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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Recently, Wikinews spent time with with Canadian Paralympic skier Vanessa Knight who was at Copper Mountain, Colorado for the IPC Nor-Am Cup.

((Wikinews)) We’re interviewing Vanessa Knight, who’s from Canada.

Vanessa Knight: That’s right!

((WN)) And what kind of skier are you?

Vanessa Knight: I am a disabled racer. I have a left arm amputation and I’m a speed skier.

((WN)) So you’re one of the standing skiers.

Vanessa Knight: Yes.

((WN)) I’ve been asking a lot of Paralympic disability skiers, what is the craziest skier of the slope? The standing ones, the blind ones, or the mono skiers?

Vanessa Knight: Oh my God, the blind ones for sure. I couldn’t imagine throwing myself down a hill without seeing anything. Especially the B1s. They have duct tape on their goggles.

((WN)) Where from Canada are you from?

Vanessa Knight: I’m from Quebec. Montreal.

((WN)) And how long have you been skiing?

Vanessa Knight: I’ve just entered my fourth year.

((WN)) And are you going to Sochi?

Vanessa Knight: I hope so!

((WN)) Are you going to beat… oh! Australia doesn’t have any skiers for you to beat. Do you think the level of competition for women’s disability skiing is high enough to give the sport a future?

Vanessa Knight: I think the level of competition is high enough, yes. But I still think we need more racers and people to get involved and really promote the sport, because, I mean, the more the merrier, right?

((WN)) Why are there so many men in skiing compared to women?

Vanessa Knight: I guess some girls are just scared and they don’t want to throw themselves out there. But I’m not like that and neither are the rest of the girls here. They’re not afraid to throw themselves down a hill and go fast.

((WN)) Do you think skiers are some of the craziest Paralympic athletes?

Vanessa Knight: Oh definitely.

((WN)) Is there anything you want to say about disability skiing in Canada that people in Australia or the world should know?

Vanessa Knight: Pretty much to say: It’s really cold in Canada. And we love it!

Monday, September 2, 2013

Nelson Mandela has left hospital to return to his home in Johannesburg, in a critical condition, South African officials said on Sunday.

The 95-year-old anti-apartheid leader and former South African president has spent nearly three months in hospital for treatment of a recurring lung infection and has returned to his residence in Johannesburg where he will continue to recover.

A statement from the office of current South African president Jacob Zuma confirmed Mandela homecoming:

“His teams of doctors are convinced that he will receive the same level of intensive care at his Houghton home that he received in Pretoria.”

“His home has been reconfigured to allow him to receive intensive care there. The health care personal providing care at his home are the very same who provided care to him in hospital.”

Several ambulances and TV crews gathered outside Mandela’s home in the Houghton suburb of Johannesburg on Sunday, where well-wishers gathered to pray for his recovery.

Mandela’s last public appearance was at the 2010 football World Cup, held in South Africa.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Dave Arneson, co-creator of the first roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons, died on Tuesday of cancer, at the age of 61.

A close friend of Arneson, Bob Meyer, reported on April 5 that he had taken a turn for the worse and was admitted to a hospital. Family later confirmed that he was in a facility “where we can focus on keeping him comfortable.” Reported at that time, the doctor indicated that he had days to live.

The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design in 1984 inducted Arneson into their Hall of Fame. Pyramid Magazine in 1999 named him as one of The Millennium’s Most Influential Persons, “at least in the realm of adventure gaming”.

Arneson started out as a wargamer including naval games. He soon developed some for his personal use due to the major publishers’ slow release of games. With David Wesley and the other members of the Midwest Military Simulation Association, Arneson developed the basis of modern role-playing games with individual miniatures representing one person and having non-military objectives.

Arneson attended the University of Minnesota as a history student. He was a founder, along with Gary Gygax, of the Castle & Crusade Society as a medieval miniature chapter of the International Federation of Wargamers. With Gygax in 1972, he authored Don’t Give Up the Ship!, a naval wargame.

Arneson’s Blackmoor was the first role-playing game, a genre in which players describe their characters in thorough detail and can attempt almost any action the character plausibly could. Ernest Gary Gygax, then a close friend of Arneson, worked with him during 1972–73 to develop the extensive set of rules (in this case three volumes) that such a game requires. This became the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons. With his experience with David Wesley, Arneson tried it with fantasy miniatures free style calling his game, Blackmoor. He then latched on Gygax’s Chainmail miniature game and Fantasy supplement for resolution of battles. He showed Gygax what he was doing. Gygax got involved and started preparing a set of rules to supplement Chainmail. They shopped the game, Dungeons & Dragons, around to various gaming companies but got turned down. Gygax started a business partnership, Tactical Studies Rules, to publish the game in 1974. The game launched a whole new category in gaming.

Although not involved with rulebooks for later editions of D&D, Arneson did create adventure modules for later editions.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

German researchers have found that natural methods of family planning like the symptothermal method (STM) are as effective as modern contraceptives. This finding challenges the common conception that natural methods of birth control are the least effective among all the family planning methods that are available today.

In 1985, scientists at University of Heidelberg started a prospective, longitudinal study of 900 women using the symptothermal method for family planning (not compared to another population). The symptothermal method requires a woman to define her fertile interval during the monthly cycle through measuring body temperature and observing cervical secretions.

It was found that the lowest pregnancy levels (an average 0.43 pregnancies per 100 women per year, i.e. 13 cycles, with 95% confidence intervals of 0.05-1.55) were among women who abstained from sex contact or practiced non-penetrative sex during their most fertile period (as defined by the symptothermal method). The rate was slightly higher (0.59 pregnancies per 100 women per year) among women who used barrier methods of contraception (for example, a condom) during the same period.

These figures indicate that the symptothermal method might be reliable, but more research is needed to increase the statistical power of the data. Scientists consider a method of contraception to be highly effective if the pregnancy rate is less than one pregnancy per 100 women per year when used properly (the upper limit of confidence was 1.55 in this case, but the average 0.43).

The study reported a dropout rate of 9.2 per 100 woman. Study participants indicated that this was either due to the fact that they no longer wished to participate, or that they wanted to achieve pregnancy, for medical reasons, because they separated from their partner, etc.

Surprisingly enough, the rate of pregnancy among women who had sex during their fertile period turned out to be only 7.46 pregnancies per 100 women per year, although the rate was four times higher than what could be expected. The researchers say these women had sex on the boundaries of their fertile periods.

Taken together, these findings suggest that the symptothermal method of contraception is worthy of further research, as a possible future option for those who for some physical or religious reasons cannot use other family planning methods.

Friday, September 23, 2005

On the corner of Golden Gate Ave. and Jones St. in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, right next to the Civic Center you can see a throng of low-income and homeless people lining up outside of St. Anthony’s Dining Room hall which opens up it’s doors everyday at 11:30 a.m. Volunteers dressed in St. Anthony Foundation shirts help keep the lines moving as hundreds of homeless and low income people shuffle their way towards the dining hall underneath the watchful eyes of a small statue of St. Francis of Assisi.

“There’s a lot of people who go hungry out here and it ain’t right.” says Jimmy Scott, a slightly brawny 44-year-old black man who has been living homeless in San Francisco for the past three years. “There are families out here with kids and everything and they have to walk around all night just to stay awake so they don’t get hurt or killed…Right here in the U.S. this is going on…it ain’t right.”

The dining hall, which has been open for the past 54 years, is owned by the St. Anthony Foundation which helps low income and homeless people and families in the Civic Center, Tenderloin, and SOMA areas with clothing, shelter, food, drug rehabilitation, and many other services. St. Anthony’s administrative offices are found at 121 Golden Gate Ave. with the majority of the foundation’s buildings on Golden Gate Ave. and Jones St.

“We are right in the heart of the homeless population of San Francisco,” says Barry Stenger, 55, who’s been working for the St. Anthony Foundation for one year, and is the Director of Development and Communications, “and people are pushed here because of the economic forces of San Francisco because it’s hard to be upper middle class in San Francisco.”

According to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, “San Francisco’s cost of living remains one of the highest in the country” with the average household income in San Francisco being around $76,400 and the average price of housing being $543,000. Average household income for the United States in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was $42,409 and the average price of housing for the United States according to the National Association of Realtors was $185,200 in 2004.

“We served our 32 millionth meal on Tuesday,” said Stenger, “and we serve 2,500 meals a day. Some of our people who work here actually get served [food] here because they spend all their money towards rent and medical costs.”

The St. Anthony Foundation was started by Fr. Alfred Boeddeker in 1950 one year after Fr. Boeddeker became pastor of St. Boniface church on Golden Gate St. where he was baptized as a child. During his lifetime, according to the foundation’s website, he was referred to as the “Patron St. of the Tenderloin” and had Boeddeker park named after him because of his, and his foundation’s, achievements with helping out the homeless and low income community.

“[St. Anthony’s] is a good thing,” said Jimmy Scott, “they provide a good service and they feed people and they clothe them and provide furniture when you get housing and give you groceries when you have AIDS. It’s a good little organization.”

“Our dining room is open 365 days a year.” Said Stenger. “Our other facilities are open seven days a week. We have a residence for senior women and our [free medical] clinic is open five days a week and we also have a furniture and clothing store. We have 12 programs all together.”

Some of those programs are the Father Alfred Center which provides 61 men two programs for getting out of drug and alcohol abuse, the Employment Program/Learning Center which helps participants in educational and employment opportunities and provides each one with a personal staff advisor, and a Senior Outreach and Support Services center which states its mission is to “promote independence, self determination, and alleviate isolation” for seniors who are 60 and older.

A few homeless people who were interviewed complained that St. Anthony’s had some staff who were rude and that they were kicked out of the dining hall; other homeless within the area refuted those claims saying St. Anthony’s has nice staff and only kicks people out who cause trouble.

“It’s a good place and good people. Everybody is so kind and so respectful and everything is under control.” Said John Henderson, a tall and skinny 57-year-old homeless black man who has only been living in San Francisco for close to two months because he recently moved there from Phoenix, Arizona. “It’s pretty cool because they’re under control because yesterday I saw at Glide [Memorial Church which also has services for the poor and low income] and they were handing out food boxes and people were just rushing in and the woman in charge there was freaking out and so she just sat down. That would never happen at St. Anthony’s.”

“And they clean too!” Henderson said laughing with a grin on his face referring to the fact that there are no drugs allowed in the premises. “Not that Glide ain’t clean if you know what I mean.”

“We [also] have a whole division that deals with justice education and advocacy to change the system that brings people to our doorstep.” Said Stenger. “We hear a lot of appreciation from the people we serve. We get a lot of testimony from our clients who have become clean and sober. Sometimes we have to push them a little to get them out the door because they love the [foundation] so much because it has changed their lives.”

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.