Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Wednesday, authorities in the United States city of San Bruno, California have identified Nasim Aghdam as the shooter at YouTube’s headquarters wounding three individuals before a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The shooting occurred Tuesday with Aghdam, dressed in a white shirt, transversing the light security style campus to an outdoor eating courtyard opening fire with a semi-automatic handgun. The victims included a 36-year-old male listed as critical, a 32-year-old female listed as serious, and a 27-year-old list as fair condition. A fourth person was injured from a non-shooting related incident. All were taken to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital for treatment.

Aghdamn, according to witnesses, initiated the attack at 12:45 pm PST (1945 UTC). San Bruno Police arrived at YouTube’s headquarters at 12:48 pm PST (1948 UTC) and began searching for the shooter. YouTube employees have said there were upwards of twenty shots fired. Employees began sheltering in placed and made numerous 911 calls within minutes.

In 2009, Aghbam was quoted at US Marine Corps Camp Pendleton during a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protest saying, “For me, animal rights equal human rights.” The small protest was over the use of pigs as training tools for medical preparation.

According to individuals interviewed by KGO News, no one in the facility knew Aghdam. Her personal website mentions that she has many YouTube accounts and noticed a large decrease in viewers and traffic to the videos that she posted online using YouTube. She claims that her work was censored and “suppressed” by YouTube.

She writes: “There is no free speech in the real world and you will be suppressed for telling the truth that is not supported by the system. Videos of targeted users are filtered and merely relegated so that people can hardly see their videos.” According YouTube’s advertising policy smaller channels based on viewership would receive reduced advertising payments. Many of Aghdam’s smaller channels may have been affected by this policy. Investigators have yet to definitively declare Aghdam’s motive.

A number of misleading and fictional reports, referred to as fake news, proliferated the hours following the shooting. In one case, a fraudster took control of a legitimate Twitter account belonging to YouTube employee Vadim Lavrusik, who had already made some authentic posts about the event and began adding false posts peppered with homophobic language claiming that someone had gone missing. Twitter chief Jack Dorsey personally participated in efforts to remove this and other false Tweets. Other hoaxes included claims that the shooter was Buzzfeed reporter Jane Lytvynenko or comedian Sam Hyde.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Buffalo, New York —A woman in Buffalo, New York in the United States is in critical condition tonight at Sisters Of Charity Hospital after she accidentally set herself on fire.

The unnamed elderly woman was receiving oxygen for medical problems in her home and lit a cigarette, and the oxygen coming from her mask facilitated the ignition of her clothing, setting her on fire.

Despite her “severe” burns as described by firefighters on radio communications, she was still able to dial the emergency line in the U.S., 911.

In the U.S. only 4% of all residential fires were reportedly caused by smoking materials in 2002. These fires, however, were responsible for 19% of residential fire fatalities and 9% of injuries. The fatality rate due to smoking is nearly four times higher than the overall residential fire rate; injuries are more than twice as likely. Forty percent of all smoking fires start in the bedroom or living room/family room; in 35% of these fires, bedding or upholstered furniture are the items first ignited.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

The Wikimedia Board of Trustees recently announced that it would dramatically restructure the makeup of the board. The Board announced that there would now be three seats elected by the Wikimedia community, two seats elected by the Wikimedia chapters, one ‘community founder’ seat appointed by the Trustees, and four ‘specific expertise’ seats, also appointed by the Trustees.

Jan-Bart Vreede, Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees, gave Wikinews more information about the decision in a short email interview, which was carried out yesterday. Below is the text of the interview:

((Wikinews)) How long was this decision process in the works?

Jan-Bart: We have known that we need to carefully look at the board as a whole for quite a while. We weren’t sure how drastic our steps needed to be. We spend a large amount of time on this during our April board meeting, using the additional insights from our newest board members Michael Snow and Domas Mituzas. It took us a while after that fill in all the details. The election committee has been very patient in waiting for us to complete this process, because they were unable to move forward without us.

((WN)) Why did you chose to have a “community foundation person” position, a position not common among other non profits?

Jan-Bart: There have been and will always be discussions with regards to the position of Jimmy within the board, does he count as a community member or not. Keeping in mind his special role we thought it was best to take this opportunity to make his position clear as well. He does have a special seat which doesn’t go in any of the other categories. His seat is up for re-appointment every year (which Jimmy himself insisted on), the big difference is that if the seat is not taken by him, it is left vacant and the board reverts to 9 members. [Note-Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia Founder, is the person who will have the “community foundation” position]

((WN)) How/when will the elections be held for the new open seats?

Jan-Bart: This has been announced by the election committee today. Please note that these are only the community elected seats. The chapters are going to formulate their own process for filling the chapter-selected seats, this may or may not involve elections. [Note: Kwan Ting Chan announced on the Wikinews Water Cooler that candidates may nominate themselves for election between May 8 and May 22, and that the voting will occur between 1 June and 21 June. ]

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Myanmar police have beaten up to 700 protesters with batons, according to witnesses. The crowd was gathered near a pagoda in Rangoon, and included students and Buddhist monks. AFP reported that only monks were allowed to enter the pagoda, and Reuters has quoted witnesses as saying that tear gas was used to disperse the monks.

Some monks were taken away by police in trucks. This is the first time that Myanmar security forces have used violence against the protests, which are now in their ninth day.

Myanmar authorities have imposed a curfew from dusk until dawn, and have also banned public gatherings of more than five people. Troops and riot police have begun taking positions near monasteries, opposition party headquarters, and the house of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Comedian Zaganar was arrested at his home overnight. He has previously spoken publicly in support of the protests.

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, announced earlier today that the Australian government is following events in Myanmar closely, and urged the Myanmar government to show restraint. He also called for the respect of “the legitimate right of Myanmar citizens to peaceful protest.”