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Thursday, October 12, 2006

Dove soaps continues their North American “Campaign for Real Beauty” advertising with a television commercial that explores the alterations that can be done on models.

Labeled “a Dove film”, the commercial is entitled “evolution”. Beginning with a woman walking into a photo shoot. From there, she is primped and plucked by hair and makeup artists, then tweaked on a Photoshop-like program.

The photo-manipulation is then posted on a billboard for the fictional “Easel Foundation Makeup” brand. Two young, teenage girls walk past, glancing at the board.

“No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted” ends the ad in text, “Every girl deserves to feel beautiful just the way she is.”

Dove runs the Dove Self-Esteem Fund as a part of their Campaign for Real Beauty. In the marketing campaign, Dove uses “real” women, instead of professional models, in an attempt to instill self-esteem in their customers.

This continuing promotion, launched in 2004, was on the forefront of a current trend in Western culture to abandon the overly idealised images the media portrays of women. Recently some fashion capitals have mandated minimum body mass indexes for runway models. The top rated comedy in the United States and Canada is Ugly Betty, a series that stars an average girl coping at a fashion magazine. The series is based on Betty la Fea, an extremely popular Colombian telenovela, which has been reproduced internationally.

Only two percent of women surveyed worldwide consider themselves beautiful, according to ABC Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, whose program debuted the commercial this morning at 8:07 am EST.

The ad is currently playing on the Campaign for Real Beauty’s homepage.

Monday, March 14, 2011

An explosion was reported at 0610 local time Tuesday morning at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant’s second reactor. The blast is feared to have breached the pressure chamber.

The explosion is thought to have been in the reactor’s “pressure suppression room” — part of the cooling system. It damaged the area that contains water to cool the reactor, but it is not yet clear whether it affected the containment structure near the core.

Government officials have said that there was limited damage as a result of the explosion, and efforts to cool the reactor would go on, but nuclear industry executives in Japan have said that the situation is far worse, and other unnamed officials said the containment structure had been damaged, but did not say to what extent. In the wake of the explosion, officials at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plant’s operator, said for the first time a partial meltdown could be taking place within the reactor.

After the explosion, radiation levels near the facility rose from 1,941 to 8,712 microsieverts, a level still short of that required to cause immediate health effects, and radiation decreased again some time after the explosion. The legal limit for radiation in one year is a thousand microseiverts, but radiation sickness does not occur until a million microseiverts.

Prior to the explosion the fuel rods in the reactor reported to again be exposed after the pressure valve closed at 11pm local time, preventing pumping in cooling water.

“The reactor containment vessel, which is the last line of defence to contain the radiation, this may have experienced some damage…it seems that there are damages at several different places of these walls around radioactive substances.” [excerpted from live translation transcription by CNN of NHK coverage of press conference, stream]

According to TEPCO, all but 50 employees of the plant were evacuated after the incident.

Workers at the 40-year old plant have been struggling to deal with the aftermath of Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami. On Saturday, a hydrogen explosion occurred at the number one reactor, followed by a second explosion on Sunday to the number three reactor. The number two reactor was reported to be overheating, with exposed fuel rods, earlier today. Nearly 185,000 people have been evacuated from the 20 km zone around the plant.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

After reports that US President Barack Obama has fired the director of the Minerals Management Service, Elizabeth “Liz” Birnbaum, the Interior Department revealed that she instead resigned “on her own volition”. The resignation occurred amidst growing criticism of the federal government’s response to the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion and the agency’s oversight over offshore drilling. 

Birnbaum, who became director in June 2009, was expected to testify before a subcommittee of the House of Representatives today with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. She was not present when Salazar began to speak, however. Salazar said in a statement: “She is a good public servant. She resigned today on her own terms and on her own volition. I thank her for her service and wish her the very best.”

News agencies had reported that Birnbaum was forced out of office, and Obama was expected to officially announce the supposed firing later today in a news conference along with discussing an Interior Department report on the explosion. Birnbaum observed in her letter of resignation that Salazar “will be requiring three new leaders for the Office Natural Resources Revenue, the Bureau of Energy Management and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement” as the entire Minerals Management Service is reorganized.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Europe — In recent weeks several large European BitTorrent and ed2k link sites have either been closed by the police or have gone offline voluntarily. Sites in France, Netherlands, Finland and Slovenia have been affected.

On December 14, FIOD-ECD, the Dutch economic crimes police, raided the premises of the hosting provider Mindlab. Servers hosting sites Releases4u.com and Shareconnector.com were seized by the police. The reported number of systems seized differs, from 4 (tweakers.net) to 11 (the register). The raids were initiated by BREIN, a Dutch non-government “copyright oversight organization”.

BitTorrent link sites distribute torrents, which are computer files with information about a larger, shared file co-ordinated by small servers known as trackers. Unlike predecessors of P2P applications like Napster, this sharing is not centralised on the servers of link site operators, and no illegal files exist on the servers of link site operators. Although such a system has been previously thought to be a legal loophole for file sharers, the recent spate of raids by copyright enforcement authorities apparently proves otherwise.

Prior to raids Mindlab clients Releases4u and ShareConnector were the largest link sites for the ed2k network in the Netherlands. Mindlab had previously refused to remove the servers for Releases4u and ShareConnector, arguing that such link sites were legal in the Netherlands.

The servers were taken down after a discussion that went nowhere according to Tim Kuik, head of BREIN. “We simply ran of patience,” he says.

At the same time, FinReactor, one of the largest link sites in Finland was raided by the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi, KRP) at the request of Finnish copyright organisations.

On December 19 two large BitTorrent sites, SuprNova.org and TorrentBits.org closed without providing an explanation, although these have apparently been voluntary decisions by the operators of the sites.

Prior to its closure SuprNova.org, based in Slovenia, was generally considered to be the largest BitTorrent link site on the Internet that hosted links to both authorised (e.g. Linux software) and unauthorised files (e.g. Hollywood films). This closure is surprising as it has been generally thought that its location in Slovenia would make it invulnerable to the actions of American-based copyright enforcement groups.

According to a statement made later on the site by its site’s 18 year-old owner, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, and an interview for Slyck, he decided to voluntarily close the links section of the site after the news about arrests of admins of several prominent P2P sites and after receiving legal warnings.

Although the forums and the IRC network will remain online, SuprNova.org claims that it will no longer hold links to BitTorrent files again.

At the end of 2004, eXeem, a project to decentralize the BitTorrent link network developed by SuprNova.org, reached a beta stage.

In a bid to avoid the pitfall of Napster, most other major filesharing networks are decentralized, including Gnutella, Gnutella 2, KaZaA and eDonkey2000.

The goal of Exceem was to eliminate the need for torrent link sites and trackers by allowing every user to easily publish new files on the network without having to post a torrent file on a centralized server and distribute them without dedicated trackers. The closed beta testing with more than 5,000 users was underway by December. The status of eXeem after the closure of SuprNova.org remains unclear.

TorrentBits.org, another link site was closed at about the same time, the reason of which is still unknown at this time. The site’s founder and owner, known by the nickname “Redbeard”, remains unavailable for comment.

Other torrent sites that have reportedly closed are Delirium Vault, Youceff Torrents (closed by French police), Phoenix Torrents (closed voluntarily).

Activities of P2P link sites have not been proved to be illegal and so far no link site was successfully sued by copyright owners. However, police in many countries are often willing to close the sites when they are accused of copyright violations. Confiscating the servers is usually enough to destroy the site, as most of the sites are run by volunteers on a non-profit basis, who are unable and unwilling to fight a prolonged legal battle.

The first large link site to be closed, ShareReactor, was taken down by Swiss police on March 10th, 2004.

Raids have apparently followed a trend of a higher probability of raids when site owners have received donations from file sharers; some believe that this allows authorities to charge operators of such link sites for copyright crime instead of copyright infringement. ShareReactor and ShareConnector were both closed soon after purchasing new server equipment using money donated by their users.

Many people have suspected that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), a trade association representing the interests of major movie studios based in the United States, are linked to police actions, although the extent of their involvement is unknown at this stage. The MPAA has taken credit for the closure of FinReactor, although the KRP has officially denied that MPAA had any contacts with Finnish authorities [1].

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file distribution tool written by programmer Bram Cohen which was debuted at CodeCon 2002. BitTorrent allows many people to download one file at fast speeds. It does this by having downloaders swap portions of a file with one another, instead of downloading from a single centralised server or individual. It is particularly suited to quickly distributing new files to a large number of users.

eDonkey2000 is a peer-to-peer file sharing application developed by MetaMachine, using the Multisource File Transfer Protocol. eDonkey network encourages permanent sharing of files, ensuring good long-term availability, but is not as effective as BitTorrent in quickly spreading new releases.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered a review Friday into the design and manufacture of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, following five incidents in five days involving the aircraft and two Japanese airlines.

On Monday, an electrical fire broke out aboard a Japan Airlines 787 at Boston’s Logan International Airport, when a battery pack which powers the auxiliary power unit, for when the plane is on the ground, caught fire. The fire was discovered by maintenance workers after passengers and crew disembarked following their flight from Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

The next day, a separate Japan Airlines 787, also at Logan International Airport, heading to Tokyo, suffered a fuel leak that spilled around 40 gallons, which was spotted by the crew of the aircraft taxiing behind them. “That Japan Air may know it, but they’ve got fuel or something spilling out the outboard left wing. Quite a bit,” said the pilot of aircraft behind them on local air traffic control frequencies.

Wednesday, in Japan, an All Nippon Airways 787, the launch customer for the aircraft, cancelled a flight after a brake problem was reported.

Earlier Friday, two All Nippon Airways suffered separate incidents in Japan. An oil leak was noticed in the engine after one aircraft had landed in Miyazaki, coming from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Another flight, flying between Haneda Airport and Matsuyama said the pilot’s side window in the cockpit suffered a crack.

The FAA in a statement said “In light of a series of recent events, the FAA will conduct a comprehensive review of the Boeing 787 critical systems, including the design, manufacture and assembly.” Further adding, “The purpose of the review is to validate the work conducted during the certification process and further ensure that the aircraft meets the FAA’s high level of safety.”

According to the statement, “The review will also examine how the electrical and mechanical systems interact with each other.” The Boeing 787 relies more on electrical, as opposed to mechanical, systems than past aircraft from the manufacturer including having electronics operate hydraulic pumps and using electric brakes. Large portions of the plane’s structure use lightweight carbon fiber composite instead of more traditional metal airframe.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said, “The safety of the traveling public is our top priority […] This review will help us look at the root causes and do everything we can to safeguard against similar events in the future.”

“We are confident that the aircraft is safe. But we need to have a complete understanding of what is happening,” said newly sworn-in FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta. “We are conducting the review to further ensure that the aircraft meets our high safety standards.”

Boeing released a statement saying, “[The company] is confident in the design and performance of the 787. It is a safe and efficient airplane. The airplane has logged 50,000 hours of flight and there are more than 150 flights occurring daily.”

Saturday, September 1, 2012

London, England — Yesterday Wikinews had the opportunity to tour the Ottobrock wheelchair repair workshops at the Paralympic Village in London.

It is one of a network of workshops at every Paralympic venue. They are run by Ottobrock, which has been repairing wheelchairs at the Paralympics since 1988. The workshop opened on August 22 and will remain until September 10.

The Ottobrock employees include people from 20 countries. Between them, they speak 23 languages. They liken themselves to the pit crew of motor sport — except that they have no idea what sort of equipment they will have to work with. The store room contains 15,000 spare parts, with everything from spare carbon fibre running blades to spare tyres — over 2,000 of them. They stock Ottobrock parts and their competitors’ too, as they have no idea what will arrive at the workshop next. Athletes from around the world bring in all manner of equipment.

The prosthetic technicians have to deal with everything from flat tyres to broken spokes to full-scale rebuilds. They have to be expert problem solvers. They frequently collaborate on determining how best to effect a repair. The objective is to get the wheelchair repaired and back in service as soon as possible.

Wheelchairs vary somewhat in design, depending on the sport. Those for wheelchair basketball and rugby have cambered wheels so they can spin around. Aluminum and titanium parts are used for strength. Ottobrock has a welding workshop where frames are repaired; the teams’ equipment managers understandably cannot bring such heavy equipment with them to the games, so they rely on the workshops. When a repair job is required, it is often required in a hurry. At the Turkey vs United States game, a chair was repaired during the match.

In addition to wheelchairs, the workshops handle all manner of work with prostheses. Carbon fibre running blades are adjusted. Broken feet and legs are a challenge. The Chinese Boccia team brought in its power chairs to have the electronics adjusted. In that sport, having the controls working perfectly is all-important.

There are 4,200 athletes at the Paralympic games. So far, the workshops have carried out 1,100 repairs.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Police authorities say the body of Suzette York, 49, was found shortly after 11am on Wednesday morning in a classroom at Memphis Junior Academy in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Police also state a 17 year-old male student, Eduardo Marmolejo, was later taken into custody and has been charged with first-degree murder. Reports indicate Ms. York had been a science and math teacher and was currently serving as the principal at the private academy affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

According to police, Ms. York was found lying in a pool of blood by another teacher at the school on Wednesday. The alleged assailant cited dislike and anger with York as motivating the attack. The court appointed two defense attorneys, who requested mental evaluation of the defendant.

A former student of the school described Ms. York as “a wonderful person who was very much involved with her students”. The mayor of Memphis described the incident as “tragic all the way around”.