Archives April 2021

Thursday, November 2, 2006

Winter Haven, Florida police chief Paul Goward was tired of seeing fat hanging out over the belts of some of his officers. So he posted a memo to encourage the so-called ‘jelly bellies’ to get in shape.

The memo, entitled ‘Are You A Jelly Belly?’ didn’t single anyone out, and, apart from the title, didn’t call anyone names.

Goward, a former deputy police chief in Wichita, wrote “If you are unfit, do yourself and everyone else a favor. See a professional about a proper diet and a fitness training program, quit smoking, limit alcohol intake…Don’t mean to offend, this is just straight talk. I owe it to you.”

It provided a list of 10 reasons cops should get fit. Goward said that overweight cops poorly represent the profession, are liable to ‘poop out’ when chasing suspects, and may have to use a higher degree of force.

In the end, Goward resigned from his position as police chief.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Longtime Los Angeles architect Thom Mayne was awarded this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize. Established in 1979 to honor “consistent and significant contributions to humanity,” the prize is considered by many to be the highest honor in the field. The award includes a bronze medallion and US$100,000. Mayne was the first American to receive it in 14 years; previous American recipients include Robert Venturi (1991) and Frank Gehry (1989).

Mayne earned his architecture degree from the {{w|University of Southern California|University of Southern California]] in 1968. A few years later he founded his own architecture school, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, which remains to this day. He then moved to Los Angeles, where in addition to running a firm, Morphosis, he teaches architecture at UCLA.

Mayne’s earlier work, considered “angry” and “brooding”, was outside of the architectural mainstream. His style was often called bold and audacious. This style has recently become more accepted, as Morphosis won contracts to design government buildings in California, Oregon, and Washington, DC. The firm also designed an Olympic village in Queens, in preparation for the city’s 2012 Olympics bid.

On receiving the prize, Mayne said, “This is such a big deal….it is not in my nature to think about being the one who prevails. For my whole life, I’ve always seen myself as an outsider.”

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.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The 2010 Susan G. Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure, held earlier today in St. Louis, Missouri, became the world’s largest Race for the Cure, with over 71,000 participants.

2010 marks the twelfth year for the race in St. Louis, which raises money for breast cancer research nationwide. Originally brought to the city in 1999, it has raised over US$19 million. It was sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors, a locally-headquartered brokerage firm of the financial services provider Wells Fargo. Nationally, the Race for the Cure is hosted by Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a non-profit organization supporting breast cancer research.

In 1999, there were only about 10,000 participants in the St. Louis Race for the Cure. In recent years, the number has grown to over 60,000, and today’s 5K race saw over 71,000 runners, walkers, and wheelchair racers. Despite the heat and humidity, 1,090 teams signed up, and over 4,500 breast cancer survivors participated. Overall, the race raised more than US$3.3 million. A phone bank set up by Wells Fargo and local television station KSDK contributed over US$28,000 of that amount in four hours.

Prior to the race, there was a parade of all the breast cancer survivors who had signed up for the race. The actual competition began at 8:30 a.m. CDT (1330 UTC) with the wheelchair race. Following them were the timed runners, the untimed runners, the walkers, and lastly, the “fun walk” participants, who had only opted to walk one mile (1.6 kilometres).

The Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure is only one of many Races for the Cure, which is the largest group of 5K runs and walks in the world. The first Komen race was held in 1983 in Dallas, Texas, but has since spread to over 140 cities throughout the world. Proceeds from today’s St. Louis race will benefit both local institutions and the rest of the United States. At least 25 percent of the money raised will go toward funding national research on breast cancer, while the rest will be given to organizations in St. Louis for breast cancer awareness programs.

Sunday, June 21, 2020

On Thursday, UK-based retailer Tesco and Denmark-based retailer Salling Group announced their agreement over selling a large portion of Tesco’s Polish operation to Salling Group. Tesco stated its intention to leave the Polish market altogether, Salling its intention to strengthen its Netto chain in Poland.

The deal covers 301 stores, two distribution centers and the head office. With the acquisition Salling said it seeks to improve its coverage in Southern Poland and, over 18 months at a cost of one billion z?otys, intends to merge these stores into its currently 386 strong Netto chain. Salling also takes over about 7000 employees from Tesco — Netto Poland currently has about 5000 employees. Tesco continues to run 19 stores, which were not included in this package.

The sale price, to be payed in cash, is 900 million z?otys (181 million pounds). In the 2019/20 fiscal year, Tesco said its Polish branch had a 24 million pounds operating loss with a 1368 million pounds turnover; to which the sold units contributed with a 947 million pounds turnover for a 107 million loss. At fiscal year-end, the sold units held a value of 681 million pounds in the books.

UOKiK, the Polish anti-monopoly agency, has to approve the deal. The parties said they expect a decision this year.

Tesco has suffered losses from its Polish operation for several years, as customer preference has shifted away from hypermarkets, Tesco’s preferred store size, to smaller discount stores like Biedronka and LIDL. The Sunday trade ban, introduced in 2018, also hurt sales. According to Notes from Poland (NFP), some discount stores resorted to offer postal services, a loophole which allows Sunday opening hours.

In 2015, Tesco centralized its management in the Central European region, comprising Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, but reverted the decision later on. At the time, the company invested in e-commerce and started home deliveries, but Gazeta Prawna reports only 0.5% of Polish grocery turnover comes from this segment, compared to 7% in the United Kingdom.

In the past few years, Tesco Polska has cut expenditures by streamlining its product range, halving its staff, shutting off home deliveries in parts of the country, and closing off stores, reportedly including last year its Poznan distribution center. Deutsche Welle (DW) reported in mid-2019, 62 Tesco outlets had closed within a year. Staff layoffs left meat, fish and delicatessen departments without designated shop assistants, and forced staff canteen closures and administration simplifications.

Tesco sold its roughly 2000 Thai and 74 Malaysian stores to Charoen Pokphand in March; announced leaving its joint venture with China Resources Holdings in February; and in 2015 sold its South Korean chain HomePlus. Speaking to Portfolio.hu, Matt Simister, Tesco’s CEO for Central Europe, explained that the company held a 4% share of the Polish retail market, compared to its 16% share in Hungary, and stated they want to stay in Hungary. In a DW report in March of last year, Dave Lewis, CEO of Tesco, stated they did not have intentions of leaving Thailand or Poland.

Tesco’s Polish operation, according to Gazeta Wyborcza in March, is too big for a single monolithic sale. The chain’s press release reported 22 sold units in the past year and a half, for around 200 million pounds. NFP named the Kaufland chain and property developer Echo Investment among the buyers.

Both Tesco and Salling entered the Polish market in 1995.

Thursday, July 6, 2006

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with President George W. Bush at the White House today. The meeting was a short one and focused primarily on global security, particularly bilateral security issues addressing the two countries.

One of the larger issues was the pending U.S. law that would require everyone crossing the Canada-U.S. border to have a passport or a special identification card. Prime Minister Harper said; “if the fight for security ends up meaning that the United States becomes more closed to its friends, then the terrorists have won,” as part of his appeal that Congress delay or reject the proposed border law. [1].

Prime Minister Harper brought birthday greetings and a surprise gift. But Bush found out about it during the press conference in the East Room. A Canadian reporter had allegedly blew the secret. [2].

Monday, August 9, 2010

A faulty ammonia line fitting delayed repairs to a cooling pump on the International Space Station Saturday during an eight-hour spacewalk.

During the spacewalk, astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were to repair a faulty cooling system, which failed on July 31. The faulty cooling unit was to be swapped with a new one that was previously in storage to solve the problem; however, an ammonia leak in the final line to be disconnected from the unit halted attempts for a repair.

Upon discovering the problem, the astronauts were instructed to reconnect the line and install a positioning device to maintain the proper pressure on the line.

Upon completing the spacewalk, Wheelock and Dyson spent additional time in the airlock to get rid of any ammonia particles that may have attached themselves to their spacesuits.

NASA officials are analyzing possible solutions to the issue to attempt during a planned spacewalk Wednesday. Wednesday’s spacewalk was previously intended to be second in the series to repair the cooling system by reattaching fluid and electrical lines.

Before Saturday’s spacewalk, NASA officials projected that up to three spacewalks may be needed to repair the cooling system.

Most of the space station’s non-critical scientific components have been temporarily shut-down in order to reduce heat generation with only one cooling loop available to the station.

NASA reports that the station’s crew, three Russians and three Americans, are not in any danger; however, it is in the best interests of the crew to restore systems to nominal condition as soon as possible.

The eight-hour spacewalk is reportedly the longest ISS-based spacewalk, and the sixth longest in the history of human spaceflight.