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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Florida newspaper St. Petersburg Times published a series of investigative articles on Scientology on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, including exclusive interviews with former high-ranking executives within the organization. Four former Scientology executives stated that they witnessed the Church of Scientology‘s leader David Miscavige physically strike staff members numerous times.

The former executives speaking out include Mike Rinder, who served as head of the organization’s legal and public relations division the Office of Special Affairs, Mark Rathbun, former Inspector General of the organization’s Religious Technology Center, Tom De Vocht, former manager of the organization’s operations in Clearwater, Florida, and Amy Scobee, a former Scientology staff member in California who assisted in construction of Scientology’s Celebrity Centres. Rathbun supervised the Church of Scientology’s response to the Lisa McPherson case, after she died under Scientology care in 1995.

Rinder said the impact was more one of humiliation than physical pain: “The issue wasn’t the physical pain of it (being assaulted by Miscavige). The issue was the humiliation and the domination. … It’s the fact that the domination you’re getting — hit in the face, kicked — and you can’t do anything about it.” Rathbun asserted Miscavige would assault executives during conferences. “Regularly David Miscavige would in the middle of a conference physically assault, punch, slap or grab by the neck a number of executives,” said Rathbun.

De Vocht said that Miscavige would “lose it” if he did not hear a satisfactory answer from his executives: “If it wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, he’d lose it. If it was contrary to how he thought, he’d lose it. If he found it to be smart aleck, or it was a better answer than he had, he would lose it.” Scobee was critical of Miscavige’s actions while calling himself a “religious leader”. “You cannot call yourself a religious leader as you beat people, as you confine people, as you rip apart families. If I was trying to destroy Scientology, I would leave David Miscavige right where he is because he’s doing a fantastic job of it,” she said.

In its preparation for the investigation, The St. Petersburg Times staff met with attorneys and representatives for the Church of Scientology for 25 hours. According to the paper Miscavige was sought out by reporters for an interview from May 13, but they were informed he would not be available prior to July. Miscavige e-mailed the paper on Saturday, complaining that he was not interviewed. “I am at a loss to comprehend how the St. Petersburg Times can publish a story about me and the religion I lead without accepting the offer to speak with me,” wrote Miscavige.

Church of Scientology representatives denied the statements made by their former executives, and claimed the individuals left the organization after being demoted. They claimed the former executives were motivated by feelings of revenge and only speaking to the press for financial gain.

Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis acknowledged violence occurred within the ranks of Scientology management, but claimed that it was Rathbun and not Miscavige who carried out the assaults. In comments to the Associated Press, Davis referred to the statements made by former executives about Miscavige as “absolutely, unquestionably false”. Scientology representative Lyman Spurlock stated “What they want to do is extort money from the church. … and right now the St. Pete Times is their extortion vehicle… you’re just their lackeys. They’re using you.”

The St. Petersburg Times reported Monday on the attention received by the investigative articles in other media. The Associated Press carried the story, and it was included in over 177 television and news websites including MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and the Chicago Sun-Times, as well as blogs and media sites for The Huffington Post, Gawker, L.A. Weekly, and The Village Voice. By Monday the first article in the series had received over 3,600 “diggs” at the social news website Digg and generated over 420 comments at the site. A post at the “On Deadline” blog of USA Today called the investigation “a fascinating three-part series”. “Juicy stuff from a mainstream newspaper coming out and hitting Scientology hard,” said biologist and University of Minnesota, Morris associate professor PZ Myers in a post to his blog Pharyngula. “I’m sure there are meetings going on in Clearwater right now where they’re plotting revenge,” wrote Myers.

Friday, September 2, 2005

An explosion today in Makhachkala, Russia in the Russian region of Dagestan killed one and wounded five others, police say. The bomb detonated in a pile of garbage, where servicemen and a truck had been sent to search for explosives on a street near a military base. When the engineers got out of the truck to search, the bomb went off.

The Dagestani Ministry, reported by the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass, originally stated that the blast killed two servicemen and wounded three others. They later revised this to six servicemen wounded (as well as one civilian), but no fatalities. A police officer told ITAR-Tass news that a brigade had been on patrol when the explosion occurred.

According to RIA-Novosti and Interfax news, medics reported one death and six injuries. RIA-Novosti also reports that the bomb exploded near a trolley bus.

Police and ambulances were immediately brought to the area of the explosion, which was quickly sealed off by police.

The alleged planters of the bomb were followed by police, but escaped after firing at the officers.

This explosion is not surprising, as racial tensions in the Muslim majority region of Dagestan often lead to attacks on officials and police.

Wednesday, September 7, 2005

The United States’ third-largest airline operator, Delta Air Lines, will cut 1,000 jobs due to a planned service reduction at their Cincinnati hub. The carrier also announced they will sell 11 of their Boeing 767-200 planes to an air-cargo company, ABX Air Inc., since they are the least fuel-efficient aircraft in the fleet.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport lost 9 destinations, but the carrier said there would be no inconvenience to passengers. Delta will fly to 20 new “business destinations” from Atlanta and Salt Lake City, instead. Also 41 international connections are to be maintained or expanded.

The changes took place due to the difficult financial situation of the company, which suffered $10 billion in losses since 2001, and warned that they would file for bankruptcy if unsuccessful in lowering costs.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Protests which began Monday escalated to a riot on Wednesday consisting of over 10,000 people in Chi?in?u, the capital of Moldova, protesting the results of Sunday’s 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election, which showed an apparent, narrow victory for the Communist Party (Partidul Comuni?tilor din Republica Moldova, PCRM). Demonstrators claim the victory was the result of electoral fraud.

The demonstration escalated to a “flash mob” of between 10,000 to 15,000 communicating via online tools like email, micro-blogging tool Twitter, and social-networking website Facebook. “We sent messages on Twitter but didn’t expect 15,000 people to join in. At the most we expected 1,000”, said Oleg Brega of the activist group Hyde Park.

Police deployed tear gas and water cannons, and fired blanks into the crowd. The rioters threw stones at the riot police and took control of the parliament building and presidential office. A bonfire was built out of parliamentary furniture and all windows below the 7th floor were broken.

Approximately one hundred protesters and 170 police officers are reported as injured. There have been conflicting reports as to whether a female protester died during the altercation.

193 protesters “have been charged with looting, hooliganism, robbery and assault,” said an Interior Ministry spokesperson. This announcement sparked another protest by those demanding the release for those detained.

There is wide speculation about who was to blame for the rioting.

President Vladimir Voronin has expelled the Romanian ambassador from Moldova, blaming Romania for the violent protests. “We know that certain political forces in Romania are behind this unrest. The Romanian flags fixed on the government buildings in Chisinau attest to this” said Voronin. “Romania is involved in everything that has happened.“ Voronin also blamed the protests on opposition leaders who used violence to seize power, and has described the event as a coup d’état.

Protesters initially insisted on a recount of the election results and are now calling for a new vote, which has been rejected by the government. Rioters were also demanding unification between Moldova and Romania. “In the air, there was a strong expectation of change, but that did not happen”, said OSCE spokesman Matti Sidoroff.File:Dorin Chirtoaca.jpg

“The elections were fraudulent, there was multiple voting” accused Chi?in?u mayor Dorin Chirtoac? of the Liberal Party. “It’s impossible that every second person in Moldova voted for the Communists. However, we believe the riots were a provocation and we are now trying to reconcile the crowd. Leaders of all opposition parties are at the scene,” said Larissa Manole of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) proclaimed the PCRM to have won 61 seats in initial counts, enough to guarantee a third term in power for Voronin, who has held the position since 2001. But the Central Election Commission has received evidence of election violations, according to RIA Novosti, and upon recounts conducted of disputed polls, the commission reported that the Communists achieved 49.48% of the Moldovian vote, giving them 60 parliamentary seats — one short of the total needed to win the presidential election. “The electoral commission also granted opposition parties permission to check voter lists, fulfilling one of their chief demands,” said Yuri Ciocan, Central Election Commission secretary.

Voronin will step down in May, however his party could elect a successor with 61 parliamentary seats without any votes from outside parties as well as amend the Constitution. With the PCRM garnering 60 seats, the opposition will have a voice in the presidential election for a new successor.

The western part of Moldova was a part of Romania from the Romania’s independence until the region was detached by the USSR in 1940 to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. On independence in 1990 the country sought union with Romania but the eastern, Russian- and Ukrainian-inhabited areas of the country declared themselves independent from Moldova and formed the state of Transnistria and movement toward union was halted.

Moldova is Europe’s poorest country, where average income is less than $250 (£168) a month. The country’s neighbours are Romania and Ukraine. Romania is a European Union (EU) state.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.

If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”

There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s plans to implement a carbon tax in Australia have hit a roadblock today with the national secretary of the Australian Workers Union Paul Howes demanding that exemptions be made to certain heavy polluting industries including steel production as well as concerns about whether jobs will be lost.

Steel producing companies within Australia including BlueScope Steel and OneSteel have supported the move by the union claiming that a carbon tax would affect Australian Jobs. Paul O’Malley, managing director and Chief Executive of BlueScope, said that “the tax threat is still real for the Australian Steel industry and for our customers.”

Paul Howes told The Australian newspaper that “if one job is gone, our support is gone.” Mr. Howes is a powerful figure within the Australian Labor Party who is believed to have been instrumental with the removal of PM Gillard’s predecessor Kevin Rudd. Support for the Gillard Labor Government has dropped to an all time low earlier this year, with only a 30% approval rating.

The move by the AWU has been supported by other unions in Australia, including the Transport Workers Union as well as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2018

On Saturday, the Trump Tower, in Midtown, New York City, caught fire shortly before 18:00 EST (2200 UTC) on the 50th floor, claiming the life of a 67-year-old resident, Todd Brassner, who lived in apartment 50C. All other residents were evacuated without incident. During the fire, six firefighters received non-life-threatening burns and other minor injuries. Neither US President Donald Trump nor the First Family were in the building at the time of the fire.

The high-end Fifth Avenue address is the personal residence of President Donald Trump, whose family occupies the top three stories of the 58-story building. The US Secret Service maintains a constant security presence inside the building with the New York City Police Department guarding a hard perimeter, intended to stop vehicular attacks, and a soft perimeter, intended for on-foot attacks.

The four-alarm fire required 200 firemen, extra police, and paramedics. At 20:00 EST (0000 UTC Sunday), the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) declared the fire was under control. Trump tweeted, “Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!” This is the second fire at Trump Tower since the election; previously on January 8, a fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in a cooling tower on the roof. Three FDNY firefighters received minor injuries, and all residents and office workers evacuated without incident on that occasion.

Trump Tower provides a number of unique problems never before encountered by the Secret Service. Never has a US President’s personal residence been inside a skyscraper or in a densely populated area like Midtown. The security measures have disrupted vehicular and pedestrian traffic requiring time consuming detours and delaying emergency response.

The New York Fire Code did not mandate sprinkler systems at the time Trump Tower was built in 1983, which might have reduced the size and severity of the fire had they been present. The 50th-floor apartment was, according to FDNY Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro, “[T]he apartment was virtually, entirely on fire.” The Secret Service monitors all the fire alarms in the building but it took time to find the source of the thick black smoke emanating from the fire. Secret Service Agents escorted the firefighters throughout the building, including the Trump residence.

Brassner, the sole casualty, was unconscious when firefighters pulled him out of apartment 50C. He was transported to Mount Sinai Roosevelt Hospital. Originally listed as critical, he was pronounced dead sometime during the night. Brassner, guitar collector, was acquainted with artist Andy Warhol and was acknowledged in Warhol’s 1989 autobiography, The Andy Warhol Diaries. The cause of the fire is unknown, with investigations into Brassner’s death and the emergency response ongoing. Currently, the Secret Service leads the investigation.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued proposed calorie labeling rules requiring most retail food vendors to display the calorie counts in items on their menus and menu boards. The proposed rules, issued Friday and expected to be finalized in 2012, would apply to most restaurants, snack bars, vending machines, coffee shops, drive-through restaurants, and convenience and grocery stores.

The US Congress required the rules in the health-care reform law passed in 2010. The rules proposed by the FDA must undergo a public comment period before they are finalized and take effect, said Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Director for Foods at the FDA.

The proposed regulations pertain to businesses devoting more than 50 percent of their floor space to the sale of food or that consider themselves restaurants, specifically food-selling chains with at least 20 stores nationally. Included are candy stores, bakeries, and ice-cream parlors.

The FDA’s proposed guidelines specify that chains post the calorie counts of foods and drinks on menus and menu boards or next to the food item, such as at a salad bar. The menu is to prominently exhibit the calorie content of each item in a way customers can see easily, giving them the same information packaged foods prepared at home currently provide. The information must be displayed in “clear and conspicuous” print and colors.

Many cities and states have passed laws requiring calorie labeling on menus, beginning with New York City in 2008. California implemented a similar law in January, although many counties are waiting for the release of the federal guidelines before they begin enforcement. Some fast-food chains there, such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, are displaying calorie counts on menus in some of their stores.

The rules are intended to curb the national obesity epidemic since, according to FDA estimates, one third of the calories people consume yearly come from food eaten out. In a statement issued yesterday, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services said, “Giving consumers clear nutritional information makes it easier for them to choose healthier options that can help fight obesity and make us all healthier.”

Excluded from the rules are businesses whose primary product is not food sales but that sell it, such as bowling alleys, airports and airplanes, amusement parks, hotels and movie theaters. Alcohol is also excluded.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.