Getting a book published is hard. You put all that effort into getting your book conceived, written and perfected, then the publishers will almost certainly reject your book. Then you look at self publishing. You manage to get your mom and dad to buy your book. How much did you pay to do the self publishing?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Treasure and Hunts

Treasure, ideas and themes for hunts.

Or maybe that should be kept secret.

A geographical theme for a hunt, compass symbol. Air miles for a prize?
 
 
 

Special Topics

Individuals, part of a team of equals, could take responsibility for special topics. Information security. We are currently clean on OPSEC. Getting the lay of the land with publishers. I wonder if modern programs can assist with cracking the classic ciphers and anagrams. Chasing down artists. The website. Standards and suggestions for placement of treasure.

And we should make a list of things that could go wrong, things to watch for, and come up with solutions to those.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Does it have a magnetic anomaly detector? Some fancy physics there. The Earth's magnetic field slightly magnetises the metals on submarines, which alters the magnetic field around them. This is similar to how electric guitars work!

Is that a metal detector by another name?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Where should the focus of Canada's security be? For Poland the focus is Russia. For South Korea it's North Korea. For Australia it's basically China. Southern Europeans are concerned with migrants, the Middle East, plus Russia, while France also cares about Francophone Africa. The evolving United States has been concerned with everywhere, but they have had the resources, bodies, alliances, and will for that.

Canda has three oceans. How many nations have three oceans?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I used to watch a lot of MSNBC, particularly Rachel Maddow. She did a good job of presenting how the two Americas lived in two different worlds in terms of perception. Television was very much part of that, with Fox News doing something other than journalism.

Mr. Trump, who has mental issues including narcissism, has a habit of making his own reality going back decades. The new government started on a weird note, as Press Secretary Sean Spicer testily insisted that the crowd size at the inauguration was misreported by journalists, even though the photographs shown on television showed smaller crowds. "This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period." On the Meet The Press television show, Kellyanne Conway claimed Mr. Spicer was using "alternative facts".

At the time I was impressed by how it was all about information, and the spread and perception of information. The scandal. The Steele dossier. The other scandal. The Robert Mueller investigation. The thing revealed on the Rachel Maddow show. The latest crazy statement or policy. The inside scoop.

There was one dramatic shock or revelation after another - Bam! Bam! Bam! - which made it hard to focus. Rachel Maddow used to have a whole show planned out, only to toss it in the trash because of some news event that happened.

After getting an inheritance from his rich father, Mr. Trump, who had questionable business skills, experienced a series of bankruptcies, famously losing money running a casino. He got a job as a game show host on NBC The Apprentice Opening (there's Omarosa). This was a scripted reality television show. At the same time he got money doing sleazy deals with sleazy Russians. People in America (maybe not New York) got the impression that Mr. Trump was a successful businessman.

Omarosa and, briefly, Anthony Scaramucci wound up on the Big Brother reality television show.

Mr. Trump had a thing about "ratings" during his time as president. That was something he valued. He thought like a television producer. People on television joked that he should be given his own show playing president and make him think he is president. "We'll see what happens." Stay tuned for the next episode.

Mr. Trump spent much of his time as president watching television (and posting, eating hamburgers, and phoning). He watched Fox to make himself feel good, and other channels to get the news. He marvelled at how he could post something controversial on Twitter, then see it on the news. He was also a big leaker.

President Trump was superficial. He chose members of his administration based on seeing them on television. William Barr for example. Somebody might have a look from "central casting". John Bolton's mustache was questionable.

The White House was chaotic. Various people in the role of chief of staff could not control access to the president. When members of the administration wanted to get something communicated to the president, they would go on Fox News and communicate to President Trump - through the television!

Joe Scarborough used to regularly complain about Mr. Trump on his Morning Joe show. Mr. Trump watched this show. At one point Mr. Scarborough was going on about some scandalous Trump issue. He stopped, and took off his glasses. He talked to the camera about the issue, directly and explicitly talking to Mr. Trump himself.

Donald Trump did a great job of controlling the attention of the media, going back decades, which was no doubt good for his ego. He had a love/hate relationship with the media. Like any politician he didn't like the criticism and perspectives of the media, but he liked the attention. He also thought he was his best representative.

On January 6 January 6 happened. A mob, egged on by the president and others, attacked the Capitol. This iconic event was just one of a number of schemes to illegally keep Mr. Trump as president. The mob attack happened live on television. The MSNBC people were frazzled. One could speculate about the reasons why. Joe Scarborough was swearing away. Ali Velshi, with a lot of work and little sleep, was perilously close to saying something regrettable. He said he was ordered not to call the insurrection an insurrection.