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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Plymouth, Michigan, United States – This week, independent software developer Stardock released Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar, an expansion to their PC turn-based strategy game Dread Lords. Industry websites IGN and GameSpy responded with Editors’ Choice awards, while UGO gave it an A. The expansion had previously been named as one of GameSpy’s Most Wanted Games of 2007.

Reviewers cited the significant increase in customization options, better artificial intelligence, and an improvement in graphics quality as decisive factors. UGO’s Adam Swiderski noted that “if creating a fleet of death-dealing starships sounds like fun to you (and it really should), this is your dream playground,” while GameSpy’s reviewer suggested that “after a week of playing Dark Avatar, you may forget Master of Orion altogether.” Criticism mostly revolved around “uninspired” ground combat, a too-generic tech tree, and the continued lack of multiplayer support.

The original game received some publicity for its lack of copy protection, but gained far more by the actions of a StarForce forum administrator, who made a post linking to an illegal BitTorrent download of the game. StarForce developer Protection Technology later claimed this to be a poorly-considered attempt to demonstrate the result of not using their software, which is designed to prevent software piracy. The result was a media backlash against the company, including satirical commentary by gaming webcomic/blog Penny Arcade describing the action as “extortion.” Its writer, Jerry Holkins, asked that “publishers distance themselves from a company that has shown such contempt for their industry.”

The expansion is available as an online purchase in CD or digital download form through Stardock’s gaming subsidiary, TotalGaming.net. A compilation of the original and expansion has also been released as Galactic Civilizations II: Gold Edition and is available in stores, say Stardock. Their retail game releases still contain no copy protection, but online activation is required to download updates.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Celia Franca, founder of the National Ballet of Canada and its training ground, the National Ballet School of Canada, died at age 85 Monday in Ottawa, Ontario.

She is reported to have died in an Ottawa Hospital and her cause of death is not known. She went to the hospital last week and stayed there until she had died.

“Celia was more than the National Ballet’s founder. She was its presiding spirit, its most stalwart supporter and the embodiment of its ideals and values,” said Karen Kain, the National Ballet of Canada’s current artistic director. “She inspired generations of dancers by her example and her devotion to the art of ballet. And most importantly, she made us believe in ourselves and that no goal was ever out of reach.”

Franca, born 1921 in London, England, came to Canada in 1951 to found the National Ballet of Canada. Franca choreographed ballets in Canada such as the famous “Cinderella” and “The Nutcracker.” She was artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada for 24 years.

In 1967, Franca was named an officer of the Order of Canada, then named a Companion of the order in 1985.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, has opened a new terminal at Kabul International Airport. The US$35m (£22m) two-story structure was gifted by Japan as the old terminal building had become badly damaged by decades of war.

Speaking at the event, attended by 150 Afghan and Japanese officials, Karzai expressed his gratitude for the building, saying “Afghanistan could not have made this terminal on its own for many years or without lots of effort.” The new terminal is built next to the original sixties building, which had been considered luxurious when new but has fallen into decline, especially after the 1979 Soviet invasion and the civil war which followed.

Increasing numbers of military aircraft joined the commercial passenger planes, making Kabul International a frequent target of rocket attacks. It was in a poor state of repair, as well as outdated and in need of expansion, by the time the Taliban were ousted from Afghanistan.

Karzai implored his people to take proper care of the new terminal, which Afghan officials described as a step along the route to reconstruction after the Taliban were deposed.

“I hope, now this facility has been handed over to us, that our sisters and brothers, those in charge of the airport, the passengers passing through, the state officials and MPs using it, will look after it and they should not allow, God forbid, that we come here after a year and find its windows, doors and tiles broken,” he said.

The building will enter service next week, in time to carry passengers to Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage of the Hajj. It has a capacity of one million passengers every year, and will service both domestic and international routes.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald has performed an interview with Dr Isabella Margara, a London-based member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In the interview Margara sets out the communist response to current events in Greece as well as discussing the viability of a communist economy for the nation. She also hit back at Petros Tzomakas, a member of another Greek far-left party which criticised KKE in a previous interview.

The interview comes amid tensions in cash-strapped Greece, where the government is introducing controversial austerity measures to try to ease the nation’s debt-problem. An international rescue package has been prepared by European Union member states and the International Monetary Fund – should Greece require a bailout; protests have been held against government attempts to manage the economic situation.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, is witnessing a heavy fighting over the past four days. Almost 100 people have died and 200 have been wounded in the clashes, as health officials said yesterday. The battle between the Islamic Court Union and the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism has centered on the northern neighborhood of Sii-Sii. Many of the casualties are civilians caught in the crossfire. There was a temporary truce, but that did not last long.

Islamic militia leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed called a unilateral truce on Tuesday in response to appeals from those affected by the violence. But his opponents said the truce was called because of a lack of ammunition. The warlords’ alliance spokesman Hussein Gutale Rageh said they would only accept the ceasefire if their rivals withdrew from territory they have occupied during the fighting.

The fighting started late on Sunday, when an alliance of warlords attacked the vehicle of a group allied to the Islamic courts, according to eyewitnesses.

This is the second round of the city’s most serious fighting in a decade. In March 2006, clashes between the two sides killed at least 90 people.

The United Nations has appealed to both sides to halt the clashes. UN special representative for Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, appealed today for the rival militias to end the hostilities, saying they had created fear and chaos for civilians caught in the crossfire.

“The indiscriminate use of heavy machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery in and between urban areas is unacceptable,” said Francois Fall.

Somalia has not had an effective national authority for 15 years after the ousting of longtime dictator President Siad Barre in 1991. A UN-backed transitional government has based itself in the central city of Baidoa, but has so far failed to assert itself elsewhere.

Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as an alternative capable of bringing order and peace, but they have not hesitated to use force and have allegedly linked up with al-Qaeda terrorists. The Islamic courts have restored order to some parts of the city by providing justice under Sharia – Islamic law. The courts say the warlords alliance is a pawn of the United States.

Last week, Somalia President Abdullahi Yusuf accused the US of funding the coalition of warlords. The US government says it does support efforts to restore stability to Somalia but refuses to give details on who it backs and how. The alliance of warlords recently created the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism. It has an anti-terror task force based in nearby Djibouti. It accuses the Islamic courts of sheltering foreign al-Qaeda leaders.

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”.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Continuing a trend of steady employment growth, the United States economy added 215,000 jobs in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.3%.

“Job growth is quite strong,” stated Jim O’Sullivan, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, a data analysis firm in New York. “This pace of employment growth is clearly strong enough to keep the unemployment rate trending down.”

Average hourly earnings rose 0.2%, marking a rebound after growth stalled in June. Wages have grown by 2.1% over the past year, below the Federal Reserve’s target of 3.5% annual wage growth, and not much more than the underlying rate of inflation.

While sluggish wage growth remains a pocket of weakness in the economic recovery, steady payroll gains averaging 242,000 per month over the past twelve months have led observers to consider a Federal Reserve interest rate hike as increasingly likely, according to The New York Times.

“We view this report as easily clearing the hurdle needed to keep the Fed on track for a September rate hike,” said Rob Martin, an economist at Barclays in New York. “The bar for not moving now is much higher.”

Although the Federal Reserve has not explicitly stated that they plan to raise interest rates in the near future, the US central bank has stated that it would raise rates when it has seen “some further improvement” in the jobs market. The Fed has not increased interest rates since 2006, and during the 2007-2009 recession, it lowered rates to historically low levels.