text:
An update on my Forbes experiment

It’s now been a year and change I started writing about the intersection of media, policy, and technology at Forbes. It’s also been two months and change since I last published anything there.

That might look like a conclusive verdict against the experiment I started last June, but the reality is a little more nuanced. On one hand, I’ve very much enjoyed the ability to “write and publish as I see fit instead of waiting for an editor to okay a pitch and then edit my copy” (as I wrote last summer). On the other hand, I’ve yet to clock enough page views in a month to earn above the minimum rate.

So when I had a bunch of new work come my way starting in April, I had to decide at the start of May if I would commit to writing my monthly minimum of five posts–my arrangement doesn’t provide partial pay for posting less than that–or take a break to focus on this new business. And since I had gone months without seeing any Forbes post crack a five-digit number of page views, that was an unavoidable call for me.

My most-read story at Forbes, a post I wrote at the end of November about the strange lifeline AT&T and, to a lesser extent, Verizon provide to the hoax-soaked One America News Network, has drawn a total of 35,747 views as of today. But most have done much worse than that unspectacular total, with many failing to crack a thousand views. That’s frustrated me to no end–not least since I’ve seen pieces at other outlets do great in the same time–but at a certain point, I had to stop banging my head against that wall and direct my attention to work that didn’t have Web-traffic stats between me and my payment.

It’s possible that the subscription paywall Forbes put in place late last year (you should see the dialog above after reading five stories at the site in a month) has made it much harder for a post to go viral there. But I’ve seen at least one friend who writes at Forbes continue to hit numbers that should earn a decent bonus. Maybe I’m just page-view Kryptonite at this client in particular?

If I am, and if I decide to call it a day for this experiment, I will have no regrets. I’ve been able to address important topics–for example, Apple’s retelling of app-distribution history, the self-owns of some senators trying to interrogate tech CEOs, Google’s abusive conduct of its display-advertising business, President Trump’s clumsy and illegal attempts to regulate social media–as I saw fit. (Thinking about that, it would have been nice to toss up a post Thursday about the lawsuit by 36 states and D.C. against Google over its control of the Play Store instead of limiting my commentary to a Twitter thread that made me no money at all.) And the effort I put into focusing on media-policy issues also made me a sharper, better-sourced reporter in that area.

Meanwhile, management at Forbes has made some smart moves–in particular, bringing on the Houston Chronicle’s former tech columnist Dwight Silverman to cover the computing industry was a great call on their part. And nobody there has told me that time’s up on my contributor gig. But I do know that July already looks shot in terms of writing bandwidth that would let me return to it.

Google told me to put this blog on a diet

The screen real estate around these words should look a little neater now–not much thanks to my own editing instincts. Instead, I needed a scolding from Google.

That came from its PageSpeed Insights tool, a page you can use to check the performance of your own site or any other. It’s been around for years, but I didn’t think to use it until after I finally connected this site to Google’s Search Console webmaster tool last May (yes, even though I’ve been blogging here since 2011 and am supposed to be a professional tech journalist) and saw a prompt to try PageSpeed Insights in my results.

The results were not flattering: a mobile performance score of 47 out of 100, with desktop performance better but still subpar at 89. Scrolling down revealed a variety of flaws in this blog, some that I could correct with the limited tools of a free account and some that I could not.

I started with the first obviously fixable thing, image sizes. Google suggested that I convert such frequently-downloaded elements as the background image to “next-gen formats” like WebP or JPEG 2000. But instead of switching to files that Apple’s Safari browser can’t display, I opened the original photo for the background (a view of the Blue Ridge from a bike century ride in 2006) in my Mac’s GraphicConverter app and exported it with a lower image-quality setting that cut its size by a third at no visible cost.

That did not impress PageSpeed–my mobile score actually dropped to 44–so I moved on to the third-party code that Google reported had been getting in the way of my own content. It listed Facebook as a major offender, accounting for 207 milliseconds of delay. Removing the Facebook widget that you formerly saw in the right-hand sidebar boosted my mobile score to 53, with the desktop score essentially unchanged at 87.

(PageSpeed Insights scores fluctuate up and down with each test, so don’t get bent out of shape if yours drops by five for no apparent reason, at least not until you run the test again.)

Then I removed the Facebook and Twitter share buttons and elected to toss all of the share buttons except the tool to e-mail a link to the page. That edged the mobile score up to 58 and pushed the desktop score up to 96.

This pruning got me to look again at all the ads you see around here–and think about how low-rent so many of them are. I turned off the three “additional ad placement” options that had been salting each post with extra banners. That may cut into my ad revenue, but it’s already so thin I’d rather that my professional presence online not look quite so janky.

Having spun myself up fully into Marie Kondo mode, I returned to the sidebar and removed the Twitter widget (PageSpeed Insights had blamed Twitter code for 119 ms of delay) and some non-interactive links that only cluttered that part of the page.

The results of all this effort as calculated by PageSpeed Insights just now: scores of 76 on mobile and 99 on desktop. I hope you notice this blog loading a little quicker–and I trust you appreciate how this exercise has also rid my blog of Facebook’s tracking.

It’s not the most wonderful week of the year

It’s after 7 p.m. on the Saturday before Christmas, and I wrapped up my workweek and  checked off the last major Christmas chores barely an hour ago. Unfortunately, this is not a departure from my holiday habits.

I’ve never been one of those people who can have all presents purchased and wrapped by a week before Christmas. Every year, the back half of December has me scrambling to find worthy presents for family members until I’m worrying more than I should about Amazon shipping deadlines–or finding that I’ve slipped past the wrong side of them. The joy of the holidays escapes me too easily.

At the same time, the advent of CES–Evil Advent, if you will–and the usual onslaught of PR pitches for exhibitors at that enormous electronics show steadily destroys my ability to focus on my day job. My inability to learn from prior gift-shopping experience seems to be matched by the tech-PR industry’s inability to learn that flooding journalists’ inboxes with repetitive or irrelevant pitches–often coupled with invitations to CES events scheduled in defiance of that show’s schedule and traffic, and often followed by cold calls that are never a good idea—-does not constitute effective outreach.

Being treated as if I have an infinite amount of time to evaluate and respond to CES pitches that themselves assume I’ll have an infinite amount of time in Las Vegas during the show is especially maddening when I’m already feeling strung out by the holidays and struggling to write and file the year’s last stories so I might have a few days around Christmas to do as much of nothing as possible before getting on a plane to Vegas.

It is easy to slip into both workload paralysis and errand paralysis, feeling too overwhelmed to do anything that isn’t due this hour and then feeling lousy for getting so little done. That’s a cruel little cocktail of stress and shame, and I imagine many of you have mixed it for yourselves this month.

The last workweek before Christmas is the worst for this, since at that point there’s almost no time left for the holiday chores and the CES planning and the year’s last crop of stories. Plus, most of the good holiday parties already happened.

All of this stress boiled over Thursday morning, when call from a 646 number I was sure I didn’t want to take set Google Voice ringing on my phone, tablet and desktop. As I cursed at my computer and reached for my phone to dismiss the call, I answered it instead. Oops. There’s a Toyota publicist who probably thinks I’m some unhinged nutcase… which might not be that far off from my frazzled state this time of year.

I’m (still) sorry about the schlock ads here

Yesterday’s announcement of a merger of Taboola and Outbrain–the dreadful duo responsible for those horrible “around the Web” galleries of clickbait ads tarting up many of your favorite news sites–provided yet another reminder of how fundamentally schlocky programmatic ads can get online.

But so did a look at this blog.

When launched WordAds in 2012, the company touted a more tasteful advertising system that bloggers here could be proud of. The reality in the seven years since has been less impressive.

The WordAds program features some respectable, name-brand advertisers like Airbnb and Audible, to name two firms seen here tonight. But it’s also accepted too much tacky crap–including some of the same medically-unsound trash that litters Taboola and Outbrain “chumboxes”–while struggling to block scams like the “forced-redirect” ad in the screenshot at right.

Over the last year, I’ve also been increasingly bothered by the way these ads rely on tracking your activity across the Web. I know that many of you avoid that surveillance by using browsers like Safari or Firefox with tracking-protection features, but I’d just as soon not be part of the privacy problem. Alas, WordPress has yet to offer bloggers the option of running ads that only target context (as in, the posts they accompany), not perceived user behavior as determined by various programmatic systems.

I do make money off these ads, but slowly. Most months, my advertising income here doesn’t exceed $10, and I can’t withdraw any of the proceeds until they exceed $100. I had thought that I’d see one of those paydays last month–but August’s addition to my ad income left me 28 cents shy of that C-note threshold.

So in practice, my major return on WordAds is the opportunity to have my face periodically shoved into the muck of online marketing. That’s worth something, I guess.

What to expect from me on Twitter

A few years ago, the sci-fi author John Scalzi decided to write an explanation of how he uses Twitter, then pinned a tweet linking to that post to his profile so anybody thinking of following him could easily find it. That’s a good idea, so I am stealing it.

Birds want to fly.

What I tweet about: I’ve often used the phrase “public notebook” to describe my tweets–in the sense that I share observations about the things I’m writing about as I learn them. Twitter remains highly useful for that, and for learning about various tech accomplishments and failures as other people report them.

I don’t just stick to tech, though. You will also find me rambling on about politics (writing freelance means I can ignore any stupid newsroom verdicts asking reporters to pretend they don’t think about the issues they cover), food, travel, gardening, space, sports (usually baseball), transportation, architecture, music, and parenting. Yes, there will be dad jokes.

Whom I follow: Most of the nearly 1,000 people I follow have some connection to the tech industry–they’re other tech journalists, analysts, policy advocates or industry executives. I also follow many politicians, in some cases because I think they have notable things to say about tech policy and other cases because I kind of have to (trust me, I’d rather not have Donald Trump’s rants in my timeline). Some companies are in my following list for customer-support purposes, and some friends are there because I like hearing from them. And in one case, I followed a reader by accident after fat-fingering the “follow” button, then decided to let that stand.

Why I might not follow you: While I’ve overcome my early snobbishness about cluttering my timeline with too many people, I’m still not going to follow somebody just because they ask. And “follow me back so I can DM you” is the worst kind of follow-me request. My e-mail address is in my bio for a reason, people!

I use the block button: I still don’t block people all that often, but if somebody is wasting my time with bad-faith arguments, I don’t owe them my attention. And tweeting nutcase conspiracy theories at me–about Seth Rich’s murder, to name the most common–will get you blocked almost immediately.

My DMs aren’t open: Direct messages can be useful as a replacement for text-message banter, but I don’t have my DMs open for everybody for the same reason I don’t invite the world to text me–I don’t need my life to be any more interrupt-driven. So if you were thinking of sending me a PR pitch via DM: My e-mail address is in my bio for a reason.

Retweets might be endorsements: Retweets always mean I want the original tweet to get a wider exposure, but that doesn’t mean I think highly of them. You can be sure that I hate a tweet if I share a screengrab of it to avoid accidentally popularizing that tweet or its author (and I wish more of you would do that instead of having Twitter’s algorithm think some idiot’s output deserves broader publicity). If, however, I retweet without adding any commentary, I probably do approve of that message.

Other notes: I’m frequently sarcastic, which can go over poorly in a medium that destroys context. I often live-tweet events like tech conferences, which can make my feed really busy. I have almost never done any live video on Twitter but probably should. And because I am a sci-fi nerd, my proudest moment on Twitter just might be getting retweeted by Mark Hamill.

AirDrop apologists have some opinions

Who knew suggesting that an Apple interface enabled undesirable outcomes and ought to be changed would be so controversial? Me–I’ve been critiquing Apple’s products since before the company was doooomed in 1996.

But even so, the level of enraged techsplaining that greeted last weekend’s Yahoo post about AirDrop file-sharing has been something else. To recap that briefly: While AirDrop’s default contacts-only setting is safe, accepting a file transfer from somebody not in your contacts requires setting it to “Everyone”–a setting that does not time out but does automatically display a preview of the incoming image. The predictable result: creeps spamming strangers who had set AirDrop to Everyone and then forgot to change it back, and by “spamming” I mean “sending dick pics from iPhones with anonymous names.”

AirDrop settings screen on an iPhone.(For more details, see my Aug. 2017 USA Today column or this Dec. 4 post from the security firm Sophos.)

Suggesting that Apple have the Everyone setting time out or not auto-preview images did not go over well the people–most apparently men–who filled the replies to my tweet Sunday sharing the post. Let me sum up the major points these individuals vainly attempted to make, as seen in quotes from their tweets:

“It’s contacts only by default.” Yes, and if nobody ever interacted with people who weren’t in their contacts and offered to use this handy feature to share in a file, you would have a point. As is, this request comes up all the time–my wife saw it from Apple Store employees–as I explained in the post that these techbros apparently did not finish reading.

“Still trying to make a big deal of something I’ve never experienced.” Thank you, sir, for proving my exact point about the problems of having development teams dominated by white men. As writing about “Gamergate” made obvious, things are often different for the rest of humanity, and “I don’t have this problem” is not a valid defense of a social feature without confirmation from people outside your demographic background. Sorry if asking you to acknowledge your privilege is so triggering, by which I mean I’m not sorry.

“At some point, you have to take some goddamn responsibility.” Ah yes, the old blame-the-customer instinct. I hope the multiple people who expressed some version of “why are you coddling people too dumb to turn Everything off” don’t and never will work in any customer-facing role.

“you don’t have to accept every airdrop item that comes in.” What part of “automatically display a preview” don’t you understand?

“What I don’t understand is why these creeps aren’t reported by the receivers to authorities.” What part of “iPhones with anonymous names” don’t you understand? And before you next resort to victim blaming like this, you should really read up on the relevant history.

“There are far worse UX issues in iOS if that is what you are concerned about.” News flash, whataboutists: I write about problems in the tech industry all the time. Stick around and you’ll see me take a whack at a company besides your sainted Apple.

And that brings me to the annoying subtext beneath all these aggrieved responses: The notion that questioning Apple’s design choice is an unreasonable stretch, so we should look anywhere else for solutions to what even most of my correspondents agreed was a problem. Well, if that’s your attitude, turn in your capitalist card: You’re not a customer, you’re a supplicant. And I don’t have to take your opinion here seriously.

Should I be on Patreon?

I’m not a millennial and I don’t have any tattoos or piercings, so I would appear to be wildly ineligible for Patreon.

Yet I’m still curious about using that crowdfunding site to give people a chance to underwrite my work if they feel so inspired. I can’t tell if that is me being entrepreneurial or vain, so I’m writing this post to try to untangle my thoughts.

I first encountered Patreon when founder Jack Conte gave an exuberant presentation on the site’s backstory at 2013’s XOXO conference. (His talk rambles a bit–which is fine if you enjoy dancing robots–but overall merits 24 minutes of your time.) I decided that letting fans pledge as little as a dollar or two a month to indie creatives was a smart response to declining ad rates and the overall horribleness of the content industry. And then I thought little more about that concept until I started seeing more people and sites I know pop up on Patreon.

You can sum up the Patreon proposition as “Kickstarter over time.” Instead of asking for support for a particular project, creators invite fans to kick in a defined sum each month to support their ongoing efforts–and can also offer extra rewards for contributions above a certain level.

For example, my friend Glenn Fleishman‘s typographic-centric pitch includes exclusive or early access to his articles, science-minded podcaster Rose Eveleth offers a patrons-only newsletter, and the Arlington news site touts a private Facebook group for more-generous contributors.

After conversations with a few Patreon fans at XOXO this September, I e-mailed Glenn to ask how that was working for him.

His two bits of advice: Find something you can provide to Patreon contributors that they couldn’t get elsewhere, and show what their support lets you do that you couldn’t accomplish otherwise.

I think I have a good answer for that first item: my time. As most people who have e-mailed me can attest, getting my attention when I’m constantly changing channels between stories and clients is… problematic. If I could offer something like a private Slack group or some other closed forum, I’d like to think that would appeal to people who miss the Web chats I did at the Post. (I miss them too.)

The second thing, though, is harder to answer. I think I do a decent job of selling enough stories from each out-of-town event to cover my travel costs… although conferences like the Online News Association’s annual gathering routinely defy my attempts to monetize them. Would that be enough of a what-you-helped-me-do story?

My other concerns: I wouldn’t have enough time to tend a Patreon page (note that I’m typing this near 10 p.m. on a Saturday); nobody would support it; worst of all, nobody would support it, and outsiders would then point and laugh.

At the same time, I like the idea of generating another stream of income, even if it only underwrites one trip a year. Getting acquainted with the inside of a crowdfunding platform seems like an overdue to-do item for me. And the last few months have made me increasingly uneasy about relying on my Facebook page for occupational banter with readers.

Having spent this much time musing about crowdfunding, I might as well crowdsource part of this decision. Please take the poll below, and if you have suggestions for what you’d want me to do at Patreon or another crowdfunding platform, please share them in the comments.

Twitter Moments: where context goes to die even more

Two articles recounting politicians not telling the truth caught my eye Tuesday morning. That would have made it another day ending in “y,” except that the story each candidate sold didn’t make them look that much better or worse than the reality documented in contemporary records–why stick to the unsupportable story?

So I tweeted that thought and linked to these pieces about Democratic senatorial candidates: a report by the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin on how Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s (D.-Ariz.) tales of childhood homelessness didn’t square with her family’s utility bills from those years of grinding poverty, and a fact-check by the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler ruling out a debate claim by Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D.-Tex.) that he did not try to flee a 1998 DWI arrest that he has otherwise owned up to as inexcusable.

Four hours later, Twitter’s app notified me that this tweet had been added to a Moment–a curated collection of tweets on a topic that can show up in the timelines of people who don’t follow you. You can’t opt out of this publicity without blocking the account that created the Moment, which seems impossible if Twitter’s editors were behind it.

Then my notifications started getting a little weird.

I got a bunch of retweets and likes from people who had stuck #MAGA hashtags in their bios (as in, the acronym for President Trump’s favorite slogan) or added a red X to their name (a protest against Twitter “shadow-banning” right-wing voices, an allegation that has yet to survive independent scrutiny). Maybe they thought they’d found a kindred spirit; if so, they could not possibly have looked at my other recent political tweets.

But I also received shout-outs from a few people with Resistance hashtags or blue-wave emojis conveying their outrage at Trump’s GOP. They might have approved of my overall output on Twitter, but they could not possibly have read the reports I shared in that tweet–maybe they thought I was talking about Trump or his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh?

This kind of context asphyxiation can happen any time on Twitter, but a Moment’s ability to catapult a tweet far out of your normal audience and its usual context magnifies the odds enormously. I got a sense of that from watching Helen Rosner’s XOXO talk three weeks ago, but now I understand this from firsthand experience. Thanks, I guess?

Please stop asking for my “best number”

Too many of my interactions with public-relations types and the people they represent conclude with a pointless question: “What’s your best number?”

That query is a waste of time because my phone number, 202-683-7948, should be obvious: It’s in the signature that appears at the end of almost every e-mail I send as well as on my business cards.

Besides, as a self-employed individual in the 21st century, I don’t use any other number for work.

My absence of a desk line should be obvious: Why bother when I already have a smartphone on my person at almost all times? But the number on my wireless plan isn’t my work number either.

You might see me call from a 703-area-code number if both WiFi connectivity and mobile broadband are awful, but there’s no upside to returning my call at those digits. If I have any cellular signal, calls to my work number will ring through to my cell–and even if my phone is offline, they’ll still reach the rest of my devices.

Yes, I’m one of those people using a Google Voice number, even after years of Google’s intermittent neglect of that service. I’ve had this GV number–again, 202-683-7948, which may be easier to remember as 202-OVERWIT–since 2007, when a friend got me an invite to the closed beta test of GrandCentral, the company Google bought before relaunching its service as Google Voice.

And not only do I have those digits mapped to my regular gadgets, they also reach me in WhatsApp and Signal. I would have done the same with WeChat but couldn’t–which turned out not to matter, since my cell number is invisible in that app.

I trust that’s cleared up how to reach me telephonically. Now can you all also remember that if I don’t pick up when you call, you’re supposed to either leave a voicemail or send a follow-up e-mail?

Conference-app feature request: block out my schedule as I pick panels

NEW ORLEANS–My calendar includes a lot of conferences (especially this month), and as a result my phone features a lot of conference apps.

Collision app schedulingThe conference that has me here, Collision, has one such app. As these things go–meaning, let’s set aside how many of their features could be done just as well by Web apps–it’s not bad. But the personalization tool that lets you cobble together a schedule of talks that appeal to you is deeply broken.

The schedule at Collision, as at other conferences with multiple stages and venues, is packed with events that happen at the same time. The app should clear up that clutter by not letting me be in two places at once–meaning, when I add a talk to my schedule, it should gray out every other talk overlapping with that timeslot.

That way, I’d immediately see the opportunity cost of going to one talk versus another. But the Collision app does not do that. And although it is smart enough to stick an orange “Priority” label next to my own panels, it doesn’t even block out talks overlapping with the most important items on my agenda.

This is a common failing with conference apps. I don’t recall the SXSW app doing this kind of schedule triage, even though that’s even more vital at an event with so many more overlapping tracks. The app for Google I/O, my destination next week, definitely omits this function. And since the Web Summit app is built from the same template as the Collision app, it will repeat this omission… unless somebody in management is sufficiently moved by this post. Can y’all hear me out on this?


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
Diane & The Deductibles Announce Details Of ‘T H R E E – 6 Feet Apart’

There is indeed a world of difference between the numbers TWO and THREE, especially if you are referring to the audio journey of Diane & The Deductibles. ‘T W O‘ was released in better days, when live music was rampant, before the signs of a world filled with news of Covid-19 and social/political unrest.

T H R E E – 6 Feet Apart‘ – finds Diane & The Deductibles and their listeners in a whole different world where creativity and hope remain alive even in the shadow of a deadly pandemic. Conceived during the tumultuous year of 2020, Diane & The Deductibles made the best of downtime from playing live, and present to their friends and fans ‘T H R E E – 6 Feet Apart‘ – the next chapter in their rocking legacy from these talented and diverse musicians.

And today, Diane & The Deductibles announce the track listing and cover art for their upcoming album ‘T H R E E – 6 Feet Apart‘ – …

01 Let’s Live

02 Say What You Mean

03 Hold On

04 In My Next Breath

05 Big Airliner

06 Darkness

07 Never Say Goodbye

08 Winner

A release date and more information about the songs will be available soon so stay tuned!

About Diane & The Deductibles:

Diane Adams is a captivating performer and guitar player, whose stylish voice, subtle riffing, and stunning stage presence captures the senses and sets the imagination in flight. The heart and soul of Diane & The DeductiblesDiane Adams rocks the stage with grace and conviction.

Iconic lead guitarist Robert Sarzo of Hurricane and Geoff Tate/Queensryche fame lends his VuDu magic to the proceedings, enveloping the songs with a dazzling display of pure sonic virtuosity.

Cliff Rehrig spent over a decade within the ranks of Air Supply, and his bass & vocal artistry supplies the perfect low-end and lush harmonies to the Diane & The Deductibles experience.

Keith Lynch enhances the atmosphere with his brilliant guitar meanderings, slide work and vocal harmonies. Keith has previously lent his talents to the likes of Bill Ward of Black Sabbath lineage.

And bringing it all home with a skilled precision is drummer Ronnie Ciago, whose vast and varied credits include working with such legendary acts as Brand X, Bill Ward, Rikki Lee Jones, Ray Manzarek and more!

Together, these five seasoned musicians bring soaring harmonies and bold guitar riffs with a trifecta of guitars, along with an epic rhythm section and anthem-style lyrics that have kept everyone in the audience on their feet since the bands inception in 2014.

Diane Adams – lead vocals, rhythm guitar (studio singer)

Cliff Rehrig – bass, background vocals (formerly of Air Supply)

Robert Sarzo – lead guitar (formerly of Geoff Tate’s Queensryche and founder of Hurricane)

Keith Lynch -guitar, background vocals (Music Director for Bill Ward, founder of Black Sabbath)

Ronnie Ciago – drummer (formerly of RIVERDOGS and BRAND X)

Official Website

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2021-31
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for July/August 2021
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-15.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.18 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: https://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
#Wargame Wednesday / History to Wargame – Playing a blooming disaster in Holland ’44: Operation Market-Garden, September 1944 (@gmtgames, 2017)

I recently read Antony Beevor’s The Battle of Arnhem: The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II (Viking, 2018) while at the same time playing Mark Simonitch’s wargame Holland ’44: Operation Market-Garden, September 1944 (GMT Games, 2017). As far as book + wargame combinations go it was not great; The Battle of Arnhem is a book very focused on telling the story of the many faces of human suffering around the battle. It is not an analysis of the battle that greatly contributes to understanding decisions faced when playing Holland ’44. That said, the early chapters of the book set the stage for Operation Market Garden in a manner that can make the opening situation of Holland ’44 more understandable. It certainly influenced my strategy in play. More importantly, while playing Holland ’44 I discovered how much I enjoy Simonitch’s “‘ZOC Bond” war engine and am happily adding companion game titles to my wargame collection.

That’s a long way to go and a short time to get there….

Going to Market

In the early chapters of The Battle of Arnhem Beevor make it clear that he believes Operation Market Garden was a disaster from the start.

Many historians, with an ‘if only’ approach to the British defeat, have focused so much on different aspects of Operation Market Garden which went wrong they have tended to overlook the central element. It was quite simply a bad plan right from the start and right from the top. Montgomery had not shown any interest in the practical problems surrounding airborne operations. He had not taken any time to study the often chaotic experiences of North Africa, Sicily and the drop on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy. Montgomery’s intelligence chief, Brigadier Bill Williams, also pointed out the way that ‘Arnhem depended on a study of the ground [which] Monty had not made when he decided on it.’ In fact, he obstinately refused to listen to the Dutch commander-in-chief Prince Bernhard, who warned him about the impossibility of deploying armoured vehicles off the single raised road on the low-lying flood plain.

Williams also acknowledged that at 21st Army Group ‘enemy appreciation was very weak. We knew little about the situation.’ Yet towering over everything else, and never openly admitted, was the fact that the whole operation depended on everything going right, when it was an unwritten rule of warfare that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Antony Beevor, The Battle of Arnhem, p. 36
Truly a bridge too far….

Holland ’44 – A Proven War Engine*

Holland ’44 is not a very difficult system to learn. The core of the game is essentially covered in 18 numbered rules written on ~22 double-column pages (I am referencing the Revised May, 2018 version of the rules). The game system is not very “original” in the sense that Mark Simonitch has assembled many proven and well understood mechanics into this game system. Although the rules are not broken out in a “series versus game” set of rules (like so many other War Engine games – SCS I’m looking at you) it is pretty easy to see which rules are “standard” and which rules are “game unique.”

If there is one rule I would highlight in Holland ’44 it is 12.0 Determined Defense. This is not a game-specific rule but rather a series rule. The Designer’s Notes in Holland ’44 mention that the rules for Determined Defense were changed from Ardennes ’44—I can’t speak to those changes since I don’t (presently) own Ardennes ’44. I can say that the rules for Determined Defense go a long way to adding dramatic flavor to battles in Holland ’44. In many games, when a combat result calls for a retreat the defender often has the option of stopping the retreat by taking an additional step-loss. Determined Defense in Holland ’44 starts with the same initial premise but carries it a bit further. Provided at least one step survives combat, the defender can try to cancel the retreat portion, as well as any Disruption and advance after combat. To do so requires a roll on the Determined Defense Table to see if the attempt is successful and if any additional combat losses are incurred. There is even a provision for Desperation Defense (12.4) which can be invoked if an entire defending stack faces elimination. The Determined Defense rule goes a long way towards evoking important thematic elements of a battle, and in the case of Operation Market Garden it is very useful for capturing the flavor of desperate defenses of Allied paratroopers deep behind enemy lines or by understrength German units throwing themselves into battle in an equally desperate bid to slow the Allied advance.

One point I took away from reading The Battle of Arnhem was that Operation Market Garden depended on speed. For Operation Market (the airborne portion) success demanded the speedy seizure of bridges before they could be blown. In Holland ’44 the German player has a 2 in 3 chance of successfully blowing a bridge, except on Turn 1 when it is only a 1 in 2 chance. Further, the Allied airborne army needs to quickly seize bridges and get themselves defensively oriented before German reinforcements arrive. For Operation Garden (the overland portion of the offensive) Allied ground forces need to push up few roads rapidly and try to relieve the airborne troops as soon as possible. Of course, the Germans will be attacking from the flanks and playing Traffic Markers which represent traffic congestion and add movement points.

For my play, the British 1st Parachute Division seized Arnhem Bridge on the morning of Sept 18 thanks in part to the Germans being unable to blow the railway bridge to the west of Arnhem that provided an “end around” pathway. The 82nd Airborne likewise seized Nijmagen Bridge early on Sept 18, but at the cost of abandoning their drop zones (which would come back to haunt them later). The 101st Airborne lost the Son Bridge but took the Best Bridge after making a mad dash from the drop zones. Coming up from the south, elements of 30th Corps reached Eindhoven late Sept 18 and kept pushing, but that resulted in a very narrow path of advance that was easily congested and constantly threatened along the flanks. At the end of the game the Germans inflicted more casualties than VP hexes the Allies secured thus handing victory to the Germans. The German victory very clearly exposed the dangers of the Allies being too hasty.

I Love it When A Plan Comes Together – NOT!

After playing Holland ’44 I heartily agree with Beevor that the plan for Operation Market Garden was poor from the beginning. In my play, the weakest part of the plan exposed was the airborne landing schedule. Historically, Operation Market landed elements of three divisions on the first day and provided for follow-on landings of remaining individual divisions on following days. According to the plan, the remaining elements of the 82nd Airborne were to land on D+1 (Sept 18 – Turn 3) followed by remaining elements of the 101st Airborne on D+2 (Sept 19 – Turn 6). Along the way, the Polish Airborne Brigade may enter (if the weather is right). Of course, the weather determines the number of Airlanding Points available; if the weather is less-than-perfect the arrival will slow down.

Remember what I said about speed above? Well, even after reading The Battle of Arnhem and the Designer’s Notes about the 82nd Airborne drop zones and reviewing the rules for the German 406th Division I still aggressively pushed the initial 82nd drop out of their DZs. As a result, the follow-on airborne elements (slowed due to Cloudy weather) were sent to DZs that were enemy controlled. This was the most disastrous part of the battle and it was only through some fortuitous die rolls that the (few) remaining 82nd defenders in Nijmagen avoided total elimination. Next time I’m going to have to replay the 82nd “closer to history” to see what sort of a difference it makes.

Late to the Game – Again

Holland ’44 was published in 2017. The game uses a set of core mechanics that traces all the way back to Ardennes ’44: The Battle of the Bulge from GMT Games back in 2003. I point out these dates because I have somehow missed this great system for nearly 20 years. Actually, I didn’t miss it as much as I ignored it. I admit that I have been more a tactical wargamer than an operational-level aficionado. Thus, series games like Conflict of Heroes (Academy Games) or Panzer (GMT Games) or Wing Leader (GMT Games) or Command at Sea (Admiralty Trilogy Group) occupy both my World War II shelves and gaming time. Late in 2019 (and seriously in 2020) I discovered the joys of Multi-Man Publishing’s Standard Combat Series (SCS). Now, with Simonitich’s “‘ZOC Bond” series I have found another operational-level war engine that is easy to learn and I like to play. The fact that Holland ’44 is built on a proven war engine is a great draw for me. If there is one part of my wargaming personality that has become very clear to me in the past year it is that I enjoy proven war engines more than learning yet another “new” system.

Order…of Battle

My copy of Holland ’44 is second hand. Actually, it is third-hand; the gentleman I bought it from said he got it from another wargamer. Whoever the original owner was they treated this game very gently. Not only were all the components complete, but the additional items from “The Northern Scenario” found In C3i Magazine are included. To top it all off, the counters are very neatly trimmed and sorted into bags organized by game use. This loving care is indicative of a true wargamer. Alas, there is no provision for this kind of gamer in Harold Buchanan’s “Historical Conflict Simulation Player Taxonomy.” Regardless, I want to give credit where credit is due!

*I take the term “War Engine” from the excellent chapter “War Engines: Wargames as Systems from the Tabletop to the Computer” by Henry Lowood in Zones of Control: Perspectives on Wargaming (MIT Press, 2016) which was edited by Pat Harrigan and Matthew Kirschenbaum. Lowood calls games that combine a game system plus scenarios a “war engine” as contrasted with early wargames that were monographic (unique game system and one battle/campaign). The earliest example is PanzerBlitz of which Lowood writes,

“In contrast to monographic games, PanzerBlitz introduced the game system as a generator for multiple mini-games. Wargamers came to call these mini-games “scenarios,” possibly borrowing from the term’s currency among RAND’s Cold War gamers to describe synopses or imagined or hypothetical political crisis….Henceforth, I will call this combination of system + scenarios a “War Engine.”

Henry Lowood, Zones of Control, p. 93-94

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Film | Philadelphia – Review

Philadelphia (1993)

Plot – When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit – Philadelphia.

Director – Jonathan Demme

Starring – Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Antonio Banderas

Genre – Drama

Released – 1993

Before they made Philadelphia, Tom Hanks was known as primarily as a comedic actor performing in comedies like Splash and Big, yet this is the film proved that although he had great comedic timing, his talents were always better suited as a dramatic actor.

Pulling off one of his greatest performances and winning a well deserved Oscar as Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer afflicted with AIDS who, after being fired by his bosses, hires Joe Miller (Washington), a fellow lawyer to fight for his cause.

Philadelphia (1993)

Director Jonathan Demme proved he had the ability to turn well written and complex scripts into beautifully made movies when his previous film, The Silence of the Lambs, swept the board at the Oscars, however, Philadelphia is a lot more personal and nuanced than his previous blockbuster, that although advertised as a legal thriller, felt much closer to a fictionalised biographical-drama about an everyday man who is gay, happens to contract AIDS and the discrimination he then faced, just like countless others have done before and since, with the human drama just as important to the plot as the events that happen inside the courtroom.

Not to say that the courtroom scenes aren’t impressive, because they are. Each sequence is just as impressive as any John Grisham adaptation and just as intelligent. Overall, this is a film about discrimination, magnificently inspiring those who feel persecuted because of who they are or what they are, to keep fighting for change and never give up, even if the odds are stacked against you.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

If you liked: A Time To Kill, Kramer vs. Kramer, Erin Brockovich

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this:


text:
5 Ways To De-Stress At Work

Sometimes it seems like we spend more time at work than we do anywhere else. Therefore, it’s important to make your work space as comfortable as possible. Because when you’re getting stressed at work, you’re probably going to take it home with you. Here are 5 ways to de-stress:

  1. Decorate your office
    Whether it be a nice photo of you and someone who makes you happy or seasonal decorations, decorating your office can break up some monotony and put a smile on your face.
  2. Start a gratitude journal
    Go out and buy a little journal that makes you happy, then write anything you’re thankful for in it throughout the day to remind you to stop sweating the small and stressful stuff.
  3. Get organized
    Get a notepad for each project your working on, make a list, and start putting everything together. When you’re organized you can see everything right in front of you and become less stressed.
  4. Get out of the office
    Don’t eat your lunch in your cubicle,  go out and take a walk and take in a new sight to freshen up the work day.
  5. Don’t take it home with you
    When you’re putting on your jacket and grabbing your bag, leave behind the work stress that is weighing on you. You worked all day on it, you have all day tomorrow, you don’t need to bring it home with you.
photo by: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelandrew/

21 thoughts on “5 Ways To De-Stress At Work

  1. Excellent tips, and often overlooked. They help though! Try to keep these in mind and have done [although at times forgotten!] most of these. In the past, wouldn’t go outside as much but it arguably helps the most.

    While reading this it almost felt like tips from a recent book read by me regarding feng shui. Many are in fact identical.

    As Plato once said:

    “Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”

    Be well!

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Great tips! Took me a while to realise how much going out for lunch made a difference!
    The company I work for has just made us take personal photos off our work PC’s, my screen saver was a pic of my sister and I on holiday which made me smile all day!! I’m tempted to take in a massive photo frame to replace it!

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Good idea to have a gratitude journal at work. I do it at the end of the day and sometimes I do it in my head if I am getting upset about things, but I think writing it down is more helpful for some reason.

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
World History, Freshman Capstone

Educational Assistant

AP Calculus, AP Statistics, IDS

Permanent Substitute

Contemporary Issues, AP Human Geography, Multicultural Club Sponsor

Geometry, Key Club Sponsor

Algebra II, Honors Pre-Calculus, National Honor Society Co-Sponsor

JROTC Instructor, RaiderTeam, Fitness Team, JLAB Academic/Leadership Teams and Markmanship Team

Digital Arts III, Work Based Learning, Create Club co-sponsor

Lifespan Development, Intro to Human Studies, Family Studies, FCCLA sponsor

English IV, English IV Honors

Spanish I, Spanish Nat'l Honor Society Co-Sponsor

Chemistry, Junior Class Sponsor, Dance Team Co-Sponsor

PE/Wellness, Girl's Cross Country Coach, Asst. Coach Boys Track

Economics, Personal Finance

Fundamentals of Construction, Structural Systems I, Structural Systems II, RHS Skills Club Sponsor, FCA Co-sponsor

Anatomy and Physiology, Rehabilitation Careers, HOSA Sponsor

Algebra I, ACT Prep

JROTC Instructor, Coach for Drill/Color Guard/Saber, Robotics Team and Drone Team Coach

Comprehensive Development Teacher, Asst. Wrestling Coach

French I, French II, Freshman Capstone, Modern Language Club Sponsor

Culinary Arts I, II and III, FCCLA Sponsor, Hawks Corner Bakery

Algebra II, Algebra II Honors, FTA Sponsor

Algebra IA, Algebra IB, Geometry IA, Signing Hawks Club Sponsor

US History, Honors US History, AP US History, Sponsor for Senior Class and Empower Club

Library Media Specialist, Rossview Readers Sponsor

Office Assistant, Asst. Football Coach

Wellness, Asst. Boys Basketball Coach

Spanish II, Spanish Nat'l Honor Society Co-Sponsor

Biology, Honors Biology, AP Biology, Excalibur National Honor Society for Science

Health Science, Career Explorations, Freshman Capstone,HOSA co-sponsor

Technology Coach

School Resource Officer

US History & Geography, Freshman Capstone

Assistant Principal - 12th Grade Seniors

Pre-Calculus, Statistics, Boy's and Girl's Tennis Coach

World History, IDS, Boy's Baseball Coach

Physical Education I and II, Head Football Coach, FTA co-sponsor

Accounting Technician

Physical Education I and II, Boys Basketball Coach

Educational Assistant

English II, Honors English II, ASG Sponsor

Educational Assistant

English III, English III Honors, AP Language, National English Honor Society Co-sponsor, Asst. Girls Tennis Coach

Cheerleading Sponsor

Educational Assistant

English II, ACT Prep

Physical Education and Weightlifting, Asst. Football Coach

AP World History, US History, Anime Club Sponsor

US Government & Civics, Military History, History Club Sponsor

Algebra I, Freshman Capstone and Key Club Co-Sponsor

Assistant Principal 11th Grade (Juniors)

Assistant Principal 9th Grade (Freshman), Athletic Director

U.S. Government, Sociology/Psychology, Asst. Wrestling Coach, Sponsor of Model United Nations Club

Biology IA, Dance Club Sponsor

Administrative Assistant, Sophomore Class of 2024 Sponsor

Library Media Specialist, National Honor Society Co-Sponsor

Educational Assistant

AAD Algebra, English, Biology, US Govt/Econ, Asst. Football Coach

Educational Assistant

Media Assistant, First Priority Sponsor

Educational Assistant

Custodial Staff, Assistant Baseball Coach

Algebra I and Honors Algebra I, Key Club Co-Sponsor

Intro to Business and Marketing, Accounting and Freshman Capstone

Physical Science

Special Populations Educational Assistant

Assistant Principal 10th Grade (Sophomores)

Theater Arts I, Journalism, Yearbook Sponsor, Sponsor for National Forensic League. RTV and Nat'l Speech and Debate Clubs

School Counselor-Academy

Educational Assistant

Spanish I, Spanish National Honor Society Sponsor

English II, Literacy Transition II

Physical Education, Wellness, ACT, Freshman Capstone and Head Wrestling Coach

Honors Chemistry, AP Chemistry, AP Environment, Science, National Honor Society Sponsor

English I and II, Algebra I, Literacy Transition

US History, Boys Soccer Coach

Accounting Technician

English II, Honors English II, Writer's Ink Sponsor

Economics, Freshman Class Sponsor

General Music, Guitar and Band, Tri-M Sponsor

World History, U.S. History

Spanish II, Spanish III, AP Spanish, Salsa Dance Team Sponsor, Spanish Nat'l Honor Society Co-Sponsor

English I, Content Reading and Freshman Capstone

School Counselor-9th Grade

School Counselor-11th Grade

English III, Literacy Transition III

School Counselor 10th Grade

Fire Management, Asst. Baseball Coach

Dual Enrollment English, AP Literature/Composition, Honors English IV, National English Honor Society Sponsor

Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Card Game Clubs

Physics, AP Physics, Physical Science

ESL (English as a Second Language), ELD and FCA Sponsor

Personal Finance, Business Management, Freshman Capstone

IT Web Development Instructor; RHS Web Administrator; FBLA Sponsor

Digital Arts I, Digital Arts II, Create Club Sponsor

School Counselor-12th Grade

Attendance Secretary

Art I, II, III, and AP Studio Art

Chorus I and II, Piano, Music History, Tri-M Sponsor

In School Suspension

Registrar, School Counseling

Psychology, Sociology, AP Psychology, Hawk Press Sponsor

Educational Assistant

Theater Arts I, II, III, IV, Drama Club & International Thespian Society Sponsor

Administrative Asst. Part-Time

Registrar, School Counseling

Interdisciplinary Studies, Head Girls Basketball Coach

English I, Sophomore Class Sponsor

Bridge Math, Statistics


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
This week we welcomed 12 members and Sheila's guest, Kathy Chou.
* Rotary Leadership Institute courses deadline is August 31. Rotary Leadership Institute is one of the ways our Rotarians can learn more about the world of Rotary and enjoy some fellowship along the way. These facilitated session are very interactive and enjoyable.  Register online:
*Our Day of the Dead fiesta is confirmed for October 27th at the Hellenic Centre. Tickets will be $75 per person.
Rotary Moment
August is Membership month and today Diana asked us to consider WHO our members are and who might be prospective members for our Club to meet Ron’s membership goal of growing to 30 members. As a breakfast club, we might appeal more to “morning people”, retirees, people who don’t have a lunch break or who have to get home right after work for child pick-up or evening commitments.
But we shouldn’t rule out non-morning people either, who might be able to attend with a little peer support and encouragement for ride sharing or reminders. As a downtown club, we might appeal to people working in the area, maybe people coming to the rec centre on Wednesdays for child care or programs, using the Evo or other ride sharing in the rec centre parking, or businesses in the Coal Harbour area or the West End.
Most of all we will appeal to people who value community service and have the time to commit to at least one of our projects and to the social activities. We will appeal to people who see us in action in the community at Strathcona or hear about our work with youth in Project Amigo, RYLA and King George Interact, which makes it important to show up and get the word out.
Business Meeting
Our club Board met yesterday and here are a few highlights:
Everyone to invite guests and work on helping to engage good speakers please.
Ron, Gary and Ted to set up meeting with Van City about a corporate membership to have local branch managers or other reps attend our club.
Financial - Treasurer’s report
Ted reported we are in good shape, ended 2017-2018 in a slight surplus position. Invoices for dues will be going out shortly - payment due within 30 days please.
Abigail, Emma and Matthew had a great time teaching swimming at Project Amigo. For many kids, it was their first time ever being in the water, other than local streams which can be dangerous during flooding. More details to follow at a future meeting we hope!
Gary thanked everyone for their support with a successful Hoop-a-thon this year which increased our fundraising by 20% for a total of $23,429 thanks to our partnership with other clubs. Ron noted that the Strathcona kids raised an additional $10,000. Refer to Gary’s email for more details.
John declared his objective to increase the Rotary Sunrise Foundation fund by $25K-$30K in the next two years through member contributions with he and Marni kicking off the effort this year. The funds can be used to increase our scholarships which have not increased in amount since the fund was established 25 years ago, and to provide greater support to youth programs such as RYLA and other work we do. More to follow on this and our scholarship and bursary program funds with SFU which require our attention to ensure we are meeting our objectives through the university’s administration of the funding.
2018-2019 Presidential Priorities:
Please provide Ron with feedback on his proposed goals for 2018-2019 and he will formally present them at a September club meeting - see summary below:
Great Vibrant Meetings:
  • Rotary Moment
  • Continue with a Great Speakers Program
  • Members invite friends and family to come to meetings
  • Have an amazing greeter
  • Sergeant at Arms/ Announcements
  • Birthday Celebrations

Membership 30 Members by 2019:
  • each member in their vocation or network to actively recruit “Bring a Friend to Meeting Day”
  • a family membership fee thought about this at Changeover seeing all the spouses
  • Member/Friend/Family Get-together Events ie Day at the Races, Fireworks, Christmas
  • membership subsidies look at ways we can make being a Rotarian affordable the Member can payback by taking a more active role in Service
  • membership attendance provide opportunities for members who cannot make meetings to be active in committees and service instead
  • recruitment meeting with Downtown Business Association and other organizations
  • each member has a crew talk with their vocation as part of membership drive maybe can invite another club member to help
  • meet individually with each member for their thoughts and feedback about club find out what they are passionate about

Fundraising for Club Activities:
  • Rotary Raffle
  • Pub Socials
  • Day at the Races
  • Grants Gaming
  • and Aviva
  • King George Interacts, Britannia Interacts, Langara Rotaract
  • Meet with Administration and School Sponsor
  • Club presence on recruitment Days club presence at meetings
  • Host our own Vancouver Interact Conference on a Pro-D Day
  • Fundraiser to support Youth programs 50/50 draw Project Amigo Raffle for RYLA
Local Projects :
  • Hoopathon and Salvation Army Foot Program

International Projects:
  • Project Amigo
  • Brands Across Canada
Service Events:
  • At least one a month Recycling Solid Waste Disposal
  • Salvation Army Toy Mountain
  • Neighbourhood Cleanup
  • Pancake Breakfast.
  • Revisit West Ends Seniors Lunch
Promote Rotary:
  • Pride Parade Participation
  • Club Days at Schools and Post Secondary Institutions
  • Community Festivals/Rotary Tent/ Rotary Sign to have at all events
  • Bookmarks
  • Buttons to hand out
  • Service Events

Thought of the day:
“To handle yourself use your head, to handle others use your heart. “Eleanor Roosevelt.
Why Rotary? Read more here: https://www.rotary.org/en/why-rotary
About Rotary: https://www.rotary.org/en/about-rotary


text:
Login icon Login
Phone icon +61 1300 833 137

HR and payroll software for the NZ manufacturing industry

Onboard, roster, manage and pay your shift-based staff with one seamless system.

Save up to 26% on overtime costs in the first month.

Reduce the time you spend creating rosters by 81%.

Improve productivity and efficiency by up to 15%.

Help your manufacturing business thrive

The manufacturing industry in the New Zealand is set to boom, with government incentives and consumer demand for local products beginning to drive new growth in the sector.

No matter whether you’re starting a new manufacturing business or looking to improve your existing systems and processes, Roubler can help.

Our seamless software will help you onboard, roster, manage and pay your team, all in one easy-to-use and cost-effective system, so you can focus on making your business thrive.

Book a demo

Manage your labour costs

Stay on top of your labour costs with Roubler’s smart roster feature, which will create your rosters based on each team member’s preferred shifts, availability and seniority, maximising productivity and keeping wage costs to a minimum.

Put a stop to time theft

Roubler’s time and attendance feature will stop time theft in its tracks, by ensuring your employees clock in and out of every shift on a tablet in a common area, or from the convenience of their mobile phone.

Cut down on training time

Ensure your staff are equipped with the safety, compliance and operational knowledge they need, with our comprehensive eLearning library that lets you create your own training programs or draw from thousands of existing courses.

All-in-one software system

Our cloud-based software gives you everything you need to onboard, roster, manage and pay your staff in one cost-effective system, so there’s no need for messy integrations or multiple platforms.

WHSmith logo Guess logo Estee Lauder logo

Want to find out more?

Call us today on +61 1300 833 137 or

Book a demo

We will always respect your privacy. We will treat your personal details with the utmost care, and will never sell your information to any third parties. If you choose to receive occasional updates and advice on how to grow your business you can unsubscribe at any time. View our Privacy Policy here.


text:
Score Statistics 26.11.2013

Top scorers list after incomplete round III of 2013-14 RRC season

After completing first and second round and one match of round III of 2013/14 RRC Pool phase, some interesting things happened on RRC Top Scorers list. Gregorie Collet from Esztergomi Vitézek RSE is on the top spot with 37 points all scored by boot. 11 successful penalty kicks and 2 conversions from Hungarian full back was enough for him to hold first place at least till next weekend. On second place there is, previous season’s winner, Nik Jurišić from HARK Mladost Zagreb with 29 points (7 conversions and 5 successful penalty kicks). Ivan Rešetar from RK Nada Split is third with 20 points (4 tries from round one).

From fourth to eighth place there are Milan Orlović from RK Pobednik MOZZART Belgrade (19 points – 3 tries and 2 conversions), Filip Mijić from RK Zagreb (18 points – 4 successful penalty kicks and 3 conversions), Luka Lerotić from RK Nada Split (15 points – 1 try and 5 conversions), Szabolcs Nagyhegyesi from KARC Kecskemét (13 points – 3 successful penalty kicks and 2 conversions) and Uroš Babić from RK Pobednik MOZZART Belgrade (12 points – 2 tries and 1 conversion).

Distribution of scoring is very interesting; as many as 40 try scorers to achieve 50 tries. 33 players scored one try each. Next weekend there are three more matches and then we will nominate our Pool phase champion.

The official top scorers list is available here or in Match center at Top Scorers section.


text:
Posted On

In order to comply with the recommendations of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, the ARC has issued a policy prohibiting the practice of toe-clipping as a means of identifying rodents unless explicit approval is obtained from the ARC. For additional details, please refer to the ARC Policy on Toe-Clipping for Animal Identification.


text:
December was a difficult month for us as we had major problems with our web site. Our web site host’s computer system totally crashed and burned and we loss all of our web site design software and data. The host’s operation was completely down for almost a week and never fully recovered. We finally gave up on the host and contracted with a new provider. We are now back up and running but still have a few glitches to iron out. Essentially we had to completely reconstruct our software and reload all data.
Thank goodness we keep a complete updated backup file in cloud storage or we would really have been in a quandary.
Christmas was really good for the Schneiders this year. We had the entire family here for the holidays and all went well. No snow so far this year but plenty of water. Our area set an all time record for the amount of rain – as a result the St Louis area has a lot of flooded areas.
We have been acquiring some really good collections this year. We have quite a few very specialized collections on hand which will require a lot of work to organize and put on line. Just about all of these collections require photos so we will be adding to our web site steadily for several months.
This month we are mailing our Germany Part B price list which lists Germany from Scott 530 through 2864a – all issues through September 2015. We also have all 2015 year sets on hand and listed on our web site. We have all year sets mint and used on hand.

new years 3

We have just finished mailing all of the 2015 new issues We jumped the gun on the Germany new issues as the Post issued about ten stamps in December which were not on their stamp program. We didn’t receive the last 2015 new issue for Germany until 22 December.
If you would like to start a new issue service, we can supply anything that the posts of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein or Luxembourg issue. We tailor our new issue mailings to the needs of each customer. Most customers collect all of the issues listed by Scott catalogs as major catalog numbers as these will be the stamps that spaces are provided for in American made albums. Some of our customers use European albums and we can tailor our mailings to include issues that will appear in these albums too.
If you want to sign up for new issues, all you have to do is let us know which issues you want and we will send on approval via quarterly shipments. (We can also wait until of the end of each issuing year and send you new issues in one big batch. The yearly shipments have become very popular as you can put the stamps on anyone’s album pages for at least several months into the next year). No deposit is required. (We prefer though that you give is a MC/Visa/American Express account number and then we charge the issues as we ship them – it really simplifies our book keeping.)

Dr Ferchenbauer’s Austria Handbook.
We continue to maintain a small stock of the 2008 Ferchenbauer edition which is in 4 hardbound volumes and weighs 18 pounds. (That’s 3 times the weight of the 2000 edition.) There are about 2800 pages total – each page in color with images that are so true in quality that they can be reliably used by collectors to verify their own varieties. Essentially the catalogs list and describe all philatelic items created from 1850 through 1918 – stamps, covers and postal stationery. Prices are given for all items.

We are the sole US distributor for this handbook/catalog set. Again – we have a small supply of these catalogs on hand. The price of the set of 4 catalogs – delivered – is $360.00.
Due to the high shipping weight, we are offering the catalogs to US customers only.

new years 2

Our Price Lists

Over the years our customer orders have shifted from coming from our price lists to ordering directly from our web site. Nevertheless we continue to mail at least one price list every month. The printed price lists do contain many more items than are listed on our web site – especially singles form sets. We try to send you only those price lists that you want. Following are all of the price lists we publish. If there are any that we publish which you don’t receive but want, just let us know which additional lists you want.
➣Austria and related areas
➣Austria covers, cards and ganzsachen
➣Germany proper
➣German WWI and WWII occupations
➣German Private Posts
➣German Zusammendrucke
➣German Offices and Colonies
➣German States
➣German area covers and cards
➣Soviet Zone and Post War Locals
➣German Private Post
➣Year Groups
Keep in mind that we review our mailing lists often and try to limit our mailings to active collectors. If you have not made a purchase during the past year, your name may be deleted from our mailings. If you haven’t ordered anything in a long time but you still want our lists please let us know.
Contact us at:
R Schneider Stamps
PO Box 23049
Belleville IL 62223
Office 618 277 6152
FAX 618 277 1050
web site


text:
April 22, 2021 - Updated on April 23, 2021

Three more independent reporters arrested in Vietnam

Doan Kien Giang, Nguyen Thanh Nhe and Nguyen Phuoc Trung Bao (from left to right), have been arrested on 20 April, 2021 (photos: - - / RSF).
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of three Vietnamese journalists who were arrested this week after denouncing abuses by two senior officials, and urges the authorities to stop hounding journalists trying to provide their fellow-citizens with independent reporting.

Nguyen Thanh Nha, Doan Kien Giang and Nguyen Phuoc Trung Bao are facing possible seven-year prison sentences on charges on “abusing democratic freedoms” following their arrest in the southern city of Can Tho on 20 April.

The three reporters were regular contributors to Bao Sach (“The Clean Newspaper”), a Facebook news page founded by Truong Chau Huu Danh, a journalist who was arrested on 17 December 2020 after exposing questionable practices by authorities controlling the motorway concession system. The Bao Sach Facebook page has been blocked ever since.

Nha, Giang and Bao recently reported that Bui Van Cong, a senior official in the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), had plagiarised his doctoral thesis. They also exposed supreme court president Ngyuen Hoa Binh’s implication in many irregularities that led to the abusive imposition of a death sentence.

Both of these officials have just been appointed to senior positions within the Politburo of the CPV, which held its five-yearly congress in January, and in the National Assembly, Vietnam’s rump parliament, whose members were elected on 31 March.

“Instead of cleaning up corruption within the Communist Party’s ranks, the regime’s repressive apparatus now regularly persecutes journalists who investigate the corruption,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “The arrest of Nguyen Thanh Nha, Doan Kien Giang and Nguyen Trung Bao is therefore extremely shocking. Bao Sach’s journalists are the symbol of the emergence in several parts of the country of a press that no longer accepts having to cover up the shameless skulduggery by part of the ruling class.”

It was after becoming increasingly aware of all the unreported corruption that Danh, who used to work for state media, decided to found Bao Sach and publish it on social media. It quickly gained nearly 100,000 followers and was hailed for its independence in a country where the official media are forced to pump out the CPV leadership’s propaganda.

“Abusing democratic freedoms”

Nguyen Hoai Nam, another journalist who did his journalistic training working for state newspapers, was arrested on 2 April and placed in detention for three months after posting articles on Facebook exposing questionable practices within the Ho Chi Minh City government.

In February, RSF reported the arrest of Phan Bui Bao Thy, the bureau chief of the state-owned magazine Giao Duc va Thoi Dai (“Age and Education”) in the central province of Quang Tri. As often in this kind of case, the police charged him under the same penal code article 131 with “abusing democratic freedoms” although article 25 of the constitution guarantees press freedom.

The police in the southern province of Binh Thuan did not bother with a warrant when they arrested Nguyen Van Son Trung, a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), on 9 April and interrogated him for five days without allowing him access to a lawyer.

Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.


text:
RSGallery2, THE gallery solution!
  Home    Forum    Download
  Friday, 31 October 2020
Home ACL explained
ACL Explained
Written by Ronald Smit
Tuesday, 12 December 2020

With the release of RSGallery2 1.11.11 a new feature has  been implemented, being acces control. As it is however in it's early stages, some direction is needed to be able to understand and use it properly. That's why a short manual is written to help you through the proces of setting it up properly and understanding the limitations it has in this stage. This page will be updated as new features will be implemented.

Below the concept and it's use is described, as well as a short tutorial to set it up properly.

Table of contents

How to activate ACL

The ACL Lite concept has nothing to do with the ACL within Joomla, but is an interim solution, to provide some flexibility in setting permissions in Galleries and setting User Uploads and User Gallery creation for the component. This is done on a user group level, so this does not include specific permissions for a single user (Except Administrator and Super Administrator, who can do everything at anytime).

compromised immune system

In this concept, there are 3 levels of Access Control and 5 different allowable actions. To determine the level of access control, by using the usertype from Joomla, we can link these usergroups to allowable actions per gallery.

Levels of Access Control

  1. Public User
  2. Registered User
  3. Super Administrator

Allowable actions

  1. View Gallery                       (Ability to view the gallery in the frontend)
  2. Modify Gallery                    (Ability to change properties of the gallery)
  3. Delete Gallery                    (Ability to delete the gallery)
  4. Upload and modify Images    (Ability to upload images and modify properties)
  5. Delete images                    (Ability to delete images from the gallery)

The settings are controlled in two phases, which will be described below.

General settings

Permissions tab in Control Panel
These are set in the Control Panel and will control the following:
  1. Enable Access Control
    If this option is set to "No", no permissions per gallery can be set.
  2. Show My Galleries?
    Here you can set whether  the My Galleries option in the frontend is accessible to the users. If set to "Yes", automatically the "My Images" tab is visible.
  3. Can user create galleries?
    This option is only available when Access Control is enabled. This is therefore an extension to the ACL system on a global level.
    When this is enabled, you can set two variables in the Control Panel:
    1. Number of galleries
      This is the number of galleries a user can create.
    2. Number of images
      This is the number of images a user can upload to the different galleries in total.

Per gallery settings

In addition to the general settings, there are a number of gallery specific settings in which you can control access per gallery.  These settings are controlled in the Edit gallery screen in the backend. When creating a new gallery, a default permission scheme will be loaded. After creation, you can go back to the edit screen and specify gallery permissions. These are the actions as described in the allowable actions section.  Below a screenshot, repsresenting default permissions.

Permissions screen

How to activate ACL

As ACL for RSGallery2 is still in the development stage, it is not fully operational at this time. It is however working up to a certain level.

What can you do at this moment?

  1. Show or hide "My Galleries" link in main gallery page
  2. Set the view, upload and edit image and delete image permissions per gallery.
  3. Enable or disable gallery creation from frontend.
  4. Totally switch off ACL and it will behave as it dit before(but we don't want that ehh?)

How do I do this?

  1. Enable ACL in backend
    Login to the backend and goto the RSGallery2 Control Panel. Goto Configuration 'Permissions tab and set Enable Access Control to "Yes",  Show My Galleries to "Yes" and Can user create galleries? to "Yes"(if you want users to be able to create galleries).
  2. Create permissions for a gallery
    In the backend, go to Manage Galleries and open up the edit screen for a created gallery.

    On a clean install, there should be a permissions box, where you can set permissions. Set permissions according to your wishes and press Save.
    On an upgrade install, it is slightly different. Do nothing special but press the Save or Apply button. The default permissions scheme will be created upon saving. Now edit the gallery again and a permissions box will be present, containing the default permissions settings. Changes according to your wishes and press Save or Apply.
  3. Now you have enabled ACL in RSGallery2.

As it is still developing, feedback is greatly appreciated. If you come across any bugs, weird behavings or other strange things, please report in the forums .

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 August 2020 )

What version of Joomla! are you using?
© RSGallery2 - The Gallery Solution for Joomla!


text:
Google Trips

by Jul 20, 2018Travel Resources20 comments

Researching a new destination can be both exciting for some and stressfully nerve-racking for others.

You see here at Rudderless we like to focus on short trips and in order to make short trips successful we need really good apps.

Great navigation apps and great planning apps. We definitely love sharing our short trip ideas and guides but we are also about sharing how we plan our trips which include the apps we use… its a teach a man to fish type of deal. Anyways,  I’m pulling this one out of the secret vault for you guys and your gonna love me for it.

Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to see all my latest videos!

google trips

Google Trips

iTunes Preview

Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you purchase a product, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no extra cost to you. Please remember that I never recommend a product just for the commission — I only recommend something I genuinely believe in, trust and/or use personally. The small income I make here will help in maintaining this blog. Thanks for your support!


text:
Wooden knot

From the RuneScape Wiki, the wiki for all things RuneScape
Jump to: navigation, search
Wooden knot detail.png

A wooden knot is an item obtained from cutting normal trees with a Dwarven army axe. The player's chatbox will display a message saying they recovered a perfectly formed knot from the tree. The player gets 25 experience for cutting a Wooden knot, on top of the normal 28 experience for chopping a normal tree with the axe, for 53 experience total. It is automatically placed in the player's inventory. There is a one in six chance of obtaining a wooden knot from a tree.

It may be crafted with the Dwarven army axe or a chisel into an unfinished wooden brooch, granting 20 crafting experience. The unfinished brooch may be combined with a lapis lazuli gem to make a Lapis Lazuli brooch.

It is also possible to receive a wooden knot while pickpocketing a man or woman.

Disassembly[edit | edit source]

Update history[edit | edit source]

This information has been compiled as part of the update history project. Some updates may not be included - see here for how to help out!
patch 10 November 2014 (Update):
    • It is no longer possible to stall damage using short vines, a wooden knot, or super compost potions.


text:
Turkey Burner

Fri November 23, 2018 West Chester, PA 19380 US Directions

5k Run

8:30AM EST - 9:15AM EST

2k Walk

8:30AM EST - 9:15AM EST
Race Website

Additional race information can be found at http://www.runccrs.com.

Church and Market Streets
West Chester, PA US 19380

Come out for a great run on Black Friday in West Chester.  Burn off those Thanksgiving calories and stick around to do some shopping at West Chester's shops.

Race Contact Info

If you have any questions about this race, click the button below.

Race Participant Survey

Please complete the following survey to help us better understand your race experience.

Did you participate in the race?

Would you recommend this race to a friend?

We use cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. Read how we use cookies and how you can control them by visiting our Privacy Policy. If you continue to use this site, you consent to use all cookies.


text:
Is coffee making you fat? Featured Image

There are over 70,000,000 cups of coffee drunk per day in the UK alone.

It’s true that Coffee can help increase your metabolic rate which helps reduce body fat.

There is another side to this story though:

In some individuals caffeine increases blood glucose levels for prolonged periods of time… and what happens when your blood glucose increases? Your insulin kicks off.

Do this enough times and those more genetically sensitive to caffeine (which causes a more sustained effect of caffeine), can then start to become insulin resistant and that is bad news…

Why is it bad news? Because insulin resistance is often a prerequisite for body fat storage.

So what can you do about this?

Well for one be sensible about your caffeine intake. If you are struggling to lose weight and you’re knocking back shots of espresso like Clint Eastwood in a western saloon bar drinking whiskey, start a reduction plan.

Another good tip is to only drink coffee in the morning and avoid anything above a single shot of coffee, even if it is within a latte… it’s far faster for your body to digest and eliminate a single shot than multiple.

Here’s to staying lean,

Rupert Hambly

ps. More about coffee here


text:
Experiments have been made to test whether the toxic lectin ricin can be bound to and introduced into cells by some other mechanism than via its B chain, the natural binding moiety of the toxin, without its toxic effect being neutralized. Complexes consisting of ricin and antibodies specifically directed against ricin B chain were incubated with mouse peritoneal macrophages and rat Kupffer cells, which are known to possess surface receptors for the Fc portion of the immunoglobulin molecule. After incubation for 26 h, cellular protein synthesis, as measured by incorporation of labeled leucine into acid-insoluble material, was completely inhibited. HeLa cells, which do not possess Fc receptors, were unaffected by the complex. The effect of the complex on protein synthesis of macrophages was prevented by soluble antigen-antibody complexes, but not by the presence of lactose which prevents attachment of the ricin B chain to the cell membrane. The [ricin-antiricin B] complex was attached to red cells, and the resulting complex was incubated with rat Kupffer cells. Cellular protein synthesis ceased after 6 h, and phase contrast microscopy studies showed that the complexes were taken up by the Kupffer cells. The data indicate that ricin, when present in the complex with antiricin B, can be introduced into cells through cell membrane receptors other than the B chain receptor, in this case the Fc receptor, and that the internalized toxin retains a least part of its activity.

This content is only available as a PDF.


text:
Chess "Staunton" Premium

Chess "Staunton" Premium

Fine balanced set of chess for rest, game or gift!
Features - board framework from superfirm wenge, inside soft lodgment from velvet, all colors - natural natural, height of the king are 10 cm

Figures Staunton
Figures light - the Colchis box, matt lacquer
Figures dark - the African wenge, matt lacquer
All with weighting, the bases are glued by suede.

Chess field - matt lacquer
Cage light - maple bird's eye
Cage dark - wenge
Letters - maple
Body - array of the African tree of wenge
Soft deep lodgment from velvet with cells for each figure, the cover opens and kept in vertical position by loops with the limiter, legs are glued by suede.

King - height is 10 cm diameter of support of 4.3 cm
Pawn - height is 5 cm diameter of support of 3 cm
Board - width is 45 cm height there are 9 cm cage of 5 cm

Box of handmade natural linen.

Write a review

Note: HTML is not translated!
    Bad           Good

  • Brand: Kadun
  • Product Code: RA-KD-144
  • Availability: In Stock
  • $1,874.40


text:
Nintendo Konami Gradius Video Game Box Art 10" x 7" Reproduction Metal Sign A12

We have put together a collection of reproduction metal signs inspired by vintage print advertising. These signs are completely unique and make a great conversation piece in any room. They are perfect for kitchens, offices, man caves, bathrooms, garages, kids rooms, workshops, game rooms or any other place in need of something truly unique. They also make one of a kind, out of the ordinary gifts.  Each sign is made to order and individually handcrafted.

 - Measures 10" x 7"

-  Image is baked into a powder coating for a durable and lasting finish

-  Simulated rusted edges, scratches and faded paint.

-  UV protected heavy duty aluminum, resists fading and the elements.

-  Mounting holes

- Made in the USA

Related products

View all
Nintendo Super Mario Brothers Duck Hunt - 10" x 7" Reproduction Metal Sign
Ninja Turtles Nintendo Ultra Games Box Art 10" x 7" Reproduction Metal Sign G20
Original Nintendo Super Mario Bros 2 Box Art 10"x7" Reproduction Metal Sign A21
Nintendo Contra Konami Gaming Box Art 10" x 7" Retro Look Metal Sign
Left Continue shopping
Your Order

You have no items in your cart


text:
2013 Gift Guide: Day Eighteen

December 12, 2013

Go Fish

Even if your friends live near a coast, if they don't live in a large urban city they very likely lack access to first-rate seafood. That's where Browne Trading Company comes in. Rod Mitchell has been supplying sustainably-sourced seafood to big deal chefs like Eric Ripert and Daniel Boulud for many years.  But he also mail-orders his wonderful products to ordinary people. They run the gamut from wild and farmed fish and shellfish to smoked fish and caviars.  Order before 2 p.m., and you can have it for dinner tomorrow.

What to send?  Any committed cook would be happy to have one of the Turbots (pictured above). Highly prized in europe, this mild, firm-fleshed fish is easy to cook but hard to find on this side of the Atlantic. (You might also consider a pair of Dover Soles.)

Best of all, perhaps, this time of year are Nantucket Bay Scallops.

They're small. They're sweet.  They're the easiest seafood you'll ever cook.  And they're in season now – for a very short while.  I can't imagine anybody being anything but jubilant to find a package from Browne Trading Company landing at their door.

Categorised in:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


text:
This may not be common knowledge, but Class A motorhomes are what most people think about when you mention the phrase “RV.” And who can blame them? These fiberglass fortresses are pretty hard to forget, with their rectangular form factor and celebrity tour-bus panache.

If you have ever wondered what it would be like to take your living room along for the ride, then a Class A is for you. Its large front windshield provides amazing visibility, while large comfy seats and plenty of elbow- and legroom will keep you relaxed and entertained as you eat up the miles like a double-bacon cheeseburger. Available in lengths from 25-ish to 45 feet, Class A’s can be had with gas or diesel power, and are offered in a wide range of floorplan options, from one or more slideout rooms to full-wall slideouts to bath-and-a-half floorplans and bunkhouse models to give the kids some space (and you some sanity).
Choice is a good thing — but with a price range that starts north of $100K and tops out at more than $1.5 million, so is restraint. Establish a budget and a list of wants and needs before you head out to the dealer lot or RV show, because it’s easy to get carried away.

More About Class A Motorhomes on

Start by deciding how large a motorhome you’d be comfortable driving, and whether you want gas or diesel. Slideouts are great for opening up the living space while at your destination, but can make it cramped during travel — so ask to see the RV with the slides in and out. Decide whether you want the simplicity of fiberglass with graphics, or the added bling of automotive-style full-body paint. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, one roof air conditioner will probably do the job — but if you live in Phoenix or Miami, you’ll definitely want two, and that could raise the cost substantially.

Only now can you begin your journey — but along the way, be sure to look at things like exterior storage space (pass-through is nice if you plan to stow long items, like skis or kayaks), holding-tank capacity and switch placement. Then you can consider what other options would make your life easier/more comfortable (some of our favorites are automatic leveling systems and power front windshield shades) and begin comparing similarly equipped models to get the best deal.

Want to know more about Class Cs or Class Bs?

Start Shopping for Your New Class A Now!


text:
rvNetLinx - your RV home on the internet

  »  campgrounds - rv parks - resorts  —  New Jersey  (USA)

Acorn Campground - Green Creek, NJ
Adventure Bound Camping Resorts - Cape May, NJ
Atlantic City North Family Campground - Tuckerton, NJ
Avalon Campground - Clermont, NJ
Baker's Acres - Parkertown, NJ
Beachcomber Camping Resort - Cape May, NJ
Beaver Hill Campground - Sussex, NJ
Big Timber Lake - Cape May Court House, NJ
Blueberry Hill RV Park - Port Republic, NJ
Buena Vista Camping Park - Buena, NJ
Butterfly Camping Resort - Jackson, NJ
Camp Taylor Campground - Columbia, NJ
Cape Island Campground - Cape May, NJ
Cape May Mobile Estates - Cape May, NJ
Cedar Creek Campground - Bayville, NJ
Cedar Ridge Campground - Montague, NJ
Cold Spring Campground - Cape May, NJ
Country Oaks Campground - Dorothy, NJ
Four Seasons Family Campground - Pilesgrove, NJ
Frontier Campground - Ocean View, NJ
Green Valley Beach Campground - Newton, NJ
Harmony Ridge Farm and Campground - Branchville, NJ
Hidden Acres Campground - Cape May Courthouse, NJ
Holly Acres RV Park - Egg Harbor City, NJ
Holly Shores Camping resort - Cape May, NJ
Hospitality Creek Campground - Williamstown, NJ
Indian Rock Resort - Jackson, NJ
King Nummy Trail Campground - Cape May Court House, NJ
Lake Laurie Campground - Cape May, NJ
Laurel Pond Luxury Cabin & RV Resort - Cream Ridge, NJ
Liberty Harbor RV Park - Jersey City, NJ
North Wildwood Camping Resort - Cape May Court House, NJ
Ocean View Resort Campground - Ocean View, NJ
Old Cedar Campground - Monroeville, NJ
Pine Haven Campground - Ocean View, NJ
Pleasant Acres Farm - Sussex, NJ
Ponderosa Campground - Cape May Court House, NJ
Resort Campground Country Club - Ocean View, NJ
Rockview Valley Campground - Montague, NJ
Scrubbie Pines Campground - Barnegat, NJ
Sea Grove Camping Resort - Ocean View, NJ
Sea Pirate Family Campground - West Creek, NJ
Seashore Campsites - Cape May, NJ
Shorebirds Campground - Ocean View, NJ
Sleepy Hollow Family Campground - Egg Harbor Township, NJ
Tall Timbers - Sussex, NJ
Timberlane Campground - Clarksboro, NJ
Timberline Lake Camping Resort - New Gretna, NJ
Tip Tam Camping Resort - Jackson, NJ
Triplebrook Camping Resort - Blairstown, NJ
Wading Pines Camping Resort - Chatsworth, NJ
Whippoorwill Campground - Marmora, NJ
Winding River Campground - Mays Landing, NJ
Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park at Tall Pines - Elmer, NJ
Yogi Mays Landing - Mays Landing, NJ

  top of page

home  •     •  set as starting page  •  contact us

about rvNetLinx  •  about this site  •  privacy policy  •  disclaimer  •  web services  •  advertise with us

copyright © 1999 - 2021 : rvNetLinx : all rights reserved
send website comments to the Webmaster

page last updated on:  January 20, 2007

We invite you to also visit our ministry website:  Throneroom Ministries


text:
Gov. Kay Ivey says no current plans for statewide ‘shelter-in-place’ order

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said today there are no current plans for a statewide “shelter-in-place” order because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ivey and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris answered questions from reporters on a conference call this afternoon.

Ivey said state officials are trying to strike the balance between protecting public health and stressing the need for people to return to work.

“My priority is to keep the Alabama economy going as much as possible while we take extraordinary measures to keep everyone healthy and safe.”

The Birmingham City Council approved Mayor Randall Woodfin’s request for a shelter-in-place order for the city today. The order allows people to leave their homes for certain activities deemed essential, such as buying groceries, going to the doctor, caring for the elderly or a dependent, or working at certain types of jobs.

Alabama is under a statewide order that prohibits gatherings of 25 or more people or any size where people can’t stay six feet apart. The order does not apply to workplaces.

Two of Alabama’s top lawmakers, House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, said today a statewide “shelter-in-place” order is needed.

“Anything to flatten the curve and to save lives is what I’m a proponent of,” Daniels said. “And yes, the economy is going to take a hit whether we do this or not. But I’d rather save lives first while at the same time strategically planning how we’re going to make a comeback economically.”

Ivey and Harris answered other questions submitted for today’s conference call:

The governor said there are no plans to close state parks.

Ivey said she has confidence that legislative leaders will adjust their schedule to respond appropriately to the pandemic. Lawmakers are on spring break and scheduled to return March 31. (The House is scheduled to meet Thursday but has already announced that won’t happen). The governor noted that the state income tax deadline has been moved to July 15 and said it will be hard to pass budgets without knowing how much revenue is coming in. The regular session must end by May 18 but legislators could meet in special session to pass the education and General Fund budgets, which take effect Oct. 1.

Harris said the state has been preparing for a surge in demand on hospitals and the need for critical equipment such as ventilators. “We’ve seen what’s happened in other parts of the world and the country, particularly in larger cities. And we know that over the course of two or three weeks, the situation can look a lot different than it does now. We have a group that’s worked very hard trying to find resources like tests and trying to find ventilators both within the state and without. We have all of our hospitals connected electronically with an up to the date inventory of what they have available, what they need and what things they can share. We continue to do that with the understanding that we’re competing with other states who are trying to do the same thing.”

Ivey said the question of availability of ventilators came up on a conference call with Vice President Mike Pence. She said some Alabama companies have shown an interest in supplying key equipment but can’t switch gears and do that overnight.

Harris was asked about plans being made for hospitals that are concerned about exceeding their capacity. “We have been planning for some time for the possibility of a hospital surge,” Harris said. “We have a group that’s meeting to put together requirements for how we would expand bed capacity in an emergency situation or a surge situation. When we have that plan fully worked out in terms of what is needed, then Alabama Emergency Management Agency will certainly put that plan into place.” Harris said the plan could include temporary hospital space.

Harris said about 8-9% of patients who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 have been hospitalized.

Harris was asked if the Department of Public Health can say how many tests have been conducted statewide and how many of those have been processed. Harris said ADPH cannot provide that number now because some tests go to private labs, including some out of state. He said ADPH should eventually have that number. ADPH’s latest numbers show 242 confirmed cases and 2,321 tests completed.

Harris was asked if there are plans for testing sites in Dallas, Perry, Lowndes, Autauga, or Butler counties. Harris said there were, but the limiting step is obtaining the screening kits and the personal protective equipment for workers. He said people can still be referred to places for testing in those counties if they call the hotline, 1-888-264-2256. Baptist Health opened an appointment only screening and testing clinic in Prattville on Monday. The number is 334-747-0150.

Ivey said she is coordinating pandemic responses with governors of other southeastern states.

Harris reiterated an often made point that people without symptoms do not need to be tested. “And it’s not because there aren’t asymptomatic people who could be positive but because given the test capacity that we have we want to test those people who are most likely to be positive so that we are most able to get useful information on that,” Harris said.

Ivey was asked if government should be focused more on stopping the spread of the virus and public health or the economy. The governor said: “The safety and well being of Alabamians is paramount. However, I agree with President Trump, who thinks that a healthy and vital economy is just as essential to our quality of life. Manufacturers and business owners are producing the medicines, the protective health equipment, the food we need. It’s a balance. And we’re trying to strike the appropriate balance as we move forward.”

Harris was asked what he was doing to get state health care workers more supplies. He said ADPH was working hard to find supplies from all possible sources. He said the state received a shipment from the strategic national stockpile from the federal government last week and a second shipment today. ADPH issued its full stockpile of protective personal equipment for health care workers last week. “We are continuing to try to source it from any place we can, although every other state is doing the same thing,” Harris said. He said they are prioritizing hospitals, nursing homes, but also clinic testing sites.

Harris was asked if the ADPH will provide information in languages other than English. He said some materials are already translated into other languages including materials from the CDC already on the ADPH website. He said more materials will be translated.

Harris was asked if he agrees with an assertion by President Trump that Americans can expect to return to normal in a matter of weeks, not months. Harris said there are too many unknowns to say at this point.

Leave a Reply