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Professionalism/Mona Hanna-Attisha and Lead Exposure in Flint, Michigan

On April 25th, 2014 Flint, Michigan switched its water source from the Detroit Water and Sewage Department to the Flint River. Shortly thereafter residents began to complain about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water because contaminants in the new water supply caused lead to leach from the aging pipe system and expose around 100,000 residents in Flint. This could have been avoided if the officials in charge had properly treated the water with corrosion inhibitors and then people like Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha got involved and raised the alarm about this situation. Eventually the Federal government got involved when President Obama declared a state of emergency for the city in 2016 and authorized 5 million dollars in aid via FEMA to help repair the damage. For a more detailed review of the Flint water crisis review The Flint Water Supply.

Discovering the Issue
In August 26, 2015, 43 year-old Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha was at a barbecue with her family and friends when she first heard about the lead problem. Her friend Elin Betanzo, a water-quality engineer, asked "what are you hearing about the Flint water?...the water isn't being treated properly. It's missing something called corrosion control... Without that corrosion control, there is going to be lead." She raised the issue the next day at the Genesee County Health Department; the person responded "water isn’t our department... It’s under public works." Hanna-Attisha sent emails to multiple health experts including county health director Mark Valacak and physician Dean Sienko but was ignored. She continued to exchange information with Elin Betanzo and attempted to gather data on the blood-lead levels of children in Michigan from Karen Lishinski. When Lishinki did not respond, Hanna-Attisha made the mistake of adding Sienko to her emails about the Flint Water Crisis. Sienko replied "we never had a child with elevated lead where water was the principal or even minor concern."

Miguel Del Toral's Report
Miguel Del Toral, Elin Betanzo’s former colleague and “regulations manager of the Midwest water division of the Environmental protection agency,” wrote an eight-page interim report on the lead issue in Flint. The subject of the report, LeeAnne Walters, noticed multiple issues after switching to the new water supply. After bathing, her 3-year-old sons, Gavin and Garrett, broke out in red bumps; Gavin stopped growing. LeeAnne Walters' eyelashes started disappearing, and her daughter lost clumps of hair while showering. Walters' children had low blood lead levels (2 ug/dL) prior to changing the water supply and elevated blood lead levels (6.5 ug/dL) afterwards. Walters notified city officials of her children’s high blood-lead levels. City officials blamed the plumbing and told Walters “tests of city water showed lead levels in compliance with regulations”. The governor’s office later stated the water supply “met all the state and federal standards,” so Walters decided to contact Miguel Del Toral. In April 2015, Del Toral traveled from Chicago to Flint to personally investigate Walters' house. He concluded her pipes were leaching lead, "the [Michigan Department of Environmental Quality] was using faulty testing procedures, [and] Flint wasn’t using corrosion control." Del Toral reported his findings to Thomas Poy, chief of the Ground Water and Drinking Water Division of the EPA, but received harsh criticism from his supervisors. The EPA reprimanded Del Toral for "overstepping his responsibilities and referred him to the agency’s ethics office...The regional manager at the EPA even apologized to the MDEQ for Del Toral’s memo, describing it as premature and incomplete."

Analyzing the Data
Hanna-Attisha worked with Jenny LaChance, a research coordinator, to organize the blood-lead data from her clinic. "Comparing children under five years of age with elevated lead levels (greater than or equal to 5 μg/dl) for about the same duration of time pre–water switch (January 1, 2013, to April 24, 2014) to post–water switch (April 25, 2014, to September 9, 2015), the percentage increased from 1.5 percent to 8.5 percent." She found "more kids with higher lead levels since the water switch in 2014;" her results were statistically significant (p=0.007). However, Hanna-Attisha only had 341 samples. She and LaChance applied to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for approval. After getting approval, her sample size increased to almost 2,000. With her new data, Hanna-Attisha found the percentage of elevated lead level for kids under fives years old increased from 2.1 percent to 4.0 percent to be statistically significant (p=0.024).

Publications
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha brought the issue to light on September 24, 2015 at press conference at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan. In November 15, 2015, Hanna-Attisha published her findings. Hanna-Attisha published her account of the Flint Water Crisis in her book “What the Eyes Don’t See” in 2018. The reason for the title is because "we literally cannot see lead in water... [or the] consequences for years, if not decades, later... It's about the people, the places and the problems that we choose not to see."

State Response
After Hanna-Attisha presented her case at the press conference, Flint officials tried to discredit her and insisted that the water was safe. After Hanna-Attisha and her team released their study, the City of Flint issued a lead warning and advised residents to drink and cook with cold tap water. However, Flint officials still asserted that the water treatment complied with federal regulations. The Michigan's governor at the time, Rick Snyder, claimed that the unsafe levels of lead may be from lead plumbing in homes, but the water leaving the Flint water facility was completely safe. After pressure from Flint City residents and Hanna-Attisha's continued efforts, Governor Snyder finally declared a state of emergency at the beginning of 2016. Flint City switched back to Detroit Water, and an investigation was launched. However, the damage was already done at that point and Flint would not have clean water until years later. The State said I was an unfortunate researcher, that I was causing near-hysteria, that I was splicing and dicing numbers. It’s very difficult when you are presenting science and facts and numbers to have the state say that you are wrong.

Public Response
Flint experienced a breach of trust, as officials have been continuously reassuring the residents that their water was safe. There was a community-wide trauma about drinking water, and Flint residents felt betrayed by the government that was supposed to protect them. Governor Snyder lost favor due to his attempts to cover up the crisis. Four years after the crisis, Flint residents still protested against Snyder and other Flint officials. The state had decided to end a free bottled water program, angering the residents and causing them to rally against Snyder.

Impact
The Flint Water Crisis made major impacts on the Flint community. More initiative was put into public health in Flint. The city gained new childcare centers, school health services, Medicaid expansion, nutrition services, literacy programs, and more. A US senator for Michigan decided to put a nutrition prescription program into the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill after visiting Hanna-Attisha's clinic. In response to the crisis in Flint, Congress also funded the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish a federal advisory committee, enhance Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program activities, and support a voluntary Flint lead exposure registry.

Michigan implemented stricter water monitoring rules. Due to more care in water monitoring, lead and copper levels in Flint's water have been gradually decreasing. Since late-2016, Flint's water have been meeting federal standards.

Ethics
During the crisis, Hanna-Attisha faced ethical dilemmas. She considered doing the press conference "disobedient in the academic doctor world," because sharing research is usually a long process. The research has to be thoroughly investigated and examined by other researches. However, because there was no time, Hanna-Attisha decided to take her research directly to the press conference.

After the state's response, Hanna-Attisha had the choice to ignore the issue and return to her life as a mother, pediatrician, and wife. However, Hanna-Attisha remembered her oath to protect the children of Flint City, and decided to increase her efforts and continue to speak up. She describes that it is trust that motivated her to continue her efforts. The trust that families put in me, and in this profession, is overwhelming. It is that trust that drove me to do what I did and continue to do what I do.

Conclusion
Hanna-Attisha’s situation raises the question: should doctors prioritize speed over safety? Further work can examine how others before Hanna-Attisha tried to bring awareness to this issue. Researchers might consider examining Marc Edwards who brought awareness to elevated lead levels in Washington, DC.


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Chess/Computer Chess/Star Wars Chess

The Software Toolworks' Star Wars Chess is a 1993 chess-playing video game developed by The Software Toolworks, based on the Star Wars film franchise and published by Mindscape for the Sega CD home video game console and personal home computers running Windows 3.x or MS-DOS.

Contents

 * /Gameplay/
 * Sample moves by computer vs. computer

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Chess/Computer Chess/Star Wars Chess


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User:Thierry Dugnolle/Miscellaneous thoughts

The war against drugs
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. (Matthew, 9:12)

Drug addicts are sick people who need to be treated. The war against drugs prevents them from getting proper treatment. It delivers them to the claws of the mafia. The right to be treated is a basic human right. The war against drugs is therefore a crime against humanity, and one of the biggest medical errors of all time.

Drugs are remedies, but like all remedies, they are poisons if improperly administered. To deprive drug addicts of competent medical aid is therefore to condemn them to suffer and to die.

The war against drugs is driving up the prices of remedies. It forces many drug addicts to prostitute themselves. It enriches traffickers who sometimes become billionaires. The traffickers use their billions to bribe the officials, who have a duty to protect the public, and who do the opposite when they are bribed.

The war on drugs exposes police to bullets from traffickers. They die or become paraplegic because of human stupidity.

The thought of the prohibitionists: drug addicts are dirty scum. But for a good part of them, these prohibitionists are also drug addicts, addicted to cigarettes, or to alcohol. They despise drug addicts while they themselves are drug addicts.

Psychiatrists recommend antipsychotics for psychotics. These are drugs that make us addicted. It is prohibited to stop treatment until death. Stopping treatment causes very serious psychotic attacks. Antipsychotics cause nausea to those who take them. They become addicted to a drug that makes them sick.

Hashish and marijuana are pleasure-giving antipsychotics. They can be taken without danger (no risk of overdose). Why do psychiatrists recommend dangerous nauseous antipsychotics (which are very expensive because they are made by the pharmaceutical industry) and ban a pleasure-giving, safe, and very easy to produce antipsychotic?

Producers and distributors of hashish and marijuana are benefactors. Prohibitionists are guilty of crime against humanity.

Homosexuality is natural
It is a serious mistake to believe that the function of sexuality is only procreation. Sexuality has many other natural functions: promoting mutual aid, appeasing conflicts, protecting together against the cold of the night, eliminating boredom ... All these functions are obviously compatible with homosexuality.

Those who claim that homosexuality is unnatural only prove their ignorance of Nature.

The Bitcoin Disaster
To run the bitcoin payment system, we need computers that consume a lot of energy. This energy is paid for by the creation of new bitcoins. The larger the system, the more energy it consumes.

Physics prohibits the possibility of computers that do not consume energy, because of the law of no decrease in global entropy.

Conclusion: the bitcoin payment system cannot exist in a sustainable way. It will necessarily collapse one day or another. The later it collapses, the more disastrous it will be for the world economy. The earliest would be best.

Bitcoins should never have existed. Economists should have warned the population of this ineluctable disaster.

The creation of bitcoins is the creation of fake money. The system started because people agreed to be paid in fake money. They agreed because they speculated on the rise in the value of this fake money. The bitcoin payment system is intended for speculators who speculate on the value of a fake money. The law prohibits the creation of fake money. Why haven't bitcoins been banned? Why did the central banks, which are responsible for money creation, not oppose this scam?

All the energy wasted in creating bitcoins has never been paid for by anyone. It was paid for by the creation of fake money. The bitcoin system is destroying the planet to fuel speculation in fake money.

Eventually, after the collapse of the bitcoin system, the energy bill will be paid, by all those who lost their savings in this scam. It is like paying an electricity bill late.

There will be winners and losers. In order not to be a loser, one has to withdraw from the system before it collapses. The system will collapse when everyone wants to withdraw at the same time.


text:
User talk:WholesomeWalnut

Welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, WholesomeWalnut!

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title: User talk:WholesomeWalnut


text:
User:Sesily Kraight

Hello, I am Sesily Kraight and I am from Czech. Czech Wikibooks is my home. My inspiration for Czech Wikijunior is (of course) English Wikibooks. By for now, Sesily.

Mějte se a nashledanou!

title: User:Sesily Kraight


text:
User talk:Hattietheteacher

Notice
Can I ask what your intent by creating "Beyouthful Media" pages is? It feels like spamming, which is not well tolerated. Thanks in advance. Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 11:37, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Hattietheteacher


text:
Cookbook:Dominican Flan

Flan is a variety of custard dessert. This version is popular in the Dominican Republic, mostly made on important holidays celebrated by Dominican people, including Christmas Eve (also known as Nochebuena).

Ingredients

 * ¼ cup of water
 * ¼ cup of white granulated sugar
 * 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
 * ½ can of evaporated milk
 * 8 ea. (400 g) standard eggs
 * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Caramel

 * 1) Combine the water and the sugar in a small, non-stick aluminum saucepan.
 * 2) Cook over medium heat to dissolve sugar. Then, simmer until light brown, making sure it doesn't burn.
 * 3) Once the caramel is ready, swirl the pot, making sure that the caramel is well-distributed in the pot. You may want to use a towel or oven mitts since it's very hot.
 * 4) Set it aside, and let it cool.

Custard

 * 1) Crack and beat the eggs in a large bowl.
 * 2) Mix the sweetened condensed milk and the evaporated milk into the eggs. Make sure it's mixed thoroughly.
 * 3) Pour the custard mixture through a strainer into the pot containing the caramel.
 * 4) Cover the top of the pot with aluminum foil. Poke about 5 to 6 holes in the foil using a butter knife.
 * 5) Partially fill a larger pot with water, and carefully place the smaller pot inside to make a bain-marie.
 * 6) Cover the larger pot with a lid, and simmer over medium heat until the custard is fully cooked. When the flan is gently poked with a butter knife, there should be no residue on the knife.
 * 7) Remove the flan from the stove and let it cool completely.
 * 8) Take a large plate, put it on top of the pot, and flip the pot over. The flan should drop from the pot onto the plate. Carefully remove the pot, making sure that the flan stays in one piece.
 * 9) Place the flan in the fridge and let it rest.
 * 10) Cut the flan into slices and serve.

title: Cookbook:Dominican Flan


text:
User talk:Jonesey95

Belated welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, Jonesey95!

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I know you've been here for quite some time, but have never been welcomed, so here it is. Thanks for your contributions -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 15:53, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Jonesey95


text:
User talk:Nardog

Belated welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks, Nardog!

 First steps tutorial Wikibooks is for collaborative development of free textbooks.

You do not need technical skills to contribute. You can easily change most books. Please introduce yourself, and let us know what interests you.

If you already contribute at other Wikimedia projects, our Wikimedia Orientation should quickly get you started. (Would you like to provide feedback on this message?)

  Getting help   Made a mistake?   Goodies, tips and tricks
 * Read the Using Wikibooks book for a friendly introduction to the project, or our help pages for more information.
 * You can get friendly help from the community in the user assistance room or our IRC channel.
 * Upload freely licensed files to Wikimedia Commons. You may request permission to upload fair use files locally. Please include author and source information and a non-free use rationale for non-free files.
 * You can restore a previously saved version.
 * Pages should follow the  naming convention.
 * Need to rename a page? Use the move tab (is available once your account is 4 days old - until then, ask for help).
 * To request a page be deleted, add to the top of the page.
 * Was a page you made deleted? Please read the deletion policy, and check the deletion log to find out why. Also check the RFD archives if applicable. You can request undeletion at WB:RFU, or ask the administrator who deleted the page.
 * Please fill in the edit summary and preview your edits before saving.
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 * User scripts can make many tasks easier. Look at the Gadgets tab of my preferences; check off the boxes for the scripts you want, and hit save!

I know you've been here for quite some time, but have never been welcomed, so here it is. Thanks for your contributions -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 15:58, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:Nardog


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/Undergraduate Mathematics

Undergraduate Mathematics
The scope of this book is too broad. The Linear Algebra wikibook is a good example of what such a project could be. I came up with the idea yonks ago on undergrad myself and no-one else has taken interest, because I was new to the platform and sketching out ideas.

I'm happy to contribute to other projects, I just don't want people to click this malformed idea instead.

Knittedbees (discuss • contribs) 08:28, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Knittedbees many of the pages have a rich history, but I noticed on the logs of some that they were imported in May 2014. Is the bulk of the existing content simply imported from English Wikipedia in 2014? -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 21:05, 14 October 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes, the idea was to use Wikipedia as a template, but pretty much writing a few books like Analysis, Algebra and Dynamics from scratch focusing on exercises and worked examples would be a better approach (i.e. nothing like the Wikipedia articles I tried importing). (logged out Knittedbees) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.2.57.14 (talk • contribs) 23:13, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
 * it has a lot of content but as explained above they are merely imported articles from Wikipedia in 2014. As such, readers would be better off reading the updated articles on Wikpedia than reading this book. So it makes sense to get rid of it. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 23:25, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

 * As someone with experience in undergrad mathematics, I think the topics in this book are better off as independent wikibooks. Instead, I would favour creating a category of topics that are suitable for undergraduate-level mathematics. P.S: some of the topics are in the wrong category. Stokes' theorem and line integral are in vector calculus, not complex analysis (and there's nothing complex-valued in them, though ideas in line integrals pop up when doing contours and working out complex integrals). Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 11:21, 9 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree with Leaderboard about the idea of splitting the topics into independent wikibooks because of the insane amount and number of fields of information crammed into one single book. However, since the basis of the book is an importation from Wikipedia with a good proportion of analysis, I would favor deletion. I have seen books that are relevant to the content mentioned in that book with more analysis and examples. Maybe it would be a great idea to find those books and organize them under a shelf (perhaps there already is one but I was just unaware of it). CalciumTetraoxide (discuss • contribs) 05:35, 9 February 2021 (UTC)


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Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/NVQ Carpentry Level 2

NVQ Carpentry Level 2
I believe this book needs to be deleted as it contains dangerous information which will put lives at risk for all on site, due to the abundance of miss information contained with in the pages. This book also contains some references from publications which are out of date and plagiarised. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.182.106.244 (talk • contribs) 17:21, 10 March 2020 (UTC)
 * For perspective, this appears to have started with a comment on the book's talk page by a registered user (who hasn't made any edit on any project afaics), after which an IP6 seconded the criticism and then undid itself, and then the above IP also supported the criticism and also posted here. (I've added a section heading to contain those remarks on the book talk page.) --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 18:26, 10 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Question to 86.182.106.244: can you give any examples of how this book "contains dangerous information" or "miss information" (sic), or is "out of date" or "plagiarised"? Generally books should be fixed rather than discarded if possible. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 00:07, 11 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Vote keep. Encik Tekateki (discuss • contribs) 01:43, 29 January 2021 (UTC)


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Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints "Church Meetings" page
The page The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Church Meetings Has information that could be easily put into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints/Church Service The page should probably be deleted, and the information from the former page moved to the latter, considering that the "Church Meetings" page only has three sentences of information in it. PeanutHat (discuss • contribs) 08:01, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Suggest merge and redirect: I don't think this particularly needs deletion, as this would do the job in as satisfactory manner. If doing this please attribute the merged content from the source page. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 10:51, 24 May 2020 (UTC)

I think this should be merged with other information on the same subject instead of deleted. User:Abdul_turban — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abdul turban (talk • contribs)


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/How To Succeed in College

How To Succeed in College
Like the previous post, I started this book thinking I would have the time to work on it. I started this book 7 years ago at a time when I thought I would be able to dedicate a fair amount of time to it. Since then, I have not been able to work on it and do not envision having the time to work on it in the future. As the principal author, I encourage the community to delete the book. --Rcragun (discuss • contribs) 15:27, 2 June 2020 (UTC)
 * about this and Statistics for Sociology above: if you are the only contributor then WB:SPEEDY applies. Add to the main pages. -- Jules  (Mrjulesd) 10:40, 3 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Done. Thank you. --Rcragun (discuss • contribs) 14:37, 4 June 2020 (UTC)


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/How to Convert Videos for the iPod

How to Convert Videos for the iPod
Nominate to delete this due to there are many instructional texts at Wikihow projects:

https://www.wikihow.com/Put-Video-on-Your-iPod https://www.wikihow.com/Put-Videos-on-an-iPod-Touch

Proposed by Encik Tekateki (discuss • contribs) 04:34, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

 * because the existence of something elsewhere is not a valid reason to delete material from our collection. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 05:47, 21 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Symbol merge vote.svg Merge This could be a good page in the Wikibook Do-It-Yourself, rather then a standalone book with one page. --Mbrickn (discuss • contribs) 10:19, 21 January 2021 (UTC)
 * If I knew there is Wikibookbook like this, I wont nominate it to be deleted. I am also nominating it to be merge +1 to Do-It-Yourself . Voted by Encik Tekateki (discuss • contribs) 01:15, 25 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Afiact the Do-It-Yourself book doesn't cover software. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 01:57, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Symbol comment vote.svg Comment Apologies about that then, I wasn't aware. If that's the case it might be best to leave it be as a historical curiosity. --Mbrickn (discuss • contribs) 08:03, 4 February 2021 (UTC)


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/Economic Sophisms

Economic Sophisms
As far as I can tell this is just a straight copy from Wikisource with no further content. It belongs at Wikisource, not here. QuiteUnusual (discuss • contribs) 13:37, 8 February 2021 (UTC)
 * . Looks like progress on this has been slow (which from my own experience, sometimes happens with a wikibook) but non-zero. The RFI was in late 2018 —archive— and the requestor then did a bunch of work on it in July 2020.  Their most recent edit to it was a typo fix in December 2020. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 14:20, 8 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Ah okay, you looked closer than I did! It isn't clear to me what the editor intends with both this and Jánua Linguárum Reseráta, neither of which has much going on other than recreating a source text. QuiteUnusual (discuss • contribs) 14:37, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

 * per WB:SOURCE Wikibooks is not a mirror or a text repository. Published texts are only allowed in annotated form. Furthermore its been here for two years and no attempt has been made to annotate it. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 15:20, 8 February 2021 (UTC)


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/Unicode

Unicode/Character reference/EF000-EFFFF
Unicode is not assigned this block, so it is meaningless.--IN (discuss • contribs) 09:50, 4 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Symbol comment vote.svg Comment Noting reserved private use characters as opposed to even if it's a whole block, seems like useful info to me. It's not like the information there is actually incorrect right? If you printed out this table and filled in characters as you used them, I could see it being a useful resource for students working on projects. I need to brush up on how Unicode works though (Only learned about ebcdic and ascii in school.) --Mbrickn (discuss • contribs) 17:39, 4 February 2021 (UTC)

 * per Mbrickn, that fact that its unused is important information in its own right. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 15:23, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

title: Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/Unicode


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for deletion/Birmingham Mathematics

Birmingham Mathematics
As I said on the discussion board: Why is this a book? This should not be a book. It would just be a copy of the other courses and material out there on wikibooks and other wikis. I don't think it should be a book.

 * I do not think this is sufficient enough for it to become a wikibook. Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 12:35, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
 * , nothing worth keeping, unlikely it will ever be developed. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 23:41, 8 March 2021 (UTC)


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Wikibooks:Requests for permissions/Mrjulesd

(+Administrator)
Hi I'm Jules, username Mrjulesd. I would like to make a request for adminship (RfA), which was recently suggested to me on my user talk page (thanks). I would like to give a brief summary of my contributions here, and to Wikimedia projects in general. You can also see a summary at CentralAuth, and xtools.

 * I joined Wikimedia in September 2012, but didn't start actively editing until September 2014, at English Wikipedia; I have continued to edit there since then. I made my first edit to English Wikibooks in February 2019, so I have been actively editing here for two years. Overall I have made over 14,000 edits to Wikimedia projects, with over 6,000 edits to Wikibooks, of which nearly 4,000 are to the mainspace. I use a strong unique password for logging on to my unified account. I have never edited for pay on Wikimedia projects, and I don't have any conflict of interests. I have never been blocked on a Wikimedia project. I have one alternate account, User:Mrjulesd(alt); I have occasionally made IP edits, but usually these are because I've forgotten to log-in

 * My main point of interest is the book I have written here, Brief History of Europe. Well it was supposed to be brief, but its mushroomed into eight longish chapters! Still its been an interesting experience, and any comments are always welcome. I have contributed to a number of other book here, but its been quite a scattered approach, I just tend to make fixes when I see them, so it is often connected with my patrolling. I created Template:Chapter navigation with TOC for book navigation, which is now used on three books.

 * I have done a fair amount of anti-vandalism work and page patrols. I was made a reviewer here in September 2019 by QuiteUnusual, as auto-promotion was not working at that time. I have made over 9,400 manual pending changes reviews to pages I have come across during patrol; occasionally I make mistakes, but I think my overall accuracy is good. I have contributed to the project (Wikibooks) and help namespaces, where I have made over 280 and 50 edits respectively. I welcome and try to help editors a fair bit. I created Template:Wikibooks editor navigation for internal navigation, and I recently updated Help:Contents. I am fairly active on the reading room forums, including work on the ongoing start allowing game strategies thread.

I would like to request adminship to work on admin backlogs, which I feel I can handle with my experience; I am aware of Wikibooks policies and guidelines. Now there are a number of active admins on the project for handling admin tasks. But of course this could change in the future, quite often contributors leave Wikimedia projects. Also I personally believe that suitable candidates should be promoted if they fulfill basic criteria, which I would suggest to be a reasonable level of experience, and no obvious red flags. So I am requesting on that basis, and I would probably support other candidates for adminship on that basis too.

Anyway, thanks for your consideration. I invite all members of the community to support, oppose, or comment; I will also try to answer any questions that you might have. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 21:55, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

 * I'm comfortable with Mrjulesd joining the team. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 01:06, 24 February 2021 (UTC)
 * No issues from my side; he's a solid contributor who has demonstrated sufficient knowledge on Wikibooks policies, plus has contributed from a content standpoint. The number of active admins isn't that relevant in his candidacy. Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 07:18, 24 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Minorax (discuss • contribs) 06:03, 25 February 2021 (UTC)
 * . —Hasley (discuss • contribs) 17:06, 26 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Great job and also appreciate on his work in Commons too. Encik Tekateki (discuss • contribs) 02:10, 27 February 2021 (UTC)

(Removal of adminstrator)
Does not meet the administrator expectation (Administrators are expected to be active (see sysop activity on Wikibooks). There are no hard and fast definitions on what it means to be "active" but the general expectation for nomination of desysopship is the lack of activity for a year. Administrators who are not using privileges, those privileges provided by the community due to the user's knowledge and activity, do not need to continue having them. Administrators do not have a "lifetime membership" and are expected to continually use their tools for the good of the community.) Last edit on 6 June 2022 and last logged action on 5 June 2022. --Ameisenigel (discuss • contribs) 10:51, 25 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Hmm i think his is valid, i half feel responsable for his leaving... basically spamming his talkpqge.. — L10nM4st3r / ROAR at me! 22:54, 14 April 2024 (UTC)


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for permissions/Mathmogeek

(Reviewer)
I feel like I deserve (almost 30 days old) the Reviewer privilege instead of having to wait a whole hour for someone to review me. Also, I would love to review other new users (which I would do so quickly). --Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 13:50, 25 February 2021 (UTC)
 * update: you can check my xtools admin score link out for my admin score and xtools general stats link for my general statistics.

The autoreview permission does not allow you to review others' edits (you need reviewer for that). Also, while you've indeed had an account for almost a month, you have edited only in two days, and you've edited in only a few books. Considering this, I am not inclined to granting autoreview at this time. I would also note that you'll automatically become a reviewer upon meeting some criteria (see above link). Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 14:30, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

 * Oh, I understand! I changed it the request to Reviewer. And, I edited a lot of articles though. I am also trying my best to help out the community as much as possible at the moment by editing a lot more articles on all Wikis. I think you should reconsider. Thank you, though. --Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 14:45, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

have you looked through the requirements at Reviewers? I don't believe you fulfill them them at this time. If you need help with any action that needs the reviewer permission you could ask somewhere like WB:AA, or on my user talk page. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 17:04, 25 February 2021 (UTC)
 * I have, and I know I do not fulfill them at this time, which is why I was asking for permission to become a Reviewer here. Is it not possible? --Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 17:22, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

 * It is possible, but you should understand why the wait is built into the process for giving the +reviewer right. It is to ensure that people are familiar with the standards and expectations here. For example, understanding how books are structured, how the categorisation system works and so on. For example, if your edits aren't reviewed, then we want to be sure you understand that needs adding to new subpages to avoid a large backlog of uncategorised pages being added. That's what people are looking for - not "can you be trusted" but "are you up to speed on Wikibooks so that I don't need to help you." QuiteUnusual (discuss • contribs) 19:05, 25 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Ah... I got you. I understand now. I think I got it from here. So, yeah I think I am ready and up to speed on Wikibooks! --Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 19:16, 25 February 2021 (UTC)
 * the thing you've got to realize is that you may feel you're ready, and indeed you may be ready, but it is a different matter to convince the community that you are. Now both Leaderboard and QuiteUnusual are admins for this project, and neither seem particularly keen to grant you the permission. But this isn't really that bad, because with a couple of weeks or so of fairly consistent editing the software will promote you (but do remember to use edit summaries, as the software checks for these). So in no time at all you'll become a reviewer; and in the meantime you can always ask for assistance. So its really no big deal. -- Jules (Mrjulesd) 23:07, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

(Reviewer)
I understand what you are saying; but rather than waiting 5 days to become a reviewer automatically, I wanted to become one now. Especially that now I tick all the boxes (except for the 30 days old one, I am only 25 days old at the moment). So I thought it is reasonable to ask to become a reviewer, when I am only 5 days away anyway. --Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 16:55, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

(reviewer)
I now am sure I qualify for auto-reviewer. Please let me know if there is anything else to do though. --Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 08:47, 4 September 2021 (UTC)
 * The bot(?) that does this acts in a delayed fashion, that's what happened to me. I recommend that you continue editing. It should happen eventually. AshLin (discuss • contribs) 04:28, 6 September 2021 (UTC)
 * The bot still hasn't done this, and it's been almost two weeks now. Not sure what is causing the delay at this point. Mathmogeek (discuss • contribs) 11:32, 16 September 2021 (UTC)
 * @AshLin and Mathmogeek It's not done by a bot, but it's rather automatic. This happened to me as well, and apparently it stopped doing this between 2019-2020 SHB2000 (discuss • contribs) 05:55, 17 September 2021 (UTC)
 * It's not a bot, it's a function of the MediaWiki software and it isn't reliable. I've manually added +reviewer QuiteUnusual (discuss • contribs) 08:31, 17 September 2021 (UTC)


text: Wikibooks:Reading room/Bulletin Board/2020


text:
Wikibooks:Requests for import/Archives/2020/December

Shogi diagram request
I am making a Wikibook for shogi, also known as Japanese chess, and I would like to request the template for shogi diagrams used on Wikipedia be imported so I can make diagrams for use in my Wikibook. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Itswikisam (talk • contribs) 12:06, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

 * What is the name of the template(s) on Wikipedia? --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 14:01, 28 December 2020 (UTC)

 * It is called Template:Shogi diagram. --Itswikisam (discuss • contribs) 10:03, 29 December 2020 (WAST)

 * Ah, good. Afaics, that template uses Module:Shogi diagram, and that's probably as far as it goes... --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 04:11, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

 * I think I've got them both successfully imported. Let us know if they're not working right. --Pi zero (discuss • contribs) 04:32, 29 December 2020 (UTC)


text:
Professionalism/DuPont, C8, and Parkersburg, West Virginia

For years, DuPont worked with a toxic chemical known as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), or C8, in the manufacturing process for Teflon. This chapter provides an overview of DuPont's improper C8 handling in Parkersburg, WV.

Intro to DuPont and C8
Founded in 1802, DuPont is an American based chemical manufacturing company that synthesizes various polymers, refrigerants, and synthetic pigments. Until 2015, they were also one of the main producers of Perfluorooctanoic acid, an industrial surfactant also known as C8, which is used in the production of Teflon. Teflon is used in non-stick cookware, cosmetics, carpets, water-proofing, and more.

Haskell Laboratories and DuPont's C8 Health Findings
Haskell Laboratories is an in-house laboratory created by DuPont to handle testing of potentially harmful chemicals. Haskell Laboratories handled many of the studies done on the safety of C8.

In 1969, an internal memo to Haskell’s director John Zapp detailed preliminary studies that indicated that when rats were exposed to low doses of C8, there was a notable increase in the size of rats’ livers.

In 1981, Haskell Laboratories was informed of a 3M study demonstrating that C8 caused birth defects in rats. Specifically, it caused issues with fetal eye development. DuPont quickly transferred all female employees out of positions with risks of C8 exposure. Haskell Laboratories also began tracking the pregnancies of eight female employees. Of the eight pregnancies, two resulted in children born with eye defects, similar to those seen in the 3M study. This was also the first documented case of C8 being transferred from mothers to their children in utero.

Later in 1981, employees exposed to C8 were found to have higher rates of liver function abnormalities. Assistant medical director Vann Brewster suggested that DuPont should conduct further liver test monitoring. Years later, the proposal for a follow-up study was rejected.

In 1988, DuPont classified C8 as a Group C carcinogen, meaning it is a possible human carcinogen.

In 1991, DuPont set their internal safety limit for C8 in water at 1ppb. Tests conducted in the same year found C8 at levels of 2-3 ppm in surface water and 2-5 ppb in groundwater at Dry Run Landfill in Parkersburg, WV. This disparity was not reported to federal regulators.

In 1997, Haskell Laboratories conducted a study regarding the health history of employees and found statistically significant cases of various cancers and heart disease among employees.

The Tennants, Dry Run Landfill, and Rob Bilott
After discovering the toxic properties of C8, DuPont looked for a way to dispose of it from their Washington Works facility in Parkersburg, WV, especially after discovering that C8 was contaminating local water supplies in Lubeck, WV. Jim Tennant, a worker at the plant suffering from mysterious health ailments (which may or may not have been related to C8), sold roughly 66 acres of land to DuPont in the early 1980s to pay for medical expenses. This land was used as part of DuPont's newly created Dry Run Landfill, named after Dry Run Creek which ran through the plot. DuPont then disposed of about 14 million pounds of industrial sludge containing C8 into the landfill.

The Tenannt family, including Jim Tenannt and his brother, Wilbur Earl Tenannt (referred to as both Wilbur or Earl in different publications), were also livestock farmers. Jim Tennant moved away from Dry Run due to concerns for his family's health after his daughters developed strange ailments. Wilbur stayed behind. In the 1990s, Wilbur noticed problems with his animals after the creation of Dry Run Landfill. He found that Dry Run Creek, which his cows drank from, was unnaturally green and foamy. His cows became deranged and ill, and were dying at an unprecedented pace. A dissection performed by Jim and Wilbur found that some dead cows' internal organs were green. Suspecting the nearby landfill, Wilbur got in touch with a Rob Bilott, a family friend and environmental attorney, to take legal action against DuPont.

After seeing videos recorded by Tennant, Bilott took the case and filed the lawsuit in 1999. Notably, Bilott and his firm previously worked almost exclusively with corporate clients. Bilott was used to defending chemical companies rather than suing them; taking the case showed that his conscience outweighed his career. In the legal process of discovery, Bilott found references to PFOA/C8 being placed in the landfill in DuPont's documents. He had never heard of it before in his career, and forced DuPont to turn over additional documentation on the chemical. These documents showed DuPont was aware of the toxicity of C8, and DuPont was forced to settle Wilbur Tenannt's lawsuit in August, 2000.

A Class-Action Lawsuit Against DuPont and its Consequences
Supported by Rob Bilott and the documents he obtained, other residents of the community led by Joseph Kiger as a lead plaintiff filed a class-action lawsuit against DuPont in 2001. The lawsuit was a successful medical monitoring claim against DuPont, and roughly 70,000 members of the class were paid $400 contingent upon receiving a medical examination intended by the legal team to collect evidence of C8-induced harm for future suits against DuPont. DuPont was also forced to fund an independent scientific panel to look into C8 safety. In 2011, the scientific panel found probable links between C8 exposure and six major health problems: testicular cancer, kidney cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, pregnancy-induced hypertension, and high cholesterol.

In 2013, DuPont finally ceased C8 production in the United States. The replacement chemical is known commercially as GenX, which allegedly also poses a health risk if it is discharged into the environment. In 2017, DuPont paid 671 million dollars to settle around 3,500 individual lawsuits backed by the evidence of the scientific panel and medical examinations sponsored by the class-action lawsuit.

Continuing Legal Action
Lawsuits in the US continue against DuPont and its spin-off, The Chemours Company. The state of Ohio filed a lawsuit in 2018 against DuPont for allegedly discharging C8 into the environment and contaminating Ohio's drinking water. The state of North Carolina filed a lawsuit in 2020 against DuPont for alleged PFAS pollution (PFAS is a class of chemicals including PFOA/C8 and GenX, a C8 replacement). Health officials into GenX are underway in the Netherlands after GenX was detected in local water supplies.

Karrh vs. Bilott
Bruce Karrh worked in DuPont’s medical division from the 1970s to the early 2000s. In public statements, Karrh touted the need for transparency and accountability regarding chemical health hazards. In private, Karrh saw evidence from Haskell Laboratories of health impacts from C8 exposure and failed to report them to the EPA. Rob Bilott was wary of the Tenant case because of the long term risks it posed to his chemical defense firm. While Rob Bilott accepted the Tenant case to protect the public, Karrh put DuPont’s success first. Karrh, a trained medical doctor, lacked the professionalism of Bilott.

Workplace Advocacy
DuPont’s misconduct lasted for decades. Employees at DuPont knew their health was impacted by their job. Fever, nausea, and diarrhea, colloquially known as the “Teflon flu,” were common side effects of working in the C8 storage tanks. DuPont workers either didn’t think to question their employer or were powerless to do so. Mere plant workers may have been unable to question DuPont since corporate leaders hid information and their jobs depended on not speaking out. True professionals must both put the public interest above their own and think critically when corporate policies and actions are inconsistent with one another. Corporate DuPont employees and plant workers alike could have gone to the EPA with concerns at risk of their job, but did not.

Social Consequences
Advocating is not easy and there are social consequences of whistleblowing. Parkersburg residents are divided on DuPont despite the lawsuits and misconduct. One resident was quoted saying “If DuPont leaves, we're done. This area will be like most other towns in West Virginia; it'll collapse… You take the good with the bad, right?” Not only did individual employees fear losing jobs, the entire community feared losing a company upon which they rely. Whistleblowers felt consequences of social dissonance but did not let that stop them from speaking up. The Tenants were publicly shunned and had to change churches four times. The Kigers felt constantly antagonized in their community for their actions against DuPont. Neither the Tenants nor the Kigers let social consequences stop them from speaking out.


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Computer network technologies and services/Elements of security and cryptography

Cryptography basic goals and applications
In network context, basic goals of security mechanisms are:
 * endpoint authentication;
 * data integrity: we want to ensure that the data has not been changed in the path from source to destination;
 * confidentiality: we want to ensure that the data is not read by anyone other than the intended destination.

These goals are achieved is through the use of cryptographic mechanisms. These are employed in two different contexts, that is, for two different actions:
 * encryption: it consists in encrypting the data exchanged, that is, changing the contents of the packets so that only who has been authorized can rebuild the original content;
 * signing: it is used to guarantee data integrity and sender authentication, and it is performed by appending to the message a small sequence of bytes, which depends on the data itself and on some information which the sender has:
 * the endpoints can check whether the data has been modified, recomputing this sequence of bytes;
 * the operation is similar to the one of an error detection code, but unlike it the sequence of bytes is based on a secret key.

Types of keys
There are two types of keys:
 * shared (or symmetric) key: the same key, which is a sequence of bytes, is used both to encrypt/sign, and to decrypt/authenticate the data. The key must be kept secret between the communicating stations, and this represents a difficulty because the communication put in place to negotiate the key should itself be secure;
 * asymmetric key: two different keys are used to encrypt/sign and decrypt/authenticate data. Either of the two, the one called public key, is used to decrypt the packets that the source host has encrypted through its private key, and can be shared without concern; the other one must be kept secret. The two keys are such that what is encrypted by means of either of the two can only be decrypted by means of the other one.
 * For example, if you want to send a file securely, you can apply an cryptographic algorithm by using the private key and spread the public one: in this way who wants to communicate securely with that host can use that key to encrypt the message, since only that host will have the private key and will be able to decode it.
 * To check the identity of the sender, the mechanism is similar: if you want to make sure that users can check that a message comes from a certain sender, they just need to use the sender's public key to decrypt the messages sent by it.

Advantages and disadvantages of the types of key

 * Asymmetric keys are less robust and require more computational resources for the algorithm that uses them than symmetric keys.
 * In many cases, asymmetric keys are used to communicate securely and agree on a symmetric key:
 * a host sends the public key it intends to use for that one-way communication with the destination host;
 * the destination host chooses a symmetric key and forwards it by encrypting it by means of the public key received before;
 * the source host decrypts the message by using the private key, and from that moment it will use the symmetric key included in it.

Key point: when someone receives the public key relating to an entity, it must be sure of the identity of the entity, that is, it really is who it claims to be: for this purpose we use certificates.

Certificates
They are documents that allow you to check the belonging of a public key to an entity. A digital certificate contains:
 * information about the key;
 * information about owners' identities;
 * the digital signature of an entity which has verified the certificate contents.

The signature is nothing more than a sequence of bytes, a sort of digest, encrypted by means of the private key from the certification authority. Verifying the signature means to check that the certificate has been validated by the certification authority, so you just have to use its certificate, which will contain the public key, to decrypt the signature. The certificate of the certifying entity may already be known by the host, for example because it is already present in the operating system or in the web browser, or it may have to be downloaded and in turn verified in the same way. The Root CA certificate must be inevitably obtained in a reliable way.


text:
Professionalism/The Loss of Petrobras Platform 36

The platform was an offshore floating semi-submersible oil platform, and in 2001 was the largest in the world. The platform was constructed by the company Petrobras, a semi-publicly owned oil and gas company originating in Brazil. The platform was stationed 80 miles off the coast of Brazil in the Roncador Oil Fields. On March 15, 2001, the platform suffered catastrophic failures that resulted in two explosions, deaths of 11 people, and a complete loss of the platform.

Contributing Factors
The first major contributing factor that resulted in the loss of Petrobras Platform 36 is issues with the placement of the Emergency Drain Pipe (EDT). The EDT was not properly aligned, and was therefore led to the production header as opposed to the production cassion. This is what allowed for hydrocarbons to get into the starboard EDT.

The Second Major Contributing factor is how long it took to activate the port EDT drainage. This caused a wait to release the hydrocarbons. With this came a failure in ventilation dampers, this allowed for more water to enter, flood the starboard column and the floatation devices used.

Poor Design Placement of Safety-Critical Paths
The first major mechanical failure of the platform came from the poor placement of the EDT. The placement of the EDT was placed close to a seawater pipe running up one of the main support columns. By having these two components close to one another there is a common failure point created, increasing the risk for more issues. Once the failure occurred in the EDT the problem was compounded by rupturing the seawater pipe. With the pipe being ruptured it was unable to help support the fire fighting effort. This design flaw considered major and led to a search for the hazard analysis report after the accident, when none was found there was concern that no report was ever generated.

Component Failure Without Backup
The second major mechanical flaw was the improper backups for key component failures. The intake valve connected to the starboard aft EDT, supposed to isolate it, had no redundancy for leaks. Since the drainage pump for this EDT was removed for repair, together they caused the over-pressurization of said EDT and led to the first explosion of this EDT. Later, the seawater pump short-circuited due to the flooding, contributing to the flooding of the starboard aft column and pontoon. Valves to the sea were also fail-set and locked in the open position.

Alarm System
The third major mechanical failure was the alarm system. The platform had 1,723 alarms that were triggered in a span of 17 minutes. The issue that arose from this is that the alarms had no priority system. This meant that without precise knowledge of alarms, and which should be examined first, there was no way of going to the biggest issue. This led to confusion and prevented an efficient method of correcting the issues.

Prioritizing Profit
Petrobras restructured to a new organizational model in the early 2000s, emphasizing business units and meeting targets. This caused many questionable decisions in the management that indirectly contributed to the incident.

The platform was not finished at the moment of the accident, and the assembling of equipment was carried out in parallel with production activity because of the shortened deadlines for the production targets. The company also cut corners in many security practices. They postponed many maintenance jobs, and cut costs in prescriptive engineering, inspections, and quality requirements. Managers on the rig reported several problems in the pipes days before the accident and recommended a temporary shutdown to change the equipment, but they were ignored by the head office.

Profit-oriented plans also led them to use more poorly trained contractor workers, relying on safety mechanisms to fill knowledge gaps from lack of training, but the contractors would frequently misuse equipment. By design, the drains storage tank should only be used in emergency draining, but they are used frequently like in this incident for convenience. Draining water through the production header was also not recommended when they should discharge water directly into the sea, which is also one of the main causes of contaminated water flowing into the starboard aft tank. The manholes to the starboard aft column and the stability box were left open due to an inspection of crack repairs from a previous day. This led to the flooding of the column, and due to its large volume, decisively sunk the platform.

"Humans are the weak link"
In the early 1990s, as complex technical systems expanded, their reliability stagnated or even decreased. In normal times, the systems are managed automatically, but in cases of emergency, operators are called in despite they had lost their expertise and context information about such emergency because the system had been managed automatically. Companies taking this position viewed human factors as the "weak link" in a complex system, the primary source of unreliability, and aimed to replace all human intervention. It is evident that Petrobras took this position in designing their oil platforms, and the onboard operators are disconnected from the system by the automated computers.

After the first explosion, the operators had no information about the accident site. An operator from the platform reported that "it was difficult to determine what had happened", so they had to send in a brigade to investigate. Their command to send in the fire brigade was a risky one, and all 11 people killed during the second explosion are from the fire brigade. They had no sensors to back their operations in the starboard aft column, and the "communication was faulty" with the rig's command. The thousands of alarms contributed further to the confusion of operators. Under normal conditions, these could be dealt with by sequentially following appropriate procedures, even with little training. However, this lack of training left contractors uninformed as to which alarms should be prioritized and safety procedures that should be followed during a catastrophic failure of this scale.

External Regulation vs. Self-Regulation
The balance of external regulation (via governmental agencies) versus self-regulation (within an industry or company) is a common conflict between industries and government. Increases in technological complexity and scope of industrial projects likewise raise the workload of regulatory agencies that review these projects. Industrial self-regulation (ISR) is often used to lower this workload, with the assumption that companies are more knowledgeable about their own products and can thus best judge whether they are safe. Supporters of ISR argue that corporations benefit from a reputation of quality and are thus already incentivized to strive for safety. With ISR, regulatory agencies allow industries to police themselves while they willingly act in the public’s self interest, with threat of regulation if they cause public harm. In practice, self-regulation can lead to cost-cutting in critical areas, providing increased profits to corporations while no serious accidents occur in spite of these violations. Without guidance and incentives from regulation, the results of accidents serve as the only negative incentives, leading to a safety and quality management system that is reactive rather than preventive. When accidents reveal deficiencies in ISR policies, agencies pass external regulation, introducing review procedures with guidelines for approval.

Prior to this accident, Brazil’s petroleum industry was entirely self-regulated with regards to risk assessment and inspection, with no formal plan in place. Since then, Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (ANP) performed a benchmarking study alongside agencies in other countries, leading to Resolution No. 43/2007. This law establishes an Operational Safety Management System (SGSO) with 17 Management Practices (MP) in categories of leadership, installation, and operational practices. Each practice is intended to prevent a repeat of factors present in a noteworthy accident. MP 15, regulating Operational Procedures, is the direct result of P-36’s sinking.

Automation and Expertise
Professionally responsible automation should augment human labor without replacing, overriding, or neglecting human expertise and the process of development thereof. If automation is relied upon too heavily, it can limit capabilities for developing expertise beyond the system’s constraints, thus creating dependency on the system. This allows cost-cutting businesses to hire technological system supervisors rather than experts. This can save money if all systems remain functional, but it risks creating a single point of failure in the automated system. Using automation to assist expertise can remove tedium to redirect expertise towards more important tasks. However, replacing expertise with automation shifts reliance from expertise at the site of work (an immediate, first-hand source of expertise) to the expertise of remote programmers who likely do not perform the work directly (a distant, second-hand source of expertise).

With Platform 36, expertise of safety engineers was pushed aside in favor of automation of safety mechanisms. Rather than hiring more engineers, Petrobras hired contractors, and rather than thoroughly train them, Petrobras relied on safety mechanisms to fill knowledge gaps from lack of training. After the explosion, over 1000 alarms designed to notify workers of problems were triggered in close succession. Under normal conditions, these could be dealt with by sequentially following appropriate procedures, even with little training. However, this lack of training left contractors uninformed as to which alarms should be prioritized and safety procedures that should be followed during a catastrophic failure of this scale.

Conclusion
Due to limited access to primary sources, and partly due to the role of operators replaced by digital systems, we couldn't provide more details on the mistakes from the company managers. If given access to further resources, future work could add more details on how those mistakes contributed to this incident. Another direction of expansion could focus on similar accidents where human operators fail to respond to emergencies due to machine intervention.


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User:PeterEasthope/common.js

mw.loader.load( "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:PerfektesChaos/js/lintHint/r.js&action=raw&maxage=86400&ctype=text/javascript" );

title: User:PeterEasthope/common.js


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User:PeterEasthope/global.js

mw.loader.load( "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:PerfektesChaos/js/lintHint/r.js&action=raw&maxage=86400&ctype=text/javascript" );

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User:Ray Haleblian/sandbox

Hello, it's me again.

title: User:Ray Haleblian/sandbox


text:
Cookbook talk:Macaroni and Cheese

There is no indication of how much this recipe will produce. How many servings? What volume results? Is this standard for Wikicookbook recipes? MartinVMtl (discuss • contribs) 18:19, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

title: Cookbook talk:Macaroni and Cheese


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User talk:71.64.199.247

Welcome!
Welcome to Wikibooks! You do not need to log in to read or edit books at Wikibooks, but creating an account is quick, free and non-intrusive, requires no personal information, and gives you many benefits, including:
 * A username of your choice for directly attributing your contributions.
 * A personal user page, a talk page, and a watchlist to monitor pages that interest you.
 * The ability to rename pages and to customize some aspects of the Wikibooks interface.
 * People will recognize you as a member of the Wikibooks community, and you will be eligible to review pages as you gain experience.
 * Your IP address will be hidden from most users, which may give you a greater sense of security and privacy.

We hope that you choose to join our community as a Wikibookian and create an account.

Feel free to ask any questions on my talk page or in the Reading room. Be sure to sign your talk page comments with four tildes ( ~ ). Leaderboard (discuss • contribs) 20:00, 8 May 2021 (UTC)

title: User talk:71.64.199.247


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Minecraft resource gathering/Apple

Apples are a renewable food source and crafting material obtainable from Oak trees and Villager trading.

Oak trees
The simplest way to gather an Apple is to cut down an Oak or Dark Oak tree and wait for its leaves to decay: each leaf has a 1 in 200 chance of dropping an apple.

A faster method is to manually break the leaves. You don't need a tool for this, but a Hoe enchanted with Efficiency lets you instantly break them. Furthermore, the Fortune enchantment (with any tool) improves your chances of receiving an apple.

Villagers
Farmer villagers can sell 4 Apples for 1 Emerald. This is one of three possible second-tier (Apprentice) trades, meaning that $2⁄3$ of Farmers will sell Apples.

Since the base price is 1 Emerald, this offer doesn't have any discounts and therefore isn't affected by positive reputation or curing. However, it is still worth curing Farmers to receive discounts on their other useful trades, including selling Golden Carrots and buying Potatoes/Carrots.

Chests
Apples can be found as loot in some naturally-generating Chests.

Uses
An apple provides 4 hunger points and 2.4 saturation when eaten. In addition, surrounding an apple with 8 Gold Ingots at a Crafting Table makes a Golden Apple, which gives Regeneration II for 5 seconds and Absorption for 2 minutes.

You can feed Horses Apples to heal them by 4 health, or breed them if they are at full health.

Apples can also be composted, with a 65% chance of adding a compost layer. On average, you'll need 10.77 Apples to get 1 Bonemeal.

Java Edition Indev 0.31

 * Apples were first added in Indev version 0.31 as the second food item, after Mushrooms
 * They were only obtainable from the starter chest
 * Apples restored 4 health points when eaten (this was before the hunger bar was added)

Java Edition Infdev

 * When Minecraft left the Indev development stage, the starter house was removed, making Apples unobtainable

Java Edition Beta 1.8

 * Beta 1.8 introduced the hunger system, meaning that apples now restored hunger instead of health points
 * Apples (along with other foods) can now be stacked
 * Apples can now be found in Stronghold Chests

Java Edition 1.1

 * Apples were made a renewable resource in version 1.1, which added apples as a possible drop from Oak Leaves
 * 1.1 also added Chests to Blacksmith Village buildings, which could contain apples

Java Edition 1.3.1

 * Farmer Villagers can now sell apples
 * Bonus Chests were added, which often contain apples

Java Edition 1.5

 * The drop rate for Apples from Leaves is now affected by Fortune

Java Edition 1.9

 * Igloos were added with Chests that sometimes contain Apples

title: Minecraft resource gathering/Apple


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User:BoonDock

This is my local page on WikiBooks. Otherwikis have more info

title: User:BoonDock


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Professionalism/Electronic Sports Ethics: Professionalism in an Unestablished Industry

Electronic Sports (or e-sports) refers to organized competition involving video games. Despite achieving financial success, cultural impact, and public recognition, e-sports lacks the infrastructure competitive seen in tenured sports like soccer. This absence leaves this young industry prone to ethical violations. Cases in this chapter illustrate failures in recognizing the responsibilities a professional has in e-sports.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive Coaching Bug
Counter Strike: Global Offensive is a team-based first person shooter multiplayer video game released in 2012, a continuation of the Counter Strike franchise developed by Valve. Counter Strike: Global Offensive has one of the largest esports scenes in the gaming industry, with many organizations, international tournaments,  and large prize pools.

One of the referees of a tournament in 2020, discovered that some coaches abused a camera bug that allowed them to gain information about the enemy team that they would otherwise not have, which resulted in an unfair advantage and could potentially change the outcome of the matches. After the initial discovery, the same referee looked into more footage from the perspective of the coaches and found more evidence of bug abuse. As a result of this discovery, the ESIC (Esports Integrity Commission) launched an official investigation on September 4th, 2020. The ESIC concluded the investigation on September 28th, 2020, and after reviewing 20% of 99,650 demos, banned 37 coaches that were found to be abusing the bug. Punishments ranged from 4 months to 36 months, and were decided on a case by case basis. It was also discovered that cases of bug abuse have been found as early as 2016.

The ESIC could not find evidence of active player involvement. However, since coaches can communicate with players during the game, other players of unaffected team questioned the complicity of these players. The coaches that used the bug failed in their duty as a professional not only in damaging the integrity of the competitive scene, but also in damaging the reputation of players who may have been unaware of the bug abuse. Professionals in industry must understand the potential collateral damage their actions can cause on co-workers.

Another takeaway is the role in game developers as decision-makers in e-sports. In response to the scandal, Valve banned all coaching during games. They claimed it was in response to ESIC's investigation, however a coach claimed to have reported the bug to Valve as early as 2018. In this ruling, Valve punishes coaches that never cheated, professionals who never harmed the competitive integrity. Valve has always had sporadic interference in the e-sports industry, and this scandal calls into question whether oversight should be handled by organizations independent of game development.

Tainted Minds
Tainted Minds was an esports organization that decided to have their League of Legends team live and practice together in a gaming house. The house chosen was to be temporary, to start practice as soon as possible. Upon moving in, several issues became obvious to the players. Among them were:

 * No gaming PCs
 * Poor internet
 * No air conditioning
 * Power outages
 * No way to do laundry

Riot Games, the game developer of League of Legends held a mediation between the management of Tainted Minds and the players. The mediation was held by Daniel Ringland, who had a prior relationship with Tainted Minds investor John Mcrae. One week after the mediation, the players left the house, believing Tainted Minds had violated the contracts. Tainted Minds refused to remove the players' names from the Global Contract Database, preventing them from joining new teams. Eventually, a Riot investigation fined Tainted Minds 7,000 AUD, which was seen as a disproportionately low punishment.

Often times, organizations will not have their employees' best interests in mind. Individuals should not wait for third parties to intervene, as this can take too long and be ineffective. Individuals should know their rights and what the terms of employment are, and if these are breached, they should not hesitate to demand action or to terminate employment.

Starcraft: Brood War Match Fixing Ring
Starcraft: Brood War became popular in South Korea’s culture during the 2000s. It had its own dedicated television channel, attracted chaebol (large corporations) investments, and encouraged discussions of the game’s inclusion into the sports event Asian Games. Membership into Asian Games would have provided professional players an avenue for exemption from mandatory military service. However, negotiations failed in 2010 after the discovery of a match fixing ring in which betting sites and players collaborated to intentionally lose professional games.

The news was shocking because one of Brood War’s greatest players, Ma “sAviOr” Jae-yoon, played a large role in the scandal. Although he claimed to have never intentionally lost matches, he acted as a ringleader in convincing other players to throw matches. One of these players was Jin “Hwasin” Yung Soo. The interaction between Hwasin and sAviOr illustrates two failures of professionalism.

The first involves the dynamic between players. Professional players, especially established veterans like sAviOr, have an obligation to mentor younger or less well-off players like Hwasin on proper conduct in the competitive scene. Relative to sAviOr, Hwasin was not as successful, and stated that he was under psychological and financial stress at the time. When interviewed about the match-fixing, Hwasin claimed naivete.

"At the time, I never even heard of the term “match fixing” or had a conceptual understanding of it, but since a player of sAviOr’s calibre was telling me that “oh don’t worry, it's not even an important match, much better to make some cash off it” sounded very convincing to me. - Hwasin"

While Hwasin reaffirms his own independent complicity, the quote implies that Hwasin trusted sAviOr because of this star status. Instead of promoting fair play, sAviOr took advantage of Hwasin to damage the integrity of competitive Brood War.

Preserving the game’s competitive scene is important because the second duty of players is to serve as ambassadors to the general public. A Korean commentator claimed that outside investment came primarily due to the scene’s “purity and passion,” and compares the scandal to “pouring ink on a piece of white paper.” Behavior like match-fixing does irreparable damage to e-sports’ image. One player, Lee “Flash” Young-ho, observes that “before the incident, during ProLeague, the crowd was already packed at full capacity. But after that, [crowd] was cut by half.” Actions like match-fixing reverberate across the entire industry. However, players should not be alone. Teams and other e-sports organizations must consider policy reforms or new infrastructure that discourages players from these violations.

E-sports is a unique work environment. There is more to being a professional player than winning more games. In any field, professionals must also positively contribute to an ecosystem by refraining from ethical violations. Preservation of integrity and fair use aids long-term growth, paving a smoother road for future generations.

Promise and ahq Korea
AHQ is a Taiwanese professional esports organization. In 2013, a Korean branch was established to compete in an OGN (South Korean television channel) tournament. Before the tournament, manager No Dae Chul instructed the team to lose to certain organizations in the tournament, to maintain brand value. One member, Hoon, had been a professional player with Najin before, and refused. The younger players, Promise and ActSense were scared of losing their new status as professional players. After increased pressure, including physical threats from the manager, they went along with the manager's demands. Eventually the team discovered that AHQ was not actually sponsoring them. The team was created and funded by the manager's own money, so he could bet against his own team. Unable to live with what he had done, Promise attempted suicide.

In a professional setting, newer employees may put up with more abuse, as they have no prior experience to calibrate their expectations as to how the industry works. Newer employees can also be eager to impress, and work extra hard, in fear of losing their new position. This can be seen by first-year investment banking working heavy hours in poor conditions, often leading to severe health problems.

The situation also shows the importance of veteran's mentorship. If Hoon had given more guidance to the new players, the situation may have been greatly changed. Veterans in all professional settings should do their part in mentoring new members.

Blind deference to authority also played a key role. No matter how much an individual may be outranked in a professional setting, they should still question the orders of their higher-ups, especially when they go directly against personal ethics.

Conclusion
One of the main questions that arises is how can interests of the players be represented in the esports industry when compared to physical sports. There are many resources for athletes in physical sports, as the process of becoming a professional athlete is supported through beginner, intermediate, and advanced clubs that help athletes transition from one stage to the next, that allows them to learn important skills in discipline and judgement. To become a professional esports player, the players, in most cases, have to develop skills on their own, which are mostly limited to skills within the game, and they are missing out on interpersonal skills that can lead to exploitation and bad decisions by the players.

Another important aspect to consider is whether allowing the company that developed a specific game to control that game’s esports scene is potentially harmful and whether there should be separate organizations for regulating the rules within that esports scene.


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Professionalism/Thomas H. Murray

Thomas H. Murray is a bioethicist who has done research about a variety of topics, including ethics in science, care of children, occupational health, genetics, and ethics in sports. He served as the president of the Hastings Center from 1999-2012. Throughout his career, which currently spans over 40 years, he has produced a large number of published works and currently works as a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore. This page focuses on his work on professional ethics in sports, which concerns doping and other biomedical technologies.

Background
Thomas H. Murray earned a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Princeton University in 1976. His experiences conducting psychological studies during this time inspired him to pursue ethics, as he would later recount in an interview with Kinesophy: "I was involved in research that deceived undergraduate students into thinking they might be witnessing an emergency, and then recorded whether and how swiftly they sought help. Many of the research subjects were severely rattled by the experience... I came to believe that whatever knowledge we might gain from the study wasn’t enough to justify what we made them go through. I began asking questions about the ethics of such research. Ultimately that led to post-doc fellowships at Yale to study ethics, and then to The Hastings Center." Murray first joined the Hastings Center in 1979, where he worked on the ethics of non-therapeutic drug use. This was the beginning of his research on performance-enhancing drugs in sports. In 1987, he came to the Case Western Reserve University where he because a Susan E. Watson Professor of Bioethics. In 1999, he became the President and CEO of The Hastings Center, a leading organization in the field of bioethics. He stepped down from his position in 2012, and is now a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Murray is the author or editor of more than 250 publications. These publications cover a wide range of topics, including occupational health, genetics, ethics in sports, parenthood, the healthcare industry and scientific research, and more. His wide range and deep analysis of many topics has given him a reputation as a pioneer in the field of bioethics throughout the course of his career. Many books are included in his publications. His first book about ethics in sports was Performance-Enhancing Technologies in Sports: Ethical, Conceptual, and Scientific Issues, published in 2009. His second book about ethics in sports is Good Sport: Why Our Games Matter – and How Doping Undermines Them. It was published in 2018 and is his most recent book.

Murray also served on the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC). The NBAC was a U.S. governmental organization which existed from 1995-2001 to advise the President on bioethics issues. In particular, the NBAC investigated the ethics of human cloning via transfer of genetic material from an existing human being to an egg. The NBAC's findings would later be referenced by regulators and researchers around the world.

Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports
Serious athletes know that fierce competition can create an environment where performance enhancing drugs, are common. These enhancements, such as anabolic steroids and human growth hormones, increase athlete's muscle mass and strength. Athletes alter their bodies by dieting, exercising, and undergoing cosmetic surgeries to hasten recovery from injuries. And while some athletes may decide to use performance enhancing drugs, it may be a grey area whether this is acceptable behavior or cheating. Murray has strongly opposed doping and illustrates why performance enhancing drugs are unethical in sports.

In the 2012 publication, Ethical Consideration in Anti-doping Analysis, Murray contrasts the positive and normative scenarios of the competitive sports environment. The positive scenario is that some athletes will dope, and everyone else must either accept the disadvantage, drop out, or give in and take whatever drug they believe their competitor is using. The normative scenario, or what he argues should be, is an environment where drug-free athletes can participate in sports with confidence that their competition is doing the same.

In 2018, Murray published what he called, “A decades-long journey to understand the ethics of performance-enhancing drug use in sports,” in his book Good Sport. Murray explains how sport has a mixed relationship with the technologies that improve performance. For example, golf banned balls that fly straighter and swim banned certain suits that increased speed. But the core value that bind together all sports, he insists, is the respect for natural talent and the dedication required to perfect it. Doping distorts the connection between natural talents, the dedication to perfect those talents, and success in sports. To Murray, this is good enough reason to ban doping all together.

In an interview, Dr. Murray explored further ethical dilemmas with sports doping, like how we distinguish acceptable enhancements from violations and the root cause of why athletes decide to dope. According to Murray, the ethical decision rests upon the meaning of the activity. A surgeon, for example, is encouraged to take a new, low-risk drug that can steady their hand because his hob is to heal patients, not display virtuosity. Sports is completely different, he explains, because sport is the virtuous perfection of natural talents. After years of working closely with and studying athletes, Murray said the main reason they decide to dope is pressure from their peers, coaches, and officials. Murray further expressed the need to hold these people accountable, for they are the ones that are encouraging and enabling the athlete to dope. A recent development on the ethical boundaries of sports that most interested Murray was the movement to finally go after what he calls the "doping ecosystem" instead of laying all the blame on the athletes themselves.

Murray's Ethical Prospective
Murray’s work, specifically in sports ethics, offers insight into professional ethics in general. In 2015, a joint consensus statement released by Murray and other experts and convened by Safe Kids Worldwide, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and the Andrews Institute for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine discussed the short- and long-term effects of concussions of youth sports-related concussions. Concussions tend to damage the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, which are also the last areas of the brain to develop. Damage to these areas increases the risk of slower brain function. In 2013, a 5-year longitudinal study analyzing brain function in Mixed-Martial Arts (MMA) fighters and boxers identified a positive correlation between consistent blows to the head and years fighting with standardized brain volume, processing time, and psychomotor speed skills.

This provides insight into the ethics of promoting contact sports such as ice hockey and American football, sports which are rife with concussions, at young ages. The brain of a minor is not fully developed, so the athlete may not fully understand the inherent risks and consequences of the issue. Murray states in an interview: “An isolated, informed adult weighing the advantages and disadvantages and choosing to take a risk can argue plausibly that her choice should be respected.” However, in this case, the person is not an isolated, informed adult. The person is an unisolated (maybe influenced and pressured by family or socio-economic circumstances) minor.

Murray also discusses the professional ethics of sports doping. There is still much unknown about the mental effects of doping. Advocates of sports doping center their argument on personal liberty. However, Murray refutes this claim based on the potential impact on one’s reasoning, which, in turn, restricts liberty. Murray uses Aristotle’s term eudaimonia, or the good life, which aims to perfect a person’s natural physical and intellectual attributes. Murray’s “…Aristotelian objection is that we should not use unnatural means – drugs – to perfect natural excellences – athletic ability.”

title: Professionalism/Thomas H. Murray


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Lentis/Sexism, Riot Games, and a Class Action Lawsuit

= History of Riot Games =

Origins
Riot Games was founded in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, but it didn't become a notable company in the gaming industry until it released League of Legends in 2009. League was one of the first major MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) games to hit the market, and is still Riot's main focus and top earning game today, garnering the company $1.75 billion in revenue in 2020.

Past Problems with Diversity
The gaming industry is often thought of as a boys' club, where there are little to no female players or employees, and female characters in games are often underrepresented or over-sexualized. And while the gaming industry is slowly shifting towards gender equality, it can still be difficult for women to feel welcome; Riot is no exception to this.

Based on data collected from drivers' licenses in 2018, 80% of Riot's workforce was male, which reflected their practice of hiring only "core gamers." At Riot, "core gamers" play either MOBA or FPS (first person shooter) games; however, according to data, only 10% of MOBA players and 7% of FPS players are female.

Leadership positions at Riot are also dominated by men. Of the 23 leadership positions, 21 of them are men, down from 22 prior to 2018.

Attempts at Increased Diversity
Around 2016, Riot began incorporating diversity and inclusion initiatives led by Soha El-Sabaawi. She revised the sexual harassment training at the company, created bias training, and ran mandatory interviewer training in an attempt to decrease internal biases that impeded diverse hiring.

El-Sabaawi refused to provide data on the gender makeup of the company when asked in 2018. After the 80% figure was leaked, El-Sabaawi said that the data was unreliable, but that Riot tended to stay at around a 20% female workforce from year to year. In addition, Riot had no quotas for hiring women into leadership roles, although they tried to have generally diverse candidate pools.

= Whistleblowers =

Kotaku Article
In August of 2018, the whistleblower article was published by Kotaku, chronicling the rampant environment of sexism in the office environment, hiring process, feedback structures at the company. This article was contributed to by 28 current and former Riot Games employees who had seen or experienced this toxic culture at their workplace. The heart of the problem, according to one Riot Games former employee who left due to the sexism she personally experienced, was that, "They just didn't respect women."

Some of the allegations made in this article included, "One woman saw an e-mail thread about what it would be like to “penetrate her,” in which a colleague added that she’d be a good target to sleep with and not call again," the same woman also found out she was on an email chain being sent around by senior leadership about "who they'd sleep with" and rating women, and "Efforts to add new female characters to “League of Legends” were delayed or squashed if their avatars were not deemed sufficiently sexually attractive to men, according to three former employees. ‘They would say it openly, with women in the room.’” Here are the "champions" in League of Legends - most of the female characters share common traits such as skimpy armor and enhanced physical features.

Attempts to Deal with Problems Internally
Prior to seeking external assistance in dealing with the rampant sexism faced in this office environment, Melanie McCracken, prior to the class action lawsuit, went to Michael Cullen, a member Human Resources (HR), to discuss the gender-based discrimination she was facing from her boss, Jin Oh. She saw that he did not hire women for "senior employment positions" and when she began to leave Oh's team, he attempted to delay her. She asked Cullen to document their meeting and to remain anonymous in her complaint but this was not heeded as Oh later confronted her about going to HR.

Jessica Negron also attempted to go through HR prior to the class action suit. She spent nearly a year performing the job of her former manager, without an increase in salary or job title, just the implication that she would eventually be hired officially for the position. However, she was never compensated for this (despite the role she was performing having a salary approximately $100,000 higher than that of her current position) and was also passed up for this promotion in favor of their hiring new male employees to fill the role. When she approached HR, they did nothing. Later her new boss implied to her that he was being told to fire her which she also informed HR of, to no effect.

= Class Action Lawsuit =

Mandatory Arbitration
Mandatory arbitration is "a controversial practice in which a business requires employees or consumers to agree to arbitrate legal disputes with the business rather than going to court." Around 60.1 million America workers are subject to a mandatory arbitration clause in their contracts, including the majority of the women who went to work for Riot and would later file the class action lawsuit. Arbitration is a controversial practice, especially when it comes to sexual assault, and other companies have begun removing that specific clause; Google only recently stopped requiring it after employees staged a walkout.

Major Participants
Melanie McCracken and Jessica Negron were the original women from Riot who filed the class action lawsuit with the help of their lawyer Rosen Saba. The plaintiffs later severed ties with Saba and replaced her with lawyer Genie Harrison in February 2020.

Riot Games, INC was the defendant in the suit, and had a whole host of corporate lawyers. In January 2020, two federal agencies had to become involved in the case as well: the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).

Accusations
In the class action lawsuit, countless allegations were made, painting the picture of an incredibly toxic workplace environment for female employees. Some of the worst listed were: unsolicited and unwanted pictures of male genitalia from bosses or colleagues, being required to participate in crude male humor on topics including masturbation and rape or be labelled "unwilling to fit in" (which could be costly on performance reviews), Brandon Beck, a co-founder, using the phrase “no doesn't necessarily mean no” as a slogan for the company, and a former male employee remained in a position of leadership "despite regularly making sexual comments in the workplace and drugging and raping another Riot Games employee."

Intervention and Current Lawsuit
By the end of 2019, the Riot Games and the plaintiffs had agreed to settle for $10 million. However, as the settlement was being processed by the LA Supreme Court, two state agencies, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, intervened in January 2020. The DFEH indicated that the plaintiffs could actually have grounds to settle for upwards of $400 million, citing workers' rights violations and certain non-monetary provisions with the gender wage differential not accounted for by the plaintiffs lawyers. After word of this new settlement amount came to Riot Games, the company decided by the beginning of 2021 to revert all but one of the plaintiffs back to individual mandatory arbitration

= Riot's Response =

The first action taken by Riot Games was adding a Diversity and Inclusion page to their website in May 2018, a couple months after Kotaku began investigating the state of the company and Riot became aware. Then, after Kotaku asked for their response to the allegations of the 28 whistleblowers, they dismissed any and all claims, stating that "We have a zero tolerance policy on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, bullying, and general toxicity". Following the release of the whistleblower article in August 2018, Riot published a public response, apologizing to victims and outlining steps they will take to amend past mistakes, including "Expanding the Culture, Diversity, and Inclusion (D&I) Initiative; Revisiting Cultural Definitions; Third-Party Evaluation; Investigation Process; Reevaluating Recruiting; Trainings; and Staffing up for D&I".

By September 2018, the company had announced it had hired Frances Frei, an operations manager who had previously been brought on by Uber in the wake of its widespread sexual misconduct allegations. At this point, Frei had already been meeting with the leadership of Riot and had started working on building a diversity coalition at the company. Come April 2020, Riot published the Diversity and Inclusion Progress Report with the help of Frei. This outlined the steps Riot had taken since the Kotaku article to elevate diverse voices in the company and change its toxic culture. The company had made single digit growths in hirings and promotions of women and underrepresented minorities, but new hires still remained less than a third women, and women managers went up only 1%; the 21 to 2 men-to-women leadership remained the same. Additionally, the company expressed its continued commitment to delivering justice to the women working at the company since 2013; however, less than a year later, the company would re-enforce mandatory arbitration on the plaintiffs. Finally, the report highlighted efforts to recruit more diverse candidates, as well as enforce Diversity and Inclusion training for everyone at the company, especially those in leadership or managerial positions.

= References =