A Woman Was Filming a Rainbow When She Witnessed the One Thing She ‘Had Not Expected’ — and It Was All Caught on Camera

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h1 class="post-title" itemprop="headline" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 20px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">A video published online late last week appears to show lightning strike next to a woman who merely went outside to record a rainbow.</span></h1> <div class="postContent" id="postContent" itemprop="articleBody" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.235294); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.301961); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 1.7; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"> <div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The woman wrote on YouTube that she went outside and observed both “peace and quiet” when the one thing she “had not expected” occurred, according to a Google translation of her description.</div> <div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The entire incident was captured and published online in a 13 second video. At the time of publication, the footage had amassed 38,000 views on YouTube.</div> <h4 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(211, 211, 211); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #333333; font-family: LeagueGothicRegular, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 36px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="border: 0px; color: red; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Watch the Footage:</span></h4> <div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0bKA6L-sGPk?rel=0" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="620"></iframe></div> <div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">—</i></b></div> <div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Follow Ebere Samuel (</i></b><b style="border: 0px; color: #e91e24; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://twitter.com/oliverdarcy" style="border: 0px; color: #e91e24; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">@</a>FAVORD</i></b><b style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">) on Twitter</i></b></div> </div> </div>

A Woman Was Filming a Rainbow When She Witnessed the One Thing She ‘Had Not Expected’ — and It Was All Caught on Camera

A video published online late last week appears to show lightning strike next to a woman who merely went outside to record a rainbow. T...

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Here's What The Internet Could Look Like In 2025

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <header style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h1 class="title" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Charlie Chaplin once said that cinema was just a fad. In 1936, </span><a href="http://blogs.sap.com/analytics/2013/04/10/predictive-analytics-how-to-forecast-the-future-infographic/" sl-processed="1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">The New York Times wrote</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">that a "rocket will never be able to leave the Earth's atmosphere." In 1955, Variety magazine stated that rock n' roll would be gone by June of that year.</span></span></h1> <div> <div class="content" id="mainentrycontent" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 20px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">Predicting the future of technology is a fool's errand. But that certainly hasn't stopped us from doing it.</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">On Tuesday, <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/" sl-processed="1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">the Pew Research Internet Project</a> and <a href="http://www.elon.edu/e-web/imagining/" sl-processed="1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">Elon University’s Imagining The Internet Center</a> tried to cast light onto <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/03/11/15-theses-about-the-digital-future/" sl-processed="1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_hplink">what online life will look like in 2025</a> by publishing a series of predictions about the Internet from academics and scientists. Ignoring for a moment the folly of looking into the crystal ball, these are some of the most interesting guesses at what the future of the Internet holds.</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><big style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">By 2025...</span></big></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">You'll Forget The Internet Is Even There.</span></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="google glass" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1671953/thumbs/r-GOOGLE-GLASS-large570.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">"The Internet (and computer-mediated communication in general) will become more pervasive but less explicit and visible," David Clark, senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, told Pew. "It will, to some extent, blend into the background of all we do." Joe Touch, a director at the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, agrees. "We won’t think about ‘going online’ or ‘looking on the Internet’ for something." He writes. "We’ll just be online, and just look.”</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Internet Will Be Better Than Any School Teacher.</span></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="digital education" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1672031/thumbs/r-DIGITAL-EDUCATION-large570.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">With existing resources like Wikipedia and Khan Academy, the Internet currently provides access to education like never before. Many of the academics surveyed believe that these resources will only get better over time, creating a more equal playing field. Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, believes that the "biggest impact on the world will be universal access to all human knowledge. The smartest person in the world currently could well be stuck behind a plow in India or China. Enabling that person — and the millions like him or her — will have a profound impact on the development of the human race."</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Internet Will Prove Orwell Right.</span></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="orwell 1984 sales" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1185764/thumbs/o-ORWELL-1984-SALES-570.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">Hong Xue, director of the Institute for Internet Policy and Law at Beijing Normal University, goes straight-up Orwellian in his prediction, envisioning a future where “people will be living in a 1984-like, transparent world.” While many of those surveyed foresee the increase of data and information as a way of improving medicine, education, transportation and day-to-day life in general, others fear that it will lead to increased discrimination and marginalization, enabling those in power to justify institutionalized oppression.</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Internet Will Change So Quickly You Won't Be Able To Keep Up.</span></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">Philosopher and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan once said, “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” Many of the commentators in the Pew survey seem to agree. As technology advances and evolves at unprecedented rates, there are concerns that we will fail to recognize potential consequences and pitfalls. The fear is that individuals will fail to recognize and fully grasp what they're participating in, what they're consenting to and what they're enabling online. A respondent who preferred to remain anonymous wrote that while “the information we want will increasingly find its way to us, as networks learn to accurately predict our interests and weaknesses... that will also tempt us to stop seeking out knowledge, narrowing our horizons, even as we delve evermore deep."</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Internet Will Break Down Geography.</span></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">"When every person on this planet can reach, and communicate two-way, with every other person on this planet, the power of nation-states to control every human inside its geographic boundaries may start to diminish," David Hughes, a telecommunications pioneer, said to Pew.</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Internet Will Make Us Incredibly Lonely</span></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;"><img alt="her" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1672292/thumbs/o-HER-570.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">Bob Briscoe, chief researcher at British Telecom, worries that while our interactions may increase, they will also become more superficial and unsustainable. Others believe that global connection will lead to local isolation -- they insist that while the "global village" might have its benefits, there is undoubtedly a tradeoff of making us feel isolated.</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">Coincidentally, Spike Jonze's "Her" -- in which a man, driven to loneliness by an impending divorce, falls in love with an operating system -- takes place in 2025.</span></span></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Or... The Internet Just Won't Even Exist.</span></strong></div> <div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: large;">This may be the most difficult prediction to wrap your head around. Retired software engineer Robert McGrath thinks there is a 50/50 chance that the Internet won't exist at all. Citing cyberattacks, McGrath hypothesizes that the World Wide Web could be brought to its knees -- dragging the economy and the world as we know it down with it.</span></span></div> </div> <footer style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><section class="also-on" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><h3 style="border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box; direction: ltr; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; vertical-align: baseline;"> </h3> </section></footer></div> </header></div>

Here's What The Internet Could Look Like In 2025

Charlie Chaplin once said that cinema was just a fad. In 1936,  The New York Times wrote   that a "rocket will never be able to leave...

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Potato power: the spuds that could light the world

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font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="Smart cards that top-up health" height="81" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/144_81/images/live/p0/1f/kq/p01fkqm1.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="144" /></span></a></div> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130822-smart-cards-that-top-up-health" style="font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><h5 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: black;">Smart cards that top-up health</span></h5> </a></article><article style="border-bottom-style: none; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px;"><div class="image-container" style="margin-bottom: 3px; position: relative;"> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130731-helping-the-deaf-to-see-sound" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img alt="(Copyright: PA)" height="81" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfeatures/144_81/images/live/p0/1d/j7/p01dj7hb.jpg" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="144" /></span></a></div> <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130731-helping-the-deaf-to-see-sound" style="font-weight: bold; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><h5 style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin: 0px 0px 4px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="color: black;">Helping the deaf to ‘see’ sound</span></h5> </a></article></aside><div class="story-body" itemprop="articleBody" style="float: right; width: 464px;"> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Mashed, boiled, baked or fried? You probably have a preference for your potatoes. Haim Rabinowitch, however, likes his spuds “hacked”.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For the past few years, researcher Rabinowitch and colleagues have been pushing the idea of “potato power” to deliver energy to people cut off from electricity grids. Hook up a spud to a couple of cheap metal plates, wires and LED bulbs, they argue, and it could provide lighting to remote towns and villages around the world.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They’ve also discovered a simple but ingenious trick to make potatoes particularly good at producing energy. <strong>“</strong>A single potato can power enough LED lamps for a room for 40 days,” claims Rabinowitch, who is based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The idea may seem absurd, yet it is rooted in sound science. Still, Rabinowitch and his team have discovered that actually launching potato power in the real world is much more complex than it first appears.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">While Rabinowitch and team have found a way to make potatoes produce more power than usual, the basic principles are taught in high school science classes, to demonstrate how batteries work.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To make a battery from organic material, all you need is two metals – an anode, which is the negative electrode, such as zinc, and a cathode, the positively charged electrode, such as copper. The acid inside the potato forms a chemical reaction with the zinc and copper, and when the electrons flow from one material to another, energy is released.<strong> </strong><br />This was discovered by Luigi Galvani in 1780 when he connected two metals to the legs of a frog, causing its muscles to twitch. But you can put many materials between these two electrodes to get the same effect. Alexander Volta, around the time of Galvani, used saltwater-soaked paper. Others have made “earth batteries” using two metal plates and a pile of dirt, or a bucket of water.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Super spuds</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Potatoes are often the preferred vegetable of choice for teaching high school science students these principles. Yet to the surprise of Rabinowitch, no one had scientifically studied spuds as an energy source. So in 2010, he decided to give it a try, along with PhD student Alex Goldberg, and Boris Rubinsky of the University of California, Berkeley.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We looked at 20 different types of potatoes,” explains Goldberg, “and we looked at their internal resistance, which allows us to understand how much energy was lost by heat.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They found that by simply boiling the potatoes for eight minutes, it broke down the organic tissues inside the potatoes, reducing resistance and allowing for freer movement of electrons– thus producing more energy. They also increased the energy output by slicing the potato into four or five pieces, each sandwiched by a copper and zinc plate, to make a series. “We found we could improve the output 10 times, which made it interesting economically, because the cost of energy drops down,” says Goldberg.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s low voltage energy,” says Rabinowitch, “but enough to construct a battery that could charge mobile phones or laptops in places where there is no grid, no power connection.”</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Their cost analyses suggested that a single boiled potato battery with zinc and copper electrodes generates portable energy at an estimated $9 per kilowatt hour, which is 50-fold cheaper than a typical 1.5 volt AA alkaline cell or D cell battery, which can cost $49–84 per kilowatt hour. It’s also an estimated six times cheaper than standard kerosene lamps used in the developing world.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Which raises an important question – why isn’t the potato battery already a roaring success?</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2010, the world produced a staggering 324,181,889 tonnes of potatoes. They are the world’s number one non-grain crop, in 130 countries, and a hefty source of starch for billions around the world. They are cheap, store easily, and last for a long time.<br /><strong><br /></strong>With 1.2 billion people in the world lacking access to electricity, a simple potato could be the answer– or so the researchers thought. “We thought organisations would be interested,” says Rabinowitch. “We thought politicians in India would give them out with their names inscribed on them. They cost less than a dollar.”<br /><strong><br /></strong>Yet three years on since their experiment, why haven’t governments, companies or organisations embraced potato batteries? “The simple answer is they don’t even know about it,” reasons Rabinowitch. But it may be more complicated than that.<strong><br /></strong><br />First, there’s the issue of using a food for energy. Olivier Dubois, senior natural resources officer at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), says that using food for energy – like sugar cane for biofuels – must avoid depleting food stocks and competing with farmers.<br /><strong><br /></strong>“You first need to look at: are there enough potatoes to eat? Then, are we not competing with farmers making income from selling potatoes?” he explains. “So if eating potatoes is covered, selling potatoes is covered, and there’s some potatoes left, then yes, it can work”<br /><strong><br /></strong>In a country like Kenya, the potato is the second most important food for families after maize. Smallholder farmers produced around 10 million tonnes of potatoes this year, yet around 10-20% were lost in post-harvest waste due to lack of access to markets, poor storage conditions, and other issues, according to Elmar Schulte–Geldermann, potato science leader for sub–Saharan Africa at the International Potato Center in Nairobi, Kenya. The potatoes that don’t make it to the market could easily be turned into batteries. <strong><br /></strong><strong><br />Pithy answer</strong></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Yet in Sri Lanka, for instance, the locally available potatoes are rare and expensive. So a team of scientists at the University of Kelaniya recently decided to try the experiment with something more widely available, and free – plantain piths (stems).</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Physicist KD Jayasuriya and his team found that the boiling technique produced a similar efficiency increase for plantains – and the best battery performance was obtained by chopping the plantain pith after boiling.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With the boiled piths, they found they could power a single LED for more than 500 hours, provided it is prevented from drying out. “I think the potato has slightly better current, but the plantain pith is free, it’s something we throw away,” says Jayasuriya.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Despite all this, some are sceptical of the feasibility of potato power. “In reality, the potato battery is essentially like a regular battery you’d buy at the store,” says Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “It’s just using a different matrix.” While the potato helps to prevent energy being lost to heat, it is not the source of the energy – that’s actually extracted via the corrosion of the zinc. “It’s sacrificial – the metal is degrading over time,” says Lovley. This means you’d have to replace the zinc – and of course the potato or plantain pith – over time.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, zinc is quite cheap in most developing countries. And Jayasuriya argues that it could still be more cost effective than a kerosene lamp. A zinc electrode that lasts about five months would cost about the same as a litre of kerosene, which fuels the average family home in Sri Lanka for two days. You could also use other electrodes, like magnesium or iron.<br /><strong><br /></strong>But potato advocates must surmount another problem before their idea catches on: consumer perception of potatoes. Compared with modern technologies like solar power, potatoes are perhaps less desirable as an energy source.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gaurav Manchanda, founder of One Degree Solar, which sells micro-solar home systems in Kenya, says people buy their products for more reasons than efficiency and price. “These are all consumers at the end of the day. They need to see the value in it, not only in terms of performance, but status,” he explains. Basically, some people might not want to show off their potato battery to impress a neighbor.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 16px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, it cannot be denied that the potato battery idea works, and it appears cheap. Advocates of potato power will no doubt continue to keep chipping away.</span></div> <div> <br /></div> </div> </div> </div>

Potato power: the spuds that could light the world

(Thinkstock) With a simple trick, the humble spud can be made into a battery, so could potato powered homes catch on? Related A...

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A Beautiful Mind: Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius

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margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px;"><table border="0" style="border-spacing: 0px; margin-top: 0px !important; width: 1px;"><tbody style="margin-top: 0px !important;"> <tr style="margin-top: 0px !important;"><td style="margin-top: 0px !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img alt="Illustration of pi" src="http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/065/689/iFF/Illustration_pi[28].jpg?1399067165" style="margin-top: 0px !important; width: 270px;" /></span><br /> <div id="picad_div" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-shadow: none; z-index: 9000;"> <div id="picad_overlay_div" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 0px;"> <div id="picad_overlay_holder" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px !important; overflow: hidden !important; padding: 0px;"> </div> </div> </div> </td></tr> <tr><td style="border: 1px solid rgb(211, 211, 211); margin-top: 0px !important; padding: 10px;"><span style="float: right; margin-top: 0px !important; padding: 2px 25px 0px 5px; width: auto;"><a class="pin-it-button" count-layout="horizontal" href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http%3A//www.livescience.com/45349-brain-injury-turns-man-into-math-genius.html&media=http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/065/689/original/Illustration_pi[28].jpg?1399067165&description=Jason%20likes%20drawing%20circles%20made%20up%20of%20increasingly%20many%20triangles%2C%20what%20he%20refers%20to%20as%20an%20illustration%20of%20pi.%20" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="http://assets.pinterest.com/images/PinExt.png" style="border: none; margin-top: 0px !important;" title="Pin It" /></span></a></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Jason likes drawing circles made up of increasingly many triangles, what he refers to as an illustration of pi. </span><span style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; padding-right: 5px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Credit: Courtesy of Jason Padgett</span></span><span style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; max-width: 270px;"></span><br /> <div style="margin-top: 0px !important;"> <span style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; max-width: 270px;"><a class="make_big" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6089869001362915509" rel="#custom0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-top: 0px !important;">View full size image</a></span></div> <span style="float: left; margin-top: 5px; max-width: 270px;"> </span></td></tr> </tbody></table> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2002, two men savagely attacked Jason Padgett outside a karaoke bar, leaving him with a severe concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder. But the incident also turned Padgett into a mathematical genius who sees the world through the lens of geometry.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Padgett, a furniture salesman from Tacoma, Washington, who had very little interest in academics, developed the ability to visualize complex mathematical objects and physics concepts intuitively. The injury, while devastating, seems to have unlocked part of his brain that makes everything in his world appear to have <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/42839-the-universe-is-math.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">a mathematical structure</a>.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I see shapes and angles everywhere in real life" — from the geometry of a rainbow, to the fractals in water spiraling down a drain, Padgett told Live Science. "It's just really beautiful." [<a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/26681-most-beautiful-mathematical-equations.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">Album: The World's Most Beautiful Equations</a>]</span><br /> <br /> <div class="about_adsense" id="nointelliTXT" style="float: left; margin: 40px 0px; width: 540px;"> <span id="ad_sense1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-top: 0px !important;"></span><br /> <div id="google_ads_iframe_/10518929/tmn.ls/strange-news_3__container__" style="border: 0pt none; float: left; margin-top: 0px !important; overflow: hidden;"> <iframe frameborder="0" height="185" id="google_ads_iframe_/10518929/tmn.ls/strange-news_3" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_iframe_/10518929/tmn.ls/strange-news_3" scrolling="no" style="border-width: 0px; margin-top: 0px !important; vertical-align: bottom;" width="540"></iframe></div> <span id="ad_sense1" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-top: 0px !important;"> </span></div> <br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Padgett, who just published a memoir with Maureen Seaberg called "Struck by Genius" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), is one of a rare set of individuals with acquired <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/41470-do-animals-think-like-autistic-savants.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">savant</a> syndrome, in which a normal person develops prodigious abilities after a severe injury or disease. Other people have developed remarkable musical or artistic abilities, but few people have acquired mathematical faculties like Padgett's.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now, researchers have figured out which parts of the man's brain were rejiggered to allow for such savant skills, and the findings suggest such skills may lie dormant in all human brains.</span><br /> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-top: 0px !important;">'Struck by genius'</strong><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Before the injury, Padgett was a self-described jock and partyer. He hadn't progressed beyond than pre-algebra in his math studies. "I cheated on everything, and I never cracked a book," he said.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But all that would change the night of his attack. Padgett recalls being knocked out for a split second and seeing a bright flash of light. Two guys started beating him, kicking him in the head as he tried to fight back. Later that night, doctors diagnosed Padgett with <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/18709-teens-concussion-sports-head-injury.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">a severe concussion</a> and a bleeding kidney, and sent him home with pain medications, he said.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Soon after the attack, Padgett suffered from PTSD and debilitating social anxiety. But at the same time, he noticed that everything looked different. He describes his vision as "discrete picture frames with a line connecting them, but still at real speed." If you think of vision as the brain taking pictures all the time and smoothing them into a video, it's as though Padgett sees the frames without the smoothing. In addition, "everything has a pixilated look," he said.</span><br /> <div class="article_img_right" style="clear: both; float: right; margin: 40px 0px 40px 15px; max-width: 162px;"> <div style="float: left; margin-top: 0px !important; width: 162px;"> <a class="make_big" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6089869001362915509" rel="#custom65696" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); cursor: pointer; margin-top: 0px !important;"><img alt="Illustration of quantum hand" src="http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/065/696/i01/Padgett-Insert-5B[10].jpg?1399067545" style="border: none; margin-top: 0px !important;" /></a></div> <div style="float: left; width: 162px;"> <div style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); display: inline-block; margin-top: 0px !important; padding: 10px; width: 140px;"> <span style="float: right; margin-top: 0px !important; padding: 2px 5px 0px;"></span>"I see this image in my mind's eye, now in 3-D, every time imagine how my hand moves through space-time."<br /> <span style="float: left; margin-top: 5px;">Credit: Credit: Courtesy of Jason Padgett</span><br /> <div style="float: left; margin-top: 5px;"> <a class="make_big" href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6089869001362915509" rel="#custom65696" style="margin-top: 0px !important;">View full size image</a></div> </div> </div> </div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With Padgett's new vision came an astounding mathematical drawing ability. He started sketching circles made of overlapping triangles, which helped him understand <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/44091-facts-about-pi-for-pi-day.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">the concept of pi</a>, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. There's no such thing as a perfect circle, he said, which he knows because he can always see the edges of a polygon that approximates the circle. [<a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/45326-gallery-drawings-of-a-mathematical-genius.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Gallery: See Padgett's Amazing Mathematical Drawings</a>]</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Padgett dislikes the concept of infinity, because he sees every shape as a finite construction of smaller and smaller units that approach what physicists refer to as the <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/23232-smallest-ingredients-universe-physics.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">Planck length</a>, thought to be the shortest measurable length.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After his injury, Padgett was drawing complex geometric shapes, but he didn't have the formal training to understand the equations they represented. One day, a physicist spotted him making these drawings in a mall, and urged him to pursue mathematical training. Now Padgett is a sophomore in college and an aspiring number theorist.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Padgett's remarkable abilities garnered the interest of neuroscientists who wanted to understand how he developed them.</span><br /> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-top: 0px !important;">Beautiful mind</strong><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Berit Brogaard, a philosophy professor now at the University of Miami, in Coral Gables, Florida, and her colleagues scanned Padgett's brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand how he acquired his savant skills and the <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/169-rare-real-people-feel-taste-hear-color.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">synesthesia</a> that allows him to perceive mathematical formulas as geometric figures. (Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which one sense bleeds into another.) [<a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/11337-top-10-mysteries-mind.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind</a>]</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Acquired savant syndrome is very rare," Brogaard said, adding that only 15 to 25 cases have ever been described in medical studies.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Functional magnetic resonance imaging measures changes in blood flow and oxygen use throughout the brain. During scans of Padgett, the researchers showed the man real and nonsense mathematical formulas meant to conjure images in his mind.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The resulting scans showed significant activity in the left hemisphere of Padgett's <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/29365-human-brain.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">brain</a>, where mathematical skills have been shown to reside. His brain lit up most strongly in the left parietal cortex, an area behind the crown of the head that is known to integrate information from different senses. There was also some activation in parts of his temporal lobe (involved in visual memory, sensory processing and emotion) and frontal lobe (involved in executive function, planning and attention).</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But the fMRI only showed what areas were active in Padgett's brain. In order to show these particular areas were causing the man's synesthesia, Brogaard's team used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which involves zapping the brain with a magnetic pulse that activates or inhibits a specific region. When they zapped the parts of Padgett's parietal cortex that had shown the greatest activity in the fMRI scans, it made his synesthesia fade or disappear, according to a study published in August 2013 in the journal Neurocase.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Brogaard showed, in another study, that when neurons die, they release brain-signaling chemicals that can increase brain activity in surrounding areas. The increased activity usually fades over time, but sometimes it results in structural changes that can cause brain-activity modifications to persist, Brogaard told Live Science.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Scientists don't know whether the changes in Padgett's brain are permanent, but if he had structural changes, it's more likely his abilities are here to stay, Brogaard said.</span><br /> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); margin-top: 0px !important;">The savant in everyone</strong><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So do abilities like Padgett's lie dormant in everyone, waiting to be uncovered? Or was there something unique about Padgett's brain to begin with?</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most likely, there is something dormant in everyone that Padgett tapped into, Brogaard said. "It would be quite a coincidence if he were to have that particular special brain and then have an injury," she said. "And he's not the only [acquired savant]."</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In addition to head injuries, mental disease has also been known to reveal latent abilities. And Brogaard and others have done studies that suggest zapping the brains of normal people using TMS can temporarily bring out unusual mathematical and artistic skills.</span><br /> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's always possible that having <a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.livescience.com/37333-dsm-aspergers-disorder.html" style="margin-top: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;">savant skills</a> may come with trade-offs. In Padgett's case, he developed fairly severe post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and he still finds it difficult to appear in public.</span></div> </div> </div>

A Beautiful Mind: Brain Injury Turns Man Into Math Genius

By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer   |   2014 11:39am ET 4825   780   41 Submit 106 Reddit Jason likes d...

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The Tree that produces 40 fruit every year

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div id="pc_top" style="margin: -7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; z-index: 49;"> <div id="pc_top2" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 2px;"> <div id="headline" style="margin: 0px 0px 9px 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 625px; z-index: 25;"> <h1 id="H1" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; width: 475px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-size: small;">Artist Sam Van Aken discusses his thought-provoking project and its place at the intersection of farming, sculpture, and preservation</span></h1> <h2 class="meta-info" style="clear: both; font-weight: normal; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="author" itemprop="author" style="font-style: italic;">by Lauren Salkeld</span></span></span></h2> <div class="source" style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px; width: 450px;"> </div> </div> <div class="sponsorAd" style="height: 60px; left: 523px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 120px; z-index: 27;"> </div> </div> </div> <div class="content_unit" id="articleContent" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 11px; padding: 18px 1px 0px; position: relative; width: 644px;"> <div id="artInner" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px 15px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;"> <div class="imageMod imgposfull" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); float: none; margin: 0px 0px 9px; padding: 0px; width: 614px;"> <div class="imageElement" style="margin: 0px; padding: 1px;"> <img alt="Sam Van Aken's Tree of 40 Fruit" border="0" src="http://www.epicurious.com/images/articlesguides/chefsexperts/interviews/tree-of-40-fruit_612.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 3px;" width="612" /></div> </div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span class="dropCapFirst" style="float: left; margin: -5px 4px -2px 0px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ward-winning contemporary artist and Syracuse University art professor Sam Van Aken grew up on a family farm in Reading, Pennsylvania, but he spent his college years and much of his early career focused on art rather than agriculture. While Van Aken says that his work has always been "inspired by nature and our relationship to nature," it wasn't until recently that the artist's farming background became such a clear and significant influence, first in 2008 when he grafted vegetables together to create strange plants for his Eden exhibition, and then shortly after that when he started to work on the hybridized fruit trees that would become the <a href="http://www.treeof40fruit.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="new">Tree of 40 Fruit.</a></span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Each tree begins as a slightly odd-looking specimen resembling some kind of science experiment, and for much of the year, looks like just any other tree. In spring, the trees bloom to reveal an incredibly striking and thought-provoking example of what can happen when nature inspires art. Then, over the course of several months, Van Aken's trees produce an incredible harvest of plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and almonds, including many you've likely never seen before.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Thus far, Van Aken has created and placed 16 trees in museums, community centers, and private art collections around the country, including in Newton, Massachusetts; Pound Ridge, New York; Short Hills, New Jersey; Bentonville, Arkansas; and San Jose, California. Using a unique process he calls "sculpture through grafting," Van Aken creates trees that grow and support more than 40 varieties of stone fruit, including many heirloom, antique, and native varieties.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On the heels of Van Aken's <a href="http://new.livestream.com/tedx/manhattan2014/videos/43864399" style="text-decoration: none;" target="new">TEDxManhattan talk,</a> we spoke with him about the Tree of 40 Fruit, how he developed and executed the concept, his plans for the future, and what happens to all that fruit.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epicurious:</em> What is the Tree of 40 Fruit and what inspired the project?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Sam Van Aken:</em> At the time this project began I was doing a series of radio hoaxes where I hijacked commercial radio station frequencies and played my own commercials and songs. In addition to becoming acquainted with FCC regulations I also discovered that the term "hoax" comes from "hocus pocus," which in turn comes from the Latin "hoc est enim corpus miem," meaning "this is my body" and it's what the Catholic priest says over the bread during [the] Eucharist, transforming it into the body of Christ. This process is known as transubstantiation and [it] led me to wonder how I could transubstantiate a thing. How could the appearance of a thing remain the same while the reality changed? And so, I transubstantiated a fruit tree. Through the majority of the year it is a normal-looking fruit tree until spring when it blossoms in different tones [of] pink, white, and crimson, and late in summer it bears [more than] 40 different types of fruit.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> What is the goal of the Tree of 40 Fruit and what do you hope to communicate?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> First and foremost I see the tree as an artwork. Like the hoaxes I was doing, I want the tree to interrupt and transform the everyday. When the tree unexpectedly blossoms in different colors, or you see these different types of fruit hanging from its branches, it not only changes the way you look at it, but it changes the way you perceive [things] in general.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As the project evolved, it took on more goals. In trying to find different varieties of stone fruit to create the Tree of 40 Fruit, I realized that for various reasons, including industrialization and the creation of enormous monocultures, we are losing diversity in food production and that heirloom, antique, and native varieties that were less commercially viable were disappearing. I saw this as an opportunity to, in some way, preserve these varieties. In addition to maintaining these varieties in my nursery, I graft them to the Tree of 40 Fruit. Additionally, when I place a Tree of 40 Fruit, I go to local farmers and growers to collect stone fruit varieties and graft them to the trees. In this way they become an archive of the agricultural history of where they are located as well as a means to preserve antique and native varieties.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> You've described your artistic process as "sculpting by way of grafting." Could you explain what that means?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> I currently work with over 250 varieties of stone fruit and developed a timeline of when they blossom in relationship to each other. By grafting these different varieties onto the tree in a certain order I can essentially sculpt how the tree is to blossom.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> Why did you choose to work with stone fruits?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> Stone fruits have [a] greater diversity among the species, and are the most inter-compatible. Although it gets tricky when you start to graft cherries, for the most part one can easily graft between plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, and even almonds.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> Where and how did you acquire all the different fruit varieties?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> My primary source for most of these varieties was the <a href="http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="new">New York State Agricultural Experiment Station</a> in Geneva, New York. When I began the project there was an orchard at the Experiment Station with hundreds of different plum and apricot varieties. They planned to tear this orchard out, so I picked up the lease until I could graft all of these varieties onto the trees in my nursery.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> How long does it take to create one of your trees?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> Depending on when the tree is planted it takes about five years to develop each tree and graft 40 varieties to it.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> Do you continue to work on the trees after they're planted?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> After the tree has been planted, I visit it twice a year, in the spring to prune and [in] late summer to graft, for three years, until the tree is established.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> What happens to all the fruit from your trees?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> Until I discovered garlic and peppermint repellents, they were a huge hit with the local deer, but fortunately we've resolved that. I've been told by people that have [a tree] at their home that it provides the perfect amount and perfect variety of fruit. So rather than having one variety that produces more than you know what to do with, it provides good amounts of each of the 40 varieties. Since all of these fruit ripen at different times, from July through October, you also aren't inundated.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Personally, I give away most of the fruit that comes from my trees. For people who aren't aware of farming and growing, the diversity of these varieties and their characteristic tastes are surprising and they ultimately begin to question why there are only a few types of plums, one type of apricot, and a handful of peach varieties at their local market.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> Each of your trees has the capacity to grow more than 40 different varieties of stone fruits. Can you explain the significance of the number 40?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> The number 40 has been used throughout Western religion to represent a number beyond counting. [Being] interested in this idea of a bounty of fruit coming from one tree, 40 seemed appropriate.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <strong style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>Epi:</em> Do you have any plans for the future of this project?</strong></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em>SVA:</em> I would like to continue to place these trees throughout the country preserving these heirloom, antique, and native fruit varieties. Wherever I place them there is a sense of wonderment that they create through their blossoms, the different fruit, and the process by which they are created.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Eventually, I would like to create a grove or small orchard of these trees in an urban setting. I have always stayed away from artwork that educates people, but to some extent these works in addition to being beautiful and producing fruit cause one to reconsider the possibilities with food and fruit production.</span></div> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <h6 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0px;"> <em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">Photo: Sam Van Aken</span></em></h6> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span> <br /> <div style="margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;"> </div> <h5 style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0px;"> <em style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-size: small;">See More Interviews:</span></em></h5> <ul style="display: list-item; list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"> <li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.epicurious.com/rd_images/global_images/bullet.gif); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/chefsexperts/celebrity-chefs/ferran-adria-el-bulli-interview-q-and-a" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">El Bulli Chef Ferran Adrià</span></a></li> <li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.epicurious.com/rd_images/global_images/bullet.gif); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/chefsexperts/celebrity-chefs/rene-redzepi-interview" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">René Redzepi of Copenhagen's Noma ›</span></a></li> <li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.epicurious.com/rd_images/global_images/bullet.gif); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/chefsexperts/interviews/mollie-katzen-moosewood-vegetarian-qa-recipes" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;"><em>Moosewood Cookbook</em> author Mollie Katzen ›</span></a></li> <li style="list-style-image: url(http://www.epicurious.com/rd_images/global_images/bullet.gif); margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/chefsexperts/celebrity-chefs/payard-recipes-interview" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: black;">French Pastry Chef François Payard ›</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>

The Tree that produces 40 fruit every year

Artist Sam Van Aken discusses his thought-provoking project and its place at the intersection of farming, sculpture, and preservation ...

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Imagine rolling up an "18 TV: TV That Can Roll Up Into 3cm Tube Unveiled

<br /> <section class="regular" id="primary" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; margin: 8px; min-height: 295px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 524px;"><h2 class="standfirst" style="border: 0px; float: left; margin: 8px 8px 1em; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 644px;"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Tech firm LG says the screen is its latest step towards creating a fully rollable 60-inch ultra-HD screen by 2017</span>.</span></span></h2> <img alt="LG" class="highlightImage" height="293" src="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/7/10/322425/default/v3/flexible-rollable-oled-01-1-522x293.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(86, 86, 86); display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="522" /><div class="moduleCaption" style="border: 0px; min-height: 32px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 35px 0px 13px; text-shadow: rgb(0, 0, 0) 0px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The screen can be rolled in a tube just 3cm wide</span></div> </section><br /> <div id="articleWrap" style="border: 0px; display: inline; float: left; margin: 8px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 524px;"> <div id="socialBar" style="border: 0px; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <ul style="border: 1px solid rgb(223, 223, 223); height: 32px; list-style: none !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; zoom: 1;"> <li id="sbTwitter" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; height: 32px; list-style: none !important; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 140px;"><div class="wrapper" style="border: 0px; 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background-position: 8px 3px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 30px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black;">Email</span></a></div> </li> </ul> </div> <div id="articleText" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <div class="intro" style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LG has unveiled an 18-inch TV panel that can be rolled into a tube measuring just 3cm across.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The company says it is the latest step towards creating a fully rollable 60-inch ultra-HD screen by 2017.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Screens that can be flexed are not new, but the size of LG's latest offering is significant.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The screen continues to operate as it is rolled up, and the company says its performance is unaffected.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Research and development chief In-Byung Kang said: "We are confident that by 2017, we will successfully develop an Ultra HD flexible and transparent OLED panel of more than 60 inches."</span></div> <br /> <figure class="inlinedImage inlinedLANDSCAPE" style="border: 0px; clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 14px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="LG" height="293" src="http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/7/10/322424/default/v2/lg-rollable-18-inch-display-2-640x474-1-522x293.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(102, 102, 102); display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="522" /><figcaption style="border: 0px; clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The screen still operates when rolled</span></figcaption></figure><br /> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rollable television sets could be easily stored when not in use to create more space.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The flexible panel has an HD-class resolution of 1200x810 pixels with almost one million megapixels.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LG says it used high molecular substance-based polyimide film as the backplane of the flexible panel instead of conventional plastic to achieve the maximum curvature radius.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The polyimide film helped in keeping the thickness of the panel low, improving its flexibility.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LG has been investing heavily in the technology, and recently announced plans to spend $655m (£381m) on manufacturing infrastructure for a factory in South Korea.</span></div> <div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"> <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The company was also the first to bring a curved TV set to market.</span></div> <br /> <section id="recommendedStories" style="border: 0px; margin: 35px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-browser="safari" data-dynload="" data-ob-mark="true" data-ob-template="bskyb" data-os="ipad" data-src="http://news.sky.com/story/1298483/tv-that-can-roll-up-into-3cm-tube-unveiled" data-widget-id="AR_1" id="outbrain_widget_0" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; 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Imagine rolling up an "18 TV: TV That Can Roll Up Into 3cm Tube Unveiled

Tech firm LG says the screen is its latest step towards creating a fully rollable 60-inch ultra-HD screen by 2017 . The screen can be ro...

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