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Monday, April 11, 2005

PBS has recently decided it was time their Cookie Monster was sent on a diet. Sesame Street’s cookie-loving Muppet icon developed a sudden interest in vegetables, as part of PBS’s drive to instill a healthy lifestyle in children.

The blue furry monster’s makeover comes as part of a larger plan, introducing additional characters as well. Intended new cast members include talking eggplants and carrots, among others.

According to the Sesame Street Muppet Bios, “This season, Cookie Monster learns a lot about health and nutrition. Hoots the Owl explains in a song that ‘A Cookie is a Sometimes Food,’ and he joins Wyclef Jean in a rap song, ‘Healthy Food’.”

Every other day, health will be the focus of the shows. In addition, every other day there will be segments dealing with health/nutrition. There will be a “Health Moment” at the top of every show featuring special guests, celebrities and Sesame Street characters.

The producers of the show insist that they are not asking small children to go on a diet.

“We would never use the word ‘diet’ with pre-schoolers,” a spokeswoman told The New Zealand Herald.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

According to official figures, Japan’s exports dropped by 46% in January compared to a year ago, the lowest statistics ever to be recorded.

Japan’s exports to the United States plunged by almost 53% in January, with car shipments down by 81%. Exports to the European Union fell by 47%.

The Finance Ministry stated that the trade deficit was 952.6 billion yen (US$9.9 billion), the largest deficit ever recorded. The country’s trade deficit with China increased by 61% to 562.7 billion yen (US$5.86 billion).

“Japan is particularly vulnerable to this downturn because trade is so central to the economy,” said Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization in a statement during a press conference today.

The demand for Japanese automobiles was hit particularly hard, plunging by 69%. Demand for electronic goods also dropped substantially.

Last week, the government announced that the country’s economy had shrunk at an annualised rate of 12.7% in the last quarter of last year, the fastest contraction in nearly 35 years.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Following the escalation of investigations into St Stanislaus College in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, Wikinews has obtained a police statement from an alleged victim made in 1997 against priest Brian Joseph Spillane. Spillane is facing 33 charges relating to the allegations.

It had been believed that Bathurst detectives set up Strike Force Header after receiving a complaint from a former St Stanislaus student last year. The complainant came to the police’s attention after he came to Bathurst handing out fliers documenting alleged abuses at the school and providing a link to a website he had set up. St Stanislaus College contacted police and asked them to investigate. Police contacted the alleged victim and asked him if he would like to make a complaint.

In the statement obtained by Wikinews, the same man complained to detectives at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia about abuse by Spillane at St Stanislaus. In the graphic statement, he describes abuse which began following a poker game with the priest at the centre of the allegations. The statement describes further abuses spanning several months.

Bathurst Police refused to comment when contacted about the statement today.

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Canadian community art group Visual Arts Brampton is looking for entries for its international entry mail art exhibit “Control”.

The exhibit’s entry information discusses the theme of the show: “Are you a control-freak, or more happy-go-lucky? What do you think of corporations’ control on the media and governments? Is your life quickly spinning out of control? Always hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del?”

The exhibition dates have yet to be scheduled, but the show will run in early 2006 at either the Fridge Front Gallery or upcoming World Art Gallery in Shoppers World Brampton, a mall in suburban Toronto.

While it prefers 4 x 6 inch artworks, VAB asks that entries are no larger than 6 x 6 inches. VAB’s address is “Snail Mail Central / 1 Bartley Bull Parkway, Suite 10 / Brampton ON / L6W 3T7”. Entries must be received by January 31, 2006.

This show will help Visual Arts Brampton to continue to build up a reputation in the mail art world. The non-profit community art group is in the process of opening up the World Art Gallery, which will be the first permanent display space to solely exhibit mail art. Over the past few years, the club has organized three general no theme exhibits, and “SAT: An Exhibit of Chairs”, which is running currently.

Sunday, October 8, 2017

In a study scheduled for publication in the December 1 issue of Forest Ecology and Management, scientists from the University of California, Davis; USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station; and University of Washington have found a way to resolve the conflict that has sprung up between protecting forests from increasingly frequent wildfires and droughts and preserving sufficient habitat for the endangered spotted owl, Strix occidentalis. The study was performed in two national parks in California, United States.

For the past twenty-five years, spotted owl habitat preservation has focused on keeping 70% or more of the total ground area covered by natural tree canopy, a tree density that leaves forests prone to wildfires and trees more likely to die during droughts. Both wildfires and droughts have become more frequent in the years since the program began.

However, the previous studies upon which the 70% figure was based only measured overall canopy coverage. In this work, researchers used aerial LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) imaging technology to scan areas within Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park in California. The regions were analyzed by distribution of foliage, tree height, and the sizes of the spaces between trees and stands. These data were then cross-referenced with decades of field studies showing the locations of hundreds of owl nests. They found that spotted owls clustered in areas with very tall trees and stands almost exclusively, over 150 feet (48 m), avoiding areas that only had moderate or low canopy, regardless of how dense or wide.

“This could fundamentally resolve the management problem because it would allow for reducing small tree density, through fire and thinning,” said lead author Malcolm North, of UC Davis and the USDA Pacific Southwest Research Station. “We’ve been losing the large trees, particularly in these extreme wildfire and high drought-mortality events. This is a way to protect more large tree habitat, which is what the owls want, in a way that makes the forest more resilient to these increasing stressors that are becoming more intense with climate change.”

The spotted owl gained national prominence in the United States during the 1990s, when environmentalists’ efforts to preserve its habitat resulted in federal measures forbidding logging on large swaths of land, as well as federal limits on the sales of harvested wood. There was a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case which was preceded by lawsuits on the part of timber companies and by years of large protests by timber workers and their communities who feared job losses. For a time, it seemed that the spotted owl was also threatened by competition from the faster-breeding barred owl, which had moved west into its territory.

This is not the only major study of spotted owls to reach the public eye this week. On Thursday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released the California Spotted Owl Conservation Objectives Report, which analyzes the past several decades of research on the California spotted owl and provides recommendations for ecologically and economically viable conservation.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Reports yesterday indicated Russian President Vladimir Putin views the arrival of US troops in Poland as “a threat”.

Earlier this week around a quarter of 4,000 troops earmarked for Poland crossed into Poland from Germany. Also included were trucks, tanks, and Humvees. Many are set to be based in ?aga?, where Polish Prime Minister Beata Szyd?o and Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz are scheduled to ceremonially welcome them tomorrow.

Part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, the deployment is set to include Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and Paladin artillery. It is the largest deployment of US troops to Europe since the Cold War ended. The presence of US assets “threatens our interests and our security,” according to Putin. “It’s a third country that is building up its military presence on our borders in Europe,” he told the BBC. “It isn’t even a European country.”

Outgoing US President Barack Obama authorised the move in response to Russian intervention in Ukraine in 2014, in which Crimea was annexed. It was agreed at a NATO summit in Warsaw last year. Tomasz Szatkowski, Polish Undersecretary of State for Defence, noted “large exercises” by Russia near the Polish border as another reason the troops were needed.

Szatkowski also mentioned Russian action in Ukraine, which he called “aggressive actions in our vicinity”. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Mechkov, however, said the incoming troops and vehicles were a “factor destabilising European security”. Russian Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov echoed Putin, saying the troops are “a threat. These actions threaten our interests, our security. Especially as it concerns a third party building up its military presence near our borders. It’s [the US], not even a European state.”

Ties between Russia and the US are strained. Last month the US expelled 35 Russian diplomats accused of espionage, and sanctioned Russian intelligence agencies. This was in response to a CIA report issued two weeks earlier that concluded the Russian government hacked servers belonging to the U.S. Republican and Democratic parties. The CIA report said this was to turn the 2016 presidential election toward president-elect Donald Trump.

Since Szyd?o took office in 2015, Poland has also suffered a decline in relations with Russia. Within a week of the Law and Justice Party coming to power in Poland, it removed web pages featuring the results of an investigation into the Smolensk air disaster in Russia in 2010. The cause of the crash, which killed dignitaries including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, is disputed.

A Polish probe concluded the Polish pilots put safety second in their determination to get their passengers through dense fog. It also placed blame on Russian controllers for failing to divert the aircraft. Russian investigators blamed the pilots alone. The flight was carrying high-profile political figures to attend a ceremony commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, when thousands of Polish prisoners of war and civilians were killed by the Soviets.

Russia has refused to return wreckage, encouraging conspiracy theories about the crash. In 2015 Szyd?o said in response to the vanishing investigatory findings “the website has been closed and will simply remain closed.”

In recent months tension has mounted further as Russia deployed missiles to Kalingrad. The enclave, Russian territory lying between Poland and Lithuania, now has nuclear-capable Iskanders and anti-ship Bastion equipment. NATO considered these deployments a response to its own.

The US troops are set to rotate around the Balkans every nine months. Other planned host nations are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The rotation is due to a treaty with Russia preventing permanent deployment to any particular territory.

Russia-US relations face a potential thaw, as President-Elect Donald Trump moves towards office on January 20. Trump has made clear he intends to seek a closer relationship with Russia. Rex Tillerson, proposed Secretary of State for the Trump administration, implied the troops would be staying put. He said Russia had claimed Crimea “as an act of force” requiring the US to offer “a proportional show of force”.

Trump’s proposed Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, backed NATO before the US Senate yesterday. He said Putin aimed to weaken the NATO alliance. Witold Waszczykowski, Polish foreign minister, earlier this week remarked any improvement in US-Russia relations should avoid harming Polish interests.