Sunday, December 25, 2005

Preliminary results from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), released 15 December 2005 by the US National Center for Education Statistics, indicate gains and losses in literacy among minority adults between 1992 and 2003.

The nationally representative study among US adults age 16 and older found the over-all average prose and document literacy remained relatively unchanged, but quantitative literacy improved 8 points (on a scale of 500.) Results among minorities were mixed, with White and Asian/Pacific Islander minorities scoring significantly higher than Hispanic or Black ethnicities; Hispanic subjects in particular had sharp decreases in prose and document literacy (-9% and -8%, respectively) and quantitative illiteracy remained unchanged with 50% of subjects scoring at less than basic literacy levels.

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy is the most comprehensive measure of adult literacy in the USA. The 2003 NAAL, with 19 000 participants, was conducted by the Educational Testing Service, a non-governmental organization which charges for its services.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

A woman in The Netherlands who uses her dogs to hunt in Austria has decided to give her dogs a new kind of treat: beer.

Terrie Berenden, a woman who owns a pet shop in Amsterdam, created a non-alcoholic beer for her dogs which is made from malt and a beef extract. The beer is called Kwispelbier (‘kwispelen’ means “wagging of a [dog’s] tail” in Dutch), and was put onto shelves just last week.

“Once a year we go to Austria to hunt with our dogs, and at the end of the day we sit on the verandah and drink a beer. So we thought, my dog also has earned it,” said Berenden.

According to Berenden, owners can enjoy the new beer as well, but she also stated that it will cost owners about four times as much to drink the beer than to buy a ‘human beer.’ A bottle of the dog beer sells at about $2.14.

The slogan for the new dog beer is “a beer for your best friend” and Brenden hopes that the product will grab international attention. Requests for the beer are already coming from the United States, England and Japan.

“We are overwhelmed with it. From America, England and Japan we have (received) mail and we are just going to think about it, how we can bring it on the market there,” said Brenden.

Tuesday, February 1, 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 you own leisure!)

If you like, you can follow the instructions on Crosswords/Across Lite to download and solve today’s crossword on your computer.

Today’s crossword in Across Lite TEXT format (warning – contains answers!).

< Yesterday’s crossword.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

United States President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that he is nominating Ben Bernanke for a second term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States.

Obama made the announcement during a brief break from his vacation at Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.

“The man next to me, Ben Bernanke, has led the Fed through one of the worst financial crises that this nation and the world has ever faced. As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I’m sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another. But because of his background, his temperament, his courage, and his creativity, that’s exactly what he has helped to achieve. And that is why I am re-appointing him to another term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve,” the President said.

“Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom; with bold action and outside-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic freefall,” Obama added.

“We have been bold or deliberate as circumstances demanded, but our objective remains constant: to restore a more stable economic and financial environment in which opportunity can again flourish, and in which Americans’ hard work and creativity can receive their proper rewards,” Ben Bernanke said while accepting the nomination.

Ben Bernanke, who succeeded Alan Greenspan on February 1, 2006, will now face a Senate confirmation hearing.

“There will be a thorough and comprehensive confirmation hearing,” said Senator Christopher Dodd, who is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee. “I expect many serious questions will be raised about the role of the Federal Reserve moving forward and what authorities it should and should not have.”

“I am extremely pleased to learn that Ben Bernanke has been nominated for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve,” read a statement by Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank. “We have had an excellent and very close working relationship during the current episode of exceptional challenges for the world economy. The Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have, together with other central banks, initiated an unprecedented level of close cooperation, which has been key in coping with the present situation.”

Monday, March 3, 2008

The website wikileaks.org has recently been brought back online following the lifting of a court injunction forcing the site to be taken down. A representative of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which supported Wikileaks, has told Wikinews their opinion of the court injunction. They have claimed that the lifting of the injunction was a “victory for the first amendment.”

The representative stated that the ACLU hopes this injunction acts as an example to other judges who take part in similar cases. This opinion was shown when the representative said that the lifting of the injunction will “hopefully help show other courts that injunctions against speech, including speech on the Internet, are not appropriate.”

The permanent injunction was granted in the California Northern District Court in San Francisco, California to Bank Julius Baer, a Swiss bank, which has caused the domain to be taken off line in the U.S..Wikileaks previously published several documents obtained from a whistleblower of the Swiss Bank, “purportedly showing offshore tax evasion and money laundering by extremely wealthy and in some cases, politically sensitive, clients from the United States, Europe, China and Peru.”

“Blocking access to the entire site in response to a few documents posted there completely disregards the public’s right to know,” said Ann Brick a lawyer for the ACLU, in a statement made before the injunction was lifted. At least 18 other organizations have signed documents in defense of Wikileaks. Those documents have been forged into a joint amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief; which will be submitted to the court and used as defense evidence in a hearing scheduled for Friday February 29.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The following is the third edition of a monthly series chronicling the U.S. 2016 presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

In this month’s edition on the campaign trail: two individuals previously interviewed by Wikinews announce their candidacies for the Reform Party presidential nomination; a former Republican Congressman comments on the Republican National Convention; and Wikinews interviews an historic Democratic National Convention speaker.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

On November 1, 2006 the old five, ten, twenty and fifty cent coins will be illegal tender, but the Reserve Bank of New Zealand says there are still at least 100 million still to be returned.

According to the Reserve Bank, most of the old coins have been lost in drains or buried in rubbish. “We think there is still another 100 million sitting around in people’s homes,” Brian Lang, currency manger for the Reserve Bank, said.

Lang said: “So far, just over 280 million coins have been returned, but there are more out there. Since 1967 the Reserve Bank has issued more than a billion of the old ‘silver’ coins. So if you don’t want to be stuck with loads of old coin – there’s never been a better time to empty your coin jars, sweep the car glove box and rummage behind the couch cushions.”

The coins still awaiting to be handed in, by either spending them, taking them to a bank or donating them to charity, are estimated to be worth between NZ$5 million and $50 million.

“A last-minute burst of publicity may convince people to bring the coins in. It’s a bit of a hassle though. Human nature being what it is, people just don’t care,” Lang said.The Karori Wildlife Sanctuary located in Wellington say that they have collected over $9,000 in old coins. Sanctuary spokesman, Alan Dicks said: “The campaign was particularly fitting because the old coins depicted tuataras and kiwis, both of which can be found living at the sanctuary. The money will go towards supporting general ecological restoration of the sanctuary. We want to get over ten grand, but the more the better.”

Lang said: “Though the coins will no longer be legal tender, banks will continue to exchange them until at least the end of the year,” and the Reserve Bank will always exchange them. “We are still getting people coming in with two-dollar notes,” Lang added.