Tuesday, June 12, 2007

North America’s largest outdoor dog festival came back to Toronto last weekend for its fifth year. It ran from the 9th of June to the 10th of June at Toronto’s historical St. Lawrence Market. A Wikinews reporter was there on Sunday to report on some of the events that happened on the last day.

The “Woofstock” dog festival attracted as many as 140,000 people with their dogs. The festival had tons of accessories, sold under tents, to buy for dogs; food, toys, designer clothes, and more. About 400 vendors and exhibitors were there to promote their products, which also gave private dog companies or groups a chance to show their new products. The local SPCA and some animal rescues were under tents answering questions from visitors. While walking, all visitors could see the CN Tower and other very tall buildings.

One of the local TV stations, Citytv, was there. They hosted a live event at the show which was broadcast on TV. People came up on the stage and asked questions regarding their dogs and the host and co-host answered them.

A man, who called himself the “Chalk Master”, drew two pictures on pavement with chalk. He did it for free but donations were welcome. One was a picture of a girl’s head beside a dog’s head, and another with a wolf.

“Hello Humans. I’ve been invited here to provide your eyeball(s), with some pretty colours. I don’t get paid as I work this weekend strictly for tips… so, if you like what you see please make a DONATION. If you don’t like it simply reach into the pocket of the person next to you and give me their money. CHALK MASTER.”

A contest called “Canada’s top dog” had its own tent with a professional photographer taking pictures of dogs behind a white screen; the winning photo is to be published on the cover of “Puppy and dog basics” magazine.

Large “Gourmet” dog bones were also served from a cart and table.

Next year’s festival is expected to be bigger and better with even more attractions.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

2020 Melbourne Lord Mayor candidate Wayne Tseng answered some questions about his campaign for the upcoming election from Wikinews. The Lord Mayor election in the Australian city is scheduled to take place this week.

Tseng runs a firm called eTranslate, which helps software developers to make the software available to the users. In the candidate’s questionnaire, Tseng said eTranslate had led to him working with all three tiers of the government. He previously belonged to the Australian Liberal Party, but has left since then, to run for mayorship as an independent candidate.

Tseng is of Chinese descent, having moved to Australia with his parents from Vietnam. Graduated in Brisbane, Tseng received his PhD in Melbourne and has been living in the city, he told Wikinews. Tseng also formed Chinese Precinct Chamber of Commerce, an organisation responsible for many “community bond building initiatives”, the Lord Mayor candidate told Wikinews.

Tseng discussed his plans for leading Melbourne, recovering from COVID-19, and “Democracy 2.0” to ensure concerns of minorities in the city were also heard. Tseng also focused on the importance of the multi-culture aspect and talked about making Melbourne the capital of the aboriginals. Tseng also explained why he thinks Melbourne is poised to be a world city by 2030.

Tseng’s deputy Lord Mayor candidate Gricol Yang is a Commercial Banker and works for ANZ Banking Group.

Currently, Sally Capp is the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, the Victorian capital. Capp was elected as an interim Lord Mayor in mid-2018 after the former Lord Mayor Robert Doyle resigned from his position after sexual assault allegations. Doyle served as the Lord Mayor of Melbourne for almost a decade since 2008.

Saturday, November 16, 2019

In findings published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, an international team of scientists report ancient Egyptians captured sacred ibises (Threskiornis aethiopicus) from the wild for use in ritual sacrifice rather than domesticating the birds.

Millions of mummified ibis birds have been found in Egyptian tombs and catacombs in Saqqara and Tuna el-Gebel, and Egyptologists have reported they were sacrificed to the god Thoth, who is often depicted with the head of an ibis, the way Horus is shown with the head of a falcon and Bast with the head of a cat.

Lead author Sally Wasef of Australia’s Griffith University explained to the press, “The ibis was considered [to represent] the god Thoth, the god of wisdom, the god of magic, the god of judgment, writing all sorts of things […] If you had a boss that annoys you and you don’t feel like you are getting a good judgment from him or you want fairness and justice, you go and ask Thoth to interfere and in return you promise to offer him an ibis, a mummified ibis, in his annual feast.”

Some scholars have suggested Egyptians raised or farmed the birds to make them available in the necessary numbers. While some ancient Egyptian writers made passing mention of feeding bread and plants to ibises, according to Wasef archaeologists have not yet turned up any hatchery structures.

The team collected DNA samples from mummified birds collected from six separate catacombs including sites at Abydos, Saqqara, and Tuna el-Gebel with permission from the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquity, and several museums offered to send tissue samples from the mummified ibises in their collections. They were able to extract complete mitochondrial DNA sequences from fourteen. These they compared to those of 26 modern ibises from different parts of Africa — ibises of this species disappeared from Egypt itself during modern times. They found the DNA sequences from the ancient birds to be relatively diverse. If the birds had been domesticated or even heavily farmed, they reasoned, the Egyptian specimens would have shown only a little genetic diversity.

Wasif suggested, in likelihood, “next to each temple there was like a lake or a wetland — it is a natural habitat for the ibis to live in and if you are giving them food they will keep coming[.]”

According to the researchers, sacrifice and mummification of sacred ibises was common in Egypt from about 664 b.c.e. to 250 c.e., from the twenty-sixth dynasty into the early period of Roman Egypt.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Harry Doynhoven, minister for transport safety, has called for a ban on using mobile phones (cellphones) while driving in New Zealand. The ban comes just days after a teenager was killed after allegedly driving while texting on their mobile phone.

Mr Duynhoven said that it is time to ban hand-held mobile phones in cars. “I would love to ban it. If I were a benign dictator, it would be gone by lunchtime.” Mr Duynhoven believes that a campaign to educate the public is needed to combat the number of people who die while using their mobile phones while driving. One of the new ways to combat this is suspected to be new road safety measure. The new initiatives will be announced on Wednesday.

“I hope that sufficient parliamentarians who read the reports of another young person who obviously wasn’t concentrating on her driving will say it’s about time something was done,” Mr Duynhoven said, “However such a ban would be very difficult to police.”

A report, prepared by the Ministry of Transport, will be shown to the government on the dangers of using a mobile phone while driving. Peter Burke, spokesman for the Ministry of Transport, said: “There’s no law against using a cellphone at the moment. There’s the whole issue of driver distraction of which cellphone use is a part. But there’s been no decision on it yet. Anyone who texts while you’re driving is pushing the limits. I don’t think anyone would condone texting while driving, it’s a recipe for disaster.”

Every year around four fatal crashes occur because the drivers are using their mobile phones while driving. Around 50 non fatal crashes occur each year for the same reason. However the police expect that the actual number is higher.

“A lot of drivers are unfortunately their own worst enemy – they’re busy talking and texting on the phone and fail to pay attention to what’s going on around them. The results can be, and often are, crashes which cause injury and death,” Rob Lee, spokesman for the police, said.

Sharleen Lloyd, 16-years-old, was killed when she drove her car into a parked trailer after it left the road because she was allegedly texting (SMS) on her mobile phone. Her passenger and boyfriend, Matthew Smit, had non fatal injuries. Andrew Hicks died when he crashed into a powerpole as a result from using his cellphone while driving.

Many countries already have a ban in place of using a mobile phone while driving, including the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Mr Duynhoven said: “But in countries where they have bans, they still have people using cellphones while driving. The issue is changing behaviour.”

However New Zealand does currently have a law which enables police to prosecute someone who doesn’t give attention or care to driving.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Figures released by the U.S. 2010 census on Wednesday show that the city of Detroit has lost approximately 238,270 people, one-fourth of its total, since 2000. Detroit, once one of the top five U.S. cities in population, has its lowest number of residents since 1910.

Population numbers affect the amount of federal and state funding a city receives. In the last few decades, dozens of Michigan state laws have been passed allowing Detroit, because its population was at least 750,000, special measures to raise revenue and allocating it a larger share of Michigan’s state revenue than its population warranted. Now that Detroit’s population has fallen to 713,777, it is no longer eligible for these financial advantages.

The mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing plans to appeal the census results. He says more than 35,000 residents were not counted.

“Every person that’s counted in the census brings approximately $10,000 to Detroit over the next decade for schools, roads, hospitals, and social service programs,” Bing explained. “Additionally, we could lose millions in statutory revenue sharing from the state. We are in a fiscal crisis and we have to fight for every dollar. We can’t afford to let these results stand.”

Detroit was the fifth largest U.S. city in 1950. The decline of the auto industry hastened the population loss already diminished by the 1967 riots that precipitated white flight to the suburbs. Approximately 23 percent of the city’s living quarters are now empty. To reduce the city’s size there is a program in progress to demolish 10,000 abandoned or vacant buildings and turn the land into farms or countryside by 2014.

Detroit’s congressional power has been steadily decreasing. It already lost one congressional seat since the 1980s.

U.S. federal laws forbid drawing congressional district boundaries that dilute minority voting strength. The 2000 redistricting rules for the 2012 elections mandated that Detroit’s two congressional districts must be 60 percent black voters, since four out of five of Detroit’s residents are black. To comply, the two remaining congressional districts will have to expand into Detroit’s mostly white suburbs to attain enough minority voters to meet the 60 percent target, reducing the clout of black Detroit.

Andrew Beveridge, Queens College sociology professor, attributed Detroit’s population decline to the loss of its industrial base. He said: “Except for New Orleans after Katrina, it’s basically the largest drop for a U.S. city in history. They have to find an economic base or the decline will continue.”

Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Pacaya Volcano erupted on Friday. It is located 50 kilometers south of the capital of Guatemala, Guatemala City. Throughout the evening and night, volcanic ash fell in the municipalities of Amatitlán, Villa Nueva, and Guatemala City.

President Álvaro Colom’s government has decreed a State of Public Calamity in the Escuintla, Sacatepéquez and Guatemala departments, for 15 days or more, so the authorities can do their job correctly. The emergency response is being coordinated by the National Coordination for Disaster Reduction (CONRED).

The eruption was followed by several tremors. All flights in and out of Guatemala City’s La Aurora International Airport, have been suspended. The eruption has caused many casualties, among them the death of Aníbal Archila, NOTI7’s reporter, who was one of the first reporting the event.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A trio of freshmen at a New York design school say that residents aren’t taking advantage of a valuable and countless resource found all around the world: stoops.

In Sit Here, a campaign inspired by a recent class project, Sarah Feldman, Chelsea Briganti and Essence Rodriguez are using fliers placed around New York to encourage residents and visitors to get to know one another on their stoops.

Wikinews got a chance to talk to Sarah Feldman, web designer for the project. Feldman is also responsible for getting different news sources to contact the team, such as the Brooklyn Papers and New York Magazine.

Wikinews: When your group started this project, did you ever expect it would get this much publicity from the press and the public?

Feldman: We had no idea how popular this would become. We just thought it was another usual school project we had to do. The Brooklyn Record saw the topic about our website I posted on a Park Slope message board. They talked about it and put our URL on their site. Then The Brooklyn Papers found us on the Brooklyn Record. A lot of press found us because of the article in the Brooklyn Papers. We didn’t know if it was just the Internet that caused all the fuss, but then a blogger on OnlyTheBlogKnowsBrooklyn and some photographer on Flickr found our fliers!

Wikinews: You originally started this project in New York City. If you could run this project in any other city (or country) in the world, which one would it be, and why?

Feldman I’d run this project in my hometown, Houston. Now there you will find few people outside. For one thing, it is hot and we are known for one of the most obese cities in the USA. Houston has also coined the term “The Driving City”: no walking…just driving. If you ask my friends there, “Hey…you wanna go outside and sit?” They’d look at you funny and say “Can’t we just go see a movie or go on Facebook?”

Wikinews: Your fliers are bright green, which makes them very noticeable. Out of the thousands of people who see your fliers each day, how many people do you think actually sit down and talk?

Feldman: Not enough. Most of the time the people who I saw sitting were either outside of a bar or kids playing ball. But I rarely saw any kids except on Sundays in Park Slope outside. Probably they were watching TV or on the Internet. Chelsea noticed this first. She came up with the idea when she saw an elderly man sitting on his stoop by himself. She started talking to him about his life there and he brought up the topic of less socialization with neighbors.

Sit Here has been noticed in at least 15 different news sources, including Wikinews.