Island Paradises in America

You come across three humpback whales on the ferry to Santa Cruz Island from the California mainland. Not the least bit troubled by our presence, they let you glide almost within touching distance before thrusting their tails out of the water and diving.

In Pictures: Island Paradises in America

And so it goes on an isle that conjures California’s distant past, an American version of the Galapagos that harbors more than 700 species of plant and animal life. Pods of dolphins, sea lions basking on the stony shore; bright orange garibaldi and colonies of starfish inside half-submerged caves that can only be reached by kayak. The only thing missing are the Chumash Indians who lived here until well into the Spanish period.

Secluded, exotic, remote islands … in the United States? You may not realize it, but America is full of gorgeous islands, some of them reachable only by plane or boat and others surprisingly close at hand. Some have never been settled and others support thriving little communities. But all are places where you can chill out for a long weekend or maybe even the rest of your life.Like Santa Cruz, some islands are nature havens. The ancient boreal forest on Michigan’s Isle Royale supports the sort of creatures that once roamed the entire Great Lakes region — moose, beaver, lynx and wolves. Hiking trails and water routes link primitive campgrounds that seem more like the Yukon then somewhere within a few hundred miles of Chicago.

Alaska’s Kodiak may be the second largest island in the United States (after Hawaii’s Big Island), but the vast chunk of wilderness is virtually uninhabited. More than half the island falls within the giant Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, home to the indigenous Kodiak brown bear, who fish for salmon along more than a hundred streams.

At the opposite end of the spectrum are posh private island resorts of the sort you expect in the South Pacific or Caribbean rather than right off the U.S. mainland. Florida’s Little Palm Island is like a Jimmy Buffett song come to life, cheeseburgers in paradise and margaritas all day long – although Kobe beef and Veuve Clicquot are also on the menu.Developers tried turning South Carolina’s Daufuskie into a private island resort, but were largely rebuffed by island residents, who have fought a long and often contentious battle to save their palmetto paradise. The one exclusive gated community that did get built shares the rustic landfall with around 200 ordinary islanders, a mixed bag of artists and writers, fishermen and misfits who spurn the outside world. Singer John Mellencamp owns land on Daufuskie and is reportedly building a home.Bygone island lifestyles are also making a stand on Sapelo off the Georgia coast. All of the island’s longtime residents trace their roots to African slaves who were brought to the island after the American Revolution to work the rice, indigo and cotton plantations. After the Civil War, they lived in seclusion for more than a century, blending African and American customs into a unique “Geechee” culture that still exists. Even today, the people of Sapelo live largely off the natural bounty of the island and surrounding waterways, allowing them to remain totally off the radar.

Why The iPhone 3G S May Be A Sucker’s Bet Right Now

The new iPhone 3G S sounds great. It’s not a huge update to the iPhone, but it packs a few very important things: More speed, more storage, more battery and a better camera that can do video. It’s a no-brainer to upgrade to it, just as many did from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G last year, right? Wrong.

While current iPhone owners last year got to upgrade to the iPhone 3G for the fully subsidized $199 and $299 prices, the same will not be true this year. Instead, current iPhone 3G owners only 1 year into their 2 year contracts, will have to pay $399 and $499 to upgrade. The reason for this is simple: AT&T subsidizes the phone down to $199 based on a 2-year payment agreement with the customer. If you only paid one year of that contract, AT&T would have to eat those costs. So instead it’s putting that cost back into this new phone. It didn’t do that last year, because the original iPhone wasn’t subsidized. It makes sense, but here’s why that’s a bad idea.

There are no shortage of AT&T iPhone customers who are pissed off at the company. Not only is their service sketchy at best in many places (I have spotty service in San Francisco, but it was much worse when I was in NYC this past week), but they do things like delay the roll out of features that the rest of the world is getting because they have other providers. And they do things like block the Sling player app from streaming over 3G on just the iPhone, while it works fine on other phones. And they rip us off with text messages (as do other carriers, though AT&T was particularly bad when moving from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G). The list goes on.

Why this matters is that the dislike of AT&T, mixed with a not huge update to the iPhone and a higher subsidized price could be a perfect storm for users that normally would upgrade, not to. I probably will because the iPhone is integral to my work and I could use more speed and power, but the fact that I’m questioning it should say something. I didn’t question it for a second last year.

But here’s why it’s really a very questionable upgrade: Because Apple is at some point going to move the iPhone beyond the AT&T network. That move could happen as soon as next year. If you buy this iPhone 3G S now, you’ll be locked in for two more years (or have to pay the large cancellation fee). Now, AT&T is trying to negotiate with Apple to extend its exclusive deal through 2011, in which case the move to the iPhone 3G S would make some sense. But that has not happened yet, and AT&T is playing in risky waters. If I learned tomorrow that AT&T and Apple were ending their exclusive deal in 2010, there is no way I would upgrade. I’d suck it up and wait for a year.

That’s why it may have been smart for AT&T to extend an olive branch to current iPhone users and give them the same subsidized price as new users. Sure, they would have taken a hit, probably a fairly big one, but big picture, I don’t think it would be all that bad. First of all, not all current owners would upgrade even at the lower price. Second, if you think about it, it’s not really that big of a hit for them. It’s really only $200 per customer — AT&T makes that off of me in two months with my bill. And if they do lose the Apple exclusivity, they will effectively be losing $1,200 (one year’s worth of bills) that I otherwise would have been paying them.

Instead, basically what it will sounds like to most current iPhone owners is AT&T saying that, “we love you as a customer so much that we’re going to make you pay an extra $200 for this new device since you stuck around with us.” That $399 to $499 for the iPhone 3G S could end up costing you a lot more if Apple moves the iPhone beyond AT&T. And that sucks, because I want it. But I’m very worried it won’t be worth it.

US technology heads to Brazil for black box search

RECIFE, Brazil – Brazilian divers found a large tail section from an Air France jet on Monday, one of the biggest pieces yet recovered from wreckage that is helping narrow the search for Flight 447's black boxes. A U.S. Navy team is bringing in high-tech underwater listening devices to detect pings from the data and voice recorders.

Brazilian and French military ships that have so far recovered 16 bodies and large amounts of plane wreckage searched amid a sea of floating debris, finding the tail section with Air France's trademark red and blue stripes.

Brazilian military officials reduced the number of recovered bodies from the 17 announced Sunday, saying there had been a counting error.

What caused the Airbus A330 to crash May 31 with 228 people on board will remain a mystery unless searchers can locate the plane's black box flight data and voice recorders, likely buried deep in the middle of the ocean.

Two U.S. Navy devices that can detect emergency beacons to a depth of 20,000 feet (6,100 meters) are being flown to Brazil with a Navy team, according to the Pentagon. They will be delivered to ships that will then listen for transmissions from the black boxes, which are programmed to emit signals for at least 30 days.

Sixteen bodies were recovered Saturday and Sunday about 45 miles (70 kilometers) from where the jet sent out messages signaling electrical failures and loss of cabin pressure.

Authorities also announced that searchers spotted two airplane seats and debris with Air France's logo, and recovered dozens of structural components from the plane. They had already recovered jet wing fragments, and said hundreds of personal items believed to from passengers were plucked from the water.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said his nation's military would do all it can to retrieve bodies and return them to relatives.

"We know how significant it is for a family to recover their loved one," Silva said Monday on his weekly radio show. He added: "During this painful time it's not going to resolve the problem, but it is an immense comfort to know they can bury their loved ones."

France is leading the investigation into the cause of the crash, while Brazilian officials are focusing on the recovery of victims and wreckage from Flight 447, which likely broke up in midair in turbulent weather the night of May 31 en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said the nuclear attack submarine Emeraude would arrive at the scene later this week and "will try to find the acoustic pings emitted by the black box."

The Ventose, a French military frigate, arrived Sunday and is now under Brazil command, Prazuck said. That ship has found and brought aboard seven of the 17 bodies of victims discovered so far, and about 30 pieces of debris that "most probably come from the plane," Prazuck said.

A French navy ship, the Mistral, is headed to the site, he said, and the oceanographic survey ship Pourquoi Pas, equipped with deep-water unmanned subs, is also en route and will try to retrieve the black box.

The search is focusing on a zone of several hundred square miles (square kilometers) roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.

Brazilian authorities have refused to release the precise coordinates of where they are looking, except to say the area lies southeast of the last jet transmission and could have indicated the pilot was trying to turn around in mid-flight and head back to the islands.

The investigation is increasingly focused on whether external instruments on the Airbus A330 may have iced over, confusing speed sensors and leading computers to set the plane's speed too fast or slow — a potentially deadly mistake.

The French agency investigating the disaster said airspeed instruments on the plane had not been replaced as the maker had recommended, but cautioned that it was too early to draw conclusions about what role that may have played in the crash.

The agency, BEA, said the plane received inconsistent airspeed readings from different instruments as it struggled in a massive thunderstorm.

Munhoz and Brazilian Navy Capt. Giucemar Tabosa Cardoso declined to comment on the condition of the bodies, saying that information would be too emotionally painful for relatives.

Neither would authorities immediately identify hundreds of personal items that have been recovered. Relatives of the victims were devastated by an announcement Saturday that a laptop computer and briefcase containing a plane ticket had been found.

"We don't want to cause them more suffering," Munhoz said.

The bodies and plane wreckage were being transported by Brazilian and French ships and should arrive Tuesday at the Fernando de Noronha islands, where the military has set up a staging post for the search operation. From there, remains and debris will be taken to the northeastern coastal city of Recife for identification.

Meanwhile, friends and family remembered geologist Michael Prince Harris and his wife, Anne Debaillon Harris — the only U.S. citizens on the plane — in a memorial service Sunday in Lafayette, Louisiana.

The couple had lived in Lafayette before moving to Houston and then Brazil.

The Pentagon has said there are no signs that terrorism was involved in the crash. French officials have also said there are no signs, but that terrorism has not been ruled out. Brazil's defense minister said the possibility wasn't considered.

___

Marco Sibaja reported from Recife and Alan Clendenning from Sao Paulo. AP Writers Angela Charlton, Emma Vandore and Greg Keller in Paris, Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo, and David McFadden in Puerto Rico contributed to this report.

Dating Advice: 7 Powerful Ways to Keep Your Love Alive

When we fall in love, we usually think that's all we'll need to be happy. However, when reality sets in and we have our first real argument, we get hit with the realization that our partner isn't perfect.

In the beginning of a relationship we do our best to give our partner the benefit of the doubt, expressing our love and goodwill, even when we're upset. However, as time goes on, it can get harder to resolve arguments and, therefore, harder to feel loving and forgiving towards our partner. It's at these times that we start to ask ourselves, is there a secret to making a relationship last? Is it really possible to live happily ever after?

The answer to these questions is, "Yes!" However, the hardest question to answer is: How do we do it? How do I have a lasting, happy relationship that doesn't end in a painful breakup?

The first thing to remember is that keeping a partnership healthy and happy requires work and that it will not happen on its own -- just like a flower won't grow if it isn't watered and fed. Relationships need nurturing, tending to, time, and energy! We often forget that a couple contains two human beings who both need to be appreciated, heard, valued, and respected.

With this in mind, here are seven ways to make your relationship last:

1. Keep the lines of communication open. If you don't know how to express your feelings and/or have poor listening skills, learn to get better at both. You can read a book, take a class, or get into counseling. Good communication requires both the ability to express and listen.

2. Don't sweep your fights under the rug and think they'll magically resolve themselves. Do your best to resolve your first argument as soon as it arises so you won't have the same argument for the next 50 years, in different forms.

3. Remember that you love your partner; therefore, you want the best for her/him. Give her/him the benefit of the doubt when you feel angry, hurt, or disappointed. Talk to your partner; don't make assumptions.

4. Don't take your partner for granted. Tell your partner every day something you appreciate about her/him and how grateful you are to have them in your life.

5. Your partner should never feel like your enemy. If they do, something is wrong; remember that you fell in love with this person. If there's so much anger that you feel like you are enemies, get help somewhere as quickly as possible.

6. Gauge your relationship. Notice and don't ignore the warning signs if you're not talking, you're less affectionate, you're fighting all the time, and you're not happy. The sooner you acknowledge you're having problems, the sooner you can begin to solve them.

7. Always remember that you have the power to change behaviors in your relationship through different tools of self-discovery. You don't have to stay stuck in unhealthy ruts.

Good, lasting relationships are made up of two conscious individuals who have the desire to work on themselves with the determination to stay focused on the importance of their relationship. They do not take their partner for granted. They have their partner's best interest at heart and, therefore, build trust with their partner. When arguments come up, they don't ignore them. They address the issues and try to resolve them. When they see warning signs that their relationship could be in trouble, they act immediately and look for new ways to relate to each other.

This can be accomplished by anyone who is willing to take the time and energy to make their relationship a priority in their life. Nurture your partnership as it so richly deserves! You can live happily ever after, not with magic, but with work, awareness, and knowledge of yourself and your partner.

Read more articles from Hitched at hitchedmag.com.

Print web report immediately while loading report with RAQ Report

Background

For printing web report, users often need to print it by clicking the print button. However, sometimes users may want to print report immediately when loading the report on browser.

Solution

As a real Excel-like web reporting tool, RAQ Report provides a direct print function for users. You only need to use the tag in the JSP file to call the applet program directly. The solution is that write a print class, which inherits the direct print class DirectPrintApplet,and call the print program directly in the DirectPrintApplet.java. Then you can print the uploading report directly without the trigger program.

Easy operation

1. Write a print class, which inherits the direct print class DirectPrintApplet.(You can choose the DirectPrintWithoutShow name as you like).

2. Put the print class into runqianReport4Applet.jar. Remember to decompress runqianReport4Applet.jar firstly and delete the mete folder before compress it.

3. Sign the new runqianReport4Applet.jar.

4. Use the new class name instead of the called class name in the jsp when direct print while loading report.

Obama visits Buchenwald site, lays rose

WEIMAR – President Barack Obama says the Buchenwald concentration camp "is the ultimate rebuke" to those who deny the Holocaust.

Obama on Friday visited the Nazi-era camp where 56,000 people died. He toured the memorial with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and survivor Elie Wiesel. They laid roses at a memorial.

Obama said people today have a duty to confront those who deny such concentration camps existed.

A somber Obama told reporters that his great-uncle helped liberate a nearby satellite camp, Ohrdruf, just days before other U.S. Army units overran Buchenwald. Obama says his great-uncle returned from war and was unable to speak of the horrible scene.

Obama says the victims and the perpetrators of the camp alike were humans and everyone must stand guard against a repeat.

CrunchPad: The Launch Prototype

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes on the CrunchPad since our last update in April, and have just about nailed down the final design for the device. We’re showing the conceptual drawings here today. In another few weeks we’ll have the first working prototypes in our office.

This launch prototype is another significant step forward from the last prototype. The screen is now flush with the case and we’ve decreased the overall thickness to about 18 mm. The case will be aluminum, which is more expensive than plastic but is sturdier and lets us shave a little more off the overall thickness of the device.

I believe the device now actually looks better than the original concept design we published last summer. Compare the images below to the first prototype and you can see how far we’ve come. If you’re interested, here’s Prototype B. Pictures of Prototype C, which is the device we’re actually demo’ing to people now, are here.

A lot has happened behind the scenes, too. Our partner Fusion Garage continues to drive the software forward, and we are in deep discussions with key partners to bring the device to market. If you’d like to see the previous CrunchPad in action, we have a previously-private video available on YouTube that shows our vision for the user interface and the last version of the software stack. This is a Linux based operating system and a Webkit based browser. The device boots directly into the browser.

The next time we talk about the CrunchPad publicly will be at a special press and user event in July in Silicon Valley. If you’d like to be emailed when new news comes out, send an email to crunchpad@techcrunch.com and we’ll put you on the list.

Here is the near-final industrial design for the CrunchPad: