24 April 2015

Accidents and Natural Disasters

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The week wasn't particularly pleasant with misfortune playing a large role in many tragedies.

Accidents


We begin the week with the world looking on as it was feared nearly 700 people had drowned off the coast of Libya after a human smuggling vessel sunk with the only progress being the captain and his crew being arrested. The EU held an emergency meeting regarding the tragedy however the outcome has been criticized as been inadequate. Elsewhere in the world 7 people were reported dead and 17 trapped in a flooded coal mine in China.

Older tragedies made news with robot's at the Fukushima nuclear power plant capturing images of a strange green glow and even further back to one of histories most notorious accidents one of the remnants, a deckchair from the Titanic, was sold for $190,000.

Natural Disasters


Mother nature proved a destructive force earlier in the week with Tsunami warnings raised for Japan's southern Okinawa island after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the Easter Taiwan. Another earthquake, 6.3 magnitude, was recorded between Nelson and Kaikoura in New Zealand's south island. However nature wasn't done with the Calbuco volcano erupting and sending plumes of smoke and ash into the atmosphere in southern Chile forcing evacuations of surrounding areas.

On the biological front new warnings were raised after it was discovered that Ebola, now thought to be under control, could still be spread by sex with the CDC asking previous victims to abstain from sex. Good news also followed on the Ebola front when a monkey was cured with a new experimental drug along with more good news of a clinical trial coming to an end offering a malaria vaccine. Meanwhile in Iowa 5 million hens are to be euthanized after a bird flu outbreak. We end the week with man doing as much damage to nature with the deteriorating quality of air in China under more scrutiny over the last few months as the second largest economy continues to plow ahead but it's not alone with growing economy Delhi claiming the most polluted air.

17 April 2015

Technologies Tantalizing Tomorrow

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We delve this week into the world of Technology with security threats from hackers looming large and space calling out to the brave.


Network security under threat

Fighting on the Digital Front


We begin the week with security after numerous stories of hackers surfaced this week ranging in severity of threat. If you thought being untethered and high in the sky would keep you safe a new report claims that hackers could hack into the aircraft's system via the planes own Wi-Fi, and you thought all you had to worry about was a guy stuck in the cargo hold of the plane. While the odds of a plane being hacked are low the number is increasing as a new report claims a 23% spike in cyber crimes with another study showing data breaches have stolen nearly 29 million US health records in 4 years.

One of the most famous hack of recent memory is that of Sony Entertainment who's documents can now be found in a searchable trove on Wikileaks and more worryingly is the fact that the software used to attack Sony Entertainment can be bought on the dark web for just $30,000 in bitcoin. Speaking of business, Google faces a new antitrust lawsuit in Europe after claims that Google prioritized it's own services over that of others. In the US the new net neutrality freedom is already coming under attack by broadband companies who are taking the fight to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Curiosity rover on mars

Future and Fun


Focusing instead on bettering mankind's future we saw the first ever donut launched into space giving us even more reason to reach space. However, attempts to get into space took another knock when SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket just failed to land on the drone barge during a test flight earlier in the week. For those already in the heavens we saw footage of a space walk carried out earlier in the year on ISS while even further out in space the Curiosity rover found evidence of small amounts of water on Mars. On the topic of robots, a few of them are being used closer to home mapping radiation at the Fukushima power plant too dangerous for humans to map.

Finally we end this week where artificial intelligence is no match, natural stupidity. The week saw two puzzles fool the internet with Cheryl's Birthday math problem and a picture of a cat either walking up or down a flight of stairs, basically the blue and gold dress all over again.

10 April 2015

Deadly Repercussions

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Death hung low over the world this week with many long awaited legal decisions interrupted by a growing body count.

Officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott

Race Relations Deteriorate


We begin when the dark days that led to Ferguson, Missouri taking it's place in history were relived with another black man shot and killed by a white officer. The incident unfolded in North Charleston where Officer Michael Slager pulled over Walter Scott for a traffic stop. During the stop a bystander managed to record what happened next showing Walter Scott running from Officer Slager followed by 8 shots in his direction, 3 hitting him in the back. The officer claimed Walter Scott had reached for his Taser but the video footage shows Officer Slager walking back to the initial spot, pick something up, walk back and drop it next to Walter Scott.

Needless to say the response to the latest in a long line of shootings has been swift with condemnation coming from all fronts including North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey who said all officers would wear body camera's from now on while the attorney for previous victims, Martin and Brown, questioned progress made. The bystander who shot the video has since spoken out saying that Scott was trying to get away from the Taser. Another video, this time the dashboard cam from the officers vehicle has been released showing the initial stop. Since the shooting and video release Officer Slager has been arrested and is being held without bail.



Terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Legal Trials


One of the biggest trials in years has found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty on all 30 counts for his part in the Boston Marathon bombings, he now awaits sentencing.

Other trial's came to an end this week when blogger, Lacey Spears, was sentenced to 20 years for intentionally killing her 5-year-old son by poisoning him with salt in order to gain attention online; The judge claims Miss Spears was suffering from a rare mental condition and was spared the maximum 25 year sentence. Another case ended this week with 2 women sentenced to 8 years for their part in the death of a Mississippi black man and finally we end this week with a judge declaring that Craig Hicks, the man who killed 3 Muslim college students in North Carolina, can face the death penalty.

3 April 2015

Hollywood Machine Keeps Ticking

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Another week of awards shows and revelations as the Hollywood machine continued to tick over churning out more entertainment news.

Madonna and Taylor Swift on stage together

Awards


The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards took place in LA over the weekend with big names attending including celebrity moms like Angelina Jolie who made her first appearance, since having more preventative operations, taking her flock of kids along with Katie Holmes who took Suri Cruise to the child friendly event. As usual their were plenty of performances with 5 Seconds of Summer performing and getting slimmed along with awards being handed out with the Modern Family cast winning and, you guessed it, getting slimmed.

It wasn't just the kids that had fun this weekend with the 2015 iHeartRadio Music Awards taking place hosted by Jamie Foxx who even sang a song about being an "African-American Sniper". Fortunately he wasn't the only performer with Taylor Swift joining Madonna on stage for her performance but it didn't end there with performance from Sam Smith singing "Lay Me Down" and Snoop Dogg performing "Peaches N Cream" along with Rhianna performing "Bitch Better have my Money" for the first time. But it wouldn't be an award show without awards and there were plenty given out with Taylor Swift being the biggest winner of the night.

Celebrities


Outside of award ceremonies celebrities were busy with Robert Pattinson getting engaged to FKA Twigs. Jay Z took on a new venture when he announced a new streaming music service joined by a plethora of celebrities. Trevor Noah was named the new host of the Daily Show but it was soon followed by backlash after old tweets he had made were deemed offensive.

From there it all went downhill with Lil Wayne saying he had sold his mansion after an earlier swatting incident and music legend Joni Mitchell made an emergency visit to the hospital after being found unconscious. Things weren't pretty in the Williams household with Robin Williams kids fighting with Robin's third wife over his estate. In TV land Justin Bieber's roast was finally aired on Comedy Central as a transparent excuse to gain forgiveness for his recent behaviour and finally we end the week with another documentary about unusual behaviour when the "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief" documentary aired with claims that Scientology had control over John Travolta, which explains a lot.