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Sunday, February 20, 2005

Feel free to use the Wikimedia sites to solve our Wikinews crossword. Please do not fill it out online as it would spoil it for other people; print it out and fill it in at your own leisure!

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Monday, December 3, 2007

At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday. The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader’s work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause. Opinion was divided. “He’s an opportunist.” “He only stirs things up.” “Why do I always see his face when there’s a problem?”

Shankbone went to the National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion to inform the conversation. Below is his interview with Al Sharpton on everything from Tawana Brawley, his purported feud with Barack Obama, criticism by influential African Americans such as Clarence Page, his experience running for President, to how he never expected he would see fifty (he is now 53). “People would say to me, ‘Now that I hear you, even if I disagree with you I don’t think you’re as bad as I thought,'” said Sharpton. “I would say, ‘Let me ask you a question: what was “bad as you thought”?’ And they couldn’t say. They don’t know why they think you’re bad, they just know you’re supposed to be bad because the right wing tells them you’re bad.”

Friday, January 26, 2007

A partially-mummified baby was found Monday, January 22, 2007, in a Delray Beach, Florida, self-storage unit.

A woman was emptying her deceased parents’ storage unit when she found a suitcase containing an object wrapped in newspapers. Within that suitcase was another suitcase containing the tightly-wrapped baby. When she recognized the object as a fetus, the woman contacted authorities.

The woman, who has yet to be identified, traveled from New Jersey to clear out the storage unit when she was informed the contents were to be sold at an auction.

According to police, her father died in 2002 or 2003 and her mother died last year in her 70’s.

The newspapers used to wrap the child were from the January 9, 1957 edition of the Daily News, apparently from the New York area.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Today, the satellite radio providers XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio submitted a joint application to transfer control of their ground and space-based transmitters to the new, merged company. This is a major step for the XM/Sirius merger deal, as FCC approval represents a major hurdle for the merger. This document also answers some questions that have plagued subscribers of both services.

While there is not much information for the casual listener, two of the most frequently asked questions have been addressed, at least in part:

Pricing has been clarified, to some exeent. From the FCC filing: “After the merger, customers may elect to receive fewer channels at a monthly price lower than $12.95;substantially similar programming at the existing $12.95 price; or more channels, including someof the ‘best of both’ networks, at a modest premium to the cost of one service, and considerablyless than the cost of subscribing to both services.” The document goes on to explain that channel blocking will be available, and that credit will be given for blocked channels.

The filing also addresses the potential need for new receivers. “Subscribers could continue to use their existing radios or eventually purchase new radios capable of receiving all of the content of both services when they become available.” Apparently, some programming will be available on both networks, but this will be limited. To get the full range of programming, subscribers will need new equipment.

Another major stumbling block for the merger deal is the potential for monopoly. To counter the arguments that the merged company will become a monopoly, the document goes on to describe the nature of satellite radio’s competition: HD radio, Internet radio, AM and FM radio, portable media players, mobile phones, and even CD players. “It is clear that all of the above providers view themselves as being in direct competitionwith each other,” the document alleges, and then goes on to quote statements by the National Association of Broadcasters in support of this assertion. “local radio stations compete for listeners with other forms of audio delivery offering an almost unlimited array of content. IPods and other MP3 players, music [subscription] services, podcasting and the Internet streaming of U.S. and foreign radio stations literally provide content from around the world to listeners in each local radio market in America.”

As this is only the first step in the FCC process, and the FCC is only one of three major steps in the merger process, the deal is far from over. However, convincing the FCC that the merger should happen will remove a major barrier in the companies’ efforts.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Lunar Jim, the star of an stop-motion animated series for preschooler, will be touring Canadian malls this fall. Produced by Alliance Atlantis, the tour will run from September 9 to October 14.

The tour will feature part of Jim’s lunar village, an inflated replica of his home on Moona Luna. Also at the events will be a colouring activity, an area to play with the recently launched Fisher-Price toys, and have their photo taken with a costumed character version of Jim, and cut-out characters of the rest of the cast.

The tour coincides with the launch of Lunar Jim toys by this month. Canadians can watch the series on CBC and Société Radio-Canada (SRC), the French version of CBC.

• Coquitlam Centre (Coquitlam, British Columbia): September 9 – 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Landsdowne Centre (Richmond, British Columbia): September 10 – 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Southcentre (Calgary, Alberta): September 16 – 9 a.m. – 8 p.m.
• West Edmonton Mall (Edmonton, Alberta): September 17 – 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Polo Park Shopping Centre (Winnipeg, Manitoba): September 23 – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Northgate Shopping Centre (Winnipeg, Manitoba): September 24 – 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
• Square One (Mississauga, Ontario): September 30 – 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Upper Canada Mall (Newmarket, Ontario): October 1 – 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Centre Mall (Hamilton, Ontario): October 7 – 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
• Masonville Mall (London, Ontario): October 8 – 12 p.m. – 5 p.m.
• Mic Mac Mall (Halifax, Nova Scotia): October 14 – 9:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Friday, September 27, 2013

On Tuesday the World Bank released the 2012 World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development. For Fiji, the report focused on progress being made in the country as it relates to gender roles and the local impact of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Girls from Fiji believe they can attain a university education. In contrast, boys from rural areas in Fiji generally do not believe they will stay in school past the primary level. The report attributes this to the need for boys to contribute to the family income. This pushes them out of school and into the workforce.

It also says girls have less free time than boys. Girls have specific household chores that limit their free time. Boys, in contrast, have fewer structured household tasks, and the tasks they do have require less time. Boys also have greater ability to leave the house than girls. The report says these differences play a role in defining gender roles. This can lead boys into engaging in bad behavior and increase their exposure to drugs and alcohol. The report says this pattern exists elsewhere in countries like Yemen, Sudan, Bhutan, India, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Dominican Republic, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Liberia, and Papua New Guinea. The report quotes a Fijian boy as saying, “Boys, they take their bikes and scoot off and roam around in villages here and there”.

Fijian girls are beginning to challenge these traditional cultural gender norms. While they acknowledge and admire the hard work their mothers have done in the domestic sphere, they seek better education and opportunities.

While the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1979, Fiji did not ratify it until August 1995. They were the 139th country to do so. At first, Fiji objected for cultural reasons to one part of CEDAW, and said Constitutional sections containing different rules for men and women on their ability to marry foreigners was incompatible with another part.

These objections were eventually dropped and constitutional changes were made between 1997 and 1999. CEDAW helped bring about family law reform in 1995. A civil uprising in 2000 stalled some iniatives, but the 2002 CEDAW review assisted in reviving efforts. In 2009, the minimum age allowed for both men and women to marry was raised to 18 years.

Since the introduction of CEDAW, reforms have been made that allowed for more equal partners, make divorces easier to get, make it harder for women to be excluded from the home, and improve the amount, and enforced the payment, of spousal support and following a divorce. The report notes that a 2010 review of CEDAW said there is still room for improvement in terms of inheritance rights for women.

Fiji has a population of 854,000, with an annual average percentage population growth of 0.6%. 31% of the population is aged 0 to 14. The average life expectancy for men is 67 years and for women is 71 years.

Friday, March 9, 2012

On Super Tuesday, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, known more commonly as ‘Joe the Plumber’, won the U.S. Republican Party primary for Ohio’s 9th congressional district, which represents Toledo. He defeated real estate agent Steve Kraus, 51 percent to 48 percent, and will now face incumbent Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur, who has held the seat since 1983.

Wurzelbacher received notice during the 2008 presidential election, when he asked a question about taxes to future president Barack Obama. Obama, who at the time was the Democratic Party presidential nominee, famously responded, “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” After this, Republican presidential nominee John McCain used Wurzelbacher as a representation of the average American worker, and attacked Obama’s response as socialist.

Following the exchange, students from the University of Massachusetts tried to draft Wurzelbacher to run against Kaptur in the 2010 congressional race, calling on him to “Plunge the crap out of Washington.” He initially expressed interest, but at that time did not run. In 2011, though, he announced his candidacy for 2012.

In the Republican primary, Wurzelbacher out-raised his opponent $60,000 to $10,000 and benefited from the endorsement of former 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain. Wurzelbacher said of partisanship, “Democrat, Republican…it’s something that the media uses to try to divide us as Americans…I’m not working for the Republican Party or Republicans, I’m working for the American people, and that includes all of us.”

In the Democratic primary, Kaptur defeated Representative Dennis Kucinich, who challenged her after his district was redrawn. Kaptur argues that Wurzelbacher is “going to have his own issues dealing with the electorate as he moves forward…I think the nature of the District is quite different than his value set.”

Wurzelbacher concedes that he lives in a largely Democratic and pro-Union community, but says the people are “all really good friends of mine…we agree on a lot of things, and ultimately what it comes down to [is] we want jobs, we want security, we want stability.”