smalltownfame.com

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Anti-war demonstrators in Sydney, Australia on Thursday dubbed U.S. Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice a “war criminal” and “murderer.” Two protesters were evicted and five people were arrested during protests against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Dr Rice, on a three-day trip to Australia, said she understood why people found it hard to be positive about Iraq when all they saw on their television screens was violence.

Soon after Rice began her speech at the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music, two protesters shouted from the rear of the auditorium, “Condoleezza Rice, you are a war criminal,” and “Iraqi blood is on your hands and you cannot wash that blood away.” Standing with their palms towards her, the young man and woman repeated their accusation until security intervened to remove them from the hall.

About 15 minutes into Rice’s address, a third protester appeared at a balcony door, interrupting her speech as she referred to freedom. “What kind of freedom are you talking about? You are a murderer,” said the demonstrator before he was quietly escorted from the hall. “I’m very glad to see that democracy is well and alive here at the university,” she said.

In her speech, Rice sought to justify the U.S. occupation of Iraq, describing Iraqis as now more free. One student asked about abuses committed by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. She said the abuses had made her “sick to her stomach.” However, she defended Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where human rights groups say detainees are held in inhumane conditions and in detention flouting international laws.

Before Rice began her speech, about 50 protesters were gathered at the front gates of the Conservatorium. The group were confronted by police on horseback and by police dogs. Police used the horses to charge into the group of activists and push them back, as a police helicopter hovered.

A police spokeswoman said the group was blocking pedestrian access to the building and that police had spent more than 20 minutes warning them to move. The police then moved in and pushed the crowd back 20 metres. Police say five people have been charged with “hindering police in the execution of their duties.”

The “Stop the War Coalition” says Rice is a “war criminal” and is not welcome in Australia. The group’s spokeswoman, Anna Samson, says the protest is one of many planned in the lead-up to the third anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq on March 20.

Paddy Gibson, from the University of Sydney’s Student’s Council, says the protest is in opposition to the Iraq war, and to the use of the University of Sydney’s campus to host Rice, “the most powerful woman in the world,” who they say is a war criminal. “They’re saying, ‘… you’ve got Sydney Uni’s support to stand up and peddle your murderous hate speeches,’ which is what we see it,” he said.

“You’ve got 180,000 people killed, as we said, for no other reason than strategic control of the region’s oil resources. And the anti-Muslim racism that’s been whipped up to justify this war is being felt by Sydney University students,” said Mr Gibson.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Adobe Systems, Inc. announced today that they will acquire Macromedia, Inc. for an estimated $3.4 billion in stock. Bruce Chizen, the chief executive officer of Adobe said that “Customers are calling for integrated software solutions that enable them to create, manage and deliver a wide range of compelling content and applications — from documents and images to audio and video. By combining our powerful development, authoring and collaboration software — along with the complementary functionality of PDF and Flash — Adobe has the opportunity to bring this vision to life with an industry-defining technology platform.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the fall, subject to approval by the stockholders of both companies and regulatory approvals. Under the terms of the agreement holders of Macromedia stock will receive 0.69 shares of Adobe stock for every share of Macromedia stock. Macromedia stockholders are expected to own approximately 18 percent of the combined company.

The two companies have in the past been rivals and some of their products compete in similar niches. For example, both Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks are graphics editing programs, and both Adobe GoLive and Macromedia Dreamweaver are webpage design applications.

In the combined company, the current CEO of Adobe, Chizen will continue as CEO. Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Macromedia, will become president of worldwide field operations. The combined company will keep the name “Adobe”, and will focus on integration and growth.

Additional details are available from Adobe Investor Relations.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

McLaren–Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso won the FIA Formula-1 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany.

Although light rain began to fall during the formation lap, the start was relatively clean, marred only by a collision between the two BMW Sauber drivers. As the rain began to fall more heavily, the pit lane filled up with crews from every team expecting all the drivers to change to intermediate tyres at the end of the first lap. However Kimi Räikkönen, who had started in pole position and was leading the race, skidded across the pit-lane entrance and back out onto the track, forcing him to drive another lap in increasingly wet conditions.

Having opted to start the race from the pits on intermediate tyres Marcus Winkelhock, a rookie Spyker–Ferrari driver on his first ever Formula One race, quickly rose to become race leader despite having started the race in last position.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who had suffered a crash in the third qualifying session and started 10th on his repaired car, had a perfect start, gaining six places, but made contact with one of the BMWs on the first lap and punctured his left rear tyre.

Within several laps the track quickly became flooded, and on lap three Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Adrian Sutil, Nico Rosberg, Scott Speed, Anthony Davidson, and Antonio Liuzzi all aquaplaned off into the gravel trap at the same place – Liuzzi making contact with the tractor attempting to recover the other cars. The safety car was deployed for several laps but the increasingly dangerous conditions forced race officials to red-flag the race, bringing it to a complete stop until the rain cleared up, and drivers once again gathered on the starting grid for a restart. Despite needing to have his car lifted out of the gravel trap by a crane, Hamilton managed to keep his engine running, and in accordance with the rules regarding being moved from a dangerous position, was allowed to rejoin the restarting grid in last place, albeit a lap down on all the other drivers.

After about half an hour of stoppage, Winkelhock then led the pack off in a flying start behind the safety car. He was quickly overtaken by almost every car, before retiring due to mechanical problems.

For most of the race Felipe Massa led, pursued by world champion Fernando Alonso. Hamilton was the fastest driver on the track, but even at three seconds a lap faster than the other back-markers it took him a long time to catch the pack.

Rain was predicted to recommence approximately 20 minutes before the end of the race. Renault took a gamble by bringing Heikki Kovalainen in first for a tyre change, but they were too early, and he quickly dropped back from fifth position. Several laps later, there was a rush into the pits, with nobody wanting additional risks on the wet track. The “extreme wet” tyres reduced the pace of Massa’s Ferrari and allowed Alonso to come closer and push hard on his rival.

After two laps of constant pressure and overtaking attempts, Alonso passed Massa, and held him off until the finish. The aggressive attack style chosen by Spaniard caused a slight contact between their cars.

Kimi Raikkonen had been close behind Alonso, but his car suffered a breakdown and he had to park it alongside the track.

Mark Webber drove his Red Bull-Renault to the third place. His teammate David Coulthard also made a nice race finishing 5th from his 20th place on the starting grid. This became the most successful result for Red Bull in this season.

Still the third place of Webber was under threat from Alexander Wurz from Williams–Toyota who came closer and closer up to the finish line which they crossed with +0,263 sec distance.

The two BMW Saubers ended 6th and 7th. And the top eight was closed by Heikki Kovalainen from Renault.

For the first time from his debut Lewis Hamilton finished outside the points. His consistently quick pace throughout the race raised him up to tenth place, and in a final gamble he attempted to stay out on dry tyres during the second downpour. This raised him into the points temporarily, but after several slow laps he was forced to pit, and dropped back to tenth. In the dying laps he came within several seconds of Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, but although he managed to pass Fisichella, Kovalaninen remained out of reach, and Hamilton had to settle for ninth place. He remains leader of the drivers’ championship, but now only 2 points ahead of Alonso.

This was the first wet race since the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

New Zealander Folole Muliaga died Tuesday morning after Mercury Energy cut off the power in her household due to $168.40 of unpaid bills. Mrs Folole Muliaga was seriously ill and dependent on an oxygen life support machine that required electricity to run.

The 44-year-old died two and a half hours after the power was cut by a contractor, working for State Owned Enterprise, Mercury Energy. A spokesperson for Mercury Energy has said that they are devastated and deeply sympathetic by the news, but state they did not know that the power was needed to run the oxygen machine. They have stated that discretion is exercised in cases of extreme hardship or when medical conditions make it appropriate and that the same contractor had done so the previous day. However, relatives claim that the contractor was told that the power was needed by family members present, was invited into the house and talked to Mrs Folole Muliaga, but showed no discretion or compassion under the circumstances.

The power was cut at about 11am. Brendan Sheehan, spokesperson for the family, said that after the power was cut, Mrs Muliaga suffered from breathing difficulties. During this time Mrs Mulianga declined an offer for an ambulance from family members. At about 1pm she informed her sons that she was feeling dizzy and asked for hymns to be sung. Her condition quickly deteriorated until she couldn’t speak. When she passed out at 1:32pm, an ambulance was called but Mrs Mulianga could not be revived when it arrived 12 minutes later.

That same evening remaining family members claim they had to grieve in the dark, power was only reconnected after the outstanding amount of $168.40 was paid to Mercury Energy. Mercury Energy claim that the were initially only made aware that a funeral was going to take place and attempted to reconnect the supply at midnight once the full circumstances were made clear but were unable to contact the family. They state the supply was eventually reconnected before 8am the next day. Evidence has been provided by family members to show that they had made two payments to Mercury Energy in the same month trying to clear their outstanding bill, $61.90 on 1 May 2007, and $45 on 17 May 2007.

Trevor Mallard, minister of State Owned Enterprises, said, “I do think it is important that the facts are established before people rush to judgement.”

Both the New Zealand Police and Mercury Energy, the retail operating division of Mighty River Power, are conducting investigations into the events.

The mother-of-four school teacher lived in Mangere, South Auckland and had been suffering from a heart and lung condition, according to relatives of Mrs Muliaga, since February.

Hospital doctors have expressed surprise at the short length of time between when the supply was cut and the death occurred. They have also explained that relatives are trained what to do if the supply is lost, including to call for an ambulance if severe symptoms develop.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Penske Automotive Group, Inc., an Ohio-based investment group and Telesto Ventures have indicated separately that they are interested in purchasing the Saturn auto brand from General Motors (GM).

According to The Wall Street Journal, Nissan-Renault is interested in purchasing Saturn. Bloomberg, however, indicated that Nissan-Renault may be a partner of Penske’s potential bid. If Penske acquired the brand, they would distribute Saturn vehicles and outsource the assembly.

GM revealed that the Saturn brand along with Saab and Hummer were up for sale when unveiling their restructuring plans to Congress for governmental loans. While the Pontiac brand was originally to be a niche brand, GM had changed their plans recently and decided to eliminate the brand.

Telesto Ventures is an investment group that includes private equity firm Black Oak Partners LLC of Oklahoma City and several Saturn dealerships. Initially, Telesto will purchase Saturn branded cars from GM then act as a general retailer for foreign brands. Telesto is in talks with several foreign manufacturers.

The Ohio group includes many former senior auto company managers plus private financial backers, chemists and engineers who live in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Florida. This group plans to initially purchase cars from GM then purchase existing but closed plants due to automaker restructuring. Additionally, one of the partners indicated a willingness to accept some “legacy” cost in relation to the United Auto Workers. The Ohio group is also pursuing possible loans or other support from national and state governments.

GM is reviewing several offers for Saturn. GM has contracted with S.J. Girsky & Co. to advise them on the sale.