Monday, March 13, 2006
The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission approved today the plans by Nanjing Automobile Group to revive the MG Rover brand.
Nanjing Automobile are planning to annually produce 200,000 cars, 250,000 engines and 100,000 gearboxes on the assembly lines purchased from MG Rover.
The first MG produced in Pukou in Nanjing in the east of China will be the sedan version of MG-75, in the first half of 2007.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Data from recent detailed analyses of samples collected on NASA Apollo moon missions, released Sunday, show that Lunar water may originate from comets that collided with the moon early in its geologic history.
A team of astrophysicists led by James Greenwood of Wesleyan University in Connecticut analyzed samples collected on the Apollo 11, 12, 14, and 17 missions and found that the chemical properties of traces of lunar water in these samples differ from water typical of Earth.
“The values of deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) that we measure in apatite in the Apollo rock samples”, Greenwood told Space.com, “is clearly distinguishable from water from the Earth, mitigating against this being some sort of contamination on Earth.” Greenwood and his team of researchers studied in particular the variations of hydrogen in the mineral apatite.
The newfound data show that the chemical properties of water in the apatite samples resemble data from the comets Hale-Bopp, Halley, and Hyakutake, suggesting that the water present on the moon could have originated from these comets or others.
According to Greenwood, the results of this study could also provide evidence as to the origin of water on Earth.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
| This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. |
Last week fifty volunteers, from nine countries covering nineteen languages, spent four days at the European Parliament buildings in Strasbourg photographing and filming members of the parliament (MEPs). This being an effort to significantly increase the audio-visual content available in Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects.
Members of the team, who were all granted guest press accreditation, began arriving at the hotel in the small town of Kork, not far from the France–Germany border, on Saturday. The team base, Hotel Ochsen, has an interesting history. Placards on the courtyard wall explain it served as headquarters for Field marshal Kollowrat-Krakowsky battling Napoleonic forces in the 1796 Siege of Kehl.
Those arriving later came directly to the Louise Weiss building, which hosts the parliament’s plenary sessions and all voting on EU matters. Whilst staying in the hotel, the Wikimedian group met two MEPs who chose it in-preference to dramatically more-expensive Strasbourg accommodation. One of the ushers from the parliament also chatted with volunteers at the hotel, self-depricatingly describing his ceremonial attire as a “penguin suit” due to the long-tailed jacket.
One of the first day’s MEPs to introduce themselves to the visiting Wikimedians was Christian Engström; delivering copies of his book, The Case for Copyright Reform, co-authored with Swedish Pirate Party founder Rickard Falkvinge. Engström explained that, in the book, he argues Wikipedia is one of the losers under current copyright legislation. One of numerous MEPs who recorded video introductions in multiple languages, he was more-confident than some colleagues — the most-challenging taking thirteen takes to successfully record.
Over 1,000 new, high-quality, photographs were taken and uploaded for use on Wikimedia projects during the visit. The second and third days in the parliament saw the highest number of MEPs coming to see the visiting Wikimedians and have their photographs taken. Once photographed, MEPs were encouraged to make video introductions in languages they were comfortable speaking in. In excess of 200 video clips of MEPs introducing themselves were captured; this providing freely-reusable audio and video records available via Wikimedia Commons.
Parliamentarians became more-enthusiastic about the project in its later days, with significantly more turning up to be photographed and filmed. Given some turned up as Wikimedians were packing up on the last day, some still lack freely-licensed photographs for their Wikipedia entries. French MEP, and National Front member, Bruno Gollnisch was amongst those disappointed when turning up after much of the equipment was packed up; although Gollnisch has already provided some video recordings, he had returned with additional prepared texts — including Japanese — for use in a video introduction.
Despite much of two levels within the parliament set aside for the press, the event received little coverage from mainstream media. France TV’s channel three broadcast a report on the Thursday, making footage available via their website on the Friday.
In contrast the Voice intro project (WikiVIP) started by Andy Mabbett, and brought to a far-wider audience with Stephen Fry’s endorsement, saw Mabbet give an interview from one of the parliament’s radio studios with United States’ public radio network NPR. With Fry’s recording catching the attention of the press, that project has received coverage from as-far afield as Italy, Russia, and Japan.
Audio for use on Wikipedia is to be extracted from video recordings of MEPs for use on Wikimedia projects. As available storage and bandwidth increases, it is a longer-term goal of the Wikimedia Foundation to increase freely-available, and reusable, multimedia content across all projects hosted by the Foundation.
The project also served as an opportunity to emphasise that all Wikimedia content is created through people donating their time and effort. Whilst MEPs knew anyone could edit Wikipedia, meeting a group representing all ages, and much of Europe, served as an effective public-relations exercise.
By HImfr Ivy
In the dry Central Asian region, there is a resource, very valuable and scarce, and even more important than oil and gas, which is water.
The so-called Central Asia, mainly referring to the five post-Soviet Central Asian countries (including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) and Afghanistan. In the past 18 years, most foreign investors regard the focus on the region’s energy and mineral resource extraction industries, but the region’s water crisis is getting worse.
18 years of complex negotiations
Central Asia dry climate makes the water very scarce, but it is very unevenly distributed. There are two rivers in the region, 1,500 miles of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya 1380 miles long.
Since 1918, the Soviet Union tried to Central Asia through the deployment of water resources for agricultural development, and thus a larger share of global cotton market. 40 years since the last century, unified construction of irrigation networks in Central Asia, the program was implemented and strengthened in the 60’s and since then the Soviet Union in Central Asia to become the white gold (cotton) is the main source. Until 1991 before they are all unified deployment of the Soviet Union. 1960 to 2000, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya’s water consumption doubled, also contributed to cotton production doubled during this period, while the decline in water level caused by the Aral Sea.
But Central Asia’s land resources, water resources, energy resources and distribution is extremely uneven.
Central Asia’s two rivers originate in the Pamir and Tianshan Mountains, the river from west to east through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and then flows to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, ultimately into the Aral Sea. Therefore, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, known as the upstream countries, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are referred to as the downstream countries.
First, from the water demand, water-rich countries can use the upstream area of agricultural land few. For example, in Tajikistan, only 7% of the land within the territory suitable for cultivation, so the proportion of agricultural water use is low. Water scarcity in the downstream countries, vast areas of agricultural land. Example, among the five countries in Central Asia, the upstream countries, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are relatively poor, lower than the national economic development, but the region upstream of the two countries have 90% of the water resources, while Uzbekistan has more than 50% of the region The water used for cotton production, while cotton accounts for 60% foreign exchange earnings.
Second, fossil energy resources in Central Asia mainly in the west, that is, downstream countries, mainly in the eastern part of water resources, that is, the upstream country.
For example, in Tajikistan, according to U.S. government estimates, in 2006 only Tajikistan produced 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas, forcing it imported 4.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas to meet national needs. Because water resources are the country’s main resource, the country hopes to rely on the resources to solve major domestic economic development.
If you just use their own resources, Uzbekistan can only guarantee 14% of its water demand, Kazakhstan can only guarantee 45% of its water needs.
Soviet Union, the planned economic system makes the state a variety of resources to deploy the power of unity, the distribution of water resources in Central Asia is based on the complementary resources to design patterns, that is, the allocation of water resources should be the largest agricultural output as the objective. Thus the upper reaches of the summer release on water conservancy facilities, to ensure the country’s agricultural irrigation water downstream. In return, the downstream countries, countries in the winter for the upstream gas and coal resources to meet their energy needs.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, relations between the original water allocation gradually be disrupted. With oil, gas and coal prices rose year by year, the downstream countries are beginning to export to other countries, fossil energy. Upstream of the two countries to avoid paying increasingly expensive energy import costs, starting in the summer and spring water to raise power generation capacity in winter, protect the country’s energy supply.
As a result, the downstream countries are not enough in spring and summer because the water supply, agricultural production has been greatly affected. Meanwhile, the upstream countries, power in the winter a lot of water distribution, resulting in downstream countries to increase water supply in winter, while downstream countries in this season’s agricultural production to a standstill, unable to digest too much water, causing flooding in winter. Therefore, the upstream countries and downstream countries are getting nervous.
In order to solve water allocation problems, 1992, 5 countries in Central Asia Cooperation Committee was set up cross-border water resources, but after 18 years of complex negotiations failed to clear on the Syr Darya and Amu Darya River to solve the water problem, countries can only to act according to their own interests or to seek bilateral cooperation. This region is very fragmented water management institutions, from six different countries to common control, these countries regard each other as rivals, the main contradiction concentrated in upstream countries and downstream countries, lack of cooperation and competition.
Upstream and downstream countries, the argument is, the downstream countries want the upstream countries to have regular water distribution for irrigation and that water is not a commodity, and oil and gas are not the same. On the contrary, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan insist that if the financial or energy support that can not make it through the winter months, they will continue in the fall and winter water distribution to power generation to meet their own needs, because no other energy options, and thus would not be concerned about the lower reaches of the country’s agricultural problems.
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Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pirates in Somalia have released the MV Faina, a Ukrainian ship carrying a cargo of 33 T-72 tanks, along with 20 of its crew of 21, the Russian captain having been killed by hypertension during the hijack.
A ransom of US$3.2 million was paid for the ship’s release, compared to the $20 million previously demanded and also down from the initial request for $35 million after the capture in September. By January 16 the ransom sought was $5 million, with negotiations occurring directly between the pirates and the ship’s owner. In October the pirates threatened to blow the ship up unless this was paid within days, and stated they were willing to die and take the crew with them, but this threat was never carried out.
The ransom came in on Wednesday, and after counting the money the pirates left the vessel on Thursday. One pirate, Segule Ali, said of the payment that “no huge amount has been paid, but something to cover our expenses.”
| No huge amount has been paid, but something to cover our expenses | ||
The ownership of the cargo, which includes ammunition, rocket launchers, small arms and spare parts as well as tanks, is uncertain. Although the shipment was said to be for Kenya, as acknowledged by the Kenyan government, the pirates claim to have documents proving they were destined for Sudan, currently the subject of a United Nations arms embargo. Sudan denies this.
At one point, with the ship anchored off Harardhere, the pirates claimed they had put down an attempted revolt by the crew. However, the Faina’s owner has expressed doubts about the veracity of this report, which originated with the pirates themselves.
The remaining crew are reported to be healthy by the Ukrainian Presidency and the ship is now heading to Mombasa under US Navy escort. There are 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and a Latvian on board.
Friday, January 4, 2008
A new study amongst doctors in the United States on the use of placebos—pills with no medical effect—shows that almost half of the questioned practitioners prescribe placebos, most of them within the last year.
The majority of 466 faculty physicians at Chicago-area medical schools interviewed by a research group of the University of Chicago stated that placebos are useful to calm a patient down or to respond to demands for medication that the doctor disagrees with, i.e. “to get the patient to stop complaining”.
96 percent of the physicians surveyed believe that placebos can have therapeutic effects. Close to 40 percent stated that placebos could benefit patents physiologically as well as mentally.
Twelve percent of surveyed physicians think that placebos should be banned from clinical practice. Among the doctors who prescribed them, one in five said they outright lied to patients by claiming a placebo was medication. But more often the physicians came up with ways to explain like that “this may help you but I’m not sure how it works.”
The American Medical Association (AMA), the largest association of U.S. doctors and medical students, tells its members that “[p]hysicians may use placebos for diagnosis or treatment only if the patient is informed of and agrees to its use.” The research, published in Journal of General Internal Medicine this week, is the first major U.S. study of doctors on the use of placebos since 1979.
Different types of Cars for Sale in San Diego
by
hiroshmill
San Diego is the eight-largest city in the United State of America and as far as the state of California is concerned, it is the second largest city. The city is regarded as one of the richest cities in the United States and people in this city spend a lot for owning a car and most of them go for luxury cars, while some people opt for normal range of cars as well.
For meeting the car requirement of the people, there are the best San Diego, Car Dealers, who are experienced in selling new and used cars. These dealers have their own websites for displaying the cars that they currently have in stock for sales. Cars for sale in San Diego offered by the dealers include different models like Volkswagen, Toyota, Scion, Saturn, Pontiac, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mercury, Mercedes-Benz, Mazda, Lincoln, Lexus, Kia, etc and they offer the best cars for meeting the needs of their customers belonging to different financial stratum. These dealers have classified the cars with them under two categories namely; cars under $5000 and cars over $5000 and therefore purchasers can click on their appropriate area of interest and can find the best car deals. Some of these dealers also offer the facility of financing irrespective of the current credit situation of the purchaser through their bad credit auto financing scheme. They have the experience of financing customers with bad credit and even no credit and of course with customers with good credit. They arrange for both standard auto loans for people with good credit and even for people with less than a perfect credit. They satisfy their customers by offering the best quality vehicle since they have a team of trained mechanics, who thoroughly check the car before it is being offered to the purchaser. When it comes to sale of used cars, San Diego Car dealers offer two types of warranties namely powertrain warranties and standard warranties. Under both these warranties, they offer 3 months or 4500 miles warranty, 180 days or 7500 miles warranty, 1 year or 14500 miles warranty and two years or 26500 miles warranty and it differs according to the car purchased. In addition, the website of these dealers show the current stock of cars for sale in San Diego available with them with video and photos of the vehicles and therefore purchasers can check their website before contacting them and can call them only if they are satisfied with the appearance and features of the vehicle.
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Sunday, October 7, 2007
Russell Korus is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Vaughan riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.
Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Two 16-year-old British girls were arrested in Accra, Ghana earlier this month for apparently attempting to smuggle £300,000 worth of cocaine in laptop bags.
Yasemin Vatansever, of Cypriot descent and Yatunde Diya of Nigerian descent were arrested as they attempted to board a British Airways flight from the Kotoka International Airport on July 2, 2007. The arrest was by the Ghanaian Narcotic Control Board. They were alleged to be carrying 6.5 kg of drugs. They are currently in Ghana police custody and have been visited by British High Commission staff.
The girls who are both students from Islington, north London, had left home after informing their families they were making a school trip to France. They are expected to be charged with “possessing narcotic drugs and attempting to export drugs”, for which they could be jailed for up to ten years if found guilty.
The arrest is part of the Operation Westbridge project set up in November 2006 as a collaboration between the Ghanaian Narcotic Control Board and HM Revenue and Customs of the UK. It is to curb the influx of drugs into Europe and the UK through West Africa which is now being used as a transit point from South America. The project involves the provision of technical and operational expertise to the Ghanaian teams and training in the use of specialist scanning equipment. Ghana is the first country in Africa to introduce such equipment.