Internet and Crossword

Resizing images

THEREmay well come an occasion when you wish to scale down a large image file for it to take up less space, especially with phone cameras being able to take much higher quality and therefore larger file size photographs, these days. For instance, With NICK SPARKS some email systems limit the size of attachments, or you may have limited storage on your device, or it may be the requirement to upload to a web site.

Fortunately, there are many ways of achieving this although the method may be tucked away almost hidden on your device. As well as reducing the dimensions of an image to reduce its file size some offer the option to reduce its definition. Rule of thumb suggests that an image for a web site should be at around 75 dpi (dots per inch) however if you want it printed a higher setting of 300 dpi is normal.

With the iphone or ipad a dedicated app such as Image Size down loaded from the App Store is perhaps the best option. On a Mac, it can be done natively in Finder>Application open Preview click on the Markup icon in the top menu bar, and in Markup Mode click Adjust Size icon. With an Android phone or tablet you can also download a dedicated app such as Image SizePhoto Resizer from the Playstore, but it can also be achieved natively within the Gallery App by clicking on the image, then the pencil icon followed by the three menu dots in the top right had corner and the resize option that appears.

Windows 10 provides a method via its included Photo App. Open an image in the app and again clicking the three menu dots in the top right-hand corner to find the resize option that appears.

There are also online resizing services offered on the internet, for example Adobe under Spark offer a free service as long as you sign up. Photo editing software such as Photoshop Elements also usually include the ability to do resizing.

This article is for guidance only, and the opinion of the writer. I.T. for the Terrified <it4ttcvh@gmail.com> Submitted for IT for the Terrified by Nick Sparks. Although we have now ceased our one to one tuition, a number of us will continue with this column under the heading "IT for the Terrified" to keep the name alive for the time being.

The Mendip Mindbender

ACROSS

5 & 8 Small village near Frome, long name and in 2014 only 381 inhabitants (8,6) 8 See 5 across 10 Make quick short steps to a game of dice (6) 11 A proboscidea (8) 12 A kings’ male heirs (5,7) 15 A knot for joining two ropes (4) 17 Playwright who wrote “Loot” (1965) (5) 18 Show how tired you are (4) 19 Said to have no Visitors (12) 22 In Baroque music an accompanying part which provides a bassline for the other parts and adds harmony (8) 24 Car used for levelling the lawn (6) 25 A nearly worthless seed (6) 26 Russia's form of government after the 1917 revolution

DOWN

1 Help in getting slalom runners back up the slope (3,3) 2 Impervious to Adam’s ale (10) 3 Not working or in use (4) 4 In a surreptitious fashion (2,3,3) 6 Gained without endeavour (8) 7 Permanently fixed in a particular belief or opinion (4,2,3,4) 9 Spots a broken cane (4) 13 Simultaneous (10) 14 A tool Women use to keep eyebrows in shape (8) 16 Village close to Shepton

Mallet where the River

Sheppey springs from St.

Adhelms' well (8) 20 Leaving Cheddar for Draycott there is a 250ft hill on the right. What is its name (6) 21 A 21-mile river rising at

Beverton pond in the Brendon hills and flowing into R.

Parret at Burrowbridge (4) 23 Plural of half of 25 across (4)

Clues in italics are cryptic

By greendandelion

Dear Mendip Times, Three cheers for Dr Phil Hammond!

His article “Don’t blame it on the GP” in last month’s Mendip Times set out in clear and robust terms the achievements that all our primary care professionals have accomplished during the worst pandemic in living memory.

He also graphically laid out the years of under-funding that have led to the UK having a worse per capita doctorto-patient ratio than the rest of Europe.

I’ ve belonged to a local GP practice since 1981 and can vouch for the continuing excellence of its performance. It maintained face-to-face appointments and home visits (albeit restricted) even during the worst of Covid and has now resumed normal service as much as it can while maintaining necessary anti-infection precautions.

Over a number of surgeries, it now has more than 80 phone lines and an increased patient co-ordination staff to cope with growing demand. Meanwhile the doctors and their staff continue to work extremely hard, seven days a week.

Indeed, I’ ve had a telephone consultation with my GP at 8.30 at night and know that the record for one duty doctor’s number of daily patient contacts was more than 200! And all this while the practice administered more than 60,000 first, second and booster Covid vaccinations.

Along with Dr Hammond, I think it’s disgraceful that such a wonderful, hard-working service continues to be besmirched by cynical, politically-motivated forces. As he says, primary care has always changed with the times and continues to do so with the advent of interactive and online technology.

Between 1962 and 1971, the BBC ran a popular TV series called “Dr Finlay ’s Casebook” . It dealt with everyday health issues and emergencies at a very parochial, hands-on local level based on simple remedies and cosy homespun anecdotes. But things are different in the 21st century.

In the internet age, perhaps more people need to realise that the mythical golden days of Dr Finlay are long gone. And, as Dr Hammond rightly says “ whatever solutions the government comes up with, they must be built on compassion and understanding, not blame and aggression” .

Ian Pitch

North Somerset

Dear Mendip Times, Being born and bred in the Chew Valley I am writing to express my appreciation of your magazine Mendip Times. I would especially like to mention the monthly cycling article by Edmund Lodite.

I moved to France many years ago and I find Edmund’s article interesting, intelligently written and, occasionally challenging, bringing back happy memories of many days (mis)spent cycling around Chew Valley Lake and surrounding areas with “the gang” .

Thank you. With very kind regards.

Nigel Bailey

France Dear Mendip Times, Thanks for another excellent Mendip Times and your full coverage of the recent ploughing match. I should very much like to take the opportunity to reply to Dr Phil Hammond and his article “Don’t blame it on the GP” (November issue).

I very much take issue with the good doctor’s opinion and do blame an awful lot of what is happening in Primary Care, squarely on the attitude and behaviour of the GP.

It seems from all the evidence and Dr Hammond’s politically motived rant that GPs are putting their own welfare and wellbeing ahead of their patients.

Many GPs have taken the options of working part-time, working from home and taking study leave, when patients actually want and need a face-to-face meeting in the surgery.

Dr Hammond fails to mention that doctors are rewarded financially by the size of their patient list, not by the number of patients they actually treat.

There is no incentive at all for doctors to actually treat patients, yet they can still draw their mega-salaries.

Add to this the fact that as vaccinators, they get paid £10 for every vaccination delivered – it’s no wonder a doctor would rather work from home, or deliver vaccinations – it makes them very rich for very little effort.

He states that “ we would be counting the bodies” if the vaccination scheme was not such a success. True, we have had a very successful vaccine roll-out, but it has rewarded the GPs very handsomely.

Unfortunately, to use his slightly grizzly expression the “bodies are still piling up” and GPs share much of the blame for this, not from the pandemic or virus, but from other more routine causes.

How do I know all this? I volunteer as a Community First Responder in the Mendip and North Somerset area and, as such, I receive all the 999 calls from the ambulance service and act as a kind of pre-paramedic to treat people before the ambulance arrives on scene, so have first-hand experience, and a “ringside” seat of what is actually happening.

Because of the increase in demand, ambulance attendance times are stretching outwards and patients are not getting the treatment they deserve.

Ambulances then experience long delays in off-loading their patients at A&E, therefore further tying up the ambulance and paramedic.

One of the underlying causes is not the patients the GPs do see, it is the patients they don ’t see that is the cause of much of this excess demand.

A large number of patients I attend in my voluntary capacity, start the conversation with this common apology: “I’m so sorry to have to call you, I have tried ringing my doctor for a couple of days, and can’t get an appointment, so I rang 111 and found they were of little help. This morning I rang 999 because my condition is so much worse. ”

I’m sorry Dr Hammond, GPs must take their share of responsibility for the near total collapse of the Primary Care system and therefore endangering patients’ lives. Patients deserve better, and expect better.

The current state of Primary Care is dangerous and a disgrace. You should be ashamed of your actions and not politically grand-standing about pay and conditions.

Duncan Massey

Volunteer Community First Responder

Axbridge marks its history

The first blue plaque

THEREhas been a double celebration in Axbridge. The first of what are expected to be as many as 40 blue plaques around the town has been unveiled at the town hall.

And members of Axe Valley Men’s Shed have constructed a wooden notice board for Axbridge Square, giving details of the new heritage trail. Mayor Kate Browne unveiled both.

The voluntary group behind the plaques is headed by former mayor Barbara Wells who said it was an important step in the creation of the heritage trails that would attract new visitors to the town.

Positioned on the outside of the town hall the plaque explains how the civic building was constructed in 1830 on the site of the former Bear Inn.

Fundraising for the plaques has been led by Margaret Cowie, including £300 from the town’s chamber of commerce.

The new notice board, made under the guidance of carpenter Terry Wite, is built out of recycled timber.

The men’s shed chairman Andy Laken said the board has been a joint effort by members of the shed and they were delighted to help the new heritage trail in Axbridge with its contribution.

The new notice board

Strike protest in Street

Protestors leave the Westway centre to march through the centre of Street

HUNDREDS of striking Clark’s Distribution Centre workers and supporters marched in what has been described as the biggest protest of its kind in Street in more than 100 years.

More than 100 staff at the Westway centre have been on strike since the beginning of October over what they say is a “fire and rehire” move by Clarks to change their terms and conditions of employment.

In 1913, women on their way from the West Country to London to take part in the Suffragists’ Great Pilgrimage stopped at the Clark’s owned Crispin Centre in Street.

Clarks is now owned by the Hong Kong-based private equity firm Lion Rock Capital following a £100m rescue deal for the company, founded in 1825. It meant Clarks was no longer family controlled.

The picket line outside the distribution centre

Crackdown on tipping

MENDIP District Council officers, and Avon and Somerset Police, are working in partnership to stop on environmental crime in the district.

A joint stop-and-search exercise was carried out in Wells. The authorities inspected 28 vehicles of interest on Strawberry Way. A quarter of those stopped could not present a valid Waste Carriers Licence, as issued by the Environment Agency.

They could face a potential £300 Fixed-Penalty-Notice.