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By: Dr. Jim Bodoh, Chiropractor at River City Chiropractic
With the seasons changing and it getting colder outside, we have seen an increased incidences of people getting sick with cold and flu symptoms. Some of this plays into the changing of the season, but most of this plays in to how well you take care of yourself. Did you ever wonder why some people seem to be sick all the time in the winter and other people seem to be healthy the whole time? For many of these "healthy" people, it doesn't even matter that they are surrounded by sick people; they still seem to never get sick. These "healthy" people are taking better care of themselves with different choices to boost their immune system. We are going to share with you the secrets of staying healthy throughout the winter season.
There are three main categories that we will talk about to help boost your immune system: Lifestyle Changes, Vitamins, and Chiropractic Care.
Lifestyle changes to help you avoid getting sick can be some of the most effective ways to keep you healthy.
- Sleep– your body's immune system needs you to sleep to function at its maximum capacity. Get at least 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
- Avoid Sugar– bacteria feed on sugar, avoiding added sugar can help starve the bacteria and make them easier for your immune system to get rid of.
- Increase protein– protein drives the immune system. There are countless amino acids that come from protein that are rate limiting steps in your immune system reactions.
- Eat immune boosting foods– these foods include: Fruits, Vegetables, Garlic, Onion, and Ginger.
Vitamins help supplement your diet so that your body can function at maximum capacity to fight off colds. Try adding these vitamins during the cold season.
- Zinc– 100 different steps in the immune system need Zinc around to happen.
- Vitamin C– an Anti-Oxidant which protects healthy cells and promotes your immune system.
- Vitamin A– blocks infections from getting in the body.
- Vitamin E– an Anti-Oxidant that promotes the immune system.
- Echinacea– an Anti-microbial that kills bacteria and boosts immune-cell activity.
- Bee Propolis– an Anti-microbial that also fights off viruses.
Chiropractic care can help your immune system also!
- Getting adjusted regularly improves immune system functions to help you fight off colds.
- Your chiropractic care can also help you get over a cold quicker by activating the nerves that control your immune system.
- You will feel better faster after getting adjusted when you have a cold.
Follow these easy steps to help yourself have the healthiest year of your life.
Comments and subscriptions are encouraged.
Make an appointment for a Chiropractic Evaluation or a massage at River City Chiropractic in Onalaska, WI


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Everyone has heard of the Knights of the Round Table, but many people are not familiar with any of the Noble Knights save for Lancelot. But even Lancelot, however, is to many people something he was not. The Knights were men of courage, honor, dignity, courtesy, and nobleness. They protected ladies and damsels, honored and fought for kings, and undertook dangerous quests. Browse through the navigation above and get to know the major Knights of the Round Table.
Charge Given to the Knights by King Arthur
God make you a good man and fail not of beauty. The Round Table was founded in patience, humility, and meekness.Thou art never to do outrageousity, nor murder, and always to flee treason, by no means to be cruel, and always to do ladies, damosels, and gentle women succour. Also, to take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for no law nor for no world's goods.
Thou shouldst be for all ladies and fight for their quarrels, and ever be courteous and never refuse mercy to him that asketh mercy, for a knight that is courteous and kind and gentle has favor in every place. Thou shouldst never hold a lady or gentle woman against her will.
Thou must keep thy word to all and not be feeble of good believeth and faith. Right must be defended against might and distress must be protected. Thou must know good from evil and the vain glory of the world, because great pride and bobauce maketh great sorrow. Should anyone require ye of any quest so that it is not to thy shame, thou shouldst fulfil the desire.
Ever it is a worshipful knights deed to help another worshipful knight when he seeth him a great danger, for ever a worshipful man should loath to see a worshipful man shamed, for it is only he that is of no worship and who faireth with cowardice that shall never show gentelness or no manner of goodness where he seeth a man in any danger, but always a good man will do another man as he would have done to himself.
It should never be said that a small brother has injured or slain another brother. Thou shouldst not fail in these things: charity, abstinence and truth. No knight shall win worship but if he be of worship himself and of good living and that loveth God and dreadeth God then else he geteth no worship here be ever so hardly.
An envious knight shall never win worship for and envious man wants to win worship he shall be dishonoured twice therefore without any, and for this cause all men of worship hate an envious man and will show him no favour.
Do not, nor slay not, anything that will in any way dishonour the fair name of Christian knighthood for only by stainless and honourable lives and not by prowess and courage shall the final goal be reached. Therefore be a good knight and so I pray to God so ye may be, and if ye be of prowess and of worthiness then ye shall be a Knight of the Table Round.
The Emblem of the Knights
The emblem of the Knights of the Round Table worn round the necks of all the Knights was given to them by King Arthur as part of the ceremony of their being made a knight.
The Order's dominant idea was the love of God, men, and noble deeds. The cross in the emblem was to remind them that they were to live pure and stainless lives, to stive after perfection and thus attain the Holy Grail.
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The secret of all this is good design. Ours is an in-line system with minimum deflection of airflow. Inlet air is swirled around the outside of the collector container while outlet air is drawn from the top center, leaving all but the finest dust inside the collector container. The lids seal so well to a trashcan or barrel that the system can be used for wet vacuuming as well as dry. You can collect a dozen or more trashcans of shavings before you have to think about emptying the vacuum cleaner.
Cyclone lids are available in either large or small. They have pre-drilled hose inlets to connect to either 2-1/2" hose or 4" hose. The black cyclone lids are made from ABS. The clear cyclone lids let you see the cyclone effect and the amount of shavings being collected. As clear polycarbonate material is more expensive than black ABS, clear lids cost more.
Patented. Made in Canada.
For companion fittings, see our dust collection system components, e.g., if you want a 4" inlet and a 2-1/2" outlet.
A. & B. Our large cyclone lids were designed to fit on any round container with a top diameter between 19" and 23-1/2". The registration ledges on the inside of the lid fit on standard trashcans from 19" to 20-1/2" in diameter. The 23-1/2" diameter outer ledge fits on a 55 gallon drum. Available in either black ABS or clear polycarbonate, large lids come drilled for use with either 2-1/2" or 4" diameter hose.
C. The smaller cyclone lid will fit trashcans with a top diameter between 16-1/2" and 19-1/2". At just over 19-1/2" in diameter, it is more compact and has less overhang than our large lid. Available in either black ABS or clear polycarbonate for use with 2-1/2" diameter hose.
Lids are not recommended for machines with built-in chip impellers and should be used only with sturdy-walled containers (thin-walled containers may collapse under static suction conditions, such as when the leading hose end clogs or is blocked). Hoses and attachments not included.
Some products are no longer available.


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According to 196/03 law, the collected data will be only used to inform customers about Segata SpA activities and will be considered secret. Data introduction is optional, but we can't give services without personal information. Owner of data treatment is Segata SpA - Strada per Sopramonte, 40 | Frazione Cadine - 38123 TRENTO.
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This "Culatta Cooked-Ham" is a cooked ham produced from the heart of the pork's leg.
Cooked ham made from whole, extra tender legs using the old traditional recipe, for flavour- rich meats with an inviting fragrance. An inimitable classic of the Segata tradition. Gluten and dairy free product.
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From the original recipe of the Segata Family, the Fausto cooked ham is our assortment's top o the range.


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The Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons have been at or near the top of our NFL.com Power Poll all year. With the regular season winding down, we have a fresh wave of doubt that these prospective No. 1 seeds are among the best in their conference.
The Falcons fell all the way to seventh in this week's Power Poll after losing to the Carolina Panthers. Atlanta only fell a few spots to No. 8 on my personal Power Poll entry, but that's because I've had it outside of the top five for much of the year. The Texans' fall was not as dramatic, but do Super Bowl-caliber teams give up 42 points twice on national television? It's wildly discouraging for the Texans to be absolutely blown out by another top contender just weeks before the playoffs.
Going into the playoffs a bit under the radar isn't such a bad thing. We saw many variations of the same joke Monday night: New England looked so good in its win over Houston, the Patriots must be on their way to losing the Super Bowl to the New York Giants.
Then again, at least the Patriots usually take advantage of seasons they have a playoff bye and make the big game. After Week 14, there is more doubt than ever that the Falcons and Texans can make it.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.


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Michelle Williams and Jason Segel have taken their relationship to the next level after reportedly moving in together in New York.
The fiercely private couple was first photographed together in March after enjoying a dinner date near actress' home in Brooklyn, and the stars went public with their romance a month later at the Big Apple afterparty for Segel's romantic comedy "The Five-Year Engagement."
Now the romance appears to be getting serious after Williams decided to leave the pad she and her daughter, Matilda, once shared with her tragic ex-fiance Heath Ledger and move in with Segel.
According to the DailyMail.co.uk, the pair has set up home in a sprawling Brooklyn loft apartment, located in a converted warehouse, with stunning views of the Manhattan skyline.
A source tells the publication, "Michelle, Jason and Matilda seem very happy here, the building is beautiful. They've been here a few months now and they look right at home."
Matilda, who turns 7 on Sunday, is Williams' only child with Ledger.
Williams split from Ledger in 2007, shortly before he died from an accidental drug overdose in January, 2008. She went on to date filmmakers Spike Jonze and Cary Fukunaga before finding love with Segel.


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As Sania's World Turns: There's no better soap opera on tennis tour right now than Sania Mirza. She was married on Monday to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik in an affair that has been showered in controversy.
One Story, One Match: The One Story series, which publishes out of Brooklyn, has its latest publication singing game, set and match. The story is set in the Federer-Sampras battle of Wimbledon circa 2001, with a fictional twist involving three ball kids. After reading it, I give Cheston Knapp two thumbs up for his crafting of the epic changing-of-the-guard match and the story he entwines within Centre Court.
Second to Sania and Shoaib, there's Todd and Novak: For some reason, the player-coach break-up between Todd Martin and Novak Djokovic seems to be the tennis story of the century. While the break-up doesn't have quite the political ramifications that Sania and Shoaib carry into their marriage, this story has gotten an absorbent of attention. For Novak, something had to change if he wants to be considered for another Slam. For Todd, well… for Todd, any press is good press.


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BorderlineJanuary 03, 2007
They continually adapt their tactics to avoid counter-measures meant to eradicate them — that could describe a lot of unpleasant things, but I'm talking specifically about spammers here.
I think 2003 was the year that blog spam really started to take off; at first it was a bunch of obvious link dumps meant to encourage click-throughs. When blog software finally started building in spam tools, the tactics changed. Spammers posted less-obvious tangential comments and flattering praise, in order to remain undetected while sapping some of a blogger's PageRank for themselves. Enter the controversial
nofollow attribute. These classic forms of blog spam are still around, but if you have a relatively modern authoring tool like Akismet or what's built in to the latest versions of Movable Type, you're probably not exposed to them anymore.
I believe it was last year or possibly 2004 when people started noticing that spammers would simply copy a comment made previously in the thread. If you didn't notice the duplication (or the URL that the comment pointed back to) you'd likely never realize what was going on. Around the same time, there was a rise of simple comments designed to appear on-topic at a glance, so if you weren't paying attention you'd completely miss their intent.
It's this last one that's been a major thorn in my side, and it seems to be getting worse. I've seen a lot of comments on this site recently that look relatively innocuous at first, if somewhat useless or redundant. The URL the commenter has left behind doesn't look particularly spammy, but it is a commercial site. (A disproportionately high number of them have been from .de and .pl TLDs, oddly enough.) At one point in time I'd have left them alone, but I find myself deleting more and more of them.
There might be an argument to be made that these are legitimate comments. A URL pointing to a commercial site isn't cause alone to suspect spam. However, the overall trend seems to indicate that some people are trying to get a free ride out of sites with higher PageRank, and the general quality of the comments usually isn't good enough to justify keeping them around.
Yep, legitimate comments do get deleted sometimes. But to me, the line is blurring. I'd prefer to throw out the throwaway comments and keep the overall dialogue quality high, than assiduously maintain an unfiltered comment thread and allow these junk comments to persist. If there's cause for doubt, I'll simply remove a commenter's URL and let the comment stand.
When this redesign launched, I reduced the comment policy to basically "quality over quantity". I feel no qualms about clicking the delete button anymore.
I feel very scared to comment now, but anyway, I also think there is a fine line between a user posting seemingly useless information to grab some page rank, and a user posting seemingly useful stuff to try and get someone he/she looks up to to notice him. I guess this is why you mention focusing on companies and not individuals.
Do you think that these posts are generated by a bot of some sort or are they so accurate that they have most likely been actually typed by someone working at the company?
Good (well, not really good since it would be better if we didn't have to deal with spam) to see I'm not the only one pushing the delete button more frequently. I too have been getting more and more of these borderline cases, and they actually piss me off more than old-fashioned, "honest" spam.
I am pretty quick to delete comments I think are crap. I think if people want to say something on the Internet, it isn't hard to do so. No web site needs to be a venue for anyone and everyone to say their peace. On popular sites, the amount of noise in the comments could probably be fixed to some extent if the site owners took the time to prune comments that add little value to the conversation.
"Do you think that these posts are generated by a bot of some sort or are they so accurate that they have most likely been actually typed by someone working at the company?"
Tough to say. Some of the persistent .de and .pl spam was obviously bot-induced, but the harder-to-spot comments generally have the feeling of being done manually. They're just about always one-offs, and I rarely see the same site twice.
It feels like there are a growing number of those though. Maybe someone wrote a book or how-to guide that advocated doing it.
How soon is it before we just stop linking people's names in their comment to their website forcing any spam links to be in the body and easily identifiable?
Concentrating on comment quality makes sense to me. The "5-seconds to type" comments are generally rather pointless anyway.
On my own blog I've made it so that posting a comment requires Email verification before appearing. If too many hours pass without that verification, the comment gets deleted from the database. At first I worried that people wouldn't bother commenting - but then I realized that this acted not only as a spam filter, but as a filter to those sort of lazy comments that I'd rather not read anyway. Fortunately, I don't get much problem with spam comments now (despite the comment processing script being the most-hit page of the entire site).
Those referrer spammings on the other hand… *shudder*
I was getting an absolutely insane amount of comment spam (hundreds per day) until I enabled Akismet. I suspect part of it has to do with the fact that I sometimes post about poker, which also is a favorite topic of the comment spammers (online poker rooms, casinos, etc.). Since installing Akismet, only a few of these get through per day.
But what bugs me about is that even though they don't get through, they still bang the hell out of my server. They account for a massive amount of traffic to my site. Running Akismet and other spam prevention measures on each one means they're actually fairly expensive tasks to do with, server-load wise.
So, even though very few get through any more, it really chaps my hide that I actually had to upgrade to a more expensive hosting plan in order to accommodate them.
I've noticed this too - I'm getting a lot of comments with flattering statements like "Great Site!", or "Interesting and informative!" which use the userlink to whore some spam-like site.
Unfortunately, as you say, it gets really hard to discriminate between spam and real "Great site!" posts. It's a shame, but once again, spammers are screwing up the internet for everyone. However, I do think your approach of quality-over-quantity is best, it's your site, you get to decide what's on it.
( Speaking of blurring the line between a "great site" post and spam - this comment is basically just a "me too" post, so it'll be interesting to see if it turns up :-)
"Speaking of blurring the line between a "great site" post and spam - this comment is basically just a "me too" post, so it'll be interesting to see if it turns up"
A three paragraph unique, on-topic comment is hard to justify deleting, even if it boils down to "me too".
@Jeff Croft - I was having the same problem on a wordpress site of mine, getting around 200 Akismet-declined comments a day. I enabled a plugin that asks the user to perform a simple math question (5+3 = what?) while commenting, and the actual *requests* have dropped to 1 or 2 akismet-declined per day.
I think what's happened is the spammer who was hitting my site has given up because of the added difficulty, leaving just the few drive-by spammers.
I know that jeffcroft.com is running django, but this should be quite an easy modification to make (although you'd probably have to mod. the freecomment app. directly).
Jeff: I don't know what's powering your site, but the Bad Behavior plugin for WordPress (and possibly others) stops a lot of spam attacks by denying their requests - thereby reducing your server load.
Dave: I don't want to sound like an ass, but for a lot of us without your level of popularity, the thought of deleting possibly legitimate comments sounds insane: I almost welcome spammers because it means that maybe somebody is looking at my site! =-)
Thanks, Simon. I have considered doing something like that, but haven't given in, yet. It's a good idea, though. I just hate feeling like the spammers won, I guess. I hate to make my users have a lesser experience when commenting because of the spammers. Might have to, though.
You're right, though – it'd be really easy to do something like that with my setup. And I'm already running a custom version of Django's built-in freecomment app (which I've hacked up for Akismet support and several other things) – so that part of it is no problem.
I agree with Jeff about the bandwidth being a serious problem.
The spammers not only steal bandwidth which translates to money but they steal our time in managing their spam which also translates to money.
So not only are they stealing money from us but they also pollute the air just like the freaks that drive through residential neighborhoods with their stereo cranked! And in the case of spammers the air is just the overall content on the Internet.
I would love to meet one of these spammers just to see what kind of a low life does this kind of thing. And then after meeting the spammer I would like to punch him/her in the face! :)
I know what you mean, Dave. It can be tough though, deleting the borderline comments. I always find myself wondering if a comment I delete might just be from someone who, while right now isn't posting terribly eloquent thoughts on my site, might become that kind of valuable contributor later.
I hate deleting comments, so I use a combination of techiques to stop spam being a problem:
1. Akismet. Blocks the dumb spam (obvious keywords etc).
2. Anything with more than 5 links, link tags, or bbcode links is automatically flagged for checking.
3. Referrer checking. No referrer, likely to be a bot.
4. Sessions. Because my comments are on a different page to posts, I can look at the time between page views. Spammers will skim an article if they read at all, then comment, whereas authentic readers have a different profile.
5. Changing form field names regularly - stops bots dead in their tracks. I have a system (not quite finished yet) to change them daily, automatically and unpredictably.
With all of this I tend to get one or two comments a week where the commenter uses keywords instead of a name, but leaves a genuine comment (I usually delete the URL if this happens).
The rest of the 200-500 spam comments a week are filtered and checked. False positives? Occasionally, but as long as the users don't see the spams, I don't mind checking through them every few days for a gem that got accidentally flagged.
Revy (15), The Register recently posted an interview with one of them (link/comment spammers)
Personally I have encrypted my commenting form and created an unusual form submit target. I still get the occasional comments from people trying to self promote -or promote a company. But it is at the rate of 1-3 spams per month.
I simply used Automate's email encrypted (advanced version), and encrypted the entire form html.
I was about to post about blogspam today, too. For some reason, it's been pouring in as of late, mainly through a single post which I have subsequently UNpublished.
I, too, am a MovableType user. I like the control it affords me. Unfortunately, MediaTemple no longer offers a one click install, so I don't have the current filtering options (and banning commenters isn't functioning).
My blogspam seems to emanate from bots and the URLs are quite deliberate in their placement within the comments, usually following "Nice site!". Since I have low traffic and no real readership, I am resigned to approving all comments. It seems you are being treated to a slightly more insidious variety of spammer…
I wish you luck!
PS - Will your site's color scheme change monthly?
My solution to comment spam is Akismet + Bad Behavior + Simple Trackback Verification.
Bad Behavior eliminates 99% of spambots and stuff that looks like spambots (based on their user agent, behavior, aggressiveness and etc).
Akismet will usually snag any spam that slips through based on their huge database of patterns and keywords.
Trackback verification ensures that only trackbacks from *existing* sites get to be scanned by Akismet.
I went from 80 spams a day to virtually 3-5 per week. In the past would start every day scanning through 3-4 pages of Akismet queue. Now I only look at it once a week or so. I really highly recommend using the Bad Behavior plugin.
My rule of thumb is to treat all one line, generic comments as suspicious - especially if they come in bulk. For example, if you notice that in the past 3-4 hours 10 or more people posted many different variations of "Wow, what an insightful post!" to different threads you might be looking at a bot.
I can't tell you how much this pisses me off. The internet could be a truly wonderful resource if it wasn't for the various peddlers of filth, pharmaceuticals and finance offers. It has got to the point where I spend a significant fraction of my day wading through spam, deleting comments, and adding rules to .htaccess files to try and stay ahead of the junk.
Just imagine what it would be like if none of these measures were necessary? Imagine an email system that didn't require filtering! Or a blog that could allow people to freely post comments with rich text and hyperlinks! Or an access log that wasn't stuffed with faked referrals!
I try really hard to accept the reality of it all, but these problems make me boil with rage. Perhaps Web 3.0 will be better?
"I'd prefer to throw out the throwaway comments and keep the overall dialogue quality high…"
I couldn't agree more. The only bullshit I've ever allowed on my site (which gets likely 1/1000 of the traffic you get) is one time a bunch of eigth-graders found a flash game linked from my blog, and clearly thought they had to come back to my site to get to it – the banter they had back and forth was so funny I had to let it stand.
I'm in the middle of migrating to WP from Movable Type .6 (!!!), and I look forward to having Akismet on my side. I had gotten so sick of blogspam that I removed the ability to place a url in a comment entirely – I felt bad doing it, but I get 5-10 good comments a year, and I was getting thousands of spam posts a month.
My wife takes it a bit further - on our dog picture blog she deletes anything that isn't a happy, nice thought. She says that the blog is about having fun looking at cute dogs, not bitching about breeders or animal rights, or trying to be cooler than other people.
I think it's an interesting philosophy to have – it sort of turns me off by default, but with so much bullshit on the web 2.0, I wonder if it isn't better to have stricter standards of communication.
While I don't personally have a site that suffers this problem, I'm really getting sick of seeing it elsewhere. Like Brent said above, it's like visual pollution, poisoning the digital habitats it infests and destroying the purity and freedom of Internet communication.
What scares me the most isn't necessarily that the spammers eventually adapt to every layer of protection (although that sucks, too–currently successful methods listed here noted). It's what the spammers are capable of during the rare instances when they are genuinely threatened.
A couple of articles on the death of Blue Security at the hands of a spammer who effectively held the internet hostage:
Welcome to the digital mafia.
I lost the URL of the wikipedia article, but the spammer behind the Blue Security attacks made comments like:
"if i can't spam, there will be no internet",
"you know Ii feel sorry for you and all the world 9000 servers (which) are down :-)",
"Blue found the right solution to stop spam, and I can't let this continue."
The arrogance makes my blood boil, but unlike in the movies the *bad guy won*. And so far, the spammers still are. :(
I would really like to be proven wrong, because I hate being so pessimistic about the whole issue. It's honestly draining to contemplate or research because what can a person do against someone who can DDoS a top-tier ISP?
I welcome enlightenment and optimism.
"It feels like there are a growing number of those though. Maybe someone wrote a book or how-to guide that advocated doing it."
Numerous and sundry SEO blogs have been offering suggestions for months about getting visibility in search engines by leaving comments on high page rank blogs. They suggest older articles. And,
Link-Building spammers are leaving comments with innocuous looking links with sleazy site URLs in hopes of gaining free link popularity. And,
Some "Get-Rich Work-at-Home Pyramid Scheme" companies are supplying bot software (of which a few of the more advanced software by-passes comment boxes, going directly to the 'Preview' page with its 'Post/Submit' button).
I've seen an increase from Romania.
Your new attitude is quite right, I reckon.
1. Your site, your hosting fee, your rules.
2. It's nicer for readers not to have dull comments to wade through. Makes it easier to find the good stuff. Most stuff on the web needs a good edit, comments more than most.
3. Anyone not grown up enough to deal with an honest deletion of their me-too comment might not have a great deal to contribute anyway.
Comment spamming – and email spam – is a pandemic, and it's getting worse. It irritates me to no end. If any spam form was limited it might be effective (if it didn't piss us off limited numbers could successfully do it). But, noooo, it has to be done to death. As Rambo said in First Blood: "They drew first blood, Colonel."
Thank goodness there are decent tools to deal with it, but still, enough makes it to moderation to be a pain – or used to, anyway. Most of it I find is made by 'bots so I've had really good luck with Bad Behavior[1]. I used to see about 200 bogus posts a day before I got it. Now I only see 2-4 per week which is certainly a manageable number. I also maintain a keyword list, moderate any number of comment links, and moderate first time posters so even those don't get posted. Not allowing it to be posted in the first place is my top priority.
You're right on the year – I checked a web history[2] I wrote – 2003 is really when the fecal matter hit the rotary oscillator, so to speak.
[1] http://www.homelandstupidity.us/software/bad-behavior/
[2] http://green-beast.com/blog/?p=124
"If there's cause for doubt, I'll simply remove a commenter's URL and let the comment stand."
Any case is a doubt. Don't show the commenter's URL – until you have read the post or your whitelist says ok. Don't allow for links showing up either until then.
The URL could be required like the Email adress, but it will not show up by default. Ask them if they really wish to have their URL promoted in the public. In case there are problems with the commenters identification for other readers: encourage them to type in their full name and location.
Change the policy from "deleting" comments to "publishing" comments.
People like me who don't have the time to read posts before publishing should not have a blog.
I got so sick of MovableType and spam I changed platforms, and don't even have comments on the new blog. Ok, so really I just got bored. Plus the new blog software doesn't have comments, but still. The spam comments were getting really annoying - it's hard to make it easy for genuine people to leave comments, while protecting yourself from the time suck that is removing/wading through spam comments.
Back when I used b2/wordpress I got around it by having a PHP session variable "person" that had to be enabled (the user went to a page ticked "yes, I'm a person", clicked save), and with that never had any spam. Never bothered porting the code to my MovableType templates, but if SimpleLog ever releases the version with comments I might hack it back in there.
how about people that spam and mirror your whole site??
that is content and comments …
I like Jeremy Zawodny's comment policy[1] wherein he states that only weblog URLs may be used for signing comments on his weblog. Pointing to any other kind of site is a no-no. That seems like an elegant solution.
What about image-based captchas? I am surprised nobody has mentioned these yet…
I was getting hundreds of comment spams every week. After installing a captcha, I get only a couple per month. It's very effective.
Not using a CAPTCHA in this day and age is borderline lunacy. It's used by Google, Yahoo, MSN et al for a reason.
More detail in my blog post here, including my before and after stats:
Last night I posted a two paragraph comment to this post which I felt was quite relevant and added to the conversation in a quality manner. In it I conveyed my experience with comment spam, how I deal with it, etc. I also verified that 2003 was roughly when this crap started. I spent some time writing it to ensure that it was worded well and spell-checked.
When I posted the comment I was informed that I am a first-time poster (though I've posted several times before the site's redesign so that's not entirely accurate) and that my comment will be held for moderation.
Now, roughly 24 hours later I do not see my comment. I'm not sure if it lingers in the moderation queue, was deleted accidentally, or disapproved then deleted. If it was [especially] the latter, I feel the policy may be a little too rigid. As pauldwaite said, "Your site, your hosting fee, your rules," but it's awfully discouraging to spend time trying to be part of the conversation and not being able to. Anti-spam is one thing, censorship is quite another.
I guess I'd like to know for which reason the post wasn't approved and posted.
How odd. This last post wasn't flagged for moderation.
Mike - relax, Movable Type flags comments with more than one link and I just don't check it that often. You'll notice it's published now.
Thanks Dave. I noted you wrote "relax." Sorry if I came across as being upset. I was more concerned than anything.
Question for everyone. I know the whole purpose of blog comments are to allow a free and open dialog, but why not offer various levels of freedom?
Offer 2 commentor types. The first is the standard fairly anonymous type (like this one) that runs on a restricted feature set (automatically block all url's and certain keywords).
The second, a more robust feature set, but requires site registration. This would help combat the bots because you would require users to validate their accounts prior to posting to get the ability to user these features.
Add into all this a poster ranking system, and you could effectively block quite a bit of spam, or offensive posters. Help it to self moderate a bit (have it notify you of someone with a high negitive feedback rating so that you can review them).
What negatives do you see to this type of approach?
You know, seeing that OpenID is taking off at the moment, tying the commenting into OpenID might be a restrictive, but effective way of handling the spam comment problem.
Require all comments to your site to use an openID. Point people towards one of the free providers, and how to set one up on their own site, so everyone can deal with this. Now that might seem a bit much to do just to comment on one site but once many sites require it, it's a lot easier to justify creating one.
Now, just because someone has logged in with an openID is no guarantee of non spammer-ness. It'd probably work fine for a little while, until it became a popular authentication method and then the spammers would adjust to suit.
So set the system up with both a whitelist and a blacklist in place. When someone leaves a comment, if their openID is approved, it goes straight up. If you haven't seen their openID before, it goes on to a pending moderation list which you might review once a day – I can't imagine it'd be too much work to review it, after a week or so to get most of your regular commentors approved.
If the comment is approved, the openID is added to the whitelist, and you don't see it again. If it's not approved, it gets added to the blacklist, and comments from that openID are silently discarded from now on.
More or less, a registration blacklist / whitelist system, but due to the way openID works it's well worth registering one once several of your favourite blogs implement this system. After you leave your first comment on each site and it's approved, the system is nearly transparent.
Me, too. :)
I have been randomly discussing the openID issue with Chris Messina through the wonderful comment system in flickr.
More and more services are adopting it and it's comforting to see that eventually it may lead to a better method of controlling spam and odd comments (like mine?).
I'm not quite convinced that the 'me too' comment is good or bad, though. No matter how much i dread scrolling over them to get to beefy comments.
I would suggest that there are alternatives to simply deleting 'me too' comments by using some of the regularly available plugins, such as a rating system to show how many people enjoyed your article. Or even a poll of choices about the article itself, and then a standard tagging system.
While any of these plugins by themselves or together may not be an acceptable means of adding value and stripping dross out of a posting, the tying of them into the openID system may just.
Jeff Atwood said "Not using a CAPTCHA in this day and age is borderline lunacy." He clearly hasn't read why CAPTCHAs are an accessibility problem:
Don't use them!
I'll rather register on the blog I want to post on then on a 3rd party page. That said, this page seems to get by without any spam and that is really great!
There are many ways to solve the CAPTCHA usability problem. You just have to be willing to solve the problem. European Internet Accessibility Observatory is a project on accessibility.
Is the "me, too" spam in blogs really that big a problem?
> He clearly hasn't read why CAPTCHAs are an accessibility problem:
You can make accessible CAPTCHAs, just like you can make accessible AJAX websites.
And I'd also humbly submit that information being inundated and subverted by spam noise is a far, far greater harm to the public good than a minor blip on the road to accessibility.
How will CAPTCHAs ever be accessible to blind users? Let me know of any links or explanations. Besides, it's only a matter of time before spam programs are able to decipher CAPTCHAs too. Then what?
Most CAPTCHAs are easily broken or so poor that they are unreadable. There are lots of projects on this topic, both to make and "crack" CAPTCHAs.
I don't see a problem for the blind tho, seeing how most blind people can listen to music and hence there can be a provided sound file with the CAPTCHA.
I doubt the spam-bots are any good at Braille. This is an extreme one tho, for those that have no sight and are deaf.
There are solutions to most problems Chris, you just have to be willing to see them and try them out.
Yes, CAPTCHA is irreversably broken. That's why Google, Yahoo, and MSN still use them.
Y'know, because they don't work and all.
As for blind users, you click the "speak the CAPTCHA to me in audio format" text link.
Ahem. So before you all gang up on me further, I don't recall seeing links for audio versions of CAPTCHAs on any sites I've surfed that use them. I doubt many coders would bother adding a sound file, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Just because "Google, Yahoo, and MSN still use them" doesn't mean they're good! Look at Google's old-school HTML - is that good then? Should we carry on using tables because Google and other big sites are?
And if CAPTCHAs are so functional, why did the WAI (W3C) make a page pointing out their inaccessibility? Were they having a laugh? Or is there a serious point there to consider?
You can always make people who can't fill the captcha send you a message. Add a form on your site for them, and link it from the captcha page if they have problems with it. Manually approve or deny entries submitted through the form.
Sure it takes a little bit longer, but anyone who can use the web can fill in a form and not sound like a robot. Maybe you'd have to deal with robots submitting human sounding responses to these eventually. But for now, it'd be worth it.
I don't usually comment on weblogs unless i really feel the urge to. For example, i think i posted a comment about your site's redesign because i was really taken by it (can't find the the blog post to check if i did or not).
Anyhow, I don't have a blog of my own, so whenever i make a post i post with my company's website and the company's name. Is this what you are talking about as being borderline?
(DS - yes. Leave a name and no link if that's the case. When I see a commenter leaving their name as CompanyName and linking that to the company site, I assume the link was more important for them to leave than the content of that comment.)
I don't mean to troll or anything, but why don't you apply the nofollow attribute for your comments links? Once the spammers notice it, it will get rid of those.
Comment spam is a unfortunate residue of the rise of the bloggers as a powerful force to sway opinion - be it on web design or any socio-political issues.
My blog has also been inundated by comment spam to the extent that I had to turn on moderation. Unfortunately, not all blogging engines have access to akismet type of tools that are popular in wordpress blogs and the only way to keep potential spam at bay is to do stringent moderation.
I believe the comment moderator / blog owner needs to have good insight and some mastery over the psychology of human mind to catch clever attempts at link spamming.
"When this redesign launched, I reduced the comment policy to basically "quality over quantity". I feel no qualms about clicking the delete button anymore."
You should never have qualms by deleting comments if you think (feel) they don´t meat your quality line. Search terms instead of names in the namefield are automticly spam for me. It is very sad but there are a lot of people filling the internet with waste no one needs and trying to push that waste in searchengine so that every can find it.
I think the nofollow rule will be applied across the board as user interaction is actively requested. It's the spirit of web 2.0 and the downside is the use of that trust for spam purposes.
As an ex spamcop for a major SE I know that the links from messageboards and comments aren't that highly trusted, and in fact some rules are in place not to follow links from these at all or they're treated with less weight.


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Lois Ediger, 86, of Hillsboro died Saturday. She was born Oct. 17, 1926.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Joel.
She is survived by four sons, Larry Ediger, Gerald Ediger, Lyle Ediger, and Allen Ediger; a sister, Helen Vogel; 10 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Visitation with the family is to be from 4 to 6 p.m. today at Jost Funeral Home, Hillsboro. The funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday at Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church.
Memorial funds have been established for the church building fund.


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Your Rewards account and your Microsoft account are one and the same. Log in once, stay logged in, and see everything in the same place at account.microsoft.com. This means your Rewards account gives you seamless access to your subscriptions, billing info, order history, family devices, and security and privacy settings.
The more you earn, the more awesome your Rewards account becomes. Reach Level 2 membership, and you'll see special offers and discounts on the Rewards you want. If you change your mind about participating, opt out of the Rewards program at any time.
Your Rewards account is fun. Personalized. Easy. And gets you cool stuff.


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by Tyler Peck, sports information graduate
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga.- Due to inclement weather in the forecast the Georgia College & State University athletic department has decided to cancel tomorrow's (March 16) tennis match against Limestone University. At this time there is no reschedule date.
Visit www.GCSUBobcats.com to nominate your favorite former Bobcats and Colonials to the GCSU Athletics Hall of Fame. The GCSU Department of Athletics sponsors 10 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, GCSU prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the Bobcats' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement.


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The rich and diverse cultures of ancient and modern Africa are on display in the Museum's African Gallery, which highlights objects of social and religious importance, as well as objects of everyday life. Drawn from one of the largest ethnographic collections in the United States, the African art and artifacts in this gallery range from household objects and musical instruments to symbolic masks and figurines. Observe up-close the Nikisi N'kondi and other nail fetish figures from central Africa. Other highlights of the gallery are bronze plaques, statues, and weaponry from the Benin Palace located in present-day Nigeria. The Benin holdings of the Penn Museum, the first American institution to collect these works, are one of the largest in the country.
As part of our Building Transformation, we are renovating and reimagining the Africa Galleries. Using the Penn Museum archives, we trace the stories of objects from the African maker to the Museum, illustrating their social context and exploring themes of colonialism, global trade, missionary work, and tourism, among the many others this diverse collection illuminates. The current Africa Galleries will close September 2 for a year of renovations. We look forward to welcoming you to the new galleries when they reopen on September 28, 2019—along with new Mexico & Central America Gallery, Main Entrance Hall, Gateway to Egypt, and renovated Harrison Auditorium!
Gallery Highlights
Learn More
The world's history owes much to Africa. It is known as the "Cradle of Humankind," the birthplace of human biological and cultural development. Parts of Africa are also known to have been central to early world trade. As early as the first millennium CE, East Africa was an important part of an Indian Ocean trading system that included Arabia, India, Persia, and China. At the same time, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa exchanged scholars and ideas across the Sahara Desert, and West Africa exported gold and other precious commodities to Europe. These contacts took place long before the "Age of Exploration" when 15th century Europeans rediscovered Africa.
The majority of objects in this gallery come from the colonial period of Africa's history, a time when European powers divided the continent into nation states whose boundaries often cut across ancient cultural and regional areas. Because African culture groups are often divided by national boundaries, objects are identified by region as well as by culture and country. The dynamic nature of styles and beliefs in Africa, therefore--where possible--labels point out when objects were used and the influences that may have gone into producing particular objects. Also identified are the workshops or individuals who produced specific pieces, where this information is available.
On one side of the gallery the exhibition focuses on the use of objects to display status and to transfer laws and traditions to upcoming generations, and on the ways in which some African cultures have used objects to influence and communicate with the forces that control people's lives. The other side of the gallery displays objects of everyday life and invites you to compare the lifestyle of a group of hunter-gatherers with the lifestyle of subsistence farmers by looking at the objects each uses. When looking at these pieces, bear in mind that what you are seeing is only one small part of the complexity and diversity that is Africa.
Gallery ThemesStatus
Objects everywhere in Africa are created and ornamented in ways which proclaim the taste and social position of the individuals who use them. The objects here are made to be seen and admired by all members of the community. Some indicate membership in a particular group or signify that their owners have become leaders in their communities. Other examples use costly materials and fine craftsmanship to indicate an individual's wealth and status.Traditions and Laws
Masks have played an important role in the maintenance of traditions and laws in many West and Central African cultures. In some areas masks belong to initiation societies that teach social values and norms to each succeeding generation. In these societies children learn the prerequisites of adult life in secluded initiation camps. Using masks emphasizes that the norms children learn are derived from the ancestors or supernatural sources and are thus far more powerful and important than anything they may encounter in the world of human beings. In other cultures masks serve as agents of social control, periodically visiting communities to insure that moral codes are followed, to remind people of appropriate behavior, or to recreate cosmological principles.
Staffs In many parts of Africa staffs identify those of high social status, such as rulers, elders, or other leaders. Sometimes these staffs are very plain, with possession of the staff itself signifying leadership. In other cultures, staffs are finely crafted decorative pieces, with the quality of the work symbolizing the owners' status level.Weights and Measures: Akan Gold Weights
The Akan peoples in Ghana and the Ivory Coast have long been noted for their great kingdoms and states, some dating back to the 12th century. These states established long-distance trade relationships with the Near East, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and later, with Europe. Akan gold was the main commodity in this international trade as early as the 15th century, and the region became known as the "Gold Coast."
From the 15th century until the 20th century, the use of gold dust in everyday transactions was common. Gold was weighed on balance scales against counterweights of precise values known by all traders, chiefs, and great kings, each of whom owned a set of graduated weights. The majority of counterweights were cast brass, made by the lost wax process and then adjusted to the proper weight by removing excess metal. The earliest weighing systems were Islamic and were based on measures called Mikhtal, used for weighing gold, and Waqia, used for silver and other commodities. European systems were introduced later.
The most unique feature of virtually all Akan arts, especially gold weights, is the graphic or sculptural representation of symbols, objects, or scenes that are directly related to proverbs or other traditional sayings. This fact reflects the essence of Akan aesthetics and lends a unity to Akan arts, regardless of medium or object type. Proverbs associated with gold weights number in the thousands and pertain to nearly all types except geometric forms, though only a few of these sayings can be explained by the Akan themselves.Communication and Influence
All societies have complex systems of thought that give meaning to existence, explain why events occur and how people can influence events to gain control over their lives. Central to many African cosmologies are the contrasts between the natural and social worlds. Wilderness often represents the unknown, the chaotic, the dangerous, and the powerful. Towns represent civilization, social order, and safety. While nature and society can be in bitter opposition, they can also complement each other. Hunting, fishing, or farming in the wilderness provide food, and medicines often derive their efficacy from being associated with nature. Spirits, deities, or ancestors often provide the keys to controlling the chaotic and dangerous side of nature and channeling nature's power for the good of human beings. These supernatural beings, however, are often unpredictable, taking great delight in causing trouble and upsetting plans, but they are also able to bestow significant benefits when appeased through rituals or other actions.
African cosmologies are not restricted to beliefs in natural or ancestral spirits. Christianity and Islam have an ancient history in Africa; both religions reached the continent within one generation of their being founded. In some places one religion predominates over the other two. In other places all three work together in varying combinations.Divination
Divination is a particular kind of influence and communication in which specifically trained individuals are responsible for interpreting messages or prescribing actions that are dictated by spiritual forces.Musical Instruments
Musical instruments displayed in the exhibit illustrate that specific instruments have been traded across cultures and regions, becoming part of the complex of rhythms, songs, and dances specific to each area as they moved. Likewise, groups of itinerant musicians have carried whole complexes, including songs, music, and instruments, with them as they traveled.
The role of musician varies throughout the continent. In some areas musicians have the powerful role of genealogist, reciting family histories and genealogical ties to important ancestors that validate claims to political authority. In other places musicians are suspected of witchcraft because of their special talents. In still other places musical talent is something that all individuals are thought to possess. How different African communities think about and produce music are issues that reveal a lot about the specifics of particular cultures.Benin History and the Penn Museum's Benin Collection
For over six hundred years the city of Benin was the capital of a prosperous, well-organized empire of the same name. At its peak during the 15th and 16th centuries, the empire stretched from Dahomey to the Niger River and reached to the Atlantic coast in places. The Edo tell of Prince Oranmiyan, who was called from the city of Ife to restart the monarchy after his father Ododua's exile from Benin and wanderings to the west. Oranmiyan fathered Eweka I, who in the 12th century became the first Oba of the present dynasty. The present ruler, Erediauwa I, is the 38th Oba of the dynasty.
The palace in Benin was the height of a complex feudal society characterized by widespread competition for power, prestige and wealth. The arrival of the Portuguese around 1485 created a new era of prosperity and rapid expansion. The Portuguese provided economic and militaristic strength for the kingdom, acting as a conduit for overseas trade and fighting in Benin military campaigns.
Conflicts stemming from colonial ambitions helped bring about the conquest of the kingdom in 1897, when an official British delegation was ambushed en route to see the Oba, despite his unwillingness to meet with it. In retaliation, the British sent the Oba into exile and burned the palace. In order to further weaken the Oba, and to deter additional bloodshed --the Oba had made sacrifices to the gods—the British, in keeping with the tradition of war booty, removed over two thousand objects from the palace. These objects—including the Oba's primary symbol of power, his coral-beaded wardrobe—were auctioned to defray the costs of the military expedition.
Today Benin City is the capital of Edo State and part of Nigeria's federal structure.
The art of Benin is the product of an urban royal court, symbolizing and extolling the power, mystique, grandeur, continuity, and endurance of the ruling dynasty and its governing institutions.
From at least the 11th century to date, the Oba, a divine ruler, ruled Benin and headed the political system of titled chiefs. Under royal support, a number of craftsmen's guilds produced brass, ivory, and wood sculptures and brocaded and appliquéd cloth that museums prize and that command high prices on the art market.
The tradition of the Oba as patron of the arts has continued. In 1914, Oba Eweka II lifted the restrictions on the sale of art work, and traditional craftsmen began to create for the public as well as for the court. Benin art has been resilient in the face of political, economic, social, and religious change. Traditional forms continue to be made today, and new forms are emerging to become part of contemporary Benin culture.Ivory Armlet, Box, and Wands
Ivory symbolized royalty and the continuity of dynastic rule. White is the color of ritual purity, so the Oba often wears ivory on ceremonial occasions. Such was the skill of ivory carvers that they worked the pieces without any preliminary sketches.Brass Belt Masks
Cast in high relief, chiefs of all rank wear these small pendants to decorate the fastening of the typical Benin men's wrapper, which is secured on the left hip (as seen in the picture of Commemorative Plaque above). Leopard and human faces were common.Quadrangular Brass Bells
These rested on altars and rang to attract the attention of the ancestors. Warriors in battle also wore them around the neck; the sound of these bells announced their victories upon returning home.Brass and Ivory Armlets and Bracelets
Royalty and nobility wore armlets and bracelets. Only the Oba wore ivory armlets, especially in ceremonies where he danced with the eben sword or handled a gong, because they kept his elaborate coral bead costume from getting tangled.Benin Art and Beliefs
The sophistication and symbolism of Benin art illustrate the monarchy's ability to use the arts as instruments of the state. As the influence of the chiefs grew over the centuries, the office of the Oba became increasingly ceremonial. As a result, court ritual and art focused on what set the Oba apart from the chiefs: his ability to claim divine origins.
The divinity of the Benin monarchy is linked to Osanobua, the Creator God, and Olokun, his eldest son, who is associated intimately with the human world and with aspects of wealth, fertility, and beauty. His symbols are the python and the crocodile: animals that can live in water and on land, sent by Olokun to punish wrongdoing. The mudfish also inhabits the dual worlds of the riverbank and the shallow waters, and its powerful electric shock exemplified the potential violence of ancestors, warriors, and Obas. Symbols such as these helped reinforce the political legitimacy of the monarchy.
Benin royal art is primarily made of ivory and bronze. In the past, the Oba controlled the ivory trade, and any hunter who killed an elephant was obliged to give one of its tusks to the palace. In this way the rulers of Benin amassed huge stocks of ivory to be carved by the Igbesanmwan, the hereditary guild of ivory carvers, or sold to Europeans. Ivory's ritual importance stems from its white color, shared with orhue (chalk), considered the perfect symbol of purity, prosperity, and peace.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese, trade with northern neighbors supplied bronze. In the 15th century a great expansion in bronze-casting took place, reflecting the increased commercial importance of Benin. Bronze heads of Obas and Queen Mothers form the pinnacle of this artistic tradition.
While it is common to emphasize the continuity of art and culture in traditional societies, Benin's development was far from static. Contact with the neighboring Yoruba groups, the introduction of Christianity, and the formation of the nation of Nigeria impacted the arts. Although the kingdom of Benin's independence ended in 1897, the Oba continues to commission art to inspire public loyalty and pride, as well as preserve historical memory during the changes of 21st century Nigeria.


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Maria Fiatarone's sentinel paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 1990 forever changed the way exercise and the aging are viewed. The study showed nursing home residents benefiting from high-intensity strength training by walking faster and being more active around the facility — a theory unheard of at the time. The results: increased functional ability and improvements in activity and quality of life, plus no injuries.
"The idea at the time was completely out of the box," says Dr. David Buchner, branch chief of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity. "We went from knowing hardly anything about the effects of physical activity on older adults to saying that physical activity is incredibly beneficial for this age group."
Fast forward to the year 2002. We read almost daily about increasing evidence of the beneficial physiologic and functional effects of physical activity for the aging. Epidemiological studies show that active older adults are less likely to experience a decline in function with age; randomized trials demonstrate that physical activity improves function in older adults. Which is why health clubs in their advertising and marketing campaigns should target the older market. This incredibly large segment of the population is the key to driving your club's business success.
The Benefits of Regular Exercise in the Elderly
"Regular exercise offers benefits across a wide range of health conditions and problems from cancer to various types of gallbladder disease, plus heart disease and diabetes," says Dr. Steven Blair of the Cooper Institute. "Perhaps most importantly, exercise can preserve function and independence."
According to Blair, there are few things that have a more profound effect on more bodily systems than exercise. Furthermore, during vigorous exercise, every body system revs up — metabolic, biochemical, hormonal, temperature regulation, function and cardiovascular respiration.
"Studies from Tufts University show that you take older adults into the weight room and you push them. They don't die; they double and triple their muscle strength and throw away their walkers." Says Blair. "If exercise was going to kill people, it would have killed that group. Yet they literally had no adverse events. It's a myth that older adults are fragile and cannot exercise. We were meant to be active animals. It's our natural state. By being sedentary, we put ourselves in an unnatural state."
Facilities must remember to serve the individual as that, not just as part of an age group, to see increased benefits and reduced injuries.
"There are frail individuals. Certainly, as you go up the age spectrum, you have more health issues and potential adverse events, but they are still pretty rare," says Blair. "A facility needs to be aware and have an emergency plan in place. But clubs can get sued just as easily over a highly fit 22 year-old who falls and breaks something or drops dead from an abnormality in his or her cardiovascular system."
Successful Aging
We are continually discovering new aspects of the effects of physical activity. Research is growing and showing that physically active older adults are less likely to have dementia and cognitive decline. As we better understand the benefits of physical activity, we find ourselves going back to John W. Rowe and Robert L. Khan's Successful Aging. Yes, we see a lot of usual aging. But we also see a large potential for successful aging. And, in this respect, our clubs have a huge potential for successful marketing prospects. As it stands now, 7.4 million health club members are over the age of 55, according to the Health Club Trend Report published by American Sports Data Inc.
Who knows what we may accomplish in the next decade? As history shows, society changes when change is set in motion.
Colin Milner is the CEO of the International Council on Active Aging. He has 20 years of industry background including club management, consulting, publishing, and is the former president of IDEA Health and Fitness Association and chief operating officer of the Keiser Institute on Aging. He has authored over 80 industry articles and has been interviewed extensively in leading publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal.
A Blueprint for Action
In May 2001, a coalition of 46 national organizations released a plan to get older Americans moving. The National Blueprint: Increasing Physical Activity Among Adults Aged 50 and Older guides and supports organizations in their efforts to persuade older Americans to adopt active lifestyles.
For more information about the National Blueprint, contact the International Council on Active Aging, 507-522 Moberly Road, Vancouver BC V5Z 4G4; toll-free: (866) 335-9777, tel: (604) 734-4466, Fax: (604) 708-4464; firstname.lastname@example.com; www.icaa.cc


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Suppose we are given a finite collection of finite binary strings $\mathcal{S}$, of various lengths. Our task is to express any binary sequence $x\in 2^\mathbb{N}$ as juxtaposition of strings taken from $\mathcal{S}:$ $$x=\sigma_1\sigma_2\sigma_3\dots$$ For any such sequence of "bricks", $\sigma\in\mathcal{S}^\mathbb{N},$ we consider $$L^*(\sigma):=\limsup_{n\to\infty}\frac{1}{n}\sum_{k=1}^n \mathrm{length}(\sigma_k)$$ as a kind of parameter of quality of the factorization: we appreciate a factorization if the mean length of the composing pieces is frequently high.
Given the set $\mathcal{S},$ how to compute the best $L^*(\sigma)$ which is always attainable, whatever is $x\in 2^\mathbb{N}?$ That is, the quantity (depending on $\mathcal{S}$ only)
$$\lambda(\mathcal{S}):=\inf_{x\in2^\mathbb{N}} \max \{L^*(\sigma) : \sigma\in\mathcal{S}^\mathbb{N}, x=\sigma_1 \sigma_2 \sigma_3\dots \}.$$
Also, are there special assumptions on the collection $\mathcal{S}$ that may simplify the analysis?
Example. Let $\mathcal{S}:=\{ 0,\ 1,\ 00,\ 01,\ 11 \}.$ Then, any binary sequence $x$ can be broken into a sequence of strings in $\mathcal{S}$, with average length larger than or equal to $3/2$.
Remark. For my purposes, we can assume that the collection $\mathcal{S}$ always enjoys the property of being "stable for extraction of sub-strings", that is, if $\sigma=\epsilon_1 \epsilon_2 \dots \epsilon_n\in\mathcal{S}$, then also $\epsilon_p \epsilon_{p+1} \dots \epsilon_q\in\mathcal{S},$ for any $1\leq p < q\leq n.$ If I am not wrong, this allows quite a simple inductive procedure for a canonical optimal factorization $\sigma$ of a binary sequence $x$: having chosen $\sigma_1,\dots,\sigma_k,$ take $\sigma_{k+1}$ as the longest admissible element of $\mathcal{S}$: by the above property of $\mathcal{S}$ any other factorization $\tau$ of $x$ can be easily compared with $\sigma$, showing $L^ *(\sigma) \geq L^ *(\tau)$. So in this case I'd expect there is some hope of being able of computing the quantity $\lambda(\mathcal{S}).$


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Slacktivist pointed out that no less than four Republican candidates have claimed that God called them to run. Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain all state regularly that they are in the race at least partly due to the wishes of the Lord.
I know this is never actually going to happen, but wouldn't it be magnificently awkward if reporters would start asking the candidates about each other's divine mandate? You know, "So, Governor Perry, Representative Bachmann here has said that she regularly receives assurance from The Lord that she is meant to run. Do you feel that she is incorrect?"
We all know that there is a big social taboo against questioning any candidate's deeply rooted personal religious opinions. But personally, I feel like the omniscient ruler over all creation ought to be a little bit more decisive about guiding an election, don't you think? In a world where God really existed and actively desired the election of one particular candidate, there might in principle be a single right answer to the question of who's really God's candidate. It might, of course, be an undiscoverable answer; but if all these candidates are going around claiming they know they have God's endorsement, at least three of them must be lying or mistaken, yes? That ought to be a fairly obvious statement even for the most hardened theocrat.
And I'd like some follow-up questions, too. Mitt Romney the Mormon is presumed to be the likely front runner right now; suppose he wins the primary? Is somebody please, PLEASE going to go up to Rick Santorum and ask "So, Rick, you said that God wanted you to run, but that Mormon guy sure did kick your ass. Why did that happen?" And if Obama is re-elected, I'm dying for all four of them to answer the question about what the heck God was up to.


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WELCOME TO the Tuesday blog . Tuesdays mean Steve Collett, focussing mainly on match fishing but also delving into his styles of pleasure fishing and specialist angling.
Steve, who often appears in Angler's Mail magazine, has a top match angling pedigree with some big match wins including being a former Division One National champion. He is a total all-round angler too, so is sure to reveal some top fishing tips every week.
We hope you enjoy the blog, and share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the icons above, or by the "old skool" method of telling fellow anglers! Feel free also to comment by using the special space at the bottom on this page.
AUGUST again has proved to be a very busy period for the match fishing scene, and keeping on top of it all for the Angler's Mail has been my priority.
I have been up and down the country to see what's going on and in the meantime, drop a few secrets out of the bag, and let you know what the top anglers in the country have been doing to get an edge…
Whilst Daiwa Dorking were dominating a certain match up in the north of the country, the River Avon at Evesham was being dominated by another member of the invincible Dorking squad, Mr Ian Didcote.
With over 70 anglers facing a hot and sticky day this looked like it may be a tough one for all concerned, and with bloodworm allowed on these qualifiers for the big day, would they play a part, or would the humble maggot get a showing.
Well the good old maggot seemed to come out on top this time, for Ian anyway who drew peg 57 and started the match of with a few very small roach early doors before committing the rest of the match to eels using a bait dropper and chopped worm, casters and maggots to draw in a few wrigglies, where he finished up with five or six proper snakes and a few perch thrown in to take the honours with a superb 7lb.
That was enough to start putting the jitters in to other teams facing the mighty Daiwa Dorking on the Evesham festival, can they be beaten on any venue ? well with the Division One national coming up very soon on the Bristol Avon we will see.
Golden oldies
The Team England Veterans took up the podium this week taking a superb victory in Portugal on the river Mondego.
The team, made up of Joe Roberts, Dickie Carr, Roger Marlow and Terry Lancaster fished a superb match that saw them finish with 22 points, just ahead of a superb Italian side that finished up with 23, well clear of Belgium and France.
Individually Joe Roberts took individual gold, with a perfect score and a superior weight total to come back with more gold than team GB, well done the vets !
The Masters
Elsewhere in match fishing world the Angling Trust Masters took place with 11 teams of six battling it out on the beautiful Glebe Fishery, spread out over seven lakes.
With so many lakes in, it would be interesting to see how the anglers would cope, and as we all know, seven different lakes would mean a mountain of gear, and a pallet full of bait!
Individually Adam Wakelin took the honours with a massive 178lb 8oz from the Foundation Lake and decided to fish the feeder all day. Second spot could not have been closer, and I mean that as both Aaron Morton (Total Fishing) and Dom Lanni (Marukyu Green) caught exactly the same weight of 177lb 8oz. A very very tight match, and the Team title went to Marukyu Red winning with 24 points.
Match fishing – a dying art?
One thing I have noticed this week attending these major matches is how ugly we all are!
Only joking, how old the average match angler is, and I don't know whether or not it's worrying or it's just having a cycle, but if you have a look at modern day carping, I would say it is worrying.
What do we offer the youngster these days? It's definitely not a fashion thing, as if we all stood together in our brightly coloured outfits, we would look like a 80s breakdance troupe! But the carpers have an edge on that with hoodies and vans galore where are they heading?
Also costs. It's a very expensive game nowadays and even on a good salary a youngster would find a big match a daunting and wallet denting prospect.
And to be honest I don't know the answer to this one, I do know though that we need to get it sorted and addressed pretty quickly, or the only big money sponsor we will be attracting is Saga holidays and Sanatogen.
My week
I managed to fish a pairs match on my own pool last week, a good little get together for a good pal of mine Andre Portik, or Prev as he is known, for a birthday bash.
And it would be a random pairs match so I didn't know who I was going to be partnered with. I know who I didn't want to get lumbered with, I mean partnered with, and that was my old man. And well you guessed it, I drew the old man, and a bad peg to boot, whilst he had a flyer.
Being my own fishery I pretty much knew what tactic to employ and didn't think that a winning performance could be mustered up, as there was a few good uns on other pegs, notably the other half Sammie Perkins who had drew peg 26 "fraggle rock". So more than pride was at stake – dinner and gloating rights – and hours of mickey-taking so my "A" game needed to come out, and so did my old man's.
After 5 hours it seemed like it would be very close. The old man was first to weigh in and put 29 lb odd on the scales so it looked like I was in for a drowning and a drive home full of bragging and "getting done over by a girl" comments as Sammie weighed in 34 lb.
Hers was a superb performance on a tough day made up of a lot of small fish on the long pole. Further round Sammie's partner for the day had been catching well and put 31 lb on the scales, so it looked as it would be very tight. I had over-worried on this occasion as a steady stream of carp on the method saw me put 51 lb on giving me and the Ol man a winning weight overall – but a very grumpy missus!
TOP TIP – don't be tight!
I have managed to win a few bob over the years fishing a feeder tight to islands, and I was asked the other week, to give one tip on how I do it.
Well it couldn't be simpler, don't be tight! By that I mean when you have cast your method tight to the bank, make sure your line is slack, and I mean slack. This enables your line to sink and doesn't send out a warning signal to feeding fish.
When you tighten up it's like putting traffic cones around your hookbait, one brush of a fin, and they will be gone, just slacken off. And don't worry about bite indication or a bend in the tip, you will know when you get a bite !
This week my award goes to a superb performance by Callum Dicks at this weekend's Angling Trust Final at up in the North West at Partridge. Although not winning the match nor a section, he managed a solid performance that helped secure yet another victory for Daiwa Dorking, and next week I shall ask him how he did it.
Ian Chapman's full report on this match and exclusive pictures will appear in the magazine, where you will find an absolute mountain of local match fishing results – from small sweeps to proper big 'uns – every single week.
My non sponsored angler award goes to Graham Rigby from Aldridge who had a cracking days sport at Cob House fishery drawing peg 1 on the Oak and amassed a mammoth 218 lb on paste fishing close in. Well done Graham.
Hope you have had your fix of match fishing and don't forget to pop back and have a look next week – tight lines and may your drawing arm be with you!
Related posts
Last week's Steve Collett match blog
Previous week's Seve Collett blog
Here's the list of all our new blogs and when they go live:
MONDAY: Carp crews on rotation – Korda, Fox, Nash and ACE.
TUESDAY: Steve Collett, Mail contributor and ultimate all-rounder.
WEDNESDAY: Angler's Mail HQ – yes, us!
THURSDAY: Specialists from Pike Anglers Club, Korum and Pallatrax, on rotation.
FRIDAY: Carl & Alex, Angler's Mail juniors and video diary makers.
SATURDAY: The Angling Trust – guys at the governing body.
SUNDAY: Colin Mitchell, veteran coarse angler and top journalist


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Symptoms with quitting Lexapro cold-turkey
My wife has been on Lexapro for many years now, maybe 10-12. She stopped taking it, cold-turkey, about 2 1/2 weeks ago. She is now feeling nauseated on and off throughout the day. Is this a possible side effect of quitting so rapidly? Should she still feel this nauseated feeling this long after stopping?
Anytime a person decides to stop a medicine, especially one she has been on for a long time, it is important to do so under the care and supervision of your physician. Therefore, the most important thing you can do at this time, if you have not already, is to be in contact with your physician who prescribed the medication and is caring for you.
Generally, SSRI anti-depressants, like Lexapro (or escitalopram) are stopped in a more gradual manner, depending on the dose of medication. This is for two reasons — to see if symptoms of depression or anxiety return when the dose is lowered and to decrease the potential for discontinuation symptoms.
Some symptoms that people report when stopping SSRIs include:
(a) dizziness or light headedness
(b) nausea and/or vomiting
(c) headaches
(d) lethargy
(e) anxiety and/or agitation
(f) tingling (paresthesias), numbness or "electric" shock-like sensations in the head or limbs
(g) tremors
(h) sweating
(j) irritability
(k) vertigo (dizziness)
(l) diarrhea
Those SSRI's that have what is called a "short half life," tend to have discontinuation symptoms start in a day or two after stopping. Those with a "long half life," may not show symptoms until a week after stopping. The symptoms usually last 1 – 4 weeks. Lexapro is in the middle between short and long half life SSRIs.
Most people who stop SSRIs do NOT have these symptoms, and do just fine off the medication. Because of this fact, it is important that anyone who suddenly stops their SSRI and starts having some of the above symptoms see their doctor before assuming they are having discontinuation symptoms — there are literally hundreds of other causes for the many symptoms that people have reported when stopping SSRIs, and you want to make sure that there is not some other reason for feeling poorly.
SSRI discontinuation symptoms do eventually go away on their own, but if you find them intolerable, it is important to see your doctor about possibly restarting the medication, and pursuing a slow reduction in the medicine to decrease these symptoms.
Good Luck.
For more information:
Go to the Anxiety and Stress Disorders health topic.


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Feb. 21, 2009
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Trailing Columbia by nine points with 14 minutes left in the second half, the situation looked bleak for the Yale men's basketball team. Then, the Bulldogs turned on the defensive pressure. The Lions scored only eight points the rest of way, and Yale roared back to earn an important 57-49 Ivy victory before a crowd of 1,751 at the John J. Lee Amphitheater and a YES Network television audience.
"Defense is what won us the game," said James Jones, The Joel E. Smilow Class of 1954 Head Coach of Men's Basketball. "Our defense was tremendous."
The Bulldogs took their first lead of the second half, 42-41, on Ross Morin's layup with 9:31 left. Columbia quickly regained the lead, but two Alex Zampier free throws put Yale ahead for good, 44-43, with 6:51 remaining.
Travis Pinick's steal and breakaway dunk increased the advantage to five a minute later, and a Morin jumper made it a seven point game, 52-45.
Zampier and Morin paced Yale with 16 points apiece. Pinick added 10 points, four rebounds, three steals and two assists. Paul Nelson had his second straight strong game off the bench, contributing eight points and two rebounds in 14 minutes. Chris Andrews had a team-high four assists, and Michael Sands grabbed five rebounds.
Patrick Foley led Columbia with 17 points, while Jason Miller added 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
Yale outrebounded the Lions 32-27 and committed only 11 turnovers.
The Bulldogs scored the first six points of the game, but Morin picked up his second foul with 15:30 left in the first half. Normally, that would have earned him a seat on the bench for the rest of the half, but Jones decided to put him back in after a short break.
"I wanted him to stay in the flow of the game," Jones said. "It's important that he get touches, and guys look to him for leadership."
When Morin picked up his third foul with 3:33 left, it looked like the move had backfired. Instead, staying in the game helped keep him involved, and Morin scored 12 of his points in the second half on 4 of 8 shooting from the field.
"I've played with three fouls in the second half before this season," Morin said.
The victory moved the Bulldogs (10-13, 6-4 Ivy) into a three-way tie for second place in the Ivy League with Columbia and Dartmouth. Cornell, at 8-2, sits atop the league standings.
"We control each game we play the rest of the way," Pinick said. "All we can do is play as hard as we can and hope for help."
Yale had won on Friday night in each of the last two weekends, only to lose on Saturday. After knocking off Cornell last night, the Bulldogs managed to complete the sweep.
"We were able to keep our energy from last night, especially in the second half," Pinick said.
It was the sixth time in Jones's tenure that Yale won both games of the Cornell-Columbia home weekend.
Jones also improved to 7-5 against his younger brother Joe, who is in his sixth year at the helm of Columbia's program.
It was Alumni Weekend in the Amphitheater, and several former players were in attendance, including a large contingent from the 2001-02 team that shared the Ivy League championship with Penn and Princeton.
The Bulldogs make their final road trip of the season next weekend, traveling to Penn on Friday at 7 p.m. and Princeton on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Report filed by Tim Bennett, Yale Sports Publicity
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Video by Steven Horn '10, Yale Sports Publicity


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Coming from a family where women were encouraged to study science and math, I had plenty of role models. My mother was one of the first women engineers in India, so it was an easy choice for me to pursue engineering and technology.
However, it felt a bit strange that I was the only woman in my class at a premier school–the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. From then on, thankfully, the ratio of women improved significantly, as I moved into management and business.
I now work at Accenture, where there are women in top management positions.
Times are indeed good for the diversity agenda. The focus on diversity, much more than in the past, is great! It brings rich and multifaceted experiences together.
More women are now in board positions, making important decisions in technology and driving change. Companies are gaining, and everyone gains.
After graduation, I worked in the United Kingdom for many years and then returned to Accenture in India. India was booming, as it still is, and the opportunities have been exciting. To be able to lead changes here has been particularly interesting for me.
Being in technology now is fascinating. Technology changes so fast, and there are new challenges to surmount every day. It takes all my creativity and imagination to keep pace.
Sometimes, when I'm alone, I think about how our minds, with millions of neurons, chemicals and atoms, are capable of creating such fantastic thoughts and actions.
"Technology is a true manifestation of imagination turning into reality."
Just 100 years ago, few imagined humans reaching the moon. Each century of life brings with it so much more than just the passage of time, with humans transforming their ideas and imagination into reality. And technology is a true manifestation of imagination turning into reality.
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." And I truly believe that we, as people, are much more than the sum of our parts.
"We can achieve a lot more than we think we are capable of when we consciously tap into our potential."
It is said that humans use only 1 percent of their intelligence. We can achieve a lot more than we think we are capable of when we consciously tap into our potential. This idea is true, whether we apply it at work or to our life in general.


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Many of our tropical houseplants aren't so happy indoors during the winter.
Low light levels and low humidity are contrary to their tropical nature. There are some plants in the house, however, that don't seem to be phased by indoor winter conditions.
If you have moderate light you can maintain a nearly non-stop bloom cycle with African violets. Their fleshy, fuzzy leaves are their defense against lack of humidity; and with adequate sunlight, some fertilizer and well-drained soil you can keep them blooming all year round.
Plant and seed catalogs will be jamming the mailbox any day now. I always feel like January ushers in a clean slate for the garden: optimism abounds among the fresh ideas and new goals; and promises never to repeat a crop busting mistake are sharp in my memory.
Sometimes the slate stays clean; sometimes it doesn't. Either way the next couple of months can be used to plan and prepare for the next growing season. Don't get over whelmed by (or over indulge in) all the catalogs until you actually decide on what you want to accomplish for the year.
Isaiah Evans Wade
Isaiah Evans Wade was born to Matthew Todd Wade and Kristy Lynn Wade of Lexington on Oct. 20, 2008 at St. Joseph East Hospital, Lexington. He weighed 8 lbs.
Maternal grandparents are Lynn Evans Williamson and Bertha Williamson of Winchester, Ky.; maternal great-grandparents are Doris Evans Williamson and the late Hylton Williamson, the late Fannie Spriggs Hopson, and the late Hobart Spriggs of Pike County, Ky.
Ella Marie Yazell
Ella Marie Yazell was born to Joseph Adam and Jennifer Yazell of Berry, Ky. on Dec. 17, 2008 at Harrison Memorial Hospital. She weighed 8 lbs. 5 oz.
Maternal grandparents are Keith Smiley of Cynthiana and Sheree Smiley of Georgetown, Ky.; maternal great-grandparents are Roger and Patricia Fryman of Berry, Jimmie and Marilyn Casey of Berry, and the late Clarence and Elsie Smiley of Cynthiana.
Shade Steven White III
Shade Steven White III was born to Shade Steven Jr. and Miranda White of Berry, Ky. on Nov. 12, 2008 at Harrison Memorial Hospital. He weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz., and is welcomed by his sister, Kendall Leigh.
Maternal grandparents are William and Mary McFarland of Cynthiana; maternal great-grandparents are the late Luther and Norma Fogle and George Yazell Sr. and the late Betty Yazell.
• Cynthiana Democrat, June 13, 1929 - by the Observer - "When I became somewhat familiar with Cynthiana, 'Uncle' Henry Johnson was the popular barber of the town and continued his trade for some years after, retiring somewhere in the 1880's on account of advance age. Doubtless many of our elderly citizens will remember him and various locations of the shop, ranging from Jones Row on north Court Square to the Rankin Hotel, now the Hammond building on Pike Street; For a brief time he plied his calling in the basement of the new brick hotel."
Ashton Journey Preston
Ashton Journey Preston was born to Leslie Gayle Preston and Charles David Guy Jr. of Cynthiana on Oct. 17, 2008 at Georgetown Community Hospital, Georgetown. He weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz., and is welcomed by his brother Hunter Lee Ruegor.
Maternal grandparents are Dorothy and Curtis Preston Jr. of Cynthiana.
Paternal grandparents are Sue (Jackie) Lemons of Cynthiana, and Charles Guy of Nicholas County, Ky.
10 years ago . . .
Births announced this week are: Justin Kirby Brown, Jan. 6, son of John Kirby and Terri Roth Brown; Cheyenne Marie Brumagen, Jan. 7, daughter of Tracey and Tina Brumagen; Weston Scott Fowler, Jan. 5, son of Steven and Whitney Fowler; Nathanael J Taylor, Nov. 28, son of Bernice Ann and Dale Taylor.
This December has been a cold one thus far. I don't mind a gloomy day here or there, I actually find them some what restorative. Too many in a row, though, can be sort of depressing.
We all say we want winter interest, but sometimes we forget about it once spring rolls around and we get excited about a new season. Have you selected things that will capture your eye in January?
A'shaelyn Blaine Veandric Cummins
A'shaelyn Blaine Veandric Cummins was born to Stormi Cummins and Jonathan 'Bud' Mackey on Nov. 14, 2008 at Georgetown Community Hospital. She weighed 6 lbs. 4.5 oz.
Maternal grandparents are Vesta Cummins and the late Blaine Cummins; maternal great-grandparents are Rose Stone and Amos Penney, and the late Artie Custard and the late William Cummins.
Paternal grandmother is Erica Mackey; paternal great-grandparents are Mattie Mackey and the Rev. Earl Mackey.
Births announced this week are: Trey Jackson Bell, Dec. 15, son of Lovena Price and Chris Bell; Kassidie Brianne Childress, Jan. 4, daughter of Jessica and Westley Childress; Paige Allison Miller, Dec. 26, daughter of Mark and Emily Miller; Reagan Nicole Sadler, Dec. 31, daughter of Billy Ray and Tanya Sadler Jr.; Amanda Rodes Judy, Dec. 22, daughter of Kyle and Terri Judy.
• Log Cabin, Sept. 10, 1920 -- "We learn that several interested parties have been making inquiries about the Monticello property with a view to establishing a military school here next year. The property is ideal for the purpose and such a school would be a great advantage to Cynthiana in many ways. Every possible encouragement should be given to the enterprise if there is a good opportunity."
The poinsettia has been a fixture in American homes as a holiday decoration for as long as most of us can remember. I think it is fair to say that it is considered the "official" Christmas flower.
The poinsettia is native to Mexico and has been cultivated for centuries. The Aztec cultivated it for medicinal and household purposes: red dye was made from the leaves and the milky sap that oozes from the woody stem reduced fever.
No need to wait on putting the roses to bed this year. We have gone from the frying pan to the ice bath in short order this season. I don't get rose protection questions like I used to; it seems most have gone the "Knock Out" road so little maintenance is required. Knock Out roses can stand a little attention now but really there is no pressure.
Births announced this week are: Nicolas Allen Florence, Dec. 17, son of Amber Nicole and Chad Allan Florence; Jessica Grace Glenn, Dec. 2, son of Mr. and Mrs. Boyd Glenn.
Did you know. . .
•10 years ago, Dec. 29, 1988: A new department store is planned to occupy the vacant Lerman's building at the corner of Main and Pike streets. Peoples is planning to open March 1, 1989.
25 years ago . . .
* Cynthiana News, Feb. 9, 1854 -- "Harrison Lodge No. 75, I.O.O.F., meets at its Hall, Miller's corner, in the third story - entrance on Pike Street, every Saturday night at 6 1/2 o'clock. Transient Brothers are invited to attend. By order of the Lodge. Jacob S. Trisler, recording secretary."
* Cynthiana Democrat, April 28, 1921 -- "Kelat News: Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Patrick and little daughter of Lexington attended church at High Curry Sunday and were guests of Marvin Patrick for dinner, returning home Sunday afternoon."
Robert Wigginton 4-H Memorial Award
An award to be given to outstanding 4-H'ers in Harrison County in memory of Robert Wigginton, Extension Agent in Harrison County from 1942-1964 is in it's 17th year. It is based strictly on 4-H activities.
The award will be made to one outstanding senior 4-H'er and one Outstanding Junior 4-H'er each year. A 4-H member may only receive this award once as a junior 4-H'er (age 9-13) and once as a senior 4-H'er (age 14-19). Age is determined by the 4-H'ers age on Jan. 1 of the award year.
Most of us know that the popular spice ginger comes from the root of the plant. Well, really it is a rhizome, and the hot and pungent flavor has more to it than just a taste sensation.
Austin Ray Morris
Austin Ray Morris was born to Richard and Tammy Morris of Cynthiana on Nov. 26, 2008 at Harrison Memorial Hospital. He weighed 5 lbs. 6 oz., and is welcomed by his brothers, James and Richard Morris, and sister, Kayla Morris.
Maternal grandparents are Johnny and Sue Baker of Cynthiana; maternal great-grandparent is Irada Hughes.
Paternal grandparents are Tommy and Judy Morris of Cynthiana.
By Kate Darnell, News writer
After almost 15 years serving as pastor of Cynthiana Baptist Church, Rev. Wayne Spivey has resigned.
Spivey announced his resignation during the church service on Sunday, Nov. 16, at which point he told the congregation the decision to leave had been tough.
"Without a doubt, this is the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life," said Spivey in his resignation letter, adding the decision had been God's and not his.
Copyright © 2019
The Cynthiana Democrat is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Cynthiana, KY and the surrounding area.


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Quiz: How much do you know about Mexico?
Photo: Photo ©Tan Yilmaz, Flickr Via Getty Images
About this time last year, we ran a Mexico trivia quiz and promised to follow up with more. And it won't be the last. I've spent more time in Mexico than the average person and I like to think I know it well — but every time I wonder who, or when, or how and set my mind to finding out, I come across all kinds of little details that take me by surprise. So the stash just keeps on growing. And not much of it is trivial — we've got lost civilizations, illicit love, revolution and the future of the planet here. So take your best shot and tell us how you did.


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You might want to tell your co-workers that there's some dust in your eyes after seeing this clip.
Fairfield Union High senior Trent Glaze of Ohio is the captain of his football team. He loves watching film and keeping his teammates focused. But Trent has muscular dystrophy and cannot leave his wheelchair.
So, in his final game at Fairfield Union, his coaches and teammates drew up a play for Trent — a handoff from the quarterback that went for a touchdown. Try to keep those tears back when his team rushes the field.
Via Yardbarker