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Friday, April 6, 2012

Yesterday, the United States Coast Guard went through with its plans to fire its cannons on the Ry? Un Maru, a Japanese ship that was sent out to sea last year by the tsunami that hit Japan.

The Ry? Un Maru has made a journey across the Pacific Ocean from Hachinohe, Japan to the Gulf of Alaska and ended up about 180 miles from the Alaskan shore. Coast Guard spokesman Paul Webb said sinking the vessel would be “less risky than it would be running into shore or running into [maritime] traffic”. The plan was for a Coast Guard cutter to hole the Ryou-un Maru with fire from a range of several hundred feet, and let it sink.

Prior to the sinking of the Ry? Un Maru, a Canadian fishing vessel claimed salvage rights. Webb said they would postpone their plans to sink the 164-foot Ry? Un Maru, to allow the 62-foot Bernice C to attempt to tow it; if the Canadians were not able to tow the abandoned vessel it would be sunk as planned.

After arrival the Canadians learned they could not tow the vessel and the Coast Guard proceeded with their plans. An HC-130 Hercules airplane observed the sinking of the Ry? Un Maru and warned ships in the area of a “live fire exercise”. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Anacapa firing a 25mm cannon sank the Ry? Un Maru, which had been scheduled to be scrapped prior to the 2011 tsunami.

Officials said they didn’t know how much diesel fuel the vessel, which could hold over 2,000 gallons, was carrying. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Environmental Protection Agency looked into this issue and came to the conclusion that sinking the ship and letting the fuel evaporate in open water was the best course of action.

According to Alaska state health and environmental officials, tsunami debris should not cause significant concern of radiation contamination to the shores of Alaska.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hundreds of thousands of air travelers had their travel plans disrupted in Europe by volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

Tens of thousands of air travelers were stranded when all flights into and out of the United Kingdom were grounded, as it became one of the first nations to be affected. The grounding was even more extensive than that following the September 11 attacks of 2001 when only trans-Atlantic flights were canceled.

Eurocontrol released a statement saying “…most air traffic in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden is suspended.”

The grounding is because the volcanic ash drawn into the jet stream is of a particle size which allows it to remain aloft in the atmosphere. Ingestion of this foreign matter, because of its distribution, would lead to flame outs in all aircraft engines. The composition of the ash also means that it would first melt into glass if it were to enter the engine of an aircraft before solidifying again as it cooled. This could lead to damage to the compressors and fan blades, which would make it impossible to restart the engines, even if the aircraft were to exit the cloud.

The current contingency is informed by the experience of British Airways Flight 9, which on June 24, 1982 suffered just such complete engine flame outs when it flew through the plume of Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. In that case, the flight crew after many efforts was able to restart the engines, though one failed shortly after, and the aircraft landed without casualties.

The UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has stated that “restrictions will remain in place in UK controlled airspace until 1300 (UK time) tomorrow, Friday 16 April, at the earliest,” and that “We will review further Met Office information and at 0230 (UK time) tomorrow we will advise the arrangements that will be in place through to 1800 (UK time) tomorrow.” The NATS statement concluded “…the situation cannot be said to be improving”.

In addition to Northern Europe, the ash is drifting south; Berlin and Hamburg airports in Germany are closed, and airports in the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France are described as now being closed or closing. Some flights from Spain and Portugal, together with upwards of 4,000 flights across Northern Europe, have been affected, and the knock-on effect of aircraft and crews out of position could disrupt air travel worldwide for up to 72 hours.

One affected group are British musicians booked to play at this weekend’s Coachella Festival in California. Amongst those stranded are Frightened Rabbit, Gary Numan, The Cribs and Bad Lieutenant.

Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Three miners have escaped uninjured after being trapped underground by a mineshaft fire on Tasmania’s west coast. The men took shelter in a chamber more than a kilometre underground. A worker noticed smoke coming from a shaft at Avebury nickel mine on Trial Harbour Road near Zeehan at 7.45am.

The blaze started after a truck working 400 metres underground toppled and caught fire. It took nearly five hours for rescue teams to bring the blaze under control, move the burning truck and reach the trapped miners.

Allegiance Mining chairman Tony Howland-Rose said the workers were safe. “The emergency response procedures in place at Avebury were activated and resulted in the vehicle fire being extinguished and the safe rescue of the miners,” Mr Howland-Rose said.

Ambulance crews say the men appear to be in good health. Queenstown Police Inspector Mark Beech-Jones says rescue workers reached the men just before midday.

“We’ve dispatched a number of ambulance service personnel there just to give them a check up but from our initial discussions with them, they are fine,” he said.

The Avebury nickel mine is a new project for the Sydney-based company – Allegiance Mining. Allegiance suspended trading on the stock exchange this morning. Mr Howland-Rose said the suspension of trading would be in place until it became clear what had happened at the mine.

The mine is undergoing a $60 million redevelopment and was due to resume mining later this year.

Friday, July 31, 2009

The President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, has chosen a new National Police Chief. Provincial transport minister Bheki Cele will replace Jackie Selebi, who is awaiting the outcome on charges of corruption.

Zuma said in a statement to the press that the appointment is “integral” to the government’s plan of reducing the country’s crime levels within five years. South Africa has a high crime rate and, on average, has nearly 50 murders a day.

“I would like one day for a young girl to be able to walk alone from a nightclub or elsewhere without any fear of attack, abuse or rape. You can’t be soft, you can’t be moving around kissing crime. You need to be tough because you are dealing with tough guys,” Zuma said to reporters at a press conference.

Former Chief Selebi was suspended in early 2008 over claims that he accepted payments of 1.2 million rand ($133,000) from Glenn Agliotti, who was convicted of drug smuggling. Authorities claim Selebi also housed and protected a drug lord.

Opposition leaders criticized Celen’s appointment as Police Chief, calling it a political stunt. They state that Celen has never worked on a police force and will lack the ability to reduce crime.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Gabriel Amorth, the Roman Catholic Church’s leading exorcist, has suggested missing schoolgirl Emanuela Orlandi was kidnapped for sexual abuse at orgies attended by foreign diplomats and arranged by Vatican police. Orlandi was fifteen when she vanished in 1983.

Amorth, 85, who was appointed by the late Pope John Paul II, makes his remarks as Italian police try to determine if bones buried near the body of a mobster belong to Orlandi. Anonymous claims have suggested the tomb of Enrico “Renatino” De Pedis contains clues to her disappearance.

Investigators are examining bones removed from his burial site in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare. Buried in a nearby crypt, the bones are thought to be centuries old but forensic tests are ongoing. One theory is Pedis kidnapped Orlandi to press Vatican officials over a financial dispute, with his onetime lover claiming her body was disposed of in a cement mixer.

Amorth refutes this explanation, and also an alleged “international dimension”; another theory is that the kidnapping was to try and secure freedom for Mehmet Ali Agca of Turkey, who shot at the pope in 1981. Orlandi’s vanishing “was a crime with a sexual motive” says Amorth. “Parties were organised, with a Vatican gendarme [policeman] acting as the ‘recruiter’ of the girls.”

He further told La Stampa “The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle”. “It has already previously been stated by [the late] monsignor Simeone Duca, an archivist at the Vatican, who was asked to recruit girls for parties with the help of the Vatican gendarmes.”

Orlandi has not been seen since she set off from the family apartment in the Vatican City, heading for a Rome music lesson. Orlandi’s father worked for the Holy See. Amorth is a controversial priest who lays claim to thousands of exorcisms and has criticised activities such as yoga and children reading Harry Potter books as spiritually harmful.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Nine year old giant panda Yuan Yuan has given birth to a cub in a zoo in Taipei, Taiwan on Saturday at 8:05pm local time. The female cub was born weighing 6.4 ounces and measuring 6.1 inches. The cub won’t be on public display for another three to five months.

The cub, born out of an artificial insemination given in March, is under intensive care for its first week of life. It was the seventh attempt to get the nine-year old Yuan Yuan pregnant in a three year period. Yuan Yuan, and her mate, Tuan Tuan, were a gift from China to Taiwan in December, 2008, as a gesture of goodwill due to historical conflicts between the island of Taiwan and mainland China. The two pandas have failed to mate successfully through natural pregnancy, hence the use of artificial insemination. Yuan Yuan showed signs of pregnancy in early June and towards the end of the month caretakers believed she would soon give birth. Caretakers spent the night at the zoo, keeping a constant watch over Yuan Yuan during her birth.

China usually requests that cubs born in other countries be returned to China for care. China has agreed to allow the newborn cub to remain in Taiwan. Two Chinese panda specialists are at the zoo helping to care for the newborn.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Google announced today that they are developing Google Chrome OS. The operating system, announced on their official blog, will be based on their Chrome browser, which is now nine months old.

Google said that at first it will be targeted toward netbooks, but in the future, will eventually expand. The company said that it will continue to be developed alongside Android, their operating system currently being used on mobile devices.

The system will run in a windowing system atop a Linux kernel and will be fully open source. It is planned to be released in 2010. On their blog, Google said, “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds,” said the blog post written by Sundar Pichai, Vice President Product Management, and Google’s engineering director, Linus Upson.

Both men said that “the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web” and that the new OS is “our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be”.