12:56 PM
Presented without comment:
Man Pulled From Women's Outhouse Tank Teenager Reports Seeing Man's Face In Toilet
ALBANY, N.H. -- A man is facing charges after police said they pulled him from a tank under a women's toilet that was filled with human waste.
Police said that Gary Moody, 45, was under a log cabin outhouse off the Kancamagas Highway in Albany.
Man Apparently Entered Tank Through Toilet
"You can draw your own conclusions as to the conditions we encountered," said Capt. John Hebert, of the Carroll County Sheriff's Department.
Police said that they got a call from the parents of a teenage girl who said that when she went to use the facilities, she saw Moody's face staring back at her from the hole.
Moody was hosed off before police cuffed him.
"It's a very filthy environment, and before we put anybody in contact with him, we had to decontaminate him," Hebert said. "We treated him as if he were hazardous material."
Hikers using the outhouse on Tuesday said that the story was enough to make their stomachs turn.
"He just must be sick to put yourself in that muck. Disgusting," said Harriett Voysey, of New Jersey.
Police said they don't know how long Moody was in the tank, but they said the door to it was locked, which means he must have gone in through the toilet. They said they don't know why he was there.
"I started this business in 1980, and I have never in my career encountered anybody in this type of situation," Hebert said.
Police charged Moody with criminal trespass, and they said he could face more charges. He is out on bail and due back in court next month.
http://www.wftv.com/news/4662466/detail.html
Man Pulled From Women's Outhouse Tank Teenager Reports Seeing Man's Face In Toilet
ALBANY, N.H. -- A man is facing charges after police said they pulled him from a tank under a women's toilet that was filled with human waste.
Police said that Gary Moody, 45, was under a log cabin outhouse off the Kancamagas Highway in Albany.
Man Apparently Entered Tank Through Toilet
"You can draw your own conclusions as to the conditions we encountered," said Capt. John Hebert, of the Carroll County Sheriff's Department.
Police said that they got a call from the parents of a teenage girl who said that when she went to use the facilities, she saw Moody's face staring back at her from the hole.
Moody was hosed off before police cuffed him.
"It's a very filthy environment, and before we put anybody in contact with him, we had to decontaminate him," Hebert said. "We treated him as if he were hazardous material."
Hikers using the outhouse on Tuesday said that the story was enough to make their stomachs turn.
"He just must be sick to put yourself in that muck. Disgusting," said Harriett Voysey, of New Jersey.
Police said they don't know how long Moody was in the tank, but they said the door to it was locked, which means he must have gone in through the toilet. They said they don't know why he was there.
"I started this business in 1980, and I have never in my career encountered anybody in this type of situation," Hebert said.
Police charged Moody with criminal trespass, and they said he could face more charges. He is out on bail and due back in court next month.
http://www.wftv.com/news/4662466/detail.html
12:41 PM
Forwarding an email to see if this thing works.
-----Original Message-----
From: Clark, Ray W. CTR CNO N71I22
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 9:25
To: OHara, Walter A CTR CNO, N71
Subject: Map URL
http://www.the-athenaeum.net/mapping/intro.html
Ray
11:03 AM
I've added another blog, NIZZMAN1, for the express purpose of adding audio to this thing, but not overloading this blog with it. I'll post links that might be of interest as they happen.
1:21 PM
I hate repeating passalongs, but there were actually pretty funny.
A physician claims these are actual comments from his patients made while he was performing colonoscopies:
Take it easy, Doc, you’re boldly going where no man has gone before.”
Find Amelia Earhart yet?”
Can you hear me NOW?”
Oh boy, that was sphincterrific!”
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”
You know, in Arkansas, we’re now legally married.”
Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?”
You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out. You do the Hokey Pokey….”
Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!”
If your hand doesn’t fit, you must acquit!”
Hey, Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.”
You used to be an executive at Enron, didn’t you?”
Could you write me a note for my wife, saying that my head is not, in fact, up there?”
A physician claims these are actual comments from his patients made while he was performing colonoscopies:
Take it easy, Doc, you’re boldly going where no man has gone before.”
Find Amelia Earhart yet?”
Can you hear me NOW?”
Oh boy, that was sphincterrific!”
Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”
You know, in Arkansas, we’re now legally married.”
Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?”
You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out. You do the Hokey Pokey….”
Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!”
If your hand doesn’t fit, you must acquit!”
Hey, Doc, let me know if you find my dignity.”
You used to be an executive at Enron, didn’t you?”
Could you write me a note for my wife, saying that my head is not, in fact, up there?”
12:04 PM
Garrett (aged 6) and I played a combined game using FAMOUS ACES and WATCH YOUR BACK on the same table. G. ran two Italian SPAD VIIs from FAMOUS ACES and I ran an Austrian ULFANG and a Siemens Suckert from WATCH YOUR BACK. The differences between the two games were notable almost immediately. For a beginner, G. understood enough that he wanted a couple of "A" rated planes and I had no objection if he wished to run two Spads simultaneously, so long as he put down TWO SETS OF THREE maneouvre cards fromt the same deck. This works like a charm if you want to fly a Jasta of the same aircraft. Your maneouvring choices WILL be limited, though.
His A rated Spads flew against my E rates Siemiens Suckert and G rated Ulfang. Garrett got the hang of the maneouvre cards immediately and flew straight at my slower craft, who could not dodge out of the way fast enough. Both of his Spads drew damage ont the Ulfang, 4,3,4 the second segment and 4,2 the third segment (of the FIRST TURN!). That was the end of the Ulfang. My Siemens managed to draw a 3, 1 on one of the Spads, before they pounced on me. I was down to 2 pts. left before the arrival of Lady H. stopped the game.
The moral: Slow planes don't mix well with Fast ones.
12:00 PM
.. is the astonishing FOREVER FLASHLIGHT, which doesn't run on batteries or have a flashlight bulb. In fact, the battery (more accurately, the power generating cell) section is sealed tight. You power the thing up with an up and down shaking motion familar to any fan of internet porn. A slug of some sort of metal passes back and forth inside a copper coil, causing current by induction. It's not a hell of a LOT of current, but the light is an LED inside a parabolic reflector, causing light amplification to some degree.
Description (from THINK GEEK):
I freakin' love this thing.
Description (from THINK GEEK):
The Forever Flashlight uses no batteries or bulbs. Instead it uses Faraday's Principle of Induction and a bright LED to produce light without batteries. The light is shaken for about 30 seconds to recharge a capacitor and it will then provide about 5 minutes of light. As the light is shaken, a magnet passes through a metal coil generating electricity. During prolonged use it can be shaken for 10-15 seconds every 2 or 3 minutes.
The light requires no maintenance so it can be left in your home or car for a longtime but will still be ready to produce light. The bright LED will last for thousands of hours and does not burn-out like a typical lightbulb - it should never need replacement.
I freakin' love this thing.
4:27 PM
4:22 PM
Playing around with a Toy Camera, Photo Shop and FLICKR.
Driving through a sepia energy field.
My pickup truck invaded by great Cthulhu
Going through a Temporal Distortion.
Driving through a sepia energy field.
My pickup truck invaded by great Cthulhu
Going through a Temporal Distortion.
4:16 PM
We played this neat little semi-RPG, semi-skirmish, space battle game last week. BATTLE STATIONS, by Gorilla Games. Battlestations is a character-based adventure game of simultaneous ship-to-ship and boarding combat in space. Players work together against the forces controlled by the referee. Battlestations can be played as one-off missions or as part of an ongoing campaign. You’ll track character’s positions on the spaceship layouts and the ships’ positions on the hex map. The action in Battlestations is literally character driven. If you want the ship to turn or speed up, a character has to take an action to make it so. If you want the ship’s guns to fire at an enemy ship, a character has to take an action to fire the guns.
Lots of fun. I played "Chef", sort of like Steven Seagal in space. We bumped into a ship derelict drifting in space, containing Cylons who are trying to board our ship to get off of the derelict where they had been stranded for 100 years.
I got my character killed in a fire fight, but I had a great time.
The system is elegant and fun, and best of all, generic. You can play with any kind of ship (we used Galoob toys) and any SF style ship infantry figures. I intend to pick this up and get 15mm SF figures, if I can find any.
More Pictures:
A ship status card showing how energy is moved around to ship systems.
A (rather blurry) character sheet showing my character, "Chef"
The small corvette layout we played on, made of generic pieces.
Very cool stuff.
Lots of fun. I played "Chef", sort of like Steven Seagal in space. We bumped into a ship derelict drifting in space, containing Cylons who are trying to board our ship to get off of the derelict where they had been stranded for 100 years.
I got my character killed in a fire fight, but I had a great time.
The system is elegant and fun, and best of all, generic. You can play with any kind of ship (we used Galoob toys) and any SF style ship infantry figures. I intend to pick this up and get 15mm SF figures, if I can find any.
More Pictures:
A ship status card showing how energy is moved around to ship systems.
A (rather blurry) character sheet showing my character, "Chef"
The small corvette layout we played on, made of generic pieces.
Very cool stuff.
3:56 PM
I picked up (FINALLY) the follow up to WINGS OF WAR: FAMOUS ACES last night, WINGS OF WAR: WATCH YOUR BACK!
-- attribution, Boardgamegeek description.
First of all, the planes are an interesting mix of mediocrity-to-almost good. I like obscure planes so was pleased to see an Austrian plane in the mix, the ULFANG. The DH4 is a huge plane, historically, and I hope this is a harbringer of other giant bombers in the mix, like the Caproni CA42, Handley Page, Gotha and Ilya Mouremetz. I'd like to see more bomber missions.
DH4
The rulebook appears to be identical to the first one, AFAIK from a cursory glance once I got this game home last night. There are now "target cards" (landmarks to photograph and/or bomb, etc.) which appear to draw and play like maneuver cards. I looked for these in the rule book but couldn't find a reference (well, I did get home late, maybe it's there)
Halberstadt DII
In general I like the direction they are going with this design. The designer is growing away from the pure dogfighting in 2 dimensions of the first game and adding some intersting strategic dimensions to the series
Hanriot
The aircraft included is a mix between the commonplace Nieuport and unusual Ulfag.
I suspect that the designer really wanted to get a lot of Italian planes in the game (being Italian!) which created a need to include the Austrians as well. I applaud him for this!
ULFAG C1
The next installment of the series (Burning Drachens) looks very exciting... balloon busting, zeppelins, and anti-aircraft guns. Wings of War is rapidly tumbling BLUE MAX out of my personal top tier of WWI airfighting games-- it's far easier to grasp than Blue Max, not full of needless detail, and possessing a lot of the fun and simplicity of ACE OF ACES without the detail of the earlier flip book system.
Me likes!
"Wings of War - Watch your back!" is the second title in the WoW line and it is again set in World War I.
The box can be played on itself or mixed with "WoW - Famous aces" for larger scenarios. It includes 5 models of planes: the Nieuport 11, Hanriot HD.1 and Halberstadt D.III fighters, together with the British/American DH4 and the Austrian Ufag C.I two-seaters. There are also 4 decks of movement cards, 1 deck of combat cards, rulers, counters and a promo card for the first set depicting an American SPAD XIII.
The rulebook is the same of "Famous aces" and it lists scenarios for each of the two boxes, plus a couple for players who own both of them.
18 airplane cards are for immediate use. A curious plane, useful for more variated scenarios, is the Nieuport 11 of the German Jasta 1, flown in action by Leutnant Gustav Leffers. In the box there are also a few weapon variants for owners of "Famous aces": Scaroni's and Fucini's HD.1 with twin machineguns instead of the single one that was the standard from the factory; a British DH4 with a twin machinegun in the rear arc; a DH4 of the American Expeditionary Force with twin machineguns both on the forward and on the rear arc.
-- attribution, Boardgamegeek description.
First of all, the planes are an interesting mix of mediocrity-to-almost good. I like obscure planes so was pleased to see an Austrian plane in the mix, the ULFANG. The DH4 is a huge plane, historically, and I hope this is a harbringer of other giant bombers in the mix, like the Caproni CA42, Handley Page, Gotha and Ilya Mouremetz. I'd like to see more bomber missions.
DH4
The rulebook appears to be identical to the first one, AFAIK from a cursory glance once I got this game home last night. There are now "target cards" (landmarks to photograph and/or bomb, etc.) which appear to draw and play like maneuver cards. I looked for these in the rule book but couldn't find a reference (well, I did get home late, maybe it's there)
Halberstadt DII
In general I like the direction they are going with this design. The designer is growing away from the pure dogfighting in 2 dimensions of the first game and adding some intersting strategic dimensions to the series
Hanriot
The aircraft included is a mix between the commonplace Nieuport and unusual Ulfag.
I suspect that the designer really wanted to get a lot of Italian planes in the game (being Italian!) which created a need to include the Austrians as well. I applaud him for this!
ULFAG C1
The next installment of the series (Burning Drachens) looks very exciting... balloon busting, zeppelins, and anti-aircraft guns. Wings of War is rapidly tumbling BLUE MAX out of my personal top tier of WWI airfighting games-- it's far easier to grasp than Blue Max, not full of needless detail, and possessing a lot of the fun and simplicity of ACE OF ACES without the detail of the earlier flip book system.
Me likes!
10:21 AM
I got this in an email last night, but I might as well post the TMP obit today, it sums it up nicely.
Along with some other crusty old wargamers like Pat Condray and Leo Cronin, Wally Simon has had a huge impact on a lot of us. As for me, he provided an example of the kind of GM, player and just plain nice guy that I can only try to emulate (and will certainly fail). I liked Wally's style - gentle remonstration instead of puffed up chest-beating (though he could get angry, believe me). Reflective analysis instead of ascerbic one-upmanship. Non-competitive instead of "win at any cost".
I know we have a tendency to crown those who have left us with laurels out of sentiment, and sometimes we ignore the critical out when we do that, but Wally Simon earned every bit of the praise he will (inevitably) receive in the next couple days.
Walter 'Wally' Simon of Silver Spring, Maryland, the original guiding light of HMGS East, former president of NOVAG, and the "Wally" of the legendary "Wally's Basement," has passed away. He was 72.
"Wally was not a competitive gamer," says Michael Guth. "He primarily enjoyed writing his own rules and hosting friendly games to try them out." He edited the fanzine The Potomac Wargamer for several decades (it is still available on Magweb).
"Wally's death is a reminder that miniature wargaming has a history," says Guth. "Thirty years ago we played with Scruby or Kriegspieler figures, and Airfix was just releasing their range of Napoleonic figures. Games were played with Mini-tanks, Hinton Hunt figures, and the old pre-painted SAE figures. Figures were cast in people's basements, some players still gamed with 54mm metal figures!
"Today, there are dozens of figure manufacturers working in metal and plastic. The dealer space at an HMGS convention is bigger than the entire original HMGS convention site. It was not always thus. Wally, and others of his generation worked hard to make historical miniature gaming a more accessible and widespread hobby.
"His passing is also a reminder that many of my friends and acquaintances from this period are also entering the ranks of Grognard. Lee Tucker, author of Tractics with Gary Gygax. Pat Condray, who also worked uncounted hours to found the HMGS. Paul Koch, author of the Civil War rules On to Richmond. Ed Konstant, who introduced me to Napoleonic warfare.
"Wally Simon has left wargaming a bigger and better hobby than he found it. I will miss him."
Along with some other crusty old wargamers like Pat Condray and Leo Cronin, Wally Simon has had a huge impact on a lot of us. As for me, he provided an example of the kind of GM, player and just plain nice guy that I can only try to emulate (and will certainly fail). I liked Wally's style - gentle remonstration instead of puffed up chest-beating (though he could get angry, believe me). Reflective analysis instead of ascerbic one-upmanship. Non-competitive instead of "win at any cost".
I know we have a tendency to crown those who have left us with laurels out of sentiment, and sometimes we ignore the critical out when we do that, but Wally Simon earned every bit of the praise he will (inevitably) receive in the next couple days.
10:13 AM
I was bidding on a SD chip on Ebay the other day and noticed a guy up in Pittsburgh charging 15 dollars to ship surface rate descried as "standard flat rate shipping service, anywhere in the United States".
Now, I realize we are dealing with economies of scale here (the guy is obviously a bulk dealer as he puts the same item, SD chips, up for bid quite a bit periodically), and he probably doesn't gain efficiency by figuring out what the postage would be shipping to Glen Allen, Alaska as well as Millersville, PA, but they are making it easy for you to do that these days-- there are ebay shipping calculators all over the place. I know. I figured out the postage between a common Pittsburgh PA zip code and my own (22015) and giving the box weight a very conservative weight of 2 pounds (ridiculous) I find that he's charging almost the amount you'd pay for overnight service, and about four times the amount of standard flat surface rate.
I wasn't going to bid that one just out of principle, but I sent him a friendly question:
"I'm curious. 15 dollars sounds horribly high for an object that weighs an ounce or so. Why the extremely high price?"
To which he responds rather promptly:
It is common. you pay total anyway, not the shipping only. It really does not matter for bidder as long as the value is higher than that. This way even an accident happens, the final price is not a wretch $0.99. right?It is common. you pay total anyway, not the shipping only. It really does not matter for bidder as long as the value is higher than that. This way even an accident happens, the final price is not a wretch $0.99. right?
Is it my own loopy interpertation that drives me to the conclusion that this guy just said "I'm adding on 15 bucks in case somehow somebody lucks out and bids 99 cents for one of these SD chips-- at least I'll realize 10 bucks on the transaction"???
That's a justification? Huh? Isn't that part of the risk of being a seller on Ebay? Seems to me that you shouldn't be in business if you're not willing to accept that risk, and you shouldn't defray that risk with exorbinant shipping. It just seems dishonest to me.
And I don't buy the argument that it's shipping and handling very easily, either. The SD chip is almost certainly in a vacumn formed plastic container, which could be slipped flat in a media envelope. Likely less than a pound and it ships for 3 bucks and change surface rate (I know, I've bought SD chips before from other vendors).
Just venting. I'm not going to be a schmuck to the guy-- if people are paying it ("it's common") than I guess he'll get away with it. His justification just struck me as being fundamentally at odds with honesty.
Or reality, even.
Now, I realize we are dealing with economies of scale here (the guy is obviously a bulk dealer as he puts the same item, SD chips, up for bid quite a bit periodically), and he probably doesn't gain efficiency by figuring out what the postage would be shipping to Glen Allen, Alaska as well as Millersville, PA, but they are making it easy for you to do that these days-- there are ebay shipping calculators all over the place. I know. I figured out the postage between a common Pittsburgh PA zip code and my own (22015) and giving the box weight a very conservative weight of 2 pounds (ridiculous) I find that he's charging almost the amount you'd pay for overnight service, and about four times the amount of standard flat surface rate.
I wasn't going to bid that one just out of principle, but I sent him a friendly question:
"I'm curious. 15 dollars sounds horribly high for an object that weighs an ounce or so. Why the extremely high price?"
To which he responds rather promptly:
It is common. you pay total anyway, not the shipping only. It really does not matter for bidder as long as the value is higher than that. This way even an accident happens, the final price is not a wretch $0.99. right?It is common. you pay total anyway, not the shipping only. It really does not matter for bidder as long as the value is higher than that. This way even an accident happens, the final price is not a wretch $0.99. right?
Is it my own loopy interpertation that drives me to the conclusion that this guy just said "I'm adding on 15 bucks in case somehow somebody lucks out and bids 99 cents for one of these SD chips-- at least I'll realize 10 bucks on the transaction"???
That's a justification? Huh? Isn't that part of the risk of being a seller on Ebay? Seems to me that you shouldn't be in business if you're not willing to accept that risk, and you shouldn't defray that risk with exorbinant shipping. It just seems dishonest to me.
And I don't buy the argument that it's shipping and handling very easily, either. The SD chip is almost certainly in a vacumn formed plastic container, which could be slipped flat in a media envelope. Likely less than a pound and it ships for 3 bucks and change surface rate (I know, I've bought SD chips before from other vendors).
Just venting. I'm not going to be a schmuck to the guy-- if people are paying it ("it's common") than I guess he'll get away with it. His justification just struck me as being fundamentally at odds with honesty.
Or reality, even.
<br><br /><a href=){kind=link}
