Airlines with the best Wi-Fi

Remember the days when flying long distance meant at least nine guaranteed hours offline?

Of course you don't, your brain is far too frazzled by constantly having to check Facebook and emails.

According to new statistics released this week by air industry data cruncher Routehappy, flying without Wi-Fi access is becoming increasingly rare as more airlines connect their customers.

This is good news for anyone who needs to Instagram their inflight meal or fabricate Twitter spats with imaginary passengers.

Bad news for those who need to unjack themselves from the Matrix for long enough to watch a weepy movie and re-balance their blood-Smirnoff levels.

According to Routehappy, there's now a 24% chance your international flight will have Wi-Fi access. On domestic U.S. flights the odds rise to 66% -- a figure nearly triple what it was 18 months ago.

Connection quality and speed are also improving, it reports.

 

"Wi-Fi is one of the most sought-after new amenities fliers want to access on their flights, and there has been significant investment by airlines since our last report," says Routehappy CEO Robert Albert.

"Coverage is starting to be meaningful on flights worldwide, along with a wide variety of speeds, coverage availability and pricing models, including free of charge."

Internationally, Nordic airlines are leading the connectivity charge, with Icelandair and Norwegian both offering Wi-Fi on more than 80% of their flights. (The number of flights this represents isn't specified.)

The next four -- Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa and Iberia -- currently only supply it to between 40-60% of flights. 

Aeroflot, Emirates and Japan Airlines are in the 20-30% range, while Qatar Airways, Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines score between 15 and 20%.

For U.S. airlines, Delta leads the game, offering Wi-Fi across more than 3,500 of its daily flights.

Routehappy doesn't offer any comparative statistics between U.S. and international operators.


Source : www.cnn.com

KPK, PPATK Pledge to Join Forces on Money Laundering

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (PPATK) have signed a memorandum of understanding to seal agreement to work together to prevent and eradicate of money laundering and corruption.
KPK chairman Busyro Muqoddas and PPATK chief Yunis Husein signed the MoU at the KPK headquarters on Friday. The four KPK deputies — M Jassin, Bibit Samad Rianto, Chandra M Hamzah, and Haryono Umar — were also in attendance.
“This memorandum of understanding is a development of the previous memorandum, signed on April 29, 2004. The KPK and PPATK need to broaden each others’ networks for information exchange and the supervision of crimes involving money laundering and corruption,” Busyro Muqoddas said Friday, as quoted by kompas.com.
The amendment of the previous MoU is based on the passing of the 2010 law on anti-money laundering last October 2010.
The institutions could now form a joint taskforce to deal with such crimes.
“Under the new law, the KPK can investigate [cases connected to] the Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering (PPPU),” Yunus Husein said.
“The most effective way to eradicate crime is through cooperation,” he said.


Source : The Jakarta Post

Four Nuclear Power Plants Planned for Operation in 2017

A panel of nuclear experts said Thursday that nuclear electric power could benefit Indonesia in the future if handled correctly through complete understanding of regulations, team diligence and knowledge of plant equipment, operations and maintenance.

“What is really important is a high human motivation because it will increase both safety and availability,” Prof. Ishikawa Michio of the Japan Technology Nuclear Institute said in a seminar at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology office in Central Jakarta.

“That is why you have to put a lot of money in the regulations for safety measures,” he added.
According to Hudi Hastowo of the National Nuclear Energy Agency of the Republic Indonesia, the country has done extensive preparatory work on most infrastructure issues that would allow it to introduce nuclear power.

Indonesia has established a national energy policy under Law No. 17 of 2007, which declares that nuclear energy will be part of the energy mix for 2015-2019.

As a result of this policy, the country is planning to construct four units of nuclear power
plants of about 4,000 megawatts each, which are expected to start operations in 2017.

Nuclear energy is also expected to meet about 2 percent of the nation’s electricity demands by 2025.
Meanwhile, Research and Technology Minister Suharna Surapranata, who also attended the seminar on “Prospects of Nuclear Electric Power in Indonesia”, explained that energy security is crucial to national security.

“Nuclear technology is a necessity. In order to transform Indonesia into a developed country, we need to find alternative energy resources that are renewable and sustainable,” he said.

There are approximately 437 operating nuclear power plants worldwide, with 55 more units under construction.

As many as 60 countries, including Indonesia, are considering building nuclear plants, while 25 countries have shown interest in their development.

Last month civil society groups insisted that there were no urgent reasons to develop nuclear power plants in Indonesia, citing the country’s large sources of alternative energy, ranging from coal, geothermal heat, water, and wind.

They also said that the current severe energy shortage was due to the government’s failure to deal with energy resources, with most of the nation’s coal and gas being
exported. (tsy)

There are approximately 437 operating nuclear power plants worldwide, with 55 more
units under construction.

Source :
The Jakarta Post

Anti - retrovirals could halt Aids spread in five years

South Africa has the world's highest incidence of HIV/Aids

Anti-retroviral treatments (ARVs) could stop the spread of Aids in South Africa within five years, say scientists.

Dr Brian Williams said that by providing HIV positive patients with these drugs could stop the spread at a cost of around $2-3 billion per year.

The drugs reduce the amount of virus patients have in their body fluids.

Dr Williams called for this approach at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego.

Dr Williams, a leading figure in the field of HIV research, is based at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis (Sacema) in Stellenbosch.

He said the scale of the problem in South Africa was "enormous".

Success story

He added: "We have 30 million people infected with HIV and two million people dying each year."

We could break the back of the epidemic Dr Brian Williams, Sacema

"The tragedy is that the disease continues unabated. The only real success story is the development of these extremely effective drugs that keep people alive and reduce their viral load by up to 2000 times. They become close to non-infectious.

"We should be looking at using the drugs to reduce transmission."

He said that if clinical trials started now, all of the HIV positive people in South Africa could be on ARV treatment within five years.

This approach, he stressed, should be complementary to the search for an Aids vaccine. An effective vaccine, he said, was still a long way away.

Dr Williams commented: "Even with a vaccine, in South Africa we would still have all of these people who are already infected - so what do we do for them?"

Kenneth Mayer, professor of medicine at Brown University in the US state of Rhone Island, agreed that treating patients early with ARVs was a matter of "public health".

Dr Williams said a few clinical trials were already beginning in North America and in Africa.

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is planning a trial in New York and Washington - in districts that have an HIV positive population at a similar level to African epidemics.

"We need to get answers [from these trials] quickly. That will help us move forward," he stressed.

"We could break the back of the epidemic. If we can do it, I'm confident it will work."

Source : bbc.co.uk