text:
User talk:Brian McNeil/Archive 08

 This is an archive of old talk page discussions! Do not add new comments to this page, please do so on my main talk page

Archives

Archive 01 — January 9, 2006 | Archive 02 — April 6, 2006 | Archive 03 — June 4, 2006 | Archive 04 — September 29, 2006 | Archive 05 — December 9, 2006 | Archive 06 — March 24, 2007 | Archive07 — May 30, 2007 | Archive 08 — November 4, 2007 | Archive 08 — November 4, 2007 | Archive 09 — March 25, 2008

Re: Sean and the G8
What's wrong with just giving the darn press pass? → MR  15:27, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * As far as I'm concerned nothing. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Hey, I was thinking, as I need the letter till tommorow the latest, and it seems unlikely that Eloquence or any other board member is going to look by, that you would probably have to sign it( if you were willing to :D). And as you said, a condition for that is that as many people as possible should have seen and agreed to the letter. So I think I´m going to make it a temporary subpage of Accreditation Requests, and link to it from Watercooler/proposals and assistance, (and possibly on admin alert?) to increase visibility in these last 30 hours. Regards Sean Heron 09:00, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Wow, brilliant, thanks *big grin*. I would prefer having the original if I needed it (but that wouldn´t be until a weeks time, and to be honest I think its more likely my request is denied.) I could print it if is too much hassle for you though, of course. I´ll check out how long the post takes from belgium to germany in a sec... Sean Heron 09:22, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I have to go to work now, I´ll get back to you this evening. I´m sorry date and place only came to me just now, but I thought after all the trouble you´ve gone to I can´t ask you to reprint, sign, photograph and upload again! I´ve remembered now though, that date and place are more usual for contracts, so I don´t think its needed. I´d say we stick to the version you sent me, and see if any changes are made till this evening. If changes have been made, and you have the time, you might redo it then, otherwise I´m still pleased as hell with what you sent me :D. (Oh and I´ll send my adress later, thanks). Sean Heron 09:36, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * If the wording changes, or you do want a section that says Sean can be contacted by post at xxx and by email at xxx or by phone on xxx, just give me a shout. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:48, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * I´ll try for IRC. Sean Heron 20:32, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

WN:AR
I have a letter from UCAS in the online system I could probably save as a PDF and email you, or if you insist I have a hard-copy letter listing all my choices and showing I've accepted my offer - I will try to email the online letter today. Thanks Gary Kirk 10:02, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * PDF would be great. --Brian McNeil / talk 10:04, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
 * For the contact information bit: is that displayed on the thing Wikinews generates if successful, or is it just shown on WN:CV? Gary Kirk 14:22, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * You decide what contact information to share on the site. --Brian McNeil / talk 14:55, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, thanks. Gary Kirk 15:34, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

Thank you
Michael Nutter wins Philadelphia, USA mayoral primary looks much better. I'll use it as a reference for how to publish articles. --Evrik 15:00, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
 * COuld you take a look at this story, Philadelphia breaks 80 year old lease and moves to evict Scouts? --Evrik 22:45, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Breaking news
Updates are coming in now on south Thailand story. I will likely be moving it under another headline, something like 21 dead in south Thailand attacks. Thanks for your help! Wisekwai 16:13, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the star! It's nice to be appreciated. Wisekwai 06:03, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Reconfirmation
You passed unanimously with 17 votes, the vote has been archived here. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 17:49, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Cambodia-ASEAN
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll do a bit more digging. I might be able to come across something in the Khmer language press, though I don't know how to read Khmer. Wisekwai 20:47, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Thanks again for the encouragement. I was able to locate a translation of a Khmer daily - a site that will come in handy for future stories. Wisekwai 21:39, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

weather maps
Perhaps you should get an alternate account with a bot flag to upload those images? Bawolff ☺☻ 21:09, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
 * When it is uploaded by a bot, I'll put it on my bot account and request a flag. For the moment I'm doing the uploads manually. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:13, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

"illiberal democracy"
Thought you might get a read out of this blog post by Fareed Zakaria at Newsweek. -Edbrown05
 * Thanks, that was worth reading. --Brian McNeil / talk 07:32, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * "illiberal democracy" That's something new as a phrase, I'm not sure what it means. If it means anything, the legacy starts with the war in Iraq. I'm presently enamored by it. -Edbrown05 08:24, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * It is a nice turn of phrase, it captures the moment nicely. Freedom is trumpeted while wars are started and so. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:23, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Maps on weather portal
Until Wikinews Weather moves in a different direction, I have added the weather maps to Portal:Weather. I think they look quite nice there. It seemed a shame that they were being updated hourly and not used anywhere. Feel free to revert if I have overstepped my bounds or if it is a bad idea. --SVTCobra 21:19, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Current updates are a best-effort. I'll get the 23:00 UTC ones and that'll be the lot for tonight. If you're able to help out I can share my definition file. --Brian McNeil / talk 22:50, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The fact that I don't know what you mean by "definition file" leads me to believe that it may be beyond my technical abilities. The regularity with which I saw the updates had led me to believe you had programmed it. However, if you think it is something I can do, then by all means share. I might need a tutorial, though. --SVTCobra 22:58, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll get the reports done and point you in the right direction. Start by going to windows update and making sure you have the .NET framework. It is an optional download. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:00, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * WeatherChecker is here.
 * eh, "Houston we have a problem." I am running Windows 98. --SVTCobra 23:08, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, you need to bang the rocks together harder to communicate over longer distances. :-P Seriously? 98? That's 9 years old, but I last saw it 3 months ago on a virus-laden machine I was replacing for a client. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:12, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * 'fraid so. I have a new machine in a box, but it has been there for months now. Don't ask why or how. It just is. In fact I have been toying with the idea of giving the one in the box away, so I can buy a newer one. The only thing holding me back is the fear that it too might sit on the floor in a box. Perhaps if I quit Wikinews, I'd find the time to take care of things like this. --SVTCobra 23:27, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Careful here, if the one in the box is XP and you get a new one with Vista, you'll want to put it back in the box. The biggest pain is always doing stuff like migrating your files and email. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:36, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The 'old' one in the box is XP. I knew Vista wasn't worth upgrading to, but it is bad enough to avoid altogether? Is it worse than Me (Millenium), because I know people who did a reverse upgrade from Me? Yes, keeping my e-mails has been a concern, not as far as how but as far as hassle. Anyway, we should probably end this thread, it's gotta be past your bedtime. --SVTCobra 23:50, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Back to original topic, the weather portal was more or less originally made to show off the maps, and then they stopped getting updated. see (mostly link broken) http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Portal:Weather&direction=next&oldid=121685 Bawolff ☺☻ 23:56, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The as of 18:00 UTC files you just uploaded seem to be the 15:00 UTC files. Did something go wrong? --SVTCobra 18:11, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Do a hard refresh (shift-ctrl-R), I just checked and they're 18:00 UTC on the maps. --Brian McNeil / talk 18:17, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

what is a good title?
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Accreditation_requests —Symode09 07:56, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Replied
Talk:Post-Kyoto_agreement_is_subject_of_G8_debate. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 11:47, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

By the way, you should check this: http://wikinewsreports.blogspot.com/2007/06/wikinews-sends-reporter-to-g8.html. I hope you don't mind me mentioning you in the situation, otherwise I'll leave your name out. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 14:32, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I've seen that already. :-) I don't mind being mentioned... I'll just blame you when the board comes after me for using the wikinews logo on the letter I sent to Sean. --Brian McNeil / talk 14:46, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks Brian. I caught most of the other ones like that, big brother wikinews has its benefits :P Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 08:01, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Weather maps
Could you upload those maps on Commons? When you're uploading them in English Wikinews, we - on Polish Wikinews - cannot use them. Hołek ҉ 09:29, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Watcher map to Commons
Hi, I saw that you upload Watcher maps to Wikinews. Polish Wikinews are interesting to use it too, so can you upload it to Commons? Krzysiu Jarzyna 14:45, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
 * If they'll keep them I will, but we need something to automate the upload and get other regions working. Once the project is more stabilised we'll approach commons and see if they'll take them. Last time we were running weather they got stroppy about us uploading the images. --Brian McNeil / talk 20:50, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Poland have the same time zone than Belgium... and rest UE, so i do not see any troubles. But if someone from Polsih Wikinews have some time, naturally he will upload the maps. Krzysiu Jarzyna 12:17, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Accrediation request
Thanks for your reply. However, I'd appreciate it further if anybody can help me get through the process of filling up the accrediation application. I'm not really sure if I have to copy and paste it somewhere because I've got no idea on where to fill up the said application form. Alsojerat117 15:34, 10 June 2007 (UTC)Alsojerat117Alsojerat117 15:34, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I think you'll find were you to try for accreditation today you'd get a no vote from most contributors. I suggest you build a reputation first by contributing to the wiki. --Brian McNeil / talk 15:54, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks!
Hi Brian. Thanks for your help earlier with the vandalism. I didn't know you could block a range of IPs. I was trying to plug the holes one at a time! Cheers, Jcart1534 17:43, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Admin
I need a bit more time here, I feel, before taking on any admin responsibilities. But thanks for the thought. Wisekwai 15:11, 15 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I'll maybe ask you again in a couple of months. Personally I think you're doing pretty well as a contributor and I'd trust your judgement on admin issues. I suspect you'd defer to others until you got the hang of the buttons but I think you'd do well with them. --Brian McNeil / talk 15:19, 15 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, thanks. I think a couple more months of practice, and to get a better feel for the character of the site, are needed. Take care! Wisekwai 20:32, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

New cats?
At what point is it generally acceptable here to create a category for a person. I am thinking, of course, about General Vang Pao. Having a cat for him will make it easier to track those stories and create an interwiki bug for him. Wisekwai 12:16, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Two or three articles is enough - especially as there's likely to be more news on this. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:24, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, I made a cat for Vang Pao, though I wasn't sure what subcategory to put him under. He's just under "people" right now. There isn't a category for military people that I could see. He could fit under politicians, I suppose. What do you think? A couple more folks need cats as well: Hun Sen and Aung San Suu Kyi, which I could eventually get around to at some point. Wisekwai 08:29, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
 * People also go in country categories. Politician - if you consider him politically active - is probably the best other category. Is there a picture to go on the cat page? (haven't looked I'm kinda busy just now). --Brian McNeil / talk 08:59, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Board question
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Board_elections/2007/Candidates/Kate/questions#Wikinews_and_Accredited_reporters_attending_events

Regarding your question to Kate, it's unlikely she has a position on the inner-workings on Wikinews, as her goal is to shut it down, with all the other non-Wikipedia projects. -- Zanimum 20:10, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I am aware of that, I put the same question on all candidates pages. In Kate's case I suspect is giving her enough rope... --Brian McNeil / talk 20:45, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Hello Brian.
My name is Hyrax named after the animal I would like if you could edit my articles? asap? --Hyrax 23:00, 23 June 2007 (UTC) Thank You Hyrax.

ArchiveBot
Please see Bots. I have changed the proposal for ArchiveBot, detailed under the Important Note section. Please revote under that section if you still approve of this bot. --Skenmy(t•c•w•i) 11:52, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

AWB task?
I don't have access to AWB on this computer, could you proofread my work at the Wikinews Bulletin and post it to the users on the spamlist? If you're too busy, maybe you could ask one of the other AWB users, I've gotta go sleep now, and study tomorrow and the day after.

--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 02:18, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry, am busy doing a data conversion routine (sucks). --Brian McNeil / talk 09:00, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Nunnally vs DC et al
Thank you for your questions and assistance. No there are no other "on line" sources for this story. Hundreds of documents exist including affidavits, the EEOC complaint, witness statements, etc. Unfortunately, the DC Superior Court search engine requires payment per each document viewed and you must have a pre-existing account. It is not as simple as the US Federal Court system. The story is original and there are no copyright issues.

How do you suggest that I go about providing verification? I have copies of the court documents. Create a website with the documents scanned in????

I am a DC Cop and this is but one of hundreds that occur within the Department -- member on member. As one might imagine, if this is how we treat one another, the public is no different. I know Officer Squires and have personal/professional knowledge of his case. After reading the WIKINEWS report on his case, I was inspired to write this. I would like to write about the others. I am concerned about the source issue. While I can obtain the documents as well as interview the parties involved, I do not know how to provide that information. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

User Confuseddccop

IRC
Hi Brian, I'm on IRC now if you want to chat about my comments regarding DragonFire1024. Adambro 17:45, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Ehud Olmert
Hi Brian, it sounds like you are pretty busy these days. I'll understand if it takes time for you to get back to me on this. I remember that you worked on categories for individual people. I have created Category:Ehud Olmert. I also did a search and added that category to some stories manually (to populate the cat page at least a little). What I wanted to ask was, did you use a bot to go back and add cats to stories in the archive? If so, is it too much trouble to run that same bot for Ehud? And if you are too busy, do you know of anyone else who can run that bot? Cheers, don't work too hard. --SVTCobra 00:20, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I used WN:AWB to populate the people categories I did. It has an option to do a Google search of the site - so you check for the name, exclude all but the main namespace, and set it up to auto-add the category. --Brian McNeil / talk 07:11, 28 June 2007 (UTC)
 * One of these days . . . I'll hook up that new computer. --SVTCobra 14:49, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Andevere's block
Expires in 6 minuites. Keep an eye on the RC :) Thunderhead 06:33, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Import GWB photo?
Hi, That photo you used is very very old. It barely looks like him! I changed it to a newer one. Can we import a more recent 'official' photo from Wiki Commons? Emperor NortonXXIII 08:18, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I have already explained this on your talk page :) --Skenmy(t•c•w•i) 08:19, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Common Nation
I am the Editor in Chief of Common Nation. Common Nation is updated with the lastest national and political news as well as family, social, and health coverage. Let me know what you think! Asher Heimermann|Talk 22:56, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

wikinewise
I can help with the design thing, if needed Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 09:42, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I would be careful with the idea, Wikimedia still holds the brand name "Wikinews"... --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 10:23, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I told the comm. committee I'd got the domain after we invaded their IRC meeting and they hummed-and-hawed about giving us reporters.wikinews.org addresses. --Brian McNeil / talk 11:28, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
 * is there any chance of having a wikinewspics or emailus@wikinewsie address for user pics and feedback?? Cheers --Mark Talk 20:32, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a good idea, but not tonight. It is late and I want my brain functional. --Brian McNeil / talk 20:49, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
 * k cheers --Mark Talk 21:07, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Brianmc, I'm happy that you got a domain name. I have worked with GoDaddy services before. I will be more then happy to work on some webpages and stuff like that. I don't charge at call. I do most of my work free to personal and non-profit groups. Please e-mail me at [mailto:Asher@AsherHeimermann.com Asher@AsherHeimermann.com] so we can talk a little more. Asher Heimermann|Talk 21:56, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

RE:Wikinewsie.org
I've sent that e-mail and thanks for pointing out that my darn email on the accreditation list bounces! - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 23:24, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

The main page has a rather obvious typo: "Welcome to wikinewise.org". The page title says: Wikinewsis.org. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 19:20, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
 * BrianNZ is responsible for the typos. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:30, 6 July 2007 (UTC)
 * That was a test, to see if anyone noticed :P Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 02:53, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
 * yup had notice the scoop email. cheers anyway for the notice --Mark Talk to me!! 20:51, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

new Wikinewsie email
I noticed here at WN your comment that you bought the domain. I didn't really know what it meant until I recieved your email which I happened to catch in my inbox junk filter (my inbox filter setting are set very high) just yesterday. I am very happy about this email, thank you. I will be updating my user page to include it, along with accreditation information. I also will send feedback to you on the email account as I begin to use it. That will happen after an OR story I am working on is completed.

P.S. I thought your "but news ceases to be news" statement was both brilliant and insightful. I do actively manage that section of my user page, but don't really go looking for something to add there. That there is very little in that section speaks to how highly I regarded your statement.

Best regards, Edbrown05 07:00, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Several weather map suggestions
Some suggestions about your weather maps: Seahen 04:37, 8 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The background layer should probably be a political rather than physical map. Then readers could more easily locate their own cities in relation to those for which data is given.
 * It would be useful if atmospheric pressure was given along with temperature.
 * Why are no Ontario stations included?

 * Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm kinda-stuck with what we've got. I don't have the source to the WeatherChecker application so it would be impossible for me to change the maps. Name me some places in Ontario though and I'll look for stations to include. --Brian McNeil / talk 07:16, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

 * http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/radar/index_e.html?id=ont lists Ontario weather stations. I live in Toronto and attend university in Oshawa, so I'd be partial to those cities. Seahen 20:10, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I no longer manage the weather, that is now fully automated and done by Adambro. It is a long way from doing continents which is likely what would be required to go to the detail level you'd like. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Tour de France:The Race Begins in Earnest
Thanks for the welcome and advice.KTo288 20:48, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

Brianmc.
How are you and thank you for editing my page! --ScotishNews 17:38, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Brian McNeil
v6Engine requests development on Osama bin Laden news. --V6engine 15:19, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

re: cricket portal
Hi, thanks for the message. One of the reasons I was trying it displayed by Test side was that few of the existing articles have continent categories so most weren't showing up in the portal, and most coverage seems to be of the Test teams. I could try and add appropriate continent categories to existing pages, or add a section on the portal for non-Test teams.

Is there a way to use a DynamicPageList to fetch articles in different categories e.g. fetching those in Category:Scotland and Category:Ireland but not just fetching articles in both categories? Pilchard 19:34, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you
Thank you for the welcome message you left on my talk page. I read the link to the Hippocratic Oath and I don't see where what I am saying is relevant there. Doctors perform circumsisions on newborns and it is considered mainstream. Why can't this be mainstream and done along with the circumsision, it prevents unwanted births, teenage births and would eliminate the need for abortions (another hippocratic oath, which doctors agreed to not allow). This would greatly help our society would improve the quality of life for countless individuals. I don't think that compensation would be neccessary if it can't be reversed then these individuals should adopt. They would eventually perfect the procedure and this would become a rarity. If this is the only pitfall of the plan I think the hypothetical impact of the plan outweighs this greatly--Dustin Saturn 20:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * For the better of society I would let the government decide that. I feel if we first study it, experiment with it, and perfect it, the percentages would probably be significantly lower than 1 in 25.

Adoptions came come from other countries and I believe this would put a greater emphasis on family, the family will raise their children to have their own children in the same family environment and eventually vasectomies would no longer be neccessary at birth. No longer would people suffer through STDs, abortions, nor the pain of having to take care of a child they cannot support. I see this as the only solution to the social ills of our country, but do the candidate talk about this? No, because they don't have a plan and we cannot continue on the path we are going.--Dustin Saturn 21:30, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Religious right doen't give them the right to allow people to suffer and die because of a religion. We are fighting this in the middle east right now and it shouldn't be tolerated. They call themselves Pro-Life but they don't look at the facts that they are destroying the quality of life and this is much worse. They must understand that to end repression they must make sacrifices for the good of all society.--Dustin Saturn 21:35, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * People can't keep going to the doctor every 3 months. It won't work because they will not go and it will be too costly, Whose going to pay for this? The Taxpayers?--Dustin Saturn 21:39, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I give up, I think your Eugenics program question won't make the cut. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:54, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * If the first part was removed about vasectomies would it be acceptable?--Dustin Saturn 22:06, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * If you want to edit the question, go ahead - just update the signature. --Brian McNeil / talk 22:08, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I think I'll leave it for the third party candidates, I'd like to get their input and it wouldn't affect them politically since they have no chance of winning.--Dustin Saturn 22:13, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Story preparation/Interview with Robert Cailliau (re: my question)
That's fine. I'm more used to editing Wikipedia than contributing to Wikinews, so I don't really know the M.O. or what you were looking for — I just felt I should contribute something, as a message was posted at the Computer Science WikiProject talk page and I'm a member of that project. Thanks for the welcome, although I don't know if I'll stay — I'm not fast enough for journalism, methinks. ;-) 82.41.156.176 13:01, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Story preparation/Rwanda wants their domain name; why did anyone else have it in the first place?
Hi Brian. Have you abandoned this story development? If so, should it be deleted? --SVTCobra 02:04, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
 * The guy just stopped emailing me, so yep - delete. --Brian McNeil / talk 08:22, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Email
Please send an email to cbass (AT) wikimedia (DOT) org and confirm your identity to recieve checkuser and oversight privelages. Then, request the privelages on Meta. Thunderhead - (talk) 04:20, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Hold on a sec thunderhead, just been elected to the arbcom, does not qualify for appointment to those tools. There needs to be a 'election' of sorts, see here and here on how it has been done in the past. Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 04:38, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I already confirmed my identity to get OTRS access. I'm not sure we need additional CheckUser and Oversight users. Brian, do you get any requirement to use these tools that would be helped having someone in my timezone able to do it? --Brian McNeil / talk 10:19, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * There is not a lot of checkuser requests, however, it would be handy to have a checkuser/oversight in your timezone, more of a 'just in case' measure. Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 22:02, 2 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I was under the impression that ArbCom members got checkuser and oversight immediatly, excuse me. Thunderhead - (talk) 16:24, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

brianmc
help
 * Would you mind explaining what you need help with? Thunderhead - (talk) 16:23, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

OR
The nice thing about original reporting is that you have almost all the time in the world. Then again, that statement has its limits. Funny thing about country music I heard on the radio today, musian have their whole life to record their first "hit" or album, then just 6-months to folow it up with another "hit" or album. -Edbrown05 10:03, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikinewsie.org email
I emailed you... Gary Kirk 15:32, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Interview
Excellent interview, Brian. Thunderhead - (talk) 05:55, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree. Great job...great interview. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 06:16, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
 * in agreement, well done Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 06:30, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikiversity School of Journalism Progressing Slowly But Surely
The Wikiversity School of Journalism is progressing slowly but surely, although this Participant  has not had much time for either Wikinews or The School of Journalism.

If you are ready to Participate in The School of Journalism, just be bold, jump right in and do so. Your Wikinews experience should serve you well at The School of Journalism.

Best regards,

(s) Dennis L. Kent  (talk), Date: 2007-08-10 (August 10, 2007) Time: 0935 UTC

Thanks
Thanks for delivering the bulletin for me :) Thunderhead - (talk) 09:21, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Power Grid Article from Disinformation Today Blog
The article wasn't lifted at all. I am the owner and editor of the blog as has been well established and documented on the article's talk page. I also posted on my blog full permission for Wikinews to carry this story. All of the copyright issues have been resolved as per earlier instructions from admin.

Re: Tony Benn interview
Sounds like a good idea, I like the name change. It seems publishable with the excpetion of some of the transcription. I think it would be best to complete the transcription before publishing the article, however, so readers will have a point of reference. Thunderhead - (talk) 13:05, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Re:Welcome
Thanks for the advice, Monsieur Brian, don't worry, I'll try my best to stay out of trouble here... God Bless and have a nice wiki day... Blakegripling ph 12:10, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Re: Nokia BL-5C
OK, Brian, to answer your battery question, here's a list of models that use the BL-5C battery:

Nokia 1100, Nokia 1100c, Nokia 1101, Nokia 1108, Nokia 1110, Nokia 1112, Nokia 1255, Nokia 1315, Nokia 1600, Nokia 2112, Nokia 2118, Nokia 2255, Nokia 2272, Nokia 2275, Nokia 2300, Nokia 2300c, Nokia 2310, Nokia 2355, Nokia 2600, Nokia 2610, Nokia 2610b, Nokia 2626, Nokia 3100, Nokia 3105, Nokia 3120, Nokia 3125, Nokia 6030, Nokia 6085, Nokia 6086, Nokia 6108, Nokia 6175i, Nokia 6178i, Nokia 6230, Nokia 6230i, Nokia 6270, Nokia 6600, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6631, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 6820, Nokia 6822, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N71, Nokia N72, Nokia N91, Nokia E50, Nokia E60

Contrary to what Nokia stated that there weren't any incidents regarding this fiasco, there was one reported case of battery ownage involving the BL-5C; a Filipina university professor woke up at about 1 am after hearing a loud bang, only to find out that her N91 phone ended up wasted after an hour or so of regular charging.

questions
please see Talk:Settlers_steal_Palestinian_water_in_the_West_Bank --TheFEARgod 15:40, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Hash raid 030
You missed User:Hash raid 030 ;-) Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 22:36, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikinewsie.org
Bah, I suppose since I just came up with a project I can undertake on WN without breaking my theoretical "hunger strike on article-creation until we allow authors to choose to make their articles PD", I might as well be useful and all. I wrote up a "short bio" for the Wikinewsie site - unfortunately I can't log in at work these days, so it's an uphill battle at times, but hopefully I'll be becoming at least a bit more active.

"A freelance Canadian journalist, Joshua Ainslie splits his time between the nation's largest city and the nation's capital. Holding degrees in both English and Journalism, Joshua is a strong advocate of free access to knowledge, releasing all his article contributions into the public domain."

Sherurcij 00:31, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Opium production in Afghanistan reaches record highs
I was wondering why you changed one of the sources on this article to include "Online" in the publication. (BBC News -> BBC News Online). Obviously, it's online. All the sources are. So why include "Online" in the title for the one sources? I'm still learning the policies and such here, so I appreciate your help with this. Thanks in advance, <font color="6A5ACD">Lara <font color="FF1493"> ♥ Love 16:45, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah. Okay. That makes sense. Thanks. <font face="Verdana"><font color="6A5ACD">Lara <font color="FF1493"> ♥ Love 16:54, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Re: Bulletin
Yes, we are, but I've been exceedingly busy lately. I'll write up an update later tonight. Sorry for the inconvenience :-) Thunderhead - (talk) 22:47, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

wikiscanner
Hi Brian, I am Grimlock (sysop and bureaucrate on WN fr), and we met eachother on the IRC few days ago (under the nickname Grimlock-fr). Your article on the Wikiscanner is very interesting, and - maybe - it would be very convenient to add some informations on the french insertions in Wikipedia - and else. So, I would like to ask you if you know when the french version of Wikiscanner will release, and one hand, and, on the other hand, if this tool will be adapted to other wikis like ... Wikinews and Commons, which are other ways to communicate. Thank you very much ! Grimlock 07:04, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I've exchanged emails with Virgil who coded it, other wikis such as wikinews and wikiquote will get done eventually. I'd love to have cross-wiki collaboration on this to see what the French and German media have been up to in their respective wikipedias. --Brian McNeil / talk 07:36, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I have written down a post on the french wikipedia village pump to tell them about your wish, and that the french version of Wikiscanner is available. I hope you will have soon answers. See you Grimlock 10:56, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Hello Brianmc, I'm a wikipedia french admin and your request had talk to me. How could we help you ? I would inform you that often (like this article, french media take the international english news and translate for french people. So 95 on 100 time they don't make a difference between french and english version of wikipedia. --Gdgourou 21:47, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Portal:Football
I registered today because I saw that Portal:Football was very out of date. I have written a few articles so far today and will do every day to keep this updated. I was thinking of an idea though but I wanted to ask a sysop first.

Could we 'employ' users to be football writers for their team. So if this goes ahead there would be a group of users per team who will write up the latest news and match reports for Wikinews. The team links would be Portal:Football/LeagueName/ClubName. So for Celtic it'd be Portal:Football/SPL/Celtic. If you go to Portal:Football you will see that the fixture list has been updated, the featured results has been updated and that I am going to start a major revamp of Portal:Football. I am going to ask Dark Squall to help me as most of his contributions are football related topics.

Thanks. Please send your comments to me ASAP. Celticfan383 01:05, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Ticker.js
Hey,

Protecting it is pointless - the protection is set to full protection for all but me (my userspace) by the software irrespective of per-page protection. Also, if it were not auto protected, I would recommend full protection as stuff put there can last for days in caches and can be a major security hazard - you could change the target of the login form in a way that didn't change anything visibly, but log passwords. That's why I made it in userspace, so it's fully protected in that manner.

Thanks! TheFearow 10:07, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Peace activists propose 'Fast for Freedom'
Hello Brian. I see that you've taken some interest in this article. Please do what you can to help Niacey with this. The user is looking for help, but getting a bit frustrated I am sensing. The article had gone through a Deletion Request process and the result was "delete". Niacey has since resurrected the deleted article and is trying to work it. I had suggested he/she request an interview to try a different approach as there aren't any real sources. If you could work some magic with the benefit of your experience, I am sure the user would appreciate it. I don't think I can be involved with this one any further (emotionally drained)! Thanks, Jcart1534 13:54, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

More Contributors
I'm going to ask my friends to help as most of them like football but I don't expect to get many. There must be another way. I'll find something! Celticfan383 16:18, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

First steps
Hi Brian,

I wrote my first news article here : Iran unveils part of its nuclear program. And I'd like you to have a look at it. My journalistic english might not be so good, so the article may require a little cleanup. Thanks for your help. Fabienkhan 09:55, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Definitive Article
I noticed a template you made, and fixed it so it would work for preload. I hope that helps you out. irid:t 03:34, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Wikinews Bulletin: September 1, 2007
--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 23:04, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Tickersource
Hey,

Please preview and check before editing the tickersource - you're change caused no articles at all to show up, causing a JavaScript error and the ticker to not show up. TheFearow 00:24, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

We have a problem
Well, I think you are exagerating too much with my article about german author Artur Balder. The text is NOT the same, and second, if the text is not the same they dont have the property of the notice or of the phenomenon. You have to be more clear in the declaration of copyright violation, BECAUSE many internet medien take the notices from agencies and then they opperate with copyright property, with is not exactly. My text have more information than the one of America read spanish. Please, clear thse situation. YOU ARE TAKING EXTREM POSITION. Maybe here occures like in other wikipedias, in some of them there are people who think these belong to them. --Uma 11:52, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't believe I'm taking an extreme position, the two articles were worded almost the same. It was - to me - apparent that the Wikinews story was written from a single source, and written too closely from that single source to be fair use. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:37, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

German author Artur Balder releases historical fantasy novel set in medieval England
Hi! We have got a similar problem in the German Wikinews. I deleted the (English) article because it reads almost exactly the same as its source (Reason: URV = copy vio). I tried to explain to the author that he should sent an email to the OTRS to ensure that it was not a copyright violation. --Angela H. 13:43, 5 September 2007 (UTC)
 * the same in Spain, http://es.wikinews.org/wiki/Artur_Balder:_%22en_la_literatura_gobierna_todav%C3%ADa_esa_vieja_pugna_entre_el_narrador_y_el_snob%22

the spanish article is flagged copyvio. is this a fan campaign ? or a more subtile form of advertisment by his agents or friends ? Jacques Divol 13:52, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia Signpost
<div style="font-family:Wedding Text, Linotext, Old English Text MT, serif; font-size:58px; line-height:69px">

Delivered by HermesBot 03:30, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia
How is wikinews different from wikipedia ? --Rushmi 11:20, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Accreditation
Hi Brian - I souped up my User page. Let me know what I need to do. Dave --David Shankbone 20:03, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Ping my e-mail when you get a chance - I'd like to talk a little more about Wikinews off-wiki.  --David Shankbone 21:43, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Please register an email address. I've seen the updates to your user page - personally I was looking more for the politicians.

My email link works, or there is the ever-popular brian dot mcneil at wikinewsie dot org.--Brian McNeil / talk 23:05, 10 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I e-mailed you. All of my photographs are news-quality, depending on the angle of the story being reported :-)  --David Shankbone 23:27, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Unusual request
Just FYI, I'm cross-posting this to BrianNewZealand's talk page as well. Hope you two don't mind.

I need help convincing User:Edbrown05 that he can trust me. He's convinced that I'm a liar, and that I want to use his sockpuppet accounts myself. Ignoring the latter, I'd like your help doing a CheckUser on me. I've already posted the request to WN:CU. To re-iterate what I wrote there, I'm not concerned about my privacy. If I were afraid of people being able to identify my IP addresses, I'd edit through Tor. :)

Thanks for any help you can provide. irid:t 05:15, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * The other Brian nabbed it first. Sorry to bother. :) irid:t 06:04, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Incidentally you'd have a hard time editing through Tor - I blocked all the listed endpoints a while back. --Brian McNeil / talk 06:34, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I thought so. Hey, come to IRC. irid:t 06:35, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Quiz extension
Hi, Brianmc! You left a note on de.wikinews that the MediaWiki quiz extension would be available for Wikinews sites. Somehow this does not seem to work on de.wikinews.org. Is there anything which should be somehow adjusted to make it work? Greetings from the German sister project --Angela H. 15:11, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Seems I made a mistake in assuming it is project-wide as opposed to lang-specific. Sorry! Ask Brion, I got the impression to set it in place for us was fairly trivial. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:45, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * O.K., I'll probably do that later. I just wanted to know if I made a stupid mistake or something (which does not seem to be the case :-)). --Angela H. 17:52, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I currently have Brion in IRC. >:) I'll get you the extension if I can and you can have de:Ze Interrogation. ;-). --Brian McNeil / talk 18:05, 13 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh, thanks a lot. :-) [[Image:Star*.svg|20px]] --Angela H. 18:23, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Concerning the page de:Ze Interrogation, a small discussion was started on my talk page, the reason being that it was the only page in the article name space which was not a news article (and would probably become an orphan sometime). Question: Would you like to keep it in your user space, or should I take it over? Unfortunately, de.wikinews seems to be far away from introducing the news quizzes as a new project. :-( Although I have not yet given up. ;-) Regards, --Angela H. 20:06, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I don't mind one way or the other, the point wasn't to get a permanent page but to demo the extension. I'd be delighted to see 3 or 4 langs doing a quiz - but if de. isn't one of them so be it. --Brian McNeil / talk 22:33, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Well, there were no objections, but somehow there are not so many contributors to de.wikinews and I'm still waiting for comments on the de:Wikinews:Pressestammtisch. --Angela H. 10:17, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

 * This is one of the things I'd like to see imported from en.wikinews to de.wikinews, so maybe I could support Angela in this. --Gwyndon 22:32, 20 September 2007 (UTC) (aka The one who from your wikinewsies mention on the de. Pressestammtisch came here to contribute more - and request accreditation).

If you had stayed one extra minute
Here's the picture you didn't wait up for: Image:Clearing away wrecked Belgian trains.jpg —<b style="color:#1780bb">Za</b><b style="color:#084d83">c</b><b style="color:#003366">h</b><b style="color:#0e448d">a</b><b style="color:#1c55b5">ry</b> talk 22:00, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Lol
"Efforts were made to contact user "God" on the Freenode IRC network; mysteriously no messages could be forwarded to this user."

ROFLMFAO! Contralya 13:12, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

IRC problem...
How to join IRC with Mozilla Firefox? I tried more times but still can't send any messages. <font color="#336699">Brock contact... 16:08, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I recommend getting the Chatzilla add-in, makes life easier once you get the hang of it. --Brian McNeil / talk 16:26, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Quiz de Noticias Mundiales
Seriously great to see this on another WN: Well, we would like to thank you from 'es' because you end up to bother to get this cool things... Hehe... - Jurock (reply here) 15:03, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that SonicR created de:Wikinews:Nachrichtenquiz from »:de:Ze Interrogation«. I will probably update this now. :-) --Angela H. 15:12, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Block
I want User:Contralya blocked for calling me a Communist. http://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Iranian_President_Ahmadinejad_speaks_at_Columbia_University&diff=493942&oldid=493936 This isn't the way we should be doing things here. It doesn't have to be a long block, but I completely resent that because I quote some random protester I'm being labelled. --David Shankbone 20:14, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I am still in London, this is a terminal in the Business lounge of Waterloo International, and I'll be really busy when I get home. --Brian McNeil / talk 12:06, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

WN:AR

 * Can you provide links to the accreditation process on de.? I was unaware of it and Sean Heron did not go through it to my knowledge.

 * http://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Akkreditierung#Akkreditierte_Benutzer - See also Angela's comments at WN:AR. --Gwyndon 13:49, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

 * Can you get any de. admins to vote support here? It would go a long way towards confirming your asserted credentials? --Brian McNeil / talk 14:10, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

 * See comments of Angela and Sonic. Angela wrote about my request at the German WaterCooler, where I also reacted, but the de. section isn't as active as en. --Gwyndon 13:49, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

 * I'm glad you have noticed my request for accreditation at en.wikinews (and the fact that I have been accredited previously on de.wikinews when the German accreditation process was still operational, to allow for Original Reporting). Currently the votes are balanced and I'd ask you to lend a voice in support - and, being an optiomistic person, to OK my press pass to allow for access to press conferences, starting with the upcoming Frankfurt International BookFair in October where all topics are handled and interview access to dignitaries and interesting authors of many countries is possible for someone with accreditation.

 * From the moment of my updated user page, which predated my request, I've started being more active than before on both en. and de.wikinews, preparing my own articles and contributing to those of others, which I intend to continue no matter what, but which, as I hope, also lends credibility to my request. Thanks for your efforts, --Gwyndon 03:08, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Thanks
Thanks Brian - that means a lot coming from you! --David Shankbone 13:02, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Re: IRC
No worries about that, I considered it, and figured it was better to put it in the Census. Thanks for asking, though! Thunderhead - (talk - email - contributions)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!
THANKS FOR THE WELCOME!!!!!!! THIS IS A FUNNY SITE AYE? The Masked Hunter 10:24 8 Oct 2007

Fundraising
I might be able to ask a question like, "Why do you think Wikipedia is important?" Most people don't understand "Wikimedia" or "Wikinews" and are unlikely, even after a long explanation, to want to proffer an opinion about something they don't understand.

On the flip side, I could probably send an e-mail out to people to ask if they can supply a quote. "Support" might be too strong; "important" might be better. But we'd need the campaign to be more gelled, perhaps a link to a fully-fleshed out drive that we can send them. Something that doesn't boil down to my saying, "Hi, we're trying to raise funds and we're going to use your name if you can tell us why you support us." That's going to scare pretty much everybody away. --David Shankbone 15:52, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
 * I asked Brownback the "important" question. I'll try to get the interview up tonight.  45 minutes.  --David Shankbone 16:51, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Dear Brian - Many thanks will sleep better now - Best rgds Chowringhee 14:33, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Steak-knife tracheotomy
Not really, I just spent my first week in Ashington in the North East of England, in the gynaecology and obstetrics department of Wansbeck General Hospital. On Friday I witnessed a delivery for the first time, that was cool. See you round, cheers. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 12:41, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Dell joins Microsoft-Nortel VoIP Team
Brian, thanks for taking the time to look at this news, I have remove the cheerleading words. Is this how the article should look? HammondJr 19:20, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Can you look at the article and change the tag to publish if appropiate, or have another user check it? I have been watching it all day waiting for someone to look at it and I have seen no updates, but I don't know how long this process normally takes, but I did not want it to become called old news if this stays unchecked for another day or so... HammondJr 21:33, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Edbrown05 Request for ArbCom
I've proposed a request for arbcom relating to the recent situation with Ed. If you take issue with being listed as an involved party, please remove your name from that list. Otherwise, I suppose you'll be expected to make a brief statement on that page. irid t i [mailto:ironiridis@gmail.com e] 07:57, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, I also saw that he's been listed to be stripped of accreditation. --Brian McNeil / talk 08:51, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Userpage Sharing Project
You've been added as a member of the Userpage Sharing Project. You were added by me because I needed people to test the template with. If you wish to be removed, please contact me here. If not, please add to the top of your userpage (or wherever you want to stick it. (Plus, might be time to archive ;) ) Thanks, Thunderhead - (talk - email - contributions) 22:43, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Re: are you serious?
I hadn't even realised it was you doing that - you weren't signed in, dunno if you know. Ok then, in that case leave it. I just couldn't see anything worthwile as a news story in what little was there, but if there is a serious debate on it, I am prepared to admit my error (albeit based on simple ignorance) and remove the template, at least for now, and wait with interest to see what you can do with it. Please accept my apologies, Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 21:19, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

Message
Thanks for the help on IRC, Brian! --Solumeiras 17:55, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Concerns
I have some pretty strong concerns about how insular Wikinews is coming across in the Webcomics issue. The communal barriers to entry here make it difficult to attract new contributors, and the site is beginning to look like a place where only a small group edit and work, and those who come in to join us face serious opposition. It's a good article; I've seen worse be published. --David Shankbone 18:56, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

"Too many non-associated stories"
What do you mean? --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 23:15, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I've been busy with a couple of other things and it isn't immediately apparent to me what you mean. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:17, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * You removed the Infobox Wikimedia from the article on webcomics with that edit summary... I think most people interested in an article about Wikipedia will be interested in other articles on Wikimedia subjects. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 23:29, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Makes sense now, sorry for not catching on faster. If there is to be a template/infobox on the article like that I would prefer to see one that links to more mainstream coverage. The Wikinews Today template, or similar would do. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:44, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Seems to me that this would be a niche story not targeted at a mainstream audience but more at the readers specifically interested in wikis and such, therefore I put a more specific infobox.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 23:19, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

Regarding Brion
Thanks, but we don't want to overload Brion. If we can get him, it would be excellent, but if not, then we can't rush him. Thunderhead - (talk - email - contributions) 20:09, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

current event
I'm new here so don't know how to get this posted: WATEC Israel 2007, details at this link Hope you can help me with this. Pls leave a note for me on WP (same username) Excuse please, got to run. Thank you, Shir-El too 17:12, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Cite
After reading this post I decided to go to the Wikipedia IRC channel and ask the admins how they did it. They told me the pages are w:MediaWiki:Cite text and w:MediaWiki:Tooltip-t-cite.  —Fellow Wiki  Newsie 02:59, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Template
Hey. Why do you gave template: in News on Braceface comeback on Zigzap? I'm waiting on Your answer Prasuk 22:58, 2 November 2007 (UTC)
 * There should be a date template on every article.
 * I don't know any Polish readers that can get more detail out of the interwiki link to add.
 * Likely nobody outside Poland has heard of Braceface or Zigzap, they need introduction.
 * The last I'm sorry, but while my Polish is worse than your English, your English is not good. You need to give more information so people can read something out of your report and tidy it up. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:04, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

Footie articles
Thanks. Kingjeff 00:42, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Quiz
Yes, I have finished it now. I have put in a request for accreditation (the policy states that editing on other Wikimedia projects for a long time is good proof that I'm OK for accreditation). Thanks! Auroranorth 12:28, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, I agree. Could you please look over the request? Auroranorth 13:08, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Brian McNeil/Archive 08


text: User:Porcupine~enwikinews

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User:Porcupine~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Porcupine~enwikinews

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Porcupine. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Porcupine~enwikinews that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:23, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:35, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Porcupine~enwikinews


text:
Comments:Hundreds detained under emergency rule in Pakistan

Great article
Great article. It's in-depth, neutral and shows points of numerous sides. I would love it if all our articles were as long and in depth as many of our great ones. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 19:43, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Wiki Pakistan Entry
More details on this news item can be found at: Emergency 2007 on Wiki Pakistan


text:
User talk:172.200.181.61

Welcome
Thanks for experimenting with Wikinews. Your test worked, and has now been reverted or removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing in articles may disrupt the site's working and will be reverted quickly. , welcome to Wikinews! Please refrain from using content pages for testing. Here are a few good links for newcomers on how to edit Wikinews:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 20:28, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Style guide - how an article should look before publishing
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:172.200.181.61


text:
Rare earthquake strikes Antarctica

November 4, 2007 A magnitude 5.8 earthquake has struck in a place where earthquakes are rare, but sometimes large.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), at 3:35 p.m (eastern time) the 5.8 quake struck in Antarctica, 105 kilometers (65 miles) south, southeast of Casey Station or 2565 kilometers (1590 miles) north of the South Pole. The quake was reported at a depth of 7.5 k.m. (4.7 miles), but the USGS says it was "poorly constrained."

Had any civilization existed on the frozen ice cap, the USGS says that damage could be "light to moderate."

Antarctica's biggest earthquake was a magnitude 8.1 which occurred on March 25, 1998 near the Balleny Islands of Antarctica.

title: Rare earthquake strikes Antarctica


text:
MediaWiki:Loginprompt

You must have cookies enabled to log in to.

title: MediaWiki:Loginprompt


text:
File:Wikinews Main Page June 16, 2005 0318 UTC.png

Logos (File:Breaking.png File:special.png (same as File:Wikinews-logo-en.png) File:wikimedia-logo.png), and sisterlogos:

Weather Image

Also includes File:House of representatives.jpg (no longer there), File:Live8.jpg, File:JacobZuma.jpg, File:Terri Schiavo.jpg


text:
Wikinews talk:Dynamic quiz/quiz/2007/45

If i read correctly Question 4 was not this week. Infact is was over two months ago (aug 24) not this week. story in question

title: Wikinews talk:Dynamic quiz/quiz/2007/45


text:
Satanism: An interview with Church of Satan High Priest Peter Gilmore

November 5, 2007

In the 1980's and the 1990's there were multiple allegations of sexual abuse of children or non-consenting adults in the context of Satanic rituals that has come to be known as. In the United States, the, and the  cases garnered worldwide media coverage. One case took place in, Minnesota, when children made allegations of manufacturing child pornography, ritualistic animal sacrifice, , and , at which point the Federal Bureau of Investigation was alerted. Twenty-four adults were arrested and charged with acts of sexual abuse, child pornography and other crimes related to satanic ritual abuse; only three went to trial with two acquittals and one conviction. Supreme Court Justice Scalia noted in a discussion of the case, "[t]here is no doubt that some sexual abuse took place in Jordan; but there is no reason to believe it was as widespread as charged," and cited the repeated, coercive techniques used by the investigators as damaging to the investigation.

One of the most visible Satanic organizations—though one that was never a suspect or charged in any of the Satanic Panic cases—is the, founded by. Members of the Church, such as, , , , Diabolos Rex, and musician , were active in media appearances to refute allegations of criminal activity and the FBI would later issue an official report debunking the criminal conspiracy theories of this time.

Gilmore feels Satanists are often misunderstood or misrepresented. LaVey's teachings are based on, self-indulgence, and "" morality, with influence from and ; while its rituals and  draw heavily from  such as. They do not worship—nor believe in—the Devil or a. The word "Satan" comes from the Hebrew word for "adversary" and originated from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally applied to an angel. Church of Satan adherents see themselves as truth-seekers, adversaries and skeptics of the religious world around them.

On a windy October day in, Wikinews reporter David Shankbone sat down with the of the Church, , who has led LaVey's congregation of Satanists since his passing in 1997 (he became the High Priest in 2001). They discussed the beliefs of the Church, current events, LaVey's children and how Satanism applies to life and the world.

Theistic Satanism ('devil worship')
David Shankbone: What is your relationship to ?
 * Peter H. Gilmore: We don't think they are Satanists.  They are devil worshipers, as far as I’m concerned.

'''DS: There is one in New York who does a lot of websites.
 * PG: Diane Vera?  She's a kook.

'''DS: She's also an editor on Wikipedia. I contacted her, but I never received a response.
 * PG: My real feeling is that anybody who believes in supernatural entities on some level is insane.  Whether they believe in The Devil or God, they are abdicating reason.  If they really believe they are in communication with some sort of interventionist deity…you know, somebody can be a deist and think that maybe there was some sort of force that launched everything and now has nothing to do with it.  That's not anything you can prove.  It's also not a matter of faith.  It's a matter of making a choice between whether there was something or there wasn't.  I think maybe that is the most rational decision.  I think science makes it look otherwise, but I don't think somebody like that is mad. But anybody who believes in some kind of existence in deity or spirits or anything that intervenes in their life is not somebody I hold in any kind of esteem.

'''DS: Have you had much interaction with the theistic Satanists?
 * PG: No, I just have complete contempt for them and have no contact with them at all.  If anybody does contact me and say they are a theistic Satanist we tell them to take a hike.  [Laughs].

'''DS: Do you know what they think of you?
 * PG: I have no idea and I could not care.  I consider it lunatic and it's Christian.  If you want to believe in an existing devil then you probably believe in an existing God and you’re really just a Christian heretic, you’re not a Satanist.

'''DS: What do you think is their motivation to worship a Christian Satan?
 * PG: I really wouldn't know, I’d have to talk to them, but my supposition would be that they want to feel they are naughty on some level.  If they really believe in these existing deities, then they have to decide what the values of them are.  The  used to think that Jehovah was bad; the, and that the real God was something more in touch with what they thought humanity should be like.  So, maybe these people think that Jehovah is evil and Satan is good.  I just think it's equally silly whether you believe in an  or ...it's just...irrational.

Church of Satan 101
'''David Shankbone: How would you define the word ?
 * Peter Gilmore: Satan is a model or a mode of behavior.  Satan in Hebrew means "adversary" or "opposer"; one who questions.  Since we generally are skeptical atheists, we question all spirituality.  We believe that carnality is all that exists and the spiritual dimensions are fictional.  So we stand against eastern and western religions that promote fictions, according to our perspectives.  So we are adversaries.  Satan to us is an exemplar.  When we look at how he is portrayed by  in ', or Byron, or 's ', he ends up being an inspirational symbol to us.  We say we would like to be more like that.  We will not bow our heads; we will be independent.  We will constantly question.

'''DS: What is the Church of Satan?
 * PG: Satanism begins with .  We begin with the universe and say, “It’s indifferent.  There’s no God, there’s no Devil.  No one cares!”  So you then have to make a decision that places yourself at the center of your own subjective universe, because of course we can’t have any kind of objective contact with everything that exists.  That’s rather arrogant and delusional, people who try to put things that way.  So by making yourself the primary value in your life, you’re your own God.  By being your own God, you are comfortable about making your own decisions about what to value.  What’s positive to you, is good.  What harms you, is evil.  You extend it to things that you cherish and the people that you cherish.  So it’s actually very easy to see that it’s a self-centered philosophy.
 * But it also requires responsibility, since you are taking on for yourself the complete onus for your personal success or failure. You can't be praying to a God or blaming a devil, or anyone else, for that matter, for what happens to you.  It’s on your own head.  That’s a challenge for most people.  Most people tend to really feel that they want some kind of external support, that they are outward looking and might want some sort of supernatural parental figure, or even some sort of existing governmental authority, existing in their life.

'''DS: Why do you think people are like that?
 * PG: I think there are actually two kinds of people.  There are the kind of people who need that, and the kind that don't.  The kind that don't are the smaller percentage of our species.  It’s as simple as that.

'''DS: Why do you think there are those who need to have a God or supernatural parental figure?
 * PG: I think it’s natural to them.  I don't think it is something developmental, but that it’s just part of their own nature.  That they feel a need  for something above them, whether it be human or supernatural.  And they can't get away from that.

'''DS: In the history of a lot of religions, a doctrine was developed by people who were oppressed as a way to explain their lot, and that their oppressors were going to "get theirs in the end." That’s where was saying religion is the, because it creates complacency with oppression now because in some other ethereal dimension equality will be achieved.
 * PG: Well, see the idea of the “God” comes from the oppressors, and it’s a way of controlling folks, by saying, “I have communication with this authority figure but you can't.  I’m special.”  That’s where priesthoods come in, but also governmental authorities and parties, let's say the  or the  at one point.  They have the key to the way the universe should exist, and everyone needs to be subservient to them and take what they say as holy writ whether they are actually claiming it is divine or not.  That’s why so many of those fascist and totalitarian systems function like religions, because they put the leaders and whatever they wrote as some kind of scriptural authority that is not supposed to be debated or examined, but simply swallowed whole.
 * Now some people might come up with a religious belief that may counter an existing system that will help them feel better about their underdog status, and then sometimes that develops into a major religion and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it is crushed and snuffed out.  That’s natural to our species, that people have to find a way for dealing with their existence.
 * The Satanist, we look at our existence and say, “We’re not going to look for something outside of ourselves. We’re going to be proactive."  We’ll go out there and try to make a change, and we’ll deal pragmatically with whatever life situations we have.  So the Satanist, regardless of where he is living and under what kind of conditions, he is going to try to find a way to make his life as good as it can be based upon his own abilities and the world around him.  We don't expect everybody in Satanism to be a genius, we expect people to take whatever they have by nature, and do the best with it.  So in that sense, we challenge people who are our members; the only idealism we have is directed at ourselves.  We try to look at ourselves and try to realize what our potential possibly could be, what talents do we have.  And then we try to take those, through whatever work is needed, to take those as far as we can.

'''DS: What would be their motivation for doing something for society and not for themselves? Would there even be a motivation?
 * PG: Oh, absolutely!  It’s up for you to choose your own preferences.  By being self-centered you can select your own values.

'''DS: Like, I get value out of what I am doing for Wikimedia, even though it’s for free, there is still a value…
 * PG: Absolutely!  What you’re doing, David, is a Satanic example.  The whole point of Satanism is again to choose your values, and if you become somebody that really feels you want to work for hospitals for free—a number of our members work for animal organizations because we generally cherish animals and think they are far less polluted than people with values that are anti- their nature.  So, Satanists are often very giving.
 * Because our values come from the self, people who try to tell themselves that they must be selfless, they can't really understand why you would be giving if you’re a selfish person. But I think that’s more a revelation of their own natures, meaning if they didn't have some external force making them being nice to people, they would be bastards!   We Satanists, because we are relaxed, we love our lives, we love people who enrich our lives and things that are around us that we enjoy, we can be really giving.  Gods can be beneficent!  So when you are your own God, you can be happy to give!

'''DS: How would a Satanist define evil?

 * PG:  is whatever is harmful to you and the things you most cherish.  It's that simple.

'''DS: Some people have a compulsion to, and it harms them to not act upon it. If it was harmful for somebody to not go out and rape somebody, how would a Satanist address that situation?
 * PG: We then have to go into the realm of society, and we believe that as animals that are social, we have a .  When we deal with other people, our approach is that we want to have maximum freedom, and maximum responsibility without infringing on people as much as possible.  So we would set up laws so we really don't have to spend all of our time defending our territory, being in some kind of castle keep situation.  So anyone who is going to go out and assault undeserving people, is someone we would deem a criminal and have them locked up or dealt with in whatever way seems most appropriate, whether it’s therapy, whether it’s drugs, or if they can't control themselves,.

'''DS: Capital punishment is not antithetical to Satanism.
 * PG: Not necessarily, but essentially we would rather shrink from the government having the power to take you and murder you, because we don't have a lot of confidence in people being rational, or being truthful, and we have seen so often—especially with —that a lot of people have been jailed and accused of  and they were wrong.  That’s wrongful.  So it’s not this broad, “We accept capital punishment and it’s fine!”

'DS: “Slaughter them all!” [Laughs'']
 * PG: Right!  But there are certain situations where it would be appropriate.  Say, when  shot all those people.  There should be absolutely no time wasted on that.

'''DS: But should it be the government doing it?
 * PG: I think the government can have the ability but under control.  There needs to be .  That whole idea in the United States that has come from so many other past forms of government is something we feel is necessary.  We don't want any form of  government with absolute power that can do anything willy-nilly to its citizens.  Satanists are generally .  They may choose their specific political alliances because it might better whatever they are trying to do in their lives, but essentially most of us are fairly libertarian people.  We would like to have government as minimal as possible.

'''DS: Do you have a 10 Commandments?
 * PG: We have the 9 Satanic Statements, but we don't have commandments that are laws that are like sins.  We have eleven sins that are kind of behaviors that we don't want to be doing.  For us, we try to create a situation where we have some social interaction with people that can be beneficial for ourselves.  But we don't set up these kinds of laws that somebody is going to punish you for.  So with Satanism they are things where you kick yourself and say, “Why did I do something stupid? I shouldn't do that next time.”  It's better for you.  It doesn't matter about anybody else on that level: you’ve got to not be an ass.

'''DS: Are there certain sites or places that are important to the Church of Satan?
 * PG: No, we don't really have any holy ground or anything like that.  For the Satanist, if there is any kind of architecture you like, or a place you like to visit—some people like places with devil themes or where there is historical interest.  But there is nothing particularly Satanic about any location.

'''DS: No place with a natural significance?
 * PG: Well, it’s the universe.  We look at it like  and we are star stuff, we are made of the stuff of exploding stars.  We Satanists look at the universe in this wonderful context of that’s what we are part of and that’s really exciting.  We don't need to single out any special part of it unless you find a place you really enjoy.  The place you were born, perhaps, or the place you grew up.  Some people are interested in a historical figure and say the place where a castle was built or a particular battle was fought, or some individual took a last stand.

'''DS: If someone wanted to explore your beliefs, what should they read?
 * PG: ' is the place to start, because that is the foundational literature for the organization.  All of Anton LaVey’s books are worth reading.  ' is his compendium of, which is our concept for how you manipulate people on a day-to-day basis to get them to do things in your favor.  It’s geared toward women because we think it’s fine for women to use their  to get what they want.  It’s part of nature, so go ahead!  Dress for success!  But it works for guys, too.  Whatever you have to charm people.  Glamor is worthwhile, so The Satanic Witch is useful for that.  He’s got collections of essays, too, and  is more for a formal setting, where different cultures were examined to see what kind of diabolical imagery was in them.  Rituals can be fun to do in a large group setting; but they’re not anything you have to do.  Here’s a Russian one, here’s a French one; here’s a German one.   Here's a —what would that be like?  In Satanism a Black Mass is not something we are running out and eager to do because as far as we’re concerned, Christianity is a dead horse, unless in your life you feel there has been this really negative Christian influence that you need to purge, it’s just kind of pointless.
 * And my book, , is worth reading, because it ties up where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going. So if you only picked two, I would say read The Satanic Bible and The Satanic Scriptures, because then you’ll have the book ends of the over forty year span of the Church of Satan.

On current events and politics
'''DS: I’d like to give you some political situations and ask how a Satanist would handle them.
 * PG: Okay, but I want to preface that and say we don't really determine people’s political backgrounds.  We feel that each Satanist who is a member of the church must make those decisions based upon their own personal values, so there can be a wide range of answers depending upon the people you talk to, whether it be abortion, governmental decisions of going to war…

'''DS: You can just speak for yourself, then. If you were —
 * PG: —[Laughs]—

'''DS: —How would you handle the ?
 * PG: I don't have a solution for that.  If I did, I would be out there telling people about it, because I don't really see myself as a politician or arbiter of people’s interactions with each other.  I can see that there are issues on both sides of the fence and that when people are fighting over a territory, generally speaking the folks who have the power win and then they write the histories and the world moves on.  But we have a situation here where there are bigger players behind the smaller nations, and it keeps this conflict enduring.  So they will either have to have compromise and discussion, or one side will have to destroy the other side and "win" and then move on, which is usually the way the world works.

'''DS: Where do they violate Satanic principles in that conflict?
 * PG: Each have their own goals.  I would say killing people who are just innocent folks, that’s against Satanic philosophy. , specifically, is against Satanism because we feel that  is important, and that is giving people what they deserve.  Blowing up somebody who is just wandering around is not a just approach.  That’s something against the social contract, and we would oppose people engaging in terrorism.

'''DS: What about ?
 * PG: Absolutely support it.

'''DS: Abortion?

 * PG: I think people should practice  rather than use abortion as an easy way out.  Again, the concept of being responsible for yourself and not to willy-nilly get pregnant unless you are really interested in carrying forth the child.  Since we have overpopulation generally speaking, I think abortion is something fine to be used, but I think it should not be used as a means of cleaning up after people’s irresponsible sexual activity.

'''DS: Why do you not consider it just another operation? Some people run or exercise not realizing their limitations and pull a muscle or need an operation for that.
 * PG: I would look at it as if I was the fetus, I wouldn't want to be snuffed out.  [Laughs]

'''DS: So is the fetus a ?
 * PG: Not necessarily, it’s just a piece of tissue and most human life doesn't really have that much value on a grand scale.  In the universe, individual life is practically meaningless, it’s sort of like droplets in a wave that crashes against a rock.  Who cares about the droplets?  The way life works is it is making large amounts of species of whatever it is, and it keeps moving biologically.  I would just think that if it was myself as the fetus, I have a potential to become the person that I am.  I wouldn't want to be snuffed out.

'''DS: When do you think life begins?
 * PG: Life is there, whether it is conscious and valuable is debatable.

'''DS: You mean just on a cellular level it is functioning?
 * PG: Yeah, it is life.  Sperms and eggs are alive, they're organic, you can't say that is not life.  But what I think you’re looking for is the idea that Christians wants to say from .  If people want to have abortions it really doesn't bother me, I just think they really should be more responsible.  It just makes more sense.  Contraception is easy!

'''DS: A lot of people don't like contraception.
 * PG: And a lot of people are morons and irresponsible, so—

'''DS: But then doesn't responsibility come down to defining it for yourself in Satanism? Your statements seem to come down to a baseline level of what is responsibility? What is innocence? Whereas you were saying earlier that a lot of these things are self-referentially defined.
 * PG: Right, right.  We allow people to make that definition for themselves, absolutely.  But for me personally, you try to deal with other people around you so that you don't make their lives miserable unless there is some real overriding reason that would have to happen.

'''DS: Who are you supporting for President?
 * PG: Nobody, yet! [Laughs].  Right now, there is not really one candidate that speaks to me more than others.  I generally feel that so many candidates are lacking in so many ways, that it really IS the lesser of multiple evils that you are picking.  I like the old  t-shirt:  " for President!  Why choose the lesser of two evils?"  [Laughs]

'''DS: If you had a choice between  and ?
 * PG: I would probably go with Hillary Clinton.  Giuliani was acting like such a fascist before .  He was trying to use his  that was exhibited in this city.  It was unbelievable!  His popularity was really down.  It wasn't until 9/11 that he stepped up and did things that were required to be a leader and make people feel more comfortable that his ratings shot back up, but he was really not somebody who was well regarded back then.

'''DS: That’s talked about now more than it used to be.
 * PG: It should be now that he is running for President.  People need to mention that!

'''DS: It’s a question of how much it will penetrate the American consciousness that has mythologized him.
 * PG: That’s the thing: he really was so mythologized at that point.  We build heroes, and so many people really do deal with idealistic portrayals and not realistic ones.  We have to examine these things all the time and be careful.

Religious and Satanic symbols
'''DS: Could you explain your logo?
 * PG: The .  Heavy metal people say “Bapho-MAY!” Because they want to take it from the French, where it originally came from the trials of them.  But we explain it as there is a goat face in the center of a five-pointed star.  The goat face represents carnality.  In  goats were considered representations as god symbols of lust, and we think lust is an important factor of biology that keeps humanity going so we value that.  The  really comes from the .  That is the one figure in which every element is within the  of each other.  It’s this wonderful mathematical symbol of perfection, organic perfection specifically.  Since we are organic life and enjoy the idea of perfecting ourselves, that star is right for us in there and it perfectly fits the goat head inside.  Now around it are two circles, one at the tip of the points of the star and one outside.  In that are Hebrew characters starting at the bottom and going counter-clockwise spelling .  In Hebrew mythology, Leviathan was the great dragon of the abyss, this powerful Earth figure that even Yahweh was afraid of.  So all these things taken together creates a symbol that Anton LaVey identified with Satanism specifically.  When he started the Church of Satan, usually  were considered Satanic, and he saw that these different elements and felt this was a positive symbol you could tie to the Satanism he was creating.

'''DS: So much of the symbology references a lot of myths and superstitions, yet you’re antithetical to that. How do you explain how those two notions comport?
 * PG: We have this approach that we take the dualities and find a third side to it, a way of integrating.  You might find that even in, a way of finding opposites and coming with a new synthesis of the different thesis and antithesis.  So ritual is natural to people, because humans have a conceptual consciousness.  Symbols let us hold much more information in conscious focus, more so than just keeping them separately.  So symbols are something we function with.  It’s part of our nature.  So using ritual activities that are symbolic and have deep meaning to us is common to our species if you look at our history from cave paintings up to every civilization currently existing.

'DS: It’s almost difficult to come up with a symbol that doesn't'' reference a superstition in some way.
 * PG: Absolutely!  So we feel that since they are often used to support a fiction, why not let it be used to explore the inner part of our nature.  For us, when we do ritual—which we call greater magic—we call it an intellectual decompression chamber.  It’s a place where we release our emotions, any emotions that are hindering us, and we use the symbolism we find most stimulating.  We leave it in the ritual chamber. You enjoy the self-transformational psychodrama in the ritual where you release any emotions that are hindering yourself and then you go outside and basically pursue your life, being rational and doing what you need to do to make your life as rich as it can be.

The Iraq War: A Satanic perspective
'''DS: Do you think our pursuing the  is an example of killing innocent people?
 * PG: Oh, of course  people are being killed in almost any war.  It doesn't matter if it is just Iraq, because there are civilian populations who are caught between these people with agendas, and those civilians just want to live their lives.

'''DS: Who are the innocents?
 * PG: Not being involved in the particular conflict.  If you are just living your life and doing what you need to do to survive, have a job, bringing in food for your family; that’s being an innocent person.

'''DS: How has the war in Iraq affected your worldview?
 * PG: It hasn't changed it in the least.  I see it as human behavior as usual.  History is full of aggressors.  Iraq to me is an interesting place where there was a totalitarian holding in check religious factions, and now that cap has been removed, the religious factions want to destroy each other.  I think it’s a lesson for most people to say look at how these religions were important to people who are always looking above themselves to be regulated, and they found an Earthly regulator in Saddam Hussein, and now that that regulator who actually existed is gone, they are each looking to their own interpretations of their own deities and wanting to slaughter each other.  It just shows how poisonous fundamentalist fanaticism can be, which to me is the most dangerous thing in all of human society.

'''DS: That is what you consider the greatest threat to humanity?
 * PG: Yes, any fundamentalist fanaticism is a vast threat.  I’m looking for humanity to have a secular, pluralistic culture.  People should be able to follow whatever fantasies or religions they want, as long as they don't impose them on other people and force other people into doing things based upon whatever kind of holy writ they have.  So the biggest threat to that are these fundamentalists who want to force people into their belief systems.  They want to destroy people who have sexual activity they don't think is appropriate according to their texts.  It will be interesting to see in the future if people will wake up to this threat and decide to somehow corral that kind of behavior, defang people like that who are basically on a jihad, whether they be Christians or Muslims or any other religion, because we’ve seen in the past the Catholics were torturing people to death in the Inquisition, then the Reformation happened and different denominations and sects were killing each other.  Heretics were being slaughtered.  So this is not something just one religion is guilty of.

On New York City
'''DS: How do you feel about, where you live, being called Clinton?
 * PG: I despise that.  It should stick to what it really is, and it’s Hell’s Kitchen.

'''DS: When you see how New York is changing around you—I’ve lived here for close to seven years, and even when I moved here it was very different.
 * PG: I like the sleaze, I like the history, I like to see New York being this amazing range of the highest and the lowest and I don't think New York should be cleaned up and Disneyfied.

'''DS: But it is.
 * PG: It’s getting there.  I did a  for the  in the old Hellfire Club, and that’s gone and  is putting up a store in that neighborhood. [Laughs]  Everybody just feels safe walking around all the time now.  There’s still some parts of  that are still pretty rough.

'''DS: Where do you think the culture is going to go? Is the sanitized version here to stay?
 * PG: No, because if you look at anything that at one point is sleazy, at one it was new and spiffy and wonderful.  So, at this point, New York is Manhattanland, it's for tourists and we’ve made this almost Las Vegas simulacrum of the whole thing.  But it will change.  As soon as the money isn't worth pumping into it to keep up the façade, all of the roughness around the edges will creep back in.  It’s still here, it just hides in the daytime.  There’s still all kinds of weird crime going on in the city when you watch the news.

'''DS: You see that in all the old  cities. , was one of the most dangerous cities I’ve ever walked around in, and I thought, “This is what 1982 New York must have felt like.”
 * PG: Yeah, I moved down to New York in 1980—that was pretty rough! [Laughs]

'''DS: A friend of mine once said if you took someone from 1982 New York and you transplanted them into 2007 New York, the first thing they would say is, “Where did all these people come from?!”  That the streets just used to be barren back then.
 * PG: I'm like that too.  Where I live my view of the sunset is gone because two new luxury towers have gone up.  They’re building two additional ones.  I don't know who these people are or where they get all their money because they are charging $6,000 a month for these apartments, and I’m thinking who is spending all this money and wandering around the city like it’s a pedestrian mall that could be in any kind of suburbia.

Marilyn Manson
'''DS:  is a member?
 * PG: Yes, he's a member who has been given an honorary priesthood.  When asked about what Satanism is he can be very articulate in explaining it.  But his own music is his own art.  His stage shows are his own, and they don't really exemplify Satanism in particular.

'''DS: It’s more of a character.
 * PG: Yeah, he’s created a character.  We say people forget about past orthodoxies, something that was culturally popular or permeating at one point or another, people forget about that.  What Brian Warner did was he looked at David Bowie and Alice Cooper and re-created and repackaged them, and made a fortune.

'''DS: Is he an active member?
 * PG: He’s an honorary priest, but he does his own thing.  If asked about our philosophies he can explain it.  The interesting thing is when his first album came out the two of us met on a panel that we were doing about racism in music that was being sponsored by Seconds Magazine.  Nobody knew who Brian Warner was at that point, and he came up to me and gave me a CD and he was all in costume.  But he said "I heard about you and I wanted to meet you," so we moved aside and talked for a little while and I learned he really did understand Satanism. I told Anton LaVey that this guy was pretty smart and this gimmick is going to do well; it’s clever. He’s using this serial killer and Hollywood star combination, and he’s a smart guy and creating his own persona that is probably going to be successful.   It took off immediately, and when Marilyn Manson was out on tour in California he asked if he could meet Anton LaVey and he was impressed.  He is a really sweet and sincere guy, which has nothing to do with what all of the world sees in just his act and his art.

On the church after Anton LaVey
'''DS: Does the Church of Satan have relationships with other churches?
 * PG: Not at all.  We’re not ecumenical.

'''DS: It would seem there are pagans or humanist religions that follow your general philosophy.
 * PG: I wouldn't say that.  Most pagan religions are theistic on one level or another.  They generally think their deities exist in some part.  We don't believe Satan exists as a deity.   I think there are some pagans who may look at their Gods and Goddesses as archetypes only, and in that sense that would be closer to our position because you can look at the symbol of Satan as an archetype.  But, we generally don't feel we have any relation to any kind of religious organization.

'''DS: What is the membership numbers for the Church of Satan?
 * PG: We never give out numbers.  The reason for that our founder came up with and I agree with him and keep to his policy:  if people think there are too few of us, they tend to not want to take us seriously.  If they think there are too many of us, they think we’re a threat.  There was even a point back during the  in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s when there was governmental legislation proposed to ban Satanism because they thought there were all these metal heads out there sacrificing babies, doing drugs and making child pornography.  Of course, now we know, it was mostly people who were borderline Christian evangelists pretending, but then accusing their own family members and getting them put in jail, or acting as therapists and most of those people have been sued and properly censured since then.

'''DS: Has the church thrived after LaVey’s passing?
 * PG: It has.  Partially because we are taking advantage of technology with the Internet and global media; our website gets hundreds of thousands of hits a day and literature keeps getting translated into many different languages the world over.  My own book, The Satanic Scriptures, the hardcover came out in April and the paperback is coming out this month.  I’ve already got five different languages coming out and I’m negotiating for others.  We are thriving, we have many members.

'''DS: What is your book about?
 * PG: It’s a collection of my essays I’ve written over the past twenty years talking about Satanic philosophy, how it’s applied.  I talk about music since I am by training a composer; I went to .  I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s in music composition, mostly focusing on orchestral work.  One conception in the book I wanted to dispel is the stereotype that Satanism is always associated with Metal and the cookie monster voice. That's Satanism? No.

'''DS: It’s not all  sounding.
 * PG: No.  Satanic music is specific to each person.  So to me, Satanic music is the symphony, which to me is the highest art form.  So Beethoven, Mahler, Bruckner, Shostakovich — to me that’s some of the most Satanic music ever written because the architecture is there, the expressivity is there; the reflection on the human condition is all present and it’s not idealistic. It’s mostly questioning or showing what a human is capable of doing.  And I love architecture.  Cathedrals are wonderful.  I have no hatred of those because they are put to religious use.  They have symbols on them, but I know those are just symbols.  I love skyscrapers too.

Anton LaVey's children and estate
'''DS: Do Dr. LaVey’s children have anything to do with the church at all?
 * PG: His son Xerxes is a member because he asked to be.  We generally don't let people under 18 join.  We used to let people whose parents allowed them to join, but because people are so litigious we changed that.  We just don't want to take the chance that some parents say, “Yes, it’s okay if my kid joins the Church of Satan,” and then decides that’s the reason they can't control their kid.  We’re just not willing to go there.  But if our members have children who are interested, they can participate and become members, but that’s the only way you can if you’re not legally an adult.  So Xerxes could become a member because his  at one point, and still remains a member.

'''DS: But not ?
 * PG: No, she left years ago.  She’s not very bright and is very jealous.  She and her paramour,, got married I think.  They wanted to take the Church of Satan over at one point and wanted Anton LaVey to retire, but he was a feisty guy and said "Hell no!"  So they quit in high dudgeon and ran off to Europe and said, “America is corrupt and horrible and we’re going to Fortress Europa!”  They played with being Nazi occultists, which is kind of funny because both of them have Jewish blood.  They’re just like clowns.  They then joined the , which was an organization  that split off from the Church of Satan years ago, in 1975, when —

'''DS: Based on the ?

 * PG: Yeah, and they’re theists.  They believe that Set exists and that their priests can commune with him and that their founder is the voice of Set.  So, it’s like, good that they left for housecleaning.  But Zeena went and joined them and became High Priestess because Michael Aquino has this Anton LaVey obsession, which is obvious since he wrote a book about him that's about a thousand pages, so he made her the High Priestess of their organization.  Then she left to form an even more orthodox Setian group called “The Storm”, which to us is just funny.  Such theatrics.  His oldest daughter  isn't a very bright girl.  She kind of hung around the background and once in a while she would come out to speak in public and support her father.  When Xerxes was born she kind of got miffed because she wasn't the center of attention.  Karla is also jealous type. She withdrew from her father, which hurt him a lot.

'''DS: How did the legal wrangling surrounding his estate pan out?
 * PG: They finally settled.  What ended up happening is he had written a will.  Anton LaVey's idea was that if he acknowledged he is going to die, then he'd be giving in to death, so he didn't want to go to an attorney and make out a will.  He was very feisty and had his own perspective on that.  So he finally wrote a will out and signed it, but it wasn't notarized and there were no witnesses.  So when it came to court they said it wasn't good enough.  They basically split everything up between the three children, so Karla and Zeena and Xerxes all got part of the estate.

'DS: Who received the copyright to The Satanic Bible''?
 * PG: The estate.  The money that comes in from that gets split up and goes to the three kids.  Also there is a small percentage that goes to LaVey's companion, ; she says LaVey.  But they were never married and had a falling out in the early 1980's.  She went off and left Satanism and sued him for palimony and he had to sell his house because of all of that, and he sold it to an old friend and member.  Diane got a pile of money and she got a tiny percentage of the books that had been written up to that point.  Every once in a while she comes creeping in off the periphery to say, “Ah!  I'm Diane LaVey!” and it's like, you were Diane Hegarty and you were kind of involved in it, but before the Satanic Panic happened you left and had nothing to do with it.  She was never someone who wrote or said anything of interest.  She was just the pretty blonde wife of Anton LaVey.  She was a nice figurehead, but wasn't of much use beyond that.