News briefs:June 9, 2010
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India: Maharashtra plastic ban comes into force
Monday, June 25, 2018 On Saturday, the plastic ban in the Indian state of Maharashtra came into force. In an attempt to minimise pollution, the state government has introduced a ban on single-use plastics. The leader of the Yuya Sena political party, Aaditya Thackeray, said on Twitter, “The ban on single use disposable plastic cups, plastic bags, plastic straws, plastic plates and cutlery, styrofoam cutlery and non woven bags”. He added, “these are global issues now and we have taken a step to combat it”. Plastic pollution has led to the choking of drains, marine pollution and a risk of animals consuming plastics. This year, India’s motto for World Environment Day — June 5 — was “Beat Plastic Pollution”. People violating the plastic ban are to face a fine of 5,000 Indian Rupees (INR) for the first offence. For the second offence, the fine is INR 10,000 and the third…
Stanford physicists print smallest-ever letters ‘SU’ at subatomic level of 1.5 nanometres tall
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 A new historic physics record has been set by scientists for exceedingly small writing, opening a new door to computing‘s future. Stanford University physicists have claimed to have written the letters “SU” at sub-atomic size. Graduate students Christopher Moon, Laila Mattos, Brian Foster and Gabriel Zeltzer, under the direction of assistant professor of physics Hari Manoharan, have produced the world’s smallest lettering, which is approximately 1.5 nanometres tall, using a molecular projector, called Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) to push individual carbon monoxide molecules on a copper or silver sheet surface, based on interference of electron energy states. A nanometre (Greek: ?????, nanos, dwarf; ?????, metr?, count) is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one billionth of a metre (i.e., 10-9 m or one millionth of a millimetre), and also equals ten Ångström, an internationally recognized non-SI unit of length. It is often…
John Vanderslice plays New York City: Wikinews interview
Thursday, September 27, 2007 John Vanderslice has recently learned to enjoy America again. The singer-songwriter, who National Public Radio called “one of the most imaginative, prolific and consistently rewarding artists making music today,” found it through an unlikely source: his French girlfriend. “For the first time in my life I wouldn’t say I was defending the country but I was in this very strange position…” Since breaking off from San Francisco local legends, mk Ultra, Vanderslice has produced six critically-acclaimed albums. His most recent, Emerald City, was released July 24th. Titled after the nickname given to the American-occupied Green Zone in Baghdad, it chronicles a world on the verge of imminent collapse under the weight of its own paranoia and loneliness. David Shankbone recently went to the Bowery Ballroom and spoke with Vanderslice about music, photography, touring and what makes a depressed liberal angry. DS: How is the tour going?…
China and Taiwan react to “326” rally
Monday, March 28, 2005 Chinese media and former ROC President and spiritual leader of the pro-independence TSU Lee Teng-hui (???) responded on Monday to the massive rally held Saturday in Taipei. In mainland China, the China Daily published an editorial under the headline, “March sets stage for secessionist scheming” in which it labeled the rally as “secessionist scheming” and a “misuse of people power”. China Daily said of President Chen that, “his participation in the protest added to his record as a man of bad faith. Only one month ago, Chen solemnly pledged to develop cross-Straits relations during his meeting with PFP chairman James Soong. Unfortunately he has failed to honour his word.” In Taiwan, former President Lee Teng-hui (???) asked for the ROC government to follow up on the large turnout with concrete measures. The Taipei Times quoted Lee, “The March 26 march ended perfectly, yet it wasn’t just…
What Is Engineering Software?
Click Here To Know More About: Mining Truck Shovel Australia Australia Mining Truck What is Engineering Software? by Adam Nicolson When people think of engineering software they usually automatically assume that it is some form of drawing software. Whilst this is true there is far more to engineering software than that. Engineering software providers offer a massive range of software to a huge array of different kinds of engineers. Each engineering discipline needs its own unique set of software tools. For example, a CAD drawing package has very little usefulness for an engineer working as a chemist. Therefore, the range of software is huge and is, out of necessity, relatively industry specific. Engineering Software for Structural Engineers [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Q7KwNPgD8[/youtube] Engineers need to draw complex and intricate plans, so understandably there are indeed plenty of CAD (Computer Aided Design) software packages in the market place designed specifically for them. They vary from…
UK retailers MFI and Woolworths collapse
Friday, November 28, 2008 Two major retail chains in the United Kingdom — general retailer Woolworths Group and furniture vendor MFI Group — have entered administration. Entertainment UK — which distributes videos and DVDs to retailers and are owned by Woolworths — have also entered administration. “The boards of Woolworths PLC and Entertainment UK Ltd have concluded that there is no longer any prospect of those businesses being able to operate as a going concern,” said a Woolworths statement. Woolworths, who sells household goods, music and other items, owns 815 stores nationwide, and MFI owns 111. MFI CEO Gary Favell said he had “secured the future of the MFI business” in September when he led a management buyout, but cracks rapidly appeared. Favell revealed administrator Kroll were to take control of the property division and half the stores were surrendered to the administrators. He also asked landlords to grant a…
Category:Music
This is the category for music. See also the Music Portal. Refresh this list to see the latest articles. 9 September 2018: US rapper Mac Miller dies at home in Los Angeles 18 August 2018: Singer Aretha Franklin, ‘queen of soul’, dies aged 76 15 May 2018: Netta wins Eurovision Song Contest for Israel 28 March 2018: K-pop band 100%’s lead singer Seo Minwoo dies 9 February 2018: Poet, lyricist, and digital activist John Perry Barlow dies, aged 70 18 January 2018: Irish rock band The Cranberries’ lead singer Dolores O’Riordan dies at 46 13 December 2017: Apple, Inc. confirms acquisition of Shazam 24 October 2017: Five United States ex-presidents raise relief funds at hurricane event 5 October 2017: US rock artist Tom Petty dies at 66 30 July 2017: British dancer and talent show winner Robert Anker dies in car accident aged 27 see older articles?Category:Music You can also…
PlayStation 3 will be used to help cure cancer and Alzheimer’s
Monday, August 28, 2006 The upcoming Sony PlayStation 3 game console is going to assist scientists in finding cures for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease using the Folding@home distributed computing program. Folding@home is run by the Pande group of Stanford University (America) to research protein folding, this is the process whereby proteins build themselves inside the cells in the body. Analyisis of how proteins fold (specifically how the folding goes wrong) can give insights into how diseases form. The simulation processes used in the research take months just for a single protein so the data is split into small packets (called workunits by the community) and distributed to volunteers around the world. By downloading a program called a ‘client’ users can receive units and perform the simulations on them – results are then sent back to the Stanford servers. Currently more than 150,000 computers run the folding ‘client’ worldwide. The new…