Portal talk:Current events

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Portal:Current events page.
Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Portal:Current events—more specifically, the portal's complex framework—is semi-protected, and has been since September 2006. Please update a day's current events by clicking on "Edit" in the header for that day.
For questions about the "Headlines" section, proceed to Template talk:In the news.
To suggest new items, proceed to Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates.

This page is laid out and designed as part of a set of pages. To discuss the set as a whole, see Portal talk:Contents. For more information on Wikipedia's contents system as a whole, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Contents.

Contents
Related pages

Important pages • Archiving the Portal | News about Wikipedia | About this Page | Adding a New Date | Suggest a Headline or Main Page In the News Item

Old Current events archives • 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 (last archive up to: 1 Jan 2007)

Other old Current events discussions • Vote on tense | Setting the context | Too much analysis | Ongoing events

Portal:Current events archives • 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 (last archive: 17 December 2007)

Original Current events GFDL: See October 2003 (history)

Recent changes • 2006 | 2007 | 2008

[edit] Phrasing

I do not feel it is fair to call the protesters in England (in regards to the torch relay) and else where as "anti-China". I am sure most of them don't have anything wrong with the Chinese people (maybe the people in Tibet do, but I don't know that for sure), and it is the ruling party of China that has changed, not the land or ethnicity of the people. It would be more NPOV to state that they were against the policies of the Peoples Republic of China, and not "China" as a whole. Just a thought, because it makes them seem like (to me, and maybe a few more) they hate Chinese people and that is why they are protesting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AgPyth (talk • contribs) 07:35, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

So now, China is now split into multiple countries by multiple sovereignties? That's like saying the United States should be split into multiple sovereignties. Or better yet, 50, because after all, China comprises of 56 ethnicities, so China too should be split into 56 states. The PRC is a majority of China. Unless you want it split into 56 parts, that is. I'm sure if someone made fun of, say Californians, or I don't know, people from Massachusetts (lived in both before btw, no offense intended), from another country outside of the US, Americans would see that as making fun of Americans overall. As for policies, in my opinion, from western Media NPR (paraphrased): Tibet is a autonomous region, Tibet is exempt from taxes, 90% of the government's budget is supplied by Chinese. From other western media (quoted from wikipedia page on this): 'Tibetan rioters appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China, and Hui, who are a Muslim minority. According to the BBC and the Wall Street Journal, rioters focused on setting fire to and looting businesses owned by them, before Riot police arrived. From Eastern media (cause that makes SUCH a difference, rolls eyes): rioters injured 623 people including 241 police and armed police and killed 18 others. They also set fire to more than 300 locations, mostly private houses, stores and schools, smashed vehicles and damaged public facilities....I fail to see how that's "repressive" policies (although I acknowledge anything done wrong previously, no country is free from mistakes, see American treatment of Native Americans/republic of Hawaii). If the Tibetans riot (which btw, Pro-tibet people are SUPPORTING them rioting cause your saying that it was wrong to send in riot police), why the heck is sending in riot police wrong? It's the same thing as rabble rousing, overall, the reason there is "pro-tibet" is the same reason there is "anti-china", its because of economic and discriminatory reasons. It'll probably be changed though, because its seen as "not neutral" (and I agree it isn't, but still, pro-tibet is a wide term too, some protesters, I know 100%, do it not because of Tibet, but because they see it as another chance to be anti-china (predominantly those paid by the US government/other groups), so there are people on both sides, perhaps include both "pro-tibet" and "anti-china" would be more accurate.) and there is no proof of my opinion anyway (cause you can't tell what others think) Noian (talk) 17:37, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Palestinian Genocide

What about the slaughter of Palestinians currently happening? —Preceding unsigned comment added by unknown person

If there is something not on the news, add it, with the source. You don't need to ask, all you need is a wikipedia account. (past a few days old) Noian (talk) 01:54, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Schengen Agreement implemented in 8 EU countries tomorrow

Can someone add it please to the recent events? I think it's important. – Alensha talk 09:23, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! – Alensha talk 20:14, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proper dating

What should we do if the local date is different from the UTC date? In specific, I have a tiger attack at Portal:Current_events/2007_December_26, which I put on Wednesday, because the news broken on Wednesday, UTC. But it was 5PM Tuesday PST, where it occurred (San Francisco). The Evil Spartan (talk) 13:48, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Put it on Tuesday since that was the day on which it happened, even though it was no longer Tuesday UTC.-gadfium 18:57, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nothing about the Kenyan elections?

Isn't there a heading for the irregularities and riot scare surrounding the Kenyan national elections? Surely there's a Wikipedia article for that. 212.179.71.70 (talk) 10:01, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

I see you've edited the article on Kenyan presidential election, 2007, and there's some coverage at Portal:Current events, so I assume you are asking for it to be included in the Headlines section. Suggestions for that section go at Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates, where there is already a discussion about suitable wording.-gadfium 19:05, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
Nobody had updated the main portal to include 30th December until I did, a few minutes ago, so the daily included section wasn't being displayed. It is now, and as you can see includes the Kenyan and Pakistani news. -- Arwel (talk) 19:15, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Llaima Volcano Eruption

Shouldn't there be something about its eruption (southern chile)? Guchogu (talk) 16:18, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] NFL results

With respect, the US results of a sport practiced and followed only in the US are not global news... 172.206.105.159 (talk) 21:35, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree. If the Canadian loonie hitting parity with the US dollar does not warrant a "headline", then neither does a streak in the NFL in the anglophone community OpusDiabolus (talk) 05:08, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

The fact of this item still being among the most important news items at this date serves as evidence of systemic bias to readers within the wider anglophone US. Ghostoroy (talk) 08:08, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Absolutely. This is news to only people in one country, and even then it's only a proportion of it. --Deadly∀ssassin(talk) 10:03, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Bull, we report on most of the grand slam tennis tournaments as well (for which you could say the same). A week or two ago we reported on the European championship of Handball (or something else vague). This is the most important event in american football (in the only country practicing it seriously), and as such it is on par with a "world tournament", and we always mention world tournaments of the larger sports as well. Don't be "it's an american conspiracy" over nothing. This point comes up every year, and every year the end result is the same. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:14, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
That may be true, but the handball tournament result was removed too! And actually, by stating the U.S-American tournament is on par with the European or World tournaments, you are saying that the U.S. is as important as the rest of the world together! So I think we have every right to be like "it's an american conspiracy", as it obviously isn't over nothing! --Thrane (talk) 13:49, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
I'm from europe and I see no problem here. Its one of the biggest live sports events in the world and I believe it has the "highest attendance" record. It is also an important event in one of our key audiences (America, UK, Canada, Australia). And last but not least... This is not the place to discuss it :D Template talk:In the news
--TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:05, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
Ha! I was right a discussion like this will crop up! --Howard the Duck 14:24, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Issues with Current Events

There are still some issues with the system here. Perhaps it is time that we appointed a "semi-official" editor that takes care of things ?

  • The sidebar is irregularly updated.
  • Improper archiving of months (The sidebar has not been archived since March 2007)
  • Little supervision on archived stories. ideally someone should check the RecentChanges links every week or so.
  • We have "future events" of some importance on "month in year" pages that get removed without the stories being present in archives. Why not check that they are added?
  • bad prose
  • inconsistent reporting on events between 2 or 3 days. Sometimes as an event develops its original story should be revised or more often rewritten.

In my experience Portal:Current events is lacking in many of these. I see two ways to deal with it.

  1. Name a group of editors that take care of this. (revive Wikipedia:WikiProject Current events.
  2. Name an editor that has seniority and responsibility to look after these issues much as with a newspaper or website.

Does anyone have preferences on either of these, or any other comments ? --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:07, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Since part of the portal shows up on the Main Page, I think there is precedent for some ownership here. I think three or four active editors would be easier to find than to revive a WikiProject with all its associations (and uncertainties). -- John Broughton (♫♫) 22:35, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
Actually, I'm wrong on that: Template:In the news is transcluded onto this portal as well as the Main Page. And that template requires an admin to update. Still, this portal is just one click away from the Main Page, so it is important. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 14:02, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Repeated vandalism

The headlines has recently vandalised by an unnamed editor at 82.114.160.32. She has repeatedly redirected the external news article links to a page that contains, I'm guessing, some great message. (It's non-Unicode and unreadable by my browser.) Isn't there something that could be done to stop this nonsense? o (talk) 02:07, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

User:82.114.160.32 has been blocked for 31 hours. If he/she vandalizes again, report it at WP:AIV; the next block will be even longer. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 22:30, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] US presidential caucuses and primaries

Just a note I would like to mention, but I think we should only put the events surrounding the bigger primaries and caucuses such as New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, California and Michigan and not to mention all such as the Mitt Romney win in Wyoming today or other less significant caucus results in the coming weeks.--JForget 03:36, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] bud

--66.114.22.103 (talk) 13:34, 10 January 2008 (UTC)po io[j erpiu v iiugt

[edit] Suggestion: Add section with regular updates from Wikinews

Suggestion: Add a section with regular updates from Wikinews, using the new bot, User:Wikinews Importer Bot. Check this out Portal:Current events/Wikinews, which updates items from the Current Day of the Main Page of Wikinews, and brings them over to a Wikipedia page. All that would be required would be to have a section like "Today's latest articles from Wikinews", and then just transclude {{Portal:Current events/Wikinews}} in the section itself. Thoughts? Cirt (talk) 11:38, 11 January 2008 (UTC).

I think this is a great idea. Wikinews has increasingly taken more focus that originally was on Current events. Giving it more prominence seems only logical. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:02, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

  • Great! Thanks for this good positive feedback, this is good to hear. Also it's great to foster more interconnectedness between the two projects. Cirt (talk) 22:08, 11 January 2008 (UTC).
  • There have been previous discussions about WikiNews' connection to Wikipedia. Current Events contains significant items referenced from news outlets, resulting in an ongoing log or historical diary about what happened on what day. WikiNews is a news outlet, and therefore is available as a reference. However references to WikiNews from Current Events are rare, since most WN articles do not have such wide broad significance that anyone would think of adding them to Current Events.
  • Please consider the lower-impact change of automatically importing WN items to the main Current Events daily sub-articles so they can be filtered. As it is, WN headlines are being given "higher significance" despite linking to uniformly lower quality and less significant articles than the ones WP volunteers manually bring over and reference from the major networks and papers. This change is unfair to WP users, and I don't see any reason for it besides politically promoting WN. Potatoswatter (talk) 23:21, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Two other users disagree with you. The Wikinews articles that appear on their Main Page are vetted, perhaps as much or more so than those at the Wikipedia Headlines section. For the most part, in order for something to appear at Wikinews it must also contain references from news outlets or secondary sources, and thus that is available as a reference as well, on those article pages. The top articles at Wikinews usually do have broad significance. As it is, WN headlines are being given "higher significance" despite linking to uniformly lower quality and less significant articles than the ones WP volunteers manually bring over and reference from the major networks and papers. This change is unfair to WP users, and I don't see any reason for it besides politically promoting WN. -- Who is to say that it is not the other way around, and that the Wikinews articles are better sourced and of a better quality than those at Wikipedia on similar topics? It's best to present both. Cirt (talk) 23:26, 11 January 2008 (UTC).
  • Are you trying to outvote me? Currently the first headline is "KDE 4 desktop environment released." Yes it's referenced, of course. A totally unreferenced article wouldn't exactly be journalism. But it simply echoes a press release of no general interest. The sad thing is that there are totally unreferenced articles on WN. Anyone can write anything and put it on the front page. (Your "vetting" process consists of taking down inappropriate articles.) WN at its best presents local news from around the world. wikinews:"No treaty withdrawal", says Lakota elder is a really really nice, interesting article with good original reporting. But Current Events has a decidedly international bent and WikiNews is the exact opposite.
  • As for my assertions on quality, WP articles tend to be better because they have been around longer. WP works because experts on a particular topic put the article on their watchlist and maintain it. That's not possible with WN. But we're not arguing over ITN, which references updated articles. This debate is over Current Events, which references major news networks (usually AP members), which is professional reporting, versus WikiNews which is amateur. Potatoswatter (talk) 00:12, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
  • My apologies, no, I was most certainly not trying to "outvote" you, just making a note that two other editors feel it is appropriate. But I am curious, what do you mean by Please consider the lower-impact change of automatically importing WN items to the main Current Events daily sub-articles so they can be filtered. -- Which Current Events daily sub-articles do you mean? Cirt (talk) 00:15, 12 January 2008 (UTC).
  • How about now? I moved it so that it is below all of the Current Events daily sub-articles. Cirt (talk) 00:40, 12 January 2008 (UTC).
  • Every day's current events are in a new article, for example Portal:Current events/2008 January 12. If you add WN headlines directly to these pages, no modifications to the master Current Events page are necessary, and the bot is simply an "angel" for WN within the existing framework. Potatoswatter (talk) 04:25, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Yes, but that would have to be done manually for every single entry. The current version is updated automatically by a bot, imported with items from Wikinews. Is it okay now that I moved it to the bottom below all of the Current Events daily sub-articles ? Cirt (talk) 04:38, 12 January 2008 (UTC).
  • I don't know what my stamp of approval is worth :vP . It's unobtrusive now, but on the other hand people won't notice it. Can the bot be adjusted to add items in Current Events format to the top of the day's events, and not remove anything from the bottom? Given the prominence of the usage, maybe the bot owner wouldn't mind making a few minor changes... Potatoswatter (talk) 12:43, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Hrm, it seems quite difficult to come to an agreement that you appreciate. I moved the location of the display specifically with your words in mind from above, which was to have the Current Events daily sub-articles appear first. Now, after I have done exactly that, you change your mind and say that "people won't notice it" ? I'm very confused. And what do you mean by "Can the bot be adjusted to add items in Current Events format to the top of the day's events, and not remove anything from the bottom?" The bot grabs the latest items and lists them, so we can them put that list in a table or format wherever we want to. I think it's fine now the way it is. All of the "Current Events daily sub-articles" are given prominence over anything from Wikinews, as you wished. Cirt (talk) 18:29, 12 January 2008 (UTC).
  • I don't object to putting WN on the bottom. I'm just saying if you want to restore more prominence to it, you might try using the bot to contribute as any other user to the main daily lists of current events. Those changes would be: 1. Use Current Events format (* Headline. ([wikinews])), 2. Add to Portal:Current Events/(date), and 3. Don't remove items from the bottom of the list. Anyhow don't get upset, I'm not actually contributing anything anyway besides criticism. It seemed obvious that WN now has second-class status, so I pointed that out and suggested a solution, whether you see it as a problem or not. Potatoswatter (talk) 23:26, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

(unindent) This is also something to be careful with of course. There are many editors that are still not happy with the sourcing of WikiNews. It is something that I might support to run a one week test with. See what the reactions of people are, see what problems are encountered. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 00:08, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Any chance the wikinews banner under in the new could be removed? There are three links that all go to wikinews now, which is more than enough. Narayanese (talk) 23:48, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

I removed it, because had similar feelings. I have also been playing a little bit with alternate ideas on the inclusion of the Wikinews headlines. User:TheDJ/Sandbox2 shows several ways in which we could group wikinews and CE items by day, but i'm not really sure I like any of them. I feel it makes the page too messy and I fear people won't be so diligent in keeping CE up to date once this is implemented. The BEST solution in my eyes is something like what Potatoswatter proposed. It would be ideal, if the bot could add the newest items since it last visit, to the top of todays CE subpage. Then users should be free to edit or remove the bot-added headline as they see fit (wikilinking, better or additional sourcing etc, titles that read less like newsheadlines and more like CE newsitems [generally a bit longer]). It has the benefit of fully keeping in line with the idea behind the CE portal (wikilinking to Wikipedia articles that are currently newstopics), while also giving a lot of visibility to Wikinews and as an extra benefit of reminding editors which topics still need to be covered for today. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 00:50, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] proposal for subportals

I think we can conclude that at the moment, especially the regional subportals have sort of failed... They are edited so little that they confuse people more than that they help editors with current events or history track keeping. I'm considering running an MfD for these subportals and then putting them in "cold-storage". Sports (and at times Technology) seems to be properly maintained and so is the Southeast Asia news portal (at least for a while now) and they can happily stay. But most of the other sub portals are simply unusable now and have been for months (most at least since last summer). --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:10, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

  • Well, we could fill these "Current events subportals" in (at least the major topics with active categories at Wikinews) with the automatically updating bot, User:Wikinews Importer Bot. Then, they would all be updated regularly with new stories from Wikinews, assuming the Wikinewsians make sure to plop the articles into the relevant associated categories. Cirt (talk) 22:09, 11 January 2008 (UTC).
A discussing about several of the Current events subportals has been opened at Miscellany for deletion. You are invited to participate in discussing the fate of these subportals --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:38, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikinews Picture of the Year

Hi all,

please consider spreading the word on and voting for:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikinews:Picture_of_the_Year

--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 00:47, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Day of the Week

I noticed that the way the day of the week on each day's events is displayed has been changed. Since (in my opinion) it looks much worse, I assume it was some sort of vandalism, but I can't figure out how it was changed. Instead of appearing pretty much as
January 24, 2008 (Thursday)
it is now roughly
January 24, 2008

(Thursday)

This is an important difference, and if anyone knows how to fix it, or can tell me what happened, I'd be very appreciative. -Platypus Man | Talk 13:34, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

It's fixed again, but the weird thing is that I have no idea what was causing it. I looked trough all the templates that this header uses and none of them were changed. Possible remaining causes are a bug in some of the CSS that the tables/divs use, or a bug in a parserfunction. Really weird. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:59, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
The new mediawiki parser was on for a little while. The page probably got cached on time that was smack in the middle of this switch between old and new parser, which caused a faulty copy to be cached. Purging the page solved the issue. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:26, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Ah Special:ParserDiffTest/Portal:Current_events there we are. A difference between old an new parser behaviour. I'll track this down. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:30, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
It's in Portal:Current events/DateHeader2 or something it transcludes. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 09:05, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
There we are: a stray newline in {{Start date}} was at fault. – Minh Nguyễn (talk, contribs) 09:07, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Oh sorry, I had forgotten to crosspost this. I had already figured it ou :( Wikipedia:Village_Pump_(technical)#New_preprocessor_issue.28s.29 I was just waiting on a response by Tim or Brion on wether this was "expected" behaviour or not. Apparently it is expected, so the fix did need to be applied. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:22, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Australian News

Out of interest, why is Australia and NZ no where to be found in the Current Events Portal? According to the "Countries and other territories in Southeast Asia" at the bottom of SE Asia page, Australia is not part of it, so what is Australia part of? This being, while Pakistan has its own Sub-Portal with no stories this year... 210.49.30.22 (talk) 11:39, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Because no one maintains one. See also Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Current events subportals. For Aussie news, you might turn to WikiNews or the news section of our Australian portal. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:27, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Taiwan-China conflict

Why isnt taiwan-china conflict ever mentioned in the "ongoing events" section?

This conflict has been undergoing for decades now, and tensions has been steadily escalating with now over 1000 missles from china aimed at taiwan, and taiwan's persistance in not yielding to china's and the china-led world's suppression.

The yearly battles of taiwan against china and china-led world to get into UN, WHO and the constant struggle to get recognized and protected by the international world goverments before it gets eleminated by china.

I believe this controversial issue/conflict deserves to get highlighted, and to raise awareness on how this phrase "might is right" proves sadly to be true in this taiwan-china issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.185.120.96 (talk) 01:17, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

I think that isn't as important as a proper conflict where people get killed, China/Taiwan is more of a territory/border dispute, of which there are hundreds around the world. --Joowwww (talk) 19:25, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "17 to 14" is incorrect

It's always displayed as 17–14 in any report by the Associated Press,[1] or any other American News publication. Such as The New York Times,[2], Chicago Tribune,[3] the Los Angeles Times,[4] or any other American publication in existence. Please fix this grammatical error. Thanks in advance. Trevor GH5 (talk) 05:59, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Damages to several undersea cables"

"Damages" is bad English (unless one is talking about monetary damages, which we are not); the headline should be:


Damage to several undersea cables disrupts internet services in parts of Asia and Africa.

Rob Cranfill (talk) 22:57, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Please use WP:ERRORS for faster responses. --Howard the Duck 07:08, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "STS-122"

You may wish to add the current shuttle mission to the ongoing events section.--logger (talk) 20:04, 9 February 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Grammys

Why are the grammys mentioned and no the baftas? --Chickenfeed9 (talk) 12:28, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

See WP:ITN/C#February 9 then press page up. --Howard the Duck 04:29, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Kosovo

I think we should consider putting the current civil situation in Kosovo in the Ongoing events section, as it is an ongoing event.AgPyth (talk) 05:36, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

why isn't it allready in In the news section? Nergaal (talk) 03:56, 17 February 2008 (UTC)
admins are waiting for the exact time they declare independence. for details, see WP:ITN/C. --Howard the Duck 10:29, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pakistan

At what point does Pakistan go on the front page, is there any policy on this? Lampman Talk to me! 19:30, Sunday June 8, 2008 (UTC)

When results are known. As per the banner above, see the discussion at WP:ITN/C. --Howard the Duck 06:04, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

armenia presidential elections 19/2/2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.139.216.212 (talk) 05:44, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wikileaks

"... making the website unavailable." It isn't unavailable, though--it can still be reached at its IP address, wikileaks.cx, wikileaks.be, and several other addresses.

206.77.151.18 (talk) 17:08, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Venezuelan passenger jet crash

is anyone going to mention the fact that an ATR-72 crashed in Merida, Venezuela?[1]Duhhitsminerva (talk) 23:38, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] New York Philharmonic

I hope I'm not the only one to feel that the NYP's concert in North Korea is frontpage worthy. News story link J. Van Meter (talk) 15:54, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism

Someone wrote a paragraph about some book and put it on the current events front page. I looked at the history to revert it, but I couldn't see it. If anyone who is more familiar with Wikipedia is reading this, please revert the edit and let me know how it's possible in case it happens again. Thank you, (Einstein00 (talk) 02:36, 27 February 2008 (UTC))

[edit] ETA killed a basque politician

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7283488.stm —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bentaguayre (talk • contribs) 14:13, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Spitzer scandal

Someone wrote, for March 10, 2008: "Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer admits to using the services of an international online prostitution ring." He made no such admission and to state that he did is potentially libelous (libel per se, specifically, or falsely claiming someone has admitted to a crime). If you read Spitzer's very short public statement, there is no admission beyond remarks like, "I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong." This is a far cry from admitting to using a prostitute. While many news sources have revealed Spitzer is the so-called "Client Number Nine," it's a fabrication to leap from that to saying that Spitzer admitted something. Siberian Husky (talk) 15:08, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

He resigned, so If it is false, and libelious, I dont think he is going to be litiguous on this one.

[edit] Exceeds all digital stroage

"The total amount of digital information is estimated at 281 billion gigabytes in 2007, exceeding available data storage for the first time. (Ars Technica), (IDC via EMC)" Hmm.. There is still room on MY HARD DISK. This is just patently obsurd. There is a full pallet of 500GB drives at Costco, unsold. At least 120 of them, so thats about 60 Tera-bytes, or 60,000 bytes. Hmmm seems like someone slipped a prefix or two. ( a 1024 Terabytes is a Petabyte. What is their definition of a billion? Perhaps this should be looked over by a geek. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.174.157.126 (talk) 09:12, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

  • I thought this was a bit ludicrous too, considering that if there's digital information, it has to current be being stored somewhere. Turns out it was a bad summary. --Firien need help? 10:39, 14 March 2008 (UTC)
It got fixed. ExaByte... Hmmm.. Still a fishy story, but AT LEAST ITS ACCURATE. ( Thanks Firien! ) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.174.157.126 (talk) 12:16, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Auto-date

I've tweaked the portal to auto-update with the day's date. A long time ago this was frowned on because the lack of news for a new date made it look "wrong"; now we seem to be updating the new day manually before there's news anyway. I think it's clearer to have an empty box than not to have a box at all; fixing the template to do it automatically (while still having the individual days be fixed, looks like LDBot has got that one under control though) should make the changelog for the portal a lot clearer. Comments? --Firien need help? 10:39, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with this, but I note that half the world (and more than half the population) starts the new day before GMT does. If a major event happens in the morning in that half of the world, we should manually update the portal so the news for the day appears even though the GMT date is still the day before.-gadfium 18:44, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] David Alexander Paterson

David Alexander Paterson (born May 20, 1954) is an American politician and the current Governor of New York. He is the first African American and the first legally blind person to hold this position. I think it should be noted in the Current events that he is legally blind, i think it is much more noteworthy than the fact that he is black... honestly in this day and age only racest people care about the color of one's skin! The fact that he is blind is much more interesting than the fact that he has more melanin in his skin than a select group of other people. John Doe or Jane Doe (talk) 10:33, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

About the Patterson notice. Why does black link to African American. I know Patterson is an African American, but not all black people are. 81.96.160.6 (talk) 18:39, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
Damn good point! What if you don't live in the US or identify your self differently? John Doe or Jane Doe (talk) 09:02, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hungarian version

Languages: hungarian hu:Portál:Hírek —Preceding unsigned comment added by MahadmaG (talk • contribs)

[edit] Country at Swim

  1. The Netherlands sets a new world record in the 400-metres relay at the European swimming championships in Eindhoven. (Associated Press)

I am so very glad that the WHOLE COUNRTY has taken on swimming, but how do they all complate 400 meters? How do you get 16,408,557 people to swim? ( and the link? HA! its no help ). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.174.157.126 (talk) 11:29, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Commentary and Dissent have merged

Oh ho hum, an extrodinary breakthrough in math, notable, dosent make the front page, but the death of a morman *ssf*rt does.

someone PLEASE add...

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2lh1_jNDbrmhNoMlwkZTfLeCw8gD8VHBPIO0

"After 38 years, Avraham Trahtman, Israel, solves "Road Coloring Problem." of symbolic dynamics"

Proof at

http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/0709.0099 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.174.157.126 (talk) 22:58, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

The solving of the Road coloring problem would probably be worthy of putting in the ITN section of the main page, except that it was solved in September 2007, and reported in the media at least as long ago as 8 February, according to that article. I'm going to propose it anyway, at WP:ITN/C, which is the proper place to suggest that items be added to ITN, because I don't think it got widespread media coverage until just recently.-gadfium 01:17, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Massive ice shelf collapsing off Antarctica

Keep an eye on this one. [5] --Ryan Delaney talk 19:29, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

My first shot at a current events item, and it got chopped to hell. It deserved it, and I will learn from the process. it is global warming visible from space, but mabye saying that is much too controversial. The two scientists that emailed me said that the ice being exposed is tens of thousands of years old, ( they have an expidtion planned to take some deep core samples that they could not otherwise have obtained ). and is likely to shed more light on the pre-catostrophic event. It will be all fin and dandy if in 20 years, it all freezes back together, but Im betting not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.174.157.126 (talk) 09:47, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
Would someone please change the ITN abstract to give the SI units first? The Antarctica does not belong to the USA, so can we please have the SI units first: "a 410 km² (160 sq mi) chunk ..."? Thanks, MikeZ (talk) 20:25, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Docking of the Jules Verne ATV to the ISS

This docking maneuver was the first time in the world, that a fully automatic spacecraft has docked with a space station, totally under its own control.[2]

Having read this, I think that this it ITN-worthy. The news entry came up yesterday (April 3). MikeZ (talk) 10:44, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi. Jules Verne was in the news from 9 to 11 March at launch. Sorry but I don't think it will be mentioned on the main page twice in a month. You're welcome to add your opinion to the discussion at WP:ITN/C. -Susanlesch (talk) 10:53, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
Glad to see this worked out, thanks to you for following through and to the admin who did the update. -Susanlesch (talk) 17:58, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] "Olympic Torch" Headline Incorrect

I'm not quite sure of the formula or standard for this, but the headline, "The Olympic torch is extinguished by officials as police are confronted by protesters during the Olympic torch relay through Paris." is incorrect. It links to an article discussing the protests in London, and no mention of protests in Paris, or the torch's supposed extinguishing are mentioned. -Invoker47, 12:33pm, April 7 2008


[edit] Italian elections

The Italian general elections are being held this weekend so shouldn't it be on the upcoming elections by now?--RedMe (talk) 10:31, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mayor Anders Lago of Södertälje, Sweden...

Mayor Anders Lago of Södertälje, Sweden, says that his small city of about 80,000 is currently home to nearly 6,000 Iraqis. "More refugees than the United States and Canada together".

This is very interesting, but what's the journalistic relevance of it? Does it correlate with anything in particular?

Thank you in advanced :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.133.93.178 (talk) 22:38, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] sample model application form

can any body help me with modeling sample application form including rules and regulations. thanksOlowodara (talk) 12:28, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Please use the link at left to upload your samples. Potatoswatter (talk) 18:44, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Elections

I think that everyone wants to vote, some people don't do it because they don't really care of who is going to be our new president. I personally think that voting is really fun but the waiting lines could be way too long. Some people get ready to vote but they don't really want to wait in the long line to vote. All in all, I think that people should wait in line if they really want to vote, because your vote will decide who our next president/leader will be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ccastaneda (talk • contribs) 14:41, 15 April 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Possible Apophis Encounter

Naturally, after having read this on the Current Events page, mildly interested in my own well-being, I read the PhysOrg article that was referenced. Then, I searched CNN, ESA, and NASA, none of which made any mention of this within the last few days since this discovery evidently occurred. It just seems to me that something of this magnitude might be mentioned, even in brief passing, by one of these organizations. Until one of these, or another credible source, picks this information up, I don't think it's necessary for the imposing information to be here. 67.37.68.24 (talk) 11:27, 16 April 2008 (UTC)


[edit] Pope

I think that Pope Benedict XVI visit to the United States should be IN THE NEWS on WIKIPEDIA MAIN PAGE See [6] --Megapen (talk) 20:41, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Paraguay

It looks as if the world's longest-ruling party, Paraguay's Partido Colorado, which has governed the country for 62 years, has finally lost power (elections were today) and a leftist will become president. This is probably worth mentioning. --69.248.59.67 (talk) 22:08, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Paraguay didn't have a single party government!!! It's just that the same party always won the elections... But we were always officially a democracy. --3M (talk) 02:56, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
Uh, are you forgeting the 35-year dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner? --69.248.59.67 (talk) 07:31, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
Don't argue when uninformed, we where still officially a democracy, he manipulated the elections every year. True, he supressed other parties, but still, the page made it look as if we were a single party state until this year. Anyways, it was corrected already. --3M (talk) 05:24, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Recognizing Kosovo

No offense to anyone pro or anti-Kosovo, but I don't think that every time some country recognizes Kosovo, it's so news-worthy that it needs to be on the Current events. I've removed the Marshall Islands' recognition of Kosovo twice now, and would like to get a consensus as to whether my removals are appropriate. Corvus cornixtalk 22:43, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

I support you about that one.We dont have to list every country here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ChRis (talk • contribs) 08:47, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I've just deleted another one. Corvus cornixtalk 22:12, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sunfest

I know this may be a mute point, but the Sunfest advertizes for instance, 15 bands for $15.00, yet most of these bands play at the same time, making it fairly impossible to see and hear all of them unless you are a world class runner or have your own helicoptor.Footfixer (talk) 15:29, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Page protection

So, the current events page is protected, but the individual news pages for each day aren't? Doesn't that still leave huge opportunities for vandalism on a frequently viewed page? Coemgenus 14:52, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Is there a better forum to discuss this? The recent vandalism to Portal:Current events/Calendar made the whole page a mess. Coemgenus 01:57, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Arby's Buys Wendy's

On Thursday (April 24) Arby's owned announced that it would be buying Wendy's for US$2.34 billion (source) --66.67.187.203 (talk) 19:04, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Death of Charles Tilly

Can we mention the death of Charles Tilly, one of the most important modern sociologists, political scientists and historians? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 21:43, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] wwwNorth Korea

I read in the paper their are danders of jand mines in this country, is this correct —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.180.140.139 (talk) 07:57, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] ITN reform

The "In The News" section on the main page is broken. Whereas all of the other sections, like Featured Articles, get updated every day, ITN gets two or three new news items a week. The same picture of Fernando Lugo has been on ITN since April 20, almost two weeks. In addition, deaths like Arthur C. Clarke don't make it to the main page, nor items of "local" interest like the London mayoral election. I think we need to make ITN more open and dynamic. If you would like to help, please see Wikipedia:In the news 2.0. Thanks. Lovelac7 00:01, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

I have made a proposal there that would tie in Current Events more closely with ITN. This would also involve changing the format somewhat, so that primary articles are bolded on Current Events as they are on ITN. See Wikipedia talk:In the news 2.0#A modest proposal. Thanks.--Pharos (talk) 03:21, 12 May 2008 (UTC)
The trial period is now active. See it at work at Wikipedia:In the news section on the Main Page/Candidates.--Pharos (talk) 02:44, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

The one-week trial for the new ITN candidates' structure will be coming to an end soon. I have started a section to gather opinion from editors who have been interacting with or observing the new system as to if the trial should be extended or ended as originally scheduled here. Thank you, BanyanTree 01:59, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Ongoing event - Unrest in Tibet

Can the link to the Tibetan unrest be removed from ongoing events? It is no longer happening. --Joowwww (talk) 11:01, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Make things easy to understand and use

people should try to create or work like when the output of their work or job comes that should be more easy to adopt by the people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Devendra143 (talk • contribs) 10:09, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] User Lemmey

This user has removed wikilinks from stories and arguably broken the three-revert rule today. I have warned him on his talk page. We need to keep a close eye on him while he learns the rules. Capitalistroadster (talk) 21:52, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

A very close eye and why not keep an eye on Wikipedia:How the Current events page works as the links to Kentucky, crane, and convenience store are non-contextual to the events meaning they don't really have much to do with anything. It takes two to tango and also to 3RR, but good work getting your buddy to help you. --Lemmey talk 22:00, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
I've opened a notice at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard for you just in case you needed some extra eyes. --Lemmey talk 22:09, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
    • Lemmey, the location of the shooting is obviously contextual to the story as is the location of the story. The person who changed it did based on his own assessment of what was appropriate. I have left your edits alone to avoid problems with the 3RR but that doesn't mean others can't based on their own judgement. Capitalistroadster (talk) 23:20, 30 May 2008 (UTC)
Story about a shooting in Hazard County does not need links just because it has a victim from Perry County = Geographical links --Lemmey talk 23:28, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Sourcing

Let's try to maintain our neutrality by linking to uncontroversial sources. Specifically, Voice of America is seen in many parts of the world as little more than propaganda due to its funding coming directly from the US Government. It's like getting our news from China Central Television. >_< Jibbajabba (talk) 18:27, 31 May 2008 (UTC)


[edit] 100m WR

The 100m world record should be listed on the main page as news! Nergaal (talk) 10:51, 1 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] interwiki szl:Bježůnce wydařyńa

Please, add to interwiki Bježůnce wydařyńa ◄Ozi64► (talk) 17:21, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

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