Nuclear power 'gets little public support worldwide'

There is little public appetite across the world for building new nuclear reactors, a poll for the BBC indicates.

In countries with nuclear programmes, people are significantly more opposed than they were in 2005, with only the UK and US bucking the trend.

Most believe that boosting efficiency and renewables can meet their needs.

Just 22% agreed that "nuclear power is relatively safe and an important source of electricity, and we should build more nuclear power plants".

In contrast, 71% thought their country "could almost entirely replace coal and nuclear energy within 20 years by becoming highly energy-efficient and focusing on generating energy from the Sun and wind".

Globally, 39% want to continue using existing reactors without building new ones, while 30% would like to shut everything down now.

The global research agency GlobeScan, commissioned by BBC News, polled 23,231 people in 23 countries from July to September this year, several months after an earthquake and giant tsunami devastated Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power station.

Nuclear power is a relatively tiny industry with huge economic, technical, safety, environmental, and political problems”

In Germany it is up from 73% in 2005 to 90% now - which is reflected in the government's recent decision to close its nuclear programme.

More intriguingly, it also rose in pro-nuclear France (66% to 83%) and Russia (61% to 83%).

Fukushima-stricken Japan, however, registered the much more modest rise of 76% to 84%.

In the UK, support for building new reactors has risen from 33% to 37%. It is unchanged in the US, and also high in China and Pakistan, which all poll around the 40% mark.

Support for continuing to use existing plants while not building new ones was strongest in France and Japan (58% and 57%), while Spaniards and Germans (55% and 52%) were the keenest to shut existing plants down immediately.

In countries without operating reactors, support for building them was strongest in Nigeria (41%), Ghana (33%) and Egypt (31%).

Atlantic oddity
Although the survey cannot determine definitively whether the Fukushima disaster was responsible for changes of opinion, it appears likely.


"The lack of impact the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has had on public views towards nuclear power in the UK and US is noteworthy," said GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller.

"This contrasts with significantly increased opposition to nuclear new-build in most countries we've tracked since 2005."

Other pollsters have also found continuing support in the UK for nuclear energy.

The BBC/GlobeScan poll is broadly consistent with other global polls as well.

In June, both Ipsos-Mori and the Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper found drops in support for the technology in most countries, with support continuing in a number including the US.

The Ipsos-Mori poll found that nuclear enjoyed the lowest support of any established technology for generating electricity, with 38%.

Coal fared not much better, at 48%, while solar, wind and hydro all found favour with more than 90% of those surveyed.


"That renewable energy combined with efficiency can replace coal and nuclear is not only a majority popular belief, but a fact supported by a growing number of authoritative reports," commented Jan Beranek, who leads the energy team in Greenpeace International.

"Nuclear power is a relatively tiny industry with huge economic, technical, safety, environmental, and political problems.

"And the Fukushima accident reminded the world that all reactors have inherent risks."

But bodies such as the International Energy Agency see a continuing role for nuclear power, as the global demand for energy grows and governments struggle to control greenhouse gas emissions at a reasonable cost.

John Ritch, director-general of the World Nuclear Association, said that Fukushima was the first significant nuclear incident in 25 years, and has not caused a single fatality.

"Policymakers must respect public opinion, but they must also respect facts; and the facts still favour nuclear power," he told BBC News.

"Those facts warrant a better educational effort from industry, from governments and from journalists.

"Nuclear power will be even safer after Fukushima, and will continue to mature as the world's premier non-carbon technology."

iPhone 4S India launch muted

Apple's latest smartphone arrived in India to a quiet reception on Wednesday night, almost a week after local service providers Airtel and Aircel announced its entry price, which is higher than anywhere else in the world.

The iPhone 4S is priced at Rs 44,500 onwards, while it sells at 35% less in the US. This partly explains the lacklustre response at the launch in India, compared with the US, where people queue up for long hours ahead of the launch of any iPhone.

Airtel launched the smartphone in the presence of media simultaneously in six cities, while Aircel launched the iPhone 4S across eight cities in a store each, which remained open past 3 am.

None of the two local carriers shared the details on the number of units sold at launch. A person who handles media communications for Aircel, however, termed the response as robust and said 20 people had queued up in Chennai despite heavy rain.

Weak rupee to hurt software exports in long-term

Although weakening of the rupee against the US dollar will bring short-term benefits, the long-term impact will be adverse and far outweigh any immediate gains, an electronics and software export council.

"The continued weakening of rupee against dollar, which has now touched a record low is a matter of great concern and will have adverse impact on the software and ITeS exports in the medium and long run," Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) said.

According to the council, a weak rupee will increase cost of operations, travel and wage bills.

While continued depreciation in the rupee will bring some short-term gains, ESC said companies were not dependant on foreign exchange gains and that firms who had taken debt from overseas sources are seeing the cost of servicing such debt become dearer.

"In the medium-to-long run, the adverse impact on macro economic variables, such as higher inflation, flight of capital from the country and higher resources to be set apart for hedging the currency from volatility, will not only nullify benefits but also adversely affect bottom lines of IT firms," said D K Sareen, executive director, ESC.

The rupee, which fell to a record low of 52.73 to a dollar Tuesday was trading around 52.18 to a dollar Wednesday afternoon.

"IT exporters are not primarily glued to treasury operations. Rather some of the members of the ESC are from the small and medium segment, which do not have the professional expertise to go for hedging. So they hardly take advantage when the rupee is falling," Sareen added.

Corporations have contracted a total debt of close to $30 billion this year alone. The interest on these and the obligations to repay the debt instruments that has reached maturity will push up the dollar demand further, thereby weakening rupee.

Also, there is a scramble for switching over to the greenback from Euro, across the world on account of the financial mess in the euro zone. This might pull the rupee further down from the present level against dollar.

"India has to put in place a proactive roadmap to deal with the possible outcome of these changing landscapes. Apart from reining in the inflation, there should be attempts to open up more opportunities to IT firms in the domestic market," he says.

Qualcomm challenges LCDs with new e-reader

A new electronic display is poised to challenge power-hungry LCDs after US mobile chip maker Qualcomm Inc teamed up with a South Korean bookseller to introduce a new e-reader.

The "Kyobo eReader" was unveiled this week in Seoul and will reach South Korean consumers as early as December 1, Kyobo Book Centre officials said Thursday.

The e-reader features Qualcomm's 1.0 GHz "Snapdragon" processor, a custom Kyobo application based on Android and a 5.7 inch "XGA" mirasol display.

The mirasol display uses ambient light instead of its own in much the same way that a peacock's plumage gets its scintillating hues. Qualcomm's mirasols have already been used in a few Chinese and South Korean phones, and in an MP3 player on the US market. The display contains tiny mirrors that consume power only when they're moving, easing battery drain. Mirasol displays also quickly change from one image to the next and show video.

The global market for e-readers is dominated by bright LCDs and grayscale "e-ink" screens. LCDs consume relatively more battery power while e-ink screens are slow to refresh.

The introduction of the e-reader jointly developed by Qualcomm and Kyobo signals increasing competition in the global market for tablets.

US online retailer Amazon.com Inc and bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc have recently released tablets of their own, Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, and are challenging Apple's iPad in pricing.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs noted South Koreans' near-100 per cent literacy rate and digital reading skills during a launching ceremony in Seoul on Tuesday, according to the San Diego-based company.

Fifteen-year-old South Koreans scored highest in their ability to absorb information from digital devices, according to a 2009 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Over 80 per cent of households in South Korea have broadband Internet access.

The e-reader featuring the mirasol display will be priced at 349,000 won, or $302, said Seoul-based Kyobo, South Korea's largest bookseller.

India to open market to global supermarket chains

India has approved long-awaited proposals to open up the retail market to global supermarket chains.

Food Minister KV Thomas said the cabinet has agreed to 51% foreign ownership of multi-brand retail stores, allowing groups like Wal-Mart and Tesco to open stores.

Such operators currently can only sell wholesale in India and not directly to customers.

A decision on the issue has been pending for two years.

Mr Thomas told reporters that the cabinet decided to raise the cap on foreign investment in single-brand retailing - such as Apple or Reebok - to 100%, from its current 51%.

"Consumers will have many more choices," said Gibson Vedamani, of the Retailers Association of India. "It will truly be a borderless world in terms of products available."

Supporters of the move say it will increase competition and quality while reducing prices, which have been hit by close to double-digit inflation.

Opponents say the multi-nationals will squeeze out India's smaller and poorer traders and drive down prices paid to India's farmers.

'Completely opposed'
One cabinet ally of the ruling Congress party, Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress, said his party was "completely opposed to it".

He said: "My suggestion in the cabinet meeting will be that an all-party meeting should be called to discuss this sensitive matter before taking it up in the cabinet."

The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party is opposed to the proposal and there have been street protests by traders.

BJP politician Murli Manohar Joshi said the move was "a tool to kill the domestic retail industry".

But Gibson Vedamani, a board member of the Retailers Association of India, told Agence France-Presse: "If this proposal gets through, consumers will have many more choices - it will truly be a borderless world in terms of products available."

Trade Minister Anand Sharma said before the decision that there was "a broad-based consensus" in the cabinet in favour of the proposal.


However, some analysts have pointed to the potential political fallout and say there may be another move to postpone any decision.

The multi-nationals have long been eyeing the lucrative Indian market.

Tesco, for example, welcomed the decision.

"Allowing foreign direct investment in retail would be good news for Indian consumers and businesses and we await further details on any conditions," the company said.

"We already have a franchise arrangement with Tata's Star Bazaar stores. Learning about India and serving more customers every month is a win-win for customers, suppliers, Tesco and Tata."

Any easing of regulations could eventually come with strict controls, for example on local sourcing and levels of investment.

Shooting a Thanksgiving dinner

My hands gripped the barrel of my semiautomatic shotgun tightly, as I sat back against a beech tree, waiting for my prey. Dusk was steadily approaching, the light fading into a dull, autumnal grey over upstate New York. As the fatigue of an eight-hour hunt in temperatures hovering just above freezing set in, it was clear that this would be my last chance of the day to shoot a wild turkey.

My guide sat close by, making alternately squawking and warbling turkey calls to lure the hardy birds ever closer. We could see several adult females (hens) and a young male turkey (a gobbler), crossing a clearing about 50 yards away, but the thick undergrowth made it impossible to get a good shot. Suddenly, a stray turkey appeared between two trees in the distance, hesitating as it decided whether to follow the flock or head toward our enticing calls.
I squeezed the trigger, and the sudden, deafening shotgun blast left a harsh ringing in my right ear. Given my lack of experience with shooting a gun and the thick foliage obscuring the bird, I assumed I missed . I stood up, resigned to call it a day, even as my guide and his dog excitedly ran in the direction I had shot. A few seconds later, they reappeared, holding an adult hen by the legs as it thrashed about in its dying throes. Adrenaline soared through my bloodstream as I realized that I had successfully hunted and killed a turkey.
The turkey is the centrepiece of the US Thanksgiving tradition, though the specimens we eat today are a far cry from their hunted wild relatives, reminiscent of the birds early settlers would have found and Native Americans hunted. Fattened, flightless, farm-raised, store-bought turkeys bear little resemblance to their tough, feral cousins that tromp through the forests, prairies, and scrublands of every state in the US except for Alaska.
According to the National Wild Turkey Federation, the widely held belief that Native Americans and Pilgrims (pre-colonial settlers from England) ate turkey at the first Thanksgiving meal in 1621 may not be true. Although the bird thrived in pre-colonial America, the organization claims that turkey did not become a Thanksgiving staple until the 1800s. When Benjamin Franklin suggested that the turkey appear on the nation's first seal, the more regal bald eagle won out.
By the early 20th Century, the wild turkey neared extinction as its available habitat decreased. Conservation efforts and trap-and-transfer programs, in which turkeys were caught and moved to under-populated areas, brought the population back to healthy levels by the 1960s. Today, turkey hunting is popular throughout the US, and many hunters claim that the thrill and required skill is greater than that of hunting deer. Each state has different requirements, but generally a first-time hunter must complete a safety education course in order to purchase a permit. In New York state, you must pass a written exam upon completion of a 10-hour class, after which you are required to buy a small game license and a turkey permit.
Hunting is allowed on certain public and -- with the owner's permission -- private land, allowing experienced hunters to set out on their own. But a great option for a first-timer is to hire a guide or visit a hunting lodge that offers room and board and experienced guides. I stayed at Turkey Trot Acres, a warm and inviting lodge located in the small town of Candor, New York. Peter Clare and his wife Sherry run this “ma and pa” operation, which has been around since 1987. Sherry rustles up massive amounts of home-cooked food while Peter and his team of skilled guides take hunters out into the nearby countryside. They use a specially bred dog, informally called the Appalachian Turkey Dog, to assist.
According to Clare, turkey hunting is much easier in the spring, because that is when the birds mate and males are out looking for females. In autumn, however, the birds are in survival mode and are not as brazen. The dogs help with hunting by running ahead, locating a flock of turkeys, and “busting” or scattering them. At that point hunters hunker down and wait, using turkey calls to lure them back. The turkeys' nature is to return to the area from which they were scattered, but hunters must be as still as possible -- even a small movement will spook the birds.
“What people like about turkey hunting is the communication,” Clare said, a tall man with a grey Buffalo Bill-style mullet and goatee. “The vocalization and intensity of the one-on-one, the mental game that's involved of trying to beat them in their own backyard, that's the challenge.” This autumn is Clare's 49th turkey season (autumn and spring are each their own season) and he prefers to keep things basic by avoiding high-tech hunting gadgets and dressing in beige and tan instead of camouflage. Turkeys can see in colour, but wearing shades of brown allows you to blend sufficiently into the surroundings. Wearing colour while sitting on the ground making turkey calls can also be very dangerous, as an imprudent hunter may mistake you for a turkey -- male birds' plumage contains splashes of colour. For safety, turkey hunters generally wear blaze orange while walking to a new location, but all colour must be removed while calling the birds. A few times a year, Clare offers “retro hunts”, in which visiting hunters eschew camouflage, decoys or blinds and rely solely upon old fashioned patience and skill. Patience seems to be the key to any successful turkey hunt. Hours may pass with no sign of a bird, and then suddenly you hear warbling in all directions as the turkeys try to rejoin their flock. “That's all this game is,” Clare said, “You go from chicken [excrement] to chicken salad in a heartbeat.”
Back at the lodge, Clare butchers your kill for you on a wooden table outside the main house. He does not recommend roasting the bird whole in the classic Thanksgiving fashion, as wild turkeys tend to be tougher than their farm-bred counterparts and they dry out much faster. Instead, he removes the breast meat for cooking, along with the legs and thighs which are great for making stock. Sherry’s recipe for a stuffed, rolled turkey breast is a deliciously juicy and slightly gamier version of your typical turkey dinner. If you want to keep a trophy of your kill, Peter will cut off the prehistoric-looking feet and beautiful tail feathers. He recommends covering the gory bits where they were severed with salt or borax for a few days to dry them out. Then you can mount them on the backing of your choice.
Autumn turkey hunting is thrilling. After hours of sitting in the cold woods, when a turkey enters your line of sight and you click off the safety of your gun, the adrenaline rush is primeval, exhilarating and somewhat frightening.
But it also provides a chance to better understand where our food actually comes from. Although they might not have eaten turkey, the Pilgrims and Native Americans who shared that first Thanksgiving meal nearly four hundred years ago surely appreciated just how difficult their food was to obtain. A wild turkey hunt gives us the rare chance to fully comprehend that the pre-packaged meat on our plates was once a living, breathing creature, and it offers a visceral connection to the Thanksgiving tradition that brings US families together every year. If the turkey on your carving board just happens to be one that you bagged yourself, even better.

Peru protests at huge Conga gold mine in Cajamarca

Thousands of people in northern Peru have protested against plans for a huge open-cast goldmine in the high Andes.

People in the Cajamarca region say the proposed Conga mine will cause pollution and destroy water supplies.

The US-based mining company Newmont has promised modern reservoirs to replace threatened mountain lakes.

The dispute is a test for President Ollanta Humala, who has promised to continue mining development while protecting affected communities.

Mining is the main engine of Peru's booming economy, but it is also the cause of numerous social conflicts around the country.

The $4.8bn (£3.1bn) Conga project would be the biggest mining investment in the country's history.

On foot and on horseback, rural protesters climbed to four high mountain lakes whose waters would be moved to make way for the gold mine.

There were also protests in the regional capital, Cajamarca, 160km (100 miles) away, where schools and businesses closed and buses stopped running.

Previous protests have involved some sabotage of machinery, and the mining camp is closely guarded by police.

Consultation
Locals say plans to replace the lakes with artificial reservoirs are inadequate.

There are also fears that pollution from the mine could affect agriculture and livestock.

The company behind the project - the Newmont Mining Corporation - says its plans have been drawn up in consultation with local communities and meet the highest environmental standards.

It says the Conga mine - which it owns jointly with a Peruvian company - will generate thousands of jobs.

Newmont also runs the nearby Yanacocha mine - Latin America's biggest gold mine - which has also been the focus of environmental protests.

Peru's left-wing President, Ollanta Humala, has approved the Conga mine, which would be a major source of government revenue, but this stance has been criticised by some of his supporters.

Mr Humala was elected in June after promising to ensure poor Peruvians saw more benefit from the development of the country's natural resources.

Since taking office he has also increased taxes on mining companies and given indigenous communities the right to be consulted about development on their land.

Cloud computing services depend on data safety: Trend Micro

Security software provider Trend Micro said the adoption of cloud computing services in India would largely depend on factors such as data safety.

"A major concern today about cloud services is the security of the data hosted on someone else's data centre in some part of the world, all the more when they are using the public cloud model," Trend Micro Country Manager (India and SAARC) Amit Nath told reporters here.

"We think more companies will move to the cloud once they are satisfied that their data is safe on the cloud," he added.

Cloud computing refers to a business model where companies access applications and software over the Internet on pay-per-use basis, without the need to own them. Companies save huge costs of buying products and reduce IT budgets.

According to a study by consulting firm Zinnov, the domestic cloud computing market is expected to touch USD 1.08 billion by 2015, from USD 110 million in 2010. There are three types of cloud services -- public, private and hybrid.

While public cloud hosts applications and information of various companies on the same data centre, in the private cloud model, companies ask the service provider to manage their data centres individually to avoid any data leakage.

Hybrid model is one where the company can choose the host the non-core applications on a public cloud, but have the important ones on a private cloud.

Trend Micro offers Deep Security and SecureCloud solutions for the cloud services, apart from solutions for individual users, SMBs, enterprises and government.

CO2 climate sensitivity 'overestimated'

Global temperatures could be less sensitive to changing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels than previously thought, a study suggests.

The researchers said people should still expect to see "drastic changes" in climate worldwide, but that the risk was a little less imminent.

The results are published in Science.

Previous climate models have tended to used meteorological measurements from the past 150 years to estimate the climate's sensitivity to rising CO2.

From these models, scientists find it difficult to narrow their projections down to a single figure with any certainty, and instead project a range of temperatures that they expect, given a doubling of atmospheric CO2 from pre-industrial levels.

The new analysis, which incorporates palaeoclimate data into existing models, attempts to project future temperatures with a little more certainty.

Lead author Andreas Schmittner from Oregon State University, US, explained that by looking at surface temperatures during the most recent ice age - 21,000 years ago - when humans were having no impact on global temperatures, he, and his colleagues show that this period was not as cold as previous estimates suggest.

"This implies that the effect of CO2 on climate is less than previously thought," he explained.

By incorporating this newly discovered "climate insensitivity" into their models, the international team was able to reduce uncertainty in its future climate projections.

The new models predict that given a doubling in CO2 levels from pre-industrial levels, the Earth's surface temperatures will rise by 1.7C to 2.6C (3.1F to 4.7F).

That is a much tighter range than the one produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2007 report, which suggested a rise of between 2.0C to 4.5C.

The new analysis also reduces the expected rise in average surface temperatures to just over 2C, from 3C.

The authors stress the results do not mean threat from human-induced climate change should be treated any less seriously, explained palaeoclimatologist Antoni Rosell-Mele from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, who is a member of the team that came up with the new estimates.

But it does mean that to induce large-scale warming of the planet, leading to widespread catastrophic consequences, we would have to increase CO2 more than we are going to do in the near future, he said.

"But we don't want that to happen at any time, right?"

"At least, given that no one is doing very much around the planet [about] mitigating CO2 emissions, we have a bit more time," he remarked.

Whether these results mean that the global temperatures will be less responsive to falling CO2 is unclear. "I don't think we know that, to be honest," remarked Dr Rosell-Mele.

Gabriele Hegerl, from the University of Edinburgh, is cautious about the result in her perspective piece published in the same issue of Science.

She says that this is just one particular climate model, and "future work with a range of models would serve to strengthen the result".

Climatologist Andrey Ganopolski, from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, went further and said that he would not make such a strong conclusion based on this data.

"The results of this paper are the result of the analysis of [a] cold climate during the glacial maximum (the most recent ice age)," he told BBC News.

"There is evidence the relationship between CO2 and surface temperatures is likely to be different [during] very cold periods than warmer."

Scientists, he said, would therefore prefer to analyse periods of the Earth's history that are much warmer than now when making their projections about future temperatures.

However, although good data exists for the last million years, temperatures during this time have been either similar to present, or colder.

"One should be very careful about using cold climates to [construct] the future," he added.

Robotic prison wardens to patrol South Korean prison

Robot wardens are about to join the ranks of South Korea's prison service.

A jail in the eastern city of Pohang plans to run a month-long trial with three of the automatons in March.

The machines will monitor inmates for abnormal behaviour. Researchers say they will help reduce the workload for other guards.

South Korea aims to be a world leaders in robotics. Business leaders believe the field has the potential to become a major export industry.

The three 5ft-high (1.5m) robots involved in the prison trial have been developed by the Asian Forum for Corrections, a South Korean group of researchers who specialise in criminality and prison policies.

It said the robots move on four wheels and are equipped with cameras and other sensors that allow them to detect risky behaviour such as violence and suicide.

Prof Lee Baik-Chu, of Kyonggi University, who led the design process, said the robots would alert human guards if they discovered a problem.

"As we're almost done with creating its key operating system, we are now working on refining its details to make it look more friendly to inmates," the professor told the Yonhap news agency.

The one-month trial will cost 1bn won (£554,000) and is being sponsored by the South Korean government.

It is the latest in a series of investments made by the state to develop its robotics industry.

The country's Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in January that it had spent the equivalent of £415m on research in the sector between 2002 and 2010.

It said the aim was to compete with other countries, such as Japan, which are also exploring the industry's potential.

In October the ministry said the Korean robot market had recorded 75% growth over the past two years and was now worth about £1bn.

Robots everywhere
Success stories reported by the Korean media include Samsung Techwin's sale of a robotic surveillance system to Algeria and shipments of the humanoid Hubo robot to six universities in the US.

The South Korean defence company DoDAAM is also developing robotic gun turrets for export which can be programmed to open fire automatically.

Within the country English-speaking robotic teaching assistants are already being deployed in some schools to help children to practise their pronunciation.

The Joongang Daily newspaper reported in August that a company called Showbo had begun mass producing a robot that bowed to shop customers and told them about promotions on offer.

Other firms say they hope to start selling robots to help care for the elderly before the end of the decade, and personal assistant robots further down the line.

The government is also building a Robot Land theme park in the north-west city of Incheon to help highlight the country's success. Planners say they hope 2.8 million people will visit each year.

UK cybersecurity plan a 'promising step' but with risks

The UK government has today released its 2011 Cyber Security Strategy.

With an increased focus on cybercrime, and renewed focus on cyberspace as an engine of economic and social prosperity, the strategy continues to hone Whitehall's understanding of this vibrant, complex and increasingly global domain.

Many of the strategy objectives - in particular those related to securing critical infrastructure - will require close engagement with the private sector.

These public-private partnerships are essential, and, as noted in a recent Chatham House report on critical national infrastructure, they require awareness, engagement and trust among senior decision makers on all sides.

This is not an easy process and requires a keen understanding of the incentives that guide actions in the public and private sectors.

Links to business
The government will also have to balance the tension between building a more secure environment - which requires standards and regulation - and encouraging businesses to set up shop in the UK.

However there are signs that Whitehall is aware of these complexities and the need to experiment with potential solutions.

One new initiative is a three-month pilot scheme among five business sectors: defence, finance, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and energy.

It will exchange "actionable information on cyber threats", "analyse new trends" and work to "strengthen and link up our collective cyber security capabilities".

The strategy also supports existing independent initiatives such as Get Safe Online (raising awareness of cyber threats) and Cyber Security Challenge UK (searching for new talent), both of which have taken a good idea and implemented it in a simple and straightforward manner.

Risks
Cybercrime is topic that receives significant focus, in particular for the damage it does to the financial and social fabric of the country.

One primary initiative will create a "national cyber crime capability as part of the new National Crime Agency by 2013".

Another will create, by the end of 2011, a "single reporting system for citizens and small businesses to report cyber crime".

These are all encouraging steps that will require patience and persistence but which are essential.

One idea that looks slightly riskier is a "government-sponsored venture capital model to unlock innovation on cyber security in SMEs" (small and medium enterprises).

The appetite for risk varies widely between Silicon Roundabout and Whitehall, and government experimentation with venture capitalism has often produced mixed results. For example the US government's $535m (£345m) loan to Solyndra - the now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer.

First steps
The new strategy is more detailed than the 2009 version, and in many ways reads more like a cyber and economic security strategy.

It continues the process set in motion by the recent Foreign Office-led London Conference on Cyberspace, which emphasised the economic and social benefits of a secure cyberspace and called for development of "rules of the road".

The introduction to the strategy notes that the government will report back in 2012 on progress made toward these objectives.

This strategy is a promising step and has ambitiously laid out a task list of dozens of actions.

The real challenge will be to prioritise and deliver in a climate of financial austerity.

David Clemente is a research assistant specialising in international security, at the Chatham House think tank.

He is the co-author off the organisation's recent report "Cyber security and the UK's critical national infrastructure".

Sense of smell 'can be improved through training'

The sense of smell can be improved through training, a study on rats suggests.

The study, published in Nature Neuroscience, also suggests if we do not use our sense of smell, we begin to lose it.

The New York University Langone Medical Center team says their work also raises hopes of reversing loss of smell caused by ageing or disease.

But a UK expert thought that was unlikely.

Impairment in the sense of smell is associated with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and even normal ageing.

Exactly why smell weakens remains a mystery, but the Langone team have pinpointed a half-inch-sized area of the rat brain called the piriform (olfactory) cortex where the problems appear to occur.

Rewards
The researchers placed thirsty rats in boxes with a snout-sized hole in each of three walls and exposed them to brief blasts of odours through the middle hole.

There were three different smells: a mix of 10 chemicals from fruits, oils, and cleaning agents; the same mixture with one chemical replaced by another; and the same mixture minus one of the chemicals.

When the rodents identified one smell, they were rewarded with a sip of water by going to the hole in the left side wall, for another smell they received water by going to the right side wall.

Rats could readily distinguish between odours when a chemical had been replaced in one mixture, but when one component had simply been removed, they could not differentiate.

The researchers anaesthetised the rats and inserted electrodes into their brains.

Within the olfactory bulb, each smell produced a different pattern of electrical activity.

But in the piriform cortex the odours that rats could tell apart produced distinct patterns of activity, while those they could not distinguish produced identical patterns.

The researchers then trained a new group of rats to discriminate between the odours the first animals could not tell apart by rewarding them over and over with sips water for choosing the appropriate hole.

In the rats' piriform cortex, activity patterns elicited by these similar odours were now different as well.

A third group of animals were trained to ignore the difference between odours the first rats could readily distinguish by giving them water at the same hole after exposure to either odour.

This effectively dulled their sense of smell: the rats could not tell one smell from the other, even for a reward.

Their loss of discrimination was reflected in the piriform cortex, which now produced similar electrical patterns in response to both odours.

'Use it or lose it'
Lead researcher Prof Donald Wilson said: "We located where in the brain loss of smell may happen.

"And we showed that training can improve the sense of smell, and also make it worse.

"Our findings suggest that while olfactory impairment may reflect real damage to the sensory system, in some cases it may be a 'use it or lose it' phenomenon."

Andrew McCombe, honorary secretary of the British Association of Otorhinolaryngologists ENT-UK, said there was good evidence that keeping mentally active was good for brain function.

However, he said training our sense of smell was only likely to be helpful in its long-term preservation.

He said: "Loss of sense of smell is fortunately not too common but it is miserable when it happens as you usually lose your sense of taste - particularly flavour - to some extent too.

"Whilst interesting research, I am not sure it's going to suddenly lead to a significant change in the way we treat loss of sense of smell which sadly is usually permanent and complete when it happens."

Nasa gets ready for Mars mission

Nasa is in final preparations for the launch of its latest rover mission to the Red Planet.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is the biggest, most capable robot ever built to land on another planet.

It is expected to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on Saturday.

Lift-off is actually a day later than originally planned, to give engineers time to replace a problem battery in the spacecraft's Atlas rocket.

The one-hour-and-43-minute launch window will now open at 10:02 local time (15:02 GMT). MSL's cruise to Mars should take eight-and-a-half months.

The rover will aim to touch down in an equatorial depression called Gale Crater, where it will use its suite of 10 instruments to assess whether the Red Planet has ever been habitable.

It is not a life-detection mission as such; the $2.5bn robot cannot identify microbes or even microbial fossils. But it can assess whether ancient conditions could have ever supported organisms.

This means Gale must show evidence for the past presence of water, a source of energy with which lifeforms could have metabolised, and a source of organic compounds with which those organisms could have built their structures.

Gale has been chosen as the landing site because satellite imagery has suggested it may well be one of the best places on Mars to look for these biological preconditions.

Polar bear web broadcasts from the Canadian wilderness

On the chilly western shore of Canada's Hudson Bay the polar bears are waiting.

The temperature is minus 31 Celsius (-24F) and the wind is gusting in at around 80 kilometres per hour.

But the 900 beasts gathered on the edge of Wapusk National Park, close to the remote town of Churchill, probably wish it was even colder.

The animals migrate north from here when the waters freeze. They also feast.

"Polar bears are unique species and they've adapted to hunting out on the sea ice," says BJ Kirschhoffer, director of field operations at the conservation group Polar Bears International.

"Unlike any other bear species on the planet they require that ice platform in order to get their main prey which is the ringed seal and the bearded seal. And this population of polar bears here in the Hudson Bay is one of the two furthest south populations of polar bears."

The polar bear migration sets off each year from close to the town of Churchill in Canada
Mobile broadcasts
Mr Kirschhoffer has spent the past few weeks tracking the bears' movements with a camera equipped truck dubbed Tundra Buggy One.

"I live on this thing," he says. "I woke up the other morning and there were seven bears outside my front window.

"To have the high tide of the Hudson coming right in front and having bears right outside the window is truly a breathtaking way to start the day."

But this is no leisure trip. Mr Kirschhoffer and a colleague are providing a daily live video feed to school children, and anyone else who wants to watch via the polarbearcam.com website.

The project is funded by a $50,000 (£31,950) grant from the Los Angeles-based Annenberg Foundation.

It is part of a new scheme called Pearls of the Planet. The venture plans to follow a variety of animals in the wild to make the public think more about the environment and the impact of global warming.

Organisers believe a rise in temperatures is responsible for the Hudson Bay freezing later in the year and melting earlier. They say the water's surface turns solid around a fortnight later in November than it did 30 years ago, and it is melting a week or two earlier in June and July.

Since the bears need the ice to hunt and eat, they are going without meat for longer periods.

Charlie Annenberg is a trustee of the Annenberg Foundation and founder of Explore.org, which is building a media library from the material gathered by the project.

"You look at these bears and you realise something - they are the modern Gandhi," he says.

"They are going on this big long hunger strike and telling the world let's get our act together as we all have to live together."

Weight loss
Mr Kirschhoffer has tracked the bear's progress for five years and says that he believes they are skinnier this year than he has seen them before.

Observers say the polar bears appear thinner as a result of having to wait longer to go onto the ice
"Every day that one of these polar bears goes without a meal they lose one kilogram of body fat," he says.

"They have evolved to eat incredible amounts of fat, metabolise that fat, store it on their body and then go through periods of these walking hibernations, these fasting periods.

"But there is only a certain amount of energy in the battery. And we are seeing evidence of this population having lower body condition as a result of these greenhouse gases."

Global warming is still a controversial subject. Some experts suggest that temperature rises could be the result of natural climatic changes, rather than mankind's activities.

This project aims to challenge that view.

To spread their message the organisers have linked up with Edmodo - a social learning network for teachers and students.

The team on Tundra Buggy One link up with scientists and offer schools question and answer sessions. They claim a recent webcast attracted around 4,000 streams, with many of those streams representing a class of more than twenty pupils.

Microwave network
Operating the service pushes web broadcast technology to its limits.

"The north is a harsh place, and all the temperatures are absolutely frigid," says Mr Kirschhoffer.

"The wind speeds are incredible, and all of that puts pressure on the things that we do. Especially technology. If it's going to break, it's going to break in the north."

Challenges range from dealing with the fact that the large batteries they use do not charge well in the cold, to having to fix one of their truck's broken taillights after a bear bit into it.

But perhaps the greatest feat of all is creating a wireless internet network across the wilderness.

To achieve this Polar Bears International has teamed up with a local eco-tourism organisation - which also owns the Tundra Buggy - to build a point to point ISM band microwave network. The technology is more commonly used to shoot bandwith from one city building to another.


The website allows visitors to explore the truck used to film and stream the video footage
"The wireless network spans at its greatest length 75 kilometres from the very tip of Wapusk National Park reaching back over a couple of hops to where we get on the internet [in Churchill]," says John Gunther, President of Frontiers North Adventures.

"We've got this unreal communications network spanning over the tundra and out over the sea ice in some cases. And we're beaming these live images and live video over the web."

This gives the team on Buggy One huge freedom of movement.

"It's kind of a Citizens' Band radio of internet wireless communications," says Mr Kirschhoffer.

"What we've done is beef it up and put it on some extremely tall towers and shot this bandwith up to 75 kilometres."

This offers 20 megabit per second upload and download speeds - via a set of radios attached to the team's mobile internet studio.

"We've created a roving buggy that is constantly connected to the web," BJ Kirschhoffer says.

"We can meander among the polar bears... and beam all that's happening inside and outside the buggy back to the web."

To prevent the team on board becoming overwhelmed by the scale of their job a team of video controllers, based in the US, chooses from the four feeds on offer to ensure the best footage is shown.

"Those remote administrators are doing the fine tuning of the cameras and tracking those bears, while BJ in the field is engineering things in real time and sort of snaffing out those fires before they start," says Mr Gunther.

Planning ahead
Nearly 30 days into the project the Hudson Bay's water has begun freezing over and the first wave of bears has just left the area.

Polar bears with cubs may wait until February to take their young onto the ice
The project will continue to show live feeds of the stragglers and other wildlife until 26 November, but thoughts are already turning to next year.

"What we want to do is provide a better view for people. So right now we have four cameras up," says Mr Kirschhoffer.

"I want to push one out further where all the big bears hang out. And that's going to involved wind generators and methanol fuel cells."

Charlie Annenberg's goals are even more ambitious.

"I think that the day the ice freezes over will become a celebratory day.

"Children are going to ask their parents 'Did the ice freeze so my friends can eat already?'

"If we did this for five to ten years then everybody who tunes in... would become their own scientists. And they are going to enhance their knowledge and become better custodians of the planet we live in."

World's smallest car fuels nanotech advance

A tiny nano-sized car which can propel itself forward in response to electrical pulses has been created by scientists in the Netherlands.
The electric-powered vehicle, which is the size of a single molecule, has a chassis and four paddle-shaped wheels and is roughly one-billionth the size of a traditional hatchback car.
Its maiden journey wasn't exactly epic -- six nanometers -- and its fuel-efficiency wasn't world-beating either, needing a jolt of 500 millivolts every half revolution of its wheels.
But it's an important milestone in nanotech research (the science of manipulating matter at molecular scale), say scientists, because it demonstrates that single molecules can absorb external electrical energy and turn this into targeted motion.
"To build the nanotechnology of the future like nanorobots, machines and transporters you need something to fuel it. So there is a great incentive to build motors at the nanoscale," said Ben Feringa, professor of organic chemistry at the University of Groningen, and one of the authors of the research.
"There are many nanosystems built from all kinds of materials, but this is, as far as we can tell, the first time a nanomotor has been used to propel something by fueling it."
The fuel in this instance came from a scanning tunnelling microscope (STP) with its atom-sized stylus acting as an electrode allowing electricity to flow from its tip to the surface beneath it, Feringa says.
"When there is a molecule, the current goes through it and electricity excites the motor which drives the car forward," Feringa said.
The discovery, say scientists, takes them a step closer to understanding and ultimately mimicking nature's highly efficient molecular robots.
"In living cells there are a whole variety of molecule motors that are involved in almost every important biological process like cell division and transport, and mobility in our muscles," Feringa said.
The world's smallest synthetic motor was created by Alex Zettl, professor of physics at University of California, Berkeley in 2003 while the first nano car (without a motor) was built by James Tour in 2005.
"The Feringa team is to be congratulated for their excellent work," said Tour, a professor of chemistry at Rice University, Texas.
"It will certainly propel the field to a higher level of sophistication with the eventual goal of synthetic molecular machines being used for controlled transport and ex vivo (in an artificial environment outside an organism) bottom-up assembly..." he added.
But it's still early days and Feringa says he feels a bit like the Wright Brothers, likening the nano car to their "fairly awkward-looking primitive plane" when compared to the passenger jets of today.
"It's very difficult to know where the future will go and ultimately the systems will be different. But first you have to find the fundamental principles. That makes things possible," he said.
The research, which was completed in conjunction with scientists from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) is published in the journal Nature.

Win tickets to the British Gas Swimming Championships 2012

We have 30 pairs of tickets to be won for the British Gas Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre in Stratford.

Enter to win tickets to the British Gas Swimming Championships
There will be an extra wave of pressure, excitement and hype on the starting blocks at the 2012 British Gas Swimming Championships, which run from March 3-10, 2012.
Not only will they double as the first selection trials that will decide places on Team GB, but the championships will also be the first swimming event to be held in the impressive £269 million London Aquatics Centre in east London. This means that Britain’s top swimmers will get an early taste for their quest for gold nearly five months later at the same venue.
A seat at the British Gas Swimming Championships (Selection Trials) will place you in the heart of London Aquatics Centre. The race is now on for Britain’s swimmers to live up to the hype.
Enter to win tickets to the British Gas Swimming Championships
The Telegraph, courtesy of British Gas, has 30 pairs of tickets to be won to see Britain’s top swimmers including those that competed at World and European Championships earlier this year for the British Gas GBR Swimming and Disability Swimming Teams as they battle it out for coveted places at the Olympics and Paralympics. Tickets are available for the following days:
Saturday, 3 March: four pairs of tickets available, opportunity to see Hannah Miley, Robbie Renwick and World Champion Keri-anne Payne.
Sunday, 4 March: five pairs of tickets available, opportunity to see Hannah Miley, Keri-anne Payne, Ellen Gandy, Fran Halsall and double Olympic Gold Medallist Rebecca Adlington.
Monday, 5 March: four pairs of tickets available, opportunity to see World record holder Liam Tancock and Lizzie Simmonds.
Tuesday 6 March: four pairs of tickets available, opportunity to see Rebecca Adlington, Hannah Miley, and Roberto Pavoni.
Wednesday 7 March: four pairs of tickets available, opportunity to see James Goddard, Ellen Gandy.
Thursday 8 March: four pairs of tickets available, opportunity to see James Goddard, Hannah Miley, Fran Halsall.
Friday 9 March: five pairs of tickets available, with Rebecca Adlington, among others, possibly in competition.

Faster-than-light neutrino result queried

Subatomic particles called neutrinos cannot move faster than the speed of light, according to a new report.

The findings challenge a result reported in September that, if true, would undermine a century of physics.

The team at the INFN-Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy said they had measured faster-than-light speeds in neutrinos sent from Cern, 730km away.

Now a different team at the same lab reports findings that, they say, cast doubt on that surprising result.

The Icarus team at the Icarus experiment says that because the neutrinos sent from Cern do not appear to lose energy on their journey, they must not have exceeded the speed of light along the way.

The idea that nothing can move faster than the speed of light is a central tenet in modern physics, forming among many other things a critical part of Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity.

Critics have suggested from the start that the experiment by the Opera collaboration, who published the first striking results, must be flawed in some way.

One of the first objections to the experiment to be formally published appeared just five weeks later in the journal Physical Review Letters, co-authored by Nobel prize-winning physicist Sheldon Glashow.

Prof Glashow and his co-author Andrew Cohen argued that particles moving faster than light should emit further particles as they travel - in the process losing energy until they slow down to light-speed.

The Icarus team already had measurements of the spread of energies in neutrinos, detected in their underground instruments at Gran Sasso.

They showed in a paper again on the Arxiv repository that the neutrino energies they measure are consistent with slower-than-light-speed travel.

With the exception of Prof Glashow's theoretical paper, none of the results by the Opera or the Icarus team has been reviewed by the scientific community and formally published.

But the momentous nature of the finding has sparked a flurry of papers and ideas to challenge or support the idea that particles can travel faster than the speed of light.

It is clear the issue is unlikely to be conclusively resolved until other experiments around the world undertake similar measurements.

The Borexino experiment, also at Gran Sasso, the Minos experiment in the US and Japan's T2K facility are all expected to publish their results of similar neutrino experiments in the coming months.

Kaspersky Lab, Tech Mahindra & Mahindra Satyam to Jointly Address IT Security Solutions Market

Kaspersky Lab, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam announced the signing of a MOU for broad range collaboration in Information Security solutions.

Under the MOU, Kaspersky Lab, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam have agreed to leverage their strengths in security products and services to develop joint security solutions in the areas of Mobility and Endpoint Security, and Cloud Security Services. These solutions will aim to address the ever-increasing security threats to consumers and corporates in India and Asia Pacific.

The focus of Mobile Security solutions will be to secure the growing number of smartphone users, who access the internet on the move for official and personal purposes. Security analysts have identified mobile malware as one of the key emerging sources of security threats, due to the increasing acceptability and penetration of such devices into the corporate environment.

Kaspersky Lab will also work with Tech Mahindra to create a range of managed security services offerings aimed at the SMB sector in the sub-continent and beyond. These services, built using Kaspersky Lab’s proven endpoint security products and Mahindra’s expertise in service delivery, will provide small businesses with access to enterprise-class security at low transaction costs.

Commenting on the occasion,C P Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam said, “Information Security Services is growing at a rapid pace globally and we are doing very well in this area. Our understanding with Kaspersky Lab is to jointly address this market with solutions, platforms and models, to provide customers with new “security-as-a-service’ offerings and address mobile security threats.”

"India is one of Kaspersky Lab's key markets and growing extremely fast. Having Indian System Integrators like Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam partnering with Kaspersky Lab is, by itself, already a success story. Kaspersky Lab has reached the Number 1 position in the Indian AV market and with strong partners like Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam, we can further grow our market share in India while extending the same success to other APAC markets. We are very excited about this partnership. It is the value-driven service orientation of Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam to provide world-class security solutions to clients and the potential to win new business that will make this partnership a very fruitful and successful one," said Harry Cheung, Managing Director, Kaspersky Lab, Asia-Pacific.

Lucius Lobo, Vice-President Security Services, Tech Mahindra, said, “With the rapid growth of smartphones and tablets and their use for commerce, new threats from mobile malware have already started becoming a major problem. Nearly 6 billion individuals today have a cellphone and can be the target of cybercriminals over the next 2-3 years. The partnership between Kaspersky Lab, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam will help address these challenges by bringing a comprehensive portfolio of mobile security solutions to consumers and enterprises on a wide scale.”

Bernie Bengler, Director Cloud Services / Software as a Service, Kaspersky Lab, Asia-Pacific noted that "Every day 70,000 new threats are discovered. In 2011 alone, 70,000,000 malware has been collected. On our mission to protect the world from malware and targeted attacks, we believe telecommunication companies play a key role. We see Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam as strong partners as both companies provide services to telecommunication giants on a global scale. Only with strong partners, will we be able to battle malware and targeted attacks successfully -- from endpoints all the way up to the cloud."

Teen prodigy creates tablet PC

For Chiman Prakash Reddy, trying to fit Integrated Circuits on a mother board and working out the next move in a game of Chess are just the same: they are just games. The 16-year-old prodigy, who doesn't have any formal education, has developed a tablet PC, named AVE, with features he claims can give top brands a run for their money.

This also adds to the competition to the exploding tablet market in Hyderabad.

This is the fourth tablet PC from Hyderabad after Notion Ink's Adam (after developing the tablet it moved its headquarters to Bangalore).

Then came Akash, which rattled the top tablet players with its price tag of Rs 3,000. Another small player too launched a tablet a few months ago.

Prakash Reddy, who holds a rank of 1920 on FIDE and good Commonwealth slots, said Ave provides 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi facilities and a battery life of 6 hours. It carries a price tag of Rs 12,999.

The Andhra Pradesh IT Minister, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, released the Android Gingerbread AVE tablet PC here on Saturday.

“We are planning to sell 1,000 tablets in the first month. We are in talks with Reliance Digital and Bajaj Capital for offering financial schemes for students and others,” Prakash Reddy said.

Prakash says he doesn't have any formal education but developed keen interest in IT and game development. He is Executive Director of ST (Sareddy Technologies Ltd) which is registered in the UK. The company develops mobile games also.

For gadget lovers, the features of AVE – The 1.2 GHz tablet weighs only 360 grams. The 7-inch PC has a built-in memory of 8 GB. It can support MicroSD cards up to 32 GB for transfer of direct media files. “As any other hardware firm, we get the boards in China and assemble them in the UK,” he said.

New mobile for Muslims launched in India

The phone offers a complete Holy Qur'an recitation in voice of five famous Quari along with 29 language translation including Urdu, English, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil.

Keeping the sentiments of Muslims in mid, an Indian company has now launched a mobile phone offers a complete Holy Qur'an recitation in voice of five famous Quari along with 29 language translation including Urdu, English, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil.

The ENMAC MQ3500 mobile handset was brought out by TolMol.com, an Indian company.
Launching the handset, Anuj Kanish co-founder and chief executive officer, TolMol.com said, "We at TolMol.com attempt to bring something unique for our customers, this time we are delighted to offer for the first time in India a mobile phone that offers complete Holy Qur'an recitation with synchronized Qur'an text translated in major Indian languages. This phone is the perfect device for people desiring anytime, anywhere access to Holy Qur'an — at a price they can afford."

"TolMol.com also has plans to introduce more digital products including Islamic eBook, Pen Quran, and other Qur'an Mobile models," shared Ramna Sharma, co-founder and president, TolMol.com.

When fully charged, the company claims, ENMAC MQ3500 provides talk time of 150 minutes and standby Time of four days. Besides it has slot for 1000 entries in phone book, Call History, SMS, MMS, GPRS and WAP, FM Radio, Image Viewer, video player, voice recorder/player, 2 inch colour TFT LCD screen, and camera.

ENMAC MQ3500 has interface in Arabic, English, Persian, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish as well. The dual SIM handset is priced at Rs 5499 but is available on TolMol website for Rs 2,999.

How technology helps B-schools to know applicants

Business school applications are going high tech. Slowly, the 2.0 version of MBA admissions is arriving. Utilising everything from social media to video, business schools are seeking new ways to get to know applicants. The goal, say admissions committee members , is to discover the true personality of the people they are considering for their classes.

Members of the admissions committees at top business schools were getting tired of reading the same old traditional essays, which had become perfunctory and overly edited, according to an e-mail written by Kurt Ahlm, associate dean of student recruitment and admissions, at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, one of the first schools to bring technology into the application by requiring a PowerPoint presentation since 2007.

"Traditional essays were too familiar, and applicants had access to hundreds of essay-writing books, websites, and consultants. We wanted to get at something that was more authentic, get an answer that was thoughtful, strategic, and added some depth," he writes.

Booth asks applicants to answer an open-ended question that encourages them to share something other than what they have already mentioned about themselves elsewhere in the application, and in no more than four pages on a Power-Point presentation. "We learn how a person thinks, what he values , and how he perceives his fit with Booth," says Ahlm.

Beyond Powerpoint

Other business schools are looking for similar results with their technology-driven additions to the application. In 2010, New York University's Stern School of Business began having applicants submit one of the application essays - asking candidates to share something about themselves in a creative way-using a USB drive, DVD, or CD.

Musically inclined applicants sent CDs that included a selection of their songs, others created short movies in the form of documentaries and parodies, and still others created virtual photo albums that took viewers through their life with music or narration.

The school was so pleased with the applicants' creativity that it plans to continue with these electronic submissions, says Isser Gallogly, assistant dean of MBA admissions at Stern.

Twitter-length essays

While traditional essays had applicants writing at length and with much detail, less is more with these high-tech enhancements . The University of Iowa's Tippie School of Management recently had applicants answer one essay question in the form it would take as a tweet on Twitter. Although they did not have to broadcast their response on Twitter, it had to be 140 characters or less.

Because this was a pilot program, they could still opt to write a traditional essay instead. Whoever sent in the best Twitter-like response would win a fulltuition financial award package, valued at more than $37,000. The question was, "What makes you an exceptional Tippie Full-Time MBA candidate and future MBA hire? Creativity Encouraged." MBA candidates could add links to separate web pages, videos, and blogs that would inform the school even more about the person's personality, interests, and creativity, adds Colleen Downie, senior assistant dean of Tippie.

The use of social media is not the only way schools are seeking to acquaint themselves better with applicants . Video is another way to understand students beyond their written words. Mycollegei, a company that facilitates videotaping and screening for admissions committees, has several business schools as clients, including the USC Marshall School of Business and Penn State's Smeal College of Business.

Schools send applicants an email asking them to answer additional questions using this video service, and the applicants then tape their responses . The service archives the videos for viewing only by the admissions committee. "The videos show which candidates are above and beyond a piece of paper," says Bill Barnett, president and chief executive of mycollegei. High-tech additions, says Barnett, are a part of the natural evolution of today's applications.

"Technology is becoming more popular in admissions, not just because it is more practical and convenient, but also because students were raised with it," he says.

Reviving personality

Still, not everyone has had success including technology in business school applications. For instance, 2008-09 applicants to the UCLA Anderson School of Management had the choice of answering essays in either a written or an audio form.

After prospective students around the world indicated that they experienced difficulties with the audio technology, the school decided to revert to traditional essays in 2011, writes Robert Weiler, assistant dean of career initiatives at Anderson, in an e-mail.

Although business schools might face stumbling blocks when first incorporating technology into the application, they seem to be embracing the possibilities. In fact, Tippie's Fine says it's inevitable. "There's a trend toward bringing personality back into the application ," she says. "You have to go beyond the resume, because that's what employers are doing."

Apple wins patent ruling against HTC

HTC Corp's loss in a patent infringement case against Apple Inc casts doubt on its decision to spend $300 million buying S3 Graphics Co. to boost the chances of a licensing deal to end the dispute.

The US International Trade Commission said yesterday that S3 Graphics's patent rights weren't violated by Apple, rejecting a request for an order that could have limited imports of some Mac computers, the iPhone and iPad. The commission gave no reason for its decision. HTC said it may challenge the ruling in a US appeals court that specializes in patent law.

HTC, which sold the most smartphones in the US in the third quarter, said it would buy Fremont, California-based S3 Graphics less than a week after a trade agency's judge issued his findings in the case in July. S3 Graphics was part-owned by HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang, and Citigroup Inc analyst Kevin Chang said at the time HTC could have just licensed the patents.

A decision against HTC "calls into question the rationale of the S3 acquisition," said Chen Fu-li, an analyst at E Sun Securities Co. in Taipei who has a "buy" rating on HTC shares. "It's the final decision so it's quite important. A negative decision could put pressure on HTC's shares."

S3 Graphics purchase

HTC slid as much as 6.1 per cent, the biggest intraday decline in almost two months, to NT$598 before trading at NT$613 as of 10:45 am in Taipei trading today. The stock has tumbled 50 per cent since a record high of NT$1,238 on April 28.

HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou has built the former contract manufacturer into a global brand by customizing its phones for carriers including Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. The company almost doubled its revenue last year and has posted six consecutive quarters of record profit.

S3 Graphics makes image-compression technology, and its Texture Compression feature is used in Nintendo Co's Wii and Sony Corp's PlayStation portable gaming systems. The purchase by HTC included about 235 patents, mostly related to graphics technology.

"S3 can be innovative and they came up with some nice products, but whether they are relevant to Apple is debatable," Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee & Leach Inc in San Francisco, said in an interview. "Apple has a lot of patents, so it's going to be tough to beat Apple."

Graphics patents

The decision marks the first time the six-member commission has ruled on one of the dozen cases at the agency stemming from the battle for the smartphone market. S3 Graphics has another trade case pending against Apple over four other patents, and HTC has two of its own cases, including one in which it asserts patents obtained from Google Inc, the developer of the Android operating system.

"We are disappointed, but respect the ITC's decision," HTC General Counsel Grace Lei said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. "While the outcome is not what we hoped for, we will review the ruling once the commission provides it and will then consider all options, including appeal."

US trade Judge James Gildea on July 1 found that some Apple Macs infringed two S3 Graphics patents related to graphics chips, while the mobile platform for the iPhone didn't infringe. The six-member commission reviewed the entire decision, including the effects of Apple's agreements with Intel Corp and Nvidia Corp for graphics chips.

Patent fights

HTC was counting on a victory to bolster its patent battles with Apple. The commission is also reviewing an agency judge's determination that HTC infringed two Apple patents, with a decision expected December 6, and may take a look at a judge's findings that cleared Apple of infringing HTC patents.

"Apple's win strikes the first blow in its wide-ranging patent fight with HTC," Mike Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, said in a note to clients.

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, said the Cupertino, California-based company had no comment.

HTC and Apple are among smartphone makers, including Samsung Electronics Co and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc, using patents to challenge competition in a market projected by researcher IHS Inc. to reach $206.6 billion this year.

Apple is targeting phones and tablet computers that run on Google's Android operating system. Apple, which has two cases at the trade commission against HTC, is seeking to block imports of HTC phones that run on Android.

Top seller

Smartphone sales by volume increased 42 per cent in the third quarter, according to research firm Gartner Inc. HTC became the top seller of smartphones in the US in the third quarter, with 24 per cent of the market, above Samsung Electronics's 21 per cent and Apple's 20 per cent, according to Palo Alto, California-based researcher Canalys.

Gildea's initial ruling didn't apply to Apple mobile devices or Mac computers with Nvidia graphics processing units that have an implied license to the patents, the judge determined. The judge also found that two other S3 patents were invalid, as were aspects of the two patents found to be infringed.

The decision was limited to a "small software module in Mac OS," Apple said in a September 23 filing with the agency.

Apple argued that the patents were invalid and not infringed. It also contended that Advanced Micro Devices Inc, not S3 Graphics, is the proper owner of the patents. AMD has filed a suit in federal court seeking an ownership ruling. The commission denied AMD's request to intervene in trade case.

Apple sales

Even if a violation is found, Apple argued in the filing, the commission shouldn't ban any imports until a further hearing on AMD's claims and on the effect on the public interest of halting any products.

S3 Graphics responded in its own filings with the agency that AMD didn't own the patents, and other electronics compete with Apple's products, so there's no harm to consumers or the overall market demand for smartphones by blocking the Apple products from the US.

The iPhone brought in $47 billion in sales last fiscal year, or 43 per cent of Apple's revenue, while Macs generated $21.8 billion in sales, 20 per cent of Apple's revenue. HTC said in its August trade complaint that it had about $5 billion in US sales last year.

The case is In the Matter of Certain Electronic Devices with Image Processing Systems, 337-724, US International Trade Commission (Washington).

Bionic contact lens 'to project emails before eyes'

A new generation of contact lenses that project images in front of the eyes is a step closer after successful animal trials, say scientists.

The technology could allow wearers to read floating texts and emails or augment their sight with computer-generated images, Terminator-syle.

Researchers at Washington University who are working on the device say early tests show it is safe and feasible.

But there are still wrinkles to iron out, like finding a good power source.

Currently, their crude prototype device can only work if it is within centimetres of the wireless battery.

And its microcircuitry is only enough for one light-emitting diode, reports the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.
But now that initial safety tests in rabbits have gone well, with no obvious adverse effects, the researchers have renewed faith about the device's possibilities.

They envisage hundreds more pixels could be embedded in the flexible lens to produce complex holographic images.

For example, drivers could wear them to see journey directions or their vehicle's speed projected onto the windscreen.

Similarly, the lenses could take the virtual world of video gaming to a new level.

They could also provide up-to-date medical information like blood sugar levels by linking to biosensors in the wearer's body.

Delicate materials
Lead researcher Professor Babak Praviz said: "Our next goal is to incorporate some predetermined text in the contact lens."

He said his team had already overcome a major hurdle to this, which is getting the human eye to focus on an image generated on its surface.

Normally, we can only see objects clearly if they are held several centimetres away from the eye.

The scientists, working with colleagues at Aalto University in Finland, have now adapted the lenses to shorten the focal distance.

Building the end product was a challenge because materials used to make conventional contact lenses are delicate.

Manufacturing electrical circuits, however, involves inorganic materials, scorching temperatures and toxic chemicals. Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometres thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes measuring one third of a millimetre across.

Dr Praviz and his team are not the only scientists working on this type of technology.

A Swiss company called Sensimed has already brought to market a smart contact lens that uses inbuilt computer technology to monitor pressure inside the eye to keep tabs on the eye condition glaucoma.

Team Anna takes on tampered meters

Whenever one feels cheated or is refused a ride by a taxi or an auto driver, one wishes him to get his just deserts. In reality, the hapless commuter swallows his pride and moves on. But deliverance might be at hand. On Thursday, Anna Hazare's India Against Corruption (IAC) will launch a campaign whereby citizens can SMS complaints against errant taxi or auto drivers, which IAC would forward to the RTO and seek action.

"The objective is to act as facilitators for citizens who are aggrieved at drivers behaving rudely, tampering meters or driving without them, and refusing fare," said Mayank Gandhi of IAC's Mumbai chapter. "We will maintain a database of complaints, including the cellphone number of the passenger and the auto's number plate, in a server and forward the information to the RTO once in four days."

The RTO is not happy with the scheme and is reluctant to look into the complaints. A senior official said: "Through the SMS method, there will be no way to check the genuineness of a complaint. Besides, you cannot dump hundreds of complaints at the Andheri and Wadala RTOs, both of which are short-staffed.

"The RTO already has a helpline (1800-22-0110), which is an interactive voice response system. In this, a complaint in the complainant's voice is recorded. We listen to all the complaints and act on them on priority. Also, the RTO has not given approval to IAC for its proposed SMS system."

But Gandhi said IAC members had held talks with the state transport commissioner, V N More, and had sought meetings with the traffic police as well. "The authorities delayed our launch. We cannot wait any longer."

IAC member Praful Vora said: "We have found many instances of citizens not being able to get through to the RTO's helpline. It often comes engaged. Also, there is no proper mechanism for a commuter to know the status of a complaint filed through the helpline. In comparison, ours is a simple system (nicknamed 'whistle')."

A senior official from the transport department said: "We are always open to the use of technology for the benefit of citizens. But one cannot force upon us a system without analysing its pros and cons. There are certain drawbacks to the SMS-based system and it is not practically possible to take action based on it."

E-Meter Roadmap Transport commissioner V N More will appoint a technical committee, which may comprise those with technical knowledge of electronic meters , including manufacturers and others connected with the automobile industry. The panel will clear doubts raised by auto unions about electronic meters Once the unions are taken into confidence, feedback will be sought from manufacturers on e-meter cost, production capacity , installation time and calibration. After this, companies from which e-meters can be bought will be shortlisted Authorized meter repairers will be appointed across the suburbs for after-sale service

TIMES VIEW
The government, by permitting e-meter installation, aims to make meter-tampering by unscrupulous autorickshaw drivers difficult. But giving such drivers one year to make the switchover will embolden them and send out a message that the monitoring agencies want to delay the implementation of the project. This does not inspire confidence in commuters, who pay much more than they should because of tampered mechanical meters. Keeping this in view, a long timeframe for e-meter installation defeats the very purpose behind the move. Relief from being fleeced by autorickshaw and taxi drivers needs to be immediate and not in the long term.

Keep your cell at a distance to beat radiation

A leading scientist has said that in order to avoid exposure to radiation from one's phone, one must keep the instrument as far away from the body as possible.

Devra Lee Davis, PhD, MPH, President of the Environmental Health Trust, made the suggestion after going through published studies on the effects of cell phone use and recent global initiatives advancing cell phone safety.

The dangers of cell phones have led to preventive policies in France, Israel, Finland, and India, and there are simple ways to minimize the health risks associated with exposure to the radiation energy they emit.

Davis discussed the various ways the microwave radiation given off by cell phones that are on, whether in use or not, affect the body, and offers practical recommendations for optimising safe use.

In the article, she explores the health risks and concerns associated with cell phone use such as brain cancer, sperm motility and viability, long-term health implications for young people, and dementia in older people.

An award-winning scientist, Davis, whose most recent book, 'Disconnect', focuses on the little-known science underlying cell phones and health, recognizes the practical and societal value of cell phones but cautions that their use is not without health risks, calling upon industry and government to take the necessary steps to help people understand and minimize their risk.

"In using phones, distance is your friend, because radiation exposure falls off dramatically the farther away from the brain or body you use your phone," Davis said.

"If you read the fine print warnings that come with all smart phones today they are quite clear-phones should not be used next to the brain or body, or kept in the pocket," she added.

The article has been featured in Alternative and Complementary Therapies, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

who is most creative in tech

Chipmakers including Intel and Qualcomm make up the world's most innovative industry, according to a new analysis of patents by Thomson Reuters that is equally notable for some of the companies it does not include.

Thomson Reuters has just released its "Top 100 Global Innovators" list, which it compiled by scrutinizing patent data around the world using a peer-review methodology it developed.

"We tried to take an objective look at technology innovation and apply a composite measure not just of volumes, but also of influence in terms of citations of later published patents, in terms of globalization of patenting," says Bob Stembridge, the lead analyst behind the study.

Other companies related to semiconductors on the list include Samsung, Analog Devices, SanDisk and Applied Materials, which invents and builds the equipment used to manufacture chips.

But a handful of companies currently seen as leading players in the chip industry are missing from the list.

Britain's ARM Holdings, whose intellectual property has taken the tablet and smartphone industry by storm in the past few years, was absent from the compilation.

Also missing was Texas Instruments, the world's No. 3 chipmaker and leader in analog semiconductors.

On the other hand, PC chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, which is struggling to keep up with much larger Intel, is present and accounted for. Competing with Intel must involve filing a lot of patents, but with AMD severely lagging rivals in the mobile market, these days it doesn't tend to be the first chip designer that springs to mind when thinking about creativity.

Why did semiconductors top the list of innovative sectors, while the pharmaceutical industry was 16th, behind industry manufacturing and healthcare products?

"In terms of semiconductor and electronic components you can see, for example, in mobile telephones there are many different ways to achieve the same end. So you can be creative and innovative around different methods of achieving the same end," Stembridge said.

"Whereas perhaps in pharmaceuticals, a chemical compound is a chemical compound, and there's only one way to patent that."

Unsurprisingly, the list deemed the United States the most innovative country, with 40 per cent of the top 100 companies - including Apple - widely viewed as among the world's most innovative. But rival Google didn't make the cut.

Also, not one Chinese company made the list, suggesting that a steady flow of patents from that country have yet to become a big influence on innovation around the world.

Apple names Levinson as new chairman

Apple named a new board chairman, in another signal that the technology giant would not be run the same way as it was under its co-founder, Steve Jobs.

Apple also elected to its board Robert A Iger, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Co. That move comes at a time when the company is strengthening its connections to the entertainment business.

Apple said Arthur D Levinson, the chairman of Genentech who has been on the Apple board since 2000, would become its nonexecutive chairman. The elevation of Levinson, one of the longest-serving Apple board members, could provide some continuity in the senior leadership of Apple as it seeks to maintain its success without Jobs, who died in October of cancer.

Apple did not have an official chairman after Jobs returned to the company in the late 1990s as chief executive. But Jobs was widely viewed as having all the authority and influence of someone with that title. Jobs took the title of chairman only after resigning as chief executive in late August, holding the position for the few weeks before his death.

By naming Levinson chairman, and not giving the title to Apple's new chief executive, Timothy D Cook, Apple is moving more into line with corporate governance practices at other companies, experts in the field said. Dividing the duties of chairman and chief executive is believed to provide more independent oversight of a company than if one individual holds both titles.

"For an organisation, going through the kind of change Apple is going through it can be particularly helpful," said Kirk O Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. "You have changes in culture, lines of authority and changes in leadership. You want many eyes on that process and many talents being used."

In a statement, Cook praised Levinson's appointment.

"He has been our longest serving co-lead director, and his insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders," he said.

Iger's appointment to the board also harks back to Jobs' era in a sense. Jobs founded Pixar Animation and sold it to Disney in 2006, thereby making him a board member and the largest individual shareholder at Disney.

Google, not Apple is top choice of US students

Google tops the list when it comes to where US business students want to work after graduating, according to a survey released by brand specialty firm Universum.

The California-based Internet firm placed among the top 10 "ideal employers" for college students in an array of majors including liberal arts, natural sciences, and information technology.

Google, Apple and the Walt Disney Co, in that order, were considered the best places for business majors to work, based on the Universum survey of 61,726 students at 345 universities.

When it came to engineering students, US space agency NASA was top choice with Google coming in second.

Google also topped Universum's lists this year of the "world's most attractive employers" in the eyes of students in an array of countries seeking business or engineering careers.

Universum specialises in helping firms "attract, recruit and retain ideal talent while helping talent learn about ideal employers," according to its website.

'LinkedIn can help professionals map their careers'

LinkedIN, the world's largest online professional network boasts of 120 million users worldwide. Among new users are ballet dancers, lawyers and yoga professionals. Even as the network expands, LinkedIN is adding new features to make it more relevant to the community at large-that includes professionals, advertisers, recruiters and so on. ET met up with Arvind Rajan, managing director & VP, Asia Pacific & Japan, LinkedIN to discuss new trends in professional networking. Excerpts:

Ever since social media started it has been a way to network, collaborate, and talk to people and friends. What are some of the new trends you are observing?

People are using LinkedIN to establish their professional identity. They are connecting with professionals, they find new ones and they are found. But the place where we are spending lot of money and time is insights and opportunities that we can bring to for our members.

We have 120 million professionals - our members share lot of information on LinkedIN because we are able to lay an identity over that content. Let's say you want to know what people are saying about the new Blackberry. You can go to Twitter and get a sense of that.

On LinkedIN we have a product called Signal (launched a few months back) that allows you to know what people are saying by industry, by company, by location or even by seniority. So you can know what are people saying in one country versus another, one company versus another.

We have enough scale now compared to five years back when we were 10 million people. Users are also building network of connections, filtering news and information and forming groups - both local and global.

How many advertisers do you have in India? How are they using it?

We have more than 100 advertisers globally. I will give an example of how some advertisers are using it in India. American Express (in India) built a separate micro site which allows members to register on the site using your LinkedIN identity. When they did activity on the site it got shared - it was getting people to recommend others for an Amex cards. A year ago they would just put a banner ad - now they are engaging.

Another example is Volkswagen - which is doing campaigns to target the right kind of buyers for its portfolio of cars. Banking, financial services, insurance companies, high-tech companies, auto majors have been leaders in India in advertising. They can customize messages - target the right audience. We are getting lot of B2B advertising - for instance, on LinkedIN you can reach a CIO to sell or buy a service.

You have 120 million users at present. How do you see the growth from here?

Things are just getting started. Globally there are about 640 million professionals and we have 120 million as members. We still have a long way to go, but it has been a good start. As the network grows - 120 million people connected to each other - the network density grows. And as that density grows you can do lot more. You can become smarter professionals. You can map up your career - if you are graduating with a certain degree, what's the path you will take?

We can tell a graduate today, what say, a BA in Anthropology from Brown University in the US who graduated 20 years back did and help you with new opportunities. Mobile usage is growing year-on-year. We are investing in mobile as a business. Our purpose is not just reaching people on mobile phone via linkedin.com but leverage the network to meet your goals.

How are you relevant to marketers and advertisers?

You can build followers. Marketers can see how their messages are virally spread. We also continue to develop insights around what a piece of advertising is doing - how people are interacting. How to build an effective marketing campaign. In 2003 if you asked a focused group about LinkedIN, they would ask why would I need that. Today it's different.

Your target is 640 million professionals and in India 80-90 million. You still have a long way to go. Lot of people are fine by not being on LinkedIN. What do you plan to do about it?

When we set up India operations in 2009 we had 3 - 4 million members. Now we have 12 million in India. The growth has been pretty good. LinkedIN users come from one getting the other. Initially it is IT, telecom, financial services, consulting media and others. In US we have 70% of all professionals.

In West Europe 50% professionals - now we are ubiquitous. We are growing. It took us 477 days to get the first one million members when we launched in 2003. We get to that number in seven days now. And now we have whole lot of new professionals joining-be it ballet dancers, yoga teachers or lawyers.