Posts for 'Out and About' Category

The President's Emergency Plan for HIV-AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been mired in the Senate for months. Last week finally brought signs that a vote, and passage, could be near. The program would cost $50 billion that's $165 from each American to fight AIDS, or $1.3 billion from New York City alone. But will the money allocated for AIDS stop the spread of the virus in sub-Saharan Africa, where 76 percent of the world's HIV-AIDS deaths occurred last year?

Not if the dark dealings I've witnessed in Africa continue unchecked. In the fight against AIDS, profiteering has trumped prevention. AIDS is no longer simply a disease; it has become a multibillion-dollar industry.

In the late 1980s, before international experts arrived to tell us we had it all "wrong," we in Uganda devised a practical campaign to prevent the spread of HIV. We recognized that population-wide AIDS epidemics in Africa were driven by people having sex with more than one regular partner. Therefore, we urged people to be faithful. Our campaign was called ABC (Abstain, or Be Faithful, or use Condoms), but our main message was: Stick to one partner. We promoted condoms only as a last resort.

Because we knew what to do in our country, we succeeded. The proportion of Ugandans infected with HIV plunged from 21 percent in 1991 to 6 percent in 2002. But international AIDS experts who came to Uganda said we were wrong to try to limit people's sexual freedom. Worse, they had the financial power to force their casual-sex agendas upon us.

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Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, said fourth-quarter profit dropped more than analysts estimated and forecast earnings this year will fall 27 percent due to a stronger yen and U.S. sales slump.

Net income fell 28 percent to 316.8 billion yen ($3 billion) in the three months ended March from 440 billion yen a year earlier, Toyota said in Tokyo today. That was lower than the 375.2 billion yen median of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 3.8 percent to 6.57 trillion yen.

Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. all predict profit will drop this year as the yen's gains against the dollar erode the value of sales in North America. Chief Executive Officer Katsuaki Watanabe forecasts sales of Corollas, Avalons and other vehicles in the U.S. to drop 6.4 percent amid a ``severe business environment.''

``The slowdown in the U.S. really hit Toyota,'' said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Tokyo, which oversees $28 billion in assets. ``The market has yet to hit bottom.''

Profit Drop

The carmaker predicts annual net income to drop to 1.25 trillion yen in the year started April 1, from a record 1.72 trillion last year, it said today. The stronger Japanese currency will probably trim 690 billion yen from operating profit, it added.

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With its boundless optimism about the transformative potential of science, the Festival of Britain was the atomic age brought to the South Bank. This is more than a metaphor; scientific accuracy was woven, quite literally, into the very fabric of the buildings. As a fascinating new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection shows, many of the festival’s distinctive furnishings and wallpapers were the result of a characteristically Fifties collaboration between designers and some of the leading scientists of the day.

The Cambridge physicist Helen Megaw led this project to bring the microscopic beauty of crystalline structures into the aesthetic and commercial world of dresses, ties and carpets. “I am constantly being impressed by the beauty that crops up,” she wrote in 1946 of her work probing the structure of molecules through X-ray crystallography. “I would like to suggest not merely that designers should look through it for new ideas, but that they should select a few of the best which would be utilisable without substantial alteration, apply them to appropriate fabrics, and give such pattern its correct name.”

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 Now that is what you call a heavy thing to accuse anyone I must say lets hope its not true while Rakesh Roshan is defending himself by denying the charges. Krazzy 4" producer Rakesh Roshan says that his conscience is clear on the allegation of plagiarism levelled by jingle composer Ram Sampath on a song from the movie. He said he has paid Rs.20 million to Sampath to include the song in the film that released Friday. Roshan says that it was only towards the end of March that he learnt that the tune for which he was dragged to court belongs to Sampath and not Sony-Ericsson.  "We took a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Sony-Ericsson and they gave me a letter of consent. I went about this the right way.  "My conscience is clear. Towards the end of March I was told the tune belongs to Ram Sampath and not Sony-Ericsson. Not in my wildest dreams could I doubt the company's intentions," Roshan told IANS.  He said: "I was misinformed. I was in a crisis situation and had no choice but to pay up the Rs.2 crores (Rs.20 million) that was asked of me." "I'd like to ask Ram Sampath one thing. If his tune was the same as the one in 'Krazzy 4' wouldn't it have been an equally big hit when it was played as part of the cell phone ad campaign? That too had Hrithik dancing in it... Yes, the main hook line is the same," he added. "And if Ram Sampath sensed an irregularity why did he wait until my film's release was around the corner? He could have come to me when the film's music released at the end of February and made his claim. Why wait for the last minute when the film was about to be released? "I suspect they were preparing their case for very long. On Monday, I was suddenly faced with this crisis. What could I do but pay up?" Rakesh clears his brother composer Rajesh Roshan's name. "Let me state my brother Rajesh Roshan had no hand in this. I told Rajesh to use that portion of the song. He asked me to take a NOC, which I did." "We don't have to stoop as low as to cheat anyone. If the prints of the film hadn't been sent off, I could've cut the song. But I cannot betray my distributors and audiences. I've a massive responsibility towards them. I could do nothing but go for a settlement. I had to pay Rs.2 crores (Rs.20 million)."  "What to do? I'm not angry or upset. It just hurts me that I was subjected to this for no fault of mine. One thing is for sure. The doors have opened now to anyone who wants make a claim over anyone's work. Fortunately 'Krazzy 4' has opened very well," said Roshan.

Microsoft is working on a new service which will help the drivers to avoid traffic jams. According to The New York Times, the Redmond-based company is developing a technology called Clearflow, that will be available as a free software on maps.live.com.

Unlike other navigation software, Clearflow will offer driving directions by taking into account the traffic conditions and real time events. In addition, the software will analyze the traffic not only on the main roads, but on the side streets as well.

For the moment, Microsoft intends to make Clearflow available for 72 cities in the United States.

As The New York Times noted, is possible that in some cases Clearflow will compute that a trip will be faster if a driver stays on a crowded highway, rather than taking a detour,  because side streets are even more backed up by cars that have fled the original traffic jam.

The development of the new technology has started in 2003 when Eric Horvitz, an artificial-intelligence researcher at Microsoft, noticed that the side streets suggested by the navigation software were more crowded than the main roads.

“It hit me that we had to do all the side streets,” he said for The New York Times. “We really needed to understand the whole city.”

Of course, Microsoft hopes that the new technology will make its Maps service a better rival for Google Maps and other similar services.

A shark attacked and killed a teenage boy Tuesday while he and a friend were bodyboarding off Australia's eastern coast, officials said.

The 16-year-old was about 50 meters (yards) from shore when the shark attacked around 8 a.m., lifeguard spokesman Stephen Leahy said. Police said the boy's friend was already out of the water when he looked back and saw his friend "in distress" and swam back to bring his friend to the beach.

The victim suffered two large bites, one to the leg and one to the body. He died of extreme blood loss while lifeguards and paramedics tried to save him.

"We had multiple paramedics en route to the scene as well as the rescue helicopter," New South Wales Ambulance spokeswoman Penelope Little told Sky News television. "But, tragically, the young boy has died at the scene."

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 For the first time in history, we are no longer at the top: Muslims have overtaken us," Monsignor Vittorio Formenti said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Formenti compiles the Vatican's yearbook.

He said that Catholics accounted for 17.4 percent of the world population - a stable percentage - while Muslims were at 19.2 percent.

"It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer," the monsignor said.

Formenti said that the data refer to 2006. The figures on Muslims were put together by Muslim countries and then provided to the United Nations, he said, adding that the Vatican could only vouch for its own data.

When considering all Christians and not just Catholics, Christians make up 33 percent of the world population, Formenti said.

Spokesmen for the Vatican and the United Nations did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

Excavations in a cave in the mountains of northern Spain have uncovered the oldest known remains of human ancestors in Western Europe, scientists reported Wednesday.

The fossils of a lower jaw and teeth, more than 1.1 million years old, were found in sediments along with stone tools and bones of animals that appeared to have been butchered. The remains have been attributed to the previously known species Homo antecessor, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

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 Everyone is not perfect so because of that even celebs are not perfect human beings therefore everyone has flaws and that has been proven in the case of Amitabh Bachan who has come late for once on a function. I wonder why he has started to come late even though he gives reasons for coming late on a function. Punctuality has always been superstar Amitabh Bachchan's strong point. He is not known to arrive late for functions. A stickler for punctuality, he makes it a point always to arrive at any public function on the dot so as not to inconvenience the organisers and people, who wait for him.  In fact, when he is shooting for a movie, he reports on the sets before even his co-stars show up. So, when he kept the media waiting for almost three hours Saturday at Cinemax at Versova in northwest Mumbai before he arrived to unveil the replica of his 'look' in B.R. Films' forthcoming release 'Bhootnath,' reporters were shocked. Bachchan walked in at quarter past nine for his programme scheduled at 6.30 p.m. Naturally, he apologised to the media, explaining that he was first held up by a shoot and then by the evening traffic. The replica of his 'look' in 'Bhootnath' bore a striking resemblance to the one he donned for his role of Gabbar Singh in 'Ram Gopal Varma Ki Sholay.' He was flummoxed when it was pointed out to him and looked at Ravi Copra, the producer, seeking an explanation. Chopra said the 'look' was perfect for the role Bachchan plays in the film. In 'Bhootnath,' Bachchan plays a cantankerous grandfather who later becomes a partner in pranks indulged in by his seven-year-old grandson Banku (Aman Siddiqui). The movie is about a child's innocent and unsullied love and how it can turn a foe into a friend. Bachchan showered praise on Aman for his histrionic abilities. He said the boy was, in fact, the star of the movie and that he merely played a character called Kailashnath, who is endearingly referred to as Bhootnath in the movie. The cast of 'Bhootnath' also includes Juhi Chawla, Satish Shah, Rajpal Yadav and Tejas. Shah Rukh Khan makes a special appearance. While referring to SRK, Bachchan denied any 'bad vibes' between them. They have a few scenes together in the movie. 'It is a media-created animosity. He is a friend,' Bachchan said. Written and directed by Vivek Sharma, music for 'Bhootnath' has been composed by Vishal-Shekhar and the lyrics are written by Javed Akhtar. An Indian Films presentation, it is scheduled for release on May 9 this year.

The armies of migrant workers building Beijing's skyscrapers and Olympic venues are being bilked of wages and placed in dangerous conditions, Human Rights Watch said in a report released yesterday.

The report cataloged a variety of deprivations suffered by the estimated 1 million to 2 million migrant workers employed on construction sites before the Summer Olympics in Beijing: a lack of safety equipment, crowded and unhygienic dormitories, no medical care, arbitrary fines by bosses, and unpaid wages.

Human Rights Watch, an organization based in New York, said it interviewed an unspecified number of workers at nine building sites in Beijing in early 2007 and again this month. More than half said employers refused to pay their wages each month as required by Chinese law, and many had to wait until the end of the year for less pay than they had been promised, the group said.

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