<\/font><\/p>\n \u201cTransparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Period.<\/p>\n Barrack Obama, famously.<\/p>\n I\u2019m still here. This will be brief: in an hour or so I have an appointment with audiologists who I hope will fit me with a newfangled design hearing aid that will take care of my hearing problems. We will see.<\/p>\n Thanks to all those who have renewed their subscriptions during this holiday season. I will not be going to CES but Alex is providing communications for several exhibitors, and I have other friends who are going. And this week I will be doing the year end essay.<\/p>\n But I mustn\u2019t be late for my appointment.<\/p>\n 1530: As it happens my web host was down and I could not post that before I went. I had a pleasant experience at COSTCO, and I may go there for other items sometimes. I know my friend Wayne Rash used to use Price Club for everything before Price Club and COSTCO merged, and I am given to understand that the founder of FEDCO, which Roberta and I liked a lot, is now the President of COSTCO; so we\u2019ll see. If their Auditory department is an example of their competence I might just buy everything there.<\/p>\n The experience was pleasant and Kerry, the technician in Auditory is competent, pleasant, and explains things well. The tests and programming each ear device took about an hour; after which I wandered about through COSTCO with the new hearing aids. There was plenty of background noise but I could hear and understand individual conversations, including Spanish which I haven\u2019t generally understood for years. Amazing. I haven\u2019t heard this well since well before the big radiation treatments for the Lump, that big brain cancer that they managed to polish off in 2008. In other word, for as long as I can remember, really, I haven\u2019t heard this well.<\/p>\n Alas I had to give back the demonstration models, which had been programmed just for me: programming takes a few minutes and is done by Bluetooth. They tell me my very own hearing aids will come in about a week. I confess I was tempted to run away with the demo units, but of course I didn\u2019t. expect to hear more on this story in a coup-le of weeks.<\/p>\n Roberta won\u2019t be going to Larry Niven\u2019s New Year Party, but I\u2019m going to trek out there because Niven\u2019s parties are my one chance to see some people I don\u2019t meet anywhere else, and Larry and I manage to get some work done at his parties anyway. And Wendy All will be there so we can talk about the revival of the children\u2019s book Avogadro the Mole, which is a book introducing basic science concepts for people who like talking animals.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been reading some books on failure to develop Africa, and some of the concepts will go into my Tran novels. I am determined to finish Mamelukes by Spring, and I don\u2019t see why I can\u2019t. That will not end the series. Going through the Enlightenment, Reformation, Counter Reformation, and the Industrial Revolution all in one generation is not going to be easy, and I\u2019m too much interested in it just to say they all lived happily every after. Or to kill off the characters and say they failed. Rick has to pass the torch and know he has done so before it\u2019s all over. And you have yet to meet his children, who, like children of aristocratic houses of those times, spend more time with Nannies, Governesses, and other aristocrats than their own parents. Georgette Heyer has a wonderful novel My Lord John about the children and grandchildren of Belle Sire, John of Gaunt, brother of Edward the Black Prince, whose son Henry IV deposed Richard II and set the stage for the Wars of the Roses\u2026 Henry IV\u2019s children Harry (eventually Henry V) and his brother John are shown in Shakespeare\u2019s plays but Heyer does it better. Anyway, we are headed that way on Tran\u2026<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And if you\u2019re looking for something to read before going to a party<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Maps that changed the world…<\/p>\n Fascinating!<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2013\/12\/12-maps-that-changed-the-world\/282666\/#comments<\/a><\/p>\n (Len – Mackinder made the grade!)<\/p>\n s\/f<\/p>\n Couv<\/p>\n David Couvillon<\/p>\n Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Retired.; Former Governor of Wasit Province, Iraq; Righter of Wrongs; Wrong most of the time; Distinguished Expert, TV remote control; Chef de Hot Dog Excellance; Avoider of Yard Work<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n HAPPY NEW YEAR<\/p>\n Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free. <\/p>\n View 804 Tuesday, December 31, 2013 \u201cTransparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.\u201d President Barack Obama, January 31, 2009 If you like your health plan, you can keep your health plan. Period. Barrack Obama, famously. I\u2019m still here. This will be brief: \u2026 Continue reading ![\"clip_image002\"](\"http:\/\/www.jerrypournelle.com\/chaosmanor\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/clip_image00248.gif\" "\\"clip_image002\\"")
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