Amazing Body scanner that sizes you up for perfect fit

Amazing Technology plays an integral part in fashion, right from the sketching board to your closet — clothes that glow and sparkle and designs that change with your touch. That is the latest technology from Philips.
Philips has developed a glass chamber called the Intellifit Body Scanner. It works just like your neighborhood tailor, except it sizes you up with radio waves instead of a measuring tape. That means, perfect fitting clothes every time. And this is coming soon to a mall near you.
The best part is Intellifit issues a smart card that stores all your measurements so it can be used every time you shop. Or if you want your boyfriend or someone else to shop for you online, just give them your user name and password to access your size details.
For the problem of the stores that don't stock your size, this is the perfect solution. Shop floor arguments will soon be history with a radio frequency chip, with everything there is to know about a piece of garment recorded inside the chip. Tagged to every garment, the salesperson will know immediately if they have your size and where exactly in the store to find it.
CEO Avaana Software Bimal Sareen, says “RFID will allow the shopkeeper to recognize the clothes you take into the changing room, and flash matching accessories on the mirror for you that have been matched by a designer.”
Of course, fashion and technology are much deeply intertwined. What once took hours of sketching is today achieved in minutes on a designer's desktop.
Fashion Designer JJ Valaya,says, “Software like Photoshop and CorelDraw allow us to see many versions of a drawing with we couldn't do earlier. It now helps us to produce much faster.”
Once a design is completed, it’s uploaded onto the web through software like WFX. After global partners approve it, it’s then sent to the factory floor, where the smallest of details like, cut, color, measurements are faithfully reproduced. Thus, every garment that reaches the shop floor ends up exactly the way the designer wanted it.
Director, WFX, Jatin Paul, adds, “It is not uncommon for large brands like Nike or Gap to cancel million dollars worth of Shipments because a sleeve is too long or a pocket manufactured is crooked. Technology like WFX stops this from happening. “
Who knew so much technology was involved in helping one select the perfect outfit.

London Inn offers free stay for Marys and Josephs

London: Josephs and Marys in search of a room at the inn this Christmas are being made an offer they can't refuse.
A British hotel chain is promising free accommodation to couples who share their first names with the couple from the Christian Nativity story.
Almost 30 Josephs and Marys have already signed up for the free night's stay at the Travelodge, said Shakila Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the hotel chain.
"The 'gift' of free night's stay is to make up for the hotel industry not having any rooms left on Christmas Eve over 2000 years ago when the original 'Mary and Joseph' had to settle for the night in a stable," the company says on its Web site.
The offer is good at any one of the chain's 322 hotels in the United Kingdom, the Web site says. The couples must bring proof of identity and must prove that they are in a long-term relationship.
"If you satisfy the criteria, you get a free night in a family room for two adults and two children," Ahmed said. "There's also parking space for a donkey if needed," she joked.
Ahmed said the offer, which will run from Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night — December 24 to January 5 — had been very well-received.
"We've had a lot of interest. I think people like the fact that it resonates with the Nativity story at a time when the actual meaning of Christmas often becomes forgotten in festive overkill," she said.
Couples can register their names at a special e-mail address set up by Travelodge, which has hotels across the Britain, Ireland and Spain, Ahmed said.

Cyclone Sidr damaged 40% of Sundarbans: UNESCO

Cyclone Sidr that left more than 3,000 people dead as it raged through Bangladesh in November has devastated the Sundarbans World Heritage Site, UNESCO has said.
A report prepared by the UN body found "serious damage" after its experts visited the mangrove forest on the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, spread between Bangladesh and India.
"The experts found that 40 per cent of the site has been seriously damaged by Cyclone Sidr. It struck at the heart of the East Sundarbans, the biologically richest part of the Bangladeshi World Heritage property," UNESCO said.
"Foliage has been stripped from the branches of trees in over 30 per cent of the property. Large trees have been felled by the wind and the crowns of many others have been severely damaged," it added.
A complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands intersects the 140,000-hectare Sundarbans, one of the largest mangrove ecosystems in the world.
It is home to a wide range of fauna, including 260 species of birds, the Bengal tiger and other threatened species such as the estuarine crocodile and the Indian python.
UNESCO experts who visited the world heritage expressed their concern that this development would help poachers do further damage to the ecosystem.
"Poaching and other intrusions could jeopardise the regeneration of the Sundarbans ecosystem, which should normally take 10 to 15 years," the report stated.
The November 15 cyclone that left Orissa and West Bengal untouched - contrary to meteorological predictions - damaged field stations and many boats in Bangladesh.
Several pieces of equipment of the Bangladeshi forest department in the area have been washed out to sea by the storm, severely compromising the authority's capacity to manage the site, which was inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1997.
The Sundarbans are breeding grounds for fish, shrimp and crab, which migrate to areas beyond the site boundary, providing livelihood for 300,000 people in the area, the UN body explained.

Wikipedia faces Google-y, rival Knol launched

Web search leader Google Inc is testing an Internet site for sharing knowledge about any subject under the sun, one that could eventually compete with the popular user-edited encyclopedia Wikipedia.
Google's "knol" project started earlier this week and is working with a group of writers by invitation only, Google vice president of engineering Udi Manber wrote in a company blog post.
"There are millions of people who possess useful knowledge that they would love to share, and there are billions of people who can benefit from it," Manber said in the post.
"The goal is for knols to cover all topics, from scientific concepts, to medical information ... to how-to-fix-it instructions."
The word "knol" is used to refer to the project and to an entry on the shared website.
Google's site will identify the authors posting the information. It will not serve as an editor of the information or endorse what is written on the site.
The site will eventually be opened to the general public and allow users to submit comments, questions or edits, as well as rate posts.
Knol writers will be able to include ads in their posts, sharing the revenue with Google.
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is working on a community- developed Web search service that would compete with search engines such as Google and Yahoo Inc.

Prez Bush might just be on 'The Simpsons' show

Prez Bush will now be on 'The Simpsons' show
IANS
And now for the final feather in the cap for faux pas king, US President Bush. After making repeated headlines with his gaffes, goof-ups and bloopers, seems like Pres Bush might just meet his animated-television twin, Homer Simpson.
Popular animated comedy series, The Simpsons writer James L Brooks is hoping to get US President George Bush to appear on the show.
Thesun.co.uk reports Brooks as saying: "A vulnerable moment with George would be great. You cannot go wrong with George. George and Homer, George and Bart, even George and Comic Book Guy. We've never got a US president. We will take any US president willing to pass his or her love of us."
Brooks is one of the original writers of the show and was in Britain promoting The Simpsons Movie, which he co-wrote and co-produced.
Talking about the movie he said: "One of the toughest things was we cared so much and our profile was so high that it became intimidating. For a while we had to work to get past it and then we could start having fun."
So far while many celebrities have made their appearance on The Simpsons, no US president has been seen on the show. Given how Pres Bush is a favourite topic for lampooning for media, commentators and cartoonists, having him on the show will be a coup of sorts for The Simpsons.