What’s been doing the rounds on social media these days is a scene
from Sony’s long-running TV show CID, which will absolutely leave you
rolling on the floor laughing. Police thriller CID, which happens to be
Indian Television’s longest running TV series, has gone through many
hair-raising twists and turns, but this video takes it to a whole new
level of Indian drama.
In the video, officer Abhijeet tries to rescue a girl who jumps from
the terrace and believe it, he could put Spiderman to shame! No wonder
the video has gone viral on various social media.
Saturday 11 June 2016
Monday 6 June 2016
Six of the best Android smartphones - latest news
Huawei P9
£449
Huawei’s P9 is the Chinese manufacturer’s latest top-end smartphone and its best by a country mile. With a smooth, rounded metal body, all-glass front and lovely in-hand feel, the P9 is every bit a premium device. The 5.2in (13.2cm) full HD screen is good and has thin bezels, making the device easy to hold. It also has two good cameras – one black and white, one colour – which are fun, a very fast fingerprint scanner on the back and a battery that lasts more than a day. The only downside is the software, a modified version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow that’s neither horrendous nor quite as good as it should be.
Verdict: Fun dual cameras, great feel, decent price.
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
£639
Samsung has hit the nail on the head with the Galaxy S7 Edge. The phone has a stunning 5.5in (14cm) quad HD screen with curved edges and a minuscule bezel, which makes this large-screened phone quite narrow and much easier to handle than other phablets. The Galaxy S7 Edge is snappy, has a two-day battery life, wireless charging and is waterproof. It also has expandable storage, a cracking camera and a great fingerprint scanner. The Samsung is pricey, but it’s arguably the best smartphone available at the moment, and if you shop around you can get it for much less than the asking price.
Verdict: The best big-screened smartphone available at the moment.
HTC 10
£570
HTC’s latest all-metal smartphone is excellent, if not outstanding. It has a great 5.2in (13.2cm) quad HD screen, a fast processor, plenty of memory and expandable storage. It also has a fast fingerprint scanner under the home button and a camera that is up there with the best. HTC’s customised Android 6.0 Marshmallow is well optimised, making it snappy and bloat-free, and the battery lasts about a day and a half between charges. The design is slightly boring, looking best in black, but the HTC 10 is an excellent all-rounder.
Verdict: A solid performer with a great camera and good battery life.
LG G5
£500
The LG G5 is something a bit different. It has a metal body, great 5.3in (13.5cm) quad HD screen, fast processor, expandable storage and runs a modified version of Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The bottom of the phone is removable, opening up an expansion port that makes the G5 modular. It’s the last remaining top-end Android device with the ability to change the battery and add what LG calls “friends” such as an extra battery, camera grip or a high-res music player. The G5 has two cameras on the back, including a wide-angle lens, which makes group shots and expansive landscapes easier. The feel and build quality isn’t quite as good as the others, and whether anyone will buy any add-on modules remains to be seen. But the G5 is a great power-user phone and different from the rest.
Verdict: Modular design stands out, but overall package not quite up to scratch.
Google Nexus 5X
£299
The Nexus 5X – a 5.2in (13.2cm) smartphone made by LG in partnership with Google – is a flagship smartphone at a budget price. As a Nexus device straight from Google, it receives Android updates months before anything else, has Google’s latest best-in-class fingerprint scanner on the back and a great camera. It is light, solidly built and lasts a day between charges, while being snappy. It doesn’t have expandable storage – so buy the 32GB version – but can be picked up for closer to £200 if you shop around.
Verdict: A great phone at a great price.
Google Nexus 6P
£449
The Nexus 6P, a 5.7in (17.8cm) phablet, is a solid all-metal, big-screen phone. Like the Nexus 5X, it runs unmodified Android, is fast, has an excellent camera, a fab fingerprint scanner on the back and snappy performance. It will last closer to two days between charges and is a smooth, bloat-free experience. Shop around and you can pick it up for about £400 with 32GB of storage.
Verdict: Fastest updates, best bloat-free experience and good value.
DC beauty commands army unit, Miss USA crown
When Miss District of Columbia Deshaun Barber took the Miss USA crown Sunday, the US army reserve officer said she hoped that she was “breaking the mould.”
Serving in the military “has taught me that being confidently beautiful is about being able to earn respect from people regardless of what you look like,” said the 26-year-old Barber.
The 5’10 feet (1.77 metres) tall Barber is an army reserve logistics company commander and an information technology analyst for the US Commerce Department.
The Miss USA pageant for years was owned by billionaire Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who sold it last year to a talent management group.
In the pageant that decides who will be the US representative in the Miss Universe contest, the 52 contestants took part in swimsuit, evening gown and interview rounds at the T-Mobile Arena at MGM in Las Vegas.
Barber is only the third representative of the US capital to ever win the Miss USA pageant. She defeated Miss Georgia and runner-up Miss Hawaii for the crown.
Barber said that gender doesn’t limit women in the US military.
“As a woman in the military, people associate beauty with weakness and they learn very quickly that I’m extremely strong. And although I’m small, I’m powerful and confidently beautiful is being myself and being very happy with who I’ve become.”
Just before the broadcast, Barber described the armed forces as her family’s business. She joined the army at age 17, and her father, an army master serjeant, served time in Iraq.
“It’s something that runs through our veins, patriotism; and service for this country, things along those lines is something I take very seriously,” Barber said.
She said she hoped that she could “break the mould for pageant girls all around the world and for military soldiers all around the world.
“I’m also saying that no one soldier has the same background and does the same thing. That we can be feminine, we can be in beauty contests, we can be models. They're stereotypes on both sides that I feel like I’m breaking even by being here.”
Saturday 4 June 2016
Wear we're going: smart fabric tech that will change the world
We've been promised smart clothing for years, but it's often been an anticlimax, nothing more than a bunch of LEDs showing a crude picture stitched into a dress.
However, cutting edge technology is ringing the changes - from purely biomechanical brilliance through to the wildest digital flights of fancy - so the possibility of having useful gadgets melded into our very apparel is close to reality.
We're seeing genuinely useful modern fabrics that are stronger, lighter, longer-lasting and greener than ever before, as well as new types of conductive textiles that will without doubt change what we wear and how we wear it forever.
The concept of embedding woven sensors has been well and truly taken on board, with companies such as Athos and MyZone producing integrated wearable performance monitors that go way beyond existing HR bands and straps.
High fashion has a long pioneering history of using high-impact visuals in catwalk wearables, and there's even trickle down into actual street clothing - one example among many being Emel + Aris, which is creating stylish trench coats containing heating polymers to ward off winter chills.
This list of fabric innovations is a microcosm of where we are, and also where we're going - one thing is for certain, it's going to be an interesting ride…
Metamaterials - AKA Invisibility cloaks
From John Cleese's Q showing us an invisible 'adaptive camouflage' Aston Martin in Die Another Day to Harry Potter legging it around and flagrantly breaking school rules there for his protection, we've hankered for invisibility cloaks in modern life.
Great news: recent advances using metamaterials have made this even more likely - albeit in certain situations.
Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany have invented a basic and portable box which makes items inside disappear.
Sprayed with a metamaterial-loaded paint, the box bends light around the core area, where the 'invisible' item is, and uses light-scattering paint over the rest of the surface to conceal the illusion. The result is making small items such as mobile phones seem to disappear entirely.
This might sound a bit too conceptual for some, but the US military has taken the whole idea very seriously indeed, issuing detailed requirements for 'invisible uniforms', and requesting suppliers be able to start delivery six months from now.
Several US companies, including Hyperstealth Inc, reckon they're on target too, although whether they've developed a powered solution a la James Bond, or a more traditional camouflage using radical printing technology is anybody's guess.
The former will be considerably more expensive than the latter, and far less likely to be available at your local supermarket in the immediate future - then again, it might already be there but we can't find it...
Liquid jumpers for goalposts?
As usual, the military drives a lot of the research into cutting edge wearable tech, and one particularly important area has roots in the Medieval period: armor.
Although hard armor is still used in many applications, its cumbersome weight and lack of flexibility puts wearers at a bit of a disadvantage, and that's even before they get the call of nature.
Kevlar - invented in the 60s - is OK for the purpose, but it's still pretty heavy, and needs reinforcing with ceramic plates for heavy duty impacts.
A Polish company called Moratex has created a non-neutonian shear-thickening fluid, or STF, that changes viscosity dramatically on impact, absorbing way more energy than standard kevlar, and it's more comfortable to wear.
It's a fair bet the military is keeping wraps on this for the moment, but working prototypes exist, as the video demonstrates.
Another more Iron-Man strategy to replace solid armor involves the use of a special type of magnetorheological fluid, a version of which is already used in Lamborghini suspension dampers.
Essentially this fluid becomes much more viscous when activated by a magnetic field, and can be varied by the strength of the field.
Great for high-end car suspension, but also brilliant for super-thin energy-absorbing armor which can theoretically become infinitely strong - depending on the power of your electromagnets.
Although the technology is still at the research stage, and won't be cheap if the military approve it for civilian use, it is the closest option we have to a real-life version of Tony Stark's armoured suit.
Is it a bird, is it a plane?
At the very razor's edge of science, even invisibility cloaks have been shoved aside by an considerably more insane material recently developed by Harvard researchers.
It's a new type of foldable material that's versatile, tunable, and self-actuated to change size, volume, and shape; it can fold flat to withstand the weight of an elephant without breaking, then be reconfigured for the next task - maybe a jacket, or an emergency shelter.
"We've designed a 3D, thin-walled structure that can be used to make foldable and reprogrammable objects of arbitrary architecture, whose shape, volume, and stiffness can be dramatically altered and continuously tuned and controlled," said Johannes T.B. Overvelde, a Harvard graduate student involved in the research.
Like incredibly complex origami, the structure is made from extruded cubes with 24 faces and 36 edges which can be deformed by programmable pneumatic actuators into any shape required.
Just to put that into context, this means a single lightweight sheet of this material could be made into pretty much anything, from a house to a chair, or clothing - like a liquid metal Terminator, without the endless murderous pursuit.
The immediate applications are in areas such as disaster relief, but the technology could change the way we live completely - if your jacket was also a chair then dinner parties could be much more exciting affairs.
Sadly, the new material is still just at concept stage, but the team reckon they've got the practicalities firmly licked, so expect to see an entirely new class of 3D, changeable structures in the very near future.
Wet and dry
It's not all about super-high technology though - smart materials are being used to help reduce the damage we're doing to Mother Earth. Many companies have begun to seek more sustainable, ecologically sound alternatives to existing, often petroleum-based fabrics and production processes.
A great example is Patagonia's Yulex, a natural alternative to non-renewable, petroleum-based neoprene and developed in partnership with Yulex and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Natural rubber itself isn't robust enough to make wetsuits out of, but by blending the FSC certified rubber with 15% neoprene-free synthetic rubber, Patagonia reckons it's created something that's UV stable, durable and produces up to 80% less CO2 emissions per suit.
Project Jacquard
Although it's yet to formally announce any consumer products, the high concept draws parallels between the physics of touchscreens and the weave of fabric, proposing that touch control interfaces can be seamlessly built into clothing.
As you can see in the video, the tech giant looks to have progressed to the point where proof-of-concept fabrics are available, with the stated aim that the production process is replicable on standard weaving looms across the globe - so not super-expensive.
Although the project was announced several months ago, it's clearly still very much a going concern, as recent job ads for a hardware and product manager prove.
Meanwhile, across town (in Ohio), a group of college researchers has succeeded in embroidering circuits into fabric with 0.1 mm precision - which happens to be the perfect size to integrate electronic components such as sensors and chips into clothing.
The team have dubbed the materials 'e-textiles', and have begun to stitch smartphone aerials into jackets, for example, and look at other developments such as flexible caps which detect brain activity.
As with Project Jacquard, the Ohio State University researchers are using standard sewing machines, so the ability to go mainstream quickly and cheaply is huge.
Muhammad Ali, 'The Greatest,' dies at 74
(CNN)Muhammad Ali, the legendary boxer who proclaimed himself "The Greatest" and was among the most famous and beloved athletes on the planet, died Friday in Phoenix, a family spokesman said.
Ali had been at a hospital since Thursday with what spokesman Bob Gunnell had described as a respiratory issue.
"After a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease, Muhammad Ali has passed away at the age of 74.
The three-time World Heavyweight Champion boxer died this evening," Gunnell said in a statement. "The Ali family would like to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support and asks for privacy at this time."
Ali's daughter Hana Ali said her father was the a "humble mountain."
"And now he has gone home to God. God bless you daddy. YOU ARE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE!" she tweeted.
CNN finally puts that annoying breaking news banner to use, begins live fact-checking Donald Trump
(Credit: CNN)
Donald Trump’s presidential pivot has been as successful as his fraudulent, decades-long marketing scheme. But after months of serving as the convenient target of deflection every time the unlikely presumptive major party presidential candidate is called upon to illustrate any policy prescription, it appears as though the media may now be finally willing to aggressively fact-check Trump’s myriad of lies.
Trump’s latest lie, that he had never said Japan should develop nuclear weapons, was boldly called out by CNN in real time on Thursday. During the June 2 edition of CNN’s “At This Hour With Berman and Bolduan,” correspondent Jason Carroll reported that Trump recently claimed that he never said he wants Japan to get nuclear weapons.
“[Clinton’s speech] was such lies about my foreign policy, that they said I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break,” Trump complained during a campaign rally in Sacramento on Wednesday, claiming that the former secretary of state was lying when she warned against his qualifications to be commander-in-chief, citing his comments on a potential nuclear weapon for Japan.
But as CNN pointed out in real time, Trump, in fact, did say just that. As CNN aired footage of Trump’s interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, its on-screen chyron read: “TRUMP: I NEVER SAID JAPAN SHOULD HAVE NUKES (HE DID)”:
TRUMP: It’s not like, gee whiz, nobody has them. So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.WALLACE: With nukes?TRUMP: Including with nukes, yes, including with nuke
Identity of UCLA Shooter Finally Revealed
Officials have finally revealed the identity of the shooter that killed a woman in Minnesota before driving 2,000 miles to UCLA to shoot a professor and killing himself. Mainak Sarkar, age 38, a Muslim from India, a student at UCLA with a PhD in solid mechanics killed his professor, William Klug, on Wednesday. Police later discovered the body of Ashley Hasti, Sarkar’s estranged wife, in her Minnesota home.
On Wednesday, police locked down UCLA for two hours after Sarkar shot and killed his engineering professor Klug, 39, at a small office on the campus. He fatally shot himself after the killing, police said, leaving behind a note asking someone to feed his cat.
On the list was Ashley Hasti, 31. A registered marriage license listed Sarkar and Hasti as being married in 2011. They were not living together at the time of the attack but it is not known if they were divorced.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters on Thursday that Sarkar was armed with two 9 mm pistols and multiple ammunition clips. He killed himself immediately after fatally shooting Klug, he said. The guns were purchased legally and at least one was registered to Sarkar. A search of his home revealed more ammunition.
Police discovered a “kill list” of intended victims at Sarkar’s home, which included another UCLA professor who was off-campus at the time of the shooting and was unharmed.
“In the search of Sarkar’s residence in Minneapolis, a list was located,” Beck said. “The list has been described as a ‘kill list.’ That was the wording that was put on it.”
In 2014 in a doctoral commencement booklet listing Klug as Sarkar’s advisor, he wrote to wrote to his victim/professor, “Thank you for being my mentor”. In a bog believed to have been written by Sarkar in March, he called Klug ” a really sick person”. He warned new students to, “stay away from him”.
“He cleverly stole all my code and gave it to another student. Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm,” he wrote.
Police interviewed other faculty members, who stated they were aware of Sarkar’s anger towards them.
“There was some harsh language but certainly nothing that would be considered homicidal,” Beck said. Faculty cited postings on social media by Sarkar. The motive for killing Hasti was still unclear, Beck said. Her body was discovered when police went to check on her in response to the UCLA shooting.
Prior to his time at UCLA, from 2003 to 2005 Sarkar attended Stanford University, where he received a master’s degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, university spokeswoman Lisa Lapin said.
Klug left behind a wife and two children. He wrote a deeply touching piece in an article for Westmont University Magazine:
“Knowing there is a God responsible for the world makes a big difference in my motivation to understand it better. I developed a habit of relying on God for what I felt was beyond my ability to control or what I couldn’t do for myself,” he says. “It helps me keep things in the right perspective.”
Friday 3 June 2016
Thursday 2 June 2016
Low-Cost Real Estate Financing For Small Businesses: SBA Brings Back 504 Refinancing Program In June
Maria Contreras-Sweet, head of the Small Business Administration. On June 24th, the SBA will begin accepting applications for its 504 refinancing program, which allows small business owners to refinance their real estate debt. (Photo by AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
For small businesses with high-cost loans for office buildings, warehouses or other real estates, a new government program offers potential relief: The Small Business Administration’s will begin accepting applications for its 504 refinancing program on June 24.
The SBA’s 504 loan program offers small business owners a way to access cheap capital for real estate and other major capital expenditures. The 504 refinancing program allows those who already have such debt to refinance it into long-term, fixed-rate loans. That may be especially valuable for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to get rid of high-cost debt, including adjustable-rate debt, as well as those who have assets that have appreciated and want to take out some cash for expansion.
The refinance program originally had been introduced as part of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 to help small businesses get capital at a time when the commercial lending market was frozen. But that was a temporary measure, and it expired in 2012. In December, Congress agreed to resurrect the program and make it permanent – a potential boon for small business owners who want to lower the costs of their real estate debt. Today, the SBA is authorized to approve up to $7.5 billion in the regular 504 loan program and another $7.5 billion under the 504 debt refinancing program.
“We’re glad the program is finally out,” says Kurt Chilcott, president of San Diego-based CDC Small Business Finance. “What happened was the program ended just as it was getting momentum. There were actually applications in the process when the program ended.”
Under the 504 refinancing program, eligible small business owners can borrow up to 90% of the value of a property, with 10% down, less than would typically be required for a commercial loan. The project financing – 20 years for real estate or 10 years for capital equipment – is split between a bank or other private-sector lender, which generally accounts for 50% of the project, and the fixed-rate 504 loan for the remaining 40%. The effective 504 interest rate on the 20-year debenture was 4.78% in May, according to the SBA.
30 dead as rains, thunderstorm hit Islamabad, other areas
ISLAMABAD: At least 30 people, including women and children, died and scores of others wounded on Wednesday when heavy rainfall and thunderstorm hit upper parts of Pakistan, Geo News reported.
In Islamabad, 11 people died and 69 were injured a torrential rains lashed the city, rescue services said.
At twin city Rawalpindi 19 people died and 122 were injured, rescue services said.
According to police, a mother and two of her little daughters died when a roof of their house caved in at Sector F-7. Two people were also killed in Bhara Kahu area due to incidents relating to the harsh weather.
Five people were injured in a wall collapse incident in Islamabad’s adjacent city Rawalpindi. 40 injured were taken to Polyclinic and 10 to PIMS hospital, rescue officials told Geo News.
Power supply to several areas in Islamabad was cut off. Affected areas include I-8, I-9, Korangi Town, and Shehzad Town. "The IESCO operation was affected due to the rains and thunderstorm," an IESCO spokesperson said.
A fire broke out at a vegetable market when power cables fell on them due to the thunderstorm. Fire brigade, however, reached the scene and launched efforts to extinguish the blaze in Islamabad.
According to aviation sources, flight operation was also suspended at the Benazir International Airport due to the storm in the federal capital.
In addition, Metro bus service was also halted in Islamabad after strong winds broke windows of metro stations.
The Inspector General (IG) Islamabad Police said police have been alerted in the wake of heavy rains and thunderstorm.
Heavy downpour also slammed the federally administered tribal areas (FATA) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, causing widespread devastation. Rescuers said four people, two of them women, were killed in Nowshehra and Jamrud. A child was reportedly killed in Charsadda.
Meanwhile, gusty winds ransacked the camp where nurses were staging a protest sit-in at Lahore’s Mall Road. Nurses, however, announced that the demonstration will go on despite severe weather conditions.
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