Aviation articles by Wikinewsie Iain Macdonald.

This Category ‘sub-page’ will display up to 500 articles which one of the project’s contributors has written on a specific topic.

File:COTA Logo.jpg

Monday, October 15, 2007

Atlanta, Georgia —After losing their bid to host Wikimania 2008, Wikimedians from the Atlanta, Georgia bid proposal are now working to host a conference focusing on Wikimedia in the Americas.

Mike Halterman, a student at the University of South Florida and unpaid intern at the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) offices in St. Petersburg, Florida, is helping to plan the Conference of the Americas which will be held at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in Atlanta, Georgia on May 15-18, 2008. Several others who helped in the conference’s creation include: Andrew Guyton, Dan Rosenthal, Geoff Swanstrom, Hillary Lipko, Jessica Gibson, Matt Britt, and Wikinews administrator and contributor Craig Spurrier.

“We went forward after Wikimania because we felt that we had a good idea on our hands, and all the organization and manpower should not go to waste. We can still make a difference here in our own hemisphere, which as far as Wikimedia goes, has been overlooked in favor of the world picture. We want to show the work done by people here, and how it impacts people here,” said Halterman in an exclusive interview with Wikinews.

The conference is focused on “discussions of Wikimedia and the free culture movement and how they relate to communities (national/regional, social, linguistic); discussions about the impacts free culture movements have in these communities, and by the work done in said movements in everyday life,” says the announcement. The discussion includes North America, specifically the United States and Canada, along with the countries of Latin America. Wikimedia Argentina and the WMF have also been given a proposal, but decisions on endorsement are still pending for both.

There will also be a journalism segment that will be held inside the Turner Broadcasting building on Techwood Drive in Midtown Atlanta.

After the location of Wikimania 2008 was announced to be in Alexandria, Egypt, the LGBT community spoke out, wondering if the jury, a group of Wikimedians who selected the location, took into account LGBT rights, safety of all attending, human rights, or free speech in the country before making their decision. There has since been discussion and controversy over the location posted on several public mailing lists.

Despite that, Halterman, who was on the bidding team to have Wikimania 2008 in Atlanta, states that the Conference of the Americas was not formed in retaliation, revenge or to “out maneuver” Wikimania 2008 and that the discussion for the COTA was taking place long before the location of Wikimania was announced. He also states that the conference’s purpose is not to compete with it, but to give those who are in the western hemisphere a chance to attend a Wikimedia event for the Americas.

“This was never something that was supposed to be ‘the American solution.’ We aren’t trying to compete with Wikimania at all. We’re not out to make a statement against Wikimania. This isn’t done out of anger, it’s done out of a drive to unite, not to divide. We have over 100 interested parties all over the United States who want to volunteer and/or attend in some fashion or another. Reaching out to the other communities is high on our list of priorities and we really do want to make this a hemispheric effort” as “it’s more expensive for people to go to Egypt over something in their own country or something close enough to it,” said Halterman to Wikinews.

The conference is sponsored by Georgia Tech, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Public Journalism Network (pjnet), Ibiblio.org and the Carolina Open Source Initiative.

Monday, June 13, 2011

In a unanimous decision, a US federal appeals court issued a ruling Friday against the federal government, in favor of Massey Energy Co, owner of the Upper Branch Mine in West Virginia, the location of last year’s mine disaster that killed 29 workers. The court ruled the company may appeal the restrictions placed on it by a government order hindering the company’s ability to conduct its own internal investigation of the disaster.

The order controlling Massey’s investigations into the disaster was placed on Massey immediately after the incident by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) when it seized control of the coal mine six hours after the blast on April 5.

MSHA’s controls prohibited Massey from “taking or retaining photographs, collecting and preserving mine dust samples, employing mine mapping technology, and participating in or objecting to any destructive testing of materials gathered underground.” Massey said MSHA’s restrictions prevented the company from evaluating the accident site before it was altered by investigators, and denied Massey the chance to gather evidence to use in the company’s defense.

Massey’s appeal to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (the commission that decides disputes over mining regulations) to void the order by MSHA was denied by the commission. It based its decision on its interpretation of the Mine Act that it had no authority to consider Massey’s appeal. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit set aside this decision, finding the commission’s interpretation of the act was “simply untenable” and the government’s actions had denied Massey the opportunity to gather “potentially important exculpatory evidence”.

The court rejected the commission’s position that the Mine Act’s language was ambiguous, allowing the government flexibility in its implementation. Rather, the court said, “No matter how you parse it, [the act] is a model of near-perfect clarity. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a clearer expression of congressional language.” It also rejected the commission’s position that the case was moot: “This case is not moot. Indeed, even the [Labor] Secretary’s counsel recognized the near-frivolity of this argument, and made only a half-hearted attempt to persuade us.”

The court’s ruling comes after a state government-comissioned report issued on May 19 by investigators found Massey Energy responsible for the deaths of the 29 workers. The workers were killed in an explosion that could have been avoided, the report said, if Massey had put in place standard safety procedures.

“The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris. A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coal fields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk taking,” the report read. “The company’s ventilation system did not adequately ventilate the mine. As a result, explosive gases were allowed to build up.” The report detailed claims Massey threatened miners with termination if they stopped work in areas that lacked adequate oxygen levels and listed numerous other state and federal safety standards that Massey failed to follow. Also blamed in the report was MSHA for failing to enforce federal regulations.

The report was considered by the those in the mining industry as especially direct and “hard hitting”. It firmly rejected conclusions reached by Massey officials that the incident was caused by an unexpected, massive, and uncontrollable methane bubble eruption, an occurrence that Massey said it could neither predict nor manage.

The company immediately challenged the report and issued its own report on June 3, blaming the blast on an act of nature and denying the company’s safety culture was at fault. MSHA also have an as-yet unreleased report in the works.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Yesterday, e-commerce giant Amazon.com announced they are to acquire Texas based retail grocery store chain Whole Foods Market at US$42 per share. According to the deal worth US$13.7 billion (£10.7 billion) the retail grocery store chain is to keep the Whole Foods Market brand name and John Mackey is reportedly to remain its CEO.

After the announcement, Amazon’s shares went up more than two percent and Whole Foods Market shares went up by about 28%. Shares of other grocery-selling chains like Kroger, Target, Sprouts Farmers and Costco experienced a dip after the announcement.

Amazon runs their own online grocery — Amazon Fresh — which started a decade ago in Seattle, Washington. Amazon’s? CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy.”

Whole Foods Market started in 1978, and employs about 87000 people in its roughly 460 stores across the US, UK and Canada. The deal is expected to cover debts of Whole Foods Market.

Whole Foods Market CEO Mackey said, “This partnership presents an opportunity to maximize value for Whole Foods Market’s shareholders, while at the same time extending our mission and bringing the highest quality, experience, convenience and innovation to our customers.”

The acquisition, which has not yet received approval from the shareholders of Whole Foods Market, adds a 27% premium to Thursday’s closing value of its stock. This would be Amazon’s largest acquisition if the deal is done.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Journalist, counselor, painter, and US 2012 Presidential candidate Joe Schriner of Cleveland, Ohio took some time to discuss his campaign with Wikinews in an interview.

Schriner previously ran for president in 2000, 2004, and 2008, but failed to gain much traction in the races. He announced his candidacy for the 2012 race immediately following the 2008 election. Schriner refers to himself as the “Average Joe” candidate, and advocates a pro-life and pro-environmentalist platform. He has been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, and has published public policy papers exploring solutions to American issues.

Wikinews reporter William Saturn? talks with Schriner and discusses his campaign.

Friday, March 23, 2007

In a press release earlier today, New York State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker, along with Dean of Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine Donald F. Smith, confirmed that scientists at the New York State Food Laboratory identified Aminopterin as a toxin present in cat food samples from Menu Foods.

Menu Foods is the manufacturer of several brands of cat and dog food subject to a March 16, 2007 recall.

Aminopterin is a drug used in chemotherapy for its immunosuppressive properties and, in some areas outside the US, as a rat poison. Earlier reports stated that wheat gluten was a factor being investigated, and officials now state that the toxin would have come from Chinese wheat used in the pet food, where it is used for pest control. Investigators will not say that this is the only contaminant found in the recalled food, but knowing the identity of the toxin should assist veterinarians treating affected animals.

The Food Laboratory tested samples of cat food received from a toxicologist at the New York State Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University. The samples were found to contain the rodenticide at levels of at least 40 parts per million.

Commissioner Hooker stated, “We are pleased that the expertise of our New York State Food Laboratory was able to contribute to identifying the agent that caused numerous illnesses and deaths in dogs and cats across the nation.”

The press release suggests Aminopterin, a derivative of folic acid, can cause cancer and birth defects in humans and can cause kidney damage in dogs and cats. Aminopterin is not permitted for use in the United States.

The New York State Food Laboratory is part of the Federal Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) and as such, is capable of running a number of unique poison/toxin tests on food, including the test that identified Aminopterin.