FANTASY FEST 2010 HALLOWEEN CAPTAIN MORGAN PARADE
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Mount Everest now has a permanent 3G connection to the summit
KATHMANDU (AFP) – Climbers at the top of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, will now be able to make video calls and surf the Internet on their mobile phones, a Nepalese telecom group claims.
Ncell, a subsidiary of Swedish phone giant TeliaSonera, says it has set up a high-speed third-generation (3G) phone base station at an altitude of 5,200 metres (17,000 feet) near Gorakshep village in the Everest region.
"Today we made the (world's) highest video call from Mount Everest base camp successfully," Ncell Nepal chief Pasi Koistinen told reporters in Kathmandu on Thursday.
"The coverage of the network will reach up to the peak of the Everest," he added.
Climbers who reached Everest's 8,848-metre peak previously depended on expensive and erratic satellite phone coverage and a voice-only network set up by China Mobile in 2007 on the Chinese side of the mountain.
The installation will also help tens of thousands of tourists and trekkers who visit the Everest region every year.
"This is a great milestone for mobile communications as the 3G high speed internet will bring faster, more affordable telecommunication services from the world?s tallest mountain," said Lars Nyberg, chief executive of TeliaSonera, which owns 80 percent of Ncell.
The 3G services will be fast enough to make video calls and use the Internet, said the company, which also claims the world's lowest 3G base at 1,400 metres (4,595 feet) below sea level in a mine in Europe.
A total of eight base stations, four of which will run on solar power, have been installed in the Everest region with the lowest at 2,870 metres (9,400 feet) at Lukla, where the airport for the area is situated.
Company engineers braved low temperatures and winds to set up the infrastructure.
Mountaineers hailed the launch as ambitious and helpful.
"The erratic and expensive satellite connection that many times does not work for days will be replaced with this service, making it possible for all climbers to keep in touch with their organisers and family," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, a member of the International Mountain Protection Commission.
"This will also be helpful, possibly, when there is an accident or an expedition mishap,"
He added despite the installation in Everest, telecom services cover less than one-third of the 28 million people of Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.
TeliaSonera said it planned to invest 100 million dollars in the next year to ensure that mobile coverage increases to more than 90 percent of the Himalayan nation's population.
The 3G network on Everest puts TeliaSonera ahead of state-controlled Nepal Telecom, Indian-owned United Telecom and China Mobile.
Around 3,000 people have climbed to the Everest summit since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to conquer the peak in 1953.
o
Saturday, October 30, 2010
2010 Fantasy Fest Parade
Captain Morgan
Fantasy Fest Parade
Join 70,000 exuberant partygoers as this year's parade rolls down Duval Street. Featuring glittering floats, marching bands and dancing groups, it doesn't get any wilder than this! Parade @ 7 pm.
AND
Watch the festivities live
@ 7:00 PM
Join 70,000 exuberant partygoers,
o
it doesn't get any wilder
than this! 7 pm.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Researchers find Envy is what makes
you want an iPhone so bad.
According to a group of researchers, it may very well be. The say that envy is one of the prime reasons why anyone opts to buy a gadget. But don’t feel bad about it: as it turns out, envy is one of the stimulating factors that allows our economy to thrive.
According to a team of researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands who performed experiments on their students, envy is a major reason why people buy an iPhone over, say, a pay-as-you-go Nokia.
They set up an experiment to see whether the envy that prompts people to buy gadgets was benign or malicious, and centered their experiment around the iPhone. Here’s how the experiment worked:
First, they asked students to read a story about a study group where one member pulled out his iPhone and started showing its features to the other members. The students were then asked to imagine themselves being admiring and jealous of the iPhone owner (benign envy), jealous and begrudging (malicious envy), or as a control condition in which they liked the iPhone (which was likely hard to imagine for the Android users among the participants, but they endured).
The result? Students asked to imagine being envious wanted an iPhone more than those who were asked to merely like it. Hardly scientific… but my guess is that Apple’s very well-aware of how the sex appeal of their iPhone stimulates sales through one of the baser instincts of the human emotional spectrum.
o
Suspicious device found on UPS truck in New York; planes searched at 2 airports
A cargo plane sits on the tarmac at Philadelphia International Airport while officials deal with a possible hazardous materials incident.
[Update 11:31 a.m.] Investigators in the United Kingdom found a suspicious device containing a "manipulated" toner cartridge aboard a plane flying from Yemen to Chicago when it stopped in London on Thursday night - one reason for heightened concern at U.S. airports on Friday, a law-enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation said. The device tested negative for explosive material.
[Update 11:18 a.m.] Investigators in the United Kingdom found a bomb disguised as a toner cartridge aboard a plane flying from Yemen to Chicago when it stopped in London on Thursday night - one reason for heightened concern at U.S. airports on Friday, a law-enforcement source with detailed knowledge of the investigation said.
Two UPS cargo planes at Philadelphia International Airport and another at Newark International Airport are being examined for questionable shipments, the company said. One of the planes at Philadelphia came from Paris, the other from Cologne, Germany, UPS said. The plane at Newark also arrived from Cologne.
The company could not confirm the number of crew members on the planes.
[Update 11:12 a.m.] UPS says it is cooperating with authorities at the Philadelphia airport, and the cargo is being removed from its plane.
[Update 10:57 a.m.] The Transportation Security Administration is monitoring reports of potentially suspicious items onboard cargo flights that landed safely at Newark Liberty and Philadelphia International airports. The planes were moved to a remote location where they are being met by law enforcement officials and swept.
Two planes at Philadelphia International Airport are being examined, fire department officials said Friday. One is a UPS plane, officials said, and the other is a commercial plane with no one aboard. Hazardous materials units have arrived at the airport, where three people have been taken from one of the planes. Those people tested negative for hazardous materials, officials said. They would not say what type of material may be involved.
[Original post] The hazardous materials unit of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, fire department is responding to an incident involving two planes at Philadelphia International Airport, Fire Chief Carlton Grimes said.
Two people were evacuated from a plane and are waiting for units to investigate or mitigate the situation. He could not confirm what kind of material is on the plane.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Why Americans Are Unemployed
Little Tony started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN CHINA) for 6 am.
While his coffeepot (MADE IN PANAMA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He disputed a credit card bill with a customer service rep (IN INDIA) on the phone (MADE IN MEXICO).
He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN VIETNAM) and tennis shoes (MADE IN CAMBODIA).
After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN CHINA), he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN TAIWAN) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN SWITZERLAND) to the radio (MADE IN MALAYSIA), he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY), filled it with gas (FROM SAUDI ARABIA) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.
At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his computer
(MADE IN JAPAN), John decided to relax for a while.
He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL), poured himself a glass of wine
(MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can’t find a good paying job in AMERICA.
o
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