Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Wikinews correspondent J.J. Liu spoke with Technological University Dublin (TUD) senior lecturer at the School of Surveying & Construction Management, Dr Lorcan Sirr on Friday regarding the supply of housing in the Republic of Ireland and relevant parallels across the rest of Europe, as well as recent developments by the government and private sector that are causing a rise in rents and home prices in the Irish real estate market.

Dr Sirr is a regular contributor to The Irish Times and has provided commentary to Irish radio station Newstalk, national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) and various other publications. In addition to being a chartered planning and development surveyor and assessor to the Society of Chartered Surveyors, Dr Sirr is a Peace Commissioner and former external examiner for the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, according to his profile on Worky.

Dr Sirr was a lecturer and former head of research for the Faculty of the Built Environment at the Dublin Institute of Technology, which entered a merger with two partner institutes to become TUD January 1, 2019. He received his bachelor’s degree in estate management at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, and master’s degree in urban design and PhD in town planning at the University of Manchester. He has a second master’s in literature from KU Leuven, Belgium, and speaks French.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

An international group of 73 scientists using 4 projects (PLANET led by Jean-Philippe Beaulieu and Martin Dominik, RoboNet led by MichaelBode and Keith Horne, OGLE led by Andrzej Udalski, and MOA led by Phil Yock) from 32 institutions in 12 countries have discovered the smallest Earth-like planet yet.

The new planet is about 25,000 light years away and is close to the center of the Milky Way.

The discovery was announced in the journal Nature. The journal also states the planet was found using a method called gravitational microlensing, which detects small planets with a mass like that of Earth.

Gravitational microlensing is where a light from a distant star is bent and magnified by the gravitational field of a foreground star. The presence of a planet around the foreground star causes light from the distant star to become momentarily brighter.

However, scientists say that the cold temperatures on the planet make the chance of finding any life on it “unlikely.”

“We may predict with reasonable probability that microlensing will discover planets with masses like that of Earth at a similar distance from their stars and with comparable surface temperature,” said study co-author Bohdan Paczynski from Princeton University.

So far the planet only goes by OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, and takes about ten years to orbit its parent star, a red dwarf, a star that is smaller and much cooler than our own Sun.

Scientists say the new planet, which is about five and a half times the mass of Earth, could either have a rocky core and a thin atmosphere, or be a small ice/gas world like Neptune , but in either case, its “very large orbit and cooler parent star, makes it a very cold world.”

The predicted surface temperature is -220° Celsius (-364° F), which means that should it have a rocky core, the planet may more closely resemble a massive version of Pluto with a surface of frozen liquids and gas. Otherwise the planet would be a liquid mass, wrapped in clouds of ice crystals and gas, much like Neptune.

“This is very exciting and important,” said Professor Michael Bode from Liverpool John Moores University, a principal investigator for the RoboNet project which helped to collaborate on the research. “This is the most Earth-like planet we have discovered to date, in terms of its mass and the distance from its parent star. Most of the other planets that have been discovered are either much more massive, much hotter or both.”

This is the third planet in two years that scientists have found using gravitational microlensing.

In the past, more than 150 planets outside our solar system were found using a technique known as the radial velocity method. This method observes a wobble in stars caused by the planet’s gravitational effects.

Saturday, October 23, 2021

China property giant Evergrande Group wired USD83.5 million in interest owed in an offshore bond from September 23 on Thursday, temporarily averting default, according to a Reuters source and Chinese newspaper Securities Times.

The wire to a Citibank fiduciary account following a 30-day grace period came after assurances by various members of the Chinese government, Reuters reported. At a Beijing forum Wednesday, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He described the risks as controllable, and chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission Yi Huiman said that while authorities needed to curb excessive debt more broadly by “improv[ing] the effectiveness of the constraint mechanism on debt financing”, the matter would be dealt with properly.

Once China’s top real estate developer, Evergrande had accumulated approximately USD305 billion in liabilities, two per cent of the Chinese gross national product, after “dwindling resources” cut its value by 80%, according to Reuters. September data revealed Chinese home sales by value fell by nearly 17% year-on-year, according to The Guardian, and fears over its default led to a slowdown in China’s third quarter GDP growth to a year low of 4.9%. Two sale negotiations with rival developers Hopson Development and Yuexiu, valued at USD2.6 billion and USD1.7 billion, respectively, were suspended, reportedly due to a lack of consent by the government of Guangdong province currently overseeing Evergrande’s restructuring.

News of Evergrande’s remittance caused its shares to rise by as much as 7.8% this morning after a two-week pause in trading for the anticipated sale of 50.1% in Evergrande Property Services Group, and offering some reprieve for bondholders, according to Reuters. Portfolio manager at GaoTeng Global Asset Management James Wong, interviewed by The Guardian, called the news “a positive surprise”, adding “[i]f Evergrande pays this time, I don’t see why it won’t pay the next time.” Jun Rong Yeap for IG Asia pte., interviewed by Bloomberg, said the report “overturned” the narrative “that Evergrande will face difficulty in securing cash ahead”.

Further missed payments are due October 29 and November 11 after similar 30-day grace periods; including yesterday’s USD83.5 million, nearly USD280 million is owed to bondholders.

Stocks have been down for many major Chinese developers: Reuters Wednesday reported year-to-date stock prices fell 87.8% for Sinic Holdings, currently in Fitch Ratings’ ‘restricted default’ after failing to make an October 18 bond payment valued, according to The Guardian, at USD246 million; 80.2% for Evergrande itself; 78.3% for E-House, 58.5% for Fantasia Holdings and 54.6% for Kaisa Group, which defaulted in 2015 and had bonds reach record lows.

Estimates of the Chinese real estate market’s size range from 16 to 25% of the Chinese gross domestic product, according to The Guardian. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s aim to transform the country’s economy from one of debt-fuelled “inflated” growth to one of improved “quality and returns” included imposing regulations on developers that limited their capacity to borrow. A Guardian comment piece from economist George Magnus published on October 15 made reference to China’s “ghost cities” and “rampant credit creation” that has given rise to high vacancy rates and the “financialisaton of housing”.

Monday, June 14, 2021

Arthur Oliver Kostendt, a candidate running in the mayoral election of the US city of Cleveland, Ohio set to take place November 2, discussed his campaign and policies with Wikinews this spring.

According to Cleveland Scene, 29-year-old Kostendt is a member of the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Republican Party but has referred to his campaign as “casual”. According to his web site’s personal biography, he was a cadet for the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), scout platoon leader for the 2nd Squadron of the 107th Cavalry Regiment of the Ohio Army National Guard and logistics officer for the 1st Battalion of the 145th Armored Regiment. He served in Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and assisted coalition force detachments in Southeast Asia.

Kostendt is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and summa cum laude graduate of Cleveland State University. He writes he uses an apostrophe to abbreviate his middle name as “Arthur O’Kostendt” instead of the customary period after the O to emphasise his Irish heritage.

A poll published May 5 by Baldwin Wallace University, which does not feature Mr Kostendt, has Dennis Kucinich and Basheer Jones leading in the mayoral race by 17.8 and 13.3 points, respectively, with a margin of error of up to five per cent either way. 48% of those surveyed were undecided. Incumbent mayor Frank G. Jackson, who won the 2017 Cleveland mayoral election with 59% of the vote, is eligible for a fifth term but announced on May 6 he would retire.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

London, England— Greece defeated Portugal on Tuesday in the boccia BC3 pairs gold medal match, by four points to one. 2012 is the eighth Paralympics since the introduction of the sport, which is similar to lawn bowls.

The Greek pair Nikolaos Pananos and Grigorios Polychronidis won three sets, and lost one, against Portugal’s Armando Costa and Luis Silva by scores of 2—0, 1—0, 1—0 and 0—1. They enjoyed enthusiastic support from Greek fans repeatedly shouting, “Bravo!” after each took their respective shots. Following the Greek win, supporters broke into rhythmic clapping, continuing their flag-waving and chanting. One of the Greeks competitors rolled his electric wheelchair around, whilst smiling and posing for photos.

Georgian-born Polychronidis holds an accounting degree from the Athens University of Economics and Business. He came into the London Games as a silver medallist from the BC3 individual event at the Beijing Paralympics. Having spinal muscular atrophy, he took up the sport at university where he was introduced to it by George Tzimas.

With London being Pananos’s debut Paralympic Games, he only took up boccia competitively in 2007 and took part in both individual and team events at these Games. Pananos, who has cerebral palsy and is retired, is coached by Andreas Keramidas and plays his club boccia for ASAX Eidiki Olympiada.

Portugal qualified for this match after beating South Korea 4—3 in the semi-finals. The Greeks earned their gold medal round opportunity after beating Belgium who went through pool play undefeated. Portugal won two of their three matches in pool play, losing one, and taking 14 points with only four scored against them. In pool play, Greece won two matches, lost one, and took eight points versus 13 points against them.

Boccia, which is similar to lawn bowls, was first played at the 1984 Summer Paralympics. As a Paralympic sport, it is played by people with cerebral palsy and similar locomotor conditions; players are divided into four different classifications based upon their functional ability.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

A sixteen-year-old boy from Santiago, Chile has been charged with the murder of his brother after the pair got in a fight over whose turn it was to use a PlayStation 3. Police reported that the sixteen-year-old had stabbed his eighteen-year-old brother after he turned the PlayStation on without his younger brother’s permission.

It’s reported that the younger brother entered the kitchen and took a knife; he then stabbed his brother in the chest. Chile police reported that the youth said that “things had got out of control”. If convicted, the boy would stay five years in prison.

At the time of the death there was no one else in the building. The boy’s birth mother had abandoned them ten years ago and they had been adopted by a Belgian woman. At the time of the attack, she was visiting her home country.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Authorities in Mexico have discovered 49 headless and dismembered dead bodies abandoned on the side of a road at the entryway to San Juan, a town located within Cadereyta Jiménez municipality. The bodies, six female and the other 43 male, were discovered by police at approximately 0400 CDT (0900 UTC) yesterday.

Speaking on behalf for security in the state of Nuevo León, Jorge Domene said, “We know from the characteristics that this is the result of violence between criminal gangs,” clarifying that this was not “an attack on the civilian population”. A spray-painted notice that read “100% Zeta,” referring to the Los Zetas drug cartel, was sighted on an archway where the incident occurred and is a sign that killings were linked to a dispute between drug cartels. Domene said the sign is typically a method Los Zetas uses when it takes responsibility.

Adrian de la Garza, a state prosecutor, has commented on the possibility of the individuals being killed as long ago as Friday and in a different location from where the bodies were discovered. He said he is still considering the possibility of those killed being migrants from Central America who intended to travel to the United States.

Both Domene and de la Garza said identification of the bodies will be difficult because the bodies were found headless and with their extremities removed. The corpses have been referred to the city of Monterrey for DNA profiling.

According to BBC News Online, Los Zetas is in a conflict with the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel over drug transportation paths leading towards the United States, with all cartels attempting to gain control of the road paths. The road on which the discovery was made lies between Monterrey in the state of Nuevo León and the city of Reynosa, located close to the Mexico–United States border, in the state of Tamaulipas. National Autonomous University of Mexico security expert Raul Benitez Manaut described the conflict between the cartels as “the most definitive of all the cartel wars”.

On Wednesday, a discovery of a similar nature occurred when eighteen beheaded and mutilated corpses were discovered within two deserted vehicles near the city of Guadalajara. In a separate incident on May 4, 23 corpses were found in the city of Nuevo Laredo, fourteen of which were without heads. Over 47,500 fatalities have been recorded since the commencement of the Mexican Drug War in December 2006.