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Listen to free music played by takhead
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Dec 3, 2011 at 6:37 am via YouTube | AMAZON | ITUNES


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The umpire has written the complete report on his blog so visit it for a good report on the action: https://landandnavy.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/signal-close-action-kriegspiel-conclusion/
It would be interesting to extend the concept to fleet actions and also land wargaming, but some streamlining on the PBEM method needs to be done as well as a way to advance the game if a player doesn't submit his moves in a timely manner (guilty as charged, I was quite busy with work last autumn).
|A typical picture the umpire sent me. The view from my port broadside towards my opponent.

subset: commoncrawl


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GEW Debuts ArcLED Hybrid UV-Curing System
UV+EB Technology
The ArcLED from GEW (EC) Limited is a hybrid UV-curing system that addresses the printing and packaging industries transition toward UV-LED curing inks and varnishes.
GEW (EC) Limited, a subsidiary of the England-based company, has launched the ArcLED, a "futureproof" hybrid UV-curing system to address the printing and packaging industries transition toward UV-LED curing inks and varnishes.
The ArcLED is capable of being upgraded with LEDs using the same lamphead casing, power supply and control, allowing printers to switch seamlessly on the same press with the same RHINO power supply from DC power for the LEDs to high voltage AC for the arc lamps. This unique combination of quick-swap lampheads, reactive detection of the required power and automatic switching will optimize processes, maximize ink compatibility and increase machine productivity, as well as provide the possibility of running a fully flexible hybrid curing system.
For more information, visit www.gewuv.com.


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Our Mission
The Houston Apartment Association is the leading advocate, resource and community partner for quality rental housing providers in the Houston and surrounding area.
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The Exchange is a forum where property management company leaders are seated at tables while supplier representatives
move around the room, selecting the individuals they wish to visit.
Each visit has a five minute limit. Registration will open June 3.
Suppliers: You have access to a number of property
management personnel from Owner Executives to Maintenance Supervisors. The first two participants will pay $350.00 EACH with an option for a third participant at $375.00. If you are interested in paying for a third participate, please contact Susan at email@example.com Management Leaders: This event raises money for
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students who are pursuing their credentials. By simply attending, (you pay nothing) you are helping us grow talented people to work in the
industry. Please follow this link to sign up. Property Mgmt Registration Form
Many thanks to these property management companies that participated in 2018.
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Tarantino Properties
US Residential Group
Venterra Realty
Veritas Equity


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This is my retelling/ paraphrase of Exodus 4. I had to edit it slightly to account for the fact that, archaeologically, the Israelites seem to never to have left Canaan, let alone come back to it in the Exodus.
I believe I got this version of 'I am who I am' from Harold Bloom, in his book Jesus and Yahweh, The Names Divine. If I remember correctly, Bloom believed Yahweh was being coy with Moses when he told him that was his name.
I had to take a break from ranting about Biblical Sexual Ethics. I'm afraid I didn't get very far. While I was sitting making clay dinosaurs with my little sister, my mom put on some radio preacher. He was preaching a sermon on insecurity, and using Exodus 4 as his text.
He explained that Moses kept turning God down because he was all being silly and insecure. We should learn from his negative example and not be such wusses all the time.
He understood- in his guts, in his bones, in his skin, in the hair on his arms and head that was standing on end (and he wasn't sure, later, if that was because of his own fear or because of almost visible energy charging the air)-
He shouldn't have come.
He didn't see how he could have avoided coming.
He had seen a fire on the horizon, over the backs of the goats. A wildfire could set the mountainside ablaze in a remarkably short time, endangering the flock. A campfire could mean raiders, with plans to attack the tribe's main encampment and herds, or guests, to whom hospitality must be extended.
Moses had been feeling a little glow of happiness lately, watching his two little sons playing by the campfire at night. He gripped his staff and felt its strength, the fiber of wood grown in the desert. It wouldn't break. He felt capable of fighting or charming his way out of anything. Strangely light-hearted, he set out towards the light. He would prove to his father-in-law, Jethro of the Midianites, that the man's kindness in adopting a half-dead stranger, found lost in the wilderness, had not been wasted.
But this was no wildfire. This was no campfire.
This was a was a god.
The bush stood flickering and silent before him.
Energy like tongues of flame flickered up and down its branches, nesting in the living leaves. He could see nothing else. The god had not appeared. But only a fool would fail to understand what was happening.
The Being before him (around him? behind him?) was watching. It gave no sign.
His mind raced, thinking of the names of various gods and their behaviors. How one must behave around each one. His hand gripping his staff and the gravel of the hillside underfoot, he was suddenly in the cool dim room in Egypt where he had learned to read-
"You've come close enough" a voice said, from nowhere, or maybe from above the bush itself. The voice was like the voice of the hill side, dry and warm. It purred like stone chips pouring over the face of a rock. "Don't come any closer."
He let his mind go blank, He waited, tense. The god was going to speak for itself.
"Take off your sandals, Moses." the voice told him. "The ground where you are standing is holy."
Moses complied, not taking his eyes away from the bush. This was not a god who demanded temples, then, he thought with a sinking feeling. That ruled out many of the gods, and meant that it could be something older- something more dangerous-
The image of a sceptered being, with the head and face of an unknown creature, flashed through his mind. Set, of the wilderness and whirlwind. Set, who did not love cities.
"I am the god of your fathers." the voice rolled accusingly, as if disappointed that Moses would think such things. "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
For one moment, Moses' heart moved strangely with recognition- joy and terror and pride. Then he whipped his outer robe over his face and dropped to his knees.
It wasn't in the books of the Egyptians he had learned about this god.
To see this god was to die- but no one knew for sure what he looked like. Moses could have incurred death already.
He crouched, waiting. He could hear his own heart beating in his ears.
His people had worshiped this god once, before the Egyptians had come into their country. His rites were associated with deception and massacre, and when He Himself acted entire city-states and their surrounding regions were sometimes consumed by unnatural fire.
This was a dangerous god.
He claimed to be the god who ruled all the others. The Elohim.
Through the fabric of his robe, Moses saw the air seemed to brighten. The energy around him seem to relax and flame up.
"I have, indeed, seen the misery of my people." the god said royally. "I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering."
The god paused, letting that sink in. Moses didn't move. The god was telling him this. So… he hadn't seen god? The god wasn't going to kill him?
The god went on.
"So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to give them a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey– the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites."
Moses' breath caught in his throat, and his arm sank. He looked at the bush. It still stood there, silent flames flickering along its branches.
The other inhabitants of the land worshiped the Elohim as well. He had always said that he could have made them into one people- a power to rival Egypt- but he preferred for them to be separate. His plan was to test them, he said. That way they would strive with each other to excel in devotion.
This was the end of the test, then. God was discarding the others, and keeping Jacob's descendants. Moses wasn't sure if he felt happy or ill.
"And now, the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. "
After four hundred years of Egyptian rule, he had, Moses thought fiercely. Well, if he had finally chosen, the Egyptians would have to be pushed out of the country first, of course… They didn't approve of unrest in regions they had nominal claim to. People tended to ask them for help.
"So, now, go." the rock slide of a voice struck a crescendo, " I am sending you to Pharaoh, to release my people, the Israelites, from the power of Egypt."
Moses jumped to his feet. Images of his Egyptian family were hanging in his eyes now- his stepmother- his father- the repercussions against them at Pharaoh's court when he had-
"Ah- Elohim, I am no one. Among Jacob's children or the Egyptians. Who am I that I should stand before Pharaoh- on behalf of a people who belong to You?"
"I will be with you." the god replied, airily, as if that were the only problem. "And the sign that I have sent you will be that… if it's done… you will come back here and worship me, on this very mountain."
Moses dropped back to his knees and averted his eyes. One could die for almost anything around a god. Particularly this one.
The image of Set rose again, unbidden, in his mind.
"Suppose…" Moses began cautiously "…suppose I go to the Israelites. And I tell them, 'The god of your fathers has sent me to you!" And they say to me, 'Oh? Then what's his name?'"
He risked a glance at the bush. It was silent, waiting.
"What shall I tell them?"
"Hm." the voice purred around him. It seemed to be somehow nearer, as if the speaker were kneeling to look at him. "Tell them that I will be whoever I will be."
"You can tell them that's what they are going to call me. From now on."
Thoughts streamed from the god to Moses. The entire land, waiting to be taken. All it's riches- that Moses could give as a gift to his mother's people. The tribal elders all listening to him in awe, the Pharaoh- something about the Pharaoh being struck down, but the Egyptians, the Egyptians all looking respectfully at him, giving presents to his people. The sons and daughters of Israel dressed in silver and gold and white linen- dancing-
"What if they don't believe me?"Moses objected suddenly, tearing his mind away. "The Sons of Jacob- they probably won't believe me."
The silence was angry and taken aback.
"What's that in your hand?" the god asked him.
Moses looked at his hand weakly.
"A staff…"
"Throw it on the ground. "
Moses threw it on the ground as if it had stung him. The wood clattered against the rocks.
Before it had finished clattering, the impact became a soft slap. Moses looked back at the stick, sharply.
It had become a poisonous snake. It was coiling now- staring up at him. He backed away slowly.
He jumped back and it struck, he wasn't sure which happened first. But it had missed. It slithered towards him and he stumbled backwards, running. He tripped and fell and it coiled again, preparing to strike. He crawled backwards. It struck again and missed as he jerked away his arm. It coiled again.
There was a pulsing, like laughter,
"Reach out your arm. Take hold of it." the god said.
He looked over at the bush, and back at the snake. He reached out and grabbed the snake.
His hand closed on the grain of wood, polished smooth with long use. He was holding his staff.
He pulled himself to his feet and looked around, confused. His tracks in the rocks and sand led in a half circle around the bush. He had thought he was moving straight backwards.
"Put your hand into your coat."
Moses looked around wildly for the source of the voice but there was nothing.
His chest heaving, he threw down the staff and griped the edge of the robe with one hand. He plunged the other inside, and stood with his arms wrapped around him, one inside, and one outside his clothes.
"Now take it out."
It didn't feel like a snake, at least. He took his hand out.
Pieces of his flesh flaked off, scraped free by the hem of the robe, and fell to the ground at his feet. His hand was leprous. He tried moving his fingers, and they moved. Most of them. But none of the tips would bend.
"Now put it back." the god told him, before he had a chance to look back up.
He did. He put his hand under the robe slowly, and a little carefully. Trying not to flake off any more skin.
The air pulsed again.
"Take out your hand."
Moses stood for a moment, not wanting to look. Not wanting to move or see or be here. He took his hand out.
It was clean.
He let his hand fall and stood still, not thinking of anything and not looking at the spiritual fire.
The voice was close to him again.
"If the Sons of Israel don't believe the first sign, they may believe the second, don't you think?"
Moses nodded miserably. t was common to die of snake bite. But leprosy like that took years acquire. It didn't happen overnight.
"There's a third sign. " the god told him. "If those don't work. Do you want to see it?"
Moses shook his head. No.
"Draw water from the river. Pour it on the ground. It won't just look like blood when it touches the ground. It will be blood."
"Can you imagine that, Moses? Blood, drawn from the water?"
Moses' eyes were fixed on a rock. They didn't move.
"Pardon your servant, Elohim. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue. I cannot go."
The god was suddenly annoyed.
"Who gave humans their mouths?" he snapped. "Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind?"
Moses' brows knit, puzzled, as he stared at the rock. He was pretty sure the answer was Khnum, the potter-god-?
The fire sprang up on the branches of the tree. soundlessly. It towered over Moses like a bonfire.
"Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will help you speak, and teach you what to say."
Moses eyes were fixed. The rock was little more than a pebble. It was dark grey with clean edges. Maybe a larger stone had recently shattered.
"Pardon your servant, Elohim. Please send someone else."
The unnatural fire sank down. Moses felt a shiver of new fear. The god was angry with him now. Very angry. And very quiet.
"What about your brother, Aaron?" the god asked casually. "He can speak well."
Moses gasped and turned to the bush, eyes wide with fear.
"He's on his way to Midian to meet you, you know" the dry voice purred. "He's going to be glad to see you."
Moses sank to his knees, and then spilled forward til he lay on the ground with his face in the dirt. Without words, without even thoughts he asked for none of this to happen to his brother. The air pulsed with dry laughter. A weight like a hand rested on his head for a moment, then disappeared.
"I will help both of you speak and teach both of you what to say. You will speak to him and he will speak to the Israelites. It will be as if you were god, Moses! He is going to be your prophet. And now the problem is solved."
Moses found himself standing up. He wasn't sure why.
"That wasn't so hard, was it, Moses?"
Moses shook his head, no it wasn't, without thinking. He turned to go.
"Wait." The voice was a little harder than it had been. Moses turned back.
"Take your staff with you. You never know when you may need it."
Moses stared down at the staff. Then he shut his eyes and picked it up. It didn't change into anything this time.
"Now, you may leave. " the voice told him.
Moses turned and started walking. A new kind of life lay ahead of him.
The Israelites never came back to Canaan because they never left
Judaism Monotheism was most likely a form of Canaanite Polytheism
More about that and about Elohim.
An Islamic line of reasoning for why God keeps multiple Religions of Himself running among humans at the same time.


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Go behind the scenes with the Thor: The Dark World's composer Brian Tyler as he gives you a first look at the creation of the movie's stunning original score in this exclusive clip.
Watch as Tyler - who's composed the scores for movies like Iron Man 3, The Expendables and Fast Five - describes how Thor's music changed after the superheroes adventures in the Avengers.
"We have now a post-Avengers Thor and he's a different guy. He was the son of Odin but he hadn't really come into his own as a god and so after Avengers there's a gravitas that's brought to this movie.
"Now Thor needed a theme that was different to reflect post-Avengers and this weight that he's now carrying.
"With the thematic approach to these characters Thor is the central figure, but what I wanted to do was make Thor kinda present throughout."
* Thor: The Dark World is released today February 24 February on DVD, Blu-Ray and on-demand platforms


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I'm pleased to welcome author Mary Waibel to my blog today. She's interviewing two characters from her release Quest of the Hart and giving away a copy to one lucky winner (details at the end of post). Join her and get the inside scoop on Princess Arabella and her devious plans for Prince Devlin and the kingdom!
Me: Oh, look! I've managed to find Ladies Maeryn and Deirdre, Princess Arabella's close friends, here in the library. Excuse me, ladies, but would you care to share a bit about the princess?
Maeryn: Princess Arabella? Certainly. She's beautiful, talented.
Deirdre: Oh, y-yes. (She bobs her head.) Tell about the tournament.
Me: Oh, a tournament? Did she give her favor to the winning knight?
M: (Snorts) No, the princess faced off against the best of the realm, defeating knights with swords and bow. If only her father would have allowed her to do hand-to-hand combat, she would have been champion. Instead, Prince Devlin was.
D: Hmm. Pr-Prince D-Devlin. (Her face takes on a dreamy look.)
M: I tell you, King Gareth should reconsider his heir. Breniera would do much better with Arabella ruling.
D: I d-don't know, M-Maeryn. She's so bl-blood thirsty. We'd pr-probably be at w-war all the t-time.
M: True, she can be quite determined to get her way. Sometimes I wonder why I spend time with her. I mean, I know we're the only noble girls close to her age, but she can be quite mean when she wants to. Of course, without her, we'd be quite lonely.
D: Y-Yes, we w-would. (She looks outside and gasps.) Oh, m-my! W-we're l-late!
M: (Jumps to her feet and grabs hold of her sister.) Sorry, but we have to leave. The princess is expecting us to help with her latest plans to take the throne from her brother. This one's a special spell.
Me: Wait! I don't want you to be late, but what kind of spell are you talking about?
M: I can't say, really. Don't want to spoil it. I'm sure you'll hear all about it soon! (They hurry from the room.)
Me: I guess we'll just have to read Quest of the Hart to see what that was all about!
Quest of the Hart
A reverse Sleeping Beauty tale where the princess goes on the quest to save the prince.
Mary lives with her husband, son and two cats. When she isn't twisting fairytales, she enjoys reading, playing games, watching hockey, and camping. Her debut novel, Quest of the Hart, will be available from MuseItUp Publishing April 19, 2013. Charmed Memories, a companion novel, will be available from MuseItUp Publishing in August 2013.
You can find Mary Waibel at:
Twitter: @mewtweety14
Buy Link (Quest):
Book Trailers (Quest):
For a chance to win a copy of Quest of the Hart please follow the link: a Rafflecopter giveaway


text: Known in the industry as decorative vinyl color flakes, they are actually polymer paint aggregates made up of a combination of acrylic and vinyl resins. This creates a thin flake that is 4 – 5 mils in thickness, U.V. stable, and is available in over 150 custom colors. They can even be custom color matched. The shape of the flake is random and is available in sizes from 1" in diameter all the way down to 1/32". The ¼" flake is the most common size used in all garage floor applications.


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December 20, 2013 – Top 20 Most Beautiful African Women 2013: Genevieve Nnaji, Tiwa Savage, Omotola Jalade Picked
The Glitz Magazine has released the new list of African celebrities profiled under the top 20 most beautiful African women of 2013.
The big list accommodated celebrities from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and other African countries.
Nigerian celebrities like Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Tiwa Savage, Stephanie Linus Okere and many others make the list.
Check out the top 20 fashionista tagged as the most beautiful women in Africa 2013 below:
- lLeila Lopes from Angola
- Vimbai Mutinhiri from Zimbabwe
- Model Oluchi Orlandi from Nigeria
- Actress Yvonne Nelson from Ghana
- eX-BBA Winner Dillish Mathews from Namibia
- Former Miss World, Agbani Darego from Nigeria
- Singer Tiwa Savage from Nigeria
- Nollywood actress Stephanie Okereke Linus from Nigeria
- Nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji from Nigeria
- Joselyn Dumas from Ghana
- Gollywood actress Yvonne Okoro from Ghana
- Gollywood actress Jackie Appiah from Ghana
- Millen Magese from Tanzania
- Reality show host and actress Omotola Jalade Ekeinde from Nigeria
- Zainab Sheriff from Sierra Leone
- Naa Okailey Shooter from Ghana
- Gollywood actress Nadia Buari from Ghana
- Lerato "Lira" Molapo from South Africa
- Babalwa "Barbz" Mneno from South Africa
- Elham Wagdi from Egypt


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Just a quick note that I redid my room… again… only this time it really changed… and it took forever. But I took pictures of the process, and you should feel free to compliment me and my new room set up, featuring Corner Desk!
3 thoughts on "My Room Changed"
Ron, I'd like to see you if you ever got into prison.
"Day 1512: I rearranged my cell. The shiv is now on the other side of the can. Everything else is bolted down. It was the best I could do"
Day 1512 [cont'd.]: It still took me 8 hours to finish…
Day 1513: the bed is now painted black–i had to use my own dried blood.


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With a name like Tombstone and a frenzied history of bloodshed, this outpost near the southwestern edge of the United States has a reputation that's well, haunted. And it doesn't help to see a dozen gunslingers die each day in the town's sandy red dirt.
The fights are staged, but Tombstone's checkered past is real, I learned when I spent a few days here earlier this month searching for ghosts. Tombstone, which advertises itself as "The Town Too Tough to Die," surprised me. So did the spirits of its past.
Nearly half a million people — many of them European — make their way to this wind-swept corner of the Sonoran Desert each year, jogging 60 miles southeast from Tucson to relive the bittersweet pleasures of the frontier West. They find a three-block Old Town, where saloons outnumber restaurants, stagecoaches still rumble down the street, and locals often wear six-guns along with their Stetsons, kerchiefs and rawhide boots.
"It's amazing how many people here never grew past the age of 10 or 11," said local historian Hollis Cook. "They just keep on playing cowboy."
But in this town of Old West legend and fantasy, that's considered a plus.
Tombstone owes its notoriety to the media, particularly Hollywood, which immortalized it in more than a dozen sagebrush sagas, including the bloody 1993 film "Tombstone," starring Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer. Ronald Reagan, Burt Lancaster and Henry Fonda were among other actors who brought fame to the streets of Tombstone.
The cinematic tales are based on the exploits of Wyatt Earp, who, with brothers Virgil and Morgan and comrade Doc Holliday, made history in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral on Oct. 26, 1881. When the 30-second fight was over, three of their adversaries — Frank and Tom McLaury and Billy Clanton — lay dead. Tombstone residents call it the most famous shootout in history.
Although the gunfight has garnered all the attention, it is only one of many deadly encounters that took place in a town where lawlessness often was the rule rather than the exception.
And modern Tombstone, which owes its livelihood to tourism, makes sure visitors take notice: Stroll through the Boothill Cemetery, where graves are marked with legends such as: "Margarita, Stabbed by Gold Dollar" and "Here lies Lester Moore, four slugs from a 44. No Les, No More." Or walk down Allen Street, where signs point out murder locations: "Curly Bill Brocius killed Marshal Fred White here on Oct. 28, 1880."
Given that so many of Tombstone's inhabitants have met a violent end, it's not surprising that shadowy tales of apparitions and phantoms swirl on the desert wind.
"A lot of people came to live here 100 years ago and never left," said Bill Huntley, chuckling. "They're all still here, no doubt about it." Huntley, who has lived in Tombstone for 64 years, owns the Bird Cage Theatre, one of the few remaining original buildings in town. Some say the spirits of its bawdy past still celebrate there.
A parapsychology team from Duke University in Durham, N.C., studied Tombstone's haunted sites nearly half a century ago, Huntley said. Others have conducted paranormal studies since, including the History Channel, which recently released a DVD called "Haunted Tombstone."
NOT everyone believes the stories. Historian Cook, for one, thinks they're nonsense: "I never saw anything that would make me believe in ghosts."
Unlike Cook, I do believe in them. Well, maybe I believe in them. At least, I have no reason to disbelieve. I've always thought about them the same way I think about Bora-Bora: I don't have go there to believe it exists. But it's much more interesting to see it for myself.
So why not try to meet a ghost or two, as long as I was going to Tombstone? It seemed as good a place as any for a close encounter with a spirit.
I thought about the prospect as I drove south from Tucson, through ranchland, farmland and sagebrush. The trip should have taken an hour, but for me it was two: I spent an extra hour with my motor idling while I waited for construction delays to clear on Arizona 80.
I thought about it when I went to the motel where I had a reservation. But there was a mix-up, and no room was available for me after all. I thought about it when I tried to rendezvous with a Times photographer and found that my cellphone, which works all over the world, wouldn't work in Tombstone.
And I thought about it when I took a seat at the daily reenactment of the shootout at the O.K. Corral and a cloudburst struck.
Perhaps the local specters didn't share my eagerness to get acquainted.
"Things like that always happen in Tombstone," I was told by frequent visitor Ellen Bilbrey of Phoenix.
So, for the moment, I put aside my plan to meet a ghost and concentrated on the town instead.
Carved out of Apache land, Tombstone began as a silver-mining strike in 1877. It was named by prospector Ed Schieffelin, whose friends had warned him that the only thing he'd find in the region was his own tombstone; he had the last laugh when he found silver. By 1879, when the town was incorporated, miners, merchants, gamblers, prostitutes and pistol-packing cowboys had followed him.
"It was the last major mining camp in the Lower 48," said Don Taylor, another local historian. For many, "it was their last chance to strike it rich quick."
The town mushroomed, burned, was rebuilt, burned and was rebuilt again. During its rooting-tooting heyday in the 1880s, it was one of the largest cities west of the Mississippi, Taylor said.
At one time, Tombstone was 10 blocks square; now three tidy blocks of Allen Street remain as the heart of Old Town. The street has been closed to traffic — which once created a logjam — and the cracked asphalt covered with packed sand for a more authentic look.
Most tourists pop in for the day, swelling foot traffic on Allen Street's wide plank boardwalk and jamming into the O.K. Corral at 2 p.m. for a reenactment of the famous gunfight. At other times, visitors must settle for mechanized gunfighters or catch one of six other gun battles staged in town throughout the day.
There's a well-maintained courthouse, now a state historic park, where hangings once took place, and small museums, gift shops, gun shops, costume and hat shops, many of which have lower prices than in Tucson. Cowboys and cowgirls are everywhere. There's even a local dog — a black cocker spaniel named Ms. Lily — that greets tourists in a pint-size cowboy hat to raise funds for a nearby animal shelter.
And, of course, there are plenty of places to slake a thirst. I wandered down Allen Street, stopping in at Big Nose Kate's Saloon, the Crystal Palace Saloon and, finally, the Dragoon Saloon, where I ran into Mayor Andree DeJournett, who owns the friendly bar.
The mayor, a fast-talking former Michigan resident who has lived in Tombstone for three years, has big plans for his adopted town. "Curb appeal," he said. "It just needs more curb appeal."
DeJournett, 45, likes to talk about his vision for Tombstone. "This place is alive and vigorous, but it's not easy juggling a town that's alive with a town that's history. It needs to improve its image."
The region is growing, with retirees and others moving in, he said, and prices are going up. Homes cost $175,000 to $275,000, "but you can still get four acres of land for under $75,000."
Although he's been in office only a year, DeJournett is already the subject of a recall election, apparently backed mainly by supporters of the former mayor. While DeJournett and I were talking at a table on the patio, a man in a wide-brimmed hat joined us. Tex Culpepper was still armed and wearing the garb I'd seen him in earlier in the day when he played Morgan Earp in the O.K. Corral reenactment.
"Why do you do it?" I asked.
He grinned. "This is history. When I do this, it helps keep the West alive." Culpepper, who said he'd been a cowboy most of his life, admitted the reenactments take a toll, even though the gunslingers fire blanks. His injuries: "a concussion, broken bones, shot once in the face."
The subject turned to the recall. "Nothing has changed since the 1880s," Culpepper said. "Politics. It all comes down to politics. Except you can't shoot the people you don't like anymore."
The recall isn't the only controversy in this town of 1,700. The National Park Service put Tombstone on notice last year that its historic district could lose its status as a National Historic Landmark because of inaccuracies, such as fake facades, non-historic colors and bogus dates painted on newer buildings.
"People just come in, find an empty lot and build a new old building," said Cook. "It's a problem."
In September, a plan was drafted to save the landmark designation, including changing traffic patterns and adding trees to Allen Street. The town's progress will be checked in two years by the park service.
The man in black
I had learned a lot about Tombstone but not much about its ghosts. I backtracked through town asking questions. A bartender at Big Nose Kate's pointed to photos on the wall that he said showed apparitions and ghostly orbs. I squinted at the hazy black-and-white prints. I couldn't see them.
I stopped in a couple of shops, where clerks told me they had heard, seen and smelled things. Cigar smoke. Lilac perfume. A rowdy crowd when no one was there. One told me about a mysterious man in black who's frequently seen late at night near the Crystal Palace.
Longtime resident Huntley told the same story, saying he had seen the man three times, lounging against a post near the Crystal Palace. Legend has it that the mystery man is Virgil Earp, who was ambushed, shot and maimed outside the bar in 1881.
At the Bird Cage Theatre, I struck pay dirt. Employee Bill Clanton — a descendant of O.K. Corral victim Billy Clanton — said he often heard things he couldn't explain coming from the onetime opera house and gambling hall, now a dusty museum.
"They're always moving around in there," Clanton said, pointing to the museum. "There's laughing and carrying on you can't explain. You can smell smoke around the dice table. I tell them, 'You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone.' "
Sarah Washburn, a 19-year-old sales clerk in the Bird Cage gift shop, said she had a frightening experience her second day on the job. Washburn, whose work uniform is a dancehall costume — a low-cut taffeta and lace dress with red feathers in her hair — walked through the museum and seemed to catch a cowboy's eye.
" 'I'll be right down,' " he said to me. He was walking up the stairs to the second floor." She remembers he smelled like cigar smoke. She made some inquiries and found there was no one in the museum at the time.
"I think he wanted to buy me," she said in amazement. "Oh yeah, I believe in ghosts."
When I went back to the motel, I thought about the stories I had heard. They were interesting, but I wasn't convinced. I needed some after-hours research. Even though Cook said he didn't believe in ghosts, he had told me to visit Old Town at 10 p.m. "Who knows what you'll see?"
So at 10, I returned to Allen Street. A couple of saloons were open, but there was no one on the street. I moseyed down to the Bird Cage and stood outside, silently challenging its ghosts to perform. A streetlight in front of the old building started to blink.
"Stop," I said. It stopped.
"Blink," I said. It blinked.
Probably a short, I thought, moving on.
I started to feel silly. Hunting for ghosts at 10 p.m. seemed ridiculous. What self-respecting ghost would be out that early? I decided to try later.
At midnight, I made the rounds again. The streetlight outside the Bird Cage was on until I stopped in front of it; then it started blinking. I headed back toward the center of town. A block ahead of me, a man in a black frock coat and wide-brimmed hat was walking slowly near the edge of the street. He stopped, turned toward the street and leaned on a post.
Probably just left a bar, I thought. I steered clear of him and scouted the town a couple more times.
I glanced down toward the Crystal Palace, where I'd seen the man in black. He was there, leaning against the post.
Probably just a drunken cowboy.
Here lies Tombstone
From LAX, Southwest and United offer nonstop flights to Tucson. America West, Delta, US Airways and American have connecting flights (change of plane). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $78.
Driving from Los Angeles, take Interstate 10 past Tucson, then take Arizona 80 south to Tombstone. The town is about 550 miles from Los Angeles.
Holiday Inn Express, 1001 N. Highway 80; (520) 457-9507, https://www.hiexpress.com . Two-year-old, two-story motel on the outskirts of town. Clean, nicely furnished. Heated pool, western movies shown nightly in the lobby ("Tombstone" is popular, of course). Doubles from $79, with breakfast.
Tombstone Motel, 502 E. Fremont St.; (520) 457-3478, https://www.tombstonemotel.com . Family-owned motel within walking distance of Old Town. Roomy units. Ask for a room in the newer wing. Doubles from $59, with breakfast.
Best Western Lookout Lodge, 801 N. Highway 80; (877) 652-6772, https://www.bestwestern.com . Western-themed motel overlooking the Dragoon Mountains. Restaurant, heated pool, fire pit. On the outskirts of town. Doubles from $85, with breakfast.
Nellie Cashman Restaurant, 117 S. 5th. St., at the corner of 5th and Toughnut streets; (520) 4572212, https://www.nelliecashman.freeservers.com . Old-fashioned boardinghouse dining room features homemade food served on floral-print tablecloths. Steaks, pork chops, chicken. Entrees from $8.95
Longhorn Restaurant, 501 E. Allen St., corner of 5th and Allen streets; (520) 457-3405, https://www.bignosekate.com/bnklonghorn.htm , Family dining in a historic building. Barbecued ribs, steaks, Mexican dishes. Entrees from $5.75.
Six-Gun City and Crazy Horse Saloon and Restaurant, corner of 5th and Toughnut streets; (520) 457-3827. Saloon atmosphere. Ribs, steaks, pork chops, chicken and sandwiches and salads. Entrees from $8.95.
Arizona Office of Tourism, 1110 W. Washington St., Phoenix, 85007; (866) 275-5816, https://www.arizonaguide.com .
— Rosemary McClure


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It is with great sadness that we announce that Jim Diamond, the B-47 Association's longtime Webmaster passed away on 3 July 2014 after a short battle with cancer. Jim, a retired Master Sergeant served his country and from the very early days of the B-47 Association served on its Board of Directors. He also served as the President of the 40th until his untimely death. In honor of his service the B-47 Association Board of Directors has made a contribution to the Strategic Air and Space Museum toward the refurbishment of their B-47 and a brick reading "MSGT JIM DIAMOND, 40BW C/CHIEF, B-47 ASSOC BOARD" will be placed in the memorial plaza at the museum.
9 thoughts on "A Final Flight"
So sorry to hear of Jim's passing,he will be greatly missed, our thoughts and prayer's go out to him and his family. Member of the B-47 Association. Gerald Allen, Louisville, Kentucky.
Sorry to hear of Jim's passing. He did a world of good for the Association.
God Speed, Jim
To the family of Jim Diamond. Please accept the condolences of the many who viewed this website over the years. Jim did a wonderful job keeping the site up and running as well to communicate his knowledge and experiences. Rest in Peace Jim.
MSGT Jim Diamond will be missed, he did a good job for the association. Jim was stationed at Brize-Norton AB when I did several Reflex tours out of Plattsburgh AFB in the 1960's.
Though we never met, just corresponded over the years, I counted Jim as a good friend, among others. This news comes as a jarring shock. One kind of expects people to hang around a bit more, to just be there, to write to and get a reply, to answer a phone call. But reality is reality. So sorry. He performed creative wonders for the Association and website. My sympathy to his family and friends, and USAF buddies.
Alec in Australia, distant but near.
Very sorry to hear of Jims passing. To Jims family I send my love and prayers. I knew Jim Diamond and the Diamond family from Freeman, Mo. most of my childhood and through our High School years. Jim graduated from Freeman H.S. ahead of me, but his brother Richard and I were in the same class and graduated in 1956. Richard would tell me of his brother Jims experiences in the USAF. So in the summer of 1956 I to joined the USAF. Jim and I had similar paths in the Air Force, he with the B-47 Bombers and I with KC-97 Air Refueling Tankers. I'm sure our paths crossed many times during our SAC years. We found each other on his B-47 wed-site a few years ago and I met him and his family at Richards funeral. A Great Gentleman and Veteran has taken his last flight. May God Bless and Keep Him.
My condolences to Jims' family. He was a true friend who will be greatly missed to all who knew him and this organization. Jim was the driving force behind my 'gear up' landing story.
Rest in peace Buddy.
Don Foster
Thanks, Jim, for a terrific job. You've made one of the few sites I've visited every day for years.
509th BW, 1956 – 1966
Sorry to hear this news. Jim had that wonderful smile and I enjoyed working with him on the webpage over the years. He will be missed.Our heartfelt condolences to Sally and family.


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The American love affair with strange fruit
By Michael Moriarty
"Happiness is a sad song."
Charles Schulz said that. You know the cartoonist? A recent biography describes Schulz as sad. The Schulz family denies the allegation.
Hmmm …
Does it really much matter, one way or the other? Charles Schulz was a great artist of comedy. Isn't that what matters?
Puccini wrote great, but very sad operas. Does that make Puccini a sad man? If Charles Schulz is right, Puccini should have been one of the happiest men in the world, with all those sad songs pouring out of him.
Most sad songs are about the agonizing limitations of love … so they are songs about love's failure …
I'm writing an entire book about America's Heart Failure … and the Progressive aim of proving love impractical, if not a downright delusion … which is sort of the inferences conveyed by making abortion not only legal but "the only way to go, girl!"
Now there is a train of thought! Hanging sad songs to the sad and sickening deaths of 1,500,000 American, gestating infants per year.
Billie Holiday wrote "Strange Fruit" about the deaths by hanging of thousands of runaway slaves and, as the South referred to them, "uppity negroes." Now that's a sad song.
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is not a sad song. It is the angry march of a raging chorus, promising God's vengeance on America for her hypocrisy, her refusal to live up to the words "all men are created equal."
How about abortion's denial of the "inalienable right to life?" If God can get upset over slavery, he certainly might be a little peeved by the remark made by a Surgeon General for the Clinton administration, Joycelyn Elders, the one sarcastically asking America what that nation's "love affair with the fetus" was all about.
She was obviously a "Progressive Realist" whose contempt for American sentimentality had her spitting over her shoulder at the American past.
Let her spit on the American Civil War, and that nation's love affair with equality.
Presidential candidate Barack Obama, another "Progressive Realist," seemed to do so, when he described the Emancipation Proclamation more as a tool of war than any sincere act on Abraham Lincoln's part to live up to the Declaration of Independence and the words "all men are created equal."
Such idealism plays no part in "Progressive Realism." Like the Soviet "Socialist Realism" which Joseph Stalin ordered Russian artists to serve and which he exported into America with the Group Theater and the New School for Social Research, this specter of "Progressive Realism" has socialists replaced by scientists and Marxism the only logical step to worldwide, government-enforced eugenics, that "perverse science," as Winston Churchill described it, which was the philosophic spine in the horrific gestation of "Eugenical Realism" called the Holocaust.
Because we don't smell the burning flesh of fetal tissue certainly doesn't mean we don't know what's going on. Did America have to have a "love affair" with the Jewish Diaspora to save the lives of millions of Jews?
Must we have a "love affair with the fetus" to end legalized abortion?
The only "love affair" America had to have to end slavery, or will have in order to overturn Roe v. Wade is a love affair with life.
The ancient Greeks knew all about grand love affairs when they called Man's love affair with death "Thanatos."
For Progressive Realism and Progressive Realists to deny that abortion and the RU486 morning after pill are not America's Thanatos, or love affair with death, portraying homicide, or as the Clinton administration might prefer to call it, "fetizide" as Man's increasingly best solution to almost every problem … well … it's like saying that the Holocaust did not involve a Nobel Prize Winner's famous invention, Zyklon B.
Such denials can't be done … and the fall from grace which the Nobel Prize itself is inevitably undergoing mirrors the same disgrace the word "Progressive" will be forced to live with when America does what it inevitably must do: overturn the Roe v. Wade decision with a Constitutional Amendment that forbids the Supreme Court from ever defying the human rights paragraph in the Declaration of Independence.
"Strange fruit" indeed … resting at the bottom of an abortionist's wastebasket.
Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Moriarty is also running for President of the United States in 2008 as a candidate for the Realists Party. To find out more about Moriarty's presidential campaign, contact firstname.lastname@example.com.


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We've been rehearsing for a series of small concerts with Beyond Reach that we're doing this fall (2016). We've been getting together and playing weekly for the pass six months in the front room at Randle's house, and it just so happens that Randle now lives just across the street from a place called Phelps Grove Park here in Springfield Missouri. During these rehearsals I've been able to look out through Randle's large picture window at the park and to watch not only all its wonderful nature, but also a constant parade of joggers jogging, walkers walking and the odd assortment of characters milling about.
It also happens that on a warm summer day way back in the early 1970's, Phelps Grove Park was the location where a rather motley collection of musicians gathered to have their first group photograph taken.
So being that Randle and myself were two of those in attendance that day, we thought it would be fun, or at least interesting, to walk over into the park one day during a break in rehearsals to see if we could find that same spot and to take another photograph.


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She is enchanting and seductive, makes you fall in love with her and keeps you in touch all over your life. That's Halkidiki!!
As Greeks say "There is no place like Halkidiki" and they are actually right.
Halkidiki is a region in northern Greece of Macedonia which is divided into three feet (Known as Halkidiki feet), Kassandra, Sithonia and Mount Athos which feature Mediterranean forests that give way to sandy beaches in sheltered bays.
The first foot is known for its engaging nightlife, the second for its endless green & camping spots and the third one for its spirituality as it has inhabited since ancient times. Mount Athos (third foot) is known for its nearly 1,800-year continuous Christian presence and its long historical monastic traditions, which date back to at least 800 A.D.
Today's post is my favorite area in 2nd feet, Kavourotrypes (Crab holes) or Orange Beach.
The first acquaintance with the beach is a road trip around Halkidiki. Our first base is Vourvourou and from there we explore the beauties of the second foot of Halkidiki.
It is located 30 minutes by car away from Vourvourou or just 10 minutes from Sarti. Actually, the beach belongs to Sarti area. An alternative way of transport is by boat through tourist agents who organize daily trips. We thought we reached early morning to avoid the crowds (10.00am) but the place it was already crowded.
It's worth to mention that this beach gets really overcrowded during the month of July and August. To get the real beauty of the place just avoid those months and seek for May, June or September.
Our first images of the place remain engraved in our memories. And it is often guided, who lead us in these first exploration steps. To be honest our first visit was not so encouraging due to heavy rain and winds. We postponed our visit up to the next day and the scenery really rewarded us.
Its shaded plots bordered by the rocks, sandy beach and camp spots are well known for the best turquoise, clear and crystal water around the world, without any doubt.
I invite you to stroll around the rocks, swim in this paradise water and camp under the pine trees.
The visit will take you from the nice perfumed pine trees, the fresh air, the golden sandy beach, to the charm of the rocks until you reach, by a nice swim, the big rock inside the sea. Before that, prepare yourself to take hundreds of photos.
A Beach with golden sand and with pine trees to create shadows to make the visitor believe he is in the holy paradise.
We start our walk down the cliff in the Orange Beach bar which is small and overcrowded but you will not believe it's popularity as soon as you step inside! It lays on the right side of the beach area. I continue my stroll around the sandy beach, continued to the rocks to reach the top of the highest end and admire its breathtaking views. My steps lead to a wide range of rocks and on the left side, I can admire the Mermaid carved in the rock and the amazing view of Mount Athos.
If you have the opportunity to walk further inside the bushes just do it, the views will reward your effort!
A visit to the beach cannot be completed without snorkeling around the rocks and exploring the white sand coves around the area. Moreover, the best option to explore this little gem and avoid the crowds is to camp late in the afternoon and wake up the very early morning. Bliss!
Several hours of exploring, photo shooting and we are ready to leave this paradise. Kavourotrypes Beach is a unique experience that should not be missed!
Practical Information:
- You can reach the area from Vourvourou (23.1km) or from the side of Sarti (6.6km)
- You can access Kavourotrypes beach by car or boat. You can park your car in the open space around the beach and you can walk down the beach and the cliff/rock areas around the beach. Regarding the boat, there is a variety of tourist offices which arrange day trips to the area.
- The small Orange Beach Bar is on the left side in which chairs and umbrella are free for the bar customers. This side is overcrowded with loud music. No showers.
- There is a second cafe is on the top of the hill, under the pine trees between the 2 sides of the beach. The steps down lead to the beach area.
- There aren't any restaurants, shops etc.
- During the months of July and August after 10.00 am, all the sides are super overcrowded. You can either sit at the beach bar or on the rocks. You can camp also around the beach.


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Leafing through a recent AM NY, I saw an article on wellness that listed a few simple steps that were supposedly small, preventative measures that go a long way to long term health. As I've gotten older I've noticed - in a narcissistic, self-esteem boosting, completely unscientific way - that I tend to get less sick than most of the people my age that I know. And while I've always truly hoped it was because I was born with the same healing power mutant ability as Wolverine, every time I cut myself shaving I am forced to concede that it must in fact be something else. Apparently that something else is haphazardly falling precisely in line with the six small steps listed in this article that lead to an overall healthier lifestyle, which I'll take the time to co-opt and re-list here as if I came up with them on my own:
Matt Shafeek's Haphazard Step To Wellness #1: Take A Walk
One of those obvious ones (as most of these are), I wound up walking a lot more simply by being a NYC resident. And those life-extending steps wound up getting even higher once I sold my car when it become more of a financial burden than I wanted almost two years ago. The article claims '10,000' is the minimum you should aim for each day, which is about 5 miles apparently. I walk about a mile during my commute to and from work, and while I have absolutely no idea how much walking I do during the rest of the day, (and I refuse to buy an pedometer to find out) I'm going to say right now that it's probably close.
Matt Shafeek's Haphazard Step To Wellness #2: Nix Soda
Soda actually wound up playing a pivotal role in stopping a HUGE amount of weight I wound up gaining in college. Throughout high school I was ridiculously skinny - I graduated weighing around 90-95lbs, but that was the MOST I ever weighed. I won my high school pull up contest not so much by being stronger than the other guys in my class, but by simply having so little to lift that it made the contest a little unfair.
Anyways, in college I wound up gaining the 'Freshman 15', which for me was totally welcome (the day I broke triple digits I did a little dance). I was eating 4 desserts a day, and gaining the weight I'd wanted for so long! Then I wound up gaining the lesser known 'Sophomore 20' as well. Ruh-roh. Around the time my junior year rolled around along with a paunch and even some chin fat (!), I realized something had to give - besides my belt! Badum-tish.
Up until this time in my life I drank soda with most of my meals (not breakfast, but believe me there was sugar to be found in morning beverages as well). A turning point in my life came when I woke up in the middle of the night incredibly thirsty with no soda or juice in my fridge and I wound up walking around campus in the middle of the night in the dead of winter in a small college town in Western Mass (I'm trying to emphasize here that it was COLD outside) in my pajamas, desperately searching for a soda machine.
After that day I decided maybe I'll a little too dependent on sugar in my drinks. I stopped cold turkey and started drinking water with almost everything, and it actually wound up being a pretty easy transition. Diet soda disgusts me, and I didn't give up dessert or any other treats, but along with some moderate exercise I immediately noticed some great results. Also, drinking tap water at most restaurants must have saved me hundreds of dollars over the years.
Matt Shafeek's Haphazard Step To Wellness #3: Strengthen Muscles
Hmm, well - I've belonged to/attended gym for probably less than 2 years of my life, so I really can't say I totally do this on my own without any even realizing it. Truth is the gym has traditionally been an active choice - BUT I will say that I do miss the days of being younger living on a block with tons of kids who during any given school night would be running around outside playing a block spawning game of hide and go seek or freeze tag, where I'm sure I burned more calories in a night than I ever have during a trip to the gym.
And I really do enjoy running on a nice day. I wouldn't have done the half marathon last year if I wasn't able to derive some pleasure out of the training that it required.
Matt Shafeek's Haphazard Step To Wellness #4: Chill Out
Ah, here we go. If I ever write any kind of "Health & Wellness" book at some point in my life, it will be probably be best summarized by the above two words. I'm truly the king of making time to just chill out, and while it's kind of hard to smugly sit back and acknowledge that the many hours sitting around playing video games, watching television, and browsing the internet have been beneficial to my overall health, it is something I've been telling myself more and more these days to offset the growing guilt that comes along with it. Relaxation is a choice, and when done in moderation, is as valuable as other use of your time.
I guess I've also made a lot of 'anti-stress' choices throughout my life that some may see as lazy, which I'm sure is a factor. Graduate school? Nope. Financially rewarding career choices? Negatory. Children? Ha, as if! I guess I'm incredibly lucky in that even before I get home and unwind, I'm barely all that wound up to begin with. Before this starts to seem like bragging, note that I am also very poor, and as of right now my DNA will be passed on to no one.
Matt Shafeek's Haphazard Step To Wellness #5: Eat Out Less
By now you've started to notice that my relative stages of poverty throughout life have led to an amazing side benefit, which is that I am apparently to have a longer, healthier life of eating dinner out of cans. As I mentioned recently, I made learning to cook a big project this year, and it was 100% exacerbated by my 7 months of unemployment. The large increase in available time, along with the large decrease in income created the perfect storm of forcing me to abandon my ritual of rotating through every item on the Chipotle menu each week.
For a long time I made the argument: "cooking for just yourself is boring, and it doesn't really save you that much money!" but once I set my mind to it, the opposite was soon proven to be true. If you're comparing a Wendy's value meal to a fancy home cooked meal, then yeah, that night 'eating out' might have actually been cheaper. But when you buy a packet of chicken, rice, beans, vegetables, and you cook ALL of the food, save the leftovers, and make multiples nights of dinners/lunches out of it, there's really no comparison anymore, health-wise or money-wise. Plus, plug in your iPod, turn on a podcast or some tunes and no task seems boring anymore!
This, combined with my relative awareness of caloric intake from the time I gave up soda has made me a very much haphazardly healthy eater. Actually, that's not super true - I probably still don't eat the well balanced diet that would REALLY keep you feeling healthy forever, but I'd like to think that keeping a relatively svelte figure and never getting more than a mild cough and the sniffles is a sign that I'm not doing SO bad.
Matt Shafeek's Haphazard Step To Wellness #6: Be Social
I've always been really shocked by people who up and move to a new city/new life because I really can't imagine myself ever doing that. And its not just because I live in New York, the greatest f-ing city on the planet. My entire social network is here. College friends, high school friends, family, the improv community, scores of ex-lovers*. How could anyone just give all that up, right?
But here's the revelation I made recently -while it would truly pain me to leave all my friends and family behind, I should be incredibly confident in the knowledge that wherever I go, I can and WILL make tons of new friends. Because that's what I do. I put that time in to socialize without even really thinking about it. I'll invite new coworkers to come see shows, new acquaintances to a party at my place, and really just about ANYONE with an inkling of interest in video games to come play with me anywhere at any time. I need people in my life more than almost anything else. And apparently, according to the article:
"...research has shown that joining a club, group or sports team or keeping in constant contact with friends can create a sense of identity that can help reduce your risk of stroke and dementia. 'Loneliness breeds both illness and early death,' according to the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging In America."
So there you go, Matt Shafeek's Co-Opted, Haphazard Steps To Wellness. It's the wellness guide I somehow didn't know I was making with my off-beat lifestyle! In hindsight I didn't actually offer any tips on how to start doing those things yourself, but hey, that's time I could be spending 'Chilling Out,' so I'll leave the rest up to you, dear reader!
Currently Playing: I've finally managed to secure all those cores in Defense Grid, and I've started putting in some serious and enjoyable playing time in my new favorite XBLA release, Shadow Complex. I also snagged a cheap, used copy of Resident Evil 5, which I've just started playing as well (Side note: I NEED a partner - find me if you're down to play the game, again or for the first time!), (Side note to the side note: I kind of hate that I NEED a partner to fully enjoy a video game!), and last night I checked out the demo for Left 4 Dead 2. I could definitely see myself enjoying that game, and between that, Modern Warfare 2, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it's looking a bit like the season of multiplayer, eh? Too bad I still have so much of a back-catalog that I won't be enjoying those games anytime soon...
*that's right, I said SCORES!!!


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In making such decisions as whether to grant parole, should we care whether convicts are "remorseful" for their crimes?
I think so. After all, even if remorse is not an absolute guarantee that the remorseful person won't repeat his/her wrongdoing, it is at least a positive indicator.
There are several theories of punishment and so the very idea of parole will vary under different theories. For example, in a retributive theory, the main question will be whether the criminal has "paid his/her debt to society," and it would seem that, strictly speaking, this could simply be a matter of doing the time in prison or whatever. On the other hand, I don't see why a retributivist couldn't think that part of the appropriate "price" includes feelings of remorse. In a social protection theory, the goal is simply to make sure the criminal is no longer a threat. It would seem that his or her feelings of remorse would be at least one useful indicator of whether he or she continued to pose a threat of the relevant sort. The same goes for a rehabilitative theory, where remorse might reasonably be taken as an indication off rehabilitation. For the theory that punishment is supposed to deter crime, however, it is not clear to me where the notion of parole would come in at all, in which case the question is moot under this theory--though I am probably missing something here.
Anyway, the point is that under most general theories of punishment--or at least those that see a role for the practice of parole--there is some reason to see remorse as a relevant and positive factor in favor of parole, though it would not be the only relevant consideration, I think.


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In May 2015, New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) correspondent Lisa Rosenbaum published a three-part op-ed decrying the state of conflicts of interest policing in health and medicine. Unlike most of the available literature on the topic, she accused those in the medical community concerned with undue industry influence of falling victim to a sad […]
Category Archives: SAMComm
Conflicts of Interest: What's the Harm?
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A Public Affair
My friend and colleague Karma Chavez from the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was kind of enough to have me on her WORT 89.9 radio show, A Public Affair, on March 9th. We talked about my recent book, The Politics of Pain Medicine, and my current research on industry conflicts of […]
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I'm very excited to announce that we're up and running and research is underway at UWM's new Scientific and Medical Communications Laboratory (SAMComm). What's SAMComm you ask? Well, I'm happy to tell you. Here's the brief description from the website. (p.s. I'm also happy to announce the website is also up and running: samcomm.uwm.edu.) SAMComm […]
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Wigan manager
Roberto Martinez believes former Sunderland boss
Steve Bruce should have been given more time to work before he was sacked.
On Wednesday Bruce became the first Premier League boss to lose his job this season, following last Saturday's 2-1 home defeat by Martinez's side .
Bruce recruited 10 new players in the summer but left the Black Cats just two points off the drop zone.
When asked if he was surprised at former Wigan manager Bruceâs sacking current Wigan boss Martinez said: âYes, I was, because there was a big turnaround there this summer.
'You donât really know what is happening at other clubs, but you feel time is needed when you bring a lot of players in, for them to settle in and to feel themselves and perform at their best.
âStability and patience are two words that are needed at a club.â


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In the Corfu and Ionian luxury property market, for us it is not about selling only what we have on our books, but we frequently also act as a bespoke search agent.
Through our network of contacts we are able to source most things, whilst consulting our client through the process.
Ionian International has been involved in constructing and project managing the construction of some the finest villas recently built in Corfu, Kefalonia, Paxos, Zakynthos, Lefkas, Ithaca and even Albania.
When we sell land to a client we offer this complete bespoke service, upon which we guide the client from start to finish.
We are well equipped to run our clients' construction projects due to our strong working relationship with our constructor, who has over 20 years building experience and is notably one the best constructors on the island of Corfu.
We also work closely with the best available architects and engineers and the planning and regulatory departments.


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With five females living in the same house, it can often take some serious effort and a few miracles from Heaven to get out the door on time. There is often juggling and yelling and gnashing of teeth, but eventually we are all buckled in and on our way. Everyone may or may not have matching shoes. Everyone may or may not have shoes at all. But I have learned that in order to get everyone out to the Mom-Mobile, it often requires sending them out one at a time, as they are ready. Here's what happens if I do not take the "You're Ready, Get In The Car NOW" approach:
#1, #2 and #3 are ready and waiting in the vicinity of the front door. I finally wrangle #4, sit on her and velcro her shoes. I look up to find that #2 has forgotten an overly-loved stuffed animal that MUST go with us or it's feelings will be hurt and has gone upstairs to get it. I walk into the laundry room to grab my purse and keys, yelling to #2 to "Get down here! We have to go!" and return to find that #3 has disappeared to fill a bag with Barbies and Littlest Pet Shops and any other plastic treasures that will make me scream the next time I clean out my car. #2 returns. #4 walks up to me whining of "poo" and smells like something has died. I lay her down. Take her shoes off. Change her diaper, alligator-style. #1 has decided that she hasn't eaten in 16 years and has gone to get a snack. Wrangling shoes back on #4, I see #3 come down with a suitcase and 2 backpacks because this trip to the bank may take the rest of her life. #1 comes out of the pantry, everyone complains that they are STARVING and I am now shoving multiple, pre-packaged, high-fructose corn syrup snacks into my purse just to shut them up. #2 complains that #3 has one of her My Littlest Petshop puppies, #1 decides that it's not fair that she doesn't have luggage, I lose my will to live, threaten to sell everything we own at the next church garage sale and promise that we'll all move to Haiti next week if they don't get in the car. #4 hands me her shoes again. I crumble into a ball of tears.
*Note: This is just to run to the bank, grocery store, Walgreens, etc. Getting out the door for church is a whole different ballgame as I have to look half-way presentable, not because anyone cares, but because I'm totally prideful that way and occasionally the guy who preaches talks about me, and everyone looks and it's best if I found makeup that day. Going to the grandparents requires it's own blog. Going on vacation takes weeks of everyone standing by the door being "ready."
I hope this effectively explains 2 things:
1. Why I'm late to EVERYTHING (Husband and Grandmothers, please take special note.)
2. Why I have implemented the "You're Ready, Get In The Car NOW" approach to car loading.
Recently, as I was implementing said approach, I walked outside to buckle in an ever-wriggly, patience-draining toddler. Her oldest two sisters were already in the car and that left #3 in the house gathering the last of everything she owns. I came back in the house after what was apparently a 45 second eternity to find her hysterical. In the short time that I had been out at the car, she had convinced her little 5 year old brain that I had left her, forgotten about her, that she was all alone in a big, empty house with nothing to keep her company but the dog and the kidnapper that was going to abduct her while I was on my cross-country trip to the post office. With a great amount of frustrated compassion (a particular emotion that only mothers can understand) I knelt down and hugged her. As she sobbed into my shoulder, my words of comfort went something like this:
"Rhylee, have I ever left you?"
"Have I ever forgotten you?"
"Have I ever lost you?"
"Rhylee, I'm not going to forget you. I wouldn't leave without you. I won't ever leave you alone."
Did my 5 year track record mean nothing to her? Did the fact that I had NEVER left her alone, forgotten her or lost her count for anything? Apparently not during that tiny window of time that she had convinced herself otherwise.
(Here is where I will mention that I will NOT be able to use this line of defense with #4 as she has INDEED been forgotten at church before. Luckily, she was still a baby and her dad was there, so really, I was just taking a little road trip without her. And my sight-seeing adventure only lasted 1/4 mile before I realized my car was too quiet and went back to get her.)
Sometimes I think we as adults are a lot like my 5 year old. We panic. We have certain expectations of how the Lord will answer us when we have a need. We have expectations of when He will do it or where He will come through, and sometimes we're wrong. You see, Rhylee was expecting that I would be waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her so that she could see me when she rounded the staircase. She expected that I would take her hand and walk her to the car and buckle her in and all would be right in her world. What she expected didn't happen. Not because I wasn't going to come through but because that's not how I chose to get her to the car.
I think the disciples felt one of those moments of panic at this time of year. Their Messiah was crucified. He died. He was buried and everything they had put their trust in seemed to have disappeared. Their hope was lost. Their faith was wavering. For 3 days. And what a long, agonizing three days those must have been! Can you imagine? "But, Lord, you said you would never leave us or forsake us, but you died! You're gone! We trusted you! You left us! What are we going to do now?" And then Jesus walked through the door. He told them to touch His hands, His feet, His side. He was there. He hadn't left them after all, but He also didn't fulfill His promises the way they had expected Him to. It only took a few events, it only took a few days for all of the credibility He had built over years to come into question.
What does God's track record count for for you? Has He ever NOT come through for you? When did He ever REALLY leave you? He may not have answered how or when or where you thought He would, but He always answers. He never leaves. He never forsakes. If your faith is wavering this Easter season, reach out to Him. Touch His hands, feel His sides. Let His track record, His perfect ability to follow through, count for something. Trust His timing. Trust His way.
And by all means, don't leave your 5 year old in the house for 45 seconds or you may have to trust Him for therapy down the road!


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FCC Headlines -- Where's the News?
You're not putting key items like Wireless Competition Report links on your front page headlines, but do include some fluffy items there. To find the wireless report, relatively easily at least, I had to go to your old Website, where it was at the top of headlines. What gives? I'm afraid this editorial judgment just reinforces perception you're playing some sort of PR game with the new Website. You should play it straight.
3 comments
Hi folks. To update you on this, the items featured on the homepage and at FCC.gov/newsroom have been rearchitected to better represent these headlines. They should now track the same standards. Thanks again for your feedback on this and please continue to give us ideas and suggestions and we'll continue to integrate them into the website. -FCC New Media
Function Over Form commented
This is now one of the biggest problems with the site, in my opinion. The headlines feature of the old site that was at the main page and on each bureau page was unquestionably far superior to the current Newsroom. First, the Newsroom seems incomplete, it does not show the most important things, like Order, NPRMs, Reports, clearly. Second, it shows too few items. The front page shows seven items, when you click on newsroom, it defaults to 10 items. Even worse, the Newsroom tends to give multiple lines to repetitive items. We don't need a separate three line listing for every Commissioner's statement on a Notice. Finally, headlines are still unreasonable truncated at times on the front page.
What we want is a quick and reliable way to see all the important releases by the Commission and the Bureaus on the front page and each Bureau page. Daily Digest is hard to read and sporadically updated. EDOCs is great but you have to know what you are looking for, it's not for browsing. the headlines on the front page and on the bureau pages are essential, this is the number 1 thing I go back to the old page for right now. (This, and the much better organization and easier to find links to various tools and resources...).
Please, look back at what is on the previous page when it comes to headlines, then every place where the new website differs, change it back. The old way was superior in every respect.
(Also, interesting to see that you appear to have abandoned the Official Documents tool...)
Anonymous commented
Glad to see you finally added the Wireless Competition Report to headlines. But why the delay?


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Here's just a few pics from this years Toronto International Film Festival. To see more great pics, pick up the Toronto SUN every day during the festival. Photos: John White
Posted by Tceb on September 11, 2010 | Permalink
See all the celebrities John caught every Friday in the Hollywood North spread of the Toronto SUN.


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Opportunity to Offer Disruptive Technology for Solar Panel Installations and Provide Significant Cost Reductions
CUPERTINO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 08/02/17 -- Inventergy Global, Inc. (OTC PINK: INVT) ("Inventergy"), an intellectual property licensing company, announced today that its Inventergy Innovations, LLC subsidiary has entered into an agreement with an international solar panel mounting company to license their innovative technology across the solar industry. This agreement will allow Inventergy Innovations to obtain rights to the commercialization of a unique and patented solar panel mounting technology in a high growth industry.
Joe Beyers, CEO of Inventergy, stated, "This agreement allows us to participate in the rapid growth of the solar industry and retains a share of the technology's value potential. We are always very excited when selected to represent companies who bring disruptive technologies to the market. In this particular engagement, our client's unique and patented solar panel mounting technology can enable a 50% reduction in mounting costs while enabling the installation of panels in locations that would otherwise have been impossible or cost prohibitive."
To date, Inventergy Innovations has completed 7 partnership agreements in which it has secured rights to the licensing of its partner's patents or technology or in some cases the sale of its entire business.
About Inventergy Global, Inc.
Inventergy Global, Inc. is a Silicon Valley-based intellectual property company dedicated to identifying, acquiring and licensing patented technologies of market-significant technology leaders. Led by IP industry pioneer and veteran Joe Beyers, the Company leverages decades of corporate experience, market and technology expertise, and industry connections to assist Fortune 500 and other technology companies in leveraging the value of their innovations to achieve greater returns. For more information about Inventergy, visit www.inventergy.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements, estimates, forecasts and projections with respect to future performance and events, which constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include statements regarding the intent and belief or current expectations of the Company and its affiliates and subsidiaries and their respective management teams. These statements may be identified by the use of words like "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "will," "should," "seek" and similar expressions and include any projections or estimates set forth herein. Investors and prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements.
Source: Inventergy Global, Inc.