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Saturday, June 12, 2010

The 2010 Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure, held earlier today in St. Louis, Missouri, became the world’s largest Race for the Cure, with over 71,000 participants.

2010 marks the twelfth year for the race in St. Louis, which raises money for breast cancer research nationwide. Originally brought to the city in 1999, it has raised over US$19 million. It was sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors, a locally-headquartered brokerage firm of the financial services provider Wells Fargo. Nationally, the Race for the Cure is hosted by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a non-profit organization supporting breast cancer research.

In 1999, there were only about 10,000 participants in the St. Louis Race for the Cure. In recent years, the number has grown to over 60,000, and today’s 5K race saw over 71,000 runners, walkers, and wheelchair racers. Despite the heat and humidity, 1,090 teams signed up, and over 4,500 breast cancer survivors participated. Overall, the race raised more than US$3.3 million. A phone bank set up by Wells Fargo and local television station KSDK contributed over US$28,000 of that amount in four hours.

Prior to the race, there was a parade of all the breast cancer survivors who had signed up for the race. The actual competition began at 8:30 a.m. CDT (1330 UTC) with the wheelchair race. Following them were the timed runners, the untimed runners, the walkers, and lastly, the “fun walk” participants, who had only opted to walk one mile (1.6 kilometres).

The Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure is only one of many Races for the Cure, which is the largest group of 5K runs and walks in the world. The first Komen race was held in 1983 in Dallas, Texas, but has since spread to over 140 cities throughout the world. Proceeds from today’s St. Louis race will benefit both local institutions and the rest of the United States. At least 25 percent of the money raised will go toward funding national research on breast cancer, while the rest will be given to organizations in St. Louis for breast cancer awareness programs.

Thursday, February 8, 2007

This Sunday, the International Animated Film Association (Association International du Film d’Animation) or ASIFA will hand out the Annie Awards in Glendale, California. As animation’s highest honor, the crowd is always a who’s who of direction, art design, character design, layout, visual effects, and voice artists.

There are 23 award categories in the Annies, sorted into Individual Achievement and Production categories.

Perhaps the most competitive category is “Best Animated Feature”, which will be a fight between Cars (Pixar Animation Studios), Happy Feet (Warner Bros. Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures/Kennedy Miller Production/Animal Logic Film), Monster House (Columbia Pictures/ImageMovers/Amblin), Open Season (Sony Pictures Animation/Columbia Pictures) and Over The Hedge (DreamWorks Animation).

Cars, Happy Feet, and Monster House are all nominated in the Academy Awards for the same category, perhaps signifying an edge up in the competition.

Direct-to-DVD releases are eligible for the “Best Home Entertainment Production”. Included are Bambi II (DisneyToon Studios), The Adventures of Brer Rabbit (Universal Animation Studios), and Winnie the Pooh: Shapes & Sizes (DisneyToon Studios).

Charlie and Lola, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, King of the Hill, The Fairly OddParents, and Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! are all up for “Best Animated Television Production”.

“Best Animated Video Game” will be awarded to either Flushed Away The Game (D3 Publisher of America, Inc.), Monster House (THQ, Inc.), and SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature From the Krusty Krab (THQ, Inc.); the category was just created last year.

Adventure Time (Nickelodeon), Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot (Thunderbean Animation), No Time For Nuts (Blue Sky Studios), and Weird Al Yankovic Don’t Download This Song (Acme Filmworks) are all up for “Best Animated Short Subject”. Only No Time for Nuts is up for an Oscar, which has significantly different rules. “Best Animated Television Commercial” will go to either an advertisement for Candy Factory, ESPN, Hilton, St. Louis Zoo, or United Airlines.

Notably, no non-US films or productions have been nominated for any of the awards.

ASIFA is a non-profit worldwide organization dedicated to preserving and promoting animation, which maintains national branches in 55 countries, as far away as UlanBaatar, Mongolia and Tehran. The Annies are awarded by its California chapter ASIFA-Hollywood.

The awards were started in 1972, after voice actress June Foray noticed the industry lacked a formal way to acknowledge its achievements. Performing in over 202 productions, Foray’s most known characters are Rocket J. Squirrel (Rocky and Bullwinkle) and Granny (Looney Tunes).

ASIFA also hands out “Juried Awards” to various notable figures in animation. Bill Plympton, Genndy Tartakovsky, and Andreas Deja will each win the Winsor McCay Award, in recognition of lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation. Bill Matthews, Michael Fallik, Marc Deckter, and Eric Graf will each win a Certificate of Merit. The June Foray Award will go to Stephen Worth, for his “significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation.” The Ub Iwerks Award and Special Achievement award will not be handed out.

Professional photographer John Mueller will attend the ceremony on behalf of Wikinews, taking photos of nominees and the rest of America’s animation elite. Mueller was selected from a wide pool of professionals offering their services. The photos from the event will be released under the Creative Commons By Attribution license, which allows them to be used by anyone for any purpose.

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Scientists in the UK have developed a new way to ensure boiled eggs are perfectly cooked thanks to a brand new hi-tech logo being printed on shells.

After cooking starts, people will be able to see if their egg is soft, medium or hard-boiled with the help of a thermochromic print which appears in black ink on the egg’s shell.

The eggs will be sold to consumers in the UK within the next few months. A spokeswoman for Lion Quality, the assurance scheme which came up with the idea, said: “We had a lot of inquiries from people which sparked an interest in the industry. We said OK, this is a big issue – people can’t even boil an egg.”

Gilly Beaumont, from B&H Colour Change, the company which created the logos, said: “We are still perfecting the technology, but we are very excited at the prospect of sorting a problem that has wound people up at breakfast time for decades.”

The most successful way to cook an egg has baffled some of the greatest chefs in the past. In 1998, Delia Smith dedicated a whole episode of her How To Cook programme on the best way to boil an egg. And last year, a survey carried out by the magazine Waitrose Food Limited showed five top chefs all had different techniques.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

In an interview on NBC’s Today show with Matt Lauer, Tom Cruise aggressively defended his opposition to psychiatry and anti-depressive drugs. This occurred after being asked questions about his criticism of Brooke Shields, who has been taking drugs, including Paxil, for postpartum depression. Cruise is usually known for keeping his cool in interviews, but recently he has been slightly more unbound.

Cruise’s statements, including “Psychiatry is a pseudoscience“, and “There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in a body”, reflect the beliefs of the Church of Scientology, of which he is a member. The interview became particularly tense when Lauer mentioned that he knew people who had been helped by taking Ritalin, an attention-deficit disorder drug.

“Matt, Matt, you don’t even — you’re glib,” Cruise responded. “You don’t even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt, OK. That’s what I’ve done.”

Cruise went on to say: “You don’t know the history of psychiatry, I do.”

Cruise has not formally studied medicine beyond a high school education, having dropped out in his senior year (1980) to pursue an acting career. In light of this, some members of the psychiatric community have refuted Cruise’s controversial statements. Dr. John Scully, medical director of the American Psychiatric Association, has said “The illnesses we treat – anxiety, depression – are very real illnesses…The treatments work. We have demonstrated that through robust scientific study.”

Lauer insisted that Ritalin helped people: “You’re telling me what’s worked for people I know or hasn’t worked for people I know. I’m telling you, I’ve lived with these people and they’re better,” Lauer said.

Cruise hinted that Lauer was promoting Ritalin and Lauer scoffed: “I am not. I’m telling you in their cases, in their individual case, it worked.”

The exchange ended when the two basically agreed to disagree. Cruise, who is 42, did admit that one of his goals is to speak more about Scientology in an effort to get people to understand it better.

Scientology has historically been at odds with the established medical and mental health community. The rift dates back to the 1950s and Scientology’s founding father L. Ron Hubbard. In his book, “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”, published in 1950, Hubbard claims that Dianetics (later called Scientology) could cure the majority of human ailments. These claims were sharply disputed by a variety of mainstream science and medical professionals including psychiatrists.

On Monday, June 27, 2005, the American Psychiatric Association released a statement that stated the following:”It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need…Rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment (of mental illness) works…It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy.”

The APA represents nearly 36,000 physicians specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.

Friday, July 21, 2017

A group of Afghan teenagers was awarded a silver medal for “courageous achievement” on Tuesday in the FIRST Global Challenge Robot Olympics in the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. The six-member Afghan team, which consists entirely of girls, had been denied visas to enter the United States until last week, drawing notice from critics of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies regarding Muslims traveling to the U.S. The President later personally took action to allow the team into the country.

According to Afghan Ambassador to the United States Hamdullah Mohib, the participation of this team in this science competition shows progress in Afghanistan’s response to nearly two decades of military conflict.

The FIRST Global competition (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technlogy) was founded by Dean Kamen to encourage interest in applied science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in young people. This year’s theme was water security. For the contest, the robots were required to recognize, pick up, carry, and deposit balls colored blue and orange to represent water and pollution, respectively. Teams from different countries were arranged in groups of three, and groups faced off in pairs. The group whose three robots collectively earned the most points won that match. According to the Afghan team’s coach, Alireza Mehraban, in their first matchup, the Afghan team’s robot, named “Better Idea of Afghan Girls,” scored one or two points for the three-nation alliance with the Gabonese and Estonian teams. This year, the European team won the competition overall, with the silver medal going to Poland and the bronze to Armenia.

“We are so interested because we find a big chance to show the talent and ability of Afghans,” team member Rodaba Noori told the press, “to show that Afghan women can make robots too and we can improve in this section — [the] robotics section. We were so interested because we hadn’t long or enough time to get ready for competition but we came to United States and now we are here because of Trump intervention.”

The team arrived in Washington D.C. after many difficulties. They were twice denied visas to enter the United States. Even applying for a visa required the entire team to travel about 500 miles (800 km) from Herat, their home, to the capital in Kabul, through territory controlled by the Taliban. They made the trip twice and were turned down both times. President Donald Trump personally asked the United States National Security Council to help the girls enter the country. After some interplay between the State and Homeland Security Departments, the girls were granted “parole” status on the grounds that their entry would be a “significant public benefit.” The President has drawn both praise for helping the girls enter the U.S. and criticism for his travel ban, which does not cover Afghanistan, and for the atmosphere of hostility toward Muslims that critics blame for denying them entry in the first place.

Citing privacy rules, U.S. officials have not said why the team was initially denied visas, but Afghan Ambassador Hamdullah Mohib says there were concerns they would attempt to remain in the United States or in Canada after the contest. Afghanistan is not one of the nations covered by President Trump’s travel ban, but teams from Sudan, Iran, Libya, and Yemen, which are covered, are among the 163 teams in the competition. There were also two Syrian teams scheduled to compete, one national and one made up of refugees. Syria and all refugees are covered by the ban. The Syrian refugee team listed their country as “Hope” on the backs of their shirts and named their robot “Robogee.” Teams from Morocco and Iran both had difficulties getting themselves or their robots across the U.S. border. Team Estonia had to rebuild their robot entirely after the original disappeared in transit.

“Seventeen years ago, this would not have been possible at all,” said Ambassador Mohib. “They represent our aspirations and resilience despite having been brought up in a perpetual conflict. These girls will be proving to the world and the nation that nothing will prevent us from being an equal and active member of the international community.”

Every team in the contest was sent a collection of robot parts roughly four months in advance of the competition. The Afghan team’s supplies were delayed, leaving them only two weeks left to assemble their robot and only one day to test it before packing it up to mail to the competition site.

The competition ended on Tuesday. This is the first FIRST Global competition, and the organization plans to hold the contest in a different country every year. Next year’s competition is scheduled to take place in Mexico City.

Friday, September 2, 2005

An explosion today in Makhachkala, Russia in the Russian region of Dagestan killed one and wounded five others, police say. The bomb detonated in a pile of garbage, where servicemen and a truck had been sent to search for explosives on a street near a military base. When the engineers got out of the truck to search, the bomb went off.

The Dagestani Ministry, reported by the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass, originally stated that the blast killed two servicemen and wounded three others. They later revised this to six servicemen wounded (as well as one civilian), but no fatalities. A police officer told ITAR-Tass news that a brigade had been on patrol when the explosion occurred.

According to RIA-Novosti and Interfax news, medics reported one death and six injuries. RIA-Novosti also reports that the bomb exploded near a trolley bus.

Police and ambulances were immediately brought to the area of the explosion, which was quickly sealed off by police.

The alleged planters of the bomb were followed by police, but escaped after firing at the officers.

This explosion is not surprising, as racial tensions in the Muslim majority region of Dagestan often lead to attacks on officials and police.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

The sale of the BBC subsidiary BBC Resources Ltd., has hit a hurdle after it emerged that the BBC could be left with a loss of up to £15 million on the deal. The cost of transferring the pensions of BBC Resources staff from the BBC pension scheme to its new owners could be up to £50 million according to a Guardian Newspaper report.

Managers from the division will meet with union representatives from BECTU on Monday to discuss this and related sale issues. BECTU general secretary, Gerry Morrissey is quoted as saying: “If the BBC gets less than £50 million for BBC Resources then how can it fulfil [sic] its duty of care to licence fee payers?”

It is believed that the BBC had hoped that a surplus in its pension fund could be used to bridge the possible £50 million gap — but the trustees of the fund have said “no”. A BBC source said: “This is being discussed at the highest level”.

Since April 2004 members of the BBC pension scheme have seen their contributions into it increase regularly, the BBC — like many other employers — having reduced its contribution (to 4.5% of payroll) over a ten year period when the stock market was booming in the 1990s.

The Guardian is seen as a reliable source on BBC matters, having reported the proposed sale of BBC Television Centre back in January 2007, with the formal announcement finally being made by BBC Director General Mark Thompson on October 18, 2007.

The Resources business-to-business unit was formed in 1998 and operates television studios, post-production and outside broadcast facilities for it’s parent share-holding company, the BBC. It does not own any studios or premises, its assets being staff and equipment.

Advertised for sale on 16th August in the Financial Times, The Times and Broadcast and last year making profits of £5.2 million with a revenue of £126 million, the disposal — led by Ernst & Young — invited expressions of interest for the whole division or for each of its three operations separately. The BBC has yet to release the names of the short-listed companies.

BBC Resources was the first of the BBC’s commercial business-to-business divisions to be set up as a limited company and will be the last to be sold, the BBC having previously divested itself of BBC Technology and BBC Broadcast — BBC Worldwide, formerly BBC Enterprises, will remain in-house as it earns revenue from the archive, media and licensing of products — in the year to 31 March 2007 Worldwide had a turnover of £810.4 million, generating profits of £111 million.

The BBC wants to use any money raised to be put into international commercial expansion and content, most probably through Worldwide.

It had been intended to float Resources back in 2005, but this was postponed for two years following strike action and ACAS talks in June 2005 — the BBC giving an undertaking that there would be no preparations made to sell the company until January 2007, and no sale allowed before July of this year. The current time-scale would see its disposal by the end of the current financial year in March 2008.

Monday, April 11, 2005A group of 13 students from Antioch New England Graduate School in Keene, New Hampshire, USA, were detained by security officers as they photographed an ExxonMobil chemical plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The students were accompanied by two professors and an officer from the Louisiana Attorney General’s office. The officer, Willie Fontenot, was subsequently asked to resign from his position at the Attorney General’s office.

Mr. Fontenot has issued a response, provided to Wikinews reporter Pingswept by Steve Case, a professor present at the incident. Fontenot writes,

“Last week, I was asked by Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr. to either retire or run the risk of being fired. No specifics were given to me explaining this decision by the AG. I have always understood that, as an unclassified civil servant, I served at the pleasure of the AG and that I could be dismissed at any time and for no reason. Because of my age, health issues, and investment of twenty-seven years in the state system, I decided early retirement was the best option for me.”

The full text of Fontenot’s statement is reproduced here.

According to a press release from Antioch, the group was initially detained by two off-duty police officers who were under the employ of ExxonMobil but dressed in their police uniforms. The officers were shortly joined by two other security officers who were employed by ExxonMobil. When asked what reports the officers intended to file, “the off-duty sheriff’s department officer refused to answer, and instead responded aggressively that he was going to call in ‘homeland security’ people who would detain the group into the night,” said the press release. In the end, the group was detained for “more than an hour.”

One of the professors, Abigail Abrash Walton told the Keene Sentinel that one of the officers, “aggressively told us that he’d be calling in the Homeland Security people, whatever that meant, and to expect to be with them all night.”

The Keene Sentinel reports that the students were visiting the area because, “Exxon was said to be buying up houses and paying to relocate their owners for various reasons, including that people were allegedly getting sick because of pollution.” The other course instructor, Steve Chase, was quoted in the Sentinel as saying that, “Our objection was not that police officers or even corporate security guards would stop and ask us what we were doing. That seemed totally fair. But lies were told, threats were made and the idea was to intimidate.”

The Sentinel noted that an ExxonMobil spokesperson, Stephanie Cargile, stated that, “We believe our ExxonMobil Security personnel and the off-duty East Baton Rouge Sheriff police officers acted professionally and cordially to Mr. Fontenot and the Antioch students.” The venue in which the statement was made was not mentioned by the Sentinel; thus far, the report has not been corroborated by Wikinews.