STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

Russian Commuters Score A Free Train Ticket For 30 Squats

There’s always the moral dilemma when you’re at the train station, do you take the stairs or cruise along on the escalator? You could walk to your destination but it’s probably easier and faster to jump on the train.

But recently the Russian government have come up with in a novel idea that promotes both fitness and makes you feel less guilty to catching the train.

In an effort to promote the benefits of physical exercise, they’ve installed a ticket machine, that will give you a free ride providing you do 30 squats in front of it. A typical fare on the Russian subway costs around 30 rubles (around 92 US cents) swap that for 30 squats and you have yourself a free trip. It is was available in your city, would you use it?

It’s all part of Moscow’s attempts to generate fun and excitement ahead of the Winter Olympics which kick off February 7, 2014.

Now commuters have no excuse for not being in peak physical condition just in time for the games themselves!

MIKA:

[MIKA27]

Teckell Intervallo Foosball Table:

Just because you have a tiny apartment, doesn't mean you have to sacrifice fun in your down time. With the Teckell Intervallo Foosball Table ($5,900) you get a fully-functioning foosball table — albeit a good bit smaller than your average one — that takes up no more space than a coffee or end table.

Built with just three wood players on each side, this table features crystal glass construction surrounded with a wood frame. The glass top is removable, letting you access the game inside, as well as functioning as a serving tray.

[Fuzz]

Forza 5's Mount Panorama Circuit Looks Better Than The Real Thing

The best part about this is, you're not limited to 24 tinnies per day!

[MIKA27]

'Superbugs could erase a century of medical advances,' experts warn

Drug-resistant "superbugs" represent one of the gravest threats in the history of medicine, leading experts have warned.

Routine operations could become deadly "in the very near future" as bacteria evolve to resist the drugs we use to combat them.

This process could erase a century of medical advances, say government doctors in a special editorial in The Lancet health journal.

Although the looming threat of antibiotic, or anti-microbial, resistance has been known about for years, the new warning reflects growing concern that the NHS and other national health systems, already under pressure from ageing populations, will struggle to cope with the rising cost of caring for people in the "post-antibiotic era".

In a stark reflection of the seriousness of the threat, England's deputy chief medical officer, Professor John Watson, said: "I am concerned that in 20 years, if I go into hospital for a hip replacement, I could get an infection leading to major complications and possible death, simply because antibiotics no longer work as they do now."

About 35 million antibiotics are prescribed by GPs in England every year. The more the drugs circulate, the more bacteria are able to evolve to resist them. In the past, drug development kept pace with evolving microbes, with a constant production line of new classes of antibiotics. But the drugs have ceased to be profitable and a new class has not been created since 1987.

Writing in The Lancet, experts, including England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, warn that death rates from bacterial infections "might return to those of the early 20th century". They write: "Rarely has modern medicine faced such a grave threat.

Without antibiotics, treatments from minor surgery to major transplants could become impossible, and health-care costs are likely to spiral as we resort to newer, more expensive antibiotics and sustain longer hospital admissions."

Strategies to combat the rise in resistance include cutting the amount of antibiotics prescribed, improving hospital hygiene and incentivising the pharmaceutical industry to work on novel antibiotics and antibiotic alternatives.

However, a leading GP told The Independent on Sunday that the time had come for the general public to take responsibility. "The change needs to come in patient expectation. We need public education: that not every ill needs a pill," said Dr Peter Swinyard, chairman of the Family Doctor Association.

"We try hard not to prescribe, but it's difficult in practice. The patient will be dissatisfied with your consultation, and is likely to vote with their feet, register somewhere else or go to the walk-in centre and get antibiotics from the nurse.

"But if we go into a post-antibiotic phase, we may find that people with pneumonia will not be treatable with an antibiotic, and will die, whereas at the moment they would live.

"People need to realise the link. If you treat little Johnny's ear infection with antibiotics, his mummy may end up dying of pneumonia. It's stark and it's, of course, not direct, but on a population-wide level, that's the kind of link we're talking about."

There are no reliable estimates of what resistance could cost health systems in the future, but the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control believes that €1.5bn (£1.2bn) a year is already being spent on health problems associated with antibiotic resistance in Europe.

Joanna Coast, professor of health economics at the University of Birmingham, said that the problem of resistance had the potential to "affect how entire health systems work".

Professor Coast added: "We don't know how big this is going to be. It's like the problems with planning for global warming. We know what the costs are now but we don't know what the costs will be into the future.

"Much of what we do in modern health system relies on us having antibiotics. We need them for prophylaxis for surgery, for people having chemotherapy for cancer. The worry is that it might make big changes to how we run our health system."

Antibiotics are also used in vast quantities in agriculture, fisheries and by vets, the resulting environmental exposure adding to bacterial resistance, with further consequences for human health.

Experts say that to meet demand without increasing resistance, drug companies will need to find new ways of financing antibiotic development that are not linked to expectations of large volume sales. Global health authorities such as the World Health Organisation have also warned that global drives to reduce antibiotic use must not harm access to life-saving drugs in poorer countries.

Writing in The Lancet, Professor Otto Cars of Uppsala University in Sweden, and one of the world's leading experts on antibiotic resistance, said: "Antibiotic resistance is a complex ecological problem which doesn't just affect people, but is also intimately connected with agriculture and the environment.

"We need to move on from 'blaming and shaming' among the many stakeholders who have all contributed to the problem, towards concrete political action and commitment to address this threat."

[MIKA27]

The World's Tallest Waterslide Better End In The World's Deepest Pool

Either that or there’s going to be a lot of squished people needing to be scraped off the tiles at the deep end. Currently under construction at the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, the Meg-a-Blaster slide will open in the second quarter of 2014, dropping people from over 40m up.

The current tallest waterslide in the world is Brazil’s Insano, standing 40m high, with riders hitting speeds of 100km/h. The Meg-a-Blaster should go a little faster, and, with a second hill at the bottom and my lack of a physics degree leaving me flummoxed, I can’t see how people won’t go flying off the end of the flume and into the sunset.

[MIKA27]

Iran Unveils New Drone Amazingly Not Held Together By Tape

Iran welcomed a new addition to its drone fleet on Monday with the unveiling of the Fotros. Iranian Defence Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says this familiar-looking can do anything from taking pictures of Israel to protecting Iran’s borders. So he says.

Dehqan told the crowd at the unveiling ceremony in Tehran that the Fotros boasts a range of 2000km and can stay aloft for up to 30 hours and fly as high as 7600m. Those specs are similar to those of the US Air Force’s Predator and Reaper drones and slightly less impressive if you consider the fact that the Predator’s nearly 20 years old and the Reaper’s nearly 15. It’s worth mentioning that the Fotros does look pretty similar to those US drones, a suspicious detail especially since Iran’s been accused of copying seized American drones in the past.

The Fotros appears to be an all-in-one sort of aircraft. Dehqan added that Iran’s newest drone could be armed with “air-to-surface missiles and rockets.” Apparently, the unmanned aerial vehicles passed all the proper tests and are ready for missions such as “protecting land and sea borders, monitoring oil pipelines, telecommunication lines and road traffic control, monitoring affected areas during earthquakes, blaze and floods, and environment protection.”

It’s almost impossible to hear about this new war machine and not furrow your brow a bit. Less than a month ago, Iran released video of a “drone-like guided missile” that appeared to be held together with packing tape, a clear indication that the country still has a ways to go in terms of technological sophistication. And few people can forget the Hamaseh Stealth and Combat Drone unveiled earlier this year which very obviously did not have stealth capabilities. But, hey, at least they didn’t Photoshop this thing together — at least, not that we know of.

[MIKA27]

Who Says Prosthetic Hands Have To Look Like Human Hands?

Conventional wisdom says that if you’re trying to replicate a part of the human body with robotics, it should look and function like the real thing. But the creators of this prosthesis have taken a different approach, simplifying the human hand to just three digits.

Jointly developed by a number of research agencies across Japan — including the University of Tokyo and the National Rehabilitation Center for the Persons with Disabilities (NRCD) — the ‘Trans-Radial Prosthesis With Three Opposed Fingers’ looks like something straight out of a sci-fi flick.

While simplifying the human hand to three fingers seems like cheating, it drastically reduces the complexity of the prosthesis, and subsequently the cost, without sacrificing much in terms of functionality. It’s actually easier to coordinate three opposing digits when it comes to precisely grasping objects, and more energy-efficient when fewer servos are used. So the arm could, at least in theory, function for longer periods between charges. On top of all of this it also just looks really neat, like a prosthesis that might have actually come from the future.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: ​This Wacky Sci-Fi Plane-Helicopter Hybrid Was Almost A Thing

By the end of WWII, the basics of helicopter technology as we know it had generally been worked out — and we’d begun to reach the aircraft’s physical limitations. For the US Air Force, the solution to the issue running up against these performance walls was simple: combine the best parts of a helicopter and jet together, creating the chimeric delta-wing Convertiplane.

Developed between 1951 and 1953 by a joint research team from the US Air Force and Army, working with NASA and Sikorsky Aircraft, the XV-2 (model number S-57) was built to exceed the speed limitations of helicopters without giving up its vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. To do this, the XV-2 would have to employ a “stowed rotor”, which would stop, fold, and retract into the fuselage of the delta-wing aircraft as it hit cruising speed. But getting a traditional multi-blade rotor to stop and fold itself into the fuselage proved quite impossible.

After numerous failed iterations the development team struck upon a radical, yet surprisingly feasible, idea: instead of using a bunch of smaller blades that would have to be gathered up before being stowed, use a single, massive aluminium counter-weighted blade. This humongous 15m long rotor measured twice the aircraft’s 7m wingspan, which was necessary to minimise disc load (gross weight/rotor disc area). As such, the disc load on the XV-2 measured less than 14kg/sqm, less than a third of the 50kg/sqm modern helicopters generate.

The XV-2 drew its power from a 1050 HP Wright GT-43 Typhoon Turboprop as well as a small tip jet that helped accelerate the huge blade, while a single jet engine engaged during high-speed flight. As “Prof” Sikorsky, Igor’s Sikorsky’s cousin, explained in an unpublished memoir of the Sikorsky company,

To prevent excessive blade flapping at low rotor speeds, the design provided for the flapping hinge to be locked below 25% of the design rotor speed. In this regime, lift forces on the blade are transmitted directly to the aircraft as moments which could produce pitching and rolling motion of the aircraft. During a normal autorotation stop, the blade drag at zero blade lift provides the torque necessary to stop the rotor. A normal start would be made by using power to start the rotor at zero blade lift. Hence, for normal starts and stops, the blades would contribute essentially no rolling and pitching disturbances even though locked.

This promised a top speed of between 300 to 400 knots, nearly double what the helicopters of the day could muster. However, the initial prototype could only reach 165 knots and had an endurance of just over two hours. This sub-par performance was enough to doom the project, which was cancelled in 1954. Our loss.

[MIKA27]

Folding Wings Will Let Boeing's New 777x Squeeze Into Small Airports

Commercial planes have gotten bigger and bigger over the past few decades, but the size of the gate at most airports have stayed the same. To circumvent this little infrastructural disconnect, Boeing’s future 777x jet will have a massive wingspan that folds up upon landing.

The 777x is already in the news this week, after three Middle Eastern airlines put in orders for almost 300 of the massive jets on Sunday. Though the planes aren’t due to arrive for another seven years, design details are already emerging (Boeing calls it “The Future of Flight Unfolding”). The new model is all about efficiency, hinging in large part on a super-efficient new engine made by GE.

Another major point of focus? The wings. For a number of complex engineering reasons, a wider wingspan makes for a more efficient plane — in short, the drag created at the wing tips is reduced by increasing the aspect ratio between the tip and the rest of the wing. That’s why wingspans have been increasing at a rapid pace — and why Boeing starting making much lighter wings using carbon fibre-reinforced plastic back in the ’00s.

But the ever-increasing wingspans of jumbo jets create a problem for airports, which were built to accomodate much smaller planes.

According to The Seattle Times, most airports in the world can only host planes with 65m wingspans (while a few mega-airports can host 80m wingspans). The proposed 777x would have a wingspan of 71m, but Boeing wants to sell a lot of these planes — which means they have to fit in the average airport.

That’s why the company is considering wings that “fold up” at the tips upon landing. That would shave as much as 6m off the wingspan, according to the MIT Technology Review (which describes them as “winglets”). It turns out that this isn’t a new idea: Boeing patented it back in 1995 — and even built a prototype that never went anywhere. The company did go on to integrate vertical winglets in its 737, but those are stationary in flight, unlike the hinged version proposed for the 777x.

We’ll be hearing much more about the design of the 777x over the next year or two, but for now, the focus seems to be squarely on who is going to build it rather than how: According to The New York Times, Boeing is considering building the jet in South Carolina, Alabama, California or Utah after workers at their Washington state plant rejected a labour deal last week.

[MIKA27]

The Grim Secret Behind Qatar's Lavish New Stadiums: Human Rights Abuse

Don’t hate Zaha Hadid’s new World Cup stadium because it looks like a ******. Hate it because it will likely be built with “modern-day slavery,” according to a new Amnesty International report.

The internet was aflame this weekend over new renderings of Al Wakrah Stadium, a 45,000-seat venue destined for the desert outside of Doha. Designed by Zaha Hadid and AECOM, the ribber roof structure struck many as, uh, vaguely anatomical. And while the renderings are super weird and fun and kind of awesome (see below), there’s also much more sombre side to this story.

Qatar plans to spend $US140 billion preparing for the World Cup — remarkably, Al Wakrah is only one of roughly nine World Cup stadiums the government is planning to build over the next nine years to prep for the event. And they can afford it, as the wealthiest per-capita nation on earth. But the fact that they’re perpetuating extremely abusive worker conditions to do so has slipped somewhat under the radar.

Last month, a Guardian report on worker conditions startled many, exposing human rights violations being carried out to build these wonders of modern engineering. Now, Amnesty International has released its own report on the issue, The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s Construction Sector Ahead of the World Cup , based on interviews with more than 200 workers and dozens of employers.

According to the report, Qatar’s population is increasing by 20 people an hour as the country recruits new workers from from countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. In fact, 94 per cent of construction in Qatar is done by migrant workers, who are promised a steady wage and a safe place to live.

But upon arrival, they find a reality not quite on par with what they were advertised. Their IDs are confiscated, which prevents them from leaving. Their salaries are lower than promised. They aren’t allowed — by law — to change jobs without direct permission from their employers. They will often not be paid for six to nine months, are denied the right to leave, and are forced to work 12 hours a day in 105-degree heat. Electricity, healthcare, and even food are often denied. Death on the job is not uncommon.

One interviewee — an employer — describes the workers as “cattle,” while outside groups describe the situation as “modern-day slavery.” Some human rights groups are calling for FIFA to revoke the right to host the World Cup altogether. “With Qatar and its construction sector in the international spotlight for the next decade as the 2022 World Cup approaches, the state’s failure to protect workers’ rights threatens to severely affect the country’s international reputation,” AI concludes. “Only fundamental change — including bold reforms backed with political will from the very top of the government — will address the issues documented in this report.”

So while that ****** roof might be a joke for us, it also represents the dark side of a boom that’s driving multi-billion dollar construction projects across the region.

Check out a few of the other stadiums being built around Qatar:

[MIKA27]

Moga Ace iOS Game Controller First Look: Cheap Fun, Huge Potential

Ever since Apple introduced reference designs and an API for iOS gaming controllers at WWDC, we’ve known some kind of officially sanctioned iOS hardware was on the way. The Moga Ace is the first we’ve gotten in our hot little hands on, and after playing with it for a few days, we can safely say that it’s a blast.

For some early testing, Moga supplied us with a loaner iPod Touch loaded with a few controller-ready games, including Dead Trigger 2 and Bastion. Both are excellent. Still, it’s a little too early to know if the new controller is going to change how we consume games on our iOS devices, or if it’s just a gimmick. That said, the current offerings do give us a very good idea that there’s a lot of fun to be had. We couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead, even if the hardware and gaming might need a little tweaking before it’s totally awesome.

Hardware

This particular iteration of an iOS controller is one of three Apple described in its reference designs. The Ace looks like a modern console gamepad that you snap a lightning connector iPod or iPhone into the middle of. For controls, the ACE has a D-Pad, left and right joysticks, ABXY buttons, and two pairs shoulder buttons. They’re far from ideal for gaming when compared to console hardware, but they’re not horrendous either. The exceptions are the D-pad, which is an unusable disaster, and the L2/R2 triggers which feel like they were designed by Fisher-Price. Playing with only the ABXY controls and the joysticks holds up very well.

Overall, the hardware feels flimsy and cheap like a toy. Moga designed the Ace to be collapsible, when you’re not using it, so the two handled sides slide together into a compact package. It’s a nice touch that makes throwing the Ace in you jacket pocket a tad more comfortable. Unfortunately, the sliding trick also means that the hardware isn’t sturdy until you’ve securely locked an iPod or iPhone into the middle of it with a little locking mechanism. Even then, the whole ensemble lacks the sturdiness you’re used to from mobile gaming rigs like the Nintendo 3DS. In fairness, the thing only costs $US100 so maybe we should dial back our expectations.

Additionally, the Moga Ace has a rechargeable 1800mAh battery so that it can serve as a backup and/or charge your device while you play. This is a nice bonus even if it’s necessary and all but mandated by Apple.

How well do iOS games translate to controllers?

Depending on the game, using the Moga Ace can either be frustrating or a lot of fun. In the games I played the most, Dead Trigger 2 and Bastion, the first thing you really appreciate is that since you don’t have to touch the screen to play your games, you can actually see the whole display. Consider that in DT, you’ve got to have your thumbs on the screen basically the whole time.

Now these are simplified games designed for a simplified control set, which means that they actually don’t transfer as seamlessly to the game pad as you might expect. DT is a game that’s designed specifically for touch devices whereas Bastion, was actually originally released in the Xbox 360 arcade. One of the games is touch-native, the other is controller native. The differences are significant.

In DT controlling the movement of your zombie-killing hero is actually more precise when you’re using the two-thumb touch interface on screen, as opposed to the Moga Ace’s two joysticks. That said, pressing your thumbs on the screen is a lot more tiring on your hands than the joysticks.

DT has fully customisable controls so that you can actually map the gamepad to your personal preferences. I honestly didn’t find this all that useful — Not in the earlier stages of gameplay, at least. The game is designed to be played with a limited interface so you start shooting whenever there are zombies in your crosshairs. There’s no need to map a button for firing, because the game does the firing for you.

In the case of Bastion, on the other hand, the controls were almost perfectly mapped. In fact, the single joystick affords you so much control over the hero, that the game is actually a lot easier when you’re using the controller. Maybe that’s unsurprising given the game’s console origins.

I don’t bring up the shortcomings of how games move from one control set to another to nitpick, rather, I think it’s kind of fascinating how different game designs move from an Apple display to the Moga Ace and vice versa. The simple response is to simply say that the controllers will get better as the games are designed for them. Well, not necessarily. Don’t expect fully featured 3D shooters any time soon. The iOS App Store approval process requires that you must be able to play a game to its fullest using only touch controls, so designing games specifically for the controllers probably isn’t going to happen as soon as some people might like. That doesn’t mean that developers can’t make games that are more suitable for third-party gamepads, or that, at the very least, they can’t work to better tailor the games they develop for touch to the controllers.

Bottom Line

For a $US100, you better believe the Moga Ace is going to end up in a lot of Christmas stockings this year. It’s a lot of fun, and even only for a temporary amusement, it’s not a bad deal — especially considering how expensive iPhone accessories can be.

That said I’m very interested to see what other competing hardware comes out as well as how the games adapt to the new hardware. It’s certainly far too early to decide this is the one, since there will certainly be more to learn in the coming weeks. Though it’s not exactly easy to search for games that are ready to go with the external controller API, there are supposedly hundreds out there. My thumbs have their work cut out for them.

[MIKA27]

BEER MAKING KIT | BY BROOKLYN BREW SHOP

The Brooklyn Brew Shop was born from the idea that making beer can be simple, tasty, and most important, fun. They created stylish, easy-to-use Beer Making Kits designed especially for stove-top brewing and ingredient mixes for seasonally inspired beers.

The kit features fresh, whole ingredients and specialty equipment used in homes and breweries for centuries, simply follow the step-by-step instructions and you will be making high quality and complex beers on the stovetop in your very own kitchen in no time!

Also check out "Brooklyn Brew Shops Beer Making Book” with all the information youll need to start your own microbrewery at home.

[MIKA27]

2 Monkeys Were Paid Unequally, Here’s What Happened

Do animals have morals? Do they feel a sense of injustice the way we do if someone skips in front of them? Are they prone of jealousy? Do they care about equality or is it mere a case of looking out for No.1 in the animal kingdom?

Well, the following video goes a long way to answering those questions. An experiment was conducted between two intelligent and permanently animated Capuchin monkeys (you might be familiar with them from the movie Outbreak in the 90s).

One was given a slice of cucumber as payment for performing a task, whilst the other was rewarded with a nice juicy grape. The experiment was designed to see if that sense of inequity triggered any kind of reaction from the 1st Capuchin monkey.

And here’s what happened next…

MIKA: Brilliant!!

[MIKA27]

ROLL & HILL WOODY LIGHT:

Light up your space while adding a 1970s-inspired aesthetic with these Roll & Hill Woody Lights ($4,800). Crafted from aluminum, acrylic, and wood, these LED lights join together to create an endless lighting fixture that can wrap around an entire room.

This modular system consists of three units, but can be expanded to whatever extent you need to light up a room — you can even purchase angled sections that allow it to continue around corners. Each 35-inch unit mounts to the ceiling with 3/8th-inch aluminum stems that are finished in black matte.

[MIKA27]

Fireside Chat Beer:

There's nothing quite like the holiday season, mostly because of the unique beer releases that make their way to bottle shop shelves. 21st Amendment Brewing in San Fransisco agrees, and treats us with Fireside Chat ($12) to help usher in the season.

Just like the depression-era radio addresses FDR used to churn out, this spiced winter ale is both warming and illuminating. It's a dark English-style ale with a nice balance of spices that bring to mind vanilla, nutmeg and caramel malt. A flavorful, comforting beverage for any winter evening.

[MIKA27]

NISSAN GT-R Nismo

The Nissan GT-R Nismo ($TBA) provides indisputable proof that you don't need to drop damn near a million bucks for a track-ready supercar.

Underneath the hood, you'll find a 3.8-liter turbocharged V6 engine producing a ridiculous 600 horsepower and 481 pound-feet of torque, making it the fastest GT-R to date. A race-inspired suspension setup, exclusive Dunlop tires, a more rigid body structure, and significantly-improved aerodynamics make it an impressive beast on and off the track. Inside you'll find carbon-fiber Recaro racing seats, Alcantara details throughout, and red accents to dress it up. Overall what you get is an incredible sports car that's barely slower than rides likely costing four times its price. Not too shabby.

[Fuzz]

NISSAN GT-R Nismo

The Nissan GT-R Nismo ($TBA) provides indisputable proof that you don't need to drop damn near a million bucks for a track-ready supercar.

But you will for the insurance!!

[MIKA27]

But you will for the insurance!!

Mate, if you can afford the car, you can the insurance.

[Fuzz]

Mate, if you can afford the car, you can the insurance.

Preaching to the choir, dude! I keep telling people that, but they don't believe me.

[MIKA27]

If Only Microsoft Made Xbox One Controllers This Nice

When you pick up an Xbox One this week (or anytime in the near future), I hope you like black, because that’s the only colour you’ll be able to get it in. Those wanting their controllers to be a little more adventurous, though, at least have a third-party option to spice things up.

Just like they did with the PS4, Evil Controllers will be releasing a range of Xbox One pads in all kinds of nutty colours and patterns. And again, just like the PS4, you’re going to pay for the privilege. The XB1 pads are selling for $US110 as a launch special price, down from a regular $US130, which is a lot for a controller.

Then again, that white one is pretty sweet.

[Evil Controllers]

[Fuzz]

If Only Microsoft Made Xbox One Controllers This Nice

Or you could just get yourself one of those hydrographics DIY dip kits and mod your controller yourself. It's the exact process that Evil Controllers do to original XB1 controllers, but you can do it at home. And you can choose whatever hydrographic prints you want.

Btw Mika, we expect a full review of the XB1 when you get it!

[NJP]

I felt something move watching the Nissan.

[MIKA27]

Or you could just get yourself one of those hydrographics DIY dip kits and mod your controller yourself. It's the exact process that Evil Controllers do to original XB1 controllers, but you can do it at home. And you can choose whatever hydrographic prints you want.

Btw Mika, we expect a full review of the XB1 when you get it!

Absolutely mate.

I myself will buy a second controller, dismantle it and respray the front and rear panels with another color for my son who wants a red controller....

[MIKA27]

I felt something move watching the Nissan.

[MIKA27]

Vancouver Bans Doorknobs On New Buildings

Hold on to your knobs while you still can. Humanity is about to embark on an era of doorknob prohibition, and it’s all starting in Vancouver, Canada.

Look at any door in your immediate vicinity; there’s a good chance it’s bearing a classic doorknob beloved by utilitarians and highly specific enthusiasts alike. In Vancouver, they’re about to become a dying breed. This past September, the city’s council amended its building code — the only city-specific building code in all of Canada — to mandate lever handles and lever taps only.

Don’t kiss your knobs goodbye just yet though. While all new construction projects will be required to follow the no-knob mandate, all buildings currently standing will have their knobs grandfathered in. But this pro-lever movement isn’t about mere aesthetics; there’s something more important at play — a developing concept known as universal design.

As Tim Stainton, a professor and director of the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia,told the Vancouver Sun, the movement focuses on the idea of a society that’s as physically accessible as possible:

Basically, the idea is that you try to make environments that are as universally usable by any part of the population. The old model was adaptation, or adapted design. You took a space and you adapted for use of the person with a disability. What universal design says is let’s turn it around and let’s just build everything so it is as usable by the largest segments of the population as possible.

A really simple version is the cut curbs on every corner. That helps elderly people, people with visual impairments, mums with strollers. It makes a sidewalk that could otherwise be difficult for parts of the population universally accessible.

In fact, the Americans with Disabilities Act’s (ADA) guidelines for small businesses explicitly emphasises the problems with inaccessible door hardware and goes on to recommend the most universally accessible option: the lever.

Because Vancouver is the smallest sector of Canada that has its own building code, ideas that come to fruition there are often pushed out into the BC Building Code and, eventually, Canada’s National Building Code. And at that point, it’s not at all unlikely to expect the lever law to start making its way down towards the US.

As the ADA’s guidelines prove, universality of design is hugely important in creating a world of equal opportunity. So though we’ll still be able to keep our precious knobs for the time being, let’s hope for everyone’s sake that, one day, we’ll all be telling our grandchildren tale of the great doorknobs of yesteryear