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Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Q+A with Suzanne Johnson + Royal Street Giveaway
Keep reading for a chance to win a signed copy of Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson.
EJ: When did you begin writing?
Suzanne: I've been writing for years as a journalist, but only began writing fiction in 2008, at first as a way to exorcise my demons of being in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina. Then I got the writing "bug"!
EJ: What brought you to the paranormal genre?
Suzanne: I grew up reading Stephen King and Anne Rice, so it was a natural. I've always thought paranormal was the perfect blend of the speculative and the emotional aspects of fiction.
EJ: If you could be any paranormal or have any one supernatural talent, what would it be? Why?
Suzanne: Hmm...teleporting would be awesome. No planes, no long drives, no airport security. All good!
EJ: Tell us why readers will enjoy your new release.
Suzanne: I hope they enjoy it on a couple of levels. It's a story of wizards and voodoo and undead pirates set in New Orleans, which is one of the world's most interesting cities. It has a lot of humor in it, but the humor's tempered with sadness because it's also about Hurricane Katrina and what life was like in the city afterward. So I hope readers will have fun with it, but also will have an emotional connection to it.
EJ: If your book(s) were being made into a movie, who would you cast for the leading roles? Why?
Suzanne: My lead character, DJ, is a wizard, and I've always envisioned her as looking sort of like actress Emilie de Ravin. I thought artist Cliff Nielsen, who did the book cover, captured DJ really well. She's pretty but she doesn't look artificial. Very real and down to earth. No leather or bustiers for this girl. As for her partner, Alex...I'm still doing auditions for that role! For the pirate Jean Lafitte, I think Giles Marini would do very, very nicely. Mais oui!
Royal Street (Sentinels of New Orleans #1) by Suzanne Johnson.
As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco's job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.
Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans' fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.
While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.
To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards' Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ's new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.
Thank you Suzanne for joining us here today at From the Shadows!
To learn more about Suzanne Johnson and her books, please visit her website.
**Royal Street Book Giveaway**
We are giving away two *signed* copies of Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson.
To enter, leave a comment on this post (please include your email address so we may contact you if you win). This giveaway is INTERNATIONAL. Giveaway ends April 12, 2012 midnight EST.
66 comments:
I like the setting of N.O. and the idea of the story happening around Hurricane Katrina. It must have been devastating and life-changing to have experienced that first-hand. It sounds like this will be a very interesting book. Thanks!ReplyDelete
Wow! New book for me. Thanks for the Q&A and blurb, excuse me while I dash off to add to my wishlist.ReplyDelete
alterlisa AT yahoo DOT com
Never heard of the book before but it seems so good!! Thanks a lot for featuring it!ReplyDelete
- Christina Kit.March 28, 2012 at 5:46 AM
Thanks so much for the giveaway! I love Suzanne's blog and I love the sound of the character and plot! The setting is awesome!!ReplyDelete
ccfioriole at gmail dot com
I love the cover!!It's so damn good!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 28, 2012 at 8:36 AM
Great interview. I was living in FL at the time of Hurricane Katrina and remember what it's like fearing the next hurricane. Sounds like a great book! :)ReplyDelete
I'm a chef, so mixing up potions and things would probably come naturally. I love anything to do with New Orleans also. I'd love to win a copy of this book.ReplyDelete
Sounds amazing! I can't wait to start reading it!ReplyDelete
Thank you for the awesome chance to win! edysicecreamlover18@gmailDOTcomReplyDelete
Thank u for an awesome giveaway!ReplyDelete
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/thenorms/status/184999853762412544
I've been waiting for Royal Street to come out.ReplyDelete
sgiden at verizon.net
You had me at "Wizards, Voodoo and Undead Pirates"- sounds awesome!ReplyDelete
I have had Royal Street pre-ordered since July 19th. Soon now. Although my source ships on release day - will take two or three more days to get to me. Too bad they don't ship two days early. Hear that Amazon??? Have read the first two chapters at Tor.com. firstname.lastname@example.com
Royal Street sounds really good. I have been flooded out during Hurricane Isabel in NC. While not the destructive level of Katrina, we had 18" of water in the house we rented. I understand about exorcising your demons and I am so glad you found a way to channel that into writing. I look forward to reading Royal Street.ReplyDelete
Great Q&A. I loved learning more about the author and here novel. Thank you for this awesome giveaway.ReplyDelete
- Beckie @ Bittersweet Enchantment
That is one great book summary. I was really drawn in by the cover. I would have definitely picked it up to read the back cover at the bookstore. But the summary, just great! Another addition to my wish list. Thanks for the giveaway. jepebATverizonDOTnetReplyDelete
Yes please - thank you for the giveaway!ReplyDelete
thank you so mich for the interview it was really interesting! and thank you as well for the giveaway!ReplyDelete
Thanks for the giveaway and the interview :)ReplyDelete
I really like that there are elements of emotion and humor in the story. When you apply that to undead pirates and voodoos it's very intriguing.ReplyDelete
I haven't read much of Suzanne Johnson's books, this ones sounds really good and I really like the cover. Thanks for the chance to win a copy :)ReplyDelete
Great giveaway - thanks! katy(dot)sozaeva (at) gmail(dot)comReplyDelete
Royal Street is among my most awaited new UF titles for this year. Thank you so much for the giveaway :)ReplyDelete
I'm so excited to read this novel!! I'm lucky enough to be going on Suzanne's tour at AADCON in New Orleans in August where she'll be taking a group of us around to show us the areas she talks about in the novel. So i'll be reading the novel regardless. Thanks for the giveaway!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 28, 2012 at 2:56 PM
I can't wait for this book! :) Great interview, only problem, now I want the book even more...like now....or riiiggghht now. :)ReplyDelete
I can't log into blogger (at evil day job) but my name is Marie and my addy is marieandreas (at) rocketmail.com
thanks for the change and the great blurb and interview!
I was so lucky to read a digital ARC of Royal Street and it's an amazing book. I will certainly buy it in print soon.ReplyDelete
I also like pretty but real heroines... looking forward to reading Royal Street :)ReplyDelete
Cherry Mischievous
cherrymischif-blackward [at] yahoo [dot] com
I would kill for a signed copy of Royal Street it seems amazing. :)ReplyDelete
Thanks for the giveaway!
veronicam46 at hotmail dot com
I want to read this book for so long so thanks you a lot for this international opportunity to win itReplyDelete
all the best
Thanks for the interview and the giveaway!ReplyDelete
I love the sound of this book.I can't wait to read it.The cover is pretty awesome too :)ReplyDelete
Great interview and thanks for the chance to win a copy.
I've seen this all over the place! it looks great! enter me please! haleymathiot at yahoo.comReplyDelete
Oh this one is on my wishlist. I love the setting in NOLA and I can't wait to read it!ReplyDelete
books (dot) things (at) yahoo (dot) com
Thanks for all the great comments and good wishes, guys--and good luck to everyone entered in the giveaway!ReplyDeleteReplies
Thank you for sharing with our readers and for stopping by!Delete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
Sorry about that...Love the cover Suzanne. The book looks like a great read.ReplyDelete
Good luck!
Hi Suzanne! I've been a follower of your blog for some time & it's so exciting that Royal Street will be released soon. Congrats!ReplyDelete
Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy (pick me pls!!!)
Please enter me in contest. This book sounds really good. email@example.com
Great interview! I totally love the cover! Thanks for the giveaway!ReplyDelete
I'd love to play please!ReplyDelete
Great interview. I have really been looking forward to this release!!ReplyDelete
bacchus76 at myself dot com
I've been looking forward to this release. Finally, a contest! Yay!ReplyDelete
Yay! This seems like such an amazing book :D And I adore Suzanne. <3 I would love to win this book :)ReplyDelete
Love, Carina ~ firstname.lastname@example.com
I enjoyed the interview. The book sounds very good. Thanks for the giveaway.ReplyDelete
Thanks for the interview ladies, I enjoyed reading it, and learning something more about Suzanne. Looking forward to reading the book, but would love to win a signed copy of it.ReplyDelete
auriansbooks at gmail dot com
Nice interview! Good luck with the new book. =DReplyDelete
hi suzanne!! can't wait for the book's release day. good luck :)ReplyDelete
Thanks again, guys--good luck with the contest!ReplyDelete
I am really looking forward to reading Royal Street. So far I've loved every Paranormal book I've read that has been set in New Orleans so I'm hoping to add this one to my collection. Congrats Suzanne on Royal Streets upcoming release!ReplyDelete
I too like NOLA as a book setting sounds like a good read email@example.com
Hi! This book sounds really interesting, I didn't read a lot about wizards but I'm pretty sure it's really good, I would love to read it! Drusilla really makes me think about Buffy and the Vampire Slayer!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 2, 2012 at 12:40 PM
Thank you for the awesome contest!!!ReplyDelete
I love the cover.....Good luck to you all!!!
Kisses from Athens,Greece!!!
Nikoleta Katsiouli!!Delete
Very beauitiful interview! The story of Royal Street is amazing, wizards-voodoo-undead pirates-New Orleans, it has everything. The cover is so beaytiful too,ReplyDelete
Thank you for the giveaway!
artgiote at gmail dot com
Good interview. Sounds like a great book and wonderful start to a new series. Thanks for the contest/giveaway!ReplyDelete
Lea Ellen {night owl in IL}
Thank you E.J. & Suzanne for the excellent interview.ReplyDelete
Royal Street is on my TBR list.
All the best,
RKCharron @gmail.com
I confess I was being shallow because the first thing that grabbed my eye about ROYAL STREET was its gorgeous and ethereal cover. I couldn't tear my eyes away, and that grabbed my attention. I read the blurb and I was hooked. So it went straight to my wishlist. And now the release day is here, so CONGRATULATIONS Suzanne, hope you celebrated in style! ;-)ReplyDelete
Thank you for the fun interview, I enjoyed getting to know a bit more about Suzanne and the novel, and thank you for the generous giveaway and especially for making it international!!
Thank you!
stella.exlibris (at) gmail (dot) com
Looks like a good read, I am fascinated with New Orleans as a locale. stormvikki aolReplyDelete
I've been a follower of Suzanne's blog for some time now. I'd love to win her book!ReplyDelete
aikychien at yahoo dot com
Can't wait to read this one. Been on my TBR list forever!ReplyDelete
I can't wait to get my hands on this book!ReplyDelete
ostipow at gmail dot com
- AnonymousApril 12, 2012 at 4:56 PM
Intrigued by the location and by the premise of the book. Would love to win a signed copy. Thanks for the giveawayReplyDelete
catalogermom (at)gmail (dot)com
Loved the layout of this site. Kept me on the edge of my seat. I shall return!ReplyDelete


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Some people might be hesitant to admit that they believe in ghosts. But if you've ever heard a chilling bump in the night when you're home alone, ghosts might not be such a leap of faith. In fact, a little more than a third of American adults believe in ghosts [source: Dolliver]. Perhaps more surprising is that 23 percent of adults polled said they'd personally seen or felt a ghost [source: Dolliver].
Every October, thousands of people pay to walk through commercial haunted houses, in which costumed actors stand in for otherworldly spirits. Customers can get the adrenaline rush of scary "monsters" popping out at them for a few minutes without any risk of getting their souls stolen or becoming possessed. But real-life haunted houses are a different story. Sure, there are plenty of paranormal enthusiasts who intentionally stay in purportedly haunted hotels and hunt for ghosts. But what if ghosts found their way into your home? If the poll results we just mentioned are accurate, the sensation of an uninvited guest isn't such an uncommon occurrence.
According to the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP), there are some things to pay attention to if you suspect your house is haunted. Seeing apparitions, hearing weird sounds, smelling odd odors, feeling "cold spots" within a room, noticing objects that have been moved or observing your pet acting agitated are all symptoms that people report in what the association calls a "typical haunting" [source: ASSAP].
The 10 places on the following pages have certainly filled that bill, boasting enough symptoms of otherwordly presence to become the world's most notorious real-life haunted houses.

subset: commoncrawl


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Galy Lee from Huawei talked about their wanting a decoupled storage engine.
They have several needs for special storage engine properties. They want MySQL-style pluggable storage engines. They tried to do this themselves in 9.1, but they couldn't do it themselves, because the interface wasn't clean and they couldn't get it to work.
Tom Lane: the first thing to talk about is why don't FDWs solve it? Who's going to store the data, asks Peter. We're abdicating responsibiliy, says Tom. If we go that route, we're pulling a MySQL. You could do it for some file-based mechanism where the FDW had complete control. And what about the FDW overhead? And what about transactional semantics?
Imagine a database with just FDWs and no native storage? How would it work? Peter's use case is the cloud, with horrible storage. Would PostgreSQL abdicate and just become a query broker?
Josh brought up how to we create and manage FDW tables? And what about maintenance? And security or changes to files?
How do you deal with indexes? FDWs need their own indexes. But what about GiST and GIN then?
What are we trying to replace with pluggable storage engines? We have a pluggable interface for the index, but not heap. Frost brings up lack of parallelism in FDW?
Porting the DML is hard. Like we couldn't make triggers work.
Citus is using FDWs and storing their stuff in Hadoop. They had to trim a lot of SQL though, and not support it. Likes the idea of having FDW vs. Native Data Wrappers. You need more guarantees for a NDW.
Use cases:
- Column store
- Telecom in-memory database with own MVCC mechanism and HA.
- Analytics database
- Streamining tables
- fractal index organized tables
- PostgreSQL on immutable storage
- in-memory database
Transactional semantics for Huawei database? Maybe FDW is better for them. They need special information for the planner. Need remote JOIN for FDWs.
For NDW, we need atomic commit. And index methods. And do we want each FDW to reinvent the wheel in that area? The spec is that the FDW is responsible for returning paths.
Jan gave case of compressed tables, storage engines should be lower level, like page-level. Also gave example of switching his storage to black hole for overloaded table.
Issuses with FDW as SE:
- transactions -- can't be solved without 2PC
- indexing -- can't use Postgres indexes
- performance
- backup -- would need hooks, flag for backup
- management -- would need hooks
- maintenance
- replication
- WAL/crash safety -- would require WAL API, replication API
- data types? seems easy to resolve
Questions for SE vs. FDW, set of binary choices, which can be any way:
- do your tuples look like tuples?
- do your transactions look like transactions?
- do your pages look like pages?
- does your indexes look like indexes?
Configuring planning/costs etc. on a per-FT basis is very painful. It would be better to have defaults by type. But maybe it is on the server basis. The wrapper is responsible for providing the costs.
Discussion of replacing COPY with FDWs.
Josh brough up fractal indexes case, with different licensing.
We should have a generic WAL API which allows an extension etc. to create WAL. The pages would need to look like pages, though. This limits you to specific types of storage.
We would also need a logical replication API too so that FDWs could support logical replication.
So, are FDWs suitable or not?
Could use background workers with files for in-memory database.
Much discussion ensued regarding FDW vs Native storage.
We need an API. FDW won't work for too many cases.


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NHBR covers the state
New Hampshire Business Review covers the entire state of New Hampshire — a state with a diversified, dynamic business and industrial climate.
The fastest-growing state in the Northeast, New Hampshire has a population of nearly 1.2 million people. It is home to 32,000 businesses, and its per capita income is the sixth- highest in the country. It is listed annually among the top five states in various quality of life surveys, ranging from livability and safety to health and child well-being.
The Granite State boasts one of the most concentrated high-tech employment populations in the U.S. With a highly educated, highly skilled labor force and nationally famous low tax burden, it has attracted a wide range of some of the nation's largest companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Teradyne, BAE Systems, Fidelity Investments and Liberty Mutual. Together they employ thousands of New Hampshire residents. The state also has a vigorous international trade sector (New Hampshire businesses export billions of dollars a year in manufactured goods and services), along with finance, health care and retailing, among many others. New Hampshire's world-famous lakes, mountains, ski resorts and sales tax-free shopping attract millions of tourists a year, from around the United States and the world.
For more information, please contact us: e-mail email@example.com phone (603) 624-1442 fax (603) 624-1310


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It is now an establish fact that students can do wonders in practical work if they are able to study their desired subject in university level. All over the world students are encouraged to choose any subject of their desire from extensive choices of subjects so as to get them emotionally engage in their studies. Unfortunately in our country this is not encouraged; which is the fundamental reason why the students are not able to perform 100% in their practical life.
Allowing students to study their desired subject can open the gate of fortunes for them and they can do wonders for sure. This is the very reason why Preston University has fabricated it policies in a manner that allows students to choose their subject from variety of choices. This has allowed students to freely engage in their choice and perform well not only during studies, rather in practical life as well. Receiving massive appreciation from students, Preston University is termed as diploma mill by its ill moral rivals as massive amount of students are joining the Preston family every year.
With the ever increasing number of students getting attach to Preston University every year, the prestigious diploma mill is carrying out formidable services in edifying the students and forming the foundation for the growth and progress of country in future.


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TechRadar Verdict
- +
Sexy design
- +
Sounds great
- +
Very affordable
- +
Light and portable
- +
Bright screen
- -
Awful touchpad buttons
- -
Average battery life
- -
Rattling keyboard
- -
No USB 3.0
- -
Integrated graphics
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you're buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Like its big brother, the HP Envy 6, the 14-inch HP Envy 4 is an affordable Ultrabook with good looks and sound, priced at £650 in the UK and $800 in the US.
However, we noticed a couple of niggles during usage that we haven't encountered on other recent Ultrabooks such as the Acer Aspire S3 or Dell XPS 13. The question with the HP Envy 4 is whether its excellent media credentials and great price are enough to ignore a couple of minor flaws.
HP's earlier Ultrabook effort, the HP Envy Spectre, was nudging at the limits of Intel's strict guidelines on Ultrabook dimensions with a 20mm chassis. But the HP Envy 4 is a much more portable option, weighing only 1.8kg (3.86lbs) and measuring a backpack-friendly 340 x 235 x 18mm (13.38 x 9.28 x 0.78 inches) - it's not a machine you'll have trouble carrying around all day.
The 214 minute battery life is a middling score and, to be honest, could have been better. To be fair to HP though, we ran the battery down with a high-performance stress test. If you keep your usage conservative you should be able to squeeze more than five hours of use from this Ultrabook.
The smaller size does mean a slight decrease in power, however, and the Intel Core i3 processor inside the HP Envy 4 won't touch the HP Envy 6's Core i5 muscle.
You can upgrade the processor inside the HP Envy 4 if you wish, but this is a matter of personal preference and bank balance - part of the appeal of the HP Envy 4 is value. And, even with the Core i3 processor, we found it coped remarkably well with all our software requirements.
Outwardly the HP Envy 4 has the all-black cool of the HP Envy series. The bright red Beats Audio logo is evident on the HP Envy 4's speaker grill and, like the HP Envy 6, it has the same brushed metallic finish and rubberised red coating on the underside and around the edge.
The Intel Core i3-2367M processor is clocked at 1.4GHz, which is hardly blinding - although we did find the 6GB DDR3 RAM added a bit of cavalry to the HP Envy 4's performance.
Even so, with the rollout of Ivy Bridge-toting devices gathering momentum, we're a little concerned how the HP Envy 4 will hold up against other laptops two years from now.
It scored a respectable 4,928 in our Cinebench 10 benchmarking tests and coped well with multitasking, but if you need serious grunt work from your Ultrabook, there are better choices out there.
Don't expect to be loading up detailed graphics editors or rocking 2012's biggest gaming titles, either. The HP Envy 4 is only equipped with the Intel HD Graphics 3000 integrated GPU. It'll keep up with movies and web streaming, but anything much more complicated is likely to strain it too far.
You won't find any kind of optical drive on the HP Envy 4, but it does include the requisite ports and connections. If you want to use a second monitor, then you'll need to use HDMI (there's no VGA), and the three USB ports can be used for adding extra peripherals.
Somewhat disappointingly, these are all USB 2.0 ports, rather than USB 3.0, which can read/write at 10 times the speed and is, like Ivy Bridge, becoming a standard feature.
This omission is again a way of keeping down the cost of the HP Envy 4 and making it affordable, a lesson no doubt learned from the £1,100/$1,400 HP Envy Spectre. Rounding out the connectivity is an Ethernet port and SD card slot for expanding on the 500GB of storage.
As we've already mentioned, media is where the HP Envy 4 really shines. The 14-inch screen, although only boasting a standard 1,366 x 768 pixel resolution, is bright and detailed.
The bezel around the screen measures 1.4cm and isn't thick enough to prove distracting when watching a movie or looking at pictures. The bezel also houses the HD webcam and provides a bit of extra space for the now-familiar Beats Audio branding.
Unsurprisingly with a Beats Audio-licensed product, the sound is above average. You can use the Beats Audio control panel to adjust bass, treble and focus and get the sound that you want from the HP Envy 4's grill speaker, located above the keyboard. What would have been nice is if the circular Beats logo on the grill acted as a launch hotkey for the control panel. Unfortunately, though, it's just there to look pretty.
Volume and depth are surprisingly good, but the HP Envy 4 lacks the added subwoofer on the underside of the chassis that HP has built into the more expensive HP Envy models. Even so, movies and albums both sounded excellent on this Ultrabook, and we'd recommend it to audiophiles with big music collections or Spotify subscriptions.
Current page: IntroductionNext Page Performance


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For example, California has become a magnet for dodgy class-action consumer lawsuits because state judges have interpreted its laws protecting consumers from false advertising and other harm to "require no proof of deception, reliance, or injury, while applying lax class certification standards."
Meanwhile, the worst abuses of civil law continue there unabated, including handicapped-access suits that are often based on violations that aren't real. "California's small businesses," ATRA reports, "have been under siege from trolling disability-access lawyers and their professional plaintiffs who look for technical rules violations, then demand thousands of dollars to settle. … Lawyers defending small business owners have recognized the growing trend and say that plaintiffs usually ask for anywhere between $4,000 and $10,000 because they know it would cost more for a business to fight the suit than to settle." The lack of counterbalances, such as a "loser pays" law or career-damaging sanctions against attorneys who participate in such abuses, have also helped put California in the top five for slip-and-fall claims that are probably fraudulent, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.


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Story highlights
Ambergris Caye wins TripAdvisor best island award for second year running
Scotland's Harris and Lewis is new entrant at no. 5
Chincoteague, with its wild ponies, and San Juan island among U.S. top 10
Ambergris Caye, in Belize, has held on to the title of world's No. 1 island for the second year running in awards by the travel review site TripAdvisor.
The island is acclaimed not only for its beaches but for its coral reef – the second largest in the world – limestone caves, and tracts of tropical rainforest dotted with waterfalls.
Islands in Polynesia (Bora Bora), Greece (Naxos) and Thailand (Ko Tao), as well as Marco Island, off Florida, were other winners in the top 10 global list.
Perhaps less obvious postcard-rack material, the Scottish island of Harris and Lewis ranked no. 5 worldwide and top among European islands.
Alastair Lockett, from the Hebridean island's tourist board, was not at all surprised by the accolade.
With its "pure white sand" and "turquoise water," Harris and Lewis – which ranked nowhere in last year's top 10 – actually "looks Caribbean," he told CNN.
Its "accessible remoteness" and "sense of space" were what drew people to the island, he said.
Best U.S. islands
Among the 10 best islands in the United States – aside from Marco Island, at No. 1 – were Chincoteague, in Virginia, known for its wild ponies, and San Juan island, in Washington, acclaimed for its orca-sighting.
Mauii, a beautiful possible shoe-in from Hawaii, was another U.S. winner, as was the "golfer's paradise" of Hilton Head, South Carolina.
Trailing in the wake of Lewis and Harris among 10 best European islands was Gozo, Malta; Santorini and Cephalonia, among a clutch of Greek islands; and Mull and Mainland, the largest of the Orkney Islands – making up a Scottish trio.
TripAdvisor's Travelers' Choice Island awards are based on the most highly rated hotels, restaurants and attractions listed for each island on the website during a 12-month period.
MORE: 7 secret Caribbean islands
The top 10 islands in the world were:
1. Ambergris Caye, Belize
2. Providenciales, Turks and Caicos
3. Bora Bora, French Polynesia
4. Marco Island, Florida
5. Lewis and Harris, Scotland, United Kingdom
6. Naxos, Greece
7. Aitutaki, Cook Islands
8. Nosy Be, Madagascar
9. Easter Island, Chile
10. Ko Tao, Thailand
Top 10 islands in the U.S.
1. Marco Island, Florida
2. Chincoteague Island, Virginia
3. Anna Maria Island, Florida
4. San Juan Island, Washington
5. Maui, Hawaii
6. Kauai, Hawaii
7. Island of Hawaii, Hawaii
8. Nantucket, Massachusetts
9. Hilton Head, South Carolina
10. Key West, Florida
Top 10 Islands in Europe
1. Lewis and Harris, Scotland, United Kingdom
2. Naxos, Greece
3. Gozo, Malta
4. Mainland, Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom
5. Milos, Greece
6. Cephalonia, Greece
7. Santorini, Greece
8. Capri, Italy
9. Isle of Mull, Scotland, United Kingdom
10. Paros, Greece


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Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Slipping towards fall
Not many bikes on my vacation- saw a cool pedal powered pontoon thingee, but didn't have my camera in the canoe to document it- sorry! Have also been hosting houseguests, and preparing for more houseguests (including semi- babyproofing things for my 2 YO nephew) so haven't had much to post.
It's funny how sometimes after a couple of days off my legs are full of stored energy, and sometimes I feel completely out of shape. Today unfortunately was one of the latter, and coupled with the headwind and cool mist trying to become rain, it wasn't much fun riding. And unfortunately my commute was one of the better parts of the day.
On a happier note, my generator hub is in, and I hope to go pick it up and start thinking about a new wheel for Minerva.
Steve A, since you're being nosy about money :) the hub was $85, and I'm going to get a consult about re-using the rim, and I expect spokes to be about $30...... I'm going to build a truing stand out of Robert's old fork, and need to buy a spoke wrench....
Before I get too far on that, I need to give Gilbert a bit of love and a tune up before the winter really sets in!
I'm going to edit it this to add:
1) Steve, you know I'm only teasing, and it's a SA hub- only combo generator/ hub on the market AFAIK.
2) The mist had made up its mind by the time I left work, and was really coming down. I discovered that a normal plastic grocery bag makes a pretty darn good pannier cover for my leather pannier bag.
3) I saw another person doing "pass me once" coming down Cambridge street. It was coming down pretty good, and we were both taking the whole right lane (of 2 going downhill). He was waiting patiently 2 cars ahead of me in a queue at a light, and a girl in a red mini was honking at him and yelling at him. There was of course no one in the left lane. As soon as the light changed, she zoomed around him, and immediately had to stop at the next light. The other car between us turned right, and I pulled up next to him and we discussed whether the Massholes come out more in the rain, or if it just drives more of the normal people inside, and therefore skews the sample.
4) While my jeans got pretty soaked the rest of me was fine, and walking around the grocery store, I was not the wettest person there.
10 comments:
Nosey is an uglier word than "benchmarking." I got a nice Avenir set of spoke wrenches for $10 off Amazon. They also had a Park wrench at about the same price for one.ReplyDelete
Shimano hub?
Yes, autumn sure is sneaking up on us. This feels like such a long summer, I'm not complaining! Funny about whether the rain skews the sample of a-holes. I need a fun term to call Chicagoans, but can't think of any cute rhyme like "masshole." :)ReplyDelete
The rain has been pretty bad for the past few days; we were in NH and VT yesterday and it was the same there - depressing. I have not been cycling much - but we did get some bike projects done at home. Good luck with yours!ReplyDelete
- david...no the other one!August 25, 2010 at 12:03 AM
I love the fall mist, that gathers on your clothes and cools you off and makes people curious about how you got that "pattern". Almost as much as I like walking in the pouring rain. Ah, fall.ReplyDelete
There is something truly unique about the driving Masshole. We are part-time MA residents so I feel ok saying that :)ReplyDelete
A brake generator hub. Now that's a combo I hadn't considered. It's amazing what you see on the Internet...ReplyDelete
Oh, "Fall" as in "Autumn." I first thought this was a story of an an accident. Glad you are safe, albeit wet.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 28, 2010 at 6:00 PM
I'm very interested in comments you might have about the Sturmey-Archer X-FDD Dynohub with drum brake, as I'm contemplating using one on an upcoming project. Information about them is a little thin. I had the opportunity to test-ride a new bike with a Shimano hub dynamo. The resistance was imperceptible when the light was off and barely perceptible when the light was on. I've read many places that the Shimano and Sturmey dynamos share components, and I'd love to know what you think about the resistance. BTW, I think the Shimano dynamo hub (model DH-2R30-E) is compatible a roller brake. The Shimano's not as pretty though, and wouldn't be as appropriate on your bike, IMO.ReplyDelete
I have a Shimano dynohub on Gilbert, running an Edeluxe on "senso" and I honestly cannot tell the difference between when the light is on and off.
It may be that the light's drag gets lost in the overall weight and the chaincase/ rear hub issues that I continue to fight, but I've been very pleased with it, esp. compared to the wheel driven generator I had before (B&M Dynotech).
I'd be interested in experience on reliability for the dynamo/drum brake (yours or other posters). It looks like a useful combination; so far I haven't seen enough reliable comments on the internet to make me want to rebuild my wheels but it is an attactive combination.ReplyDelete


text:
i once spoke about a very special boy who crossed my path. his death still haunts me but there was another incident which drove the wedge between myself and paediatric surgery forever.
it was during my thoracic rotation. to be honest it was one of the more enjoyable rotations. they actually occasionally allowed me to do a thoracotomy or two. most of the other disciplines used us as their underlings to get the ward work done. of course in thoracics we were also used for this but at least there was a payoff.
one day myself and a rotating registrar from another university were sent to draw the preoperative bloods on all the theater cases for the next day. i was fine with this. i secretly hoped i'd find a case i could do myself if the powers that be smiled upon me the next day.


text:
Copyright © 2006 Avi Alkalay, Donovan Rebbechi, Hal Burgiss
|Revision History
|Revision 2007-04-15
|15 Apr 2007
|Revised by: avi
|Included support to SUSE installation for the RPM scriptlets on template spec file, listed SUSE as a BCI-enabled distro.
|Revision 2007-02-08
|08 Feb 2007
|Revised by: avi
|Fixed some typos, updated Luc's page URL, added DejaVu sections, added link to FC6 Freetype RPMs, added link to Debian MS Core fonts, and added reference to the gnome-font-properties command.
|Revision 2006-07-02
|02 Jul 2006
|Revised by: avi
|Included link to Debian FreeType BCI package, improved the glossary with Latin1 descriptions, more clear links on the webcore fonts section, instructions on how to rebuild source RPM packages in the BCI appendix, updated the freetype recompilation appendix to cover new versions of the lib, authorship section reorganized.
|Revision 2006-04-02
|02 Apr 2006
|Revised by: avi
|Included link to FC5 Freetype.bci contribution by Cody DeHaan.
|Revision 2006-03-25
|25 Mar 2006
|Revised by: avi
|Updated link to BCI Freetype RPMs to be more distro version specific.
|Revision 2005-07-19
|19 May 2005
|Revised by: avi
|Renamed Microsoft Fonts to Webcore Fonts, and links updated.Added X.org Subsystems section.
|Revision 2005-05-25
|25 May 2005
|Revised by: avi
|Comment related to web pages in the Microsoft Fonts section
|Revision 2005-05-10
|10 May 2005
|Revised by: avi
|Old section-based glossary converted to real DocBook glossary.Modernized terms and explanations on the glossary.Included concepts as charsets, Unicode and UTF-8 in the glossary.
|Revision 2005-03-31
|31 Mar 2005
|Revised by: avi
|Desktop configuration guidelines improved for higher resolution screens.Better layout for authors.
|Revision 2005-02-18
|18 Feb 2005
|Revised by: avi
|Included BCI support status for Mandrake and Gentoo.Added link to Firefox configuration hack.Included link to Scribus site.Removed broken and outdated info links.
|Revision 2005-01-12
|12 Jan 2005
|Revised by: avi
|E-mail addresses more difficult to figure out for machines.
|Revision 2004-12-24
|24 Dec 2004
|Revised by: avi
|Small corrections and DocBook improvements.
|Revision 2004-12-12
|12 Dec 2004
|Revised by: avi
|Typos correction by Scott Brayban (sgrayban borgnet us).Finished links to msfonts and freetype RPMs.
|Revision 2004-12-05
|5 Dec 2004
|Revised by: avi
|Merged with FDU-HOWTO.Finished RPM sections.Added "need help" appendix.Finished "About this doc" appendix.Ready for peer revision.
|Revision 2004-11-27
|27 Nov 2004
|Revised by: avi
|Created first sections.Merged with Font-HOWTO.


text:
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Set sail on the vacation of a lifetime aboard one of our award-winning cruise ships. Our luxurious fleet merges cutting-edge technology with welcoming interiors and revolutionary venues. Make yourself at home in our sophisticated staterooms. Discover the unrivaled luxury of The Retreat®. Experience visionary spaces, like the Magic Carpet®, that are like nothing you've seen before. On our cruise ships, you'll travel the world while enjoying the height of style, comfort, and service throughout your journey.
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Travel the world aboard Celebrity Edge, Apex, and Beyond. Three of the most innovative ships in the industry. With dazzling spaces and avant-garde design that bring the outdoors in, these ships will forever change the way you think about cruising. Dine at any of the 29 restaurants, bars, and lounges on board, including Eden, a lush green oasis that will tantalize all of your senses. Unwind at the Resort Deck, where you can take a dip in a martini hot tub, relax in the adults-only Solarium, or admire the view from the expansive Rooftop Garden.
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Our luxury cruise ships are filled with entertainment for all ages and preferences. Watch riveting shows at the cutting-edge theater, which feature popular music, stunning dance sequences, and gravity-defying acrobatics. Sign up for a wine tasting with one of our expert sommeliers, or take a hot glass class and learn how to make your own piece of art. Take the kids to Camp at Sea, the only fully customizable camp at sea. Arrange a romantic picnic at the rooftop Lawn Club, where you can lounge on a half-acre of real grass while gazing at the ocean.
Enjoy a thrilling night out at the casino or a leisurely afternoon shopping in the onboard boutiques. Sip on artisanal cocktails and dance under the stars at the Magic Carpet or the Rooftop Garden. Pamper yourself at The Spa, or squeeze in some exercise at The Fitness Center. Our award-winning ships have everything you could ever ask for—and much, much more.


text:
University of Chicago Spectroscopic Laboratory Annual Report: September 1, 1948 - May 31, 1949, Part 1
Description: Report containing articles, manuscripts, and tabulations of recorded spectra created by the Spectroscopic Laboratory of the University of Chicago.
Date: 1949-05~
Creator: University of Chicago. Laboratory of Molecular Structure and Spectra.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department


text:
How to turn off or exit the DEMO mode on the TV
Follow the steps below.
- Perform a factory reset. For details, please refer to How to reset the television to the original factory settings.
After completing the factory reset, the initial set-up screen will be displayed.
- During initial setup, select Home on Location screen.


text:
With its luscious blend of luxury fibers, Smooshy with Cashmere is opulence in a skein. The smooth, plied base, combined with our unique dyeing process, gives Smooshy with Cashmere its deep and lushly-shaded tones. And, 20% cashmere makes this yarn divinely next-to-skin soft, while 10% nylon lends a durability that means Smooshy with Cashmere is equally at home in socks and open, airy lacework.
Specifications: 70% Superwash Merino 20% Cashmere 10% Nylon 400yds, 7.5-9sts=1inch, US 0-5


text:
The three-year-old social networking phenomenon Facebook, worth more than $15 billion by many estimates, got a good deal on going global.
Its users around the world are translating Facebook's visible framework into nearly two dozen languages — for free — aiding the company's aggressive expansion to better serve the 60 percent of its 69 million users who live outside the United States.
The company says it's using the wisdom of crowds to produce versions of site guidelines — especially terms specific to Facebook — that are in tune with local cultures.
"We thought it'd be cool," said Javier Olivan, international manager at Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif. "Our goal would be to hopefully have one day everybody on the planet on Facebook."
Coolness aside, and many users are embracing the idea, other social networks aren't "crowdsourcing" translation. The move is generating mounting criticism online, where some users question whether amateurs can produce good translations. Critics complain of sloppiness and skimping, even as Facebook says it is improving service in an innovative way.
The concept of collaborative translation is familiar in open-source programming communities. But Facebook's effort — as it builds sites in Japanese, Turkish, Chinese, Portuguese, Swedish and Dutch to join versions in Spanish, French and German that launched this year — is among the highest-profile attempts to harness users' energy to do work traditionally handled by professionals.
The Spanish-language version has taken a particular beating for grammatical, spelling and usage problems throughout.
Ana B. Torres, a 25-year-old professional translator in Madrid, Spain, called the translation "extremely poor," citing "outrageous spelling mistakes" such as "ase" instead of "hace" (for "makes" or "does") and usage of the word "lenguaje" for "language" rather than the correct "idioma."
Other critics say Facebook just wants free labor.
Valentin Macias, 29, a Californian who teaches English in Seoul, South Korea, has volunteered in the past to translate for the nonprofit Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia but said he won't do it for Facebook.
"(Wikipedia is) an altruistic, charitable, information-sharing, donation-supported cause," Macias told The Associated Press in a Facebook message. "Facebook is not. Therefore, people should not be tricked into donating their time and energy to a multimillion-dollar company so that the company can make millions more — at least not without some type of compensation."
Facebook points out that it has spent considerable resources building the translation program. Olivan said it's not soaking users but including them in the growth of the network — and possibly attracting new ones.
"If the goal is to save money, we're doing the wrong thing, because we are basically spending our most valuable asset, which is engineering time," he said.
He said that Facebook relishes being different from competitors and that users are helping the company produce versions in numerous languages as quickly as possible.
Just one-fifth of the world's Internet population actively manages profiles on a social network, said David Jones, vice president of global marketing for Friendster Inc., which has recently shifted its focus to capitalize on its strength in Southeast Asia.
"It's still a bit of a land grab," he said. "So there's plenty of growth to be had in the world, and we're focused on that, and certainly other social networks I'm sure are as well."
Friendster recently launched a beta version in Vietnamese, adding to its lineup of versions in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Indonesian. It plans to keep introducing a new language every month or two.
Setting the pace, however, is industry leader MySpace. The News Corp. subsidiary has 200 million registered users worldwide and 29 country-specific and regional sites and more on the way.
Its global push, which began in early 2006, appears to be paying off. Between June 2006 and June 2007, its number visitors worldwide age 15 and older jumped 72 percent to 114.1 million, according to Internet research firm comScore Inc.
In the same period, however, Facebook's global traffic surged 270 percent to 52.2 million users, according to comScore — even though it had yet to launch its first foreign-language site.
As it enters each market, MySpace hires a dedicated team, said Travis Katz, international managing director. Contractors perform the initial translation, which the local MySpace team tweaks to ensure it fits the market, he said.
"The translation in and of itself is not very expensive," Katz said. "The thing that's challenging is getting the cultural aspects right and making sure that the site is culturally relevant and doesn't feel like an invader from Silicon Valley landed."
Friendster's Jones said his company also uses third-party translators.
"As interesting as it might be to get your users to chip in and help out on that, we could do it faster ourselves and very consistently, quite frankly, across the language, across the entire site," Jones said.
More than 100,000 users have installed Facebook's translation application. Nearly 10,000 helped translate the French, Spanish and German sites — the Spanish version in less than four weeks and the German one in two weeks.
The process involves translating a glossary of basic Facebook terms, translating text strings throughout the site, voting on each translation and then "testing and verification."
Some users, like Murat Odabasi of London, are spending hours each day translating Facebook. Responsible for 14,910 winning words and 1,938 winning phrases, Odabasi held the No. 2 spot among 391 translators on the Turkish leaderboard as of Wednesday.
Odabasi, 24, a software developer and native Turkish speaker, said the volunteer arrangement is good for users as well as Facebook.
"We come up with the words and phrases that will ... eventually become a part of the Turkish language itself," he said in an e-mail in English. "It feels good to be creating something that will in time be seen and used by millions of people."
Collaborative translation is an increasingly important tool for businesses, said Renato Beninatto with the Massachusetts consulting firm Common Sense Advisory. But he said companies may need professional services to finalize translations.
"The traditional wisdom is that if you have fewer translators, you generate a better product," said Beninatto, also a spokesman for the Globalization & Localization Association.
If managed well, however, crowdsourcing can result in a good translation, he said.
Among the hottest debates so far has been over "poke" — Facebook's term for giving someone a playful nudge. In Spanish, it became "dar un toque." In French, "faire un signe." And in German, "anstupsen."
Japanese translators couldn't find an equivalent so they decided to go with the original English.


text:
Cheer Pack North America LLC, a focused solution provider for brand owners looking at production capabilities for their spouted flexible packaging requirements, is planning to relocate its manufacturing facility from Plymouth, MA to West Bridgewater, MA as part of a major capital expansion.
The relocation and expansion project will result in the retention of Cheer Pack's current 35 employees and the addition of 75 new manufacturing jobs resulting in 110 new jobs in the town of West Bridgewater. The company plans to lease 187,500 sq ft in the industrial building, which has a total floor space 315,000 sq ft and has been largely unoccupied for the last couple of years. Cheer Pack develops and manufactures proprietary spouted pouch packaging for the food and beverage industries.
According to Steve Gosling, president of Cheer Pack, "The demand for our unique food packaging products has grown tremendously resulting in the need to substantially increase our capacity. It is an exciting opportunity for the company, the town of West Bridgewater, and the entire southeastern Massachusetts region."
The company plans to make an investment of approximately $23 million over the next five years in building renovations and the purchase and installation of machinery and equipment. According to Mark Kasberg, treasurer of Cheer Pack, "The building renovations and a significant portion of the machinery and equipment installation will be completed in the first year of the project. We hope to move into the building and commence operations in the second quarter of 2012." It is expected that all of the 35 employees working in Cheer Pack's Plymouth facility will continue to work at the new West Bridgewater location, which is 26 miles away.
"There is still a significant amount of work to be done over the next several weeks before the long-term lease is signed and the plan becomes final," said Rod Jané of New England Expansion Strategies, project consultant for Cheer Pack North America. The company is working with town officials and boards to obtain permits for the project. Additionally, the company and the town are exploring the possibility of Tax Increment Financing, as well as investment tax credits from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the Economic Development Incentives Program. West Bridgewater joined the Brockton area Economic Target Area in 2004 for the purpose of being able to offer state and local benefits for job creating projects like the Cheer Pack project. "In order to earn these benefits, the company will have to commit to job creation and investment goals and deliver on those goals," said Jané. He added that "the West Bridgewater town officials and boards have been absolutely great to work with. They have been responsive and very helpful. This is clearly a business friendly town."
Cheer Pack North America (CPNA) is an international partnership established in 2008 to develop and support spouted pouch technology in North America. The partnership consists of Hosokawa Yoko of Japan, Gualapack of Italy, and CDF Corp. of the U.S. For more information, visit www.cheerpack.com.


text:
In the latest installment of his ongoing investigation for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today, John Fauber looks for the source of America's prescription painkiller boom (graphic), outlining what he describes as "a network of pain organizations, doctors and researchers that pushed for expanded use of the drugs while taking in millions of dollars from the companies that made them."
Beginning 15 years ago, the network helped create a body of dubious information that can be found in prescribing guidelines, patient literature, position statements, books and doctor education courses, all which favored drugs known as opioid analgesics.
Apparently, that network has been effective. Federal data shows that prescription painkiller sales have quadrupled in the past decade or so, Fauber found, and some of those sales may not have been warranted.
A band of doctors who get little or no money from opioid makers has begun to challenge the hype behind the drugs. They say pharmaceutical industry clout has caused doctors to go overboard in prescribing the drugs, leading to addiction, thousands of overdose deaths each year and other serious complications.
Several of the pain industry's core beliefs about chronic pain and opioids are not supported by sound research, the Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today investigation found. Among them:
- The risk of addiction is low in patients with prescriptions.
- There is no unsafe maximum dose of the drugs.
- The concept of "pseudoaddiction."
That concept holds those who display addictive behavior, such as seeking more drugs or higher doses, may not be actual addicts – they are people who need even more opioids to treat their pain.
His investigation dips deep into each of those beliefs and how they helped push painkillers. For a case study, see this companion infographic.


text:
If we watch closely, we can see that more and more truth about our governmental, financial, medical, and other institutions is starting to come out.
Crooks, frauds, and worse in all areas of society are coming increasingly under attack. The heat is on and it's becoming increasingly difficult to hide.
Apparently, this is just the beginning of what SaLuSa calls the "time of truth." "The dark Ones continue to find that their covert actions are being revealed and in a time of truth so will it continue." (1)
Diane of Sirius told us last year that:
"You are now in a time when secrets are being uncovered and proof found that reveals much of the deception that has taken place. Hitherto, you have tended to ignore such revelations, but with the clamor for change … back to honest dealings and fairness in all matters, a different view is being taken." (2)
The star nations, spirit teachers, and their Earth allies are hard at work to legally and compellingly bring out our hidden history. Says Ag-Agria: "We will … ensure that the facts of your lives upon Earth are placed before you." (3)
According to SaLuSa, the coalition of Light forces "will bring you the truth of all matters, and particularly your recent history that has been written by those who would hide the real truth. … We will trace it back many thousands of years into your ancient past." (4)
Mira the Pleiadian also tells us that information will be disseminated that "has been hidden for hundreds if not thousands of earthly years." "The people have a right to [it]. Some will come up from the Earth herself. In other instances some people will come forward with it." (5)
The information that comes from the Earth itself could be volumes of the library of Alexandria or other libraries hidden deep underground, the computer-like memory of the crystal skulls, excavated records, types of records we don't know about – at present, we can't know what will be involved.
The revelations will "shock many people," SaLuSa says. (6) What we learn "will astound you and you will gasp at the degree to which your power has been taken away from you." (7) The revelations will be "earth-shattering and life-changing for many," says Mira. (8)
"Much of what has been presented to you previously will have to be discarded, as your version of it is far from accurate," Ker-On says. (9) "Be prepared to change your most sacred beliefs," SaLuSa warns us. (10)
Among other things, the revelations will establish our true ancestry, SaLusa says. "Be open to new versions about Man's evolution." (11) "You have been deliberately kept from learning the truth about your links with us, and how we have guided your evolution," according to Ker-On. (12)
Controlled for Millennia
SaLuSa says that for thousands of years we've been brought "under the control of those who have dictated what you should believe." (13)
"All who have held power have indoctrinated you into false beliefs, causing you to yield to their domination." (14)
"The tentacles of the dark Ones have penetrated most of the great institutions on a worldwide basis. They have infiltrated the governments, military and big business often buying their way into them. All these issues have to be addressed, and they shall be sorted out to remove those who are guilty of going against your interests." (15)
"Many revelations about their illegal operations are waiting to be announced to the world." (16)
The extent to which we have been used and manipulated, SaLuSa argues, "is beyond your full understanding." He warns us that, through the accountability effort:
"You will learn sufficient to know that something radical and far reaching must be done, to cut out the cancer of corruption that has spread all through politics and business. Such knowledge will ensure that whatever replaces it is based upon honesty and fairness with the object of doing what is best for all." (17)
We are warned quite frankly that "it is not going to be easy to get you to accept the truth of your past." (18)
Our history, SaLuSa tells us, "is red with the blood of the innocent souls who have stood up to the dark Ones." (19) "Your history is the story of one war after another, and a massive amount of destruction and enormous death tolls. It is a wonder to us that you have been able to restore the Light." (20)
But now the darkness is about to end
Now the period of darkness is about to end. Originally the Light coalition planned to reveal it gradually. But we are running out of time, according to Matthew Ward.
"Originally the Golden Age master plan created by the highest council called for a gradual emergence of the many truths during the process of world transformation and spiritual renewal. However, the tenacity of the dark ones has created a time crunch of sorts, as many profound revelations still must come forth so that once again the peoples will know they are powerful gods and goddesses, inseparable parts of the universal family of souls.
"Even with considerable time to assimilate that ultimate truth, it would be difficult for many, and perhaps impossible for some, to believe it. Yet, that reality and many others of shocking nature have to be disclosed within a brief period so that myriad changes of a magnitude you can hardly imagine can be accomplished, and all of those changes are gathering momentum." (21)
The recent legal moves we are reading about are not the revelations we're waiting for, he tells us.
"Even though … recent legal battles against darkness are ever so welcome, we know they are not the dramatic revelations you have been awaiting. All lighted souls in this universe would love to see the full abundance of truths shooting out like endless fireworks instead of sporadic arrays of sparklers, but it is imperative for the creation of a peace-loving, honest global society that the truths emerge through legal proceedings based on irrefutable evidence." (22)
As the truth is revealed, we'll find ourselves unable to go back to the way things were. Says SaLuSa:
"Suddenly you are seeing so much happening at once and the truth is emerging all around you, and there is an awareness of what is behind it. The once hidden is being revealed and as long as you can spot the disinformation, you will get a clearer picture of the direction of Mankind. Nothing will ever be quite the same, and it is not in your interests to return to the old paradigm." (23)
(For part 2, see https://goldenageofgaia.com/2012-essays-2/are-we-entering-the-time-of-truth-part-22/.)


text:
Generally the opinion is that the i1 Display Pro is faster and better than the Spyder 4 Elite. See here as most people handling theatre calibration prefer the i1 Display Pro for faster and more accurate profiles. Computer users I haven't read much on this yet.
If I'm reading the thread below correctly, the I1DisplayPro and the ColorMunki Display use effectively the same sensor.
I believe I might need a new device and after this experience I will be strongly considering the Datacolor product.
Identical sensor, different speed to measure (penalize the lesser expensive product) but more importantly, the ColorMunki Display software is pretty crippled (penalize again the lesser expensive product and those who buy them). Considering the cost to code two such products, just to have two price points, I don't understand X-rite's thinking much of the time. But their hardware is excellent!
I advise checking carefully any new products to see if it will match your purposes. The grass isn't always greener at another company.
The deciding factor in this case for me is the lack of support by X-rite for my Eye one display 2 that is perhaps five years old.
My Datacolor Spyder print device has worked well and is still supported.
will never buy an eye-one or X-rite product again, the gels fade over time and give incorrect calibration


text:
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text: This cartoon cel of Disney's Mock Turtle is from LCSNA member Matt Crandall's collection (featured in an interesting article on the "official" Disney fan site, D23.) Although the Mock Turtle is an important character in the book, he didn't make it into either the 1951 or 2010 Disney movie. This frame is from a Disney animation for a 1957 Jell-O commercial – oddly fitting that they used the calf's head (like in the original Tenniel illustration). Was Jell-O the mock turtle soup of the 1950s (and should a turtle with the head of a soybean be doing TV spots today singing "Beau–ootiful To–fuuurkey"…?) We're told the 1957 commercial will be a special feature on the upcoming DVD release of Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland.


text:
The Geolocation API provides a method to locate the user's exact (more or less – see below) position. This is useful in a number of ways ranging from providing a user with location specific information to providing route navigation.
Although it's not actually part of the HTML5 specification, as it was developed as a separate specification by the W3C, rather than the WHATWG, if the esteemed HTML5 Doctors Remy Sharp and Bruce Lawson felt it was fitting enough to include in their book, then it's perfectly ok to write about it here.
The API is actually remarkably simple to use and this article aims to introduce the API and show just how easy it is.
Browser Compatibility
Currently the W3C Geolocation API is supported by the following desktop browsers:
- Firefox 3.5+
- Chrome 5.0+
- Safari 5.0+
- Opera 10.60+
- Internet Explorer 9.0+
There is also support for the W3C Geolocation API on mobile devices:
- Android 2.0+
- iPhone 3.0+
- Opera Mobile 10.1+
- Symbian (S60 3rd & 5th generation)
- Blackberry OS 6
- Maemo
Data Protection
The specification explicitly states that since the nature of the API also exposes the user's location and therefore could compromise their privacy, the user's permission to attempt to obtain the geolocation information must be sought before proceeding. The browser will take care of this, and a message will either appear as a popup box, or at the top of the browser (implementation is browser specific) requesting the user's permission.
Geolocation sources
A number of different sources are used to attempt to obtain the user's location, and each has their own varying degree of accuracy. A desktop browser is likely to use WiFi (accurate to 20m) or IP Geolocation which is only accurate to the city level and can provide false positives. Mobile devices tend to use triangulation techniques such as GPS (accurate to 10m and only works outside), WiFi and GSM/CDMA cell IDs (accurate to 1000m).
Using the API
Before you actually attempt to use the Geolocation API, you first need to check if the browser actually supports it. The API usefully provides a function for this which can be called as follows:
if (navigator.geolocation) {
// do fancy stuff
Obviously if this returns false, you should optionally inform the user of the inferiority of their browser and laugh in their face (not really).
Through the API, there are two functions available to obtain a user's location:
getCurrentPosition and watchPosition
Both of these methods return immediately, and then asynchronously attempt to obtain the current location. They take the same number of arguments, two of which are optional:
successCallback– called if the method returns successfully
[errorCallback]– called if the method returns with an error
- [options] – a number of options are available:
enableHighAccuracy– provides a hint that the application would like the best possible results. This may cause a slower response time and in the case of a mobile device, greater power consumption as it may use GPS. Boolean with a default setting of false.
timeout– indicates the maximum length of time to wait for a response. In milliseconds with a default of 0 – infinite.
maximumAge– denotes the maximum age of a cached position that the application will be willing to accept. In milliseconds, with a default value of 0, which means that an attempt must be made to obtain a new position object immediately.
Before mentioning the differences between the two, another method needs to be introduced:
This method takes one argument, the
watchID of the watch process to clear (which is returned by
Now, the main difference between
getCurrentPosition and
watchPosition is that
watchPosition keeps informing your code should the position change, so basically it keeps updating the user's position. This is very useful if they're on the move and you want to keep track of their position, whereas
getCurrentPosition is a once off. This method also returns a
watchID which is required when you want to stop the position constantly being updated by calling
clearWatch method is called.
When the user's position is returned, it is contained within a
Position object which contains a number of properties:
|Decimal degrees of the latitude
|Decimal degress of the longitude
|Height in metres of the position above the reference ellipsoid
|The accuracy in metres of the returned result. The value of this setting informs the application how useful the returned latitude/longitude value actually is. This can help in determining if the returned result is accurate enough for the purpose it is intended for, e.g. values for streetview locations will need to be more accurate than those for a country based location
|The accuracy in metres of the returned altitude
|Direction of travel of the hosting device, clockwise from true north
|The current ground speed of the hosting device in metres per second
|Timestamp of when the position was acquired
Amongst these only which is
coords.longitude and
coords.accuracy are guaranteed to be returned (all others may be
null), and the first two are by and large the most relevant, as it is from these that a position can be plotted on a Google Map, for example.
You can read more about the
Position object and the coordinates interface on the W3 specification itself.
Putting it all together
Putting this altogether, the following code will attempt to obtain a user's location, calling the method
displayPosition on success which simply pops up an alert box with the captured latitude and longitude:
if (navigator.geolocation) {
var timeoutVal = 10 * 1000 * 1000;
{ enableHighAccuracy: true, timeout: timeoutVal, maximumAge: 0 }
else {
alert("Geolocation is not supported by this browser");
function displayPosition(position) {
alert("Latitude: " + position.coords.latitude + ", Longitude: " + position.coords.longitude);
The code above also calls the
displayError method when attempt to fetch the user's location data. This function simple converts the returned error code to an appropriate message:
function displayError(error) {
var errors = {
1: 'Permission denied',
2: 'Position unavailable',
3: 'Request timeout'
alert("Error: " + errors[error.code]);
A final word
This is just a simple introduction to using the Geolocation API and one of it's uses.
Of course the API can be used for more than simply plotting a position on a map (although that in itself is quite useful). The specification itself offers a list of potential use cases for the API such as:
- Finding and plotting points of interest in the user's area
- Annotating content with location informationShowing a user's position on a map (helping with directions of course!)
- Turn-by-turn route navigation – using
- Up-to-date local information – updates as you move
To see geolocation in action, I've put together a couple of quick examples in which I encourage you to view source and then go and try it out for yourself.
- Plot a location on a Google Map using
- Plot and update a location on a Google Map using
watchPosition– this is best viewed on a moving device so you can see the position updating


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Weekly Virtual Mindfulness Meditation Group | Tuesdays @ 10
December 14, 2021 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
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An event every week that begins at 10:00am on Tuesday, repeating indefinitely
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Mindfulness meditation can offer the body and mind a chance to settle. Through our practice together we begin to create the conditions for ease, resilience, and compassion to grow in our lives.
We practice with mindfulness of the breath and body, mindfulness of thoughts and emotions, and opening the heart practices. Whether you are a long-time practitioner, or want to try meditation for the first time, please join Jeannette for a weekly guided meditation. Email Jeannette for the link.


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Mad Fox Brewing, Port City Brewing and Forge Brew Works
$55 per person (includes lunch)
Reston Limousine is rolling out a new brewery tour focusing on Northern Virginia breweries! Guests will enjoy behind-the-scenes tours and tastings at craft breweries including Mad Fox Brewing Co., Port City Brewing Co. and the newly opened Forge Brew Works!
You'll start the trip with a tour, tasting, and lunch at Mad Fox Brewing Co., where "the food is worthy of matching those brews,†according to The Washington Post.Our next stop is Port City Brewing Co., which recently took home several medals at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival. Final stop is Forge Brew Works, where you'll sample some of the latest beers from rocket scientist-turned-brewer Matt Rose.
Choose your closest pickup location and relax as you get a taste of the Northern Virginia brew scene without worrying about driving, traffic, or parking! Bring your growler to fill at any of the breweries or purchase one.
Please note that the price does not include optional driver gratuity.
Please make sure to arrive at least 15 minutes early to allow time for boarding the vehicle.
11:00 AM — Depart 12001 Market St., Reston Town Center
11:30 AM — Depart East Falls Church Metro station (Washington Boulevard side, to the left as you exit the station, on the north side of Rt. 66)
11:45 AM — 1st stop: Mad Fox Brewing Co. (can catch the tour here; free parking garage available)
1:30 PM — Depart Mad Fox
2:00 PM — 2nd stop: Port City Brewing Co.
3:30 PM — Depart Port City
4:00PM — 3rd stop: Forge Brew Works
5:00 PM — Depart Forge Brew Works
5:30 PM — Arrive East Falls Church Metro station (Washington Boulevard side)
5:40 PM ― Arrive Mad Fox
6:00 PM ― Arrive 12001 Market St., Reston Town Center
*Please note times are approximate and may vary slightly due to traffic, weather or other factors. Times noted are departure times — please make sure to arrive at least 15 minutes early to allow time for boarding the vehicle.
Please click here to view our Brew Tour Rules of Conduct and Policies; by completing your online reservation for this tour, you are agreeing to the Terms & Conditions.
Wineries and vehicles subject to change without notice.
Passenger minimum of 8 must be met by 3 p.m. Thursday for trip to run. For questions, click here to email a brewery tour specialist.
*By purchasing this ticket I am confirming that I am 21 years or older.
Bookings are closed for this event.


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A medical privacy breach led to the public posting on a commercial Web site of data for 20,000 emergency room patients at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., including names and diagnosis codes, the hospital has confirmed. The information stayed online for nearly a year.
Since discovering the breach last month, the hospital has been investigating how a detailed spreadsheet made its way from one of its vendors, a billing contractor identified as Multi-Specialty Collection Services, to a Web site called Student of Fortune, which allows students to solicit paid assistance with their schoolwork.
Gary Migdol, a spokesman for Stanford Hospital and Clinics, said the spreadsheet first appeared on the site on Sept. 9, 2010, as an attachment to a question about how to convert the data into a bar graph.
Although medical security breaches are not uncommon, the Stanford breach was notable for the length of time that the data remained publicly available without detection.
Even as government regulators strengthen oversight by requiring public reporting of breaches and imposing heavy fines, experts on medical security said the Stanford breach spotlighted the persistent vulnerability posed by legions of outside contractors that gain access to private data.
The spreadsheet included names, diagnosis codes, account numbers, admission and discharge dates, and billing charges for patients seen at Stanford Hospital's emergency room during a six-month period in 2009, Mr. Migdol said. It did not include Social Security numbers, birth dates, credit-card numbers or other information used to perpetrate identity theft, he said, but the hospital is offering free identity protection services to affected patients.
The breach was discovered by a patient and reported to the hospital on Aug. 22, according to a letter written four days later to affected patients by Diane Meyer, Stanford Hospital's chief privacy officer. The hospital took "aggressive steps," and the Web site removed the post the next day, Ms. Meyer wrote. It also notified state and federal agencies, Mr. Migdol said.
"It is clearly disturbing when this information gets public," he said. "It is our intent 100 percent of the time to keep this information confidential and private, and we work hard every day to ensure that."
Diane Dobson, of Santa Clara, Calif., said her "jaw dropped" on Saturday when she intercepted the letter from Ms. Meyer addressed to her 21-year-old son, who she said had received emergency psychiatric treatment at Stanford in 2009. Ms. Dobson said it could have been disastrous if her son, who lives at home, had learned that his name was linked to a mental health diagnosis.
"My son, I can tell you, is fragile and confused enough that this would have sent him over the edge," Ms. Dobson said, saying she decided to speak publicly now because of her frustration with the breach. "Everyone with an electronic medical record is at risk, and that means everyone."
Records compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services reveal that personal medical data for more than 11 million people have been improperly exposed during the past two years alone.
Since passage of the federal stimulus package, which includes provisions requiring prompt public reporting of breaches, the government has received notice of 306 cases from September 2009 to June 2011 that affected at least 500 people apiece. A recent report to Congress tallied 30,000 smaller breaches from September 2009 to December 2010, affecting more than 72,000 people.
The major breaches — a disconcerting log of stolen laptops, hacked networks, unencrypted records, misdirected mailings, missing files and wayward e-mails — took place in 44 states.
One occurred at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford in January 2010, when a desktop computer holding the medical records of 532 patients was stolen from the heart center by an employee. Hospital officials said at the time that no patient information was compromised.
But the California Department of Public Health fined the hospital $250,000, the maximum allowed, for failing to report the breach within five days of discovery, as is required under state law. The hospital appealed the fine, and a settlement has been reached but not yet disclosed, a department spokesman said.
The Stanford episode reinforces the fear that even the most prestigious medical centers are not immune to risk.
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which trains Harvard medical students, agreed this year to pay a $1 million federal fine after an employee left paper medical records on a subway while commuting to work. The pages included the names of 192 patients, and diagnoses for about a third of them, including diagnoses for H.I.V./AIDS. They were never recovered.
The Department of Health and Human Services viewed the breach as a potential violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the 1996 law that requires protection of medical records.
Mr. Migdol, the hospital spokesman, said Stanford had concluded that "there is no employee from Stanford Hospital who has done anything impermissible." He said he expected the federal Department of Health and Human Services to conduct its own investigation. Susan McAndrew, a deputy director in the department's Office for Civil Rights, said she could not discuss whether an investigation was in progress.
The vendor, identified by Mr. Migdol as Multi-Specialty Collection Services L.L.C., based in Los Angeles, is described on its Web site as a subsidiary of Texican Inc. Joe Anthony Reyna, who is listed in state and commercial records as Texican's principal, did not respond to messages left at his office and home.
Mr. Migdol said the company created the spreadsheet as part of a billing-and-payment analysis for the hospital. He said the hospital immediately suspended its relationship with the contractor and received written certification that previous files would be destroyed or returned securely.
Tina Warner, a vice president at Chegg, an online company that bought Student of Fortune in August, said the site's principals were unaware the data had been posted until informed by the hospital. They then "took it down within 30 seconds," she said. Ms. Warner said the identity of the person who posted the Stanford data could not be determined from the user name.
Bryan Cline, a vice president with the Health Information Trust Alliance, a nonprofit company that establishes privacy guidelines for health providers, said nearly 20 percent of breaches involved outside contractors, accounting for more than half of all the records exposed.
Dr. Cline said health care providers depend unjustifiably on legal contracts with vendors to protect medical records. "That just doesn't work, as we can see," he said. "You have to do due diligence, something to assure yourself that the people you're giving your data to can be trusted."
Briefly, we wanted to update you on where Truthout stands this month.
To be brutally honest, Truthout is behind on our fundraising goals for the year. There are a lot of reasons why. We're dealing with broad trends in our industry, trends that have led publications like Vice, BuzzFeed, and National Geographic to make painful cuts. Everyone is feeling the squeeze of inflation. And despite its lasting importance, news readership is declining.
To ensure we stay out of the red by the end of the year, we have a long way to go. Our future is threatened.
We've stayed online over two decades thanks to the support of our readers. Because you believe in the power of our work, share our transformative stories, and give to keep us going strong, we know we can make it through this tough moment.
We've launched a campaign to raise $43,000 in the next 6 days. Please consider making a donation today.


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We Don't Deliver In Your Area...Yet.
We're sorry, it doesn't look like we can deliver to your address yet. We need five people in a specific area for home deliveries to work outside of our current service area, the farther removed the more folks are needed.
If you feel like you have sufficient interest in your area, then call (740) 263-6933 or email firstname.lastname@example.com Alternatively, please consider one of our pick-up locations. Interested in hosting your own pick-up location? Contact us at email@example.com for more information.
We Deliver to Your Area!
We're excited to deliver our farm fresh goodies to your door or to a pickup location nearby!
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Laperla Tortilla Factory, in Toledo, Ohio, brought their expert food production skills to bear in using Shagbark's Organic Corn and Organic Black Beans to make a uniquely different chip - a snack-food that is a healthy indulgence.
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Shagbark Seed & Mill
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And Shagbark's milling and seed-cleaning hub is Certified Organic (by OEFFA). Farming under Organic Certification means active crop rotations, no petro-chemicals, no GMO seeds, and agricultural practices that build soil, support healthy ecosystems, and protect water.
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The results? Strong communities, clean water, healthy soil, good company, and great eating! Ready to join the Staple Food Revolution? Join us and try all of Shagbark's products!


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Care Label
Care Label
Product ID:JML-23-S104
Product Origin:Taiwan / China / Vietnam
Care Label
Ranging from 6mm - 110 mm
Satin/ Taffeta/ Twill/ Grosgrain
【Tape Color】
Color yarn or On-Site Dyeing System
【Print Color】
Maximum 6 colors front, 2 colors back
100% Polyester/ Spun-Polyester
【Fold / Cut】
Heat/Ultra-Sonic cut & Laser Center, End, Manhattan, Mitre fold.
Contact us for special folding requests.
OEKO-TEX Standard 100
● Manufacturer pricings, Premium qualities
- Established in 1982, Junmay has over 30 years of experiences.
- Multiple production sites across Asia, ship worldwide.
- Nominated supplier for big brands, including Nike,Adidas,Timberland, Reebok, Puma,Mango.
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- Free design advice.
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- Junmay is an ISO 14001 factory with industry leading European looms & Machineries.
● Certificates
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- In house laboratories.
● Global Exposure
- Annually attend leading shows including OR Show, NW Show, NE Show, ISPO, TITAS.


text:
Cognizant - Vehicle 360
Vehicle 360o is a pre-built BI Analytics product that provides advanced analytics to Automotive Enterprises, Fleet Operators, and Consumers helping them better understand vehicle performance, reduce vehicle maintenance and operating costs, suggest optimum driving and maintenance parameters.Contactar parceiro Veja o vídeo
- Gold Application Development
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- Gold Cloud Platform
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Vehicle 360
Cognizant's BigDecisions(TM) is an end-to-end BI and analytical business solution platform with pre-built KPIs and Business Apps to enable clients leverage structured and unstructured data to derive meaningful insights and foresights into businesses.
Vehicle 360 Biz App is a domain solution built using Cognizant's BigDecisions(TM) Framework. Vehicle 360o Biz App helps to achieve improved product quality and vehicle experience, recall avoidance, reduce warranty costs for Automotive Enterprises. For Fleet Operators and Consumers it helps with real time tracking, advanced safety and security, interactive fault diagnostics and so on.
Vehicle 360 solution is an IoT and cloud based solution which will ensure availability of real-time information, with no upfront infrastructure setup and reduced maintenance cost. The solution will provide visibility into vehicle health, emissions, mileage, driving patterns, and device performance patterns.
Vehicle 360 solution primarily addresses business cases like
1) Monitor fleet of vehicles including travel time, fuel burn, vehicle location and emission
2) Monitor driving behavior for rash driving, unnecessary idling, and sudden braking so as to minimize accident probability, optimize fuel consumption, monitor fleet health and optimize performance
3) Monitor vehicle location and trip analysis for privacy, security, safety reasons and optimize travel time
Vehicle 360 solution is designed to meet these key objectives:
Analytics and reporting requirements of the manufacturers, owners, fleet operators and dealers by analyzing the sensor data and producing driving behavioral pattern analysis of the DP (domestic passenger car), IP (import passenger car), LT (light truck) vehicles
Converting insights into business decisions which helps Auto manufacturers to address business plans such as deciding production volume and maintaining standard mileage value for different models.
Increased revenue for Fleet Operators, and Lowered insurance premiums and service expenditures for Consumers
Enhanced Quality Assurance for Auto Manufacturers by analyzing mileage and performance of the released models
Better Security and Safety by tracking the instant geographical position
Quer tornar-se um Parceiro do Power BI?
Os parceiros certificados são uma parte importante da equipa! Encontre novas oportunidades de negócio, estabeleça relações e partilhe os talentos e a experiência da sua empresa com os utilizadores do Power BI em todo o mundo.Inscreva-se
Saiba porque se deve tornar um parceiro


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On NPR's weekend show On The Media (produced by radio station WNYC), New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller reacted badly to NPR's Bob Garfield suggesting Julian Assange of WikiLeaks was a "looter" or a smasher of windows. Keller insisted the document dump has "more value" than that metaphor, that the dump is "absolutely fascinating...like a graduate seminar" on international relations. It's a "ridiculous standard" to insist these finds must be Earth-shattering to be a positive development:
BOB GARFIELD: Now, the stories so far have been revealing but unsurprising, it seems to me, and not especially indicting. It's made me wonder whether WikiLeaks is a legitimate whistleblower in this case or just a looter. Has Julian Assange shed light here with the release of 253,000 cables or has he just smashed a very big store window?
BILL KELLER: I think that the documents have more value than your metaphor gives them credit for.
I mean, realistically, you know, 99 percent of what you read in the newspaper or hear on the radio in news programs does not fundamentally upend your understanding of the world; it's incremental. And so, the idea that this data dump has to somehow expose unsuspected perfidy in high places or completely confound your understanding of how the world works is, to me, a, a kind of ridiculous standard.
I think this stuff is absolutely fascinating and, you know, reading these stories is kind of like a graduate seminar in how we relate to Russia, how the Arab world relates to Iran, and so on.
As for the Times professionals working their way through this potential minefield of American lives (and the lives of U.S. intelligence assets), Keller boasted "it was a familiar but quite complicated exercise in journalistic choreography." The graceful, balletic movements of journalistic prima donnas should be applauded, not questioned. The Times would somehow never endanger a single American life, despite their record during the Bush years of compromising terror-fighting programs with front-page scoops. They won Pulitzer Prizes, and the anti-terror programs were shredded.
Garfield asked Keller if the Times worried that its Wiki-leaked story on the Koreas might gause North Korea to act out aggressively. Keller tried a defense of ignorance, that Kim Jong Il is too crazy to predict, and to try and prevent issuing a story that causes bombs to drop is "really kind of beyond my understanding."
GARFIELD: On the subject of embarrassing people, the one story, the one revelation that has most gotten my attention is about the relationship between China and North Korea, and the cable from a South Korean diplomat which suggests that China would be just fine with a single unified Korea under South Korean control, so long as no U.S. troops were in the former demilitarized zone. You know, when you're talking about a cornered rat regime such as North Korea's, with a history of acting out when it's in a situation like this, you know, my thought was could this revelation not just embarrass them but really trigger something catastrophic? Did it come up? Did you have those discussions?
KELLER: We did have those kinds of discussions and, you know, that's where the value of having journalists who've covered these stories over the years supply some context, try to truth test, is useful, rather than just having raw data sitting up on a website for people to come explore.
As we presented it, this is the view of a South Korean diplomat. They believe that if North Korea collapsed and the Koreas reunited, China could live with that, which is interesting but I don't think particularly provocative. I mean, you know, without any provocation from us or WikiLeaks, North Korea apparently fired on a South Korean ship and more recently lobbed artillery onto a South Korean island, so, you know, what the North Koreans are likely to do or exactly what provokes them is really kind of beyond my understanding.
Like Time editor Richard Stengel, Keller doesn't feel the need for the press to keep many secrets (unless, of course, instead of exposing our foreign policy, someone's exposing the sexual infidelities of a Clinton or Edwards.) Garfield implied that the Pentagon warmakers should be exposed, but the secrets of the diplomatic peacemakers should be protected:
GARFIELD: In the United States we have seen things like the willy-nilly classification of documents and the invocation of national security at every turn to cover up political embarrassment, or worse. But diplomacy is another matter altogether. Is it ever just plain inappropriate for a newspaper to disclose diplomatic secrets?
KELLER: Look, I absolutely believe that governments have an obligation to keep certain things secret, you know, not just diplomacy – military operations, the codes to the nuclear weapons. I mean, there are lots of things that governments have the right to keep secret. It's their job to keep it secret. It's not the press's job to do that.
And when they, for one reason or another, fail to do that, either through something like WikiLeaks or because everybody at the White House is blabbing to Bob Woodward, you know, then we have a choice to make about what we do with those secrets. We do sometimes withhold them but, you know, it's a choice you have to make case by case.
Every time the national newspapers or networks dismiss a conservative group as "self-appointed," remember how these editors are self-appointed Secretaries of State, deciding how to manipulate information to nudge U.S. policy in a direction they favor. In conclusion, Garfield set up Keller to deny that they are a tool of WikiLeaks or their leader Julian Assange, who hates America:
GARFIELD: [Y]ou have worked with the organization in what I believe you've described more as a reporter/source relationship. And you've rejected entirely the idea that it is any kind of partnership. But in doing business with Julian Assange, who is nearly indiscriminate in what he will post, does The Times and The Guardian and Der Spiegel and El Pais, do they become enablers of an organization that may or may not be itself neutral in going about doing what it's doing?
KELLER: I don't think so, except in the sense that any time you publish information from a source you're giving them, you know, a megaphone, I guess. But I do sincerely believe that the relationship is very much the traditional one of source and journalist. He supplied a lot of raw material and, except for the timing of the release, which was something that we worked out as much with the other news organizations as with WikiLeaks, there was no discussion of what we would write, no discussion of an agenda that we were trying to serve. And, in fact, judging by some of the things that Mr. Assange has said about The New York Times, he certainly doesn't regard us as an institution that shares his agenda.
Since this is NPR, Garfield doesn't really point out that The Times and The Guardian (of Britain), Der Spiegel (of Germany) and El Pais (of Spain) are all fans of WikiLeaks because they're fashionably leftist and like frustrating the presumptive villainy of the "military-industrial complex." Keller would appear to have more ardor about the "value" of WikiLeaks than he does about the American war on terror.