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Wikinews Shorts: December 4, 2008

Posted on December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by

A compilation of brief news reports for Thursday, December 4, 2008.

On December 2, the Toronto city council voted in favor of banning the sales and distribution of bottled water on city property. The council also agreed to provide public drinking fountains on their properties, as well as on a measure that would make shoppers pay at least five Canadian cents for plastic grocery bags and force business owners to offer reusable bags and carry-out containers.

“Toronto’s decision to ban the bottle and turn on the tap sends a clear message that bottled water’s 15 minutes are up,” said Polaris Institute’s campaign coordinator, Joe Cressy.

All of the city’s facilities should be following the water ban by 2011, while businesses will have to implement their bag fees by 2010. Toronto has become the largest city in the world to ban bottled water on government property.

Related news

“Calls for bottled water bans grow in Canada” — Wikinews, August 23, 2008

Sources

“Toronto Bans Bottled Water” — CNW Group, December 3, 2008
“Toronto council approves plastic bag charge, bottle ban” — CBC News, December 3, 2008

On Tuesday, American actor, Patrick Swayze, who suffers from pancreatic cancer, denied reports that he was near death. American tabloid National Inquirer reported on November 28 that Swayze’s cancer had spread to his liver and that he was preparing for his death.

“The only thorn in my side being that many tabloids have been consistently reporting lies and false information about me and those close to me,” said Swayze in a statement to the press who also added that he knows he is in “the fight for his life,” but that it is a fight that he “is winning.”

“I’m one of the lucky few that responds well to treatment,” added Swayze.

Swayze has starred in over a dozen films, including the 1987 hit film Dirty Dancing.

Related news

“Wikinews Shorts: November 28, 2008” — Wikinews, November 28, 2008

Sources

“Swayze denies ‘deathbed’ rumours” — BBC News Online, December 3, 2008
“Patrick Swayze denies reports he is near death” — Reuters, December 2, 2008

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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

Woman returns home with Christmas turkey, a month after setting out

Posted on December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A Scottish woman who set out before Christmas to purchase a turkey finally made it home on Monday, after being cut off by snow for a month. Kay Ure left the Lighthouse Keeper’s cottage on Cape Wrath, at the very northwest tip of Great Britain, in December. She was heading to Inverness on a shopping trip.

However on her return journey heavy snow and ice prevented her husband, John, from travelling the last 11 miles to pick her up. She was forced to wait a month in a friend’s caravan, before the weather improved and the couple could finally be reunited.

They were separated not just for Christmas and New Year, but also for Mr Ure’s 58th birthday. With no fresh supplies, he was reduced to celebrating with a tin of baked beans. He also ran out of coal, and had to feed the couple’s six springer spaniels on emergency army rations.

“It’s the first time we’ve been separated”, said Mr Ure in December. “We’ve been snowed in here for three weeks before, so we are well used to it and it’s quite nice to get a bit of peace and quiet.”

Sit Ups With Back Injury

Posted on December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by

Here’s An Opinion On:

Submitted by: Michel Deens

No matter how much you want to get those six pack abs, the very last thing that you want to do is to do sit ups with back injury or any other type of injury. Doing sit ups or any type of exercise for that matter with a back injury can only lead to more pain and trouble.

The best thing that you can do now to get your six pack abs, is to wait it out. You won t get any type of form or technique going if you persist in doing sit ups with back injury present. In fact, sit ups if done in a certain way, can aggravate or even promote back injury. This is one of the reasons why emphasis is placed on form and technique rather than on a higher number of reps. The other reason being, that proper form and technique will help you to work the abs muscles faster, of course!

That said, although doing sit ups with back injury is not something that you should do, there are a number of people who manage to get around this problem by buying themselves specialist gym equipment that will take the strain away from their back when doing sit ups.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLms9455d_I[/youtube]

Indeed, for some people doing sit ups with back injury present is not a non-option they need to live with this problem for some time and doing sit ups even with back injury is a goal to be achieved. However, if this is the case, then something along the lines of guidance from a properly trained physiotherapist or fitness coach is probably going to be necessary.

The best thing that you can do however, would simply be to stay from doing any form of exercise altogether, especially if you have only just suffered from a back injury. Give your body time to heal without placing additional strain on it so that you can be fighting fit the next time you want to get back onto your exercise regime to get six pack abs.

And even once you have recovered from your back injury, you will still want to be very careful how you do your sit ups. Remember that sacrificing proper form and technique to higher reps, is not going to do anything for you, and might even aggravate your newly healed back injury. So stay away from doing sit ups with back injury, and wait until you are fully better to do so.

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Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with Green candidate Bruce Haines, Bramalea-Gore-Malton

Posted on December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by

Monday, September 24, 2007

Bruce Haines is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Bramalea-Gore-Malton riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with Green candidate Peter Ormond, Hamilton Centre

Posted on December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Peter Ormond is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Hamilton Centre riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Ormond did not answer three questions: “Which of your competitors do you expect to pose the biggest challenge to your candidacy? Why? What makes you the most desirable of all candidates running in the riding?”, “Are the property taxes in your riding at a fair level for the amount of services received in the municipality?”, and “Of the decisions made by Ontario’s 38th Legislative Assembly, which was the most beneficial to your this electoral district? To the province as a whole? Which was least beneficial, or even harmful, to your this riding? To the province as a whole?”

Wikinews interviews Aurélien Miralles about Sirenoscincus mobydick species discovery

Posted on December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by

Thursday, January 24, 2013

A group of researchers published a paper about their discovery of a new species of Madagascar mermaid skink lizards last December. The species is the fourth forelimbs-only terrestrial tetrapods species known to science, and the first one which also has no fingers on the forelimbs.

The species was collected at Marosely, Boriziny (French: Port-Bergé), Sofia Region, Madagascar. The Sirenoscincus mobydick name is after the existing parent genus, and a sperm whale from the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

This week, Wikinews interviewed one of the researchers, French zoologist Aurélien Miralles, about the research.

((Wikinews)) What caused your initial interest in Madagascar lizards?

Aurélien Miralles: Well, I would say that since I am a child I am fascinated by the biodiversity of tropical countries, and more especially by reptiles. I did a PhD on the evolution and systematics of skink lizards from South America. Then, I get a Humboldt grant to do a postdoc in Germany, at the Miguel Vences Lab, in order to study Malagasy skinks. Madagascar being a fabulous hotspot for reptiles (and not only for reptiles actually), it was a very nice opportunity. Professor Vences proposed me to associate our complementary fields of expertise: he is expert in herpetology for Madagascar, and I am expert in skinks lizards (family Scincidae). It was a very fruitful experience, and many other results have still to [be] published.

((WN)) How was the new species discovered?

AM: By a very funny coincidence actually. In 2010, I went to Madagascar for a long trip through the south of the island, in the semi-arid bush for collecting lizards and snakes samples. Then, during the last days, just before coming back to Germany, I have visited by coincidence the zoological collection of the University of Antananarivo. In that place, I found an old jar of ethanol with two weird little specimens previously collected by a student who didn’t realize it was something new. Being expert on skinks, I immediately recognised it was something very probably new, very different from all the other known species.

((WN)) What does “Sirenoscincus” stand for?

AM: I am not the author of the genus name Sirenoscincus. This genus name was already existing. It has been described by Sakata and Hikida (two Japanese herpetologists). “Sireno” means mermaid. “Scincus” means skinks, a group of little lizards on which I am particularly focusing my studies. So, Sirenoscinus means “mermaid skink”, in reference to [the] fact it has forelimbs but no hindlimbs.

((WN)) How deep underground do the lizards live?

AM: Hard to answer this question because nothing is known on the ecology of this species. But more reasonably, we can hypothesize, by comparison to similar species of skinks, that it is probably living just under the sand surface, [a] few centimeters deep, probably no more, or below [a] rock, leaf litter, or piece of dead wood.

((WN)) What do the lizards eat?

AM: Again, by analogy, I would say most likely small invertebrates (insects, larvae, worms etc…).

((WN)) What equipment was used during the research?

AM: Classic equipment (microscope) and also a state-of-the-art device: a micro CT-scan. It is a big device producing [a] 3D picture of the internal structure without damaging the specimen. It is actually very similar to the scanner used in human medicine, but this one is specially designed for small specimens. Otherwise, I am currently studying the DNA of this species and closely related species in order to determine its phylogenetic position compared to other species with legs, in order to learn more about the evolutionary phenomena leading to limb loss.

((WN)) There are several news sources that have a photo of the species. Is it a photo as seen in a CT-scan?

AM: No, this picture showing a whitish specimen on a black background is not a CT-scan. It is a normal photograph of the collection specimen preserved in alcohol (the one that was in the jar). You can see the complete of picture (including CT-scan 3D radiography, drawing…) in the original scientific publication.

((WN)) Do you know when the newly discovered mermaid skink species was put into the jar? Do you have its photo (of the jar)?

AM: No, I have no picture of the jar. The specimen has been collected in November 2004.

((WN)) What were the roles of the people involved in the research? What activity was most time-consuming?

AM: As first investigator, I did most of the work…and the longest part of the work was to examine closely related species in order to do comparisons…and also to check the complete bibliography related to this topic and to write the paper.

Mrs Anjeriniaina is the student who […] collected the specimen a couple of years ago.

Mrs Hipsley and Mr Müller learnt me how to use the CT-scan, and helped me concerning some point relative to internal morphology. Mr Vences helped me as supervisors. Additionally, all of them have corrected the article, and gave me many relevant advices and corrections, thus improving the quality and the reliability of the paper.

((WN)) Did you get in touch with an external entity to get the new species officially recognised?

AM: No. In zoology, it is only needed to publish the description of a new species (and to give it a name) in a scientific journal, and to designate a holotype specimen (= specimen that will be the official reference for this species), to get this new species “officially” recognised by the scientific community. That does not mean that this new species is “correct” (it might be invalidated by subsequent counter-studies), but that means that this discovery and the new name of [the] species are officially existing.

((WN)) Are there any further plans on exploring the species habitat and lifestyle?

AM: No, not really for the time being, because ecology is not our field of expertise. But other studies (including molecular studies) are currently in progress, in order to focus on the phylogenetic position and the evolution of this species.

Ways To Create Your Own Lawn With Lawn Grass Seed

Posted on December 11, 2017December 11, 2017 by

Here’s An Opinion On:

Submitted by: Mike Day

Establishing a new lawn is not as difficult as people might think, in fact it is reasonably easy with the right equipment and a bit of knowledge to help you.

There are two general types of lawn grass seed, the first type is what they call a warm season type of grass these are the Bermuda type grasses and the zoyzia type grasses, these types of grass can hold up extremely well in the hot humid heat of the south. While if you live in the north you should be looking for cool season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass or perennial ryegrass and fine fescue, these types of grass grow and thrive much better in cooler conditions. If you really think you need expert advice before choosing which type of grass you need, you can visit www.ntep.org they do all the research on different types of grass and how they grow in different areas. At www.ntep.org you will get free information on what the best type of grass would be for your area, or another option could be for you to go to your local garden centre and ask them for some advice on which type grass seed would be best to use in your situation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLGod8OjP5A[/youtube]

Planting your new lawn is pretty easy really you just need to know a few things you have to do to get started, first you should pick either spring or fall to plant your seeds for your new lawn, these are the best times to help germination of your grass seeds. Then you need to mark the area where your lawn will be, now turn over the soil and rake it to remove any rocks or big lumps. Make sure the raked soil is around 3″ to 4″ deep this is all you need to plant your lawn seeds, then you need to spread the seeds in a uniformed way to make sure your grass grows evenly, using a seed spreader or splitter is the best way of achieving this.

You now need to rake in the new seed around 1/4″ deep this is a good depth for grass seeds to germinate, you need to make sure the seed is in good contact with soil by a light rolling to compact the soil but do not over do it, once the seed is planted you need to start your watering regime. You should lightly water your lawn grass seeds twice a day until the grass has come up through the soil, once the grass is up you should water every two to three days, grass grows much faster when it is kept moist on a regular basis. You should also consider buying a starter fertilizer for your lawn this will help the seeds to germinate and grow quicker than normal. Make sure you do not cut your grass until it has reached at least 3″ to 4″ high, this gives the root system chance to get established to take the pressure of cutting.

Now you can sit back and enjoy a long lasting fantastic looking lawn, with the knowledge that you created it from the lawn grass seeds you planted.

About the Author:

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EU, US declare intent to cooperate on climate change at summit

Posted on December 10, 2017December 10, 2017 by

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A European Union-United States summit held in Slovenia produced a draft declaration outlining the groups’ future cooperation on climate change, energy security and financial stability. Yesterday was the final day of the summit, the last EU-US summit that US President George W. Bush will attend in his current role.

Hopes of a major breakthrough on the topic of climate change were low going into the summit. The foreign minister of Slovenia, Dimitrij Rupel, commented last week that, “on climate change, the positions are split.” Members of the 27-nation EU have regularly expressed their dissatisfaction with the US for not having ratified the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement with binding greenhouse gas emissions targets. Doubts about the summit’s efficacy were not misplaced, as no firm targets were set for actions on climate change.

The EU and US agreed to cooperate increasingly in science and technology research for energy and climate change purposes, including carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen fuel cells. The EU reaffirmed its commitments as per the Kyoto Protocol, but the US restated that developing countries such as China and India must be made to sign up to such global agreements before it will sign on.

Steps to secure energy sources for the future were also discussed. Promoting the creation of multiple pipelines to supply more natural gas to Europe was determined a priority, despite the fact that this would encourage an increase in emissions from gas use.

Bush commented in a follow-up news conference: “I think we can get a global agreement on climate change during my presidency – just so you know.”

Massive power failure hits Brazil

Posted on December 10, 2017December 10, 2017 by

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

A massive power blackout in southern Brazil left tens of millions of people without power, with residents in major cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo affected. Police called in extra officers and asked people to stay off the street when the Itaipu hydroelectric plant failed at 10:15 pm local time Tuesday (0015 GMT Wednesday) and plunged the affected areas into darkness.

The electric plant supplies the regions of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rio de Janeiro, Goiás, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, and Espírito Santo, as well as 90% of neighbouring Paraguay, which was almost completely without power for fifteen minutes. Brazilian Energy Minister Edson Lobao stated that the cause of the “complete paralysis” of the plant was not yet known, but put forward a theory that lightning may have caused the high-tension supply lines to short out.

Although this is not the first time that Brazil has had power outages, with severe loss of electricity in 2001, 2005 and 2007, radio station Bandnews estimated that 50 million people—a quarter of Brazil’s population—were affected, one of the largest outages in recent history.

A few hours after the power cut, the hydroelectric plant came back on line and the affected regions gradually regained power, allowing the areas in chaos caused by lack of traffic lights and power to underground railways to return to normal, and residents to put out their candles.

Six vehicle pileup disrupts traffic on highway in British Columbia

Posted on December 9, 2017December 9, 2017 by

Saturday, March 7, 2009

A six vehicle pile up occurred on the John Hart Highway (British Columbia Highway 97), north of the John Hart Bridge in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada which disrupted traffic during the morning rush hour of March 5, 2009.

No serious injuries arose as a result of the accident, however traffic was reduced to a single lane. Traffic control was conducted by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who was at the scene at the time of the accident (7:45 a.m.). The RCMP cruiser was not one of the vehicles involved in the pile up. The crash was put under investigation by a traffic analyst.

The John Hart Highway connects Prince George,a city of 70,981 according to the 2006 census, with Dawson Creek over a length of approximately 250 miles (400 km). The Northwest Corridor Association saw a C$30 million twinning upgrade to the John Hart bridge which spans the Nechako River, a tributary of the Fraser River. The bridge is located 5.4 kilometres (3.4 miles) north of Prince George. In March there is a traffic volume of between 11,000 to 12,000 vehicles per day at the north end of the John Hart bridge according to the the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation Average Annual Daily Traffic AADT reports between 1994 and 2000.