• The new October cover image

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    The new cover image for the home page is a tour helicopter flying down the coast at Panama City Beach, Florida. August, 2016.

  • Does Uber make cities safer?

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    Allowing ride sharing in a city likely reduces the number of DUIs, fatal accidents and arrests for assault. But automobile thefts go up, presumably of cars left at bars overnight by Uber customers.

  • So he switched to whisky

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    The day before he was due to go home Roger and I decided to have a word with Eric [Clapton]’s doctor about his drinking. We pleaded with him to tell Eric he mustn’t drink, explained the situation, told him how much he habitually drank, and how worried we were. The doctor told Eric it was fine to have the...

  • Bonnaroo journal 2016

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    • Crowds at Bonnaroo 2016 were lighter than past years. Some estimates put it close to 50,000, which is significantly less than recent years when nearly 90,000 attended. At $325 a ticket, that’s about $13,000,000 in revenue.
    • Traffic into Bonnaroo is usually backed up for hours on I-24 and we have a back way of getting in that lets us...

  • The Bank of Starbucks

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    Starbucks Corp. [has] $1.2 billion loaded onto Starbucks cards and the Starbucks mobile app as of the first quarter of 2016, according to the data. This money can be used to purchase items including drinks, food and other merchandise.

  • Bavaria journal

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    • Although reserved, people in the street were friendly and willing to meet our gaze and return a smile.
    • Traditional German food in Huntsville seems just as good as in Bavaria. Perhaps traditional German food travels better than other ethnic dishes. Or maybe Huntsville restaurants do a better than average job of presenting it (Huntsville has a lot of traditional...

  • Salzburg journal

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    • Salzburg is a surprisingly small city. It has a population of less than 150,000 and is smaller than Huntsville, Alabama, which has a population closer to 190,000.
    • It always amazes me in European cities how tourists cluster around just a couple of sites. Mozart’s birthplace, for instance. Yet go just two or three blocks and it feels like you...

  • This is Marlboro country

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    I created this piece of pop art circa 1979 for a school assignment. In the 1970s featuring cigarettes in a middle school assignment was completely acceptable.

  • What does it take to make us safe?

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    During the Olympics in Atlanta, and following the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park, my wife and I were among spectators made to stand in huge crowds outside of venues while the buildings were swept for explosives. While this exercise may have guaranteed the safety of the facilities it did nothing to protect those of us huddle in large, vulnerable crowds...