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In case you missed it, you can now backup (and restore) Azure Tables and SQL Databases using an API directly. The features available through the API can be found here: http://www.bluesyntax.net/backup20api.aspx and the online help for the API is here: http://www.bluesyntax.net/EnzoCloudBackup20/APIIntro.aspx.
Backing up Azure Tables can't be any easier than with the Enzo Backup API. Here is a sample code that does the trick:
// Create the backup helper class. The constructor automatically sets the SourceStorageAccount property StorageBackupHelper backup = new StorageBackupHelper("storageaccountname", "storageaccountkey", "sourceStorageaccountname", "sourceStorageaccountkey", true, "apilicensekey"); // Now set some properties… backup.UseCloudAgent = false; // backup locally backup.DeviceURI = @"c:\TMP\azuretablebackup.bkp"; // to this file backup.Override = true; backup.Location = DeviceLocation.LocalFile; // Set optional performance options backup.PKTableStrategy.Mode = BSC.Backup.API.TableStrategyMode.GUID; // Set GUID strategy by default backup.MaxRESTPerSec = 200; // Attempt to stay below 200 REST calls per second // Start the backup now… string taskId = backup.Backup(); // Use the Environment class to get the final status of the operation EnvironmentHelper env = new EnvironmentHelper("storageaccountname", "storageaccountkey", "apilicensekey"); string status = env.GetOperationStatus(taskId);
// Create the backup helper class. The constructor automatically sets the SourceStorageAccount property
As you can see above, the code is straightforward. You provide connection settings in the constructor, set a few options indicating where the backup device will be located, set optional performance parameters and start the backup.
The performance options are designed to help you backup your Azure Tables quickly, while attempting to keep under a specific threshold to prevent Storage Account throttling. For example, the MaxRESTPerSec property will attempt to keep the overall backup operation under 200 rest calls per second.
Another performance option if the Backup Strategy for Azure Tables. By default, all tables are simply scanned. While this works best for smaller Azure Tables, larger tables can use the GUID strategy, which will issue requests against an Azure Table in parallel assuming the PartitionKey stores GUID values. It doesn't mean that your PartitionKey must have GUIDs however for this strategy to work; but the backup algorithm is tuned for this condition.
Other options are available as well, such as filtering which columns, entities or tables are being backed up.
Check out more on the Blue Syntax website at http://www.bluesyntax.net.
Print | posted @ Friday, September 21, 2012 9:43 AM
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WHITEMARSH - Visitors to Germantown Academy better start brushing up on their Chinese.
The East Asian language was used just as much as English in a recent celebration as the Fort Washington school officially launched its Confucius Classroom program April 16.
Attendees from literally all over the world descended upon the school's Honickman Auditorium Monday afternoon. They were greeted by students dressed in traditional Chinese garb and were in for an impressive showcase of the Chinese performing arts as Germantown Academy officially kicked off its partnership with its sister school in Beijing.
The Confucius Classroom program, organized by Hanban, the executive body of the Chinese Language Council International, aims to provide schools with Chinese language instruction and cultural studies, according to a release from Germantown Academy. Schools partner with Chinese schools, which make teaching resources and services available. The program has been established at more than 600 schools worldwide.
Germantown Academy's road to launching its Confucius Classroom began in October 2009, when the school signed an agreement to partner with Beijing-based High School Attached to Capital Normal University, according to the school. By doing so, GA became the first school in the state to have a Confucius Classroom.
When the program gets under way during the 2012-13 school year, Madeleine Ma, a teacher at High School Attached to Capital Normal University, will come to GA to teach Chinese language and culture. The school also anticipates opportunities for both hosting exchange students and sending some of its own teachers and students to Beijing.
This school year, Chinese studies have been integrated into the curriculum for first and second grade, while Chinese is offered at the upper school, according to the school. Come next year, third grade also will study Chinese culture, with expanded course offerings in both the middle and upper schools.
With an exciting international exchange on the horizons, Germantown Academy celebrated its new partnership with guest speakers, musical performances and gravity-defying acrobatics.
'This is a proud, historic and festive afternoon for our storied school as we begin formally an educational connection with the great civilization that is China,' said Jim Connor, Germantown Academy head of school. He said the Chinese sister school is GA's 'true educational soul mate whose vision of international education matches our own.'
While this was the official kickoff of the program, it was clear GA students have been hard at work mastering the new language and studying its culture. Several students spoke in Chinese, while others entertained the crowd by singing China's national anthem, playing traditional Chinese music and performing Chinese dances, among other entertainment. Perhaps the highlight was a Chinese acrobat, who entered the stage balancing six spinning plates before tackling even more impressive moves.
The event featured speakers from all over who all congratulated GA on the launch of the program.
'What GA understands by virtue of having this classroom here is that we live in a world of interconnectedness, we live in a world where we could do a little bit better if we were just a little bit more respectful of other countries and cultures and ways of life,' Chairman of the Montgomery County Commissioners Josh Shapiro said. 'To know that the next generation of leaders is coming out being exposed to that here at GA is something we can all be proud of.'
Fellow Commissioner Leslie Richards - a GA alumna herself - said her experiences at the school shaped the person she is today, and she was sure the new program would help shape current students.
'I do believe that the friendships made during this exchange program will be truly life-changing,' she said.
GA also received praise from its other sister school, the First High School of Krakow in Krakow, Poland. The two have been sister schools for since 2007, holding joint choral programs and the exchange of students and teachers.
Two representatives from the school presented Connor with a framed version of the Polish school's motto written in Chinese.
Cen Jianjun, one of three representatives from the education office of the Chinese consulate in New York City, spoke about the importance of forming connections between the youth of the two countries.
'I think student exchange is quite important,' he said. 'It's the key to mutual understanding.'
Jie Shen, principal of High School Attached to Capital Normal University, also addressed the crowd, translated by Ma, and they showed a video of their students and faculty voicing their excitement about the partnership.
'The activities of the classroom will nurture the seeds of friendship between the younger generations of China and the United States and will provide a strong base for mutual understanding between the two peoples,' she said.

subset: commoncrawl


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Adele isn't the only one performing at the Oscars this year.
The producers of the 85th Academy Awards revealed that the night will feature a tribute to the best movie musicals of the last decade and will include performances from Jennifer Hudson, who won Best Supporting Actress for Dreamgirls, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe.
The night's other tribute, this one to 50 years of Bond, will now not only feature Adele performing her Oscar-nominated theme "Skyfall" for the first time ever, but Shirley Bassey taking on her 1971 theme, "Diamonds Are Forever." The performance also marks Bassey's first time on the Oscar stage.
The producers unfortunately didn't spill any beans about what exactly Barbra Streisand will sing for the first time she graces the Oscar stage in 36 years, but they did reveal that viewers should expect a musical number or two from host Seth MacFarlane. The producers swear he sounds like Frank Sinatra.
The funny guy is nominated for Best Original Song thanks to his song "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from his movie Ted, which will be sung by Norah Jones on Oscar night.
What performances are you most excited to see on Oscar night?
– Shannon Carlin, Radio.com


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Regardless of whether an individual is engaged with steers raising, developing grains, generation in production lines with hardware, either day they require diesel. Thus, the diesel should be put away to perform different undertakings.
Fuel is utilized as a part of numerous routes, to keep collectors and generators working, keep the armadas moving, transporting products to and from showcase. It is considered as one of the contributions to the organizations, accordingly, it must be put away securely and successfully.
There are two most normally utilized capacity compartments to store fuel.
Poly tanks
Steel tanks
Both are accessible in the market and one can utilize them for the capacity purposes. Given beneath are the few focuses that can assist a person with choosing the best one out of the both.
1. Material
Steel and poly both are diverse materials from each other. With regards to capacity, one needs to take a gander at different parts of the item. Steel tanks can experience the procedure of buildup when forgotten under the sun and it can make dampness develop. Water in the fuel tank can turn out to be unsafe for the motor. While then again, there is no such thing with the poly tanks. In spite of the fact that poly tanks are lighter in weight, it has substantially thicker dividers for insurance.
2. Parts
Any diesel tank isn't utilized alone. Some different parts like pump, hose, and firearm are utilized with it. The poly tanks accompany every one of these things amassed up and one doesn't have to get it in an unexpected way. While, in steel tanks, you need to purchase every one of the parts in an unexpected way, which at that point adds to the cost and time.
3. Convey
Steel tanks are substantial and are difficult to convey. These are settled in your truck bed, for the most part with jolts through the mounting surface. Poly diesel units are light in weight and in this way simple to convey. They accompany lifting handles and can likewise be effectively lashed down in the event that one wouldn't like to settle them for all time.
4. Assembling
Both the tanks are made distinctively utilizing diverse ways and materials. Steel tanks are welded that could permit space for the likelihood of spillages on the creases. Then again, poly tanks are comprised of a solitary shaped piece with no creases. Likewise, steel gets rust with the time that takes into account more spillages which isn't the situation with the poly diesel tanks.
5. Cost
Cost of both the items differ a considerable measure. As talked about before, steel tanks signify more cost by obtaining alternate parts distinctively and henceforth are path costly than the poly tanks. Poly tanks are with less cost and even prepared to utilize, which helps in sparing time also in amassing the parts. Additionally, steel is costly than poly, along these lines it aggregates up to steel tanks being costly than the poly diesel tanks.
The previously mentioned focuses are sufficient for a person to choose which tank to purchase for putting away diesel according to its utilization in horticultural or mechanical exercises.


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Only five days to go until we can bury once and for all Craig James's gay-baiting campaign for the U.S. Senate. But just when we thought the polling data on James was as embarrassing for him as it could possibly get, Public Policy Polling comes along to drag James toward the finish line with this:
As Craig James has become better known he's just gotten more and more unpopular. Only 14% of voters see him favorably to 32% with a negative opinion. Even among SMU fans he had literally zero support on this poll—granted there were only 12 of them in the sample.
Not even SMU fans intend to vote for him? Yeesh. It's as if people believe Craig James killed five hookers or something.
[Public Policy Polling; photo via Mocksession]


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Topics :: Seattle
1 thru 10 of 60 Stories
Killer Queens: Seattle's Art Drag Scene is Slaying It
Seattle's drag scene reigns supreme. Writer Jill Gleeson investigates who's leading the pack, why the Emerald City is the epicenter for the next generation of drag divas, and how travelers can pack it all in.
Higher Wages a Surprising Success for Seattle Restaurant
Menu prices are up 21 percent and you don't have to tip at Ivar's Salmon House on Seattle's Lake Union after the restaurant decided to institute the city's $15-an-hour minimum wage two years ahead of schedule.
Aerialist Dreya Weber Is 'The Hot Spot' of Teatro ZinZanni
Dreya Weber, the multi-faceted aerialist, performer and self-described omnisexual who wowed gay and lesbian audiences with her movies "The Gymnast" in 2006 and "A Marine Story" in 2010, is in Seattle to headline the latest show at Teatro ZinZanni.
Group Beats & Robs Seattle Teen, Texts Mother 'I'm Gay'
Officials from the Seattle Police Department say a group of robbers beat up a 16-year-old boy and stole his phone last week before texting "I'm gay" to his mother on the stolen phone.
Seattle City Council Backs End to Gay Blood Donation Ban
The City Council of Seattle, Washington, unanimously backed a repeal of America's longstanding ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood.
Seattle Gay Nightclub Arsonist Gets 10 Years in Prison
A man who set fire to a crowded Seattle nightclub on New Year's Eve has been sentenced to 10 years in prison - twice what prosecutors asked.
D.C. Arsonist Says He Doesn't Hate Gays, He Was Just Drunk
A former D.C. resident who pled guilty to setting a fire in the gay nightclub Neighbours on New Year's Eve said he doesn't hate gays, he was just drunk.
Man Suspected in Double Murder of Seattle Gay Men Arrested in NJ
A man who authorities believe killed two gay men in Seattle last month was arrested in New Jersey Friday.
Seattle Suspect May Have Targeted Victims on Grindr or Jack'd
Ali Muhammad Brown, a suspect in the murders of two gay men in Seattle on June 5, may have met his victims on a social networking app like Grindr, reports KIRO TV today.
Get Hitched in Seattle - For Free!
Are you looking to tie the knot and head west to do so? Visit Seattle will launch a wedding sweepstakes, beginning July 1, that will include participation from some of the city's most iconic destinations for four lucky couples.
1 thru 10 of 60 Stories


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The man at the pulpit with the mass of neatly coiffed silver hair is speaking of sin and redemption, pleading with his flock to forgive him his very human frailties. "No one is free from sin," he says. His eyes have filled with tears.
The camera lens zooms in, and the man, his voice quavering, continues in a near-whisper: "I let down my armor. I let down my dear wife of 42 years." Then, after a dramatic two-second pause, he thunders, "But I tell you--and with sodium pentothal in my veins--I have never sexually assaulted a woman in my life."
The man is Garner Ted Armstrong, a televangelist and founder of Church of God International, a Christian sect headquartered on the lush shores of Lake Palestine in Flint, Texas. In his first public admission of a colossal moral lapse six months earlier, the 66-year-old Armstrong does not offer his followers the tawdry details--the local TV stations and Inside Edition had already done that quite well. Instead, he tiptoes around the specifics, saying, "By now, you've probably heard or read the stories."
It's gut-wrenching, this routine of coming clean in public--pioneered by fellow televangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. Confronted with these bare emotions and seeming remorse, the members of Armstrong's flock can do little but extend their forgiveness. There are those, of course, who remain unwilling to pardon the fallen leader. And they have been busy ever since that January 26 evening, floating copies of the videotaped sermon around the world.
Just 10 minutes northeast of Flint, in a tiny frame home in Tyler, Royce Robertson is gearing up for another day of what he calls his "investigation" of Garner Ted Armstrong, the Church of God International, and its business dealings. Robertson, 38 years old and pudgy, his thinning brown hair pulled back into a flimsy ponytail, keeps a copy of the minister's weepy confessional in a bulging nylon briefcase along with an entire arsenal against Armstrong and CGI--several thick folders of legal documents, tax and real-estate records, and magazine articles, including a particularly salacious Hustler profile that detailed the sexual escapades and financial questions leading to Armstrong's 1978 ouster from Worldwide Church of God, the sect his father, Herbert W. Armstrong, founded in 1934.
Also stuffed inside the briefcase is the most lethal weapon of all--or so Robertson thinks. It is a grainy, 43-minute videotape of his ex-wife, Suerae Robertson, massaging a naked Garner Ted Armstrong at her Tyler salon on July 15, 1995. With recordings of big-band tunes playing softly in the background, a tattooed Armstrong is seen masturbating on a massage table as Suerae, dressed in baggy surgical scrubs, lightly flicks her oiled fingers along his arms, back, buttocks, and between his thighs. About 15 minutes into the tape, Armstrong makes one of many clumsy grabs at Suerae's breasts and gropes at her crotch. She makes several weak attempts to pull away and politely protests his behavior, but not once tells him to leave. Suerae never actually touches Armstrong's genitals, but at one point she pumps massage oil from a nearby dispenser into his hands, allowing him to do the work himself. He moans and begs her to "give me some relief."
Despite its seamy content--and the ambiguous role played by his ex-wife--Royce Robertson insists the videotape has a noble purpose. It will help prove Suerae's claim that the televangelist is a "rapist."
Just 11 days before the Robertsons videotaped Armstrong with a hidden camera, Suerae alleges that the televangelist, who had been a regular client at her south Tyler massage business, violently pulled her head down during a massage session and forced her to perform oral sex on him. She claims that he bit her breasts, leaving teeth marks on her skin, and grabbed her arms so hard he left bruises.
Suerae, however, did not report the incident to Tyler police. Instead, on Royce's advice, she contacted a friend who is a private investigator. He referred them to an attorney, Royce says, who advised them to sue Armstrong--and secretly tape him the next time he visited Suerae. "We had to have solid evidence of sexual assault," Royce says. "And Suerae was told she had to let him go absolutely as far as she could possibly stand, and without provocation, so that when we go into court the evidence will hold up."
The two Tyler television stations blitzed the city last November 22 with the tale of the minister and the masseuse. Earlier that day, Houston attorney John Osborne had filed a civil lawsuit on Suerae's behalf against Armstrong and Church of God International. The case, filed in 7th state District Court in Smith County, accuses Armstrong of sexual assault and battery, and accuses the church of negligence for allowing Armstrong, who has a "well-documented history of sexual indiscretions which were well-publicized throughout the theologian [sic] community," to continue in his leadership position. The suit seeks unspecified damages, with Suerae claiming that Armstrong's actions have caused her severe emotional distress and mental anguish. Earlier this year, state District Judge Cynthia Kent issued a summary judgment in the case, dropping the church as a defendant. A disappointed Osborne--the church has by far the deeper pockets, he says--is appealing the judge's decision.
When news of the lawsuit--and a copy of the scandalous videotape--reached Church of God International, its board of directors scrambled to control the damage. Dozens of ministers in the 6,000-member sect began questioning Armstrong's actions, and most were either disfellowshipped or left the church of their own accord. Armstrong's lawyer, Tom Buchanan of Tyler, says the televangelist resigned from his official church duties on November 11 and will remain on leave until the lawsuit is settled or tried. But Armstrong, who declined to be interviewed for this story, will continue preaching, as well as producing his television ministry--Garner Ted Armstrong, a paid program aired locally on Sunday mornings by Chicago cable channel WGN.
Buchanan says his client does not deny going to Suerae Robertson for a massage--a service for which he expected sexual contact, and for which he expected to pay. "Garner Ted Armstrong is an imperfect man," he says. "Unfortunately, he's done some stupid things, and this is one of them. He's never denied showing bad judgment by going there."
But as unseemly as Armstrong's videotaped behavior may appear, the Robertsons themselves are no Citizens of the Year. Smith County court documents show that their 4 1/2-year marriage, which Royce says ended in divorce after he began an affair with a topless dancer from Dallas who "had a drug problem," was annulled on May 2, 1995. The reason? Suerae had never divorced her previous husband, whom she married in Dallas County. Nor was Suerae, a 49-year-old vocational nurse and grandmother of six, ever licensed by the state as a massage therapist--so her sessions with Armstrong were illegal. There's also the matter of a few bounced checks--totaling about $1,000--which Suerae wrote against her checking account shortly after the alleged assault last summer. She pleaded no contest in Smith County to a misdemeanor theft-by-check charge and received deferred adjudication on the condition that she repay the money.
Meanwhile, Royce Robertson has been trying to rustle up some business of his own from Armstrong's misfortune. For two consecutive weeks in March, he bought a classified advertisement in the Dallas Observer hawking $29.95 copies of the uncut videotape. The ad read, "TV EVANGELIST CAUGHT IN THE ACT!" And so the alleged assault that Royce claims has so traumatized his ex-wife has now become a marketing tool. "It wasn't a good idea," Royce concedes when confronted about his money-making scheme. "But it was out of total concern for Suerae. It was absolutely out of desperation."
The Robertsons have found little sympathy in Tyler. A local criminal-defense attorney, quaffing a cold Heineken after work at Rick's on the Square, a favorite downtown yuppie bar, offered his own sneering assessment: "It didn't sound like there was anything therapeutic about that massage." To him and many others in this East Texas town of 75,000, the case of the randy preacher and the desperate masseuse shows just how low human beings can go.
Armstrong calls the whole thing a setup, and has accused the Robertsons of being under federal, state, and local investigation for unspecified offenses. (A spokesman at an FBI field office in Tyler says he does not recognize Suerae's name, but--as is the FBI's usual practice--wouldn't comment on whether his office was conducting an investigation. Jack Skeen, Smith County district attorney, says he has no plans to file criminal charges in the case, which the sheriff's office has already "looked into.")
Royce Robertson scarcely seems troubled by using his ex-wife's suffering for his own gain. Meanwhile, Suerae Robertson lives in a virtual fog, claiming she was sexually abused as a child, and now as a grown woman. Emotionally shuffled about by all the men in her life--her former husband, Armstrong, and her lawyers--she seems resigned to her victim status. Armstrong's critics--former CGI ministers and cult-awareness types--are also lying in wait, hoping this lawsuit topples the man from power and crumbles an institution they view as corrupted by greed.
Should Robertson vs. Armstrong ever go to trial, a judge will instruct a Smith County jury to consider only the facts. But no doubt the jurors will be puzzling over the subtext--considering the baser side of human nature--and wondering, how low can you go?
It wasn't hard to fall in love with the house--a stunning, two-story Victorian home on the edge of Tyler's historic Azalea Trail District. It seemed the perfect place to start a day spa, the kind of business Suerae Robertson had long dreamed of building. The house was a stone's throw from some of the city's grandest homes, and the price was right--just $36,000. The Robertsons bought it in 1993.
On a recent spring morning, Royce stood outside the house at 310 S. Fanning, describing its amenities. He and Suerae lived on the second story, which features leaded-glass windows and three fireplaces. The downstairs front entry has a 30-foot ceiling. The only thing the 100-year-old home needed at the time--and still does--is an exterior paint job.
Their plan was to turn the downstairs into a therapeutic massage center, with Suerae--a licensed vocational nurse who worked through a temp agency at hospitals and clinics--serving as its proprietor. But in late 1994, the Robertsons split up, and Suerae stayed on alone in the house. She bought a $1,200 custom-built massage table and opened her doors for business in January 1995 as "Personal Touch Massage." She ran an ad titled "Be Good to Yourself" in a free local paper, and also bought advertising space on the menu of a Tyler restaurant called Bodacious Barbecue.
Suerae says she didn't then know her LVN license would not allow her to perform massages at her business. In her native Indiana, where she attended nursing school, the state allows nurses also to do massage, she says. A state cosmetology-licensing official in Indiana confirmed the state does not license or regulate massage therapists or massage businesses.
"I called the LVN licensing people in Austin and asked them if my license would be enough for me to do massage, and the lady I talked to said yes," Suerae says. (A spokesman for the Texas Board of Vocational Nurses licensing department says he does not recall the case, but adds, "The law is very clear on who can do therapeutic massage, and LVNs can't without the proper license. It's highly unlikely one of our people would get that wrong.")
In an effort to keep the massage business legitimate and to control illicit sexual activity, the Texas Legislature has mandated strict licensing regulations for therapists and schools that teach massage. The Massage Therapy Registration Department--a division of the state Department of Health in place since 1992--monitors the industry. State law requires a registered massage therapist to have a minimum of 300 hours of basic massage-therapy training, with specific instruction in anatomy, physiology, hygiene, hydrotherapy, and other aspects of massage, according to Leslie Green, a department administrator. Therapist candidates must also practice for 50 hours as interns. Once they finish their training, they receive a six-month temporary license that allows them to work until they pass a board exam in Austin for a permanent license. Licenses must be renewed yearly, Green says.
Beyond the individual therapist's license, a massage business must also be licensed, and comply with state health and safety codes.
Suerae Robertson, records show, had satisfied none of the training requirements, and had acquired no licenses. "I did a lot of deep-tissue massage as a nurse, and I was able to do it in Indiana," she explains. "I honestly didn't know I was doing something wrong."
But she does acknowledge that Kelly Page, a state health-department investigator, made the law abundantly clear to her in June 1995, when Page cited Suerae for working and advertising as a massage therapist without possessing a license. Page had investigated after receiving a complaint about the business. Suerae pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charges before Smith County Justice of the Peace Quincy Beavers Jr. on December 14, 1995. Beavers fined her $200.
After her run-in with the law, Suerae planned to play by the rules. She expanded the services at her business to include hydrotherapy, cosmetology, and a snack and juice bar. She hired Arvilla Bateman, a registered massage therapist. Bateman, who now works as a massage therapist at a Tyler beauty salon, declined to discuss her former job or association with Suerae. And Suerae says she herself stopped doing massages--except for Armstrong, who "insisted" on having her for the job.
Suerae changed the name of her salon to "Victorian Hospitality Spa." She says she kept regular business hours--Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Occasionally she stayed open one night a week until 8, she says, but by appointment only. "Suerae was building up a steady clientele, people with back problems or who had been in accidents and needed regular massage," Royce says.
In May 1995--her best month, Suerae says--"I probably made about $1,500." The Robertsons provided the Observer with the names of some former clients who did not return telephone calls.
On March 31, 1995, Garner Ted Armstrong, responding to one of Suerae's newspaper ads, called the spa for an appointment. According to Suerae's lawsuit, Armstrong said he needed massage therapy because he "spent long hours driving in his automobile," and that his lower back and groin area were particular trouble spots.
As Suerae told the story of her relationship with Armstrong, she sat in a chair at the Observer office, kneading her hands, glancing every few seconds at Royce, who sat five feet away. Her voice was as flat as pavement. "I had no idea who Garner Ted Armstrong was," she said. Although she had lived in Tyler for nearly five years, and although Armstrong is well-known in the region, she added, "I'm not a churchgoing person, and his name didn't mean a thing to me."
She conceded, though, that once he walked into her teal-colored massage room, Armstrong's requests were, well, kind of bizarre. He insisted on being totally nude during the massage--except for his dress socks. "He couldn't stand to have his feet touched," Suerae recalled. According to Suerae's court pleadings, Armstrong also insisted on a "nondeep-tissue massage," and that Suerae "concentrate her therapy on the area of his groin, lower back, inner thigh, and buttocks because of the stiffness he purportedly felt from his driving."
That initial appointment led to regular, twice-monthly sessions with Suerae, who conducted the massages even though she knew she was breaking the law by performing them without a license. She says she informed Armstrong about the law and suggested he visit Bateman, the licensed therapist she'd hired.
"But he insisted I was the only one who could work with him," Suerae explained. "He said that getting a massage is something like going to a doctor. You trust a doctor you've been with for a while, and you're real skeptical about going to a new doctor.
"All I can say is the 'Nancy Nurse' in me came through. He was complaining of this severe pain, and he was literally begging me to do the massage."
Suerae, dressed in a purple jogging suit, shifted her gaze to the floor. "I am a classic co-dependent," she said blankly, shrugging her shoulders. "Royce has always told me I could get bit by a dog, the dog could run across the street and get hit by a car, and I'd run across the street with a bloody leg to save the dog."
As Armstrong's massage sessions with Suerae continued throughout June 1995, he grew ever bolder, according to court documents. "Armstrong would begin to fondle his genitals and try to place plaintiff's hands on his genitals while he would 'minister' to the plaintiff," the lawsuit says. "His tattoos, including that of a naked woman on his body, would greatly frighten her."
Suerae said she would abruptly end the sessions when Armstrong got aggressive. But, her lawsuit states, "Armstrong would be extremely apologetic, make reference to his similarity to King David" (with whom Suerae says Armstrong compared himself frequently, saying that his work on earth was so important that God would overlook any transgressions he might commit), and beg Suerae to continue. The massages would then conclude without further incident, and she continued booking his appointments.
By early summer, Suerae recalled, she was beginning to understand who Armstrong was. He preached and "counseled" her about her separation from Royce. He urged her to join Church of God International. She said he discussed his ministry and television show, and outlined the tenets of his sect, including a commandment that members pay a tithe of 30 percent of their income. The tithe, he told her, is required to attain salvation.
Despite his clearly sexual behavior, Suerae never stood up to Armstrong, never barred him from her business. He returned again and again.
If the boundaries of propriety at Suerae's spa seemed fuzzy to the preacher, it's because they were.
What Suerae would eventually discover--largely through Royce's research--was that Armstrong had a rather checkered past of his own.
Garner Ted Armstrong was 4 years old when in 1934 his father, Herbert W. Armstrong, secured time on a radio station in Eugene, Oregon, and founded the Radio Church of God. The elder Armstrong spent much of his broadcast time engaging in prophecy, predicting the imminent--and gruesome--end of the world to be followed by Christ's Second Coming. He also started a hugely successful magazine, The Plain Truth, to help spread his faith's unique, unorthodox beliefs. The church, for instance, deviated from most Christian denominations in its observation of a Saturday Sabbath--and its denunciation of Christmas and Easter as pagan holidays, which should not be celebrated. Church members also observed Kosher dietary laws.
Herbert Armstrong, who died in 1986 at the age of 93, also believed in British-Israelism--the notion that modern Anglo-Saxons are the lineal descendants of the lost 10 tribes of Israel. His church also denied the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity--thereby setting it apart from traditional Christianity.
Garner Ted had just graduated from high school when his father moved the church's headquarters to Pasadena, California. He was--according to various biographies--slow to accept his father's beliefs. In 1948, Garner Ted joined the Navy and served for four years. Afterward, he enrolled in the school his father had founded--Ambassador College, in Pasadena (the school is now Ambassador University, and is located just north of Tyler in Big Sandy, Texas), and was finally baptized into the church. He married Shirley Hammer in 1953, and they became the parents of three sons: Matthew, Mark, and David.
In 1968, Herbert changed the name of his organization to Worldwide Church of God. He had also extended his evangelistic reach internationally through a popular television broadcast, The World Tomorrow, which fascinated viewers with gloom-and-doom predictions of the Apocalypse. At the apex of its growth in the early '70s, Worldwide counted 105,000 members, and The Plain Truth magazine boasted a circulation of 2.6 million.
Throughout the '60s, Garner Ted labored under his father's tutelage. He rose to executive vice president of Worldwide, and was lauded for his charismatic on-air presence as host of The World Tomorrow. But in 1972, a rift between Herbert and Garner Ted led to the younger Armstrong's exile from the church for several months. Though a repentant Garner Ted later returned to the fold, by 1974 the word was out among Worldwide ministers: Garner Ted was alleged to have squandered church money, openly disputed his father's teachings, and engaged in sexual misconduct with women church members during a period of several years. Former ministers and church members have maintained the allegations for years in news articles and also in affidavits for Suerae Robertson's lawsuit.
The revelations led to a mass defection of disenchanted ministers, many of whom started offshoots of Worldwide Church of God. Garner Ted himself was excommunicated in 1978. Shortly afterward, he moved to Tyler, and started Church of God International. A handful of Worldwide members went with him, and have remained his loyal friends and board members for years, including vice president Charles Groce and business manager Benny Sharp.
When the news of Suerae Robertson's lawsuit broke last year, some 36 ministers in CGI either left the church of their own accord or were disfellowshipped for criticizing Armstrong's role in the scandal, says Lin Stuhlman, founder of the Exit and Support Network in Hamden, Connecticut. The network, says ex-CGI member Stuhlman, offers support for people who are trying to leave "Bible-based organizations that are deceptive," and also investigates those groups. Stuhlman stresses she is not a "cult deprogrammer," and that her organization doesn't "go sneaking around trying to pull people out of cults. Everything we do is aboveboard."
Network members--most of whom have been associated with the 80 or so splinter groups of what Stuhlman calls the "Church of God conglomerate"--communicate largely via the Internet. For the last several months, much of the online buzz has focused on Armstrong and his sexual indiscretions. Several ministers who have left CGI contacted John Osborne, Suerae's attorney, and offered affidavits against Armstrong, swearing to their knowledge of his long history of sexual misconduct. None of these ministers returned phone calls from the Observer.
In February of this year, Fred Coulter of Hollister, California, filed an affidavit in state District Court in Smith County stating that while working as a minister in the Worldwide Church of God from 1965 to 1979, he had "personal knowledge that while Armstrong was a minister with Worldwide Church of God, Armstrong had a reputation for repeated sexual indiscretions with female members of the church. It was well known by many in the ministry [of the church] that Armstrong had a reputation for visiting massage parlors. I had personal knowledge that Armstrong was disfellowshipped from the church as a result of his sexual indiscretions." Coulter is no longer a member of the church, according to his affidavit.
Another affidavit, filed by North Carolina resident John Tuit, a former member of both Worldwide Church and Church of God International, states that "Church of God International condoned [Armstrong's] sexual indiscretions by consciously ignoring Armstrong's repeated indiscretions.
"In fact, I had a conversation with an agent for the Church of God International, Benny L. Sharp," the affidavit continues. "Mr. Sharp stated directly to me that 'so what if Ted screwed some girls.'"
Members of the Exit and Support Network see the Robertson lawsuit as their first real opportunity to determine the extent of Armstrong and his church's wealth. Because the church is tax-exempt, little public information is available about its finances. Armstrong operates what he calls a dual ministry--the church itself, and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association, his TV ministry, which airs in 40 markets nationally.
CGI business manager Sharp declined to discuss the church's finances for this story, but says, "There's no question this lawsuit has hurt our donations. I can't give you a figure." Likewise, Armstrong's attorney, Tom Buchanan, refused to discuss the church's income.
But real-estate records show the church and its various high-ranking members have outright or partial ownership in several prime pieces of property in East Texas. Armstrong's main residence is in the private, gated community of Emerald Bay on Lake Palestine. The home, at 175 S. Bay Drive, is modest by Dallas standards--a tan brick contemporary on a hill overlooking the bay, appraised in 1996 at $159,600. The Church of God International headquarters, consisting of a few brick buildings, some small wood dormitories, and a vast, prefabricated building that serves as a church, sits on a tranquil and shaded chunk of property on State Highway 155 in Flint, also on Lake Palestine. Smith County records show the land is assessed at $585,000.
On November 23, 1995, the day Osborne filed Suerae Robertson's suit, Armstrong faxed a signed, two-paragraph statement to local media. "The allegations of sexual assault are totally false," he wrote. "The people making these accusations against me are under investigation by federal, state, and local authorities."
Attorney Tom Buchanan says that "Mr. Armstrong is an easy target because of his fame and ability to be recognized. But Mr. Armstrong just doesn't have a whole lot of money. The plaintiff is under the impression that he has millions. And they've tried to come after the church, too. Unfortunately, churches have been fair game for this kind of thing for a long time now. The Catholic Church, the YMCA have been sued for the alleged actions of their priests and employees.
"In this case, it is an absolute setup."
Business had been good throughout the early summer of 1995 at the Victorian Hospitality Spa, but Suerae was planning for some "dead time" from the Fourth of July onward. So it surprised her to get an early-morning phone call from Garner Ted Armstrong on Independence Day.
He said he had just finished a long driving trip, and was complaining of the usual pain in his back and groin. He asked if he could come by for a massage. His speech, she says, was slurred.
"I told him we were closed for the holiday, and that everyone was off. I told him Arvilla was the only one who could legally do massage, and she was off for the holiday," Suerae says. But Armstrong persisted, and once again, "Nancy Nurse" surfaced. "I just can't stand to see people suffer," she says.
Armstrong arrived around 9 a.m. and went into the dressing room next to the massage room. When Suerae entered, according to court records, Armstrong was naked and lying on the massage table. "Immediately, Armstrong's actions were more aggressive than any of his previous therapy sessions," the lawsuit states. "Armstrong began to fondle his own genitals and wanted the plaintiff to rub massage oil on his penis. Plaintiff declined but became extremely frightened when she discovered the smell of alcohol on Armstrong's breath."
Suerae claims she tried to leave the room, but that Armstrong grabbed her and refused to let her go. Over the next several minutes, she says, Armstrong grabbed her breasts, bit her nipples, and finally forced her mouth onto his penis.
Shortly after the oral-sex episode, according to the lawsuit, "plaintiff broke free of Armstrong and ran and hid from him. Upon returning a short time later, [she] discovered the defendant had left, but had left a sum of money."
Forty dollars, to be exact.
When Suerae tells this story, she fidgets in her chair and her voice trails off. Royce picks up the story from there, and expertly supplies the remaining details.
Just one month before the July 4 incident, he says, the couple had decided to try and reconcile. So it was no surprise that Royce was the first person Suerae called after Armstrong left her business that day.
The Robertsons did not call the police or a rape-crisis line because, Royce says, "the Tyler police are just a bunch of good ol' boys, and they wouldn't believe us." Instead, they called a private-investigator friend who lived in Oklahoma City. The investigator referred them to an attorney there, who, they say, also advised them against reporting the incident to police. He did tell them, however, that since Armstrong was likely to return, they should videotape the next session as "evidence" for a lawsuit.
On July 15, the day Armstrong returned for an appointment, Royce hid a video camera inside a wall clock in Suerae's massage room. From an upstairs bedroom, Royce watched the situation on a video monitor. "I was close enough to get there quick if anything turned the least bit violent," he says.
The 43-minute, black-and-white tape--of which 300 copies are now floating around worldwide, thanks to Royce's entrepreneurship--begins with Suerae walking into the massage room, dragging on a cigarette as she throws a sheet over the massage table. A nude Armstrong then walks in. The two embrace--"though very lightly," Royce says. Then Suerae snuffs out her cigarette in an ashtray on the corner of a nearby hot tub, and Armstrong lies face down on the table.
The rectangular table is not like the ones most registered massage therapists use in their work. It splits apart in the middle, where, Suerae explains, "men can, you know, sort of hang," and can also split into an upside-down V, on which the client's legs are extended. On the tape, Suerae stands inside the V, between Armstrong's spread legs. During the next 43 minutes, she performs a feather-light massage on the minister as he masturbates, grabs her breasts, and tries to pull her on top of him.
The sound of their voices is largely drowned out by the incessant ticking of the wall clock and a tape of big-band music. "Autumn Leaves" is playing about 15 minutes into the tape, as Armstrong tries to pull Suerae's hands to his genitals. When she says, "That's not part of the massage," he lets go. At 42 minutes, Suerae leaves the room, and Armstrong then walks out of camera range. A low moan is heard off-camera. The final scene is of Armstrong walking back into view, dressed in double-knit pants and a sweater. There's a little lift in his step, and he is singing along with the Andrews Sisters: "Don't sit under the apple tree/With anyone else but me/Anyone else but me.../Till I come marching home."
When Sterling Mansoori, director of the Sterling Health Center, a licensed massage-therapy school in Addison, saw the tape recently, he called Suerae's technique "completely inappropriate for therapeutic massage." As for the masturbation and groping on Armstrong's part, Mansoori says, "A therapist who wants to keep her license would never allow anything like that."
Attorney John Osborne says people who would judge Suerae should understand that "she was living alone, trying to make an income during her divorce. It's easy for them to say she should have just kicked the guy out, but the mortgage payment came due. She needed to pay bills. She needed to work."
The tape will buttress Suerae's claim of a sexual assault on July 4, Osborne says. And the charge by Armstrong's attorney and his closest advisors that the tape and the lawsuit are merely a setup sends Osborne into a fury. "Whether they think he was set up or not, he chose to do what he did, and his actions were completely inappropriate for a husband, a father, a businessman, and a minister. I doubt you could trick Billy Graham into doing something like that."
Osborne adds he is likely to depose other Tyler massage therapists who can corroborate Suerae's claims. One witness may be Mary Irby, owner of Mary Irby and Company, a Tyler beauty salon and day spa that caters to the city's toniest clients. Shortly after Suerae's lawsuit was filed, Irby gave an on-camera interview to KETK, a Tyler television station, saying that prior to the incident at Suerae's business, Irby had banned Armstrong from her salon because two massage therapists had reported that he had acted inappropriately toward them. On the advice of her attorney--who initially asked if the Observer would be willing to "compensate" Irby for her information--Irby declined to be interviewed for this story.
One day just rolls into the next for Royce and Suerae Robertson. Neither has held a job for months. Royce says a lawn-maintenance company he owned went belly-up last year when some of his bigger clients fell behind in their payments; his lawn equipment got repossessed, and he has nothing left.
Besides, with Suerae's fragile emotional condition, he's had to become her 24-hour "bodyguard." He spends most of his time driving Suerae in their battered brown Lincoln Continental to appointments with the Tyler psychologist to which her lawyer referred her. The psychologist, who estimates Suerae will need some $80,000 in psychiatric treatment over the next two years, is working on a contingency basis, as is the lawyer.
On May 1, the Robertsons put the Victorian home of their dreams up for sale. The list price is $89,000. "We held out for as long as we could, but we don't have a choice," Royce says. "The expenses we're incurring, I mean that Suerae is incurring, we just can't cover."
Suerae, listening in on a telephone extension, pipes in: "The drug store told me they won't keep filling my prescriptions unless I can pay them something. Whatever money we get from the house will be gone right away."
When Royce isn't propping up Suerae, he can often be found digging through the huge, leather-bound indexes at the Smith County Courthouse, trying to turn up financial information on Armstrong and his business cronies. He calls this work "investigation." Royce knows where all of the Church of God International officers live and what cars they drive.
"That's [CGI business manager] Benny Sharp's white Continental," he points out during a drive through the church's grounds in Flint. "There's Garner Ted's Bronco," he says, cruising past Armstrong's home. "These guys really have some money. Most of 'em have boats, too."
Royce says that, just a year ago, he couldn't have imagined living like he is. "My dad died when I was 15. After that I worked for everything I've ever eaten, worn, lived in, or driven," he says. "I put myself through six years of junior college here in Tyler."
Now he and Suerae live mostly off the kindness of Royce's 83-year-old mother--as well as $48 a month in food stamps. The three of them occupy a tiny wood-frame house with a rutted dirt driveway near Tyler's hospital district. Up until the time they put the Victorian house on the block, they had kept up the mortgage payments on it by leasing it.
Suerae says she sleeps most of the day. She says the alleged assault by Armstrong has dredged up memories of childhood sexual abuse by her male relatives. Six pages of "psychosocial evaluations" Royce carries in his bulging briefcase refer to her eight separate psychiatric hospitalizations and long history of medication: Thorazine at age 12, and later, Prozac, Zoloft, and Xanax for the treatment of depression and panic disorder.
"Suerae appears to be somewhat dependent and views herself as a victim who has been re-victimized repeatedly," according to a Tyler therapist's August 1995 evaluation. Sometimes Suerae tries to tell the story of her "victimization" but seldom finishes it on her own. Royce, it seems--or her attorney--is always there to do it for her.
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In Tyler, the gossip about Garner Ted and the masseuse was blazing last fall, but has now burned down to an ember. "Good old Garner Ted, he's just a good ol' boy, and I don't know what to think about her," says a well-known Tyler real-estate broker. "Nobody in this deal smells very good."
Local journalists seem to care little about the story these days. Television reporters at first scrambled to cover the news of the lawsuit--it was, after all, filed the day before Thanksgiving, traditionally a very slow news day. But their interest quickly waned. "People in this town, they're going to leave Garner Ted to himself," says a Tyler TV journalist. "Unless they're affected directly, they'll just look the other way."
Even Armstrong's own lawyer, Tom Buchanan, sounds a little exasperated with both the plaintiff and the defendant in this drama--which continues to devolve into a sort of hillbilly soap opera with one trashy revelation heaped atop another.
Says Buchanan, with a long sigh, "I'll tell you, the people of Tyler are pretty damn fed up with both of them.


text:
everyone's a david
Sometimes PR firms send releases to publications having nothing to do with its coverage area, which is how I wound up receiving a release titled: David vs Goliath: Tobacconists Condemn Irresponsibility of W.H.O. Report on Smoking, which was sent to my nintendo.about.com email.
It's an odd release that portrays the World Health Organization as a tool of corporations and the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers as a struggling group of mom and pop stores compelled to battle the unfair claims of W.H.O. The oddest part of the press release is that it says the W.H.O.'s report is full of "wild, unsupportable claims" but refuses to state what those claims are, claiming that repeating these claims would just give them more coverage. Most organizations would try and refute unsupportable claims, but the IPCPR seems to feel that saying the report is wrong is quite enough.
It fascinates me that the release positions the IPCPR as a David battling the World Health monster. And there is a curmudgeon quality to the release that does suggest it is the work of a small, rather unpolished PR firm reduced to quoting angry, unpersuasive statements from its employer like "What would you expect from an organization that refuses to hire people who smoke?"
Yes, tobacco is under siege, but if it's a David, it's a David that was once a Goliath and has got cut down to size. The approach is similar to that of the Republicans, who are acting like a feisty little group of rebels even though they have run this country for most of the last thirty years (of course, they even acted like that when they were in power). But for me, a Goliath who has hit hard times is never a David.


text:
Sources: FBI has cooperating witness for soccer fraud probe
An FBI probe into alleged corruption in international soccer has recently intensified after investigators persuaded a key party to be a cooperating witness, U.S. law enforcement sources said.
They said that the witness is Daryan Warner, the son of former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner. The sources declined to further discuss the role of Daryan Warner, who could not be reached for comment.
They also would not say who might be charged, if anybody, or when. While the exact scope of the investigation is not clear, among the matters under scrutiny are two previously reported allegations involving Jack Warner, who is currently national security minister in his native Trinidad and Tobago.
The deepening of the probe indicates that a succession of corruption scandals involving FIFA and other international soccer bodies in the past few years may continue to cast a cloud over the sport for some time.
Jack Warner was formerly head of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), as well as previously being one of a number of vice-presidents of FIFA, soccer's global governing body. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Since at least the summer of 2011, the FBI has been examining more than $500,000 in payments made by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) over the past 20 years to an offshore company headed by top U.S. soccer official Chuck Blazer. That was a period during which Jack Warner was also head of the CFU, a position he held from the early 1980s until 2011.
The precise reasons for many of those payments is unclear. In 2011, Blazer said that the payments were meant to be repayments to him by Warner of "a significant amount of money" which Blazer said he loaned to Warner in 2004. Warner told the media in Trinidad that the payments were above board.
The Internal Revenue Service has joined in the investigation, which is looking into potential violations of U.S. tax laws and of U.S. anti-fraud statutes, including laws prohibiting wire fraud and mail fraud, law enforcement sources said.
"It's shaping up like a major case," one U.S. official familiar with the matter said.
In a telephone interview from Trinidad, Francis Joseph, a spokesman for Jack Warner, said that neither Jack nor Daryan Warner would have any comment on the investigation. "Nobody will speak to you about that," Joseph told Reuters.
In 2011, Jack Warner told the Parliament of Trinidad: "I will hold my head high to the very end. I am not guilty of a single iota of wrongdoing."
Daryan Warner was first interviewed by the FBI late last year after flying to the United States, a U.S. official said.
Jack Warner quit his FIFA and CONCACAF positions in June 2011 in the wake of allegations of bribery in a report by a lawyer commissioned by Blazer, a member of FIFA's executive committee and former general secretary of CONCACAF.
The report alleged that Warner collaborated with another FIFA vice president at the time, Mohamed Bin Hammam of Qatar, to bribe Caribbean soccer officials so that they would back a bid by Bin Hammam to become FIFA's president. Bin Hammam and Warner both have repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Bin Hammam's U.S. lawyer, Eugene Gulland, said that while he had heard that U.S. authorities were investigating CONCACAF issues, Bin Hammam had not been contacted about the probe.
When Warner resigned his FIFA position, the organization declared that "the presumption of innocence is maintained" in his case. Spokespeople for the FBI and IRS had no comment on the investigation.
Blazer, who has announced he will not seek re-election as the U.S. member of FIFA's executive committee and will leave the position in May, said in a telephone interview that he had been advised by lawyers not to make any further comment. "I can't say anything at all," Blazer said.
Bin Hamman was banned for life from all FIFA and soccer activities in 2011 for trying to bribe soccer officials in the Caribbean in the run-up to the election. His ban was subsequently overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on the grounds that while it was "more likely than not" that he was the source of cash distributed by Warner "it is a situation of case not proven."
The ban was then reinstated in December last year for a separate matter concerning "conflicts of interest" while he was president of the Asian Football Confederation.
At one point recently, investigators from the FBI and the IRS traveled to the Caribbean and interviewed a witness regarding the alleged cash payoffs for more than two and a half hours, said a person who was in recent contact with the witness.
Andrew Jennings, a British journalist and author of the book "Foul! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals," said he has had several meetings with FBI investigators working on the case and provided the FBI and IRS with what Jennings describes as confidential documents he obtained related to payments from soccer organization funds to offshore bank accounts.
A law enforcement source confirmed that investigators had held discussions with Jennings.
In an email, FIFA's media department said the Swiss-based organization was "unaware" of any FBI investigation related to the Americas and Caribbean.
The New York-based FBI squad which is conducting the soccer investigation is a squad that specializes in "Eurasian Organized Crime." It is unclear why this particular squad is involved in the probe.


text:
The Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2.6.1 update includes one important correction that is only relevant for Leica M9 users. This release of Lightroom fixes a bug that caused Lightroom 2.6 to crash when processing certain M9 images. The bug was introduced in the final version of Lightroom 2.6 in the course of making image quality improvements to Leica M9 processing based on customer feedback. There is no need to update to 2.6.1 if you aren't a Leica M9 user.
See the Lightroom 2.6 ReadMe file for additional details on the 2.6 release.
|File Name
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|Proceed to Download
PowerPC® G4 or G5 or Intel® processor
Mac OS X v.10.4-10.6
1GB of RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space
1,024x768 monitor resolution
CD-ROM drive
For computers with previous versions of Lightroom currently installed:
1. Download the Lightroom 2.6.1 update.
2. Open the folder, double-click the updater file, and follow the onscreen instructions.
For computers without a previous version of Lightroom installed, there is no need to install any previous versions of Lightroom before installing Lightroom 2.6.1.
1. Download the Lightroom 2.6.1 update.
2. Open the folder, double-click the updater file, and follow the onscreen instructions.
Note: Lightroom 2.6.1 will automatically replace Lightroom 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 or 2.6 in your Applications folder.
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text:
Dave and Gail
A guy from Australia, a guy from Texas , and a guy from Maine are sitting in a bar, brgging about their respective countries. The guy from Texas says," Back in Texas, we have Jackrabbits that dress out at 120 lbs!!" The guy from Australia says," thats nothing mate,, down in Australia we have kangaroos that dress out over 200 lbs!!" the guy from Maine says," Ayuh, thats nothing,, Up in Maine ,, we got FROGS that can carry sheetrock"":D :D


text:
something about Wyntour Gardens,
that lets us stand out from the others…….
Here at Wyntour Gardens, we care about our plants and we care about
our customers. We grow the majority of our bedding plants ourselves
and the rest are purchased locally, so you can be assured of quality
plants that are acclimated to our area and that are grown as organically
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Ours is the most complete Garden Center, north of Sacramento. We
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pots, and we have the cutest little gift shop full of wonderful
We love gardening and enjoy sharing our knowledge with others. Our
goal is to help you have the best gardens possible.
© 2001-2020 Wyntour Gardens


text:
United States of America
What you need to know before you go
The USA has something to see in every corner of the country. You can go from the relentless pace of New York to the easy-going atmosphere of Miami, the glitz and glamor of Los Angeles to the rustic charm of Nashville, and even the iconic sights of Washington DC to the weirdness of Austin. Whatever you want in a vacation, there's place in America where you can find it. You can even combine several places and make it a road trip!
Being a melting pot of cultures is perhaps what makes the USA most worth visiting. The cuisine alone combines influences from around the world, usually served in very generous portions. From baseball to Bart Simpson, Ronald McDonald to Michael Jackson, American culture dominated the 20th century so it's easy to feel a connection the country.
Top destinations in United States of AmericaWhere will you go next?
New York
New York is an expansive metropolis where anything is possible. Many of the city's landmarks are in the midtown area, where visitors can take in the view from the top of the Empire State Building, or catch a show in the Broadway theater district. You can spend a whole day navigating the winding paths that course through Central Park, or perusing Picasso and Van Gogh heading uptown along the museum mile.
In trendy Lower Manhattan, the city's most fashionable can be found in the boutiques and cafés of Greenwich Village and Soho.Read more
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text: Outsiders might be unfamiliar with the U.K.'s National Health Service, but Brits love it so much that they devoted part of opening ceremonies at the 2012 London Olympics to the NHS. Courtesy of BBC One hide caption toggle caption Courtesy of BBC One Shots - Health News England Offering Free HIV Treatment For Visitors October 9, 2012 The National Health Service is providing care for short-term travelers. So if you're on holiday and run out of an HIV drug, the NHS will help out, gratis. But if you're thinking of going for a long time to get free care, you're probably out of luck.