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Comments:Furry fans flock to Further Confusion 2007

Comments moved from collaboration page at 17:49, 24 November 2007 (UTC) by Shaggorama

For the sake of all that can be considered newsworthy, is there anyone else who thinks this SHOULDN'T be front page Wikinews to be displayed worldwide?
 * Yeah, I agree with that, I also notice that Wikinews is about to shut me off as being a loud mouth. Tag it and see if that works for removal from MainPage. Somehow the ground is shifting. -Edbrown05 11:17, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Not sure how it qualifies as "local only" - the convention may be in San Jose, but the attendees aren't all from the region by a long shot. I flew in from Detroit to be there, and there are probably over a hundred who come from overseas (extrapolating from Anthrocon's 2005 figures). One poor guy I know even visits regularly from Russia. GreenReaper 15:12, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Call me strange, but I find in-depth original news reporting about how people live backed by sources far more interesting than one-paragraph rephrasing of wire news reports about how people have died - especially when I can get the latter from anywhere. :-) Citizen reporting gets you the news that citizens (or, in my case, legal aliens) think is interesting. If Wikinews really wants to restrict itself to featuring hard news then it's going to find it hard to attract much long-term interest, because other places tend to do it so much better. As I see it, the site's key advantage is that it can have this kind of story, just as Wikipedia's advantage is the topics that no other encyclopedia covers. As noted on Category talk:Local only, perhaps when Wikinews has fifty great articles a day it'll be an issue - but we're not there yet. GreenReaper 15:47, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Who says this shouldn't be on the front page? This should be listed under its day like any other story.  If we did have 50+ stories per day then it shouldn't be one of the ones on the main page, but we don't - and even when we do we should probably include things like this from time to time to keep readers' interest. --Brian McNeil / talk 17:18, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Welldone article that deserve to be featured. international 23:03, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree with international. (not entirely sure if refering to same featuring process) This is an example of what wikinews should be (IMHO). Bawolff ☺☻ 02:51, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

 * [Fatured article candidate notice used to be here. it hasa since been premoted to featured]

 * GreenReaper is not strange. Conventions at Wikinews are basically unknown and unestablished. -Edbrown05 03:22, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

whats next?
An article on a NAMBLA convention? I think that articles on perverted filth such as this shouldn't be mainpaged, leave it to those who actually care. Furries need to stop masterbating to animal penises 137.112.141.152 07:35, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

 * I'd certainly be interested in a good article on a NAMBLA convention, as it appears a relatively uncovered topic, though I fear media passes may be harder to get than for a furry con (and they're pretty hard). GreenReaper 16:01, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

This is honestly a huge embarrassment. I will no longer consider working with WikiNews. This is a major travesty and to be protected from edits and remain on the front page reveals this site to be run by pathetic nerds seeking a voice for vanity reasons. This is the absolute OPPOSITE of quality journalism. (preceding unsigned comment by 220.5.254.102 )

 * It was protected from anonymous edits for quite valid reasons. If there is a problem with something in the story, you're welcome to suggest a fix here and an administrator can have a look at it - or just get an account. GreenReaper 22:40, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

 * While it is your right to express opposition to the fandom, based on your limited and biased knowledge from CSI, I see no reason to criticise the quality of the journalism. Please, get an account and create an article to represent what you feel is "quality journalism". Wikinews only works with participation from our readers. --  Zanimum 22:51, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

 * It's not a matter of whether or not this is quality journalism. It is a well-written article, but it's being presented as news as much as a former astronaut being charged with attempted murder. This is not international news, and it is not important enough for people outside of this niche culture to know about. I realize it may not be my place to say what qualifies as news and what doesn't, but at the very least, this needs to be removed and placed into local news. A hundred foreigners doesn't make it international.
 * Well then we have a difference of opinion (I fully support this being on the main page, just like I think its great how Wikipedia puts stuff like AYBABTU on the main page). I think a great many people also feel this is important/interesting enough to be on the main page. You're not forced to read it if you don't want to. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your interest in Wikinews. Wikinews is a collaboratively produced news source and the selection of topics it covers depends considerably on the interests of its many volunteer contributors. If you would like to see articles on other subjects that you think are important to cover, you are welcome to make a start by contributing such articles.

As for the present article, if you beieve it is not newsworthy, do let us know why you think so on this talk page - also take a look at What Wikinews is and Content guide, which determine whether the article's content is appropriate for Wikinews. Do keep your comments civil and remember that those who have worked on the article believe it is important enough to expend their time and energy on it.

Note that reporting on events that are interesting, but that do not have tangible significance has long been a feature of news reporting. Wikinews too does its share of such articles. Furthermore, all recently published articles are listed on the main page, not just the most "significant" ones ( it is not a newspaper "front page"). Sometimes interesting articles are also listed as a Featured article among the top three leads. — Doldrums(talk) 07:25, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Oh no...
I have been happy with this site, never feeling I needed to sign up to contribute because I had nothing to add. I've never even posted on a talk page bfore typing this now.

I just had to express my single feeling on this matter. With this on the main page, I feel like WikiNews has been raped. This is horrible.

I agree. I come to this site because I trust these sources far more than typical news sites, and the thought that we're allowing an article with no international, national, and barely a hint of local significance to be on the main page is a shot against that mentality. I understand that people may have their own interests that I don't partake in, but there needs to be a line drawn. The things we choose to be nerds over are not important to everyone, and we can't expect them to be.

 * Hmm. Are you saying you don't trust the story, or that it isn't important enough to be on the front page? They're two different things. :-)
 * Remember, "featured" does not necessarily mean "important". I'm assuming it was put there by international because he felt it was well done and a good example of the reporting style and formatting that Wikinews users should emulate, not because it was vital for the rest of the human race to hear about that particular story. I know that's what we do at WikiFur - we select the best articles, which are often not the articles on the "most important" topics. It would be unlikely for such a story to gain the first lead (the topmost article link), but the third lead position is there specifically for human interest stories - though, admittedly, "human" is stretching it here . . . GreenReaper 02:45, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Pardon the apt metaphor, but I could write an article of the samequality about thehugeshit I just took that gestroyed the toilet. Probably be more valued as "human interest" too.

I hope no one features an article on Star Trek. I don't want to read about those Kirk/Spock slash perverts. That's all they ever write about, right? I read about it on the intertubes. Coyoty 06:02, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

 * I like the one where Kirk is an ocelot! GreenReaper 06:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

 * — Doldrums(talk) 09:24, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Furries make me want to vomit. 65.6.213.12 22:29, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Okay, so some folks want to be stuffed animals
So how are they perverts? Rickyrab 15:54, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I think it's all the yiffing furpiles that we're meant to get involved in. I sure wish I could find one. I've been to five conventions so far, but the closest I got was a scritch! GreenReaper 19:19, 6 August 2007 (UTC)


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Chess grand master Kasparov arrested after protest

November 24, 2007

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has been arrested along with other opposition leaders after leading protests against current Russian president Vladimir Putin. Kasparov, a prominent critic of Putin, founded the United Civil Front and named the Other Russia umbrella of opposition parties after retiring from chess.

The protest began peacefully, after a legal rally held by Kasparov and the other opposition leaders to protest what they see as unfair election practices including the barring of Other Russia candidates from running in the upcoming election. After the initial rally some of the demonstrators tried to march to the offices of the election commission.

Kasparov said that the government's response showed that the "the only language they can use with their own people is the language of violence, truncheons and riot police."

The ruling party United Russia has broad popular support and the state-controlled media have paid little attention to the opposition parties.

Others arrested included Maria Gaidar, daughter of former prime minister Yegor Gaidar and human-rights activist Lev Ponomaryov.

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


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Talk:Chess grand master Kasparov arrested after protest

i started this article but am busy and new so would apreciate anybody helping in anyway


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User talk:76.190.220.7

Welcome
Welcome!

76.190.220.7, 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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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! Thanks for experimenting with Wikinews. Your test worked, and has now been reverted or removed. Please use Sandbox for any other tests you want to do, since testing in articles may disrupt the site's working and will be reverted quickly. Jcart1534 19:33, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

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Please do not add comments to the articles. If you would like to add an amusing note, please look for the "Have an opinion on this story? Post It!" link at the end of the article. Thanks. --Jcart1534 03:30, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

title: User talk:76.190.220.7


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Comments:Naked News presents a new style of news

Personally, I wonder whether any of their viewers actually care about the news. Matt/TheFearow | userpage|contribs 20:05, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * At a bare minimum, Matt, I am sure the viewers want to keep abreast of the issues. :) Jcart1534 20:16, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps Wikinews could bring out Wikinews Naked LOL - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 23:43, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Problem #1 Female contributors. I am *not* watching DragonFire1024 reading the news in the nude. --Brian McNeil / talk 00:02, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
 * That's a problem more of sexual orientation than gender. But in any event, I suspect that males will be more likely to want to watch this sort of thing than females, and since most males are heterosexual, they'll want to see naked females. JoshuaZ 00:33, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, Naked News Male did fail afterall ;). --Nzgabriel | Talk 10:38, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Comments from feedback form - "why don't we have this type of..."
why don't we have this type of news in the states? Maybe because Russian woman are so much more bueatiful. —173.161.249.137 (talk) 17:48, 30 June 2011 (UTC)


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Comments:Chess grand master Kasparov arrested after protest

This is a PERFECT example of how Russia is not democratic and certainly not free. He is a main portion of the opposition against Putin. Putin is making sure that Russia has a De Facto one party government. Contralya 20:51, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

Kasparov heads the part of foreign influence that wants to gut Russia and give it back to the robber-barons from the last decade. Its a small segment but has contacts with all of those wishing to exploit a great country and render its population slaves again. As to competition to Putin, there are many much larger nationalist Russian parties, even the damn neo-nazi party in Russia is bigger than that led by Kasparov. He is nothing, but foreign media likes to focus on him whenever he is punished for breaking laws, and ignoring all of the others also punished at the same times. Maybe the others just need to play some chess first? 66.157.100.253 22:02, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

 * It would probably help. Then they might get some respect. Everyone likes chess. GreenReaper 23:10, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

why they arrested garry kasparov? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.87.196.194 (talk) 13:21, 3 May 2008 (UTC)


text: User talk:Bapti

title: User talk:Bapti


text: User:Bapti

title: User:Bapti


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Australia Votes 2007: Rudd to become 26th Prime Minister

November 25, 2007

Kevin Rudd is set to become Australia's 26th Prime Minister after his Labor party defeated John Howard's Liberal/National coalition on Saturday. Mr Howard was the Australian PM for 11 years.

Mr Rudd easily secured the 16 seats Labor needed to win in the House of Representatives, recording a nationwide swing of 6.3 percent.

The victory makes Labor's deputy leader Julia Gillard Australia's first female Deputy Prime Minister.

Giving a concession speech in Sydney, Mr Howard said he took full responsibility for his government's demise. "I accept full responsibility for the Liberal party campaign, and I therefore accept full responsibility for the Coalition's defeat in this election campaign," he said.

Mr Howard told party supporters that he wished for Peter Costello, the Howard government's treasurer to succeed him as leader of the Liberal party.

"The only other thing that I want to say is that the Liberal party of course will need to find a new leader, and I wish that person well, whoever that is, and I've indicated very clearly in my earlier remarks who I believe that person should be. I believe the future of our party does lie very much with Peter Costello and with others who will come in behind him."

Mr Howard congratulated Mr Rudd on his election win and reflected upon his government's past 11 and a half years. "This is a great democracy and I want to wish Mr Rudd well," Howard said.

"We bequeath to him a nation that is stronger and prouder and more prosperous than it was 11-1/2 years ago."

Mr Howard also conceded that it was "very likely" he would lose his own seat of Bennelong to Labor candidate Maxine McKew. Should Ms McKew win the seat, it will be the first time Bennelong has been held by Labor since its creation in 1949. It would also be only the second time in Australian political history that a Prime Minister has lost his own seat in parliament, the last Prime Minister to suffer such a fate was Stanley Bruce in 1929.

Shortly after Mr Howard's concession, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd delivered a victory speech in Brisbane. Mr Rudd promised to represent all Australians and thanked his predecessor John Howard for his contribution to Australia.

"Today Australia has looked to the future, will be a prime minister for all Australians," said Rudd.

"I want to acknowledge now for the entire Australian nation and publicly recognise Mr Howard's extensive contribution to public service in Australia."

The incoming Prime Minister also thanked Australia's allies and said he looked forward to working with them.

I look forward as the next Prime Minister of Australia to working with them in dealing with the great challenges, which our world faces.

"I extend our greetings tonight to our great friend and ally the United States, to our great friends and partners across Asia and the Pacific".

House of Representatives results

 * Total divisional seats: 150
 * Primary votes counted: 75.6%
 * Remaining "declaration" votes are still to be counted over the next several days.


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Talk:Australia Votes 2007: Rudd to become 26th Prime Minister

Gillard overlooked
I have just added a paragraph about Julia gillard becoming Australia's first Deputy PM, something which mainstream media (as I did initially) seems to have overlooked - Cartman02au (Talk)(AU Portal) 00:01, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

 * It wasn't completely ignored - I believe the ABC election coverage (which included Julia on the panel) commented that she, as the first female deputy PM, would be the closest a woman has ever come to leadership of the country. Confusing Manifestation (Say hi!|Stalk me!) 23:59, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Results table
As far as I can tell that results table is incorrect (or was it correct at the time of publication? Unsure) 219.90.239.145 18:25, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Cat please
Doneeditprotected Please add --InfantGorilla (talk) 08:04, 24 June 2010 (UTC)


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User talk:Ticklish lick

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome! JoshuaZ 03:37, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Neutral point of view - tell every side to a story in a fair and balanced way
 * Cite sources - everything in a Wikinews article must be sourced
 * Introduction - overview of the site
 * Writing an article - how to write and publish a complete article
 * Content guide - what's suitable for Wikinews
 * Style guide - how an article should look before publishing
 * Contents - the contents page.
 * Existing articles need expanding and checking for spelling and mistakes
 * The front page lead articles often need updating
 * Developing stories need finishing and publishing
 * Discussions need your input
 * And of course, stories need writing!

title: User talk:Ticklish lick


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Western Texas and southeastern New Mexico under 'winter storm warnings'

November 25, 2007 According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Weather Service, much of western Texas and southeastern New Mexico is under a "winter storm warning."

"A winter storm will continue to bring widespread snowfall to much of west Texas and southeastern New Mexico through Sunday morning," said the NOAA in a special weather statement.

Parts of NM could see three to six inches of snow "with isolated areas receiving six to eight inches of snow," added the statement. Some parts of NM have already seen just over a foot of snow with Red River picking up 13 inches.

Western Texas could see three to six inches as well, with some areas picking up a little more. Seminole has reported only two inches of snow so far.

According to AccuWeather, the storm is expected to turn northeast and take a "track taking it west of the Appalachians Sunday night and Monday."


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The Onion: An interview with 'America's Finest News Source'

November 25, 2007 Despite the hopes of many University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) students, The Onion was not named after their student center. "People always ask questions about where the name The Onion came from," said President Sean Mills in an interview with David Shankbone, "and when I recently asked Tim Keck, who was one of the founders, he told me the name—I’ve never heard this story about ‘see you at the un-yun’—he said it was literally that his Uncle said he should call it The Onion when he saw him and Chris Johnson eating an onion sandwich. They had literally just cut up the onion and put it on bread." According to Editorial Manager Chet Clem, their food budget was so low when they started the paper that they were down to white bread and onions.

Long before The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Heck and Johnson envisioned a publication that would parody the news—and news reporting—when they were students at UW in 1988. Since its inception, The Onion has become a veritable news parody empire, with a print edition, a website that drew 5,000,000 unique visitors in the month of October, personal ads, a 24 hour news network, podcasts, and a recently launched world atlas called Our Dumb World. Al Gore and General Tommy Franks casually rattle off their favorite headlines (Gore's was when The Onion reported he and Tipper were having the best sex of their lives after his 2000 Electoral College defeat). Many of their writers have gone on to wield great influence on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's news parody shows.

And we are sorry to break the news to all you amateur headline writers: your submissions do not even get read.

Below is David Shankbone's interview with Chet Clem and Sean Mills about the news empire that has become The Onion.

How The Onion writes an issue
'''David Shankbone How do you decide on the stories?
 * Chet Clem, Editorial Manager: We do everything backwards here.  We start with the headline and then flesh out the story, as opposed to The New York Times, which writes the issue and then has a headline editor to make it snappy.  We start with a joke.  We read about six hundred to eight hundred headline ideas on a Monday coming from our staff and a small group of writers outside—a contributing core.  We whittle that down on a Monday to about a hundred, come in Tuesday and pick an issue and brainstorm with the whole editorial staff; all fifteen of us.  Then we assign a headline to a specific writer to execute.  We go through a number of drafts and then have the editors pick it up and assign the photojournalism aspect of it to our graphic design team, who adds the visual aspect to it.  The editors punch it up over the last couple of days and then it goes out over the Internet and into the print edition.

'''DS: So you don’t have writers coming up with a story and headline, but you will instead have a team of writers choosing the best headlines and then assign it to a particular writer who was not necessarily involved?
 * Chet: Writers will occasionally write their own headlines, but we come up with a list of 15 or 20 headline ideas, what we think will make a good story and then we assign it based upon what people’s writing strengths are.  We have some people who are great at politics; some people we give all the war stuff to; someone who is in charge of the Britney Spears story of the week—the entertainment stories.

The headlines
'DS: It seems like some publications, like AM New York'', always have a Britney Spears story; is there anything similar with The Onion where they continually revisit a topic or person?
 * Chet: No, not necessarily.  We are a little less reactionary.  We tend to target the zeitgeist more than anything.  We’ll hit the mainstream media’s portrayal of the entertainment world as much as we’ll hit characters in the entertainment world.  We’ll attack People Magazine’s coverage of Britney as much as Britney.

'''DS: In an interview with Terry Gross, Stephen Colbert said of his time at Second City that they had decided on not doing political humor and, in particular, hackneyed political humor such as Ted Kennedy drinking jokes. They felt it was overdone, mean-spirited and not funny. Do your writers have similar rules of thumb?
 * Chet: We don’t have any rules or known lines we won’t cross.  We have an understanding based upon having the same writers in the back room for years, and those writers training the new writers as they come in.  There is an understanding in the room.  If it makes the room laugh, it probably ends up in the paper.  One example is we ran an article a couple of years back that was, “No Jennifer Lopez News Today.”  That was our reaction to all of the J-Lo stuff.  We weren’t going to touch on her dress, or who she was dating.  Just the fact that those were the lead stories for so many days, in everything from US Weekly to Time Magazine''.
 * Sean Mills, President: I think it’s important we have an original take on those things.  I think it’s similar to what Colbert said to Terry Gross.  We don’t want to just traffic in the same 24 hour news cycle.  There’s a 24 hour comedy news cycle that exists on all the late night talk shows.  The Onion has a different creative process where we are not trying to hit everything in the 24 hours and on the same notes.  We want an original take.  If we choose to do something on J-Lo, it’s going to be something like that, something less obvious.

'''DS: When you are going through the headlines, is it just you guys sitting around trying to crack each other up?
 * Chet: It’s the least amount of fun possible.  Nah, I’m kidding.  It’s actually more businesslike than you’d imagine.  It’s very much like you are trying to make the room laugh, but the room has been a sort of captive audience for many many years now, so it takes a lot to make the room laugh.
 * Sean: The best analogy I’ve heard is when Rob Siegel, former editor-in-chief, likened it to wine tasting. It’s this quiet experience where you are trying to soak in what the joke is, have we done anything like this, is it a unique take, what are other people doing.  It’s sort of like, “Hmmm…that’s hilarious.  That’s really really funny” rather than people falling off their chairs.  It’s more subdued than I think what most people would expect.

'''DS: It’s more analytical and clinical?
 * Sean: Not all the time, but it can’t be a laugh a minute.
 * Chet: Yeah, what you see on Studio 60 and 30 Rock, those are scripted writers rooms.  Everything is funny there.  There's a lot of unfunny jokes that are told in a back room, that's why they stay and die in that back room and don’t go out in The Onion.

'''DS: If someone is continually telling unfunny jokes, do you eventually fire them?
 * Chet: That’s why we are on the 10th floor to make sure they die when they get kicked out.  It can be a real mess on Broadway.
 * Sean: By the time you get to be a writer for The Onion, though, the odds are you are going to succeed because we make it pretty challenging.  You go through quite a bit.  You will already have demonstrated a pretty long successful record of writing stuff for us before you will be in that room on a daily basis.  But if somebody wakes up one morning and suddenly no longer is funny, then yeah, head first, out the door as quickly as possible, and as sadistically as possible.

The features and the columnists
'''DS: Who are the people on the street, the “American Voices”?
 * Sean: Each one of them has their own magnificent story, but they are mainly people from back in the early days of Madison where The Onion started.  One guy’s a UPS driver who came by the office; another one was someone they randomly pulled off the street.  But they go way back in The Onion.  Chet might know more.
 * Chet: Way back to the Madison days and they were literally six people on the street that one day, and we have used them ever since.

'''DS: They are such a perfect representation of a broad spectrum of people, that it’s funny that you found them all randomly in just one day.
 * Chet: I wasn’t there at the time, but they were people around the office or around downtown Madison.  The UPS driver, for instance, was a guy who always made deliveries to the office, and he happened to come by right when they were shooting and agreed to do the photo.  He still works for UPS and still lives in Madison and was the subject of a feature in the UPS Teamsters magazine about that face in The Onion…our UPS guy, still at UPS and still in Madison.

'''DS: Have you heard if it has affected their lives?
 * Sean: There have been a few pieces that I’ve read that people have done research and talked to a lot of them, and most of them are pretty delighted about it and they hear about it all the time.  There are six takes on it, but most of it is pretty positive.

'''DS: Are there certain columnists who are reader favorites? Are there columnists where you receive consistently positive or consistently negative responses to?
 * Sean: From what I have seen, it’s pretty consistently positive for all of them.  The only negative reaction we have gotten is one of our columnists was unfortunately killed this year, tragically, so a lot of people—
 * Chet: Herbert Kornfeld was killed this past summer.

'''DS: How did he die?
 * Chet: He was killed in an episode of white-on-white violence.
 * Sean: He was accounts receivable and he was pretty hardcore.
 * Chet: He died at work at Midstate Office Supply.  He was struck down, leaving us with a hole in our editorial staff.

'''DS: You had a big reaction from the readers upset that Herbert Kornfeld was dead?
 * Sean: Yeah, people get pretty attached.  A lot of these columnists have been writing for us ten plus years.
 * Chet: Some of them have a huge following, there was almost a Notorious B.I.G.-like upset.  They really responded to his death.  A lot of calls of condolence, there were movements across the country.  A lot of flowers.
 * Sean: A lot of people wearing "Mourn Ya Til I Join Ya" t-shirts.  His memory will be alive forever at The Onion.

'''DS: So there is no columnist that people write in and say that they aren’t funny, or that they are boring—
 * Sean: We have an editorial cartoon we have introduced in the last year that tends to get a lot of heat—

'''DS: Kelly?
 * Sean: That is Kelly.  He has a very unique take on what is going on in the world, and it does tend to upset some people, but that’s the job of an editorial cartoonist, to be a provocateur.
 * Chet: That’s right.

'''DS: Kelly is actually Ward Sutton, correct?
 * Sean: It might be…I don’t know…
 * Chet: It’s Kelly.  As a newspaper, it’s our responsibility to give equal voice to everyone, so we don’t shut out one viewpoint just because he is controversial.

'''DS: For a long time, that cartoon confused me, which perhaps speaks to the humor of it. I thought it was a real right-wing Christian Zionist syndicated cartoonist who truly exists and that you all were putting it in The Onion out of a sense of irony.
 * Sean: We do have one cartoon that runs in the paper called The Leftersons, which is a syndicated cartoon from a right wing guy who writes about this lefty family and all the trouble they get in for being so far to the left.  But no, Kelly is unique to The Onion.

The photojournalism
'''DS: How does your graphics department find the people for news stories and come up with the images?
 * Sean: We’ve always had a two person graphics team and it has always been about—depending on the graphic—going out and finding the right person or creating the right situation.  Sometimes taking an original image to a little Photoshop photojournalism to create the right photo and using the photos that are out there.

'''DS: Are the images created using professional models or people on the street?
 * Sean: Always people on the street and never professional models.  There’s always that element of reality to it.

'''DS: How do you approach people? Do you ask them if they want to be in an Onion article?
 * Chet: Everyone in this office and our other Onion office in the city has been in the paper at least once.  Most of their roommates, siblings, loved ones, neighbors, will always end up in there some time.  We usually pull them from friends and family of The Onion.  A lot of our Op-Ed headshots are people who have come to The Onion.  Our photographers will grab them and ask them to pose for some headshots and tell them they’ll end up in The Onion some day.  We don’t really use any professional network.  It’s casual—people who like The Onion and know us.

'''DS: One of my favorites is of a troubled teen whose parents are always arguing and it shows them shooting the double bird. So your graphics department will set up the scene and direct them to do that?
 * Sean: It could be that, or it could be that they take her pictures and juxtapose it in the photo.  It’s directed, though, to get the right effect.
 * Chet: Or it could be an image of a girl who we have had on file, and she’ll be perfect so then we’ll just get someone in the office to shoot the double bird and Photoshop those hands in.  They are wizards; I just enjoy watching our crack photojournalism squad work.

What The Onion will not publish
'''DS: How do you decide when going through the headlines what will be fleshed out as a full story and what goes into the “News in Headlines” section?
 * Chet: Just general writers room feel, what people think needs a full-length story to cover it, and what’s just a one-off funny headline with a photo of a person.  There are no real set guidelines of what makes a top story for us, and what makes a neb, it’s just the general support of the staff behind it.

'''DS: What are some topics you have come across that people almost always say, “Oohh, let’s not do that, that’s going into territory we don’t want to go into”?
 * Chet: Well, we do have a list of no-no words of things that just keep coming up that we refuse to print anything about.  There are always some areas where there is a line you don’t want to cross.  We definitely push that line hard and continuously.

DS: What are some of those?
 * Chet: There will always be the big item controversial issues: gay rights, abortion, the war in Iraq, pedophilia.  As long as the joke lands on the right person, then we are okay with it.

'''DS: What are your no-no words?
 * Chet: It’s a written, top-secret list.  I’m afraid I can’t share it with you.

'''DS: Can you give us two?
 * Chet: “Thesis” and “Furby” are both on there.

'''DS: Why would Furby be on there?
 * Chet: Again, top secret list.  It’s just one of the no-no words.
 * Sean: It’s not like ‘fuck’, ‘shit’, ‘cunnilingus.’  This is a totally different type of no-no that has a logic and algorithm all to its own.
 * Chet: We can’t say ‘Fuck’ in a front page headline.  We’ve been told that by the U.S. Postal Service.

Reactions to Onion stories
'''DS: When your stories are taken as real—such as your story about the child who, after reading Harry Potter, decided to practice magic since she found out the Bible is just a bunch of ‘boring lies’—
 * Chet: “Congress threatens to leave DC unless new capitol is built” was run verbatim by a Chinese news agency.  With the picture and everything, literally with our illustration.

'''DS: Do you do anything about that or do you think it’s just hysterical?
 * Chet: We’re happy to have our content syndicated by real newspapers in that manner.  I want to say it was a newspaper in Beijing.  Somebody pointed it out to them and their response was not to print a correction, but just to say that some newspapers in America make money by printing lies.

'DS: Is there any one group that does not like The Onion''? Evangelicals? Gays? Any particular subculture?
 * Chet: I think we’re equal-opportunity offenders.  We aren’t going to target one group because we don’t want people picketing outside the office.  We target everyone.

'''DS: Do you ever receive hate mail?
 * Chet: Every now and then.  We’re generally not bombarded by it.

'''DS: What is generally the theme of those letters?
 * Sean: Do you know what I think it is?   It’s whatever affects that person.  So it’s like, “I love it when you make a joke about murder or rape, but if you talk about cancer, well my brother has cancer and that’s not funny to me.”  Or someone else can say, “Cancer’s hilarious, but don’t talk about rape because my cousin got raped.”  I’m using extreme examples, but whatever it is, if it affects somebody personally they tend to be more sensitive about it.  But because we are equal opportunity, we can’t stop doing that.  The best is we wrote a story—did you ever see the Police Academy when the officer gets thrown off his motorcycle after he brakes really hard and his head goes up a horse’s ass, and he died?  We wrote an Op-Ed about that scene that was, “That’s not funny, my brother died that way.”  That was sort of speaking to how people are offended by things that touch them personally somehow.
 * Chet: Almost every piece of hate mail starts with the line, “Usually I love The Onion, but this time you’ve gone too far…”  We responded to that with, “Normally I love your pornographic website, but this time you’ve gone too far…”  Someone will always be offended by something.

'''DS: Do you get any reaction from public figures and politicians?
 * Chet: They are always in the public sphere so they are usually used to worse things being written about them all the time.
 * Sean: We get a lot of positive feedback from politicians who seem to get and enjoy the comedy.  In some ways, if they show up in The Onion it’s kind of a badge of honor.  We had a meeting with Al Gore maybe about a year ago or so, and he was reeling off his favorite Onion headlines that were written about Al Gore.  I think his favorite was, after he lost the election we wrote a story about how Al and Tipper Gore were having the best sex of their lives.  He referenced it and he said he gets all the headlines sent from people.

'''DS: Did he say that story was spot on?
 * Sean: He didn’t get into too much detail, which was fortunate.  After the Iraq War we had a story about Tommy Franks leaves the army to focus on solo bombing projects, and he quoted to The Washington Post and others that it was his favorite news coverage ever about him.
 * Chet: We just launched a print edition in DC this year, and the launch party was co-hosted by Grover Norquist and Russ Feingold.  So if there is ever a better example of our bipartisan appeal I can’t think of it.

The Presidential Seal
'''DS: Speaking of federal issues, what is the status on the use of the Presidential Seal?
 * Chet: The U.S. Postal Service is actually the only federal authority that governs us.  We have actually been allowed to use the Presidential Seal since [it was raised as an issue].  Our response was that we felt the federal government had much bigger issues on their hands that the President’s counsel should be focused on.

'''DS: But you actually did ask formal approval to use the seal. Did that come through or did it just die in the water?
 * Chet: We did ask for formal approval; we fundamentally weren’t aware of it at the time it was pointed out to us, but we did go back and get approval for it.

'''DS: So you actually received approval?
 * Sean: You know, I think, uh, that they were trying to put together on the spot a Federal Emergency Management Agency that week, and that might have gotten in the way.  And then was it that Scooter Libby got indicted?  Yeah, so I think it’s probably on the bottom of some pile in Washington, but no.

'''DS: You have always asserted that you don’t need formal approval to use it in parody; that you were only asking for approval as a courtesy?
 * Sean: Well, I don’t know about the legal side of it, but parody is generally covered and protected by the First Amendment and it is clear what our editorial mission is to our readers, so we did not feel it conflicted with that in any way, so we felt the First Amendment protected us to use it.
 * Chet: And whoever was in charge of filing that paperwork has probably since resigned from the White House, so…

The Onion's readership
'''DS: What is your readership? Since you are a free weekly without hard subscribers, and then you have the Internet site and podcasts, how do you determine your readership?
 * Sean: Our website has never been more popular.  Just on The Onion’s website in October we had over five million unique users as measured by Omniture, which is our in-house measurement system.  The AV Club, which is an entertainment site owned by The Onion, had over a million for the first time.  So our readership has never been stronger.  In print we put out 720,000 newspapers every week, and that readership is much harder to manage.  Generally speaking, it is assumed that at least three people read each issue on average, so it’s over 2,000,000 there, conservatively.  Every joke that gets written in The Onion—sorry, every news story—is probably read by 7,000,000 people, somewhere around there.

'DS: Similar to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report'', your readership has to be informed to be in on the jokes. How do you feel about being seen as a real news source?
 * Sean: First of all, we enjoy being the most important newspaper in the world and being a trusted news source like that.  But I do think we have a really smart readership, so if we can help them learn about the world, that’s a beautiful thing.  It’s not necessarily the mission we set out to do, but if that happens in the process that’s a wonderful thing.
 * Chet: We are able to bring some pretty horrific things into the light in a manner that opens it up for millions of people, whereas they may otherwise shy away from it.

Future features
'''DS: You guys are always coming out with new features, whether it is a podcast, a newscast, a sports section. Is there anything under development right now?
 * Sean: Yeah, we’re going to soon launch our world atlas on-line.  We just debuted Our Dumb World, our new book, and it will then be brought to life on the web and you can access a lot of that content through Google Maps and Google Earth, so that will be cool.  In January we will be launching our election coverage for 2008, called War for the White House.  That’s pretty exciting.
 * Chet: We’re really branching out.  We’ve covered local and national news for a long time, so we have now  branched out to the world with this book.  It will give us a chance to bring trusted, non-biased journalism to every nation in the world.  I know in Zimbabwe, for example, most of their media is controlled by the government, so they are really looking for a solid newspaper they can trust.

Handling national tragedies
'''DS: When things like the September 11 attacks happen, how do you gauge when is the time to start addressing it through parody?
 * Chet: It’s too soon to answer that question, even!  It’s before my time, so I’m hesitant to answer that.

'''DS: I mean anything that is a national horror, like Hurricane Katrina.
 * Chet: The issue with Katrina is that it was Mother Nature’s fault, but it was the administration’s failure, which was as damaging as the hurricane.  So quite quickly government failure and stupidity came to light that needed to be reported upon.  We’re going to have a much faster response time to something like that, than something that is like a terrorist attack that catches us out of the blue.
 * Sean: We can talk about issues that are sensitive in a way that aren’t—you have to look at what you are talking about.  When you are talking about Katrina, you are talking about the government’s reaction.  When you are talking about September 11, if you read our September 11 issues you see, “Bush urges calm and restraint amongst nation’s ballad singers,” or “Woman doesn’t know what to do so she bakes an American flag.”  There was a lot of art to it.  With a lot of creative stuff and comedy it’s just gut.  It’s the instincts of a really smart and creative editorial staff who have to know both what the take is and how and when to approach it.  September 11 was unique.  Generally, there’s not a lot of hesitation to approach things.  It’s more do we have a take that is consistent with what The Onion does, and once that comes to light we publish it.

'''DS: It’s more of an instinctual process that you all go through?
 * Chet: Yeah, it is in some way a responsibility to respond to some of this stuff.  Fox News is not going to go dark after a big national tragedy and just wait it out until they feel it’s “okay” to respond and report on it.  There is going to be a little more of a delay because we are obviously a weekly newspaper—daily online—we’re not part of the 24 hour news cycle, but it’s just instinct.  Trust your gut to know when is the right time, when is too soon, and is the joke on the right target.
 * Sean: And if other fake news sources, like Fox News, are going after it then we have to respond.  It’s just the responsibility we have.

The Onion movie and Onion News Network
'DS: What is the status of The Onion'' movie?
 * Sean: Here’s the scoop on that, because I think there is actually a lot of misinformation about it on Wikipedia.  There was a movie that was made seven years ago, it was shot, it was a sketch comedy film.  One of the producers was David Zucker and it was made with Fox New Regency and Fox Searchlight; they were partners in on it, with some first time directors.  The movie was shot and the original film was viewed and it was determined by the studio and everyone involved that the material just wasn’t working.  They wanted to go out and shoot more, but they needed more money and wanted to start it over.  We worked with them to help make that happen, and it became an on-and-off-again project for years and years.  Basically, it’s a dead project; however the studio might at some point might try to put something out on DVD to try to recoup what happened.  So if it ever comes out, it would come out on home video—

'''DS: And quietly—
 * Sean: Yeah, probably quietly.  Those are the facts of it.  There were lots of creative people involved and lots of different opinions on what worked and what didn’t work, and how to proceed, but rising above that fray: basically, the movie was shot, they didn’t want to redo it, it never got re-shot.  So it has been sitting on a shelf for over six years.  It may or may not make financial sense for the studio, which has the right to put it out on DVD.  They may do it, they may not.
 * Chet: We have since redirected our focus from The Onion video world to The Onion News Network that launched this past year and has been a great success for us, and expanded The Onion news empire.
 * Sean: That was a major launch for us this year with The Onion News Network.  It has been a huge hit.  We get over a million downloads a week, which makes it one of the more successful produced-for-the-Internet videos.  If we’re not the most successful, we’re one of the most.  It is a 24 hour news network.  We have a new show that is part of the platform, but we also have a Sunday morning talk show that’s called “In The Know” and we just launched a morning show this last week called “Today Now.”  It has been really exciting; we’ll have some new shows, show some archive footage and do some more in sports over the next year.

'''DS: What’s the idea behind the Onion News Network?
 * Sean: The Onion is a media empire.  We have newspapers and a website, so a 24 hour news network makes a lot of sense.  Creatively, it is very different from other things that are out there.  There are former Onion writers and editors that have gone on to have big influence on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report; the Onion News Network is straight, it’s serious.  Those other shows are more like sketch comedy, in a way.  They have a host who is a performer.  There’s a live studio audience.  Everybody is on the joke, there’s voices, there’s faces…it’s very similar to a late-night talk show.  Like a Johnny Carson experience.  The Onion News Network is 24 hour news.  You’re watching what looks like Fox News, CNN and all of our other competitors.

'''DS: How much do the writers and editors on the print side inform the news network side?
 * Sean: The primary writers are separate, but there’s a lot of cross-over and creative influence.  The Onion News Network came out of the proud tradition of The Onion and it has been influenced by that.  Our editor-in-chief, Scott Dikkers, is the creative force behind both.  Some of the actual writers on the paper and the Internet site trade off and go over and submit scripts to the News Network; the News Network writers aren’t really writing for the paper.  But there are a lot of people getting in the same room.
 * Chet: We have former Onion editor-in-chief Carol Kolb, who left The Onion a few years back, who has since returned to become head writer of The Onion News Network.   So there’s a lot of Onion history there as well.

Relationship with other satirical news programs
'''DS: Many of the writers for The Onion have gone on to Daily Show and Colbert. Is there any collusion that you guys ever do, or a relationship that is fostered?
 * Chet: There has not been, but I think it will be interesting to see how it will evolve the way you see mainstream media has evolved with people crossing the lines there.  Brian Williams on SNL, for example.  A lot of cross-over between the different mediums.  Who knows what the future holds there.  I think as we go between the different satirical news mediums, there might be something fun in the future.

'DS: Is there ever a story that has divided the staff, something the writers look back on and say, “Remember ‘Old Soul Goes to Cobbler’ and that'' whole issue?!”   Something where half of the people thought it should never have been done and the other half thought it was really great?
 * Chet: We are a team, there are almost 15 of us and you are almost never going to get all fifteen people on board behind a joke.  Someone is not going to be too hot on it.  There are some cases—again, I wasn’t here—but I know the September 11 issue was an obviously very large challenge to approach.  Do we even put out an issue?  What is funny at this time in American history?  Where are the jokes?  Do people want jokes right now?  Is the nation ready to laugh again?  Who knows.  There will always be some level of division in the back room.  It’s also what keeps us on our toes.

'''DS: Do you think your writers are more optimistic or pessimistic about American culture?
 * Chet: It’s hard to apply the word optimistic to any of our writers.  I don’t know if I could classify it like that.
 * Sean: They are great lovers of American culture.  I find really enthusiastic support for certain artists, but I don’t know if they sit around thinking about the culture at large, and whether they are optimistic or pessimistic.  There are good things every year that come out, and there are bad things that are part of the culture.
 * Chet: Yeah, everyone has their favorite writers, their favorite artists; what they really hate are stupidity and mediocrity.  They are really sick of people getting away with repackaged drivel, so they are not going to hesitate to call people out on that.  If it’s just another big box sitcom, then yeah we’re going to take a shot at it because it’s not different than every other “Two guys and a child, or a horse, or a donkey, or a monkey, in a two bedroom apartment in New York or Chicago or San Francisco.”  Those sort of Madlibs pitches on sitcoms.

Unsolicited material
'''Rory Covey: I was curious about how much unsolicited material you guys get bombarded with?
 * Chet: We have a long history of an editorial policy that we at The Onion are a one-way conduit of information, so the readership exists to be told what is news, and we don’t really accept their opinions.

'''DS: Do you have a top ten list of the worst solicited ideas? Does anyone keep track of the really bad stuff that is submitted?
 * Chet: Anything really terrible does get passed around.  I will admit that.  But no, we don’t keep track of anything like that.
 * Sean: Unsolicited stuff doesn’t really get read, so it’s hard to make a list.

'DS: Is there anyone who has been famous at The Onion'' for submitting over and over again their unsolicited material?
 * Chet: Anyone who continually tells you how funny they are, probably isn’t that funny or we would have recognized it.  If they keep pitching over and over, and we’re not taking it, you're probably just not an Onion writer.

'''DS: Have you ever taken an unsolicited idea?
 * Chet: Not that I know of, I don’t think so.
 * Sean: You’re getting ready to pitch something, aren’t you?  Let’s hear it…let’s hear it.

'DS: Could you imagine if I pulled out an illustrated journal full of brilliant'' ideas right now?
 * Chet: “What if I had this friend who had this really funny idea about Velcro, and he wanted me to tell you about that headline.  Could I do that?”

'''DS: “DO YOU HAPPEN TO REMEMBER A CERTAIN BOB GOURSE AND HIS 347 SUBMISSIONS? THAT WAS ME, ASSHOLES! I’M FUNNY! LOOK AT ME NOW IN THE FACE AND TELL ME I’M NOT!”


text:
US to reduce troops in Iraq by 5,000 in December

November 25, 2007

According to the United States military in Iraq, at least 5,000 U.S. soldiers are going to be withdrawn from the country.

The 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army are stationed in Iraq's Diyala Province. When they finish their withdrawal in December, they will not be replaced by another division.

The military indicated the withdrawal is possible due to improved security in the country. If security improves further, as many as 20,000 troops could be on their way back to the U.S. by July 2008.

"The redeployment without replacement reflects overall improved security within Iraq. If conditions continue to permit, a total of five brigade combat teams will be redeployed over the next eight months," said U.S. military in Iraq spokesman, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith.

Smith also mentioned that four more army brigades and two marine battalions would leave Iraq before July 2008, restoring pre-surge levels of 130,000 troops. There are nearly 163,000 U.S. troops serving currently in Iraq.


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Australia Votes 2007: Outgoing treasurer will not stand for Liberal leadership

November 25, 2007

Speaking in Melbourne today, outgoing Australian treasurer, Peter Costello, made a shock announcement that he will not stand for leadership of the Liberal party following the Howard government's defeat in Saturday's election. Mr Costello had been touted by outgoing Prime Minister John Howard as his likely successor.

It is believed that Mr Costello had long dreamed of becoming Prime Minister. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Mr Costello "looked strained" and that "tears appeared to brim in his eyes" as he made his announcement.

Mr Costello said he would serve out his three year term as member for Higgins on the backbench, mentoring the up and coming members of the Liberal party before moving on to a career in the private sector.

"The time has come for me to open a new chapter in my life. I will be looking to build a career, post-politics, in the commercial world," he said. "As a consequence of that, I will not seek, nor will I accept, the leadership or deputy leadership of the Liberal Party."

The outgoing treasurer said he believed it was time for young members of the party to have an opportunity to advance the party.

"I do believe that it is time for the young people of talent and ability - of whom there are many - to be given their go in the Liberal Party," he said. "Just as I was given my go in the early 1990s, I think it's time for them to have their go."

Malcolm Turnbull has so far been the only Liberal member to indicate his intentions to run for leadership of the Liberal party. "I will be a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal Party at the next party meeting," he said.

"I will deliver, if elected to the leadership of the Liberal Party, the energy and the drive and the determination to win and the commitment to deliver new ideas, new policies, new agendas for the advancement of our country."


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Comments:Australia Votes 2007: Rudd to become 26th Prime Minister

No, No and No. Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 08:12, 25 November 2007 (UTC)


title: Wikinews:CommonsTicker/20071125


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User:Black-Velvet

Why hello. I'm a young man. A young man named Dylan. I'm neither here nor there, but I am around. If you would like to sail my boat, leave a message on my 'collaboration' page.

title: User:Black-Velvet


text:
French government reveals industry sponsored anti-piracy body

November 24, 2007

After brokering a deal between record companies, film corporations, internet firms and itself, the French government has unveiled a new anti-piracy body formed to counter what President Nicolas Sarkozy has described as the growing use of the internet as a "lawless zone where outlaws can pillage works with abandon or, worse, trade in them in total impunity".

Internet service providers will be forced to monitor the activities of their clients, and will restrict access for users known to be partaking in file sharing of selected media. In some cases, ISPs will be instructed to either cut off internet access entirely or threaten to do so.

The French consumer group UFC Que Choisir criticised the deal as being "very tough, potentially destructive of freedom, anti-economic and against digital history".

Film companies have agreed to hasten the cinema-to-DVD process as part of their obligations under the deal, and record companies have indicated future support for the sale of Digital Rights Management-free media in their stores.

The body will be supervised by a judge.


text:
User talk:Stefanomencarelli

25 -11- 07

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 Stefanomencarelli. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Stefanomencarelli~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 23:32, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Stefanomencarelli


text:
User:Stefanomencarelli

25 -11- 07

title: User:Stefanomencarelli


text: File:Teen exposed to violence.jpg

title: File:Teen exposed to violence.jpg


text: File:Harry potter satanism.gif

title: File:Harry potter satanism.gif


text:
Talk:The Onion: An interview with 'America's Finest News Source'

Original reporting notes
In person interview conducted in New York City on Monday, November 19, 2007. --David Shankbone 18:17, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
 * Last line made me laugh. Another great interview. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:00, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

What kind of unique visitors?
A year? a day? A month? Just wondering what the 5,000,000 means. Lyellin 18:20, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Language
could a foul language tag please be added, i dont really care but think it would be nice to warn people that rude words are going to be used! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.45.210.78 (talk) 13:24, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Images
About the images from The Onion that are used for illustrating certain sections of the interview. I am not a lawyer, so I don't know how solid the fair use argument is in each case. Did you let them know you would be doing this? Did they say it was OK? Either way, The Onion should probably be credited in the caption. --SVTCobra 15:40, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
 * The fair use rationale is pretty solid, since those images and stories are specifically discussed. --David Shankbone 15:53, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Edit request
Edit protected Please fix The Furby image is now a redlink. Koavf (talk) 17:13, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Also Please DEFAULTSORT it under "Onion..." rather than "The Onion..." Koavf (talk) 17:23, 21 June 2011 (UTC)
 * ❌ We cannot alter the DEFAULTSORT of archived articles as it screws with our extensions (and would not be appropriate in this case). I do not see the Furby redlink in question. — μchip08 10:51, 5 July 2011 (UTC)


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Comments:The Onion: An interview with 'America's Finest News Source'

Wikipedia ...
... does interviews now? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.167.200.83 (talk) 22:00, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * We are not Wikipedia, we are Wikinews.  —Fellow Wiki  Newsie 22:06, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * ...which is a sister project of Wikipedia. --David Shankbone 22:59, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I went to UW-Madison, and I'm not aware of the student center being called "The Onion." We called it the Union (or the Rath, or the other one was Union South). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.158.92.4 (talk) 21:49, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

How do I get a job writing for The Onion?
"GM's new Lithium Battery Sends Chills Through Bi-Polar Community" ... Shortages of vital medications looming ...

I'd better not see this headline in an edition without at least a "bug off" letter from The O boys ...

Tim in Salem Oregon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.178.18.158 (talk) 01:54, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Comments from feedback form - "i love your news"
i love your news —64.45.251.99 (talk) 16:34, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Comments from feedback form - "The Onion Is So Funny!"
The Onion Is So Funny! —86.144.22.149 (talk) 10:03, 25 July 2011 (UTC)


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User talk:218.186.9.2

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 21:18, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
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title: User talk:218.186.9.2


text:
User talk:Mehmet~enwikinews

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

Our key policies - if you read anything, read these! Here a few pointers to help you get to know Wikinews: There are always things to do on Wikinews: By the way, you can sign your name on Talk pages using four tildes ( ~~~~ ), which produces your name and the current date. If you have any questions, you can ask them at the water cooler or to anyone on the Welcommittee, or ask me on my Talk page. Again, welcome!--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 21:20, 25 November 2007 (UTC)
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Your account will be renamed
Hello,

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

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Mehmet. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Mehmet~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 23:18, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:34, 21 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mehmet~enwikinews


text:
Comments:Pan-Green and Pan-Blue Coalitions battled intensively before the 2008 Legislators' Election in Taiwan

wtf? Chen Shui-Bian President of China?!?!
 * No. China = PRC, ROC (Republic of China) = Taiwan. Brock contact... 12:46, 5 December 2007 (UTC)


text:
User talk:67.36.86.126

Hello,

Your recent contributions are considered to be spam and have been reverted or deleted. Should you believe that your contributions are not spam, please argue your case on your talk page, or in WN:ALERT.

Further spamming may result in a 24 hour block. Please contribute to Wikinews in a constructive fashion instead. DragonFire1024 (Talk to the Dragon) 21:33, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

title: User talk:67.36.86.126


text:
Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous

Page last updated: Monday at  UTC.

[ Refresh]

__NEWSECTIONLINK__ Archive

Tech News: 2024-25
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * People who attempt to add an external link in the visual editor will now receive immediate feedback if they attempt to link to a domain that a project has decided to block. Please see Edit check for more details.
 * The new Community Configuration extension is available on Test Wikipedia. This extension allows communities to customize specific features to meet their local needs. Currently only Growth features are configurable, but the extension will support other Community Configuration use cases in the future.
 * The dark mode beta feature is now available on category and help pages, as well as more special pages. There may be contrast issues. Please report bugs on the project talk page.

Problems
 * Octicons-tools.svg Cloud Services tools were not available for 25 minutes last week. This was caused by a faulty hardware cable in the data center.
 * Last week, styling updates were made to the Vector 2022 skin. This caused unforeseen issues with templates, hatnotes, and images. Changes to templates and hatnotes were reverted. Most issues with images were fixed. If you still see any, report them here.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).
 * Starting June 18, the Reference Edit Check will be deployed to a new set of Wikipedias. This feature is intended to help newcomers and to assist edit-patrollers by inviting people who are adding new content to a Wikipedia article to add a citation when they do not do so themselves. During a test at 11 wikis, the number of citations added more than doubled when Reference Check was shown to people. Reference Check is community configurable.
 * Mailing lists will be unavailable for roughly two hours on Tuesday 10:00–12:00 UTC. This is to enable migration to a new server and upgrade its software.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 23:48, 17 June 2024 (UTC)

What are these
Out of curiousity, what are the Developer Socks 1-3 created in September 2010 that have reviewer rights and have never been used for anything? Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 01:20, 19 June 2024 (UTC)
 * They were for testing by MediaWiki devs. Cf. Test article for dev use. I'm not sure if they were ever used on a now-deleted page (such edits would be invisible to mere mortals like you and me). Heavy Water (talk) 01:55, 20 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Admin? (@Cromium or @Bddpaux) @Heavy Water Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 10:08, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-26
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * Editors will notice that there have been some changes to the background color of text in the diff view, and the color of the byte-change numbers, last week. These changes are intended to make text more readable in both light mode and dark mode, and are part of a larger effort to increase accessibility. You can share your comments or questions on the project talkpage.
 * The text colors that are used for visited-links, hovered-links, and active-links, were also slightly changed last week to improve their accessibility in both light mode and dark mode.

Problems
 * You can copy permanent links to talk page comments by clicking on a comment's timestamp. This feature did not always work when the topic title was very long and the link was used as a wikitext link. This has been fixed. Thanks to Lofhi for submitting the bug.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from . It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from . It will be on all wikis from (calendar).
 * Starting 26 June, all talk pages messages' timestamps will become a link at English Wikipedia, making this feature available for you to use at all wikis. This link is a permanent link to the comment. It allows users to find the comment they were linked to, even if this comment has since been moved elsewhere. You can read more about this feature on Diff or on Mediawiki.org.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 22:32, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Voting to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter is now open – cast your vote

 * You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello everyone,

The voting to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter is now open. The Wikimedia Movement Charter is a document to define roles and responsibilities for all the members and entities of the Wikimedia movement, including the creation of a new body – the Global Council – for movement governance.

The final version of the Wikimedia Movement Charter is available on Meta in different languages and attached for your reading.

Voting commenced on SecurePoll on June 25, 2024 at 00:01 UTC and will conclude on July 9, 2024 at 23:59 UTC. Please read more on the voter information and eligibility details.

After reading the Charter, please vote here and share this note further.

If you have any questions about the ratification vote, please contact the Charter Electoral Commission at [mailto:cec@wikimedia.org cec@wikimedia.org].

On behalf of the CEC,

RamzyM (WMF) 10:51, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-27
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * Over the next three weeks, dark mode will become available for all users, both logged-in and logged-out, starting with the mobile web version. This fulfils one of the top-requested community wishes, and improves low-contrast reading and usage in low-light settings. As part of these changes, dark mode will also work on User-pages and Portals. There is more information in the latest Web team update.
 * Logged-in users can now set global preferences for the text-size and dark-mode, thanks to a combined effort across Foundation teams. This allows Wikimedians using multiple wikis to set up a consistent reading experience easily, for example by switching between light and dark mode only once for all wikis.
 * If you use a very old web browser some features might not work on the Wikimedia wikis. This affects Internet Explorer 11 and versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari older than 2016. This change makes it possible to use new CSS features and to send less code to all readers.
 * Wikipedia Admins can customize local wiki configuration options easily using Community Configuration. Community Configuration was created to allow communities to customize how some features work, because each language wiki has unique needs. At the moment, admins can configure Growth features on their home wikis, in order to better recruit and retain new editors. More options will be provided in the coming months.
 * Editors interested in language issues that are related to Unicode standards, can now discuss those topics at a new conversation space in MediaWiki.org. The Wikimedia Foundation is now a member of the Unicode Consortium, and the coordination group can collaboratively review the issues discussed and, where appropriate, bring them to the attention of the Unicode Consortium.
 * One new wiki has been created: a in Mandailing

Problems
 * Editors can once again click on links within the visual editor's citation-preview, thanks to a bug fix by the Editing Team.

Future changes
 * Please help us to improve Tech News by taking this short survey. The goal is to better meet the needs of the various types of people who read Tech News. The survey will be open for 2 weeks. The survey is covered by this privacy statement. Some translations are available.

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MediaWiki message delivery 23:59, 1 July 2024 (UTC)

There are many news articles on calls for Biden drop out of race, but this coverage seems very biased
As far as I can tell both Biden and Trump were severely demented in the debate. But Trump for some reason is not catching any fire and I think he should. He answers in short sentences and gives nothing concrete or specific. Anyway, my question is: is it NPOV to make a coverage on demands for Biden to step down? — Pooldoje (talk) 13:02, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

 * An en.wn reporter is not required to repeat another reporter's or news agency's biases. In fact it isn't allowed per WN:NPOV. You can, however, find two or more articles that discuss both men's performance and synthesize them into one article, thus presenting both sides in a neutral point of view:
 * I also see no reason why it would be biased for you to cover requests for Biden to step down, as long as you adhere to WN:NPOV. We also have a guideline titled Neutrality that can be helpful.
 * Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Published) 13:50, 4 July 2024 (UTC)
 * Michael.C.Wright (Talk/Published) 13:50, 4 July 2024 (UTC)

Voting to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter is ending soon

 * You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello everyone,

This is a kind reminder that the voting period to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter will be closed on July 9, 2024, at 23:59 UTC.

If you have not voted yet, please vote on SecurePoll.

On behalf of the Charter Electoral Commission,

RamzyM (WMF) 03:45, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-28
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * At the Wikimedia Foundation a new task force was formed to replace the disabled Graph with more secure, easy to use, and extensible Chart. You can subscribe to the newsletter to get notified about new project updates and other news about Chart.
 * The CampaignEvents extension is now available on Meta-wiki, Igbo Wikipedia, and Swahili Wikipedia, and can be requested on your wiki. This extension helps in managing and making events more visible, giving Event organizers the ability to use tools like the Event registration tool. To learn more about the deployment status and how to request this extension for your wiki, visit the CampaignEvents page on Meta-wiki.
 * Editors using the iOS Wikipedia app who have more than 50 edits can now use the Add an Image feature. This feature presents opportunities for small but useful contributions to Wikipedia.
 * Thank you to all of the authors who have contributed to MediaWiki Core. As a result of these contributions, the percentage of authors contributing more than 5 patches has increased by 25% since last year, which helps ensure the sustainability of the platform for the Wikimedia projects.

Problems
 * A problem with the color of the talkpage tabs always showing as blue, even for non-existent pages which should have been red, affecting the Vector 2022 skin, has been fixed.

Future changes
 * The Trust and Safety Product team wants to introduce temporary accounts with as little disruption to tools and workflows as possible. Volunteer developers, including gadget and user-script maintainers, are kindly asked to update the code of their tools and features to handle temporary accounts. The team has created documentation explaining how to do the update. Learn more.

Tech News survey
 * Please help us to improve Tech News by taking this short survey. The goal is to better meet the needs of the various types of people who read Tech News. The survey will be open for 1 more week. The survey is covered by this privacy statement. Some translations are available.

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MediaWiki message delivery 21:31, 8 July 2024 (UTC)

U4C Special Election - Call for Candidates

 * You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello all,

A special election has been called to fill additional vacancies on the U4C. The call for candidates phase is open from now through July 19, 2024.

The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. Community members are invited to submit their applications in the special election for the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, please review the U4C Charter.

In this special election, according to chapter 2 of the U4C charter, there are 9 seats available on the U4C: four community-at-large seats and five regional seats to ensure the U4C represents the diversity of the movement. No more than two members of the U4C can be elected from the same home wiki. Therefore, candidates must not have English Wikipedia, German Wikipedia, or Italian Wikipedia as their home wiki.

Read more and submit your application on Meta-wiki.

In cooperation with the U4C,

-- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 00:02, 10 July 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-29
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Tech News survey
 * Please help us to improve Tech News by taking this short survey. The goal is to better meet the needs of the various types of people who read Tech News. The survey will be open for 3 more days. The survey is covered by this privacy statement. Some translations are available.

Recent changes
 * Octicons-tools.svg Wikimedia developers can now officially continue to use both Gerrit and GitLab, due to a June 24 decision by the Wikimedia Foundation to support software development on both platforms. Gerrit and GitLab are both code repositories used by developers to write, review, and deploy the software code that supports the MediaWiki software that the wiki projects are built on, as well as the tools used by editors to create and improve content. This decision will safeguard the productivity of our developers and prevent problems in code review from affecting our users. More details are available in the Migration status page.
 * The Wikimedia Foundation seeks applicants for the Product and Technology Advisory Council (PTAC). This group will bring technical contributors and Wikimedia Foundation together to co-define a more resilient, future-proof technological platform. Council members will evaluate and consult on the movement's product and technical activities, so that we develop multi-generational projects. We are looking for a range of technical contributors across the globe, from a variety of Wikimedia projects. Please apply here by August 10.
 * Editors with rollback user-rights who use the Wikipedia App for Android can use the new Edit Patrol features. These features include a new feed of Recent Changes, related links such as Undo and Rollback, and the ability to create and save a personal library of user talk messages to use while patrolling. If your wiki wants to make these features available to users who do not have rollback rights but have reached a certain edit threshold, you can contact the team. You can read more about this project on Diff blog.
 * Editors who have access to The Wikipedia Library can once again use non-open access content in SpringerLinks, after the Foundation contacted them to restore access. You can read more about this and 21 other community-submitted tasks that were completed last week.

Changes later this week
 * This week, dark mode will be available on a number of Wikipedias, both desktop and mobile, for logged-in and logged-out users. Interface admins and user script maintainers are encouraged to check gadgets and user scripts in the dark mode, to find any hard-coded colors and fix them. There are some recommendations for dark mode compatibility to help.

Future changes
 * Octicons-tools.svg Next week, functionaries, volunteers maintaining tools, and software development teams are invited to test the temporary accounts feature on testwiki. Temporary accounts is a feature that will help improve privacy on the wikis. No further temporary account deployments are scheduled yet. Please share your opinions and questions on the project talk page.
 * Editors who upload files cross-wiki, or teach other people how to do so, may wish to join a Wikimedia Commons discussion. The Commons community is discussing limiting who can upload files through the cross-wiki upload/Upload dialog feature to users auto-confirmed on Wikimedia Commons. This is due to the large amount of copyright violations uploaded this way. There is a short summary at Commons:Cross-wiki upload and discussion at Commons:Village Pump.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. You can also get other news from the Wikimedia Foundation Bulletin.

MediaWiki message delivery 01:31, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

Wikimedia Movement Charter ratification voting results

 * You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello everyone,

After carefully tallying both individual and affiliate votes, the Charter Electoral Commission is pleased to announce the final results of the Wikimedia Movement Charter voting.

As communicated by the Charter Electoral Commission, we reached the quorum for both Affiliate and individual votes by the time the vote closed on July 9, 23:59 UTC. We thank all 2,451 individuals and 129 Affiliate representatives who voted in the ratification process. Your votes and comments are invaluable for the future steps in Movement Strategy.

The final results of the Wikimedia Movement Charter ratification voting held between 25 June and 9 July 2024 are as follows:

Individual vote:

Out of 2,451 individuals who voted as of July 9 23:59 (UTC), 2,446 have been accepted as valid votes. Among these, 1,710 voted “yes”; 623 voted “no”; and 113 selected “–” (neutral). Because the neutral votes don’t count towards the total number of votes cast, 73.30% voted to approve the Charter (1710/2333), while 26.70% voted to reject the Charter (623/2333).

Affiliates vote:

Out of 129 Affiliates designated voters who voted as of July 9 23:59 (UTC), 129 votes are confirmed as valid votes. Among these, 93 voted “yes”; 18 voted “no”; and 18 selected “–” (neutral). Because the neutral votes don’t count towards the total number of votes cast, 83.78% voted to approve the Charter (93/111), while 16.22% voted to reject the Charter (18/111).

Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation:

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees voted not to ratify the proposed Charter during their special Board meeting on July 8, 2024. The Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, Nataliia Tymkiv, shared the result of the vote, the resolution, meeting minutes and proposed next steps.

With this, the Wikimedia Movement Charter in its current revision is not ratified.

We thank you for your participation in this important moment in our movement’s governance.

The Charter Electoral Commission,

Abhinav619, Borschts, Iwuala Lucy, Tochiprecious, Der-Wir-Ing

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:52, 18 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous


text:
Wikinews:Dynamic quiz/quiz/2007/48

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

Last Updated: November 25, 2007

Quiz
{Who is the newly elected Prime Minister of Australia? + Kevin Rudd - Stanley Bruce - Gabriel Pollard - Peter Costello
 * type=""}
 * See Australia Votes 2007: Rudd to become 26th Prime Minister

{Two computer discs containing the personal data of 25 million U.K. citizens were found out this week to be missing. They were sent from a Revenue & Customs office in what British city? + Washington - York - Newcastle - Cambridge
 * type=""}
 * See UK government loses personal information of 25 million people

{English team manager Steve McClaren was sacked by the Football Association last week after the team failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament. When was the last time England failed to qualify for a major tournament? - UEFA Euro 2000 - UEFA Euro 1996 + FIFA World Cup 1994 - FIFA World Cup 1990
 * type=""}
 * See Euro 2008 Qualification: England vs. Croatia

{What is the name of the Canadian cruise ship with over 150 passengers that sank in the Antarctic this week? - MS DOS - MS Firefox - MS Macintosh + MS Explorer
 * type=""}
 * See MS Explorer cruise ship passengers are safe

{Which Russian chess grand master was arrested last Saturday for leading opposition protests against President Putin? - Anatoly Karpov + Garry Kasparov - Vladimir Kramnik - Alexander Litvinenko
 * type=""}
 * See Chess grand master Kasparov arrested after protest

{Italy saw a political scandal this week after wiretaps revealed that some media outlets favoured Silvio Berlusconi when he was Prime Minister of Italy. What is the name of the Italian public television station mentioned in this affair? - Italia Uno - Canale Uno - Mediaset + RAI
 * type=""}
 * See Political scandal in Italy: reported interference on major media

{On Thursday, Colombia ended Hugo Chávez' negotiations efforts with the FARC militia. What does the acronym FARC stand for? - Freedom through Revolution and Anarchy in Colombia - Fighters Against the Rulers of Colombia + Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia - Communist Armed Rebel Forces
 * type=""}
 * See Colombia ends Chávez-FARC mediations

{The Spanish King's outburst to Hugo Chávez was reported to have reached cult status; what did Juan Carlos I say to the President of Venezuela? - ¡Callaste! + ¿Por qué no te callas? - ¡Eres fascista! - ¿Por qué no vuelvas a tu país?
 * type=""}
 * See Spanish King's 'shut up' to Chávez becomes ringtone

{Wikinews interviewed the senior anchorwoman of Naked News, a Canadian program that presents the news completely bare. Which of the following is not a quote from that interview? - "sensual, but not sexual" - "I believe the secret to our success is that we challenged the accepted boundaries while keeping it clean and tasteful." - "I think we have a friendlier way of delivering the news" + "our viewers want to keep abreast of the hot issues"
 * type=""}
 * See Naked News presents a new style of news

{Two astronauts went on a spacewalk to complete a new room of the International Space Station. What is the name of this new room? + Harmony - Destiny - Unity - Felicity
 * type=""}
 * See International Space Station astronauts complete spacewalk

 * Now you've finished the quiz, why don't you post your score on the talk page

title: Wikinews:Dynamic quiz/quiz/2007/48


text:
Italian ex-prime minister Berlusconi calls for a new party

November 29, 2007 Italian opposition leader and ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi declared the former alliance known as Casa Delle Libertà (CDL), or House of Freedoms an "ectoplasm", and called for the creation of a new party, the Partito del popolo della Libertà or Italian People's Party for Freedom.

He stated last Sunday (25 November), after suddenly disbanding the Forza Italia party a week previously, that this new party will be composed mainly of ex-Forza Italia voters and will take up to 37% of votes. Berlusconi tried to defeat Prime Minister Romano Prodi in the parliament recently, on the Finanziaria, or budget bill, but failed.