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.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

A protest was held ahead of the start of the fifth Ashes cricket test today, seeking a higher standard of cricket administration.

Around 100 protesters, which included writer Gideon Haigh, Wisden editor Lawrence Booth, and Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, gathered outside the Oval cricket ground to observe three minutes of silence, a minute for each of the “Big Three” nations — India, England, and Australia. Organisers claim these nations of controlling cricket’s governance to benefit themselves.

Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber, a pair of journalists and film-makers, organised the protest.

“Now the Ashes have been decided, we feel the time is right to protest at the powerlessness of all other countries in the cricket world,” Collins told The Telegraph. “Nobody has any power except for Narayan Srinivasan, of India, Giles Clarke, of England, and Wally Edwards, of Australia.”

Collins and Kimber recently released the film Death of a Gentleman. The documentary was created by the pair to examine what the future holds for test match cricket whilst examining claims of corrupt administrators. The film-makers have launched changecricket.com, calling on cricket fans to advocate for better governance of the sport. “We ask fans of all nations to stand with us and show their dissatisfaction about the way their game is being run,” said Collins.

See the discussion page for instructions on adding schools to this list.Tuesday, September 13, 2005

NAICU has created a list of colleges and universities accepting and/or offering assistance to displace faculty members. [1]Wednesday, September 7, 2005

This list is taken from Colleges offering admission to displaced New Orleans students, and is intended to make searching easier for faculty, graduate, and professional students.

In addition to the list below, the Association of American Law Schools has compiled a list of law schools offering assistance to displaced students. [2] As conditions vary by college, interested parties should contact the Office of Admissions at the school in question for specific requirements and up-to-date details.

The Association of American Medical Colleges is coordinating alternatives for medical students and residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina. [3]

ResCross.net is acting as a central interactive hub for establishing research support in times of emergency. With so many scientists affected by Hurricane Katrina, ResCross is currently focused on providing information to identify sources of emergency support as quickly as possible. [4]

With so many scientists affected by Hurricane Katrina, ResCross is currently focused on providing information to identify sources of emergency support as quickly as possible.

Physics undergraduates, grad students, faculty and high school teachers can be matched up with housing and jobs at universities, schools and industry. [5] From the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Society of Physics Students, the American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society.

If you are seeking or providing assistance, please use this site to find information on research support, available lab space/supplies, resources, guidelines and most importantly to communicate with fellow researchers.

The following is a partial list, sorted by location.

Alabama |Alaska |Arizona |Arkansas |California |Colorado |Connecticut |Delaware |District of Columbia |Florida |Georgia |Hawaii |Idaho |Illinois |Indiana |Iowa |Kansas |Kentucky |Louisiana |Maine |Maryland |Massachusetts |Michigan |Minnesota |Mississippi |Missouri |Montana |Nebraska |Nevada |New Hampshire |New Jersey |New Mexico |New York |North Carolina |North Dakota |Ohio |Oklahoma |Oregon |Pennsylvania |Rhode Island |South Carolina |South Dakota |Tennessee |Texas |Utah |Vermont |Virginia |Washington |West Virginia |Wisconsin |Wyoming |Canada

Sunday, July 4, 2010

File:NRA Logo -3.jpg

In response to the United States Supreme Court overturning Chicago’s total ban on handguns, Chicago’s city council approved on Friday what officials say are the toughest handgun regulations in the country.

City officials also publicly criticized the Supreme Court’s decision, saying that the Court’s ruling that Americans have the right to use guns without restriction for self-defense makes the city more dangerous because it allows more people to legally possess guns. The ruling would have made Chicago’s previous ban on handguns unenforceable.

The city council, which is normally considered leisurely in passing ordinances, voted 45–0 to approve the new regulations and was remarkably quick in passing the laws.

The new restrictions ban gun shops in the city and prohibits people from leaving their residences while in possession of a handgun. It also requires that all but one firearm per house be inoperative, that owners register all guns, and that citizens buying guns receive training.

After the ordinance was passed, many gun rights advocates cried foul, and many, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), said they would pursue lawsuits.

“The city wants to put as many hurdles and as much red tape in the way of someone who just wants to exercise their constitutional right to have a gun,” Todd Vandermyde, lobbyist for the NRA, said.

However, many residents of the city approved of the new measures.

“There’s just too much killing going on [and] we need protection,” South Side retiree Mary Fitts said. “You can’t even sit on your front porch.”

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

In the Central Lowlands of Scotland, the University of Dundee is to become the first university in the United Kingdom to provide degrees in comic studies. The university has said that courses for its comic studies subject within the English section will commence in September 2011.

The city of Dundee is known to be the headquarters for D. C. Thomson & Co., a publishing company whose works include various comic books, such as The Beano, The Broons, The Dandy and Oor Wullie. Dr. Chris Murray, a leading British authority on comic books, will be leading the comic studies programme. “This is a very exciting time for comics scholarship, and I am delighted to be able to offer this postgraduate course on comics,” he explained. “This is a unique opportunity to give this important medium the attention it deserves, and to allow those with an interest in comics to study it in detail.”

Those organising courses for the degree believe that comic books now appeal to adults as well as children due to their impact in the areas of politics, art and literature, as well as aspects of popular culture. Amongst the program will be the examinations of comics of an autobiographical nature and similarities with the culture of comic books on an international scale. Students who complete the Master of Letters learning program — running either full-time for a year and two-years if done part-time — will be eligible for a Doctor of Philosophy in comic studies.

Dr. Murray has also noted: “Employability is an important consideration for any postgraduate programme, and it lies at the heart of what we aim to do with this course. There will be practical advice on publishing and developing a career as a comics scholar, writer or artist, and we hope to arrange work placements for students. Comics and graphic novels are becoming an increasingly important form of literature, art and field of study, and it is our intention that our graduates are at the forefront either as researchers, writers, artists or filling other roles within the industry.”

Thursday, December 24, 2009

The New York Times said on Wednesday that the Obama administration may not be able to close the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba and transfer terrorism suspects held there until 2011 at the earliest.

The administration announced plans last week to acquire an under-utilized state prison in the Midwest state of Illinois to house up to 100 Guantánamo detainees. However, The Times says the United States Bureau of Prisons does not have enough money to pay the state for the facility, which would cost about $150 million.

The report says the White House approached lawmakers on the United States House of Representatives Appropriations Committee several weeks ago about adding $200 million to the 2010 military spending bill for the project. Democratic leaders refused, defeating the request due to the project’s controversial nature.

The administration wants to buy the prison as part of efforts to fulfill President Obama’s order to close Guantánamo Bay. The president has acknowledged that the January 2010 deadline for closing the prison will not be met. The plan to close the prison and house the terror suspects in the U.S. has been met with fierce opposition by some members of Congress. Republicans say the closure of the prison and moving of inmates to American soil will make the country a greater target for terrorists.

The White House contends that the current prison at Guantánamo has become a terrorist recruiting symbol. It also pointed out that it would save taxpayers money as the Department of Defense currently pays $150 million to run the Guantánamo prison, while it will only cost $75 million to run the prison in Illinois.

However, some moderate Democrats have also raised concerns, Representative Loretta Sanchez, Democrat from California cited security concerns saying “[p]articularly making something on U.S. soil an attraction for Al Qaeda and terrorists to go after — inciting them to attack something on U.S. soil — that’s a problem, and we need to think it through.”

Senator Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia recently stated that suspects of terrorism “[d]o not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.”

Guantánamo, which now has some 200 inmates, has been harshly criticized by human rights advocates for the alleged abuse and mistreatment of detainees.

The Times says the Obama administration will not have another opportunity to secure funding for the Thomson Correctional Center until Congress takes up a supplemental appropriations bill for the war in Afghanistan. The bill is expected to be finished in March or April.

However, the newspaper says the administration is more focused on securing funding for the Illinois facility in appropriations bills for the 2011 fiscal year, which will not be debated until late 2010. Officials told the Times it could take eight to 10 months to install new fencing, towers, cameras and other security upgrades to the Thomson Correctional Center before any transfers take place.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

According to the BBC News website, five languages are to be cut from the BBC World Service’s coverage. Albanian, Macedonian, and Serbian are no longer going to be used on the global radio station, and Portuguese will no longer be used in African regional programmes, nor English in the Caribbean. Seven undisclosed languages are also going to be scaled back. The cuts mean that approximately 650 jobs will be lost in order to save around £46m. The cuts were officially announced at a staff briefing on Thursday.

The BBC’s director of global news, Peter Horrocks, said that the cuts were “not a reflection on the performance of individual services or programmes”, and were cut due to a “need to make savings”, after the Government’s grant-in-aid funding was cut. The BBC took over funding the World Service in October 2010, previously funded by the Foreign Office. The move comes just days after announcements that the funding for the BBC website is to be slashed by £34m as part of 25% cuts across the spectrum of services offered by the taxpayer-funded broadcaster.

The National Union of Journalists protested the “drastic cuts” outside the World Service headquarters today, stating that the loss of the language editions “severely damage the national interest of the UK”.