Latest news with #GPS
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
The sad reason why a $29 Bunnings buy is selling out across Australia
As concerns over personal safety grow across Australia, a pocket-sized device from Bunnings is becoming a must-have item for women, and now their children too. The Swann Graphite Gen 2 ActiveResponse Personal Alarm, retailing for just $29, is flying off the shelves as more women turn to the affordable gadget for extra peace of mind. But it's not just adults who are reaping the benefits of this modern safety essential, concerned mums are now purchasing the alarm for their kids as they become more independent. Small enough to clip onto a key ring or backpack, the device features two alarm modes: a siren and flashing light activated by pulling the keychain for immediate attention, and a discreet red button that silently sends an SOS message with real-time GPS coordinates to designated emergency contacts. 'Every parent should get one of these for your child,' one Bunnings reviewer raved. 'It's amazing how well it works.' The surge in popularity reflects a broader trend in Australia, where women, particularly mothers, are increasingly investing in personal safety tools amid rising concerns about violence and street harassment. In a 2023 report by Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety, nearly two-thirds of Australian women reported feeling unsafe walking alone at night. It's no surprise then that products like the Swann personal alarm are gaining traction as a modern solution to an age-old problem. 'This is a wonderful product, small and well made,' another reviewer wrote. 'I bought this for my child who has just started high school and has started catching public transport... We've tested it a few times just to be sure and it's amazing how well it works.' For mums like this, the device offers 'a little bit of backup just in case.' 'I'm not paranoid,' she wrote in her online review, 'but you still want that little bit of backup… She barely notices it's there, and I know if anything ever felt off, she could press the button and I'd get the alert straight away.' Unlike traditional personal alarms, the Gen 2 version includes built-in mobile connectivity and GPS, removing the need to pair with a smartphone - a critical feature for younger users or those who may not always carry their phones. The personal alarm also has the tick of approval from New Zealand TikToker Jen Lourdes, who posted a now-viral video on the device. Jen said she picked up the device after seeing other women recommend it as a simple but effective way to feel a little safer. 'There was a lady on TikTok that recommended getting the personal alarm,' Jen said. The small, pocket-size device packs a serious punch when it comes to making enough noise to help ward off danger 'This is really great if you're going runs or you're solo travelling, or if you work night shifts.' The small, sleek, pocket-size device doesn't look like much, but packs a serious punch when it comes to making enough noise to (hopefully) ward off danger. 'What you do is you pull it, and it makes a really loud noise,' Jen explained. Alternatively, you can push a button and it texts a friend or family member. Compact enough to clip onto a keychain or lanyard, the alarm is easy to carry during a jog, stash in a handbag or keep close while walking to the car after a night shift. 'I'm slowly started to get into running so I thought it would be perfect to take with me when I go on a run,' Jen added. 'I also do a lot of solo travelling for work, I feel like it's just a bit of extra security.' While it's comforting to know gadgets like this exist, the surge in popularity sadly reflects a growing reality: women in 2025 are still forced to think about personal safety every time they step outside alone. 'The fact that we live in a world where we need this to feel safe,' one follower commented. 'These should be handed out for free at police stations tbh. Genius!' added another. While the Swann ActiveResponse offers a quick, affordable way to feel more empowered, the hope remains that one day, women won't have to plan their day around personal protection. For now though, many are praising Jen and others like her for spreading the word about such a useful gadget. 'Omg this is such a good idea!! Need this asap.'
Spectator
9 hours ago
- Spectator
The lost art of getting lost
One of the quietly profound pleasures of travel is renting cars in 'unusual' locations. I've done it in Azerbaijan, Colombia, Syria and Peru (of which more later). I've done it in Yerevan airport, Armenia, where the car-rental guy was so amazed that someone wanted to hire a car to 'drive around Armenia' that he apparently thought I was insane. Later, having endured the roads of Armenia, I saw his point – though the road trip itself was a blast. Recently I rented a motor in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where they were slightly less surprised than the Armenian had been, but nonetheless gave me lots of warnings and instructions, chief of which was: 'Don't rely on Google Maps, it doesn't work out here.' As soon as I was told that I felt my heart lift, because it meant there was a fair chance of getting lost – and if I like renting cars in remote spots, I love getting lost, anywhere. And yet sadly, as technology gets ever more efficient, it becomes harder to end up completely clueless as to where you are. We are losing the fine art of getting lost. Before the advent of Google Maps, GPS, Starlink and the rest, getting lost was a doddle. I've done it everywhere. Africa, Asia, the Americas, Surrey, the Antarctic peninsula (in a storm), Dartmoor. I've been really lost in south London without an A to Z (remember the A to Z?). Amid this lexicon of lostness, some adventures still stand out. In Peru, while researching a thriller in the grey, weird, eerie Sechura desert north of Lima, I went looking for an ongoing archaeological dig, the excavations of which have revealed the unsettling sacrificial rites of the 2nd- to 9th-century Moche people, known for their incestuous sexual practices, culminating, it is thought, in the strangling of their own teenage children. So it was that I got completely lost in the dusty scrub, failed to find the dig, panicked for an hour, then, as I finally worked out where I'd parked, I felt a scrunch underfoot.
India Today
13 hours ago
- India Today
In new defence push, Army seeks indigenous systems to tackle rising drone threats
In a move to strengthen its air defence capabilities, the Army has invited proposals from indigenous companies for advanced counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS), focusing on both ground-based and manpack systems. This comes in the wake of growing concerns over drone threats from China and Operation Sindoor, India successfully thwarted multiple aerial drone strikes by Pakistan. Pakistan sent hundreds of drones targeting India's military and civilian infrastructures and most of the drones were shot down by Indian air defence systems. Now, the Army is seeking new technology to counter drones guided by satellite navigation systems like GPS and China's BeiDou, which is also used by Request for Information (RFI) outlines the need for two specific systems — a Ground-Based C-UAS and a Manpack C-UAS — designed to detect, track, identify, and neutralise enemy drones along the Line of Control (LoC), International Border (IB), and Line of Actual Control (LAC).GROUND-BASED C-UAS The ground-based system must include a wideband RF detector, radar, and an electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera. It should feature both soft kill capabilities (such as jamming and spoofing) and hard kill options (including medium machine guns and Negev light machine guns).The Army specifies detection ranges based on drone size:Micro drones: 3 kmMini drones: 5 kmSmall drones: 8 kmSoft kill jamming capabilities should work within a 2 km range. The system must be capable of jamming multiple satellite systems — GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, and IRNSS — and support techniques such as spoofing and fault C-UASadvertisementDesigned for single-operator use, the manpack system must be lightweight (under 9 kg) and able to function continuously for up to 5 hours. It should detect drone radio frequencies up to 5 km and identify threats in real time. A colour-coded display should distinguish enemy drones (red) from friendly ones (blue).If unable to neutralise the drone, the system should store the drone's frequency in a threat library capable of holding over 1,000 entries for future system will significantly boost India's anti-drone capabilities in varied terrains, including high altitudes, plains, and deserts, the RFI Army has underlined the need for operational flexibility, all-weather performance, high mobility, and rapid deployment, pointing to the increasing urgency of defending India's airspace from modern drone Watch
Wall Street Journal
19 hours ago
- Lifestyle
- Wall Street Journal
The Hack That Solved Slow Play at One of America's Top Golf Courses
As the head golf pro at Erin Hills, Jim Lombardo has spent years dreaming up new ways to speed up the pace of play at the world-class course. His staff even uses GPS devices to monitor the exact location of each group on the course to identify any stragglers who might slow things down.
Malaysian Reserve
a day ago
- Science
- Malaysian Reserve
Polar bear biopsies to shed light on Arctic pollutants
by OLIVIER MORIN & ETIENNE FONTAINE WITH one foot braced on the helicopter's landing skid, a veterinarian lifted his air rifle, took aim and fired a tranquiliser dart at a polar bear. The predator bolted but soon slumped into the snowdrifts, its broad frame motionless beneath the Arctic sky. The dramatic pursuit formed part of a pioneering research mission in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, where scientists, for the first time, took fat tissue biopsies from polar bears to study the impact of pollutants on their health. The expedition came at a time when the Arctic region was warming at four times the global average, putting mounting pressure on the iconic predators as their sea-ice habitat shrank. 'The idea is to show as accurately as possible how the bears live in the wild — but in a lab,' Laura Pirard, a Belgian toxicologist, told AFP. 'To do this, we take their (fatty) tissue, cut it in very thin slices and expose it to the stresses they face, in other words pollutants and stress hormones,' said Pirard, who developed the method. Moments after the bear collapsed, the chopper circled back and landed. Researchers spilled out, boots crunching on the snow. One knelt by the bear's flank, cutting thin strips of fatty tissue. Another drew blood. Each sample was sealed and labelled before the bear was fitted with a satellite collar. Scientists said that while the study monitors all the bears, only females were tracked with GPS collars as their necks are smaller than their heads — unlike males, who cannot keep a collar on for more than a few minutes. Arctic Lab For the scientists aboard the Norwegian Polar Institute's research vessel Kronprins Haakon, these fleeting encounters were the culmination of months of planning and decades of Arctic fieldwork. In a makeshift lab on the icebreaker, samples remained usable for several days, subjected to controlled doses of pollutants and hormones before being frozen for further analysis back on land. Each tissue fragment gave Pirard and her colleagues insight into the health of an animal that spent much of its life on sea ice. Analysis of the fat samples showed that the main pollutants present were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) — synthetic chemicals used in industry and consumer goods that linger in the environment for decades. Despite years of exposure, Svalbard's polar bears showed no signs of emaciation or ill health, according to the team. The local population has remained stable or even increased slightly, unlike parts of Canada, where the Western Hudson Bay group declined by 27% between 2016 and 2021, from 842 to 618 bears, according to a government aerial survey. Other populations in the Canadian Arctic, including the Southern Beaufort Sea, have also shown long-term declines linked to reduced prey access and longer ice-free seasons. Scientists estimate there are around 300 polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago and roughly 2,000 in the broader region stretching from the North Pole to the Barents Sea. The team found no direct link between sea ice loss and higher concentrations of pollutants in Svalbard's bears. Instead, differences in pollutant levels came down to the bears' diet. Two types of bears — sedentary and pelagic — feed on different prey, leading to different chemicals building up in their bodies. Changing Diet With reduced sea ice, the bears' diets have already started shifting, researchers said. These behavioural adaptations appeared to help maintain the population's health. 'They still hunt seals but they also take reindeer (and) eggs. They even eat grass (seaweed), even though that has no energy for them,' Jon Aars, the head of the Svalbard polar bear programme, told AFP. 'If they have very little sea ice, they necessarily need to be on land,' he said, adding that they spend 'much more time on land than they used to…20 or 30 years ago'. This season alone, Aars and his team of marine toxicologists and spatial behaviour experts captured 53 bears, fitted 17 satellite collars and tracked 10 mothers with cubs or yearlings. 'We had a good season,' Aars said. The team's innovations go beyond biopsies. Last year, they attached small 'health log' cylinders to five females, recording their pulse and temperature. Combined with GPS data, the devices offer a detailed record of how the bears roam, how they rest and what they endure. Polar bears were once hunted freely across Svalbard but since an international protection agree- ment in 1976, the population here has slowly recovered. The team's findings may help explain how the bears' world is changing, and at an alarming rate. As the light faded and the icebreaker's engines hummed against the vast silence, the team packed away their tools, leaving the Arctic wilderness to its inhabitants. — AFP This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition
