leskovarlm.com

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Realising how visual a medium tattooing is, tattoo artist Kat Von D of TV series LA Ink set a world record while raising funds to fight childhood blindness. In 24 hours, Von D tattooed 400 people with an “LA” logo, in her West Hollywood, California tattoo shop.

The December event at High Voltage Tattoo drew 1000 people in line, although only 400 could get the image emblazoned on them, for a $20 donation. Most learned of the event through her MySpace profile. In all, the funds raised will help 32,000 children’s eyesight, through Vitamin Angels.

Vitamin Angels is the only organization in the world solely dedicated to eradicating vitamin A definciency among children, with the goal of warding off youth blindness by 2020. The year 2020 is chosen because perfect vision is described as “20/20“.

First in line at the event was Jose Flores, who had camped out in front of the store since 7:15 the previous evening. Doors didn’t open until 10 am, and Flores didn’t get the tattoo until Von D was done with her friends and family, including internet celebrity Jeffree Star.

A Guinness World Records official was scheduled to attend, but was caught in a snow storm.

Katherine Von Drachenberg told the Los Angeles Times that, as a teenager, she “be at the mall and parents would grab their kids and be like, ‘Honey!’ It was like that scene in Pretty Woman, where the women on Rodeo Drive think Julia Roberts is going to shoplift. Now people just come up to me more out of curiosity — everyone from grandmas to soccer moms.”

The record setting event was filmed for LA Ink, a series that airs Tuesday nights on TLC in the United States. The series is a spin-off of Miami Ink, a series featuring Von D’s previous place of employ, before she set off on her own.

The series’ second season started last night, however that particular episode will air March 4.

Friday, June 29, 2007

A car containing an large explosive device has been defused in the Haymarket, London. A second device was later found in a car park in Park Lane.

A car, a light metallic green Mercedes-Benz E Class saloon (produced 1984-1995), parked near the nightclub ‘TigerTiger’, contained petrol, gas cylinders and nails. Police described it as a “potentially viable explosive device”.

Police carried out a controlled explosion at 2:00 a.m. BST and the car has been taken to a forensic explosives laboratory for further investigation.

Eyewitnesses saw the car driving “erratically” and colliding with bins before being abandoned. An ambulance crew in the area alerted police after seeing smoke inside the car.

Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Clarke said there could have been “significant injury or loss of life”.

A meeting of COBRA, chaired by new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was held about the incident.

Police say it is too early to tell who is behind the threat. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the country faces a “serious and continued security threat” and urged people to “be vigilant at all times”.

Disruption has been caused to transport in the area with roads closed and bus routes diverted. Piccadilly Circus tube station has reopened after an earlier closure

Police are reviewing major events to be held in London over the weekend.

CBS News has reported that a message appeared on the widely used jihadist Internet forum Al-Hesbah at 8:09 a.m. June 28, saying: “Today I say: Rejoice, by Allah, London shall be bombed.” The message went on to mention the recently announced knighthood of Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.

Following an incident at Glasgow airport, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced the elevation of the UK’s national threat level from “Severe” to “Critical”, indicating that an attack could be expected “imminently”.

Two people have been arrested in Cheshire in connection with the Glasgow International Airport attack and attempted London car bombings.

Park Lane was closed to the public due to a suspicious car parked in the underground car park beneath Hyde Park. Police, who believed the two incidents to be linked, cordoned off Park Lane and Hyde Park to allow the bomb disposal unit access to the vehicle. The car was illegally parked on Cockspur Street and was towed to the pound on Park Lane, it was then discovered that the car contained an explosive device.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

The US Army Corps of Engineers decision to place restrictions on issuance of nationwide pollution permits has been upheld by a federal court. In National Association of Home Builders v. Army Corps of Engineers, the District Court for the District of Columbia found that the Corps of Engineers had not acted in an “arbitrary” or “capricious” manner in changing the terms and conditions for issuance of a national pollution permit, including reducing the size of area into which pollutants may be discharged from 10 acres to 1 acre, raising the threshold for requiring additional permits from 1 acre to 1/10 acre,

A nationwide permit allows an organization to engage in certain industrial activities on a national basis (such as mining and construction), reducing the amount of paperwork and filings needed for otherwise minor environmental impacts, as opposed to an ordinary permit for a specific location which will engage in activities which generate water pollution.

Due to concerns over the amount of discharge taking place in waterways, the Corps of Engineers began in the 1980s to reduce the authority granted by nationwide permits and to bar use of the permits in certain ecologically sensitive areas.

Some industry groups, including the plaintiff in the above case, The National Association of Home Builders, sued the Corps of Engineers in 2000 over the change in an attempt to block its implementation. Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, were given permission to intervene in the case in support of the actions of the Corps.

Environmental groups were pleased with the decision, but are concerned over other actions of the Bush Administration, such as the attempts to weaken provisions of the 2002 Clean Water Act to allow additional dumping of construction and mining waste into waterways as fill material.

Sunday, September 5, 2021

Since June 2019, the people of South Gippsland Shire, located at the southernmost tip of Australia, have been without a local council, after a state government inquiry found “high levels of tension” within the council. Administrators were appointed by the Victorian state government in July 2019, who have governed the shire since then. However, South Gippsland’s council is scheduled to be restored with an election to be held via post from October 5-22, 2021.

Wikinews interviewed one of the candidates standing in this election, Mat Morgan. He is running as a candidate in the Coastal-Promontory Ward, and is endorsed by the Australian Greens. The Coastal-Promontory ward covers towns such as Venus Bay, Waratah Bay, Yanakie, Foster, Port Welshpool, and Toora, and elects three councillors to the South Gippsland Shire Council.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Controversial and explicit Canadian workplace safety ads have been pulled from television, and paper ads from some bus shelters for the Christmas season. However, the ads will return to air in January.

“It’s totally erroneous to suggest we’re pulling anything,” chairman of the Workplace Safety and Information Board of Ontario, Steve Mahoney said. “Our plan from Day 1 was to stop the ads around the middle of December when most of the advertising that’s in the media is focused on Christmas and purchasing gifts. We just didn’t want to be competing with all that stuff.”

In one of the TV ads a woman accidentally slips on grease on the floor and a large steaming pot falls onto her face, and she starts screaming to death. The ads end with the message “There really are no accidents”.

A paper ads shows a construction worker who is in a pool of blood with a forklift operation manual stuck in his chest. Another with a man who is slit by a “Danger” sign with his leg stuck in a machine. They show the messages: “Lack of training can kill” and the other “Ignoring safety procedures can kill”.

“The critics amount to about 25 per cent rating, and I’m delighted they’re upset about the ads because I wouldn’t want anyone to enjoy watching them.”

The videos have been viewed more than 70,000 times on the Board’s website and are gaining large amounts of views on YouTube.

The transit authorities of Hamilton and Mississauga will show modified advertisements. The transit authority of Guelph will show the ads in bus shelters, but the transit authority of Windsor will not because of the graphic nature.

“We’re not against workplace safety, but this is too graphic,” said Caroline Postma, chair of the Transit Windsor board.

Mississauga city councillour Carolyn Parrish said: “My son-in-law was telling me that they shouldn’t be on in prime time because when [my grandson] watches them he just about bursts into tear. Now he follows his mom around the kitchen to make sure she doesn’t spill grease. And he’s only four. There’s too much of a chance that … people are really badly affected by it, and can’t really do anything about it anyway.” She suggested the ads only be aired to workers with the jobs shown in the commercials.

Mahoney changed the earlier promise to air the ads only after 8:00pm to after 9:00pm at last nights meeting with Mississauga city council.

Mahoney said the commercials and paper ads are not “too graphic at all”. And they are “absolutely appropriate and they’re doing what they’re intended to do, they’re creating what I call a water cooler topic of conversation.”

Ninety-eight Canadian workers so far have been killed on the job this year.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006File:Fidel Castro 102006.jpg

José Luis García Sabrido, the chief surgeon at Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid who treated 80-year-old Fidel Castro last week, announced that the intestinal bleeding which led to surgery was not caused from cancer. Rather, he had a “benign illness” with a series of complications. He is currently recovering from a serious operation. When asked if Castro had cancer, Sabrido responded, “From what I know, I absolutely deny it.”

Sabrido refuses to declare which caused Castro’s illness, keeping in the Cuban government’s wishes, however The New York Times says diverticulitis is a common, non-cancerous cause of intestinal bleeding.

US politicians still believe that Castro is seriously ill; there is speculation in Washington and among Cuban exiles that Castro has colon cancer. John D. Negroponte, the United States Director of National Intelligence, told The Washington Post that Castro is “terminally ill” and will be dead in “months, not years.”

Fidel Castro transferred his position to his brother Raul on July 31 due to intestinal surgery. The Cuban government has since kept his health situation relatively secret; this is the first time a medical expert outside the Cuban government has commented on his health since he dropped from the public view in July.

According to recent reports, Castro will be healthy enough to be President of Cuba again.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Speaking in Washington Tuesday at the conclusion of the China-U.S. trade summit, Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi warned the U.S. not to pursue a ‘blame game’ in continued trade negotiations. “We should not easily blame the other side for our own domestic problems,” Wu said, speaking through an interpreter. “Confrontation does no good at all to problem-solving.”

The valuation of the Chinese Yuan has been closely tied to the U.S. Dollar for years. Critics charge that this resulted in a relatively low value, making Chinese goods cheaper in the U.S., contributing to the current trade imbalance that favours China.

Although the Chinese government expanded the band in which the Yuan can float (relative to the U.S. Dollar) from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent last Friday, critics say the measure doesn’t go far enough to address the U.S. trade deficit. Members of the U.S. Congress have blamed China’s policy of currency manipulation for the rising trade imbalance and a 16 percent drop in manufacturing jobs since 2000. In 2006, U.S. imports from China exceeded exports by US$232.5 billion, almost one third of the total trade deficit of US$765.3 billion.

In April, the U.S. Department of Commerce filed a WTO piracy complaint against China. Subsequently, China has agreed to talks and has issued some internal guidelines to address the issue. Wu said that both sides should “firmly oppose trade protectionism.” She said that any effort to “politicize” the economic relationship between the two nations would be “absolutely unacceptable.”

“The Chinese government will agree to U.S. demands” on piracy, predicted Albert Louie, in April, about the upcoming talks. Louie is the managing partner of A. Louie Associates, an anti-piracy company in based in China. “There is no question the government wants to crack down on counterfeiters. What remains in question is the consistency of enforcement,” he added.

The U.S. delegation also highlighted food safety as a concern with imports from China. The example of melamine-tainted pet food ingredients imported from China recently was used as an example of weak health and environmental controls in China. U.S. trade delegate Susan Schwab said the issue of food safety was raised by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. “This is not necessarily reflective of more protectionism or anti-Chinese sentiment, but rather that there are concerns there and we need to be responsive,” said Schwab.

It is hoped that breakthroughs will be reached on issues such as U.S. complaints of high Chinese import duties on U.S. energy technology products and the restriction on U.S. airline flights to China.

In the US Congress, a number of potential bills that would impose trade restrictions on China, are being pursued. Recently, a trade panel voted to impose a 44.3 percent tariff on polyester imports. Meanwhile, the Bush administration increased duties on certain types of glossy paper from China. A bill imposing 27 percent tariff on all Chinese goods has been proposed in Congress but hasn’t yet passed.

“The frustration that I and many of my colleagues in the Senate feel is that China is not satisfying its obligations as a member of the WTO and as a major beneficiary of open trade,” wrote Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in a letter sent to Wu in advance of the summit.