latestpulse

Walmart money is bribe: BJP

2012-12-10T00:32:00.001-08:00

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha adjourned twice on Monday after Opposition uproar over reports of Walmart spending on lobbying to enter Indian market.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the lobbying money was nothing but bribery and according to indina laws this is a serious offence.
Prasad's comments met with serious objections from the treasury benchers as the issue was not listed for discussion. The speaker disallowed the comments asking the members to follow proper procedures by issuing a due notice. MInutes later the house witness uproar leading to an adjournment.
The BJP leader also wanted to know who took the money from the walmart and asked the government to come clean on this.
Global retail giant Walmart - waiting for years to open its supermarkets in India - has been lobbying with the US lawmakers since 2008 to facilitate its entry into the highly lucrative Indian market.
As per the lobbying disclosure reports filed by Walmart with the US Senate, the company has spent close to $25 million (about Rs 125 crore) since 2008 on its various lobbying activities, including on the issues related to “enhanced market access for investment in India”.
In the last quarter ended September 30, 2012 itself, the company spent $1.65 million (about Rs 10 crore) on various lobbying issues, which included “discussions related to FDI in India”.
During the quarter, Walmart lobbied for its case with the US Senate, the US House of Represent-atives, the US Trade Repre-sentative (USTR) and the US Department of State, as per its latest quarterly disclosure report.
The companies are allowed to lobby for their cases in various departments and agencies in the US, but they are required to file their lobbying disclosure reports every quarter with the US Senate.
So far in 2012, Walmart has spent more than $3 million or about Rs 18 crore on its various lobbying activities, including those related to India.
As per Walmart’s lobbying disclosure reports, the company has continuously lobbied for its India entry since 2008, except for a few quarters in 2009.
The Indian government recently opened up its multibrand retail sector for foreign companies after years of political opposition and a Parliament motion against this decision was defeated last week in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The US-based supermarket chain operator Walmart Stores, which has an annual turnover of $444 billion, has been eyeing for a long time to enter India.

Nelson Mandela Hospitalized

2012-12-09T23:59:00.002-08:00

South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela was admitted to a military hospital on Saturday for medical tests, though the nation's president told the public there was "no cause for alarm" over the 94-year-old icon's health.

The statement issued by President Jacob Zuma's spokesman said that Mandela was doing well and was receiving medical care "which is consistent for his age." The statement offered no other details.

Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for fighting racist white rule, became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and served one five-year term. He later retired from public life to live in his village of Qunu, and last made a public appearance when his country hosted the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament.

"We wish Madiba all the best," Zuma said in a statement, using Mandela's clan name. "The medical team is assured of our support as they look after and ensure the comfort of our beloved founding president of a free and democratic South Africa."

In February, Mandela spent a night in a hospital for a minor diagnostic surgery to determine the cause of an abdominal complaint. He was hospitalized in January 2011 with a respiratory infection. While Zuma's statement offered no further details about who would provide medical attention for Mandela, the nation's military largely has taken over caring for the aging leader.

Mac Maharaj, a presidential spokesman, declined to say whether Mandela had been flown by the military to Pretoria. He also declined to say what the tests were for. "It's quite normal at his age to be going through those tests," Maharaj told The Associated Press.

Mandela's hospitalization comes just days after the crash of a military aircraft flying on an unknown mission near Mandela's rural home in which all 11 onboard were killed. The plane was flying to a military air base in Mthatha, which is about 30 kilometers (17 miles) north of Qunu. Military officials declined to say whether those on board had any part in caring for Mandela.

Obama Seeks $60bn for Sandy Repairs

2012-12-09T23:56:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama asked Congress to approve a $60.4 billion aid package to help East Coast states rebuild after Superstorm Sandy, well short of their initial requests.

Officials from storm-battered New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had said they needed at least $82 billion combined to make emergency repairs and upgrade infrastructure. New York and New Jersey lawmakers said they expect Obama will seek more aid as the extent of Sandy's damage becomes clearer. The two states were hit the hardest by the storm, which made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29.

"This supplemental is a very good start, and while $60 billion doesn't cover all of New York and New Jersey's needs, it covers a large percentage," said Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez of New Jersey. "This is the first good news New York has had in a while," New York governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Of the total, $15 billion would come in the form of community development block grants, a mechanism that gives local jurisdiction significant flexibility to provide aid and rebuild quickly. In addition, nearly $13 billion would go to an array of projects aimed at better protecting the New York-New Jersey coastal region and preventing damage from future storms. Another $6.2 billion would be reserved for public transportation infrastructure.

Officials said they could ask for more aid later on. There is precedent for multiple funding requests to cope with a disaster. Less than two weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, Congress had passed two appropriations totaling $62.3 billion. Within a year, two more packages were passed worth a combined $48 billion, which also covered damage from Hurricanes Rita and Wilma.

Multibillion-dollar supplemental appropriations for Katrina were still being made as late as 2010. The disaster funding request, on a scale not seen since Katrina, could complicate already tense negotiations between the White House and Congress on a deficit reduction deal.

Lawmakers are trying to avert the year-end "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that amount to a total of $600 billion. "We have the request and will review it," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. He did not elaborate.

House Appropriations Committee chairman Hal Rogers, whose panel will review the request, said Congress has a responsibility to help the region recover. "It is also our responsibility during these tight-budget times to make sure that the victims of this storm are getting the most of every single recovery dollar, and to ensure that disaster funds are timed and targeted in the most efficient and appropriate manner," the Republican lawmaker said in a statement.

Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate told lawmakers this week that the FEMA disaster relief fund was down to less than $5 billion and would run out by early spring at the current pace of disbursements. "We need a full recovery package to be voted on in this session of Congress," said New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in a statement. "Any delay will impede our recovery."

what Google is exactly?

2012-12-07T21:54:00.003-08:00

Is Google a publisher? Or is Google simply a displayer of links? Are these two things the same?
Those questions are at the heart of a Australian case that just tipped against Google, and are likely at the heart of many cases to come. An Australian high court has found Google liable for libelous content tying a man to organized crime. Of course, Google didn’t create the article that made the references, it simply provided a link to it within its search results.
The man’s name is Milorad Trkulja, and he claimed that Google defamed him by associating his name and image with (untrue) claims of ties to organized crime, both in regular search results and in Google Image search. The jury in the case found Google guilty and therefore responsible for the content that they link to. They’ve been fined $200,000, but are in the process of appealing the ruling (as you would expect).
Is Google responsible for the content that is found using their search engine? Or is this a ridiculous claim to make?
Here’s what the Judge in the case had to say:

The question of whether or not Google Inc was a publisher is a matter of mixed fact and law. In my view, it was open to the jury to find the facts in this proceeding in such a way as to entitle the jury to conclude that Google Inc was a publisher even before it had any notice from anybody acting on behalf of the plaintiff. The jury were entitled to conclude that Google Inc intended to publish the material that its automated systems produced, because that was what they were designed to do upon a search request being typed into one of Google Inc’s search products. In that sense, Google Inc is like the newsagent that sells a newspaper containing a defamatory article. While there might be no specific intention to publish defamatory material, there is a relevant intention by the newsagent to publish the newspaper for the purposes of the law of defamation.

Basically, Google may not want to publish it, but they are publishing the publishers. And since Google’s algorithms are tooled to find said content, they are responsible. Or at least it is plausible that a jury could see it that way. The Judge is clearly unconvinced that this stance is set in stone.
The Judge also differentiated search results pages from Google Image searches. The plaintiff also complained of images tying him to crime figures. The Judge notes that a Google Image search is a more-sophisticated version of cut-and-paste from magazines, and importantly a Google-created page:

As was pointed out by counsel for the plaintiff in his address to the jury, the first page of the images matter (containing the photographs I have referred to and each named “Michael Trkulja” and each with a caption “melbournecrime”) was a page not published by any person other than Google Inc. It was a page of Google Inc’s creation – put together as a result of the Google Inc search engine working as it was intended to work by those who wrote the relevant computer programs. It was a cut and paste creation (if somewhat more sophisticated than one involving cutting word or phrases from a newspaper and gluing them onto a piece of paper). If Google Inc’s submission was to be accepted then, while this page might on one view be the natural and probable consequence of the material published on the source page from which it is derived, there would be no actual original publisher of this page.

You can see just how much of a charlie-foxtrot this is. Which pages are Google’s creation, and which are simply the “consequence of the material published on the source page from which it is derived?”
The jury concluded that Google was a publisher, and was liable for the defamatory content even if they weren’t notified of it yet. Although Google contended that it doesn’t matter if they were notified of the content of not – they’re not responsible – the Judge rejected that notion as well.

It follows that, in my view, it was open to the jury to conclude that Google Inc was a publisher – even if it did not have notice of the content of the material about which complaint was made. Google Inc’s submission to the contrary must be rejected. However, Google Inc goes further and asserts that even with notice, it is not capable of being liable as a publisher “because no proper inference about Google Inc adopting or accepting responsibility complained of can ever be drawn from Google Inc’s conduct in operating a search engine”.
This submission must also be rejected. The question is whether, after relevant notice, the failure of an entity with the power to stop publication and which fails to stop publication after a reasonable time, is capable of leading to an inference that that entity consents to the publication. Such an inference is clearly capable of being drawn in the right circumstances (including the circumstances of this case). Further, if that inference is drawn then the trier of fact is entitled (but not bound) to conclude that the relevant entity is a publisher.[42] Google Inc’s submission on this issue must be rejected for a number of reasons, the least of which is that it understates the ways in which a person may be held liable as a publisher.

Of course, $200,000 to Google is basically nothing. The appeal really has nothing to do with the monetary damages. Google knows that this kind of decision sets an unsettling precedent for their future defenses in similar cases. Google as “automated news agent that’s responsible for what their algorithms pull out of the depths” is a view of Google that the company can’t afford to have stick.
We’ve seen this story play out numerous times over the past couple of years with Google’s autocomplete feature. In August of 2011, Google lost a case in Italy and was forced to remove autocomplete suggestion in its search box that tied a man to the word “truffatore,” meaning con man. A few month later, Google was fined $65,000 because one of its autocomplete suggestions labeled a French man “esroc,” meaning crook.
And this year, Google made an out-of-court settlement with French anti-discrimination groups over a “Jewish” autocomplete suggestion.
Google’s argument in these cases is similar to the argument in the Australian case. We’re not suggesting anything. We’re not defaming anyone. Google’s autocomplete suggestions are based on popularity of terms. That means that if anything, Google users are the ones linking people’s names with unsavory terms. Google’s search results are also based on an algorithm. Just ask Rick Santorum about how much responsibility Google claims in what people find using its search engine.

Only 2% of Facebook’s Local Business Pages Are Using Promoted Posts

2012-12-07T21:47:00.001-08:00

Back in May, Facebook began allowing page owners to pay to give their posts extended visibility in their fans’ news feeds. With Promoted Posts, Facebook gave business owners a way to make sure the right people see the right content- at least that’s the company’s pitch. Recently we’ve seen some page owners upset with Facebook over Promoted Posts and content visibility. They claim that changes to Facebook’s content algorithms have made their content less visible and that this is all part of Facebook’s plan to promote Promoted Posts.
Facebook says that’s simply not true. Either way, are you curious about the first six months of Promoted Posts? Just how much are page owners using the product?
Facebook has just released some figures on its initiative. According to the company, 300,000 pages have paid to promote at least one post. Facebook also said that they have reached 13 million local pages. If you do the math, you find that means just over 2% of pages have used Promoted Posts.
The company also says that 2.5 million individual posts have been promoted. That means that the average page owner who utilizes Promoted Posts has promoted a little over 8 posts. For pages in general, the receive 150 million visitors on a daily basis. Facebook says that half of them come via mobile.
In October, Facebook expanded their Promoted Posts product to individual users. Now, you don’t have to be a page to pat to promote your posts on the site. Initially, you could only promoted your individual posts if you had less than 5,000 friends. Last month, Facebook relaxed that rule. I would be interested to hear the figures on this initiative. I guess it’s simply too young of a venture for a meaningful report.

Blogspot blogs redirect to new URL and loses alexa rank

2012-12-07T00:01:00.002-08:00

Blogger is a very good platform to create free blog and write online. Blogspot blogs URL always looks like this www.techshortly.blogspot.com but now blogger automatically redirect to new URL it is contain your country code. Google has not released any statement about the changes till now.

For Example

If you open www.latestpulse.blogspot.com in India it will redirect to new URL www.latestpulse.blogspot.in
If you open www.latestpulse.blogspot.com in Australia it will redirect to new URL www.latestpulse.blogspot.au

For this changes all blogspot blogs losses it's alexa rank and shows #10,897,213. So all the blogspot bloggers very disappointed of this changes. But if you use custom domain for your blogs you won't worry about this because there is nothing changes to your blog URL.

So friends it is time to change your blogspot blogs to custom domain.

How to Increase Alexa Rank basics must do

2012-12-06T22:00:00.001-08:00

Alexa is the most internet ranking provider which decides your blog / website market value in the internet world. Alexa ranking system works level of traffic a website receives from people. Increase your Alexa rank is certainly not an easy task and needs a lot of hard work. Actually new bloggers don’t know how to improve their ranks.

If you are a professional blogger, alexa rank is the important role in your blogging career. Every bloggers feel like “I am getting large number of traffic but my alexa rank still not increase”. Alexa rank has nothing to do with Google page rank or the number of visits. Alexa has a different system to give ranks for blogs and websites.

What is Alexa Rank?

Alexa rank is a internet based ranking system. Its give the popularity for every website and blog. Alexa rank is issue website / blog traffic and some other factors. Alexa considers traffic originating from browsers installed with alexa toolbar only. Your blog / website get raffic from browsers without alexa toolbar do not come under alexa ranking algorithm.

Alexa Ranking Techniques

Install alexa toolbar – Download and install the alexa tool bar in your favourite browser. When you update your blog via your favourite browser, Alexa tool bar collect your blog information and its effects to increasing your alexa rank.

Install Alexa widget – Install the alexa widget on your blog / website. This widget also connect with alexa and count your website clicks and pageviews.

Claim your site – Place your alexa id on your blog / website head part. This is better way to allow alexa to access your blog.

Link building – Submit your blog posts to webmaster forums and social book marking web sites. Submit your blog posts to high page rank directories. This also gives some good links to improve your alexa ranking

Alexa review – Rate your blog on alexa and Write a Review for your Blog on Alexa Website. Ask some of your Friends for write review on alexa. Alexa rating and review Improve the Alexa Rank.

Blog Commenting – Write comments on high PR blogs. This also gives good back links and traffic to your blog. Its effect on alexa rank.

Webmaster friendly – Write articles about seo and blogs. Webmasters search this kind of articles. They may be had alexa toolbar also. If they visit your blog alexa rank will be increase.

Quality content – Update your blog regularly with quality contents. Alexa considers the page views and bounce rate. Unique and fresh content can only force a visitor to spend more time on your blog, This will get traffic from search engines and improve the alexa rank.

Ricky Ponting will be replaced by Phillip Hughes for Sri Lanka Test

2012-12-06T21:47:00.001-08:00

Phillip Hughes is in line to replace newly retired Ricky Ponting after being named Thursday in the Australian squad for the opening Test against Sri Lanka, starting in Hobart next week.

Hughes, whose last Test appearance was against New Zealand in December 2011, was preferred ahead of Rob Quiney and Usman Khawaja to fill the vacancy left by former skipper Ponting. Ponting, the second-highest Test run-scorer of all-time behind India’s Sachin Tendulkar, played his final and record-equalling 168th Test for Australia against South Africa in Perth, which finished on Monday.

Selectors also recalled pace bowlers Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus for the December 14-18 Hobart opener after they were left out of the third South Africa Test, won by the Proteas who sealed the series 1-0. Hughes, who has played 17 Tests as an opening batsman, gets another chance to establish himself after technical issues with the rising ball led to his axing.

“Phillip Hughes has been selected to fill the vacancy created by Ricky Ponting’s retirement,” chairman of selectors John Inverarity said.

“Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Rob Quiney and Alex Doolan were the four batsmen to come under consideration to bat high in the order. ”Phillip is an improved player and his recent and overall career statistics present a compelling case,” Inverarity said.

“The selection panel holds the view that he, having just turned 24, is a very significant part of the future.”

The chairman said captain Michael Clarke would decide on his batting order during the next few days, with Hughes an option at number three in Ponting’s place. ”The dressing-room will be different without the presence of Ricky Ponting. His absence creates both the opportunity and the necessity for others to grow and fill the gap,” Inverarity said.

Pacemen John Hastings and Josh Hazlewood were not considered because of injuries.

“The squad welcomes the return of Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle. Neither bowler was considered to be 100 percent fit to perform and (they were) not included in the final squad of 12 for the Perth Test match against South Africa,” said Inverarity.

Australia – Michael Clarke (capt), Shane Watson, David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phil Hughes, Mike Hussey, Matthew Wade, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Ben Hilfenhaus, Nathan Lyon.

Aamir on cloud nine for recent movie sucess

2012-12-06T21:44:00.001-08:00

The perfectionist of Bollywood Aamir Khan was recently spotted in an elated mood, after his latest film ‘Talaash’ received a positive opening response at the box office and appreciative reviews from critics and audience as well.
The 47-year-old actor, who made his comeback to the silver screen with his new suspense drama after a gap of three years, asserted that he is happy with the positive reaction from the audience and the “great collection” made by the movie.
“I am really happy that the film is being received well by the audience and the box office collections it has been making. The opening weekend of the film went really well and even on Monday the film made great collection,” he said.
“The reaction from the majority of the audience that I have been getting matches my emotions when I first read the script. So, I am really very happy with that,” he said.
Aamir also said that the entire cast and crew associated with the movie deserved a grand party to celebrate the endeavor and dedication that had been put in the flick.
“We would love to have a success party and I think the entire team deserves that. Everyone has put in a lot of effort and as the film as been doing so well, I am confident; I will also speak to Ritesh (Sidwani) – the co-producer of the film – to organise a party. People have put in a lot of effort in this film, we should celebrate now,” he added.

Angelina Jolie to Quit Hollywood?

2012-12-06T21:42:00.002-08:00

Angelina Jolie has revealed that she is ready to quit acting to spend more time with her six kids. The 37-year-old actress said that she would consider turning her back on Hollywood as her children enter their teens. Her oldest, adopted boy Maddox, is now 11.
“I think I’m going to have to give up acting as the kids hit the teenage years because there is going to be too much to manage,” the Sun quoted her as saying. ”If it went away tomorrow I’d be very happy at home,” she said.

Hindu Temple Demolished in Pakistan

2012-12-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Pakistani Hindus took to the street to protest after a Hindu temple was demolished in Pakistan.The incident occured on Saturday when the century-old temple, the Shri Rama Pir Mandir in Karachi’s Soldier Bazaar area was demolished by a private builder along with three or four houses located next to it, thus rendering nearly 40 people homeless.
According to the Express Tribune, a local builder in possession of the land ordered the hasty demolition to rid the land of encroachers.He had given notice to residents in 2007 to vacate the properties.But the victims are angry as the demolition took place hours before the the court issued an order protecting it from immediate demolition.The Sindh High Court had issued a stay order restraining the local administration and the private builder from demolishing the temple till December 7.
“The temple was over 50 years old,” Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, founder of the Pakistan Hindu Council, told The Wall Street Journal.He said demonstrations would continue until the government responded, adding that “this is the third such incident in three months.”
Krishna Mandir, in a residential area of Karachi, was damaged in September during protests against an anti-Islam movie. In the same month a temple erected by Hindu families living in Peshawar was demolished in a land dispute, Mr. Vankwani said.
The authorities have so far denied any religious angle in the proceedings.The local police has gone to the extent of denying the existence of the temple completely. The police maintained that they had orders to remove the encroachments. DSP Pervaiz Iqbal of Nabi Buksh police station said, “There was no temple there. There were just Hindu gods present inside the houses and we made sure that they were safe.”The people were given plenty of time to remove their belongings out of the house, he said. Supporting this theory, Military Lands and Cantonment director Zeenat Ahmed said that the operation was against illegal occupants and “encroachers have no religion.”
But the now homeless victims are demanding justice and feel they were discriminated against as they were Hindus.“They destroyed our mandir and humiliated our gods,” said an angry Prakash, pointing towards the huge debris of concrete, stones and walls of the temple. The demolishing team did place the statues of four Hindu deities on the side but the residents accused them of taking away their gold jewellery and crowns and they demanded that a idol of Lord Shankar be returned to them.
The homeless as well as other members of the Hindu community took part in a protest against the injustice meted out to them. “We don’t have any shelter. Our children spent Saturday night shivering in the cold. We were made homeless in just seconds. What was our fault?”, asked a victim.The angry crowd demanded the government arrange tickets to India for them. “If you don’t want us, we will go to India,”, said one. Another man added that, “our temple is as sacred to us as your mosque is to you.”
The Pakistani government has been slow in reacting to this sensitive incident so far.The provincial minorities minister, Mohan Lal, hasn’t even visited the site or issued any statement. On Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari directed authorities concerned to submit a report in this regard.

Strauss-Kahn’s Hearing Set for December 10

2012-12-06T21:39:00.001-08:00

Disgraced ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will face a hearing on December 10 in New York to settle with the hotel maid whose sex assault allegation triggered his downfall, a judge said on Monday. ”If the case is settled, this will be announced in open court on that day,” Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon told AFP.
The hearing is set for 2pm (1900 GMT). McKeon said he expects the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, to be present, and for Strauss-Kahn to skip the proceedings. If Strauss-Kahn, 63, and Diallo, 33, agree on the still undisclosed terms of the settlement, the one-time favorite for the French presidency would put to an end his sordid 18-month legal battle in the United States.
Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers have refused to give details of any pay-off, reported to reach somme $6 million if Diallo drops her civil suit. Until now, Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers repeatedly said they would not agree to a deal and called Diallo a gold digger. Her legal team insisted equally strongly that she wanted her day in court to confront her alleged abuser.
Diallo’s allegation of attempted rape in May 2011 triggered a stunning fall from grace for Strauss-Kahn, who had been seen as close to announcing he would run in an upcoming French presidential election. Criminal charges were quickly brought, and then thrown out when Manhattan prosecutors said Diallo’s testimony wouldn’t stand up in court. Meanwhile, Diallo filed her own civil lawsuit in a Bronx court, alleging that the 63-year-old leapt on her, naked, and forced her into oral sex.
Strauss-Kahn — who says a hurried, but consensual, sex act took place in his luxury room — returned immediately to France after the criminal case disintegrated. However, by then Strauss-Kahn’s career was in tatters, his marriage was on the rocks and he soon faced a string of other sex-related investigations by French authorities.
In France, Strauss-Kahn will learn December 19 if he is to face further investigation into pimping charges arising from allegations that he and associates arranged sex parties with prostitutes in the northern French city of Lille. His lawyers have filed a request for the charges to be dismissed.
French prosecutors last month dropped an investigation into Strauss-Kahn’s alleged participation in a gang rape after the woman involved said she had consented and was not pressing charges. Strauss-Kahn has also been accused by 32-year-old author Tristane Banon of trying to rape her in 2002.

Kylie Minogue Reveals Fitness Secret

2012-12-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

‘Agent Provocateur’s’ top model and sensational pop star, Kylie Minogue tells us how she has managed to maintain her curvy body since so many years.
The ‘secret to her fitness’ lies in her diet and the kind of workout regime she maintains.
Minogue says that she owes her fit body to Pilates and occasional visits to the gym.
Minogue maintains her slim figure by following a strict diet and a fitness system which is not agonizing to the body and mind.
Minogue says she loves to be on the move and includes physical activities rather than a stringent exercise routine.
“I do Pilates. And when I”m staying in a hotel sometimes go to the gym. But I don’t overdo it. I wish I was one of those women who do their exercises first thing in the morning, or run straight to the fitness studio as soon as they get up. But unfortunately I”m just not that disciplined! I like to go snowboarding in winter,” Minogue told the British magazine Star.
Nevertheless, Kylie Minogue is very particular about what she eats and maintains a strict healthy diet plan. Her ‘fitness secret’ mainly lies…in the diet she takes. She loves to eat fresh green vegetables and fish. She prefers grilled fish and vegetables for lunch and maybe some tuna on a bed of salad for dinner.

New App Will Let Smartphones Sense Your Moods

2012-12-06T21:36:00.001-08:00

Forget about your smart phone locating the nearest bus stop or restaurant. A new computer programme would enable the gadget to sense your moods too, through mere speech, with pinpoint accuracy, say researchers.
Surprisingly, the programme doesn’t look at the meaning of the words.
“We actually used recordings of actors reading out the date of the month it really doesn’t matter what they say, it’s how they’re saying it is what we’re interested in,” said Wendi Heinzelman, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Rochester University.
Heinzelman explained that the programme analyzes 12 features of speech, such as pitch and volume, to identify one of six emotions from a sound recording. And it achieves 81 percent accuracy – a significant improvement on earlier studies that achieved only about 55 percent accuracy, according to a Rochester statement.
The research has already been used to develop a prototype of an app. The app displays either a happy or sad face after it records and analyzes the user’s voice. It was built by one of Heinzelman’s graduate students, Na Yang, during a summer internship at Microsoft Research.
“The research is still in its early days,” Heinzelman added, “but it is easy to envision a more complex app that could use this technology for everything from adjusting the colours displayed on your mobile to playing music fitting to how you’re feeling after recording your voice.”
Heinzelman and her team are collaborating with Rochester psychologists Melissa Sturge-Apple and Patrick Davies, who are currently studying the interactions between teens and parents.
“A reliable way of categorizing emotions could be very useful in our research,” Sturge-Apple said. “It would mean that a researcher doesn’t have to listen to the conversations and manually input the emotion of different people at different stages.”
Teaching a computer to understand emotions begins with recognizing how humans do so. “You might hear someone speak and think ‘oh, he sounds angry!’ But what is it that makes you think that,” asks Sturge-Apple.
She explained that emotion affects the way people speak by altering the volume, pitch and even the harmonics of their speech. “We don’t pay attention to these features individually, we have just come to learn what angry sounds like – particularly for people we know,” she adds.
These findings will be presented Wednesday at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Workshop on Spoken Language Technology.

Most Viewed LinkedIn Profiles in India

2012-12-06T21:34:00.002-08:00

LinkedIn, the professional networking website, has released its first ever list of the most viewed professionals on LinkedIn in India. The list called Power Profiles 2012 includes 37 different profiles across six categories.
Internet
- Kunal Bahl, CEO, Snapdeal.com
- Sachin Bansal, Co-founder & CEO, Flipkart.com
- Hari Krishnan, Country Manager, LinkedIn India
- Bhawna Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer, Seventymm.com
- Uday Sodhi, CEO, HeadHonchos.com
- Praveen Sinha, Co-founder and MD, Jabong
Telecommunications
- Amitabh Ray, Senior VP, Ericsson
- Viral Oza, Marketing Director, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd.
- Sumit D. Chowdhury, Chief Information Officer, Reliance Infotel Broadband
- Pankhuri Gupta, Product Manager- ILL, TATA Communications Ltd. (fka VSNL)
Advertising
- Jessie Paul, CEO, PaulWriter
- Mahesh Murthy, Founder & CEO, Pinstorm
- Khushboo Maheshwari, Account Director, Madison Communications
- Madan Sanglikar, Co-founder & CEO, AD2C
- Marut Bhardwaj, Head Client Servicing, The BrandGlam
- Ambika Sharma, Managing Director & CEO, Pulp Strategy Communications Pvt. Ltd.
- Rachna Sharma, VP & Digital Head, JWT
Human Resources
- Kunnumal Sudeep, Head- Talent Acquisition, TCS
- Prabir Jha, Senior VP & Head- HR, Tata Motors Ltd.
- Jayesh Sampat, Country Head- HR, Liberty Videocon General Insurance
- Vandana Mehra, GM-Talent Acquisition, PepsiCo India
- Sunil Koloti, Director Recruitment, Amdocs
- Madhavi Lall, Regional Head – Human Resources, India & South Asia, Standard Chartered Bank
- Bijay Sahoo, President – HR, Retail & Infotel, Reliance Industries Ltd.
Finance
- Manisha Lath Gupta, Senior VP & Chief Marketing Officer, Axis Bank
- Ronita Mitra, Head – Corporate Brand Group, ICICI Bank
- Shubranshu Singh, Marketing Director, India and South Asia, VISA
- Tina Singh, Head – Sales and Marketing, Internet Banking, ICICI Bank
- Tanya Babu, Founder, Harvest Global Investments
- Rahul Bhan, Co-founder & Director, Riskpro India Ventures
Technology
- Virginia Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, IBM India
- Krishnan Chatterjee, VP & Head, Strategic Marketing, HCL
- Ishani Priyadarshini, VP- Finance Operations, Polaris Financial Technology Ltd.
- Ashok Lalla, Global Head – Digital Marketing, Infosys
- Shilpa Dureja Puri, Digital Lead, Microsoft
- Udayanathan Vettikkat, Head Marketing- Data center & Virtualization, Cisco
- Gaurav Motani, Consultant – Digital Strategy, TCS

New f1 circuit planned for Malaysia

2012-12-06T21:31:00.002-08:00

A second Formula One-standard circuit will be built in Malaysia and will include a driving school aimed at nurturing regional racing talent, developers of the project said.

The track in southern Malaysia is being built by Singapore billionaire investor Peter Lim, a director of UK-based sports car maker McLaren Automotive, whose sister company McLaren Racing competes in F1.
Malaysia already has a grand prix track at Sepang outside the capital Kuala Lumpur, which has hosted 14 F1 races since first being included in the racing calendar in 1999.

The developers of the new track mentioned no plans to become part of the F1 calendar.

The planned 4.5-kilometre (2.8-mile) test track is part of a $1.2 billion Motorsport City in the Iskandar development zone in the southern state of Johor, UEM Land Holdings said in a statement sent to AFP Wednesday.

The Malaysian developer holds a 30 percent share in the joint project, with Lim's FASTrack Autosports owning the rest.

The 109-hectare development will include an advanced driving school targeting regional racing talents and a 1.5-km go-kart circuit.

"The region is fast becoming a hub for motor sports," Lim said in the statement, while UEM called the track the "Nurburgring of Iskandar Malaysia", a reference to the famed circuit in Nurburg, Germany.
Singapore, which is just over Malaysia's southern border from Johor, hosts F1's only night race.

Rally champ Loeb set to race three-five rallies in 2013

2012-12-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

Nine-time world rally champion Sebastien Loeb confirmed on Thursday that he will race between three and five races during the 2013 season, including Monte Carlo, Sweden and his home race in the Alsace region.

The Frenchman announced at the end of his title-winning season last month that he would lighten his schedule next year.

Argentina has been tipped as another potential race for Loeb, with the possibility of an unconfirmed fifth race. Citroen driver Loeb has won just once in Sweden back in 2004 among his 76 victories in 10 seasons on the WRC circuit and feels he has unfinished business in the Scandinavian country.

"It is a rally, I really want to win on a regular basis," said Loeb, who will have the number one on his car as defending champion, despite not making a 10th world crown his priority.

He will complete his season with several GT races before moving into the World Touring Car Championship in 2014 as long as Citroen go ahead with plans to build a more powerful car for the gruelling circuit.

The two main drivers for the French team will be Finland's Mikko Hirvoen, who finished runner-up behind Loeb last season and will race 13 rallies, while Spaniard Dani Sordo returns to the team and will take part in at least 11 races.

"It is an immense pleasure to come back to the team," beamed Sordo. "The first tests went really well and I am ready to help Citroen in their quest for new titles. "My personal objective is to win my first race in WRC," added the 29-year-old, who has finished more than 30 times on the podium without tasting victory.

The Most Powerful People in the World

2012-12-06T21:24:00.001-08:00

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi have been named among the top 20 most powerful persons in the world by Forbes magazine in its annual power rankings which placed US President Barack Obama as number one for a second year in a row.
India's richest businessman Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and and Arcelor Mittal CEO Lakshmi Mittal also feature in the list that comprises 71 mighty heads of state, CEOs, entrepreneurs and philanthropists who "truly run and shape the world of 7.1 billion people."
Gandhi dropped a notch from last year's list and ranks at number 12 this year ahead of Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang and French President Francois Hollande. Forbes said the 65-year-old leader of India's ruling political party has the reins of the world's second-most-populous country and tenth-largest economy.
"Son Rahul is next in line to take over India's most famous political dynasty," it added. Coming in at the 20th spot is Singh, the Oxford and Cambridge-educated economist who is the architect of India's economic reforms.
Singh had ranked 19th in the list last year. "But Singh's quiet intellectualism is increasingly seen as timid and soft," Forbes added.
Ambani, owner of the world's most expensive private residence, ranks 37th in the list. Forbes said the petrochemical billionaire is India's richest and Reliance Industries is the nation's most valuable company.
It however described Ambani's support for disgraced former Goldman Sachs Director Rajat Gupta as a "low point" for him in 2012.
Mittal, ranked 47th in the most powerful people list, has a net worth of USD 16 billion but also has "lots of headaches, including S&P and Moody downgrades of his company's debt to junk status." A highlight for Mittal during the past year was carrying the Olympic flame in the 2012 Torch Relay.
Forbes said 51-year-old Obama emerged "unanimously" as the world's most powerful person for the second year running.
The decisive winner of the 2012 US presidential election, Obama now has four more years to push his agenda even as he faces major challenges, including an unresolved budget crisis, stubbornly high unemployment and renewed unrest in the Middle East.
"But Obama remains the commander-in-chief of the world's greatest military and head of the sole economic and cultural superpower--literally the leader of the free world," it said.
The second most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman, German chancellor 58-year-old Angela Merkel. She jumped up from the number four position last year to take the runner-up spot on the 2012 list.
Forbes termed Merkel as the backbone of the 27-member European Union, one who carries the fate of the Euro on her shoulders.
The list also includes Russian President Vladimir Putin at number three, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (4), General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping (9), Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin (20), Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei (21) UN chief Ban Ki-moon (30), North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (44) and former US President Bill Clinton (50).
Forbes dropped US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the list this year. Clinton, who had ranked 16th last year, does not feature in 2012 rankings as she is not expected to return to her powerful post for Obama's second term.
It is for the same reason that US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also does not feature in this year's list.
Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is ranked 28th in the list
"The most powerful man in an unstable country; Pakistan's de facto leader controls nuclear weapons and one of the world's largest standing armies. Despite tension over drone strikes, Kayani remains a key ally in the war on terror," Forbes said, adding that a lowpoint for Kayani this past year came when the country's Supreme Court issued a series of rulings holding the military accountable for human rights abuses and political meddling.
Zaheer ul-Islam, the head of Pakistan's notorious intelligence service ISI, has been ranked 52nd on the list.
"The ISI has played both sides in the war on terror and, as US troops draw out of Afghanistan, will be hugely influential in determining the region's future," Forbes said.
Islam's high point in 2012 was his first official visit to the US for talks with then counterpart in CIA General David Petraeus.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who came in at the 25th spot, is one of the youngest persons on the list at age 29. He dropped significantly from last year's top-ten ranking after Facebook's much-anticipated IPO turned out to be a flop.
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (18) is one of the list's biggest gainers. At the midpoint of her first term, Rousseff's emphasis on entrepreneurship has prompted a slew of new startups and energized Brazilian youths, Forbes said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook (35) made a big upward move too. A year after he succeeded iconic founder Steve Jobs, the company is the most valuable in the world and Apple stock hit an all-time high in September, reaching above USD 700 a share.
New members of the list include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman who is ranked 71.
Forbes said Hoffman is the world's most powerful venture capitalist and the most-connected man in Silicon Valley.
Making his debut on the list at rank 66 is Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind PayPal and Tesla Motors who is the most powerful man in space.
"His company SpaceX is a leader in the private space industry, and with that business set to boom, Musk stands to make out like a 19th-century railway tycoon," Forbes added.
A number of prominent people fell off the list entirely.
Chinese President Hu Jintao had ranked number two on the list last year and was the most powerful person in the world in 2010. With a new regime in place in China, Jintao is however on his way out of office, having already handed over some of his duties.
He would surrender the rest early next year.
In compiling the list, Forbes considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe.
It took into consideration factors including whether the candidate has power over lots of people, the financial resources controlled by each person, whether they are powerful in multiple spheres and the active use of the candidates' power.

World’s Oldest Person Dies at 116

2012-12-06T21:17:00.002-08:00

The world’s oldest woman according to Guinness World Records, died in Georgia on Tuesday.

116 year old Besse Cooper who was listed as the world’s oldest person died peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday afternoon in the city of Monroe.

Besse son, Sidney Cooper said that his mother was ill with a stomach virus and had been suffering for a while. On Monday she felt better but had a lot of breathing trouble on tuesay morning.

She was put on life support in her room, but she later died in her sleep. emotional Sidney said that even in her lifeless state her hair was neatly done and looked like she was about to go out.

Besse Cooper was confirmed as the world’s oldest person in January 2011 by Guinness World Records .