Blogs

Hers the URL:- CLICK HERE Please view and pass it on via email to as many friends as you can. The more hits it gets the better the chance of getting on the Google News front page. We are keen to publicize the Left Coast Eisteddfod as widely as possible. Watch this space for further announcements.

Help Wales Profit from the Next Major Change to the Internet... ( The text below is reproduced from an email circulated by the campaign today )"Think global act local dotCYM OPENS THE DOORS FOR MEMBERS At a time when international organisations and investment banks are in difficulty, the bid for a Welsh internet domain is bucking the trend and opening its doors to people across Wales and beyond. This shows confidence that people are willing to make a moral investment in the future of Wales by becoming members of dotCYM, the bid for a Welsh domain.Starting today (Wednesday 15 October 2008) the people of Wales have a unique opportunity to change the face of the Internet by helping win a .cym domain that would put Wales at the forefront of the next major shift online. ICANN, the international body responsible for internet domains, is preparing to accept applications for new domains early in 2009 and thanks to the dotCYM campaign, Wales is in with a real chance shoulder to shoulder with heavyweights like .sco (Scotland), .london, .berlin, .paris and .nyc (New York City).'What we need now is members,' says dotCYM managing director Sin Jobbins. 'The Welsh Assembly Government has agreed to support our bid, we've been engaged in extensive lobbying with the internets governing body, ICANN, we're working flat out on the legal details, but ICANN have said that they will look more positively on bids that have community support, and that the number of members is how they will assess that. This is a bid for the whole Welsh community, and we want as many people as possible to fly the red dragon online. We're confident that .cym can build on its claim to be the people's domain.'This means that unlike most international decisions, the people of Wales (and the Welsh diaspora) have a real say in whether or not .cym will happen. Even major players like Nominet (responsible for .uk) only have about 3000 members, so every single Welsh person who becomes a member of dotCYM will make a genuinely significant difference to the chance of winning the new domain and then to the running of that domain. They will also have a voice in the future of the domain, as dotCYM is a not-for-profit bid - profits from the sale of .cym will be invested back into the Welsh internet community and infrastructure, not in big fat bonuses for the bosses! The bid for the .cym domain is built on sound ethics as well as sound internet and business sense unlike much of the worlds business.'It's a great chance for the people of Wales to show that they want Wales to be successful online,' says Maredudd ap Gwyndaf, one of the founding directors of dotCYM. '.cym will help keep internet spend in Wales, it will help Welsh companies rise up the search rankings for searches including terms like Wales or Cymru, and it will make Wales a safer place to be online by increasing our ability to police eCrime and if people show they want it by becoming members, we'll have an excellent chance of winning.'Anyone who wants to help win this for Wales can sign up at www.dotcym.org for 2 a month or 24 a year (100 a year for institutions)"

"Hello my name is Valerie.I am so thrilled to tell you that I am now a W-Icon!!This was the Sky and WI competition I entered to become the ultimate WI member, the result of which is introducing three learning guides which offer handy hints and tips of home management to sexual health and wellbeing for the over 50s. There are six guides in total which go live on Monday 13th October on so log on here and look!If you voted for me. Thank you.If you asked your friends to vote. Thank you. Thank you.Please do give them the good news. It was amazing, humbling, that so many people voted for me. Friends and friends of friends; People I know and love and people I have never met or am even likely to. I know that people from eastern Ukraine to the west coast of USA - From Latvia to Australia voted for me. That is truly amazing!The judges decided to have two W-Icons! Me, the oldest finalist, and Emma, one of the youngest. That was exactly right! Emma and I are both typical of WI. We both do the traditional things and embrace the modern. WI has always been a campaigning and educational organisation and I helped found a new educational campaign. The prize money, donated from Sky will get Learn with Grandma, a not for profit company, started. I read that 60% of grandparents in UK care for their grandchildren on a regular basis and wanted to help.With this prize money we can now make progress. Please visit our website . This website will have a facelift very soon and be linked to a new website for Learn with Grandma. I write educational books that include our unique Learn with Grandma fun activity pages. We suggest all sorts of activities that parents and teachers as well as grandparents can do with the children. All the activities are designed to bring the story to life, make learning fun and memorable.Now we can do more! One plan is to create a directory of useful websites and cheaper places to take children. Theme Parks are great. I love rollercoasters but, at over 100 for a day out, they are for high days and holidays. Throughout the country there are lots of great places to go that are either free or cost were little. Please tell us of places you know of. Initially, while we are building it, it will be an online directory. Later on we would hope to publish. Not everyone is computer savvy!Which brings me to another important project - Many grandparents, like me, are computer literate to a degree but we did not grow up with computers, as our grandchildren have. Many of us do not fully understand how to get the best from a computer and the internet. I am off to Germany in December to speak about this at a conference about e-learning. While there I will find out as much as I can about e-learning and, hopefully, find people who will join us in a project that will help older people catch up. Our aims are to help grandparents instil a love of learning; create lasting memories and have fun. We want to help older people use the internet with the same ease and proficiency as their grandchildren.By now you will have realised that we grannies have big plans to help other grandparents and that, wonderful as a prize of 10,000 is, it is not going to be nearly enough! 10,000 will get us started. If you would like to help, with a donation or a loan (a not for profit company can accept loans) or help voluntarily in some way Please get in touch.Thank you again if you did vote for me to be the W-Icon, and receiving the prize money from Sky, has got Learn with Grandma off to a good start.God BlessValerieMrs Valerie Wood-Gaiger MBE2008 Special Award for Innovation in Education GWIINDirector - Grandma's Stories LtdC-Founder - Learn with Grandma - a not for profit company.Brynamlwg, Myddfai, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire SA 20 0NZ, Wales U.K.01550 720994 See our website "

"Pennsylvania State University is doing a survey on Welsh identity in America and is looking to Welsh societies in the US for help.It's a relatively easy 28 question survey and takes less than 5 minutes to complete. www.personal.psu.edu/clc24/consent_form_welsh.html If you could pass on information about this survey it would be very greatly appreciated."( Mnay thanks to David Parry for drawing my attention to this )

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Click here!

Ever wanted to conduct a poll of the members and readers on Americymru? Well now you can using the new OpenSocial Poll Daddy application. Just click on "Add Applicatios" underneath your profile pic on your home page and add the "Poll Daddy" app.. Click on the "Get Started" button ( see screenshot below ) and in just a few minutes your poll will be up and running on your page. If for some reason the app does not export your poll to your profile page get the embed code from the "Share" menu and simply embed it in a text box.

This is how it will look on your page ( depending on which theme you use ).

A few points to remember:-This will only work on your profile page. If you want a poll on a group page please let us know and we will arrange it for you.If you want to let people know about your poll the best way is to write a short blogpost and invite people to visit your homepage and vote. Dont forget to include a link. This is also a good way to get more visitors to your page.Please feel free to vote in the example poll on my page as it will help us form a clearer idea of what our members and readers most enjoy about the site currently. Here's the link VOTE HERE

Oct 10 2008 by Katie Norman, South Wales Echo "A PREGNANT woman has Welsh ambulance control operators to thank for the arrival of paramedics at her home in Nevada, USA."Read this article about a Welsh ambulance workers who help a woman in labor in her house in NEVADA!

From the Ning blog:-

"OpenSocial is now live across our more than 500,000 social networks this morning. This release replaces and improves our older Gadgets beta functionality, and enables Network Creators and their members to add all sorts of great new features, or Applications, to their profile pages with a single click. Each social network on Ning now offers more than 30 OpenSocial applications from which to choose, including file sharing from Box.net, poll creation from Polldaddy and e-commerce from Shopit. Here are some cool highlights of our OpenSocial integration:* The OpenSocial directory on each network automatically inherits the branding and visual design of that network.* OpenSocial applications on Ning can inherit the visual style of the member profile page to which theyre added.* OpenSocial applications are automatically integrated into a networks viral loops. The ability for OpenSocial applications to write to a members latest activity feed, send messages on behalf of the member and spread using a networks default viral sharing options are all there by default."

You will find the "Add Applications" icon just below your profile photo on your home page. Enjoy!Here are a few example apps:- Shopit...Create Your Own Online Store

Poll Daddy...Create polls on your home page

MindJolt Games,,,Access over 500 games from your homepage...Beat your friends High Scores.

>LolCats....get your daily LolCat!

or as WalesOnline puts it..... Welsh choir sing at atom smasher

Manufacturer's description I think you can get the game HERE :"Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches is set on the Celtic fringes of Britain; a place where myth and magic spill into reality, threatening the sanity of a teenage girl named Rhiannon Sullivan. An ancient battle for revenge engulfs Ty Pryderi, the remote Welsh farmstead Rhiannon now calls home. She begins to hear unexplained noises, see disturbing visions, and experience other chilling paranormal phenomena. There is an ancient evil lurking in the walls of Ty Pryderi that holds a terrible connection to a timeless struggle between man and magic fabled in the Mabinogion Legends. Her parents take Rhiannon away, leaving Ty Pryderi to your watch and exploration, but their absence can only postpone the inevitability of revenge and death. Unless you can stop it!"I don't remember that "timeless struggle between man and magic" bit in the Mabinogion but whooo-hoo nonetheless, I say.Anyone seen this? Tried it? Know or care anything about it?Publisher: Got Game EntertainmentPublisher 2: Lighthouse InteractiveDeveloper: Arberth StudiosReleased in North America: 10-6-2008UK release date: 24th October 2008.Europe not sure of release date, may be with UK