text:
Phimai, its Cultural Route and the Associated Temples of Phanomroong and Muangtam
Prof. Dr. Adul Wichiencharoen National World Heritage Committee of Thailand
Word File
The Tentative Lists of States Parties are published by the World Heritage Centre at its website and/or in working documents in order to ensure transparency, access to information and to facilitate harmonization of Tentative Lists at regional and thematic levels.
The sole responsibility for the content of each Tentative List lies with the State Party concerned. The publication of the Tentative Lists does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the World Heritage Committee or of the World Heritage Centre or of the Secretariat of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its boundaries.
Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party
Phimai or Vimai was the name of a large rectangular ancient Khmer city surrounded on all sides by boundary walls and moats, lying 260 kilometres northwest of Angkor. Prasat Phimai was the Mahayana Buddhist sanctuary situated at the centre of the city. Prasat Phimai itself together with the Cultural Route and the associated temples of Phanomrung and Muangtam are among the finest Khmer monuments and constitute a testimony to the civilisation, prosperity and wealth, and the power of the Khmer Empire at its peak. From Pimai the historical route stretched out Southeast into the southern sub-region of the Khorat Plateau leading to the pass across the Phnom Dongrak mountain range on the Thai-Cambodian border. In the ancient time of the Khmer Empire, travellers and pious pilgrims taking this route, which connected Angkor to Phimai, had at their disposal rest houses spanning over the route as well as some hospitals along the route. The remains of these rest houses and hospitals mark. out Phimai's unique cultural route, covering approximately a. distance of 150 kilometres. Prasat Phimai was originally built in the l l t century after a large part of the Buddhist Kingdom of Dhvaravadi was conquered and became the domain of the Khmer Empire. It is evident from the statuary of Phimai that it was built as a Mahayana Buddhist sanctuary. The inscriptions inside the principal tower also signify the Buddhist origin of Phimai, praising Lord Buddha and mentioning the name of King Suriyavaraman I as a Mahayana Buddhist, as well as specifying the years corresponding to the Buddhist Era of 1579 and 1589 (1036 and 1046 AD). It is significant to note that other Khmer temples belonging to the same era, such as Angkor Wat or Prasat Phanomrung, all were built as Hindu temples, the unique Buddhist sanctuary of Phimai being the single exception. Besides the Buddhist temple of Bayon in Cambodia, Phimai was duly recognised as the most important full-fledged Khmer Buddhist sanctuary by Jayavaraman VII the Great, who was a renowned fervent Buddhist. The plan of the township was in the shape of a rectangle enclosed on all sides by moats and surrounding walls, of which traces still remain. Of the four walls, the front side of the ancient town stood, as the Temple itself, facing Southeast in the direction of Angkor. The fact that the temple of Phimai faces Southeast in the direction of Angkor instead of facing east, which is the common feature of other Khmer temples, is significant; the reason, however, is unknown. It might have been by design to give effect to the special position and importance of Phimai in its relationship to Angkor, as made evident later by the command of King Jayavaraman VII to build rest houses and hospitals on the cultural route to Phimai. The restoration of Prasat Phimai by anastylosis from 1964 to 1969 with the technical assistance from the French Government was supervised by Prince Yachai Chitrabongse and M. Bernard Phillip Groslier, who was the director of the restoration work at Angkor. The lintels on the inside of the buildings, depicting scenes of the life of Buddha a s well as episodes from the Ramayana, are among the forest of Khmer art. A very fine sandstone statue of King Jayavarman VII in meditation was also found inside of one of the buildings. Lying on the cultural route halfway from Prasat Tamuan on the Thai¬Cambodian border to Prasat Phimai are the two ancient Khmer temples of Phanomrung and Muangtam in close vicinity. Prasat Phanomrung is magnificent, standing on top of an extinct, wooded volcano, and dominates the broad flat countryside marked off to the south by the Dong Rek Mountains, the thickly forested slopes of which lead away to the horizon. The construction of the temple took place in different stages, the first two brick towers dating back to the 10`h century. These were followed by the small tower, which was built in the 11 ch century, and the principal tower, built in the 12th century. Other structures including the scripture repository and the pavilion were added during the reign of Jayavarman VII. The temple was for worshiping the supreme Lord Shiva; thus Prasat Phanomrung represents His celestial abode on top of Mt. Kailasa. The monumental staircase is most impressive, with its strong moulding on the sides giving a feeling of power and mass, typical of great classical Khmer monuments. The plan. of the whole complex was designed on the basis of the axis leading from the staircase to the principal tower. The principal tower and minor buildings all have doors in symmetrical positions on all sides. The main sanctuary, in particular, has superb decoration for its strength and delicacy. All the external and internal doorways have pediments and carved lintels and the walls and pillars are covered with friezes. An extraordinary feature of the architectural design of the sanctuary, taking advantage of its geographical location, is the straight throughway from the entrance door on the East leading to the farthest door, the 15`h door, on the western end of the structural complex. The design was made to display the spectacular sunrise of the two annual crossings of the equator by the Sun, beaming the majestic aura of the rising sun from the entrance door on the East straight through the fifteen doors to the western end of the doorway of the sanctuary. Around each time of the equinoxes, visitors to this day crowd the outside square on the west end of the Prasal Phanomrung to witness the awesome spell of the emerging sun over the horizon through the fifteen doors at the western end of the sanctuary. Prasat Muangtam was a Hindu sanctuary built in the 11`h century on the plain 8 km southeast from Prasat Phanomrung. Although its setting is much less picturesque, its plan, importance, and the good state of preservation of its bas¬reliefs make it an outstanding ancient Khmer temple. The plan of the temple is a vast rectangle, 120 by 127 metres, enclosed with a laterite wall topped by a strong rim. At the four cardinal points are four gopuras in the middle of each side of the complex. The first courtyard is imposing in its proportions and is mostly filled with four symmetrical L-shaped ponds, at each corner of which is the figure of five-headed naga with the tails meeting at the top of the stairs on each side of the ponds leading down to the water. These ponds are separated from each other by four paths leading to the four doors of the inner courtyard which appears floating like an island. To the north of Prasat Muangtam is located the baray (known as Thale Muangtam, or Muangt:am lake), 510 by 1,090 metres, constructed as an integral part of the temple to symbolise the ocean surrounding Mt. Meru, which is the home of Hindu gods. Associated Rest Houses and Hospitals along the Route King Jayavaraman VII, according to the account appearing in ancient Prah Khan Stone inscriptions in Angkor, commanded that 17 rest houses be built from the capital on the route to Phimai. Eight rest houses have been found on the stretch from Phimai to the pass across the Phanom-Dongrak mountain range on Thai-Cambodian border. All rest houses are of the same size with typical identifiable structural features. The spacing of the location of rest houses varies from 10 to 26 kilometres: the different distances could have been due to the different types of terrain and the conditions of the trail encountered in one-day travel at that time. Unlike rest houses, hospitals were scattered, probably located where the communities were situated. Out of the remains of 18 hospitals found in the northeast of Thailand, six of them were on Phimai's route.


text:
You GUYS. We only have one more episode of The Walking Dead before the show goes on hiatus until February. What are we even going to do without our Sunday evening serving of re-animated dead people who are a rotted, shambling husk of their former selves? Watch Liz & Dick? *rimshot*
When we last saw our gang of Walking Dead survivors, Rick had been receiving calls on an i(AmInsane)Phone, Maggie and Glenn had fallen into bad hands, and Daryl had stolen our varmint-loving hearts yet AGAIN as he ferried [CAST MEMBER WHOSE STATUS HAD BEEN PREVIOUSLY UNCLEAR] to safety.
Here's what went down in tonight's episode (as always, spoilers ahead):
We start out with Merle interrogating Glenn back in Woodbury. Merle's tossing out a bunch of super-racist remarks and waving around his arm-stabber and generally being a total torture-porn asshole to Glenn, while all the while Maggie sits next door, forced to listen to it all.
More from The Stir: Latest 'Walking Dead' Plot Twist Has Us Preparing for the Worst Kind of Death
Back at the prison, we pick up where last week's episode left off: with Michonne standing at the fence surrounded by walkers, which are unaware of her delicious living human status thanks to the zombie guts smeared all over her. Except oh no, her bullet wound starts bleeding, which is apparently like a dinner bell going off because walkers are like "MURH?" before they descend en masse as she collapses into badly-timed unconsciousness.
Luckily, Carl and Rick waste all the walkers with some well-placed headshots and they bring Michonne into the prison, where everyone instantly gets into this big pissing match. Michonne's like, FUCK ALL YOU GUYS IN YOUR FACE-HOLES, and Daryl's like I WILL ARROW YOU SO HARD, and hey, you all just met, and this is crazy, but the zombies seem like enough of a problem without you all being dicks, so knock it off maybe?
Michonne finally dials back her bitchface long enough describe the Woodbury situation, and Rick and Daryl form a rescue team. In the midst of the preparations, Rick has a brief heart to heart with Carl, where they finally address the whole Lori-dying-then-having-to-be-shot-by-Carl-before-she-reanimated-as-a-walker thing.
"No one should have to go through that," Rick says to his son. You think? Carl needs a t-shirt: I SHOT MY MOM AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE YEAR.
Also they decide to name the baby Judith, after Carl's third grade teacher. Aw, but Lil' Asskicker had such a nice ring to it.
I guess anything's better than Shanette, right?
Back in Woodbury, Andrea assists Milton as he tries to prove that walkers retain some level of human memories after they turn. Their experimental subject, the dying Mr. Coleman, seems like a nice enough fellow -- until, of course, he zombifies. (Which doesn't happen instantly like it did with Shane, by the way, nor does it take a very long time like it did with with Andrea's sister, so I'm totally deducting 5 points for Zombie Continuity.) So far, the score seems to be Dead People That Turn Into Slobbering Rabid Flesh-Eating Monsters: 273858291056, Walkers That Can Be Soothed With Old-Timey LPs: Zero.
Merle gets fed up with using Glenn's face as a punching bag, so he puts a walker in the room with him, which Glenn miraculously manages to kill even though he's tied to a chair. The Governor decides to have a little visit with Maggie, which leads to a supremely freaky moment where he orders her to remove her shirt and he takes off his belt and oh my god, can you believe it? I know, right? In a post-apocalyptic world, where is Maggie taking yoga classes and getting full-body exfoliation and finding such attractive bras?
Thankfully, this scene does not lead to a nasty sexual assault, but then the Governor brings Maggie into Glenn's torture room and forces Maggie into giving up the prison by aiming his gun at Glenn's beat-up face. Huh. Seems like they could have just done that to start with.
Oscar, Rick, Daryl, and Michonne pile in a Hyundai-sponsored vehicle and drive towards Woodbury, stopping a mile or so away to approach on foot. As they get deeper in the woods, they stumble into about a bazillion walkers, and take refuge in a cabin. Which contains 1) a dead dog, and 2) a random guy who was sleeping (?) under a blanket and threatens to call the cops (??).
Michonne katanas the Insane Cabin Guy and they end up using him as a distraction for the walkers, and BOY do I have a lot of questions about this little side story. Like was it supposed to be even remotely realistic that some guy was surviving in a cabin surrounded by walkers, or was that setup mostly for the money-shot FX shot of him being torn to pieces by hungry zombies?
On the plus side of this otherwise questionable plotline, may I present Daryl's deltoids.
Mmmmmm. Tastes like owl.
Back in Woodbury, the Governor soothes Andrea, who's guzzling his booze after the trauma of having to knife Mr. Coleman through the skull. If only she knew the Governor had recently deployed those same creepy there-there pats to a shirtless, horrified Maggie -- or his own dead daughter, for that matter. Outside, Rick and the gang are closing in on Woodbury, so even though I found this episode kind of annoying in how it seemed to be nothing more than a stretched-out setup for the midseason finale, well, next week's episode looks like it's going to kick major ass.
What did you think of tonight's show?
Image via AMC

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS), 1991: Homeless and Transient Population (ICPSR 2346)
Version Date: Jul 24, 2008 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse
Version V2
Alternate Title View help for Alternate Title
Summary View help for Summary
The DC Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS) was conducted in 1991, and included special analyses of homeless and transient populations and of women delivering live births in the DC hospitals. DC*MADS was undertaken to assess the full extent of the drug problem in one metropolitan area. The study was comprised of 16 separate studies that focused on different sub-groups, many of which are typically not included or are underrepresented in household surveys.
The Homeless and Transient Population study examines the prevalence of illicit drug, alcohol, and tobacco use among members of the homeless and transient population aged 12 and older in the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Statistical Area (DC MSA). The sample frame included respondents from shelters, soup kitchens and food banks, major cluster encampments, and literally homeless people. Data from the questionnaires include history of homelessness, living arrangements and population movement, tobacco, drug, and alcohol use, consequences of use, treatment history, illegal behavior and arrest, emergency room treatment and hospital stays, physical and mental health, pregnancy, insurance, employment and finances, and demographics. Drug specific data include age at first use, route of administration, needle use, withdrawal symptoms, polysubstance use, and perceived risk.
Citation View help for Citation
Export Citation:
Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Users are reminded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services that these data are to be used solely for statistical analysis and reporting of aggregated information and not for the investigation of specific individuals or treatment facilities.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
Produced by Research Triangle Institute in Research Triangle Park, NC.
Sample View help for Sample
The Homeless and Transient Population study consisted of 908 interviews from four overlapping sampling frames: 477 interviews with residents in 93 shelters, 224 interviews with patrons of 31 soup kitchens and food banks, 143 interviews with "literally homeless" people from 18 major cluster encampments, and 64 interviews with literally homeless people from an area probability sample of 432 census blocks in the MSA. People who were cognitively impaired and could not complete the interview were excluded from the survey. Impairment was defined as extreme intoxification or scoring more than nine on the Short Blessed Exam (Katzman, Brown, Fuld, Peck, Schecter, and Schimmel, 1983).
Universe View help for Universe
Persons aged 12 and older in the DC MSA who were either literally homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless, including persons who spent the previous night in an emergency shelter, in a nondomicile (e.g., vacant building, city park, car, or on the street) or who were using soup kitchens or emergency food banks.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
personal interviews
Method of Data Collection View help for Method of Data Collection
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
The institutional response rate (i.e., for shelters and soup kitchens) was 82.6 percent. The individual interview response rate was 86.1 percent. The overall response rate was 71 percent.
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
Version History View help for Version History
- United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Washington, DC, Metropolitan Area Drug Study (DC*MADS), 1991: Homeless and Transient Population. ICPSR02346-v2. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2008-07-24. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02346.v2
2008-07-24 New files were added. These files included one or more of the following: Stata setup, SAS transport (CPORT), SPSS system, Stata system, SAS supplemental syntax, and Stata supplemental syntax files, and a tab-delimited ASCII data file. Also, the CASEID variable has been added to the dataset.
2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
1998-04-28 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Standardized missing values.
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
- The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. Please see version history for more details.
This study is maintained and distributed by the National Addiction & HIV Data Archive Program (NAHDAP). NAHDAP is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).


text:
Inquiry Question
This lesson is based on the National Register of Historic Places registration files for the SS John W. Brown, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien (with photographs), the SS American Victory, and the SS Red Oak Victory, the National Historic Landmark nomination file for the SS Lane Victory (with photographs), and other sources. Jay Michalsky, a historical researcher, wrote this lesson. Jean West, education consultant, and the Teaching with Historic Places staff edited the lesson. This lesson is one in a series that brings important stories of historic places into classrooms across the country.
Where it fits into the curriculum
Objectives for students
Materials for students
Visiting the site
The Liberty Ship SS John W. Brown is located in Baltimore, Maryland. The ship is open to the public and cruises are available. The ship is open Sundays and Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., except on Christmas. From I-95 take the Keith Avenue exit. Follow Keith Avenue west to Clinton Street. Turn right on Clinton Street and proceed to 2000 S. Clinton Street, Pier 1. For more information, contact Project Liberty Ship, P.O. Box 25846, Highlandtown Station, Baltimore, MD 21224, or visit the ship's website.
The Victory Ship SS American Victory is located near the Florida Aquarium in Tampa, Florida at Berth 271. The ship is open to the public and cruises are available. The ship is open Monday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sundays 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is an admission charge. From I-275 take the Downtown East exit to Jefferson Street. Continue south on Jefferson Street to Twiggs Street. Turn left on Twiggs Street to Channelside Drive. Turn right on Channelside Drive to York Street. Turn left on York Street to the Florida Aquarium parking lot. For more information, contact American Victory Ship, 705 Channelside Drive, Tampa, FL 33602, or visit the ship's website.
The Victory Ship SS Lane Victory is located at the Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro, California. The ship is open to the public and cruises are available. The ship is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There is an admission charge. From the Harbor Freeway (I-110) take the Harbor Boulevard exit. Stay to the right and follow the signs to Harbor Boulevard. Once off the freeway, stay in the center lane and go into the Catalina Terminal. Follow the signs to the SS Lane Victory at Berth 94. For more information, contact the United States Merchant Marine Veterans of World War II, P.O. Box 629, San Pedro, CA 90733, or visit the ship's website.
The Victory Ship SS Red Oak Victory is located in Richmond, California and is part of the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park. The ship is administered by the Richmond Museum of History and is open to the public. The ship is open seven days a week from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except when there is severe weather. Donations are requested. From either I-80 or I-580 take the Cutting Boulevard exit. Continue west on Cutting Blvd. to a four-way stop sign. Take a left on Dornan Drive through the Ferry Point tunnel to Terminal One, 1500 Dornan Drive. Please note the ship is scheduled to be relocated in early 2005. For more information, contact the SS Red Oak Victory, Terminal 1, 1500 Dornan Drive, Richmond, CA 94801, or visit the ship's website.
Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, located in Richmond, California, preserves and interprets the history of the men and women who worked in the factories and shipyards in Richmond during World War II. It is a partnership between the National Park Service, the City of Richmond, the Rosie the Riveter Trust, and the Richmond Museum of History, and is made up of noncontiguous units near the Richmond waterfront. Many of the units are owned by the City of Richmond while others are privately owned. The park was created in 2000 and is still in development; therefore, certain sites are not yet open to the public. Several units are open to the public, including the Rosie the Riveter Memorial, which is open from dawn to dusk every day, the John J. Sheridan Observation Point, and the Victory Ship SS Red Oak Victory. For more information about the park, contact the Superintendent, Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park, 1401 Marina Way South, Richmond, CA 94804 or visit the park's website or the park's partner, the Rosie the Riveter Trust.


text:
Desiccant dehumidifiers are ideal for providing dehumidification at very low temperatures or when very low humidity levels are needed. The Condair DA range can operate effectively down to -30°C and maintain an atmosphere as low as 10%RH.
A range of additional modules can be connected to the dehumidifier, providing flexible operation enabling it to deliver air exactly as an application requires it. These include pre- or post-cooling batteries, heat exchangers and condensation modules.
The additional heat exchangers can utilise gas, hot water or steam to reduce the operating costs of the system and can be operated alongside the regular electric heater.
Operation can be controlled via the on-board touch screen display, as standard, or with an optional remote user interface, BMS or smartphone app. A variety of control and sensor options are available, allowing the dehumidifier to perform and report as the application requires.
Condair DA dehumidifiers have stainless steel housing as standard, for robust and hygienic performance, and high quality EC fans, offering low energy operation. Great care has been taken to design the units with easy access to make servicing simple.


text:
Student or Learner
I was wondering which tense should be used in the following sentences:
1. I inform someone that:
"I talked to my friend" or
"I have talked to my friend."
I think it's not important when I talked so I'd go for the second sentence.
2. When the person responds by saying: "When?", should I say:
"Today. She came to my house."
"Today. She has come to my house."
In this case I would go for the first one.
3. When the person wants to know the reason for the visit, should they say:
"She must have told you why she came."
"She must have told you why she has/had come."
In this case I'd say "why she came". Am I right?
Also, I wonder how native speakers would normally explain the above in an informal language. Could the verb "to come" be used if I wanted to explain that "My friend has come to my flat/to town/to the country" or should I use another verb/another phrase?
Thank you in advance,


text:
I don't know why it is, but for some reason, a large proportion of Emergency Medicine research makes me roll my eyes and mutter, "well, duh!" under my breath. Like the paper I read a number of years ago which demonstrated, with ample citations, that being on a backboard hurts. "Well, duh!" Ever been on one? Ever seen poor trauma patients strapped to the board begging to be let off? We needed a peer-reviewed paper to establish that fact? (Using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain.) Geez.
Well, another one hit the press today. Not as inane, but every little bit as obvious, IMHO, to anybody who has set foot in an ER over the last decade. Apparently, the average waiting times in ERs can sometimes get a bit long, and are increasing. Given the fact that since 1994 the number of ER's in the US has decreased from 5000 to 4500 and the number of ER visits has gone up 25% (from 90 Million to 115 Million), what else would any rational person expect?
Sarcasm aside, this is important research. Add it to the pile, on top of the IOM report and the rest of the data showing that the nation's ERs are in crisis.
This study resembles one I blogged on last week, in that it represents some interesting data mining of the NAMCS database (did this just become available or something?), again to good effect. The results showed that the average wait time in the ER increased about 4% per year over the seven-year study period, and, interestingly, that patients with heart attacks had wait times that increased 12% per year (despite a huge increase in awareness of the "time is muscle" concept and Medicare's focus on the door-to-dilation time for heart attack patients). The overall wait time increase was more than a third: 36%, This was consistent with the wait time increase for patients triaged "Emergent" -- 40%, and heart attack (AMI) patients' waits increased a staggering 150%. No explanation is given as to why AMI patients had a larger proportionate increase in wait times... an odd omission given the importance of the topic, but then, data-mining is good for finding problems, not so great for pinpointing the causes.
Whitecoat will probably be annoyed to find that the study noted another example of racial disparity in the longer wait times for minorities. In this case, this may be accounted for by the fact that wait times were longer at urban and academic EDs, though the authors do not draw that exact conclusion. And unlike the other study I blogged, apparently, payor status had a large effect on quality of care -- wait times increased by 50%. The authors are not entirely clear whether that may be due to the urban hospital effect, though one would hope a decent multivariate regression analysis would sort that out. The crosstabs are missing, also, and uninsured patients are more likely to show up with less-urgent complaints, so that may account for the longer wait times by the uninsured.
Nonprofit hospitals, unsuprisingly, fared worse than for-profit hospitals. This is by no means a validation of the profit motive in providing health care, but, I suspect, more due to the fact the nonprofits tend to care for underserved populations and have less resources to expand their service capacity to meet demand.
Also interestingly, the average urgency of ER visits declined. This is consistent with the general impression that more people are using the ER for their primary care. While not exactly desirable, this is indeed consistent with our Dear Leader's idea of Universal Health Care.
Don't be deceived by the relatively "short" wait times cited -- many in the 15-30 minute range. These are average times, and remember that for one patient seen on arrival (say, a patient arriving by ambulance, a detail not referenced in the paper), there's another who waited an hour or more. Our ED has an average door-to-doctor time of about 25 minutes, and we are rather proud of that fact, but there are still days when the waiting time is three hours. So averaging can make the ER look better than it really is.
Ultimately, there's no real take-home point beyond that encapsulated in the headline. The nation's ERs are in crisis -- over-burdened, under-funded, beset by the collapse of primary care, and hamstrung by the scarcity of inpatient hospital beds. How much longer will it take before the policy-makers wake up and do something to avert the impending catastrophe? I first heard about this via a diary on Daily Kos, and the author took exception to the fact that a mass-casualty incident such as a terrorist attack was cited as a potential threat. But when you look at the the ED, and its role in disaster preparedness for unlikely events such as terrorist attacks, pandemic influenza, SARS, etc, you realize how thin the line is separating a "shitty but functioning system" from "complete and total collapse." And being a paranoid ER doc, my job is to assume the worst-case scenario and proceed as if it is the case.
Kevin and some others like to scream about CanadaCare and other bogeymen of the healthcare wonk set, but, really which is more emblematic of a broken health care system: the system which requires long waits for elective surgery, or that which progressively fails to care for heart attacks in a timely fashion?
citation: Health Affairs, Waits To See An Emergency Department Physician: U.S. Trends And Predictors, 1997-2004;
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.2.w84
15 January 2008
From the Journal of Proving the Intiutively Obvious
I don't know why it is, but for some reason, a large proportion of Emergency Medicine research makes me roll my eyes and mutter, "well, duh!" under my breath. Like the paper I read a number of years ago which demonstrated, with ample citations, that being on a backboard hurts. "Well, duh!" Ever been on one? Ever seen poor trauma patients strapped to the board begging to be let off? We needed a peer-reviewed paper to establish that fact? (Using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for pain.) Geez.
Posted by shadowfax at 9:45 PM
13 comments:
It's me, hobbitfoot, from dkos.ReplyDelete
I took part in our little community's disaster preparedness committee. Bottom line, if some major disaster strikes (terrorist-inspired or Act of God), we're hosed. Not enough beds, not enough ventilators, not enough practitioners, not even enough IV fluids. We would be using the fair grounds, the schools, the fire departments, any place we could think of which could be turned into a temp hospital.
The EDs would get overwhelmed, but so would the whole system.
Nice to meet you, by the way!
PS: you're in the Pacific Northwest? How uncanny! I live in Brookings, OR.ReplyDelete
- Idaho_ryder1/16/2008 3:25 PM
I too was amused by the medias stunning announcement regarding increased waiting times in ED's.ReplyDelete
I was also amused by what was not discussed. In the ED's I have worked in the doctor is usually the last person to see a critical patient. If you have a good staff, Nurses get the labs started, appropriate tests ordered, ACLS protocols activated and more recently Chest Pain pathways and protocols.
Are they getting more crowded? Yup. Are wait times increasing? Most of the time, even with things like XPress Care, ER Staz or whatever the in house "Doc in the Box" is called this month.
Instead of continually berating the healthcare community for our shortcomings maybe showing how we have learned to "do" with what we got might also get more soldiers in the fight on our side.
BTW I also am a Northwestener (Idaho). ED Nurse 20+ years.
Door-to-doctor in 25 minutes? I had a dream like that once.ReplyDelete
Kevin and some others like to scream about CanadaCare and other bogeymen of the healthcare wonk set, but, really which is more emblematic of a broken health care system: the system which requires long waits for elective surgery, or that which progressively fails to care for heart attacks in a timely fashion?ReplyDelete
I hate to be the one to break this to you, Shadowfax, but Canada also has ER wait time issues, as referenced in this article. Here's the money quote:
"A recent survey published in the journal Health Affairs examined wait times for ERs in several nations and found that … only 39 per cent of Canadian respondents waited less than one hour to be seen in the ER … 24 per cent of Canadians reported ER waits of four hours or more ..."
- christopher1/17/2008 9:09 AM
From what I can gather, you clearly should have been a radiologist. Patient contact, the 'system', your self-admitted 'bullshit detector'...these things lead to the conclusion that you are a very unhappy individual.
I haven't even touched on the fact that you have a deep need for social acceptance.
Let me put your mind at ease- you're cool. Ok? You're very smart and aware. Personally, I wouldn't be at all be disappointed if you were my ED doc.
However, I'm more than happy to report that you're not my friend/relative/colleague. I mean, Jesus man- does it ever end?? Does your wife sigh with relief when you finally go off to a job that you bitch about constantly?
No. And, I'm fairly positive, yes.
Wouldn't you be happier sitting in front of your computer, (where you can blog your ass off), and receive cases where you just talk into a digital recorder and send them off to be transcribed?
Think about it, man.
Thanks for your concern, but I am in fact fairly happy and well-adjusted both personally and professionally. The only thing that makes me envious of radiologists (besides the huge piles of hundred-dollar bills they go home and roll in) is the cool gadgets they get to play with, especially the IR guys.
As for being "cool," well, I may be socially accepted and successful, but I am under no illusions about being cool. As dave barry once put it, the light leaving "cool" right now will take millions of years to get to me. Oh well. I can live with it.
I suspect, if you find me bitter and cynical, you must not have spent much time on medblogs. I'm on the happy end of the spectrum. Go read Panda, Scalpel, WhiteCoat, and the Happy Hospitalist. Then come back and tell me how much I must hate my job!
Good point. I knew that but must have suppressed it when I was writing that sentence.
Still, just because it sucks worse in Canada doesn't make our system failures acceptable...
- christopher1/17/2008 12:59 PM
I don't think you hate anything.ReplyDelete
I think you're good at what you do, and hey- that's enough.
Just...hearing you complain. It's difficult to discern whether you're trying to impress us with your intelligence, (natch), or simply bitching about the obvious.
What exactly is your point here? It is the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out the emperor has no clothes. Yet the emperor remains an emperor and the half-wit remains a half-wit. *
Sir, your chosen profession brings out the best and worst of the human condition. I know a UPS man that could say the same thing.
The drug-seeker will always be a drug-seeker, the media will always be the media, the guy that's on the table and coding....you get the idea.
Now that we're done jerking each other off, wouldn't it be nice to talk about solutions?
Yeah, I know....fuckit.
- christopher1/17/2008 1:00 PM
* = directly ripped off from Neil Gaiman.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous1/23/2008 4:45 PM
Interesting post -- what it made me wonder was, given that average wait times are inaccurate for the reasons you stated, why isn't the median used? It might better approximate the experience of most people? Or some more sophisticated method of quantifying the distribution?
- Alexandra Lynch1/25/2008 10:53 AM
The problem is is there isn't any one to go see about the fact that the pain that has sort of been background all day has now ramped up to where you can't sleep and now you're worried that maybe something is Really Wrong...at one or two am.ReplyDelete
If we have to take my husband to medical care when he gets off work, it will be the ER, because he works three to eleven, has an hour commute home, and nothing but the ER is available at midnight. Sorry, everyone.
But given that, ok, we'll wait, bring books, a bottle of water. It's the nature of the beast.
- Anonymous2/06/2010 4:07 AM
Think about this.ReplyDelete
If you really did find a working formula that made you, say $1,000 a week online on average and it kept producing income no matter what, would you want to sell that idea to a bunch of noobs for $47 a pop and expect to retire on the proceeds? No way, man! It does not compute. It does not add up. And it does not make any sense to do that. I certainly don't go shouting from the rooftops how I make my money online. Hell, I don't want the competition taking a slice of my pie and neither would anyone who really does make good cash online.


text:
For Uploading Content
From UA Libraries Digital Services Planning and Documentation
Revision as of 11:11, 10 June 2010 by Jlderidder (talk | contribs)
Into Acumen
- For uploading born digital research papers and their MODS files into the web directory where Acumen can index it and provide access: File:Relocate all BD.txt. Process is described here: Undergraduate Research Projects
- For uploading audio content (MP3s, OCR and TXT files of transcripts, transcript JPEGs, MODS): File:Relocate audio.txt
- For uploading manuscript materials (MODS, JPEGs, transcript OCR and TXT): File:Relocate all.txt
- For Cabaniss: File:MakeItLive.txt and File:EadLive.txt
Into the Deposits for the Archive
The following scripts check the database and online files for existing information about this collection, if any. If a collection xml file is being submitted to correct or add information, it will be checked for validity and added into the database. This effectively adds the listing of the collection to the online page located here: Online Collections if it does not already exist. Thus, this script should not be run for new collections until Acumen has indexed the content uploaded in the previous step (about 24-30 hours at present).
- Cabaniss content: File:MoveCabanissContent.txt
- Audio content: File:MoveAudioContent.txt
- Manuscript content: File:MoveContent.txt


text:
Related Items
Trending Stories
Postcard from the Algarve: Meghan Schnur
Every so often when the U.S. Women's National Team plays out of the country, a player will write an e-postcard, filling in the fans back home on the happenings of the team, off field activities, and anything else on their mind. Today, 24-year-old defender Meghan Schnur talks about her first cap, why everyone should want to room with Shannon Boxx and how her physical therapy major in college did not prepare her for tax time.
Hello from Portugal. This is my first Algarve Cup, which makes sense, since before yesterday I had never played a minute in an actual full international match.
I found out that I was playing, and even starting, in a meeting the day before the game when Pia read the starters off to the team. I was excited, but I found myself thinking more about the game itself than the fact that it was going to be my first one. I was more curious about what kind of a team Iceland was, so I asked my trusty roommate Shannon Boxx. Right now, she's only played 118 more games than me so I figured she'd have the answers.
I was also wondering where exactly Iceland was. I knew the general area, but I always confuse it with Greenland on the map. Didn't they teach us that Iceland is green and Greenland is covered with ice?
Either way, I was a little bit nervous before the game. I was sitting next to Abby Wambach in the locker room, and as we were putting on our shoes, she turned to me and said, "It's your first game. Don't screw up…Just kidding." I'm not sure if she was kidding or not.
I thought I did alright, especially for my first game, but I've got a long way to go to keep a regular spot on this team. You are always learning at this level and I even feel I learned a lot in the game.
What was really fun is that I had a hand in the first goal. I've been an attacking player all my life so when I got into the box, I decided to push the ball around the defender and run around her on the other side. It's a move I did a lot at school and amazingly it worked here. Heather O'Reilly made a sick run to the near post and was screaming for the ball. No one screams for the ball like Heather. I knew she was barreling at the goal at one-thousand miles per hour so I hit the cross really hard and I figured it was into a good area. The luck that had escaped us most of the match turned in our favor and the Iceland player headed it her own net.
I didn't really score, but I still celebrated like I did. We had come so close during the game that it was just nice to get one in.
Off the field, I've been spending a good amount of time in my room resting. The black-out blinds they have here are great for naps. My aforementioned trusty roommate Boxxy has also been lending her wisdom to me on taxes. Playing in the WPS is really the first real job I've had (if you can call that a real job) so this whole tax thing is WAY over my head. I'm working through it.
The Winter Olympics has been on TV constantly and unlike in the USA, there is live coverage all day long here in Europe. Unfortunately, the prime viewing hours for us seems to only consist of the broomers, the hunters and the flying squirrels. Yes, we are talking about curling, biathlon and ski jumping. How about some hockey! I am hoping for a USA-Canada final for the men. Fingers crossed!
I guess that's it from the Algarve for now. Thanks for reading my postcard and for supporting our team from across the pond.
Over and out,


text:
In the run up to the hearing on Thursday 6 December, the Apple v Samsung battle is back on. The latest new filing in preparation for Thursday's court date is Apple's claim that it knew nothing about the background of the jury foreman.
Back in October Samsung filed a request for a new trial, claiming that jury foreman Velvin Hogan (pictured) failed to disclose that 20 years ago he was in litigation with Seagate - for whom Samsung is a major investor.
Apple filed papers on Friday that revealed that after jury selection on 30 July, the company's lawyers "became aware" that Hogan had filed for bankruptcy, but didn't examine the bankruptcy file. Apple claimed that nobody from its in-house litigation team or outside counsel knew that Hogan's lawsuit was with Seagate until Samsung brought it up in post-trial briefs, writes Ars Technica.
The jury foreman has speculated that Samsung only allowed him on the jury so that they would have an excuse for a new trial if it didn't go in their favour.
Follow Karen Haslam on Twitter / Follow MacworldUK on Twitter
Judge Koh agrees to re-examine roles of Apple v Samsung jury foreman
Samsung wants a retrial, says jury foreman had litigation with partner Seagate
Samsung claims jury misconduct, tries to overturn Apple verdict
Apple v Samsung verdict concern: Forman of jury owns smartphone patents, claim


text:
NO Promotion=NOTHING Happens..
(Today's WZXL.COM ROCK NEWS)
Aerosmith Members Barely Speaking To Each Other, According To Reports
Members of Aerosmith, who are currently in the midst of their Global Warming tour, are in disarray according to sources speaking with the New York Post's Page Six.
According to one of the sources, the bandmembers are "barely speaking to each other."
Another source said the disarray is due to the poor reception of their latest, Music from Another Dimension, which sold only 65,000 copies in its first week:
"The band isn't really talking. Aerosmith's record came in fifth after Taylor Swift [Red], Now That's What I Call Music: Volume 44, Rod Stewart's Merry Christmas, Baby and Ne-Yo's new release [R.E.D.]. Pretty bad for their first release in a decade. No dates on the current tour are sold out."
A spokesman for the band says that the rumors are unfounded as the band is "doing great and on tour and on fire."
NOT sold out? Slow album sales? These guys make ZERO contact with local radio stations to promote!


text:
Press Center
Super-Slim & Stylish 24x Optical Zoom Camera
Captures the Action Close Up and Personal
CENTER VALLEY, Pa., January 9, 2012 – Olympus today unveils the full-featured, slim and sleek SZ-12, a compact superzoom camera with a powerful 24x optical wide-angle zoom lens (25-600mm equivalent*) and two forms of image stabilization to help deliver the clearest results possible. Whether you're traveling, at a family function, or on the sideline of a sporting event, the new, powerful SZ-12 gives you the flexibility to zoom right in and shoot brilliant close-ups without sacrificing versatility and image quality.
With remarkable magnification power in combination with 14-megapixel resolution, the super-slim SZ-12 is packed with state-of-the-art Olympus technology that delivers excellent image quality. A new, retro-chic "smart grip" at the front of the camera combined with built-in Dual Image Stabilization, helps cut out blur caused by imperceptible camera shake, allowing you to zoom right in for expressive close-ups and vivid HD 720p video.
High-speed, seven-frames-per-second (7 fps) sequential shooting gives you the power to capture a dynamic series of images of fast-moving subjects. For more composed shooting, the Olympus SZ-12's Telephoto Macro captures all the rich detail of small subjects like flowers from inches away. The powerful zoom brings you up close to whimsical subjects like butterflies from a safe distance, so you don't scare them.
Ten Magic Art Filters power your creativity by adding a whole range of special effects to your images directly in the camera. The Olympus SZ-12 offers the new Reflection magic filter takes the image and duplicates it across a horizontal or vertical plane of symmetry creating powerful illusions.
Easily frame and review your images on the large, 3-inch LCD display (460,000 dots) and share them wirelessly throughout your social networks or on your computer via an optional Eye-Fi Card – or in all the glory of High-Definition using an optional HDMI cable on a big-screen HDTV.
* 35mm camera equivalent
U.S. Pricing and Availability
The Olympus SZ-12 will be available in March and ships with a Camera Strap, USB Cable, USB-AC Adapter (F-2AC), Lithium-Ion Battery (LI-50B), Audio/Video Cable, Quick Start Guide, Instruction Manual and OLYMPUS [ib] Software CD-ROM and a Warranty card.
Estimated Street Price: $199.99 (Available in silver, black and red)
For a complete list of specifications, visit the Olympus website: www.getolympus.com.
Journalists interested in more information, review units and high-resolution images of the Olympus SZ-12 should contact Keith Gordon, Mullen Public Relations, 212-885-3218, firstname.lastname@example.com, or Jennifer Colucci, Olympus Imaging America Inc., 484-896-5719, email@example.com, or visit the Olympus website: http://asset.olympusamerica.com/login/.
Olympus Imaging America Inc. is a precision technology leader, designing and delivering award-winning products for consumer and professional markets.
Olympus Imaging America Inc. works collaboratively with its customers and its ultimate parent company, Olympus Corporation, to develop breakthrough technologies with revolutionary product design and functionality that enhance people's lives every day. These include:
- Digital Cameras
- Professional and Interchangeable Lens System Cameras
- Related Underwater Products and Accessories
- Digital and Microcassette Recorders
- Digital Media
- Binoculars
Olympus Imaging America Inc. is responsible for sales in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. For more information, visit: www.olympusamerica.com.
*Specifications and design are subject to change without any notice or obligation on the part of the manufacturer. All trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective holder.
©2012 Olympus Imaging America Inc.
# # #


text: This undulating course has numerous water features and established tree plantations made up of natural indigenous species. Together with the peace and tranquillity of the surroundings, it offers an ideal habitat for natural wildlife, including the Red Kite. With optional tees, this 9-hole, 4119 yards, PAR 62 course provides challenging golf for all abilities. Green fees offer excellent value for money and all players are welcome


text:
Author Notes: I have a confession. Rarely, when a Food 52 theme is announced, do I go into experimentation mode. I usually either have a dish in the lexicon that will qualify, or I have one that's close enough I can just tweak. This week is different. I got up this morning determined to come up with something different from anything I've ever made for the apple salad theme, particularly as we've been warned off Waldorfs (which I could eat four days a week; sue me!). I knew I wanted to pair my apples with meat and cheese. And here's where I wound up. It ain't half bad, if I do say so myownself. Sorry, no photo, but I left my camera in Memphis over Christmas and haven't made my way back to get it. - Kayb —Kayb
Food52 Review: Since I was a kid I have been a huge fan of Waldorf Salad. But over the years, it seems to have fallen out of favor. So I adore this recipe—it's like Waldorf Salad all grown up! The textural variation between the cranberries, apples, bacon and walnuts make every bite exciting and remind me of my old favorite. The honey balsamic vinaigrette gives it a totally new flavor profile. The sweet and smokey aspects give a fabulous balance to the dish. I also like that the dressing is brown so oxidation and discoloration of the apples is not an issue, allowing this dish to be made ahead of time. The salad uses ingredients that are generally always on hand, and I see me taking this to neighborhood barbeques this summer. It really is a versatile dish and can be served year round! —epickles
Serves: 4
Honey Balsamic Viniagrette
cup good balsamic vinegar
cup your favorite olive oil
tablespoons honey -- start with three, then go to taste from that point
teaspoon smoked paprika
pinch thyme
pinch allspice
Apple salad
Honey Crisp apples, sliced
slices good smoked bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
ounces dried, sweetened cranberries
ounces feta, crumbled
cup walnut pieces, toasted
Honey Balsamic Viniagrette
- Whisk all ingredients together. If you're ambitous, you can whisk everything and then whisk in the olive oil, making an emulsion that won't separate; I find it easier to just whisk it or shake it before I apply it. Set dressing aside.
Apple salad
- Sliced unpeeled apples and arrange in a spiral patttern on a salad plate. Or, if presentation is not an issue, dice and put in a bowl.
- Toss together the bacon, cranberries and walnuts. Put a portion of the topping over each plate of apples, or atop the apples in the bowl.
- Drizzle viniagrette over salad. If you're working in a bowl, go ahead and toss, to get the apples nicely coated and turn them brown in advance of oxydation doing so.
- Crumble feta cheese atop each portion, or the entire bowl.
- This recipe is a Community Pick!
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Salad with Apples
More Great Recipes:


text:
Dil Se (1998)
Directed by Mani RathnamGenres - Musical | Sub-Genres - Romantic Epic | Run Time - 163 min. | Countries - India | MPAA Rating - G
Share on
Synopsis by Gönül Dönmez-Colin
Mani Rathnam, who has proven with films like Bombay (1995) and Iruvar (1998) that it was possible in India to make quality films that could also be box-office hits, chose the 50th anniversary celebrations of Indian Independence as the backdrop for this film about the clash between love and ideology. Amar Kant Varma is the son of a deceased army officer and he lives with his family in Delhi. As a program executive for All India Radio, he travels all over the country to interview common people to mark the anniversary. On one of these trips, he meets a mysterious girl named Meghna at a train station, but loses sight of her before he can get to know her. He sees her again in another town and reminds her of their meeting. Meghna doesn't seem to recognize him. Although she doesn't really want him, he follows her all the way to Ladakh. After two days together, she leaves him to join a group of insurgents on a mission. Amar is heart-broken and marries a girl of his mother's choice. In the meantime, Meghna is chosen to be the main person on a suicide mission targeting the Republic Day Parade. She finds Amar and their destinies entwine. Director Ratnam uses the two characters as symbols for two distinct parts of India at odds with each other -- the big states on the one hand, and the border areas with minority populations on the other. The latter are angry at the central government for having neglected them, which have resulted in a recession. Dil Se, a good example of the energy and imagination of the "Bollywood" movies (referring to Bombay, the "Hollywood of India") from one of the masters of the genre was screened as part of the International Forum of Young Cinema at the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999.
executive, network, parade, radio, station


text:
This organization decided early on that it would team up with local libraries to avoid the cost associated with purchasing a facility, as well as provide the libraries with free programming.
"We connected all the dots," said Adarsh Alphons, founder of Project Art. "Funding for art education has declined over last 30 years and program funding in libraries have faced cuts too."
The non-profit uses it funds through private donations to buy art supplies and pay teachers.
"Art education is essential for kids," said Alphons. "A lot of society's problems will be more easily fixed if children receive arts education."
While the organization does not directly target underprivileged youth, keeping the classes free promotes the idea of serving those who need it.
This program is on a first-come, first-served basis, and 10 students participate in an hour-long class once a week. Project Art officially begins art classes in Brooklyn on October 16 at both the Grand Army Plaza and Bushwick libraries.
"Brooklyn is a very important borough for us and so is Queens because of the diverse community and economic disparities," said Alphons. "They are the cultural mecca in New York City."
Last week, representatives from Project Art and the Queens Library held an event to discuss the program in that borough.
"We offer the space to them for free and they offer free classes for library users," said Sarah Hinkle, assistant coordinator of Children's Services at Queens Library. "It is a great way to reach the public and offer classes in all varieties."
The Queens branches that will be included in Project Art and when they will begin have not been determined. However, Hinkle said that Project Art would be featured at two libraries in Queens in February and run for a full 10-weeks.
"I think what makes a public library unique from a school is that we offer a variety of ways for youth to learn," she said. "Because of how much art is cut at public schools, it is great to provide art classes."
Alphons said his goal is to bring Project Art to 25 library branches by 2015.
"There are many families warming up to the idea of bring art into their lives," he said.


text:
I was truly impressed with the XShot. It is a portable, easy to use product that helps you take clear pictures and videos, without shakiness. You can even use it on your camera phone. Amazing!
Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) November 16, 2012
Sweepstakes Ninja is pleased to welcome XShot as a Sweepstakes Giveaway sponsor in its Sweepstakes Draws. XShot LLC, is a leading innovator in the camera accessories market. Their popular line of camera extenders and iPhone cases have been featured on CNN,Good Morning America, Wired Magazine, and Gizmodo. Within days of launching the Sweepstakes Ninja promotion, over 5,000 people have learned about their line of camera accessory products.
Sweepstakes Ninja is promoting the XShot line of products through an online video review, partner newsletters, website forums, live video chats, and third party advertisements. Within days of launch, over 1000 individuals entered the sweepstakes. More than 5000 people learned about the XShot products through Sweepstakes Ninja newsletters. Users that have seen the review have remarked on the products simplicity and ease of use. As one Sweepstakes Ninja user remarked, "I was truly impressed with the XShot. It is a portable, easy to use product that helps you take clear pictures and videos, without shakiness. You can even use it on your camera phone. Amazing!"
Contestants have a chance of winning an XShot Camera extender, and an iPhone 4/4S case with a tripod adapter. The camera extender allows an individual to take pictures of themselves, capturing a full background instead of just faces. The iPhone 4/4S case with tripod adapter makes it easy for an individual to take group photos with an iPhone.
The sweepstakes promotion officially runs until December 1st, 2012. It is a daily entry sweepstakes that camera aficionados may enter. To increase their chances of winning, the entrant may share sweepstakes links with friends, family, and through social media. This is a win-win situation for both XShot and the entrant. Entrants increase their chances of winning award winning products, and more people learn about the XShot line of products.
For more details, please contact Johnathan at Sweepstakes Ninja, or visit http://sweepstakesninja.com/sweepstakesdraw/draw/xshot-giveaway


text:
Church Summer Schedule On Sunday, June 3, 2012, Mc- Connellsburg United Presbyterian Church will return to its summer schedule. There will be no Sunday school and worship will be at 10 a.m. All are welcome.
Burnt Cabins Bible Church Anniversary The Burnt Cabins Bible Church will be celebrating its 20th anniversary on Sunday, June 3, with a special two-hour service beginning at 9 a.m. There will be a time of singing hymns, special music, testimonies, a trip down memeory lane and a message brought by Dr. George Rundle of Baptist Missions to Forgotten People. Pastor Bob Benson and the congregation invite everyone in the Burnt Cabins area to join in for this special service as we honor God for all He has done for us the past 20 years.
Bible School Vacation Bible School begins at Warfordsburg Presbyterian Faith Center, Sunday, June 3, and continues through Thursday, June 7, from 6:45 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Classes are for ages 3 through grade six. All are welcome to attend and enjoy songs, stories, crafts and snacks. For more information, call 717-294-3028.
Fannettsburg Church Services Fannettsburg Reformed Church Cemetery Association's annual services will be held Sunday, June 10, at 2:30 p.m. Guest speaker will be Rev. Larry Locke. Special music by The Gospel Jammers. Lori McAllen will play the old pump organ for congregational singing. All are welcome.
Parks Ministry Services The Chaplains in the Parks ministry at Cowans Gap State Park and Burnt Cabins Grist Mill will hold weekly nondenominational services between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Services at the Burnt Cabins Grist Mill are held in the pavilion every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. Services at Cowans Gap State Park are held at the amphitheater at 10 a.m. every Sunday. Both services are open to campers and to members of the community and public who wish to attend.
Bible School Vacation Bible School is scheduled at Center United Methodist Church June 11-15, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Special Singing The Masters will perform at Mt. Zion Lutheran Church, 10987 Little Cove Road, Mercersburg, Sunday June 3, 2012. They will perform special music, sponsored by the Mt. Zion Union Cemetery Association, at the annual homecoming service beginning at 10:30 a.m. The service is held once a year to honor community graduates, and long time members. All contributions received that day, unless designated otherwise, are used for the upkeep and maintenance of the surrounding cemetery. The cemetery is maintained solely from voluntary contributions. Everyone is invited to stay for a covered-dish luncheon immediately following the service.
Contemporary Worship Contemporary worship service at St. Paul's United Church of Christ on Sunday, June 3, at 11 a.m. It will be an informal service with live modern music and children's message. Nursery provided. St. Paul's is located at 228 N. Second St. in McConnellsburg. Call 717 485-5554 or visit our Web site www.uccmccbg.weebly.com for more information.
Family Home Evening The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located in Penn's Village Shopping Center, will hold a family home evening June 4, at 7 p.m.
Memorial Service Cancelled The annual Timber Ridge Cemetery Association memorial service normally held on the first Sunday of June has been cancelled. Instead there will be a homecoming celebration held Sunday, July 29. More details will follow at a later date.
Fireman's Parade/Car Show The McConnellsburg Volunteer Fire Co. will host a fireman's parade and car show on June 9, 2012, during the annual Strawberry Festival. The judging will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Fulton County Fairgrounds. The parade will begin at noon and start at the Fulton County Fairgrounds and go west on Lincoln Way to end at First Street. Hope everyone will come and show their support and have a good time. More information may be obtained by calling 717-446-9691. Prizes will be awarded in three categories.
Family Fun Day Buck Valley Park Association will hold a family fun day Saturday, June 23. Food, fun and games for everyone.
Line Dance Fulton County Line Dance Club will hold line dance sessions every Wednesday (except the first Wednesday of the month) beginning at 7:00 p.m. at VFW Post 655, Poplar Street, McConnellsburg. All are welcome. Come and learn some new steps. A $2 donation is appreciated.
Motorcycle Run The Broad Top Community Center and Melius Family are teaming up for their fourth annual motorcycle run. Proceeds will be used for upkeep on the building. The Melius family is raising money for the American Cancer Society. The run will be June 3 at Broad Top Community Center, 21125 Broad Street, Broad Top City. Registration is from 9:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. More information may be obtained by calling 814-635-2159 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
Atlantic City Trip Mason-Dixon Hunters Helping Kids will host a bus trip to Atlantic City June 16. Price is $55 and includes $22 slot play bonus and buffet meal. Money must accompany reservations. Call Bonnie at 717-485-5529 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
Strawberry Festival/Dog Show Buchanan Lioness Strawberry Festival and Fun Dog Show will be held Saturday, June 2, at Mercersburg Lions Club Park. The event includes Fun Dog Show, crafts, collectibles, strawberry treats, Lions chicken barbecue and TV raffle. Craft, flea market and collectible vendors are needed. More information may be obtained by calling 717-328-3104 or 717-328-3862.
Food Auction Hustontown Area Volunteer Fire Co. will hold a food auction Saturday, June 2, at 2 p.m. Kitchen opens at noon. Vendor will be Mike Sullivan.
Mellott Memorial Golf Tournament Fulton County Community Christian School will host the 11th annual Forrest R. Mellott Memorial Golf Tournament Saturday, June 16, 2012, at Great Cove Golf Course, McConnellsburg. This tournament will be a four-person scramble with a shotgun start beginning at 8 a.m. Top prize for the tournament is $1,000. For information, contact Great Cove Golf Course at 717-485-4157; Dan Gordon 240-625-2079; or e-mail email@example.com.
Carwash A carwash will be held Saturday, June 2, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at All Things Automotive. Cost is a donation. All proceeds benefit Girl Scout Troop 1597 of McConnellsburg.
Mic Night Mic Night will be held at Warfordsburg Senior Center on June 9, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Kitchen opens at 5 .pm. Food and drink will be available. Donation is a $1. Everyone is welcome. For more information call 717-294-6020.
Strawberry Festival The 22nd annual Strawberry Festival is on schedule for Friday and Saturday, June 8 and 9. Activities begin at 10 a.m. each day. Good food and fellowship each day. Friday noontime will feature the live music of "Old Friends," and also after the firemen's parade. Friday evening features a hat contest at 7 p.m. in Fulton Theatre sponsored by Tickle Your Fancy Gifts & Tea. Saturday morning kicks off with the 5K Strawberry Stampede run/walk at 8:30 a.m. At noon Saturday, the McConnellsburg Fire Co. will sponsor a parade. Also featured will be a Beautiful Baby and Toddler contest, strawberry recipe contest, strawberry capping contest, window decorating contest and strawberry coloring contest for kindergarten and first graders. Applications are available at 485-4064 or www.fultoncountypa.com.
Swimming Lessons Great Cove Golf Course & Recreation Club will offer American Red Cross swimming lessons. The following sessions will be offered during the 2012 summer season: session #1 – June 18-29; session #2 – July 9-20th; session #3 – July 30 – Aug. 10. To register, call Kathy J. Kendall at 485- 0221 or 377-3643.
Strawberry Festival Recipe Contest Entries for the recipe contest for the Strawberry Festival are to be dropped off at the chamber tent in the courthouse square Friday, June 8, by 11 a.m. There are three categories: cake, pie and wild card. Judging on originality, presentation and taste/texture. All entries must use one-pint minimum of strawberries as their main ingredient. For complete rules and application forms, contact the Chamber & Tourism office at 485-4064 or fultoncountypa.com.
Living History At Library Danielle Paruch will be talking about her experience in the Peace Corps Saturday, June 30, at 10 a.m., in the community room of Fulton County Library.
Christian Social Services Closed During the months of June and July Christian Social Services of Fulton County will not hold set office hours, but will be serving clients by appointment only. Please call for an appointment at 717-485- 5796.
Fulton County Farm Service Office Closures Due to limited staffing, Fulton County FSA office, located in McConnellsburg, will be closed on the following dates: June 1; June 15; June 29. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the Fulton County office at 717-485-3231, Ext. 2; the Franklin County Office at 717-264-8074, Ext. 2; or Don Delp, district director, at 717-645-6065.
Ice Cream Social An ice cream social will be held Saturday, June 2, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Cito Fellowship Hall, 3746 Cito Road, McConnellsburg. Served will be homemade ice cream and pie, along with some enjoyable music. All are welcome.
Festival Siloam United Methodist Church will hold its first festival of the season June 16 at 4 p.m. Served will be soup, sandwiches, pie, french fries, homemade ice cream, etc. The church is located south of Harrisonville on Rt. 655. Music, featuring the Country Christians, will start at approximately 5 p.m.
Free Meal A free will be held June 12 at Asbury United Methodist Church, 7404 Lincoln Highway, Harrisonville. Served will be pasta, salad, beverage and dessert from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. all are welcome.
Beef/Pig Roast A beef and pig roast fundraiser, catered by Long's Catering, will be held June 23, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Cumberland Valley Relief Center, Marion, Pa. All donations benefit Cumberland Valley Relief Center. Please RSVP to the center for an accurate count at 717-375-2088.
Ice Cream Festival Center United Methodist Church will hold its first ice cream festival of the year Saturday, June 2, at 4 p.m. Turkey dinners will be available with filling, mashed potatoes, green beans or corn, applesauce or coleslaw. Also available will be sandwiches, soup, pie, cake and ice cream. The church is located one-half mile off Rt. 655, five miles north of Hustontown on Dublin Mills Road. Mark calendars for July 14 and August 25 for festivals.
Festival St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Big Cove Tannery, will hold a festival June 16, at 4 p.m. Menu includes homemade ice cream, soups, pies and cakes, barbecue, hamburger and hot dogs. Entertainment provided by the County Classics band from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The church is located five miles south of McConnellsburg on Route 522.
Festival Buck Valley Park Association will hold a festival on Saturday, June 16. Kitchen opens at 5 p.m. with games and bingo beginning at 6 p.m. Music will be provided by Rusty Mc- Combee and Morgan County Line. Free Meal St. Paul Lutheran Church at 220 North Third Street, McConnellsburg, will serve a free meal the second Tuesday of each month from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Come and enjoy good food and fellowship.
Nutrition Class Fulton County nutrition awareness classes are held at Warfordsburg Senior Center on the third Monday of every month. When the third Monday is a holiday, it is held the fourth Monday from 10:00 a.m. to noon. To register or sign up for lunch call 717-294-6020.
McConnellsburg AA Meetings The McConnellsburg Chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous will meet on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. every week at the Alumni Building Basement, McConnellsburg.
Free Blood Pressure Screenings Free blood pressure screenings will be given at the following locations: McConnellsburg Senior Center the first Thursday of every month from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Hann's Apartments the second Monday of every month from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; Warfordsburg Senior Center the third Wednesday of every month from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; and Hustontown Senior Center the third Thursday of every month from 11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
Community Wellness/Silver Sneakers/Prime Community Wellness/Silver Sneakers/Prime will be held Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Wednesday and Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at Fulton County Medical Center cardiopulmonary rehab gym. The cost is based on insurance. Call Kim or Patti at 717-485-6149 to see if insurance provider is accepted. Community Wellness is $40/month/person or $70/month/couple.
Yoga Classes Reaching Wellness yoga classes will be held for all ages every Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., at Community State Bank. Call for cost and to register at 717-485- 4492.
Blood Drive A Red Cross blood drive will be held at Mc- Connellsburg United Presbyterian Church Tuesday, June 12, from noon to 6 p.m. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to donate. Donation site is in the fellowship hall of the church located at the corner of Second Avenue and Maple Street.
Zumba Fitness Reaching Wellness Zumba fitness class will be held for all ages every Friday, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Mc- Connellsburg Alumni & Friends building. More information may be obtained by calling 717-253-7599 or at firstname.lastname@example.com.
CPR Class CPR class will be held at Fulton County Library Saturday, June 2, from 10 a.m. to noon. Please register at the library. Cost is $25.
Suicide Intervention Workshop Mental Health Association of Franklin and Fulton counties will sponsor a workshops on applied suicide intervention skills training Thursday and Friday, June 7 and 8. The workshop will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church, 26 W. Commerce Street, Chambersburg, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Training will focus on suicide prevention and will cost $30 per person for all Franklin and Fulton County residents, including food and all expenses. Interested people should contact 717-264-4301.
Zumba Class Reaching Wellness Zumba classes will be held for all ages Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., at Celebrations Unlimited. Call for cost and register at 814-259-3667.
Legion Meeting American Legion Post 561 active members regular meeting is the first Tuesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Auxiliary members meet the second Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. Members of both organizations are urged to attend.
Singles Meeting Knobsville Singles will meet Monday, June 11, at 9 a.m. at K's Place.
PARSE Meeting Pennsylvania Association of Retired State Employees (PARSE) has a 9:00 a.m. breakfast meeting on the second Wednesday of every month at McConnellsburg FOVA (VFW). If roads are snow-covered, meeting will be cancelled. All retired state employees and spouses are invited to attend. For additional information, call 717-294-3861.
Democratic Meetings The Fulton County Democratic Club meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Democratic Headquarters building at 123 South Second Street in McConnellsburg. Meetings are open to the public, light refreshments are provided and all are welcome. More information may be obtained by calling 485 3386.
Scout Meeting Boy Scouts of America Troop 43 meets every Friday night from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the VFW, 518 Lincoln Way East, McConnellsburg. It is open to all boys 11-18 years of age. Monetary donations and help will be accepted. More information may be obtained by contacting the Scoutmaster Martin Seylar at 717-485-4093.
Garden Club Meeting North End Garden Club will meet at noon Tuesday, June 26, at the home of Linda Garber, 794 Peach Orchard Road, McConnellsburg. The club will view the gardens and share tips with master gardeners. New members and visitors are welcome. More information may be obtained by calling Sharon Berbert at 717-485-5736.
Book Club Meeting Young adult book club will meet Friday, June 1, at 4:30 p.m., upstairs at the Fulton County Library. Discussing "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. Please call Jamie at the library at 485-5327, Ext. 202, or e-mail email@example.com if you need a copy of the book.
PARSE Meetings Cancelled Fulton County PARSE Chapter 127 will not hold meetings June, July and August. Meetings will continue in September.
VFW/FOVA Meetings VFW/FOVA meetings will be held at 6 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month, immediately following the board of directors meeting.
MHS Reunion McConnellsburg High School Class of 1992 will hold its 20-year class reunion. Any classmates interested in participating or helping to plan, please e- mail email@example.com or call Julie Elvey Dovey at 717-485- 5923.
Souders Reunion The descendants of Claude Souders will hold their family reunion on Sunday, June 10, 2012, at Cito fellowship hall, beginning at 1 p.m.
McCbg. Bingo McConnellsburg Fire Co. will hold bingo every Monday and Friday of each week. Bingo starts at 7:00 p.m. and doors open at 5:30 p.m. Bingo starts at 1:00 p.m. and doors open at 11:00 a.m. Forty games and meal plus snacks for $25.


text:
With its bold styling, sporty handling and all that power under the hood, it's the perfect car for drivers who like to try new things, seek discovery and live life to the fullest. Why not experience a few of your own preferences in a Chevrolet Sonic RHD®?
Chiseled front, front headlamps with cromed rings and 16" aluminum wheels
Every inch of Chevrolet Sonic RHD® was considered in great detail. With aggressive, youthful design from every angle, Chevrolet Sonic RHD® conveys strength, stability and refinement.
A wide, planted stance hints to the agile handling it offers. Plus, a chiseled front end and expressive wheel arches give Chevrolet Sonic RHD® some serious attitude.
Chevrolet Sonic RHD® is endowed with expressive fender flares, motorcycle-inspired headlamps and a unique dual-port grille. Its side mirrors seem to disappear into its profile. Chrome grille surrounds and matte black honeycomb grille design make a strong visual statement.
And you can make an even bigger statement with a rainbow of 7 available exterior colors, and Velvet Red paint option.
Boost the aggressive and sporty stance of your Chevrolet Sonic RHD® with eye-catching wheels. With the LS 15" aluminum wheels you'll be riding in style.
Central console with silver metallic finish and "Ice-blue" lighting
There's a smart way to make use of space, and Chevrolet Sonic RHD® is brilliant. Stow items quickly with storage compartments in the center console and doors. Plus, the rear seats fold virtually flat for carrying larger items.
When it comes to comfort and functionality, Chevrolet Sonic RHD® has you covered with the front bucket seats, steering wheel-mounted audio and cruise controls and a graphic silver metallic shifter knob. And with the infotainment system, you get an AM/FM radio with CD, MP3 player, iPod® Port and Bluetooth® to keep you entertained while you drive.
The performance-inspired design elements Chevrolet Sonic RHD® boasts on the exterior are exactly what you find when you get behind the wheel. From the dual-cockpit interior to the motorcycle-inspired instrument cluster and chrome accents, no detail was overlooked. Chevrolet Sonic RHD® is ready to be driven, so grab onto its 3-spoke steering wheel, designed for optimal grip, and hold on tight.
Chevrolet Sonic RHD® is the perfect blend of power and efficiency. It's powered by efficient, power-dense small-displacement engines, like the standard 1.6L 4-cylinder engine designed for low emissions, low maintenance and boosted fuel efficiency. This compact powerhouse is naturally aspirated and boasts 115 horsepower at 6000 rpm, along with 114 lb-ft of torque at 4000 rpm. Add a fine-tuned suspension and sporty handling, and you've got one attractive little thrill ride.
Chevrolet Sonic RHD® engineers went through hundreds of suspension variations until they found the perfect blend of handling and ride comfort, giving it extraordinary agility. It's a tight and easy drive that will get you excited when you step on the gas. Chevrolet Sonic RHD® offers the most available torque in its class, which means the most get-up-and-go. Chevrolet Sonic RHD® is pumped and ready for the ride of your life.
Chevrolet Sonic RHD® keeps you connected to all your favorite entertainment, with an available 6-speaker audio system, USB and iPod® ports and Bluetooth®.
Chevrolet Sonic RHD® is designed to help drivers avoid collisions, while protecting occupants in the event a collision does occur.
Standard includes the ABS system; the well known 4-channel antilock brakes that helps to maintain control and stability during hard braking by preventing wheels lockup.
If a moderate-to-severe collision does occur, Chevrolet Sonic RHD® is designed to respond quickly. Standard pretentions minimize forward movement of the front passengers, while load-limiting retractors cinch safety belts more tightly.
And Chevrolet Sonic RHD® has 4 standard air bags, including front and side air bags, which provide face, head, thorax and pelvis protection to driver and passenger in the event of a side-impact or rollover collision. Sensors throughout the vehicle determine how many air bags will deploy.
Additionally, front and rear "crush zones" are designed to compress in a controlled manner, helping absorb and channel energy away from the cabin.
® Chevrolet 2012 General Motors of Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.
*Images shown in this website are for illustrative purposes only


text:
This was the canape menu at the Wedding reception at Buck House on Friday :
http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2 ... eption.htm
10000 canapes for 650 guests ............ that's about an average of 16 canapes each.
I wasn't invited although I couldn't have gone anyway.
Although my wife went to one of the summer garden parties at the Palace 2 summers ago through a charity with which I am involved. I couldn't go then as I was in hospital. Better luck next time.


text:
Thursday, January 24, 2013
A Comment on Blog Comments
26 comments:
We are cool! I don't like the word verification either!! Sometimes I just give up and don't leave a comment after trying several times to type in the right answer! I do like your idea of moderating after a post is several days old. I just might try doing that with mine. Though I haven't had a problem with spam comments....yet.ReplyDeleteReplies
See...that's my greatest fear. That someone will just exit my blog without leaving a comment. What if that person has all the answers to my genealogy questions? Ahhh!Delete
If your blog isn't getting spam, I wouldn't worry about moderating anything yet. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep moderating or not. Most real people don't comment on older posts, and it seems to be the best way to keep spam from seeing the light of day.
Hey, Amy, you're cool! I have SO much trouble with Captcha and comment verification. They have driven me to spend more time "Liking" a post on FB than leaving a meaningful comment on a blog.ReplyDelete
I use the Squarespace blogging service and keep comment verification turned off. The SqSp spam filters are very effective and seem to catch 99%. Also, I find that by posting after 3am PST, my spam comments drop (Guy Kawasaki suggested this). I agree that old posts seem to be picked up more for spam, so I sometimes go back and turn off comments on those posts. Sorry. But, I'd rather keep it easy for readers to respond to current posts than put up safeguards site wide.
You do a great job moderating comments and keeping the conversation moving. I bet this one is "live" within minutes :>)
~ DeniseReplies
I'm cool? No, YOU'RE cool.Delete
Using my site statistics, I've noticed that a lot of spam comes from other countries like India and Russia, and it does so over night when they're awake and I'm not.
If I can't read the word verification, I click that thing that throws out a new one, which always seems very easy. But I don't have it on my blog either. So far Blogger has caught most of the spam anyway. I've noticed too that most of the spam has been on old posts - and even then it's usually in the Spam folder -, so your solution is a very good one. Smart! That's why you get the big bucks.ReplyDeleteReplies
Wendy, I approach word verification the same way. Usually I just guess at what I can't read and that works. However, I don't know if everyone else does it that way, or they just get flustered and back out altogether.Delete
Blogger is usually pretty good, though I just had a rough patch. Seems to have worked itself out.
Amy, that is just too bad that you have been targeted with spam. Frustrating. And you are right--the captcha devices are frustrating, too. Hard to strike the balance. (Although Denise may be right about that posting after 3 a.m. PST, which I also do.)ReplyDelete
I absolutely thrive on the comments on my blog. It would be such a shame to have to limit, minimize, or disable access to comments. I really feel for you on this one.Replies
Thanks. I have o problem going to battle with spammers behind the scenes. I just feel bad when a spam comment gets through. Readers don't need to see that.Delete
I think I've been dealing with the same spammers. As you say, they are targeting old posts which evidently have the right keywords. I hadn't thought of filtering comments moderation to older posts only. Thanks for the tip, oh cool, wise one!Replies
You're welcome! There are about 4-5 old posts that are just getting bombed. I turned off comments to those posts altogether. Then I updated those posts with a little note about why you can't comment and instructions on how to reach me. I'm kind of obsessed with not missing any comments.Delete
This might be the best solution - targeting those few old posts that seemed to get bombed with spam. I will have to try this.Delete
Like you, Amy, I use Blogger. I have noticed a TON of e-mail notifications on comments the spam filter has caught, but I did go in and look at comments today and I saw two spams on fairly recent posts that made it through.ReplyDelete
Also, like you, I hate CAPTCHA and word verification and all those other hoops, and I am one of those people that, unless my comment is really relevant, I'm NOT going to jump through those hoops to leave it. Therefore - since you and I seem to be in the minority when it comes to comment moderation - I don't leave a lot of comments anywhere.
Unlike you, I don't moderate comments on my older posts. Part of the reason is no smartphone, so no instant notification, and I want people to feel I want to read what they have to say. FWIW, some of my best leads have come from comments on my older posts.
I love your idea above about turning off comments (and adding the update note) on the posts that are getting bombed with spam.Replies
I'm debating leaving old-post moderation on or not. It was a solution when there was an influx of spam and the Blogger filter hadn't caught up. Now it seems ok. We'll see. Like you, I want zero barriers to commenting for my readers.Delete
I didn't know I could moderate comments on older posts. Thanks for telling us about that!ReplyDelete
A few weeks ago I turned off the captcha so all comments go through. The most unfortunate thing is that even if blogger catches a spam comment and sends it to the spam folder, readers who have requested that comments from a post be sent to their email addresses receive the spam comments at the same time they appear in your mailbox.
It's a catch-22 trying to decide what's best but I think your moderation of older posts may be the best we can do now.Replies
Thanks for not requiring the capcha. For those of us who are blind, they are virtually impossible to complete, even if there is an audio option. Melissa SmithReplyDeleteReplies
Melissa, thank you for the feedback. I want everyone to be able to comment on this blog. And I want the process to be as easy as possible.Delete
I kinda like the captchas. I treat it like trying to read poor handwriting on a census record, like when you can't quite tell what the name of that last child is, the one you never knew about, and the enumerator's handwriting is so bad that the best you can decipher is that the youngest boy in the family is named Toensli!ReplyDelete
Love your blog, Amy. We'll live through any spam that might creep in.
Like you I seem to get most spam from Russia and, observing the characters, also China. All my comments are on moderation. Usually I screen them within hours. Indeed they seem to concentrate on older posts. Can't imagine anyone reacting to this rubbish. Here, in Holland, spamming is illegal with heavy fines (if they catch you). Maybe one day other countries will do what is necessary to fight this nuisance. Just continue with your blog, love reading it.ReplyDelete
As always Amy, you crack me up with your humor during a 'serious' conversation. The word verification does drive me crazy and I'm a 'youngster'. So... live while you're alive and march to your own drum. Glad to know you're on the job (well, when you're awake).ReplyDelete
Amy, just wanted to let you know that your blog post is listed in my Fab Finds today at http://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/01/follow-fridayfab-finds-for-january-24.htmlReplyDelete
I'm like you, I hate Captchas...so hard to read. I AM NOT A ROBOT! They are also hard to respond to on phones and tablets. My iPhone doesn't let me see the Captcha while I am entering it and if I scroll up to see it I have to start over. And don't even get me started on "auto-correct" and captchas. AGGGH! Perhaps I need to switch to self-moderating. I'll have to think it over...thanks for the thought!ReplyDelete
I have had to "give up" on comments on many blog posts, because I simply run out of patience. Three tries and I'm out! Because of this I the fact that you don't require it.ReplyDelete
Thank you for a very informative post. I have been increasingly bothered by spam from "Anonymous" - up to 3-4 a day which are captured by my spam box. Initially I was almost taken in by the complimentary nature of the comments until I grew suspicious. I too hate word verification, especially as I have poor eyesight and struggle wtih the letters & nos and have given up on occasions. However I never even realised that I had the W.V setting on my blog until a kind blogger mentioend it and suggested I dispense with it - and instructed me how to. To me Comments from fellow bloggers are the life blood of blogging.ReplyDelete
Amy, I'm having this debate with myself regularly. Not all captcha's are equally awful. I have moderation on at my personal pages but I'm not happy about it. I admit though that a smartphone would likely change my position on moderation. The captcha I use at my pro site is not as obnoxious as some but I've seen even easier to use versions out there that I am looking into.ReplyDelete
As a reader though, I will admit to giving up on the captcha with the tiny, blurry numbers followed by the wavy letters so prevalent on some of my favorite sites.
Thanks for the food for thought.


text:
By JOHN FLOWERS
MIDDLEBURY — Addison County Transit Resources (ACTR) on April 28 will ask the Middlebury Development Review Board for permission to build a new headquarters off Creek Road to accommodate the organization's growing bus fleet, which serve the region's increasing demand for public transportation.
MIDDLEBURY — The organizer of a Dec. 28 underage drinking party that caused $10,600 in damage to the former summer home of Robert Frost in Ripton will not serve any jail time, but will pay $3,500 in restitution, perform 100 hours of community service and be on probation for two years.
Those were the main components of a plea agreement negotiated between Addison County State's Attorney John Quinn and 18-year-old Ripton resident Andrew Ford, who fainted during a courtroom discussion with Addison County District Court Judge Helen Toor as she accepted the plea deal on Tuesday.
Ford suddenly collapsed and appeared to lose consciousness as judge Toor queried him on his reasons for organizing the party at the Homer Noble House that drew more than two dozen people, many of them Middlebury Union High School students. Most of those students have already accepted court diversion as punishment for their roles in the destructive party, which has garnered national publicity.
Court officials quickly cleared the courtroom after Ford's collapse, but called off an ambulance after he quickly regained composure and completed the sentencing hearing, with his parents at his side.
"I have never scared someone so much that someone fainted in my courtroom," Toor told Ford in a brief light moment after order had been restored. "I was trying to scare you a little bit, but not that much."
Ford's punishment includes a suspended jail term of six- to 12 months and an educational course that he and the other culprits will have to attend. Quinn confirmed on Tuesday that he is speaking with Jay Parini, author and D. E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, about leading the course to enlighten the youths about Frost's iconic status as an American poet.
SALISBURY — Don Ballou concedes that his body and mind are showing some signs of wear and tear.
He's more than entitled.
Ballou, a resident of the Shard Villa senior care home in Salisbury, will be celebrating his 100th birthday on Friday, March 28.
"I've been very fortunate in a lot of ways, and I've had a lot of help," Ballou said on Monday, in reflecting upon a very rich life that has included some 31 years as a mathematics professor at Middlebury College and a fulfilling retirement during which he has traveled to all corners of the globe.
"I'm quite indebted to all the folks who have helped me along the way, such as here (at Shard Villa) and at Elderly Services (in Middlebury)," he said.
Don Ballou was born on March 28, 1908, in Chester, Vt. Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House. Frenchman Henri Farman had just piloted the first passenger flight, and Robert Baden-Powell had just established the Boy Scout movement.
Chester was a wonderful place in which to grow up, Ballou recalled. He enjoyed going to school, where he developed a particular fondness for English and math.
He completed his undergraduate studies in English at Yale University, but decided to switch his focus to math after deciding that his mind "worked better" solving equations rather than "talking around a subject" in English.
So, Ballou went on to Harvard University for his graduate studies in math then took his first teaching job, as a mathematics professor at Georgia Tech in 1934.
He considered himself fortunate to land the job.
"It was toward the end of the (Great) Depression," Ballou said. "There weren't many positions available."
Subscribe to Online Edition
Online PDF Print Edition
Copyright 2011 Addison Independent | 58 Maple Street, Middlebury, Vt. 05753 | All Rights Reserved
Site Development by Surf New Media


text:
A few years from now, or perhaps in July, this battery could be a big deal. Matt Harvey and Travis d'Arnaud represent the Mets' future, and today they provided a glimpse.
Harvey, already in the rotation, gave up two runs in 5.1 innings and was backed by two hits and two runs scored by d'Arnaud in a 3-2 victory today over St. Louis. In an 80-pitch effort, of which 54 were strikes, Harvey struck out six and gave up six hits. Spring training is a progression and today Harvey saw an improvement in his breaking ball.
Of course, being a perfectionist, he wasn't totally satisfied."I was really happy about my curveball,'' Harvey told reporters in Jupiter. "Unfortunately, I gave up too many hits in my mind, but overall I'm healthy and feeling good.''
Harvey made a good impression in ten starts last year with his fastball and composure, but went into the off-season wanting to improve his breaking ball and change-up.
"The biggest thing from last year was not having my curveball,'' Harvey said. "I threw a lot of good ones and was able to throw it in the dirt when I needed to. That's a big pitch for me. Having that back is definitely a big plus for me.''
Harvey has a 2.95 ERA this spring with 24 strikeouts in 18.1 innings. Over a strikeout an inning is a tremendous ratio, but he is smart enough to realize it is better to get an out on one pitch instead of three. Harvey said 200-plus innings is a goal, and to reach it he must go deep into games by keeping his pitch count down.
"I'm starting to learn that a groundball is just as good (as a strikeout),'' Harvey said. "Going deep into a game is on my mind. If I go seven or eight innings with three strikeouts, that's seven or eight innings."
The Mets gave up Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey to get d'Arnaud, who they regarded as the key to the deal. When speaking of the other, each said the pitcher-catcher relationship is a matter of chemistry, and so far they've clicked early.
"It's a matter of working together and getting on the same page,'' Harvey said. "In three starts with him, it's almost like we've been with each other for a couple of years.''
D'Arnaud is ticketed for Triple-A Las Vegas, but the Mets have given him the privilege of sticking around and making him feel like he belongs in the Mets clubhouse. What he liked best about Harvey today was his poise and command.
"I thought he had a tremendous day, especially with this curveball,'' said d'Arnaud, who will be developing a working relationship with the Mets' other pitching prospect, Zack Wheeler, soon enough.
Wheeler strained a right oblique muscle, Feb. 27, and pitched for the first time since today in a minor league game.
Wheeler posted on his Twitter account: " Felt good to get back in a game today. Tossed three innings and one hit. Felt great.''
METS MUSINGS: Lucas Duda homered and Bobby Parnell pitched a scoreless ninth inning after giving up six runs in his previous three games. … Ruben Tejada's miserable spring continued with an 0-for-4. He's now on a 2-for-33 slide. … Also struggling is Brandon Hicks, who struck out three times and has 18 strikeouts in 33 at-bats.