Monday, 12 September 2011

BBC News - 9/11 anniversary: National Memorial in New York opens

The 9/11 memorial, Sunday 11 September 2001

The huge memorial pools are located on the original World Trade Center site, amid ongoing construction of the new skyscraper

The New York memorial to those killed on 9/11 is due to open to the public, a day after its dedication on the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The National 9/11 Memorial will open its doors to several thousand people at 10:00 on Monday (14:00 GMT).

It includes the names of 2,983 people killed by al-Qaeda in New York, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

On Sunday night, President Barack Obama said Americans should honour those who died but look forward with "hope".

He said the decade since the attacks showed the resolve of those in the US to defend their way of life.

The ideal that "men and women should govern themselves... has only been strengthened", Mr Obama said.

Mr Obama was speaking during a memorial concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, closing a day of official commemorations marking the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

Bronze names

The opening of the memorial in New York will see several thousand visitors each day allowed into the area once occupied by the World Trade Center towers.

Ongoing construction work in the vicinity - most notably of the unfinished One World Trade Center, the new skyscraper being erected by the site - means visitor numbers are being restricted at present.

9/11 DEAD

Tribute of Light over the Manhattan skyline on the evening of Sunday 11 September 2011

NEW YORK

World Trade Center: 2,605
Flight American 11: 87
Flight United 175: 60

PENTAGON

Building: 125
Flight American 77: 59

SHANKSVILLE

Flight United 93: 40

TOTAL KILLED: 2,976

In pictures: US flag tributes

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Drunk Swedish elk found in apple tree near Gothenburg

A homeowner in southern Sweden got a shock when he found a drunken elk stuck in his neighbour's apple tree.

The animal was apparently on the hunt for fermenting apples when she lost her balance and became trapped in the tree.

Per Johansson, from Saro near Gothenburg, found the elk making a roaring noise in the garden next door.

He called the emergency services, who helped him free the boozed-up beast by sawing off branches. She spent the night recovering in the garden.

The next day she took herself off into the woods with her hangover.

It is not unusual to see elk, or moose as they are known in North America, drunk in Sweden during autumn, when there are plenty of apples about.

Other residents of Saro had seen the elk on the loose in the preceding days.

Mr Johansson said the elk appeared to be sick, drunk, or "half-stupid", the Associated Press reported.

Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Video: Indy car goes airborne

Autoblog UK

By Tom Webster, Sep 6, 2011

Filed under: Motorsport

Getting rear-ended at any speed is no fun, but getting rear ended while braking at the end of a 180mph straight in an Indy Car is even less enjoyable.

Thankfully no-one was hurt in this incident at the Baltimore Grand Prix on Sunday, which saw Tony Kanaan lose his brakes at 180mph and cannon into the rear three-quarters of Helio Castroneves' car, sending him flying into the air and narrowly missing a marshall.

In fact, the crash did Kanaan a favour, as it slowed him down heavily while he was flying towards the sharp right hand bend at the end of the straight.

He certainly recognised this, saying to Castroneves later on Twitter that "if wasn't for you my friend I wouldn't be here".

But the two drivers weren't the only ones with a lucky escape: look closely at the left hand side of the track at 0.42 seconds to see the white suited marshall who has his quick reactions to thank for his survival.

Friday, 2 September 2011

InterCasino agogo...

Holy crap...

Thursday, 1 September 2011

My new Desktop Background!

Sacrebleu!

A lightning bolt appears to strike the iconic Eiffel Tower while the Paris landmark is seen illuminated in vibrant blue lights.

A lightning strike gives a vivid backdrop to the iconic Eiffel Tower, while the Paris landmark is illuminated in vibrant blue lights. Amateur photographer Bertrand Kulik captured the shot which will appear in an exhibition titled "Lumieres celestes, lumieres des hommes", in Issy L'eveque, Burgundy. It was taken 21:02 GMT, 28 July 2008 during a storm in the French capital.

USA Guatemalan "tests"

Guatemala STD tests 'may have infected 2,500'

Treponema pallidum, the bacteria that causes syphilis in man

Hundreds of people were infected with syphilis bacteria during the experiments

The extent of US medical experiments in Guatemala on STDs during the 1940s is greater than previously thought, health authorities have told the BBC.

The number of infected people could be as high as 2,500, says the president of the Medical Association of Guatemala.

According to a US report released on Monday, 1,300 Guatemalans were infected without their knowledge to study the effects of penicillin.

US scientists knew they were violating ethical rules, the report found.

There is also enough evidence to conclude there was collaboration between US and Guatemalan authorities at the time of the tests, Carlos Mejia, a member of the commission established by the Guatemalan government to investigate the experiments, told BBC Mundo.

At least nine Guatemalan doctors were involved in these experiments, he said.

Eight of them have already died, but authorities still do not know the whereabouts of a ninth, who would now be over 90 years old, he added.

The commission's final report is due in October.

“Start Quote

The Nazis used Poles, Russians and Jews, while the Americans made almost the same use of Guatemalans”

Carlos MejiaPresident of the Medical Association of Guatemala

Many of the same US government scientists who carried out the Guatemalan tests had sought consent from participants in an earlier study in the US.

'Nazi-like'

The US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues had said some 5,500 Guatemalans were involved in all the research that took place between 1946 and 1948, with a view to applying the results on US troops stationed around the world.

Of these, some 1,300 prisoners, psychiatric patients and sex workers were deliberately infected with syphilis, gonorrhoea or another sexually transmitted disease, chancroid.

Concentrations of bacteria were injected into the eyes, the central nervous system and male genitals. Mr Mejia says this was behaviour very similar to that of the scientists in Nazi Germany.

"It took place in the context in which they [the United States] were judging the German doctors who had been experimenting with typhus and malaria on prisoners of war. The Nazis used Poles, Russians and Jews, while the Americans made almost the same use of Guatemalans," he says.

Of the group of 1,300, only about 700 received some sort of treatment.

According to documents the commission had studied, at least 83 of the 5,500 subjects had died by the end of 1953.

The commission was unable to say whether any of those deaths were caused directly or indirectly by the deliberate infections.

US President Barack Obama set up the commission when academic research carried out on the experiments by US government scientists first came to light last year.

He also apologised to his Guatemalan counterpart, Alvaro Colom, saying the acts ran contrary to American values.

Earlier this year, a group of Guatemalans who were involved in the study announced they were suing the US government over the affair.

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