Archive for the ‘street’ tag

NAVTEQ to Revolutionalize the Way We Get GPS Directions

NAVTEQ has been quietly amassing the capability to revolutionize the way we get our directions from a GPS system, making them more intuitive and easier to understand. The change is in how it offers us directions; making them more human-like or more natural, “Turn Right at the Traffic Light” instead of “Turn Right in 400 Yards”. The data would be embedded in the mapping data set that also includes the street pronunciation information alongside information on the

This type of capability requires the collection, interpretation and digitization of map data that is different than the miles of roads, millions of intersections and signs that are currently in the mapping inventory. The new dataset is available in select cities, with plans to add more throughout North America in 2011. While the raw capability exists from NAVTEQ, it is still up to the GPS maker to put the feature into the GPS.

At this writing, both Garmin and Magellan use NAVTEQ maps for stand alone GPS units. Magellan’s parent company, Mitac, uses TeleAtlas maps, which may change Magellan’s approach to its map sourcing. Recall that NAVTEQ is owned by Nokia.

Below is a video from NAVTEQ that talks about the new mapping capability.

NAVTEQ Natural Guidance™ enables navigation directions everyone can relate to

NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of maps, traffic and location data enabling navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising around the world today launched a new product that promises to materially change the way navigation systems and applications interact with end users. NAVTEQ Natural Guidance™ breaks new ground by enabling guidance the way humans provide directions to each other—through the use of descriptive reference cues.

Launched at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, NAVTEQ Natural Guidance leapfrogs today’s linear navigation instructions—e.g. ‘turn right in 50 meters on Kurfuerstendamm—by guiding the way humans instruct each other, through descriptions of orientation points such as distinctive points of interest and landmarks—e.g. ‘turn right after the yellow shop” or ‘turn right at the traffic signal.’ Research shows consumers desire more intuitive and practical directions because it is easier to follow and allows the user to keep their eyes on the road. NAVTEQ Natural Guidance enables applications to use recognizable and easily understandable points of reference close to the decision point to highlight the next maneuver.

“Natural Guidance provides the kind of directions we crave as humans,” said Tiffany Treacy, NAVTEQ senior vice president of product management. “It challenges the man-machine status quo of how navigation systems have worked for years by finally enabling the kind of guidance that sounds like it’s coming from a friend who is riding along with you. This is a revolutionary first step toward more natural and ultimately more personalized experiences.”

Over the past 25 years, NAVTEQ has continually strived to create content specific to navigation that elevates the user experience. Only as an expert and innovative leader in the navigation industry, was NAVTEQ able to create a product that translates user experiences into data and data models that allow applications to generate humanized guidance. NAVTEQ Natural Guidance also employs a variety of importance criteria to help optimize when and how the guidance is presented to consumers. Reference cues can look very different—or be partially or fully obscured—depending on such factors as: which direction the user is approaching, the size of the reference object (a cathedral vs. a corner pub), or whether it is winter or summer (when trees might block the visibility).

NAVTEQ Natural Guidance is currently available for Berlin, Chicago, National Capital Region of Delhi, London, Los Angeles, New York, Munich and Paris with aggressive expansion plans to add more cities throughout Europe, North America and Asia Pacific by the end of 2011.

NAVTEQ will showcase NAVTEQ Natural Guidance at both a NAVTEQ sponsored press event, where key findings from NAVTEQ’s proprietary research will be shared, as well as at the IFA Showstoppers Event on 2nd September.

US: Plane crash on Nevada street kills 1, injures 3

A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighbourhood, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said.

Plane crash on Nevada street kills 1, injures 3

A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighbourhood, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said.

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Plane crash in Nevada kills 1, injures 3

A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighbourhood, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said.

Lebanon charges 84 over sectarian street fight

BEIRUT – A Lebanese prosecutor charged 84 people on Monday over involvement in a Sunni-Shi’ite clash which killed three people in Beirut last month.

Mamma T

It was 1970 and I had gone to meet Mother Teresa for the first time, in Nirmal Hriday, the Missionaries of Charity’s Home for Dying Destitutes in Kalighat, south Calcutta.

I’d taken a deep breathe before entering, fearful of inhaling the odour of death. What would it smell like? Sour and bitter, the ashes of flowers?

What had struck me first was the peace of the place. The inmates lay on pallets on the clean-swept floor of a large, airy hall. Golden motes danced in the light from tall windows. A Sister in the white habit of the order had taken me over to Mother.

Now, she knelt by the dying man on the floor. She covered his sores with bandages, her blunt-fingered peasant hands gentle on bleeding flesh. She took one of the man’s hands in both of hers. She spoke to him in a voice without words. There was no outrage in that voice, no accusation, no weariness.  As she held his hand and spoke to him in the voice without words, the dying man’s eyes opened and seemed to shine with understanding. Incredibly, a smile appeared on the ravaged face. It was then that I had my first intuition as to what Mother Teresa – whom I would always refer to myself as Mamma T as an antidote to icon-worship – was all about.

It was impossible to judge her work from a secular standpoint. No ordinary social worker, no matter how dedicated, could face the daily horrors she did without succumbing to despair. I was, and am, an atheist. And as an atheist I acknowledged that the source of her strength was her religious belief. Yet there was no odour of sanctity about her. No misty-eyed vision of the world to come to gloss over the ugly wounds of this world. She seemed to use the transcendent as a fulcrum to tackle the mundane, the way a workman makes use of a lever to lift a load otherwise too heavy to bear.

True, she talked about God a lot. “Let’s do something beautiful for God,” was one of her favourite phrases, as I soon learnt. But the way she said it made it sound like an idiosyncrasy, like the way an executive might talk about his golf handicap. If anything, the latter would have sounded more earnest about his game. She seemed so cheerful. Her infectious smile erased the wrinkles on the lined face. Her eyes were lively with awareness. She seemed so everyday.

Could this really be the woman all the fuss was about, who was already in the international limelight for having devoted her life to helping the most hopeless of human derelicts, dying beggars and shunned lepers? Who even then was in some danger of eventual canonisation?

Already the jetsam of humanity that she dredged from the streets of Calcutta, and a score of other cities around the world, viewed her as a living saint. In a streetside altar on Lower Circular Road, her picture had been installed as a deity. Foreign visitors were exhorted to go see her as if she were a human shrine, expiating Calcutta’s myriad sins. When she was talked about at cocktail parties, as she often was, the final diagnosis was that she was some sort of avatar of goodness, a being mysteriously inspired, unlike mere mortals such as us. In short, a saint.

Then, as now, we needed our saints. We could then walk by a beggar dying in the gutter, or a new-born child left on a refuse heap to be eaten alive by street dogs, and have the satisfaction of knowing that though there was nothing we ourselves could do, as looking after human derelicts was obviously not our job, we had nominated a special person for this chore, who could take care of everything. Mamma T was the moral garbage collector of our conscience.

The previous year before I first met her, I’d come across a beggar who had collapsed on the pavement on Chowringhee. The rush-hour crowd milled and eddied past. I too hurried by, telling myself that there was nothing that I could do anyway. When I got to the JS office, I told the story to Desmond’s secretary, Dhun Batlivala (Miss Forbes and Miss Singh had long since gone). Dhun suggested I call the Missionaries of Charity. I rang and gave the details to a matter-of-fact voice at the other end.

An hour later I went out and found that the man had been taken away. I felt a comfortable sense of relief. As when a speck of grit is removed from the eye, or a boil drained of pus. I felt I’d done my duty.

I was talking to a woman once, the wife of a company director, who told me with pride, “I always contact Mother Teresa in such cases. She’s so absolutely marvellous and knows exactly what to do.”

I nodded and said, “She is. But just suppose she wasn’t there?”

She looked at me as though I’d made an absurd remark. Like ‘But suppose the earth is flat’. Or ‘Suppose the sun doesn’t rise one day’.

Then she said, “But she is there, isn’t she?” And that was that.

Today, when we weigh her in the balance, what we are really weighing are our own values. When she received the Nobel Prize, Dan Sheppard, the then Time correspondent in Delhi, called me in Calcutta. He wanted to know how much Mamma T weighed.

“You know the Time style,” he said. “In the piece I write, when I say ‘tiny’, I have to give her weight to back up the adjective. Will you find out for me, please?”

I rang the Missionaries of Charity. Mother was unavailable, out on fieldwork, as she was more often than not. I spoke to one of the Sisters.

“I’m sorry, I know it sounds stupid. But could you tell me how much Mother weighs. It’s for Time magazine.”

There was silence. Then, very gently, “Do you really think that Mother herself would know, or care?”

In the end I made up 48 kg and passed it on to Dan. He seemed happy enough. Presumably so were Time readers.

When Mother died in 1997, I ended the edit I wrote for the Times of India, where by then I was working: “Lack of fuss was central to Mother Teresa’s style of functioning. That, and a rarely displayed but robust sense of humour, saved her from the sin of self-conscious piety. As she recounted once to Prince Michael of Greece, she dreamt she had died and gone to heaven where Saint Peter told her: ‘Go back to earth; there are no slums up here.’ There might not be any slums in heaven. But perhaps Mother Teresa would pardon us a touch of sentimentality – which she never permitted herself – for suggesting that there may be a little less heaven on this despairing earth after her departure.”

I never did find out how much she really weighed.

Stop stone-throwing before talks: Centre to J&K separatists

The Centre has sought “guarantees” from the separatists that they will ensure an end to stone throwing, street protests and violence before it announces any concessions in Jammu & Kashmir. Arun Joshi reports.

Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi banned from Venice film festival (Guardian)

Golden Lion winner denied the right to leave Iran to attend this year’s festival despite being released from jailThe Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has been denied the right to attend this year’s Venice international film festival. Due to open the short film section of the festival with The Accordion, his request was refused by officials in Tehran.Imprisoned earlier this year while making a film described by Iranian culture minister, Mohammad Hosseini, as anti-regime, Panahi was released on bail in May following a two-week hunger strike and international outcry.But his freedom does not appear to extend to the right to promote his work elsewhere. Despite having been released, I am still not free to travel outside my country to attend film festivals, the director explained. When a film-maker is not allowed to make films, he is mentally imprisoned. He may not be confined to a small cell, but he is still wandering in a larger prison.This is not the first time Panahi has been conspicuously absent from international events. A member of the jury panel for this year’s Cannes film festival, his seat was left deliberately empty by officials when incarceration kept Panahi from his duties. Accepting the best actress award for her role in Certified Copy, a film by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, Juliette Binoche condemned the Panahi’s imprisonment: His fault is to be an artist, to be independent. She described the government’s treatment of Panahi as an attack on art.A winner of Venice’s top film honour, the Golden Lion, for his 2000 film Circle, as well as the 1995 Camera d’Or at Cannes, Panahi is an active participant in international film dialogue. In a statement to festival officials, he expressed his gratitude to fellow film-makers: In the most desperate moments of my imprisonment … I drew courage thinking of myself as a proud member of this community.Screened yesterday at Venice, eight-minute short film The Accordion explores the lives of two young street musicians. Filmed in Iran as part of UN-backed project Then and Now: Beyond Borders and Differences, Panahi’s work was intended to promote ideas of tolerance and international dialogue.Jafar PanahiVenice film festivalIranguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Garmin Nuvi 1695 – NuLink connected GPS – 5-Inch screen, Google Search, Traffic

Garmin just announced the new Nuvi 1695, an updated connected GPS device that has a 5-inch screen. The Nuvi is connected to Garmin’s branded NuLink! service, that includes data such as realtime traffic, Google Local Search, weather, fuel prices, flight status and more. They threw in a few more NuThings like NuRoute technology which offers you trafficTrends and MyTrends; two routing features that help you route around known traffic issues and allows the Nuvi to learn from your driving habits and preferred routes, giving it Yoda-like intelligence.

“The nüLink! 1695 is designed to give drivers a full variety of accurate, up-to-the-minute information that they can access quickly, on a full-size, 5-inch touchscreen display,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “When you add the power of Google Local Searches and nüRoute historical information, the nüLink! 1695 delivers the ultimate navigation experience.”

The Nuvi 1695 comes loaded with information n board like phone listings and millions of Points of Interest, but also gives you the ability to access NuLink white pages and look up people and their phone number and street address. Pretty handy.

“The Garmin nüLink! traffic feature provides the best-in-class information from NAVTEQ™, a world leader in premium-quality mapping, to help customers navigate in and around congestion. “

The Nuvi 1695 also comes with available NEXRAD radar giving you insight into impending storms. This is something I’ve been waiting for in an auto format since Garmin launched an Aviation/Auto combo unit (GPSMAP 496) back in 2006.

The Nuvi 1695 also comes with several other features carried over to round out the offering:

• Bluetooth Handsfree
• Lane Assist with Junciton View of complex intersections to make on route decision making easier.
• Text to Speech – says street names
• ecoRoute – to help you document your mileage and save gas

Expected to be available this month, the Nuvi 1695 will retail for a street price of $449; the first year of Garmin nüLink! is free, and after that, the subscription renewal price for data services is $5.00/month.

Full Press Release after the jump……

OLATHE, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Garmin International Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN – News), the global leader in satellite navigation, today announced the nüLink! 1695 – a 5-inch touchscreen portable navigation device (PND) that connects drivers with relevant, online information from Garmin’s nüLink! service, including links to online information like Google™ Local Search, traffic, weather, fuel prices, flight status, and other real-time, location-relevant content, plus it uses nüRoute™ technology with trafficTrends™ and myTrends™ to make your daily commute easier than ever. The U.S. version of the nüLink! 1695 comes with one year of free Garmin nüLink! services out-of-the-box, and is also the first device to offer the nüLink! Store where customers can purchase optional premium services.

“The nüLink! 1695 is designed to give drivers a full variety of accurate, up-to-the-minute information that they can access quickly, on a full-size, 5-inch touchscreen display,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “When you add the power of Google Local Searches and nüRoute historical information, the nüLink! 1695 delivers the ultimate navigation experience.”

The nüLink! 1695 has a comprehensive set of points of interest (POIs) search capabilities thanks to nüLink!’s Google Local Search and white page telephone listings. Google Local Search brings online POIs to customers’ fingertips and lets them search for destinations by name or key words just like they are accustomed to doing on their personal computer. Detailed search results are displayed for many POIs, including a location description, business address, phone number and popularity rating. Customers can also use the nüLink!’s white page telephone listing feature to search for a person’s street address by their first and last name or phone number.

In addition to the local search capabilities, Garmin nüLink! offers a plethora of other online services that will help you travel like a local. Convenient services like local events and movie listings help customers find interesting activities wherever they might travel. Real-time flight status takes the stress out of traveling to the airport with up-to-the minute arrival and departure information for major air carriers. Plus, the Garmin nüLink! traffic feature provides the best-in-class information from NAVTEQ™, a world leader in premium-quality mapping, to help customers navigate in and around congestion. In addition to the standard included services, the nüLink! 1695 offers the nüLink! Store where customers can purchase optional premium services that offer information like real-time advanced weather with Nexrad radar and severe weather alerts, and premium safety camera alerts.

With nüLink! 1695 customers will receive efficient routing and realistic arrival times with trafficTrends, which recommends routes using historical data and recurring trends that Garmin has collected about traffic in your area at any given time of day. And making your commute easier than ever, the nüLink! 1695 remembers your frequent favorite destinations and uses myTrends to predict your destination without you needing to activate a route, displaying your arrival time and best route based on relevant traffic information. In addition, the nüLink! 1695 includes lane assist with junction view so drivers will see a realistic presentation of road signs and junctions along the route, as well as arrows that indicate the proper lane for navigation where available.

The nüLink! 1695 comes standard with ecoRoute™, an innovative application that helps customers stretch their dollars and conserve fuel by creating routes that are optimized for using less fuel. When a user selects the “less fuel” option, the 1695 will determine a fuel efficient route based on fuel consumption rates, estimated driving speeds and vehicle acceleration data. Customers can then develop better driving habits by reviewing the results of ecoRoute’s Fuel Report and Mileage Report. When used in combination with nüLink!’s fuel prices, customers can not only optimize their routes but also can choose their refueling locations in order to minimize the cost of vehicle operation.

The nüLink! 1695 also has Bluetooth® Wireless Technology that makes it possible to receive and place phone calls directly from the device. It can be paired with over 200 Bluetooth enabled phones, and a driver can retrieve and dial numbers using a supported phone’s contact list, the phone’s call history log, or the nüLink! 1695′s preloaded points of interest database.

The U.S. version of the nüLink! 1695 has preloaded maps of North America and is expected to be available in September 2010 for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $449.99. In the U.S., the first year of Garmin nüLink! is free, and after that, the subscription renewal price for data services is $5.00/month. Fuel prices in the U.S. are updated daily. nüLink! coverage area information is available at www.garmin.com/nulink.

Marketing Executive (Arabic Speaker) Marks & Spencer Regional Head Office

Marketing Executive (Arabic Speaker) Marks & Spencer Regional Head Office Al Futtaim Group Dubai UAE Ref HP698-1719 Al Futtaim Group The Role The Role Marks & Spencer part of Al-Futtaim Retail divisionis a world class market leader in high street fashion Our stores are located through out the Gulf The first Marks & Spencer store in

New York man plunges 40 stories, survives

Witnesses and police say 22-year-old Thomas Magill jumped from the high-rise at West 63rd Street on Tuesday. He landed in the backseat area of a Dodge Charger after crashing through the windshield.

Model loves

Relationships between serial model-daters and their glamorous better halves is a two-way street.

Slovakia gunman kills 6 before shooting himself: Police

A gunman aged around 50 shot himself dead after killing six people and wounding 14 in a rampage on a Bratislava street on Monday morning, Slovak police commander Jaroslav Spisiak told reporters.

The curious appeal of Salman Khan

After years, the promos of a film have really excited me and I’m dying to watch it, first day, first show. No, I have no idea if the film is good or bad. In all probability, it will be awful. Two recent films in this genre were ghastly, though they made lots of money in the box office. And one of them, being a Aamir Khan film, assumed iconic proportions and got the star the moniker of being a matchless marketing whiz, particularly because he stole the thunder from under Shah Rukh’s nose. While Shah Rukh was doing his usual number for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Aamir came in from behind with his buzz cut ushers in the theatres announcing the arrival of a thunderous blockbuster two weeks later. The whole focus shifted overnight from Surinder Sahni to Sanjay Singhania. Both films were as ordinary as they come. But Aamir’s went on to become a huge hit, announcing the arrival of a new genre in Bollywood: the Tamil bloodfest.
 
Its success quickened the release of another bloodfest, this time with Telugu origins: Wanted. You can’t get cheesier than Wanted. It’s possibly the worst movie you have seen, shoddily scripted, badly crafted, crudely put together: an astonishing display of plywood machismo. But even that couldn’t stop it from becoming a huge blockbuster simply because Salman Superbrat swaggered through the film with his trademark cheekiness, doing nothing, just being himself. That made the movie. If, like me, you watch movies not at their premiere, or on TV, but in a typical old fashioned theatre, not even in a multiplex, you will figure why Salman works. His every strut is greeted with wolf whistles and cat calls. His every line of cheeky dialogue is loudly chanted by his fans and some of them, who are watching the film for the umpteenth time, anticipate his lines by screaming them out a split second before they are spoken on screen. This is clearly one star whose fans don’t want him to act. They want him to strut through the film, doing nothing more than delivering cheesy lines of dialogue and beating up guys beefier than him. And, O yes, they reserve the maximum applause for that one moment in a film when he takes his shirt off, either for the mother of a fight or a chalu song. In both, Salman has exactly the same slightly funny, slightly exasperated expression as if to say: Why the hell am I doing this shit?
 
Aamir’s the opposite. He’s intense to a fault. Every role appears to be a matter of life and death for him. He has to get it just right. His films too are exactly the opposite of Salman’s. They are so carefully crafted that every emotion, every feeling is wrung out of every scene. Often even the manipulation shows. Most times he gets away with it simply because he’s Aamir and can do no wrong. His producers too have taken on Shah Rukh at the numbers game. Huge full page ads declare box office figures that keep spiralling till the pundits finally throw up their hands in exasperation. Akshay Kumar’s producers too briefly joined this numbers game but are now slightly subdued with Akshay having signed on a few duds. But Akshay remains chilled. He knows he has an innate goofy charm that can survive all the tacky screenplays he cheerfully sleepwalks through.
 
Funnily, barring Salman, the others are looking less and less like stars today. They are beginning to look like businessmen. Shah Rukh has even hit the cover of a business magazine and is sounding, behaving more like a producer than a star. So is Aamir. What they don’t realise is that popular fan bases are not built on the imagery of businessmen or producers. The common man does not admire a bania. The villain in most films of my growing up years was the village mahajan or the city slicker in a white shark skin suit sitting with his bottle of Vat 69. India may have changed. Money is no longer a bad word but the man on the street still admires a hero, not a wealthy man. The iconic hero of Bollywood was for over two decades the Angry Young Man who fought the entire might of the system and brought it tumbling down. 
 
This brings me back to Chulbul Pandey. I am sure Dabangg will be whatever. But what the heck, I love movies where a cracked hero walks through an equally cracked screenplay doing the weirdest, whackiest things, and no one does that better than Salman. Will I ever make a film like that? Unlikely. Will I recommend a film like that? Not over my dead body. Will I go to a sweaty, stinking theatre to watch it, surrounded by screaming, whistling, hysteric Salman fans? Yes, I will. That’s the movie watching experience I pay for. It reminds me of my adolescence. It reminds of the time when movies were movies and heroes could do anything and get away with it.

Accounts Executive | Marks & Spencer, Cairo at Al Futtaim Group

About the Business :
Marks & Spencer, part of Al-Futtaim Retail divisionis a world class market leader in high street fashion. Our stores are located throughout the Gulf. The first Marks & Spencer store in the Middle East was opened in Dubai in 1998. Other stores followed shortly in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.2010 will see Marks & Spencer expand further with the opening of new stores in Al Ain, Dubai Mall, Kuwait and Qatar. All stores are large format and carry a wide range of product including Ladieswear, Menswear, Kidswear, Lingerie, Beauty, Home and Food.About the Job :
We are seeking to hire an Accounts Executive for our Marks & Spencer store that will open in Dandy Mall, in Cairo. In this role you will be responsible for:
Ensuring that necessary accounting entries are passed in G/L for inventory related provisions so that the accounting books reflect accurate status of inventory Maintaining stock and load accounts Reconciling tax related entries, AP andGIT/ GRIR Preparing various reports forstore (sales, performance, FLASH, management meeting pack, etc) and submitting to the management for review and action Preparing weekly markdown sales analysis report Monitoring the books of accounts and arrange to reconcile AP and AR balances in the books including review of store petty cashand SAFE fund Performing month/ year end closing activities Maintaining Capital Expenditureand advertising expenses data by store Preparation of manpower report Keeping updated data for travel/ maintenance/ Security/ IT expenses Preparing the necessary audit schedulesto internal/external auditors to facilitate completion of audit

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Gunman kills 6 in Slovakia rampage

A gunman opened fire in a busy street in Slovakia’s capital Bratislava on Monday, killing six people and wounding 14, emergency services and witnesses said.

Artist promotes Graffiti Art in city

Artist Jas Charanjiva to open a studio to encourage street art in Mumbai. Read on.

It is not just a play

A play being staged today, will throw light on the street vendors’ plight.

Baby born on road battling for her life

Karishma, the baby born to a destitute woman on a busy street a month ago, is struggling for her life at a foster home. The good Samaritan who had saved Karishma is fighting the legal obstacles to adopt her. Nivedita Khandekar reports.

Don’t judge her yet, says Hilton’s attorney after drug bust

Socialite Paris Hilton’s attorney has come out in her defence insisting not to jump to any conclusions so soon after she was arrested for possession of cocaine. Hilton was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Saturday after her car was stopped by police in a Las Vegas street. The 28-year-old reality TV star was later released.

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Lebanon arrests 4 after deadly Beirut shootout

BEIRUT – Lebanese authorities have arrested four suspects in this week’s deadly Beirut street battle between the Shia Muslim Hezbollah group and a small Sunni group.

Garmin Edge 800 New Touchscreen Bike Computer

Garmin has announced a great looking new Edge 800 GPS based touchscreen bike computer that looks to be a big step up in capabilities, notable adding Birdseye satellite imagery and touchscreen capabilities. The Edge 800 interacts with Garmin Basecamp software where you can plan rides and then download them to the Edge 800. If your ride partners have a wireless capable GPS, you can then beam the route to them via Garmi’s wireless sharing feature. Compatible Fitness units include the Edge 705 and 605, along with the Garmin Oregon series, Dakota 20 and the older Colorado series handheld units.

I use a Colorado 400t when biking to which I have added City Navigator NT maps so I can navigate roads. Sure it’s big, but it handles on and off road biking nicely. With a heart rate monitor and a handlebar mount I can ride, explore and always navigate home. This summer I have been using the Birdseye satellite imagery when I ride and have found that I have come to depend on it. The experience is much better when I can navigate across roads with the satellite imagery versus the regular City NT street maps. The context gives you a better sense of what’s around you and where you are in your ride. I see the addition of the Birdseye imagery as a positive step for the Edge series.

On top of the Birdseye satellite imagery, the Edge 800 will come with a long list of capabilities that people have come to expect on a bike computer. The Edge 800 accurately tracks speed, distance, time, GPS position, elevation, calories burned, climb and descent. The Edge 800 syncs with garmin Heart Rate Monitors, and cadence sensors plus third party power meters all through their ANT+ wireless technology. Further, the Edge 800 has a barometric altimeter for extra sensitive ascent and descent readings.

You Mountain bike? Add TOPO maps for a good offroad look and feel of where you are going. Yea it will work and bring back all the data you’d come to expect.

Available for $449 in a standalone model, and a $649 bundle that adds City Navigator NT street maps, their new Heart Rate Monitor strap and cadence sensors.

Read an early review by BikeRadar and see the Garmin Product Page for the Edge 800

New York student charged with attack on Muslim taxi driver (Guardian)

Michael Enright, who volunteered in Afghanistan, accused of slashing neck and face of Bangladeshi driver in ManhattanA college student who did volunteer work in Afghanistan has been charged with slashing the neck and face of a Bangladeshi taxi driver who said he was Muslim.A criminal complaint alleges Michael Enright uttered an Arabic greeting and told the driver: Consider this a checkpoint before the brutal attack occurred on Tuesday night inside the yellow cab on Manhattan’s East Side. Police say Enright, 21, was drunk at the time.Enright is being held on charges of attempted murder and assault as hate crimes, and possession of a weapon. The handcuffed defendant did not enter a plea during the brief court appearance.In addition to a serious neck wound, cab driver Ahmed Sharif suffered cuts to his forearms, face and one hand while trying to fend off his attacker, prosecutor James Zeleta said while arguing against bail.Jason Martin, defending, told the judge his client was an honours student at the School of Visual Arts who lived with his parents in suburban Brewster, New York.Enright volunteered for Intersections International, a group that promotes interfaith dialogue and has supported plans for an Islamic centre and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. A group representative, the Reverend Robert Chase, called the situation tragic.We’ve been working very hard to build bridges between folks from different religions and cultures, Chase said. This is really shocking and sad for us.Sharif, a 43-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant who has driven a cab for 15 years, was quoted in a news release from the New York Taxi Workers Alliance as saying that the attack had left him shaken.I feel very sad, he said. He added that, because of tensions over the mosque, all drivers should be more careful. He accepted an invitation from New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, a supporter of the mosque, to visit City Hall.This attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe no matter what God we pray to, the mayor said.At around 6pm on Tuesday, a man hailed the cab at East 24th Street and Second Avenue, a police spokeswoman said. Sharif said that during the trip his customer asked him whether he was Muslim. When the driver said yes, the customer pulled out a weapon ? believed to be a folding tool with a knife blade called a Leatherman ? and attacked him.After the assault, the driver tried to lock the customer inside the cab and drive to a police station, police said. The attacker jumped out of a window, 17 blocks from where he hailed the cab, police said.An officer noticed the commotion, found Enright slumped on the pavement and arrested him.A case for the tool was found inside the cab, but the tool was missing, police said.Chase said Enright has been volunteering for the group for about a year on a project that involved veterans. He did a video project that sent him to Afghanistan for about six weeks this spring to document the life of an average soldier, Chase said. He was embedded with a unit there.Intersections has come out in support of the mosque, but Chase said Enright wasn’t involved in that project.Enright could face between eight and 25 years in prison if convicted of attempted murder.New YorkUnited Statesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Truck rams into crowd in China: 10 killed

A speeding truck on Wednesday rammed into a crowded street, killing 10 people and injuring two others in China’s eastern Fujian Province.

Eight people died instantly when the truck crashed into a gro

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Paris steps back to 30s for 3D Scorsese film

PARIS – A dozen hefty security guards held back the crowd gathered on a Paris street on Tuesday to glimpse US director Martin Scorsese jump into a limo at lunch break during the shoot of his latest film, a 3-D fantasy releasing late next year.

Sounds like a Prius down the street (CNNfn)

Toyota said Tuesday it will begin selling a noise-making device for its popular Prius hybrids in Japan that is designed to alert pedestrians when the quiet, gasoline-electric vehicle is approaching.

Hamilton fined for burnout in Melbourne street

Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has been fined $445 and avoided conviction for doing a burnout outside the Australian Grand Prix circuit in March.

Promises not kept: Street furniture on a few roads

Here is another broken promise. To ensure an “uniform look” in the city, civic bodies were expected to install similar street furniture on 54 major roads leading to stadiums, airport and railway station before the Commonwealth Games.

Diamonds, jewellery worth ‘25L stolen

Burglars broke into the house of jewellery shop owner Mongilal on Sunday evening and made away with gold jewellery and diamonds, all worth over Rs 25 lakh. Mongilal owns Manu Jewellery Shop on Avenue Road and lives on Jain Temple Street in Shivajinagar.

‘Hoon’ Hamilton fined for Melbourne street spin

McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton has been fined A$500 ($445) but avoided conviction for reckless driving outside Melbourne’s Australian Grand Prix circuit in March.

A brush with law makes them lawless

Guru, gyan, and gang. These three Gs-so necessary to turn an accidental offender into a hardcore criminal-are readily available in prisons. India’s criminal justice system may pay homage to human rights but it fails entirely in bringing the delinquents on paths of reforms.
 
Several senior police officials feel that going behind the bars is a sure way for a first-timer in crime to turn into a professional criminal. The contamination of younger minds by hardened criminals in jails just does not allow them to correct their ways.
 
The jail experience made a former gangster, thrice held under stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, so convinced about his ‘deep-rooted’ knowledge of crime that he actually walked up to the podium at annual fest of Nagpur University’s law college and delivered a lecture on criminal justice system!
 
Most rags-to-riches stories in crime world are more or less in the same mould. A hungry street urchin who is once caught stealing bread walks out of a swanky car when he graduates to being a ‘bhau’ after spending many summers in jail. Now the trembling juvenile delinquent of yore is a tough-nut to crack in any kind of interrogation. He also knows the loopholes in the system to catch the cops on the wrong foot and sue them for human rights violation.
 
The crime records of the hardened criminal (bhau in Nagpur, bhai in Mumbai) in city’s underbelly are soon replete with cases of murders and ‘half-murders’, as the police slang refers to the offence of attempt to murder. The bulge of crime record matches the rotund stomach that strains the buttons of white shirt he may don over white trousers and match them with a pair of white shoes.
 
Beware! The all-white dress code is enough to threaten the city intellectual about imminent transition from his bhaigiri to netagiri. "What else can the Election Commission do but to issue him the certificate of the winning candidate when there is no complaint of booth capturing or rigging," asked a senior officer.
 
The eyes, reddened by equal portions of meat and malt, behind black goggles of a ‘bhau’ have seen more bloodshed in his real life than his reel life counterpart. His way up the crime ladder is chequered with ‘andar’ and ‘bahar’ (in or out of jail) with regular monotony. Every time he went inside the jail, he emerged wiser.
 
Former city police chief PKB Chakraborty, who retired as director general of police, said that many thoughts had been spared and theories promulgated on reform systems but in reality not much had changed. A senior crime branch cop said young criminals found it difficult to return to the mainstream once they taste easy money of crime in wrong company.

Not all graduate to being a ‘bhau’. Many take shelter under one, providing him with muscle-power (similar to manpower in corporate world). The bhau accepts ‘suparis’ (contracts), his chelas (followers) meet the deadline. The assignments for eliminating a rival, settling disputes, getting a place vacated, acting as a villain in a love story, recovering bank’s loans, making an uncooperative occupant toe the line of a builder and such chores are done by the Bhau’s chelas against regular supplies of money and malt.
 
These smaller fries, once or twice booked for smaller offences, make easy cut as hoarse callers who can abuse on phone to intimidate someone. "Nowadays, every criminal is a broker or dealer of real estate or is hired by a section of builders to act as bodyguards or threaten others," said an officer.

Drivers find new road in Sharjah confusing

“I wanted to go to Al Wahda Street but then saw that I was heading towards the underpass. I didn’t see any signboards that showed there weren’t any U-turns available, and ended up at the Cricket Stadium. It took me at least 15 minutes to find my way out,” said Manu George, a resident of Abu Shagara.

Zaroob brings the city authentic experience in stylish surroundings

United Arab Emirates: Inspired by the traditional street food vendors found around the Levant region, new dining concept ‘Zaroob’ has been created to capture the best and most authentic aspects of wholesome, simple cooking and bring the atmosphere, theatrics and history to a modern audience. [AMEInfo.com]

Our pot-holed system breeds treadmillionaires

After long and in-depth research, full of arduous travel to tedious destinations such as Singapore, Bali, Los Angeles, New York, London and Berlin — with a difficult weekend side-trip to Helsinki — an all-party parliamentary delegation has come to the incontrovertible conclusion that it only rains in India.

The logic is irrefutable. If rain fell on other cities, their roads would also crumple like Commonwealth Games toilet paper. Since no London becomes a moon track with one rainfall, it obviously never rains in London.

Fie on those who think that only Delhi surrenders to water-riven weather. The ‘low way’ (it began as a highway) between Mussoorie and Delhi is a very democratic drive. It begins in BJP khand, swerves through BSP queendom and then zigzags into Congress empire. This national artery gets a nervous breakdown in Uttarakhand, then descends into nightmarish trauma in UP. By the time it enters Delhi, it has an incurable split personality. It should be renamed  after Freud.

We are a curious nation. For nine months we pray for the monsoon, and the moment our prayers are answered, we have no idea what to do. It is as if the showers came once a century rather than once a year.

You don’t need to summon Agatha Christie to solve the plot. Most of our roads are constructed for annual destruction, since there is more money to be made in rebuilding than in building. Governments are not merely hand-in-glove with contractors; they are hand-in-pocket. Shared loot is safe loot.

Contractors are not particularly worried about the law; they have lawyers with Satyam on their tongues. A congenial cynic suggested that it was time Parliament passed legislation decreeing that anyone worth more than Rs 1,000 crore would automatically be given bail. Businessmen make money all over the world. The difference is the distance between profit and avarice. The first has limits; greed has none.

In our country, corruption has become mainstream; honesty is a rivulet, which is why the System has developed such sophisticated expertise at deflecting street anger. The game is played out in full public view, and we do not see hypocrisy trapping us in slow motion.

What does the System do when it does not have an answer? It changes the question.

Witness how the rage against corruption in CWG has been manoeuvred into a debate on whether they can be held successfully. Who was responsible for this delay in the first place? Even this question has been diverted. The Organizing Committee, reorganized with some sticking plaster, is being reinvented from villain to victim of mysterious forces. We do not know if any race in CWG will see a nail-biting finish, but certainly the preparation has acquired a nail-biting dénouement.

Fudge is offered instead of explanation. The previous government, it is declared in stentorian tones, took the decision to hold the Games in Delhi. So? The previous government did not decide to hire treadmills for a few weeks at many times their retail price. Instead of treadmills, we have treadmillionaires.

A committee of 10 wise bureaucrats is appointed as the scourge to destroy evil and shepherd the Games towards a shining heaven. What has the committee been tasked to do? To “solve coordination problems…ensure completion…furnish progress reports…tie up loose ends”. In other words, to do within 45 days what should have been done over 45 months.

The simple fact is that they cannot take any decisions because all the decisions have already been taken during The Era of Evil — apart perhaps from a catering contract and sponsorship, the second of which is a revenue decision rather than a spending one. A government committee, incidentally, will provide excellent cover for the return of public sector sponsors.

The critical issue lies elsewhere. Indians are not against the Games; they are against corruption in the Games. Can this committee reverse any of the deals that have been exposed remorselessly by media? Will it return, without payment, the treadmills to those who have become treadmillionaires? Sanctimonious noises about the guilty being punished after the event are meaningless. How? If a contract has been sealed at a particular price by mutual consent, and then executed, how can the contractor be held guilty of malpractice?  This is more dust in the eyes of a nation already semi-blind with sleaze.

Suresh Kalmadi was quite right to flash a V-sign after the “accountability” meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence on Thursday afternoon. The scapegoats in his committee have paid the necessary price. None of their decisions have been altered, since there were too many others clinging to the food chain. Nothing has changed, apart from the touch of a few cosmetics that barely hide the accumulated debris of deals. Long live the System.
Unless, of course, it rains on the parade in October.

Germany poised to get the prying eyes of Google off its streets

Google has added its “Street View” feature to online maps in dozens of countries without provoking complaints.

Malhar moves out of campus

One of the college festival’s street plays was staged in Lower Parel.

Britons ‘more loyal to banks than partners’

Loyalty pays, Britons know best. Yes, a new study has revealed that Britons typically stay with their banks for longer than their partners. And, the average length of Britain’s longest relationship is 14 years compared with 16.5 years people spend with the same current account provider, according to the study by high street bank Santander.

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Paying the honorable MPs

The question of how much to pay to our right honorable MPs is once again upon us. They have been approved a tripling of their salary and generous increases in allowances. The paradox is that this has left the MPs dissatisfied and almost everybody else crying foul. The reason is that MPs in India are paid a pittance but still end up costing a lot. This leaves our elected representatives- at least the upright and those with modest means among them- seriously cash strapped. Yet the common perception is that they are not value for money.

Even after the increase, each MP will get only Rs 50,000 per month as salary. This is far less than what middle level executives in corporate world get. Indeed, this is less than take home pay of many officers of the government. Where the MPs cost money is in the perquisites they get. They are allowed a load of free telephone calls, electricity, water, and travel. It is in addition to generous accommodation in most sought after area of New Delhi.

While this affords them to keep up a respectable lifestyle, there is little money in hand and no incentive to save.

Of course, it costs a lot to be an elected representative in India. There is a constant stream of visitors at their home, both at New Delhi and in their constituency. These are people on some errand in the capital, political hangers on, or favour seekers. Many of them expect not just a nominal cup of tea but also refreshments and accommodation. No MP can hope to turn them away.

Of course, it is none of taxpayers’ responsibility if MPs decide to pander to their constituents in order to get re-elected. It is actually a serious electoral malpractice if sitting MPs use state funds to bolster their re-election chances as it would be grossly unfair to the challengers. Still, being an MP requires a lot of hard work. There are also legitimate expenses in discharge of their duties. It is only fair that they are properly recompensed for those.

It can easily be done by hiking the base salaries to a respectable level. At the minimum, it should be around Rs 2 lakh per month. Also, instead of being given many freebies as at present, MPs should be given fixed allowances for telephone calls, water, electricity, office stationery, travel, and medical expenses for self and family. These would be tax-free to the extent an MP is able to produce actual bills and taxed thereafter. This would ensure that recipients are frugal with their expenses since they would get to keep what they save. It would also discourage the culture of freeloading hangers on. In addition, the state can pay for some office-related expenses like salaries of a couple of personal assistants. These can be paid directly to the persons employed.

Pension is another area that needs reforms. It is grossly unfair to pay the same pension to a person who has been an MP for a short period and somebody who has served a number of terms. Pension has to be linked to the tenure of service and should in no case exceed half of the salary drawn. This would be another incentive for MP to try to get re-elected. Of course, all this would require a lot of money. This could easily be arranged by abolishing the local area development fund of MPs.

This fund (Rs 2 crore per year per MP) has no constitutional basis and has served no effective purpose. Most of the time it is deployed to serve vested interests. It is also not legally and morally tenable. For one, it gives unfair electoral advantage of incumbent MP as he or she is able to use state funds to benefit, or deny a benefit to, specific sections of electorate.

Another reason is it is not in line with MPs’ responsibilities. We send our representatives to Parliament in order to make laws and supervise the functioning of the executive. They are not supposed to decide which street should be paved and where a garbage bin should be erected. This is the job of local municipality. An MP can always make a request to local body for any amenity at a particular place. The request, if backed by popular will, would be given due weightage too. But strictly speaking, it is not an MP’s work to dabble in such things. There are over 800 sitting MPs.

Abolishing this fund can save over Rs 1600 crore annually. It is enough to pay a decent wage to our representatives.

Citizens bombard NMC panel chief with garbage complaints

Over 50 vigilant citizens across the city have registered complaints with NMC health committee chairperson Alka Dalal regarding garbage lying along roadsides, on vacant plots and street corners.

Nine arrested over iPhone scam (Guardian)

Police move to shut down criminal network suspected of global fraud using premium-rate phone lines and stolen iPhonesPolice have moved to shut down a criminal network suspected of running a complex global scam which made millions of pounds from UK mobile phone networks using stolen iPhones and premium-rate phone lines.Eight men and one woman were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud in a series of early morning raids across England today.Officers had been investigating a complex conspiracy where mobile phones were purchased using false identities, and then the SIM cards used to call premium-rate phone lines owned by people involved in the scam.City of London police detectives seized dozens of mobile phones, hundreds of SIM cards, thousands of pounds in cash and fake documentation from homes in Southend, Walsall, central Birmingham, Middlesbrough, and Forest Gate and Southall in London this morning.The raids followed a month-long investigation into a rapidly growing criminal conspiracy profiting from the theft and illegal use of almost 1,000 mobile phones ? the vast majority of which were iPhones.SIM cards were removed from illegally obtained phones then shipped abroad and plugged into automatic dialling machines, which repeatedly called lines that charged up to £10 a minute and were owned by members of the conspiracy.The cards accrued enormous bills in a matter of weeks, which were paid by mobile phone networks, but when the companies contacted the registered owners they invariably found people who had fallen victim to identity fraud.O2 was one of the networks hit by the scam, and had £1.2m stolen through premium phone lines in July alone. They contacted police with the results of their own investigation and worked in partnership with detectives from the City of London police ? the national lead force for fraud ? to uncover an elaborate and expensive fraud.Police now believe a gang of West Africans bought mobile phones on contracts from high street stores using false identities and stolen or fraudulent credit cards.The gang predominantly targeted iPhones for their high resale value. Once the phones were purchased they were sold to a middleman, believed to be based in Birmingham, who would split the SIM cards and handsets before selling the phones to criminal contacts abroad.The SIM cards were then sold to a gang based in London and Essex who were involved in running the premium phoneline scam.Early reports suggested the gang was of Pakistani origin, however police later denied this. Officers arrested several members at homes in Forest Gate, Southall and Southend this morning.They are suspected of setting up a complex network of shell companies to launder the profits from the premium phone lines and hide their identities.At one home in Forest Gate, police found hundreds of SIM cards, £15,000-worth of iPhones still in their boxes, 20 bank cards and several fake passports. At another property they uncovered hundreds of letters that had been prepared to try to con people out of their savings with a promise of a lottery win, a scam known as a 419 con.Investigators have traced the stolen handsets and SIM cards all over the world, including several countries in the Middle East, continental Europe and Vietnam.Police are now hunting to find out where the profits went, as many of those involved lived under the radar in council houses with few obvious assets, apart from relatively expensive cars.Detective superintendent Bob Wishart said officers had struck at a highly sophisticated criminal network that had been targeting the telecommunications industry and stealing millions of pounds.Our investigation found a crime gathering momentum, he said.Each month more SIM cards were being used to make more phone calls to premium-rate lines at more expense to the network provider.The criminal exploitation of the latest consumer technology is a recurring theme of our work.Our collaboration with O2 on this investigation highlights the benefits of how the private sector can work with the police to proactively target common threats to our communities.Adrian Goreham, responsible for tackling fraud at O2, said: This was a sophisticated and organised attempt to defraud mobile phone operators.We are committed to reducing mobile phone crime and have a dedicated team that monitors and investigates such attempted criminal activity.CrimeMobile phonesiPhoneAdam Gabbattguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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