Jan/10/2011

Ballmer delivers Microsoft’s last CES keynote speech

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer gave the software company’s final keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Monday, showcasing his company’s Windows 8 operating system as well as new Windows phones and the latest innovations on the company’s Xbox 360 video console.

The Seattle software giant has been a stalwart of the largest U.S. tech show since 1995 and recently announced that this would be its last year as it focuses on launch events more closely attuned to its own new product cycle.

Mr. Ballmer used the address to show off new phones from Nokia that both companies hope will help them close the gap with iPhone maker Apple Inc. and other rivals like Samsung Electronics Co. whose phones run on Google’s Android operating system.

Mr. Ballmer also shared new information about the launch of Microsoft’s next operating system Windows 8, a dramatic revamp of the current PC software, which will be released in October. Windows 8 will be the first Microsoft operating system to run on ARM chip architecture, which powers most smartphones, as well as the traditional Intel-based x86 standard, which is optimised for laptops and desktops.

“With Windows 8, we’ve reimagined Windows all the way from the chip set to user experience,” said Mr. Ballmer, adding that it would deliver the “potential of the tablet and the power of the PC.” He also revealed that the Kinect motion-sensing interface for the Xbox 360 video console would be available for Windows 7 in February.

Huawei unveils world’s thinnest smartphone

Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei showed off what it said was the world’s thinnest smartphone on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The sleek Ascend P1 is just 6.68 mm thick and boasts an 11 cm screen and a dual core 1.5GHz processor.

The handset runs on the latest version of Google’s Android operating system and according to Huawei chairman Richard Yu boasts battery life that’s 30 per cent superior than that of its competitors thanks to the company’s two decades of experience in developing mobile infrastructure.

The high-end phone, which will retail for some 400 dollars in the US, Asia and Europe starting in April, are also equipped with front and rear-facing cameras, and Dolby Mobile 3.0 Plus 5.1 surround sound.

“Now you can take your home theatre music system away with you — a really fantastic user experience,” Yu boasted. The phone also features a nifty bit of camera software that can automatically take five shots of a group of people and select the best image of each person to merge into one single image.

Alien Earths may have two Suns

Astronomers should start hunting for planets like the Tatooine in the science fiction series “Star Wars”, as Earth-like worlds could exist in the habitable zones around binary systems, scientists say.

In the “Star Wars” universe, Tatooine was a circumbinary planet that had two Suns. In September last year, NASA’s Kepler space telescope had discovered the first real-life circumbinary planet, Kepler-16b, a gas giant like Jupiter.

Now, astrophysicists from the University of Texas in the U.S. suggested that Earth-like worlds could exist in the habitable zones around binary systems that are neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water on its surface, and thus life as we know it.

“This is an assessment of the possibilities,” said study co-author Zdzislaw Musielak. “We’re telling them where a planet has to be in the system to be habitable. We’re hoping they will look there,” he was quoted as saying by SPACE.com

The researchers used the Kepler-16 twin Sun system as a starting point. The habitable zone of this system is cantered mostly on the system’s primary star and extends in a region around it equal to 0.36 to 0.71 the distance of the Earth to the sun. This corresponds in our system to a distance from between Earth and Venus to about Mars, the researchers said.

“This work is informed by observations and it has the potential to trigger more observations,” said study co-author Manfred Cuntz.

One possibility the researchers explored involved an Earth-sized planet that directly orbits the binary system at distances outside its conventional habitable zone. This corresponds to a distance from the system’s primary star equal to twice the distance from Earth to the sun.

To host life in this extended region, such a planet would need high levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon monoxide or methane in its atmosphere to trap warmth.

“We determined that a habitable Earth-like exoplanet is possible in the extended habitable zone,” said lead author Billy Quarles. “There is less light from the star, so the planet itself has to maintain more heat.”

Another possibility involved an Earth-sized moon of a gas giant in the habitable zones of Kepler-16, the team told the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

“We determined that a habitable exomoon is possible in orbit around Kepler-16b,” Quarles said.

Other more exotic possibilities the researchers are considering include an Earth-sized planet around the twin stars that gets captured by a gas giant in the system to become a moon, as well as an Earth-sized world in a so-called Trojan orbit equidistant from the gas giant Kepler-16b and the binary system’s primary star.

Govt notifies 100 p.c. FDI in single brand retail

Notwithstanding its inability to open multi-brand retail for foreign investment, the government on Tuesday notified 100 per cent FDI in single-brand retail, paving way for global chains like Adidas, Louis Vuitton and Gucci to have full ownership of their India operations.

“Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), up to 100 per cent , under the government approval route, would be permitted in single brand product retail trading,” a press note by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) said.

However, in respect of proposals involving FDI beyond 51 per cent, the mandatory sourcing of at least 30 per cent would have to be done from the domestic small and cottage industries which have a maximum investment in plant and machinery of USD 1 million (about Rs. 5 crore).

“FDI in single brand has led to emergence of some global majors in Indian market...This will provide stimulus to domestic manufacturing value addition and help in technical upgradation of our small industry,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said.

The decision to increase FDI in single-brand retail was taken by the Cabinet on November 24 along with opening the gates for overseas investment in multi-brand retail.

However, the Government was forced to put on hold FDI in multi-brand retail by several political parties, including UPA ally Trinamool Congress.

At present, for single-brand retailers, 51 per cent FDI is permitted. Removal of investment cap would help global fashion brands especially from Italy and France to strengthen their interest in the growing Indian market.

Many big names have already set up their operations in the country by partnering with Indian partners. The new policy would allow them to buy out the domestic partners.

Malnutrition a national shame: Manmohan

Describing malnutrition in the country as a national shame, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said the government could not rely solely on the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to deal with it.

"The problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of under-nutrition in the country is unacceptably high," Dr. Singh said after releasing a report on fighting hunger and malnutrition here.

Pointing out that India had not succeeded in reducing the levels of malnutrition fast enough, he said, "Though the ICDS continues to be our most important tool to fight malnutrition, we can no longer rely solely on it."

The report "Hungama’’ says that 42 per cent of children under five are underweight and 59 per cent were stunted. Of the stunted children, about half are severely stunted and about half of all children are underweight or stunted by the time they are 2 years old. However, it also suggests that the prevalence of child underweight had decreased from 53 per cent to 42 per cent in the past seven years indicating a 20.3 per cent decrease with an annual average decline of 2. 9 per cent.

"We need to focus on districts where malnutrition levels are high and where conditions causing malnutrition prevail," Dr. Singh said adding that the Centre had already initiated a multi-sectoral programme in the indentified 200 high burden districts.

He said that policy makers and programme implementers need to clearly understand many linkages -- between education and health, sanitation and hygiene, drinking water and nutrition – and then shape their responses accordingly.

"This 20 per cent decline in malnourishment in the last seven years is better than the rate of decline reported in National Family Health Survey-III," he said. "However, what concerns me is that 42 per cent of our children are still underweight. This is an unacceptably high occurrence," he said.

The report, on the survey conducted by Naandi Foundation, has been made at the insistence of the Citizens' Alliance against Malnutrition. Among those present at the function to release the report at the Prime Minister's residence included filmmaker-turned-MP Shyam Benegal, actor Rahul Bose, singer Penaz Masani, MPs Jay Panda, Jyoti Mirdha, Madhu Yaski Goud, Shahnawaz Hussain, and Union Minister Sachin Pilot.

Conducted by Naandi Foundation across 112 rural districts, the survey found "positive change for child nutrition in India is happening, including in the 100 Focussed Districts." The 100 Focus Districts are located across six states -- Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

Noting that the prevalence of malnutrition is significantly higher among children from low-income families, the survey found that children from Muslim or SC/ST households generally have worse nutrition indicators.

Birth weight is an important risk-factor for child malnutrition, the report said. It added that the prevalence of underweight in children born with a weight below 2.5 kg is 50 per cent while that among children born with a weight above 2.5 kg is 34 per cent.

The survey found that awareness among mothers about nutrition is low. "92 per cent mothers had never heard the word malnutrition."

Highlighting the negligence towards girl children even in their early childhood, the report said the nutrition advantage girls have over boys in the first months of life seems to be reversed over time as they grow older.

According to the survey, mothers' education level also determines children's nutrition. "The prevalence of child underweight among mothers who cannot read is 45 per cent while that among mothers with 10 or more years of education is 27 per cent".

The survey found that giving colostrum to the newborn and exclusive breastfeeding for first 6 months of a child's life are not commonly practised. "51 per cent of the mothers did not give colostrum to the newborn soon after birth and 58 per cent mothers fed water to their infants before six months," the report said.

The survey also emphasised the need for providing better services through anganwadi centres.

While a total of 96 per cent of the villages have their own anganwadi centre, 61 per cent of these only operate in pucca buildings.

"The anganwadi services accessed by the largest proportion of mothers (86 per cent) is immunisation; 61 per cent of anganwadi centres had dried rations available and 50 per cent provided food on the day of survey; only 19 per cent of mothers reported that the anganwadi centre provides nutrition counselling to parents," it said.

The Shrinking Universe - The more the merrier?

Is our society ready for multiple partner relationships?

My last column on extra-marital affairs generated a fair bit of email. Not just from those who agreed with my position, but mainly from those who didn't. The general theme of what most of my interlocutors had to say centred around the belief that since multiple partner relationships are successful in many parts of the world, they should, therefore, be acceptable in our country as well. Although my research hasn't provided me any convincing data that such relationships actually work in the short or long-term, I thought it may be politic to examine some of the dynamics in some clearly delineable prototypes of multiple partner relationships.

Open relationships

The first of these are what are usually referred to as ‘open relationships', wherein both partners are free to get emotionally and sexually involved with other people without needing the partner's consent every time. In other words, consent is a given. There is also no restriction on the degree of emotional or sexual closeness you can experience with the ‘paramour'. It is quite conceivable that you may end up having a committed relationship with the ‘ paramour' if this is indeed what you want to do, but then, you will have an open relationship with the ‘paramour' too, thereby permitting you to still maintain a relationship with your original partner. In other words, the element of exclusivity gets taken out of your open relationship, although commitment is still inherent.

This is different from ‘swinging' and ‘spouse-swapping' in which the focus is more on sexual rather than emotional intimacy. You're still married to your spouse, but both of you, by mutual consent, engage, from time to time, in sexual romps with other swinging couples. The idea here seems to be to provide both partners some sexual variety, but in a reasonably controlled situation, so that some degree of exclusivity is retained, and when both partners tire of sexual frolic, they retire to lives of companionable monogamy.

And in recent times, there is the new phenomenon called polyamory or simply, poly, sometimes described as ‘responsible non-monogamy'. While the definition of polyamory is not always absolutely clear, and can include open relationships as well in its ambit, it is distinguished from swinging, because it's seen as encompassing sexual, emotional, romantic and spiritual dimensions. The basic understanding here is that anyone is capable of having simultaneous, multiple, deep, intimate relationships, and that the ‘ distracting' elements of marriage, like jealousy, exclusivity, power imbalances etc., are squarely removed from the equation, thereby creating opportunities to grow as human beings.

However, jealousy does appear every now and again, and the successful poly is one who has been able to conquer this emotion and replace it with what is referred to as compersion (the opposite of jealousy, where you experience genuine happiness that your partner finds fulfilment or joy from somebody or something other than yourself). Fidelity, loyalty, honesty, equality, respect and transparency are big virtues among polys, for, no relationship takes place in the absence of consent and consensus. If ever consent is withheld, the reasons have to be substantial.

Polyamorists may engage in long-term relationships in triads, quads or networks. They would still tend to have a ‘primary' relationship and one or several ‘secondary relationships'. They are a growing movement in the United States (apparently there're about half a million polyamorists there) and also participate in Pride parades to highlight the legitimacy of their cause. Polyfidelity is a more controlled method of engaging in multiple relationships. The partners that one can choose from are limited to members of a group, network or commune. And fidelity to this group is demanded at all costs. Otherwise, the dynamics are similar to polyamorous relationships.

And finally, there is the old faithful — polygamy, which, in our country, was not uncommon in the past, but confined, since we live in a patriarchal environment, primarily to the male of the species (polyandry, which refers to a woman having multiple husbands, is too rare to even mention). Polygamy refers to having multiple socially, even if not legally, sanctioned spouses. This means that the polygamist takes responsibility for all of his wives and whatever children may be born of these liaisons. However, in the last few decades, polygamy, whether on account of inflation, recession or just an increasing belief in monogamy, is certainly on the decrease, even in religious denominations or sub-cultures where it used to be acceptable.

Viable alternative?

Some research into multiple marriages is under way in the west, but it's too early to tell whether it is a viable and sustainable alternative to monogamy. However, the fundamental issue is whether such multiple partner relationships could actually be considered to fall under the rubric of ‘marriage', which, by and large, has been a monogamous institution. The general clamour of my email interlocutors has been to expand the institution of marriage to cover multiple partner relationships as well. But, my question is, why? If one is comfortable with monogamy, one gets married. If one is not, one can opt for one of the ‘poly' alternatives. And then one can really understand whether more is actually merrier or whether three is indeed a crowd.

Messi scoops FIFA Ballon d’Or award

Barcelona’s Argentine forward Lionel Messi was on Monday named winner of the FIFA World Player for the third successive year, while the women’s award went to the captain of Japan’s World Cup-winning team Homare Sawa.

The 24-year-old, who made history by becoming the first Argentine player to win the award in 2009, beat off teammate Xavi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

The award, announced at a glamorous gala in the Kongresshaus in Zurich, crowns a successful year for Messi, who won the Spanish League, the Champions League, the World Club Cup, as well as the Spanish and UEFA Super Cups with Barcelona.

The forward, who received the trophy from former winner Ronaldo, received 47.88 per cent of the vote, beating Ronaldo, who was second with 21.60 per cent. Xavi picked up 9.23 per cent of the vote.

“It is a huge pleasure. It is the third time and it is a huge honour and I would like to share this award with my teammates both in Barcelona and Argentina.

“I want to share this also with my teammate Xavi. It is the fourth time we are here together and it is an honour to play together on the pitch,” Messi said.

Sawa denied Brazilian Marta a sixth successive triumph. The 33-year-old, who received her award from popstar Shakira, is the first-ever Asian winner of a World Player award.

She beat Marta into second place by picking up 28.51 per cent of the votes, while the Brazilian received 17.28. The coaches awards went to Japan’s Norio Sasaki, who won the FIFA World Coach Women’s Football award, while Barcelona coach Pep Guardialo took the male award.

The awards are voted for by the coaches and captains of the world’s national teams, as well as international media. In his opening speech FIFA president Joseph Blatter acknowledged that it had been a difficult year for football. “With a family of 300 million, there are bound to be some devils amongst them.

“There are a lot of devils, some very big ones, but we are determined to steer the ship back into clear and clean waters,” he said.