Archives June 2020

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Astronomer tells Wikinews about discovery of closest black hole known so far

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Friday, May 22, 2020

A study published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics last month reported astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and elsewhere discovered a black hole in the Telescopium constellation. The study stated the black hole is about 1010 ± 195 light years (310 ± 60 parsec) away from the Solar System, meaning it is the nearest known black hole from the Earth. The nearest previously known black hole — V616 Mon — the study noted was usually estimated at more than 3000 light years away.

The black hole described in the study is located in the HR 6819 stellar system of Telescopium constellation, making it the first system visible to the naked eye to contain a black hole. HR 6819 contains two stars, and they are visible from the Southern Hemisphere. The astronomers started observing the system in 1999. Initially, they thought it was just a binary system, consisting of two stars. However, upon examination, the researchers concluded there was a third unseen object in the system. One of the two stars in the HR 6819 system is close to the black hole and orbits the black hole in just 40.333 ± 0.004 days.

This newly discovered black hole does not have an accretion disk. A black hole forms an accretion disk when a significant amount of matter orbits the black hole, as depicted in the image. Accretion disks often emit electromagnetic radiation. Since this black hole does not have an accretion disk, researchers had to rely on the gravitational effect of the black hole on the nearby star in order to discover it.

Researchers used the binary mass function to conclude the black hole had a mass of at least 4.2 M? (Solar masses; 1 Solar mass = mass of the Sun). Its companion star, which orbits the black hole in about 40 days, is classified as a B3 III star. The outer star is classified as a Be star. Be stars rotate very quickly around their axes. Since the outer star rotates so rapidly, the star is not exactly spherical, but instead oblate, bulged at its equator, forming a gas disk around the equator.

The research suggested HR 6819 was very similar to another system LB-1. The HR 6819 system is estimated to be between 15–75 million years old (myr). The inner star has estimated mass of at least 6.3 ± 0.7 M?. Using the mass and the speed at which the inner star rotates, the researchers concluded the black hole had an estimated mass of 5.0 ± 0.4 M?. Researcher and co-author of the study Thomas Rivinius told Wikinews the inner star and the black hole are closer than the Sun and the Earth (1au; 150 million km; 93 million miles).

The researchers dedicated the paper to Stanislav Štefl, one of the fellow researchers who died in a car accident in 2014 in Santiago, Chile.

Wikinews caught up with Thomas Rivinius to discuss about this discovery.

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England: Multi-storey carpark in Liverpool gutted by fire, 1,300 vehicles destroyed

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Thursday, January 4, 2018

A fire on Sunday night in the seven-storey carpark for the Echo Arena in Liverpool, England destroyed almost all the vehicles parked inside and led to cancellation of the final evening of the Liverpool International Horse Show and evacuation of nearby blocks of flats. The blaze reportedly started with a parked Range Rover Discovery.

Investigators with the fire brigade stated that they believe the fire began with an accidental engine fire in the Range Rover at about 4.30 pm. The first call was made at 4.42 and firefighters arrived eight minutes after that. Ultimately twelve engines and 85 firefighters were involved in combatting the blaze. Aerial appliances were used and also three high-volume pumps. Fed by the fuel in vehicles parked inside, the temperature of the fire in the carpark is believed to have reached as high as 1,000°C. It was too hot to be extinguished with water from hydrants, so a high-volume pump was used to draw water from the River Mersey, and two more were brought from other fire brigades in the region.

The carpark has seven storeys and a capacity of 1,600 vehicles, and approximately 1,300 were parked in it when the fire broke out. According to Dan Stephens, chief fire officer for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, almost all of them were destroyed, with the exception of a few parked on the top level and at corners. “With these very high temperatures, you were never going to put the fire out without the whole building taking hold. The speed at which the fire spreads means you simply aren’t going to put it out,” said Stephens.

The carpark itself was severely damaged; according to Joe Anderson, the mayor of Liverpool. It is not in danger of collapsing but will have to be demolished, which will be difficult with the many burned-out cars still inside it, Anderson told the BBC.

According to Stephens, there were no serious injuries: one woman injured her hand, and two people were treated for smoke inhalation. A spokesman for the Echo Arena also stated that all animals were safe. All horses were successfully evacuated from the carpark and then removed from the stables after smoke spread to them. Six dogs were also rescued unharmed, two on a lower level in the early stages of the fire and four that had been left in a car on the top level, freed by firefighters on Monday after the fire was put out.

The final evening of the four-day Liverpool International Horse Show had been scheduled to begin at 7.30, and had to be cancelled. Many attendees were stranded in the city on New Year’s Eve night. Merseyside police directed people to the Pullman Hotel, where Red Cross assistance was available, and the Liverpool City Council set up an assistance centre at the Lifestyles Gym. A spokesman for the Association of British Insurers has said that insurance companies will “move very quickly” to reimburse owners whose vehicles were destroyed.

Nearby blocks of flats were evacuated because of the smoke. Eyewitnesses reported hearing what they at first thought were firecrackers, then “multiple explosions”, “bangs and popping”, “the bangs of car windows exploding”. People reported leaving everything in their cars, including their cellphones, and running for their lives.

Mayor Anderson tweeted that cuts to fire services over the last two years made it significantly harder to fight the fire and might have caused it not to be controllable. He also suggested that fire safety in multi-storey carparks had not been sufficiently considered and that installing sprinklers in them might help stop future fires before they become unmanageable, in a letter to Nick Hurd, a member of Parliament.

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US presidential candidate Duncan Hunter speaks to Wikinews

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Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Duncan Hunter is an American politician who has been a Republican member of the House of Representatives since 1981 from California’s 52nd congressional district in northern and eastern San Diego. It was previously numbered the 42nd District from 1981 to 1983 and then the 45th District from 1983 to 1993. Hunter was the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee during the 109th Congress. Hunter is currently seeking the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. Below is David Shankbone’s interview with the Congressman.

Facial Plastic Surgery

Ucf Homes For Sale

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Submitted by: Joshua D

In February of 2010, activity and interest were beginning to start for UCF parents who wanted to invest in a property for their student.

Instead of throwing rent down the drain on a local apartment, the sharp price decline in the UCF area has allowed parents to not only get a great deal on a home, but save money monthly. When purchasing a 3 or 4 bedrooms home, 2 or 3 of the rooms can be rented to friends in the range of $500 dollars per month.

This allows the parents to pay less per month for their child’s housing, give them the opportunity for a big payoff when they sell the property and offers their child a much safer / study friendly environment as opposed to off campus apartments.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFYcUcIO4Ds[/youtube]

These types of properties can be purchased somewhere north or south of $150,000, with many townhomes in the low 100,000 range.

Be warned inventory in these areas gets very low in the summer time as parents from all over the United States, especially South Florida come into town to stake their claim on the perfect home.

If you would like a Free Foreclosure List of homes in this area please visit http://www.ucfhomesforsale.com/.

UCF is the 3rd largest college in the Country; this has dramatically helped grow the East Orlando community. During 2001-2006, the UCF housing market experienced tremendous appreciation, some homes doubled in price within a year or two. Just as fast as home values went up they came back down. This has caused many homeowners to go into foreclosure and be forced to sell their homes at discounted prices.

Many parents and students understand the opportunities that this has created for them to purchase homes while attending the university. There are wide selections of neighborhoods that are conveniently located to UCF that are in the first time home buyer’s price range.

UCF is the 3rd largest college in the Country; this has dramatically helped grow the East Orlando community. During 2001-2006, the UCF housing market experienced tremendous appreciation, some homes doubled in price within a year or two. Just as fast as home values went up they came back down. This has caused many homeowners to go into foreclosure and be forced to sell their homes at discounted prices.

Many parents and students understand the opportunities that this has created for them to purchase homes while attending the university. There are wide selections of neighborhoods that are conveniently located to UCF that are in the first time home buyer’s price range.

Joshua Dubin is a expert in the field of Central Florida residential real estate investment and home purchasing. Joshua began his career in real estate in 2003 while in college; furthermore, between 2003-2006 he personally purchased 6 homes and managed over 30 investment properties for family and clients. After the early 2000’s real estate boom Joshua sold all the properties in his portfolio and spent time reading over 600 books and audio seminars about investing in real estate. Currently he and his business partner Scott Jackson operate the Dubin Jackson real estate team. http://www.oviedoflhomes.com/

About the Author: Joshua Dubin is a expert in the field of Central Florida residential real estate investment and home purchasing. Joshua began his career in real estate in 2003 while in college.More Details:

ucfhomesforsale.com/

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=781932&ca=Real+Estate

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Ontario Votes 2007: Interview with Liberal candidate Kate Holloway, Trinity-Spadina

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Monday, October 1, 2007

Kate Holloway is running for the Ontario Liberal Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Trinity-Spadina riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed her regarding her values, her experience, and her campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

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US Transportation Security Administration “made inaccurate statements” about passenger privacy, says Department of Homeland Security report

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Tuesday, March 29, 2005In a report from the Department of Homeland Security released on Friday, March 25, they allege the US Transportation Security Administration “made inaccurate statements” about its management of personal data belonging to passengers. The report claims, “TSA did not ensure that privacy protections were in place” as it handled data transfers to private contractors for use in the development of a computerized passenger screening application, called CAPPS II. While the report criticizes TSA for its inaccurate statements, it notes the “misstatements were apparently not meant to mischaracterize known facts,” but were instead “premised on an incomplete understanding” of the truth.

According to the report, the data at issue described passengers flying on the following airlines: America West Airlines, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, and JetBlue Airways. In most of the problematic transfers, the privacy violation occurred by allowing third parties to access passenger data that was not anonymized. In one case, passenger information was made public on the internet through a presentation prepared by Torch Concepts. According to the report, “Torch Concepts’ subsequent efforts to remove the presentation from the internet have failed.”

In an AP report, Yahoo! News notes that TSA announced the launch of its “Secure Flight” system, saying, “Congress has said the agency can’t proceed with Secure Flight unless the Government Accountability Office reports that the technology ensures privacy and that the data are protected.” The report from the GAO was to be released Monday, March 27, 2005.

Law Firm

What You Wanted To Know About High Speed Vedic Mathematics And Didnt Know Who To Ask

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Get More Information Here:

By Gaurav Tekriwal

What You wanted to know about High Speed Vedic Mathematics and didnt know who to ask

THE 10 MOST OFTEN ASKED QUESTIONS.!

INTRODUCTION:

It is a well known fact that our country (Bharath) stands aloft with its rich cultural heritage since thousands of years. Our Ancient Seers & Scientists have made wonderful contributions in the field of Science & Technology also. In spite of these glorious achievements, our people including the so-called educated have a dismal knowledge about the Scientific & Technological achievements and do everything to curb the professional growth of these.

After nearly one and a half decades of dedicated research, I found that the following facts and truths about the Vedic / Ancient Indian Mathematics have to be brought to light for a proper understanding and appreciation of the same in a proper perspective.

The facts are given in a nutshell as under.

Q1. What is ‘Vedic’ or ‘Ancient Indian Mathematics’?

Ans: ‘Vedic Mathematics’ basically consists of Mathematical concepts, methods and techniques embodied in the Vedic & Upanishadic literature. These are expressed in terms of Mantras and Sutras (Aphorisms), in subtle forms.

Ancient Indian Mathematics refers to post Vedic & medieval times up to the 19th century. Some of the greatest names are Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskaracharya (I & II), Sridharacharya, Madhavacharya, Mahaveeracharya, Narayana Pandita etc., The mathematical concepts, methods, postulates, theorems and techniques are expressed in terms of Slokas; which are Lyrically beautiful, but mathematically precise! And also in terms of Sutras & coded literature.

Q2 What is the scope of VM/AIM?

Ans: The scope extends right from the fundamental Arithmetic to Algebra, Geometry Trigonometry, Calculus (Integral and Differential), Biquadratics, solution of Polynomials, Astronomy, Graph theory to some computer based numerical methods. The Nyaya Sastras & MIMAMSA are the veritable source of knowledge in the fields of NLP & NLU and Artificial Intelligence.

03. What is the relevance of VM / AIM in the present world of advanced mathematics and computer science and technology? Is it just historical?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0[/youtube]

Ans: VM / AIM present a novel, creative approach to understanding and solving the problems; right from the basic to the advanced level and open up new Vistas of knowledge.

a) They are chosen based on their superiority over the conventional methods on the following criteria.

i) Step size ii) Step length iii) Computational time

iv) Elegance and v) Novelty.

b) Incidentally, the Ancient Indian Scientists have discovered many mathematical concepts and techniques, centuries before their modern counter parts!

0 4. What is the methodology of presentation?

Ans: VM / AIM are expressed in terms of modern mathematical notations to make them user friendly and original references are provided to make them authentic.

Q 5. How stable are the methods and techniques?

Ans: They have stood the test of time for centuries and continue to inspire and challenge even now.

Q 6. Does one need to be very good in maths to learn this?

Ans: Not necessary. Students, with lesser aptitude, who used to score low marks, have found it very interesting and user friendly. The scores have improved very much even with little training.

Q 7. What is the feed back from the teachers?

Ans: In fact, they have wholeheartedly welcomed VM / AIM, since they are highly creative, ultra fast, give different dimension to teaching of maths. Reports confirm that, in about 50-60% of the time, the present syllabi can be effectively & efficiently covered! They strongly recommend the introduction of VM/AIM in the school curriculum.

Q 8. What about college students?

Ans: It is a boon to all the candidates of competitive exams. They can clear the paper in about 60-70% of the time, with 100% accuracy.

They can adopt many of these methods in their curriculum like calculus, computer based numerical methods etc. They can also work on the projects based on the application of VM/AIM.

Q 9. In spite of all these benefits, why is it not finding its place in the curriculum?

Ans: i) Apathy towards our own heritage.

ii) People at the helm of affairs have cynical and passive attitude towards VM/AIM; resulting in curbing of genuine researchers.

iii) Lack of organizational support.

iv) Authentic course material and syllabi have to be professionally designed.

Q 10. What is the future of VM/AIM?

Ans: a) The future is very bright. Already about 20 Universities like Birmingham, Philadelphia, Oslo, Zurich, Munchen, Sydney, Heidelberg, London School of Economics etc., have introduced VM/AIM in their curriculum.

b) Serious R & D works are going on.

c) The number of International Conferences on Ancient Indian Science and Mathematics are on steady increase.

d) In India also, barring, a very few organizations supporting R & D works, lot of individuals are doing R & D works on these.

e) There is a tremendous scope for India to lead the world in education to bring the best results.

Incidentally learning of VM/AIM removes the fear psychosis in maths and the whole world is looking towards India for its valuable contribution.

Incidentally, the Scientists have reported that, learning of VM/AIM enhances the right brain activities and makes children more creative.

Come! Let us collectively spread this wonderful Ancient Indian Mathematics through out the world.

About the Author: This Article is by P.K.Srivathsa, Expert at the

Vedic Maths

Forum India, an expert authority in the field of Vedic Mental Mathematics who revolutionizes the way children learn math. The tutorials on the

Vedic Math

Methods can be found at http://www.vedicmathsindia.org

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=221221&ca=Education

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Stolen laptop found; had over 98,000 students’ personal data

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Sunday, September 18, 2005

San Francisco police have recovered a laptop stolen on March 11 from the University of California, Berkeley. The laptop was left unattended in the Graduate Division and contained personal information on 98,369 graduate students and applicants going as far back as 1976. This information included names, birth dates, addresses, and Social Security numbers.

The Silicon Valley forensic lab which analyzed the laptop said it had been reformatted, making it very difficult to determine if the data had been accessed. “There’s nothing in the Police Department investigation that points to any type of identity theft or credit card theft” said university spokeswoman Janet Gilmore.

The laptop was stolen by an unknown woman, who sold it to Shuki Alburati, who sold the laptop to an unsuspecting South Carolina man. Shuki Alburati was arrested on June 8 for receiving stolen property; he has been charged with one misdemeanor count.

He claims he didn’t know the laptop, a new IBM X40 worth $2,429, was stolen. He purchased the laptop from the woman, who said it wasn’t stolen, for $300 or $340. A few days later, on April 19, he placed the laptop on eBay. The winning bidder was a man in South Carolina who bought the laptop for $1,195.50. Police have said this man is not a suspect. Police were alerted by IBM after the man called IBM for tech support.

Shuki Alburati has pleaded not guilty. He claimed “It’s unfair, I didn’t know it was stolen.” His trial is scheduled for Sept. 30 before Superior Court Judge Michael Gaffey in Oakland. The woman who stole the laptop has not yet been found.

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Category:Queensland

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This is the category for Queensland, an Australian state.

Refresh this list to see the latest articles.

  • 30 August 2018: Brisbane, Australia Magistrates Court charges two cotton farmers with $20m fraud
  • 10 August 2018: New South Wales, Australia government says entire state in winter 2018 drought
  • 9 April 2018: Woolworths, Australia moves single-use plastic bags ban date to June 20
  • 24 November 2016: Gympie win Twenty20 cricket final on Australia’s Sunshine Coast
  • 6 June 2016: Brisbane man granted bail on charge of raping 15-year-old girl
  • 31 May 2016: Australian Opposition Leader pledges to save Great Barrier Reef
  • 25 April 2016: University defeat Toads in 2016 Sunshine Coast Rugby Union round 4
  • 23 April 2016: Lebanon child abduction charges against mother may be dropped in exchange for custody
  • 20 April 2016: Charges against Sally Faulkner and 60 Minutes news crew dropped in Lebanon abduction case
  • 3 September 2015: Dedicated domestic violence court opens on Australian Gold Coast
?Category:Queensland

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write.

Location of Queensland within Australia

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The Advantages Of Signing Contracts With Oil Heating Services In Hartford Ct

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Consumers are justifiably skeptical about various types of optional service contracts they are encouraged to sign. Spending money for these contracts starts to seem like a pointless waste of money. One particular contract that does have substantial advantages is an agreement for oil delivery by a company providing Heating Services in Hartford CT. The customer saves money by agreeing to have the provider delivery oil on a routine basis instead of calling for delivery as needed. Also, the risk of running out of heating oil is significantly reduced.

Delivery contracts with oil Heating Services in Hartford CT instruct the supplier to bring oil and top off the tank when this is convenient for the supplier. That makes creating daily routes more efficient, as drivers can focus on certain areas without having to make a special trip elsewhere. The supplier also takes into account when the customer’s tank is probably reaching a level at which it could reasonably be topped off. That depends on factors like the customer’s previous usage in prior seasons and how cold this particular winter is.

In return for signing a contract with one supplier, the customer receives some type of discount on heating oil over the season. There days. In addition, many suppliers allow customers to pay for the entire season’s estimated oil usage upfront for an even greater per-gallon discount. The discount is achieved by locking in a set price per gallon that is good for the entire season.

By becoming a contracted customer of a delivery service such as Superior Fuel, the property owner never needs to check the oil gauge on the tank and never has to call for delivery. The process of acquiring heating oil is streamlined and convenient. Visit the website name to take the next step for this advantageous decision.