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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

On the 20th birthday of Nintendo‘s mascots, Mario and his brother Luigi, Nintendo has released the newest addition to the popular Game Boy line.

The Game Boy Micro is the smallest handheld release by Nintendo to date. Unlike other handhelds in the Game Boy Advance series, the Game Boy Micro can only play Game Boy Advance games and not games designed for the original Game Boy system. The handheld features a new link port, includes multiple removable faceplates, and additional faceplates can be purchased separately. This system has an MSRP of USD$99.99.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

In a joint agreement by Australia and the United States, the U.S. Air Force will begin regular strategic bomber aircraft training in the Northern Territory early next year. At the recent high-level AUSMIN talks between the U.S. and Australia it was announced that the strategic bomber training program would involve B-52 and B-1 bombers and the B-2 stealth aircraft.

Under the new arrangements aircraft would fly direct from the United States for bombing operations at the Delamere Air Weapons Range situated about 130km south-west of Katherine in the Northern Territory. Delamere is a 211,000ha bombing range used regularly by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for dropping live weapons. The Darwin RAAF base would also be available for the bombers to land and refuel if necessary. The planes will fly to the Northern Territory from the U.S. Pacific Island base of Guam.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Large herd animals may have the ability to detect earth’s magnetic field, concluded scientists in Germany in a report published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences after performing studies of cattle and deer grazing and sleeping patterns. The animals tended to face north-south oriented toward the earth’s magnetic poles. Hynek Burda of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany led the team that announced the unconfirmed study. Burda and his team gathered cattle data via analysis of Google Earth images.

The team originally intended to test for possible human magnetic field detection by studying the orientation of sleeping bags in outdoor campers, but it proved difficult to obtain data because humans usually slept under tents. Cattle were easier to observe, and 8,510 head of cattle at 308 locations demonstrated a strong tendency to align body orientation in accordance with the earth’s magnetic field. Other possible factors such as wind or sunlight direction did not supply a better explanation for the behavior.

To compare against a second large species, Burda and his team analyzed data on 2,974 deer studied through photography, direct observation, and snow imprints. The deer demonstrated a similar pattern. “I think the really amazing thing is that hunters and herdsmen and farmers didn’t notice it,” said Burda according to a National Public Radio report.

Other scientists found the results of the study intriguing. Peter August of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, commented: “I was really amazed at the consistency with which they found north-facing cows and deer. It was really intriguing.” No independent study has yet confirmed the Duisburg-Essen team’s findings.

This is the first study that indicates magnetic field detection in large mammals. Burda’s previous research involves naked mole rats, a small blind mammal species whose behavior indicates an internal magnetic compass. According to a report by Jeremy Hsu at MSNBC, “Previous research has shown that animals such as birds, turtles and salmon migrate using a sense of magnetic direction, and small mammals such as rodents and one bat species also have a magnetic compass.”

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Rico Daniels is a British TV presenter living in France who is known for his two television series — The Salvager — whilst he still lived in the UK and then Le Salvager after he moved to France. Rico has been in a variety of jobs but his passion is now his profession – he turns unwanted ‘junk’ into unusual pieces of furniture. Rico’s creations and the methods used to fabricate them are the subject of the Salvager shows.

Rico spoke to Wikinews in January about his inspiration and early life, future plans, other hobbies and more. Read on for the full exclusive interview, published for the first time:

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

On April 8, 2005, police picked up an unidentified man wandering the streets of Sheerness, United Kingdom. The man was wearing a formal black suit and white shirt with all labels removed, and was soaking wet, as if having been in the sea.

He has not spoken a word since he was found, but when given pencil and paper he drew a piano. Seeing the picture of the piano, the medical staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital where he was admitted showed him the piano in the hospital chapel. To their amazement he sat at the instrument and played classical and pop music for several hours.

Many press reports have emphasized the piano playing, and the man has been labelled “The Piano Man” by many news services, although the hospital staff has been calling him “Mr. X.”

However, the chaplain of the hospital, the Reverend Steve Spencer, said the man “is not the virtuoso that he has been portrayed in the press. He knows a small number of tunes and plays them over and over. I recognized some John Lennon and a snippet from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.”

The man also pointed to a flag of Sweden when shown an atlas, initially leading the hospital staff to believe he was from Sweden. To date this lead has not panned out. A different account from the National Missing Persons Helpline (NMPH) indicated that the man actually drew the flag.

The NMPH is appealing to anyone who recognizes the man to contact Teri on +44 20 8392 4509. All calls will be treated as confidential. The NMPH can also be reached at +44 500 700700. Emails can also be sent to id@missingpersons.org.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

In the United States Senate on Tuesday, Senators Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, and Mike Enzi, a Republican from Wyoming, introduced the “Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act” (S.428), a bill that would lift the travel restrictions that have prevented U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba since the early 1960s. The bill is co-sponsored by 20 senators, and the House of Representatives is considering a companion measure, H.R. 874, introduced by Representatives Bill Delahunt and Jeff Flake. The House measure has 121 cosponsors.

Senator Dick Lugar, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, spoke in favor of the bill, saying that the United States’ embargo on Cuba had “failed to achieve its stated purpose of bringing democracy to the Cuban people.”

Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, a Democrat and a second generation Cuban-American, opposes the bill, arguing that free travel by Europeans, Canadians and the citizens of other Latin American countries has not helped to democratize the island nation. “The regime has not opened up,” said Sen. Menendez. “On the contrary, it has used resources to become more oppressive.”

The United States has not had diplomatic relations with Cuba since 1961, and has maintained a trade embargo on the country since 1962. President Barack Obama has spoken in favor of changing U.S. policy towards Cuba, but has not offered specific details.

The United States Chamber of Commerce issued a press release supporting the bill. “The US embargo on Cuba is a 50-year failure, and lifting the ban on travel is a good first step toward a more rational policy,” said Myron Brilliant, an officer of the organization. Other organizations issuing press releases in support of the bill include the U.S. Rice Producers Association and the non-profit Center for Democracy in the Americas.