Early Saturday morning winds up to 90 miles per hour struck Waco, Texas and central McLennan County, United States, causing widespread damage and leaving many households without electricity.
No deaths or serious injuries have been reported; however, there is a tremendous amount of damage in 15 areas of the city, leading Mayor Virgina DuPuy to declare the city a disaster area.
The hardest hit area was Franklin Avenue, where the Coca-Cola bottling plant’s roof was peeled open as if by a giant can-opener. There were Sprite bottles spread out onto the street. The nearby Furniture Row shopping center was also hit hard. Some furniture was found as far as three-quarters of a mile away. Other hard-hit areas were Robinson, Hewitt, Woodway, and Speegleville. Densely populated Inner Waco was spared of any catastrophic damage, though hundreds, and possibly thousands, of trees have fallen, and roofs destroyed.
The main concern is restoring power to over 23,000 households and businesses. Many gas stations and grocery stores in the disaster areas were closed until power is restored. Those that remained open have had to throw out all perishable items. Also of concern is getting electricity to those with medical needs. The city has provided help to those without power at the Dewey Recreation Center.
The storm is the hardest to hit the area since the tornado that struck on May 11, 1953, which tore through downtown and killed 114 people.
Waco has seen more than its share of tornadoes recently. Only a week ago, an F1 tornado damaged many houses along Orchid and Kendall Lanes. No people were injured, though two horses were killed when their stable collapsed.
The National Weather Service confirmed this morning’s winds were a F2 tornado, where wind speeds may have reached 115 miles per hour in some locations.
The fourth annual Maker Faire took place this past weekend at the San MateoFairground in San Mateo, California located in the United States. The first Maker Faire, which took place in 2006, had approximately 20,000 people in attendance. This year, more than 80,000 people were expected to attend; quadruple the attendance of just four years prior. On Saturday night, it was reported that attendance was up considerably over last year’s event.
Maker Faire, the self-declared “World’s Largest DIY Festival”, offers a forum where hundreds of makers and crafters alike man booths where they display their work. In the main halls alone, there were hundreds of booths. Outside the expo halls, the surrounding area was also filled with many interesting projects, some of which were mobile. In addition to all of the projects on display, there were a number of on-stage presentations. The biggest presentation of the weekend was given by Adam Savage who spoke on the topic of his “Colossal Failures”. During his talk, the Fiesta Hall was filled to capacity.
The theme for this year’s fair was “Remake: America” after President Obama‘s call to “begin again the work of remaking America”. In addition, “going green”, alternative fuel vehicles, crafting, steampunk and sciences for the young, were common themes found throughout the fair.
Former Salt Lake City mayor and human rights activist Rocky Anderson took some time to discuss his 2012 U.S. presidential campaign and the newly-created Justice Party with Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn.
Anderson served as mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years (2000–2008) as a member of the Democratic Party. During his tenure, he enacted proposals to reduce the city’s carbon emissions, reformed its criminal justice system, and positioned it as a leading sanctuary for refugees. After leaving office, Anderson grew critical of the Democratic Party’s failure to push for impeachment against President George W. Bush, and for not reversing policies on torture, taxes, and defense spending. He left the party earlier this year and announced that he would form a Third party.
Anderson officially established the Justice Party last week during a press conference in Washington D.C.. He proclaimed “We the people are powerful enough to end the perverse government-to-the-highest-bidder system sustained by the two dominant parties…We are here today for the sake of justice — social justice, environmental justice and economic justice.” The party promotes campaign finance reform and is attempting to appeal to the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is currently working on ballot access efforts, and will hold a Founding Convention in February 2012 in Salt Lake City.
Among other issues, Anderson discussed climate change, health care, education, and civil liberties. He detailed his successes as mayor of Salt Lake City, stressed the importance of executive experience, and expressed his views on President Barack Obama and some of the Republican Party presidential candidates. He spoke in depth about former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, with whom he worked during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and fellow Utahan, former governor and U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr..
An article in the February 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports on an unusual cause for an outbreak of low blood sugar among men in Singapore: illegal use of sexual performance enhancement drugs that were contaminated with a diabetes drug.
Between January and May 2008, 149 men and one woman between 19 and 97 (mean age 51) were admitted to five public hospitals for unexplained low blood sugar. Similar cases were reported in media reports from Hong Kong. Seven Singaporean patients remained in a coma because of prolonged sugar starvation of the brain, and four subsequently died. The diabetes drug glyburide was found in blood and/or urine samples in 85% of cases; 30% admitted having used illegal sexual performance enhancers.
The contaminated products were a counterfeit version of the drug Cialis (meant for the treatment of genuine erectile dysfunction), and three purported herbal preparation (the affected brands included Power 1 Walnut and Santi Bovine Penis Erecting Capsule). All four preparations additionally contained Viagra in varying concentrations. Two herbal products contained traces of the weight loss drug sibutramine, a compound related to amphetamines.
The drug packaging mentioned names of non-existent overseas production facilities, so the source of the contamination with the diabetes drug could not be established.
The authors underline the risks that is known to be associated with purchasing drugs from unreliable providers or from online resellers. The clandestine use of impotence drugs as sexual performance enhancers seems to have provided a good illustration of this problem. They further call for more efforts by national and international health and law enforcement agencies to curb the manufacturing, international transport and sales of untrustworthy medication.
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Photograph: Lee Jordan
Mobile telephone company Nokia, the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, based in Finland, has today lowered its forecasts for the number of mobile handsets to be sold in 2008 by 1.5%, due to the current economic crisis.
It lowered its forecast for the total number of mobile phones to be sold in 2008 to 1.24 billion, down from 1.26 billion. Nokia also stated that it’s “preliminary estimate is that the industry mobile device volumes will be down in 2009 compared to 2008, impacted by the continuing overall economic slowdown.”
“In the last few weeks, the global economic slowdown, combined with unprecedented currency volatility, has resulted in a sharp pull back in global consumer spending,” stated Nokia, explaining it’s reasons behind it’s move. “The weaker consumer spending has impacted many industries, including the global mobile device market. The mobile device market has also been negatively impacted by the more limited availability of credit, which has limited the purchasing ability of some of our trade customers.”
Nokia’s share price has fallen on the announcement of this news. The company opened today trading at US$12.43. It has since fallen to a low of $12.22, although it has now recovered.
The company plans to reveal more details on its 2009 forecasts at its “Capital Markets Day” in New York on December 4.
A circus elephant managed to escape from her handler on Sunday night in the city of Zurich, Switzerland before being recaptured by local police and circus animal keepers. The 26-year-old female elephant, named Sabu, is from Switzerland’s Zirkus Knie. She was able to make her escape just before being put into a trailer, while the keeper was not paying attention.
Around 1930 local time (1730 UTC), Sabu was seen wading in Lake Zurich for a short time before walking back onto city streets. Zurich police said that Sabu wandered along the Bahnhofstrasse avenue of Zurich, which is known as the city’s most exclusive shopping street. She also passed by Zürich Hauptbahnhof (the city’s main rail station) and Paradeplatz, a square of Bahnhofstrasse, where both Credit Suisse Group AG and UBS AG have headquarters.
For nearly an hour, police chased the elephant around the city before she was finally peacefully recaptured in the Talstrasse section of Zurich. Circus officials and police followed Sabu, but a circus spokesperson said that she did not respond to their calls. Sabu was also said to have been moving so fast that police had difficulty keeping up with her. At about 2000 local time (1900 UTC), a keeper was able to control the animal and load her onto a truck to take her to Winterthur, where the other circus animals were. There were no reports of any damage or injuries during the incident, and although police held back onlookers, at least one bystander managed to capture video of the event.
The circus said that Sabu may have escaped after being frightened by storms near Zurich. After returning to the circus, she was said to be tired, but “pleased to be back.”
An explosion from an underground utility chamber in downtown San Francisco severely injured a woman and shattered a window at a Ralph Lauren clothing store shortly after 10:00 a.m. Pacific time Friday. According to a caller to KCBS radio, a woman was engulfed in flames after the explosion triggered a fire in the store. The fire was quickly put out.
A bomb squad is currently investigating the explosion, and the cause has yet to be determined. One official said the explosion may have been caused by an electrical transformer. A witness described a fireball coming out of the side of the building
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. company spokesman Paul Moreno has stated that “there was no indication of a gas leak.” Moreno also described the aftermath of the blast. “The explosion did displace manhole covers — two round steel ones — and it also displaced a concrete cover as well,” Moreno said.
Some accounts have described a rift in the sidewalk caused by the explosion below.
Construction worker Tom Demartini, who was sitting in his truck outside the Ralph Lauren store, stated he saw the sidewalk rise up six or seven inches. “It sounded like a big poof, then there was a lot of smoke,” Demartini said. “One woman looked like she was badly burned.”
The burned woman was taken to the emergency room at St. Francis Hospital. Hospital spokeswoman Linda Gillespie had no immediate comment on her condition. Her name was not released.
Workers in a nearby office building described how the blast shook their buildings and that they thought it was an earthquake. According to one woman, the elevator in her building stopped.
Scores of police have evacuated buildings several blocks around the explosion. Kearny street between Sutter and Market has been closed to both vehicles and pedestrians.
Toyota driver Timo Glock took second place after starting seventh on the grid. Previous Singapore GP winner Fernando Alonso took the last spot on the podium for Renault, having started one place ahead of Glock.
Sebastian Vettel came in fourth for Red Bull after a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. His teammate Mark Webber, suffering from brake trouble, span off and retired on lap 45. Both Toro Rosso cars also retired due to mechanical problems.
Monday this week saw a conclusion of the “crashgate” scandal around Renault, as the World Motor Sport Council gave the team a two-year suspended ban. This was for a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Former team boss Flavio Briatore was banned for life from any FIA-sanctioned event and was replaced by Bob Bell on this post and chief engineer Pat Symonds was banned for five years. The Renault team also lost two sponsors this week: ING Group and Mutua Madrileña.
Following the race Jenson Button still leads the Championship with 84 points. Button’s teammate Barrichello is 15 points behind, and Brawn are the leading team with 153 points. Vettel is 10 points behind Barrichello and is the only competitor from another team who has a mathematical chance to win the championship. Red Bull are 42.5 and other teams more than 90 points behind Brawn.
Freelance journalist Gabriel Pollard interviewed John Ballinger who has what is believed to be the first unlocked iPhone working in New Zealand on the Vodafone New Zealand GSM network.
Ballinger, director of Bluespark Ltd., managed to unlock the iPhone without having to solder anything. This is unlike George Hotz, the first person to unlock the iPhone, who had to by using a different method involving soldering.
Ballinger followed the steps on how to unlock it on a website and had watched a few videos the day before. He described the website, despite containing a few spelling mistakes, as “really good”. He says that the spelling mistakes are noticeable and can result in file-not-found errors. “A few things were guess work.”
It took Ballinger around four to five hours to complete all necessary steps. However, half of this time was trying to get the case of the iPhone open. “Getting the case open is amazingly difficult,” he said. He also didn’t want to scratch the case, unlike others, so he used plastic tools “used to replace iPod batteries that worked okay.”
He also recommends having two people on this job as this will help when it comes to shorting a circuit.
After that, all you have to do is run some software, according to Ballinger. “The software part is pretty simple, follow the instructions and it could be made even easier if all the files were in one download.
“Anyone could do this.”
However, he cannot use either the built-in YouTube application or the email applications as it will not connect to the Post Office Protocol. “I can use all of them via the web browser but none by the inbuilt iPhone applications… but I am sure there will be an app you can install that will fix this or a new hack or it’s just me.” He can also only get the Internet if there is a Wi-Fi connection, as Vodafone NZ has 3G but no EDGE; additionally, Ballinger could not get the slower GPRS working.
“If there was a 3G phone then this phone would be amazing!” He says he “really really” does love the iPhone due to its small size, its quietness, and the fact that it does not get hot.