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Sunday, January 1, 2017

A ferry caught fire near Jakarta, Indonesia this morning. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said at least 23 had died and at least seventeen remain missing.

The Zahro Express caught fire shortly after leaving Muara Angke port in Jakarta. It was heading to Tidung Island, in the Kepulauan Seribu chain. Police said the fire began in the engine area.

A manifest listed 100 passengers, but officials estimated over 200 were on board. Sumarsono, acting governor of Jakarta, dismissed suggestions the vessel was overloaded. Its blackened wreckage was towed back to Muara Angke.

Rescuers continue to search for bodies. As of earlier today, nine of the injured remained in hospital. Three bodies have been identified as Jaksen Wilhelmus, Masduki, and Alia. Jaksen and Masduki are both from West Java. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said ten ships continue to search for bodies or survivors.

“Fifteen minutes after the boat set sail, people at the back of the boat started making noise,” one survivor said. “Then I saw smoke, there was more and more, the boat was crowded and people were fighting for life jackets.” Another told Reuters passengers panicked when the fire broke out, and were met with a sudden conflagration when flames reached fuel.

Boat accidents are common in the island nation. The National Transportation Safety Committee reported to The Jakarta Post today that shipping accidents were up from fifteen in 2015 to 28 in 2016. Lead marine investigator Aldrin Dalimunte told the paper some boats are well-maintained but run by poorly-trained crew who lack the motivation and knowledge to prevent accidents.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Before the annual Earth Day on April 22, several environmental-related events were progressively promoted in Taiwan. For example, industrial and academical units promoted several energy-efficiency policies, parts and accessories, and products in three recently-closed trade shows (AutoTronics Taipei, Motorcycle Taiwan, and Taipei AMPA) respectively located at TWTC and TWTC Nangang with the international environmental laws and policies promoted in several nations including Taiwan. Taiwan Railway Administration promoted “Twin-rail Environmental Train” (in Chinese: ??????) for bicycle and mass transportation industries. And also, HBO Taiwan promoted the movement of “Decreasing chopsticks to save the earth” (in Chinese: ?????) to drive the public changing habits on common food habits when using environmental tablewares.

By the way, he also commented on the upcoming event of “Taiwan Bicycle Day” and “Project of Light-weighted Electronic Vehicle” by ITRI and said:

Monday, January 13, 2014

The Royal Australian Navy towed back arriving asylum seekers to Rote Island, Indonesia, after claiming Christmas Island destination, Indonesian National Police reported Monday of last week. Last Thursday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott supported lack of transparency on the issue.

Indonesian police found the two ships reportedly forcibly towed back from Australia on December 19, and on January 6 after being towed on New Year’s Day. A self-identified Sudanese asylum seeker from one of the boats reported the Navy ship numbers, identifying them as HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Glenelg, and said the refugees were denied access to navigation tools during the duration of the route and abandoned in sea in the middle of the night. Commenters called such practice “push-backs”, “tow-backs”, “turn-backs”.

Police chief Hidayat Rote Island, speaking to Fairfax Media, said the second boat was adrift: “They were rescued by the locals, because the boat engines were dead. The boat now is wreckage, near some reefs.”

The Australian government had also planned to purchase additional lifeboats for refugee expulsion from Australian waters, Fairfax Media reported.

Australian government originally had no response, but after protests by Labor and the Greens, Tony Abbott commented. Last Thursday, he supported lack of transparency on the issue by saying “I’d rather be criticised a bit for being a bit of a closed book on the issue, and actually stop the boats. I’m pleased to say that it’s now several weeks since we’ve had a boat, and the less we talk about operational details on the water, the better when it comes to stopping the boats.”

Defence Force chief David Hurley also claimed professional behaviour of board officers and the Navy when handling arriving refugees boats.

Indonesian National Armed Forces chief General Moeldoko said according to the Jakarta Post, and an Australian Defence Force spokesperson confirmed, that they agreed on the push-backs approach mid-December with no further comment; with Mr Abbot calling the relationship “very strong”, while Indonesia’s legal and security affairs minister Djoko Suyanto and foreign affairs minister Marty Natalegawa both disapproved of the approach. General Moeldoko reportedly later said the media had misreported him.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRA) was seeking explanation from the Australian government, it reported in a press briefing this Saturday. The UNRA spokesperson, Babar Baloch, raised legal concerns by saying that “Any such approach would raise significant issues and potentially could place Australia in breach of its obligations under the Refugee Convention and international law. If people who are in need for international protection seek a country’s safety, then they must be allowed to go through a process which helps to determine if these people are in need.”

Marke, another self-identified Somali asylum seeker, claimed earlier similar treatment, on December 10: that the Australian Navy — HMAS Parramatta and HMAS Maitland — had claimed Christmas Island destination, towed his boat for several days, and subsequently dropped at an undisclosed location.

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Yesterday, Judge Leslie Ghiz declared a mistrial in the case of University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing, who was on trial for the fatal shooting of Samuel DuBose during a traffic stop in 2015. Tensing is white and DuBose was black. The trial took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. This is the second mistrial of Tensing for this crime.

The jurors told the judge they were “almost evenly split” after deliberating for 31 hours. Tensing was charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter. Nine of the jurors were white, and three were black.

A crowd of protesters gathered outside the courthouse. One, Charles Campbell, said, “This is a miscarriage of justice, this is unacceptable[…] We cannot allow this in our city. We cannot allow this in our country. I’m here to share solidarity with the family of Sam DuBose, and the family of all these people who are being gunned down by police officers with impunity.” De Bose’s family has requested that all protests remain peaceful.

Tensing did not deny fatally shooting DuBose, instead arguing he feared for his life during their encounter. Tensing was wearing a body camera when he pulled DuBose over for the lack of a front license plate on his vehicle. DuBose stopped the car but did not show Tensing his license and registration when asked. Tensing told DuBose to step out of the car, and DuBose refused and began to drive away while Tensing’s hand was still inside the vehicle. The images from his camera grow shaky and difficult to parse at around that point. Tensing called out “Stop! Stop!” and then shot DuBose in the head. The entire incident took under two minutes. Two other officers, also present, also recorded the incident. At the time, Tensing was 25 and DuBose 43. The University of Cincinnati agreed to pay over US$4 million to DuBose’s family, and to educate DuBose’s 12 children.

Tensing is the third US police officer in roughly a week to be tried but not convicted for shooting a black man, though his is the only case to end in a mistrial. Jeronimo Yanaz was acquitted for killing Philando Castile and Dominique Heaggan-Brown for killing Sylville K. Smith.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

A joint research team from the University of Calgary, American Museum of Natural History, and Florida State University announced on Monday that the eggs of non-avian dinosaurs such as the duck-billed dinosaur took as long as six months to hatch, far longer than had previously been believed.

Bird eggs incubate for 11 to 85 days, about half the time of most other egg-laying vertebrates. Scientists had thought dinosaur eggs were more like those of modern birds than modern reptiles, but this long hatch time is far more reminiscent of monitor lizard than magpie.

The scientists reached this conclusion by comparing CT scans of the teeth of dinosaur embryos of two different species, the Protoceratops andrewsi, which had eggs weighing under 200 grams, and Hypacrosaurus stebingeri, a type of duck-billed dinosaur that had eggs twenty times that size. They observed the von Ebner lines, patterns that form in vertebrate teeth as they grow, to determine how long the overall developmental process was taking. “They’re kind of like tree rings, but they’re put down daily,” said Florida State University co-author Gregory Erickson. “And so we could literally count them to see how long each dinosaur had been developing.” They found the Protoceratops embryo was about three months old and the Hypacrosaurus about six months.

According to the research team, this may be one reason why dinosaurs did not recover after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 65 million years ago. Both the eggs and any parents guarding them would have drawn the attention of predators and been unable to flee floods or other problems. Guardians might not have been able to move far to find food. This, researchers say, would have put dinosaurs at a disadvantage over animals with quicker-hatching eggs and their mammalian competitors.

Natural History Museum Curator and study co-author Mark Norell cites advances in imaging technology as the reason why this study is being published today: “We know very little about dinosaur embryology, yet it relates to so many aspects of development, life history, and evolution, [b]ut with the help of advanced tools like CT scanners and high-resolution microscopy, we’re making discoveries that we couldn’t have imagined 20 years ago.”

The research team plans to study more fossilized dinosaur embryo skeletons to confirm their findings. Specifically, the current study did not include the skeleton of a velociraptor or any other dinosaur considered closely related to birds.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

India announced on March 23 that it will build an indigenous aircraft carrier by 2012.

The announcement represents a historic military development for India and the Asian region. Although India is already one of the nine countries capable of projecting their military power via aircraft carrier, they have not had the capability to build an aircraft carrier themselves.

The project will begin on April 11 with a “steel-cutting ceremony” attended by Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The vessel will be constructed at a state-owned shipyard with technical assistance from foreign consultancy firms. An Italian company is providing design consultation while a Russian firm is contributing aviation technology.

The construction of an indigenous aircraft carrier is part of India’s larger plan to modernize its navy. India aims to strengthen its navy, and its military power generally, through greater cooperation with and purchase of weapons systems from the United States.

In a related development, the United States announced on Friday that it intends to help India become a “major world power.”

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Police organized a search in the Sydenham Park area of south-east London after a local, Anthony Holder, was attacked by a 6ft long black animal while looking for his kitten in his back yard that borders a woodland.

Holder said the animal pounced, knocked him to the ground, and then he was “in its claws for about 30 seconds. Its teeth were out and I tried to defend myself and eventually I got the thing off my body.” Holder was scratched all over his body and suffered swelling and bruising to his hand and the back of his head. He called the police at about 2:15 am while the animal sat in the garden next door.

While Holder was being treated by paramedics, the Metropolitan Police conducted a search of the area. A citizen and a police officer saw the creature, believed by some to be a panther. Another officer also believed he saw the animal and reports it as approximately the size of a Labrador Retriever. The neighbourhood is being patrolled by an armed police response vehicle staffed by officers equipped with rifles and Taser stun guns.

Scotland Yard is currently seeking specialist advice from experts from the RSPCA and London Zoo. A spokeswoman said: “We are trying to establish exactly where the animal may have come from. In the meantime we are asking the public to be vigilant. If anyone does see the animal, do not approach it but dial 9-9-9 immediately.”

People are also being advised to keep pets indoors.

Sightings of big cats have increased in recent years. The notion of a large predator in London was initially dismissed by scientists, but evidence from footprints and droppings has led to other conclusions. The British Big Cat Society estimates 50 to 100 are currently loose across England. Livestock has supposedly been attacked a number of times. Farmers near Burford in Oxfordshire have offered a £5,000 reward for the capture of a large black creature suspected of killing livestock in the area. However, there have been virtually no human encounters.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Four major cell phone makers, Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, and Samsung, and two wireless providers, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone, have announced they will work together to provide a Linux-based platform for cell phones. This move could threaten the dominance Symbian and Microsoft in the operating systems market for cell phones.

Peter Gorham, an independent market analyst, said “Linux is also rock solid, unlike some of the existing operating systems. It would mean no more taking your batteries out of your phone to get it to reboot. And this would make things a lot easier for application developers.”

On the lack of U.S. provider’s support in this alliance, Gorham said “I am surprised that there aren’t any American carriers involved in this alliance, but they are probably skeptical about the longevity of these kinds of alliances. But Motorola and Samsung have a vested interest in the success of this thing, in part because they have a large customer, Vodafone, involved.”

This alliance is not the first effort to standardize on Linux for cell phones. Several groups are currently working on this, including Linux Phone Standard Forum, Open Source Development Lab, and Electronics Linux Forum.

According to Christy Wyatt, vice president of market development at Motorola, said this effort differs from other efforts because it will establish a common platform for all participating manufacturers.

Linux is already being utilized on some mobile devices. Motorola has already shipped five million of these including the Ming model for China and Rokr E2 music phone in Asia. The Rokr E2 will be available in Europe soon.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

The Interstate 35W Mississippi River eight-lane bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota has collapsed on both sides of the highway over the Mississippi River during rush hour.

Previous reports indicated at least nine people had died, but Minneapolis police revised this to four during a 7:30 a.m. (local time) press conference. Tim Dolan, the Minneapolis Police Chief later stated that “several [adding to the four] people are confirmed dead at the scene,” but would not elaborate on how many. At least 79 have been injured and at least 8 are still missing, still believed to be in the rubble.

The road was busy with bumper-to-bumper traffic in four lanes when the entire 1907 foot (581 m) steel arch bridge collapsed. At least 50 cars were traveling on the bridge, including a school bus. The Red Cross said that 60 children were aboard a school bus, and that ten of those were admitted to a hospital.

The entire length of the bridge over the river collapsed at 6:05 p.m. CDT (UTC-5). The bridge, built in 1967, cleared the water level by 64 feet; the deck surface and pavement were considerably higher.

Reports say that people may be trapped in the water. Further, “many voids may contain survivors, but we cannot search those voids until it’s safe,” said Jim Clack, Minneapolis Fire Chief, during a press conference.

“One has died from drowning,” said a doctor from the medical center during an 8:00 pm press conference, who also said that so far 22 are in “yellow condition” and at least six are in “critical condition.”

Minneapolis officials have stated during an earlier press conference that “people are being sent downtown and all survivors are off the bridge. We are seeking help from the Red Cross.” and “[…]at least 60 children are receiving trauma care some with severe injures, some with minor injuries.”

Most of the injured have been received by Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis for medical treatment. Area hospitals are requesting all off duty staff and all Minneapolis ambulances to report. Residents are being encouraged to stay away from the area to let emergency crews do their work.

It is not known what caused the collapse, but there was construction being performed on the bridge’s road surface which included the use of jackhammers and the FBI has ruled out terrorism.

“Although it is much too early to make any determination of the cause, we have no reason at this time to believe there is any nexus to terrorism,” said Paul McCabe, an FBI spokesman.

In 2001 a stress inspection was done and Minnesota Department of Transportation stated that the bridge “should not have any problems with fatigue cracking in the foreseeable future.”

Typically an eight-lane bridge, the bridge was reduced to four lanes (two in each direction) during the current construction. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) had just announced overnight lane reductions on the bridge to one lane in each direction for the late evening hours of July 31 and August 1.