Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Russian chess grandmaster, Vladimir Kramnik lost the final match of his man versus machine match against the Deep Fritz chess program. The six game match in Bonn, Germany had a final result of 4-2 for the German-developed chess program which runs on readily available computer hardware.

The first match which concluded on November 25 was a draw, Kramnik lost the second game to the computer with some indications that he overlooked a mate in one win. Third through fifth matches were all draws.

Kramnik, whilst the current world chess champion, is actually ranked third in the world. A contributory factor in this is his health problems. The world champion suffers from a rare form of arthritis which makes sitting playing in tournaments extremely painful for him.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Since last Tuesday, following violent confrontations with Pakistan’s army, up to 1800 clerics and students are still holed up in Islamabad’s Red Mosque. Clashes began last week following mounting antagonism between the mosques hard-line leaders and the government lead by President Pervez Musharraf.

The mosque has been accused of enforcing its own Islamic law in the capital, notably the illegal detention of Chinese foreign nationals working in massage parlors.

20 people have been reported killed over the past six days, which have seen multiple gun battles and demolition of the mosques exterior walls. Currently, there seems little chance of a negotiated resolution. A delegation of Islamic leaders were refused access, and the mosques leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi has declared suicide a favourable option to surrender.

The mosques leaders follow the Hanafi school of thought, believing that the Koran is the authority by which justice should be metered. Historically the mosque has had close links with the Pakistan leadership, and members of the current administration have resisted calls for a crackdown on the mosques provocative behaviour.

The stand-off represents a decisive ideological challenge to the president who is walking a fine-line between Islamic extremists at home and foreign pressure to crack-down on militancy in the lawless tribal regions.

Friday, May 5, 2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and federal industry minister Ian MacDonald today announced that the federal government would be providing Ford Australia with a AU$52.5 million (US$40.4 million) “financial assistance package”. Additional assistance will also be provided by the Victorian state government.

According to Mr Howard, the injection will secure Ford’s manufacturing operations in Australia “for the long term”.

From the package, AU$40 million will be used for the design and manufacture of Ford’s next model Falcon and Territory vehicles, which will be built in Australia.

Despite being given a major facelift in 2002 and another in 2005, the Falcon’s bodyshell dates back to 1998. The current Falcon will need to serve the company until at least 2007 when the new model is anticipated. In the meantime, it will face stiff competition from the completely new Holden Commodore (the Falcon’s major competitor) which will be released in the second half of this year.

The additional AU$12.5 million will be spent on the development of a light commercial vehicle platform, which will be built overseas and marketed to around 80 countries. Mr Howard said that the light commercial project would involve construction of a research and development centre, which will become the base for R&D projects in the region.

Mr MacFarlane said that the research facility was exciting for Australia and that it would put the Australian automotive in the spotlight.

“The funding has helped Ford Australia secure the largest automotive R&D project ever undertaken in Australia which is equally exciting news for local Ford employees and Australian component producers” he said.

“The project will see Ford Australia become a centre for automotive design and engineering excellence in the Asia Pacific region which will bring spin-off benefits for the broader industry,”

“This opportunity will put both Ford Australia, and the Australian automotive and components sectors on the world map as far as our automotive design and engineering capabilities are concerned.” Mr MacFarlane said.

Mr Howard claims that the projects will create 273 jobs and secure the future of the “iconic” Ford Falcon, which has been built in Australia since 1960.

The financial package is conditional upon Ford Australia giving the Australian automotive component industry an opportunity to supply components for the vehicles produced by the two projects.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Animal rights activists have demanded that the largest coffee chain in the United Kingdom pull a new advertising campaign because they fear that it will encourage viewers to buy monkeys as pets. The demands are likely to irritate Costa Coffee, who are determined to turn over a larger profit that their arch-rival, Starbucks. Five animal welfare groups have demanded that the advert, which features a futuristic room full of monkeys attempting to use coffee machines, be withdrawn.

In a letter to the Rainforest Alliance, the charities say that “the use of wild animals in this way is contrary to your stance on conservation and, in particular, on rainforest species”. They urged the Alliance to revoke their endorsement of Costa products unless the adverts were withdrawn. The groups also wrote to the coffee chain, saying that they hoped that Costa — which has over 1,000 outlets in the UK — would “think it appropriate to cease using primates in future productions, and make the decision to withdraw the current advert”.

The pressure on the coffee giant has led to fears that the company’s relationship with the Rainforest Alliance—which “works to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior”—may be under threat, since animal welfare groups have complained the new advert is in breach of the Alliance’s code of conduct. The television advertisement depicts a number of monkeys being unable to use coffee machines, before a Costa barista hand-makes a cup of coffee. The advert, which features a voiceover by actor Bill Nighy, aired for the first time on Friday. Within hours, animal rights campaigners had demanded it be withdrawn. Manufacturers of products endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance must prove they “are demonstrating [their demand for] goods grown and harvested with respect for people, wildlife and the environment”.

A spokeswoman for Wild Futures, which runs a sanctuary for victims of the primate pet trade, said that she felt that, because they had been forced to appear in the advert, the welfare of the monkeys had been “severely compromised.” She said: “With the release of this new advert, we feel the need to reiterate our long-held concerns on the use of wild animals in entertainment. While they are used in this way their welfare is severely compromised, and it has a knock-on effect in the trade in primates as pets.”

According to The Observer, “the relationship between the appearance of exotic animals in the media and a corresponding increase in demand for them as pets is well documented.” The demand to own clownfish as pets reportedly rocketed following the release of Disney Pixar’s Finding Nemo, which featured one of the orange and white vertebrates as its main character.

The Alliance refused to comment specifically on the Costa advertising campaign, but said in a statement that it “objects to the use of captive wild animals in commercial advertising where a company is seeking to highlight or promote its relationship with the Rainforest Alliance or its use of Rainforest Alliance certified commodities”. Wild Futures and other charities have, in the past, forced companies to withdraw campaigns they believe compromise animal’s rights. The European Union was forced to pull a stop smoking advert last year after objections for animal welfare groups, and car manufaturer Dodge also withdrew an advert which featured a chimpanzee after animal rights groups lodged complaints.

The Code of Practice on the Welfare of Privately Kept Non-Human Primates states that “primates used for entertainment and in the media are often removed from their social group and hand-reared, causing distress to the infant, mother and other members of the group.” The five charities have said they feel that, because the animals have been removed from their social group for the purposes of filming, Costa could be in contravention of three of the five needs as stated in the Animal Welfare Act.

Jim Slater, the marketing director of Costa Coffee vigourusly defended the adverts, insiting that “no compromise is made regarding animal welfare standards” in the adverts. “The monkeys were provided by a specialist organisation and have appeared in movies and on TV many times before.” Speaking to Bakeryinfo.co.uk before the advert was launched, he added: “Costa is enjoying double-digit like-for-like sales growth, and we aim to continue this great momentum. Independent surveys consistently prove that coffee lovers prefer Costa, and this TV commercial will help us to explain the reasons why.”

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Meeniyan Progress Association secretary Clive Hope today spoke to South Gippsland Shire council, requesting that solar lighting be installed along a path from Tompkins Road in Meeniyan, Victoria, Australia to the Meeniyan Recreation Reserve. In a meeting that was held virtually due to a COVID-19 lockdown in Victoria, Hope told the council that the recreation reserve is home to football, bowls, cricket and netball clubs, and that “a lot of the time, especially at this time of the year, there are footy players or netballers doing training after hours”.

The meeting concerned submissions in relation to the South Gippsland Shire’s annual budget. The Meeniyan Progress Association supplied both a written submission and chose to speak to council about their submission.

Hope also noted that rooms at the recreation reserve were used for functions, and that the reserve was also utilised as a spot for campers and caravans. Hope said that, according to his “approximate measurements”, the path was about 120 meters (393.7 ft) in length. Hope told the council that he spoke to Doug Underwood from Green Frog Systems, which Hope said “specialises in public solar lighting for pathways, streets, carparks, jettys and the like”, in regards to obtaining costings for the proposed lighting of the path.

Hope said that Underwood recommended a specific light called GFS Stealth, which Hope called “ideal for the pathway lighting that we are seeking”. The cost for one of these lights, Hope explained, is A$2800, and given 3 lights, the number which Hope thinks would be necessary, the cost would be A$9000, with installation costs added.

In the Meeniyan Progress Association’s written submission, which was penned by Clive Hope, it was claimed that 3 requests had been made in the past 3 years requesting lighting “in and across Tompkins Road”, with a recent submission on 28 August 2020 “noting the regular use of the path” to the recreation reserve.

The South Gippsland Shire council was dismissed by the Victorian state government in June 2019, following the resignation of six councillors, and an inquiry commission’s reporting of “high levels of tension”. 3 administrators have since been appointed to lead the council — Julie Eisenbise, Rick Brown, and Christian Zahra — who presided over today’s meeting. Kerryn Ellis was appointed as the council’s chief executive officer in February 2020.

According to the shire’s online community directory, as of 15 July 2020, the Meeniyan Progress Association meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 7.30PM.

[edit]

Monday, September 8, 2008

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a rights group called the American Rights Counsel LLC has attempted to have at least 4,000 anti-Scientology videos removed from the video sharing website YouTube. Upon further investigation, Wikinews found that most videos and clips were added to YouTube by the copyright holders of the material; as DMCA requests are for the purposes of requesting removal where service providers host material that infringe on the copyright of the complainant, the merit of these requests remain questionable. It was also discovered that the alleged rights group does not exist as a physical entity. In an in-depth report, Wikinews investigated the incident and obtained exclusive information and comments from individuals, including XenuTV producer Mark Bunker.

Within the past 24 hours, according to the EFF, the Counsel “sent out over 4000 DMCA takedown notices to YouTube, all making copyright infringement claims against videos with content critical of the Church of Scientology.” A DMCA notice, or Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice means an attempt to limit the use of copyrighted material that is often infringing on the rights of an alleged copyright.

Wikinews made attempts to contact American Rights Counsel LLC for comment on the take-down notices, but was unable to obtain contact details for the alleged organisation. One post on a YouTube discussion page related to the organization states that they “do not appear to exist outside of these claims on YouTube.” Wikinews contacted YouTube several times asking them if they have a process of verifying DMCA requests from individuals or entities claiming copyright infringement, but when they responded, they directed Wikinews to their terms of service saying, “item 8 addresses the DMCA and 8 B addresses counter-notice procedures.”

YouTube’s terms of use in regards to filing DMCA requests states that only “A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed” can make such claims. It also goes on to say, “Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.”

The EFF says the videos attempting to be removed had shown clips from Anonymous protests of the Church and news footage from Australia and Germany which were critical of Scientology. Some videos were also messages from Anonymous to Scientology, and vice versa. Others were also video clips from a City Commission meeting in Clearwater, Florida. Accounts hosting the material were “suspended by YouTube in response to multiple allegations of copyright infringement.”

YouTube does, however, have a process for users that wish to file a counter-notice against a take-down under the DMCA. After the DMCA notices were sent, YouTube users began to revolt, by sending “DMCA counter-notices” to YouTube. The EFF states that the counter attack resulted in many of the accounts being reinstated and their videos restored.

One user claimed that he had shot and uploaded one of the videos that was taken down. “How can someone else file a claim against a video I MADE?,” said ShadowVsScientology, one of the YouTube users who had a video deleted. Since he owned the rights to the video, he alleges that the American Rights Counsel had no legal grounds to request its removal.

A video posted on YouTube by a user called ‘Church0fScientology’, who was responsible for the original ‘Message to Scientology’ in January of 2008 created after the Church had a video of a Tom Cruise interview removed from the site, states that the organization responsible for the DMCAs does not exist and is run by a man named Dr. Oliver Schaper. They state that he “fronts” the organization for Scientology. It also calls Schaper’s actions “deceptive”. Schaper also had an account on YouTube which has since been suspended. Wikinews obtained a cached version of his account page in which he states to the group Anonymous, “I respect your efforts as long your efforts remain within the limits of the law and remain fair. Although I don’t censor any postings, I would appreciate if any conversation could remain civil and insult free.” Schaper also states that he “will not censor because I strongly believe in the freedom of speech.” They accuse him of running and owning media companies that distribute gay pornography, something Schaper later admits, but only that it’s an “adult television network.” Homosexuality is not accepted within the Church of Scientology and is not tolerated. Scientology believes that homosexuality is a disease and can be cured.

A user named “Oschaper” has written articles on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia about Peephole TV and Volksmusik TV. Oliver Schaper is the founder of Peephole TV, and is also involved with Volksmusik TV. In an e-mail to Wikinews, Wikipedia user Oschaper claims that his first name is Olaf, and that he is “not related” to Oliver Schaper. “Olaf” writes: “My name is Olaf Schaper and I use the handle oschaper on Wikipedia. I’m not related to Oliver Schaper and we share only the last name … If you like to contact Oliver Schaper please see his companies website at www.acos.tv”. When asked how he managed to get an e-mail address with that last name, Olaf replied, “I got the email because my best friend works for his networks hence the creation of my postings on Wikipedia.”

Wikinews contacted Schaper for exclusive comments. Schaper replied saying that he is a “very strong advocate for the Church of Scientology, the religion of Scientology and a free speech advocate” and “I don’t need to go into details but I felt that my family and myself have been direct targets and in an attempt to control the situation, I started to track down and remove online links between me and my religion. This included postings made by HouseSpiderAnon on his videos, who publicly connected the dots and made them available to a larger audience.”

“I requested several times to have my information removed from his videos as I wanted no association with his work but he refused, even after I stated several times that he has the right to protest but that I would like to enforce my right of privacy. He refused and demanded documentation of the attacks, something I refused because it was not my attention to allow more documents to be available online in public hand,” added Schaper who also said he has been a victim of identity theft and now has the FBI involved in investigating his claim.

“Tustin PD [police department] has been on the case and now the FBI is involved as well. Social Security has been notified and we have seen about 200 attempts to use the SSN [social security number] for fake credit cards applications,” Schaper told Wikinews.

Schaper admits that he contacted YouTube to have videos which contained images of him that were being used without permission and videos “which violated [his] privacy removed.” Those requests made by Schaper were eventually accepted by YouTube but “videos that contained just a text messages directed against me or my church remained,” he added. He also admits to owning “several broadcasting companies, ACOS Broadcasting Corp. (eight mainstream television and two radio networks) & Media House Enterprises, Inc. (adult television network PEEPHOLE TV).”

“I had the power to go fully against copyrighted material because we own or licensed large amounts of content. But it was not my responsibility to enforce all copyright violations on YouTube. In addition with the attacks on our servers, websites and infrastructure, no time would have been available to take on a fight,” added Schaper.

Schaper also denies any involvement with the alleged rights group and also states he was just notified that it doesn’t even exist.

“As many other people, and even members of the Church of Scientology received information about a company that removed anti-Scientology content from YouTube, shit hit the fan and members of Anonymous went on a full attack on me. I still have to this date no information about the American Rights Counsel and I have no connection, knowledge or involvement in this company which I have been informed of does not even exists,” Schaper told Wikinews.

One critic of Scientology, television producer Mark Bunker also had his accounts deleted by YouTube, but had them quickly restored. Bunker also believes that the American Rights Counsel does not exist.

“American Rights Counsel LLC does not exist. When I got my take-down notices from YouTube I tried to file a DMCA counter-notice but in order to do that you need to get the name of the contact person to be served with the notice and the contact information of the company which the government lists on the web,” said Bunker to Wikinews who also added that their name is not registered with the United States copyright office.

“I next did a google search for American Rights Counsel LLC which brought up absolutely no results so clearly this was fraud from the beginning. I contact[ed] YouTube and they quickly restored everything to my account and others,” added Bunker.

Wikinews has also learned that a contributor on Wikipedia, claiming to be a member of Anonymous, has posted what is allegedly personal information of Schaper. The edit, made to the article Peephole TV states that he is a lawyer, employed with a firm on Ricklinger, Stadtweg in Hanover, Germany. It also stated that he is affiliated with the “Tustin Org” in California. In what seems to be a gathering of information on Schaper from other online sources, according to Enturbulation.org, the result of releasing the information has resulted in legal and physical threats from Schaper to someone, known as ‘HouseSpiderV2’ on Enturbulation, who has claimed to have released e-mail correspondence between him and Schaper.

“Don’t think I will not be able to track you down and serve you with papers. I would make the case so expensive for you that you would not be able to even fight this on your own funding as I have the money at my disposal,” allegedly states Schaper to ‘HouseSpiderV2’ in an e-mail. “You have 24 hours to remove the postings or I will start to make this a legal issue. That makes it simple,” he added.

Despite the claims that the Wikipedia contributor is Oliver Schaper, he claims to have never registered an account with Wikipedia. He also says he has never made any threats of physical harm to members of Anonymous.

“I had not the need to register an account with Wikipedia and after all this trouble will not get involved at all. There has never been any threat of violence against Housespideranon or any other member of Anonymous made by me,” Schaper told Wikinews.

Bunker, who recently spoke with Schaper, says he believes Schaper is not involved, but that he also doesn’t know who or what was responsible for filing the DMCA requests.

“I had never heard of Schaper before he was accused of this. I don’t know anything about him other than he contacted me and said he was not involved. I don’t know who was responsible. 4000 deletions in a matter of hours is a pretty major feat. It would be worth a subpoena to find out who committed this crime. I wouldn’t blame Schaper without knowing he did it,” Bunker added.

Monday, March 12, 2007

24 of 26 Swiss Cantons rejected the proposal for a single health insurance system, in which premiums would be based on income and wealth. The vote on Sunday was the latest in a series of attempts to cut rising costs and ease the financial burden on citizens.

Around 71% of voters rejected the reform. Turnout was at about 46%, slightly above the Swiss average.

As expected, voters in the main German-speaking part of the country turned down the planned reform, which was supported by the centre-left but opposed by the centre-right as well as the business community, parliament and the government.

Opposition in the French and Italian speaking regions was less pronounced. The cantons Jura and Neuchâtel in the French speaking regions voted in favor of the proposed reforms.

Health insurance premiums are higher in southern and western Swiss cantons than in German-speaking areas.

The Swiss Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin said an important part of the Swiss Population appeared to be opposed to “a revolution” in health insurance but he said that he wanted current reforms currently under discussion in the Swiss Parliament to go ahead. He called on all sides, especially health insurers and the cantonal authorities, to make efforts to reduce spending on health insurance and aim for a greater cost efficiency. Currently Switzerland has 87 private insurers providing mandatory basic health care coverage for Swiss residents under a 1996 law. But costs have sky-rocketed. Over 100,000 people are not covered by health insurance due to non payment.

Opponents to the initiative argued that a single insurance system would lead to complacency and create a two-tier system, in which the wealthy would be the only ones available to afford to have additional private insurance coverage.

Supporters of the initiative said a single health insurer would increase the system’s efficiency and allow for annual savings of at least 300 million Swiss Francs (about $245 million) in administrative costs. Currently, the funding system is unbalanced, since many clients on low incomes use state subsidies to pay their premiums, according to the Green Party and the Social Democrats.

The initiative to unite all the insurance companies and introduce premiums based on wealth and income was the most recent in a series of attempts over the past ten years to reduce the public spending on health care. A proposal, similar to this recent proposal, to modify the funding system of the health insurance companies was rejected by 73% of voters in 2003.

Switzerland has the most expensive health system in Europe. Switzerland’s expenditure on health care was 11.6% in 2005, in front of Germany and France but behind the United States.