Saturday, September 29, 2007

After the launch of “Halo 3” on Tuesday (September 25), Microsoft promoted a brand new Xbox360 racing game “Project Gotham Racing 4” (PGR4) with a friendship match as a “TOP on TOP” competition between Taiwanese World Cyber Games (WCG) PGR3 Delegate You-cheng Liu and “Drift Master of Taiwan” Po-hsiung Chou at YAMAHA MotorTown in Taipei City, Taiwan.

Before the friendship match, Cary Chen (Senior Product Marketing Manager of Entertainment and Device Division, Microsoft Taiwan) show the new features on PGR4 to the press, VIPs, and guests and praised the “PGR” game series with the “Kudos” skill points. He remarked that in the “PGR4”, not only joined new car type and racing motorcycles, but also add Dynamic Weather System feature for the performance of new different type experiences on weathers, driving, and racing lane.

Chen also remarked that PGR series is surely respected because of the racing game competition factor on WCG from 2006. This “PGR” series can realize lots of dreams of players on making some special skills which can’t be done on reality. With the Xbox Live linking, PGR series has successfully made a great achievement.

After the presentation and demos, Microsoft Taiwan held a friendship match. Before the match, Y. C. Liu welcomed P. H. Chou with Chou drove a BMW car to the main entrance. After the entrance, the match started. With the witnesses of VIPs, press, and players, Liu won the friendship match by the turning fault of Chou. Even though Chou wanted to invite Live as a racer in reality after the match, but Liu temporarily declined with his consideration.

Microsoft Taiwan announced that the Chinese Version of “PGR4” will be available on October 5, and welcomed players competing with “I want ‘PGR4’ Helmet!” photo competition. And also, “Yamaha PGR4 Cup – Taiwan Driving Master Championship” will be held and set qualification section in October and final section in December of Information Month in Taipei.

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Officials said on Thursday, after analyzing data from the Germanwings Flight 9525 cockpit voice recorder, that the airbus crashed into the French Alps because its co-pilot deliberately crashed it.

On the cockpit voice recorder, the captain can be heard trying to get back into the cockpit. Transponder data indicates the autopilot was told to descend form 38,000 feet to 100 feet. The last part of the recording contains screaming during the sudden decent.

Investigators are still searching for the plane’s flight data recorder.

The co-pilot started training in 2008, and was diagnosed in 2009 with serious depression according to BBC News. Later he completed his training and passed all his tests to pilot, according to Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr.

In light of this incident, several airlines announced a ban on leaving any one person alone in the cockpit.

The flight path and altitude chart can be seen in the images below.

Monday, February 28, 2005

[[w:Bucharest, Romania|Bucharest, Romania]] — The Romanian Finance Minister Ionu? Popescu has responded to public fears of a rise in value added tax (VAT) by saying that Romania’s VAT will remain at 19% and will not increase. He rejected rumours that the value added tax, which is applied to most goods and services, will increase due to negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and a need to boost government revenue.

After introducing a low flat tax rate of 16% on January 1, 2005, which applies to both personal income and corporate profits, the government has had to fund the tax cuts through alternative means, including increases in other types of taxation, to avoid running a high budget deficit. For example, from April 1, the government will increase excises as well as a range of other taxes. Despite the increase, Romania continues to have one of the lowest fiscal burdens in Europe due to the new 16% flat tax rate.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

The World Health Organization (WHO), non-governmental aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have sent experts to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to assist local health authorities with a recent outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Kasai Occidental province of DRC. The illness had been unidentified until laboratory test results confirmed the presence of the virus.

DRC President Joseph Kabila described the situation as being contained. “The village of Kampungu has been quarantined to prevent population movement towards Kananga,” Kabila said on Thursday. Kananga is the provincial capital. “The situation is at the moment, I cannot say under control, but at least the problem has been contained very well in the area,” he continued. “There is no risk that the whole country will be affected.”

WHO is working closely with officials from the DRC Ministry of Health and MSF to improve local facilities in order to better contain the virus. A mobile field laboratory is to be established in order to provide rapid sample analysis and, subsequently, diagnosis of patients. There are concurrent outbreaks of other diseases, such as dysentery (Shigellosis), that have been complicating diagnoses and need to be identified as well.

Ebola haemorrhagic fever generates mortality rates in the range of 50 to 90 percent, typically. There is currently no vaccine or effective treatment for Ebola. WHO describes the symptoms of Ebola as being “characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is often followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings show low counts of white blood cells and platelets as well as elevated liver enzymes.”

MSF, who now have 14 experts in DRC, arranged for eighteen tons of supplies, such as medical and sanitation material, to be delivered to the province of West Kasai. MSF indicated that the transportation of supplies from the airport to the affected areas has been a challenge, due to poor road conditions. It has taken up to three days to travel the 250 km to the outbreak area from the provincial capital city, Kananga.

MSF experts will provide advice on sanitary burial procedures, which would include the use of body bags and spraying. Both the WHO and MSF will disseminate information to the local population regarding the transmission of the virus and measures that could be taken to reduce the spread of the disease.

The MSF emergency team coordinator in Kampungu, Rosa Crestani, described the isolation ward set up at Kampungu’s health centre. “Our isolation centre is basically divided in three parts. One is completely isolated, where the sick patients are; another is where the staff dresses with the complete protection uniform and then undresses after having been in contact with the patients; and the third part is a space for disinfection in between,” said Crestani. “In the coming days, we will decide with the Ministry of Health and the WHO whether we set up isolation structures in other locations of the health zone.”

Neighbouring countries, such as Rwanda and Zambia have issued alerts to their citizens, warning of travel to and from DRC. Zambian Health Minister Brian Chituwo stated that all people coming into Zambia from DRC will be watched for symptoms of Ebola for up to eight hours. Chituwo noted, however that it would be unlikely for an infected person to travel into the country, as the time between onset and death is very rapid and that the symptoms are severe.

There has been a minimum of 395 people affected by haemorrhagic fever, including 160 deaths, in DRC in the past few months. Since arriving in Kampungu in early September, MSF have seen 25 patients admitted with suspected Ebola haemorrhagic fever, of which eight have died.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

An elderly Brooklyn, New York woman was found dead yesterday after a fire triggered by a voodoo ceremony caused a blaze in an apartment that left dozens homeless. The details of the ceremony were not clear, but sources say it led to sex.

An unidentified woman hired a Voodoo priest for $300, identified as Nelson (Pepe) Pierre, to perform a mystic ceremony meant to bring her good luck. The woman went to Pierre’s apartment, where she ended up in bed surrounded by lit candles which were mistakenly knocked over, setting the bedsheets on fire. In an effort to suppress the flames, Pierre splashed water from the bathroom sink on the sheets while his roommate, who was ironing at the time, opened a window for air. However, according to the New York Fire Department, wind gusting through the open window created a “blowtorch effect” which caused the fire to spread to the 4th floor hallway and into the 5th and 6th floors. The blaze killed one woman, three others were severely injured, and at least 20 firefighters were left with burn wounds.

In an NYFD statement, Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano said, “Time and time again we respond to tragedies that could have been so easily prevented. This fire had so many of those elements … hopefully others will learn from this tragedy.” It took hours for hundreds of firemen from dozens of companies to bring the raging fire under control.

Pierre, a man in his 60s, did not call 911 right away, but attempted to quell the fire using water from the bathroom sink. A source in law enforcement said, “Nobody sees a crime right now. It was an accident. Maybe they weren’t careful, but they did try to put it out.”

Mary Feagin, a 64-year old retired teacher, died in the blaze.

The New York Police Department is currently investigating the incident.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Gidget, the chihuahua featured in the Taco Bell adverts in the United States has died from a stroke. The dog died at the age of 15 on Tuesday night. Sue Chipperton, the owner and trainer of Gidget commented saying, “She made so many people happy.” She passed at Chipperton’s home in Santa Clarita, California.

The dog was featured in the 1990s adverts that ran from 1997 to 2000. Gidget was portrayed as a male dog and is remembered for the dubbed saying “Yo quiero Taco Bell” which is Spanish for “I want Taco Bell.” The advert was meant to be shown only once but was turned into a campaign.

Gidget was also featured in Legally Blonde 2 and adverts for the board game Trivial Pursuit.