Wednesday, February 2, 2011

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The BBC have announced they are to axe annual music festival Electric Proms from their schedule for financial reasons. The festival first took place in October 2006. The 2011 event will not go ahead, with last year’s festival being the last.

Bob Shennan, controller of BBC Radio 2, said he was “disappointed” with the decision to cancel the festival. He said “In the current climate, we are faced with making difficult decisions, including how best to deliver high-quality live music programming throughout the year in light of continuing efficiency savings. I feel that Radio 2 can achieve the same impact of the Electric Proms in an alternative, more cost-effective way. I’m disappointed that the lifetime of Electric Proms has come to an end, but very proud of its fantastically rewarding run of creating new moments in music for the past five years.”

During the festival’s five year run it has featured performances from stars such as Elton John, Neil Diamond, and Shirley Bassey.

The decision to axe the festival comes at a time when the BBC are planning a 20% savings cut. Last week BBC director general Mark Thompson announced 650 job losses after dropping five languages from the BBC World Service.

Monday, March 25, 2019

From March 15 to 17, the Canadian city of Toronto played host to the tenth Furnal Equinox, an annual event dedicated to the “furry fandom.” Wikinews attended. Programming ranged from music to gender, science to art, covering dozens of aspects of the varied subculture. The event’s featured guests were visual artists Moth Monarch and Cat-Monk Shiro, as well as the co-owners of US fursuit costume builders Don’t Hug Cacti.

The event raised nearly CDN$11,000 for Pet Patrol, a non-profit rescue organization in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, run by volunteers. This exceeded their goal of $10,000, the funds needed to finish a rural sanctuary. The furry community is well-known for their charitable efforts. Along with direct donations, the funds were raised through a charity auction offering original artwork, and a fursuit design by guests of honour “Don’t Hug Cacti.” Last year, Furnal Equinox raised funds for a farm animal sanctuary.

While only 10–15% of people within the fandom own a fursuit according to a 2011 study, event organizers reported this year 908 of the 2240 attendees at Furnal Equinox brought at least one elaborate outfit to the event. The outfits are usually based on original characters, known as “fursonas”.

Guests of Honour Cherie and Sean O’Donnell, known within the community as “Lucky and Skuff Coyote”, held a session on fursuit construction on Saturday afternoon. The married couple are among the most prominent builders in the fandom, under the name Don’t Hug Cacti. The scale of their business was evident, as Sean had made over a thousand pairs of “handpaws”, costume gloves.

The couple encouraged attendees to continue developing their technique, sharing that all professional fursuit makers had developed different techniques. They felt that they learned more from failed projects than successful ones, citing the Chuck Jones quote that “every artist has thousands of bad drawings,” and that you have to work through them to achieve. Cherie, known as Lucky, recalled receiving a Sylvester the Cat plush toy from a Six Flags theme park at age 10. She promptly hollowed the toy out, turning it into a costume. Creating a costume isn’t without its hazards: the company uses 450°F (232°C) glue guns. They’re “like sticking your hand in an oven.”

Other programming included improv comedy, dances, life drawing of fursuiters, a review of scientific research by a research group at four universities called FurScience, a pin collector’s social, and workshops in writing.

The “Dealer’s Den” hall was expanded this year, with even more retailers and artists. While many offered “furry” versions of traditional products, at least one business focused on “pushing the boundaries of fursuit technology.” Along with 3D printing a bone-shaped name tag when Wikinews visited, Grivik was demonstrating miniature computer screens that could be used as “eyes” for a fursuit. The electronic displays projected an animation of eyes looking around, blinking occasionally. The maker has also developed “a way to install a camera inside suit heads, to improve fursuiter visibility.” He hopes the tech would reduce suiting risks and accidents. Without the need for eyeholes, fursuit makers would have “more options for building different eyestyles.”

• Image: Nicholas Moreau.

Monday, January 6, 2014

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Wikinews interviewed Opera, a Norwegian software company, about its contributions to open-source, such as software. Questions discussed current workflow, dynamics of contributions, and background.

((Wikinews)) What caused your initial interest in open-source software?

Bruce Lawson: Opera has long been involved in open source software — we’ve often used open-source software, enhanced it and committed it back before including it in products. Opera began the specification that’s now called HTML5, bringing rich internet capabilities that were previously only available in proprietary plugins such as Flash and Silverlight into the open standard that is HTML.

Most recently, we’ve moved to using the open-source Blink rendering engine and have established a team dedicated to enhancing Blink and Chromium so that it’s better for everyone.

((WN)) What is your current workflow regarding open-source contributions?

Bruce Lawson: Branch, commit, rinse and repeat.

((WN)) What would you say had changed during your contributions to open-source projects throughout the years?

Bruce Lawson: The power and popularity of Github.

((WN)) How would you describe the role of open-source software today?

Bruce Lawson: Open source or closed source are equally valid; the vital glue is open standards for data interchange so that a user isn’t locked into one vendor.

((WN)) What effort do you put into localisation of your products? both open and not?

Bruce Lawson: Opera is available in 54 different languages. So, a lot of effort!

((WN)) Do you hire people for work remotely? How would you describe the dynamics of such trend over the years?

Bruce Lawson: No; we have offices in Norway, Poland, and Sweden but find it works best with everyone being physically close.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

In a dominating performance, Big Brown triumphed in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. Jockey Kent Desormeaux gave Big Brown a stalking ride, even as he was 4-wide along the backstretch. Once they reached the top of the stretch, Big Brown grabbed the lead and won going away, 4 3/4 lengths away from filly Eight Belles. Desormeaux wins his third Kentucky Derby, while trainer Richard Dutrow savored his victory after having bragged about how well his horse is for the Derby.

Shortly after the race finished, Eight Belles collapsed on the backstretch, shattering her two front ankles. She was euthanized minutes later. Veterinarian Larry Bramlage conceded that “there was no possible way Eight Belles could be saved… that’s an injury that’s very painful.” The moment was bittersweet for trainer Larry Jones, who sent Eight Belle’s stablemate Proud Spell to victory in the Kentucky Oaks.

Sent off 2-1 as the post-time favorite, Big Brown paid $6.80 to win. The $2 exacta (20-5) paid $141.60. The $1 trifecta (20-5-16) paid a healthy $1,722.80 with 13-1 shot Denis of Cork, and the $1 superfecta (20-5-16-2) paid a very respectable $29,368.90 with 37-1 shot Tale of Ekati.

Big Brown is being pointed to run in the Preakness Stakes on May 17. However, few horses from this year’s Kentucky Derby are looking to follow, opting instead to run in the Belmont Stakes on June 7.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Irish budget airline Ryanair have added newspaper publishers Associated Newspapers and Mirror Group to their legal targets in a High Court defamation action filed yesterday in Dublin that also targets Channel 4.

The move confirms the carrier’s expression of intent to sue Channel 4 after the UK broadcaster screened Secrets of the Cockpit, a documentary about safety at the airline, on Monday night. Part of the Dispatches series, the show reported on an incident in Spain last year where three Ryanair jets declared fuel emergencies after being diverted to Valencia. Fuel policy was a strong focus for the documentary.

Pilots interviewed for the programme said they felt pressured to save fuel, the cost of which has hit Ryanair’s profits. The Spanish Air Authority described Ryanair flights usually landing with a bare minimum of fuel, in a report the airline dismissed as “manifestly inaccurate and factually untrue”.

Ryanair have also sacked veteran pilot John Goss for appearing on the show, the only pilot interviewed who did not seek anonymity. Ryanair have stated intent to sue Goss and claim he confirmed in the weeks before the show that he had no issues with his employer’s safety. Goss is a member of Ryanair Pilots Group (RPG), which the airline call a union front.

Channel 4 previously promised when threatened with legal action to see Ryanair in court. “We stand by our journalism, and will robustly defend proceedings if they are initiated,” a spokesperson said. The Belfast Telegraph was also sued but the action has been dropped after the Northern Irish publication issued an apology. The paper had published a story titled “Are budget airlines like Ryanair putting passengers at risk?”.

Associated Newspapers are behind The Daily Mail and its online and Sunday variants. Mirror Group publish The Daily Mirror, its Sunday sister, and The People.

Secrets of the Cockpit also examined an RPG poll of 1,000 Ryanair flight crew, dismissed by the airline as part of unionisation efforts. According to the RPG survey almost 90% of respondents said the safety culture was nontransparent. Two-thirds said they felt uncomfortable raising safety issues, with a pilot interviewed by Channel 4 accusing Ryanair of “threats and bullying”. Ryanair had told pilots anybody signing a “so-called safety petition” might be dismissed.

Over 90% of those surveyed wanted a regulatory inquiry, with RPG saying the survey results were passed to the airline and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA). The IAA has already called the programme a “misguided attack” on Ryanair, saying “Ryanair Plc fully complies with all European and international regulations in all areas of its operations”.

The IAA itself was accused of failing to respond to concerns from Ryanair pilots and one interviewee said his “personal belief is that the majority of Ryanair pilots do not have confidence in the safety agencies and that is a pretty critical issue”. The authority responded “The IAA has responded to personal letters and reports from Ryanair pilots, this included several meetings and face-to-face interviews with pilots and their legal and professional representatives.”

Ryanair makes heavy use of zero-hour contracts, which do not guarantee work and which the Irish Airline Pilots’ Association describe as offering some of aviation’s worst employment conditions. RPG chairman Evert van Zwol, also a recent Dutch Airline Pilots Association president, said zero-hour contracts tended to make pilots choose to fly when unwell and keep quiet if they had safety concerns. In 2005 a Polish Ryanair pilot became lost near Rome a few days after attending his son’s funeral, while his Dutch co-pilot was seeing his first experience of navigating severe weather.

In the 2005 incident air traffic control intervened to keep the flight safe from midair collisions. The Polish pilot told Italian investigators he feared losing his job if he took extra time off work. The investigation concluded in 2009 he had been unfit to fly. Ryanair denied he would have been fired for taking time off to recover.

Secrets of the Cockpit also reported that in twelve separate serious incidents data from cockpit voice recorders had been wiped before investigators could access it, which the carrier says is a common occcurrence in aviation and attributed to pilot error.

In Sweden a report into a Ryanair emergency landing concluded this week an airline employee wiped the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder to prevent the investigation accessing them. The aircraft had returned to an airport near Stockholm shortly after takeoff suffering electrical malfunctions. Ryanair reject the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority’s take on the missing data, telling newspaper Södermanlands Nyheter recordings were reset by a technician trying to repair the aircraft after consultation with Ryanair’s technical department, who did not think the recordings needed saving.

Ryanair, which has never suffered a fatal accident, says the documentary is “false and defamatory”, and the IAA says it is “based upon false and misleading information”. “We have been instructed to vigorously prosecute these libel proceedings,” said a statement from Ryanair’s lawyers, who promised “other litigation is pending”.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Libya has freed six foreign medical personnel who were convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV and sentenced to death. In jail since 1999, the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, today. The president of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov, promptly pardoned them.

All six have maintained their innocence throughout. They have also claimed that they suffered torture to extract confessions. International HIV experts testified at the trials that the infections began before the six arrived at the Benghazi hospital. They said the infections were more likely the result of poor hygiene.

Last week, Libya lifted the death sentences following a US$460 million financial settlement, which works out to US$1 million to each HIV victim’s family. However, Libya insisted on further concessions on relations with the European Union and aid.

A deal between the E.U. and Libya, mediated by Qatar, ended the diplomatic standoff. The foreign minister of Libya, Abdel Rahman Shalgham, said the E.U. promised to provide “life-long treatment” to the infected children, as well as aid to “improve the Benghazi hospital” where the children were infected. Further, he claimed that deal will allow for “full cooperation and partnership between Libya and the European Union.”

“We hope to go on further [in] normalising our relations with Libya. Our relations with Libya were to a large extent blocked by the non-settlement of this medics issue,” said José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission.

The president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, said that neither the E.U. nor France paid money to Libya. He also said he would visit Libya on Wednesday to help Tripoli’s reintegration. “I can quite simply confirm to you that neither Europe nor France have made the slightest financial contribution to Libya,” said Sarkozy to reporters in Paris. “I have had the opportunity to thank the Qatari authorities very warmly for their mediation and their humanitarian intervention.”

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissioner for External Relations, said: “I share the joy of their families and friends and of the government and people of Bulgaria. For over eight years, we have never forgotten the suffering of the medical staff who have shown such dignity and fortitude during their long ordeal.”

“Now I still can’t believe that I am standing on Bulgarian soil. We were told the news at four o’clock in the morning and we left the jail at quarter to six to board the plane. Now I will try to get my previous life back,” said Kristiyana Vulcheva, 48, upon her release at the airport.