Wrinkles are bad, right? A sign of advancing age, a devil to try and get out of that smart shirt you need for your big important meeting, generally unsightly and always unwelcome…  Not according to Michelle Khine and her co-workers at the University of California, who have been hard at work giving wrinkles a bit of a facelift.  Sadly, this isn’t a cure for ageing, so Advanced Materials can’t claim to hold the secret of eternal youth just yet.  However, I can at least indulge my inner child by enjoying the idea of creating nanostructures using children’s toys called Shrinky-Dinks as a substrate  (and yes, I’m grinning from ear to ear as I type…).

As a structural entity, wrinkles are potentially useful in a wide variety of applications such as flexible electronics, biological assays, sensor, optical devices, and actuators.  For most of these applications, metal wrinkles are desirable, but previous processes for their manufacture have been painstaking and time-consuming, involving careful preparation and sometimes the use of expensive microfabricated molds or equipment (ion or electron beams).  Using Shrinky-Dinks, which are essentially sheets of shape-memory polymer (pre-stressed polystyrene), Michelle and her team have come up with a quick, cheap and easy method of manufacturing nanoscale metal wrinkles.  Even better, they can tune the wavelength and direction of the structures as desired.  The process is simple: deposit a sheet of metal onto the polymer, and heat it at 160°C in the oven.  The polymer sheet will shrink to about half its original size under these conditions, and because the metal is nonshrinkable, it buckles to cope with the strain, forming wrinkles.  The wavelength of the wrinkles can be adjusted by varying the thickness of the metal layer, and specific directionality can be conferred or constrained by clamping the sheets along specific edges.  Using gold as the metal layer produces structures that can be used for surface plasmon resonance and metal-enhanced fluorescence studies, which can be used in biomedical diagnostic devices, and combining the wrinkled structures with microfluidic systems inscribed into the polymer is a neat, quick way of producing lab-on-a-chip devices.

This is a great paper, harking back to my love of simple, elegant solutions. And while in this instance I can’t take any particular credit for the cover design, the cover image was so stunningly eye-catching that I think ‘glee’ probably best sums up my initial reaction to it.  The lower part of the image depicts some uniaxial gold nanowrinkles, and rolling down the axis are a series of cleverly designed insets showing different patterns that the technique has been used to create.  The 3D rendering and lighting effect on the insets gives a dynamism to the whole image, and the colors are screaming for your attention. There’s a faint biaxial patterning in the background, just before it fades out to black, giving a bit of depth. Choosing the color match for the title was all I had to do here, and I opted to keep it simple – there’s enough going on in the main image to get you hooked – it doesn’t need any help from me.

DOI: 10.1002/adma.200902294 

US cover for Robin Wasserman’s Wired. Am still waiting for Crashed to be released here in Oz. Really enjoyed the first novel, Skinned. Fiction needs more mechs, y’all.

P.S. Maybe this isn’t the final cover, but I found it on Amazon nonetheless. Check out the tagline right above the title

We recently revealed that Cheryl has signed up to host her own ITV1 show! She’ll be performing tracks from her #1 album 3 words as well inviting special guests to join her like Rihanna, Will Young and Alexandra Burke.

This week we are giving you the opportunity to be there too!

The show will be filmed across two nights, 8th and 9th December and we have fifty pairs of tickets to give away for both!

All you need to do is click here, fill in the form and you and a friend could be spending the evening in with Cheryl Cole.

Ts & Cs are here.

Closing date is 1st December.

This Friday, we will be unveiling Cheryl’s brand new video for her next single, the epic ‘3 Words’.

The track is a duet with Will.i.am and one of Cheryl’s favourites from the album.

You’ll be able to watch the video at www.cherylcole.com Friday afternoon, so make sure you keep checking the site to be one of the first to see it.

In the meantime make sure you have a sneek preview with shots from the video in Cheryl’s Gallery.

Lastly this week in case you missed it, you can see Cheryl’s footage from BBC Children in Need Rocks the Royal Albert Hall at www.cherylcole.com.

Speaking of ‘3 Words’, we can now reveal that the track will be out to download on 20th December and available to buy on CD from 21st December.

Plus we can also unveil the stunning single cover!

You can pre-order the CD now and ensure that it’s with you on release day!

Click here and we’ll take you to www.hmv.com where you can order the CD which features the Radio Edit of ‘3 Words’ as well as the B-Side ‘Boys’.

Then make sure you head over to iTunes on 20th December as they will have an exclusive Club Mix EP.

It will feature Steve Angello’s Extended Re-Prod, Doman & Gooding’s I Love You Remix and the Geeneus-Rinse FM Main Mix.

For the latest see www.cherylcole.com.

This an iconic X-men cover that I redrew for the Covered Blog only to have it rejected within a few hours. Oh well. I’m posting it here for the four three people that will care…

Signing deluxe editions of New Surrender. By the way, this is isn’t the cover. No ones seen the cover yet…

Via Twitpic.

 Check out the cover for Kelis new single ”Acapella” produced by David Guetta. The song is off her new LP due out spring 2010. While I’ve heard the electric track it’s still got a while to go before it’s fully grown on me. Somewhat I’m still a bit iffy on the cover, I like it but I dont like it. Theres somewhat an animal that Kelis is reminding me of here but i cant put my finger on it.

Sorry but I gotta be honest!

IMG|SOURCE: TGJ

Here’s the Canadian cover of Kelley Armstrong’s Waking the Witch, and the dirt-encrusted character looks somewhat creepy.

One of the things I admire about science fantasy[1]  (what I like to call Star Wars/Star Trek and anything else in which you can replace any technical terminology with the word ‘magic’ and achieve the same plot impact)  is its complete and utter disregard for how things actually work. Despite a significant amount of scientific training, I can usually suspend my disbelief for this sort of thing very easily, and take a simple joy in the finished idea, without wondering how or why something works, or whether or not it’s even possible.

   Occasionally, though, my professional instincts get in the way, and I find myself speculating over the fine details of how one might achieve some of the technological splendors and terrors that populate our cinemas, televisions, and books.  How do you build an engine that can propel something eighteen times the size of an aircraft carrier at faster-than-light speeds?  How did the doctor manage to regrow that guy’s arm?  And just how do you go about building cyborgs?

 For the latter two examples, it turns out that I may be being a little harsh in judging them as fantasy rather than fiction.  If science fiction is grounded in current knowledge, growth of new nerves and tissue and electronic/bionic interfaces are no longer as far-fetched as they once were.  A current challenge in regenerative medicine is to develop materials and procedures that can be used to support re-growth of damaged nerves or effective methods of interfacing nerves and neurons with electronic circuitry.  These procedures could facilitate advances in treatment of damage to the nervous system, reconnection of severed nerves (for example in the spinal cord), and greatly enhance control and functionality of prostheses by being able to incorporate them directly into the body’s command and control systems.

   Working towards this, Gordon Wallace and his team at the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute of the University of Wollongong have developed a new hybrid platform that can promote directed growth of neural tissue.  This is one of the tricky aspects of nerve regeneration – controlling where the tissue will grow – but Wallace and his team have overcome this difficulty by incorporating unidirectional fibers of biodegradable polymer into the substrate platform, providing tracks for the nerves to grow along that will eventually degrade away, providing more space for the nerves to grow.  The rest of the substrate platform is composed of a conducting polymer, which allows electrical stimulation of the growing tissue, thus promoting more effective growth and cell migration.  Extending the concept to multidirectional fibers and structures, one can then imagine that such a strategy could be used to connect neural tissue to electronic circuits in specific locations, resulting in successful interfacing of nerves with biomedical monitoring devices or prostheses.

The cover picture for this work picks out all these critical points.  The cutaway cross-sections of the nerve scaffold show the potential for the hybrid platform to be manipulated into 3D structures, and the background fluorescence microscopy image shows cell migration preferentially on the blue fiber stripes.  The inset in the mouth of the scaffold conduit shows axon growth along real fibers, directionally controlled.  

An awesome piece of research that means maybe Dr. McCoy’s Sickbay isn’t quite as much of a fantasy as it used to be.

DOI:10.1002/adma.200901165

[1] As opposed to science fiction, of which Robert Heinlein said: “a handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method.” (Robert A. Heinlein, Cyril Kornbluth, Alfred Bester, and Robert Bloch, “Science Fiction: Its Nature, Faults and Virtues” The Science Fiction Novel: Imagination and Social Criticism 1959, University of Chicago, Advent Publishers.)

Chip Tha Ripper’s upcoming mixtape entitled, “The Cleveland Show” will be available for free download @ Slab Up on Tuesday, December 1st.  I’ve really been looking forward to this for a while, and maybe the track below will let you know why.  Chip linked up with Boi-1da who produced Drake’s “Forever” which featured Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem to create a dope exclusive track called “Movie”.  The Cleveland Show mixtape will include features from Big Sean, Curren$y, Chuck Inglish of The Cool Kids, Mikky Halsted, Skooda Chose, Carter, and more!  Also, it’s presented by the legendary Mick Boogie and Terry Urban.

DOWNLOAD LINK: Chip Tha Ripper – Movie (Prod. by Boi-1da)

SOURCE: Slab Up

UK cover for Kat Falls’s Dark Life. The US edition was okay, but this UK one has more colour and more action – and thus more to my liking

I came across this album cover the other day on the internet and thought it looked kind of cool. Then when I read what music it was, it made the whole thing so much better. I could not believe it!

Just for fun I removed the title and information on the cover and have now posted it here. Can you guess what artist or music it is?

I will post the original cover in a few days. Feel free to post you answers or comments. Good Luck!

See?

It’s not terrible art, but it lacks a certain punch. The hero, the lady with poised gun, the multicolored alien, the lens flare…it’s all just a bit generic, which is a shame as previews would have you believe that Mass Effect 2 is bigger and better than its predecessor. The first game’s cover definitely gave off a “explore the galaxy!” vibe while this one merely says “shoot things!” and “be disgruntled!”

Oh well. Can’t win ‘em all, Bioware.

We made it! Gravity Jones presents InfeRed’s brand new mixtape No Turn On Red. Pick your favorite file site to download from below the artwork…

InfeRed – No Turn On Red links: megaupload | rapidshare | sendspace | zshare | mediafire | limelinx | filefactory

Gravity Jones presents InfeRed’s 2009 mixtape “No Turn On Red.” MLKjr said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets, even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven played music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.” Tony ‘InfeRed’ Graves feels his path is leading him to record and perform honest music. If it’s true that your soul should speak truest and loudest through your actions, midwest rapper InfeRed’s soul preaches through every line. In the vein of some of Hip-Hop’s most candid and ground breaking artists, Red works with a passion and dedication to his lyrics and each message they encompass. He is often likened to Jay-Z, Common, Royce Da 5′9, Elzhi, and, more recently, Wale. Download the mixtape, analyze the lyrics, scrutinize the songs, love it and hate it. Peace and much love.

Also, check it out, rate it, comment on it at datpiff.

Please spread it like wildfire!! Feel free to copy any of the links, artwork, music, burn it onto cds, whatever…just get it out there!! Electric grass roots style…
Also, please let us know what you think…
and while you’re at it check the official video for the single
The Higher:

Peace, and much love!!!

Do first impressions matter? The answer is yes, even if the opinion is later altered due to, let’s say, your book’s content. And so, for the sake of your three-second introduction to the reading public, your book will need to flaunt its gist through a creative and custom-inspired book cover.

A book is a book is a book, and when readers are browsing the cyber shelves, your cover needs to measure up to your interior content. Preview your book successfully by evaluating each element of the book cover and make it relevant to your story.     

Title — Place yourself in the reader’s shoes when making your final decision for your book’s title. Does your selection make sense to the reader? Is it easy to remember? When choosing your title make sure it conveys your message and fits the design you have in mind. As a writer, try not to get too caught up in creating a clever title, sometimes straightforward is better.

Subtitle — If needed, elaborate further into your book’s subject with a subtitle. A good subtitle specifically explains your book through a descriptive line complimenting your title. Include any searchable key words that are not in your title, where appropriate, into your subtitle. 

 Cover Design — Apply a professional design service to your cover. Your title should be legible at a glance, avoiding small or faint text as well as busy backgrounds. Select a font or two for your text, staying away from decorative fonts to continue the professional appeal.

Choose a strong image that conveys your book and integrates with your title. A single image usually impacts more than multiple images. Remember that your image is second to your title, so beware of overpowering.

Continue your congruent design of colors and fonts through the spine and back cover. Make sure all text is easy to read.

Back or Panel Copy — Summarize your book with directness. Describe the premise of your story while highlighting the feeling intertwined. 

Blurb — Endorsements by readers do help. They are references for your work and we all appreciate recommendations. Place your endorsement on your back cover, unless it is from a well-known personality in which you may then add it to the front cover.

Spine — Simple, easy to read, and viewable sideways. Usually will not include subtitle due to space and design.

Bio — Briefly and eloquently state who you are and your most recent accomplishments. Try to keep your author description around three sentences.

Invest in your cover design and layout. Your story is one of a kind and your cover should be as well. Make an impact on potential readers and create a marketing edge to your book. As a strong contributor to book sales, prepare your book to be judged by its cover. 

-Melissa

Visit Wordclay to review options for enhancing your book’s appeal and cover design.

Time to see if my theories on cover design hold water…

 Vote now for your favorite cover design from Advanced Materials in 2009!  If you think the shortlist missed a beauty, please leave a comment to let me know which one, and why.  Voting will be open until December 31st.  And don’t forget to check out our store to order posters or prints of your favorite 2009 design.

Am o veste. Michael a decis că nu vrea să ne grăbim cu publicarea volumului său de POVESTIRI FANTASTICE. Vom scoate cartea în cursul primului trimestru al anului viitor. Nu vrea să o redactăm şi tipărim pe fugă, să facem o treabă de mîntuială. Ceea ce e absolut de înţeles. Prin urmare, la tîrg Mike va fi prezent doar cu antologia DANSÎND PE MARTE ŞI ALTE POVESTIRI FANTASTICE. Nu ştiu dacă să o numesc o veste proastă (fiindcă nu vom avea cartea) sau o veste bună (fiindcă, atunci cînd va ieşi, probabil în februarie, va fi o carte muncită cum se cuvine). E o veste.

Veşti am şi pentru aceia care aşteaptă cu înfrigurare DUNE: CRUCIADA MAŞINILOR. Cartea n-a venit încă de la tipografie, aşa că mă văd nevoit să-mi cer scuze acelora care au comandat deja cartea. De cum o vom primi, o veţi primi şi voi.

Şi, în fine, o veste bună: Mircea Pricăjan (a cărui povestire „Radio Live” poate fi citită în antologia DANSÎND PE MARTE ŞI ALTE POVESTIRI FANTASTICE) a acordat un interviu publicaţiei Informaţia de Vest din Oradea, un interviu exhaustiv în care vorbeşte despre ceea ce scrie şi ceea ce traduce. Merită citit. Găsiţi textul integral al interviului aici.

International cover for Kylie Chan’s White Tiger. And by “international”, I mean USA, Canada and UK. Because the trilogy was realised in Australia a few years ago, and thus had a different cover.

I’ve been talking about the 2010 Big Island Arts Annual as it has so much new  for you to enjoy. Yet, our previous issues are chock full of wonderful artists and information as well. Hold on to your copies, these are “keepers.”

Last month, in order to meet with our public we soaked up some hot sun  on Alii Drive during the Village Stroll. We were partnering with Barbara Garcia Bowman, Co-Publisher of Ke Ola Magazine. The location, you may notice, is right in front of the gate at Hulihee Palace. This

is where you can find Barb every month and sometimes Alexis and yours truly, Mars.

Brit’s got really talented fans.. these are fan made cover arts for a couple of Brit’s hits. They’re floatin’ around the internet and I think it’s time to acknowledge them. They’re really cool!

V-am promis sumarul antologiei MILLENNIUM 2. Iată-l:

• Michael Haulică – Anotimpul de praf
• Don Simon – Priveşte înainte cu mînie
• Liviu Radu – Complexul lui Oedip
• Ladislau Daradici – Şobolanul
• Ana-Veronica Mircea – Rayadatis
• Andrei Valachi – Călătorie prin natură moartă alternată cu peisaj românesc
• Cotizo Draia – Aşteptînd la Sargos
• Ana-Maria Negrilă – Împăratul de îngheţată
• Val Antim – Fenomen inexplicabil de violare
• Radu Pavel Gheo – Cîinii nu pot iubi
• Mihail Gălăţanu – Răzbunarea
• Voicu Bugariu – Ucigaşul melcilor
• Ovidiu Bufnilă – Apocalipsa după Buf
• Costi Gurgu – În umbra legii
• Mirel Palada – Pîndarul
• Florin Pîtea – Veniţi afară!

Cele şaisprezece poveşti sînt precedate de o introducere a subsemnatului (care poartă acelaşi titlu ca şi antologia: „Şase ani de Ficţiuni”) şi urmate de obişnuitele repere bio-bibliografice ale autorilor. Aceasta este, cred, cea mai personală, cea mai dragă dintre antologiile pe care le-am compilat pînă în prezent; cred că îmi reprezintă cel mai corect opţiunile în calitate de editor. Sper să vă fie pe plac.

Volumul va număra undeva la 320 pagini şi va costa în librării 30 lei. Va fi însă disponibil la tîrg, probabil de joi 26 noiembrie încolo. Acceptăm însă şi precomenzi pe adresa ştiută, pentru cei care nu vor reuşi să ajungă la Gaudeamus.

PS off-topic: V-am promis ieri că azi vă arăt ce-am gătit ieri. Mă conformez:

!!!

Se cheamă paste cu pui cu legume şi o reţetă aproximativ similară a fost prezentată pe acest blog acum vreo doi ani. Între timp, am simplificat reţeta şi am adaptat-o gusturilor familiei. Am renunţat la mare parte din uleiul folosit pentru prăjirea legumelor şi, dintre condimentele utilizate iniţial, am reţinut doar sarea, piperul şi boiaua ungurească. Timpul de preparare (de la zero) a fost de aproximativ o oră. Cele 4 doamne şi domnişoare (fiică, soţie, mamă şi soră) m-au declarat maestru, prin urmare am fost foarte mulţumit. Pentru consultaţii vă stau la dispoziţie… după întîi decembrie!

Plak meraklıları, ordan burdan plak toplayanlar Osibisa ismiyle mutlaka karşılaşmışlardır. Bir plak yığınını deşeleyip de Osibisa LP’lerinden birine isabet etmemek güçtür çünkü. Bizimki gibi disko misko türü dışında yabancı plak neşriyatının bir hayli kısıtlı olduğu bir memlekette, ne çok Osibisa albümü basılmış da satılmış diye hayrete düşer insan. Neymiş bu grubun kerameti diye sorası olur. Bu merakla, hem de Osibisa’nın fantastik plak kapaklarının cazibesine ve isminin garip sihrine kapılarak, bir Osibisa alınır. Pek birşeye de benzemez müzikleri. Daha doğrusu kategorize edilemez. Caz, funk, disko, afro karışık bişey. Nefesliler filan hatırına, caz var lan galiba bunda diye atladıysanız, hayal kırıklığı yaşarsınız. Dans vardır ama, bir zamanlar kartal oluşlarının sebebi de bu olsa gerektir. Bir aralar hakikaten çok meşhurmuşlar; ansiklopedik bilgiye müracaat edilirse bu adamların Gana’dan, Nijerya’dan filan kalkıp 1969′da Osibisa’yı kurmaları ve gerek Avrupa’da gerekse ABD’de popüler olmaları, afro kökenli bir dans müziğiyle beyaz adamı oynatıp hoplattıran ilk gruplardan biri olmaları dikkate değer. Kimilerine göre “World Music” denen şeyin kurucu babaları bunlar. Ve, işin ilginci hala varlar, albüm yapmaya da devam ediyorlar. Şahsen ben Osibisa deyince müzik adına bir “Sunshine Day”i bilirim, belki dinlesem ismini bilmediğim birkaç hitini daha çıkartırım. Ama plak kapakları acayiptir, unutulmazdır. “Cover art” olayının nadide örnekleridir.  Bu arada, eğer bu yazıyı okuyup da plak, plak kapağı, kapak sanatı, LP gibi terimleri ilk defa duyuyor iseniz, atın bir mesaj, yaşlılık bunalımına girip inzivaya çekilmezsem eğer, “izah etmeye” çalışırım.

Here is the cover art & lyrics to The Civil Wars single Poison & Wine

You only know what I want you to
I know everything you don’t want me to
Oh your mouth is poison, your mouth is wine
Oh you think your dreams are the same as mine
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
I always will

I wish you’d hold me when I turn my back
The less I give the more I get back
Oh your hands can heal, your hands can bruise
I don’t have a choice but I still choose you
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
Oh I don’t love you but I always will
I always will
I always will
I always will
I always will
I always will

iTunes: itunes and AmazonMP3: Amazon

Atît a mai rămas pînă la Gaudeamus: zece zile. Ca de obicei, pe ultima sută de metri se întîmplă încă destule şi la noi în editură. Ieri a ieşit din tipografie antologia DANSÎND PE MARTE ŞI ALTE POVESTIRI, cea de-a doua care dă seama despre activitatea cenaclului virtual AtelierKult. Două dintre autoarele cuprinse în sumar şi editorul au pipăit-o deja, Ştefana şi Mike au şi pozat-o, spre a dovedi că există şi arată bine; puteţi să vedeţi cartea aici şi aici. Puteţi să o comandaţi aici şi, în măsura în care sper că-mi va sosi şi mie stocul principal (cartea a fost tipărită la partenerii noştri din Iaşi), de luni sper să pot onora comenzile deja existente.

Promiteam nişte surprize pentru Gaudeamus, dar una dintre ele am s-o dezvălui (măcar parţial) în seara asta. Nu de alta, dar prea arată bine coperta viitoare ca să nu v-o arăt. În plus, această nouă apariţie va fi o dovadă a faptului că am vorbit serios în vară şi că antologiile MILLENNIUM FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION vor fi o prezenţă constantă, semestrială, pe piaţa literaturii de gen. Mai multe detalii în însemnări viitoare (cuprins, poate un fragment din prefaţă, cîte ceva despre selecţie… mai vedem!). Pînă atunci, aştept păreri.

For now, ladies and gentlemen, behold:

O ultimă veste îmbucurătoare: se pare că SRSFF-ul va ieşi din amorţeală la tîrg. Pe blogul Bujolzilor s-a anunţat apariţia antologiei ALTE ŢĂRMURI, cu un cuprins aproape în totalitate inedit şi nume grele (Sebastian Corn, Silviu Genescu, Liviu Radu, Dănuţ Ungureanu, Marian Truţă, Cristian M. Teodorescu, George Lazăr). În sumar e cuprins şi Balin Feri, aflat la debutul său pe hîrtie. Gratulálunk, Feri bacsi! Cu ocazia lansării se vor decerna şi premiile Societăţii. Aşa, dom’le, vedeţi că se poate?!

PS: Mîine o să vă arăt ce am gătit azi.