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Monday, June 2, 2008
Forest Glen, Queensland —Overnight rain following rain earlier in the week has caused the grounds at Sunshine Coast Grammar School to flood. The school has been closed and any students who showed up were sent home.
There is the possibility that senior classes will not go ahead tomorrow, as much of the lower floor of the resource center has been flooded.
The school was closed early and staff sent home due to workplace health and safety issues and the lack of accessibility to other parts of the Sunshine Coast.
No major incidents have been reported, although one car was caught in a creek at the school, the driver having not seen the edge of the road due to the creek running quickly over it. It was towed out safely.
Saturday, June 23, 2018
In order to prevent cheating in high school diploma exams, the Algerian government ordered a series of two-hour nation-wide internet blockades, starting on Wednesday, reports from tech giant Oracle and Agence France-Presse confirmed.
Per the blockage, neither the cellular nor the wired data connections are to provide internet access during the exam hours. Social networking website Facebook has been blocked for the entire period. More than 500 thousand students had to appear for re-examination in June 2016 after question papers were leaked on Facebook. During the re-examinations, there were partial bans on Facebook and Twitter, and during that month, multiple employees working at the education ministry and the exam printers were arrested on suspicion of leaking the exams.
CCTV cameras have been installed at the locations where the exam question papers are printed, and metal detectors have been installed in over 2000 exam centres. According to various reports, around 700 thousand students are due to take the exams, whose results are expected to be declared a month later from July 22. Electronic gadgets are banned from the exam centres.
National education minister Nouria Benghabrit said the decision for the nation-wide blockade was “not comfortable” for the ministry, but it “should not passively stand in front of such a possible leak.” According to internet service provider Algérie Télécom, the move was “aimed at ensuring the high school diploma tests run smoothly.”
Other countries including India and Iraq also have a record of using internet blackouts as preventative measures against cheating during exams.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Controversial and explicit Canadian workplace safety ads have been pulled from television, and paper ads from some bus shelters for the Christmas season. However, the ads will return to air in January.
“It’s totally erroneous to suggest we’re pulling anything,” chairman of the Workplace Safety and Information Board of Ontario, Steve Mahoney said. “Our plan from Day 1 was to stop the ads around the middle of December when most of the advertising that’s in the media is focused on Christmas and purchasing gifts. We just didn’t want to be competing with all that stuff.”
In one of the TV ads a woman accidentally slips on grease on the floor and a large steaming pot falls onto her face, and she starts screaming to death. The ads end with the message “There really are no accidents”.
A paper ads shows a construction worker who is in a pool of blood with a forklift operation manual stuck in his chest. Another with a man who is slit by a “Danger” sign with his leg stuck in a machine. They show the messages: “Lack of training can kill” and the other “Ignoring safety procedures can kill”.
“The critics amount to about 25 per cent rating, and I’m delighted they’re upset about the ads because I wouldn’t want anyone to enjoy watching them.”
The videos have been viewed more than 70,000 times on the Board’s website and are gaining large amounts of views on YouTube.
The transit authorities of Hamilton and Mississauga will show modified advertisements. The transit authority of Guelph will show the ads in bus shelters, but the transit authority of Windsor will not because of the graphic nature.
“We’re not against workplace safety, but this is too graphic,” said Caroline Postma, chair of the Transit Windsor board.
Mississauga city councillour Carolyn Parrish said: “My son-in-law was telling me that they shouldn’t be on in prime time because when [my grandson] watches them he just about bursts into tear. Now he follows his mom around the kitchen to make sure she doesn’t spill grease. And he’s only four. There’s too much of a chance that … people are really badly affected by it, and can’t really do anything about it anyway.” She suggested the ads only be aired to workers with the jobs shown in the commercials.
Mahoney changed the earlier promise to air the ads only after 8:00pm to after 9:00pm at last nights meeting with Mississauga city council.
Mahoney said the commercials and paper ads are not “too graphic at all”. And they are “absolutely appropriate and they’re doing what they’re intended to do, they’re creating what I call a water cooler topic of conversation.”
Ninety-eight Canadian workers so far have been killed on the job this year.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
January’s second Interview of the Month was with Danny O’Brien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on 23 January in IRC.
The EFF is coming off a series of high-profile successes in their campaigns to educate the public, press, and policy makers regarding online rights in a digital world, and defending those rights in the legislature and the courtroom. Their settlement with Sony/BMG, the amazingly confused MGM v Grokster decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the disturbing cases surrounding Diebold have earned the advocacy organization considerable attention.
When asked if the EFF would be interested in a live interview in IRC by Wikinews, the answer was a nearly immediate yes, but just a little after Ricardo Lobo. With two such interesting interview candidates agreeing so quickly, it was hard to say no to either so schedules were juggled to have both. By chance, the timing worked out to have the EFF interview the day before the U.S. Senate schedule hearings concerning the Broadcast flag rule of the FCC, a form of digital rights management which the recording and movie industries have been lobbying hard for – and the EFF has been lobbying hard to prevent.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
London, England — Yesterday Wikinews had the opportunity to tour the Ottobrock wheelchair repair workshops at the Paralympic Village in London.
It is one of a network of workshops at every Paralympic venue. They are run by Ottobrock, which has been repairing wheelchairs at the Paralympics since 1988. The workshop opened on August 22 and will remain until September 10.
The Ottobrock employees include people from 20 countries. Between them, they speak 23 languages. They liken themselves to the pit crew of motor sport — except that they have no idea what sort of equipment they will have to work with. The store room contains 15,000 spare parts, with everything from spare carbon fibre running blades to spare tyres — over 2,000 of them. They stock Ottobrock parts and their competitors’ too, as they have no idea what will arrive at the workshop next. Athletes from around the world bring in all manner of equipment.
The prosthetic technicians have to deal with everything from flat tyres to broken spokes to full-scale rebuilds. They have to be expert problem solvers. They frequently collaborate on determining how best to effect a repair. The objective is to get the wheelchair repaired and back in service as soon as possible.
Wheelchairs vary somewhat in design, depending on the sport. Those for wheelchair basketball and rugby have cambered wheels so they can spin around. Aluminum and titanium parts are used for strength. Ottobrock has a welding workshop where frames are repaired; the teams’ equipment managers understandably cannot bring such heavy equipment with them to the games, so they rely on the workshops. When a repair job is required, it is often required in a hurry. At the Turkey vs United States game, a chair was repaired during the match.
In addition to wheelchairs, the workshops handle all manner of work with prostheses. Carbon fibre running blades are adjusted. Broken feet and legs are a challenge. The Chinese Boccia team brought in its power chairs to have the electronics adjusted. In that sport, having the controls working perfectly is all-important.
There are 4,200 athletes at the Paralympic games. So far, the workshops have carried out 1,100 repairs.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.
If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.
There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”
There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.
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By David Karlson
Cosmetic companies spend millions of dollars on advertising their products. One of these products is face wrinkle cream. Besides using a cream, you can use many other options for looking after your skin. If you smoke, then quitting smoking will go a long way in preserving your skin. What do you think the smoke and chemicals do to your skin? Smoking can speed up the aging process of the skin because it destroys skin cells.
If you eat many processed foods, it would be a good idea to either cut back or eliminate them altogether. Again, we are talking about chemicals entering your body that cannot be good for your complexion. Lifestyle changes go a long way in improving ones skin. If you drink too much alcohol then that is also not good for your skin. Too much of a bad thing will cause your skin to age prematurely. What we are saying here is that you should not rely only on a face wrinkle cream for your complexion; lifestyle changes are just as important.
Many people spend a fortune looking for the perfect face wrinkle cream. Consult with a dermatologist before spending any money on products that are not going to work. In addition to using a good facial cream, your diet should consist of fresh vegetables that are unprocessed, along with fruit as well. Try to eliminate as much processed food as possible.
If you are applying a face wrinkle cream, then the best time to apply it is in the morning and at night before going to bed. Once you have made the appropriate lifestyle changes, do some research on the various facial creams that are available on the market. Again, rely on your dermatologist to point you in the right direction. In some situations, you cannot do anything for your facial wrinkles. There comes a time when you just have to accept the aging process gracefully.
One thing that a good face wrinkle cream will do is restore your confidence and self-esteem. If the lines on your face and neck make you feel older than you actually are then maybe there is something you can do about it. Many women are turning to all natural organic creams as part of their skin care routine.
Like we mentioned earlier, if you are going to spend the money on a face wrinkle cream then you might as well go all out and make the necessary lifestyle changes, otherwise a good cream will not work as well as it could if it is constantly fighting the chemicals you are adding to your body on a daily basis. With so many creams on the market that it is difficult to determine where the consumer can begin to look. As an informed consumer, you want what is best for you at a good price. Since there are so many creams to choose from, it may take some trial and error before you find one that works best for you. With that in mind, try to focus on the natural products rather than the synthetic products.
About the Author: We provide information on
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and information on many other skin care products available today. By D. Karlson
Source:
isnare.com
Permanent Link:
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Saturday, August 26, 2006
The Green Party of Canada will elect a new leader today. The new leader will replace Jim Harris, who stepped down after holding the position since 2003.
The candidates are:
May and Chernushenko, have emerged as frontrunners of the leadership race.
“We draw pretty much equally from across the entire political spectrum,” Jim Harris told CBC News. “If you were a Progressive Conservative, as I was, where do you go? The Green party supports Kyoto. We were opposed to the war in Iraq and yet at the same time we’re fiscally responsible. This is something that’s attractive to people.”
The Green party didn’t get any member elected in the January 23 general election, but the party did get about 4.5 per cent of the vote, enough to secure $1 million a year in federal funding.Chernushenko, an environmental consultant in Ottawa, got the most votes of any Green candidate.
Most Green party members have already cast their ballots by mail for the next leader.
May says that “her national profile and background as an adviser to the environment minister during Conservative Brian Mulroney‘s government are important for getting more Canadians interested in the party”. May referred to tackling climate change, urging electoral reform and ending Canada’s military mission in Afghanistan.
“I don’t really understand yet what she stands for. It’s a lot of rhetoric,” Globe and Mail columnist Jane Taber told CTV Newsnet.
“We will elect MPs by continuing to gain the trust and confidence of Canadians, and by reaching out to Canadians outside of our traditional base of support,” said Chernushenko. Chernushenko said the party should parachute star candidates into key ridings.
“Chernushenko sees a need for government regulation but wants to involve the private sector a bit more, and that’s consistent with Jim Harris’s ideas,” said Jonathan Malloy, political science professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University.
Jim Fannon, who spoke casually to the audience about his talents as a mediator, capable of bridging political gaps between the Greens, Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats. Chernushenko says though he may not always be able to “wow” a crowd, he remains a strong communicator and team player. “I can’t do the rah-rah motivational thing, like Jim (Harris) did an incredible job at, but I can go very deep on complex issues and explain them in plain language,” he said Friday.
Josh Matlow of Earth Roots said: “Elizabeth May is someone I would want to lock myself to a tree with; David Chernushenko is someone I would want to discuss policy with; and Jim Fannon is someone I would go for a beer with”.
Political analysts consider May, a veteran envirnomental activist but also a newcomer to the party, to be the strong favourite to win the race against party stalwart Chernushenko.