samples is still relatively new, but initiatives like the Earth Microbiome Project and Human Microbiome Project are generating incredible amounts of data. Results of models, such as the one presented by Rossberg and colleagues, will evolve as we learn more about the relationship between species and DNA sequence data. If their insights are correct, though, classifying distinct groups of very small creatures that have extremely large populations may not be possible.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2013. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1248  (About DOIs).

This story originally appeared at The Conversation.

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Fungus and bacteria play game theory to make biofuels

To ensure that biofuel production doesn't compete with material that could otherwise provide food, researchers have been trying to produce biofuels from cellulose, the tough polymer that gives wood its strength. Unfortunately, cellulose isn't easy to digest, and the organisms that can digest it are bad at using it to produce something we could burn in an engine.

To get around this, many researchers have attempted to create a single microbe that can do both—digest the cellulose and directly convert it to a usable fuel. So far, however, efforts to engineer all the pathways to digest haven't worked out as well as we might hope, so a team of researchers has decided to use a pair of organisms instead. And, by testing a variety of conditions, they found that their behavior was predictable based on game theory.

Cellulose is a polymer of the sugar glucose, which can readily be digested and used to power cellular processes. Cellulose, however, is such a large and complex polymer that it resists easy digestion. There are organisms that can break down cellulose—otherwise, forests would be filled with the undigested remains of dead trees—but they're not necessarily easy to manipulate genetically. In contrast, the bacteria we use in labs, such as E. coli, don't normally break down cellulose.

So, the research team started with a fungus, Trichoderma reesei, that normally breaks down cellulose. To do so, it exports enzymes that digest it outside of the cell so that the cellulose fibers don't have to be brought inside intact. The organism counts on the fact that it can quickly import the glucose that the enzymes release, grabbing the energy before some other organism does. But the authors reasoned that enough of it might escape and be available for another microbe to use.

The microbe they had in mind was E. coli, the standard bacteria of molecular biology. E. coli strains have been engineered to produce isobutanol, a small alcohol that's more energy dense than ethanol, the most commonly used biofuel.

Normally, both Trichoderma reesei and E. coli exist in communities of other microbes, which form a complex ecosystem rich with organisms that cooperate and compete. But with just the two of them, the relationship would be simpler. Trichoderma reesei would be what's termed a cooperator, producing material that could be used by other organisms by releasing glucose from the cellulose it digests. E. coli, in contrast, would be a cheater, leeching off the fungus without producing anything useful for it. And those properties put the system within the realm of game theory, which typically examines how people interact in situations that could involve cooperation or competition.

The authors could model the system based on parameters such as how quickly a given amount of glucose led to growth and how much the E. coli could siphon off before it reduced the fitness of the fungus. They then tested their model by adding different proportions of the two species to the starting mixture. Although all populations eventually reached an equilibrium (even if it took them anywhere from 12 to 60 generations to do so), they found that a 1:1 mixture led to the most efficient production of biofuel right from the start.

All told, the combined system converted cellulose to isobutanol with an efficiency of over 60 percent of the theoretical maximum. That's not as good as you'd get if you simply fed the same E. coli glucose, but it was pretty good considering that they were starting with a material that E. coli can't normally address.

More generally, they suggest the game-theory-based model that they created could help predict how similar systems would work. E. coli could, for example, be paired with a different fungus or even a different energy source. And E. coli has been engineered to produce all sorts of useful chemicals, so the output could be shifted as well.

PNAS, 2013. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1218447110  (About DOIs).

Listing image by Flickr user: Tom Walter

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Growing shoes and furniture: A design-led biomaterial revolution

The natural world has, over millions of years, evolved countless ways to ensure its survival. The industrial revolution, in contrast, has given us just a couple hundred years to play catch-up using technology. And while we've been busily degrading the Earth since that revolution, nature continues to outdo us in the engineering of materials that are stronger, tougher, and multipurpose.

Take steel for example. According to the World Steel Association, for every ton produced, 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. In total in 2010, the iron and steel industries, combined, were responsible for 6.7 percent of total global CO2 emissions. Then there's the humble spider, which produces silk that is—weight for weight—stronger than steel. Webs spun by Darwin's bark spider in Madagascar, meanwhile, are 10 times tougher than steel and more durable than Kevlar, the synthetic fiber used in bulletproof vests. Material scientists savvy to this have ensured biomimicry is now high on the agenda at research institutions, and an exhibit currently on at the Space Foundation EDF in Paris is doing its best to popularize the notion that we should not just be salvaging the natural world but also learning from it.

En Vie (Alive), curated by Reader and Deputy Director of the Textile Futures Research Center at Central Saint Martins College Carole Collet, is an exposition for what happens when material scientists, architects, biologists, and engineers come together with designers to ask what the future will look like. According to them, it will be a world where plants grow our products, biological fabrication replaces traditional manufacturing, and genetically reprogrammed bacteria build new materials, energy, or even medicine.

It's a fantastical place where plants are magnetic, a vase is built by 60,000 bees, furniture is made from funghi, and shoes from cellulose. You can print algae onto rice paper, then eat it or encourage gourds to grow in the shape of plastic components found in things like torches or radios (you'll have to wait a few months for the finished product, though). These are not fanciful designs but real products, grown or fashioned with nature's direct help.

In other parts of the exhibit, biology is the inspiration and shows what might be. Eskin, for instance, provides visitors with a simulation of how a building's exterior could mimic and learn from the human body in keeping it warm and cool.

Alive shows that, speculative or otherwise, design has a real role to play in bringing different research fields together, which will be essential if there's any hope of propelling the field into mass commercialization.

"More than any other point in history, advances in science and engineering are making it feasible to mimic natural processes in the laboratory, which makes it a very exciting time," Craig Vierra, Professor and Assistant Chair, Biological Sciences at University of the Pacific, tells Wired.co.uk. In his California lab, Vierra has for the past few years been growing spider silk proteins from bacteria in order to engineer fibers that are close, if not quite ready, to give steel a run for its money. The technique involves purifying the spider silk proteins away from the bacteria proteins before concentrating these using a freeze-dryer in order to render them into powder form. A solvent is then added, and the material is spun into fiber using wet spinning techniques and stretched to three times its original length.

"Although the mechanical properties of the synthetic spider fibers haven't quite reached those of natural fibers, research scientists are rapidly approaching this level of performance. Our laboratory has been working on improving the composition of the spinning dope and spinning parameters of the fibers to enhance their performance."

Vierra is a firm believer that nature will save us.

"Mother Nature has provided us with some of the most outstanding biomaterials that can be used for a plethora of applications in the textile industry. In addition to these, modern technological advances will also allow us to create new biocomposite materials that rely on the fundamentals of natural processes, elevating the numbers and types of materials that are available. But, more importantly, we can generate eco-friendly materials.

"As the population size increases, the availability of natural resources will become more scarce and limiting for humans. It will force society to develop new methods and strategies to produce larger quantities of materials at a faster pace to meet the demands of the world. We simply must find more cost-efficient methods to manufacture materials that are non-toxic for the environment. Many of the materials being synthesized today are very dangerous after they degrade and enter the environment, which is severely impacting the wildlife and disrupting the ecology of the animals on the planet."

According to Vierra, the fact that funding in the field has become extremely competitive over the past ten years is proof of the quality of research today. "The majority of scientists are expected to justify how their research has a direct, immediate tie to applications in society in order to receive funding."

We really have no alternative but to continue down this route, he argues. Without advances in material science, we will continue to produce "inferior materials" and damage the environment. "Ultimately, this will affect the way humans live and operate in society."

We're agreed that the field is a vital and rapidly growing one. But what value, if any, can a design-led project bring to the table, aside from highlighting the related issues. Vierra has assessed a handful of the incredible designs on display at Alive for us to see which he thinks could become a future biomanufacturing reality.

Suzanne Lee founded BioCouture in 2003 with the sole purpose of pushing forward the future of manufacturing fashion through biodesign. BioCouture works to link up "biomaterial innovators" and manufacturers to see if designs that are superior to our current offerings can truly be brought to market. Along the way, she has designed and engineered prototypes to prove the point, including the crab helmet, a helmet inspired by a crab's exoskeleton and built from cellulose and keratin, similar to the material chitin (of which the real thing is largely composed). From her South London workshop, Lee has also brought us "vegetable leather," grown from green tea, sugar, bacteria, and yeast.

For Alive she is exhibiting the first shoe that was grown rather than made, in collaboration with shoe designer Liz Ciokajlo-Squire. The cellulose shoe, aside from being rather attractive, can be molded to fit any foot perfectly.

Vierra's take: This is similar to our approach and the use of spider silk proteins that are manufactured from yeast and bacteria. In this particular case, these organisms are being used to produce a structural component that is found in plant cell walls that can be used to make footwear. It is considered a biodegradable, sustainable material that is eco-friendly. It has good tensile strength (not as high as spider silk) and can be molded. This seems like a reasonable idea.

To convince bees to make you a vase, first you have to make your faux-hive/shell bee friendly. And that's exactly what product designer Tomás Libertiny did, using computer-aided design. "The design always lies in a combination of convex and concave curves," he tells Wired.co.uk. "If the design doesn't comply with these rules, the honeybees won't accept it or will not build according to the design."

Working with a beekeeper in Holland, Libertiny used a combination of an original hive and a skeleton mold in which the bees could produce wax that would eventually form the vase. The result, he says, is a vase that can contain 1,000 percent of its own weight and be molded according to any new design with the employment of a few thousand more bees–like a bonsai tree, he says, it must be encouraged to grow and thought of as a permanent work in progress. "It would interesting to find a comparison of an industrial, manmade material that allows such radical reuse and reshaping."

It took 60,000 bees two months to make the vase for Libertiny, "an artistic exploration of the potential of natural process that we could tap on and use to our advantage."

"I think there lies a huge potential for generations to come to harness whatever is out there in order to live sustainably. I must stress that sustainability is not what the general media talks about. Sustainability is not what is made out of wood; sustainability is not herbs and living in the tree houses... sustainability is awareness."

Of the designer's role in pushing forward thinking its field in biology, Libertiny says: "I think one day designers should be elected as politicians on some levels. It is precisely this type of pragmatic thinking that people need. If there is no understanding of design as a way of thinking then the designer's role is irrelevant and is reduced only to the level of pretty things that we buy."

Vierra's view: The use of bees to create vessels whose design is controlled by man is creative; however, two months to create one vessel may not be a practical timeline for materials development. The "slow prototyping" may be too "snail-like" for the value of the final product and demand for the vessels. Also, it would seem like the costs could be high.

Japanese designer Marin Sawa wants us to stay healthy by printing and eating our own algae everyday. And she's already built the printer to do it. Sawa has been working with researchers from Imperial College London to create an inkjet printing technology that could print algae onto rice paper. "My project aims at adapting this industrial-scale production to a domestic technology," she explains in a statement. "By introducing living microalgae to food printing, we have invented a new way of consuming health food supplements. At microscale, the Bioprinter technology provides a process in which cells can be ruptured and their nutrients can be readily absorbed. At macroscale, the Bioprinter envisions an immediate future in which algae 'farming' forms a new part of urban agriculture to reinforce food safety in our cities."

Enlarge / The packaging creates its own cup.

Vierra's view: Printing specific microalgae that are domestically grown to use as a food source is an interesting proposition. There likely is a niche for this application in some parts of the world. On a global scale, however, there are likely to be challenges. For example, let's hypothetically imagine that these organisms can be grown at home (different species that have different colors etc.), printed into different designs, and provide substances that are nutrient rich. Will people want to print their food and move away from traditional food sources, especially when traditional food sources and meals have become such a large part of many cultures and their social interactions? Personally, I could envision this dominating on a global level if traditional methods of obtaining resources were depleted or eliminated, but this is not likely to suit the masses unless given no other alternative. How will potential contamination be controlled or monitored for the average layperson at home with little or no scientific experience or knowledge of algae?

IDEO Designers Will Carey and Adam Reineck have joined with Wendell Lim and Reid Williams of the University of California to design a probiotic drink that uses light-responsive bacteria to form a cup.

"During shipping and storage, these light-molded cups are 'alive' but remain dormant until water is poured inside, creating an effervescent, healthy drink," writes the team. "After several uses, the cup's walls begin to degrade and it can be composted." It's a utopian view of a life of consumption with no waste. But the concept is just that right now, a conceptual view of what could be.

Vierra's view: I'm more than a little nervous about how the cup will be sterilized between uses. It can't really get wet or it will begin decomposition prematurely. How will humidity and rain be handled? Other microbes are sure to take refuge in the cup and grow too.

Furniture designer Philip Ross decided to grow a fungi chair off the back of a fascination with biochemistry during his years working as a chef and a wild mushroom-hunting hobby through which he learned about taxonomies, forest ecology, and husbandry. He began by combining live cells with sawdust to create sculptural objects, but on realizing how lightweight and strong the material turned out to be once dried out, moved on to product design.

"The cellulose serves as both food and framework for the organism to grow on, and within a week this aggregate solidifies as a result of the fungi's natural tendency to join together smaller pieces of its tissue into a larger constituent whole," he explains in a statement.

Vierra's view: This is also an interesting concept. One of my immediate questions revolves around what type of processing must be done to the final product(s) in order to render them inert? Which fungi will be used for the development of these structures, and, when dried, will it pose any health risks (e.g. allergic responses or dangerous materials that could be inhaled) to their users? When typical polymers are used to make objects, this is typically not an issue with humans as these compounds don't readily elicit strong immune responses; however, these are entire living fungi that are loaded with different molecules that will become dried and potentially airborne. If resins are needed to seal their products, these resins might be toxic for the environment, limiting the value of the final product.

En Vie / Alive will exhibit at the Space Foundation EDF in Paris until September 1.

This story originally appeared in Wired UK.

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Heartbreaking portrait of modern family life: Julianne Moore leads a surprising and impressive cast in this thoughtful drama

By Chris Tookey

PUBLISHED: 16:26 EST, 22 August 2013 | UPDATED: 16:48 EST, 22 August 2013

What Maisie Knew (15)

Verdict: Quality cinema

Rating:

The best new film of the week is this beautifully acted, thought-provoking drama that skilfully updates Henry James’s little-read 1897 novella to the modern era. 

It’s centred on an astonishing, Oscar-quality performance by Onata Aprile, as an innocent six-year-old shuttled between adults as they conduct their lives with varying degrees of selfishness.

There has been no more moving study of the damage divorce and thoughtless parenting can do to a child. Seeing a child suffer is never an easy watch, which is bound to affect its commercial prospects.

The outstanding performance from six-year-old Onata Aprile as Julianne Moore and Steve Coogan's daughter is worthy of an Oscar

The miraculous element is the child’s generosity of spirit. She may not understand what is going on — the title is ironic — but her capacity for love shines through.

Julianne Moore is predictably superb as Maisie’s flaky rock star mother. More surprising is Steve Coogan as the workaholic art-dealer father, a class above anything he has achieved before.

James’s didactic plots have not worn well, but this one works; it’s the most pertinent study of modern family life since The Kids Are All Right.

The thoughtful look at modern family structures explores the damage done by divorce and selfish parents

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Hoist the sails! Ars readers react to pre-Viking settlers

Coastline of the Faroe Islands.

The Faroe Islands, a cluster of coastline northwest of Scotland and southeast of Iceland, were widely believed to have been settled by Vikings in the 9th century AD until a recent study discovered burnt peat ash containing barley grains that dated back to somewhere between the 4th and 6th centuries AD. Josephine Lethbridge brought you the full story in Someone beat the Vikings into the North Atlantic by 500 years. The researchers couldn't say with certainty but guessed that the settlers could have been Irish hermits or Picts from the Shetlands.

"As soon as I read that they burned peat and cultivated barley, all I could do is wonder if they had good whisk(e)y," wrote palsyboy.

"Picts, or it didn't happen!" quipped eodell48. But JustAdComics made the most groan-worthy pun of all: "I'm stunned that no one has mentioned the 'obvious' answer: It had to have been the Egyptian Faroes! (Thank you, Thankyouverymuch! I'm here all week! Be sure and tip your waitress!)"  Ugh. Sorry to put you through that again, readers.

redtomato gave us some perspective:

"These islands are tiny and in the absolute middle of nowhere. It's awesome to think of sailing off from the outer Scottish islands, which are themselves on the very edge of civilization, off into the watery desolation. I have no idea how they navigated to these islands, which are a pretty tiny target. If you miss, then either you probably die before reaching Iceland or you end up in the Arctic ice shelves.

A friend of mine has parents in the Shetland Islands and even in 2013, it takes two full days to get to her parents' island from London. And a lot still depends on the wind and the tide. You could probably get to most of the world from London quicker than that.

And John Is My Name brought us a first-person account:

I spent time in the North Atlantic in the 80's aboard the USS Sellers (an Adams class destroyer); a 'modern' warship and definitely sea-worthy. Outside of going through Cape Hatteras on the USS Ortolan during hurricane Hugo, it was some of the roughest time I spent on open water. I can't even begin to fathom how dangerous it was for sailors back then.

But despite the dangers, halse made a good point: the dangers of the open sea may have had an upshot. "It must have been a really, really tough life out there, the one big upside probably being [that the islands were] relatively free of plague and the various TB, flu, and other pandemics."

Canonical launched a recent Indiegogo campaign to raise a staggering $32 million, which would have been used to build a phone called the Edge. The Edge would have doubled as a desktop when docked with the appropriate input devices, but the campaign failed, only bringing in a still-staggering $12.8 million. Jon Brodkin broke down the story in the article Ubuntu Edge is dead, long live Ubuntu phones. Ars readers were a bit mixed in their reactions, some wondering why Canonical had even crowdsourced funding on a device at all.

"I find it hard to believe Canonical ever seriously expected they'd raise that sort of money. Which makes me wonder what their game really was," gypsumfantastic wrote. To which XX55XX replied "Publicity. Now everyone knows of the Edge, and perhaps investors might be willing to back it. There is a market for such a device like this, and Canonical was trying to prove it with a fundraiser that attracted headlines from newspapers and tech blogs around the globe."

therealankit felt similarly: "This always looked to me like a publicity stunt. If they really wanted to make Ubuntu Edge, [then] Canonical Founder, Shuttleworth, who is a billionaire, could have easily put up the required money himself. How many would like to put $700 on a mobile phone, about which no one has proper knowledge, rather than buying Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One?"

Some people thought that, despite raising $12.8 million dollars, the project would only ever enjoy niche interest. "Should give them a good hint that not many care about it," commented JohnnyTheGeek. "I think the market proves that in reality only a couple smartphone operating systems can really survive and the rest become niche products. Even Microsoft can't fight Android and iOS very well. Let's really also look at the facts with Ubuntu as a whole. Its not like it ever garnered a lot of market share on the PC desktop. Sure maybe a couple percent of all PC's. But is Ubuntu really a household name like Google's Android or Apple's iPhone and IOS? Not even close. Plus, where is the money to market a Ubuntu phone? Does the people at Ubuntu think the cell phone companies will flip for marketing it? I highly doubt it."

But many were genuinely excited for the implications of a phone like Ubuntu's Edge.

"I was really expecting Mark to pay the difference," wrote t1oracle. "Oh well. I don't know what is next but I really wanted this to succeed." And Tundro Walker added, "I hope Canonical doesn't get the wrong impression. Tons of folks were interested in a very high-end, ultra-lux smartphone ... NOT just an Ubuntu phone. If the only thing they take away from this is 'gee, folks want Ubuntu phones!' then they're ignorant of the outcome of their social experiment."

John Timmer wrote an article on another particularly interesting study this week. In it, researchers found that visual aspects of a musical performance can often be more informative in discerning "good" performances from "bad" ones than simply listening to a performance without visual aid can be. ("Or as Bruce Woolley would say... 'Video Killed the Radio Star,'" Asmodai joked.) In The sound of music… is irrelevant, Timmer gives us the story behind how these results were reached.

Alyeska wrote: "That is a very surprising study. I love to find a good piece of music, sit down in a chair, and listen intently with my eyes closed, trying to discern all the sound and detail from the song. I have never been to a live performance for any orchestra or symphony. And given how our senses are designed to work together, I am genuinely intrigued as to what the experience would be like."

fuzzyfuzzyfungus added, "I'm not at all surprised that visuals help, especially on people who don't know much about classical music; but I am surprised that it works as well on experts as it does on noobs. I would have expected expertise to increase the ability to judge by audio alone, maybe even tune out the visuals somewhat.

And Dracorat gave an interesting comparison:

I believe the problem is actually that the winners of the competitions were judged by people who could see their performance.

I submit that if a contest were held wherein the winners were picked only based upon the audio output of their performance then I would expect that the people given an audio only clip and asked to predict the winner would rate much higher.

However, in competition on stage, your stage presence adds to your performance. One might argue it shouldn't but that's not the nature of humans. A classic example of this is a comparison between Itzhak Perlman and Jascha Heifetz (both violinists).

Heifetz was undoubtably a better technical master, able to make the violin perform to exacting standards. But he lacked emotion for much of what he did. He performed almost mechanically. Perfect, but inhuman.

Perlman was also a master, but in every piece, his body "speaks" the music. You want to cry at the sad parts because you can see that he wants to cry. You are happy at the jubilant parts because you can see that he is happy.

In a test like this, if both were in a play-off, I would bet that Perlman would win in the case live judges were present.

Yet, if we played just the audio portions of both to judges, I'd bet Heifetz would win.

Both are awesome, but music is more than notes in the air. And this test doesn't quite reflect that.

Speaking of performance art: here, enjoy this link which includes a video of 167 people performing Beethoven's 9th Symphony on theremins hidden inside matryoshka dolls. Have a good weekend!

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Jim Shelley discovers that CBB can actually go downmarket

By Jim Shelley

PUBLISHED: 05:38 EST, 25 August 2013 | UPDATED: 11:01 EST, 25 August 2013

Love it or loathe it Celebrity Big Brother continues to deliver on one level at least.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, it will effortlessly top even the most surreal/squalid moments that the demented array of Reality TV shows on our screens have come up with.

It only took until Day Two before when we were treated to the jaw-dropping/eye-watering spectacle of Louie Spence grilling transsexual Lauren Harries about the depth of her vagina.

Deep and meaningless: Celebrity Big Brother has achieved the not inconsiderable feat of taking series even more downmarket than usual this year

‘So is it a big one ?’ Spencer demanded eagerly, an issue he probably pursues more typically of men.

He didn’t stop there either. (If only...)

‘How long have you had your vagina ?’ he persisted, on learning that Harries had been celibate for six years.

‘15 years,’ came the reply.

‘So it has been used then...’ Spence deduced, his curiosity satiated.

No doubt this was the kind of conversation the inventors of television imagined when they were working so hard.

There is now the very real possibility that Harries’ vagina will be a close second to the infamous appearance on Wogan 25 years ago as what she is remembered for..

Hopefully, this will be more than the fame-hungry, bitter monster that is Louie Spence, who seems to think being gay makes him fascinating – that and doing the splits.

Plastic fantastic: American star Courtney Stodden provided any women considering breast implants with an invaluable piece of advice on how to maintain them: wearing a bra

Frank discussions: The house have had conversations ranging from boob jobs to racism. Louie Spence (right) meanwhile can do the splits

Never one to be outdone, the diary room found Geordie Shore’s Charlotte Crosby confirming she’d had a good day.

‘I made some bread !’ she enthused, going to far as to claim that ‘being in the Big Brother house is turning me into a good wife.’

This, she elaborated, was because she was learning to do the boring chores the role needs, explaining that she was already an expert in the main requirement for being a good wife: oral sex. Gulp. The days of young ladies being sent to Swiss finishing schools to learn how to walk around with books on their head maybe over.

Elsewhere Dustin Diamond confirmed that he would probably be prepared to do a commercial for thrush or herpes (well not for them - for the treatment). Viewers had probably gathered this already. Appearing on Celebrity Big Brother is probably one step below those.

Courtney Stodden also offered up a lesson in how to maintain your breast implants, advocating changing them ‘every 7-10 years - like changing the tyres on a car.’

Her other piece of invaluable advice for any women considering having them done was: ‘I have to wear a bra’ - something bound to make them re-consider.

One illuminating insight was that Courtney is not famous in the States either.

‘She married a 50 year old dude when she was 16,’ Abz explained.

‘That’s it ?!’ spluttered Saved By The Bell star, Dustin Diamond. 'Oh. Ok.'

From left to right: CBB-ies' 'Cult of Celebrity': former model and cocaine addict Sophie Anderton, former child prodigy and transsexual Lauren Harries and Louie Spence, who can do the splits

Charlotte Crosby didn’t care either way.

‘I could just watch her old day,’ she swooned. ‘She’s like the drawings I used to do – when you draw boobs on stick men to show it’s a woman. She’s like a human stick woman !’

Genius - in a way.

Continuing this rich vein of analysis, Charlotte announced that the only person she loved more than Courtney was former manager and football pundit, Ron Atkinson.

‘I love Ron ! Ron reminds us of Santa ! He’s so jolly. He’s just a lovely old man !’

When Santa/Ron was nominated for eviction, Charlotte became so angry, she laid into the buffet, announcing: ‘I’ve just punched a cake !’

Such madness may have represented a new (demented) low, even for the depths of Z-list Reality TV, but conversations about Lauren Harries’ vagina were more entertaining than most of the conversations.

Mind you, Lauren's vagina is probably deeper than most of the housemates too. You’re know you’re in trouble when the brightest one in the house is from TOWIE.

Miss Mario Marples was the only housemate smart enough to realise Harries, Spence, and Sophie Anderton were lying about having just arrived and who suspected they had been spying on them.

That’s not to say there weren’t a few priceless insights into the glorious delusion of celebrities.

‘When I go and talk to Abz, he seems like he doesn’t want to know,’ lamented Mario, clearly unable to imagine why.

Stop the madness: Harries (left), Anderton (centre) and Spence (irritant) dress up as 'the Cult Of Celebrity' - probably the only organisation that would have them

Probing: Sophie Anderton (left) pretends she's not looking at Courtney Stodden's breasts and wondering if they're real

We were also treated to the sight of Lauren Harries expounding about ‘the pitfalls of fame’, as if that appearance on Wogan was only yesterday, not 25 years ago.

This speech was made to Sophie Anderton who expertly steered the conversation on to her favourite subject – herself – alluding to her demise by declaring: ‘thankfully I’m back in a very strong position again’, ignoring any impression that appearing on Celebrity Big Brother might suggest this position wasn’t that strong.

The final moment of madness came when Big Brother called Carol McGiffin to the diary room to censure her for explaining to Louie Spence why Ron Atkinson’s career as a football pundit had ended in disgrace, and citing the exact racial epithet that he had used.

She was issued an official warning, despite the fact that McGiffin’s repetition of the offensive quote had not been heard by viewers because it was bleeped out.

Nonetheless, Big Brother told her it regarded the language as ‘offensive’, before promptly using the word ‘n****r’ too, this time openly for all to hear.

So the programme had effectively punished McGiffin for repeating the facts of a news story and without viewers being offended when what 'Big Brother' had done was far more gratuitous and unacceptable.

Proof if it were needed that this year the madness has gone too far and on Celebrity Big Brother, anything is possible.

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