Friday, March 16, 2007

The European Space Agency‘s Mars Express spacecraft has discovered ice deposits in the south pole of Mars that are larger than the state of Texas.

Scientists say that there is enough water in the deposits to cover the entire planet with up to 36 feet of water if the ice was to melt. Some sections of the ice deposits are up to 2.3 – 2.5 miles deep. The ice is composed of carbon dioxide, a little bit of dust, and water (90 percent of the water is estimated to be frozen).

What has caught the attention of the scientists working on the Mars Express project is that this may help reveal whether or not there is any (microbial) life within the ice.

Another perplexing question that scientists are trying to solve is what happened to all the water that produced all the channels on the surface of Mars.

Jeffrey Plaut, who is from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and who is also leading the study, noted that, “We have this continuing question facing us in studies of Mars, which is: where did all the water go? Even if you took the water in these two (polar) ice caps and added it all up, it’s still not nearly enough to do all of the work that we’ve seen that the water has done across the surface of Mars in its history.”

Currently, only 10 percent of the water is remaining and is located at the poles of Mars. It has been suggested that some of the remaining 90 percent of the water that disappeared could either be underground or could have simply left the atmosphere into space.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Despite the hopes of many University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) students, The Onion was not named after their student center. “People always ask questions about where the name The Onion came from,” said President Sean Mills in an interview with David Shankbone, “and when I recently asked Tim Keck, who was one of the founders, he told me the name—I’ve never heard this story about ‘see you at the un-yun’—he said it was literally that his Uncle said he should call it The Onion when he saw him and Chris Johnson eating an onion sandwich. They had literally just cut up the onion and put it on bread.” According to Editorial Manager Chet Clem, their food budget was so low when they started the paper that they were down to white bread and onions.

Long before The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, Heck and Johnson envisioned a publication that would parody the news—and news reporting—when they were students at UW in 1988. Since its inception, The Onion has become a veritable news parody empire, with a print edition, a website that drew 5,000,000 unique visitors in the month of October, personal ads, a 24 hour news network, podcasts, and a recently launched world atlas called Our Dumb World. Al Gore and General Tommy Franks casually rattle off their favorite headlines (Gore’s was when The Onion reported he and Tipper were having the best sex of their lives after his 2000 Electoral College defeat). Many of their writers have gone on to wield great influence on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert‘s news parody shows.

And we are sorry to break the news to all you amateur headline writers: your submissions do not even get read.

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with Chet Clem and Sean Mills about the news empire that has become The Onion.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Thursday at Madrid–Barajas Airport, Wikinews interviewed Spanish Paralympic swimmer María Delgado, who is scheduled to compete at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships that start on Monday in Montreal, Canada. Delgado will be 15 when she is to compete in Montreal.

((Wikinews)) I’m Laura Hale, I’m interviewing María Delgado who is a Spanish swimmer and who is going to the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships in Montreal, and you have received a lot of press attention from the Spanish press for being the next great Spanish Swimmer, […] [Do you expect to medal in this tournament or in Río?] ^{((es))Spanish language: ?¿Crees que en este campeonato vas a ganar una medalla o futuro a Río?} [Note: The translated question here differed from the one originally asked in English.]

María Delgado: [laughs] I don’t know. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Yo qué sé jajaja.}

((WN)) The Spanish newspapers say she is the greatest swimmer, she is the next greatest Spanish Paralympic swimmer. Does she feel pressure from the media saying that she is a great swimmer to perform in a really high level? Does she feel pressure to win because the newspapers say it? Spanish newspapers say she is the next great Spanish Paralympic swimmer, that she is going to go to Río.

Translator: She has also been future with “plan AXA”, who bet on young swimmers Paralympics, and has been going at concentrations, which are younger with future have driven a little to fit in the world level of competition. ^{((es))Spanish language: ? ¿si tienes algún [here I’d say: “alguna presión porque”] … como que eres el futuro porque eres nueva nadadora, si has salido por ejemplo en el periódico en tu pueblo? Bueno, ella ha sido una apuesta también de un plan que hay de AXA, que apuestan por los jóvenes nadadores paralímpicos, y ha estado yendo a concentraciones, a los que son más jovenes con futuro los han impulsado un poquito para que entren en el mundo de la competición a nivel.}

María Delgado: I’m on a plan for young talent, that is preparing for Rio 2016 and has selected us, and now we go to the World Championship. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Estoy en un plan que es de jóvenes promesas, que nos preparan para Río 2016 y ha apostado por nosotros, y ahora vamos al campeonato del mundo.}

((WN)) Because you are 15, how do you […] balance going to school and competing?

María Delgado: It’s a little difficult but with hard work and effort it’s doable. Study in the morning and train in the afternoon. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Es un poco difícil pero con trabajo y esfuerzo se puede conseguir. Estudio por la mañana y entreno por la tarde.}

((WN)) Are you doing school work while you are in Montreal? How does you balance school? How do you do the school at the 15 years old and swim? Because that seems really hard to do both at once. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?¿Estás haciendo las tareas escolares mientras se encuentra en Montreal? ¿De qué manera a equilibrar la escuela? ¿Cómo se hace la escuela a los 15 años de edad y nadar? Debido a que parece muy difícil hacer las dos cosas a la vez. ¿Puedes explicar como por ejemplo qué ¿? vas a hacerlo todo normal, no? Que ¿cómo lo compaginas? Que es muy difícil compaginar y entrenar a la vez natación, o sea, nadar y estudiar.}

María Delgado: It is very difficult to combine and train while swimming, with swimming and studying. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Sí, es difícil pero se puede cerrar y hay veces que no sé cómo lo hago… estudiando, yo qué sé… Nos explica por ejemplo que en la Universidad pues tienes que ir más ¿? … start very new… que acaba de empezar y todavía no trae ritmo.}

((WN)) Because you’re 15 do your parents go with you? Are your parents going to Montreal or are you all traveling solo by yourself?

María Delgado: With my coaches. My parents aren’t going. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Con mis entrenadores. Mis padres no van.}

((WN)) Only with your coach? ^{((es))Spanish language: ?¿Sólo con su entrenador?}

María Delgado: Yes. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Sí.}

((WN)) Is it scary to be on your own? Competing against all these 20 year olds and 30 year olds who’ve been to Paralympic games, or you just go “I’m 15, I can — el Mundo es mío [the world is mine]”? ^{((es))Spanish language: ?¿Tienes miedo o tú vas con todas las ganas de competir con gente mayor?}

María Delgado: I’m not scared and I go eagerly. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?No tengo miedo y voy con muchas ganas.}

((WN)) Thank you. ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Gracias.}

Thursday, August 16, 2007

The name Robert Cailliau may not ring a bell to the general public, but his invention is the reason why you are reading this: Dr. Cailliau together with his colleague Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, making the internet accessible so it could grow from an academic tool to a mass communication medium. Last January Dr. Cailliau retired from CERN, the European particle physics lab where the WWW emerged.

Wikinews offered the engineer a virtual beer from his native country Belgium, and conducted an e-mail interview with him (which started about three weeks ago) about the history and the future of the web and his life and work.

Wikinews: At the start of this interview, we would like to offer you a fresh pint on a terrace, but since this is an e-mail interview, we will limit ourselves to a virtual beer, which you can enjoy here.

Robert Cailliau: Yes, I myself once (at the 2nd international WWW Conference, Chicago) said that there is no such thing as a virtual beer: people will still want to sit together. Anyway, here we go.