Pacaya volcano erupts; “state of public calamity” declared

Saturday, May 29, 2010

The Pacaya Volcano erupted on Friday. It is located 50 kilometers south of the capital of Guatemala, Guatemala City. Throughout the evening and night, volcanic ash fell in the municipalities of Amatitlán, Villa Nueva, and Guatemala City.

President Álvaro Colom’s government has decreed a State of Public Calamity in the Escuintla, Sacatepéquez and Guatemala departments, for 15 days or more, so the authorities can do their job correctly. The emergency response is being coordinated by the National Coordination for Disaster Reduction (CONRED).

The eruption was followed by several tremors. All flights in and out of Guatemala City’s La Aurora International Airport, have been suspended. The eruption has caused many casualties, among them the death of Aníbal Archila, NOTI7’s reporter, who was one of the first reporting the event.

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“Woofstock” dog festival in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

North America’s largest outdoor dog festival came back to Toronto last weekend for its fifth year. It ran from the 9th of June to the 10th of June at Toronto’s historical St. Lawrence Market. A Wikinews reporter was there on Sunday to report on some of the events that happened on the last day.

The “Woofstock” dog festival attracted as many as 140,000 people with their dogs. The festival had tons of accessories, sold under tents, to buy for dogs; food, toys, designer clothes, and more. About 400 vendors and exhibitors were there to promote their products, which also gave private dog companies or groups a chance to show their new products. The local SPCA and some animal rescues were under tents answering questions from visitors. While walking, all visitors could see the CN Tower and other very tall buildings.

One of the local TV stations, Citytv, was there. They hosted a live event at the show which was broadcast on TV. People came up on the stage and asked questions regarding their dogs and the host and co-host answered them.

A man, who called himself the “Chalk Master”, drew two pictures on pavement with chalk. He did it for free but donations were welcome. One was a picture of a girl’s head beside a dog’s head, and another with a wolf.

“Hello Humans. I’ve been invited here to provide your eyeball(s), with some pretty colours. I don’t get paid as I work this weekend strictly for tips… so, if you like what you see please make a DONATION. If you don’t like it simply reach into the pocket of the person next to you and give me their money. CHALK MASTER.”

A contest called “Canada’s top dog” had its own tent with a professional photographer taking pictures of dogs behind a white screen; the winning photo is to be published on the cover of “Puppy and dog basics” magazine.

Large “Gourmet” dog bones were also served from a cart and table.

Next year’s festival is expected to be bigger and better with even more attractions.

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How Reliable Are Toyota Models In Comparison To Other Brands?

Toyotas are primarily designed to be powerful but in the newer models functionality has also been considered by the Toyota designers. Thanks to this, some of the new Toyota cars have been created to provide power but they also have many aesthetic and practical design features to make driving and using a Toyota a little bit easier. Also, designers have made the body work of the Toyota more refined, the interiors sleeker and the displays clearer to read. Developments of this kind have really worked to bring the Toyota up to scratch with competing models and it has also made their newer cars mention well-selling.The UK motorist appreciates what they are having with a Toyota, which possibly has a nod to the design of the cars and how they are promoted through the media. For example, ad campaigns portray Toyota vehicles as tough, durable and multi-functional and this seems to be a view that the mass public has adopted. It is of little shock that if a family requires a good mileage car that they vote to go to one of the four car builders, of which Toyota is one. To curtly summarise, if you are chasing a powerful, focused and entertaining motoring service then you cannot do much better than a Toyota.The power available with a Toyota is phenomenal as when you drive a Toyota you have faith in your ability to rise above any issues. This is in the main because the Toyota engine has a large amount of horsepower not only to win over the motor’s heaviness and to help with extra support for determined dynamism. This determined driving could be for off-road purposes, driving friends and your kids to the football or simply the moving of large loads. In fact, Toyota models are ideal for a plethora of alternate circumstances, mainly because of the power and speed that the Toyota engines can offer to drivers.Toyota models have extremely durable interiors that can withstand the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Surfaces and interiors in Toyota cars have been designed to be tough and due to this are really easy to clean, even when they are covered in mud and dirt. They are therefore ideal for a family with young children, people in the country or people with pets. However, Toyota interiors have not just been designed for durability, they’re also quite stylish. This is because the interiors have modern design features and an easy to read display panel. Combined, these features make them excellent multi-purpose vehicles for a wide range of different lifestyles, which make Toyota contract hire a great choice.Getting in a Toyota means that you will soon feel the power surging through the engine, which makes driving one really special. Feeling unsafe in a Toyota is most definitely not an issue, as it has a host of features to protect you from crashes. However, the ride is still smooth and you feel in control at all times. This perhaps has something to do with the amazing handling, rear suspension and grip that Toyota models can furnish you with. Both the handling and power mean a Toyota is the driver’s ultimate best friend.Hopefully this article has given you a better idea of the features that make Toyota models durable and you should therefore know whether they are suitable for your personal driving needs.

Ukrainian manufacturer preparing to sell Adolf Hitler dolls

Thursday, April 24, 2008

 Correction — May 3, 2008 This article has been retracted. This article has been deemed a hoax. Please see the follow up article, Hitler doll story found to be hoaxed, for more information. 

News reports are claiming that dolls depicting former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler will go on sale in Ukraine. These reports cite Ukraine’s Zerkalo Nedeli newspaper which reported that a toy manufacturer would release the line of Hitler dolls in the summer.

The 40cm doll will reportedly first be available in Kiev with a £100 (GBP) price tag and comes with a large range of accessories in a presentation box with the dates of Hitler’s birth and death.

Nazis images are illegal in Ukraine, with positive portrayal specifically banned. However, there are allegations that right-wing nationalist politics are gaining strength in the country and that xenophobia and racism are on the rise, including some said to be comparable to that present in Germany under Nazi rule. Fascism and propaganda are also banned.

When the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine, was invaded by Germany under Hitler’s rule 2–3 million Ukrainians were among the casualties, of which 1.5 million were Jews.

Adolf can be dressed in various guises, including “early days Adolf”, which consists of a brown shirt and jodhpurs, and “Wartime Adolf”, which features a grey tunic, black trousers and the Iron Cross medal. The doll also comes with boots and shoes, caps, gloves, full uniforms, cane and belt which can be placed on Hitler, whose arms move, allowing the doll to replicate the famed salute of its real life counterpart.

Kids can undress fuhrer, pin on medals and there’s a spare head in the kit to give him a kinder expression on his face

Also included is a model of Blondi, Hitler’s female German Shepherd, who was exceedingly loyal to Hitler. Hitler poisoned Blondi with cyanide in 1945 at the same time as taking his own life in his bunker at Berlin.

“It is like Barbie. Kids can undress fuhrer, pin on medals and there’s a spare head in the kit to give him a kinder expression on his face. He has glasses that are round, in the manner of pacifist John Lennon,” said one saleswoman. The company, which will release the dolls in Summer, says that if demand is high a range of toys themed on the Third Reich may be released, to include barracks, working models of crematoriums and gas chambers, concentration camps and interior models of the chancellery.

The doll is not set to be released until the summer, but BBC News Online has footage suggesting that some stores are selling the doll already.

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Cleveland, Ohio clinic performs US’s first face transplant

Thursday, December 18, 2008

A team of eight transplant surgeons in Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, USA, led by reconstructive surgeon Dr. Maria Siemionow, age 58, have successfully performed the first almost total face transplant in the US, and the fourth globally, on a woman so horribly disfigured due to trauma, that cost her an eye. Two weeks ago Dr. Siemionow, in a 23-hour marathon surgery, replaced 80 percent of her face, by transplanting or grafting bone, nerve, blood vessels, muscles and skin harvested from a female donor’s cadaver.

The Clinic surgeons, in Wednesday’s news conference, described the details of the transplant but upon request, the team did not publish her name, age and cause of injury nor the donor’s identity. The patient’s family desired the reason for her transplant to remain confidential. The Los Angeles Times reported that the patient “had no upper jaw, nose, cheeks or lower eyelids and was unable to eat, talk, smile, smell or breathe on her own.” The clinic’s dermatology and plastic surgery chair, Francis Papay, described the nine hours phase of the procedure: “We transferred the skin, all the facial muscles in the upper face and mid-face, the upper lip, all of the nose, most of the sinuses around the nose, the upper jaw including the teeth, the facial nerve.” Thereafter, another team spent three hours sewing the woman’s blood vessels to that of the donor’s face to restore blood circulation, making the graft a success.

The New York Times reported that “three partial face transplants have been performed since 2005, two in France and one in China, all using facial tissue from a dead donor with permission from their families.” “Only the forehead, upper eyelids, lower lip, lower teeth and jaw are hers, the rest of her face comes from a cadaver; she could not eat on her own or breathe without a hole in her windpipe. About 77 square inches of tissue were transplanted from the donor,” it further described the details of the medical marvel. The patient, however, must take lifetime immunosuppressive drugs, also called antirejection drugs, which do not guarantee success. The transplant team said that in case of failure, it would replace the part with a skin graft taken from her own body.

Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, a Brigham and Women’s Hospital surgeon praised the recent medical development. “There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Leading bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania withheld judgment on the Cleveland transplant amid grave concerns on the post-operation results. “The biggest ethical problem is dealing with failure — if your face rejects. It would be a living hell. If your face is falling off and you can’t eat and you can’t breathe and you’re suffering in a terrible manner that can’t be reversed, you need to put on the table assistance in dying. There are patients who can benefit tremendously from this. It’s great that it happened,” he said.

Dr Alex Clarke, of the Royal Free Hospital had praised the Clinic for its contribution to medicine. “It is a real step forward for people who have severe disfigurement and this operation has been done by a team who have really prepared and worked towards this for a number of years. These transplants have proven that the technical difficulties can be overcome and psychologically the patients are doing well. They have all have reacted positively and have begun to do things they were not able to before. All the things people thought were barriers to this kind of operations have been overcome,” she said.

The first partial face transplant surgery on a living human was performed on Isabelle Dinoire on November 27 2005, when she was 38, by Professor Bernard Devauchelle, assisted by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard in Amiens, France. Her Labrador dog mauled her in May 2005. A triangle of face tissue including the nose and mouth was taken from a brain-dead female donor and grafted onto the patient. Scientists elsewhere have performed scalp and ear transplants. However, the claim is the first for a mouth and nose transplant. Experts say the mouth and nose are the most difficult parts of the face to transplant.

In 2004, the same Cleveland Clinic, became the first institution to approve this surgery and test it on cadavers. In October 2006, surgeon Peter Butler at London‘s Royal Free Hospital in the UK was given permission by the NHS ethics board to carry out a full face transplant. His team will select four adult patients (children cannot be selected due to concerns over consent), with operations being carried out at six month intervals. In March 2008, the treatment of 30-year-old neurofibromatosis victim Pascal Coler of France ended after having received what his doctors call the worlds first successful full face transplant.

Ethical concerns, psychological impact, problems relating to immunosuppression and consequences of technical failure have prevented teams from performing face transplant operations in the past, even though it has been technically possible to carry out such procedures for years.

Mr Iain Hutchison, of Barts and the London Hospital, warned of several problems with face transplants, such as blood vessels in the donated tissue clotting and immunosuppressants failing or increasing the patient’s risk of cancer. He also pointed out ethical issues with the fact that the procedure requires a “beating heart donor”. The transplant is carried out while the donor is brain dead, but still alive by use of a ventilator.

According to Stephen Wigmore, chair of British Transplantation Society’s ethics committee, it is unknown to what extent facial expressions will function in the long term. He said that it is not certain whether a patient could be left worse off in the case of a face transplant failing.

Mr Michael Earley, a member of the Royal College of Surgeon‘s facial transplantation working party, commented that if successful, the transplant would be “a major breakthrough in facial reconstruction” and “a major step forward for the facially disfigured.”

In Wednesday’s conference, Siemionow said “we know that there are so many patients there in their homes where they are hiding from society because they are afraid to walk to the grocery stores, they are afraid to go the the street.” “Our patient was called names and was humiliated. We very much hope that for this very special group of patients there is a hope that someday they will be able to go comfortably from their houses and enjoy the things we take for granted,” she added.

In response to the medical breakthrough, a British medical group led by Royal Free Hospital’s lead surgeon Dr Peter Butler, said they will finish the world’s first full face transplant within a year. “We hope to make an announcement about a full-face operation in the next 12 months. This latest operation shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people. These are people who would otherwise live a terrible twilight life, shut away from public gaze,” he said.

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Saturn moon Enceladus may have salty ocean

Thursday, June 23, 2011

NASA’s Cassini–Huygens spacecraft has discovered evidence for a large-scale saltwater reservoir beneath the icy crust of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The data came from the spacecraft’s direct analysis of salt-rich ice grains close to the jets ejected from the moon. The study has been published in this week’s edition of the journal Nature.

Data from Cassini’s cosmic dust analyzer show the grains expelled from fissures, known as tiger stripes, are relatively small and usually low in salt far away from the moon. Closer to the moon’s surface, Cassini found that relatively large grains rich with sodium and potassium dominate the plumes. The salt-rich particles have an “ocean-like” composition and indicate that most, if not all, of the expelled ice and water vapor comes from the evaporation of liquid salt-water. When water freezes, the salt is squeezed out, leaving pure water ice behind.

Cassini’s ultraviolet imaging spectrograph also recently obtained complementary results that support the presence of a subsurface ocean. A team of Cassini researchers led by Candice Hansen of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, measured gas shooting out of distinct jets originating in the moon’s south polar region at five to eight times the speed of sound, several times faster than previously measured. These observations of distinct jets, from a 2010 flyby, are consistent with results showing a difference in composition of ice grains close to the moon’s surface and those that made it out to the E ring, the outermost ring that gets its material primarily from Enceladean jets. If the plumes emanated from ice, they should have very little salt in them.

“There currently is no plausible way to produce a steady outflow of salt-rich grains from solid ice across all the tiger stripes other than salt water under Enceladus’s icy surface,” said Frank Postberg, a Cassini team scientist at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

The data suggests a layer of water between the moon’s rocky core and its icy mantle, possibly as deep as about 50 miles (80 kilometers) beneath the surface. As this water washes against the rocks, it dissolves salt compounds and rises through fractures in the overlying ice to form reserves nearer the surface. If the outermost layer cracks open, the decrease in pressure from these reserves to space causes a plume to shoot out. Roughly 400 pounds (200 kilograms) of water vapor is lost every second in the plumes, with smaller amounts being lost as ice grains. The team calculates the water reserves must have large evaporating surfaces, or they would freeze easily and stop the plumes.

“We imagine that between the ice and the ice core there is an ocean of depth and this is somehow connected to the surface reservoir,” added Postberg.

The Cassini mission discovered Enceladus’ water-vapor and ice jets in 2005. In 2009, scientists working with the cosmic dust analyzer examined some sodium salts found in ice grains of Saturn’s E ring but the link to subsurface salt water was not definitive. The new paper analyzes three Enceladus flybys in 2008 and 2009 with the same instrument, focusing on the composition of freshly ejected plume grains. In 2008, Cassini discovered a high “density of volatile gases, water vapor, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, as well as organic materials, some 20 times denser than expected” in geysers erupting from the moon. The icy particles hit the detector target at speeds between 15,000 and 39,000 MPH (23,000 and 63,000 KPH), vaporizing instantly. Electrical fields inside the cosmic dust analyzer separated the various constituents of the impact cloud.

“Enceladus has got warmth, water and organic chemicals, some of the essential building blocks needed for life,” said Dennis Matson in 2008, Cassini project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

“This finding is a crucial new piece of evidence showing that environmental conditions favorable to the emergence of life can be sustained on icy bodies orbiting gas giant planets,” said Nicolas Altobelli, the European Space Agency’s project scientist for Cassini.

“If there is water in such an unexpected place, it leaves possibility for the rest of the universe,” said Postberg.

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Sexual Intercourse And Back Pain

A person suffering from back pain may even begin avoiding the bedroom intentionally just for this reason, and that can cause stress in the relationship. The most important step is to be open about it – you can be surprised at how responsive your partner will be if you’re just honest about what may be bothering you.

What Formas of Back Pain Affect Sexual Intercourse?

The main causes of back pain involve problems with the spine, and because it stretches from the neck to the pelvis, any part of it can result in pain. However, most cases of back pain involve lower back pain, and this is also the part of the spine that is most involved in sexual intercourse.

Who Is Most Affected by Back Pain

Back pain can happen to anyone, and at any age, but it is usually experienced by those above 40 years of age. Furthermore, men are at a higher risk of back pain compared to women, hence they may be in more need of the guidelines below.

Steps to Addressing Back Pain Problems Affecting Your Sex Life

Visit a chiropractor

There are various causes for back pain: slipped discs, injury, back muscle strain, herniated disc and plenty of others. Each of these problems is unique in its own way and requires a unique treatment plan. The only way to get an accurate diagnosis for your pain and receive treatment is to see a pain physician who will help you with that.

They are able to carry out all the necessary steps required to determine the cause of your pain using tests such as X-rays and CT scans. Afterwards, you’re going to find out how your problem can be resolved.

Change sex position

We would all love to have quick solutions that fix back pain instantly so that we can go back to our normal lives, but this isn’t always the case. Even despite having the recommended pain relievers, you’re bound to still suffer from some pain, and you just have to live with it. One of the best way of doing so is by adapting more favourable sex positions for your back.

Remember when we spoke about honest conversation with your partner? Well, it’s going to be a lot easier proposing a change in sex position once your partner knows why you would like this. According to research done in the University of Waterloo, different sex positions require varied movements of the spine, and switching sex positions could result in lower stress exerted on your spine.

Nevertheless, it is still important to try out different positions since there are no specific positions that are easiest on the spine. You should identify when you’re most comfortable, either when your spine is extended or flexed, and adapt a sexual position that supports that kind of movement.

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NFL: Packers defeat Lions 31–21, Lions become first team to finish season with 0-16 record

Monday, December 29, 2008

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Detroit Lions on Sunday evening by a final score of 31–21, effectively ending the Lions’ season with an 0-16 record. The game was played at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin and was televised by Fox in the United States. Kickoff was at 1:00 p.m. EDT. The Lions became the first National Football League franchise to complete an “imperfect season” (without a victory) since the introduction of the 16-game schedule in the 1978 NFL season. The winless season comes just a year after the New England Patriots did the reverse, accomplishing the NFL’s first “perfect” 16-0 regular season.

After trailing the game 14–0 entering the second quarter, Detroit rallied back to tie the game at 14 by the end of the third quarter. The Packers took a 10-point lead halfway through the fourth quarter with a field goal by kicker Mason Crosby (Green Bay 17 – Detroit 14) and then a touchdown pass from quarterback Aaron Rodgers to fullback John Kuhn (Green Bay 24 – Detroit 14). The Lions fought back with a rushing touchdown by Kevin Smith which left Detroit within three points of tying the game. However, just 11 seconds later, the Packers took possession and Aaron Rodgers completed a 71-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Donald Driver (Green Bay 31 – Detroit 21). The Packers held on to the lead for the remainder of the game to seal their sixth victory on the season.

Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky was 22-of-42 for 225 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Calvin Johnson led the Lions in receiving with 102 yards and touchdowns. Kevin Smith led the Lions in rushing with 92 yards and one touchdown.

For the Packers, quarterback Aaron Rodgers was 21-of-31 for 308 yards and three touchdowns, and running backs Ryan Grant and DeShawn Wynn rushed for 106 yards each. Wide receivers Donald Driver and Greg Jennings led the Packers in receiving, both tallying over 100 yards.

Prior to the Lions’ loss on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the only franchise since the 1970 AFL–NFL merger to finish a season without a victory or a tie. The 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished their season with a 0-14 record. It was the Buccaneers franchise’s first season in the NFL. Tampa Bay also lost the first 12 games of the 1977 season, and the team’s 26-game losing streak is still the longest in NFL history. The 1982 Baltimore Colts were the most recent NFL team to not win a game in their respective season, failing to win in the strike-shortened 1982 season, posting an 0-8-1 record.

Scoring summary
Qtr Team Time Scoring play Extra point Score
1 GB 09:02 Wynn 73 yard TD run Crosby kick GB 7–0
1 GB 01:33 Finley 3 yard TD pass from Rodgers Crosby kick GB 14–0
2 DET 11:22 Johnson 9 yard TD pass from Orlovsky Hanson kick GB 14–7
3 DET 10:28 Johnson 14 yard TD pass from Orlovsky Hanson kick Tied 14–14
4 GB 13:38 Crosby 36 yard field goal GB 17–14
4 GB 08:40 Kuhn 5 yard TD pass from Rodgers Crosby kick GB 24–17
4 DET 07:38 Smith 9 yard TD run Hanson kick GB 24–21
4 GB 07:27 Driver 71 yard TD pass from Rodgers Crosby kick GB 31–21

The Lions’ loss was closely watched by some members of the 1976 Buccaneers team, including defensive end Pat Toomay. Toomay told reporters, “I would like the torch to be passed…At the same time, you don’t want to wish that on anybody.” Toomay also pointed out that although the Buccaneers lost every game in their inaugural season, the team reached the NFC Championship Game in their fourth season (1979).

Steve Spurrier, the quarterback for the Buccaneers in the 1976 season, voiced his support for the Lions in their quest to win their first game of the season, hoping that only the Buccaneers would hold the distinction of finishing an “imperfect season.”

“I want that record,” Spurrier said. “I’m pulling for them, sure,” Spurrier added. “That’s the American thing to do, isn’t it?”

Entering the game, the Lions were 10½-point underdogs against the Packers in spread betting. Lions tackle Gosder Cherilus likened the team’s chance to avoid the 0-16 finish as a championship game. “It’s our Super Bowl,” Cherilus told reporters on Friday, December 27.

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The Lions surpassed the 1980 New Orleans Saints with their 15th consecutive loss on December 21 to become the first team in NFL history to lose the first 15 games of the season. The 1980 Saints lost their first 14 games, but won their 15th game against the New York Jets.

The closest margin that the Lions came to within victory was two points, which came against the Minnesota Vikings on October 12. Minnesota won the game by a score of 12–10. The 1976 Buccaneers suffered five shutout losses (in which they did not score a single point) in their winless season. The closest that the Buccaneers came within victory was a 23–20 loss to the Miami Dolphins on October 24, 1976.

Prior to the regular season, the Lions won all four of their games in the exhibition season, which do not count in regular season standings or totals.

While the loss didn’t come without a fight from the Lions, players from the team knew that they would be forever remembered as possibly the worst team in NFL history. “I’ve got to live with this,” Lions center Dominic Raiola said. “I’ve been here eight years. This is on my résumé.”

“I don’t ever want to be a part of this again,” Lions quarterback Dan Orlovsky said. “We haven’t won since, November of ’07, maybe? I don’t even know the last time we won a game.” The franchise’s last victory in the regular season was on December 23, 2007 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Packers players were just as eager for a victory. Green Bay’s quarterback Aaron Rodgers said while their own season was disappointing, they didn’t want to be forever remembered as the team that lost to the 0-15 Lions in the final game of the season. “We didn’t want to lose, no, we didn’t,” Rodgers said. “But really it’s not on your mind once the game starts. I didn’t even think about it until the fans started chanting in the fourth quarter. They played hard, they really did.” Packers fans in attendance at Lambeau Field began to chant “0-16” late in the game.

With their victory, the Packers finished their 2008 season with a 6-10 record. With the loss, the Lions finished their 79th season since their inception as the Portsmouth Spartans in 1929. It was the Lions’ 75th season in Detroit, Michigan. The franchise also secured the first-overall selection in the upcoming 2009 NFL Draft, a spot reserved for the NFL team with the worst record from the previous season entering the upcoming season.

After the game, Lions head coach Rod Marinelli declined to comment on his future with the team. Since being hired in 2006, the Lions have had a 10-38 record under Marinelli. The Lions have averaged 11 losses per season since 2001 and now have lost 23 of their last 24 games. The 0-16 record could be a lasting testimony to the Matt Millen era. With Millen as president of the team from 2001 until he was fired on September 24, Detroit won only 31 games. Millen was widely criticized for his handling of the Lions organization, and Lions fans rallied to have him relieved of duties for years.

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Ferry MV Suilven sinks in Suva, Fiji

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

MV Suilven, a ferry in service in Fiji, capsized and sank in Suva Harbour today.

Around thirty people, all crewmembers, were on board. Local media report all were rescued. The 41-year-old vessel previously saw service in Scotland and New Zealand.

The ship capsized early this afternoon and sank within an hour. It had been converted from passenger to cargo use following its most recent sale, to Venu Shipping in 2012 or 2011. Local reports indicated police, the Navy, local tug boats, and volunteer rescuers all attended the accident.

The converted ferry reportedly began to list on entering the harbour. It was working a route carrying cargo between Suva and the Northern Division.

Built in Norway, in service from 1974, the ship served with Scottish ferry firm Caledonian MacBrayne until 1995, connecting the mainland town of Ullapool to Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. It was ultimately replaced by a larger, faster vessel and was sold to Strait Shipping who used it until 2004 to ply New Zealand’s seas, connecting Wellington to Picton and to Nelson.

The name MV Suilven is in reference to the Suilven mountain in Scotland’s Sutherland region.

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Bank Basics: A Short History Of Financial Institutions

By Rita Lowman

For centuries, banks have influenced the economies and politics of the world. Traditionally, banks originated as places where businesses could secure loans to purchase inventory, and thereafter collect the funds with interest once the goods were sold. The origin of the word bank is derived from the Italian word, “banco” or desk. During the Renaissance, Florentine bankers conducted their transactions above desks covered in a green tablecloth.

It has been speculated the earliest banks were actually religious temples in the ancient world, where deposits of grain and other goods were made. Considered sacred places, these temples were well protected from potential thieves. There are also historic records which point to loan activity extended by priests to merchants in ancient Babylon. Hammurabi’s Code, the oldest, best preserved law code in existence was created circa 1760 B.C. and includes laws which were used to govern bank operations.

Not surprisingly, the Ancient Greeks further developed the concept of banking. Transactions such as loans, deposits, currency exchanges, and more were conducted in temples as well as private and civic components. Evidence also points to the concept of credit. In return for payment from a client, a creditor in one Greek port would write a note of credit that the client could later cash in another port city. This convenient method saved the client from the danger of carrying coinage with him on his journey. Historic records indicate that a Pythius of the early 5th century B.C. operated as a merchant banker throughout Asia Minor.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Nw-xWL5Qs[/youtube]

The rise of the Roman Empire brought about greater administrative and financial regulations for banking. The charging of interest on loans was further developed by scrupulous financiers, making the system highly competitive. However, the bank system eventually broke down in large part to the Roman preference for cash transactions. Following the fall of Rome, Western Europe essentially abandoned banking. It did not experience a revival until the need for financing the Crusades stimulated its re-emergence.

Interestingly, the world’s oldest bank has been in existence since its founding in 1427. The Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SPA (MPS) was created in the city state of Siena, Italy. The bank today is comprised of nearly 1,800 branches, 28,000 employees and more than four million customers in Italy and abroad.

Fast forward to Western banking history, which is generally traced to the coffee houses in London. Founded in 1565, the Royal Exchange acted as a center of commerce for the city. A hierarchy of banking started at the top with bankers who conducted business with heads of state, followed by city exchanges, and at the bottom, pawn shops. In 1609, the Amsterdamsche Wisselbank (Amsterdam Exchange Bank) was established, making Amsterdam the financial center of the Western world.

Concepts of capitalism extolled by Adam Smith, considered the father of modern economics, and the advent of the Industrial Revolution gave way to a massive growth in the banking industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the United States, the first banks required special permission from the state government to operate. The state’s supervision proved inadequate as individual banks began issuing their own notes. By 1860, more than 10,000 various bank notes were circulating throughout the country. Counterfeiting was rampant and hundreds of banks failed. Government reforms created a new system of banking which included an involved method for producing authentic bank notes.

With the onset of the worldwide depression in the early 1930s, banks took a hard hit, which led to Congress’ creation of federal deposit insurance. President Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw the implementation of laws aimed at limiting risks to banks and restoring Americans’ confidence in the banking system.

Since then, banking has undergone a revolution with technology transforming the way Americans bank. First telephone banking, and then ATMs, debit and credit cards, have lead the way to new innovations. Today, online banking and electronic money are evolving. Banks strive to serve the greater public in a competitive market that ensures a safe and sound banking system. From religious temples and Italian desks to coffee houses and the Industrial Revolution, banking has forever changed the way we live.

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