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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The weather satellite GOES-12, which provides most of the weather pictures for the United States, became unusable on Tuesday, December 4. The satellite is positioned in geostationary orbit over the Amazon. A normal station-keeping maneuver to adjust its location was not completed as usual and services could not be continued.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates the satellites for its National Weather Service (NWS). NOAA’s satellite division intends to attempt Wednesday night to return GOES-12 to normal mode. The satellite is in its “safe” mode, which is used to protect it until problems can be identified and repaired. It is properly oriented toward the Sun so it will have full electrical power for further commands.

The GOES-10 satellite, located slightly further east, has been taken from South American coverage and is providing North American service. GOES-13 is in orbital storage in case it is needed for replacing a failed satellite.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Australia’s cricketer Brett Lee is out of the first Ashes test match – which starts on July 8 in Cardiff – with a torn muscle in his left side. He is also doubtful to play the second Test at Lord’s, which begins on July 16. It will be at least two weeks before he can start training in the nets again.

“I am very very disappointed and gutted that I will not be there for the first Test match but I will find a way to bounce back,” said Lee. “I still see myself hopefully playing a major role for Australia through the end part of the series, whether that’s the second, third, fourth or fifth Test match depending on how things go.”

The fast bowler complained about soreness in his left side after playing the England Lions at Worcester. Scans on Monday revealed he has a tear to his rib muscle. Other reports have described the injury as a strained abdominal muscle.

Kevin Pietersen commented on Lee’s absence saying it was “a huge, huge, huge loss” for Australia.

Australia now have to choose which player to pick as a replacement for Lee. Two likely options are spinner Nathan Hauritz or pace bowler Ben Hilfenhuas.

England will start their campaign on Wednesday to attempt to regain the ashes after Australia completed a 5-0 whitewash last time.

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

Beginning Monday morning, many BlueFrog and Blue Security users began receiving an email warning them that if they did not remove their email addresses from the Blue Security registry, they would begin to receive huge amounts of unsolicited email. As quickly as four hours after the initial warning message, some users began to receive an unprecedented amount of spam. Most of the messages were simply useless text. Users reported that Blue Security’s website was unavailable or extremely slow in responding.

Blue Security is an online community dedicated to fighting spam. As they became more popular, their member list increased substantially. The members’ email address is encrypted and added to a list of e-mail addresses that wish to stop receiving spam. Blue Security maintains the encrypted list, which uses an encrypted hash function. Spammers are encouraged to remove all addressed from their email list that are also in Blue Security’s Do Not Intrude Registry by using free compliance tools available at Blue Security’s web site.

According to Blue Security’s web site, “A major spammer had started spamming our members with discouraging messages in an attempt to demoralize our community. This spammer is using mailing lists he already owns that may contain addresses of some community members.” Reportedly, Blue Security has received complaints from users about spam allegedly sent from Blue Security promoting their anti-spam solution and web site.

Blue Security states they are “an anti-spam company determined to fight spam and as such never has and never will send unsolicited email.” There are also reports of non-users of BlueSecurity/BlueFrog receiving the warning emails, which now seems is also being sent to email addresses of people who have never added their email address to Blue Security’s Do Not Intrude Registry.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

A family visiting Christchurch, New Zealand from Australia was minutes away from being burnt to death.

They were staying in the Meadow Park Holiday Park, Papanui.

The fire started about 3 a.m. NZST and Station officer Paul Rodwell said, “From the description, they were a few minutes away from perishing.”

New Zealand-born Elaine Puku is on life support in Christchurch Hospital’s intensive-care unit after receiving internal and external second-degree burns while trying to rescue her children.

Other family members – Malcolm Puku, 47, and sons Jeremy, 17, Matthew, 13, and Jordan, 10 – were also in the fire, but escaped grievous injury. They are currently recovering from minor cuts and smoke inhalation.

“I opened up the door into the lounge and the room was like a big volcano, so red and bright and yellow, and all this billowing black smoke,” Malcolm Puku said.

There were no smoke alarms in the unit.

“It doesn’t have any fire-protection smoke alarms because it’s an old place,” Rodwell said.

Fire safety officer Graham Davies said that the accommodation is exempt since it was built before fire detectors became compulsory.

The motel is now under investigation by the Fire Service.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Italian goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini has been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in London. The player, who plays for Tottenham Hotspurs, was involved in a collision with a car at 10:30 GMT. The football club reported that he has fractured his wrists and injured his pelvis.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police released a statement saying “A 36-year-old male suffered injuries described by the London Ambulance Service as possibly life-changing and was taken to Whipps Cross Hospital for further assessment and treatment”. No arrests have been made.

Cudicini crashed his motorcycle into a Ford Fiesta with a female driver and a child passenger. Neither the driver or passenger were injured in the accident.

Cudicini is the son of former AC Milan goalkeeper Fabio Cudicini. During his career he has played for Lazio, AC Milan and Chelsea. He played for Chelsea for 10 years until he was transferred to Tottenham in January. He made one appearance for the Italian national team.

Wednesday, November 2, 2005

A small group of people gathered in protest outside the New South Wales Parliament in Sydney, Australia at midday. The group was protesting the proposed Anti-Terrorism Bill, calling upon Premier Iemma not to support the laws. The protest was organised by the New South Wales Greens and was addressed by several speakers, including Lee Rhiannon, an elected Greens parliamentarian from the New South Wales Legislative Council.

One protester carried a placard which read: “Terrorism Laws=Fascism!” She compared the proposed legislation to the 1933 German Enabling Act, saying “It is the most basic rule of democracy is that you have the right to legal representation and Hitler took that away, that was Habeas corpus as it was called, in 1933 legislation and from that moment on thats when everything began. They could remove people, anyone who objected anyone who was a witness, anyone who tried to find out what happened could also be removed.”

“John Howard’s terror law would not make Australia safer”, Lee Rhiannon said in her speech, “They will not stop a London style bombing occurring in Australia and that’s what we need to remember. This is another one of John Howards’s lies. Let’s remember weapons of mass destruction, (and) children overboard.”

The Australian government introduced anti-terror laws after September 11, and has sought to extend those laws in the wake of the London train bombings.

The government claimed in a media release today that it has this week received specific information about a terrorist threat to Australia.

“The Government has received specific intelligence and police information this week which gives cause for serious concern about a potential terrorist threat. The detail of this intelligence has been provided to the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Minister for Homeland Security,” the release said.

The government claims that the new bill is intended to improve the ability of intelligence services and the police to counter this threat.

“The Government is satisfied on the advice provided to it that the immediate passage of this bill would strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies to effectively respond to this threat,” the release said.

Dr Andrew Lynch, Project Director of the Terrorism and Law project at the Gilbert & Tobin Centre of Public Law, has said that Rhiannon has raised some valid issues regarding some of the provisions in the proposed legislation.

“It is difficult to see how many of [the provisions] will enhance our security. For example, the bans on free speech will only drive inciting and hateful messages under ground which must make the job of security forces harder in identifying real threats. The restrictions on family members knowing about the detention of their children is not conceivably going to improve our safety. There is a lot to be said for the view that depriving people of their liberty on the basis only of ‘reasonable suspicion’ might well fuel feelings of alienation amongst some groups which could be harnessed by extremists,” Dr Lynch said.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Family First Senator Steve Fielding arrived at Parliament today, dressed as a beer bottle to raise awareness of a bill he intends to move in the Senate today. Senator Fielding will introduce a bill to establish a nationwide refund scheme for bottles and cans.

A similar scheme has operated in South Australia since 1977.

Family First wants a rebate of 10 cents per container, while the Australian Greens want 20 cents.

Speaking to reporters outside parliament dressed as a beer bottle, the Senator said the legislation would reduce litter by 25 per cent. “There’s a message in this bottle.”

“I am no longer trash, I’m cash.”

“We should get the litter off the streets and off the creeks and into recycling – that’s good for the environment and good for the community”

“It’s a win-win and I can’t understand why nationally we don’t have a scheme,” said Senator Fielding.

Senator Fielding said that recycling not only reduced litter, but also consumes less energy than making new containers from scratch. “Recycling a plastic bottle saves more than 80 per cent of the energy used to make a bottle from scratch and recycling aluminium cans uses just five per cent of the energy used making a can from scratch,” said the Senator.

Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Greens said while there were environmental benefits from recycling, it would also create thousands of new jobs.

“This is a very good way of recycling and reducing energy because a lot of energy goes into making cans and bottles,” Senator Brown told reporters.

“It will employ tens of thousands of people across Australia.”

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the ninth President of Sri Lanka at a ceremony in the country’s Parliament in Colombo on Thursday.

Wickremesinghe, who has served as acting president in his predecessor’s absence, defeated rival candidates for the presidency by 134 votes to 82, with support from MPs of the ruling Sri Lanka People’s Front.

The former president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled Sri Lanka for the Maldives on July 13 and tendered his resignation from Singapore the following day. This came after months of unrest and protests over a devastating economic crisis which saw soaring inflation, blackouts and shortages of many essential supplies.

Wickremesinghe initially offered to resign alongside Rajapaksa; however following the president’s exodus he assumed the role of acting president. Wickremesinghe served as prime minister under Rajapaksa, and the BBC reports many view his administration as complicit in mismanaging the economy.

Nevertheless, the transition of power drew relatively few protests. “He is here — and we will see what his actions are. If we don’t get any food, any medicine, we’ll be on the streets,” a former protestor told the BBC.

Anbarasan Ethirajan, writing for the BBC, reported other protesters’ disappointment, worrying Wickremesinghe would gradually crack down and forcibly end the protests. For his part, Wickremesinghe said he supports peaceful demonstrations, but warned against occupying government buildings and attempts to overthrow the government.

Wickremesinghe has held many senior positions during his 45-year political career, including serving six terms as prime minister. He unsuccessfully ran for President twice. Local media reports the next cabinet is expected to include ministers from opposition parties, who have agreed to work with Wickremesinghe.

The new president will strive for stability ahead of resuming talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $3 billion bailout.