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Anthrocon 2007 draws thousands to Pittsburgh for furry weekendTuesday, July 17, 2007
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — Local caterers get ready for big business, as almost three thousand fans converge on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center over the Independence Day weekend for the world’s largest ever furry convention, Anthrocon 2007.
Many hope to renew acquaintances, or meet new friends. Others look to buy from dealers and artists, or show off new artwork or costumes. Some attend to make money, or even learn a thing or two. But one thing unites them: They’re all there to have fun.
Hotel development proposal could displace Buffalo, NY business ownersFriday, February 17, 2006
Buffalo, New York —Savarino Construction Services Corp. has proposed a $7 million hotel project at the Forest and Elmwood Avenue intersection, according to The Buffalo News. The proposal calls for a 5-story, 45,000 square-foot 80-room hotel with underground parking for at least 50 vehicles, and 4,500 square-feet of retail space on the lower level.
Hans Mobius, the owner of the five properties to be purchased in the plan (1109 to 1121 Elmwood), reportedly signed a contract with Savarino to assemble the development.
“We saw a huge opportunity to bring something to the Elmwood Village that will make sense and bring a service that’s currently not available,” said Eva Hassett, vice president of Savarino. “Elmwood is such a wonderful place to eat, shop, walk and spend time. We believe this project will add to that vibrant environment.”
Some business owners in the area see it differently. Wikinews interviewed 2 of the 4 owners whose business’s would be demolished if the development goes through.
Nancy Pollina, of Don Apparel at 1119 Elmwood, who found out about the development only yesterday, said she is “utterly” against the proposal. Her apparel shop has stood at the same location for nearly 14 years. She has volunteered in the community, and helped create several gardens around bus shelters in the city, and served on Forever Elmwood Board for six years as head of Beautification. Patty Morris co-owns Don Apparel with Pollina.
“To say this is a good looking project, I want to say the emperor has no clothes. This [project] does not take into consideration the needs of the college students. I have been told by college students, these shops here, are the reason they leave the campus,” said Mrs. Pollina.
Buffalo State College is 500-feet from the intersection.
Michael Faust, the owner of Mondo Video said, “Well, I do not really want to get kicked out of here. The landlord was very open, and the deal he made with me when I moved in here was ‘the rent is cheap and I [the landlord] will not fix anything and that will not change.'” Faust said he first learned of the development plan, “about 48 hours ago. I found out on Tuesday when the Buffalo News called and asked for my opinion on this.” Faust has not said if he will make plans to relocate. “We have to see if this [house] is going to get knocked down first,” said Faust.
An “informational” meeting, where citizens can voice opinions and learn about the proposal, will be held on Tuesday February 21, 2006 at 5:00pm (eastern), at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center Gallery at Buffalo State College, Rockwell Hall.
Executive director of Forever Elmwood Corporation, Justin P. Azzarella would not comment on whether or not the organization supports the development, saying, “you will just have to come to the meeting.”
Forever Elmwood Corp. is designed to preserve and protect the unique and historic nature of Elmwood Avenue and its surrounding neighborhoods and encourage neighborhood commercial revitalization. The organization was founded in 1994.
Nearly two years ago, the Forever Elmwood Corp. assisted in the blocking of the demolition of the Edward Atwater house at 1089 Elmwood next to Pano’s Restaurant which is at 1081 Elmwood. Owner Pano Georgiadis wanted to expand his restaurant onto the property where the house now stands, but the Common Council denied his permit to demolish saying the house is a historical landmark and needs to be protected. Georgiadis, who has a bleeding ulcer, said that all the court cases landed him in the hospital. “I got a bleeding ulcer, and since then, I don’t care about this house anymore, or this city. I just go to work every day. I think [preservationists] are parasites,” said Georgiadis.
Georgiadis will not be attending Tuesday’s meeting saying, “I will be out of town.”
In 1995 Hans Mobius proposed a plan to develop a Walgreens, that was to be placed in the same location, but residents and business owners shot down the proposal. Walgreens eventually withdrew its request for a variance after pressure from the community.
Submitted by: Marcela Devivo
What is a skid loader?
A skid loader is a stiff frame machine with mechanical arms that can be fitted with attachments for a wide variety of different tools, including a backhoe, hydraulic breaker, pallet forks, angle broom, sweeper, auger, mower, snow blower, stump grinder, tree spade, trencher, and a wheel saw.
Modern skid loaders come in two varieties, a four wheeled system and a rubber track version. Wheeled skid loaders are typically are four-wheel drive and for additional maneuverability, the left and right wheels systems are independent. The track version also referred to as a track loader provides for better digging and pushes performance in higher end models due to less ground disturbance and better traction in un-ideal environments like mud and sand.
History of the skid loader machine
The first three-wheeled front-end loader was invented in 1957 by two brothers, Cyril and Louis Keller, in a small machinist shop in Rothsay Minnesota. The brothers conceived the idea to help a nearby farmer with the ignoble task of cleaning up manure for a pole barn. They wanted to help him, and out of this collaboration the first skidder was born.
This early machine was eventually purchased by Melrose Manufacturing Company and the Kellers brought on to continue development. Since then it has spread to become a highly valued piece of heavy machinery at construction and engineering site around the globe.
What are these machines used for?
Due to the wide array of attachments available for these vehicles , they have many uses, but mostly are employed for scrape material from one place to another, carry materials in a bucket and proceed to load them into a truck or trailer.
Skid loaders can also be used in tight digging situations where factors limit the practically of using a large excavator, like digging a basement under an existing house. In this situation a skid loader would make use of a ramp at the edge of the site. The loader would proceed to use the ramp to carry materials out of the hole. The skid loader would reshape the ramp by making it steeper and longer as the excavation deepened.
Differences between a front loader machine and a skid loader machine
The pivot arms on a skid loader lay behind the driver, alongside the side of the vehicle.
Major machine manufacturers
Major manufacturers for skid loaders include the Bobcat Company, Mustang, Case, New Holland, Komatsu, and Caterpillar.
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Canada’s Don Valley West (Ward 26) city council candidates speakFriday, November 3, 2006
On November 13, Torontonians will be heading to the polls to vote for their ward’s councillor and for mayor. Among Toronto’s ridings is Don Valley West (Ward 26). Four candidates responded to Wikinews’ requests for an interview. This ward’s candidates include Muhammad Alam, Bahar Aminvaziri, Orhan Aybars, Michele Carroll-Smith, Mohamed Dhanani, Abdul Ingar, Geoff Kettel, Debbie Lechter, Natalie Maniates, John Masterson, John Parker, David Thomas, Csaba Vegh, and Fred Williams.
For more information on the election, read Toronto municipal election, 2006.
Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with Freedom Party candidate David McGruer, Ottawa-OrleansTuesday, October 2, 2007
David McGruer is running for the Freedom Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Ottawa-Orleans 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.
OpenSync Interview – syncing on the free desktopFriday, May 19, 2006
This interview intends to provide some insight into OpenSync, an upcoming free unified data synchronization solution for free software desktops such as KDE, commonly used as part of the GNU/Linux operating system.
Hi Cornelius, Armin and Tobias. As you are now getting close to version 1.0 of OpenSync, which is expected to become the new synchronisation framework for KDE and other free desktops, we are quite interested in the merits it can provide for KDE users and for developers, as well as for the Open Source Community as a whole. So there’s one key-question before I move deeper into the details of OpenSync:
What does OpenSync accomplish, that no one did before?
Cornelius:
How do the end-users profit from using synching solutions that interface with OpenSync as framework?
Cornelius:
How does OpenSync help developers with coding?
Cornelius:
Tobias:
Why should producers of portable devices get involved with your team?
Cornelius:
Do you also plan to support applications of OpenSync in proprietary systems like OSX and Windows?
Cornelius:
What does your synchronisation framework do for KDE and for KitchenSync in particular?
Cornelius:
What was your personal reason for getting involved with OpenSync?
Cornelius:
Armin:
Tobias:
Can you tell us a bit about your further plans and ideas?
Cornelius:
Armin:
Tobias:
What was the most dire problem you had to face when creating OpenSync and how did you face it?
Cornelius:
Armin:
What was the greatest moment for you?
Cornelius:
Armin:
Tobias:
As we now know the worst problem you faced and your greatest moment, the only one missing is: What was your weirdest experience while working on OpenSync?
Cornelius:
Tobias:
Now I’d like to move on to some more specific questions about current and planned abilities of OpenSync. As first, I’ve got a personal one:
I have an old iPod sitting around here. Can I or will I be able to use a program utilizing OpenSync to synchronize my calendars, contacts and music to it?
Cornelius:
Armin:
Which other devices do you already support?
Cornelius:
Which programs already implement OpenSync and where can we check back to find new additions?
Cornelius:
Armin:
It is time to give the developers something to devour, too. I’ll keep this as a short twice-fold technical dive before coming to the takeoff question, even though I’m sure there’s information for a double-volume book on technical subleties.
As first dive: How did you integrate OpenSync in KitchenSync, viewed from the coding side?
Cornelius:
And for the second, deeper dive:
Can you give us a quick outline of those inner workings of OpenSync, from the developers view, which make OpenSync especially viable for application in several different desktop environments?
Cornelius:
Armin:
To add some more spice for those of our readers, whose interest you just managed to spawn (or to skyrocket), please tell us where they can get more information on the OpenSync Framework, how they can best meet and help you and how they can help improving sync-support for KDE by helping OpenSync.
Cornelius:
Armin:
Many thanks for your time!
Cornelius:
Armin:
Tobias:
Further Information on OpenSync can be found on the OpenSync Website: www.opensync.org
This Interview was done by Arne Babenhauserheide in April 2006 via e-mail and KOffice on behalf of himself, the OpenSource Community, SpreadKDE.org and the Dot (dot.kde.org).It was first published on the Dot and is licensed under the cc-attribution-sharealike-license.A pdf-version with pictures can be found at opensync-interview.pdf (OpenDocument version: opensync-interview.odt)
byadmin
Progress in modern medicine is an exciting thing. New advancements and discoveries in science and technology have been enabling us to develop new treatments, as well as improving current medical equipment and procedures. One aspect of medicine that has taken huge leaps forward in the last century or so is surgery. Today, surgery can be done safely and painlessly on any part of the body, even delicate areas such as the eyes and the brain. Eye surgery, especially, requires great sensitivity and precision. With the help of lasers, eye surgery now has an even higher rate of success than ever before.
How Has Eye Surgery Been Improved?
Just a few decades ago, using lasers in medicine was just a concept. Now, lasers have been proven to be the perfect solution for surgeries in which exceptional precision, accuracy, and steadiness are demanded. Lasers are especially useful for eye surgeries. Since they are so meticulous and exact, they can perform surgical procedures even at microscopic scales. During a laser eye surgery, a tiny beam of light and a high-tech imaging system are used to accomplish exactly what needs to be done to fix the eye. Laser eye surgery is a much gentler process than traditional eye surgery, and it also results in an easier recovery process.
When Is Laser Eye Surgery Used?
One of the best-known uses of laser eye surgery is in the Lasik procedure. This surgery removes a tiny, almost microscopic layer of cells, reshaping the cornea to allow light to reflect more accurately off of the retina. Lasik surgery has helped a lot of people to be able to see clearly, without the aid of glasses or contact lenses. However, laser surgery is used to correct several other eye disorders, including cataracts and glaucoma.
Indonesian parliament approves privatising of three major state firmsSaturday, September 20, 2008
The parliament of Indonesia has approved government plans to make an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares in three major state-owned firms, privatising them. They are steelmaker Krakatau Steel, Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) and national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia.
The parliament has left the process fully in the hands of the government, and has set the maximum stake to be sold at 30% for BTN and Krakatau, and 40% for Garuda. Although Indonesia has been known to fund budget deficits with privatisation, the intention is for the funds from this scheme to go to the businesses themselves to allow expansion.
Krakatau expects 3.2 trillion Rupiah (IDR) from the sale, while the estimated price for their stock is between IDR3 and IDR4 trillion (321 – 428 million USD). Both ArcelorMittal SA, the biggest steelmaker in the world, and BlueScope Steel Ltd, the largest in Australia, have expressed an interest in the IPO. Krakatau will use the funds to help finance an expansion scheme which aims to have production doubled to five million tonnes in 2011.
BTN, which focuses on home owner loans, has set itself a target income of IDR36.12 trillion (3.86 billion USD) in 2010 compared to a projected IDR22.9 trillion ( 2.45 billion USD) this year. Net profit for this year is projected at IDR472 billion (50.5 million USD)and is hoped to rise to IDR1.39 trillion (148.7 million USD) in 2010. The bank’s loan to deposit ratio is predicted to rise from 105.05% this year to 144.93% in 2012. BTN hopes to conduct its IPO before the end of 2008.
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Garuda is not quite 100% state-owned to start with, unlike the other two, but is very close with 95.44% of the company belonging to the government. Like all of Indonesia’s 51 airlines, Garuda is on the list of air carriers banned in the EU due to safety concerns raised after a string of air accidents in the nation. Garuda expects to raise IDR4.2 trillion (449.4 million USD) in funds from the IPO, and will use IDR2.5 trillion (267.5 million USD) to pay off its debts and invest IDR1.7 trillion (181.9 million USD) in new aircraft.
The government is still working to get a deal to make IPOs for architectural firm Yodya Karya and three plantation firms called Perkebunan Nusantara III, IV and VII.
Cargo ship Arctic Sea may be foundSaturday, August 15, 2009
A cargo ship spotted off the African island nation of Cape Verde could be the missing MV Arctic Sea.
The Maltese flagged MV Arctic Sea disappeared off the French coast sometime after July 29. Owned by the Russian Arctic Sea company she was operated by the Finnish Solchart Management company and had a Russian crew.
French intelligence sources have found a ship matching the Arctic Sea’s description about 400 Nautical miles north of São Vicente.
The Arctic Sea was on a scheduled route from the Finnish seaport of Pietarsaari to the Algerian seaport of Béjaïa with a cargo of timber when it was boarded in Swedish waters between the islands Öland and Gotland on the night of July 24. The alleged boarders left the ship the same day according to its crew and the ship continued her voyage although it would have been expected to anchor at the nearest port.
The last official contact with the ship was with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Britain on July 28. Viktor Matveyev, the director of Solchart Management says the ship radioed that it was off the coast of Portugal on July 31. The 98-meter-long ship has so far not reached the Straits of Gibraltar and is now being sought by the Portuguese Navy and Russian Navy.
If proven this could be the first case of piracy in Europe in the modern era. There is speculation as to the reason for the ship’s hijacking, as its cargo of wood, valued at 1.3 million euros, is not especially valuable. Suggestions include possible contraband, and the possibility of a commercial dispute between the crew or some other party and the ship’s owners.