Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Dr. Stephen Schoenthaler, a Professor of Criminal Justice at the California State University in Stanislaus, has long argued that there is a link between a healthy diet and decreased aggressive behaviour, as well as with increased IQ and school performance.

Dr. Schoenthaler is well-known for a youth detention center study where violations of house rules fell by 37% when vending machines were removed and the cafeteria replaced canned food by fresh alternatives. He summarizes his findings by saying that “Having a bad diet right now is a better predictor of future violence than past violent behaviour.” In a very large test, Schoenthaler directed a study in meals at 803 New York City schools, in low-income neighbourhoods, finding that the number of students passing final exams increased by 16%.

Critics have questioned some of Dr. Schoenthaler findings, due to the lack of placebo control groups. However, more recent work by Dr. Bernard Gesch, a physiologist at the University of Oxford, has placed some of the work on a more scientific footing. Dr. Gesch found that nutrition supplements produced a 26% drop in violations of prison rules over a placebo, and a 37% decrease in violent offences. The Netherlands has embarked on a wider scale dietary research program in 14 prisons.

The short term behaviour consequences of ingesting sugar are well understood: an initial burst on energy, followed a sugar low in which your body produces adrenalin, which makes you irritable and explosive. However, Schoenthaler and Gesch suggest that there are long term impacts over and above the short term consequences of blood sugar variations.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Following the Wikimedia Foundation’s retreat in Frankfurt am Main, Germany the Foundation made changes to the organization of the Board of Trustees. The board, which consisted of Jimmy Wales, Tim Shell, Michael Davis, Florence Nibart-Devouard and Erik Möller voted unanimously to elect board member Nibart-Devouard as the new Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Founder Jimmy Wales said, “I nominated Florence to be the Chair of the Foundation in recognition of her outstanding service for the past few years and her unsurpassed passion for our goals. Having such a trusted community representative elected as our new chair demonstrates the growth and strength of our organization.”

Nibart-Devouard, 38 and currently living in Clermont-Ferrand, will still be working with Wales.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Yesterday, Argentina and FC Barcelona football star Lionel Messi won the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or in the FIFA event, hosted in Zürich, Switzerland. The Ballon d’Or is an annual award given to the player voted to be the best of the year.

File:Messi’s 5th Ballon d’Or.jpg

Messi along with his Barcelona teammate Neymar and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo were shortlisted by FIFA back in November. Having won five major trophies in the 2015 calendar year, which included the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup in December in Japan against Argentine club River Plate in which he scored the first goal, Messi won 41.33% of the votes.

Winner in previous years Ronaldo secured 27.76% of the votes, and Messi’s teammate Neymar won 7.86%. 2007 Ballon d’Or winner and Brazilian player Kaká announced the winner of the Gala. Messi played 61 games in 2015, and scored 52 goals. He also provided 26 assists. He also scored in each of the six tournaments.

At the ceremony, Messi said “It’s a very special moment for me, after watching as Cristiano Ronaldo won for two years. It’s incredible that it’s my fifth. Much more than anything I would have dreamed of as a kid.” ^{((es)) Spanish language: Es un momento especial, después de ver dos años cómo lo ganaba Cristiano. Es increíble que sea el quinto, es mucho más de lo que imaginaba cuando era chiquito.}

Messi previously won the La Liga best player of the year; and UEFA Best Player in Europe Award with 49 votes out of 54, leaving behind his teammate Luis Suárez and Ronaldo who got three and two votes respectively. He also won a silver medal in the 2015 Copa América when Argentina lost to the hosts Chile on penalties.

Messi previously won the award for four consecutive years from 2009 to 2012. Ronaldo and Messi between them have won the trophy for the past eight years. Neymar this year became the first top-three Brazilian since Kaká’s 2007 win.

Messi voted for his teammates Neymar, Suárez, and Andrés Iniesta; Neymar voted for Messi, Suárez, and Ivan Rakiti?. Neymar at the ceremony said “It is a dream for me to be here, it’s a victory”.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

At least 30 insurgents and two Pakistani soldiers died in a fierce fire fighting between Taliban rebels and security forces in the Orakzai region of the North-West Frontier Province. Officials stated that the gun battle started when the insurgents attacked a military base with rockets and mortars. A spokesman for the Pakistani army in Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province, the Lt. Col. Nadeem Anwar said that the attack “started at midnight and continued until early Monday morning”. According to local government official, Sajjad Ahmad, troops opened fire aided by artillery when about 200 insurgents attacked a checkpoint. Ahmad told AFP news agency and stated that “[t]he attack was repulsed and up to 32 rebels and two soldiers of paramilitary Frontier Corps were killed”. Eight soldiers were wounded in the attack.

According to Khaista Rehman, a local administrative official, preliminary reports “suggest 35 to 40 militants have been killed.” While senior paramilitary officials confirmed such death tolls, no official figure was given.

As reported by an anonymous Pakistani military official, “39 militants were killed including their commander Saif-ur Rehman and four security officials…Nine security officials were wounded and seven hideouts were also destroyed,” he noted to the AFP.

The United Nations said that it might have to close projects for assisting the people of Pakistan as only one-fifth of the funds they had requested was collected. The UN had appealed for 537 million dollars in February to aid the one million people dispersed due to recurring conflicts in the northwestern parts of Pakistan, near the Afghanistan border.

“The response by the international community to this appeal is inadequate,” Martin Mogwanja, humanitarian coordinator of UN for Pakistan told reporters. “Humanitarian actors responding to the needs of the people are concerned that some of the projects may have to be suspended because of lack of finances,” he added.

Only 106 million dollars had been donated to the body, only 20 percent of the total appeal. Mogwanja said that they were in dire need of the remaining portion of the fund and 1.3 million had been displaced in the northwestern parts of the country, against a total of 3.1 million last year.

Meanwhile, on Monday, five others died in attacks in the Abottabad District over the renaming of the North-West Frontier Province. Earlier this month, several people were killed during a political meeting to celebrate the renaming.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

KYUSHU, Japan –

A powerful magnitude 7 earthquake rocked Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu at 10:53 am local time today (0153 UTC), prompting the Japanese Meteorological Agency to issue tsunami warnings for the area. The tsunami warnings were canceled later in the day.

A 75-year-old woman was killed in Fukuoka city by a falling wall. At least 400 people were injured by the quake. Local Fukuoka Airport and high speed bullet trains in the area temporarily suspended operations to look for damage.

According to the agency, the epicenter of the earthquake was in shallow water in the Sea of Japan, off the north coast of Fukuoka Prefecture.

Small aftershocks continued throughout the day, with authorities advising that residents should be prepared for aftershocks of up to magnitude 6.

In the aftermath of the quake, people were quickly alerted to the state of the situation by television reports, telephone, and text-messaging systems.

Interviewed by telephone in Hitoyoshi, well inland from the epicenter of the quake, a local resident noted the severity of the quake was frightening, and left the elderly woman unable to remain seated on a chair. Shutting off gas was the first priority, with the local television coverage providing a quick status update for the situation, followed by an interruption by national emergency network coverage.

A foreign resident of Fukuoka city reported taking refuge under his desk for several minutes as books and ornaments fell from shelves. He prepared to evacuate to high ground in case of a tsunami, but news reports indicated little danger from a tsunami. He also reported that Japanese residents appeared unconcerned by the quake, with many strolling near Momochi beach shortly after the quake, showing little apparent concern.

In Tenjin, downtown Fukuoka, Fukuoka Building’s windows shattered, and the block was quickly cordoned off. In addition to Fukuoka Building, many other buildings and businesses remained closed to shoppers.

Wikinews contributor Oarih reports that a festive atmosphere pervaded the streets, however, as employees from Nishinihon Shimbun (a major Japanese newspaper) passed out one-page articles on the earthquake and curious onlookers investigated the damaged buildings and sidewalks. Many residents, relieved by the relatively low damage inflicted by the earthquake, started visiting pubs and restaurants at lunch for a celebratory beer. With train and subway services disrupted, queues over 100 people long formed at some Nishitetsu bus stops in Tenjin as dusk approached.

The penetration of modern text-messaging by the Japanese Keitai, the common Japanese cell phone system more prevalent than computer-based email, led to quick status checks on many family members located near the coast around Fukuoka, close to the quake’s epicentre. Wikinews contributor Oarih reports that cell phone service providers were swamped by the spike in use, however, and both voice and text services remained unreliable for much of the day.

Monday, May 2, 2005

Swiss cement firm Holcim Ltd. today reported that net profits jumped by 67% in the first quarter. The company which has operations in over 70 countries revealed that first quarter profits were 169m Swiss francs (€110m; US$141m) up from 101m Swiss Francs last year.

Despite what appears to be a large rise in profits, sales actually fell to 2.7bn Swiss francs — a drop of 1.1 percent. The jump in net profits was largely due to a change in accountancy methods. Operating profits rose just 10% to 411m Swiss francs. This small rise in operating profits was largely due to a major price increase in mature markets such as the US, enabled by strong demand in the marketplace.

Holcim was founded in 1912 in Holderbank, Canton Aargau, Switzerland. Today it employs 46,000 people worldwide and produces over 145m tons of cement annually. It has has recently acquired British- based Aggregate Industries PLC, and gained a controlling interest in India’s No. 2 cement player, Associated Cement Companies Ltd.

Holcim Ltd. is the world’s second-largest cement maker, beaten in size only by Lafarge, a French giant which employs over 77,000 people and sold almost US$20bn worth of building materials last year.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Members of Australia’s Health Services Union (HSU) will go on strike in Victoria next week in a dispute over stalled wage and career structure negotiations. Over 5000 physiotherapists, speech pathologists and radiation therapists will walk off the job next week, effectively closing the state’s 68 largest health services.

The strike will force the closure of intensive care units and emergency departments across the state.

It is feared the strike could continue into Easter.

National secretary of the HSU, Kathy Jackson said admissions would be crippled, while intensive care patients would have to be evacuated to New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia as hospitals will not be able to perform tests or administer treatment.

“When an ambulance shows up you can’t admit a patient without an X-ray being available, you can’t intubate them and you can’t operate on them,” she said.

“If something goes wrong in an ICU you need to be able to X-ray, use nuclear medicine or any diagnostic procedure,” said Ms Jackson.

Ms Jackson said the HSU offered arbitration last year, but the state government refused. “They’re not interested in settling disputes, they hope that we are just going to go away.”

“We’re not going away, we’ve gone back and balloted the whole public health workforce in Victoria, those ballots were successful, 97 percent approval rating,” she said.

The HSU is urging the government to commence serious negotiations to resolve the dispute before industrial action commenced.

The government has offered the union a 3.25 per cent pay increase, in line with other public sector workers but the union has demanded more, but stopped short of specifying a figure.

Victorian Premier John Brumby said the claim would be settled according to the government’s wages policy. “The Government is always willing and wanting to sit down and negotiate with the relevant organisations . . . we have a wages policy based around an increase of 3.25 per cent and, above that, productivity offset,” he told parliament.

The union claims it is also arguing against a lack of career structure, which has caused many professionals to leave the health service. Ms Jackson said wages and career structures in Victoria were behind other states.

Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said he was not in support of the proposed strike and called on the government to meet with unions. “There could not be a more serious threat to our health system than has been announced today.”

“We now have to do whatever is possible to stop this strike from proceeding,” he said.

The opposition leader will meet with the union at 11:30 AM today.

Victorian Hospitals Industry Association industrial relations services manager Simon Chant said hospitals were looking at the possible impact and warned that patients may have to be evacuated interstate if the strike goes ahead.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Wednesday that 2009 was the “worst year” that the airline industry has ever seen since 1945.

“In terms of demand, 2009 goes into the history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen,” said IATA boss Giovanni Bisignani. “We have permanently lost 2.5 years of growth in passenger markets and 3.5 years of growth in the freight business.”

According to the group, passenger traffic was down by 3.5% compared to a year earlier, and freight by 10.1%. The group estimated that the airline industry lost a total of US$11 billion in 2009 last year, and will lose another $5.6 billion in 2010.

Airlines in Africa had the biggest passenger demand drop, at 6.8%; North American airlines and Asian carriers had demand go down 5.8%. European airlines saw a drop of 5%. Middle Eastern and Latin American carriers, however, had rises in demand, with gains of 11.3% and 0.3%, respectively. According to the Agence France-Presse news agency, part of the reason Middle Eastern carriers performed better is because of their position between Asia, Africa, and Europe, resulting in more connecting flights through hubs.

“While both North American and European carriers saw demand improvements in the first half of the year, the second half was basically flat,” said IATA.

IATA represents 230 airlines, accounting for 90% of scheduled air traffic, although some budget carriers are not included.

The IATA boss said that, although the worst appeared to be over due to the global economic recovery airlines would have to keep their costs low. “Revenue improvements will be at a much slower pace than the demand growth that we are starting to see,” he noted.

“Profitability will be even slower to recover and airlines will lose an expected 5.6 billion dollars in 2010. The industry starts 2010 with some enormous challenges. The worst is behind us, but it’s not time to celebrate. Adjusting to 2.5 to 3.5 years of lost growth means that airlines face another spartan year, focused on matching capacity carefully to demand and controlling costs,” Bisignani continued.

Costs for security were also an issue. Bisignani said: “Governments and industry are aligned in the priority that we place on security. But the cost of security is also an issue. Globally, airlines spend US$5.9 billion a year on what are essentially measures concerned with national security. This is the responsibility of governments, and they should be picking up the bill.”

Analysts, however, say that cost cutting measures, intended to attract more customers, would also harm airline profits. Saj Ahmad, an independent airline analyst, commented: “Continued fare wars between airlines mean that yields and profitability will be low. Airlines are struggling to fill their airplanes and discounted ticketing has done little to alleviate the pressures on their costs,” as quoted by the BBC.

“Capacity has come out of the global airline system, but until a few airlines perhaps exit the industry through bankruptcy or mergers, there is still a very long road until we see serious stability, let alone growth,” Ahmad added.