Chit chat.... What goes on behind the scenes. Many folks think that it's easy pulling together a newsletter. What's the big deal? You have no editor; you can put down what you want, when you want. And those criticisms are valid. But just the same, it's not really a walk in the park. Just deciding what you want to people to read about is challenge enough when there's enough information coming your way to choke a horse. I try to look for three things: It is unique in the sense that the conventional journals are not getting worked up about; is it provable? and is it germane to our focus. All the rest is nice but after I go through that sort of exercise, I still have to weigh, even subjectively, the information in terms of not only relevancy but also importance. Something could be really interesting to a farmer in Southeastern Alabama but have absolutely no relevancy to our reader. This should be obvious but it isn't always so. What that means is that you need to be able to stand back from the subject matter and see how it meets your criteria. Then when you decide that the subject fits from every perspective, then you have to get today's Olivetti out and type it up or so we used to say. Today, we don't have to worry about sending eight carbons to eight editors, each one who is ready to skin you alive. Fortunately, the Internet has freed us from that liability and it has even made available to us the ability to compress time and space in a kind of magic carpet approach to what is new and relevant. Think about it. When I was a kid, I had to wait a week to see what was happening on the War Front; now I get it immediately. Fortunes were made using the time and place gap to advantage. And knowledge is everything. And the Internet makes it all possible. In 1969, I went to a well heralded ATT presentation about the future. Their prophets saw the rest of us all linked by hologram technology so that we could see back and forth around the world. Well, their vision hasn't quite worked out that way; but in other ways, we are ahead of the curve in terms of technology. If you think about where would Luther be without the printing press....or the Rothchilds without their carrier pigeons, you can begin to understand the great power that we wield for good...or evil. The next step is to get ahead of Einstein and be able to write about things that haven't happened yet. Will it happen? I doubt it because the physics doesn't allow it but, nevertheless, today it is possible for a falling tree to be heard around the world in seconds...almost negating even the most extreme Zen critic's of this philosophical notion. In the meantime, we as reporters, editors, investigators and researchers plug along contemplating the next amazing breakthrough to revolutionize our technology...