Saturday, September 15, 2007

Five civilian contractors have been injured after an explosion and fire onboard the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf at 9:25 a.m. today.

A large explosion erupted from the ship’s berthing area where welding work was being conducted during a stop in Norfolk, Virginia. A fire broke out two decks below main deck, but was quickly extinguished. The injured were taken to Norfolk General Hospital for treatment to injuries not believed to be life-threatening, according to John Kowalczyk, a spokesman for BAE Systems Ship Repair, who were conducting the work.

He added that the fire appeared to be an isolated incident. The ship has been laid up for repairs and modernizing since May.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Calgary city council voted 10 to 3 on Wednesday to stop fluoridating their water supply. This overturns a previous plebiscite from 1989 to add the fluoride in an attempt to reduce tooth decay.

Opponents of water fluoridation claim that there could be unknown health effects of fluoride, and question its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay. They also claim that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to use fluoride. However, Alberta Health Services maintains that current evidence shows that fluoride is both safe, and beneficial to dental health.

It is estimated that no longer fluoridating the water supply could save Calgary’s city council C$750 thousand (€550 thousand) annually, as well as cutting a C$6 million (€4.3 million) upgrade to the fluoridation system.

Thursday, July 7, 2005

A Florida man is being charged with 3rd degree felony for logging into a private Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) Internet access point without permission. Benjamin Smith III, 41, is set for a pre-trial hearing this month in the first case of its kind in the United States.

This kind of activity occurs frequently, but often goes undetected by the owners of these wireless access points (WAPs). Unauthorized users range from casual Web browsers, to users sending e-mails, to users involved in pornography or even illegal endeavours.

According to Richard Dinon, owner of the WAP Smith allegedly broke into, Smith was using a laptop in an automobile while parked outside Dinon’s residence.

There are many steps an owner of one of these access points can take to secure them from outside users. Dinon reportedly knew how to take these steps, but had not bothered because his “neighbors are older.”

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Netizens have discovered the photograph that was used to create the iconic Barack Obama “HOPE” poster, which became a national symbol during his 2008 presidential campaign in the United States.

Los Angeles, California street artist Shepard Fairey’s poster design is an almost exact match to an Associated Press photo from October 2006 or earlier. Prior reports beginning on January 14, 2009 claimed that the poster was based on a different photo, a shot by Reuters photographer Jim Young from January 2007. However, on January 20, 2009 Flickr user stevesimula and blog commenters identified the Associated Press photo that appears to be a much closer match.

Fairey had revealed that he found the photographic basis for his four-color screen-printed design using Google Image Search, but could not or would not identify which photo he used. News broke of a supposed source only days ago. According to an earlier attempted analysis by Michael Cramer, it was a photo from TIME magazine which was reversed and stretched slightly. That photo was credited to “Jonathan Daniel” of Getty Images, but this turned out to be a misattribution. Reporter James Danziger of The Daily Beast tracked down the actual photographer for the TIME shot, Jim Young, and in his words “solved the biggest photographic mystery of the 2008 election”. Reuters also celebrated their photo as the basis for such a phenomenon as Fairey’s poster, and a print of the photo was sold to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. But it took only a few days for internet sleuths to show that, while similar, the Jim Young photo was not the one Fairey used.

The most convincing evidence that a different photo is indeed the one comes from Flickr: stevesimula produced a graphic comparing the two purported sources. The side lighting in the alternative photo creates highlight and shadow areas closely matching those Fairey used in his high-contrast stencil-like image, and the overlaid images line up precisely from Obama’s eyes to the shadow on his collar to his tie. Jim Young’s photo would have required manipulation to simply match the profile of Fairey’s design, even without considering details like the highlights and shadows.

The actual photo came from the Associated Press, as Wikimedians discovered using the “reverse image search engine” TinEye.com. That tip led photographer Tom Gralish of The Philadelphia Inquirer to the original photo through a Google image search for both “Obama” and “associated press”. The original contained IPTC metadata identifying the creator as Mannie Garcia, which Gralish quickly confirmed. The shot came from an April 2006 event where George Clooney, not then-Senator Obama, was the main attraction: Clooney was addressing the National Press Club about his trip to Darfur.

Fairey’s appropriation raises questions of intellectual property, as apparently no attempt was made to secure reproduction rights from the Associated Press. Sales of the image (on posters, clothing, and other paraphernalia) were used to fund the production of more posters in support of the Obama campaign, and raised Fairey’s public image considerably. A large hand-finished collage version was recently acquired by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery. The purchase price is not known.

Monday, January 8, 2007

Vienna —

A crowd of about 250 activists from the Austrian National Union of Students (Österreichische Hochschülerinnen- und Hochschülerschaft, ÖH) as well as the Organisation of Socialist Students of Austria (Verband Sozialistischer StudentInnen Österreichs, VSStÖ) quickly reacted to the announced forming of the new Austrian coalition government by starting a demonstration in front of the University of Vienna, the largest in the country.

Specifically, the demonstration protested against the proposed plan of enabling students to do community service work at a rate of EUR 6 (about USD 7.6) per hour to work off student fees of about EUR 372 (about USD 475,8) per semester. These fees were introduced under the government of chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, which ruled Austria from 2000 on.

The protest started directly in front of the university buildings on the famous Ringstraße. Protestors blocked the street by sweeping the street, symbolising the work students have to do in order to study. They proceeded to the headquarters of the SPÖ, where they chanted “Who betrayed us? Social Democrats!”, and later to the parliament building. After this, they announced to go to the ÖVP headquarters, when this reporter had to leave the scene.

On October 1, 2006, a new National Assembly was elected. The Social Democrats narrowly won the election, while the ÖVP suffered severe losses and fell to second place. Since then, intense negotiations between the two parties about a coalition have taken place and presumably ended today, when at 13:30 hours, SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer and ÖVP leader Wolfgang Schüssel announced the finishing of negotiations and conciliation of the two parties in a new government, which is to be sworn in by President Heinz Fischer on January 11.

One of the deals struck today between the SPÖ (who called for the complete abolition of the controversial student’s fees during the election campaign) and the ÖVP calls for legislation enabling easier access to and higher scholarships, as well as reforms in the student loan system and, most visibly, a system whereby students will be able to work in organizations providing social and community services. For this work, they will receive EUR 6 per hour. The total fees for one semester amount to EUR 372; this means a student will have to work 62 hours per semester to fully pay the fees.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso won the FIA 2010 Singapore Grand Prix from pole position owned a day before. This became his second win in Singapore since 2008 and fourth win of the season.

Alonso was closely chased by Sebastian Vettel up to the finish line — both Red Bull’s were not able to catch Ferrari this weekend.

Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren car broke suspension after hitting Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber, racing him for third place. Another McLaren driver Jenson Button rushed to chase Webber after Hamilton found himself out of the race.

Nico Rosberg once again beat his Mercedes team mate, as the seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher finished only on 13th place. Rosberg ended up 5th.

Williams-Cosworth drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hülkenberg clinched [Robert Kubica 7th place for Renault.

Pole Kubica was forced to visit Renault pits from sixth place with a tyre puncture but easily regained all but one lost positions on a set of his new tyres.

Alonso teammate Felipe Massa started from the rear of the starting grid after setting no time in the first qualifying session stopping on the circuit. Massa then done well in the race to come 9th.

Adrian Sutil owned one point for Force India finishing on the 10th place.

Mark Webber now heads the Drivers’ championship with 202 points, 11 points ahead of Fernando Alonso. Constructors’ ?hampionship standings is lead by Red Bull with 383, 24 points ahead of McLaren and 67 ahead of Ferrari. Vettel’s words to his team crew about the current win by Ferrari after he saw the chequered flag were “We will get there, don’t you worry”.