Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) announced today a grant of £4.6 million towards the restoration of Lews Castle on the Western Scottish island of Stornoway. Estimates suggest approximately £14 million (US$ 21.9m, € 16.2m) will be spent to restore and convert the Victorian era property into a museum with four-star hotel accommodation.

Originally built as a home for James Matheson, who made his fortune in the Chinese and Indian opium trade, the castle has lain empty, and on the at-risk register, since the late 1980s. A gap of £1.6 million in required funding remains a concern the local Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (previously, Western Isles Council) is actively seeking help from both Europe and the Scottish government.

Council leader Angus Campbell intends to press the Scottish Government on the final funding; “it would be a huge shame if all the other funding is lost”, he said. “We are optimistic about getting some European funding, which is absolutely crucial, and are asking the Scottish Government to close the funding gap.” Campbell describes what would be the first UK museum with Gaelic as its primary language as “a generational project” with benefits throughout the communities of the Outer Hebrides. Local MSP Alasdair Allan commended the council’s efforts to save Lews Castle saying they, and other agencies, “have been working tirelessly to progress plans that would ensure Lews Castle becomes both a cultural and economic asset to the islands.”

Throughout its colourful history, the castle was at one time owned by William Lever who founded Unilever. Before gifting the castle to the local people in 1923, Lord Leverhulme invested in electric lighting, central heating, an internal telephone system, and the extension of the ballroom for social gatherings. In World War II, the castle was the base for a Naval hospital and squadron of amphibious biplanes. Post-war, it spent 30 years as a technical college and school.

If the final tranche of funding is secured, in 2014 the castle will become the first-ever archive facility in the Western Isles. The collections of Museum nan Eilean (MnE) could move from their current home into the castle; items held by the National Archives of Scotland could return to their native isles. And, modern facilities would permit collections from the National Museum of Scotland and the British Museum – such as the Lewis Chessmen – to be exhibited there.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Boris Johnson, the Conservative politician currently serving as Mayor of London, announced yesterday he intends to stand for Parliament in the 2015 General Election.

Johnson stated he intends to also serve out his term as London mayor which ends in 2016. He did not announce which constituency he plans to seek election in, saying it was up to local Conservative parties to make that decision. Johnson was formerly MP for Henley from 2001 to 2008 before he resigned in order to seek election as London’s mayor.

He also rejected the suggestion he was trying to become the next leader of the Conservative Party, telling the BBC: “I think it’s highly unlikely that that will happen because there’s no vacancy. I think David Cameron has been a brilliant prime minister.”

He later added in another BBC interview: “When David Cameron finally steps down, in 2030 or whenever, it may be that there’s a vacancy, but it will probably be filled by a person who’s a teenager now.”

If elected, Johnson would be breaking a promise he made in 2012 in an interview with London’s Evening Standard newspaper: “I made a solemn vow to Londoners to lead them out of recession, bring down crime and deliver the growth, investment and jobs that this city so desperately needs. Keeping that promise cannot be combined with any other political capacity”.

Prime Minister David Cameron previously said Johnson was a “great striker you want on the pitch”. Yesterday, David Cameron’s Twitter account followed up on this: “Great news that Boris plans to stand at next year’s general election — I’ve always said I want my star players on the pitch”.

Sadiq Khan, Labour’s shadow justice secretary, responded to the news by saying “Boris Johnson’s announcement reveals how weak David Cameron is and how out of touch the Tories remain. […] Today has also shown Londoners that, when they need a mayor prepared to address the big challenges facing their city, Boris Johnson’s priority is succeeding David Cameron rather than serving their interests.”

Conservative MP and former chief whip Andrew Mitchell welcomed Johnson’s announcement: “I think he’s a remarkable politician. He reaches parts of the voting public that other people don’t reach. He’s a part of the Conservative DNA.”

Monday, October 1, 2007

Tyler Currie is running as an Progressive Conservative candidate in the Ontario provincial election, in the riding of Trinity-Spadina. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

An earthquake with estimated magnitude 8.0 (later, revised to 7.9 by USGS) shook the Pacific island of Tonga. The strongest quake of the year so far, the earthquake occurred at 04:26 local time (15:27 UTC) on May 3 at 19.9°S, 174.2°W, about 150 KM south of Neiafu, Tonga and 2150 KM north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.

Three more earthquakes with moderate magnitude of 5.1 (1700 UTC, 06:00 local time), 5.4 (1756 UTC, 06:56 local time) and 5.1 (1928 UTC, 8:28 local time) were felt in the same region, according to USGS report.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu issued tsunami warnings for Fiji and New Zealand and a tsunami watch for other areas in the Pacific, including Hawaii, but excluding the west coast of North America. The warning and watches were cancelled at 1736 UTC (7:36 a.m. HST).

According to the latest bulletin, sea level readings indicated a tsunami was generated. There was some definite tsunami activity recorded near Pago Pago and Niue.

No major damage or injuries have been reported in Tonga, but power was temporarily lost, which reportedly prevented Tongan authorities from receiving the tsunami warning issued by the PTWC.

Fourteen schools in Hawaii located on or near coastlines were closed all of Wednesday despite the warnings being lifted.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Wikinews interviewed author Marc Headley about his new book Blown for Good, and asked him about life inside the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base“, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California. Headley joined the organization at age seven when his mother became a member, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005.

Monday, January 1, 2007

A crowd of approximately 1 million has welcomed the new year in Sydney overnight. Many of the crowd had camped out since 6 AM AEDT (7PM UTC) to ensure they had the best vantage point for the fireworks displays at 9 PM and 12 AM. Earlier predictions of rain failed to dampen enthusiastic revellers and fortunately did not eventuate.

According to police, vantage points were Circular Quay and Sydney Opera House closed around 7 PM.

This year’s theme was “A diamond night in Emerald City” and celebrated the Sydney Harbour Bridge’s diamond anniversary of 75 years which will fall in March.

As usual, the bridge became the centre piece of Sydney’s celebrations with a question mark turning into a coat hanger during the 9 PM fireworks show before a diamond appeared at 11 PM.

Entertainment was held in the city throughout the day, culminating in a spectacular fireworks display at midnight. Revellers counted down the final seconds of 2006 with numbers on the side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The festivities are estimated to have cost AUD $4 million and organisers claim their fireworks display is “the largest in the world”. Sydney’s celebrations were broadcast on television live around the world as other countries prepared their New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Despite the large crowd, police made only 58 arrests for offences including offensive conduct, stealing, assaulting police, goods in custody, assault, drink driving and affray.

Ambulance officers were called to 1,139 incidents in Sydney with another 900 in country areas.

Friday, September 23, 2005

On the corner of Golden Gate Ave. and Jones St. in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, right next to the Civic Center you can see a throng of low-income and homeless people lining up outside of St. Anthony’s Dining Room hall which opens up it’s doors everyday at 11:30 a.m. Volunteers dressed in St. Anthony Foundation shirts help keep the lines moving as hundreds of homeless and low income people shuffle their way towards the dining hall underneath the watchful eyes of a small statue of St. Francis of Assisi.

“There’s a lot of people who go hungry out here and it ain’t right.” says Jimmy Scott, a slightly brawny 44-year-old black man who has been living homeless in San Francisco for the past three years. “There are families out here with kids and everything and they have to walk around all night just to stay awake so they don’t get hurt or killed…Right here in the U.S. this is going on…it ain’t right.”

The dining hall, which has been open for the past 54 years, is owned by the St. Anthony Foundation which helps low income and homeless people and families in the Civic Center, Tenderloin, and SOMA areas with clothing, shelter, food, drug rehabilitation, and many other services. St. Anthony’s administrative offices are found at 121 Golden Gate Ave. with the majority of the foundation’s buildings on Golden Gate Ave. and Jones St.

“We are right in the heart of the homeless population of San Francisco,” says Barry Stenger, 55, who’s been working for the St. Anthony Foundation for one year, and is the Director of Development and Communications, “and people are pushed here because of the economic forces of San Francisco because it’s hard to be upper middle class in San Francisco.”

According to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, “San Francisco’s cost of living remains one of the highest in the country” with the average household income in San Francisco being around $76,400 and the average price of housing being $543,000. Average household income for the United States in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was $42,409 and the average price of housing for the United States according to the National Association of Realtors was $185,200 in 2004.

“We served our 32 millionth meal on Tuesday,” said Stenger, “and we serve 2,500 meals a day. Some of our people who work here actually get served [food] here because they spend all their money towards rent and medical costs.”

The St. Anthony Foundation was started by Fr. Alfred Boeddeker in 1950 one year after Fr. Boeddeker became pastor of St. Boniface church on Golden Gate St. where he was baptized as a child. During his lifetime, according to the foundation’s website, he was referred to as the “Patron St. of the Tenderloin” and had Boeddeker park named after him because of his, and his foundation’s, achievements with helping out the homeless and low income community.

“[St. Anthony’s] is a good thing,” said Jimmy Scott, “they provide a good service and they feed people and they clothe them and provide furniture when you get housing and give you groceries when you have AIDS. It’s a good little organization.”

“Our dining room is open 365 days a year.” Said Stenger. “Our other facilities are open seven days a week. We have a residence for senior women and our [free medical] clinic is open five days a week and we also have a furniture and clothing store. We have 12 programs all together.”

Some of those programs are the Father Alfred Center which provides 61 men two programs for getting out of drug and alcohol abuse, the Employment Program/Learning Center which helps participants in educational and employment opportunities and provides each one with a personal staff advisor, and a Senior Outreach and Support Services center which states its mission is to “promote independence, self determination, and alleviate isolation” for seniors who are 60 and older.

A few homeless people who were interviewed complained that St. Anthony’s had some staff who were rude and that they were kicked out of the dining hall; other homeless within the area refuted those claims saying St. Anthony’s has nice staff and only kicks people out who cause trouble.

“It’s a good place and good people. Everybody is so kind and so respectful and everything is under control.” Said John Henderson, a tall and skinny 57-year-old homeless black man who has only been living in San Francisco for close to two months because he recently moved there from Phoenix, Arizona. “It’s pretty cool because they’re under control because yesterday I saw at Glide [Memorial Church which also has services for the poor and low income] and they were handing out food boxes and people were just rushing in and the woman in charge there was freaking out and so she just sat down. That would never happen at St. Anthony’s.”

“And they clean too!” Henderson said laughing with a grin on his face referring to the fact that there are no drugs allowed in the premises. “Not that Glide ain’t clean if you know what I mean.”

“We [also] have a whole division that deals with justice education and advocacy to change the system that brings people to our doorstep.” Said Stenger. “We hear a lot of appreciation from the people we serve. We get a lot of testimony from our clients who have become clean and sober. Sometimes we have to push them a little to get them out the door because they love the [foundation] so much because it has changed their lives.”

Saturday, March 19, 2005

NASA‘s Saturn exploration spacecraft, Cassini, has discovered an atmosphere about the moon Enceladus. This is the first such discovery by Cassini, other than Titan, of the presence of an atmosphere around a Saturn moon.

Enceladus’s gravity is too weak to hold an atmosphere around the planet, leading scientists to believe that volcanism, geysers, or gases escaping from the surface or the interior as a continuous source for the atmosphere.

The atmosphere was detected using a magnetometer during two close flybys of Enceladus on February 17 and March 9. The magnetometer is used to measure the magnitude and direction of magnetic fields surrounding Saturn and its moons. The magnetometer detected a bending of Saturn’s magnetic field around the moon, indicating the Saturnian plasma is being diverted away from an extended atmosphere. The observations from the Enceladus flybys are believed to be due to ionized water vapor.

“These new results from Cassini may be the first evidence of gases originating either from the surface or possibly from the interior of Enceladus,” said Dr. Michele Dougherty, principal investigator for the Cassini magnetometer and professor at Imperial College in London.

Scientists have suspected Enceladus as geologically active and a possible source of Saturn’s icy E ring. Enceladus is the most reflective object in the solar system, reflecting about 90 percent of the sunlight that hits it.

Cassini first arrived in Saturn orbit July 1, 2004, releasing the Huygens Titan probe on December 25, 2004 which landed on Titan January 14, 2005.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.