Wikinews interviews Jon Greenspon, independent candidate for US President
Saturday, March 1, 2008 While nearly all coverage of the 2008 United States Presidential election has focused on the Democratic and Republican candidates, the race for the White House also includes independents and third party candidates. These parties represent a variety of views that may not be acknowledged by the major party platforms. Wikinews has impartially reached out to these candidates, throughout the campaign. We now interview independent Presidential candidate Jon Greenspon, a veteran and small business executive.
News briefs:July 14, 2010
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Japanese researchers create smell sensor using genetically engineered frog eggs
Sunday, August 29, 2010 A University of Tokyo group of researchers, led by bioengineer Shoji Takeuchi, has made an electronic sensor capable of smelling gases. The sensor uses genetically engineered frog cells. Since previous sensors were not very accurate, the scientist decided to try a biological approach. The invention was revealed in a US scientific journal yesterday, and is supposed to be used to design better machines to detect polluting gases in the atmosphere. Previous smell sensors were based on quartz rods, which vibrate when a substance binds to them. The gases are distinguished by their molar masses, which can be similar for molecules with different structure, thus relatively often triggering a false positive. Trying to find a more accurate solution, Takeuchi decided to follow an example from insect world. As he explained, “when you think about the mosquito, it is able to find people because of carbon dioxide from…
Smoke from massive warehouse fire in Buffalo, New York USA can be seen 40 miles away
Monday, May 14, 2007 Buffalo, New York —A massive warehouse complex of at least 5 buildings caught on fire in Buffalo, New York on 111 Tonawanda Street, sending a plume of thick, jet black colored smoke into the air that could be seen as far away as 40 miles. As of 6:40 a.m., the fire was under control, and firefighters were attempting to stop it from spreading, but could not get to the center of the fire because of severe amounts of debris. Later in the morning, the fire was extinguished. “The fire is mostly under debris at this point. It’s under control, but it’s under some debris. We really can’t get to it. We’re just going to have to keep on pouring water on it so it doesn’t spread,” said Thomas Ashe, the fire chief for the North Buffalo based fire division who also added that at one point,…
Wikinews Shorts: February 3, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 A compilation of brief news reports for Wednesday, February 3, 2010. Contents 1 Christmas day bomber cooperating 2 Fire in Hyderabad hospital; 1 dead 3 China begins urgent sweep for tainted milk 4 Karachi violence escalates, section 144 imposed The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas day with hidden explosives is cooperating with investigators and providing fresh intelligence after the U.S. enlisted the help of his family, an administration official said. His family persuaded him to cooperate. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been providing information to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents questioning him, the official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. The official declined to provide details on what kind of information Abdulmutallab was providing. Related news “Failed bomb aboard Delta flight” — Wikinews, December 26, 2009 Sources Evan Perez. “Abdulmutallab Resumes Talking to Federal Agents” — The Wall Street Journal,…
Western Australian economy at crisis point say builders
Saturday, June 7, 2008 Western Australian Master Builders Association (MBA) yesterday demanded the Carpenter Government call an emergency cabinet meeting to avoid a “state of emergency” over the energy crisis gripping WA. A MBA spokesperson said that hundreds of workers have already been stood down, many without pay, and that the cost of building material is soaring. The Minister for Energy, Fran Logan has admitted that the gas shortage caused by Tuesday’s fire is damaging the economy as mining, manufacturing and construction industries wind back operations. Western Australia’s two major brick producing companies have shut operations and Wesbeam’s $A100 million Neerabup pine production facility has been closed, their 130 employees have been stood down. Wesbeam chief executive James Malone said, “It’s an industrial tsunami in my view. It’s a little ripple that has very quickly had a huge multiplying effect on the whole community”. Michael McLean, Master Building Association director…
Home of Stonehenge builders found
Tuesday, January 30, 2007 Scientists have uncovered the largest Neolithic settlement in the United Kingdom at the Durrington Walls and believe that the village was inhabited by the people who built the Stonehenge monument. Scientists say that the village was built around 2,600 B.C., roughly when Stonehenge was believed to have been constructed, and housed over 100 people. Inside the areas which would have been the interior of houses at the time, scientists also found outlines of what they think were beds and cupboards or dressers. Pieces of pottery and “filthy” rubbish around the site. Animal bones, arrowheads, stone tools and other relics were also discovered. “We’ve never seen such quantities of pottery and animal bone and flint. In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards,” said Sheffield University archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson. So far, the dig has…
Construction on massive radio telescope array to begin in 2012
Friday, October 5, 2007 Scientists have announced that the largest radio telescope array in the world, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) is to be built in either Africa or Australia and will be composed of thousands of antenna arrays that will be capable of detecting the first galaxies and stars formed in our universe. The control center for the array is announced to be located in the United Kingdom in Manchester, England at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics. “The next generation radio telescope – the Square Kilometer Array – will carry on this tradition of innovation. The goal is to construct a network of antennas working at centimeter to meter wavelengths with 100 times the sensitivity of the largest existing arrays. This telescope will play a major role in the following decades, alongside other next generation facilities in the millimeter, optical/IR, X-ray and so on, in further exploring the…
New South Wales firefighters continue to battle fires, threat eases
Monday, January 2, 2006Firefighters in the Australian state of New South Wales continue to battle bushfires across the state. Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phill Koperberg said that there are still three fires on the Central Coast, while another fire in Junee is moving north and is now spread over 35,000 hectares. He added that it could take up to four days to contain the fires due to rain and strong winds. A southerly change blew through the state last night, easing temperatures and reducing the fire threat. No homes are believed to be under direct threat at this time. It is feared that the weather which helped the fires take hold may return on the weekend. Fires on the Central Coast fires continue to affect road and rail transport between Sydney and Newcastle. The Sydney-Newcastle Freeway and the Pacific Highway have been reopened, although there is heavy traffic on the…
Penske Auto selected to buy General Motors’ Saturn unit
Friday, June 5, 2009 General Motors Corporation (GM), an American automaker which has filed for bankruptcy protection, announced on Friday that the Penske Automotive Group (PAG) was selected to purchase Saturn Corporation. The transaction should be completed in October. The purchase includes rights to the Saturn brand, its five current models and its dealership network. Two models would be discontinued, the Sky and Astra. GM would continue building the Aura sedan, the SUV’s, Vue and Outlook for at least two more years. Saturn has 350 dealers across the United States. The dealers employ more than 13,000 jobs and sell only the Saturn autos. Canadian Saturn dealers are not included in the deal. According to Penske future Saturn vehicles will be fuel economy focused. An expert indicated that this would move Saturn back to its roots of a entry level car company. PAG is in talks with several international automakers to…