The best of week

Gadget AmpliTube
Manufacturer: IK Multimedia
IK Multimedia has announced that the AmpliTube is now available for iPad. As you’d expect, it works with your iRig hardware and the UI seems benefit from the extra screen real estate (let’s be honest -- twiddling all those knobs and stomp boxes on the iPod Touch was a little bit much for us to take). It comes in two flavours: free (three effects, one amp, one cab, two mics) or $20 (11 effects, five amps and cabs, two mics). Either way it’s cheaper than spending $350 for the OS X version. Engadget Garden
Maranta
Common name: Prayer Plant
Light: Marantas should be grown in medium light. Strong sunshine makes the leaves fade and develop dry, brown edges.Watering: Water plentifully, as much as necessary to keep the potting mixture thoroughly moist.Potting and repotting: Move Marantas into containers one size larger. They do not have a deep root system and grow well in shallow pans or half-pots.
Eat Cucumber sandwiches
Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian salad dressing mix, 2 loaves French bread, cut into 1 inch slices, 2 medium cucumbers, sliced, 1 pinch dried dill weed
Method:1. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, mayonnaise and Italian dressing mix. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight.2. Spread the cream cheese blend onto slices of French bread. Top with a cucumber slice, and sprinkle with dill. You can make as many or few as you like. the cream cheese mixture keeps for about a week in the refrigerator so you can make them over and over again!
Drink Alabama Slammer
Alcohols: Gin, Amaretto, Southern ComfortGlassware: Old-fashioned
Ingredients: 1/2 oz amaretto almond liqueur, 1/2 oz Southern Comfort® peach liqueur, 1/2 oz sloe gin, 1 splash orange juice, 1 splash sweet and sour mix
Method: Pour above ingredients into a stainless steel shaker over ice and shake until completely cold. Strain into an old-fashioned glass and serve.
Star of the week Chiwetel Ejiofor
DoB: July 10, 1974
You can catch him in: Salt
You know him from: Children of Men, Kinky BootsName is pronounced ‘chew-it-tell edge-oh-for’His father was killed in a car accident when Chiwetel was eleven. He survived the accident.Sung back-up vocals for a Band called Blind in the early 90s, height of their success was playing The Rock Garden in London’s Covent Garden.He has named his five favourite films (in no order) as Raging Bull (1980), The Godfather (1972), Fargo (1996), Miller’s Crossing (1990) and Do the Right Thing (1989).
Videogame

DarkStar One: Broken Alliance
Developer: Kalypso
Console: X360
There aren’t many opportunities on modern consoles to gallivant about the galaxy shooting space pirates and trading android parts, so DarkStar One: Broken Alliance fills a very large void. And in spite of its many quirks, this long and accessible space combat sim does a fine job of doing so, putting you behind an upgradable spacecraft and giving you an enormous universe to conquer. A lack of depth and lots of mission repetition make the later hours start to drag, and some cringe-worthy voice acting and overly compressed cutscenes lend the story some unintended campiness. But there’s no reason the flaws should weigh too heavily on adventurers itching to save the cosmos by blasting nasty alien ships into smithereens.
Book Eat, Pray, Love
Author: Elizabeth Gilbert
Publisher: Penguin
Gilbert (The Last American Man) grafts the structure of romantic fiction upon the inquiries of reporting in this sprawling yet methodical travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery. Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, the author, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence. Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the year’s cultural and emotional tapestry--conveying rapture with infectious brio, recalling anguish with touching candour--as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression.
Music

Symphonicities
Artust: Sting
Label: Deutsche GrammophonSymphonicities features the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Steven Mercurio. Created exclusively for his world tour and correlating album, Sting’s greatest hits have been reinterpreted with brand new orchestrations arranged by Jorge Calandrelli, David Hartley, Michel Legrand, Rob Mathes, Vince Mendoza, Steven Mercurio, Bill Ross, Robert Sadin, and Nicola Tescari. In addition to Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, highlights include fan-favourites culled from The Police songbook such as Roxanne and Next To You, as well as songs from Sting’s enduring solo career including Englishman in New York, I Burn for You, Why Should I Cry for You, and She’s Too Good For Me, among others.
Movie Groundhog Day
Director: Harold Ramis
Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowellBill Murray is at his wry, wisecracking best in this riotous romantic comedy about a weatherman caught in a personal time warp on the worst day of his life. Teamed with a relentlessly cheerful producer (Andie MacDowell) and a smart-aleck cameraman (Chris Elliott), TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. But on his way out of town, Phil is caught in a giant blizzard, which he failed to predict, and finds himself stuck in small-town hell. Just when things couldn’t get any worse, they do. Phil wakes the next morning to find it’s Groundhog Day all over again... and again... and again.