Friday, May 16, 2008

2008 The 27th Young Designers’ Exhibition, opened on May 15 at the Taipei World Trade Center and closes Sunday May 18. It features participation by 87 academic groups in Taiwan and 20 groups from United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia to showcase various achievements in industrial design. It is recognized by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) as the largest show of student creations.

Besides the several design competitions, sponsors like International Forum Design (iF), EPSON, MUJI (in Japanese: ????, Mujirushi Ry?hin), Tsann Kuen Trans-nation Group will showcase different solutions for the design, creative, and cultural industries. The show’s organizer, Taiwan Design Center, also designed several on-site events like “On-line Graduate Season Show”, “Career Match-up”, “Creative and Cultural Showcase and Performance”, “Seminars of YODEX 2008” to link the actual exhibition with the on-line exhibition.

Besides of the previously announced “Wow! Taiwan Design Award”, winners from “2008 Young Designers’ Competition” and “2008 YODEX Interior Design Competition” were announced on Saturday, May 17.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Heavy snow has caused disruption in the United Kingdom with airports and schools closed and delays on the road network.

Snowfall was highest near Worcester with 9cms of snow falling. The snow has caused hundreds of school closures and major disruption to airports with Birmingham, London Gatwick and City, Bristol and Cardiff runways closing although these have now re-opened. However the runways at Luton and Stanstead remain closed due to the bad weather.

The road network has also been affected with some snow settling and accidents occurring causing major congestion in some areas, althought gritting by the Highways Agency and local authorities has limited the effect on trunk roads and motorways.

Schools were closed in Birmingham, Solihull and Dudley, while some remained open in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, East Anglia and Wales, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire.

Drivers are being warned that driving conditions will continue to be adverse and are being advised only to travel if absolutely necessary.

Train services by Midland Mainline and Virgin as well as the London Underground are affected, with delays, reduced services and cancellations.

The overall economic effect of the snow is predicted to cost the British economy approximately £400 million due to loss of work hours.

There has also been loss of power in some areas of Wales including Abergaveny, Llandeilo and Blaenporth.

The snow fall is expected to continue into the evening but may turn to sleet in some areas. Also cold temperature tonight will mean that there is a high chance of ice forming on the road network. Up to 15 cm of snow is expected through the day in some hilly areas but wetter and milder weather is expected over the weekend.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

On Sunday, Portugal defeated France 1–0 and won the UEFA Euro 2016 in extra time. Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo was benched in the 25th minute after facing injury. Éder scored the winning goal for the Portuguese.

Before the kick-off, two-time Euro winner Xavi presented the trophy. Both Nani and Antoine Griezmann missed their shots on target early in the match. France had better ball possession. Ricardo Quaresma was substituted for Ronaldo in the 25th minute after Ronaldo was injured when Dimitri Payet bumped into him and Ronaldo had to be carried out on a stretcher. Nani wore the captain’s armband. Gurrerio’s shot was blocked in the 38h minute.

In the second half, Paul Pogba had a good chance to score but missed in the 54th minute. Kingsley Coman was brought in for Payet in the 58th minute. In the 75th minute, Olivier Giroud missed a chance to score from Coman’s assist. Renato Sanches was replaced by Éder in the 79th minute. As none of the sides could score a goal, the referee called extra time. This was the first final since 2000 to go into extra time which France won against their neighbours Italy 2–1.

In the second half of extra time, Éder scored from João Moutinho’s assist. The hosts were trailing with just eleven minutes to play. Though injured, Ronaldo was seen guiding the Portuguese players. The referee’s final whistle of the tournament ignited celebration of the Portuguese supporters. France had defeated Portugal in their last ten matches face to face.

Portuguese defender Pepe was awarded the Man of the Match. Portugal are the tenth different country to win the Euro tournament.

Bayern Munich signing Renato Sanches became the youngest player to play a Euro final. He will turn 19 next month. He won the SOCAR Young Player of the Tournament award as well. Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patrício hasn’t conceded a single goal in his last fourteen competitive games. Had France won the match, Munich’s midfielder Coman would have been the youngest player to win the Euro tournament. Antoine Griezmann won the Golden boot scoring six goals in the tournament, the all-time highest being nine goals by Michel Platini.

After the match, Griezmann said, “It’s cruel and magnificent at the same time. We’ve lived through some extraordinary moments, and the saddest moments as well. We have to learn. But tonight we gave it our all and we have no regrets. I’m proud of the squad, proud of everybody.”

After Ronaldo played his first Euro match aged 19 in 2004, Portugal finally won a Euro tournament under his captainship aged 31.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Studies done on germs and bacteria performed by researchers at the University of Florida show that a dirty kitchen sponge can be cleaned and “sterilized” by microwaving it for 2 minutes, but researchers warn to wet the sponge first.

“People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave,” said the professor who was in charge of the study that discovered the results, Gabriel Bitton.

“Basically what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes. The microwave is a very powerful and an inexpensive tool for sterilization,” added Bitton.

The sponges that researchers studied, were placed in “raw wastewater” and then put into a microwave to be “zapped,” according to Bitton. The wastewater was a “witch’s brew of fecal bacteria, viruses, protozoan parasites and bacterial spores, including Bacillus cereus spores,” said Bitton.

Researchers say that at least 99% of the bacteria, viruses, spores and parasites in kitchen spongees can be destroyed or “inactivated” by simply microwaving the wet sponge, on the highest power, for two minutes.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Norwegian police have arrested and charged four men, aged between 20 and 30 for an assault on a synagogue in Oslo at 2:30 am on Sunday, September 17th.

The four arrested are from different ethnic backgrounds and can be detained up to three days before appearing in front of a judge. Police have not ruled out further arrests over the incident.

At least 10 shots were fired at the synagogue. Nobody was injured in the incident. It is believed that the attack was carried out with an assault rifle.

The Mosaic Religious Community, which owns the site had requested better protection following threats and an incident of vandalism last month.

Monday, June 23, 2008

2008 COMPUTEX Taipei, the largest trade fair since its inception in 1982, featured several seminars and forums, expansions on show spaces to TWTC Nangang, great transformations for theme pavilions, and WiMAX Taipei Expo, mainly promoted by Taipei Computer Association (TCA). Besides of ICT industry, “design” progressively became the critical factor for the future of the other industries. To promote innovative “Made In Taiwan” products, pavilions from “Best Choice of COMPUTEX”, “Taiwan Excellence Awards”, and newly-set “Design and Innovation (d & i) Award of COMPUTEX”, demonstrated the power of Taiwan’s designs in 2008 COMPUTEX Taipei.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

China has said it is prepared to support eurozone countries during the financial crisis that has hit the sixteen member states. The country’s foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said: “We are ready to support the eurozone to overcome the financial crisis and realise economic recovery.”

Several of the eurozone’s member states have been impacted with increasing debt levels. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Union (EU) have signed deals to hand a €110bn aid package to Greece, and an €85bn rescue package to Ireland. Industry commentators have said there are fears Portugal and Spain may soon also have to accept assistance from the IMF.

Jiang said China had an interest in supporting the region, saying eurozone member states would, in the future, become “a major market” for Chinese foreign exchange investments. China reportedly has massive reserves of foreign currency, mostly made up of United States dollars. Analysts have suggested China plans to purchase more euros in the future. Other reports suggest China is preparing to buy between four and five billion euros to help Portugal fend off pressure in bond markets.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) posted a press release on its website yesterday stating it will identify up to six banks as domestic systemically important banks (D-SIB), which would be equivalent to the too big to fail banks of other nations.

RBI is to reveal the names of the banks every year in August, starting from 2015. The press release also said RBI had identified four to six banks to be under D-SIB category according to data compiled through March 2013.

The primary criterion to be used for selection of the banks is size — banks with size larger than 2% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as defined by Basel regulations. Other criteria to be used are interconnectedness, how easily the bank can be substituted for, and its infrastructure and complexity. RBI also said four subcategories of D-SIBs will be created, each with different Tier 1 capital requirements, which will be higher compared to other banks. These four categories will have Tier 1 capital requirements ranging from 0.20% to 0.80% of their risk-weighted assets.

Ananda Bhoumik, senior director of India Ratings, a unit of Fitch Ratings, said the new regulations will not hinder the growth of the banks, as they already maintain capital above the expected regulation levels. Banks considered by analysts likely to be classified as D-SIBS include State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank.