Yearly Archives: 2016

August 15, 2016

Top News Stories –

A marriage proposal at the Olympics medal ceremony –
Chinese diver He Zi had just received a silver medal for the women’s three-metre springboard at the Rio Olympics on Sunday. But she ended up with another prize when her boyfriend Qin Kai, in front of a global TV audience, went down on one knee. Luckily for Qin, who himself won bronze in the men’s three-metre synchronised springboard last week, He Zi said yes. “We’ve been dating for six years, but I didn’t expect him to propose today,” she said. “He said a lot of things, made a lot of promises, but I think the thing that touched me the most is I think this is the guy I can trust for the rest of my life.” [BBC]

Rio Olympics: Seven injured when aerial camera, cables fall in Olympic Park –
Seven people suffered minor injuries when an aerial camera and its cables fell about 65 feet in the Olympic Park on Monday afternoon. Flavio Oliveira was just getting out of a handball match with his nephew when he heard the wires come crashing to the ground. He said the cable whipped against two girls, hitting one of them in the neck. A statement from the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), which provides TV feeds for countries around the world outside NBC, said, “According to local medical authorities, there were seven minor injuries that have received medical attention. A full investigation has been launched.” [USA Today]

Video of the Day –

Hot Wheels Road Trip

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
Disasters and accidents
Law and crime
Politics and elections

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 16, 2016

Top News Stories –

Chinese drivers fashion rat-proof car ‘skirts’ –
Residents of a city in southern China have been attaching “skirts” to their cars to protect them from rats. Locals in Nanning, in the Guangxi autonomous region, came up with the unusual solution after rodents were found to be clambering inside the vehicles and gnawing through the wiring. Parked cars have been spotted around the city sporting the makeshift, wraparound shields – dubbed “car maxi skirts” in the Chinese media – some fashioned from fabric and chicken wire, others using bamboo. Many social media users are amused by the curious sight, with one person writing on the popular NetEase web portal: “I like this elevated Guangxi humour.” Some share the locals’ frustrations, but others think they’re overreacting. “Are they preparing against a large-scale rodent invasion?” one user asks. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Procrastination

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
Arts and culture
Business and economy
Disasters and accidents
Law and crime

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 17, 2016

Top News Stories –

US ready to ‘hand over’ the internet’s naming system –
The US has confirmed it is finally ready to cede power of the internet’s naming system, ending the almost 20-year process to hand over a crucial part of the internet’s governance. The Domain Naming System, DNS, is one of the internet’s most important components. It pairs the easy-to-remember web addresses – like bbc.com – with their relevant servers. Without DNS, you’d only be able to access websites by typing in its IP address, a series of numbers such as “194.66.82.10”. More by circumstance than intention, the US has always had ultimate say over how the DNS is controlled – but not for much longer. It will give up its power fully to Icann – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – a non-profit organisation. The terms of the change were agreed upon in 2014, but it wasn’t until now that the US said it was finally satisfied that Icann was ready to make the change. Icann will get the “keys to the kingdom”, as one expert put it, on 1st October 2016. From that date, the US will lose its dominant voice – although Icann will remain in Los Angeles. Icann was created in 1998 to take over the task of assigning web addresses. Until that point, that job was handled by one man – Jon Postel. He was known to many as the “god of the internet”, a nod to his power over the internet, as well as his research work in creating some of the systems that underpin networking. [BBC]
Jon_PostelJon Postel in 2008

Video of the Day –

FURTHER – Seth Shostak from Stuart Langfield on Vimeo.

Other News Stories –

Business and economy
  • Cisco announces a cut of 5,500 jobs in their shift from switches to software. (Reuters)
International relations
Law and crime
Disasters and accidents

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 19, 2016

Top News Stories –

Zika in Florida: Pregnant women warned to avoid Miami Beach –
Pregnant women have been warned to avoid the international tourist destination Miami Beach, amid cases of the Zika virus. Authorities had previously thought the virus was limited to Wynwood, a small area west of Miami Beach. Health officials now say five people in Miami Beach have been infected. Florida health officials have been aggressively spraying pesticides there. Zika, often spread by mosquitoes, can cause life-threatening birth defects. [BBC]

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
Arts and culture
Law and crime
Politics and elections

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 18, 2016

Top News Stories –

Olympics 2016: Usain Bolt completes sprint double –
Usain Bolt completed a Rio 2016 sprint double by winning the 200m; he has already won the 100m in Rio. Bolt’s eighth Olympic title came in a time of 19.78 seconds, and the Jamaican has one final chance to win gold in Friday’s 4x100m relay final. Bolt, the overwhelming pre-race favourite, once again dominated a 200m Olympic final. The Jamaican has now won the Olympic sprint double three times, having repeated his exploits from Beijing in 2008 and London four years ago. Bolt said he was not happy with his time and added it was unlikely he would compete in the event at the World Championships in London next year – his career swansong. “I said it would be 100m and that’s it,” he told BBC Sport. “My coach has a way of trying to convince me, but personally I believe this is my last one.” [BBC] See List of the Day

Usain-BoltUsain Bolt

Rio Olympics 2016: USA’s Ryan Crouser breaks 28-year record to win shot put gold –
Ryan Crouser broke a 28-year Olympic record to win gold for the United States in the men’s shot put final. Crouser, 23, threw 22.52m with his fifth throw to break East German Ulf Timmermann’s record of 22.47m set in Seoul in 1988. Joe Kovacs, the 2015 world champion, made it a USA one-two with a best throw of 21.78m, as New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh took bronze with 21.36m. Poland’s Tomasz Majewski, who won gold in 2012, finished sixth with 20.72m. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Man solves Rubik’s Cube faster than Usain Bolt can win 100 meter race

List of the Day –

Usain Bolt International competitions results [Wikipedia]

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2001 World Youth Championships Debrecen, Hungary 5th (semis) 200 metres 21.73
2002 World Junior Championships Kingston, Jamaica 1st 200 metres 20.61 (wind: +0.9 m/s)
2nd 4×100 metres relay 39.15 NJR
2nd 4×400 metres relay 3:04.06 NJR
2003 World Youth Championships Sherbrooke, Canada 1st 200 metres 20.40
Pan American Junior Championships Bridgetown, Barbados 1st 200 metres 20.13 WYB
2nd 4×100 metres relay 39.40
2004 CARIFTA Games Hamilton, Bermuda 1st 200 metres 19.93 WJR
Olympic Games Athens, Greece 5th (heats) 200 metres 21.05
2005 Central American and Caribbean Championships Nassau, Bahamas 1st 200 metres 20.03
2006 World Athletics Final Stuttgart, Germany 3rd 200 metres 20.10
IAAF World Cup Athens, Greece 2nd 200 metres 19.96
2007 World Championships Osaka, Japan 2nd 200 metres 19.91
2nd 4×100 metres relay 37.89
2008 Olympic Games Beijing, China 1st 100 metres 9.69 WR OR
1st 200 metres 19.30 WR OR
1st 4×100 metres relay 37.10 WR OR
2009 World Championships Berlin, Germany 1st 100 metres 9.58 WR
1st 200 metres 19.19 WR
1st 4×100 metres relay 37.31 CR
2011 World Championships Daegu, South Korea DSQ[260] 100 metres —
1st 200 metres 19.40 WL
1st 4×100 metres relay 37.04 WR
2012 Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 1st 100 metres 9.63 OR
1st 200 metres 19.32
1st 4×100 metres relay 36.84 WR
2013 World Championships Moscow, Russia 1st 100 metres 9.77
1st 200 metres 19.66
1st 4×100 metres relay 37.36
2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow, Scotland 1st 4×100 metres relay 37.58 GR
2015 World Relay Championships Nassau, Bahamas 2nd 4×100 metres relay 37.68
World Championships Beijing, China 1st 100 metres 9.79
1st 200 metres 19.55 WL
1st 4 × 100 metres relay 37.36 WL
2016 Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 1st 100 metres 9.81
1st 200 metres 19.78

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
  • Three bombings targeting police and military kill at least 120 people and wound 2190 in Turkey’s southeast. (BBC)
Law and crime
Politics and elections
  • The Obama Administration will phase out the use of privately-owned federal prisons. The move will affect private prisons which house 220,660 federal inmates, out of a total of nearly 2,000,000. (BBC)
Science and technology
  • Twitter announces 2,035,000 terror-linked accounts have been suspended over the past six months amid increasing pressure on tech companies from the White House to censor extremists from groups likeISIL. (CBS News)

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 20, 2016

Top News Stories –

Glass bridge: China opens world’s highest and longest –
The much-heralded “world’s highest and longest” glass-bottomed bridge has opened to visitors in central China. It connects two mountain cliffs in what are known as the Avatar mountains (the film was shot here) in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province. Completed in December, the 430m-long bridge cost $3.4m (£2.6m) to build and stands 300m above ground, state news agency Xinhua reported. It has been paved with 99 panes of three-layered transparent glass. And according to officials, the 6m-wide bridge – designed by Israeli architect Haim Dotan – has already set world records for its architecture and construction. [BBC]

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
Business and economy
Law and crime
  • Derrick Dearman a 27-year-old Mississippi man kills five people in the U.S. town of Citronelle, Alabama then kidnaps his pregnant ex-girlfriend from among the victims. Nearby, the Greene County, MississippiSheriff’s office takes the surrender and confession of the suspect. (Reuters)
Sports

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource

August 21, 2016

Top News Stories –

Rio Olympics 2016: Team GB beat China to finish second in medal table –
Great Britain have finished second in the medal table at the 2016 Olympics – above sporting powerhouse China. One of the event’s dominant nations, China have won more than 200 golds since returning to the Games in 1984. Britain ended the Rio Games with 27 golds from 15 sports, one ahead of China, as they finished with a total of 67 from 19 sports, beating the 65 at London 2012. Since the modern Olympic era began in 1896, no country has increased its medal tally at the summer Games immediately following one it hosted. GB have also smashed their pre-Games target of at least 48 medals, which was set by UK Sport. That means Rio 2016 is the nation’s most successful ‘away’ Games in history. China, with a population of 1.357bn to Britain’s 64.1m, have amassed more medals (70) than Team GB in Brazil, achieving notable success in table tennis, diving and weightlifting. However, GB are ahead on golds, which is what the rankings are based on. [BBC] See List of the day

List of the Day –

2016 Summer Olympics Medals Table [Wikipedia]

2016 Summer Olympics medal table
 Rank NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  United States (USA) 46 37 38 121
2  Great Britain (GBR) 27 23 17 67
3  China (CHN) 26 18 26 70
4  Russia (RUS) 19 18 19 56
5  Germany (GER) 17 10 15 42
6  Japan (JPN) 12 8 21 41
7  France (FRA) 10 18 14 42
8  South Korea (KOR) 9 3 9 21
9  Italy (ITA) 8 12 8 28
10  Australia (AUS) 8 11 10 29
11  Netherlands (NED) 8 7 4 19
12  Hungary (HUN) 8 3 4 15
13  Brazil (BRA) 7 6 6 19
14  Spain (ESP) 7 4 6 17
15  Kenya (KEN) 6 6 1 13
16  Jamaica (JAM) 6 3 2 11
17  Croatia (CRO) 5 3 2 10
18  Cuba (CUB) 5 2 4 11
19  New Zealand (NZL) 4 9 5 18
20  Canada (CAN) 4 3 15 22
21  Uzbekistan (UZB) 4 2 7 13
22  Kazakhstan (KAZ) 3 5 9 17
23  Colombia (COL) 3 2 3 8
24  Switzerland (SUI) 3 2 2 7
25  Iran (IRI) 3 1 4 8
26  Greece (GRE) 3 1 2 6
27  Argentina (ARG) 3 1 0 4
28  Denmark (DEN) 2 6 7 15
29  Sweden (SWE) 2 6 3 11
30  South Africa (RSA) 2 6 2 10
31  Ukraine (UKR) 2 5 4 11
32  Serbia (SRB) 2 4 2 8
33  Poland (POL) 2 3 6 11
34  North Korea (PRK) 2 3 2 7
35  Belgium (BEL) 2 2 2 6
 Thailand (THA) 2 2 2 6
37  Slovakia (SVK) 2 2 0 4
38  Georgia (GEO) 2 1 4 7
39  Azerbaijan (AZE) 1 7 10 18
40  Belarus (BLR) 1 4 4 9
41  Turkey (TUR) 1 3 4 8
42  Armenia (ARM) 1 3 0 4
43  Czech Republic (CZE) 1 2 7 10
44  Ethiopia (ETH) 1 2 5 8
45  Slovenia (SLO) 1 2 1 4
46  Indonesia (INA) 1 2 0 3
47  Romania (ROU) 1 1 3 5
48  Bahrain (BRN) 1 1 0 2
 Vietnam (VIE) 1 1 0 2
50  Chinese Taipei (TPE) 1 0 2 3
51  Bahamas (BAH) 1 0 1 2
 Ivory Coast (CIV) 1 0 1 2
 Independent Olympic Athletes (IOA) 1 0 1 2
54  Fiji (FIJ) 1 0 0 1
 Jordan (JOR) 1 0 0 1
 Kosovo (KOS) 1 0 0 1
 Puerto Rico (PUR) 1 0 0 1
 Singapore (SIN) 1 0 0 1
 Tajikistan (TJK) 1 0 0 1
60  Malaysia (MAS) 0 4 1 5
61  Mexico (MEX) 0 3 2 5
62  Algeria (ALG) 0 2 0 2
 Ireland (IRL) 0 2 0 2
64  Lithuania (LTU) 0 1 3 4
65  Bulgaria (BUL) 0 1 2 3
 Venezuela (VEN) 0 1 2 3
67  India (IND) 0 1 1 2
 Mongolia (MGL) 0 1 1 2
69  Burundi (BDI) 0 1 0 1
 Grenada (GRN) 0 1 0 1
 Niger (NIG) 0 1 0 1
 Philippines (PHI) 0 1 0 1
 Qatar (QAT) 0 1 0 1
74  Norway (NOR) 0 0 4 4
75  Egypt (EGY) 0 0 3 3
 Tunisia (TUN) 0 0 3 3
77  Israel (ISR) 0 0 2 2
78  Austria (AUT) 0 0 1 1
 Dominican Republic (DOM) 0 0 1 1
 Estonia (EST) 0 0 1 1
 Finland (FIN) 0 0 1 1
 Morocco (MAR) 0 0 1 1
 Moldova (MDA) 0 0 1 1
 Nigeria (NGR) 0 0 1 1
 Portugal (POR) 0 0 1 1
 Trinidad and Tobago (TTO) 0 0 1 1
 United Arab Emirates (UAE) 0 0 1 1
Total (87 NOCs) 307 307 360 974

Other News Stories –

Armed conflicts and attacks
International relations
Law and crime
Politics and elections

News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource