Hi All, A couple of posts have asked about accessing the archives. Janet does have all the information necessary on her web site. There are several ways to do this (LISTSERV Commands being the newest) but my favorite is still Simon Cole's web site. This is a repost of a post I sent Billie Cook on mining the archives. (I cut 'n pasted it from janet's website where she has kindly posted it for all who wish to "mine" the archives) ================================================================ Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 From: Murray Charters Subj: gold-mining in the archives ---------------------------------------------------------------- Billie, mining the archives is just like surfin' the Internet 'cept you're surfin' in one spot. That spot is Simon Coles' site: http://james.parkinsons.org.uk/search.htm That spot is the "starting point". That is the site you should "Bookmark" to return to whenever you want to resume "mining". Click on that spot and you will arrive at the Parkinsn archive (bold heading) As you read this page and scroll down you will come to a bold heading "Links". Click on Here's a link directly to the search screen. You will arrive at the Full Text Search Screen page. Place your cursor in the box, click, then type in whatever text you wish to "mine" (search for) and then click on the Search Button. For example I typed in cook The search engine found 454 documents with the word cook in them. Some of the documents are your posts. Some are replys to your posts. Some are Laurie Cooks posts. And some are jus' 'bout cookin'....... I typed in Billie AND cook .......... 39 documents. I typed in Laurie AND cook ...........13 documents. You scroll down these lists of documents and click on any title you wish to see the entire post. Read it. Then click the Back button to go back to the list of documents. Select another title to click on or Back up once more to the Full Text Search page and modify your search. If your search turns up too many posts then try to narrow your search a little. For example I typed in Amantadine ........ 895 documents. I narrowed the search by adding the word tremor. Amantadine AND tremor ...... 367 documents. Amantadine AND tremor AND side effects ....113 documents. Sometimes your search will bring up posts that don't seem relevant to what you are really looking for. For example type in weight AND loss.....289 documents found. They might have used the words weight and loss quite apart and in a different context from "weight loss". They might have a sentence saying something about the loss of dopamine in the brain and another sentence saying the Sinemet contains Carbidopa and Levadopa in a certain weight ratio. I typed in weight AND loss AND sudden ....... 27 documents. Still not specific enough. I typed in sudden weight loss .......... only one document contained the phrase "sudden weight loss" and that document is Kathrynne Holden's response to your post. If you know the subject you are looking for you will probably find it right away. Typical theme right now is "Sorting out the agonists". Type that in and ...........75 documents all on sorting out the agonists. A couple of days ago I wanted to look in the archives for information on Drugs that are contraindicated for Parkinsons. I typed in one word ... contraindicated. 200+ posts .... . found what I was lookin' for almost right away. I'm starting to run off at the mouth like a Soup Sandwich. I can tell ya how to mine but ya really gotta grab the shovel and practice diggin' 'till you suddenly discover a few gems. Gold fever will set in and you'll be an ardent miner. Janet Paterson taught me to mine the archives 'n I've been happily showing others ever since. All the best ................. Murray =================================================== [log in to unmask]