Thursday, July 15, 2010

In what the RSPCA calls a “horrific” case of animal cruelty, a dog’s jaw was taped shut, and its throat cut, in Cairns, Australia.

The Staffordshire mix, who was found by police in a critical condition last Thursday, was reportedly struggling to breath and bleeding heavily due to her throat being slashed and her muzzle being bound.

“The way they cut was almost down to the larynx, so muscles were cut but luckily they missed the jugular veins,” said Sarah Gill, the vet who stitched the 10 cm long, 3 cm deep cut.

In a statement reported on Tuesday, Inspector Cameron Buswell, a law enforcement officer with the RSPCA animal welfare charity, said it is hard to comprehend that there are people in the community capable of this level of cruelty.

“This would have to be up there as one of the more horrific cases we’ve dealt with […]The poor dog must have been petrified. How she didn’t die is miraculous.” he said.

Named ‘Franky’ by rescuers, the dog is progressing well along her road to recovery, has a warm, loving and kind nature, and has begun to come out of her shell, Buswell said.

“She is a really nice natured animal and she loves being with people.”

This has become apart of string of violent attacks on pets in Queensland. Another dog in North Queensland named ‘Boof’ was beaten and left to die with a 30 kg chain around his neck in January. In May, a family dog in Toowoomba had its throat slit and a rubber band placed around the wound, twice.

The RSPCA is appealing for information from the public regarding the person or persons responsible for the latest attack.

Monday, August 27, 2012

London, England — As Paralympians ready for the Games which are set to open later this week, they have access to a world class fitness center inside the Paralympic Village which is designed to maximise their pre-Game preparations.

According to volunteers staffing the center, instead of being a single large room, as in Beijing, the building has numerous rooms. It, along with the adjacent Village Services Centre, is designed to be converted into a school after the games conclude. Rooms have been structured as a gym, an auditorium, and science laboratories.

Gym equipment is supplied by Technogym, an Italian firm that has supplied gym equipment for the Olympics since 2000. Equipment has been provided not just for for the Fitness Centre, but for gyms at all the Olympic venues. The newest equipment is oriented toward maximum flexibility, allowing athletes to exercise the particular muscles that they most require for their sport.

In addition to the equipment, the Fitness Centre also provides instructors trained in the use of the equipment, the likes of which athletes from many countries have never seen before. There are also a number of instructors available to provide motivational training.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The 2010 Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure, held earlier today in St. Louis, Missouri, became the world’s largest Race for the Cure, with over 71,000 participants.

2010 marks the twelfth year for the race in St. Louis, which raises money for breast cancer research nationwide. Originally brought to the city in 1999, it has raised over US$19 million. It was sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors, a locally-headquartered brokerage firm of the financial services provider Wells Fargo. Nationally, the Race for the Cure is hosted by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a non-profit organization supporting breast cancer research.

In 1999, there were only about 10,000 participants in the St. Louis Race for the Cure. In recent years, the number has grown to over 60,000, and today’s 5K race saw over 71,000 runners, walkers, and wheelchair racers. Despite the heat and humidity, 1,090 teams signed up, and over 4,500 breast cancer survivors participated. Overall, the race raised more than US$3.3 million. A phone bank set up by Wells Fargo and local television station KSDK contributed over US$28,000 of that amount in four hours.

Prior to the race, there was a parade of all the breast cancer survivors who had signed up for the race. The actual competition began at 8:30 a.m. CDT (1330 UTC) with the wheelchair race. Following them were the timed runners, the untimed runners, the walkers, and lastly, the “fun walk” participants, who had only opted to walk one mile (1.6 kilometres).

The Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure is only one of many Races for the Cure, which is the largest group of 5K runs and walks in the world. The first Komen race was held in 1983 in Dallas, Texas, but has since spread to over 140 cities throughout the world. Proceeds from today’s St. Louis race will benefit both local institutions and the rest of the United States. At least 25 percent of the money raised will go toward funding national research on breast cancer, while the rest will be given to organizations in St. Louis for breast cancer awareness programs.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

US stocks plunged along with other stock markets overseas as a greater than expected rise in consumer prices fueled investors’ fears that the Federal Reserve’s campaign of raising interest rates is not over. At the close of trading at 4:00 PM EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 214.28 points, or 1.88%, to 11,205.61. Technology stocks were not safe from the selling as well, as the NASDAQ fell 33.33 points, or 1.50%, to 2,195.80. The NASDAQ has now turned negative for 2006. Broader stock indices also finished much lower. The S&P 500 fell 22 points (1.68%) to 1,270.32. This is the biggest point loss on the Dow in 3 years.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed that prices to the consumer increased by a greater-than-expected 0.6% in April. Core CPI, which factors out volatile food and energy prices, swelled by a greater-than-expected 0.3%.

Market breadth was extremely negative with advancers beating out decliners by a 5 to 1 ratio on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was heavy with 2.95 billion shares changing hands. Of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrials, 29 of them closed down for the day. The only stock in positive territory was Hewlett-Packard, which closed up $1.05 (+3.38%) to $32.16/share after reporting quarterly earnings after the close Tuesday.

The selloff comes on the heels of the Dow rising to within 80 points of its all-time closing high of 11,722.98 just last week. That rally was built on hopes that the Federal Reserve was close to ending its interest rate hike campaign. Since that time the Dow has experienced 3 double-digit point losses. Many market analysts and technicians, including Ken Tower from Schwab’s CyberTrader, felt that the market was overbought and was due for a short-term correction. Today’s inflation report suggests that the Fed might have to tighten interest rates further to combat inflation and slow economic growth to a more sustainable pace. Higher interest rates increase the cost of money, thus discouraging borrowing by businesses and individuals.

European stock markets fell more sharply than those in the US. London’s FTSE fell 2.92%, Frankfurt’s DAX tumbled 3.4%, and Paris’ CAC 40 fell 3.18%.

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.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

A medical helicopter has crashed near Chicago, Illinois killing three crew members and the patient, a thirteen-month-old baby girl. The crew aboard the helicopter included the pilot, a nurse and a paramedic.

The helicopter, operated by Air Angels Inc., was transporting the baby to Children’s Memorial Hospital from Valley West Hospital, when it hit a wire connected to a 734-foot (224-meter) radio tower in Aurora and burst into flames around 12:00 a.m. (EDT). The baby was suffering from epileptic seizures.

The cause of the crash is not known, and there were no reported problems with the helicopter before it took off. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is ongoing.

This is the third crash which involved an Air Angels helicopter. In 2003, a pilot was killed when his chopper crashed. An investigation concluded that the cause was pilot error, and bad weather. Another chopper crashed in 2007, but there were no injuries.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101.

Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States.

Schreckengost’s peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes.

In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings.

Friday, May 1, 2009

The American auto company Chrysler filed for bankruptcy Thursday, however a deal with European auto maker Fiat went through. The emerging Chrysler will be owned 55 percent by the United Auto Workers, eight percent by the United States Government, two percent by the Canadian Government and Fiat would begin with a 20 percent share.

Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Nardelli will step down when the bankruptcy proceedings are finalized.

Initially, the Italian company, Fiat, will appoint three members on the emerging Chrysler’s new board, and the United States government will appoint six. Fiat can assume the majority of the ownership upon repayment of American loans.

Chrysler administrators expect that the bankruptcy should take a couple of months.

“We expect this to be a very short, 30-to-60-day bankruptcy process, during which the company will function normally,” a top administration official said, “People will be able to buy cars, they will have their warranties honored, and everything should go on normally.”

The bankruptcy filing indicated that Chrysler was in debt to 20 creditors to a tune of more than $10 million each.

Meanwhile, the deal with Fiat did go through, and Chrysler should have cars designed by Fiat out on the market by 2011.

“It’s a partnership that will give Chrysler a chance not only to survive, but to thrive in a global auto industry,” said American president Obama, “Fiat has demonstrated that it can build the clean, fuel-efficient cars that are the future of the industry.”

However, automotive analyst Erich Merkle has hesitations.

“History would show that alliances really don’t work that well,” Merkle said, “even though, no matter how good they may look on paper.”

The restructuring has been managed by Steve Rattner, a former investment banker, and the U.S. Government auto task force.

Obama has set three ultimatums before Fiat. Fiat should produce a 40 mile per gallon vehicle while managing the new Chrysler, transfer fuel efficient Fiat technology to Chrysler factories in the United States, and produce cars in Chrysler factories and distribute them in Europe.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

The Long Beach Redevelopment Board voted last night to walk away from negotiations over the Filipino Baptist Fellowship church property. Eminent domain action, authorized at the March 13 meeting, was not addressed.

During the opening comment period, the attorney for the church, John Eastman, noted his difficulty in speaking on the question, since the agenda did not indicate what question was before the board. The board chair, Thomas Fields, replied that it was not appropriate for the board to answer questions during the public comment period.

After a five minute open session, the board recessed to discuss the church property in closed session. Fifteen minutes later, the board returned and announced that negotiations with the church were over.

Attorney Eastman and Rev Agustine, pastor of the church, conferred with long-time City Clerk Jan Pittman to clarify the meaning of the decision. She said that she understood the decision to mean that the board would not proceed with eminent domain. Responding to questions, she said that eminent domain proceedings are held in the city of Norton, and that no further notice would be due to the church if eminent domain proceedings were initiated.

The church property is located in Long Beach on Atlantic Avenue, a four lane road with two parking lanes. Most of the properties in the two block area have been acquired by the city and razed. The east side of the street was redeveloped five years ago with the construction of single family housing. The west side of the street is expected to be developed with higher density housing, but plans have not been announced. The city’s redevelopment project was begun in 1996. The Filipino Baptist Fellowship purchased the church in 2002, in the open market.