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2012
Year of the Dragon
Islamic calendar 1432-33


Olympic Games cancelled owing to risk of infection
New resistant strains of diseases appear and spread
Mean world temperature increased by 1.5oC since 1990
Hospitals moved to peripheral regions owing to hospital bacteria scares
First man sets foot on Mars

Dolly-Friesian donates 1000th litre of blood
SatWeb virtual world complete and opened
Is that a phone, or a mouth-organ?
MedecSniff detector to be made obligatory on all packed fresh meats and perishables
Report from the Housing Fair at Vihti Cyber Village
Digimirrors hasten structural changes in garment trade

Compumedia 11.2.2012

Dolly-Friesian donates 1000th litre of blood

The world's most productive cow was crowned with a garland of flowers yesterday by the Honorary Consul of Edinburgh, Mortimer Minstrel. The famed Dolly-Friesian's owners and breeders Dolly Inc. also received an EUR 500,000 cashcard for their work.

Strawberry Stirling III, now probably the world's most famous bovine, has donated approximately 200 litres of blood each year over a five-year period. Strawberry's blood is Type O, and is therefore suitable for most blood transfusions and plasma products. The EU Health Commission has estimated that the Dolly-Friesian's blood has saved up to 500 lives.

The Scottish firm Dolly Inc. began gene manipulation experiments in the late 1990s, when the company cloned the first mammal, a sheep named Dolly. The venture aroused considerable public alarm at the time, and loud protests. In subsequent research the company moved into gene manipulation experiments on cows and pigs, with the result that it was possible to develop for cattle and pigs a blood-type closely approximating to human blood.

Following the perfection of the method and pilot trials, Dolly Inc. has succeeded in creating a herd of 18 blood-donor cows in two nine Dolly-Friesian clone units, and four donor pigs. The pigs' blood can however only be used for certain medical conditions, as for some reason the clotting factors of the porcine blood have proved to be stronger than in human blood.

The operations are expanding internationally, as Dolly Inc. have licensed their patented gene to similar concerns in more than 30 countries worldwide.

At present Dolly Inc. are working on plans to develop a totally artificial blood that will match with human types. Certain laboratory cultures have already shown great promise, said a company spokesman yesterday. He was nevertheless reluctant to go into details at this stage on the kind of gene technology being used in the artificial blood research. The spokesman pointed out that a patent would be applied for immediately on the successful completion of gene simulation tests in the laboratory, and after any animal trials that may be required.

The heroine of the hour, Strawberry, thoroughly enjoyed all the media attention before tucking in to a lunch of her normal feed of gene-manipulated soya, decorated with some delicious-looking giant clover leaves that had been specially developed for the occasion.

Address at World's Première 20.2.2012

SatWeb virtual world complete and opened

Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a very great honour for me to welcome you here on behalf of SatWeb, to attend an occasion that we have described not as a "world première", but as the "première of a world". Geodesists from 68 countries have worked tirelessly alongside satellite experts and specialists from countless other fields in order to make this an event worthy of its name.

What we are celebrating this evening is the climax to a logical sequence of events that was set in motion in the Finnish capital Helsinki some 16 years ago. From those first hesitant steps in Virtual Helsinki, the communications networks and precise computer models have spread outwards and brought us to the threshold of a great moment - our entire world has become one enormous virtual meeting-place. In recent years the tools have developed to such an extent that we think nothing of video robots travelling to the four corners of the earth by all kinds of transport, feeding data into the model that represents the virtual world. We take it for granted that thousands of low-orbit satellites constantly patrol the atmosphere, filming our planet and providing information on abrupt changes in weather, even supplying us with much-needed data on sparsely populated or uninhabited areas.

I am sure we all recognize the astonishing changes that virtual travel has brought to our daily lives. People all over the globe can meet face-to-face. Despite their obvious shortcomings, automatic translators and Babelhelmets help people to exchange ideas. Friendship across frontiers has ceased to be a political slogan and has become a reality for increasing millions of people.

Amidst the grim headlines of hunger, natural disaster and racial conflict, there is a warm, comforting ray of light to be had from the hopeful trend that virtual travel carries with it. Millions of people from countries north, south , east, and west are voluntarily coming together to help each other to learn something new. Thanks to the dense network of satellites, experts can resolve problems in the most remote areas of the world at far less cost than in the past.

Each and every one of us can transfer ourselves, almost at the speed of thought, to any corner of the globe we choose. With the completion last year of South America and South-East Asia, all the great metropolises have now been recreated in detailed virtual models. Even the mysterious continent of Antarctic seems to have been filmed down to the last snow-crystal - even if we know that in uninhabited areas accuracy is just an illusion created by the computer.

Naturally we are particularly proud of SatWeb's latest achievement, which we dare to call the première of a new world. Now anyone, anywhere can request an image of any part of the planet he chooses, and we will supply it as soon as our nearest satellite passes over the coordinates. Previously images of such clarity and detail were available only for military and intelligence use, but the time has now come for extremely high-resolution satellite pictures to enter the public domain.

The most sceptical among us might at this point wish to ask - how is the data security of the individual to be protected in such a world? I shall reply to them: insecurity begins from secrets. Under a clear and open sky, we can now set about making life increasingly safe for humankind. Of course, where necessary we wish to protect the individual's privacy. I say this sincerely, although it is quite apparent that most people are delighted that disaster areas, criminal activities, and even deserts and wildernesses can now be monitored with added efficiency. If they so wish, we can erase from all pictures given to our customers any and all registered persons and vehicles equipped with satellite positioning devices.

I think it would be fair to say that today the entire world is a kind of stage, and we the players on it. Our eyes also see ever further afield. In the virtual world we interact with other cultures in a way that would not have been possible a quarter of a century ago. Let us hope we can take this opportunity that technology has brought us and put it to good use, learning better to understand one another, and even teaching one another a greater, richer sense of humanity.

Let this be the fanfare heralding in an open and shared world community. Welcome one and all to the première of the virtual world!

Virtually Human - 21.4.2012

Is that a phone, or a mouth-organ?

Soundless cellphone employs neural net computer - reduces aural pollution levels but problems linger; EU Bridge Tournament scandal of silent messaging.

The staggering popularity of the new generation of soundless cellular phones has left even hardened telecoms experts literally open-mouthed. Mobile phone manufacturers are struggling to keep abreast of orders, and delivery times are now in the order of several weeks. Telecoms operators, too, are in difficulties as the volume of phone traffic has increased way beyond predicted levels.

The largest equipment suppliers and service providers are currently meeting in Genova, Italy to attempt to find solutions to the situation. The gathering has taken on the nature of a crisis conference.

The soundless cellphone is one in which the conventional carbon diaphragm microphone is replaced by a sensor that recognizes the user's sounds from neural impulses from the vocal chords. The transmitter end of the device does also have a microphone, but this is used only when "fingerprinting" the telephone's neural network computer to function correctly. Thereafter, the microphone is generally unnecessary. Once the telephone has been trained to respond to the user, speaking can be performed "mouth closed" and silently. Dialling also takes place in the same way, with soundless speech. Reception is via a small cordless earpiece worn inside the ear.

MUC Electronics of Fort Worth, TX originally designed the cellphone as an aid for those with speech impediments. It proved also to be a handy tool for use in noisy environments, for example on factory floors. MUC Sales Vice President Loudon Clere admitted to being somewhat shocked to discover a few months after the product's launch that the vast majority of buyers were normal office workers.

Many enthusiastic users have compared the new phone to a kind of telepathic thought-transfer. "It's quite extraordinary. I can talk to my colleagues in the middle of a business negotiation, or chat to my wife during an after-dinner speech if I want", said Panasonic marketing executive Cy Lensis-Goulden. "Subsequent versions will almost certainly feature a vidcam, and then for example an interpreter can translate simultaneously - and soundlessly - the speech of a caller shown on the phone's display while he or she stands next to the user".

The new phones have reduced the aural pollution levels in many settings. For example tiresome noise levels at airport terminals or on the NYSE floor have been cut by as much as a half. A SatWeb reporter providing live commentary on the recent White House Inaugural Ball even claimed that the background chatter at social events and cocktail parties was greatly reduced.

As we have seen so often with new advances, the soundless telephone has already been subjected to widespread abuse. Students taking examinations, for example, are now required to undergo body-searches, as certain candidates at Yale, Princeton, and the University of Witwatersrand have tried to use the soundless cellphone for cheating. A similar case of collusion occurred between playing partners at the latest EU Bridge Tournament, resulting in the disqualification of the entire Portuguese team.

The gathering of equipment manufacturers and operators will probably be concentrating on another issue, however, that of the problems arising out of overloaded networks. One new phenomenon is that the majority of users carry on at least 50% of their phone conversations with people less than 100 metres away. The opening session already proposed a solution according to which short-range conversations of this type would be directed on a set-to-set basis, thereby not loading the network except during the initial connection procedure. This will nevertheless require changes in the equipment standards, and it could present difficulties with the arrangement of billing. At this stage, the delegates in Genova have not even made a start on the vexed question of agreeing to a standard for short-range silent telephony.

Compumedia 30.5.2012

MedecSniff detector to be made obligatory on all packed fresh meats and perishables

The European Consumer Trade Commissioner has placed before the European Parliament a directive that will make the use of MedecSniff contamination detectors obligatory on all shrinkwrapped fresh meat and fish items in retail stores.

The research demanded by the Asian Union and the United States into the reliability of Medec products has been completed, and the results are impressive. The initial teething troubles have been overcome, and Medec's patented technology is reportedly now able to register at an early stage and with great accuracy when fresh and marinated meats and fish are starting to "turn" or go off.

From among a whole range of alternative operating models put forward by Medec, the one chosen is MedecSniff, which is based on the principle of "smelling" the putrefaction gases given off by rotting food. In packages containing raw meats, poultry, or fish all that will be required is a Medec indicator label, which is attached to the inside of the see-through packaging and which turns from green to red when these gases start to form. In the case of marinated or pre-prepared items, however, the Commission requires that the package include a label containing a small indicator chip that registers the electrical conductivity of the gases released. The label works otherwise in exactly the same way, changing colour when the gases are emitted.

The Consumer Trade Commissioner Senna Etola (FIN) told Compumedia that the decision to make Medec labelling compulsory, taken in the face of opposition from the US and the AU, would bring a considerable improvement in product safety for the shopper. She was also naturally delighted that the patent for the device is held by a Finnish company, but stressed that this had played no part whatsoever in her support for the measure. The EU requirement will increase demand for MedecSniff labels to such an enormous degree that it is likely to have a large beneficial effect on Finland's trade balance, although manufacturing will be centred in plants in Ireland and Austria.

Medec is also developing a detector that will allow individuals to determine accurately if they have bad breath. It is believed that a large British consortium producing mouthwashes and toothpastes intends to buy up the manufacturing rights to the breath- detector and to sell the item alongside its products.

Details of Medec and the company's operations can be had from their sat.web address at:
990-04-LR-MED

RetailNET 16.6.2012

Report from the Housing Fair at Vihti Cyber Village
"Wagons, Roll! We're all out of coffee!"

DAQ has been "up north", checking out the new cybervillage that is drawing enormous crowds from far and wide at what would otherwise be a rather humdrum housing fair in a small town in Finland. The cybervillage is definitely a miracle of the information technology age. All the detached houses in the area have at least one videowall, and the entire village is hooked up to a massively powerful local area network. And as for the DeliWagon, well... every home should have one!

Those Finns have always been a bit fixated on technology - remember, they were the first to go completely crazy over mobile telephony, they flocked to the Internet in huge numbers in the '90s when it was still "leather helmet and goggles" technology, and their Nokia and Micronokia are forever bringing out newer and more terrifying video-monster-silent-translato-phones. All the same, Finns have had some headaches in the past with online shopping, particularly in the current consumer goods trade, and a few years ago it looked as though the whole project would have to be shelved after arguments over funding and the building of exterior cold storage facilities (see RetailNET 24.8.2005).

The houses in the Vihti cybervillage aren't fitted with outdoor refrigeration units, either, although clearly this has become the norm in many Finnish households today. Here things have been taken a step further: all the goods delivered are distributed right into the individual dwelling via a network of cable-driven DeliWagons. All the roads in the community have underground cable ducts which the DeliWagons follow. The large retailing house Kesko has built a fully-automated current consumer goods distribution depot on the edge of the village, from where the wagons collect and deliver orders.

We spoke to Krister Jylha, the man responsible for the technical design of the model village, who told us that each individual home-owner has a DeliWagon, and it can be sent out on errands at any time of day or night. The user simply enters the goods required, the quantities, particular brands if specified, and his or her shopper identification code into the wagon's memory, and it goes and collects the items from the distribution depot. The customer can follow the path of the wagon in the depot from a camera mounted on the front, and can make last-second changes to the order if required. This allows for impulse buying and for the sort of goods you only used to remember when you were in the store itself, or worse still, at the check-out line. Kesko's Regional Manager Toivo Palanen believes the system is the most advanced anywhere, and I had to agree with him. Apparently Finns have not taken very well to the concept of exterior reefer units, since the idea of two cold storage areas was seen as inconvenient in the long run, and I suppose with the harsh Finnish winter the idea of "popping out for the milk" doesn't sound too pleasant at -30oC.

According to Palanen, the main design objective was to collect and transport items to the home in the simplest and logistically optimal manner. In later applications, as the cable duct network expands, wagons will be able to collect goods from Kesko depots and similar unmanned stores owned by companies with whom Kesko has entered a delivery agreement. If the store is not automated, then sales staff will be required to load the wagon.

A number of practical problems arose during the design phase, but it seems as though these have all been overcome. For example the electronic contamination detectors introduced gradually over the last year have allowed for goods past their sell-by date to be automatically removed from circulation at the depot. The DeliWagon also has its own onboard anti-theft devices that protect the items on their way to their destination. This has already been shown to be necessary, when student hackers attempted to hijack wines and spirits en route. At present the major complaint among householders in the cybervillage seems to be one of speed. For instance, if someone notices while cooking that a certain vital ingredient is missing, it still makes a lot more sense to run and get it himself. Krister Jylha defends the system against the slowness charge, however, by arguing that the low speed is a safety precaution, as children often play near the wagons when they are on the surface. He also sees the leisurely pace as an image question, as the cybervillage has tried to capture the atmosphere of an unhurried, peaceful small community.

FTWorld 7.7.2012

Digimirrors hasten structural changes in Italian garment trade

The spread of digital mirrors is causing the slow death of the traditional garment store in Italian malls, and at the same time changing the entire structure of the clothing trade.

Digital mirrors supply the exact measurements of the individual customer, on the basis of which tailor-made items can be put together cheaply and quickly by machine. This method has rapidly seized a large slice of the market formerly held by clothing stores dealing in off-the-peg items in different sizes.

The digital mirror, or "digimirror", is a wall-mounted display unit with camera surfaces around the edges and built-in laser measuring devices. In practice, it gives the person standing in front of it an image that corresponds to the normal looking-glass, but also takes his or her precise measurements. It then shows the customer a life-sized image of himself wearing the item of clothing he has selected. When the customer has made his decision to buy, the mirror draws out the patterns for the garment according to the measurements. It also checks the price and delivery data, and asks the customer to confirm the order and the cash transfer.

The mirror can also be hooked up to any of the datanets, when it can be used to present recordings of fashion shows, and even put the user in the place of the model modelling a particular garment. Siemens-Benetton's Distribution Director Claudia Skinner commented to the FT that cocktail parties are still important social events, just as are the traditional fashion shows, as many Italians still wish to be seen in public. She went on to say that many do still go to the traditional clothing stores, but that increasingly few are actually buying from there. "The limited range, the hit-and-miss fittings of readytowear items, high warehousing overheads, and the large wastage in fabrics have all contributed to an image of poor service and inflated prices", she said.

Skinner believes that the real breakthrough for the digimirrors came when they were fitted with samples from thousands of fabrics and patterns. The company also improved its software so that the mirror now shows how the chosen fabric hangs in use, standing or sitting, and how the colour looks and reflects under different lighting conditions. Already as many as one in five Italian households have digital mirrors installed, and they have also been fitted in communal areas in many modern apartment blocks. Several community centres and halls also offer the service on a rental basis. In private homes, the digimirror has often also been conveniently converted to work as an additional screen for the family vidiphone or multivision systems.

Sales through traditional clothing shops have fallen during the first half of the year by as much as a third from 2011 figures. Many stores are also reporting heavy losses. The import of ready-made garments from abroad is also down sharply. The advent of the digimirrors has not, however, had any adverse effects on the domestic Italian clothing industry, as companies have almost without exception gone over to digi-compatible automated manufacturing methods.