As the saying goes “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one,” George RR Martin once said.
It is obvious that the person who reads gets to know many life experiences through various books. On the other hand, the person who does not read experiences from his life only which is quite less to live a good life.
What would be the better life than Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) to learn life experiences from. I happened to read the book named ‘The Messenger: The meanings of the life of Muhammad‘ authored by renowned personality Dr. Tariq Ramadan. He is a Muslim academic, philosopher, and writer and Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at St Antony’s College, Oxford.
Reading the life of Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) is a great opportunity to learn. In this book, the author talked about Muhammad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) life from his birth to his last breath. The book talks about many events that teach all mankind how a life should be lived
What surprised me while reading the book that there was a time after migration of Muhammad and his companions from his birthplace Mecca to Medina that Muslims named as ‘Hegira’. The migration was determined because there were some people who were against Islam plotted the assassination of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).
After few years of Hegira, when Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) visited Medina for pilgrimage with his companions they were refused to perform pilgrimage though he has the right to perform the pilgrimage. He would not force the clans who refused them. Moreover, the clans asked Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) to sign a covenant where few things mentioned that were seems beneficial for only those who were against Islam but, Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) signed to maintain peace. Even though, the covenant says that the Muslims allowed to perform pilgrimage after a year.
On the other place in the book, it is said that Muhammad would always suggest his companions to not harm any animals, nature, children, poor, women and those who are not involved in war. This is the proof that Islam and Muslims never wanted a war and havoc. However, it was necessary to attack back when attacks approach them.
The book not only talk about purpose and meanings of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) life but, it also talks about character and conduct of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) that a person needs to live a happy and acceptable-to-Allah life till the last breath.
The writer of the book has the profound knowledge of Islam that is why he managed to put Prophet Muhammad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) meanings and purpose of life in this book. The sequence and the connection between events and lessons from the events portrayed in such a way that the book has a power to intrigue readers from beginning to the end.
In the end of the book when it was the time for Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) to leave this world, my eyes really moistened thinking a person who tolerated so much for the mankind is now leaving the world.


Blood Before Richmond is a series of games recreating some of the Seven Days Battles fought between George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, under its daring new commander, Robert E. Lee. McClellan squandered a numerical advantage by demonstrating what would become a characteristic knack for turning tactical victories into strategic failures. Lee’s ambitious battle plans were hindered by subordinates who seemed incapable of carrying them out – chief among them, oddly, the usually exemplary Stonewall Jackson. If either side had been up to snuff, the war might have been decided in Late June 1861. Malvern Hill represents the concluding volume to the series which is characterized by quick-playing, medium-complexity games about these fascinating and overlooked battles of the American Civil War.


Nicolas Sarkozy, two years into his office as president, continues to chart a bold, if unfocused course in French foreign affairs. Although rhetoric has so far been stronger than action, Sarkozy has forged warmer ties with the US, assumed an active role in regional crisis management and pushed for further European integration. And with the Lisbon Treaty ratified Sarkozy seems to have gotten what he wanted on this crucial front.
- This week ISN Podcasts discusses French foreign policy with Anand Menon from Chatham House. He reminds us that French policy, although uncharacteristically bold under Sarkozy, has not changed as much as Sarkozy promised. Moreover, it is not clear how France will deal with a dominant Germany in the European context.
- In our Publications section, a Center for Transatlantic Relations paper examines France’s role in a globalized economy.
- In Policy Briefs an S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies commentary on the burqa controversy and a Center for European Policy Studies brief on the Union for the Mediterranean proposal.
- In our Links Library, a Foreign Policy article on Sarkozy’s decision to reintegrate France into NATO command structures.
- And finally, in our IR Directory check out the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri).


Earlier this fall, a problem showed up when the database guys first contributed Hibernate mappings. It was unclear how the Hibernate mappings could be causing the error we were getting — and it turned out that they weren’t; rather, they were exposing a different error that had previously been there, undetected.
I find these types of things really annoying before they’re figured out, and fascinating afterward. Here’s an email I sent out afterward:
From: Daniel Meyer
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 3:42 PM
Subject: RE: Build Failures: resolved
The “deployment fails the second time” issue has been resolved, and the CI servers are back in business.
For those who may be interested, the problem turned out to be a Maven config issue in [the functional test project]’s pom file.
(Note: you may need your techno-gibberish decoder goggles for the next details: )
In making ojdbc available to Liquibase for when we deliver schema changes, the ojdbc jar file got included in the war file. The config has been this way for several weeks, but we didn’t notice it until we just in the last few days got to the point of contributing Hibernate mappings, which starts the Persistence service, which needs ojdbc to actually work. At that time, the ojdbc jar in the war file fought with the ojdbc jar in JBoss’s server/default/lib directory, and just like when you were fighting with your sister over that cookie, nobody won and we got the NoClassDefFoundError.
(Or something vaguely similar to that.)
Thanks to [those who helped] for their help with this!
Now back to our regular programming…
It was bugging me that it took an extra day to find out that of all the possible dependency conflicts, the jta library was the one causing the deployment problem. It bugged me for two reasons: Not only is the jta library the “obvious” cause (hmm, we can’t instantiate a JtaSomethingSomething class… I wonder if it could be the jta library that’s causing a conflict?) — but also because the jta library was my first guess. I wanted to find out, why did I abandon that guess and try everything else?
Two Flaws in my Approach
There were two aspects of my approach that led to me not recognizing that the jta library was causing the issue:
- My practice was to search only the
server\default\deploy directory for duplicates, not realizing (well, at some level I realized it, but it didn’t dawn on me as important) that JBoss has many things that it deploys out of the
server\default\lib directory, and these can also cause conflicts.
- I was blindly searching for classes containing the string “jta”, I guess because when the connection to the JTA connection factory worked the message in the log mentioned a JtaTransactionManager. But in the end, the classes that were conflicting did not have the Jta in their names — they had javax.transaction. Suspecting the jta library, if I had opened up this library in the Referenced Libraries in Eclipse, I would have seen that the classes were all in the javax.transaction and javax.transaction.xa packages, and realized I should search for this string instead.
Sure enough, if I expand my JarSearch search to the whole
server\default tree (and don’t mark the jta library as provided in my .war project), I see this in JarSearch’s output:
Live and learn!
I decided to look around again to see if someone had already made a .[jrw]ar file searcher so we don’t have to do all that manual searching to find duplicately-deployed classes. A search of sourceforge.net turned up the JarSearch Eclipse plugin, made available under the GPLv2 license.
I extracted the .jar file from the download’s .zip file and copied it into my eclipse\plugins directory, then restarted Eclipse (JarSearch doesn’t seem to be set up to use the fancier method for installing an Eclipse plug-in using the Eclipse Update Manager). The most recent build of JarSearch is version 1.0 for Eclipse 3.2, but it seems to work ok on my Eclipse 3.3.2 installation.
Now when I hit Ctrl+H, I have a new Jar Search tab in the Search dialog, which allows me to search for a class inside archive files:
Notice that I added the rar extension to the list of filetypes to search inside of.
I click Search and JarSearch finds some classes with HAXA in their names inside .jar files that are nested inside two different .rar files. Wow, that’s nice!
Future Feature Wish: Saved Defaults
This plug-in is going to be so helpful to us. There’s just one thing I’d like to see improved — it would be nice if the options you pick could be saved as defaults for next time. As it is, after doing the search mentioned above, if I press Ctrl+H again and navigate to the Jar Search tab, the options are back to the original settings:
This means that I will always be needing to select the folder (which I think will usually be JBoss’s default\deploy folder) and add in the .rar extension. [Update 11/5/2008: Actually it turns out the folder I always want to search is the server\default folder, not server\default\deploy…]
That’s a minor gripe though. This utility is really going to be a help to us. Thanks, Alain!


Spreading & kindle the joy of knowledge in its area is a library space that holds a huge collection of books on Ayurveda. These books can be used for references and study. Your visit to Deepanjali can be just to lay hands on the books kept at the library. Moving out of the celluloid world and actually flipping through the age old Vedic documents can be refreshing for the mind. The library is neatly tucked by a vast collection of puranas and granthas. People who are passionate about Ayurveda can also find solitude among this large collection of books.
Most of the traditional houses in Kerala have a Sarpa Kavu (meaning Abode of Snakes) in their property and it is a ritual to light a lamp for the Snake God everyday. There are many beliefs that illness is done away with by offerings made at the Sarpakavu. Deepanjali values this tradition and holds a sacred place in its property for a Sarpakavu. The Kavu (Temple) contains a representation of Naga Raja in the form of a stone sculpture (King of the Snakes) and other Naga Devatas (snake deities), where offerings and rites are performed .
At Deepanjali Yoga is all about recovery and rejuvenation. You can opt for yoga under the guidance of a Yoga expert. Deepanjali celebrates diversity in yoga by combining breathing techniques, postures, stretching and meditation in a joyful manner. There is an enormous benefit in yoga, it brings about an all over discipline to life. Embark yourself on a journey with yoga and it will lead you to good health and happiness. This is also a way to relax your body from the stress of the world outside. It helps you to strengthen your inner thought and also connect to yourself. After a few sessions of yoga you will find tangible benefits, so reap the best out of these sessions. At Deepanjali yoga is taught with a motive to re-balance, restore and revive you. There is Satsang at Arsha Yoga every Saturday evening.
© 2016 Deepanjali. All rights reserved | Design by The Antz


Research lead on the Platforms and Publishers project at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.
Adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Founder: Cannabis Wire
Cannabis Wire is a news organization that covers cannabis business, policy, and research.
Author: A New Leaf
A New Leaf: The End of Cannabis Prohibition (The New Press, 2014)
“A New Leaf is a detailed account of the history of the regulation of cannabis, presenting in a blow-by-blow manner the legal and political battles around its prohibition.”
—Jerome Groopman, The New York Review of Books
“With great clarity, A New Leaf offers a sweeping and important view of today’s changing attitudes toward marijuana.”
—Amy Wilentz, author of The Rainy Season and Farewell, Fred Voodoo, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner
“Just in time: Martin and Rashidian bring us the first account of the lively new green economy that is springing up in the wake of marijuana decriminalization and legalization. This is a meticulously reported book and a firm rebuke to the continuing federal prohibition.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich, bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed
“A cogent, well-sourced and ambitious analysis of the slow decline of cannabis prohibition in the United States. . . . A piercing work of sociological reportage.”
“Carefully researched [and] accessible. . . . Changing marijuana laws doesn’t seem as scary a proposition by the end.”
“Nothing less than an indictment of a national disgrace—a must-read for anyone who wants to participate in the urgent conversation about cannabis legalization, drug policy reform, and the assault of the drug war on civil liberties.”
—Nadine Strossen, professor at New York Law School and former president of the ACLU
“A comprehensive look at the political and social revolution taking place that is leading to the day when marijuana will inevitably be legal in all fifty states. The authors take us on a journey to meet the people on the front lines of this transformation.”
—Dale Maharidge, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning And Their Children After Them and author of Bringing Mulligan Home
Also seen in: Los Angeles Review of Books, Boston Globe, National Post (here, here, and here), The National Memo’s Weekend Reader, The Inlander, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Boulder Weekly, Playboy, The Albany Times Union.
Research Lead: Tow Center for Digital Journalism
Other writing, TV, radio, etc.
And you can see me on screen, from the History Channel’s Hooked: Illegal Drugs: Marijuana to CBS News to BRIC TV.
Grants & Fellowships
- Brown Institute for Media Innovation Magic Grant (Columbia Journalism School and the Stanford School of Engineering)
- Made in New York Media Center/Independent Filmmaker Project
- City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment


As part of a concerted effort to promote civic education and engagement in Georgia, IFES partnered with international and Georgian professors and experts to develop and publish a course book to accompany its ongoing civic education course. Both the book and course are titled demokratia da mokalakeoba (democracy and citizenship).
One important part of inclusion is making sure that the history and role of persons with disabilities are not ignored. At the beginning of the course reader, there are six different scenarios showing how active citizenship made a positive difference. One example focuses on the experience of persons with disabilities in the United States, where they advocated for their rights and eventually got the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a landmark disability rights law, passed. This example of disability mainstreaming is also supported by a section in the reader that focuses explicitly on the rights of persons with disabilities, as well as chapters on the rights of ethnic minorities and gender equality.
The course book, now available in Georgian and English languages, has been distributed to students, professors and others interested in civics. It will be made available to the general public at the National Library of Georgia.


The German immigrant Carl Kaӱser, later known as Charles Keyser, settled on the west side of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River between Massanutten Mountain and the river bend at the mouth of Hawksbill Creek in 1765.
Carl Sebastian Kayser was born around 1:00 a.m. on 16 January 1726 and baptized the same day in Möckmühl, Württemberg. Today the town is situated in the Heilbronn District of the German state Baden-Württemberg, and lies about thirty eight miles north of Stuttgart. A note from the birth record states, “a son of Andreas Kayser, citizen and butcher and of his wife Catharina”. Several local shopkeepers were witnesses to the baptism, including a Sebastian Öffinger, who may have been the inspiration for Carl’s middle name.
According to the research of Mark Kiser and German researcher Friedrich R. Wollmershäuser, Carl’s parents were Andreas Kayser, and his second wife, Anna Catharina Schuhmacher, who married on 21 April 1721 in Möckmühl. Andreas was a citizen and butcher, from a family line of butchers and inn keepers, and his pedigree has been traced back to the mid 1500s.
Andreas’ first marriage occurred 27 May 1710 to Catharina Schreibeisen, daughter of the late Sir Johann Jacob Schreibeisen, formerly a member of the municipal law-court and shoemaker in Möckmühl. Andreas is listed as a citizen, butcher and a son of Johann Caspar Kayser, also a butcher, in Möckmühl. Catharina Elizabetha died on 3 March 1721 at age 34 years, only one son of this union surviving. Andreas quickly remarried to Carl's mother Anna Catharina.
At the time of Carl’s birth, Möckmühl was a part of the Duchy of Württemberg in the southwestern part of the Holy Roman Empire. During Medieval Times, the Catholic Church held spiritual dominion over the people and nations of Europe. In 1517, a Catholic monk named Martin Luther, nailed to the church door in Wittenberg a list of 95 criticisms of what he saw as the corruption and false doctrines of the Catholic Church. The result of his actions started a movement known as the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation spread throughout Europe and resulted in a tumultuous cultural and religious rebellion that overturned the thousand year domination of the Catholic Church. These actions left no one in Germany untouched, and in the year 1542 Möckmühl officially became Protestant.
Further conflict arose from the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Rooted in the ongoing religious and imperial ambitions of the House of Hapsburg, it was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. The war was fought primarily (though not exclusively) in Germany, and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe, resulting in extensive destruction of entire regions. Armies were expected to be largely self-funding and generally ravaged the countryside, taking whatever they could. This encouraged a form of lawlessness that often imposed severe hardship on inhabitants of the occupied territory. Württemberg was a central battlefield and suffered severely from the Thirty Years’ War and from repeated French invasions in the 17th and 18th centuries. Episodes of famine and disease significantly decreased the population while bankrupting most of the warring powers, and when The Plague broke out in Möckmühl in 1635, 80% of its inhabitants died.
Over the years, thousands fled religious persecution, war, famine and economic instability, leaving their homelands to repopulate these devastated regions. But this does not seem to have been the case with the Kayser family, who records reveal to have been relatively wealthy and living a stable existence in Möckmühl for generations. We are fortunate to have so many records preserved, which translator Aaron Fogleman says is because they participated in enterprises the government regulated, and did not leave or die out.
By the late 17th and early 18th century, the people of the region had endured generations of severe hardship. Lured by the promise of generous land grants and political and religious freedom, many left their homelands and set sail for the English Colonies. Most came from the southwest region of Germany, the areas known as the Rhineland, Palatinate, Württemberg, Baden, and German Switzerland.
Among the first Germans to settle in the American Colonies were the Mennonites, who arrived to Philadelphia in 1683. Numerous other German groups followed, including those who settled the Germanna Colonies. New researchers, like Sharon Lemkuil, are taking a fresh look at some of the conflicting information written about Germanna in the past, and finding some of the legends associated with the group to be inaccurate.
Members of the Germanna Colonies arrived in Virginia in the early part of the 18th century. Although the settlers of the Germanna Colonies are commonly thought of as one group, there were actually two unrelated groups who were only together briefly. The members of the First Germanna Colony were German Reformed Protestants who arrived in 1714. They came from villages near Nassau-Siegen in North Rhine Westphalia in 1714 and had their own resources and were given a land grant. At first they were settled in a five sided fort about twenty miles west of present day Fredericksburg, but moved away in about 1718-19, specifically separating themselves from the second group, and located in what is now Fauquier County, Virginia.
Members of the Second Germanna Colony arrived in 1717. They were Lutherans who came from the Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. In London they made a contract with Captain Andrew Tarbett to be taken to Pennsylvania on the ship Scott, but when Captain Tarbett proved to be a man of poor moral character and was thrown into debtors' prison, the passengers lingered on board, consumed their supplies, and were forced to spend their passage money on more food. The captain was released and the voyage was undertaken, however he treated the Germans poorly, stole their supplies and hijacked them to Virginia. [Germanna History by John Blankenbaker.] Lt. Governor Spotswood took pity on them and purchased their service for the debt. This group worked for Spotswood for seven years and Johann Caspar Stoever, Sr. was recruited as pastor. The legend that the Germans were recruited by Spotswood to mine iron and silver has been proven inaccurate, though later some mining was done. They were colonists and farmers, and the new research indicates that the governor was engaged in land development and wanted the German immigrants to settle further into Virginia, which at the time was seen as extending vaguely as far as the Mississippi River.
Some researchers have confused other immigrants with similar names from these early groups with our Carl Sebastian Kaӱser, who arrived to the American Colonies thirty-two years after the second Germanna group, but they are unrelated.
A history of Möckmühl indicates that things were not going well economically for its citizens in 1734. In 1746 the people were plagued by severe weather. Carl's father died that winter, and on the 28th day of March 1746 an Inventory of his estate was recorded. Carl Sebastian and the other children of the second marriage were named, all of which were under age twenty-five, and given a guardian in accordance with the Guardianship Court. Carl's mother, Anna Catharina, was also given a guardian. These may have been some of the factors for Carl's decision to leave home.
The proceedings of the Württemberg Privy Council of 28 February 1749 include a short note that some families from Möckmühl district were willing to immigrate to America. Although their names are not listed, Carl Kayser was one of the ones who obtained permission to leave, paying a fee of 2 Pfennige in order to give up his citizenship and move away. At the time of Carl's departure he received in cash 15 fl. from his father's inheritance. Additionally, he borrowed 171 fl. from Gabriel Eberle of Brettach, no doubt to help finance his voyage to Pennsylvania.
At the age of twenty-three, Carl Kayser and several other residents from Möckmühl, including a relative named Johann Heinrich Magatsch, set out on what would be a several months long journey. They traveled up the Rhine River Valley to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where they boarded the ship "Patience" to Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, before continuing on to the British American Colonies. They arrived at the Port of Philadelphia on Sunday, 19 September 1749 and docked at Penn's Wharf. Captain Hugh Steel escorted the immigrants a few blocks up Market Street to the Philadelphia Courthouse, where Carl took the Oath of Allegiance to Britain's King George II and signed himself "Carl Kaӱser".
In March of 2002, Mark Kiser visited the Palatines to America Library in Columbus, Ohio. In a source he checked, “The Earliest Records of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Vol. 2” translated by Frederick S. Weiser, p. 347-349 and 370, he found two interesting entries.
1. “From January 1, 1750 on, the following announced themselves for Holy Communion: #55 Carl Sebastian Kayser, recently arrived. Servant of Jacob Eichholtz.” [Carl is noted here as a new arrival and parishioner.]
2. “Those who have announced themselves to go to Holy Communion on Estomihi Sunday, February 17, 1751: # 21 Carl Sebastian Kayser, with Jacob Eichholtz.”
Those were the only two entries for Carl and the last confirmed record of him in Lancaster Co. There is no further indication that Carl was under Jacob Eichholtz's employ, and no marriage record for him has been found at this church.
Jacob Eichholtz was mentioned several times; the birth of children and his death on 25 July 1760. One interesting note on the above information is the “recently arrived” statement recorded in January 1750. So we do know that shortly after landing in Philadelphia, Carl moved west to Lancaster, Co. and is found in records there four months later.
Further research on Jacob Eichholtz revealed that he was born Johan Jacob Eichholtz on 26 March 1712 in Bischoffsheim, Germany, as recorded on his tombstone. He arrived at the Port of Philadelphia on 30 August 1737 aboard the ship “Samuel”.
On 27 March 1739 Jacob Eichholtz and Elizabeth Klein were married in Lancaster Co. by Johann Casper Stoever, Jr. This is the only mention of Eichholtz in Stoever's records. Because of Eichholtz's association with Carl Kayser, Stoever's records were thoroughly checked, but there is no mention of Kayser in his marriage or baptism records. [Records of Rev. John Casper Stoever, Baptismal and Marriage 1730-1779, p. 57.]
Soon after marriage, Jacob Eichholtz purchased land in the Lancaster Township of Lancaster Co., Pa., on 14 January 1740. He became an innkeeper and butcher in Lancaster. This information fits well with an incident that occurred while Carl was still living in Lancaster Co. under Eichholtz's employ:
"Maj. Andrew Keyser also informed the author that an Indian once called at his grandfather's, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, appeared to be much agitated, and asked for something to eat. After refreshing himself, he was asked what disturbed him. He replied, 'The Southern Indians have killed my whole nation.'" [A History of the Valley of Virginia by Samuel Kercheval.]
That would not be the last encounter Carl Kayser had with an Indian. While the British authorities wanted to populate the Piedmont of Virginia with Protestant colonists loyal to the King, they also sought to block the Catholic French from encroaching on lands west of the Blue Ridge, and to protect existing settlements against hostile Indians (and potential French supporters).
Forts were built and staffed with local militia on guard against the arrival of Iroquois or other tribes. They also relied upon “tributary tribes”, who were dependent upon the Virginia government, to block occupation of the backcountry by “strange” Native Americans. This strategy avoided open warfare and the cost of having the militia attack Indians on hunting or raiding parties through the Piedmont.
Ultimately, this strategy did not peacefully resolve the conflict between the settlers and the Indians. Lt. Governor Spotswood recognized that the main potential conflict in the Shenandoah Valley was with the Iroquois, who lived in New York and traveled through the Piedmont and Shenandoah Valley on raids against the Cherokee. Spotswood came up with a new strategy for frontier security, "defense-by-settlement". This required recruiting new immigrants to move onto the land west of the mountains who would effectively become a barrier against French occupation and Indian raids against settlements to the east. In 1722 Spotswood helped negotiate a treaty in which the Iroquois agreed to stay west of the Blue Ridge. As there was still vacant land available east of the mountains, immigrants and indentured servants who had served their terms and gained their freedom had no reason to push westward. The solution was to import more immigrants, even if those immigrants were not English. London officials encouraged using foreign Protestants to settle the frontier, rather than depopulating England itself. The source of potential new settlers for Virginia’s back country became the immigrants of Pennsylvania. Lt. Governor Spotswood and Governor Gooch calculated that land-hungry immigrants who reached Philadelphia and moved west to Lancaster were willing to keep moving, and they were right. Virginia offered what those immigrants sought - high-quality farmland at low prices, and that is the way many early German settlers found their way to the Shenandoah Valley. [Encouraging Settlement and Land Grants West of the Blue Ridge.]
It is not known exactly when Carl Kayser left the service of Jacob Eichholtz or Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania. He certainly would have been aware of the recruiting of German immigrants to settle west of the Blue Ridge, and sometime after 17 February 1751, he probably joined a group migrating along the Great Wagon Road into the Valley of Virginia. By the Spring of 1755, Carl was living in Frederick Co., Virginia.
Records found by Sharon Lemkuil indicate that Carl Kayser, (Charles Kyzar/Kyzer on the lists), was a member of the Frederick Co. Militia, and served under the command of William Bethel, Captain of Foot Company. [Virginia Colonial Soldiers by Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck, p. 346.] [“Records of Frederick County, Virginia, Militia in the French and Indian War Period” by Mrs. Anna Strickland Milbourne, Charles Town, WV, National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. XXVII, March, 1939, No. 1, p. 56-57.]
A court martial, held on “Fryday the 2d. day of September, 1755” issued the following judgment:
"Charles Kyzer fined 5 shillings or 50 pounds of tobacco for missing one general muster."
This court proceeding confirms that Charles Kyzar was a soldier in the British Army during the French and Indian War, and that he was present at Braddock's Defeat, which took place near Pittsburgh on 9 July 1755. From it we know that Charles Kyzar, along with his neighbor John Countz, who was also on that list, were probably among a group of "Virginia levies" selected from local provinces for the purpose of augmenting Braddock's two regiments of "regulars", and would have made up the rear guard during the Battle of Monongahela. We also know that these two men were definitely living in Frederick Co. by 1755.
While this evidence confirms the family tradition that Charles Keyser served in Braddock’s Army, no evidence has been found to confirm the story that he served as a butcher and supply wagon driver.
The Braddock Expedition was a failed British military attempt to capture the French Fort Duquesne in the summer of 1755. That Spring General Edward Braddock had arrived to the Colonies with two regiments from Ireland and added to them by recruiting local British Americans to increase his troops to roughly 2,200. He was accompanied on this expedition by Colonel George Washington and Sergeant Daniel Boone.
Braddock lacked command experience, and was scornful at Benjamin Franklin's advice for the need to recruit Indian scouts. Franklin cautioned the general that he was badly underestimating the rigors of the American wilderness and the dangers therein – especially the French-allied Indians, and later wrote that Braddock had "smiled" at his ignorance. Braddock's abrupt dismissal of Franklin's advice would prove fatally misguided.
They set out from Fort Cumberland, Maryland on 29 May, following the wilderness route that Washington had blazed a year earlier, but the expedition was beset with difficulties from the outset. The route, which was little more than a primitive track, traversed five mountain ranges and crossed innumerable watercourses before reaching the French Fort. Braddock sent an advance detachment of 600 men ahead to clear the "road", which was in constant need of widening in order to move artillery and supply wagons along it.
Frustrated at his slow pace, he split his force in two, with the slower force following with the cannon and wagons in the rear. The forward column crossed the Monongahela River on 9 July within ten miles of Fort Duquesne. Despite being very tired after weeks of crossing extremely hard terrain, they anticipated a relatively easy victory. The French and Canadians sent out around 800 troops to check the British advance. Seeing the enemy in the trees, the British advance guard fired and succeeded in killing the French captain, at which time the Indian warriors took up positions to attack. They were fighting on Indian hunting grounds which favored their tactics. Indians employed a form of “psychological warfare” against the British forces. During the battle, they made a terrifying “whoop” sound that caused fear and panic to spread to the British infantry. After killing British soldiers, they would nail their scalps to surrounding trees.
The advance guard came under heavy fire and began taking casualties and withdrew. In the narrow confines of the road, they collided with the main body of Braddock's force, which had advanced rapidly when the shots were heard. Despite comfortably outnumbering their attackers, the British were immediately on the defensive. Most of the regulars were not accustomed to fighting in forest terrain, and were terrified by the deadly musket fire. Confusion reigned, and several British platoons fired at each other. The entire column dissolved in disorder as the Canadian militiamen and Indians enveloped them and continued to snipe at the British flanks from the woods on the sides of the road. At this time, the French regulars began advancing along the road and began to push the British back. General Braddock rode forward to try to rally his men, who had lost all sense of unit cohesion.
Following Braddock's lead, the officers tried to reform units into regular order within the confines of the road. This effort was mostly in vain and simply provided targets for their concealed enemy. The cannon was used, but due to the confines of the forest road, was ineffective. Braddock had several horses shot under him, yet retained his composure, providing the only sign of order to the frightened British soldiers. Many of the Americans, lacking the training of British regulars to stand their ground, fled and sheltered behind trees, where they were mistaken for enemy fighters by the redcoats, who fired upon them. The rearguard, made up of Virginians, managed to fight effectively from the trees, something they had learned in previous years of fighting Indians.
Despite the unfavorable conditions, the British began to stand firm and blast volleys at the enemy. Finally, after three hours of intense combat, Braddock was shot in the lung, possibly by one of his own men, and effective resistance collapsed. He fell from his horse, badly wounded, and was carried back to safety by his men. As a result of Braddock's wounding, and without an order being given, the British began to withdraw. They did so largely with order, until they reached the Monongahela River, when they were set upon by the Indian warriors. The Indians attacked with hatchets and scalping knives, after which panic spread among the British troops and they began to break ranks and run, believing they were about to be massacred.
Colonel Washington, although he had no official position in the chain of command, was able to impose and maintain some order, and formed a rear guard, which allowed the remnants of the force to disengage. By sunset, the surviving British forces were fleeing back down the road they had built, carrying their wounded. Behind them on the road, bodies were piled high. The Indians did not pursue the fleeing redcoats, but instead set about scalping and looting the corpses of the wounded and dead, and drinking two hundred gallons of captured British rum.
A number of British soldiers and women were captured in the battle. Some of the soldiers were spared, as were most of the women, but around a dozen soldiers were tortured and burned to death by the Indians that night.
Daniel Boone was among the soldiers involved in the battle and acted as a wagoner. In the Battle of the Monongahela, Boone narrowly escaped death when the baggage wagons were assaulted by Indian troops. He escaped, it is said, by cutting his wagons and fleeing. Boone remained critical of Braddock's blunders for the rest of his life.
Of the approximately 1,300 men Braddock led into battle, 456 were killed outright and 422 were wounded. Commissioned officers were prime targets and suffered greatly: out of 86 officers, 26 were killed and 37 wounded. Of the 50 or so women that accompanied the British column as maids and cooks, only 4 returned with the British; about half were taken as captives. The French and Canadians reported very few casualties.
Braddock died of his wounds on 13 July, four days after the battle, and was buried on the road near Fort Necessity.
Colonel Thomas Dunbar, with the reserves and rear supply units, took command when the survivors reached his position. Realizing there was no further likelihood of his force proceeding to capture Fort Duquesne, he decided to retreat. He ordered the destruction of supplies and cannon before withdrawing, burning about 150 wagons on the spot. His forces retreated back toward Philadelphia. The French did not pursue, realizing that they did not have sufficient resources for an organized pursuit.
The battle of Monongahela was a devastating defeat, and has been characterized as one of the most disastrous in British colonial history. [Battle of the Monongahela.]
Family tradition has always maintained that Charles Keyser was a soldier in the French and Indian War and was present at the Battle known as Braddock's Defeat. [Mead Relations.] About 120 years after the battle, great-grandson, Isaac C. Dovel, recorded that Charles Keyser was a soldier in Braddock’s unfortunate campaign, and added the following note: that he "returned unhurt". Considering the details of the battle, that was quite remarkable.
Charles Keyser's (unofficial) Military Record is as follows:
Carl Sebastian Kaÿser
16 January 1726
Möckmühl, Duchy of Württemberg
Before 28 May 1778
Shenandoah, Virginia, United States
Colonial Militia of Frederick County
William Bethel, Captain of Foot
French and Indian War
Battle of Monongahela
on the road to Fort Duquesne, just south of
modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
where the army was ambushed and slaughtered by
Indian and French allies on 9 July 1755
Time of Service
Probably for One Engagement
Court Martialed in Frederick County, Virginia
on 2 September 1755 and Fined Five Shillings or
50 Pounds of Tobacco for Missing One Private
Muster Within Twelve Months Last Past
It is impossible to convey the danger and chaos surrounding the lives of our pioneer ancestors in the Shenandoah Valley during this turbulent time. An article entitled "Fairfax and Prince William Counties in the French and Indian War" by Sandra Mayo, and published in Northern Virginia Heritage, February 1987 (Vol. IX, No. 1) gives us the heartrending account, taken from the "letters of George Washington, himself, of the reason why Charles Kyzar and his neighbor John Countz, along with virtually every other member of the militia, failed to show up for muster just a few weeks after the massacre at the Battle of Monongahela:
Braddock's disastrous defeat in July of 1755 and the subsequent withdrawal of British forces to Philadelphia opened up the entire Virginia frontier to attack by the French and especially by their Indian allies. In this time of crisis, George Washington was appointed Colonel of the Virginia Regiment and commander-in-chief of Virginia forces. Washington's job was impossibly difficult. The war was far from universally popular. It was extremely difficult to raise even a regiment of regular troops and the qualities of many of those enlisting left much to be desired. To augment his forces, Washington periodically called on the militia of nearby counties.
Washington established his headquarters at Winchester, which was the nearest settlement exposed to the enemy. There he built a defensive post named Fort Loudoun as an honor to the recently commissioned titular governor of the colony. From this point, Washington planned to erect a chain of forts along the western frontier of Virginia.
Arriving in Winchester on October 10, 1755. Washington found
"...every thing in the greatest hurry and
confusion, by the back Inhabitants
flocking in, and those of the Towne
removing out...Amidst terror and panic,
his attempts to raise the neighboring
militia were futile. The men refused to
leave their homes unprotected to go
against the Indians, choosing instead...
to die, with their wives and Familys."
Charles Kyser next appears by deed of 6 April 1765, when he paid five shillings for 108 acres just across from the mouth of the Hawksbill Creek near the present town of Luray in Page (then Frederick) Co., Virginia.
Lewis Rhinehart and Matthias Rhinehart of Frederick County, Virginia, conveyed unto Charles Kyser, of the same place, a parcel of land on the South Fork of the Shenandoah, being the lower end of two tracts of land granted to Matthias Rhinehart by deed of 8 February 1764 from the Proprietor’s Office of the Northern Neck of Virginia. This firmly puts Charles Keyser in Frederick Co. before the Spring of 1765, as the deed states he was already living in Frederick Co. at the time. According to a letter written in 1892 by Charles' step-grandson, Adam Strickler, Charles Keyser "came to our Valley and lived on Mill Creek". [Mead Relations] [Forerunners.] This is confirmed by the military information above which placed him in Frederick County in 1755, as the men in Captain Bethel's district were drawn from what is now Page Co., which is exactly the same area where Charles Keyser is found ten years later.
6 April 1765
Deed Book No. 10, page 248
This Indenture made the sixth Day of April in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty five Between Lewis Rhinehart and Matthias Rhinehart of the County of Frederick in the Colony of Virginia of the one part and Charles Kyser of the same place of the other part Witnesseth that the said Lewis Rhinehart and Matthias Rhinehart for and in Consideration of the Sum of five Shillings Current Money of Virginia to him in hand paid by the said Charles Kyser at or before the Sealing and Delivery of these present Have granted Bargained and sold and by these present Doth grant Bargain and Sell unto the said Charles Kyser Certain piece or parcel of Land Containing One Hundred and Eight Acres Situate in the Parish and County of Frederick in the said Colony on the South fork of Shanandore it being Part of and the lower end of two tract of Land the one Granted to Matthias Rhinehart by Deed bearing Date the Eight Day of February 1764 from the Proprietors Office of the Northern Neck of Virginia but entered and taken up by Michael Rhinehart father of the said Lewis and Matthias and the other part of a Greater Tract Originally Granted by Pattent from the Kings Office to Stover and by him Sold to one Stone who sold the same to Michael Rhinehart the father of the said Lewis and who by his Last Will devised the same to him Lewis and be it as follows viz Beginning at a small sycamore and walnut on the Bank of the said River and Runing from the River from the line of Fence to 23 degrees Et 122 poles to two white Oaks on a Branch in the old pattent line thence that line N 80 deg. Et Ninety Six poles to a white Oak Chestnut Oak and Lowest on the River Bank thence up the Several Courses of the River to the Beginning and all Houses Buildings Orchards Ways Waters Water Courses ??? Commodities ??? unto and Appurtenances whatsoever to the said Premises hereby Granted or any Part these of belonging or in anywise appertaining and the Reversion and Reversions Remainder and Remainders Rents ??? and Profits there of To have and to hold the said One Hundred and Eight Acres of Land be the same more or less with in the Deserved Bounds and all and Singular other the Premises hereby Grants with the Appurtenances unto the said Charles Kyser his Executors Administrators and Assigns from the Day before the Date here of for and During the fall Term and Time of one whole Year from thence next Consuming fully to be Complete and ended yielding and paying therefore the Rent of one pepper Corn on Lady Day next if the same shall be Lawfully Demanded to the Intent and Purpose that by Virtue of these present and of the Statute for Transferring Acres into possession the said Charles Kyser may be in his Actual Possession of the Premises and be thereby enabled to Accept and take a Grant and Release of the Reversion and Inheritance thereof to him and his Heirs In Witness whereof the said Lewis Rhinehart and Matthias Rhinehart have here set their Hands and Seals the Day and Year first above Written. [Mark Kiser]
The early settlers in the Valley lived at peace with the Indians until 1754, but from that time until 1765 Indian incursions and raids were frequent. In the summer of 1758, several settlers were attacked by Indians at the Hawksbill Settlement:
"In 1758 John Stone of White House in the Hawksbill settlement, was killed by the Indians and his wife, son, aged seven, and George Grandstaff, were taken prisoner. Mrs. Stone could not keep up with the party, so was killed further up the
mountain. Grandstaff came home after three years' captivity, but the boy remained with the Indians until grown, came home, and sold his father's property and returned to the Indians."
Another account tells us:
"The family while at breakfast was attacked by the Indians, the wife Maria and the two daughters were tomahawked, the baby girl was picked up by the heels and its head dashed against the log wall.
The Indians were amused at the futile defense put up by the three small boys so they were carried off into captivity."
And one letter says:
"We were thirty-nine Mennonite families living together in Virginia. One family was murdered and the rest of us and many
other families were obliged to flee for our lives, leaving all and going emptyhanded." [Massacre at Hawksbill Settlement]
Another incident happened one late summer afternoon in 1764, when a Swiss Mennonite minister, John Rhodes, along with his wife and several of his children, were massacred not far from where Charles Keyser bought his Hawksbill farm just a few months later.
There was more evidence of Indian relics in Page County than any other county in the Shenandoah Valley, and more evidence of Indians from the upper end of Massanutten to the mouth of Hawksbill Creek than in any other part of the county. In 1830 there were still remains of Indian mounds on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River and on the Hawksbill. An Indian mound on Noah Keyser’s lands near the mouth of the Hawksbill was found to be literally filled with human skeletons. [“Massanutten” by Harry M. Strickler.]
As the Massanutten settlement was unprotected, many inhabitants built stone houses with fort cellars, the only known cases of this type of architecture in Virginia. According to the terms of the Rhinehart-Kyser deed, all houses and buildings were conveyed with the land. This included a structure called the Michael Rinehart Home and Fort Cellar. This house was built prior to 1735 and was still standing in 1936 when the W.P.A. Historical Inventory Project compiled a thorough and very interesting report about the old house and its history, which included secret closets, a port hole through which to fire at marauding Indians, and a secret trap door leading to the fort cellar below. Also mentioned was a two room log building used for slave quarters, although there is no evidence that Charles Keyser, Sr. ever kept slaves.
Charles Keyser was a very capable and self sufficient man. In 1765 he built another house on his land. The Virginia Works Project Administration report on The Charles Keyser Home notes that it was in a fair state of preservation at the time of the report (1936). As in the case of the Michael Rinehart House Report, it is very interesting to read, however there are some errors in the report.
The house was oblong in shape, built of logs out from the banks of the river, fastened together in dovetail fashion and sealed with red clay and cut straw. On front was a low porch. The house consisted of three rooms on the first floor and two on the second. As you entered the house, there was one long narrow room, with an immense chimney in the center and a stairway on the north wall. The fireplace opening was four and one-half feet deep, seven and one-half feet wide and five and one-quarter feet high. On the fireplace were iron cranes, one on either side, which swung back and forth. From that room, you entered another room fourteen by sixteen feet which had a small fireplace. From that room you entered another room, probably used as a bedroom. The front door was divided and hung on long narrow hinges and fastened with iron latches.
A very steep stairway led upstairs, where an impressive chimney measuring three and one-half feet square stood in the center of the first room. The ceiling was fifteen feet at the highest point and made in a "V" shape. The log walls were sealed with boards cut with a broad axe, hand finished and hand tongued-and-grooved. The rafters were made one at a time, numbered with Roman numerals, and then put in place. At the head of the stairs was a crude drying rack that suspended from the ceiling on four poles.
On the west end of the main room and about six feet from the front door was a trap door opening to a stairway that lead to the fort cellar below. It had a vaulted ceiling and was built of blue limestone, laid in a keystone style. The spaces between the stones were filled with mortar, so as to present a smooth surface. The report notes that at the time, two hundred years after the house's construction, that the mortar was in excellent condition and as smooth as if it had been put on "by an expert present-day plasterer". The ceiling was arched, and measured eight and one-half feet high in the center. The vault was twelve feet wide by eighteen feet long. In the south and west walls were openings called port holes, which were narrow on the outside and widened inwardly, allowing the pioneer in the vault ample room for shooting. There was a door at the front of the stairs which made it more secure from attacking enemies. Just outside the door was a niche, used to hold a pine torch. Also inside the cellar on the south wall was another niche, larger than the outside one. In the southwest corner was a clear spring.
Tradition says that prisoners, when being taken to the jail in Woodstock, were kept overnight at the old Keyser home. In the wall of one of the upstairs rooms can be seen places where iron hooks fastened to the walls.
Here in this house, Charles Keyser and his wife raised their family of ten children. The name of Charles Keyser's wife is not known for certain, but thanks to records supplied by Mark Kiser, we do know that he was married in America:
"Carl Sebastian, went almost 7 years ago to the English island Pennsylvania and is said to have got married there." [Inventory of Anna Catharina Kayser, Möckmühl, 31 Oct 1755, Inventory and Real Distribution.]
There are two ongoing theories about who the wife of Charles Keyser was.
The first theory has been popular for over a hundred years, and originates in the notes of Charles' great-grandson, Isaac C. Dovel. In the Fall of 1876, Dovel attended the U.S. Centennial in Philadelphia. During that time he, "embraced the opportunity to visit relatives in Shenandoah and Page Counties, Virginia". The renewal of family connections apparently inspired him to begin collecting his family history, which was "compiled from old records all of which will soon be inaccessible". In the beginning of his manuscript, Dovel wrote that Charles Keyser, "married a lady in Philadelphia by the name of Shelly". [Dovel Family Record.]
Researcher Mark Kiser believes that Carl Kaӱser and Mary Shelly were married in 1751 while he was still a servant of Jacob Eichholtz, living in Lancaster Township, and that their first son, Charles, Jr. was born there in 1752. Mary's family, Christian and Magdalen Shelly, were living in the Manheim Township of Lancaster County as well.
Mark has uncovered several documents surrounding Charles Kayser and Mary Shelly, including a deed her parents recorded in 1759 conveying 78 acres to their oldest son Jacob, and her father's will, dated 22 April 1760. But the most interesting record Mark found was a deed dated 6 June 1761 of Charles Kyser to Elizabeth Shelly. Because Jacob Shelly had died intestate and unmarried, Mary Shelly and her sisters had inherited his 78 acres, and this deed was in effect selling her portion of the inheritance to her sister Elizabeth. The deed refers to "Charles Cayser and Mary, his wife", and what is so interesting is that he signed his name "Carl Kaӱser" in the document. In 2003 Mark wrote an "Update on the Carl Kayser Research" in which he outlined his findings and conclusions. Currently, Mark is working on further proving this theory and tracking down any other traces of Carl Kaӱser in Lancaster Co.
The second theory, also derived from Isaac Dovel's notes, gives a different name for Charles Keyser's wife:
"Charles Kaiser was a native of Wurtemburg near Stuttgart Germany, his wife's name was Elizabeth Grossglose, also a native of Germany."
Much confusion has come from the fact that the names in both these theories came from the same source - Dovel.
In 1892, Adam Strickler, the step-grandson of Charles Keyser, wrote a letter to Ephraim Keyser outlining a brief history of the Keyser family. It contained the information about "Miss Shelley" found in the book, “The Keyser Family: Descendants of Dirck Keyser of Amsterdam” by Charles S. (Shearer) Keyser, which had just been published three years earlier in commemoration of the bicentennial reunion in Philadelphia for a different Keyser family's arrival in America. Adam Strickler's letter was copied in Harry M. Strickler's book, "Forerunners", published in 1925, and again in 1933 in A.M. Prichard's, "Mead Relations", and eventually became absorbed into the family narrative. [Note: see new research discussion in the report, "Notes on Mead Relations", by Sharon Lemkuil.]
Opponents of the Mary Shelly theory note that it has been proven that the Charles Keyser, descendant of Dirck Keyser of Amersterdam, is not the Charles Keyser who settled across from Hawksbill Creek in 1765. It is possible that while Isaac Dovel was in Philadelphia, he shared information with someone from the Dirck Keyser Family who was working on the book for their upcoming reunion, that information was shared, and that is how the name Mary Shelly came to be in his notes early on. Later, after further research, Dovel may have corrected the name to Elizabeth Grossglose.
No documentation of a marriage between Charles Keyser to either Mary Shelly or Elizabeth Grossglose has been found. Two "Large Dutch Bibles" that could confirm the name of Carl Sebastian Kaÿser's wife, and the names of his children, are said to have been taken to Ohio by the sons of Charles Keyser, Jr. after his death, but to date they have not been found, and so the debate continues.
Charles Keyser and his wife lived on their farm for the rest of their lives. They were buried between the Rhinehart Fort Home that originally stood there, and the Fort Home that Charles built when he purchased the land. The dates of their deaths are unknown. A memorial marker for Charles was erected by later generations which gave, incorrectly, his year of birth as 1702.
Charles Keyser died intestate sometime before his estate was probated on 28 May 1778, making him age 52 at the time of his death. The Shenandoah County Circuit Court appointed Bryant Breeding, Martin Comer, Matthew Mattocks and Peter Ruffner to appraise the estate of "Charles Kizer, dec'd,", and a List of Inventory was recorded in Will Book "A" page 179. Charles Keyser, Jr. was made administrator of his father's estate. The record indicates that Charles Keyser, Sr. died a wealthy man. His estate, totaling over 509 Pounds, was divided between his ten children, but no names were listed. [Mead Relations.]
The children of Charles Keyser and his wife became pioneers in their own right. While some eventually moved farther west, others stayed close to where they were born. A map of the Springfield Magisterial District of Page County, (the old Massanutten area), made in 1885 is covered with the names of the many Keyser descendants living there at that time.
Of the ten Keyser children, nine have been positively identified. Their names are listed below, however their birth order and all data has not been confirmed. Further research is ongoing.
A very unusual incident happened after Charles had been laid to rest. While Isaac C. Dovel was in Virginia visiting his relatives, a conversation with some of them arose as to where Charles and his wife were buried. Some inclined to the opinion that both were placed in the same grave, so they decided to open it. On 9 October 1876, his grave was opened by Peter and Henry Keyser, sons of Andrew Keyser, Jr. Also present were Charles Keyser, (grandson), Isaac C. Dovel, Capt. Joseph Keyser, (son of Noah Keyser), Joseph W. Keyser, (son of Peter Keyser) and Uphemia Richardson, (daughter of Andrew Keyser Jr.). The skull, teeth and hair were found to be in a wonderful state of preservation after having been buried 98 years. [Dovel Family Record.] Apparently, after they reburied him they did not mark the spot, and currently, there is no marker designating his exact place of burial.


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Programmers who are experienced in Java and SWT can make real contributions to the development of this software for blind and low vision people. Technical writers who can help in the preparation of manuals and tutorials can also make great contributions. Testers who are willing to put the software through its paces are very valuable. So are translators who can render the tutorials and manuals into other languages. If you are interested, contact firstname.lastname@example.org
If you would like to build BrailleBlaster for yourself or port
BrailleBlaster to a platform where it is not already available see the
next paragraph. The source code is in the repository at
This is a Mercurial repository. BrailleBlaster is built using Ant.
To build BrailleBlaster from scratch, clone the repository. Download the jar files in the list below into the dist/lib subdirectory. Note that you must pick the SWT jar for your platform and rename it swt.jar Then run Ant. To get a running version of BrailleBlaster you must then compile liblouis and liblouisutdml and copy the compiled libraries into the dist/narive/lib directory. Depending on your platform you may also need to compile libxml2. This library is usually installed on Linux systems. On the Mac you must download and compile it in the usual Gnu fashion. The Mac also requires you to install pkg-config, which is necessary for compiling both liblouisutdml and libxml2 On Windows you will have to download it, but the Windows build script for liblouisutdml statically links it to that library, so you do not need to compile it separately. There are links to the recommended versions of libxml2 and pkg-config in the list at the end of this page.
Here is an alternative method. Since BrailleBlaster is written in Java, it is therefore inherently platform-independent. However, it does rely on C libraries and on SWT jars for each platform. To make a build of BrailleBlaster for a particular platform, download any of the prebuilt versions from the Get BrailleBlaster page, remove the C libraries and the SWT.jar file, compile liblouis, liblouisutdml and libxml2 and replace the old C libraries with the compiled versions. In the case of libxml2, specify --without-iconv and --without-zlib on your configure command line. Special files have been created for building liblouis and liblouisutdml for Windows. They are in the windows subdirectories of the tarballs. A Microsoft compiler is used, and only the dll's are built. In the case of liblouisutdml libxml2 is statically linked to liblouisutdml. There is also a README.windows file which explains how to build both liblouis and liblouisutdml. Linux distros probably have libxml2 already installed. The Mac and Windows do not. Replace the swt.jar file with the one for your platform. Links to all the components needed are given below.


National Federation of Press Women National Conference
I will be sharing the story of From Under the Russian Snow at this gathering of professional journalists from all over the United States.
Atria Senior Living
707 Thayer Lane, Foster City, California 94404
After I talked about From Under the Russian Snow at the Foster City Library, I was invited to make the same presentation for the active seniors at Atria nearby.
Ashland, Oregon, chapter of American Association of University Women
Oregon State University in Ashland, Oregon
I will be joining a college professor from Japan to talk about Womanhood: Russia and Japan at the fall gathering of the Ashland AAUW.
Auburn, California, chapter of Kiwanis International
Sizzler Restaurant, 13570 Lincoln Way, Auburn, CA 95603
Auburn Kiwanis members and their spouses will be on hand for this presentation of the story of From Under the Russian Snow.
North Shore Library at Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii
4343 Emmalani Drive, Princeville, HI 96722
The Friends of the North Shore Library at Princeville on the Hawaiian island of Kauai will host a book event for From Under the Russian Snow with a booksigning, reading and talk.
Food for Thought
Peninsula Jewish Community Center, 800 Foster City Boulevard, Foster City, CA 94404
The Food for Thought discussion group at the PJCC has invited me for a booksigning, reading and talk about From Under the Russian Snow. The public is invited to attend; there's a $4 fee for non-PJCC members.
Tuolumne County Women's Network
Location to be determined
The Tuolumne County Women's Network has a special connection to From Under the Russian Snow since a large part of the memoir takes place in Tuolumne County, California.
From July through January, I will also be meeting with more than 20 book groups that have selected From Under the Russian Snow for their group discussions. If your club would like to invite me to attend your book group discussion (in person or via FaceTime), email me here.


The University offers undergraduate and postgraduate programs through five faculties: Business and Law; Education and Arts; Engineering and Built Environment; Health; Science and Information Technology.
The University operates on two main campuses. The largest, set on a 140 hectare natural bushland site is at Callaghan, about 12 kilometres west of the Newcastle central business district. The other is located on a picturesque 85 hectare Central Coast site at Ourimbah, half way between Newcastle and Sydney. The University's Conservatorium of Music, Legal Centre and Graduate School of Business are all located in Newcastle's central business district.
The University provides a range of support services, designed to provide access to information and resources that will make your time at the university a rich and academically rewarding experience.
The University libraries offer a wide range of materials in a variety of formats - from traditional books and serials to films, multimedia and networked information from around the world. Highly skilled staff are available to assist you to use the local collections and find information on special topics. A library coordinator for international students offers specialist support.
Every student is provided with an email account. We offer a campus-wide, fibreoptic network that provides access to several online specialist and public domain information services. Access to internet services can be gained through the University's libraries as well as disciplinebased computing networks. Both campus libraries offer wireless internet connections.
The University recognises the importance of secure, affordable and comfortable accommodation and offers both on-campus and off-campus accommodation options. There are four residential colleges on the Callaghan Campus in Newcastle, and one smaller college on the Central Coast Campus. The University offers a homestay service, which provides you with an opportunity to live in a home with an Australian family. We can also arrange temporary accommodation for your arrival and provide a free accommodation service to assist you in finding off-campus accommodation. For more information, please visitwww.newcastle.edu.au/services/accommodation/index.html
13 - A, Block - D, New Muslim Town, Lahore 54660.


About the Author
In the midst of an increasingly counter-Christian culture, the need for godly men is rising. Michael J. Daniels is devoted to helping young men develop Biblical character to enable them to serve and bring God glory.
Michael is married to his lovely wife, Mandy, and they both love raising their little son, Wesley, together. He has a passion to mentor young men, especially in the areas of Bible-based character, relationships and marital preparation.
Michael authored the book Becoming Mr. Right: A Young Man's Guide to God-Honoring Relationships. This book focuses on helping young men establish a Biblical framework for God-honoring, romantic relationships. It is geared toward (but not limited to) young men ranging in age from 15 to 25 years old.
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Before anyone starts wondering i am reviewing this because it was written by a friend, not because i am thinking of fostering.
However to anyone who was considering this as a choice i would heartily recommend this book it is an excellent introduction that presents the key facts about fostering well with useful summaries at the end of all the chapters.
Also included in the book are several case studies of current foster carers, which will prove especially helpful in aiding prospective fosterers to decide whether it is really for them. The book is well balanced it informs you equally of both the challenges and rewards of fostering. I also found the chapter on finance and tax to be really informative and interesting.
For people who are interested in fostering this book would be an excellent introduction and a guide to keep with you on your fostering journey as both the FAQ section and the glossary of keywords at the back could be especially helpful.
My only criticisms of the book are that i feel there could be more detail about independant fostering agencies especially as some councils use these completely to provide all their care provision, even if it was just to provide details of some of the larger independant agencies. I would also refer child protection as safeguarding as this is the new keyword used to refer to all child protection issues, however this is a minor technical issue and doesn’t distract from the fact that this is a well written and informative guide that would be most useful to anyone who thinks fostering could be for them.


Okay, here is probably one of the best kept secrets to surviving after cutting the cord (and also all-around great resource for saving money). Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, etc. profit greatly when we don't use it. It is your dusty old public library.
Go ahead and have a good laugh... get it out of your system... Ready now?
If you live near a major US city, chances are really good that your library hasn't been sitting still through the Internet revolution. You may not have been back to the library since you were in school so be prepared for a bit of a shock. If you have kids, the odds are better than you've noticed that the library offers more than just books. You might even be lucky and are near a newly remodeled branch that looks and feels more like a Barnes and Nobles cafe/store than the old library of your childhood.
Here is just a short list of the many things that you can borrow at the library that you may not be aware of: movies on DVD, CDs (of all genres), Video games (no, I'm not joking), Audio Books on CDs, Magazines, Newspapers, etc. Also, your library probably has an on-line portal as well with even more services (which I'll cover in a minute).
Okay, for movies, you are probably thinking (what could they possibly have)? While it is true that they don't have the selection of a Netflix or Amazon, you might be surprised at what they do have (or can get for you from nearby branches). It is also not just old movies as new titles show up all the time.
Here is another thing I like about the library. Ever since Netflix (and others) drove my local video store out of business, I missed the ability to just browse around (in person) and pick a movie to watch. Sure, I subscribe to Netflix and can watch streaming movies instantly. However, sometimes you just want to flip through a few DVDs and pick something to watch. Doing this with a web browser and/or waiting a couple of days for it to arrive by mail just isn't the same experience.
Did I mention that it is all free? Kind of hard to beat that! Of course it really isn't free. We all pay for it with our taxes (so no need to feel guilty). However, that is all the more reason to take advantage of such a wonderful resource. By using it, you also help insure that it will be there for future generations. Stop using it and I'm sure the mega-retailers of the world will not shed a tear when the competition goes away.
So, let me give you a quick tour of just some of the things that you might find at your new public library.
First, let's start with how the library has kept up with technology. I'll use the Santa Clara County Library as an example (here in the south bay area of Silicon Valley, California). Hopefully your local library is similar or even better!
Your library is online!
Find out if your library has a web site. Login in with your library card and start to explore some of the services that they provide. What is that you see? Facebook, Twitter, and a Blog too? This isn't the library you probably remember!
Check out their online catalog, there is where you can search for (and request from other branches) any book, movie, CD, etc. that you might want:
You can even do this with a mobile app via your iPhone or Android smartphone:
What about electronic media? Well, your library probably hasn't been sitting still there either.
For example, here is a selection of Smithsonian recordings available for instant streaming to your computer.
Note: 2,812 albums to choose from! They also have an even larger selection of classical music (4,174 albums!). All available for instant streaming.
Now clearly this isn't a huge or very diverse selection of streaming music, but it is free for you to enjoy and explore.
And downloads too
There is also downloadable music via a service called FreeGal
I haven't used this much, but there is a much wider variety of music and you can download 3 free songs a week. Not bad! I checked out the tracks from Glee and they were awesome (I love that show!). If you have an impulse to get a song, check here first! It's free!
Finally, let's check out some of the other aspects of the library portal:
Look at what is available: Job/Career resources, Small business resources (got a startup idea?), Meeting rooms, Adult education and more.
The Library: as a video rental store?
Even if you still have a local video rental store, you might want to consider using the library too. At my library I can check out 10 DVDs at a time. If I have a favorite title and it isn't at my branch (or is checked out), I simply reserve it and I'll get emailed when it is available (I have 3 days to pick it up). Note: I've heard that some branches charge a nominal fee for inter-branch transfers (mine, however, is free).
If you want to watch international movies, you might find a section with a variety of foreign languages:
My library also has a large collection of childrens' videos on DVD (and even some on VHS!):
Not just Movies
You can also find lots of CDs, (a few) Video Games, and many Audio Books too!
So, is your local library a replacement for Netflix? Well that is up to you (and depends on your library). It is free and is certainly well worth your time to check out. You will be amazed how they have changed and kept up with technology.
There is no doubt they are a valuable public resource and are under-appreciated! Now, go get a library card and use it often!


I feel like Summer is the perfect time to get books off your reading list - it might seem like weekends are full of activities and they are, but with more time relaxing at the beach/pool and not as many fun shows on TV, it's just easier to sit down and read a book! Anyone else feel the same way? Also, remember when we were in elementary school and we'd have summer reading lists? Well I feel like this is my own version of Summer homework!
I've got a ton of books on my "wishlist" from Amazon and I'm looking forward to making a big dent in the next few months! I'm almost done with Before We Met that Nadine recommended and it's been a really good read thus far. A little Gone Girl meets English Mystery...is that a genre? I don't think so!
Here are a few other's that I've got on my radar and I think will be great reads!
The Underwriting || I read an excerpt of this in Glamour and I was hooked. I'll be downloading this one as soon as I'm done with Before We Met.
"The Underwriting is a tantalizing glimpse into the boardrooms and bedrooms of six young hopefuls behind a Silicon Valley IPO that will launch them into the exclusive world of the über-wealthy—if it doesn’t destroy them first. Each of them is looking for success, but they may have to nail more than the deal to get to the top."
Eight Hundred Grapes || This was another one that I read an excerpt for in Glamour. Anything that has love and wine involved must be good right?
"There are secrets you share, and secrets you hide….
Growing up on her family’s Sonoma vineyard, Georgia Ford learned some important secrets. The secret number of grapes it takes to make a bottle of wine: eight hundred. The secret ingredient in her mother’s lasagna: chocolate. The secret behind ending a fight: hold hands. But just a week before her wedding, thirty-year-old Georgia discovers her beloved fiancé has been keeping a secret so explosive, it will change their lives forever."
Luckiest Girl Alive || If Reese Witherspoon is thinking of turning anything into a movie, I think it should be a must read! They say if you were a fan of Gone Girl and Girl on the Train - you'll be a fan of this book...well that is 100% me!
"With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears."
The Silent Wife || Jen recommended this book a little bit ago and I can't wait to read it!
"Jodi and Todd are at a bad place in their marriage. Much is at stake, including the affluent life they lead in their beautiful waterfront condo in Chicago, as she, the killer, and he, the victim, rush haplessly toward the main event. He is a committed cheater. She lives and breathes denial. He exists in dual worlds. She likes to settle scores. He decides to play for keeps. She has nothing left to lose. Told in alternating voices, The Silent Wife is about a marriage in the throes of dissolution, a couple headed for catastrophe, concessions that can’t be made, and promises that won’t be kept."
The Knockoff || This is my kind of read! Light, fluffy and has a plot line that interests me!
"An outrageously stylish, wickedly funny novel of fashion in the digital age, The Knockoff is the story of Imogen Tate, editor in chief of Glossy magazine, who finds her twenty-something former assistant Eve Morton plotting to knock Imogen off her pedestal, take over her job, and reduce the magazine, famous for its lavish 768-page September issue, into an app."
Huge thank you to Kelly for having me over for a Blogger Interview!
Posts on B~Loved Boston may contain affiliate links. This means that I could earn a commission from them. All of these are items I would personally purchase myself or already have purchased. All opinions remain my own. Blovedboston.com occasionally receives vendor/brand sponsorship's for mentioning their products and services.


LINDA E. MERIANS, Ph.D.
Student-Focused College Administrator & Teacher | Fundraiser & Grant Writer | Start-Up Experience
Successful senior higher education administrator at public and private colleges and universities, author, scholar, teacher, program builder and manager, not-for-profit founder, board member, manager, and fundraiser. Brings a collaborative spirit and compassionate practice to meet challenges and foster long-term relationships that drive partnerships and success. Enjoys mentoring and outreach activities to serve overlooked communities. Ability to move organizational mission into marketing and outreach campaigns that yield results.
Stella and Charles Guttman Community College, CUNY | New York, NY | 2013—2021
Chief of Staff
The Graduate Center, CUNY | New York, NY | 2012—2013
Vice President for Advancement & Exec. Dir. of Graduate Center Foundation
Freelance Writer | New York, NY | 2009—2012
Stony Brook University | Stony Brook, NY| 2001—2009
- Chief of Staff, 2007—2009
- Assistant Vice President for Advancement & Senior Staff Associate, 2004—2006
- Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations & Senior Staff Associate, 2001—2004
Amaryllis Theater Company| Philadelphia, PA | 1999—2000
Founder, Vice President, Treasurer and Administrative Director
La Salle University | Philadelphia, PA | 1987—1999
- Associate Professor of English, 1987-1999
- Director of the Women’s Studies Program, 1989-1991
Bucknell University |Lewisburg, PA | 1984—1987
Assistant Professor of English
Teaching Specialties: Eighteenth-Century British Literature, Shakespeare, South African Literature, Poetry, Composition, Women’s Literature, Introduction to Literature
- Envisioning the Worst: Representations of “Hottentots” in Early Modern England
(University of Delaware Press, 2001).
- The Secret Malady: Venereal Disease in Eighteenth-Century Britain and France
(University Press ofKentucky, 1996).
SELECTED CHAPTERS & ARTICLES
- “Shirley Strum Kenny: Scholar, Teacher, Mentor.” In Iron Magnolia: Essays in Honor of Shirley Strum Kenny’s Presidency of Stony Brook University, 1994-2009. Eds. W. Arens and Mario B. Mignone, with Margaret Gwynne. New York: Forum Italicum Publishing, 2018. Pgs. 74-84.
- “After the Doors Opened: Asking Why at a New Community College” (2016). Co-authored with S.E. Evenbeck. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, pgs. 67-76.
- “The Idea of Place.” Co-authored with Scott E. Evenbeck and Paulette Dalpes. Book chapter in Service-Learning at the American Community College: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives, pgs. 287-296. Eds. Amy Traver and Zivah Perel Katz (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
- Book Review, Nightwalkers: Prostitute Narratives from the Eighteenth Century, ed. Laura J. Rosenthal in Eighteenth-Century Fiction, 23.1 (2010): 247-249.
- World of a Slave: Encyclopedia of the Material Life of Slaves in the United States, ed. Martha B. Katz-Hyman and Kym S. Rice. Santa Barbara: Greenwood, 2010.
- “’Hottentot’: The Emergence of an Early Modern Racist Epithet.” In Shakespeare Studies, vol. XXVI, ed. by Leeds Barroll. New Jersey: Associated University Press, Inc., 1998. Pgs. 123-144.
- “Teaching South African Literature to American Undergraduates.” In International Third World Studies Journal & Review, vol. 2, No. 1, 1990. Pgs. 311-314.
Ph.D. University of Maryland at College Park, 1983
- Specialist in Eighteenth-Century British Literature
M.A. University of Maryland at College Park, 1978
- English Literature
B.A. Manhattanville College, 1976
- English Major
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATION & SERVICE
EAST-CENTRAL/American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
- Executive Secretary, Elected to successive terms, 1995-2016
- Molin Prize Committee Judge, Volunteer, 2022-2025


I have always suspected fraud in poets and artists. It’s a kind of impostor syndrome applied to other people. I write freely about art, literature, and other issues, referencing all sorts of cultural touching stones. Implicit in this is the idea that there are other references I could have made, but chose not to. By talking about certain authors or directors or photographers, I create the impression that I know what I’m talking about and that I’m making a deliberate selection out of a much larger mental store of possible references. But really, often I talk about a certain book or film not because in my informed opinion it’s the best use of my time, but because it was the only book or film I’ve finished recently. And what I recognize in myself I suspect in others.
Certain famous authors, I’ve concluded, don’t exist. They were made up by other authors, a convenient grab-bag of references and themes that can be pointed to without having to actually create them from scratch. If you go to a bookstore or a library and try to read these authors’ books, you’ll find the books empty beyond the title page. But likely you won’t get that far, because the books have an intimidating aura to them. Their life in other people’s work suggests so much that it seems impossible for them to actually deliver. This conspiratorial cabal of authors has it right. Potential literature is always greater than actual. A page of writing can never say anything as well as an empty page says nothing. Borges had it right, which is why he wrote reviews of imaginary books instead of writing the books themselves. Edouard Levé, the French photographer and author of the greatest autobiography I’ve ever read—see what I’m doing here, implying that I’ve read many autobiographies, which I haven’t—wrote a work called Oeuvres, which is a book about books he might write. The work is only available in French, and appropriately enough, I’ve never read it.
An extraordinary thing has happened, though. A crack in the mirror. The art world has admitted—almost—to their fraud. MoMa has appointed Kenneth Goldsmith as their first “poet laureate.” Goldsmith is a controversial, but respected poet. His books are so impossibly boring that he admits even he doesn’t read them. (“
I can’t even read my own books—I keep falling asleep.”) They are constructed in such a way that, even by the usual standards of poetry and art, his books are unreadable. Goldsmith is a proponent of “uncreative writing” and his books are usually transcriptions: of all the text in a specific edition of the New York Times (is there a single editor at the NYT who has read absolutely all the text in even one edition of the newspaper, including all the ads and the colophon, all the page numbers, etc?); of an entire year’s radio weather reports; etc.
There is a movement for potential literature, oulipo, which includes Georges Perec’s famous novel—which I haven’t read, and which I suspect most people who reference it hasn’t read either—A Void, written entirely without the letter E. But I think Borges or Goldsmith are more in line with potential literature: literature that doesn’t exist in the form of actual books, or in any event is never read as such, but lives a life by proxy in the works of others, as references, as thought experiments rather than as actual works of art.
I recently posted a quote from Ben Lerner’s Leaving the Atocha Station. I must confess that I have frequently posted quotes from books I haven’t read, and thus don’t really understand the context for the quotes and have likely misrepresented them. But this book I actually read, after reading the first pages on the website of Tao Lin’s Muumuu House publishing house. (Lin, of course, is another author who is possibly more interesting to talk about than to actually read. He is also, like Goldsmith, fond of appropriation, like writing “poems” that consist of selected tweets from other people’s twitter accounts. Or slightly more sophisticated, poems which are selected invented tweets from other people’s accounts.)
Leaving the Atocha Station is a very intelligent and very readable meditation on this feeling of artistic fraud. The narrator, like the author was, is an American poet on a scholarship in Spain, where he is treated like an actual intellectual figure despite feeling like a fraud, like he can’t really write poetry, and despite the fact that, although his scholarship is ostensibly for researching and writing a poem about the impact of the Spanish civil war on Spanish poetry, he spends his time getting high and appropriating the famous Spanish poet Lorca, deliberately mistranslating the Spanish poet in order to create “his own” poems. The quote I posted, and will reproduce here, is about the feeling that other people only pretend to relate to art in a more heartfelt manner, but actually experience the potential for feeling more than the actual feeling:
I had long worried that I was incapable of having a profound experience of art and I had trouble believing that anyone had, at least anyone I knew. I was intensely suspicious of people who claimed a poem or painting or piece of music “changed their life,” especially since I had often known these people before and after their experience and could register no change. Although I claimed to be a poet, although my supposed talent as a writer had earned me my fellowship in Spain, I tended to find lines of poetry beautiful only when I encountered them quoted in prose, in the essays my professors had assigned in college, where the line breaks were replaced with slashes, so that what was communicated was less a particular poem than the echo of poetic possibility. Insofar as I was interested in the arts, I was interested in the disconnect between my experience of actual artworks and the claims made on their behalf; the closest I’d come to having a profound experience of art was probably the experience of this distance, a profound experience of the absence of profundity.
But this thought is occasioned by observing a man who, at least by appearance, is undergoing a profound emotional reaction to art. Lerner has stated that this scene is one of the few in the novel that are truly autobiographical. The narrator in the book has been going to a museum as a part of his morning ritual, contemplating a specific painting, Roger Van der Weyden’s Descent from the Cross. Usually, he is alone in front of the painting. But this day, there is another man there:
He was standing exactly where I normally stood and for a moment I was startled, as if beholding myself beholding the painting, although he was thinner and darker than I. I waited for him to move on, but he didn’t. I wondered if he had observed me in front of the Descent and if he was now standing before it in the hope of seeing whatever it was I must have seen. I was irritated and tried to find another canvas for my morning ritual, but was too accustomed to the painting’s dimensions and blues to accept a substitute. I was about to abandon room 58 when the man broke suddenly into tears, convulsively catching his breath. Was he, I wondered, just facing the wall to hide his face as he dealt with whatever grief he’d brought into the museum? Or was he having a profound experience of art?
The man proceeds to walk through the museum, stopping and crying in front of different paintings. The narrator begins to wonder: is this a performance of some kind, or is this man genuinely overcome by the emotional power of works of art? And he considers the dilemma of the museum guards: on the one hand, breaking down and crying in front of a painting could be a sign of mental disarray, and one of the tasks of the museum guards is protecting the priceless works of art in the museum from lunatics who may damage them. Should the guards ask the man to leave before he damages a painting? On the other hand, the whole premise of the museum, the whole raison d’etre of the guards, is that art is powerful, that art is capable of generating in humans the kind of powerful emotional reaction displayed by the man. He finds “
[the guards’] mute performance of these tensions more moving than any Pietá, Deposition, or Annunciation…”
I’ll end on a personal experience. I was in Berlin, visiting the Hamburger Bahnhof, an old train station now turned into a contemporary art museum, situated on the comically named (so I thought) Invalidenstraße. The museum hosted a large number of modern artworks, including a “land art” piece by Richard Long which only served to highlight how hopelessly out of place land art is inside a museum building; another artwork consisted of a black-and-white video of a grown woman crying like a baby. I was more moved by the gift shop than by these works of art. But there was one artwork that made an impression on me. It wasn’t a strong emotional reaction. I didn’t break down and cry. But it moved me more than everything else in the museum.
It was a shovel. A readymade by Marcel Duchamp, he of urinal fame. A regular shovel hanging from the ceiling and lit in the manner befitting a great work of art. The title? In advance of a broken arm.


After an accident leaves her with retrograde amnesia, Helena can't put her finger on what seems strange about her husband. Afraid of losing her again, Joachim does all he can to keep her from finding out about their troubled past. As Helena puts the pieces together, she's torn between confronting him about his deception and keeping her own secrets. Retrograde takes a close look at the barriers we put up between ourselves and the people we love, the lies we need to believe in, and the things we can never forget.
Set against the colorful yet sometimes cold backdrop of Manhattan, the stories in this collection are peopled with a very particular breed of heroes, not quite sure what they're fighting for. They are characters in progress, people still getting to who they are.


The Age of Orion is the first book devoted solely to the development and operational use of the illustrious USN maritime patrol and anti-submarine hunting aircraft the Lockheed P-3 Orion. David Reade details for the first time the complete history and walks you through all the different models, versions and variants. The book authoritatively establishes the Orions different configurations, roles and missions it performs, as well as describes its endless array of capabilities currently and…
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The Age of Orion is the first book devoted solely to the development and operational use of the illustrious USN maritime patrol and anti-submarine hunting aircraft the Lockheed P-3..
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Following the life of this aircraft from its initial inception to the delivery of the first production models, this book begins with Boeing's initial thoughts concerning a new wide..
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In the tradition of great tales of men against the sea, this story offers a compelling look at courage and commitment in the face of certain tragedy. It is a powerful blend of huma..
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This is a documentary history of one of the most famous fighters ever built during a historically almost unrecognized war. Flown by four air forces in support of the United Nations..
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The author probes the secrets behind the Central Intelligence Agency's Directorate of Science and Technology, which spawned the U2 spyplane, the reconnaissance satellite, and the p..
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A U.S. Navy pilot who was forced to make an emergency landing in China after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet describes how he and his crew survived their ordeal. Reprint...
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Several books have been written about US naval patrol aviation in World War 2, but none do full justice to the role played by patrol squadrons of the US Navy in the longest, most b..


Meet George Kesselman, author of "The Power of Play" at Hall 3, in between the Executive Lounge and F&B area! Purchase a book, or quiz him about all things employee engagement.
In "The Power of Play," Kesselman tackles one of the most critical issues of our time - employee engagement, in a groundbreaking and engaging manner. The book takes you on a journey through the changing landscapes of work, from the industrial revolutions to the age of the internet and AI.
At the heart of the book is an audacious proposition: What if the key to transforming the disengagement crisis lies in the world of games? The book argues that the elements that make games captivating—challenge, enjoyment, and engagement—can be incorporated into the work environment to make it more fulfilling and rewarding.
Whether you are a seasoned executive, a mid-career professional questioning the status quo, or a fresh graduate entering the workforce, "The Power of Play" serves as a transformative blueprint for redesigning work. Featuring case studies, interviews, and practical advice, the book is a call to action for a work revolution brought to life through the power of play.