Advertisers get "stung" by The Sting

Advertisers - you work hard for the money you pay to have your products advertised in the Danville Register and Bee and The Sting. Were you aware that many of those papers are never even distributed! They're tossed into the recycle bins because NO ONE IS READING THEM which means no one is reading your ad either. They don't even get the change to! Don't take my word for it...drive by the dumpsters and recycle bins yourself.

The photos below are from Wednesday August 27,2008 issues .......500 more Danville Register & Bee Stings were spotted in a big green recycle box belonging to the City of Danville at one of the recycle sites around town....with Foodlion color insert and ad for Hobby Lobby on the back page and ad for Roanoke eye doctor -Dr. David L. Armstrong...Will someone please call and let advertisers know they're wasting their money?

Notice the ad in The Sting - where I've circled it in red. It reads, "Don't Get Stung by the BeeSTING by not advertising your businesses in Danville's weekly publication. Dedicated to keeping local citizens safe and informed. Huh? It appears these advertisers DID GET STUNG ....when all these copies end up going into the recycle bin without ever being distributed or read!!!

The sign

It's not what you say, but how you say it. This is an excellent video about not only a sign, but so much more....

Why people like to work for Google

Unlike Media General or the Danville Register and Bee, employees at Google get a remarkable atmosphere to work in. Check it out: GOOGLE WORKPLACE: . Pool tables, massage, free food, drinks, SOOO COOL!!!!

Media General and The Danville Register & Bee offers "Open Air" bathrooms (pee in the parking lot, poop in the bushes)

Media General and The Danville Register & Bee do have a drink machine and a snack machine in the basement...where you have to remember to turn the lights on and off to find it. And it's not always stocked since most people bring their own...which means the snack people only come around once a week or so....

Anyway....lots of reasons NOT to work for The Danville Register & Bee....but check out Google!! They get 150,000 resumes a month! Small wonder.

Labor Day for Newspaper Carriers?

Labor Day is fast approaching and as America celebrates all the American Worker has done, The Danville Register & Bee newspaper carriers are still forced to urinate in the parking lot. Publisher Steve Kaylor can afford to sponsor all kinds of events around town, but doesn't seem to care about the very people who put his product into the hands of the community. Why? We know he is a Rotarian....does this mean the Rotary, a public service club, doesn't care about people either? What does it take to ask one of your members to unlock a door so these carriers, many of them with health problems or elderly, can go to the bathroom indoors?

We know Publisher Steve Kaylor doesn't want old people in his publication, "All About Her" because "All About Her," is, in Steve's words, "all about youth." We know he doesn't care about his employees because he is sending the printing, the obituaries and the ads OUT OF TOWN. Advertisers - your money is going to Lynchburg and soon to India...not to Danville. Is that what you want? And did you see all the newspapers being dumped in the recycling bins NOT EVEN DISTRIBUTED? Those are YOUR advertising dollars going down the drain....along with the urine of the newspaper carriers. Please...somebody do something....send the man a roll of toilet paper....something...

Bullying song...great website, animation is awesome!

Wow!! What a GREAT animated video and song about Bullying! This comes out of the UK and is wonderful! Click and listen! http://www.jcbsong.co.uk/jcbvideo.asp

A "JCB" is a backhoe here in the USA.... a "digger" in other counties...

eBay is moving away from auctions to fixed price model

eBay announced today that it's moving away from its auction model to more fixed prices. They're also lowering their rates for sellers - lowering the cost of listing an item on the site to 35 cents for 30 days - a 70% reduction. Not all the changes will be as popular. No more checks or cash will be accepted from buyers. It's credit cards or Paypal only now.

For more details: Click here:

Net Neutrality!! You could be losing your internet freedom

Love your internet? You're about to lose it. Companies like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T want to control the internet, slow YOUR access, charge you MORE money and worse!! CENSOR YOUR ACCESS AND USE! Protect Net Neutrality!!! What is Net Neutrality? Watch this video - then ask why media companies like Media General aren't alerting you to the issue...why? Because media companies would partner with Verizon etc. to control the internet and make money selling you news.....get with it. Write your congressman today or lose your internet.




For more info on saving the internet and avoiding even HIGHER costs than we already endure...click here: www.savetheinternet.com

Newspaper and hospital

Who's in whose pocket? USA Today reported that Danville Regional Medical Center had the worst fatality rates in the country for heart attack patients...The 19.6 percent death rate for heart attack patients in 2007 was the worst in the nation. But the statistics for 2006 were actually much worse: 24 percent. Yet what does the Register and Bee say in their editorial?


"The availability of this kind of free, readily accessible information offers our hospital the opportunity to publicly demonstrate that the changes it has made have changed care there for the better. When the hospital was locally owned, the community had no way of knowing that kind of information. Now, it’s on the Internet for the world to see — and for local people to study."

Get a freaking grip Robert.(Robert Benson, editorial writer), that information was NOT posted on the hospital web site for people to find!!! It's on the internet sure, but not because the hospital had anything to do with it. And they can't control it being out there either can they...That information has always been available - but a news organization would have had to dig for it - as USA Today did because they want to provide readers with the truth.

A REAL newspaper had to go dig it up and report it to get it out there.

The community had no way of knowing that information BEFORE USA Today posted it and I reported it here...the Register & Bee certainly didn't write about it. As a matter of fact I was NOT ALLOWED to write about the dozens of people who came to me as a reporter with horror stories about their experience with the hospital. I was TOLD to focus on the positive and the changes. Yeah...you make it seem like things are all better now....Tell that to the young man and his five-year old son who recently lost a wife and mother and new baby at DRMC because a blood clot was diagnosed as a "panic attack" and she was sent home and died. There was so much fear of a cover-up by the hospital her body was sent to Duke for an autopsy. Are you going to gloss over that too? What about the firings of employees who speak out? nah...disgruntled employees aren't they?! The billing system is still screwed up and the fact is change doesn't happen on a dime. It will be YEARS before there is any improvement at DRMC. Change happens incrementally. And it doesn't happen any faster if the hospital is pouring a lot of money into newspaper advertising as Board of Supervisor Coy Harville keeps pointing out ON the record in public meetings. What does he know that the rest of us don't? He keeps saying the Register and Bee has a million dollar advertising contract with the newspaper. Do they? Maybe there's some pressure there to keep that? Remember....

We're talking about a newspaper who forces employees to pee in the parking lot and crap in the bushes because they can't afford to clean the bathrooms. And you want people to believe that the hospital welcomes criticism? Did you mention that the hospital kicked Ray and Jennifer out of their volunteer program because they don't want handicapped people volunteering even though both had been volunteering for years? (Ray and Jennifer are recent Habitat for Humanity house recipients - both of whom are in wheelchairs)

This site is 72% GOOD and 28% EVIL

Not bad! I mean, this is OFFICIAL. The Danville Register and Bee is only 19% EVIL and 81% GOOD. Don't get too excited though guys. The Gematriculator is a service that uses the infallible methods of Gematria developed by Mr. Ivan Panin to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is.

Basically, Gematria is searching for different patterns through the text, such as the amount of words beginning with a vowel. If the amount of these matches is divisible by a certain number, such as 7 (which is said to be God's number), there is an incontestable argument that the Spirit of God is ever present in the text. Another important aspect in gematria are the numerical values of letters: A=1, B=2 ... I=9, J=10, K=20 and so on. The Gematriculator uses Finnish alphabet, in which Y is a vowel.

Experts consider the mathematical patterns in the text of the Holy Bible as God's watermark of authenticity. Thus, the Gematriculator provides only results that are absolutely correct...Apparently newspapers rank higher based on the fact they use more vowels.

Tuesday is Women's Equality Day

Did you know it took women 72 years of ceaseless campaigning to finally win the right to vote in 1920? Not to mention having to fight the ridicule, ostracism, abuse and bullying along the way and even afterwards...much like what goes on at Media General and The Danville Register & Bee....

This Tuesday, August 26, Women's Equality Day, marks that anniversary. But I don't have to tell you that we have a long haul before women are truly equal.

If you think women are already equal consider these things:

* Women only make $.77 to a man's dollar. Could you use the extra 23 cents?
* The US has no guaranteed medical leave for childbirth; we're trailing 168 countries in the company of only Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland.
* The US is near the bottom of the list -- again -- in our public support for quality childcare for children of working parents.
* Our access to affordable birth control is now under attack.
* And finally, women still only make up 16 percent of our representatives in Congress.

Take time Tuesday and every day to remember, the fight is not over.

Gitmo on the Plat

Gitmo on the Plat. That's what protestors are calling the holding facilities that Denver authorities have for those protestors who plan to show up at the Democratic Convention this week. No access to bathrooms, food, water, phones and the use of stun guns are all planned for those choosing to exercise their constitutional right to free speech. Didn't know politics had gotten so rough eh?

Will the Register & Bee ask the hard questions?

If you read the newspaper, chances are you have NOT heard about net neutrality. Why? Because one, they don't understand the impact it will have on YOU or they don't want to. If the internet is allowed to become controlled by private companies we will all LOSE the internet as we know it. Want to understand how? Watch this video. Then ask the newspaper why they haven't talked about it. Then write Virgil Goode and ask him where he stands on the issue.

Register and Bee interested in politics? Really?

Danville Register and Bee Publisher Steve Kaylor says the newspaper is sponsoring a congressional issues forum Sept. 3 at the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research.

U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-5th, and Democratic challenger Tom Perriello will take part in the forum Sept. 3 at the Institute from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

According to an article in the Register & Bee, Publisher Steve Kaylor said one of the reasons the newspaper is involved is because of the quality programs offered by the Sorenson Institute.

“We wanted to be a part of that,” he said.

It's too bad Kaylor didn't want to be part of The Register & Bee covering the legislature earlier this year. Reporter Denice Thibodeau was called back from Richmond to help cover the critical reporting of fires and car wrecks rather than the business and bills affecting Pittsylvania County. But as we all know, Media General and The Danville Register & Bee are more interested in selling newspapers and blood and guts sells more papers than bills that our representatives are considering. Never mind that our county board of supervisors and citizens went up to Richmond almost daily - many of them making the three hour drive up and back when things like uranium and hunting and hunting with dogs issues were discussed and voted on. We didn't have a reporter there and according to reporters from other papers who were there, Mac McLean who used to cover the legislature "goofed off" and "cribbed notes" from them after hanging out elsewhere all day. You remember Mac....the one who spent all that time videotaping women's breasts without their knowledge or consent....yeah. same one.

ANYWAY!!!! The newspaper is covering this because STEVE will be there...and having "his people" there will make him appear powerful. Of course I'm not sure what having his employees peeing in his parking lot makes him. Did you know the folks at the Institute and our local representatives read this blog Steve? Yup. Sure 'nuff. Maybe you should get a porta-potty out in the parking lot for the carriers.

Virgil? I like you. Would you mind nudging Steve so the working class has a place to pee this winter? I mean...c'mon. It's hot now, but who wants to have to drop their pants to relieve themselves at 4 in the morning in a bush because the newspaper publisher won't let them in to use the damn bathroom? Can't afford that???? But he can afford to sponsor you guys at a forum? Isn't politics about the people? Please. You can do it in a nice way Virgil. Just ask him to open the bathrooms for the carriers.

I understand some of the carriers are going to have some picket signs - things like "All we want is a toilet" and "Stop Crapping on Us" ...will make great photos. You know this blog has lots of fans with cameras!! Smile Steve.

I will of course post those signs and the protest here...the photographers are also going to upload the photos to Flikr.com with permission for any newspaper in the state to pick them up..Associated Press.....you know. The wires.

Okay guys...I did my part. Now paint those signs!

Should Quantas Airlines pay?

Corporations, for the most part, exist because people like me and you spend a lot of our money to buy their products or services. Corporations like Media General however aren't the only demon spawn of the world. I'm adding Quantas and American Airlines to the list. Why?

I've never flown Quantas and probably never will. But when a friend of mine sent me this it angered me and so I'm sharing it with you in hopes that someone, somewhere will figure out how to help Quantas do the right thing and refund $33,000 to this group of handicapped kids and their helper animals.

Karen Shirk is the executive director of 4 Paws for Ability in Xenia, Ohio, United States. Her dog trainers and three newly trained autism service dogs, were recently blocked from their flight to New Zealand. Three families who had raised the needed funds to get the dogs were waiting breathlessly for the group from the agency to arrive.

Because of a mix-up and lack of communication between American Airlines and Qantas, Qantas refused to let the dogs board without special certification. The problem remains: how does 4 Paws get a refund on the $30,000 plus that came out of 4 Paws pocket and is committed to helping other children with disabilities?

Karen Shirk was recently named one of CNN's heroes, and is a person who needs every ounce of energy she can get to advocate for children with disabilities. And run a household. And manage her own myasthenia gravis. Plus, she is in the process of adopting three beautiful children from Haiti to join Aaron, who came from Bulgaria.

The three Waikato families have been left with a $33,000 bill after Qantas blocked their Autism Assistance dogs from being taken aboard a plane at Los Angeles Airport. But the airline itself has not fronted up. To write Quantas and ask them to refund the money click here to ask Quantas what they're going to do about it. Thanks!

EEEyew!! Is that urine in the parking lot?

Attention health department and anyone visiting the Danville Register and Bee. Hold your noses. The bathrooms are closed again and newspaper carriers must relieve themselves where they can. Sad. The only time the bathrooms are open is when Allen from Lynchburg is there to oversee the delivery and distribution of papers. Seems he asked about what appeared to be streams of water in the parking lot but that turned out to be puddles of urine.

Apparently Toni from Danville and her brother (may your bladders burst in public one day you demon spawn) keeps the bathroom off limits to the carriers (per Steve Kaylor request I hear, but can't confirm.) Steve...are you okay with the Register and Bee parking lot becoming a toilet? Do people visiting the offices of the newspaper really want to have to worry about disease or the smell of people who work for you (contractors or not) having to use the parking lot for a restroom!!!

C'mon. Be human how about it. Either provide a porta-potty or open up the restrooms. How cheap and petty can one company be? People? Vote with your toilet paper. If you think the Register and Bee should allow their newspaper carriers to use the bathroom - send them a roll of toilet paper or drop off a roll. Don't have time to do that? Then copy this photo of a roll of toilet paper to an email and send it to: SKaylor@registerbee.com. The city of Danville is trying to clean up the downtown area and the newspaper is simply contributing to the problem by not opening up the bathrooms. BAD PUBLISHER!!!! No Doughnuts for you!!

Don't pick on Sarah...

For those readers who picked on Sarah's blog about Presidential hopeful....give her a break. She is from Chicago and grew up down the street from the man and knows him, friend of his right? ...nice blogging Sarah.

As far as the voodoo priest thing. I doubt Obama really has time for any extreme involvement in anything but running his campaign. But the conspiracy theorists point out that Bush has time to do his Skull & Bones and Bohemian Grove thing every year - with the ritual sacrifice at the base of an owl statue that represents the Luciferian god Moloch...

My candidate was not selected so - can't say I support either of the current candidates yet...but since the president doesn't really run the country anyway...it's a moot point. Corporate America runs the country - for those of you who weren't aware of that...you might want to visit www.brasschecktv.com and watch some of their free videos!

Are your advertising dollars being wasted?

Advertisers, you pay the high advertising rates you do because you are told that your ad will run in X number of papers. How many readers do you think saw your ad in these papers?

Here are seven bundles of 100 STING papers that were found dumped into a big green recycle box belonging to the City of Danville on the day they were supposed to be delivered dated Wednesday August 13,2008 ....Two color inserts with one from Foodlion and one from Shoe Carnival were inside each of the 700 papers...on the back page is a Hobby Lobby,Southern States,SunTrust Mortgage,and Rivercity Specialties & Interiors,Inc. ads ...these papers were never delivered to their dropoff sites .....

Make sure your advertising falls into the hands of the customers by advertising with the Piedmont Shopper or Chatham Star Tribune where you can trust delivery.........Six bundles are seen in this photo....five were stacked and one off to the right and another bundle was out of reach behind the stack of five ....our faithful blog reader says they are not sure how many more had been covered out of sight and reach.

Banned from the Register and Bee...

It had to happen. So many Media General employees were reading my blog they finally blocked it from the Danville Register and Bee. Now they can't get breaking updates and news! Sorry guys. I know it made your day when you learned that the paper carriers no longer had to squat in the bushes or pee in the parking lot while waiting on paper delays from Lynchburg. Apparently someone was reading the blog (Hi Steve!) because now the carriers have bathroom privileges.

Still, I bet there's increased concerns over toilet paper. I urge you guys to drop off or send them a spare roll next time you're in town. Their address: Danville Register and Bee, 700 Monument St. Danville, VA 24541. Remember, they had to close down extra bathrooms because of the cleaning and maintenance costs of cleaning the extra (one each) bathrooms.

For all you readers who are getting your paper at 7:30 a.m. instead of 6 or 6:30 a.m. in time to read it before work....you can still read it online. Cancel your paper subscription and check it out at work. Much easier and you'll have your news for the day!

Voodoo killing related to Barack visit?

Okay. There's weird and there's hate and there's really weird hate. A decapitated goat found here in the area after Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's visit is now being linked to one Republican group's belief that Obama is a voodoo priest. Really folks, I can't make this stuff up.

The decapitated and eviscerated goat was found, according to the Register and Bee, Saturday on private property in the Eagle Springs area. According to the Register and Bee the killing apparently was part of a religious ritual. The killing is believed to have occurred on Thursday or Friday, shortly before Obama's visit to Martinsville and Danville.

Salt had been spread on the goat’s body and chicken eggs and ears of corn were placed around it. The careful placement of these items and the presence of a jar of water and a candle lead officials to believe the goat was killed as part of a ritual.

This is not the first time there have been voodoo rituals in Danville or the surrounding area. A couple of years ago there were decapitated chickens left at road crossings in the area. The Humane Society investigated those too - and apparently suffered (employees said) from a curse placed on them. While the police had a suspect - a local voodoo priest (who was given money by the county to replace his sacrificial goats last year after they were killed by coyotes) no arrests were ever made or anything proven.

It will be interesting to see how Obama's campaign handles this one.

I'm now famous...sort of.

Last year I entered NaNoWriMo...a writing contest in which all contestants spend the month of November beginning and hopefully finishing a novel - 50,000 words - in 30 days. I didn't finish. But I was invited - with everyone else who competed - all 101,000 of us!!!! to submit an article about what has happened to us since being touched by NaNoWriMo...well, my article was selected. You can read it here: ONE HUNDRED AND ONE THOUSAND other people will...or maybe more....cause the contest sort of has a way of doubling every year....

Then again, since I'm part of Seth Godin's Triiibe.com experience....and possibly part of a book he's publishing in Oct....still have my fingers crossed on that one...and there are 3,500 people on the triiibes.com site reading my stuff....maybe it'll be closer to half a million people reading this blog. Isn't the internet wonderful! And yet...we're still no closer to an apology. Oh...here's the blog...



NaNoWriMo True-Life Tale: Becky Blanton
Lindsey Grant @ Wed, 2008-08-20 15:56

"But I got inspired by the whole experience, joined http://www.elance.com., got tired of my sucky job and started ghostwriting other people's books."

"After living in my van for 18 months with a dog and my cat (I'm 52 —it wasn't an interim college thing) trying to write my life's story, I gave up and got a job and an apartment and entered my first NaNoWriMo last year. I didn't finish.

But I got inspired by the whole experience, joined http://www.elance.com, got tired of my sucky job and started ghostwriting other people's books. I finished 12 ebooks for a total of 50,000 words, and then another—my first freelance book of 20,000 words on business(boring)—in a month! Yeah!

I now have five more books in the pipes (contracts), a really, really good agent, and am ghosting books for two celebrities. Cool. Now that I know I can actually start and finish A BOOK, I know I'll finish my own book this fall!

Oh, and I started a blog about the demon spawn at my old work place (http://www.danvilleva.blogspot.com), got fired, and celebrated 'cause I'm making more money than I did as an undervalued, unappreciated, much bullied whistle-blowing news hack. Life is good. When one door slams someone opens a window. Stand still and wait for the breeze."

—Becky Blanton

Becky lives in the south, speaks fluent redneck, and loves anything fried. Last year was her first NaNoWriMo—which her employer sabotaged with overtime once he found out she was doing it—but what the heck? He's a demon spawn anyway and she knew it. Just helped her decide to vacate the cubicles of hell faster.