A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, August 11, 2008.
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February 28th, 2021
Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Wikinews Shorts: August 11, 2008
Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Brief History Of Wigs And The Famous People That Wore Them
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By Benedict Smythe
Wigs have been known and used for many centuries. Many noblemen have tried this great headpiece. Even in the ancient Egyptian civilization, wigs were already into good use. Most ancient Egyptians wore wigs to protect their shaved heads from the heat of the sun. Other ancient civilizations who wore wigs are the Phoenicians, Assyrians, Greeks, and the Romans. This headpiece traces back its roots to the ancient Western civilizations.
The Royals and Other Important People who Wore Wigs
When the Roman Empire fell, the use of wigs was also forgotten and it was only during the 16th century that people started to revive them. During this era, wigs were already worn as a way to improve ones appearance and also to cover baldness. The conditions during that time was also quite unhygienic, hence, people shaved their heads and started using wigs. It was much easier to remove lice from artificial hair than to get rid of them the natural way.
The many royals who used wigs made great contribution to their revival. The famous red wig of Queen Elizabeth I of England was styled in Roman curls. Frances King Louis XIII and King Louis XIV were the first two men to wear wigs in the 16th century. King Louis XIV (also known as the Sun King) was a dictator who told men of his time how they should dress and what their taste should be. He was an extremely fashion-conscious king who revered extravagance and elaborate styles.
It was during Charles IIs time that periwigs were introduced to the English-speaking civilizations. The wigs that were then in use were long (starting from shoulder length to longer styles). The 1600s was a century where men sported long hair, not because they grew their hairs but because they had their heads shaved and they soon started wearing periwigs. Anyone who had a significant social rank back in the 1600s wore a wig.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psg6H_lkqO0[/youtube]
It was in the 18th century that men and womens wigs started to be powdered. Wig powder comprises of starch, lavender and orris root. The powder was scented with orange flower. Sometimes, colorful wigs were also worn such as the violet ones, the pink, blue and yellow versions.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, wigs were worn mainly to hide baldness among old women. This is why not too many people viewed wearing wig as fashionable during these centuries.
Modern Uses for Wigs
Nowadays, wigs are practically worn by people from all walks of life and for different reasons. There are many reasons why modern people choose to wear wigs instead of a natural hairstyle:
Chemotherapy and radiation can cause hair loss among cancer patients and there are now custom-made wigs for people like these.
To hide baldness especially among women
Famous celebrities like Cher and Dolly Parton have popularized wigs to show versatility.
During Halloween, there are rubber wigs that can be worn that can be used together with scary costumes. There are also wigs for specific holidays and festivities.
Some actors use wigs to portray roles in films or theatrical plays.
There are many other practical uses to wigs and these can be indispensable to some people.
About the Author: The author of this article is Benedict Yossarian. For
human hair wigs
and hair pieces advice Benedict recommends Wig Trendz and for
hair loss treatments
Benedict recommends www.londonhairclinic.co.uk
Source:
isnare.com
Permanent Link:
isnare.com/?aid=289274&ca=Wellness%2C+Fitness+and+Diet
Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Police station attacked by car bomb in Basque Country, two officers injured
Friday, August 24, 2007
A police station of the Spanish Guardia Civil was attacked today Friday by a car bomb in the Basque city of Durango, injuring two policemen. It is believed to be the first serious attack of the separatist group ETA since it unilaterally ended a cease-fire in June. The blast caused serious damage to the police barracks in Durango, shattering windows and damaging police cars parked outside. Several nearby apartment buildings were also damaged. Police sources believe the bomb, estimated to contain between 80 and 100 kilograms of explosives, was detonated remotely by one of the two attackers who fled in another vehicle. Another car exploded about one hour later in the town of Amorebieta, possibly the one used by the activists to flee.
ETA detonated two small explosive devices on July 25 along the route that the Tour of France used when the race dipped into northern Spain for a few hours.
ETA called the cease-fire in March 2006, but grew frustrated with a lack of government concessions in ensuing peace talks, and set off a huge bomb in a parking area at Madrid’s airport on December 30, killing two people. It insisted then that the truce was still in effect, but finally declared it formally over in June, and Spanish security forces have been on alert ever since.
Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Manitoba volunteers go to war against Red River flooding
Monday, April 6, 2009
Over 1,600 volunteers registered to help build approximately 65,000 of the 500,000 sandbags to create dikes 20.5 feet (6.2 meters) high to protect the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba in the war against the Red River of the North flood.
700 volunteers answered at the rural municipality of St. Andrews alone. Once sandbags are filled for West St. Paul, St. Andrews, and Selkirk, then frozen culverts must be cleared.
The height of the river is expected to be Thursday, and predictions are that it will be less than Flood of the Century of 1997. There is no precipitation in the forecast, and snow in the province should be melted by the end of the week.
“The fear right now is we have to get that ice out of the river. The Amphibex [Excavators] are still working and breaking the ice apart, and everyday we buy with the warm weather and the current, it is thinning the ice down a bit, so when it does start to move, the better chance it’ll move right out into the lake,” said Paul Guyder, the emergency coordinator for the RMs of St. Andrews and St. Clements.
“I feel that we’ve done everything humanly possible to get ready,” said Gary Doer, Premier of Manitoba, “But … there are fallibilities with human behaviour. We can take every preventative measure as human beings possible and we can still get Mother Nature proving again she is superior.”
Communities with ring diking will partially or fully close their dikes at the beginning of the week. Provincial officials are considering opening the Red River Floodway gates around mid-week before ice is fully melted.
Ice jams could cause flooding within the city, however opening the gates could spare neighbourhood flooding when the river rises to the estimated 6.3 meters (20.7 feet) height. The province does have back up plans for dealing with ice jams within the city if they do occur. The unpredictability of ice jams and the ensuing water level rise may cause neighbourhood flooding. The city is raising dikes where the river has jammed with ice in the past such as on tight curves and past bridges. Likewise there are excavators and backhoes positioned at these points.
Vulnerable neighbourhoods on the river banks have been reinforced with sandbag dikes at vulnerable areas from the massive volunteer effort over the weekend. Guyader feels no more extra volunteers are needed, however volunteers are still being asked to leave their names and number in case of unpredicted need. Existing personnel will assess roads, and help with clean up.
Approximately 400 of the 800 people who evacuated the Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation have returned to their homes.
Former Premier, Dufferin Roblin, brought forward the floodway as a protection for Winnipeg residents and economy following the 1950 Red River Flood. The Red River floodway, “Duff’s Ditch” was finally finished in 1968, and its floodway gates have been opened 20 times saving Winnipeg from an estimated CA$10 billion in damages. The floodway expansion began in 2005 at a price of $665 million.
Polish and Chinese experts have come to survey the Red River Floodway, and Dennis Walaker, mayor of Fargo, North Dakota recognises the need for Red River flood defences down river. “Every town that you drive by from the Canadian line up to Winnipeg is either elevated or ring-diked,” said Walaker.
Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Police report drug haul seizure worth up to £30 million in Brownhills, England
Monday, December 2, 2013
Police in the West Midlands in England today said nearly 200 kilograms worth of drugs with value possibly as great as £30 million (about US$49 million or €36 million) has been seized from a unit in the town of Brownhills. In what an officer described as “one of the largest [seizures] in the force’s 39 year history”, West Midlands Police reported recovering six big cellophane-wrapped cardboard boxes containing cannabis, cocaine, and MDMA (“ecstasy”) in a police raid operation on the Maybrook Industrial Estate in the town on Wednesday.
| The impact this seizure will have on drug dealing in the region and the UK as a whole cannot be underestimated | ||
The seized boxes, which had been loaded onto five freight pallets, contained 120 one-kilogram bags of cannabis, 50 one-kilogram bags of MDMA, and five one-kilogram bricks of cocaine. In a press release, West Midlands Police described what happened after officers found the drugs as they were being unloaded in the operation. “When officers opened the boxes they discovered a deep layer of protective foam chips beneath which the drugs were carefully layered”, the force said. “All the drugs were wrapped in thick plastic bags taped closed with the cannabis vacuum packed to prevent its distinctive pungent aroma from drawing unwanted attention.” Police moved the drugs via forklift truck to a flatbed lorry to remove them.
Detective Sergeant Carl Russell of West Midlands Police’s Force CID said the seizure was the largest he had ever made in the 24 years he has been in West Midlands Police and one of the biggest seizures the force has made since its formation in 1974. “The impact this seizure will have on drug dealing in the region and the UK as a whole cannot be underestimated”, he said. “The drugs had almost certainly been packed to order ready for shipping within Britain but possibly even further afield. Our operation will have a national effect and we are working closely with a range of law enforcement agencies to identify those involved in this crime at whatever level.”
Expert testing on the drugs is ongoing. Estimates described as “conservative” suggest the value of the drugs amounts to £10 million (about US$16.4 million or €12 million), although they could be worth as much as £30 million, subject to purity tests, police said.
Police arrested three men at the unit on suspicion of supplying a controlled drug. The men, a 50-year-old from Brownhills, a 51-year-old from the Norton area of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and one aged 53 from Brownhills, have been released on bail as police investigations to “hunt those responsible” continue. West Midlands Police told Wikinews no person has yet been charged in connection with the seizure. Supplying a controlled drug is an imprisonable offence in England, although length of jail sentences vary according to the class and quantity of drugs and the significance of offenders’ roles in committing the crime.
Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Why Managers Must Adhere To Ipaf Recommendations}
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Why Managers Must Adhere To IPAF Recommendations
by
Ben NeedlesIPAF is the International Powered Access Federation; it is dedicated in promoting safe usage of powered access machinery through effective training courses. Its worldwide stance has meant that IPAF has become an authority in all training issues surrounding powered access machinery, operating in many countries globally. Set up in 1983, this year sees IPAF celebrating its twenty fifth year as a non-profit organisation that strives to create safer working procedures for all powered access workers. By creating training guidelines, its work has been fundamental in strengthening the safety aspects of powered access operating.
IPAF performs this important role by regulating training operators and ensuring they meet strict standards of operation. It is currently estimated that almost seventy thousand operatives undergo training in around three hundred training centres in any one year. The result of IPAF training is a certificate in the form of a PAL card or Powered Access License. It is not just a top down organisation however; with such a wide base of members, it is through feedback on working procedures that IPAF members can influence future legislation and improve the way in which powered access is performed.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxX3evIMs-0[/youtube]
IPAF have been recently working toward training all operators to enter into their Clunk Click campaign. Reminiscent of the seatbelt campaigns during the eighties and nineties it sets out to ensure that operatives wear a full body harness whenever they are working at height. Training also ensures that this harness is secured to a suitable anchor point at all times. The campaign can be seen as a clear response to a number of fatalities where boom lift workers were catapulted from their work stations due to a lack of suitable harness equipment.
Legally, IPAF has to constantly keep itself, and its licensed training centres up to date with current legislation. Most recently the Work at Height Regulation (2005) and the Construction Regulations (2007) have meant an overhaul of the training programs, this work was undertaken meaning that legally defined responsibilities can be easily met for operatives. Having a global approach however means that IPAF must incorporate a number of diverse regulations from different countries in order to comply. It is through a multi-lateral approach that IPAF have achieved training programs that meet all relevant government legislation.
For those who run a boom lift business, IPAF training will become an even more important element to operation. The new corporate manslaughter act of last year will, according to legal expects work towards protecting conscientious managers while simultaneously punishing those who run dangerous working methods. The act came into effect last month and ensures that managers make relevant provisions and ensure safe working methods are maintained at all times. More precisely this is maintaining equipment extensively and ensuring work areas are safe. If these responsibilities are neglected and a death does occur, an investigation of the company managers will ensue. The findings of the investigation will deem if the company is at fault and whether charges of corporate manslaughter can be levelled.
It is due to these strict health and safety regulations that IPAF has been able to lead safety standards in its field. Without the work of this organisation there is little doubt that the powered access operator would be at more risk. If you are a business manager that regularly utilises boom lifts and other powered access lifts, finding a nearby IPAF approved training facility is essential if you do not wish to fall foul to current legislation. Ultimately the organisation is trying to make the working world safer, your responsibilities as a manager are to heed their recommendations and ensure that accidents are kept to a minimum.
About the Author (text)
Industry expert Thomas Pretty looks into the importance of IPAF training for boom lift operators and powered access workers. To find out more please visit http://www.systemscaffoldtrainingservices.com/ipaf-training.html
IPAF training
Article Source:
eArticlesOnline.com}
Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Broken pipes cause flood in Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York
Correction — February 13, 2008 The break was a broken sprinkler head in a crawl space above the shop, according to Jeffrey A. Salmon Facilities Manager of the Martin House Restoration Corporation. Not a pipe.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Buffalo, New York —According to radio communications by the Buffalo, New York Fire Department, at approximately 10:15 p.m. EST two water pipes inside the Darwin D. Martin House, a National Historical Landmark, broke causing several rooms to flood.
The breaks were discovered in the gift shop area of the house but quickly began to flood other areas near the shop as firefighters had a difficult time locating the main shut off valves.
At 10:50 p.m., firefighters reported to have shut off “several main valves” stopping the flow of water. The cost of the water damage is not known, but covered several rooms. Recent sub-zero temperatures in the city is said to be the cause of the break. At the time of the call, the temperature was only 10°F with a wind chill of 4°F above zero. On Sunday the temperature was only 3°F with a wind chill of -23°F.
The house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has seen rough times over the years, experiencing problems such as vandalism. The first half of the complex was built in 1903 and finished in 1905. After the pergola, conservatory, and carriage were demolished, restoration and rebuild began in 1992 and is scheduled for completion in 2008 or 2009.