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Wikinews interviews World Wide Web co-inventor Robert Cailliau

August 16, 2007 The name Robert Cailliau may not ring a bell to the general public, but his invention is the reason why you are reading this: Dr. Cailliau together with his colleague Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, making the internet accessible so it could grow from an academic tool to a mass communication medium. Last January Dr. Cailliau retired from CERN, the European particle physics lab where the WWW emerged.

Wikinews offered the engineer a virtual beer from his native country Belgium, and conducted an e-mail interview with him (which started about three weeks ago) about the history and the future of the web and his life and work.

Wikinews: At the start of this interview, we would like to offer you a fresh pint on a terrace, but since this is an e-mail interview, we will limit ourselves to a virtual beer, which you can enjoy here.

Robert Cailliau: Yes, I myself once (at the 2nd international WWW Conference, Chicago) said that there is no such thing as a virtual beer: people will still want to sit together. Anyway, here we go.

History of the WWW
Wikinews: Why did the WWW emerge at a particle physics lab such as CERN? What need did it serve the scientific community at its origin? Was the making of the WWW a case of the right time and the right place/circumstances for someone with the right IT knowledge?

Robert Cailliau: There were quite a number of hypertext systems around: the Microcosm, Hyper-G, Gopher, even Xanadu. Everyone was experimenting. There were even two independent attempts inside CERN (Tim's and mine)! CERN is an infrastructure used by physicists from all kinds of universities who after their experiments at CERN go back to their institutes. A single experiment brings together many physicists from universities scattered over the globe. Obviously they stay in contact: they have been users of networks and computers for a long time.

It's therefore not so surprising that we looked for a system that would allow such a group to consult documents without having to know where the author was or which of the different computers, operating systems, usernames or passwords was needed. There was a need for an automated library.

The two attempts at CERN were personal initiatives. When I learned that Tim wanted to use the internet and had made progress towards an implementation, I immediately teamed up with him. But it remained for quite a time a project that was looked at with some apprehension by CERN management.

It was partially the result of the right people in the right place, partially chance, but partially driven by a real need. And everything happened under the benevolent eyes of Mike Sendall, Tim's boss.

Wikinews: In the beginning, what challenges did you face inside and outside CERN in the development of this cutting-edge technology?

Robert Cailliau: A lot of incomprehension, later also some jealousy. And at the start it was difficult to convince the managers that it would grow into a useful tool.

There were a number of factors against us. First, the period of home-grown IT solutions was over. The trend was to buy off-the-shelf software.

Secondly, the entire future of high-energy physics was precarious: there were troubles around the SSC (Superconducting Super Collider, red.) in the U.S. and from the plans of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider, red.) it was clear that something had to give. The SSC was finally scrapped in 1993, but during the entire period the physicists were worrying about other things than hypertexts.

Thirdly, there was always the problem of justifying a project in pure computing within an institute whose mandate is very clearly the science of pure physics.

Outside CERN there was a desert of hopelessly confused networking. Universities wanted TCP/IP but the telecoms of the European countries were still governmental monopolies, and they resisted this because they were used to different payment schemes.

I remember a funny exchange between a person from Deutsche Telekom and a group of academics at a conference: they complained about the costs and the slow links. The telecom person replied: "What do you want? We give you the best X-25 lines and then you run TCP/IP on top of that!" But we had no choice: TCP/IP was the only protocol usable with all universities of the world.

At another occasion I asked a representative of France Telecom for his e-mail address. He gave me an X-400 address and I asked for an internet address. He raised his eyebrows and said: "Monsieur, vous ne pensez quand-même pas que France Telecom va soutenir l'internet?" ("Sir, I hope you do not expect that France Telecom will support the internet?"). And all that happened when the web was already a success, though indeed only in the academic world.

Wikinews: Early browsers were web editors at the same time right? What browser do you use today? Does it have tabbed browsing? How does it compare to the early browsers you've worked with?

Robert Cailliau: It is true that the browser of the NeXT was also the editor, though it was restricted to the pages on the local server.

The current complexity of XHTML, Ajax, CSS etc. precludes I think the efficient combination of the functions of editing and browsing in a single application.

Something I do miss are the "next-previous" functions of the NeXT browser. Current browsers only permit you to follow a link and then to run back and forth over the path you took ("back" and "forward"). The NeXT browser had the additional function of following the next link of the previous page ("next"). That allowed me to make a page which was a list of pages to be looked at and then to walk that "path" with a click per page. It was a simple way to establish a path and save it, totally independently from the target pages and the servers. A kind of "digest".

I know, it's possible to do this with Javascript, but it is not easy and you can't pass such a page in a simple way to just anyone.

We also had vector graphics. I'm afraid that SVG has failed, at least I do not see any sites that use it extensively.

Style sheets were also incorporated, not very advanced, but the idea was there. CSS did break through.

Today I use mainly Safari because it uses CSS best and above all for the typography. Even Firefox can learn from Safari's typography. Why is it that so few programs handle text well? Why is typography so lousy on the screen?

Tabbed browsing is a concession to those who can't cope with a multitude of separate windows. Don't really need it. The first browsers always opened a linked page in a new window. But Windows does not use windows: it prefers full-screen. Mosaic was one of the first browsers that used a single window. Why do it simple when it's possible to complicate things?

Wikinews: Search engines have made the mass of data now on the WWW easily searchable. How initially did you foresee the data being indexed?

Robert Cailliau: Not at all! Or by hand. We had the "Virtual Library" or VL, the idea of indexing and classifying pages about a subject by voluntary work of a specialist in that subject. A kind of Wikipedia, but with only the links: the content was distributed outside the VL. The VL had a certain success, but demanded a lot of work. The appearance of search engines made the VL unimportant.

The web broke up into servers. The original "atom" of the web was the page, now it is the server. Servers link very rarely to other servers and then almost always warn you: "You will now leave our site!". In that kind of structure you need a search engine otherwise you can't find anything. But search engines do not let you find your way in the web: they give you a reference, not a path to follow to get there.

The first search engine was built by the "Centre Universitaire d'Informatique" of the University of Geneva.

I predicted that search engines would not cope in the long term. Maybe the existence of Google is only an indication that there is still only little available on the web.

Wikinews: You were at the inception of the WWW together with Tim Berners-Lee; what aspects are you responsible for exactly? You've convinced CERN to release the basic code library into the public domain?

Robert Cailliau: In 1990 I had already left programming for ten years and was doing management. I'm also 8 years older than Tim, who himself was no longer a young programmer. It was evident that I could not compete with twenty year old Unix hackers and soon I stopped meddling with the writing of C code. Anyway I know only one programming language worse than C and that is Javascript.

I did influence the shapes of the web and the directions of development, but I mainly occupied myself with obtaining the resources necessary to keep the project going. I had a (meager) budget and so I got computers, offices, and above all people: young programmers who can spend a year working at CERN in the framework of its Technical Student Programme. To get all that done I had to plead often with the management.

I also understood that CERN, as a lab for physics, would never devote a division to the web. Therefore I began to contact true informatics institutes such as INRIA (Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique, red.) and FhG (Fraunhofer Society, red.), as well as contacting the European Commission. In this I was fortunately supported by Mike Sendall. Mike, who was seen as neutral by CERN management, has done more than anyone else to help the development of the web inside CERN.

On the technical side it was not always the best of understanding between me and the team. For example, I was convinced that we needed to build-in a programming language, but the developers, Tim first, were very much opposed. It had to remain completely declarative. Maybe, but the net result is that the programming-vacuum filled itself with the most horrible kluge in the history of computing: Javascript.

I also remember a big resistance against PostScript, but what do we see now? PDF everywhere. Fortunately PDF is an open standard and it's fairly elegant, but it could have turned out much worse. SVG did not make it.

Tim, who had a longer experience with the internet world, convinced me that the web could only survive if all the code was freely available for everyone who wanted to tinker with it. In 1992-1993 I then worked patiently for some 6 months with CERN's Legal Service to draft a document that put the source code into the public domain. This also implied working to convince the management, up to the Directors, of the need to do so. The result was the document signed on 30 April 1993 that gave the WWW technology to the world.

During the same period I also perceived that the web as a technology had very many aspects. Tim drew what he called the "metro": a diagram of the relationships between the existing systems (FTP, SMTP, HTTP, ...) in the form of a stylised map resembling that of the London Underground. That made me think that we needed to deal with a lot more hard computer science than our small team of four or five could intellectually handle. Therefore I began to toy with the idea of an international conference on WWW technologies. Tim was not convinced, but I went ahead.

NCSA (the National Center for Supercomputer Applications in the U.S.) had just released Mosaic, first for the X-Window/Unix systems, then for Mac and PC. Their group not only had a lot more people, but their leader, Joseph Hardin, was a sociologist of my age. I suspected that he was thinking along the same lines, and I was right: when I  launched the call for papers for the first WWW conference in December 1993, I did so just one day before NCSA would have done the same thing. It was a Friday and on Saturday Hardin phoned me at home to discuss the matter. Fortunately our relations were good and he was also very fair by teaming up with my conference in the end. But our team at the time was very weak: NCSA had a big success with Mosaic and they could easily have used their weight to wipe us off the map.

It was also a time to understand how underdeveloped our idea of Europe here is. We know that we have to live together on this assembly of peninsulas, but when we have to pull in the same direction then that is politically rather difficult.

Finally for two years I worked quite hard contributing to the setting up of the Web Consortium. Even afterwards that took much effort and a lot of my time.

Wikinews: There are some fun anecdotes about the beginning of the World Wide Web. We've just offered you a virtual beer, but the idea of the WWW started with a beer too, in this case with a (real) beer with Tim Berners-Lee, right? And there is a reason that the original WWW-logo is green, right? Why is it not called world-wide web, with a hyphen? Are there other anecdotes you want to share with our readers?

Robert Cailliau: The list is without end.

At the second conference, held by NCSA in Chicago, someone asked if it was not better to use the web for conferences instead of travelling to far places. Implusively I answered, in front of 1500 programmers in the audience, that there was no such thing as a virtual beer and therefore we preferred to meet in the flesh. That was 1994.

In 1990, months before there was a shred of code, Tim and I wanted to find a good name for the project. Sometimes, after a hard day's work in warm offices we drank a beer on the CERN cafeteria terrace before going home. On one such occasion Tim came up with "World-Wide Web". I would have preferred something shorter, but to find a catching name is not easy. I agreed to use WWW for the new document that was to go to management and "find a better name later". WWW stayed: it summarised well what it was.

Because I'm a synaesthete I see characters in colours and I perceive a W as green. I liked that. So it remained WWW. And there was indeed a logo that we used a lot in the beginning. It was made from three Ws: white, light green and darker green.

And yes, the hyphen was there for a long time too. But it confused people who were not so grammatical, and Tim finally cut the knot by stating that he had the right to decide how it was written since he had invented it: without the hyphen.

Some anecdotes were less funny: at one time I could have made Alexander Totic of NCSA come to CERN to join us. That was almost arranged when it appeared that Alex had a Serbian passport and CERN at the time did not admit Serbs.

The most recent and very positive anecdote is from October 2006: I gave the opening keynote at an Australian conference on e-learning and the internet in education. I started out by saying I knew nothing about education but would give my keynote anyway. In a later talk Jean Johnson presented NotSchool (http:// www.notschool.net) and mentioned that the project "Web for Schools" of the European Commission had been very important for her work.

Later I asked her whether she meant the project that ended in a conference in Dublin in 1995. She said yes and asked if I had been there. I then had to admit that I had started that project myself and addressed the audience at the closing session of the Dublin conference and therefore maybe I did know a little about internet in education. It was heartwarming to know that even smaller initiatives had been quite important.

Wikinews: While Tim Berners-Lee wasn't enthusiastic about it, you called for the first International WWW conference. How did those conferences shape the WWW?

Robert Cailliau: The conferences still run, the 2007 one was in Banff. They are an occasion to meet and work very hard for a few days at the exchange of ideas. The papers of the presentations are published in well-known academic journals. That incites people to prepare well and present to colleagues. Many web technologies started at one of the conferences (proxies, VRML, ...) Working groups are established there. Because many want to go but can do so only when funded by their institute or company, it often means they have to present a paper. Vague ideas are then consolidated and cast into programming code, which otherwise might not happen.

In addition the Conference Committee soon convinced the Web Consortium to hold one of its annual meetings in conjunction with the conference. I am no longer involved with this, but at least during the years 1996 to 2004 this synergy was present and a track of the conference was devoted to the work of the Consortium. Therefore Tim was also present every year.

I always saw the Consortium as the "church" with Tim as the "pope". In the Consortium there is a set of rules for arriving at decisions after which everyone has to abide by them. There are industrial and sometimes political stakes.

The Conferences however, as long as I was member of the Committee, I saw as the "state" of "laymen"; you had freedom of expression and could propose the most wild schemes. Between church and state I prefer a complete separation.

That did not mean of course that we did not collaborate closely between Consortium and Conference Committee: there always was a delegate of the Consortium member of the Committee although that was not a requirement. We wanted both to be successful.

Wikinews: Related to that, I have been told the WWW was initially to run on micropayments. Who had that idea, and why do you believe it never came about?

Robert Cailliau: It never was in the original goals to use micropayments. However, for keynote speaker of the first conference (May 1994) I had invited David Schaum, an expert in digital money. I was therefore already then convinced of the need for digital money: payment with guaranteed value but not traceable origin. We still do not have anything like that. To me a much more important reason to introduce digital money than untraceability is a free market for information.

The ideas of digital payments were targeting sales of goods and payment of subscriptions. To me it is more important to break the vicious triangle of author-reader-advertiser.

In the beginning I was often completely misunderstood. There were even newspaper articles that led to hate-mail through incomprehension.

The principle of an information market with micropayments is simple and it is not new (the French Minitel has had it since the early 80s).

There are currently three ways to put info on the web:

 * 1) for free (but who pays my time?)
 * 2) by subscription with a name and password valid for a certain length of time
 * 3) by soliciting advertisers to put their ads on the site

Manner 1 can only if I have other sources of income.

Manner 2 is used often but puts off people because of the high level of the subscription. That bars the reader from using many different sites, e.g. to browse many newspapers. The sum of the subscriptions is too high.

For example: I sometimes want to look up a word in the Oxford English Dictionary, but not so often that I find it worth my while to pay for the subscription. Therefore I can't use it at all.

Manner 3 is the most used even if that is not pleasant for the user. For example, Via Michelin, an excellent service, has recently become very irritating because it carries so much advertising, in addition animated as well so that it is difficult to concentrate on what I want to do there for all the moving stuff. Adverts, especially the animated variety, is a pest on useful sites.

With micropayments and digital money I would be able to pay Oxford a tiny sum for each time I consult the dictionary, but without having to pay a full subscription.

A good implementation of micropayments must also provide comfort: I should not have to log in or agree, my computer automatically pays behind the scenes. We are talking here of sums of less than a eurocent.

And I could of course set limits by telling the browser to warn me if I spend more than 10 Euros a day or when a site charges more than a cent for a page, etc.

In this way I could read the news in several papers without having to pay a complete subscription to each and having to log in. If they want, sites can of course also distinguish between a paying entrance after which there are no more adverts and things work faster, and an entrance that is free but full of adverts.

In short, there is then a true market for information, directly between the seller and the customer. Nothing is obligatory, but a lot more is possible. With the Euro it is now perhaps time to try an experiment with micropayments.

Wikinews: The web was invented in Europe, but it grew exponentially and to some extent the invention has exploded in your face; at any point did you feel that the WWW had been hijacked by the United States?

Robert Cailliau: The web was hijacked by those who put something in it. They are the people who did not make long ideological or so-called "intellectual" reasonings but who put content there. The approach differs greatly between our European parochial little cultures. For example on the whole French companies are pretty bad on the web: there is a lot of aesthetical ado but you can't find the information you are looking for. The Swiss sites, even those written in French, are much more direct and informative.

The Dutch do better than the Belgians. There is a large difference between the private sector and government agencies. The sites of the French government are a model of completeness, user friendliness and usefulness, almost completely the opposite of the sites of the private companies of the same country.

I did not make a study of this phenomenon but it seems there are two large influences: approach to life (Protestant/pragmatic/experimental/Germanic versus catholic/intellectual/cartesian/Latin ?) and language.

It's obvious that there is more available in English, say, than in Basque. But that should not surprise anyone. OK, so we have a language problem in Europe. That leads to one of my favourite subjects: language as a technology, but that's for another interview.

Wikinews: How much has the web evolved since the 1970s? What factors are hindering further evolution?

Robert Cailliau: You probably mean the 90s unless you want to talk internet instead of web. Looking back and from the many conversations with web and internet pioneers, I think not much has changed fundamentally.

There was a first explosion of internet services in the 70s (e-mail, chat, file transfer, remote login, ...) then a pause with nothing much until the web involved the public at large from 1995. Two grand phases then: academic development followed by explosion in the public sphere.

We must remember two incompatible communication models: telephony (no guaranteed contact but guaranteed bandwidth) and internet (guaranteed contact but no guaranteed bandwidth). Circuit switching and packet switching. Fashion dictates that we should now do everything via TCP/IP. That's fine als long as there is no need for continuous contact (e-mail, web, download) but it is never good enough when that need is present (audio, video, TV). Not to mention tele-surgery. Would you like to be on the operating table knowing that the surgeon on the other side has just TCP/IP between his hand and the scalpel? Probably not.

There are applications that need a guaranteed bandwidth and that's not achievable with classic TCP/IP. Of course, the mathematician and the network geek will tell you that there is no difference if you make the bandwidth high enough. True, but I fear that you can also always find an application that's bandwidth hungry enough that those limits need to be put higher again. Maybe we find a combination whereby the web is used to initiated a circuit so that the best of both approaches can be had.

Wikinews: What part or period of the history of the World Wide Web did you enjoy most? Which were the most exciting times?

Robert Cailliau: Enjoy? Only afterwards, except the first conference. There was a euphoric atmosphere that I have seldom experienced. And because I started it myself, it was extremely satisfying.

The most exciting period was from end 1991 to end 1994. It was the early period where we sensed very clearly where we wanted to go but had to instill that vision in others. It lasted until the end of WWW at CERN in December 1994. I cannot relate the whole story here, it is told in detail in the book "How the Web was Born".

Wikinews: If you could go back into time and change one thing about the start of the WWW, what would it be?

Robert Cailliau: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, one of the greatest engineers of all times, wrote in 1844 at the height of the railway mania:

Here the whole world is railway mad. I am really sick of hearing proposals made. I wish it were at an end. I prefer engineering very much to projecting, of which I keep as clear as I can...

The dreadful scramble in which I am obliged to get through my business is by no means a good sample of the way in which work ought to be done... I wish I could suggest a plan that would greatly diminish the number of projects; it would suit my interests and those of my clients perfectly if all railway work were stopped for several years to come.

I thought often of that reflection: we advanced far too fast with far too many developers who ran away in far too many different directions without much thinking. I don't want to be Cartesian here, but it would have been better if we had more time to build on our ideas before letting the beast loose.

Especially the geeks in the U.S. often behaved like cowboys: shoot first, think later. Features were implemented that looked attractive on first sight but turned out to be incompatible with other ones. For example the famous frames, that we still have not got rid of. People failed to understand the advantage of separating content from presentation, which we had on the NeXT in some sense. Especially graphic artists refused this and that put us back by about five years.

If a careful study were made it might well show that we lost much more time and effort managing excesses than we would have spent in a more considerate and paced development. I often had the impression I was running like mad to escape from drowning in a tsunami.

Future of the WWW
Wikinews: I've read that scientists at CERN are currently working on grid computing, mainly to process the huge amounts of data from the Large Hadron Collider project. Do you think grid computing will be the next generation web? Are there restrictions that limit the use of grid computing, for example working over large distances?

Robert Cailliau: About grid computing I have not much to say. The first intention of the ARPANET and later the intenet was the use of computing resources at a distance. Grid computing is an extrapolation of that idea. I don't know if the average user will use grid computing. Most probably not. It seems to me that personal computing stands to grid computing like serial computing stands to parallel computing. There are useful applications of parallel computing, but I don't think my second processor is busy while I'm typing this. Grid computing can be used behind the scenes in certain services, but I find it hard to see what the web surfer will use it for. Google knows what to do with it, I'm sure. So I'll shut up about it.

Wikinews: You've said before that you don't care a lot about the concept of web 2.0, because it was something you envisioned from the beginning, and it was something bound to happen: correct? If not, what is your vision for The Web? What would be a real web Renaissance?

Robert Cailliau: Web 2.0 is something that indeed "exists", but it is not a technology. It is a social phenomenon that requires the simultaneous deployment of a number of technologies to build the so-called 2.0 websites. Delivering web content via blogs and the like is a "new" happening in which the individual participates, often in very original ways. Freely contributing to web content was one of the original goals: the web should be as easy to write as it is to read. Another function we lost due to too fast development.

I'm much more worried about data. All my data are on my home computer and I regularly back them up. I have nothing important on a server: no e-mail, no photos, videos or whatever. But I'm an exception: most people never back up their machines and actually cannot handle a computer. They use the machine as a terminal to the internet.

Services such as gmail, YouTube, and in fact every site having some kind of "My-..." where one leaves a bit of oneself, bring us back to the archaic model of computing: central mainframes and storage, used through terminals on which no local applications run.

This trend started to worry me with e-mail first. Because of spam most ISPs stopped relaying mail and I began to have some trouble sending e-mail while on travel. To send mail you have to know the local smtp server. But which hotel receptionist can tell you that? They stare blankly at you, incapable of understanding that you do not use web mail, i.e. that you do not have your messages on a server.

Money is virtual, it is a number on a computer in a bank somewhere. We trust the bank: nobody has gold coins in a sock under the mattress.

But we have been working on the banking establishment for a few centuries. The last time we had a great crash (depression of 1929) not only a large number of people died of hunger, but it helped bring about the most totalitarian state we ever witnessed (the Third Reich). Since those days we have learned a lot, painfully and with lots of mishaps.

Therefore now we think that we can trust the banks and the economists with our money. The breakthrough came from government controls and international conventions.

With our data it is now as it was with money about two centuries ago: everything is in the hands of uncontrolled private companies, without any legal framework, to say nothing of international agreements.

But my data are a part of myself. I want to know how my data are managed, by whom, where, and with what guarantees. Money I may lose but then I grow my potatoes in my garden.

You speak of a web-Renaissance. That would be a brilliant light that would let us see that in the information-driven era we need to build new social structures, new forms of creating trust and we need more transparency in the processes of society.

Wikinews: The principle behind wikis such as Wikipedia provides similar functionalities to early web browsers that were web editors at the same time. To which extent is this analogy correct?

Robert Cailliau: The one great difference, maybe, is that wikis run on servers, but I can of course put a wiki on my home computer or laptop. It's not really wysiwyg but that is not so important.

Wikinews: Do you see wikis as a viable long-term model, or do you expect something else to emerge? On the subjects of wikis, do you refer to Wikipedia?

Robert Cailliau: I use the Wikipedia often. I also contribute here and there. A very great work, looked at with a lot of jealousy. In almost all comments about the Wikipedia I perceive in the background some jealousy and intolerance.

There seems to be a strong reaction from those who derive their prestige from "secret" knowledge and consequently find it rather scandalous that everything is now not only lying around to be read but also often debunks their prejudices.

"The Wikipedia is full of errors": maybe, but printed books too and they do not get corrected. It is also totally unrealistic to compare the Wikipedia with a work like the Britannica (for which you need a subscription because we have no micropayments). One should compare the Wikipedia with what people have in their homes (often NOTHING!) or in their heads. If the Wikipedia is as good as the Brittanica, then hats off!

Are wikis viable in the longer term? I think so. They give authors a frame to work in. Whatever comes later, that frame is important.

Wikinews: You've edited your own article on Wikipedia, did you find it easy to work with? You probably don't have a lot of experience with it, but what is your impression of the MediaWiki software that Wikipedia runs on?

Robert Cailliau: I find it very good. Precisely because I do not use it often it is important that it is sufficiently simple and intuitive that I do not need a manual. The wiki software fulfills this criterion and is therefore very good: the frame is important.!

Wikinews: Will it be possible to agree on common standards, with the software companies trying to push their own standards? Are there major obstacles for XML?

Robert Cailliau: We can apparently agree on common standards: OS X is full of XML and even Microsoft now uses XML for its Office products.

Proprietary standards are not bad in themselves. They let one try out new things or be efficient in some ways. I do not object to them on one condition: that there is a way to export all data in an XML form, with all the details I could control through the application transmitted to the XML in recognisable form.

The W3 Consortium succeeded in spreading the WWW standards and did even more: several commercial standards converged under its influence. That is the good news.

Wikinews: Lawmakers are lagging behind when it comes to computer- and information-technology. On your site, you say: In a society based on technology it is simply dangerous to make policy on the basis of language constructs only. What is the alternative to language-based policy?

Robert Cailliau: A few years ago I had to speak about www at the European Parliament in Brussels. I was shocked that there was no way to use anything else than spoken language. No screen, no projector, no whiteboard. How can one say anything sensible about climate change without showing maps, graphs, videos? But perhaps we should first work on the scientific literacy of our politicians. Maybe that won't be necessary if the next form of government grows from web 2.0. I just discovered Newropeans (http:// www.newropeans.org). Who knows. The old technology of the spoken language alone certainly no longer works.

Wikinews: There were recently reports in the Belgian media about the rise of reported internet crime. Does that illustrate your call for international regulations of internet behaviour? If someone poses problematic behaviour on the internet, how should he or she be dealt with?

Robert Cailliau: What do we use in common law? The police searches for the offender and works through a number of procedures. There are rules for establishing complicity. On the net it is only different because time and space break down there.

Problematic behaviour, as you euphemistically call it, can be exhibited from anywhere and it usually goes very fast. We therefore need a world-wide law. There are however at least three large legal frameworks in conflict here: the European, the US and the Chinese systems. Making those work together is a problem that I do not see solved in time.

What upsets me too is the idea that it is the responsibility of the ISP or service to act. Recently MySpace removed a number of users that were known as sex offenders. They must have used some register. Who decided that? Who transmitted the register? The reaction of Scotland Yard was right: it's not because these people had committed an offence that they should be excluded forever, certainly not when they had served their sentences. Or we should first change the law. But we see more and more cases in which commercial companies take the law in their own hands.

And that makes me worried about what the commercial sector will do in the vacuum that the governments just let be. Much more than about what governments would do. That in turn is related to my worries over leaving my data in the hands of sites rather than having full control myself.

Let's not forget that the sex offenders maybe did nothing wrong in MySpace. The terms of MySpace are very simple: they have the right to do what they want and to exclude you when they want without reason. In addition they transfer all your data to the U.S., although they are honest enough to warn you that the protection of private data in the U.S. "may be different". No, I prefer to stay away from social sites in these circumstances.

Finally, do these sex offenders have a telephone? That is allowed? And they can use the post office? And the road system with their cars? Yeah, let's just keep on messing about.

What we need to clarify is where the rights and duties are. As guide we still have Montesquieue. Furthermore I have been pleading for years now for an "internet driving licence". Last week I heard something similar said in the British House of Commons.

Wikinews: Wikipedia says the semantic web "derives from W3C director Sir Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the Web as a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange," yet you're not a fan of the semantic web, right? Is that because the semantic web will have as a result that "our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines"? Or, are you in favour of a spread of protocols for different types of transactions and data?

Robert Cailliau: A difficult question. I would like to have a good semantic web. But I think that the possibilities for abuse and misleading are greater with a semantic web (Tim agreed with that when I submitted the problem to him, but he is a steady believer in the goodness of humanity).

It's a theme that runs through this interview: whom can you trust and how do you make the rules that will keep "problematic behaviour" within bounds? Only a world-wide convention can help and we are far away from it.

It's also a little early to use intelligent machinery. Before we reach artificial intelligence we need to cross the desert of the half-witted machines. And you have no idea how "half witted" machines can be.

My attitude towards the semantic web is also liked to the remark that we went too fast: maybe here too we should think and experiment first before we let the beast loose!

Wikinews: Can you predict the future of the internet? Are you optimistic, or will it be ", but worse"?

Robert Cailliau: Matrix but worse. Flight from reality is an unavoidable side effect of our brain structures. Since thousands of years people prefer to listen to fairy tales than face the boring realities. Still I think Web 2.0 is a good trend: blogs, Wikipedia, rings, all these achievements come from simple people sitting behind their home computers who share with others what they experience, and above all learn from others! This learning outside school is the biggest strength of the web and most hopegiving.

Final question
Wikinews: You've worked at CERN for 33 years: miss it? How do you spend your days now? Do you spend a lot of time on the internet? In which projects are you still involved?

Robert Cailliau: I had at least four different careers at CERN. While I spent 33 years there, it was as if I changed companies four times. What remained was the environment of colleagues who are modest. A journalist wrote about CERN:

Amazing! Here are people who change their minds in the face of evidence!

That attitude, also that of the Enlightenment, I would not miss for anything. It is much more satisfying to find out for yourself what really goes on than to deliver yourself to dogmas of someone else. Fortunately I have enough friends with similar attitudes both inside and outside CERN.

Do I spend a lot of time on the net? Well, "being on the net" is not an occupation. What I do is exchange ideas, read, learn, contribute (NotSchool among others) and look around. I have always done that. A good part of these activities now happen through the net, but that is just as much or as little relevant as saying that for many things I use electricity.

I devote time to a number of private projects that have been waiting for a long time and to the problems of education in scientific literacy.

R.


text:
Polish pilgrims killed in French bus crash

July 22, 2007 A bus carrying 50 Polish people (47 pilgrims and a three person crew) crashed today near Grenoble in France. According to police, there are 26 dead and 24 injured.

The Poles, many of them elderly, had been attending a pilgrimage at the nearby Notre-Dame de la Salette sanctuary. Emergency workers say the bus suffered a problem with its brakes while on a steep descent. It left the roadway and fell in a river below, where it burst into flames.

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


text:
Talk:Sprint Nextel customer service rep. harasses client; Sprint cancels his account/Comments

All you have is the word of one disgruntled customer; I wouldn't consider that enough to justify publishing a story such as this.

He claims in his post to wordpress that he "allowed the first few conversations under fear of retribution, but recorded them all, and called immediately afterwards to customer care.." - by the time you interviewed him on IRC, it was "almost 30 calls" and "every other day or so." He claims in his post to wordpress post to have been cursed at several times, hung up on at least twice, and threatened several times - all by different representatives. Doesn't sound very plausible to me. Even less plausible is the notion that this representative is some kind of superhacker who ferreted out his "online persona" and sent him IM death threats.

He claims that this Jessica was not fired, and still works in the call center - how could he possibly know that? None of these points demonstrate anything, but this article is pure heresay. I'm not sure that it would constitute libel, but you should be more careful with this kind of subject matter. If he is, as he seems, just an angry customer who is seeking a way to evade his bill and/or generate bad PR to hurt Sprint Nextel, you've played directly into his hand. If I was an wikinews admin, I'd take this article down until it could be verified. 75.153.202.25 13:43, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * It was verified. By several people and 2 admins. One, there is no libel here because the only "real" names used is that of Mr. Brady. And no...he is not "just an angry customer," and without disclosing the conversation I had with Mr. Brady, I cannot say, and in terms of journalistic ethics, will not say her full real name.

 * He knows she was not fired because of who he is and what he does, which has no relevance to the article.

 * No one said this person was a hacker and apparently you have no clue ho a telephone company's customer service reps. computer works and what they can see. There are more ways, other than hacking, to get a screen name.

 * Ever talk to a Sprint rep, or any rep when you KNOW the problems you have but they have no clue how the inside of their own ca works let alone a phone? These reps are not trained in the technical aspects of a phone and are not tech agents. They "troubleshoot" by typing in a few of the "keywords" you give them as you describe the problem and the computer does the rest. They also know your name, number, addres, social security number the second you call.

 * Its not cistomer services job to stop threats or calls. Its the company's job and supervisors and such. So if they did not forward his complaint in a timely manner, like they should have, then of course it can turn into 30 calls. Apparently you have never had someone obsessed with you...well I have and I can say I got just as many calls if not more.

 * You have no justification because you did not perform the interview and you have no clue who this person is. And besides, the source at the bottom is clear proof that Sprint has a habit of handling their customers like this when they don't feel like doing their job. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 22:59, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Actually, you will always have some customers who are so much of a damn nuisance that they cost more money than you make off them. You write off your losses (including any outstanding bill) and end the contract, there should be clauses in it that allow that.  --Brian McNeil / talk 23:05, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * There's no need to get defensive, DragonFire. It simply doesn't appear as though you have any source but Mr. Brady's word for it, and Mr. Brady has an obvious motive. You say that several admins have verified it - with who, Mr. Brady? No, I don't know who Mr. Brady is - what has that got to do with it? Now you want people to Digg it; do you know this man, by any chance?

 * I've come to respect wikinews as a reliable news outlet, and it's a bit distressing to see it engaging in a smear campaign against Sprint Nextel on the word of one man. I see no other way to characterize the enthusiastic plea to "make it popular" on Digg.

 * Don't take it so personally, DragonFire. I pay enough attention to note that you're a frequent and valued contributor here, and I respect that. It just seems as though you're dragging wikinews into one man's battle with Sprint Nextel, with nothing but his word to go on. The fact that Sprint has been dumping customer who complain too much doesn't seem to have any bearing on his allegations.

 * When and if you can verify his story, I hope you'll add a note to the talk page, so I can send you a big fat apology. But I won't hold my breath. 75.153.202.25 00:48, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I performed an extensive interview with this individual. And NO I do not know him. He came to me through other individuals pointing him to me, people of whom I trust. If I felt that this was not a valid story, I would not have published it to begin with. I am intending no battle and I am not here to cause one. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 01:34, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

 * there is no libel here because the only "real" names used is that of Mr. Brady - Defamation law also applies to companies, not just humans. --Salvadors 09:07, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

 * I contacted Fox, the response I got was a lengthy piece on why they cancelled the 1,000 or so customers and a no comment for "customer privacy concerns" on the Brady case. --Brian McNeil / talk 09:14, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

I've made a few copy edits to the introduction to make it less confusing, but I agree that the article is poorly researched, one-sided, and should be removed. --Salvadors 20:15, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * We e-mailed Sprint and the proper people. If they refuse to comment or reply, that is no longer our problem. We did what any news agency would do. Once we do that, it is now up to them (in this case Sprint) to make the next move. Our job was then completed. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 23:00, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Is it possible to try and get a response from the company? Kingjeff 14:57, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I tried, they don't answer email - and I emailed someone fairly senior with a link to our draft of this story. ==Brian McNeil / talk 15:04, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

sprint news article.
This is one of the funniest news articles I've read! I cannot believe that someone took the time to 'investigate' this but I want to thank that person because it was quite entertaining!

Take the following few sentences for instance:

''The two of them then started to discuss what two people would normally discuss if just chatting; sports, the weather, movies and music and if Virginia was a nice place to go on vacation. The supervisor then came by Jessica's station with no luck on finding a code.''

How funny! The seriousness in which this was written!
 * Glad you liked it :) DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 23:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Digg it!
This article is on Digg.com. Help to make it popular :) DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 23:20, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

—65.96.169.177 04:28, 29 July 2007 (UTC) Cancel the nut-cases, improve service for everyone else. sounds good to me. —65.96.169.177 04:28, 29 July 2007 (UTC)


text:
User talk:Adambro/Archive 1

=25 April 2007=

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! DragonFire1024 20:18, 25 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
 * And of course, stories need writing!

=17 June 2007=

4.5-kilometre bridge to link Crimea with Russia
Hi, you say i`m violation copyright by posting the news "4.5-kilometre bridge to link Crimea and Russia". I want to notify you that i am the author of this article on www.russia-ic.com and as the author i have the right to publish articles written by me on other websites.

Natalya —The preceding unsigned comment was added by LNatalya (talk • contribs) 07:46, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

=18 June 2007=

Image:Army of Islam - Al Jazeera.jpg
Hi, could you please provide the link to the BBC page that has this image? It will be deleted if you cannot provide the source. Thanks.  —FellowWiki Newsie 17:21, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Sorry about that, I've corrected the URL. Adambro 18:18, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

=19 June 2007=

Re: Missile story
It is one sentence long and yhere is no information on the event. Journalists write news stories to inform people. One sentence is not journalism. I'm sure not many readers will benefit from a report that is one sentence long.  —FellowWiki Newsie 14:33, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

 * However since User:Maximusnukeage considers it to be breaking news and Breaking news says that "It is very important to post and publish an article as soon as possible about the event" and "This is the only time you should publish an incomplete news article" so I would be of the opinion that it was appropriate. I also can't see anything in Content guide that offers guidance about article lengths or a minimum content. Thanks. Adambro 14:41, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Yes but how long would the article stay as a stub on the main page? I'm not very keen on publishing one sentence articles, especially when they are breaking news and more information needs to be added immediately.  —FellowWiki Newsie 14:47, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Fair enough, but I just feel that its better for us to get a short article published than wait until more details are available in a breaking news situation. I wouldn't have thought such a short article could remain in that state before someone expanded it. Adambro 14:49, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Yes, you have a point but I was worried that it would stay as a stub. Anyways, when I publish breaking news articles I never wait for other people to add information, I do it myself.  —FellowWiki Newsie 14:53, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

=20 June 2007=

AWB
You should have access now: AutoWikiBrowser/Request. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 14:15, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Thanks. Adambro 14:19, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Photojournalism
There have been attempts to coordinate things on meta: Scheduled attendance for Wikinews or Commons and Press corps. Both proved unsuccessful because nobody maintained the pages.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 17:54, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

 * It's certainly disappointing that this hasn't worked in the past. I don't think coordinating our efforts here is the most effective though, there are of course hundreds of Wikimedia wikis and so by working at a higher level would increase the ability to get images for events.

 * Perhaps Commons is the most suitable place for this. Certainly there are more photographers going to be lurking there so the chance of getting an image is much higher. What we really need is some kind of shared calendar which users can post events likely to be of interest to Wikimedia projects and then other users can indicate whether they intend to attend. I'm not sure how appropriate a Wiki is for this task though.

 * There may already be something along these lines on Commons, I don't know. Adambro 18:09, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

=21 June 2007=

Commons admin
If i remember correctly i think at some point you said you were a commons admin. If so your help is needs at. Thanks and sorry if i got it wrong. --Mark Talk 10:14, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Indeed, I've checked out the deleted image on Commons and replied at WN:DR. Adambro 10:24, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

=22 June 2007=

RE Images to commons
I have my reasons for uploading my images here. One being that several of my images in past articles were deleted without notice or any attempt to inform me both before or after the deletions. Since then, which was about a year ago, all my work, relating to Wikinews articles have been uploaded here, and I prefer, at least for now, to keep it that way. DragonFire1024 15:51, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Well I had those issues and I don't want to have them again. I cannot recall those names and it would require me digging through at least a year of edits to find them. I have never had a problem uploading news related images here, as that is what it is for. I understand that users would like them on commons, but until I can have trust in Commons that they will not delete images, I would like them to stay here. DragonFire1024 16:10, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I was reading this, and thought you might be interested in some of the history behind a large portion of wikinews (in general) really hating commons'. (Yes this has gone on for a long time). Basically Commons in the past did go on deletion sprees,(this is before undeletion of images, commons ticker, or anything like that), without telling anyone, and we found out 6 months later. After that we continued to hate them more and more (to the point of sort of almost forking them). Anyways as of recent comnmoners have been nicer, and relations have improved, but a lot of people still really don't like them. (for a more detailed version of this rant, see the middle of this email (note, not entirely current)). Bawolff ☺☻ 05:00, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Yes, thanks for that Bawolff, I appreciate you taking the time to inform me of some of the context. Hopefully better relations with Commons will address the concerns. I certainly don't think hating Commons is particularly constructive way to approach another project. It is of course important to recognise the limitations and potential problems but there are many advantages to using Commons if these can be overcome, despite the often highlighted point that Wikinews differs from some of the other foundation projects such as Wikipedia. Having a free image repository must surely be an extremely useful resource for Wikinews.

 * As you may be aware, I'm a Commons admin myself, and am surprised that someone would go on a deletion spree without dealing with the consequences of their actions on the appropriate project, however I think that the likes of the Commons Ticker will help with this. I think it is important for Commons admins to get themselves involved in the projects where the images are used as opposed to simply spending their time working on Commons so I'm always happy to help out here where my Commons admin rights can be useful, such as above on my talk page where there was a query with a deleted image.

 * I really want users here to get out of this position of hating Commons and learn to appreciate that if an image has been deleted it must have been done by a human, who of course do make mistakes, the Commons project itself is not a fault. I noted a comment on WN:DR about how perhaps one solution could to be to tag images on Commons as being of importance to Wikinews and so shouldn't be deleted. However, surely this is unnecessary since an image is only going to be deleted if there is a problem with it. Any images which cannot be on Commons for whatever reason should be uploaded here however free images should most certainly be not. Uploading free images to Commons is by far the best solution regardless of some Wikinews editors position on the project. Adambro 10:21, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Comment by Brianmc on 26 June
I don't hate Commons, I hate the way some people on Commons don't take into account where images are used on other projects (I think Commons has its fair share of (c)-free zealots). I am very busy with work at the moment (yay! more money!) and can't really go into this in the depth I would like to. To corrupt a DTP expression, I believe "What you've seen is what you should get" ... If you come back to the same article in 6 months time. Exceptions should be where an image has turned out to be a (c) vio. and a note should substitute for the image, I am going to see where that should be incorporated into our guidelines when I have more time and look to put together a template to replace deleted images.

As you probably know, communication online is often prone to poor reception and misunderstanding, if you go dig on Commons for how Wikinews' WeatherChecker app was received you'll see why some people aren't happy about Commons.

Finally - as you've probably guessed - I'm fairly disgusted with the way the board handled the new licensing policy. There was no consultation with projects that have local upload enabled (i.e. us). As far as I can tell this was a piece of idealism based primarily around similar principles to those of some Free software groups and people such as Richard Stallman. I am not aware of any analysis being carried out to assess the impact the new policy would have on sites which are run by volunteers, and a severe lack of people skills/consideration meant the policy was imposed from on high without consideration of the conflict it would provoke between idealists and pragmatists. --Brian McNeil / talk 10:43, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Comment by DragonFire1024 on 26 June
Also, it is not just my opinion of commons or how they operate, but its my choice. It is not required by any policy anywhere that my news related image be uploaded to Commons. It might be preferred but not required. I am well aware that it could be better to upload there, but 95% of the images I take have nothing to do with anything on commons and frankly serve no immediate purpose there. They describe a specific event at a specific time and are almost likely not to be used anywhere else. At least thats how I see it. DragonFire1024 10:55, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I think it is a nonsense that someone who seeks to represent editors by joining the board of the foundation cannot recongise the benefits of uploading free media to the Commons project. When you upload an image here it says Please upload all images under a free licence to Wikimedia Commons, which whilst is only a recomendation it seems very disappointing that you as an admistrator on this project go against this. You emphaise that many of your images are news related but I fail to see how this is relevant in jusitfying you position; they are free images so are best uploaded to Commons, end of. By doing so, for example, other language Wikinews would be able to use the image.

 * It appears I'll continue to be able to keep myself occupied moving free images from here to Commons where they should have been uploaded originally. Adambro 11:08, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

 * If you can sort out what - from the outside - looks like a jihad against commons:Image:Trophy.jpg then that might help restore some faith I might have in Commons. HOWEVER... their deletion approach does NOT assume good faith and they do not make reasonable efforts to contact uploaders of the DR. this leaves me to personally monitor every image I ever uploaded to Commons to have some hope that some rogue administrator doesn't delete them because he/she doesn't like the color of my hair (in other words delete it because it serves no logical purpose Commons.) It has happened before, it has and IS happening with the trophy, and I do not trust Commons, in this regard, as far as I can throw them. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 15:53, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Your comments about Commons are bizarre, I do not understand how you describe the DR of the image as jihad. Questioning where an image has come from is not not assuming good faith. We need to know where images come from regardless of who uploads them so others can verify the image is available under an appropriate licence. Even an established contributor may make mistakes or there may be disagreement over interpretation of what permissions the source allows.

 * You need not worry about your images being deleted for images are only deleted with good reason, providing your upload complies with Commons policy it won't be.

 * Regarding commons:Image:Trophy.jpg, simply linking to the source does not make it possible to verify the licence so the info is inadequate. Unless such information can be found then the image should be deleted. I do not see what the fuss is about. This isn't a particularly important image which is used on a handful of user pages as an award. It would be straightforward enough to find an alternative if an image of a trophy is so important. Adambro 17:05, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
 * We have other pictures of trophies (like Image:Ligue des champions NB.JPG). The issue is that this picture is of high historical importance. Honestly it is part of the history of this project, and we want to keep it. Although logically it really means zip, we still want (for lack of better words to express myself). If commons deleted Image:Barnstar.png, you;d certainly have a bunch of angry wikipedians. Bawolff ☺☻ 21:53, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Check the deletion log regarding the trophy and then you might understand better. And as I said I am speaking from my experience.
 * The point is 2 years ago when it was uploaded it was good and was verifiable otherwise it would have been deleted then. As Bawolff said on its talk page, once PD always PD...if it was then, it is now.
 * In regards to my images, my argument stands, and have noted on the talk pages, of the images you moved so far, for them to stay as a local upload (in other words, to not be deleted here. As I stated, until some of my faith in Commons can be restored, I do not trust their system of deletion.) DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 17:11, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

 * Do you honestly consider yourself an appropriate candidate for the foundation board? Adambro 17:13, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

 * I have to but in here, but how do the issues DF has with Commons influence his suitability as a candidate? One of the issues he has raised in his candidacy is that inter-project cooperation and board member access are poorly managed at the moment. Commons earned the reputation they have amongst contributors here, I appreciate you're trying to do something about that. However, don't expect your efforts to be easily accepted if you don't admit there have been issues in the past.
 * Commmons is a really good idea, but it has to exist to serve the other Foundation projects. They do not have a good reputation here because they are not seen to have made sufficient effort to avoid interfering with our content or informing us in a timely fashion to allow us to respond to deletion requests for media used on projects such as ours. Yes, this is them erring on the safe side - and I appreciate a large volume is uploaded to the site every day - but not everyone monitors what the ticker warns us about. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:43, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

=27 June 2007=

Project news
--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 09:08, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Welcomes
I'm not sure what the policy on other projects is, but when I first started welcoming people here I was told to wait until they make a contribution so you can decide whether to welcome or warn.

I don't know what the various pages for the signup process are in the MediaWiki namespace, perhaps we can incorporate some sort of welcome into those - or (probably with consultation with developers) something in the welcome email.

I don't want you to stop welcoming people, but I'd like your thoughts on this. I have your userpage on my watchlist so you can answer here if you like. --Brian McNeil / talk 11:09, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Adambro/Archive 1


text:
User talk:76.5.105.107

Contact me here. --Sam

Regarding your edits of Print edition/January 2007
Please do not continue to replace the page Print edition/January 2007 with unrelated comments as you have done. Adambro 14:05, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Additionally, if you have a problem with "Homestar Runner Wiki" then please raise the issue there. We are not connected with that wiki. Adambro 14:07, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

click here --Sam

title: User talk:76.5.105.107


text:
Power outage traps 180 people in Gateway Arch

July 22, 2007 On Saturday at 8:45 p.m. (CST), a power outage due to equipment failure at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri trapped 40 people in the two arch trams and 100 people in the observation center at the top of the Arch.

It took about two hours to evacuate the south tram after one of the nine cables supporting the tram car possibly snapped because of a power failure. The north side tram and people in the observation center had to walk down approximately 300 feet of steps to a freight elevator to be taken to the bottom of the Arch. They were met by anxious families who had been waiting for hours outside the Arch. Two people needed treatment for minor injuries.

The Gateway Arch will be back open Sunday with only the north tram operating. The National Park Service opened the Gateway Arch in 1966 and is one of the region's most popular attractions.


text:
Tour de France: Alberto Contador wins stage 14

July 22, 2007

of Spain has won stage 14 of the. of Denmark came in second and extended his overall lead by 2' 04' over  of Australia. Contador moves into second ahead of Evans and 2' 23" behind Rasmussen.

Contador and Rasmussen had an animated discussion about how to share the workload up the final climb. Contador was happy to sit behind the -wearing Rasmussen, and pass him in the final sprint for the finish-line. The Dane had hoped for more help in setting the pace and extending his overall lead.

The winner of yesterday's time trial,, did not have a good day. will likely now be the leader for. This stage took the race into the. This stage starts with a category 2 climb out of and then follows a relatively calm route via,  and  before taking on the Port de Pailhères (17 km at 7.2%) and a very difficult finish at  (16 km at 7.9%).

Tomorrow's 196 km stage should be one of the major stages of the Tour, with no fewer than five major mountain passes - including the, the (5.7 km climb at 6.9%), the  (7.0 km climb at 8.1%), the  (19.5 km at 6.2%), (the first time this climb has featured in the Tour), and finally the  (9.7 km climb at 7.8%) with a downhill finish in. This exhausting stage will be followed by a day of rest.

Post-race statements
This was a really important stage today but there are still three very important stages to come and I have to be good in each one of them if I want to win the Tour de France. I could yet have a bad day in the final and the overall champion of the race cannot afford to falter at any time. I’m aware that it’s possible for me to have a bad day, but that can happen to Rasmussen too. At the moment, however, he’s the leader and he continues to demonstrate that he’s really strong. Today I have made time gains on Cadel Evans. Now I have to attack Rasmussen and I will try to do just that. My team decided to take its responsibility just like what Saunier Duval tried to do [in the lead-up to the first mountain pass] but it didn’t work out for them. We sent Hincapie and Popovych to the front leading to the final climb to take charge and then I chose the moment to attack when my legs were good That is probably the most difficult climb and stage finish of the entire race. The Tour has been up here a few times before and the likes of Pantani and Armstrong have won here so it would have been nice to put my name to that list but I didn’t succeed in that but it was a good victory for Alberto. I’m still happy, however, with the outcome of today. My team was riding very strongly today, that’s for sure. I was trying to hold them back a little bit because we still have more than 400 kilometers of riding in the Pyrenees ahead of us and the battle is far from over. I didn’t want them to ride too hard but it was difficult to hold them back today. I got to a point where I realized, ‘Okay, I might not win the stage but I will be able to thin out the field of rivals quite significantly.’ So I worked all the way to the line and, obviously, Contador had the better position for the sprint. But it’s not over with you, there’s a long way to go and, with the time trial on the final Saturday, I think we need to accept that a lot can change. Anyone within six or seven minutes of me can win at this point


text:
Talk:Wikinews interviews World Wide Web co-inventor Robert Cailliau

Pre-publication notes
Please note that Robert asked for an interview in Dutch, so the questions will be translated and the responses will be translated also. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 15:25, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I removed an incorrect parenthetical remark in the question about how he found using Wikipedia when editing the article about himself: "which is actually against Wikipedia policy, due to conflict of interest". Editing articles in which you have a vested interest is allowed by WP:COI, even though it's not recommended and you are expected to exercise a great deal of caution. For that matter, WP:COI isn't a policy. --192.193.245.16 16:36, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

I've prepared the interview and am planning to send the e-mail today. If you can improve the English and such further, or have other suggestions, they are most welcome! --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 15:18, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Raw version
Available on this subpage to work on: Wikinews talk:Story preparation/Interview with world wide web co-inventor Robert Cailliau/Interview. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 20:06, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

 * See also this additional resource.

Too long?
Perhaps this interview could have been split up over time to make it smaller? --Nzgabriel | Talk 03:49, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I reckoned that those interested would read it in one piece, or in 2-3 sessions depending on their time. Obviously it is very long, but it's a work in one piece. I'm open to suggestions though.--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 06:47, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
 * It would be much easier to read if there were links to each section or maybe every question, however this would create a large link box, ill do the work but don't know if it would be appreciated?
 * I don't know, I'll add back the sections link box, but don't think a link to every question is a good idea. It's just a long interview, take your time to read it if you're interested but I think it is a work in one piece. --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 13:55, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

 * Just read it, Steven, and thoroughly enjoyed it as is. Well done! Jcart1534 14:02, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Where do all the anon's come from?
Maybe slashdot: "a long and interesting interview". --Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 06:45, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

wrong link
at the paragraph the link to the c programming language is wrong! can somebody correct it? Mabdul (talk) 13:50, 26 July 2010 (UTC)
 * "Robert Cailliau: In 1990 I had already left programming for ten years and was doing management. I'm also 8 years older than Tim, who himself was no longer a young programmer. It was evident that I could not compete with twenty year old Unix hackers and soon I stopped meddling with the writing of C code. Anyway I know only one programming language worse than C and that is Javascript."
 * [[Image:Yes_check.svg|link=|alt=|16px]] Done Thank you! --InfantGorilla (talk) 13:57, 26 July 2010 (UTC)

typo
aniversary ...--Billymac00 (talk) 22:34, 11 September 2014 (UTC)
 * ✅ --Pi zero (talk) 23:29, 11 September 2014 (UTC)


text:
Fernando Alonso wins 2007 European Grand Prix

July 22, 2007 McLaren-Mercedes driver Fernando Alonso won the FIA Formula-1 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany.

Although light rain began to fall during the formation lap, the start was relatively clean, marred only by a collision between the two BMW Sauber drivers. As the rain began to fall more heavily, the pit lane filled up with crews from every team expecting all the drivers to change to intermediate tyres at the end of the first lap. However Kimi Räikkönen, who had started in pole position and was leading the race, skidded across the pit-lane entrance and back out onto the track, forcing him to drive another lap in increasingly wet conditions.

Having opted to start the race from the pits on intermediate tyres Marcus Winkelhock, a rookie Spyker-Ferrari driver on his first ever Formula One race, quickly rose to become race leader despite having started the race in last position.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who had suffered a crash in the third qualifying session and started 10th on his repaired car, had a perfect start, gaining six places, but made contact with one of the BMWs on the first lap and punctured his left rear tyre.

Within several laps the track quickly became flooded, and on lap three Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Adrian Sutil, Nico Rosberg, Scott Speed, Anthony Davidson, and Antonio Liuzzi all aquaplaned off into the gravel trap at the same place - Liuzzi making contact with the tractor attempting to recover the other cars. The safety car was deployed for several laps but the increasingly dangerous conditions forced race officials to red-flag the race, bringing it to a complete stop until the rain cleared up, and drivers once again gathered on the starting grid for a restart. Despite needing to have his car lifted out of the gravel trap by a crane, Hamilton managed to keep his engine running, and in accordance with the rules regarding being moved from a dangerous position, was allowed to rejoin the restarting grid in last place, albeit a lap down on all the other drivers.

After about half an hour of stoppage, Winkelhock then led the pack off in a flying start behind the safety car. He was quickly overtaken by almost every car, before retiring due to mechanical problems.

For most of the race Felipe Massa led, pursued by world champion Fernando Alonso. Hamilton was the fastest driver on the track, but even at three seconds a lap faster than the other back-markers it took him a long time to catch the pack.

Rain was predicted to recommence approximately 20 minutes before the end of the race. Renault took a gamble by bringing Heikki Kovalainen in first for a tyre change, but they were too early, and he quickly dropped back from fifth position. Several laps later, there was a rush into the pits, with nobody wanting additional risks on the wet track. The "extreme wet" tyres reduced the pace of Massa's Ferrari and allowed Alonso to come closer and push hard on his rival.

After two laps of constant pressure and overtaking attempts, Alonso passed Massa, and held him off until the finish. The aggressive attack style chosen by Spaniard caused a slight contact between their cars.

Kimi Raikkonen had been close behind Alonso, but his car suffered a breakdown and he had to park it alongside the track.

Mark Webber drove his Red Bull-Renault to the third place. His teammate David Coulthard also made a nice race finishing 5th from his 20th place on the starting grid. This became the most successful result for Red Bull in this season.

Still the third place of Webber was under threat from Alexander Wurz from Williams-Toyota who came closer and closer up to the finish line which they crossed with +0,263 sec distance.

The two BMW Saubers ended 6th and 7th. And the top eight was closed by Heikki Kovalainen from Renault.

For the first time from his debut Lewis Hamilton finished outside the points. His consistently quick pace throughout the race raised him up to tenth place, and in a final gamble he attempted to stay out on dry tyres during the second downpour. This raised him into the points temporarily, but after several slow laps he was forced to pit, and dropped back to tenth. In the dying laps he came within several seconds of Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen, but although he managed to pass Fisichella, Kovalaninen remained out of reach, and Hamilton had to settle for ninth place. He remains leader of the drivers' championship, but now only 2 points ahead of Alonso.

This was the first wet race since the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.


text:
User talk:70.104.16.81

Welcome
Welcome!

70.104.16.81, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews:
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Here are some other hints and tips:

 * I would recommend that you get a username. You don't have to log in to read or edit articles on Wikinews, but creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive, requires no personal information, and there are many benefits of having a username.  (If you edit without a username, your IP address is used to identify you instead.)

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If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! --Brian McNeil / talk 16:17, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:70.104.16.81


text:
User:Djmckee1

I Am Djmckee1 off the English Wikipedia. I Read WikiNews lots but rearly edit it.

title: User:Djmckee1


text:
Australia to honour Steve Irwin with nature park

July 22, 2007

The Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced Sunday that 135,000 hectares (1350 km², or 333,592 acres) of land near Weipa in the far north of Queensland, Australia will be turned in a wildlife reserve in honour of the late naturalist Steve Irwin. Prime Minister John Howard said the park was an important addition to Australia's national reserve system, and a fitting tribute to a passionate environmentalist and a great Australian.

The Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve will be a memorial managed by the Irwin family trust for environmental purposes to fulfill Irwin's vision to conserve and protect Australia's special environments by acquiring it and preserving it forever.

Steve Irwin died in September 2006 while filming an underwater television documentary series off Australia's north coast. He was stabbed in the chest by a sting ray barb while diving.


text:
Talk:Fernando Alonso wins 2007 European Grand Prix

Original reporting notes
TV channel - REN TV, Russia. Date - 22.07.2007. Time - 15:45-18:15 MSK - "Formula 1": "Race: Live from Nürburgring". Commentator - Alexander Kabanovskiy (live event). --Yuriybrisk 16:41, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Edits based on watching the race live on Estonian TV -- Salvadors 19:57, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


text:
Comments:American teenage girl charged with murder of her mother

Wrong Information
Just thought that I'd let you know that the information under incarceration for Ms. Waterman is incorrect. It says that she is currently incarcerated in Alaska, but she's not she is out walking the streets in another state, far away from Alaska I just seen her the other day.

peace,
 * The Liz

You do realize that this story is from 2004? --SVTCobra 17:07, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Tour de France: Alberto Contador wins stage 14

Discrepancies in times
OK, in case you note some discrepancies, the source appears to originate with the official Tour de France numbers. Officially, Evans was 1:00 behind Rasmussen after stage 13. Also, officially Evans took 1:52 longer to complete stage 14. But now, and still officially, Evans is behind by 3:04, a difference of 2:04 and not 1:52. I think it must be a mistake on the part of Tour organizers. If it is something else and some one knows what the explanation is, drop a note here, please. Thanks. --SVTCobra 17:27, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Aren't there any bonus seconds to be awarded for reaching intermediate goals?


text:
Politicians call for action after floods cause havoc in the UK

July 22, 2007 Politicians in the United Kingdom have started calling for action after months of heavy rainfall have left parts of Britain in crisis from flooding and electricity and water shortages. Environment Agency chief executive Baroness Young has called for an increased budget of around £1 billion a year to pay for flood defenses. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn has suggested that the conditions were 'unprecedented', and would overwhelm even the best flood defenses, but said that the Environment Agency's capital expenditure would be increased from £600m to £800m by 2010/11.

Opposition leaders have similarly called for more money to be spent on flood defenses. Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell suggested that the flood risk was known about before it happened, and questioned the degree of preparedness in place.

Conservative leader David Cameron has called for a public inquiry into the crisis. The Conservative shadow Environment Secretary criticised a 'lack of clarity' in the command of clean up operations, and MP John Redwood has asked why the army was not mobilised in support.

The Government has ordered a Cabinet Office review of the flooding events.


text:
User talk:68.148.148.120

Regarding Largest Fire in Edmonton's History
First off, we really appreciate your contribution.

But sometimes users submit an article from somewhere else, not realizing that Wikinews cannot keep copy-and-paste versions of articles which are published elsewhere under a restrictive copyright. An article created in this way is a copyright violation, and Wikinews policy is to erase these even if they are excellent article ideas.

Another problem which sometimes comes up is press releases: Press releases are sometimes excellent sources, but they do not qualify as unbiased news articles so they can't be published as they are. Two key things to remember about press releases is that they're usually written to represent the viewpoint of an involved party (Thus likely running foul of our Neutral Point of View policy). And second, they are generally covered by copyright which can conflict with our open editing approach.

A better way to get an article on an exciting subject published here is to write an original article following the guidelines described in writing an article, or to write a brief explanation of the subject and include the url address of articles or websites to use as sources. If you are part of the story that the article is about, you may also wish to consider requesting an interview rather than writing the article yourself.

Thanks again! Adambro 19:08, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:68.148.148.120


text:
User talk:82.41.156.176

Welcome
Welcome!

82.41.156.176, welcome to Wikinews! Thank you for your contributions I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews:
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Here are some other hints and tips:

 * I would recommend that you get a username. You don't have to log in to read or edit articles on Wikinews, but creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive, requires no personal information, and there are many benefits of having a username.  (If you edit without a username, your IP address is used to identify you instead.)

 * When using talk pages, please sign your name at the end of your messages by typing four tildes (~~). This will automatically produce your username (or IP address) and the date.

If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!

Story preparation/Interview with Robert Cailliau
I like the question you added to the interview preparation, but we are going to have to hack this back a bit, we're hoping for expansive answers to do a "Wikinews Interviews" article with a sub-page for the interview transcript. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:18, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * When I say hack back, I mean the setup for emailing - not necessarily your question. --Brian McNeil / talk 19:20, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Ah, but news reporting doesn't always involve getting things out the door in 5 minutes flat. Sometimes what is called for is research for background, or digging up court documents and the like. I'm not sure when we're going to send off the interview questions, but the key thing I think is to ask if there are details you'd like filled out on Robert's Wikipedia page... We can do original reporting and can then be used as a source. --Brian McNeil / talk 13:10, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:82.41.156.176


text:
Ireland's Pádraig Harrington wins British Open in playoff

July 22, 2007 After what was almost certain defeat, Ireland's Padraig Harrington has come back to win the 136th British Open in playoff after Spain's Sergio Garcia missed what should have been a game winning putt.

Harrington originally was knocked out of the game when he landed his ball twice in Carnoustie Golf Links' infamous Burry Burn leading him to a double bogey. However, Garica bogeyed on the same hole leading to a playoff.

The two men had tied 277, seven under par.


text:
User:Salvadors

Articles I Started

 * Macedonia declares state of emergency due to heat wave

Substantial Edits

 * Fernando Alonso wins 2007 European Grand Prix

title: User:Salvadors


text:
User talk:Dustin Saturn

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! --Brian McNeil / talk 20:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Vasectomy
Personally, I think your question is flamebait. It also potentially has medical liability implications. A vasectomy on a newborn would, I believe, be a difficult procedure to perform and an invasive one. Yes, risk would be low. However no doctor who has taken the Hippocratic Oath should ever agree to such a procedure. And what about cases where it is not reversible? How much compensation do you give? --Brian McNeil / talk 20:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * 1) Surgery where there is no benefit and no informed consent should not be performed. The "informed consent" is how plastic surgeons operate.
 * 2) Circumcision is (a) trivial (not even a local) and (b) has some potential medical benefits regarding risk of infection under the foreskin. Historically it was written into religious creeds as less sanitary conditions made such infection more likely and more dangerous.
 * 3) Do you really want the government saying your child has to risk their testicles not developing properly at puberty? Or that the tubes are damaged? What if the risk was only 4%? Are you happy to have the government decide that? A 1 in 25 chance you'll never have grandchildren? And do you honestly think rich people wouldn't want exemptions so they had real grandchildren.
 * 4) Who will get to adopt if there are no unwanted babies? Are you proposing a market for newborn babies?

 * I'm going to ask one of our other contributors to take a look at your question and the discussion. He's a medical student and can likely explain more about the oath, and his opinion on the proposed surgery. --Brian McNeil / talk 21:16, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

 * Personally I think it'd be electoral suicide for any candidate to adopt such a proposal, which also makes the question a bit pointless. A less controversial proposal would be compulsory contraception for women from puberty until they reach the criteria you suggest.  There are extremely low-risk implants that will provide birth control for up to three months at a time.  But how do you reconcile that with right to religious expression and the Catholic belief that contraception is a sin? --Brian McNeil / talk 21:30, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:Dustin Saturn


text:
Talk:Tammy Faye Messner, 65, dies after long battle with cancer

I added details of her second husband (the original article implied she was still married to Bakker), and also changed the Category from World to United States. --Salvadors 20:27, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
 * I took it off first lead this morning, didn't spot World on it. But I know who she is thanks to Frank Zappa. She was satirised on "Jesus Thinks You're A Jerk". --Brian McNeil / talk 20:31, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Typo
editprotected 'the The' => First 'the' should be removed, as the second is part of a link. (2 times) Van der Hoorn (talk) 14:25, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

 * ✅ ♪Tempo di Valse ♪ 14:31, 13 March 2009 (UTC)


text:
User:Arcticocean

Unified login: AGK [&limit=1 is] the unique login of this user for all public Wikimedia projects. I am almost never active on Wikinews, but I'm willing to assist where I can. My home project is enwiki, and it is best if I am contacted on there or over e-mail.

title: User:Arcticocean


text:
User talk:Arcticocean

Welcome
Tempodivalse [talk]  18:59, 28 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you for the welcome. :)
 * (NB: I subst:-ed your template, as it was messing up my editsections.)
 * AGK (talk) 20:10, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

title: User talk:Arcticocean


text: User:AFUSCO~enwikinews

title: User:AFUSCO~enwikinews


text:
User talk:AFUSCO~enwikinews

Welcome
AFUSCO, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! --Brian McNeil / talk 23:41, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Style guide - how articles should look before publishing
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
 * And of course, stories need writing!

Interwiki redirects
Interwiki redirects don't work, you need to put "Hi, I'm fill-in-the-blank and my main Wikipedia page can be found [ [ here ] ]". --Brian McNeil / talk 23:41, 24 November 2007 (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 AFUSCO. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name AFUSCO~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 23:11, 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) 06:27, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:AFUSCO~enwikinews


text:
User:Arcticocean/Header

AGK User • Talk • Contact  •  Wikipedia  • Contributions

title: User:Arcticocean/Header


text:
Japan to request IAEA inspection of quake-damaged nuclear plant

July 22, 2007 Japanese officials have requested that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspect the damage that occurred at the during a strong 6.8  earthquake on July 16. The quake caused a leak in a pipe, which sent radioactive water into the and the quake tipped over as many as 400 barrels of nuclear waste.

At least five government officials have written a letter to the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, requesting that the IAEA inspect the damage because local residents are experiencing "great unease" about the radiation leak that occurred after the quake hit.

"Furthermore, images of the accident have been broadcast everywhere around the world and are creating misunderstandings. It is making this country's citizens uneasy, too, and may lead to harmful rumors about the prefecture's tourism and agriculture industries," said the letter.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA has offered to put together a special team of inspectors and experts to go to the country if Japanese officials request their assistance.

"The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has told the IAEA that it will accept the inspection of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co.," said unnamed Japanese officials according to Reuters though inspectors are not immediately requested.


text: File:20070722 JapanQuakeNuclear~1 Gallery.jpg


text:
Comments:North Korea wants light-water reactors

WTF
So...we get them to sht down their reactor, only to give them more? Are they really that nuts? DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 00:07, 23 July 2007 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Heavy rain causes severe flooding in UK

Please add the following:

Related News

 * New news does not go in old articles. especially related news IMO. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 00:33, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * No content edits after archiving. See Archive conventions Thunderhead - (talk) 02:42, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * New news does not go in old articles. especially related news IMO. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 00:33, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * No content edits after archiving. See Archive conventions Thunderhead - (talk) 02:42, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

PL interwiki
Please for adding pl interwiki to my article on PL wikn: pl:Wielka powódź w Wielkiej Brytanii because currently this article is block so I can't add it. Pietras1988 17:02, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
 * ✅ acagastya 04:53, 14 July 2017 (UTC)

Please use the local link for Wimbledon
editprotected acagastya 04:53, 14 July 2017 (UTC)
 * ✅ --SVTCobra 11:30, 25 April 2018 (UTC)


text:
User:Andrew4010~enwikinews/Monobook.js

mw.loader.load(            'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Lupin/popups.js'             + '&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript&dontcountme=s');

title: User:Andrew4010~enwikinews/Monobook.js


text:
User talk:190.58.4.71

Welcome
, welcome to Wikinews! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! Jcart1534 02:00, 23 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * Audio Wikinews could always use more contributors
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:190.58.4.71