UPI – Firefighters in Montana came to the rescue of two dogs that plunged into the frigid waters of the Missouri River amid subzero temperatures.
Great Falls Fire Rescue said crews responded to the river, just below Broadwater Bay, after a witness reported seeing the two canines fall through the ice into the water while chasing geese.
Firefighters fished the two canines out of the water, and determined they were not injured, but were having trouble moving their legs due to exposure to the cold water.
“It was really cold out, so the water is just dripping off of them, turning into icicles,” Great Falls Emergency Services EMT Emily Boor told KRTV. “We asked the Animal Control gal if her kennels were heated, and she said they’re not, and we said, we have a heated ambulance and blankets, so we put them right up.”
The dogs were warmed up and taken to the City of Great Falls Animal Shelter. It was unclear whether the canines have owners or if they were strays.
The Great Falls Police Department said the “feels like” temperature at the time of the rescue was -24 degrees.
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND (AP) – Veteran New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor said he will retire from international cricket after the current domestic season.
The second test against Bangladesh next month, in which he likely will equal Daniel Vettori’s record of 112 tests for New Zealand, will be his last.
Taylor won’t play in the Black Caps test series against South Africa in February but will play one-day international (ODI) series against Australia in Australia in February and against the Netherlands at home in late March and early April.
The fourth ODI against the Netherlands in Taylor’s home town of Hamilton on April 4 will be his last match for New Zealand.
“It’s been an amazing journey and I feel incredibly fortunate to have represented my country for as long as I have,” Taylor said in a statement yesterday.
“It’s been such a privilege to play with and against some of the greats of the game and to have created so many memories and friendships along the way. But all good things must come to an end and the timing feels right for me.”
Ross Taylor in action. PHOTO: AP
Taylor will retire as New Zealand’s top-scorer in test and one-day international matches. He has 7,584 test runs and 19 centuries, second only to current captain Kane Williamson, and 8,581 runs in ODIs, ahead of Stephen Fleming (8,007). His 21 ODI centuries also are a New Zealand record.
Taylor made his test debut against South Africa in 2008 and played the first of 233 ODIs against the West Indies in 2006. He has also played 102 Twenty20 internationals, becoming the first player to play more than 100 matches for New Zealand in all three formats.
New Zealand coach Gary Stead said Taylor unquestionably in one of the country’s greatest players.
“Ross has always been a hugely respected member of the side and we’re thankful for his contributions to the Black Caps over an incredible career,” Stead said.
“His skills and temperament as a batsman have been world-class and his ability to perform at such a high level for so long speaks volumes of his longevity and professionalism.”
Williamson also praised the achievements of his long-time batting partner.
“Ross has been at the core of the side for so long and can be extremely proud of having brought the game in this country to a better place,” Williamson said.
FRANKFURT (AFP) – On the 23rd floor of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) towering Frankfurt headquarters, on the other side of a security door, anti-counterfeiting experts are poring over some of the best fake banknotes in the eurozone.
The room, off limits to outsiders, at first glance recalls a high school science lab – an unusually well-equipped one.
Lined up on the workbenches are 3D microscopes, ultra-sensitive scales and special devices designed to detect around a dozen of the safety features embedded in genuine euro banknotes – and spot the forgeries.
The analysis done by the handful of specialists in the room helps the ECB keep up to date with the latest counterfeiting techniques, and hopefully stay a step ahead.
Twenty years after the launch of the single currency, the risk of a eurozone citizen holding a fake euro note is “very slim”, head of the ECB’s currency development division Jean-Michel Grimal said.
And the chances have been getting slimmer by the year.
ABOVE & BELOW: Counterfeit expert at the Counterfeit Analysis Center of the European Central Bank Eric Languillat inspects the scanned image of a EUR10 bill; and Languillat uses a microscope to check a EUR50 note. PHOTOS: AFP
According to the ECB – responsible for issuing bills while the central banks of the 19 eurozone nations each produce their own coins – banknote counterfeiting fell to a historically low level in 2020.
Around 460,000 fake euro bills were taken out of circulation last year, an 18-per-cent drop on 2019.
By comparison, there are currently 27 billion genuine euro notes out there.
The safety of euro banknotes has contributed to the “strong trust” eurozone citizens have in the single currency, Grimal said, with recent surveys putting support for the euro at around 80 per cent.
HELPING POLICE
The lab’s biggest treasure is a large iron cabinet that requires two people to open it, each only knowing part of the secret combination.
Inside is a trove of nearly 1,000 fake banknotes, from five- to 500-euro bills, that have been studied over the past two decades.
Every eurozone country has its own counterfeiting detection centre, but Frankfurt holds the most “interesting” examples because they are considered the best imitations, said Eric Languillat, one of the ECB’s counterfeiting experts.
The analysis done here also helps to give “a quantitative view of the (fake) notes circulating in Europe”, he said.
The findings are shared with police services like the European Union (EU) police agency Europol to help them track down counterfeiting networks.
The ECB’s research and development teams, tasked with constantly improving the quality and security of euro bills, also feed off the lab’s discoveries.
“If we notice the counterfeiters using certain technological methods, the R&D teams will look at what they can put in place to counteract them,” said Grimal.
The ECB’s tampering-fighting efforts come at a price, requiring a sizable annual budget.
But the money spent “is a good investment compared to the cost of a counterfeiting crisis”, said Grimal.
‘FEEL, LOOK, TILT’
The Frankfurt analysts examine the bills into the smallest details.
On one computer screen, a genuine EUR20 note is blown up to nearly 70 times its size, revealing the tiny waves inside the “20” figure, resembling the ridges of a ploughed field, and quite a challenge to imitate.
Citizens don’t necessarily “have the instinct to look closely at notes”, said Languillat.
That’s why the ECB has for years encouraged the public to use the “feel, look, tilt” method to check that what they’re holding is the real thing – no microscope required.
Special printing ensures no other notes feel like euro notes, holding a bill up to the light reveals the watermark and security thread, while tilting it changes the hologram and colour-shifting images.
“If you look carefully at a banknote, the quality of a fake is generally pretty bad, it should be easy to spot,” he said.
Following the introduction of Changin Automobile to the Brunei market, authorised distributor GHK Motors Changan Brunei invited members of the media and influencers to take a closer look and test drive the subcompact sedan, Changan Alsvin, at the Changan Showroom in Sumbangsih Bahagia, Beribi yesterday.
The event saw the media being briefed on available models prior to the test drive, conducted with adherence to the standard operating procedures and health guidelines.
Being committed to bringing ‘dream cars’ to locals who love life with enthusiasm and technology, GHK Motors took pride in bringing the Changan brand to the local consciousness.
Starting with the launch of the Alsvin, GHK Motors hopes to bring the best experiences to local consumers through its beautiful styling and quality but without the premium price tag that normally comes with it.
As the number one automotive brand for the last 10 years in China, Changan Automobile invests five per cent of its annual revenues into research and development, having the best capability in automotive technology which allows them to introduce level three autonomous driving in China.
Under the Changan flagship, there is a wide range of beautifully designed and high-quality sedans, SUVs, MVPs and LCVs, as it is well on its way to electrifying all of its models by next year.
The brand aims to provide high quality products and service to customers to fulfil its mission of “pioneering auto culture and benefit human life” and striving towards its ambitious vision of “building the world’s leading automobile enterprise”.
Changan Alsvin sedans on display at the Changan Showroom in Sumbangsih Bahagia, Beribi. PHOTO: BAHYIAH BAKIR
WASHINGTON (AFP) – From the Mars Ingenuity helicopter’s first powered flight on another world to the launch of the James Webb telescope that will peer into the earliest epoch of the Universe, 2021 was a huge year for humanity’s space endeavors.
Beyond the science milestones, billionaires battled to reach the final frontier first, an all-civilian crew went into orbit, and Star Trek’s William Shatner waxed profound about what it meant to see the Earth from the cosmos, as space tourism finally came into its own.
Here are selected highlights.
RED PLANET ROBOT DUO
NASA’s Perseverance Rover survived its “seven minutes of terror”, a time when the craft relies on its automated systems for descent and landing, to touch down flawlessly on Mars’ Jezero Crater in February.
Since then, the car-sized robot has been taking photos and drilling for samples for its mission: determining whether the Red Planet might have hosted ancient microbial life forms. A rock sample return mission is planned for sometime in the 2030s.
With its state-of-the-art instruments, ‘Percy’, as the helicopter is affectionately known, can also zap Martian rock and chemically analyse the vapour.
The rocket carrying the James Webb telescope launches; and a livestream of the separation in space. PHOTOS: AP
A Soyuz-2.1B rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage lifts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome
Percy has a partner along for the ride: Ingenuity, a two-kilogramme rotorcraft that in April succeeded in the first powered flight on another celestial body, just over a century after the Wright brothers’ achieved the same feat here on Earth, and has performed many more since.
“Perseverance is sort of the flagship mission, it’s doing a long-term detailed investigation of this fascinating area of Mars,” Jonathan McDowall, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP.
By contrast, “Ingenuity, is one of these cute, small, cheap little technology demos that NASA can do so well,” he added.
The insights gained from Ingenuity could help scientists develop Dragonfly, a planned thousand-pound drone copter, to search for signs of life on Saturn’s moon Titan in the mid-2030s.
PRIVATE SPACEFLIGHT TAKES OFF
An American millionaire became the world’s first space tourist in 2001, but it took 20 more years for the promise of private space flight to finally materialise.
In July, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson faced off against Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos to be the first non-professional astronaut to complete a suborbital spaceflight.
While the British tycoon won that battle by a few days, it was Blue Origin that raced ahead, launching three more flights with paying customers and celebrity guests.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX entered the fray in September with a three-day orbital mission around the Earth featuring an all-civilian crew on Inspiration 4.
“It’s really exciting that finally, after so long this stuff is finally happening,” said space industry analyst Laura Seward Forczyk, author of the forthcoming book Becoming Off-Worldly, intended to prepare future space travellers.
But it was William Shatner, who played the swashbuckling Captain Kirk on the 1960s TV series Star Trek who stole the show with a moving account of his experience.
“What you’re looking down on is Mother Earth, and it needs protecting,” he told reporters.
A Russian crew shot the first feature film in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2021, and Japanese tourists made their own visit there on a Russian rocket.
For a few minutes on December 11, there were a record 19 humans in space when Blue Origin carried out its third crewed mission, the Japanese team were on the ISS along with its normal crew, and Chinese taikonauts were in position on their station.
The sight of wealthy elites gallivanting in the cosmos hasn’t been to everyone’s liking, however, and the nascent space tourism sector triggered a backlash from some who said there were more pressing issues to face, such as climate change, here on Earth.
GLOBALISATION OF SPACE
During the Cold War, space was dominated by the United States and the former Soviet Union.
Now, in addition to the explosion of the commercial sector, which is sending up satellites at a dizzying pace, China, India and others are increasingly flexing their space flight muscles.
China’s Tiangong (Palace in the Sky) space station – its first long-term outpost – was launched in April, while its first Mars rover, Zhurong, landed in May, making it the only the second country to achieve such an exploit.
“In the past 20 years since China finally decided to go big on space, they’ve been in catch up mode,” said McDowall.
“And now they’re kind of there, and they’re starting to do things that the US hasn’t done.”
The United Arab Emirates placed a probe into Martian orbit in February, becoming the first Arab nation and fifth overall to reach the planet.
Russia meanwhile launched a missile at one of its own satellites, becoming the fourth country to hit a spacecraft from the ground, in a move that reignited concerns about the growing space arms race.
Washington slammed Moscow for its “reckless” test, which generated over 1,500 pieces of large orbital debris, dangerous for low Earth orbit missions such as the ISS.
COMING SOON…
The year closed out with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, a USD10-billion marvel that will make use of infrared technology to peer back 13 billion years in time.
“It’s arguably the most expensive, single scientific platform ever created,” said chief advocate of the Planetary Society Casey Drier.
“To push the boundaries of our knowledge about the cosmos, we had to build something capable of accessing that ancient past,” he added.
It will reach Lagrange Point 2, a space landmark a million miles from Earth, in a matter of weeks, then gradually start up and calibrate its systems, coming online around June.
Also next year, the launch of Artemis 1 – when NASA’s giant Space Launch System (SLS) will carry the Orion capsule to the Moon and back, in preparation for America’s return with humans later this decade.
NASA plans to build lunar habitats and use lessons learned there for forward missions to Mars in the 2030s.
Observers are encouraged that the programme launched by former president Donald Trump has continued under Joe Biden – even if he hasn’t been as vocal in his support.
Finally, sometime next fall, NASA’s DART probe will smash into an asteroid to kick it off course.
The proof-of-concept test is a dry run should humanity ever need to stop a giant space rock from wiping out life on Earth, as seen in Netflix’s new hit film Don’t Look Up.
MIAMI (AP) – The NBA postponed Wednesday’s game between Miami and San Antonio after a combination of injuries and positive COVID-19 tests left the Heat unable to meet the league’s requirement of eight available players.
It was the 10th game postponed in the NBA this season because of virus-related issues. None has been rescheduled at this point.
Miami had 12 players listed as out for the game against the Spurs for a variety of reasons. The Heat beat Washington on Wednesday with eight players available – and of those, only five would have been able to play in San Antonio.
Gabe Vincent, who played 35 minutes in Tuesday’s win, learned after the game that he had a positive test and couldn’t travel. Jimmy Butler was ruled out for Wednesday after spraining his right ankle with about a minute left in the Wizards’ game and KZ Okpala was unable to play because of an injury he sustained on Tuesday as well.
The Heat also added PJ Tucker and and Zylan Cheatham, neither of whom played on Tuesday, to the health and safety protocols. And Tuesday’s game came after Miami guard Max Strus – who had been feeling no symptoms – was pulled after he warmed up, because of a positive test that required him to enter the protocols.
“That’s the perplexing thing about this right now, this variant,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I think we’ve gotten to a point – I’ve said it before – we need more information. Are there more asymptomatic cases? All of this is with the caveat of double vaccination, with a booster and then asymptomatic, what does that mean and what adjustments can we make there? I think it leads to a lot of confusion.”
Miami had tried to get roster help on Wednesday – ironically – from the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate, in part because those players could get to San Antonio relatively quickly and in time to play on Wednesday. Miami was in the process of signing Austin centre Aric Holman to a hardship contract, and it likely will need more reinforcements before its next scheduled game tonight in Houston.
Almost every team in the NBA has been dealing with a virus-related issue in recent days, with 119 players known to be in the protocols by Wednesday evening. That figure, which changes often as players test in and out, does not include coaches, staff and others in the protocols – including referees.
The NBA said on Wednesday that referee Justin Van Duyne had entered protocols, leaving the league with a two-man crew to work the game between Phoenix and Oklahoma City.
CNA – Micron Technology said on Wednesday a COVID-19 lockdown in the Chinese city of Xian would lead to delays in the supply of its DRAM memory chips, which are widely used in data centres.
Micron, one of the world’s biggest memory chip suppliers, said the stringent restrictions, which went into effect earlier this month, may be increasingly difficult to mitigate and had resulted in thinner staffing levels at its manufacturing site.
Chinese officials have imposed curbs on travel within and leaving Xian from December 23, in line with Beijing’s drive to immediately contain outbreaks as they appear.
“We are tapping our global supply chain, including our subcontractor partners, to help service our customers for these DRAM products,” Micron said in a blog post.
“We project that these efforts will allow us to meet most of our customer demand, however there may be some near-term delays as we activate our network,” the company said.
Micron added that it was working to minimise the risk of virus transmission and had employed measures including physical distancing and on-site testing and was encouraging vaccination.
THE WASHINGTON POST – It’s the season for “best” lists, a time that inspires terror in our hearts: Should we focus on the major hits, such as Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, and Naomi Novik’s The Last Graduate, or highlight more obscure works? We’ll try a bit of both.
Silvia: I veer toward horror and fantasy in my reading, so I was surprised when I realised I had read so many science fiction novels this year. Many had an ecological bent, such as Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer. Interestingly enough, I ended the year with a science fiction novel published in 1940s Mexico that seemed to have a great deal in common with VanderMeer’s novel. His Name Was Death, by Rafael Bernal (translated by Kit Schluter in 2021), is the story of a man who flees civilisation in favour of the jungles of Chiapas and learns to communicate with mosquitoes, intent on triggering an apocalypse. Not without its flaws, but interesting as an example of Latin American literature outside of the box of magic realism.
But my favourite science fiction book of the year was Composite Creatures by Caroline Hardaker, a melancholic tale about a near-future in which a corporation gives a couple a very special creature to raise. The perfect comparative title is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
Another favourite was How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters, a strong collection by Erica L Satifka, one of the brightest science fiction writers today who should be getting more attention.
Lavie: Weirdly, I’ve dipped into horror this year – maybe we’re trading places! I love American gothics, and Walter Goodwater’s The Liar of Red Valley has everything – a little town hiding secrets, an exciting story and creepy creatures galore. Then I went straight to Daryl Gregory’s Revelator, a tale about a strange creature in the Smoky Mountains and the equally weird family of women who serve it. I also liked Gregory’s The Album of Dr Moreau, about a boy band made up of animal-human hybrids.
My top title for science fiction this year has to be Klara and the Sun, by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story of an android servant to a sick girl is surprising and tender, and I never knew where it was going. I came away with a sense that Ishiguro was channelling older science fiction master Clifford Simak, whose robots seem like the spiritual progenitors of Klara in the novel.
And Claire North’s excellent Notes From The Burning Age put me in mind of another classic, A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M Miller Jr.
But there’s been plenty more science fiction worth noting this year. Cassandra Khaw’s debut novel, The All-Consuming World, was ambitious. Stark Holborn hit home with science-fiction western Ten Low. Louise Carey’s debut Inscape is a high octane, cyberpunk-flavoured adventure. Elly Bangs’ Unity will also remind you of classic cyberpunk. Aliya Whiteley, whose collection impressed me earlier this year, continues to dazzle with Skyward Inn. The Cabinet by Un-su Kim is surprising and enchanting. The anthology Sinopticon, edited by Xueting Christine Ni, is superb, and worth it for Han Song’s story, Tombs of the Universe, alone.
Meanwhile Chen Qiufan’s latest project is a big collaboration with computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee called AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future, a melding of fiction and fact about our coming artificial intelligence (AI) overlords.
Another hybrid worth noting is Bloomsbury’s Philosophy Through Science Fiction, which collects stories by authors such as Aliette de Bodard and Ken Liu and matches them with essays on philosophy. And my coffee table book of the year has to be the gorgeously illustrated Dangerous Visions and New Worlds, edited by Andrew Nette and Iain McIntyre. It’s the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls of science fiction, about the science fiction of the ‘60s and ‘70s.
In fantasy, I liked Sword Stone Table, which collects new Arthurian stories, edited by Swapna Krishna and Jenn Northington. But my fantasy book of the year has to be Karin Tidbeck’s weird and magical The Memory Theater, which came out earlier this year to little fanfare.
Silvia: When it comes to fantasy, I’m usually not inclined toward epic narratives, but Suyi Davies Okungbowa’s Son of the Storm, with its intricate African-inspired world-building and lush descriptions, is a delightful addition to this genre. But by far my favourite fantasy book of the year is Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge, translated by Jeremy Tiang. It’s a beautiful mosaic novel, composed of different entries in a quasi-bestiary.
For horror, aside from Stephen Graham Jones and Grady Hendrix’s latest novels (My Heart is a Chainsaw and The Final Girl Support Group, respectively), there are several smaller press titles worth hunting down: V Castro’s Goddess of Filth (for fans of possession stories), ST Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood (for fans of vampires), Eric LaRocca’s Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (for fans of psychological suspense) and Wendy Wagner’s The Secret Skin (for fans of Gothic tales).
What about you, reader? What did you love this year?
UPI – An Indiana library said a book recently arrived in the mail after being checked out from the location more than 53 years earlier.
Joe Sipocz, manager of the St Joseph Public Library’s River Park Branch in South Bend, said a package recently arrived in the mail from the San Bruno Public Library in California and it was found to contain a copy of Sir Gibbie, by Scottish author George MacDonald.
Sipocz said there was no note or other explanation for how the tome ended up at a California library, but inside was a stamp with the River Park Branch’s address and a due date card that said the book had been due back June 21, 1968.
“There was no withdrawal stamp in the book. It was not in a book sale,” Sipocz told the South Bend Tribune.
Sipocz hypothesised the book may have been checked out and then at some point moved cross-country with a former library patron before ending up at the wrong library.
“It was pretty neat, and then after all that was done, I had to go look and see, I thought I had never heard of this book, what is this book? So I looked it up and saw we don’t have any copies anymore, and now we do, or we’re going to have one,” Sipocz told WSBT-TV.
Sipocz estimated the book would have amassed about USD3,800 in late fees at the 15-cent-per-day rate the library charged until the 1990s, but the fine would have been capped at the USD5 cost of the book.
He said the library would not attempt to claim any fines for the tome, as the facility is doing away with late fees on January 1.
Sipocz said the book will likely be given a new barcode and go back into circulation.
Guardian Brunei re-opens its store at The Centrepoint, Gadong today after undergoing a complete revamp, in line with its new store concept.
In celebration of the opening, there will be many exclusive in-store promotions including three packs for BND5 for Guardian Handwash, three packs of Guardian Bodywash for BND9, buy-one-free-one Boditalks lotions, as well as BND10 specials for Kose’s face wash and Garden of Eden’s serums.
Customers can also save 30 per cent off on Japanese and Korean brands such as Kundal, SNP and Mediheal, and receive free gifts of a Kinohimitsu Royal Sweet Potato Sachet and popcorn (while stocks lasts).
There are also lucky draw prizes to be won when shopping at The Centrepoint branch, with a minimum spending of BND20. Lucky winners stand to win multi-functional all-in-one hotpot, steel BBQ grill and roasting pan, Korean style electric grill pan and Yankee candles. All promotions and lucky draw ends on January 16, 2022.
Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health Haji Maswadi bin Haji Mohsin officiates the opening of a Guardian outlet. PHOTO: BAHYIAH BAKIR
