Author: Admin

Monday, July 25, 2005

Windsor Castle, one of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom’s official residences, is to get a hydro-electric power scheme.

The £1 million project will consist of a series of under-water turbines to be installed at Romney Weir in the nearby River Thames. The system will generate 200kW, enough to meet approximately one third of the castle’s electricity needs.

The electricity from the four turbines will not be sold into the local electricity grid, but will instead be directly connected to Windsor Castle’s electrical system. It will save 600 tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere every year.

The scheme was announced after it gained planning permission from the local council, the plans having been submitted in February of last year. A feasability study will now be conducted, with construction scheduled to start next year.

The Windsor Castle is not the only environmentally-friendly Royal scheme. A borehole beneath Buckingham Palace provides cold water for air-conditioning and the Duke of Edinburgh’s taxi runs on liquid petroleum gas.

Monday, May 23, 2011

A tornado touched down yesterday in Joplin, Missouri, causing widespread damage. At least 89 were killed.

The path of the tornado was reported to be from one half to three quarters of a mile wide. City spokeswoman Lynn Onstot estimated the path to be nearly four miles long; Jasper County emergency management director Keith Stammer put its length around six miles.

Witnesses described entire blocks of buildings destroyed. Steve Runnels of the National Weather Service said “We have reports of significant structural damage to strong buildings. Automobiles have been flipped, bark was stripped off trees.”

Among the properties damaged was a local hospital, St. John’s Regional Medical Center. Some patients were hurt, and all were evacuated to other regional hospitals. The local high school, Joplin High School, was also hit. Describing the damage, its principal, Kerry Sachetta, said “You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That’s really what it looked like. I couldn’t even make out the side of the building.”

Joplin has a population of about 50,000.

President Barack Obama has ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to support state and local efforts in response and recovery. He issued a statement with condolences to the families of victims.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Residents of the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois celebrated Evan Lysacek Day last Friday. Held in honor of the gold medalist in figure skating at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the day started with a rally at the former Naperville resident’s high school, Neuqua Valley High School. 

Neuqua awarded Lysacek its first-ever Distinguished Alumni Award. He was the first American since 1988 to win the gold in men’s figure skating, having started the sport since he was eight. Despite being busy with other engagements and starring in the TV show Dancing with the Stars, Lysacek was excited about the opportunity to visit his hometown. 

He also took the opportunity to thank his former teachers, who he said worked hard to keep him caught up in his studies amidst his hectic skating career. “I’ve been waiting to get back home and celebrate with the community that’s backed me and been so instrumental in my development as a person, as an athlete and take this opportunity to say thank you, not just to the community but more so to the faculty here,” he told the crowd at Neuqua. 

The skater’s achievements have inspired the residents of his hometown. “I was inspired by what he showed me. He showed that I can do anything I want to do,” said Neuqua student Gbenja Okubaja. At a Chamber of Commerce lunch held later that day, Naperville Mayor A. George Pradel awarded Lysacek the key to the city, saying “I don’t know what it opens, but I’ve been told its already opened the hearts of everyone here in Naperville.” In response Lysacek joked, “I hear it opens all the banks here in Naperville.”

Afterwards, Lysacek attended a fundraiser held in honor of skater and long-time friend Stephanie Joseph, who died of cancer at the age of 21. 

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Friday, March 11, 2011

Tera Myers, a former actress in pornographic films, has left her position as a science teacher at Parkway North High School in St. Louis County, Missouri after her past was revealed by a student. This marks the second such controversy involving Myers, also known under the names Tericka Dye and the stage name Rikki Anderson. She was suspended by Kentucky’s McCracken County Public Schools system in 2006 after her career in pornography was made public.

Don Senti, interim superintendent of the district, said Myers was on administrative leave from her position at the school at her own request. Myers’ request, granted “out of respect for her privacy and that of her family,” came after a student inquired about her pornographic career. The district said Myers passed background checks before being hired as a teacher in 2007, but it did not know about her past until the student found out about it online, because her career in the pornography industry was legal. A Parkway representative said the Kentucky school at which Myers last worked was contacted in 2007 to verify her references, but no mention of her suspension or stint in pornography was provided.

Myers will continue to be paid until the end of the semester, at which time she is to leave the Parkway School District. “We’re surprised, very surprised,” said Parkway spokesperson Paul Tandy. “At the same time we feel for her and her family. We do believe she has tried to move on with her life … Unfortunately, even though it happened fifteen years ago, [the video] is still there.” According to Tandy, Dye “was concerned about the impact it would have in the building,” and, on March 4, informed the school’s principal of her past after being asked by the student. Myers also was the coach of the girls’ volleyball at Parkway North High School.

Myers previously taught at Reidland High School in Paducah, Kentucky, and was suspended in 2006 after a student there discovered her pornographic career. That May, Myers defended herself, saying, “Anybody who has been in my classroom could tell you how much I love teaching and how much I love these students, and that should be what matters more than anything in my past.” Known as Tericka Dye at the time, she protested against her dismissal and even appeared on the “Dr. Phil” talk show.

Myers said she became involved in the adult industry after working as an impoverished exotic dancer in California.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

On Monday, United States technology giant Microsoft announced their plans to acquire GitHub, a San Francisco, California-based web-based hosting service for software version control using Git, for 7.5 billion US Dollars (USD).

In the official announcement at the Microsoft News web site, the company said they are to reach agreement with GitHub by the end of the year. They said the agreement would allow them to deliver Microsoft development services to GitHub users, and “accelerate enterprise use of GitHub”. GitHub had been financially struggling recently and is expected to get a new CEO.

In 2016, according to financial news and media company Bloomberg L.P., through three quarters GitHub lost USD 66 million, while in nine months of that year GitHub had revenue of USD 98 million. In August 2017 GitHub said they were seeking a new CEO. According to the announcements by GitHub and Microsoft, the Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nat Friedman would become the new CEO of GitHub. He had created app creation platform company Xamarin and was “an open-source veteran”, Microsoft said.

GitHub confirmed the acquisition plans on its blog. In this announcement they alluded to concerns about past friction between Microsoft and open-source software, however they said “things are different. […] Microsoft is the most active organization on GitHub in the world”, mentioning VS Code as an example. In the announcement, GitHub also referred to its several years of collaboration with Microsoft on Git LFS and Electron. GitHub also mentioned the Azure development platform run by Microsoft.

Friday, August 12, 2011

A car fatally crashed into three individuals in the British city of Birmingham, England. The three men, aged 31, 30, and 21, died during a second consecutive night of violent events in Birmingham.

The incident occurred at approximately 0100 BST (0000 UTC) Wednesday morning in the Birmingham inner-city region of Winson Green. The men were attempting to protect property from nearby riots. Witness reports say that the vehicle contained as many as three passengers and drove at a speed of fifty miles per hour without stopping after the crash.

Police have since recovered a vehicle and arrested a 32-year-old male in association with the incident, on a charge of murder. According to Chief Constable Chris Sims, the details of the incident West Midlands Police have would indicate that “the car was deliberately driven”.

Tariq Jahan, the father of one of those killed, said his son, 21-year-old Haroon Jahan, was attempting to protect the area from nearby violence and unrest. Jahan said he had attempted to perform CPR at the scene of the incident. Jahan said his son was “a very good lad, a good man starting at the beginning of his life and had his whole life ahead of him. I’ve got no words to describe why he was taken and why this has happened and what’s happening to the whole of England.” Jahan said violent acts like this which killed innocent bystanders made “no sense”.

A statement released from West Midlands Police says that “detectives are treating [this incident] as murder. Three men were taken to hospital where two later died from their injuries. A third man was in a critical condition but confirmed dead at around 6:30AM. West Midlands Police have launched a murder inquiry, arrested one man in connection with the incident and recovered a vehicle nearby which will be examined by forensics experts,” the force stated. Police have requested that individuals contact them if they have any information about the incident. About 200 people from the Asian community have gathered at the hospital where the victims were transported after the crash. Two of the victims were known to be brothers. All three of them were reported to be Pakistani Muslims.

The West Midlands has seen other instances of violent behavior. Thefts have taken place in the city centre of Birmingham, West Bromwich and in Wolverhampton. The charges being brought against suspects on remand for court appearances include public disorder offences, such as violent disorder and aggravated burglary. Six police officers have experienced minor injuries as a result of the violence.

According to police, a scrapyard fire which occurred in Birmingham is unrelated to recent violence. Two ambulances were attacked in two separate incidents with objects being thrown at the vehicles. Ambulance staff were left uninjured in both cases. Ambulances have appeared on thirty-five occasions in West Bromwich, Wolverhampton and various parts of Birmingham. Thirty-one individuals were given ambulance staff treatment, with nineteen receiving hospital treatment, albeit for practically minor assaults in most cases.

In Wolverhampton and West Bromwich, there have been reports of roads and streets being closed. Wolverhampton and Birmingham have experienced significant travel disruption, with buses not entering city centres last night. One vehicle in Birmingham and two in West Bromwich have been set alight amongst the violence. Various businesses have also been targeted, such as M&S and a high fidelity shop in Birmingham. A jewelry business in Wolverhampton has been robbed of ornaments, watches and money.

Yesterday, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg condemned the violent actions of individuals, claiming there was “simply no excuse whatsoever for the violence, looting and destruction”. Below is a picture gallery of the damage caused by public disorder in Birmingham Tuesday night:

Saturday, November 4, 2006

On November 13, Toronto residents will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Toronto Centre (Ward 28). One candidate responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Howard Bortenstein, Holly Cartmell, Baquie Ghazi, Connie Harrison, Yaqoob Khan, Pam McConnell (incumbent), and Catherina Perez.

For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

During the 2007 WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase and Conference, WiMAX Forum announced the highlights from WiMAX Forum PlugFest in Grand Hyatt Taipei last week and announced that WiMAX Forum will endorse the M-Taiwan WiMAX Application Lab (MTWAL) in Hsinchu Science Park at the Press Conference yesterday and the General Assembly of the WiMAX Forum Taipei Member Conference today. With this laboratory located in Hsinchu, the WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan will be enhanced more with the cooperation between academics (especially National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan), governmental organization, and companies in networking industry.

This laboratory provided an open environment where world-wide innovators can experiment and test WiMAX-related products and the stability of application solutions at Hsinchu Science Park. Currently, equipment and application developers will have the 1st priority in testing for the quality evaluation and knowing the sanctification of consumers before bringing them to market.

“Members of WiMAX shows the latest innovations at this showcase (WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase), I believed that MTWAL will provide a complete product testing environment and applications in the WiMAX access area with the support from governmental and industrial organizations in Taiwan.”

“WiMAX is a brand new wireless network different from other similar industries, this service must be dominated with lots of different operators to maintain the basic infrastructure of WiMAX.” Ron Resnick (Chairman of WiMAX Forum) remarked at the Press Conference.

“WiMAX Forum chose Hsinchu Science Park as the development basis of WiMAX with a unique characteristic in networking industry in Taiwan. We held a PlugFest last week for brand new WiMAX products with 200 engineers participating this test to evaluate the performance and test the quality. With this PlugFest, participants experienced rich services and good quality of new products. The PlugFest also had numbers of milestones including testing the leading advanced antenna technologies delivering the fastest speeds and broadest coverage.”

“MIMO setups aren’t achieved until mid-week historically, but in this PlugFest, lots of vendors completed this high-risk testing and demonstrated the data flow ability between different matrices, as well as several beam-forming IOP set ups.” Ed Agis (Chairman of the WiMAX Forum Certification Working Group) said.

According to WiMAX Forum, lots of vendors also participated the exhibition of 2007 WiMAX Forum Taipei Showcase and demonstrated WiMAX technology solutions. Ron Resnick also remarked this information at the 2nd day Keynote of 2007 WiMAX Forum Taipei Conference. Mei-yueh Ho (Chairman of Council for Economic Planning and Development, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Taiwan) also looked this MTWAL set up as a bright idea, and Steve Ruey-long Chen (Minister of Economic Affairs, R.O.C. Taiwan) praised this set up as a boost of WiMAX infrastructure in Taiwan.