# Help out a real hero



## Viperkeeper (Aug 23, 2007)

Quoted from my friend Chris Harper, President SHHS

*I just got this email from Mark O'Shea. Let's see what kind of unity we can muster. Put this on all herp lists, MySpace, etc. It's herpers against the world!!!!!!!! *

*Hi Chris *
*Hope you are well and wishing you a successful 2008. *
*I know a different kind of voting is in the air in the US but this is real important *
*My friend David Williams, with whom I work on PNG elapids, is in with a chance of winning a holiday for himself and his wife for his humanitarian work to save snakebite victims, often at great personal risk - he received a near fatal taipan bite in December. *
*I would appreciate if you could just take a look at the website below and possibly give your support to David by voting for him. *
*He was leading in this competition but has been overtaken by a Pakistani ophthalmologist who registered over 1500 votes in a blink of an eye. Now in second place, but well ahead of third, it looks like a two horse race. *
*He deserves this prize for his important ground breaking, life-saving, and at times life-threatening research. *
*If you think this worthy please pass it on to others who you think may also wish to support David. *
*Perhaps you could ask venomousreptiles.org visitors to vote for David. *
*Closing date in 31st January and it is slipping away from him. *
*Best wishes *
*Mark *
*David Williams, who runs the PNG Snakebite Project in Port Moresby is trying to win a competition being *
*run by the Holiday Inn Hotel Chain, as a means of getting some PR for the project, and perhaps winning he *
*and his wife Rona the honeymoon they haven’t been able to afford since getting married 2 years ago. *

*Dave’s project suffers badly from under-funding, so he is keen to find any way he can to raise the profile of *
*snake bite injury in Papua New Guinea. If you don’t mind spending a few minutes casting some votes online *
*please follow the instructions below: *

*1 Go to this web site.. **http://www.holidayinneverydayheroes.com/readmore.aspx?id=57&page=1*

*2 At the top right, click on "Register"....using your email address (Each e-mail address can only vote once) *

*3 Pick a password so you can get back in to vote after your email is validated...use anything! *
*(An email would be sent to your inbox) *
*4 Click on the "Complete the registration” button in the email and get taken back to the website *
*5 Click the view all stories....Go to "David Williams..."LIFE S-S-SAVER"... Click on "read more & vote" *
*6...Click on 5 medals equals 5 POINTS..(Make a comment if you wish) *
*7 Click "submit" .. and voila you’re done!!! *
*Please circulate this to your friends and ask them to vote as well. *

I made a promo-video on my YouTube site too.
David William Promo


----------



## leptophis (May 24, 2007)

have voted for him, it would be nice if you commented on the other thread


----------



## Viperkeeper (Aug 23, 2007)

Please elaborate


----------



## leptophis (May 24, 2007)

i would be interested on your comments to the thread on the handling of the green mamba, especially as you have taken off the video from view


----------



## Viperkeeper (Aug 23, 2007)

leptophis said:


> i would be interested on your comments to the thread on the handling of the green mamba, especially as you have taken off the video from view


Not on this thread. Please don't create distraction from this important thread.


----------



## brian (Oct 22, 2005)

Av just voted No 1963 it dont cost owt so do it :whistling2:


----------



## tigersnake (Sep 30, 2007)

Hi all,
Just went online and voted. As part of his work in Papua New Guinea, David Williams published a guide to treatment for health workers and doctors called " Venomous Bites and Stings in Papua New Guinea".
I would highly recommend it to anybody interested in venoms and envenoming.
All the best,
Brian.


----------



## Viperkeeper (Aug 23, 2007)

David Posted this on SHHS:

Mark emailed me to let me know he had posted a request for voting help here, and I wanted to just drop by and thank all of you (especially Chris and Al) for this tremendous gesture. 

The work we are doing in PNG really is very important, because rather than just conducting research, we are actually effecting real change in the outcomes of snake bites. Three years ago 25.9% of children and 14.5% of adults admitted to the only major tertiary hospital here were dying after snake bite. With specific training for doctors and health workers, first aid training for local people, public awareness programs and our 24/7 advisory service in the Emergency Dept, those figures are now both below 1%. With help from Mark and WW we have established a live collection of venomous snakes and are about to begin development of a new antivenom product for treating Papuan taipan bites - one that we expect will cost 10% of the price of the current CSL antivenom, and be equally effective as well as safe to use. 

There is still a long way to go with this work, but I believe that our multi-disciplinary approach is the right way to bring about sustainable change. 

All of the work we do costs however, and the Australian Venom Research Unit has never had any specific funding for the work. And as Mark mentioned the costs are not all fiscal. Working with snakes like taipans in this environment has its challenges as I found out just over a month or so ago. 

The main reason for entering the Holiday Inn competition was to try and win so that the resultant publicity, especially within the IHG Chain of Hotels, might help us to attract sponsors, and lift the general awareness of snake bite (which is one of the world's genuinely forgotten tropical diseases) ahead of an International Conference I am organising to be held in Melbourne, Australia in November this year. The holiday would also be nice, but as I haven't had a real holiday for over three years anyway, it is not the important issue. 

The inaugural Conference "Global Issues in Clinical Toxinology" will be used to launch a Global Snake Bite Initiative that will seek funding from organisations such as the WHO, UNDP, World Bank and Clinton Global Initiative to tackle snake bite problems all around the world. We are launching the Call for Abstracts at the beginning of February, and the Registrations website will open mid-February. 

If I can succeed in winning the Holiday Inn competition and become the promotional face of the hotel chain across the Asia-Pacific Region, I will be able to use that publicity to push the cause of the global Conference. 

And if I don't win? Well as I said to Mark tonight I am absolutely floored by the support from all of you folks, and I reckon that really makes me the winner already. 

Cheers 


David


----------



## brian (Oct 22, 2005)

Have you voted yet if not why not :bash: come on no crap excuse...


----------



## toxinologist (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi Folks, 

I want to thank everyone once again for all their support in this contest. It is now on the final straight and will be over at 11:59 pm Singapore time on 31 January - check to see how this translates to your own local time (the UK is 8 hrs behind Singapore for example, so the UK cutoff will be 3.59pm) if you are going to post last minute votes... 

A number of people have been monitoring the voting for the last couple of weeks, and there appears to be a very clear pattern emerging that involves the other main competitor pulling in very large numbers of votes, very quickly, at extremely unusual times. 

Last night for example he posted 530 votes between midnight & 3:00 am (Islamabad local time) and another 690 votes between 3:00-5:35 am. Interestingly the first Muslim morning prayer session (Fajr) started in Pakistan at 5:40 am today... 

On the 28th January he posted 395 votes between midnight and 01:20 am, followed by another block of 295 votes between 5:00-6:30 pm that same day... in between he got only 10 votes - during the middle of the Pakistani working day. 

It seems highly unlikely that these sudden bursts of voting, mostly very late at night could be the result of hundreds of random people accessing the site and deciding to vote for the same guy. What is much more likely is that he and few family/friends are mass-registering email addresses and then submitting large blocks of votes at time when they think nobody is likely to notice a sudden rise... 

This has tempted some people to suggest that my supporters should do the same, but I would like to ask that nobody do this, because it may result in votes being disqualified later by the promoters.

A lot of herpers from all over the world have cast votes for me in the past month or so, and it would be a terrible shame all that went to waste, if over-enthusiasm or frustration at what appears to be blatant cheating by someone else, caused someone to do the same, and thereby jeopardized my own entry.

All we can do is play fair, and trust the promoters to check the validity of the votes after the contest finishes tomorrow night. They won't be declaring a winner until the 14th February, so I am sure they intend to sure those two weeks to compare email addresses to IP or MAC addresses on the originating emails, and if that is the case I am confident that any cheating will be uncovered. 

Even if it seems unfair, please don't be tempted to copy the competition's tactic. I am sure that there is some leeway to allow for family members who share a computer using the same machine to vote, but I am pretty sure than the Holiday Inn will end up disqualifying votes if they find 10 or more email addresses all originating from the same IP or MAC address. 

Cheers, and once again, thanks for all your support. 


David Williams
http://www.kingsnake.com/aho/aho.html
AVRU - Research Area


20
20.0


----------



## SiUK (Feb 15, 2007)

toxinologist said:


> Hi Folks,
> 
> I want to thank everyone once again for all their support in this contest. It is now on the final straight and will be over at 11:59 pm Singapore time on 31 January - check to see how this translates to your own local time (the UK is 8 hrs behind Singapore for example, so the UK cutoff will be 3.59pm) if you are going to post last minute votes...
> 
> ...


Good luck and I hope you win.


----------



## pythondave82 (Nov 14, 2007)

tigersnake said:


> Hi all,
> Just went online and voted. As part of his work in Papua New Guinea, David Williams published a guide to treatment for health workers and doctors called " Venomous Bites and Stings in Papua New Guinea".
> I would highly recommend it to anybody interested in venoms and envenoming.
> All the best,
> Brian.


 
i have this book its fantastic


----------



## Viperkeeper (Aug 23, 2007)

pythondave82 said:


> i have this book its fantastic


In addition, it's useful if you happen to keep venomous species from that part of the world and are bitten :eek4:. The doctors here always can use a good reference book.


Cheers!

Al


----------



## pythondave82 (Nov 14, 2007)

yes i agree, did you manage to have a look at that e mail i sent al


----------



## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

trying to vote but waiting on an email to confirm registration.... its taking ages.


----------



## Angi (Nov 12, 2005)

Ive voted, I hope he wins.


----------



## SiUK (Feb 15, 2007)

DeanThorpe said:


> trying to vote but waiting on an email to confirm registration.... its taking ages.


didnt the comp close at 3pm our time?


----------



## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

i dont know....
lol
i didnt see anything that said about it, i just followed that link, was a bit of inf on the guy...and a 5 star rating thingy......

i thought it was running till tomoz?


----------



## Schip (Mar 31, 2007)

I've just voted so its still open and he's top of the table - just wonder how long that will last if the other guys got mass votes going on during the night be interesting to see tomorrow morning our time.


----------



## RMG (Jun 10, 2007)

it closes at 3:59pm tomorrow you sponge


----------



## toxinologist (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi Everyone,

My main opponent in the Holiday Inn competition appears to have begun his last ditch run to overtake me, and has piled on 485 votes in the last two hours - at which rate he will overtake me in about 3-4 hours time.

I do not want people to cheat by using multiple fake email addresses or to do anything else that might be considered cheating or unfair, but I would encourage people who are yet to vote, or who have friends yet to vote, to make a start on it NOW!

Voting ends in about 9 hrs 30 minutes from now.

Go to Holiday Inn Everyday Hero - Stories - Read More and register your email address, then wait for a confirmation email to arrive from the site. When that comes in, click the link and go back to my entry to cast your votes (you can award up to 5 medals)...

There may be a gap of 1200 votes now but that will be gone in 3-4 hours if we don't start clawing back the gap.

No matter how it turns out, thank you all for your help I appreciate it very much indeed.

Cheers


David


----------



## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

Am awaiting my confirmation email David and I shall then happily vote for you 

Best of luck with it - I will also pass the details of the vote through my email contact list and see if I can drum up some more support for you


----------



## trese (Oct 2, 2006)

have voted for u


----------



## Genseric (Oct 7, 2007)

Still awaiting the confirmation email ffs..


----------



## trese (Oct 2, 2006)

check ur junk mail thats where it was in mine


----------



## weelad (Jul 25, 2006)

iv voted good luck from the looks of it you dont need much luck


----------



## Munkys Mummy (Feb 23, 2007)

I have voted too, good luck David : victory:


----------



## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

must be closing right about now right?
edit... ok 9 hrs 30 from post at top of page should mean we have another 45 minutes.

good luck with the votes.


----------



## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

Did he win then????


----------



## weelad (Jul 25, 2006)

it says come back on the 14th to find out the winner


----------



## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

oh...wow that is odd...takes them a while to count the votes maybe? seems that it was easy enough to find out who was winning while it was going on??


----------



## weelad (Jul 25, 2006)

maybe they check for people voting using the same ip more then once and remove their extra votes


----------



## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

well that would be a little gay seen as how both me and my girlfriend trese voted and we share an ip adress lol

I reckon its just erm..politics or soemthing, i reckon the winner has already been notified, lets wait and see.


----------



## pankthesnake (Sep 29, 2007)

weelad said:


> maybe they check for people voting using the same ip more then once and remove their extra votes


looks like that's what has happened. check out the international herpetological society's home page for more details.

Welcome to the International Herpetological Society

scroll down the page to find it.


----------



## DeanThorpe (Apr 9, 2006)

oh.. well i doubt any of us here would have done that.
Also, if they do a check for cheating no doubt they will do so for votes to all other contestants in the competition so lets hope he wins.


----------

