“Dead” canoeist arrested after being missing for over 5 years

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

John Darwin, a canoeist who has been missing for over five years after disappearing while canoeing in 2002, has been arrested by Hampshire Police after walking into a police station in London, England. He is to be charged with fraud in connection with his disappearance in 2002.

It is believed that he has been charged with fraud after a photo of Mr Darwin was released in a tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mirror, apparently showing him in Panama with his wife last year. His wife, who recently moved to Central America denies these claims saying that she had claimed the life insurance money and moved as she thought he would never return.

Detective Superintendent Hutchinson, the officer in charge of the case, said that “He was in apparent good health, tanned, well nourished and dressed,” when he walked into the West End Central Police station in London four days ago. He also said that the disappearance of Mr Darwin “raised a lot of questions.”

A public appeal for information about this incident was launched and it was made clear that the police believe that someone knows what happened to Mr Darwin. Also the police have confirmed that they had recently re-opened the investigation into Mr Darwin’s disappearance due to “new evidence” being received.

Mrs Darwin has said that she may struggle to repay the £300,000 she claimed on the life insurance as she has started to spend some of the money.

Friday, January 1, 2016

A fire broke out at a high-rise hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) last night, apparently involving a large portion of the hotel. A crowd had gathered around The Address Hotel for the New Year’s celebration, but they were evacuated due to the fire. The cause of the fire was unclear, and there were conflicting reports on the number of people injured.

A thick column of smoke rose up from the hotel, and two large explosions occurred during the fire. The smoke obscured the nearby Burj Khalifa tower, the tallest building in the world, according to Nadia Huraimi, a BBC correspondent in Dubai at the time, even though the tower was brightly illuminated.

Witness reports said the fire caused people to run away in panic. Firetrucks were dispatched to the hotel, and according to what officials said at 11 p.m., the fire had mostly been controlled. Despite this, the fire continued past midnight. Officials said guests at The Address would be given accommodation at other hotels.

Reports on the number of people injured were conflicting. While officials said the fire injured sixteen people, lightly for the most part, an anonymous medic told Reuters the fire injured at least 60.

Despite the fire, a fireworks show for New Year’s continued as planned at the Burj Khalifa even as the hotel burned.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Australian Minister for Vocational Education and Training, Gary Hardgrave has announced the government will provide AU$15.8 million to establish an Australian Technical College in North Adelaide. The minister said the government was entering into a partnership with the Archdiocese of Adelaide and consortium of industrial and manufacturing companies.

The North Adelaide college will be located in Elizabeth and be operated as an independent non-government school. The college is one of 25 to be established across the country.

Enrolments at the college will begin in 2007 and will offer courses in areas where identified skills shortages exist in the North Adelaide region, specifically – engineering, construction, electronics and cooking.

Mr Hardgrave said that the proposed college had been popular among the North Adelaide business community. “This important initiative has been well received by North Adelaide business and industry, and will help to address skills needs and provide opportunities for those in greatest need, including a lot of Indigenous students in the region,” Mr Hardgrave said.

“The fact that this College is being led by local employers, local government and other key stakeholders, means it will be truly industry and community driven,” he said.

Australian Technical Colleges were established to cater for year 11 and 12 students who wish to do an apprenticeship as part of their school education.

The Australian Education Union has expressed a number of concerns about the model put forward by the government. In a report, they claim that trade facilities at TAFE colleges (operated by state governments) will deteriorate as funding is diverted to the ATCs. The union is also concerned that ATCs are supposed to be selective VET schools. According to the union they will have selective entry and preferential funding. It is feared that teachers will be lured away from schools and TAFE colleges to higher paid positions in ATCs.

The Education Union suggested that the government invest in schools that already offer vocational education programs.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney formally announced his presidential candidacy yesterday outside of Detroit.

“I don’t believe Washington can be transformed from within by lifetime politicians, there’ve been too many deals, too many favors, too many entanglements — and too little real world experience managing, guiding, leading,” said Romney, who was a successful businessman before entering politics. Romney focused on his leadership experience outside of government.

Romney made the announcement at the Henry Ford Museum, something which the National Jewish Democratic Council heavily criticized saying that they were, “deeply troubled by Governor Romney’s choice . . . to kick (off) his presidential campaign on the former estate of a well-known and outspoken anti-Semite and xenophobe.” A spokesman for Romney said, “Governor Romney believes our country needs to put innovation at the forefront if we are to ensure a stronger, safer and more prosperous America, the Ford Museum embodies that bold, innovative spirit.”

Romney’s record as a moderate and his Latter-day Saint faith are expected to be his primary campaign challenges.

Romney, born in Detroit, the son of former Michigan Governor, Republican Presidential candidate, and automotive pioneer George Romney, attended Cranbrook School of Michigan and Harvard Business and Law Schools. Romney ran against senior Massachusetts senator and Kennedy family member, Ted Kennedy. Romney won 41% percent of the vote against Kennedy in the closest election in Kennedy’s entire tenure in the United States Senate. Romney was also CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee which was in charge of planning the 2002 Winter Olympics from 1999 to 2002, he took charge after the 2002 Winter Olympic bid scandal. He also sat on the board of Massachusetts-based office supply giant, Staples, Inc.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

A team of researchers from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has confirmed that near-Earth asteroid (29075) 1950 DA is primarily held together by van der Waals forces rather than gravity. They have shown that the rotation rate of the 1.1 km asteroid is higher than could be possible if only gravity and friction were responsible for holding it together. Cohesive forces prevent large scale shedding of material and breakup of the asteroid. Their study was published Wednesday in Nature.

The researchers found that the bulk density 1.7±0.7 g/cm³ of the asteroid is approximately two times lower than the value required for self-gravity to balance out the centrifugal forces caused by rotation. As Ben Rozitis, a planetary scientist and a co-author of the study, told Space.com: “I was expecting to find a high-density metallic asteroid, as such an asteroid wouldn’t require cohesive forces to hold itself together under its fast rotation. Instead we found the opposite! […] We knew from previous work that this asteroid was rotating faster than it should be, and we wanted to know why”.

Spectral observations of 1950DA indicated that it is either an E- or M-type asteroid in the Tholen classification. However, its low optical albedo and low radar circular polarization ratio (a very smooth surface at centimetre to decimetre scales) showed that it cannot be an E-type asteroid.

Unusually for an M-type asteroid (which are mostly metallic), 1950DA has low radar albedo. It would have been puzzling, if it was not for the Rosetta observations of 21 Lutetia, which is also an M-type asteroid with very similar low radar albedo. Researchers have used for 1950DA the same meteorite analogue which was earlier found to fit best 21 Lutetia: enstatite chondrite with grain density of 3.55 g/cm³. It allowed to calculate macro-porosity of 51±19%, indicating that 1950DA is a rubble-pile asteroid.

Taking into account thermal-infrared measurements of thermal inertia, presence of a fine-grained regolith is implied, primarily around 1950DA’s equator. Negative ambient gravity near the equator of the asteroid (48±24% of its surface) requires existence of cohesive forces to prevent loss of material. This is similar to an effect noticed between the fine grains of regolith on the Moon. Lunar regolith was found to be highly cohesive because of van der Waals forces between grains by the Apollo 17 expedition in 1974.

As Ben Rozitis explained: “We found a low-density rubble pile that traditionally would be unable to hold itself together unless cohesive forces were present. It’s exciting because we’ve provided the first evidence that cohesive forces are important for small asteroids, which had only been predicted up until now.”

The balance between cohesion and negative gravity requires small grain sizes consistent with the grain size distribution on 1950DA, and similar to that of another rubble-pile asteroid, (25143) Itokawa. Unlike Itokawa, 1950DA does not have large boulders on the surface; they may have been lost as 1950DA’s rotation accelerated due to YORP effect. This effect results in a change of the rotation rate of an asteroid (either faster or slower), and is caused when the Sun heats up an object unevenly, due to asymmetric surface topography. As the heat escapes, the rotation rate is slowly changed due to an uneven rate of cooling. The researchers find that a rubble-pile asteroid may have a high rotation rate, if it is held together by cohesive forces between the grains. But as the spin rate increases due to YORP effect, the centrifugal force may cause the rubble pile to eventually separate as it happened with P/2013 R3.

The findings may have implications for asteroid impact avoidance. A very small impulse may break one potentially hazardous object into several pieces. As Ben Rozitis said: “You’d want to avoid interacting with the asteroid directly. An alternative is to use a ‘gravity tractor,’ or a heavy spacecraft placed near the asteroid, which uses the force of gravity to pull the asteroid off course”. Bong Wie, an aerospace engineer at Iowa State University in Ames, noted: “I just hope that an asteroid on a collision course with Earth will not be spinning rapidly and it will not be a rubble-pile asteroid”.

According to Daniel Scheeres, an aerospace engineer at the University of Colorado, Boulder, understanding such cohesive forces may also be important for future asteroid mining. Ben Rozitis clarified: “Mining missions intend to visit small asteroids about 10 meters (33 feet) or less in size, as it is thought that they are predominantly solid bodies. However, cohesive forces enable such small asteroids to be rubble piles instead. A small rubble-pile asteroid would be harder to interact with and collect, as it can easily deform or break up when subject to external forces.”

The study was supported by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and the NASA.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with President George W. Bush at the White House today. The meeting was a short one and focused primarily on global security, particularly bilateral security issues addressing the two countries.

One of the larger issues was the pending U.S. law that would require everyone crossing the Canada-U.S. border to have a passport or a special identification card. Prime Minister Harper said; “if the fight for security ends up meaning that the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won,” as part of his appeal that Congress delay or reject the proposed border law. [1].

Prime Minister Harper brought birthday greetings and a surprise gift. But Bush found out about it during the press conference in the East Room. A Canadian reporter had allegedly blew the secret. [2].

Saturday, March 31, 2012

The European Commission (EC) has approved yesterday a takeover of loss-making UK airline bmi from Lufthansa by International Airlines Group (IAG), owner of British Airways (BA). IAG will have to make concessions after Virgin Atlantic told the EC the deal would be anti-competitive.

The deal is set to cost IAG, who also own Iberia, £172.5 million. That value could fall as budget subsidiary bmibaby may be retained by Lufthansa or sold elsewhere, and IAG are reported to be primarily interested in the main bmi business. A regional subsidiary also exists.

IAG intends to use acquired slots at the busy Heathrow Airport, which serves London, to expand their own routes into Asia. The EC required IAG to surrender a number of flight slots at the airport. The slots surrendered or made available for lease are for use to destinations in Scotland, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. The EC also insisted that combined BA/bmi routing be made available for competitors to buy transfer seats upon.

Lufthansa intended to shut down bmi had the bid failed. The transaction is presently scheduled for completion April 20.

IAG boss Willie Walsh called the sale “great news for Britain” with results that are “good for UK business and UK consumers.” Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson had previously said the move would give BA excessive dominance on Scottish flights. More Heathrow slots earmarked for Scotland have been given up than any other destination.

Ryanair took the opportunity to claim only their own takeover bid for Aer Lingus has been a major EC casualty. “Today’s rubber-stamping of BA’s purchase of bmi shows yet again that the EC has one rule for Europe’s flag-carriers, but different rules for Ryanair”, said Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary.