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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Viktor Schreckengost, the father of industrial design and creator of the Jazz Bowl, an iconic piece of Jazz Age art designed for Eleanor Roosevelt during his association with Cowan Pottery died yesterday. He was 101.

Schreckengost was born on June 26, 1906 in Sebring, Ohio, United States.

Schreckengost’s peers included the far more famous designers Raymond Loewy and Norman Bel Geddes.

In 2000, the Cleveland Museum of Art curated the first ever retrospective of Schreckengost’s work. Stunning in scope, the exhibition included sculpture, pottery, dinnerware, drawings, and paintings.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

The US Federal Communications Commission has extended the deadline for Enhanced 911 compliance by VoIP| (Voice over Internet Protocol) providers until Oct 31, 2005. Last May, the FCC issued an order requiring VoIP providers to implement E911 within 120 days. This order also required providers to notify customers of the 911 limitations. Customers who did not acknowledge these limitations would have their services terminated.

This extension gives providers extra time to connect the networks to 911 services, and warn users of the limitations. If the FCC had not granted this extension, at least 10,000 users would have been disconnected.

According to the FCC at least 21 VoIP providers have received an acknowledgment from all customers of the 911 limitations. 32 additional VoIP providers have received an acknowledgment from 90 percent or more of their customers. VoIP providers who have not met the 90% goal could face enforcement proceedings starting October 31, 2005.

FCC said in a statement “it is evident that many providers have devoted significant resources to notifying each of their subscribers of the limitations of their 911 service and obtaining acknowledgements from each of their subscribers.”

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

The US Army Corps of Engineers decision to place restrictions on issuance of nationwide pollution permits has been upheld by a federal court. In National Association of Home Builders v. Army Corps of Engineers, the District Court for the District of Columbia found that the Corps of Engineers had not acted in an “arbitrary” or “capricious” manner in changing the terms and conditions for issuance of a national pollution permit, including reducing the size of area into which pollutants may be discharged from 10 acres to 1 acre, raising the threshold for requiring additional permits from 1 acre to 1/10 acre,

A nationwide permit allows an organization to engage in certain industrial activities on a national basis (such as mining and construction), reducing the amount of paperwork and filings needed for otherwise minor environmental impacts, as opposed to an ordinary permit for a specific location which will engage in activities which generate water pollution.

Due to concerns over the amount of discharge taking place in waterways, the Corps of Engineers began in the 1980s to reduce the authority granted by nationwide permits and to bar use of the permits in certain ecologically sensitive areas.

Some industry groups, including the plaintiff in the above case, The National Association of Home Builders, sued the Corps of Engineers in 2000 over the change in an attempt to block its implementation. Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, were given permission to intervene in the case in support of the actions of the Corps.

Environmental groups were pleased with the decision, but are concerned over other actions of the Bush Administration, such as the attempts to weaken provisions of the 2002 Clean Water Act to allow additional dumping of construction and mining waste into waterways as fill material.

Monday, July 30, 2007

A Flybe, Bombardier Q400, had to make an emergency landing at Edinburgh Airport in Scotland after it had engine troubles on its scheduled flight from Manchester.

Thirty-six passengers were onboard flight BE7220 when the captain made the Mayday call to air traffic control at approximately 07:40 BST. The captain was forced to shut down one of the plane’s two turboprop engines before finally landing safely at Edinburgh Airport at 07:50 BST.

Upon landing the plane was met by fire engines and other emergency vehicles before taxiing to the terminal building.

Jim Mulhall, a passenger on board the plane said, “When the captain told us they were going to cut an engine everyone went quiet, probably because they were apprehensive.”

Normal operations at the airport have since resumed, while the aircraft is expected to resume commercial flying this afternoon.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Gay Talese wants to go to Iraq. “It so happens there is someone that’s working on such a thing right now for me,” the 75-year-old legendary journalist and author told David Shankbone. “Even if I was on Al-Jazeera with a gun to my head, I wouldn’t be pleading with those bastards! I’d say, ‘Go ahead. Make my day.'”

Few reporters will ever reach the stature of Talese. His 1966 profile of Frank Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Has a Cold, was not only cited by The Economist as the greatest profile of Sinatra ever written, but is considered the greatest of any celebrity profile ever written. In the 70th anniversary issue of Esquire in October 2003, the editors declared the piece the “Best Story Esquire Ever Published.”

Talese helped create and define a new style of literary reporting called New Journalism. Talese himself told National Public Radio he rejects this label (“The term new journalism became very fashionable on college campuses in the 1970s and some of its practitioners tended to be a little loose with the facts. And that’s where I wanted to part company.”)

He is not bothered by the Bancrofts selling The Wall Street Journal—”It’s not like we should lament the passing of some noble dynasty!”—to Rupert Murdoch, but he is bothered by how the press supported and sold the Iraq War to the American people. “The press in Washington got us into this war as much as the people that are controlling it,” said Talese. “They took information that was second-hand information, and they went along with it.” He wants to see the Washington press corp disbanded and sent around the country to get back in touch with the people it covers; that the press should not be so focused on–and in bed with–the federal government.

Augusten Burroughs once said that writers are experience junkies, and Talese fits the bill. Talese–who has been married to Nan Talese (she edited James Frey‘s Million Little Piece) for fifty years–can be found at baseball games in Cuba or the gay bars of Beijing, wanting to see humanity in all its experience.

Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s interview with Gay Talese.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

According to the Saudi Interior Ministry over 345 Muslim pilgrims have been killed in a stampede during the annual Hajj pilgrimage near Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The stampede at Islam’s most holy site happened at Jamarat Bridge, during an event where pebbles are thrown at a pillar to represent the stoning of Satan as part of the final rites of the Hajj. The stampede began when luggage from a bus tripped pilgrims at the eastern end of the wall, causing a bottleneck. Those who were tripped were then crushed by the wave of people behind them.

Muslims are required to make a pilgrimage to Mecca during their lifetimes, if physically or financially possible, as it is one of the five pillars of the Islamic faith. Saudi officials had already provided safeguards by installing an oval wall with padded edges to protect pilgrams from a crush, installed security cameras and placed over 60,000 security personnel in the area.

This is not the first time deadly stampedes have taken place during the Hajj, with the deadliest stampede during the 1991 Hajj, in which 1,426 pilgrims were trampled.

Last week, at least 76 people were killed when the Al Ghaza Hotel near the Masjid Al Haram (Grand Mosque) collasped, the cause of which is unknown.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Seven weeks after citizens of the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve repossessed land near Caledonia, Ontario, on February 28, the Ontario Provincial Police, who have authority from a court to arrest the protesters for contempt of court, have yet to act.

On April 11, more than 50 police cruisers, two paddy wagons, and several vans gathered outside an abandoned school on Unity Road in Caledonia. However, reports from last night are that visible police presence is minimal, with just a few police cruisers parked down the road from the protest site.

Before the site was blocked, Henco Industries had begun construction on 10 luxury homes out of a total of 71 scheduled to be built as part of the $6 million Douglas Creek Estates subdivision.

The tract of land under dispute was registered as a land claim by the Six Nations Band Council in 1987 but its status has yet to be settled. The land originally made up part of a large land grant given in 1784 to the Six Nations for services rendered during the American War of Independence. The government and the developer claim that the Six Nations surrendered title in 1841, but the Band disputes this.

The protesters are demanding a nation-to-nation dialogue with the Canadian government and continue to call for a peaceful resolution. Some protesters, however, have stated that if the OPP forcefully try to remove them, they will defend their land with force.

“If they break the peace, we’ll do what we have to do,” said protester Dick Hill. “Things are very tense. We are trying to defend our lands, which were taken from us. Every time we try to stand up for who we are and what we are, they come and drag us away.”

An injunction was issued to the development company a month ago that allowed for the protesters to be removed. Police have not enforced the injunction.

However, David Ramsay, Ontario’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister, said that the province was going to have a meeting with both protesters and developers in an attempt to address their concerns.

“This is a very serious situation. I have to be very hopeful that we’re going to see a peaceful end to this situation. We think we can resolve this by negotiating, and by talking so that’s what we’re doing,” added Ramsay.