FEMA employees pose as fake reporters during press conference
Correction — September 10, 2013 The headline should not contain the word fake: the employees posed as reporters; they didn’t pose as fake reporters, on the contrary they were fake reporters posing as real reporters. We aopologize for the error. Friday, October 26, 2007 The United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is under fire after the agency held a fake press conference with fake news reporters in regards to individuals affected by the California wildfires and the assistance they could receive. The agency called a press conference on Tuesday, giving the press only 15 minutes to show up. When many did not, FEMA brought in agency officials to pose as fake reporters and ask questions. The option for reporters to call into the conference was also available, but the ones who did call in only got to listen to the press conference, and could not ask questions. No reporters were…
Biologist Nick Bos tells Wikinews about ‘self-medicating’ ants
Tuesday, September 1, 2015 Nick Bos, of the University of Helsinki, studies “the amazing adaptations social insects have evolved in order to fight the extreme parasite pressure they experience”. In a recently-accepted Evolution paper Bos and colleagues describe ants appearing to self-medicate. I have no doubt that as time goes on, there will be more and more cases documented The team used Formica fusca, an ant species that can form thousand-strong colonies. This common black ant eats other insects, and also aphid honeydew. It often nests in tree stumps or under rocks and foraging workers can sometimes be spotted climbing trees. Some ants were infected with Beauveria bassiana, a fungus. Infected ants chose food laced with toxic hydrogen peroxide, whereas healthy ants avoided it. Hydrogen peroxide reduced infected ant fatalities by 15%, and the ants varied their intake depending upon how high the peroxide concentration was. In the wild, Formica…
Calls for corporate tax reform in Australia goes unheeded
Friday, May 12, 2006 Peter Costello’s budget announcement has led to rejoicing for small businesses, but the lack of joy for those pushing for radical corporate taxation reform has led to many businesses asking “what about us?” Personal taxation and small business have been the big winners after this year’s federal budget. Although dampened by the twin economic threats of rising interest rates and petrol prices, there should be a reasonable amount of real income savings for both low and high income earners, with those receiving Medicare, or a superannuation benefit, privy to an even lower level of taxation (0% for those on super benefits). Small business also has benefited from the Howard government’s 11th annual budget, with them receiving a higher level of reducing depreciation, leading to a higher level of deductions in the years following the uptake of new technology or other capital. They are also privy to…
Wikinews interviews Ubuntu developer Fabrice
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).
Two fallen Canadian soldiers return home from Afghanistan
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 The bodies of two Canadian soldiers killed by a suicide bomber in Kandahar, Afghanistan were brought back to Canada. Both were from CFB Petawawa located in Petawawa, Ontario. Their vehicle has intercepted on a road by a suicide bomber. A helicopter came helping all injured and possibly dead soldiers into it where they received medical attention somewhere safe. This time, their vehicle was blown up by a man’s car when he drived into them and detonated his car. Two Canadians were killed, the rest were injured. Canadian, U.S., Dutch, and British soldiers stood at Kandhar Airfield Thursday to farewell Cpl. Albert Storm and Officer Robert Girouard. A piper played Amazing Grace as the Canadian flag-covered coffins were carried onto the C-130 Hercules aircraft for their flight home. “It’s very hard for me to do it but I know my colleague, my friend and soldier, is going…
Latest trial of the One Laptop Per Child running in India; Uruguay orders 100,000 machines
Thursday, November 8, 2007 India is the latest of the countries where the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) experiment has started. Children from the village of Khairat were given the opportunity to learn how to use the XO laptop. During the last year XO was distributed to children from Arahuay in Peru, Ban Samkha in Thailand, Cardal in Uruguay and Galadima in Nigeria. The OLPC team are, in their reports on the startup of the trials, delighted with how the laptop has improved access to information and ability to carry out educational activities. Thailand’s The Nation has praised the project, describing the children as “enthusiastic” and keen to attend school with their laptops. Recent good news for the project sees Uruguay having ordered 100,000 of the machines which are to be given to children aged six to twelve. Should all go according to plan a further 300,000 machines will be…
Cisco sues Apple for iPhone trademark
Friday, January 12, 2007 The iPhone only made its appearance as a prototype and there have been controversies aroused. The dispute has come up between the manufacturer of the iPhone (which was resented on Wednesday for the first time) – Apple Inc. – and a leader in network and communication systems, based in San Jose – Cisco. The company claims to possess the trademark for iPhone, and moreover, that it sells devices under the same brand through one of its divisions. This became the reason for Cisco to file a lawsuit against Apple Inc. so that the latter would stop selling the device. Cisco states that it has received the trademark in 2000, when the company overtook Infogear Technology Corp., which took place in 1996. The Vice President and general counsel of the company, Mark Chandler, explained that there was no doubt about the excitement of the new device from…
News briefs:January 11, 2008
Contents 1 Wikinews News Brief 01-11-2008 01:20 UTC 2 Introduction 3 Events of worldwide notability, military action, disasters etc. 3.1 At least 24 killed in suicide bombing in Pakistan 3.2 Alabama father throws children in river 3.3 British troops may have received contaminated blood from American donors 3.4 George Bush arrives in Middle East 3.5 Pentagon releases video of incident involving Iranian ships in Persian Gulf 3.6 China has plan to obtain North Korea’s nuclear weapons 3.7 Hezbollah network Al-Manar available to wider international audience 4 Non-disastrous local events with notable impact and dead celebrities 4.1 Moderate earthquake strikes off the Oregon coast, US 4.2 Hollywood “Mayor” Johnny Grant dead at 84 4.3 China bans free plastic bags 4.4 John McCain and Hillary Clinton win New Hampshire primaries 4.5 Canupa Gluha Mani speaks about Lakota Oyate, Lakota freedom 5 Business, commerce and academia 5.1 Singapore Airlines bid for China Eastern…
Web.com announces second quarter results
Friday, August 18, 2006 Web.com, a web-hosting and online services company, has released its second quarter financial results and associated statements – and it’s clear that the company has experienced both the ups and downs of executing on its goals. On the upside, the company achieved an industry-first achievement of securing a non-exclusive license agreement with Hostopia.com Inc. last month. The agreement granted Hostopia rights to two of Web.com’s patents over five years on a non-transferable basis. The specific licensed patents were U.S. Patent numbers 5,680,152 and 6,789,103 and broadly cover methods for website building and web hosting control panels. Importantly for revenues, the license agreement states that Hostopia will pay Web.com a royalty equal to 10% of their gross U.S. retail revenues for five years. On the downside, the company failed to deliver on the expected and announced acquisition of Houston-based WebSource Media – a business offering “easy and…
Volkswagen engulfed by diesel emissions scandal
Tuesday, September 22, 2015 Chief Executive of Volkswagen Martin Winterkorn issued on Sunday a public apology and announced an outside inquiry would be carried out, after the company became engulfed in a scandal about diesel emissions tests. Over the weekend there were damaging revelations that the car manufacturer has been using illegal software to enable diesel cars to cheat on mandatory emissions tests. An investigation into alleged breaches of environmental law was originally initiated on the advice of the International Council on Clean Transportation, a European NGO. The United States Environmental Protection Agency requested tests be carried out by West Virginia University, where the secret software was discovered. Volkswagen has suffered a significant drop of almost a fifth in the value of its shares. There have been knock-on effects for other car manufacturers who have also seen their share values fall after suggestions that the scandal could extend much further…