text:
Wikinews:Bots/Archive 3

Popular articles bot

 * Task: Updating Template:Popular articles
 * Task: Updating Template:Popular articles

Following on from this discussion at the water cooler, I've set up a bot to replace the absent. It will update Template:Popular articles once an hour with the top 20 most viewed articles, as in this diff. It is based on User:Bawolff bot with a few modifications. It uses shell scripts and Python (pywikipedia bot framework) and runs on the Wikimedia Toolserver. Source code is available, I plan to clean up the python code a bit but it works just fine. the wub "?!"  22:17, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Votes

 * --If it works just like MelancholieBot then definitely-very good addition, thank you wub!    Tris   22:24, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * looks good, thanks wub. Tempodivalse [talk]  22:57, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 16:43, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * --Patrick M (TUFKAAP) (talk) 06:15, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * This feature has really been missing for a while, so I'd be glad to have it back. Calebrw (talk) 06:26, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * should place popular articles back on Main Page Cocoaguytalkcontribs‽ 19:42, 9 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Den dodge  T\C 20:17, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅, one week without objections plus we need popular articles back ASAP Tempodivalse [talk]  20:20, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

 * Despite the low # of votes, I'm inclinded to close and pass since this bot is likely to be so very uncontroversial, as all interwiki bots are. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 14:48, 30 October 2010 (UTC)

 * Operator: Mjbmr
 * Bot name: User:Mjbmrbot
 * Programming language: python
 * Already has bot flag: Yes, see here
 * Task: Just Interwikis
 * Note: I use interwiki.py script & '-auto' option Mjbmr   19:47, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Comments

 * Looking over the SUL, the bot has collected a good number of edits total over various wikis. Have there been any problems with the bot? Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:09, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
 * There was a little problem in my bot, but i solved them, for example Here i used '-force' option to changing interwikis, but nowi just use '-auto' option Mjbmr   20:15, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

Votes

 * for now until you add the botblock template on the bot's user page. I will unblock the bot for now, but don't run it here, until a bureaucrat says so. Diego Grez return fire 19:51, 20 October 2010 (UTC) Seems to be a trusted bot on other wikis. --Diego Grez return fire 20:10, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

 * I'm satisfied that there should be no problem granting bot flag. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:17, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

 * The user/operator is unresponsive. Since we were also unresponsive as a community, I did email a while back, but no response. This request appears to be abandoned. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 12:30, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

CarsracBot
Hi, I would like to have a bot flag for user CarsracBot to get my bot running interwiki when needed. It's a global pywikipedia bot. Thanks. --18:40, 14 September 2010 (UTC)~

Comments
As a global bot CarsracBot does not need a local flag, but I like to have a local flag. Because when needed I will do also some other bot actions, but those a rare and only after testing on a very small wiki. --Carsrac (talk) 04:03, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

 * Our global bot policy is purposely very highly restrictive, so local flag would be required for whatever these other bot actions are. Can you inform us what they would be? You don't need local flag for just interwiki, but I appreciate the fact you seek local approval anyway. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:34, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Votes
Bawolff stole the task away... Bawolff ☺☻ 22:56, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

Hi, I get status of bot to update the list of popular pages, why I would use the sources available on the user page of The Wubbot. I've the bot flag on ~30 wikipedia + global bot flag, for interwikis. I've the botflag on the french wikinews where i update the same page (See fr:Modèle:Articles populaires). I've toolserver account where i can run the bot. Myst (talk) 19:09, 29 August 2010 (UTC)

Comments

 * Thank you. I would like to see this service return.  Have you made any test runs yet? --InfantGorilla (talk) 21:12, 30 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I do the same task on french wikinews. Myst (talk) 12:56, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I was talking to Myst on irc, and he said it'd be ok if i did this task. The version of the software i'm using is at User:Bawolff bot (it is entirely a shell script!). I'm giving my bot its flag back because it was previously flagged through this process for this exact task way back (And no one really cares about this process). If anyone thinks thats a horrible abuse of my admin bits/OMG Cabal, feel free to yell at me, and we can work through any objections. Bawolff ☺☻ 21:52, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Votes

 * . Looks good. --InfantGorilla (talk) 13:16, 2 September 2010 (UTC)
 * . I agree with what is said in the comments and that looks oke to me. --Carsrac (talk) 04:06, 15 September 2010 (UTC)
 * , except you need to, uh, register the username MystBot first!  — fetch · comms  03:19, 16 September 2010 (UTC)

Diego Grez Bot
Hi, I would like to get my bot running to welcome users and interwiki when needed. Thanks. --Diego Grez let's talk 15:48, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Re: It will mainly fix double-redirects and interwikis. Though it can do AWB if requested. --Diego Grez let's talk 00:07, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Comments

 * A welcoming bot already exists. Griffinofwales (talk) 15:56, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't see that it works. --Diego Grez let's talk 15:57, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * It works on all users that create their accounts (automatically or not), but since it only went live in January, Dylan wasn't welcomed. Griffinofwales (talk) 16:00, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, it will work mainly on interwikis /when really needed/, or welcomes when the bot doesn't works. --Diego Grez let's talk 16:04, 24 April 2010 (UTC)
 * We already have a double redirect fixer. Welcoming people who registered an account years ago is a bad idea imho. (The welcome bot is implemented server-sdie, so it will always work). We have several interwiki bots as well. How do you feel your bots will fulfill tasks not already fulfiled by pre-existing bots? user:Bawolff 00:38, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
 * (first bot edits were rollbacked because I ran the wrong script :p) Well, 1) nevermind the welcome thing, as you said, it is run always. 2) I write articles on both Spanish and English Wiki pedia news, and may be useful when there are breaking news, or something else. --Diego Grez let's talk 00:41, 28 April 2010 (UTC)
 * It has done some test edits. --Diego Grez let's talk 18:22, 29 April 2010 (UTC)
 * There's already a double-redirect bot and interwikis are usually done manually. Why do we need this bot? -- Mike moral  ♪♫  21:05, 1 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Agree, this bot doesn't seem to have any function that's not already taken care of. I'm not sure how easy it is to do article interwikis, considering that article titles are vastly different depending on language. Tempodivalse [talk]  21:33, 1 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It is automatic. Generally articles are linked each other on other languages. --Diego Grez return fire 13:59, 9 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Normally I see users such a and  add interlanguage links. That seems to work well. How would your bot be different?  Mike  moral  ♪♫  15:55, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

 * unless there is a clear definition of what function this bot will serve that is not already done by another bot, or by the Wikinews Mediawiki install. All new users are automatically welcomed, a change the developers implemented for us. And, redirects/interwikis are generally handled by one or two existing bots. Ideally I would like to see one super-Wikinews bot to handle all interlanguage links. I'd be happy to write a proper specification for an interlang bot; it would require some of Bawolff's Javascript hackery because I would be very reluctant to give a bot admin access to get at archived pages. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:29, 16 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I think it has been doing a good job. The interwiki bots are not doing the job fully, as you can see on the recent contributions of the bot. --Diego Grez return fire 18:26, 21 May 2010 (UTC)
 * only for interwiki - I shared Brian's views, but the contribs demonstrate that there is still room for one more. However, I'd much prefer you perhaps worked with someone else to try and create one Super Duper Amazing Interwikibot between you that can hit all the areas the (three? more?) bots do between them. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 10:41, 24 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Sure, and the bot already has flag on the French and Tamil Wikinews for interwikis and double redirects. --Diego Grez return fire 02:12, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Okay. Let's clarify this. The bot will do only interwikis, fix double redirects and add on broken ones, something that has done by fits and starts, without further problems. It has flag in a few other wikis, where it does the same task. Also, and per this thread on the water cooler, it could do AWB whenever it is requested. Thanks in advance, Diego Grez return fire 17:21, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

 * For these tasks. It has been doing good work and I'm pretty content with it. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 17:23, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

 * As long as it sticks to that, I don't see how it could go wrong. C628 (talk) 22:45, 2 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Because I hate fixing double redirects myself.  — fetch · comms  21:01, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

 * Closed as sucesful. As a note, don't "do AWB" unless there is concensus for it. Bawolff ☺☻ 22:40, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Votes

 * We had this once already, thanks Adambro Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 15:48, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

CommonsDelinker
This bot has never been approved. I could actually just block it, therefore, but I don't think we need go that far. I would appreciate it if someone can fill in the details for me; I try and avoid the nitty-gritty of coding bots etc, mainly because I don't understand a word of it. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 13:21, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

 * Operator: Wikimedia Commons
 * botName:
 * language: I wouldn't know one if it hit me in the face
 * task: Removing images deleted from Commons

Comments
The purpose and operation are explained at meta:User:CommonsDelinker. This has been discussed previously here, see, and consensus seemed to be in favour of allowing the bot to continue operating. Whilst the bot has had an interesting history for various reasons, I'm only aware of its editor status being an issue recently and that seems to have been resolved so I'm not sure that we need to have another community vote on this. Are there any new issues or concerns that I'm unaware of? Adambro (talk) 15:35, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Yeah, we had this discussion earlier and consensus seemed to be to approve it. I personally don't see anything really wrong with CommonsDelinker, as long as we keep a sharp eye on it for inappropriate image changes (although i'd still prefer something like WN:CommonsTicker which is far less intrusive). Certainly no bot or editor flag. Tempodivalse [talk]  15:38, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

 * Commons Ticker would be better - if it wrote in a language we understood, and people checked what it complained about. With editor removed, Delinker denied admin rights, I'd say it can operate - but not with the bot flag; I want to see exactly what its up to. --Brian McNeil / talk 15:48, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

 * Ah, I'm missing the old discussion here, mainly because it isn't actually listed amongst the approved bots above. I will do so. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 15:46, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Votes
"Note, this is based on an old request. Since then mobile has changed a lot, and I'm not sure if the details about this is even true anymore," - we oughta close this down now. Once - if - bawolff has the time to dedicate to redoing this then we can look again. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 19:58, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Wikinews Importer bot
This is attempt Number 2. I'm pasting the old request. -- To set up a mobile phone version of wikinews (similar to http://en.wap.wikipedia.org ) We need a version of the main page that has no DPL's or templates. I believe using the wikinews importer bot (its the bot that syndicates our headlines to certain places on wikipedia) to copy out a DPL of latest published to a specific page (probably Main Page/Simple Main Page/mobile, or portal:Mobile). Please see also WN:WC, old archived discussion on wc and 14755. bot specifics (note: this is off the top of my head. i think its right, but remember its me saying it, so if anything is incorrect its my fault).

Bawolff ☺☻ 20:40, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Operator: w:user:Misza13
 * botName: no username registered yet
 * programming language: python (pywikipediabot). source
 * task. Copying a DPL (like Portal:Current events/Wikipedia) to a static page
 * Would probably need bot flag

 * Are there any statistics for the use of Wikipedia both the normal format and the mobile format, assessed from mobile devices? Adambro (talk) 21:03, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Not publicly available that i am aware of. I could ask around. Bawolff ☺☻ 21:07, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * What I do know is that according to alexa, of all trafic going to something.wikipedia.org, 52% goes to en.wikipedia.org, less then (most likely much less then) 1% goes to the mobile gateway (based on how little it is advertised, that is not suprising.) Bawolff ☺☻ 21:23, 10 July 2008 (UTC)
 * But no mobile phones have the Alexa toolbar so less those stats exclude access through mobiles. Anonymous101 (talk) 06:44, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Good point, so we really have no idea. I would still geuss it is much much less then the normal english wikipedia though. Nonetheless I still think its useful especially considering that it really would take very little effort to maintain (bot does everything, we have to do essentially nothing). Bawolff ☺☻ 05:49, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Umm, I'm going to be away from computers for about a month. If this does achieve concensuss, can someone make sure: So that we can get the mobile portal working. Thanks. Bawolff ☺☻ 11:29, 16 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Appropriate pages are set up (pick the name for the page - aka Main Page/mobile)
 * Notify w:user:Misza13 (see my last message as well)
 * Update 14755

Comments

 * Last time Cirt said we should probably change the name of the bot, so we don't confuse it with its wikipedia sibiling

Votes

 * Bawolff ☺☻ 20:45, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * —most news websites have a mobile version. I don't see why Wikinews should miss out on this growing market, and if this bot will help... Den dodge  T\C 20:43, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * — Wikinews should probably have a mobile version of its main page. Gopher65talk 20:45, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Sounds good. Tempodivalse [talk]  20:53, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe it could just be an rss feed of the last 5 released articles. -Pekayer11 (talk) 04:49, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
 * per Dendodge – Juliancolton  | Talk 15:40, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I've talked to he is who is god of mobile Wikipedia. I asked about getting a Wikinews mobile and he says "This is definitely on the TODO list!".  It seems we do get some love, they're just not allowed to be public about that love for Wikinews. (No one can 'officially' support the red headed step child ^_^ ) -- Shakata Ga Nai  ^_^ 16:41, 17 November 2009 (UTC)
 * - While I like SGN's news, we can bodge our own version to get something running while we wait. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 14:59, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
 * - Good idea! Benny the mascot (talk) 03:26, 13 December 2009 (UTC)
 * the idea of a mobile portal, but it must be aware of Flagged Revisions, have Editor stats, possibly even given administrator rights, and the mobile version it "expands" from dynamic page list(s) protected. I would seriously question if this would not be better served with Amgine's MediaWiki extension to produce DPL-esque XML output, and that being reprocessed into a mobile version. You do get sick of things being held together with spit and bailing twine. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:00, 13 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Although I don't use mobile web on my tiny little RAZR. I nonetheless back this! --Patrick M (TUFKAAP) (talk) 06:18, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * From a user's point of view, I could care less as I never use any type of mobile device to view the web. But I know ton's up people do so. Also, iPhone App? Calebrw (talk) 06:30, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Why not? --Diego Grez let's talk 14:41, 14 April 2010 (UTC)
 * Note, this is based on an old request. Since then mobile has changed a lot, and I'm not sure if the details about this is even true anymore. Bawolff ☺☻ 21:15, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

 * From a user's point of view, I could care less as I never use any type of mobile device to view the web. --Carsrac (talk) 04:26, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

MikemoralBot
-- The New  Mikemoral  ♪♫ 05:30, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Operator:  The New  Mikemoral  ♪♫
 * Bot name: User:MikemoralBot
 * Programming language: AWB
 * Task: Delivering WN:WWC-2010 related messages to user talk pages and other related tasks.
 * Note: Bot flag requested to not flood RC.

Comments

 * What types of messages, specifically, would the bot give out? Reminders? Status updates? Tempodivalse [talk]  12:22, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Newsletters, setup the completion categories, reminders, and any other tasks needed to be done for the contest. -- The New  Mikemoral  ♪♫ 23:29, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

 * Do you intend to mark edits minor? – Juliancolton  | Talk 20:37, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes.  The New  Mikemoral  ♪♫ 04:48, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Votes

 * --Don't see why not?    Tris   08:25, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * , and will close early, shortly before the contest starts, pending no objections; I think we need to have this in place by the time the competition has started. Tempodivalse [talk]  01:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * -- the wub "?!"  11:42, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 13:40, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * - It is a trusted user setting up and running AWB in an automated fashion. I'm confident they will check that hidden edits have the desired effect. I would've done this, but Internet Explorer 7 is flaky enough on Linux without running it through AWB. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * —we definitely need this. Den dodge  T\C 09:21, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * ✅ closed a few days early, but seeing as the contest starts in ten hours, I want to give Mikemoral enough time to set it up by midnight UTC. Tempodivalse [talk]  13:57, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Success, permission granted.

Diego Grez Bot

 * Operator: User:Diego Grez
 * Bot name: User:Diego Grez Bot
 * Programming language: Some Python script taken from Google Code, written by Spanish Wikipedia user Emijrp, and that runs through all Wikipedias.
 * Task: Update a list of Wikinews users by number of edits. Thought this would be useful for those with editcountitis ;-)

Diego Grez return fire 23:53, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

Votes

 * Bawolff ☺☻ 23:10, 8 October 2010 (UTC)
 * editcountitis ftw! Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 19:55, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

MikemoralBot

 * Operator: Mike  moral  ♪♫
 * Bot name: User:MikemoralBot
 * Programming language: AWB
 * New task: replace categories on archived articles, specifically, category:Apple Computer to category:Apple, Inc., per the points made here. I will file a separate request at WN:RFA if there are no objections to this bot's new actions. There are only 54 articles, but it's this type of task is über-tedious. -- Mike moral  ♪♫  03:11, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Comments

 * I'm essentially in favour of this. What level of monitoring would you do on the bot? Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 18:41, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I'll basically be clicking for each edit to make sure it doesn't screw up. -- Mike moral  ♪♫  22:37, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

 * Closed Task already done. -- Mike moral  ♪♫  03:31, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Closing. Master and bot are blocked for cross-wiki disruption, and it was looking unlikely this would pass to say the least even before that. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 13:38, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

 * Operator: Dirt Diver
 * Bot name: GlobalEditBot
 * Programming language: Perl and Python
 * Task: Global edits on request.
 * Note: I just noticed that the bot is blocked here, I'm not really sure for the reason since it didn't edit yet. But I seem to need to ask permission so here it goes:
 * This bot creates global userpages, global talkpages, global js and css on user request (This is done from meta.) The bot will always be run under supervision. And there will never be more than 10 edits a day. The bot doesn't edit the main namespace.
 * Could you please give permission to run this bot here also, when no permission is granted it will en.wikinews will be excluded from the list all wikimedia wikis where the bot is active.
 * There is no need for a local bot flag because it wouldn't really flood. But the block should be lifted so it can run again. Dirt Diver (talk) 08:14, 1 July 2011 (UTC)

Comments

 * Forgive me if I misunderstand, but would the bot not require admin privileges to edit JS and CSS? If so, are you also requesting those? DEN  DODGE  George Watson  12:20, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
 * No I'm not requesting those permissions yet. First months I will let it run for user pages en talkpages only (And creating complete SUL accounts. After that periode of time I would like to request global editinterface permission for the bot, that way I can edit .js en .css without the need of admin tools. But I wanted to be complete fair about what the bot is going to do so I added it already, otherwhise I have to come back and let it be discussed a second time. Dirt Diver (talk) 12:26, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I feel this to be worth keeping an eye on. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 16:38, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Requests for comment/Abigor is related also. the wub "?!"  20:42, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Votes

 * At this stage, I would the authorisation of this bot to operate on Wikinews. The reason for this is that the code for the bot is, according to the details on the page at Meta (m:User:GlobalEditBot) still in Alpha.  Alpha code is code which has not been properly tested for compatibility, or is still in preparation and untested.  When the code reaches Beta, where you are actively testing it and running it live on a Wiki, I would support a brief period on here to see how it's working. BarkingFish (talk) 17:07, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I cant run it live untill I have 700 botbits. Its tested and its completly working it did 2 runs today without any problems. It will become 1.0.1 when toolserver access is granted and I can run it from the database instead of a list with all wikis. Dirt Diver (talk) 17:23, 1 July 2011 (UTC)
 * I have to agree with BarkingFish. Until this bot is at least in beta, and people have had the chance to review the code, I don't believe it would be prudent to unblock the bot. I would be especially cautious given the fact that it seems evident that this bot will, at least eventually, require admin permissions. Tadpole256 (talk) 16:15, 7 July 2011 (UTC)
 * There is an existing tool which does this task, run by a trusted steward (so it can do the .js and .css pages). The proposal here is from a user who has been abusing multiple accounts, causing trouble on various wikis, and has just been blocked from meta for vandalism (see my link in comments section above). Wikinews has a history of granting chances to those unwelcome elsewhere, but the chances of this user receiving the meta rights required to make this bot actually useful seem vanishingly small. the wub "?!"  00:29, 8 July 2011 (UTC)
 * after watching the situation develop for a little while. At present, it seems you cannot and will not be trusted to run the bot. As the wub said, we're happy to give you a chance to prove yourself and I try and ignore people's past on other wikis; but, here it's rather related to your use of the bot account. Sorry. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 14:56, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Closing, and permanently blocking bot account.

 * Operator: Glavkos
 * Bot name: Glavkos bot
 * Programming language:Python
 * Task: Interwikis.

Comments

 * "Interwikis" is an inadequate description of the purpose of this bot. A more detailed breakdown of what work this bot will carry out would be required before it would be prudent for anyone on Wikinews to comment, or vote, one way or the other. For example, are you familiar with Wikinews' arciving policy? Would this hamper the bot's operations? Does this bot operate on any other wiki where flagged revisions is in-use? --Brian McNeil / talk 18:23, 18 December 2011 (UTC)

Votes

 * this since bot owner never came back to talk to us. In the absence of any input from anywhere, will recommend permanent block per local policy and when they want to edit, they can come and prove it works somewhere, is documented and so on. --Brian McNeil / talk 16:35, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Please provide more information about the bots tasks. Cocoaguytalkcontribs ‽ 04:26, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

Closing this, and permanently blocking the bot account. Best regards, Karol007 (talk) 16:22, 18 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Operator: Karol007
 * Bot name: KamikazeBot
 * Programming language: Python, interwiki.py
 * Already used on: full list (global bot with about +80 bot flags)
 * Task: interwiki

Comments

 * "Interwikis" is an inadequate description of the purpose of this bot. A more detailed breakdown of what work this bot will carry out would be required before it would be prudent for anyone on Wikinews to comment, or vote, one way or the other. For example, are you familiar with Wikinews' arciving policy? Would this hamper the bot's operations? Does this bot operate on any other wiki where flagged revisions is in-use? --Brian McNeil / talk 18:23, 18 December 2011 (UTC)
 * KamikazeBot works only on articles and categories (namespaces: 0 and 14) and add only interwiki links. Bot can working all week on server WMPL, but standard script interwiki.py for Wikinews is run ones in week. Karol007 (talk) 13:28, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Votes

 * this as, despite getting an answer on the challenge to an overly terse description, I didn't need told what an Interwiki link is; will, as-per other bots with no documentation, no good rationale, and no understanding of our project from the owner, block permanently to force a formal request when it needs access, is proven to work elsewhere and has documentation. --Brian McNeil / talk 16:38, 26 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Please provide more information about the bots tasks. Cocoaguytalkcontribs ‽ 04:26, 8 February 2012 (UTC)

title: Wikinews:Bots/Archive 3


text: Talk:Quad crash kills fourteen year-old in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland

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


text:
Mine explosion in northeastern China kills at least 42, dozens more trapped

November 21, 2009 An explosion at a gas mine in northeastern China has killed at least 42 people today, state media reported. 66 more miners are feared to have been trapped as well. Another 400 were able to escape safely.

The news agency Xinhua said that 528 workers were in the mine, located in the Heilongjiang province, when the explosion occurred at about 02.30 local time (18.30 UTC).

The blast was strong enough to shake buildings nearby, and some survivors said they were knocked unconscious. "I passed out for a while. I found I was shrouded by heavy smoke, when I regained consciousness. I groped my way out in the dark," said a 27 year-old electrician, Wang Xingang, to Xinhua.

Rescue operations are still ongoing for those trapped in the mine. State television said that 156 rescuers were at the scene searching for more survivors.


text: Talk:Mine explosion in northeastern China kills at least 42, dozens more trapped


text: Talk:Vietnam denies blocking social networking site Facebook


text: File:EZPRFail.JPG

title: File:EZPRFail.JPG


text:
User talk:Preston~enwikinews

Welcome
Tempodivalse [talk]  15:45, 21 November 2009 (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 Preston. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Preston~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) 06:36, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Preston~enwikinews


text:
User talk:Sonukumrdelhi

Welcome
Tempodivalse [talk]  15:45, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Sonukumrdelhi


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Comments:China completes "mammoth" Three Gorges Dam hydro-electricity project

In my opinion it will cause extinction for the rare yantze river dolphin and will cause more floods as the sediment collects at the bottom of the river. Archaeological sites will be lost forever.

Comments from feedback form - "Great"
Great —202.45.119.12 (talk) 00:19, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Comments from feedback form - "yay"
yay —173.167.11.62 (talk) 19:20, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Comments from feedback form - "you do not have the electricit..."
you do not have the electricity is generated —90.208.224.80 (talk) 13:52, 12 February 2012 (UTC)


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User talk:Gustronico

Welcome
Tempodivalse [talk]  18:04, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Gustronico


text:
Rocket strike near hotel in Afghan capital injures four

November 21, 2009 Afghan officials have said that a rocket apparently fired at a luxury hotel in Kabul injured four people today, despite falling short of its target.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, Zamary Bashary, told the Voice of America news agency the rocket exploded on a road between a hospital and the Serena Hotel, which is in the center of the capital, near the presidential palace, government ministries and embassies. The incident happened at about 18.15 local time (13.45 UTC).

"It was a rocket that hit in front of the Rabia Balkhi hospital. We have four wounded, three are civilians and one is a police officer," said Zamarai Bashary, a spokesman for the interior ministry, as quoted by the Agence France-Presse news agency. Taliban militants fired rockets at the same hotel last month, which is heavily guarded. No one was injured in that attack, which came on the same day that a suicide-bomb explosion killed five UN staff members and two Afghans at their quarters in another part of Kabul. Taliban militants also attacked the Serena Hotel in January 2008, in a commando-style assault that killed at least eight people.


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Talk:Rocket strike near hotel in Afghan capital injures four

Review of revision 914765 [Failed]

 * The URL was incorrect somehow, I guess I didn't copy it correctly - should be fixed now. I'm using the claim of four injured because it seems to be more up-to-date, and came from the official - and most other news sites are saying that as well. (VOA doesn't update their articles frequently, i think.) Could you have another look? Tempodivalse [talk]  18:43, 21 November 2009 (UTC)


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Comments:Severe flooding hits Cumbria, England

Cause-Effect/Consequence
First of all, my heart and sympathy goes those fellowmen being afflicted with the current (November 2009) Great Britain and Ireland floods, such is the grade of suffering and despair that these kind of extremely adverse "natural" events cause.

From my layman viewpoint, these almost successive abrupt events (i.e. in the late 20th and early 21st centuries), whether climatic or geological ones (eg. Katrina type, Indian Ocean earthquake(s), etc.) MAY be rooted not in Nature but in man-made particle physics experiments with the subatomic structure (and the underlying fluid crystal-like 'matrix') of the Earth; experiments being conducted at the so-called high energy machines (Tevatron, RHIC, LHC, etc.).

If respectable high intellectual individuals of the current scientific community constantly are allowed to publish unquestionable wild theories out of nothing, such as that we can physically travel back in time reversing the order of events (eg. even recently that Large Hadron Collider can be held back by its own future(?)), that there are paralel universes to ours were one's life takes a different course, or simply that the Grand Architect's Universe (« "Out of the ever-existing essence (of space) the twofold energy formed the double heaven." » Genesis 1:1) is physically expanding already [matter]faster that 'light' after being created by a smeared-out(?) big bang(?), etc. ... then why shouldn't a merely anonymous layman [in the phsyics of cosmology fields] venture to whisper that there MAY be a Cause-Effect relation and patterns of the current man's scientific "energetic" experiments and the abrupt/anomalies events we currently see in Nature?

Peace and Good Will, --81.193.21.99 (talk) 19:24, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Terrible...
This is a devistating story, I hope everyone who has suffered from this horrible situation, may recover well with all my luck.

Comments from feedback form - "it neeeds mopre info"
it neeeds mopre info —81.159.235.118 (talk) 17:19, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Comments from feedback form - "boring"
boring —41.68.10.79 (talk) 09:49, 18 February 2012 (UTC)


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User talk:LHC Tommy

Welcome
Tempodivalse [talk]  22:49, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

citation
Hi.Welcome to wikinews, and thank you for adding to Large Hadron Collider restarted. Just as a note, we use a slightly different citation method than wikipedia. You only have to add the source template to the bottom of the article. You do not have to do the  part. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:04, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

“Massive Prize” awarded to Physicists in Washington D.C.
Hello LHC Tommy. Just to let you know, articles on Wikinews can only be published after a review by another, uninvolved editor. I'm afraid there's a bit of a backlog at the moment, but I'm sure it will get done soon as soon as possible. the wub "?!"  13:54, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, thanks. Will wait LHC Tommy (talk) 15:11, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
 * How long until this is reviewed? LHC Tommy (talk) 01:22, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi, I had to give this a failing review. The listed sources are not enough to verify the article. The writing and style are fine. --SVTCobra 01:38, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Added multiple sources to verify event LHC Tommy (talk) 11:26, 18 February 2010 (UTC)
 * See link for full event (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BDA16F52CA3C9B1D) LHC Tommy (talk) 15:07, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Staleness
The article cannot be published in its current form because it fails to satisfy one of the most primordial requirements for publication, namely freshness. If it isn't fresh, it isn't news. Although Rayboy8 and I are both editors, qualified to do peer reviews, failing an article for lack of freshness isn't handled through the Easy Peer Review gadget, which puts a peer reviewed template on the article's talk page; instead, one manually puts a stale tag on the article itself. The difference probably comes down to the fact that staleness is a failing from which most articles cannot recover.

For freshness, details have to have come to light within the past couple of days or so (and the event itself has to have been within a week).

The award event itself is falling out of the one-week horizon, and presumably all details about it came to light outside the 2–3 day horizon. There is one loophole that is sometimes mentioned in staleness situations. If some further news regarding the matter were to arise, then an article about that, written well within its freshness horizon, might incorporate the material of the current article.

From time to time, an article does go stale and get deleted despite having no other shortcomings than staleness. It's a singularly unrewarding experience all around. (My own early experience with this can't really be compared with yours, because I'd only contributed an hour or two of copyediting to the article involved, which isn't nearly as bad as having been the primary author.) --Pi zero (talk) 01:48, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

 * I have tried to get this article up and reviewed quickly after the event. I feel it is "stale" becuase the review process and specific feedback took so long.  This has been a very dissappointing experience and I guess gaining new authors is not a priority.  Everything on this site as of now can be seen on CNN.com so I clearly don't get this wikinews.  My apologies.  I will most likely not be back. LHC Tommy (talk) 03:01, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

 * We'd be sorry to lose you. We want new authors.  Specifically, speaking for myself, I think we could use more coverage in the hard sciences.  And more broadly, shortage of personnel is the biggest single reason why articles sometimes aren't reviewed as promptly as they ought to be — I agree with your assessment of this case: staleness was ultimately due to a sluggish review process.

 * Wikinews has Wikimedia ideals much like those of Wikipedia. It seeks to make the world a better place by providing a neutral source of information driven by the citizenry of the Internet — in the news realm, which is about taking snapshots of events as they happen and preserving those snapshots, whereas Wikipedia uses this same strategy in the encyclopedic realm, for gradual assembly of information about past events.  The more comprehensive the information, the more good it will do in the world — and again, for that Wikinews needs more authors.

 * More specifically, Wikinews aspires to bring the Wikimedian ideal of Neutral Point of View to news coverage, providing uncensored news without bias either in choice of stories or in the way those stories are covered (something that cannot be expected from commercial news organizations, let alone goverment-run outlets like Voice of America).

 * I hope you choose to contribute here again — and if you do, consider dropping me a line on my talk page; among reviewers here, I may be relatively unintimidated by reviewing physics articles (although real-world events can interfere; for example, it likely wouldn't have worked this past week because the flu had pretty much flattened me). --Pi zero (talk) 05:10, 21 February 2010 (UTC)

Nobel for Higgs boson
Are all the listed sources needed for this? You're putting what seems like a lot of work onto reviewers. If any of the sources are not used in the article, or substantially duplicated by others, it would improve the chances of the article being reviewed were they trimmed back. -- Brian McNeil (alt. account) /alt-talk • main talk 23:03, 8 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, I was going to look over it, but the sight of that many sources just turned me off... I don't have an hour to read through all of them and watch all the videos. Can you try to trim the ones that aren't needed or don't provide information not already stated in another source? Usually, articles have 2, 3, or 4 sources.  — fetch · comms  21:56, 9 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You also cannot publish it yourself.  — fetch · comms  02:02, 10 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Ok, making mods to sources. Thank you.LHC Tommy (talk) 23:41, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Style points addressed. Hoping someone can review an dpublishLHC Tommy (talk) 23:41, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Can someone review and publish this? Every time I soubmit a good article it nver gets reviewed - it waits and waits.  Then someone says it is stale.  There are no major dates to make this stale.  It is also only not published becasue it is not being reviewed.  It failed becuase it was "Higgs boson" vs. "Higgs Boson".  C'mon.

title: User talk:LHC Tommy


text:
User talk:Mootington

Welcome
Tempodivalse [talk]  22:50, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mootington


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Sakurai Prize awarded for Higgs boson theories

November 25, 2009

The American Physical Society has awarded its 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics to six scientists for their contributions to theories on the origin of mass, including the key concepts of the Higgs boson and Higgs mechanism. The recipients are:

 * C. R. Hagen, University of Rochester
 * Gerald Guralnik, Brown University
 * Tom Kibble, Imperial College London
 * Robert Brout, Université Libre de Bruxelles
 * François Englert, Université Libre de Bruxelles
 * Peter Higgs, University of Edinburgh, Emeritus

The full citation stated the prize was awarded “For elucidation of the properties of spontaneous symmetry breaking in four-dimensional relativistic gauge theory and of the mechanism for the consistent generation of vector boson masses.” The J. J. Sakurai Prize will be presented at the APS 2010 meeting in Washington, DC at a special Ceremonial session in February 2010.

The Higgs mechanism is a key element of the electroweak theory that forms part of the Standard Model of particle physics, and of many models that go beyond it. The papers that introduce this mechanism were published in the journal Physical Review Letters in 1964 and were each recognized as milestone papers by PRL’s 50th anniversary celebration.

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN and the Tevatron in the United States are searching for a particle, the Higgs boson, that will constitute evidence for this theory. Because of its importance this particle is often referred to as the "God Particle". The LHC, a vast scientific experiment to smash together sub-atomic particles, recently moved a step closer to its goal. On Friday physicists announced they had sent protons all the way round the 27 km ring beneath the France–Switzerland border, and on Monday announced the first successful collisions. This follows a major setback which shut down the collider for 14 months.


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Talk:Sakurai Prize awarded for Higgs boson theories

Title
Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding, but I thought the Higgs Bosun was still a theoretical particle; that the LHC is hoped to be the way to create and detect it. If so, the title on this is quite misleading. --Brian McNeil / talk 00:26, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah that's right, I renamed the article appropriately. the wub "?!"  23:00, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Dupe
Um, isn't this a dupe of the article 2010 2010 Sakurai Prize awarded for 1964 Higgs Boson theory work that was published a few days ago? Tempodivalse [talk]  19:04, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


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Wikinews:Dynamic quiz/quiz/2009/48

Welcome to the Wikinews World News Quiz, giving you a chance to test your knowledge on this week's news.

Last Updated: November 22, 2009

title: Wikinews:Dynamic quiz/quiz/2009/48


text:
2010 Sakurai Prize awarded for 1964 Higgs Boson theory work

November 22, 2009

In recognition for the discovery of the Higgs Boson and Higgs mechanism, the American Physical Society has awarded the 2010 J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics to Drs. C. R. Hagen, University of Rochester; G. S. Guralnik, Brown University; Tom Kibble, Imperial College London; Robert Brout, Université Libre de Bruxelles; François Englert, Université Libre de Bruxelles; and Peter Higgs, University of Edinburgh, Emeritus.

The 2010 prize was awarded “For elucidation of the properties of spontaneous symmetry breaking in four-dimensional relativistic gauge theory and of the mechanism for the consistent generation of vector boson masses.” The J. J. Sakurai Prize will be presented at the APS 2010 meeting in Washington, DC at a special Ceremonial session in February 2010.

The mechanism is the key element of the electroweak theory that forms part of the standard model of particle physics, and of many models, such as the Grand Unified Theory, that go beyond it. The papers that introduce this mechanism were published in Physical Review Letters in 1964 and were each recognized as milestone papers by PRL’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Presently, Fermilab's Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are searching for a particle that will constitute evidence for this significant discovery. This particle is often referred to as the "God Particle". The Large Hadron Collider, a vast scientific experiment to smash together sub-atomic particles, moved a step closer to its goal tonight. Physicists announced they had sent protons all the way round the 27 km ring beneath the France–Switzerland border, for the first time since a major failure 14 months ago.


text:
Iraqi lawmakers delay vote on electoral law

November 22, 2009 An Iraqi parliament session aimed at resolving deadlock on electoral law required for general elections in January ended without agreement yesterday.

Lawmakers were expected to vote on the much-delayed law, but parliamentary officials said the proceeding is delayed until later today in hope of finding a solution acceptable to all political factions.

"The vote is postponed until tomorrow," parliamentary speaker Iyad al-Samarrai told the press yesterday.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi vetoed the proposed election law several days ago, saying that he wanted more representation for Iraqis living abroad, many of whom are Sunni Arabs. After the veto, Iraq's electoral commission halted general-election preparations.

The parliament has been considering whether the Sunni vice president had the legal right to scrap legislation presented to the presidency council.

Members of Iraq's electoral commission say the deadlock over the election law will probably delay January's elections.


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User:Calvinhrn

N = native speaker 3 = can read and speak at a moderate level 2 = can read and speak at a basic level

I've primarily been a blogger since 2005, but have also worked in television with Rogers TV New Brunswick, the provincial community station operated by Rogers Cable in their New Brunswick, Canada service area, as well as providing photography to the Alberta NDP during their 2004 election campaign.

I am presently pursuing a B.Sc. in Computing and Information Systems, but am pursuing journalism in addition to that.

While a more detailed summary of credits is not presently available from Rogers TV, I have provided a brief summary below, to be expanded once I have a more detailed log.

 * November 2008 - 72 Annual Telegraph-Journal Empty Stocking Fund
 * November 2008 - Lancaster Kiwanis Christmas Fundraising Auction
 * December 2008-February 2009 - Saint John Sea Dogs Hockey (QMJHL on Rogers TV)
 * July 2009 - Canada Day in Fredericton
 * July 2009 - Atlantic Kart Racing Series Finals

title: User:Calvinhrn


text: Talk:Winfrey announces end of 'Oprah'

title: Talk:Winfrey announces end of 'Oprah'


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User talk:Calvinhrn

Welcome
Brian McNeil / talk 02:47, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Documentation of original reporting
It's great, in the interests of maximum public documentation, to provide the text of email on the article talk page. However, it is also desirable, in the interests of maximum documentation for reviewers, that when you receive email as part of original reporting, you forward the email to "scoop" (that's scoop-at-wikinewsie-dot-org), and mention on the article's talk page that you've done so. Materials sent to scoop are not public, so stuff that ought not to be made public can be sent there, including not only email addresses but also confidential or embargoed materials. (We anticipate using a different email address for this at some point in the future.) --Pi zero (talk) 13:49, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

Toronto Star reporter pursues legal action against Toronto Mayor
Published. Please forward those emails to scoop, if you would/can, though. See my review comments, and. --Pi zero (talk) 15:37, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

title: User talk:Calvinhrn


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Afghan Member of Parliament escapes assassination attempt

November 22, 2009 Afghan police have said that a member of parliament (MP) escaped an assassination attempt on Friday night near the capital of Kabul. Five bodyguards, however, died.

An Afghan district police chief told the Voice of America news agency that a remote-controlled bomb targeted the convoy of Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf as it moved along roads outside the capital. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attack.

Sayyaf is an MP from the Kabul province, and a former warlord. This was not the first attempt on his life; he has survived at least one other similar attack.

Sayyaf was one of the ex-mujahideen leaders who fought against the Taliban in the mid-1990s. He became a strong supporter of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government and the international forces after the United States-led invasion in 2001. The Human Rights Watch, however, has accused him of war crimes.


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US healthcare bill passes Senate vote

November 22, 2009 🇺🇸The US Senate, by a vote of 60 to 39, has decided to begin debate on legislation crafted by majority Democrats to reform the country's health care system.

The measure, opposed by Republican senators, was voted on Saturday evening. One Republican Senator, of Ohio, was not present and did not vote.

It was not clear until earlier in the day whether the Democrats would have enough votes to bring the bill to the Senate floor for full debate.

During the day, two moderate Democrats announced they would support the move during a rare Saturday session. That gave the Democrats the 60 votes they needed to move the measure forward. The legislation is intended to extend health care coverage to millions of uninsured people, prevent insurance companies from denying benefits, and limit the growth of spending on medical care.

In the rare session, opposition Republicans criticized the bill, saying it would drive up the cost of insurance and add to the nation's deficit.

While Democrats won the vote to begin debate, passage of the bill is not certain. Some moderate Democrats have signaled strong opposition to components of the bill, including a government-run option to compete with private insurers. However, the Senate version does allow states to opt out of the public option.

Senator, who was one of the Democrats who had wavered on whether to support the bill, decided to vote for it. "Although I don't agree with everything in this bill, I have concluded that I believe that it is more important that we begin this debate to improve our nation's healthcare system for all Americans, [...]" she said. Two other Democratic senators said they were uncertain about the bill, and did not make up their minds until hours before the vote, adding to the uncertainty.

The Congressional Budget Office said the Senate bill, unveiled on Wednesday, would cost $849 billion over the next decade. Analysts say the plan also would reduce U.S. deficits by nearly $130 billion in the same period. If the bill passes, it would have to be merged with one passed earlier this month by the House of Representatives. The House narrowly approved its bill on a sharply divided vote of 220 to 215.

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to deliver legislation to him for signing by the end of the year.

title: US healthcare bill passes Senate vote


text: User:HJ Mitchell

title: User:HJ Mitchell


text:
User talk:HJ Mitchell/Archive I

For a faster response, try posting at w:User talk:HJ Mitchell as well as or instead of here. Thanks for stopping by. HJMitchell  You rang?   14:20, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

It's great that you can come accross! It being a smaller community, Wikinews can help out a lot. While I don't expect you to try and actually contribute (unless of course you want to :p), I'll give you the standard welcome just for the useful links; For Wikipedians is designed as a bit of a crash course. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 22:35, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

 * I had a quick browse of that last time I was here. I'd like to help out but when it comes to writing articles, someone always seem to beat me to anything interesting. What else can I do to make myself useful around here? I can copyedit and review content...... HJ Mitchell  Penny for your thoughts?   22:46, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

 * No problem! Well, if you want to help out, things like looking over articles for copyedits you can perform are always welcome, especially things in CAT:REV and the most recent articles on the Main Page. Remember WN:ARCHIVE means that after a short time no new content should be added. We have FlaggedRevs so only WN:Editors can actually review. Once you have managed to write a few articles, in compliance with the WN:style guide, then editor status is designed to be easy come, easy go. Oh, and do feel free to hang around #wikinews on Freenode, which sometimes feels like the location at which this place is run. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 23:05, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

 * I looked back over your contributions. You seem to have a decent idea what you're doing already, which means that you should fly along. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 23:12, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

UK Prime Minister apologises for Rochdale gaffe
Unfortunately, I had to delete the article since our reuse terms are not campatible with those used by Wikipedia and so transfer of content would be copyright infringement. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 17:40, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

 * I see we've written on each other's talk pages at the same time. The problem with that is you would also need permission from each and every individual author to dual-license their contributions. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 17:42, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

 * No problem. Thanks Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 17:59, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

Chilean earthquakes in the O'Higgins Region: photoessay
Completed the copy edits you requested on the talk page. Cheers, C628 (talk) 19:43, 12 May 2010 (UTC)

James Pain (talk) 16:11, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Reviewer Promotion
I have promoted you to the Reviewer class, as I feel you can be trusted to mark revisions of articles as sighted (review). Please take a moment to read: If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask for help on my talk page, and thank you for contributing to Wikinews!
 * Flagged revisions
 * Reviewing articles
 * Peer review
 * Review
 * Reviewed article version
 * Flagged Revisions extension information, on MediaWiki

Mike moral  ♪♫  03:39, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Congrats. Bawolff ☺☻ 09:19, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks guys! :) HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   09:22, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Moscow Metro attack suspects killed by police
Hi, thanks for writing such a great article! Much appreciated, and you're using the "newsy" style of writing very well. One note, it's not current practise to subst: infoboxes; it's better to transclude them so the editing window is less cluttered. Thanks and cheers. Tempodivalse [talk]  13:55, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, if you could use shorter paragraphs? I know on Wikipedia they can become very long, but for a news article it's better to split them once every two or three sentences, to make it easier to digest. This paragraph was getting to be uncomfortably long before I split it. Tempodivalse [talk]  13:58, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Wow, thanks for the praise, and the advise! I have a habit of being a little on the tl;dr side. How do I log it for the writing contest (I thought I may as well have a stab!)? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   14:02, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Mmm. Have you added Category: HJ Mitchell (Wikinewsie), Category:Writing Contests/May 2010 to the article? If so, it should have logged automatically after being peer-reviewed by our widget. If not, then add it manually here, specifying how many points it's worth (you can check this by enabling the point counter gadget, which adds a "Character count" button to the toolbox). Then someone will come along and update the standings table. Tempodivalse [talk]  14:27, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, done. Thanks. I'd omitted the writing contest cat (I knew there was something!) so I've logged my last 2 articles manually. Thanks for your help :) HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   15:04, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Minor note about reviewing articles
Hi, great work reviewing. ;) One suggestion, if you see something minor in an article that needs fixing (like more links, or some typos/bad grammar), and the rest of the story is OK, instead of failing, consider fixing the errors yourself and then publishing - it's much more efficient. Although reviewers should be "uninvolved", generally doing copyedits like that doesn't count (or even the addition of an extra sentence or two for better context). Of course, if you were adding paragraphs to the article, or had to completely rewrite it, that's a different matter. Just a thought. Cheers, Tempodivalse [talk]  16:37, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the tips. I'm used to reviewing good articles on WP and they tend to be slightly larger than your average WN article :). Always nice to be able to get an article on an emerging news story up quickly- good work. Btw, when I add an article to the lead templates, is there some particular method for deciding which template to add it to or should I jsut use the default that the script picks? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   17:11, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Generally, you update the lead that contains the oldest story, to keep everything fresh - WN:ML gives you the last time each of the leads was edited. Although, if there's an important breaking news story, you can give it prominence on a higher lead and rotate the article that's already there down a notch. Tempodivalse [talk]  17:41, 14 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Again! HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   18:12, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Hi again.
Could you take a look at #wikinews ? :) --Diego Grez return fire 22:05, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Karzai visits UK for talks with new PM
That was awfully old for publishing...sometimes it's better to just admit defeat and allow it to go stale rather than putting several-day-old stories on the Main Page...not criticizing you, it's a good article, just a thought...C628 (talk) 02:03, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * I was considerin' it, but I don't think it's too old and the story itself (Afghanistan, the new PM and all the trimmings) is still current, otherwise I would have requested its deletion. I got sucked into a timesink on WP yesterday and didn't have chance to finish it as promptly as I would have liked :). HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   02:07, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It seemed stale to me too, but technically it wasn't, by our 3 day consensus on staleness. Anyway, as C628 said, it is a good article.
 * If the community was a bit bigger, perhaps someone should have jumped in and finished it for you in the wiki way. However, at least for now, Wikinews doesn't really work like that.  We do have the section in the newsroom for collaboration requests, and the IRC channel, where you can flag up an article that needs help.  (I don't know how that affects contest scores.)
 * --InfantGorilla (talk) 18:00, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Re: Hint
Hi, HJ. Thanks for vouching for me at WN:AR. I do need to up my edit count here, but I have absolutely no idea where to get started -- it's rather different from en-wp. I'm in the same position you appeared to be in when you first came here: anything I find interesting has already been written about, especially as I don't have TV, so miss out on a lot of news anyway. I noticed WN:ADOPT is redlinked, but perhaps you'd be interested in adopting me here anyway? Matthewedwards (talk) 02:52, 19 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Sure. The easiest way to get started is just to linger in the Newsroom- copyedit articles marked as ready for publishing and maybe go through some of the already published articles for copyediting/style/updates etc and if you find an interesting story on the web, write an article about it. It doesn't have to be anything fantastic, just a few thousand characters. You can also linger on the recent changes to get an idea for what's going on and offer your opinion at the water coolers (WN equivalent of the Village pump). The pace isn't as frenetic here as it is on WP but I quite like that about it! Hope that helps :) HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   11:36, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Hong Kong chief executive invites opponent to television debate
EPR failed to sight this article, so that instead of going to the main page it went to Newsroom. I've sighted it.

I think this problem sometimes comes up because of which browser is used when running EPR, though I'm not entirely clear on the details (you might try User talk:Bawolff). When I publish an article I always immediately check its revision history to see that it says the published version was sighted. --Pi zero (talk) 13:26, 22 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh dear. Thanks for sorting it out, and thanks for the tip- I'll remember that for the future. I'm guessing that's what happened to my article- Times Square bomb suspects arrested in Pakistan- then. I noticed it had been published but not sighted, so i sighted it myself. Thanks again. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?   13:34, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

OMG OMG! A HJ Mitchell!
Long time without you here. ;) Diego Grez return fire 18:38, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

 * Glad to see you're back! We could definitely use a little bit of help with reviewing. :) Benny the mascot (talk) 20:02, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

Venezuelan army on high alert after Chávez cuts diplomatic ties with Colombia
I am very concerned that you published this. Please review the style guide, review guideline, and other sundry policies before doing this again. We never publish single-source articles. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:10, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

title: User talk:HJ Mitchell/Archive I


text:
Australian Football League to hold match in China

November 22, 2009

The Australian Football League (AFL) yesterday announced that it would hold an exhibition game in Shanghai, China. Brisbane will play Melbourne at Jiangwan Sports Centre in the Yangpu District.

AFL game development head David Matthews told reporters, "[t]here are big opportunities here [in China] to improve our broadcast position and consider China as an events market. I think we have got the best game in the world, the most spectacular game in the world."

The AFL had previously told Wikinews that they had no plans to stage such a game.

Chinese broadcaster Shanghai Media Group will broadcast the match to approximately 20 million homes in southern China. The broadcaster will send a team to a Round One game between Richmond and Carlton to better understand how to broadcast the game.


text:
Talk:US healthcare bill passes Senate vote

Review of revision 914956 [Passed]
"US healthcare bill passes Senate vote"

IT PASSED THE VOTE TO BEGIN DEBATING ON IT. Holy crap, it did NOT actually pass the senate. Misleading #$@!ing title. 128.210.124.119 (talk) 20:56, 23 November 2009 (UTC)


text:
Comments:Winfrey announces end of 'Oprah'

Thank God it's over
This is almost enough to make me believe in God! -Eric 06:10, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

oprah winfery's decision is a big loss to the entertaiment industry..but we respect her decisions..we still love you oprah.. i guess all good things has got to come to an end..im really devastated by her decision..her influence has done a big role on filipno women..we salute you oprah! God bless you!-souLjagirL203

Comments from feedback form - "MS.WINFREY, there are people i..."
MS.WINFREY, there are people in lithonia gerogia that needs help with there mortgage because of the market. Give a generous donation to some families that are truly in need.Help them become current on there housing or purchased them a new residence to reside. —68.218.113.215 (talk) 02:44, 17 June 2010 (UTC)


text:
Comments:Large Hadron Collider restarted

Oh yes, let us find this thing that has no relevance to anybody and risk destroying our planet. Hooray for science! 206.74.5.136 (talk) 06:57, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

 * C'mon quit blaming "science"...MOST of the things blamed on science were under the control of politicians/governments or business/industry. THIS one is largely under control of scientists;
 * the bad news is the seemingly ideological faith in Hawking radiation (which AFAIK has never been observed) cut short thorough examination of the evaporation issue; the good news is that even if micro-black holes are stable, it would probably be extremely difficult to produce a micro-black hole with velocity less than escape velocity (i.e. in a very very narrow energy range above creation threshold) even if that were the goal. Whether an MBH could pick up enough mass in one transit through the Earth's diameter to become gravitationally bound is a more complicated problem but given the TINY mass and hence infinitesimal gravitational FORCE, mass accretion via gravitational attraction seems unlikely to accomplish that.  Whether mass accretion via other mechanisms of attraction could operate is a complicated and unasked question.  Similarly, the nuclear cross-section of an MBH is likely large compared to heavy elements, so some fusion events might add mass during one transit.  These might simply fission the beast...or increase the cross-section....  If I had more time and less workload I'd attempt a cheesy calculation of mass accumulated per transit based on gross assumptions...but alas....  76.172.219.186 (talk) 13:04, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

We'll see what happens in the future. For some people this is like the early 1920's but there seems to be more of a rush to find a "theory of everything". For me it's just another peel away at the infinite complexity of nature and more profound advancements once we make an actual scientific theoretical model of a new science. These kind of advancements are what made most of our devices possible today. My suggestion is to just enjoy the ride and not worry about the end of the world.

At any rate, the number of scientists declaring that this device poses a threat to the earth is vastly, VASTLY overshadowed by the number stating there is no threat from mini black holes or strangelets. I won't get into the technical details, but the bottom line is, the end of the world scenarios are based on bad science and massive "what-if" extrapolations - if this bothers you, you can also worry about a butterfly's wings in Brazil causing every volcano on earth to explode simultaneously. Or, for that matter, getting in a car accident and dying on the spot. What's life without a little uncertainty?


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Comments:New poll indicates Barack Obama's approval rating under 50%

The recession hasn't gone away because we haven't BELIEVED hard enough! Hope works! 206.74.5.136 (talk) 06:59, 22 November 2009 (UTC)


text:
User:Albertyanks

 * Location: Konstancin-Jeziorna, Poland
 * Contact: [mailto:albert.jankowski@gmail.com albert.jankowski@gmail.com]

ID 138609
de:User:Albertyanks pl:User:Albertyanks sv:User:Albertyanks

title: User:Albertyanks


text:
User talk:66.228.220.79

Hi, you've mistaken Wikinews for Wikipedia, I believe. We don't publish articles on living people here, we publish news events. Mike Halterman (talk) 08:25, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I see you recreated the article. In my deletion rationale I already let you know that you can have a copy of what the article looked like when I deleted it, but Wikinews is not its home. If you recreate it again I will have to give you a temporary block. Any further action with this article will be seen as you reading and acknowledging that this warning was given, and the block will be issued. Thank you. Mike Halterman (talk) 08:43, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I saw you tried to pass Ms. Carty off as news, but that will not work either. Article redeleted and now this IP is blocked. You were warned. Mike Halterman (talk) 09:04, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:66.228.220.79


text:
Canadian loses health benefits after company finds joyful Facebook pictures

November 22, 2009

A 29-year-old woman from Quebec in Canada claims to have lost her long-term health care benefits she was receiving for depression, after her insurance company discovered pictures of her on Facebook smiling and having fun.

Nathalie Blanchard alleges that Manulife Financial cut off her long-term benefit payments because she was "available to work, because of Facebook." She was diagnosed with long-term depression, something her lawyer says keeps her from working. Blanchard was previously employed at IBM.

Pictures posted included Blanchard and others at her birthday party strip tease, as well as smiling on a beach, among various private photos taken while on vacation. She says Manulife told her this is proof that she no longer suffers from depression.

Manulife denies her claims saying they "would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook,", but did not deny using the social networking site for gathering background information on customers.

According to Blanchard, her doctor told her to hang out with friends more and attend social gatherings as well as vacations. Blanchard's lawyer says he is seeking options on how to proceed in an appeal.


text: Talk:Canadian loses health benefits after company finds joyful Facebook pictures


text: Category:Live in Poland

title: Category:Live in Poland


text:
Talk:Afghan Member of Parliament escapes assassination attempt

Review of revision 915023 [Passed]
editprotected

Please move this page so that "assassination" has four Ss. Bovlb (talk) 22:55, 10 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Done. --Pi zero (talk) 23:08, 10 December 2020 (UTC)


text:
Comments:Canadian loses health benefits after company finds joyful Facebook pictures

I'm surprised that her lawyer needs to sit and think about what he's going to do. Give them one chance, and then sue as a matter of priority. At worst, he has to work out which court it goes through.

I've seen the effects of depression. It doesn't prevent someone either having genuine fun or pretending to. The effect of such an uninformed decision is potentially devastating. Maybe one day legislation will be in place to adequatly prevent people from treating mental health sufferers with crass negligent insensitivity. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 11:14, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I have suffered from depression, and taken antidepressants to aid in dealing with the underlying chemical imbalance. On medication or not, you can still laugh at a joke, or fake enjoyment for an hour or two. I agree wholeheartedly with the anonymous commentator. The asshole who took this decision needs named, shamed, exposed as utterly unqualified - medically speaking - and a strong message sent to all these settlement avoidance scum. You are depressed until certified not-so by a qualified medical practitioner. More importantly, those very benefits lost may be what is paying for treatment that allows the sufferer to have been social enough for the "incriminating" pictures to be taken. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:05, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

In the future
Whether or not this particular ruling was deserved, there need to be more crackdowns and checkups like this (in the US and Canada) for government-sponsored programs. My scum-sucking leech of a neighbor is sitting on disability for "mobility problems". He's outside playing Basketball and smoking as I write this. --Kingoomieiii (talk) 17:10, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Thou shalt not smile if thou ist depressed? Thou shalt continue to sink into thine hole until thou dost kill thineself? Fuck you. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 18:12, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Yeah, maybe you should hold off on insulting people until you've read and understood what you're responding to. Just a tip.
 * I'm advocating more checkins in situations like this. See, what I'm demonstrably NOT saying is "NO HAPPY." My gripe is with people who game the system and get free money. I'm speaking to the gray area between "No oversight" (which I see too often) and "Draconian hell" (the crux of your complaint), which hardly deserves a mocking satire of biblical language. Oh, and watch me not insult you back. --Kingoomieiii (talk) 18:35, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * The "Draconian Hell" as you (quite rightly) call it, is the most probably outcome; this is a fact of human nature, and modern-day politics/bureaucracy. Checkups to see people are not gaming the system will be assigned to overworked, and underpaid, government employees (or, worse, outsourced to a private company). The people doing the work are most likely to be given targets and incentives to cut off people's benefits, and you will have examples like the one this article highlights.
 * To be realistic, you have to just suck it up that there will be an element of fraud/gaming the system. "crackdowns"? Absolutely not! "checkups"? Yes, but managed in such a way that the system is managed by one group and the checkups done by another where they evaluate the system, current beneficiaries, and the system's level of fraud/abuse. From that, revise the rules for managing the system, come back 3-6 months later, and review again. Doing what you'd like, without having people feel hounded and persecuted, is quite expensive. There will be a point where trying to shave a percentage point off the fraudulent claims will cost more than the claims themselves. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:31, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Swearing at someone is not an insult. It is strong, aggressive and heartfelt opposition. If you honestly believe in the stance you take - which seems like it hasn't been thought through - then I might have to resist temptation to begin insults, however.
 * I read and understood "need[s] to be more crackdowns and checkups like this" (emphasis added) and I thouroughly disagreed. Scanning the Internet in the hope of catching someone in the act of being (or pretending to be) happy is not going to benefit anyone except maybe banker-style bonus seekers at the top. There is a big difference between physical problems like you reference in your neighbour and mental problems - the 'like this' in the article. BTW, let's say your neighbour has a degenerative nerve condition (I know someone who does). You cannot be active with the consistency to work, but if you're lucky you'll get some wonderful days when you're able to do anything. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 19:57, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Emphasis added, but not intended by the original poster. I'm not talking explicitly about depression, or facebook (And in the case of my neighbor, his leech status is unopposed- he said himself that his fight to keep his kids was motivated primarily by a desire to "Stay on welfare"- though in the end he was so put off by the prospect of ceasing his pot habit that he withdrew his case for custody). If you're going to hold an almost saccharine level of optimism as to people's motives, so will I- I find it difficult to believe (and in fact, absurd) that this particular woman losing coverage was based solely on pictures posted on Facebook. That was not the long and short of this case. --Kingoomieiii (talk) 20:03, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Ok, your neighbour does sound pretty much a leech. The Facebook pictures may or may not be the full basis for the decision, but they should not have played eny factor in it whatsoever. If you weren't talking about depression, why say 'like this'? If you'd left it general, then whilst I disagree for the reasons above I could at least sympathise with that. I'd probably never have even responded; my sore point centres around the mistreatment of those with mental health problems. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:10, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I meant for "like this" to refer to a situation where someone loses their free-money license because they are found to be able-bodied (or minded), in part due to their own actions. I agree that Facebook should not be the full basis of the decision, but I see no problem with it being the starting point for an investigation in line with normal protocol. I DON'T think she should lose coverage without a real evaluation- I just think that one is in order at this point. Hence, "Whether or not this particular ruling was deserved" --Kingoomieiii (talk) 20:32, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Have you ever known anyone with depression? Seriously, on that basis you could launch an investigation every time someone updated their Facebook page. I find that disturbing, regardless of you're quote. There was no reason to include Facebook in such a ruling except cynicism. How about a great place to start would be her medical records? Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 21:04, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Of course I have, and frankly, I think your experience with it is coloring your view on this. We're not talking about kicking someone out of their home. We're talking about sending them back to work. And I SAID I believed a real evaluation was in order before judgment was passed. Such evaluation would surely involve a psychologist.
 * Maybe, just maybe, if you show yourself to be improving from a condition for which you are receiving payment, that payment should be re-evaluated. These types of benefits are meant to kick in when needed and shut down otherwise. --Kingoomieiii (talk) 21:33, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

 * On the basis that someone is capable of smiling? Wouldn't a biannual review of medical records and a consultation with a doctor be a better way of checking someone out? Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 21:43, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * That is PURE hyperbole, and I'm not really interested in addressing it. Yes, I would support structured reevaluation, with the stipulation that they may be brought earlier if the patient is experiencing an unusually hasty recovery. Money doesn't grow on trees, despite how my government seems intent on spending it. --Kingoomieiii (talk) 21:53, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Forgive me, but I hardly view it as hyperbole. That's what Facebook shows: having fun, essentially it would be based on a bunch of 'smiley' photos if a review was started on that basis. I'm glad we can agree on a structured review, though. Moreover, I suspect most genuine patients would be only too glad to get back to work ASAP if they could. It's good to get back to normal after that kind of experience. Maybe a gradual return, starting part-time, would be in order, slowly switching down the benefits and up on the work again. So long as there is flex in the system, of course, that's what most patients need when work becomes plausible again. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 21:59, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
 * What kind of a retarded system allows people to be paid for not working just because they are depressed? Oh boo hoo, you're a little sad, now here's a weekly check and you just come back to work whenever you feel like it, sugardumpling! What idiots. They deserve to keep paying her just for the ignorance to be in the situation to begin with. 206.74.5.136 (talk) 04:10, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I suggest you read Clinical depression. Take your prejudiced ignorance elsewhere. --Brian McNeil / talk 11:38, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I have been diagnosed with depression, I know a fair bit about it. I am a full-time college student who also works about 30 hours a week, so I have no pity for this slacker. 206.74.5.136 (talk) 03:55, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Congratulations. It varies from person to person, though; not everyone is the same. As I said above, I'm sure most people with depression would work if they could. Taking time out is sometimes vital. You are achieving something above and beyond; it would be unfair to judge others by such a standard. 'Each case is unique' is a cliche but it ain't that far off the mark here. Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 17:50, 26 November 2009 (UTC)


text: Talk:Australian Football League to hold match in China


text:
User talk:122.169.180.41

Trying to delete the content of articles is regarded as vandalism. Test in the sandbox, 'cause if you do it in another article I'll have to block you. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 11:38, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:122.169.180.41


text:
Indonesian ferry sinks, at least nine dead

November 22, 2009

Reports from Indonesia now say at least nine people were killed and over 200 rescued today, after a ferry sank in rough waters near Sumatra island.

The Dumai Express 10 was sailing from Batam island to Dumai in Riau province on Sunday morning when it sank. Officials blamed bad weather for the accident, but there have been reports that the ferry was severely overloaded.

Sunaryo, the director-general of sea transport, said the ferry's capacity was 273 people, and only 213 passengers were on the manifest, but one official put the number rescued at 292. Sunaryo said the large disparity between reality and the manifest was a "classic case" of breaking regulations.

Separately, another ferry, the Dumai Express 15 with 278 people on board, ran aground today after it was hit by large waves on its way from Batam to Moro island. Authorities say all passengers and crew survived.

Indonesians rely heavily on ferries to transport them between the thousands of islands that make up the archipelago. Ferry accidents are common due to bad weather, poor infrastructure and a tendency to overload vessels. Around 800 people have been killed in ferry accidents in Indonesia over the past three years, including at least 232 in an accident off Sulawesi in January this year.


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User talk:Ajwatson82

Welcome
Brian McNeil / talk 12:08, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Ajwatson82


text:
British Climatic Research Unit's emails hacked

November 19, 2009 Unknown individuals gained access to a server of University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU). As a result, around thirteen years of email correspondence between researchers is now available worldwide. Substantial previously unpublished climate change observations are included.

According to initial reports by TGIF Newspaper and the Watt's Up With That blog, hundreds of emails and documents were made available from a FTP site on a Russian server with an accompanying statement:

 * "We feel that climate science is, in the current situation, too important to be kept under wraps. We hereby release a random selection of correspondence, code, and documents"

Some journalists suppose that this event is a consequence of increased attention on CRU after it played a substantial role in the IPCC fourth assessment report (2007).

The released data is a 62 megabyte zip file, containing around 160 megabytes of emails, pdfs and other documents. Some of the contents have been confirmed as genuine by the head of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, Dr Phillip Jones. In an interview with TGIF Newspaper, he stated that a breach of security had taken place and that a large quantity of files had been "stolen". The interviewer discussed one of Dr. Jones' published e-mails:

The interviewer asked Dr. Jones to explain the phrase "hide and decline", but he answered that he had no idea what he meant by using them (as they were made in the context of a discussion taking place 10 years ago), and he had not attempt to mislead:

In a press release by the University of East Anglia, Dr. Jones stated that:
 * "That the world is warming is based on a range of sources: not only temperature records but other indicators such as sea level rise, glacier retreat and less Arctic sea ice.

 * "Our global temperature series tallies with those of other, completely independent, groups of scientists working for NASA and the National Climate Data Center in the United States, among others. Even if you were to ignore our findings, theirs show the same results. The facts speak for themselves; there is no need for anyone to manipulate them.

 * "[...]My colleagues and I accept that some of the published emails do not read well. I regret any upset or confusion caused as a result. Some were clearly written in the heat of the moment, others use colloquialisms frequently used between close colleagues."

One such colloquialism, "trick," is frequently used by scientists and engineers to refer to an essential or non-obvious element in the solution of a problem, as opposed to the common political usage connoting deception.

Commentators argue that the published messages show the researchers' reluctance to publish scientific material, though it contains serious global warming observations. Some of the correspondence portrays the scientists as feeling under siege by skeptics’ and worried that any stray comment or data glitch could be turned against them.

The East Anglia University has shut down the original server, from which the information was stolen. A university spokesman stated that data was published without permission, but did not confirm whether all of the published communication is genuine:

The release of the documents comes just weeks before a major climate-change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, meant to lay the groundwork for a new global treaty to curb greenhouse-gas emissions and fight climate change.


text:
Talk:British Climatic Research Unit's emails hacked

Merge
Yes, merge! Just get the story out! and hopefully the Wikinews community (if there is one outside Brian) can help improve the "citizen journo" investigation... I'm keen to see if Wikinews can work this one..

 * Merge -- and needs general cleanup & NPOV revisions. See Wikipedia article and its talk page for a more balanced discussion + reliable sources. Peter D. Tillman, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Tillman

 * I've made a merge, and placed a review tag at the top. Gryllida (talk) 11:56, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Hi Gryllida, I'm not sure if I should help in this article. My initial attempts were rejected largely on the Reviewers belief that my point of view was too evident and compromised the objectivity of the article, and made my motives questionable. Most recently, in relationg to the CRU story, I've been requested to recuse myself from the story. I do believe I am able to seperate my POV enough to write something with relative objectivity however, and you'll note that another reviewer says on the talk page of the original article that: "...You have a bias. That does not prevent you reporting, but in this case it has done so.". So I'm uncertain if I can help write this article now...

 * My advice would be to remove the speculation in the second sentence as it could be called bias, but more importantly I think it strays into commentary when the first few sentences need only state the facts. "This can probably be a consequence of increased attention to CRU after it has played a substantial role in IPCCfourth assessment report (2007)." It is worth retaining this observation of course, later in the story I'd say, and a reference to commentary on The climate science website RealClimate might do as a source to this speculation.

 * After the quotes in the article I would address what appears to be more speculation on your part regarding the contents of the emails and motives of the researchers. Perhaps adding "commentators argue.." and referencing that will suffice. Such as:

 * Commentators argue that the published messages show the researchers' reluctance to publish raw data used to prove global warming. Some of the correspondence portrays the scientists as feeling under siege by skeptics’ and worried that any stray comment or data glitch could be turned against them.

 * I'm looking for a BBC report that says the leaked files have been independently assessed and confirmed at authentic.. I was made aware of it by a Twitter user, but his link seems to not be correct (?).

 * Good luck, I hope you get further assistance in writing this story as its certainly news worthy. If I get word that its ok for me to help, I will. Until then I think I should keep my distance. Leighblackall (talk) 01:46, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Done / To-do
This sorts out the current sources and a couple of other issues. Please note the given edit summaries in these edits which specify why each change has been made, and applicable policies.

Additional points:
 * Prof. Jones has - in the UEA news/press release - confirmed the emails are genuine by responding to one point from a highlighted email - the "trick" issue. This should be incorporated.
 * There seem to be too many sources; for an article to be properly reviewed, the reviewing editor must check every single source, reading it in full. If possible trim sources which duplicate information from each other and can thus be considered redundant.
 * Images - some sort of image would considerably improve the look of this article.

--Brian McNeil / talk 16:40, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

 * ✅ Please notice the horizontal science and technology information box at the bottom of the page. Gryllida (talk) 01:13, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd taken that off because I think you can be pretty sure most readers will stop scrolling down when the sources and ext. links sections start appearing. It isn't the prettiest of templates either; but, perhaps put it above the == Sources == and after the HaveYourSay template.
 * I'm not going to touch content in this unless it's spelling/grammar/change to active voice. I'm also not about to review it (again). The way the story came up prejudiced me against it, and looked like a POV dispute/war hopping over here.
 * So, yes, to all the new 'imports' from Wikipedia, Welcome. I have bad news though; you're looking to do the equivalent of a good, or near-good, Wikipedia article within around 48 hours. Obviously, the clock gets reset when you can find mainstream press with more recent coverage, or if you can do original research. I would advise against the WN:OR route if you've not worked through a few articles and the current review regime before. I — and I believe most other regulars — don't want to see the project a Nupedia of News, we don't want to be a blog, there's a desire to be a source that the wider world of journalism and public regards as credible. Steps have been taken to get the project indexed by Google News, so we do have to set a high standard; GNews does not update their index to reflect changes to the lede or title, they have to be good to start with. --Brian McNeil / talk 01:55, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

To summarize, the following has been suggested to improve the article (each line signed for the possibility of discussion): Gryllida (talk) 04:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

To-do: remove commentary ("This can probably be a consequence...") from the first paragraph. Gryllida (talk) 04:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

 * ✅ Gryllida (talk) 04:14, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

To-do: add speculation intro: "commentators argue.." after the quotations. Gryllida (talk) 04:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

 * ✅ Gryllida (talk) 04:16, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

To-do: remove passive voice. Gryllida (talk) 04:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

 * ✅. The article is most likely ready for a next review of an uninvolved editor. Q0k (talk) 05:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

To-do: Check the date in the opening paragraph. I think the files were published on the 19th (UTC), not the 21st.. see TGIF News report that was issued on the 20th AEST, talking about a releaase the night before... Leighblackall (talk) 05:25, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

 * ✅. Gryllida (talk) 05:33, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Post-publish changes
A significant amount of text has been changed after publication. In particular, the Jones quote has been expanded, possibly too much. Superm401 | Talk 12:34, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Perhaps; what was more important was adding completely new information, which I removed. What you're highlighting as a change was actually available information prior to publication. --Brian McNeil / talk 13:46, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

 * While it's a news article stemming from a specific event, a hacking incident and some of what was found thereby, this doesn't occur in a vacuum: one aspect of the significance is whether climate analysis was sexed up, as the hacking and the excerpted e-mails purport to reveal; another aspect is what, if anything, is the broader significance to the understanding of climate and political actions contemplated motivated by predictions based on that understanding. Other media are spinning this as evidence that global warming is a hoax/conspiracy.  This particular event focuses on a research unit and it's head, i.e. one person in particular, and what he may or may not have done.  First, he defended himself in the press release, and whatever one may think of his defense, it's not out of line to quote him.  Second (and this should have been included at the time of the first quote inclusion, my own time constraints at play) he sought to point out that not all of the evidence for climate change rest either on the graph immediately in question or all of his or his unit's work, and noted plain observables that anyone can understand to support that.  News has context. Wikinews ought not make itself a megaphone of smears by blocking out relevant statements of the principals to a story.  An alternative would be a separate follow-up article, "Climate scientist defends himself and his team's work," but that would risk being rejected as not newsworthy in itself.  76.172.219.186 (talk) 22:53, 26 November 2009 (UTC)


text: Talk:2010 Sakurai Prize awarded for 1964 Higgs Boson theory work


text: Talk:Indonesian ferry sinks, at least nine dead


text: Talk:Iraqi lawmakers delay vote on electoral law


text:
Astronaut's baby born 200 miles below him

November 22, 2009 American astronaut, Randolph Bresnik, is in orbit over 200 miles above the Earth, where he learned of the birth of his daughter Abigail. Lieutenant Colonel Bresnik becomes only the second man to have become a father while in space.

Onboard Atlantis this morning, the crew were woken by mission control playing Butterfly Kisses, a song chosen by Bresnik's wife Rebecca. Prior to launch, Bresnik joked about the birth expected while on his eleven day mission with the Shuttle, "this is a pretty good excuse [for missing the birth] and hopefully she will forgive me later on".

The first-ever father in space was astronaut Mike Fincke in 2004.

Atlantis's current mission is scheduled to return to Earth this coming Friday, having resupplied the International Space Station and carried out two separate spacewalks. This will be the first time astronaut Bresnik gets to see the newest addition to his family. The couple live in Houston with their adopted three year-old son from Ukraine.


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Republican groups suspected in gun battle with, failed bombing of, Northern Irish police

November 22, 2009

In two separate incidents police in Northern Ireland have come under attack. Both are believed by authorities to stem from organisations linked to the. The two incidents, one an attempted car bombing in Belfast, and the other a shooting in, , led to four arrests by Northern Irish Police.

A police convoy in the village of Garrison came under ambush overnight. Three gunmen began shooting in the first time officers have been in a firefight in Northern Ireland since a July riot in Belfast. Police returned fire and four people were arrested.

A separate incident saw a car bomb set off outside the 's headquarters. The car was driven through the Belfast building's security barriers and its 180 kilogram bomb was set off, but failed to detonate properly. Instead it partially exploded and the vehicle caught fire. Neither attack injured anyone.

The Republican dissidents seek a united Ireland and have battled to convince Britain to relinquish the Northern territory. After thirty years of warfare and attacks from both sides a 1998 peace deal largely ended the bloodshed. This year, however, violence has been on the increase again starting with the murder of a police officer and two soldiers in two separate March attacks. Since then attacks have been on the rise.

Three days ago the military was called in to defuse another bomb targeting police. "It appears that the dissidents are broadening the scale of their attacks," said a statement by the Police Board's Alex Attwood. The board is an independent civilian watchdog charged with overseeing the police.


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User talk:Albertyanks

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Tempodivalse [talk]  14:21, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

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Comments:US healthcare bill passes Senate vote

Didn't Harry Reid say that he couldn't get a bill done before January??? --Benny the mascot (talk) 14:27, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

I hope the didnt masscere it into something utterly worthless for the american people 164.116.47.179 (talk) 16:23, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm afraid the outcome is likely to be kinda bad for most Americans. There are too many people ideologically opposed to a real single-payer system, and too many people who want to make a profit from healthcare. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:17, 24 November 2009 (UTC)


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Bomb explosions in northeastern India kill at least seven

November 22, 2009 Two bomb explosions in the northeastern Assam state of India have killed at least seven people and injured 25 more today.

The blasts, which happened within several minutes of each other, occurred outside of a police station in the town of Nalbari, 70 kilometres from the state capital of Guwahati. According to security officials, the explosives were attached to bicycles.

Police believe that the separatist rebels from the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) were behind the bombings, but a senior ULFA member denied that the group carried out the attacks. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility.

There were reports of another explosion nearby soon after the first to explosions; however, they have not been officially confirmed.


text: Talk:Bomb explosions in northeastern India kill at least seven