Filmmaker Rakesh Sharma has sued New York City for being `detained and harassed’ by its police while making a documentary about ordinary folks in a post-9/11 world. Backing Sharma’s suit, the New York Civil Liberties Union has challenged curbs on people’s right to photograph public places. Police offi cers confronted Sharma in May 2005 for allegedly fi lming a “sensitive building”. They interrogated him for three hours. Despite “cooperating with them, they treated me like a criminal,” the maker of Final Solution, a documentary on the Gujarat riots, said. Mr Sharma was told he needed a permit to fi lm on city streets and then was denied one without explanation when he applied to the Mayor’s Offi ce of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting, the lawsuit said. (Hindustan Times, January 12, 2006, New Delhi).
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Under the lens-’Right’ Vs ‘Rights’ BAL KRISHNA
Wide-lane kinematic positioning in multiple frequencies H ISSHIKI
Advances in GPS/GNSS data processing SRIDEVI JADE
An open GNSS receiver platform architecture PETER MUMFORD, KEVIN PARKINSON AND FRANK ENGEL
Ellipsoidal heights and engineering applications MUNEENDRA KUMAR
Recovery status a year after the tsunami ANSHU SHARMA
Rationalising the village planning process AKSHIMA DOGRA
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Earth Commission: A new initiative in India
The Earth Commission — the first of its kind in any country, will pursue an integrated approach of research to tweak meteorological data for accuracy and reliability. Meteorologists, geo-physicists, oceanographers, atmospheric scientists and space scientists will pool their expertise.
CNR Rao, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Science Advisory Council, told HT, “We have taken a holistic view of earth science. Kapil Sibal (Science and Technology Minister) has endorsed our opinion. The Prime Minister has received our report. It (the new commission) will be placed before the cabinet for approval.” The Earth Commission will be structured along the lines of the space set-up, with three rungs, namely, the Earth Commission, the Department of Earth System Science (DESS) and the Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO). The commission, its department and research organisation will have a single head, just as with the space agency.
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Korea to establish satellite data center
Korea will establish a global navigational data center. The center will be linked to a global system of satellite tracking stations called IGS. The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute has said it has won a bid to establish the data center in Daejeon, southwest of Seoul. The center will collect data from more than 350 navigational satellite observatories worldwide and relay it to users. Korea hopes the new center will become a satellite navigation hub for Asia.
http://english.chosun.com
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Spectra Precision Laser grade control systems
Trimble has introduced a portfolio of laser-based machine display and control systems for grading and excavating applications. The new Spectra Precision Laser machine systems is said to be highly fl exible, extremely rugged and can be used on a wide range of machines, including dozers, backhoes, scrapers, skid steers and excavators. On a dozer, the system can be upgraded for automatic blade control providing even greater productivity gains. The Spectra Precision Laser grade control systems give the operator visual guidance for the cutting edge of the blade or bucket.
www.trimble.com