Thu, Feb 18 03:55 PM

New York, Feb 18 (ANI): Americans are the laziest people on the planet, according to a new survey.

The Daily Beast survey took into consideration daily calorie intake, TV viewing habits, percentage of the population that plays sports and Internet usage, reports the New York Post.

Out of those four categories, the US was first in calories and watching the most TV - enough for the top spot.

The Canadians came second after leading the planet in Internet usage.

Belgium, a nation known for its waffles, beer and pomme frittes, stood third while Turkey landed the fourth spot.

The last in the survey was Switzerland since its people spend the least amount of time in front of the TV of all the 24 countries on the list.

The top five laziest countries are:

1. US

2. Canada

3. Belgium

4. Turkey

5. Great Britain

Fri, Feb 19 01:40 PM

Chandigarh, Feb. 18 -- It may well be the answer to reducing travel time in growing traffic snarls of our metros. The ULTra Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system or Pod Car, a battery powered vehicle running on an elevated guide way is sure to fire the imagination of urban and road transport planners in the country looking for green transport solutions.

The ULTra PRT system designed and developed by a British company, Advanced Transport Systems (ATS) Ltd will make its debut at London's Heathrow airport sometime later this year. The Haryana government has shown interest in this futuristic transport system for millennium city Gurgaon. In fact, the Indian partner of ATS, Fairwood made a presentation before Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and top government officials in December.

Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Transport and Civil Aviation, Sameer Mathur said that the state government has now asked the company to provide comprehensive details regarding the technology used in operating ULTra PRT, it's performance parameters and safety aspects.

''Definitely it is an interesting concept and we would be open to it. Though it has not been tried and tested at a full scale yet, ULTra PRT is a pretty futuristic thing,'' he said. Says Transport Commissioner, Anand Mohan Sharan: ''It is an environment friendly system and a green solution to congestion caused by vehicles used for local commuting. The pod car in fact is like a personal cab which is demand responsive to users and transports them anywhere within the track network directly and without any stops. Stations are off line allowing the pods to by pass them, thus reducing the travel time.''

The ULTra PRT system operates on a dedicated one way guide way network and provides excellent operational flexibility. The automated pods provides for flexible routing allowing closer point to point travel. Then there are no intermediate stops as stations are located on side tracks so that through traffic can bypass vehicles picking up or dropping off passengers. The PRT stations can be integrated into buildings facilitating a direct entry into malls, hotels and offices.

For instance, the first of its kind commercial PRT system coming up at Heathrow comprises four kilometers of guide way, linking one station in Terminal 5 to two remote stations in the business car park. What is an ULTra PRT or a Pod Car? It is a driverless, battery operated vehicle with central control system and is laser guided. Having a seating capacity of 4-6 persons it will have a maximum speed of about 40 kilometres per hour. Fitted with LCD displays and air-conditioning, the Pod Car has a small turning radius of 5 metres and ability to negotiate high gradients. It weighs about 800 kilograms and has bi-parting wide opening doors on both sides.

Empty Pods are queued up off-line at stations. Passengers can access the Pods using swipe cards. The destinations are programmed into a central console on platform. When the passengers key-in the destination details, the Pod selects the most economical route for specific destination. The ULTra PRT can be integrated with an existing transport system and can provide feeder services to an mass transport system.

Yahoo/Hindustan Times

Thu, Mar 4 11:10 AM

The civil aviation ministry is contemplating introduction of full body scanners at all major international airports in the country.

"We are working out the proposal to introduce full body scanners at Indian airports for better security. We will do it in a manner which is acceptable to everybody. We will maintain moral standards while introducing the scanners," Union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel said in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

He said security was the major concern for Indian aviation sector.

"We have had several experiences in the past because of which we had to suffer. We need to be extracautious. Upgrade of security systems is an ongoing process. New technology will be adopted to suit Indian conditions. We are adopting certain new security measures which we cannot share with the media explicitly," he said.

Patel said the ministry would seek a complete rollback of service tax imposed on domestic air travel.

Yahoo

Thu, Mar 4 03:19 AM

London, March 4 (DPA) Two Muslim women in Britain who refused to be screened by a full body airport scanner were subsequently stopped from boarding a flight to Pakistan, a spokesman for Manchester airport said Wednesday.

During the incident, which happened two weeks ago, the women cited religious and medical reasons respectively for their refusal to pass through the scanner, introduced at major British airports last month.

'Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal 2 refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons. In accordance with the government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly,' an airport spokeswoman said.

The women decided they would forfeit their tickets for the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight to Islamabad.

The spokeswoman said more than 15,000 people chosen for random checks had passed through the scanners since they were introduced.

The controversial X-ray machines allow security staff to check for any concealed weapons or explosives while showing clear outlines of passengers' genitals. Civil liberties campaigners have criticized the scanners as an invasion of privacy.

They think their dad own that airlines