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Tuesday, February 7, 2006

After a rapid succession of cases of major scientific fraud, scientific journals are questioning the effectiveness of the current peer review system and asking what their role should be in policing fraud.

Less than a month after the confirmation that South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk‘s cloning results were falsified, another case was discovered. A Norweigian researcher had made up patient histories of about 900 people for a study on cancer. Richard Horton, the editor of The Lancet, in which the research appeared, has responded to the scandal, “Peer review is a great system for detecting badly done research, but if you have an investigator determined to fabricate an entire study, it is not possible to pick it up.”

While carefully examining the data for every publication would be prohibitively expensive, several techniques to screen for falsified data have been developed. For example, images can be checked for after-the-fact manipulation. The scandals have led to some readers looking more carefully at suspicious papers for evidence that the data are human-manufactured. Jan Hendrik Schön‘s fraud was partly revealed due to just such analysis by readers in 2002.

Some institutions are taking further steps to prevent fraud. In October, Emory University introduced a tip line where people can anonymously report suspicions of scientific misconduct. So far, five investigations have been launched based on reports to the tip line.

While many are working to deter future scandals, some scientists have pointed out that such fraud does not discredit all science. Dieter Imboden, the president of the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Research Council, has said: “Bear in mind that every experiment will be repeated at some stage and it is one of the important principles of science that only things which can be verified independently by different groups are considered to be safe scientific facts.”

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Today, the day of the National Monuments of Chile, a group of volunteers from Santiago travelled to Lolol, a town located in O’Higgins Region. Lolol, named National Monument of Chile in October 2003, was severely damaged after the major February earthquake; the Church of the town, widely known as one of the oldest in Chile, is currently being restored.

“Their attitude is a clear sample of the conscience and love of the Chileans with their legacy, patrimony, especially after the earthquake,” said the Executive Clerk of the National Monuments Council of Chile, Óscar Acuña, who appreciated their collaboration.

Previously, 35 students of Tourism in the Technical Formation Center of the Los Leones Institute, were working in Lolol, between April 30 and May 1, helping to clean up the damage caused by the earthquake.

The famous musical group, Bafona, also visited Lolol, and a few other towns that were damaged by the earthquake.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

A Texas man was rescued earlier this week after being adrift at sea for 31 hours, according to media reports on Monday. Joey Trevino, 37, was stranded along with three other men after their boat quickly sank off the coast of Port O’Connor, Texas.

With only their life jackets as support, the men floated in the water, unsure if they would be rescued. Reportedly, the boat sank before the men could radio for help. Trevino told reporters he could see the right-most engine at the rear of the boat sinking as the front of the boat rapidly elevated.

Three of the men were rescued by a supply boat about 24 hours after the sinking. The US Coast Guard was then notified that Trevino was still lost at sea. He was rescued 7 hours later, when a passing freight ship heard his cries for help. Reportedly, Trevino floated about 50 miles before being rescued. A Coast Guard spokesman stated that water temperatures in the mid-80’s was a positive factor in Trevino’s survival.

To maintain strength, Trevino told reporters, “You’re looking at the clouds, you’re looking at whatever.” He also stated he spoke to his wife, and to his children in hopes they could feel him speaking to them. Trevino stated he did wonder to himself, “Wow, should I just take off this jacket, and let it be over?” His courage was bolstered when he was bumped by a porpoise. “He kind of bumped me and I kind of rubbed him and he kind of changed my attitude right there,” Trevino told media.

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.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Businessman Rocky De La Fuente took some time to speak with Wikinews about his campaign for the U.S. Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination.

The 61-year-old De La Fuente resides in San Diego, California, grew up in Tijuana, and owns multiple businesses and properties throughout the world. Since getting his start in the automobile industry, De La Fuente has branched out into the banking and real estate markets. Despite not having held or sought political office previously, he has been involved in politics, serving as the first-ever Hispanic superdelegate to the 1992 Democratic National Convention.

De La Fuente entered the 2016 presidential race last October largely due to his dissatisfaction with Republican front-runner Donald Trump. He argues he is a more accomplished businessman than Trump, and attacks Trump as “a clown,” “a joke,” “dangerous,” and “in the same category as Hitler.” Nevertheless, De La Fuente’s business background begets comparisons with Trump. The Alaskan Midnight Sun blog described him as the Democrats’ “own Donald Trump.”

While receiving only minimal media coverage, he has campaigned actively, and according to the latest Federal Election Commission filing, loaned almost US$ 4 million of his own money to the campaign. He has qualified for 48 primary and caucus ballots, but has not yet obtained any delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention. Thus far, according to the count at The Green Papers, De La Fuente has received 35,406 votes, or 0.23% of the total votes cast. He leads among the many lesser-known candidates but trails both Senator Bernie Sanders who has received nearly 6.5 million votes and front-runner Hillary Clinton who has just shy of 9 million votes.

With Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn?, De La Fuente discusses his personal background, his positions on political issues, his current campaign for president, and his political future.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Calling it a “fight for dignity on the job, a concept foreign to the MTA,” Transport Workers Union Local 100 (TWU) President Roger Toussaint officially declared that its union members are now on strike, extending the job action, and bringing the subways and buses of New York City to a halt.

MTA President Peter Kalikow and Toussaint took part in last night’s negotiations, where the final offer to the TWU was made. The MTA offered a three-year contract with a 3 percent, 4 percent, and 3.5 percent pay-raise schedule and a retirement age that would stay at 55, but new employees would have to pay more in contributions to the pension and health care plan.

Toussaint had said earlier today to striking Jamaica and Triboro bus operators that he could not accept the MTA’s offer because it did not address disciplinary actions that the MTA could levy against their employees. Jamaica and Triboro busses began striking 00:01 (05:01) Monday morning. Both bus lines are privately owned and operated, but their employees are TWU members and will become part of the MTA’s bus service in 2006.

The TWU had asked the MTA to give its last, best offer by 21:00 Monday (02:00 Tuesday UTC) so that executives would be able to evaluate the terms in time to avert the Tuesday morning strike deadline. But when Toussaint and Kalikow parted last night at 23:00, any hope of preventing the incredible turned into awaiting the inevitable strike declaration.

At his 03:02 press conference, Toussaint pointed the finger squarely on the MTA.

“With a US$1B surplus, the contract between the MTA and TWU Local 100 should have been a no-brainier. Sadly that has not been the case. From the beginning, the MTA approached these negotiations in bad faith, demanding arbitration before even trying to resolve the contract. Hours before contract expiration, the MTA got rid of its US$1B surplus — a surplus which we believe continues to be understated by some US$100M. The MTA knew that reducing health and pension standards at the authority would be unacceptable to our union. They knew there was no good economic reason for their hard line on this issue – not with a US$1B surplus.”

Then, the words that no one in New York City (except maybe public school students whose classes were delayed by two hours) wanted to hear passed from Toussaint’s lips: “The Local 100 Executive Board has voted overwhelmingly to extend strike action to all MTA properties effective immediately.”

The strike was “on.”

Mayor Bloomberg lashed out at the TWU with his harshest language yet on the strike. “For their own selfish reasons, the TWU has decided that their demands are more important than the law, the City and the people they serve. This is not only an affront to the concept of public service; it is a cowardly attempt by Roger Toussaint and the TWU to bring the City to its knees to create leverage for their own bargaining position.” His Honor concluded, “We cannot give the TWU the satisfaction of causing the havoc they desperately seek to create.”

Mayor Bloomberg estimated the cost of the strike at US$400 million per day.

This morning the Mayor crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, alongside his fellow commuters-turned-pedestrians. But the bitter wind coming from the East River only doubled the frigid mood of the already freezing New Yorkers: TWU members were picketing on the Brooklyn entrance to the bridge.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

The International Monetary Fund and the European Union approved aid packages to help Georgia recover from its conflict with Russia, which occurred in early August. The IMF approved a US$750 million loan which will allow Georgia to rebuild its currency reserves. The European Union also approved an aid package of €500 million in aid by 2010, which is expected to help internally displaced people (IDPs) and economic recovery in the form of new infrastructure. Only €100 million of the EU aid will be given to Georgia this year.

These loans are aimed to restore confidence in Georgia’s economy and send a signal to international investors that Georgia’s economy is sound. According to the IMF, international investors have been “critical to Georgia’s economic growth in recent years.”

Takatoshi Kato, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chairman of the IMF executive committee, said the loan will “make significant resources available to replenish international reserves and bolster investor confidence, with the aim of sustaining private capital inflows that have been critical to Georgia’s economic growth in recent years.”

Georgia has requested $2 billion in international aid to help it recover from the conflict. So far, the United States has pledged $1 billion in aid. Further assistance and loans to Georgia are expected from other organizations. Kato noted that “…Georgia is expected to receive financial assistance from multilateral and bilateral donors and creditors in support of the reconstruction effort.” It is expected that an international donors’ conference will take place next month to solicit more aid for the country.

Georgia’s government expects that economic growth will be more than cut in half as a result of the conflict. Last year, Georgia’s GDP increased 12.4% and it is predicted by the IMF that growth will be less than 4 percent in the coming year.