In today's news: Paywalls Are Everywhere

In-App Purchases = Subscriptions

Do you pay for news?  More and more websites would like you to.  Which got me to thinking - how much would it cost to subscribe to all of the top news sites?  The answer: a whopping $254.34 per month.  And that is for only the digital content - no magazines or newspapers would be showing up in your mailbox.  How can someone be expected to stay "well rounded" if it costs so much money just to hear different opinions in the first place? 

I was prompted to write this post because my main go-to site for news, Bloomberg.com, recently switched from the ad-supported model to the paid subscription model.  I was and continue to be heartbroken.  But my favorite columnist had already left and I can still get their daily newsletters in my e-mail for free, so I guess it's not the end of the world.

My research into this topic was a little more time consuming than I initially anticipated.  I wanted to make sure I covered a wide swath of mainstream news, so I built my list of sites to investigate using three categories.  I would look at the sites of the top 15 physical newspapers by circulation, the top 30 news sites by Alexa ranking, and the top 30 news apps in the iTunes Apple store.

Right off the bat there was a bit of a surprise.  Several of the apps and sites were not "original content" news sites.  For example, Google News comes in at #5 on the Alexa list, while theSkimm is #4 in the iTunes store.  Neither employ a single writer creating original content.  Several of these kinds of entries fell off my list since they were places full of links to outside articles with no unique coverage of their own.

The second big surprise was the amount of paid sites that masquerade as free sites.  You may have seen this before when you get the message that says "you have 3 free articles remaining this month..."  Sometimes this is obviously presented to you, but on a few sites I was not made aware of the paywall until I hit it.  An abrupt stop sign slammed into my browser and insisted on receiving my credit card number before I could proceed.  I burned through my free article quota on several sites during my research.  You're welcome.  I've categorized these as paywall sites, even if they had a small number of free views.

There were a couple sites with partial paywalls, where only some of the articles were hidden, but you could enjoy unlimited viewing of the rest.  The Atlantic is one example (and one of my other personal favorites).  I gave these their own category in the infographic.  A few of the sites forced you to buy an entire year or quarter at a time.  Some sites billed every 4 weeks.  I standardized the prices to make them monthly charges.

I also ignored the introductory offers and reported only the full prices.  Many of these places are trying to lure people in with "$1 per week" offers which quickly double or triple once the trial period is over.  I threw those promotional rates out the window and just recorded the full price.

Ultimately, I ended up randomly and rapidly clicking through 37 different websites over the course of an evening.  I didn't even do it in private browsing mode.  I think my computer has more cookies than a Girl Scout troop now.  But blazing through site after site, I started noting some interesting things.  Here are a few reflections:

The Houston Chronicle wins the award for the most interesting and random article I inadvertently stumbled across.

The Seattle Times and The Guardian both go the Wikipedia route and leave everything free while attempting to guilt trip you into voluntarily paying them money.  I wonder what their success rate is.

The Wall Street Journal won't let you view even one single precious article for free.  They are also the most expensive at $36.99 a month.  That's some Netflix and a whole lot of chill money right there.

The free sites are obviously being supported by ads.  Like, extremely obviously.  I don't use an ad blocker, and some of these sites were so cluttered and crowded that I was afraid my browser was going to crash.

Video ads that autoplay are a scourge to mankind and must be exterminated.

Full screen pop ups are alarming and disorienting.  My first instinct when they happen is to Alt-F4 my way back to safety and stave off what must be a Russian hacker taking over my monitor.

The Hill wins the award for weirdest ad presented to me - a vacation ad featuring four beaming and shirtless dudes in sunglasses on the beach in - get this - Tel Aviv of all places.

I saw an ad for VRBO that treated me to another glimpse of the exact properties I had been looking up earlier this week.

The ads for the paid sites on Facebook show up like an innocent story in my news feed, complete with the names of my friends who "like" the Derpity Post-Times.  I wonder - are they paying for a subscription, or did they just like the page?

The clickbait is real.  I actually stopped to read some of the titles.  They did not disappoint.

Born Before 1985? This Government Program Will Pay off Your Mortgage (Only if You Claim It)

I had better jump on that!  Here I am paying off my mortgage like a sucker.  But wait, there's more!

You Should Never Shop on Amazon Without Using This Trick - Here's Why
20 Totally Normal Things Kate Middleton Can't Do
Try Not To Laugh At These Hilarious Photos That Perfectly Depict Each State
Surrogate Hears Doctor Gasp Moments After Delivering Baby, Looks Down & Quickly Realizes Why
Mom Gives Birth To 7 Babies. Just Wait Until You See Them 18 Years Later
The Pawn Star Find That Made Chumlee Rich

The urge to click on some of those was real.

Did you ever notice the names of the sites that sponsor some of this clickbait crap?  It's the most random stuff.

Denzel Washington's Son Has Grown Up To Be Gorgeous
Faith Hill's Daughter Is 19 & She's Gorgeous

These link to sites called "Miss Penny Stocks" and "Refinance Gold", respectively.  You know, come for the hot celeb kids, stay for the stock tips.  And why not go ahead and lower you interest payment too while you're here?

The clickbait articles started to get so well camouflaged that it was almost impossible to tell them apart from links to legitimate articles on the actual site.  Like this one totally turned out to be an actual article on the same legit news site I was browsing:

The not-so-German origins of German chocolate cake

Spoiler: it's Texas.  Chalk up another one for the Lone Star State!  You never can know too much useless trivia.

After my odyssey was complete, I turned my spreadsheet of research into this lovely infographic which looks like it was designed by blind person using a braille mouse.  What can I say, I can't do design.

Sources:

https://www.appannie.com/en/apps/ios/top/united-states/news/iphone/
https://www.agilitypr.com/resources/top-media-outlets/top-15-daily-american-newspapers/
https://www.alexa.com/topsites/category/Top/News

What it's like being a volunteer EMT

A couple years ago I decided to get my EMT certification. I wanted to build up some skills (the prepper in me) but I also knew that it would provide me with the opportunity to volunteer. So, what does this all entail and what has my experience been like so far? Well, I'll tell you.

Overview

EMT stands for Emergency Medical Technician, and it is actually the second tier of training when it comes to emergency medicine. EMR, or Emergency Medical Responder, is the first tier. Most firefighters, police officers, and other first responders will get EMR certified, which can be completed in a few days. It really only scratches the surface of emergency medicine, mostly covering CPR, how to stop bleeding, and other big ticket items that you would most commonly run across. Total classroom time is generally around 24 hours. The EMT course goes into much more detail, and the course lasts for over 200 hours. EMT is what I jumped straight into.

Training

I took a class with a company that specializes in emergency medical training. That is all they do. Classes were held in their classroom, which was inside their office which was in one of those ubiquitous "professional buildings." You know the type - the ones that rent office space out to accountants, crappy law firms, eye doctors, and dentists. Always dentists. Anyway, I took a class that met in the evenings for a few hours twice a week along with several Saturdays. It spanned three months. My course also included ride-along time for two days in an actual ambulance, along with one day in the Emergency Room. My favorite part of the course was the ER time. It was such an incredible experience that it deserves its own post unto itself.

Anyway, the course covered all sorts of things, starting out with basic anatomy of the human body. That part was basically a re-hash of a high school course, maybe a little more advanced. Then it was into medical diagnosis and interventions, which took up the bulk of the course. We covered all kinds of things, like circulatory, respiratory, and other major body system emergencies. The emphasis was on circulatory issues (heart attacks and strokes and such). We went through the different types of shock, allergic reactions, diabetic emergencies, psychotic episodes, seizures, severe illnesses... basically all the things that would make you pick up the phone and dial 911 instead of drive yourself to the hospital. We ended the course on trauma, covering bleeding, broken bones, car accidents, and other kinds of accidents like drowning. Oh, we also spent an entire class on how to deliver a baby, so yeah, I can totally do that now. All in all, it was a very broad overview that I felt covered just about all the major things you could expect to see out there.

At the end of the course, you took a written exam and a practical exam, and then you got your certification to actually practice medicine. I was off to find a volunteer organization that would take me on.

The Organization

I didn't have to go far - the town adjacent to mine (this is New England, everything is town-centric) has a volunteer ambulance service. I applied and was accepted, and I have been riding with them for 4 months now. The town is small, and their call volume is low - around 1500 calls a year, which is about 4 a day. The ambulance corps, as it is called, is staffed by paid employees during weekdays but relies on volunteers to fill its night and weekend shifts. It is a strange hybrid, but hey, it works for me. The corps has two ambulances (ambulanci?), but usually only staffs one at any given time. Staffing the ambulance means two people on duty. The interesting thing is that volunteers don't actually have to be at the building when they are on duty - they can respond from home if they live in town. This often leads to embarrassingly long response times, like the night when there was a call at a house that you could literally see from the building, but it took us 12 minutes to get there because the driver was responding from his house.

The corps has its own building all to itself, and it was pretty impressive to me the first time I saw it. There is a large and small meeting room, the garages (obviously), a day room with recliners and a TV, showers, a washer and dryer, a kitchen, and two bedrooms (guys and girls) with two twin beds in each. All in all, it would be a pretty sweet place to ride out the zombie apocalypse. Most of the time I am there, I am in the "command room" which is set up fairly interestingly. There is a row of computers where most people just surf the internet when they're not writing up charts or doing training, and then there are the radios, printers, and a couple TVs that show the schedule and a grid of all the active calls in our county. It's also right next to the garage door, so it's a convenient place to wait for a call. Which incidentally is what we are doing 90% of the time.

Most shifts I will only have one or two calls, and most shifts are 12 hours long. So yeah, it can get boring. Most people bring other stuff to do or to work on - college students do homework, I write, etc. There are a few "productive" things you can do, like inventory the ambulance, but I've found that most of the volunteer staff just sit around.

The Volunteers

As far as who else volunteers there, well, it runs the gamut. We have high school kids looking to build their resume. We have pre-med students looking to pad their application to med school. We've got firefighters who do this to keep their medical skills sharp. We've got people like me who just want to give back to the community. We've got older volunteers who do it to fill the time now that their kids are grown. All types. There is nurse and former paramedic who has forgotten more about medicine than I'll ever know. There is the college student who is studying to become an elementary school teacher. There is the business owner giving back to the community. It's an eclectic group.

The Calls

The calls we get, fittingly enough, proportionately follow the amount of time we spend in class learning about them. That is, there are many more medical calls than trauma calls. I have been to two motor vehicle accidents, but numerous "sick person" calls. When you call 911, the dispatcher will quickly determine if you need an paramedic or not. These are called "ALS" calls (advanced life saving). This is opposed to BLS calls (basic life saving) which are calls that an EMT can handle on their own. Basically, if the call is at all interesting (medically speaking, I'm not a sadist), as in a truly severe trauma, a heart attack, a stroke, or some other similarly dire scenario, a paramedic will be called to the scene as well. Those are the guys that zip around in SUVs with all their fancy gear. Paramedics can do about ten times more than an EMT can, which is appropriate, seeing as how their schooling lasts 2 years as opposed to my 3 months. They can set up an IV, give several kinds of medicines, and intubate (insert a breathing tube into) someone who is in respiratory distress. They also have a portable EKG (the thing that monitors your heart and makes all those squiggly lines). Paramedics are the Swiss army knife to the EMT folding blade.

Anyway, depending on the call, a paramedic may or may not also be on the way. Our town will also generally have some firefighters respond from home to assist with manpower if needed (lifting people is not always a two person job). Motor vehicle accidents always get a fire engine and cops. But most calls it is just us. When we get a call, we are told where to go and given a brief description of what to expect when we get there. "75 year old male, difficulty breathing". "62 year old female, vomiting". "81 year old male, fall". Stuff like that. We jump in the ambulance and take off. Depending on how severe the call sounds, we may or may not use lights and sirens on our way to the scene.

On Scene

When we arrive on scene, the first thing we do is make sure we are in the right place, and make sure everything is safe. I haven't had this problem yet, but you can imagine that there are some pretty unsavory places out there where some 911-worthy events occur. The general consensus in EMT world is that my safety is most important thing. It sounds a bit selfish, but you can't help anybody if you get stabbed, shot, or fall though a hole in the floor. So if the scene isn't safe, we call for the cops or the fire department and they come and secure it before we go it. But 99% of the time it's just a regular old house or apartment, so we knock on the door and wait for someone to let us in. I have not had to break down a door, but I've heard it happens if the person is home alone or can't open it for you.

The thing that surprised me most about being an EMT is how slowly everything unfolds. No one runs, ever. We spend a lot of time in the house or apartment just talking to the family, the patient, and getting vitals. Now obviously if they are having a heart attack we are getting them in the ambulance and leaving as quickly as possible, but I have yet to respond to one of those calls (knock on wood). Most of my calls have been someone who is running a high fever, or who is in a lot of pain, or who has fallen, and we are just there to take them to the hospital more out of caution than anything else. For most of these people, there is nothing I can do for them personally besides give them a ride. That's the second most surprising thing about being an EMT - how depressing it can be.

I'd like you to pause and think for a minute about what what have to happen to you, right now, at this exact moment, for you to pick up the phone and dial 911 and ask for an ambulance to come get you. Go ahead, visualize the circumstances. What did you think of? Severe chest pain? A nasty fall where your bones are sticking out or where you can't get up? Uncontrollable explosions from one or both of your bodily exits? Whatever you imagined, it would have to be pretty bad, right? Probably one of the worst days of your life, right? Well, this is the only time I as an EMT will ever see you.

I have transported dying cancer patients back to the hospital they were just discharged from days earlier. I've taken mentally handicapped and wheelchair bound people to the emergency room to make sure they didn't break anything when they fell. I've brought senior citizens to the hospital who have no ability to interact with me due to dementia. In each instance, the ride is a bleak journey. There is nothing I can do for these people, and sometimes there is nothing the hospital will be able to do for them either. I will always remember one woman sobbing, wishing it could all "just be over" so that the pain from her cancer ridden body could finally stop. There was nothing I could do for her. There's nothing I can do for almost any of them.

Except there is something I can do, and it is what keeps me coming back shift after shift. I can treat them with dignity and respect. I can listen to them. I can make them smile - maybe even laugh. I can acknowledge that they are a person, and not just a patient. When I do that, something special happens. The tears stop. The fear goes out of their eyes. They relax. And maybe in those moments in the ambulance, stuck in limbo between the quiet of their home and the chaos of the hospital, I can help heal a tiny part of their soul, shoring it up a bit for the trials ahead.

That is why I volunteer. The day I stop caring about the people we transport is the day I will quit.