The Change Mariner

Intel Expected to Make Chips for Digital TVs

Yahoo! News:

Intel wants to get inside your television. The world's largest microchip maker will soon unveil plans to make chips for digital televisions, opening a fast-growing market to a company that dominates the computer chip business, an industry executive familiar with the plans said on Wednesday.

The entry of Santa Clara, California-based Intel Corp. would pose a serious threat to established consumer electronics companies in Europe and Japan, such as Philips and Sony Corp, as well as emerging players like Texas Instruments Inc.. analysts said.

Chris Chinnock, senior researcher at Insight Media, which publishes an electronics display newsletter, said Intel's arrival would underline the contrast in the television market between consumer electronics companies -- which have enjoyed relatively high margins and slower product turnover cycles -- and computer companies, which operate on razor-thin margins and regular product updates.

PC makers Gateway Inc. and Dell Inc. have already shaken up television sales with lower-cost liquid crystal-based sets, he said.

Kraft Co-CEO Betsy Holden Demoted After Setbacks

FOXNews.com:

Betsy Holden, under fire for months as Kraft Foods Inc. struggled through a down period, lost her job as co-chief executive when the food and beverage giant abandoned its dual CEO structure and left Roger Deromedi in charge.

...

American consumers' increased health concerns have put packaged food companies under pressure recently. Worries about the artery clogger "trans fat," rising obesity and the trend toward low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets have hurt sales of cookies and some other packaged foods.

CKE Restaurants Tout 'Low-Carb' Burger

Yahoo! News:

Hardee's and Carl's Jr. fast-food chains consider it thinking outside the bun -- capitalizing on America's low-carbohydrate craze, they're launching a bunless, lettuce-wrapped burger with just a handful of carbs.

CKE Restaurants Inc., the chains' parent, has unveiled the new menu item as Americans look to lop off carbs, in everything from beer to ketchup. Not coincidentally, the rollout precedes Americans' traditional New Year effort to lose weight.

But dietitians are weighing in, warning that whether it's the Hardee's low-carb Thickburger, with a third of a pound of beef, or its Carl's Jr. low-carb, half-pound Six Dollar Burger cousin, consumers should chew on this: it's still high in fat and calories.

...

For the record, the low-carb Thickburger has about 420 calories, 32 grams of fat and 5 grams of carbs, compared with its original's 850 calories and 57 fat grams. The low-carb Six Dollar Burger has 490 calories, 37 grams of fat and 6 grams of carbs. The regular? About 960 calories, 62 fat grams and 61 carbohydrate grams.

Low-carb, high-protein diets have enjoyed a resurgence, with books such as "Atkins for Life" reversing decades of dietary advice and saying the way to lose weight is to cut out carbs in favor of high-protein diets.

Intel Digital TV

New York Times:

The Intel Corporation is planning to do to digital television what it has already done to computing.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens on Jan. 8, Intel is expected to disclose the development of a class of advanced semiconductors that technologists and analysts say will improve the quality of large-screen digital televisions and substantially lower their price, according to industry executives close to the company.Intel's ability to integrate display, television receiver and computer electronics on a single piece of silicon is likely to open new markets for a class of products - including plasma, projection and L.C.D. TV's - that now sell for $3,000 to $10,000.

Intel, as well as other large chip manufacturers, should be able to expand the benefits of Moore's Law, named for Gordon Moore, a founder of Intel, which accurately predicted decades ago that computer chips would continue to double in capacity roughly every 18 months, while their price would continue to fall.

"I think this brings Moore's Law to digital television," said Richard Doherty, a consumer electronics industry analyst who is president of Envisioneering, a consulting firm based on Long Island. He predicted that the low-cost display technolog

Moving to India Not A Luxury. A Necessity.

Salon.com:

"Moving to India is not a luxury. It is a necessity"
American workers won't like what venture capitalist Ravi Chiruvolu says about why his tech start-ups are built using Indian workers. But they'd better listen.

Xalted Networks, a router technology start-up in Plano, Texas, launched in 1999 and soon grew to 200 employees. Four years later, that same company has just two employees in the U.S.: a founder who does sales and marketing, and a single design engineer. The remaining 220 employees work in India.

Venture capitalist Ravi Chruvolu told Salon why outsourcing might be harder than it looks on paper, but is becoming essential for new companies that aim to compete in a global marketplace.

Creative Commons Open Source Legal Documents Makes Open Source Legal, Easy And For the Common Good

CreativeCommons:
I had an oppportunity to attend the Creative Commons bash in SF this past Sunday. Some of the coolest, hippest people in SF and at Stanford are creating a new set of legal tools to enable open source content sharing as well as the co-development and commercialization of content.

Their efforts are leading to an explosive growth of open source music, pictures, films, illustrations and even science. The set of legal tools Creative Commons is pioneering is truly remarkable in its ease of enabling content creators to share and collaborate on the net.

Their new move ReticulamRex does an incredible job of explaining what CC is and how their tools work.

Public Library of Science - Open Source Science

CreativeCommons:
The Public Library of Science is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. PLoS emerged in October 2000 through the effort of three dynamic and highly respected scientists: Nobel Laureate and former head of the National Institutes of Health Harold Varmus, molecular biologist Pat Brown of Stanford University, and biologist Michael Eisen of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and UC Berkeley. This trio's dream, as the L.A. Times put it, is to build "a world in which the many thousands of scientific journals . . . are placed in an electronic library open to the public."

This week, PLoS moved closer to realizing this dream with the release of its first open access publication: PLoS Biology, a world-class, peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Huge Growth of Open Source Music, Video Using Creative Commons Model

CSM:
...So it does not come as a surprise that Berklee, among the country's most prestigious music institutions, is at the front of a small but influential pack of schools moving unprecedented amounts of content online.

After the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed almost 400 lawsuits against music file-sharers in America this past fall, the music school launched Berklee Shares, a program that places more than 100 music lessons on the Internet free of charge and encourages those who download the video, audio, and text files to share the minilessons with as many people as possible.

The goal is threefold: spread the Berklee name around the world as quickly and cheaply as possible; further the Berklee goal to educate and develop students to excel in music as a career; and encourage a healthy discussion about file- sharing, which the school considers to be a legitimate distribution model for the music industry and beyond.

"Berklee is in a unique position in the music business," says Dave Kusek, associate vice president of the school.

The school's job, he explains, includes training not only musicians and songwriters, but also the industry's business leaders, managers, publishers, and record-label executives.

"We're very aware that there are problems with the recording business at the moment, but we're also aware that the number of people appreciating music and the number of artists creating music is at an all-time high," Mr. Kusek says. "And it's our mission to train them to excel in careers in music across those 360 degrees."

To many Americans today, file-sharing signals little more than pirated music and lawsuits. To academic institutions, however, it could be the best educational and marketing tool ever invented.

Berklee is not the only academic institution dabbling in the world of file-sharing. Rice University's Connexions Project and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's OpenCourseware also encourage the file-sharing of certain academic material online.

Along with Berklee, they use copyright licenses covered by San Francisco-based Creative Commons, licenses that protect the university-originated material without preventing viewers from downloading and sharing their own versions. Creative Commons calls it "some rights reserved."

"The stigma that's been attached to file sharing is really unfair," says Glenn Otis Brown, executive director of Creative Commons.

File-sharing itself isn't illegal, he says; sharing material when all rights are reserved is. Through the Creative Commons license, Berklee grants everyone the rights to "copy, distribute, display, and perform the work" as long as the material is used for noncommercial uses, attribution to the Berklee Shares program is given, and no derivatives are made from the work.

Top 10 Trends for 2004

PR Newswire:

Marketing communications agency Euro RSCG Worldwide today released forecasts for the coming year, focusing on increases in "people power," self-indulgence, and counter-reactions to globalization. Insights are drawn from ongoing research of the agency's S.T.A.R. (Strategic Trendspotting and Research) team and from a global panel of colleagues in 75 countries who report in regularly on local trends and information.

"So much of what we're seeing in trends right now is part of what we're calling the 'New Normal,'" said Marian Salzman, Chief Strategy Officer at Euro RSCG Worldwide. "From demographic changes that have developed over the past few decades, including the rise of singletons, to shifts in priorities that are the result of a rapidly changing and uncertain world, we're finding that people's lives and objectives are significantly different today compared with even ten years ago."

The following is a sample of trendsightings contained within Euro RSCG's latest white paper: "Year in Prospect: 2004":

- Going Local
- Us vs. Them
- Rise of the Singletons
- Self-Gifting
- Catering to Metrosexuals
- Anti-Globesity Campaign
- Blogging
- Google Bombing and Further Politicization of the Internet
- Hot Spots and E-Wear
- Executive Coaches

For the full text of the press release go to: PR Newswire.

F.D.A. Moves to Let Drug Treat Obese Teenagers

The Food and Drug Administration effectively approved the use of an obesity drug, Xenical, for adolescents yesterday. This is the first time that a weight-loss drug has been permitted to treat overweight children. A spokeswoman for the drug agency said it had decided to allow the manufacturer to add to the Xenical labels two studies that involved children to help doctors prescribe the correct doses for 12- to 16-year-olds.

Terence Hurley, a spokesman for Hoffman-La Roche, the manufacturer, said it had no plans to market the drug for teenagers, but added that it was good news for children who battle obesity. "We're thrilled with the approval," Mr. Hurley said.

Xenical, one of three prescription weight-loss drugs on the market, works by blocking the body's ability to digest fat. Like the other two, Meridia and Phentermine, Xenical is described by most obesity experts as just moderately useful.

It has several unpleasant side effects, including problems with bowel control, and it works best when combined with a low-calorie diet that limits foods high in fat.

The F.D.A. acted as studies show that 15 percent of American children are overweight, and doctors and parents are struggling to deal with increasing childhood obesity.

FDA OKs 1st Chewable Contraceptive

(HealthDayNews) -- A chewable birth control pill that tastes like spearmint?

That's exactly what Ovcon 35 is -- an oral contraceptive tablet that can be chewed and swallowed. This new version of Ovcon 35, which received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval on Friday, provides one more alternative to the many types of oral contraceptives currently on the market, the agency says.

Ovcon 35 contains a progestin and an estrogen found in contraceptives that are already marketed.

The pill can be swallowed whole or chewed and swallowed. If the pill is chewed and then swallowed, the woman should drink a full glass -- 8 ounces -- of liquid immediately afterward so the full dose reaches the stomach and no residue is left in the mouth, according to the product's directions.

The FDA says Ovcon 35 is available only in a 28-day regimen. Each package contains 21 round, white, active tablets, to be followed by seven reminder, green inactive tablets to complete a four-week cycle.

The product is manufactured by Bristol Myers Squibb Company of Princeton, N.J., and will be marketed by Warner Chilcott, Inc., of Rockaway, N.J., the FDA says.

Microsoft Fumes As Aussies Pass Open Source Bill

The Australian:
...Joining a number of jurisdictions worldwide — including several Brazilian cities — Australia's capital passed Democrats-sponsored legislation designed to give open source software a leg up.

With the Democrats warning the ACT is just the beginning, opponents of open source and Linux, such as Microsoft, are starting to sweat.

Next year the proprietary software makers will face similar legislation in the federal and NSW parliaments.

It's possible the ACT Bill — the Government Procurement (Principles) Guideline Amendment Bill — may have slipped under the radar of the groups that have steadfastly opposed such legislation.

Perhaps they were focusing on South Australian Democrats MP Ian Gilfilian's Bill, which was defeated a week previously. Or perhaps they didn't realise how easy it is to get private members' business through the small ACT Parliament.

Either way, the reaction to the legislation — which modestly calls on government to "consider" open source software in purchasing — has been vehement.

Microsoft labelled the legislation "anti-competitive", and warned that it could damage the Australian software industry.

The legislation — introduced by ACT Democrats MP Roslyn Dundas — was amended by the 17-member Legislative Assembly, and passed with the support of the Greens and Independents.

Ms Dundas' Bill calls for government to "consider" the purchase of open source software in procurement plans. The original version of the Bill would have required the ACT to "prefer" open source software.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft said the company was unhappy with the decision.

"The ACT decision is of concern because it affects all software companies," she said.

Voice Over IP

New York Times:

Politicians have worked hard to keep access to Internet connections and many forms of Internet communication free from regulation and taxation. But the debate over how government treats the Internet is likely to reach a new level of intensity now that Internet technology is colliding with one of the nation's most lucrative businesses, telephone service.

Last week AT&T and Time Warner Cable announced that they intended to make Internet-based phone service available to millions of consumers next year, allowing those consumers to bypass traditional phone companies. Those moves signaled the start of a technological shift that could change one of the biggest and most important industries in the American economy. Central to that shift is whether and how Internet phone service should be regulated, a question that the Federal Communications Commission started to explore in hearings two weeks ago.

In an interview on Thursday, Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the F.C.C., said he had not made up his mind on that question. But he was not at all shy about stating his preliminary view - that Internet-based calls are fundamentally different from traditional phone calls and ought to be regulated cautiously, if at all.

Free Wi-Fi Blankets San Francisco

TechTV:

A project to help bring free Wi-Fi to the masses is picking up steam in the San Francisco Bay area. If it succeeds, it could become a model for other similar networks all over the world. On "Tech Live," see how the project to broadcast an Internet signal to a city could change Wi-Fi and the way we log on forever.

Some think wireless Internet should be for sharing, and Tim Pozar is a socially minded techie who's using his Wi-Fi know-how to do just that. But he's not sharing just with his neighborhood, but with dozens of neighborhoods. The whole project is perfectly legal and within FCC limits, and in most cases only costs a few hundred bucks to build.

"What we're doing is lighting up a number of blocks," he says of the Wi-Fi signal while rifling through some boxes of tech junk. "What I'm doing is what we call a neighborhood area network, or NAN."

Companies Test 'Contactless' Credit Cards

Yahoo! News:

The familiar process of buying something with a credit card -- handing the plastic to the clerk or swiping it yourself, then waiting for approval and signing the receipt -- could be headed the way of the mechanical brass cash register.

For more than a year, MasterCard and American Express have been testing "contactless" versions of their credit cards. The cards need only be held near a special reader for a sale to go through — though the consumer can still get a receipt.

The card companies say the system is much faster and safer because the card never leaves a customer's hand.

"In some instances it's faster than cash," said Betsy Foran-Owens, a MasterCard vice president. "You're eliminating the fumble factor."

PowerPoint Makes You Dumb

New York Times:

In August, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board at NASA released Volume 1 of its report on why the space shuttle crashed. As expected, the ship's foam insulation was the main cause of the disaster. But the board also fingered another unusual culprit: PowerPoint, Microsoft's well-known ''slideware'' program.

NASA, the board argued, had become too reliant on presenting complex information via PowerPoint, instead of by means of traditional ink-and-paper technical reports. When NASA engineers assessed possible wing damage during the mission, they presented the findings in a confusing PowerPoint slide -- so crammed with nested bullet points and irregular short forms that it was nearly impossible to untangle. ''It is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation,'' the board sternly noted.

PowerPoint is the world's most popular tool for presenting information. There are 400 million copies in circulation, and almost no corporate decision takes place without it. But what if PowerPoint is actually making us stupider?

This year, Edward Tufte -- the famous theorist of information presentation -- made precisely that argument in a blistering screed called The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. In his slim 28-page pamphlet, Tufte claimed that Microsoft's ubiquitous software forces people to mutilate data beyond comprehension. For example, the low resolution of a PowerPoint slide means that it usually contains only about 40 words, or barely eight seconds of reading. PowerPoint also encourages users to rely on bulleted lists, a ''faux analytical'' technique, Tufte wrote, that dodges the speaker's responsibility to tie his information together. And perhaps worst of all is how PowerPoint renders charts. Charts in newspapers like The Wall Street Journal contain up to 120 elements on average, allowing readers to compare large groupings of data. But, as Tufte found, PowerPoint users typically produce charts with only 12 elements. Ultimately, Tufte concluded, PowerPoint is infused with ''an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.''

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This Year, Opposites Attract Holiday Shoppers

Boston.com:

When merchants tally up their Christmas sales this year, the items that have flown from their shelves may fall into two classes: luxury goods for which consumers are willing to pay a premium, and value goods sold in volume at a discount.

"This is going to be an `A' Christmas for the new luxury companies and for the value providers, and a `D' Christmas for the companies caught in the middle -- the companies who are neither the best nor the least expensive," predicted Michael J. Silverstein, senior vice president at the Boston Consulting Group and leader of its global consumer and retail practice.

The reason is what Silverstein and his colleagues have defined as the biggest trend reshaping the consumer landscape: trading up.

According to their research, 96 percent of consumers trade up, or spend more, for quality products that engage them emotionally. It's as much a matter of psychology as income. A construction worker on a tight budget may splurge on a $3,000 set of Callaway golf clubs, just as an otherwise frugal real estate developer might spring for a BMW. Anyone who has passed a Dunkin' Donuts to duck into a Starbucks recognizes the phenomenon.

For brands that have smartly positioned themselves, from Victoria's Secret to Williams-Sonoma, trading up is paying off. "'It's a $400 billion business today, and it's growing to $1 trillion by the end of the decade," said Silverstein. He explores the trend in a book published this fall, "Trading Up: The New American Luxury," written with Neil Fiske, an ex-colleague who is now chief executive at Bath & Body Works.

Unlike "old luxury" goods, often out of the price range of middle-class consumers, "new luxury" goods offer superior technical or functional benefits but are priced within reach of a mass market. Silverstein divides them into four categories: taking care of me (health care, spas, in-home gourmet food, linen); connecting (clothing, dining out, home theater, cruises); questing (travel, cars, sports equipment, computers); and, individual style (watches, shoes, jewelry, lingerie).

Women, who have accounted for all the growth in real family income in the past 30 years, tend to be the chief decision-makers in family buying, Silverstein noted. "Eighty-five percent of new luxury goods are purchased by women," he said. "This is the real women's movement. It's a consumer movement."

Australia Court Approves Gay Co-Parenting

365Gay.com

(Melbourne, Australia) A Melbourne gay couple has been granted co-parent status for a baby boy born to a surrogate mother in the United States.

It is believed to be the the first time in Australia that a court has approved dual parental custody to a same-sex couple.

Family court judge Sally Brown ruled that it was in the best interests of one-year-old Mark to be looked after by the two men, identified only as Mr X and Mr Y.

"I am satisfied it is in Mark's best interests for significant decisions relating to his welfare... to be made by both of the people who treat him as their son, and that he can only benefit from their informed involvement in all aspects of his life," she said.

Everyone's Smiling for Digital Cameras

Technology News:

For Jim Barr, digital cameras are an early Christmas gift. As the general manager of commerce services at Microsoft's MSN, the country's second-largest Internet service provider, Barr tracks sales across dozens of categories in MSN's online shopping mall.

This year, digital cameras are on fire. "It's our top category," says Barr, who claims sales are up 40% to 50% vs. last year. He won't break out exact numbers on how many digital cameras MSN moves, but he says they account for a significant portion of consumer-electronics sales, a category that makes up 30% of the $11 billion-plus that MSN expects its visitors to spend at MSN Shopping's vendors this holiday season.

Barr's bounty is par for the course this year. Online and off, demand for digital cameras has exploded as consumers have warmed to capturing images in bits and bytes instead of on silver halide film. In 2003, their sales will eclipse those of analog film-based cameras in both market share and dollar value for the first time, according to a number of analysts and industry trackers including the Consumer Electronics Assn. (CEA).

New antibody delivers a double blow

New Scientist:

A two-pronged assault on diseases such as cancer and arthritis could soon be delivered by a single drug, thanks to a breakthrough in antibody engineering.

Antibodies are proteins that bind to specific targets, such as a virus. Their specificity means they have great promise for treating a wide range of diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis, for instance, can now be treated with antibodies that bind to and neutralise tumour necrosis factor (TNF), a signalling molecule that aggravates inflammation.

But these antibodies work in only half of patients, says Ian Tomlinson, chief scientific officer of the drug company Domantis in Cambridge, UK, because other immune signalling molecules play a role as well.

Subscription Video On Demand

CBS Marketwatch:

If you've wondered what the video-on-demand television universe might look like once it's fully integrated, Glenn Britt is in one of the best positions to tell you.

Britt, the chairman of Time Warner's cable unit -- the nation's second largest -- offered a preview of things to come at this week's UBS Media Week Conference in New York.

The concept of on-demand video technology is that movies or television shows are stored on servers, and made available 24 hours a day for any cable subscriber who wants them.

Particularly intriguing to Britt, as it is to most others who have followed the progress of on-demand video technology, is subscription video on demand.

With a subscription, viewers pay a flat fee to download all the on-demand content they want, as many times as they wish, rather than having to pay for each viewing. Studies have already shown that many people prefer to pay a flat fee.

"I think the SVOD part of this is going to be very attractive," he said during a question-and-answer session. "We were talking to all the programmers about taking SVOD beyond where it is today.

Distributed/Contextualized TV Guide Embedded in Web Pages

VH1.com:

I recently went to the VH1 website to listen to Alicia Keyes' newest song and find a listing of when she might appear on MTV an VH1. Listed below her profile is the following link: "Find Alicia Keys TV Appearances and get the latest schedule and show information on this artist from over 100 television networks."

The page lists the dates and times (and networks) when Alicia Keyes will appear. Next to the schedule is an add for the Windows Media Center Edition PC for "PVR, Photos, Music, Movies, Radio, TV and Web." The user can view a demo of the new Media Center on how to schedule and record favorite TV shows.

What's apparent is that the TV guide will be distributed and embedded within content on the Internet. This enables cross linking of TV content to web content, making it easier for users to instantly record a show from the TV to your PC. This represents a significant integration of the TV, PC and Internet. I would describe this as a contextualized TV Guide within the web that enables a distributed PVR service.

I think this benefits the cable networks far more than the broadcast networks because focused TV content gets linked to similar Web content. What are your thoughts?

Note: VH1 has posted a legal disclaimer:

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in whole or in part, without permission. If you cite an individual listing in a newsgroup, mailing list, an online forum, or in print or broadcast media, you must credit this service as the source. The credit should read:

RockOnTV - the ultimate guide to music on television.
http://www.rockontv.com

Here you go VH1!

Joie N. Wada

Virginia Indicts 2 Under Antispam Law

New York Times:

Mr. Kilgore said that the case represented the first felony prosecution in the nation specifically using an antispam law. Earlier this year, New York State brought felony charges against Howard Carmack of Buffalo for suspected violations of the state's identity-theft laws. The state says he stole credit card numbers to pay for Internet accounts used to send spam. That case is scheduled for trial in January.

A federal antispam bill awaiting President Bush's signature would pre-empt state civil laws, but Mr. Kilgore said it would not pre-empt criminal fraud statutes like the Virginia law used in this case.

Stephen Jobs' View on TV Downloads: Very Different From Music

RollingStone.com:

Q: Lots people who work in the movie business have watched what's happened to the music industry and think they're next. Do you see that?

SJ: It is a problem. But movies are very different than music. First of all, they're a hundred times larger. So in countries like the U.S., where broadband is not very evolved, it takes forever to download a high-quality version of a movie. And remember that the bar is going to get raised on that quality in another four years, when we have high-definition DVDs in the market. That's going to increase the download times by another ten X. Because people's of what they want are going to go up with that.

Second, movies are not deconstructable into songs, like an album is, that are easy to download. Five minutes of a movie isn't very useful. You want the whole thing. Third, there's only been one way to buy your music -- that's on a CD. Look at the ways there are to legally buy a movie -- you can see it at the theater, you can buy it on home video, you can buy on DVD. But you can also rent it at Blockbuster or Netflix. You can watch it on pay-per-view. You can also watch it on cable or network TV. There are a lot of ways to legally get a movie. There was only one way to legally get music. That's a really big difference. The distribution is much more highly evolved in the movie industry than it ever was in the music industry.

Now, all this doesn't mean that piracy isn't taking place in movies -- because it is. And that doesn't mean that it's good -- because it's not. But because of all those factors, people who just make the leap that movies are next are wrong. It may take a different path.

...

Q: Apple has had a head start in the digital music business, but obviously lots of other companies are getting into it now too. Last week, for example, Dell come out with it iPod-clone, the Dell DJ.

SJ: We will ship way more digital music players than Dell this quarter. Way more. In the long run, we're going to be very competitive. We beat Dell on operational metrics every quarter. We are absolutely as good of a manufacturer as Dell. Our logistics are as good as Dell's. Our online store is better than Dell's. And we have retail channels. Most people don't want to buy one of these things through the mail. Dell is going to have to sell that thing retail if they are going to succeed. Their distrubution model works against them when they get into consumer electronics. Like they're going to be selling plasma TVs online. Would you ever buy a plasma TV without seeing it? No way.

And then there's Microsoft. What happens to Apple when they build an iTunes-clone into the Windows desktop?

I think Amazon does pretty well [against Microsoft]. Microsoft hasn't really been able to compete with them -- maybe not wanted to. EBay does pretty well; Google's done pretty well. Actually, AOL's done pretty well -- contrary to a lot of the things people say about them. So there are a lot of examples of people offering services, Internet-based services, that have done quite well.

And Apple's in a pretty interesting position. Because, as you may know, almost every song and CD is made on a Mac -- it's recorded on a Mac; it's mixed on a Mac. The artwork's done on a Mac. Almost every artist I've met has an iPod, and most of the music execs now have iPods. And one of the reasons Apple was able to do what we did was because we are perceived by the music industry as the most creative technology company. And now we've created this music store, which I think is nontrivial to copy. I mean, to say that Microsoft can just decide to copy it, and copy it in six months -- that's a big statement. It may not be so easy.

Q: Despite the wonders of digital music services, a lot of musicans and listeners worry it's killing the album as an art form.

A: We've heard both sides of it. Most of the successful artists have carve-outs in their contract for the distribution of music online by their record company. And so even though we could convince, let's say, Universal Music, the largest, to do a deal with us for the iTunes Music Store, they were not able to offer us their top 20 artists. All music companies were like this. We had to go to the individual artists, one by one, and convince them, too. And we did, and they trusted us.

Now, there were a few who said: We don't want to do that -- and we respect that. They said: We will let you distribute our albums as a whole, but not individual tracks. And we declined. We said: You know, our store is about giving the user that choice. And what's happened is that half the songs we've sold, approximately -- about half have been as albums ... and the other half have been individually. I think there's a much higher proportion of sales of songs as albums than anyone thought. We thought it was gonna be around a quarter, but it's around a half.

But for every one of those, we've talked to, probably three or four artists who've said: You know, this is the best thing in the world. Because I don't want to have to wait 18 months to get together a dozen songs to make an album to get in front of my audience.

Q: When is Apple going to start signing musicians - in effect, become a record label?

SJ: Well, it would be very easy for us to sign up a musician. It would be very hard for us to sign up a young musician that was successful. Because that's what the record companies do. Their value is in picking that 1 out of 5,000. We don't do that.

We think there's a lot of structural changes that are probably gonna happen in the record industry, though. We've talked to a large number of artists that really don't like their record company, and I was curious about that. And the general reason they don't like the record company is because they think they've been really successful, but they've only earned a little bit of money.

Q: Do you see a time when a version of the iPod will become more important to Apple than the Mac itself?

SJ: Well, Apple has a core set of talents, and those talents are: We do, I think, very good hardware design; we do very good industrial design; and we write very good system and application software. And we're really good at packaging that all together into a product. We're the only people left in the computer industry that do that. And we're really the only people in the consumer-electronics industry that go deep in software in consumer products. So those talents can be used to make personal computers, and they can also be used to make things like iPods. And we're doing both, and we'll find out what the future holds.

Q: You're well-known as being a technological optimist. Do you still feel as hopeful about what technology has done for us as a culture as you did, say, twenty years ago?

Oh, yeah. I think it's brought the world a lot closer together, and will continue to do that. There are downsides to everything; there are unintended consequences to everything. The most corrosive piece of technology that I've ever seen is called television -- but then, again, television, at its best, is magnificent.

Q: Why do you call television the most corrosive of technology you've ever seen?

Because the average American watches five hours a day of television, and television is a passive medium. Television doesn't turn your brain on. Or, television can be used to turn your brain off, and that's what it's mostly used for. And that's a wonderful thing sometimes -- but not for five hours a day.

Posted by Norm M. Wada at 10:40 AM | E-mail to a Friend | Comments (27) | TrackBack

Student Finds Largest Known Prime Number

CNN:

More than 200,000 computers spent years looking for the largest known prime number. It turned up on Michigan State University graduate student Michael Shafer's off-the-shelf PC.

The number is 6,320,430 digits long and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than 2 million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number.

Shafer, 26, helped find the number as a volunteer on an eight-year-old project called the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search.

Tens of thousands of people volunteered the use of their PCs in a worldwide project that harnessed the power of 211,000 computers, in effect creating a supercomputer capable of performing 9 trillion calculations per second. Participants could run the mathematical analysis program on their computers in the background, as they worked on other tasks.

Shafer ran an ordinary Dell computer in his office for 19 days until November 17, when he glanced at the screen and saw "New Mersenne prime found."

Shift To Open-Source Software Ups Ante For Microsoft, Oracle

Facing strong competition in online travel reservations, Sabre Holdings Corp. decided to overhaul its technology - allocating $100 million on a risky, new approach.

Sabre replaced its mainframes with low-end servers and open-source software. Sabre, which expects sales of some $2 billion this year, was one of the first big companies to move to open source. But others are doing likewise, a trend that's reverberating through the tech industry.

"Businesses that don't get on this bandwagon will be left behind," said Craig Murphy, Sabre's chief technology officer. "I'm talking about a profound change in information technology. It's pioneering stuff. It's disruptive technology."
Open-source software, led by the Linux operating system, is moving from the back room to the showroom. Analysts are coming out and saying what many had only dared whisper: Linux and open source will disrupt the world's two largest software companies, Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.

"I bet that hundreds of entrepreneurs are hard at work trying to create the next killer application - and are using open-source software whenever possible," said Charles Garry, an analyst at the Meta Group.

AT&T Joins Fray for Cheaper Calls Through the Web

New York Times:

This certainly is a significant event," Kate Griffin, an analyst with the Yankee Group, a market research firm, said of AT&T's impending move, noting it may well be the most aggressive effort yet by a major telephone company. "We've been waiting for years for companies to announce their roll-out plans," she said. "Now everybody is jumping in."

The rush has been set off by sharp improvements in the technology that allows telephone calls to be carried over cable lines, and, in an unconventional and less expensive way, over existing telephone lines. What the technology does is change a voice signal into data -- resembling the form used to deliver e-mail messages, digital music and Web pages -- that can be sent across a variety of networks, including cable and telephone lines, satellite and even electric utility wires.

The Internet-based services allow customers to use their regular telephones, but plug them into boxes that translate voice traffic into Internet data packets. Callers would keep their existing phone numbers.

There are some substantial advantages to this technology. It not only is less expensive to install and operate, it can offer consumers the ability to manage telephone calls in new ways.

Travel-Related Services on the Internet is Booking Investors Interest

TheAxcess.net:

San Francisco CA - According to the latest Nielson NetRatings 60 percent of adults have shopped for travel-related services on the Internet within the last six months.

On Wall Street, investors seem to go for travel-related Internet stocks as well following ctrip.com's IPO debut, which flew off the desks of brokers as NASDAQ: CTRP shot from its initial offering price of $18.00 to as high as $37.35 in its second day of trading.

San Francisco Bay Transport Goes Contactless

USING RFID:

The entire San Francisco Bay transport network is to be equipped with RFID contactless cards supplied by the French smart card firm, ASK. The contract awarded by the transport network calls for 400,000 dual interface cards. Inhabitants of San Francisco Bay are now able to use a single ticket to travel on any form of public transport (bus, ferry, tram, train, and railcar), thanks to the electronic ticketing solution, dubbed 'TransLink'.

The card provides a common system for all ticketing transactions, valid for all transport companies and also for parking meters. "The contactless smart card chosen provides a range of multi-operator fare plans, plus a very secure payment system, " said Xavier Bon, vice president of sales and marketing for ASK.

BSP ONElink Launches First Internet-Based Travel Distribution & Settlement Service in India

BusinessWire:

SAN FRANCISCO--Dec. 10, 2003--BSP ONElink, Inc. (OTCBB:BSPO), the world's first internet-based integrated distribution and settlement service for the global travel industry, is accelerating its business plan with a planned launch into India next year.

The company has named The Bird Group as its distributor for India, moving quickly to exploit an important travel market. Through one of its subsidiary companies, Bird Info Tech Pvt. Ltd., The Bird Group will represent BSP ONElink in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives recruiting both suppliers and travel agents to use the BSP ONElink service.

College Coaches Add Realism to New Video Games

Redding.com:
Williams and the 12 other coaches who appear in Electronic Arts Sports' new "NCAA March Madness 2004" receive just a few thousand dollars apiece for their roles as motivators and strategists. Some — such as Williams, Oklahoma's Kelvin Sampson, Florida's Billy Donovan and Utah's Rick Majerus — have been to the actual Final Four, with actual players, coaching in actual games.

Others, such as Fran McCaffrey, the coach at North Carolina Greensboro, or Tim Buckley, who coaches at Ball State, are off the mainstream radar. The game, though, is one way to get on it.

"The kids will see me, and if a kid's making a decision (on which school to attend), I'm not saying he'll choose us because we're in the video game," McCaffrey said. "But if you're not even in it, then you must be one of the bottom teams in Division I, in the kid's mind."

Three game makers — EA, Sega and Sony — are licensed by the NCAA to produce video games based on college sports. At the pro level, where athletes can be paid for their participation, the task is fairly straightforward: Find a marquee figure, such as Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, and both build and market the game around his skills and image. That's the formula for EA Sports' hugely popular "Madden NFL 2004." Game makers, though, must work within the NCAA's guidelines when producing college games. No names of players. No accurate likenesses. No money back to the kids.

"When you look at the bylaws, there's only so much the video game manufacturers can do with us," said Melissa Caito, the NCAA's director of licensing and brand management. "They want to push the envelope and make the games more real, and we want to protect amateurism, so we work collaboratively."

It is a market the NCAA clearly wanted a piece of. Projections predict the global market for video games to top $35 billion this year. As NFL, NBA and NHL games became popular in the early 1990s, executives at the Collegiate Licensing Corp., the Atlanta-based company that holds the NCAA's licensing rights, watched colleges being left behind.

"We felt it was important for teen-agers and people in their twenties, the people that play these games, to have a college option," said Pat Battle, president of CLC. "Sega and Sony and EA have done a good job capturing the things that make college sports college sports, the pageantry and the fight songs and those kinds of things."

Death of the Album in the Download Era

USAToday:
The album, music's dominant creative framework for the past 40 years, is dying under the wheels of an accelerating revolution.

The digital age, driven by single-song downloads, threatens to eradicate the multiple-track album, whether on compact disc, cassette or old-fashioned vinyl. It's not just the physical artifact that's joining shellac 78s, turntables and 8-track tapes in the pop graveyard: The very concept of songs integrated into a whole faces extinction.

"The entire game is changing," says singer Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty. "I can handle the fact that artists are selling fewer records and making less money, but you can't take away our albums! It's a conscious step toward disposable art. On an album, the artist creates a full work of art with songs that fit together and create a mood. If we become a single-minded nation, where careers depend on hits, you won't hear challenging music that takes risks."

The death of pop's primary esthetic and commercial unit evokes a variety of reactions. Cyber-savvy fans feel empowered. Confusion grips older consumers. Labels are threatened and panicked by the radical transition. Musicians are enthusiastic, dismayed or conflicted.

"The disappearance of the album as an entity would be sad, but anything to do with the evolution in how people access music excites me," singer Alanis Morissette says. "I'm very album-oriented, and my highest preference is that people experience my album as a whole, but I know people can gravitate to a certain song and listen to it ad nauseum. That's their right. It's about freedom of choice."

MIT Brings Video Games to The Classroom

PCPRO:
Fortunately, this does not mean using 'Grand Theft Auto III' to hone children's driving skills or that Tomb Raider is a suitable introduction to archeology. Instead MIT is looking to find ways to integrate games into subjects in the curriculum. The project aims to bring academics, games designers, teachers and government together to develop new ways of teaching through gameplay.

'We want to lead change in the way the world learns through computer and video games,' said MIT's Professor Henry Jenkins III. 'Our mission is to demonstrate the social, cultural and educational potentials of games ...and [the] sometimes unexpected uses of this emerging art form in education,' he said.

As examples of the kind of thing they have in mind, MIT students taught children to use a game called 'Supercharged,' in which a 'charged' spaceship had to be guided through electric fields. In another, students played an environmental disaster game called 'Environmental Detectives'.

Legislation Attacks Violent Video Games with Legislation

SFExaminer:
Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, wants California children to spend the holiday season peacefully, not gunning down minorities and running over prostitutes.

Standing in front of the towering Union Square Christmas tree on Dec. 1, Yee announced legislation prohibiting the sale of violent video games, such as the notorious “Grand Theft Auto 3” to children.

“Violence as a form of entertainment has really reached epidemic proportions,” he said. “It is really a health crisis.”

The Assembly member, whose district straddles San Francisco and San Mateo counties, will introduce two bills restricting the sale and marketing of violent video games this month.

The first piece of legislation includes the games in an existing law, which imposes penalties on those who distribute “harmful matter” to minors. The second bill requires retailers to prominently display the rating system, separate out “mature” rated games and display them well-above children’s eye-level.

Yee’s legislation was inspired by a member of his staff, Jodi Hicks Hernandez, who was disturbed by the video game “Grand Theft Auto 3” — particularly a scene where players can pick up a prostitute. The prostitute enters the car, it visibly shakes and the player loses money but gains health. After the woman leaves the car, the player can recoup the money by running her over.

Yee said such games are particularly egregious because they place the player in the position of a “first shooter,” who stalks and kills victims who are often women and minorities.

Yee, who holds a doctorate in child psychology, believes there is a dangerous connection between violent media and aggressive behavior in youth — a position backed by public health officials, psychiatrists and law enforcement officials.

“When you have gratuitous violence and you are teaching kids to hurt and maim other people who are different than them, you are desensitizing them,” said Dr. George Fouras of the California Psychiatric Association.

Coke Joins Music Downloads To Market

PCPRO:
Coca-Cola is to launch a UK music downloads service in January.
myCokeMusic will offer more than 250,000 tracks at 99p each and will be based on technology from OD2, which already provides similar services for MSN, HMV and Freeserve, amongst others.

This means that Coke's downloads will almost certainly be in Windows Media format and consequently will be protected by Microsoft's Digital Rights Management technology. It is not yet known to what extent the service will allow you to copy downloads from your computer to other devices, such as portable players and CDs.

Coca-Cola is planning to promote the service through promotions on its soft drink products, which will put it in a very strong position to compete with more established downloads brands such as Apple's iTunes Music Store and the relaunched Napster.

Foreign Shows A Draw for Satellite TV

NEwsJournal:
Regardless of whether they transmit via cable or satellite, all of the pay television companies are racing to offer something beyond the basics, said Michael Paxton, a senior analyst at a market research firm called In-Stat/MDR. The firm breaks down America's cable and satellite households this way: 69.5 million get cable, 9 million get EchoStar's Dish Network and 12 million get DirecTV's satellite offerings.

"Both cable and satellite operators can offer oodles of channels - more channels than anyone would want to watch. The challenge there is to offer what else people would want," Paxton said.

International TV is one of those wants, according to EchoStar.

That was true for Vera Jarrett, who signed up for the Dish Network when she moved to Katonah, N.Y., from Brazil with her husband, Ian, whose job at Kraft brought him to the United States.

Jarrett speaks her native Portuguese at home, but she doesn't know anyone with whom she can speak Italian and French. "I wanted these international channels, like RAI from Italy and TV5 from France," Jarrett said.

Demographic trends that show a rising Hispanic population can only feed demand for Spanish-language and other international programming, said John Scarborough, EchoStar's senior vice president of marketing.

"The diversity of the U.S. population represents a great opportunity when it comes to offering customers more than just the traditional channels," he said.

Satellite Television Brings Outside World to Saudi Arabia

WashingtonBureau:
Satellite television has brought the outside world to Saudi Arabia, and its impact can't be exaggerated, sociologists say. The obtrusive, ugly dish is transforming Saudi society in a way that the country's small groups of dissidents and reformists never could.

"People are being exposed to more ways of life," said Abdullah Alotaibi, an analyst at the King Saud University in Riyadh. "It changes the way they think, how they should dress, how they should act, how they behave."

The influence is noticeable in the younger generation, particularly among teenage boys, who often prefer baseball caps and baggy jeans to the traditional long gowns and draping headgear of their elders. Tattoos and nose rings are even making their way into Saudi culture.

In a broader sense, cultural scholars say, the constant exposure to the secular ways of the West and less restrictive Arab states may be accelerating efforts to liberalize society and increase women's rights.

"The kind of censorship many of them grew up with … has been removed," said Maha Azzam, an analyst with the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London who was born in Cairo, Egypt.

The boys-night-out sessions in the roadhouses along King Fahd Highway constitute just a tiny sliver of Saudis' enchantment with the tube. In cities such as Riyadh, few homes are without one, and many have two or three. Middle-class youngsters watch the Disney Channel while Mom and Dad flip through contemporary American movies, many of them R-rated with Arabic subtitles.

Study: Television Violence on the Rise

MiamiHerald:
The study by the Parents Television Council counted 534 separate episodes of prime-time violence on the six major broadcast networks during the first two weeks of the November ratings "sweeps" in 2002. That was up from 292 violent incidents during the same period four years earlier, the organization said.

Although the study is slightly outdated, the PTC says preliminary data from last month shows the trend toward increased violence is continuing.

The violence is getting more serious, too. The study found 156 incidents where guns or other weapons were used during the two-week period in prime-time in 2002, up from 67 four years earlier.

"In both quantity and quality it is getting worse," said Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative media watchdog group. "I think it is a cause for concern."

Fox narrowly beat CBS, 151 to 148, for having the most violent incidents, the PTC said, even though Fox broadcasts an hour less each night than ABC, CBS and NBC. Fox executives say they never comment on PTC studies, although they privately note that some of their more violent shows in 2002 have since been canceled.

Four of the networks - ABC, Fox, the WB and UPN - had more than double the violent incidents in 2002 than they had four years earlier, the study said.

NBC was the only network where the level of violence went down, from 51 in 1998 to 42 last year, the PTC said.

During the four-year period, CBS' forensics drama, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," became the nation's most popular television program. CBS has already completed one spin-off of its most successful show and is planning another.

Record Solar Power Flight Attempt Unveiled

SolarAccess.com:
A team of aviators and scientists led by Dr. Bertrand Piccard, the first man together with Brian Jones to circle the earth non-stop in a balloon in 1999, announced plans to develop an aircraft powered by the sun and capable of circling the earth.

The Piccard team envisions being able to spend full nights in the air by 2007. Piccard will be assisted by Jones, his co-pilot in their Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon, and Andre Borschberg, engineer and jet plane pilot. Their new project, dubbed Solar Impulse, is aimed at demonstrating the role of high technology in sustainable development.

The EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne/Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) is the official scientific advisor to the project. The EPFL conducted thermodynamic research in support of the Piccard/Jones 1999 balloon flight, and is the official scientific advisor to Alinghi, current holder of yacht racing's prestigious America's Cup.

Drawing attention to the need for further sustainable development is one of the project's key goals.

"To be able to build and fly an aircraft that uses no fossil fuels and emits no pollutants is a powerful symbol for today's ecology," Piccard said. "We envision that Solar Impulse will serve as a communication platform to promote sustainable development and demonstrate the fundamental role of high technology in the protection of the environment."

America’s Meal Consumption and Snacking Habits: Convenience = $$s for Manufacturers

MRONS:
According to findings from the newly released IRI study, What Do Americans Really Eat? ready-to-eat snack products with strong convenience benefits are fulfilling the demand for snacks and meal replacements for on-the-go consumers.

According to Kim Feil, division president of worldwide innovation for Information Resources, ‘These study findings directly support the unprecedented change the snacking industry is experiencing as consumers increase their pace of life. Snack and meal solution manufacturers are faced with the opportunity to completely redefine the American diet. To a large degree, snacks and meals have become interchangeable. Manufacturers who successfully position convenient solutions across eating occasions, and even day parts, stand to reap significant rewards.
According to the study, snacking is ubiquitous and, in fact, is replacing meals to a large extent. An estimated one-third of the study’s 1,000 Internet-based respondents regularly skip meals. When they do eat meals, nostalgia takes over: consumers typically prefer to prepare those meals fresh at home, as long as preparation is quick and convenient. Speed and preparation ease are overwhelmingly rated as the top considerations in the food selection process. Portability and ease of consumption are also important. More meals and snacks are consumed on the fly, and increasingly in the car, where handheld food products like snack bars, yogurt in a tube, and portable soups make for easy meals on the go.

What is fuelling this fundamental shift in Americans’ eating behaviour? Busy lifestyles demand convenience and the increasing availability of convenient meal and snack solutions. Convenient meal and snack products show no signs of slowing growth. Convenient dinner solution sales have exploded, adding an average of over 385 million meals sold incrementally each year for the last seven years. Consumers want convenient snacks too. Nearly 70% surveyed prefer ‘ready-to-eat’ products for snack occasions any time of day. When asked to pick the three most important considerations for selecting snacking products, over 45% of consumers cite ‘ready-to-eat’ or ‘no preparation’ as a key consideration factor.

Interestingly, survey respondents indicate an interest in nutritional considerations, but convenience comes first. Despite broad press coverage of America’s growing ‘obesity epidemic,’ only 38% of respondents indicate that they avoid high-fat foods as much as possible, while only 42% of consumers said they thought they have balanced nutritional habits. While consumers have demonstrated a willingness to pay as much as two to three times for more convenient versions of their favourite products, the same does not necessarily hold true for nutritional enhancements. Only about one-quarter are willing to pay more for low- or reduced-fat foods.

Gays: Out of the margins, into the mainstream

CSMOnitor:
Over the past three decades, America's attitude toward its gay children has evolved much the same way: gradually, sometimes painfully, one family at a time. But change it has, at a pace that has quickened perceptibly every decade. Surveys show public acceptance of gays underwent nearly a generation of change between 1990 and 1995 alone, and US court rulings have more or less kept pace.

It is a change catalyzed by an AIDS epidemic that shattered long-held silences within families, neighborhoods, places of work, and houses of worship. It's a change advanced by successful legal challenges; a change driven by a new generation of children with same-sex parents, some of whom are the products of new reproductive technologies, others the result of a dramatic rise in adoptions by gay couples. It's a change both reflected and incubated in American popular culture.

And it's a change born of an unexpected accidental intimacy, of gay sons and daughters as likely to surface among the nation's Cheneys and Gephardts as its Ginsbergs and DiFrancos.

"There is no turning back," says anthropologist Gilbert Herdt, head of San Francisco State University's National Sexuality Resource Center. "You can't do that in a democracy. Once [equal] rights have been bestowed [on gays] and there's a recognition that they're just, you reverse that at grave peril to the democratic process."

Not all agree. While most Americans would likely support reuniting divided families and eliminating harassment, such convictions don't change the discomfort many feel with the reality of gay parenting and the prospect of gay marriage - a prospect made imminent by last month's Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling.

"The civil rights argument is a very, very compelling one," says David Blankenhorn, a marriage expert and father of three. "At the same time, everything I know, everything I have ever learned, says that children need a mother and a father."

A recent Gallup poll shows a split in opinion: 48 percent of Americans say gay unions "will change society for the worse"; 50 percent say they would be an improvement or have no effect.

Hillary in Unprecedented TV Blitz

NewsMax:
Eclipsing the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls as they near a critical debate set for Tuesday night in the leadoff primary state of New Hampshire, Clinton made back-to-back-to-back appearances on three Sunday network (ABC, CBS and NBC) talk shows.

The media tour-de-force marks a scheduling feat usually reserved for major White House figures at times of crisis.

With polls showing Clinton as far more popular among Democratic voters than any of her party's White House candidates, her unprecedented TV time reinforces her prominent place on the national political landscape.

Sounding very much like a presidential candidate, Hillary waxed on key international issues to CBS’s John Roberts on Face the Nation:

“In the Afghan situation, of course, American troops are under American command even though NATO troops are in there and we want more NATO troops, and even though the UN will oversee the elections, there are many ways of working this out. The administration's stubborn refusal to try to enlist friends and allies to be partners in our effort in Iraq I think is undercutting the legitimacy and the potential success of what we are trying to accomplish.

Dining Chain Serves Up A Low-Carb Recipe For Financial Growth

Yahoo News:

In fact, one in every seven Americans over the age of 18 is on a low-carb diet in some form, says Richard Johnson, senior vice president of marketing at casual dining chain Ruby Tuesday Inc.

Food and beverage firms are taking notice. Michelob offers a low-carb beer called Ultra. Russell Stover has a line of low-carb candies.
And in November, Ruby Tuesday rolled out more than 30 new low-carb menu items, ranging from spicy Buffalo chicken wings to Cajun chicken salad.

Voice Over Internet Protocol

Tuscaloosa News:

But only recently has Internet technology become refined enough that the cable companies felt they could offer reception quality comparable to that offered by traditional telephone companies. The cable companies say they have turned the corner, and they intend to prove it in the coming months.

Cox Digital Telephone, a division of Cox Communications, plans to begin its first test of Internet-based phone service in Roanoke, Va., in the next few weeks. That rollout is viewed as significant because the Atlanta-based cable company is considered a leader in pushing the boundaries of the cable business. Cox already sells phone services to around a million customers using the older circuit switch technology. What Cox's experience shows is that a cable provider can successfully take on traditional telephone companies. In Omaha, 45 percent of Cox's cable customers now subscribe to its telephone service, and in Orange County, Calif., that figure is 55 percent.

This summer, the Yankee Group, a market research group, projected that the number of customers using voice-over-Internet-protocol telephone service would be around 220,000 by the end of 2004. But Lindsay Schroth, an analyst with the group, said that the number could well double, in light of the aggressive moves by the cable companies. "Every year they told us, `next year is the year.'

New Endoscopic Technology Allows Hassle-free Intestinal Exam

The Badger Herald:

The next time a patient is asked to swallow an entire camera to help diagnose gastrointestinal problems, he or she should not be surprised. New technology has GI patients doing just that. Such patients are familiar with endoscopic examinations, which involve swallowing a tiny camera attached to snake-like tubes. Now, by swallowing a pill housing the technology similar to a digital camera, doctors have the ability to see more than 50,000 images of the middle and lower intestines, only visible before via a cup of barium and X-rays.

The pill, referred to as the M2A Capsule Endoscopy, is no larger than a multivitamin and is taken with a small sip of water.

The Dean Connection

New York Times:

...

Joe Trippi, Dean's campaign manager, says the campaign's structure is modeled on the Internet, which is organized as a grid, rather than as spokes surrounding a hub. Before joining the campaign, Trippi was on a four-year hiatus from politics, during which he consulted for high-tech companies, and he can be evangelical on the subject of the Internet and its potential to create political change. (A team of Internet theorists -- David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Howard Rheingold -- consults for the campaign.) Trippi likes to say that in the Internet model he has adopted for the campaign, the power lies with the people at ''the edges of the network,'' rather than the center. When people from the unofficial campaign call and ask permission to undertake an activity on behalf of Dean, they are told they don't need permission.

The latest holy grail of the tech industry is the idea that people can fuse the virtual communities and digital connections of the Internet with real, human life. Investors are pouring money into Web sites and software programs that claim to perform this function, like Friendster, which lets users visually represent their real friend networks online, and Meetup.com, the site that has helped build the Dean campaign. Meetup.com takes its inspiration from books like ''Bowling Alone,'' by Robert D. Putnam, about the decline of American public life; its founders claim that the regular monthly meetings arranged through its site (gathering any group from Wiccans to dachshund lovers to, more recently, supporters of political candidates) can help heal the disintegration of the American community.

Take Back The Net

PC Magazine:

Very quickly, the Web was commandeered by those with the money and expertise to maintain and publicize Web sites: corporations, other businesses, the existing mass media. Tim Berners-Lee's creation had inadvertently brought much more power to the establishment than to the people.

Then something beautiful happened. Early this decade, several new communication tools bubbled up from the far reaches of the Internet. These were tools that could at long last fulfill the Web's initial promise, nurturing a free exchange of ideas. With blogs, short for Web logs, anyone can now stream ideas onto a Web page in a matter of seconds. With wikis, named after the Hawaiian word for quick, entire groups can easily post and edit pages, freeing the users from the constraints of discussion groups. With RSS, anyone can easily syndicate material across the Web and alert readers to updated content on his or her site.

Other tools are popping up that let the "everyuser" regain control of the Internet. Applications like AirCQ and Colligo allow for free-form collaboration over wireless handheld devices. With the latest Voice over IP and video phone tools, anyone can send high-quality audiovisual streams across the Net. With an app from ModeEleven, you can even push information via screen saver.

Naturally, these tools will soon find their way into the hands of big business. Companies like Macromedia and Sony are already using blogs to communicate with customers. RSS is quickly becoming a staple among news sites, including PCMag.com. But that's almost beside the point. These tools will continue to empower the people. According to the Web survey firm Perseus Development Corp., more than 4 million people have built hosted blogs, and that number will grow to more than 10 million by the end of 2004. With blogging tools and the other apps in this story, you too can take back the Net.

IBM Claims Nanotech Breakthrough

Yahoo News:

Researchers at IBM Corp. claim they have made an important breakthrough in the race to design circuitry at the molecular level: a system that works with existing methods of electronics manufacturing.

In a paper being released Monday at an industry conference in Washington, D.C., IBM researchers Chuck Black and Kathyrn Guarini say they used a naturally occurring pattern of molecules as a stencil to etch flash memory circuitry into silicon.

Other researchers are experimenting with using self-assembling, or naturally forming, patterns of molecules to build very tiny circuitry. Doing so is believed to be necessary if the high-tech industry can continue to pack more transistors into smaller spaces -- the process that continually makes computing faster and less expensive.

But the IBM scientists believe they are the first to use the molecular patterns not as circuits that have to be connected to larger wires, but as stencils that light can be shone through to create circuitry in silicon. That would make it more likely to work with existing processes, potentially saving money in manufacturing.

Posted by Bob King at 9:34 AM | E-mail to a Friend | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Wal-Mart Invades, and Mexico Gladly Surrenders

New York Times:

The company that ate America is now swallowing Mexico.

Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the United States, is already the biggest private employer in Mexico, with 100,164 workers on its payroll here as of last week. Last year, when it gained its No. 1 status in employment, it created about 8,000 new positions -- nearly half the permanent new jobs in this struggling country.

Wal-Mart's power is changing Mexico in the same way it changed the economic landscape of the United States, and with the same formula: cut prices relentlessly, pump up productivity, pay low wages, ban unions, give suppliers the tightest possible profit margins and sell everything under the sun for less than the guy next door.

...

Though it came to this country only 12 years ago, Wal-Mart is doing more business — closing in on $11 billion a year — than the entire tourism industry. Wal-Mart sells $6 billion worth of food a year, more than anyone else in Mexico. In fact, it sells more of almost everything than almost anyone. Economists say its price cuts actually drive down the country's rate of inflation.

Discount Nation: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

New York Times:

The annual celebration of the American consumer economy -- the holiday shopping season -- is just underway, and Wal-Mart, the juggernaut of retailing, already seems to have claimed its first victim. The corporate owner of F.A.O. Schwarz stores said last week that it would file for bankruptcy. Bemoaning the news, analysts explained that the F.A.O. Schwarz formula of selling premium-priced toys in sumptuous surroundings could not withstand the steady advance of Wal-Mart into the toy business.

"Will Wal-Mart Steal Christmas?" asked a Time magazine headline.

The toy war is merely the most recent manifestation of what is known as the Wal-Mart effect. To the company's critics, Wal-Mart points the way to a grim Darwinian world of bankrupt competitors, low wages, meager health benefits, jobs lost to imports, and devastated downtowns and rural areas across America.

Yet there is a wider, less partisan view of the company, which perhaps more visibly than any other corporation marches to the mandate of the global capitalist economy.

"Wal-Mart is the logical end point and the future of the economy in a society whose pre-eminent value is getting the best deal," said Robert B. Reich, the former labor secretary and a professor of social and economic policy at Brandeis University.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at 10:14 PM | E-mail to a Friend | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Miss World Crowned in China

Yahoo! News:

Nineteen-year-old Miss Ireland, Rosanna Davison, daughter of singer Chris de Burgh, was crowned Miss World 2003 on Saturday in Communist China's first international beauty pageant, an event that would have once been branded a heretical display of western decadence.

...

Showing how far China has come since the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when women could be branded counter-revolutionaries for wearing makeup, officials embraced the contest as a way of boosting Hainan's image, according to state-run media.

Until recently, China banned beauty contests as expressions of decadence but beauty has become big business. Fashion show catwalks grace fancy shopping malls and billboards advertising beauty products and brand names are common.

Wal-Mart to Flex Muscles in Music Downloads?

ECommerceTimes:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reportedly is looking at beginning to sell digital music downloads by year's end, raising the prospect of new price competition in the online music market. That could significantly reduce the allure of unauthorized free music downloads.

According to the New York Post, Wal-Mart has been in talks to license music from record companies for its own downloading service on Walmart.com. The service is expected to be modeled after Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store that allows customers to download songs for 99 cents each.

Wal-Mart Stores didn't confirm its entry into the market Thursday. The Bentonville, Ark., company is the world's largest retailer and the top seller of music CDs, controlling 14 percent of worldwide music sales.

"At any given time we are looking at new services and products, and digital services is one of those things being looked at," said Cynthia Lin, a Walmart.com spokeswoman in Brisbane, Calif.

Some analysts said rumors about Wal-Mart's entry into online music have been circulating for some time.

In doing so, Wal-Mart would enter a growing field of competitors that includes for-pay providers such as Apple's iTunes, Roxio's Napster (only the brand name of the free Napster remains) and RealNetwork's Rhapsody, as well as free music sites such as Kazaa and Grokster.

By some estimates, about 500 million unauthorized copies of songs are downloaded each month. The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the major music labels, filed lawsuits earlier this year in response, accusing 261 people of sharing copyrighted music.

Cure Closer for Diabetes

Herald Sun (Australia):

MELBOURNE scientists have made a world-first breakthrough that offers the best hope for a cure for diabetes.

A team of surgeons and chemical engineers is growing a mini-insulin-producing organ in a diabetic rat.

A million Australians and 190 million people worldwide are affected by diabetes -- when sugar and starch are not absorbed by the body because of a lack of functioning insulin in the pancreas.

The Tide Turns In US Legal War On Terror

CBSNews:
... This week we may have seen the turning of the tide in the legal war on terror. For the first time since the Twin Towers fell, the federal judiciary began to push back against the executive branch along a broad range of terror-law fronts.

And for the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, the Administration began, grudgingly, to acknowledge some of the political and legal limitations inherent in an overall strategy (i.e., detain first, sort things out later) that is much more un-American than not.

It may just be a dip in the curve. The courts certainly have not completely vitiated the government’s anti-terror efforts. And the Supreme Court itself hasn’t yet spoken substantively on any of the civil liberties issues raised in the past two years.

New "Vatican" For Filmmakers In Cuba

CubaNet.org:
... A 50-minute drive from Havana, the international film and television school immediately strikes the visitor as a colonial compound in the tropics. A staff of over 200 full-time cooks, maids, gardeners, builders, drivers, translators and security staff cater for the film student's every possible need. Internet access is three cents a minute, cable TV plays in the 24-hour cafeteria and, on Sundays, there are even bus trips to Varadero, the 20-mile strip of unblemished white sand that is the Caribbean's largest tourist resort.

The school's Cuban director, Julio García Espinosa, explains the justification behind such expenditure. "When I was at film school in Rome in the 1950s, Alessandro Bonavetti, a famous Italian director of the time, asked us students what the most important thing was for film-makers to possess. We of course answered 'passion', 'talent', 'vision', but he just shook his head. 'Health,' was his reply. It was true. We were so poor. We wrote on waste paper collected from the streets. So when I had the chance to set up this school I knew the students must be free to concentrate on their work."

...The school's vision of not only educating its students in the how-tos of film-making but also trying to change the globe's cinematic landscape has drawn some of the world's top cinema talent to its lecture theatres. Steven Soderbergh got quite a grilling from some of the students, unhappy about his drugs 'n' guns portrayal of Mexico in Traffic. Spielberg enthused about the energy of the place, spoke out against the embargo and was reported as saying that he'd love to make a film in Cuba. But the students' favourite remains Francis Ford Coppola, who visited in 1998: he hung around the cafe for two days and cooked pasta for everyone in the canteen.

The reason the Americans can bypass the US travel ban to the island lies with Castro. García and García Márquez persuaded Castro to make the school a non-government organisation. "You're not actually standing on Cuban soil," say the school's Juan José and Oriel Rodriguez. "This place is a sort of Vatican for film-makers." Nevertheless, water, petrol and electricity, tightly rationed on the rest of the island, are supplied at a discount by the Cuban authorities.

Movie Theaters to Go the Way of Drive-Ins?

SFGate.com:
As one of the four big release dates -- along with Memorial Day, Christmas and New Year's Day -- Thanksgiving week can draw 40 million Americans into theaters, far exceeding the average weekly attendance of 25 million to 30 million, he said.

Impressive as those numbers may sound, the theater industry will sell fewer tickets during this peak week than it did during any seven-day period in the 1920s -- when the U.S. population was just a third of what it is today.

For discerning moviegoers, however, the real story this Thanksgiving isn't what's on the screen. Rather it's the changing nature of the $9 billion theater industry, whose biggest box office days are in the past, and whose future is uncertain in an age of DVDs, 24-hour cable and high-definition television.

"In the 1940s, virtually every person who was old enough to walk and talk went to movies once a week,'' he said. "It was the way the average person was entertained.''

... The 1965 edition of the Film Daily Year Book reveals that in 1922, when the U.S. population was about 106 million, the theater industry sold an average of 40 million tickets per week.

Average weekly attendance peaked at 90 million in the late 1940s, when the U.S. population was about half of what it is today. Then, in the 1950s came television, and theater attendance began to plunge. By the 1960s, weekly ticket sales were below Depression-era levels.

...Syufy said theater owners have raised prices to meet expenses ranging from workers' compensation insurance to the cost of building megaplexes -- where each screen can run anywhere from $750,000 to $1 million, according to some estimates.

...Howard Suber, founding chair of UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television, believes movie theaters may be fighting a losing battle.

"Most people don't want to get out of their houses for anything in American society anymore,'' said Suber, who lumps the moviegoing public into two groups: teenagers dying to get out of the house, and single people on hot dates. He foresees a day when film studios bypass theaters and release new movies via some form of pay-per-view.

"It's quite possible that within our lifetime the megaplex will go the way of the drive-in,'' he said.

...But theater owners say neither they, nor ultimately their patrons, should pay the estimated $100,000-per-screen conversion cost, when Hollywood would be the prime beneficiary of any film-to-digital switch.

Indeed, theater owners see themselves as caught between moviegoers -- who gripe about prices, commercials, even sticky floors -- and moviemakers, who take most of the box office in a film's first few weeks, while producing titles with life expectancies measured, also, in weeks.

TV, movies are king as Philippines prepares to elect new president

ChannelNewsAsia:
Television and the movies are transforming the Philippine political landscape as the star-struck electorate put a film icon and a network star on pole position in next May's presidential vote.

Only five years ago, Filipinos elected film star Joseph Estrada as president and dumped him with the nonchalance of a channel surfer before his term ended.

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Now Fernando Poe, the Philippines' answer to "John Wayne" who is also known as "FPJ", and TV newscaster Noli de Castro are tied for the lead in the latest survey. The stars have put President Gloria Arroyo in the shade.

"Media is a force in this country," said Jose Leviste, chairman of the Manila-based political risk consultancy Polistrat International.

"It also explains why the strongest political party in the country is ABS-CBN," the broadcast network that also employs de Castro. "These are just the facts of life."

Estrada blazed the trail when he won a landslide election in 1998 with Arroyo as vice president. A popular revolt sparked by a corruption scandal eased Estrada from office in 2001 and Arroyo took his place.

New law makes recording movies in theaters a misdemeanor

Miami Herald:
Sneaking a camcorder into a movie theater will soon be a crime in California under a new law designed to protect both copyrights and the livelihood of thousands of movie industry workers.

"This industry is the economic engine that moves this city," Police Chief William Bratton said at a City Hall press conference Thursday.

The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, allows moviegoers to make a citizen's arrest if they see someone in a theater with a recording device. Signs will also be posted at all Los Angeles County theaters notifying patrons of the new law.

The effort is aimed mainly at camcorders, which account for 92 percent of all illegal copies of films that appear for sale over the Internet and are sold on street corners from Burbank to Beijing, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

The law, which was signed by former Gov. Gray Davis, was written to also include future technologies and could be enforced against people recording all or parts of a film with a tape recorder, hand-held computer or even a cell phone.

China's Power Supply Not Developing at Same Speed as Its Economy

BBC:
The state Xinhua news agency said the shortfall was caused by insufficient coal supplies and a seasonal drought, which limits the production of hydro-electricity.

Shopping centres and department stores will have to turn off their heating for two hours each morning - 1000 until 1200, local time.

Shanghai has already shut down some small factories.

from coal-fired power plants at present. Coal accounts for 50 to 60 percent of power generation cost.

... Correspondents say the shortages illustrate the precarious nature of China's power supply, which has not developed at the same speed as its economy.

China Power plants hunger for coal - but need more efficient markets

xinhuanet:
Seven major electricity producers in China have recently appealed for state intervention to solve their acute coal shortages, which has gravely hampered normal electricity production.

In the petition, filed to relevant departments of the central government, the seven enterprises asked these departments to issue explicit directions on coal and electricity prices to avoid a power supply crisis.

The petition noted that most power plants in central and north China now face shortages of coal. Coal reserves in these power plants have dropped below the warning level. Some plants even have been compelled to shut down their generators.

According to the petition, filed by China Huadian Group, China Huaneng (Chng) Enterprise Group and five other major power producers, the shortage is spreading to more areas.

An official with China Huaneng Enterprise Group, who asked not to be named, said electricity pricing is still subject to government approval at present, while coal prices have already been permitted to float in line with market demands.

"Coal prices have kept rising since last year. The level of coal prices has reached such a stage that it's difficult for powerplants to continue normal production without adjustments in eithercoal or electricity prices," said the official.

According to the official, around 75 percent of China's power supply comes from coal-fired power plants at present. Coal accounts for 50 to 60 percent of power generation cost.

China to Become the World's Fourth Largest Trader, Surpassing France

HinduTimes:
China is poised to become the world's fourth largest trader, following US, Japan and Germany, the state media reported on Friday.

Export and import volumes of China have totalled about $800 billion since January, Vice Minister of Commerce Wei Jianguo said.

At that rate, China's rank in the world trading community will rise to fourth by the end of the year, replacing France, he said.

The export boost is driven a sharp rise in the shipment of machinery and electronic items, which is likely to exceed $190 billion by year-end, Wei said.

China Pushes Its Own WiFi Standard

SeattlePostIntelligence:
China has ordered equipment makers to use the country's own encryption standards for wireless networks, ensuring stronger government control and giving domestic manufacturers a slight respite from some foreign competition.

The new rules, which took effect Monday, apply to manufacturers at home and overseas. They cover the import and sale of all equipment used in wireless networks, the so-called Wi-Fi services increasingly used to provide Internet connections in public spaces such as hotels, cafes and airports.

Products contracted, imported or produced prior to the ban's effective date were given a six-month grace period, according to government notices posted on the Web site of the China Broadband Wireless IP Standard Workteam, the group that drew up the new standard.

The compulsory encryption standard lets regulators assert control over a telecommunications medium that by its very open nature is viewed as suspect, said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing-based Internet consulting firm.

"Maybe they're concerned that their own so-called secure government networks could be vulnerable," Clark said. "Wi-Fi is fundamentally hackable. They want to ensure some control."

Wal-Mart To Refuse MasterCard Signature Debit Cards

SunSentinal:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will stop accepting signature debit cards issued by MasterCard, starting in February, the first major retailer to take such action since a lawsuit settlement freed merchants to pick which credit and debit card services they use.

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, said Wednesday that MasterCard's fees for the signature debit cards are too high. It will continue to accept Visa's signature debit cards.

MasterCard said the Wal-Mart decision "confirms what was always the biggest threat of the merchant lawsuit - that it would take choice about how to pay for goods and services away from consumers and place it firmly in the grip of big retailers."

The company added: "It is surprising in today's environment for any merchant to make a conscious decision that will result in dissatisfied customers and lost sales."

NOTE: Walmart advocates that customers use their pin IDs with their debit cards. This enables a much lower transaction rate as the Wal-Mart and the customer bypass the credit card networks. N.Wada

Advent Networks' Ultraband Boosts Cable IP Performance

eweek.com:
Corporations looking for alternatives to expensive T1 service may soon get benefits from an unlikely place—cable TV operators.

At the cable industry's Western Show 2003 here on Wednesday, networking startup Advent Networks Inc. of Austin, Texas, showed off its new Ultraband line of switch routers, designed to let cable operators increase cable modem bandwidth from 2 to 10 or more megabits per second.

Advent's new Ultraband 8800 works by layering time-division multiplexing on top of a standard DOCSIS-based cable plant. According to President and CEO Geoffrey Tudor, that provides more bandwidth for each user by eliminating overhead, as well as guaranteeing packet delivery.

... In Japan, Mitsubishi Corp. is already using Advent's hardware to deliver that performance to home users for under $40 a month. A Mitsubishi representative in Advent's booth confirmed the performance benefits, and said the company was very happy with the system's performance.

Time Warner Inc. is already using Ultraband equipment to provide IP service to business customers in Austin Texas. One of the first customers is IBM's Austin-based research lab.

FCC seeks to overturn cable broadband ruling to force sharing of broadband networks

News.com:
The Federal Communications Commission filed a petition Thursday requesting a rehearing in a case that could bring new federal regulations to the cable broadband industry.

The agency submitted the 19-page document to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the hope that the court would grant a new hearing of its October ruling, which declared that the FCC was wrong to classify cable broadband services as "information services." Cable broadband actually has qualities of both information and "telecommunications" services, that ruling said.

The distinction is critical because the federal government can force telecommunications services to share their high-speed Internet lines with third parties, as dictated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Baby Bell phone companies, considered telecommunications services, are regulated this way.

However, cable companies are considered information services and are thus not federally required to share their broadband networks with anyone else.

In Thursday's filing, the FCC argued that it was correct in classifying cable as an information service, sticking to its long-held desire to keep regulation out of the cable industry. The FCC requested that the 9th Circuit grant an en banc hearing for the case, meaning that the court would overturn the original, three-judge ruling and take a fresh look at the case with an 11-judge panel.

The FCC had threatened to appeal the October ruling, but it never stated how it would do so. Its other alternative was to appeal through the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cable Companies Skip TiVo

Forbes:
Shares of digital video recorder maker Tivo Inc. (nasdaq: TIVO - news - people) on Thursday fell more than 12 percent after a leading cable TV provider said it would develop its own recording system, which may reduce Tivo's chances of striking deals with cable companies.

Analysts said Comcast Corp. (nasdaq: CMCSA - news - people), the No. 1 U.S. cable television provider, announced earlier this week that it would launch "TiVo-like" set-top boxes next year, and added some 90 percent of its subscribers will be offered that service by the end of next year.

Currently, Tivo gains customers to its service through sales of set-top boxes at consumer electronics stores, and via satellite TV provider DirecTV, a division of Hughes Electronics Corp. (nyse: GMH - news - people) It has been trying to link with cable providers, and their millions of subscribers, in an effort to spur growth.

"It is now apparent that the two largest cable (providers) Time Warner Cable (Inc. (nyse: TWX - news - people)), and Comcast, will be skipping out on using Tivo technology and instead develop (video recording) capability of their own," said Sanders Morris Harris analyst David Miller in a note to clients.

Note: We specifically identified the fact over two months ago that the future of Tivo was bleak. TiVo failed to make deals with the cable and satellite companies who have access to over 95% of the homes in the US. Moreover, all of the PC manufacturers and many AGP card manuracturers are offering PVR and Personal Audio Recording (PAR - the ability to time shift radio broadcasts) capability. N.Wada

Generation D: Young Adults with Diabetes

ABCNEWS.com:

Type 1 diabetes, in which the body does not produce insulin, is traditionally seen in children and adolescents. But over the last decade, type 2 diabetes -- formerly known as adult-onset diabetes -- has increased by 70 percent in adults aged 30 to 39, reflecting, researchers say, the 70 percent increase in obesity in adults aged 18 to 29. In this form of diabetes the body's use of insulin is somewhat impaired.

A recent American Diabetes Association-funded study has found that type 2 diabetes is more aggressive when it occurs in adults 18 to 44 than when it is acquired in older adults. Complications of diabetes include heart attack and stroke, and the study found that younger adults with diabetes are 14 times more like to have a heart attack and 30 times more likely to have a stroke than other people their age.

Researchers Make Spare Body Parts Using Stem Cells

NBC11.com:

Researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago claim to have discovered how to make spare body parts from a person's own stem cells.

Dental researcher Dr. Jeremy Mao set out to make new joints for people who suffer from injury or arthritis to their joints, whether it be in the knees, fingers or even in the jaw.

"About 30 million Americans have TMJ [temporomandibular joint] problems. Some of these folks have severe arthritis of the jaw joint," Mao said.
Now, Mao and fellow researcher Adel Alhadlaq have taken liquid stem cells from bone marrow, and transformed them into the solid joint of a human jaw, complete with a top layer of cartilage. Stem cells are cells that haven't developed into a specific body type yet.

It starts with making a mold of the joint, then the stem cells are mixed with chemicals that cause them to form into bone and cartilage cells. Finally, they're poured into the mold with another chemical that solidifies the cells under ultraviolet light, according to Mao.

Stem cell molding like this has never been done before.

DuPont's Nanotechnology Breaktrhough

Chemistry.org:

A day after announcing a major shift in the way it plans to operate, DuPont Co. said its scientists had made a nanotechnology breakthrough in the electronics arena. DuPont said the finding might lead to the development of highly sensitive medical diagnostic devices and transistors that are 100 times smaller than today's standard.

Such discoveries are crucial to chief executive officer Charles O. Holliday Jr.'s efforts to create a "new DuPont" that is smaller [no pun intented] but more profitable."

Cable Tops Broadcast TV In Sweeps Period for First Time

CNN.com:

More U.S. households were tuned to cable television networks than broadcast networks last month during prime time, the first time cable has bested over-the-air competitors during a crucial sweeps period.

Ratings for the sweeps period, used by the networks to set ad rates, help determine how advertisers spend $30 billion a year to reach TV watchers. That's why cable and broadcast networks promote their most attractive programs during the sweeps period.

Cable has beaten broadcasters in the little-noticed July sweeps period in the past, when broadcasters air reruns or alternate programming and overall viewership is lower, and it has beaten the networks in a handful of non-sweeps periods.

But this is the first time it has topped the broadcasters in any of the closely followed February, May or November ratings periods, according to an analysis of Nielsen Media Research ratings performed by the Cable Television Advertising Bureau (CAB), an industry group of networks and cable operators.

With U.S. Busy, China Is Romping With Neighbors

New Yotk Times:

China's buying spree and voracious markets provide the underpinning, he said, for the peaceful coexistence that everyone wants.

Contrast this with the dour message from the United States. Congratulations, said President Bush to the Indonesians during his short stopover in October, for "hunting and finding dangerous killers." Cannily, China has wasted little time in capitalizing on the United States preoccupation with the campaign on terror to greatly expand its influence in Asia.

A new team of leaders in Beijing who came to power last spring -- President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao -- have led the charge, personally traveling in the region bearing sizable investments and diplomatic warmth. In fact, some forward leaning analysts think China may already have become Asia's leading power.

"After Afghanistan, after Iraq, after bringing democracy to the Middle East, when the United States refocuses on Asia, it will find a much different China in a much different region," James J. Przystup, a research fellow at the National Defense University, wrote recently.

Australia Promoting Its Natural Gas in U.S.

New York Times:

Geoff Gallop, the state premier of Western Australia, is visiting the United States to help ChevronTexaco sell Australia's natural gas. Between meetings with oil executives in California and energy officials in Washington, he visited Baja California, Mexico, where ChevronTexaco hopes to build a terminal to receive liquefied natural gas shipped from a huge $7.9 billion gas project off the coast of Western Australia called Gorgon.

That field plus a group of adjacent gas fields known collectively as Greater Gorgon, all operated by ChevronTexaco as part of a consortium it leads with Royal/Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil, represent Australia's largest known gas reserve. With an estimated 40 trillion cubic feet, it is the equivalent of two-thirds of Canada's proven reserves.

The project is part of a new growth initiative by Australia's gas export industry, which hopes to take advantage of increased global demand. Most Australian gas exports to date have been to Japan, with almost none to the United States. But with a gas shortage looming in the United States, Australian gas concerns are betting they can ship gas competitively all the way across the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast.

The Search for the Perfect Gift Grows at Small Online Stores

New York Times:

Online sales were the bright spot for retailing over the Thanksgiving weekend. Visa said its online sales, including travel, increased 47 percent in the week ended Sunday, compared with the week last year. Traditional retailers had only a 9 percent increase in spending on Visa cards. Indeed, for the week, online spending represented 7.4 percent of the $19.7 billion charged to Visa cards, up from 5.7 percent in the week last year.

For the entire holiday season, the National Retail Federation is predicting an overall increase in sales of 5.7 percent, compared with 2.2 percent last year. Online sales in the fourth quarter, meanwhile, are expected to rise by 29 percent this year over last year, according to eMarketer, a firm that compiles Internet research, compared with a 28 percent increase last year.

This year, about 81 million people -- up from 73 million last year -- are expected to make online purchases, according to eMarketer. And a survey from Forrester Research suggests that women will outnumber men among online shoppers for the first time.

Evolution of Sundance: Big Name Stars in (Quasi) Independent Films

HollywoodReporter: The competitive categories of the 2004 Sundance Film Festival will be characterized by big-name actors appearing in films by relatively unknown directors, projects influenced by Sept. 11 and a record-breaking number of projects from black filmmakers.

... Said Festival Director Geoff Gilmore, speaking of next month's 20th edition of the festival: "Years ago, I was committed to this idea that we had to have a level playing field and that you don't put movies with stars in competition. But the independent world that existed (then) doesn't exist now, and many of the independent films that are produced these days have some level of major actor in them. And we've gotten to the point where we felt that was an issue that we no longer should hold as a major impetus to what the program is. It has been an evolution, and this year, we have a large number of works with major stars."

... "You look at that program, and it's a very eclectic program, and 13 out of the 16 are from first-timers, and how many of them have distribution? None," Gilmore said. "So all of them are films that have taken a risk and are doing different kinds of things, and the actors that are in them are taking risks, too."

Card Playing the hottest game on television

CNN:

Card playing -- an activity that filled the evening hours before television was invented -- has improbably become one of TV's hottest programming trends.

After less than a year, the "World Poker Tour" is already the Travel Channel's most popular series ever, a status NBC Sports took note of last week in announcing it would air a poker game on Super Bowl Sunday.

Bravo, probably the most trend-conscious cable channel, beat World Poker Tour operators to the punch by putting together the "Celebrity Poker Showdown." The new series premieres December 2.

... Steve Lipscomb, a lawyer turned television producer, thought it would make exciting television. But even he admitted that most previous attempts to film card games were so boring they were nearly impossible to watch.

Seeking investment possibilities, he was laughed out of television executive offices.

... One unusual draw is that virtually anyone can participate, making the poker matches a version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," Lipscomb said.

The big matches have entrance fees of thousands of dollars. But for only $30, an amateur can enter qualifying tournaments with the prize being a seat at the table for a major tournament.

Doctors Urged to Sceen for Obesity

YahooNews:
All adults should be screened for obesity and obese patients should be offered intensive counseling and behavioral interventions to help them achieve and maintain a healthy weight, says a new report by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

The report, which appears in the Dec. 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, says doctors should screen for obesity using the body mass index (BMI). This is a valid and reliable screening test, the task force report says.

People with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 are considered overweight and people with a BMI of more than 30 are considered obese.

The report also suggests doctors consider measuring patients for centrally located body weight, which is independently associated with cardiovascular disease.

Men with a waist circumference greater than 40 inches and women with a waist circumference greater than 35 inches are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. But the report notes these measurements may be inaccurate for people with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 35.

DoCoMo seen offering Linux-based 3G phones

Reuters:
NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile operator, aims to offer third-generation (3G) handsets that run on the Linux-based operating system as early as the second half of 2004, according to a source close to the firm.

Linux software is free and can be copied or modified, unlike rival Microsoft's software, and has become popular among companies looking to lower the cost of using computer systems.

DoCoMo has already offered handset makers specifications of the kind of Linux-based operating system suitable for its 3G handsets in order to help them cut development and manufacturing costs, the source said.

DoCoMo does not intend to force them to use the Linux-based software and it does not preclude the use of other operating systems including Smartphone software from Microsoft as future operating system candidates for its 3G phones, the source said.

... Japanese handset makers mostly use home-grown TRON operating system, while Fujitsu and Matsushita Electric Industria use an operating system from London-based Symbian, which is competing with Microsoft, on some of their handset models.

Digital broadcasts mark fledgling debut in Japan

JapanTimes:
With signs that say "Digital is coming!" hanging in stores packed with new TV models promising dazzling imagery, Tokyo's bustling electronics shopping district in Akihabara is one place in Japan that's gung-ho about digital television broadcasting that began Monday.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (at microphone) and representatives of Japan's key TV broadcasters mark the start of terrestrial digital broadcasting.

But the buzz has yet to catch on elsewhere.

Digital broadcasting will still reach just parts of three major cities, and potential viewers are estimated at 12 million households. But with reception for some channels poor because of Japan's mountainous and cramped terrain, the tally may be half that -- and actual viewers even fewer, at about 300,000.

The government is determined to make digital broadcasting the nation's standard, and has vowed to phase out analog broadcasting by 2011. So officials say digital TV, despite its likely slow start, is here to stay.

The economic perks are expected to total 200 trillion yen over the next decade, according to the telecommunications ministry, as people rush out to buy digital TVs, broadcasters invest in equipment and new kinds of services blossom.

The government is investing 180 billion yen to help get the system started, and is targeting the end of 2006 for making it available nationwide.

The air waves for analog TVs and digital TVs are basically similar. But using digital signals allows for relaying larger amounts of information. A digital TV has twice as many lines on a screen to create images as an analog TV, delivering a more vivid and theaterlike picture. Digital broadcasting can also relay hundreds of channels in less dazzling video quality.

Another feature of digital TVs is viewer participation, including surveys, contest balloting or educational programs, although such programs were scarce Monday. The television can also receive data that pop up as words on the screen, including player statistics for a baseball game, or local news headlines and weather reports targeting specific areas.

In the future, commuters will be watching digital TV programs on mobile phones and other hand-held devices, although a disagreement over patents has delayed that launch in Japan.

The advent of digital TV is symbolic of a larger move toward "a network society" that delivers information catered to each individual instead of a dominant mass media that acts as opinion leader, said Tatsuo Inamasu, a professor at Hosei University in Tokyo.

WHO sets out strategy for getting treatment to three million in the developing world

Guardian:
The World Health Organisation yesterday predicted that Aids drug prices will drop to levels once thought impossibly low, as it rolled out its new strategy to get treatment to three million in the developing world by 2005.
The cost of Aids treatment in affluent countries where pharmaceutical companies have patents on their medicines is more than $10,000 (£5,800) a year.

Copies made by generics companies in India where the same patent rules do not apply are now being sold to African nations for around $300 a year. Launching the WHO plan in Nairobi, assistant secretary-general Jack Chow said: "We expect it to fall to less than half of that by the end of 2005. That is about a dollar a day at present, falling to 50 cents a day or less. In a world that spends billions of dollars on cosmetics, it is not a great deal of money."

As the plan was revealed on World Aids Day, the Indian government surprised many by becoming the latest nation to promise free drugs for 100,000 of its 4.6 million citizens infected with HIV and who will die of Aids without treatment.

The drugs will be bought at a specially negotiated low rate from Indian generics companies and made available at district hospitals in the six worst-affected states. There have been concerns that the pandemic could run out of control in India, whose government last year rejected a US estimate that the numbers could rise to 25 million by 2010.

The prices of Aids drugs have tumbled, thanks to grassroots activists in South Africa and elsewhere demanding drugs to keep people with HIV alive. The pharmaceutical companies came under pressure to drop prices and stop trying to block the generics companies from, as they see it, stealing their inventions and making cheaper copies.

But although prices are now low, Médecins sans Frontiéres, which has pioneered drug treatment for Aids in Africa, says they should come down further still.