envitec-dk.com

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Regular commuter Dan Ruefly detonated a half-mile (800 m) section of the old Woodrow Wilson Bridge just after 12:30 a.m. local time (0530 UTC) on Tuesday 29 August 2006. The detonation brought down over 2,600 tons of steel. The bridge, which carried the Capital Beltway across the Potomac River, was scheduled for destruction as part of a $2.4 billion project to replace the span. The bridge has caused traffic delays nearly every day since its opening in 1961.

Mr. Ruefly had won the honour of pushing the plunger in a contest to find the worst commuting experience; after a motoring accident he became stuck in a traffic jam. Mr. Ruefly (who leaves home at 5:00 a.m. every day to beat the traffic) had crashed into a stationary tractor-trailer on the bridge, leaving him with severely crushed hips. The ambulance sent to transport him to hospital was unable to make it through rush hour traffic and, as a result, Mr. Ruefly almost died.

The detonation of the six-lane drawbridge was originally planned to occur at 11:59 p.m. however it was delayed by over half an hour when spectators broke through security fences to get a better view, the bridge was finally brought down at around 12:35 a.m. There was a 20 second delay between the time of initiation and the actual detonation. It was reported that the plunger was not actually wired to the charges, and was only a ceremonial prop to signal the actual detonation by the engineering crews.

The demolition is part of a complete replacement of the former six-lane bridge with a twelve lane version comprised of two side-by-side drawbridges. Work started on the project as early as 1999 and the new north-bound bridge was opened on June 10 2006. This demolition is the first step in the next stage of the project; to replace the existing bridge with the southbound ‘twin’.

Boat traffic on the Potomac River and vehicle traffic on the new Wilson Bridge were halted during the detonation. Airspace was also briefly closed for a short duration.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Two well-known critics of Scientology have had their user accounts on the video sharing website YouTube suspended. The YouTube accounts of both Tory Christman and Mark Bunker were suspended this week. In a statement to Wikinews, YouTube explained why accounts are suspended, but did not specifically state why these particular accounts were suspended. Neither Christman nor Bunker received a notice or explanation from YouTube as to why their accounts were suspended.

On Tuesday April 15, Tory Christman a former Scientologist and volunteer for their Office of Special Affairs, and known as ToryMagoo44 on YouTube, had her account suspended for unknown reasons. On Wednesday, after complaints to YouTube from other YouTube users and from members of the group Anonymous, Christman’s account was restored.

Wikinews confirmed Friday that Mark Bunker known as ‘xenutv1’ on YouTube, a television journalist and critic of Scientology, had his user account suspended. This is the second time that Bunker’s account was suspended. He was formerly known as ‘xenutv’ when his account was suspended the first time.

“I want to see the complaint and on what grounds did YouTube suspend my account. I have done nothing on that account that would violate any of their terms and my videos and account should not have been pulled. The only caveat to this is my first account “XenuTV” was suspended a while back for a Stephen Colbert video I had from Comedy Central. At that time I created XenuTV1 and according to YouTube’s terms you can only have one account. Any time I have ever been asked to remove something that may violate their terms for copyright materials, I comply immediately. It would be wrong and a misuse of power to pull my account because of this lone loophole in their terms,” said Bunker exclusively to Wikinews.

Bunker, who is also the owner of the anti-Scientology website www.xenutv.com, has become known as Wise Beard Man to Anonymous. He was interviewed by Wikinews in February. Bunker started XenuTV in 1999 and began to make videos that he provided for the Lisa McPherson Trust. Bunker has been a critic of the Church of Scientology since 1997.

In 2006, he won a Regional Emmy Award after he and KUSI-TV news reporter Lena Lewis produced a documentary news video on the issues with the United States – Mexico border with San Diego, California.

With permission from Christman, Bunker responded to his account’s suspension with a video post to her YouTube channel on Thursday. Bunker stated: “This afternoon at 2:41, I found out YouTube canceled my account. No justification was given to me, I got no notice from them, and there appears to be no recourse. And why did this happen? Because the Jason Beghe interview was about to be posted – and Scientology did not want anyone to see that. My tease for the Jason Beghe interview went up on Sunday, and by this afternoon we had almost six hundred thousand views, and it had been profiled in newscasts around the world. There is a lot of tension being drawn to this video, and Scientology wanted to stop it.”

Jason Beghe is a television and film actor who joined Scientology in 1994. He gave USD1 million to the Church of Scientology over the years, and told Roger Friedman of FOX News that Scientology head David Miscavige called him “the poster boy for Scientology”. Beghe appeared in promotional videos for Scientology in 2005. In April 2008 he left Scientology, and contacted Andreas Heldal-Lund, who put him in touch with Mark Bunker. Bunker arranged an interview with Beghe, which was uploaded to Bunker’s YouTube account on April 7. The posted video is a 3-minute portion of a larger 3-hour interview with Beghe about his criticism of Scientology. In the video Beghe states: “Scientology is destructive and a rip-off. … It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. “

In an interview with Wikinews, Tory Christman commented on the suspension of her account, and now Bunker’s: “Well having worked for the Office of Special Affairs which is part of the Church of Scientology, they used to have me go out and open up phony accounts, I didn’t know they were stopping free speech on the net but once I realized that … I said ‘I can’t do this, I didn’t get into Scientology to stop free speech’. … I’m pretty sure, you know, I’m quite sure, that it’s Scientology. That’s what they do, that’s their view is just ‘shut em down’ they have no morals on it or anything. They just figure ‘screw em, shut em down’.”

Christman said she found out her YouTube account had been suspended on Tuesday: “I came back from lunch at four and Mark called me and said ‘Do you know your account is suspended?’, and by the morning of yesterday it was back up.”

When asked if she had received a notice about the suspension from YouTube, Christman responded: “I never got anything, and I’ve looked through everything, I never got any kind of a notice, either way. … I never heard from YouTube either way – suspending it, or putting it back. And I’ve written them, and it was only put back thanks to Anonymous and all the critics and people that wrote in to them, I’m quite sure – Because tons of people did, it wasn’t like they just put it back up.”

“I would like to know, why was it suspended, why is Mark’s suspended, what are the violations, okay, because if the Church of Scientology is just paying them off that’s kind of weird, isn’t it?,” added Christman.

Wikinews asked Christman if she knew if the suspension of Bunker’s account had anything to do with the interview with Jason Beghe: “Why Jason’s video was pulled, I don’t know, and I’ve spoken to Jason and he didn’t know either.”

She told Wikinews: “I would like to know why. Someone should have a right to be told ‘you are screwing up on this, remove this video’ … ‘change it’. But to never be notified and then just you’re suspended, that’s kind of weird, I think. And I have every intention of either, YouTube can contact me, or I’m going to keep contacting … they need to let the people know what is going on.”

A YouTube spokeswoman told Wikinews that they would respond to our e-mails “as soon as possible.” Within two hours YouTube issued a statement to Wikinews saying that they “do not comment on individual videos.”

“YouTube takes these issues very seriously but we don’t comment on individual videos. Our general approach is simple: we have clear content policies about what videos are allowed on the site. For example we prohibit clips that infringe copyright or show extreme violence. Videos that breach these rules are removed and we disable all accounts belonging to repeat offenders,” said a spokesperson for YouTube. When asked, YouTube did not state when or if Bunker’s account will be reinstated.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A team of archaeologists excavating an Ancient Egyptian tomb have discovered golden jewelry in a recently-discovered lower chamber at the Valley of the Kings burial site in Luxor, Egypt.

Two golden rings and five golden earrings were found in the tomb of Djehuty, an 18th-dynasty official of Queen Hatshepsut, and were probably the property of Djehuty or his family.

The discovery was announced by Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s current Minister of Culture.

Djehuty was overseer of the treasury and overseer of works for the Queen. Hatshepsut reigned approximately 1479–1458 BCE. Djehuty was responsible for managing the huge amounts of precious goods brought in from Egypt’s military expedition to Punt in the Horn of Africa and the vast building projects of Hatshepsut which have made the female pharaoh one of the most-remembered of any from ancient Egypt.

Djehuty died after Hatshepsut did, sometime during the reign of Thutmosis III. Both Hatshepsut’s and Thutmosis’s names are recorded on the tomb. In a fashion typical of ancient Egyptian rivalries, Hatshepsut’s name was partly obscured on the monument over the tomb sometime after the queen’s death.

The team, led by José Manuel Galán of the National Research Center (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC), in Madrid, Spain, had been excavating the tomb, designated TT11 and located in the necropolis of Dra’ Abu el-Naga’, since 2002. While much of Djehuty’s funerary equipment was lost to fire in antiquity, the lower chamber of his tomb was concealed at the end of a three-meter shaft and discovered at the end of 2008.

A superficial description of the tomb itself was recorded almost two hundred years ago by 19th-century French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion, rubble blocking the entrance hindered excavation until the 21st century. In that time, emphasis in Egyptology has changed from the cataloging of treasures to the investigation of ancient culture, life and religion.

Since excavation began, Djehuty’s tomb has yielded a number of surprises. It was discovered that the tomb was re-used repeatedly up to and during the Greco-Roman period. There is an unusual face-on depiction of pharaoh Thutmosis III hunting ducks, and the mummy of a young, bejewelled, as-yet unidentified woman.

In 2007, 44 preserved bunches of flowers thought to be from Djehuty’s funeral were found in the site. In their 8th season of excavation, which ended on February 22, 2009, the team also found considerable evidence that below Djehuty’s tomb is a network of burial sites from the 11th dynasty, four thousand years old.

The lower chamber also displays passages from the Egyptian funerary text the Book of the Dead on its walls and a colorful mural of the goddess Nut, an embodiment of the heavens, on the ceiling. The names of Djehuty and his parents were also intact in the second chamber; the names were defaced in the previously-known first chamber of the tomb, which had also been looted.

According to a press release from Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Djehuty’s tomb is only the fifth known decorated burial chamber of the 18th dynasty. An additional unusual feature of the tomb is that its upper chamber is decorated in relief, rather than simply paint. When the excavation is completed, Dr Galán’s team plans to open the site to the public as the carved stoneworks will not be destroyed by tourists’ activities as paint would.

The identification of Djehuty is a complicated one, as a number of officials of the 18th dynasty bore the name, including a general and several governors. The name itself is an alternate transliteration of the name of the Egyptian god usually written in English as Thoth.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Buffalo, New York —A massive warehouse complex of at least 5 buildings caught on fire in Buffalo, New York on 111 Tonawanda Street, sending a plume of thick, jet black colored smoke into the air that could be seen as far away as 40 miles.

As of 6:40 a.m., the fire was under control, and firefighters were attempting to stop it from spreading, but could not get to the center of the fire because of severe amounts of debris. Later in the morning, the fire was extinguished.

“The fire is mostly under debris at this point. It’s under control, but it’s under some debris. We really can’t get to it. We’re just going to have to keep on pouring water on it so it doesn’t spread,” said Thomas Ashe, the fire chief for the North Buffalo based fire division who also added that at one point, at least 125 firefighters were on the scene battling the blaze. One suffered minor injures and was able to take himself to the hospital to seek medical attention.

Shortly after 8:00 p.m. as many as 3 explosions rocked the warehouse sending large mushroom clouds of thick black smoke into the air. After the third explosion, heat could be felt more than 100 feet away. The fire started in the front, one story building then quickly spread to three others, but fire fighters managed to stop the flames from spreading onto the 3 story building all the way at the back.

According to a Buffalo Police officer, who wished not to be named, the fire began at about 7:00 p.m. [Eastern time], starting as a one alarm fire. By 8:00 p.m., three fire companies were on the scene battling the blaze. Police also say that a smaller fire was reported in the same building on Saturday night, which caused little damage.

At the start of the fire, traffic was backed up nearly 4 miles on the 198 expressway going west toward the 190 Interstate and police had to shut down the Tonawanda street exit because the road is too close to the fire.

At one point, traffic on the 198 was moving so slow, at least a dozen people were seen getting out of their cars and walking down the expressway to watch the fire. That prompted as many as 10 police cars to be dispatched to the scene to force individuals back into their cars and close off one of the 2 lanes on the westbound side.

One woman, who wished not to be named as she is close to the owner of the warehouse, said the building is filled with “classic cars, forklifts, and money” and that owner “does not have insurance” coverage on the property. The building is not considered abandoned, but firefighters said that it is vacant.

Officials in Fort Erie, Ontario were also swamped with calls to fire departments when the wind blew the smoke over the Niagra River and into Canada.

It is not known what caused the fire, but a car is suspected to have caught on fire and there are reports from police and hazmat crews, that there were also large barrels of diesel fuel being stored in one building. Firefighters say the cause of the blaze is being treated as “suspicious.” The ATF is investigating the fire and will bring dogs in to search the debris.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

At least sixty people have been confirmed dead after mudslides in southeastern Brazil, mostly on Ilha Grande, caused by torrential rainfall.

Rescue efforts are still continuing in the state of Rio de Janeiro for people feared to be buried under houses, which collapsed due to the deluge of mud and rain. Rescuers used shovels and heavy machinery to dig through the rubble.

Colonel Jerri Andrade, who is supervising the rescuers, commented on the current status of rescue efforts. “The weather is improving, which helps us with the search, but we won’t rest as long as we suspect that there are more bodies underneath the remains.”

More rain is forecast in the days ahead, making additional mudslides a possibility. The authorities have warned that the death toll could increase as more bodies are found. Three days of mourning were declared in the Rio de Janeiro greater area, and celebrations scheduled for January 6 were called off.

Thursday, March 2, 2006

As the Australian Prime Minister John Howard celebrated his ten-year reign this week, Greens Leader Bob Brown marked the 10th anniversary of his election into the Federal parliament.

Senator Brown has outlasted 10 other party leaders: Meg Lees, Cheryl Kernot, Natasha Stott-Despoja, Brian Greig, Andrew Bartlett, all former Democrat leaders. Pauline Hanson, Len Harris of the One Nation party, plus the Australian Labor Party’s Kim Beazley, Simon Crean and Mark Latham have all been and gone during that time.

Only Prime Minister John Howard and Senator Bob Brown are left standing as leaders in the Australian Federal Parliament. Bob Brown was elected to the Senate in 1996, and re-elected in 2001. He has introduced bills for constitutional reform, forest protection, to block radioactive waste dumping, to ban mandatory sentencing, and greenhouse abatement.

Senator Brown says his party has hardly been in the balance of power at any stage, yet the Australian Greens have risen in popularity. “We’ve become the third major political party in the country and we’re on our way to becoming a real power broker in this country and ultimately, the aim has to be becoming part of the Government of the country,” he told ABC Radio.

While there’s perpetual media speculation over John Howard’s possible retirement, Senator Brown says he’s full of beans and ready for the next 10 years. “And there’s no speculation about me standing at next year’s election. I can’t wait,” Senator Brown said. “Our election aim will be to rescue the Senate from the Howard government, and doubling our team is not beyond reality.”

The Tasmanian Greens senator predicts his party could govern the country one day. “We’re on our way to becoming a real powerbroker in this country and ultimately the aim has to be becoming part of the government of the country,” he said.

The Greens started with Brown’s entry into the Senate after the 1996 election, doubled to two senators in 2001, and has four had senators represented since 2004.

The four Greens senators and their staff say they will celebrate with a chocolate cake – and 10 green candles. The government held a gala fundraising dinner in the Great Hall of Parliament on Wednesday night to celebrate Mr Howard’s milestone.

Senator Brown said the success of Prime Minister John Howard is in his ability to play on fears. “(Howard)… is able to “dig a little bit below surface to play on fears that people have. He has presided over a country where the rich have got richer much faster than the poor have seen their conditions improve,” he said. “And it is a country that says if you are down on your luck, bad luck. The good Samaritan aspect which is very strong in this country, doesn’t reside with this government.”

Of the Federal Labor Party the Greens leader said they should move back to humanitarian politics He said Labor was trying to swing to the right but had lost its way. “I think the Opposition has lost its way and I think it is going to get worse,” Senator Brown said. “The indications are that the Opposition thinks if it moves to the right it will do better,” said Senator Brown.

Bob Brown is among 20 environmentalists, organisations and concerned citizens who were issued a 216 page writ by the Tasmanian-based timber company Gunns Limited in December 2004. The woodchipping giant is sueing for a combined AU$6.3 million for actions it claims has damaged their business and reputation. The defendants say the case is ‘industrial’ style litigation, alleging conspiracy, interference with trade and business and defamation. Nine different campaigns are cited.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Amid publicity that arose from deaths and injuries due to dog attacks in the region, the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to impose tougher penalties on dog owners who let their dogs run free. After a public hearing Tuesday evening, the board voted for a new animal control ordinance. Now dog owners who are repeat offenders face a misdemeanor crime of $2,500 or up to a year in jail.

Dogs that repeatedly chase cars and run free, or otherwise trespass on property, could be euthanized if so ordered by a judge. A dog that is “roaming, running or self-hunting off the property or premises of its owner or custodian and not under the immediate control of the owner or custodian or his agent,” meets the county’s legal definition of a dog running at large.

The mauling death of an elderly woman by 3 Pit Bulls in her front yard sparked a public debate on animal control. At the hearing, State Senator Edward Houke said he would raise dog law issues in the January meeting of the Virginia General Assembly. According to The Free Lance Star, Houke said, “It’s pretty obvious to me that the state law needs to be changed, but saying that and it happening, is two completely different phenomena. If there’s one thing you learn quickly it’s that you don’t bring dog bills to the Virginia General Assembly.”

The Sullivan daughters, who lost their mother in the mauling attack, circulated petitions in the county and also attended the hearing. Board chairman Robert Hagan noted the Sullivan family presence and thanked them for their efforts to prevent more tragedies.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

The Internet has already brought great things to the world, but has also brought spam, phishing, scamming, etc. We all have seen them across the Internet. They promise money, weight loss, or other things a person may strive for, but they usually amount to only a lighter pocket. Online advertising has become something that the increasingly Internet-reliant society has become used to, as well as more aware of. As this is true, online ads have become more intricate and deceptive in recent years.

However, a certain type of advertisement has arisen recently, and has become more deceptive than any other Internet ad, and has tricked many users into credit card charges. These sites claim to be news websites that preach a “miracle product”, and they offer a free trial, and then charge the user’s credit card a large amount of money without informing them after the trial ends. These sites appear to be operating under one venture and have caught ad pages of high-traffic websites by storm. In this report, Wikinews’ Tjc6 investigates news advertisement sites.

These Internet ads work in different ways:

Hypothetically speaking, a reader is browsing the web, and then happens to come across something that they believe is too good to be true. A link on one of these high-traffic pages promises white teeth, weight loss, or huge profits from working at home part-time. Out of curiosity, they click on the link.

This is the way that people are attracted to these fake news sites on the internet. The domain owners draw in customers by purchasing advertising on some of the World Wide Web’s most visited pages. Curious users click and are led to what they believe is a news article. From anti-aging to shedding weight, these “articles” from non-existant newspapers and television stations depict a skeptical news reporter trying a product because they were instructed to by a superior.

As the user reads on, they find that the “reporter” miraculously achieves significant weight loss, teeth whitening, or other general health and beauty improvement. The reporter states that the reader can get the same results as they did by using a “free trial” of the product.

Next, the user looks to the bottom of the page, where there seems to be a set of user comments, all of them praising the product or products that are advertised — this is where we first see something suspicious. Across several of these false articles, the comments appear to show the exact same text, sometimes with even the same usernames as other sites.

There is obviously some kind of correlation. Although this appears to be true, most users who purchase these products do not look at multiple versions of these similar pages of what appears to be a fast-growing network of interconnected fake news sites.

Once customers have convinced themselves into buying the product, they are led to a product (or products) website which promises a free trial for a very low price. What they do not know about this, however, is that they are giving their credit card data to a company that will charge it automatically after the trial ends. In about 14 days, the user receives a charge on their credit card for an excessive amount of money, usually from about $80 to $100 (USD). All attempts to contact these companies and cancel their shipments usually prove to be futile.

What these sites have is a large amount of legal copy located at the bottom of each site, stating their right to charge the user. This site, a fake news article claiming to offer teeth-whitening benefits, has several paragraphs of fine print, including this: “…Upon signing up for the 10 day trial membership you will be charged up to $4.97 depending on various shipping and initial offer promotions at that time but not more than $4.97 upon signing. If not cancelled, you will be charged $89.97 upon completion of the 10 day trial period. Monthly thereafter or 30 days from the original order date, the charge will reoccur monthly at a total of $89.97 until cancelled…,” the site says.

Practices like this have alerted the Better Business Bureau, an American organization that studies and reports on the reliability and practices of US businesses. In a press release, a spokesman from the BBB spoke out against sites like this. “Many businesses across the country are using the same selling model for their products: They lure customers in with claimed celebrity endorsements and free trial offers, and then lock them in by making it extremely difficult to cancel the automatic delivery of more products every month…,” said the report that denounced the websites.

When a user looks at several of these sites, they notice that all of them have the same exact structure. Because of this, Wikinews decided to look into where some of the domains were owned, and if they were all in fact part of one company.

However, the results that Wikinews found were ones that were not expected. Out of the three random websites that were found in Internet ads, all using similar designs and methods to attract the customers, came from three different locations in three countries and two separate continents. The first came from Scottsdale, in the United States, while the next two came from Vancouver and Hamburg. There is no location correlation, but surely, there has to be something that connected these sites together. We had to look even further to try to find a connection.

There is some correlation within the product’s contact information. A large amount of the teeth-whitening products analyzed actually shared the same phone number, which lead to a distribution center located in St. Petersburg, Florida, and several other similar distribution centers located across the Southern United States. But, that explains only one of the categories of products that these websites cover, teeth whitening.

What about the other products? The other products such as weight loss and work-at-home kits all trace back to similar distribution centers in similar places. So, what do we make of all of this?

There is obviously some company that promotes these products through the fake news advertisements, but that company is nowhere to be found on the websites. All contact information is given on the product pages, and websites are copyrighted under the name of the domain, not a company. Whatever company has been the setup for these pages has been very good at hiding themselves from the Internet, as there is no information across the web about that mysterious large advertiser.

As a result of customers buying the products and having unauthorized charges on their credit cards, a large volume of complaints are currently present on awareness sites, complaint sites, and even the Better Business Bureau. Several customers point out that they were not informed of the steep charges and the company made it extremely difficult to cancel their subscription, usually resulting in the loss of several hundred dollars.

• “The trial offer was to pay for $3.95 for the cost of the shipping for one bottle. I noticed shortly after placing the order I had a charge on my credit card for $149.95. Unknown to myself the company charges for a membership if you don’t cancel within 14 days, I cancelled within 18 days…When I called the customer service number they told me the decision has been made and my refund request was denied. When I questioned the person on the other line about what I was getting for my $149.95 she told me I was not getting anything because I cancelled the membership.“

?“Tamara”, in a post to the Ripoff Report

• “This is a “free sample” scam: Pay only postage and handling and get a free sample of a tooth whitening system, they say. I looked for the “catch,” something that would indicate that there’d be hidden or recurring charges, but didn’t see anything, and ordered. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, I see a charge for $88.97 on my bank statement…When I called, the guy answering the phone had obviously answered the same angry question many, many times: “Why has your company charged $88.97 to my card?” “Because you didn’t cancel your subscription in time,” he said tiredly.“

?“Elenor”, in a post to the Ripoff Report

One notable lawsuit has occurred as a result of these articles. Some of the articles about work at home kits specifically advertise things like “work for Google”, or “job openings at Google”. However, Google asserts these claims as false and has taken the case to court, as it is a copyright violation. “Thousands of people have been tricked into sending payment information and being charged hidden fees by questionable operations,” said Google in a statement.

The BBB has received over 3,000 complaints about products such as the ones that Google took offense to. The lawsuit has yet to begin in court, and no date has been set.