Portal talk:Current events/2018 March 14

Looking for a stray cat

For today's:

International relations

• • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announces the withdrawal of the Philippines from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over "outrageous attacks" by United Nations officials. (Reuters)

found these cats:

• World order, Anarchy

Apparently, i'm not aware of a consensus on this (yet). Wakari07 (talk) 18:20, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

I'd say leave it out; it seems too vague to be particularly useful in this instance. If anything, I'd say link Foreign Relations of the Phillipines Icarosaurvus (talk) 18:30, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Of course. Thanks for the answer! Wakari07 (talk) 18:35, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Deaths in Current Events

RaqiwasSushi, "Do not list the ordinary deaths of prominent persons here. That's what recent deaths is for. Exceptions to this rule are made for prominent persons who died in office (such as Pope John Paul II and Omar Bongo) or other instances where the death in itself has a major impact." I do not feel that the death itself was notable; simply that a notable person died. Hawking did not die in a notable way, and did not hold office at the time. Might I ask for your counterpoints? Icarosaurvus (talk) 20:17, 14 March 2018 (UTC)

Thanks Icarosaurvus. For me, these instructions are guidelines. The instruction you quoted leads to only one conclusion, no Stephen Hawking. But this man has been more than notable, he was unique with world-changing discoveries such as the big bang, dark holes, etc. Please the see NY Times article on his work: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/science/stephen-hawking-timeline.html for more info).

The public face of science in the U.S., Neil deGrasse Tyson, tweeted, "His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake." @neiltyson And if my memory is right, some scientists have put him in the same league as Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. When I checked this website this morning, saw Hawking item was the top item in the "In the News" section. Think that indicated the Main Page editors had a similar conclusion.

Again thanks for requesting my input. RaqiwasSushi (talk) 06:08, 15 March 2018 (UTC) Peace.

No problem at all. I generally feel that the current events portal could use more dialog on the talk pages. While I'm not wholly sure I agree with the inclusion, I do not intend to revert it again; Hawking was definitely notable, and ultimately, it seems to down to a matter of taste, and how one interprets the above. Thanks for coming and explaining your point of view. Icarosaurvus (talk) 06:29, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Maybe the event is notable enough to create a List of famous people who never got to win the Nobel Prize. Just kidding of course. We agree it's a society, not a science event. Wakari07 (talk) 08:55, 16 March 2018 (UTC)

Russian Culpability

Hey, Wakari07; I found this link at NPR; It seems the agent was indeed identified, though they do not say how. Opinions? Icarosaurvus (talk) 14:08, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Sure, I just posted a preliminary thought on the main page. Wakari07 (talk) 14:17, 15 March 2018 (UTC) It's "reportedly" identified as the nerve agent Novichok, says May says Reuters. How the report was made, i do not know. Wakari07 (talk) 14:19, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Aye, I'm a bit iffy on that, myself. No one seems to be saying how it was determined. Thanks! Icarosaurvus (talk) 14:22, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

I know more about eddy than about iffy... Wakari07 (talk) 14:26, 15 March 2018 (UTC) Oh, now i see, a red herring is also something fishy! Wakari07 (talk) 14:28, 15 March 2018 (UTC) Unfortunately, what I believe is that they found two people on a bench in a state such as to bring them quickly to a hospital. That is credible to me, the rest seems mere speculation on conflicting versions and different sets of (im)probabilities. Wakari07 (talk) 14:48, 15 March 2018 (UTC)