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Friday, April 10, 2009

Two people are dead at a Michigan, United States community college in what police are calling a murder-suicide on Friday, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The victims, a 28-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman, were found in the Fine Arts Building of Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan.

The Free Press reports that the suspected gunman entered classroom F-111 with a shotgun, killed the female and then shot himself. The two were in the same theater class, but police have yet to determine if there was a further relationship between the two.

“The original call was some kind of assault … shots in the building,” Police Deputy Chief Gregg Brighton told the Free Press.

“Officers responded to the scene, were able to get a perimeter on the building,” Brighton said. “An entry team entered the south hallway … as they entered they heard another gunshot. Officers were able to enter one of the rooms, and discovered two deceased parties. We cleared the building.”

Dearborn police and campus police secured the crime scene after evacuating some students from the building. The Free Press also reports that four Michigan State Police detectives are assisting local authorities in the investigation.

The school was locked down for several hours shortly after a 911 call was received. The lockdown has now been lifted.

The school will be closed for the rest of the day and the school will be offering counseling services.

Monday, December 7, 2009

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) won the challenge to find ten 8-foot (2.4 metre) weather balloons spread across the continental United States, just nine hours after the event’s start. In a test of the nation’s social networking skills, the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) offered US$40,000 (€26,900) to the first team to identify the location of all ten balloons. The event marks the 40th anniversary of ARPAnet, the precursor to today’s Internet, a project developed by DARPA.

In a statement announcing the winner, DARPA said “the Challenge explores basic research issues such as mobilization, collaboration, and trust in diverse social networking constructs and could serve to fuel innovation across a wide spectrum of applications.” They also stated that they intend to “meet with teams to review the approaches and strategies used to build networks, collect information, and participate in the Challenge.”

The MIT team offered a reward scheme of its own as an incentive to public cooperation, offering US$2,000 to anyone who gave them the coordinates of a balloon. They also gave US$500 to whomever invited the person who gave the correct coordinates to join the challenge. They then gave the person who invited that person US$250, and so on, giving any left over or unclaimed money to charity. The MIT team hoped to ” […] find out how information spreads on the internet, and how online social networks help this spread”.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

At least eight people have been killed in a plane crash near the southern Minnesota town of Owatonna, the Associated Press and local media reported Thursday morning.

One person, who had been listed in critical condition as of 11:40 a.m. in the Owatonna hospital has died from injuries sustained in the accident, the Associated Press reported just before 3:00 p.m. that afternoon. At least one person is unaccounted for while investigator determine whether the person boarded the plane in New Jersey, according to the Steele County Sheriff’s Office.

Star Tribune reported that charter flight 81, a Raytheon BAE 125-800A commercial jet, had not landed properly on the 5,500 foot runway at Owatonna Degner Regional Airport just after 9:30 a.m local time en route from Atlantic City, New Jersey. The plane either tried to take off or could not stop in time.

The plane was owned by East Coast Jets Inc. of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Aviation Research Group told the Star Tribune that East Coast Jets operates 11 aircraft — Hawker and Lear jets — and employs 21 pilots.

“They have a good safety history,” ARG President Joe Moeggenberg told the Star Tribune, based on federal data. “There were no recent incidents.”

This model of aircraft “has a very good safety record; been around along time,” said Gary Robb, aviation expert and attorney with a Kansas City law firm that represents aviation crash victims.

Gary Robb, an aviation expert and attorney told the Star Tribune that the aircraft “has a very good safety record [and has] been around along time.”

According to the Star Tribune, the pilots have been identified as Clark Keefer of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Dan D’Ambrosio of Hellertown, Pennsylvania. Pilot error has not been identified as a cause for the crash, but investigators caution it is to early for any conclusions to be made.

Graphics released by the Star Tribune show that the plane ended up past the runway it was attempting to land on. The Associated Press reports that debris was scattered 500 feet beyond the runway.

The bodies have been taken to Rochester for examination, while the plane’s data recorders have been flown to Washington, DC.

Both WCCO-TV and the Star Tribune report that the time of the crash coincided with a line of storms moving through the area, though what effect, if any the storm had, is under investigation. Witnesses told the Star Tribune that the worst of the storm had gone at the time of the crash and only light wind and rain remained. The Associated Press confirms from the National Weather Service that “the storms were subsiding at the time of the crash.”

Owatonna resident John Billingsly, a retired pilot who worked at the airport for many years, told the Star Tribune, “I saw the plane making its final approach, and it appeared nothing was wrong. We’d just had a lot of wind, but it had calmed down a bit and mostly subsided by that time.”

The plane, a charter for Viracon, Inc. of Owatonna, was flying customers from “a couple of different companies” to discuss a $2 billion dollar casino and hotel project in Las Vegas, Nevada that Revel Entertainment is building. Atlantic City Mayor Scott Evans told the Associated Press that two high-level employees for Revel and an employee of Tishman Construction. Viracon is an architectural glass fabricator and Tishman is assisting Revel.

As of 5:00 a.m Friday, five of the victims, including the two pilots, have been identified by the Associated press.

APG International, a company specializing in glass facades, lost two executives: Marc Rosenberg, the chief operating officer, and Alan Barnett, an assistant project manager, according to the Glassboro, N.J. company’s spokeswoman Amelia Townsend.

The Tishman empoyee, the only victim identified, was project manager Karen Sandland, 44, based in Newark, New Jersey company spokesman Bud Perrone told the Associated Press.

The Revel employee’s idenities were released by the Star Tribune Friday, they are: Tony Craig, 50, of Brigantine, N.J., vice president of construction development; Chris Daul, 44, of Northfield, N.J., vice president of construction development; and Lawrence (Chip) Merrigan, 62, of Absecon N.J., director of field operations.

The crash is the deadliest in Minnesota since October 2002, when Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and seven others died after their chartered twin-engine plane crashed in the woods near Eveleth, in Northern Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent agency responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States (except aircraft of the armed forces and the intelligence agencies), will be investigating the crash.

The NTSB reported Friday through the Star Tribute that the agency has 14 investigators working on the crash, with assistance from the FBI.

The NTSB reports two other fatal accidents since 1962 at Owatonna airport. A crash in 1992 killed one and injured another and a crash in 2004 killed four people.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

A series of large explosions have occurred close to Hemel Hempstead Hertfordshire, UK. The source of the explosions has been confirmed as the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal (HOSL), Hemel Hempstead, known locally as the Buncefield complex. Up to 150 fire fighters are reported to be at the scene with 10 fire appliances and 1 specialist foamer.

The first ‘blast’ was heard near Hemel Hempstead on Sunday 11 Dec at 6 am. Further smaller explosions followed at 6:24am , 6:26am, 6:30am. BBC News 24 reported an additional, fourth large explosion. Hertfordshire Police Constabulary are currently treating the explosion as an accident.

Reports say the explosion, which registered 2.4 on the Richter scale, was heard as far away as Oxford, and Whitehall, Central London which is 60km (38 miles) away. Eyewitness statements report that the explosion was heard from at least 160km (100 miles) away and as far away as France and The Netherlands. Pilots reported noticing the blast from the North Sea and the West Country area of the UK. The M1 motorway which runs close by has been closed in both directions near the blast which is causing travel chaos as other roads become congested.

Malcom Stewart, a BBC News24 eyewitness who is a tanker driver for the site has reported that the site supplies several oil companies and is a joint operation between Total UK and Texaco, it is also used by BP, Shell and the British Pipeline association. The complex is not a refinery but a storage facility for refined petroleum awaiting distribution to airports and filling stations. The eyewitness reports that the depot has approximately 20 tanks which can hold about 3 million gallons (11 million litres or 70,000 barrels) each. Another News24 eyewitness has just reported that he has seen at least 5 of these tanks on fire.

The depot operates on a 24 hour basis and is split into 2 parts – aviation fuel and domestic fuel. A number of eyewitnesses have reported on UK news that the aviation fuel side appears to be the part of the site that has been affected.

Local authorities were not immediately available for comment but there have been reports of casualties.

Some reports on live television state that, “Several other neighbours said they did see a plane go into the depot.” BBC News 24 were also discussing the idea a possible plane crash as the cause of the explosions. Hertfordshire police have now gone on the record to say that there is no plane involved (BBC News24).

The police have issued a contact number 0800 096 0095 and asked that people do not call the emergency services in Hertfordshire directly unless it is an emergency.

In addition to being an oil storage depot, it is a major hub on the UK oil pipeline network with pipelines to Killingholme Lindsey Oil Refinery (LOR), Humberside (10 inch), Merseyside (10 and 12 inch), Coryton on the Thames Estuary (14 inch) and Heathrow (6 and 8 inch) and Gatwick airports radiating from it.

The disaster is believed to be the worst explosion at a petrochemical plant in the UK since the Flixborough disaster of 1974.Hertfordshire’s Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher said: “This is possibly the largest incident of its kind in peacetime Europe.”

A firefighting press officer said that they are stock piling foam from neighboring regions for a prolonged attach which they hope will stop the spread of the fire, however, the inferno itself will have to burn out which could take between 24 hours and a few days.

Despite the authorities saying that there is no need to panic buy petrol, filling stations have had above average queues since this morning and some small garages have ran out.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has visited the scene.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Paul Winchell, the English voice of Gargamel in the animated children’s show The Smurfs and Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh died on 23 June at age 82. Winchell also voiced several other characters including Boomer in Disney’s The Fox and the Hound and several characters for Hanna-Barbera productions.

Winchell, in addition to being a prolific voice artist, patented more than 30 inventions including an artificial heart, a flameless cigarette lighter, and a disposable razor.

Paul Winchell won a Grammy Award in 1974 in the Best Recording For Children category for his work on “The Most Wonderful Thing about Tiggers” in the animated Disney film Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. His first performance as Tigger was in the 1968 Disney film Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day which won an Academy Award.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.

If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”

There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.

Trinity College is the name of a number educational institutions, some of which are below:

• Trinity College, Cambridge, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge
• Trinity College, Dublin, the sole constituent college of the University of Dublin
• Trinity College, Melbourne, a residential college of the University of Melbourne
• Trinity College, Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford
• Trinity College, Toronto, a federated college of the University of Toronto
• Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, the liberal arts college of Duke University

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