Lingerie Maker Stops Smoking with High-Tech Underwear
Swiss lingerie maker Triumph International has created anti-smoking bras and panties in an attempt to stop smoking and reduce its negative effects. The "Anti-Smoking Manifesto Bra" comes with capsules containing lavender and jasmine fragrances mounted in the cleavage. The fragances calm the nerves of those quitting and ruin the taste of cigarettes for those who haven't quit. The underwear is coated with liquefied titanium oxide, which attacks and breaks down cigarette smoke. Also: A pad attached to the bra can be used as a face mask in smoky bars. The no-smoking knickers are on display at this week's Spring and Summer 2004 New Model Exhibition in Tokyo.
Answer: A marketing and media machine. VNU Media Measurement and Information Group summarizes the global media and marketing impact of the Matrix trilogy since its release in January 1999. "The Matrix" and "The Matrix: Reloaded" have together grossed more than $450 million in the U.S. alone. More than $60 million has been spent advertising all three films. The original Matrix has ranked among the top 100 DVDs every week since 1999. "The Matrix: Reloaded" DVD became the fifth highest selling DVD ever after just one week on the market. In May 2003, when "The Matrix Reloaded" was released the movie's official web site www.whatisthematrix.com attracted over 1.7 million unique visitors. In September, as the release of "Matrix Revolutions" approached, the site attracted 381,000 unique visitors. Soundtracks for the films "The Matrix" and "The Matrix Reloaded" combined have sold more than two million copies in the U.S. to date. The first soundtrack "The Matrix" sold 67,000 copies the first week of its release and has 1.5 million to date. The second soundtrack, "The Matrix Reloaded" sold 94,000 copies the first week of its release and 563,000 copies to date. In 2000, "The Matrix", drew the highest number of viewers -- 7.1 million -- among all movies that aired on cable. As Neo would say: "Whoa."
Australian fisheries investigators caught poachers recently by inserting locator microchips inside protected fish, then tracking them to the poacher's freezer. Victoria state Fisheries Minister Bob Cameron told reporters recently that officers inserted microchips under the skin of golden perch and murray cod, and when the fish went missing, tracked them to the home of poachers, who were arrested.
Goofing off and playing computer games at work is good for you and good for your company, according to Scientists from the University of Utrecht. They found that games improve morale and make people like their jobs more.
A sexually frustrated geek issues a "call to arms" on the Transparent Smoke blog to oppose overzealous re-engineering of humans in magazine photos using Adobe Photoshop. As an example, he points out how sloppy Maxim Magazine is getting. It's no secret that "lad" magazines upgrade photos of women to enhance their figures, but at least they could do a better job than this. A picture of Kata Dobo standing in front of a wall of bathroom tiles shows clearly how the photo editors bent the tiles as they were enhancing her figure. A Photoshop job like this takes all of five seconds to complete.
U.K. Cops Get Handheld Access to 'Big Brother' Cams
Police officers in Sheffield are participating in a trial that involves handheld computers that can access pictures from 150 cameras installed all over the city. If the test is successful, it may be rolled out to cops nationwide.
Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd announced a wireless LAN-capable handheld with a 4-inch SVGA LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels. The gadget supports 802.11b, Bluetooth and infrared, as well as Compact Flash. Interestingly, the PDA is designed to enable remote control of a desktop PC while you're away from your desk. A "zoom" feature enables users to zero in on and scroll through information on the higher-resolution desktop PC display.
Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo's Multimedia Laboratories division has invented the world's first wristwatch phone that works by bone conduction. Called Finger Whisper, the phone works by converting the sound that would normally go into a phone's speaker into vibrations in the wrist and hand bones. You stick your finger in your ear to hear the caller. With a finger in your ear, the microphone is close enough to your mouth to pick up the sound of your voice. Voice recognition enables users to dial, and users hang up by touching forefinger to thumb. Folks, I'm not making this up! The phone is currently in the prototype stage.
Wal-Mart to Launch iTunes-like Music Download Service
Everybody's doing it. Even McDonalds! Wal-Mart plans to launch an iTunes-like music service by the end of the year, according to insiders. The service will be available on its walmart.com web site. It's expected that Wal-Mart will offer songs far cheaper than, say, Apple's 99-cents-per song price, presumably by staffing the service with illegal aliens.
Question: What can Microsoft bring to the global fight against computer viruses? Answer: Truckloads of cash. The Redmond company announced today that it would give $500,000 to whomever gives info that leads to the arrest of the MSBlast and Sobig authors.
Eggheads to Build, Then Wreck, Own Little Internet
Professors at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California have been given almost $5.5 million in grant money to build a model Internet for the purposes of hacking. They want to tinker with methods for crashing the whole Internet and doing widespread damage, and can't risk such experiments on the real Internet. The departmental sugar daddies for this are the National Science Foundation and -- who else? -- the new Department of Homeland Security.
Japan's Fuji Photo Film plans to ship December 14 a "palmtop" size printer for camera phone pictures. Called the Cheki Printer NP-1, the puny printer receives print jobs via a camera's infrared port, and spits out color prints at 480x640 dpi. Two CR2 lithium batteries power 100 prints.
Swiss lingerie maker Triumph International has created anti-smoking bras and panties in an attempt to stop smoking and reduce its negative effects. The "Anti-Smoking Manifesto Bra" comes with capsules containing lavender and jasmine fragrances mounted in the cleavage. The fragances calm the nerves of those quitting and ruin the taste of cigarettes for those who haven't quit. The underwear is coated with liquefied titanium oxide, which attacks and breaks down cigarette smoke. Also: A pad attached to the bra can be used as a face mask in smoky bars. The no-smoking knickers are on display at this week's Spring and Summer 2004 New Model Exhibition in Tokyo. 
Fujitsu Prototype PDA Sports 800x600 Display
