Farsight.org

Targeting for the Time-Cross Project:
March 2017 Events Covered in the News as of 31 March 2017:

The targets for this project are the most newsworthy events of the month, as determined by the rules of the project and the table below that contains a pool of potential targets. (See also this Overview video.) These are news events that are major headline items occurring in the month. In most cells, there are two numerical entries separated by a slash (/). The first is the number of news cycle days in which the event was featured on the main page of the news outlets. This number estimates the longevity of the story, implying that stories that last longer on the main page of a news outlet relate to more important events. The second number (following the slash) is the cumulative number of links on the main headline page for the news outlets that connect stories related to each event. This second number estimates the breadth of the new coverage for each event, implying that events that spawn more stories and links on the main page is are more important events. When only one number is included in a cell, that number is the total number of links only.

Event Reporting Date	Events	CNN US	CNN International	New York Times	BBC	Total Links
5 March 2017	North Korea fires 4 missiles into ocean	1/1	2/6		2/6	13
6+ March 2017	Texas Panhandle Fires have burned hundreds of square miles, killing more than seven people and over 1,500 cattle. Third largest in Texas's history. Fires have spread into Kansas and Oklahoma. (CNN)
6 March 2017	President Trump announces new travel ban 2.0	1/5	2/6	1/3	2/6	20
7 March 2017	Wikileaks releases major trove of CIA documents relating to hacking	2/3	2/8	2/3	1/5	19
9 March 2017	President Park Geun-hye of South Korea is removed from office	2/6	3/14	2/5	3/9	34
14 March 2017	Winter blizzard/storm Stella slams East Coast of U.S., 8,800 flights cancelled. Two feet of snow in some areas.	1/2		1/5		7
14 March 2017	U.S., Japan, and South Korea start drills off North Korea (CNN1, CNN2)		2/6			6
15 March 2017	US Federal judge blocks Trump travel ban	1/5	1/2	1/1	1/3	11
16 March 2017	Mount Etna erupts significantly. Ten people injured. Huge explosion from ground captured on camera by BBC crew. Dramatic escape. (BBC, CNN)		1/1			1
17 March 2017	Extreme flooding in Peru. Over 70 killed. Huge downpours and high ocean temperatures blamed. Body bags. Woman crawls out of mud. Helicopters evacuate tourists from Machu Picchu, homes washed away. (The Guardian, NBC, Washington Post, ABC_1, The Telegraph, CBS, CNN)	2/2				2
19 March 2017	Fighting erupts in Syrian capital			1/3	1/6	9
22 March 2017	Terror attack outside Parliament at Westminster, UK	1/11	6/23	3/8	5/30	72
27 March 2017	Cyclone Debbie hits Australia		1/3	1/1	4/11	15
28 March 2017	Peruvian Airlines passenger jet (Flight 113), Boeing 737, crashes and burns in mountainous region, Airport of Jauja. All passengers escape. (YouTube1, YouTube2 ... Spanish language news outlets, and RT)
30 March 2017	Highway I-85 Bridge collapses in Atlanta	2/4	2/5	2/2		11
30 March 2017	Venezuela's Supreme Court assumes all legislative authority		1/1	1/2		3
30 March 2017	Astronauts working on the International Space Station lose important shielding, requiring emergency makeshift repairs (Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times)
31 March 2017	Protesters set Paraguay's Congress on fire, objecting to bill allowing President to run for re-election		1/1		1/3	4
31 March 2017	South American Water Event Continues. Hundreds dead, mudslides, landslides, floods, states of emergency, bridges collapse. Primary countries affected: Peru, Ecuador, Columbia. (MetroEcuador, Ameliarueda, Extra.ec1, Extra.ec2, CNN)		1/1			1

NOTE 1: The wars in Syria and Iraq will be combined when counting total links in the final analysis since they are both in the same region and focused on fighting ISIS.

NOTE 2: The numbers in the above table are subject to ongoing audits throughout the month. At the end of the month, a final audit is performed based on screen shots of the web pages for all four news outlets. Errors in the table are corrected both during the month and as a result of the final audit.

To be listed in the above table, the events must have the following characteristics.

The target events should involve significant physical activity by objects and subjects.
The target events should involve something unexpected or unscheduled.
The target events will typically be a leading headline news story that is featured on prominent web sites, such as CNN (U.S. and International), The New York Times, and the BBC. Other stories covered in other news outlets are linked in the table. That means that the story appears somewhere on the main news page of the news outlet, usually in the top section of the web page where headline stories are posted. (Stories for most major events change daily. Some links to more dated events remain unchanged in content and format on the web site for longer periods, and such links are often located further down the web page. These are called "residual links" and are not considered headline news stories unless the linked articles/stories are updated.)
The target events should involve more than one daily news cycle for the month, preferably with numerous and related stories.
The target events must be of significant public interest.
The target events will typically be of international interest, as evidenced by being covered as a headline event on both the U.S. and International editions of CNN.
If a significant event occurs near the end of the month, then the counting of news cycles and cumulative links can extend into the next month until the event fades from the headline pages so as to fully evaluate the importance of the event. Rarely does a news story remain on the main page of a news outlet for more than a week.
If two or more events of a similar nature and/or cause occur on different dates of the month, then a given target would be the combination of the two events. For example (obviously fictional in this case), if the Moon disappears into another dimension on two different dates during the same month, then the target would be the general or combined disappearance of the Moon during that month. Examples of types of events that would be combined within the same month are (a) scattered fires that are part of a larger area that is aflame, such as scattered statewide California wildfires, (b) terror events caused or inspired by the same group in a larger campaign, (c) wartime events from a larger military engagement, such as various elements of the Normandy Invasion of World War II, (d) multiple large political gatherings (including demonstrations) with similar characteristics, (e) weather related events that are the result of the same general weather condition.

Here are some useful web sites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017

https://www.mapsofworld.com/calendar-events/