‘Pawar slap song’ a hit on YouTube

The ‘Pawar Slap Song’ is the latest hit-adaptation of Dhanush’s Kolaveri and has scored about six lakh hits on the YouTube since being posted by its 28-year-old creator Prakash Vijay on November 25, the day after Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar was slapped by Harvinder Singh.

The song showing lip-syncs done within photographs of Singh and Pawar has the video of the sardar slapping the NCP chief and humming ‘Why this Kolaveri Jee’.

“More than 1000 fresh hits happened in just the last 10 minutes. This has become such a big hit because Prakash used the hugely popular Dhanush song to present the much-talked-about Pawar slap,” said K. Srinivasan, president, cyber society of India.

Mercedes-Benz axes Maybach

High ranking Mercedes-Benz sources have confirmed to Autoweek that the underperforming Maybach brand will be officially killed off in 2013.

The decision to disband Mercedes-Benz’s upper luxury marque comes after a decade of disappointing sales for the Maybach 57 and 62 and a recent decision from the German car maker’s chairman Dieter Zetsche not to push ahead with the development replacement models – the likes of which were tentatively due out in 2014 – owing to what one insider describes as a “positive move to focus greater attention on the Mercedes-Benz brand” .

“We’ve come to the conclusion that it is better to cut our losses with Maybach than to continue into an uncertain future with a brand that has failed to live up to original sales expectations," the insider said. "Plans are already in place to fill the void left by the axing of the Maybach 57 and 62 with the next-generation S-class, which will be offered in three wheelbase variations and six different body styles, including a top-of-the-range S600 Pullman.”

Moves to push Mercedes-Benz further up-market into the segment follows an internal marketing study which came to the conclusion that it has more potential to succeed in the upper luxury segment against competition from the likes of Bentley and Rolls-Royce than Maybach, which despite being revered at home in Germany has failed to gain traction in other key world markets.

The Maybach brand was resurrected by Mercedes-Benz in 2002 following its failure to purchase Rolls-Royce and Bentley from then owner Vickers after being outbid by Volkswagen, which then ceded control of Rolls-Royce to BMW. A recent proposal to involve Aston Martin in the development of future Maybach models was abandoned in early 2011.

Power - The Temptation

An edit of the Soundtree Remix by The Temptations:

New test finds neutrinos still faster than light

A new experiment appears to provide further evidence that Einstein may have been wrong when he said nothing could go faster than the speed of light, a theory that underpins modern thinking on how the universe works.

The new evidence, challenging a dogma of science that has held since Albert Einstein laid out his theory of relativity in 1905, appeared to confirm a startling finding that sub-atomic particles called neutrinos could travel fractions of a second faster.

The new experiment at the Gran Sasso laboratory, using a neutrino beam from CERN in Switzerland, 720 km (450 miles) away, was held to check findings in September by a team of scientists, which were greeted with some skepticism.

Scientists at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) said in a statement on Friday that their new tests aimed to exclude one potential systematic effect that may have affected the original measurement.

"A measurement so delicate and carrying a profound implication on physics requires an extraordinary level of scrutiny," said Fernando Ferroni, president of the INFN.

"The positive outcome of the test makes us more confident in the result, although a final word can only be said by analogous measurements performed elsewhere in the world."

An international team of scientists shocked the scientific world with the original findings in September.

That first finding was recorded when 15,000 neutrino beams were pumped over three years from CERN to Gran Sasso, an underground Italian laboratory near Rome.

Physicists on the experiment, called OPERA after the initials of its formal scientific title, said they had checked and rechecked over many months anything that could have produced a misreading before announcing what they had found.

If confirmed, scientists say the findings may show that Einstein, seen as the father of modern physics was wrong when he set out in his theory of special relativity that the speed of light is a ‘cosmic constant’ and nothing can go faster.

This would force a major rethink of theories about how the cosmos works and even mean it would be possible, in theory, to send information into the past.

20,000 weddings on 11.11.11 in Delhi only

Priests from other cities had to be called in and major traffic jams were reported as over 20,000 couples tied the knot yesterday, 11.11.11, a date termed extremely auspicious by many astrologers.

"Over 20,000 wedding took place in the city. 11.11.11 is equated with numbers 3, 6 and 9, which are good numbers to start with anything in Indian numerology," said Ravindra Nagar, head priest of Birla Temple in central Delhi.

With so many weddings taking place, the priests in the city were joined by several from neighbouring states.

"Many people had already booked the priests in the city for performing the rituals, as a result of which demand has preceded the supply. We have called pundits from Hrishikesh, Kurukshetra, Haridwar and other cities," Nagar said.

Apart from the weddings, many deliveries were also planned for the day. "More than 50 children were born in our hospital," said a doctor at a private hospital. A certain section of astrologers rubbished the fuss associated with the day and termed it overhyped.

"The reports that this day is auspicious is ridiculous. The planetary movements are normal and there is nothing great about it. People want to get married and want their children to be born on this day as it would look attractive," said Delhi-based astrologer Vivek Chopra.

"I don't understand the fuss about the day. People have gone crazy on the piousness of this day, whereas there is nothing like that," said another astrologer.

Google drops Gmail support for BlackBerry users

Google, maker of Android software for mobile phones, will stop supporting the application for Gmail for rival Research in Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry smartphones.


"Beginning of November 22, 2011, we will end support for the Gmail App for BlackBerry (installed native app). Over this past year, we've focused efforts on building a great Gmail experience in the mobile browser and will continue investing in this area," Google said.


This means that from November 22, Google will stop supporting Gmail application for BlackBerry devices and the Gmail applications currently running on the BlackBerry will no longer be maintained and enhanced by Google.


However, users who have already downloaded the app may continue to use it, the company added.

Saudi Pilots land for Prayer on road

Several Saudi air force soldiers decided to cut their mission and land on a motorway in the middle of the day to perform prayers on time.

A photo journalist who happened to be passing on the motorway just outside the capital Riyadh caught the airmen kneeling down on the road while their helicopters were parked nearby.

“Despite the scorching sun and the hot asphalt, the airmen landed their Sikorsky helicopters on the road and performed prayers on time,” Sabq daily said.

Muslims are required by their religion to pray five times a day but most of them fail to do so.

Samsung demands iPhone 4S source code

Samsung is demanding the source code for the Iphone 4S firmware in its latest spat with Apple over patents.

Samsung's legal counsel, Cynthia Cochrane told the Australian federal court that Samsung needs access to the source code in order to assert that Apple is infringing three of its patents relating to wireless 3G, according to Smart Office.

Samsung also wants to see the agreements Apple made with mobile phone carriers Vodafone, Telstra and Optus, which it claims will also affect its case. Apple denies it infringed the patents in question, claiming it is using them under the Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory standard, but Samsung maintains that its international agreement with Apple does not extend to Australia and that Apple previously rejected an invitation to license the relevant patents.

Samsung wants sales of the iPhone 4S to be banned in Australia, a response to the ban of the Galaxy Tab in Germany and an interim ban of the tablet in Australia.

The judge presiding over this case is Justice Annabel Bennett, who issued the interim injunction against the Galaxy Tab last month. It will be interesting to see if she will impose a ban on the Iphone 4S or again side in favour of Apple.

Safeway seperates child from mother for a sandwich

Nicole Leszczynski couldn't imagine that two chicken salad sandwiches would land her and her husband in jail and her 2-year-old daughter in state custody. But it happened five days ago, when the 30-weeks-pregnant woman forgot to pay for her snack while grocery shopping.

"It was the most ridiculous chain of events that happened," she said while sobbing Monday. "It's still hard to believe what happened."

Leszczynski, 28, and her husband Marcin, 33, were handcuffed, searched then released on $50 bail each. Their ordeal at the police station lasted a few hours, but their daughter Zofia spent the night away from her parents in a case that has sparked nationwide outrage and forced the Safeway supermarket chain to review the incident.

The family had moved to an apartment near downtown Honolulu from California two weeks ago. Still settling in, they ventured out Wednesday to stock up on groceries, took the bus, got lost, and ended up at a Safeway supermarket.

Famished, the former Air Force staff sergeant picked up the two sandwiches that together cost $5. She openly munched on one while they shopped, saving the wrapper to be scanned at the register later.

But they forgot to pay for the sandwiches as they checked out with about $50 worth of groceries.

"When the security guard questioned us, I was really embarrassed, I was horrified," she said. They were led upstairs, where the couple expected to get a lecture, pay for the sandwiches, and be allowed on their way.

But store managers wouldn't allow them to pay for the sandwiches, she said.

"I asked to talk to a manager and he said it was against their policy to pay for items that left the store," she said. "The security guard said we were being charged with shoplifting!"

Four hours later, a police officer arrived and read them their rights. A woman from the state Child Welfare Services arrived to take Zofia away.

A Honolulu police spokeswoman said it was procedure to call Child Welfare Services if a child is present when both parents are arrested. The store's management did not know the girl would be taken away, said Susan Houghton, a spokeswoman for California-based Safeway Inc.

Leszczynski called the incident "so horrifying, it seemed to escalate and no one could say, 'this is too much.'"

The couple was handcuffed and driven separately to police headquarters a few blocks away, where they were searched, had their mug shots taken and then released after paying bail. A police officer escorted them back to the store — which banned them for a year, Leszczynski said — where they picked up their groceries and walked home just before midnight.

"We basically stared at each other all night. ..We contacted a lawyer for help with being reunited with Zofia. "At the lawyer's suggestion, they took their story to the media.

Zofia was returned after an 18-hour separation from her parents.

The couple is charged with fourth-degree theft, a petty misdemeanor, and has a court date on Nov. 28, according to the city prosecutor's office. The family hasn't decided whether it will pursue legal action against Safeway.

Houghton said the company will review the police report and store security footage before deciding whether to press charges.