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Wednesday, October 1, 2008

A seven story concrete apartment building in the Naniwanaka Naniwa Ward of Osaka, Japan was set ablaze, killing at least 15 people. The fire started early in the morning on October 1st in the Video DVD Cat sex shop on the first floor.

At least eight people were rescued from the building, four of whom were seriously injured in the fire. Most of the injuries and deaths were caused by smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. According to authorities, all of the fatalities were in private viewing rooms in a video shop that was located on the first floor of the building.

The sex shop had 32 cubicles for watching videos, all of which were equipped with a bed, television, and video deck. Due to the beds, and a shower, shops like this are often used as cheap hotels. A customer, who fled to safety when the fire started, said to the media that the inside of shop was dark, and that he had difficulty seeing where he was going as he escaped.

Witnesses said that they first noticed a burning smell at 2:30am local time, and that the fire was reported to Osaka Fire Department around 3am. 40 fire trucks and 120 firefighters took part in the efforts to bring the blaze under control. The fire was extinguished at around 4:30am, after burning for about one and a half hours. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

Monday, June 6, 2005

Apple Computer CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs gave his annual opening keynote to the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Moscone Center in San Francisco, California on Monday. He announced a seamless integration of podcasting with iTunes, and, to the amazement of many, that future Apple Macintosh computers will feature Intel processors.

Jobs welcomed everyone to the event and announced that there were 3,800 attendees. There are 500 Apple engineers at what is their largest developers conference in the past decade. There are over 500,000 developers of Apple programs (apps). Jobs said that Apple has 109 retail stores, with one million visitors per week, creating over $500 million yearly in revenue. The Mac market share is up 82% from 9 months ago.

Jobs then moved on to talk about a very anticipated announcement- Podcasting. Steve called podcasting “Wayne’s World for radio”. He called it the “hottest thing going in radio”, and, “exciting”. There are over 8,000 podcasts. Steve Jobs announced that automatic podcasting subscription would be built in to iTunes and iPod seamlessly. He also announced that QuickTime 7 would be soon available for Windows.

Moving on, Jobs announced that there have been 2 million copies of Tiger sold in the 6 weeks that it has been available. He demoed the Wikipedia Dashboard widget. Steve announced that Mac OS X Leopard would be released in 2007, the same time as Microsoft’s Longhorn.

In a surprising move, Steve Jobs announced that Macintosh computers would begin to be shipped with Intel processors, the same as in Windows machines, ending the eleven year partnership with IBM and Motorola. This is said to be out of Apple’s increasing frustration at IBM’s inability to deliver faster and cooler processors, though it is interesting to note that Intel has recently added Digital Rights/Restrictions Management (DRM) to its latest processors. This ‘switch’, he said, would happen beginning next year. Jobs said that Mac OS X has had “a secret double life” and OS X had “been compiled [for Intel processors] for five years.” He talked about the easiness for developers to port their Mac apps to Intel (x86) processors. Current PowerPC programs can be run on Intel processors due to a new Apple technology. He said that Apple is “getting ready” for the transition from PowerPC to Intel.

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Monday, October 1, 2007

Jim Reeves is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the York-Simcoe 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.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Civic Parade of Pichilemu took place on Saturday morning, in Daniel Ortúzar Avenue. The event was attended by around 9,000 people. It started with an exhibition of cueca, the Chilean national dance, by winners of communal and regional Cueca championships.

All the schools from urban Pichilemu and its rural villages participated in the parade, including La Aguada School, Espinillo Basic School, Cáhuil School, Charly’s School, Colegio Preciosa Sangre, Agustín Ross High School, Digna Camilo Aguilar School, and others. Neighborhood councils (such as Infiernillo, presided by Mauricio Vargas), elderly clubs, sport clubs (such as Arturo Prat and Independiente), the Public Safety Agency and the Fire Bureau also participated. The Parade music was performed by Banda Instrumental Pichilemina (Pichileminian Instrumental Band).

The parade is part of celebrations marking two hundred years since Chile began the Independence process, that ended in 1818 after Bernardo O’Higgins proclaimed it.

“This parade shows the power that the Pichileminian people has to stand again [after the February 27 earthquake],” Mayor of Pichilemu Roberto Córdova said. “It is the greatest parade in the History of Pichilemu,” he added.

The event was broadcast by the local radio stations Entre Olas, Atardecer and Somos Pichilemu. Jorge Vargas González, owner of Radio Somos Pichilemu and former Mayor of the city also attended the event, along with his wife Andrea Aranda, current Councillor.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Sam Brownback is perplexed. The U.S. Senator from Kansas and Presidential candidate is a Republican whose politics—he is against marriage for gay people, he is against abortion, and he has a clean image in a party tainted by scandal—should speak favorably to the party’s base. But it has not. “I’m baffled by that myself,” Senator Brownback told Wikinews reporter David Shankbone. “We haven’t been able to raise money.”

A recent poll in Iowa has put him in eighth place, with 2% supporting his campaign. “If we don’t finish fourth or better in Iowa…we’ll pull out.”

Senator Brownback’s relationship with God infuses almost every answer you find below. Although he doesn’t feel “competent” to explain why God would dislike gays, he does feel strongly that allowing two men or two women to enter into the union of marriage will destroy it for heterosexuals. Pointing to the research of Stanley Kurtz at the Hoover Institution, Brownback asserts that Northern Europeans have “taken the sacredness out of the institution.”

In the interview, Senator Brownback discusses the tug-and-pull that befalls him when his constituents show up at his office and say, “Look, I’m a conservative, but we need this bridge, we need this subsidy, we need this hospital.” Brownback feels this spending system needs to be changed; however, when it comes to energy policy, Brownback is there for his constituents. David Shankbone asked the Kansas Senator, a supporter of cellulosic ethanol, why he doesn’t support the lowering of tariffs on sugar since sugar ethanol delivers 8 times the energy output of cellulosic ethanol. Brazil, in particular, has become energy independent because of its sugar ethanol program. It’s cheaper to produce, and there is vastly more bang for the buck in sugar fuel than in corn fuel; an entire country no longer needs to import oil because of it. Federal tariffs currently make sugar ethanol too expensive in the United States. “You’re going to kill the ethanol industry here just as it gets going,” was Senator Brownback’s response. However, there is a debate over whether the process to make corn ethanol uses more energy than the ethanol itself produces.

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with Senator Sam Brownback.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Rescuers in Brazil are seeking a plane that disappeared Friday carrying six people, two local pilots and four British investors interested in a possible new housing development.

The dual-engined Cessna 310, operated by Aero Star, lost contact with Air Traffic Control (ATC) eight miles (13km) off the coast near Ilheus, where it was intending to land in nine minutes time and was making a visual approach to Ilhéus Jorge Amado Airport. The flight had originated in Salvador and made last contact at 5:43 p.m. local time (2043 GMT) with Ilheus control tower.

The four passengers have been identified as Sean Woodhall, Ricky Every, Alan Kempson and Nigel Hodges. The planned development they had been considering is a luxury estate planned by Worldwide Destinations, who Sean Woodhall owns. It is based in Spain and constructs worldwide luxury property developments.

Ricky Every works for Worldwide Destinations, and Alan Kempson and Nigel Hodges are both directors of UK finance company Diamond Lifestyle Holdings, who had been considering a deal with Worldwide. At least three of the four did not live in the UK.

The search for the aircraft is focusing on a location 20 miles (32km) North of Ilheus, where there are eyewitness reports that a light aircraft was flying extremely low and without lights, leading authorities to believe the aircraft loss power. Investigations are probing some reports of witnessing a plane crash, and there are unconfirmed rumours that wreckage has been found.

Brazil’s Coast Guard, three Aero Star helicopters and Bahia state police are all participating in the search. The weather was good at the time and the flight crew hadn’t reported any issues to ATC.