Police appeals for information after wounded man found
Detectives of the Royal Turks & Caicos Islands Police Force (RT&CIPF) have commenced inquiries after a man was found with multiple wounds at Aviation Drive.
Emergency services were called to Down Town Providenciales on Aviation Drive about 12.32am (Friday 03 July 2015), where they found a man with wounds to his head, chest and legs.
The 27 year-old man was taken to Cheshire Hall Medical Centre with life-threatening injuries and remains there in an unstable condition.
Officers from Chalk Sound police station and forensic officers attended and established a crime scene.
An investigation into the incident is underway and police are appealing for anyone who witnessed the incident or any suspicious activity in the area to come forward.
The man is expected to be flown overseas for further medical treatment sometime today.
Police are urging anyone with information in relation to this incident to call police at 649 941 4448 or Crime Stoppers on 1 800 8477, which is answered in Miami, Florida. Information you provide will be treated in the strictest of confidence. We remind people they should not report crime information via our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Blue Hills Residents vents frustration at PDM Meeting to MP
Blue Hills residents turned out in numbers to express their concerns over issues direct them. At the top of the agenda was the escalation of crime in their community, the lack of activities for the youth, by the lack of acThey are calling on the police to do more and also on the Government to pay more attention to the youths of that community. The general cleanliness of Blue Hills or the lack thereof was a hot topic and before the meeting was over an agreement was reach on how to deal with the garbage situation and also a decision made on the BLUETIFICATION of Blue Hills beach front.
They also want the government to stop the issuing of work permits, and also demanded that labor department step up on the enforcement of the labor laws. So that the youths of Blue Hills community would have a chance of gainful employment.
The illegal shantytown development in the Blue Hills area is a major concern for all the residents presented at the meeting.they are calling on planning to do their job and demolish those illegal developments, there are sufficient teeth in planning regulations to demolish those illegal structures. The million dollars question is why is it not happening, is it because all or the majority of planning employees are not from this country? Or is it because these illegal structures are not in Grace bay, or is it because they might be receiving bribes.? Whatever is the reason or reasons the residents Blue Hills is demanding answers and action from planning department and the Attorney General Chambers.
The residents of Blue Hills also vent their frustrations over the lack of police visibility in the community, some accused the police of being apart of the problem in their community, they want to give information and tips to the police but are afraid because they don't trust the police. The police was also accused of refusing to pull a boat to safety which had an engine problem. The reasoning is that they don't tow boats.
Also discussed at the meeting was the memo on the land situation that came from Mr. Charles, many of the residents have a piece of lease land but is finding it very hard to meet the lease payments because they are unemployed and was unemployed for a while now, but was struggling to meet the payments. They are pleading with the government for more time to get the financing for the free hold title or bring the payments up to date, they believe that thirty days (30) was insufficient for crown land holders to comply.
There was discussion on the sale of goods with out a business license and where there are business licenses, persons are selling out of their homes, the residents of Blue Hills don't like the cultural shift that is causing social problems in their community, and is calling on government officials to step up and do their job.
PDM CELEBRATES WITH TCI TRAILBLAZERS
The PDM wishes through this medium to celebrate with and invite the country to celebrate its very own who this week were announced as trailblazers changing the course of history in the field in which they serve.
Mrs Delleriece Hall was this week announced as the new Head of LIME’s Operations here in these Islands and is heralded by the LIME family as “one to take LIME to the next level”. We are proud of Mrs Hall and salute her as well for being the first female executive in the local LIME family. We wish her the very best in all her endeavours.
Supt Kendall Grant was also this week announced as the first TC Islander to have graduated from the 10 week FBI Course in Quantico. He has certainly left his mark capturing several Awards. We are especially proud of the Inspirational Award, the Spirituality Award and Leadership Award. We encourage him to make every effort to show true with each Award.
We certainly welcome Supt Grant home and look forward to hearing how he uses his skills learned to enhance the workings of the Police Department. We wish him the very best in all his future endeavours.
We are indeed proud of these two trailblazers and invite us all to celebrate their achievements.
The Bugatti Veyron 16.4 goes on the market for sale
Billed as the most valuable private car collection ever consigned for public auction, the so-called Pinnacle Portfolio has no shortage of standouts.
There is, however, one car that is more singular than others would be a 2006 Bugatti Veyron 16.4, wearing chassis number 001. It is the first of the 250mph hypercars ever offered to the public, and it is coming up for sale on California’s Monterey peninsula on 13 August.
Owning the first of any car, let alone one as significant as a Veryon, tends to result from an invitation from the manufacturer. All we are privy to know about 001's current owner, however, is his gender.
“He reached a level of collecting, and now he’d like to move to the next level of collecting,” Ian Kelleher, managing director of RM Sotheby’s, says of the mystery man liquidating the Pinnacle Portfolio. At this rarified stratum, the next level would be populated with Ferrari 250 GTOs and the like – that is, the most valuable cars on the planet.
RM Sotheby’s has not published pre-auction estimates for all cars in the collection, though in 2008, Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport number 001 was auctioned by Gooding & Company for $2.9m at Pebble Beach. Given the unchecked appreciation of Veyrons – engineering showcases producing in excess of 1,000 horsepower – it seems safe to say the first in the Veyron line would bring significantly more.
Should a prospective buyer be outbid, he or she might find solace in Veryon chassis number 300, also up for sale.
Among other hypercar highlights is a 1998 McLaren F1 LM, one of five built, with a pre-auction estimate of $12m-$15m
Divergent Microfactories targets 3D-printed performance
Think of the racy, 700-horsepower Blade concept car as a Trojan horse, utilising eye-catching curves and gob-smacking performance to highlight the innovative thinking within.
Divergent Microfactories, a startup based in the Silicon Valley city of Palo Alto, California, plans to use 3D-printing technology to empower small companies with small budgets to build cars locally, without unduly taxing aging infrastructures or fragile ecosystems.
Chief executive Kevin Czinger points to a US National Academy of Sciences report indicating that more energy is used producing cars than driving them. With three billion vehicles expected to be cruising the planet in 2050, energy-intensive production practices are not sustainable, he argues.
“If we continue to manufacture the way we have been, we are going to destroy our health, our children’s health and the health of our planet,” he says
Touting a new, leaner manufacturing process is a good way to enthrall an engineer, if not the public at large. Divergent has consequently applied its technique to build a single-seat super sports car. As a single-seater, its spec sheet reads like those of a Formula 1 racer: 700 horsepower and 1,400lb (635kg) weight, combining for a run – purely theoretical, mind – from zero to 60mph (100km/h) in less than two seconds.
The Blade’s curvaceous carbon-fibre bodywork is as genre-correct as the car’s claimed performance is shocking. Beneath it all is a tuned version of the gasoline four-cylinder screamer found in cult rally car the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. However, in this application the engine runs on natural gas, which not only burns cleaner than petrol, but also could tread more lightly on the planet because it typically requires less extensive refining.
Czinger may score enthusiast points with the Evo engine choice, but he emphasises that the Blade is “powertrain agnostic”. Microfactory-built cars, then, could be propelled by any current or future power technology.
The company’s aim is to spread the world about its low-cost, low-impact manufacturing technique and to license that know-how to would-be entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, Divergent expects to build small numbers of relatively expensive cars in the next 18 to 24 months to demonstrate the potential for the technology. Czinger declined to predict pricing or sales volume.
Source-BBC Auto
Samsung faces legal action over phone software
Samsung is being taken to court in China over the software it loads on to its handsets.
A Chinese consumer protection group launched the legal action over the default apps or "bloatware" found on Samsung phones.
It said many people did not want the software and added that the firm made it hard to remove the applications.
The Shanghai Consumer Council also filed a similar case against Chinese phone-maker Oppo.
The council said it was motivated to start the legal action following a growing number of complaints about pre-installed apps. It said people had complained because of the space the apps took up and because they ate into data allowances when they were updated.
Results from a study carried out by the council said a standard Galaxy Note 3 could contain 44 pre-installed programs that could not be removed or were hard to disable. One Oppo phone tested by the council was found to have 47 apps that could not be uninstalled.
"The litigation is our latest attempt to safeguard consumers' rights after other methods failed," Tao Ailian, secretary general of the council, told the Shanghai Daily.
The legal action aims to make the two phone-makers put in place systems that let people remove the apps easily and warn them about what they get when they buy a new phone.
In a statement, Samsung said: "We have not yet received the formal complaint filed by the Shanghai Consumer Council.
"We will thoroughly review the court document and determine an appropriate response," it added.
Source-BBC
Mastercard testing facial recognition security app
Mastercard is testing a smartphone app that uses facial recognition to verify online purchases.
Users in the trial can hold their phone up as though taking a selfie to approve transactions.
"The new generation, which is into selfies... I think they'll find it cool," the firm's security expert Ajay Bhalla told CNN.
One security expert told the BBC facial recognition should be complemented with "extra layers of security".
"Google tried facial recognition on Android phones and there were a lot of problems in the early days", said Ken Munro, security researcher at Pen Test Partners.
"People realised you could take a photo of somebody and present it to the camera, and the phone would unlock."
Google admits its facial recognition is "less secure than a pattern, PIN or password" on the website for one of its devices.
Mastercard's app asks users to blink to prove that they are human, but even this has been spoofed in the past.
"People took photographs and animated them, drawing eyelids on," said Mr Munro. "There have been advances in biometrics since then, but they're not quite there yet."
Mastercard is exploring facial recognition as an alternative to SecureCode, its security software that asks online shoppers for a password to make purchases.
The company said the technology was used in three billion transactions last year.
In March, Chinese shopping brand Alibaba demonstrated a facial recognition app, but hasn't brought it to market yet.
Mastercard's facial recognition trial involves 500 users in the United States.
Source-BBC
Reddit in uproar after staff sacking
Social news site Reddit is in virtual lockdown in protest over the sacking of popular employee Victoria Taylor.
Ms Taylor oversaw the "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) section of the site that interviewed celebrities, politicians and other newsworthy figures.
About 100 chat sections, or sub-reddits, that together have millions of readers are believed to have been shut.
Reddit's only comment about the issue has been to say that it did not talk about "individual employee matters".
The protests were led by the volunteer moderators of the AMA section, which said in an explanatory posting that they needed Ms Taylor to keep the sub-reddit functioning. Ms Taylor helped organise guests for AMAs and worked to verify that people due to answer questions were who they said they were.
There had been no explanation of why she was suddenly sacked, said the administrators.
"We all had the rug ripped out from under us and feel betrayed," said one of the AMA moderators in a separate message.
Later on, protesters said the chat rooms were closed "due to underlying resentment against the admins for running the site poorly".
Reddit staff were "being uncommunicative, and disregarding the thousands of moderators who keep the site running", they said.
The closures have snowballed and have made large sections of the site unreachable.
There have been suggestions that Ms Taylor was sacked following an AMA with American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.
Ms Taylor said she was "dazed" by the swiftness of her departure in a very brief response to a message asking her about the sacking.
The protest follows another "Reddit revolt" that took place in June when the site decided to ban some sub-reddits it said were involved in harassing and abusing people in real life.
Many people have pledged to abandon the site for rivals such as Voat and Frizbee.
Reddit is one of the most widely used sites on the web with more than 7.5 billion page views a month.
Bubba Watson to paint over Dukes of Hazzard car
US golfer Bubba Watson is to paint over the Confederate flag on the car from the Dukes of Hazzard TV series, as part of a growing backlash against the rebel symbol from the US Civil War.
The top golfer, who owns the car, announced the move by tweeting that he believed "all men are created equal".
The flag divides opinion in the US, symbolising racism to its critics - and southern heritage to its defenders.
The debate was revived by a recent gun attack on a black church in Charleston.
The suspect behind the murder of nine churchgoers, Dylann Roof, appeared in many photos holding the flag.
The Confederate battle flag became a potent symbol for the southern states fighting the Civil War as they sought to break away from the union.
Many of those states now display the flag outside government buildings. It also appears on number-plates and is sold as a bumper sticker.
But it remains controversial, seen by some as an icon of slavery and oppression, while others say it symbolises their history and identity. The Charleston attack has prompted fresh calls for displays of the flag to be curtailed.
Watson, the third-ranked golfer in the world and two-time Masters champion, said on Twitter that he would cover the flag on the car with the US Stars and Stripes.
"All men ARE created equal, I believe that so I will be painting the American flag over the roof of the General Lee," he said, referring to the vehicle by its nickname on the Dukes of Hazzard.
The car was a centrepiece of the US TV show from the late 1970s, which featured a group of rural crime-fighters.
Watson acquired the car in 2012, according to the Washington Post.
Chile defeats Argentina in Copa America Final
Chile secured the first major trophy in their history on home soil courtesy of a penalty shootout win over Argentina in the Copa America final.
Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez slotted in the winning spot-kick after Argentina's Gonzalo Higuain fired over and Ever Banega was denied by Claudio Bravo.
Higuain had earlier missed from close range after 90 minutes of few chances.
Sanchez came closest in extra time for Chile, who scored all four of their penalties in the shootout.
Where Chile held their nerve, Argentina wilted in the shootout at the end of a performance that fell well short of the heights they reached in their 6-1 semi-final win over Paraguay.
Le Albiceleste are without a major trophy in the last 22 years since winning the 1993 Copa America in Ecuador.
Chile's victory brought an end to almost a century of competing in the Copa America without claiming a title.
Source-BBC