new music comin’ straight out of London from our man JayAr. With a mixtape on the way this young MC looks set to break hiphop boundaries.

Taking influence from legends such as the roots, kanye, JayZ, MI and tribe this eclectic album looks set to make waves on the new scene..
Be sure to keep your eyes posted on his site linked above, we’re hoping for a release somtime February!

Smokeless E-Cigarettes: The number one replacement for tobacco cigarettes?

The smokers have surly tried to quit the smoking habit many times. There is enormous pressure from friends and family; most common spaces including the workplace, restaurants, buses, etc are smoke-free. Even in the home, the adverse impact of second hand smoking on family members and the persistent problem of retained odors on furnishings, carpets, and even clothes is a major deterrent. The addicted smoker, however, tends to return to smoking due to the physical and emotional satisfaction he derives from it. The Electronic Cigarette or e-cigarette has been developed as a device to help in the cessation of smoking.
The Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik invented the Electronic Cigarette or e-cigarette in 2003. The concept was, however, written about by Herbert A. Gilbert in 1963, well before the public campaigns that led to the current restrictions on indoor smoking.
The e-cigarette is shaped to resemble a conventional cigarette, cigar, or pipe and consists of a cartridge containing propylene glycol containing a nicotine solution and some flavoring agent to resemble tobacco. When the smoker puts the e-cigarette to his mouth and draws air through it, an in-built heater element causes the liquid to vaporize. The power source is a rechargeable button battery. The vapor mist containing the nicotine and the tobacco flavoring gives the smoker the same experience as the conventional tobacco smoke. Once the smoker stops drawing air through the cartridge, the heater automatically switches off. The liquid cartridge is replaceable. Often a spare rechargeable battery is included for the frequent smoker.

Propylene glycol is considered a safe ingredient and is used in asthma inhalers. The vapor rapidly disperses into the atmosphere and does not have any odor. The nicotine solution is available in various concentration levels labeled low, medium or high depending on what the smoker was used to, when smoking tobacco. The intention of the manufacturers is that the smoker may be able to progressively reduce nicotine dependency by changing to lower concentrations. In addition, the tobacco flavoring agent can, over time, be replaced with other flavors, as the smoker is able to wean himself away from the need for the tobacco flavor.
Health professionals and social scientists have discussed the subject of safety of e-cigarettes around the world. So far, the consensus is that e-cigarettes do not pose any health hazards to the user or to people around him. Only Health Canada has the concern that e-cigarettes may promote nicotine addiction and possible nicotine poisoning. The e-cigarette manufacturers have responded by building in a timer device that would switch off the vapor if there is prolonged inhalation of over 8 seconds at any time.
The e-cigarette while continuing to provide the nicotine that the smoker needs to transition to complete withdrawal, has the benefit that it does not have the carbon monoxide or tar that are the major carcinogens in conventional tobacco smoke. To that extent, there is one school of argument that prolonged use of e-cigarettes is acceptable. Others, in particular social scientists argue that the common availability of e-cigarettes and their indoor use could encourage young people to experiment and some of them may, then, get addicted to conventional tobacco cigarettes. They also point out the use of e-cigarettes is comparatively recent and there is, yet, insufficient experience to pronounce them safe for use. Still others are concerned of the possibility of e-cigarette cartridges being filled with more harmful drugs.
The e-cigarette does appear to fulfill the need for a product to help wean smokers away from tobacco smoking.

We would like to thank Karien for her fine contribution and patience to finally see her article on The LiveStyle. Remember just send us your work at livestyleteam@live.com and it could be the next guest post to grace our website.

Such simple perspectives provide stark difference within the imagery, all made by conceptual artist Markus Raetz from Switzerland.

Be sure to check out his other work here.

Introducing our first guest piece:

New breed of robots called Lingodroids!

The famous sci-fi author, Issac Asimov conjured a fictional world where robots act, speak, think, and even dream. This brave new world may soon become a reality as researchers create robots called Lingodroids that can create and use their own language. Australian researchers have blended the science of robotic motion and linguistics to come up with a system that can be used by robots to create and share a language and use it to speak to each other.

Using the sounds that we have come to associate with touch-tone phone to represent alphabets, these scientists at the Queensland University of Technology has equipped their Lingodroids with a system of giving meaning to their own words. The droids are fitted with cameras to see with, sonar aided mapping tools and laser range finders to help find their way and avoid obstacles, and of course, a microphone and speaker to “speak” and hear the beeps and chirps. The research uses the most basic form of robotic language to carry out this experiment, one that represents spaces and directions.

The way these robots build and use this spatial language is similar to how language is created by human beings – by linking symbols with experiences, or in this case, places and relationship between places. Each robot has its own internal representation system for its environment based on places, direction and distance. This representation system or cognitive map is unique to each robot.

The challenge of mimicking the linguistic development of a mammalian brain lies in how these separate cognitive maps can be shared and developed into a common cognitive map. This is process through which human beings develop shared languages that are understood by others. Think in terms of two babies with different languages put in a common space with things that they are both familiar with. They each have a language to describe those things, but do not understand each other. As they interact, name things, and play with each other, they reinforce the meanings of the symbols to the other, and slowly a common cognitive map or language emerges.

This is precisely what the researchers have tried to reproduce with their Lingodroids. With the sensors provided, these robots are able to explore and build up a map of their environment and store that data using a representational system, another word for language as we understand it. This is their way of giving randomly generated names to things, places, distances and directions. This language is sufficient for its needs to navigate and solve problems. But when these robots are paired, it becomes possible to explore shared cognitive maps or a common language.

Using robotic games like go-to, where-are-we, how-far, what-direction and where-is-there; the robot pairs are even able to communicate information that is not available to the other in terms that can be understood. The idea here is to find ways of transferring the cognitive map from one robot to another and then reinforce the meaning of the symbols through these games. Even in an experiential setting, when one robot uses the map of another robot and goes to a named place that it has not gone to in the past, it reinforces the learning and connects the place with the name given to it by the other robot.

This is a far cry from the kind of linguistic skills of robots depicted in films like Star Wars or I, Robot, but it is a major breakthrough in the field of robotic heuristics. Through this experiment, the robots have been able to develop a cohesive system of symbols using places, direction and distance, and then share that system to be able to define places that they have not been to. This is the equivalent of the human brain’s function of imagination. In many senses, this is the beginning of a thinking, feeling, and dreaming world of Asimov’s robots coming true.

We would like to thank Karien for her fine contribution and patience to finally see her article on The LiveStyle. Remember just send us your work at livestyleteam@live.com and it could be the next guest post to grace our website.

Featuring a heavier focus on prep the brand has truly ‘grown up’ over the years, this collection being no exception..

Check out these amazing sketched artist depictions of some of the worlds more recognisable faces. Many of which are by freelance illustrator Carmen Ortiz.

You can’t do this sort of high quality repairing just anywhere, Self Edge is one of  few places equipped with a 1950s ‘Singer Darning’ Machine. The shop repairs jeans using a method known as “darning.” It’s way more durable than a simple cheap patch of material and essentially creates new fabric weaving it into the old denim, creating a more natural look that gets better with age.