Show Creativity Par Excellence With Graphic Designer Jobs}

Show creativity par excellence with graphic designer jobs

by

pradeepWe all have seen and enjoyed the breath taking visual effects and brilliant animations in movies, but have you ever wondered who is instrumental in planning, designing and executing these effects? The whole analysis and creative input is put forward by graphic designers working behind the scenes that adds to the thrill and excitement of a stunt performed by the hero or can change the whole look of an advertisement or news item.

The graphic designer is a key person who solves all the problems related to the visual media. The designer creates the overall layout and design of magazines, newspapers, journals, corporate logos and publicity materials to name a few. They are also involved in developing web pages, websites, multimedia projects and other creative things. Graphic designer jobs is highly creative and must possess the ability to visualise the concept and think out of the box to make his mark.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYhhfHYZa5s[/youtube]

Creativity, communication and problem-solving skills are essential for a designer and also the knowledge of computers and various design developing softwares. It is very important that a designer is aware of new softwares and latest trends in the industry. A bachelor’s degree or diploma in graphic design or animation is usually required to start a career in this field. For those who have a degree in other fields but want to take up designing can pursue courses offered by private colleges and design studios also. The course includes studio art, principles of design, computerized design, commercial graphics production, printing techniques and web site design. One can choose the course of choice or go for a specialised field as per interest like animation, wed designing and print designing etc. The field is very vast and highly competitive.

The scope and opportunities for a graphic designer are immense. Graphic designers, art-workers, design management professionals, art directors, creative directors, web designers and visualisers are some of the options available in this field. They can find work in advertising agencies, news or entertainment channels, films, marketing firms, magazines, newspapers, educational institutes etc. to name a few.

The demand for graphic designer jobs and animation experts has also increased in websites, mobile phones and other interactive media. Freelance graphic designer jobs is also a good idea to unleash the talent and creativity possessed by an individual. The remuneration in the field is handsome and with experience and time one can earn quite a lot. So, if you have creativity par excellence then graphic design job is a wise option to unleash your talent.

Know more about

jobs india

and

graphic designer jobs

.

Article Source:

eArticlesOnline.com}

Posted by in School Academy - Comments (0)
24 May

Nine firefighters killed in South Carolina blaze

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Nine firefighters were killed on Monday while battling a massive fire at a furniture warehouse in Charleston, South Carolina.

Firefighters were called to the scene of a massive blaze at the Sofa Super Store in Charleston, S.C. at around 6:30 p.m. EST. At around 7 p.m., nine firefighters were sent inside the inferno to rescue people who were trapped inside the building. They rescued two before the ceiling collapsed on top of them. All nine firefighters who were inside the warehouse died. They are:

  • Capt. William Hutchinson, 48
  • Capt. Mike Benke, 49
  • Capt. Louis Mulkey, 34
  • FF Mark Kelsey, 40
  • FF Bradford Baity, 37
  • FF Michael French, 27
  • FF James “Earl” Drayton, 56
  • FF Brandon Thompson, 27
  • FF Melven Champaign, 46

The disaster recalls Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire that killed six firefighters on Dec. 3, 1999, in Worcester, Massachusetts. The chief of the Worcester Fire Department flew down to South Carolina for the memorial service.

Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
24 May

One in five Americans finds socialism superior, poll says

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Twenty percent of the American public believes that socialism is superior to capitalism, says a poll by Rasmussen Reports released on Thursday, April 9.

Asked the question “Which is a better system – capitalism or socialism?”, 53% of those polled found capitalism the better system, 20% preferred socialism, and 27% were unsure. The survey did not define either capitalism or socialism, but Rasmussen also cites a December 2008 result saying that 15% of Americans prefer a government-managed economy.

Analysis of the poll’s data by website FiveThirtyEight.com furthermore found that support for capitalism was closely correlated with income; respondents earning under $20,000 a year having an eight percentage point preference for capitalism, while those earning more than $100,000 a year expressed a fifty-seven percentage point preference for capitalism. Rasmussen noted that socialism had much broader support among people under 30, where 33% support socialism and 37% support capitalism, than among any other age group.

Socialism has found support in several countries, with member parties of the Socialist International in government in over 50 countries around the world and with several other regimes describing themselves as socialist or communist; the 20% result Rasmussen finds is comparable to the electoral support for the New Democratic Party in Canada. Support for an independent socialist movement in the United States, however, has historically been limited. Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs won 6.1% of the popular vote in 1912, and two members of the Socialist Party, Victor L. Berger and Meyer London, were elected to the United States Congress before the Great Depression. This brief flirtation with socialism is contrasted against the times during and following the First World War and Second World War, which were marked by “Red scares” — periods of pronounced anti-communism — in the United States.

Currently, only a single member of the United States Congress describes himself as a socialist: Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The Social Democrats USA (SD USA), one of the successors of the Socialist Party of America, has expressed solidarity with the 76-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Sanders founded in 1991. It supports positions such as a living wage, universal health care, and the right of workers to form trade unions and engage in collective bargaining.

SD USA executive director Gabriel McClosky-Ross offered Wikinews an exclusive statement on the Rasmussen poll result:

I joined the Socialist Party, USA in 1972, when I was 16. That was seven months before the name change to Social Democrats, USA. I was a subscriber to the Party’s publication, New America for four years by that point. I grew up in a Catholic working class neighborhood. Many of my neighbors read the Catholic Worker. However, I would not meet another self described social democrat or democratic socialist who was close to my age until I completed college and entered the seminary when I was 21. That was not for a lack of my attempts at persuasion. Now when I speak on behalf of the Social Democrats, I meet many people who call themselves socialists or they are considering doing so.

Two things have changed. First, Stalinism in the Soviet Union finally and thankfully collapsed and The Peoples’ Republic of China is a transparently “state capitalist” regime. Second, the propaganda machine that equated private ownership of productive property with democracy is spurting under onslaught of facts that indicate just the opposite. There were two presidential elections in a row were[sic] the count look[sic] fishy and the money trail lead to the top of Republican Party. Then the banks collapsed and it was apparent that the largest financial institutions in the world were involved in sub-prime mortgage ponzi schemes.

I am not sure whether to celebrate or lament becoming an economist and union organizer instead of a priest given the current crisis. As my mentor, Michael Harrington, was fond of saying there are many kinds of socialism. Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, history’s three greatest mass murderers, all called themselves socialists. Hopefully, America is ready for a broad social democratic movement that works with trade unions and community organizations for national health care, re-industrialization, ecologically friendly mass transit, infrastructure repair, and eventually a democratization of our economy. Building such a movement will be very hard work. The cyber-world has many benefits, but people seemed to be convinced that social change can occur by email. It is great shame, that it takes 8.2% unemployment and massive economic dislocation to push people back to real time organizing and protest.

Simply that people are angry is not enough. The Bolsheviks, Fascists, and Nazis all road[sic] waves of mass discontent to power. A peoples’ movement must be militantly democratic and refuse to make common cause with even the ‘mildest and friendliest totalitarians.’ A truly democratic movement for social democracy must transcend the narrow special interest group politics that has made up most of political discourse since the protests against the Vietnam War. To transcend the current economic crisis we need a full employment economy and that means a movement concentrated on ‘red letter’ social democratic issues of democratic worker and community control of industry.

While support for socialism in the United States may be growing, Rasmussen’s polling finds that absolute majorities of the American public support both capitalism and free markets. Meanwhile, anti-communist sentiment remains strong in many segments of the US population, with opposition to socialism being a defining feature of Conservatism in the United States.

In an exclusive statement to Wikinews, John F. McManus, President of the anti-socialist John Birch Society, offered the John Birch Society’s position on the poll result:

If 20 percent of the American people prefer socialism, it is likely that half believe it has more to do with sociability that it has to do with an economic system that places government in control of their lives. Ask these 20 percent what socialism truly is and the response will rarely point to the great hero of all socialists, Karl Marx.

The John Birch Society believes that everyone is a capitalist. If one starts out defining capital as the means of production (which is its definition), then everyone — from the primitive fisherman to the corporate executive — uses capital and is a capitalist.

The distinction that most don’t make is who owns and controls the capital. Does each individual have the right to own his means of production — even a fishing pole? Or does the government own and/or control all the means of production?

When each individual has the right to own capital (property), there is freedom — up to the point where no one is permitted to impede someone else’s similar right. Where socialism reigns, the government dominates, either completely a la communism or essentially a la fascism (Nazi-style or Mussolini-style).

Most Americans are victims of an absolutely horrible educational system. Too many have been persuaded that government should take care of them. We tell such fools that, if that’s what they want, they should turn themselves in at the local prison where they will be cared for 24 hours a day. We ask them to stop advocating converting our entire nation into what effectively will be a coast-to-coast prison.

The proper role of government can never be more than the protection of the lives, liberty and property of the people who pay for it. The improper role of government is to take care of the people — which it always does poorly and does so almost always as a grab for power rather than a supposedly noble concern for the downtrodden.

Americans currently most often cite the economy as their number one concern in polls, ahead of terrorism. In December 2008, workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago staged a union-backed factory occupation in a fight against company management — a return to tactics of direct action from the historically more subdued American organized labor movement.

On April 10 2009, Alabama representative Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama) told the Birmingham News that seventeen members of the US House of Representatives are socialists. He did not specify which members.

Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
24 May

Early morning fire kills four New York group home residents

Sunday, March 22, 2009

After an early morning fire began, four out of the nine people living at the Riverview Individual Residential Alternative group home located in Wells, New York were killed by the blaze. The Sunmount Developmental Disabilities Services Office, which supervises the home, told the media that the fire started at approximately 5:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time. Two staff members were at the home at the time, who safely evacuated four of the five survivors.

The names of the residents killed in the fire were not able to be released due to New York’s Mental Hygiene Law, but are able to be identified as two adult men, aged 32 and 52, and two adult women, aged 43 and 60. A 71-year-old male was injured in the fire, and was taken to a hospital in Utica, a nearby city. The other four residents have been relocated to an unnamed group home. Both staff members are also being examined at the hospital.

“On behalf of all New Yorkers, I wish to extend my heartfelt condolences to the families, loved ones and friends of the four victims and to continue to pray for the full recovery of those five people and two staff members who survived this incident. I also want to express my thanks and appreciation for the first responders and volunteers who worked swiftly and diligently to respond to this tragedy,” David Patterson, the governor of New York, said to the media.

The exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined. However, the New York Civil Liberties Union stated that “the blaze appears to have been an electrical fire and the sprinkler system was knocked out immediately.” They also called for “an immediate investigation into the causes of and contributing factors of the fire.”

The New York State Department of State Office of Fire Prevention and Control is currently investigating the causes of the blaze, with help from New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the New York State Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities.

Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
24 May

Messi scores hat-trick as Barça become table toppers

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Yesterday, FC Barcelona collected three points defeating Granada-based football club Granada CF 4–0 at Camp Nou in Barcelona in a La Liga match and became league leaders again.

Barcelona had greater ball possession. The match saw five yellow cards. Four away players and Alexis Vidal of Barcelona were yellow carded. More than thirty fouls were committed in the match. Lionel Messi scored the first goal of the match in the 8th minute, assisted by debutant Arda Turan. Minutes later, Uruguayan Luis Suárez assisted Messi and he netted the second goal in the 14th minute. Rubén Rochina was the first player to be booked in the 29th minute. First half ended in 2–0 with one yellow card shown.

I’m very satisfied with how the team played.

In the second half Edgar Méndez and David Lombán of Granada were booked in 56th and 57th minute. In the next minute, Sergi Roberto assisted Brazilian Neymar whose try to net a goal was saved, but the ball deflected and Messi scored the third goal of the match, completing his hat-trick.

Dória was yellow carded at the 60th minute. Three minuted later, Alex Vidal was yellow carded for a bad foul. Neymar, in the 83rd minute, scored the fourth goal of the match assisted by Suárez.

After the match, Barcelona manager Luis Enrique said “I’m very satisfied with how the team played. Everybody was focused from the beginning and the players knew how important it was to win these three points.”

Also yesterday Zinedine Zidane, recently appointed Real Madrid’s new manager, secured a 5–0 win against Deportivo with Welsh winger Gareth Bale scoring a hat-trick as well.

January 9, 2016
FC Barcelona 4–0 Granada CF Camp Nou, Barcelona Attendance: 70,720 Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo, Spain
8′ Lionel Messi 14′ Lionel Messi 58′ Lionel Messi 83′ Neymar 63′ Aleix Vidal (2–0) HT 29′ Rubén Rochina 56′ Edgar Méndez 57′ David Lombán 60′ Doria
Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
24 May

No debt yet: Iceland’s President vetoes repayment of Icesave losses

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, President of Iceland, refused to sign a bill to pay US$5 billion (£3.1 billion) to Holland and the UK. Savers in those countries lost out when Icesave‘s parent bank Landsbanki collapsed and was nationalised alongside Glitnir and Kaupthing.

The governments of those nations paid out the money individuals had lost and the bill is designed to compensate them. However, the bill is unpopular with the public as 70% of them are said to oppose the measure, which critics have claimed will slow recovery for the Icelandic economy. A petition was given to the President demanding he refuse to sign the bill.

The constitution states that there must now be a public referendum on the issue. The UK has threatened the island nation’s 320,000 inhabitants with economic isolation and has requested intervention from the European Union, which is currently considering an application from Iceland for membership. The national assembly has brought forward a planned meeting from the 26th to Friday.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphéðinsson met with every foreign ambassador in Iceland yesterday to discuss the matter. He also met with Mark Flanagan of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which currently has a deal to loan funds to Iceland. Flanagan later said that so long as the IMF scheme was funded repayment of the Icesave money did not affect this.

Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
24 May

Eight dead in Goleta California rampage

Saturday, February 4, 2006

Jennifer San Marco allegedly shot and killed herself, as well as an ex-neighbor and six postal workers at the Santa Barbara Processing and Distribution Center in Goleta, California says Santa Barbara County Sheriffs department. Authorities say that Marco believed that she was threatened by a conspiracy among the workers at the facility.

Sheriff Sergeant Erik Raney has said that Marco apparently left writings in her New Mexico desert home “alluding to a vague plot involving the mail-sorting plant, a local medical facility and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department. She obviously felt that the post office was out to get her in one way or another,” he said. “That establishes as good of a motive (for the killings) as we can determine at this point.”

Raney said that the writings were described to him as “ramblings,” but Raney says, “they alluded to a conspiracy.”

In her home, investigators also found a check payable to ‘cash’ with the notation “will,” which could indicate that Marco left a will, “and that may shed more light on what’s happened here,” said Raney.

Marco has a history of mental illness, but was still able to purchase a firearm and ammunition from Ace Pawn and Antiques, owned by Paul Castillo.

Castillo said, “she (Marco) bought the gun for $325.00 without saying why she needed the weapon. She filled out an application for a background check, which didn’t turn up any problems, and picked up the gun two days later.”

Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
24 May

Get Rid Of Hitchhikers With Ships Sandblasting In Anderson, Sc

byAlma Abell

Ships are subjected to quite a few hazards over the course of their lifetimes. Whether on the move or waiting in the dock for their next trip, water alone holds plenty of reasons to be concerned. Particularly in the warm, salt-ridden waters of the southern seas, corrosion and paint blistering are distinct possibilities. With barnacles, muscles, bacteria, various forms of algae and other hitchhikers lurking everywhere, routine hull maintenance is vital to keeping a ship in service.

Simple cleaning and scraping are sometimes enough to remove all the buildup and marine life clinging to a ship’s surface, but over time, the need for a more in-depth approach becomes imminent. Ships sandblasting in Anderson SC removes those elements to reveal the unblemished metal underneath all those layers of scum, old paint, and protectant. Though these may sound like nothing more than cosmetic issues, they can actually cause quite a few complications.

On the most basic level, corrosion is a definitive factor. It starts with surface stains making the paint appear less-than-perfect, but it ultimately wears away at the ship itself. Aside from the paint job, all this buildup will eventually affect a ship’s speed, maneuverability and efficiency. Eventually, it’ll begin to eat through the body of the ship and compromise its structural integrity.

Ships Sandblasting in Anderson SC tends to be a complicated process. It can’t be performed just anywhere; in fact, the ship must be dry-docked in order to be stripped of its paint and layers of waterborne organisms. At the same time, just where sandblasting is allowed to take place is dictated by federal regulations. Paint scoured off the hull of a ship is considered to be an environmental hazard, so it must be well contained and properly disposed of.

Though plenty of people have small-scale sandblasting equipment at home, these tools aren’t capable of holding up to the demands of abrading an entire ship. Professional training is also key as untrained individuals could end up doing more damage to the ship than intended. Click here to learn more about the sandblasting process as well as its importance and the potential dangers involved.

Posted by in Murals - Comments (0)
24 May

Dublin mayor suggests not sending Irish representative to Israel for Eurovision 2019; two European Parliament lawmakers support boycott

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

On Sunday, Dublin’s Lord Mayor Mícheál MacDonncha spoke about not sending Irish representatives to the next year’s Eurovision Song Contest, asserting Palestine solidarity. The announcement came just one day after Israeli singer Netta won this year’s Eurovision in Portuguese capital Lisbon. Two European Parliament lawmakers from Ireland, Lynn Boylann and Nessa Childers, endorsed boycotting next year’s contest.

Speaking to news site Dublin Live, MacDonncha said next year’s contest should be boycotted to display solidarity with Palestineans. “I don’t think we should send a representative”, the mayor said. “I think the horrific ordeal of the Palestinian people needs to be highlighted”, MacDonncha said.

After winning this year’s contest, 25-year-old Netta, who performed Toy featuring chicken dance, chicken noises, and Japanese cultural references criticized as cultural appropriation, said, “Thank you for celebrating diversity. Thank you! I love my country. Next year in Jerusalem!” The country which wins the song contest hosts next year’s iteration of Eurovision. Israel claims Jerusalem, including East Jerusalem. Palestine claims East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel-Palestine conflict is on-going for years. Clashes between Israel and Palestine has happened several times. This Monday, more than 50 Palestine civilians were killed in Gaza in a clash against Israeli forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tweet congratulated Netta after her victory and said, “Netta, you are a real dear. You brought a lot of honour to the State of Israel! Next year in Jerusalem!”((he))Hebrew language: !???, ?? ???? ??????. ???? ???? ???? ?????? ?????! ???? ???? ? Israel came to control East Jerusalem as a part of the 1967 Arab-Israel War. Legal sovereignty of Israel’s claim of the entire city is not globally acknowledged. Until this Monday, no country in the world had its Israeli embassy in Jerusalem; On Monday, Israel’s ally the United States shifted its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

MacDonncha, speaking to Dublin Live, said, “The Irish-Palestinean solidarity campaign has collected names of 500 artists who have said they would not work in the State of Israel, that they would boycott in the protest and the treatment of Palestinean people”. At the time of the contest, Ireland regional lawmaker Órla Nic Biorna tweeted, “Shocked at the support for Israel tonight in the Eurovision. People seem to forget that they [Israel] are a Zionist state illegally occupying Palestine”.

Regarding hosting the contest in Jerusalem, European Parliament lawmaker Nessa Childers wrote on Twitter, “Jerusalem? The mind boggles. I thought Tel Aviv.” Lynn Boylan of the Sinn Féin party tweeted saying, “Israel wins Eurovision so let’s make BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] more successful than ever in 2019.” Lawmaker Emmett O’Brien replied to Boylan saying “So much pathetic hate against Israel” and later added, “How many times has Palestine been offered peace? Will you condemn the barbarity of Hamas?”

MacDonncha is banned from entering Israel. Last month, the Israeli Interior ministry tried to bar MacDonncha’s entry to Israel. The mayor was invited by the Palestinian Authority for a conference. However, reportedly the misspelt name of MacDonncha failed to bar him from arriving at Israeli capital Tel Aviv from which he went to Ramallah for the conference. Earlier, the Dublin city council passed a resolution to endorse and support the Palestine-led Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement. The resolution read, “Since its violent establishment in 1948 through the ethnic cleansing of more than half of the indigenous people of Palestine, the state of Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights and has refused to comply with international law […] this City Council fully supports and endorses the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for freedom, equality, and justice.”

Dublin’s mayor wasn’t the only one to promote a boycott. Swedish political party Vänsterpartiet Malmö released a statement boycotting the next year’s Eurovision saying, “We in the Left Party of Malmö think it is vital to do everything to condemn the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people. We therefore urge the Eurovision Song Contest to boycott Israel. It is altogether unreasonable for Israel to host this gigantic music contest while the occupation goes on. We want Israel to be excluded from Eurovision on humanitarian grounds. We can not continue dancing while the persecution of the Palestinian people continues. Boycott Israel now!”((sv))Swedish language: Vi i Vänsterpartiet Malmö menar att det är av största vikt att göra allt för att fördöma de brott som Israel begår mot det palestinska folket. Vi uppmanar därför Eurovision Song Contest att bojkotta Israel. Det är fullständigt orimligt att Israel får arrangera denna gigantiska musiktävling samtidigt som ockupationen pågår. Vi vill att Israel utesluts från Eurovision på humanitära grunder. Vi kan inte fortsätta dansa samtidigt som övergreppen mot det palestinska folket fortsätter. Bojkotta Israel nu!

Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
23 May

Congressional computers continue to be used to vandalize Wikipedia

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

This article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation, one of its projects, or people related to it. Wikinews is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikinews contributors have discovered that members of the United States Congress or members of their staff have recently been making questionable edits to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia anyone can edit. This continues the trend identified by four exclusive Wikinews reports over a four-year period exposing questionable and fraudulent edits made beginning in 2005 by Congress members or staff.

Beginning in 2006, Wikinews reported that members of Congress or their staff were vandalizing Wikipedia by removing critical information in various articles, or adding false or offensive information. These edits were and continue to be done using computers owned or operated by the United States government.

Sorry–House of Reps IPs should not be editing Wikipedia, even other office’s pages on lunch break.

In this new investigation, Wikinews has found that at least two of the three major Internet Protocol Addresses (IP) attached to computers used by members of the U.S. House of Representatives and their staff have been the source of Wikipedia edits for several years. As recently as April 2009 they have been adding or removing false and/or offensive information from articles related to political figures or members of Congress.

Although the IP addresses belong exclusively to the U.S Congress as a whole, they are linked to many different computers throughout the U.S. which are used by many different House representatives or their staff members. In response to an edit, another Wikipedia contributor posts a message on the user discussion page for the IP address, advising anyone that may view the page that the address belongs to Congress.

In January, one individual using a Congressional computer removed a source in an article. Five minutes later, using the same congressional IP address, someone replaced the source with an apology saying, “sorry–House of Reps IPs should not be editing [Wikipedia], even other office’s pages on lunch break.” Despite the advisories, Wikinews has found that the individuals continued to make vandal-like edits to the encyclopedia.

In one instance, Wikinews found that someone with one of the IP addresses, 143.231.249.141, began to edit the Wikipedia article for Steve Austria, the Republican representative for Ohio’s 7th congressional district. The individual began to edit on March 18, 2009 at 23:32 UTC. He or she used the official House of Representatives gateway to remove a section of information relating to inaccurate comments Austria made about The Great Depression. Austria stated in an interview with The Columbus Dispatch in February that Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1933 caused the U.S. to go into a depression.

“When Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression. … He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That’s just history,” said Austria during the February 11 interview. He later admitted that his statement was wrong, saying Roosevelt’s spending “did not have the desired effect,” which caused the depression. Exactly two minutes later on March 18, the same IP address removed information relating to bloggers accusing Austria of plagiarism in 2008. They accused him of taking credit for a column that was published in his name in the Xenia Gazette on September 2, 2008. Bloggers had discovered that the column was a direct copy of a report on the history of Labor Day originally published by the U.S. Department of Labor. The edits were reverted, the last being over four hours after the information was removed. Despite some constructive edits, such as correcting the spelling of Wisconsin congressman Steve Kagen’s name and correcting grammatical errors, the same IP removed the information in both sections a total of six times from March 18 to April 24, 2009.

After seeing the suspicious edits, Wikinews examined the edit history for Austria’s article to see if any other suspicious edits were made. After a brief search, Wikinews discovered that the IP address 65.189.244.162 removed the same information just 15 days earlier on March 3, being the first address to remove the information. Only one edit has been made to Wikipedia from that IP address so far. After tracing the address, Wikinews discovered the person who made the edits lives in or near Fairborn, which is located 8.5 miles from Beavercreek, where Austria currently resides. Austria also grew up in Xenia which is located just 12 miles from Fairborn and only 8 miles from Beavercreek.

Another individual, with the IP address 75.187.63.132, also removed the allegations of plagiarism from Austria’s article in February. The individual removed what they called “Politically Motivated BS [bullshit]” from the article of Deborah Pryce, former congresswoman for Ohio’s 15th congressional district. The information was related to fundraisers between 2001 and 2004 that were held at restaurants belonging to convicted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. After tracing the IP address, Wikinews found that the edit was made from a computer located in Columbus, Ohio, the location of Pryce’s offices and one of the cities in Pryce’s district. Wikinews contacted Austria by e-mail for a statement, but so far there has been no response.

Following those discoveries, Wikinews investigated another IP address used by the U.S. House of Representatives. On April 30, 2009, the address 143.231.249.138 made an edit that listed Devin Nunes, the representative for California’s 21st congressional district, as being a member of the Nazi Party. The address also made less questionable edits, but after investigating further, it was discovered that the IP address removed critical information on April 29 from the article of Gregory Meeks, the representative for New York’s 6th congressional district. The information removed was related to a column by the the New York Times which stated that Meeks initially supported former 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama in the race for the White House. According to the Times, Meeks changed his support to Obama because he was part of “a young black political class [which was] seeking to assert the neighborhood’s power against what it sees as an older establishment, based in Harlem, that has long exercised disproportionate influence in New York City.”

The address 143.231.249.138 was also responsible for adding highly biased statements to articles related to abortion. On March 16, 2009 it altered the Wikipedia article Crisis pregnancy center, adding that the centers were “abortion mills, which exist only to kill people, also present themselves as medical facilities.” On March 20, the IP changed the Project Rachel article to include, “millions of women have deep regrets and, often, suffer psychological problems after undergoing an abortion–a fact the abortion industry and mass media will not admit.” 143.231.249.141 also added racial slurs and references to gay pedophilia into William A. Donohue’s article in February, saying he has “participated in the controversial act of ‘tabeling’, in which he takes a small child, places him upon a table, and ‘puts the lord inside him.'”

In an attempt to find out where the edits were being made and by whom, Wikinews contacted the Electronic Frontier Foundation to receive advice on how to file an information request with the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The request would have been made to release the names of the individuals and offices responsible for the edits. However, according to Marcia Hofmann, a staff attorney for the EFF, who specializes in FOIA related matters, the U.S. government is not required to provide the information.

“None of the U.S. open government laws extends to records in the possession of members of Congress or their employees. Put differently, it’s not so much a question of what the information is (identities of congressional staff) as where the information is (in congressional offices, which aren’t covered by open government laws),” said Hoffmann in an exclusive interview with Wikinews. She also added that “FOIA [requests] cover records in executive branch agencies and departments” only.

Suspicious and/or fraudulent edits to Wikipedia made by Congress and other government entities were first reported by Wikinews in February 2006, after the U.S. government engaged in Wikipedia vandalism and other forms of perceived biased editing of articles. The House of Representatives IP addresses were briefly banned from editing Wikipedia articles in the wake of the initial controversy. A few days later, Wikinews reported that staff members of the offices of United States Senators, using Senate-linked IP addresses, also edited Wikipedia, in some cases, removing facts and sourced material from articles. In 2008, Wikinews also reported that staff members for then 2008 candidates for U.S. president Barack Obama and John McCain made questionable edits to Wikipedia.

Posted by in Uncategorized - Comments (0)
23 May
« Newer Posts — Older Posts »