May 2005 Edition
PAY-AS-YOU-GO
Businesses are now able to access the formidable computing power of Blue Gene, the world's most powerful supercomputer. IBM is making Blue Gene time available for as little as US$10,000, with a $5,000 annual membership in IBMs capacity-on-demand centre. Blue Gene offers the computing equivalent of 2,000 desktop or laptop computers.
FINGERS
Customers of a German supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the checkout. The scanners compare the person's fingerprint with those stored on its database and debits the bank account it has on record. The company estimates this process will save up to 40 seconds normally spent accepting money or credit cards.
PRESCRIPTIONS
Canadians spend about C$16-billion on prescription drugs, an amount that accounts for nearly 15 per cent of all health services, and is more than they spend on physician services. The outlay on drugs has increased at a double-digit rate every year for almost a generation.
COUNTERFEIT
Russia recently destroyed 50-million cigarettes in its uphill battle against counterfeit production. According to Russian tax authorities, one in three cigarettes sold in Russia are counterfeit. Russia's crackdown is part of Moscow's attempt to join the World Trade Organization. Russia remains the largest economy outside the WTO that sets rules for global trade.
WORK
A Families and Work Institute report states that one in three American workers is chronically overworked. More than half of the workers surveyed said they are often handling too many tasks at the same time, or are frequently interrupted during the workday or both. Employees at companies that have gone through layoffs were more likely to be overworked--42 per cent versus 27 percent of those at companies where payrolls remained steady.
STORAGE
Self-storage facilities in the U.S. numbered about 8,000 in the mid-1980s, and experts now put that figure at between 40,000 and 50,000. This is now a US$17-billion-a-year business, bigger even than the motion-picture production business.
FISH
Canada's fish and seafood exports to 120 countries totalled C$4.5 billion in 2004. Seafood is the largest single food commodity exported by Canada which is now the fifth largest seafood exporter in the world. The U.S. remains Canada's largest export destination with nearly two-thirds of its seafood products, valued at $2.8 billion, sold to the U.S. market. Japan ranked second with Canadian seafood imports valued at nearly $500-million.
WIRELESS
The growth of wireless Internet usage in 2004 was 29 per cent. 171 million people, or 44 per cent, in the 12 key global markets accessed the Internet by wireless. Japan with 54 per cent of users was the largest followed by South Korea at 28 per cent. Canada was fourth at 14 per cent just behind the U.S. at 20 per cent. The primary wireless activities were: text messaging, 50 per cent and e-mail, 35 per cent.
VALUE
Rising real estate prices and a resurgent stock market pushed the net wealth of American households to a record US$48.5-trillion in the last quarter of 2004, up nearly $2-trillion over the previous quarter. In Canada, the figure was C$44.3 trillion, also an increase, giving each person a net worth of $132,500. The national net worth is defined as the sum of the net worth of persons, corporations and government.
WEATHER
Using new software and one of the world's 100 fastest supercomputers is expected to help Canada make more accurate weather forecasts. The Meteorological Service of Canada is now utilizing a new technology called 4DVAR. It stands for four-dimensional variation data assimilation, and literally adds an extra dimension--time--to the mathematical models of the atmosphere that meteorologists use to prepare forecasts. The accuracy of forecasting has been increasing steadily over the past 25 or 30 years.
NAMES
Both sides have claimed victory in a trade fight pitting the U.S. and Australia against the European Union centering on the right of foreign exporters to use geographic food names to describe their products in European markets. The EU says that only foods produced in their original regions can carry certain well-known labels, Parma ham produced near the Italian city of Parma for instance. The WTO found fault with some parts of the EU's current rules. The EU is trying to protect 600 regional food names and 4,000 wines with names like bologna and champagne.
WATER
Londoners may face water shortages within a decade unless action is taken to stem leaks. The capital loses almost one billion litres of water each day before it reaches the customer, 40 per cent of the national total.
CARS
A famous Dutch rally driver and car dealer expects to sell about 2,000 of the first Chinese cars in Europe this year at almost half the price of their nearest competitor. China's Jiangling Landwind Motor is to sell its sports utility vehicle in 27 European countries at a time when Europe's car makers are suffering from weak demand amid consumer belt-tightening. It is expected that the final retail price will be below US$24,000.
LOGISTICS
New technologies, elevated food safety concerns and the growth of mass merchandisers are all factoring into a rapidly changing logistics environment for U.S. food distributors and retailers. Total distribution expenses comprise 3.03 per cent of sales, but there is a significant difference in costs as a percentage of sales between the traditional food distributor and the self-distributing chains, 3.64 versus 2.67 per cent. Labour costs are the biggest expense in operating a modern food distribution centre.
HAPPINESS
Young British women rank happiness and the desire to spend more time with their children as top priorities--even at the cost of reduced career ambitions and a lower income. 70 per cent of 1,500 women polled said they did not want to work as hard as their mother's generation.
TEXTILES
There are calls around the world for fresh restraints on China's textile exports now that the first figures are in which show the effect of a broad lifting of textile quotas earlier in the year. According to China's Chamber of Commerce, January 2005 apparel exports to the U.S. totalled $989-million, up 80 per cent from the same period the year before and exports to the EU climbed 47 per cent in the same period. Export of some products rose significantly higher than the overall trend. Exports to the EU of women's shirts and blouses more than tripled while prices tumbled 41 per cent.
IT
According to a recent survey, Canadian companies, under pressure to cut costs, plan to shrink their spending on information technology to about $44.6-billion in 2005 down by about five per cent from 2003. However, expenditures on outsourcing, which is growing increasingly popular, will be five per cent higher than in 2003 and will account for 49 per cent of all IT spending.
JAPAN
Canadian and Japanese officials have quietly begun negotiating the terms of a study that could lead to a free-trade agreement within the next few years. The road to a potential deal is reported as being risky and obstacle-strewn but it could allow Canada to leapfrog ahead of the U.S. and become one of the first Western countries to secure a free-trade agreement with Japan. Agriculture, as always, looms as the biggest threat to a possible deal. Some analysts say that Japan is unlikely to drop its traditional policy of shielding its farmers from foreign competition.
PATENTS
Last year, IBM was awarded 3,248 patents by America's patent office, a hefty 68 per cent more than second-place Matsushita. IBM has been at the top of the list for 12 years in a row. In the past decade, Japan has regularly fielded the most firms in the annual top ten. The only other country represented in the top ten is South Korea. In recent years, there has been a change to the American roster with industrial stalwarts like General Electric, Kodak and Motorola giving way to Micron Technology, Intel and HP.
DOGS
This year is seeing new treats for dogs. American pet product manufacturers are promoting bacon-flavoured popcorn snacks for dogs. Also on the market is a Talking Bone Dog Toy which records the owners voice and replays it when the hound chews it.
SLEEP
People in Asia burn the midnight oil, going to sleep later than most Americans and Europeans, then waking up earlier. A poll of 14,100 people in 28 countries and regions from Asia to the U.S. and Europe showed that 40 per cent of people in Asia only go to sleep after midnight, compared with 34 per cent in the U.S,. and 34 per cent in Europe. Asia is also the earliest to rise with the Japanese the most sleep deprived.
PROBOTICS
These live micro-organisms that confer health benefits when administered in adequate amounts are popping up in everyday products. It's believed that they play a role in digestive health and may strengthen the immune system. In England, where many probotic items are available, sales of probotic drinks rose over 50 per cent last year and are worth over US$300-million. One supermarket chain reported that probotic drinks were their fastest growing dairy food product.
BUREAUCRATS
There are now 46 million government bureaucrats in China at a cost to the nation, before salaries of US$100-billion. The excessive and corrupt bureaucracy was regarded as one of the principle causes of the decline of imperial rule. Yet there are now 35 times as many people on the government payroll as a proportion of the population. Corruption aside, today's civil servants are also expensive, requiring official cars, holidays masquerading as training sessions and receptions.
POKER
Two paintings from the well-known series depicting dogs playing poker have fetched US$590,400 at auction in New York. It had been estimated that the two pictures would bring between $30,000 to $50,000. The works depict moments in a game played by five dogs, among them a St. Bernard who ends up collecting the pot on a bluff.
EDIBLE
Sushi at the Moto restaurant in New York often contains no fish. It is prepared on a Canon i560 inkjet printer rather than a cutting board. The chef prints images of maki on pieces of edible paper made of soybeans and cornstarch, using organic food based inks of his own concoction. He then flavours the back of the paper with powdered soy and seaweed seasonings. Even the restaurants menu is edible.
1904
Only 14 per cent of US homes had a bathtub and eight per cent had a telephone and the population of Las Vegas was 30.
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