Portal talk:Current events/2008 May 28

May 28

May 28, 2008 (2008-05-28) (Wednesday)

• Engineers announce that the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been stabilized for the first time, and will remain stable for 200 more years. (BBC News)
• Australian paleontologists discover Materpiscis, a 380-million-year-old placoderm fish which is the earliest known animal to bear live young. (BBC News), (ABC News Australia)
• The Governor of New York David Paterson directs New York state agencies to recognise gay marriages performed in other jurisdictions such as Canada, California and Massachusetts. (The New York Times)
• In Dublin, over 100 countries, not including the United States, Russia, or China, agree to the Convention on Cluster Munitions banning cluster bombs. (RTÉ) (AFP via Yahoo! News)
• Ehud Barak, the Defense Minister of Israel and Leader of the Labor Party, calls for the resignation of the Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert to step aside to face corruption allegations. (AP via Google News)
• The Majlis of Iran elects Ali Larijani as its new Speaker. (AFP via Google News)
• Nepal
  • The Nepalese Constituent Assembly meets for the first time since the Nepalese Constituent Assembly election, 2008 with the Assembly expected to establish a new Constitution of Nepal. (BBC News)
  • The Nepalese Constituent Assembly declares Nepal to be a federal, democratic republic abolishing the 240-year-old Nepalese monarchy. (Sify)

ITN Candidates

• The Republic Nepal item is kindof important. It should be on the mainpage. --Gerrit ^CUTEDH 13:41, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

I agree but I would prefer to wait until the monarchy is actually abolished. I thought they would have done it already, but there appears to be some delay. - BanyanTree 14:34, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

It just happened. Definitely ITN material. --88.156.48.111 (talk) 18:06, 28 May 2008 (UTC) (Ouro too lazy to log in again)

If the link is what it says it is, support, if the articles are updated. --Spencer^T♦C 19:28, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Oi! No voting! We gave that up! --PlasmaTwa2 22:03, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

I reviewed several articles: Nepalese Constituent Assembly has not been updated at all, and needs to be updated. Nepalese monarchy mentions the subject in a single sentence. Constitution of Nepal needs to be updated. Spencer^T♦C 19:33, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

I like it. Maybe we can work in and bold Nepal, as that seems to have more significant updates than the constituent assembly article. Random89 19:54, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Posted. I deliberately tried to link only to decent articles.--Pharos (talk) 22:42, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Absolutely, this should be on the main page, stat. —Nightstallion 21:32, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Support Definately international is very important, because it's been in that state for ~150 years. Meaty♠Weenies (talk) 22:06, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

So the rule is you can say support but you can say @##%&* --Lemmey talk 23:15, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Eh? Meaty♠Weenies (talk) 23:38, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

Lemmey is referring to the trial period guideline "Please refrain from straight support or oppose votes; instead the discussion can focus on the relative merits of the available candidate items". Honestly, supporting does not bother me as much, and isn't so much against the spirit of the thing. Still, I don't know if it's really helpful. But it is the tit-for-tat opposes that have historically been the problem.--Pharos (talk) 00:57, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Oh, heh heh...I just want to make my opinion on the issue clear, and I'll usually include some other comment. Spencer^T♦C 01:56, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Seems to get the point across. After a little persuasion Percy and Clarence began to see things my way. --Lemmey talk 02:34, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

• The cluster bomb news is clearly ITN-able, but I can't find an updated article. - BanyanTree 03:22, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Hold-off, it can be months or even years before treaties are even drafted, much less signed. --Lemmey talk 04:19, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

The final draft treaty is in front of the delegates, and they've said "looks good". That's the story and the rest of the work is administrative and legislative. The treaty won't come into effect until a certain number of countries ratify it, I assume, and that would also be ITNable. Significant ongoing events don't have just one chance to be on ITN, especially if the updates recur months apart. But it's all rather moot without an updated article. - BanyanTree 05:15, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

The draft is here. If you were to write an article specifically on the treaty, it would be called Convention on Cluster Munitions.--Pharos (talk) 05:17, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

I have started the article Convention on Cluster Munitions and added it to the portal blurb. Please re-evaluate the item for inclusion. I recommend changing "agree to" to "adopt" on Friday, after the signatories have their ceremony. - BanyanTree 08:36, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Posted.--Pharos (talk) 23:04, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

• Nominate Materpiscis.--Pharos (talk) 06:23, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Ideally it needs its references to go inline and needs to describe the recent discovery and its significance (most of the requisite info is in the BBC link you gave) but other than that a good candidate. I'll make the adjustments myself in about 12 hours, if no-one else has yet. If not for ITN it would also be an excellent candidate for DYK (something like: DYK that the Materpiscis is the oldest known vertebrate to give birth to live young birth to live young). Billsmith453 (talk) 07:19, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

OK, we'll wait if you can improve it more.--Pharos (talk) 23:04, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

Now has proper citations, and the article has been generally tidied. Unless anyone else has objections I think it should go up. Billsmith453 (talk) 10:10, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Posted.--Pharos (talk) 15:37, 31 May 2008 (UTC)