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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Dave Brockie of rubber-costumed metal act GWAR was found dead in his Richmond, Virginia home late on Sunday. Better known by stage name Oderus Urungus, Brockie was 50.

Founder, singer, leader, and occasional bassist of GWAR, Brockie’s career stretches back to 1984. He and fellow Virginia Commonwealth University art students formed what they dubbed “Earth’s only openly extra-terrestrial rock band”, growing famous for satirical and obscene lyrical themes, and live shows featuring the defilement of effigies and plenty of fake blood.

Fellow founding member Don Drakulich, who still makes props and costumes for the rockers, said he was “very sad” and “shocked”. He said Brockie’s roommate found the corpse. GWAR members changed frequently and the band recovered from the sudden death of guitarist Cory “Flattus Maximus” Smoot during a 2011 tour, but the New York Daily News notes “it’s hard to envision their saga going further” after Brockie’s death.

The band ran with the backstory of crashing to “the most insignificant planet in the universe” 43 million years ago before creating humans by having sex with apes. Becoming encased with ice, the legend ran that upon thawing out in 1984 the members decided to form a band.

Manager Jack Flanagan announced the death via GWAR’s website, adding a post-mortem will be conducted. “My main focus right now is to look after my band mates and his family” he said. Flanagan said another GWAR member found the body.

Brockie said in 2009 “I am one of the blessed people that gets to do what I love to do for a living.” GWAR received a Grammy nomination in 1993, with Phallus in Wonderland up for Best Longform Music Video.

Fellow Virginia rocker Randy Blythe, vocalist for Lamb of God, paid tribute online, writing on Instagram “When someone dies, a lot of the time people will say ‘Oh, he was a unique person, really one of a kind, a true original’ […] I can’t think of ANYONE even remotely like him.”

Blythe also took to Facebook. “Right now, if I were to truly honor Dave in the way HE would do it if it were ME that had died, I would make a completely tasteless joke about his death. But I do not have the stomach for that — Dave would, but not me. He never put much stock in ‘limits’.”

Ex-GWAR guitarist Steve Douglas said on Facebook “I have had a few bad days in my life but this one truly ranks right up there. […] you are gone and it is hurting very badly!” “I wish it was a joke” said another ex-member, Chris Bopst. “Everyone is in shock.”

Former bassist Mike Bishop paid tribute in an interview with Style Weekly. “Dave was one of the funniest, smartest, most creative and energetic persons I’ve known,” he said. “He was brash sometimes, always crass, irreverent, he was hilarious in every way. But he was also deeply intelligent and interested in life, history, politics and art.”

Friday, January 9, 2009

The Florida Gators defeated the Oklahoma Sooners by a score of 24 to 14 last night’s FedEx BCS National Championship Game to win the Division I title of the National Collegiate Athletic Association‘s American college football league. Florida, ranked Number 1 in the nation, were led by Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow. “I promised the guys that I would go out and play with all my heart. I was so motivated tonight,” said Tebow. They were matched up against a Number 2 ranked Oklahoma team with a powerful offense, including this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, quarterback Sam Bradford. The game took place at a sold-out Dolphin Stadium in Miami, as a stadium record 78,468 fans attended the match.

Both team’s defensed dominated each others’ offenses in the first half, forcing a 7 to 7 score when halftime came against a Florida offense that averaged 54 points a game and an Oklahoma offense that averaged 40 points. In total, both team’s defenses had 4 interceptions, 2 for Florida and 2 for Oklahoma. Florida’s defense stopped Oklahoma twice during a goal line stand, stopping them on a fourth-down rush once, and a forced interception out of the hands of Oklahoma wide receiver Juaquin Iglesias by Florida’s Ahmad Black.

On the offensive side of the ball, Florida was led by Tebow. Although throwing 2 interceptions, Tebow completed 18 put of 30 passes for 2 touchdowns, as well as rushed 22 times for over 100 yards. Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford helped the Sooners offense through the air, completing 26 out of 41 passes for 256 yards and 2 passing touchdowns, but also throwing two interceptions. In the fourth quarter, Tebow completed a key 4-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver David Nelson, making the score 24 to 14 and putting the game out of reach for Oklahoma.

Some college fans believe that Florida did not rightly win the national championship, though. Fans of the Utah Utes believed that their undefeated team should have at least earned a spot in the game against Oklahoma or Florida’s one-loss teams. Fans of the USC Trojans and the Texas Longhorns also believed that the teams could have earned a spot in the game, due to their similar records. On the matter, Florida head coach Urban Meyer said “This is one of the best teams in college football history. Let someone else worry about all that. The Gators are No.1.”

On the game, Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops commented “In the end, I’ll be glad to try again next year. If that’s the biggest burden I have to bear in my life, I’m a pretty lucky guy.” Tim Tebow, in a post-game interview, said “I was already motivated for a national championship game. But you know, there was some trash talking going on, and it just gets me going during the game.” In a losing effort, Sam Bradford commented “In the first half, we had opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of. In the second half, when we needed to make the plays, we just couldn’t do it.”

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Molten steel spilled out and killed 32 workers at the Qinghe Special Steel Corporation mill in the city of Tieling in Liaoning province, China.

The ladle containing 1,500-degree-Celsius liquid steel poured into an open room, where employees take breaks in-between shift changes, at 7:45 a.m. local time. At least 6 others were injured, one of them critically.

“It is the most serious accident to hit China’s steel industry since 1949,” said China’s deputy head of the State Administration of Work Safety, Sun Huashan.

At least 4 workers have been arrested after the accident. The manager of mill, an operator, technician and a supervisor of a workshop were all arrested and are being questioned as an investigation in launched into what caused the accident to occur.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Tennis player Garbiñe Muguruza, aged 22, defeated Serena Williams 7–5, 6–4, on Saturday to win the 2016 French Open women’s final in Paris.

The victory was Muguruza’s first Grand Slam title, and improved her world ranking to second behind Williams in women’s tennis. She became Spain’s first women’s Grand Slam champion since Arantxa Sánchez Vicario won the French Open in 1998.

Muguruza won the first set 7–5, breaking early in the set to grab a 3–2 lead. Williams was down 3–1 early in the second set; the Spaniard completed the set 6–4. For Williams with 22 Grand Slam titles, it was a second consecutive Grand Slam loss.

Muguruza and Williams played in last year’s Wimbledon final, with opposite results — Williams won. After the match, Muguruza said, “I can’t explain with words how this day means to me. You work all your life to get here”. Williams, appearing upset after the loss, thanked her coach and said they would “try again next year.”

In Williams’s first Grand Slam competition this year, she lost the Australian Open final to Angelique Kerber, two sets to one.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

6,000 residents of Lismore in NSW have been told to evacuate their homes.

A couple is missing on the Gold Coast in Queensland. State Emergency Services (SES) workers are currently preparing to evacuate a number of nursing homes in the suburbs of Southport and Burleigh.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) have said that South East Queensland has recorded rainfalls of 368mm in the last 24 hours and that the Gold Coast suburb of Coolangatta has been averaging 80mm per hour for at least two hours. The Coolangatta airport was closed due to flooding.

Further south the city of Lismore has been inundated. A recently constructed levy has held back the waters of the Wilson river, protecting the town’s central business district.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

A reporter from Wikinews recently interviewed Jim Babka, chair of Libertarian organization Downsize DC. The organization claims to have arranged for 22,158 people to send a message regarding the “American Freedom Agenda Act” proposed by Ron Paul, in addition to supporting many other laws. The full text of the interview can be found below.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

On Sunday, suicide bombers killed 11 African Union (AU) peacekeepers in Somalia and injured at least 15 others. Two bombers drove a truck loaded with explosives into the AU camp housing Burundi soldiers in Mogadishu and detonated it.

“These attacks have reached today an unprecedented level, resulting in the killing of 11 Burundian soldiers, while 15 others have sustained serious injuries,” the African Union said in a statement. Troops were unloading supplies for their camp when militants drove a truck into the camp, then detonating it.

“Attacks by these evil forces will not deter Burundi or the African Union to help Somalis. We will reinforce our contingent with material and personnel,” the Burundi government said.

Al-Shabaab, a Somali militia, claimed responsibility. The group’s leader, Mukhtar Robow, issued a statement after the attack warning residents and troops to “go home, otherwise you will meet our hell”. Al-Shabaab is considered to be formed from remnants of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The group claims that at least 52 people were killed and 34 others injured in the suicide attack.

“This is our land and you are non-believers,” read an Al-Shabaab statement in Somali on a website used by the militants. “Leave us for your safety or we shall never tire of increasing your death toll.” The site showed images of the alleged militants responsible for the attack.

Recently, other Islamist groups have pledged loyalty to President Sharif Ahmed, also formerly of the ICU, though considered a moderate. Al-Shabaab has rejected his government, which won a January 31 election.

“They are trying to destabilize the situation and take away attention from the good news,” said Susannah Price, a spokesperson for the United Nations.

There are 3,400 Burundi and Uganda troops in Somalia, however, the AU peacekeeping force is supposed to number 8,000.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

It can be difficult to be John Reed.

Christopher Hitchens called him a “Bin Ladenist” and Cathy Young editorialized in The Boston Globe that he “blames the victims of terrorism” when he puts out a novel like Snowball’s Chance, a biting send-up of George Orwell‘s Animal Farm which he was inspired to write after the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The clear references to 9/11 in the apocalyptic ending can only bring Orwell’s name into disrepute in the U.S.,” wrote William Hamilton, the British literary executor of the Orwell estate. That process had already begun: it was revealed Orwell gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being “crypto-Communists and fellow travelers,” labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals. “I really wanted to explode that book,” Reed told The New York Times. “I wanted to completely undermine it.”

Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon taught to children in schools a menace, or a messiah? David Shankbone went to interview him for Wikinews and found that, as often is the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Reed is electrified by the changes that surround him that channel through a lens of inspiration wrought by his children. “The kids have made me a better writer,” Reed said. In his new untitled work, which he calls a “new play by William Shakespeare,” he takes lines from The Bard‘s classics to form an original tragedy. He began it in 2003, but only with the birth of his children could he finish it. “I didn’t understand the characters who had children. I didn’t really understand them. And once I had had kids, I could approach them differently.”

Taking the old to make it new is a theme in his work and in his world view. Reed foresees new narrative forms being born, Biblical epics that will be played out across print and electronic mediums. He is pulled forward by revolutions of the past, a search for a spiritual sensibility, and a desire to locate himself in the process.

Below is David Shankbone’s conversation with novelist John Reed.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

On Tuesday, German football club Bayern Munich announced Manuel Neuer, their goalkeeper and captain, had surgery on his left foot and is expected to miss footballing action for the rest of the year. The club announced it via their website.

31-year-old Neuer suffered injury from Monday’s training for their match against Schalke 04. His hairline fracture of the metatarsal of his left foot was treated on Tuesday by Doctor Ulrich Stöckle in Tübingen.

Bayern Munich AG’s CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said, “Manuel Neuer has sustained another injury and we’re incredibly sorry for him. The operation went perfectly, whch is the most important thing for now. We and our captain are now looking to the future. Manuel will be back to his previous best and available to us again in January.” ^{((de))German language: ?Dass Manuel Neuer sich erneut eine Verletzung zugezogen hat, tut uns wahnsinnig leid für ihn. Die Operation ist optimal verlaufen und das ist jetzt das Wichtigste. Wir sehen jetzt gemeinsam mit unserem Kapitän nach vorne. Manuel wird uns im Januar in alter Stärke wieder zur Verfügung stehen.}

Former Stuttgart goalie Sven Ulreich, who played only twelve games since joining Bayern in 2015 until Monday, is likely to fill Neuer’s place until Neuer returns. Baryern faces Celtic as well as Paris-Saint Germain in the group stage of UEFA Champions League. FC Barcelona’s shotstopper Marc-André ter Stegen is expected to guard the German nets for the upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifiers for next year’s tournament in Russia.

Neuer suffered a toe injury in March, and a fracture after the second leg of UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid in April. Neuer recovered from the original fracture from April, and joined the team late last month. His club and national teammates including Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller, Franck Ribéry, Jerome Boateng, Mario Götze, and Toni Kroos wished him a speedy recovery via Twitter.