Society's ChildS

Nuke

Japan's Fukushima explosion 'caused chaos and confusion', report says


Metro
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:53 UTC
Chaos followed the leak at a Japanese nuclear plant caused by a huge earthquake despite an emergency drill a week earlier, a report has revealed.

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© AP/Kyodo NewsWorkers continue to clear up the debris after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Staff at the Fukushima facility held a disaster exercise before the March 11 crisis and 'everyone was familiar with emergency exits', said the report from plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco).

But it did not help their response to the actual emergency, the report revealed.
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Pistol

Canada: 10-Year-Old Accidentally Shoots British Columbia Teen Dead


CBC News
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:11 UTC
A 10-year-old boy was holding a loaded shotgun when it accidently discharged, killing a 17-year-old teenager on Thursday, according to RCMP in Cranbrook, B.C.

Police said six teens were hanging out in a house when they started fooling around with a shotgun owned by one of their parents. The gun went off, hitting Michael Voth, 17, who was pronounced dead at the scene, said police.

"The police investigation, to date, indicates that the shooting was an accident. A 10-year-old child was able to access a loaded shotgun, which discharged while he held it in his hands," said a statement released by Cpl. Chris Faulkner.

"Under the Criminal Code of Canada, there are no provisions for a child under the age of 12 years to face criminal charges, nor can their identity be released," he said.
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Eye 1

Canada: Vancouver Police to Use Facial-Recognition Technology in Riot Investigation

Chase Kell
The Right Click
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:26 UTC
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The hundreds that broke windows and burned cars following Vancouver's game 7 Cup loss to Boston might want to take a cue from the handful that have already turned themselves in.

Vancouver police are combing through more than one million photos from the infamous riot, as well as thousands of hours of raw footage, using facial-recognition technology to aid in the investigation.

"Subject to receipt of a court order, the (Crown) corporation's facial-recognition technology will be able to support the identification of suspects," states a news report from Christy Clark's office in a Straight.com story.

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. has been using the technology since 2009, identifying those involved in theft or fraud by cross-referencing results with provincial driver licences.

By analyzing fixed facial characteristics such as the size/location of cheekbones and the distance between eyes, facial-recognition technology is able to extract the finite details of a person's face. Investigators then cross-reference the results with a database of photos, which can include drivers licences, health cards, passports, etc.
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Better Earth

US: Library of Congress to Get Rare 120 Year Old Map of Flat Earth


Bakersfield Now
Sat, 18 Jun 2011 06:09 UTC
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© The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead
An Oregon man has given the Library of Congress a rare and unusual gift: a 120-year-old map supporting the theory that the Earth is flat.

Don Homuth, of Salem, Ore., says the map was given to him by his eighth-grade teacher. It was created by Orlando Ferguson of Hot Springs, S.D.

Homuth used to live in Fargo and was a North Dakota state senator.

Library of Congress spokesman Robert Morris told The Forum newspaper that officials checked more than 75 maps before confirming the design was one-of-a-kind.

He says the only other known copy of the map is in the Pioneer.

Source: The Associated Press
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Cell Phone

US: Silence Used to be Golden at Movies, but Talking and Texting are Now the Norm

Christy Lemire
The Associated Press
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:09 UTC
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© The Associated Press / Damian DovarganesIn this June 15, 2011 photo, moviegoers Luis Garcia, 37, left, and Elias Sanchez 26, watch movie trailers on Flixster on their iPad and iPhone, before buying their tickets at the ArcLight Hollywood cinema in Los Angeles. Theater owners have tried a variety of methods to get folks to keep quiet and stay off their phones during shows, from playing amusing messages beforehand to having ushers sweep through the auditorium during the show, said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners.
It seems like such a quaint notion: Folks would go to the movie theatre, buy their tickets at the box office, then sit down, shut up and pay attention for two hours to what was on the screen.

Now, the piercing glow of cellphones lights up the darkness like so many pesky fireflies, and people talk to each other in a packed auditorium as if they were sitting in the privacy of their own living rooms.

The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, Texas, did something about this trend by kicking out a patron who refused to adhere to the theatre's rule against talking or texting, then turned the ranting, profane voice message she left into a hilarious public service announcement. It's gotten over 1.75 million hits on YouTube in just a couple of weeks.

But what happened to our attention spans? Why must we talk, text and tweet in the middle of a movie? And what - if anything - can theatres do to stop this erosion of cinema civility?

Matt Atchity, editor-in-chief of the Rotten Tomatoes film review website, crafted "10 Commandments for Movie Audiences" including "Thou shalt not text." But the ubiquity of cellphones makes these sensible suggestions hard to enforce.
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Cow

US: Family Says Woman Died Protecting Toddler from Cow

Tiffany De Masters
Desmoines Register
Sun, 19 Jun 2011 20:05 UTC
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© Allan Baxter/Getty60-year-old Jean Fee was fatally trampled by a cow (not pictured) that may have been defensive around its calves.
A rural Urbana woman died after a cow attacked her while she was feeding her animals, leaving people baffled.

"It's pretty unusual for a cow to become aggressive," said Terry Engelken, an associate professor at Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. "We have a few instances of (cow attacks) across the country every year - but it's uncommon. For it to result in a fatality is very uncommon."

Jean Fee, 60, died Saturday after being attacked on the family farm in rural Benton County, the sheriff's office said. She was with her 1-year-old grandson when the attack happened at about 3 p.m.

Her son Matt Fee said his parents and nephew often would go out to pasture to feed the cows ears of corn.

Jean Fee, her husband and her grandson were on such an outing Saturday afternoon. "My dad went back to the house to get my nephew a drink. The last thing he saw was my mom holding" the boy, Matt Fee said.

Matt Fee said that his dad heard screaming, came out to the pasture and saw his wife lying on the ground and the child standing beside her.
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Info

Internet Minders OK Vast Expansion Of Domain Names

Heather Tan
The Associated Press
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:29 UTC
Keynote Address by BC
© Associated PressFILE - In this March 16, 2010 file photo, former President Bill Clinton gives the keynote address at the "25 Years of Dot Com Policy Impact Forum" in Washington. Internet minders voted Monday, June 20, 2011 to allow virtually unlimited new domain names based on themes as varied as company brands, entertainment and political causes, in the system's biggest shake-up since it started 26 years ago. Groups able to pay the $185,000 application can petition next year for new updates to ".com" and ".net" with suffixes using nearly any word in any language, including in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided at a meeting in Singapore.

Internet minders voted Monday to allow virtually unlimited new domain names based on themes as varied as company brands, entertainment and political causes, in the system's biggest shake-up since it started 26 years ago.

Groups able to pay the $185,000 application can petition next year for new updates to ".com" and ".net" with website suffixes using nearly any word in any language, including in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided at a meeting in Singapore.

"This is the start of a whole new phase for the Internet," said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of ICANN's board of directors. "Unless there is a good reason to restrain it, innovation should be allowed to run free."

ICANN's decision culminates six years of negotiations and is the biggest change to the system since ".com" made its debut in 1984. The expansion plan had been delayed largely because of concerns that new suffixes could infringe on trademarks and copyrights.
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Sherlock

Canada:1918 mass murder mystery still puzzles Albertans

Jana G. Pruden
The Gazette
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:32 UTC
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© Bruce Edwards, edmontonjournal.comThese red and orange trees in the Grande Prairie area, shown in July 2007.
Amateur historian Wallace Tansem spent a decade looking into the biggest unsolved mass murder in Alberta history, a case his father and uncles had talked about for years.

As Tansem learned more about the killings near Grande Prairie, Alta., in June 1918, he was haunted by one thought, the same question another man had asked an undercover police officer more than 70 years earlier.

"How is it that six men are killed and no one knows anything about it?"

It was first assumed to be a murder-suicide. The bodies of Joseph Snyder and his nephew, Stanley, were found in the remains of their burnt-out shack near Grande Prairie. Both had been shot, likely with the .38 revolver found near the bodies. The Snyders were quiet and had always seemed to get along well, but 1918 had been a hard year, and killings were not unheard of.

Six days later, people noticed a bad smell emanating from the farm down the road.
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Magnify

Family seeks truth over mysterious death of British businessman in Ukraine

Nick Irving
Daily Mirror
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:25 UTC
Police have reopened the inquiry into the death of a wealthy British businessman who is feared to have been executed by a contract killer.

Barry Pring, 47, was decapitated by a speeding car as he waited for a taxi in Ukraine in 2008.

Barry Pring
© Unknown
His ex-stripper wife, Ganna Zuizina, 29 - who had left the scene moments before the tragedy - is fighting for a share of his estate, estimated to be worth ยฃ1.5million.

Barry's family believe he was murdered and have spent ยฃ100,000 on legal fees to try to get to the bottom of the case and to stop his internet bride inheriting his cash until the mystery is solved.
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Stormtrooper

France transfers sensitive warship technology to Russia


RIA Novosti
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:07 UTC
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© AFP/ Eric FeferbergFrench-built Mistral class amphibious assault ship
France has transferred to Russia all the technology it asked for under a $1.7-billion deal for two French-built Mistral class amphibious assault ships for the Russian Navy, a Russian arms exporter said on Monday.

Under the deal signed on Friday, the first warship will be delivered in 2014 and the second in 2015.

"The French side has transferred all technologies, including the Zenit-9 [command and control] system, as well as two other systems," said Anatoly Isaikin, head of the Rosoboronexport state-controlled arms exporter.

A formal contract for the construction of the two Mistral class ships will be signed separately at a later date, he said, adding it could take up to three months to compile.
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