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.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
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.
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
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
Monday, April 25, 2005
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
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
Thursday, April 21, 2005
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
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.
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)
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)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)