12th National Assembly set for final session

The ninth and last session of the 12th National Assembly will open on March 21 at the Defence Ministry’s Meeting Hall in Hanoi.

The eighth session of the 12th National Assembly

During their eight working days, deputies will focus on examining a report on the National Assembly’s performance in its 12th term from 2007 to 2011, said Tran Dinh Dan, Head of the National Assembly Office at a press briefing in Hanoi today.
The deputies will also hear working reports during the 2007-2011 term by the State President, the Government, the Prime Minister, the Chief Judge of the Supreme People’s Court, and the Procurator of the Supreme People’s Procuracy.
Nguyen Sy Dung, Vice Head of the National Assembly Office, said these reports were due to deal with what had been done, difficulties that still existed, experiences and lessons learnt, along with proposals to help raise the effectiveness of the State’s important institutions.
At the session, deputies will discuss and approve four laws, including the Law on Independent Audit, the Law on Preventing and Combating Human Trafficking, the Law on Supplements and Amendments to some Articles of the Civil Procedure Code, and the Capital Law.
The session’s agenda will include discussions of supplementary reports on the outcomes of the implementation of the country’s socio-economic development plan and the State budget in 2010 and the country’s socio-economic and state budgetary performance in the first months of 2011.
The legislators were due to look at reports on management and use of the social insurance fund, on the enforcement of the law on gender equality in 2010, and on plans to use a sum of VND3.5 trillion to reinvest in Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group.

Source: Tuoitrenews

Read more »

Posted in: Politics

LightSquared Reports on GPS Testing Process

By Stephen Lawson, IDG News

LightSquared has begun planning for GPS interference tests that will determine whether it can roll out a combination satellite-LTE mobile data network and issued the first of several required monthly reports on the process.

The fledgling carrier plans to build a high-speed LTE (Long-Term Evolution) cellular network across the U.S. and augment its reach with satellite coverage, offering access to the network to mobile operators that could resell either type of service to their customers. But GPS (Global Positioning System) companies fought the company's bid for approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, warning that running cellular services in the radio band that LightSquared plans to use could degrade GPS performance.

The FCC granted LightSquared a waiver to allow the network to go forward but required the carrier to organize an interference testing program and include participants from the GPS industry. LightSquared has to report back on the 15th day of every month until it submits the findings on June 15.

In its March report, issued Tuesday, the carrier gave information about the group it has formed and how they are going to plan their tests. The Technical Working Group in charge of testing has 34 members, including several from GPS vendor Garmin International and representatives from other companies in the GPS business. There are also members from Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel and from NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and other government agencies.

The group will design tests to determine whether the LTE network could affect the accuracy, coverage and continuous availability of GPS, as well as other factors. Tests will take place both in labs and in the field, with precautions to prevent harm from the tests. For example, the group will notify mobile operators and public-safety agencies of upcoming field tests and will work with the FAA to warn pilots who might fly over the area where the tests are being held.

Some potential effects on GPS, such as the aggregate interference to GPS avionics required for in-flight navigation, can only be determined by analysis, not testing, the report noted.
Before its next monthly report, the group will write a test plan and work on determining what kinds of GPS equipment to test for interference. Testing will take place in April and May in preparation for the final report on June 15.

Source: pcworld

Read more »

Posted in: Entertainment

VN ensures minorities’ rights: Independent Expert

Vietnam has adopted policies and moves to ensure ethnic minorities exercise rights in every sphere of life, an Independent Expert on Minority issues said at the Human Rights Council’s 16th session Tuesday.
Independent Expert Gay McDougall reported to the HRC in Geneva her visit to Vietnam last July, in which she gave high estimations to the country’s recognition of the ethnic minority population as an important constituent of its nation.
“There is evident political will to address the sizeable socio-economic gaps that exist between disadvantaged ethnic minorities and the majority Kinh population,” the expert said.
She referred to the establishment of dedicated Government bodies with responsibilities for minorities, including the Committee for Ethnic Affairs, as a positive practice that is replicated on provincial and district levels.
According to the Independent Expert, Vietnam has experienced impressive economic growth and prosperity, from which the majority population was benefiting. However, many ethnic minorities continue to experience disadvantages.
McDougall said she believed that access to quality and appropriate education was a fundamental gateway for minorities in Vietnam to escape poverty and develop.
She noted that bilingual instruction would significantly improve the education outcomes for minority children, expressing her belief that the Vietnamese Government should support bilingual education for them.
This would help ethnic minority children to preserve their cultural and linguistic identity and help them easily absorb knowledge from their studies in schools, the Independent Expert emphasised.
Ambassador Vu Dung, Head of the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the UN, World Trade Organisation and other international organisations in Geneva , said Independent Expert Gay McDougall’s visit to Vietnam was important, providing an opportunity for the Vietnamese Government and other international organisations to review what they have done for ethnic minorities.
Dung said McDougall’s report reflected both Vietnam ’s achievements and challenges in the minority affairs.
Vietnam has always given a high priority to ensure ethnic minorities’ rights, especially the rights to development, the ambassador affirmed.
“During the last decades, Vietnam has promulgated laws and policies and devised concrete national programmes, particularly those on poverty alleviation, basic health care and education… for the benefit of the ethnic minorities,” he stressed.
Dung affirmed that the country has worked to increase the opportunities on employment, education and training for ethnic minorities as well as preserving their unique cultures, languages, traditions and lifestyles.
“54 ethnic groups in Vietnam have been living together in peace and harmony since the gaining of independence,” Dung stressed.
“As an important and inseparable part of our nation, ethnic minorities deserve more attention and assistance to improve their lives and enjoy all civil, economic, political, cultural and social rights,” he said, stressing that the Vietnamese Government will seriously consider all recommendations made by the Independent Expert in her report.
“In a spirit of openness and cooperation, we wish to continue to work together with the Independent Expert on all related minorities issues in Vietnam.
We also hope that this cooperation will create a favorable environment for the relations between Vietnam and UN Human rights mechanisms in the future,” the ambassador said

Source: tuoitrenews

Read more »

Posted in: Politics

Dear readers, let's share the pain

Dear readers,

For many of us, it has been hard to hold back tears while watching or reading about what Japan has been undergoing after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

What can we do to alleviate and share the pain with our Asian friends?

A girl in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District could only cry all night after knowing that the tidal wave had washed off a house where she had lived for long with a hospitable and kind family.

Just three weeks earlier, an elderly woman from a remote town in eastern Japan had come to HCM City to ask Tuoi Tre to help her contact M. H., that very girl.

The woman said: “I love her like my child and, through her, love Vietnam deeply.”

That town has now been devastated by the tsunami. And that gentle Japanese woman has not been contactable since the disaster.

“Japan, try!” is the cry of grief-stricken readers who have been emailing to Tuoi Tre with their prayers and exhortations that we can and should do something to help the Japanese.

The websites of many Vietnamese students in Japan say “Everyone can help with their effort or money. Whatever help they can by everyone will be very useful.”

It has continued to spread on Facebook, Twitter, and YM.

The list of donors in Vietnam is growing longer by the day.

In HCM City, without waiting for appeals, readers have begun to come to Tuoi Tre to contribute what little money they can for Japanese victims.

We are sure you agree the amount is not of consequence; what matters is your compassion and willingness to help the Japanese people, many of whom opened their hearts to help Vietnamese victims of floods in the central region in the past.

We hope that with our small contributions together with those of the rest of the world, the Japanese can quickly get over their losses and sufferings.

We earnestly hope something even worse does not occur – a nuclear disaster.

From today Tuoi Tre will receive donations from its readers to fund relief and rehabilitation efforts in Japan. We appeal to you to contribute generously.

Readers who want to give contributions to Japan disaster victims may contact Tuoi Tre Editorial Office at 60A Hoang Van Thu, Ward 9, Phu Nhuan District, Ho Chi Minh City – Tel: (08) 39971010 / 0918033133 – or Tuoi Tre representative offices in other localities.

Contributions may also be made via bank transfer to Tuoi Tre:
- Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), Ho Chi Minh City Branch No. III – Accounts: 102010000118248 (for dong)
- Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), Ho Chi Minh City Branch – Accounts: 007.137.0195.845 (for US dollar) and 007.114.0373.054 (for euro)

Source: tuoitrenews

Read more »

Posted in: Experimental Society,Society

Less Expensive Wi-Fi Motorola Xoom Still Won't Trump iPad 2

The good news is that the 3G-less Xoom will be available from March 27 and will cost $599, a price match to the equivalent iPad 2. The bad news is that Motorola still hasn't fixed some of the issues with the Xoom, and the 3G version still costs more than the equivalent iPad.

The Wi-Fi only Xoom comes with 32GB of on-board storage and costs just as much as a 32GB Wi-Fi iPad: $599. Although Motorola pushed for a price match, the entry price for a 16GB iPad is $100 cheaper at $499. Motorola didn't introduce a third model of the Xoom with only 16GB of storage, but perhaps it should have, considering the $499 iPad is the model flying off the shelves the quickest.

Spec-by-spec comparison of five competing tablets.Pricing aside, Motorola still hasn't fixed some of the issues with the Xoom meant to give it an edge over the iPad. Motorola's press release says a beta version of Adobe Flash 10.2 will be available as a download, not preloaded onto the Wi-Fi Xoom. Last week Motorola announced the 3G Xoom will get a software update that will support an upcoming Adobe Flash Player 10.2.


Essentially though, the original Xoom still has no Flash support, a month after the original tablet was released. However, Adobe said a beta version of Flash Player 10.2 for Android will be available on March 18 for current Xoom owners, and it will probably come bundled on the Wi-Fi-only Xoom later this month.

Spec-by-spec comparison of five competing tablets.

Motorola also didn't address another ardent issue: SD card support. The Xoom touts memory expansion via SD cards, but the slot is still unusable due to lack of software support. Again, Motorola gave no clear indication whether this issue would be addressed by the time the Wi-Fi only Xoom arrives next week.

Motorola's Xoom does indeed have better cameras and more RAM memory (see a comparison chart) than the iPad 2, but Apple's tablet is much thinner and lighter (some reviewers called the Xoom obese in comparison). Finally, the iPad 2 has the advantage of a more mature App Store, with thousands of apps in comparison to a few dozen on the Xoom. This is why even the price-match Wi-Fi Motorola Xoom won't trump the iPad 2 any time soon.
source: pcworld

Read more »

Posted in: Entertainment

Samsung's MacBook Air Challenger Ready to Ship

By Jeff Bertolucci, PCWorld
You can thank me in advance for not calling the ultra-slim Samsung Series 9 laptop a "MacBook Air killer," which it certainly is not. It is, however, a sleek featherweight of a portable PC, one that gives Apple's attractive Air a run for its money in the look-at-me competition. Unveiled at CES 2011 in January, the Series 9 will go on sale Thursday, March 17.
One look at this head-turner will tell you it's most definitely ready for its close-up. Like the MacBook Air, the 13-inch 9 Series weights just under 3 pounds. Measuring 0.64 inches thick, it's a little thinner than the Air's 0.68 inches. It costs a little more too: $1649 with Windows 7 Home Premium, or $1699 with Windows 7 Professional. By comparison, the Air is $1599 with 256GB of flash storage, or $1299 with 128GB of flash.
The 13-inch 9 Series has a 128GB solid state drive (SSD)--half the storage of a comparably-priced Air--but with twice the RAM (4GB vs. 2GB). For a detailed side-by-side comparison, see this PCWorld chart.
Like the Air, the 9 Series has a smaller, 11-inch sibling, which ships in April. It will include an Intel Core i3 Processor 380UM, 2GB of RAM, a 64GB SSD, and a 1366-by- 768, LED-backlit display. Samsung hasn't announced pricing yet for the 11-incher.
These ultra-slim laptops are built for affluent buyers, those who don't mind paying extra for a stylish machine that's dressed to impress. But Dell didn't have much luck with the Adamo, its MacBook Air rival. Will Samsung fare better with the 9 Series?

Source: pcworld

Read more »

Posted in: Entertainment

Huge lobster saved from the pot

One of the biggest and oldest lobsters ever caught in Britain has been saved from the pot and will live out the rest of its long life in an aquarium.
The massive crustacean measures close to one metre (3 feet) in length and weighs more than 4 kg (9 lb).
"He's a fantastic specimen and by his size alone he has got to be at least 50 years old," said Lindsay Holloway of the Blue Reef aquarium in Portsmouth, where the lobster now lives.
"He is an amazing creature and it's quite an achievement to have reached such an impressive age," he added.
The lobster was caught in around 14 feet of water by a compassionate angler fishing for sole in Bracklesham Bay, off the coast of West Sussex.
Lobsters are among the planet's oldest inhabitants with fossil remains found dating back more than 100 million years. They are also extremely long-lived with some reaching ages of over 80 years.
The aquarium said the heaviest recorded crustacean is an Atlantic lobster nicknamed Mike who was caught in 1934 and tipped the scales at an awesome 19 kg.

Source: tuoitrenews

Read more »

Posted in: Entertainment

Computer Engineers Improve Wireless Networks by Making Users Connect Through Each Other

Several cities, including Philadelphia and San Francisco, are considering installing city-wide wireless internet connections of a new generation. These so-called wireless mesh networks will enable users to route their connections through other users' computers, in order to find available channels more efficiently and reduce down time.

---

LAS VEGAS -- Tired of your slow wireless Internet and network connections that get bogged down? The next generation of WiFi technology is here, and it may be the best solution yet for our overloaded information super-highways.
Computer user, Kevin Maddrey says, "Sometimes the Internet connection is spotty, and I'll automatically lose connection for no reason."
Maddrey knows exactly what happens when too many uses try to log on. But now computer engineers have found a better way to wirelessly connect to cyber space. It's called mesh technology; a system where the more users there are the better it works.
"It's the exact opposite of a traditional 3G technology," says Mitchell Gonzalez, President & CEO of Cheetah Wireless Technologies in Las Vegas.
Gonzalez says mesh wireless technology is faster, cuts down on congestion and interference, has better coverage, and has one more special perk. "What the mesh technology does is increase our ability to provide service more efficiently for a lower cost," Gonzalez says.
Here's how it works: Once you subscribe to the network, wireless PCs in the network "talk" with each other. They connect through wireless routers installed throughout a business, home or car -- an ideal network for Maddrey and the millions of other people who log on to the Internet every day. And overcrowding is never a problem. If too many people are using part of the mesh network, users move through each other to reach an unused signal.
The mesh network is also ideal if local communication resources are destroyed during a disaster because the network seamlessly picks up where one left off. The first mesh networks are being tested in Philadelphia, New York and Las Vegas.

HOW IT WORKS: Wireless, or "WiFi," technology and the Wireless Internet are a direct result of the staggering growth in cell phone use over the last decade. It is a system of connecting personal computers and other electronic devices in close physical proximity through high-frequency radio waves instead of wires or cables. The Wireless network is basically a series of linked transmitters and receivers. There are two main components in a traditional hub-and-spoke wireless network: wireless access points and wireless clients. Access points are base stations that are connected to the network at regular intervals to provide maximum coverage in a given region. Wireless clients are the network interfaces housed in computer devices that communicate with the access point.
Many factors can affect the speed of a wireless connection: how far you are from the access point, for example, or interference from other devices, such as cordless telephones. In general, the closer you are to an access point, the faster your connection will be; speeds fall back automatically as you move away to compensate for the distance. Also, since wireless users must share bandwidth, the more clients are connected to a specific access point, the slower the speed will be for each client.
MESH ADVANTAGES: Mesh network models are more decentralized than the hub-and-spoke approach currently used. Mesh networks promise several key advantages over traditional wireless technologies like cell phones or Wi-Fi. These include higher speeds, less radio interference, less network congestion, better geographic coverage, and tighter security. It's also cheaper to build a mesh network, since it can be set up using poles already in place for streetlights, traffic signals and road signs. Routers are simply bolted to the posts and plugged into the photocell power adapter already atop most streetlights. The routers are then automatically assimilated into the mesh network. If a cellphone tower stops working because of a power failure or terrorist attack, users will be cut off entirely from access in that cell. With a mesh network, any piece of mesh hardware -- a wireless router, for instance, or a laptop's interface card -- is fully assimilated into the network and can act as a relay. If one relay goes down, there are lots of alternate routes available.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE), contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
source: Sciencedaily

Read more »

Posted in: Computer,Science

Miniature Lasers Could Help Launch New Age of the Internet

ScienceDaily— A new laser device created at the University of Central Florida could make high-speed computing faster and more reliable, opening the door to a new age of the Internet.

---

Sabine Freisem, a senior research scientist who has been
collaborating with Deppe for the past eight years,
works on lasers in their UCF lab. (Credit: UCF)

Professor Dennis Deppe's miniature laser diode emits more intense light than those currently used. The light emits at a single wavelength, making it ideal for use in compact disc players, laser pointers and optical mice for computers, in addition to high-speed data transmission.
Until now, the biggest challenge has been the failure rate of these tiny devices. They don't work very well when they face huge workloads; the stress makes them crack.
The smaller size and elimination of non-semiconductor materials means the new devices could potentially be used in heavy data transmission, which is critical in developing the next generation of the Internet. By incorporating laser diodes into cables in the future, massive amounts of data could be moved across great distances almost instantaneously. By using the tiny lasers in optical clocks, the precision of GPS and high-speed wireless data communications also would increase.
"The new laser diodes represent a sharp departure from past commercial devices in how they are made," Deppe said from his lab inside the College of Optics and Photonics. "The new devices show almost no change in operation under stress conditions that cause commercial devices to rapidly fail."
"At the speed at which the industry is moving, I wouldn't be surprised if in four to five years, when you go to Best Buy to buy cables for all your electronics, you'll be selecting cables with laser diodes embedded in them," he added.
Deppe and Sabine Freisem, a senior research scientist who has been collaborating with Deppe for the past eight years, presented their findings in January at the SPIE (formerly The International Society for Optical Engineering) Photonics West conference in San Francisco.
Deppe has spent 21 years researching semiconductor lasers, and he is considered an international expert in the area. sdPhotonics is working on the commercialization of many of his creations and has several ongoing contracts.
"This is definitely a milestone," Freisem said. "The implications for the future are huge."
But there is still one challenge that the team is working to resolve. The voltage necessary to make the laser diodes work more efficiently must be optimized
Deppe said once that problem is resolved, the uses for the laser diodes will multiply. They could be used in lasers in space to remove unwanted hair.
"We usually have no idea how often we use this technology in our everyday life already," Deppe said. "Most of us just don't think about it. With further development, it will only become more commonplace."
Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Central Florida. The original article was written by Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala.

Source: sciencedaily

Read more »

Posted in: Computer,Science

Biodiversity Conservation: Zoos Urged to Breed Animals from Threatened Populations

ScienceDaily  — Of around seven land vertebrate species whose survival in the wild is threatened one is also kept in captivity. These and other data on the protection of species in zoos and aquaria have now been revealed by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock.

---

Writing in the journal Science, the team of researchers and the International Species Information System (ISIS) advocate the establishment of targeted captive breeding programmes to supplement the protection of animals in the wild. To do this, zoos should team up in networks and shelter these animals, as a form of life insurance, until they can be released back into the wild.

Pandas in a zoo. Of around seven land vertebrate
species whose survival in the wild is threatened one
is also kept in captivity. (Credit: iStockphoto/Beti Gorse)

The researchers used data from the International Species Information System (ISIS) to calculate how many of the endangered species can already be found at zoological gardens: 20 to 25 percent of all endangered mammal species are kept at zoos. The overall figure for birds is only slightly less than that, but is much lower for avian species that are acutely at risk of extinction: only nine percent of these are found in captivity. Only three percent of endangered amphibian species are kept in captivity.
The role of zoos for species conservation must not be underestimated, Dalia Conde and Alexander Scheuerlein have stressed. "While it is true that the number of endangered species and individual animals at any one zoo is small," say the biologists, who conduct their research at the MPIDR's Laboratory of Evolutionary Biodemography, "if several institutions link up, zoological gardens will have a considerable collective potential to breed endangered animal species."
Specialist zoos for greater breeding success

The Science authors advocate the establishment of "specialist zoos" that concentrate on breeding just one or a small number of species: "Specialisation generally increases breeding success," say Conde and Scheuerlein. "The animals can be 'parked' at these zoos until they have a chance of survival in the natural environment and can then be returned to the wild." Nate Flesness, who is the scientific director of largest data holdings of zoos (ISIS), and is also co-author of the paper stressed hat it also makes a lot of sense to include animals in breeding programmes at an early stage, before their stocks in the wild decline too much. "Zoos should not be regarded as a last-resort emergency ward, because the chances of successful breeding are decreased if the last surviving, weakened individuals of a species need to be used for this purpose."
Recently, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has also determined how successful captive breeding is at supporting species protection: breeding at zoos has played a key role in 17 of the 68 vertebrate species whose risk status has now been downgraded by the organisation. Examples of these success stories include the Asiatic wild horse (Przewalski's horse), the black-footed ferret (a member of the mustelid family) and the Californian condor.
Breeding programmes at zoos also deliver new demographic data which are useful in species conservation: When is the onset of sexual maturity in an animal species? What is its litter or clutch size? At what intervals does a species reproduce? "Such fundamental data on their demographic development are unknown for many species," say Dalia Conde and Alexander Scheuerlein. "However, they are urgently needed to allow us to estimate the future fate of a species and its chances of survival in the wild."

Source: sciencedaily

Read more »

Posted in: Science