Wednesday, March 9, 2005File:Plastic bag stock sized.jpg
They are cheap, useful, and very plentiful, and that is exactly the problem, according to researchers. A report issued on Feb. 23 by a cadre of environment and economics researchers suggested that Kenya should ban the common plastic bag that one gets at the checkout counter of grocery stores, and place a levy on other plastic bags, all to combat the country’s environmental problems stemming from the bags’ popularity.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Also try the 2008 World News Quiz of the year.
What would you tell your grandchildren about 2008 if they asked you about it in, let’s say, 20 years’ time? If the answer to a quiz question was 2008, what would the question be? The year that markets collapsed, or perhaps the year that Obama became US president? Or the year Heath Ledger died?
Let’s take a look at some of the important stories of 2008. Links to the original Wikinews articles are in all the titles.
Friday, October 12, 2007
I had an unofficial phone call from Gay Talese last Tuesday. He had just flown back from Colombia and he was cranky. “I’m happy to do an interview with you,” he said, “but what the hell could you ask me that’s not already out there? Have you even bothered to look?!”
“Jeez, Mr. Talese, lots of things,” was my response. I lied. The truth is that when I call people to interview them, I do not have a set of preconceived questions. My agenda is to talk to them and gain a sense of who they are; to flesh them out as humans. To find out what they think about the world around them at that moment. With Gay Talese I had little interest in talking about Frank Sinatra Has a Cold and with Augusten Burroughs I had little interest in discussing Running with Scissors. I want to know what they think about things outside of the boxes people have placed them in.
With a memoirist like Burroughs, even this is a challenge. What parts of his life he has not written about himself, other interviewers have strip-mined. When we met for dinner at Lavagna in the East Village, I explained to Augusten this issue. I suggested we make the interview more of a conversation to see if that would be more interesting. “Instead of you in the catbird seat,” I said, “let’s just talk.”
We struck an instant rapport. What set out to be an hour and half interview over dinner had turned into four hours of discussion about our lives similarly lived. I removed half of the interview: the half that focused on me.
Below is Wikinews reporter David Shankbone’s conversation with writer Augusten Burroughs.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The 10.10 version of Ubuntu (codename Maverick Merkaat), a free operative system is to be released in the next few days. French Wikinews contributor Savant-fou (Baptiste) has interviewed Fabrice (fabrice_sp on Ubuntu), an Ubuntu’s MOTU (Master Of The Universe), member of the development team of the operative system.
Ubuntu is a computer operating system, based on Debian, which is created collaboratively by thousands of people. There are three official Ubuntu versions: Ubuntu Desktop Edition (for desktop and laptop PCs); Ubuntu Netbook Edition (for netbooks); and Ubuntu Server Edition (for use in servers).
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Calgary city council voted 10 to 3 on Wednesday to stop fluoridating their water supply. This overturns a previous plebiscite from 1989 to add the fluoride in an attempt to reduce tooth decay.
Opponents of water fluoridation claim that there could be unknown health effects of fluoride, and question its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay. They also claim that individuals should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to use fluoride. However, Alberta Health Services maintains that current evidence shows that fluoride is both safe, and beneficial to dental health.
It is estimated that no longer fluoridating the water supply could save Calgary’s city council C$750 thousand (€550 thousand) annually, as well as cutting a C$6 million (€4.3 million) upgrade to the fluoridation system.
Get More Information Here:
byphineasgray
The pool at your hotel is probably one of your property’s biggest selling points when it comes to attracting visitors and tourists. With this in mind, it is important that your pool area is optimized to satisfy the needs of all your visitors. One of the many ways that you can do this is by having hotel pool furniture like cabanas in your pool area.
Let’s take a look at four of the main benefits of having cabanas in your hotel’s pool area:
Adds to the Entertainment Factor
More than likely, the goal of your visitors when they stay at your hotel is to enjoy themselves and relax. Cabanas can serve as an extended entertainment area where your small groups of your guests can gather and have fun together.
Place to Escape the Sunlight
If you have ever spent too much time in the sun, you are well aware of the fact that it can really drain your energy. Having a cabana as part of your hotel pool furniture allows your guests to escape the sun every once in awhile without leaving the pool area altogether.
Creates a VIP Atmosphere
Possibly the most intriguing reason to have cabanas in your hotel’s pool area is because of their ability to create a VIP atmosphere for your guests. Many people attribute cabanas with luxury and you can significantly add to the style and overall perception of your pool area when you have several cabanas for visitors to lay out on.
Several Different Types
Another benefit of cabanas is that there are several different types to choose from. You can choose to have a large one for a particular side of your pool and smaller ones in certain areas on the other side. This once again adds to the intrigue for small or large groups to congregate with each other and have a great time together.
The Final Word
At the end of the day, cabanas have the ability to significantly enhance the overall experience that your guests receive when utilizing your hotel’s pool area. They also make it much more likely that people will stay on your property and hopefully purchase from your bar and restaurant instead of going elsewhere. Sunbrite Outdoor Furniture has several different types of pool-side cabanas that you would be wise to take a look at. Find more details.
Friday, August 24, 2007
George Hotz, 17, confirmed on Friday that he has cracked the lock that joins the Apple iPhone to AT&T‘s wireless network and was using it on T-Mobile‘s network—the only other major U.S. carrier compatible with iPhone technology. This crack opens up the phone, which is only being sold in the U.S., to use on overseas networks. “That’s the big thing,” said Hotz.
Hotz posted the complicated hack, which requires skill with both soldering and software and takes about two hours to perform, to his blog Thursday. He collaborated over the Internet with four other people, including two Russians, to develop the unlocking process that leaves all iPhone functions intact, with the exception of the “visual voicemail” feature.
With the hack available to the public, there is the possibility that some will buy U.S. iPhones, unlock them and send them overseas for profit. “That’s exactly […] what I don’t want,” Hotz said. “I don’t want people making money off this.”
Hotz said he wished he could have made the instructions so that users could modify the phones themselves. “But that’s the simplest I could make them.”
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the company has “no comment” and referred questions to Apple.
A second phone, which was also hacked by Hotz, was placed for sale on eBay. He states at the auction site “Soon, you will be able to buy unlocked iPhones everywhere, in fact probably before this auction ends. But this is the one that started it all. The one unlocked while the steps were posted live on the blog. This isn’t just an unlocked iPhone, this is a piece of history.” Starting at $540, bids reached $99,999,999, although many bids were canceled as fraudulent. Before their removal, Hotz commented on the excessive bids, stating “I’m sure these most recent bids are fake.” The auction was canceled early by Hotz due to “an error in the listing”.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
A car bomb attack this morning, which targeted a NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) convoy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, has killed or wounded dozens of people. The death toll was not confirmed, and estimates range from ten to twenty deaths. 47 people were injured in the attack.
The incident occurred at the Darulaman crossroads, near a US-Afghan military base and the parliament. Six NATO troops died in the attack alongside several civilians. The NATO said they had sealed off the region. The bomber had been driving a car filled with explosives, which they detonated at around 0815 local time [0415 GMT].
Iain Baxter, a spokesman for Isaf (International Security Assistance Force), stated: “An Isaf convoy was hit. At the moment we’re trying to confirm the number of Isaf casualties.” He could not confirm the number of Isaf personnel killed in the attack.
Zemarai Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesperson, confirmed the attack, noting that “[t]here are a number of casualties, civilians killed and wounded.” The death toll is unclear, and we’re checking all the hospitals,” he added.
Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, said it was a “heartbreaking” attack. “We are condemning the attack in the strongest terms. I hope Afghanistan will soon get out of this suffering, God willing,” he commented on national television.
General Ahmad Zia Yaftali, the chief military doctor of the Afghan army, claimed twenty people had been killed. “We have five bodies brought to our hospital so far […] the number of the dead is more than 20,” Yaftali told Agence France-Presse news agency.
Later, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying a resident of Kabul, Nizamuddin, had been sent to “destroy five foreign vehicles and damage one more.” “Today’s attack was part of the Al Fatah operation and we will continue attacking foreigners and government security forces and their associates,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesperson said. The latter had 1,500 pounds of explosives in his Toyota van. NATO officials said five US military convoys were destroyed along with a further thirteen public vehicles. One of the vehicles to be destroyed was a bus filled with people.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
It can be difficult to be John Reed.
Christopher Hitchens called him a “Bin Ladenist” and Cathy Young editorialized in The Boston Globe that he “blames the victims of terrorism” when he puts out a novel like Snowball’s Chance, a biting send-up of George Orwell‘s Animal Farm which he was inspired to write after the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The clear references to 9/11 in the apocalyptic ending can only bring Orwell’s name into disrepute in the U.S.,” wrote William Hamilton, the British literary executor of the Orwell estate. That process had already begun: it was revealed Orwell gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being “crypto-Communists and fellow travelers,” labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals. “I really wanted to explode that book,” Reed told The New York Times. “I wanted to completely undermine it.”
Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon taught to children in schools a menace, or a messiah? David Shankbone went to interview him for Wikinews and found that, as often is the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Reed is electrified by the changes that surround him that channel through a lens of inspiration wrought by his children. “The kids have made me a better writer,” Reed said. In his new untitled work, which he calls a “new play by William Shakespeare,” he takes lines from The Bard‘s classics to form an original tragedy. He began it in 2003, but only with the birth of his children could he finish it. “I didn’t understand the characters who had children. I didn’t really understand them. And once I had had kids, I could approach them differently.”
Taking the old to make it new is a theme in his work and in his world view. Reed foresees new narrative forms being born, Biblical epics that will be played out across print and electronic mediums. He is pulled forward by revolutions of the past, a search for a spiritual sensibility, and a desire to locate himself in the process.
Below is David Shankbone’s conversation with novelist John Reed.
