Great flavorful dih you can control the heat by using mild or hot curry powder-Or a little of both.

Orange-Curry Chicken
Preheat oven to 475 degrees
10 Boneless Chicken thighs
1 cup fresh orange juice
2 tbs chopped garlic
2 Tbs melted Butter
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 small orange peeled and cut into segments
1 cup chutney
1 cup Craisins
1 Tbs total curry powder

Rub melted butter and garlic on chicken and put in baking dish
Bake 10 minutes
Turn oven down to 350 degrees
In bowl combine, Orange juice, Chutney, Craisins, Curry powder, Cinnamon and Nutmeg.

Pour mixture over chicken and bake 20-25 minutes until cooked thru

Add orange segments and serve with Basmati rice and Roasted Zuchinni and Asparagus

Recipe Courtesy
www.chefmiketucson.com

More people then ever converged into three convention centers in Las Vegas last week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show to see the latest products for the year.  The show was so big, it was impossible to see everything, and your humble TucsonCitizen.com writer had the privilege to be one of the 153,000 attendees.

There were no big new technologies introduced this year, but it did more clearly define 4 trends in the convergence between technologies and the way we will communicate.

• 3D: Manufactures continue to push 3D into people’s homes, when it is not gaining traction.  There were 3D tablets, which are currently only available in China.  Good news is glasses were not required.  SONY (PlayStation) and Microsoft (XBOX 360) showed new games that are in 3D.

• Size of TVs: A TV maybe a TV, but the 60-inch screen will be a second thought a year from now.  Samsung and SHARP both showed 70 and 80-inch TVs at the show.  Expect your friend or family member who bought that 60-inch few years ago to have a 70-80 inch by next football season.

Photo by: Clair Wyant - A SMART TV presented CES

• SMART TVs/Internet Connected TVs:  Most of you already have this feature on your TV, but do not realize it. Per a YAHOO! Connected TV representative I spoke to at CES, a million are using it, out of 9 million who current have the product.  It is getting more common, and more known mainstream.The number of apps (apps like on smart phones) is rapidly expanding, so is the amount streaming media services.  Some have a Netflix button on the remote.
  Social media integration is increasing, and interactivity, such as polling, is increasing.
  Web browsing is new this year. Since most will be flash enabled, you will be able to watch your favorite illegal feed on TV without the computer hook up.
  In my opinion, this will have the biggest impact on the average consumer next few years.  This was one of many items at CES where if you saw one, you saw them all.

• Microsoft in the Cell Phone Space:  Microsoft made their final appearance at CES this year.  They were not only pushing the new Windows 8, but also their mobile operating system.  It is expanding to more phones, including Nokia.  Look for them to be a bigger player in a year.  On a side note, BlackBerry was promoting their new operating system, with an expanding apps store.  It was obvious playing catch-up, and the long-term stability of the company is still in question.

It was easy to attend CES and be amazed with the technology available these days, but how much of it do we really need? SlingBox and DISH Network showed products where you will be able to watch live TV on the go, such as your laptop or tablet.  What if you are stuck at an airport with a device low on battery power, but see few power plugs.  All that new technology sure helps!

Technology maybe a novelty, but from how quickly it is progressing, it be nice if we get back to basics, like powering our devices (power plugs??).  Then again, do we really need all of this?

Toole Avenue will have an extreme make-over consisting of the installation of more than 100 plants and trees and creative contributions from local artists, arts organizations, and businesses this weekend.

On Saturday, October 22, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Tucson community will come together on National Make a Difference Day to completely transform the street at the heart of the Historic Warehouse Arts District.

During the past several months, Toole Avenue between 6th and Stone avenues has been getting spruced up here and fixed up there. Now, the community will finish the transformation in a day packed full of arts activities and performances that highlight the artists, art spaces and businesses along the refurbished Toole Avenue Artwalk and throughout the Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District.

“We have pulled together a committed group, including the City of Tucson, Warehouse Arts Management Organization, property owners and community partners, to rehabilitate this important part of the Historic Warehouse Arts District,” says Michael Keith, CEO of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, which helped organize the event. “This kind of collaborative effort can be utilized to contribute to other infrastructure projects that are key to downtown.”

When completed, Toole Avenue improvements will include decorated planters with trees and shrubs, sidewalk repairs, the addition of ADA-compliant crosswalk ramps, installation of a bus shelter and bike racks, new fencing, and patio, lighting upgrades, and public artworks on both public and private spaces.

“The Toole Avenue Streetscape Project is the culmination of years of work by many people to preserve historic warehouses as spaces for the arts,” says Elizabeth Burden, president of WAMO. “The October 22 event is an opportunity for all Tucsonans to make a difference in this part of downtown, and to learn more about all that is happening in the Warehouse Arts District.”

For more information about the Toole Avenue Streetscape Project, visit www.DowntownTucson.org, contact the Downtown Tucson Partnership at (520) 837-6504 or info@downtucson.org.  For more information about the Tucson Historic Warehouse Arts District, visit TheWarehouseArtsDistrict.com.

Note: Groups participating in the Streetscape Project include:  Downtown Tucson Partnership, Office of Mayor, Ward 1 Council Office, Ward 6 Council Office, ParkWise, Dunn Edwards, Pima County, Warehouse Arts Management Organization, Norris-Design, Peach Properties, Fenton Investments, Arizona Autoparks, Skrappys, Providence Corporation, AAA Landscape, Cox Communications, Santa Teresa Tile Works, Poster Frost Mirto, Bens Bells, BICAS, Borealis Arts, Borderlands Brewery, Citizens Artists Collective, Dinnerware Art Space, Solar Culture, Mat Bevel Institute, Siobhan Clothing, Toole Shed Art Studios, Trees for Tucson, Tucson Arts Brigade.

Participating Warehouse District Artists include:  Elizabeth Albert, Ariel Diaz, Simon Donovan, Salvador Duran, Steven Eye, Susan Gamble, Jorge Gonzalez, Susan Kay Johnson, Carolyn King, Sally Krommes, Jodi Netzer, Joe Pagac, Michael Ritzenthaler, Ned Schaper, Paul Schwam, Marvin Shaver, Charlie Spillar, Paco Velez, Wilson, and Liz Weibler.

Tucsonan Dr. Mark Ginsburg knows a thing or two about the game of chess. He became a master of chess at the age of  18 and an International Master at 22.  He is a three-time champion (and current champion) of the state of Arizona.

A few years ago, he envisioned a smart phone application to teach others to become chess masters. Today, his vision has become a reality with an iPhone app called Chess University, or Chess U, for short.

The platform is free via iTunes, as is a starter course called “Attack 101″. Each course has 10 lessons and each lesson has numerous quizzes.  At the end of a course, the user can opt to receive a diploma via email.  The point is to help them on the road to eventual chess mastery.

“The user reviews so far have been very positive,” says Ginsburg. “So far we have the free course and 4 “in-app purchase” courses.  Users can elect to purchase additional content for $0.99.”

The user experience is very simple.  No buttons or controls to navigate.  Just tap right-side of board to advance a move, and tap left-side of board to retreat a move.  Quizzes can be true/false or multiple choice with easy to read answer choices at the bottom of the screen.  There’s no training necessary to immediately start trying out the app.

Since not everyone has an iPhone, Ginsburg said that the courses will be available soon on native Facebook, since Facebook will soon introduce a monetary system. A customer will be able to purchase, using Facebook credits, courses much as they do on the iPhone.

“We also want the app to run natively on the iPad and are investigation other smart phones such as Android,” Ginsburg added.

Users of the application have requested more Chess U Courses and Ginsburg is working quickly to deliver them. He has gotten some friends to participate, too.  Marcel Martinez, a strong player in Florida, will deliver a Strategy Course.  Dave Vigorito from the Boston area is working an Openings Course. Steve Follmer is focused on a Beginner’s Course.

To learn more, watch the video below and visit the Chess U website.

Reginald has created an Orwellian world, the Fellian States of America, a fascist state of tight government control. The protagonist is an unnamed, cynical college professor at California Saints University. The story is told as a series of diary entries and the language style is a version of Newspeak, irreverent, cynical, profane, also clever, and sometimes funny. Our fictional story teller comes across initially as a smartass in his own mind but he takes care to be obsequious to the powers that be.

The story begins when a fellow professor is taken by the state. Our protagonist appears to try to keep a low profile, play the game, but he becomes adept at Machiavellian machinations, gaming the system. He works his way to become head of the University and is about to be offered a national job by the Great Leader, Dr. Fell. “A purge here, an execution there, hey, it was all grist for the mill.”

But there is more than one Machiavellian at work.

Reginald’s writing style in this novel is something I have not really encountered before. At first it was slightly off-putting, but as the story developed, it served to put me into the mind of the protagonist. To further that, Reginald begins each chapter with some doggerel.

The book is published by Wildside Press (Wildsidebooks.com) and is also available at Amazon.

This book is part of a “double” novel: A Llull in the Compass: A Science Fiction Novel by W. C. Bamberger coupled with Academentia: A Future Dystopia by Robert Reginald (Wildside Double #17) . Academentia is also available as a single eBook on Kindle.

Complaint: Rent a Car, We’ll Come Pick You Up

Not exactly.

They will come and pick you up if it’s not a Saturday in Tucson.

My car broke down. I think it had something to do with the diagnostic I had yesterday. I have never had a problem with the alarm before today. But somehow and some way I thought I had a dead battery because the car wouldn’t start.

Backtracking… I was taking my renter to lunch because he’s leaving the country. He’s such a great person and renter/roommate that I offered to take him to lunch. Before we got to the restaurant, I want to show him an artful oddity so we made a pit stop on the way. When we got back into the car, the battery wouldn’t turn over.

I called AAA and they came in record time. The mechanic said it was not the battery as it was fully juiced. It’s an AAA battery. He said it was the alarm. I didn’t even know I had alarm. I just know when I accidentally push that red button, the horn starts beeping but now the horn wouldn’t stop and the mechanic said the alarm needed to be dis-alarmed.

I called my friend who lives near where my car stop working and she graciously came to pick us up. She had the bright idea that I should rent a car. She drove me to the Enterprise rent-a-car on Speedway near Country Club. We were about two hours too late, it closed at noon.

I called the 1 800 Rent-a-Car number and of all the satellite Enterprise rent-a-car places around Tucson, none were open according to the customer service agent. Customer service told me I would have to go to the airport. I was nowhere near the airport. I asked them to come pick me up just like the commercials say.

Guess what?

They only pick up on weekdays or business days. I would think renting a car would be a 24/7 type of business. Every day is a business day.

Certainly their ads make it seem like that, don’t you think?

Stranded soccer mom and Enterprise comes to pick her up. Dad building a tree house and Enterprise delivers a truck to his door so he can go to the big box store for supplies. Do you think Dad built the tree house during a weekday?

So I came home and tried to call some other nearby places like Budget and Avis but their numbers were disconnected or didn’t answer.

No worries. My car is parked on a side street in another part of town. I called the place that did the diagnostic yesterday but, of course, they’re closed. I opted not to be driven to the airport to rent a car. And if I ever rent a car again – it won’t be from Enterprise.

Nothing galls me more than false advertising.

At least with pharmaceutical drug commercials, they tell you how the drug will help with your pain, heartburn, dangerously high cholesterol but in the fade out they also tell you how while the drug may help with your Rx, they lower the voiceover to explain how said drug can also cause you other serious problems that will require you to call your doctor immediately.

I think Enterprise Rent-a-Car has to change their advertising to:

Enterprise – We’ll pick you up! But only if your car breaks down on a weekday…

Oh, and tomorrow is my birthday. Yeah, I know I’m feeling sorry for myself.

Am I the only person complaining about Enterprise?? Hell, no!

The Arizona Republic is polling the best ASU/UA sports teams in the Pac-10 era. Strangely, the UA’s 1997 men’s basketball national championship is leading by double digits over the 1996 ASU football Rose Bowl losers (the team that came within two minutes and one Joe Germaine-led drive of winning the national championship).

Don’t let the homers in Phoenix dominate the voting and put a Tempe Normal team ahead of the 1997 UA team that beat three No. 1 seeds to give Tucson and the Silver Fox its only marquee sport national title.

You can vote in the poll here.

And vote in our duplicate poll below.

Team capsules:

The space shuttle Endeavor will not launch today because of technical problems. It was scheduled to take off with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s husband, Mark Kelly, in command. Giffords is in Florida to attend the event, and the Obamas also announced they will be there.

Courtesy of the FLORIDA TODAY team, TucsonCitizen.com will provide a livestream of the launch, including interviews with the astronauts. You can check out more in-depth coverage of the launch from our colleagues in Florida on their space team blog, The Flame Trench. For an excellent story providing background and more on the Tucson connection, check out the Arizona Republic’s coverage. Below are a series of photos of Kelly as he prepares for the launch. Bookmark this page to check out the live report.

Gannett, David Cohen/Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times

Mark Kelly reads letters to his wife Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords inside her room at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, TX. Giffords is recovering from a gun shot wound to the head during an assassination attempt while she was meeting with constituents in Tucson. Photo by Pia Carusone/Exclusive To The Arizona Republic

The STS-134 crew arrived at Kennedy Space Center Sunday to get ready for their Friday afternoon launch on the space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. Commander Mark Kelly leads the crew to the microphone to speak to the media there at the landing facility. Photo by Michael R. Brown/FLORIDA TODAY

Commander Mark Kelly exits his T-38 aircraft after arriving at KSC. Photo by Michael R. Brown/FLORIDA TODAY

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

This article  may help you discover the greatest hope for people suffering from PTSD that you have ever read.  Today there are literally hundreds of thousands of returning veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from their combat experiences. There are also hundreds of thousands of average Americans suffering from some traumatic experience in their lives resulting in PTSD.

Today people suffering from this terrific illness have new hope with the “drug free” therapy of NEUROFEEDBACK.  Unfortunately, only a very few Veterans’ hospitals utilize this treatment for returning veterans.  The main therapy used today in the military is cognitive therapy (talk therapy) and drugs.  THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE! Further down in this article you will see 37 YEARS TO RECOVERY FOR A VIETNAM VETERAN! that will really open your eyes to the new hope these revolutionary treatments offer.

In my opinion if a pharmaceutical drug had proven the same benefits that neurofeedback has demonstrated it would be a front-page story all over the world. Why neurofeedback is not accepted now as standard treatment for a slew of illnesses still amazes me and shows the power of the drug companies.  Once the health insurance companies realize the benefits and start paying for these life-changing treatments PTSD sufferers will experience a rapid change in their lives.  Neurofeedback is definitely NOT a quick fix, but offers some of the greatest hope to our returning heroes who have put their lives on the line to protect our freedom.

Many of our returning veterans also suffer from TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and in some cases severe depression.  If any of you have read my previous articles you will realize that neurofeedback in many instances CAN help reverse those maladies as well.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/tc-off-topic/2011/02/01/miraculous-recovery-from-traumatic-brain-injury-with-neurofeedback-therapy/

http://tucsoncitizen.com/art/2010/09/22/neurofeedback-a-revolutionary-new-drug-free-treatment-for-ptsd-add-adhd-traumatic-brain-injury-depression-and-other-maladies/

After researching this subject for several months I am totally convinced that neurofeedback WILL give many people suffering from PTSD their lives back.  PTSD not only affects the returning veteran but also has a dramatic effect on the lives of those that love them such as their wives, children and parents. Often our veterans turn to alcohol to help them cope. With proper neurofeedback treatments, alcoholism  too can be healed.

There are several neurofeedback companies and practitioners that have a proven tract record in PTSD treatment.  Please view their websites to inform yourself of just how effective these treatments have resolved PTSD problems. Read the rest of this entry »

[Ed. Note: Yes, this is a shameless attempt at page views, but what the hell, it's what everyone's talking about anyway.]

Two and a Half Men cast

The producers, studio and network responsible for “Two and a Half Men” are contemplating what to do with the show now that show star Charlie Sheen has devolved into a cocaine-mad, sex-crazed hedonist and been fired for it.

I think they should have Sheen’s alcohol-mad, sex-crazed hedonist character “Charlie Harper” die from asphyxiating on his own vomit after a night of debauchery and Berta the house cleaner and her trailer-trash family move in to the beach house after Charlie leaves the house to her in his will as long as she lets his brother, Alan, played by Jon Cryer and his son Jake, played by Angus T. Jones, stay there.

Let the high jinks ensue. Sheen will hardly be missed.

What do you think?