Hangover-Free Booze Discovered
“Booze, for all its magical wonder, still has big drawbacks: You can’t sober up quickly, and you often get a hangover. Now Korean researchers have found a way of tweaking booze to limit the fallout — without cutting its strength.
Doctors Kwang-il Kwon and Hye Gwang Jeong of Chungnam National University studied the properties of oxygenated alcohol – booze with oxygen bubbles added – which is a popular concoction in their country. In these drinks, oxygen is added the way carbonation is usually added to soda, and the scientists wanted to know if these oxygenated beverages affected people differently than non-oxygenated ones. The answer was a resounding yes.
They ran three experiments using 19.5% alcohol drinks, and measured the speed at which people’s blood alcohol dropped to 0.000%. In other words: How fast did they sober up?”
Read more at io9
Torquay Enigma Tickets Winner
Congratulations go to Olivia and Harry who have won 2 tickets to see Enigma on Monday!
We hope you both enjoy the show 
Apologies to all that missed out this time, but keep your eyes on the blog for more chances.
ENIGMA nominated for second Olivier!
For those in the US, the Olivier Awards are the equivalent of the Tony’s – Theatreland’s highest accolade. In 2006, “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, written by Derren and his collaborator Andy Nyman (who also directs the shows) won an Olivier, and was the first time that any sort of magic show had won such an esteemed award. Now Enigma is shortlisted, the show that Derren is about to reprise on a 5 month sell-out tour, his longest yet due to huge demand. It kicks off in Swansea this week.
Details for tickets are available on this blog. We believe extra tickets have now been made available in Torquay for Valentine’s weekend. If you find your theatre is sold out, you can try for returns or, if you wish, keep an eye on eBay, where they sometimes appear for huge amounts.
Derren says, “Touring with the stage show is by far my favourite part of the year. I’m so excited to get it up and running again. This tour had to double in size to accomodate demand, which makes it doubly fun to do. Particularly this show, which is such a massive pleasure to perform.” On the subject of a possible second Olivier, he added, “It’s amazing to be nominated. And if the show does win, it has the advantage that means that if you come and don’t like it, then you’re wrong and I can prove it.”
There are whispers of Derren hitting Broadway with a show in 2011. Nothing has been confirmed, and no details are being offered.
Coops and Iain, two of the small crew that travels with Derren, are personally requesting this year that the more “generous and sexy” fans bring them packets of Roast Beef Monster Munch. “They can be left at stage door before the show. Leave your details and we’ll announce a prize for the person who leaves the most…”
They don’t know what they’re letting themselves in for.
Anyone attending the show is respectfully asked by Derren to keep its contents secret…
Secret Soviet Town Sold For $3.1 Million
“Latvia sold a deserted town built around a Soviet-era radar station to a Russian investor who bid $3.1 million at an unusual auction yesterday, officials said.
The town formerly known as Skrunda-1 housed about 5,000 people during the Cold War. It was abandoned over a decade ago after the Russian military withdrew from Latvia following the Soviet collapse.
A representative of a Russian investor won the bidding contest in Latvia’s capital, Riga, with an offer of $3.1 million, said Anete Fridensteina-Bridina, a spokeswoman for the Baltic country’s privatization agency.
She said the buyer was Aleksejevskoje-Serviss, a Russia-based firm, though she could not provide details.
It was not immediately clear what plans the buyer had for the 110-acre property, which is located in western Latvia about 95 miles from Riga. The town contains about 70 dilapidated buildings, including apartment blocks, a school, barracks, and an officers’ club.”
Read more at the Boston Globe
Large Hadron Collider to jump to maximum energy
The Large Hadron Collider is going to skip medium-energy proton collisions, jumping straight to its maximum energy in 2013, after it finishes collecting lower-energy data and has its circuitry upgraded.
The particle accelerator, located outside Geneva, Switzerland, has recovered from its 2008 accident. And in 2009 it broke the world record for particle collision energy when its two oppositely directed proton beams each reached 1.18 TeV, for a total energy of 2.36 TeV.
That made it slightly more powerful than its US competitor, Fermilab, which has been colliding particle beams with energies of 1 TeV, adding up to a total energy of 2 TeV.
After a brief holiday hiatus, the LHC is getting ready to start up again. Its managers have decided to carry out collisions for two years at 3.5 TeV per beam. At the end of 2011, it will shut down for a year for circuitry upgrades, returning in 2013 at its maximum design energy of 7 TeV per beam, or 14 TeV in total.
Bertrand Russell – (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970)
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, advocate for social reform, and pacifist.
Russell was an influential philosopher and commentator. He led the British “revolt against Idealism”, was a founder of analytic philosophy and (with Alfred North Whitehead) wrote Principia Mathematica. His works have had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics and analytic philosophy. He was a prominent anti-war activist, championing free trade between nations and anti-imperialism.
Russell was imprisoned for his pacifist activism during World War I, campaigned against Adolf Hitler, for nuclear disarmament, criticised Soviet totalitarianism and the USA war in Vietnam.
In 1950, Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, “in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought”.
The above painting by Derren is available on the art site.
Bertrand Russell – wikipedia.
YouTube Will Start Charging for Some Videos
“Starting this weekend, YouTube will be dipping its toe into the waters of paid content. This behavior follows a trend we’ve noted in traditional media outlets. First, media mogul Rupert Murdoch said no more freebies for search engines, then the New York Times hinted (and today confirmed) that users would have to start paying for a certain amount of access to articles. Now, YouTube is partnering with the Sundance Film Festival and filmmakers to charge users around $5 to view a range of movies from the 2009 and 2010 festivals.
It’s still cheaper than a movie ticket – but is this a direction users will follow? Five Sundance films have been selected for this venture. It’s what we’d consider a test run to see how users will respond to paid content on the site, and whether this could be a new revenue stream for the web video giant, which has historically struggled with profitability.
The films include The Cove, an underwater adventure about dolphin capturing in Japan; Bass Ackwards, which chronicles an improvised road trip; Children of Invention, about two Bostonian orphans; One Too Many Mornings, a “coming of age comedy about two guys who are too old to be coming of age”; and Homewrecker, a comedy about a locksmith. The filmmakers will determine the exact asking price for viewing each movie, but all will be in the range of $5.
YouTube execs told USA Today the move is helping independent filmmakers find distribution avenues for their films. The movies will be shown without ads, which would be an aesthetic disaster for any director who chose to put his creation online.”
Read more at ReadWriteWeb
Last Week’s Derren Tweets
12th Jan – Been run down, limp and covered in snot all week. Not shifting. Cough! You all have my germs, how unfair.
12th Jan – Send me your top joke and if I like yours best I’ll follow you and RT all your tweets til I feel better and have something to say.
12th Jan – Fave so far RT @DanielNothing Throwing acid is wrong. In some people’s eyes.
12th Jan – Great but can’t ALL be Jimmy Carr RT @AnnekaHansen why don’t boxers have sex before a fight? Because they don’t fancy each other.
12th Jan – Generally poor, but occasional goodie: RT @nickhucks When women live together, apparently their periods become synchronised. I found that out from two girls who share a pad.
12th Jan – Will check later in the day: must go to meeting now. Suggest leaving it for a few hours so your top notch entries don’t get lost.
(more…)
Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe – New series starts tonight
Phillis is running round in circles with glee as Charlie Brooker’s new series of Newswipe starts tonight at 10.30pm on BBC4. Be sure to tune in! If you’re not sure what it’s all about, here’s a clip from the last series:
@charltonbrooker says tonights episode is “With snow! The pantsbomber! Nuclear war! Everything!”.
Humphrey Bogart – December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor and cultural icon. In 1997, Entertainment Weekly magazine named him the number one movie legend of all time. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked “Bogie” the greatest male star.
After trying various jobs, Bogart began acting in 1921 and became a regular in Broadway productions in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogart also turned to film. His first great success was as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest. He had been acclaimed for his performance in the play, and his friend Leslie Howard saw to it that he reprised his role in the 1936 film version. Despite rave reviews, Bogart was typecast as a gangster in B-movies. His breakthrough came in 1941, with High Sierra (though he still played a criminal) and The Maltese Falcon.
The next year, his performance in Casablanca finally raised him to the peak of his profession and at the same time, cemented his trademark film persona, that of the hard-boiled cynic who ultimately shows his noble side. Other triumphs followed, including The Big Sleep (1946); Key Largo (1948), opposite his wife Lauren Bacall; The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); The African Queen (1951), for which he won his only Academy Award (for Best Actor); and The Caine Mutiny (1954). Altogether, he appeared in 75 feature motion pictures.
The above painting by Derren is available in the art store.
