text:
Vocational rehabilitation services are designed to help an injured worker return to work. This can be with the pre-injury employer or a new employer and either the same job or a different job. The first step to obtain
vocational rehabilitation services is to ask your workers compensation insurance adjuster or your employer. Vocational rehabilitation is strictly voluntary on the part of the workers compensation insurance carrier or employer.
If the adjuster agrees to provide this service, a Qualified Rehabilitation Professional (QRP), who works for a Qualified Rehabilitation Provider, will be assigned to you. These individuals (QRPs) and companies have been
approved by the Kansas Division of Workers Compensation as meeting the educational, work experience and other essential criteria set forth by the state of Kansas. The insurance adjuster or employer may request that a vocational
assessment and/or a rehabilitation plan be developed for you. A vocational assessment will help you and your QRP identify job skills that you can transfer to other types of work, your physical and/or mental restrictions, your
ability to return to work with your pre-injury employer and your need for a rehabilitation plan. A rehabilitation plan identifies an appropriate vocational goal and the services needed to obtain that type of work. The plan
also spells out your responsibilities and those of the QRP in reaching your vocational goal. All parties must agree to the plan for job placement or re-education/training before the specific services can begin.
If you need vocational rehabilitation assistance and your insurance adjuster or employer has declined this service, another option may be available to you. The Division of Workers Compensation Rehabilitation Section will
refer you to the vocational rehabilitation agency for the state you live in. This agency provides services that may result in employment for those who possess various physical, mental or emotional disabilities. You may request this service by contacting us at (785) 296-4000 or email firstname.lastname@example.com. We will send you a packet of information. Please complete the forms and return to
us at the address provided.
You may direct questions about vocational rehabilitation services, qualifications to be a vocational rehabilitation professional/provider and other related questions to (785) 296-4000 or email email@example.com.


text:
Nilt wrote:
Saint wrote:
I'm wondering if there's any point in doing at CAT-6 wiring because wireless is pretty good these days.
Gratz on the house! Cat6 is a waste of money; Cate5e will work fine. Don't make me sic the Frenzzy on you. Wireless may "work" but having a cable available is almost always better and running cables isn't all that hard.
This. When my wife has problems with her laptop, we just plug her in to the wired network. Cat5e plus gigabit ethernet switches and routers equals a fast home network. I wired my house during the remodel and the network is stupid fast. No looking back.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Compare FIAT Garages and FIAT Servicing prices in Lancaster today.
Enter Your Reg to compare competitive local quotes now!
Compare FIAT Garages and FIAT Servicing prices in Lancaster today.
Professional, comprehensive friendly service, highly recommended!
Excellent service and very friendly. Very handy to have him just around the corner. Would definitely recommend and will certainly be using him again.
Everything was perfect
Excellent response time, the mechanic was very efficient and managed to sort out the problem in good time. Would not hesitate to use them again.
Came out at time agreed, same day. Explained the problem and Completed the job efficiently and was very pleasant. Would use again and recommend to friends.
Great customer service. Great chat and explained all my problems as I asked. Will be going back in the future
Excellent. Quick, efficient service
Pin pointed the issue very quickly. Phoned with price of work before commencing. Work carried out the same day and given free breakdown too. Very friendly and honest. Highyly recommend
I am happy to provide a very positive feedback for Noble engineering. To start with Tony called me soon after accepting the offer to arrange the appointment. This was only a couple of days away. On that day Tony was waiting for me and came to greet me at the parking. I asked a few more things to be fix and he was more than keen and reassuring that it can be done. The car was ready for pick up the same day at the previosly agreed time. Also it is worth mentioning that the car was washed and partially valeted at no extra cost. Finally and mostly cost effective the fact that Tony offered car assistance retrival and courtesy car in case of breakdown at no extra cost. The service is totaly VIP and it is worth every penny paid. The feeling of professionalism was pronounced at every aspect. Keep up the good work. DR Kosmas Kailidis
"Rogersons garage at Bay Horse near Lancaster (UK) has provided vehicle maintenance & repairs, MoT testing, and used car sales to the area for many years and has an enviable reputation for quality of service, friendliness and links with the rural community.Rogersons is poised to bring more quality services to the area and to keep ahead of developments in the auto industry.We aim to become the leading one-stop provider of vehicle services in the area from Service, we now offer Autologic scanning on All Land Rovers and Snap On scanning on all other makes & MoTs to Car Shop Accessories, and from Vehicle Sales to Accident Repairs."
TyresOnTheDrive are a bunch of friendly mobile tyre fitters that simply offer a better way of purchasing tyres! How are we different? Because we're mobile. We come and fit your new tyres wherever your car is, any day of the week.
No longer do you have to sit in a cold garage waiting room whilst your tyres are changed, only to leave with the feeling of being ripped off. Instead our handy 2 hour fitting slots at your chosen location allow for you to get on with your day with little disturbance.


text:
Joy Joy Joy
Quantity in Basket:None
Suggested Retail:
Your Price:
$12.98 and in stock, order today!
Product Code:
In Stock
|Tell your friends about Joy Joy Joy!
Download Joy Joy Joy high quality 320 kbps album
Length: 49:55:00 Price: $11.98
01. Carol Of The Bells - 3:29 - Price: $1.29
02. The Truth From Above - 2:19 - Price: $1.29
03. La Jeamber - 2:49 - Price: $1.29
04. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear - 3:15 - Price: $1.29
05. Joy To The World - 3:00 - Price: $1.29
06. Carol Of The Birds - 1:59 - Price: $1.29
07. Jesus' Lullaby - 2:54 - Price: $1.29
08. The Fifers - 3:12 - Price: $1.29
09. Abbots Bromley Horn Dance Tune - 2:49 - Price: $1.29
10. Master's In The Hall/Morrison's Jig - 2:16 - Price: $1.29
11. Here We Com A-Wassailing - 1:17 - Price: $1.29
12. Planxty Safaigh - 2:12 - Price: $1.29
13. Personent Hodie - 3:21 - Price: $1.29
14. What Child Is This - 3:19 - Price: $1.29
15. Echo Carol - 1:37 - Price: $1.29
16. Bianco Fiori/White Flowers - 2:03 - Price: $1.29
17. Tidings - 3:26 - Price: $1.29
18. O Holy Night - 4:40 - Price: $1.29
Write an online review and share your thoughts with others.
There are no reviews
Kim Robertson's repertoire includes timeless Celtic melodies, classical, Renaissance and medieval works, and original compositions which, since the release of her 1991 album, Angels in Disguise, also feature her beautiful lyrics and vocals.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Kim Robertson began studying piano at age eight, continuing on into college as a piano major. I was in Kim Robertson's senior year of high school that Kim first began to learn the pedal or orchestral harp. "I was never a very good pedal harp student since I was not interested in a symphonic career. I found it fascinating only as a sideline."
Kim Robertsons introduction to improvisation early on by a jazz pianist enlarged her musical vision, freeing her from the need for written music. This freedom influenced both her piano and classical harp training, building trust in her own creative instincts and allowing many future innovations in her style.
In the mid-70's, Kim Robertson discovered the Celtic harp. This quickly evolved into a profound love for the instrument and set her upon the original path of exploration for which she is renowned. In 1979, she moved to the California coast where she was approached by Invincible Music.
The first recording session turned into her debut recording Wind Shadows with producer Liv Singh Khalsa, a rich blend of old Irish melodies and original compositions whose success projected Kim Robertson onto the vanguard of the new acoustic scene.
Kim Robertson's love affair with Celtic music has blossomed into a highly visible performing, recording, and teaching career. Her work encompasses 18 recording projects including Tender Shepherd, Love Song to a Planet, and her 1993 appearance on the Sugo harp anthology Harvest Moon. Kim Robertson has published nine volumes of harp arrangements and two instructional videos and pursues an international itinerary of concerts, workshops, and retreats. Through the prism of the Celtic harp, one of the world's oldest and most loved instruments, Kim Robertson has found and focused her artistic vision to create an intimate and universal chamber music of the heart.
People who purchased Joy Joy Joy also bought:
Wild Iris $12.98
Peace of Mind $12.98
The Complete 5 CDs Christmas Collection: On Sale! $49.95
Moonrise $12.98
Love Song to a Planet $12.98
Invincible Yoga and Meditation Sampler $12.98
Celtic Christmas 2 $12.98
Heal My World $12.98
Let There be Peace free music download $0.00
Interlude Fantasy free music download $0.00
Wind Chants free music download $0.00
Enchantment Yoga Video $0.00


text:
Reserve online or call 01993 824 252
Start your shortlist by clicking on the icon next to any property
Set in its own private landscaped gardens on the outskirts of the resort, El Forestal provides a peaceful location. This detached house has been individually designed and provides great accommodation for families or groups of friends. The property is well furnished and is over 2 levels. It has its own private pool set in a beautiful spacious garden, which is ideal for children. The rear of the property faces South East.
Enter the property into a hallway.
Up 2 steps is the spacious air conditioned open plan living and dining room, which is well furnished with sofas and coffee tables and complete with TV and DVD/CD player. Patio doors lead to a terrace with built-in barbeque and outdoor dining facilities.
From the hallway the kitchen is also on the ground floor. It is newly refurbished and fully fitted, and well equipped with dish washer, microwave, oven, hob and extractor, fridge freezer and coffee machine. There is a large island area suitable for dining. A door leads to the terrace.
Utility room with washing machine.
Master bedroom with air-conditioning, double bed and ceiling fan, and an en-suite full bathroom with walk-in shower. Patio doors lead to the lower terrace area.
2nd bedroom – also with air-conditioning and a double bed with en-suite shower room.
The 3rd and 4th bedrooms both have twin beds and use of the additional separate full bathroom with walk-in shower. A door leads out to the terrace area.
An external staircase leads to the rooftop solarium with views of the private garden and pool.
Customers staying at the property benefit from free wi-fi.
Outside – parking at front of the villa. Lovely grounds – private pool, terraces and well established garden with large lawn, planted with flowers and olive trees. Please note that there is no pool heating.
Please note in school holidays and all of July and August – Saturday changeovers only.


text:
SISTER ACT Comes to Birmingham Hippodrome, Oct 9-20
The hit musical comedy SISTER ACT, produced by Whoopi Goldberg and Stage Entertainment, is coming to Birmingham Hippodrome for a glorious limited season, raising the roof and getting the congregation dancing in the aisles for the final time as part of the current national tour from Tuesday 9 – Saturday 20 October 2012.
The show, which played to over a million people at the London Palladium during its West End run and is currently a huge hit on Broadway, stars Coronation Street's Denise Black as Mother Superior and Brookside and The Royal favourite Michael Starke as Monsignor O'Hara, with rising new star Cynthia Erivo as the fabulous, Deloris Van Cartier.
When disco diva Deloris Van Cartier witnesses a murder, she is put in protective custody in the one place the cops are sure she won't be found - a convent! Disguised as a nun she quickly finds fans amongst her fellow 'sisters' but makes the wrong impression on the convent's strict Mother Superior. When she turns her attention to the convent's off-key choir, helping the nuns to find their true voices and breathing new life into the rundown neighbourhood, her cover could be blown for good. With the gang giving chase, is time running out for Deloris? Or have they underestimated the power of her new found Sisterhood?
SISTER ACT opened at the London Palladium in May 2009 to huge critical and audience acclaim. It went on to receive four Laurence Olivier Award nominations and its cast album shot to Number One on the iTunes soundtrack chart. During the London Palladium run the show broke Box Office records for the highest grossing single performance and highest grossing week for any musical ever at that venue. The New York production opened at the Broadway Theatre in April 2011 and was nominated for five Tony Awards at this year's ceremony, as well as receiving multiple nominations from every other major US theatre awards body. Record breaking productions are also running in Hamburg, Vienna and Milan, with future productions planned for Spain, France, Holland, South Korea, Japan and Brazil soon.
The original nun on the run and co-producer of the show, Whoopi Goldberg said: "We were thrilled to open Sister Act in London but I'm even more excited to have the show tour the UK so even more folks experience those singing nuns. It's a great show for everyone…your kids, your granny, even the neighbour next door who you might not like so much! I promise, you'll have a great night in the theatre. The Sisters are coming!"
SISTER ACT features a score by Alan Menken, eight-time Oscar winner and the genius behind many of the world famous songs from Disney's movies, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin and Enchanted, with lyrics from his long time collaborator, Glenn Slater. The book is by the award-winning team, Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, whose writing credits include the classic television comedy Cheers, with additional book material from Douglas Carter Beane.
SISTER ACT runs at Birmingham Hippodrome Tuesday 9 – Saturday 20 October 2012. Performances run Mon-Sat evenings at 7.30pm, Wed matinees at 2pm, Sat matinees at 2.30pm. Tickets £19.50-£42.50, call 0844 338 5000 or select your own seat online at www.birminghamhippodrome.com (5% booking fee applies, calls cost from 5p per minute).
For more about the show, go to www.sisteractthemusical.com.
Related Articles


text:
FOOTBALL: Redskins hoping to face Franklin
A week ago, the Wapakoneta Redskins were undefeated and a lock for the OHSAA football playoffs.
Now they are 9-1 and in wait-and-see mode.
Barring intervention from the Ohio High School Athletic Association, the fifth-seeded Redskins will travel to Franklin to take on the fourth-seeded Wildcats, who are 9-1 and looking to host the first home playoff game in the school's history.
After stumbling upon an OHSAA investigation into the residency of a player on the team, the school contacted the OHSAA on Wednesday and received confirmation of the investigation on Thursday.
Wapak had the player sit out Friday night's 52-32 loss to Kenton as a precaution. The OHSAA told the school it would have a decision early this week.
The Middletown Journal is reporting that an email from an OHSAA official indicated three possible outcomes.
Wapak could be ruled eligible and nothing will change.
If the Redskins are ruled ineligible, Mount Healthy, the No. 9 team in the Harbin rankings, will play at Franklin.
Or, if Wapak is ruled ineligible late in the week, then Franklin would receive a first-round bye.
Wapak is moving ahead with preparations for the game and has released the ticket sale schedule.
Tickets will go on sale Wednesday from 3 to 7 p.m. for grade 9-12 players and parents, band parents, and reserved football season ticket holders.
Students and staff may purchase their tickets from 8 a.m. to noon on Thursday from 8 a.m.
The general public may purchase tickets between noon and 3 p.m. on Thursday and from 8 a.m. to noon on Friday.
Please note that the number of tickets available for purchase may be limited per individual.


text:
Robert L. (Bobby) Davidson
Robert L. (Bobby) Davidson, 58, of Malvern passed away Sunday April 21, 2013.
Bobby was born May 19, 1954 in Malvern, Arkansas.
Graveside services will be held on Thursday April 25, 2013 at 10:00 AM at Resthaven Cemetery.
Arrangements entrusted to Atkinson Funeral Home of Malvern, AR. Guests may register at www.atkinsonfuneralhome.net.


text:
DuRaNdAl^ wrote:
Interested? Yes. Basically going from Service Desk level 2 (deploying new applications on the network, through either SCCM or manually, help fix issues in the QA and dev environments of our in house applications, back up and refresh certain databases, trouble shoot more complex issues than level 1 service desk) to a junior sys admin job. Its part of my career plan, but I've only been officially level 2 for a year now.
What you're doing now already sounds like a junior sysadmin job to me. Go for it!


text:
Snow snaps
Temperatures are on the rise in the Yamhill Valley, but there was plenty of fun had during the three days of snow. Here's pictures that were submitted from all over the county.
Click on a picture to enlarge it, and then use the arrow keys or your mouse wheel to scroll through them.
Share your snow pictures by emailing them to email@example.com.


text:
Looking for care? Click here »
Care Providers & Care Homes in Wallasey
Providers Operating Nationwide
Agincare Live-in Care Services
Agincare House, Admiralty Buildings, Castletown, Portland, Dorset DT5 1BB
Agincare Live-in Care Services Live-in Care enables anyone, young or old, with care needs to continue living in their own home with a round-the-clock care worker. Whether you just need companionship or have some specific health issues that mean you require extra support, Live-in Care provides a full-time realistic and […]
81 Green Lane, New Malden, Surrey KT3 5BX
Carte Blanche Care is a family-run provider based in Surrey, which has extensive experience delivering care first hand. We take pride in: Focusing on you, tailoring our services to your requirements Promising to treat you with respect, promoting an environment of compassion and empathy Understanding how important good quality care […]
Suite 2, Sovereign House, 22 Gate Lane, Boldmere, Sutton Coldfield B73 5TT
Helping Hands has been providing companionship through to complex nursing-led live-in care to people across England and Wales since 1989 and is widely acknowledged to be the country's most respected provider of the service. As a values driven family business, we have worked tirelessly over the past 24 years to […]
Head Office, 26 High Street, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 7HQ
Independent People Homecare is an established live-in care agency with a wide network of experienced home care assistants. Leading the way in providing comprehensive, competitively-priced care services, our carers deliver care plans that enable our clients to enjoy their independence with the support of trained home care professionals. Our focus […]
Promedica24 UK Limited – 24/7 Live-in Care Specialist
Cassiobury House, 11-19 Station Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD17 1AP
Promedica24 Watford is the CQC registered office that supports the Promedica24 Franchises in the South East. In 12 years we have grown to become Europe's largest provider of live-in care. Our knowledge, experience and depth of understanding of adult social care and the care system has enabled us to help […]
15th Floor, Tower Building, Elizabeth House, York Road, London SE1 7NQ
The Good Care Group is a national provider of professional, multi-award winning 24 hour live-in care services for people allowing them to continue to live safely and happily in their own home, maintaining dignity and independence, with tailored support as required. Our service is fully managed – we pay the […]
Your Local Providers
Promedica24 The Wirral – 24/7 Live-in Care Specialist
Here at Promedica24 we offer a 24 hour care at home service as a genuine alternative to residential care homes. We are passionate about our client's right to choose where and how they are cared for. Our services vary from simple companionship and support to more advanced specialist requirements such […]
112a Wallasey Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH44 2AE
60-62 Marlowe Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH44 3DQ
Belvidere Nursing Home Limited
85-89 Seabank Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7PB
75-77 Penkett Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7QG
94 Liscard Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH44 8AB
Elgin Drive, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7PP
Homecrest Residential Care Home
49-55 Falkland Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH44 8EW
Keychange Charity Cressingham House Care Home
19-25 Cressingham Road, New Brighton, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 2NS
Kingsley House, 16 Dudley Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 9JP
Royden Avenue, Mariners Park, Wallasey, Merseyside CH44 0HN
Lincoln Drive, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7PL
Mrs Patricia Pauline Milligan – 51 Wellington Road
51, Wellington Road, New Brighton, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 2ND
Trinity House Hub, 21 Webster Avenue, MarinersÕ Park, Wallasey, Merseyside CH44 0AE
5-7 Sunningdale Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 0LU
20 Penkett Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7QN
53 Seabank Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7PA
Premier Care Limited – Wirral Branch
40 Mill Lane, Wallasey, Merseyside CH44 5UB
223a & 225a Seaview Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 4PD
80 Penkett Road, Wallasey, Merseyside CH45 7QW


text:
ANTH 233 (US) Peoples and Cultures of Asia (1)
This course represents an application of the anthropological perspective (an emphasis on field-collected data and the common patterns of culture and social life) to the study of the development and contemporary life of societies in Asia, including India, China and Thailand. Specific topics include kinship and family structures, adaptations to the natural environment, political and economic structures, religion, expressive culture and the arts, processes of urbanization and industrialization, and issues of social change.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Understanding Society
- Offering: Alternate Years
- Instructor: Moro


text:
Trace.WriteIf Method (Boolean, Object)
The .NET API Reference documentation has a new home. Visit the .NET API Browser on docs.microsoft.com to see the new experience.
Writes the value of the object's ToString method to the trace listeners in the Listeners collection if a condition is true.
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
[ConditionalAttribute("TRACE")] public static void WriteIf( bool condition, object value )
- condition
true to cause a message to be written; otherwise, false.
- value
- Type: System.Object
By default, the output is written to an instance of DefaultTraceListener.
This method calls the Write method of the trace listener.
Notes to Implementers:
You can minimize the performance penalty of instrumenting your application by using If...Then statements instead of using WriteIf statements. The following two code examples send the same debugging message. However, the first example is much faster when tracing is off, because if mySwitch.TraceError evaluates to false you do not call Write. The second example always calls WriteIf, even when mySwitch.TraceError is false and no tracing output is produced. This can result in unnecessary execution of arbitrarily complex code.
First example
if(mySwitch.TraceError) Trace.Write("aNumber = " + aNumber + " out of range");
Second example
Trace.WriteIf(mySwitch.TraceError, "aNumber = " + aNumber + " out of range");
The following example creates a TraceSwitch named generalSwitch. This switch is set outside the code sample.
If the switch is set to the TraceLevelError or higher, the example outputs the first name of the value parameter to the Listeners. For information on adding a listener to the Listeners collection, see the TraceListenerCollection class.
Then, if the TraceLevel is set to Verbose, the example outputs a message on the same line as the first message. The second message is followed by a line terminator.
// Class-level declaration. // Create a TraceSwitch. static TraceSwitch generalSwitch = new TraceSwitch("General", "Entire Application"); static public void MyErrorMethod(Object myObject) { // Write the message if the TraceSwitch level is set to Error or higher. Trace.WriteIf(generalSwitch.TraceError, myObject); // Write a second message if the TraceSwitch level is set to Verbose. Trace.WriteLineIf(generalSwitch.TraceVerbose, " is not a valid value for this method."); }
Available since 1.1


text:
New! "Braille + case with straps made with placid soft leather
TurtleBack has created a new soft form-fitted custom leather case for your Braille +. This case is made of placid soft leather that fits snuggly around your unit, and has a large expandable storage zipper compartment for your flash cards. The case has been designed to enable the user to easily utilize your Braille + while the case is on the unit, and allows the unit to be carried on a comfortable shoulder strap and a wrist strap. The unit may be used while walking, sitting or simply standing. The case has easy access to the headset jack, USB port, and SD flash memory cards. The case is manufactured with genuine placid soft leather to provide durable outer protection. This case comes with a leather covered belt clip on the back of the unit.
See "Other Accessories" for Straps/Handles and other items
To Purchase our products in:
Australia/New Zealand Contact David Allen at firstname.lastname@example.com
Canada: Frontier Computing at (416) 489 - 6690
Europe: contact email@example.com
Available on GSA Schedule, contract number GS07F6046R
With further modifications by Electron Jungle LLC.


text:
{{search.results.count}} results {{searchFilter()}} {{searchQuery()}}
{{search.results.count}} results {{searchFilter()}} {{searchQuery()}}
Enter a search term such as "mobile analytics" or browse our content using the filters above.
That's not only a poor Scrabble score but we also couldn't find any results matching
Check your spelling or try broadening your search.
This service is currently undergoing maintenance.
Please try again later.
While most digital marketers are making at least some preparations for the implementations of the EU's e-Privacy Directive, the vast majority see it as a negative step for the web.
Econsultancy has surveyed more than 700 marketers for their opinions on the EU cookie laws, and to find out what preparations have been made for the May 26 deadline.
We have published the full results of our EU e-Privacy Directive Survey for you to download, but here are some of the highlights from the study.
(UPDATE, 18 April 2012: Our new report, The EU Cookie Law: A Guide to Compliance, explains the legislation as far as it affects UK online businesses, sets out some practical steps that you can take towards compliance, and includes examples of how websites can gain users' consent for setting cookies. Do check it out.)
What do digital marketers think of the EU cookie law?
Not surprisingly, the vast majority of respondents don't see any positives in the e-Privacy Directive. Just 18% think the directive is a positive development for the web.
In your personal view do you think the EU e-Privacy Directive is a good / positive development?
Respondents were also asked to leave comments, and here's a representative sample:
Plain and simple - this change will KILL online sales....
It's a genuine attempt to manage privacy issues but it's created by politicians and fails to address the realities of doing business.
While I'm all for protecting privacy, the bit of this directive that applies to cookies has been ill thought out. Rather than try and analyse what cookies are actually intrusive, they've just 'banned' the lot! The lack of advice or guidance from the EU or Govt has made things worse.
It is positive in highlighting the use of cookies to users however I think the potential need for each site to gain permission from users is going to damage the user experience.
It's a travesty of an orchestra, conducted by Terry F***witt. They fail to discriminate between bad (multi-site/advertising/targeting) stuff and good stuff (me using Clicktale or analytics to help UX).
Are digital marketers aware of the EU Directive?
More digital marketers have heard of the directive than you might think.
57% of our respondents have read the e-Privacy Directive, while 67% say they are aware of the date that it becomes enforceable in the UK.
Also, 64% have read the guidance on the directive which was published by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). See Ashley Friedlein's article for our take on this guidance and what it means.
Have you read the guidance from the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)?
Some thoughts from our respondents on the ICO guidance:
It's like the blind leading the blind, sometimes it just seems that people in charge are so out of touch, it's sad.
Do they implement it properly themselves? Aren't they seeing a huge dip in their analytics just at the time they need to know? (Yes, they are)
Guidance from the ICO, although painful, is as sensible as it can be, given the absurdity of the EU directive
I feel the "guidance" was fairly useless in terms of how to actually deliver. Doing a cookie audit is as far as they will go, that's the easy bit!
Are marketers making preparations for May 26?
The first step online businesses need to take to prepare for the implementation of the directive is to look at existing cookies on the site and to decide what is and isn't important.
According to our survey results, 54% have carried out a cookie audit in preparation for the deadline.
Has your company done an audit of cookie usage in preparation?
It may seem like a simple first step, but that can depend on the type of online business. Some comments:
This is a difficult task for many businesses, especially with no in-house tech skills, or where third party functionality (e.g. quoting engines ) is integrated.
We are in the process of doing an audit at the moment - unfortunately we have about 200 websites built by a variety of suppliers over the past decade so it's a long and arduous process!
Some respondents haven't audited cookies, and intend to defy the EU:
We don't intend to (audit cookies). Civil disobedience in the face of atrocious law. Strength in numbers, who will they sue first?
Our entire business model is based on tracking transactions on our sites. We wouldn't be in in existence without them and we would disappear if we followed the directive.
We are going to wait to see what happens to other people on the basis that we'll be REALLY unlucky if it's us that gets prosecuted first.
However, others see this as a positive step:
We had way more cookies that we realised. In this regard the legislation has probably done us a favour from a page load perspective, if nothing else! It's also helped us push a container tag solution through IT.
Do marketers understand the options for gaining user consent?
Exactly how websites will gain consent from users to store cookies is the big question here. Just 39% say they have an understanding of the options for asking users for permission.
Do you have a clear understanding of the user interface options to get consent?
The comments from respondents suggest that there is some confusion here.
Some are hoping for a browser-level solution to cookie consent, but the directive says that users need to give overt and informed consent, so the user experience does need to be interrupted in some way. It's the extent of that interruption that businesses need make a judgement on.
There are a range of options for gaining user consent (we showcase three examples here) but there are pros and cons for each and the solution may well depend on the type of website and business model.
According to Foolproof's Meriel Lenfestry:
A site which only uses cookies which drive core features the user explicitly requests, e.g. shopping basket in an e-commerce site will probably be compliant without changing anything. This is true of very few online services. For the rest, it is not possible to comply without affecting the user experience.
The lack of a unified solution is a worry for some respondents, as they fear it will lead to much confusion for web users:
My concern is that there is no industry use of consent and users will get confused if lots of different techniques are used. The simplest way to promote this is that users can opt out via their browsers.
It seems there are a number of ways we could do this and none of them particularly great. I worry that users won't read any notices properly, will disable cookies without really realising and then wonder why the website isn't working/as intuitive as it was before.
This comment says it all:
The option mechanics are simple enough. The issue is when/whether they should be used. They will scare people about something that is in most cases innocuous. Are we asking people that forcefully if supermarkets can profile shoppers, or if shops can monitor behaviour or if they are OK to be filmed on CCTV?
Do people really feel exposed and do they really understand how things would work without such business intelligence being gathered. Perhaps we should ask in the pop up "click here if you want to damage the economy, make the UK less competitive and risk unemployment and damage the UK's position as a top digital economy".
It seems that some respondents will simply wait and see what others do:
..we will adopt the absolute legal minimum as late as possible - let other people go first and see what happens...
Do web users even know what cookies are?
One major issue with this directive is public awareness of what cookies are and what they do.
Cookies have existed on the web for years without any need for the public to be made aware of them. Sure, they are mentioned in the T&Cs on every website, but who reads them?
Suddenly, web users will be seeing messages about cookies all over the place, accompanied with alarming references to tracking, privacy, and so on. This kind of messaging may make some users run a mile.
This is a big concern for our respondents. Just 7% think that users will understand what cookies are.
Broadly speaking, do you think web users will understand about cookies and the consent required?
The comments reflect this concern:
It's not just what users will see onsite...the negative PR around the directive from the mainstream press will result in people being more confused and hence rejecting consent.
As this comment suggests, perhaps the likes of Amazon (if it implements this) and Tesco will be more likely to gain consent:
I think many will either "just say yes" or just refuse, without fully understanding either the privacy issue or how their user experience will be affected if they don't use cookies. It will really depend on how much they trust the brand of the site.
Any casual user is bound to say no to anything they perceive as spying on them. Analytics - no matter how important to us in marketing - falls under this category. This is going to decimate analytics - very literally looking at the ICO post-implementation figures in which 90% of their site users did not opt in to analytics.
UPDATE: We received the following comment from an ICO spokesperson:
The ICO has been clear from the start that the changes brought in by last year's amendment to the EU e-privacy directive present challenges to the way UK websites operate, particularly with regards to their use of cookies. However the directive has already been passed into UK law and the ICO is working hard with industry bodies and other interested parties, to ensure that organisations operating websites in the UK are not only aware of the new changes, but are also provided with advice on how they can work towards compliance.
While it is encouraging that over half of companies have carried out an audit looking at how their website uses cookies, it is important that organisations who have yet to take action do so before the end of May, when the year long lead in period we have provided expires. Every website will be unique and therefore the ICO can not proscribe the actions every individual organisation should take, however our guidance provides information and examples which explain what compliance with the new changes looks like.
We will continue to update this guidance so that it incorporates best practice advice from the industry, where we believe it will help other organisations to become compliant.
Comments (48)
TagMan's very own Chief Privacy Officer will be at Digital Cream tomorrow (15th March 2012) for those who want to hear how we are helping our existing clients comply.
For companies needing to get cookie audits we have a low cost but detailed & complete automated service. http://cookieq.com/cookieq/purchase.
We also have a complete & already in use compliance service.
The comment regarding CCTV is poignant, but is only reflective of one purpose for cookie usage.
You can't run websites without some basic form of cookie and this law makes no sense to anyone including those who are enforcing it.
Nobody cares. Unless you're working on a charity of government website you will not be wasting money and resource on auditing or implementing changes to your site's build.
There's a kind of wilful misunderstanding of this issue that the advertising industry is doing little to help.
In theory, there should only be a couple of things that are negatively affected by the legislation:
- online behavioural advertising (OBA)
- the "return visitor" metric in analytics (though this can be addressed to some extent via other methods)
PPC / Display ad networks don't need cookies (with the exception of OBA) to measure click throughs or impressions.
For almost every other kind of cookie there is a solution: either an exemption under the regulations, a "moment of consent" - for example when someone explicitly sets a preference on your site, or a simple tweak to your code.
Big ad networks / Analytics providers such as Google are holding fast to the erroneous industry line ('a global "opt-out" option is enough'), and they're not doing anything to help webmasters comply - for example by engineering cookies out of their services.
Consent solutions are a pain in the proverbial, even the elegant Cookie Control (http://www.civicuk.com/cookie-law); but with a bit of thought, most offending cookies can be engineered out altogether.
The results of this survey are hardly surprising and while I'm no fan I do recognise that as digital continues its significant growth so it also has responsibility to self-regulate.
It's useful I think to reference Deloitte's recent Media Democracy report that stated only 16% of consumers are positive about their data being used for targeted advertising. As technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and targeting techniques honed so we risk a backlash.
We still have the ability to shape the message: doing nothing or positively rallying against it risks onerous, misguided and enforced regulation from outside our industry.
More people should go and have a look at the directive directly instead of relying on other people's interpretations:
EU legislation (EU Directive on privacy and electronic Amendment - 2009-136-EC)
Paragraph 66
"Third parties may wish to store information on the equipment of a user, or gain access to information already stored, for a number of purposes, ranging from the legitimate (such as certain types of cookies) to those involving unwarranted intrusion into the private sphere (such as spy¬ware or viruses). It is therefore of paramount importance that users be provided with clear and comprehensive information when engaging in any activity which could result in such storage or gaining of access. The methods of providing information and offering the right to refuse should be as user-friendly as possible."
The legislation targets accessing people's PCs and phones - and some cookies will be affected
But not all. You have file-based (client-side) which utilise a user's pc and session-based (server-side) cookies which do not utilise a user's pc. You can have email marketing and full (session-based) cookie-based websites fully functional without storing or accessing anything on the user's pc. None of these are covered by the PECR. They are covered by different parts of EU and UK data protection laws which have not changed.
Here are my thought on the Cookie Law Survey.
1a. A question that was not raised above is... Could a website pop-up culture lead to increase in VIRUS downloads via ClickJacking (e.g hidden "install virus" box, behind the consent box)?
For example - I recently visited a website claiming to be an opt-in plugin, but it instead it just tried to install a virus on my PC! (Note: only the "allow" button tried to install the virus). With this in mind, is there a risk that web-site popup consent boxes could lead an influx of virus? (As criminals take advantage of users lack-of-understanding of this change, combined with a click interaction that allows for "user-lead install")?
Given that "Security" is more important than "Privacy"... then the Cookie Law consent should be DELAYED until a standardised Browsers-based opt-out privacy interfaces are deployed (which allow for much safer security, than the proposed website popup model).
1b. What are your thoughts? Will we see "Rogue pop-up" virus charting on the list of top infections, in mid-May? www.avgthreatlabs.com/webthreats/#timeline_individual
2. Regarding the Browser based solution, I would expect a centralised database of tracking website - Here is an example based on privacychoice.org database: http://www.privacyscore.com/score_details/9532f73fa18b41fc9316f5b3310d207d/showcase
A centralised database solution is similar to the StopBadMalware system, which is enabled on all modern browsers already (This in addition to IE9`s opt-out lists, and DNT header, and Chromes cookie-rendering settings API Beta, GA opt-out plugins, and FireFox`s collusion notice-strengthening plugin).
3a. These hosted non-standardised opt-in plugins can have a negative impact on SEO, for example using a server-side opt-in (such as on ico.gov.uk) means that the opt-out text is cached on EVERY page on the website, this causes keyword dilution, and onsite duplicate content issue on pages which little content, as these pages are all cluster together rather than individually indexed.
Example: site:ico.gov.uk intext:"ICO would like to use cookies to store information on your computer"
There is no standardise microdata markup or schema.org for website notices, thus GoogleBot has no way to differentiate (and thus ignore this junk text). Hence… Organic ranking will REDUCE when server-side opt-ins are enabled! Also, organic CTR will reduce slightly due to the ugly image snapshot on SERP, and the warning popup notice text being shown within the SERP snippet.
Infact Google even has a company moto...
"Google does NOT allow pop-up ads of any kind on our site. We find them Annoying."
+1 that! I hate pop-ups ;)
3b. The SEO impact gets worse when developers try and do crazy things on international website, like displaying a different language serverside popup based on geo-ip. The net result is that a GoogleBot Cloaking warning is triggered - Doh!
http://www.sweden.gov.se/ - failed CLOAKING check http://web-tool.org/cloak-check/cloak-check.asp
4. There are also negative implications for PPC, in that AdBot applies a landing page penalty and consequential increases minimum bid for website using certain types of pop-ups!
This is well documented here:
Note1: DHTML (Dynamic Hyper Text Markup Language) aka floating menu`s are not effected by the ppc penalty (as no new window is opened).
Note2: Adding a Privacy links can also reduce min bids, for example just adding a privacy footer link or embedded form link can actually remove a QS penalty, so good and bad effects!
P.S I am on the WAA cookie law committee - we in the process of creating a shared resources for Web Analyst and Marketers to help combat this law. Feel free to reach out to me and I can add you to a shared DropBox.
P.S. The ICO is talking about this topic in London in 2weeks time at WebAnalyticsWednesday 28th March at 6PM signup here:
Interesting responses and comments from marketers, but the law is there to protect users, not revenue.
I also originally thought the law was ridiculous, but after taking a closer look at the actual EU Directive, not the ignorant interpretations, it makes a lot of sense and is very necessary due to the prior behaviour of the advertising and marketing sector.
What disappoints me is that, instead of helping educate users, we're railing against something that is already law.
Agree with Mark Steven, Kevin Edwards and Steve. Read it, understand it and get with it.
@Kevin. We are just presenting the results as we received them and, though there are some serious issues with the law, I agree that it's now time to find the best (or least worst) approach to comply with the regulations.
The results suggest that most are now doing that, albeit reluctantly.
The fact that marketers think that the EU Cookie Directive isn't good for the web isn't really all that surprising. For me the more alarming figure is that 93% don't think that consumers will know what cookies are. As we hurtle towards the 25 May deadline, there is a key piece still missing from the puzzle – consumer education.
Despite the fact that it will fundamentally change how each and everyone of us interacts with the web, to date Google is the only company to try and educate consumers about implications. Whilst this is admirable, arguably the responsibility to educate the public at large actually resides with the body that will be enforcing it. If the Directive is to be integrated in a manner which is beneficial to all, it's not just the industry that needs some clarification – it's consumers too.
I guess whether good or bad from a marketer's standpoint is largely irrelevant. The bigger concern, I would have though, is how this law is being rolled out and communicated generally.
I'm not going to pretend for one moment that I really understand all of what's involved here but seeing the clumsy manner in which the ICO website (http://www.ico.gov.uk) have tried to implement this says a lot. Poorly thought through and nigh on impossible to implement well.
On the point of what this does to businesses, I had an interesting insight...
Some of my students work for massive blue-chips that have run multivariate tests. They reported 90% bounce rates on landing pages that implemented the directive fully.
On top of that, I KNOW there are legitimate and honest businesses with real value to offer that would just have to close shop if they were to comply fully.
The end result is that a lot of people will do the best they can, those that comply the least will benefit the most (at least whilst this is becoming the norm and consumers get used to it - if they ever do), and consumers will grow more and more scared of their own shadows.
All this whilst rogue cookies will still be installed and virus installations/consumer exploitation from malicious operators will continue unaffected (these people by definition don't comply with any directive or law).
I was also particularly interested to see comments above relating to rogue operators taking the opportunity to make their lives easier through fake compliance pop-ups.
This directive is scary in so many ways.
COMPETATIVE DISADVANTAGE: This legislation is being interpreted in different ways by different countries within the EU. As is often the case our bureacrats seem to be taking the most punitive interpretation of the directives. So if you choose to align yourself with the German interpretaion you might be able to avoid some of these difficulties. Obviously you would need to seek your own legal advice but I have a summary produced by our legal council and if anyone would like a copy then please call me on 07720 292304 or drop me an email firstname.lastname@example.com
This legislation is being interpreted in different ways by the various governing bodies throughout Europe. As is often the case our bureacrats seem to be adopting the most rigorous interpretation .
So if you adopt the German interpretaion of this pan European directive then you may be able to maintain a significant competative advantage. You would have to take your own legal advice but our legal council have produced a summary document which I am happy to share. Call me on 07720 292304 0r email me at firstname.lastname@example.com for a copy
Thanks eConsultancy for doing this survey and thanks to all the other blog posters too. All the useful links opinions etc.., have really helped to inform our thinking on how to approach this.
I think I have said this before but our biggest collective challenge is how we educate consumers that not all cookies are bad.
@PhilPearce excellent comment! I didn't even think about some of the points you mentioned but of course with any law that was created on a table to support some politician's career instead of "in the trenches" in its current form it's a lot scarier than useful... :-/
@Graham Lomax, all the evidence I've seen shows the UK is actually taking a relatively pragmatic, light touch approach. If you think our interpretation is punitive, speak to the Dutch.
Excellent discussion prompted by a very timely study. A few observations:
a. More than half of companies surveyed have obtained a cookie audit. That's an important signal that despite the grumbling, companies are actually taking broad action to begin, as the ICO would say, on the road to compliance.
b. Kevin Edwards: agree that the ICO is interpreting the legislation in perhaps the most pragmatic manner of any regulator that has been active on the topic. The Irish are there with them. The French are more strict. The German position is still in flux. And yes, the Dutch are on another planet.
c. Adrian Bold: agree that ICO implementation is both clunky and deceptively difficult to implement. All these banner style explicit consent 'solicitations' suffer from the same fundamental flaw. 'Won't you please consent? What, no? Hmm.' And then you have to deal with 90% non-consented audience and figure out how to turn off all non-essential tracking for those folks.
d. Steve: while the letter of the law refers to storing information 'on terminal equipment,' you have to bear in mind that regulators are taking a broader view. The logic here is clear. At it's core, the law is meant to protect user privacy. You can easily envision a market that switches over entirely to alternative tracking technologies (browser fingerprinting, etc.) and resumes the full range of commercial data practices while ignoring the law. That would clearly make the regulator look ridiculous. So this is about tracking activity, broadly, cookie based and non-cookie based, with storage on terminal equipment and without.
Colin, the wording AND the purpose of the EU Directive on privacy and electronic Amendment - 2009-136-EC relate to 'gaining access to terminal equipment' and 'unwarranted intrusion'
Not tracking.
SOME (not all) cookies are affected by this because they rely on 'gaining access to terminal equipment'
Not because they perform tracking.
Tracking is affected as a consequence of these regulations, not because tracking was the purpose.
So, while wider controls and regulations on tracking are a good idea, and WILL come about soon; they are not part of these regulations.
Regulators may chose to take a broader view, but any additional tracking/privacy/data-protection guidelines which are implemented will be done so on their own merit, and not as part of the very badly termed 'EU Cookie Law'.
I do not understand why people continue to accuse the Dutch of being out of line with the rest of us. The only aspect that they emphasise differently is the need for independent proof (of consent) which is really just common sense. If publishers get taken to court they will need that for their own defense.
The may have avoided the weasel words added into the UK enabling law (e.g. the confusing stuff about implicit browser settings based on the already damaged recital 66), but that is simply just Dutch honesty and pragmatism.
Just using an IP4 address to track people is useless, and the privacy enhancements will stop it being used in IP6.
If you are looking for an effective but low cost (free in some cases) cookie audit for your site, and a tried and tested opt-in service, take a look at http://cookieq.com.
So... what's the next steps after the survey...?
Just to clarify Phil's comments below:
The Web Anaytics Wednesday London (WAW) featuring a representative from the ICO has now changed to the 4th April as the ICO are on strike on the 28th!!!!
If you'd like to attend and for full details go to http://www.lynchpin.com/blog/web-analytics-wednesday-london-4-april-2012
Very interesting comments.
@Phil - Couldn't agree more, please add me to DropBox!
The point about consumer education is a good one, but part of me can't help think that this really is just the surface of a much bigger issue.
Most consumers don't read T&Cs of applications they download, so in my view giving consent to a site doesn't make their privacy any more or less protected.
For me, this type of change needs to be part of a browser, with as suggested before with a recognisable cookie database so people know what and to whom is being disclosed verified by a third party, not what the site says.
Very interesting comments.
@Phil - Couldn't agree more, please add me to DropBox!
The point about consumer education is a good one, but part of me can't help think that this really is just the surface of a much bigger issue.
Most consumers don't read T&Cs of applications they download, so in my view giving consent to a site doesn't make their privacy any more or less protected.
For me, this type of change needs to be part of a browser, with as suggested before with a recognisable cookie database so people know what and to whom is being disclosed verified by a third party, not what the site says.
Mark: Next steps?
Don't get put off by any of this.
Start taking simple, small steps to inform your customers what you are doing and why.
Where possible, give your customers choice.
Start looking at 'the right to be forgotten'
Simple things like:
Allowing people to purchase without creating an account - but give your customers compelling reasons to create an account by giving them real benefit.
Allow customers to delete/obfuscate (replace their customer details with dummy data) their account history - but give them reasons NOT to do this
When you create an account or someone signs up make it clear at that time why you are collecting certain pieces of information and explain clearly why it benefits them. Give them a choice to NOT be tracked and recorded.
In summary - choice and visibility. Start providing those. Do what you can now, and think about how you can make improvements in the future.
Many thanks for the survey. The results and comments make salutary reading, and I think demonstrate the huge educational task ahead for ICO and its equivalents across the EU.
I mentioned this in the other recent econ blog post on the issue: the Affiliate industry is pursuing a five point plan based on transparency and education rather than overt technical solutions.
This gives us the greatest chance of being able to inform consumers and the ability to control the message.
See the Affiliate Marketing Council's blog for more details: http://www.iabaffiliatemarketing.com/iab-affiliate-marketing-council-publishes-consumer-transparency-framework/
@Steve: we agree of course on the wording (hard not to). But I'm unclear on your source for the 'purpose,' which originated first in Brussels and has been inherited by member state legislators and then regulators. I've had multiple discussions on this point with DPA's from Ireland, UK, France, Spain, etc. They have unanimously indicated that the Directive is meant to address privacy (and the tracking impacting that privacy). It is NOT technology specific. Cookie-less tracking is in no way exempt.
Gary Davis, Deputy Data Protection Commissioner for Ireland, actually said as much on an Evidon webinar in February. Recording here: http://bit.ly/zDtlqh
@Mike O'Neill
Your question is rather striking. The Dutch are interpretting the Directive, and are intending to enforce it, with a strict explicit consent standard. Full stop. That is, objectively, out of line with the largest markets in Europe (UK, France, for now Germany), and it has enormous commercial ramifications.
Now .. we can have a separate discussion about whether or not that is reasonable or just. Probably best for another forum. But I don't see how reasonable folks can argue about whether there is a difference.
As for solutions, large operations that want an array of options, rather than one cookie cutter with an entrenched position, do actually have options.
At Evidon, we provide the full audits, as well as multiple consent flavors that have been vetted by the regulators.
There was no question, I am just fed up with the Dutch being rubbished as if they were out of line, which they definitely are not.
Most member states including the UK have or will shortly enable the directive, and so will all be opt-in or, in your terminology "strict explicit consent".
This was debated in Europe for over 3 years before being accepted by the EC in 2009 and voted in by the EU parliament with support across the political spectrum.
It might be a supprise to many but this the fault of those tasked with keeping people and businesses informed, combined with the Canute like attitude of the tech & advertising industries.
I agree that large operations need a flexible solution, that is why we at Baycloud developed ours. It allows a range of compliance interpretations but crucially can let operations show respect for their European customers by actually empowering them to give or withdraw their consent at any time.
It also offers independent proof of consent where that is needed.
@MattStannard (and others) If you DM on @philpearce or add me to linkedin, I can add you to DropBox shared folder.
In DropBox, I have folderised: ConsumerEducation Videos, Blog posts, iGoogle Privacy Dashboard, Implementation examples, Privacy Research, Funding sources, List of opt-in plugins, Compliance plan templates and more.
One other point I forgot to mention...
5. Retailers offering 5% discount for users who opt-in. This is a great value-exchange technique (effectively an online equivalent of a Tesco Clubcard "track my activity in exchange for cash/vouchers" :)
HOWEVER, this could lead to complications with GoogleBase product feed, as the GoogleBase crawler is unable to click the apply 5% discount button. Hence the retailer is forced to shown the higher priced products in the xml Feed (or risk the feed begin disapproved) this is because the prices in the feed, must match prices on product landing page.
Additionally, if ALL retailers installed this popup technique, then Adwords CTR would reduce - because prices in Adverts, ProductExt and DynamicAds would appear less competitive on SERP, thus Googles blended CTR and thus revenues would decline (unless a new field is added to GoogleBase feed to include the opt-in discount).
1c. Cool development.. I just got an email from ICO`s tech advisor, saying the Rogue-popup virus is an "interesting" development.
I can only infer, that they mean this has not been accounted/planned-for?
Although it is unknown, if this would reach the crazy levels of the MSBlast virus in 2003 where MS had to call-in 600 technicians, just to answer phones. The important aspect is; IF the Risk-Level is SIGNIFICANT, then the May 2012 Cookie law must be PAUSED until a safer browser opt-in method can be deployed.
Here is a Microsoft video about the MSBlast pandemonium:
Here is more clarity, on why the "Rogue-popup" virus is significant..
1d. If the exploit and payload is hidden behind a server-side insert, which is only shown by a user-interaction, triggered by the opt-in allow box. Consequently AUTOMATIC methods of detecting an infected website via a SafeBrowsingBot or AdBot crawl would not work (unless the format of the allow box was standardised and the GoodBot was trained to press this button).
Thus any virus using this technique would avoid detection for longer, and hence spread faster! Gulp.
Example: Google AdBot auto-detection malware (wont detect a server-side opt-in virus): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VewFkix7qg#t=64s
A similar technique has been used by email viruses, using a password-protected attachment and placing the unzip password into the email body, for a user to read. Thus email-scanners cannot AUTOMATICALLY open and scan the infected file (unless they are trained to extract the password in the message body).
1c. I just noticed that a client-side (rather than server-side) virus called "JS-popup" trending on AV top threats list (it been since Nov-2011, but it is resurfacing).
It currently accounts for 3% of all infections:
Here is a screenshot of the "CookieTAB" client-side VIRUS it tries to run a Windows Exploit).
Please DM to @philpearce to get access to the shared-DropBox.
WAW london date change - ICO is talking about this topic in London in "3weeks" time at WebAnalyticsWednesday 4th April at 6PM signup here:
Phil Pearce, Matt Stannard, ICO tech adviser
Hi Phil,
Publishers have always needed to take care putting 3rd party script on their pages, as this virus example shows ,and it would be irresponsible to rely on someone else's bot scan to detect rogue script.
Far from needing to be paused, the PECR has a positive benefit here because it encourages publishers to focus even more on it(as they now may be responsible for 3rd party tracking functionality).
As for server-side inserts masking the problem, surely their would be a legal responsibility for the insert supplier to check for rogue script.
But you are right that an agreed standard to bypass tracking protection would be be beneficial for compliance checking and anti-virus bot scans. Unfortunately the DNT=0 indication has (currently) been removed from the W3C DNT standard, which would have been perfect for this. If this was re-introduced it would also help with EU/US trade harmonisation becaude the DNT=1 could be assumed the default - as it needs to be.
I`m not sure if any laws cover due-diligence for server-security, as I would have thought that if a website is infecting customers who visit, then it will quickly lead to a business having no customers ;) lol. So I dont think a fine applies (but I could be wrong).
Yes, since the Prontexi Banner-Ad poisoning event - Publishers should have realised that external Banner networks do not always deliver "safe" banners ;)
Re: "DNT=on as default" that would make advertisers and publishers lose alot of money!
Everyone knows, that 90% of internet users never change the default browser settings. It would be like going back to the dark-ages!
Conversion-cookies and visitor-tracking are needed to make the online ecosphere flourish and fuel data-driven decisions making and investment. DNT=on default would be like giving the internet a heart attack - advertising would just die-out.
The only way this could ever work would be for a global advertiser and analytics fund, to incentivise internet users to turn DNT=off, in return for cash or a better user-experience. It would effectively create a two-tier internet. Is this what users really want??
Lets wait and see the results of the Google $25 pay-user Chrome trackme test in USA. My guess it that... If you think there are too many ads on the SERP and Disply network now, wait for the Google-Ad goggles to get magnified! (as the $25 fee, would need to be re-accrued by showing BIGGER or more INTERUPTIVE ads).
Just going back to the thread topic, here is another unforeseen tracking issue and byproduct of the Cookie Law...
6. If anonymizeIP hashing (e.g. 123.123.123.xxx) becomes a requirement.
Then most EXCLUDE-IP filters will stop working! This will mean that robot traffic from Gomez/SiteConfidence will start showing in GA or inhouse traffic will start being counted by accident (unless a wildcard filter range is used: xxx.xxx.xxx.[0-9]{1,3} ).
Additionally, IP-to-country and Broadband-ProviderName fields will becomes ~10% less accurate as these are recorded as country=(not set). Hence traffic to an include UK profile will reduce by 10% if ['_gat._anonymizeIp'] is turned-on! (Unless the filter is set to include UK and unmatched-IP`s using ^(United Kingdom|\(notset\))$
Note: If a geo-ip redirect to a folder such as /uk/ is in place such as on econsultancy.com; then GA include UK profile is fine :) Only the native GA ip-to-country field and advanced segments based on this country field in GA are effected.
Chart which shows the growth of GA`s Anonymize-IP*
* Note: the German law change on anonymizeIP was on Sept-2011, hence the spike on this graph.
I just sent an email to the local MP in my constituency who is also prominent in government matters, Andrew Tyrie, and raised this as an economic matter that in these tough financial times is highly important and deserves some serious reconsideration by legislators and those enforcing privacy laws such as the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office).
I sent a link to the Econsultancy survey results - http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9298-82-of-digital-marketers-see-the-eu-cookie-law-as-bad-for-the-web-survey - and said an overwhelming majority of this industry are seriously and hugely concerned about the commercial impact on websites and, simply, website usability.
For all website visitors to have to agree to cookie use on the millions of websites on the Internet just seems to be bureaucracy gone mad.
It's bad enough having to accept legal terms (that no-one reads) for applications such as iTunes and Windows... but to have to do this time and again for every website we visit is... a. plain daft, and b. will drive people off websites, an area enjoying some economic progress.
The interference with business here is so unhelpful at a difficult time.
While accepting the need to stop any privacy criminal-type breaches, there is a considerable workload as well as resources required to implement for any company, especially small firms.
Even if the ICO goes after a major company, it is likely to just get tied up in a ridiculous red tape and legal gravy train. Great for lawyers and their fees, but not for business.
I also pointed him to the other Econsultancy piece about the cookie law you did recently - http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9202-eu-cookie-law-three-approaches-to-compliance
Mark Chapman.
The EU are actually discussing this topic today at 12:30am UK time today (they are also discussing a complete reform of the WHOLE legislation for 2013 to standardise across all EU countries).
WebCast for 12:30am
We have a representative from WAA cookie law committee who is attending:
Note: The rough guide to DP rules for "2013" is here:
You can always reach out to Viviane Reding [EU Legal Commissioner head honcho].
A video of her talking about EU dp is here:
I am not sure about the "less costly for businesses" statement in the video - I think she means standardise and harmonisation will result in cost savings in 2013.
A healthy dose of pragmatism seems to have struck UK government and public sector websites, who are now adopting a 'relaxed' stance towards 1st party analytics-only cookies:
The tab virus is a disturbing development and one we should try to stamp out before it takes hold. It could kill any compliance solutions and subsequent cookie acceptance if users start to fear popups, rather than just hating them as now.
The one thing that strikes me as odd is that the companies we are talking to now still don't realise how quickly they must act in order to be in with a chance of compliance before the end of May. They don't seem to realise that an audit isn't just pressing a button and getting a report. That's just the beginning.
Just my 2p.
Re: CookieTab VIRUS - sucuri.net is now showing this as malware:
But GoogleSafeBrowing crawler is still not auto-detecting the exploit (possibly due to the user interaction opt-in aspect).
* Website screenshot:
* AVG detection screenshot:
* Unmask parasites screenshot:
Here are details of the JavaScript part of the expoit. The code is heavily obfuscated to avoid detection: http://sucuri.net/malware/malware-entry-mwjs6525
The virus is also using cookies to selectively drop the payload using:
var uolk = "xxx"; if(!document.cookie.match(uolk))
Once the SafeBrowsing database has updated - FireFox browers should flag the website with a malware warning (hurry up GoogleMalwareDetectionBot ;)
Note to Cookie-Compliance vendors... please, please test your solutions and your website for exploits! (this is especially important if you are using a centralised JS file for the opt-in script deployment i.e. simular to GA`s externally hosted ga.js)
Malware and Hackproof tests:
The CookieQ cookie management JavaScript is only hosted on our servers, is entirely maintained by us and we do not use any external JS libraries. We do not use any external Content Delivery Networks to host it. Though we use the jQuery library on parts of our main site we again host it ourselves, mainly for the simple reason that many CDN place & use cookies.
Customers can supply their own CSS files to customise the look & feel of the opt-in panel, banner etc, but these are constrained by the mime type to CSS and so cannot be used to add malware.
I really do not think that Cookie Compliance vendors are any more likely to be vectors for malware delivery than any public facing web publisher. In fact, because of their focus on the technical requirements of privacy law compliannce, they are far less likely to be so.
@PhilPearce - Hey Phil, terrific information and research. Very impressed. I just got to work through it... :-)
I've read through most of the posts and one key point is that people are complaining too late because it is already law.
Well, that's because nobody visualised how stupid it would be to force so many websites to display so many opt-in type messages.
To have to accept cookies time-after-time is going to be a ridiculous user experience Bureaucratic overkill.
And then the behind-the-scenes effort that will have to go on to make this work make it a waste of money and valuable time for many businesses and traders during a period when staying in business is much more important.
@MarkChapman - Yes, you are right.
Unfortunately the WA, Banner, Affiliate, PPC and SEO community have been too late to avert the 2009 Cookie law - it`s ALREADY here and we need to ACT to avoid enforcement & fines :(
Just adding another discussion point...
7a. Another unintended consequence of the CookieLaw, is the effect on internal aggregated analysis and external Benchmarking reports.
For instance conglomerate websites which run ROLLEDUP trackers in order to see a top-level view of traffic to all web proprieties, or vendors BENCHMARKING service such as Coremetrics web competition report will be effected.
* Internal RolledUp tracker example:
* External Coremetrics Web Competition report example:
* External GA quarterly benchmark performance report example (using Website owner opt-in data):
7b. Due to cultural country differences in consumer opt-in rates (e.g. For example USA consumers may be more willing to be tracked, than their German counterparts who are more privacy conscious).
Thus when comparing trafficked performance of USA vs Germany, it might appear that relate German traffic has declined, but infact this could be due to the higher opt-out rate. Thus less might be invested in German websites based on this data (unless Country level normalisation could be accounted for).
However country level normalisation adds an extra level of complexity, especially when there is not currently any statistically valid data on opt-in rates per country (yet).
Note: The Gov DataProptecion regulators have all implemented DIFFERENT opt-in solutions, thus their data is not a valid sample for opt-out benchmarking, as the same opt-in solution would need to be added to all global websites, to make this a fair test.
7c. Also, as opt-in consent rates will be higher based on sectors (e.g. non-profit or trusted brands will be HIGH, Insurance and Banking sector will be LOW due to perceived trust & privacy risks). This is going to make aggregated analysis even harder!
It`s going to be like the GoogleSSL keyword=(not provided) change, but worse ;)
8. Aggregated analysis data is critical to business investment and forward-looking decisions.
For instance, decison based on projected growth can be used to answer questions like:
* When will investment in a mobile website break-even?
* How much are my competitors investing in Mobile? Or should I invest in iOS or Android:
* The cookie law will not wipe-out these aggregated tools, but it will cause the projections to under-estimate due to non-tracked traffic, and create a level of uncertainty.
Uncertainty (especially when investing Billions of Euros) is VERY damaging for web businesses and consequential EU aggregated GDP!
Uncertainty also effect current investment in advertising, as automated CPA bidding tools such as Adwords Conversion optimiser (which uses a 3rd party conversion cookie by default) will start underbidding if visitors conversions are not counted due to opt-outs.
Assuming this is not normalised... then the bids and advert positions would automatically freefall, due to 50% of sales are tracked, then Advert bids will also auto-reduce by 50%!
If the entire PPC ecosphere shifted downwards then VAT and TAX on Adverts would ALSO shift downwards by 50%. Just looking at the Top100 companies on Adwords in the UK yesterday, they were spending approx £1.6million * 365days = £583billion per year (ignoring seasonal fluctuations). http://www.spyfu.com/UK/TopList.aspx?listId=1
Assuming a flat-rate VAT of 11% is applied then this is £64billion in vat tax. Thus if investment in online halved then the government would lose -£32billion per year! If the -90% tracked conversions (as shown on the ICO`s website) is applied, then this turns into a -£58billion of lost of tax! WOW!
I agree that Privacy is important, and the Cooke law is a necessary step, but do you really think that the cost of Privacy is worth THIS much?
I know it`s too late NOW, but I wish the EU Politians would to come to their senses and wait for the W3C to produce a Browser-based solution, rather than far-reaching and under-considered EU legislation.
Excellent analysis and frightening figures. I wonder if those behind the law really understand the consequences?
Yes @PhilPearce, I'm also on the record saying a Browser-based solution is by far (in fact, by huge leaps and bounds) a much better way to solve this cookie issue.
Why, why, oh why have EU bureaucrats / ICO thought it's a good idea for zillions of websites to pop-up consent boxes (each of different appearance) that website visitors and companies customers and clients will have to click again + again??
Mind boggles at the ineptitude of it all... And the amount of taxpayers money spent by a quango (for that is what the ICO is) as well as the EU trying to force this through is criminal in the current economic environment.
@ALL In case you haven't seen I've just posted an article on Econsultancy's 'solution' to the EU Directive at http://econsultancy.com/blog/9453-econsultancy-s-solution-to-eu-e-privacy-directive-compliance - do let us know what you think in the comments there!
I'm now looking at this for our company and what a poorly conceived bit of legislation it is. No real advice from the ICO, poor and vague guidelines and an end result that will harm the UKs online industries no end.
What is the point? My ISP happily tracks my browsing across the whole of the web, with no cookies at all, and then happily sells this information to the highest bidder, who in turn sell it as a tool for online marketers to target ads anyway...Hitwise/Experian anyone...
I wouldn't be at all surprised (and thankful) if there wasn't some public backlash against this legislation, I certainly hope so.
Privacy before profit. It's only right that a persons right to privacy comes before another persons right to profit. It may be bad for some businesses in the short term, but long term, businesses will adapt. This is a small but positive step forward in protecting peoples privacy.
I don't think it's just marketers that are annoyed by the lack of knowledge behind the Cookie Law decision... Designers, developers, and admins seem to be pretty wound up too.
There is much talk of privacy this and privacy that... Does no one else find it odd that the government is forcing ISPs to install deep-packet inspection hardware to track their users, which is completely illegal, in the same month as the EU Cookie Law is due to be enforced?
Hypocrisy at the highest level!


text:
Misc. Accessories
Here in our Bargain Basement Miscellaneous Interior Accessories, you can find bargains on all kinds of clearance parts!
Many of the products in this section have been added for many reasons: we no longer stock a company's product, the part has been discontinued from the manufacturer, the part is used (which will be specified in the part's description), or the part has been past it's return date. If you are looking at an item, get it while you can because it is gone for good once it's out of stock! We are continuously adding new product to this discounted section of our site, so make sure to keep checking back for added deals.
Special Price $30.17 Regular Price $48.99Ram 2002-2013 Dodge Center Hump Classic Style Floor Liner - 82801
Special Price $61.03 Regular Price $77.99XJ 2001-2002 Jeep Steering Wheel Cover - 4798297


text:
Behind the term TrustZone lies a security technology that is almost omnipresent in ARM-based devices, ranging from low-cost development boards to most mobile phones. Yet, there hardly exists a public body of knowledge around it. This prompted the Genode developers to investigate. Today, they published their findings in the form of a comprehensive article and an demonstration video.
In contrast to TPMs, which were designed as fixed-function devices with a predefined feature set, TrustZone represented a much more flexible approach by leveraging the CPU as a freely programmable trusted platform module. To do that, ARM introduced a special CPU mode called "secure mode" in addition to the regular normal mode, thereby establishing the notions of a "secure world" and a "normal world". The distinction between both worlds is completely orthogonal to the normal ring protection between user-level and kernel-level code and hidden from the operating system running in the normal world. Furthermore, it is not limited to the CPU but propagated over the system bus to peripheral devices and memory controllers. This way, ARM-based platforms become effectively kind of a split personality. When secure mode is active, the software running on the CPU has a different view on the whole system than software running in non-secure mode.
The Genode team is nothing short of amazing. Not only are they developing unique software, they're also doing stuff like this. Much respect for these women and men.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.


text:
~Source: Phytother Res. January 28, 2013.
By G. Belcaro G et al.
This open, controlled study evaluated the effects of 6?month supplementation with Pycnogenol® maritime pine bark extract on health risk factors in subjects with metabolic syndrome. Pycnogenol® was used with the aim of improving risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome, central obesity, elevated triglycerides (TG), low HDL cholesterol, high blood pressure and fasting blood glucose.
Sixty-four subjects (range 45-55?years) presenting with all five risk factors of metabolic syndrome were included, and Pycnogenol® was administered for 6?months. A group of 66 equivalent subjects were followed up as controls. In the 6-month study Pycnogenol® supplementation 150?mg/day decreased waist circumference, TG levels, blood pressure and increased the HDL cholesterol levels in subjects.
Pycnogenol lowered fasting glucose from baseline 123?±?8.6?mg/dl to 106.4?±?5.3 after 3?months and to 105.3?±?2.5 at the end of the study (p?<?0.05 vs controls). Men's waist circumference decreased with Pycnogenol from 106.2?±?2.2?cm to 98.8?±?2.3?cm and to 98.3?±?2.1 after 3 and 6?months. Women's waist decreased from 90.9?±?1.6?cm to 84.6?±?2.1?cm and to 83.6?±?2.2?cm after 3 and 6?months. Both genders waist circumference reduction was significant as compared to controls at both time points. In addition, plasma free radicals decrease in the Pycnogenol group was more effective than in the control group (-34.6%; p?<?0.05). In conclusion, this study indicates a role for Pycnogenol® for improving health risk factors in subjects with metabolic syndrome. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Source: Phytother Res. 2013 Jan 28. doi: 10.1002/ptr.4883. [Epub ahead of print]. Belcaro G, Cornelli U, Luzzi R, Cesarone MR, Dugall M, Feragalli B, Errichi S, Ippolito E, Grossi MG, Hosoi M, Cornelli M, Gizzi G. Irvine3 Labs, Department Biomedical Sciences, CH-PE University.


text:
The point:
The lesson of Abr'ham & Is'ac has surely opened the door to countless acts of unjustified violence that could have been prevented had that lesson not been presented as one extoling blind faith as a virtue.
The rant that goes with it:
Let's start by clearing the air on the issue of belief: For the sake of this article, belief or non-belief is not the issue. Neither is whether or not the details of the story of The Binding of Isaac are true in whole or in part. What matters is how the story is percieved as a morality tale and why that matters. Please keep this in mind as you read on…
Regardless of your belief as to whether or not Abr'ham was actually directed by the FSM to kill his son Is'ac, I will assume that most believers and all non-believers most likely agree that AT LEAST the vast majority of people who hear voices instructing them to commit acts that offend their sense of right & wrong are mentally ill and as such, celebrating Abr'ham's actions only prevents people from applying critical thinking skills to independently determine whether or not they should indeed kill their family whenever a disembodied voice tells them to do so.
Even if one believes in a superbieng that could possibly be (immorally) testing your allegiance by telling you to commit acts that are offensive to your natural sense of right and wrong, we cannot dismiss the notion that that there are many schizophrenics out there who are hearing similar voices saying similar things. Even if as many as 1% of these are part of some divine test, this would mean that 99% of those hearing such voices are not part of such test and therefore more likely be from either internal psychosis, external "3rd parties" using that person's faith to influence them or any number of other non-supernatural sources (or, if you believe the Scientologists and others like them, supernatural sources of destructive intent). Those other 99% could result – have resulted – in the death of innocent people for no reason whatsoever except for the fact that the killers were either psychotic or being manipulated.
Indeed this story illustrates the concept of blind faith being rewarded, however this is not a good thing. Such a lesson discourages people from critical thinking and instead encourages them to succumb to authority by telling them that they will be rewarded for doing whatever they are told in spite of the apparent (real) immorality of the instruction.
So, how are we to independently sort the right message from the wrong? One can avoid the problem completely by merely ignoring those voices in your head that you know not to be your own. As this would be extremely difficult to do, at least don't listen to them without having your skeptical toolbox open, for unless you are a sociopath, your "god"dar should be able to tell you when those voices are telling you to do something that is reprehensible.
Imagine a voice from nowhere has just told you to do something that goes against everything that you believe to be "good", what are you going to do? Consider what is more likely:
- This being that I trust to make sure that I only do good is instructing me to do something that not only I consider to be wrong, but flies in the face of everything that this same being has taught to be good, OR,
- I am insane and these voices are coming from inside my head, or at least it is NOT the voice of the superbeing that it says it is.
Schizophrenics (I have an uncle who is an anti-social schizophrenic, so our family has some experience with this) hear such voices. Those who are fortunate enough to be diagnosed and treated (unlike my uncle, such as John Nash of "A Beautiful Mind" fame) are able to understand that these voices are not real and they learn to question them as part of their means of coping and integrating with society. As pleasant as some of these voices might be, reliance on demonstrably wrong facts has a high probability of resulting in disaster somewhere down the road.
The story of Is'ac and Abr'ham is celebrated as being one where Abr'ham's decision (to put faith in the voice and commit a morally wrong act just for the sake of demonstrating allegiance to an authority) is something to be REWARDED. This only teaches those people who need the most help to shut out those voices that (a) they should instead embrace those voices and (b) the more ghastly the instruction they give, the more essential it is to carry it out. These people are being told directly to set aside the few internal (Critical Thinking) tools that they have to sort out their issues and instead give in to them (an Argument from Authority, albeit imagined one). It is this sort of lesson that makes it so difficult to interfere with a potentially dangerous mentally-deranged person before he commits a horrible act. Furthermore, it open the door for a cult leader to take advantage of the faithful to give over their freewill to him at the expense of their families and relationships and in more extreme cases, such as Jonestown and the Manson Family, kill themselves and/or others.
As such, the celebration of the story of Is'ac and Abr'ham as a lesson for what TO do has a very real body count. And yet, one of the world's most influential faith systems has an annual three day holiday that continues to celebrate Abr'ham's actions as virtuous and to be a positive lesson for all.
Blindly following voices in your head that tell you to do reprehensible things is NOT a virtue. Applying your critical thinking skills is truly virtuous. In fact, even if you have indeed been contacted by some being whose authority transcends the laws of man (or truly believe that to be the case), if he tells you to kill your son without some reasonable justification for it, tell him to go f**k himself and instead follow your evolved social mind. Perhaps that might be the answer He was testing for after all.


text:
Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
Kindergarteners and first-graders at Sidway Elementary School underwent bus safety training as part of Bus Safety Week in the district Sept. 23 to 27.
Members of the district's bus safety team - Karen Dallessandro, Denise McMahon, Amy VeRost, Kathy Jackson, Shawn Benzing, Nancy Heftka and Sharlene Goode - made presentations and conducted drill with students in the Transportation Center and garage, located behind the school. Pictured, Benzing uses a Steffi Glove to direct students to across the road in front of the bus. Jack Burns, director of transportation in the Grand Island Central School District, said the glove is an additional element to safety procedures and will help assist students in crossing the roads and alert other motorists of the students' intentions.


text:
Your browser does not support iframes.
The CES Chorus and all grade levels recentlry held their annual Christmas programs. The chorus under the direction of Roxanne Simpson, music teacher, tickled the funny bones with a musical about Reindeer flight school. They performed this all three nights followed by grade levels singing Christmas songs.
Pre-K had a night to themselves as they entertained their audience with favorite traditional songs of the season. Each class had their own costumes. Elves, reindeer and snowmen stole the show with their program!
A mistake in paperwork on a city water bill was causing Chiefland resident Betsy Hunt some problems.
But she hoped that like the miracle of the season, Jesus' birth, maybe there was a miracle for her this season.
Hunt knew something was wrong when she got a bill for $17.76 instead of the usual $56-$57.
She went to City Hall to check and the clerk looked it up on the computer and assured her it was $17.76.
Hunt was happy because the extra cash would come in handy.
Abigail Story is the winner of the poster contest to get word out about the Chiefland Elementarey School Safety Patrol cake auction this week.
The CMHS band is having a cake auction on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the school auditorium before a concert.
If you are used to going to the Chiefland Christmas Festival at the Old Train Depot Park you might want to look across the street to find the festival and safer parking on Saturday.
The Chiefland Chamber, which sponsors the annual event, has moved it due to the greater amount of space available and available parking which means no crossing busy U.S. Highway 19 to get to the fun.
It's that time year when the weather is great and we all need get outside, get some
fresh air and get in shape. Start now to fulfill your New Year's Resolution to get fit in 2017!
Reistration is now open for the Rudolph 5K Fun Run that takes place at the Chiefland Christmas Festival on Saturday, Dec. 10.
The first 50 people to register will get a T-Shirt, goodie bag and completion medal just for participating!. There will also be prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners in both the adult and child categories.
This year the festival moves across U.S. Highway 19 from the Train Depot Park. The entire Festival will take place on the west side of US 19, including parking.
The entrance to the parking field is from Park Avenue West. If you are headed south from the commercial area of Chiefland, please turn right at Park Avenue and then left into the parking field, which will be marked.
Chiefland Christmas Festivalgoers will have a chance to start experiencing the change that will come about when the city builds the new Chiefland Trailhead Park on South Main Street/U.S. Highway 19, right across from the Old Train Depot Park.
That's because on Saturday, Dec. 10, the six-acre field will be the new site for the Chiefland Christmas Festival this year. The move across the street will end the necessity for festivalgoers to cross U.S. Highway 19 to go from the parking area to the activities. Bring the family and come out for a whole day of fun.
The 25th Annual Pie Auction, sponsored by the Chiefland Middle High School Student Government is tonight (Thursday, Nov. 17) in the school cafeteria.
This is an opportunity to stock up on goodies for the holiday week coming up.
It's also an opportunity to have fun bidding as the auctioneer usually provides an entertaining call out to those lagging in making sufficient bids.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with bidding starting at 6 p.m.
Donations of sweets and desserts will be accepted. Proceeds benefit the Student Government activities.
The Town of Bronson will be hosting the Annual Levy County Veterans Day Parade on Friday, Nov. 11.
The parade will begin at 11 a.m. at the Bronson Post Office. The parade will proceed down U.S. 27A/Hathaway Avenue to State Road 24 and then heads west to Picnic Street where it will go left into the back entrance to James H. Cobb Park.
There will be a ceremony honoring veterans at the park with speakers including Bronson Mayor Bruce Greenlee and the Town Council, Levy County Judge James "Tim" Browning and officials and other veterans.
It took a little bit of Halloween, the hard work of volunteers, the support of the Suwannee Valley and Chiefland Rotary Clubs, the donations of businesses and an old warehouse to make Christmas a little brighter this year for some Chiefland area families.
This unusual recipe of using one holiday celebration to fund another is the genius idea of the Chiefland Police Department officers and staff who created a Halloween Haunted House in the old, vacant 9,000 square foot warehouse owned by Central Florida Electric Cooperative.
The Bronson Middle High School Eagles welcomed their 2016 Homecoming Queen Faith Hyde and King Caleb Rice at their game on Friday. Oct. 28.
The school also announced the members of the Eagles Royal Court during halftime festivities.
By Elizabeth Brown
Florida Museum of Natural History paleontologists are recruiting volunteers to help excavate a recently discovered site in eastern Levy County that has produced thousands of fossils, including more than 55 vertebrate species.
Researchers are enthusiastic about the 5- to 5.5 million-year-old fossils being recovered and say it is the first site of this particular age found in North Central Florida.
Halloween is officially on Monday, Oct. 31, but here in these parts the superheroes, princesses and goblins will be celebrating it all weekend.
The activities kick off on Saturday afternoon when the Suwannee River Moose Family Center hosts a Children's Halloween Party from 1 to 3 p.m. All children are welcome and there will ne games, prizes and refreshments. The lodge is at 8231 N.W. 167th Place in Fanning Springs. For more information, call 352-507-0551.
A Chiefland Elementary School student checks out Rori Florance's purple pinky at the Chiefland Rotary and Interact Clubs fundraiser.
The Clubs raised $412 at $1 per pinky from the students. Each vaccination costs $1.
All but three countries have eradicated the crippling disease.
Haven Hospice of the Tri Counties is inviting community veterans to a Veterans Appreciation Luncheon on Friday, Nov. 4, from noon to 2 p.m. at the Haven Hospice Community Building at 311 N.E. 9th St., Chiefland.
Veterans interested in attending are asked to RSVP to Vondla Sullivan by calling 352-493-2333 or emailing email@example.com by Tuesday, Nov. 1 to confirm your attendance.
The Florida Forest Festival, a celebration of the forestry industry in Taylor County, with the "World's Largest FREE Fish Fry," lumberjack shows and competitions, arts and crafts, antique car show, Heritage Village, children's games & story telling, opens today (Thursday, Oct. 20) and runs through Saturday, Oct. 22. There wil also be many musical groups performing live.
The Levy County Cattlemen and Landowners Association will have its Fall Membership Meeting Thursday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Whitehurst Lodge, located at 9820 SW CR 346, Archer.
Anyone interested in joining is invited to attend. You do not need to own cattle to become a member.
If you would like additional information call the Levy County Extension Office (352-486-5131) or Devin Whitehurst (352-528-4724).
Today, Oct. 20
Library Friends meeting
The Friends of the Luther Callaway Public Library (FLCPL), the Chiefland branch of the Levy County Public Library System, meet on the second Thursday of the month at 11 a.m. at the library, 104 N.E. 3rd St., Chiefland.
The Friends support the library by promoting the library's programs and resources and through fund-raising projects to purchase reading materials, books on tape, videos, operating supplies and minor equipment. There are no dues.
The Gator Nation may not have a football game to enjoy on Saturday, Oct. 22 but there are at least three events to keep fans in Levy County busy.
In the morning the 12th Annual Ride to Provide, a run through the prettiest parts of Levy County, starts registering folks at 7:30 a.m. at the Levy ARC campus in Otter Creek. This is one of two big fundraisers for the center that provides services for developmentally disabled adults.
For more information, call 352-219-7806.
The Drummond Farmhouse at Rocky Hammock Preserve in Chiefland makes its return as the host site for the 10th Annual Fall at the Farm to Benefit Haven Hospice this Saturday, Oct. 22, and its vintage treasures from the 1800s are sure to make it a special night.
Its many historical pieces are too many for even their owners Luther and Kay Drummond to recount, but volunteer guides will be on hand before the start of the fundraising event and to help inform guests of the history behind the various items.
Copyright © 2018
The Chiefland Citizen is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Levy County and Chiefland Florida, and the surrounding area.