Thursday, April 29, 2010

Thousands of New Jersey public school students walked out of classes Tuesday, in protest of Governor Chris Christie’s proposed budget cuts. Although there is no definite number, it is estimated that around 18,000 students did not attend classes.

The walk-out was spurred by a Facebook event calling on students to skip classes and picket their local school boards. The leader of the group, former student Michelle Ryan Lauto, said that she “just want to draw attention to the entire issue and I want to show both the governor and his administration that the youth is not apathetic towards these cuts and that we care very very much so about what happens to our education and our extra curricular activities.”

The demonstrations come soon after voters in 59% of the state school districts opposed a proposal to increase property tax levies to pay for schools.

The state’s largest teachers union, the New Jersey Education Association, said that the students, who “were engaging in civil disobedience”, should not walk-out on classes.

The governor’s office responded to the protests in a statement, saying: “It is also our firm hope that the students were motivated by youthful rebellion or spring fever — and not by encouragement from any one-sided view of the current budget crisis in New Jersey. Students would be better served if they were given a full, impartial understanding of the problems that got us here in the first place and why dramatic action was needed.”

Thursday, December 25, 2008

The US Food and Drug Administration has written a warning letter to The Coca-Cola Company that Diet Coke Plus violates the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act‘s guidelines. The December 10 letter, signed by Roberta Wagner, director of the office of compliance at the Center of Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, says Coca-Cola should “take prompt action to correct these violations.”

The product’s label describes the drink as “Diet Coke with Vitamins and Minerals.” FDA said the soft drink does not have enough nutrients to justify the use of the word “plus” in its trade name. According to statute, foods must contain at least 10 per cent more of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) or Daily Reference Value (DRV) for a given nutrient “than an appropriate reference food” in order to be called “plus” legally.

The FDA also advised “it is inappropriate to add extra nutrients to snack foods such as carbonated beverages.” The FDA warns Coca-Cola and asks it to revise the drink’s labeling and inform the agency of its reply regarding how it plans to fix the violation, within 15 days of receiving the warning. Coca-Cola says it will submit a reply to the FDA in early January, but currently has no plans to alter the label.

The US Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA, FDCA, or FD&C), is a set of laws passed by Congress in 1938 giving authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of food, drugs, and cosmetics. A principal author of this law was Royal S. Copeland, a three-term U.S. Senator from New York, whose concerns about drug safety stemmed from the fact that he was also a homeopathic physician. The act has been amended many times, most recently to add requirements about bioterrorism preparations.

The Coca-Cola Company issued a statement saying, “This does not involve any health or safety issues, and we believe the label on Diet Coke Plus complies with FDA’s policies and regulations.”

The Coca-Cola Company is the world’s largest beverage company, largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups in the world, and one of the largest corporations in the United States. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in 1886. Diet Coke Plus (also known as Coca Cola Light Plus) was released in the United Kingdom in October 2007.

Forbes has reported that “Coca-Cola has been on a crusade to revamp its image from a purveyor of highly sweetened, fattening products to a more family-friendly image of low-calorie, nutritional drinks. Its violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act could mean hefty fines and a seizure of product from the pop king, but often these sorts of issues are resolved without incident.”

Sunday, October 5, 2008

It has recently been made public that on September 27, seventeen year old Shaun Dykes jumped off a multistory building following encouragement from the crowd. According to the BBC’s Today programme, a variety of different people, including youths and middle aged citizens, were telling the teenager to jump.

Alasdair Kay, director of the Derby City Mission, saw the incident unfold. He expressed his shock and disgust at the incident. “People were filming… we could hear people shouting ‘[J]ump, you,'” she said. “They weren’t all just young people, some were middle-aged. To be honest with you I was sickened.”

Derbyshire’s Chief Constable Mick Creedon, also yesterday commented on the indent. “The tragic death of Shaun Dykes at Derby on 27th September has attracted much comment and media speculation,” he started. “The pain that Shaun’s family and friends are suffering must be unimaginable and they have my deepest sympathy.”

“The primary responsibility of the police is the protection of life, and the Derbyshire Constabulary will always have this responsibility at the forefront of our response to such tragic events as Shaun’s death last Saturday,” he continued. “We have very well trained and experienced staff, well practiced in dealing with such incidents and I have no doubt that the officers involved in talking to Shaun on Saturday did their best with the situation they were presented with.”

“The fact that they were unsuccessful in negotiating Shaun to safety will have been very painful for them, particularly for the two officers who spent two hours talking directly to him. They have my sincere thanks for their efforts as, I’m sure, they have the thanks of the vast majority of those reading this.”

Shaun Dykes, had been raised in a single parent family in a village near Derbyshire and he recently returned from a business course to study to become an accountant or a pilot.

Before his death, he was working part time in a local pub. Craig Doxey, his best friend, described Dykes. “He was always smiling and laughing about stuff. I think if it wasn’t for the crowd, Shaun would have got down and got some help from all his mates, work colleagues and the police.”

He went to Heanor Gate Science College, and he was openly gay. According to one of his friends from that school, Rebkha Minkley, “he always came in, in the morning with a smile on his face.”

According to the Today program, Dykes is believed to have left a suicide note before jumping off the building.

Friday, June 30, 2006

An Australian has been shot in the abdomen in Thailand. The 22-year-old man from Wagga Wagga, Lee Burkinshaw, was shot in the Chantaburi province during a drive by shooting. He was evacuated to Bangkok hospital after receiving some treatment at a local hospital. An operation is needed to remove the bullet from his abdomen. He is expected to make a full recovery.

His spleen was removed but no vital organs have been damaged.

His father received a call at 2 a.m. AEST.

Lee went to Thailand to study the gem cutting.

“It is the gem capital of the world, and a lot of the rough cut gemstones come into there to be cut and styled,” Mr. Burkingsaw said.

He is undeterred from revisiting Thailand.

“This is purely a one-off incident … Thailand is a wonderful country, it’s just an unfortunate incident,” said Lee.

This is the second incident in recent weeks in which an Australian had been shot in Thailand. Last week a nurse was killed when she was shot in the neck near a bar.

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals have won their respective conference championship games to advance to Super Bowl XLIII, the championship game of the National Football League. The game is scheduled to take place on February 1 in Tampa Bay at Raymond James Stadium. The Steelers were the American Football Conference champion, defeating the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 23 to 14. Meanwhile, the Cardinals became the National Football Conference champions by defeating the Philadelphia Eagles 32 to 25.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was the first rookie quarterback in the history of the NFL to help lead his team to two straight playoff victories, defeating the number 3 seeded Miami Dolphins to win the Wild Card round, and the number 1 seeded Tennessee Titans in the divisional round. They came in to the game against a number 2 seeded Steelers team that had already defeated them twice during the regular season. Early in the game the Steelers defense dominated the field, forcing him to only complete 3 out of 14 pass attempts and end the half with a lowly 9.8 quarterback rating and his team losing 13 to 7. By the beginning of the second half, snow was beginning to fall. Early in the third quarter, Flacco threw a 16 yard pass to wide receiver Derrick Mason, only to be sacked by safety Troy Polamalu for an 8-yard loss on the next play, forcing a punt for the Ravens. The Steelers were held on their next possession, forcing another punt. After the Ravens got the ball back, Flacco led the team down the field in what ended as a 58-yard touchdown drive to put the team up 16 to 14. However, near the end of the game, Flacco threw an errant pass intended for Mason that was intercepted by Polamalu and returned for a 40-yard defensive touchdown. This made the score 23 to 14, and essentially knocked the Ravens out of the game.

With 3:19 remaining in the game and the Ravens in possession of the ball for one last chance, a passing play was called. Flacco dropped back into a throwing position, and threw a short pass to running back Willis McGahee, who caught the ball and turned upfield. Going full speed up the field, Steelers safety Ryan Clark collided with McGahee, also running at full speed. The two made helmet-to-helmet-contact, knocking both players to the ground and knocking the ball out of the hands of McGahee. Ray Rice, another running back, commented “It was tough to watch. He’s like a brother to me.” Clark was helped off of the field by the Steelers medical staff, but McGahee remained down on the field with movement in only his legs and arms. He told team doctors that he had significant pain in his neck, and was taken off the field on a cart and taken to a nearby hospital. It is unknown how severe the injuries are at this time.

After the game, Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in a statement “I’m not going to sit here and say Joe played a certain way. Joe went out there and competed and battled and fought and tried to find a way to win the football game. So I certainly have no complaints about that.” Flacco completed only 17 out of 30 pass attempts for 141 yards passing. He was also sacked 3 times and threw 3 interceptions. “I’m not blaming it on any rookie-wall stuff. I don’t believe in any of that stuff,” said Flacco.

In the NFC championship, the Arizona Cardinals had not made it to a Super Bowl in the past 60 years. They were matched up against the high-powered offense of the Philadelphia Eagles, who were the number 6 seed in the NFC. The Cardinals were the number 4 seed, defeating the number 5 seeded Atlanta Falcons on Wild Card weekend, and the number 2 seeded Carolina Panthers in the NFC Divisional playoff round. The Cardinals were led by quarterback Kurt Warner, who became the second quarterback in NFL history to lead two different teams to a Super Bowl, the other being the St. Louis Rams. During the first half, the Cardinals quickly took the lead. By halftime, their lead was extended to 18 points in what looked like an easy win for the team. However, in the third quarter, Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb threw three touchdown passes, two of them being to tight end Brent Celek. After kicker David Akers missed an extra point attempt after the third touchdown pass, the score was 25 to 24 in favor of the Eagles. After the Cardinals received the ball, they drove up the field. With just under 3 minutes remaining in the game, Kurt Warner completed a game-winning touchdown pass to running back Tim Hightower, making the score 32 to 25,. and sealing the game for the Cardinals.

Kurt Warner completed 21 passes out of 28 pass attempts, for a total of 279 passing yards. Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald caught three touchdown passes of 9, 62, and 1 yard, building on his record-breaking playoff performance of 23 catches, 419 yards, and 5 receiving touchdowns over 3 games. “It really set in when I saw the confetti. I always dreamed of being in the confetti. This is beyond my wildest dreams,” said Cardinals linebacker Bertrand Berry after the game. On the other side, Donovan McNabb remarked on not making it to the Super Bowl again. “You never want anything to end. It’s tough when you’re that close to making it to the Super Bowl,” he commented.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

As the slow-moving tropical cyclone known as Hurricane Dorian finally cleared the Bahamas yesterday, the level of destruction left in its wake began to emerge. Dorian made its initial landfall as a Category 5 hurricane in the Abaco Islands on Sunday. Its wind speeds reached 185 mph (~295 km/h), tied for the strongest sustained winds at landfalling on record, according to the National Hurricane Center.

After landfall, the speed at which Dorian moved slowed down dramatically, resulting in a very long stay over the island of Grand Bahama. In a thirty hour period of Monday and Tuesday, Dorian only traversed thirty miles, according to CNN. The National Hurricane Center said all tropical storm warnings were lifted as of yesterday morning and Dorian had also been downgraded to a Category 2 storm.

According to the BBC, residents were doing most rescue work themselves using boats and personal watercraft. Prime minister Hubert Minnis said yesterday night that twenty people have been confirmed killed. “We expect that this number will increase”, he noted.

“Parts of Abaco are decimated […] There is severe flooding. There is severe flooding damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure”, Minnis said. “The southern aspect of Abaco has suffered less devastation than the north. The Sandy Point area and progressing north has not suffered as much devastation that was seen in the Marsh Harbour vicinity. The international airport on Abaco is under water. The runway is currently flooded. In fact, the area around the airport now looks like a lake.”

A large number of homes and other buildings in the affected areas have been destroyed with some estimates by the Red Cross and government officials ranging from 45% to 60% destruction. The United Nations said some 60 thousand people are in need of food and drinking water.

Dorian was northbound as it left the Bahamas.