Archives 2018

Sunday, April 16, 2017

In order to put the cannabis drug (marijuana) out of reach of minors, the Canadian federal government announced a bill to legalise cannabis for the age group of eighteen and above, on Thursday. The bill would allow adults to possess cannabis publicly, previously a criminal offence.

Canada’s health minister Jane Philpott tweeted, “Today we tabled new legislation to legalise, strictly regulate, and restrict access to cannabis. Our goal: keep it out of the hands of youth, and profits out of the hands of criminals.”^{((fr))French language: Ajd nous avons déposé un nouveau projet de loi pour légaliser le cannabis, le réglementer de manière stricte et en restreindre l’accès. Notre objectif: garder le cannabis hors de la portée des jeunes, & les profits hors des mains des criminels.} The Canadian government, via their official website, explained cannabis is available illegally, and their measures to stop it did not work. Criminal organisations are making money selling cannabis. Under-aged people can obtain the drug easily; they said, “it is easier for our kids to buy cannabis than cigarettes.”

The bill allows provinces and territories to set the age limit above eighteen. In order to prevent criminal gangs from making a profit, selling the drug needs a license permitting its sale. Adults can purchase the drug online from a licensed producer if a retail shop is not available in the province.

Adults can carry up to 30 g (slightly over an ounce) of cannabis and grow at most four cannabis plants at home, for personal use. The plants should be no taller than a metre, the bill proposed. Selling cannabis to minors would be a specific criminal offence.

The legislation requires parliamentary approval and royal assent. If passed, the bill would be under effect by July 2018, the government said. Health and safety experts and law enforcement were consulted before proposing the legislation. Except for medical purposes, possession of the drug remains illegal until the bill is passed. Regardless of the status of the bill, import and export of the drug would be illegal.

Previously when the government increased the taxes on cigarettes to discourage citizens from smoking, a black market for cigarettes developed.

Along with legalising cannabis, the bill would also permit the police officials to use tools like oral fluid drug screeners to detect if drivers are under the influence of the drug. Zero tolerance against drivers under influence of drugs is proposed. The government would also implement a public awareness campaign on the perils of driving under the influence of drugs.

The government still working on the restrictions. Lawmaker and former police chief Bill Blair said, “We do accept that more important work remains to be done.” If the bill is passed, Canada would be the second country to legalise cannabis completely. Uruguay is the first. Some countries, such as Germany, allow medical use of cannabis, but recreational use is prohibited.

A compilation of brief news reports for Saturday, August 8, 2009.

Sunday, May 13, 2018

How much gold is left in the world is the topic of discussion. In Bulgaria archolgists in 2016 worked at a dig site they found a gold bead 8th of an inch in diameter may be in the oldest piece of gold jewelery in the world dating back to 4600 B.C.

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Monday, September 20, 2010

One of London’s most well known murals could be restored after years of neglect if plans by a group of community activists gain public support. The Fitzrovia Mural at Whitfield Gardens on London’s Tottenham Court Road was created by two mural artists and commissioned by Camden Council in 1980, but the mural has since decayed and been vandalised.

Plans will be presented at a public meeting this Tuesday, to include details of the restoration and promote local public space in contrast to potential commercial developments and the focus of the London 2012 Olympics. If enough funds are raised from charitable trusts and public donations the mural could be restored during the summer of 2011.

Plans to be put forward by the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood Association, and the London Mural Preservation Society, will present ways to fund not only the restoration work but also projects to raise awareness of conservation, heritage, and the residential and working community. The heritage and mural project hopes to involve many local people who could learn new conservation skills. Also planned are workshops with local children to involve them in their heritage, an exhibition by local artists, guided tours and a celebratory event at the end of the restoration project. In addition to this, a booklet would be produced containing collected oral histories of the people involved and a preservation trust to protect the mural in future years.

The playful painting was created on a Camden Council-owned building in 1980 by artists Mick Jones, (son of the late Jack Jones, trade union leader) and Simon Barber and is a mash up of scenes depicting problems faced by the neighbourhood over the preceding decade.

There is also a caricature of poet Dylan Thomas, who lived in Fitzrovia, and a mocking portrayal of then leader of the Greater London Council, Conservative politician Horace Cutler, who is pictured as a bat-like creature. Other characters include an anonymous greedy developer and a property speculator counting piles of cash.

Peter Whyatt of the neighbourhood association is jointly leading the project to restore the mural. Yesterday he told Wikinews he had a number of concerns about the possible success of the project.

“There are a great number of problems with getting this project off the ground and we also need to act pretty quickly for a number of reasons,” said Mr Whyatt.

“Firstly the mural is in a terrible state and deteriorating quickly. There is more graffiti being daubed on the site every month because one bit of graffiti attracts another bit. We really need to start the work in the next 12 months because going through another winter with the condition of the wall will causes more problems and inevitably more expense. We want to keep as much original artwork on the site as possible to keep the costs down. This is a big mural and it will be expensive to restore,” he continued.

“And that brings me to my second concern: cost. If we don’t get other community organisations on board to bid for money for this with us and to involve their beneficiaries and volunteers, it will be very difficult to secure the money needed. Money is very tight at the moment because to the current financial climate. We need to get support at this meeting on Tuesday and some firm commitments from people and organisations to get involved.

“Lastly there is a danger of a commercial development on the site. A public-private partnership to create a new art feature. Because of the existing mural’s subject matter – it mocks property speculators, and land developers, etc – a commercial scheme probably backed by a property developer would not want to restore the mural’s original message. They’d want some “good news” scheme, some greenwash idea that paints them in a positive light.

“However, despite these problems, Camden Council have offered to do a condition survey on the mural. This will save us a lot of money. But having said that there are five council departments to deal with to get permission for this restoration work, and they don’t always talk to each other.

“But if the public and local voluntary organisations show their support, we can make it happen,” Mr Whyatt concluded.

The mural restoration will be just one part of a year long project of heritage and conservation awareness-raising. “The project is not just about the mural but also wider plans to promote awareness of heritage and conservation in an area of London under threat from commercial development. In fact the bulk of the project is about the heritage and conservation and the mural is just one part of it, and the most visible because of its situation,” Mr Whyatt later added.

There will be a public meeting about the heritage and mural project at 7.30 pm tomorrow (Tuesday), at the Neighbourhood Centre, 39 Tottenham Street. The public can also comment about the proposals on the Fitzrovia Heritage and Mural website.

Friday, January 12, 2007

The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused.

The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was resented on Wednesday for the first time) – Apple Inc. – and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose – Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions.

This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device.

Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996.

The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from Apple, but they should not use a trademark, which belongs to Cisco.

The iPhone developed by Cisco is a device which allows users to make phone calls over the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP).

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Coretta Scott King, wife of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. has died at the age of 78. Coretta King, tireless crusader for civil rights, died in her sleep.

Mrs. King, who had been diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, died late on Monday in Mexico, where she had been seeking treatment, a spokeswoman for the family told Reuters.

“Mrs. King was in Mexico for observation and consideration of treatment for ovarian cancer,” the spokeswoman said. “She was considered terminal by physicians in the United States. She and the family wanted to explore other options.” King died at Hospital Santa Monica, a holistic health center in Mexico.

News of her death led to tributes across Atlanta, including a moment of silence in the Georgia Capitol and piles of flowers at the tomb of her slain husband. Flags at the King Center – the institute devoted to the civil rights leader’s legacy – were lowered to half-staff.

Dubbed the “first lady of the civil rights movement,” Mrs King suffered a debilitating stroke and heart attack in August. She was last seen on January 14 at a dinner marking the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, where she received a standing ovation.

As she recalled in her autobiography My Life With Martin Luther King Jr., Mrs. King felt she had to step fully into the civil rights movement after her husband’s assassination.

After graduating from Antioch College in Ohio in 1951, she enrolled in the graduate program at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music. It was there she met her future husband, a young preacher and doctoral student at Boston University. They were married in 1953.

Mrs. King had an influence on the civil rights movement for over half a century. She pushed and goaded politicians to have her husband’s birthday observed as a national holiday. Following her husband’s assassination in 1968, she fought to bring national recognition to King Jr. For over a decade, she lobbied to make King’s birthday a federal holiday, and in 1983 the bill was signed into law. Three years later, the USA observed the first King holiday.

She created a memorial and a forum in the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta. The center has archives containing more than 2,000 King speeches.

Coretta Scott was born April 27, 1927, near Marion, Alabama. “It was awful,” she said of living in Marion. “Every Saturday we would hear about some black man getting beat up and nothing was done about it.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who in 1968 broke the news of King’s death to Coretta, described her as a “freedom fighter”. “She walked with her husband during the ordeal of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Their home was bombed, she endured the hate and violent anger toward their family. And she had to endure the constant knowledge that each time he left their home, he might never return,” said Jackson. “She was the part of him that made him complete.”

In 1969 she founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta and used it to confront hunger, unemployment, voting rights and racism. “The centre enables us to go out and struggle against the evils in our society,” she often said.

She also accused movie and TV companies, video arcades, gun manufacturers and toy makers of promoting violence. Coretta King has became a symbol in her own right of her husband’s struggle for peace and brotherhood.

In his State of the Union Address, US President George W Bush remembered Mrs King, saying her “lasting contributions to freedom and equality have made America a better and more compassionate nation.”

Mrs. King is survived by her four children, Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice. The family issued a statement thanking the public for an outpouring of support.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

A report published by public-health journal The Lancet suggests living a sedentary lifestyle is now as-fatal for individuals as smoking. Compiled by 33 research workers, the report speaks of a “pandemic” in which an estimated one-in-three adults worldwide are inactive, leading to approximately 5.3 million fatalities from this.

Research for The Lancet established people in higher-income countries are more inactive than those where lower incomes prevail. The study indicated nearly two-in-three adults in the United Kingdom are not active enough. “Roughly three of every 10 individuals aged 15 years or older — about 1.5 billion people — do not reach present physical activity recommendations,” states the report, publicised in the approach to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Pedro Hallal, a lead researcher for the study, explained: “With the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games, sport and physical activity will attract tremendous worldwide attention. Although the world will be watching elite athletes from many countries compete in sporting events […] most spectators will be quite inactive. The global challenge is clear – make physical activity a public health priority throughout the world to improve health and reduce the burden of disease.” Faculty of Public Health president Professor Lindsey Davies spoke of a similar theory: “We need to do all we can to make it easy for people to look after their health and get active as part of their daily lives […] Our environment has a significant part to play. For example, people who feel unsafe in their local park will be less likely to use it.” According to BBC Health, exercising can assist in strengthening one’s bones, as well as assisting with issues such as insomnia and depression.

However, BBC News Online reported the comparison of a sedentary lifestyle with smoking has been called into question, as smoking is more likely to cause death. At-issue is comparing the number of smokers with the significantly lower number of individuals living sedentary lifestyles. Dr. Claire Knight from Cancer Research UK asserts: “When it comes to preventing cancer, stopping smoking is by far the most important thing you can do.”