potatoes
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If you're part of the 'younger set with high income,' you might like this purple potato
Potato breeding programs at Michigan State University and Texas A&M have been churning out modified spuds for the better part of a decade, if not longer, but thanks to A&M's Creighton Miller, we now have a better idea of the 'designer' potato's target market. "What we're doing now is developing unique varieties that appeal to the younger set that is high-income that are willing to try something different," he explained in an interview with AgriLife Today, holding a variety of product, including a "gourmet" potato sporting "red flesh with splashes of yellow." Michigan State's program, meanwhile, has developed a variety called "Raspberry." According to a report in Txchnologist, that potato has vibrant red flesh and a skin that's flavored like the fruit. You might get a good feel for how it tastes by taking a bite while it's still garden-fresh, but that particular potato, along with another simply referred to as "MSQ558-2RR," are likely destined to end their lives as thin-cut chips. De-licious. [Photo credit: Texas A&M AgriLife Communications]
Potatoman Seeks the Troof in the fields of a live-action farming trailer
Potatoman Seeks the Troof isn't a live-action agriculture roleplaying game as its trailer would lead us to believe (unfortunately), but it does look intriguing in its own right (fortunately). Potatoman comes from indie developer Pixeljam, and it's available for PC and Mac now, solo for $3, or in a variety of fresh Pixeljam bundles, spanning the Trilogy, Octology and Holiday Bonus.The Trilogy costs $5 and includes Potatoman, Planeteri and the Bitku beta. The Octology doesn't include any squid-like sea creatures, but it does have all three games in the Trilogy, along with Snowball, Marathon of Doom, the Potatoman soundtrack, Pixeljams Volume 1 album and Dino Run SE. For $15, grab the Holiday Bonus, which includes all of the above goodies, along with the Dino Run text adventure and Beezlebuds alpha.The above cinematic trailer for Potatoman Seeks the Troof, however, is completely free.
Latest Minecraft snapshot adds 'Wither Boss,' baked potatoes and invisibility potions
The latest install-at-your-own-risk Minecraft update (snapshot "12w34a") is now available over at the official Mojang blog. Once installed, several fundamental changes are made to the way maps and nether portals function. You'll also get some new items, things to make from said items, and probably the coolest creature ever.Dubbed the "Wither Boss," this new baddie is a three-headed floating skeleton torso that shoots exploding skulls from each head. It does not appear as though the creature actually exists anywhere in game yet, but the files are all there, waiting to be hacked in if you've got some kind of death wish (as seen in the demonstration video above by Sethbling).This update also adds potatoes and carrots, the former a reagent for baked potatoes and the latter a key ingredient in invisibility potions, of all things. Splashing the potion will make you and any surrounding mobs invisible, but will not affect your armor or any items you happen to be carrying. Meanwhile, splashing a baked potato on yourself would just be silly.
Yissum develops potato-powered batteries for the developing world
Researchers in Jerusalem have just announced they've developed super simple, sustainable, organic electric batteries which are powered by treated potatoes. Their findings have just been published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, and detail uses of the batteries in the developing world where infrastructure is lacking. The apparently highly efficient battery is made from zinc and copper electrodes and a potato slice which has been boiled. The act of boiling the potato increased the electric power around 10 fold in comparison to an untreated potato, giving it power for days, and sometimes weeks depending on the conditions. The potato batteries are also, of course, way cheaper than regular commercial cells. The technology has officially been made available free of charge to the developing world. We knew there was a reason we loved potatoes so much. The full press release is below.
Opera parodies Google's Chrome speed tests mercilessly (video)
This, dear friends, is the height of comedy. Opera's pair of Scandinavian browser testers are back, this time applying some extremely high-tech speed tests to determine whether the Norwegian browser is faster than boiling a potato. Seriously, if you're not laughing at this, you either work for Google or you have a funny bone missing. In more concrete news, the acceptance of Opera Mini to the iPhone has accounted for a cool 70 percent of the Mini's growth over the month of April, with 2.6 million Apple users downloading the software worldwide. But that's not what you're here for, you're here to see the epic video, which awaits after the break along with Google's original. [Thanks, Ian G.]
