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Thursday, July 31, 2008

From the middle of July, Sony Corporation refreshed their senior laptop brand VAIO from “Video Audio Integrated Operation” to “Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer”. According to Sony Taiwan Limited, this refreshment is an attempt to relocate the laptop consuming market for business and entertainment factors.

In the “VAIO Experience 2008” press conference in Europe, Sony promoted their new product series for different populations including BZ for business, FW for home entertainment, Z for ultra-slim, and SR for complex applications.

Different with past series, Sony added “Clear Bright” screening technology for high-definition display, and “full-carbon production” features. BD-burning and Intel Centrino 2 processing technologies will be featured in all the new models. For security issue, Sony also embedded fingerprint system to prevent personal data to be stolen. Continued from TZ series, innovative designs including “Green Power Button”, “Situational Switch” are also added in newly-launched series.

“Due to consuming market differences, Sony only promoted BZ series in Europe and America but not included Asia. Although the TICA Show in Taipei will be different, functionality will be the greatest issue when a consumers choose a notebook [computer] before buying.” addressed by executives from Sony Taiwan Limited, during the “VAIO Experience 2008” press conference in Taiwan.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Brazil has located an isolated group of indigenous, uncontacted people in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian National Foundation of Indians (FUNAI) announced today.

FUNAI, a state agency, uses aerial expeditions to avoid impacting uncontacted people and invading their land. The agency’s policy is to avoid maintaining any human contact with untouched tribes.

Clearings in the Javari river valley reservation were first identified by satellite; the group’s existence was only verified later by air flights over the area. The flights established the existence of three clearings with four straw-roofed buildings, known as malocas, which may shelter over 200 Indians. Also visible were areas where crops such as bananas, maize and perhaps peanuts were apparently being grown.

FUNAI’s Javari valley coodinator told the Brazilian news agency Estado that both the croplands and the malocas “are new” and are estimated to have been used “for at most one year”.

Amorim said, “[T]he Amazon region contains the majority of untouched tribes without any contact with the exterior in the World.” And he said the recent findings highlight that the Javari valley holds, “the greatest concentration of isolated groups in Amazonia”.

The newly identified group is located close to Brazil’s border with Peru in the huge Vale do Javari reservation. Fourteen known uncontacted tribes have been spotted there and up to eight more are suggested by aerial evidence. Altogether, there are about 2,000 individuals in the reservation, according to Amorim.

He said that their culture and their very survival is threatened by illegal removal of the area’s natural resources, as well as many other intrusions of civilization, but most of Brazil’s indigenous groups have not changed their languages or traditions. FUNAI estimates that the recently discovered tribe likely belongs to the pano language group.

Brazil’s indigenous peoples have tenaciously fought for their legal right to reclaim their traditional lands which were allotted to them in Brazil’s 1988 constitution stating that all indigenous ancestral lands were to have their boundaries clearly marked and returned to tribes within five years.

Friday, February 23, 2007

A 9 Carriage Class 390 Pendolino train, with as many as 180 people onboard, operated by Virgin Trains has derailed and crashed in Cumbria, England.

The train was the 17:15 service from London’s Euston Station to Glasgow Central. Witnesses said that several passengers have broken bones. All but one carriage have slid down the embankment and all of the carriages were derailed. 5 people are still seriously injured in hospital, including the driver Ian Black, and 11 people altogether are still in hospital. Hospital reports early on Saturday morning indicate 1 death, 84 year old lady Margaret Masson from Glasgow.

“It’s our understanding there are a number of people injured on the train. We think there are numerous injuries,” said a spokesman for the Cumbria Fire and Rescue squad, Brian Mitchelhill.

“A train has crashed between Oxenholme and Tebay, but that is all we know at the moment. We have got two cars travelling there now and local police are attending,” said a spokeswoman for the British Transport Police.

At least twelve ambulances and at least five fire trucks are at the scene, along with 3 Royal Air Force Sea King helicopters, two mountain rescue teams and one police helicopter. The rescue effort was hampered by limited access to the remote site and poor weather conditions.

“At the moment, we have reports of various injuries, from leg injuries to back injuries and head injuries — ranging from minor to quite serious,” said an unnamed ambulance official.

“The carriage I am in is completely on its side, it did a sort of bump – and I was thinking don’t worry this fine – but then the swaying became very dramatic,” said a BBC executive, Caroline Thomson. “Where I am there are some injuries – a woman with a very badly hurt back but I suspect further up the train it’s a bit more serious.”

First reports suggested that the train hit something on the track at 20:15 near Grayrigg, between Oxenholme and Tebay, derailed and slid down an embankment. Early investigators reports say a set of points will be the primary focus of the investigation. All but one of the train’s carriages are said to have totally come off the tracks, a spokeswoman said.

So far 12 passengers have been taken to The Royal Preston Hospital, where three casualties are said to be in a “critical condition” and one serious. 3 passengers with limb injuries are at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. People with minor injuries were taken to a nearby farm before being transferred to a Kendal hotel.

As of 22:16, Sleeper services over the affected line have been suspended. Other major services are terminating at Preston or Carlisle according to (UK) National Rail Enquires. A five mile cordon has been set up to seal the crash site as investigators from the Rail Accident Investigation Branch attempt to determine the cause of the crash.

Virgin owner Richard Branson came to the site from his holiday in Switzerland and held a press conference at a safe distance, roughly 200 meters, from the site. Branson stated that the Virgin Train Pendolino was “built like a tank”, and believed the track was to blame. All of the carriages retained their integrity and none of the windows broke. Mr Branson also praised the driver of the train for attempting to stop the train and not leaving the cockpit.

Network Rail has checked 700 sets of rail points in response to the accident, though no speed restrictions have been imposed.

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