Sunday, March 8, 2020

This Thursday, an all-women crew ran the Mysore–Bangalore Tippu Express in the Indian state of Karnataka. The state-run Indian Railways launched this event ahead of International Women’s Day, for promoting gender equality at work places. Aparna Garg — who has been the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) for Mysore Division for almost two years — discussed this initiative with Wikinews. International Women’s Day is observed on March 8.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Across Easter weekend Wellington, New Zealand was host to Rock2Wgtn, an international two-day hard rock festival. Large crowds showed up at Westpac Stadium to see the various acts. The world has never seen an event of this kind before, and New Zealand has never had any kind of major rock festival or multi-day music festival.

Day one featured three theatrical acts. Finnish band Lordi, known for their monster costumes, opened the night. They were followed by the US shock rocker Alice Cooper, whose themed set included the horror theatrics regularly associated with him and a hanging stunt he recently restarted after a gallows collapse nearly killed him two decades ago. The night was headlined by the distinctively costumed band KISS, complete with their famed black-and-white makeup.

The first major act on the stage on day two was the American hard rock/glam metal band Poison. After Poison, British act Whitesnake took to the stage and performed their set to the crowd. British-born American rocker Ozzy Osbourne, who, as well as a solo career, fronts the world-famous Black Sabbath, was the second night’s headline act.

The festival’s entertainment did not stop at the six main acts. There was also support performances from three New Zealand bands – The Symphony of Screams, The Valves and Sonic Altar. Their sets were accompanied by a special effects package from award-winning studio Weta Workshops, who are known for their work on movies such as The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. This came in the form of ‘Drusila the Dragon’, which rose up to a height of six foot and wigspan and moved for the audience, shining lasers from its eyes and breathing red smoke. Flame Fire Productions were hired to put on a fire show featuring several dancers alongside the performers. Also performing were six local guitarists and a group of ‘zombie‘ cheerleaders.

Wikinews was able to secure two exclusive interviews with those responsible behind the scenes for putting on such a show. Weta Workshop’s Philip Sharpe, who supervised the project and Milly Bea, current manageress of Flame Fire Productions, discussed their roles. In the first installment, Milly Bea tells us about “a definite highlight” for Flame and lets us know everything from her thoughts on Gene Simmons’s tongue to just how much kerosene it takes to put on a fire show at a rock fest.

Friday, June 30, 2006

An Australian has been shot in the abdomen in Thailand. The 22-year-old man from Wagga Wagga, Lee Burkinshaw, was shot in the Chantaburi province during a drive by shooting. He was evacuated to Bangkok hospital after receiving some treatment at a local hospital. An operation is needed to remove the bullet from his abdomen. He is expected to make a full recovery.

His spleen was removed but no vital organs have been damaged.

His father received a call at 2 a.m. AEST.

Lee went to Thailand to study the gem cutting.

“It is the gem capital of the world, and a lot of the rough cut gemstones come into there to be cut and styled,” Mr. Burkingsaw said.

He is undeterred from revisiting Thailand.

“This is purely a one-off incident … Thailand is a wonderful country, it’s just an unfortunate incident,” said Lee.

This is the second incident in recent weeks in which an Australian had been shot in Thailand. Last week a nurse was killed when she was shot in the neck near a bar.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Relics dated back to the Qing Dynasty were found under civil servants’ quarters at the Rua de D. Belchior Caneiro adjacent to The Ruins of St. Paul in Macau by archaeological teams at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Since St Paul’s College is believed to have been located under those quarters, the Macau government will demolish them in order to cope with the experts’ findings at the Ruins of St. Paul. The two blocks closer to the Ruins of St. Paul were demolished in March to make room for the archaeological project.

The relics included Chinese-styled porcelain tiles, eave tiles, potteries and iron artillery shells. Furthermore, a part of an ancient wall is found at a nearby construction site.

The walls are confirmed as parts of the Ruins of St. Paul as it does match the maps of it dated back to 1760, 1886, and 1912. By examining the walls, it is proved that the wall was constructed of at least five layers of stone, with layers of blue bricks on top of them, as well as rammed earth each measuring at least ten centimeters thick.

The remaining two buildings will be demolished next week for further investigation.

Sunday, February 27, 2005Nine people were rescued by helicopter from the roof of a blazing skyscraper in Taiwan on Saturday.

The people were dining in the rooftop restaurant when a fire broke out lower in the 25 story Golden Plaza Tower. The fire is said to have started in a disco on the 18th floor at about 4pm local time.

Four people died in the fire, including two employees of the tower. The body of a security officer was found on the 18th floor with another body found nearby. Two more were found in an elevator. Two or three people suffered minor injuries after inhaling smoke.

The building in Taichung, Taiwan’s third largest city, houses offices, shops and schools.

Those fleeing the building at ground level had to cover their heads to protect themselves from falling glass and other debris. Fire fighters extinguished the blaze after an hour and a half.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Toyota announced on Friday that it will recall around 17,000 Lexus vehicles in response to risks of the fuel tank in the cars leaking after a collision.

The Lexus HS 250h model was subjected to the recall following a US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation. Despite previously passing Toyota safety inspections, the conclusions of an NHTSA sub-contracted investigator were that; when the vehicles in question collided with an object at more than fifty-miles-per hour, more than 142 grams of fuel, the maximum allowed by US law, leaked from the crashed car.

According to Toyota, further tests did not show any additional failure of the fuel tank.

In response to the findings, Toyota issued a recall of all affected vehicles, since the company had no solution immediately available. The recall includes 13,000 cars already sold, as well as another 4,000 still at dealerships.

Toyota says it plans to conduct further tests to determine the cause of the leak. A Toyota spokesman, Brian Lyons, said that the company was “still working to determine what the root cause of the condition is.” It’s still unclear when exactly the recall will take place, or when dealerships will be allowed to sell this model again. Lyons said that Toyota is “working feverishly to get this resolved as soon as possible.”

Toyota isn’t aware of any accidents stemming from the leaking fuel tank in the affected vehicles, first introduced in the summer of 2009.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

In a 7-2 decision handed down on Monday, the US Supreme Court struck down California’s violent video game law and ruled that video games are protected speech covered by the First Amendment. The California law banned the sale and rental of violent video games to minors.

The underlying question was whether the violence in video games has the ability to affect children more than violence in other media, such as books, movies, plays and other forms of entertainment.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said that depictions of violence have never been regulated by the US government. Thus violent videos are not to fall under government control as does pornography but is to be accorded the same First Amendment protections as other forms of entertainment. The sale of violent video games is not to be criminalized and California’s attempt to do so was “unprecedented and mistaken.” Scalia noted, referring to fairy tales, that “the books we give children to read—or read to them when they are younger—contain no shortage of gore.”

The beginning of the decision states, “Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. And ‘the basic principles of freedom of speech…do not vary’ with a new and different communication medium.”

“The most basic principle—that government lacks the power to restrict expression because of its message, ideas, subject matter, or content, Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union, 535 U. S. 564, 573—is subject to a few limited exceptions for historically unprotected speech, such as obscenity, incitement, and fighting words. But a legislature cannot create new categories of unprotected speech simply by weighing the value of a particular category against its social costs and then punishing it if it fails the test.”

The justices were not convinced by the existing research that the interactive nature of video games pose a greater risk to society because of their interactive nature. None of the results of the existing research put before the court showed that violent games cause violent behavior. “Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively. Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media. Since California has declined to restrict those other media, e.g., Saturday morning cartoons, its video-game regulation is wildly under-inclusive, raising serious doubts about whether the State is pursuing the interest it invokes or is instead disfavoring a particular speaker or viewpoint.”

According to Nadine Kaslow, professor and chief psychologist at Emory University Department of Psychology and Grady Hospital, the evidence regarding the effects of violent video games is mixed. While there is evidence to suggest that exposure of children to violence results in more aggressive and less pro-social behavior, some studies show there is no negative effect, she said. She point out that toy guns were popular and parents monitored whether toy guns were allowed in the home.

This ruling does not prevent private retailers from placing restrictions on their sale of video games. The video game industry currently has its own rating system, much like that used for movies, and educates retailers in using the rating system to prevent minors from buying mature-rated games. According to PC World the industry’s compliance is better than that of other entertainment industries. Further, parental controls have been added to game consoles.

The view of the Entertainment Software Association that a better strategy is the education of parents rather than court battles.

Friday, March 7, 2008

After playing 17 seasons in the United States’ top professional football league, quarterback Brett Favre of the National Football League‘s (NFL) Green Bay Packers bid a final farewell to the sport in an emotional press conference at Lambeau Field on Thursday, saying he is “not up to the challenge” of another season.

“I know I can play. But I don’t think I want to, and that’s what it really comes down to,” the 38-year-old Favre said.

Favre, who officially retired on Tuesday, dressed for the hour-long event in an untucked button-down shirt, blue jeans, and days worth of stubble. “It is on my terms, which is a good way to go out,” he said of his attire. He thanked the Green Bay Packers’ organization, his family, and his fans for their support throughout his career, but reluctantly admitted it was time to move on.

“I’ve given everything I can possibly give to this organization and I don’t think I’ve got anything left to give,” he said, as tears welled up in his eyes. “What matters is it’s been a great career for me. It’s over. As hard as it is for me to say, it’s over.”

His retirement came as somewhat of a surprise to the Packers, who expected he would return for another year. Favre refuted the notion that the Packers did not do enough to get him to return, and assured the organization that nothing they could have done would have affected his decision.

“I know there’s been comments and issues in the press lately about why I’m leaving, whether or not the Packers did enough, whether or not Ted or (coach) Mike (McCarthy) convinced me to stay,” Favre said. “None of those things have anything to do with me retiring, and that’s from the heart.”

He instead offered a simpler reason for his departure: the stress of the job was getting to be too much “I don’t think it would get easier next year or the following year,” he said. “It hasn’t up until this point. It’s only gotten tougher and something told me ‘You know it’s gotten too hard for you.'”

When asked about his future plans, he replied, “Nothing.” This is a new phase in his life, he explained. “I am going to stick to that until I want to do something else.” He and his wife, Deanna, said they will be putting all public events on hold for a year, because, as Deanna said, “Honestly, we both are really tired.” He says they will still be involved with charities in the future, but not as extensively as before.

Favre holds NFL records in most wins by a starting quarterback, most passing yards, most passing touchdowns and most consecutive games started. However, he says that “the statistics part wasn’t that important. I was never really a statistics guy. I hope my legacy is a lot more than that.”

In 2007, he led the Packers to a 13-3 season, but lost in the NFC championship game to the eventual champion New York Giants. The final pass of his career was an interception that resulted in the Giants’ game-winning field goal. Still, Favre believes he is “going out on top”, and he could “care less what other people think”.

“One play, one game, one season, doesn’t define me,” he said. “It has been a wonderful career.”