First 3D Sports Channel : Technology News

ESPN to Start First 3D Sports Channel

January 07 2010 : ESPN, the brand owned by Disney/ABC, which already provides several sports channels, plans to launch what would be the world's first 3D sports network with the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament in June.

Whether or not it also proves to be the first 3D cable or satellite channel of any kind depends on what DirecTV plans to do in the next few months with its own 3D buildout plans, which the DBS firm reportedly is planning to detail this week somewhere in Las Vegas, which is also hosting the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show, (although it is not listed as a CES exhibitor).

Initial programming on ESPN 3D will focus on an estimated 85 live sports events during its first year of operation — premiering with the first World Cup match featuring South Africa vs. Mexico on June 11.

ESPN said additional 3D events are likely to include two dozen additional World Cup matches, the Summer X Games, college football and basketball games in their respective next seasons, and the BCS National Championship game at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. in January 2011.

ESPN said in a statement that "ESPN 3D marries great content with new technology to enhance the fan's viewing experience and puts ESPN at the forefront of the next big advance for TV viewing." ESPN sees its 3D initiative as "a meaningful step" to drive adoption of 3D HD sets on the consumer level and to provide opportunities to its affiliates "to create value through new product offerings, and our advertisers, who want fresh sponsorship opportunities."

ESPN has been testing 3D sports coverage since late 2007. A year ago, it produced a regular-season college football game (USC vs. Ohio State) that was shown in a sampling of movie theaters, as well as on the USC campus in Los Angeles.

Both 3D-equipped TV sets and special eyeglasses will be required to view ESPN 3D.

Today News Updates of America and Nigeria

US charges Nigerian suspect over plane bomb plot

January 07 2010 : A US grand jury has indicted Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on six counts over an alleged plot to bomb a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day.

“A liberal Christian, from the southern part of Nigeria” was how a relation leaving for the United States of America tonight said he would introduce himself to the US immigration officials. If they wish to know, he said he intended to also let the Americans know his baptismal name, Jeremiah, even if it does not appear on his passport. Anything that would remove the suspicion of being remotely connected to religious fundamentalism, he said, he would be willing to do, just to get through the US airport and transact his business for a few days in one piece.

Without doubt, my cousin is not alone in this anxious moments by many Nigerians who have genuine reasons to visit America. Every traveller wants to avoid being caught up in the tension that air travellers are being confronted with in the light of the decision by the US Transportation Security Administration to group Nigeria among countries whose nationals visiting the US will henceforth face tougher screening.

What amounts to a blacklist in diplomatic circles of course stemmed from the Christmas Day foiled attempt by a 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar AbdulMutallab, to detonate an explosive on a passenger aircraft on which he was travelling to the US from Amsterdam.

Many people have misunderstood the precise categorisation of Nigeria. To be fair, America has not described us as a state sponsor of terror. For now, only Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran are in that expanded ‘axis of evil,’ in the reckoning of the US government. We have only been listed alongside Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yemen as a “security risk state” which America would closely monitor, with a view to protecting its citizens and interests.

Neither list is good for any country‘s image though. But before one wonders why North Korea is not listed, or why Britain, for the sins of its ‘shoe bomber,’ Richard Reid, does not appear on the list of countries where America has special interest to curtail terrorism, the sole reason Nigeria has suddenly become a target comes down to Mutallabism.

I imagine that if a code would be used in the US intelligence service to justify our inclusion in this odious list, it would not just be because a British-trained young Nigerian engineer got brainwashed in London and Yemen to carry out a terrorist act, but because ours is a land of many souls, more than half of whom are Muslims living largely in an area where extreme religious views, from Maitatsine to Boko Haram and lately, Kala Kato in Bauchi, strayed in once in a while, leaving sorrow, tears and blood on their trail.

But in a country of 140 million people, this single profiling would amount to a shot wide off the mark.

It is, indeed, very likely that AbdulMutallab got indoctrinated by the warped argument that as an unwanted ‘aggressor’ in some Islamic countries in the Middle East, namely Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, and with an unwavering support for Israel against Palestine, the US government has courted the enmity of some people in the Arab nations. This has always been the central principle in al-Qaeda‘s reactionary an-eye-for-an-eye doctrine.

But at the point that AbdulMutallab succumbed to the brainwashing to rise in defence of the oppressed brothers in “occupied territories,” he was not there as a Nigerian or a representative of the Nigerian State. He was there, apparently, as one who had bonded with that violent principle, essentially out of personal conviction, and perhaps on the strength of his religious affinity.

China coal mine disaster kills 25

Today China News Updates

January 07 2010 : At least 25 miners have died in a fire at a colliery in central China and three others remain trapped, state media said on Wednesday, in the latest disaster to hit the world's most dangerous mining industry.

The accident occurred in Xiangtan County in Hunan province, the official Xinhua news agency said, when underground cables caught fire. Though 43 miners escaped, rescuers said conditions were harsh.

"Rescue work was extremely difficult, with too much toxic gas in the shaft after the fire," Xinhua quoted Wang Shuhe, deputy head of State Administration of Coal Mine Safety, as saying.

The report added that the coal mine was privately-run and had 180 employees. It was being upgraded to double annual output to 60,000 tonnes.

China has the world's deadliest coal-mining industry with more than 3,000 people killed in mine floods, explosions, collapses and other accidents in 2008 alone.

A gas blast at a coal pit in northeastern China in November killed at least 104.

Compared with other manual jobs, Chinese coal miners can earn relatively high wages, tempting workers and farmers to take jobs in rickety and poorly ventilated shafts.

Related Disaster :

China Xinxing coal mine disaster