Author: Serkadis

The Lumix ZR3 is an ultra-slim point-and-shoot with an 8x wide-angle Leica lens that starts at 25mm, and HD video recording.

PANASONIC INTRODUCES SUPER COMPACT DIGITAL CAMERA FEATURING AVCHD LITE HD VIDEO RECORDING CAPABILITY

Panasonic LUMIX ZR3 includes 25mm ultra-wide-angle Leica lens and powerful 8x optical zoom in a slim and portable body

SECAUCUS, NJ (January 26, 2010) – Panasonic today announced the introduction of the LUMIX DMC-ZR3, a fully-featured digital camera complete with AVCHD Lite High Defintion (HD) video recording capabilities, a25mm ultra-wide-angle Leica lens and a powerful 8x optical zoom – giving consumers a wide-range of shooting options, yet in a slim body that is small enough to fit in a pocket or small purse. New to the ZR-Series this year, Panasonic also introduces Intelligent Zoom, which extends the LUMIX ZR3’s zoom to an impressive 10x.

The Panasonic LUMIX ZR3’s incredible 8x optical zoom is not found on many conventional point-and-shoot cameras, especially ones that are approximately 1-inch thick. With a powerful zoom, users will be thrilled with the close-up shots they are able to take. And for an added boost, zoom power can be increased to 10x with Panasonic’s new Intelligent Zoom function, which takes advantage of the newly-added Intelligent Resolution technology. Intelligent Resolution, a component of Intelligent Auto mode, helps to maintain optimal picture quality by capturing higher quality signal processing and through the detection of three areas – outlines, detailed texture areas and soft gradation – examining them pixel by pixel to enhance any degradation created during the digital zoom process or in high-sensitivity shooting. As a result of Intelligent Resolution, images are naturally clear and crisp in both photo and video recording.

“The 2010 Panasonic LUMIX lineup of digital cameras pack advanced functions into smaller, more compact bodies without compromising the ability to take high quality photos and video,” said David Briganti, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronic Company. “With a remarkable 8x optical zoom power, sleek design, HD video capabilities, the LUMIX ZR3 is a compact and versatile camera that is also extremely easy and intuitive to use.”

The LUMIX ZR3 takes video recording to the next level with its AVCHD Lite HD video format. Featuring double the recording time in HD quality compared to the conventional Motion JPEG format, and offering Dolby Digital Stereo Creator to record high-quality audio, the LUMIX ZR3 is perfect for capturing those spur-of-the-moment video opportunities in high-quality. With the newly-added Video Divide function, users can cut their video into two sections on the spot – within the menus of the camera – to shorten or delete the unwanted half.

Continuing with the trademark iA mode, Panasonic has incorporated this intuitive and innovative feature into the LUMIX ZR3. Working to enhance the potential of all photos and videos, iA mode automatically selects the best Scene mode, and also helps to correct handshake and any focus or brightness issues.

Other technologies incorporated into the LUMIX ZR3’s iA mode include:
• Face Recognition – Allows users to register various faces, helping to improve detection accuracy of friends and family. 
• Happy Mode – New color mode that optimizes color, saturation and brightness, to make both photos and videos more vivid and true to the color originally experienced.
• Other iA Technologies – Intelligent Resolution and Intelligent Zoom, AF Tracking, Intelligent ISO Control and Intelligent Exposure.

The LUMIX ZR3 features a super-fast AF (Auto Focus) speed of 0.26 second (wide-end) / 0.31 second (tele-end)*1. This combined with a high-speed start-up of just 1.1 second, gives the LUMIX ZR3 an ultra-fast response that helps to catch even the most fleeting photo opportunities. Additionally, the 2.7-inch large Intelligent LCD screen offers a dynamic, clear view and automatically adjusts its own brightness level. Also, the LUMIX ZR3 accepts the SD/SDHC Memory Card, but is also compatible with the next-generation SDXC Memory Cards, which feature a high-potential in both capacity and data-transfer speed.

It’s not as zoomy as the 15x Samsung HZ35w but I’d take a 12x Lumix with Leica optics over a Sammy. Especially since this one Geotags.

The 12.1 MP camera starts out at 25mm and zooms up to 12x past that, even in video mode. It also records HD (although res isn’t mentioned) in the AVCHD lite format.

PANASONIC UNVEILS THE WORLD’S SMALLEST PHOTO/VIDEO HYBRID SUPERZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA*1 COMPLETE WITH A 25MM WIDE-ANGLE LEICA LENS AND POWERFUL 12X OPTICAL ZOOM

With New Built-In GPS Feature, Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 Digital Camera is Ultimate Travel Companion, Allowing Users to Geo-Tag Photos and Videos

Secaucus, NJ (January 26, 2010) – Panasonic today introduces the LUMIX DMC-ZS7, the newest member of the acclaimed superzoom ZS-Series of digital cameras that have gained worldwide popularity. Complete with its hallmark 25mm ultra-wide-angle Leica lens and a powerful 12x optical zoom (operable in video recording mode), this 12.1-megapixel powerhouse performer, also includes a new built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) feature that embeds photos and videos with the latitude and longitude location details, a useful feature when using an online photo-sharing website. The LUMIX ZS7 is also the world’s smallest photo/video hybrid superzoom digital camera*1, which can also record High Definition (HD) video using the recording capability in AVCHD Lite, which includes a dedicated video record button and new to the ZS-Series is a manual shooting mode.

“As a successor to the Panasonic LUMIX ZS3, which was last year’s most popular compact model, we are confident the Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 will continue the success, thanks to big features like HD video, 12x optical zoom and the newly added GPS capabilities and it’s super-fast Auto Focusing,” said David Briganti, Senior Product Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “Panasonic is excited to introduce our first GPS-enabled digital camera, and it adds to the ZS7’s appeal as the ultimate travel companion – from its range of shooting options, both far and wide, and now the ability to record exactly where photos were taken. We are confident consumers will have all the features they need to capture high quality photos and video and share their travels with their friends and family.”

The Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 features Sonic Speed AF (Auto Focus), which enables a super-fast response time, and a shutter release time lag as short as approximately 0.006 second. The camera’s quick response makes it easier to capture sudden, spur-of-the-moment photo opportunities and together with the Sonic Speed AF that lets users lock on the subject minimum in approximately 0.35 second (wide-end) / 0.41 second (tele-end)*3. The LUMIX ZS7 also features a short startup time of approximately 1.1 second.

With the new GPS feature, the Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 is the ultimate travel companion, and can record the latitude and longitude in the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data, while also displaying the location information real-time while shooting and during playback. These geo-tagged images can be pinpointed on maps common in photo-sharing websites and social media sites – so travels can be archived and also visually represented on a map – and easily shared with friends and family. The Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 also shows the name of the city, country and state, and information for more than 500,000 popular landmarks, covering 73 countries, are stored in the camera’s internal memory. For instance, when users are taking photos of the Eiffel Tower or Empire State Building, landmarks stored within the camera, these locations will be displayed on the screen while taking it and tagged in the data. Users can also refer to the locations using the included software PHOTOfunSTUDIO HD Edition Version 5.1. The LUMIX ZS7 automatically adjusts its internal clock to the local time, so there’s no need to set the clock manually when traveling.

The Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 also features a new image processing technology, Intelligent Resolution, which is incorporated in its Venus Engine HD. With the Intelligent Resolution technology, three areas – outlines, detailed texture areas and soft gradation – are examined pixel by pixel and automatically detected to enhance any degradation created during the digital zoom process or in high-sensitivity shooting. The outline areas are enhanced effectively to give the edges more clarity, while simultaneously giving a moderate accent to the textured areas so it looks accurately detailed. To the soft gradation area, such as a face, the increased noise reduction system of the Venus Engine HD II is applied to make it smoother. As a result of Intelligent Resolution, images are naturally clear and crisp in both photo and video recording. The Intelligent Resolution technology powers Panasonic’s new Intelligent Zoom feature, which extends the camera’s zoom ratio by approximately 1.3x while maintaining the picture quality – and enhancing the digital zoom and making it comparable to the quality of an optical zoom. With Intelligent Zoom, the Panasonic ZS7 features a total zoom range up to16x.

For more advanced users, the Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 adds manual control features, allowing for adjustments in shutter speed, aperture and exposure – and encouraging more creative photography options. For digital camera users looking for an easy-to-use setting that still ensures high quality photos, Panasonic’s iA (Intelligent Auto) mode is the solution. Panasonic iA is a popular feature on LUMIX digital cameras, making them intuitive to use without changing any settings, as technologies engage automatically. For instance, iA incorporates Panasonic’s POWER O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), which doubles the repression power compared to the conventional image stabilization system, MEGA O.I.S.

Other technologies incorporated into the LUMIX ZS7’s iA mode include:
Face Recognition – With new enhancements when compared to previous editions, Face Recognition allows users to register up to three different images for a person, helping to improve detection accuracy. Face detection is also included for up to 15 faces.
Intelligent Scene Selector – Automatically selects whichever of 6 Scene Modes – Macro, Portrait, Scenery, Night Portrait, Night Scenery and newly added Sunset – best suits the shooting situation.
Other iA Technologies: Intelligent Resolution and Intelligent Zoom, AF Tracking, Intelligent ISO Control and Intelligent Exposure.

Panasonic’s iA is also available in video mode, and it automatically selects the most suitable Scene mode and helps to reduce blur due to handshake and improves focus, brightness and exposure. In addition, iA in video mode features Intelligent Scene Selector, which automatically switches between Normal, Portrait, Macro, Scenery, and Low Light modes according to the shooting environment.

The LUMIX ZS7 can record AVCHD Lite HD video, which almost doubles the recording time in HD quality compared with the Motion JPEG format. To complement the HD video capabilities, the Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 also features Dolby Digital Stereo Creator to record high quality audio. Also, the Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 has a 3.0″, high resolution 460,000-dot Intelligent LCD with a wide-viewing angle with excellent visibility during recording and playback.

Other features of the Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 include:
Happy Mode – New Scene mode that optimizes color, saturation and brightness to make both photo and video more vivid and true to the color the users remember when they took it.
High Dynamic – Newly added to the existing Scene modes. This mode helps to capture a scene with moderate exposure, even though the scene contains both bright and dark area together. The user can select one of three options, Standard, Art, or B/W, depending on the desired effect and personal taste to make the photo look natural to artistic.
Compatibility – Compatible with SDXC Memory Cards, including Panasonic’s newly announced 64 GB*3 and 48 GB SDXC Memory Cards – to enable high capacity content storage and fast data transfer speeds. Also compatible with Windows 7*4.
Video Divide – Users can divide video into two sections to shorten or delete the unwanted clips directly on the camera. Users can also grab a still image from a video – all within the menus on the camera.
Battery Life – Can take up to 340 images on a single battery charge*5.

Panasonic also introduces the LUMIX DMC-ZS5, which like the LUMIX ZS7, features a 25mm ultra-wide angle Leica lens, 12x optical zoom and manual controls. Distinguishing it from the LUMIX ZS7, the LUMIX ZS5, has a 2.7-inch, 230,000-dot Intelligent LCD, records HD video in Motion JPG at 30fps, and has a high performance Venus Engine VI. Battery life on the LUMIX ZS5 has approximately 330 photos and does not include GPS capabilities.

Pricing and availability for the Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 and LUMIX ZS5 will be announced 30 days prior to shipping date. The Panasonic LUMIX ZS7 will be available in silver, black, red and blue models; while the Panasonic LUMIX ZS5 will be available in black and silver.

Other Great AndroidGuys Posts

• January 27, 2010 — Slightly Different Looking Zeppelin Image Arrives (1)
• January 27, 2010 — China: We Won’t Limit Android (0)
• January 27, 2010 — Is it Really Worth Putting Android on a Netbook? (12)
• January 26, 2010 — A Better Look at the HTC Supersonic & Bravo [UPDATED] (13)
• January 25, 2010 — How Much Longer Will Android be the Underdog? (12)

Tony Blair has snagged a lucrative deal to market the hedge fund Landsdowne Partners as highlighted here by out colleague Courtney Comstock. He’s making six-figures for just a 90-minute speech.

Yet it’s not just any fund he’s promoting. It’s a company that quietly made a killing betting on the collapse of U.K. banks.

MailOnline: The Mayfair-based company reputedly made £100million betting on the demise of Northern Rock and £12million in a matter of days exploiting a dramatic fall in Barclays shares.

The U.K. Labor Party is just plain embarrassed by the entire affair.

Peter Kilfoyle, who was a defence minister under him, said: ‘I never cease to be amazed by Mr Blair’s money-making activities. ‘It goes to show that as far as Mr Blair is concerned, his political and public life is behind him and he appears to have no sense of responsibility to those who have been left behind. ‘His entire lifestyle is an ongoing source of embarrassment to everyone in the Labour Party.’

Bob Marshall-Andrews, another Labour MP, said: ‘Nothing that this man does surprises me any more after watching him in the run-up to the Iraq invasion.

‘It has gone beyond embarrassing for the Labour Party as he is someone who is now completely divorced from everything the party stands for. ‘The only person that he is doing more damage to is himself, if that were possible.’

It’s his life though, in the end, and the hard-nosed Tony Blair probably doesn’t give a darn what they think. He can console himself with his huge speaking fees. Read more here >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Tony Blair Joins Hedge Fund Landsdowne Partners
• Huffington Post Has A Jayson Blair Moment, Too
• Blair House Shackee, Former Aussie PM, Runs Up $186K Travel Tab

Media Markt is large German retailer with, it seems, an overactive Twitter account (and, it must be said, a very red website). Netbooknews.de claims they caught them in the act of tweeting the name and price of the upcoming Apple Tablet.

I’ll not tease you. It says iPad, and the price is €499 with a €120/month T-Mobile contract or €899 without. Hmm. I can’t say this confirms our suspicions, since the carrier is rumored to be Verizon (not T-Mo at any rate) and the price under $1000. And €120/month? Unless that includes free access to, oh I don’t know, everything in the world, I’m thinking nein.

My guess is that Media Markt was getting a Twitter template set up, and put placeholder prices and names in there. Someone hit submit instead of whatever they meant to do, and boom, up it went — only to come down a half hour later.

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Just wanted to give you all a heads up, we got an email stating that the Zune system is undergoing scheduled maintenance starting in about an hour, and will be down all night. You should still be able to access and use your locally stored content though. Microsoft promises that everything thing will be fine, and you’ll be able to get back to the social in the morning.

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The optimism for cloud computing is ebullient. But a problem is brewing in the fevered boil.

Customers need better ways to monitor performance. Deploying to the cloud is one matter. Monitoring in a way that optimizes deployment is a whole other issue. Every cloud service provider has a different dashboard. Deploying to multiple cloud service providers means monitoring multiple dashboards.

Cloudkick is a Y Combinator startup that has developed a Web application to help monitor performance so a customer may receive a unified view of its deployment.

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Today the company announced that its service is now commercially available, supported by cloud computing services that include: Rackspace Cloud, Amazon EC2, Linode, GoGrid, Slicehost, RimuHosting and VPS.NET.

Large IT organizations may have the manpower and expertise to manage cloud services but small and mid-size companies do not have the same capabilities. This is critically important as companies shift to outsourcing IT assets.

This trend is rapidly taking shape. Gartner predicts that by 2012, one in five companies will outsource its IT assets. Companies like Cloudkick faciliate this move by providing a level of service on top of what is provided by companies like Amazon and Rackspace.

Cloudkick provides a unified API that allows a view into the performance of the provider. For example, a customer can see all their servers in the cloud, turn them on and off at will and receive notifications through email or voice mail.

Competitors could include companies like RightScale and potentially the service providers. But Cloudkick appears to be the only company that focuses solely on monitoring performance.

Interestingly, Cloudkick has also recently emerged as a tool for scrutinizing the performance of cloud computing service providers.

Earlier this month, Cloudkick looked at network issues on Amazon servers. Cloudkick discovered problems that had started before Christmas. For the record, Cloudkick hosts its application on the SliceHost service owned by Rackspace.

For its part, Amazon said it does not have issues with over capacity.

Nonetheless, the story points to the important role that service providers can play in this emerging market. With more scrutiny it only follows that there should be better service by the providers.

Discuss

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For almost a year, Cloudkick has been offering tools that help web startups and developers manage their applications on cloud infrastructure like Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud. Now it’s finally ready to start making money from those services.

The San Francisco company’s existing features — including a dashboard with an overview of your cloud infrastructure, email alerts, and graphs that you help you visualize data like bandwidth requirements — will always be free, said co-founder and chief executive Alex Polvi. But Cloudkick wants to charge for features on top of the basic service, such as SMS alerts when your app has problems and a change-log tool where sysadmins can communicate with each other, which Polvi described as “Twitter for servers.”

“We’re calling [the core product] our developer plan,” Polvi said. “That way there’s a lower barrier to entry and we can help some folks out in managing their applications. Then if you’re a business actively using it and you can depend on our servers, you can pay for the commercial version.”

There are already “thousands” of developers and companies using Cloudkick services, including location-based mobile application Foursquare, simple-blogging service Posterous, and Urban Airship, which helps developers add iPhone features like push notification. Besides, its simplicity, Polvi also touts Cloudkick’s support for seven different cloud providers: Amazon, Rackspace, Linode, GoGrid, Slicehost, RimuHosting, and VPS.NET. Not only can you run your application on the provider of your choice, but you can also manage applications on multiple clouds through a single interface using Cloudkick.

The company is also working on an open source project called libcloud that helps developers build applications that run on multiple platforms. Cloudkick has even added a provider directory, allowing developers to compare the pricing and features from each cloud provider.

Pricing for Cloudkick ranges from $99 a month to $599 a month, with the option for bigger companies to go higher if they want custom services.

Cloudkick was incubated by Y Combinator and raised $750,000 from Avalon Ventures and Nueva Ventures in September. Competitors include RightScale.

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Having just seen how the US was putting pressure on Costa Rica to modify its copyright laws for the purposes of a “free trade” agreement, Dylan F sends in the news of how the international community seems to be putting pressure on Israel to change a few things in order to join the OECD. There are three issues discussed, and you can see how the first two are at least worth discussing: corruption/bribery in weapons trade and its ongoing dispute with Arab territories within the country. But it’s difficult to see how the third issue, generic patents, could possibly be seen on the same level as the first two. But, there it is:

The second concern, regarding intellectual property rights, involves the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the world’s largest producers of generic drugs. Major American and Swiss companies have long accused Israel of insufficient regulation of the way Teva markets its products in the face of patent regulations in other countries.

So, because some big pharma companies can’t compete well with Israeli generics, Israel should be barred from joining the OECD?

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Cloudkick, a Y Combinator-incubated startup that offers a free server management system to businesses, is rolling out its freemium model and additional features. Cloudkick provides detailed graphs on the health of your servers, and tools to categorize and keep information about what each server is doing. Cloudkick’s dashboard allows you to easily add or remove servers from Rackspace Cloud, Amazon EC2, Linode, GoGrid, Slicehost, RimuHosting, and VPS.NET and then monitor an unlimited amount of instances. You can see all the servers in one place, and color-code and label each server.

Cloudkick will check whether servers are alive and functioning and then alert you, via email, if servers go down. Cloudkick also provides data on bandwith and other metrics on servers in easy to use graphs and tables, allowing you a visual snapshot of server activity. You can also access servers straight from web and can run commands through your web browser remotely, which is handy when you are trying to manage servers from another computer

The new paid features available on Cloudkick include load, CPU, bandwidth, and memory monitoring; advanced performance graphs and diagnostic performance. Cloudkick will continue to offer its original feature set to customers for free with the new advanced features ranging from $99 to $599 per month depending on the number of servers. Cloudkick also offers customized packages for customers with larger or more specific needs.

In addition to the monitoring and management tools, Cloudkick also offers a free Provider Directory that lets customers compare information about multiple cloud providers; from pricing plans to different hardware offerings.

As we’ve written in the past, Cloudkick is part of the birth of cross-cloud applications and management tools. Its management tools allow businesses to optimize their investment in the cloud; and easily compare pricing between various providers. Currently Cloudkick is has over 3700 registered accounts and is adding more clients daily. With its innovative product and fair pricing, we expect to see big things from this startup.

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By Zofeen Ebrahim KARACHI, Jan 25 (IPS) Razia Khatoon, 36, crouches over a huge wooden frame, her eyes squinting in the dimly lit room inside a squatter settlement in Orangi town in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.

She deftly stitches one bead after another to embellish a semi-finished embroidered woman’s dress, stretched over the frame. She says she has no time for "small talk" as the "order" has to be delivered within the day. "If we don’t finish this by the evening, we may not get another order," declares Khatoon.

While she feels fortunate that she can still earn, the domestic demand for goods such as the dresses she makes has shrunk considerably, as everyone is reeling from the impact of a sharp rise in the prices of essential commodities since Pakistan’s economy took a hit five less than five years ago.

The mother of 10 adds that there are too many like her who would jump at the chance to take over her job if she showed even the slightest sign of vacillation.

"We work 10 to 12 hours daily, and it takes us three days to finish one piece," she explains. She earns 700 to 1,500 rupees (8.3 to 17.8 U.S. dollars) a piece depending on the intricacy of the pattern. Khatoon has been at it for the past 18 years.

Khatoon is among the 8.52 million home-based, or informal, workers in Pakistan, representing 70 percent of the women workforce in the country, based on the 2009 Pakistan Economic Survey. HomeNet Pakistan, a network of organisations working directly with home-based workers (HBWs), says the figure could be as high as 80 percent.

Home-based business or cottage industry products in Pakistan range from incense sticks, bangle decorations to women’s and children’s apparel. They also cover carpet making, fruit cleaning, prawn peeling and packing, box making, pottery and stitching jute/gunny bags. These are major sources of income among a large number of Pakistan’s poor.

Large manufacturers contract their work out to middlemen, who get it done, often under a piecemeal arrangement, by these informal labourers.

Unlike those working in the formal economy, whose activities are monitored and taxed by the government, Khatoon has none of the benefits enjoyed by the former.

The informal sector does not fall within the definition of ‘workers’ by the government, says Zera Khan, secretary-general of the Home-Based Women Workers Association, recently formed by the Labour Education Foundation, a non-government organisation (NGO). Hence, she says, the sector does not enjoy the protection and security provided by labour laws, including the Payment of Wages Act, the Maternity Benefits Ordinance and the Employees Old Age Benefit Act.

Experts say globalisation have shrunk the size of large-scale industrial sector and increased the share of informal workers in Pakistan, putting additional pressure on women to supplement the household income.

Based on the Pakistan Labour Force Survey of 2007-2008, the informal sector accounts for more than 73 percent of the total employment. In the last two years, it has grown by 28 percent, says HomeNet’s national coordinator, Ume Laila Azhar.

Kaiser Bengali, an eminent Pakistani economist, calls this expansion of informal work the "reverse cascade effect," which hits those "right at the bottom".

Pakistan’s economy began spiraling into a decline by the end of 2005. Since then it has been struggling to limp out of the recession owing, among others, to high defence spending amid unrelenting militant attacks. Incessant unrest and violence have driven away potential investors.

The country’s unemployment rate is estimated at 7.40 percent of its total workforce, which is roughly 50 percent of its population of about 168 million.

In its August 2009 report titled ‘No Cushion to Fall Back, the Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organiz¬ing (WIEGO) says, "when formal labour markets constrict, retrenched workers often turn to the informal economy." In developing countries, where such a phenomenon is particularly evident, "there is often a paucity of public services or programmes to support the unemployed."

WEIGO, a global independent network seeking to improve the conditions of the working poor, dispels the notion that the informal sector does not suffer during economic crises."Many work at or below the extreme poverty line, making less than 1.25 dollars a day and are unable to lift themselves out of poverty," it states in its report.

Asma Ravji, who works for Sungi, another NGO working for HBWs, says some of the main issues confronting the latter are "irregular work, irregular monthly income, lack of insurance and safety nets as well as labour rights. Since they are not organised and do not have unions or associations, they cannot negotiate for wages and as a result are exploited by middlemen, adds Ravji.

"The economic downturn is going to force even more women to enter the informal sector, and given Pakistan's security/law and order situation coupled with women’s responsibilities on the home front, more women and children are expected to join home-based work," predicts Dr Saba Gul Khattak, a member of the central government’s Planning Commission.

Recalling a similar trend 10 to 15 years ago that prompted structural adjustment policies, Khattak says: "As general subsidies are being lifted, the poor would be hit more and, logically, women and children would be more vulnerable to home-based work, which is not regulated and where remuneration is extremely low. Their bargaining ability is systematically reduced."

Khatoon is all too familiar with such a situation. Her six older children, now out of school, help her with her work.

According to HomeNet, youth make up the highest proportion of unpaid family workers (47 percent) while over 42 percent of home-based workers fall between the ages of 15 and 24.

"We were doing all right and, by God’s grace, were able to send the kids to school and give them three square meals a day. Life was good," says Nasir Sabir, Khatoon’s husband. "But last year, we had to pull our children out of school," says Sabir, who helps his wife, among others, by bringing in orders, taking them back, and getting the needed supplies.

"The price of food items has skyrocketed and broken our backs. What is the poor to do? Feed the children or send them to school?" asks a frustrated Sabir.

A few lanes away from Khatoon’s house, Suraj Jamal, 55, and her teenage daughter are busy making ‘agar battis’ or incense sticks. Taking a dollop of the thick gooey batter, the two carry on the work while Jamal’s husband, Mohammad Alam, an electrician, acts as translator and interpreter for IPS, since his wife speaks only Bengali, the native dialect of the Bihari community in eastern India, where she hails from.

"We make between 60,000 and 70,000 sticks a week. For every 1,000 (pieces), we are paid 9.50 rupees (11 U.S. cents). In the market, a packet of a dozen incense sticks is sold for 15 rupees (17 cents)," says 60-year-old Alam, noting the hefty markup.

Jamal is afraid to ask the contractor for a raise. "He may go elsewhere," she says.

Economist Bengali, who is advisor to the Chief Minister of Sindh province on planning and development, says HBWs are doubly marginalised. "When there is widespread unemployment or surplus labour, the price of labour automatically goes down."

Jamal and Alam’s teenage daughter says her family has stopped eating breakfast in these leaner times.

As of 2009, undernourishment in Pakistan has afflicted 28 percent of the population – up from 24 percent from the previous year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, a specialised agency of the United Nations.

Fifty-something Zahida Mumtaz’s husband suffers from a failing kidney and does not have a permanent job. She gets a paltry 20 to 50 rupees (23 to 59 cents) for every one dozen girl’s dresses she stitches.

"I know I’m getting very little because the same dress is sold for 200 rupees (2.3 dollars) by the factory to a retail shop. I saw the label myself just before it was being packed and sent off!" she says. "If we refuse or complain of low rates, the contractor will take the order elsewhere."

She adds: "We work so hard, even longer and then we do housework too. Why are we paid a pittance? Just because we don’t go to factories does not mean our work does not count?"

But things seem to be looking up for the HBWs like Mumtaz. Late last year, a National Policy on Home-Based Workers was formulated. It is expected to help the informal sector finally get some of the benefits that are otherwise unavailable to them at the moment.

The Ministry of Women Development, Ministry of Labour and Manpower, Sungi and HomeNet Pakistan have signed a memorandum of understanding, mandating them to work together on the legislation and implementation of the policy, says Ravji.

Until then, life for many informal workers like Khatoon, Jamal and Mumtaz will remain steeped in poverty.

After I posted the Neko Chigura traditional Japanese cat bed a couple of weeks ago, many readers expressed disappointment because it is not available in the US. Well, here we have something similar, a woven pet basket from Design Within Reach. This beautiful and simple piece was designed by weaver Heather Dalrymple who is know for her Shaker style basket weaving. The clean lines of this bed make it perfect for a modern interior, plus it has special details like the handles on top making it easy to move, a removable fleece lining, and a wooden base for stability. All that for $135.00 US.

Available from Design Within Reach. Thanks to Lisa for the tip.

British artist Karie-Ann Cooper is a true animal lover and it shows in her pet portraits. She specializes in graphite and colored pencil portraits, and she always starts with the eyes, because she feels the eyes are the most important part of any portrait.

In addition to pet portraits, Karie-Ann also draws wildlife, which she has access to every day working for the Forestry Commission in the Royal Forest of Dean.

You can contact Karie-Ann if you are interested in commissioning her to draw a portrait of your pet.

Wade Roush wrote:

Before the week gets away from me, I wanted to make brief note of an interesting piece of news yesterday out of Brightcove, the Cambridge-based provider of online distribution platforms for video publishers. Hundreds of companies use the Brightcove 4 platform to organize their video content online and serve it up on demand to Internet users, using Adobe’s Flash Player 9 technology. Today the company introduced a new set of services designed to make it easier for customers to join “TV Everywhere.” That’s a system being rolled out by two cable-industry giants—Comcast and Time Warner—that’s ultimately designed to keep everyone who isn’t a cable or satellite TV subscriber from watching certain premium Internet video content.

One key aspect of the TV Everywhere standard would be an authentication system that checks whether Internet users who arrive at a video provider’s site are paying cable or satellite subscribers before allowing them to access shows. If Fox.com joined the TV Everywhere program, for example, you might need to flash your credentials as a Comcast or Time Warner customer before watching online episodes of 24 or Fringe or Glee (all of which you can now watch for free, unauthenticated).

Brightcove’s so-called TV Everywhere Solution Pack (TVE-SP) is intended to help existing or future Brightcove customers get ready for a TV Everywhere universe by providing, among other things, just such an authentication system. As part of a new strategic alliance, Brightcove’s authentication technology will be provided by Ping Identity, a federated identity software company with offices in Denver, Waltham, MA, and Vancouver, BC.

For some context, I caught up today with Eric Elia, a Brightcove veteran who was just promoted to vice president of TV solutions to oversee the TVE-SP program. Elia says the TV Everywhere Solution Pack isn’t necessarily something Brightcove would have dreamed up on its own, but that customers were asking the company for help. “Our customers really asked us to jump into the TV Everywhere side of the business to make their operations smoother as they enter this new world,” Elia says.

TVE-SP, he says, is designed to help both traditional programmers—the companies behind the channels up and down your cable lineup—and newer, non-traditional Internet video distributors, such as Netflix or Amazon or Apple. “We help with all the levels of the stack—managing media, making sure it gets served up in the right way in the right players, integrating advertising,” Elias says. In other words, “All the pieces you need to make video part of your online business as you layer in authentication, which adds a whole new level of complexity.”

Fair enough—there’s every reason why video publishers would turn to a specialist like Brightcove for help with such matters. But my big question for Elia was whether, in effect, the new “solution pack” means Brightcove is attempting to play on both teams in the turf battles over Internet video access.

Technologies like the Brightcove 4 platform undergird the explosion in Internet video, which allows consumers to access almost any TV show they want, on demand, through programmer-provided sites like Fox.com or Hulu. But operators like Comcast and Time Warner obviously aren’t thrilled about this revolution, since it means consumers (like me) can cancel their cable or satellite subscriptions and still get video content over their Internet connections. The TVE-SP service, in effect, paves the way for the cable and satellite operators to recapture this rogue content.

But Elia doesn’t quite see it that way; in his view, Brightcove is just responding to a need expressed by its customers, and helping to make sure that consumers still have access to their favorite Internet video content.

“If you go to Fox.com you can watch last week’s 24, powered by Brightcove,” he says. “That is an unauthenticated experience, and over the past few years that’s what people have come to expect from their Internet service. If anything, we have been playing in that space and helping to direct it. But the TV Everywhere opportunity is one that has naturally arisen for a lot of reasons. One, it’s in response to consumer demand for a really great [combined cable/Internet] experience, with a lot of great depth and content. Two, it’s to protect existing business models, where it takes a lot of money and predictable revenues for these great shows to get created—we’re talking about billions of dollars in carriage fees and billing fees and advertising.”

Ultimately, Brightcove just wants to serve its customers, whether or not they buy into the TV Everywhere vision, Elia says. “If it’s in the programmers’ business interest to distribute to either place, our goal is to help them both strategically and tactically with the tools and services we’re bringing to market.”

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London, U.K. | Strange Statues

In the fall of 1854, 500 people died in just ten days in the center of London in the worst of a series of cholera outbreaks. At the time, the way that cholera spread was a mystery, generally attributed to “miasma”, or bad air. Dr. John Snow, however, had a different theory: the drinking water was killing people.

In the 19th century, drinking water was provided to residents by several competing water companies who operated public pumps in water districts around the city. Most of these companies pumped their water directly out of the polluted Thames river.

London had suffered a series of debilitating cholera outbreaks before the 1853 outbreak, including serious outbreaks in 1832 and the worst outbreak which killed some 14,137 residents in 1849. That year Snow published his first paper outlining his theory of water-borne disease. In 1854 he got the chance to test his theory.

After studying the patterns of deaths and plotting their locations on a map overlaid with the various water districts, he identified one water pump on Broad Street as a potential cause. This particular pump was supplied by a company that drew water from an uncontaminated part of the Thames, which led him to the conclusion that it must be a problem with the pump itself, not the overall water supply. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that the Broad Street pump was only a few feet from an open cesspool, and residents reported that the water has smelled foul a few days earlier. After appealing to community leaders, he took matters into his own hands and removed the handle to the pump.

According to popular legend that sprang up in the years following the epidemic, the outbreak immediately ended once the handle was removed. In reality, the outbreak was already in decline, and the specifc contamination that had triggered the outbreak had probably come and gone. This fact was pointed out by Reverent Henry Whitehead, a local priest and fellow member of the parish inquiry committee who had initially been a critic of Snow, but after his own investigation came to support Snow’s conclusions. He said:

“I must not omit to mention that if the removal of the pump-handle had nothing to do with checking the outbreak which had already run its course, it had probably everything to do with preventing a new outbreak, for the father of the infant, who slept in the same kitchen, was attacked with cholera on the very day (September 8th) on which the pump-handle was removed. There can be no doubt that his discharges found their way into the cesspool and thence to the well. But, thanks to Dr. Snow, the handle was then gone.”

In 1855 Snow went on to publish a monograph outlining his theory of water borne disease. His map showing the pattern of death, indicated by small black marks, related to the city’s water pumps became famous. Reverent Whitehead also did further research, learning in April of that year that a child on Broad Street had become ill and died at the same time that the outbreak had started. He concluded that it was the washing of soiled diapers into drains which flowed to the communal cesspool that contaminated the pump and started the outbreak. Snow’s map was modified to include the child’s death, bringing the number of dead at the residence to five.

The pump that now stands on the re-named Broadwick Street is not the original pump, but a replica placed there in 1992 as a memorial. The place of the original pump, closer to the back of the John Snow pub at Lexington Street is marked with a red granite paver.

Every year members of the John Snow Society hold “Pumphandle Lectures” on subjects of public health, accompanied by a ceremony of removing and then re-attaching the pump handle.

Upstairs at the John Snow pub, there is a collection of materials related to the life and works of Dr. John Snow. As Snow was a teetotaler, he may or may not have approved.

Dr. Snow died at age 45 only a few years after the cholera outbreak, while working on a paper about the effects of Chloroform and other Anaesthetics. It has been suggested that his first-hand research into the subject may have lead to his early demise. He was buried at Brompton Cemetery in London, where there is still a marker dedicated to him.

Inspired by Avatar, this crafty fellow created his own version of the Pandora jungle. Made using conductive thread, fiber optic strands, and LEDs, he built a rather impressive looking patch of grass that lights up when you touch it. I’m not sure what the practical usage of this would be, but it’s one of those projects that is just cool to look at.

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Time to bust out that wallet and preorder that new Leica! The M9 is now available for pre-order, and it’s pretty impressive. 18 megapixel, using a custom designed sensor from Kodak, the M9 is a digital viewfinder camera, and part of Leica’s new line.

The M9’s sensor was created by Kodak, and is a full frame size based off of a 35mm film frame. The body also uses the standard Leica M mount, making it backwards compatible with other products from Leica’s M line. The camera is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com for the very special price of $6995.00

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