I’ve been a fan of the Meatwagon since I joined them on one of their rare trips up north (Highgate. If you go much further north you’re in “Here there be dragons” territory). The burger I was served was a revelation. Juicy, rich and full of flavour, it hit all the right buttons. Apparently I wasn’t alone, because the Meatwagon seems to have kicked off a Meat Renaissance in London.

On the hunt for a burger to compare to the Meatwagon’s, my first stop was at the growing chain, Byron Burger. This is a fast-food joint in a modern retro style. I’m afraid it doesn’t live up to Meateasy standards but it does offer a more reliable experience. For starters the restaurants don’t move and it doesn’t take an hour to get a burger. The burger itself felt a bit more traditional from an English point of view. It’s drier, more… I don’t know. It feels like it’s trying to be the perfect fast-food burger. An evolved Burger King? Better quality ingredients, better flavour, more attention to detail, better sides. It’s a burger restaurant, not a fast-food joint.

I’ve visited Byron in Soho, Angel and Kensington and they’re all the same. So… it’s good. Not gourmet. Not amazing. Just – really high quality burgers. Perhaps its the ubiquity of it that further reduces my desire for it? Why obsess over something that’s easy to get hold of?

I’ve not tried Hawksmoor’s burger but given the quality of their steaks I can understand why the food crowd holds it in high regard. It’s regularly up there in the list of the best burgers in London. Maybe I’ll get back there one day but I think if I do, it’ll be for the steak.

In early 2011 a few other burger joints started to pop up, capitalizing on growing need for quality burgers that seems to have stemmed from the Meatwagon’s success. None seemed to get the rave reviews that would send me schlepping across London to sample them until, eventually, thankfully, the Meatwagon evolved (by way of a stolen wagon and the support of the twitterverse) in to the the pop-up Meateasy.  Located up the fire escape and across the roof of a broken-down old pub in New Cross, the Meateasy ran through most of summer 2011. It was subject to rave reviews, massive queues and was visited by myself 3 times despite being on the other side of London (Bacon Cheese, Dead Hippy, Chilli) before closing at the end of the summer to the great distress of every hipster and burger enthusiast in London.

Earlier this year London’s they were rewarded for their support with MEATliquor, one of the most fantastic places to eat in London. It serves an expanded menu (though I did sample the Dead Hippy again, just to be sure) and is an amazing venue. It feels like the place Garlic & Shots could be if they got their thumb out of their arse. It feels like Madam JoJos with meat. It’s brilliantly decorated and dark enough that coming in on a sunny day makes you wonder if you haven’t gone blind. Go.

One caveat – if you don’t want to queue, go after 1pm and before 5pm. It gets busy and there are no reservations.

Of course, burgers aren’t the only kind of meat. Just a year or so ago I went to Bodean’s BBQ, an American-style bbq chain serving, as it turns out, pretty bad food. Still, it felt good to be there and really fitted the occasion (stag do). I haven’t been back since, but still long for the taste of a proper rack of ribs. So you can probably tell I was pleased when I discovered Pitt Que, a BBQ joint that was mentioned in the same breath as MEATliquor.

It didn’t disappoint. The ribs weren’t ready (still in the smoker) so I resorted to the lamb belly, a cut I’d not considered before. It was fatty, which is to be expected of belly, and, just, omg. Wow. Mouthgasm. I’ve not been given food that tasty in a long time. I have to visit again. It’s almost too good.

I tried the pulled pork and the pork chop special but wasn’t so impressed with either though this may be because the rich, smokey lamb was simply overpowering everything else as my dining partners seemed to enjoy them very much.

Hopefully when I next make it back the ribs will be available – I’ve got a feeling they’ll be the star of the show.

Pitt Que has the same first-come first-serve seating policy as the MEATliquor and has similar queues as a result but, in addition, it’s shut between 3 and 5pm. We turned up at 2pm and were offered a table immediately, though it looks like a wait of 15 minutes or so is more common at that time.

Next on my list of Duke’s Brew & Que in Dalston and Kua ‘Aina (a Hawaiin themed burger joint) off Carnaby Street. I’ve got high hopes! Of course there are many others, but I just can’t keep track of them all.

If there’s a part of London’s Meat Renaissance that should be on my list, I’d love to know about it.

Our sub-concious mind makes a decision up to six seconds before we become consciously aware of it.. This has far-reaching implications for philosophy that don’t stop at the sensationalist level.

In BBC Horizon’s The Secret You, Marcus du Sautoy explores the nature of consciousness. To my mind, the most interesting of the subjects was that of an experiment performed by Dr John-Dylan Haynes in Berlin. Marcus takes part in the experiment himself (read his Times article) and finds himself profoundly affected by the idea that someone else can be conscious of his decision before he himself is aware he has made one.

I find this concept intriguing for other reasons.

We can think of the conscious mind as one with purpose and direction. Like an arrow (though perhaps a meandering one), we forge a path to our destination. Now we discover that our conscious mind is not the tip of the arrow but merely an observer. It watches the flight of the arrow with the false belief that it is in control.

Some would think of this as reason for despair, as Marcus du Sautoy seems to. I see it as enlightenment. By accepting that we are not in control, we free ourselves of a false belief. We no longer have to charge head-on in to obstructions and can instead look at them from an external point of view. We can consider our actions, make adjustments and influence future decisions. We can learn and we can predict. We can imagine a future with us in it.

From the Tao De Ching:

The best of man is like water,
Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them,
Which flows in places that others disdain,
Where it is in harmony with the Way.

This is translated in to the Tao ideal, mind like water. In understanding that we are not the tip of the arrow, we see that we do not have to fight our nature, nor to we have to fight the world around us. Our conscious mind does not control our actions and we should not try to make it do so.

I was thinking about these concepts this morning as I was lying in bed, the alarm just having gone off. I was considering getting up and getting dressed. I don’t remember at any point making the conscious decision to get out of bed. Instead, I thought about all the reasons why I might do so. I thought about work and what time I needed to be in. I thought about the cold outside and the warmth of the duvet. I became aware that the decision was already made. I was going to get out of bed. I was going to get dressed. The only question was when it was going to happen. I decided to stop thinking about it and, a short time later, I got up and started putting on my clothes.

Next time you do something, consider when the decision to do it was made. When did you decide to have a cup of tea? It wasn’t at the moment of turning the kettle on, that is certain. Your decision to go to work regularly could well have been made years ago. I doubt you consciously decide to go to work every morning. You don’t have a discussion with yourself about whether to put on your pants or whether to go to work naked. You just do it and, after the fact, assume that it was because you meant to.

I’m going to leave that there for now and go and get some work done.

Eight simple steps towards making you a morning person.

Aside from excessive alliteration, there are a great many techniques to make your mornings a little easier to handle. I’ve gathered a heap of easy-to-follow techniques that will help you get out the right side of bed.

Breakfast within 45 minutes

By eating early in the morning, you are telling your body “Relax. There’s food available. No need to worry.” This not only calms your nerves but sets your metabolism up for the day. This reduces cravings for high-sugar, high-fat items as your body understands that it’s going to get the calories it needs. When you wake up in the morning you have something to wake up for: a tasty breakfast. Keep fruit, juice, milk, bread and cereals in the house for a quick start, or if you’re feeling adventurous think about the possibility of an Asian breakfast such as soup noodles. An automatic tea or coffee machine is a boon, as waking up to the smell of a fresh brew is just shy of heaven.

A light dinner, as early as you can

Food takes time to digest. A heavy meal sitting in your stomach can be uncomfortable as you try to sleep. You are more likely to wake up and more likely to need a toilet break in the middle of the night. Eat a light dinner and eat it early if you can. If you eat a good breakfast in the morning, you’ll soon get used to having lunch as your main meal of the day.

No caffeine for 8 hours before bed

The half-life of caffeine is around 4-5 hours. This means caffeine that went in to your system at 8pm is still going strong at 12pm and doesn’t fully disappear until the next morning. Cue one night of restless sleep. Make the last cup of the day at 3pm and you’ll find that when 11 o’clock comes around, you’ll be ready for bed.

No bright lights late at night

Turn off the television, turn off the computer, dim the lights in the living room and settle down with a hot drink and a book. Your metabolism reacts to bright lights as though they are the sun. They keep you alert and mean that when you do go to bed, your body still thinks it is day time. Try not to confuse it and get the light level down at least an hour or two before bed.

Simulate sunrise

Your light sensitivity works the other way around, too. Sunrise lamps that gradually increase the light in your room are a great way to convince your body it’s the right time to get up. You may find that you’ll be able to use one to replace an alarm clock. That’s got to be more pleasant.

Wake up to flowers

Having fresh flowers in your bedroom means you are more likely to wake up in a good mood. People who have flowers in their house are generally less anxious and more compassionate. Also, they’re pretty and smell nice… so what have you got to lose?

Go to bed at regular times

A tried and tested cure for insomnia is enforcing regular hours on your sleep cycle. Go to bed and get up at the same times every day, including weekends, whether you are tired or not. You will soon train your body to follow the pattern you’ve set. You’ll find yourself tired at the right time, able to sleep better and waking up before that pesky alarm clock.

Finally, ditch your alarm clock

Waking up without an alarm clock is a fabulous thing. If you can train yourself in to regular hours and better sleep, you should find yourself waking up without one. Soon, you’ll be able to do away with your alarm, the most awful of morning annoyances. Instead, you’ll be waking up to a sun-rise, flowers, fresh coffee and the prospect of a good breakfast and a fabulous day. Doesn’t that sound awesome?

Severe food allergies are on the rise but scientists believe there may be a solution.

In the United Kingdom, roughly one in twenty infants suffer from severe reactions to foods including milk, eggs and tomatoes, compared to one in 40 in the 1970s.

The extraordinary rise in peanut allergy is at the forefront of public knowledge. An increase of over 115% of reported cases between 2001 and 2005 leads to an estimate of 27,500 sufferers in England alone. Peanut allergies range from a mild numbness on eating to full-blown anaphylactic shock simply from breathing in traces of peanuts present in the air. Obviously such severe reactions can have a major effect on the sufferer’s life.

Allergies of all kinds are on the rise across the world. According to a 2004 survey, roughly 30% of the UK population has at some point suffered from an allergic reaction to a wide range of allergens including food, pollen, dust, pet hair and insect bites.

Now however, researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, have discovered a way to “turn off” severe food allergies in mice, giving sufferers a ray of hope.

Sugar-modified proteins are tolerated by the immune system

Led by Doctors Shau-Ku Huang, and Yufeng Zhou, the research team have discovered that by providing immune cell receptors with a modified version of the allergy-causing protein, the immune system can be trained to recognise and react safely to the unmodified form of the protein.

Zhou fed his mice the modified protein once a day for three days before feeding them the unmodified protein. Some of the mice had minor reactions such as puffy eyes and itchiness, but none had serious ones. The severe reaction was gone.

May contain traces of wheat

A consumer-ready product may not be available for some time, but it may be the case that within the next decade, severe reactions are a thing of the past and we can finally put an end to “May contain traces of nuts” on a packet of peanuts.

Unfortunately, the millions of people with intolerances to lactose, wheat and many other foods may be in for a much longer wait. Causes of food intolerance are poorly understood. What we do know is that it has nothing to do with the immune system, so Zhou’s treatment will have no effect.

After a long hunt a new Earth has been found orbiting a red dwarf star. Is this the defining moment of humanity’s journey to the stars?

A new Earth, named Gliesi 581 g, has been found less than twenty light years distant, which might seem a long way but is in our “back yard” in astronomical terms.

This suggests that the search for aliens (green or otherwise) could be destined for success sooner rather than later.

The discovery brings a new hope to a generation of astronomers and sci-fi enthusiasts, that this might be the start of a slew of discoveries of earth-like “exoplanets”.

The planet is of similar mass and size to earth and orbits within the habital zone of its star, Gelesi 581, putting it squarely in the “Goldilocks” zone and suggesting that it may support life.

Gliesi 581 g’s orbital period is equal to its rotation period about, meaning that one half always faces the red dwarf star and is bathed in continual sunlight with the other in perpetual darkness, creating a temperate zone between the two in which, astronomers say, life may survive.

The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, was a result of a collaboration between astronomers from the University of California, the Carnegie Institute and the Geneva Observatory, with observations being taken from telescopes across the globe.

“You’re smack dab in the middle of the habitable zone, so that’s perfect,” says James Kasting (not involved in the discovery), who has studied the two planets on the zone’s edges. “That’s the most exciting exoplanet I’ve seen yet.”

The hunt for these “Goldilocks” planets has been raging for years, with the first extra-solar planet being discovered in 1995, when a giant planet, 51 Pegasi b, was found orbiting the nearby G-type star 51 Pegasi.

Life could be out there

In December 2008, Dr Ragbir Bhathal of the University of Sydney, a leading member of the Australian Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life (OZSETI) discovered a signal originating from the general area of the Gliese 581 system.

‘We found this very sharp signal,” Bhathal said, “sort of a laser lookalike thing which is the sort of thing we’re looking for – a very sharp spike.

Much like the WOW signal of 1977, Bhathal has not yet been able to find his “spike” again after its initial discovery, though this “not unexpected” given the distances involved.

Despite this, it is believed that the search for alien life could be over in this generation.

It is believed by many scientists, including Arthur C. Clarke, that the hunt for direct, laser-based alien signals such as these is more likely to achieve results than the more common radio-telescope approach which searches for broadcast AM or FM signals as these are more likely to degrade as they pass through the vast interstellar void.

The Parkes Radio Telescope, Australia

Earth-like planets are ten-a-penny

Steven Vogt, one of the astronomers responsible for the discovery, believes this discovery is so close to home that suggests the existence of large numbers of similar planets. “The number of systems with potentially habitable planets is probably on the order of 10 or 20 per cent, and when you multiply that by the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, that’s a large number. There could be tens of billions of these systems in our galaxy.”

He told Discovery News: “Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say that the chances for life on this planet are 100 percent. I have almost no doubt about it”.

Of course, just because Gliese could feasibly support life doesn’t mean that it does, or that the lifeforms present are anything we could relate to and, even if we can make contact, it might not be quite the boon we all hope for.

“If aliens visit us,” suggests Stephen Hawking, “the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.”

Whatever the eventual outcome, the frenzy of study that the discovery of Gliese 581 g has initiated continues unabated.

I’m using Leopard (10.5.8), but this process is largely the same for Snow Leopard (10.6).

1. Register as an Apple Developer. You’ll need to do this to install XCode.
2. Install XCode.

   XCode is Apple’s developer platform. For Leopard you’ll need XCode 3.14. For Snow Leopard, you’ll need the latest version. You can find both of them here: Apple Developer Downloads – Developer Tools.

3. Install MacPorts

   MacPorts allows you to run specific versions of Ruby, Rubygems & Sproutcore without messing about with the default Mac OSX installations. You will also be able to run other versions side-by-side in the future.

4. Install ruby and rubygems

   Open up Terminal and install ruby & rubygems on to MacPorts:
   sudo port install ruby rb-rubygems

5. Install Sproutcore

   sudo gem install sproutcoreThis can take a while to start showing that it’s working, but it is. Be patient.

6. That’s it! Now you’re ready to get your first Sproutcore app up and running. See how to get started with Sproutcore.

I went to the Surreal House exhibition with high hopes. It’s been getting good reviews and it sounds interesting. Having experienced the wonder of the Dali museum over in Spain I was expecting twisted version of everyday items. Sofas that eat you, cabinets with human feet, mirrors that reflect someone else…

What I got was unexpected, and not in a good way. The Surreal House is pretentious, dry and dull. It presents surreality as something to be regarded in silent contemplation rather than enjoyed. The layout is dark, angular and minimalist. It says nothing about surrealism. It says nothing about anything other than a vast lack of imagination on the part of the curator.

A surrealist’s house should be surreal!

The explanations of works said less about the work (method, idea, form) and more about the ability of the writer to confuse and baffle with artsy rubbish. If someone talked to you like this in real life you would laugh at them. It’s ridiculous and unhelpful and, at the bottom of it, boring and annoying.

There is the occasional good piece. Something that fires your imagination. Something that challenges you, or entertains. But a woman wearing a horse’s head and flapping around in some soap doesn’t do it for me. It’s staid. It’s unoriginal. It’s dull. It’s pretentious. It is, not to put too finer point on it, wank.

Best bits

The humour in these two pieces shows what is possible when surrealism doesn’t take itself too seriously, which made them stand out from the crowd.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Tower of Babel – Paul Thek (1976)

Unfortunately you can’t really see the detail that went in to the construction in the picture (above). There are rats ascending a ladder from the cabin up to an olive tree that rests at the top of the structure. I’m not quite sure what it means, but the rats (and the fact that they are red) piqued my interest. Also, the tower is a bizarre and clever piece of sculpture.

Jan Svankmajer – Down to the Cellar (1983)

This lovely short film conveys fears, both imagined and real, of a young girl going down to the cellar to get some potatoes. I found it fun and serious and silly and dark all at the same time. Superb.