I have learned that when you flag comments as spam in WordPress, they aren’t truly deleted, but instead go into the equivalent of a trash can in PHP.

This means that over time, trashed spam comments can accumulate to the point where they take up so much space that they degrade the ability of a blog to respond to surges in traffic. It’s essentially baggage that accompanies every user’s access to your site and hogs an excessive portion of whatever available RAM your host allows you to have.

This explains how I was able to handle a mountain of Malkin traffic to the coal fatality post back in January with little trouble, but the two Instalanches of the past week (here and here) have brought the site down. There have probably been 3,000 or more spam comments in the meantime. I’ve noticed their length and the number of URL links included in the average spam comment expanding over time, making the space problem even worse. There really should be a special place in hell for the cretins who send these things.

But the spam is truly deleted now, and the site is responding quite snappily if I do say so myself. Cleaning out the trash is something web whiz Charles will be routinizing here periodically, even after the migration to a dedicated virtual server.

Other bloggers who are concerned that their site isn’t handling traffic surges as expected should take note.

At first glance, you would think they might be pleased. After all, China, India, and other Asian countries are trying to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.

But the enviros will most likely not be happy at all, because those countries are shifting to nuclear power:

Asia Going Nuclear Amid Rising Oil Prices

Led by fast-growing China and India, Asia is going nuclear in a big way to feed its ravenous appetite for energy.

The strains of economic growth are already showing. Energy shortages have forced Chinese factories to scale back production, and farmers in India often have power for only half the day. Both countries say their future growth is at risk unless they diversify their energy mix.

So does South Korea, where Yoon Ho-taek scans a construction site the size of 10 football fields in the southeastern city of Ulsan, points to what looks like a partly built amphitheater, and declares: “The future of nuclear power is bright.”

South Korea, the world’s second biggest coal importer and third biggest oil importer, already depends on nuclear reactors for 40 percent of its power and is talking of increasing that to 60 percent by 2035.

Just because enviros aren’t pleased doesn’t mean that they’ll do anything about it. They’re too busy making sure that no more nuke plants get built here.

That’s two in five days. I guess I should stop blogging until the cutover gets done (/sarcasm).

All is restored now, thanks to a redirect of Instapundit traffic to a plain HTML page (which you don’t need to see, because you’re here) at another one of my domains, thanks to web whiz Charles, who I don’t thank enough.

Go here to see the BizzyBlog post on the decline of the Big 3 networks’ evening news in all its glory.

In the UK, cutbacks and closures at Accident and Emergency units (also referred to as “casualty departments”) have ensued.

A previous post indicated that reduction in emergency room utilization were taking effect in the UK by redefining “emergencies” down, and forcing patients to wait and see their general practitioner or other doctor.

Perhaps the “redefinition” is still taking place, but if so, even that isn’t enough to prevent drastic cutbacks at and even closures of emergency rooms:

NHS cash crisis hitting A&E units

Accident and emergency units are being scaled back to bail the NHS out of its cash problems, doctors say.
The British Association for Emergency Medicine said the spate of cuts was putting patients at risk by stranding them miles from casualty departments.

In many cases - some of which are still under consideration - the units have been made into minor injury departments which tend to be nurse-led.

NHS bosses said they have been forced into the drastic changes to break even.

It is not clear how many of England’s 200 casualty departments have been affected, but the BAEM said the rate of closures was increasing.

….. And plans are being considered by health bosses in Lancashire to scale down services at Burnley Hospital.

Local MP Kitty Ussher has written to the local trust to complain about the plans.

She said: “It is undisputed that the additional journey time will place my constituents in unnecessary risk, and it is undisputed that some people may die as a result.”

….. NHS managers the BBC spoke to said they were under pressure from the government to make “drastic cuts” as ministers had promised the NHS would break even by the end of this financial year. It is currently £512m in deficit.

One said: “There is a slash and burn policy going on just so the government can keep to its promise. It is not in the best interest of patients or the health service.”

Imagine the outrage if something similar were mandated by the US government or individual states.

Nationalized health care inevitably leads to rationing of care. It may take several decades, as has been the case in the UK, but that rationing eventually leads to lost lives. Where’s the outrage?

Waldemar Kaminski passed away last month. He generosity, for which an appropriate superlative simply can’t be found, won’t be forgotten, nor will his story of success:

Quiet Grocer Donated Millions
Posted by: Robyn Young, Reporter
Updated: 6/26/2006 7:41:42 AM

Waldemar Kaminski of Buffalo lead an unconventionally rich life.

He spent a lifetime running his family’s East Side grocery store, Kaminski Meats. He never stopped working, closing the store about one year before he died. He also never moved from his boyhood home, the apartment above the Broadway Avenue store, even though he made millions of dollars in the stock market.

Kaminski donated millions during his life, but didn’t want anyone to know about it, until he died. Waldemar Kaminski passed away on Wednesday at age 88. Knowing the day would come when his story could be told, staff members at Roswell Park Cancer Institute taped an hour-long interview with him a few years ago, and saved the tape, and his story.

This is his amazing life story.

The Kaminski family moved to Buffalo when he was a young boy. Waldemar’s father bought a grocery store on Broadway, and the family lived upstairs. Waldemar would eventually die in this home, but first, he had a remarkable life to live.

In 1935 at age 17, Waldemar opened two stands in Buffalo’s famous Broadway Market. He worked 18-hour days, splitting his time between his stands and his father’s store. That same year, he began investing. One of the first buys was an 87 cent stock in Commonwealth and Southern, a utility holding company.

While his brother went off to medical school, Waldemar focused on the family business on Broadway. A family friend said he promised his father he would keep the store open.

Even when he didn’t have money to invest, he read newspapers and other publications, preferring to see company balance sheets and annual reports. By the 1950’s, he had enough money to really start investing, buying stock in General Motors and General Electric, among others. He claimed in the Roswell Park interview that he had so much GM stock, when he chose to sell it, the president of the company called to inquire why. He also said he bought 17,000 shares of Government Employee Insurance Company in 1973, a company later acquired by Warren Buffett. Those stocks earned him $800,000 in 1995.

And he never consulted a stockbroker.

“It’s all research, reading, a lot of reading. I don’t take anybody’s word for it,” Kaminski said.

Through the years, he gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to family, friends, and organizations such as the Father Baker Home, the Salvation Army, Camp Good Days and Special Times, and Hilbert College. He once gave $60,000 to the son of a friend so he could buy a house.

There’s more. Read the whole thing.

Free Links:

• Ho-hum jobs report — Citigroup is adding 1,000 jobs (HT Project Logic, who forgot that he isn’t supposed to find these things out before me, at Right Angle Blog) in Blue Ash, a northeast Cincinnati suburb.
• More ho-hum jobs news — Google is opening an office in Ann Arbor, Michigan that the company anticipates will employ 1,000 within 5 years.
• Big Dig Boondoggle update — This time it’s deadly (HT Instapundit). A longer article is here. $14.6 billion later, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is quoted as saying, “I don’t think anyone can feel the tunnels are safe….” He is trying to get the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to step down, and the crash area is being treated as a crime scene.
• Payroll processing and employee benefits giant ADP got duped –
  

  In the latest in a string of high-profile data disclosures, the brokerage services group of ADP (Automatic Data Processing) last week said “an unauthorized party impersonated officers” at an undisclosed number of public companies to obtain investor information between November 2005 and February 2006.

  The company, based in Roseland, N.J., did not say how many companies or investors were affected.

  Apparently SSNs and account numbers were not included in the information heist.

  In the underlying article eWeek referred to, I learned that “In March ….. Fidelity Investments said a laptop with personal information of almost 200,000 Hewlett-Packard employees was stolen.” Info thefts and data breaches are so frequent that it’s hopeless to even try to keep up with all of them.

• Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, with the editorial support of Investors Business Daily (HT Instapundit), wants a comprehensive and detailed online database of all pork, regardless of recipient (not-for-profits, advocacy organizations, foundations, businesses, other governments, etc.). Good idea.
• The Business & Media Institute takes note of The Washington Post’s class-envy stoking finding that “Registered nurses, carpenters, and technical writers are unfairly reaping the spoils of the strong economy while hard-working dishwashers and janitors get the shaft.” It turns out that more-educated folks with needed skills are on average getting better pay increases than those with few skills. Zheesh — Who would have guessed that? (/sarcasm)

I didn’t know this, and it’s very encouraging. This read-the-whole-thing article notes that, among many others, columnist Art Buchwald is among those who entered hospice care with “only a few weeks to live,” but now is back in the outside world:

Hospice stay isn’t always an ending
Many with terminal illnesses outlive doctors’ predictions and leave
BY KAREN GARLOCH and Frank Greve
July 9, 2006

When doctors predicted humor columnist Art Buchwald would die of end-stage renal disease in two or three weeks, he moved into a Washington hospice.

That was five months ago.

That the 81-year-old hasn’t died, and is in fact enjoying another summer on Martha’s Vineyard, is proof that predicting the arc of terminal illnesses is difficult.

On July 1, Buchwald left the hospice because his health had improved, despite his decision to reject blood-cleansing treatments.

This turnabout is a familiar pattern in the world of hospice, where doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains do their best to relieve pain and provide emotional support so that dying patients and their families can focus on quality of life.

“When people feel better, and they’re able to think about other things than their pain, they often live longer than expected,” said Janet Fortner, president and chief executive officer of Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte Region.

“When someone comes under hospice care, the focus is not the disease,” she said. “The individual becomes the center of attention — what their goals are, what their needs are. It’s all about their quality of life and their relationships, not curing the disease, because the disease is deemed at this point to be incurable.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1.2 million people are enrolled in hospice each year, and about 12 percent are discharged alive.

About a third of post-hospice patients die within six months of their discharge, according to one study. Many of the rest go to nursing homes because, while not at death’s door, they continue to suffer from chronic diseases, often Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.

Fortner said some patients are referred back to hospice after discharge, and some die without the benefit of hospice services. Just because they are discharged doesn’t mean they no longer have a terminal illness, just that they are no longer deemed to have six months or less to live.

Buchwald likens his life after hospice to booking a seat on a plane, having the flight canceled, and ending up on standby indefinitely.

He has ditched plans to have singer Carly Simon, a Vineyard crony, perform at his funeral. Instead, she will serenade him with the 1940s ballad that starts: “I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places.”

Novak’s complete column is up at Human Events online. I’ll leave a detailed critique of it to others who have followed much more closely than I what may go down in history as the biggest non-story story ever.

Tuesday evening, The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz had this howler about the background of the Novak-Plamegate story:

Novak triggered one of the capital’s most tangled investigations with a July 2003 column reporting that Plame had suggested sending her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, to Niger to investigate whether Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was trying to obtain nuclear material from that country — an unsupported claim that was included in President Bush’s State of the Union speech. Fitzgerald, who decided last month not to pursue charges against Rove, is prosecuting I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a former chief of staff for Vice President Cheney, for allegedly lying to a grand jury. Judith Miller, then a New York Times reporter, went to jail for 85 days last year for initially refusing to name Libby as her source.

To the bolded text above, the correct response is “horsecrap.”

The detailed response belongs to Christopher Hitchens at FrontPage. As Hitchens repeatedly points out later in the column, the first three paragraphs of that column seal the deal.

When, if ever, will the WORMs (Worn-Out Reactionary Media, known to most as The Mainstream Media), stop lying about the proven truthfulness of the sixteen words?
_____________________

UPDATE: Some of the only-scratches-the-surface substantive reax to Novak’s column is at Hot Air, Stop The ACLU, Wizbang, Protein Wisdom, Outside the Beltway, and Blue Crab Boulevard.

UPDATE 2: “S.O.B.er” Porkopolis was ahead of me on the “sixteen words” story, and uses FactCheck.org as his source.

UPDATE 3: Of course, Tom Maguire, who has owned the truth-telling franchise on this story from the beginning, was going to weigh in.

UPDATE 4: Noteworthy July 12 updates — Wizbang, notes the press’s “la-la” on Novak finding Plame’s occupation in Joe Wilson’s Who’s Who entry, and separately beats on Kurtz for ignoring it; Jonathan Adler at Volokh; and Below the Beltway.