Recag/C4_13 · Datasets at Hugging Face

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Moreover, unlike SportsZone or Outside Online, Mr. Showbiz has yet to find a strategic partner — which puts a lot of pressure on the staff to generate original material and to create a powerful enough Web presence on its own to become a brand. Add to that the ongoing education of a print journalist to the technological and editorial demands of the Web, and you begin to appreciate the pressure on Mulcahy and her group to make Mr. Showbiz come to life.
Can you maintain your editorial integrity — when ‘integrity’ is still undefined?
It’s a non-obvious question, and a nontrivial problem : how do you define integrity in a medium with no publishing tradition, no boundary between advertising and editorial, and an insatiable appetite for advertising revenues? It is precisely this question that worries ESPNET SportsZone’s Mitch Gelman.
In a company filled with distinguished veterans, the soft-spoken Gelman, SportZone’s editor, is among the most distinguished of all. The author of a critically acclaimed book about his life as a cub reporter, Crime Scene (Random House, 1992), he also shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for his work at New York Newsday. Credentials like these usually mean a lifetime sinecure at a fat daily newspaper. But last summer, Gelman’s paper died beneath him. Around the same time, he saw an article in Sports Illustrated about the new world of sports online.
He signed on with the right explorers. SportsZone’s numbers are staggering — one of the most tantalizing hints of the Web’s promise as a mass medium. Gelman’s site contains 60,000 pages of material, 6,000 photos, 2,500 audio clips, and 1,000 video clips. This massive content draws huge numbers of visitors. SportsZone averages 7.5 million hits per day; it generated almost 12 million hits per day during the Summer Olympics. Its fans are almost exclusively male (95%), young (82% are under 35 years old), and affluent for their age, with an average household income of $55,000 per year.
All of which translates into serious advertising: sponsors pay up to $100,000 for a three-month advertising presence on the site. SportsZone is one of the leading generators of revenue on the Web and reportedly produces roughly 80% of Starwave’s estimated $7 million in total revenues.
But as SportsZone attracts more readers and its readers attract more advertisers, tough questions inevitably emerge. Ask online editors how they think about their services and they invariably draw parallels between themselves and the newspaper business. Ask these same editors about the all-too-cozy links to advertisers that appear on their Web pages, and suddenly they redefine themselves as part of the entertainment industry and compare their offerings to television infomercials.
But what happens when editorial copy becomes just a hook to pull the user into the virtual mall? Is that really the same thing as ads in the newspaper or commercials on network television? Or does the Web, by its very nature, produce a different kind of experience that erases the demarcation between editorial and ads? Where are the standards governing such matters?
And yet . . . there is something wonderfully perverse about the Web. It rewards a kind of cranky honesty while eviscerating the insincere and calculating, no matter how slick the presentation. In this cyberreality, companies that answer the siren call of selling out to advertisers may exchange short-term gain for long-term oblivion.
Meanwhile, attitudes like Mitch Gelman’s, which might seem an anachronistic remnant of another medium and another time, may prove to be the defining difference between success and failure for companies like Starwave. For one thing, Gelman takes seriously his role as mentor to the new generation of reporters enrolling in the new medium. “We can learn from them how to do this business, and we can teach them what to do in terms of accuracy and ethical standards,” he says.
And that suggests one final convergence. Beyond technology and people, success on the Web will also depend on a convergence of philosophies between those pursuing technology and those chasing commerce, between the desire to break barriers with the new medium and the need to retain lessons learned by its predecessors. Defining how business should be conducted on the Web may be the first requirement to defining what it means to be the first Web-based business.
Michael S. Malone (msmalone@aol.com) is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected journalists.
Roselina Hung's exuberant creativity comes alive in "Myth and Men"
A Woman's View on "Myth and Men" at Initial Gallery. Roselina Hung's exhibition of exuberantly creative paintings.
The life of an artist in Vancouver looking for serious work.
When it comes to pricing work, all artists seem to share a general sense of bewilderment. Basically, it's a crap shoot.
At 8 p.m. tonight, Jason Young is set to transform the rooftop of New York's Soho House into a live-action painting, using sculptures, actors, installations, and glowing LED resin.
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s prime minister told a senior Iranian envoy yesterday that their economic bonds can expand as Baghdad signaled deepening ties with its anti-American neighbor despite worries from Washington and Arab allies.
The growing ties between Baghdad’s Shi’ite-led government and Shi’ite powerhouse Iran highlight one of the region’s major political shifts after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, whose Sunni-dominated regime fought an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s.
US-allied Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors, worry about expanding Iranian influence as Washington draws down forces in Iraq. Iran is also being accused of encouraging opposition uprisings in Bahrain and other Gulf states.
The United States has deep concerns over Iran’s links to Shi’ite militias and political groups in Iraq, where security is still shaky less than six months before the US deadline to pull out all military forces. It is a main reason why the Obama administration is offering to keep between 8,500 and 10,000 troops in Iraq next year if Baghdad requests a continued US military presence, American officials say.
Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and Iran’s first vice president, Mohammed Reza Rahimi, signed six agreements to bolster shared economic, health, technology, and culture interests. Rahimi was in Baghdad on the first of a three-day visit to meet with business leaders and, in part, press Iraq to invest in Iran’s health and energy markets.
“We have forgotten all the pains of the past as we are now enjoying good and growing relations between the two friendly countries. . . . We have come to push the relations to their highest level,’’ Rahimi told TV reporters who were hand-picked to cover the signing ceremony in Baghdad.
Maliki kept his job last year only with the political help of an Iranian-backed Shi’ite group. Iraq depends on Iran for about 10 percent of its daily electric power - one of Baghdad’s most tenuous resources. Iraq’s searing summer months, when air conditioning outages push public tempers to the boiling point, can spark antigovernment riots and political unrest.
US officials say Iran clearly wants the American military to leave Iraq and point to the recent increase in attacks against US soldiers. Fifteen US troops died in Iraq in June, the deadliest month for the military here in two years. Nearly all were killed by Shi’ite militias that are supplied and trained by Iran.
Another man has also been killed in a farm accident in Co Down.
Gardaí said the results of a post mortem – due to take place today – will determine the direction of the investigation.
The man was in his 70s and his death was not suspicious.
A Labour spokesperson confirmed yesterday that Harte remains in a critical condition and will get “the best of care” at Beaumont Hospital.
The hospital has advised people looking to access mental health services to contact their GP.
Gardaí have appealed for witnesses to the crash near Ballybofey in Donegal last night to come forward.
The hospital says that non-emergency patients should still seek the advice of their GPs as the emergency department continues to reopen.
The Emergency Department remains closed and patients are being diverted to two other hospitals.
The woman was taken to Letterkenny General Hospital but gave birth to the baby in the corridor with the help of the crew member.
The collision happened on the Ballybofey to Glenfin Road, on the outskirts of Ballybofey, just after 3.30am this morning.
His passenger, and the driver and passenger of the camper van have also been taken to Letterkenny General Hospital.
The body of an 87-year-old man was discovered early this morning at his home in Gortahork.
The man in his 50s was pronounced dead at the scene after his car hit a bus on the Ballybofey to Donegal Road this morning.
A HIQA assessment of Letterkenny General Hospital finds that the absence of a cleaning system poses a risk to child health.
The officers were injured when their car was rammed after interrupting an attempted burglary in Bridgend.
The fire broke out at about 9.30pm last night at a cottage in Glenkeogh.
The teenager was killed in the collision involving two cars late last night.
A man sustained serious head injuries following an incident in the Donegal town last Friday.
The Medical Council is probing allegations that a doctor at Letterkenny Hospital engaged in professional misconduct and poor professional performance.
The Pentagon will lift a ban Thursday for women in combat, but could make exceptions for positions such as the Navy SEALS.
In often-combative testimony, she rejected senators' suggestions that the administration tried to mislead the country about the Sept. 11 attack.
Five men are accused of assaulting and killing a woman aboard a moving bus in a case that triggered national outrage over violence against women.
The nation says it's ready for a nuclear test and has rockets designed to carry warheads that could take aim at the U.S.
The AP reports utilities are replacing the workers by the day with digital meters as technology overtakes a wave of middle-class jobs.
Women now smoke more regularly and at a younger age and are more likely to die because of their habit.
The government says union membership fell last year to its lowest level since the 1930s.
A suburban Los Angeles district bought 14 semi-automatic Colt rifles last month for school police officers.
The NAACP and Hispanic leaders say small businesses would suffer if stopped from selling the supersize drinks.
Peter Robbins, the actor who voiced the "Peanuts" cartoon character on TV, is charged with stalking his former girlfriend.
THE man came to the Australian Embassy with a hat in hand asking for taxpayer support to pay for a lady of the night - fortunately, the request was declined.
But it is just one of the many bizarre, and often serious requests our consular officials contend with every day.
Maybe you heard the one about the woman who contacted the Australian embassy in Thailand asking "do you know where Marjorie is?"
Or the family worried their Dad had gone missing but didn't have a contact for him in Bangkok, and helpfully suggested officials look in "any sports bar showing AFL".
Perhaps the story about the chap asking them to ring him a taxi? Or the bloke wondering if they could they pop down to the optometrist to see if his glasses were ready?
As First Secretary and Consul in the Australian Embassy in Thailand, Anita Downey has heard all these and many more.
In a speech to an Australian Society of Travel Writers conference in Bangkok last month, Ms Downey had the audience roaring with laughter as she reflected on life in the consular corp.
But it wasn't just jokes as she outlined the value of travel insurance.
At any one time, the embassy in Thailand is handling 110 consular cases - and the workload has been rising by about five per cent a year.
Ms Downey noted the Federal Government's smartraveller.gov.au website is a great resource and 400,000 people looked at the Thailand section last year.
But, wanderlusters only spent an average of two minutes at a time on the site.
"A lot of people don't understand what we do," Ms Downey said.
"Recent questions include the email from a woman asking 'can you check where Marjorie is' - that was it, Marjorie. The woman was worried because she had not heard from her.
"There was the prisoner who wanted Australian food because he didn't like Thai food.
"We had a guy the other day wanting us to call a taxi for him - he had lived in Thailand for six years.
"One said 'My hotel is noisy, can you please call them and complain'.
"There was the gentleman who had ordered glasses online and they had not arrived so could we pop out to the glasses shop and see how that was going for him."
But for Ms Downey, there was one story that stood above the rest.
"My personal favourite was a gentleman who came in to visit us and he had a lady friend with him and they had spent the previous night together but he had run out of money so could we pay her on his behalf? I'm sure as Australian taxpayers you will be pleased to learn the answer was 'no'. He had to make his own arrangements."
Anecdotes aside, Ms Downey outlined the serious work consular officials do, and how Australians can save themselves heartache with a bit of common sense.
As well as visiting the 16 Australian prisoners now in Thai jails, last year consular officials dealt with 200 hospitalisations, 74 missing persons cases, 100 arrests and 201 deaths.
She stressed proper travel insurance - which covers pre-existing conditions and is not voided by alcohol, drugs, or risky behaviour such as riding a motorbike without a helmet - is essential.
"We spend a lot of our time trying to help families, explaining to them they need to pay for hospital care if they don't have travel insurance - and a lot of our clients have no money," she said.
"Our main clientele is the 65 to 75 year olds. A typical client in that category would be an Australian man who has come over here, found a friend, decided to stay, as it is obviously a lot lower cost to live here.
"I'm sure it is a fantastic lifestyle except when you get sick. And don't have insurance and don't have money.
"So we don't pay hospital bills and that becomes very difficult, so then we talk to the families and see if they will pay."
Ms Downey said it is common to track down a family back in Australia to tell them their father is sick, only to be told the kids have not spoken to him in decades - so he is on his own.
"If you can't pay you get basic care - if you have travel insurance you'll get a fantastic level of care. In the intensive care unit in some of these hospitals you are looking at close to $10,000 a night," she said.
Motorbike accidents where Australians ride without a licence and helmet are common, but this is a main reason - along with alcohol and drugs - travel insurance companies will not pay out on policies.
"We had a guy in Nepal on a bike hit by car, but he had a helmet and luckily had travel insurance - he was medevaced in Nepal by helicopter which cost $US5000 ($7000), had massive injuries so was medevaced to Bangkok which cost $US60,000, he spent three weeks in ICU in one of Bangkok's best hospitals which cost $US140,000 then was stable enough to be transferred to Australia which cost $US120,000," Ms Downey said.
"He is doing remarkably well but if he had not had travel insurance he would probably have stayed in hospital in Nepal.
"Imagine getting a call to say your daughter, son, brother, parent has been in an accident and needs to be medevaced and taken to a really good hospital and it is going to cost $30,000 and you need to pay it in the next 24 hours.
"If you don't have insurance that's what you are looking at - that's reality."
As insurers like to say, if you can't afford travel insurance you can't afford to travel - but make sure it is the right insurance and you don't make it void with risky behaviour.
The Delaware Area Career Center Board of Education will meet Thursday night and hopes to discuss a budget for the upcoming campus consolidation.
The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the DACC South Campus on U.S. 23.
Officials from the school said Tuesday that the board hopes to discuss and vote on a budget and timeline for the consolidation at the meeting Thursday, but they first wanted to make sure that all the members of the board have a chance to thoroughly read over the budget.
The item was not on the agenda Tuesday afternoon but officials said it could be added as an addendum before the meeting.
At the meeting, the board will also consider approving staffing changes, approve its December 2015 financial report, and approve the purchase of new text books for a geometry class.
The board had originally planned on voting on a budget for the consolidation project at its last regular meeting on Dec. 17 — after learning on Dec. 9 that the consolidation project would cost more than $10 million more than planned.
However, DACC Superintendent Mary Beth Freeman said the board postponed the vote to Thursday’s meeting to allow time for additional time for review. Freeman said the issue was “very complex” and said the board wanted time to complete the contract and review it before voting.
Representatives from Elford Construction estimated the consolidation would cost $43,962,440, with a total price of $46,939,524 to account for additional construction projects and contingencies.
DACC Treasurer Christopher Bell noted that the school has saved up $37 million to pay for the consolidation through fiscal discipline and good business practices, and told the board it would be possible to get a loan for the additional cost of the consolidation. The board did not discuss any type of tax issue for the additional construction costs.
Liverpool roared back from a rare Anfield deficit to move nine points clear at the top of the Premier League as Roberto Firmino’s hat-trick inspired a 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal on Saturday.
Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane were also on target as Liverpool’s front three all scored in the same league game for the first time this season.
Liverpool had trailed at home in the league for the first time in a day short of a year when Ainsley Maitland-Niles turned home Alex Iwobi’s excellent cross 11 minutes in.

Moreover, unlike SportsZone or Outside Online, Mr. Showbiz has yet to find a strategic partner — which puts a lot of pressure on the staff to generate original material and to create a powerful enough Web presence on its own to become a brand. Add to that the ongoing education of a print journalist to the technological and editorial demands of the Web, and you begin to appreciate the pressure on Mulcahy and her group to make Mr. Showbiz come to life.

Can you maintain your editorial integrity — when ‘integrity’ is still undefined?

It’s a non-obvious question, and a nontrivial problem : how do you define integrity in a medium with no publishing tradition, no boundary between advertising and editorial, and an insatiable appetite for advertising revenues? It is precisely this question that worries ESPNET SportsZone’s Mitch Gelman.

In a company filled with distinguished veterans, the soft-spoken Gelman, SportZone’s editor, is among the most distinguished of all. The author of a critically acclaimed book about his life as a cub reporter, Crime Scene (Random House, 1992), he also shared a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for his work at New York Newsday. Credentials like these usually mean a lifetime sinecure at a fat daily newspaper. But last summer, Gelman’s paper died beneath him. Around the same time, he saw an article in Sports Illustrated about the new world of sports online.

He signed on with the right explorers. SportsZone’s numbers are staggering — one of the most tantalizing hints of the Web’s promise as a mass medium. Gelman’s site contains 60,000 pages of material, 6,000 photos, 2,500 audio clips, and 1,000 video clips. This massive content draws huge numbers of visitors. SportsZone averages 7.5 million hits per day; it generated almost 12 million hits per day during the Summer Olympics. Its fans are almost exclusively male (95%), young (82% are under 35 years old), and affluent for their age, with an average household income of $55,000 per year.

All of which translates into serious advertising: sponsors pay up to $100,000 for a three-month advertising presence on the site. SportsZone is one of the leading generators of revenue on the Web and reportedly produces roughly 80% of Starwave’s estimated $7 million in total revenues.

But as SportsZone attracts more readers and its readers attract more advertisers, tough questions inevitably emerge. Ask online editors how they think about their services and they invariably draw parallels between themselves and the newspaper business. Ask these same editors about the all-too-cozy links to advertisers that appear on their Web pages, and suddenly they redefine themselves as part of the entertainment industry and compare their offerings to television infomercials.

But what happens when editorial copy becomes just a hook to pull the user into the virtual mall? Is that really the same thing as ads in the newspaper or commercials on network television? Or does the Web, by its very nature, produce a different kind of experience that erases the demarcation between editorial and ads? Where are the standards governing such matters?

And yet . . . there is something wonderfully perverse about the Web. It rewards a kind of cranky honesty while eviscerating the insincere and calculating, no matter how slick the presentation. In this cyberreality, companies that answer the siren call of selling out to advertisers may exchange short-term gain for long-term oblivion.

Meanwhile, attitudes like Mitch Gelman’s, which might seem an anachronistic remnant of another medium and another time, may prove to be the defining difference between success and failure for companies like Starwave. For one thing, Gelman takes seriously his role as mentor to the new generation of reporters enrolling in the new medium. “We can learn from them how to do this business, and we can teach them what to do in terms of accuracy and ethical standards,” he says.

And that suggests one final convergence. Beyond technology and people, success on the Web will also depend on a convergence of philosophies between those pursuing technology and those chasing commerce, between the desire to break barriers with the new medium and the need to retain lessons learned by its predecessors. Defining how business should be conducted on the Web may be the first requirement to defining what it means to be the first Web-based business.

Michael S. Malone (msmalone@aol.com) is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected journalists.

Roselina Hung's exuberant creativity comes alive in "Myth and Men"

A Woman's View on "Myth and Men" at Initial Gallery. Roselina Hung's exhibition of exuberantly creative paintings.

The life of an artist in Vancouver looking for serious work.

When it comes to pricing work, all artists seem to share a general sense of bewilderment. Basically, it's a crap shoot.

At 8 p.m. tonight, Jason Young is set to transform the rooftop of New York's Soho House into a live-action painting, using sculptures, actors, installations, and glowing LED resin.

BAGHDAD - Iraq’s prime minister told a senior Iranian envoy yesterday that their economic bonds can expand as Baghdad signaled deepening ties with its anti-American neighbor despite worries from Washington and Arab allies.

The growing ties between Baghdad’s Shi’ite-led government and Shi’ite powerhouse Iran highlight one of the region’s major political shifts after the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, whose Sunni-dominated regime fought an eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s.

US-allied Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbors, worry about expanding Iranian influence as Washington draws down forces in Iraq. Iran is also being accused of encouraging opposition uprisings in Bahrain and other Gulf states.

The United States has deep concerns over Iran’s links to Shi’ite militias and political groups in Iraq, where security is still shaky less than six months before the US deadline to pull out all military forces. It is a main reason why the Obama administration is offering to keep between 8,500 and 10,000 troops in Iraq next year if Baghdad requests a continued US military presence, American officials say.

Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and Iran’s first vice president, Mohammed Reza Rahimi, signed six agreements to bolster shared economic, health, technology, and culture interests. Rahimi was in Baghdad on the first of a three-day visit to meet with business leaders and, in part, press Iraq to invest in Iran’s health and energy markets.

“We have forgotten all the pains of the past as we are now enjoying good and growing relations between the two friendly countries. . . . We have come to push the relations to their highest level,’’ Rahimi told TV reporters who were hand-picked to cover the signing ceremony in Baghdad.

Maliki kept his job last year only with the political help of an Iranian-backed Shi’ite group. Iraq depends on Iran for about 10 percent of its daily electric power - one of Baghdad’s most tenuous resources. Iraq’s searing summer months, when air conditioning outages push public tempers to the boiling point, can spark antigovernment riots and political unrest.

US officials say Iran clearly wants the American military to leave Iraq and point to the recent increase in attacks against US soldiers. Fifteen US troops died in Iraq in June, the deadliest month for the military here in two years. Nearly all were killed by Shi’ite militias that are supplied and trained by Iran.

Another man has also been killed in a farm accident in Co Down.

Gardaí said the results of a post mortem – due to take place today – will determine the direction of the investigation.

The man was in his 70s and his death was not suspicious.

A Labour spokesperson confirmed yesterday that Harte remains in a critical condition and will get “the best of care” at Beaumont Hospital.

The hospital has advised people looking to access mental health services to contact their GP.

Gardaí have appealed for witnesses to the crash near Ballybofey in Donegal last night to come forward.

The hospital says that non-emergency patients should still seek the advice of their GPs as the emergency department continues to reopen.

The Emergency Department remains closed and patients are being diverted to two other hospitals.

The woman was taken to Letterkenny General Hospital but gave birth to the baby in the corridor with the help of the crew member.

The collision happened on the Ballybofey to Glenfin Road, on the outskirts of Ballybofey, just after 3.30am this morning.

His passenger, and the driver and passenger of the camper van have also been taken to Letterkenny General Hospital.

The body of an 87-year-old man was discovered early this morning at his home in Gortahork.

The man in his 50s was pronounced dead at the scene after his car hit a bus on the Ballybofey to Donegal Road this morning.

A HIQA assessment of Letterkenny General Hospital finds that the absence of a cleaning system poses a risk to child health.

The officers were injured when their car was rammed after interrupting an attempted burglary in Bridgend.

The fire broke out at about 9.30pm last night at a cottage in Glenkeogh.

The teenager was killed in the collision involving two cars late last night.

A man sustained serious head injuries following an incident in the Donegal town last Friday.

The Medical Council is probing allegations that a doctor at Letterkenny Hospital engaged in professional misconduct and poor professional performance.

The Pentagon will lift a ban Thursday for women in combat, but could make exceptions for positions such as the Navy SEALS.

In often-combative testimony, she rejected senators' suggestions that the administration tried to mislead the country about the Sept. 11 attack.

Five men are accused of assaulting and killing a woman aboard a moving bus in a case that triggered national outrage over violence against women.

The nation says it's ready for a nuclear test and has rockets designed to carry warheads that could take aim at the U.S.

The AP reports utilities are replacing the workers by the day with digital meters as technology overtakes a wave of middle-class jobs.

Women now smoke more regularly and at a younger age and are more likely to die because of their habit.

The government says union membership fell last year to its lowest level since the 1930s.

A suburban Los Angeles district bought 14 semi-automatic Colt rifles last month for school police officers.

The NAACP and Hispanic leaders say small businesses would suffer if stopped from selling the supersize drinks.

Peter Robbins, the actor who voiced the "Peanuts" cartoon character on TV, is charged with stalking his former girlfriend.

THE man came to the Australian Embassy with a hat in hand asking for taxpayer support to pay for a lady of the night - fortunately, the request was declined.

But it is just one of the many bizarre, and often serious requests our consular officials contend with every day.

Maybe you heard the one about the woman who contacted the Australian embassy in Thailand asking "do you know where Marjorie is?"

Or the family worried their Dad had gone missing but didn't have a contact for him in Bangkok, and helpfully suggested officials look in "any sports bar showing AFL".

Perhaps the story about the chap asking them to ring him a taxi? Or the bloke wondering if they could they pop down to the optometrist to see if his glasses were ready?

As First Secretary and Consul in the Australian Embassy in Thailand, Anita Downey has heard all these and many more.

In a speech to an Australian Society of Travel Writers conference in Bangkok last month, Ms Downey had the audience roaring with laughter as she reflected on life in the consular corp.

But it wasn't just jokes as she outlined the value of travel insurance.

At any one time, the embassy in Thailand is handling 110 consular cases - and the workload has been rising by about five per cent a year.

Ms Downey noted the Federal Government's smartraveller.gov.au website is a great resource and 400,000 people looked at the Thailand section last year.

But, wanderlusters only spent an average of two minutes at a time on the site.

"A lot of people don't understand what we do," Ms Downey said.

"Recent questions include the email from a woman asking 'can you check where Marjorie is' - that was it, Marjorie. The woman was worried because she had not heard from her.

"There was the prisoner who wanted Australian food because he didn't like Thai food.

"We had a guy the other day wanting us to call a taxi for him - he had lived in Thailand for six years.

"One said 'My hotel is noisy, can you please call them and complain'.

"There was the gentleman who had ordered glasses online and they had not arrived so could we pop out to the glasses shop and see how that was going for him."

But for Ms Downey, there was one story that stood above the rest.

"My personal favourite was a gentleman who came in to visit us and he had a lady friend with him and they had spent the previous night together but he had run out of money so could we pay her on his behalf? I'm sure as Australian taxpayers you will be pleased to learn the answer was 'no'. He had to make his own arrangements."

Anecdotes aside, Ms Downey outlined the serious work consular officials do, and how Australians can save themselves heartache with a bit of common sense.

As well as visiting the 16 Australian prisoners now in Thai jails, last year consular officials dealt with 200 hospitalisations, 74 missing persons cases, 100 arrests and 201 deaths.

She stressed proper travel insurance - which covers pre-existing conditions and is not voided by alcohol, drugs, or risky behaviour such as riding a motorbike without a helmet - is essential.

"We spend a lot of our time trying to help families, explaining to them they need to pay for hospital care if they don't have travel insurance - and a lot of our clients have no money," she said.

"Our main clientele is the 65 to 75 year olds. A typical client in that category would be an Australian man who has come over here, found a friend, decided to stay, as it is obviously a lot lower cost to live here.

"I'm sure it is a fantastic lifestyle except when you get sick. And don't have insurance and don't have money.

"So we don't pay hospital bills and that becomes very difficult, so then we talk to the families and see if they will pay."

Ms Downey said it is common to track down a family back in Australia to tell them their father is sick, only to be told the kids have not spoken to him in decades - so he is on his own.

"If you can't pay you get basic care - if you have travel insurance you'll get a fantastic level of care. In the intensive care unit in some of these hospitals you are looking at close to $10,000 a night," she said.

Motorbike accidents where Australians ride without a licence and helmet are common, but this is a main reason - along with alcohol and drugs - travel insurance companies will not pay out on policies.

"We had a guy in Nepal on a bike hit by car, but he had a helmet and luckily had travel insurance - he was medevaced in Nepal by helicopter which cost $US5000 ($7000), had massive injuries so was medevaced to Bangkok which cost $US60,000, he spent three weeks in ICU in one of Bangkok's best hospitals which cost $US140,000 then was stable enough to be transferred to Australia which cost $US120,000," Ms Downey said.

"He is doing remarkably well but if he had not had travel insurance he would probably have stayed in hospital in Nepal.

"Imagine getting a call to say your daughter, son, brother, parent has been in an accident and needs to be medevaced and taken to a really good hospital and it is going to cost $30,000 and you need to pay it in the next 24 hours.

"If you don't have insurance that's what you are looking at - that's reality."

As insurers like to say, if you can't afford travel insurance you can't afford to travel - but make sure it is the right insurance and you don't make it void with risky behaviour.

The Delaware Area Career Center Board of Education will meet Thursday night and hopes to discuss a budget for the upcoming campus consolidation.

The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the DACC South Campus on U.S. 23.

Officials from the school said Tuesday that the board hopes to discuss and vote on a budget and timeline for the consolidation at the meeting Thursday, but they first wanted to make sure that all the members of the board have a chance to thoroughly read over the budget.

The item was not on the agenda Tuesday afternoon but officials said it could be added as an addendum before the meeting.

At the meeting, the board will also consider approving staffing changes, approve its December 2015 financial report, and approve the purchase of new text books for a geometry class.

The board had originally planned on voting on a budget for the consolidation project at its last regular meeting on Dec. 17 — after learning on Dec. 9 that the consolidation project would cost more than $10 million more than planned.

However, DACC Superintendent Mary Beth Freeman said the board postponed the vote to Thursday’s meeting to allow time for additional time for review. Freeman said the issue was “very complex” and said the board wanted time to complete the contract and review it before voting.

Representatives from Elford Construction estimated the consolidation would cost $43,962,440, with a total price of $46,939,524 to account for additional construction projects and contingencies.

DACC Treasurer Christopher Bell noted that the school has saved up $37 million to pay for the consolidation through fiscal discipline and good business practices, and told the board it would be possible to get a loan for the additional cost of the consolidation. The board did not discuss any type of tax issue for the additional construction costs.

Liverpool roared back from a rare Anfield deficit to move nine points clear at the top of the Premier League as Roberto Firmino’s hat-trick inspired a 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal on Saturday.

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane were also on target as Liverpool’s front three all scored in the same league game for the first time this season.

Liverpool had trailed at home in the league for the first time in a day short of a year when Ainsley Maitland-Niles turned home Alex Iwobi’s excellent cross 11 minutes in.