Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Preacher, painter and prohibition activist Gene Amondson, best known for his runs as the U.S. presidential nominee for one faction of the Prohibition Party in 2004 and as the party’s de facto nominee in 2008, died yesterday surrounded by his four children after falling into a coma following a stroke. He was 65 years old.

Amondson was part of the Prohibition Party split in 2004 that led to two tickets. Although he received few votes, Amondson finished in third place in four Louisiana parishes, the best showing by a Prohibition Party candidate since 1960. The leader of the counter ticket, Earl Dodge, died in 2007 while campaigning for the party’s 2008 nomination, leaving no opposition to Amondson as the party’s leader.

He was strongly opposed to the sale of alcohol. As an activist, he filmed documentaries and held demonstrations supporting his cause.

Amondson made many appearances on television, including two visits to the Oprah Winfrey Show as a painter and was interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show during his 2004 run.

He was also interviewed by Wikinews in June 2008, during his second presidential campaign.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, July 25 at Amondson’s home town of Vashon Island, Washington.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Car manufacturer Toyota is to recall almost 1.7 million cars in two simultaneous recalls, that include the Toyota Avensis and Lexus IS 250, after concerns over fuel systems, which, if combined, amount to the biggest Toyota recall for six years.

Japan’s transport ministry stated it was possible for slight cracks to appear in fuel pipes in Avensis models, which may widen if the cars continue to be used. In the United Kingdom, Toyota GB are offering free repairs, which are expected to take around four and a half hours each. The Lexus IS 250 is involved in a separate recall, with around 280 thousand models outside of Japan being recalled over a faulty fuel pressure sensor, which can possibly come loose, causing a fuel leak.

The Managing Director of Toyota GB stated “We are committed to putting the customer first and have a total focus on the quality of all our products. We will liaise with our customers to carry out the repair procedures as efficiently as possible, with minimal disruption”.

Toyota has recalled over 16 million cars globally since late 2009.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, yesterday announced the 2009 budget. The budget is an annual audit of the nation’s finances, and decides what should be done with taxpayers’ money.

The chancellor fell under scorn for his GDP growth forecasts, which are considered to be too optimistic in predicting that Britain will bounce back from its weakest economic performance since the end of the second world war. Darling forecast GDP growth of 3.5% in 2011, even after he was made to downgrade his predictions. He expects a record expansion of 1.25% next year, but chief UK economist Howard Archer disagrees, calling Darling’s predictions “mildly optimistic in the near term and much more optimistic in the long term.”

His plans for savers and pensioners, however, were commended by many, though was also criticised by a large portion of the populace. In the budget, Darling increased the amount that savers can put into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) from £7,200 to £10,200, of which £5,100 can be saved in cash. These increased limits will be available only to people aged over 50 from 6 October this year, and will not be available to everyone until 6 April next year. A number of financial experts described the move as being “too little, too late”, and Rumina Hassam, of price comparison website uSwitch.com, said: “The government’s decision to increase the cash ISA limit by £1,500 to £5,100 for the over 50’s is a just another kick in the teeth for the majority of savers as they will have to wait even longer to benefit. There is no doubt that savers have been sacrificed as a result of the plummeting base rate, bringing savings rates to an all time low.”

Sunday, December 2, 2007

The 20th annual World AIDS Day was December 1, 2007. The theme selected by the World AIDS Campaign is “Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise” as it will be through 2010. The day was marked by thousands of events around the world.

“It is now time for bold leadership at all levels in order to turn the tide of HIV,” said Felicita Hikuam, Global Programmes Manager, World AIDS Campaign. An estimated 33.2 million people around the world—one in every 200—are living with HIV, and approximately 6,800 people are infected with HIV and 5,700 people die of AIDS-related illnesses every day.

“The trend is encouraging but still for every person receiving treatment four others are newly infected,” said Nelson Mandela, speaking at a concert in Johannesburg, South Africa. “If we are to stop the Aids epidemic from expanding, we need to break the cycle of new HIV infections. All of us working together with government, communities and civil society can make the difference that is needed,” he continued.

As many as 50,000 people attended the concert in Johannesburg, South Africa, which was telecast around the world. It was organized by Nelson Mandela’s 46664 AIDS campaign and featured performances by artists such as Peter Gabriel, Ludacris, Razorlight, the Goo Goo Dolls and Annie Lennox.File:20050702-Nelson Mandela Live8 Edinburgh.jpg

At a fundraiser in the town of Midrand, in the province Gauteng, near Johannesburg on Friday, singer Annie Lennox had strong words for the South African government’s AIDS policies.

“AIDS, as Madiba [Mandela] has said, is a human rights issue and should be treated as such in order to avoid this genocide that is affecting millions and millions of people around the world,” said Lennox in a speech. Lennox has previously been critical of the South African government’s position on suggesting some AIDS medications were toxic. “It is unacceptable that treatment has not been made available to those who need it most,” said Lennox.

The rock band Queen, which lost its lead singer Freddie Mercury to AIDS, released a new song entitled, Say It’s Not True, to coincide with World Aids Day. It has been made available as a free download from the band’s website. “By making the song available for free, we hope to help Nelson Mandela with his campaign to get across the message that no-one is safe from infection,” said Queen drummer Roger Taylor. “We have to be aware, we have to protect ourselves and those we love.”

In China, people distributed AIDS prevention brochures in the streets and promoted safe sex in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. In Changsha, official warning signs were put on hotel bedstands. The government announced on Friday an allocation of CNY860 million for AIDS prevention and control. According to official reports, there are estimated to be 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China.

Also in China, the Miss World 2007 was in Sanya on World AIDS Day. The pageant presented a special tribute to the fight against AIDS, with a televised speech from former South African President Nelson Mandela, along with traditional dancers from South Africa who joined the contestants in a special song.

Friday, United States President George W. Bush urged the United States Congress to double the 2003 Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to US$30 billion over the next five years. “Above all, we rededicate ourselves to a great purpose: We will turn the tide against HIV/AIDS—once and for all,” he said.

“I’m pleased to announce that Laura and I will travel to sub-Sahara Africa early next year,” Bush said. Sub-Saharan Africa suffered nearly three-quarters of AIDS-related deaths during 2006 and is home to two-thirds of those living with HIV/AIDS.

Monday, March 7, 2005

Nobel Laureate in Physics Hans Bethe died in his home in Ithaca, New York on March 6, 2005, according to Cornell University, where he was professor emeritus of physics.

Hans Albrecht Bethe (pronounced Bay-ta) was born on July 2, 1906 in the city of Strasbourg, then part of Germany (now part of France). He studied physics at Frankfurt and obtained his doctorate from the University of Munich.

Bethe, whose mother was [[Judaism|Jewish}}, fled Germany in 1933 when the Nazi Party came to power. Bethe, along with hundreds of other Jewish academics, were fired from their posts as a result of one of Adolf Hitler’s first anti-Semitic acts. Bethe moved first to England and in 1935 to the USA where he taught at Cornell University.

Between 1935 and 1938, he studied nuclear reactions and reaction cross sections. This research was useful to Bethe in more quantitatively developing Niels Bohr’s theory of the compound nucleus.

During World War II, he served as a prominent member of a special summer session at the University of California, Berkeley at the invitation of Robert Oppenheimer, which outlined the first designs for the atomic bomb and served as the beginning of the Manhattan Project. When Oppenheimer started the secret weapons design laboratory, Los Alamos, he appointed Bethe as Director of the Theoretical Division.

After the war, Bethe argued that a crash project for the hydrogen bomb should not be attempted, though after President Truman announced the beginning of such a crash project, and the outbreak of the Korean War, he signed up and played a key role in the weapon’s development. In 1968, he reflected upon the choice, noting that “It seemed quite logical. But sometimes I wish I were more consistent an idealist.” Though he would see the project through to its end, in Bethe’s account he was primarily hopeful that the weapon would be impossible to produce. He later characterized Stanislaw Ulam as the “father” of the hydrogen bomb, and Edward Teller as its “mother,” and himself as its “midwife.”

Among his many honors, Bethe received the Max Planck medal in 1955, and in 1961 he was awarded the Eddington Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for his work in identifying the energy generating processes in stars. In 1967, Bethe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his studies of the production of solar and stellar energy, stellar nucleosynthesis. He postulated that the source of this energy are thermonuclear reactions in which hydrogen was converted into helium.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Bethe campaigned for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, arguing against the nuclear arms ace and against nuclear testing. In 1995, at the age of 88, Bethe wrote an open letter calling on all scientists to “cease and desist” from working on any aspect of nuclear weapons development and manufacture. In 2004, he signed a letter along with 47 other Nobel laureates endorsing John Kerry for president of the United States citing Bush’s apparent misuse of science.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Second-alarm flames engulfed a Bronx, New York church, St Nicholas of Tolentine, just before noon on Friday, forcing its pastor and seven worshippers into the streets.

The blaze began in a confessional-converted-storage room near the vestibule of the church. “I rushed over and smoke was billowing out,” said Father Joseph Girone. Girone rushed parishioners through the church rectory door as the entrance had been blocked.

Over 100 firefighters fought the blaze, and several reported minor injuries due to ceiling collapse.

Fire Department (FDNY) officials immediately suspected arson. “The fire accelerated rapidly [and] it was a heavy fire that didn’t have the normal flow of a fire”, said FDNY Deputy Chief Kevin Scanlon. Investigators are determining whether the fire is related to a series of church burnings that have been occurring across the borough.

Parishioners are distraught by the destruction of their beloved church. Father Joseph Tran said, “The whole vestibule is damaged. The ceiling, the walls and the doors”. Isabel Gonzales, a regular attendant for 28 years, said, “I feel sorry and I want to cry because this has been my home away from home for a long time”. A church official reported that it was too early to determine construction lengths or repair costs.

Devoted worshippers promised that they would hold a “Stations of the Cross” gathering outside on Friday night.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Yesterday, a chilly Amsterdam hosted the Wikimedia Conference Netherlands 2007. Held at the Aristo centre in a suburb of the city and run by Wikimedia Netherlands, the conference was a short train ride from Amsterdam Centraal railway station. The topic, Wikis and Education (Wiki’s en Educatie in Dutch). This was an opportunity for Wikimedians and people in education to come together and see how collaboration could help both.

Wikinews freelance reporter Brian McNeil caught a train from Brussels in Belgium and attended, making an impression on the Wikimedia Foundation chair, Florence Devouard, by spilling her coffee over the first two speakers approximately three minutes before they were supposed to officially open the conference.