Put up your own website -- the fast, low-tech, free way
You can put up a simple, good-looking website for free in five minutes. A step-by-step guide to using free web-based software to post and manage your webpage. Bonus: How to outsmart domain name squatters and thieves.
At the end of the session, you will be able to:
Create a personalized website in ten minutes
Know which software -- Tumblr, TypePad, Blogger, or WordPress – is best for you
Know the ins and outs of domain names, whether you should buy that .biz URL or not
Avoid the five biggest mistakes rookie webpages make
Get the URL you want before a malevolent squatter gets it first
Class sessions: Monday, March 4: Margaretville E-Center, 6:30 to 8:30pm(cancelled) Read more
St. Valentine, it might be remembered, got into a heap of trouble for marrying couples in defiance of the government, which had decreed that young men remain single so that they’d make better soldiers for the state. No matter your feelings about Hallmark-card consumerism, that’s a dude worth commemorating, and hey, doing something sweet for or with your honey is hardly a burden.
So celebrate some romance, y’all. We've put together seven ideas for making sure your Valentine's Day in the Catskills is a great one.
Two towns in New York City's Catskills watershed passed bans on gas drilling on Tuesday: Andes, near the Pepacton Reservoir in Delaware County, and Olive, near the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County. Both Andes and Olive had previously passed temporary moratoriums on the practice.
Because of their overlap with the watershed that supplies New York City's drinking water, neither town was likely to see gas drilling, at least in the near future. But both had large citizen movements in support of passing a ban, in case the Department of Environmental Conservation reverses its current stance against drilling within the New York City watershed. Read more
New York State is slated to miss a key Wednesday deadline in the long march toward issuing regulations on hydrofracking.
State health commissioner Nirav Shah announced Tuesday, in a letter to Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) commissioner Joseph Martens, that his agency's ongoing review of the effects of hydrofracking on human health would not be finished by its Wednesday due date. Several large-scale studies, including a progress report from an ongoing EPA study of hydrofracking's effects on drinking water, have been released recently, and Shah told Martens that his agency needed time to incorporate them into the review.
In the letter, Shah urged Martens to put the brakes on fracking regulations until the Department of Health (DOH) finishes its review:
The time to ensure the impacts on public health are properly considered is before a state permits drilling. Other states began serious health reviews only after proceeding with widespread HVHF [high volume hydraulic fracturing]. Read more
The Ulster County town of Olive is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a ban on gas drilling and petroleum extraction within town borders. A hearing on the proposed local law was held on Monday, February 11.
The new local law -- embedded below -- contains a few key differences from the town's 2012 moratorium. No longer included is a waiver that would allow gas companies to apply directly to the town board for an exemption from the law. Also, unlike the moratorium, the new law does not include language specifically banning the transport of fracking waste on roads within the town.
The vote will be taken at the town's regular board meeting, 7:30pm at the town hall on Bostock Road in Shokan. Read more
Photo of New York Cardinal-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, circa 2009. Via Wikimedia Commons.
On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world by announcing that he would resign on February 28. As the New York Times noted in a front-page story, he will be the first Pope to step down since 1415, when Gregory XII resigned to put an end to a schism in the Church.
Weather advisories are in effect across the Catskills this morning, as snow and freezing rain make for a slick commute on local roads. The slippery stuff is expected to shift over to rain by noon.
The following is an open letter to Ulster County Executive Mike Hein from Harry G. Jameson III, the Chairman of the Catskill Mountain Railroad Company. Jameson submitted this letter as a letter to the editor. For other letters about the future of the Catskill Mountain Railroad in Ulster County, click here, here and here. -- Julia Reischel
Dear Mr. Hein,
I am writing in response to the State of the County Address which you gave last week. We understand that you are still intent upon shutting down the Catskill Mountain Railroad Company’s Kingston operations for the plan of creating a hiking trail to the Ashokan Reservoir. The assumption you are making is that rail and trail are incompatible. We disagree. The CMRR will soon be publishing a study of the corridor that will clearly show that rail and trail can share the right-of-way. We wish that you had consulted with us before you launched your campaign to eliminate us, but we assume others gave you incomplete information. We would like to set the record straight. Read more
You can put up a simple, good-looking website for free in five minutes. A step-by-step guide to using free web-based software to post and manage your webpage. Bonus: How to outsmart domain name squatters and thieves.
