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The following databases have been added at The Original Record in the last week:

1766-1769 – Board of Stamps Apprenticeship Books: Country Collectors’ Returns
Apprenticeship indentures and clerks’ articles were subject to a 6d or 12d per pound stamp duty: the registers of the payments usually give the master’s trade, address, and occupation, and the apprentice’s name, as well as details of the date and length of the apprenticeship. There are central registers for collections of the stamp duty in London, as well as returns from collectors in the provinces. These collectors generally received duty just from their own county, but sometimes from further afield. The indentures themselves can date from a year or two earlier than this return. There are returns from Abergavenny, Aylesbury, Bedford, Berkshire, Brecon, Bridgwater, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cambridge, Chester, Chichester, Colchester, Cornwall, Cowbridge, Denbigh, Derby, Devizes, Devon, Dover, Durham, Edinburgh, Essex, Exeter, Glamorgan, Gloucester, Huntingdon, Leicester, Lewes, Lichfield, Lincoln, Liverpool, Ludlow, Lynn, Monmouth, Norfolk, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, N
ewcastle-upon-Tyne, Oxford, Pembroke, Plymouth, Reading, Salop, Scotland, Shaftesbury, Shropshire, Somerset, Southampton, Sudbury, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Tiverton, Westmorland, Winchester, Woodbridge, Worcester, Yarmouth, and York, each of which has been indexed separately. IR 1/56

1883-1884 – The Law Times
Volume 76 of The Law Times, ‘The Journal of The Law and The Lawyers’, a weekly publication, runs from 3 November 1883 to 26 April 1884. Much of the journal is taken up with law reports, leading articles, &c., and the ‘Solicitors’ Department’ contains several regular features of great interest. The court lists enable us to follow the progress of cases scheduled to be heard in the high courts. Many of these cases never actually came to be heard, litigation ceasing whilst in preparation, or being resolved ‘at the door of the court’. In almost all cases the parties are referred to by surname only. The Court of Appeal heard appeals from the Chancery Division, the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division (Probate and Divorce), and the County Palatine and Stannaries Courts; from the Queen’s Bench and Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty (Admiralty) Divisions; from the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division (Admiralty cases); and from the London Bankruptcy Court. The very extensive lists of cases pending for trial or hearing in the Chancery Division are arranged by the justice appointed, and then sub-divided into categories such as ‘Casuses for Trial with Witnesses’, ‘Further Consideration’, ‘Demurrer’, ‘Non-witness Causes, Adjourned Summonses, and Special Cases.’ Cases in the Queen’s Bench Division are sub-divided into ‘New Trial Paper’, ‘Special Paper’ and ‘Crown Paper’. Cases in the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division are sub-divided into those for probate and matrimonial causes. Lists of bankrupts, liquidations by arrangement, dividends and orders of discharge extracted from the London Gazette were published each week, and these have been indexed both for the principals and their solicitors. Lists entitled ‘Creditors under 22 & 23 Vict. c. 35′ – a piece of legislation introduced to protect executors and administrators from litigation (whether from kin or from creditors) after the assets of the deceased had been distributed, by allowing the publication of notices stipulating a Last Day of Claim, absolving the estate from later demands – are therefore effectively those of the recently deceased whose affairs were in the process of being wound up; ‘Creditors under Estates in Chancery’, announces the last date by which proofs of claim had to be submitted. Indexed for principal parties and solicitors. ‘Heirs at Law and Next of Kin’ summarizes announcements from solicitors or the courts appealing for heirs to undistributed bequests or estates. There is a weekly list of Unclaimed Stock and Dividends in the Bank of England transferred to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, and which would be paid to the claimants named within three months, unless some other claimants sooner appeared. The publication includes examination results and lists of new barristers called to the bar of the inns of court. The examination pass lists include the general examinations of students of the Inns of Court, held at Lincoln’s Inn Hall 16 to 19 October 1883, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29 and 31 December, and 1 to 4 April 1884; the intermediate examination 17 January 1884; and the final examination held 15 and 16 January 1884. For student solicitors there are the Incorporated Law Society examinations for honours of candidates for admission on the roll of solicitors of the Supreme Court, in November 1883 and January 1884; preliminary examinations held 24-25 October 1883 and 8 May 1884; and the intermediate examination held 8 November 1883. There are also lists of passes in the Intermediate Examination in Laws, LL. B. and LL. D. of the University of London. Each issue listed details of professional law partnerships recently dissolved, abstracted and summarized from the London Gazette; and promotions and appointments within the profession. There is also a section of Birth, Marriage and Death announcements, and Edward Walford, M. A., provided in each issue a Legal Obituary, giving biographical notices (dwelling
particularly upon the legal careers) of recently deceased members of the profession.

1918 – Barristers
The Law List for 1918 includes this ‘List of Counsel, Special Pleaders, and Conveyancers at the Bar’. Each name is given in full, surname first; then the name of the Inn of Court as an abbreviation (G., Gray’s Inn; I., Inner Temple; L., Lincoln’s Inn; M., Middle Temple; and D. C. for Doctors’ Commons) and date at which called to the bar. Barristers in practice are usually furnished with an address, and there are some abbreviated references to judicial awards and appointments. An asterisk signifies an Equity Draughtsman and Conveyancer.

1934 – Residents of Poole, Longfleet and Parkstone
Kelly’s Directory of Bournemooth, Poole, Parkstone, Etc. includes this list of private residents in Poole, Longfleet and Parkstone (inclusive of Branksome). An asterisk before a name indicates a Parkstone postal address; a dagger, Bournemouth.

1940 – University of Ireland Members of Convocation
The University of Ireland was established by royal charter in 1908, with three constituent colleges – University College, Dublin; University College, Cork; and University College, Galway. The university calendar for 1940 includes this complete list of Members of Convocation. It is similar to the general list of graduates of the university, but not exactly the same, for it includes academic staff of the university not necessarily graduates of the same, and not all graduates registered for membership of convocation. The list gives full names (surname first), degree and year of graduation, and, importantly, full address as in 1940 – information not given in the general list. Where the current full address was not known, the last known address was given, the entry being in italics.

The Original Record now have over 9.1 million entries directly available online., with afree unlimited search. All records are hand-indexed (no OCR). You amy purchase sets of scans, or buy open access to the surname(s) of your choice, including variants. See: www.theoriginalrecord.com

Mac users really haven’t had the chance to use a docking station. Most PC’s come with an option for a docking station but Apple has never followed suit. Third-party manufacturer BookEndz has a suite of docks for Macs ranging from the first generation MacBook, to the PowerBook, all the way to the latest unibody MacBook Pro. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing around with the BookEndz dock for the first generation unibody 15″ MacBook Pro.

Overall, the dock is well built. It adds some functionality that might be needed in the future, including extra USB ports, etc. Previous versions of the docks did have both a DVI port and a VGA port, so that you could hook up two external monitors to your Mac, but with this version, you can only hook up one monitor through the Mini Display Port.

Many people will argue what’s the point of having a dock for your MacBook or MacBook Pro? Well, it’s really just convenience. Some people may think that plugging in all their peripherals is a tedious process, which it can be if you have a lot of cables, etc. So once you pop into the office you slide the dock in, and you’re off and running.

Plus, with a $299.95 price tag, not too sure how many folks will actually want to dive into one of these bad boys.

My only complaint is multiple monitor support. Us Mac users have been plagued with not having the ability to run multiple monitors via a laptop unless it’s through USB, which is pretty slow, especially when watching videos. But, that might all change with USB 3.0, which DisplayLink, the makers of the fine technology that power multiple monitors through USB, promise will fix.

The only real way to get multiple monitors is to either upgrade to an iMac where I have the ability to use the iMac’s screen, plus an external display, or get an unnecessary Mac Pro, so I can have dual 30″ monitors. Oh, and anyone who does have a Mac Pro with dual 30″ monitors — I am very, very jealous.

Bottom Line
With my jealousy aside, the latest iteration of the BookEndz Dock is something that some Mac users might consider getting, even though it’s probably not the most useful for it’s money.

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Tuscany, Italy | Relics and Reliquaries

The patron Saint of Lucca, of servants, and of lost keys lies in rest in the church of San Frediano, dressed and in full view, some 700-plus years after her death in 1272.

Zita is one of the Incorruptibles, bodies of Catholic saints that were found to miraculously not deteriorate.

She began her life as a peasant girl who went to work as a servant in Lucca at age of 12, and was known for her sunny demeanor, work ethic, and for giving leftover bread to the poor. After many years of working as a domestic she was promoted to head housekeeper, and a series of miracles began to reward her hard work and piety. The story most often related concerns her distribution of bread to the poor. One day, as she was smuggling left over bread from the home of the family she worked for a fellow servant ratted her out, but when the head of the family pulled open her apron, instead of bread, only flowers fell to the ground. According to legend, when she died at age 60, the church bells spontaneously began to toll.

Following her death, her fame spread, becoming closely associated with the town of Lucca. She was mentioned by Dante in his Divine Comedy Inferno 21, v 38, in a passing reference that indicates that he expected his audience to know who he was talking about.

In 1580, her body was exhumed and found to be incorruptible, and her body was put on display in a silver casket, as is tradition, in the church where she had prayed while alive. She was finally canonized in 1696. Although her body is “incorruptible”, it is browned and wizened, most likely the result of a form of natural mummification. Only her hands and face are uncovered for viewing.

In 1988 her body was examined by Gino Fornaciari of the University of Pisa. His studies concluded that she had died of lung problems, probably associated with inhaling coal dust and smoke.

Every year on April 27, citizens of Lucca bake bread and bring flowers (often daffodils) to San Frediano in celebration of her feast day, and the body is brought out to be touched by the pious. Her body is on display in a chapel on the inside right hand side of the church.

Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone

Everyone knows about the struggles US mobile phone company AT&T has had with keeping its network up to speed given the huge bandwidth requirements of the popular iPhone. Well, they’re not the only mobile carrier having issues.

In the UK, O2 has been having problems with the huge amount of data being schlepped around the network by iPhones. O2 CEO Ronan Dunne told the Financial Times that performance of the O2 network had been disappointing since this summer and that the company was trying to cope with the increasing number of mobile apps running on devices such as the iPhone. TUAW reported a multi-day data outage that affected O2 users just a few weeks ago.

Most of the issues have been confined to London, so the company is installing 200 additional base stations to support the increased levels of traffic. Dunne also noted that the company is working with Apple, RIM, and other handset manufacturers to learn more about which applications are causing the heavy demands on the O2 network. O2 has been working with Nokia Siemens Networks to modify the network infrastructure to better handle the combination of voice and data traffic.

While trying to iron out these issues, it appears that O2’s parent company, Telefonica, is making moves that could place further demands on the network. Telefonica purchased mobile VoIP company Jajah to add to O2’s portfolio of services, and VoIP services are notorious devourers of bandwidth.

In the United States, Verizon can smirk about AT&T’s network issues, but O2’s problems point out that no mobile operator is immune from the bandwidth-eating apps that are popular on the iPhone platform.

[via Techworld]

TUAWUK mobile operator O2: iPhone apps are hurting our network originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A lot went down this past week, the last of the year and the decade. People always start looking back this time of year, and we were no exception. But there was plenty of crazy in the here and now.

Yes, there were recaps.

Brian recounted his love of gadgets in the aughts and explained how that love changed throughout the decade.

We waxed nostalgic on gadgets in the year 2000. Jason wrote about MP3 players. Mark wrote about laptops. John wrote about Windows CE and the digital cameras.

We looked at the year’s essential iPhone apps.

Sean warned us of 7 gadgets to beware in 2010.

In case you were trying to remember what you liked, we counted down the 10 most popular posts of 2009.

We took the FBI Cybersquad, and their Matrix screensaver, very seriously.

Don showed off some head-scratchers with a What Is It? recap, and we thought that our Image Cache shots deserved the same treatment.

The history of the New Year’s Eve ball extends back 102 years. We made a timeline.

We couldn’t resist posting these bird-watching apps, and, in turn, John evaluated the state of porn apps in the App Store.

Guest blogger Anna Jane Grossman remembered the Internet delivery service Kozmo as part of our Y2K+10 series.

Adam, working with illustrator Dan Meth, presented the socially acceptable geek subgenre scale. Everyone laughed and waited until they got home to see where they ended up.

Jesus made an incredible infographic on the true odds of airborne terror. It should make you feel a little bit better about flying.

He also posted the TSA’s leaked security rules, though as far as I know he wasn’t visited by any government agents.

Theirs wasn’t the only leaky faucet this week; we also looked at the Chrome OS netbook’s leaked specifications.

Speaking of leaks, this video of The Making of the Bootleg of Avatar was the most visible look at the craft since Jerry’s masterful recordings of Death Blow and Cry Cry Again.

We leaked documents with the Nexus One price tag that bummed everyone out a bit, because we had sort of hoped it was just going to be free for the taking. This ten minute video of the phone still made our mouths water.

Friend of Giz, Kate Greene, hunted for the perfect screen.

Some buildings were demolished. It didn’t go quite as planned.

Another friend, Will Smith, showed us how cheap is too cheap when you’re building your own PC.

Google China’s ex-president spilled some beans on the Apple tablet.

We had some laughs at this cartoon about what it would be like if the “I’m a Mac” ads were more accurate.

For everyone who has ever watched Steve Jobs announce the iPodWhatever, featuring x-ray vision, bulletproof plating, and a bigger hard drive the week after buying the old one, our guide of When to Buy Apple Products was mighty helpful.

This incredible photo of Saturn got Jesus all hot and bothered.

We watched this video of Half-Life 2 being played on Project Natal.

Mark’s second 27″ iMac was busted, just like his first one. He’s not going down quietly.

He also kicked off our Lifechanger section—posts on common objects that make life better—with as poignant a blog post as ever has been written about vintage pyrex pots.

To put our iSlate speculation in perspective, Matt wrote up a recap of wacky iPhone rumors from the years before that gadget’s arrival. One was oddly prescient.

If your resolution was to prank more often, this Skype trick is a good place to start.

David Quinlan told the awesome story of how he created Stuck, his decision-enabling iPhone app.

Joel told President Obama that it is time to fire the Transportation Security Administration. Some people agreed with him, others did not.

John posted an old home video of himself water-skiing.

First Time Warner said, “no more Fox channels.” Then, they said, “just use the Internet.” In the end, everyone got along.

Just when you thought taser stories couldn’t get more outrageous, a cop tasered an unconscious diabetic 11 times.

Also outrageous: the girl who couldn’t get her stolen iPhone back from Apple.

Matt wondered what’s going to be inside the next generation of MacBooks.

A guy constructed a really nice handmade telescope for his wife, and suddenly all the presents we gave this year seemed pretty trite.

Another guy constructed a really useless machine, but at least took the time to share with us how he did it.

We showed the view from the top of the Moscow Bridge, and somewhere, somebody puked on their keyboard.

We learned that Google is just an elaborate front for a club of intense ping-pong players.

Some nerds picked up microphones (that is, rapped awkwardly into the keyboards of their MacBooks) and recorded I’m On A Phone, a parody of a parody (of a parody, if you count DJ Khaled himself as a joke). One set of them was declared the winner.

Some weird shit went down at a Walmart.

A man stayed true to his copy of shareware WinZip for five years; we admired his perseverance.

Now that Avatar has made a bajillion dollars, 3D is here to stay (even though Wilson’s screening sort of sucked.) We took a look at the Battle of the 3D Glasses.

Speaking of Avatar, remember how your friend was like, “why don’t they put those tendrils together when they’re having sex?!” Well, they do. And we might get to see it.

We previewed Blio, the tablet-friendly ebook format Ray Kurzweil rescued from the future to bring back to 2009.

Rosa showed off one expensive ass robot hummingbird.

But all bots aren’t good ones—we also found this fist-pumping story of how three dudes disabled one of the world’s most powerful botnets.

That Apophis asteroid that has a 1 in 250,000 chance of hitting Earth? Yeah, Russia’s gonna deflect that just to be safe.

Kim Peek, the original Rain Main, passed away and we remembered him as well as his amazing abilities.

It’s probably not a good idea to pull up Star Trek stuff when you’re surfing the web at work, but it’s definitely not a good idea to pull up this Star Trek-related shot at work. Hint: it’s also wiener-related.

Speaking of things you shouldn’t look at at work, Chauvon, an actress from MTV’s Real World, showed us how to expose fake boobs using only a flashlight. Parenthetically, one of hers popped during the last Real World / Road Rules challenge.

We put out the call for your Genius Bar horror stories. There’s still time to submit yours and win some pizza.

We learned that the Coast Guard got mean with pirates and cuddly with kittens in 2009.

Lastly, It turns out that there’s a ton of Weekly World News issues scanned into Google Books, which someday will help someone get out of a sticky fact checking situation.

In 2009, when Ray Ozzie stepped into the ring with the news that Microsoft was launching a full-on social lab, it was clear that the Enterprise 2.0 movement was moving into a new phase.

Now comes the question of what effect Microsoft will have on the way Enterprise 2.0 evolves and what roles the players that are early to the game will play in its future.

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Editor’s note: This story is part of a series we call Redux, where we’ll re-publish some of our best posts of 2009. As we look back at the year – and ahead to what next year holds – we think these are the stories that deserve a second glance. It’s not just a best-of list, it’s also a collection of posts that examine the fundamental issues that continue to shape the Web. We hope you enjoy reading them again and we look forward to bringing you more Web products and trends analysis in 2010. Happy holidays from Team ReadWriteWeb!

Ozzie is Microsoft’s chief architect and one of the most respected people in tech circles. Lillian Cheng will lead the Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs and report to Ozzie. Cheng is a luminary in her own right, leading a number of research efforts for Microsoft, including the Vista UI.

FUSE will combine three labs: The Creative Systems Group, which has been led by Cheng, and the Rich Media Labs and Startup Labs, now commandeered by Ray Ozzie.

In an email to Microsoft employees this week, the message was pretty clear about the direction the company will take with its technology development. In essence, the tea leaves say that pretty much every product at Microsoft will include social or sharing features. FUSE will serve as a resource for the product groups. In Ozzie’s words:

Myriad scenarios involving the notion of ‘social’ have now gone far beyond communications and collaboration and are transforming experiences that are key to our customers and key to our business, in leisure & entertainment; productivity & teamwork; experiences extending how we use the OS itself.

The three groups being combined have concrete skills and code in areas where ‘social’ meets sharing; where ‘social’ meets real-time; where ‘social’ meets media; where ‘social’ meets search; where ‘social’ meets the cloud plus three screens and a world of devices.

FUSE Labs will bring more coherence and capability to those advanced development projects where they’re already actively collaborating with product groups to help them succeed with ‘leapfrog’ efforts. Working closely with (Microsoft Research) and across our divisions, the lab will prioritize efforts where its capabilities can be applied to areas where the company’s extant missions, structures, tempo or risk might otherwise cause us to miss a material threat or opportunity.

Microsoft’s apparent deep commitment will create a rising tide for the Enterprise 2.0 movement, which is already in full swing. A number of best-in-breed applications are being used by business people. Microsoft’s high-profile commitment will further fuel interest in these applications.

Part of this is just the natural order that is taking place. Corporations have historically relied on document-based systems such as Sharepoint. Web pages reflect the next extension, but they, too, are essentially a form of a document. Enterprise 2.0 is forcing a change by fitting social layers that surface information from traditional data silos. That shows no sign of slowing down. FUSE will push the effort forward in its work with the product groups. It will be a wholly different kind of approach that has its roots in IT more than in the business departments.

A Different Development Burden

Microsoft faces a different developmental burden than what faces the young best-of-breed companies that are building social applications for their business customers.These companies are building products from scratch that they can quickly change without worrying about software upgrades. Their products will continue to fill a gap for the business manager. This means that the Enterprise 2.0 movement will see a dual form of growth, both from business and IT departments.

How Will The Customer Fare?

Perhaps more interesting will be the changing dynamics for Microsoft customers. I spoke with Tim Young, CEO of Socialcast about this topic. The advantage of social technologies is their ease of use and how they fit into a line of business. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools can be treated as an expense. They perform a service. Business users like that model. The applications are easy to use and affordable. They do not require an IT team to put in place.

Business users have been free to use these technologies at will. They have been pretty much ignored by the IT Department. But recently, Microsoft has been pressuring their IT contacts to upgrade to Sharepoint 2010.

People we speak to say that IT is now starting to ask business users about the social technologies they are using. IT is skeptical to some extent. They have relationships with Microsoft that are important to maintain.

But unlike in the past, business users are the early technology adopters and hold a bit of power. They have started using social technologies and are not looking back. They have crossed the chasm and are looking to employ these applications even more. The news from Microsoft just proves that the social enterprise is here to stay.

Microsoft is not in such a bad space. Companies are still heavily reliant on spreadsheets and email. Documents remain the crown jewels of the organization. Their social offering only stands to improve with FUSE now in place. Several companies, like Jive Software, are integrating their products with Sharepoint, providing an edge they previously did not have.

We expect Microsoft will play a heavy hand in how Enterprise 2.0 evolves. But the foundation has already been established to some extent without them. They have their own allies in the enterprise. Now it’s just a question of how fast the culture shifts.

Discuss

Top 10 DS Games of 2010

Get ready to cram some RPGs and adventures in your pocket in 2010.

By 1UP Staff

There’s about a bajillion of these things out there, and in multiple flavors even (DS, DSi, and the upcoming/rumored DSi XL). So it’s a safe bet that there will still be some damn good games coming out for the DS even in 2010. Though, a casual look at what excites us most shows that the DS has also become the unofficial king of RPGs and adventure games. We haven’t even heard much about what Nintendo itself plans to release, but read on for the ten games that we want to put in our pocket.

<!– 10. –> Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

Dev: Capcom | Pub: Capcom

If there was one think missing from Apollo Justice, the last Ace Attorney game, it was stylish prosecuting attorney Miles Edgeworth. Capcom remedies that oversight with the next title in its lawyer sim. This time, you control Edgeworth in an isometric 3D world — cross-examining witnesses and drawing conclusions from the evidence you find. The graphic adventure parts of the game have always been great, but we’re really excited for the humorous, well-written dialogue. Telltale may have the best graphic adventures on console and PC, but Capcom still presides high and mighty on DS.

<!– 10. –> Pokemon Heart Gold/Silver

Dev: Game Freak Inc | Pub: Nintendo

Yes, we get it. You’re too old for Pokémon. You don’t want anything to do with these disgusting, cute, and punnily named creatures. Why is it then that you’ve “caught them all” on DS when Pearl and Diamond (and then eventually Platinum) came out? That’s right. We’d all like to think we’re beyond Pikachu’s siren call (”Chuuu…”) but the truth is the game is addicting and deeply satisfying, easy enough for us to have gotten into it as kids, and meaty enough to hold our attentions still today. The enhanced remakes of fan favorite Silver and Gold editions will surely have you wanting to — well, you know — all over again. Plus, the game comes with a pokéball-shaped pedometer!

<!– 10. –> Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Dev: Atlus | Pub: Atlus

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Filed under: Budget, Sedan, Videos, Toyota, India

At India’s Delhi expo on January 6, Toyota will be revealing the Etios, a small sedan specifically created for the Indian market. The entry level four-door, engineered to compete with Suzuki’s Swift sedan (sold under the Maruti badge in India), will be available with a 1.4-liter diesel that’s used in the Yaris, and either a 1.2-liter or 1.3-liter engine.

Toyota has big plans for the Etios, both in India and other world markets. It will begin production on the subcontinent, and once the company gets that operation where it wants it to be, Brazil is said to be the next destination for Etios assembly. Follow the jump for the teaser video, and if you’re in India, get ready for the Toyota invasion.

[Source: YouTube via Paul Tan]

Continue reading Video: Toyota Etios sedan teased ahead India reveal

Video: Toyota Etios sedan teased ahead India reveal originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nevada, US | Unique Collections

The neon-lit night sky of Las Vegas is one of the iconic sights of 20th century. It is the peculiar mix of the burlesque, kitsch, and retro modern that has marked the visual identity of an age.

Many of the most recognizable neon displays from the golden age of Las Vegas casinos have been produced by Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO). This Salt Lake City based company has for decades maintained a storage yard in Las Vegas. This 3 acre plot has over the years become a veritable boneyard of disused neon signs.

It is the final resting place of some notable pieces of Vegas history, like the original Aladdin’s lamp from the first version of Aladdin Casino, Binion’s Horseshoe, Silver Slipper and the Golden Nugget.

There are over 150 decommissioned non-restored neon signs on this location. This collection is in process of being incorporated into Las Vegas Neon Museum.

I keep seeing articles regarding the wait times of the Emergency rooms and questions regarding suggestions of solutions for the problem. Nurse practitioners working in the Fast Tracks have sped things up tremendously. Of course, there are things that show up in Fast Tracks that are more critical than they appear, so we don’t just see the easy stuff. The idea that Nurse Practitioners should only see colds, diarrhea and sprains irritates the many of us who have the schooling and diagnostic skills to do emergent care. Nurse practitioners are specializing in emergent and critical ICU care, as well as those of us who work in primary care offices. Just ask Diary of A New Emergency Room NP.

The main reason for emergency room waits is the sheer volume of patients who come in for non-emergent care. If people would go to their primary care providers for things that aren’t emergencies, then the wait times would go down. Too often people go in for cold symptoms and are not in distress. The wait times are not all that bad considering that we live in a country with a great health care system. Why are we turning into such a “gimme gimme, fix it now!” society? If you lived in a third world country, you may have to wait camped outside for days and may never get to see a medical provider at all. I would never consider going to the emergency room unless I thought it were a truly emergent issue. Some nurses, like Kim from Emergiblog, have got to be saints for putting on their smiles and not actually making a patient’s cold symptoms into respiratory distress by putting a pillow over their heads! Just kidding!! I can’t imagine working like a dog trying save a child’s life after a car accident and then having to go into a room where someone has back pain that is chronic for years and just wants pain meds and a note off of work for Monday.
Kudos those nurses who can work in that scenario daily without losing their ever loving minds.

Some of the problems reside around the fact that a lot of patients have no insurance. They are not sure where to go so the ED is the first place they head to. I work for a rural office that does a sliding fee payment schedule and often the local ED sends patients to me for follow up. I make sure that my patients understand that I am on call for my patients 24 hours and that they need to call the office triage nurse (who will call me) BEFORE they go their local emergency rooms for problems. We also do same day scheduling. This makes it easier for patients to come in when they are sick and not have to wait until they are so far gone that the ED is their only option for relief. I explain to patients with no insurance that I can save them thousands of dollars.

Before most people get into the screaming game of patients who don’t have insurance can’t afford 90.00 to 160.00 for an initial visit, lets start looking at the ones who show up COVERED in gold jewelery and talking on cellphones. If the patient has to choose between paying the cost of a test or the cost of the office visit, I tell them to pay the test fee first. We can always work out a payment plan. Most offices who just carry insurance have some kind of system for patients who can’t afford things and as long as they don’t get abused, will keep them in place.

So, when you get cranky having to wait for several hours in an emergency room when you only have a non-emergent issue, remember that the doctors, nurses, and nurse practitioners are trying to save lives and it may be someone you love in there one day taking up all their time.

Article Tags: Christopher Booker, Headline Story, Met Office, UK Winter Forecast 2009/10, World Temperatures

The UK’s official weather forecasters are determined that winters should be mild, in the face of the frozen facts

The Met Office forecast an unusually mild winter, but snow fell on Britain to usher in 2010 Photo: SCOTT HEPPELL/AP

Shortly after midnight on Friday morning, as 200,000 merrymakers were departing from the Thames after enjoying a spectacular fireworks show in sub-zero temperatures, flakes of snow began to fall on Whitehall. In light of the Met Office’s prediction that this would be a “mild” winter, with temperatures above average, it seemed an apt way to start the New Year. But hasn’t the time come for us to stop treating the serial inaccuracy of Met Office forecasts as just a joke and see it for what it is – a national scandal?

The reason the Met Office so persistently gets its seasonal forecasts wrong is that it has been hi-jacked from the role for which we pay it nearly £200 million a year, to become one of the world’s major propaganda engines for the belief in man-made global warming. Over the past three years, it has become a laughing stock for forecasts which are invariably wrong in the same direction.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

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While Chrysler Group LLC has no plans to hold a press conference at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, the Auburn Hills automaker will still have strong presence at Cobo. Joining an electric Fiat 500 and a Lancia-based Chrysler concept will be Fiat SpA’s Maserati and Ferrari brands.

At previous Detroit auto shows, high-end luxury brands like Lamborghini, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porsche and Ferrari have rented out their show-floor space. Last year, Ferrari (along with many others) was a no show; however, this year Chrysler has formed a partnership with Fiat, which owns Ferrari and Maserati.

Spokesman or NAIAS, Sam Locricchio has confirmed that Maserati and Ferrari will display their new vehicles at the Chrysler stand. Both plan on showing the Maserati GranTurismo Convertible (known as GranCabrio in Europe) and the Ferrari 458 Italia.

Chrysler’s show space is currently being redesigned so that all brands are presented as a part of the Chrysler family.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Detroit News

You don’t really have to start in on your New Year’s resolutions until Monday. Friday was pretty much a gimme and now it’s the weekend, so just rest up for whatever thing you’re going to try to do for a week before quitting. If digitizing old-timey family photos is on your list, this new-ish scanner is powered via USB cable and features simple one-button operation.

Designed for 4×6 photos, the iConvert Photo Scanner turns your old pictures into 100, 300, or 600dpi digital images. It’s both Windows and Mac compatible and costs $100 though SkyMall or Brookstone.

iConvert Photo Scanner [SkyMall]

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Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPod touch

I need a brain transplant.

When Paul Haddad of Tapbots offered us fifteen license codes for a giveaway, I blithely assumed that they were for Pastebot, their cool cut, copy, and paste app for iPhone. I set up the giveaway yesterday and have been thrilled with the number of entries (you can still enter until midnight ET tonight, by the way).

Well, Paul reminded me this morning that the giveaway was for Weightbot, as we wanted to do a tie-in to everyone’s resolution to lose (or in some cases, gain) weight in the new year. After flogging myself for my lack of memory, I received another email from Paul stating that it would just be easier for him to create promo codes for Pastebot and we could keep the Weightbot codes as well. Thank you, Paul!

What does that mean? We’re giving away fifteen copies of Weightbot, too! This will be a completely different giveaway, and to enter you just need to leave a comment telling us how many pounds you’d like to lose or gain this year. Here are the rules:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us how many pounds you’d like to lose or gain, tracking it with Weightbot
• The comment must be left before Sunday, January 3, 2009, 11:59PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Fifteen winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: Promo Code for one copy of Weightbot (Value: US$1.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Now if Tapbots could only come out with a way of making my memory and organization better…

TUAWOur mistake, your gain: win one of fifteen free copies of Weightbot originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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