Saturday, July 12, 2008

Michael Ellis DeBakey, world renowned heart surgeon, has died in Houston, Texas at the age of 99.

He was born Michel Dabaghi on September 7, 1908 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Lebanese immigrants Shaker and Raheeja DeBakey.

DeBakey was the chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and director of The DeBakey Heart Center of Baylor and the Methodist Hospital.

DeBakey pioneered the use of Dacron grafts to replace or repair blood vessels. In 1958, to counteract narrowing of an artery caused by an endarterectomy, DeBakey performed the first successful patch-graft angioplasty. This procedure involved patching the slit in the artery from an endarterectomy with a Dacron or vein graft. The patch widened the artery so that when it closed the channel of the artery returned to normal size. The DeBakey artificial graft is now used around the world to replace or repair blood vessels.

Friday, December 1, 2006

The U.S. government warned private financial services that al Qaeda is planning a cyber attack on the U.S. stock and bank accounts, officials said on Thursday.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke says: “There is no information to corroborate this aspirational threat. As a routine matter and out of an abundance of caution, US-CERT issued the situational awareness report to industry stakeholders.”

The officials said that the attacks are aimed at destroying the databases of U.S. banking and stock market web sites. The Homeland Security group claims that the threat was for all of December.

A U.S. official said that the threat was posted on an website and called for the attack to avenge the imprisonment of Muslims in the Guantanamo detention camp.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Presidential aides and state television announced yesterday that the Nigerian president, Umaru Yar’Adua, died.

Yar’Adua ascended to the presidency in 2007, but was later taken ill, and had not been publicly seen for the last few months. He was hospitalised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to get inflammated tissue around his heart treated; it was later diagnosed as acute pericarditis.

According to the BBC, Nigerian reports indicated the president died between 21.00 and 22.00 local time (20.00 to 21.00 UTC) in Abuja, the capital.

Goodluck Jonathan, the vice-president, became the acting president this February; under the constitution, he is to now be sworn in formally and will appoint a new vice-president.

The Nigerian Television Authority broadcast the news, saying: “The president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, died a few hours ago at the presidential villa. Security aides notified the national security adviser, General Anou Bissou, who immediately called the acting president. The late president has been ill for some time.”

Ima Niboro, a spokesman for Goodluck Jonathan, commented: “The acting president is very sad with what has happened. The nation is mourning.” Tomorrow is to be a national holiday, and Nigeria will observe a week of mourning for the deceased president.

In his statement, acting president Jonathan said: “Nigeria has lost the jewel on its crown, and even the heavens mourn with our nation tonight.”

Thursday, September 20, 2007

A highly dynamic Bluetongue (or catarrhal fever) infection of sheep herds is underway in Germany. From August 2006 till September 9, 2007, 1,833 farms had reported the presence of the infection. From Sept 9. till September 14, 2007, the number of farms reporting infections has grown to 5,686. The number of deaths is estimated around 15,000 sheep.

Bluetongue infection is of viral origin and is harmless to humans. It is an insect-borne viral disease of ruminants, mainly sheep and less frequently of cattle, goats, buffalo, deer, dromedary camels and antelope. There are no reports of human transmission.

The origin of the infection is not clear but it is one of the diseases which is still feared to invade Northern Europe as a consequence of global warming. No official sources are as yet available as the affected sheep farmers have tried to get the news on the media but to no avail.

The disease has also been found in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The United Kingdom Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs says the virus could spread from Northern Europe to the UK, but is unlikely.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Mainstream rock singer Brian Melo has been crowned winner of Canadian Idol 2007 (Season five). The 25-year old Hamilton, Ontario native sang in front of an audience at the Air Canada Place in Toronto, Ontario. The show was two-hours.

Seventeen year old Johnny Cash and Elvis-inspired country singer Jaydee Bixby of Drumheller, Alberta finished in second.

The Canadian Idol Top 10 started off the show last night singing Jon Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”.

The top 10, and a duet with the top two, did several performances throughout the show.

Canadian-International pop-rock singer Avril Lavigne performed “Hot” and “When You’re Gone” from her third new album the “Best Damn Thing”.

Season four winner of Canadian Idol, Eva Avila performed her song “Fallin’ For You”. Melo and Bixby presented her with gold and platinum disk awards for her debut single “Meant To Fly” and her debut album “Somewhere Else”.

Country-rock singer Jon Bon Jovi, who mentored the singers for Monday’s performances, sang their new song “Lost Highway” and 2000 song “It’s My Life”.

Canadian Idol allowed auditioners, their top 22, and top 10 to perform with instruments this year. No other Idol shows have allowed this. Top ten competitors Greg Neufeld sang and performed with his guitar and Dwight d’Eon sang and performed with his electrical guitar, with the top 10 last night.

Canadian Idol’s official top 3 competitors, including top three’s eliminated Carly Rae Jepson from Mission, British Columbia, are set to have an “Idol Winner’s” tour across 15 Canadian cities this fall. The tour will start November 18, 2007 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. They are expected to tour cities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. It finishes with a final show in Edmonton, Alberta on December 12, 2007.

It’s the first tour the show has ever done.

Melo, the winner, was a construction worker in Hamilton. He auditioned at the nearby Toronto auditions.

At the beginning of the season Bixby and Melo appeared as stiff performers but changed drastically throughout the weeks. Melo was in the bottom three, three times.

“Just remember that you are so privileged and enjoy every minute but you never know how long it’s going to last,” Avila said before the winner was announced by host Ben Mulroney.

An estimated five million votes were cast following Monday’s performances.

Local Hamiltonians gathered last night at Hamilton Place Theatre. Approximately 2,000 fans were there. Most people and fans from, or around, the town of Drumheller gathered in a local hockey rink to show their support for Bixby.

Melo’s new single “All I Ever Wanted” will be released on radio’s and online music stores through Sony BMG Music Canada at 12:00am on September 13, 2007. His debut album will be out this winter.

“I want to grow and get better with each album. I want to be an international star, I’m thinking of big things. I want to hit the American market, I want to hit the European market as much as I can,” Melo said.

Melo says he will go the full way and write songs for his album. He also said he has planned dates to meet with songwriters for some input on what he’ll write.

“But being in this process, there’s been so many songwriters, so many great musicians that haven’t gotten the credit . . . that they deserve. So hopefully I’ll be able to change that,” Melo said.

“‘Keep positive, keep on the positive side of things’,” Bixby said. “And you know, there’s nothing negative about coming in second in a national audition, so I’m very happy. I’m glad I made my parents proud.”

“I didn’t think a year ago that I would be standing here. If it wasn’t for the fans, my friends, my family and everyone in the Hammer… (Hamilton) It’s been amazing,” said Melo.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Television producer and owner of the anti-Scientology website www.xenutv.com (XenuTV), Mark Bunker, also known as Wise Beard Man, chatted online with Wikinews for nearly three hours. More than 120 people followed the interview live (many from Project Chanology), which makes this exclusive Wikinews interview our most attended IRC interview to date.

Bunker started XenuTV in 1999 and began to make videos that he provided for the Lisa McPherson Trust. Bunker has been a critic of the Church of Scientology since 1997.

In 2006, he won a Regional Emmy Award after he and KUSI-TV news reporter Lena Lewis produced a documentary news video on the issues with the United States – Mexico border with San Diego, California.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Disney president John Lasseter has announced that British actor Timothy Dalton will be voicing a character in Toy Story 3.

Dalton, who previously starred as James Bond in Licence to Kill and The Living Daylights, will star as a thespian hedgehog called Mr. Pricklypants in Toy Story 3, a film which is due for release in June 2010. Mr. Pricklypants is described as “a hedgehog toy with thespian tendencies”.

John Lasseter, Disney/Pixar Chief Creative Officer, made the announcement at a Disney Animation Showcase in London, England on Thursday. At the same event it was announced that Mandy Moore would star in a cartoon based on the fairytale Rapunzel and that a James Bond-style character will appear in upcoming Disney/Pixar film Cars 2. In August 2009, it was also announced that Michael Keaton — from the movie Cars — would voice Ken, the boyfriend to Barbie in the film.

John Lasseter originally announced the plans for the third film in the franchise in January 2008 and said that people would be “blown away” by it. He proclaimed: “It [Toy Story 3] is shaping up to be another great adventure for Buzz, Woody and the gang from Andy’s room.”

Tuesday, December 7, 2004

EUROPE — Lycos Europe has ended its anti-spam operation: “Make Love Not Spam.” A company spokesperson said the objective of the time-limited campaign was to raise people’s awareness. The reasons why it ended the campaign was variously reported and speculated in media. The operation, while fairly popular, suffered unexpected troubles and drew criticism from security experts and others from the start.

The company started distributing a screensaver on November 29, 2004 on makelovenotspam.com. Once installed, the computer would send HTTP requests to spammers’ servers when not in use. The intent was to raise the running costs of those servers. Lycos coordinated these requests by choosing targets from lists generated by organizations such as Spamcop.com. The servers were monitored so as to keep them under heavy load, but alive.

Security experts roundly criticized the program. Steve Linford, director of a non-profit anti-spam organization SpamHaus, and Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant of Sophos, pointed out that lowering moral standards to fight spammers was not a good idea. The legality of attacking the servers was also debated since it resembles “Distributed Denial of Service” attacks (DDoS), except that Lycos did not completely shut down the target servers.

Other troubles arose. The day after the campaign was launched, there was an alleged takeover of the web site’s top page by a cracker. The page was replaced with a warning against the use of the screensaver, according to a screenshot sent via email to the Finnish security firm F-Secure. A Lycos spokesperson said that the screenshot was a hoax: there was no trace of intrusion in the server log and the site was simply unavailable due to a high demand.

Some Internet service providers blocked either the traffic to Lycos-Europe, or the requests generated by the screensaver.

Next, one of the targeted sites redirected all traffic to the Lycos’ server, making Lycos itself a target. The company had maintained that its server was immune from the attack. Lycos stopped distributing the program on December 3, 2004 and asked clients to “stay tuned.” The company later ended the program.

On December 6, F-Secure reported a virus email disguised as the anti-spam screensaver. When its attachment (a zip file) is opened, it self-extracts and installs a “Trojan horse” –harmful program disguised as legitimate software. The Trojan horse was set up to monitor keystrokes in order to steal passwords, bank account numbers and other important information.

Lycos’ software had been downloaded more than 100,000 times by the end of the campaign.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Sweden’s first royal wedding since 1976 took place Saturday when Crown Princess Victoria, 32, married her long-time boyfriend and former personal trainer, Daniel Westling, 36. The ceremony took place at Stockholm Cathedral.

Over 1,200 guests, including many rulers, politicians, royals and other dignitaries from across the world, attended the wedding, which cost an estimated 20 million Swedish kronor. Victoria wore a wedding dress with five-metre long train designed by Pär Engsheden. She wore the same crown that her mother, Queen Silvia, wore on her wedding day 34 years previously, also on June 19. Victoria’s father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, walked Victoria down the aisle, which was deemed untraditional by many. In Sweden, the bride and groom usually walk down the aisle together, emphasising the country’s views on equality. Victoria met with Daniel half-way to the altar, where they exchanged brief kisses, and, to the sounds of the wedding march, made their way to the the silver altar. She was followed by ten bridesmaids. The couple both had tears in their eyes as they said their vows, and apart from fumbling when they exchanged rings, the ceremony went smoothly.

Following the ceremony, the couple headed a fast-paced procession through central Stockholm on a horse-drawn carriage, flanked by police and security. Up to 500,000 people are thought to have lined the streets. They then boarded the Vasaorden, the same royal barge Victoria’s parents used in their wedding, and traveled through Stockholm’s waters, accompanied by flyover of 18 fighter jets near the end of the procession. A wedding banquet followed in the in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace.

Controversy has surrounded the engagement and wedding between the Crown Princess and Westling, a “commoner”. Victoria met Westling as she was recovering from bulemia in 2002. He owned a chain of gymnasiums and was brought in to help bring Victoria back to full health. Westling was raised in a middle-class family in Ockelbo, in central Sweden. His father managed a social services centre, and his mother worked in a post office. When the relationship was made public, Westling was mocked as an outsider and the king was reportedly horrified at the thought of his daughter marrying a “commoner”, even though he did so when he married Silvia. Last year, Westling underwent transplant surgery for a congenital kidney disorder. The Swedish public have been assured that he will be able to have children and that his illness will not be passed on to his offspring.

Westling underwent years of training to prepare for his new role in the royal family, including lessons in etiquette, elocution, and multi-lingual small talk; and a makeover that saw his hair being cropped short, and his plain-looking glasses and clothes being replaced by designer-wear.

Upon marrying the Crown Princess, Westling took his wife’s ducal title and is granted the style “His Royal Highness”. He is now known as HRH Prince Daniel, Duke of Västergötland. He also has his own coat-of-arms and monogram. When Victoria assumes the throne and becomes Queen, Daniel will not become King, but assume a supportive role, similar to that of Prince Phillip, the husband of the United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

NASA’s Cassini–Huygens spacecraft has discovered evidence for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The data came from the spacecraft’s direct analysis of salt-rich ice grains close to the jets ejected from the moon. The study has been published in this week’s edition of the journal Nature.

Data from Cassini’s cosmic dust analyzer show the grains expelled from fissures, known as tiger stripes, are relatively small and usually low in salt far away from the moon. Closer to the moon’s surface, Cassini found that relatively large grains rich with sodium and potassium dominate the plumes. The salt-rich particles have an “ocean-like” composition and indicate that most, if not all, of the expelled ice and water vapor comes from the evaporation of liquid salt-water. When water freezes, the salt is squeezed out, leaving pure water ice behind.

Cassini’s ultraviolet imaging spectrograph also recently obtained complementary results that support the presence of a subsurface ocean. A team of Cassini researchers led by Candice Hansen of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, measured gas shooting out of distinct jets originating in the moon’s south polar region at five to eight times the speed of sound, several times faster than previously measured. These observations of distinct jets, from a 2010 flyby, are consistent with results showing a difference in composition of ice grains close to the moon’s surface and those that made it out to the E ring, the outermost ring that gets its material primarily from Enceladean jets. If the plumes emanated from ice, they should have very little salt in them.

“There currently is no plausible way to produce a steady outflow of salt-rich grains from solid ice across all the tiger stripes other than salt water under Enceladus’s icy surface,” said Frank Postberg, a Cassini team scientist at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

The data suggests a layer of water between the moon’s rocky core and its icy mantle, possibly as deep as about 50 miles (80 kilometers) beneath the surface. As this water washes against the rocks, it dissolves salt compounds and rises through fractures in the overlying ice to form reserves nearer the surface. If the outermost layer cracks open, the decrease in pressure from these reserves to space causes a plume to shoot out. Roughly 400 pounds (200 kilograms) of water vapor is lost every second in the plumes, with smaller amounts being lost as ice grains. The team calculates the water reserves must have large evaporating surfaces, or they would freeze easily and stop the plumes.

“We imagine that between the ice and the ice core there is an ocean of depth and this is somehow connected to the surface reservoir,” added Postberg.

The Cassini mission discovered Enceladus’ water-vapor and ice jets in 2005. In 2009, scientists working with the cosmic dust analyzer examined some sodium salts found in ice grains of Saturn’s E ring but the link to subsurface salt water was not definitive. The new paper analyzes three Enceladus flybys in 2008 and 2009 with the same instrument, focusing on the composition of freshly ejected plume grains. In 2008, Cassini discovered a high “density of volatile gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as organic materials, some 20 times denser than expected” in geysers erupting from the moon. The icy particles hit the detector target at speeds between 15,000 and 39,000 MPH (23,000 and 63,000 KPH), vaporizing instantly. Electrical fields inside the cosmic dust analyzer separated the various constituents of the impact cloud.

“Enceladus has got warmth, water and organic chemicals, some of the essential building blocks needed for life,” said Dennis Matson in 2008, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“This finding is a crucial new piece of evidence showing that environmental conditions favorable to the emergence of life can be sustained on icy bodies orbiting gas giant planets,” said Nicolas Altobelli, the European Space Agency’s project scientist for Cassini.

“If there is water in such an unexpected place, it leaves possibility for the rest of the universe,” said Postberg.