Macmillan Books Back on Amazon: What Did Amazon Get Out of It? [Amazon]

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Amazon's restored the entire book catalog for Macmillan, the first publisher to play hard ball with them—and have its entire catalog promptly pulled from the site.

The details of the deal aren't public, but the NYT specu-reports that Amazon probably "demanded that no other e-book vendors, such as Apple, get preferential access to new titles, or any kind of pricing advantages" and maybe asked for the ability of Kindle users to lend out ebooks, which would be awesome. Though Amazon's still the loser in this aboutface, ultimately. [Bits]


Comcast CEO Gets Reamed Out By Al Franken [Comcast]

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Al Franken can be a blowhard at times, but occasionally he's the hero of the tale. Like when he rips apart Comcast CEO Brian Roberts over some contradictions in the arguments for the Comcast/NBC merger.

The video's well worth watching if you enjoy seeing a CEO flustered and stuttering, but Consumerist sums up what went down rather well:

Sen. Franken said that Comcatastrophe Roberts had met him in his office and said that the FCC rules "will make sure that you always have a wide variety of programs because they forbid [Comcast/NBC] from discriminating against other company's programs."

Then Franken pointed to a sign he had printed with a quote from Comcast's attorneys saying that those same rules were unconstitutional.

"In other words, looking to get approval for this merger, you sat there in my office and told me to my face that these rules would protect consumers but your lawyers had just finished arguing in front of the Commission that it would be unconstitutional to apply these rules," Franken said.

Whoops. [Consumerist]


Today’s Space Policy Reactions

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Vision Impaired, Paul Spudis, Air & Space

"I have previously discussed what I perceive as the most significant problem with FP, namely, that it is activity without direction. The administration's budgetary version of this path confirms this perception. Much verbiage is thrown around about multiple missions to all sorts of destinations, blazing new trails with new technology, trips to Mars that last weeks instead of months, and "people fanning out across the inner solar system, exploring the Moon, asteroids and Mars nearly simultaneously in a steady stream of firsts." But nowhere in the budget documents or agency statements is there anything about the mission that we are undertaking. So we're going to an asteroid. What will we do there? Why are we going there? What benefit accrues from it?"

Plan for NASA lacks vision, editorial, St. Petersbrug Times

"But the 2,000 jobs the administration expects private companies to create in Florida under the plan is far less than the 12,000 NASA and private jobs that Florida's east coast expects to lose when the shuttle is retired."

Give NASA Back, The Crimson White

"Most importantly, this achievement of the International Space Station proves, definitively, the existence of the worlds' potential for cooperation. Nations can peacefully work together towards a common goal--not unlike, say, Obama's goal of eradicating nuclear weapons. If NASA were to go commercial, as Obama hopes, the country would lose its ownership, and cooperation between multinationals--only concerned with their bottom lines and profits--wouldn't be nearly as idealistic as the cooperation between nations we have now."

Abandoning human space flight is shortsighted, Rep. Pete Olson, The Hill

"The administration would like to foster commercial providers with our human space flight capabilities. Commercial participation is a good thing, and something that everyone agrees with, but it's simply not ready to take humans into space safely, and should not be the sole means for our country's access to space."

Space to thrive, The Economist

"Much has been made of the fact that NASA will, as a consequence of Constellation's cancellation, have to rely on private firms to send its astronauts to the international space station once the space shuttle is withdrawn. In many ways, though, this is the least interesting aspect of what is happening, for what Mr Obama proposed is actually a radical overhaul of the agency."

One step back for mankind, Financial Times

"That is what makes the debate over Constellation symbolic. The decision to abandon moon exploration has "decline" written all over it. Americans often profess astonishment that the Chinese of 600 years ago failed to take full advantage of their technological superiority. They invented gunpowder and, on the eve of Columbus's discovery of America, their ocean-going vessels were bigger and more seaworthy than Europe's."

iPhone Is Now More Popular than DS and PSP Among Game Developers [Games]

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Game Developer Research says that Apple is winning the race among handheld game developers: 19 percent write now for the iPhone and iPod touch. That's more than double the amount of Nintendo DS and Sony PSP developers. Other interesting figures:

• Handheld games are now 25 percent of the whole gaming market, up from 12 percent before the iPhone/iPod touch phenomenon.
• During the last three quarters, all handheld game developers are writing for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

No wonder why Nintendo's President not a fan of the iPad. [Electronista]


Extra Solar Panels Coming to U.S.

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Suntech Exec Sees Excess Solar Supply Coming to U.S. –  more evidence that other countries are way ahead of the U.S. in developing renewable power. Now we’re going to get their “left-overs”.  We should be making these panels in the U.S.

Photo: Sergio Moraes--A Brazilian man is seen during sunset on Arpoador Beach in Rio de Janeiro February 3, 2010.

WASHINGTON Feb. 5 2010 — Planned cuts to Germany’s solar power incentives will probably prompt solar companies to ship excess panels to the United States, pressuring equipment prices here, a top U.S. executive for China’s Suntech Power Holdings said on Thursday.

Germany is the top market for photovoltaic solar systems, with about 50 percent of the global market, but the government there is planning to cut prices paid for solar power from roof-mounted systems by 15 percent from April 1.

“Anything that happens in Germany has a ripple effect,” Roger Efird, Suntech’s managing director for business development in the United States, told the RETECH energy conference.

Solar modules that companies had planned to sell in the German market will probably come to the United States, which could become the biggest solar market by 2013.

Solar companies have struggled in the past year as a glut of supplies pressured module prices by about 40 percent, squeezing profit margins in the nascent industry, and the additional supplies that had been destined for Germany will push U.S. prices even lower.

“I’d say at least another 10 percent drop in pricing, maybe as much as 15 percent,” Efird said.

Still, the U.S. solar market could show strong growth this year, he said, potentially doubling from an estimated 500 megawatts that were installed in 2009.

“There is an opportunity that we could hit 1 gigawatt in the United States this year,” he said, but that would likely require about 300 MW of large, utility-scale projects.

One megawatt is enough to power about 800 homes.

Suntech, one of the largest solar companies in the world, announced last year it planned to build a new plant in Arizona to expand its business in the United States.

Remainders – The Things We Didn’t Post: Friday Funbag Edition [Remainders]

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In today's Remainders: Fun! A whole bag of it. The iPhone becomes a digital flipbook; Google sells a $300 scarf; Ron Jeremy blames the Russians; and a Batman and Robin comic takes the words right outta your mouth.

Flip Out
Sure the iPhone is great for browsing the web, checking e-mail, playing games, making calls (not really), and all the rest, but this clever YouTuber unlocked the true potential of the iPhone by turning it into a digital flip book. Five funs out of ten. [YouTube - Thanks SewerShark]

GoogleScarf
Google already provides your search engine, your webmail, your calendar, your maps, your address book, your smartphone, your other smartphone's operating system, your hopes, your dreams and the rest, so why not let them provide your wintertime accessories, too? The Google Store is now offering a $300 oversized scarf in Google's signature primary colors. They also have some Google-inspired vintage t-shirts and jewelry pieces for you most dedicated Googlers. Two funs out of ten. [TechCrunch]

Rated aRrrrrrr
Ron Jeremy, Mario enthusiast and accomplished pornographer, is worried about two things: the state of the porn industry and your online safety. What's causing him to worry? Some combination of piracy and Russians. As he explains, people who watch videos for free on sites like youporn.com don't realize the detrimental effect it has on his industry, but "piracy is piracy, whether the film is PG, R or X." We agree with him there. But shortly after making that reasonable point, Jeremy spiraled into a questionable rant on online scams and the nationalities that perpetrate them:

You have a checkingaccount? You're rich? You're still not safe. Someone asks you for the details you probably won't give it to them but your grandparents, your grandparents might fall for that...it's the saddest thing I ever heard...A lot of foreigners, and I won't mention names, Russians, are coming to America and there are a lot, a lot, a lot of people who know how to use Wi-Fi, Internet, satellite to gather personal information about people and scam or steal. Russian.

Russian indeed. Six weirds out of ten. [MobileLocalSocial]

Sidekick Backhand
Go to Batmancomic.info to create your own versions of this old school Batman comic. The Gizmodo staff has been using it to make fun of people (mostly us interns) all day! Ten funs out of ten!


Why (and How) Apple Killed the $9.99 Ebook [Apple]

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Publishers joining Apple's iBooks store are turning their back on Amazon and its vision of the flat $9.99 ebook. Apple forced the music industry to charge 99 cents per song, so why are they helping publishers set their own prices?

To screw Amazon.

The difference between Amazon and Apple is this: Amazon is very much in the ebook business to sell ebooks. They want you attached to their platform. That's why the Kindle Reader is on both PC and iPhone, as well as the eponymous e-ink device. Ebooks are huge for them. They sell six ebooks for every 10 physical books. That's why they want to own the market. Apple, on the other hand, sells content in order to sell hardware. The iTunes Store, the App Store and the brand-new iBooks Store exist so you'll buy iPods, iPhones and iPads, which is where Apple really makes money. iTunes revenue is just a bonus, though an ever fatter one with the explosion of the App Store.

You can see that the two companies place far different values on the content they sell. A more illustrative example: Amazon has been selling books at a loss—paying $15 for a hardcover bestseller, only to turn around and sell it for $10 on the Kindle. Apple would never, ever sell content at a loss. They make a decent bit of change, but apps and music are really just a way to fill up your iPhone.

Do you remember three years ago, when Apple was battling with the record labels for control over (legal) digital music? Apple still owns 69 percent of the market and sell 1 out of every 4 songs, period—in other words, they owned the market, which deeply frightened the labels, who were afraid of losing control. Universal, the biggest label, flipped out, and even tried to build the anti-iTunes. That failed, so the music business bit the bullet (or the poison pill) and went DRM-free, not with Apple at first, but with Amazon. It became a (sorta) credible competitor to the iTunes monster, long enough to give the labels just enough extra negotiating power. When iTunes music downloads went DRM free, many of them—particularly hit singles—suddenly cost $1.29.

The situation is remarkably similar, except this time, Amazon's wearing the market-maker pants. Some estimate Amazon's share of the ebook market to be 90 percent, but I've heard from people in the publishing industry say it's closer to 80 percent. But that's nitpicking. At this moment, Amazon owns ebooks. The book publishers' fears are the same as the record labels with iTunes: They're paranoid about losing control over pricing, and their own digital destiny. They're worried that books are being undervalued, and that once people have the mindset that the price of an ebook is $9.99, and not a penny more, they're doomed. They needed an insurgent player: Apple.

Apple has advantages that Amazon didn't have with music: Scale and technology. iTunes has just moved 3 billion iPhone apps. Apple's sold over 250 million iPods. By contrast, Amazon's sold an estimate 2.5-3 million Kindles since it debuted 2 years ago. Analysts predict Apple will sell twice as many iPads this year alone.

In terms of technology, e-Ink looks old and busted and slow next to the iPad's bright, color display. (Even the fact that the written word is much easier to stare at for long periods of time when presented on e-ink won't save the current Kindle.) An iPad can do more than books: Beautiful digital magazines, interactive textbooks, a dynamic newspaper. Oh, and it's a computer that does video, apps, music. Amazon's scrambling now to make a multitouch full color Kindle after betting on E-Ink, but that kind of development takes at least a year. Even if they churn out a full color reader that is somehow better than the iPad, it likely won't matter: It would just be a very nice reader to iPad's everything else, and it would be 9 months too late.

The print industry is swirling down the toilet, and apocalypse-era publishers minds' dance with hallucinations of digital salvation via iTunes for print. It's the iPod for books. What Amazon was supposed to deliver, but now maybe never will.

With that contrast in mind, all the publishers needed was a little push. All Apple had to whisper was, "Hey, we'll let you set your own prices for books. You should control your own destiny. We'd love to have you. You know, $12.99 is a really good price for a beautiful color version of your amazing books. BTW, why are you letting Amazon undersell you?" It doesn't matter that publishers make less absolute money through the agency model used by Apple—Amazon might've given them $15 for a book it sold for $10, but under the agency model, the seller takes 30 percent off the top. They wanted to feel in control, and that their books are worth something more. Steve gave them that, even as he's probably got his fingers crossed behind his back.

Amazon knew what it was doing by insisting on $9.99 as the price for ebooks. A flat, easy-to-understand rate—one that's notably cheaper than its analog counterparters—is a paradigm that works, especially when you're trying to essentially build a whole new market. It plays into the part of our brains that like easy things. That likes the number 9. (No really, 9 is a psychologically satisfying number.) Amazon believed in it so strongly, as I said before, they sold books at a loss to keep it up. (I'm not suggesting, BTW, that Amazon would be any more benevolent to the industry than Apple. They wouldn't.)

Price would've been Amazon's major advantage over Apple too—being able to undercut Apple by setting whatever price they needed to compete would've been its ace in the hole against the iPad's flashy color screen, and everything else it can do. And now that's poofed. Apple will be able to sell you ebooks for the exact same price as Amazon. By turning the publishers against Amazon, they've effectively dicked the Kindle over. Why? To fill out another bullet point as to why you should buy an iPad. The real question is how long it'll take publishers to realize that's all they are to Apple: one little bullet point.


Snake oil salesmen shouldn’t meet dragons | Bad Astronomy

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I don’t watch the show Dragon’s Den, though I’ve heard of it: potential entrepreneurs pitch their products to a group of wealthy investors in the hope that they will get some capital. The investors — the dragons — are blunt when they need to be, and it does make for an interesting show.

… especially when the guy who comes in pitching his wares is an alt-med quack who says his bottle of water will cure everything from pink eye to leukemia to cancer:

Too bad ultradistilled water doesn’t cure vulturism. That guy looks pretty unhappy as he left, but he was treated very nicely indeed compared to what he deserves.


Facebook Eyes Webmail With Project Titan [Facebook]

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TechCrunch reports that Facebook is working on a full webmail system to replace their current messaging platform, including full POP and IMAP support and a customized @facebook.com e-mail address. The codename for the new system: Project Titan.

In the TechCrunch post, Arrington suggests that Facebook has been working towards a webmail service for some time, expanding their messaging platform to be searchable and allowing Facebook users to send messages directly to non-Facebook e-mail addresses. The site has also shown interest in giving its users a more accessible and more complete online identity with the recent implementation of personalized URLs and the proliferation of Facebook Connect login on third party sites.

Project Titan would take this effort a step further, giving users a personalized username@facebook.com e-mail address and letting them access it on Facebook itself or independently via POP and IMAP. Facebook already has 175 million people logging into their site each day, but adding a true webmail solution would be a strong step in their transformation from a centralized communications hub to a broader platform for staying connected online. [TechCrunch]


Geneticists Are On the Lookout for the First Gene-Doping Athletes | 80beats

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syringeWe’re only a week away from the 2010 Winter Olympics opening in Vancouver, and the return of the games brings with it the return of crazy stories about how far world-class athletes will go to get even the tiniest edge, legal or illegal. In the journal Science this week, researchers led by geneticist Theodore Friedmann take the opportunity to warn about gene doping, the next looming crisis in cheating at high-stakes athletics.

Genetic doping isn’t new to the headlines—the International Olympic Committee banned it in 2003. But its prevalence is growing, especially since improving testing is starting to weed out more standard forms of cheating like steroids and EPO, a hormone that boosts red blood cell production. Three years ago, German track coach Thomas Springstein was busted after unsuccessfully trying to score Repoxygen, an experimental gene therapy drug that boosts red blood cell production, for his runners. At the Olympics in Beijing, an unidentified Chinese doctor offered stem cell injections to a German journalist posing as a swim coach [Wired.com].

Beyond the ethical concerns of cheating, there is the issue of safety when it comes to athletes trying out new, unregulated therapies, Friedmann says. Most likely, current efforts would be “hamfisted” and dangerous, he said. But “we know there are disreputable people in sport with access to technology and a lot of money” [National Geographic]. Even athletes and coaches without dubious intentions could be duped by claims about therapies that sound legitimately scientific, he says. As a result, he and the other scientists call out their colleagues to develop and test therapies responsibly, under the internationally accepted ethics codes for medical research.

Of course, with so much at stake, it’s a bit of wishful thinking to suggest that all developers or athletes are going to play by the rules. So Friedmann and other researchers are racing to keep up by developing new detection methods. The direct evidence of genetic tampering is hard to find. But telltale side effects could give away gene dopers. The authors note that jacking up genes is “likely to produce broad metabolic, genetic, and proteomic changes” [Scientific American]. That could include levels of fatty acid production, or other system-wide changes that can’t be easily hidden.

So far those kinds of detection tests are limited to animals. But if Friedmann and other scientists bring them to bear in humans, there are other concerns besides effectiveness. He notes that, while delving into athletes’ genomes raises important privacy issues, “that’s kind of the cost of being an elite athlete” [National Geographic]. And even if it works and researchers do come up with sophisticated ways to catch gene dopers, athletes and treatment developers will be moving on to the next generation of performance enhancing drugs. The cat and mouse game continues.

Related Content:
80beats: Can “Biological Passports” Save Sports From Doping?
80beats: Doping Police Try Out “Biological Passports” for Athletes
80beats: Gene Therapy That Bulks up Muscles Raises Doping Concerns
80beats: Olympic Pistol Shooter Used Anti-Trembling Drug To Steady His Hand
DISCOVER: Will Genetic Therapy Destroy Sports? explores the potential for genetic doping

Image: iStockphoto


Apple Plans Video Calling and Location Aware Social Networking For iPhone [Patents]

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Apple's sweeping "Device to Device Location Awareness" patent covers a lot of ground, not the least of which are a hint at iPhone video conferencing and the ability to locate whoever's on the receiving end of your call.

According to the technology proposed in the patent, a caller's phone would ping the mobile device it's communicating with to request location details. The second device determines its location and sends the information back to the originating cellphone, where it's automatically displayed on the screen. It appears to be an opt-in service, so all you Sneaky Petes won't have to share your location if you don't want to.

One intriguing section of the patent also suggests a video conferencing future for the iPhone:

"Note that the reference to 'voice call' here is not limited to a conventional, sound-only conversation. It may also include video of the two users, synchronized with their audio."

It may indeed! And while the patent was only made public today, it was originally filed way back in the fall of 2008.

A full breakdown of the dirty details can be found at Patently Apple. In the meantime, all you video call-loving stalkers should be salivating right now. [USPTO via Patently Apple]


Nexus One Sales Continue to Lag: Just 80,000 in First Month [Google]

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The early outlook on the Nexus One—just 20,000 sold in its first week—hasn't gotten any better. After a month on the market, Google's moved just 80,000 phones. Compare that to the original iPhone and Droid launches.

The relative sales results, shown above and using estimates by Flurry Analytics, aren't pretty for Google. Granted, it's not an entirely fair comparison. Droid and the iPhone were marketed within an inch of their lives, and had better carrier support than the Nexus One does on T-Mobile. But even taking that into consideration, 80,000 phones in a month? That's borderline embarrassing.

If nothing else, it's a reminder that as much as we care about Google's entry into phone hardware in these parts, to the public at large they're still a niche player at best. I also wonder, though: that few units, and they still can't handle their volume of customer support complaints? Yeesh. [WSJ; Furry Analytics ]


Hubble Spies Pluto

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The Hubble map of Pluto from 1994 (upper) and the latest one below. Be sure to click the image for a larger version. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute)

Pluto has a surface temperature of something like 35 to 45 K (-378oF to -396oF). I sort of always thought of Pluto as a pretty static place, but not so.

The little world’s northern hemisphere is getting brighter and it is becoming redder as a result.  Hubblesite described it as an icy and dark molasses-colored world.

Here are some of the other Hubble images:  90 degs / 180 degs / 270 degs.  The images don’t give us a lot of detail as far as the surface features go, still a lot can be learned from these pictures.  We do have a spacecraft on the way to Pluto and in 2015 it will finally arrive – Pluto is a LONG  ways away, heck those are Hubble pictures and we still can’t resolve the surface!

Ok before I get all carried away, Pluto has a diameter of 2,390 km and if you are thinking that’s smaller than our moon, you’d be right.  Our moon happens to be the 5th largest moon in the solar system, but that’s another story.  The other thing about Pluto’s size is Eris (yeah, the one that caused the hub-bub) is maybe even a little larger than Pluto.  Pluto’s whole orbit is tilted 17 degrees relative to the ecliptic and it’s also very elongated.

I’m not going to go into the whole planet, dwarf planet debate.  I will say I’ve come to my own conclusion.  Suffice it to say, Pluto is very strange place.

Head on over to Hubblesite for the full press release, more images and even video.

Painless Plasma Jets Could Replace Dental Drills | Discoblog

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plasma-drill-100204-02This could mean an end to fear and loathing at the dentist’s office. A new (allegedly) painless blowtorch-like device is being developed that uses a thin beam of plasma could kill oral bacteria in cavities. A plasma is an ionized gas—one in which some of the electrons are stripped away from their atoms.

The plasma kept the dentin, the fibrous bonelike material that makes up most of a tooth under the outer enamel layer, intact, while reducing bacteria 10,000-fold. This means that plasma jets could be used to wipe out the tooth-decaying bacteria in cavities–a procedure that normally requires the use of a painful dental drill to grind away the infected portion of tooth.

The plasma being used is a “cool” plasma with a temperature of just 100 degrees Fahrenheit. When it fires, it charges the oxygen gas around it, which creates reactive molecules that break down and destroy the bacteria’s cell walls, killing them in the process.

But here’s the bad news: If you have a gnawing cavity right now, there’s no point putting off a visit to the dentist. Researchers say it will take three to five years for the new plasma drill to make it to the dentist’s office.

Related Content:
Discoblog: Bye Bye Dentures? Researchers Isolate “Tooth Growing” Gene
DISCOVER: Tooth DNA Dates Back To The First Americans
DISCOVER: Tooth IDs Famed Egyptian Queen
DISCOVER: A Pre-Columbian Cavity
80beats: Ancient Big Tooth Shark Had the Mightiest Bite in History

Image: Stefan Rupf


Robonaut 2: Coming Soon to Space Stations and Assembly Lines Near You | 80beats

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robot_1Automaker General Motors and NASA share a long history; it goes back to GM supplying the lunar rover used during the later Apollo missions in the early 1970s [MSNBC]. In their latest partnership, GM and NASA have created the Robonaut 2–a humanoid robot that can be used both on Earth and in space. The collaboration comes a time when the Obama administration has called for NASA to focus more on commercial spaceflight and on collaboration with private industry [CNET].

Robonaut 2, which looks a bit like a sleeker version of R2-D2, is a step up from the first iteration made 10 years ago by NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). That robonaut was intended to be used mostly for space purposes. But the new version, R2, would be equally at home on the International Space Station or on a car assembly line in Detroit.

R2 has been built to replicate the appearance of a human from the waist up so that it can fit into and work in the same spaces, doing the same jobs as people do, sometimes right alongside them [MSNBC]. It has a humanoid torso, head, arms, hands, and fingers, and it displays remarkable flexibility. R2 can also lift and move up to twenty pounds with each arm, which NASA says is about four times more than other humanoid robots. Its four-jointed opposible thumbs allow it to use tools, much like a human. But while the upper half resembles a human, the bottom half of the robot is yet to be designed. Scientists expect R2 to either stand on one leg or be fitted with wheels.

For now R2’s design make it perfect for factory floors. In the past, GM had complained that it spent too much money installing protection systems and cages when it put a robot (usually just a set of mechanical arms with tools) on the assembly line. The company said they thrashed about, without any regard to who or what was next to them. With R2, scientists are hopeful they have a machine that is not just more dexterous but can also be an effective worker on the floor. GM executive Alan Taub explains that Robonaut2’s arms are small and light, with excellent sensors to ensure they stop if they come in contact with something unexpected. “It has a very elegant sensing system so it can sense resistance in the arm,” said Taub. “A child’s hand will stop it” [MSNBC].

The partnership between the automaker and the space agency is expected to yield benefits for both. GM sees the project as a way to develop new sensors, controls, and vision technology that can be integrated into future automobiles and factories to make them safer [Slashgear]. NASA officials, meanwhile, are hopeful of employing R2 in space alongside human astronauts. It could serve, they say, as an assistant on spacewalks by going ahead of the crew to set up the work site.


Related Content:
80beats: Laser-Powered Robot Climbs to Victory in the Space-Elevator Contest
DISCOVER: Smart Food for Robots
DISCOVER: Tiny Robot Walks Using Rat Heart Muscle
DISCOVER: Man’s Best Friend

Image: NASA


Dry Erase Bamboo Panel Will Kill Those Reminder Apps DEAD (Maybe) [Design]

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Who needs apps telling them to pick up a pint of milk on the way home, anyway? This bamboo dry erase comes in two sizes, with a bunch of assorted accessories like magnets, a letter holder and hooks.

If you'd rather not have the accessories, that'll lop $30 - $40 off the price, but I personally think you may as well spring for them, if you're spending at least $40 (on a small model) on a piece of bamboo anyway. [Three by Three]