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David Beckham bags Teen Choice Award

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:18:53 +0200

bags David Beckham has been crowned Choice Male Athlete at the USA'sprestigious Teen Choice Awards.

Beckham - who plays for Californian team LA Galaxy - was presentedwith the honour at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards which took place inLos Angeles on Sunday.

The awards, which honours the year's biggest acheivements in music,movies, sports and television, is voted for by thousands ofteenagers across America, and each winner is honoured with an awardin the shape of a surfboard.

Hosted by teen sensation Miley Cyrus, the American Awards bash alsogave accolades to US TV show

Gossip Girl, actors Steve Carrell, Hayden Panettiere and Chace Crawford.

Beckham beat off stiff competition from sport stars including NewYork Giants football star Eli Manning to land the coveted award.

- NZ HERALD STAFF

Sand bags available in Sabine Pass

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:18:16 +0200

Sand bags available in Sabine Pass

Christine Rappleye

Sand and bags are available in Sabine Pass at the old firestationat Texas 87 at Broad-way, according to emergency managementofficials.

Officials are waiting until later this afternoon to determine ifSabine Pass residents need to evacuate, said John Owens, the PortArthur "s emergency management coordinator.

The morning high tide is at 6:45 a.m., is an importune time asTropical Storm Edouardo is slated to come around in the morning,Owens said.

For now, residents need to stock up on non-perishable food, fill uptheir gas tanks and continuing watching for updates.

Also, residents need to secure any loose items around their yard,including yard furni-ture, so that it won "t be a projectilelater.

SPeople shouldn "t be too complacent, Mayor Deloris SBobbie Prince said. SWe didn "t expect Humberto to do whatit did (last year).

Edouardo is about 265 miles south-southeast of Galveston andexpected to turn north, making landfall just south of Galveston,raising concerns for flooding along coastal areas, including Texas87 to Sabine Pass. An evacuation order has been issued for CameronParish, La.

Wipro Info bags 5-year Spencer's deal

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:17:44 +0200

bags As retailers ramp up their store count in the country, they arehiring IT companies for quick and cost-effective rollouts.

This is offering huge opportunities for tech companies in thevertical that is currently growing faster than the industry averageof 20-22%.

A week after Infosys launched ShoppingTrip360, a platform thatenables retailers and consumer product manufacturers to getreal-time information on shoppers' buying behaviour, Wipro Infotechhas bagged a five-year IT outsourcing deal from Spencer's RetailLtd. Wipro Infotech offers services like integrated outsourcing,point solution, infrastructure management and managed services toits retail clients.

"Most of retailers are increasing number of stores and they arelooking for IT partners to transform and handle their growth," AnilJain, VP, corporate business, Wipro Infotech, said.

Wipro would be providing infrastructure management services toSpencer's, he said. The retailer's application management and datacentre operations is being handled by its in-house IT team.

'Talk tax' bags GH 4 million

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:16:49 +0200

bags The Communications Services Tax (CST) which was introduced amidstmuch debate over its appropriateness and burden on the taxpayer hasrecorded more than GH? million in its first month of collection.

The Large Taxpayer Unit of the Revenue Agencies Governing Board(RAGB), which collects taxes from big companies in the country,collected the bulk of the revenue, totalling GH?.99 million.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Mr Harry Owusu, said theincoming figures were ample signals that the system would performbeyond expectation.

Offices of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service at Osu, Adabraka,Kaneshie, the Spintex Road and Tema also collected marginal amountsthat brought the total figure to GH?.025 million at the end oflast month.

The government announced the service tax on the use of airtime oncellular phones and other telecommunication services in the 2008Budget which was presented to Parliament last November.

The tax affects mobile telephony, the Internet, fax and otherinformation and communications technologies in the country and wasintroduced to replace import duties on mobile phones as a measureto check the evasion of duty by importers of mobile phones and,other communications gadgets.

According to the government, proceeds from the tax, popularlycalled Talk Tax, would be used to support the National YouthEmployment Programme (NYEP).

On the larger revenue front, domestic revenue collection was ontarget, recording a provisional GH?.692 billion mid-year, asagainst a target of GH?.668 billion, despite the debilitatingimpact of rising crude oil prices on the economy, Mr Owusudisclosed.

The performance represents 1.4 per cent in excess of actualcollection over the target for the half year and amounts to a 22.3per cent growth in nominal terms over collections during the sameperiod last year and 17.5 per cent if inflation is taken intoconsideration (real terms).

Mr Owusu said the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS),which is responsible for import duties and other taxes related tothe importation of goods and services, exceeded its target of GH?86.28 million by collecting GH?889.10 million for the half yearending June.

He said the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which collectspay-as-you earn (PAYE) taxes, corporate taxes and other taxesrelated to income earnings, also exceeded its target by 5.7 percent, having collected GH?549.28 million as against a mid-yeartarget of GH?519.67 million.

Mr Owusu said the VAT Service, which receives taxes on consumptionon behalf of the country, also collected GH?253.75 million asagainst a half year target of GH?62.51 million.

"In these times of world economic recession one would have expectedrevenue collections to be worse but the figures show otherwise," hesaid explaining that there had been a significant drop in duties onpetroleum products as a result of the mitigating measures announcedby the government in the second half of the year.

Mr Owusu stated that contributing to the good performance was theimproved efficiency of the various revenue collecting agencies,saying. "The agencies have become proactive and vigilant in theirareas of work."

The Executive Secretary of the RAGB said the Revenue ProtectionUnit established within the RAGB had complemented the preventiveefforts of CEPS in intercepting uncustomed goods and cars thatentered the country.

"The spate of smuggling has reduced and car custom documentation isalso going up," he said.

Mr Owusu hinted that the RAGB had almost concluded negotiations onthe introduction of point-of-sale devices in VAT-registered shopsand traders for online VAT record taking to replace the electroniccash registers currently in use.

He said the devices would be piloted in some parts of Accra withintrading outlets which were currently not using any cash registers,adding that once it became fully operational, the new system wouldcompletely phase out every electronic cash register.

The RAGB boss said the computerisation programme for the InternalRevenue Service was on course with the acquisition of somehardware, while efforts to" procure the software was almostcompleted.

However the implementation would only affect selected districts inAccra for a start.

Source: Daily Graphic

BHEL bags first order to supply 800 MW b...

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:16:14 +0200

bags NEW DELHI: In a critical breakthrough, country's largest powerequipment maker Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd has won first evercontract worth Rs 2,500 crore for supplying 800 MW supercriticalboilers.

The company has received the Rs 2,500 crore contract from AndhraPradesh Power Development Co for supply of 800 MW supercriticalboilers, BHEL said in a statement here.

It would set up 1,600 MW (2x800) steam generator at KrishnapatnamPower Project of Andhra Pradesh Power Development Company Ltd(APPDCL).

The contract includes manufacture, supply, erection, testing andcommissioning of the steam generators and other auxiliaries likeElectrostatic Precipitators (ESPs).

The supercritical boilers would be manufactured by BHEL at itsTiruchirapalli unit, coal mills and ESPs would be supplied by thecompany's Hyderabad and Ranipet plants respectively.

The company has recently formed a joint venture with Tamil NaduState Electricity Board (TNEB) for setting up 2x800 MWSupercritical Thermal Power Project in the state.

The project would be the first supercritical project in the state.

The company has also won a Rs 200 crore order for a hydro-electricpower project in Vietnam. The contract which marks company's maidenentry into that country was awarded by state-owned Nam ChienHydropower.

Major equipment to be supplied for the project comprises hydroturbines, generators, transformers, controls, monitoring andprotection system and switchgear.

As per the contract, the company would design, engineer,manufacture, supply and supervise installation as well ascommissioning of electro-mechanical equipment.

Cong bags council chairman post in Karna...

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:15:34 +0200

bags Bangalore, Aug 5 (PTI) Veeranna Mathi Katti of Congress was todayunanimously elected Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council.

The election of Matti Katti was facilitated after the ruling BJPnominee Susheel Namoshi declared in the House that he waswithdrawing his nomination.

Thirteen-member JD(S) had also supported the 29-member Congress inthe election held today.

Pro-tem Chairman N Thippanna announced the election of Mathi Katti.

The 60-year-old Mathi Katti was MLA during 1978-83.

Opposition Congress leader in the state assembly, N MallikarjunaKharge congratulated Mathi Katti on his election.

In the 75 member house, Congress is in majority with 29. BJP has23, JD(S) 13, JD(U) 2, Independents 2, Chairman one. There are fivevacancies. PTI

Disturbing but Informative Video - Plast...

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:14:20 +0200

Across America, the debate continues - Plastic or Paper? This

presentation at GoingGreenResources.com

will eliminate plastic as an option for most people.

Besides graphic photos of seals, turtles and birds tangled in thesehorrible bags, there are examples of sound reasons and statisticsgiven for banning the use of plastic bags.

Financial: "China will save 37 million barrels of oil eachyear due to their ban of free plastic bags," - CNN.com/asiaJanuary 9, 2008. How much oil will be wasted in America?

Environmental: "There are an estimated 100,000 marine animalsthat die each year of plastic pollution." - National MarineDebris Monitoring Program. Our Pacific and Atlantic oceans arevalued by every American - why isn't something being done now tostop this problem?

Waste: "Los Angeles consumers use an estimated 2.3 billionplastic bags each year. Statewide, 19 billion plastic bags aredoled out by retailers annually. Yet only about 5% end up beingrecycled." - David Lazarus, LA Times July 27, 2008.

A few cities are taking steps to ban plastic bags. It's a slowprocess. The most effective step Americans can take is toimmediately refuse plastic (and paper) and tell the clerk, "Ihave my own reusable bag." There are also biodegradableplastic-like bags available for use around the home and office.

View the presentation at

GoingGreenResources.com

and see if you agree.

About GoingGreenResources.com:

Easily understood resources for going green can be hard to find. AtGoingGreenResources.com the goal is provide useful, environmentallyfriendly ideas that everyone can undertake locally, yet as informedcitizens have a significant impact on the planet.

Contact:

John Livingstone, President

12 money-saving travel tips

uebleiyu — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:11:18 +0200

4. Know luggage rules by airline

I reviewed the burst of surcharges on luggage and more in the pastfew weeks. Don't get caught opening your wallet wide at the airportwhen you follow your old routine of two checked bags plus acarry-on, only to find out that one or two of your three items willcost you $15 - $25.

Most folks know by now that the majority of airlines will charge$25 for a second checked bag; fewer realize that Northwest, United,US Airways and Spirit will charge you $15 for a first checked bag,each way. So anytime you are pricing out flights, you'll want toadd the applicable baggage charges to the cost of any roundtripflight on these airlines or pack more efficiently to lightenyour load.

5. Weigh your bags at home

Similarly, your checked bags could cost you if they are overweight;the difference between a 49-pound bag and a 51-pound bag could be$50, the most common fee for any bag weighing in excess of 50pounds. It is worth noting that if you are traveling with acompanion, and he has a 40-pound bag while you have a 52-pound bag,the airline does not average the two and let you pass; you'll stillpay for the one overweight bag. If you take the time to weigh yourbags before you leave, you can redistribute the contents such thatyou pay less or nothing at check-in.

As above, you will want to know the luggage rules; while mostairlines charge $50 for any bag over 50 pounds, Delta charges $80and Frontier charges $75; not all overweight bags lighten yourwallet by the same amount.

6. Pack lighter, and let the hotel pick up the tab

Many essential travel items can be obtained free of charge in yourhotel room or from the front desk razors, tooth brush andtoothpaste, hand soap, hair dryers and more. Instead of packing(and paying for) these items, simply request them at check-in. Ifyou do end up having to purchase them at your destination, you'llfind that prices at the CVS don't vary much nationwide.

Company Opens Engineering Center in Shen...

uebleiyu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:37:06 +0200

Co-located with the Cree Shenzhen sales office, the engineering center employs application engineering, technical and sales staff. Cree experts will teach courses and are available to consult with customers on XLamp® LED-based designs, provide on-site handling guidance for LEDs during production, and evaluate LED designs for efficiency and performance.

High-tech gadgets double as annoying nig...

uebleiyu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:36:38 +0200

NEW YORK — Twinkle, twinkle, little Internet router. And cellphone. And digital video recorder. And cable modem. And game console. And power strip. And TV — even though it's turned off.Turn off the lamps in a living room or bedroom today, and chances are good the room will still be aglow with the tiny diode lights of a half-dozen gadgets.They can be useful indicators of what state a gadget is in, or where it is, but they also bug people who'd rather not have lights shining in their faces when they're trying to sleep or watch movies.To sleep in a dorm room full of electronics at Cornell University, Rafael Garcia has covered some lights with black tape. He turns his laptop upside-down and places a mouse pad and a picture of his girlfriend on his desktop computer to block its lights. His electric toothbrush has to come out of its charger, or it will blink through the night.Unplugging the gadgets stops them from disturbing the darkness, but an unplugged laptop or toothbrush also doesn't charge. Other devices, such as computers, take time to shut down and start up."It's gotten way, way, worse, especially in the last year or two," said Shawn Therrien, a Los Angeles computer programmer. "Every single thing we buy has little neon-blue flashing lights on it. ... Turn the light off, and they shine like beacons."Therrien's bedside nemesis is an alarm clock that doubles as an iPod docking station."It lights up like the Fortress of Solitude," he said, likening it to Superman's headquarters of glowing crystals. He tamed it with 12 strips of black tape.Tom Hespos, a partner in an advertising firm in New York, counted six glowing devices in his bedroom. One is an alarm clock with a blue backlight so strong he has to put a pillow between it and him.And don't get him started on his Internet router, which has blinking blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs)."Whoever sees that glow through my window must think I'm keeping aliens in my spare room," he said.Blue LEDs have become particularly popular for electronics, and that's part of the problem. In dim light, our eyes are more sensitive to colors at the blue end of the spectrum, so blue LEDs look brighter, said Mariana Figueiro of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center in Troy, N.Y.

LEDS EVEREHERE

uebleiyu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:36:01 +0200

By now, plenty of us have read the NY Times' lengthy examination of the future of Light Emitting Diodes as low-consumption replacements for incandescent and fluorescent lighting. The article from last Monday's paper cites a number of indicators, from the famed New Year's Eve Ball in Times Square (pictured) to more pedestrian applications like factory and home lighting. US fast food chain Chipotle has announced that it's currently installing all LED lighting in its new Minneapolis store, and a spokesman "expects LEDs to be in the overwhelming majority of new restaurants next year." In Detroit, a local bar uses LEDs and claims to light the entire place with the equivalent consumption of two incandescent bulbs (which they quote at "130kW" -- my physics is a little rusty, but I think "130W" might be more correct).LEDs are enormously appealing to designers for lots of reasons: the aforementioned efficiency, of course, but also their amazing flexibility and longevity. Fuseproject famously took advantage of the color control LEDs can offer in their Leaf Lamp for Herman Miller, allowing the user to adjust not only brightness but also the warmth of the light, to great effect. The minute points of light LEDs create also offer endless opportunities for clustering, distributing and shaping illumination, a fact that designers like Ingo Maurer have seized upon and run with.The catch, of course, is price. Philips Lighting plans to introduce its first LED lightbulb replacements for home use this September in the Netherlands, at 69 Euros (US$107) a pop, while Sharp is making a similar move in Japan, with lighting systems ranging from US$420 to US$1856. This makes LEDs, at present, good for two things: high-demand applications where durability and low operating cost makes the investment worthwhile, and consumer lighting for those with deep, deep pockets.There's a dilemma here for lighting designers: focus on an emerging, low-impact, low-consumption technology that offers candy-store-like creative opportunities, or focus on the technology that most of the world's consumers can actually afford? It's not often that "sustainable design" and "design for the other 90%" are so clearly in opposition, but this would appear to be the case, at least for the time being

For large--really large--screens, only L...

uebleiyu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:35:27 +0200

How do you choose a panel technology for a display that's bigger--at 33 by 33 feet--than the side of a barn? The liquid-crystal and plasma technologies used in large-screen home TVs are out of the question. CRTs are out too, and organic electroluminescence doesn't even merit mention as a candidate.There is only one existing technology that can be tapped to display images large enough for arena use and are viewable even in direct sunlight: the light-emitting diode. Building humongous panels is very difficult. Today, the largest LCD that can be manufactured is 108 inches on the diagonal. For plasma display panels (PDPs), the largest possible screen size is 150 inches (diagonal). To go larger than that, special production equipment would have to be developed.Projection technology might seem like a solution, but it's not. Indoors, front-projection is feasible. But in big, enclosed arenas such as those at the Beijing Olympics, the presence of competing light sources tends to dull the projected images. Naturally, things get even worse for a front projector in an outdoor stadium.That is why Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. is installing its LED Astrovision technology in China. The Japanese consumer electronics giant will supply the Beijing Games with 25 LED Astrovision video display screens, delivering a total of almost 4,000 square feet. Each Astrovision screen consists of hundreds of LED units in one of two sizes--7.5 x 7.5 inches or 14 x 14 inches -- arranged in a grid. Assembling 1,296 LED units in a 16:9 widescreen format, for example, creates a display measuring 551 square feet. Up to 58,000 LED units can be installed per Astrovision screen.One advantage of the LED, a self-emitting diode, is that it's easy to increase the brightness. Astrovision's luminance is as high as 5,000 candelas/ square meter; the brightest PDP can offer only 1,600 cd/m². And the Astrovision panels are not flat, so slanting sunlight is deflected to the ground and away from the audience. That isn't possible with LCD or plasma flat panels.Wider viewing angleA display installed in an arena must be able to deliver excellent images to the audience regardless of where they sit. Here too, LED displays have advantages.Because an Astrovision screen consists of a number of LED units, each serving as light source, it can offer a horizontal viewing angle as wide as 150°. Further, there is hardly any color degradation in images on the screen, regardless of angle. A spectator viewing a 33 x 33-foot LED display can clearly see not just moving images, but also race results and athletes' names on the screen from as far away as 656 feet.An Astrovision screen consists of as many as 1,728 LED units, snapped into a metal latticework frame. Each unit contains a layer of LEDs in a grid of red, blue and green diodes placed at 8-mm intervals. When the screen is viewed from a distance of 10 feet, three primary-color diodes, driven together, blend to form what appears to be a full-color pixel, reproducing realistic images in vivid hues. Because each LED unit operates at 1.6 kHz, it offers a very fast response time. For displays smaller than 23 square feet, however, LCDs and PDPs remain far more effective. Because LED panels comprise discrete arrays of individually mounted RGB diodes, they're tough to miniaturize. pYoichiro Hata is managing editor of EE Times Japan.

Olympics technology: LEDs brighten the v...

uebleiyu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:34:24 +0200

Contractors for the Beijing Olympics considered fluorescent lighting for some of their key venues until they evaluated light-emitting diodes and found them to be a more colorful, lower-power route to illuminating their creations. Their efforts are likely to make a brilliant impression on millions at a time when LED technology is trying to cross a threshold in consumer applications."We can control the specific wavelength of the color to provide a very even color with low power," said Richard Sy, president of Cree Hong Kong. Cree Inc. (Durham, N.C.) is providing about 754,000 LEDs to light up the so-called Bird's Nest and Water Cube, which respectively house the opening ceremonies and water sports for the Beijing Olympics. The company's LEDs will also appear in some video and information displays at the event.The Water Cube alone uses about 440,000 LEDs to illuminate its exterior. Each eight- to 16-LED module needed to be outfitted with unique optics to focus beams on the plastic film on the outside of the building. A company from Shanghai created the controls that run the networked LED modules.The red, green and blue LEDs average an output of about 16 lumens per watt. White LEDs currently in production emit as much as 99 lm/W and ones in the lab hit 120 lm/W. By contrast, fluorescent tubes deliver about 70 lm/W.Because LEDs give off a directional light, they provide a more consistent color than omnidirectional tubes, assuming companies like Cree craft the right optics to focus those beams. And because LEDs use less power and are more durable--they don't use filaments that regularly burn out--they are making inroads into consumer applications. "Next year you will be hard-pressed to find a new flashlight that does not use LEDs," said a Cree spokeswoman.Although LEDs still carry a price premium over traditional technologies, they are starting to replace fluorescent bulbs for directed home lights such as recessed lighting. Some 10 million new sockets are going into new buildings each year, and as many as 9 million sockets are already in place, said the Cree spokeswoman. Even if sockets require a retrofit for LEDs, the technology can pay for itself with lower utility bills in one to four years, she added. p

Olympics technology: LEDs brighten the v...

uebleiyu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:34:05 +0200

Sharp to Introduce Oblong and Square LED...

uebleiyu — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:33:15 +0200

Osaka, Aug 04, 2008 (JCN Newswire via COMTEX) -- Sharp Corporation has developed four "oblong" type LED Lightings for use in factories and offices that deliver brightness equivalent to the commercial fluorescent lamp devices typically used in such locations. In addition, Sharp has also developed a "square" type LED Lighting ideal for use in conference rooms and similar spaces. All models will be available in the Japanese market beginning September 1, 2008. Fluorescent lamps, which are currently the dominant form of lighting in factories and offices, account for a significant percentage of the electricity consumed nationwide in Japan. In response, Sharp considered the need for lighting devices that would offer a higher level of environmental performance, and developed a family of LED Lightings featuring long product life, low power consumption, and containing no hazardous substances such as mercury, that are designed to be used not as partial illumination, but as primary sources of light. The "oblong" models to be introduced at this time feature an elongated form factor and are ideal for use as lighting in factories and offices. On top of delivering brightness equivalent to conventional fluorescent lighting devices equipped with twin 40-watt straight-tube fluorescent lamps, they offer power consumption about 25% lower than fluorescent lights as well as high energy efficiency performance based on a luminaire efficacy[2] of 74 lumens/W, the highest in the industry for LED Lightings[3]. In addition, although LEDs have traditionally been regarded as having problems such as the light being uneven when used for surface-emitting illumination, Sharp employed its proprietary optical technology to achieve bright, uniform surface-emitting lighting that had been previous difficult to achieve with LEDs. In addition to standard types intended for general office and factory use, Sharp has also developed a "high-intensity spot-pattern" model for factory and warehouse spaces that have high ceilings. The line-up also includes a "square" type appropriate for use in conference rooms and reception areas. Users can select the appropriate model depending on the design of the space and their specific application. In the future, Sharp will be working to expand its LED lighting business to spark a "lighting revolution at the factory, in the office, and in commercial facilities" based on high environmental performance and reliability.