Wednesday, December 24, 2014With the English-language Wikinews continuing to increase the amount of original content published, we take a look back at some of the eighty-plus original reports from our contributors during 2014.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
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Wikinews has learned at least six of the United Kingdom’s main Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have implemented monitoring and filtering mechanisms that are causing major problems for UK contributors on websites operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, in addition to 1,200 other websites. The filters appear to be applied because Wikimedia sites are hosting a Scorpions album cover which some call child pornography. Scorpions are a German hard rock band who have used several controversial album covers and are perhaps best known for the song Rock You Like a Hurricane.
The measures applied redirect traffic for a significant portion of the UK’s Internet population through six servers which can log and filter the content available to the end user. A serious side-effect of this is the inability of administrators on Wikimedia sites to block vandals, and other troublemakers, without potentially impacting hundreds of thousands of innocent UK contributors who work on WMF sites in good faith.
The filtering is in response to the Internet Watch Foundation‘s list of websites that host content reported to contain inappropriate images of naked children. The IWF considers those images child pornography. However, in the United States, where the websites of the Wikimedia Foundation are hosted, it is not considered obscene under the criteria of the Miller test, which requires that an obscene work lack “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value” – as album art is used to “brand” the album, it is considered to be artistic.
Contributors or individuals attempting to view an affected image or file, depending on their ISP, may get a warning saying, “we have blocked this page because, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), it contains indecent images of children or pointers to them; you could be breaking UK law if you viewed the page.” Other ISPs provide blank pages, 404 errors, or other means of blocking the content. Due to a configuration mistake at one Internet service provider, some users have reported being totally unable to access Wikimedia sites to the Wikipedia technical help desk.
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“The Protection of Children Act 1978 as amended in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, makes it an offence to take, make, permit to be taken, distribute, show, possess with intent to distribute, and advertise indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children under the age of eighteen. The ‘making’ of such images includes downloading, that is, making a copy of a child sexual abuse image on a computer, so, in the UK, accessing such content online is a serious criminal offence,” says the IWF on their website in an article updated on November 28. The IWF say there are at least 800 to 1,200 websites on the list of those who host or contain offensive material. The list is not public and the IWF never notified Wikimedia Foundation about the blocking of Wikipedia content. The affected page does not display any message informing the user about blocked content on most ISPs, instead, a technical error message is shown.
However, Demon Internet redirects users to a block message on the IWF’s site explaining that the page was blocked as the organization suspects child porn or links to it to be present. The IWF states that, “we do not notify site owners that their websites are on our list.”
The concern for Wikimedia is for some images like an album cover from a 1976 record of the Scorpions titled Virgin Killer. It displays an underage girl, posing nude, with a lens crack crossing over her genitals, but nothing blocking out her breasts. The girl appears to be around ten years old. In the U.S., the band later replaced the image with one of the group. The cover was uploaded to Wikipedia in 2006, but Wikinews learned that on May 9, 2008 at (21:17 UTC), despite a result of strong consensus to ‘keep’ in a deletion request, the image was deleted, however for a different reason. It was deleted due to a claim by an administrator that it violated Wikipedia’s policy for dealing with copyrighted images, which require that any images used under the doctrine of fair use must alongside other criteria, “significantly increase readers’ understanding of the topic, and its omission would be detrimental to that understanding”, with the administrator claiming that the article “lacked meaningful discussion” of the album art. This result was overturned using the deletion review process. Earlier, on December 6, the image was put back up for a deletion request, but it was later closed as Wikimedia “does not censor”.
Another image that is questionable could be a screenshot from the 1938 film Child Bride. Its goal was to bring to light the attempts at banning child marriages. In the article on Wikipedia, a screenshot appears of then 12-year-old Shirley Mills partially naked after skinny dipping. In the photo, at least one of her breasts can be seen.
Other albums featuring nudity below the age of sixteen have previously caused controversy; Blind Faith attracted criticism as did Houses of the Holy, and Nirvana’s Nevermind.
Multiple companies have gone public stating that they implement the recommendations of the Internet Watch Foundation. Not all of these are known to have implemented measures against Wikimedia sites; the major UK ISPs thought to have affected Wikimedia sites are Telefonica O2/Be Unlimited, Virgin Media, Easynet, Plusnet, Demon, and Opal Telecommunications (TalkTalk).
Wikinews has contacted Wikimedia’s legal counsel, Mike Godwin and the IWF for a statement, but neither have replied as of this time.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Following accusations issued by the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), British Member of Parliament George Galloway and Senator Charles Pasqua of France have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
George Galloway declared:
I’ve now had a chance to read the report which was compiled without this Senate committee asking me a single question about these absurd allegations. I repeat once more. I have never traded or benefited from any oil deals with Iraq.
One of the companies named, with ostensible links to me– Aredio Petroleum– I have never heard of until today and I have certainly had no dealings with. The other company, Middle East Advanced Semiconductors, was owned by Fawaz Zureikat, who was the chairman of the Mariam Appeal. It is well-known that Mr Zureikat traded with Iraq but he did not do so on my behalf. I have not received a penny piece or any oil voucher from Iraq, directly or indirectly.
You would have thought that natural justice would have demanded that these allegations would have– must have been!– put to me, but they haven’t been. Senator Joseph McCarthy would have been proud of this committee.
On May 17, Galloway appeared before the U.S. senatorial panel and vehemently denied any wrongdoing in a tone seldom used in a senatorial hearing. He accused the U.S. administration of creating a “smoke screen” to divert attention away from the situation in Iraq. He also declared, “The biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government.”
Galloway denied receiving any money out of the scheme. Galloway demanded, “What counts is, where’s the money, senator? Who paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars? The answer to that is nobody,” while glaring toward U.S. senator Norm Coleman (Republican from Minnesota), according to a New York Times report.
Galloway also accused the US senators, especially senator Coleman, of shoddy standards of justice. He claimed they have already ruled him guilty, and that they rely on dubious evidence and wrongful or coerced testimonies.
Galloway declared:
You have my name on lists provided to you… by the convicted bank robber and fraudster and con man Ahmed Chalabi, who many people, to their credit, in your country now realize played a decisive role in leading your country into the disaster in Iraq.
In these circumstances, knowing what the world knows about how you treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison1, in Bagram Air Base [Afghanistan], in Guantanamo Bay — including, if I may say, British citizens being held in those places — I’m not sure how much credibility anyone would put on anything you manage to get from a prisoner in those circumstances.
1. Alluding to the acknowledged Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse.
Charles Pasqua also denies any personal wrongdoing in the case. Pasqua indicated that he was “serene” and that he hoped the investigations by the U.S. Senate would probe the matter to the bottom.
Pasqua judged the situation detrimental to relationships between the United States and France. For this reason, Pasqua declared that he had asked the president of the French Senate for the creation of an investigation commission, wishing that the French and U.S. senatorial commissions should collaborate.
Pasqua declared himself convinced that misconduct took place in the oil-for-food program, and that it was probable that some French people were involved. He then wished that they should be sought and prosecuted. “If one wants to find the origin of the financial streams, one can do so.” Pasqua mentioned the Swiss company Genmar, which the U.S. report claims to have served as Pasqua’s intermediary.
Pasqua denied information presented as facts in the report. For instance, he denied having met Tariq Aziz, former Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq.
Pasqua pointed out that nothing in the senatorial evidence indicates that he had benefited from vouchers, only that one of his former advisers, Bernard Guillet, had received oil allocations in his name. From December 2000 onwards, allocations meant for Pasqua ceased and were replaced by allocations to Bernard Guillet.
Guillet was arrested by French authorities in April in connection with abuses under the oil-for-food program. Mr Guillet has been put under formal investigation for allegedly participating in a system of occult kickbacks and fees between 1996 and 2001 involving major French companies, including Total. He is suspected of having received amounts of money without good explanation from an intermediary specialized in the resale of Iraqi oil.
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Every evening as dusk sets in, he sits in his rocking chair nursing a Scotch and listening to old Hindi film songs. The day I last saw him in Hyderabad, the strains of Mohammed Rafi’s Dekhi zamane ki yaari…bichchde sabhi baari-baari….impregnated the air.
But, instead of the melancholia that drips from Guru Dutt’s sets in Kagaz ke Phool, there was a calm surrounding Jyotirmaya, a sense of peace and a day well spent. No broken heart here, just a man unwinding after a day at work…. His dinner is ready and waiting, his next choice out of a collection of 3000 movies in the DVD player, awaiting the click of a remote button. A book lies next to his bed in what seems to be exactly the position he left off reading it the night before. No female presence or kiddie clutter disturbs the even tenor of his existence. Life is the way he loves it…
Cut to another home in another city.
Anuradha (not her real name) is a busy professional juggling career and home, handling a daughter singlehanded and loving it. Her bedroom is done up in soft, feminine colours and the books and music racks house just her choices. She savours her mornings and is extremely possessive about that time when, daughter sent off to school, she relaxes, looking at the trees outside her window, reflecting, reading the papers and sipping nimbupani. Mother and daughter have a mutually satisfactory routine and keep their weekends busy with movies and friends when they are not exploring the city. Ask her if she feels the lack of a male presence at home, and she laughs, “Male? What’s that?! No, seriously, where is the space for a male in this house or in my life? Why would I want someone to make an insidious entry into my life and uproot my very existence?” Point.
It’s not an easy state to achieve, but once set in your routine and after you have settled life’s little matters and tied the loose ends, a single person can possibly lead a far more peaceful and satisfying life if he or she sets her mind to it than many married couples. Yes of course, at times the heart may feel lonely and twinges of regret may make their presence felt, but on the whole a life where you are answerable largely to just yourself cannot be bad.
How long can one keep looking for Mr Perfect or Ms Perfect? There has to come a time when you give up looking and settle down to what you have. And those who come to this conclusion early and start building a life for just themselves are the ones who, like Jyotirmaya and Anuradha, achieve a sense of peace and come to terms with single life. And soon there comes a time when they wrap life so securely and comfortably around themselves that there is no scope left for another human entering that space.
It’s not a selfish or self-centred existence really; it’s just a full life that gets fuller each time these singles introduce yet another passion. The kind of passions that have to be put off by others whose spirits strive to reach beyond the usual responsibilities of life.
Let’s get this clear; it’s not a libertine view that these singles are propagating, nor are they flying against the institution of marriage. We are talking here of people who in the state of singlehood, decide to make the best of an existence that precariously straddles the line between a satisfied fullness and an unending search for an elusive companion. Having knit their lives into a pattern that keeps them busy, fruitfully occupied and happy, they are at peace with themselves. Friendships acquire a deeper meaning for them and they are ready to go out on a limb for a friend.
One may well ask what about the need for companionship, sexual gratification or support in old age and illness? Jyotirmaya has an interesting answer for this. “These are three distinct needs that once segregated, provide an amazing clarity. Friends can provide you great companionship; I have seldom seen a couple who are great conversationalists or companions after some years of marriage! Sex can be disengaged from marriage surely in this day and age! As for looking after in sickness and old age, what guarantee that children would do the needful, or even that a spouse will outlast you?” Who can refute this logic?
Add to that the fact that as multi-dimensional creatures we cannot hope to satisfy all our needs in just one person. We have so many diverse needs and aspirations, that each one of us, if we are to be fully satisfied, needs a battery of friends and companions available to us. And a single person is free to pick and choose any, at any time.
Movies, books, music, artistic pursuits, social work, parties, apart from your choice of profession – contemporary life offers a wide range of activities and indulgences that consume and stimulate you enough not to actually miss being part of a couple. However, beyond all this, there is still that very natural need to connect with another adult, to have someone you can use as a sounding board, share your thoughts and passions and plan holidays with. Same sex friend is the easiest answer, one that society too approves of. And yet, there is also the need to have companions of the opposite sex, or you somewhat lose out on one aspect, one important perspective of life.
Friends of the opposite sex are just as important as same sex companions. What’s wrong with that? Someone you can share some magical moments with and then retreat to the cocoon of your own satisfactory existence. It just helps complete the circle.
Just because you are alone need never mean you are lonely. With a life so full with interests, friends, passions, there is no scope or time to get bored.
Article Source: sooperarticles.com/relationship-articles/love-articles/single-person-can-lead-peaceful-life-9383.html
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Jhonanant is content writer currently working for India online Travel Portal, a website containing all information regarding interesting travel destinations like Vacation Packages and India Holidays Author: Jhonanant
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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Six whales have died after becoming stranded on a southwest Australia beach, one day after conservation officials attempted to rescue them.
A pod of about 90 long-finned pilot whales were stranded on Hamelin Bay Tuesday. More than 70 of the mammals died, along with four dolphins, but about 10 whales were guided back out to sea by officials from the Australian Department of Environment and Conservation.
Six of the rescued whales washed up on a different beach less than a day later. Three died of natural causes Wednesday, and the other three were shot by veterinarians due to their poor condition.
About 180 volunteers, wildlife officers and veterinarians participated in the Tuesday rescue effort, but officials said there had always been a risk that the whales could be stranded again. “It is frustrating, there is a lot of effort by the community and by DEC staff, it is a frustrating process when that happens but it’s not totally unexpected,” said John Carter, state conservation department officer.
The other four whales rescued Tuesday are still believed to be at sea, and department officials are monitoring the ocean to verify their safety.
Almost 500 whales have died in five mass beachings over the last five months. The West Australian coast has seen 21 mass whale and dolphin strandings since 1984, according to the department.
The whales tried swimming back to shore shortly after the Tuesday rescue, but conservation officials guided them to deeper waters with the hopes that they would stay out at sea. Scientists cannot explain what draws whales so close to shore.
The whales were stranded Wednesday in a remote location where conservation officials could not transport rescue equipment. At least one of the whales was attacked by sharks, officials said.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
University of California, Berkeley scientists have published a report in Nature that says Mars was once covered by massive oceans.
In the 1980’s the Viking spacecraft sent back images to NASA that had shown thousands of kilometers of ancient shorelines, known as Arabia and Deuteronilus, on the north and south poles of Mars, but the Mars Global Surveyor got a closer look of the shorelines and photographed a 300 meter length of the two shorelines in the 1990’s. Those images had shown that the alleged shorelines were too warped and rugged to have been created by water or an ocean.
But the new study now shows that due to a tilting in the axis of Mars by nearly 3,000 kilometers over a period of 2 or 3 billion years, the shorelines might actually have to be more rugged as the water settled, creating land formations that would rise and fall during this process.
“When the spin axis moves relative to the surface, the surface deforms, and that is recorded in the shoreline,”said Michael Manga, a UC Professor and a co-author of the study.
“On planets like Mars and Earth that have an outer shell, or lithosphere, that behaves elastically, the solid surface will deform differently than the sea surface, creating a non-uniform change in the topography,” said Taylor Perron the primary author of the study and who is now attending classes Harvard University‘s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences to receive his postdoctoral degree.
Mars is said to have an elastic crust and the study shows why the shorelines vary so much in elevation with Arabia at 2.5 kilometers and Deuteronilus at 0.7 kilometers.
“This is a beautiful result that Taylor got. The mere fact that you can explain a good fraction of the information about the shorelines with such a simple model is just amazing. It’s something I never would have guessed at the outset. This really confirms that there was an ocean on Mars,” said Mark Richards, a professor at UC Berkley of earth and planetary science and study co-author.
The study says that as little as a 50 degree shift in the Martian axis, could cause a significant change in the elevation of the shorelines of Arabia, as much as 3,000 k.m.. As little as a 20 degree shift could do the same with Deuteronilus, but with a 700 k.m. change in the shoreline elevation.
It is estimated that the shorelines on Mars were created between 2 and 4 billion years ago.
Monday, August 27, 2012
London, England — As Paralympians ready for the Games which are set to open later this week, they have access to a world class fitness center inside the Paralympic Village which is designed to maximise their pre-Game preparations.
According to volunteers staffing the center, instead of being a single large room, as in Beijing, the building has numerous rooms. It, along with the adjacent Village Services Centre, is designed to be converted into a school after the games conclude. Rooms have been structured as a gym, an auditorium, and science laboratories.
Gym equipment is supplied by Technogym, an Italian firm that has supplied gym equipment for the Olympics since 2000. Equipment has been provided not just for for the Fitness Centre, but for gyms at all the Olympic venues. The newest equipment is oriented toward maximum flexibility, allowing athletes to exercise the particular muscles that they most require for their sport.
In addition to the equipment, the Fitness Centre also provides instructors trained in the use of the equipment, the likes of which athletes from many countries have never seen before. There are also a number of instructors available to provide motivational training.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
On Sunday, Wikinews interviewed creator of memorial site LisaMcPherson.org, former Lisa McPherson Trust employee and long time Scientology critic Jeff Jacobsen.
LisaMcPherson.org is a memorial site created in 1997 containing information on her death and the resulting legal case against the Church of Scientology.
Lisa McPherson died in 1995 while in the care of the Church of Scientology. After a car accident, she became mentally unstable. Scientologists removed her from the hospital and placed her in the Introspection Rundown, she died 17 days later while still in care of the Church. She was used as an icon during Project Chanology, the protest of the Church of Scientology by Anonymous. Protesters were pictured with signs that said “Remember Lisa McPherson” and “Ask Scientology Why Lisa McPherson Died”, other protesters had posters with her picture on it.
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byAlma Abell
The cleanness of the kitchen and the hygiene standard of the food we eat depends on how clean the dishes that are used in preparation and serving are. The dishwasher is one of the easiest kitchen appliances to operate. They save you lots of time and energy you could have spent scrubbing pots. However, there are times when dishwasher issues turn into a complete nightmare. To understand the appliances, here is a list of common problems solved by Dishwasher Repair Chicago service providers.
When the washer doesn’t drain or leaks water
At times, the washer can run fine and clean the dishes perfectly but fail to drain the water or leak the water all over the floor. When this happens, your first suspect should be a drain. The fact that the washer deals with solid food particles means that grime and solid food remains can cause a clog in the drain preventing the water from draining well. The solution for a clogged washer is opening it up and clearing the blockage. If the washer is leaking, you have to get an expert to locate the leak and devise a way to seal it.
When it doesn’t clean well
If you load the dishwasher and the dishes come out with food particles, spots on the utensils or a thin film it could be an indication of several things.
* That a scrubbing arm is broken
* That a motor isn’t running properly
* That the water pressure in the washer is too low
* The water running in your home is too high on minerals
* That you are using too much detergent or the water is too hot
You can fix some issues such as detergent amount and water temperature. However, you will need an expert to assist with fixing a broken scrubbing arm or replacing it with another one. The expert can also help set the pressure right and have a look at the motor to make sure it is running well.
Those are common dishwasher problems that A-Appliance Xperts Inc. helps fix. They do Dishwasher Repair Chicago and surrounding areas.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Newspaper The Guardian reports today that the sale of the BBC subsidiary BBC Resources Ltd., has cost £3.4m in consultancy fees — over £1m more than the £2.3m trading profit the commercial division is estimated to have made for the last financial year. Details of the failed privatisation were released by the BBC following a freedom of information request, and prior to publication of its annual report on July 8.
Fourteen months after advisers were appointed to try to sell BBC Resources Ltd., only one of the three main business units has been sold — its Outside Broadcast division to Satellite Information Services Limited (SIS), for an estimated £20m. On March 7, 2008 it was also announced that the studios operation would remain in BBC ownership and in early June, the fate of the third business was put on hold with the BBC stating that “like Studios, Post Production will remain within BBC Resources, which will continue to operate as a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC.”
BBC Resources Ltd. made an operating profit of £6.1m for 2005-06, down from £7.4m the year before, with the BBC accounting for 83.3% of its turnover, down from 87.4% for 2004-05. Last year’s published figure for 2006-07 was £5.2 million — with BBC business at 80% of turnover.
BECTU Assistant General Secretary Luke Crawley is quoted as saying: “It’s fairly outrageous that around half the profit of the company [announced last year] has been spent trying to sell it. It’s an inordinate amount of money. The BBC was promised big returns if it sold BBC Resources but it’s only managed to sell outside broadcasts and we do not know how much it made out of that. We think the £3.4m is a poor investment.”
