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I am a huge fan of Halo ever since my friend introduced me to it. I have played all three Halo games so far. I have seen every episode of Master Chief Sucks At Halo and Arby 'n' the Chief. I have also seen the only three episodes of It's A Wonderful Live.Fake info: Was born on Harvest and selected for the SPARTAN-II program. Was one who barely made it through augmentations.
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SPARTAN News 4
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I've been delaying this for a bit, but here is the fourth SPARTAN News article.
Surviving a hijacking, the Montreal circuit dropped by Formula 1, a new touch screen Blackberry, Duchovny's sex addiction-cured, and Canada's cheapest gas! SPARTAN News, the news for Canadians!
On August 26, Dr. Abraham Hadoto, a World Vision operations manager for South Darfur, was preparing to board a flight back to the World Vision Sudan office in Khartoum. Instead of a standard flight, however Hadoto found himself aboard a hijacked airplane. After his ordeal, Hadoto took the time to journal his experience.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 I check into the Nyala airport, Sudan, for my flight to World Vision Sudan's head office in Khartoum. We are informed that the flight will be delayed.
4:40 pm Two well-dressed young men in their late twenties catch my eye. Such dressing would normally indicate a wedding but I do not see the bride.
4:45 pm We board Sun Air Boeing 737. A stewardess shows me seat number 9D at the back of the plane. This is good since I am rather tall person. The two gentlemen sit in the business class section—one on left and the other to the right of the aisle of the plane's entrance. In seat 9E is an elderly man who does not understand English.
5:25 pm The usual safety instructions in English and Arabic. I understand very little Arabic and listen keenly to the English announcement.
5:40 pm We are airborne. I hear a shout, then see a distressed stewardess trying to open the curtain in the business section. One of the smartly dressed passengers appears, waving a gun. His colleague is already in the cockpit.
6:25 pm The pilot gives us the bad news. The plane has been hijacked and he is under instructions to fly it to France. The pilot requests all passengers to strictly follow the hijackers' instructions. Since I do not understand Arabic, I turned to my neighbour. My inquisitiveness enables me to gather some information on what is going on.
7:45 pm The pilot issues a warning that there isn't enough fuel for the journey to France and asks all passengers to pray. He also informs us that he has asked several airports for landing rights but they have turned the request down. This is very frightening.
8:05 pm At the moment, we are lying over the town of Kufra, Libya. The plane circles the town twice. The pilot is seeking permission to land. As he circles around, the engine on the right side goes silent. I pray fervently. My Muslim neighbour is also in deep prayer. The aircraft is swaying from side to side on the verge of losing control. "Almighty God, do something!"
8:15 pm The plane lands at the Kufra military airport. We are so thankful to God.
11:00 pm We have no water or food. We are thirsty and dehydrated. The desert heat is making it worse. The situation is punishing children and the elderly. The pilot has no fuel to run the air conditioning and he is not allowed to open doors and windows. Most passengers have succumbed to fatigue and sleep on their seats.
Wednesday August 26, 6:00 am The sun rises with a new heat wave. Passengers begin collapsing. The hijackers start to separate the elderly, children and their mothers from the rest of us. Negotiations between Libyan authorities and the hijackers are still going on.
8:00 am Passengers become more restless. Calls for water are deafening.
10:00 am Pandemonium. Thirst and hunger are overwhelming passengers. They start to bay for the lives of the hijackers. In the ensuing confusion, some people jump out of the rear door of the aircraft. It is a really high jump and three are badly hurt. I remain in my seat.
10:30 am Negotiations lead to the release of all hostages. I remain on the plane until all the women and children have been evacuated. The airport is swarming with military personnel and the media.
2:15 pm I make a call to the Operations Director and the Staff Safety Officer at World Vision in Khartoum. I update them on my location, assuring them of my safety and status.
3:00 pm I am called to speak to the United Nations safety personnel who wants to know more about the incident. Lunch is served. We are informed that there will be a flight to Khartoum in two hours.
5:00 pm The two hijackers are brought into the main lounge under tight security. There is excitement from the Libyan security personnel.
8:35 pm We board our flight back to Khartoum.
10:40 pm We touch down in Khartoum. World Vision colleagues pick me up from the airport. There is a heavy presence of military, media and government of Sudan officials. The security procedures take two hour to complete.
12:50 am We leave the airport. I want to thank the entire World Vision Partnership for their prayers and concern. I give God the glory for giving me another chance in this world.
Montreal dropped from F1 calendar
The Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal was removed from the 2009 F1 season, the International Automobile Federation announced on Tuesday.
Next season will be the first since 1987 that Canada will not be hosting a Formula One race.
With three races remaining in this year's 18-race schedule, the sports governing body released a calendar for 2009, moving the Turkish Grand Prix from August to June 7 to replace the Montreal race. The decision allows the teams a summer break between the Hungarian GP on July 26 and the European GP at Valencia, Spain, on Aug. 23.
Organizers have added the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as part of its schedule for November 2009.
It's believed contractual problems among officials from the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and commercial rights holder of F1 management contributed to the removal of Montreal race.
Officials of the Canadian Grand Prix said in a statement they had only learned of F1's decision through the media.
"Consequently, we will not release any comment until we've spoken to the interested parties, both Formula One Management and the Fédération International de l'Automobile," the statement said.
A Canadian GP spokesman told the Canadian Press in an e-mail that he expects to meet with reporters on Wednesday in Montreal.
The move means there will be no F1 race in North America in 2009. The U.S. Grand Prix in Indianapolis was also removed this year.
Losing the Grand Prix is an "enormous" economic blow for Montreal, Mayor Gérald Tremblay told Radio-Canada, CBC's French-language service.
The event generates more than $75 million in tourism and creates "important economic spinoffs," he added.
Tremblay also said the Grand Prix puts Montreal on the international map.
"There are more than 300 million people who watch the Grand Prix, so Montreal's notoriety is important in that event."
Tremblay indicated he plans to speak with Normand Legault, president of Grand Prix Canada, later on Tuesday to discuss the city's options.
Track conditions have been a contentious issue for drivers during recent years. The asphalt at the island park across from downtown Montreal has been ripped loose by tires, creating slick and dangerous driving conditions.
Officials even feared drivers would boycott the Montreal race in June, but organizers were able to repair the track overnight. The race went on without any major problems.
Merchants along Montreal's renowned Crescent Street say they thrive because of the Grand Prix, and losing the event would hurt business.
For the past 10 years, the Crescent Street Merchants Association has hosted the Grand Prix Festival.
The three-day event rakes in money for bars and restaurants, said association spokeswoman Sandy Greene.
"For the past Grand Prix this year, we had a record-breaking attendance of 500,000 people come on the street," he said.
"That makes for at least 21/2 times what our merchants would make on any very good weekend. For a lot of the smaller merchants, it could make or break their year."
The race was first held in 1967 at Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ont., where it was staged for most of the next decade before finding a permanent home in Montreal in 1978. The Canadian race was forced into a one-year hiatus 21 years ago when local organizers and F1 quarrelled over sponsorship.
This isn't the first time the Canadian event has faced removal from the F1 schedule. Five years ago, F1 head Bernie Ecclestone said the race would be dropped in 2004 because of looming legislation to stop tobacco advertising.
However, event officials were able to raise the necessary funds to keep the race alive.
The FIA gave president Max Mosley the authority to negotiate with F1Teams regarding the reduction of costs in half by 2010 at a World Council meeting.
If negotiations with the 10 teams fail, the FIA can then "enforce the necessary measures to achieve this goal."
The Montreal race has included several great moments, but none more memorable than the 1978 version, when Quebec native Gilles Villeneuve took the checkered flag.
Born in Richelieu, Que., Villeneuve, who died during a qualifying session for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix, remains the only Canadian to win the event.
Research In Motion unveils touchscreen Blackberry with keyboard that clicks
The BlackBerry is taking on Apple's iPhone with a touchscreen smartphone designed for both consumers and business users that gives the experience of typing on a regular keyboard.
Research In Motion Ltd. (TSX:RIM) is launching the long-awaited BlackBerry Storm, its first touchscreen phone on Wednesday in a gloomy economic climate that co-CEO Jim Balsillie said shouldn't hurt sales.
What Balsillie believes sets the BlackBerry Storm apart from the iPhone and other touchscreen models is its technology, which lets users experience the keys moving and hear a "click" when they're typing on the touchscreen.
"You feel it," Balsillie told The Canadian Press in an interview. "There's a real click to it. It actually moves," he said of each key.
It's like typing on a regular BlackBerry keyboard, he said of the touchscreen phone which had been in development for a couple of years and rumoured to come out for months.
The Storm, a 3G smartphone that can run on a variety of networks worldwide, will be carried by Verizon Wireless in the United States and Vodaphone in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand later this fall.
Balsillie said the new touchscreen BlackBerry will also be available in Canada on Bell (TSX:BCE) and Telus (TSX:T) networks later this fall.
RIM dominates among business users with the BlackBerry and has been moving into the consumer market, which has seen a lot of buzz with the recent introduction of the new and faster iPhone.
To appeal to more consumers, RIM changed the shape of the BlackBerry when it introduced a flip phone in September aimed at the North American market.
Balsillie said RIM had no qualms about changing the BlackBerry's keyboard, which normally takes up about half of the space on the rectangular shaped mobile phone and often has users typing away with their thumbs.
"I don't think we've been religious on form factor. It's still a BlackBerry and that's very important."
He predicted that RIM's touchscreen device will be superior to the iPhone's touchscreen experience, which doesn't have a tactile feel.
"The big issue of touch is you complete your motion by lifting you thumb, which is unnatural, because when you type you complete your motion by clicking down" he said of touchscreen typing. "You get the benefits of tactility with the benefits of touch."
Balsillie said he expects the Storm and other BlackBerry models to do well despite a worldwide weakening economy.
"That's not to say there's zero effect on the global economy, but to date cellphones are right around essential. They're not a discretionary luxury, really."
Analyst Sascha Segan of PC Magazine said the quality of the Storm's touchscreen will determine how the device fares.
"A lot of RIM users want a touchscreen device just because it's sexy," said Segan, the lead analyst for mobile devices at the technology publication.
"But RIM's specialty is keyboards. If RIM can provide an advance in touchscreen keyboard technology, then people will flock to this device."
Balsillie said the touchscreen model should appeal to both consumers and business users because it has secure email delivered directly to the device and has other features such as a media player for movies and music, a camera, built-in GPS and Internet access.
Users can type on the Storm with a single touch or different combinations and gestures. If users turn the touchscreen phone horizontally or "landscape" they can type on the QWERTY keyboard and if it's turned upright or "portrait," users can use the intuitive Suretype keyboard.
‘Californication’ star ends sex addiction treatment Just like his womanizing character Hank Moody on Californication, David Duchovny could be a reformed man. Duchovny’s attorney, Stanton “Larry” Stein, said the star has finished his treatment for sex addiction, according to Reuters.
“[Duchovny] has successfully completed rehabilitation,” Stein said in a statement yesterday. “He is out and will very soon begin work on his new movie.”
Stein did not indicate which treatment facility Duchovny attended nor when he departed the centre. He told press that the 48-year-old had entered rehab facility in late August.
Duchovny, a former X-Files star, is married to actress Tea Leoni and they have two children.
The actor won a Golden Globe Award for his role on Californication, now in its second season, on which he plays a sex-obsessed single dad and novelist struggling with writer’s block.
As TVGuide.ca reported yesterday, Justine Bateman will hook up with Hank this season on the Showtime series, presumably testing his newfound monogamy.
Duchovny is scheduled to star in the big-screen film The Joneses next year.
Gasoline prices drop to double digits in some Ontario cities
Pump prices dipped below $1 a litre in some parts of the country yesterday in an overall downward trend expected to stay throughout the fall, but experts say motorists should still keep their fuel consumption in check during these rocky economic times.
The cost of gasoline has been falling steadily since hurricanes Gustav and Ike slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast about a month ago, knocking out about a fifth of North America's refining capacity.
And Jason Toews, co-founder of the price-tracking website Gasbuddy.com said he expects the trend to continue.
"We're going to see gas prices bottom out in December of this year. We may see the national average hit the 95 cents a litre," Toews estimated.
The cheapest gas yesterday was in Ontario, where some Ottawa-area stations posted prices below $1 a litre.
Hamilton and Toronto averaged around $1.05, according to Gasbuddy. The national average sat at around $1.20.
The price of gasoline is in part determined by the cost of its raw product, crude oil, which closed at US$90.06 a barrel yesterday - a far cry from its US$147 record in July.
Peter Linder, president of Delta One Capital Partners, said the supply picture is also looking better now that the Gulf Coast is bouncing back from the battering it took from the hurricanes.
"The refineries are back on now, the (summer) driving season's behind us and so there's ample supply of gasoline for the coming months," said Linder, who expects prices to average between $1.05 and $1.15 during the winter.
In addition to the commodity price factor, consumers are also "pulling their belts" as the economic picture becomes ever gloomier, said Rob Laidlaw of Acumen Capital Partners.
"As with any product, it's a supply-demand game," he said. "You see people being more conscious of their spending, thus the demand for gasoline would be reduced compared to where it was a year ago."
And as the economy has slowed, so has gasoline consumption.
In the United States, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported fuel consumption for the four weeks ended Sept. 26 was about 19 million barrels a day, down seven per cent from the same period a year ago
At the same time, gasoline inventories in the U.S. rose by 900,000 barrels, or 0.5 per cent, to 179.6 million barrels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to fall in the range of one million to three million barrels.
But Scott Wilson of the Alberta Motor Association said drivers should not get complacent about conserving fuel now that gas appears to be getting cheaper.
"One thing that everybody understands is that gas prices will definitely go up again. It's only a matter of time," he said.
Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, said she was optimistic some of the fuel saving habits drivers picked up over the summer will stick.
"I think some people are going to snap right back into the pedal-to-the-metal behaviour, but I think for a lot of people, they've learned something new and they're going to drive differently," she said.
The sense of purpose that comes from helping the environment has taken a lot of the sting out of paying more for gasoline for some earth-conscious consumers, she said.
"People are so tapped out in a number of different areas. Anyway that people can be more frugal, they're looking for that, they're embracing that."
And that's it. SPARTAN News 5 will come soon!
