A Whale of a Publicity Campaign

By vital on January 15, 2008 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Briton and Australian working for a conservationist group have been "taken hostage" by Japanese whalers, campaigners say. - FoxNews

What more could the conservationists ask for (beyond the outlawing of whaling)? A tiny effort by a handful of individuals has been inserted into international news, pitting two kidnapped volunteers against a fleet of evil whalers. Now that's what I call an effective publicity stunt.

Amazon set to Destroy Apple

By vital on January 15, 2008 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Americans are tired of Apple Itunes' priority standards and expensive service and will likely embrace new offerings by Amazon.

Entertainers Among Steroid Junkies

By vital on January 15, 2008 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Major League Baseball has been rocked, perhaps beyond repair, by the recent steroid scandal. Fallen Olympians scatter the landscape, most prominently is Marion Jones, the sprinter who recently turned in her five gold medals.

However, until recently the icons of American media have been relatively unscathed, despite their ability to maintain a physical appearance beyond belief. It's all changing now:

Entertainers including the singer Mary J. Blige and the rapper 50 Cent are among thousands of people whose names are turning up in an investigation into obtaining steroids or human growth hormones, an Albany newspaper reported on Sunday.

You can eat cloned meat

By vital on January 15, 2008 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

High tech cloned animal products are coming to a supermarket near you following an FDA decision that cloned animals are safe:

Meat and milk from cloned animals is as safe as that from their counterparts bred the old-fashioned way, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday — but sales still won't begin right away.

The decision removes the last big U.S. regulatory hurdle to marketing products from cloned livestock, and puts the FDA in concert with recent safety assessments from European food regulators and several other nations.
"Meat and milk from cattle, swine and goat clones are as safe as food we eat every day," said Dr. Stephen Sundloff, FDA's food safety chief.

I did jump the gun a bit on my introduction. The problem with cloned meat is it is too expensive and is perceived by most as undesirable. The marketing challenge is fairly significant: a similar product that is more expensive which people don't want.

A Palm Sized Projector: Microvision

By vital on January 2, 2008 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (20)

This is cool: a video projector in a cell-phone:

Microvision to Unveil Handheld ''Plug-and-Play'' Pico Projector for Mobile Devices That Delivers a Home Theater-Sized Viewing Experience

Ultra-thin laser projector prototype with connectivity to mobile phones, PDAs, PMPs, digital cameras and laptops to be displayed during CES 2008

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 2, 2008--Microvision (NASDAQ:MVIS), developer of light-scanning technologies for display and imaging products, will unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week an advanced prototype of the first handheld, battery-powered, 'plug-and-play' projector based on the company's single micro-mirror laser scanning display technology.

Code-named SHOW(TM), Microvision's stand-alone pico projector intended for mobile device applications, is powered by the company's proprietary ultra-miniature PicoP(TM) display engine. Microvision will preview the PDA-sized, fully self-contained, battery operated, full-color laser projector to select global OEMs, mobile carriers, content providers, development partners and members of the media.

SHOW connects directly to laptops, mobile phones, portable media players (PMPs), digital cameras and other mobile devices to project large, high-resolution images and video onto any surface. The images projected can range anywhere from 12 inches (30 cm) to 100 inches (2.5 m) in size depending upon the projection distance and are always in focus. The production version of the device is expected to offer approximately 2.5 hours of continuous battery life, sufficient to watch a full-length movie without a need for recharging.

Microvision says that SHOW can project a widescreen, WVGA (848 X 480 pixels), DVD quality image -- offering a very different experience from the tiny 2-inch display solutions available today on various portable devices. Designed for viewing high-quality projected images in a variety of controlled lighting environments, SHOW offers more than five times the resolution compared with competing miniature projectors that typically only offer QVGA resolution (320 x 240 pixels).

At the heart of SHOW is Microvision's PicoP display engine, measuring close to 5 cc in volume and approximately 7 mm thick (approximately the size of a thin mint chocolate candy). Microvision envisions the PicoP display engine being used not only in stand-alone accessory products like SHOW, but also embedded directly into mobile consumer products.

"Consumers want better display solutions that will enrich their experience in watching TV, videos and movies, in playing games, and in browsing the web from their cell phones and other mobile devices," points out Alexander Tokman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Microvision. "While mobile multi-media subscription services are on the rise, handset manufacturers, content providers and service providers view tiny cell phone displays as a barrier to stronger consumer adoption of their products and services. With Microvision's SHOW you could view and share everything ranging from YouTube videos, MSN newscasts, and Google search results to PowerPoint presentations, feature-length films, and family photos in a large, full-color, hi-resolution format instead of a 2-inch, QVGA display."

"SHOW is a significant milestone for Microvision and is proof that our technology is maturing according to plan and is close to being market-ready. Microvision's low-profile and low-power design, supported by leading supply chain partners, is very attractive to numerous mobile handset device manufactures, carriers and content providers. We believe that this milestone is meaningful not only for our company but for the industry at large," concluded Tokman.

Microvision's advanced prototypes of SHOW will be available in limited quantities to select OEM and carrier partners for customer feedback and applications development in the first half of 2008. The release of a commercial product is targeted for the end of 2008. Demonstrations of SHOW will be held during CES 2008, and again at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona in February 2008.

Depression Increases Mortality Rate

By vital on January 2, 2008 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Researchers are increasingly demostrating a correlation between one's physcological outlook and disease prognosis: