Wednesday, October 31, 2007

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Daylight Saving Time will end on November 4, 2007 at 2:00 a.m. local time for most of the United States and Canada.

This change is different from previous years due to a U.S. mandated daylight saving time change, which was caused by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The next change to regular Daylight Saving Time will be in 2038.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Three men are currently seeking the presidential nomination of the Reform Party of the United States of America: small business owner Andre Barnett, Earth Intelligence Network CEO Robert Steele, and former college football coach Robby Wells. Wikinews reached out to these candidates and asked each of them five questions about their campaigns. There were no space limits placed on the responses, and no candidate was exposed to another’s responses before making their own. The answers are posted below in unedited form for comparison of the candidates.

The Reform Party is a United States third party that was founded in 1995 by industrialist Ross Perot. Perot ran as the party’s first presidential nominee in 1996, and won over eight percent of the popular vote, the highest percentage for a third party candidate since. In 1998, professional wrestler Jesse Ventura ran on the Reform Party ticket and was elected Governor of Minnesota. The party fell in prominence during the lead-up to the 2000 presidential election when it was plagued by infighting between ideological factions. In 2000, paleoconservative Pat Buchanan won the presidential nomination, and went on to receive only 0.4 percent of the popular vote in the general election. In 2004, the party opted to endorse consumer advocate Ralph Nader, but ended the year nearly bankrupt. In 2008, Ted Weill won the party’s presidential nomination, but appeared on the ballot in only one state and won a total of 481 votes.

The party is currently trying to rebuild and has opened several new state chapters. They will attempt to appear on the ballot in more states for the 2012 presidential election. The party is expected to nominate its presidential ticket during the National Convention this summer.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Two tornadoes touched down around the same time yesterday afternoon near the small town of Wellington, Utah in the Mill Creek Subdivision area. Initial reports are that both tornadoes rated somewhere between F0 and F1, on the lower end of the Fujita scale. Several trees were reported to have toppled over, a mobile home was severely damaged, and a travel trailer was reported to have been thrown over 50 yards. Other homes had minor damage.

It is exceedingly rare for a tornado to touch down in settled areas of Utah, and even more rare for two to touch down at the same time. The last tornado to touch down in Utah was the Salt Lake City tornado in 1999.

Wellington is about 130 miles (200 km) by road south-east of Salt Lake City, the capital of the US state of Utah.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

KYUSHU, Japan —

A powerful magnitude 7 earthquake rocked Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu at 10:53 am local time today (0153 UTC), prompting the Japanese Meteorological Agency to issue tsunami warnings for the area. The tsunami warnings were canceled later in the day.

A 75-year-old woman was killed in Fukuoka city by a falling wall. At least 400 people were injured by the quake. Local Fukuoka Airport and high speed bullet trains in the area temporarily suspended operations to look for damage.

According to the agency, the epicenter of the earthquake was in shallow water in the Sea of Japan, off the north coast of Fukuoka Prefecture.

Small aftershocks continued throughout the day, with authorities advising that residents should be prepared for aftershocks of up to magnitude 6.

In the aftermath of the quake, people were quickly alerted to the state of the situation by television reports, telephone, and text-messaging systems.

Interviewed by telephone in Hitoyoshi, well inland from the epicenter of the quake, a local resident noted the severity of the quake was frightening, and left the elderly woman unable to remain seated on a chair. Shutting off gas was the first priority, with the local television coverage providing a quick status update for the situation, followed by an interruption by national emergency network coverage.

A foreign resident of Fukuoka city reported taking refuge under his desk for several minutes as books and ornaments fell from shelves. He prepared to evacuate to high ground in case of a tsunami, but news reports indicated little danger from a tsunami. He also reported that Japanese residents appeared unconcerned by the quake, with many strolling near Momochi beach shortly after the quake, showing little apparent concern.

In Tenjin, downtown Fukuoka, Fukuoka Building’s windows shattered, and the block was quickly cordoned off. In addition to Fukuoka Building, many other buildings and businesses remained closed to shoppers.

Wikinews contributor Oarih reports that a festive atmosphere pervaded the streets, however, as employees from Nishinihon Shimbun (a major Japanese newspaper) passed out one-page articles on the earthquake and curious onlookers investigated the damaged buildings and sidewalks. Many residents, relieved by the relatively low damage inflicted by the earthquake, started visiting pubs and restaurants at lunch for a celebratory beer. With train and subway services disrupted, queues over 100 people long formed at some Nishitetsu bus stops in Tenjin as dusk approached.

The penetration of modern text-messaging by the Japanese Keitai, the common Japanese cell phone system more prevalent than computer-based email, led to quick status checks on many family members located near the coast around Fukuoka, close to the quake’s epicentre. Wikinews contributor Oarih reports that cell phone service providers were swamped by the spike in use, however, and both voice and text services remained unreliable for much of the day.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has announced he wants a “full-scale nuclear debate”, and three of his senior federal government frontbenchers – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Resources Minister, Ian Macfarlane, and Environment Minister Ian Campbell – have all suggested Australia, which has around 40 per cent of the world’s known uranium reserves, should consider enriching uranium – a step in processing that would allow it to be used as reactor fuel as well as for nuclear weapons.

However there is strong opposition for nuclear power in the Australian community. The Australian Greens have rejected the Prime Minister’s assumption that nuclear power might be ‘desirable’ for Australia. The Greens say they challenge Mr Howard to show “true leadership on climate change and nuclear non-proliferation.“

Greens climate change and energy spokesperson Senator Christine Milne said Mr Howard was “playing politics” by floating the idea and testing public opinion before developing a government position.

“Instead of pandering to US President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair – the two most unpopular leaders in the world today – Prime Minister Howard should demonstrate real leadership and put some authenticity into the government’s response to climate change and terrorism,” Senator Milne said. “Nuclear power and nuclear proliferation are a threat to both.”

Senator Milne challenged advocates of nuclear power to explain what they will to do about nuclear waste, how large a public subsidy they are prepared to pay to prop up nuclear power, and why the Sustainable Development Commission was wrong when it recommended last month against expanding nuclear power in Britain.

“Australians have already had to subsidise uranium mining companies to clean up after mines have closed, while last week’s Budget papers revealed that ANSTO can’t estimate the cost of decommissioning the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor,” Senator Milne said. “When will advocates of nuclear power admit that it is too slow, too expensive and too dangerous to be a solution to climate change? Nor is there any safe way to dispose of the waste. It is not even safe to transport, a concern supported by the head of the International Energy Agency…” said Senator Milne in a media release.

“Instead of turning to nuclear power, Australia should ratify the Kyoto Protocol, invest in renewable energy, adopt a national energy efficiency target and improve public transport.

“Several studies examining options to achieve deep cuts in Australian greenhouse emissions all show this goal can be achieved, cost effectively, without resorting to nuclear power,” said Senator Milne in a media release.

Greens leader Bob Brown says the Prime Minister is sending a message of approval for Indonesia to become a nuclear power. “Australia and our region are essentially nuclear-free. Mr Howard is abandoning that security to grab uranium profits and facilitate an Australian role in nuclear enrichment,” Senator Brown said. “This robs Australia of its moral strength to argue against Indonesia resurrecting the Soeharto plan for 12 nuclear reactors and to advance its interest in Russian-built floating nuclear power stations.”

“This will make our region much less secure for the next generation of Australians,” Senator Brown said. “John Howard has talked up regional terrorism. Now he is promoting nuclear power proliferation in our neighbourhood. At best his logic is faulty, at worst he is taking Australia into a future unnecessarily menaced by the nuclear threat,” Senator Brown said.

Labor MP Kelvin Thomson says John Howard’s push towards nuclear power generation could heighten the risk of a terrorist attack. “The problem with nuclear power is that more of it that is around, the easier it is for terrorists to get access to it and I’m not satisfied that in this day and age we can be absolutely certain that terrorists can’t access it,” Mr Thomson said.

Mr Thompson said the Government should be focussing its interest on “much safer and environmentally-friendly” abundant renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. Mr Thomson said Australia was a potential world-leader in solar power. “Surely you exhaust all the other alternatives first before you say let’s go down the nuclear road,” he said.

“The problem with nuclear power is that more of it that is around, the easier it is for terrorists to get access to it,” he said. “I’m not satisfied that in this day and age you can be absolutely certain that terrorists can’t access it.”

Union leader Bill Shorten, a federal Labor candidate at the next election, believes the issue is unpopular with the electorate. A survey in 2005 found 47 percent of Australians supported nuclear power and 40 percent opposed it.

Professor Frank Muller from the University of New South Wales, said the framework to manage nuclear power needs to be put in place first. He says it could take decades before a nuclear power plant could operate. “So it actually takes even longer to provide a greenhouse benefit than it does to build a power plant,” he said. Professor Muller says nuclear power stations are expensive to build, and safety is a major issue.

Opposition environment spokesman Anthony Albanese said: “John Howard’s nuclear fantasy is Australia’s nightmare,” Mr Albanese told reporters. “Intractable problems with nuclear energy when it comes to economic costs, safety, disposal of waste and contribution to nuclear proliferation remain up to some 50 years.”

Mr Albanese said that if Mr Howard was serious about nuclear power he should say where a nuclear power plant would be built, and where the waste it produced would be stored. “If he’s so confident that nuclear energy is safe… I’m sure he’ll have coalition MPs volunteering to have a nuclear reactor in their electorate and to store their waste in the electorate,” he said.

Mr Albanese said the current Labor policy remained opposed to nuclear energy in Australia.