Tomorrow's Newspapers Online 09-17-2013 | Sc

The 'Liberator' pistol is the invention of Cody Wilson, a Texan law student whose company Defense Distributed caused a furore in May when it made blueprints for its firearm freely available on the internet.

The distribution of the designs led to Wired magazine naming Wilson as one of the '15 Most dangerous People in the World'. In theory, once downloaded, the designs would allow anyone with access to a 3D printer to make their own gun.

A few days after Wilson conducted his first successful test of the pistol, the U.S. government forced Defense Distributed to take the plans down. Wilson complied, but not before the design had been downloaded over 100,000 times.

The V&A museum has two copies of the Liberator pistol on display as part of London Design Week. The two prototypes on display -- one extant and one disassembled to show its components -- are part of a new collection of 3D objects. According to the curators, the guns "represent a turning point in debates around digital manufacturing." The Science Museum in London also has a Liberator on display.

In an interview with CNN, Wilson said that he felt the museum's curators appreciated the Liberator pistol as a design object, but also appreciated the political ideas the weapon conveyed. "The curators of the museum's digital collection understand Liberator and our other pieces are first and foremost articles of political thought-practice," Wilson said.

Wilson says that in his view 3D printing is still in its infancy, and that it will become more significant in the future: "I see digital manufacturing playing a bigger role in our lives." While he thought that the mainstream firearms industry is no longer as powerful as it once was, Wilson said he thought that the spread of weaponry will gradually increase, and that in future it will be easy for almost anyone to get a gun: "I think gun-making culture is on an understandable decline, but the barrier to entry to this culture will be lowered."

Security solution providers such as German-Australian joint venture Dallmeier International, California-based Pelco, a unit of Schneider Electric PA, and Samsung Techwin Co Ltd, about 25 percent-owned by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, are among those reaping the benefits of Asia's casino building boom.

Tens of thousands of security cameras, including some of the most advanced commercially available, have been installed in the southern Chinese territory of Macau alone in the past five years, and many thousands more are on order for the multi-billion-dollar hotel-casino resorts still in the pipeline.

"It's big business. The camera market here has started to get very big ... It's probably the most demanding environment for a video surveillance system anywhere in the world," said Craig Graham, Dallmeier International general manager for Asia.

"Some of these guys (casino operators) have 700 tables and up to 1,000 slot machines, all of which have to be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Graham said Dallmeier had about 20 percent of the video surveillance market in Macau's gaming industry, where its clients include Sands China Ltd, a subsidiary of Las Vegas Sands Corp and one of six casino firms licensed to operate in the only place in China where casinos are legal.

There are around 100,000 cameras installed in Macau's casinos, according to industry estimates, with room potentially for another 50,000 over the next five years. Companies declined to say how much the industry was worth.

"It's allowed firms such as ours who deal with cutting-edge surveillance technology and video analytics to gain a good loyal customer base in Macau," Graham said.

Bob Ruggles, Pelco's Asia-Pacific business development manager based in Macau, said Asian demand had "allowed us to push our products to the limit" of innovation.

In contrast, he said casinos in Las Vegas had been slow to adapt to advances in digital technology, and some were still using VCR tape, in part because of the costs associated with replacing old analogue systems. "No one (in Macau) uses analogue anymore. Those days are gone," he said.

SOMETHING UP THEIR SLEEVES

The prince, a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding, invested $300 million in the social media giant in late 2011.

"Clearly the speed they're moving with shows that they would like to IPO sooner than later. I believe it will happen either this year or early next year," Alwaleed told Reuters in a telephone interview on Sunday.

"Twitter is a very strategic investment for us. We believe that it is just beginning to touch the surface. We have invested $300 million in the company. We will be selling zero, nothing, at the IPO." He did not say whether he might buy new shares in the offer.

Alwaleed is a closely watched figure in international markets because of successful investments through Kingdom Holding in companies such as Citigroup and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Twitter has filed for an initial public offer of shares with U.S. regulators, the company said on Thursday, taking a first step toward what would be Silicon Valley's most anticipated debut since Facebook Inc's listing last year.

"With the 300 million customers they have and half a billion tweets a day, the growth potential is tremendous," Alwaleed said. He said Chief Executive Dick Costolo was "very knowledgeable, very much trustworthy".

The market expects the company's value once listed to be more than $10 billion; Alwaleed sees potential for a much higher valuation.

"We hear that the company is valued at $14 billion-$15 billion but there have been trades above this valuation. We believe it might be worth more than that."

LEARNING LESSONS

Facebook's rocky 2012 debut and subsequent share-price plunge chilled the consumer-dotcom IPO market for a year. The stock clawed its way back to its $38 IPO price in July, however, and is now at a record high after touching $45 this week.

Alwaleed wouldn't comment on whether Twitter would choose to list on the New York Stock Exchange in order to avoid Facebook's disappointing experience on Nasdaq.

But the prince said: "In my discussion with Mr Costolo and the management of Twitter, I cautioned them to be very careful and not to repeat the mistakes of Facebook.

"The lessons are not to brag too much, don't be greedy - I mean price it right and be realistic."

The meeting, initially set for September 19, was expected to discuss a proposal by Spanish telecoms operator Telefonica to buy out Telecom Italia's core domestic shareholders.

Directors have so far rebuffed offers by Egyptian tycoon Naguib Sawiris and by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.

But Telecom Italia's management would welcome fresh cash to stave off a downgrade of its nearly 29 billion euro ($38.5 billion) debt to "junk" status and back investments needed to counteract declining margins in its Italian home market.

"Shareholders were told the planned board meeting will not take place," one of the sources said on Monday, adding that Chief Executive Franco Bernabe was not yet ready to present a new strategic plan.

A Telecom Italia spokesman declined comment.

Directors are expected to reconvene only on October 3, said two sources close to investors in Telco, the holding that controls Telecom Italia with a 22.4 percent stake.

Telefonica is the biggest shareholder in Telco, which also includes Italian banks Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca, along with insurer Assicurazioni Generali.

Telco shareholders have up to September 28 to decide whether to exit their shareholder pact and several had said they wanted to see the options on the table at the September 19 meeting before taking any decision.

Telco shareholders took control of Telecom Italia in 2007 but the stock is trading at a fraction of the 2.8 euros per share they paid back then.

The most complex and costly salvage operation of its kind ever attempted began at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on the Italian island of Giglio after a three-hour delay due to an overnight storm, and progress was slower than originally estimated.

Still on its side, the flank of the ship was entirely off the rock shelf and raised far enough out of the sea to reveal a dirty brown water mark staining the white hull.

"The ship is reacting very well because it's rotating in a uniform fashion, which is what we expected but it's a pleasure to see it confirmed," said Franco Porcellacchia, leader of Costa Cruise's technical team.

The Concordia was carrying more than 4,000 people went it hit rocks off Giglio on January 13, 2012 and capsized with the loss of 32 lives. Two bodies have yet to be recovered and underwater cameras failed to find any sign of them as darkness fell and searchlights lit up the port.

"They must still be under the keel of the Concordia and I hope after this finally they will have a grave (their families)can cry over," said Luciano Castro, a 49-year-old journalist who was on the ship when it sank.

In contrast to the accident, a catalogue of mishap and misjudgment over which the Concordia's captain Francesco Schettino faces multiple charges, the salvage operation has so far been a tightly coordinated engineering feat.

At a cost estimated at more than 600 million euros ($795 million), it is expected to be the most expensive maritime wreck recovery, accounting for more than half of an overall insurance loss of more than $1.1 billion.

The so-called "parbuckling" operation will see the 114,500-ton vessel slowly rotated upright using a series of huge jacks and cables prior to be towed away and broken up for scrap, probably next spring.

Italy's Civil Protection Authority said work would probably continue until dawn. Engineers said they were satisfied with progress and not concerned about the time.

MOUNTAIN ON THE SEABED

A multinational team of 500 salvage engineers has been on Giglio for most of the past year, stabilizing the wreck and preparing for the lifting operation, which has never been attempted on such a large vessel in such conditions.

"We have done parbuckling before but never on a location like this," Nick Sloane, the South African engineer coordinating the recovery for contractor Titan Salvage, told Reuters.

Hadi Kazemnejad is one of up to 1,000,000 Iranians who were exposed to chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, officials say. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people were killed and 100,000 of those who survived have developed illnesses, often chronic.

Cases like Kazemnejad's point to the long-term damage of chemical warfare and also help explain Iran's nuanced reaction to allegations regional ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used such weapons against his own people.

Chemical attacks on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, in which an estimated 1,400 people died, have reopened a sensitive debate among Iranians over their country's support for Syria.

Tehran has provided financial and military support to ensure Assad maintains what it calls the "axis of resistance" against Israel and Arab and Western states. Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters have taken up arms for Assad inside Syria.

Iranians have paid the highest price from any chemical attacks in modern history. Their suffering is etched into the existence of the theocratic state.

In a Facebook posting Iran's new foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, condemned the use of chemical weapons, "regardless of its victims or culprits". The posting received more than 2,000 responses from Iranians at home and abroad, including many critical of Tehran's unwavering support for Assad.

OBSTACLE OR OPPORTUNITY?

It is a debate that reaches all the way to the office of Iran's recently elected president, Hassan Rouhani, who is keen to ensure Syria's civil war does not ruin his chances of making progress in negotiations with the West over Iran's nuclear program and getting trade sanctions eased, analysts say.

Rouhani has praised Syria's move to join a global anti-chemical weapons treaty, part of a U.S.-Russia deal that would eliminate Assad's chemical arsenal.

Iran's Syria policy is run by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an ideologue who is unlikely to switch his support from Assad. But some diplomats believe if Rouhani is given a stake in the process by Khamenei, Iran could play an important role in helping Syria towards peace.

Iran, they say, has previously shown it can be constructive. As evidence they hold up Iran's role in the 2001 Bonn conference that paved the way for a transitional authority in Afghanistan.

From Athens to Lisbon and Paris to Rome, governments want Berlin to move forward fast with a European Union banking union and adopt a more expansion economic policy that would help drive growth and fight unemployment in a stagnant euro zone.

EU partners expect conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel to win a third term, and many hope she will have to form a grand coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), seen as more pro-European and pro-stimulus than her current center-right Free Democratic allies in government.

The potential for disappointment is large.

"Whoever is elected, the constraints that Merkel has faced will remain the same for any German government," said Sylvie Goulard, a French liberal member of the European Parliament.

The triple lock of parliamentary sovereignty, hostile public opinion and a vigilant constitutional court will continue to limit Germany's willingness to share more European liabilities.

Merkel and her SPD challenger Peer Steinbrueck barely mentioned European and foreign policy in their only television debate, except to agree that Germany should have no part in any military response to the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Steinbrueck accused Merkel of bungling the euro zone crisis by going slow and inflicting a poisonous dose of austerity on Greece and other bailed out countries. He kept silent about SPD support for pooling some euro zone debts, sensing a vote-loser.

The chancellor noted the SPD had voted for all her euro zone bailout but she offered no personal vision of Europe's future.

With the survival of the single currency no longer under threat and financial markets calm for now, experts expect Merkel to stick to her "small steps" approach to euro zone integration unless acute crisis flares again.

The need for further financial support for Greece, Portugal and perhaps Ireland will cause much grumpy debate in Berlin. Frustration at chronic Italian political instability and French aversion to liberal economic reforms will smolder.

Perhaps as important for German policy as the election result may be a ruling by the constitutional court next month on the European Central Bank's bond-buying policy, which calmed the crisis when ECB chief Mario Draghi announced it last year.

The Democratic fund-raiser named for the veteran senator from Iowa is closely watched in this Midwestern state, which helps winnow out the crop of presidential contenders every four years leading up to the Iowa caucuses, the first voting event of each presidential cycle.

Addressing the crowd at the Warren County Fairgrounds, Biden mentioned 2016 in a sideways fashion, making light of the national media presence that showed up for the event.

"It's amazing when you come to speak at the Steak Fry a whole bunch of people seem to take notice. I don't know why the hell that is," Biden said.

The 70-year-old Biden has left open the possibility of a run for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination in order to get a chance to succeed President Barack Obama.

Many in Washington believe he will not run if Clinton runs, and she is making a regular series of public appearances that could easily be interpreted as setting the stage for a campaign

Biden extolled Obama's leadership, defending his handling of the economy and the crisis over Syria's chemical weapons. And, Biden gave himself a bit of credit for being part of the team.

Obama, said Biden, reduced the national debt by $2.5 trillion "and in the process we've created 2.5 million new jobs. But folks, there's a lot more we have to do."

Biden also tweaked Russian President Vladimir Putin for a New York Times opinion article last week in which he criticized Obama for praising "American exceptionalism."

"It's always been the story ... of the journey of this country that the American people have been ahead, and I know I've been criticized for saying this, but I'll say it again: That's what makes America exceptional," said Biden.

Putin helped reach a deal to gain control of Syria's chemical weapons, Biden said, "not because he's a good guy, (but) because of naked self-interest."

Harkin told reporters last Thursday that Biden could find "fertile ground" in Iowa should he choose to run in 2016, but did not predict whether Clinton or Biden would prevail.

"They're both well liked in Iowa. There's no doubt about that. But you know there's a lot of time between now and 2015 when things really start to move," the senator said.

Unmanned drones have become an almost ubiquitous presence on the battlefield for U.S. and other high-tech forces.

But the market for remote controlled vehicles is evolving from the sometimes multi-tonne craft that patrol the skies over Afghanistan or Yemen, carrying out reconnaissance and targeted strikes, to tiny robots that police and even film companies can use.

The top end of the market continues to be dominated by U.S. companies such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, formerly a division of General Dynamics and creator of the Predator and Reaper drones. Other major defense firms such as BAE Systems are pushing forward with next-generation drones with stealth and other features.

Smaller companies are increasingly redefining the industry, however.

Drones on display at this week's DSEI defense fair at London's Excel exhibition center include undersea robots that can act as mini submarines or simply drive along the surface of the seabed to clear mines or conduct reconnaissance.

Remote control "quadrocopters" with four or more rotors can be launched from backpacks.

Even conventional military vehicles are becoming increasingly robotized. The stand of U.S. truck manufacturer Oshkosh Corp showcases a picture of a convoy of military trucks it says are being entirely remote-controlled.

Critics of the use of drones controlled remotely argue that they make warfare too clinical and easy, and too often end up killing innocent people. Advocates say the reality is that a drone removes the three "D"s - "difficult, dull and dangerous" - making it increasingly difficult to justify deploying human beings in certain situations.

THE THROWBOT

U.S.-based firm ReconRobotics say their products, robots designed to help soldiers or police look inside a building before they storm it or under a vehicle to detect a bomb, are already saving lives.

"It gives you eyes inside a room before you go there," said Langdon, a former Marine Corps sergeant and now director of U.S. and international military programs for the company.

"Maybe that means you see there are children in a room so you don't throw a grenade. Maybe it means you find an IED (improvised explosive device)."

The impending IPO of the microblogging phenomenon ignited a competition among Wall Street's biggest names for the prestige of managing its coming-out party. Goldman Sachs is lead underwriter, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, which is a major coup for the Wall Street bank.

Twitter filed for an IPO confidentially under a 2012 law intended to help emerging corporations with less than $1 billion in revenue go public.

Seven-year old Twitter, which allows users to send out streams of 140-character messages, has become an indispensable tool to governments, corporations and celebrities seeking to communicate with their audience, and for individuals seeking both news and entertainment.

Chief Executive Dick Costolo has for years waved off suggestions it intended to go public, saying the company remained flush with cash. Facebook's mismanaged 2012 debut and subsequent share-price plunge also chilled the consumer-dotcom IPO market.

Facebook, however, has clawed its way back to its $38 IPO price in July, and the stock is at a record high after touching $45 this week.

Twitter, which has been valued by private investors at more than $10 billion, should break even this year and is on track for 40 percent annual growth at a $1 billion annual revenue run rate, Max Wolff of Greencrest Capital estimated.

"It's completely conquered mobile. It has an enormous social network. It's becoming a key utility as a second screen to TV and it's literally the first draft of history," Wolff said.

"Normally a company like Twitter would have been public for some time," he said.

Since Jack Dorsey, Twitter's inventor, dispatched the first tweet from a downtown San Francisco office in March 2006, the service has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with more than 200 million regular users contributing more than 400 million posts a day.

The company makes money by inserting paid, targeted ads that resemble ordinary, user-generated content. Twitter's success with its advertising model created a new paradigm for mobile advertising and prompted Facebook last year to adopt a similar ad product, called Sponsored Stories.

But Twitter was one of the first to prove that in-stream ads could be a viable way to make money in the mobile era.

But scientists now have strong evidence that NASA's Voyager 1 probe has crossed this important border, making history as the first human-made object to leave the heliosphere, the magnetic boundary separating the solar system's sun, planets and solar wind from the rest of the galaxy.

"In leaving the heliosphere and setting sail on the cosmic seas between the stars, Voyager has joined other historic journeys of exploration: The first circumnavigation of the Earth, the first steps on the Moon," said Ed Stone, chief scientist on the Voyager mission. "That's the kind of event this is, as we leave behind our solar bubble."

A new study in the journal Science suggests that the probe entered the interstellar medium around August 25, 2012. You may have heard other reports that Voyager 1 has made the historic crossing before, but Thursday was the first time NASA announced it.

The twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 were launched in 1977, 16 days apart. As of Thursday, according to NASA's real-time odometer, Voyager 1 is 18.8 billion kilometers (11.7 billion miles) from Earth. Its sibling, Voyager 2, is 15.3 billion (9.5 billion) kilometers from our planet.

Voyager 1 is being hailed as the first probe to leave the solar system. But under a stricter definition of "solar system," which includes the distant comets that orbit the sun, we'd have to wait another 30,000 years for it to get that far, Stone said. Another milestone for long after we're gone: The probe will fly near a star in about 40,000 years, Stone said.

How do we know?

Voyager, currently traveling at more than 38,000 miles per hour, never sent a postcard saying "Greetings from interstellar space!" So whether it has made the historic crossing or not is a matter of controversy.

"The spacecraft itself really doesn't know," Stone said. "It's only instruments that can tell us whether we're inside or outside." Further complicating matters, the device aboard Voyager 1 that measures plasma -- a state of matter with charged particles -- broke in 1980.

To get around that, scientists detected waves in the plasma around the spacecraft and used that information to calculate density. Vibrations in the plasma came from a large coronal mass ejection from the sun in 2012, resulting in what Stone called a "solar wind tsunami." These vibrations reached the area around Voyager this spring.

Dell, who won a battle with activist Carl Icahn to win control of the computer company, also said he will shift from a quarterly focus to a "five-year, ten-year focus."