Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Now have an enemy list on your FB account!

Posted:

Facebook is not just about reaching out to friends but also foes as a new application allows you to add enemies to your profile.

EnemyGraph is a new application, available for free to all facebook users, which lets you add enemies to your Facebook profile, including real victims from your friends list, or from other users of the application.

You can also declare 'war' on any product, person or company that has a presence on Facebook. As soon as one has declared someone or something an Enemy, they appear on one's profile on the Enemies list, visible to other users of the application, the Daily Mail reported.

Its creator, Dean Terry of the University of Texas at Dallas, describes the application as 'social media blasphemy' and predicted that Facebook would remove the application.

A petition signed by three million people had called for an 'Unlike' button on Facebook, but so far the social network is yet to offer such a facility.

Interesting examples of usage of the application have already emerged as five users opened hostilities with the Twilight series of films, two had declared their opposition to tomatoes and one person had made an enemy of Nobel Prize-winning German author Thomas Mann.

"When I saw the first friends list at the beginning of the social media era, I thought where's the enemies list?" Terry said. EnemyGraph is an attempt to further define relationships between users and other entities across Facebook's social graph.

"Most social networks attempt to connect people based on affinities: you like a certain band or film or sports team, I like them, therefore we should be friends. But people are also connected and motivated by things they dislike," Terry said.

"A few people have asked us about the potential for misuse. If you are not friends with someone, or not a user of the app, or generally not famous, you cannot be listed as an 'enemy'. We will also monitor the app closely for abuse," he added.

PM asks Norway for 'amicable' solution to kids custody row

Posted:

Visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg to find an "amicable and good" solution to the NRI kids custody row, especially with a focus on keeping the welfare of the children and the interest of the parents in mind.

Singh conveyed this message to Stoltenberg on Monday on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit being held here.

Singh reportedly explained to Stoltenberg the importance of family ties in Indian culture, and expressed the hope that the outcome would be positive and within the ambit of the law, besides being in the interest of the parents and their children.

Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told media after the bilateral meeting: "The Norwegian Prime Minister also made a reference to the ongoing case relating to the two Indian children, and explained that this was the matter before the Municipality of Stavanger, as well as the local court, and that the interest of the children, as well as concerns of the parents, would sought to be addressed in whatever solution is found."

Abhigyan, three, and Aishwarya, one, were placed in foster care by the Norwegian child welfare authorities in May last year, and ever since, the battle for the release of the two kids has been going on.

In fact, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna had last month sent Secretary (West) M Ganapathy to settle the matter. However, the custody row has taken a turn for the worse with the Norwegian authorities saying last week that they were not going to hand over the kids to their uncle in view of the "conflicts" in the family.

The statement followed reports of differences between the parents -- Anurup and Sagarika Bhhatacharya.

The two prime ministers also reportedly discussed the impact of the Indian court verdicts on the 2G scam cases.

The future presence of Norwegian telecom giant Telenor, which has multi-billion dollar investments in India, hangs in the balance following the Supreme Court cancelling 122 telecom licences allegedly involved in the scam.

Bangalore student is YouTube Space Lab Asia-Pacific winner

Posted:

India's Sachin S Kukke is the Asia-Pacific region winner and one of the six global winners of the YouTube Space Lab 2012 contest for young people to design experiments that could be performed in outer space.

The winners of the contest by YouTube and Lenovo, in cooperation with Space Adventures, NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) were announced at a ceremony at the Newseum here Friday.

Kukke's experiment explores transfer of heat in ferrofluid - a special liquid that gets magnetized when subjected to a magnetic field. The study can benefit development of advanced cooling and heat transfer systems.

A student of mechanical engineering at the BMS College for Engineering in Bangalore, Kukke called on Indian Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao Friday and shared his experience of conceptualising and carrying out innovative scientific experiments, an Indian Embassy release said.

Warmly congratulating Kukke on his achievement, Rao said that in India, a country engaged in rapid economic development, "students like Sachin symbolise the hopes and the potential of a dynamic, resurgent India and it's young population".

She encouraged Kukke to pursue his goals and interests in the specialised area of aerospace engineering and wished him the very best for the years ahead.

At the meeting, Kukke was accompanied by Lee Hunter, head of brand marketing for YouTube, and Claudio Lilienfeld, senior policy manager for Asia Pacific at Google.

Nearly 40 percent of the total number of entries for the contest came from India alone, an indicator of the skills and level of interest in the field of exploration of outer space among the youth in India.

Indian student jailed in Australia in visa scam

Posted:

A Perth-based Indian student will spend 14 months in jail for his involvement in a scam to falsify English test scores to get Australian visas.

Rajesh Kumar, 31, faced ten charges for his part in fraudulently altering the International English Testing System (IELTS) scores at Perth's Curtin University between November 2009 and June 2010.

A Perth District Court sentenced Rajesh Kumar on Monday after he pleaded guilty for changing the outcomes of IELTS test apparently to get permanent residence in Australia.

Nine other persons have already been jailed in a scam to increase the IELTS scores to get permanent residence in Australia.

The list includes Kok Keith Low, a Curtin University English Language Centre employee who would be behind the bars for two years for playing the key role in falsifying the scores for various, mostly, Indian students.

Anyone achieving a score of a minimum 7.0 in four IELTS components gets extra points in the skilled points test to get permanent residence in Australia.

Rajesh Kumar was found guilty of taking a total of $32,000 from three IELTS candidates applying for Australian visas.

He kept $14,000 for himself while giving remainder to an intermediary Pritesh Shah.

The latter paid some of this bribe to Kok Keith Low who would then falsify the score at Curtin University's IELTS test centre.

The former Indian student had earlier paid $5,000 to Shah to get his own IELTS score changed to enable him to apply for an Australian visa.

The investigation carried out by Western Australia's Corruption and Crime Commission led to the conviction of ten persons including Rajesh Kumar.

In total, 73 charges were laid against 12 persons leading to fines of up to $20,000 and maximum jail of two years given to the former Curtin employee Kok Keith Low who faced 15 counts of bribery.

A former Indian national (and Kok Low's flatmate) Abdul Kader was sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment on 15 counts while Pritesh Shah has been handed a one year's sentence.

Judge Jeremy Curthoys of West Australian District Court has, according to The Australian newspaper, found Rajesh Kumar guilty of compromising the integrity of Australia's migration program.

"It was greed - pure and simple," The Australian has quoted Judge Curthoys as saying while handing down the sentence to the Indian student.

Rajesh Kumar's sentence was backdated to November 2 last year when he was arrested after arriving back in Australia from India.

James Cameron sinks to a new low

Posted:

Director becomes first person to make solo voyage to ocean floor at 35,756-foot -- the earth's deepest point

The very barren bottom of the Mariana Trench had a visitor yesterday: filmmaker James Cameron. After years of preparation, Cameron descended 35,756 foot beneath the ocean's surface in his 12-tonne lime green submarine called Deepsea Challenger.


To the abyss and back: James Cameron reached a jaw dropping
35,756 foot underwater during his voyage to the bottom of the Mariana
Trench. Three hours later, Cameron gave two thumbs-up as he emerged
from the Deepsea Challenger submersible after his successful solo dive
to to Earth's deepest point. pics/afp/national Geographic

It's a mission filled with near constant danger. At 11 km deep, the trench allows not a hint of sunlight from above, is just a few degrees above freezing temperature and will put 8 tonnes of pressure per square inch on the filmmaker. That's equivalent to three SUVs sitting on your toe, researchers have determined.



Dangerous plunge
In fact, everything about Cameron's dive is at a nearly incomprehensible scale. The trench is 120 times larger than the Grand Canyon and is more than a mile deeper than Mount Everest is tall. The Titanic director's solo journey to the ocean's deepest point took nearly three hours.

'Release, release, release!' were the last words Cameron uttered before beginning the dive, according to a Twitter post from the expedition. And after his dive, his Twitter account reflected the incredible feat: "Just arrived at the ocean's deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can't wait to share what I'm seeing with you @DeepChallenge Cameron's return aboard his sub called Deepsea Challenger was a "faster-than-expected 70-minute ascent", according to National Geographic.



Describing his plunge, Cameron said after he resurfaced, "I expected life and I found that life is much smaller. Didn't see big jellyfish, anemones. He called the bottom "featureless" and "very lunar, desolate, isolated."
"I had this idea that life would adapt, but don't think we're seeing that," he added. Only two men have preceded him in the highly dangerous mission.

In the past
US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard made the dive in 1960, spending only 20 minutes at the bottom. Worse yet, they could hardly see anything after their rough landing kicked up sand from the seafloor.

But Cameron planned a much longer stay. His 24-foot-long custom-built "vertical torpedo" was armed with enough oxygen and personal resources for the exploratory mission that lasted three hours.

The submarine was outfitted with many lights and 3-D cameras. And while Cameron might have been alone at such unfathomable depths, he plans to share his experience with the masses by releasing a documentary. He also attempted to collect rocks and soil samples to assist with scientific research.

Celebs congratulate James Cameron
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who appeared in Cameron's Terminator films, showed his support for the director via Twitter. 'Congrats to my great friend on the deepest solo dive ever. Always a pioneer.' Richard Branson and Jessica Alba were among the the other celebrities who got behind Cameron's journey.

Ocean lover
The film director has been an oceanography enthusiast since childhood and has made 72 deep-sea submersible dives. Thirty-three of those dives have been to the wreckage of the Titanic, the subject of his 1997 hit film, which is being released in a 3D version.

83-year-old sues Apple after walking into door

Posted:

Apple designs exude simplicity and style, but the doors on one of its stores caught an 83-year-old American woman out, and now she is seeking a seven figure payout in response.


Where's the door? Evelyn Paswall claims the store's all-transparent
construction made it impossible for her to see the proper exit.
Representation Pic/Getty images

Grandmother Evelyn Paswall is suing the company for $1 million (Rs 5 crore) after a collision with a glass door at an Apple Store in Long Island left her with a broken nose.

Paswall claims to have walked into the glass doors unaware of their presence. She is now claiming she did not realise she was walking into a wall of glass and she broke her nose as a result of the collision.
Her suit claims that "the defendant was negligent ... in allowing a clear, see-through glass wall and/or door to exist without proper warning," according to reports.

"Apple wants to be cool and modern and have the type of architecture that would appeal to the tech crowd, but on the other hand, they have to appreciate the danger that this high-tech modern architecture poses to some people," said Paswall's attorney Derek T Smith.

The Manhassett Apple Store mimics the glass design architecture of Scottsdale Quarter and Lincoln
Park stores and has floor-to-ceiling glass walls at the front and rear of the store, with doors in the middle at both ends.

Last year, Apple had installed white stickers marking the transparent glass walls at all Apple Stores to avoid the occurrence of such accidental collisions.

However, the victim's lawyer opines that any markings on the glass are insufficient without an actual caution board, saying his "client is an octogenarian. She sees well, but she did not see any glass."

Following the accident, warning strips have been posted across the width of the Manhassett storefront, as of Saturday, to prevent any further incidents.


Posted by Harshad at 7:22 AM

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