Friday, May 26, 2006

In February of 2006, the Savarino Services Construction Corp. proposed the construction of a seven million dollar hotel on Elmwood and Forest Avenues in Buffalo, New York. In order for the hotel to be built, at least five properties containing businesses and residents would have to be destroyed. It was not certain whether the properties were owned by Savarino or by the landlord Hans Mobius. The hotel was designed by Karl Frizlen of the Frizlen Group, and is planned to be a franchise of the Wyndham Hotels group.

Elmwood Avenue is known by the community as a popular shopping center, and Nancy Pollina of Don Apparel (who is “utterly against” the construction) claims it’s the only reason why students from Buffalo State College leave campus. Additionally, Michael Faust of Mondo Video said he did not want to “get kicked out of here [his video store property].”

In 1995, a Walgreens was proposed to be built on the same land, but Walgreens later withdrew its request for a variance because of pressure from the community. More recently, Pano Georgiadis tried to get the rights to demolish the Atwater House next to his restaurant on Elmwood Avenue, but was denied a permit due to the property’s historical value. He has since been an opponent to the hotel construction.

In the process of debating the hotel, it was thought that a hotel had previously existed on the proposed site, however; research done at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society had shown that no hotel had previously existed on the site.

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 15, 2009

A woman who held the Guinness World Record for having the world’s longest fingernails has lost them in a four-car accident in her hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States.

66-year-old Lee Redmond was seriously injured after she was ejected from the sports utility vehicle (SUV) she had been a passenger in. It had collided with one car, causing it to collide with two other cars on Tuesday February 10. She is expected to make a full recovery.

“[Her nails] were damaged beyond repair,” reported the BBC, quoting Guinness World Records, who also said that Redmond’s nails were “a fundamental part of her life and unique character”. The cause of the crash is not yet known and an investigation is ongoing.

Redmond is credited by the Guinness Book for having a combined fingernail length of 28 feet, the longest on record. She has been growing all eight fingers and two thumbnails since 1979. Her longest of all nails was her right thumb, which was 2ft and eleven inches long.

Before Redmond was named as the record holder in 2006, Shridhar Chillal from India had the longest at a combined length of just over twenty feet.

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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Spain defeated Germany 1–0 in the semifinals to advance Spain to its first World Cup Finals in its history. Played in Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa, the game was a re-do of the 2008 European Championship final, in which Spain also won 1–0. About 60,960 people, including Spain’s Queen Sofía, were in attendance.

The game got off to an interesting start after an Italian fan invaded the pitch in the fourth minute, briefly interrupting the game. A first half dominated both by the German defense and the increasingly powerful offense kept both teams scoreless at halftime. Spain used the second half to threaten the German goal. In the 57th minute, Spain’s David Villa came within inches of scoring on an Andrés Iniesta cross, and Sergio Ramos was equally close to convert Xabi Alonso’s pass. Carles Puyol scored the lone goal in the 73rd minute by heading in Xavi’s corner kick. As the game came to an end, the German team was visibly distraught, while fans of the Spanish team partied until late at night, waving flags and singing “Ole! Ole! Ole!”.

Villa later said, “This is one of the greatest moments for Spain, for us to be in the final of the World Cup, it’s history. And we want to make more history in the final.”

In addition to being Spain’s first finals appearance, the Netherlands’ defeat of Uruguay on Tuesday advanced the Netherlands to the finals as well. As neither team has won the World Cup before, this match-up ensures that either the Netherlands or Spain will come out having won the World Cup for the first time. It will also be the two teams’ first ever match against each other in the World Cup. Uruguay and Germany will play each other for third place on Saturday at 18:30 UTC, while the finals will be on Sunday 18:30 UTC.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

After a plan to bail out three large American auto companies failed to pass the Senate this week, the White House has said that it is considering using some of the US$700 billion earmarked to rescue the banking industry to bail out the automakers.

The White House says that the collapse of the automakers would be a terrible setback that could destroy the economy.

“Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms. However, given the current weakened state of the US economy, we will consider other options if necessary – including use of the TARP [Troubled Assets Relief Program] programme – to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers,” said Dana Perino, the White House Press Secretary. “A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy, and it would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time.”

Earlier this week, the “Big Three” automakers – Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors – had pleaded before Congress to be given $14 billion in funds so as to prevent collapse. Although the House approved the measures, the Senate voted the proposition down with a vote of 52-35. Part of the failure of the bill to pass was due to disagreements over labour cuts, which the Republicans insisted reach parity by next year with those of Japanese carmakers.

General Motors stated that the company would stop 30% of its North American production “in response to rapidly deteriorating market conditions”.