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Friday, May 2, 2008

Odense Squash Club (OSC) won the Danish team club championship in squash. During the weekend of April 26 and 27, the final four of the Danish championship were played at OSC home stadium, Squash Center Danmark, due to OSC winning the league system this season. OSC beat Herlev/Hjorten Squash (Herlev) 6-1 in the final.

OSC was the favourite to take the gold this weekend, as they had already won league play with a comfortable lead over København Squash Klub (KSK), and therefore had home court and could pick their opponent in the first semi-final. OSC chose to play Åbyhøj Squash Klub (ÅSK) in the first semi final, and beat them with ease 6-1, only loosing the women’s second to Ditte Nielsen (ÅSK).

During the other semi, the favoured professionals from KSK, ran in to serious problems, as injured star player Alex Stait was not able to play for KSK giving the young Herlev team a chance in this semi. After 5 matches and down by two matches, Mikkel Kragholm (Herlev) and Thomas Pilak (Herlev) became double match winners when they each beat their opponents by 3-0 and 3-1, winning the match 4-3 for Herlev.

The final was, however, dominated by OSC, and Herlev wasn’t ever in the match. Only Danish individual champion Morten Sørensen was able to win for Herlev. Herlev lost the rest of the matches. OSC’s players proved to be to strong for last years bronze winners from Herlev. OSC won the Danish championship 6-1 in the final at Squash Center Danmark in Odense.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The U.S. space agency NASA called off the launch of Space shuttle Discovery today after a problem with a fuel sensor in the external tank used to detect fuel exhaustion. According to the agency-run NASA TV, the low-fuel sensor was either malfunctioning or damaged. The launch was already facing the threat of a scrub due to thunderstorms in the area.

The sensor is one of four used to trigger the engine cutout after launch. Although only two are required for normal operation, and the Shuttle can be flown with one, NASA elected to maintain full redundancy. Should more of the sensors fail, the engine might burn out due to lack of fuel, a situation that has not been tested.

The problem was detected during a simulation of an empty tank. When placed in a mode simulating an empty tank, three of the sensors correctly registered that the tank was empty, while the faulty sensor stayed in the “full” state. NASA is currently unsure whether the problem relates to the sensor, the instrumentation circuits reporting the sensor’s state, or the simulation circuits.

The problem comes after a separate incident yesterday when a cockpit window cover fell from the Orbiter, damaging thermal protection tiles. A similar problem caused the replacement of the fuel tank in June. NASA described the problem as an “intermittent fault”.

The launch, which was scheduled for 3:51 ET (20:51 UTC), would have been the first launch of a shuttle since Columbia‘s February 2003 crash which killed all crew members aboard.

It is still unknown to NASA officials what caused the sensor to become defective. It is also unknown at the moment whether the issue will be fixed on the launch pad, or in the Vehicle Assembly Building – in which it takes close to a full day’s time to transport a shuttle between the two areas.

In the interim, the crew of the shuttle will stay at KSC unless there are further delays, in which case the crew might be transported back to JSC in Houston for refresher training.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

BAGHDAD —According to Defend America, US Department of Defense News website, USsoldiers members of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, the 199th Forward Support Battalion (FSB), with several units from Camp Liberty (18th Military Police Brigade, 16th MP Brigade, 617th MP Brigade, 307th Psychological Operations Battalion, and the Iraqi Highway Patrol) provided medical assistance to Iraq children at an elementary school in Bagdah.

US Major Alan Kabakoff, with the 16th MP Brigade, says humanitarianmissions are very important in winning the war on terror, although you can’t seethe importance sometimes: “It’s like fire prevention, everyone knowsthat it works, it’s just hard to prove, unless something bad happens. Thesepeople want the same things that we do, they want safe schools,safe homes, and safe areas to raise their kids.”

Staff Sgt. Jason Escoyne, Co. C, 199th FSB, who examined the children saidthat there was nothing seriously wrong with them.

This effort is part of the US reconstruction of Iraq. Till now according to USAID, U.S. Agency for International Development, in Iraq 2,405 schools were rehabilitated including the supply of chairs, cabinets, desks, chalkboards and kits for secondary and primary schools, about 8.7 million science and math textbooks have been distributed, 33,000 secondary school teachers have been trainned, high protein biscuits have been distributed to more than 450,000 children and 200,000 nursing and pregnant women, trainning have been provided to 700 physicians and 2,500 primary health care providers, over 3 million children under five have been vaccinated and more than 1.3 million children under five suspected of malnutrition have been examined.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has told the House of Representatives that the federal budget may need to fall into “temporary deficit” if the global economic crisis impacts upon Australia further. The Prime Minister said it would draw upon its budget surplus to stimulate growth and jobs.

The Prime Minister said the Australian economy had changed significantly over the past few months and warned that there were hard times to come for many people. Mr Rudd said the situation will worsen before it gets any better.

Mr Rudd said that the government will go into temporary deficit and spend on infrastructure to stimulate growth if required and not to do so would be irresponsible.

“If Australian economic growth slows further because of a further deepening of the global crisis then it follows that Australian Government revenues will reduce further,” he said.

“Under those circumstances, it would be responsible to draw further from the surplus and if necessary to use a temporary deficit to begin investing in future infrastructure needs including hospitals, schools, TAFEs, universities, ports, roads, urban rail and high speed broadband.” He added, “Such action would support growth would support families and jobs and would be undertaken in the national interest.”

If the budget fell into deficit, it would be first time the federal budget has gone into deficit since 2001. Previously, the government has refused to concede the budget would go into deficit, contrary to predictions by economists.

The admission by the government follows claims on the weekend by the Prime Minister that he did not expect the budget would go into deficit “in the current circumstances.” Today Mr Rudd told parliament that the global economic crisis is accelerating.

“The world economy is deteriorating rapidly,” Mr Rudd told parliament.

“The impact of the global financial crisis … has grown from a trickle to a flood. It is now sweeping across the world from China to Chile, from Germany to Japan.”

The government slashed its budget surplus forecast earlier this month by AUD15 billion to $5.1 billion and revised down revenue for the next four years by a further $40 billion. Mr Rudd blamed part of the downgrade to falling commodity prices.

Figures recently released by the OECD predict that Australia will manage to avoid a recession this year; economic growth is predicted to be 1.7%.

Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull used the Prime Minister’s announcement to attack the Rudd government’s economic credentials. He said any deficit would be regarded by voters to be a failure in economic management.

Mr Turnbull asserted that it is unlikely that any deficit would be temporary. “Experience and history tell us that Labor deficits are never temporary,” he told parliament. “The last Labor deficit lasted for six years. It only came to an end with the election of a coalition government.”

Mr Turnbull said the government had remained focused on inflation for longer than they should have.

“It was the only government in the developed world that was ignoring the global financial crisis…and was declaring its own war on inflation, when much darker storm clouds were on the horizon.”

The Liberal leader took aim at comments made by Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner and Prime Minister Rudd on the weekend that said the budget would not be allowed to fall into deficit.

“Forty-eight hours [later] and that has been completely abandoned,” said Turnbull.

Tuesday, March 1, 2005

Mountain View, California, USA —The Mozilla Foundation recently released an update to Mozilla Firefox. According to the developers, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 patches 17 security flaws and improves stability. The update is available from Getfirefox.com by clicking ‘Download Now’ or ‘Other Systems and Languages‘.

Windows users should currently be seeing a small icon on the menu bar of the browser indicating that an Automatic Update to the new version is now available for installation.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 is available at the time of writing in US English, French, Spanish (Latin American), German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish and Polish, among many other languages.

However the updated Windows version has a flaw affecting anyone who previously installed Firefox as a ‘zipped’ build, rather than using the standard automatic installer method. (Zipped builds are often customized versions designed for increased speed or development work). If version 1.0.1 is installed over a zipped build, users are reporting that the browser crashes when attempting to enter text into the location or search boxes.

Anyone encountering this problem is advised to delete their Mozilla Firefox folder in ‘Program Files’, then re-install. Their bookmarks, extensions etc will not be affected.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Vassar Clements, age 77, a legendary fiddle player who took bluegrass music from an obscure cultural art form to a mainstream influence, and who played on over 2000 albums, passed away at his Goodlettsville, Tennessee home August 16th 2005 at 8:35 am Nashville time (CST) from lung cancer which had metastasized to his liver and brain.

Mr. Clements taught himself to play the fiddle at age 7, and though he had no formal training was recognized as one of the world’s most versatile fiddle players and was considered a virtuoso. The first song he learned was “There’s an Old Spinning Wheel in the Parlor”. He described his talent saying, “It was God’s gift, something born in me. I was too dumb to learn it any other way. I listened to the (Grand Ole) Opry some. I’d pick it up one note at a time. I was young, with plenty of time and I didn’t give up. You’d come home from school, do your lessons and that’s it. No other distractions. I don’t read music. I play what I hear.”

He didn’t always earn his living playing music, though. In the mid-1960s he was employed briefly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where he worked on plumbing. He also performed several other blue-collar jobs including work in a Georgia paper mill, as switchman for Atlantic Coast Railroad; he even sold insurance and once owned a potato chip franchise.

In his 50 year career he played with artists ranging from Woody Herman, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band to The Grateful Dead, Linda Ronstadt and Paul McCartney, and earned at least five Grammy nominations and numerous professional accolades. He once recorded with the pop group the Monkees by happenstance, when he stayed behind after an earlier recording session. He also appeared in Robert Altman‘s 1975 film “Nashville”.

His 2005 Grammy award for best country instrumental performance was for “Earl’s Breakdown,” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and featured Mr. Clements, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs and Jerry Douglas.

Mr. Clements, whose last performance was February 4 in Jamestown, N.Y., was hospitalized earlier this year for 18 days to receive chemotherapy and other treatment. He had been diagnosed in March 2005.

Born in Kinard, South Carolina, his musical career began at age 14 when he associated with Bill Monroe, and later officially joined the Blue Grass Boys band where he remained for seven years. In 1957 he joined bluegrass band Jim & Jesse McReynolds where he remained until 1962. In 1967 he returned to Nashville where he became a much sought after studio musician.

After a brief touring stint with Faron Young he joined John Hartford‘s Dobrolic Plectral Society in 1971 when he met guitarist Norman Blake and Dobro player Tut Taylor, and recorded Aereo Plain, a widely acclaimed newgrass album that helped broaden the bluegrass market and sound. After less than a year he joined Earl Scruggs, who first earned widespread renown for playing the theme to sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies.

His 1972 work with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album Will the Circle Be Unbroken earned him even wider acclaim, and later worked with the Grateful Dead’s Wake of the Flood and Jimmy Buffett‘s A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean.

Though he played numerous instruments, Mr. Clements indicated that he chose the fiddle over guitar recalling that, “I picked up a guitar and fiddle and tried them both out. The guitar was pretty easy, but I couldn’t get nothing out of the fiddle. So every time I’d see those instruments sitting side by side, I’d grab that fiddle.”

Big band and swing music were considerable influences upon his style and musical development, and he said that, “Bands like Glenn Miller, Les Brown, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Artie Shaw were very popular when I was a kid. I always loved rhythm, so I guess in the back of my mind the swing and jazz subconsciously comes out when I play, because when I was learning I was always trying to emulate the big-band sounds I heard on my fiddle.”

His last album ‘Livin’ With the Blues’, released in 2004, featured guest appearances by Elvin Bishop, Norton Buffalo, Maria Muldaur and others.

Mr. Clements’ daughter Midge Cranor wrote on his website [1] that “As I was still holding his hand his breathing stopped. I looked at the clock and it was 7:20 am.”

Mr. Clements’ remains have been transported to Bond Memorial Chapel, 1098 Weston Drive, Mt. Juliet, TN 37122; (615) 773-2663.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

US regulators intend to fine Toyota Motor Company $16.4 million over allegations that the company failed to notify government officials in “a timely way” about flaws in its vehicles that led to a major recall earlier this year.

The fine is the maximum penalty allowed under current US law, and would be the largest ever against an automaker, dwarfing a $1 million fine against General Motors in 2004. The U.S. Transportation Department is also considering the possibility of further fines if it was determined that the company had committed other violations of US law. The fine is the result of an investigation opened on February 16 into Toyota’s actions during the recall of 2.3 million vehicles in the US. Toyota now has a period of two weeks in which it can appeal the fine.

Current law requires an automaker to notify the US government within five days if it has determined that a safety issue exists in one of its vehicles. Internal Toyota documents obtained by the government showed that the company was aware of the issues in its cars as early as September 2009, well before it reported the problems to the US government in January.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that the government has “proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations,” and that “they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families.”

Toyota, in a statement posted on their website, said that “We have already taken a number of important steps to improve our communications with regulators and customers on safety-related matters as part of our strengthened overall commitment to quality assurance.” The statement added, “These include the appointment of a new Chief Quality Officer for North America and a greater role for the region in making safety-related decisions.”