Marketing

1. Means holding for sale or displaying for sale, offering for sale, selling, delivering or placing on the market in any other form.

2.Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

3. In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning of the practice and science of trading.
Marketing practice tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.



4. Marketing is a societal process which discerns consumers' wants, focusing on a product or service to fulfil those wants, attempting to move the consumers toward the products or services offered.

5. Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably.

6. Marketing is essentially about marshalling the resources of an organization so that they meet the changing needs of the customer on whom the organization depends.


7. The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price.

Market Orientation

Market Orientation – Essential foundation for a strong marketing strategy


Apple Computers, Starbucks Coffee, Virgin Group, L’Oreal, Nike, Singapore Airlines, Banyan Tree and Samsung are among some of the most successful brands in the world. Much has been written about the power of their brands that has allowed them to dominate their respective industries not only in the domestic markets but also globally. Most if not all accounts of success of such brands have emphasized on the branding process, the systems of brand management and the role of the brand equity in enhancing the company’s overall profile. The dynamics and the cultural aspect that are the powerful underlying forces behind these brands are rarely talked about.
In today’s hyper competitive global markets, success depends more on the overall vision and philosophy of the companies that drives their activities rather than on their product level or business unit level strategies. The role of brand equity in a company’s market capitalization and shareholder value maximization is well documented. But to achieve such strong brand equity, companies need to develop a culture and an orientation that not only supports market oriented thinking but also nurtures the integration of cross functional integration of thought and activities. This article takes a detailed look into the components of such an orientation and what makes a company’s internal structure conducive to building strong brands.
Market orientation
Market orientation is usually defined as the organization wide generation, dissemination, and responsiveness to market intelligence. This definition at once changes the dominant paradigm that has defined marketing for decades. Marketing has traditionally been defined within the narrow confines of the 4P framework. Such a conceptualization of marketing has relegated marketing to a tactical discipline to be performed by middle level marketing managers who did not possess the overall holistic view of the organization. But the connected knowledge economy, globalizing, converging and consolidating industries, fragmenting and frictionless markets, empowered customers and adaptive organizations among others are forcing organizations to alter their view of marketing.
The concept of market orientation is built on three pillars of customer focus, coordinated marketing and profitability. An organization’s capabilities to develop an orientation towards each of these three pillars depend on the internal structure and culture. The next section further elaborates these three constructs and how they allow companies to create a strong internal culture that can support building brands.
Pillars of market orientation
Customer focus: Organizations have traditionally emphasized either profitability or market share (growth) as their guiding orientations. As the fundamental responsibility of any organization is to maximize shareholder value, such an orientation did not seem wrong. Further, with the advent of branded goods, globalization and increasing competition, companies placed a very high emphasis on products. But all these extant orientations have been challenged with the explosion of the Internet and resulting empowerment of customers. Internet to a great extent reversed the information asymmetry and allowed access to hitherto unavailable information about product features, price and peer recommendation. These factors are forcing companies to shift their fundamental orientation from that of profitability, growth and products to customers.
Customer centricity is at the center of creating any future corporate strategies. Customer centricity primarily proposes that the basic philosophy of companies should be to serve customers rather than sell products and in the course establish long-term relationships by treating customer as strategic assets.
Coordinated Marketing: For a company to have a market orientation, marketing has to break the narrow confines of the tactical 4P framework. Marketing should be transformed into a company-wide discipline practiced by anyone and everyone. Simply, marketing has to become a coordinated, cross-disciplinary function. This is easier said that done.
For any discipline to claim a much broader responsibility and scope beyond its functional domain, the ability to quantitatively measure the outcomes of its activities becomes paramount. This is where marketing has been suffering for a long time. Measuring marketing productivity has indeed become a major challenge for marketers. But further, marketers have refused to acknowledge that customers are not the sole responsibility of the marketing department but of the company as a whole. These factors have together stalled marketing from becoming a coordinated activity that involves other functions such as finance, operations, human resources and strategy within any company.
Profitability: In today’s global capital economy, the future potential of the company and its potential attractiveness is often controlled by the capital markets. Companies and managers are constantly under immense pressure to demonstrate the financial strength every quarter. The effect of quarterly results on the company’s stock price, the signals that such results have come to convey to a wide array of stakeholders and the extent to which financial analysts have managed to unleash havoc and terror for companies have collectively forced companies to adopt a very short-term perspective on profitability.
Further, the focus on short term profitability invariably comes at a very high cost. Most companies tend to ignore the impact of their actions on the long term strategic capabilities. Moreover, under the traditional marketing paradigms, short-term focus was inevitable as the emphasis was on products rather than on customers. But within the framework of market orientation, profitability encompasses both financial measures (such as ROI, EVA, and market share) and non financial measures (such as awareness, attitudes and behavioral patterns). Such a comprehensive measurement would allow companies to balance between short term and long term profitability with a cautious eye on long term financial health of the company.
These three pillars of market orientation have proven to allow companies to create a very strong philosophy and in turn contribute to companies’ long term strategic competence. But having followed the traditional marketing model for decades, it is indeed a tough call for companies to become market oriented. The following section of the article offers guidelines on how companies can establish a structure that allows management and employees to inculcate new way of thinking about marketing and ultimately channeling the aggregate mentality towards a market orientation.
Guidelines to adopt a market orientation
Leverage customer database systems: One of the greatest advantages that companies have today is the power of customer databases. The explosion of internet and the possibility of recording very specific details about customers, their online movement and their purchase behavior have only added power to these databases. The first step for companies in moving towards market orientation is to optimally leverage these databases.
The potential marketing intelligence that these databases offer would allow companies to understand the customers’ current and potential needs clearly. Such an understanding would lead to marketing functions to be in line with customers’ needs rather than compulsions centered around products. As such, pricing will be in line with customer’s willingness to pay rather than to cover costs, advertising and communications will inform, appeal and endear to customers, customer’s convenience will dictate distribution rather than logistical ease and product features would essentially reflect customers’ unmet needs rather than show off the latest technological supremacy. Such a shift from product centricity to customer centricity will be an important first step.
Create a marketing dashboard: To achieve complete market orientation, companies should create a systematic structure that would enable different functions to collectively discuss about customers and markets.
Traditionally, marketing department handles customers and their needs, finance looks after the money, operations is singly focused on production and strategy generally looks at the market outside to decide on the company’s future. A market orientation mandates that all these functions operate jointly. Marketing dashboards create a platform whereby representatives from each of these departments can come together and discuss the various functional issues so that the collective action will result in activities that enhances the company’s relationships with customers. Further, for marketing to become an organization wide discipline, it must not only understand the different functions within a company but also should be able to relate marketing activities to other functional activities. Marketing dashboards provides marketers a structured platform to ensure marketing become coordinated and company wide.
Constantly update metrics: Metrics used to measure the outcomes of marketing activities cannot be generalized across companies. Rather, they have to be modified and adopted depending on the company, the product class, the industry, the important criteria being measured and the ability of the company to track marketing investments. A first step in recognizing and developing useful metrics would be a collaborative discussion with other functional departments within the company. Further, the corporate mission and underlying philosophy would offer some insights into what metric are regularly tracked such as quarterly market share, relative share within the category, brand awareness, conversion ration through the purchase funnel, shifts in attitudes in response to advertising campaigns, shift in purchase patterns in response to discounts/promotions and so on.
But caution should be taken to ensure that these metrics capture both financial and non-financial measures. Marketing should also strive for developing metrics that go beyond the discipline and are able to capture the outcomes of all activities that bear on the relationship with customers. Such a move would take marketing a step closer to becoming an organization wide discipline.

SOME DIFFERENT APPROACHES FOR MARKETING ORIENTATION

The Marketing Orientation and the Marketing Concept
An organization with a market orientation focuses its efforts on 1)
continuously collecting information about customers' needs and
competitors' capabilities, 2) sharing this information across
departments, and 3) using the information to create customer value.
The market orientation simply defines an organization that understands the
importance of customer needs, makes an effort to provide products of
high value to its customers, and markets its products and services in a
coordinated holistic program across all departments. In what we call
the "Marketing Concept," the company embraces a philosophy that the
"Customer is King."

The Marketing Concept is an attitude. It's a philosophy that is driven down throughout the
organization from the very top of the management structure. The
Marketing Concept communicates that "the customer is king." Everything
that the company does focuses on the customer. Via the Marketing
Concept, a company makes every effort to best understand the wants and
needs of its target market and to create want-satisfying goods that
best fulfill the needs of that target market and to do this better than
the competition.

It wasn't always that way. There were other orientations that companies embraced over the years.
The Production Concept has been around for years. That concept simply suggests that customers
prefer inexpensive products that are readily available. In effect, "if
we make it, they will come."

The Product Concept suggests that companies that build the "better mousetrap" will gain
favor. The thinking here is that customers want products that have
higher quality, that offer better perfromance or do something unique.

The Selling Concept preceeded the Marketing Concept. From the 1920's until the 1950's,
most firms had a sales orientation. Competition had grown, and there
was a need to pursue the scarce customer. Sales could mean everything
from sales people to advertising to public relations, but little effort
was made to coordinate any overall marketing function. What we often
saw in the Selling Concept was the "hard sell" and the belief that
consumers wouldn't purchase unless they were sold.

The Holistic Marketing Concept that is embraced in the 21st century results in companies looking at
their overall marketing efforts. This includes how their marketing
affects society, as a whole. Marketing is also done internally
within the company. Without customers, a company will quickly flounder
-- thus the importance of the relationship. Holistic marketing looks
at the connectivity of the company, its people, its customers, and the
society in which it operates. The Societal Marketing Concept focuses
on.


.

A market orientated company is one that organizes its activities, products and services around the needs and requirements of its customers. In contrast, a product orientated company produces exciting and interesting products and seeks to demand-supply-for-goods-services--359.php] interest the market in these products. It is possible to be successful with either type of orientation, but it is harder to be successful with product orientation alone. It is all very well coming up with exciting and innovative products but you have to find a customer for them. Hence the importance of marketing orientation - because here you make sure that you have interested and enthusiastic customers first.


In the real world, market and product orientation are closely intertwined so that companies like Gillette, Coca-Cola and Travis Perkins, will:
• carry out market research into what consumers want
• organize product research in line with the results of market research
• constantly engage in qualitative market research to find out what focus groups of customers think of new ideas
• test market new products in smaller market areas before launching them onto a wider market
• evaluate ongoing customer perception of goods and services, in order to make improvements to technologies and product offerings.


Gillette is constantly developing its existing product range of razors. It uses panels of its own employees to test new products and to provide feedback so as to come up with good ideas for ongoing product development.

Product and market orientation should be seen as the twin blade of the scissors, rather than as completely separate approaches.
A marketing oriented firm (also called the marketing concept, or consumer focus) is one that allows the wants and needs of customers and potential customers to drive all the firm's strategic decisions. The firm's corporate culture is systematically committed to creating customer value. In order to determine customer wants, the company usually needs to conduct marketing research. The marketer expects that this process, if done correctly, will provide the company with a sustainable competitive advantage.
This consumer focus can been seen as a process that involves three steps. First customer want are researched, then the information is disseminated throughout the firm and products are developed, then finally customer satisfaction is monitored and adjustments made if necessary.
A marketing oriented firm will typically show the following characteristics:
• Extensive use of marketing research
• Broad product lines
• Emphasis on a product's benefits to customers rather than on product attributes
• Use of product innovation techniques
• The offering of ancillary services like credit availability, delivery, installation, and warranty
Organizations can be oriented toward marketing from a production, product, sales, or marketing perspective. Strategies, structures, and cultures, which reflect a company's basic orientation, must be integrated to ensure that marketing efforts communicate a clear corporate position. In a study of 31 hospitals, the Center for Health Services Education Research, St. Louis University, found that no hospital's organization fit neatly into a single category. For example, a hospital may have some service lines that were marketing oriented while other lines were production oriented. The majority of hospitals, however, were product oriented, focusing on productivity and financial performance rather than on market factors. The most effective sales orientation was observed in the for-profits. Their selling efforts, however, tended to be internally focused, with product development activities divorced from the planning and marketing functions. Only the for-profit hospitals showed the beginning of a marketing orientation. Developing a marketing orientation, especially in line divisions, requires a careful, well-orchestrated effort and the presence of several key factors: Access to capital and an emphasis on long-range planning and strategic spending The availability of hospital-specific market research. Key distribution channels. Talented middle managers. Up-to-date systems and structures equipped to serve new values and strategies. Leaders capable of communicating to the organization a vision of its role in the community.


Characteristics of high marketing orientation hospitals.
EARCH OBJECTIVES: Marketing has become a core management function in hospitals and hospital systems during the past decade. The rise of managed care has contributed to the expansion of marketing activities, and many marketing functions include managed care related activities. This paper assesses the marketing orientations of hospitals located in one state, and identifies the characteristics of those facilities associated with a high marketing orientation. Specific relationships between managed care activities and high marketing orientation are also examined. STUDY DESIGN: A survey of hospitals in a mid-Atlantic state was completed in which hospitals responded to items reflecting the five dimensions of marketing orientation as developed by Kotler and Clarke (1987) and as elaborated by Naidu and Naryana (1991). In addition, specific information on managed care activities as carried out by the hospital's marketing function was obtained. Organizational and utilization data collected by the state cost review agency was merged with hospital respondent data to form a completed data set. Following Naidu and Naryana's previous research (1991), respondent data was categorized into groups having either high or low marketing orientation, based on summative scores for the dimensions of marketing orientation. Those facilities having high marketing orientations are profiled in terms of their operating characteristics, and their managed care orientation. The total number of facilities in this study is 73. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: There are significant differences between facilities having high and low marketing orientations. High orientation facilities tended to be larger in beds, spent more on marketing and public relations activities, and had a higher managed care orientations. The availability of a formal marketing department did not differentiate between high and low marketing orientation facilities. Similarly, ownership status was not significantly related to high marketing orientation. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitals vary in their marketing orientations, and hospitals having a high marketing orientation tend to be able to devote greater resources to the marketing effort. In addition, hospitals having a greater managed care orientation also have a high marketing orientation. However, in contract to findings of previous research, study findings indicate that the presence of a formal marketing department is not significantly related to the existance of a high marketing orientation. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY, DELIVERY OR PRACTICE: Administrators need to understand their marketing orientation, and those factors associated with a high marketing orientation. Hospitals can achieve a high marketing orientation regardless of the centralization of marketing tasks in a single department. Administrators should concentrate on enhancing their managed care orientations as this will contribute to a high marketing orientation.
Marketing orientation in the European Union mobile telecommunication market

Purpose - The main objectives of the paper are: to analyse marketing orientation application specifics in mobile telecommunication enterprises; and to develop and test an instrument for measuring the level of marketing orientation in the enterprises of the mobile telecommunication industry. Design/methodology/approach - The marketing orientation instrument was derived from systematic comparative analysis of the relevant marketing literature, supplemented by additional criteria relating to innovation and organizational learning. The empirical research method was expert assessment, conducted by means of online questionnaires. Correlation analysis and comparison with data from secondary sources were employed to test the validity of the procedure. Findings - The empirical research findings confirmed positive relationships between marketing orientation, enterprise performance and learning orientation in the target industry, but not between marketing orientation and innovativeness. Research limitations/implications - The paper reports a field study of marketing orientation in the mobile telecommunications industry in the 15 countries of the pre-2004 European Union. After acceptance of the new members into the EU there is a need to investigate the marketing orientation of the mobile communication operators in the newly accepted EU countries. Practical implications - The proposed marketing orientation instrument can be used to solve the issues of marketing orientation development. An enterprise is expected to achieve better performance results by improving operations related to each criterion of the measuring instrument, under conditions of constant monitoring and learning. Originality/value - The proposed marketing orientation development instrument is supplemented with additional innovation and organizational learning criteria. The first empirical marketing orientation research was performed for mobile telecommunication enterprises in the EU and confirmed positive relations between the marketing orientation level and the performance results of the EU mobile telecommunication operators. This research presents the empirical evidence that marketing orientation positively correlates with the constant organization learning.


Conclusion
Brand equity is undoubtedly the most important of corporate assets. To create strong brands, as important as a structured brand management process is a strong guiding philosophy that is customer and market oriented. Such an orientation spawns a self-enriching culture that not only drives the company in the right direction but also facilitates the creation of a strong corporate strategy. As such, companies would benefit tremendously by shifting from a complete product or growth orientation to a market orientation. Such market orientation after all is the basis for building strong brands

According to Philip kotler

According to Philip kotler, marketing is a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others.
In boarder term, marketing is the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of carefully formulated programs designed to bring about voluntary exchanges of values with target markets for the purpose of achieving organizational objectives. It relies heavily on designing the organization’s offering in terms of the target markets’ needs and desires, and on using effective pricing, communication, and distribution to inform, motivate, and service the markets. (Philip Kotler)
The main key points of marketing are as follows:
Managerial Process involving analysis, planning and control.
Carefully formulated programs and not just random actions.
Voluntary exchange of values; no use of force or coercion. Offer benefits .
Selection of Target Markets rather than a quixotic attempt to win every market and be all things to all men.
Purpose of marketing is to achieve Organizational Objectives. For commercial sector it is profit. For non-commercial sector, the objective is different and must be specified clearly.
Marketing relies on designing the organization’s offering in terms of the target market’s needs and desires rather than in terms of seller’s personal tastes or internal dynamics. User-oriented and not seller-oriented.
Marketing utilizes and blends a set of tools called the marketing mix – product design, pricing, distribution and communication. Too often marketing is equated either with just advertising or with just personal selling.
In marketing, it is always assume that it needs some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available. (Peter Drucker). Examples: Sony’s Walkman, Nintendo’s superior video game
Marketing includes selling but should be preceded by needs assessment, marketing research, product development, pricing and distribution. Selling focuses on products, aggressive selling and sales promotion with emphasis on price variations to close the sale. Maximize profits through sales volume. Marketing focus on customer needs. Integrated marketing plan encompassing product, price, promotion and distribution, backed up by adequate environmental scanning, consumer research, and opportunity analysis with emphasis on service. Maximize profits through increased customer satisfaction and hence raise market share. The marketing concept is a consumers’ needs orientation backed by integrated marketing aimed at generating consumer satisfaction as the key to satisfying organizational goals. A human need is a state of felt deprivation of some basic satisfaction. (Food, clothing, shelter, safety, belonging, esteem etc.) Abraham Maslow noticed that some needs take precedence over others. They are physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belonging needs and esteem needs. Human wants are desires for specific satisfiers of these deeper needs. Demands are wants for specific products that are backed by an ability and willingness to buy them. Value and satisfaction can be as follows:

COMPCOMPARISON OF DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS OF MARKETING

The shortest definition of Marketing is meeting needs profitably.

According to Phillip Kotler Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

Some other definitions are discussed here for comparison purpose.

In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning of the practice and science of trading.

“Marketing is an activity. Marketing activities and strategies result in making products available that satisfy customers while making profits for the companies that offer those products.”

The following definitions are quite similar to this one:

“It refers to the management process which identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably.”

Marketing practice tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling. It is also concerned with anticipating the customers' future needs and wants, which are often discovered through market research.

The societal definition of marketing is:

“Marketing is a societal process which discerns consumers' wants, focusing on a product or service to fulfill those wants, attempting to move the consumers toward the products or services offered.”

“Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer requirements profitably.”

The essence of Marketing is “The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price.”


"Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and getting value in return. Marketing is usually focused on one product or service. Thus, a marketing plan for one product might be very different than that for another product. Marketing activities include "inbound marketing," such as market research to find out, for example, what groups of potential customers exist, what their needs are, which of those needs you can meet, how you should meet them, etc. Inbound marketing also includes analyzing the competition, positioning your new product or service (finding your market niche), and pricing your products and services. "Outbound marketing" includes promoting a product through continued advertising, promotions, public relations and sales.”
“Marketing is an investment that, if done wisely, not only pays for itself but allows a business to grow. When proper marketing gets the message to the right audience, delivered in the right context, at the right price, you can't go wrong. Hiring an experienced marketing consultant can help the new business owner to develop effective strategies. Various books are also available on marketing strategies and can shed more light on the options available.”

Near North Apartments, Chicago, 2008

Near North Apartments, a year-old, 96-unit, single-room occupancy in Chicago, was designed by Murphy/Jahn and developed by the nonprofit organization Mercy Housing Lakefront as a model of sustainability. While most of the building’s green technologies, such as a graywater recycling system that flushes toilets and a rainwater cistern for landscape irrigation, are hidden behind the scenes, its most visible ecofriendly feature is also its most experimental: A horizontal-axis wind-turbine system created by Chicagoan Bil Becker forms a lacy crown atop architect Helmut Jahn’s streamlined design.
Becker is a professor of industrial design at the University of Illinois and the founder of Aerotecture. Although he first applied for a patent for the Near North installation’s technology in 2000, his research dates to the 1970s. Becker, an acolyte of Buckminster Fuller, won in 1979 one of the Carter administration’s last research grants devoted to alternative energy.
“Windmills only work out on the farm,” Becker says of his first foray into an urban turbine almost three decades ago. But although capturing urban wind offers the opportunity of producing clean energy within cities, the location of the turbines also entails special limitations. Specifically, if a turbine were to display “runaway” behavior, throw ice, or transfer high vibration or sound loads to interior occupants, its chances of gaining a building permit would be slim.





Four years into his research, Becker realized that traditional propellers were not commensurate with urban needs, and in the following three years, he experimented with helical blades: In wind-tunnel environments, cardboard models of this Savonius rotor did not require much wind speed to start turning. Moreover, “They wouldn’t overspin. They would get in their own way rather than fly faster and faster, because it has a limited amount of lift—about 10 percent lift to 90 percent drag, he says.”
Becker proceeded to combine the Savonius rotor with a Darrieus rotor, which looks like an oversize whisk and “can bring you to a high rate of speed and power.” Thanks to their differing starting torques and speeds, the hybrid rotor can generate power in a variety of wind environments. In fact, the Savonius and Darrieus rotors play off one another’s strengths. Comparing the Darrieus to “second gear,” Becker explains, “If I didn’t have the Savonius blades, the Darrieus might not start. It’s like the starter motor in your car. We wouldn’t be driving internal combustion engines if we didn’t have an electric ignition.”

First automotive OEM iPhone application

Audi got us all excited Thursday morning with a press release titled "Audi announces first automotive OEM iPhone application." We were thinking Audi cars would integrate with the iPhone in ways we never thought possible. Maybe you could display your iPhone screen on the car's LCD, viewing Web pages and e-mail. Maybe the iPhone would work with the navigation system, giving you Google address searches in place of the car's standard points-of-interest database. Audi already has good iPod integration and Bluetooth cell phone support, two things of which the iPhone can take advantage.

But then we actually read the release, and found that you can download an app for your iPhone that lets you drive the new Audi A4 through a course, trying to beat your own best times.
The two things that make it cool are that it uses the accelerometer in the iPhone to steer the car, so you move your iPhone like a steering wheel, and that it's free at the iPhone App Store. The thing that's not cool is it's just a marketing tool, with a link to a Web site designed for iPhone viewing that "allows users to experience and learn more about the entirely new Audi A4," according to the release.

As if Aston Martin DBS owners don't feel enough like James Bond while driving,

As if Aston Martin DBS owners don't feel enough like James Bond while driving, Aston Martin and luxury watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre have announced the AMVOX2 DBS transpond watch. The transponder watch will allow wannabe-007s to lock and unlock their DBS coupe by pressing the open and close positions respectively on the watch's glass.
The wristwatch features a prominent DBS logo, as well as bezel and dial details designed to reflect the gauges of the DBS. Aston Martin says the transponder module only adds a few grams to the weight of the watch and that the electronics inside have been shrunk to half the size of the same system in the DBS key.
For security and safety purposes, the transponder system can only be paired to the DBS at the dealership.
The AMVOX2 DBS transponder watch will be available in titanium or a very un-James-Bond pink gold this December and should add a whopping 27,500 euros (about $41,000) to the DBS's $262,000 suggested retail price.
As much as we like the idea of keyless entry hidden in a slick-looking watch, it'd be nice if the watch included more advanced smart-key tech, such as proximity detection or keyless start, or more 007-worth features, such as a laser cutter or remote detonator.

Chevy's compact car lineup what the Malibu is for the full-size line.

Chevrolet released official images and details about its upcoming Cruze sedan, ahead of the official reveal at October's Paris Motor Show. The Cruze, slotted to replace Chevy's outgoing Cobalt model, looks very much like a baby Malibu, albeit a very angry one that's been hanging out with the riffraff of GM's Australian Holden division.
GM also claims that the interior is inspired by the two cockpit design of the Corvette, but between the 'Vette's cheap plastic interior and Chevrolet's history of even cheaper compact cars, we don't know if that's a good thing.
What we do like is the Cruze's lack of unnecessary ornamentation that seems to be in vogue recently. Chevrolet didn't slap on tacky, non-functional fender vents like Ford did with the Focus, and we like that.
(Credit: Chevrolet)
To be launched first in the European market, the Cruze will be available with 1.6-liter (112 hp) and 1.8-liter (140 hp) gasoline engines featuring variable valve timing on both inlet and exhaust sides, giving more power as well as better fuel economy and lower emissions. Even better fuel economy will come from a 150 horsepower 2.0-liter turbo diesel.
We hope that diesel engine makes it across the Atlantic when the Cruze debuts in 2010 as a 2011 model, but even more so, we hope the Cruze can do for Chevy's compact car lineup what the Malibu is for the full-size line.

New Automobile CX-9 Car

After spending time with the top-of-the-line 2008 Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring, we found much that we liked; however, we also found almost every positive thing we had to say about the SUV came with a caveat.
Inside, the CX-9's leather seats and ambient lighting give the appearance of luxury, but the materials feel cheap compared to a true luxury vehicle. The spec sheet touts an impressive amount of cabin tech, but the components don't work well together, creating a confusing experience. Overall, we formed a positive impression of the CX-9, but the vehicle lacks the final bit of polish that would make it truly shine.

Exciting Future Of Automobiles

New technologies will improve fuel efficiency, increase safety, aid navigation and repair.Bend Bohn, of the German auto components company, Robert Bosch Corporation, recently predicted that internal combustion engines will continue to dominate the automotive market well into the 21st Century. Automotive manufacturers have invested considerable time and effort in attempt to improve fuel efficiency in these engines, and they have been successful. In fact the U.S.A. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), estimates engines have become 30 percent more fuel-efficient over the past 15 years than previously. However the gains have been offset by the introduction of increasingly bigger and more powerful engines. The average engine in the present industry is 63 percent more powerful than 20 years ago. John Heywood, Director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, estimates new technology will reduce fuel consumption by a third by 2020 and a half by 2030. Gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles and modern diesel engines are significantly more fuel efficient than their gasoline counterparts, but new technology in gasoline engines is also expected to reduce fuel consumption.Next year, General Motors will begin introducing “displacement on demand” technology in their engines, reducing fuel consumption by eight percent by using only half their cylinders during most normal driving. GM predicts another 7 to 11 percent in fuel savings can be achieved through use of continuously variable automatic transmissions. More advanced variable valve controls, already in the works at BMW, are expected to further increase fuel savings, while Bosch has recently developed it Direct-Start system. The system allows the engine to shut off while idling, but it instantly restarts as soon as the driver touches the gas pedal, igniting the combustion mixture in the fuel injections system without engaging the starter motor. Bosch predicts fuel savings of 5 percent with the Direct-Start system.

Nice Architect Tower

THE HL23 tower, planned for a site on 23rd Street in Chelsea, is the kind of commission Neil Denari has being waiting for his entire working life. Mr. Denari, a Los Angeles architect who once ran the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has labored on the profession’s periphery for decades. But because of a recent demand for name-brand residential architecture in New York, he is finally getting a chance to test his ideas in the real world.

And Mr. Denari is not alone here. His building is part of an eruption of luxury residential towers already constructed or being designed by the profession’s most celebrated luminaries. In the last five years more than a dozen have been completed; maybe a dozen more are scheduled to break ground this year. They range from soaring, elaborately decorated towers by international celebrities like Jean Nouvel and Frank Gehry to smaller but equally ambitious architectural statements by lesser-known talents like Mr. Denari.

With the financial markets in an ominous roil, the realization of this boomlet is far from guaranteed. But even if only a few more are completed, the final effect of these buildings could be the greatest transformation in the city’s physical identity since the 1960s. Bold and formally elaborate - some would say showy - they reflect a mix of attitudes and styles that the city has never seen.

They also reveal an unmistakable shift in the appetites and aspirations of an elite group of New Yorkers for whom an apartment’s architectural pedigree has become a new form of status symbol. Rather than disappear behind the shielding bulwark of Park Avenue apartment houses or into anonymous loft buildings as previous generations of wealthy New Yorkers did, these residents want to live in structures that telegraph their wealth and uniqueness.
Decades from now these preening, sometimes beautiful, sometimes obtrusive towers could well be the last testament to this century’s first gilded age.

The possibility of terrorist acquisition of nuclear weapons has added a new layer of risk.

Even as the nonproliferation system has become more sophisticated, the challenges it confronts have become more complex. Over the last decade, the NPT has endured successive crises involving Iraqi and North Korean nuclear weapons programs. Iran now appears to be on the verge of a nuclear weapons capability. Non-NPT member states India, Pakistan, and Israel have advanced their nuclear weapons programs with relative impunity. The possibility of terrorist acquisition of nuclear weapons has added a new layer of risk.

In the face of these problems, it has become fashionable for many U.S. policymakers to dismiss arms control and nonproliferation as ineffective. Instead, they emphasize the role of pre-emptive military action and the pursuit of new nuclear-weapon capabilities to dissuade and destroy adversaries seeking weapons of mass destruction. Such an approach would forfeit essential nonproliferation tools and provide a false sense of security.

Second, all cases of nuclear proliferation must be addressed. The United States and other global powers can no longer ignore the possession of nuclear weapons by their allies and friends. Although India and Pakistan are not a direct threat to the United States, they do threaten one another, and so long as Israel possesses nuclear weapons, others in the region will likely seek them too. China has aided Pakistan’s nuclear program, and in turn, Pakistan has aided North Korea and Iran.

Finally, the United States and other nuclear-weapon states must reduce the role of nuclear weapons. To comply with their own NPT disarmament commitments, they must actually dismantle—not test and improve—their deadly stockpiles. In the long run, the continued possession and threat of use of nuclear weapons by a few undermines the security of all. Without more effective U.S. leadership in each of these areas, the struggle against proliferation will fall short and leave a more dangerous world for generations to come.

Bluetongue virus

Bluetongue virus is back. It has survived another winter in northern Europe, and now farmers are vaccinating livestock in a race against the biting midges that carry the virus.
The first cases of the disease, which affects ruminants, began to surface this month, with France so far reporting 260. Most are located along the front line of last year's outbreaks, suggesting that the epidemic is spreading into new territory despite France's compulsory vaccination policy.
In England, voluntary vaccination has been rolled out across the country from the south-east, where bluetongue arrived last year. The vaccination "front" has now reached Yorkshire in northern England, alarmingly close to the country's main sheep areas. The disease kills sheep but only makes cattle ill.
Sheep just outside the vaccinated zone are at high risk, being close to potential infection, but are unlikely to be vaccinated till autumn. Much depends on whether enough farmers south of the line have vaccinated their livestock to slow the spread of the virus. The number of cases to date in France, though, suggests that it may be hard to stop.

NASA's THEMIS mission say they have the answer.

Some particularly colourful, dancing auroras, appearing every few hours, coincide with sudden tremors in the magnetic fields around Earth. Although these substorms have been observed for decades, no one was sure exactly how they were created.

A fleet of satellites has pinpointed the sequence of events that lead to magnetic "substorms" near Earth. These are frequent occurrences that cause auroras and may unleash radiation that can damage satellites.

Now, researchers with NASA's THEMIS mission say they have the answer. The substorms begin far out in space, roughly a third of the way to the Moon, where magnetic fields from the Earth are thrown together and reconnect to sling charged particles back toward the planet, they say.
"This is a question that people have been after since the beginning of the Space Age," says THEMIS principal investigator Vassilis Angelopoulos of the University of California, Los Angeles. "The reason it has not been shown up to now is that we didn't have the right satellites at the right positions and the right times."

WHAT IS A COMPUTER NETWORK?

Network are groups of computers,printers and other devices that are connected together with cables or with wireless connection in a LAN or modems and telecommunication lines in a WAN,information travels over the cables,allowing usars to exchange documents and data with each other,print to the same printers and generaly share any hardware or software that is comeded to the network.For example,three people in a depardment can write a report to gether or work with the same spreadsheets or databases,Networks allow people to exchange email and transfer files from are computer to another,each computer,printer or other device that to the network is called a node,networks can have tens,thousands or even millions of rodes.

The'heart' of the network is the server.Most networks include one or more computers that are designated as file servers.A file server is a computer whose hard disk is accessible to other computers on the network.Its job is to 'serve' data and program piles to these other machines via cables or other network comections.When there is a dedicated file server,the other computers are usually called either modes or works stations.

The countdown to 2010 has begun

The main challenge will therefore be organizational rather than conceptual or scientific.In view of the lives to be saved and the economic benefits of reining in the disease, the total cost of around $3 billion a year is one of the world’s great bargains.

In a dramatic call to action in April, United Nations secretary general Ban Ki moon backed by the African Union, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, ExxonMobil, the World Bank, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, among other key international organizations and businesses set a timetable for comprehensive malaria control in Africa by the end of 2010. Secretary General Ban has thrown down the gauntlet there is no reason why a million or more children should die every year of a largely preventable and wholly treatable disease.

Solutions for Climate Change

Forego Fossil Fuels



The first challenge is eliminating the burning of coal, oil and, eventually, natural gas. This is perhaps the most daunting challenge as denizens of richer nations literally eat, wear, work, play and even sleep on the products made from such fossilized sunshine. And citizens of developing nations want and arguably deserve the same comforts, which are largely thanks to the energy stored in such fuels.
Oil is the lubricant of the global economy, hidden inside such ubiquitous items as plastic and corn, and fundamental to the transportation of both consumers and goods. Coal is the substrate, supplying roughly half of the electricity used in the U.S. and nearly that much worldwide—a percentage that is likely to grow, according to the International Energy Agency. There are no perfect solutions for reducing dependence on fossil fuels (for example, carbon neutral biofuels can drive up the price of food and lead to forest destruction, and while nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases, it does produce radioactive waste), but every bit counts.
So try to employ alternatives when possible—plant-derived plastics, biodiesel, wind power—and to invest in the change, be it by divesting from oil stocks or investing in companies practicing carbon capture and storage.

FAA stop fuel tank explosions

The rule doesn't require that existing cargo planes be retrofitted because of the cost, Peters said.

ASHBURN, Virginia (AP) -- A device to prevent airplane fuel tanks from exploding must be installed on certain passenger jets and cargo planes, federal officials said Wednesday, 12 years after such an explosion destroyed TWA Flight 800, killing all 230 people aboard. The new safety requirement, announced by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, applies to new passenger and cargo planes that have center wing fuel tanks like TWA 800, a Boeing 747, which exploded over the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996, after takeoff from New York's Kennedy Airport. The rule also requires airlines to retrofit 2,730 existing Airbus and Boeing passenger planes over the next nine years with center wing fuel tanks with the changes. The retrofit schedule is based on the normal aircraft maintenance schedule. Manufacturers have two years in which to comply with the rule, although Boeing is already making some new planes with the changes. "We believe this will save lives," said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker, who joined Peters at a press conference at the safety board's training facility here, where TWA Flight 800 has been partially reconstructed from pieces of the aircraft retrieved from the ocean. "This is the big one for us as it relates to important solutions for fuel tank safety." The change brings to a close a long and troubled chapter in federal aviation safety. The National Transportation Safety Board identified the cause of the explosion -- the ignition of oxygen in a partially empty fuel tank that had been sitting for hours in the sun before takeoff -- not long after the accident. But the FBI initially thought the explosion was the result of a bomb and it was unclear for a time which agency -- the FBI or the NTSB -- was in charge of the investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration proposed a rule to prevent future explosions in 2005, but the aviation industry balked, saying the cost was too high. The final rule requires aircraft manufacturers and passenger airlines to install devices that replace oxygen, which is highly explosive, with inert nitrogen in fuel tanks as they empty. "The airlines will, of course, comply with the rule," said Victoria Day, a spokeswoman for the Air Transport Association of America. Matt Ziemkiewicz of Rutherford, N.J, whose sister was a flight attendant aboard TWA Flight 800, said he was "disappointed this didn't happen sooner ... We knew this was a preventable accident before Flight 800." However, Ziemkiewicz, who has led victims' families in seeking safety changes, said he was satisfied the new rule is "reasonable and realistic." The cost of installing the new technology would range from $92,000 to $311,000 per aircraft, depending upon its size, Peters said. She said the cost could be as little as one-tenth of 1 percent of the cost of a new aircraft. FAA Acting Administrator Robert Sturgell estimated the cost to industry overall at about $1 billion. "I recognize that this is a challenging time for commercial aviation," Peters said. "But there is no doubt that another crash like TWA 800 would pose a far greater challenge."

Loan guarantees issued by DOE

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced three solicitations for a total of up to $30.5 billion in federal loan guarantees for projects that employ advanced energy technologies that avoid, reduce or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions. The three solicitations are in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy and advanced transmission and distribution technologies; nuclear power facilities; and advanced nuclear facilities for the ‘front-end’ of the nuclear fuel cycle. This marks the second round of solicitations for DOE’s Loan Guarantee Program, which encourages the commercial use of new or significantly improved energy technologies, and is an important step in paving the way for clean energy projects.
In a Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 loan guarantee implementation plan sent to Congress in April, DOE outlined plans to issue its second round of solicitations concurrently no later than June 2008 for energy efficiency, renewable energy and advanced transmission and distribution projects (up to $10 billion); nuclear power facilities (up to $18.5 billion); and advanced nuclear facilities for the “front-end” of the nuclear fuel cycle (up to $2 billion). Later this summer, DOE intends to issue a solicitation for loan guarantee applications for advanced fossil energy projects (up to $8 billion). The authority to issue loan guarantees in the amounts specified in these solicitations was provided to DOE in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 and is consistent with the Department’s FY 2009 Congressional Budget Request.
“Loan guarantees from the Department will enable project developers to bridge the financing gap between pilot and demonstration projects to full commercially viable projects that employ new or significantly improved energy technologies,” Jeffrey F. Kupfer, the Acting Deputy Secretary of Energy, said. “Projects supported by loan guarantees will help meet President Bush’s goal of diversifying our nation's energy mix with energy projects that will improve the environment while increasing energy efficiency.”
The Department issued a Request for Information on April 11, 2008 and held subsequent public meetings in Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto, California to receive input on the development of the solicitation for projects in the energy efficiency, renewable energy and advanced transmission and distribution areas.
The loan guarantee process is organized into four phases: application, project evaluation, conditional commitment, and final approval and closing of a Loan Guarantee Agreement. Selection criteria for the clean energy projects under these solicitations will focus on a project’s ability to avoid, reduce or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions; the speed with which the technologies can be commercialized; the prospect of repayment of the guaranteed debt; and the potential for long-lasting success of these technologies in the marketplace.
Today’s round of solicitations builds off of the previous solicitation issued by DOE which supported energy efficiency, renewable energy and fossil energy projects. DOE is currently reviewing the applications received to date as a result of the first solicitation.
Loan guarantees issued by DOE will be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, and will facilitate the early commercial use of new or significantly improved technologies that will help fulfill President Bush’s goals of reducing our reliance on imported sources of energy by increasing energy efficiency, diversifying our nation’s energy mix, and improving the environment.

The National Diploma in Architectural Technology

The National Diploma in Architectural Technology will give you the skills to design and produce construction drawings for residential and commercial buildings. Learn to use the latest computer technology and develop manual drawing skills.

Develop the skills to design and produce construction drawings for residential and commercial buildings. Learn perspective drawing, freehand drawing, shading and rendering.

You will become aware of how architects approach design, and learn the tools and techniques to produce the drawings and specifications from which a building is constructed. This includes perspective drawing, freehand drawing, shading and rendering.
Throughout the diploma programme, you gain a thorough grounding in construction technology. Courses progress from the drawing of simple buildings using basic technology to the drawing and specification of complex buildings using advanced technology

France will build a second new-generation nuclear reactor

The fight against climate disruption is unfortunately serving as a commercial argument for promoting false remedies such as nuclear energy, the group's spokesman Arnaud Gossement said in a statement.

France — the country most reliant on nuclear power — has been constructing its first European Pressurized Reactor, or EPR, on the Normandy coast, and it is expected to go into service in 2012.
EPR reactors are meant eventually to replace the aging reactors around the world whose designs date from decades ago. The Normandy site is one of only two EPRs in the world currently under construction; the other is in Finland.
A decision about where to build a second French EPR will be made in 2009, Sarkozy said, adding that construction would start in 2011.
"The era of inexpensive oil is over," Sarkozy said. "Nuclear power is more than ever an industry of the future, and an essential form of energy."
"France will experience a new industrial revolution," Sarkozy said. He spoke while visiting metal workers at the Industeel plant in Le Creusot in the Burgundy region, which he said would produce most of the components needed for the reactor. Industeel is a subsidiary of steelmaker ArcelorMittal Group.
During Sarkozy's visit, Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of French nuclear company Areva, and Aditya Mittal, CFO of ArcelorMittal, signed a memorandum of understanding to increase production at Industeel for the nuclear market.
Already, 77 percent of France's electricity comes from nuclear power, Sarkozy said.
"We, the French, can become exporters of electricity, though we have no oil and no more natural gas," Sarkozy said. "This is a historic chance for development."
France's Green Party and environmental groups oppose the building of EPRs, saying they are dangerous and costly and do not address root causes of global warming and shrinking world resources.
France Nature Environment called it a "catastrophic sign" for France's presidency of the European Union, which began this week and runs through the end of this year. The group lamented that Sarkozy made the announcement the same day that EU environment ministers were meeting outside Paris.

RedOctane execs on a roll with "Guitar Hero"

DENVER (Billboard) - There were a lot of questions surrounding the "Guitar Hero" videogame when it first came out. Would gamers agree to pony up extra money for the special guitar-shaped controller needed to play it? Would the music industry agree to license master tracks? Would the addition of downloadable content be successful?
The answer to all those questions has turned out to be a resounding yes. "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock" has sold more than 8 million copies, and the franchise has sold more than 20 million songs through its downloadable content store.
During the past month, publisher Activision -- which purchased the rights to the franchise by acquiring original publisher RedOctane -- rolled out a portable version of the game for the Nintendo DS called "Guitar Hero: On Tour," introduced a special edition dedicated to classic rock act Aerosmith and unveiled plans for its next installment, "Guitar Hero: World Tour," which for the first time adds drums and vocals to the mix in a bid to compete with rival "Rock Band." An added twist for the expected fourth-quarter release: The game's "music studio" feature enables users to compose and record tracks and share them online.
To be sure, the story of "Guitar Hero" seems to be just hitting its stride rather than slowing down. Billboard caught up with RedOctane founders and brothers Kai and Charles Huang -- president and VP of business development, respectively -- to hear their reflections on the past and what they've got planned for the future.
Q: Why a whole expansion of the game dedicated to Aerosmith rather than just featuring the band as a downloadable content special?
Kai Huang: Because we really wanted to showcase Aerosmith the band. Downloadable content will allow you to just get the music, but we've gone much, much further than that. We've actually brought them into the studio to do full-motion capture of them in performance, and we put all of that into the game. We had the band consult on the actual songs that they wanted, including about 20 of the songs that they had over their 30-year career. And then they provided input on songs that were from bands that they'd either toured with in the past or that have influenced them over the course of their career. So the game is a lot more than just about Aerosmith music, it really is about the history and the rise of Aerosmith.
Charles Huang: Even the venues have changed, so the venues are the actual places where they played. We actually have Nipmuc High School (in Massachusetts), where they did their first gig, (and) Max's Kansas City, and all of (those) are authentic through the history of Aerosmith, so it was a lot more than just making their music playable with "Guitar Hero III." That's why we had to put it on disc to get all of that into the game.

Solar Dyes Give a Guiding Light

A new way capturing the energy from the Sun could increase the power generated by solar panels tenfold, a team of American scientists has shown. The new technique involves coating glass with a specific mixture of transparent dyes which redirect light to photovoltaic cells in the frame. The technology, outlined in the journal Science, could be used to convert glass buildings into vast energy plants. The technology could be in production within three years, the team said. "It makes sense to coat the side of [very tall] buildings with these new panes," Professor Marc Baldo, one of the researchers on the team, told BBC News. "It's not far fetched at all."

New big laptops

video
Big laptops
Hiawatha Bray puts this large laptop to the test.
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Sprint's Instinct phone
Wi-Fi radio
Sony XEL-TV
Viewing video's future
DXG camcorder
A smarter GPS
The Apple store

Robo-frog has a way with the ladies

It's a new Robo-frog
"Robo-frog" has a way with the ladies. He has a speaker that broadcasts a realistic mating call and a shiny painted balloon that inflates and vibrates beneath his throat, perfectly mimicking the vocal sac of a real túngara frog.
Researchers at the University of Texas are using robo-frog to study different components of communication between the frogs. And the Texas team has found good evidence that the striped vocal sac is important for wooing females, even though they mate in the dark.
Túngara frogs live in the forests of northern Latin America. At night, males sing to attract females and their throats inflate. "The sacs evolved for males to shuttle air back and forth, so they don't have to suck in air each time they sing," says Michael Ryan of the University of Texas in Austin.
Since the female frogs can see very well in the dark, Ryan and his colleague Ryan Taylor thought the distinctive pattern on the males' vocal sac might have another purpose as well.
Sexy sac
In experiments, females will move towards a speaker playing a recorded male mating call. But to test whether the vocal sac also played a role, the researchers created robo-frog – a resin replica of a male túngara frog with an inflatable latex vocal sac.
The model is hooked up to an air pump driven by the wave on an oscilloscope, making the fake vocal sac to bulge in and out rhythmically.
To make the fake frog's vocal sac to vibrate realistically, Taylor synthesised a male mating call and fed it into the oscilloscope. His team gave 20 females a choice between an inflating robo-frog producing mating calls and a speaker on its own.
Sixteen of the 20 were more attracted to the combination of speaker and frog, moving towards it to investigate. When the model frog's oscilloscope was switched off, however, the females did not find it any more attractive than the speaker. This suggests that a vibrant vocal sac is crucial to finding a mate.
Taylor also tried making the vocal sac vibrate out of sync with the songs and he says this actually deters the females.
"We are particularly excited about the implications of this result," he says. The researchers think the frogs are showing something similar to the "McGurk effect", which shows that the shapes made by a person's lips are relevant to the sound they are perceived to produce.

Iran tested more missiles

Iran tested more missiles in the Gulf on Thursday, state media said, and the US reminded Tehran that it was ready to defend its allies.

Washington, which accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear arms, said after Iran test-fired nine missiles on Wednesday there should be no more such tests if Iran wanted the world's trust.
US leaders have not ruled out military options if diplomacy fails to assuage fears about Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran says is only to produce electricity.
Israel, long assumed to have its own nuclear arsenal, has sworn to prevent Iran from emerging as a nuclear-armed power. Last month it staged an air force exercise that stoked speculation about a possible assault on Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran has vowed to strike back at Tel Aviv, as well as US interests and shipping, if it is attacked, asserting that missiles fired during wargames under way in the Gulf included ones that could hit Israel and US bases in the region.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on a visit to the former Soviet republic of Georgia that no one should be confused about Washington's commitment to protect its allies. "We are also sending a message to Iran that we will defend American interests and . . . the interests of our allies," she said after meeting Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Hydrogen to Replace Gasoline Cars

Like most articles on hydrogen-powered vehicles, this one fails to mention the other alternative that is being worked on and already in very limited production: liquid hydrogen-powered vehicles. Buses in Iceland and the BMW Hydrogen7 are examples of production vehicles already using liquid hydrogen and today's technology. Certainly, storing liquid hydrogen in large enough quantities to meet the needs of long range between fill-ups and the infrastructure to delivery liquid hydrogen is still in its nascent stages, but so was the gasoline-based infrastructure when the car was a recent invention.

The jury is still out on whether hydrogen will ultimately be our environmental savior, replacing the fossil fuels responsible for global warming and various nagging forms of pollution. Two main hurdles stand in the way of mass production and widespread consumer adoption of hydrogen “fuel cell” vehicles: the still high cost of producing fuel cells, and the lack of a hydrogen refueling network.
Reining in manufacturing costs of fuel cell vehicles is the first major issue the automakers are addressing. While several have fuel cell prototype vehicles on the road—Toyota and Honda are even leasing them to the public in Japan and California—they are spending upwards of $1 million to produce each one due to the advanced technology involved and low production runs. Toyota hopes to reduce its costs per fuel cell vehicle to around $50,000 by 2015, which would make such cars economically viable in the marketplace. On this side of the Pacific, General Motors plans to sell hydrogen-powered vehicles in the U.S. by 2010.
Another problem is the lack of hydrogen refueling stations. Major oil companies have been loathe to set up hydrogen tanks at existing gas stations for many reasons ranging from safety to cost to lack of demand. But obviously the oil companies are also trying to keep customers interested in their highly profitable bread-and-butter, gasoline. A more likely scenario is what is emerging in California, where some 38 independent hydrogen fuel stations are located around the state as part of a network created by the non-profit California Fuel Cell Partnership, a consortium of automakers, state and federal agencies and other parties interested in furthering hydrogen fuel cell technologies.
The benefits of ditching fossil fuels for hydrogen are many, or course. Burning fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil to heat and cool our buildings and run our vehicles takes a heavy toll on the environment, contributing significantly to both local problems like elevated particulate levels and global ones like a warming climate. The only by-product of running a hydrogen-powered fuel cell is oxygen and a trickle of water, neither of which will cause any harm to human health or the environment.
But right now 95 percent of the hydrogen available in the U.S. is either extracted from fossil fuels or made using electrolytic processes powered by fossil fuels, thus negating any real emissions savings or reduction in fossil fuel usage. Only if renewable energy sources—solar, wind and others—can be harnessed to provide the energy to process hydrogen fuel can the dream of a truly clean hydrogen fuel be realized.
Stanford University researchers in 2005 assessed the environmental effects of three different hydrogen sources: coal, natural gas, and water electrolysis powered by wind. They concluded that we’d lower greenhouse gas emissions more by driving gasoline/electric hybrid cars than by driving fuel cell cars run on hydrogen from coal. Hydrogen made using natural gas would fare a little bit better in terms of pollution output, while making it from wind power would a slam-dunk for the environment.

Find out a new octopuses

In an attempt to find out if octopuses are right- or left-handed, er, tentacled, scientists from the Sea Life Center in England, have provided 25 of the beasts with colorful Rubik's Cubes to play with in the center's aquariums across Europe. Many animals in nature are known to favor one appendage, but researchers are unsure whether that holds true for the eight-armed octopus. (They could turn out to be "octidextrous"—equally good with all tentacles.) Biologists, who worry about the stress that these creatures are prone to in captivity, want to determine if octopuses have a preferred side for receiving food, as this may make their lives just a little bit easier. For the study, visitors and caregivers will record which limb (labeled as R1, R2, L6, L7, etcetera) the octopus uses to pick up the cube when it's dropped into their tank, along with other objects like jam jars and Lego bricks. Researchers said it's unlikely that any of these cephalopods will solv the Rubik's Cube. Let's hope the challenge doesn't add to their stress level.

You Drive Your Car All The Way Home

New York City has been topped out, according to the building's Architect of Record, Steven Kratchman, AIA.

200 11th Avenue is often referred to as the sky garage building, because it's designed with a car elevator that travels vertically to all of the residential units. Each luxury aparent will be sold with an attached garage, similar to a suburban home, but stacked vertically, Mr. Kratchman said. The upper façade will be made of stainless steel panels. The four base stories are to be clad in terra cotta.
Located in the former warehouse district of West Chelsea in Manhattan, 200 11th Avenue will offer expansive views of the Hudson River.
Architect and Urban Designer Steven Kratchman, AIA, is the founder and CEO of the firm Steven Kratchman Architect, PC. Before establishing his own firm, Mr. Kratchman served as lead architect on the now world renowned Chelsea Piers complex in Manhattan.
The Kratchman firm was recently contracted by Surround Art to create their architectural master plan for a clean, green Silver LEED industrial campus at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
We are honored to be the Architect of Record of 200 11th Avenue, working with the esteemed Design Architect Annabelle Selldorf on this elegantly designed project," Mr. Kratchman said. Construction is expected to be completed in February, 2009.
Credits for 200 11th Avenue: The Design Architect is the firm Selldorf Architects of New York City, Annabelle Selldorf, Founder. The Architect of Record is the firm Steven Kratchman Architect, P.C., of New York City, Steven Kratchman, Founder and CEO. The owner is Gaia House LLC, which is a partnership between Urban Muse LLC and YoungWoo and Associates.
The Kratchman and Selldorf firms were previously paired as Architect of Record and Design Architect, respectively, on a six-story vertical addition to an existing three-story former warehouse in the lower Manhattan meatpacking district at 415 West 13th Street.
Steven Kratchman Architect, P.C., was founded in 1999 by Steven Kratchman, AIA, architect and urban designer, who previously served as Senior Designer for the team that transformed an abandoned New York City urban harbor area into the now world-renowned Chelsea Piers.
His firm has grown from two architects to a professional staff of 15, who work on retail, commercial and residential projects, multi-family residential, single-family residential, historic and landmark properties, private clubs and sports facilities, educational institutions, new from-the-ground-up buildings and restaurants

New soaring steel cost car prices:Nissan CEO

Soaring steel costs will force consumers worldwide to pay higher prices for automobiles in the coming years.

Surging raw material costs are eating into automakers' profits, even as rocketing fuel prices weigh on their sales, particularly those of large trucks and sports utility vehicles in the United States.
Higher material prices are the "single most important challenge facing the industry," Ghosn said at the group's shareholder meeting in Yokohama.
"All car manufacturers will increase prices. It's a question of time. How can you not increase prices if the price of raw materials goes up 100 percent?"
Nissan has already announced price rises in the United States and Europe.
"Japan is not going to be the exception," said Ghosn, who also heads Nissan's French partner Renault.
Baosteel, China's largest steel maker, this week agreed to nearly double the price it pays mining group Rio Tinto for high-grade iron ore.
Ghosn said steelmakers were preparing to pass on the increased cost to automakers.
"It's a question of time before this comes and hits us," said Ghosn. "We have no choice but to increase prices."
Automakers will have to raise their prices by about two or three percent in 2008 if they want to offset the rising cost of raw materials, he said.
The price of iron ore, a vital material to make steel, has soared in recent years due to growing demand, particularly in fast-growing China and India.
Nissan, Japan's number three automaker by sales, faces "severe headwinds" from higher material and energy costs, the weakness of the US and Japanese economies and a stronger yen, which is bad for overseas earnings, Ghosn said.
For the current fiscal year to next March, Nissan has previously predicted a 29.5 drop in net profit and a 30.5 percent decline in operating profit due to sluggish sales in maturing markets, a stronger yen and high material costs.
"I don't think that there is any car manufacturer, except some very specific cases, which thinks that 2008 is going to be better than 2007," Ghosn said.
In the US, if the market remains as weak as it has been in May and June then "the picture's going to be very bleak," he said.
"Frankly, nobody has a clue about what is the trend for oil (prices) for the next six months. We have to be prepared for the worst."
With Japan's population greying and shrinking, and a credit crunch undermining US sales, Japanese automakers are relying increasingly on emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China to expand their sales.
"The hottest market for us today is Russia," followed by certain markets in the Middle East, said Ghosn.
"We intend to take full advantage of growth in emerging markets," he said.
Ghosn said Nissan aims to become the industry leader in electric vehicles, which he said would see a boom in popularity due to growing concerns about high oil prices and global warming.
"Very quickly the market is going to shift to zero emissions. What you've seen for the hybrid is nothing compared to the shift to zero emissions. Our priority is to bring an electric car as fast as possible to the market."
Electric cars have so far failed to break into the mainstream because of limited battery life that makes them impractical for most purposes.
Nissan and its partner NEC Corp. said last month they would invest 115 million dollars to mass produce next-generation lithium-ion batteries for electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles.