2015
Year of the Sheep
Islamic calendar 1435-36

World population approaches 8 million
Completion of Unified Theory initially proposed by Stephen Hawking
Moves to limit genetech applications meet increasing opposition
Virtual reality replaces narcotics as leading cause of addiction


Experiventure director's diary entries chart progress in adventure television
Speech by Dame Stacia Hawkwind, MEP, at preparatory committee prior to 1st reading of the Bill on the Prohibition of Advertising Toys and Dolls
Polish millionaire gets gene-manipulated pig's heart - in stable condition after 3-hour operation
Watersaver bodysuit uses electrolytes and chemicals to purify sweat & urine for drinking water
Hologram newspapers drive paper manufacturers to the brink - UPM and Canadian Paper close newsprint mills
Speech at Multimedia Advertising XV World Congress, Venice

24.2. I would never have never have believed this. I climbed and scrambled with the others up the slopes towards the Acropolis. The air was chilly for early May. The dawn halflight and a mist coming up from the sea gently concealed the scars of years of acid rain on the marble ruins. We tried to move quietly, so as not to draw the attention of the guards. I could hear the sounds of heavy breathing at my side, and I whispered a warning. The Parthenon came into view in front of me, and I stiffened instinctively.

Choking tears filled my eyes. Why did we have to perform this mission? Could not the resistance have taken some other form? But in my heart I knew there was no other way, and I looked around me at the resigned expressions on the other faces. We did what we had been sent to do, and we got out as quickly as we could. But still, why did the enemy ammunition dump have to be here, of all places? We had already made it back to Pláka when we heard the first dull explosions, followed by louder ones that shook the ground under our feet, and I jerked the plug out of the Experiventura V15. My hands were shaking.

What kind of way is this to release our aggressions, to assuage our disappointments? What idiot directed this episode? Why did Mirva have to leave me at the very worst moment? Should I sacrifice her, and my career, in order to preserve my peace of mind? Or should I submit?

Even dreams can sometimes be clearer than therapy adventures - and they leave no nasty aftertaste.

25.2. Met the producer again today at the Quo Vadis. I assured him that even if I cannot run contrary to my principles and make programmes that are addictive or manipulative, I can still make them so well that people will be prepared to pay for them. But all he thinks of is money - he said they would not be keeping me on as a contract director; the company's profit figures are well down and something has to give. They are willing to let me use the production equipment, the usual extras, and network distribution channels, but at my own risk. This means of course I could lose everything, and I'll need to borrow heavily just to get started. I decided nevertheless to take the risk.

The addictive programmes are financed by the advertisers. The theraproductions, experiventures, and epics that I made were different - they were paid for by those taking part. They have come to trust the reviewers, to rely on the right names among the directors and the actors. Let us hope they continue to do so.

14.4. So far I have managed to shoot the experiential location material for my adventure. For my backdrops I have been able to pick up from pilot- and beta-users of Virtual Finland and NokiaWorld a great deal of dialogue material from different life situations. The next two weeks will be hectic. I must try to get hold of the company's core experiacting troupe, in order to record their reactions in different scenarios. Using familiar faces is a must in this business, because I already have their basic behaviour patterns registered in the machine. I'm still short of a good screenplay, however. Perhaps I can find a framework from SatWebs' Historical Library.

20.5. The adventure is complete. It has a dash of life in the wilds, and a little old-fashioned romance. I only hope the customers will take to the legends of yesteryear.

Time to check I've crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is! I plug in the sensors, don the digital goggles and gauntlets, and set off in search of adventure. The sun is shining, I can hear birdsong, a gentle southerly breeze brings a whiff of woodsmoke and the scent of pine.

Suddenly, Mirva is by my side. Shocked, I shout: "What are you doing here?" She replies with that impish grin of hers: "You made this into a multi-user adventure, didn't you? Seems you've got that knot of yours untangled. Are you going to take me with you, or do you still just want to sulk by yourself?" The sun blazes down ever more brightly through a clearing in the trees, and the beginnings of a laugh tickles my lips, even though I know the programme still needs work - I know I shouldn't be this happy until the closing scene. But I continue the adventure, and hand in hand we walk towards the beach and the sea, glittering below. And instinctively I lean down and switch off all other external datalinks.

SatWeb/HansardEU realtime transcript, EP 25.4.2015

Speech by Dame Stacia Hawkwind, MEP, at preparatory committee prior to 1st reading of the Bill on the Prohibition of Advertising Toys and Dolls

Madam Chairman, fellow MEPs,

I must admit I had not grasped the full import and danger of this question until last weekend, when I visited my constituency and spent Saturday evening at home. If you will permit me, I shall offer you a brief fragment from my family life that may open your eyes as much as it did mine. Naturally it would be ideal if all of us had the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the toys under discussion, but regrettably time does not allow. The manufacturing plants are turning these advertising devices out as fast as they can make them, and soon voters across the continent will be well and truly brainwashed. How will we then be able to reach a sensible decision?

Although we are currently very hard-pressed with work on a number of new items and directives, I decided to travel home physically for the weekend. I have noticed that videotelephony does not always give an accurate picture of everything that is going on in the home or in the constituency office. What I saw and heard on Saturday made me change my stand on the Bill under discussion.

My seven-year-old son had received as a free gift this latest model of the Cyberads Inc. Cyberteddy. The bear has been in our household for a month now, and I had previously seen it onscreen in my son's lap. On those occasions, however, it did not speak! I wonder if you would feel happy about toys speaking to your children in this fashion. Listen to the following recording and draw your own conclusions on the growing Cyberteddy army, already a million strong if we are to believe the manufacturers' recent boasts.

"Goodnight, Sammy! Today was a nice day. Can I come shopping with you again tomorrow? There's an advertisement on the multivision now, please let me watch the advertisements, they have new programming routines and new things for me to talk about... It's nice that you are here beside me watching, Sammy... Do you need a new pullover like that one? Wouldn't it be nice if you had a new virtual-geared tricycle? Can you stroke me a bit, it feels so good...Hey, now you'd like a Gelawhopper ice-cream, I bet...".

And there is more. This teddybear could be straight from the pages of a behaviourist textbook. He is easy to befriend, he is easy to please in the initial stages, and he appeals to the caring and sharing instinct of the child. Gradually he begins to demand that he may watch digivision and multivision casts - particularly the paid commercials. Thousands of advertising agencies who have bought Cyberads licences are already inserting into their satellite commercial spots a datastream that feeds advertisement agents into the cybertoys' memory units. Before anyone recognizes it, the teddybear has wrapped the family around his paw. In this way he able to influence viewing patterns, shopping preferences, and little by little can probably affect the mental well-being of the entire home.

I was alarmed to see that my own household was in shocking disarray. There were opened packages and boxes of various shapes and sizes littering the floor, and the entire apartment was dusty as though nobody had cleaned for weeks. My husband admits that things have got out of control, but he is reluctant to deprive the boy of his dearest toy and friend.

The speed with which this phenomenon has spread across the continent means that we cannot call on long-term statistics to register changes in buying habits. I firmly believe, however, that this form of covert operant conditioning, making use of Skinnerian "baby box" doctrines in the worst possible fashion, cannot be allowed to continue.

I propose therefore, in the strongest possible terms, that we vote in favour of the Bill on the Prohibition of Advertising Toys and Dolls. Thank you.

Lancet 4.5.2015

Polish millionaire gets gene-manipulated pig's heart - in stable condition after 3-hour operation

In a three-hour operation performed yesterday at Papworth, near Cambridge, Polish multi-millionaire Stanislav Lavczic became the first human recipient of a genetically-manipulated pig's heart. The transplant operation went off successfully, and surgeons report that the patient is in a satisfactory condition.

The Scottish genetech company Dolly Inc. came to public attention some 20 years ago after successfully cloning a sheep. This was followed by the development of a herd of genetically altered cows which could be used for human blood transfusions. Today the great majority of blood transfusions are performed using blood from these cattle.

Eleven years ago, Dolly Inc. began genetic trials with the aim of altering the internal organs of the pig to match those in humans. At the beginning of 2013 laboratory experiments were carried out to test for rejection of foreign tissue in pig hearts that had been genetically manipulated for transplanting purposes. The results were encouraging, and at the beginning of this year the EU's Health Commission gave the go-ahead for a transplant of a pig's heart into a human patient.

Stanislav Lavczic, who made his fortune in energy transformer engineering, has suffered from chronic heart disease that does not respond even to the latest treatments or implants, and his condition is such that an artificial heart is also out of the question. Six months ago, doctors gave him a maximum of two years to live. At this point Lavczic heard of the work being carried out at the Dolly laboratories and invested some EUR 30 million in the project. At the same time he became the first human to volunteer for the transplant of a pig's heart to replace his own.

Dolly Managing Director David Stricker comments that the pig was selected for the genetic experiments on the basis of the similarity of the animal's heart - and several other organs - to that of humans. Stricker adds that new transplants are not scheduled in the near future, until a detailed picture can be built up of the behaviour of the transplanted organ in action. The Scottish company is nevertheless raising a herd of pigs, running to several thousand, all of which have genetically manipulated hearts and certain other organs. The implication is that if the first operation turns out to be successful, the way will be clear for this to become almost a routine procedure, avoiding much of the earlier problem of shortage of donors.

The worldwide Natural Development Association (NADA) today issued a statement on the heart transplant, condemning the doctors performing the operation as "filthy swine". According to NADA, the use of genetically-altered and artificial organs destroys the natural development of human life and is turning man into a monstrous creature such as produced by Dr. Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's 19th century Gothic horror story.

SatWeb 26.7.2015

World Trade Digest 11.9.2015

Hologram newspapers drive paper manufacturers to the brink - UPM and Canadian Paper close newsprint mills

Two of the world's largest wood processing concerns, the Finnish-based United Paper Mills-Kymmene and Canadian Paper Mills, have both announced they will be abandoning newsprint production following recent losses and downsizing.

In the press statement issued by Canadian Paper Mills, the company reported that the Hologram Division acquired in a merger two years ago would henceforth become CPM's strategic spearhead. "This is not a hasty decision; we resolved at the beginning of the decade that our core business area in the future would be the production of information platforms, and not wood processing", emphasized the company's CEO German Rice.

UPM-Kymmene also issued a statement on closures, but gave no indication of its future plans.

In the background to the news, which comes as little surprise to industry analysts, lies the rapid growth in the popularity of hologram newspapers, magazines and books. Just a few years ago, sales of literature for onscreen consumption were relatively insignificant, and despite doomsday fears voiced as long ago as the 1980s of a "paperless society", printed newspapers and books were holding their own in the market, because they were relatively compact and could be carried anywhere. But then along came the hologram duplicator, the so-called Nokia Duplicator, and the printed media market was turned upside down almost overnight. The device allowed the duplication of holograms as fast as print newspapers, and paper has since rapidly lost ground among discerning readers.

Today hologram papers and books can be bought and read everywhere. The actual hologram reader or holoset slips conveniently into the pocket and weighs not much more than a videophone. When the holoset is taken out, it allows for a newspaper or book to be opened before the reader's eyes. A typical holoset has a memory capacity of anything up to 1000 books or newspapers, and turning of the pages or switching from one book or paper to another takes place at the press of a button. One of the most familiar sights on the beach this summer has been a holoset placed in the sand, adjusted to the correct angle and size of page and print - and a dozing user lying in front of it. Some things never change about holiday reading!

In the most sophisticated and expensive versions, it is even possible to project a hologram page in the air above your morning muesli bowl and coffee-cup. In other words, holosets are easy to carry around and much easier and more versatile in use than the old-fashioned broadsheet newspaper or books. Many newspapers have taken the hint and have introduced hologram supplements or abandoned paper editions altogether, and publishers have chosen to drop paperback versions of their bestsellers in favour of holoset editions.

The new market conditions have brought headaches for several national economies, with Russia, Canada, Sweden, and Finland all being particularly badly hit. For example the Finnish Trade Research Institute has estimated that the country's pulp and paper industry has shrunk in the past two years by a staggering 75%. Similar figures from Sweden have triggered panic selling on EU exchanges and the value of the Euro has slipped by some 8% since January.

The European Union's Trade Commission forecasts that it will be forced to inject as much as EUR 18 billion into the Finnish economy over the next two years in order that the country can adjust to the new situation. At a recent meeting of EU Trade Ministers in Rome, the French representative opposed such subsidies and claimed that the reason for Finland's current economic malaise was simply the Finns' inability to predict the consequences of technological development that they had themselves helped to foster. Amidst heated scenes, the Finnish representative accused her French colleague of dementia or selective amnesia, pointing out that Northern Europe had played its part in rescuing France from bankruptcy in the wake of the collapse of the wine industry following the rogue fungicide outbreak only 12 months ago.

Naturally, the new situation has also thrown up a small class of "paper freaks", who gather into their collections any and all literature and other material printed on paper.

SatWeb - simultaneous transcript 21.10.2015

Speech at Multimedia Advertising XV World Congress, Venice

(Sissy Hunter, Marketing Director, Sony Europe)

Madame Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, virtual friends!

It is a great honour for me to deliver the opening address at what is probably the most important congress in the Federation's 15-year history. I assume that I have been chosen because our company is largely responsible for the development of the technologies that are currently under threat from the authorities. Now, if ever, is the moment for a determined response, if we are to overcome the fears and dangers that face our industry.

Our latest product shows splendidly what can be done with the latest in information technology. In field trials, FourSale has regularly and almost embarrassingly outperformed even the best videophone sales reps. As I'm sure you are all aware, FourSale is a highly developed personality imitation of a telephone sales representative, which can be transmitted to viewers via the advertising channel of their multivision units. A huge database of human behaviour models has been integrated into the programme. Particular attention has been paid to the ways in which the individual covers up the fact that he or she does not understand everything that is said to him. FourSale is capable of interpreting accurately the customer's areas of interest from eye movements, is able to react correctly to even the slightest positive gestures, and is designed carefully to present an optimum onscreen image blending innocence and interest in the customer's needs.

I do not need to tell you that some members of the EU Commission have voiced the opinion that programmes such as FourSale work on the subconscious and in this way force people to buy the products that they are shown. This is of course inflammatory nonsense. In fact FourSale only performs in the same fashion as the door-to-door brush or encyclopaedia salesmen many of us have seen from old movies and newsreels. I hope that nobody would claim that in selling from door to door such things as consideration of the customer's needs, a friendly smile, and a shrewd grasp of sales psychology were somehow "dangerous". If multimedia advertising is now to be regarded as "threatening" or "manipulative", we are taking a large step backwards - a step of a hundred years and more - in the development of the noble art of marketing.

The views expressed within the EU are of crucial importance to us, not least because marketing has long been in the throes of a crisis of a different kind. Consumers are able by means of the search-agents to bypass the conventional means and channels of advertising. The passive advertisement of the past - one in which there is no interactive discourse with the client - is dead and buried. The cold hard truth for us is that today the most effective sales channels to be found are the official statements and test results issued by the consumer protection authorities, and we all know very well that such officials are not the most marketing-friendly individuals on the planet.

Friends, we are under attack. What weapons do we have with which to defend ourselves? They are entertainment and the ability to please - to entertain, and to please. I suggest that in the months and perhaps even years to come, we must all pay especial attention to the helpfulness and the pleasing aspect of our advertising. Let us ensure that FourSale and other similar programmes contain as much as possible that is entertaining for the viewer, that rewards his attention and his willingness to enter into conversation. We MUST do this, even at the cost of our margins on the sales we score. I firmly believe that we can turn public opinion around to our side, if only our artificial personalities are sufficiently entertaining and liked by the viewers.

Friends, I would like to stress above all that at this critical moment in our history we must all BELIEVE in the future of multimedia advertising, and focus our efforts on optimising results in the long term. Success will not come overnight, and it will not come without hard work, and cooperation, putting our shoulders to the wheel. In closing, let me quote to you some words that I recently discovered from a history file covering a period nearly 100 years ago. They belong to a song, a battlecry of the time, and they embody exactly the sentiments of international unity that we must carry in our hearts as we march into the future:

"So comrades, come rally And the last fight let us face..."

Thank you very much.

Hannula I. & Linturi R. 1998: 100 Phenomena.
Yritysmikrot Oy, Helsinki 1998. Copyright notices ISBN 952-9508-18-2