A cloned human would probably consider themselves to be an individual, a study suggests. Scientists drew their conclusions after interviewing identical twins about their experiences of sharing exactly the same genes with somebody else. The team said the twins believed their genes played a limited role in shaping their identity. The UK/Austrian research will shortly be published in the journal of Social Science and Medicine.

Co-author Dr Barbara Prainsack, from the University of Vienna, Austria, who worked with Professor Tim Spector, from the Twins Research Unit, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK, said: "The birth of Dolly the sheep triggered many questions about what it would be like to be a clone. "We don't have clones we can interview - but we do have identical twins." This interesting study reveals how we should not have any prejudiced feelings about the idea of genetically identical individuals living amongst us

Identical twins are created when a single egg, fertilised by a single sperm, splits into two separate, but genetically identical, embryos. The researchers said because twins - like potential clones - shared the same genes, they offered the only existing method of studying the feelings a clone might experience. But they also emphasised twins would differ from clones because they are born at the same time, whereas clones would differ in age. The scientists carried out 17 interviews of identical, non-identical and non-twin siblings. The identical twins said being a twin did not compromise their individuality - although they pointed out that people often had preconceptions that they were one of a pair rather than individuals. Those interviewed viewed being an identical twin as a blessing, and said they would not rather be a non-identical twin or a "singleton". They also said they believed their genes had no great bearing on their relationship with their twin and their identity.

The twins felt factors such as being brought up in the same environment, having spent a large part of their lives together, and being treated in a similar way by their parents were more important. One interviewee said: "We spent 20 years together, and so that was a close experience. And that hasn't changed all of these years we've been apart. So I don't feel that genetics made any difference." From these findings the scientists said they could assume a clone would probably not feel their individuality was compromised by sharing genes with someone else; that their relationship with their co-clone was a blessing; and their uniqueness was not a negative thing.

Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

CBS' Eggstraordinary Ad Campaign

Proving that someone at CBS is a few yolks shy of an omelet, the CBS ad department has decided to run a big campaign for its fall tv lineup on eggs. Yes, that's right: those white things you crack open and scramble in a pan have now become the lastest organic billboard.

CBS is enlisting eggs in its scramble to attract viewers. The CBS logo and slogans promoting the TV network and its series will appear along with coded expiration dates on eggs sold by grocers — just another promotional measure in the competitive world of television. More than 35 million eggs will be marked with phrases such as "CSI: Crack the Case on CBS" and "The Class, New Grade-A CBS Comedy" as part of a deal between the CBS Marketing Group and EggFusion, an egg-coding company. The campaign will begin in September, when the fall TV season begins, CBS said Saturday at a meeting of the Television Critics Association.

However, CBS isn't putting all its eggs in one marketing basket. The campaign is part of what the network is calling its "Outernet strategy," an effort to reach viewers "outside their homes as they go about their daily lives," the network said in a statement. EggFusion, based in Deerfield, Ill., will use laser technology to create the expiration dates and "On-Egg Messaging," the release said.

Other networks have tried offbeat ways to attract viewers, such as putting messages about shows in public restrooms or, for ABC's "Desperate Housewives," using dry-cleaning bags to promote the series.

What eggaxctly is CBS thinking here? Apparently, CBS totally committed to its "Outernet Strategy" -- no Internet, Internets or Interweb advertising for them. So, what's next? iPod ads stamped onto oranges? Tiny MP3 players embedded in your Starbucks cup that feature Bono yelling "Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce!!!"? Airborne holograms that follow us around screaming ads at us? The Outernet is clearly no longer safe.

Posted on July 17, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

Christina Aguilera is a Genie Out of Her Bottle

Christina Aguilera is a genie out of her bottle in her new Pepsi commercial, which features the singer in an amazing assortment of outfits from all over the world.

That smart husband of her is really making sure she's banking the cash while she's young. And she never appears out in public without her hair done and some red lipstick. Because you just know she laughs and laughs and laughs every time she sees another horrifying picture of poor Britney at the McDonald's drive-thru, throwing her gum out the open window. Nice.

Posted on July 14, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

Sculptor Makes 180,000 Clay Figurines

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that sculptor Antony Gormley has created an impressive art installation that includes 180,000 clay figurines that he says are "looking at you."

English sculptor Antony Gormley is no stranger to big things. His best-known work, Angel of the North, is a 20-metre-tall angular angel with a 50-metre wingspan that towers over England's A1 motorway near Newcastle.

For the Biennale, Gormley has shipped out his Asian Field, an installation of 180,000 hand-sized clay figurines. Three hundred and fifty villagers in southern China individually crafted the figurines in just five days from more than 100 tonnes of red clay. Together, the figurines form a vast sea of bodies that dominates the huge upper space of Pier 2/3. Lumpy and almost featureless, they eerily stare out with blank holes for eyes. As Gormley says, "The art is not there to be looked at; it is looking at you."

That's 180,000 more clay figurines then we plan to make this year. Gormley must have a lot of time on his hands. More coverage at Boing Boing, Make and I Make Things. More photographs of the large clay figurine display can be found here on Flickr.

Posted on July 12, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

Don't Call Him Diddy: It's Puff Now.

A Socialite's Life reports that P. Diddy changing his name again. He now wishes to be referred to as "Puff."

And this just brings me back to a point I've been making for years, which is that certain people simply shouldn't be allowed to give themselves nicknames. They abuse the privilege and go overboard. From now on, Mr. Puff (or whatever), let everyone else decide what's distinct about you. For me, it's the image of Puff Daddy hawking Proactive Solution, emphatically declaring, "I ain't want no bumpy skin!"

Page Six reports that the pedicab drivers of New York City are less than impressed by Combs' new nickname:

Combs still seems to be agonizing over his nickname. The man previously known as Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy and just Diddy, sharply corrected a heckling pedicab driver he ran into Sunday afternoon on Central Park South. "While Puffy and his posse waited for the light to cross, maybe over to Trump International or Time Warner Center, a pedicab driver wearing a yellow SpongeBob T-shirt, a red and white Santa hat and black bike tights, yelled out, 'Hey, P. Diddy, how about ride, help the working man out?,'" our spy reports. "Puffy replied, 'I always help the working man out. And it's Puff, brother!'" After Combs started crossing the street, the driver yelled, "Yeah, Diddy, how cool is a guy that changes his nickname more than a baby changes diapers?" Our witness reports: "A crowd was laughing at the driver's crack, and some other pedicab drivers started ringing the bells on their bike. I don't know if it was to show solidarity with the driver or what, but it was surreal."

This is just getting ridiculous. Don't his attorneys have something better to do than filing change of name forms at the Manhattan courthouse all the time? According to Wikipedia (which has at least a 50% accuracy rate) Puff originally got rid of the Puffy moniker because he ran into trademark problems with a Japanese band with "Puffy" in the name. Which just goes to show that the savvy rapper always has his intellectual property attorneys run a database check for possible conflicts before he decides upon an appropriate name for himself. So now, Puff, is this it for good now? Because surely you have that IP attorney of yours on speed dial now.

Posted on July 11, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

Google Party Plane Grounded By Lawsuits

The Wall Street Journal attempts to explain the mass of lawsuits surrounding the 767 jumbo jet party plane being built for Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Even billionaires have disputes with their contractors. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the low-key co-founders of Google Inc., set tongues wagging last year when they bought1 a used Boeing 767 widebody as an unusually large private jet. The 767-200 typically carries 180 passengers and is three times as heavy as a conventional executive plane. Mr. Page said last year that he and Mr. Brin would use it for personal travel, including taking "large numbers of people to places such as Africa." He said it would hold about 50 passengers when refurbished, but declined to comment on other details of the plane, which has been kept ultra secret.

Now the Delaware holding company that technically owns the 767, Blue City Holdings LLC, is embroiled in multiple lawsuits with an aviation designer hired to plan and oversee the massive plane's interior renovation. Blue City in early 2005 hired Leslie Jennings, a high-end aviation designer whose work includes planes for Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen and assorted royalty and heads of state, to transform the plane, which aviation records indicate previously flew for over a decade in Qantas Airways' fleet. Under the plans Mr. Jennings worked up for the executives, and repeatedly modified according to their specifications, the widebody airliner was to include a lounge near the front primarily for Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt's use, with two adjoining staterooms for the co-founders farther aft, Mr. Jennings says. People familiar with the matter said last year that the plans also called for a large sitting-and-dining area and space near the rear for staff and passengers.

*****

Mr. Jennings says Messrs. Brin and Page "had some strange requests," including hammocks hung from the ceiling of the plane. At one point he witnessed a dispute between them over whether Mr. Brin should have a "California king" size bed, he says. Mr. Jennings says Mr. Schmidt stepped in to resolve that by saying, "Sergey, you can have whatever bed you want in your room; Larry, you can have whatever kind of bed you want in your bedroom. Let's move on." Mr. Jennings says Mr. Schmidt at another point told him, "It's a party airplane."

Jennings got fired from the project and so he sued, and filed a lien with the FAA. As a result the double secret plans for the plane's interiors -- hammocks and all -- have been revealed to the public. Let's hope that the lawsuits are all settled, so the this ultra-sweet Soul Plane Party Plane is ready for liftoff.

Posted on July 10, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

Osborne Mansion Goes Up In Flames

The Osbourne mansion burst into flames, but luckily no one was hurt.

The Osbourne family may have to undertake a fire drill after flames scorched their English country mansion on Wednesday. The fire was the result of a faulty lamp, the fire service said. Neither the couple nor their children Amy, Jack and Kelly were at the house in Jordans, 42km west of London, when the blaze occurred, a family spokesman said. Paramedics treated a member of the household staff for smoke inhalation.

Kelly Osbourne, 22, had left shortly before the fire broke out. The Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue service responded to the blaze at 7.25am local time, after the family's alarm system alerted them, spokesman Fraser Pearson said. "We were able to prevent the fire from spreading," Pearson said. "It was relatively small."

The blaze caused minor fire and smoke damage to the entrance hallway of the mansion. The fire service plans to try to meet with the Osbournes to advise them on fire safety, Pearson said.

That's probably a good idea. Isn't this like the third time that their house has caught on fire?

Posted on July 7, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

Research Says There Were Blond and Redheaded Woolly Mammoths

New research shows that woolly mammoths may have come in lots of colors. Scientists now believe that there may have been blond, brunette and even redheaded woolly mammoths roaming the plains.

Researchers led by Holger Roempler of the University of Leipzig in Germany were able to extract DNA from a 43,000-year-old mammoth bone from Siberia.

They report in Friday's issue of the journal Science said that the mammoth DNA included the gene Mc1r. That gene codes for a protein that affects hair color in humans and other mammals. Reduced activity of that gene produces red hair in humans and cows and yellow hair in mice, horses and dogs, for example.

Thus it is possible, the researchers concluded, that mammoths existed with a variety of hair colors.

Blond and redheaded woolly mammoths: who would have thought? Next, they'll be telling us that the dinosaurs were pink with purple spots. Although now that we think of it, they already found a dinosaur that had feathers which is more than enough to inspire some Jurassic-sized nightmares about a feathered T-Rex coming after us. So, why not pink dinosaurs?

Posted on July 6, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati

Jeff Bezos and the Spaceship

Space.com reports on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos investment in the booming space tourism industry.

The public space travel business is picking up suborbital speed thanks to a variety of private rocket groups and their dream machines. Joining the mix is Blue Origin's New Shepard Reusable Launch System. It is financially fueled by an outflow of dollars from the deep pockets of billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com.

The Bezos-backed Blue Origin, LLC commercial space outfit has recently turned in a draft environmental assessment (EA) for their West Texas launch site to the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation (AST) in Washington, D.C. The document is the best glimpse yet of what Blue Origin is scoping out to develop "safe, inexpensive and reliable human access to space."

The more than 200-page draft EA is a necessary step required by the FAA/AST for Blue Origin to get the needed permits and/or licenses to fly their rocket hardware. Blue Origin proposes to launch its reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) on suborbital, ballistic trajectories to altitudes in excess of 325,000 feet (99,060 meters) from a privately-owned space launch site in Culberson County, Texas. As outlined in the EA, the Blue Origin launch site would be approximately 25 miles (40.2 kilometers) north of Van Horn, Texas. It lies within a larger, privately-owned property known as the Corn Ranch. Access to the proposed launch site is from Texas Highway 54, which is approximately five miles (8 kilometers) west of the proposed project's center of operations.

Also on the group's to do list at the site is putting in place a vehicle processing facility, a launch complex and vehicle landing and recovery area, as well as an astronaut training facility, and other minor support amenities [Map].

We're all for space tourism. Although we don't neccesarily want to be on version 1.0 of the first space tourist flight. We'll wait for version 2.0, after they work out all the kinks. Which will give us time to save up the $1 million or so it will take to get a seat in first class.

Posted on July 5, 2006
Permalink | Digg this | Blogs linking to this post: Google | Technorati