<div class= Wikinews discusses DRM and DMCA with Richard Stallman after GitHub re-enables public access to youtube-dl
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Wikinews discusses DRM and DMCA with Richard Stallman after GitHub re-enables public access to youtube-dl

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

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Screenshot showing how youtube-dl is used to download a YouTube video in the public domain.Image: user:acagastya.

On November 16, code-sharing and hosting service GitHub re-enabled the public access to youtube-dl repository, a software which can download videos from the internet via the command-line. This move comes after Mitchell Stoltz, a Senior Staff Attorney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), sent a letter to GitHub on the behalf of youtube-dl’s maintainers. The repository was previously blocked on October 23, after GitHub received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) take-down notice from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Started in July 2008, youtube-dl is a free/libré open source software written in Python which can download videos from various websites. Citing alleged violation of 17 U.S. Code § 1201 Circumvention of copyright protection systems, RIAA’s takedown notice had alleged youtube-dl was intended to circumvent the technological protection measures of streaming services and to redistribute music videos without authorisation. youtube-dl’s source code had a number of unit tests to check if the software works in different circumstances or not. Some of the test cases included URLs of some copyrighted songs.

Portrait of Mitch Stoltz, EFF’s atorney who countered the DMCA Claim.Image: Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In the letter to GitHub, EFF’s attorney Stoltz said “This file contains series of automated tests that verify the functionality of youtube-dl for streaming various types of video. The youtube-dl source code does not, of course, contain copies of these songs or any others […] the unit tests do not cause a permanent download or distribution of the songs they reference; they merely stream a few seconds of each song to verify the operation of youtube-dl. Streaming a small portion of a song in a non-permanent fashion to test the operation of an independently created software program is a fair use.” The letter stressed “youtube-dl does not decrypt video streams that are encrypted with commercial DRM technologies”.

The URLs to copyrighted songs were removed from the source code on November 16, and replaced with a test video that uploaded on YouTube by Philipp Hagemeister, former maintainer of youtube-dl. Philipp Hagemeister had previously spoken about the takedown with Wikinews.

youtube-dl comes with a small JavaScript interpreter where it acts as a web-browser would behave while receiving video data from the server. The script has “extractors” for various websites to handle videos from different sources. “Any software capable of running JavaScript code can derive the URL of the video stream and access the stream, regardless of whether the software has been approved by YouTube”, the letter read. It borrowed an analogy of Doors of Durin from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings for explanation: travelers come upon a door that has writing in a foreign language. When translated, the writing says “say ‘friend’ and enter.” The travelers say “friend” and the door opens. As with the writing on that door, YouTube presents instructions on accessing video streams to everyone who comes asking for it.

Hours after the public access was restored, Sergey M, one of the maintainers of youtube-dl wrote on GitHub, “We would like to thank @github for standing up for youtube-dl and making it possible to continue development without dropping any features. We appreciate [GitHub] for taking potential legal risks in this regard. We would also like to thank [EFF] and personally [Mitch Stoltz] for invaluable legal help. We would also like to heartily thank our main website hoster Uberspace who is currently being sued in Germany for hosting our essentially business card website and who have already spent thousands of Euros in their legal defense.”

Hours after GitHub restored the public access to the repository, Stoltz tweeted “I think of youtube-dl as a successor to the videocassette recorder. The VCR empowered people to take control of their personal use of free-to-air video, but it had to be saved from the copyright cartel. The same goes for youtube-dl. GitHub did the right thing here.”

Why Can’t You Download Videos on YouTube? How a 20-Year-Old Law Stops youtube-dl Users AND FarmersImage: Electronic Frontier Foundation.

youtube-dl is used by thousands of people around the world. Multiple Creative Commons-licensed and public domain videos on Wikimedia Commons are uploaded via a tool called video2commons, which relies on youtube-dl to download media. youtube-dl also lets users download videos from LiveLeak — a video-sharing platform for citizen journalism. Videos downloaded using youtube-dl are also used for the purpose of fair use, or for evidence.

When a copyright holder chooses to release their work, be it a photograph, a video, or audio, under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, they allow everyone to freely own, share or modify the work as long as the reusers properly attribute the author of the work. YouTube also hosts many audio and video recordings in the public domain which can be used for any purpose without any restrictions.

In the blog post announcing “youtube-dl is back”, GitHub said, “Although we did initially take the project down, we understand that just because code can be used to access copyrighted works doesn’t mean it can’t also be used to access works in non-infringing ways. We also understood that this project’s code has many legitimate purposes, including changing playback speeds for accessibility, preserving evidence in the fight for human rights, aiding journalists in fact-checking, and downloading Creative Commons-licensed or public domain videos.”

GitHub also announced any new 1201 takedown notices will be “carefully scrutinised by legal experts” to reject “unwarranted claims”, and said it will side with software developers if the claims are ambiguous. The announcement also mentioned GitHub Trust and Safety team would treat developer’s tickets as a “top priority”. GitHub also pledged donation of USD 1 million for developer defense fund “to help protect open source developers on GitHub from unwarranted DMCA Section 1201 takedown claims”.

GitHub had blocked public access to many forks of youtube-dl upon receiving the DMCA notice in October. At that time, Wikinews noted public access was not yet restored for the forked repositories listed in RIAA’s copyright notice and was still displays “Repository unavailable due to DMCA takedown”.

During the period when GitHub had disabled public access for the repository, Sergey M had been developing youtube-dl and hosting it on GitLab, another code-sharing and hosting site. However, since GitHub has restored public access of youtube-dl, Sergey M has made the GitLab repository private.

After this, Wikinews reached out to Richard Stallman, the founder of Free Software Foundation, who has been highly critical of DRM (digital rights management, the subject of the DMCA) for many years now, to discuss the harms of DRM and DMCA 1201.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews_discusses_DRM_and_DMCA_with_Richard_Stallman_after_GitHub_re-enables_public_access_to_youtube-dl&oldid=4651908”
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<div class=New York Times to start charging for access to web news
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New York Times to start charging for access to web news

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Friday, March 18, 2011

The challenge now is to put a price on our work without walling ourselves off from the global network …

The New York Times announced on Thursday that it will start charging for full access to NYTimes.com, its online version. Beginning March 28, U.S. visitors who do not subscribe to the print edition will be allowed access to 20 articles a month. A digital subscription to the website will be required to read additional content.

The fee plan for Canadians is already in effect, allowing the NYT to “fine-tune the customer experience”, according to the announcement.

Unlimited access to articles will continue to be free for those users reaching the Times through links from search engines, blogs, and social media like Facebook and Twitter. The NYTimes.com home page and individual section front pages will continue be freely accessible.

The home page of nytimes.com.

The NYT unsuccessfully tried a pay wall six years ago. Due to declining profits and readership of its print edition, it is ready to try again.

According to comScore, a marketing research company that measures online traffic, NYTimes.com had 31.4 million individual visitors in February. It is the most-read newspaper site in the world, reported The Guardian.

“The challenge now is to put a price on our work without walling ourselves off from the global network, to make sure we continue to engage with the widest possible audience”, wrote Arthur Sulzberger Jr., NYT company chairman.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_Times_to_start_charging_for_access_to_web_news&oldid=4638364”
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<div class=Nine thousand Romanian miners to be laid off in 2006
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Nine thousand Romanian miners to be laid off in 2006

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005

Romania’s mining industry is gradually being restructured and downsized to comply with European Union competition laws

Approximately 9,000 Romanian miners will be made redundant in 2006, slightly more than the 7,000 which are expected to be laid off this year. This comes as part of a government program for 2005-2008 which seeks to maximise efficiency in Romania’s mining industry, as well as reduce the number of mines and quarries in the country, while progressively bringing down the number of workers in this industry. As agreed with the European Union as part of accession negotiations, Romania must cease to provide major state aid to mining companies after 2007, when the country will become a member of the EU. Until then, it must gradually reduce subsidies to state-owned mining companies, in order to comply with European Union competition law.

Romania’s mining industry currently employs 47,000 people, quite significantly less than the 175,000 it employed in 1997, before restructuring took place. A major reform in the industry took place between 1997-2000. This time around, from 2004 onwards, restructuring is expected to be more gradual. Out of the workers who have been laid off from 1997 onwards, around 100,000 have accepted voluntary redundancy, while 8,000 have retired and 12,000 have found other jobs in the private sector. By 2010, the government expects that more than 340 mining units will be closed throughout the country.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Nine_thousand_Romanian_miners_to_be_laid_off_in_2006&oldid=1113879”
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Enjoying The Trip With Tour Buses Of Dc}

Enjoying The Trip With Tour Buses Of Dc}

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Submitted by: Tanna Mana

Sightseeing should be fun. However, long days of walking from one site to another can be difficult and exhausting. Traveling through DC via Tour Bus will allow the entire group to enjoy the experience full. Fight the exhaustion, frustration, and danger inherent to sightseeing which are all avoidable with professional transportation.

Set Your Schedule

Choosing what to see via your Tour Bus Rental in DC and what youll have to save for the next trip can be difficult when you have a large group with many different opinions. You should make every effort to research ahead of time, get together, set priorities, and make a plan. When this is impossible, you can also make it happen with the help of our on-site coordinator who is extremely familiar with the city and can make suggestions. Regardless of how your plan is formed, once its complete, deliver it via our 24/7 customer service division so that your priorities become ours.

Sit Back and Ride

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxBwAVy0g9c[/youtube]

Getting from site to site efficiently without having to walk, depend on public transit, or search for parking is incredibly time saving and energy conserving. Tour Buses of DC will protect you from exhaustion and frustration, allowing all the members of your group to fully interact with the experience and maintain the level of stamina to really enjoy the trip. Our chauffeurs will promptly deliver your travel group from curbside to curbside, wait for you to finish, and be ready for pickup according to your itinerary. Save your time and energy and allow our background verified and drug tested chauffeurs facilitate your sightseeing experience.

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Sightseeing should be fun. However, long days of walking from one site to another can be difficult and exhausting. Traveling through DC via Tour Bus will allow the entire group to enjoy the experience full. Fight the exhaustion, frustration, and danger inherent to sightseeing which are all avoidable with professional transportation.

Set Your Schedule

Choosing what to see via your Tour Bus Rental in DC and what youll have to save for the next trip can be difficult when you have a large group with many different opinions. You should make every effort to research ahead of time, get together, set priorities, and make a plan. When this is impossible, you can also make it happen with the help of our on-site coordinator who is extremely familiar with the city and can make suggestions. Regardless of how your plan is formed, once its complete, deliver it via our 24/7 customer service division so that your priorities become ours.

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<div class=Bank of America leads Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaints about mortgages
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Bank of America leads Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaints about mortgages

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Thursday, October 3, 2013

A review this week by Wikinews of US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaints about mortgages in the United States shows Bank of America leads all lending institutions in complaints.

Since mortgages complaints were recorded in December 2011, 77,622 total have been added to CFPB’s database. 29.2% of these complaints involved Bank of America, with the second most received by Wells Fargo, accounting for 15.5% of all complaints. JPMorgan Chase ranked third by volume of complaints with 9.8%. Ocwen was fourth with 8.7% and Citibank was fifth with 4.8%. Nationstar Mortgage; Green Tree Servicing, LLC; HSBC; PNC Bank; U.S. Bancorp; OneWest Bank; SunTrust Bank; Flagstar Bank; and Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc. each had between 1.0 and 3.8% of total complaints. The remaining 14.4% of all complaints about consumer mortgages were divided between about 530 other lending institutions.

The Motley Fool reported last month that for the past fiscal quarter, the biggest US based mortgage lenders were from first to fifth Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Quicken Loans and U.S. Bancorp.

According to the US Federal Reserve, debt for family residences stands at US$10.706 trillion for the second quarter of 2013. As of the end of June of this year, Bank of America is the United States’s second largest commercial bank with US$1.343 trillion in domestic assets. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest commercial bank with US$1.251 trillion in domestic assets. JPMorgan Chase is the largest US commercial bank with US$1.329 trillion in domestic assets and US$1.947 trillion in total assets.

The mortgage complaints in the CFPB report include several subproducts. Conventional fixed mortgages account for 27.1% of all complaints. Conventional adjustable mortgages account for 10.0%. FHA mortgages account for 7.7% of all complaints. Home equity loans or lines of credit account for 3.8% of all complaints. VA mortgages are 1.4% of all complaints. Second mortgages and reverse mortgages each account for 0.6% of complaints. The remaining 48.7% of complaints are about other mortgages or other mortgage issues. A few years ago, FHA loans accounted for about 10% of all US mortgages while VA loans accounted for about 3%. Prime loans accounted for over 75% of the market and the rest were subprime mortgages.

Total complaints against mortgage companies by state Image: Laura Hale.

California leads all states by volume of complaints with 14768. It is followed by Florida, New York, Georgia and Texas. When complaints are divided by a state’s total population, New Hampshire leads. The state is followed by Washington D.C., Maryland, Georgia and Florida. Complaints do not correlate with national rankings for August’s foreclosure rate by state where Nevada topped the list, followed by Florida, Ohio, Maryland and Delaware.

Two zip codes account for over 1,000 total complaints between them. 565 complaints originated in the 48382 zip code, which is in Commerce Township, Michigan, located in suburban Detroit. 553 complaints originated in the 33071 zip code, in Coral Springs, Florida. According to real estate website Zillow, there are currently 1,033 properties in foreclosure in Coral Springs while Commerce Township only has 131 properties currently in foreclosure. Four other zip codes have 100 plus complaints originating from them. 91730, in Rancho Cucamonga, California, had 158 complaints. 33409, in West Palm Beach, Florida, had 132. 92626, in Costa Mesa, California, had 125 complaints. 92660, in Newport Beach, California, had 122 complaints. Respectively, the towns had 534, 1,068, 153, and 134 properties currently in foreclosure. These numbers are higher than for the cities of a few sampled zip codes where there was only one complaint, such as Gold Hill, Oregon which has 4 properties in foreclosure, and Decatur, Illinois which has 6 properties in foreclosure.

For the top 5 lenders by volume of complaints, the percentage of complaint types against them. Image: Laura Hale.

The CFPB categorizes complaints into six categories: “Loan modification, collection,foreclosure” or problems when a person is unable to pay; “Loan servicing, payments, escrow account” or problems with making a payment; “Application, originator, mortgage broker”; “Credit decision / Underwriting”; “Settlement process and costs”, and “Other”. The CFPB says the complaint types indicate consumers “appear to be driven by a desire to seek agreement with their companies on foreclosure alternatives. The complaints indicate that consumer confusion persists around the process and requirements for obtaining loan modifications and refinancing, especially regarding document submission timeframes, payment trial periods, allocation of payments, treatment of income in eligibility calculations, and credit bureau reporting during the evaluation period.” Currently, 59.6% of all complaints against lenders deal with being unable to pay. 25.1% deal with problems in making a payment. 7.0% have to do with the application process.

Of the complaint-heavy zip codes, for 48382 in Commerce Township, Michigan, 98.9% of all complaints have to deal with being unable to pay. Accounting for 23.4% of all mortgage complaints in Commerce Township, 132 of the complaints for being unable to pay were made regarding Bank of America, accounting for 97.8% or all but 3 complaints against them from the zip. 121 of the Bank of America responses in Commerce Township were closed with explanation and 12 were closed with non-monetary relief. 33071 in Coral Springs is different, with 537 of the 553 complaints being categorized under other. Only 11 complaints relate to foreclosure and issues with being able to pay. 92626 in Costa Mesa, where 32% of the mortgage complaints were about Bank of America and 26.4% were about Wells Fargo, had 93.6% of its complaints dealing with being unable to pay. 5 total complaints dealt with payment issues and 3 dealt with applications.

Beyond regional variance in complaint types lodged, the top five mortgage lenders by volume of complaints all had being unable to pay as their top complaint category, ranging between 55.8% for Citibank and 69.4% for Bank of America. Problems with payment accounted for the second largest area of complaints, with Ocwen having the largest percentage of complaints at 31.9% and Bank of America having the smallest at 18.8%. Foreclosure was the top area of complaints for a number of other lending institutions including 1st Alliance Lending, OneWest Bank, Ally Bank, Banco Popular de Puerto Rico, Bank of the West, BMO Harris, BOK Financial Corp, Caliber Home Loans, Inc, Capital One, Deutsche Bank and EverBank.

By state complaints against mortgage lenders by monthImage: Laura Hale.

Nationally, complaints reached a high of 5,840 for January 2013, 1,107 more than the next highest month of April 2013. The total emerging for September is the second lowest since records were first kept in December 2011. On a state by state level, this pattern largely repeats with a major exception for Florida which saw a peak of 849 complaints in June 2012. Then, as now, Florida was one of the top five states in the nation in its foreclosure rate. The national January spike came as the Qualified Mortgage standard required by the The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 came into play. It required mortgage lenders to take steps to insure borrowers could repay their mortgages.

Bank of America’s complaint volume follows the national trend, with a spike in January 2013 with 1,925 total complaints. Unlike nationally, the next month by volume of complaints was February of this year with 1,598 complaints. Prior to that, the highest month was May 2012 with 1,418 complaints. The lowest volume of complaints is September this year with 334.

Wells Fargo matched national trends for volume of complaints by month, with the exception of the current month being the lowest on record for number of complaints with 197 compared to the next lowest month, December 2011, when they had 221. JPMorgan’s complaint volume by month spiked in January and March of this year with 504 complaints. April of this year was the next highest month with 493 complaints, edging out May of last year with 488 complaints. September this year is on track to be the lowest month by complaint volume.

The federal government shutdown is unlikely to impact the current mortgage situation in the United States directly for most consumers, though mortgage processing by the Federal Housing Administration could be slower, resulting in fewer mortgages processed.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Bank_of_America_leads_Consumer_Financial_Protection_Bureau_complaints_about_mortgages&oldid=3250043”
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<div class=Nokia Inc. announces plans for iPhone rival
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Nokia Inc. announces plans for iPhone rival

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Thursday, August 30, 2007

Announced early Wednesday morning at Nokia’s GoEvent, in a plan to expand the company’s revenue, Finland-based company Nokia Inc. is developing a mobile phone similar to its rival iPhone, which will be available in the near future for Nokia customers. The phone is expected to be available by 2008.

Most of the features are the same as the iPhone’s. They include music, games, and many other features, even ones that the iPhone may not have. Ovi (in Finnish meaning “Door”) will be the door for more than 2 million songs and games available for download on the new device. Users will be able to download wirelessly in their own home or anywhere there is access to a computer.

But this is not the first time Nokia has made an attempt like this to increase its revenue. In October of 2003 the company revealed the N-Gage, a game-playing cell phone, but was “stocked-out” due to poor sales. The N95 smartphone, which was released in the U.S. on April 7, 2007 (before the iPhone on June 29, 2007) includes WiFi, a GPS, a music player, and a 5 megapixel digital camera. The three other phones that were revealed at the event in London will be in-stock next quarter. The new N81 and the modified N95 smartphones were among the revealed at yesterday’s event; the N81 is a new member to Nokia’s smartphone family; the N95 has been modified by having more memory and a sleeker LCD screen.

When Nokia was asked about the striking similarity between this and the iPhone, Nokia’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of Multimedia, Anssi Vanjoki, said, “If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.”

Nokia first demoed their iPhone rival August 29th. During their demo they omitted the fact that the demo was for the software to be in use, not the actual hardware.[1]

The phone in development
Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Nokia_Inc._announces_plans_for_iPhone_rival&oldid=610221”
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Importance Of Social Media Marketing

Importance Of Social Media Marketing

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Importance Of Social Media Marketing

by

Tony Bryan

Today many business owners and executives are jumping over to the social media marketing services. And once they gain the momentum and completely understands as how to use it, it becomes a challenging job for the one who has not adopted the means of social media marketing. Advertising cost is reduced when one is taking up social media marketing which increases advertising effectiveness and executive awareness with respect to the products and services and how the customers react to those. Social media marketing is not only marketing on social channels. A company who is entering the social media realm, should essentially employ many key staff members who can socialize and market through these social channels. Networking through social media goes through a process,its not about handling out business cards as soon as one enters a room. Through social media marketing companies connect better with leads and clients. It also allows an individual to imitate a company so that they can detain the latest updates of their products and services. Social media marketing ramp up relationships and loyalty, opportunities and awareness. In the last 100 years social media marketing is the only galactic transformation in the marketing industry. If one is not using social media marketing they are leaving behind hundreds or thousands of opportunities for the competitors to take hold of.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PLDhsvB8Xw[/youtube]

There are several social media marketing agencies, but choosing the best among them is the point that is to be kept in mind. Before hiring a social media expert it is always wise to review the experience and the portfolio. Every social media marketing agency have a relevant experience, choosing one by analyzing the proven result is smart. Social media marketing helps to deliver the top rank in the search engine by the use of unique keyword phrases. Where over-optimization can spoil the entire thing. The optimization strategy must be balanced else the search engine may term it as a manipulating search. Higher values can be provided to the readers by keeping them engaged in conversations. Involving in discussions and replying to the blog comments and asking for feedbacks draws more traffic as if insures that the person is real and not just any other company. Expressing thoughts on any topic will attract the ideal visitor and customers. Social media marketing can always be used as an opportunity to make actual connection with the targeted market, as an ecommerce site always have its limits in setting up trust and building long-term relationships with the target market. Social media marketing task needs to be performed in a regular basis, else it will not turn up giving good results in the later days. To derive maximum benefits from social media marketing the proper way to pull attention should be adopted. The other important task of social media marketing is updating profiles and interacting with users in a regular basis. These are the skilled areas of work to obtain maximum results. SEO Reseller Services

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<div class=Victoria Wyndham on Another World and another life
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Victoria Wyndham on Another World and another life

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Image: David Shankbone.

Victoria Wyndham was one of the most seasoned and accomplished actresses in daytime soap opera television. She played Rachel Cory, the maven of Another World‘s fictional town, Bay City, from 1972 to 1999 when the show went off the air. Wyndham talks about how she was seen as the anchor of a show, and the political infighting to keep it on the air as NBC wanted to wrest control of the long-running soap from Procter & Gamble. Wyndham fought to keep it on the air, but eventually succumbed to the inevitable. She discusses life on the soap opera, and the seven years she spent wandering “in the woods” of Los Angeles seeking direction, now divorced from a character who had come to define her professional career. Happy, healthy and with a family she is proud of, Wyndham has found life after the death of Another World in painting and animals. Below is David Shankbone’s interview with the soap diva.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Victoria_Wyndham_on_Another_World_and_another_life&oldid=2584666”
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<div class=Couple takes lawyer hostage and said to have explosives
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Couple takes lawyer hostage and said to have explosives

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Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Map highlighting Bulloch County Georgia

A male and a female took 3 people hostage at a law firm in Statesboro, Georgia. Police blocked off a part of this rural town on Monday. Two suspects , a man and a woman, took a lawyer hostage and claimed that they had explosives.

The suspects, Robert Eugene Brower, 43, a former client of the lawyer, and the female whose name was not released, gave up after demands for cigarettes and food were met and they spoke with a family member.

The standoff lasted for 24 hours and ended, “peacefully,” at around 10AM said Larry Schnall, a spokesman for the Georgia State Patrol.

The last of the 3 hostages to be released was identified as Michael Hostilo. He and the other two hostages were not injured. There is no word on the names of the other hostages.

Earlier reports stated that there had been a “loud boom” coming from the scene at about six o’clock this morning. Authorities have not stated what the booms were.

Police are now inside the building to locate and defuse the explosive device that the suspects claimed to have had.

Initially when police arrived, there were 3 hostages, but 2 had been recently released and were unharmed, said Maggie Fitzgerald, a city spokeswoman. “They are upset with some legal issues within the recent past and want to get those issues resolved. We are doing everything possible to end this situation without anyone being hurt.”

In a news conference Monday night, Police Chief Stan York said Brower was angry about “having been convicted in a criminal case”, in which the lawyer was his court-appointed attorney. York did not elaborate on the demands of the hostage-takers, other than saying, “they only wanted to call attention to the case.”

Georgia State Trooper Larry Schnall, a spokesman for the Georgia State Patrol, said a SWAT team was sent to the scene.

This morning authorities convinced the two suspects to give-up, but “incidents leading to an escalation resulted in some gunfire,” Stan York in a press conference just moments ago. No one was hurt in the brief eruption of gunfire.

Police later said when the suspects tried to surrender they became apprehensive and made a threatening gesture prompting authorities to draw their guns and open fire.

The standoff began at around 9AM on Monday.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Couple_takes_lawyer_hostage_and_said_to_have_explosives&oldid=4011410”
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<div class=Scientists find key human language gene
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Scientists find key human language gene

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Researchers have found a crucial genetic difference between humans and chimps that could help explain our language and speech abilities. The difference lies in a gene called FOXP2 which encodes for a protein of the same name. This acts as a transcription factor, controlling the activity of other genes.

A rendering of the FOXP2 protein

The human and chimp versions of the protein differ in only two of their 740 amino acid components, but when researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, replaced the human gene with the chimp version in neurons grown in the laboratory, they found it affected the expression of at least 116 other genes.

The results are detailed in a paper published on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.

Author of the study Dr. Daniel Geschwind, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said the gene had a “major role” in differences between chimps and humans. “We showed that the human and chimp versions of FOXP2 not only look different but function differently too.”

We believe FOXP2 is not only important for the higher order cognitive aspect of language but also for the motor aspect of speech and language

Some of the affected genes control the formation of connections in the brain, whilst others relate to facial movements. Several have already been found to be involved in language disorders. Mutations in FOXP2 itself were also known to affect speech and language; the gene was first identified in members of a family suffering from language problems who were found to share a genetic mutation.

Frances Vargha-Khadem at University College London has studied patients with FOXP2 mutations, and agrees with the new research. As well as language problems, some of her subjects have changes in the shape of their jaws, mouths and tongues. She thinks that chimps may also have these differences.

“We believe FOXP2 is not only important for the higher order cognitive aspect of language but also for the motor aspect of speech and language,” said Genevieve Konopka, one of the authors of the paper at UCLA.

Previous research indicates that the changes in FOXP2 occurred around 200,000 years ago with the rise of modern humans. Geschwind also suggests that several of the related genes may have evolved together. Preliminary studies have shown signs that they too emerged relatively recently.

Scientists are now keen to further study FOXP2 and the genes that it affects. Geschwind believes this could eventually lead to breakthroughs in treatment for disorders such as autism and schizophrenia, which affect language skills.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the A.P. Giannini Foundation and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Scientists_find_key_human_language_gene&oldid=4458359”
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