BBSNews is powered on a dedicated Linux server running Apache and by various and wondrous pieces of code with a little MySQL and PHP thrown in, and now an open-source format driven by GeekLog. All this is hacked together in somewhat of a melange with weather driven by a heavily customized (by us in-house) commercial program called Hamweather. We strongly support both LAMP and WAMP frameworks for running a stable Web site.

You see the pages, but there's a whole bunch of other stuff up underneath that makes things go, especially after the last major upgrade to BBSNews during November 2000 and then again during September 2001, with even more features added during December. In 2004, many more upgrades were added and BBSNews is still constantly growing. There are more than 8700 live stories carried here daily, 24/7 in more than 150 categories including weather. BBSNews has grown by 350% since 9/11/2001. In 2005 and we added a Content Management System (CMS), Geeklog and other new features. Thank you to all who have stopped by and who keep on stopping by. In June 2007 we replaced our CMS with the upgraded and far more secure version of Geeklog.

We moved from GoDaddy, the worst "dedicated" Web host on the planet, and moved to a new dedicated server with much more power, speed, memory and reliability. Hopefully lockups and dropped connections will be a thing of the past. There are a lot of new user features starting in June 2007, and much greater SPAM comment control as well as some measure of protection against bots continually trying to log in and deface the comments with erectile dysfunction medicine and such...

For 2008 we plan a much greater focus on peace and a fair and just settlement between Israel and the Occupied Territories of Palestine as well as land occupied by Israel that belongs to Lebanon and Syria. A lot of our focus for 2008 will be on these issues because so many Americans are so badly misinformed about the realities on the ground and what is actually causing the conflict. Suffice to say, we firmly believe that if say the state of Tennessee was occupied by a brutal occupier for about forty years, there no telling what those hardy folk from "Tennessee Regulars" stock would come up with in terms of continued resistance down to every man woman and child.

This page is an attempt to give credit where credit is due and let me say right from the top; I know I am going to miss someone so please contact me whoever you are and let me know and I will get you listed on this page!

'War on Some Drugs' Peace Activists

Many thanks to all the activists over the years who have contributed to BBSNews and who also have stayed the long road towards sane drug policy. The changes that have happened during the last seven years alone due to the 'net and its leveling influence have really made a great deal of difference in how people perceive public drugs policy around the world.

Some I wish to personally thank are: Cliff Schaffer from the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy and the activist gang in talk.politics.drugs. Rickey Johnson has been a tremendous help in myriad ways, too many to list here. A lot of BBSNews success is due to his help and advice. Brian Bennett has done great work with his meticulous charts and graphs outlining the failures and mis-reads that are so common in news headlines today. His work helps to dispel the notion of the gateway theory and outlines the real progression with drugs that happens independently of draconian laws caging people for using one drug over another. Eric Johnson has shown the world that a local cannabis coffee shop in Holland is as innocuous as well, a coffee shop. His work from on the scene in Holland shows that the wild claims made by law enforcement and federal officials from ONDCP here in the United States are just that, wild claims with no factual basis. Derek Snider has also contributed a piece for the BBSNews Series "A Material Breach in Marijuana Facts." BBSNews is proud to have dedicated contributors such as the above and there are many more including Eric Johnson, Steven Clark, Rickey Johnson, Michael Hess, Kandy Ringer, Mohammed Omer, Bill Quigley, Naman Crowe, Robert Duncan and Stuart Littlewood.

Peace is cool, War is not. "Have a flower officer..."

BBSNews Sources

We have news, science and research here from several thousand sources all over the world. That after all, is the start and finish of BBSNews. Solid, reliable and updated daily (or minute by minute, hour by hour) and dynamically so our visitors can stay informed of the latest news, weather or research by mouse click. From FactCheck.org to Medline and beyond we search for the highest quality sources available. For more about BBSNews Style Guidelines check them out.

We are proud to be a Google News source, we have been for several years now, a search on Google News will reveal the last thirty days or so of our content by Michael, Kandy and our other writers and contributors.

And of course, the weather. No news site would be complete without weather and we have a full service weather program in place to serve you with zip code look up, email weather to your mailbox and the "My Weather" feature which remembers your local weather preference each time that you log on to the BBSNews Weather page. Full color, on the fly precipitation maps, weather warnings, hurricane and satellite maps and much more. BBSNews Weather was completely updated for June 2007, just in time for Hurricane Season. Updates happen all the time with BBSNews Weather and we added some new features for 2008 including animated regional weather radar views.

The animated banners come from Swish, a Flash! compatible program that animates text and has many other features. Well worth the registration fee.

All images are diligently culled from public domain sources or are copyright Michael Hess, BBSNews or others as specified. All Rights Reserved. The photos and maps of Afghanistan, the US War on Iraq, and the ongoing terrorist conflict are largely public domain from the US Government as are the military photos in BBSNews Photos. These photos are official public domain releases and in no way meant to compromise any military or security operation past or future. Photos by authors are property of those authors. If you skate in here from Google Images and want to scarf one for your own use you need to contact those authors. Some of those copyright holders may include, Eric Johnson, Steven Clark, Rickey Johnson, Michael Hess, Kandy Ringer, Mohammed Omer, Bill Quigley, Naman Crowe, Robert Duncan and Stuart Littlewood. Theme and background music is copyright Rob Kirkwood where it's used.

World Trade Center Damage photos were supplied to BBSNews by an anonymous source and are Copyright BBSNews 2001. All Rights Reserved.

Photos featured on BBSNews of currently illicit drugs and or legal recreational drugs as well as prescription drugs are and were in the public domain. They have been enhanced and cropped for use at BBSNews as content instructing readers what these things look like. They were available in their original form at the Indiana Prevention Resource Center from the IPRC Drug Photo Page. But that link appears to be long long dead. Please follow the link and ask them where the public domain drug photos went. I am leaving it here for 2005 because I want to know where the link went myself.

I'm sure I have missed some. If you see intellectual property in use on BBSNews improperly and I have not given you credit please let me know. I will fix that right away for you. And if you would like to write for BBSNews, let us know and we will likely give you a byline.

Supporters

Over the last seventeen years, there have been a lot of people who have helped and supported BBSNews on a personal level, my kids and grandkids, my close friends, some graphics by Kristian, and valuable contributions by Eric Johnson, Steven Clark, Rickey Johnson, Kandy Ringer, Mohammed Omer, Bill Quigley, Naman Crowe, Robert Duncan and Stuart Littlewood. and many others that I could not have done without. The letters and notes telling me to keep on have been much appreciated. The fan mail and indeed even the hate mail are all read here and taken under consideration. I want to especially thank Kandy Ringer, who is making so much of the content you see happen and who brings me great joy.

To all of you who have helped make BBSNews what it is, THANK YOU!

Michael Hess
Editor BBSNews

Kandy Ringer
Assistant Editor