Genetically Modified Plants, Where are we now in the drought ridden UK?

The BBC Cambridgeshire's Andie Harper Show touched on the developing drought on this morning's progam and the topic of GMO crops and foods came up. It elicited a remarkable run of mainly positive comments, before resistance kicked in.

Until 2004, I worked as a researcher in the plant area and was responsible for biological safety, so I naturally turned to relevant online sources to see what the GMO release situation was in the UK and wider Europe at this moment in time.

Field trial application

A quick check on ACRE (The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment) which regulates ALL UK field trials and releases of GMOs showed that in 2010, there were only:

Two applications for trials

1. Nematode resistance in potatoes – my old colleagues in Leeds continuing their great work
2. Potatoes modified for resistance to potato late blight – Sainsbury Lab

One EU Notification to renew authorisation to market:

1. Carnations with altered flower colour – Florigene

Two applications to market GM food and feed

1. Maize with Herbicide tolerance – Monsanto
2. Maize with insect resistance (specific Lepidoptera and Coleoptera species)

There were also a number of applications to cultivate or import and process varieties for feed, where further assessments were awaited or where these had already been considered in the past.

(Source: Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment: Annual Report Number 17: 2010 http://archive.defra.gov.uk/acre/pdf/acre-annrpt17.pdf)

What was most striking about the numbers of applications for GMO releases to the environment was how these had plummeted throughout the EU, especially in the former leaders, France, UK and Germany.

The trend was countered in Spain, where there has been a steady increase in trials over the past decade. (Source GMO Compass http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/agri_biotechnology/field_trials/).

Is plant GM work dead in the UK?

Of course not! Whilst trialling in the UK may be at a low, this does not prevent the continuation of ground breaking work in plant genetics in the UK and worldwide. Old challenges, such as making nitrogen fixing crops are being revisited and there is also current talk about third generation biofuel production using algal cultures that have been modified. Hopefully the latter will take away the threat of more farmland or natural habitats being converted for fuel generation.

The hidden benefits of GM technologies

What is often not realised is that the 99% of work required understanding a particular plant gene or set of genes before even making a transgenic crop plant is in itself extremely useful. So called Marker Assisted Breeding, using information from cloned and characterised genes, can ensure that new desirable traits can be moved into many crop plants by conventional breeding.

It will probably take a couple of decades yet in the UK for GM crops to become acceptable. This is ironic, in that many people have already experienced the benefits of GM technology in the production of their medicines and even the cheese they eat (by using purified rennet from transformed bacterial cultures rather than the stomachs of calves).

Back to the UK Drought

Will GM be important for adapting our crops to the drought in the UK? Well, it is more likely that farmers will adapt to growing drought tolerant crops here that have already proved themselves in other growing areas. Breeding programs work best when there is a variety of methods available, GM is just one option amongst many.

My personal solution? I’m still waiting for my pineapple top to root before I commit to buying my Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts!

How I created a First Story ebook for Children to work on Kindle

A first story ebook for children created as an exercise in learning about creating ebooks. The book is the picture story with a bit of text called "Monty Bear and the Chocolate Egg". The Amazon link is at the bottom of the page.

As part of the process of learning about the practicalities of creating an ebook for my Kindle, I practised on transferring the content of the digital book I had already created at http://issuu.com/miltoncontact/docs/monty-bear-and-the-chocolate-egg, which you can read online, but not download. (the Amazon Kindle link is at the bottom of the article).

The work process for creating the Kindle ebook was as follows:

• Convert and edit the images into greyscale, with a high contrast. This is important as the Kindle reader has a lower contrast range.
• The images were resized to be 520 pixels wide, the optimum for the Kindle reader
• I then used Sigil, a WYSIWYG ebook editor, to layout the book with the edited images and text. 
• To force each image and its short text to be on a new page, I had to make each page a new chapter.
• The ebook was then saved in epub format.
• The ebook was then imported into Calibre and the meta information (about author, title, publication date and preferred book cover) was added.
• Using Calibre, the ebook was exported into the .mobi format, which is accepted by Kindle.

I actually went through the cycle several times as minor coding features had to be corrected. For this simple 20 page book, the process took five or six hours before I was completely satisfied.

I could either import the book to my Kindle (best option) or use the free PC software to view Kindle ebooks available here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000423913

By generating this very simple book, I learnt a considerable amount on the practicalities of producing an ebook for Kindle - and other - ebook readers.

Please feel free to sample or purchase the ebook, "Monty Bear and the Chocolate Egg" at only £0.70p for your Kindle from here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Monty-Bear-Chocolate-Egg/dp/B00519TOIE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306161559&sr=8-1

I would really appreciate your comments after trialling this out on young children!

Caldecote History Group's early book planning a good start

Today I joined the Caldecote History Group for a meeting. We talked about the best way forward to produce a book on the history of Caldecote; I was there in my capacity as a publisher.

I'm usually approached to help with a book when the author has already produced a first draft. I was therefore delighted when the Caldecote History Group asked me to give some professional advice at an earlier stage.

The reason is that whilst the production of a book has it's own difficulties, the real challenge is - how do I sell the book. Thinking about this right from the start can be of great help later.

My hosts were Sheila, Robert, David and Christine, part of a wider group that has a good complement of different skills and and historical interests. They and others had already collected a wealth of information about the village of Caldecote, over a period from the Domesday Book to the present. We wanted to establish the best way forward for the Caldecote History Group.

The wide ranging discussions eventually crystalised to 5 key elements:

• Adopt web based tools for even better team work
• Tell the local and wider communities what we are doing
• Generate interest in the final book
• Design, edit and set the book
• Publication (print and/or digital) of the book

Every group will have its own specific solutions when producing a book. What is important is to generate interest early on as this gives you a clearer idea on who will be interested in a copy of the final book.

Get in touch if you are a Cambridgeshire group interested in finding the best way forward for your book.

In the meantime keep a look out for more news from the Caldecote History Group!

CHASE a popcode for augmented reality

From Wordle-images

Connell Gauld of Extra Reality Limited entertained an audience at this Monday's CHASE meeting on Mills & Reeve's Cambridge premises. The talk was on the linking of a printed code with a mobile phone app so that the camera on the phone could be overlayered with an augmented reality display.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” pronounced the farseeing Arthur C Clarke in 1961. It was an astute Connell Gauld who used the Hogwart's posters of Sirius Black in motion at the CHASE meeting, to demonstrate that the magic in a film is now indistinguishable from advanced technology. Take a static image with an embedded code and your mobile camera will display an augmented image that moves, reveals hidden detail or any other effect you desire. The particularly neat feature is that as you change the camera view by moving it around, the augmented image on the screen behaves in the same way.

That is, if you have a decent mobile phone (i.e. a more expensive model, like the i-phones and i-pad). My Nokia E63 was sadly not up to the task and currently, neither are Blackberrys.

To my simple mind, the principle was broken down into three elements:
1. A printed and snappily titled “Popcode”, that is code 128 based
2. A downloadable app that recognises the code via the mobile phone camera
3. Cloud based software that can be accessed by the app to perform the impressive visual “augmented reality” effects on the phone display

The popcode, whilst a great mnemonic and visually appealing, is not actually essential. The audience rapidly pointed out that QR codes or other barcodes could work equally well if the app can be made to recognise them.

It is the app and the software to create, then implement, the bespoke augmented reality animation that is key.

Connell Gauld and Extra Reality Limited currently have an edge in development time for this particular form of augmented reality and are currently seeking to employ this technological lead to their advantage.

This was an excellent and exciting presentation, especially as Connell Gauld seemed to relish the numerous interruptions and questions. CHASE are to be congratulated for organising the event.

German quality goat’s cheeses on a mission to the UK

Andreas Ebert of Feinkaeserei Zimmermann visits the UK to check out the market for his “Altenburger”, a fine cheese that is a PDO (Product of Designated Origin). A commentary on our joint experience in business and in pleasure.

In the UK, the French are famous for their cheeses, we ourselves produce a wide variety of excellent British artisan cheeses – but Germany? Perhaps the politest comment that Andreas would encounter, when talking about his companies soft, medium hard and blue cheeses, was “I didn’t know the Germans made cheese!” The least complimentary phrase we heard was “German cheeses are imitations of the French”.

But the most positive comments we regularly heard from real cheese distributers in the UK was “We do not have any German cheeses and would like to extend our portfolio”.

Andreas is the fourth generation from Feinkaeserei Zimmermann to enter the family run business that recently ( in 2010) celebrated the centenary of continuous production of the regionally famous “Altenburger Ziegenkaese”, from the state of Saxony in Germany.

The cheese dairy survived two world wars and nationalisation in the communist East Germany, with the family present ever since Albert Zimmermann first worked for the founder, in 1910, Mr Kupfer and then took it over in 1930. Wrestling control back after reunification, The family and Feinkaeserei Zimmermann expanded the cheese dairy into making other goat’s cheeses with the glut of milk coming in as part of the “Altenburger” production.

Andreas’s visits to UK partners were scattered over three days. Arriving the day before the first, we met at Luton Airport and travelled into London. Once we had checked in his luggage in the reasonable and nicely located Park Grand Hotel at Devonshire Terrace near Paddington, it was off for some sight seeing.

Andreas had been a frequent visitor to London in the past, but had never toured HMS Belfast. We set off via the Underground to St Pauls. Walking around the Cathedral, we crossed the millennium bridge and made a short visit to the Weiwei Sunflower seed exhibition in the Tate Modern. From there, with a choral interlude at Southwark cathedral we finally arrived at HMS Belfast for a couple of hours delving through her decks.

The next three days were busy visiting the potential UK contacts that my collaborators at Europartnerships had found him. The key lesson that we learnt early on was the fascination with the century old history of the “Altenburger Ziegenkaese”. This was especially helped by the centenary, traditional round wooden box design which had been retained. This was the key for opening people’s willingness to look at the other soft and semi hard cheeses. There was certainly interest generated, with the caveat that the quality and taste had to match.

Fortunately, we had cheese samples. They had been sent to my colleague Audra Green , who had then driven them to me. I took them to London where Andreas had them safely stored in the Hotel’s fridge until required.

Perhaps the best memory was of the friendly reception “Up North”, where our hosts cracked open some artisan fruit juices and we had an end-of-trip tasting session of selected English and Zimmermann cheeses, with complimentary comments all round.

Devonshire Terrace was not far from three excellent pubs, The Victoria, The Swan and The Mitre, where Andreas became an honorary Englishman, at least in his appreciation of good quality pub food.

It was an intense, positive and entertaining visit with business opportunities to be chased. Hopefully we can soon find the “Altenburger Ziegenkaese” and its relatives gaining acceptance distribution in the UK.

Andreas Ebert, of Feinkaeserei Zimmermann’s visit to the UK, was part of:
The VHP Lebensmittelwirtschaft 2010
Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
Project Management by Europartnerships Ltd
in cooperation with Milton Contact Ltd (UK)
And Come Across (DE)

High Spirits at the Natural History Museum

Next time you visit the Natural History Museum in London, turn left at the dinosaur's tail and wander through to the Darwin Centre and The Cocoon. Last Thursday, I took part on the Spirit Collection Tour there. Spirit does not refer to ghosts or whisky, but rather to the samples that are preserved in a mixture of ethanol and methanol, IMS. Though, to be fair, when early collectors ran out of pure alcohol, brandy or rum provided a simple solution until the specimens were returned home.

The visitors area of the Darwin Centre displays several hundred animals and plants in their tastefully lit jars. The rest of the building, from it's basement to the floors above, houses 22 million of the 70 million or more specimens of the worlds flora and fauna for the future. Yet this is not simply a giant pickle collection to be sniffed at (especially as the IMS is harmful if inhaled in quantity). The building also has laboratories and scientists. They continue to gain real results in our understanding of life on earth from this valuable resource.

The Spirit Collection Tour takes a small group of eight visitors behind the scenes. Our guide, Jessica, was a working scientist who specialised in mammals. Luckily for us, she was also trained in communicating with the lay audience.

We went down into the basement; first stop, the flesh eating beetles. Not a nightmare, but insects put to practical use. These are nature's waste removal system, getting rid of carrion. Safely kept in the laboratory, they strip flesh from samples, leaving the skeleton. This avoids the use of hazardous chemicals and an otherwise messy, smelly, dangerous job for the scientist. The beetles were cleaning a killer whale tooth. You can see them working for yourself on the flesh-eating beetle cam. Let's hope someone cleans the lens and sorts out the focus in the meantime.

Then we came to the chilled rooms housing rows upon rows of cabinets with samples under lock and key. So valuable to science that they were evacuated to caves outside of London during WWII. Further on we entered to the room containing the large specimens. I had remembered Archie, the giant squid from a previous visit. As long as a London bus, the tentacles were covered in suckers. This time I saw that each sucker had a wicked circle of teeth, to maximise grip when tackling prey or battling with their predator, the sperm whale.

Amongst the many specimens stored there were a few in a special cabinet. These were samples originally collected by Darwin on the Voyage of the Beagle. Amonstthem was the shell of his pet tortoise from the Galapagos Isles, lost for over a century until found again in the 1980s.

But why are these collections so important?

First, Whenever a new species was or is discovered, a physical record of a typical type specimen is made. This type specimen can be compared with later finds of the same or similar organisms as an important guide for accurate identification. Some of these samples are so important, that they will travel across the world on loan, to help naturalists with their work there.

Second, of the tens of millions of animals and plants stored, many were preserved, catalogued and simply put into storage for later. Work still needs to be done to understand them further.

Third, preservation in IMS has kept the DNA intact so that modern DNA technologies can be used to gain even more knowledge.

Is this really relevant to you or me? Yes! There are some really practical applications, as well as increasing our general understanding of life on earth. For example, later when I walked through the through the Cocoon, which houses the insect collections, I stopped at the window to the working lab. A scientist was studying New Forest blow flies, talking to us as she worked and also answering questions. We could actually see the work being done under the microscope. I learnt that blow flies can apparently be important in murder cases; in terms of giving the police and courts an estimate of how long a body has lain since death. Local blow fly species might also help by giving geographical information; was the body moved after the murder, for example.

So when you next walk up the steps and into the glorious Victorian main hall of the Natural History Museum, do not just come to look at the exhibits. Take one the many opportunities to talk to and interact with real scientists who work there on our behalf. The museum is not just a collection of static displays, it is also a major centre for increasing our knowledge – and willing to tell you about it in terms that you and I can understand.

How much time I spend on social media and how I organise them

From Wordle-images

I've been using social media in relation to business and pleasure for a couple of years now. Today, I found myself writing a letter to an artist friend about how my use of social media had evolved and thought - this is relevant to a wider audience! So here it is:

"Dear ...

...
You were talking about trying to find the time for your blog. I thought you might be interested from a business perspective about the time and effort I spend on different social media. The way I organise them and my time spent is as follows:

• Twitter: good for quick comments, takes 1 minute to make comment.
• Twitpic: allows you to link a photo to a quick tweet.
• Facebook: About 5 mins for a longer wall post. Best to have a separate FB page for business
• Blog: Couple of paragraphs - including links and photos. Up to an hour - a lot of that thinking, composition and correction time.
• Picasa Web Albums. Any decent or relevant pictures are uploaded to a web album. This also allows me to incorporate single images or slideshows into the blog.
• YouTube: A couple of hours - several takes of video, editing, uploading. (You can do it quicker!). Again, YouTube videos can be incorporated into Blog articles
• Website: If fully structured, takes 1h plus for new entry. Faster alternative is to use blog as website and ensure you have good search and indexing function (blogger and wordpress provide these).

• Daily time spent on Social media - some time daily (up to an hour!). 
• Remember the key word is Social - you need to interact with others, not just talk about yourself all the time.

Optimising your entries for maximum effect:

• My twitter entries are linked to Facebook, so appear there too automatically.
• By adding an additional tag, I can also direct tweets to Linkedin if serious enough.
• Once I write a blog article or make a YouTube video, I tweet a link to it (which also appears on FB and LinkedIn if appropriate).
• I use the name miltoncontact as the common link throughout as there are too many Chris Thomas's out there!

The idea is to have a virtuous circle linking your different media.
All this ensures that you can be found on the web by a whole range of different routes.

My possible weakness is that I tend to have a wide range of topics and interests all represented in these different media. More focussed businesses have dedicated blogs and other social media accounts for each different specific business stream.

My excuse is that I'm a generalist with wide interests and am happy to be seen as such. :-)

This is actually a letter relevant to many others so I will also blog it! Which reminds me of a very useful piece of advice to generate content:

If anyone asks you a question or you have a conversation and you think the answer is of general interest, share it, it is an effective way to generate new content

Best wishes,

Chris"

Two German Companies visit London and the IFE

Two German food related companies came over to London for meetings with UK companies in and around the International Food and Drink Exhibition IFE.  “Der Pommeraner” is a family run business specialising in speciality and regional sausages and meats, whilst “Von Blythen” provided lifestyle products using flowers and flower products in food.

The benefits of arranging meetings around the IFE was that in addition to the planned contacts, the companies could gain an immediate snapshot of the food world within a UK perspective. There where a multitude of products on display, numerous suppliers exhibiting, and you could get a good idea of what was happening in food trends.

What's more, Central London was but a tube ride away from Excel. Two further articles will describe the individual experiences of the companies in more detail, see the links at the bottom of this post.

Dana and Sandy Reggentin-Hassenstein (Account Manager and CEO respectively for der Pommeraner) and Martina Kabitzsch (Owner Manager, von Blythen) arrived together at Gatwick where they were collected by Mark Dodsworth (Europartnerships) and driven to London. I joined them at the IFE at Excel.

The meeting point and haven of tranquillity was the German Pavillion who kindly allowed us to use their facilities when not travelling around, and looked after us very well.

Together, we had three days of meetings, highs and lows, miles of walking and innumerable trips about London.

There were perhaps two items of note in addition to business. The first was the hotel. We had looked for a more economical option and found it in Notting Hill. The exterior looked extremely promising, sitting within a lovely columned Georgian terrace, however, the rooms can only described as “quality commensurate with the cost”.

There were two key features to my room. First, the handle to the bathroom door was apt to come off in my hands. Second, the window did not face outwards, but across towards the window of the neighbouring room. Since that was occupied by a bevy of attractive young Spanish ladies on the first night, this could have given me a delightful free evening's entertainment.

However, I felt duty bound to let them know and warn them to draw their curtains. My tact and restraint was rewarded by by being awakened by their noisy preparations for departure at 4am the next morning.

As a group we had taken one look at the “breakfast room”, laughed ourselves silly and agreed to eat out at a nearby breakfast bar.

The evenings were a much more positive and entirely different kettle of fish. The first night we met up with a Belgian delegation in a Lebanese restaurant for an excellent meal and conversation.

The second night was in a little gem of a pub that Europartnerships had used before, the Victoria in Bayswater. The initial stumbling block was gaining a free table, but once achieved, we had a pleasant evening in a Victorian setting, with apparent links to Churchill, Dickens and Charlie Chaplin!

The third night, we were invited by Martin Straus (Wine Trainers) and Michael Sweetmann (Hospitality and Cocktail expert) to dine at the Institute of Directors club. Martin ensured that we walked off a considerable number of calories through Pall Mall getting there, presumably to justify the excellent meal in relaxing club surroundings that evening!

Each company achieved at least one success as part of the visit to London and the IFE. Read more about the individual companies and their experience here:

Der Pommeraner
Von Blythen


Part of the VHP Lebensmittelwirtschaft 2010
Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
Project Management by Europartnerships Ltd
in cooperation with Milton Contact Ltd (UK)
And Come Across (DE)

Der Pommeraner, German Sausages visit the UK

On the visit of the Pommeranian sausage company, Der Pommeraner, to London and the International Food and Drink Exhibition.

There is an undiscovered country on the Baltic coastline, in the North-East of Germany, it is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. A green undulating and scenic landscape with coastal resorts and lovely beaches occasionally littered with the amber that the Vikings prized.

An appreciated tourist destination for the Germans ever since the former East German became accessible after the fall of the wall, it is also home to a set of culinary traditions and food related businesses. One of these is “der Pommeraner” (the Pommeranian).

Der Pommeraner is a family run business specialising in that quintessential of German foods, the sausage!
As with any stereotype, it hides a far richer food experience than one might originally expect. It’s like saying that we British have a cheese, and that’s Cheddar, totally ignoring the fact that we have Stilton, Wilstshire, Lancashire, Red Leicester, Wensleydale and many, many more, often from artisan producers at the highest level.

So it is with Der Pommeraner, who provide a range including not only the familiar Frankfurters, but also Bockwurst, Knockwurst, Wiener, Bratwurst and more which, including their flavoured variants, total an impressive 72 products - with of course, five Pommeranian varieties. These are quality, award winning products.

It was my pleasure to accompany Dana and Sandy Reggentin-Hassenstein, responsible for Der Pommeraner’s foray into the international market, as part of a program supported by the German government. Our base was the International Food and Drink Exhibition (IFE) 2011 at Excel, in London.

The objective was to learn about the UK market and find opportunities for Der Pommeraner products in Britain.

The IFE itself gave the opportunity to visit different meat stands and see what was on offer, talk to some of the exhibitors and arrange to meet people. London was also a place to visit external companies and see what the high end retailers were offering and a place to travel from.

One surprise for the visitors was the comparable quality of the average British banger (as sausages are colloquially known), with its lower meat content, coarser texture and oozing fat. An unexpected culinary shock when used to a more quality, finer German product (and also a reason for my preferring the “finest” ranges of  British pork sausages, where there was a guaranteed meat content above 70%).

So what were the potential ways into the UK market for Der Pommeraner? We identified two main issues, 1. Getting people to taste the product to win them over, and 2. Finding the best route to market.

It is no secret that 80 percent of meat products are now sold though the large supermarket chains, with their competitive pricing and centralised purchasing. Butchers and independent delicatessens make up another 15 percent and the remainder is taken up by farm shops and other outlets.

These all have different requirements in terms of approach and, more specifically, presentation to the UK consumer. In retail outlets in particular, there was a big difference in packaging and product presentation, depending on whether it was a supermarket or an independent small retailer.

Despite the grim grey weather, we also managed to visit a range of the high end shops in London, via a few sights on the way. The best display and range of German sausages being on show in – Harrods – where else!

A dash to Southwold also gave an insight to what the independent shop at the end of the retail chain required to make it easier to sell new products, and when.

The high quality pork sausages, in their many variants, do have a potential market in the UK, where 69% of households eat pre-packed, fresh sausages at home!

Dana and Sandy of Der Pommeraner left the UK with one immediate contact interested in further business and a number of leads and new insights to help them target the UK market even more successfully.

To find out more about Der Pommeraner, visit their English website at http://www.der-pommeraner.de/index_e.php. If you are looking for new, quality sausage and meat related products for your business, give Dana a call at Der Pommeraner, +49(0)39998 318-0.

Related articles:
Two German companies visit the IFE
The taste of flowers.


Part of the VHP Lebensmittelwirtschaft 2010
Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
Project Management by Europartnerships Ltd
in cooperation with Milton Contact Ltd (UK)
And Come Across (DE)

Von Blythen, flower liqueurs, syrups and condiments to the UK

From German delegates at the IFE

An unusual lifestyle addition to foods, Edible flowers and flower products by Martina Kabitzsch’s company Von Blythen (old German for from flowers) visited London and the IFE.

“Say it with flowers” takes on a whole new meaning when, in addition to appreciating their visual beauty and scent, you can also taste their delicate and often unusual flavours.

Ever since Martina Kabitzsch stumbled across an old recipe book that showed her how to produce a flower based liqueur, she has researched and expanded the use of flowers in food as part of an enriched lifestyle.

From founding Von Blythen in 2004, she has researched and developed flower based recipes, from liqueurs, syrups to preserves and condiments. Martina also runs courses and is an author in her own right, as a recognised expert in this area.

Von Blythen visited the UK and the International Food and Drink Exhibition (IFE) 2011 at Excel in March and I accompanied Martina to the first two meetings to provide language support if needed.

We did not have to worry as once Martina was in flow, she was able to get her message across with a smile. Our second meeting, at the German Pavillion in the IFE, was a revelation as I also had a chance to taste some of the different samples that she had brought along.

Quite often the flavours were delicate and not immediately apparent, then a subtle lingering taste would emerge, prolonging the flavour sensation of the particular food.

Mark Dodsworth took over the accompaniment for Von Blythen as I concentrated on our other company, Der Pommeraner, and I believe that Martina returned to Germany with a number of interested leads and ideas how to come back in the future.

Martina did leave me a signed copy of her book “Blütenmenüs”(“Flower menus”, currently still in German, but look out for an English edition in the near future).

Being a natural experimenter, I could not resist trying out some of the ideas with some of the edible Spring flowers emerging. Do note that not all flowers are edible, daffodils for example are not! Here are two useful links – edible flowers, flowers and plants to avoid.

Sugaring the small spring violets from the Garden did not really work – then again, I could not detect any scent on them. The big success was from the Magnolia tree in a neighbour’s garden.

Having gained permission to ravish the Magnolia tree of three or four flowers, I followed Martina’s instructions to detach and lightly paint the individual petals with eggwhite and then coat in caster sugar. The petals were left in a warm kitchen to dry for two days. About two thirds of the petals did go sugar crystal hard. Biting into the crisp petal released a perfumed flavour in the mouth.

Eating a single petal was a pleasant and repeatedly surprising experience, two at one go was too much. So over the next day, the stock of crystalised petals diminished one by one.

When our apple tree began to bloom, I thought I would try t make some apple flower syrup. This turned out a delicate shade of clear green and has a very subtle flavour, not of apple, indescribable, but definitely an improvement on a simple sugar syrup on its own.

For more information about flower derived products, Martina Kabitzsch and Von Blythen, visit http://www.manufaktur-von-blythen.de/blythen/index/

Related Articles:
Der Pommeraner
Two German Companies visit the IFE


Part of the VHP Lebensmittelwirtschaft 2010
Supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
Project Management by Europartnerships Ltd
in cooperation with Milton Contact Ltd (UK)
And Come Across (DE)

Continuing evolution of QR code design

In a previous article I described the first steps in learning about QR codes and starting to test their technical limits (Making QR codes more Human). The Japanese obviously have a head start on further creative applications, but it is still great to play.

Technically, the way to create a flexible QR code design is to ensure that there is sufficient contrast between the dark parts of the code and the light areas, and to leave a sufficient light border around it.

I have added a further three designs to the collection.

• Design for a car magnet for Martin's Wine Club. Since this was a large item, I could include Martin's signature glass from the logo in the three large squares of the logo. You can see them if you go to the Martin's Wine Club Car Magnet image and enlarge the design.
• Richard Wishart of Delivery Management has been a great proponent of QR Codes ever since I introduced him to Mirko Kisser of Celloon last year. Richard has been collecting examples of QR codes and I felt that his code could be enhanced by adding the eagle from his logo. My first attempt worked on screen but not in print. I was able to redress this by lightening the eagle's blue to ensure that there was sufficient contrast even on printed material.
• New HBN Banner.  When we at HBN discussed having new banners, there was almost unanimous consensus that one of the banners at least should include an HBN QR code! Whilst pondering about the design, I also wanted to reflect the cooperative nature of HBN. Incorporating individual company QR codes into the larger HBN QR code seemed an appropriate solution.  It took some trial and error to ensure that the contrast within each small code was sufficient to be recognised and that yet when viewed from a distance, these individual codes were dark enough to fit into the large code and let it function.  The final banner design with the QR codes within the QR code was a resounding success at the Wood Green Business Fair. It aroused curiosity and comment.

My friends and colleagues at HBN have taken to the QR code technology like ducks to water. In particular, Richard Wishart of Delivery Management has been promoting their use for logistics and tracking.

I will add any further novel designs of QR codes that I make over time.

A transforming Bedfordshire manufacturing SME

British manufacturing can thrive when it provides specialist quality products like those of Bedfordshire company Siga Electronics. Its products can be found in equipment under the sea, in the air and even in space.

Gennaro Coppolaro of Polar Communications had invited me to do the on site photography as part of developing Siga's new website. With a broader interest in successful businesses, I was of course also curious about their products.

Siga specialises in producing coils in general and toroidal transformers in particular. Transformers are integral to almost all electrical equipment. Their function is to change one voltage to another, that can be higher or lower. Toroidal transformers, where the components involve wire coils around a doughnut shaped core, are beneficial as they avoid the creation of disruptive electrical fields during their operation.

Siga's strength lies in producing such transformers in sizes ranging from smaller than a matchstick head to tens of centimeters in diameter. They can be wrapped, varnished and waterproofed as well as fulfilling the client's functional specifications.

Whilst I ploughed through the diverse collection of Siga coils and transformers, I was continually surprised to find out where this one or that was going to be used.

The range could vary between hi-tech and lo-tech, such as the juxtaposition of the apparently simple carboard covered coil that was actually destined for a hospital X-ray machine; to the beatiful bowl with a faint circumferential winding that would end up in one of the many foghorns used around oil- and other platforms in distant seas.

Their final destination could also be either at the bottom of one of our oceans in an underwater ROV (remotely operated vehicle), flying through the air in a Chinook Helicopter, or in a probe traversing the immense reaches of interplanetary space.

British manufacturing SMEs like Siga Electronics are successful, even in the current harsh economic climate and, as my patient minder Peter reminded me at the end of the photographic day, provide products used in the depths of the oceans to the expanses of space.

Sunlight, daylight and finding the right lightbulb

This article looks at the available sunlight and different types of artificial light, and how they differ. The aim is to give you an overiew to make a better choice for whatever light you need. Read it in conjunction with the slides above.

Sunlight and daylight on a sunny day. these provide that optimum light for most of us, whether to prevent SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), grow plants or for photography. Living in the UK (cloudy for two thirds of the time) or at night, we have a wide range of artificial lights that attempt to provide an acceptable alternative. And most of the time our light-bulbs, fluorescent tubes and even LED's are adequate. However, in certain situations, the type of light is critical. For me it is with photography, for others it may be whether they suffer depression in the dark winter months and want to try light therapy.

The way to understand the quality of the light we see, we can describe it in terms of colour, through the rainbow sequence of violet, blue, green, yellow, orange to red; If a light produces all colours in equal proportion, we see it as white. We can describe different white lights in terms of is a light more bluish or yellowish. To measure the colour of light more accurately, we can look at the amount of light produced over the full range of colours, in what is called the spectrum of light. Scientists measure the colour in wavelengths; visible light extends from violet at about 400nm (1/000 000 04 metres!) to red at 800nm. However, you can get a visual impression of how light spectra differ in the charts above.

Sunlight
Our ideal is to try and match sunlight. The sun produces an almost even spread of light from violet to red, with a tendency to produce more light towards the blue end of its spectrum. In fact, the spectrum of sunlight is similar to that of a black body heated to 5250 deg C - that fits, the sun is hot!

Incandescent Light Bulb
Until recently, the most familiar lightbulb was the incandescent light bulb. In it, a tungsten filament is heated until it glows. They typically reach temperatures of 2000 deg C to 3000 deg C (below the melting point of tungsten at 3422 deg C) The light has less blue and increasing amounts of yellow and red. Taking a photo without correction under such light gives a yellow cast to the picture. This can be corrected physically by using a blue or daylight filter, that cuts out some of the red and yellow light. For continuous lighting (in contrast to flash, see below), this is actually a very good solution with one proviso, that you can deal with the heat generated by the bulbs. More than 90% of the energy is used to produce heat!

Halogen Light
The smaller Halogen bulbs are a bit more efficient and the light is less yellow. However they work on the same principle (heating a tungsten wire) but in a halogen gas atmosphere. This means that they can be run hotter to give a whiter light. Most of the energy still goes to producing heat!

Compact Fluorescent
The main household replacement to the incandenscent light bulb is the compact fluorescent or energy saver bulb. They are much more energy efficient for the ss vapourto ame brightness, using only a third of the energy required by an incandescent bulb. They work by using electricity to make a gas glow. The glow is mainly in the ultraviolet, dangerous and invisible. So the inner parts of the tubes are coated with a phosphor. When the phosphor is lit by the UV light, it absorbs it and then emits the trapped energy as visible and safe light.

There is a benefit - and a snag with this process. The benefit is that by choosing a suitable phosphor, you can get a white light with your preferred tint (warmer yellow or daylight). The snag is that the light emitted is not in a continuous spectrum, but in a range of peaks. However, you can obtain daylight bulbs that work sufficiently well for photography and the eye. The reason is that the colour detection by the camera and that of the eye are based on observing Red Green and Blue light peaks (hence the use of the term RGB in photo-editing programs).

Special fluorescent tubes provide light at wavelengths that are optimal for plant growth, either in the Greenhouse or in the aquarium.

Light Emitting Diodes
A future growth area is the use of white LEDs (Light emitting diodes). These are actually blue LEDs that shine on a phosphor coat which then re-emits light at different colours. Most white LEDs emit light in two peaks, one at the blue end of the spectrum and the other wide peak around the yellow end of the spectrum. Again, for photography and a better match for our eyes, you need to establish that the white LED chosen actually gives sufficient peaks of red, green and blue light.
Sometimes this information is not easy to find!

Xenon Camera Flash
The last light source that is easily accessible, to photographers at least, is the Xenon flashlight. The light is created in a sudden discharge over a fraction of a second. It emits a continuous spectrum that mimics that of sunlight very well!

So what lights do I use as a photographer?
If I do not have any control, I still prefer sunlight as my light source. Next is light from incandescent bulbs, because the white balance setting in my camera can most effectively compensate for this. Fluorescent lighting is a nightmare as it can have colour tinges that the automatic colour settings on my camera do not correct for.

Where I can control lighting I use two different sources.

1. For continuous light, I use daylight compact fluorescent bulbs for photography. They do not generate as much heat as the old incandescent halogen bulbs.
2. Otherwise, I use Xenon flashlights as you can get cheap but reliable ones for manual operation , as slave flashes in addition to a branded one for your camera.

If you do not take light sources seriously, this can seriously impact on your photography, plant growing, aquariums or combating SAD!

This article gives you an introduction into different light types and their spectra, so that you can make more informed choices when looking for a suitable light, when daylight is not available!

What lights are you using? What lights do you need? Go and find out

Supporting the NRW Mission to London 2011, Green Building Services

Last week was the culmination of considerable planning and logistics, when four green building services companies from Germany came to the UK for the NRW Mission to London, 2011. The trip included one to one business meetings through the European Enterprise Network, seminars, attendance at Ecobuild 2011, site visits and evening networking.

But how is a mission trip like this put together?

Miriam and Marie share a joke

The lynch-pin in this case was the Handelskammer (Trade Association) Duesseldorf, in the form of the highly engaged Marie-Theres Luetje. She was enabling a project by NRW International, who co-ordinate support for export from North Rhine-Westphalia, with the support of Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

The tender for delivery was won by Europartnerships Ltd in the UK, whose director, Mark Dodsworth, has decades of experience with similar projects throughout Europe. He brought in a team of people to facilitate the various stages.

Miriam Palaschinski assisted Marie at the German end, to interest relevant companies in the program. Researchers such as Nick Thomas and Petra Riemenschneider conducted the research and found UK contacts. An administrative team including Nora Aguirre, helped Mark put the final plans in place.

I've worked with Mark as a partner on other projects, this time I was there to be on the ground in the UK as facilitator and interpreter between the German companies and the UK organisations we would meet.

In the Victoria Pub, Bayswater

The one factor that I particularly enjoy, even if it does make for much longer days, is the social networking that is integral to any Europartnerships program. When you visit a foreign country on business, it is easy to only see the insides of hotels and exhibitions. Mark makes sure that the evenings are spent in a relaxed atmosphere, such as the Victoria Pub in Bayswater included, with UK guests.
The success of such a mission would not be possible without the over two centuries or more of accumulated experience by all involved in assisting such missions!

Find out more about the mission by following the links below

1. NRW Green Building Services Companies on a Mission to London & Ecobuild 2011
2. The People Leading the NRW Green Building Services Companies
3. Personal Impressions: EcoBuild
4. Retrofitting Existing Homes in the UK
5. Supporting the NRW Mission to London 2011, Green Building Services

NRW Mission Brochure at http://goo.gl/XbOOF

A project of NRW International.
Supported by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Organised by Marie-Theres Luetje, Handwerkskammer Duesseldorf.
Realised by Mark Dodsworth & team, Europartnerships Ltd.

Retrofitting Existing Homes in the UK

As facilitator with the NRW Mission to London, for green building service companies, we had the privilege of visiting two retrofit sites in London. These demonstrated the commitment to find out how existing old build could be made more energy efficient.

Retrofit in Peckham

The first site was a house in Peckham that was part of a local housing association's stock. We arrived to find the site in mid completion by experienced partners Greenstructures. Solar heating panels had been fitted and we could still see how th excess heat could be stored for later retrieval in halide heat sinks in the attic. Another heat store was buried under the now concreted over floor, with its underfloor heating. Polyurethane based insulation was being either applied internally (where the external facade had to be maintained) or internally.

This site was part of an increasing knowledge base on how to speed up effective retrofitting in the future. With 25 million properties in the UK needing to be adapted, This would be no mean feat to meet the government's own targets.

Low Carbon Zone, Southwark Council

The second site was the Southwark Council Low Carbon Zone, working with their architect partners from The-Facility. Here we learnt that often the challenge in more deprived areas is not just physical, but social too. Sceptical and suspicious residents have to be won over in a process that ultimately gives them empowerment and improvement of their environment. The target was to reduce carbon emissions by 20.12% by 2012 within the zone.

With 80% of the UKs properties being existing build, not tackling retrofitting now would make it impossible for the UK to meet its energy saving targets.

By tackling some of the oldest and most difficult stock and a variety of areas within the UK, the knowledge gained would speed up retrofitting existing stock in the future.

Find out more about the mission by following the links below

1. NRW Green Building Services Companies on a Mission to London & Ecobuild 2011
2. The People Leading the NRW Green Building Services Companies
3. Personal Impressions: EcoBuild
4. Retrofitting Existing Homes in the UK
5. Supporting the NRW Mission to London 2011, Green Building Services

NRW Mission Brochure at http://goo.gl/XbOOF

A project of NRW International.
Supported by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Organised by Marie-Theres Luetje, Handwerkskammer Duesseldorf.
Realised by Mark Dodsworth & team, Europartnerships Ltd.

Personal Impressions: Ecobuild

North Balcony, outside EEN meetings

Ecobuild 2011, with its move from Earls Court to Excel this year reminds me of a quote from the "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy":" Space is Big, really Big". That is certainly how Ecobuild 2011 felt, really big, with its East and West entrances served by separate stations on the Docklands Light Railway. However, I was there with some focus, accompanying two of the four green building services companies who were part of the German NRW Mission to London and Ecobuild.

With an excess of 1300 exhibitors, the North and South halls were packed with stands from the large multinationals to the small few square metre start-ups. There was not only variety but also duplication, as you might expect. As one architect commented to me, there were also over 100 thermal/solar panel providers as companies jumped into this market. Numerous meetings and seminars were held in the galleries located on the floor above the long sides of the halls.

Meetings at stands

Wandering through, from one location to another, the impression was of new technologies and materials whilst there were also demonstrations of using natural materials from straw, wood to compressed chalk as building matter. I was taken on the one hand by the natural stone available in multiple shades from quarries throughout the UK; and on the other by a demonstration of harvesting the energy of people's footfall.

Keywords that emerged were the "Passivhaus" standard and "Retrofit".
My pocket pedometer clocked up over 8000 steps (6km) on the day I was accompanying two German companies to their specific meetings. The saving grace was access to the VIP lounge upstairs for a seat and drink at various points during the day.

It is practically impossible to gather a full insight of everything at Ecobuild during your visit. So if you are thinking of coming to the next exhibition, I recommend searching through the exhibitors online and selecting highlights to visit in advance.

One thing I can say about the visit - It's worth it!

Find out more about the mission by following the links below

1. NRW Green Building Services Companies on a Mission to London & Ecobuild 2011
2. The People Leading the NRW Green Building Services Companies
3. Personal Impressions: EcoBuild
4. Retrofitting Existing Homes in the UK
5. Supporting the NRW Mission to London 2011, Green Building Services

NRW Mission Brochure at http://goo.gl/XbOOF

A project of NRW International.
Supported by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Organised by Marie-Theres Luetje, Handwerkskammer Duesseldorf.
Realised by Mark Dodsworth & team, Europartnerships Ltd.

The People Leading the NRW Green Building Services Companies

The best way to get to know a business is - through the people representing it! Here are my personal portraits of four green building services companies that I accompanied to Ecobuild and on site visits. I was working for Europartnerships, helping with the NRW Mission to London 2011.

Martin Boehm, Boehm Elektrobau

Martin is the third generation director of Boehm Elektrobau. The company specialises in all aspects of electrical and communication technologies. Modestly describing himself as "an Electrician", his strength is in smart control technologies. These are essential in both newbuild and old buildings that are retrofitted for low or zero energy consumption. Reference projects in Germany include Porsche and the Igus factory in Cologne.





Eberhard Juengst, JOS Cleaning North

Company owner Eberhard was the most ebullient of the group. He enthusiastically described the company's patented low pressure vortex cleaning system, for building and other surfaces, at every opportunity. The process has been used on Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey in the UK, because it cleans thoroughly without abrading surfaces. With 80% of UK properties requiring energy efficient retrofits, there will be a lot of external surface restoration to be done too. He claimed poor English but wasn't afraid to use it - and showed that he was a better speaker than he thought



Franz Noll, Fugunternehmen Noll

Franz frequently works in close partnership with Eberhard. Specialising in mortar and joint repairs, his company is also qualified to work in more hazardous areas such as gas and electric power stations. Quiet at first, the glint in his eye revealed an active sense of humour. We were both proud of the way the phrase "My company specialises in the restoration and renovation of historic buildings" tripped off his tongue during introductions. On site visits, his keen eye spotted the thermal and water bridges that were giving the retrofitter's grief.



Andreas Zawierucha, Natural Interior Decoration

Andreas' expertise is in the skin of buildings, both internal and external. Whilst insulation and energy efficiency are obvious factors, I was interested in learning about another environmentally friendly part of his portfolio. He provides interior coatings based on natural plant and mineral products. They provide a greener living environment with great aesthetics, also allowing the walls to breathe. Andreas exudes an air of calm competence that underlines his years of experience culminating to his present status as a certified expert for ecological paintwork.

Find out more about the mission by following the links below

1. NRW Green Building Services Companies on a Mission to London & Ecobuild 2011
2. The People Leading the NRW Green Building Services Companies
3. Personal Impressions: EcoBuild
4. Retrofitting Existing Homes in the UK
5. Supporting the NRW Mission to London 2011, Green Building Services

NRW Mission Brochure at http://goo.gl/XbOOF

A project of NRW International.
Supported by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Organised by Marie-Theres Luetje, Handwerkskammer Duesseldorf.
Realised by Mark Dodsworth & team, Europartnerships Ltd.

NRW Green Building Services Companies on a Mission to London and Ecobuild 2011

Four German companies came to London for several packed days of visits, meetings, seminars and fact-finding - about the tremendous opportunities in the green building sector.

If there is one overriding lesson that I took away from these hectic days, accompanying these companies, it was that whilst newbuild might be the obvious market for energy efficiency, it is the need to retrofit the 80% of old housing stock that will be the mainstay of this sector. The other thing I learnt was that the word "Retrofit" had entered the English vocabulary and was here to stay!

The four companies covered smart control technology for housing; renovation and restoration and the aesthetic, green interiors. you can find out more about the visitors here.
The program was in five parts:

1. Seminars and talks by experts resident in the UK, giving an overview of the sector.
2. One to one meetings with other European companies through the European Enterprise Network.
3. Visiting EcoBuild 2011 in general and talking to selected companies in particular.
4. Site visits to retrofit sites within London.
5. Networking meetings with European and UK delegates over evening meals.

It was a packed program of 18h days that provided participants with an overview of the green construction sector - and with useful contacts.

Want to know what they learnt and how it was achieved? Well I'm afraid you should have been part of the mission! However, the articles and their links below will give some insight.

Find out more about the mission by following the links below

1. NRW Green Building Services Companies on a Mission to London & Ecobuild 2011
2. The People Leading the NRW Green Building Services Companies
3. Personal Impressions: EcoBuild
4. Retrofitting Existing Homes in the UK
5. Supporting the NRW Mission to London 2011, Green Building Services

NRW Mission Brochure at http://goo.gl/XbOOF

A project of NRW International.
Supported by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Energy, Building, Housing and Transport of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Organised by Marie-Theres Luetje, Handwerkskammer Duesseldorf.
Realised by Mark Dodsworth & team, Europartnerships Ltd.

Help Catch a Covent Garden Bagsnatcher

An enjoyable last evening for our visitors to London before returning to Duesseldorf was ruined at a stroke when a bagsnatcher stole Miriam's bag. It contained cards, identity papers, mobile and other personal belongings. You can help!

Even just passing this message on could help find a link back to the thieves and remove one more piece of scum from our capital's streets. En masse, visitors to our shores spend £30bn here per year. However, I'm asking on Miriam's behalf, because we know how upset we would be in her situation.

We had a late lunch and chatted as a group of nine in Henry's Cafe Bar in Henrietta Street on Thursday 3rd March 2011. The group then moved on to a nearby pub, The Nag's head in Covent Garden. Miriam's bag was probably snatched in the evening when the pub was busy. If you are offered or find cards or German identity papers, personal items or anything else with the name Miriam P**********i, please, please send me the information at chris@miltoncontact.com.

One thief can affect hundreds of visitors directly and besmirch our reputation as news gets around. Doing nothing lets them get away with it!

Please contact me, at chris@miltoncontact.com, if you can help catch the scum who stole Miriam P**********i's bag and personal possessions.

Snowdrops - not just a pretty flower - Five facts

The end of the barren winter months is heralded now by the arrival of Spring bulbs. Last weekend, the sunshine brought out the crowds to a fantastic display of over 240 Snowdrop varieties at Anglesey Abbey, part of the National Trust.

Here are my five Snowdrop facts:

1. Snowdrop species (Latin name Galanthus) are widespread throughout Europe and Asia. They most probably entered the British Isles in the 16th  century and have become naturalised in many locations. The trade in wild snowdrop bulbs and plants is now restricted under the CITES convention, however, many different varieties are produced sustainably in the UK.
2. Snowdrop bulbs are poisonous if eaten. One of the active ingredients is galantamine, which is used in the treatment of early Alzheimer's and vascular dementia. It acts as an 'acetylcholinesterase inhibitor'. As these are thought to be important in brain function, galantamine is also used as a “brain enhancer” in brain damaged patients. A more unusual application, is its use to get “Lucid Dreams”  or to help with “Out of Body Experiences”. I do not recommend trying it for either as the most likely experience will be your last dinner having a violent out of body experience back through your mouth!
3. Plants are brilliant chemical weapons specialists in their constant battle to avoid being eaten. Snowdrops produce Snowdrop lectin (also known as GNA = Galanthus nivalis agglutinin) which acts as an anti-feedant on insect pests. There is current research on introducing GNA into other plants in the hope that they will be more resistant to insects.
4. Snowdrops can come in varieties with a single flower and with double flowers. This does not mean two flowers, but twice the amount of petals (or more) in a single flower. This is best seen when you photograph the hanging flower from below (see slideshow). Usually Snowdrops have 3 large petals with three smaller petals in-between - these are the ones with the green marking. Inside the flower, you then have a circle of stamens (the male parts) and at the centre, the ovary (female part). In double flowers, the parts that would normally be stamens are present as smaller petals instead. Check it out in the photos; single flowers have stamens, double flowers do not!
5. We delight in seeing these early flowers. For them, it is a lifestyle to their advantage. By storing nutrients in a bulb the previous year, they can shoot up leaves and flower well before grasses swamp them or before the leaves of the trees above them cut out the vital sunshine. There is also less competition in attracting insects that are vital for pollination. Kew Gardens have monitored the first appearance of Snowdrops over many years. In the 1950s, they used to emerge at the end of February, since the 1990s, they have appeared in January, another indication of the UK's changing climate.

The Snowdrop; adaptable, medically important, a chemical weapons master and an early indicator of climate change. Not just a pretty flower then!