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Sunday, November 23, 2008

A Pembroke Pines, Florida teenager killed himself Wednesday, November 19, while broadcasting on the live video site Justin.tv. After making suicide threats and being encouraged by Justin.tv viewers and Bodybuilding.com forum members, Abraham K. Biggs, 19, committed suicide by taking an overdose of opiates and benzodiazepine, which had been prescribed for his bipolar disorder.

Biggs first began blogging about his planned suicide 12 hours before the actual event. He died after taking pills and lying on the bed in front of the webcam. After the broadcast, viewers who apparently thought it was a hoax posted messages such as “OMG”, “LOL”, and “hahahah”.

Hours later, after being alerted by viewers who had noticed that Biggs had stopped breathing, law enforcement and paramedics arrived, discovered his body, and covered the camera. The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office has reportedly confirmed Biggs’ death.

According to Montana Miller of the Bowling Green State University, the circumstances of this case were not shocking: “If it’s not recorded or documented, then it doesn’t even seem worthwhile. For today’s generation it might seem, ‘What’s the point of doing it if everyone isn’t going to see it?'”

Biggs’ sister Rosalind was angry that neither the website nor its viewers reacted soon enough to save him. “They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours,” she said. She described him as “very happy” and “friendly and outgoing.” “On a normal day, you couldn’t really tell that he got as low as he did.” However, he did have relationship problems with his girlfriend, according to a friend.

Mental health professionals have warned about the possibility that other mentally troubled people would copy his actions. According to Dr. David Shaffer of Columbia University, “Any video showing it as heroic or romantic or glamorous could reduce the anxiety people might feel about suicide. It becomes a respectable behavior and lowers the threshold of suicide.” He and other psychiatrists recommend that potentially suicidal teens talk to others and “tell what’s going on.”

Saturday, May 26, 2007

A medical center, once the site of intense controversy over abortion in the 1990s, which has been vacant for nearly 10 years, was imploded in Buffalo, New York at 6:00 a.m. [eastern time] today.

Several streets in about a 2 block radius were shut down until the implosion occurred and the dust settled. At least 200 people watched in nearby parking lots and on rooftops of buildings to get a good look at the implosion.

The ground and the walls of buildings shook as the dynamite detonated and a brief shock wave could be felt as far as 1 1/2 blocks away. Witnesses even reported small pieces of bricks and concrete falling out of some buildings, but no one was injured.

The building, owned by Kaleida Health, once housed several medical offices, including an abortion clinic. Hundreds of people protested about the abortions outside the center during the Spring of Life Movement in 1992, but other medical procedures and treatments were also part of the center’s services. It was built in 1965 and was 14 floors tall.

Kaleida Health had the building imploded so that the current Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus can be expanded. Several other major medical facilities are also in the same area including Roswell Cancer Institute and Buffalo General Hospital.

“This implosion of 50 High Street will continue the explosion of growth on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. This event will ensure future opportunity for investment, development and growth,” said the CEO and President of Kaleida Health in a statement on Thursday.

==Sources==

• Melinda Miller & Sharon Linstedt. “Onlookers watch from rooftops as 50 High St. implodes” — Buffalo News, May 26, 2007
• “50 High Street Gone in a Flash” — WGRZ, May 26, 2007
• “Medical campus building to go boom” — MSN Money, May 24, 2007

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The battle between the two high definition optical disc formats, Blu-ray and HD DVD has ended after sole HD DVD manufacturer Toshiba has announced it will no longer produce HD DVD players.

In a press conference yesterday, Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida announced and confirmed that Toshiba will terminate the R&D plan on HD-DVD products. The key issue to force Toshiba terminating their HD-DVD R&D plan was Warner Bros., who changed their R&D plan from HD-DVD to Blu-ray on January 4.

In what is a reverse of the VHS vs Betamax format war, Sony‘s Blu-ray has come out on top with the backing of major studios and retailers such as Warner Bros. but also Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Netflix, and Blockbuster who announced they would only support Blu-ray exclusively this past month.

Even though Toshiba is currently about to change their R&D plan from HD-DVD to NAND flash drives and micro drives and plan to build two factories in Iwate, Japan, the company will provide the maintenance service on discs and players in the future 8 years.

Sony bundled Blu-ray into their PlayStation 3 game system. Microsoft’s competing Xbox 360, comes with a $200 HD DVD add-on player, whose fate is now undetermined with the demise of HD DVD. Microsoft has said they will wait for what Toshiba has to say.

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Monday, March 20, 2006

Fears of contaminated bone and skin grafts are being felt by unsuspecting patients following the revelation that funeral homes may have been looting corpses.

Janet Evans of Marion, Ohio was told by her surgeon, “The bone grafts you got might have been contaminated”. She reacted with shock, “I was flabbergasted because I didn’t even know what he was talking about. I didn’t know I got a bone graft until I got this call. I just thought they put in screws and rods.”

The body of Alistair Cooke, the former host of Masterpiece Theatre, was supposedly looted along with more than 1,000 others, according to two law enforcement officials close to the case. The tissue taken was typically skin, bone and tendon, which was then sold for use in procedures such as dental implants and hip replacements. According to authorities, millions of dollars were made by selling the body parts to companies for use in operations done at hospitals and clinics in the United States and Canada.

A New Jersey company, Biomedical Tissue Services, has reportedly been taking body parts from funeral homes across Brooklyn, New York. According to ABC News, they set up rooms like a “surgical suite.” After they took the bones, they replaced them with PVC pipe. This was purportedly done by stealth, without approval of the deceased person or the next of kin. 1,077 bodies were involved, say prosecutors.

Investagators say a former dentist, Michael Mastromarino, is behind the operation. Biomedical was considered one of the “hottest procurement companies in the country,” raking in close to $5 million. Eventually, people became worried: “Can the donors be trusted?” A tissue processing company called LifeCell answered no, and issued a recall on all their tissue.

Cooke’s daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, said, “To know his bones were sold was one thing, but to see him standing truncated before me is another entirely.” Now thousands of people around the country are receiving letters warning that they should be tested for infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis. On February 23, the Brooklyn District Attorney indicted Mastromarino and three others. They are charged with 122 felony counts, including forgery and bodysnatching.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Russell Korus is running for the Green Party of Ontario in the Ontario provincial election, in the Vaughan riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.

Friday, May 6, 2005

Three months after the FBI raided the offices of the Dorean Group in Union City, California, neighboring companies in the same office park have received letters claiming that rent for the office park should now be paid to the Dorean Group. The owner of the office park, Hanover Properties, insists that they have not sold the park and called the Dorean Group’s claim fraudulent.

The first letter from the Dorean Group, dated May 2nd, 2005, purported to “inform [the tenants] of the change in ownership of the property [the tenants] now occupy,” and asked that “payment of rents be sent” to the principals of the Dorean Group. The letter also included notarized documents authorizing the sale by an alleged agent of the current owner, Hanover Properties, a “Julia Pantibratyuk.”

On the subsequent day, Hanover Properties responded in a letter to the other tenants of the park. They noted that they had not sold the office park to the Dorean Group, but that they had evicted the Dorean Group from the premises on April 26. They added that, “We do not know who Julia Pantbratyuk^[sic] is.”

The letters were provided to Wikinews reporter Pingswept by an employee of one of the companies in the office park.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Tad Brudzinski is running for the Family Coalition Party in the Ontario provincial election, in the Newmarket-Aurora riding. Wikinews’ Nick Moreau interviewed him regarding his values, his experience, and his campaign.

He did not answer the question “Of the decisions made by Ontario’s 38th Legislative Assembly, which was the most beneficial to your electoral district? To the province as a whole? Which was least beneficial, or even harmful, to your riding? To the province as a whole?”

Stay tuned for further interviews; every candidate from every party is eligible, and will be contacted. Expect interviews from Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, New Democratic Party members, Ontario Greens, as well as members from the Family Coalition, Freedom, Communist, Libertarian, and Confederation of Regions parties, as well as independents.