Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia were just announced. Based on mythological characters, they are Miga, Quatchi and Sumi.

Miga, a sea bear who lives in the ocean with her family pod near Tofino, and Quatchi, a young sasquatch, represent the Olympics, while Sumi represents the Paralympics that follow afterward.

A sea bear is a First Nations creature, part killer whale, part Kermode spirit bear. While illustrated as being taller than the other characters, the mascot costume of Quatchi is the same height as the other two characters.

The third mascot, Sumi, an animal-guardian spirit, is a Thunderbird that wears the hat of an orca. Sumi will be the mascot of the Paralympics.

In 2004, the Times Colonist suggested a marmot might be a good mascot, except for their winter hibernation. The organizers still chose one, named Mukmuk, as their “virtual only” counterpart.

After the Olympic logo design was leaked the day before the 2005 announcement, organizers were extremely tight lipped until today’s news conference at a Surrey school. They apparently didn’t do any development on the characters on internet-enabled computers, to ensure the images or information wouldn’t slip out.

The characters were designed by the Vancouver and Los Angeles-based Meomi Design. Their characters have been used as part of iGoogle, a customizable homepage option from Google, as well as Electronic Arts, Girls Inc., Time Out Magazine, Cyworld, Nick Jr., Bang-on Clothing, and CBC4Kids.

The Vancouver organizers have a CDN$46-million merchandising program; previous Olympics have made as much as $100 million from mascot-related products.

René Fasel, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Coordination Commission commented that “The IOC welcomes these imaginative new additions to the Olympic Family as they take their place on the world stage today – a symbol of the Games and of Canada. We know that when Olympians, Paralympians and visitors from around the globe arrive in British Columbia at Games time, they will fall under the spell of these captivating characters.”

The characters first appearance will be at a Bay store in the Lower Mainland; HBC is a major sponsor of the Games. They will then make their way to schools, take a break through the Christmas season, and fly to Ottawa for the Winterlude festival.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Pop music producer Phil Spector, who produced a large number of hit records in the 1960s and 1970s, has been convicted of second-degree murder in the 2003 shooting of actress Lana Clarkson at the L.A. Superior Court in Los Angeles, California. Spector, currently 68, faces a minimum of 18 years in prison.

Clarkson died February 3, 2003 at Spector’s mansion, the “Pyrenees Castle”, in Alhambra, California, after returning home with Spector for a drink after they met during her shift at a nightclub where she worked as a hostess. Spector was arrested after police were called to the mansion, finding Clarkson dead of a gunshot wound; Spector insisted that her death was an “accidental suicide“.

The jury in the trial deliberated for 32 hours over a period of nine days. The trial was the second on the charge, after the judge in the original trial declared a hung jury in the first.

The defense had argued that the 40-year-old actress was in a state of suicidal depression over her career and was capable of an impulsive act of self-destruction. Spector was however alleged to have said “I think I killed someone” after Clarkson was found dead, and jurors heard that he also considered himself “relatively insane” and a sufferer of bipolar disorder.

Phil Spector is widely credited with inventing the “wall of sound” production technique which was prominent in the sounds of many rock & roll groups, such as The Ronettes, to whose lead singer Spector was married, and the Righteous Brothers. Spector also produced the Beatles album Let It Be.

Lana Clarkson starred in the 1985 film “Barbarian Queen“.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Mohamed Tamalt, a journalist imprisoned in Algeria for insulting President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, died in hospital while serving his sentence. His lawyer on Sunday announced his death.

Tamalt, 42, lived in England, basing himself in London, and had UK-Algerian dual citizenship. He was arrested on June 27 near his parents’ Algiers home after writing a poem on Facebook. Human Rights Watch said he began a hunger strike immediately. On June 11 he was fined 200,000 dinars (£1,400; US$1,800) and imprisoned for two years. This was upheld on appeal.

Tamalt fell into a coma which his lawyer, Amine Sidhoum, said lasted three months. He was undergoing treatment in Bab el-Oued hospital. Human Rights Watch had asked Algeria to release him when reportedly in critical condition in August.

Reporters Without Borders called Tamalt’s death a shocking blow to Algerian free speech. “Why was there such a conviction just for words on Facebook which did no harm to anyone?” asked the organisation’s North African head, Yasmine Kacha. Amnesty International have sought an “independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances” of Tamalt’s death.

Tamalt was convicted of insulting President Bouteflika and defaming a public organisation, both breaches of the national Penal Code. Sidhoum told al-Jazeera the occasion marked “the first time since Algeria gained its independence from France that a journalist died in jail because of what he wrote on the Internet.” He also said he was “really sad at the lack of support from his fellow Algerian journalists, who left him and abandoned him.”

Sidhoum said Tamalt’s funeral was scheduled for Monday. Afterwards, “we, his family and lawyers, will figure out in the following days what we can do to find out exactly what happened to him in prison.” His family have alleged he was mistreated in prison and denied visits. Justice Minister Tayeb Louh in October promised investigations would uncover any wrongdoing by authorities.

The prison service said Tamalt was found to be suffering pneumonia, beginning treatment on December 4. It said this killed him. Amnesty spokesperson Brahim Mahdid in remarks to al-Jazeera said “we can’t say for sure what the cause of his death was[…] Nor are we sure if Tamalt received the proper treatment during his hunger strike.” Mahdid said local media were “facing increasing pressure” and “a hostile environment.”

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Satire site Uncyclopedia, a parody of online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has been labeled by the Malaysian government as dangerous. The Internal Security Department of Malaysia issued the warning today, saying that the site has “messages and information insulting Malaysia”.

The warning notes the creation date of the website as being 5 January 2005, and hosted by Wikia, Inc., both of which are correct. However, it claims Wikia owns Wikipedia; Wikipedia is a charitable non-profit website owned by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, while Wikia is an independent, for-profit company.

The report evidently mentions that Uncyclopedia covers Malaysian “history, culture, the political leaders, the government, the national song and the name / history of the national flag,” none of which is “correct”. They accuse the website of helping to reinforce a bad international image of their country.

There are no reports of the site being blocked from access within the country, only this statement, which urges Malaysians not to circulate the content.

Uncyclopedia’s article on Malaysia begins:

The site has fired back with a parody article posted at the site under their UnNews section, titled Uncyclopedia Internal Security Department warns on Malaysia. The article suggests that the “Internal Security Department of the Uncyclomedia Foundation,” which is a facetious and fictitious parent organization of Uncyclopedia, identifies Malaysia “as a dangerous country… It warned its people not to use the country today.”

There are forty-seven individual language editions of Uncyclopedia, including Tolololpedia, which is written in Bahasa Melayu, the Malay language. This is in addition to fictional “language” editions which include Oscar Wilde, Newspeak, N00b, White Supremacist, and Re: PharmaccgRy.

Monday, December 31, 2007

What would you tell your grandchildren about 2007 if they asked you about it in, let’s say, 20 year’s time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2007, what would the question be? The year that you first signed on to Facebook? The year Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse fell apart? The year author Kurt Vonnegut or mime Marcel Marceau died, both at 84?

Let’s take a look at some of the international stories of 2007. Links to the original Wikinews articles are in bold.