Saturday, August 19, 2006

A virtual orchestra opened in London on August 19th 2006 outside the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. But unlike a normal orchestra, this one features 58 specially designed cube-shaped seats which activate a musicical note. As more people sit down on the seats, more of the score is revealed.

The music will be added to an online sample library. Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of South Bank Centre, said: “This is exactly the way we are looking at developing our site by fusing the community with the artistic world of ideas and technology in our many versatile spaces.”

Alistair Mackie, chairman of the Philharmonia Orchestra, said: “Central to the Philharmonia Orchestra’s vision is exploiting new media to take music out to the widest possible audience, breaking down the barriers which have stood in the way of their access and enjoyment.”

Bethany, aged 10, went to the orchestra launch and she said: “It is a good experience. You get to see what it’s like to be in a real orchestra.” One of the main aims of the virtual orchestra is to get more people interested in classical music.

Every Saturday, a musician from the Philharmonic Orchestra will be visiting and they will bring their sound recording equipment.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

< 2005 crosswords

Quick crosswords for January (solutions are on following days):

• 27 January 2005
• 28 January 2005
• 29 January 2005
• 30 January 2005
• 31 January 2005

> February crosswords

Tuesday, August 1, 2006

Extreme heat alerts have been issued in Hamilton and in Toronto.

Temperatures are expected to go into the mid 30s C (80-90s F) with the humidex expected to reach into the high 40s C (117-120 F).

Smoggy air is expected to move into the Toronto-area on Tuesday from the Windsor to London corridor, where a smog alert was also in place on Monday.

The heat has been compounded by severe storms over the weekend in southwestern Ontario and the Peterborough area.

Almost 31,000 residences were without power for a couple of hours in Peterborough County after a storm was in the area, uprooting trees and knocking down hydro poles. It also tore a roof off a house.

The City of Toronto opens public cooling stations at the East York Civic Centre, Etobicoke Civic Centre, North York Civic Centre and Metro Hall.

Toronto set a new record for any date when the overnight temperature did not go lower than 27 C (aprox. 84 F) overnight, besting the record of 26.5 set in 1999. The daytime humidex hit 47 C (aprox. 117 F) by mid-day and was expected to go slightly higher in the afternoon.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

UK media regulator Ofcom has stated that remarks made on Channel 5 programme The Wright Stuff on December 6 last year in relation to the murder of Liam Aitchison were “clearly capable of causing offence”. However, the issue has been “resolved”, the regulator concluded in its latest broadcast bulletin.

Ofcom launched an investigation in relation to a potential breach of rule 2.3 of its Broadcasting Code, which reads: “In applying generally accepted standards broadcasters must ensure that material which may cause offence is justified by the context”. Presenter Matthew Wright employed a false Scottish accent and remarked: “There’s been another murder,” in reference to the UK crime drama Taggart, as the murder was being discussed as part of a newspaper review. At this point, audience laughter could be heard. Charlie Baker, who was sat on the panel, responded by saying it would be “[t]he longest episode of Taggart of all time” with “lots of down-time in between”, citing the time period of approximately forty years since the last murder investigation on the Western Isles.

No apology was broadcast at any point during the programme. Ofcom subsequently received at least 2,220 complaints about the incident. The regulator stated that, with his comments, Wright “made light of the murder” and “went on to laugh loudly with the audience as the conversation continued”, appearing to illustrate “no regard to the unfortunate circumstances of this murder case concerning the killing of a 16 year old well known to many within the local community in which he lived.” Channel 5 would later acknowledge that these remarks were “unfortunate, misjudged and entirely inappropriate”. A page on the social networking website Facebook, entitled ‘Report The Wright Stuff to Ofcom’, accumulated in excess of 2,500 likes.

In the next edition of the show the following day, Wright apologised, saying it was “certainly no intention on my part to belittle the seriousness or tragedy of the story, or to offend anyone who knew Liam” but remarked that he was “[n]ot helped though by people running campaigns – ‘report Matthew Wright to Ofcom’. I mean, grow up, folks”. Ofcom said these comments would have “potentially caused further offence to viewers”. Channel 5 went on to retract access to this edition and the edition from the day before from Demand 5, its Internet catch up service.

On the December 8 programme, Wright apologised again. “I deeply, deeply regret my thoughtless comments,” Wright said, “and very sincerely apologise to Liam’s family and his community. I truly apologise OK, from the bottom of my heart if I have made their suffering worse. I should add that Charlie Baker also wishes to apologise unreservedly”. The Aitchison family subsequently accepted a direct apology issued to them by Wright.

As a result of this incident, Channel 5 decided to re-examine the compliance and editorial rules set between Channel 5 and The Wright Stuff’s production company. Channel 5 also committed the major production team members of The Wright Stuff to learning about compliance in greater detail.

Ofcom was of the opinion that “these comments were clearly capable of causing offence to viewers given the sensitivity surrounding the very recent murder of a 16 year old teenager in an isolated Scottish community.” However, “[o]n balance, and in light of the steps taken by Channel 5 to mitigate this offence, Ofcom considered the matter resolved.” The regulator does not intend to take any further action over this incident. A recent status update from ‘Report The Wright Stuff to Ofcom’ clarified its administrator’s intention to remove the page on Thursday.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Sir Richard Branson, successful British entrepreneur, better known as the founder of the Virgin brand, has made a suggestion to the next British chancellor to both save MG Rover, the largest independent manufacturer of cars in England until it collapsed this spring, and help with rapidly rising oil demand. He wants the British government to give subsidies to the fallen car-maker so that it can be the first European producer of hybrid cars.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

In early May, Wikinews extended an invitation to Vitaly Filipchenko, an independent candidate in the 2021 New York City mayoral election, set to take place November 2nd, alongside other candidates. Filipchenko answered some questions about his policies and campaign during a phone interview.

Filipchenko, registered on the New York City Campaign Finance Board as Vitaly A. Filipchenko, is the first Russian candidate for New York City mayor, being born in Tomsk, Siberia in 1973, according to news agency Sputnik. He has since naturalised as a United States citizen. According to the web site, Filipchenko has been educated in road construction and maintenance and owns a moving services company; he describes himself on his web site as a “small business owner”. On his web site’s platform page, he says that “[m]y English may not be perfect – but my platform is.”

Incumbent Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio, who won re-election in the 2017 New York City mayoral election by 66.5%, cannot run for a third term under term limits. As of April 28, 22 candidates are currently running, the majority of whom are also Democrats. Ahead of the June Democratic primary for New York City mayor, a poll conducted May 23 and 24 by WPIX and Emerson College of 12 Democratic candidates with a margin of error of 3.2 per cent has former commissioner for the New York City Department of Sanitation Kathryn Garcia and Borough President of Brooklyn Eric Adams leading with 21.1% and 20.1%, respectively.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

2020 Melbourne Lord Mayor candidate Wayne Tseng answered some questions about his campaign for the upcoming election from Wikinews. The Lord Mayor election in the Australian city is scheduled to take place this week.

Tseng runs a firm called eTranslate, which helps software developers to make the software available to the users. In the candidate’s questionnaire, Tseng said eTranslate had led to him working with all three tiers of the government. He previously belonged to the Australian Liberal Party, but has left since then, to run for mayorship as an independent candidate.

Tseng is of Chinese descent, having moved to Australia with his parents from Vietnam. Graduated in Brisbane, Tseng received his PhD in Melbourne and has been living in the city, he told Wikinews. Tseng also formed Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce, an organisation responsible for many “community bond building initiatives”, the Lord Mayor candidate told Wikinews.

Tseng discussed his plans for leading Melbourne, recovering from COVID-19, and “Democracy 2.0” to ensure concerns of minorities in the city were also heard. Tseng also focused on the importance of the multi-culture aspect and talked about making Melbourne the capital of the aboriginals. Tseng also explained why he thinks Melbourne is poised to be a world city by 2030.

Tseng’s deputy Lord Mayor candidate Gricol Yang is a Commercial Banker and works for ANZ Banking Group.

Currently, Sally Capp is the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, the Victorian capital. Capp was elected as an interim Lord Mayor in mid-2018 after the former Lord Mayor Robert Doyle resigned from his position after sexual assault allegations. Doyle served as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne for almost a decade since 2008.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

2020 Melbourne Lord Mayor candidate Wayne Tseng answered some questions about his campaign for the upcoming election from Wikinews. The Lord Mayor election in the Australian city is scheduled to take place this week.

Tseng runs a firm called eTranslate, which helps software developers to make the software available to the users. In the candidate’s questionnaire, Tseng said eTranslate had led to him working with all three tiers of the government. He previously belonged to the Australian Liberal Party, but has left since then, to run for mayorship as an independent candidate.

Tseng is of Chinese descent, having moved to Australia with his parents from Vietnam. Graduated in Brisbane, Tseng received his PhD in Melbourne and has been living in the city, he told Wikinews. Tseng also formed Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce, an organisation responsible for many “community bond building initiatives”, the Lord Mayor candidate told Wikinews.

Tseng discussed his plans for leading Melbourne, recovering from COVID-19, and “Democracy 2.0” to ensure concerns of minorities in the city were also heard. Tseng also focused on the importance of the multi-culture aspect and talked about making Melbourne the capital of the aboriginals. Tseng also explained why he thinks Melbourne is poised to be a world city by 2030.

Tseng’s deputy Lord Mayor candidate Gricol Yang is a Commercial Banker and works for ANZ Banking Group.

Currently, Sally Capp is the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, the Victorian capital. Capp was elected as an interim Lord Mayor in mid-2018 after the former Lord Mayor Robert Doyle resigned from his position after sexual assault allegations. Doyle served as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne for almost a decade since 2008.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Researchers at Princeton University have conducted research into the security of electronic voting machines. They have created a virus that could breach voting machines and change votes. The creators of the voting machine say the research was unrealistic.

Edward William Felten, a professor of computer sciences and public affairs at Princeton University, and two Princeton graduate students, Ariel Feldman and Alex Halderman, created a computer virus that they say could remain concealed in tests, “steal” votes, delete itself to go undetected and spread to other machines.

They used a Diebold AccuVote-TS which is a small computer with a touch screen. The latest version of the software used 128-bit data encryption, digitally signed memory card data, secure socket layer (SSL) data encryption for transmitting results and dynamic passwords.

They opened the drawer with a key, picked the lock or undid screws to open the compartment that allows them to change the memory card. They suppressed the beep created by the computer when it reboots by using headphones. They say the virus can spread by using the same memory card which when inserted into a different machine will infect the machine.

The researchers say they received the machine they tested on from someone who wants to keep their name anonymous.

“You have to be a good programmer — not a genius — to do this,” Halderman said. “I believe a good programmer could reproduce our virus without very much effort.”

“Analysis of the machine…shows that it is vulnerable to extremely serious attacks,” the report states. “An attacker who gets physical access to a machine or its removable memory card for as little as a minute could install malicious code.”

Diebold Election Systems president Dave Byrd said that the research was done with security software that were two generations old.

“By any standard–academic or common sense–the study is unrealistic and inaccurate,” he said in a statement.

“Normal security procedures were ignored. Numbered security tape, 18 enclosure screws and numbered security tags were destroyed or missing so that the researchers could get inside the unit. A virus was introduced to a machine that is never attached to a network.”

“Every voter in every local jurisdiction that uses the AccuVote-TS should feel secure knowing that their vote will count on Election Day,”

“That’s what they were saying a few years ago,” said Halderman. He said he would very much like to study Diebold’s newer machines and software. “We expect and fear, unfortunately, that if we were to examine the newer version of the software, we could find similar problems.”