Mobile American Red Cross Hurricane App in Season

Photo Credit: PRNewsFoto/American Red Cross

Embroiled inside the most active period of the year for tropical storms and hurricanes within the northern hemisphere region of the Americas, mid-August to October is typically a risky period in particularly in the southern region of the United States. So far this 2012 season, United States communities have been largely spared from the potential effects of a major ocean-derived storm system. With effective information transfer a key to protecting lives when disaster strikes, mobile communications a breakthrough method for sending important messages to people in danger.

Launched at the beginning of August, the American Red Cross Hurricane App for Apple devices or Android devices provides comprehensive information on hurricanes and tropical storms. A multi-purpose preparedness kit in electronic form, the free official American Red Cross Hurricane App is equipped for escaping and/or surviving an incoming disturbance.

A well-loaded program bundle, the American Red Cross Hurricane App offers a full range of tools useful before, during and after a major storm. Allowing users to monitor weather in areas using the reliable information gathering of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) The American Red Cross Hurricane App can be programmed to relay an alert if you or a loved-one is in a location where a weather system is expected to hit.

While being a warning tool, the American Red Cross Hurricane App is also meant to teach the public on hurricanes as well as emergency planning when placed within an affected area. The app provides historical information on hurricane and tropical storm systems that have impacted an area. Through interactive trivia quizzes, users can also earn badge rewards that can be shown off to friends on-line. Other useful responses on within the American Red Cross Hurricane App includes emergency preparedness information and details to best ready against a storm. Locations of open American Red Cross storm shelters and checklists assure educated efforts for survival through the Hurricane App.

Other features involved in the American Red Cross Hurricane App includes a flashlight, strobe light and an audible alarm to improve the user's detection. One of the simplest yet most reassuring items on the American Red Cross Hurricane App is the one-touch "I'm Safe" messaging alert feature instantly notifying family and friends that you're safe through a variety of means such as email, text or social networks Facebook and Twitter.

While a newly released application for smartphones and tablets, the Google Play marketplace has understandably seen a profound spike in downloads of the American Red Cross Hurricane App in the past week as the tropical storm system Isaac motions towards Florida. With reviews widely positive of the Hurricane App, the lives that can be lived with the extra information of this program would be more valuable than any amount of stars.


Apple Online Store:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hurricane-by-american-red/id545689128?mt=8

Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cube.arc.hfa

NASA Curiosity Has Landed: Mars' New Rover Resident

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

On November 26^th of this past year, Cape Carnival set up a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with a specialized exploration tool determined to venture across the surface of the surface of our cosmic neighbour Mars. NASA developed Mars rover Curiosity On August 6^th at approximately 1:32 am Eastern Daylight Time, the elaborate landing of the NASA rover Curiosity set its wheels on the Mars soil charting what will be a new generation of exploration on the fourth planet from the sun.

As the 6-wheeled Curiosity rover beamed its first pictures back to Earth, the elated staff of NASA celebrated the success of the most important part of the mission. Described by one NASA engineer as setting a compact car on the Mars surface, a supersonic parachute and an array of retrorockets (the first time NASA undertook landing a vehicle on the planet in such manner), the capsule carrying the Curiosity rover withstood strains up to the equivalent of 12gs to a final dissent speed of around 10 meters a second.

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Popularly known as the “Red Planet“, he surface of Mars had been a red zone to the realm of interplanetary exploration for more than two decades. In 1960, the Soviet space program (at the time had been leading off-planet scientific pursuits) first attempted to conduct a fly-by mission of Mars with an unmanned probe. Between late 1960 to 1962, five largely unsuccessful efforts by the Soviets amounted in little data collection and no fly-by. NASA’s attempted fly-by of the planet Mars took place with the Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 probes. While Mariner 3 ended with disaster when the probe would eventually loss power, Mariner 4 accomplished what no other mission had done prior. Capturing 21 images of the red planet’s surface, this represented a major feat for NASA becoming the first at a pivotal exploration of our solar system.

While NASA was able to take pictures of Mars from space first, the Soviet space problem would lead in successfully landing on the Martian soil. A lander connected to a Mars 3 mission touched down on Mars in December 2, 1971 though communications with the vehicle was maintained for only 14.5 seconds. Conspiracy theories aside to what happened to the Soviet lander, more effective efforts by NASA were accomplished with the Viking program.

As part of the short-lasting success of the Soviet Mars 3 mission, a rover called Prop-M landed on the surface along with the lander craft. However, since communications was lost the 4.5 kilogram Prop-M never roamed Mars terrain. It wouldn’t be until the Mars Pathfinder mission landed the Sojourn rover on July 4^th, 1997 that a functioning vehicle would crawl along the Martian soil. A mass of 10.5 kilograms and measuring just two feet long, the Sojourn rover carried a limited arsenal of scientific tools that nonetheless provided some phenomenal first-hand of a planet still unreachable by a practical human being. In 2004, NASA achieved major success by landing their Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. Rover Opportunity is still operational to this date.

The Curiosity rover's landing signifies the largest ever wheeled vehicle to be placed on Mars. With a mass of 3,893 kilograms (roughly 22 times more than the Opportunity rover) and measures just under 9 feet, 10 inches in length, Curiosity has been compared to a small car in most aspects. NASA rover Curiosity arrives on Mars better equipped than any scientific vehicle to ever touch the alien soil.

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

With a main mission of determining sources of life and/or past life on the Mars surface, Curiosity is said to “The overall science objective of the MSL mission is to explore and quantitatively assess a potential habitat on Mars.” said the 2004 solicitation for proposals were made by NASA. The Canadian Space Agency-provided Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer will be used to examine rocks and soil with the highly sensitive scanning ability. Chemistry and Camera combination called the ChemCam, Mars Hand Lens Imager for magnifying views of rocks as well as a complex set of meteorological monitoring Rover Environmental Monitoring Station are some of the highlighted tools available on the Curiosity rover. Radiation detection technology and sample analysis are also part of the new rover’s scientific array. Powered by a nuclear-powered with plutonium-238 serving as the heat source, Curiosity is projected to roam at least one Mars year (about 98 weeks).

In part of a statement on the landing of Curiosity, United States president Barack Obama declared, “Tonight’s success, delivered by NASA, parallels our major steps forward towards a vision for a new partnership with American companies to send American astronauts into space on American spacecraft. That partnership will save taxpayer dollars while allowing NASA to do what it has always done best – push the very boundaries of human knowledge. And tonight’s success reminds us that our preeminence – not just in space, but here on Earth – depends on continuing to invest wisely in the innovation, technology, and basic research that has always made our economy the envy of the world.”

In locking the secrets of the fabled red planet, the Curiosity rover is yet another step to what many will believe the progression of humans beyond the terrestrial confides of planet Earth.

　

　

　

　

CBC Takes the TV Podium for 2014 and 2016 Olympic Coverage

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy

With the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games underway, CTV has been beaming the accomplishments of Canadian athletes. While lacking the same pomp or nationalistic enthusiasm as the Vancouver Games that brought the grand land of Canada so close together in 2010, an audience of millions can still be accounted upon to tune in to cheer on the red and white. While CTV stations (with a partnership between Rogers Communication) have relished what appears to be two memorable games, the broadcasting reigns are being turned over to CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) for the next two Olympic festivities in Sochi, Russia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

CBC's renewed involvement for the future Olympic Games brings a rich Canadian broadcasting relationship back to the forefront. Televising the Olympic Games for the first time in 1960 when cameras were taken Squaw Valley, California for the Winner events, a total of 19 Winter and Summer Olympics have been recorded, broadcasted as well as commentated upon by CBC personnel.

Understandably, the news of the 2014 Winter Games and 2016 Summer Games coming to CBC made for a momentous day at their Front Street headquarters. CBC/Radio-Canada President Hubert Lacroix was quited as saying, “This is excellent news for Canadians across the country who will once again experience the Olympic tradition with their public broadcaster. We've promised Canadians signature events on all our platforms that create opportunities to connect with each other and the country" On the event side, IOC (International Olympic Committee) President Jacques Rogge declared that, “Canada is a sports loving nation and Canadians are big fans of the Olympic Games. CBC/Radio-Canada has a wealth of experience in broadcasting sports and the Olympic Games and we are pleased that we will once again be joining forces with them in the future.” 

Bell Media's president Kevin Crull was gracious on CBC's successful effort in winning the 2014 and 2016 Olympics saying, "Congratulations to CBC/Radio-Canada on their successful bid,". Crull added "We look forward to CBC/Radio-Canada building upon the high standards and expectations that we have established in Vancouver and London. We wish them the very best and offer them our complete support in presenting the next two Games."

The Canadian Olympic team issued a statement shortly another the new broadcast partnership was affirmed. President of the Canadian Olympic Committee Marcel Aubut declared, “CBC/Radio-Canada has been an unwavering champion of amateur sport and our nation’s best athletes. “. Another bode of support to CBC came from the Canadian Paralympic Committee "CBC/Radio-Canada has a strong history of supporting Canada's amateur sport athletes and the Paralympic movement, most recently through their broadcast of both Athletics and Para-Athletics events last month at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Calgary." said Henry Storgaard, Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Paralympic Committee adding "We look forward to working with them to help tell the stories of our incredible athletes at the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi and the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio."

As can be expected, the digital cable news channel Sun News Network were none too pleased with the notion of the Olympics returning to government subsidized CBC. Commanding a long-running vendetta to have the public broadcaster stripped of operating funds from the federal government, they naturally took issue that taxpayers money is being used on purchasing rights of an expensive event. Making note that CBC nor the International Olympic Committee would announce the price paid for the coverage, the Sun media collective acted swiftly to dishonour the honour with an alleged cover-up.

While true the cost for the licensing was not announced, on-line media news website Cartt.ca uncovered a source claiming the Olympics were acquired for under half the cost that CTV had to pay for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and the current London Summer games. By the numbers, the CBC deal for the next two Olympics is estimated to cost around 70-80 million dollars.

The distribution of the Olympic programming on the CBC family of networks and any on-line coverage is still to be determined how Canadian as well as other world athletes will be broadcasted into homes.

Bombardier-Built, Dual-powered Locomotive Now in Service

Photo Credit: Bombardier Transportation

Debuting radical, new transit technology, the New Jersey commuter tracks is testing a dual-power locomotive for the first time in the United States. Powered by either two diesel engines or off an overhead catenary wire, the Bombardier-built ALP-45DP locomotive could become a more refreshing standard in urban mass transit. Advertised as more fuel efficient, the dual-powered locomotive will also reduce the amount of emissions as well as noise.

Entering service with the NJ TRANSIT, the ALP-45DP locomotive when towing can move at 125 miles per hour on diesel power or 100 miles per hour when rolling on electric mode. "With the ability to run under both diesel power and alternating current electric power, these new locomotives provide greater operating flexibility for our clients." said Christopher Holliday, senior vice president for the design, inspection and test engineering support firm STV.

Traditionally, locomotives utilized since the Second World War relied upon diesel fuel powering electrical turbines. diesel-electric trains have been the industry standard for passenger as well as freight movement along rails. For longer trips, the use of diesel-electric is efficient and cost-effective but its application in dense residential areas is questioned. With technology exhibited in the ALP-45DP locomotive, the dual power system in the could avail the possibility that the diesel engine could be shut off where ever an overhead catenary wire will be installed. The design of the ALP-45DP locomotive allows the possibility for electric infrastructure to be built into diesel train tracks gradually.

Now running in New Jersey, there will be a total of 36 of the locomotives are planned for the rails in the state. In the near future, 20 of the ALP-45DP locomotives are will run in the Canadian city of Montreal under Agence Métropolitaine de Transport.

New Boeing 737 Jetliner Sails Easier with Fuel Saving Technology

Photo Credit: Boeing Commercial Airplanes

One of the workhorses in the current airline industry, the Boeing 737 latest generation will employ some refined, cost-saving technology designed to lessen the jet fuel being burnt through flights between destinations. The PIP (Performance Improvement Package) on the Boeing 737 jet will incorporate a new array of design and engineering enhancements for greater efficiency in negotiating the friendly skies.

On the outside, minor aerodynamic improvements to the Boeing 737 includes carefully-shaped, anti-corrosive lighting and expertly contoured panels insures better airflow and therefore reduced resistance in flight. The 737 fitted with the PIP technology also includes adjustments to the engine and a reworked environmental control system exhaust vent giving the airliner better operational efficiency.

The 737 jetliners operating with Boeing's PIP equipment is estimated to provide up to a 2 percent reduction in the amount of fuel consumed within trips amounting to an approximate annual cost savings of $120,000 per plane. Some of the fuel-saving technology had already been introduced on operating examples of 737 jets. CEO of flydubai Ghaith Al Ghaith offered a working testimonial to the new PIP-equipped jetliner. "Our latest tests have shown that aircraft, which incorporate the Performance Improvement Package, provide flydubai with up to 1.6 percent reduced fuel burn over non-PIP aircraft," said Al Ghaith.

The full implementation of the PIP on the new generation Boeing 737 will be added in the middle of next year.

Yahoo! Mail Suffers Unexpected Outage

At around noontime today, information hub Yahoo! suffered a new embarrassment as their popular email server appears to have incurred a technical glitch.

Early on in the issue, customers were permitted to log into the Yahoo! Mail server but was blocked from reviewing or writing emails. For members using older Yahoo! Mail, an error message appeared. For newer accounts, a pop-up introduced that a set of enhanced features were being added to Yahoo! Mail and required the user to agree to term. Regardless of the choice, the pop-up banner would not disappear. The second stage of the Yahoo! Mail issue became a full scale outage where users were unable to even log into their accounts. The email service would return just ahead of 2pm hour but there appears to be lingering problems receiving emails messages.

Much has been made of the struggles of Yahoo! in recent years as the one-time tech darling has fallen well behind the integration of social media. Earlier this month, Yahoo! experienced a PR setback as the company admitted to losing almost half a million email addresses and password to hackers. Though Yahoo! is one of the latest companies to endure a technical flaw, the world is quite aware that this is no the only high-profile incident that interfered with mass electronic communications on the Internet. Recently, social networking site Twitter had been affected by two massive outages.

It is uncertain if all or some of the reported 290.3 million users of Yahoo! Mail are affected at this issue. Other reports by CNET and the CBS News website indicates it is only a problem attached to some accounts. Yahoo! is aware of the issues and are currently involved in restoring the Yahoo! Mail service to full operations.

Zellers Stores will be Reduced to Zero by March 2013

For any Canadian living through at least the past two decades, we have grown accustomed to many brands and stores similar to those in the United States. This is a stark difference to the retail marketplace over half a century ago where Simpson’s, Eaton’s, Mark & Spencer and Woolco were Canadian shopping icons. With those names vanished into a brief Wikipedia entry for the younger generations to read on a smartphone or tablet, the people who lived and worked that period are the ones who experienced history. By March of 2013, the Zellers name will fall into retail market extinction.

While the profile of Zellers was known to be weaning as HBC (Hudson’s Bay Company) allowed trendy American department store Target to take over the lease of 189 Zellers locations, the intention of the final stores was not announced until Thursday of this past week. 64 of the remaining Zellers brand stores not acquired by Target will be closed affecting the employment of 6,400 workers.

Founded by Walter Zellers in 1931, the Zellers store long considered a Canadian discount department store. Familiar to Canada, there are actually two periods where American hands were grasping onto the Zellers store brand. The first time was in 1952 when Massachusetts state-based W.T. Grant Company bought into the Zellers store chain and would become controlling stakeholder in the company by the end of the decade. When the W.T. Grand Company faced collapse in the mid-1970s, Zellers was acquired by its current owner HBC in 1978. Zellers, along with the whole Hudson Bay Company corporation, would fall under ownership of American Jerry Zucker in 2006. Zucker sold the HBC corporation to NRDC Equity Partners two years later keeping the Zellers brand under foreign ownership what would be a collective time of over two decades.

Photo Credit: HBC

A shopping incentive program called Club Z was rolled out in the 1980s on the heels of growing ambitions of Canadian Tire. When competing with Wal-Mart during the late 1990s, it is arguable that the Club Z points provided an effective counter-measure in round one of the battle between the discount shopping chains. In the early 2000s, the Club Z program was expanded across the HBC shopping chain morphing into HBC Rewards. Initially a points program that allowed customers to catalogue shop with their points in a special assortment of products, that aspect was abandoned in favour of gift card redemption.

For most of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s nearly 350 years of operations, the retail giant dealt with competition by simply acquiring them. Towers and even the Kmart Canada operations were taken over during the 1990s just as a new, powerful entity wooed the Canadian consumer called Wal-Mart. While Zellers would also have adopted the separate big box-style store for a few locations, many of their retail outlets depended on residence within malls. A standard practice for the HBC family of stores (especially includes upscale department retailer The Bay), the customers were introduced to the Wal-Mart superstore that encompasses a wide range of products and services under one, easily accessible roof. Alongside with the superstore concept, the Wal-Mart high-volume, low-margin business model allowed consistently lower prices than Zellers locations. As much as Zellers brand of stores were mildly reorganized and as bonuses were offered through their popular HBC Rewards loyalty program, the discount chain was deemed uncompetitive against the American invader.

In the past years, it was also becoming apparent that the Zellers store chain lacked drawing power of consumers. Once successful in appealing to Canadian families with name brand as well as store brand products under the “Lowest Price is the Law, everyday!“ guarantee, children were allured by a Zeddy the bear to the toys. Over the past decade, the Zellers identity was less defined as HBC appeared more devoted to other stores such as The Bay and Home Outfitters. Zellers operated as a discount chain but also featured higher-end HBC products. For what would prove to be a last ditch effort by Zellers, the clothing and home accessories of Chinese-born Canadian designer Alfred Sung became a fixture inside the HBC discount store. As HBC entered a partnership with the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic organizations, some apparel was made available in Zellers including the popular 2010 Vancouver red mittens.

Ultimately though, it seemed a lack of individual identity would plague Zellers in recent years. It was almost a case where both HBC and customers viewed the Zellers brand with apathy knowing the drastic changes needed could not be undertaken. There was a notable wind-down of their generic store brand Truly label as well as a discontinuation of their pharmacy in several locations only magnified the degradation of the once-popular Canadian discount department store chain. Now, with the Target department store chain taking over the leases of most Zellers stores, the Canadian market is being readied for a more fierce battle against another American retailer. A more formidable contender that has fought several rounds with Wal-Mart in the United States, Target has estimated putting about 10-11 million dollars into the renovation of each of the 189 former Zellers stores.

In the growth of Zellers, the high staff morale was credited by the founder as the key to the retailer’s success emerging through a depression and a world war. Unfortunately, the store brand founded by Walter Zellers will be putting the livelihood of 6,400 remaining workers into an uneasy job loss as the true casualties of changes in Canadian shopping. The loss of the Zellers brand in early 2013 will illustrate not only the changing state of Canada’s retail sector but the alternations of customs so many people had rested their lives upon.