Archives May 2019

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Researchers say that new, ten million-year-old fossils found in Ethiopia, prove that the theory that humans may have evolved from a species of great apes eight million years ago, may not be true, but that humans may have split from apes as long as 10.5 million years ago.

At least nine fossilized teeth, one canine tooth and eight molars, of a previously unknown species of apes found in Africa were discovered by a team of researchers from Ethiopia and Japan who then compared the 3-D make up of the teeth to other fossils that date back as far as 8 million years and found that the fossils are likely a “direct ancestor” of apes currently living in Africa and that the new ape fossils were that of a species of gorilla who ate mostly plants high in fiber.

Current fossils and research say that the evolutionary split from apes to humans occurred at least eight million years ago. The new fossils say that the split may have happened as long as 10.5 million years ago.

“Based on this fossil, that means the split is much earlier than has been anticipated by the molecular evidence. That means everything has to be put back,” said researcher at the Rift Valley Research Service in Ethiopia and a co-author of the study, Berhane Asfaw.

Despite the finds, other researchers are not convinced that the findings are correct.

“It is stretching the evidence to base a time scale for the evolution of the great apes on this new fossil. These structures appear on at least three independent lineages of apes, including gorillas, and they could relate to a dietary shift rather than indicating a new genetic trait,” said a Professor at the London Natural History Museum in the United Kingdom, Peter Andrews who also added, “but the fossil evidence for the evolution of our closest living relatives, the great apes, is almost non-existent.

Researchers have named the newly discovered species Cororapithecus abyssinicus whose remains were found in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, the same place where the remains of Lucy were discovered in 1974.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005Starting from April 4, the Romanian Commercial Bank (Banca Comercial? Român?, or BCR), the country’s largest bank, will launch a smart card system for all its ATM network as well as its point-of-sale terminals in more than 5,000 stores across Romania. While the system will be enabled to work with these cards from April, the smart cards themselves will only be issued to account holders in the second half of the year.

Smart cards in a banking context are cards which contain information on a chip and can permit greater security and control of transactions. BCR is the first Romanian bank to use this technology.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued proposed calorie labeling rules requiring most retail food vendors to display the calorie counts in items on their menus and menu boards. The proposed rules, issued Friday and expected to be finalized in 2012, would apply to most restaurants, snack bars, vending machines, coffee shops, drive-through restaurants, and convenience and grocery stores.

The US Congress required the rules in the health-care reform law passed in 2010. The rules proposed by the FDA must undergo a public comment period before they are finalized and take effect, said Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Director for Foods at the FDA.

The proposed regulations pertain to businesses devoting more than 50 percent of their floor space to the sale of food or that consider themselves restaurants, specifically food-selling chains with at least 20 stores nationally. Included are candy stores, bakeries, and ice-cream parlors.

The FDA’s proposed guidelines specify that chains post the calorie counts of foods and drinks on menus and menu boards or next to the food item, such as at a salad bar. The menu is to prominently exhibit the calorie content of each item in a way customers can see easily, giving them the same information packaged foods prepared at home currently provide. The information must be displayed in “clear and conspicuous” print and colors.

Many cities and states have passed laws requiring calorie labeling on menus, beginning with New York City in 2008. California implemented a similar law in January, although many counties are waiting for the release of the federal guidelines before they begin enforcement. Some fast-food chains there, such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, are displaying calorie counts on menus in some of their stores.

The rules are intended to curb the national obesity epidemic since, according to FDA estimates, one third of the calories people consume yearly come from food eaten out. In a statement issued yesterday, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services said, “Giving consumers clear nutritional information makes it easier for them to choose healthier options that can help fight obesity and make us all healthier.”

Excluded from the rules are businesses whose primary product is not food sales but that sell it, such as bowling alleys, airports and airplanes, amusement parks, hotels and movie theaters. Alcohol is also excluded.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

From August 17 to September 3, 2007 the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE or The EX) came back to Toronto for its 128th year. It is the largest in Canada and the fifth largest in North America.

The three day Canadian International Airshow, the horse show called “Tom Bishop’s Trick Riding Show”, and many other events were the main attractions at this year’s CNE. An estimated 1.3 million people attend the CNE every year.

The 680 News tower made entirely from Lego’s was on display, with a fence around it.

On Saturday at 1:00 p.m. was the airshow, which featured award winning aviators, including the Canadian Forces (CF) snowbirds, flying planes used in Afghanistan. The United States Air Force (USAF) also flew planes used in the military and a new F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft for its first time in an international show. A CF-18 Hornet, Canadian version of the USAF F/A-18 Hornet, 1943 Boeing Stock Stearman PT-17, and many other rare planes were also flown. Everyone could see the airshow but for a good photo and video opportunity freelance Wikinews journalist and others paid CA$5.00 to get on top of Ontario Place, across from the exhibition grounds. There was a ton of stairs to get to the top, but it was well worth it if one wanted excellent photos and video to watch with their family.

“I used to come to the air show every year with my dad … being out there flying over Lake Ontario in my hometown is unbelievable,” said Capt. Yanick “Crank” Gregoire of the CF-18 Hornet, on its 25th anniversary.

General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces, made a brief speech and talked about Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. Followed by was a pre-recorded speech made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Then the American and Canadian national anthems were played and the show begun, it even included a live pilot in a Canadian Forces plane talking through his microphone into the speakers on top of Ontario Place. The airshow was something not to be missed as the staggering planes are always best watched live.

In the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place were many vendors and people selling books, cloths, inventions, and even some live cooking shows. There was also a arts, crafts, and hobbies building, which was one of the best places to visit at this year’s CNE. Rides and attractions filled the grounds across Ontario Place.

The famous Iams-sponsored Superdogs performed dog tricks for an audience in a large area, while behind the curtains were salespeople at booths advertising and selling Iams dog food. They perform at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto and other fairs in Canada.

At 5:00pm was the horse show at the Riding Academy “Horse Palace“, hosted by Tom Bishop Sr. There was a woman representing Ontario, a 15-year-old girl from Alberta representing Canada, and a man from the United States on a black horse. One of the horse riders, a champion, was from Canada but moved to the U.S. and has toured both countries. Tom Bishop Jr. stood and rode on top of two “Canadians”, the most rare and oldest horse breed in North America. The horses had to jump over a line of gas-led fire, Tom Bishop Sr. noted beforehand that horses are scared of fire.

At 9:00 p.m. was the Human Cannon Ball, from the U.S. Performed by David “The Bullet” Smith, Jr., son of Cannonball Smith, is the second person in the world that can do the “don’t-do-this-at-home-or-else!” stunt. It is their third year at the CNE. Most people came 20 minutes before to get a good spot. The shot was so loud that some had to plug their ears, and if one didn’t their heart would be beating hard. Smith jumped out like he’s done that stunt a thousand times, he did a push up on the ground and quickly ran back.

While walking to the Ontario Place parking lot, as soon as the “Human Cannon Ball” was finished, the Canadian Forces had several of their vehicles used in Afghanistan on display outside. A snowbirds plane, some LAV III’s, tanks, a helicopter, and a boat were on display. Soldiers were outside to greet and talk to the visitors, and had photos taken. A large banner was hung and old music was playing. People even signed a board beside a tank showing their support and thanks to the soldiers currently deployed. There was also a large tent with real Canadian soldiers giving away bracelets and showing actual uniforms used. They were very heavy and one soldier actually said the cloths are comfortable. It wasn’t clear which base the soldiers came from but one said that he came from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The CNE closes every night at 11:00pm.

It ends on Labour Day at 7:00pm.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

This weekend saw the opening of two new exhibitions at Edinburgh’s National Gallery of Modern Art. Wikinews attended Thursday’s press preview for the event where a full contingent of the capital’s press turned out to see the striking collection of paintings, photographs, and other works. Presented below are a selection of images captured at the preview.

REFLECTIONS: A Series of Changing Displays of Contemporary Art, billed as a showcase of a “diverse range of internationally-renowned contemporary and modern artists” is to display major works from the Gallery’s permanent collection, alongside important loans. Alongside this broad range of works, a three-room display of pieces on-loan from the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation — with a dramatic painted steel relief, ‘borrowed’ from the Tate in London — runs from March 14 through to January 10 next year.

Admission to both exhibitions is free; being located in Dean, to the north-west of Edinburgh’s city centre, a free Gallery bus service is available.

Saturday, February 5, 2005

Australia –James Gosling, the creator of the Java programming language, said last week that he believes Microsoft is wrong in its decision to support C and C++ programming languages in the common language runtime in Microsoft .NET. According to him, this decision may lead to severe security flaws in .NET. Gosling is currently in Australia, giving talks and visiting friends.

According to Gosling, the problem lies with the programming languages and some of their characteristics: “C++ allowed you to do arbitrary casting, arbitrary adding of images and pointers, and converting them back and forth between pointers in a very, very unstructured way.”

The Java language was developed due to limitations of C++. Gosling began using C++ for the former Sun Microsystems‘s star-seven project. At that time Gosling concluded C++ was inadequate and created the Oak language. The Oak language would become the language known today as Java. The former star-seven project shares its defining characteristics with networked software applications today: safety and portability.

Gosling continues: “If you look at the security model in Java and the reliability model, and a lot of things in the exception handling, they depend really critically on the fact that there is some integrity to the properties of objects. So if somebody gives you an object and says ‘This is an image’, then it is an image. It’s not like a pointer to a stream, where it just casts an image.”

Charles Sterling, a Microsoft developer and product manager of the .NET framework, didn’t entirely disagree with Gosling’s thoughts. But he said that .NET defines different types of code. And there is the code which is managed by the .NET framework. All new Microsoft languages, such as C# and Visual Basic.NET, produce only code managed by the .NET framework, so they are safe.

A key idea that has not shown up in Gosling’s talk is that Java itself allows a very similar process to occur. Java’s JNI (Java Native Interface) allows the integration of the same unsafe code that prompted Gosling’s central thesis.

However, Gosling says languages like C and C++ can still produce unsafe code which would not follow the rules of safety of .NET. This sort of code, usually found in old software applications, requires additional .NET permissions to execute. Sterling says it is up to developers to decide whether or not to use unsafe code in their .NET applications.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

According to New Zealand doctor, Doctor Glenn Twentyman from Child, Youth and Family Services at Wiri, South Auckland, hoodies can be a health risk because they block sunlight which causes a vitamin D deficiency, thus weak bones and low energy.

Dr Twentyman said: “It’s the hoodies and the hats and the downward glance of the teenagers, shading your face all the time.”

Dr Twentyman said that every young person that he had tested showed a deficiency of vitamin D. Vitamin D helps vital minerals to be absorbed into the bones. Vitamin D is given to our body from the sun. “A lot of these kids stay away from sunshine. They don’t hang out at the beach or in the bush. Some are into drugs and alcohol and a lot of it is indoor activity and night-time activity. They sleep during the day. They are wearing those hoods and literally they don’t get out in the sun.”

Even though vitamin D is usually absorbed through sun it can also be found in: fatty fish, liver, eggs, full fat milk and butter.

There is an increase in reports of vitamin D deficiency in Oceania. This is most likely because of people trying to cover up because of the higher risk of getting skin cancer due to the ozone hole over New Zealand. His comments come as evidence mounts of increasing vitamin D deficiency in Australasia, partly caused by covering up to avoid skin cancer. Also one student from Tangaroa College, Vincent Wesche, said that he wears a hoodie because “I don’t want to lose my hair,” also referring to rugby player, Carlos Spencer, “Carlos Spencer is starting to lose his hair from the sun.”

Doctor Cameron Grant, from Starship hospital in Auckland, said that he had done a study for four years which found that infants living in Auckland did have a deficiency of vitamin D. “We know that vitamin D deficiency is a health issue in New Zealand. We know that people who are at risk of vitamin D deficiency are for example groups who keep themselves clothed and keep themselves indoors for religious reasons … so his idea is not an unreasonable one.”

Another study also showed that 87% of pregnant woman living in Wellington were vitamin D deficient.

Dr Twentyman said that the people who are most likely to have a vitamin D deficiency are “depressed people and the elderly, such as those kept indoors in rest homes all day.”