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China fights hanky-panky

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese city has taken its fight on corruption to the bedroom, ordering officials to own up to extramarital affairs in the hope of keeping public money out of the hands of mistresses, Xinhua news agency reported.

China has tried assorted checks and balances to curb corruption which has returned alongside market reforms after being virtually wiped out when the Communist Party swept to power in 1949.

"Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, issued a regulation in May requiring officials to report their extramarital affairs, with a belief that the stipulation could curb corruption," Xinhua said in an overnight report.

Some 95 percent of convicted corrupt officials in China had mistresses, it said without elaborating.

"In south China's economic-booming cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai, all the officials involved in the 102 corruption cases investigated in 1999 had mistresses," it said.

Legal scholars have criticised the Nanjing regulation, which also gives the government permission to interfere in outside relationships that affect "officials' family stability", for infringing on privacy and for being nearly impossible to enforce, the agency said.

"No one is willing to voluntarily speak out about their extramarital affairs," law researcher Mo Jihong was quoted as saying.

China's leaders have warned chronic corruption could topple the Communist Party, which has controlled the world's most populous nation for more than 50 years.

Almost 870,000 officials were indicted for corruption in 2004.

"Although arguments exist, one fact is undeniable," Xinhua said of the Nanjing regulation. "The Chinese government and academic society are being more innovative than ever before in the field of creating new ways to prevent and control corruption."

HK limits dollar to deter speculators

By Alexandra Harney in Hong Kong and Steve Johnson in London
Published: May 18 2005 18:09 | Last updated: May 18 2005 18:09

Hong Kong on Wednesday surprised financial markets by introducing a ceiling on its currency in an effort to discourage speculative investment into the territory.

The Hong Kong dollar, which has been pegged at HK$7.8 to the US dollar since 1983, will not be allowed to strengthen beyond HK$7.75 with immediate effect. It will also not be able to weaken below HK$7.85, a shift which will be achieved over the next five weeks.

Speculative flows into Hong Kong have risen sharply since late 2003 amid growing expectation that China, whose currency is pegged to the US dollar at Rmb8.28, would revalue. Investors who see the Hong Kong dollar as a proxy for the Chinese currency were expecting it to rise if the renminbi appreciated.

Joseph Yam, HKMA chief executive, said the move was aimed at sending a clear message to investors about how much Hong Kong's currency would be allowed to strengthen.

"You don't need to make use of the Hong Kong dollar as a speculative tool for betting" on appreciation of the renminbi, he said yesterday.

Until now, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has intervened if the currency has fallen below HK$7.8 to the US dollar - known as a fixed convertibility "floor" - but has not set a "ceiling" above which it cannot rise.

Some analysts welcomed the move. "Hong Kong is simply tidying up its currency regime to deal with a scenario - strong speculation about an appreciation - that had not previously been a problem," Julian Jessop, chief international economist at Capital Economics in London, said.

But Derek Halpenny, senior currency economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, argued Hong Kong's decision could herald increased speculation as the market tests the limits of the new trading band.

"The credibility of the old fixing had been undermined, the market will now test the credibility of the new band," he said.

Jonathan Anderson, chief economist for Asia at UBS, also questioned whether speculators would be discouraged.

"We were expecting a move that was going to stem the problems. It's not clear that this really does that," he said.

Mr Yam denied the decision was related to China's plans for currency reform.

"I have no inside information on what the People's Bank of China [China's central bank] may or may not do," he said.

Mr Halpenny argued that the move suggested that Hong Kong does not believe China will revalue the renminbi soon, and thus felt compelled to take action itself.

Enoch Fung of Goldman Sachs said the move would lead to a faster than expected rise in Hong Kong interest rates.

The Hong Kong dollar initially fell on Wednesday to 7.809 to the dollar, before rallying to 7.795. The Japanese yen rose to Y107.11 against the dollar and Y135.39 against the euro in early New York trading amid speculation that Hong Kong's move may be a sign that China is set to follow suit.

Cisco Pushes a New Twist on Options

By GARY RIVLIN and FLOYD NORRIS

SAN FRANCISCO, May 11 - Adding a new twist to the continuing fight over the expensing of employee stock options, Cisco Systems is seeking regulatory approval for a novel financial instrument that could allow the company to assign a lower value to the stock options than under current valuation models.

A lower value for the options, which under new accounting rules will have to be recorded as expenses on Cisco's books starting this July, would reduce the impact expensing will have on Cisco's profits and could lead other companies to adopt something similar. The company said that if it employed a traditional valuation standard like the Black-Scholes model for expensing its stock options, its reported profits would fall by roughly 20 percent.

Options give employees the right to buy stock for as long as 10 years at a price set when the option is issued, and thus can become very valuable if the stock rises over that period.

Cisco's proposal is to create a market by selling new securities based on the employee options. By doing so, the company potentially could be changing the terms of the debate on expensing stock options. But details of the securities Cisco decides to sell, and the way it markets them, could prove crucial in determining how the approach works in practice.

The issue is important for Cisco because it grants options to all employees and because it will be one of the first companies to come under the new accounting rule that requires options to be expensed. That rule, adopted by the Financial Accounting Standards Board after a bitter debate, goes into effect on June 15 for fiscal years beginning after that date. Cisco's fiscal year begins July 31.

In its last fiscal year, Cisco granted 188 million options to employees. It disclosed that had it been forced to take the value of options as an expense, its net income would have fallen by 28 percent, to $3.2 billion.

The securities would be sold only to institutional investors. Cisco would sell new securities when it issued options to employees, and would then use them to value those options on its books.

Cisco confirmed the move after it was reported by Bloomberg News.

Cisco, the largest maker of equipment for directing traffic on the Internet, has been a leader among technology companies seeking relief from the rule from Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Some details of Cisco's proposal were disclosed Wednesday by two people who had been briefed on them and who asked not to be identified because details could still be changed.

They said the securities would be offered to a limited number of institutional investors, adding that the company believed that by limiting the prospective buyers, it might get a higher price because those investors would have an interest in putting in the time needed to analyze a new and complicated security. But it could also be argued that by limiting the number of investors, the company would be depressing the price.

That could be important because the company has two conflicting interests. As with any security it sells, it would benefit from getting the highest price. But Cisco would also benefit from a lower price if that allowed it to report higher profits.

Buyers of the new instruments, to be called employee stock option reference securities, or Esors, would not be able to transfer them, and would have options that would vest over five years. Both provisions mirror those in employee stock options.

Donald Nicolaisen, the S.E.C.'s chief accountant, said that he could not comment on Cisco's proposals. But in general, he said, "it certainly would be desirable to have a market value that could help validate the valuation models."

Last year Cisco, along with Qualcomm and Genentech, proposed an alternative valuation method intended to slash the value of options that the companies argued was simpler and more accurate.

The accounting standards body rejected their proposal. That proposal called for discounting the valuation for numerous reasons and drew criticism because it would have resulted in drastically lower valuations and therefore lower expenses, compared to the models endorsed by the accounting standards board.

"They've had plenty of time over the past couple of years, while this was all still being debated, to propose something like this," said Jack T. Ciesielski, editor of The Analyst's Accounting Observer. "And in fact they did propose something similar with their proposal last fall. That didn't work, so they're now trying a different route."

Cisco hired the investment bank Morgan Stanley to put together its proposed security, which could be used to set the price of the options of any company wanting to participate.

"We all wish there was a public market for stock options because then we'd have real evidence of what these things are worth," said John England, who runs the executive compensation practice inside the consulting firm Towers Perrin. "The idea is great but whether it can be pulled off is another issue."

There would also be provisions, which were not given in detail, barring the owners of the derivatives from hedging their positions. That mirrors a provision in employee stock options, but it could also serve to limit the number of potential investors if it constrained other trading strategies - selling the company's stock short or buying put options, for example - that would normally be available to institutions.

Perhaps the most controversial part of the proposal is that a buyer would not know how many options he would eventually have.

That is because the Esors would mirror the actual experience of employee options, which are canceled when employees leave Cisco, whether voluntarily or not. Last year, Cisco's annual report states, 52 million options were canceled.

A potential problem with that provision is that it could lead to understating the value of the derivatives. Employees who forfeit options when they leave voluntarily presumably do so because their new jobs offer sufficient compensation to offset the value of the forfeited options. But there is no similar compensation planned for Esors holders.

"I think one of the reasons the F.A.S.B. never picked a particular option-pricing model is because they were hoping that there would be advancements in ways to value these options," said Pat McConnell, an accounting analyst at Bear Stearns. "I think this is another step in that process."

Mr. Ciesielski, however, sees this as more of a step backward than forward. "If the S.E.C. were to give the green light to something like Cisco is proposing, it'd be nibbling away at the F.A.S.B. standard without public comment," he said.

The Cisco proposal is in some ways reminiscent of a plan Coca-Cola announced in 2002, when it said it would voluntarily take stock options as an expense. It then proposed to seek market valuation estimates from investment banks, with the possibility that banks would be forced to buy or sell based on their estimates. But that idea was later dropped because it was not in accord with the existing accounting rule, which gave companies the choice of whether or not to treat options as an expense.

The new accounting rule, however, specifies that market values, if available, can be used in valuing options.

Gary Rivlin reported from San Francisco for this article and Floyd Norris from Paris.

Cream Crackered

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-cre2.htm
"I'm cream-crackered."

A cream cracker is a savoury dry biscuit, often eaten with cheese. Sometime in the past thirty years or so the phrase has become rhyming slang in Britain for knackered. That’s a slightly older slang term—there are examples going back into the 1950s—which means exhausted or worn out. It can also mean some piece of equipment which is damaged or broken. Both senses are common.

Where it comes from is not entirely certain. A knacker from the sixteenth century on was a harness maker or saddler. The word just might have come from knack, a trinket (which we still have, but only as one half of the reduplicated knick-knack), because the knacker originally only made the small bits of harness. Another sense from the beginning of the nineteenth century was for a person who bought old or worn-out horses and slaughtered them for their meat, hides and hoofs. He worked from a knacker’s yard. A possible link with the modern slang sense is obvious enough: if you’re knackered you’re fit only for the knacker’s yard.

But there’s another slang sense of knackers, for the testicles, which grew up a little later, possibly also from knack, but possibly from yet another sense of knacker, that of castanets (which could be an altered form of knockers, but might come from an obsolete sense of knack, to knock or to make a sharp, abrupt noise). To knacker, therefore, is to castrate.

Modern dictionaries are cautious about whether knackered has its origin in the horse-slaughterer sense or the castration one. However, British men often use it in such a way that they take it to mean the latter, even if that isn’t actually where it came from.

All Britons millionaires

All Britons millionaires -- over a life-time
Tue Apr 26, 2005 04:31 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The average Briton spends around 1.5 million pounds during adulthood, according to a survey on Tuesday.
The basics of shelter, food and clothing account for one-third of the total, according to the survey by insurer Prudential, with tax accounting for about one-fifth and leisure slightly less.

"The old saying goes that there are only two certainties in life -- death and taxes. We'd add 'expense' to that small and somewhat grim list," said director Angus Maciver.

The survey found men give 30 percent more to charity than do women.

But the average man will also spend 98,000 pounds on nights out -- 40 percent more than women -- two and a half times more on electronic gadgets, twice as much on hobbies and sports and 66 percent more on cars.

Overall the average male cost of living at 1.7 million pounds is 21 percent higher than women's 1.4 million.

As expected, London is the most expensive part of the country in which to live, with the average person spending just over two million pounds from the age of 18 to the grave.

Super-jumbo takes to skies

Super-jumbo takes to skies
Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:19 AM ET

By Louise Knowles

TOULOUSE, France (Reuters) - The world's biggest airliner, the Airbus double-decker A380, soared effortlessly into the sky on Wednesday on one of the most eagerly awaited maiden flights since the supersonic Concorde took off in 1969.

The A380, which is designed to carry 555 passengers but has room for more than 800, lumbered down the runway before gathering speed and taking off from Airbus headquarters near Toulouse in southern France.

Thousands of enthusiasts cheered outside the perimeter fence as the plane, carrying just a six-man test crew, pulled away over open countryside towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Some spectators had camped out for days to see it take off on its first flight, expected to last from two to four hours.

The A380 is a key weapon in the battle by Airbus, in which European aerospace group EADS has an 80 percent stake, to keep its edge over U.S. plane maker Boeing, which is banking on customers wanting to buy smaller long-range airliners.

It has taken more than a decade and some 12 billion euros (8 billion pounds) to develop the A380. It has been subsidised by European governments and has yet to prove it can make a profit.

The A380 ended the four-decade reign of Boeing's 747 jumbo as the biggest airliner to have flown. It looks like a 747 with the upper deck stretched all the way back to the tail.

French President Jacques Chirac has hailed the project as "an immense European success" and described the new plane as a "cruise ship of the skies".

The new aircraft is 15 metres (49 feet) wider, 4 metres (13 feet) taller, 2 metres (6.5 feet) longer and 118 tonnes (260,000 pounds) heavier than the 747 jumbo, which helped change the airline business.

The length of eight London buses, the A380 has enough room on its wings to park 70 cars.

BATTLE WITH BOEING

Airbus plans to complete flight tests in just over a year, allowing Singapore Airlines to begin service in 2006. The first freighter version is scheduled for delivery in 2008.

Airbus has a combined 154 orders and commitments from 15 customers. The plane has a list price of $285 million.

Airbus has already celebrated by throwing a gala unveiling in January attended by heads of state and thousands of guests, but more orders will be needed to make the plane profitable.

The development cost to shareholders EADS and British defence firm BAE Systems (BA.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , which has a 20 percent stake in Airbus, includes 1.45 billion euros of cost overruns linked in part to efforts to keep the A380's weight down.

Boeing has vowed to end the dominance of Airbus, which has outsold the Chicago-based plane maker in every year since 2001, and the two rivals are locked in a struggle in which each accuses the other of having unfair subsidies.

Boeing has been focusing on a much smaller money-saver in the 787 Dreamliner which is due in 2008, and has won two big deals in the past few days.

Air India (AIN.UL: Quote, Profile, Research) approved the purchase of up to 50 long-range Boeing aircraft -- including 27 of the new 787 long-range jets -- at a cost of about 300 billion rupees on Tuesday in a deal that is subject to Indian government approval.

That followed a $6 billion order for 32 wide-bodied Boeing jets from Air Canada on Monday.

Ten Laws of the Modern World

Ten Laws of the Modern World
Rich Karlgaard, Reuters (9th May 2005)

• Moore's Law. Listen to a billionaire explain why an understanding of Moore's Law is a key to unlocking business riches. Don Valentine founded Sequoia Capital in 1972 and presided over early investments in Apple, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Yahoo and Google. He once told me the secret to his success: "That's easy. I just follow Moore's Law and make a few guesses about its consequences." This April marked the 40th anniversary of Gordon Moore's famous dictum. In 1965 Moore (he cofounded Intel three years later) noted that components on silicon chips were doubling every year. In 1975 he amended that to every two years. Today Moore's Law has transcended silicon chips. It has become a way of saying that all digital stuff, from PCs to cell phones to music players, get twice as good every 18 to 24 months--at the same price point. Projecting from Moore's Law, venture capitalist Valentine saw a future of personal computers, games, routers and search engines. Now, go project!

• The Back Side of Moore's Law. This one says that digital stuff gets 30% to 40% cheaper every year--at the same performance point. The back side of Moore's Law is why your $299 Treo 650 is as powerful as a $3,500 Compaq PC was in 1988. It's why hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians now own their personal portals to the global economy.

• Andy and Bill's Law. The origin of this was a funny one-liner told at computer conferences in the 1990s. It went like this: "What Andy giveth, Bill taketh away." It meant that every time Andy Grove (then CEO of Intel) brought a new chip to market, Bill Gates (then CEO of Microsoft) would upgrade his software and soak up the new chip's power. But beyond the laugh, there's deep truth. Moore's Law constantly enables new software. Often the new software is just an incremental improvement. But every few years the world gets a wild breakthrough--graphic computing in the 1980s, Web browsers in the 1990s, fast search engines today. Next? Surely something amazing.

• Metcalfe's Law. This one's named after Robert Metcalfe, the inventor of the computer networking protocol Ethernet. Metcalfe said the usefulness of a network improves by the square of the number of nodes on the network. Translation: The Internet, like telephones, grows more valuable as more join in. This is how Ebay grew so profitable so fast.

• Gilder's Law: Winner's Waste. The futurist George Gilder wrote about this a few years ago in a Forbes publication. The best business models, he said, waste the era's cheapest resources in order to conserve the era's most expensive resources. When steam became cheaper than horses, the smartest businesses used steam and spared horses. Today the cheapest resources are computer power and bandwidth. Both are getting cheaper by the year (at the pace of Moore's Law). Google is a successful business because it wastes computer power--it has some 120,000 servers powering its search engine--while it conserves its dearest resource, people. Google has fewer than 3,500 employees, yet it generates $5 billion in (current run rate) sales.

• Ricardo's Law. The more transparent an economy becomes, the more David Ricardo's 19th-century law of comparative advantage rules the day. Then came the commercial Internet, the greatest window into comparative advantage ever invented. Which means if your firm's price-value proposition is lousy, too bad. The world knows.

• Wriston's Law. This is named after the late Walter Wriston, a giant of banking and finance. In his 1992 book, The Twilight of Sovereignty, Wriston predicted the rise of electronic networks and their chief effect. He said capital (meaning both money and ideas) when freed to travel at the speed of light "will go where it is wanted, stay where it is well-treated.…" By applying Wriston's Law of capital and talent flow, you can predict the fortunes of countries and companies.

• The Laffer Curve. In the 1970s the young economist Arthur Laffer proposed a wild idea. Cut taxes at the margin, on income and capital, and you'll get more tax revenue, not less. Laffer reasoned that lower taxes would beckon risk capital out of hiding. Businesses and people would become more productive. The pie would grow. Application of the Laffer Curve is why the U.S. boomed in the 1980s and 1990s, why India is rocking now and why eastern Europe will outperform western Europe.

• Drucker's Law. Odd as it seems, you will achieve the greatest results in business and career if you drop the word "achievement" from your vocabulary. Replace it with "contribution," says the great management guru Peter Drucker. Contribution puts the focus where it should be--on your customers, employees and shareholders.

• Ogilvy's Law. David Ogilvy gets my vote as the greatest advertising mind of the 20th century. The founder of Ogilvy & Mather (now part of WPP) left a rich legacy of ideas in his books, my favorite being Ogilvy on Advertising. Ogilvy wrote that whenever someone was appointed to head an office of O&M, he would give the manager a Russian nesting doll. These dolls open in the middle to reveal a smaller doll, which opens in the middle to reveal a yet smaller doll … and so on. Inside the smallest doll would be a note from Ogilvy. It read: "If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants." Ogilvy knew in the 1950s that people make or break businesses. It was true then; it's truer today.



Visit Rich Karlgaard's home page at www.life2where.com or
email him at publisher@forbes.com.

Wi-Fi Meets The Wireless Phone

Wi-Fi Meets The Wireless Phone
Arik Hesseldahl, Forbes.com (26th July,04)

NEW YORK - The next great leap forward in the functionality of handheld wireless devices began this morning with word from Hewlett-Packard and wireless concern T-Mobile that they have collaborated on a new hybrid device that combines a PDA with a mobile phone, while throwing in Wi-Fi networking capability, too.

Expected to start shipping late this summer for a price of $499 with a service contract, the Hewlett-Packard-made (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) iPaq 6315 packs more radios inside its six-ounce body than was practically possible only a year ago. Since it's an iPaq, it will run Microsoft's Windows Mobile handheld operating system, but it will be sold only by T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, which means it will handle voice and data traffic on standard GSM/GPRS wireless phone networks around the US, as well as in Europe and much of Asia. And if you're into using a wireless headset, there's a Bluetooth radio too.

But what's interesting, and potentially a significant shift for handheld devices of this type, is the addition of Wi-Fi, the popular wireless Internet connection more often used on laptop computers in airports and coffee shops.

Remember, if you will, that T-Mobile also happens to operate a huge network of 4,700 Wi-Fi hot spots at popular locations like Starbucks coffee shops, Border's bookstores, airports and other locations, such as FedEx's Kinko's. (see our review of the T-Mobile service: "Hot Spots Are Happening," 06.09.2004.) When the user needs a wireless Internet connection for checking e-mail or a Web site, the device will automatically check the conditions of the surrounding area and use the method of connection that is faster. If there's a good Wi-Fi connection nearby, it will forgo the slower GPRS connection, but when there's no Wi-Fi nearby, it will go with GPRS.

As yet, public Wi-Fi hot spots are a tricky business. There is so much wireless access available for free that it's difficult to sell people on the concept of the need for a monthly subscription, especially when they're likely to only need it occasionally while traveling, or spend only as much time in a Starbucks as to get enough sugar in their coffee. (see our searchable database of Hot Spots, both free and not.) But a device that is deliberately designed for the on-the-go type of person who's likely to spend only five or ten minutes within range of a hot spot at Starbucks may carry some appeal.

HP and T-Mobile won't be alone in this endeavor. We've been hearing reliable rumors that Motorola will be making a very similar announcement about a handheld mobile phone that also incorporates Wi-Fi connectivity as soon as this week. We're forced to wonder if Palmone, maker of the Treo 600, a PDA/wireless phone combination, and also the Tungsten C, a Wi-Fi ready PDA, is not far behind with their own Wi-Fi equipped PDA/phone.

What you won't see, at least initially, is direct support for making voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) voice calls over the Internet via the Wi-Fi connection. For one thing, the 6315 supports only the 802.11b version of the Wi-Fi standard, which allows for a data connection speed of only 10 megabits per second. It won't support the faster 802.11g version of the standard, which tops out at 54 megabits per second.

Remember, T-Mobile is in the business of providing wireless voice services, but the time isn't far off when someone is going to start experimenting with the combination of a wireless phone that can jump from the wireless phone networks to available Wi-Fi networks for the purpose of making free or nearly free VoIP calls. Already there are cordless office phones that incorporate Wi-Fi for the purpose of making VoIP calls but don't yet connect to the outside cellular networks. We noticed one last year from Cisco Systems. (see: "Wi-Fi Comes To The Office Phone" 04.28.2003)

Such a combination might initially scare the heck out of a wireless company like T-Mobile. But with Wi-Fi getting more sophisticated every day, this combination can't be far off. A few technical standards under development have to finish cooking, though. One that may come into play is 802.11e, which addresses quality of service. Since VoIP calls reduce voice conversations to streams of data packets just like all Internet data, voice packets might need to get priority and therefore get to take cuts in front of other packets in order to keep the call quality satisfactory.

There are two other standards that concern Wi-Fi networks and mobility. One is 802.11p, which concerns maintaining a Wi-Fi connection while moving at a high rate of speed, such as a in a car. If you're going to be making VoIP calls while on the road, you're going to need a reliable connection that doesn't keep dropping. Yet another standard in development, 802.11r is all about handing off a connection from one hot spot to another, which would be necessary if VoIP were to ever be a threat to conventional mobile phones. It's not there yet, but its day is coming. And this week's announcements from HP, T-Mobile and even Motorola will mark important milestones in that development.

http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2004/07/26/cx_ah_0726tentech.html

BBC launches real-life "Hitchhiker's Guide"

BBC launches real-life "Hitchhiker's Guide"
Mon Apr 25, 2005
By Adam Pasick

LONDON (Reuters) - As "A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" nears its cinematic release, the BBC has launched a new service based on the novel's central concept: a mobile device filled with information about life, the universe and everything.

H2G2 offers articles on a broad range of topics, from "The Simpsons" to "How Soap Works."

Entries are submitted and edited by users, and are accessible from Web-enabled mobile phones or other devices that are directed to the H2G2 mobile Web site (http:www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/h2g2).

"When I originally described The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, over 20 years ago, I was only joking," author Douglas Adams said in a posting on the site before his death in 2001.

"The Guide was compiled by researchers roaming round the galaxy, beaming their copy in, which was then instantly available to anybody to read. But it turns out that I, inadvertently, had a terribly good idea."

H2G2 -- short for "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, with two H's and two G's -- was founded by Adams in 1999 and taken over by the BBC in 2001.

The mobile version was launched this month to tie in with the "Hitchhiker's" movie, which premieres this week.

Douglas' concept of an all-encompassing storehouse of knowledge written by its own users predated Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopaedia that recently received backing from Yahoo.

Wikipedia allows anyone to make changes to entries but relies on a final review by a core team of about 1,000 users. Similarly, the BBC has the final say over what appears on H2G2, according to Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC New Media & Technology.

"Anyone who goes badly off piste, being offensive, racist, or defamatory, the community picks it up quickly," he said in an interview. "As a stopgap, the final authority is with the BBC, but it's amazing how little is needed."

original URL: http://www.reuters.co.uk

Chinese men measure up below the belt

Thu Apr 21, 2005 12:04 PM BST

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese men have no reason to feel inferior about the size of their penises, according to a Hong Kong study which showed local men measured up to others elsewhere in the world below the belt.

"Our conclusion is that Hong Kong people are no smaller than western men, where their penises are concerned," said Chan Lung-wai, director of the Urology Centre at the Union Hospital, who headed the study.

"There has always been the myth that westerners have bigger penises and their (sexual) ability is better."

A group of scientists in Hong Kong spent five months from October last year measuring 148 ethnic Chinese volunteers aged between 23 and 93.

The average length of their flaccid penises was 8.46 cm (3.4 inches), which compared favourably with similar studies on other men overseas.

Germans have average lengths of about 8.6 cm, Israelis 8.3 cm, Turks 7.8 cm and Filippinos 7.35 cm. Italians were the longest at 9 cm and Americans averaged 8.8 cm.

The study did not measure the penises when they were erect.

It found that a man's height bore no relation to the length of his member, but those with higher body mass indexes, or fat content, appeared to have shorter penises.

"It seems that as someone gets older and fatter, his blood vessels change, so the penile size is not static. It may be a reflection of the condition of the person's blood vessels," Chan said, adding that this could spur yet another study.

Amazon to run M&S internet operation

By Elizabeth Rigby in London
Published: 19 April 2005

Marks and Spencer on Monday signed up Amazon to develop and run its internet operation as it acknowledged that it had fallen behind competitors in the race to grab a piece of the fast-growing online market. M&S currently sells clothes and homeware online. However, with 24m hits a year, the website has huge reach and it is thought M&S may start selling food online in the longer-term.

Last December, the M&S website crashed when the technology could not cope in an upsurge in demand sparked by a special sales day. Stuart Rose, chief executive, said: "Frankly, we ought to be better at it than we are. We are going to have to invest money in it for more functionality and we decided to use somebody else rather that do it on our own."

Under the terms of the deal - neither side would disclose financial details - Amazon Services Europe will provide the technology behind M&S's website, in-store and telephone ordering and customer services systems. M&S will still manage site content, customer services operations, warehousing and distribution.

M&S yesterday declined to comment on how much the deal was worth, saying only that the retailer would pay an up-front cost and then a service charge every year. Typically in such a deal, the service provider will take a 20 per cent cut of all revenue generated. However, M&S is understood to have negotiated far more favourable terms.

The deal is significant for Amazon, which is trying to build-up its services business in the UK. In the US, Amazon runs e-commerce operations for a number of retailers, including Target and Borders, while in the UK it has signed a deal with Waterstones.

Zhuangzi's Frictionlessness

http://www.udel.edu/Philosophy/afox/zhuangzi.htm

The best example from the text to illustrate Zhuangzi's conception of this optimally "frictionless" mode of experience is one found in chapter 3 of the text, the story of Cook Ding:

"Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen-hui. At every touch of his hand, every heave of his shoulder, every move of his feet, every thrust of his knee-zip! zoop! He slithered the knife along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as though he were performing the dance of the Mulberry Grove or keeping time to the Ching-shou music. …

"Cook Ting laid down his knife and [said], 'What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond all skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now-now I go at it by spirit and don't look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.

"A good cook changes his knife once a year-because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes his knife once a month-because he hacks. I've had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I've cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there's plenty of room-more than enough for the blade to play about it. That's why after nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as when it first came from the grindstone." (Basic Writings, p.46-47)

Blackboard charts route through the online jungle
By Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: March 21 2005 02:00

The bosses of universities are increasingly hard to distinguish from the hard-headed managers of the corporate world.

Acutely aware of the competition, they employ professional investors to manage their endownments, bid aggressively for the best professors and make every effort to publicise their student facilities.

It is not surprising, therefore, that leading universities have been increasingly keen to improve their productivity by using the internet.

Among the most successful companies set up to help them do so is Blackboard, a Washington-based business providing software that enables universities to create an on-line dimension to their courses.

A rare survivor of the dot.com bubble, Blackboard - which has a partnership with Pearson, owner of the Financial Times - allows college professors to put reading material and lecture notes on-line and to respond to student questions.

On the Blackboard system, students can register for courses from their computer, take tests and hand in homework on-line, set up discussion groups with their classmates and professor and watch videos.

Michael Chasen, chief executive and co-founder, says universities are increasingly thinking like business analysts. "Universities are looking at IT from a return-on-investment perspective," he says. "With many schools struggling to keep pace with rising enrolment, adding an on-line element enables teachers to be more efficient with their time."

Teachers no longer have to make 100 print-outs of course material, but can put it on-line instead. Rather than having 10 students knocking separately on their door to ask the same question, they can often answer one person's question on-line and all their classmates will be able to see the response. Students who are too shy to ask questions in a crowded class should be less inhibited on the internet and will be at less risk of being left behind.

There is also growing pressure from a new generation of technology-savvy students to offer such services. "In such a competitive environment, schools realise that if their rivals have this technology, they can't be left behind," says Mr Chasen.

With university tuition fees rising in many parts of the world, an increasing number of students also having to work to support themselves, the flexibility of an on-line learning tool is all the more important.

From a standing start in 1997, Blackboard provides software to 2,700 academic institutions, including six of the US's seven ivy league schools.

The company reported its first post-tax profit of $9m last year and, with sales rising fast, expects post-tax profits of between $20.5 and $21.5m this year. It has been expanding in Asia and now provides software to 40 institutions in China.

After an explosive 43 per cent rise on its first day on the Nasdaq in June last year, the company's stock has settled down to between 15 and 20 per cent above its listing price of $14. The $53m raised by the public offering will help fund expansion.

There company is also hoping to sell more to existing clients - the vast majority of whom use only one of the company's five products.

The company has a strong market position, but faces competition on two fronts.

One threat comes from the Sakai Project, led by Stanford University, MIT and the Universities of Michigan and Indiana. This offers the prospect of free software to thrifty academic institutions.

The $6.8m project has launched the first version of its offering. Although it does not provide technical support, many large universities have a large enough IT staff to maintain the system.

One the other side is a range of commercial competitors, including WebCT,

eCollege.com, Desire2Learn, SunGard Data Systems, Diebold and CNord Group.

Mr Chasen says Blackboard has never lost a customer to free software. Demetra Katsifli, head of information and communication technology at Kingston University in the UK and a Blackboard client, says free software would have been a false economy.

She says: "We needed a system that was easy to use for both students and teachers, easy to scale up and add features to and that had good support. Blackboard met all these requirements. It was so easy that students hardly needed training. A two-hour tutorial was more than enough.

The Blackboard technology platform, costs from as little as $9,500 a year to several hundred thousand dollars a year, depending on size of institiution and the level of service.

Eros (mythology)

Eros (mythology), in Greek mythology, the god of love and counterpart of the Roman Cupid. In early mythology he was represented as one of the primeval forces of nature, the son of Chaos, and the embodiment of the harmony and creative power in the universe. Soon, however, he was thought of as a handsome and intense young man, attended by Pothos (“longing”) or Himeros (“desire”). Later mythology made him the constant attendant of his mother, Aphrodite, goddess of love.

In Greek art Eros was depicted as a winged youth, slight but beautiful, often with eyes covered to symbolize the blindness of love. Sometimes he carried a flower, but more commonly the silver bow and arrows, with which he shot darts of desire into the bosoms of gods and men. In Roman legend and art, Eros degenerated into a mischievous child and was often depicted as a baby archer.

Electronic patient record delayed by tests

By Nicholas Timmins, FT.com Public Policy Editor
March 1 2005 02:00

An important part of the National Health Service's information technology programme has slipped by six to nine months.

The delay, which will hit more than 100 hospitals and thousands of doctors' practices, is because IDX, the software developer, decided more testing time was needed before elements of the programme, that allow an electronic patient record to be built, were introduced.

It follows slower than planned progress on "choose and book" - the system that allows online booking of hospital outpatient appointments, which is now likely to cover only 60 to 70 per cent of England by the end of the year rather than all of it. The NHS's programme for IT has confirmed delays in introducing elements of the care record in the two regions where IDX is responsible. These are London and the south. The delay will affect about 40 per cent of the population.

The programme, which has been criticised both within the NHS and by the National Audit Office for failing to engage doctors and nurses sufficiently, underlined that IDX had taken its decision "following consultation with clinicians" that identified the need for more testing time.

The programme stressed that other work would continue, with software ready to support "choose and book", electronic transmission of prescriptions and the transfer of records between GPs.

In addition, new GP systems and hospital patient administration systems would continue to be installed. The delay is understood to affect elements that allow the summary care record to be built up - the stage at which the programme starts to become clinically useful.

Those elements may now be delayed from the autumn until late spring 2006, the programme said, although leaked NHS communications seen by E-Health Insider, the online newsletter that monitors the programme and first highlighted the delay, show some NHS managers now believe it will be delivered in June next year "at the earliest".

The programme said the other regions should not be affected, but the delay underlines the difficulty of delivering the £6.2bn venture to highly ambitious timescales. The NAO reported in January that only 63 appointments had gone through "choose and book" pilots by the end of last year against the 205,000 planned and that the upgrading of hospital systems that could not cope with the technology was behind schedule.

The programme has, however, had some marked successes, including installing to time and budget a programme to underpin the new family doctors' contract.

Yesterday the programme announced that electronic transmission of prescriptions had started in the first of the "early implementer" sites.

Linux vs. Microsoft

Came across this article yesterday, and had a brief discussion in the evening class - it dawned on me that it's not just Beijing would accept Microsoft's offer, so did a council in the UK and Paris according to our lecturer... Not very precise description, anyway, you got the idea.

Below is the article from FT.com.

---

Beijing city buys Microsoft software
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: February 22 2005

MicrosoftThe Beijing city government has quietly made substantial purchases of software from Microsoft after it cancelled a controversial Rmb29m ($3.5m) order for the US company's Office suite and Windows operating system late last year, according to municipal officials and industry executives.

The decision by the Chinese capital to push through the purchase of Office and Windows products in spite of widespread local opposition is a boost for Microsoft, which has worked hard to fend off competition from lower-cost Chinese software rivals.

However, the municipal government's refusal to make public any information about the purchases raises serious questions about its handling of the procurement process. Under China's Law on Government Procurement, big government purchases must be "open and transparent".

The city's finance department and its "Office of Informatisation" declined on Tuesday to give details of Beijing's software spending since the cancellation of the tender won by the US company last year.

The tender for Microsoft software was scrapped after local software companies complained it had been mishandled and local commentators criticised it for not giving enough support to local vendors.

However, a municipal official with knowledge of its technology policy said the city bought Microsoft's products anyway and that its purchases from the US company "were greater than those made from domestic vendors".

A manager at a large Chinese software company said it had also heard from customers in the municipal government that it had gone ahead with purchases from Microsoft.

The Beijing Informatisation Office declined on Tuesday to comment on whether the software purchases from Microsoft were handled according to law.

The purchases could reignite debate about the degree to which state software procurement should favour local suppliers.

The cancellation of the Microsoft order last year had been seen as an important victory for supporters of the local industry.

Li Wuqiang, then an official at the Ministry of Science and Technology, had heightened the pressure on Beijing officials by issuing a high-profile denunciation of the "many" local governments that ignored "national interest and security" by buying foreign software.

The municipal official with knowledge of IT issues said the decision to buy from Microsoft reflected in part the difficulty of introducing local software in time to meet a central government deadline for the the city government to stop using pirated software.

Microsoft declined to give details of Beijing city purchases. "We appreciate and support the Beijing government's decision to use legal software including Microsoft's products within its government entities," the company said.

iTunes Music Store adds over 1,000 Chinese tracks

Feb 07, 2005 | By Kristie Masuda

Apple has added over 1,000 tracks by top Chinese artists in its 15 iTunes Music Stores, according to the Financial Times. Many of Universal's top selling Chinese artists including Jacky Cheung, Kelly Chen, Hacken Lee and Alan Tam will be available, making this the first time that this range of Chinese music is available for sale outside of the region. According to the Financial Post, the launch "is aimed especially at the big overseas Chinese population, which has been able to access the music in physical form only through a limited number of specialist retailers."

英國的母親節 Mothering Sunday

http://www.getset.com.tw/cultural_corner_mothers_day.html

英國的母親節
四 旬齋日後的第四個星期天是英國母性的星期天。雖然也常稱這天為 ” 母親節”但實際上和美國的母親節並沒有什麼關聯。在早期的英格蘭，孩子們，特別是離家幫傭的女兒，會在母親節這天請一天假來拜訪母親及親人。而在今日，孩 子們會在這一天為他們的母親準備禮物，花朵和親手製作的卡片。

英國母親節的淵源
在 英格蘭的教徒們通常會利用大部分的星期天到最近的教區或教堂作禮拜。幾個世紀後，人們視四旬齋日後的第四個星期天為極重要的一天，因為他們會在這一天回到 他們一年拜訪一次的”mother church”，所以每年四旬齋中旬，每個人都會拜訪自己的”mother church“或教區上主要的教堂。自然而然的，回到” mother church”已成為離家工作的孩子們舉家團員的原因。(在當時，一但孩子年滿十歲，離家出外工作是很普遍的。)大部分的史學家認為因為回到” Mother church ”的緣故使孩子們得以休假一天返家探親成了慣例，特別是當學徒或是替人幫傭的孩子。在這些孩子們沿著返家的鄉間小路上，他們會摘一些野花或是紫羅蘭帶到教 堂表達對教會的感恩，或是當作送給母親的小禮物。

美食饗宴
英 國的母親節同時也是大家熟悉的可稍稍恢復精力的星期天，因為這一天可以進食，不需禁食，大家也可以稍微放鬆一下。在新約福音中有一段耶穌以五個小麵包及兩 條小魚讓五千人飽餐的故事。”如今這個地方已長滿許多草，所以為數五千的人們席地而坐， 接著耶穌拿起一個麵包，向上天感恩後，將麵包和魚分發給席地而坐的人， 這些麵包和魚就如取之不竭般的讓所有的人都飽餐了。 ( 約翰福音，第六章，10-12節)

Simnel蛋糕
和 英國的母親節特別有關聯的食物是Simnel 蛋糕。Simnel 蛋糕 是一種夾有兩層杏仁醬的水果蛋糕，一層在蛋糕的最上層，一層在中間。這種蛋糕是以最上層的11球marzipan糖衣來代表著耶穌的11個門徒。( 猶大不包含在內 ) 。一般上，紫羅蘭糖果也會加在蛋糕的上層。

為何叫做Simnel
Simnel這個名字可能是由拉丁文中的” simila “而來，意指用來烘培蛋糕的小麥麵粉。有另一種流傳的說法是有一個名叫Simon的男子和他的妻子Nell為了母親節的蛋糕應用烘烤的方式或是煮的方式而起了爭執。
最後，他們這兩種方式都試了，所以蛋糕以這兩人的名字作為蛋糕的
名稱。

Simnel cake
奶油175 g (6 oz)
糖175 g
3個打好的蛋
桿平的麵粉225 g (8 oz)
磨碎的荳蔻1/2匙
肉桂1/2 匙
醃過的櫻桃 125 g (4 oz)
剁碎的綜合果皮50 g (2 oz)
小葡萄乾 250 g (9 oz)
無核白葡萄乾125 g (4 oz)
杏仁醬450 g

如 果必要的話可以加一點牛奶將奶油和糖加在一起攪拌， 直到顏色變淡泡沫變細。慢慢的蛋將打入，加入麵粉和香料，舖上水果，如果麵粉還是很硬，可以加上一兩匙的牛奶。將一個約18公分高的蛋糕模型內圈圖上油以 便烘烤。取一半準備好的麵放進蛋糕模中，接著舖上一層約16公分寬的杏仁醬，再將另一半準備好的麵粉加(蓋)在杏仁醬上，放入烤箱烘烤，直到顏色變深，蛋 糕變硬。將蛋糕取出，等蛋糕冷卻後，將剩下的杏仁醬舖在蛋糕的最上層，用高溫迅速的蛋糕烤成褐色。

Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday in the UK is the fourth Sunday of Lent. Although it's often called "Mothers Day" it has no connection with the American festival of that name. Traditionally, it was a day when children, mainly daughters, who had gone to work as domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother and family. Today it is a day when children give presents, flowers, and home made cards to their mothers.

History of Mothering Sunday
Most Sundays in the year churchgoers in England worship at their nearest parish or "daughter church".

Centuries ago it was considered important for people to return to their home or "mother" church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their "mother" church, or the main church or Cathedral of the area.
Inevitably the return to the "mother" church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home. (It was quite common in those days for children to leave home for work once they were ten years old.)
And most historians think that it was the return to the "Mother" church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family.
As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers or violets to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift.

A Foodie Festival
Mothering Sunday was also known as Refreshment Sunday because the fasting rules for Lent were relaxed that day.
Originally both Old and New testament lessons on mid-lent Sunday made a point of food.
The Gospel reading from the New Testament told the story of how Jesus fed five thousand people with only five small barley loaves and two small fish. Now there was much grass in the place; so the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. (John 6:10-12)

Simnel Cake
The food item specially associated with Mothering Sunday is the Simnel Cake. A Simnel cake is a fruit cake with two layers of almond paste, one on top and one in the middle. The cake is made with 11 balls of marzipan icing on top representing the 11 disciples. (Judas is not included). Traditionally, sugar violets would also be added.

Why Simnel?
The name Simnel probably comes from the Latin word "simila" which means a fine wheat flour usually used for baking a cake. There's a legend that a man called Simon and his wife Nell argued over whether the cake for Mothering Sunday should be baked or boiled. In the end they did both, so the cake was named after both of them: SIM-NELL.

SIMNEL CAKE RECIPE
175 g (6 oz) butter
175 g (6 oz) sugar
3 beaten eggs
225 g (8 oz) plain flour
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
125 g (4 oz) glace cherries
50 g (2 oz) chopped mixed peel
250 g (9 oz) currants
125 g (4 oz) sultanas
450 g (1 lb) almond paste
A little milk if necessary

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs slowly. Fold in the flour and spices. Add the fruit and fold in. Add a teaspoon or two of milk if too firm. Line and grease an 18 cm (7 in) round cake tin. Roll out half the almond paste to a 16 cm circle. Spoon half of the cake mixture into the cake tin. Put the almond paste circle on top of the cake mixture. Then add the rest of the cake mixture. Bake until dark brown and firm. Once the cake is cool, roll out the rest of the almond paste into an 18 cm circle. Place the circle on top of the cake and brown quickly under a hot grill.


單字
1. Lent-四旬齋，指(逾越節)復活節前星期天除外的四十天準備期，也就是從Ash Wednesday至Easter Eve 的四十天，在此期間為紀念耶穌在荒野禁食，在此時期內，基督徒特別祈禱、刻苦作補贖，尤其守齋禁食，故此舊名稱又叫「封齋期」。

2. Mother Church 人們加入教會受洗的教堂。隨著基督教在歐洲的擴散，人們將四旬齋日後的第四個星期天轉為對「Mother Church」的崇敬：表達人們對賦予他們生命、保護他們免於傷害的精神力量的感謝。從此，教會的儀式便與母親節的慶祝活動相結合，以同時傳達人們對母親 與教會的感念。

Bohemia

Czechs are West Slavs, as are Poles and Slovaks. The capital Prague is often called The Heart of Europe. There are about 10 million people in the Czech Republic and about 1.3 million people in Prague. Western part of the Czech Republic is called Bohemia, eastern Moravia.

At the beginning of the 20th century Bohemia was a part of Austrian Empire. After World War I in 1918 Czechoslovakia declared its independence. The new republic had three parts: Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. The popular Tomas Garigue Masaryk became the first president. In October 1938 the Nazis occupied the Sudetenland, with the acquiescence of Britain and France, after the infamous Munich Agreement. In March 1939 Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia. Slovakia proclaimed independence as a Nazi puppet state. After World War II in 1945 Czechoslovakia was reestablished as an independent state. In the 1946 elections, the Communists became the largest party with 36% of the popular vote and formed coalition government. In 1948 the Communist staged coup d'etat and Czechoslovakia became a communist country. In the 1960s Czechoslovakia enjoyed a gradual liberalization under the reformist general secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Alexander Dubcek. But this short period was crushed by a Soviet invasion in August 1968. In 1969 the reformist Dubcek was replaced by the orthodox Gustav Husak and Czechoslovakia stayed a communist country under the Soviet influence. The communist government resignated in November 1989 after a week of demonstrations known as the Velvet Revolution. The popular Vaclav Havel was elected president of the republic. At the end of 1992 Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic (Bohemia and Moravia) and Slovak Republic (Slovakia). This peaceful splitting is called the Velvet Divorce. Twelve years later, on May 1, 2004 Czech Republic became a part of the European Union.

http://www.czechsite.com/history.html
***

Bohemia (Čechy in Czech, Böhmen in German) is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western and middle thirds of the Czech Republic. With an area of 52,750 sq. km. and 6.25 million of the country's 10.3 million inhabitants, Bohemia is bounded by Germany to the north-west, west and south-west, Poland to the north-east, the Czech province of Moravia to the east and Austria to the south. Bohemia's borders are marked with mountain ranges such as the Šumava, the Ore Mountains or Krkonoše (Riesengebirge) as part of the Sudeten mountains.

Note: In the Czech language, there is no distinction between the adjectives Bohemian and Czech (český).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemia
***

Bohemia is also a place in the State of New York in the United States of America: see Bohemia, New York.

The Gintys

The Gintys

Notes: Andy's blog contains up-to-date software info for educational use.

言之無物

"若能入游其樊而無感其名，入則鳴，不入則止。"

一位看來很有心思(深度)的 Blogger.
所選文章很值得一看。

BLOG新闻朝花夕拾

Discover the Beauty of Bloggers (Chinese)

「BLOG新闻朝花夕拾」的欄目，摘錄關於blog的新聞

Web: Google's counts faked?

Google's counts faked?

also refer to this article by Andy Beal, the Vice President of Search Marketing for WebSourced, Inc and http://www.KeywordRanking.com, the global leader in professional search engine marketing.

Andy has had articles published around the world and is a repeat speaker at Jupiter Media's Search Engine Strategies conferences. Clients include NBC, Lowes Home Improvement, Alaska Airlines and Experian.

More articles can be found at: http://www.webpronews.com/authors/andybeal.html.

從不知道洋蔥那麼偉大

從不知道洋蔥那麼偉大 (E Chang)

The King is dead, long live the King

Elvis PresleyThe King may have been dead for more than 27 years, but the power of his music is undiminished. Sony BMG, which owns the rights to Elvis Presley's recorded catalogue, has pumped new life into a once-bloated frame in a textbook study in brand resuscitation.

To mark what would have been Presley's 70th birthday on January 8, the record company launched a series of reissued British number one singles, with original artwork, available in limited edition CD and 10in vinyl formats.

The results have been impressive. The day after Elvis's birthday,"Jailhouse Rock" returned to number one. Last Sunday his 1959 chart-topper "One Night" replaced it at the top, winning a further publicity bonus as the 1,000th bestseller in British chart history.

FT.com: Paul Sexton
January 17, 2005

Pope gets Ferrari of his own

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul has received a Ferrari from the Italian racing team -- a model of one, that is -- for having what they said was the inside track on the roads of humanity.

Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and the rest of the Ferrari team met the Pope in the Vatican's frescoed Clementina Hall on Monday to give him the 1:5 scale model of the car that won Ferrari both the championship and constructor title in 2004.

Ferrari President Luca Cordero di Montezemolo told the Pope the drivers, mechanics and management wanted to honour him. He said his courage and defence of human rights had put him "for the past 26 years in the pole position of the roads of humanity".

(Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:16 PM GMT)

Model gets millions for coffee mug shot

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California jury has ordered Nestle USA to pay nearly $16 million (8.5 million pounds) to a model whose face appeared on Taster's Choice coffee labels in 18 countries for six years without his knowledge, his lawyer says.

Model-actor Russell Christoff, 58, had no idea of his fame among the instant java set until 2002, when a woman at a store remarked on his resemblance to the smiling man on the Taster's Choice jar, Christoff's attorney, Colin Claxon, said.

Christoff had received about $200 for posing for test shots for Nestle Canada for a different product, but was not contacted about the coffee labels, which were redesigned to use his photo in 1997, Claxon said.

Nestle spokeswoman Yasmeen Muqtasid said the company "believed we had permission to use the photograph." She would not comment on whether the company would appeal the verdict.

Last week, a Glendale, California, jury ordered Nestle USA, a division of Switzerland-based Nestle SA, to pay Christoff a $330,000 fee plus $15.6 million, or 5 percent, of Taster's Choice profits for the time he appeared on the label.

Earlier in the litigation, Christoff offered to settle the case for $8.5 million but Nestle refused, Claxon said.

---

Commercials are a substantial source of income for actors and performers, who therefore guard the use of their images aggressively.

In 2002, country singer Wiley Gustafson sued Yahoo! Inc. for $5 million after the online search engine paid him to appear in one commercial but kept using his trademark yodel in others.

Gustafson and Yahoo settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, and Yahoo continued using the yodel.

After the settlement, Gustafson said he hoped his lawsuit would raise awareness among artists and corporations of the value of copyrights and artists' creations.

(Wed Feb 2, 2005 08:59 AM ET )

£15,000 offer to bright students (BBC News)

The University of Manchester is offering £1,000 per year for students with three A-level A grades.

And for such talented students from low-income families, there is a bursary of £5,000 per year.

There is also additional support available to students from low-income and local families - to help cover the increasing cost of higher education.

And for 10 extremely able students, the university is offering bursaries worth £10,000 per year.

University of Manchester: £5,000 per year for low-income, three A-level A-grade students

£1,000 per year for all students with three A-grades

£1,000 per year for students from low-income families

£2,000 for students from local access scheme

£10,000 per year for 10 "outstanding" students

Top 10: Walks in Paris (FT.com)

1. Jardin des Tuileries
2. The Left Bank
3. Montmartre
4. The Marais
5. Jardin des Plantes
6. Jardin du Luxembourg
7. The Passages
8. Ile St-Louis
9. Bois de Boulogne
10. Boulevard St-Germain



1. Jardin des Tuileries
A stroll through the beautiful Tuileries Gardens is one of the must-dos of Paris. Before the Revolution this was a prime spot for the aristocracy to show off their latest fashions, and it remains a great place for people-watching.


2. The Left Bank
A very Parisian walk, particularly on a Sunday, is along the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) of the Seine. The riverside quays of the Latin Quarter have been lined with second-hand bookstalls (bouquinistes) for centuries. The books are mostly in French, but you'll also find stalls selling prints and postcards.


3. Montmartre
The steep streets of the Butte are a good place to get some exercise after indulging in the irresistible French cuisine. Although this famous artists' quarter is more touristy than Bohemian these days, its old charms can still be found in the winding back streets and small squares.


4. The Marais
With inspiring art galleries, delectable delis, and shop after shop filled with contemporary fashions and objets d'art, a walk in the Marais is great fun, even if you only window-shop. The beautiful mansions are a great backdrop for your stroll and there are plenty of cafés and bars for sustenance.


5. Jardin des Plantes
In this historic botanical garden you can escape the bustle of the city and lose yourself on the shady tree-lined avenues, amid colourful flowerbeds, or the hothouses and exotic gardens. Or simply relax on the lawns.


6. Jardin du Luxembourg
Napoleon designated this the "garden of children", and whether or not you have little ones in tow you'll enjoy a walk through this favourite haunt of the Latin Quarter. After you've seen the octagonal pond and the Medicis Fountain, seek out the miniature Statue of Liberty and the statues of French queens.


7. The Passages
These covered arcades were built at the end of the 18th century to shelter elegant shoppers from grimy streets and bad weather. Now lined with speciality and antiques shops, they are wonderfully atmospheric places to explore. Most are in the 2nd arrondissement, and connecting passages Verdeau, Jouffroy and Panoramas together form the longest in Paris.


8. Ile St-Louis
Although you could walk end to end in about 10 minutes, the Seine's smaller island demands a more leisurely stroll. You'll discover superb little art galleries, trendy boutiques, and a village-like atmosphere within this up-market enclave.


9. Bois de Boulogne
Come here at the weekend if you want to join the locals in the "great escape", and you'll have 865 ha (2,135 acres) from which to choose your path. The Bagatelle Gardens are a fine place for a walk in spring and summer, when a stunning array of roses and other flowers are in bloom.


10. Boulevard St-Germain
There's no better way to enjoy the Latin Quarter than to do as the Parisians do – stroll the Boulevard St-Germain, preferably late on a Sunday morning. After your walk, honour the birthplace of café society with a coffee at either Les Deux Magots or Café Flore, two of the city's most famous literary and intellectual haunts.

Zen: about cooking

Zen philosophy: the process of cooking is as important as the result. The food should be eaten not only with gratitude to those who prepared the dish and to the farmers who produced the vegetables but, above all, with respect for nature.

In the late 12th century, six centuries after Buddhism first came to Japan, the austere Zen sect arrived from China, bringing with it the strict vegan cooking of shojin ryori. Shojin refers to the Buddhist training to attain purity of body and spirit, and is written as "advancement of the spirit". Zen became popular among the ruling samurai class, perhaps because of its austerity and frugality. However, pragmatic samurai never adopted shojin ryori and continued to eat fish and game such as venison, pheasant and wild boar. Shojin ryori remained within the confines of Zen temples.

Put two tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds and a teaspoon of sugar with a pinch of salt in a mortar and grind for 2-3 minutes with a pestle, or until it becomes a coarse paste - don't forget to meditate as you do it! Add a tablespoon of soy sauce and grind it a little more. Drizzle the mixture over any steamed or lightly boiled vegetables. You will have an instant taste of Zen. (Kimiko Barber)

Lyrics: 月光愛人 – A Love Before Time

卧虎藏龍主题曲 - 月光愛人
作詞：易家揚　
作曲：譚盾/Jorge Calandrelli
演唱：李玟

我醒來  睡在月光裡
下弦月  讓我想你
不想醒過來  誰明白
怕眼睜開  你不在

愛人心  沉入海  帶我去  把它找回來
請愛我  一萬年  用心愛
〔愛是月光的禮物  我等待天使的情書〕
〔說你  愛我〕
我愿為了愛沉睡  別醒來

永恆哪兒  在不在
怪我的心  放不開
北極星  帶我走  別躲藏  把愛找出來
我愛你  每一夜

我等待  我的心  為了愛  睡在月之海
孤單的我  想念誰  誰明白
〔我在月光下流淚  我也在月光下沉睡〕
〔沒有  後悔〕

等待真心人把我吻醒
〔我在睡夢中一天  也是在回憶中一年〕
〔說你  愛我〕

我愿為了愛沉睡  到永遠


********************

A Love Before Time – Coco Lee
Composer: Tan Dun & Jorge Calandrelli  
Lyricist: James Schamus

If the sky opened up for me,
And the mountain disappeared,
If the seas ran dry, turned to dust
And the sun refused to rise
I would still find my way,
By the light I see in your eyes
The world I know fades away
But you stay

(As the earth reclaims it due, And the cycle starts anew, We'll stay, always)
In the love that we have shared before time

If the years take away
Every memory that I have
I would still know the way
That would lead me back to your side
The north star may die
But the light that I see in your eyes
Will burn there always
Lit by the love we have shared before time

(When the forest turns to jade, And the stories that we've made, Dissolve away)
One shining light will still remain

(When we shed our earthly skin, And when our real life begins, There'll be no shame)
Just the love that we have made before time

Lyrics: Because I Love You

BECAUSE I LOVE YOU
Shakin' Stevens

If I got down on my knees and I pleaded with you,
if I crossed a million oceans just to be with you,
Would you ever let me down?

If I climbed the highest mountain just to hold you tight,
if I said that I would love you every single night,
Would you ever let me down?

Well, I'm sorry if it sounds kinda sad, it's just that
I'm worried, so worried that you'll let me down.
Because I love you, love you, love you, so don't let me down.

If I swam the longest river just to call your name,
if I said the way I feel for you would never change,
Would you ever fool around?

Well, I'm sorry if it sounds kinds bad, it's just that
I'm worried, I'm so worried that you'll let me down.
Because I love you, love you.

Lyrics: In Too Deep

All that time I was searching, nowhere to run to, it started me thinking,
Wondering what I could make of my life, and who'd be waiting,
Asking all kinds of questions, to myself, but never finding the answers,
Crying at the top of my voice, and no one listening,
All this time, I still remember everything you said
There's so much you promised, how could I ever forget.

Listen, you know I love you, but I just can't take this,
You know I love you, but I'm playing for keeps,
Although I need you, I'm not gonna make this,
You know I want to, but I'm in too deep.

So listen, listen to me,
Ooh you must believe me,
I can feel your eyes go thru me,
But I don't know why.

Ooh I know you're going, but I can't believe
It's the way that you're leaving,
It's like we never knew each other at all, it may be my fault,
I gave you too many reasons, being alone, when I didn't want to
I thought you'd always be there, I almost believed you,
All this time, I still remember everything you said, oh
There's so much you promised, how could I ever forget.

Listen, you know I love you, but I just can't take this,
You know I love you, but I'm playing for keeps,
Although I need you, I'm not gonna make this,
You know I want to, but I'm in too deep.

So listen, listen to me,
I can feel your eyes go thru me

It seems I've spent too long
Only thinking about myself - oh
Now I want to spend my life
Just caring bout somebody else.

Listen, you know I love you, but I just can't take this,
You know I love you, but I'm playing for keeps,
Although I need you, I'm not gonna make this,
You know I want to, but I'm in too deep.

You know I love you, but I just can't take this,
You know I love you, but I'm playing for keeps,
Although I need you, I'm not gonna make this,
You know I want to, but I'm in too deep...

Lyrics: If You're Not The One

If you’re not the one then why does my soul feel glad today?
If you’re not the one then why does my hand fit yours this way?
If you are not mine then why does your heart return my call
If you are not mine would I have the strength to stand at all

I never know what the future brings
But I know you are here with me now
We’ll make it through
And I hope you are the one I share my life with

I don’t want to run away but I can’t take it, I don’t understand
If I’m not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am?
Is there any way that I can stay in your arms?

If I don’t need you then why am I crying on my bed?
If I don’t need you then why does your name resound in my head?
If you’re not for me then why does this distance maim my life?
If you’re not for me then why do I dream of you as my wife?

I don’t know why you’re so far away
But I know that this much is true
We’ll make it through
And I hope you are the one I share my life with
And I wish that you could be the one I die with
And I pray in you’re the one I build my home with
I hope I love you all my life

I don’t want to run away but I can’t take it, I don’t understand
If I’m not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am
Is there any way that I can stay in your arms?

‘Cause I miss you, body and soul so strong that it takes my breath away
And I breathe you into my heart and pray for the strength to stand today
‘Cause I love you, whether it’s wrong or right
And though I can’t be with you tonight
And know my heart is by your side

I don’t want to run away but I can’t take it, I don’t understand
If I’m not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am
Is there any way that I could stay in your arms?

~ Daniel Bedingfield