When people try to fight the ferocity of nature at its highest, it seems inevitable that the only result is loss. At the time of publishing this article, 65 people have been recorded dead, as well as hundreds injured. Cars, houses, sheds and other structures around the state have been scorched; entire towns have even collapsed.

Stories throughout the day have been filtering in about some of the losses which people have incurred. A family of six died trying to flee from the inferno, others lost all of their possessions but came away living. The nerve-racking element is that the Victorian Premier John Brumby who broke down in a press conference after mentioning his visit to his hometown of Bendigo, has said that the fires represent “a tragic weekend in our history.”

“I think the big thing today is to not just to get on top of the fires that are remaining, but to make sure the message is clear that this is not over.

However, whatever the loss, it doesn’t detract away from the devastation that this disaster represents in the hearts and minds of Australians. The Victorian and Australian governments have already pledged assistance, and further charity will come from charities around the country, as well as from around the world. Let’s all hope that this disaster will soon come to an end. The people of Victoria have already endured enough.

victoria,australia,bushfire,ash wednesday,vicfire,John Brumby

Okay – the craziness has finally settled down. The Pittsburgh Steelers had a last minute win. Super Bowl XLIII was great. However, its the other half of the craziness which I’m about to turn to – the ads. I’ve honestly never been interested in them before, but given that I’m beginning to blog fairly regularly and that advertising is something front and centre to my thoughts of promoting the site, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t miss – the Superbowl Ad Challenge!

Firstly, I don’t live in the US so I missed all the ads you lucky Americans got to see. Instead, I visited superbowl-commercials.org and I’m trusting them on the different ads which appeared on the broadcast. The rules of the challenge are fairly straightforward, hit the play button and see if it works. If it doesn’t find a video of the ad that does. Watch the advertisement once, then write my gut reaction about what I just saw. In come cases I bent the rules a little i.e. when I needed to copy down a site in order to reproduce it for you. Apart from one exceptional case where I just didn’t get the ad, I stuck to simply viewing the video – none of these thoughts have been liften from anywhere else.

This is Part 1 of the challenge. Soon I’m going to be taking my gut reactions to these advertisements to produce an article about some of the trends which we saw, both good and bad, in this year’s broadcast, and then awarding some acknowledgement for the particually good and bad ads. So, here we go!

Note: Chances are that you’ve found this article while searching for a specific ad from the Superbowl. They’re all here. Hit ‘Ctrl’ and ‘F’ on Windows or ‘Cmd’ and ‘F’ on Mac to enter search and enter your search term to find the ad you were looking for.

———————————————————————————————————————

Toyota Tundra – Killer Heat: Yeah, we know you sell trucks, and we also know you’ve been asking the government for bailout money. So why are you telling us that burning fuel and towing a truck up a tower is the best way you propose spending some of this money.

Fast and the Furious Trailer: Its got Vin Diesel in it, but apart from that its a very conventional movie trailer for a rather lacklustre looking movie. Not interesting at all.

Pepsi – McGruber: Good use of product placement in an ad that’s not afraid to poke fun at itself. Go the PepSuber!

Bud Light Lime: Nothing particually terrible about this ad, but for a Superbowl commercial its fairly dull. Next time its fairly dull around here and I need a bit of sunshine, now I know what to do – just wait for the next ad and see what happens.

Castrol – Grease Monkeys: You gave them some Castrol Edge and the Grease Monkeys just showed up. Good mix of being on message while being randomly entertaining. Strange days indeed.

Nextel Roadies: Some guys show up, audjuct a plain and its an ad about a rugged mobile phone? Its an okay ad, but I’m kind of tired of seeing companies burn money on mediocre Superbowl ads when perhaps it might have been better spent on improving the advertising division.

Coca Cola Heist: There’s a really epic feeling about this ad, and the creativity of having insects trying to steal a bottle of coke is genius. It sends a good silent message about why one should drink Coke over the other brand (because even insects will steal it), so in this way I guess this ad succeeds.

Heroes Trailer: NBC could have just figured that since they’re airing the Superbowl, they have a free reign to just show us their regularly scheduled promos for their upcoming shows, but instead they’ve put in some effort by getting together some NFL heroes and pitted them against another crew of heroes. Nice job.

H&R Block – Death and Taxes: I’ll say upfront that I’m kind of disappointed nothing happened to the dude in the ad, but I understand that its all family friendly viewing. Watching the Grim Reaper question an accountant about his taxes is quirky but fun to watch. Perhaps the best part is what I’d imagine would happen off camera after the ad’s finished.

Angels and Demons Trailer: I must say that Angels and Demons looks fairly good to me even though I profess to being one of the few people never interested in reading or even watching the Da Vinci Code. If you’re going to just show a movie trailer, you have to make it a good one. Luckily this movie seems to be a good one worth watching.

BudLight: Right now in our economic slowdown it makes sense that bankers would be discussing how to cut costs, but cutting out the BudLight? Personally I think it works, but I admit the ad is kind of shallow.

Land of the Lost Trailer: The concept seems like it could work. The visual effects look sharp. Will Ferrell in his last few movies has been pretty funny. I guess it could work.

Year One Trailer: Year One for me looks like at could be one of those movies which could base itself on a foundation of stupidity, and still be a box office hit. Honestly not my thing, but I know that lots of you love these kinds of movies, so you have my permission to check it out in June.

Monster.com: Another timely ad given the Global Economic Downturn. While I get the analogy that having animals being stuck in the wall is like not having an ideal job, I think its kind of weird and not very interesting. On the other hand, I don’t know any other creative angles a job website could have taken during the Superbowl, so they’ve done a decent if not partially memorable job.

Race to Witch Mountain Trailer: This movie looks pretty good considering its from Disney. The Rock stars in this one, but it probably suits better considering its an action film when you compare it to his role in The Pacifier.

Coca Cola – Mean Troy: I must admit that I wasn’t around back in 1980, so hearing that this was a remake of an old ad means that its probably one that people about 40+ would enjoy seeing parodied. Apart from this, its a nice ad that gets its short but simple message across.

Toyota Venza: Another boring car ad that doesn’t do anything particually interesting. Normal guy. Check. Looks at all of car’s ‘amazing’ qualities. Check. The car moves. Check. In this case, the checks probably aren’t a good thing. These car companies need to come up with something more creative for Superbowl.

NBC – LMAO Clinic: I don’t really get the point of this. I know that you’re trying to say that these funny shows will make you go to the LMAO clinic (most of which is easily understandable), but you guys must be able to come up with something better than this.

Cheetos – Annoying Caller: I don’t think this works. Watching an annoying person on a phone being shooed off by a flock of pidgeons doesn’t seem too compelling, and then attributing it all to the Cheetos mascot guy – it doesn’t really cut it.

Budweiser – Romeo Horse: Another brand of alcoholic beverage. Another random ad. This one tries to tell the story (as simple as it is) or a horse being separated from its love, and then searching for her only to be found in a circus. They escape. I certainly commend this ad for trying to be compelling, although the results are certainly debatable.

Budweiser – Clydesale Generations: Now I get it – Budweiser’s are types of horses, so at least that’s what these ads are making me think. Pretty much the same points as the last ad (‘Romeo Horse’) except I prefer this one better, but that’s a personal preference since they’re pretty similar thematically.

Gatorade – Talking Heads: This ad tries to define what ‘G’ is. Everyone comes up with something different, although it pretty obvious everyone was prompted with what Gatorade wanted them to say. Simple but effective ad.

Bridgestone – Mr and Mrs Potato Head: Nice, simple, amusing ad. It could be nice in an alternate galaxy if our female friends had the ability for our mouths to fall off whenever they began going off on tangents, but that’s something I’ll leave for Mrs Potato Head.

E-Trade Babies: Parents especially will love watching babies talk about investments, and singing about who knows what. For the rest of its, its also rather amusing. I think it shows that if you’re aiming to do an ad that inherently has nothing to do with your product, keeping it as simple as possible is the way to go.

Doritos – Magical Chips: Everytime he takes a bite – his dreams comes true. The girl, money, monkey, getting slammed by a bus. Doritos? Amusing enough to keep it interesting after one sitting, but if I saw it again I’m not so sure I’d be interested to watch it till the end,.

Doritos – Crystal Ball: This ads pretty amusing – a guy looks into a crystal ball and predicts he’ll get free Doritos. He slams it into a vending machine, so there, free Doritos. Its probably the sort of ad that would get as much publicity if you posted it online, so while I’m still sceptical about spending up to $3 million on it, probably for Doritos it was worth it for this particular ad.

Budweiser – Drinkability: A guy with fancy drawing powers illustrates how Budweiser compares to other beers by comparing a downhill skier performing a clean trick vs a guy who magically bumps into a whole stack of magically drawn trees. Pretty mediocre for me.

Budweiser – Fetch!: Compared to the last Budweiser ad, I like the simplicity of this one. A man throws a stick, his dog fetches it and is rewarded with a stick. His horse notices this and goes to fetch a log. He’s branded a show-off. It shows once again how simplicity often makes good advertising, especially if its got nothing to do with your actual product.

Cars.com – David Abernathy: A lot of the good ads I’ve seen during the Superbowl have either stayed on message while finding a narrow area for entertainment, made an simple but entertaining ad that has nothing explicitly to do with their product but shows their logo at the end, and those who tell a good, simple story that links to their product. By telling the somewhat unbelievable story of David Abernathy, this ad succeeds in completing the last of those three observations. It probably benefitted from being aired at around the time of the successful film ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ which also struck a similar style, although on its own its certainly a successful advertisement.

Pepsi – I’m Good: Watching people get inflicted injuries that would almost certainly otherwise result in hospitalisation is not particularly funny, even if they say “I’m good”. Probably not the most interesting Pepsi ad during the Superbowl, but at least they gave it a shot.

Hyundai – Angry Bosses: I have to admit, I probably wouldn’t have gotten this advertisement if I hadn’t heard of the gorgeous, upmarket looking Hyundai Genesis. The ad shows luxury car makers around the world going crazy over the company. Unfortunately, most people probably won’t get it unless they knew more about the car, which is a shame since for me (given my understanding about the car) it was a fun ad which payed out all of those luxury car companies who’ve been hiking their prices up for far too long. Cheap luxury – I like it!

Hyundai – Smashing Pumpkins: This ad, also for the Hyundai Genesis, shows off the car (unlike the last ad) and shows off edited snip-its made by certain people. It then redirects you off to ‘edityourown.com’ where you can make your own car ad featuring, guess what? The Hyundai Genesis. Once again, probably a little more detail could have gone into defining this, but overall its a nice idea that will get people seeing Hyundai over and over again.

Hyundai – Chase: Probably its the first time in this challenge that I’ve thought that the ordering of multiple ads from a single company could actually impact on the success of the others. If they’d put this ad first out of the two I’ve seen so far, I think it would enhance the other two given the straight up knowledge this ad delivers on. There’s no entertainment factor here, but they sells their message strongly, and that’s probably all that matters here.

E-Trade – Baby Outtakes: Watching babies engaging in a mixture of adult and baby behaviour is quite humorous and works well here. The message of using E-Trade probably is second to actually getting you interested in the ad in the first place, but they do include some subtle messages about the state of the economy which might make you ring them up.

Cash4Gold: I have to say that I have no idea who EdMcMahon and McHammer are, but they feature in an ad for Cash4Gold which I don’t think could have afforded such an ad if not for people using their service to gain some cash during the downturn. While they send their message that they’ll give you cash for any type of gold, it seemed to be stretched out longer than it should have been (they go through about 8 different examples of gold items), and the final shot of the old dude not wanting to part with his possessions really puts a bad dampener on the entire ad. Probably the worst ad I’ve seen so far. If you’re going to make people part with their gold, at least make them think its a good thing.

Star Trek Trailer: A new Star Trek is hitting the screens soon, seemingly updated for a new generation of fans. It looks like they’ve tried to prepare non-fans like me to embark to the cinema by preparing a more mainstream, less geeky look at the Star Trek universe. I might actually check it out since the trailer looks okay.

Transformers 2 – Revenge of the Fallen Trailer: The sequel to the remake of Transformers looks rather sharp, but I must say that I didn’t really have any interest in the first movie, so my judgement probably isn’t the best here. If you’re a fan, I’m sure you’ve already seen it, so for the rest of us, we might have to take a look.

GI Joe – The Rise of the Cobra Trailer: Hang on – GI Joe’s back? After seeing the last two trailers, my mind has gone kind of numb to the ‘key lines’ they use and the cuts of action sequences, so I’ll probably just recommend you check it out for yourself.

Pixar – UP Trailer: To me it feels like only a short time since Disney and Pixar released Wall-E, to me one of the best movies the combination of them have created, so to be out with a new movie already seems rather abrupt. I’m not so sure I’ll be entertained by the kiddy premise of an old man who has a flying house, but I’m sure legions of fans will be queuing to watch it when it comes out soon.

Careerbuilder – If You Hate Going to Work: This is one of those ads which tells you exactly the same thing, albeit a slight variation about 6 time in a row, after which you get to see what company you’re dealing with. If I wasn’t ‘forced’ into doing this, I would have tuned off by about the third time since you’ve gotten the jist of it all by then.

Pedigree – Adoption Drive: This is a simple ad which delivers its message by showing people doing things with animals that should never be pets. Its pretty bland but we get the picture afterwards. Just don’t expect that people will view this video 1,000,000 times on Youtube.

Bridgestone – Hot Item: This ad is probably the ad that brings up the most questions but answers none of them. Its a teaser for an upcoming Bridgestone product, most likely a tire but the ad is so ambiguous that honestly it could be anything. It doesn’t even feature a logo, only that by the time the ad airs (February 1), we should know what it is. Maybe somewhere down this playlist I’ll see the unveiled product, but right now I’m really confused.

Go Daddy – Danica Patrick Shower: Go Daddy’s tactics on advertising are fairly well known in the web world. They’ll push the limits on 99% of their advertising which won’t make it past the Superbowl’s strict family friendly monitors, ensure the rest pushes it to the limit, and then gets you to watch all the uncut stuff on their website. And by the way, did I mention that you’re going to them to purchase domain names? This tactic, as barbaric as it is, probably will work, but as an ad its as dull and probably demeaning as it will ever get for a Superbowl commercial.

Godaddy – Enhanced: Okay, pretty much the same thing as the last ad. Why do we have a lineup of beautiful women in a courtroom being questioned about ‘being enhanced’? Pretty low stuff.

Heineken – John Turturro: This ad sounds like its trying to pack in a whole lot of information, most of which is kind of difficult to absorb in one viewing of the ad. Some of it is philosophical, others is insightful, some tries to convince you that drinking beer is ethical. Don’t know whether I believe it all, but it was deep enough that I was forced to pay attention to the entire ad, including the branding at the end. Will regular viewers who aren’t doing this challenge adopt the same view, perhaps not, but it seemed fairly satisfying for me.

Audi – Chase: A real old fashioned ad followed by the modern equivalent. Probably the best car ad of the entire Superbowl that stands on its own. Personally I thought the Hyundai Genesis ads were the best, but I knew stuff about that car which probably biases me towards the ads.

Monsters vs Aliens Trailer: I never would have thought it, but is this an advertisement about other advertisements? Now that thought is crazy. Best thing to do is just to watch it, and then think ‘How insane is the Superbowl!’

Coca Cola – Avatar: So far if my memory serves me correctly, I’m thinking Coca Cola has delivered some of the best consistency across their multiple different ads in the Superbowl. This ad which shows the different avatars which people can have is amusing and light-hearted, and definitely kept me entertained for the ad’s minute duration.

Sobe – Lizard Lake: This ad is kind of crazy. A combination of humans, lizards and other bizarre lifeforms are dancing around drinking Sobe. Personally, I think the dancing which attempts imitate ‘Swan Lake’ (prior knowledge; wouldn’t have picked it otherwise) isn’t that entertaining, so considering that there is no message to the ad, it just all falls apart. If you’re into the weirdness though, this one’s worth checking out.

Pepsi – Forever Young: Nice blend between the old and new. The music by Bob Dylan surprisingly keeps the ad on message, and the tagline ‘every generation refreshes the world’ is excellent. I think this might be the most surprisingly good ad so far, not because I doubt the ability for Pepsi to create good advertising, but because the premise of this ad is pretty bland. Pepsi have really pulled off something special with this ad.

Gatorade – What’s G: I’m not sure whether this ad actually aired, but compared to the other ‘G’ commercial from Gatorade, this one is exponentially more confusing and certainly less interesting.

GE – If I Only Had A Brain: Mildly amusing ad that plays off the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. The tagline is actually explained; its an analogy to the power grid which GE say they will make more intelligent. Its not the most compelling ad, but it does the job fine.

Dennys – Thugs: I confess that I had absolutely no idea what this ad was about when I saw it about the first three times. I broke the rule here, since I otherwise would have had no idea what to say. Apparently its about mobsters having to scale down their breakfast meetings because of the recession. Maybe if others got it, then it might be a fine ad, but I didn’t get it at all.

Pepsi - Ingredients: Another variation on their diet cola for men campaign. Talking about the ingredients of Pepsi isn’t as interesting as if KFC were to do an ad on it. The discussion sort of feels meaningless, its neither interesting nor informative. This one’s not a winner.

So the insanity is over! For now. Coming up soon is my analysis of the trends found in this plethora of advertisments. For now, I’m just going to bed – these Superbowl ads are kind of tiring to watch.

Barack Obama has entered the White House with one of the highest ever opinion ratings for an incoming president. He has entered the office with the nation’s biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression, the dire situation in the Middle East worsening and with critical problems in sectors including education, healthcare and finance. Arguably his biggest task though to distinguish himself from his predecessor is to restore the faith of his nation and the rest of the world in the ability of the American government to solve these problems. Inevitably people will be disappointed with the Obama administration given the impossibility of him solving the backlog of problems the nation has – the quantity left behind by the now Former President Bush is arguably too significant. However, many of the millions of people who showed up to his inauguration seem to show faith that he can somehow pull of this momentous feat, demonstrating the legendary status he seems to have inherited as the first African American president. Can President Obama really live up to this hype and expectation from the electorate, or is this simply the American public expressing their relief that “change has come to America”?

Aside from the policy differences, maybe the notion that someone young, fresh and different is driving Obama’s opinion ratings through the roof. Currently most of his policies are popular with the American people; that’s a factor that simply cannot be ignored. However, when you examine some of the portrayals of the new President, it makes me wonder what is so different about Barack Obama that makes him seem exponentially more popular than his predecessor.

"He's the fake Spidey - nobody can point like the real Obama"

In the above cartoon, Obama is shown with Spiderman as they attempt to subdue a fake, evil Obama. Unless my memory isn’t recalling correctly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen President Bush standing besides another fictional character so prominently known for with fighting for justice and good in the world even after 9/11 where opinion polls had him as the most popular US president ever. After his extraordinarily close fight with Al Gore to become the president in 2000, replacing Clinton who was one of the more popular Presidents in recent memory, its perhaps not surprising that George Bush wasn’t instantly turned into a pop culture icon. However, if we are to judge popularity based on opinion ratings, what is so different about Obama that instantly turns him into the face for all that is good and just for America?

It could be argued that Obama is simply a leader for the times. When people are losing money, out of work and desperate to keep a roof over their heads, this elicits a deep personal emotional response that makes them want to believe that they can change their fortunes. Regardless of how comparatively indifferent the external world is today than the world of two weeks ago when George Bush was still president, people simply are moved by Obama’s inspiring rhetoric, and subsequently believe his words compared with the hollow words of former-President Bush.

When comparing the position Obama is in today to Bush’s position post 9/11, its still surprising though that while Bush was higher in the opinion polls, Obama arguably still has the unsubstantiated position as someone who is capable of fixing most of America’s largest problems when in actual fact he has yet to prove himself as capable of solving them. One could argue that Bush’s leadership and decision making after September 11 is what resulted in the sweeping and almost united position in US public opinion since the beginning of polling. However, I think its more likely the result of the American public being in shock after the catastrophic events of the day. Compared to the Global Economic Recession we face today, 9/11 seemed more like a cyclonic wave of emotions which tore down the fabric of the nation, while today’s situation involves harsh winds which are slowly chipping away at the fabric but ultimately result in the same potential for damage. In essence, while the damage involved in both situations is extremely severe, the shock of the situation prompted a more universal and immediate reaction by the US public. Almost anything the president said promising retaliation would have galvanised the support of the nation, immediately blocking out any other bad policies which may have otherwise tainted his support.

This shows us the unreliability that can be associated with polling when trying to determine the true popularity of individuals as the bias involved in particular situations is likely to mask an underlying feeling of unsatisfactory behaviour, or perhaps the ‘don’t care’/’don’t know’ response that many individuals who lack political interest express.

The ironic thing about the current situation is that policy-wise, Obama has yet to prove himself to be the big change from the Bush doctrine that many Americans expect. While a week into his presidency Obama may have expressed a large number of policy changes which his administration is planning to implement, so far relatively few have been realised. Some of the promises he has kept so far include directing military leaders to end the war in Iraq, releasing presidential records (something that Bush attempted to make ‘more difficult’), as well as appointing at least one, but eventually only one Republican to his cabinet. With the notable exception of beginning to end the war in Iraq, its a fairly mundane list. If you want to see more of his promises, there’s a rather good website which tracks the progress of all of them which you can find here. I’m not trying to condemn this since Obama has had virtually no time to make any substantial changes, especially when most need to go through congress. However, it does show that the American public have faith and trust in his promises, and are willing to believe that in some time, the vast majority of them will be realised. What is so special about Obama that causes people to have this blind faith about his promises?

Many people might respond to this question by coming back to his ability to inspire the American people with his intricate, inspiring speaking ability which allows Americans to unite under his cause for the betterment of the nation. Before last week I probably would have given this as my answer, but a recent segment of John Stewart’s ‘Changefest 09’ made me realise that perhaps this isn’t the case. “Freedom is a universal gift of almighty god” and “The god-given promise that all are equal, all are free” sound almost the same – in fact, if it wasn’t said the first quote was from George Bush and the second from Barack Obama, perhaps both could have easily been attributed to the most recent president. Keeping aside the litany of made on the show, it proves a rather serious point – that while Obama might be able to deliver more on the ‘inspirational-quote per minute quota’, ultimately all presidents in some way communicate many of the same ideological statements he has made during his presidential campaign, and strive to fulfil them during their term/s in office. While it would be ridiculous not to include this factor in determining why President Obama seems so much more popular than President Bush, perhaps its not as extensive as the recent hype actually portrays.

If its not that Obama is a leader for the times, that Bush’s popularity during 9/11 didn’t stem from reacting to America’s united position, that Obama has been able to deliver on key policies or that his inspirational speech is somehow unique to him alone, than what explains Obama Mania? While its certainly debatable, my answer to this question would be simply that Obama expresses himself like a human being.

From the inception of his career, Obama certainly made some big political decisions which guided him to the US senate for the last two terms before he because president. However, the most startling thing to me personally was how different he seemed from the tired old Bush. He has a young family, himself and his wife Michelle not yet in their 50’s and their two children only 7 and 10. He is a passionate author, publishing two best selling books. He is hooked to his Blackberry and couldn’t do without it now or in his presidential campaign, and was an avid collector and fan of Superman comics as a kid, posing in front of a statue in traditional Clark Kent style. To me he seems like a human being compared to the more unknown nature of George Bush’s history. I should note that its unfair to say that what we see of these leaders indicates what they’re like away from the publicity – I’m sure that George has a huge array of interesting hobbies, interests and passions which he would love to share with us all, and probably has at some point. However, its Obama’s humanity that shines through him as a leader, its the fact that we probably can all identify with him in some way that gives him his X-factor as a leader. In more recent times, the buzz word for this is being ‘in-touch’.

Being a fan of Superman made him a prime candidate to appear in a Marvel comic book alongside Spidey, coming from a young family many Americans can identify with his discussion of how annoyed he was that his kids’ school shutdown because of “a bit of ice”, we really respect his decision right or wrong to begin plans to pull US troops out of Iraq because we all care deeply about their health, we feel good knowing that he has an inclusive government with individuals from across his party and others because we hope unity will allow us to make better decisions, and we agree with him that its best for government to be transparent and open, since when its closed we never truly get a real grasp of why we went into Iraq in the first place. I’m sure you get the picture by now.

I think its these human things which characterise Obama as America’s president for ‘real change’. Whether we see this change or not is another matter entirely. The fact that Obama connects with his people and that his people are able to connect with him is restoring faith in government, providing a solid platform for reforms which lead to the betterment of USA, and subsequently the rest of the world.

Its been a difficult two weeks for one of the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. Here’s a summary.

Apple,Steve Jobs,Hackintosh,Macworld Expo,Leave of Absence,Stocks

Currently in a research laboratory in New Zealand, a group of researchers are currently exploring the intriguing possibility that the consumption of fatty foods may not simply due to to preference, but perhaps linked to addiction. Their research has been published in the medical journal ‘Medical Hypotheses’ and has the possibility of radically changing the way we think about treating cases of obesity and other food disorders. The theory could certainly explain a number of modern phenomenon: including the concept of comfort food and the rise of obesity in the western world. Perhaps another link that could be made is the general ‘food searching’ behaviour which occurs when individuals are hungry. Dr. Simon Thornley who works in the research team at the Regional Public Health Service in Auckland suggests that one of the main indicators as to which foods could be more addictive than others lies in the Glycaemic Index, a ranking of carbohydrates that measures the effects that occurs on our blood sugar levels. He also discusses issues about automaticity which he says is “the sort of automatic nature of eating”. According to Thornley, “The food environment seems to determine people’s ability to eat. If sugary foods are around not surprisingly they seem to be eaten more frequently.”

Evidently such a theory seems relevant and almost common sense. Annually during the Christmas season, many households indulge themselves with turkey roasts, potatoes, fruit cakes and other foods with a high-fat content. Its no wonder that Christmas is a time when many individuals seem to pack on the kilos, and then subsequently fail to lose the weight in-spite of record New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps you could argue that the entire concept of celebration very much goes hand-in-hand with the consumption of ‘comfort foods’ in Westernised societies, with the indulgence which is associated during these events often assisting the addiction to these types of foods, and playing a major rule in the subsequent failure to overhaul their diets in the new year. While this concept may seem to make sense though, a lack of empirical evidence on the topic means that the race is on to conduct further research to determine whether this theory is valid.

While the idea that thinking of fat consumption as an addiction is quite interesting, don’t expect too many changes to how we treat weight problems just yet. Some people have linked this research to nicotine addiction since many parallels can be drawn between for example, people searching for food, as well as people hunting down drugs. Separate research are trying to find the so called ‘fat patch’ that could release chemicals to actively prevent the metabolism of high GI foods, but at the present time, the only reliable way to go about weight loss from a fatty foods perspective seems to be going cold turkey on it.

fat,New Zealand,research,addiction,Medical Hypotheses,Dr Simon Thornley,Regional Public Health Service,Auckland,drugs,nicotine

Personally I think the ad is pretty chessy and doesn’t do a very good job at selling the product. Despite going through all of the features, I think it highlights the oversimplicity of the entire program and is more laughable than informative. What do you think? Am I all alone when I say that Songsmith is all a big gimmick?

Last year when I reviewed Autocollage 2008, a Microsoft Research product, I noted the program for its wonderful ability, albeit a few personal complaints, to intelligently and seemlessly create collages of your images. However, the major stumbling block for me was its price tag, with the product selling for US$20 and the same numerical value of €20 in Europe despite the radical difference in exchange rates. My personal recommendation was enjoy the trial while it lasted, because unless you’re constantly trying to create collages, it didn’t seem worth the expense.

Now at the start of 2009, Microsoft Research have again unveiled another product with an interesting premise: a program that takes your singing and creates a customised backing track for you, complete with simple genre and instrument selection for complete beginners and more advanced options such as the ability to adjust the duration and key of chords for the musically educated. Songsmith sort of works like reverse karaoke – instead of singing along with predefined music, you make up the lines, and the program creates the music. However, the product ultimately doesn’t meet the intricacy needed for professionals, while beginners will become frustrated with the uniqueness of the musical tracks. To top it all off, Microsoft are charging US$29.95 in the States and once again the senseless rip-off price of €29.95 for Europeans. To sum it up, after recording one or two songs even if you use up your generous 6 hour limit playing around with their trial version available here, you’ll probably realise that Microsoft Research Songsmith doesn’t cut it for just about anyone.

While Songsmith try to keep the recording process as simple as possible, anyone aiming for decent results will become frustrated by the extremely limited audio editing features.

After you start a new song in Songsmith, you are presented with the option to begin recording. There are no fancy importing options, audio editing or talent generators here – simply hit the big red button and sing. Assuming you’ve configured your microphone settings correctly, the program will count you in for two bars, and then you sing your song. If you don’t like it, you can’t simply slice a section and start from there – you need to manually hit the big red button and sing again. The included feature for “the complete music to play back so that you can sing over the top” as its called in the documentation really is no replacement for simple editing tools, and this will probably frustrate anyone wanting their song to sound anywhere above somewhat average.

After recording your song, Songsmith gives you a variety of limited options as to what you can do with your music. However, apart from the straightforward options to alter minor settings like altering the tempo, as well as your voice and master volumes, many of the options present flaws of one kind or the other.

I'd admit there's a little variation between the styles, but I can't help but feel all of these 'styles' sound extremely similar at their core.

The main customisation option front and centre is the ability to change the ‘style’ of your music, which gives you an endless list of different genres you can select from. Each style has a different default beats-per-bar and temp setting, as well as providing a different default set of instruments. You’re more than welcome to adjust these instrumental choices through the mixer, although the best sounding choices seem to have already been configured by the Songsmith team. At first each of these styles sound great, and they’re certainly quite impressive the first time you hear them. As mentioned by Microsoft Research, the instrumental tracks come from the professional music company Garritan who provide computer generated tracks to a variety of higher end applications like Sony Acid and Finale, and are selling more styles for the program at a cost of US$9.99 on their website.

While you can create you own musical configurations or purchase them from Garritan, there's very little point since any changes here either make virtually no difference or make the song sound worse than the defaults.

While these options certainly sound good, the huge downside to the program is the repetitive nature of all of the different options. Aside from the different instruments and the key being played, the music between all of the styles are essentially the same, and after using them once or twice, you’ll definitely be able to pick the similarities in sound between all of the styles. If you’re using the tracks for a one-off purpose, then they might be okay since the other person probably hasn’t heard anything like the pre-defined riff, although if you try creating multiple songs with the program for them, it’ll be obvious they ultimately come from the same general music creation algorithm. Microsoft say that advanced users will enjoy listening to the various chords so that they can gain inspiration for their own music. However, if this is the primary reason you tried the program, you’ll undoubtedly come away disappointed since the same overall melody will play in spite of whatever options you select.

Other options which you have available to you to change the key of the song include the ability to make your song sound happy or jazzy, which are beginner codes for making the song more major or minor, as well as introducing flats and sharps. There are other manual options for adjusting this as well including the ability to manually change the key of a bar or have the program suggest alternatives, although generally the program does a decent job of pre-configuring these options for you.

You also have other basic structural options available to change the you such as adjusting the chords per bar, and adding and removing bars from the start and end of your song. However, these features are frustratingly limited, and only give you certain predefined options, for example the inability to remove any bar in the song regardless of its position.

So unlike the more upbeat recommendation I delivered for Autocollage 2008, I think that after about 20 minutes with the trial, you’ll have seen everything you’d need in order to work out that Microsoft Research Songsmith is nothing more than a one-hit wonder. The purchase of Songsmith can only be justified for younger, inexperienced musicians who simply want to hear their voice play along with a somewhat varied accompanyment, and don’t care about the constant repetition between songs or the dumbed down audio controls. Making music sound good isn’t easy, and while its admirable that Songsmith tries to assist beginner musicians, no price is a good supplement for talent.

My Rating: 1/5 Stars

Microsoft Research,Songsmith,Review,Garritan,Music Generator

Before CES, Palm looked like an inevitable failure in the global recession. Since their peak with the Palm Pilot PDA, the world has since moved on to more modern, elegant and featured devices like the Apple iPhone and the Blackberry line of smartphones. Analysts correctly predicted that if Palm were to continue as a viable company into the new decade, they would have to react soon, and their CES announcement of webOS certainly didn’t disappoint.

Many people have focused their attentions of the first device Palm will be releasing webOS on, the badly named Pre, and its certainly understandable why. The device features a sleek, minimalist, dare I say it iPhone 2 look, a curved slide-out design, full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, and even a mirror on the back. However, perhaps what’s most interesting to me is the system running the Pre which at first glance looks extremely impressive and has the possibility of being extremely competitive against both the iPhone and the Blackberry OS’s. Ultimately the operating system will be the difference between consumers flocking to get the device, or the Palm Pre just being another standard iPhone killer like the scores of devices before it, and for Palm’s sake, the sure hope that webOS takes on the description of the first option. Here’s a first look at the device from CNET, who awarded the Pre the ‘Best of CES’ award.

In this article, I’ll be looking at five key areas that have emerged from the early look at the operating system.

• Web Focused: Given its called webOS, you’d expect Palm to deliver a strong internet experience, and it definitely does for both users and developers.
• Intuitive Multitasking: We’ve had this available to us for ages on our computers, but I’ve never seen anything as intuitive on mobile devices until now.
• Universal Search & Cut-And-Paste: While Blackberry’s business-orientated market has been enjoying these features for a while, webOS does a good job implementing these features in intuitive ways.
• Applications & Media: Nothing special for a post iPhone device, but it certainly looks like Palm have set up the infrastructure for a wealth of good applications and download songs via the Amazon Music Store.
• Lack of Syncing Software: Probably the main downside of webOS so far; hopefully third-party developers can step in.

Web Focused: Let’s first take a look at the stuff you’ll probably be using day in, day out with this device. Firstly, webOS is designed to leverage the internet in a development standpoint, as well as in day-to-day use. When you view the Address Book or Calendar, people and events will be drawn from a variety of sources automatically including Facebook, Google, Microsoft Exchange, and the plethora of IM clients and bring them all to a single person/event page. This allows you for example, to chat with someone via IM, and then just as easily slip into SMS chat while they’re away from the computer, and as well as that receive that person’s Facebook updates while they’re on the run. Leveraging the status updates available in these dominant internet sites seems both in the interest of Palm and the respective sites, and the ability to directly sync with them in itself is a killer feature not found commonly on other mobile devices. webOS is powered by Webkit, the same browser engine as featured in Safari and Google Chrome, so this means that you’ll find the same snappy performance as these browsers whenever you surf the web.

The Webkit foundation allows webOS to live up to its namesake.

Developers will also have a fairly easy time programming for the device since they can use conventional web technologies like CSS, Javascript and HTML to write programs for webOS. This has some limitations, in particular 3D applications which require a stronger programming language like C++, but the power is available in the first device, and presumably all future devices, to create these more intense type of applications, so hopefully this will be something which will be allowed by Palm in the future.

Intuitive Multitasking: As I will mention in an upcoming article regarding the future of mobile computing, the key I see for mobile devices is for them to become more like our desktop computers. webOS’s most compelling architectural feature for me is the sleek application multitasking that the OS is able to handle. Multitasking certainly isn’t anything new; smartphone operating systems like the Blackberry OS, Google’s Android, and even Palm themselves in their previous operating system have had the ability to run multiple applications. The real difference in webOS is the ease of use with which this technology is able to be delivered. By leveraging a ‘gesture bar’ which is found below the screen on the Pre, swiping up will bring up a screen which presents a live preview of each application, and allows you to scroll along to the appropriate program. Tapping on the screen then opens the application. While this seems simple to the point of being almost elementary, that’s the genius behind why webOS is looking so promising. If the iPhone and Macs have told us anything, being able to perform the same tasks in easier, more intuitive ways mean people will find, use and abuse the same features more frequently than if the same task required a large number of clicks or taps. Multitasking on the Pre is definitely appearing to take something away from Apple’s playbook, and it means that perhaps I may actually be willing to utilise the full functionality my phone more often like on an actual computer, rather than just listening to music on the go, or perhaps worse for a smartphone, simply take calls.

Everything from bookmarking to application switching are just a swipe or two away.

Universal Search & Cut-And-Paste: Another feature which is found on the Pre which takes a swipe from computers at the moment are the universal features, like search and cut-and-paste. The ability to find any image, video, music file or document found on my mobile device, as well as being able to shift text from place-to-place via cut and paste are features that we have taken for granted on our computers, and is one of the reasons behind the success of Blackberry’s OS for business where ‘real work has to be done’. Providing these features on a mobile device is really important, and Palm has done a good job in integrating these relatively straightforward technologies into webOS. For instance, to activate cut and paste, all you need to do is hold your thumb on the gesture bar and drag the text to the bottom of the screen. Keeping it simple will allow users to access files on the Pre and other webOS devices as easily as on their computers at home, which is a big plus for future success of the operating system, putting it head to head with Blackberry.

Applications & Media: Palm are continuing the post iPhone requirement of ensuring that consumers have an application store and music store are available via your phone. While it difficult to judge the quality of how this will all work prior to its release, hopefully the positives of the Amazon store as we’ve seen on Google’s Android will extend to the Pre, and the quality of the hardware behind the Pre will mean that we see a good array of third party applications launch on webOS.

So far, DataViz, the same company behind the successful [Office Application]-To Go as found on the Blackberry have made available free Word, Excel and PowerPoint viewing abilities on the Pre, demonstrating that Palm along with several other business oriented features are hoping to take on Blackberry’s core market. Unlike the iPhone, the webOS will definitely allow turn-by-turn GPS, which at this point is probably one of the biggest selling points needed by Apple killers. One possible down side of the new operating system is incompatibility with current Palm OS applications. Make no mistake, webOS is not in any way connected with Palm OS, and all of these programs if you’re using a Treo or other Palm device, will not natively work on the Pre or other webOS phones without emulation software. The good news here is that many companies have the ability to develop this type of software, but personally I think that the fresh start and the power behind the web-based development tools mean that old-time Palm users who have admittedly had it tough over the past years will be treated to some really solid applications in webOS.

This alone is a compelling reason not to get an iPhone and instead get a Pre: turn-by-turn GPS!

Lack of Syncing Software: One of the negative things I have seen so far about webOS is the fact that Palm are not planning on having any syncing software with the device, which is extremely ironic considering that Pam were the company which popularising and arguably launched the mainstream PDA market on the notion of syncing. In an series of interviews which PC Magazine had with “top executives at Palm” (found here), the Pre (and for the foreseeable future all future webOS smartphones) will not come with any desktop software – music can be transferred via drag-and-drop from your computer or by purchasing them over the Amazon music store on the device. Furthermore, Palm at this time are only saying that “there will be solutions for people to get their Palm Desktop or Outlook info, and info from earlier Treo and Centro models”. Initially I thought that this was a really dumb decision by Palm. Without sync, like is done so elegantly on the iPhone, the only way to move around your stuff between your computer and phone is manually which is a real pain, and as I mentioned previously, simplicity and ease-of-use goes a big way to ensuring people utilise the full capabilities of the device. However, after a little thinking, their assertion that “there will be solutions for people” gives me and others hope that the door will be open for third-party developers to fill this void and to provide us with more robust syncing solutions than are currently available today. While iTunes does a fine good job of making sure that everything on my computer and iPhone are synced up, I don’t really have an alternative. While I still think Palm themselves should come up with a native solution in order to assist less computer-savvy users, I feel that as long as the operating system, webOS is strong and Palm allow it, developers will fill this void and unlike the iTunes-iPhone monopoly, provide us with better solutions that will be more beneficial in the long run.

Not having an iTunes like syncing capability won't sell units, but so long as Palm have an open policy for third-party developers, we should see someone develop a solution soon.

So as you can probably determine, I’m really optimstic about the future of Palm with webOS. As we’ve seen with the countless iPhone copycats, there’s a lot more to creating a smartphone than slapping a touch interface onto a phone that would otherwise function perfectly with a trackpad. Also, the Blackberry has shown us that by ensuring that features found in your desktop computer like search and cut-and-paste are present in your mobile device, you’ll actually be drawn to doing more work on your mobile device. If webOS’s potential says anything, it could be the double wammy that has the chance to draw in both iPhone and Blackberry diehards and restore Palm to its former glory. I have to admit, that’s a really big call considering I personally haven’t touched any webOS-based device, but that’s how much confidence I have based on early impressions thus far, and I hope that Palm live up to their potential on one of their most promising product the company has ever created.

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Note: Although I’ll try to keep it at a minimum, expect to see a small spoilers from Season 7 in the following overview of the season thus far. However, since it was shown last year, I’ll be readily referencing events from the telemovie 24:Redemption without warning, so don’t complain if I’ve spoilt something.

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Over the past two nights I’ve watched the premier of the new season of 24, and I have to say that apart from a few minor repetitions from previous seasons, the team at Fox have done a good job over their extended break due to the Writer’s Strike to refresh the season enough to keep the show from its continuous repetition, while still keeping enough of Jack’s past so that it seems like we’re grounded in the same universe as last season. It’ll keep diehard fans of the show happy with plenty of action and complex government decisions, while still opening the door to newcomers aided in part due to wrapping up all major plot points from the last season.

While the original trailer from late 2006 already have shown us the scene of Jack being questioned in front of a Senate hearing, and the ‘dead’ Tony Almeada going rogue, the new trailer released last year, as shown above, also intertwines the events of the fictional nation of Sangala which played host to pivotal moments in last year’s telemovie 24:Redemption. While some people criticised it, I found it great to see Keifer Sutherland’s character subtely change again from the previous season, now slightly more contemplative and perhaps even measured as he helped children from the orphanage rebuild their lives. Some of this re-emerges in the first hour of Day 7 in which we see for a change Jack Bower not actually killing anyone, although admittedly a heated scene where he nearly shoves a pencil in a guy’s eardrum certainly illustrates that he’s still fundamentally the same complex character that we’ve always known him for.

This season really tries to advertise itself as a complete reboot of the entire show. As mentioned previously, there are no major plotpoints from the last season, so if you’re new to 24, it’s going to be easy to follow along. The new setting of the FBI sets an almost humerous parallel to the comparatively cowboyish antics of the now dismantled CTU, with most agents closely following the legal line in-spite of the dire national situation.

The FBI includes a whole cast of new characters, from the fabulous Annie Wersching who plays Special Agent Renee Walker, Jeffrey Nordling as Head of FBI Larry Moss, as well Janeane Garofalo who plays the very Chloe-like staffer/hacker Janis Gold, and Rhys Coiro as staffer Sean Hillinger. Personally, I think the new cast of characters play off each other extremely well, with Renee Walker trying to balance keeping her boss Larry happy while allowing Jack to ‘produce results’, Janis acting as the loyal, trusted colleague which Larry and others can always rely on, including Sean when he is caught manipulating events. A new cast of White House staffers also emerge on Day 7, including the female president Allison Taylor, First Gentleman Henry Taylor, as well as Former Secretary of Defence and now Chief of Staff Ethan Kanin.

In addition to the new players, we also thankfully see the return of other long time 24 characters including Chloe, Bill and perhaps most confusingly Tony due to his apparent death in Season 5, although thankfully guided by Jack’s own initial doubts about his death, it allows a somewhat comprehensible explanation to be made as to how he has managed to survive.

From what I’ve seen from the first 4 hours of Day Seven, you can expect to see a lot of smaller story lines be explored within the season that are creatively intertwined with the main plot, which involves the security of the CIP firewall which protects vital infrastructure around the nation. Without spoiling too much for those who haven’t tuned in yet, you can expect to see the Sangala plot more extensively explored along with Jack trying to understand the sudden diverge of Tony’s allegence and how he is involved with a domestic terror cell, as well as smaller side stories including how Henry Taylor deals with the death of his son, which despite investigations to the contrary, who he believes has been murdered. With the exception of a few notable scenes, like for example trying to escape from a federal agency headquarters, it seems that Fox have gone to big lengths to ensure that the action sequences are a little more varied this time around, and overall that there is less repetition from previous seasons.

So overall its a big thumbs up to one of the most ambitious and anticipated seasons of 24 of a long time yet. In the coming weeks we’ll see if this positive trend continues, but so far it appears that the apparent success has nothing to do with fans not getting their 24 fix for over 12 months.

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I’m always amazed at the speed at which technology seems to improve over time. We’ve already seen innovations like magnetic resonance imaging provide fascinating insights into the structure of the human body, but today IBM researchers from the Almaden Research Centre in California have announced a breakthrough new “nanoscale microscope” which is capable of a 100 million times stronger reading in terms of the final resolution. The device can detect ‘ultra-small magnetic forces’, and for the first time was able to capture a three-dimensional image of a tobacco mosaic virus.

If this is the future of medical technology, we're in for a wonderful future.

According to Dan Rugar who is a manager of nanoscale studies at IBM Research “Our hope is that nano MRI will eventually allow us to directly image the internal structure of individual protein molecules and molecular complexes, which is key to understanding biological function.”

This video is the one officially released by IBM systems.

I’m not typically too interested in rather industry focused devices like this new nanoscale microscope, but the improvement in technology seen here has the chance of really improving diagnosing medical conditions in humans and other animals, and may allow us to analyse other microscopic specimens like the influenza virus in greater detail than ever before? What do you think; is this a big deal for the medical world?

IBM,MRI,Magnetic Resonance Imaging,Almaden Research Centre,Nanoscale Microscope,100 million,tobacco mosaic virus,Dan Rugar,video