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   Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
   honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
   a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
   eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
   5 folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
   Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
   gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
   meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
   an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
   10 one.
   Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
   the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
   the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
   population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
   15 skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
   creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
   Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
   "Android science."
   Besides the justification for making robots
   20 anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
   environments with architectural features such as stairs,
   Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
   humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
   natural communication. "Appearance is very important
   25 to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
   says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
   media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
   our future is to interact naturally with people."
   Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
   30 aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
   computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
   for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
   Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
   Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
   35 to understand more about ourselves.
   To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
   Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
   cognitive science research can use the robot to study
   human perception, communication and other faculties.
   40 This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
   as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
   collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
   humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
   standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
   45 neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
   to implement processes that support it in the android."
   One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
   his artificial creations on real people. He began research
   four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
   50 casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
   mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
   Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
   people's comfort zones. Because the android's
   appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
   55 differences in motion and responses will make it seem
   strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
   overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
   natural way it moves.
   Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
   60 authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
   thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
   he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
   teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
   Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
   65 Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
   answering his own questions.
   
   adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006

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   How to dig out from the information avalanche
   Majority of workers feel overwhelmed by deluge of data,
   survey finds
   By Eve Tahmincioglu
   updated 8:18 p.m. ET March 16, 2008
   Don't expect Shaun Osher, the CEO of Core Group
   Marketing in New York, to answer your e-mail right away.
   He has stopped responding to e-mails every minute and
   only checks his e-mail account twice a day. He also started
   turning off his BlackBerry during meetings.
   This tactic has made him so much more productive
   that earlier this year he held a meeting with his staff of 50
   and "strongly suggested" that they stop relying so heavily
   on e-mail and actually start calling clients on the phone.
   And, he requested his employees put cell phones and
   PDAs on silent mode during meetings, as well as curtail
   the common practice of cc-ing everybody when sending
   out an e-mail. "There was so much redundancy, so much
   unnecessary work," he explains. "One person could handle
   an issue that should take two minutes, but when an email
   goes out and five people get cc-ed, then everybody
   responds to it and there's a snowball effect."
   It's not that Osher has anything against technology. In
   fact, he loves it. The problem is, last year he realized he
   was inundated with so many e-mails and so much
   information in general that he began to experience data
   overload. "In the beginning, e-mail and all this data was a
   great phenomenon, revolutionizing what we do. But the
   pendulum has swung way too much to the other side," he
   maintains. "We're less productive."
   Osher isn't the only one out there under a data
   avalanche. Thanks to technological innovations, you can
   be talking to a customer on your cell phone, answering a
   LinkedIn invitation on your laptop, and responding to email
   on your PDA all at the same time. Besides, during
   tough economic times, who will want to miss any
   information when your job could be on the line if you indulge
   in the luxury of being offline? Turns out, seven out of 10
   office workers in the United States feel overwhelmed by
   information in the workplace, and more than two in five
   say they are headed for a data "breaking point," according
   to a recently released Workplace Productivity Survey.
   Mike Walsh, CEO of LexisNexis U.S. Legal Markets,
   says there are a host of reasons we're all on the information
   brink: "exponential growth of the size of the information
   'haystack,' the immensity and immediacy of digital
   communications, and the fact that professionals are not
   being provided with sufficient tools and training to help
   them keep pace with the growing information burden."
   Ellen Kossek, a professor from Michigan State, believes
   we are less productive in this age of 24-7 technology, and
   our multitasking mentality has spawned a "not-mentallypresent"
   society. "We're becoming an attention-deficit
   disorder society switching back and forth like crazy,"
   Kossek says. "We're connected all the time. We're
   working on planes, in coffee shops, working on the
   weekends. Work is very seductive, but yet we're actually
   less effective."
   The key to getting your head above the data flood,
   according to workplace experts, is managing and reducing
   the information you're bombarded with.
   
   © 2008 MSNBC Interactive - (slightly adapted)
   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23...

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   Reducing the dependence on oil
   Ildo Sauer, Gas and Energy Director, Petrobras.

   Brazil's energy sector is following the worldwide
   tendency towards greater diversification of primary energy
   sources and the increased use of natural gas and
   biofuels. There are several reasons for this change. The
   most important are the environmental restrictions that
   are gradually being adopted in the world's principal
   energy-consuming markets and the need to reduce the
   dependence on oil, set against a scenario of accelerated
   depletion in oil reserves and escalating prices.
   The share of gas in Brazilian primary energy
   consumption has more than doubled in a short period,
   increasing from 4.1% in 1999 to 8.9% in 2004, and this
   share is forecast to rise to 12% by 2010.
   Over the past two decades, the world gas industry
   has experienced a structural and regulatory
   transformation. These changes have altered the strategic
   behaviour of gas firms, with an intensification of
   competition, the search for diversification (especially in
   the case of power generation) and the internationalisation
   of industry activities. Together, these changes have
   radically changed the economic environment and the level
   of competition in the industry.
   Brazil's gas industry is characterised by its late
   development, although in recent years, internal supply
   imports and demand have grown significantly - the
   growth trajectory of recent years exceeds that of countries
   with more mature markets, such as Spain, Argentina,
   the UK and the US. And the outlook is positive for
   continued growth over the next few years, particularly
   when set against the investment plans already
   announced in Brazil.
   The country has a small transportation network
   concentrated near the coast. The distribution network is
   concentrated in the major consumption centres.
   Domestic gas sources are largely offshore in the Campos
   basin and Bolivia provides imports. Given the degree
   of gas penetration in the country's primary energy
   consumption, the industry is poorly developed when
   compared with other countries. The industry requires
   heavy investment in expanding the transport and
   distribution (T&D) networks, as well as in diversifying and
   increasing its supplies. Such investments are necessary
   for realising the industry's enormous potential.
   Another key industry highlight is the changing profile
   of gas supply. A large part of the gas produced
   domestically to date has been associated with oil
   production. The latter diluting or even totally absorbing
   the costs of exploiting the gas. In most cases, gas
   production was feasible only in conjunction with oil
   production activities. However, the country's latest gas
   finds are non-associated. Thus, an exclusively dedicated
   structure must be developed to produce this gas -
   translating into a significant rise in production costs. This
   is more significant when analysed against the high costs
   associated with the market for exploration and production
   (E&P) sector equipment. In recent years, the leasing costs
   of drilling rigs and E&P equipment have been climbing in
   parallel with escalating oil prices. This directly affects endconsumer
   prices.
   In a world of primary energy consumption
   diversification, of greater environmental restrictions and
   the reduced dependence on oil, Brazil has been seeking
   to develop alternative energy sources - principally natural
   gas and biofuels. The gas industry holds enormous
   potential for Brazil, although there is still a long way to go
   before it reaches maturity and major investment is
   required.
   

   World Energy in 2006. copyright © 2006, World Energy Council.
   p.29-31 (adapted)

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   REPORT: BIOFUELS POISED TO DISPLACE OIL
   
   Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel can
   significantly reduce global dependence on oil, according
   to a new report by the Worldwatch Institute.
   Last year, world biofuel production surpassed 670,000
   barrels per day, the equivalent of about 1 percent of the
   global transport fuel market. Although oil still accounts for
   more than 96 percent of transport fuel use, biofuel
   production has doubled since 2001 and is poised for even
   stronger growth as the industry responds to higher fuel
   prices and supportive government policies. "Coordinated
   action to expand biofuel markets and advance new
   technologies could relieve pressure on oil prices while
   strengthening agricultural economies and reducing climatealtering
   emissions," says Worldwatch Institute President
   Christopher Flavin.
   Brazil is the world's biofuel leader, with half of its
   sugar cane crop providing more than 40 percent of its nondiesel
   transport fuel. In the United States, where 15 percent
   of the corn crop provides about 2 percent of the non-diesel
   transport fuel, ethanol production is growing even more
   rapidly. This surging growth may allow the U.S. to overtake
   Brazil as the world's biofuel leader this year. Both countries
   are now estimated to be producing ethanol at less than
   the current cost of gasoline.
   Figures cited in the report reveal that biofuels could
   provide 37 percent of U.S. transport fuel within the next 25
   years, and up to 75 percent if automobile fuel economy
   doubles. Biofuels could replace 20-30 percent of the oil
   used in European Union countries during the same time
   frame.
   As the first-ever global assessment of the potential
   social and environmental impacts of biofuels, Biofuels for
   Transportation warns that the large-scale use of biofuels
   carries significant agricultural and ecological risks. "It is
   essential that government incentives be used to minimize
   competition between food and fuel crops and to discourage
   expansion onto ecologically valuable lands," says
   Worldwatch Biofuels Project Manager Suzanne Hunt.
   However, the report also finds that biofuels have the potential
   to increase energy security, create new economic
   opportunities in rural areas, and reduce local pollution and
   emissions of greenhouse gases.
   The long-term potential of biofuels is in the use of
   non-food feedstock that include agricultural, municipal, and
   forestry wastes as well as fast-growing, cellulose-rich
   energy crops such as switchgrass. It is expected that the
   combination of cellulosic biomass resources and "nextgeneration"
   biofuel conversion technologies will compete
   with conventional gasoline and diesel fuel without subsidies
   in the medium term.
   The report recommends policies to accelerate the
   development of biofuels, while maximizing the benefits and
   minimizing the risks. Recommendations include:
   strengthening the market (i.e. focusing on market
   development, infrastructure development, and the building
   of transportation fleets that are able to use the new fuels),
   speeding the transition to next-generation
   technologies allowing for dramatically increased
   production at lower cost, and facilitating sustainable
   international biofuel trade, developing a true
   international market unimpeded by the trade restrictions
   in place today.
   
   Worldwatch Institute - June 7, 2006.
   Adapted from: http://www.worldwatch.org/node...

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