text:
User talk:Brendan.T

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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! Jason Safoutin 12:32, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
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 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:Brendan.T


text:
User talk:Hokki

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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! Jason Safoutin 12:36, 7 May 2006 (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
 * 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!

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

title: User talk:Hokki


text:
User talk:SillyWilly

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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! Jason Safoutin 12:37, 7 May 2006 (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
 * 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!

 * Thank you very much :) WillJenkins 15:54, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

and another welcome
Hello Will,

since I´m a newbie to audio-wikinews, I just waited, until one of the "pro´s" had welcomed you. :)

I started reading news about two weeks ago with more or less the same intentions than you have.

I´m impressed by the way you read the texts. The modulation (by which I mean, not only the technical revision) of your voice is really good. From the files I could see, that you were "playing" around, like I´m currently still do. Are you using audacity as well?

And allow me one other (serious) question: Do you have an education concerning reading texts, or is it just a gift by nature?

I hope you´ll going to like it here, and contribute a lot more. Tara Gumboyaya 13:48, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Hello! I listened to your recordings to get some idea of what spoken Wikinews was supposed to sound like. I was honestly impressed by how good you are! I was also a little worried I wouldn't come up to the same standard so I'm delighted by your comments. I haven't had any speaking lessons though I am about to complete a degree in Linguistics.

 * I use Audacity as well because the help page suggested it.

 * I think Wikinews is a marvellous idea and I'm looking forward to getting more involved!

 * WillJenkins 23:26, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Wow! What shall I answer to this? :-]

 * I received already many nice compliments, but your compliment (i.e. by someone, who is reading loads of news as well, and who hasn´t any breaks in the recordings, like I have - which "spring" from the simple fact, that whilst reading, I very often realise: Nah ..., that wasn´t proper English! This must be prounounced otherwise, hence I start again and edit later), is certainly something special.

 * There is a question I´m putting back an´ forth "within" myself, since I do the recordings for wikinews. But before coming to that, I´m unsure, whether we should put this Q&A to the water cooler. (or, mabye we can copy it later into the water cooler.) I´m unsure, because I think it might be helpful for other (future) newsreaders. Anyhow ...

 * At the mo´, I´m not to sure, whether I should normalize the voice recordings, or if should enhance them, hence using the full sound possibilities of audacity (That was the reason why I´ve asked, what tool you are using). The "nasty thing", which is involved concerning enhancement, is - of course - that one is also enhancing the background "Rauschen" (This is what we say in Germany for it). But for "Rauschen" my dictionary gives "hiss" (concerning Microphones), and I actually mean the background sounds, or the background noices, which is probably the best way to put it. My confusion comes from the fact, that "hiss" has - for me - the conotation of a smallish sound, whilst "Rauschen" has the conotation of something "a little bit" "bigger", therefore it is more obvious and mabye disturbing for our listeners.

 * Gosh! This is difficult to explain! I hope you are not reading "garble-warble"! ;-)) So, what is your idea about this, should we "blow up" the recording to it´s ultimate end, or should we just keep it shallow, but clearer? What is your hearing experience?

 * And finally: Well, I have to admit, I just love the different ways how this wonderful language English can be pronounced, and - even though I´m on dangerous ground here, in a public space like the internet - I do like the diverse British pronounciations most. This "might" also be a reason, why I like to listen to your recordings so very much. DO go on mate!
 * Gumboyaya 13:31, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Gumboyaya, first an apology for disappearing abruptly, I suddenly became very busy with finishing university. I have a lot more spare time now so I should be back to stay now.

 * I understand completely what you mean about the hiss on the recordings. I'm afraid I'm no expert with audio software. If you can come up with some good settings I'd be happy to adopt them.

 * Why not suggest it at the water cooler if you haven't already :) WillJenkins 22:33, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Hi Will,
 * today, I wanted to send you a "Good to hear your voice again! :-)"-message, and then I realised, that you´ve wrote an answer to my question.

 * Concerning your late reply: I´ve finished university a couple of years ago, yet I vividly remember, that every thing else was suddenly quite unimportant. Hence I dearly thank you for your apology. Of course, it wasn´t necessary, but it is nice to read. :)

 * Talking about hiss-ing-sounds: I guess now, this seemed to be a more personal prob, since my modulation and articulation was - some weeks ago - not that well. I´m a bit more used now to speaking via a microphone. I can hear this by listening to my first audacity-files uploaded to wikinews. :) That is why I think, we can go on by using the full possibilities of audacity, because - IMHO - it is a question of how one pronounciates or articulates, whilst using a microphone.

 * I - for my part - do not hear "un-hear-able" parts in your recordings concerning this issue. And - moreover - the background-noises can´t be blocked out properly, unless we sit in a proper studio. So - I think - we have to live with that. And I don´t think it is that important, like I thought it to be, a couple of weeks ago (one barely hears tiny mistakes, anyway, since the content is, in what people are interested in). In case I should find solutions to circumvent our tiny little probs (concerning "super"-sound), I will - of course - share them with you.

 * water-cooler: Since at the mo, there are not that many people reading the news, I don´t know whether it makes sense to post this discussion on the water-cooler. My experience is, that mainly the "writing people" are involved in discussions there. Therefore, I think, we might add it later onto the water-cooler, in case these questions are raised there.

 * One last remark: :)
 * Concerning the word "either". I heard an "e-ther", of which I taught that "t´is is" American-English. I "t´ought", you are a Brit?!? ;-)) I might mix up t´ings here, since my schooldays are long gone by. But I certainly would appreciate pronounciation-support.

 * It´s good to have you back!
 * And I´m looking forward to lean back and listen to Will Jenkins.
 * Ta´n´Tara Gumboyaya 21:26, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

 * I was deeply worried that you too had disappeared so I'm glad to see you're still here.
 * There's a new chap helping with the audio - Skenmy - he's posted here about some ideas he's got. Might be worth having a look and leaving some comments.
 * I'm afraid you've caught me out. I seem to use both pronunciations of 'either' interchangeably. It's always interesting when someone points out things you haven't even noticed.
 * WillJenkins 21:48, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Over here I focused recently on reading newsbriefs. I read longer texts now for the Wikipedia.de.
 * I "met" Skenmy just yesterday on IRC. And he promptly helped me to find a tiny mistake I´ve made. :)
 * Gumboyaya 07:42, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Audio recording of Australia will help in East Timor if requested: Downer
Hi Will... I just listend to your audio for this article, and wanted to let you know that it sounded great! Keep it up! - Borofkin 23:27, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

 * A very belated thank you. Real life got on top of me for a while, but I'm back again! WillJenkins 22:33, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

iPod ???
Hi Will,

your reply on http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/User:Skenmy/Ideas gave me the idea, that I might have “tread on your foot”. Which wasn´t at all my intention.

To make this clear (at least I hope I can do): In recent days I was wondering what podcasting is, as such. Because I don´t know about it. All my search-tries lead me to pages, where people where discussing things, which I couldn´t follow, since I´m not firm with this issue.

I do not have an iPod or whatever other Pods there may be. I know some people who have one, and I know vaguely that there are MAC-Pods and than that those seemed to have been followed by the “answer” of the monopoly Microsoft.

What´s the point behind all this? Is an RSS audio file for podcasting not working on a MAC-iPod, because it is based on ogg-files? Is that the reason, why you´ve started the request for MP3-files, or do I mix several different discussions here?

I´d dearly appreciate it, if you could help me to understand the background of the discussion better. Tara Gumboyaya 02:48, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Gumboyaya, you haven't upset me at all! Podcasting in general is where someone produces an amateur radio show and makes it available for download. Usually RSS is used to make the download automatic. For example, I listen to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. I leave my iPod connected to my computer and every morning the latest edition is uploaded to it. I can then take my iPod out and listen to the program wherever I am.

 * Podcasting is no longer limited to just the iPod. There is a lot of software for both Windows and the Mac which can subscribe and lots of different portable players which do the same. But by choosing a format like Ogg, which most players (including the iPod) can't play, Wikinews is limiting the number of people who can listen. There are *no* players which can't play mp3.

 * The problem is going to be one of ethics. Wikipedia/Wikinews/Wikimedia aren't interested in producing good news sites, good encyclopaedias - they're interested in furthering the awareness of the Creative Commons. All this work we do is about furthering the religion of open, copyright-free, content. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that we can never use mp3. This is because anyone who produces software which can decode mp3 (iTunes/Windows Media Player/VLC/Audacity) is supposed to pay a licence fee. Most don't, but the threat of asking for one always hangs over their heads. This offends the Wikipeople who choose to force an open format on everyone. They believe that the more people who know about Ogg, the more people will abandon mp3. This probably would work on Wikipedia because of its popularity, but Wikinews doesn't have the same pulling power.

 * This is all I intend to say on the subject because I'm not interested in turning this into a personal crusade. I am not trying to antagonise the community, but I do feel that a review of policy doesn't hurt every now and then.

 * WillJenkins 09:54, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Thanks very much indeed for your explanation! I admit, I more or less guessed something like this, but now I know it, which is a lot nicer. :)
 * Concerning the problem What-do-we-use and What-is-the majority-using I get your point. (My experience for example is, that many of my friends - actually pretty much most of them - who asked me: "Where do you read texts/news briefs?", later told me: "I can´t listen to it. Doesn´t work on my PC. Don´t know how to implement the necessary feature. etc." Since some of my friends are living as far away as Sydney, AUS, it is quite difficult to explain to them how they can be able to implement ogg-files. This has of course to do with the fact that most of the people I know are mainly users. They are not interested in installing this and implementing that to their computers, because they are happy to have a running system.)
 * You´ve written: "But the threat of asking for one (licence) always hangs over their heads." I understand it like this, that this threat would be "hanging above the ´head´ of wikinews" as well. Hence I do understand the unwillingness to use MP3, even though it limits the reach of the programm.
 * Anyway, we certainly can´t discuss this matter to the end. Mabye we have to be patient up until the moment, when ogg-files are normal for the majority of the users. Afterall, more and more companies and even public organisations in Germany switch to Linux in recent months. Don´t know whether this is an ongoing process, but it definitely helps to boost the open source idea.
 * Gumboyaya 13:52, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Pirate Party audio
Great work, thanks! I was actually giving a presentation about Wikinews to some citizen radio projects a couple of days ago. I showed them the interview as an example of the original reporting work we do -- and was very pleasantly surprised to see an audio version at the bottom where there previously had been none. Of course it made a nice addition to my presentation! :-) I also think you did an excellent job changing the tone of your voice during the question/answer exchanges. Please keep the audio files coming!--Eloquence 19:12, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Thank you! It's very kind of you to say so :) WillJenkins 10:48, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Audio Wikinews...
Thanks for recording..

Perhaps you could assist Nichols Turnball on getting the NewsBriefs to be a regular daily service ? ShakespeareFan00 00:04, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:SillyWilly


text:
User talk:JoeSpetrini

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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! Jason Safoutin 12:38, 7 May 2006 (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
 * 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:JoeSpetrini


text:
User talk:62.57.4.254

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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!
 * 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
 * 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!

Additionally, 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 will be reverted quickly. Jason Safoutin 12:47, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:62.57.4.254


text:
Talk:Iran says it may withdraw from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Spelling
Please spell check, especially titles, before publishing. Neutralizer 12:53, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Npov
"Threatens" implies something other than withdrawal and is POV in this case,I think. Iran clearly states they would feel forced to exercise their rights, in fact I don't even know if someone can be said to be "threatening" to exercise a right. Maybe "warn"? Neutralizer 12:53, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I think they are threatening....give us this or we will do this...one could even say extorting. But thats a little too much. But threaten is that they are doing, only because they are stating an ultimatum. Jason Safoutin 12:56, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Also, they are not being forced, IMO...They are already enriching uranium...so wheres the force? Nothing has been done to "force" them to stop other than a "draft resolution" and UN referral. Jason Safoutin 12:58, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Your point about "forced" is a good point; I welcome that edit change you made to change the word "forced". Neutralizer 13:01, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry, have to go to work again (on call today). Another good story,Jason. Neutralizer 13:02, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Not Breaking
I wouldnt say this article is breaking. Article is about a letter that made some buzz, not a incident. Still I think it goes for lead so dont missunderstand me. The article wasnt a stub in its first version and if it was so there is another tag for that. Someone may, or I do later, remove tag and change image at frontside to that in the article. international 14:55, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I think it is... My humble opinion is that breaking news could simply be any latest hot news coming... You can be sure that sooner or later the tag will be moved to the next breaking news or removed at all... :) --Yuriybrisk 19:56, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * There is almost some kind of predictable dramaturgy over this conflict now. That make, in my humble opinion, the coming related articles less breaking compared to its newsiness (cool word, newsiness, isnt it). international 20:46, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

one-on-one
According to the source on the top, thy will not talk one on one-: "The U.S. isn't prepared to have talks on a one-to-one equal basis." That is what they said yesterday, if that changed it must be in a new article IMO. Jason Safoutin 12:59, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Huh?
...''Raw Story earlier made claims from unnamed intelligence sources that some parts of the US administration are opposed to diplomatic activities with Iran. It claimed that US vice-president Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are carrying out "an ongoing attempt ... to squash diplomatic activities" and using Manucher Ghorbanifar, a key figure in the Iran-Contra Affair, to monitor and report on "any interaction and attempts at negotiations between Iranian officials and US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad.''

Although this is from a Wikinews article I am not sure that it "balances" the article....unnamed sources...speculating...I am not sure its a beneficial piece of info? Jason Safoutin 13:06, 8 May 2006 (UTC)


text:
The Sultan's Elephant entertains London

May 7, 2006

The Sultan's Elephant, a giant piece of street theatre by French group Royal de Luxe, has been entertaining Londoners over the course of this weekend. The show started on Thursday, when a 'crashed rocket' was in place at Victoria Place. On Friday, an oversized marionette of a young girl emerged from the rocket and met with the giant mechanised elephant. Over the course of the weekend, these two giant puppets have been parading around London streets, closed especially for the event.

Whilst Friday remained hot and sunny, the weekend turned wetter, but the rain didn't seem to put off the crowds, some of who received a second soaking from the elephant's trunk! The elephant stopped at Trafalger Square over lunchtime on the Saturday, before parading to Horse Guard's Parade, where seating had been specially erected around a giant stage.

Over ten puppeteers operate the elephant, made mostly of wood, using a complex arrangement of hydraulics and motors. The elephant moves its feet, wags its tails, waves and squirts water from its trunk, flaps its ears, blinks, and can even open its mouth to reveal a moving tongue. The girl marionette is held on a big frame, and was given a ride on the elephant's trunk using a crane. The girl has been seen licking a giant lollipop, and even do a wee on the road.

The spectacle will end on Sunday with a grand finale.

Related News

 * The Sultan's Elephant arrives in London, Wikinews, May 5, 2006.

title: The Sultan's Elephant entertains London


text: File:070506 1530 newsbriefs.ogg

title: File:070506 1530 newsbriefs.ogg


text:
Wikinews:Briefs/May 7, 2006

The time is 15:30 (UTC) on May 7th, 2006, and this is Audio Wikinews News Briefs.

Headlines
Iran says it may withdraw from Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty

Iran

In a letter to the United Nations, Iran's Parliament has said it may have to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if pressure to end its nuclear program escalates. The letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that if the issues with Iran's nuclear program are not settled by peaceful methods, then "there will be no option for the parliament but to ask the government to withdraw its signature."

Human Rights Watch implicates 600+ in war prisoner abuse

United States

A U.S. Army lieutenant colonel is expected to be charged soon in connection with the abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The news came on the same day human rights groups released a report charging that abuse of prisoners in U.S. military custody overseas has been widespread and only limited steps have been taken to investigate and punish those involved.

Iraqis celebrate deaths of British troops

Iraq

A British military helicopter crashed in Basra on Saturday killing four crew members. Local Iraqis filled the surrounding streets celebrating the crash before a clash occurred with British troops upon their arrival. "We can confirm it was a British military helicopter that has crashed and an investigation is ongoing," a British military spokesman in London said. An AFP reporter on the scene heard from a local policeman that the helicopter was hit by a rocket fired by local militia.

Sudan will welcome UN Peacekeepers in Darfur

Sudan

Sudan Government has expressed that Darfur Peace Acccord with main rebel group, Sudan Liberation Army, led by Minni Menawi, can overturn the previous rejection of UN Peacekeepers. So far, only African Union Peacekeepers were allowed in Darfur. "The Sudan government will be open for any assistance," Bakri Mulah, secretary-general for external affairs in Sudan's Information Ministry, said in Khartoum, Sudan.

PAP returned to power in 2006 Parliamentary Elections, Singapore

Singapore

The incumbent People's Action Party (PAP) has retained its power in the Singapore parliament after getting 66.6% of the valid votes. It maintained 82 of the available 84 seats after securing 45 of the 47 contested seat, together with 37 of the seats that it won on Nomination Day on 26th April through walkovers. The opposition parties Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) and Workers' Party (WP) also retained one seat each. Despite having more seats contested in this election compared to the 2001 General Elections, the breakdown of seats remains unchanged from the previous election. However, the PAP only won a reduced majority, having only 66.6% of the valid votes compared to the 75% that it won in the previous election because of the spectre of terrorism and a poor economy then.

Australian veteran Nine Network reporter dies

Australia

During a live press interview broadcast at the Beaconsfield Gold Mine on the Seven and Nine Networks Veteran 60 Minutes news reporter Richard Carleton suffered a suspected heart attack.

We invite you to visit wikinews.org for up-to-date news and information. This has been Audio Wikinews Newsbriefs. Thank you for listening, and enjoy the rest of your day.

This recording has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

title: Wikinews:Briefs/May 7, 2006


text:
User talk:Mrmiscellanious

Shame you left. I liked you. Dan100 (Talk) 17:13, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

BLOODY!
Wheres the Audio wiki podcast! Bloody hell... .:*:*:DAVUMAYA:*:*:. 05:54, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Accreditation Expiration
Greetings, I wanted to let you know that our policy regarding accreditation has recently changed slightly. Specifically we've enacted an automatic expiration of accreditation after 2 years. You can very easily "re-up" your accreditation should you choose to, but at this point in time you're on the Inactive list. As such your accreditation will automatically be revoked on March 15th unless you request otherwise. Currently, posting to the following thread will keep your accreditation. At a later date, all Accredited reporters will be put in for that "re-up", at which time you'll be notified. Thank you, and should you have any questions, feel free to contact me on my talk page. -- Shakata Ga Nai ^_^ 20:33, 4 March 2010 (UTC)

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 MrM. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name MrM~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 23:22, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mrmiscellanious


text:
Talk:Filmmaker releases trailer for open source feature film

open source?

 * Filmmaker releases trailer for open source feature film

The article really doesn't qualify that line. Its released under a free-ish license, but I don't think that makes it open source. How is it open source? Lastly should it have Category:FLOSS attached? Bawolff ☺☻ 16:16, 7 May 2006 (UTC)


text:
User:Sean Heron/Archive

Page I´ve collected links to work with (background info and such).

First week almost over!
Wow, yes, I´ve been here for a week now, but it doesn´t seem it! There tonnes of stuff going on, and its not easy to choose where to go and what to do: Monday and Tuesday there were two plenary sessions running in parallel most of the time, then there is a room that press conferences are being held more or less non stop by various organizations and nations, and lastly there are commonly four to six so called "side events" going on in a neighbouring hotel, which are usually informative presentations (one of the last I saw was on how deforestation and degredation can be measured by various satellite imaging methods). At the same time your making friendly and business connections with people here, astonishingly easy as well.. And in between all that I try to get to do some of the stuff I originally came here for, which is writing news :D. Under these conditions it easily turns 4 in the morning before you get home. On one occasion, noting that there was a market just opening, me and a befriended journalist from Canada (Toby Heaps) popped in between the dead chickens and piles of vegetables to grab some tuck, as he hadn´t eaten that evening.

But back to the event: I was very amazed at how accesable everything is, its in stark contrast to the way things were in Heiligendamm: At least this first week before the ministers arrived you could walk around the plenary while the sessions were being held, just approach the delegates in breaks, get up on stage after a Press Conference and ask Yvo de Boer this and that, basicly do more or less anything you please. The limits are the closed sessions, though I know some people that have slipped in those as well...

So all very open, but the flip side of the coin is that what your told informally is generally considered off the record. That means although I may be plenty in the know, there is nothing I can source that information to. So why have I done no interviews you ask? Well, no easy answer to that, I guess it comes down to me having set my priorities differently. One problem still is that, as I haven´t planned things out, the day rushes by, which one event racing after the next, hardly leaving a breather to think about what I could be doing instead of listening to the Umbrella group and the G77+ China argue about whether or not technology transfer is on the agenda or not for a good two hours. I must also admit that I´ve been contacting some enviromental NGO´s asking them if I can give them a hand in any way. I didn´t have much any luck with that at first, but I yesterday met with a German organisation, and might help them with a presentation and the entailing press release. I hope I don´t offend my colleagues here when I say that lending my support to these organisations is more important to me personally than doing reporting :/.

Well, its been very interesting so far, and I want to thank those of you at home who have given me a hand with the articles, that was definitely much appreciated :D, as well as the feedback I´ve recieved. I reckon you might not be hearing from me here before the end of the conference, so till then I suppose.

P.S. for any German speakers: I´ve been blogged elsewhere. Oh, and you can see me asking a question at minute 19 + 30 secs here (can you say vanity :D ?). de:Benutzer:Sean_Heron

Over
Yes, its over. After a day of limbo (at least thats how I felt) the Climate conference (finally) ended yesterday. And how crazy was that last day. Some of you might have seen comments I was making on Wikinews, and I just have to say again that I was really relieved when the US so unexpectedly agreed to the amended text (I was up there on the press gallery giving them standing ovations together with the rest of the plenary :D). I really saw everything coming apart beforehand, and from the worried expressions of fellow journalists, I saw that others were thinking the same (those that I spoke only confirmed this). I was glad I didn't see the guys from Germanwatch I did the translation for till after it was over though, cause their policy guy (who does the lobby work), told me that he had also been afraid it might fail at the last minute, and I would have given quite something on his opinion! But I guess this might all be a bit of detail overload (I reckon it shows you were my heart is).

So what happened/what have I been doing in the second week here on Bali? One quite nice thing that springs to mind was being invited by the Canadian Journalist I'm sharing a bungalow with (Toby Heaps) to have Dinner with some guys from TV. Afraid I can't recall their names, but these two, both based in Beijing had some real interesting stories to tell, from the US base in Kabul till how to get around paying Bagshish (bribe, have absolutely no idea how its usually spelt) when travelling in Indonesia or elsewhere.

Oh right, I did the aforementioned translation for the German NGO Germanwatch. They released their climate risk index on Monday or Tuesday, and I translated the press release into english (that being one of a number of things that kept me up till late during that week, SVTCobra :D).

Otherwise I've been connecting up to some young people from Europe with a view to the next two conferences on Monday and Tuesday (when there wasn't too much happening to be reported on, as all the action was behind closed doors in small groups then; hmm, not that this changed too much towards later really...). But I guess I should stay more focused on the news side of things :).

The high level segment was a blessing for me: there were no parallel events and the speeches weren't contributing to the ongoing negotiations in any meaningful manner, so I actually haven't seen one of them :D. I was guessing that as this (to me) non event went on there were sure to be some delegates available to interview, so I sent out some requests. Unfortunately most remained unreplied, the only ones to really get back to me were the Brazilians, but he told me something I hadn't fully realized previously: That everybody was pretty engaged in negotiations within smaller groups, and that he therefore did not believe that I'd be able to get to talk with anyone (which is what happened).

I have the impression I'm not really in storyteller mode at the moment, so thats all for now, and I hope it wasn't too boring. I hope to add a bit more over the next few days!

Regards Sean Heron 13:25, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Bits and pieces
Well, in my last post I had promised I'd fill in some gaps later, and though the conference is now more than a week over, and the memories are naturally fading, I still wanted to do so. When I was thinking about what might be interesting and I hadn't mentioned yet, what sprung to mind was how the media and the NGOs/Governmental representatives work like two cogs with one another when it goes to conveying news.

I guess I should start of by some broader context: Everybody at the conference got a badge/card for entry checks (barcoded even). These had your name and organisation on them, which of course is quite helpful. Most importantly though (in everyday social contacts) they had a colour and text designating them either "NGO", "Media", or "Party" (the delegates) [There were others but thats not relevant]. Now the interesting thing was, and I didn't realize this until a few days in, that carrying a "Media" card round with you, got all sorts of people to peddle information to you (not quite as intrusively as you get peddled pretty much anything as a foreigner here in Bali, but with equally keen interest :D). "I have a real story for you, mate", "... I think I might have some more information for you later, could you give me your number?" were some of the best I heard.

This leads me back to the "media machine" and its "feeding". As in Heiligendamm, the writing press got a big working area to itself. So you have a nice collection of journalists there, and plenty of organisations giving press briefings used this circumstance to do some "canvasing" for themselves. From the US State Department, to the NGO I had some contact with, Germanwatch, you'd have people going around placing sheets stating where, when and what their press conference is going to be (about).

And with the amount of stuff going on, people (icluding me) would follow these invites (its not as if the information weren't easy at hand either: there were "daily programmes" lying about in stacks that did include a timetable of all press briefings). I know because I gave a hand doing some canvasing myself for a youth delegation doing a "stunt", as it is called (they dressed up as sleazy corporate bosses, they were doling out monopoly money to any delegates they found), and there were quite a few people I was pressing the advertisement into the hands of, that said: "oh right, I wanted to go there, where is it happening?" or "no time, but I'll give my colleague a call".

On the press briefings themselves: You might remember me saying that there was one room where press briefings were held more or less non stop. Well, at least on the last days, there were also journalists that were their more or less all the time. How do you know, you ask. You must have been there all the time as well then! Well I guess I have to admit that yes, I was there most of the time as well, and there was not much else you could do on Friday, so I guess the case I'm making isn't a strong one. Still, it did get me thinking, at least at times, we were entirely dependent of the information we were being given in the briefings. Still, I guess its nevertheless worlds apart from Heiligendamm, were the best you got was press briefings... over TV. And a number of limited Photo opportunities.

Speaking of which what I hadn't anticipated was how various NGOs had a good number of "stunts" set up (one I already mentioned). The fossil awards, which were handed out daily to the countries the Climate action network (CAN) viewed as the most obstructive that day, even advertised: "good photo opportunities" on their flyers. I never did get round to watching one, but apparently they didn't just name which nations and why got the awards, no, they always had someone from the appropriate nation stand in to "recieve" the reward, and made quite a show of it :). And this was not just anybody handing them out, but a network of the greater part of the environmental NGOs present (see also http://www.climatenetwork.org/).

So yes, a lot of what the NGOs were doing was centred around getting press coverage, and I had the impression that the press on the other hand, often had a hard time understanding what was going on, or getting something good to cover, if it wasn't fed us bite size (see for example my "scientists urge action on climate change" article, based entirely on the information I was given). So yes, I find the image of two cog wheels running in one another quite adequate.

What else have I missed until now ? Maybe just how accesable the delegates were. I myself didn't actually talk in much with any one of them, but tagging along with Toby Heaps on one day (a Canadian journalist I was sharing a Bungalow with), we were at a restaurant at the Canadian Delegations Hotel, and they had just finished eating together with a bunch of Canadian Press people when we got there. Toby (who later released a paper on Carbon taxing he had coauthored) took up the opportunity and presented some of the thoughts of the paper to one of the delegates.

And this didn't seem too uncommon. One of the young Europeans I met up with, a woman from Norway, said they (the members of their/the Norwegian NGO(s), not sure) had regular meetings with the delegates, where they would of course lobby for their position. A young woman from Belgium had actually been invited onto the delegation, and was thus even more involved in the whole process (she once bemoaned that it was difficult to lobby if your government was already getting things pretty right. She stated that the Belgians position inside the EU was a progressive one, but that they had to tone it down outwards, as the EU was presenting one common position).

I was of course previously aware that lobby work happened, but I guess I had never thought about how it worked in detail, and so it was quite interesting and somewhat surprising for me to see and hear about the process. Anything else? Their's certainly still plenty I could tell, but to sum it up I'll just say that I realized time and again that all those attending, NGOs, press, security or delegates, are just humans in the end and, of course, act that way as well and not just in the roles they have been given.

title: User:Sean Heron/Archive


text:
User talk:84.92.23.45

Please do not vandalize articles or you will be blocked. Bawolff ☺☻ 16:54, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:84.92.23.45


text:
User talk:Haxxorz~enwikinews

Welcome
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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! — THIS IS M ESSED OCKER  (TALK) 18:15, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
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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 Haxxorz. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Haxxorz~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.

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title: User talk:Haxxorz~enwikinews


text:
Anti-censorship developers targeting China's "Great Firewall"

May 8, 2006

is being launched the end of this month as a highly anticipated software program that allows Internet users inside China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Myanmar (formerly Burma), to get around censorship without being detected by the censors.

Three University of Toronto students, Ron Deibert, Nart Villeneuve, and Michael Hull combined their political passion and love of free expression to create the software program that is attracting attention globally from people like Sharon Hom, executive director of New York-based "Human Rights in China".

"We've been trying to circumvent both the firewalls and the censorship surveillance," said Hom; "So it's something we are very, very interested in."

"It's enormous," says Deibert who directs the Citizen Lab at the U of T's Munk Centre for International Studies, where the threesome works. "If it works the way we hope it does and is distributed worldwide, it will have a huge impact on freedom of speech."

According to Andrew Chung of the , "China blocks countless websites, from ones featuring porn to those devoted to Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China. Anything on human rights is off-limits. Same for democracy." Although the precise out by the Chinese government is dynamic and more specific than this implies, any censorship of the internet is seen by some free-speech advocates a gross violation of human rights.

The Citizen Lab taking on powerful censors such as China is like the people of Lilliput taking on Gulliver. "It's a huge uphill battle," Deibert agrees. "The trajectory in terms of global politics is toward greater state control (of the Internet). I see closure everywhere."

Villeneuve, 31, shrugs his shoulders and smirks, "It just seems like the right thing to do."

The Citizen Lab even has "black boxes," mini-computers that can be "planted" discreetly inside these countries to run the tests. "This kind of research is illegal in almost every country we do it in."

Psiphon is supposed to be able to effectively turn anyone's personal computer into a proxy server. The censored user may then connect to the computer running Psiphon and accesses banned content from there, all out of the view of censors. Psiphon data is also encrypted and moves globally on a network reserved for secure financial transactions, so the Censor wouldn't be able to tell a Psiphon request from a MasterCard purchase.

"We're making the Internet run the way it's supposed to," said Villeneuve; "Because people have broken it."


text:
Talk:Anti-censorship developers targeting China's "Great Firewall"

Right, there's a big misleading bit about a "secure financial network", this uses the plain old Internet. It just sends requests to port 443, same as a https:// request. These are used for online shopping applications and online banking. I'd guess the theory behind this approach is you can't block traffic to that port without interfering with Internet commerce.

What is not made clear is how people are going to use this in the West, that's where the key software component has to be installed. If you do not have a fixed IP address, then you're constantly going to have to tell people the address for your machine. You're also going to have to leave it on when the people in China or Saudi Arabia need it. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:08, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Having read a fair bit of the stuff linked to from the Wikipedia article, this is going to be a pain to use for people not on a fixed IP address. If your IP address is leased to you, then it is likely different every time you start a session on the Internet.  Many ISPs also force disconnections to people who have very long sessions so they have problems running servers such as this proxy.  For example, my current IP address is 213.193.176.92 and I'd have to send that to my friend in oppresive China so they could use my connection today.  If it was 213.193.176.98 tomorrow, I'd have to send it again.
 * Here's another issue with this, is what the domain name entries for domestic internet connections are. There already exist spam blacklists that contain most of the end-user IP space, the presumption there is the only mail originating from these locations is from spam Zombies.  The Chinese could simply start using these lists to block traffic to port 443 and the proxy would cease to be useful unless people could run it at work.  --Brian McNeil / talk 21:16, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

The two issues you address are solved by establishing a DNS entry for a dynamic IP and having the end-user access DNS servers which are on fixed IP addresses. As for how to block the use of these dynamic IP servers, let's leave that up to the Chinese government to discover. Karen 01:38, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Burma vs Myanmar
While we do have a category Burma, all other articles have called it category Myanmar and made reference to the name change by the Junta. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:11, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Different metaphor
The David and Goliath metaphor is used in the source, it is asymmetrical warfare which is most commonly represented in this way. How about like the people of Lilliput taking on Gulliver? --Brian McNeil / talk 19:17, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Languages
According to the report on the project from 2004, it is available in Norwegian, Persian, Spanish, Italian, French, English, Russian, Romanian, and Simplified Chinese. --Brian McNeil / talk 20:42, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

POV
This article is strongly anti-Chinese. The Chinese government does not block all sites with information on Human Rights and the Falun Gong movement is controversial in and of itself. The POV of this article is in question as it is taken almost verbatim from the Toronto Star article which is also biased. 21:42, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I don't see any actionable objections. The tagger is being inflammatory and insulting by using the term "anti-Chinese" when the article says nothing about the Chinese race. I am removing this tag until an actionable objection is raised. Neutralizer 23:47, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

The "actionable" part is to edit the story to list a narrower scope of topics/sites censored by the Chinese government - or perhaps just list a few specific representative examples of what is being censored. The objection is that the story states too large a scope of censorship, when it needs to be more specific. Karen 01:32, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Looks like Karen fixed it; any objections to tag removal? Neutralizer 03:46, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

As Karen states, my objection was the line "China blocks countless websites such as Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China. Anything on democracy and human rights is apparently off-limits." which is debateable and therefore should be qualified with ""s from Andrew Chung’s article or more precisely and accurately presented. I was not attempting to be insulting to the Wikinews community, only direct. I have changed the passage. If no one objects to the alteration I remove my objection to this article. 07:42, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I think your edit is ok. Maybe you should be a wikinewsie with your own nick ;) international 08:18, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, I agree with International; your observations were very helpful; please help us more. Neutralizer 13:35, 9 May 2006 (UTC)


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1 dead, 13 injured in Dublin bus pursuit

May 7, 2006

One person is dead and 13 others, including 5 members of the Garda Síochána, Ireland's police force, are injured following the pursuit of a stolen bus throughout the south of Dublin city and county.

A driver who was not authorised to take the vehicle early in the morning of May 7 stole the coach from the yard of private hire operator Dualway. The bus was later located at Dublin Heuston railway station by the coach company, where the driver attempted to run over the son of the owner of Dualway.

The driver then returned to the Dualway depot in Rathcoole in what developed in to a high speed pursuit involving up to 20 patrol cars and a police helicopter. The Gardaí fired several shots at the driver's tires in an attempt to stop the car, as well as laying tacks. The bus was driven down the wrong side of the N7 Naas road, where it collided with a number of cars, killing a female driver, and rammed five Garda patrol cars that were blocking the road. The driver was apprehended and arrested at the Dualway depot after crashing the bus.

Sections of the N7 as well as surrounding roads were closed following the incident for forensic examinations, and the Luas tram services were severely curtailed.


text:
Michael Schumacher wins the European Grand Prix

May 7, 2006 This weekend the fifth Grand Prix weekend of the Formula 1 season, the Grand Prix of Europe, took place in Germany on the Nürburgring track. Unlike the previous race, Michael Schumacher was only second on the grid after qualifying on Saturday, losing out the pole position to Fernando Alonso, the first Renault pilot. However, in the last part of the race, "Schumi" outpaced Alonso on the track and took the lead thanks to some fast laps with the track free of traffic while Alonso took his final pitstop. The German passed the checkered flag and won for the 86th time in his Formula 1 career.

In spite of his second "defeat", Fernando Alonso stands in the lead of the drivers championship, 13 points ahead his closest competitor, Michael Schumacher.

Felipe Massa, the second Ferrari driver, was third. This achievement is the first podium of his Formula 1 career.

Kimi Räikkönen struggled with the car this weekend, but ended up finishing the weekend with a fourth place. Kimi pushed hard on the closing laps and closed the gap to Felipe Massa to +0.4 seconds upon crossing the finish line.

Nico Rosberg, the "discovery of the season", had a nice race for the Williams Formula 1 team. He finished 7th.


text:
March against new French copyright law

May 7, 2006

Paris, France - Protesters marched denouncing the new copyright bill, known as. Opponents to the bill contend that the broad civil and criminal penalties that it enacts in order to fight illegal online copying of copyrighted works will in fact have a chilling effect on a variety of unrelated developments, especially in free software. More than 160,000 people signed the anti-DADVSI petition from, a watchdog group fighting developments of the.

The protest, uniting elected officials, representatives from computing and Internet organisations, political groups, and simple citizens, walked in a festive and peaceful atmosphere from the Place de la Bastille (site of the former royal prison) to the. It was organized by a variety of associations, including StopDRM,, , , various free software and Linux user groups, and sponsored by the and its young adult affiliate organisation, the youngs of the French Socialist Party, the youngs of the centrist Union for French Democracy, the young Greens. All the sponsors of this march are listed here. Depending on estimates, between 300 and 800 people marched, a low number by French standards.

The DADVSI law, among other issues, enacts an extensive protection of copyrighted content online and a protection of techniques, including civil and criminal penalties for help in circumventing them. Opponents contend that the bill, depending on how it is amended in the French Senate, could in effect criminalise the writing of players compatible with new online distribution formats for music, video or even text, and thus make such content unplayable on systems such as Linux, thereby generating a monopoly for established suppliers.

Supporters of the bill, such as cinema and recording industry groups, contend that strong measures are needed to thwart online copying, which, according to them, is responsible for important losses of sales and revenue. They deny the risks for free software and other freedoms, claiming that, despite vague provisions, the law will be enforced wisely by the judiciary. They claim that new online legal commercial downloading platforms will flourish when peer-to-peer copying has stopped.

The bill is due to be examined in the Senate this week. Then, under the fast track procedure requested by the government, it may be signed into law by president Jacques Chirac after a mixed commission merges the text from the Senate and the lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly. Opponents have already indicated they would mount a constitutional challenge before the Constitutional Council. The bill, when it was examined by the National Assembly, proved divisive; the ruling UMP party was split on the issue, some even sponsoring a "legal licence" which would enable French Internet users to copy copyrighted content legally, provided they would pay a flat fee which would be split between the rights holder.

Protesters, as well as deputies from all parties, contend that major lobbies influenced the bill’s passage. Some amendments were nicknamed , from the name of a major record company that allegedly suggested it. Protesters recalled that Minister of Culture was convicted of  in 2004.

title: March against new French copyright law


text:
UK Government report into UFOs released

May 7, 2006

A report by the Ministry of Defence investigating the possible existence of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) was released today. The report was confidentially published in 2000 and has come to light after Dr David Clarke of Sheffield Hallam University requested it citing the Freedom of Information Act.

The report concludes that "no evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces ... There is no evidence that 'solid' objects exist which could cause a collision hazard".

Explanations such as meteors and the aurora borealis effect are accredited as the cause of most, if not all, UFO sightings.

Related links

 * Ministry of Defence
 * Sheffield Hallam University
 * Web site of the team which secured the release of the documents
 * BBC News interview with Dr. David Clarke and Joe McGonagle

title: UK Government report into UFOs released


text:
Talk:UK Government report into UFOs released

nice story... Frankie Roberto 22:42, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Ummm, i'm just wondering why on Earth ;) such a report would need to be extracted from the government via a FOI process - though i guess standard government instinct in keeping information secret is probably a reasonable explanation. A more speculative explanation could be that the authorities have an interest in people being superstitious and believing alien stories... Boud 00:17, 9 May 2006 (UTC)


text:
Soft drink foes cheer victory, lament remaining junk foods in schools

May 8, 2006 Last week’s announcement that most soda manufacturers will stop selling their sugary products in U.S. schools did not mention that avoiding lawsuits was part of the motivation for the self-imposed ban. Some of those who threatened legal action to stop the soda sales are patting themselves on the back over the agreement, while lamenting that the deal did not go far enough, and now plan to press for more restrictions.

“Though there is room for improvement — sugary “sports” drinks still will be sold in schools, for instance — this voluntary agreement is certainly good enough that CSPI will drop its planned lawsuit against Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and their bottlers,” said Michael F. Jacobson, the executive director of the. “I hope this settlement contributes to the momentum that is building in Congress for legislation that would require USDA to update its standards for foods sold outside of school meals. That would enable USDA to eliminate the sale of candy, cookies, French fries, potato chips, and other snack foods, as well as sports drinks, that are standard fare in school vending machines and stores.”

In the wake of the announcement of the agreement by the three largest soft drink companies, their bottlers and the public health advocacy group, the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Jacobson thanked his team of litigators for “negotiating effectively with the soft-drink industry over the past six months, and for demonstrating that the judicial system can play an important role in spurring public health advances.”

Richard Daynard, a law professor and president of the Public Health Advocacy Institute, which threatened the soft-drink industry with lawsuits, said in an institute press release, “The industry agreement with the Clinton Foundation and comes after sustained pressure from potential litigation and negotiations with public health groups and their lawyers. It is a credit to the role of litigation and the legal system as a component of effective public health strategy."

"This agreement demonstrates the potential of public health litigation to help control the obesity epidemic," he said.

In an email exchange with the James Logan Courier, Margo Wootan, director of Nutrition Policy for the Center for Science in the Public interest, said, "Last week's announcement that soft drink companies will pull all sugary sodas from schools is great step toward improving school foods. This agreement is the culmination of the tremendous national momentum on improving school foods -- from the local policies (in LA, NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, DC, etc.), state bills (in 2005, 200 bills were introduced in 40 states to get soda and junk foods out of schools), the strong bipartisan bill pending in the U.S. Congress, and threats of litigation against soda companies."

"While today's agreement is a huge step forward, it is by no means the last step" wrote Wootan, " We still have a lot of work to do to improve school foods."

The agreement, announced Wednesday morning by the Foundation, means that the nation’s biggest beverage distributors, and the American Beverage Association, will pull their soda products from vending machines and cafeterias in schools serving about 35 million students, according to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a joint initiative between the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association.

Under the agreement, high schools will still be able to purchase drinks such as diet and unsweetened teas, diet sodas, sports drinks, flavored water, seltzer and low-calorie sports drinks for resale to students.

The companies plan to stop soda sales at 75 percent of the nation's public schools by the 2008-2009 school year, and at all schools in the following school year. The speed of the changes will depend in part on school districts' willingness to change their contracts with the beverage distributors.

Some food activists criticized the deal for not going far enough and undermining efforts to go further.

Michele Simon, the director of the Center for Informed Food Choices, based in Oakland, Ca., called the deal “bogus” and a “PR stunt” by “Big Cola” in an effort to “sugar coat it’s image.”

“This announcement could potentially undermine ongoing grassroots efforts, state legislation, and other enforceable policies,” wrote Simon in an article at www.commondreams.org,” For example, in Massachusetts where a stronger bill is pending, a local advocate is worried about the adverse impact, since legislators could easily think that Clinton has taken care of the problem and ignore the bill. What was already an uphill battle—getting schools and legislatures to take this problem seriously—was just made worse, not better, by this bogus agreement.

“Even from a health standpoint, the deal is hardly impressive. Diet soda full of artificial sweeteners, sports drinks high in sugar, and other empty-calorie beverages with zero nutritional value are still allowed in high schools,” Simon wrote, “Also, parents concerned about soda advertising in schools will not be pleased with the agreement. Not a word is mentioned about the ubiquitous marketing children are subjected to daily in the form of branded score boards, school supplies, sports bags, and cups (just to name a few), which is required by exclusive Coke and Pepsi contracts. “

She’s not the only one criticizing the deal.“ While the initial details are promising, PHAI is concerned about some aspects of the agreement as it is being reported,” Daynard said in the press release. “The continual sale of "sports drinks" is a cause for concern. While they have a role for marathon runners and others engaged in sustained strenuous sports, for most students "sports drinks" are just another form of sugar water. Furthermore, the change in beverages offered must be carefully monitored and cannot depend entirely on the schools’ willingness and ability to alter existing contracts. Soda companies have spent decades pushing these unhealthy drinks on children and should bear the responsibility for their removal. PHAI is also concerned about the enforcement of this agreement and its silence on industry marketing activities in the school system,” he said.

"Importantly, the agreement doesn't address the sale of chips, candy, snack cakes, ice cream, or any of the other high-fat, high-calorie, high-salt foods that are sold widely in schools," said Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, "This is a voluntary agreement and is not enforceable, we need Senator Harkin's school foods bill to lock in the beverage standards and give them the force of law."

Even the diet drinks, which will still be offered, need to go, said Ross Getman, an attorney in Syracuse, NY. Getman has advocated that soda should not be sold in public schools and that long-term "pouring rights" agreements, which give a company exclusive access to sell their brands at a school, are illegal for a variety of reasons.

Getman, who contends that some diet sodas are contaminated with benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, said the soda “industry gets an "F" for incomplete” for “the industry's failure to pull all soda from school and to recall products.”

Schools account for about $700 million in U.S. soft-drink sales, less than 1 percent total revenue for Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Cadbury, the nation's largest soda companies.

Ten of the largest U.S. school districts have already removed soft drinks from vending machines, according to Getman. States including California, Maine and Connecticut have also banned sugary sodas in schools.


text:
User:Timobrien~enwikinews

Tim O'Brien

In the interest of disclosure...

I am a Connecticut State Representative

and

Here is my Home Page.

title: User:Timobrien~enwikinews


title: File:08May2006.pdf


title: File:08May2006.sxw


text:
User talk:58.6.125.215

Hi, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! I see that you've been contributing to articles about Australia. If you're an Aussie, you may want to take a look at the Australian portal, and the Australian discussion page. If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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title: User talk:58.6.125.215


text:
User talk:203.212.145.11

Hi, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions; I hope you like the place and decide to stay! I see that you've been contributing to articles about Australia. If you're an Aussie, you may want to take a look at the Australian portal, and the Australian discussion page. If you haven't done so already, you may want to create an account.

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! - Borofkin 01:44, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:203.212.145.11


text:
User talk:Justapine

Welcome
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title: User talk:Justapine


text:
User talk:Liquidizer~enwikinews

Welcome
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Renamed
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title: User talk:Liquidizer~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Aabdi406

Welcome
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title: User talk:Aabdi406


text:
User talk:Cristina~enwikinews

Welcome
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Your account will be renamed
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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 Cristina. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Cristina~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.

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Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:15, 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) 06:30, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Cristina~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Shahzebmalhi

Welcome
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title: User talk:Shahzebmalhi


text:
User talk:Wfischer75~enwikinews

Welcome
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Your account will be renamed
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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 Wfischer75. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Wfischer75~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 23:39, 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) 06:40, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Wfischer75~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Natuam 72~enwikinews

Welcome
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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 Natuam 72. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Natuam 72~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 23:19, 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) 06:34, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Natuam 72~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Timobrien~enwikinews

Welcome
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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 Timobrien. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Timobrien~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.

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Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:35, 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) 06:38, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Timobrien~enwikinews


text: Talk:Rescue of Tasmanian miners delayed

title: Talk:Rescue of Tasmanian miners delayed


text:
Talk:Trapped miners rescue delayed

Duplicate
I think that we should merge the content in this article into Rescue of Tasmanian miners delayed, and then delete this article. - Borofkin 02:00, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Trapped miners rescue delayed


text:
Category:May 8, 2006

de:Kategorie:08.05.2006 es:Categoría:8 de mayo de 2006 fr:Catégorie:8 mai 2006 it:Categoria:8 maggio 2006 ja:カテゴリ:2006年5月8日 pl:Kategoria:8 maja 2006 pt:Categoria:8 de maio de 2006 sv:Kategori:8 maj 2006 zh:Category:2006年5月8日

title: Category:May 8, 2006


text:
User talk:65.93.80.115

Welcome
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Additionally, 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 will be reverted quickly. Jason Safoutin 02:42, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:65.93.80.115


text:
User talk:Seven06renault

Welcome
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title: User talk:Seven06renault


text:
User talk:58.108.92.163

Welcome
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title: User talk:58.108.92.163


text:
Sex-for-aid spreads in war-torn Liberia

May 8, 2006

The aid agency Save the Children says an alarming number of girls in Liberia, as young as eight, were having sex with UN peacekeepers, policemen, teachers and humanitarian aid workers in exchange for money, food or favours.

"People don't really accept it but because of the financial constraints, people just have to do so. Most of them are in households headed by only the mother, catering for children. Their fathers got killed in the war, or some fathers are living but can't afford to care for their children; they have to accept the situation, so there is no way out. "

The report says most people cited lack of economic and livelihood opportunities, as well as chronic poverty, as underlying causes for the ongoing exploitation of children. Parents reported feeling powerless to stop children who were having sex in exchange for goods and services, as they did not have the economic means to provide for their children. In some instances, families cited that transactional sex was a means of supporting the wider family to access things such as food or money to purchase food. In other cases, children identified more personal needs such as clothing or being able to access video clubs to watch films. The widespread nature of the problem meant it affected children in a broad cross section of environments.

The study, conducted by Save the Children, was intended to explore the ways in which children in 'Internally Displaced Person' (IDP) camps are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse as they attempt to meet their basic and other needs. It also explored the roles and responsibilities of humanitarian agencies in providing more protective systems for the delivery of assistance. During the discussions in the field, 315 men, women and children were consulted.

The people of Liberia have experienced ongoing suffering over the past two decades as a result of war and displacement. Children have been drawn into this in many ways, such as recruitment into armed forces, separation from their families, witnessing atrocities, rape and torture. Thousands have been driven from their homes into exile in neighbouring countries or camps for IDPs within Liberia, the report says.

Liberia has been shattered by the 1989-2003 civil war which caused an estimated 250,000 deaths in a country of barely 3 million people. The war forced around 1.3 million people from their homes into camps around the capital Monrovia or abroad.

Elections late last year saw Harvard-trained former World Bank economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf elected as the new president. Her government faces a massive task in rebuilding an economy and society torn apart by years of bloodshed. Many Liberians have been, and continue to be, heavily reliant on humanitarian assistance as a means of survival. Those who are able to find work often still live in chronic poverty with the national average wage being only US$50 per month.

The report found that people unanimously agree that attitudes have fundamentally changed since the war.

“It is like the cultural tradition is not holding any more. People have lost the cultural values and the tradition has been broken down. ”

Most people said that children were not involved in prostitution before the war, or to a very small extent, and that this only happened in the cities but not in the villages.

title: Sex-for-aid spreads in war-torn Liberia


text:
User talk:Odebi

Welcome
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title: User talk:Odebi


text:
User talk:Boazjohn

Welcome
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 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * 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:Boazjohn