A 2000 rupee note printed in MysoreImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
On Wednesday, India demonetised ?500 (about US$7.50) and ?1000 notes, announced as a measure to fight corruption, fake notes, and black money. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Indian citizens late Tuesday, and said 500 and 1000 rupee notes would cease to be legal tender at midnight.
To minimise possible difficulties to citizens, transactions using old 500 and 1000 rupee notes were accepted at government hospitals, railway ticket bookings, government buses, and airports. The notes were also accepted at public-sector petrol-pumps, government-authorised consumer co-operative stores, milk booths authorised by State governments, and cremation grounds till Friday midnight. These shops were obliged to have a record of their stocks and sales.
Old Five hundred and 1000 rupee notes could can be exchanged in banks, head and sub post offices from November 10 till December 30Image: Agastya Chandrakant.
In his announcement, Modi said, “For your immediate needs, you can go to any bank, head post office or sub post office, show your identity proof like Aadhar card, voter’s card, ration card, passport, income tax PAN card number or other approved proofs and exchange your old 500 or thousand rupee notes for new notes.” ((hi))Hindi language: ??????? ???????? ?? ??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ??? ?????? ????? ?? ??? ?? ????? ?? ??? ?????? ?? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? ?????? ?? ???? ????? ????, ???? ??, ???? ?????, ?????? ?????, ???? ?????, ????????, ???? ????? ??? ????? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?? ??? ??? ???? ???
Modi also announced those who failed to change their currency till December 30 can exchange the notes at Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s office along with a declaration form till March 31. The notes can be exchanged till December 30 at any branch of any bank across India.
By Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said demonetised money equivalent to almost US$30 billion was deposited in banks across India. According to estimate, the old notes accounted for 85% of the total money in circulation. New 500 rupee and 2000 rupee notes are to be issued. Modi said RBI would exercise caution from past experience and limit the circulation of large-value notes.
International tourists could purchase up to 5000 rupees using the old notes at airport exchanges till Friday.
A limit was imposed on cash withdrawal; a maximum of 10000 rupees each day, and 20000 rupees each week, can be withdrawn. Moreover, from Thursday (November 10) till November 24, 4000 rupees can be exchanged in the banks and post offices. The amount is credited to the bank account.
Government workers were informed about demonetising when the announcement was made. Modi announced all banks would remain closed for public work on Wednesday.
In the United States, Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election on Tuesday, immediately after which stock markets dropped globally. Following the US election and demonetising the money, the Indian stock market fell by 1700 points on Wednesday. Sensex lost 1,688.69 points and Nifty lost 111.55 points on the same day. Indian technology sector companies experienced loss. TCS suffered 4.93% loss and Infosys lost 2.74%.
The Indian rupee is also used in the neighbouring countries of Bhutan and Nepal. The border area uses Indian currency for day-to-day transactions. The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan (RMA) has announced the exchange of old notes will be facilitated till December 15. RMA governor Dasho Penjore informed Indian news site The Wire, “We do not know exactly how much Indian currency of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 is in circulation in Bhutan. We will get a better idea after the deadline to deposit their amount”. RMA has 30% of its international exchange reserve in Indian rupees. Nepal Rastra Bank directed all Nepali banks to stop conducting transactions using the Indian rupee.
On Thursday, there were long queues in front of ATMs and banks to exchange the old notes and withdraw money. BBC reported some banks ran out of cash. Police were called to some banks to maintain discipline. Banks were open on Saturday and Sunday for money exchange.
A notice about demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes which were not accepted in the storeImage: Agastya Chandrakant.A shop accepting 500 and 1000 rupee notes after they were no longer valid currency even in government hospitals, on SaturdayImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
Shops did not accept the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes. Some emphasised cash-less transaction as well. BBC reported some traders and small business owners in Delhi threatened to call a strike as this move affected their business.
eRetail websites like Amazon and Flipkart announced they would not accept the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes on Cash on Delivery orders. Amazon also announced 15% discount on gift cards worth 500 or 1000 rupees.
The government ceased all transactions using the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes before Saturday. But a Wikinews correspondent noticed a jeweler shop accepting the demonetised notes on Saturday. When questioned, the jeweler said they were accepting the old notes only on purchase. When the correspondent, who did not identify as a reporter to the shop owners, said the old 500 and 1000 rupee notes were not legal money, they said they will exchange the notes in a bank since there were 50 days to exchange with a new and legal tender. They refused to exchange old 500 rupee notes with change, asserting the customer needs to buy merchandise from their shop.
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Crowded scene in front of State Bank of IndiaImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
State Bank of India remained open at night, and a long queue of people waited outside the ATM to withdraw moneyImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
CAnara Bank’s ATM remained closed on WednesdayImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
Karnataka Bank’s ATM remained closed on WednesdayImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
Corporation Bank’s ATM remained closed on WednesdayImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
Axis Bank’s ATM remained closed on WednesdayImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
Syndicate Bank’s ATM remained closed on WednesdayImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
Karnataka Bank’s ATM remained closed on WednesdayImage: Agastya Chandrakant.
Donald Trump plans £300m “golfing paradise” for rural Scotland
American multi-billionaire Donald Trump has announced plans to build a massive golf complex on an 800-acre site just north of Aberdeen, Scotland.
Speaking last night from the Trump Tower in New York, Trump said that the development will be akin to a “homecoming” for him. The ginger-haired property tycoon’s mother is from the Western Isles of Scotland.
The £300m project at Menie in Aberdeenshire will include both a links course and an inland course, and a 400-bedroom hotel as well as a golfing academy and holiday homes. The facilities are being built with the intention of attracting the Open Championship to the site, officially dubbed Trump International Golf Links, Scotland.
Fields and sand-dunes make up the landscape of the coastal site. Trump said of the location, “As soon as I saw it there was no question about it. I looked at 211 fantastic sites all over Europe, but here it is – the dune size and the ocean front. There is no piece of land that I have ever seen that is comparable to this.” The billionaire claims that the complex, set to be his only development outside the United States, will be the “best course in the world.”
Local and national political figures, including Scottish First MinisterJack McConnell, have welcomed the announcement with open arms, as the project is expected to bring in an additional £157m to the region’s economy within the first ten years. Scottish tourism company VisitScotland is also optimistic, expecting an influx of international visitors to play on (or simply visit) the site. Plans to expand the A90 road running past the site in the near future will enable more road traffic to and around the area. An £60m expansion of Aberdeen Airport will also allow for vastly increased international air links, akin to those operated using Boeing 767 aircraft.
Work on the golf complex itself is set to begin in September this year, with the Trump Organisation hopeful for a Spring 2008 opening date.
A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, April 9, 2007.
Contents
1 Three-year-old New Zealander chokes to death on candy
2 Golf: Zach Johnson wins 71st Masters
3 New York couple taking taxi to Arizona
4 Vocational nurse charged with fatal Houston fire
5 Iran starts industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel
Lollies
The New Zealand Police has reported that a three-year-old boy choked to death on Saturday afternoon, due to what they believe was a piece of candy at his birthday party.
The parents did call New Zealand’s emergency number, 1-1-1, after their son alerted his parents to the fact that he was choking. The paramedics were unable to revive the Napier boy when they arrived at the scene.
The case has been referred to a coroner.
Sources
Nzpa. “Three year old dies after choking on candy” — Fairfax New Zealand, April 9, 2007
“Three-year-old birthday boy chokes to death” — New Zealand Herald, April 9, 2007
Relatively unknown golfer Zach Johnson won the 71st Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. Johnson shot 3-under-par 69 in Sunday’s fourth round, to win by 2 strokes over Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen, and Rory Sabbattini.
Johnson won a purse worth US$1,305,000 and a lifetime qualification to the Masters Tournament, held annually at the Augusta National Golf Club.
Sources
Press Release: Vartan Kupelian. “Johnson Proves His Mettle In Masters Victory” — The Masters Tournament, April 9, 2007
Gene Wojciechowski. “Johnson beats Tiger at his own game” — ESPN.com, April 9, 2007
“A strange week ends with a green jacket for Johnson” — CBS Sportsline, April 8, 2007
NYC taxicabs
A couple living in New York City have decided to take a taxi all the way to Arizona. Betty and Bob Matas are retiring and leaving the city for good. What started as joke, has become reality, in part to spare their cats from traveling in a jetliner cargo-hold. They have negotiated a US$3,000 flat fee instead of the metered rate, which was estimated at US$5,000.
Sources
“New York couple taking cab to Arizona retirement” — CNN, April 8, 2007
“New York City Couple Hails Cab to Arizona” — Fox News, April 8, 2007
Houston, Texas
A vocational nurse working for Dr. John Capriotti, a plastic surgeon, was accused of setting the fire that wounded several and killed three people in Houston, Texas on March 28. She was allegedly trying to cover up the fact that she hadn’t completed the paperwork for an upcoming audit.
The fire began in Dr. Capriotti’s office on the fifth floor and quickly spread to the sixth. Arson investigators from the Houston Fire Department, the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had been working to determine the source of the fire.
Sources
Anne Marie Kilday. “Bond set at $330,000 for nurse in fatal fire” — Houston Chronicle, April 8, 2007
Associated Press. “Woman afraid of losing job confesses to fatal fire” — The Dallas Morning News, April 8, 2007
Kimberly Pina. “Area fire departments evaluate high-rise strategy” — Houston Chronicle, April 6, 2007
Joe Stinebaker. “3 dead in Houston office building fire” — Lexington Herald-Leader, March 29, 2007
Iran’s nuclear program
Iran announced that it has started industrial scale production of nuclear fuel involving hundreds of centrifuges. The announcement comes as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reasserts his nation’s nuclear rights in the face of two rounds of sanctions by the UN Security Council, which is seeking a halt to such work.
The United States denounced the declaration, saying it showed Iran was defying the international community.
Marc Wolfensberger and Patrick Donahue. “Iran Says Nuclear Enrichment Reaches Industrial Scale” — Bloomberg L.P., April 9, 2007
“President: Iran to generate nuclear power on schedule” — Islamic Republic News Agency, April 9, 2007
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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
The America’s Cup Trophy. Image: Bob Covarrubias.(Image missing from Commons: image; log)Team New Zealand’s boat with Alinghi in the background. Image: Rick Rowland.
The seventh race in the challenge for the 32nd America’s Cup has been postponed due to unfair and unstable race conditions. This race could have been the last and final race as Alinghi are currently on match point on four wins, while Team New Zealand are only on two wins in the best of nine competition.
At 12.30 a.m. (NZST) there was already speculation gathering that there could be a delay due to the wind being all over the place. The principal race officer also confirmed that there was a very real possibility that there would be a delay.
The delayed flag was flown at 12.55 a.m., five minutes before the yachting race was due to begin. This was due to unstable weather conditions, which could lead to an unfair race.
At 1.20 a.m., 20 minutes after the race was scheduled to start, there had still been no word from the race committee on a possible racing time. The wind speeds were around five knots near the starting line, but the wind direction still wasn’t stable and fair.
The wind speed was starting to get higher into more acceptable conditions with the wind at the start line around seven knots. But the wind direction was still unstable.
At 2.10 a.m., the principal race officer announced that there would be “no more racing today”. Tomorrow is a guaranteed rest day, so the next possible day for racing will be early Wednesday morning (NZST).
During this America’s Cup challenge and other previous ones, discussion has been raised that a new boat design is needed, as to make the race more interesting with faster boats and more takeovers throughout the race.
It was also Grant Dalton’s, managing director of Team New Zealand, 50th birthday.
The Marussia F1 team’s test driver, Spaniard María de Villota, was taken to hospital by air ambulance today after a collision in testing at Duxford Aerodrome.
At the end of her first installation run, the car she was driving had a low-speed collision with the loading ramp of the team’s support truck. According to BBC Cambridgeshire presenter Chris Mann, the car “suddenly accelerated” into the rear of the vehicle. The Marussia team released a statement an hour and a half after the accident, stating that she had been transferred to hospital, and a further statement would be issued once her condition had been assessed.
A spokesman for the East of England ambulance service, Gary Sanderson, said de Villota had “[…] sustained life-threatening injuries and following treatment at the scene by paramedics, she has been taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital for further care.” According to witnesses, she was motionless for about fifteen minutes as medical teams attended to her, but did move her hands before being taken away from the test track. Medical charity Magpas, whose volunteer paramedics attended the accident, reported she had sustained injuries to her head and face, and was in a ‘stable condition’ when she reached the hospital.
Marussia reported her as conscious later in the afternoon: “Since Maria’s arrival at the hospital at approximately 10.45am this morning, she has been receiving the best medical attention possible at the hospital, which is the region’s major trauma centre. Maria is conscious and medical assessments are ongoing. The team will await the outcome of these assessments before providing further comment. The team’s first priority at this time is Maria and her family.”
De Villota was announced as Marussia’s test driver in March, having prior experience driving for Alan Docking Racing in Superleague Formula in Spain.
Wikinews interviews candidate for Cleveland mayor Arthur Kostendt
Arthur Oliver Kostendt, a candidate running in the mayoral election of the US city of Cleveland, Ohio set to take place November 2, discussed his campaign and policies with Wikinews this spring.
According to Cleveland Scene, 29-year-old Kostendt is a member of the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Republican Party but has referred to his campaign as “casual”. According to his web site’s personal biography, he was a cadet for the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), scout platoon leader for the 2nd Squadron of the 107th Cavalry Regiment of the Ohio Army National Guard and logistics officer for the 1st Battalion of the 145th Armored Regiment. He served in Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and assisted coalition force detachments in Southeast Asia.
Kostendt is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and summa cum laude graduate of Cleveland State University. He writes he uses an apostrophe to abbreviate his middle name as “Arthur O’Kostendt” instead of the customary period after the O to emphasise his Irish heritage.
A poll published May 5 by Baldwin Wallace University, which does not feature Mr Kostendt, has Dennis Kucinich and Basheer Jones leading in the mayoral race by 17.8 and 13.3 points, respectively, with a margin of error of up to five per cent either way. 48% of those surveyed were undecided. Incumbent mayor Frank G. Jackson, who won the 2017 Cleveland mayoral election with 59% of the vote, is eligible for a fifth term but announced on May 6 he would retire.
Encyclopædia Britannica fights back against Wikipedia, soon to let users edit contents
This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Title page of the New American edition of the Encylopædia Britannica (1899)
Encyclopædia Britannica (EB), the authoritative reference book first published in 1768, is planning to let readers edit its entries, Jorge Cauz, its president said Friday, as it battles to keep pace with online Internet encyclopedia projects like Wikipedia.
Starting next week, readers, visitors and contributing experts to EB’s free, online version, Britannica.com, will be allowed to submit proposed changes and contributions to Britannica editors, who will then review the edits and make the necessary alterations. This move is meant to let readers help keep the reference work up-to-date by collaboration.
In expanding and maintaining entries online, users whose editorial suggestions are accepted and published entirely or in part will be credited by name in the section of the article that lists contributors.
The new website features will be available on the site within the next twenty-four hours. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, “Cauz is promising a 20-minute turnover on these edits, but that number could go up dramatically if the company cannot anticipate a large influx of edits at once.”
Britannica, however, explained that it would not allow a Wikipedia form of editing which allows a wide range of users to make contributions. EB’s novel user choice will include enrollment of experts in a reward scheme and invitation of selected readers to contribute. Several readers will also be allowed to use Britannica materials to contribute their own articles that will be featured on the site.
“We are not abdicating our responsibility as publishers or burying it under the now-fashionable ‘wisdom of the crowds’,” wrote Jorge Cauz in his blog. “We believe that the creation and documentation of knowledge is a collaborative process but not a democratic one,” Cauz noted, explaining further that “these experts would sit alongside the encyclopaedia entries and the official material would carry a ‘Britannica Checked’ stamp, to distinguish it from the user-generated content.”
Cauz also announced the unveiling by Britannica of a beta (trial) version of what will become the finished Britannica Online website, which will include a re-design and the addition of web-based tools for readers and users to upload their own reference materials. The new features that Britannica will roll out over the next six months also include an article rating system and a comprehensive list of contributors by subject area.
Articles developed by Britannica’s own editors also appear in the printed volumes, which are published every two years, though material created by what Cauz called their “community of scholars” will only appear online.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, with Britannica book of the year 2002, with white library labels.
“Wikipedia contributes to the spread of information and many people are happy with it as their only source of reference, as are many people happy to eat McDonald’s every day,” said Cauz, who discussed differences between Britannica and Wikipedia features of online editing. “That’s the last thing we want to be. We are a different type of animal, catering to a different type of crowd,” he added.
Cauz said the company will retain its staff of about 100 full-time editors and over 4,000 expert contributors. “I think the future is likely going to be that in every media segment there has to be a symbiotic relationship between editor and reader,” said Cauz, adding that each article will have a detailed history showing changes and who made them, as in Wikipedia. In 1933, Britannica became the first encyclopaedia to introduce a “continuous revision” policy, with continuous reprinting such that every article is updated on a regular schedule.
Unlike Wikipedia, which allows anonymous edits through a user’s IP address being logged, Britannica’s new features strictly require contributors or users to register, revealing their real names and addresses, prior to modifying or creating their own articles. Contributions from non-academic users will sit in a separate section.
A new or changed feature called “Suggest Edit” button will allow readers of a particular article to suggest information clarification, post questions to contributors or add to the existing text, subject to Britannica editors’ approval. “What we are trying to do is shifting … to a much more proactive role for the user and reader where the reader is not only going to learn from reading the article but by modifying the article and – importantly – by maybe creating his own content or her own content,” wrote Cauz.
Cauz faulted Google for setting Wikipedia higher in pagerank than Britannica. He explained that, in EB, new efforts to participate in online collaboration of encyclopedic content are deemed by recognizing experts as a requirement in order to achieve objectivity and high quality. During his tenure, officials from Britannica have become outspoken in their criticism of Wikipedia articles’ contents.
Britannica already has an established reputation for accurate content. Wikipedia is merely a starting point, with research to be taken with a pinch of salt.
In July 2006, Cauz personally entered the fray in an interview in New Yorker Magazine, in which he stated that Wikipedia had “decline(d) into a hulking, mediocre mass of uneven, unreliable, and, many times, unreadable articles” and that “Wikipedia is to Britannica as American Idol is to the Juilliard School.”
The 241-year-old publication, Encyclopædia Britannica, is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by a privately held company, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., and is the oldest English-language encyclopaedia still in print. The Britannica articles are directed at educated adult readers. First published between 1768 and 1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland, it quickly grew in popularity and size, with its third edition in 1801 reaching over 21 volumes.
Britannica’s latest 15th edition has a unique three-part structure: a 12-volume Micropædia of short articles (generally having fewer than 750 words), a 17-volume Macropædia of long articles (having from two to 310 pages) and a single Propædia volume created to give a hierarchical outline of human knowledge. The Micropædia is devised for quick fact-checking and as a door to the Macropædia.
At present, Britannica offers optical disc, online and mobile versions. The Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2006 DVD has over 55 million words and just over 100,000 articles, including 73,645 regular Britannica articles. The Encyclopædia Britannica Online website has more than 120,000 articles and is updated regularly. EB’s virtual space was founded in 1994 and contains articles comprised of over 46 million words.
In February 2007, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. said that it was working with AskMeNow to launch a mobile encyclopedia, to enable users to send questions via text messages. Replies would then be forwarded by AskMenow based on Britannicas’ articles.
Screen shot of Encyclopædia Britannica article on the front page of Wikipedia on August 8, 2007 at 3:20 a.m. (eastern time).
As Britannica is a business, the company needed to charge, and Web access to the archives cost $70 a year. In April 2008, “Britannica Webshare,” a version of the online Encyclopaedia Britannica has been available for free, but only for Web publishers. The simple process requires signing up, giving a site URL, a description, and approval by the company. “This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn’t qualify,” said TechCrunch.
In June 2008, Britannica announced an initiative to facilitate collaboration between online expert and amateur scholarly contributors for Britannica’s on-line content (in the spirit of a wiki), with editorial oversight from Britannica staff. According to its statement titled “Britannica’s New Site: More Participation, Collaboration from Experts and Readers,” approved contributions would be credited, though contributing automatically grants Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. perpetual, irrevocable license to those contributions.
PC World has, however, reported that it became clear how steep of a climb Britannica faces. “Wikipedia received a massive 97 percent share of the online encyclopedia market or visits U.S. Web surfers made to online encyclopedias last week,” Web monitoring company Hitwise said Friday. “MSN Encarta was second with 1.27 percent of visits, followed by Encyclopedia.com (0.76 percent), Fact Monster (0.72 percent) and, in fifth place, Britannica.com (0.57 percent). Britannica.com’s share of U.S. visits dropped 53 percent last month compared with December 2007,” Hitwise added.
While Britannica.com has 1.5 million visitors per day, Wikipedia attracts about six million, The Times reported. Hitwise also said that as of last week, Wikipedia ranked the 13th-most-visited site on the Web overall, while Britannica.com was 2,349th. The essential difference is Wikipedia does not charge any fee, while Britannica.com requires a paid subscription for access of some contents. Britannica, however, is issuing a “Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Ultimate Edition” – the £40 2009 DVD edition of its famous print encyclopaedia.
“One of the big questions still on the table is whether Britannica will open its content or maintain its premium membership paid wall. In order to compete with Wikipedia in the Google [search results], Britannica needs to build up inbound links. If content is locked up behind the paid content walls, people will be much more likely to link to other websites with free content — such as that available on Wikipedia,” Hitwise analyst Heather Hopkins noted.
A Picture of Jimmy Donal “Jimbo” Wales (current chairman emeritus of the Wikimedia Foundation) used in the 2008 Fundraiser Campaign
Wikipedia, a not-for-profit collaborative online encyclopedia, in its Wikipedia Foundation’s recent drive for public donations, had aimed to raise $US6 million over the course of six months. On January 1, “it had met the target, from more than 125,000 donors,” said Wikipedia head honcho and co-founder Jimmy Wales. He has invoked Wikipedia’s “free-culture movement”, and its mission “to bring free knowledge to the planet, free of charge and free of advertising”.
“Wikipedia is the new frontier of human knowledge,” wrote Anonymous, donating $US100. American Patrick Culligan left another comment, saying, “Accurate information is what enables society to act in the appropriate way in which we can change the world. History cannot be left for the winners to write.” Another said: “Wikipedia is one of those ‘big ideas’ which will change our world for the better.”
After Encyclopedia Britannica’s announcement that it is introducing a more open editing system, web 2.0 giant Wikipedia has considered attempts to move away from its free and open editing system. Academics, scholars and others have long criticized the writing principles fostered by Wikipedia amid vandals having often changed Wikipedia entries resulting to erroneous reports.
Now, for the first time, the online encyclopedia has considered restricting the edits that users can make. The system known internally as “Flagged Revisions,” has been sparked off by inaccurate changes after a Wikipedia user “Gfdjklsdgiojksdkf” and an anonymous editor respectively edited articles to say that both U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Carlyle Byrd had died. The errors were caught and duly corrected after about five minutes, but they were up long enough for the Washington Post, among other media outlets, to notice.
In just the latest incidents in a long and rich history of vandalism since its 2001 launch, Vernon Kay and Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, among others, have also been falsely reported as dead on Wikipedia. Wiki means “fast” in Hawaiian and it certainly is, even amid subtle vandalism, since anyone can amend its 2.7m entries. Wikipedia has long struggled with such prankery, and has ever since worked closely with its community to overcome it without adopting harsh protections.
We want people to be able to participate, but we have a tool available now that is consistent with higher quality.
As Wikipedia itself acknowledges, “Allowing anyone to edit Wikipedia means that it is more easily vandalized or susceptible to unchecked information, which requires removal.” In the proposed process, only registered or reliable users could have their material or edits immediately appear to the general public visiting Wikipedia. Other contributors’ edits or changes will first be reviewed, signed off, or “flagged” by reliable users.
“This nonsense would have been 100 percent prevented by Flagged Revisions,” said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales under the header “Why I Am Asking Flagged Revisions Be Turned On Now,” on his user page. “[Instances of misinformation] could […] have been prevented by protection or semi-protection, but [..] [many are] breaking news [stories] and we want people to be able to participate (so protection is out) and even to participate in good faith for the first time ever (so semi-protection is out),” explained Wales who calls for monitoring to prevent false entries.
Wales said that a poll revealed 60 percent of Wikipedians favored the new proposal and that it would be a “time limited test.” He noted that the delay should be less than the German Wikipedia allowed: “less than 1 week, hopefully a lot less, because we will only be using it on a subset of articles, the boundaries of which can be adjusted over time to manage the backlog.”
Wales issued a statement requesting implementation of the extension: “To the Wikimedia Foundation: per the poll of the English Wikipedia community and upon my personal recommendation, please turn on the flagged revisions feature as approved in the poll.” But the community response was further debate.
An organization chart for the Wikimedia Foundation as of 11 January 2008.
As of February 2, his request hasn’t been implemented.
Apparently the Wikipedia German edition has been using a form of the Flagged Revisions system since May as a test case. It has, however, led to a delay of up to three weeks in getting some new articles and edits published, for critics have said that the system is very labor intensive and comments can take weeks to appear. Wales, however, pointed out that the system he was proposing was only for biographies of living people. Wikipedia has provided comprehensive and up-to-minute entries on the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007 and the Mumbai terrorist attacks this past November as the events were still taking place.
While some participants in the debate have argued that the rule change is unnecessary, some have described it in terms of an ethical imperative. As one administrator wrote: “In the vast majority of cases, a Wikipedia article on an individual will be the very highest-ranking search engine result when a search is conducted on the name of that person. This affects the lives of the people we write about on a daily basis. To suggest that Wikipedia does not have profound obligations to do its best to keep these articles free of defamatory, gossipy and privacy-invading material is to suggest that we are without obligation to consider the real-world impacts of our actions and the work we are doing.”
Anything that makes Wikipedia more accurate can only be advantageous
Others have argued that practical considerations should prevent a change that could result in a large backlog of unreviewed edits. “Flagged revisions will suffocate under its own weight,” claimed administrator DragonflySixtyseven. Still other Wikipedian editors further argue that the current system works just fine.
Wikimedia Board members (from left) Devouard, Ting Chen, Domas Mituzas, executive secretary, and current Chair Michael Snow on Opening Ceremony in WM 2008, Alexandria
Some consider the split could ultimately threaten the future of the dominant online encyclopedia. “The big issue is that while we have majority support, we don’t have consensus, and that’s the way we have always made our decisions,” Jake Wartenberg user and member of RC patrol chimed in. “A lot of editors are becoming disenchanted with the project; we are losing them all the time,” he added. By way of reply, amidst the embarrassing debacle, Mr. Wales has reached out to help and offered a compromise, inviting the opposition to submit alternative suggestions until the 29th of January.
“Implementing this functionality is really a volunteer community decision. We know the discussion about flagged revs is still taking place on English Wikipedia, but at this stage, it appears the majority of the community are behind this decision. As that discussion unfolds, we’ll have a better sense of the timing,” Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, in a rejoinder, wrote in his e-mail message, explaining the status of the proposed restriction.
“Now seems an excellent time for Wikipedia to pause and take stock. It has proved the surprising wisdom of crowds as well as their utter idiocy. Its challenge now is to harness the enthusiasm of those volunteers while becoming a more reliable, better written source. And at some point, surely, its founders might want to turn it into a commercial venture. As Samuel Johnson almost said: “No one but a blockhead ever edited, excepted for money,” said Iain Hollingshead, a British freelance journalist and novelist.
Map showing existing and planned Wikimedia local chapters through December 2007. Dark blue is existing chapters, Green is Planned chapters, Light blue is Chapters in discussion.
“The suggestion of increased moderation on Wikipedia would divide the community. The site has built its reputation on being ‘the encyclopedia that anyone can edit’. It’s less radical to be ‘the encyclopedia that anyone can edit as long as their edits are approved by a trusted Wikipedian’ but that’s what co-founder Jimmy Wales has suggested. Wikipedia’s openness is its strength,” said Shane Richmond of The Daily Telegraph, asking, “is it most valuable feature its openness or its accuracy?”
Wales’ position is that “I consider our BLP issue to be so important that I think it is actually unethical to not use a tool which holds great promise for helping with the problem, now that it has been successfully tested elsewhere. Anyone who would like to see this tool not go into practice needs to start by convincing people that either (a) it is OK for the BLP vandalism problem to continue or (b) there is a better way to solve it.”
Authorities recover lost radioactive capsule in Western Australia
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Saturday, February 4, 2023
At 11am on Wednesday, Authorities found a lost 8-millimetres high by 6-millimetres round capsule, containing harmful radioactive substance 19-gigabecquerel caesium-137, two meters near the Great Northern Highway, 74 km south of Newman, Western Australia (WA). Authorities verified serial number of the capsule, and then placed it in a lead container and stored it in Newman securely overnight before transporting to a WA Health facility in the state capital Perth on the next day.
The capsule was part of a gauge used to measure the density of iron ore at Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine, located in Pilbara, WA. Such device is commonly used in mining. Repair was required, and was the reason why the device needed to be transported from the iron ore to Perth. The device had been packaged on January 10, and the truck departed the iron ore on January 12. The truck arrived on January 15. Recipient reportedly unpacked the delivery on January 25, and, finding the gauge screws and one mounting bolt missing, and the gauge missing, reported the loss of the gauge to authorities. Search operations commenced on that day. Authorities declared a public health emergency on January 27. A Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) vehicle vehicle equipped with a radioactivity detection camera arrived on the evening of Monday January 30.
The radioactivity detection camera was modified version of CORIS360 from Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). It was on the ARPANSA vehicle moving at the speed 50 km/h. The camera made fast and high resolution 360-degree images of surroundings, identifying regions with higher values of radioactivity. ANSTO had launched the device in 2020. The relevant experts from ANSTO’s site in Lucas Heights, New South Wales traveled to Western Australia to conduct the search operation, arriving Monday evening on January 30.
Emergency Services Minister of Western Australia, Stephen Dawson, remarked on the need to re-evaluate the procedures involved, saying “How these things are transported needs to be re-looked at, I mean it does puzzle me how such a thing can fall off the back of a truck.”
Associate Professor Nigel Marks from School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Curtin University remarked on unsuitable packaging for the transport. He said, “A wooden palette is not meant for radioactive confinement. Nor is the back of a truck. It’s a small object, roughly the size of a pebble, and hence could bounce anywhere.”
Authorities have attributed the loss to ‘vibrations’ during the truck drive, leading to the capsule detaching from the gauge and subsequently falling through a hole in the container, where a mounting bolt was also missing. Investigations were ongoing to assess whether the required procedures for transport of radioactive substances were followed when packing the gauge and the container, as failure to follow the required procedures may lead to prosecution. Authorities suggested increasing the relevant penalties, which included a maximum fine of AU$1,000 at that time.
Prior to the arrival of the advanced imaging equipment, the search teams were equipped with handheld devices for radiation detection and metal detection and needed to conduct the search on foot. Furthermore, public had been advised to check their car tyres in case their vehicle picked up the capsule while driving on a part of the route.
Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine had hired a Centurion truck, and SGS Australia contractor for packing and unpacking of the capsule, to deliver it from Rio Tinto’s Gudai-Darri iron ore mine to a depot in Malaga, a suburb 11 km north of Perth.
Authorities were intending to investigate the roles of the trucking and packing contractors, of the gauge manufacturer, and of the Rio Tinto iron ore for the incident. Government would also need to bill the costs of the search operations to one or more of the parties responsible for the incident.
The Rio Tinto iron ore chief executive Simon Trott remarked the company would be willing to reimburse the search operations costs if requested by the government, saying “There will be a full investigation, we’ll fully cooperate with the investigation, if as part of that there’s a request from government, we would be happy to reimburse the cost of the search. We need to learn from this so we can put in place additional controls to ensure that this never happens again.”
Such a radioactive capsule, if in contact with the body for several hours, could lead to skin injuries and amputations, depending on the radioactive substance and its quantity and duration of exposure, ABC (Australia) reported.
France’s state-owned railway operator, SNCF, said the four main TGV lines serving Paris were sabotaged in what appeared to coordinated pre-dawn attacks. The acts of sabotage included a very large fire, said SNCF. TGV service faced extensive delays on Wednesday, which was exacerbated by the ongoing November 2007 strikes in France. SNCF says that 23% of its workers remain on strike.
“These actions are the work of hardliners and show total irresponsibility,” said the SNCF, blaming militant strikers. Several smaller fires were started by stuffing a burning rag into cable storage boxes, disrupting the rail signals and forcing authorities to reroute service. The large fire damaged some 30 km (18.6 miles) of cable along the TGV Atlantic line.
Union leaders immediately distanced themselves from the sabotage and said the acts were “committed by cowards.” Bernard Thibault, head of the Confédération générale du travail (CGT), said it was possible the acts were committed to discredit the unions.
According to Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau, who was speaking to France 2, said that President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered an investigation with the aim to punish the culprits “with the utmost severity.”
Prime Minister François Fillon said, “Those responsible for these acts of sabotage no doubt believed they could interrupt the negotiations and the return to work that is under way at the SNCF,” in a speech to the Parliament of France. “Well, I’m telling them they are very much mistaken,” he continued.
Those responsible … no doubt believed they could interrupt the negotiations … Well, I’m telling them they are very much mistaken
Negotiations with the unions began at 3:00 p.m. CET (UTC+1) on Wednesday. “There have been a number of advances, of announcements,” said Didier Le Reste, who heads up CGT’s rail division. “I trust railway workers to take decisions that are appropriate.”
President Sarkozy said that while he will not back down on the issue of early retirements, he is willing to make other concessions to the unions. He also encouraged workers to return to work as negotiations have begun. “Everyone must ask whether it is right to continue a strike which has already cost users—and strikers—so dear,” he said.
Meanwhile, teachers and other civil servants, who yesterday started a 24-hour work stoppage in their own protests against government reforms, returned to work. University students, however, continued disruptions in a protest against education reform. New today, was a street demonstration by tobacco shop owners, who are protesting a proposed smoking-ban in bars.
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