Amanda Seyfried On Glamour: Amanda Seyfried HOT On Glamour March 2012

Amanda Seyfried is been busy filming the high profile role of Linda Lovelace, but Amanda Seyfried took time from her hectic schedule to shoot the March 2012 cover of Glamour.
The 26-year-old displayed her playful nature in the Ellen von Unwerth shot spread while talking with the magazine about everything from ex-boyfriend Dominic Cooper, why she’d never date Justin Timberlake and if she feels competitive with fellow young starlets.
Highlights from Miss Seyfried’s interview are as follows.
On watching Linda Lovelace’s famous porno Deep Throat:
“What surprised me is the amount of pubic hair! I’m pretty sure I would never do a full frontal in a movie—for personal reasons, I wouldn’t really want to show that.”
On whether ex-boyfriend Dominic Cooper was the last guy she loved:
“My God, yeah. He was my last real boyfriend. We still joke about having kids, like, ‘If it doesn’t work out with other people, we might as well just have a child.’ And there’s a part of that that feels…possible.”
On if she is going through a twenties slut phase:
“No! I’m terrified of being promiscuous. I don’t like the feeling you get when it’s not something that you truly want to do, and I hate the emotional abuse you give yourself afterward. It’s just uncomfortable when you’re with somebody and you’re like, ‘I don’t really know if I’m even comfortable with this. Why did I? Eww!’ I think dating can come without sex.”
On why she would never date her In Time co-star, Justin Timberlake:
“Oh, I think any female that meets him at first is like, ‘I want to date you.’ He seems so perfect, but you get to know him, and he’s a good pal. He’ll tell you what he really feels. But, you know, he’s really famous, which has its downsides.”
On having kids and commitment:
“Oh yeah, I think about kids all the time. I feel like the next person I commit to, that’s going to be the guy who I’m going to have kids with. That’s in my crazy female brain. So that’s why I’m like, ‘I can’t commit.’ ”
On if she feels competitive with other young actresses:
“Yeah, sometimes. But the funny thing is, the girls that I’m always up against for roles are pretty nice and cool, like Emma Watson. She’s awesome. She’s really funny and smart. And Carey Mulligan. It’s flattering to be up against her because she’s really good, and she’s cool too…I think the era of the diva actress is coming to an end.”

Meena Model Racket: Mumbai Police Arrests Meena In Models Sex Racket Scandal

Mumbai police has arreted five aspiring models and the flesh trade kingpin Meena at a flat in MHADA colony in Versova on Monday night.
“The girls used to charge from Rs 60,00o to Rs 1 lakh per night”, said police inspector D R Gangure.
Police second a decoy customer who demanded a high-profile call girl from Meena.
The girls were arrested during the raid. They have been booked under Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act.
Police said, Meena used to rope in aspiring models in her flesh trade racket and used to earn handsome commissions.

Mamata Banerjee a best-selling author at Kolkata Book Fair

Guess who is the hottest-selling author at the ongoing Kolkata Book Fair? Not Chetan Bhagat or Vikram Seth, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Sales figures at the annual book fair, deemed one of the largest in the world, demonstrate that Mamata has emerged quite a literary sensation.
“The response has been overwhelming for us. We are already running out of stock,” Sudhangshu Dey of Deys’ Publishing told PTI.
Publishing her books since 1995, he said that thousands of copies of her books have been sold since the last five days.
Last year, books worth Rs 10 lakh authored by Banerjee were sold ,earning her a cool Rs one lakh in royalty.
“The sales of her books had equalled popular Bengali authors like Mani Shankar Mukherjee and Buddhadeb Guha last year. The sales are even better this time with the rise in her popularity graph,” the publisher said.
A regular writer and a poet besides being a feisty politician, Banerjee has so far written around 33 books, three of which were released last week during the inauguration of the fair.
Bibliophiles have queued up at many stalls including her party Trinamool Congress’ stall ‘Jago Bangla’ to read her works.
In spite of her very busy work schedule, Banerjee has made it a point to release her books at every edition of the book fair for the last few years.

BJP on the attack after SC order, Cong says no setback

The Supreme Court judgment setting a three-month deadline for the government for sanctioning the prosecution of public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act was a slap in the government's face, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Tuesday.

“BJP welcomes Supreme Court's judgment. This judgment is a slap in the face of Manmohan Singh government,” senior party leader Balbir Punj told reporters.

"It is a a judgment which will have far reaching consequences, in the citizens' fight against corruption and in empowering the citizens," he said.
He called it the second major embarrassment for government, and said the first was the Supreme Court striking down the appointment of PJ Thomas as chief vigilance commissioner.
“The first embarrassment this government faced was when prime minister had cleared Thomas's candidature as the CVC chief,” he said.
Punj also accused the government of not taking action against those involved in major corruption cases.
“Many people who are guilty and accused of acts of omission and commission are going scott free,” he said. “In the 2G case, so far only (A) Raja has been sent to jail, other people who occupy more important posts in government and were equally responsible are free”.
“I am sure, this latest judgment will help the law catch them,” he said.
The government, however, insisted that the Supreme Court's observation on sanction of prosecution in 2G case was not a setback to it and said it has taken a number of "proactive" anti-corruption measures that includes removal of discretionary powers for ministers.
Minister of state in PMO V Narayanasamy told PTI that the observations by the apex court did not "reflect upon" the functioning of the government and cannot be used as an instrument to "settle political scores."
"It is not a setback. It is not an issue where one can settle political scores...It is one of the observations made by the Supreme Court. Several matters come before the Supreme Court and the court gives its observation on those issues," he said.
He was responding when asked to comment on the Supreme Court holding that filing of a complaint under the Prevention of Corruption Act is a constitutional right of a citizen and the competent authority should decide within a time frame on granting sanction of prosecution of a public servant.
The minister said the UPA government has taken a number of "pro-active" measures on the anti-corruption front by introducing legislations like Lokpal and Citizens Charter.
"We proactively removed the provision for sanction to prosecute officials. This has been done in Lokpal. We have been taking a number of steps in this regard," he said.
The petitioner, Subramanian Swamy welcomed the Supreme Court verdict saying it has "simplified the issue" in graft cases lodged under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).
Terming the ruling as a "victory for the Constitution and the war against corruption", Swamy said it has also "empowered all of us who are fighting against corruption."
"It has empowered the citizen to go directly to the court to seek an inquiry against any act of corruption without seeking a sanction," he said.
Swamy also lauded the apex court for fixing a four months' deadline for the sanctioning authority to take a decision on a plea for grant of sanction to prosecute a public servant, failing which the sanction would be deemed to have been given.
"The delay won't be accepted beyond three months as the government has to decide on sanction and if they want to consult the Attorney General, then one month more. So, maximum within four months, it (government) has to decide, else it will be treated as deemed sanction," he said.
He also urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to issue an ordinance amending section 19 of the PCA, which deals with grant of sanction for prosecution of a public servant.
"I urge the Prime Minister (PM) to atone for his past delay by issuing an ordinance amending section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act," he said.
Swamy said that the PM can now be approached directly by any private person seeking sanction.
"Anybody can (now) get inquiry conducted by the court without needing any sanction. Sanction is required only at the stage of trial and not at the stage of inquiry," he further said.
The Supreme Court Tuesday gave the government a three-month deadline for sanctioning public servants under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The apex court said this while allowing a petition by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy saying the prime minister was sitting on his application seeking sanction to prosecute former telecom minister A Raja for his alleged involvement in the 2G scam.
An apex court bench of justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly also said the time period would be extended by another month if the government wanted to take the opinion of the attorney general.  
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)

BlackBerry under siege in Europe

New York:  The iPhone has taken a big bite out of the BlackBerry in a market where the older phone once dominated: business customers in North America.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Samsung is poised to do the same to Research in Motion, BlackBerry's maker, as a growing number of businesses are buying, or plan to buy, phones using the Android operating system.

Although BlackBerry is a must-have accessory for the growing business class in the developing economies of the world and RIM is adding customers there at a healthy clip, the company faces a problem in its established markets. Businesses are looking for another option besides the BlackBerry.

RIM, Apple and Android phones now equally share the workplace market. In a recent global survey of information workers - people who use a computer or another smart device for at least an hour a day - Forrester Research found that 27 percent of smartphone users said they had an Android phone; 26 percent, a BlackBerry; and 24 percent, an iPhone. "Android and Apple together are eating BlackBerry's lunch," said Frank Gillett, a Forrester analyst.

While some companies are cautious about allowing employees to use Android phones in the office because of security concerns, more businesses that let employees bring their own devices have approved Android devices. Apple's iPhone continues to be popular. Samsung Electronics sold 300 million handsets in 2011, almost all of them Android phones, and became the biggest phone manufacturer in the world. It appears to be in the best position to profit from a shift in the market.

"We've seen quite a huge growth of Android in the enterprise over the last 18 months," said Nick McQuire, research director of enterprise mobility strategies at the International Data Corporation. "We see it as being neck and neck with Apple to be a top mobile enterprise platform in Europe."
RIM's answer to the increasing popularity of Android handsets and the iPhone is a new version of the BlackBerry software, called BlackBerry 10. But phones based on the new software system have been delayed several times and are now not expected until late 2012. Thorsten Heins, the company's new chief executive, said the new software would address the "consumerization of I.T.," referring to the growing trend of businesses letting their employees choose which devices they bring to work.

Mr. Heins believes that RIM's advantage in the business market remains the company's focus on security. He said that RIM regularly speaks to chief information officers, who say they do not like that Android devices and iPhones have become prominent in the work place.

"They are in a pickle. Their pickle is security," Mr. Heins said in an interview. "When the first big security flaw even happens in one of the large enterprises, you will see this turn around. Wait for the day this happens."

But waiting is not something people in businesses are doing. I.D.C. recently surveyed business managers and information technology managers at 728 businesses across seven Western European countries and found that Android was the fastest-growing mobile operating system for business customers in 2011.

Chief information officers at big enterprises said they were not yet formally supporting Android, though all of them have said they had plans to do so in the next 18 months. They are probably hesitating because they need to plan security measures to protect corporate devices, Mr. McQuire said.
Still, the general acceptance of Android in European businesses is a harbinger of RIM's continued struggles. The Tieto Corporation, a European firm that provides information technology services to large companies, said it had seen strong and increasing demand from customers for Android-based business software. Ville Virtanen, an enterprise mobility marketing director at Tieto, said that customers found Android phones to be cheaper and that the software was the least complicated for distributing work-related apps to employees.

And security concerns are being addressed. Some of Samsung's new phones, like the Galaxy S II, include extra security features for enterprise customers. The newest version of Google's Android operating system, called Ice Cream Sandwich, has built-in encryption. In October, Samsung introduced a program called Samsung Approved for Enterprise, which includes a suite of tools tailored specifically for businesses.

Apple's ascendance in the business market with the iPhone and iPad has been especially surprising to many people because the company had shown little interest in catering to the needs of corporate users when it made solely computers. Not long after the iPhone came out in 2007, however, Apple began adding features to the device, like better compatibility with Microsoft's Exchange, a messaging system that is ubiquitous in big companies.

"Once Apple added those capabilities, the floodgates opened," said Mr. Gillett of Forrester. "It was very hard for I.T. to look the C.I.O., C.T.O. and powerful employees in the eye and say, 'You can't use that device.' "

Planet Magpie, a California-based information technology consulting firm, said that employees working for the majority of its 350 clients were using the Apple phone. "A lot of people on BlackBerrys have switched over to the iPhone," said Robert Douglas, president of Planet Magpie. He said that for many businesses, ditching the BlackBerry has actually decreased costs, because companies no longer have to support the BlackBerry enterprise server, RIM's proprietary system designed to protect data on devices. RIM's server, he said, was "always a bit flaky."

RIM also faces practical alternatives to the BlackBerry enterprise server, like Good Technology, an information technology company that provides security and management tools for iOS, Android and RIM devices.

The wild card in the enterprise sweepstakes is the Microsoft Windows smartphone. Nokia, the giant phone maker, has staked its future on the new software, called Windows Phone 7. Information technology managers are comfortable with Microsoft, and the company has deep relationships with most companies.

The big question is whether Microsoft and Nokia will be ready in time to exploit RIM's weakness. Windows Phone 7 is shipping on several new handsets, like Nokia's well-received Lumia 900, and its Windows 8 software for tablets is set to land this year.

Kristen Batch, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, said the company was not ready to announce its plans for business customers.

Waiting is a risk RIM and its new chief executive are willing to take. "I don't want to launch a product that isn't ready," Mr. Heins said. "I want it to be a perfect experience."

China opens largest electric car-charging station

Beijing: China's largest electric vehicle (EV) charging and battery swapping station has been put into operation in Beijing, Xinhua reported quoting sources in the city's power supply authorities.

Located in the eastern Beijing's Chaoyang district, the Gaoantun charging station can charge up to eight vehicles simultaneously and it takes only four to six minutes to swap a battery of an EV.


The station has been installed with over 10 types of EV charging or battery swapping machines, covering all charging modes that are available in China.

Beijing is striving to build a new energy vehicle grid as part of the nation's plan to usher in more energy-saving and environmentally-friendly vehicles.

Beijing hopes to build a three-level EV charging and battery swapping network that consists of six large-scale concentrated charging stations, 250 charging and battery swapping stations and 210 small-sized delivery stations by the end of 2015.

So far, the China's capital city has completed construction of 12 charging and battery swapping stations and 274 charging posts.

The city was chosen as one of the 25 pilot cities in China for the utilisation of new-energy vehicles.

China plans to have over 500,000 electric, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles on the road by 2015 and five million by 2020.

IANS

E-books damaging society: US novelist

London: Jonathan Franzen, who is being hailed as one of America’s greatest living novelists, has warned that our desire for the instant gratification of e-books is damaging for society.

The author of Freedom and The Corrections said consumers had been conned into thinking that they need the latest technology.

“The technology I like is the American paperback edition of Freedom. I can spill water on it and it would still work! So it’s pretty good technology. And what’s more, it will work great 10 years from now. So no wonder the capitalists hate it. It’s a bad business model,” a newspaper quoted Franzen as saying.


“I think, for serious readers, a sense of permanence has always been part of the experience. Everything else in your life is fluid, but here is this text that doesn’t change.

“Will there still be readers 50 years from now who feel that way? Who have that hunger for something permanent and unalterable? I don’t have a crystal ball.

“But I do fear that it’s going to be very hard to make the world work if there’s no permanence like that. That kind of radical contingency is not compatible with a system of justice or responsible self-government,” he lamented.

Speaking at the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia, Franzen argued that e-books, such as Amazon’s Kindle, can never have the magic of the printed page.

“The Great Gatsby was last updated in 1924. You don’t need it to be refreshed, do you?” he said.

“Maybe nobody will care about printed books 50 years from now, but I do. When I read a book, I’m handling a specific object in a specific time and place. The fact that when I take the book off the shelf it still says the same thing - that’s reassuring.

“Someone worked really hard to make the language just right, just the way they wanted it. They were so sure of it that they printed it in ink, on paper. A screen always feels like we could delete that, change that, move it around. So for a literature-crazed person like me, it’s just not permanent enough,” he asserted.

ANI