Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The final farewell train in the first series of Shinkansen super-express, called zero-kei (0 Series), ran through western Japan Sunday afternoon from Shin-Osaka to Hakata. 0 Series has served in Japan since 1964, undergoing some model changes, and was retired from regular runs at the end of the last month. Extra farewell runs were scheduled for three days, with all seats allowed to be reserved, and this was the final run.

On Sunday in Shin-Osaka station, a farewell ceremony for Shinkansen 0 Series began at 14:30, where those who contributed to its debut were invited. Around 14:45, the train slowly appeared to enter Track 20. The head and tail cars changed roles, and the train got ready by 14:48 as HIKARI 347 bound for Hakata. And, at 14:56, blowing a long horn, the 0-Series train left for the final trip.

Japanese news media report that approximately 2,800 people gathered to see off the final departure, so did many in the stations the train stopped by. Lastly, the train arrived at Hakata as scheduled at 18:01, welcomed by about 1,600 fans.

Shinkansen network was launched on 1 October 1964, just before Tokyo Olympic Games, with a route connecting the capital Tokyo and Osaka City (now operated by JR-Central). The route for 0-Series trains was gradually extended to the west, which in 1975 reached Hakata area of Fukuoka City (now by JR-West).

Shinkansen 0 Series has a characteristic round face with a part like a shallow bowl, and was nicknamed “dango-bana” or “dangoppana” (literally, “dumpling nose”). At the time of its debut, 0 Series ran at a maximum speed of 210 km/h, which was the world’s highest. HIKARI, meaning beam or light, was the name of trains for the faster service. Even while more modern and faster series were rising, 0 Series continued to serve for some years, but in 1999 it ceased from JR-Central services, and in March 2000 from regular HIKARI runs of JR-West.

According to the media, remaining 0-Series Shinkansen cars are destined to be scrapped. Some other cars, which were withdrawn earlier, are preserved in museums including one in Osaka and National Railway Museum in the U.K.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Few artists ever penetrate the subconscious level of American culture the way RuPaul Andre Charles did with the 1993 album Supermodel of the World. It was groundbreaking not only because in the midst of the Grunge phenomenon did Charles have a dance hit on MTV, but because he did it as RuPaul, formerly known as Starbooty, a supermodel drag queen with a message: love everyone. A duet with Elton John, an endorsement deal with MAC cosmetics, an eponymous talk show on VH-1 and roles in film propelled RuPaul into the new millennium.

In July, RuPaul’s movie Starrbooty began playing at film festivals and it is set to be released on DVD October 31st. Wikinews reporter David Shankbone recently spoke with RuPaul by telephone in Los Angeles, where she is to appear on stage for DIVAS Simply Singing!, a benefit for HIV-AIDS.

DS: How are you doing?

RP: Everything is great. I just settled into my new hotel room in downtown Los Angeles. I have never stayed downtown, so I wanted to try it out. L.A. is one of those traditional big cities where nobody goes downtown, but they are trying to change that.

DS: How do you like Los Angeles?

RP: I love L.A. I’m from San Diego, and I lived here for six years. It took me four years to fall in love with it and then those last two years I had fallen head over heels in love with it. Where are you from?

DS: Me? I’m from all over. I have lived in 17 cities, six states and three countries.

RP: Where were you when you were 15?

DS: Georgia, in a small town at the bottom of Fulton County called Palmetto.

RP: When I was in Georgia I went to South Fulton Technical School. The last high school I ever went to was…actually, I don’t remember the name of it.

DS: Do you miss Atlanta?

RP: I miss the Atlanta that I lived in. That Atlanta is long gone. It’s like a childhood friend who underwent head to toe plastic surgery and who I don’t recognize anymore. It’s not that I don’t like it; I do like it. It’s just not the Atlanta that I grew up with. It looks different because it went through that boomtown phase and so it has been transient. What made Georgia Georgia to me is gone. The last time I stayed in a hotel there my room was overlooking a construction site, and I realized the building that was torn down was a building that I had seen get built. And it had been torn down to build a new building. It was something you don’t expect to see in your lifetime.

DS: What did that signify to you?

RP: What it showed me is that the mentality in Atlanta is that much of their history means nothing. For so many years they did a good job preserving. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a preservationist. It’s just an interesting observation.

DS: In 2004 when you released your third album, Red Hot, it received a good deal of play in the clubs and on dance radio, but very little press coverage. On your blog you discussed how you felt betrayed by the entertainment industry and, in particular, the gay press. What happened?

RP: Well, betrayed might be the wrong word. ‘Betrayed’ alludes to an idea that there was some kind of a promise made to me, and there never was. More so, I was disappointed. I don’t feel like it was a betrayal. Nobody promises anything in show business and you understand that from day one.

But, I don’t know what happened. It seemed I couldn’t get press on my album unless I was willing to play into the role that the mainstream press has assigned to gay people, which is as servants of straight ideals.

DS: Do you mean as court jesters?

RP: Not court jesters, because that also plays into that mentality. We as humans find it easy to categorize people so that we know how to feel comfortable with them; so that we don’t feel threatened. If someone falls outside of that categorization, we feel threatened and we search our psyche to put them into a category that we feel comfortable with. The mainstream media and the gay press find it hard to accept me as…just…

DS: Everything you are?

RP: Everything that I am.

DS: It seems like years ago, and my recollection might be fuzzy, but it seems like I read a mainstream media piece that talked about how you wanted to break out of the RuPaul ‘character’ and be seen as more than just RuPaul.

RP: Well, RuPaul is my real name and that’s who I am and who I have always been. There’s the product RuPaul that I have sold in business. Does the product feel like it’s been put into a box? Could you be more clear? It’s a hard question to answer.

DS: That you wanted to be seen as more than just RuPaul the drag queen, but also for the man and versatile artist that you are.

RP: That’s not on target. What other people think of me is not my business. What I do is what I do. How people see me doesn’t change what I decide to do. I don’t choose projects so people don’t see me as one thing or another. I choose projects that excite me. I think the problem is that people refuse to understand what drag is outside of their own belief system. A friend of mine recently did the Oprah show about transgendered youth. It was obvious that we, as a culture, have a hard time trying to understand the difference between a drag queen, transsexual, and a transgender, yet we find it very easy to know the difference between the American baseball league and the National baseball league, when they are both so similar. We’ll learn the difference to that. One of my hobbies is to research and go underneath ideas to discover why certain ones stay in place while others do not. Like Adam and Eve, which is a flimsy fairytale story, yet it is something that people believe; what, exactly, keeps it in place?

DS: What keeps people from knowing the difference between what is real and important, and what is not?

RP: Our belief systems. If you are a Christian then your belief system doesn’t allow for transgender or any of those things, and you then are going to have a vested interest in not understanding that. Why? Because if one peg in your belief system doesn’t work or doesn’t fit, the whole thing will crumble. So some people won’t understand the difference between a transvestite and transsexual. They will not understand that no matter how hard you force them to because it will mean deconstructing their whole belief system. If they understand Adam and Eve is a parable or fairytale, they then have to rethink their entire belief system.

As to me being seen as whatever, I was more likely commenting on the phenomenon of our culture. I am creative, and I am all of those things you mention, and doing one thing out there and people seeing it, it doesn’t matter if people know all that about me or not.

DS: Recently I interviewed Natasha Khan of the band Bat for Lashes, and she is considered by many to be one of the real up-and-coming artists in music today. Her band was up for the Mercury Prize in England. When I asked her where she drew inspiration from, she mentioned what really got her recently was the 1960’s and 70’s psychedelic drag queen performance art, such as seen in Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, The Cockettes and Paris Is Burning. What do you think when you hear an artist in her twenties looking to that era of drag performance art for inspiration?

RP: The first thing I think of when I hear that is that young kids are always looking for the ‘rock and roll’ answer to give. It’s very clever to give that answer. She’s asked that a lot: “Where do you get your inspiration?” And what she gave you is the best sound bite she could; it’s a really a good sound bite. I don’t know about Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, but I know about The Cockettes and Paris Is Burning. What I think about when I hear that is there are all these art school kids and when they get an understanding of how the press works, and how your sound bite will affect the interview, they go for the best.

DS: You think her answer was contrived?

RP: I think all answers are really contrived. Everything is contrived; the whole world is an illusion. Coming up and seeing kids dressed in Goth or hip hop clothes, when you go beneath all that, you have to ask: what is that really? You understand they are affected, pretentious. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s how we see things. I love Paris Is Burning.

DS: Has the Iraq War affected you at all?

RP: Absolutely. It’s not good, I don’t like it, and it makes me want to enjoy this moment a lot more and be very appreciative. Like when I’m on a hike in a canyon and it smells good and there aren’t bombs dropping.

DS: Do you think there is a lot of apathy in the culture?

RP: There’s apathy, and there’s a lot of anti-depressants and that probably lends a big contribution to the apathy. We have iPods and GPS systems and all these things to distract us.

DS: Do you ever work the current political culture into your art?

RP: No, I don’t. Every time I bat my eyelashes it’s a political statement. The drag I come from has always been a critique of our society, so the act is defiant in and of itself in a patriarchal society such as ours. It’s an act of treason.

DS: What do you think of young performance artists working in drag today?

RP: I don’t know of any. I don’t know of any. Because the gay culture is obsessed with everything straight and femininity has been under attack for so many years, there aren’t any up and coming drag artists. Gay culture isn’t paying attention to it, and straight people don’t either. There aren’t any drag clubs to go to in New York. I see more drag clubs in Los Angeles than in New York, which is so odd because L.A. has never been about club culture.

DS: Michael Musto told me something that was opposite of what you said. He said he felt that the younger gays, the ones who are up-and-coming, are over the body fascism and more willing to embrace their feminine sides.

RP: I think they are redefining what femininity is, but I still think there is a lot of negativity associated with true femininity. Do boys wear eyeliner and dress in skinny jeans now? Yes, they do. But it’s still a heavily patriarchal culture and you never see two men in Star magazine, or the Queer Eye guys at a premiere, the way you see Ellen and her girlfriend—where they are all, ‘Oh, look how cute’—without a negative connotation to it. There is a definite prejudice towards men who use femininity as part of their palette; their emotional palette, their physical palette. Is that changing? It’s changing in ways that don’t advance the cause of femininity. I’m not talking frilly-laced pink things or Hello Kitty stuff. I’m talking about goddess energy, intuition and feelings. That is still under attack, and it has gotten worse. That’s why you wouldn’t get someone covering the RuPaul album, or why they say people aren’t tuning into the Katie Couric show. Sure, they can say ‘Oh, RuPaul’s album sucks’ and ‘Katie Couric is awful’; but that’s not really true. It’s about what our culture finds important, and what’s important are things that support patriarchal power. The only feminine thing supported in this struggle is Pamela Anderson and Jessica Simpson, things that support our patriarchal culture.

Saturday, July 9, 2005

A Friday protest in downtown Richmond drew around 200 protesters to Virginia’s state capital to demonstrate against strip mining practices of Massey Energy Company. Demonstrators marched through town and gathered in front of the company’s office building where nearly 20 laid in the street of the city’s main thoroughfare, and were nearly arrested. A few linked arms around a sidewalk structure to avoid being hauled away by police.

Chanting “Blankenship, Blankenship, Blankenship,” and waving bed sheets for flags, the demonstrators demanded to be seen and heard by the Massey Chairman and CEO, Don Blankenship. Arrests for civil disobedience were avoided when two security guards were sent by the company to retrieve a list of their demands.

The demonstration, timed to coincide with Scotland’s G8 conference, was organized by a group called “Mountain Justice Summer” and environmentalists to protest mountain top removal mining techniques. The company’s mining operations are located in the Appalachian Mountain chain in the states of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Massey is the United States’ fourth-largest coal mining operation.

A statement issued by a Massey spokesman defended their respect of people’s rights, and decried what they said was, “a great deal of misinformation.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that unofficial “legal observers” accompanied the demonstrators and carried notebooks to record crowd and police activity.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

U.S. authorities have charged Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with trying to blow up a plane on its descent into the city of Detroit, Michigan on Friday. The man, who comes from a prominent Nigerian family, was read the charges in a hospital Saturday, where he is being treated for burns.

The charges were read by United States District Judge Paul Borman while Abdulmutallab was being held at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Abdulmutallab was asked if he understood the charges against him, and he answered in English that he did. Witnesses reported he was in a wheelchair with a blanket over his lap.

The U.S. government accuses the Nigerian national of bringing an explosive device onto Friday’s Northwest Airlines Flight 253 plane from Amsterdam in the Netherlands. A preliminary analysis by federal authorities indicates he used a syringe to detonate a highly explosive substance, identified as PETN. Abdulmutallab said he got the explosives in Yemen from an Al Qaeda bomb maker who sewed the device into his underwear.

Passengers have told investigators the man went into the bathroom for 20 minutes before landing and complained about stomach problems before pulling a blanket on himself.

Just as the plane was getting ready to land, they heard a pop, smelled smoke and then saw the man on fire. A Dutch passenger, Jasper Schuringa, jumped on the Nigerian to subdue him, and a fire extinguisher was used to put out the fire.

The House Committee on Homeland Security chairman, Bennie Thompson, said it was a very close call. “We’re just fortunate nothing happened. This was a serious situation,” he said. Thompson said Congress will look into the matter soon. “As soon as we reconvene from the holiday recess, we will start looking into the circumstances around the Northwest flight incident.”

Nigeria’s acting ambassador to the United States, Babagana Wakil, immediately issued a statement, which he read to the Voice of America over the phone. “Expectedly, the embassy is already in contact with relevant U.S. authorities over the incident to facilitate any preliminary investigations to get to the bottom of this unfortunate development. Officers from the embassy have already flown to Michigan to gain consular access to the individual under investigation, and to offer the mission’s cooperation to federal and local authorities,” he said.

The suspect’s family members in Nigeria said they were shocked. The suspect’s father, an accountant and businessman, was previously a very well known banker in Africa’s most populous nation. Friends and family said Adbulmutallab had studied in Togo and London, and that he had recently made several trips to Yemen. His father had, apparently, made concerns with his son’s extremist connections known to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.

Adbulmutallab told the FBI he met with a radical Yemeni cleric he corresponded with online. The cleric is not believed to be Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Imam connected to Major Nidal Malik Hasan who carried out the Fort Hood shooting last month.

Friday, the White House said it believed it was an attempted act of terrorism. U.S. media reports say the suspect told interrogators he had affiliations with Al Qaeda.

The charges that were read against him Saturday carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Meanwhile, security screening measures have upgraded in the wake of the foiled attack, including only allowing one carry-on bag for international passengers, banning anyone from moving around the airplane during the last hour of the flight and additional “unpredictable” measures that will vary from airport to airport.

Monday, July 3, 2006

A house in Eglinton, a village suburb of Bathurst in Central-Western New South Wales has been significantly damaged after being hit by a truck just before 3 p.m. today. It is not known if anyone was inside the house at the time the accident occurred. Police said no major injuries were sustained as a result of the accident.

The accident occurred in light rain and the road surface was moderately wet.

It is believed that the truck was traveling along Eleven Mile Drive, Eglinton when a Subaru Forester pulled into its path from a side street. The Subaru had been required to give way to the truck. The truck struck the Subaru, hitting it and pushing it down the road before losing control and hitting a house on the opposite side of the road.

The driver of the truck was trapped inside his vehicle for around 15 minutes before being released by rescue personnel, the driver of the Subaru was taken by ambulance to the Bathurst Base Hospital to ensure they were not suffering any major injuries.

When the truck hit the house, a gas line was ruptured creating a hazard for rescue crews. The pipeline’s operator – Agility disconnected the line after the truck driver was rescued. Police also requested that electricity to the house be disconnected.

It was not until 4:15 p.m. that approval was given for the truck to be pulled from the house. It is expected that engineers from Bathurst Regional Council will inspect the house to determine if it is still structurally safe.

While it is not unusual in Bathurst for trucks to hit homes, it is unusual for such an accident to occur at this location. Most accidents of this nature occur on the Great Western Highway, which intersects the city and is a freight gateway to the region.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is facing several lawsuits, including one filed by residents of San Bruno, California, after a gas line exploded in their neighborhood on September 10, completely destroying over 50 structures, 37 of them homes. In their lawsuit, residents claim that PG&E knew the pipeline was “defective” and was a “ticking time bomb”. They further allege that the company was aware that the pipeline could fail, but did not act.

The lawsuit was filed by at least five families who resided in the Glenview neighborhood of San Bruno. The Danko firm who is representing the residents say they expect to file at least a dozen more lawsuits against the company alleging they were liable and responsible for the explosion and the damages that occurred as a result of it. “This wasn’t an accident. This was a foreseeable consequence of ignoring safety measures,” one attorney representing the families said. It has also been reported that several other wrongful death lawsuits have been filed against PG&E. Three people were killed in the explosion.

The explosion and subsequent fire was originally thought to have been a downed commercial aircraft. Live scanner communications at the time of the explosion had stated that fire departments from six different companies reported to the scene. Residents say that firefighters were not able to bring the blaze under control because the pipeline was active for at least 5 hours after the explosion.

Residents filing the lawsuits are seeking damages and removal of the pipeline from the neighborhood. Jim Ruane, the mayor of San Bruno, backs residents in their request to PG&E to remove the pipeline from Glenview. “We want our neighborhood rebuilt, and we want our people back,” he said. A PG&E spokesperson denied having officially received the lawsuits, but said: “We remain committed to our customers in San Bruno and will continue to be there to help rebuild the neighborhood.”

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Yesterday morning near the international airport located on Weno island of Chuuk state of the Federated States of Micronesia, Oceania a passenger airplane of model Boeing 737-800 flown by the Air Niugini carrier crashed into sea as its pilot missed the runway. All 47 people on board — by differing reports, 36 passengers and eleven crew or 35 passengers and twelve crew — survived.

The report by the international commercial aviation safety organization Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre indicated the crash coincided with a sudden intensification of the weather conditions. timeanddate.com-supplied data from CustomWeather reported rain showers at 9:40 a.m. local time, following cloudy conditions at 8:50 a.m.

The airplane reportedly landed around 9:30 a.m. local time, short of the runway by about 160 m to 200 m (about 525 to 650 feet), according to reports. Locals immediately began to rescue the passengers and crew on fishing boats. Officials arrived after about ten minutes, according to a witness quoted by The Guardian.

In an interview, a passenger alleged the crew started panicking and yelling, The Guardian reported. A first responder, Dr James Yaingeluo, also said the airplane crew were in panic. He said, “There was a little bit [of] chaos at first because everybody was really panicked and tried to get out of the plane […] other than that we were doing as much as we can. Luckily there are no casualties.”

Yaingeluo said nine people were taken to a hospital. Four people remained in hospital, one “seriously injured”, according to reports recounted by ABC News on Friday evening.

Flight 73 was coming from Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. Its destination was Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, with a stop at the Chuuk state.