Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The mystery of the location of a viewpoint used by English painter John Constable has been solved, after nearly 200 years. The Stour Valley and Dedham Church was painted in Suffolk, England, between 1814 and 1815, but changes to the landscape meant that the spot he chose was not known, despite the best efforts of historians and art experts.

Now the puzzle has been answered. Martin Atkinson, who works for the National Trust as property manager for East Suffolk, used clues from the painting and looked at old maps to track down the viewpoint. Trees had grown, a hedgerow had been planted and boundaries had moved or disappeared, but Atkinson eventually worked out where Constable had stood. He said, “When I discovered that I had worked out the location where Constable painted this particular masterpiece, I couldn’t believe it. All the pieces of the jigsaw finally fitted together.”

Atkinson used an 1817 map of East Bergholt, where Constable grew up, as a reference point, but found that the view would have changed not long after the painting was completed. “The foreground didn’t fit at all, it was quite unusual as we know Constable painted it in the open air so he would have been standing in the scene. The hedgerow in his work no longer exists and there’s another hedgerow that runs across the scene today which wasn’t there. When you stand on the road on which he would have stood, and use the oak tree as a reference point, you see the same view. It’s great to see where an old master stood – and be inspired by the same view,” he said.

Suffolk, where Constable painted many of his finest paintings, is often called “Constable country”. Most, but not all, of the locations that Constable depicted are known. The picture is now housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

David S. Touretzky, prominent free speech activist and critic of Scientology, discussed his opinions on the recent Internet backlash against the Church of Scientology in an interview with former Scientologist and Wikinews reporter Nicholas Turnbull. The recent conflict on the Internet between critics of Scientology and the Church has been spurred on in declarations by a nebulous Internet entity using the name Anonymous that the Church of Scientology “will be destroyed”. Anonymous has directed recent protests at Scientology centres across the world, which have attracted significant numbers of individuals supporting the cause. In recent e-mail correspondence with Wikinews, a representative of the Church of Scientology declared that the Church considers the activities of Anonymous to be illegal, and that Anonymous “will be handled and stopped”.

Touretzky, a research professor in artificial intelligence and computational neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University, has been a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology since mid-1995, and has been protesting against Scientology vociferously since then; he has also run websites that publish material that Scientology wishes to keep suppressed from the public eye, such as extracts from Scientology’s formerly-confidential Operating Thetan (OT) materials. Touretzky views the actions of the Church of Scientology as being “a threat to free speech”, and has endured harassment by the Church of Scientology for his activities.

The Church of Scientology continues to suffer damage to its public reputation through increased exposure on the Internet and vocal protests by Scientology critics such as Prof. Touretzky. A recent event that focused intense attention on Scientology’s totalitarian attitude was the leak of an internal Church of Scientology propaganda video to the Internet video sharing site YouTube, in which celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise spoke heavily in Scientology’s jargon and stated that that “we [Scientology] are the authorities” on resolving the difficulties of humanity. The declaration of war by Anonymous followed shortly after this leak, in the form of a video posted to the Internet.

The ongoing dispute, cast by some as Scientology versus the Internet, brought Scientology terms such as “SP” (Suppressive Person, an enemy of Scientology) and “KSW” (Keeping Scientology Working) into general usage by non-Scientologists from the late 1990s onwards; increased attention has been drawn to Scientology by the release of the Cruise video in addition to media coverage. This focus has caused an even greater propagation of these terms across the outside world, as Touretzky comments in the interview.

Wikinews asked Prof. Touretzky about the impact that the activities of Anonymous will have on Scientology, the public relations effect of the Tom Cruise video, the recent departure of individuals from the Church of Scientology’s executive management, the strategies that Anonymous will employ and Touretzky’s experiences of picketing the Church.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

On Monday, German football club FC Bayern Munich completed the signing of Mats Hummels, who captained Bayern’s rivals Borussia Dortmund this past season. 27-year-old defender Hummels, who was an academy player at Bayern before moving to play for Borussia Dortmund, agreed to a five-year deal.

Hummels underwent medical tests on Monday before signing the contract. Bayern’s chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said “We’re delighted to welcome Mats back to FC Bayern, […] Not only are we strengthening our squad with a world-class centre-back, but also with a player who accepts responsibility and who is our own youth product. First of all we wish him a successful Euro 2016.” ^{((de))German language: ?Wir freuen uns, Mats zurück beim FC Bayern begrüßen zu dürfen […] Mit ihm bereichern wir unsere Mannschaft nicht nur um einen Innenverteidiger von Weltklasse-Format, sondern auch um einen Spieler, der Verantwortung nicht scheut und noch dazu aus unserer Jugend stammt. Jetzt wünschen wir ihm erst einmal eine erfolgreiche Europameisterschaft.}

Hummels joined the Bavarians in 1995 when he was six years old. He played only one Bundesliga match for the Reds before he was loaned to Dortmund and later signed for them. He played his last game for Borussia Dortmund on Saturday in the DFB-Pokal Cup final, which Bayern won 4–3 on penalties.

After the signing was completed, he said “Saying goodbye to Dortmund was difficult for me of course. It was similar to 2008, when it was the other way around […] Now I’m looking forward to everything that awaits me at FC Bayern. I’m very excited.” ^{((de))German language: ?Der Abschied aus Dortmund ist mir natürlich schwergefallen. 2008 ging es mir ähnlich, als ich den Weg in die andere Richtung gemacht habe […] jetzt freue ich mich einfach auf alles, was mich beim FC Bayern erwartet. Ich bin sehr gespannt.}

Monday, May 26, 2008

The 27th Young Designers’ Exhibition 2008, recognized by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) as the largest show of student creations, recently ended Sunday May 18. It was held at the Taipei World Trade Center. Improvements and expansions were seen with 107 academical and industrial units. Different design competitions participated and showcased their products and also received awards.

It’s no doubt that companies related to design and cultural industries want to discover creative talents from academical units in this exhibition. However, most companies still try to showcase different conceptional and applicative products in order to promote Taiwan’s designs into the world market. A typical example is Fora Series, a photo-voltaic product series by the Tsann Kuen Trans-nation Group.

Before entering into their careers, students participated in this show and showcased varied styles that differ from the usual industrial businesspeople. To get more opportunities and in order to interact with the design and cultural industries, students also participated in vast competitions and tried to get the top places. Some students also tried to design conceptional products in conjunction with industrial designs, especially in some design competitions.

In summary, not only did the 2008 YODEX, have companies which can discover talents and showcase achievements of industrial design in the exhibition, but students can make their stages to showcase excellences from their creations in several competitions related to YODEX.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Haitian police yesterday arrested ten United States nationals, five men and five women, over the alleged abduction of 33 children. The nationals tried to cross with the children, aged between two months and twelve years, into the Dominican Republic, but were halted at the border.

The group belongs to the two-month-old New Life Children’s Refuge charity, with some members from Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Eastside Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, and others from Texas and Kansas. Their claimed intention was to move the quake victims to a temporary orphanage being set up in a hotel-resort in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Police said the Americans did not have any paperwork or permissions to remove the children from the country. Haiti’s government has imposed new restrictions on adoptions due to concerns about child trafficking during the post-disaster confusion.

The detainees are being held near the capital, Port-au-Prince, and maintain their arrest was a mistake. Laura Silsby, the group’s spokeswoman, insisted on the group acting in good faith and they paid no money for the children. She defended the lack of any authority from Haitian officials, “I was going to come back here to do the paperwork,” asserting that Haitian pastor Jean Sanbil, of the Sharing Jesus Ministries, allowed them to move the children. She claimed, “[w]e had permission from the Dominican Republic government to bring the children to an orphanage that we have there.”

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive disagreed strongly with group’s actions; “[w]e did not arrest Americans, we arrested kidnappers.” Social Affairs minister, Yves Christallin, told Agence France-Presse that it was “abduction, not an adoption”. He continued, “what is important for us in Haiti is that a child needs to have authorisation from this ministry to leave the country”. He stressed, “[t]his is totally illegal, […] these people did not have that authorization.”

Kent Page, a spokesman for UNICEF in Haiti, also weighed in today saying, “[y]ou can’t just go and take a child out of a country – no matter what country you are in.”

The NCLR group planned to take around 100 children to the Dominican Republic. According to their mission statement, the Baptists‘ intent was to “find healing, hope, joy and new life in Christ” for the Roman Catholic children “as well as opportunities for adoption into a loving Christian family.” To that end they partnered with New Life Adoption Foundation to “help facilitate adoptions and provide grants to subsidize the cost of adoption for loving Christian parents who would otherwise not be able to afford to adopt.” They envisioned building an orphanage at Villa Magante on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, with facilities for the children, and lodging and amenities for “adopting parents to stay while fulfilling requirement for 60?90 day visit as well as Christian volunteers/vacationing families.”

The children have been transferred to an SOS Children’s village in Santo, to the north of the capital. The site has a medical facility run by the Dominican Red Cross. Staff reported the children were “in a very bad emotional state” and that a small baby had to be temporarily taken to the main hospital. Some children told staff they actually have parents, and a twelve year old said she and her family had believed the New Life Children’s Refuge group wanted to take her to a boarding school in the Dominican Republic. Later, three people arrived at the SOS Children’s village claiming to be relatives of five of the children. They said, “the woman who took the children to DR” told them she organised summer camps in the neighbouring country; they declared they did not intent to permanently part with their children.

Amarick Louis, Haiti’s justice secretary, told the Associated Press that a commission would decide today if the group would go before a judge. Senior Pastor Clint Henry of the Central Valley Baptist Church told reporters New Life Children’s Refuge, and the Haiti mission, are separate from the 25-year-old church. He noted that members of the church were confronted with negative feedback after the arrest of the NLCR group. His congregation prayed for the arrested members of their church during services on Sunday.

The time is 18:00 (UTC) on August 27th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

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Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services is considering prosecuting and banning some Scientology practices, in particular the use of the Scientology personality test to sell courses. State Secretary Rigmor Aasrud said that the activities in question might be prosecuted as fraud or as violations of existing healthcare regulations. A Norwegian Member of Parliament (MP) whose daughter killed herself after taking such a test, supports the idea of prosecuting illegal practices rather than trying to ban the movement as a whole.

The statement was made after three journalists from the online edition of the newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) took the test. The journalists wore hidden recording devices, and did not disclose that they were journalists; VG put the recordings on its website. Scientology staff members told all three that they should buy a course to handle psychological issues. Two of the journalists filled out the 200 questions with honest answers, while the third gave answers consistent with being depressed. The “depressed” journalist was told that he should avoid traditional medicine, while one of the “normal” journalists was told that the course was her only hope for improvement unless she wanted to start taking “chemicals”.

Matthias Fosse, spokesperson for the Church of Scientology in Norway, said that the staff members in question were acting individually. He said that the Church of Scientology does not give medical advice, but that it encourages people to focus on the side effects of medications, and is critical of the “over-medication” of psychiatric patients.

Olav Gunnar Ballo, a Norwegian MP and medical doctor whose daughter Kaja suddenly killed herself after a negative experience with the Scientology test in France in March 2008, released a book about Kaja Ballo‘s life in April 2009. The book debuted on 2nd place in the Norwegian best seller list. Ballo listened to the recorded test result sessions from VG and said that he found the practice “horrible and harmful”. He told the newspaper Dagbladet that Norway could have something to learn from the current French prosecution of Scientology corporations and individuals, by prosecuting specific harmful practices rather than banning Scientology as a whole.

Matthias Fosse said that France is a far more secular society than Norway, and that France were going too far in their prosecution. He said that France has a list of 165 organizations considered to be “sects”, which not just included Scientology but also covered Baptists such as former U.S. president Bill Clinton. The list which Fosse referred to is a list from the 1995 Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France. Fosse said that the OSCE, the U.S. State Department and the UN had criticised French “violations of human rights”.