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Thursday, August 12, 2010

A new study suggests that plants can adapt to changing climatic conditions more efficiently than previously thought, making the onset of climate change less of a concern for plant species around the world. Jodrell Laboratory in the London Botanical Gardens has discovered that plants can alter specific components of their genetic make-up to suit rising temperatures and varying levels of rainfall that would otherwise take hundred of years to develop through natural selection, via a process known as epigenetics.

This newly discovered ability suggests that mass plant extinction brought on by climate change may not happen to the extent that scientists previously predicted. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claimed in 2007 that “20 to 30 per cent of species assessed so far are likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average warming exceed 1.5C to 2.5C”, a statement that now needs re-evaluating.

The study focused on three species of common spotted orchid that grow in varying environments. These plants had nearly identical genetic heritage, but thrived under very different conditions. Mark Chase of Jodrell Laboratory claims that “[their] results are particularly relevant in the present context of widespread environmental challenges and give us more hope in the adaptive potential of organisms […] it is not instantaneous, but it is much faster than we thought previously”.

It is still unclear whether plants would adapt in the same way under “extreme” climate change.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald today interviewed Petros Tzomakas, a Greek far-left activist and member of Xekinima, which is the Greek division of the Committee for a Workers’ International. The party is a member of Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA).

Tzomakas also sits on his local 5th Athens Municipal District committee, which is a joint effort by left-wing parties including SYRIZA, the Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow and a number of other political parties to oppose austerity measures proposed by the government. All left-wing parties in the country except the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) are involved. Tzomakas explained that the KKE prefers not to co-operate with other radical left-wing groups.

The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund – should Greece require a bailout; protests have been held against government attempts to manage the economic situation.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Drivers in the Russian capital, Moscow, were given an unexpected show courtesy of a 30-by-20 foot electronic highway billboard when an explicit pornographic video was played for nearly twenty minutes in place of the paid advertisement clips that are usually shown. The incident happened near the entrance into Serpukovskiy tunnel on Sadovoe Ring Road, about 2 kilometers south of the Kremlin.

“Within three minutes we found it out, and within fifteen minutes the screen was shut off,” the deputy head of the Moscow city advertising committee, Alexander Menchuk, said in a statement to Interfax. A passerby told the Associated Press that she was “so shocked that I couldn’t even shoot video or take a picture of it.”

The display screen’s owner, the Three Stars Advertising Agency of Panno.ru, said that computer hackers attempting to execute a practical joke were likely to blame. Viktor Laptev, commercial director for the firm said, “They were either acting out of hooliganism or were from a rival company.”

Although a city official has been quoted as telling local media that Moscow would increase security of data transmission in light of what happened, local police say they have yet to receive a single complaint about the incident, and thereby have not opened an investigation. Nudity on television is officially banned in Russia.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Two pieces of suspected plane debris found washed ashore islands in the Maldives have been taken back to Malaysia for further analysis, Malaysia announced on Sunday. The pieces were found last Friday. Investigators are trying to determine if they’re connected to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370).

“The first thing we have to do is to determine if it is actually of plane material”, said Liow Tiong Lai, Malaysia’s transport minister, during a press conference on Sunday. “The objects have been brought back and the investigation team will determine soon if they are debris of the MH370 plane […] Our team here will confirm if they belong to a plane and if a confirmation is made, the pieces will be sent to the international investigation team to determine if they are from MH370,” he added.

The surface of one of the pieces is flat while the other is constructed of “honeycomb material.” During the press conference, Liow described one the pieces as being “very small, about the size of your hand”.

The debris was reportedly found while authorities were searching Maldives islands for other possible debris. Pieces of debris that resemble a honeycomb material were found on a beach owned by the Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru resort, located in the Maldives island chain Kaafu Atoll. Those pieces are reported to have washed ashore onto the resort island around May 31. The investigation into the Maldives debris began as a result of photos of it being uploaded to the social networking website Facebook. The photos show at least two pieces of debris, both appear to be flat, but at least one is made of a honeycomb material. Initially the debris was disposed of as trash and was reportedly sent to the garbage island Thilafushi, where trash is sorted, exported for recycling, or burned. Reports say at the time the debris was collected, no one suspected it could be from MH370.

Investigators examined several other pieces of debris that washed ashore onto other Maldives locations, the Baa Atoll and the islands of Fehendhoo and Fulhahdhoo, and found none of it was related to an aircraft. “My team has witnessed the debris and most of them are negative. They are not related to MH370 and not even plane material,” said Liow on Friday. Around August 10, Abdulla Rasheed, a captain of a cargo boat which recently capsized in the waters off the Maldives, stated of debris then recently discovered, “From the pictures of the debris found on most of the islands, I can almost certainly say that they are from the cargo we were carrying.” In late July, a piece of a wing known as a flaperon was found washed ashore on Réunion Island. The Malaysian government stated it’s from MH370, but according to Chinese officials, the piece has yet to be confirmed to be from the aircraft.

MH370, while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China, vanished without a trace on March 8, 2014. All 239 passengers and crew are believed to be dead. On the day the plane went missing, residents on the small Maldive island of Kudahuvadhoo claimed to have seen a very “low flying jumbo jet” crash into the Indian Ocean. Some also noted the colors appeared to resemble that of a Malaysia Airlines plane. “I’ve never seen a jet flying so low over our island before. We’ve seen seaplanes, but I’m sure that this was not one of those. I could even make out the doors on the plane clearly”, one resident was quoted as saying to the newspaper Haveeru Daily. Some claim the plane appeared to he headed in the direction of Diego Garcia, but Malaysian authorities have discounted those claims.

“Based on the monitoring up to date, no indication of Flight MH370 has been observed on any military radars in the country [Maldives]. Furthermore, the data of radars at Maldives airports have also been analysed and shows no indication of the said flight,” said Malaysia’s transport ministry at the time of the report.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The Saskatoon Health Region in Saskatchewan, Canada recently discovered a fax machine problem which had not relayed almost 1,500 X-rays, Computed tomography (CT) and Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, ultrasounds, and other medical imaging test results to doctors.

The fax machine is part of the automated Radiology Information System. An audit revealed that medical diagnostic tests involving results dating back a decade have been affected by the broken fax machine.

On May 6, a doctor called the health region officials seeking follow up on a patient’s report. Staff who delved into it, found that the report was not sent from the system.

Now, two weeks later, this same patient has still not been contacted by the health region.

“It has taken some time to work with the patient’s physician. That was important — to get more information and more detail because we want that patient’s physician to be involved in the discussion with the patient,” Dr. David Poulin, vice-president of medical affairs for The Saskatoon Health Region, said. “This is a system error and that’s just what it was — an error. This doesn’t reflect in any way on the quality of work regional staff have done and continue to do.”

An internal review revealed that, of 2.2 million diagnostic tests performed, at least 1,380 had not been sent out by the malfunctioning fax machine.

The health region will embark on contacting each of the 1,380 patients and their physicians to make sure that the results have been received and if any health care was compromised.

Patients can also contact the health region via a newly set up hotline to make enquiries.

“We think it would actually be good practice if physician offices could have a system to check whether they have received important reports,” said Poulin, “The common practice appears to be in many doctors’ offices, particularly family physician offices, that they don’t respond to the report until it arrives. So, they basically are waiting for the report to arrive in their office by fax and it’s at that point that they look at it and decide what action to take.”

City Hospital, St. Paul’s Hospital and Royal University Hospital were the three city hospitals affected. Saskatoon has a population of roughly 233,923, and the hospitals also serve the surrounding rural areas.

Ironically the faulty fax machine was discovered the same week that provincial medical officials began to review approximately 70,000 radiology tests conducted in Yorkton. Officials there doubt the competence of the physician who first interpreted the radiology results.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

According to scientists, the land territory of Russia has expanded by about 4.5 square kilometres within the last few years in the Far East due to seismic and volcanic activity.

The gained land was recorded in the Sakhalin Peninsula. Boris Levin, head of the Institute for Sea Geology and Geophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the increase happened primarily due to two seismic events.

The first, in August of 2007, was when a heavy 6.8 earthquake near the city of Nevelsk in the Far East raised about three square kilometres of seabed above the level of the water. The second was in June of this year, when the Sarychev Peak volcano on the Matua Island erupted. GPS trackers on the Matua island were used to monitor the eruption, and the volcano changed its shape, adding 1.5 square kilometres of land, scientists said.

Geologists also reported that the Kuril Islands nearby were slowly moving towards mainland Russia at an estimated rate of eighteen milimetres per year.

Friday, April 23, 2010

The vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, said yesterday that he expects the United Nations to implement new sanctions against Iran by early next month.

Biden said that “I believe you will see a sanction regime coming out by the end of this month, beginning of next month”, adding that said that China, which had previously been opposed to sanctions against Iran, would take part in the latest round. UN diplomats are presently engaged in the process of developing the new sanctions, which will be the fourth resolution against Iran’s nuclear program.

According to Biden, the latest sanctions would mark the first time the world was unified in its opposition to Iran’s nuclear program. He noted that “[t]veryone from the Israeli prime minister straight through to the British prime minister to the president of Russia, everyone agrees the next step we should take is the UN sanction route.” The Obama administration, leading the effort for further sanctions against Iran, is confident China will be in support of such actions, despite being a close trading partner with Iran.

Biden also said that Israel has pledged not to take military action against Iran in the near future, and would instead wait to see what effect sanctions have on Iran. He commented: “They’re [Israel] not going to do that.” Iran and Israel have long been at odds, and Israel has not ruled out launching a preemptive strike against Iran before it develops nuclear weapons. Numerous Western countries have claimed that developing nuclear weapons is the ultimate goal of Iran’s nuclear program, although Tehran claims that the program is for civilian purposes only.