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Thursday, November 26, 2009

A couple entered a White House state dinner when they were univited, passing through several layers of security, and socialized with high-profile guests Tuesday night.

Tareq and Michaele Salahi from northern Virginia arrived at the party at approximately 7:15 pm Tuesday night. They were formally dressed as they passed by a crowd of reporters and cameramen waiting for VIP guests to arrive, even though the couple was neither invited nor on the guest list. A White House official has stated that the couple was never seated at a table.

Although there was a Secret Service checkpoint that failed to follow proper procedures, the couple still passed through the same security checkpoints as all other guests at the dinner did. A Secret Service spokesman has stated that nobody was under any threat, but it is unclear whether Mr. and Mrs. Salahi were ever near President or Mrs. Obama or the guests of honor, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur.

Mr. and Mrs. Salahi later posted photos of themselves at the dinner on Facebook. The couple is known around Washington for promoting wine and polo in Virginia, and they are hoping to become stars in the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Washington.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

People rallied in 300 locations across Australia today to protest the Federal Government’s proposed changes to industrial relations laws, WorkChoices. According to police, around 150,000 people congregated in Melbourne, from where speeches were broadcast throughout the country. In Sydney, thirty thousand gathered in Belmore Park and Martin Place to watch the broadcast before marching to Chifley Square.

Sharan Burrow, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), said that under the changes many working conditions would be under threat, including “penalty rates, public holidays, overtime pay, control over rostered hours, shift penalties, even 4 weeks annual leave.” The government has claimed, despite various expert assesment to the contrary, and opposition from major Australian religious and charity organisations and some concern from its own backbench, that the IR changes will improve the economy and ultimately benefit workers, and dismissed the protests as having “little effect”.

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

The Phoenix Police Department was called to a local church parking lot in northern Phoenix, Arizona, United States at 16:00 MST (2200 UTC) Tuesday for a vehicular fire where they found the critically burned Paul J. Lopez, a local Democratic political consultant, on the ground of an apparent self-immolation. Lopez was rushed to an area hospital alive, but in critical condition later being pronounced dead on Wednesday.

At the scene, initial reports from police suggests no evidence of an accident or foul play. According to police, it appeared that Lopez was in his vehicle, deliberately dosing himself with gasoline before igniting himself. At some point, he did exit the vehicle before being overcome by his injuries collapsing in the location first responders found him.

Friends of Lopez, like Lawrence Robinson, claim there were, “No signs.” Politicians and colleagues have since issued statements remembering Lopez. Mayor Greg Stanton of Phoenix took to Twitter with, “I couldn’t ask for a better friend than Paul Lopez. Through ups and downs, good times and bad…he was always there for me and my family. He was godfather to Violet and First Communion sponsor for Trevor. I admired his love of his family and our community. RIP good friend.”

In accordance with Arizona law, when a person is seriously wounded or killed police must complete a full investigation before ruling out acts of negligence or homicide. Currently, there are no leads to the rationale for Lopez’s self-immolation or instigating events. The official report regarding this apparent self-immolation will be released in a few weeks.

As a political consultant, Lopez helped founded The Endeavor Agency where he was the chief executive officer for 27 years. His clientele consists of several Democratic candidates for the state of Arizona on local, state, and federal levels.

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Saturday, March 15, 2008

Space probe Cassini performed a close flyby of Saturn‘s icy moon Enceladus on Wednesday. The fate of the $3.5 billion mission was in the balance as the bus-sized spacecraft swooped to just 50 km (30 mi) above the surface of Enceladus to sample the frozen spray issuing from geysers on the moon’s surface. The “water” spraying from these geysers is in the form of dust-sized, frozen water particles, which are ejected into space by gaseous water vapors that build up pressure deep within icy fissures on Enceladus.

Cassini’s cosmic dust analyzer was unavailable due to a glitch in the updated software that was supposed to provide an increased hit count of the geyser dust particles. However, dust samples were collected before and after the closest approach and the mass spectrometer functioned throughout the flyby, providing useful data which is now being analyzed.

Mission controllers will have a chance to capture more geyser dust on October 9, 2008 when they may choose to steer Cassini even closer to the surface of Enceladus.

Tidal flexing of this moon due to the gravitational proximity of its host planet, Saturn, continually heaves and cracks the icy surface. This suggests that Enceladus may have a squishy, liquid-water ocean beneath an icy crust. Deep, parallel fissures in the ice crust, dubbed the “Tiger Stripes”, measure warmer than uncracked, stationary surfaces nearby. Friction of these massive, moving plates of ice is thought to provide the heat responsible for the pressurized geysers of sublimated water and ice dust. The presence of these geysers amounts to more empirical evidence of a large, liquid water ocean below the surface of Enceladus.

The Cassini-Huygens space probe is an international mission involving the cooperative efforts of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. Launched in 1997, Cassini has orbited Saturn since 2004 but has never before flown so close to a moon. On 14 January 2005, the Huygens lander successfully explored the atmosphere and surface conditions of Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan.

Monday, April 3, 2006On Sunday, Iran tested its second underwater missile, the Fajr-3. The underwater missile, Iran claims, can evade sonar.

“The missile carries a very powerful warhead that enables it to operate against groups of warships and big submarines. Even if an enemy’s warship sonar can detect the missile, no warship can escape from this missile because of its high speed,” said General Ali Fadavi of the Revolutionary Guards. He said the missile can travel at 328 feet a second.

If Iran’s claims are correct, it would make this missile the fastest underwater missile in the world. The second fastest missile would be the Russian’s VA-111 Shkval, which was developed in 1995.

Iran successfully tested its first missile on March 31, 2006, and claims that it can “evade radar and it can evade anti-missile missiles,” said Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force. “This technology is completely new, without copying any other missile systems that may exist in other countries” and also says it can carry several warheads.

It is also reported that more missiles will be tested during war games later in the week.