Cell Phone Reception Problems Demystified

We've all suffered the annoyance and inconvenience of poor cell phone reception.

So what's causing all those dropped calls, fuzzy connections, and data interruptions--and how can you fix it?

CellPhones.org has provided an illustrated guide to 'Why Your Cell Phone Reception Sucks.'

Check it out below, then see this helpful list of 15 cellphone etiquette tips.

[ Via Cell Phones ]

The New High Tech $100 Bill

By David Lawder

Washington, Apr 22 : A newly designed $100 note aims to thwart counterfeiters with advanced security features, top U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday.

The "new Benjamins" to be released in February 2011 retain the traditional look of the U.S. currency, with Benjamin Franklin's portrait. They aim to foil counterfeiters with difficult and costly to reproduce features such as a blue three-dimensional security ribbon with alternating images of bells and the number 100 that move and change as the viewing angle is tilted.

The new notes, which cost slightly more to produce, also feature a bell image inside a picture of an inkwell that changes from copper to green when tilted, as well as a large "100" that does the same.

"As with previous U.S. currency redesigns, this note incorporates the best technology available to ensure we're staying ahead of counterfeiters," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at a Treasury Department unveiling ceremony. "Welcome to the new Benjamins."

The $100 note is the most often counterfeited denomination of U.S. currency outside the United States due to its broad circulation overseas. It is the highest-denominated note issued by the Federal Reserve.

The approximately 6.5 billion older design $100s already in circulation will remain legal tender after the new notes are released next year.

BEATING THE SUPERNOTE

In recent years, U.S. officials have been trying to combat the continued production of extremely high-quality counterfeit $100 notes they say are produced in North Korea, dubbed the "supernote," which are undetectable to nearly all but the most sophisticated currency experts.

The U.S. Secret Service, the agency charged with policing the cash dollar's integrity, maintains that less than 1/100th of one percent of the $890 billion in physical U.S. currency in circulation is counterfeit. But Secret Service officials say they still encounter supernotes and other highly sophisticated fakes from overseas.

In the United States, the $20 note is the most frequently counterfeited denomination.

The new Benjamins have been in development since 2003. The blue security ribbon is woven into the note's fabric -- not printed on. Another security strip, visible to the left of Franklin's head when the note is held up to light, is embedded into the fabric. Like the old note, the new one has a watermark of Franklin's portrait, also visible when held up to light.

The old notes will be destroyed and replaced as they pass through the Federal Reserve system.

John Large, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's criminal investigations division, said the features were designed to make it easy for merchants and consumers to verify the $100 note's authenticity with a quick examination.

"The best defense against counterfeiters we have is an educated public that can easily authenticate the new $100 note," Lange said.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said U.S. officials will work to educate people around the world about the new design. Unlike in the past, when most cash dollars were held domestically, as many as two thirds of Federal Reserve notes now in circulation are outside the United States, he added.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Andrew Hay)

[ via Reuters ]

Patti Smith Rescued From Penury by Song Royalties

By Dean Goodman

U.S. rock singer Patti Smith is seen at a book signing event in Melbourne October 10, 2008.

Los Angeles, Apr 22 : Not every rock 'n' roll icon is awash in cash. Some, like rock poetess Patti Smith, have endured hard times fairly recently in their careers.

Smith, receiving a lifetime achievement award in Hollywood on Wednesday from songwriting royalties group ASCAP, recalled how the 1994 death of her husband, punk rocker Fred "Sonic" Smith, left her a widowed mother of two young children.

"I was actually down on my luck," she said.

"And what helped bail me out and helped me get back to my feet were the ASCAP checks that I got for 'Because the Night,'" Smith said, referring to her best-known song.

ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, collects royalties on behalf of its member songwriters and copyright holders from public performances, such as on the radio and TV, and in bars, restaurants and concert halls.

Songwriters benefit especially when their songs are covered by other artists. In the case of Smith, whose renown overshadows her record sales, versions of "Because the Night" by co-writer Bruce Springsteen and by folk group 10,000 Maniacs are the gifts that keep on giving.

She said that when she released her first album, "Horses," in 1975, she knew nothing about royalties.

"I just thought you did your record and that was it. And the first time I got these checks, I said, 'I already got paid for that song.' So I'm grateful in good times, and I was very grateful in hard times."

Smith, who steadfastly denies categorization and especially disdains the sobriquet "Godmother of Punk," received the Founders Award at ASCAP's 27th annual pop music awards dinner honoring the writers and publishers of last year's most-performed songs.

She also sang four songs with her band, including fiery versions of "Because the Night" and "People Have the Power."

The songwriter of the year award went to Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, who co-wrote five of ASCAP's biggest hits last year: Britney Spears' "Circus," Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold," Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You," Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA," and Flo Rida's "Right Round."

Perry thanked Gottwald "for making me rich."

Jason Mraz won the song of the year award for his ballad "I'm Yours," which he performed, while rock band the Killers won the Vanguard Award for their work in helping "shape the future of American music."

Credit: Reuters/Mick Tsikas

High Court Orders CBI Probe Into Tuirial Compensation Scam

Aizawl, Apr 22 : Gauhati High Court today ordered a CBI probe into the alleged compensation scam in the Tuirial hydel project which had been suspended.

The High Court issued the order following a PIL filed by Aizawl-based Society for Social Action (SOSA) in the late 2008.

Confirming this, SOSA president S L Sailo told UNI here that he was yet to receive the judgment. He said the high court sought an interim report in June as well as full assistance from the state government.

The Japanese government-funded 60 Tuirial hydropower project at Bilkhawtlir village in north Mizoram was abandoned in 2003 after a group of landowners in Bilkhawtlir claimed high rates of compensation for the land that the state government wished to acquire for the power plant. The North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) and the Japanese Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund Bank, which was funding the project, objected to this.

The controversy over the payment of an ''inflated amount of money'' compelled Neepco to suspend the construction of the plant.

The then Mizo National Front ministry had been branded as the main culprit behind the compensation row that suspended the project.

Former chief minister Zoramthanga's relatives also figured prominently among those who received compensations. Sources alleged that the compensation claimants had drastically increased from 48 to 1,104, when the then Mizoram government extended the period of claim in 2001.

''Among others, the former chief minister's younger brother and his family received Rs 215.33 lakh, which was fifty percent of his actual claims,'' a source said on condition of anonymity. ''The project had been suspended by NEEPCO for not being able to meet the compensations demanded,'' he added.

Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla has often accused the MNF government of ''masterminding a secret deal'' for awarding compensation to the land losers from the Neepco's coffers. He has said the MNF had inflated the number of landowners to be compensated from the original figure of 48 to a revised 1,104, resulting in the suspension of the project.

The Centre and the Mizoram government have recently approved that the work of construction for the project be resumed.

A senior Neepco official said his organization had agreed to resume the project after the Congress-led government in the state assured them of hassle-free and transparency in the payment of compensation.

However, the delay in the construction has already inflated the total cost of this project from Rs 359.66 crore to Rs 880 crore.

Amway Product Users Highest in Northeast India

Agartala, Apr 22 : Consumer and home products direct marketing company Amway India hopes to do business worth Rs.20 billion in the country by 2012, adding more products to its portfolio, a company official said here Tuesday.

"After commencing commercial operations and business with Rs.9.1 million in 1998, Amway has done business worth Rs.14 billion last year (2009) in India," company vice-president (East) Diptarag Bhattacharjee told reporters.

"We now hope to take this to Rs.17 billion this year," he said.

Amway India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the U.S.-based Amway Corp, has invested about Rs.1.51 billion in India, of which Rs.260 million have come as foreign direct investment.

Bhattacharjee said almost all the 115 Amway products in five categories are manufactured in India through seven third-party contract manufacturers with production facilities and skills conforming to international standards.

The five categories of Amway products include personal care, home care, nutrition and wellness, Cosmetics and Great Value Products.

He said in 2009 Amway tripled production capacities at its leading vendor facility at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh.

The company is now one of the top FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) players, a feat achieved in just over 10 years of commercial operations.

"Despite economic recession in 2009, we have grown from Rs 11.28 billion to Rs 14.07 billion in 2009 and registered 25 percent growth in turnover," said Bhattacharjee.

According to him, the largest number of Amway product users in India are in the northeast.

Amway did business worth Rs.880 million in seven northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura last year.

Monika Given 2 Year Suspension Till June

New Delhi, Apr 22 : Twenty months after she was prevented from taking off for Beijing for participation in the Olympic Games, Monika Devi was on Wednesday slapped with a two-year suspension that will end in June this year, clearing the way for her participation in the Commonwealth Games.

Doubts remained, however, on Wednesday afternoon over the Manipuri weightlifter's Commonwealth Games prospects as the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) lawyers indicated that they would look into the order in detail before saying anything on a possible appeal.

The usually-effervescent Monika was glum-faced immediately after the operative part of the five-page order was read out by Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel Chairman Sudhir Nandrajog. For, a casual observation was made by the ‘prosecution' lawyer Rahul Kumar that the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) rules, from March, 2008, stipulated a four-year sanction for a first-time doping offence.

Monika's anti-doping rule violation for testosterone, dates back to June, 2008. Her eventual sanction was applied on the rules of the IWF, as they existed at the time of her sample collection (June 6, 2008), though her ‘positive' was confirmed only through a ‘B' sample testing done at the WADA-accredited Tokyo laboratory on January 15, 2009.

The interest in the case centered round the date of commencement of the suspension once Monika made a tacit admission last Monday that she had violated the rules, though unwittingly.

Under the NADA rules, with which the case started last January, she would have been suspended from the date of the decision, providing for a deduction of any provisional suspension period she might have undergone.

Since August, 2008, Monika had not undergone any provisional suspension, though, as she pointed out, she had not been able to compete in any competition during the intervening period.

A sympathetic disciplinary panel found a legitimate way out in the NADA rules that prohibited application of the rules retroactively, thereby bringing in the relevant IWF rules (2008) to decide on the matter.

However, one crucial point seems to have been overlooked by the panel, that of a four-year suspension prescribed by the IWF for a first-time offence since March 2008 through an Executive Board decision.

The Indian Weightlifting Federation Secretary, Sahdev Yadav, told The Hindu on Wednesday that the four-year ban would not be applicable to domestic testing.

(IWF rules are silent on different application of rules for national-level testing, though in practice the federation does resort to its own interpretations of rules in certain cases.)

Yadav said Monika would undergo two re-instatement tests, to be conducted by the federation, in May and June, before being inducted into the National camp.

He said Manipur would be penalized Rs. 50,000 as a fine for the offence committed by Monika.

Asked if she was not happy that she had received a suspension that would end very soon, Monika said: “Why should I be happy? An athlete has many dreams to realize. Only then can one be happy.”

The panel's ruling was based on the 2008 IWF rules regarding commencement of the ineligibility period that stated that it had to be from the date of sample collection.

By going back to the IWF rules, apparently in an effort to give a ‘fair sanction', the panel might have unwittingly opened up a debate about a stiffer punishment for Monika under the revised sanctions of the International Federation.

NADA will have 14 days to appeal before the Anti-Doping Appeal panel headed by retired High Court Judge C.K. Mahajan.

Burma VJ: Reporting From a Closed Country

By Fazil

Face the facts: Your duty lies in looking as nonplussing as possible. Blend in with your surroundings. Be inconspicuous. No, you don’t really have a criminal record to be nervous, but neither did the dead woman and the child in front of you. Nevertheless, you are being watched with the utmost suspicion.
You’re surveyed through a gun-sight during twenty of every thirty seconds of every minute. If you look at a soldier directly, you’re asking for attention. If you look down at your basket in your hands, it’s apparent you’re concealing something. If you appear wary of your surroundings or point or even walk unsteadily, there are people who’d immediately know. If the authorities spot you, they’d be on you in ten seconds. If they search you, they’d question you and confiscate your possessions, including the little basket in your hand. If they do that, they’ll find the red gunny bag.
If they get the bag, they’ll find the camera concealed inside. And then, before you could think of what went wrong before you were busted, your fate has already been decided between state sponsored- torture and a point-blank gunshot to your forehead. This isn’t a land of your rights or mine. It’s junta-ruled Burma. There is no government nor police. At-least, none that fits the definition of catering to the needs of a population, which in itself defies it’s meaning for existence, since the sole purpose of the two is to suppress you, in case you raise your voice upon the junta.

In simple terms, you’re the hostage. The government is your enemy, and you’re the government’s enemy. The police is it’s weapon of force: An army ready to crush even the solitary ant that shows signs of defiance. You show resilience, they kill you. You appear suspicious, they kill you. You try and convince them with your subservience, they still kill you. Journalists are criminals, you’re a mind-freak if you walk the streets with a camera visible in your hands.

This is what you gather during the first twelve minutes of Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, though all that you see is the insides of that gunny bag covering your line of vision and an unedited sound sequence that speak volumes of the tension (watch trailer below). Yet, for our guerrilla styled journalist aliased “Joshua”, being caught and facing sure-fire death is only half of his worries. His other half is more anxious about the deteriorating condition of the camera, and the valuable hours of battery power going to waste. His entire self-appointed purpose in life now depends on a cheap, rechargeable lump of lithium!

The camera does come out briefly and beholds burma, a sight that jumps right out of a 1970s communist-era chinese film-set. Everybody around appears the same. Whether you’re alone or in company, walking or riding people simply stare.

There is no conversation in the public unless it’s utterly important. People speak in hushed voices. Even the rickety public buses are devoid of human sound. The lone sound breaks the silence of voiceless drone. It’s a megaphone that’s high enough to echo the voice of the announcer all the way up to the center of the town. It’s a blunt announcement from the Junta HQ that the price of fuel has been doubled with immediate effect.


People listen quietly and carry on with their lives, fully knowing what this really means. Everything is going to be double the price from tomorrow. And for no clear reason too. It’s an order, live with it. No one asks why, no one raises a voice in public, even the strongest at heart would be discouraged by such a public attitude. And that’s the way things are run in Burma. But wait, you’re not supposed to know all this if you’re not inside Burma. What you’re seeing is banned footage, that’s shot first-hand by our protagonist-hero Joshua, who runs an outlawed television network wing, The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB).


Burma VJ

Joshua’s identity should naturally be kept a secret, due to the clandestine journalism he must continue in order to keep the outside world abreast of what’s really happening inside this iron wall-ed country. DVB gathers footage by deploying some twenty odd volunteers with cameras and microphones. These men and women spread into crowds and gathering of public demonstrations.

Their job is to take as much footage of the happenings as possible. These footage are then smuggled through couriers via neighboring countries like Thailand, or through the internet to Oslo, from where they are shared worldwide to news channels like CNN and BBC, who relay them back to Burma. Mind the fact that apart from the sole love for their people in their hearts, these volunteers are neither trained camera-men, nor are they trained in emergency situation handling, in case they encounter violence, or in worst of worst cases get caught and lose their lives. You might think it’s madness in both ways.
The footage acquired might never be evidential enough without proper spying devices, and these volunteers might give away valuable information about the DVB’s secret operations. But at the end of the first 30 minutes of the film, you lose all need of doubt when you look at Joshua (and hear other DVB members) crying at the extremely rare, blurred image of Aung-San-Suu-Kyi they managed to film when protesters were surprisingly allowed to venture close to the democratic leader’s house, where she’s being held under house arrest for the past decade.
That scene is so heartbreaking that given the circumstances, even reason itself wouldn’t be able to fathom why such a misfortune should befall such a nation in these times that we live in: Times when self-proclaimed, self-appointed world-ambassadors of goodwill and peace conquer much more violent, terrorism-infested nations with ease, by brute force under false pretexts of impending danger to the world while all the time the objectives seem to be nothing but carrying their tall banners of wealth, so tall that the blood-red dust of destruction would fail to soil the silky white above, all the while when countries such as Burma languish inside an information abyss.

Burma VJ gradually becomes more of a work-in progress, not just a mere documentary that shows the power of guerrilla journalism. It’s a call for help by that smaller voice inside every hopeful Burmese’s mind.
The film itself focuses on the Saffron Revolution, an uprising by the Buddhist monks in 2007, the first signs of any major protest since 1989 when nearly three thousand people were killed as the junta brought the demonstrations to halt, effectively so after putting the democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, even until today. These protests by the Buddhist monks rapidly gathered momentum and volume, mostly as the unstoppable monks were seen as the last force of power against the junta.
Though the monks refused to turn political, they cite their sole purpose in staging the famous marches in around 25 cities across the country simultaneously, being the liberation of the people. The Burmese thought the dictators wouldn’t dare to attack the monks, but within the next few hours, public gatherings of more than five are banned, and people are warned against police firing.
The protests are eventually suppressed as the army does the unthinkable and starts beating up the monks and carrying them away in trucks to undisclosed locations. A Japanese reporter is shot dead at close range. A dead body of a monk is found floating on the Yangon river. Young adults cower in a stairway praying for strength in the face of death.

And the DVB is there to record it all. The regime quickly understands the power of the camera and the reporters are constantly chased by government intelligence agents who look at the ”media saboteurs” as the biggest prey they can get. However, the important mission is not forfeited, even as the DVB members watch helplessly as their offices are being raided by the police.

Anders Østergaard’s film takes on the terrifying immediacy of home-made horror, as he carefully assembles the scrambled, jittery video recordings with a little bit of post-production in between for that added sense of dramatization.
Joshua having to flee his country initially for fear of being captured a second time operates out of Thailand. All of the post-production scenes show a silhouette of this emotional, but brave young man sitting with frustration, as he listens to his crew over phone-calls, patiently waiting for video feed on his computer.
“Burma VJ” ends without any real, direct hope. But as long as the country’s people hunger for freedom, and a few citizens are brave enough to document the atrocities around them on video, there’s always hope for a better tomorrow.

Subscribe here to the YouTube channels of the Democratic Voice of Burma (I think they’ve posted the entire movie online in nine parts) and the Burma VJ Movie channel. Visit http://burmavjmovie.com/ and http://www.dvb.no/ for further info, spread the word and show your support on Twitter and Facebook It’s taken an Academy award nomination for a film of such importance to hold ground and reach our for help, let’s not wait for something bad to happen in order to confront the apalling reality.
[ via bollywood-mania ]

Distant Rumblings From Nagaland

National award winners Distant Rumblings & Antaheen part of film fest

A poster of Antaheen

Kohima, Apr 22 : The Indian Panorama Film Festival 2010 will begin here from Friday. The three-day event is being jointly organized by the Nagaland government and the Directorate of Film Festivals, Union ministry of information and broadcasting.

Of the 14 films to be screened, four are from the Northeast, including three from Nagaland.

Apart from Ilisa Amagi Mahao which is a Manipuri film directed by Ningthouja Lancha, the three other films of the region — My Brother Jack, directed by Kivini Shohe, World War II as I Remember directed by Vikeyielienuo Chielie and Metevino Sakhrie and Distant Rumblings by Baniprakash Das — are from Nagaland.

Das said Distant Rumblings, a documentary, includes scenes of real incidents of World War II in Kohima and Manipur.

“It all happened when we (I and Rongsenkala, the producer) saw a wreckage hanging from a tree at Noklak. We were told that it was a World War II wreckage.”

Thus began a research work and it took them three years to make the documentary of 22 minutes and 22 seconds. During the course of the research, they met many war veterans and their relatives who shared with them the agony they had faced during the war.

Distant Rumblings bagged the National Award for the best investigative film and also the Karim Nagar Jurist Special Mention Award. The film was screened at the prestigious Mumbai International Film Festival, Kerela International Film Festival, Germany, Paris and the Indian Panorama Film Festival Goa. The film will be screened on Friday at the State Academy Hall, Kohima, after the inaugural function at 3:30pm.

Other films to be screened are Vithal, a Marathi film, The First Leap, an English film directed by Haobam Pawan Kumar, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye (Hindi), Land Gold Women (English and Urdu), Kutty Srank, Malayalam, Ekti Kaktaliya Golpo (Bengali), The Prince and the Crown of Stone (English), Antaheen (Bengali) and Gabhricha Paus (Marathi).

These films will depict the region’s society and economy.

Bhupendra Kainthola, director, Indian Panorama, the Directorate of Film Festivals, said the aim of the film festival here was to provide the Naga people the opportunity of watching good movies.

“This is going to be a very exciting for the people of Kohima,” Kainthola said.

A. Lassa, the additional director general of field publicity, government of India, said each film was unique and she was all praise for the team of Distant Rumblings .

She said the objective of the film festival is to forge a bond between the Northeast and the rest of the country.

“Cinemas create an emotional integration too,” she said, adding the films would have socio-economic themes. “The door of opportunity is opened for the Naga people,” she said.

“I am sure there will be some people to make films both documentary and feature films after this festival,” Kainthola said, adding the Indian Panorama had given ample opportunities to the filmmakers and would continue to encourage the people.

Every year there would be an Indian Panorama Film Festival in the Northeast, he said.

At the inaugural programme, R. Tohanba, parliamentary secretary for information and public relations, economic and statistics, will be present to watch Distant Rumblings and Dev D, a Hindi film.

[ via The Telegraph India]