State-run carrier Air India on Tuesday said it will withdraw a transaction fee on its air tickets effective Nov. 26.
The transaction fee ranges from 300 rupees for a domestic economy ticket to 10,000 rupees for a first class ticket to Europe and the U.S., executive director Jitender Bhargava told Reuters on Tuesday.
About 5 million Americans attend meetings of self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous for alcohol and drug abusers, and nearly half of them reported remaining clean, a federal study released on Monday showed.
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration examined the popularity of meetings like those run in many communities by AA and Narcotics Anonymous.
In these kinds of meetings, people speak to others who also are grappling with drug and alcohol abuse about their experiences and offer emotional support to one another as they try to beat their addiction.
The findings were based on a survey given to 135,672 people age 12 and older in 2006 and 2007, the agency said.
SAMHSA said 5 million people age 12 and older — 2 percent of the U.S. population in that age group — reported attending such a self-help group in the prior year because of alcohol or drugs. About two-thirds of them were male and 80 percent were over age 25.
Of those people, 45 percent reported abstaining from drugs and alcohol during the month before responding to the survey.
About a third of those who attended a self-help group also reported undergoing more formal treatment for addiction in the past year such as entering a formal rehabilitation facility.
Stephen Wing, the agency’s associate administrator for alcohol policy, said about 22 million Americans meet the definition for substance abuse. Wing said the agency did not have data on whether attendance at these types of meetings was increasing over time.
“The data reinforces the fact that participation in self-help groups is associated with abstinence and recovery,” Wing said.
Apple Inc is the target of a lawsuit that claims a technology the iPhone uses to surf the Web infringes on a patent filed by Los Angeles real estate developer Elliot Gottfurcht and two co-inventors.
The lawsuit was filed by EMG Technology LLC on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas. EMG was founded by Gottfurcht, is based in Los Angeles with an office in Tyler, and has just one employee.
The suit alleges that the technology the iPhone uses to navigate and display some websites designed for small phone screens infringes on a patent obtained last month by Gottfurcht and his co-inventors and assigned to EMG.
Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying that the Cupertino, California-based company does not discuss pending litigation.
EMG has not considered suing companies such as HTC Corp, maker of the G1 Google phone, and Research in Motion Ltd, maker of the BlackBerry, which also produce devices that can display mobile websites, according to Gottfurcht’s lawyer Stanley Gibson, a partner with the Los Angeles law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro.
Mobile websites are essentially reformatted versions of ordinary websites, with their content manipulated to be easily viewed on tiny screens.
“We haven’t looked at anything other than the iPhone,” Gibson told Reuters. “That was the device that we looked at. Obviously it’s very popular.”
Gibson was one of several attorneys who prosecuted a recent patent infringement case against Medtronic Inc that resulted in a $570 million verdict for his clients, according to a statement issued by his law firm.
When you’re pregnant and battling morning sickness, the last thing you may feel like doing is swallowing food. But it’s important that you and your baby continue eating.
The American Pregnancy Association says these foods may help tame morning sickness:
The day is not far when slow-moving ocean and river currents may become new, reliable and affordable alternative energy source, all thanks to VIVACE - a machine designed by an engineer at University of Michigan that works like a fish to turn potentially destructive vibrations in fluid flows into clean, renewable power.
VIVACE is the first known device that could harness energy from most of the water currents around the globe because it works in flows moving slower than 2 knots (about 2 miles per hour.) Most of the Earth’s currents are slower than 3 knots. Turbines and water mills need an average of 5 or 6 knots to operate efficiently.
Expanded as Vortex Induced Vibrations for Aquatic Clean Energy, VIVACE doesn’t depend on waves, tides, turbines or dams. It’s a unique hydrokinetic energy system that relies on “vortex induced vibrations.”
Vortex induced vibrations are undulations that a rounded or cylinder-shaped object makes in a flow of fluid, which can be air or water. The presence of the object puts kinks in the current’s speed as it skims by.
This causes eddies, or vortices, to form in a pattern on opposite sides of the object. The vortices push and pull the object up and down or left and right, perpendicular to the current.
“For the past 25 years, engineers-myself included-have been trying to suppress vortex induced vibrations. But now at Michigan we’re doing the opposite. We enhance the vibrations and harness this powerful and destructive force in nature,” said VIVACE developer Michael Bernitsas, a professor in the U-M Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
Fish excel in how to put the vortices that cause these vibrations to good use.
“VIVACE copies aspects of fish technology. Fish curve their bodies to glide between the vortices shed by the bodies of the fish in front of them. Their muscle power alone could not propel them through the water at the speed they go, so they ride in each other’s wake,” said Bernitsas.
The working prototype in his lab is just one sleek cylinder attached to springs. The cylinder hangs horizontally across the flow of water in a tractor-trailer-sized tank in his marine renewable energy laboratory. The water in the tank flows at 1.5 knots.
Now, the VIVACE cylinder in the current causes alternating vortices to form above and below the cylinder. The vortices push and pull the passive cylinder up and down on its springs, creating mechanical energy. Then, the machine converts the mechanical energy into electricity.
Bernitsas said that only a few cylinders might be enough to power an anchored ship, or a lighthouse. These cylinders could be stacked in a short ladder.
He estimated that array of VIVACE converters the size of a running track and about two stories high could power about 100,000 houses. Such an array could rest on a river bed or it could dangle, suspended in the water. But it would all be under the surface.
It is believed that the system would not harm marine life like dams and water turbines can, because the oscillations of VIVACE would be slow.
Bernitsas said VIVACE energy would cost about 5.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
“There won’t be one solution for the world’s energy needs. But if we could harness 0.1 percent of the energy in the ocean, we could support the energy needs of 15 billion people,” said Bernitsas.
The study is published in the current issue of the quarterly Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering.
Have you got a new bundle of joy in your family? Are you proud parents of a cute little one and can’t wait to take him/her out to show them off to everyone? Hold on how do you plan to take them out? Are you planning to go for a stroll in the neighborhood with your baby put in a buggy?
Then make sure you choose a buggy that ensures your baby faces you while in it. This is so because a recently conducted research in Dundee University’s School of Psychology suggests that babies put in buggies in which they do not face their parents are prone to psychological damage.
Researchers say that lack of emotional connect due to facing away from parents is the reason why some babies interact less with their parents. This conclusive evidence comes after a research on 3000 parents and their babies.
When children face their parents while riding in a buggy, they establish a bond with the buggy-pusher. The laughs and talks of the person pushing the buggy lead to a good heart rate and lower stress levels in babies ensuring babies fall asleep while in their buggies.
Even though strolling with a kid in the buggy seems like a mundane job parents have to be careful of its after effects. They should utilize this opportunity for increasing their contact with their child by using a buggy in which their baby faces them.
The growing economic slump doesn’t appear to have fully struck Web advertising.
Internet advertising revenues for the third quarter were nearly $5.9 billion, representing an 11 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
The bad news is online advertising appears to be slowing down. The third quarter in 2008 was up only two percent from the second quarter. For the first three quarters of the year, however, ad revenues totaled $17.3 billion, up from $15.2 billion for the first three quarters of 2007. The IAB said the $5.9 billion quarterly results were the second best ever.
Meanwhile, ComScore issued an ad-focus ranking for October. Platform A, AOL’s ad platform reached 173 million Americans or 91 percent of the 190.6 million American’s online. The Yahoo Network came in second by reaching 164 million people and was followed by Google’s Ad Network with 158 million.
There was massive upheaval at the factory of Colgate Palmolive India Ltd’s subsidiary in Nepal Thursday with the company announcing the sale of Colgate Palmolive (Nepal) Pvt Ltd after 20 years of operations to Nepali company Everest Hygiene Products Pvt Ltd Nepal.
Angry workers seized the subsidiary’s general manager Ramesh Singh Rathore, as he was preparing to leave for Kathmandu from Simra town in south Nepal, and handed him over to police, alleging that the subsidiary authorities had not informed them of the sale, leading television station Kantipur said.
Neither the police nor Colgate Palmolive (Nepal) officials were immediately available for comment.
Established in June 1988, the subsidiary passed through a sticky phase during the 10-year Maoist insurgency due to frequent disruptions and blockades.
In 2005, after the subsidiary announced it was discontinuing the production of toothpaste at its Hetauda factory, it was on the cards that the MNC would finally move out of Nepal.
On Thursday, Colgate Palmolive India Ltd said it was divesting its shareholding Colgate Palmolive (Nepal) Pvt. Ltd to Everest Hygiene Products Pvt. Ltd Nepal, with whom it signed a contract to continue to source toothpowder from the Hetauda factory.
The sale announcement also said that all employees of the Nepal subsidiary would continue their employment on the existing terms and conditions.
However, the announcement failed to allay the fears of the work force.
The incident comes at a time Nepal’s Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav has admitted that foreign investors were shying away from fresh investment in Nepal due to the lack of security.
Consumers are adopting digital content services, including social networking and videos, on mobile phone and personal computers at an accelerated pace and it is impacting consumption habits, a new survey shows.The second global online survey, conducted by IBM, found that people are willing to get personal with advertisers by sharing information about them if it results in targeted incentives that match their lifestyle.
This, it says, presents companies with significant advertising revenue opportunities among today’s informed and empowered consumers.
The survey was conducted with 2,800 people in six nations India, Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK and the US.
Last year’s study showed the decline of TV as the primary media device. This year’s study found large-scale adoption and usage of digital content services accessed via the PC and mobile phone, with ad-supported models (versus consumer-paid).Adoption for most categories of digital content services doubled from last year, with services such as social networking now at 60 per cent and Internet data plans for mobile devices at over 40 per cent for respondents globally.
While digital content services adoption is widespread, interactivity through features such as user ratings tools and video uploads is primarily concentrated among the more digital savvy consumers.
“With the rise of Web 2.0, millions of people can instantly create, publish and consume content. In order to survive, advertisers must understand how to reach their target audiences across multiple devices,” said Dick Anderson, General Manager, IBM Media and Entertainment.
“Knowing distinct consumer segment preferences and delivering consistent content and messaging are essential for long-term success.”
Consumers’ desire, and are comfortable with, wired and wireless access to content. Seventy-six per cent of consumers surveyed have already watched video on their PC, up 27 per cent from last year. Thirty-two per cent indicated they have viewed video on a portable device or mobile phone, up 45 per cent from last Year. Interest in mobile video content has more than doubled since last year to 55 per cent.
For both PC and mobile video, over 70 per cent of respondents prefer advertising-supported models as opposed to consumer-paid models, representing a huge growth opportunity for the industry. Preference for ad-supported models ranged from 62 per cent to over 80 per cent by country, with Japan having the highest preference for ad-supported on both devices.
Consumers are moving beyond the trial stage of watching online video. Of those who have watched videos on their PC, 45 per cent are doing so regularly…at least a few times per month.As adoption of online video continues, cannibalisation of overall television consumption is becoming more apparent.
Over 50 per cent of respondents who have watched online video claim they watch slightly less — 15 per cent — to significantly less — 36 per cent — television as a result, implying place-shifting alternatives may be changing consumer “couch potato” behaviour.
When asked how they prefer to view ads associated with online videos, the majority of respondents said they prefer to see it before or after a video. Respondents from all six countries polled protested traditional television models such as interruption advertisements during the video or the use of product placements within programs. “Consumers have grown accustomed to accessing new forms of content through alternative sources, such as online video and video-on-demand, at no cost to them — no fee, with very limited advertising shown,” said Saul Berman, Global Lead Partner, Strategy and Change Consulting, IBM Global Business Services and the author of many recent IBM studies.”The industry must find appealing ways to monetise new content sources or risk a similar fate as that of the music industry where value shifted away from core players.” Close to 60 per cent of total respondents were willing to provide information about themselves — such as age, gender, and lifestyle or communications preferences — in exchange for something of value.
Younger respondents had fewer concerns about revealing personal preferences, and a sizeable portion of participants over the age of 45 were also willing to share information about themselves. However, all respondents indicated the need for perceived value and incentives as a trade-off to provide personal information….
With Jerry Yang quitting as Yahoo Inc.’s chief executive, the Internet company’s board will confront pivotal questions as it looks for a new leader.Should Yahoo swallow its pride and try to strike a buyout deal with Microsoft Corp. at a price far below Microsoft’s $47.5 billion offer from 6 1/2 months ago? Or should Yahoo still pursue a long-awaited turnaround that’s becoming more difficult to achieve as the economy tanks?
If Yahoo plays it safe and hires someone from within or someone friendly with Microsoft, it could signal the board merely wants an interim captain who can steer the ship until Microsoft, or possibly another buyer, comes to the rescue.
But should Yahoo recruit a CEO with a prestigious resume or pluck an up-and-coming technology star, it will be seen as a sign that the company is digging in to remain independent for the long haul.