Sunday, December 21, 2008

The British government has decided to sell off its stake in the British nuclear weapon manufacturer, Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE). The move has been met with anger and claims of cover up by the opposition parties. The news was broken by Jacobs Engineering, the California based company who bought the government’s shares, and by a single line comment on the British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) website. British Nuclear Fuels plc, a government owned company, held one third of the shares in AWE’s operating company, with British firm Serco and American defence contractor Lockheed Martin each having a further third. The Atomic Weapons Establishment, which is based in Aldermaston, produces the warheads for the Lockheed Martin Trident D5 missile used by the Royal Navy’s Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines.

The details of the deal have not been published, though opposition Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable suggested the deal was “probably in the millions rather than the billions”, echoing fears that the firm may have been undervalued in its sale. Both the methods of the deal’s announcement and the deal itself have been attacked by both opposition parties. There is anger in some quarters over the deal being revealed on a website rather than through the commons, the Liberal Democrats describing such a failure as staggering. The Liberal Democrats have also raised the issue of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, their defence spokesman Nick Harvey questioned “The whole argument used for Britain having a separate weapons establishment is that this is required by the non-proliferation treaty, as technology sharing is not allowed. We must therefore query the rationale of a US company having a majority shareholding in AWE. How does this all square?”

The Tories have also raised doubts over the decision, with Commons Public Accounts Select Committee member Richard Bacon suggesting that they may involve the National Audit Office. The Tory defence spokesperson, Gerald Howarth, commented that the firm was “critical” and said “What I’m absolutely determined is that the United Kingdom should have total control of its independent nuclear capability”. Mr Howarth criticised handing over control to American firms, saying that the British people would want to know “their politicians are in command of the research and development of this capability”.

The Ministry of Defence has defended the decision, saying “the UK Government not AWE that sets the UK’s nuclear policy”. The MoD also assured that the sale would have no affect on the independence of the British nuclear deterrent or on the safe operation of AWE. These statements have been backed up by news from the government that it has retained the ability to re-assert control over the site should it feel the need, due to a “Special Share”.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

The French Space Agency will publish its UFO archive online by late January or mid-February. Most of the 6,000 reports have been filed by the public and airline professionals. Jacques Arnould, an official for the French Space Agency, said that the data had accumulated over a 30 year period and that they were often reported to the Gendarmerie.

Often they are made to the Gendarmerie, which provides an official witness statement … and some come from airline pilots – Jacques Arnould

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

University of California, Berkeley scientists have published a report in Nature that says Mars was once covered by massive oceans.

In the 1980’s the Viking spacecraft sent back images to NASA that had shown thousands of kilometers of ancient shorelines, known as Arabia and Deuteronilus, on the north and south poles of Mars, but the Mars Global Surveyor got a closer look of the shorelines and photographed a 300 meter length of the two shorelines in the 1990’s. Those images had shown that the alleged shorelines were too warped and rugged to have been created by water or an ocean.

But the new study now shows that due to a tilting in the axis of Mars by nearly 3,000 kilometers over a period of 2 or 3 billion years, the shorelines might actually have to be more rugged as the water settled, creating land formations that would rise and fall during this process.

“When the spin axis moves relative to the surface, the surface deforms, and that is recorded in the shoreline,”said Michael Manga, a UC Professor and a co-author of the study.

“On planets like Mars and Earth that have an outer shell, or lithosphere, that behaves elastically, the solid surface will deform differently than the sea surface, creating a non-uniform change in the topography,” said Taylor Perron the primary author of the study and who is now attending classes Harvard University‘s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences to receive his postdoctoral degree.

Mars is said to have an elastic crust and the study shows why the shorelines vary so much in elevation with Arabia at 2.5 kilometers and Deuteronilus at 0.7 kilometers.

“This is a beautiful result that Taylor got. The mere fact that you can explain a good fraction of the information about the shorelines with such a simple model is just amazing. It’s something I never would have guessed at the outset. This really confirms that there was an ocean on Mars,” said Mark Richards, a professor at UC Berkley of earth and planetary science and study co-author.

The study says that as little as a 50 degree shift in the Martian axis, could cause a significant change in the elevation of the shorelines of Arabia, as much as 3,000 k.m.. As little as a 20 degree shift could do the same with Deuteronilus, but with a 700 k.m. change in the shoreline elevation.

It is estimated that the shorelines on Mars were created between 2 and 4 billion years ago.

[edit]

Sunday, November 6, 2016

The following is the sixth and final edition of a monthly series chronicling the U.S. 2016 presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

In this month’s edition on the campaign trail: the Free & Equal Foundation holds a presidential debate with three little-known candidates; three additional candidates give their final pleas to voters; and past Wikinews interviewees provide their electoral predictions ahead of the November 8 election.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Diamond Brownridge, a 5-year old girl from Chicago, Illinois, has died after a visit to the dentist. Children’s Memorial Hospital officials say that the girl was rushed to the hospital when she never woke up after being sedated for a dental procedure. She had been in a coma, on life support, since being admitted to the hospital early in the weekend.

“She passed very peacefully and beautifully,” said the hospital in a statement that the family issued.

Ommettress Travis, the mother of the girl, was asked not to remain inside the room while dentists were operating on the girl to repair two cavities and to have at least two caps replaced. Travis says after thirty minutes she was asked to come back in and found Brownridge not breathing, in the dentist chair.

Hicham Riba, a specialist and professional in anesthesia, who was also licensed, was the dentist in charge of the procedure.

“My family and I are so sad. May God bless Diamond and her family. Every time you have a tragedy like this, you pray more. I don’t think I will ever go back to a normal life after an experience like this,” Riba said in a statement on Wednesday, September 28.

According to the family, the girl had been given at least a triple dose of medicine that sedated her. Those drugs include: nitrous oxide gas, a single dose of an “oral agent” and an IV.

A judge has ordered that all equipment and materials used during the operation be protected and examined. The girl’s medical records have also been ordered to be examined.

There is no word on whether or not any charges will be filed against Riba or any of the dentist’s staff.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Right Honourable Gordon Brown PC MP, in a speech to the British House of Commons today presented his ninth Budget, what is very likely to be his last Budget before the next UK General Election. This opened the parliamentary debate on the 2005 Finance Bill, and was followed by responses from the opposition parties.

In a 48 minute long speech, the Chancellor presented a Budget of “tax cuts that are reasonable, spending that is affordable, and [economic] stability that is paramount”, that was “the prudent course for Britain”. There were few surprises that had not already been indicated in his 2004 pre-Budget report. The increase in the threshold on stamp duty was greater than that forecast by commentators, as was the amount of the Council Tax rebate to households with pensioners.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Carbon monoxide poisoning is thought to have been the cause of the deaths of three people and one Jack Russell dog in a caravan park in Cornwall in South West England. Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) were alerted to the incident in Tremarle Home Park in the town of Camborne at 12:56 UTC on Saturday.

Inspector David Eldridge said Devon and Cornwall Police were alerted to the caravan park incident after “a helper had been unable to get a reply from an elderly couple who lived in the caravan”. He said that upon their arrival, “We were able to see that there was a figure sat in a chair but they were unresponsive to knocks at the door.” CFRS workers called to the area “forced entry into the property and found that the three occupants were all dead”, Inspector Eldridge said. A hazardous material advisor was also present at the scene in North Roskear. The Health and Safety Executive is now investigating the incident but the deaths are not considered as being of a suspicious nature.

The three fatalities have been identified as Audrey Cook, aged 86, her husband Alfred, aged 90, and Maureen, their 46-year-old daughter. David Biggs, a member of Camborne Town Council, said the incident came as “a shock” to him; Tremarle Home Park is “a well established facility and is very well run”, according to him. Biggs described the loss of three lives as an “appalling tragedy”.

The incident came five days after Cornwall Council announced its Family Placement Service would launch a joint venture with Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service to place carbon monoxide detectors in the houses of foster carers. The programme, entitled ‘Be Gas Safe’, has seen 200 carbon monoxide detectors and 2000 leaflets to raise awareness about carbon monoxide being given to CFRS. Mark Blatchford, Group Manager of CFRS, said: “We have seen a big increase in the number of carbon monoxide incidents in Cornwall over recent years”. He described carbon monoxide detectors as being “as important as a smoke alarm as it provides a valuable early warning”.

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous, colourless, tasteless and odourless gas which is created when such carbon-based fuels as oil, gas, coal and wood are not completely incinerated. The human body’s capacity to hold oxygen in the blood can be reduced by inhalation of the gas, which in turn may cause death. The Gas Safe Register has said dizziness, headaches, queasiness, lack of ability to breathe, fainting and losing consciousness are all symptoms of a person experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Singer and song writer Lady Gaga has warned her fans attending concerts about “hateful” protests that are set to take place during a concert she will be having tonight in St. Louis, Missouri. The Westboro Baptist Church will be protesting outside the venue during her concert. Gaga warned of these protests on her Twitter page.

“At the risk of drawing attention to a hateful organization, I would like to make my little monster fan [sic] aware of a protest being held outside the Monsterball in St.Louis tonight. Although we have had protesters before, as well as fundamentalists at the show this group of protesters are hate criminals and preach using lude [sic] and violent language and imagery that I wish I [could] protect you all from.”

The Church, based in Topeka, Kansas and not affiliated with any Baptist organization, had planned to protest at Gaga’s prior concerts held in St. Louis. The most recent protest was scheduled in January and was later canceled prior to the concert. According to Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesperson for the church, “[God] hates homosexuals and God hates fags [and] God hates whore Gaga,” which is why the group plans a protest at tonight’s concert.

“So when she gets up there and tries to hook God with that thing He calls an abomination; if you love what God hates, then God hates you,” said Phelps-Roper in January. According to the church’s website, the protest begins at 7:10 p.m. and lasts until 8:00 p.m.. “Now what type of wicked hypocrites would we be if we did not warn this little false prophetess and all of her over-indulged sycophants that they are each one, individually heading straight to hell in a gender-confused, self-loathing, tone-deaf hand basket and that a gift from the God they hate? So, we made a couple of songs just for this event,” said their website.

Gaga tells her fans to not listen to the group. “My request to all little monsters and public authority is to pay these hate criminals no mind. Do not interact with them, or try to fight. Do not respond to any of their provocation. Don’t waste your words, or feelings, no matter what you hear or see. You are more fortunate and blessed than they are, and in your heart just pray for them. Be inspired to ignore their ignorant message, and feel gratitude in your heart that you are not burdened or addicted to hate, as they are.”

The Church plans two other protests at her concerts in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on July 20 and Kansas City, Missouri on August 3.