Asalto en El Salto?

[Brundageba]

Public servant. 

That would be a person that puts service before self defense.   Somebody that can kindly explain without getting provoked and as well provoking others.  A public service emergency hotline network needs this sort of person at the helm...especially in these times of trials and horrific troubles . Questions deserve answers.  Just a simple answer that's all.  

[TwoSailors]

Sounds simple enough!

[Bob G]

APOLOGIA

Well, let's talk about fonts and colors.  First, I am a person of a certain age (very close to 82), and my eyes are much more comfortable reading fonts that are bold and a bit larger than average.  Long ago, I settled on Arial as the most legible font for most purposes.  In the matter of vision in older years, I am not at all the Lone Ranger.  Here is some information from an article about Typography and Aging Eyes.

The population is rapidly aging and becoming a larger share of the marketplace. Thirteen percent of the population is currently over 65 years old. In 30 years that group will double to 66 million people. People change as they age. Sensory, cognitive and motor abilities decline. The built environment is not typically created with the needs of the aging population in mind...

...In general, sans serif faces appear to be the most readable, due to their larger x-heights and consistent stroke widths. Typographic designers must undertake a more comprehensive study of this subject and develop typefaces that work well with the common vision problems of the aging population. It seems clear that there is an opportunity for progress in this area of research...

The concept of all caps being the equivalent of "shouting" is an artificial one.  For many decades from before the Civil War into the 1980's all text from teletype (teleprinter) machines (civilian and military) was all caps.  Throughout my time in the Navy, all typewriters used in communications work were all caps.  For quite a while IBM computer systems produced only all caps printing.  So for around 120 years all caps was just a normal part of written communications.  There was really no choice about it, and no one ever considered the all caps format as "shouting."   I have read that considering all caps text as shouting is a "tradition," but if it is a "tradition," it is a rather recent one.  Though I don't know, I suspect that someone who saw something in all caps (probably a young person who had no clue about the long use of all caps) happened to be bothered by it, got his or her knickers in a twist and came up with the bizarre idea that it was "shouting."  That having been said, I do not write in all caps, mainly because without ascenders and descenders words cannot be read quite as comfortably or rapidly.

But now bold fonts are also triggering calls of "shouting."  With the advent of HTML, most programs on computers have the capability of easily changing fonts, font size, displaying bold and colored fonts, indenting and reverse-indenting text, etc.  Why, goodness me!  Those capabilities are even built into Chiriqui.life!  If they allow such egregious behavior, maybe those capabilities should be removed so that every person who participates on the site is stamped out as with a cookie cutter with no ability to choose to do anything different from anyone else.  Why, we can't have folks running around willy-nilly just writing any way they want to!  That's as offensive as one of those jockey boys astride Dan Patch!  And while we're at it, we should all drive black cars.

Oh, and the colored font?  (It's maroon, not red.)  For me it adds to legibility, but that is probably just personal.  I also add to readability by double line spacing between paragraphs and double spacing after periods and colons.  That is very good standard practice that has fallen into disuse by a lot of people in the computer age (not to mention that many of them cannot spell or use good grammar---but they sure as hell know "shouting" when they see it!).  Finally the colored font helps me quickly find my posts in a long series of posts or to find my emails in long series of emails chained in "conversations" as they are called on Gmail. 

In my "former life" back in the U.S. I dubbed myself "The Curmudgeon of Inglewood" in email posts and many of my 40+ published letters to the editor.  Maybe I should resurrect my title and change it to "The Curmudgeon of Boquete."  Certainly I am too old and ornery to stop being a curmudgeon.

 

[BD]

5 hours ago, Bob G said:

APOLOGIA

Mistitled. This is not an apology but more about reflections on living in the past.

Well, let's talk about fonts and colors. 

Why? Not interested.

First, I am a person of a certain age (very close to 82),

Okay, every one of us has a certain age. What is the point?

and my eyes are much more comfortable reading fonts that are bold and a bit larger than average.  Long ago, I settled on Arial as the most legible font for most purposes.  In the matter of vision in older years, I am not at all the Lone Ranger.  Here is some information from an article about Typography and Aging Eyes.

Ho hum.

The population is rapidly aging and becoming a larger share of the marketplace. Thirteen percent of the population is currently over 65 years old. In 30 years that group will double to 66 million people. People change as they age. Sensory, cognitive and motor abilities decline. The built environment is not typically created with the needs of the aging population in mind...

...In general, sans serif faces appear to be the most readable, due to their larger x-heights and consistent stroke widths. Typographic designers must undertake a more comprehensive study of this subject and develop typefaces that work well with the common vision problems of the aging population. It seems clear that there is an opportunity for progress in this area of research...

Why are you wasting my time? I guess I should write why am I letting you waste my time?

The concept of all caps being the equivalent of "shouting" is an artificial one.  For many decades from before the Civil War into the 1980's all text from teletype (teleprinter) machines (civilian and military) was all caps. 

I defy you to prove that there were teletype machines at the time of the Civil War.

Throughout my time in the Navy, all typewriters used in communications work were all caps. 

And your point is? Not pertinent to the subject in this series of postings. The management of this web site should block your postings because they are ramblings.

I challenge you to identify one single mainstream newspaper from the Civil War to the present time that prints in all caps, or all bold, or red (pardon me, maroon) text.

That you were in the navy is great -- thank you for your service -- but why are you going nostalgic about your navy days in a series of postings about an assault on a resident?

For quite a while IBM computer systems produced only all caps printing.  So for around 120 years all caps was just a normal part of written communications. 

I don't think so. Again, the challenge to identify one single mainstream newspaper.... Etc. What you are talking about is specialized communications in a military environment. Not relevant to this situation.

There was really no choice about it, and no one ever considered the all caps format as "shouting."  

Wrong. There is a choice. Even you have a choice, as does everyone else. And, I do consider it to be shouting.

I have read that considering all caps text as shouting is a "tradition," but if it is a "tradition," it is a rather recent one.  Though I don't know, I suspect that someone who saw something in all caps (probably a young person who had no clue about the long use of all caps) happened to be bothered by it, got his or her knickers in a twist and came up with the bizarre idea that it was "shouting." 

Yes, my knickers are in a twist. Again, the challenge to show one mainstream newspaper.... Etc.

That having been said, I do not write in all caps, mainly because without ascenders and descenders words cannot be read quite as comfortably or rapidly.

Ho hum. I'm stopping reading at this point because there is nothing worthwhile to read other than the ramblings of someone who is trying to convince me that he is enlightened and I have my knickers in a bind. I really do not mean to disrespect you or anyone. You are correct that my knickers are in a bind but you wouldn't like to know the reason for that bind. I shutter to think about what would be written if that line of thought were to cause another outburst.

You obviously put a lot of time and energy into this posting. But what is your point that is relevant to the assault on Richard Moore? Or the AAC mission? You say you are the president. Okay. Who are the other officials of that group, and do they approve of your writings on behalf of AAC in a public forum such as this?

I think I will self banish myself from this web site as was done to me on Ning by its misguided new owners.

And my final comment and final post on this web site is that I apologize -- using that word correctly as defined in the dictionaries that I use -- if you have difficulty reading this since it is not bolded, not in maroon, not shouting, and using normal type fonts without double spaces between sentences, etc.

For the management here, please cancel my account.

 

But now bold fonts are also triggering calls of "shouting."  With the advent of HTML, most programs on computers have the capability of easily changing fonts, font size, displaying bold and colored fonts, indenting and reverse-indenting text, etc.  Why, goodness me!  Those capabilities are even built into Chiriqui.life!  If they allow such egregious behavior, maybe those capabilities should be removed so that every person who participates on the site is stamped out as with a cookie cutter with no ability to choose to do anything different from anyone else.  Why, we can't have folks running around willy-nilly just writing any way they want to!  That's as offensive as one of those jockey boys astride Dan Patch!  And while we're at it, we should all drive black cars.

Oh, and the colored font?  (It's maroon, not red.)  For me it adds to legibility, but that is probably just personal.  I also add to readability by double line spacing between paragraphs and double spacing after periods and colons.  That is very good standard practice that has fallen into disuse by a lot of people in the computer age (not to mention that many of them cannot spell or use good grammar---but they sure as hell know "shouting" when they see it!).  Finally the colored font helps me quickly find my posts in a long series of posts or to find my emails in long series of emails chained in "conversations" as they are called on Gmail. 

In my "former life" back in the U.S. I dubbed myself "The Curmudgeon of Inglewood" in email posts and many of my 40+ published letters to the editor.  Maybe I should resurrect my title and change it to "The Curmudgeon of Boquete."  Certainly I am too old and ornery to stop being a curmudgeon.

 

 

[JudyS]

A typographer friend once told me Arial (Helvetica) is the worst font for reading text.  it is hard on the eyes.  The best fonts, the ones the eyes follow easily without getting fatigued, are the ones with serifs, like Times Roman.  That font was created by the New York Times to make reading the paper easy on the eyes.  I find reading large amounts in Arial very tedious.  I agree with my typesetter friend.  Serif fonts are much more eye-friendly.  Also, if you want to make the font more readable to your 80 year old eyes, make it larger.  Making it red and bold and leaving it in Arial makes it unpleasant for the rest of us.  It would help if you would greatly shorten your explanations too.  Nobody wants to have to scroll through all that. 

[Dottie Atwater]

3 hours ago, BD said:

For the management here, please cancel my account.

Please stick around for awhile before making an exit. You made an excellent rebuttal/expose to Bob's diatribe. There are very few members like Bob who post nonsense here. Personally, I'm glad you took the time to call him on his "apologia."

 

[Admin_01]

30 minutes ago, Dottie Atwater said:

Please stick around for awhile before making an exit. You made an excellent rebuttal/expose to Bob's diatribe. There are very few members like Bob who post nonsense here. Personally, I'm glad you took the time to call him on his "apologia."

 

The posted request to cancel his account was backed up by a private message to the same end. His account has now been closed (not canceled), based on his specific request. Closed accounts can very easily be reinstated if requested by the involved party.

Bob G's post was waaaaay off-topic, and according to our rules should be split out to a new thread. Given the two sequential postings, I will leave them inline because BD's message tied the Bob G message back to the main topic.

An interesting morning, and it has just begun.

[WryAwry]

I shudder to think that I would shutter my thinking ....

[Brundageba]

4 hours ago, Dottie Atwater said:

Please stick around for awhile before making an exit. You made an excellent rebuttal/expose to Bob's diatribe. There are very few members like Bob who post nonsense here. Personally, I'm glad you took the time to call him on his "apologia."

 

Don't go!

[Brundageba]

Bob: Thanks for the apology.  It was however a tad of a struggle gettin' there.

[Brundageba]

That would be the day Marion and Richard have their health back and all emergency services here in our area can co-exist.  

[TwoSailors]

This is a really good point that BD brought up: ( also very disappointing that AAC is being run like this)

Quote

You obviously put a lot of time and energy into this posting. But what is your point that is relevant to the assault on Richard Moore? Or the AAC mission? You say you are the president. Okay. Who are the other officials of that group, and do they approve of your writings on behalf of AAC in a public forum such as this?

Who is  actually running AAC?? Surely it can not be just  Bob G!! A rant like this has now convinced us to go with RD.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Admin_01
Added quote formatting to the quoted text.

[Bob G]

It was hardly a rant.  It was a reply to two or three people who did not happen to like my choice of fonts.  As I pointed out, there is a broad choice of fonts provided by Chiriqui.life.  Are they all supposed to be off limits except for non-bold black?

When I wrote factual information about the attack on Richard and about AAC, I was writing on behalf of AAC. When I responded to individuals who declared personal prejudices about my choice of font, I was writing on my own behalf.  If anyone wants to choose an emergency telephone service based on how I answered people about my choice of fonts...oh, well.

On the subject of legibility of fonts, regardless of a personal friend's opinion, the majority of professional typographers say a sans serif font is more legible.  See this:

Back 10 or so years ago, the best computer screen resolution was 800 x 600 pixels – which wasn’t great for defining the intricacies of a serif font. Screen resolution has increased through the years (resolutions of 1024 x 768 pixels or greater have become the norm). This makes serif fonts more legible but still generally not as easy to read as sans-serif fonts.

So online, the best font to go with is sans serif.

A 2002 study by the Software Usability and Research Laboratory concluded that:

The most legible fonts were Arial, Courier, and Verdana.  At 12-point size, Arial was preferred and Times New Roman was the least preferred.  For easiest online reading, use Arial 12-point size and larger. 

In the case of email, some of the highlights of the test results were that at 12 points, respondents showed a preference for Arial over Verdana – 53% to 43% (with 4% not being able to distinguish between the two). (This is Verdana.)

Yes, this discussion is far afield from the original topic, but the divergence arose because of other people changing the topic.  Prior to the questions and comments of others, I wrote only about AAC-related matters.  It hardly makes sense to change the subject and then blame the person respondng to the new subject with being off-topic.  I could make a full and complete response to the uninformed comments of "BD," whoever that is, but there may be no point, considering that he has withdrawn himself from Chiriqui.life.  Hmmm, maybe he's smarter than he sounds.

 

[WryAwry]

This topic is becoming a font of knowledge.

[Keith Woolford]

22 minutes ago, WryAwry said:

This topic is becoming a font of knowledge.

Keep it up with the bold behaviour and you'll be marooned also.

[TwoSailors]

That's a BOLD statement! 

[Pat]

8 hours ago, Keith Woolford said:

Keep it up with the bold behaviour and you'll be marooned also.

Bob G.       Stop using this awful red/maroon color or I will refuse to try and read anything you post.

[Franagain]

22 minutes ago, Pat said:

Bob G.       Stop using this awful red/maroon color or I will refuse to try and read anything you post.

I stopped reading anything Bob G posts, and it wasn't because of the BOLD RED Ariel font.  I suspect several others have done the same.

[Querencia]

Bob G your computer allows you to change the font size and other attributes for anything you wish to read on your own computer. That way everything can be bold and larger type for you and everyone else can enjoy their own style.

[Bud]

More on the movie "City of God". We received the DVD from Amazon, but have been traveling, which delayed our viewing of the movie. We have now watched only 15 minutes, maybe 20 at the most, and then shut it down. Not our cup of tea.

Will sell the DVD to any interested party for $10.00. Hardly used. It is a "Blu-Ray + Digital HD" disk (whatever that means). Send private message or email to bud.huber@grommet.net.

[Brundageba]

"City of God" is for sure tough to stomach all the way through.  That said, it gives  a feel for the mentality of kids with guns who use them without conscience...like the murder and assaults recently around Bugaba, and the ones of recent history: Joe, Marion.  These kids with pistols are as dangerous as a keg of dynamite next to a wild fire.  Home security is serious business now around here.  We hope to never let down our guard...ever...    For the young expat families who think this is a place to bring their four young children, educate them and sustain quality of life ..."City of God" needs a look-see.   Many new expat young families have been given a bill of goods that this is paradise and a better alternative than raising their children in their home country .  They come without fully understanding the entire picture....naive as can be. Now that Ning has lost so much excellent data from respected residents, these families have fewer resources to draw on. International Living and Evangelical missionary come-ons lead them on.

[Keith Woolford]

Victor Hugo once said, “Talk about your village and you’ll be universal.”

The film helps comprehend the forces that create young criminals and gang members everywhere. 

This review in Variety provides a good summary.

A two-decade chronicle of the growth of drug trade and gang warfare that grip the slums of Rio de Janeiro, “City of God” delivers a bruising, visceral experience of the vicious spiral of violence that draws kids into a life of crime, brutality and murder as the only avenue open to them.

[MarkoBoquete]

Just returned from three weeks in Medellin. One of the highlights was a trip to Comuna 13, When people from the countryside started pouring into the cities during "la Violencia" they build squatter shacks on hillsides too steep for any other use. No government services, drug lords and gangs running the place. By 2002, guerrilla armies were setting up bases - within sight of downtown Medellin. 

By 2005, the guerrillas were gone, but Comuna 13 was still the murder capital of Columbia. Today, anyone can walk through Comuna 13 in perfect safety. How this transformation happened is absolutely fascinating and I believe holds lessons for other communities with similar problems. More later...

[Brundageba]

I agree with Keith.  The movie " City of God" brought light to the problems surrounding Rio de Janeiro.  Change has happened there.  It's not a forever horror story as Marko has described there in Medellin.    BUT, police, legislators, the public and businessmen of Panama  all need to share some responsibility to make that change happen in a country.  Many here think just changing a few laws concerning juvenile crime, or increasing the amount of jails is enough.  It's not enough.  It has to be a totally comprehensive plan.   Solid education and opportunity for all children is at the core. For the poor here, education is lacking in Panama.   Meanwhile, until this kid crime spree comes to a halt here, we need to have some understanding of how these juvenile gangs evolve and as well their mentality.  It is scary and certainly not pleasant  that's why Bud couldn't stomach watching the movie.  I can fully understand.  24/7 both my husband and I are on our guard.  We're not happy with living like that, but for now it is what it is.  We do what we can...everything we can within reason.

[Bonnie]

"City of God" is available on Amazon video for $2.99 or free for Amazon Prime members.