Wednesday, January 11, 2012

A United States Coast Guard crew rescued six Iranian seamen from a ship in distress yesterday. The cargo ship Ya-Hassan was rescued about 50NM (92.6km) off the coast of Umm Qasr, Iraq. The ship’s engine room had flooded. This is the second time within a week that a United States crew has rescued Iranian citizens.

According to the United States Navy, the Ya-Hassan signaled Coast Guard cutter Monomoy around 3 a.m. local time (0000 UTC) with signal flares and flashlights. Once rescued, the seamen were given water, blankets, and a meal prepared according to Islamic dietary laws. One of the crew members was treated onboard the Monomoy for minor injuries.

The rescued seamen were eventually given over to Iranian Coast Guard vessel Naji 7. The US Navy said the captain of the Naji 7 “thanks us for our cooperation.”

On January 5, a US Navy vessel escorting the USS John C. Stennis rescued 13 Iranian sailors who were being held by pirates. The United States, by its own account, often rescues ships in foreign waters, but has been publicizing the rescue of Iranian ships because of increased tensions between the United States and Iran.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Eric Bogosian is one of America’s great multi-dimensional talents. “There’s sort of three different careers, and any one of them could exist by itself, on its own two feet. There was that solo stuff, and then I started writing plays in the late seventies.” Although his work has spanned genres, most readers will recognize Bogosian for his acting, which has included a memorable performance in Woody Allen‘s Deconstructing Harry to co-writing and starring in the Oliver Stone movie Talk Radio (based upon his Pulitzer Prize-nominated play) to playing the bad guy in Under Siege 2 to his current role in Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Captain Danny Ross. They may not know, however, that he had collaborated with Frank Zappa on a album, worked with Sonic Youth, and was a voice on Mike Judge‘s Beavis & Butthead Do America. He started one of New York City’s largest dance companies, The Kitchen, which is still in existence. He starred alongside Val Kilmer in Wonderland and his play Talk Radio was recently revived on Broadway with Liev Schreiber in the role Bogosian wrote and made famous.

Currently at work on his third novel, tentatively titled The Artist, Bogosian spoke with David Shankbone about the craft of writing and his life as a creative.

Thursday, September 7, 2006

The week of 12-15 September, American talk show Live with Regis and Kelly will play host to various attempts to set world records, for Guinness World Records. Announced are attempts involving cartwheels, pirouettes and tango spins, and cutting apples with a sword.

Today the show previewed the week, with a man who set the record for most ice cream eaten in 30 seconds, 12.5 oz.

Last year, Canadian Suresh Joachim set the record for longest continuous time watching television, 69 hours, 48 minutes. Joachim chose to only watch ABC the entire time. Another successful attempt was most watermelons broken by one’s head in one minute. Both were nominated for Relly Awards, a sell-congratulatory honour that series producers award guests and the show’s hosts, to make up for a lack of Emmy wins.

Co-host Regis Philbin was named a Guinness Record holder himself two seasons ago. Philbin has been broadcast on-camera more hours than any other television personality. Philbin’s television experience goes back to the late-1960s as the sidekick to Joey Bishop, then continued with a short-lived series with Mary Hart, then the long-running Live, with co-hosts including Kathy Lee Gifford, the popular ABC game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire, the 2005 New Year’s broadcast for FOX, and NBC talent series America’s Got Talent.

Live launched its new season on 4 September, after a few weeks of reruns and “best of” specials. This is Kelly Ripa’s fifth season as co-host of the series, which has long past the two-decade marker.

The show features a revamped set, containing various art deco elements, and additional plasma televisions to decorate.

All games played at Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY* – Overtime

Thursday, November 8, 2007

What you are about to read is an American life as lived by renowned author Edmund White. His life has been a crossroads, the fulcrum of high-brow Classicism and low-brow Brett Easton Ellisism. It is not for the faint. He has been the toast of the literary elite in New York, London and Paris, befriending artistic luminaries such as Salman Rushdie and Sir Ian McKellen while writing about a family where he was jealous his sister was having sex with his father as he fought off his mother’s amorous pursuit.

The fact is, Edmund White exists. His life exists. To the casual reader, they may find it disquieting that someone like his father existed in 1950’s America and that White’s work is the progeny of his intimate effort to understand his own experience.

Wikinews reporter David Shankbone understood that an interview with Edmund White, who is professor of creative writing at Princeton University, who wrote the seminal biography of Jean Genet, and who no longer can keep track of how many sex partners he has encountered, meant nothing would be off limits. Nothing was. Late in the interview they were joined by his partner Michael Caroll, who discussed White’s enduring feud with influential writer and activist Larry Kramer.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Hundreds of thousands of air travelers had their travel plans disrupted in Europe by volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

Tens of thousands of air travelers were stranded when all flights into and out of the United Kingdom were grounded, as it became one of the first nations to be affected. The grounding was even more extensive than that following the September 11 attacks of 2001 when only trans-Atlantic flights were canceled.

Eurocontrol released a statement saying “…most air traffic in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden is suspended.”

The grounding is because the volcanic ash drawn into the jet stream is of a particle size which allows it to remain aloft in the atmosphere. Ingestion of this foreign matter, because of its distribution, would lead to flame outs in all aircraft engines. The composition of the ash also means that it would first melt into glass if it were to enter the engine of an aircraft before solidifying again as it cooled. This could lead to damage to the compressors and fan blades, which would make it impossible to restart the engines, even if the aircraft were to exit the cloud.

The current contingency is informed by the experience of British Airways Flight 9, which on June 24, 1982 suffered just such complete engine flame outs when it flew through the plume of Mount Galunggung in Indonesia. In that case, the flight crew after many efforts was able to restart the engines, though one failed shortly after, and the aircraft landed without casualties.

The UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) has stated that “restrictions will remain in place in UK controlled airspace until 1300 (UK time) tomorrow, Friday 16 April, at the earliest,” and that “We will review further Met Office information and at 0230 (UK time) tomorrow we will advise the arrangements that will be in place through to 1800 (UK time) tomorrow.” The NATS statement concluded “…the situation cannot be said to be improving”.

In addition to Northern Europe, the ash is drifting south; Berlin and Hamburg airports in Germany are closed, and airports in the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern France are described as now being closed or closing. Some flights from Spain and Portugal, together with upwards of 4,000 flights across Northern Europe, have been affected, and the knock-on effect of aircraft and crews out of position could disrupt air travel worldwide for up to 72 hours.

One affected group are British musicians booked to play at this weekend’s Coachella Festival in California. Amongst those stranded are Frightened Rabbit, Gary Numan, The Cribs and Bad Lieutenant.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Scottish football team Hibernian F.C. (Hibs) have appointed Pat Fenlon as their new manager. Fenlon signed the contract at Hibs’ Easter Road home ground in the capital, Edinburgh.

Fenlon left Bohemian F.C., an Irish football team he managed since 2008, so that he could manage Hibernian, which he is “really excited by”. Fenlon’s management career has previously remained in his native Ireland. From 2002, Fenlon managed Shelbourne F.C., which won the UEFA Cup in three of the five seasons he managed the team for. Fenlon went on to manage Derby City in 2007 before taking the managing position at Bohemians. According to Fenlon, Hibernian are “a club with a rich history and proud traditions.” Fenlon’s Hibs contract will last until the conclusion of 2013 / 2014 football season.

Hibs have now had five managers in as many years. Colin Calderwood is the most recent before Fenlon, being removed from his position on November 6 after twelve months managing the team. In that time they played in forty-nine matches and won in twelve of them. Calderwood has since gone on to become part of Birmingham City F.C., a football team based in the English city of Birmingham.

At the end of the previous football season, Hibernian F.C. placed tenth. As it stands, the team are currently ninth in the Scottish Premier League table. In reference to what he called the “quality players on Hibernian’s playing staff”, Fenlon stated that “there will need to be a lot of hard work and a clear change in mindset shown collectively by the team” and that a major target for them will be “to provide winning football to the Hibernian supporters, who have gone through some hard times recently.”