I just had to comment on this story out of Colorado Springs, which appears to have gained national attention. Discovery Canyon has banned the game of "tag" on its playground to avoid "conflicts". What rubbish! This is yet another instance where schools prove my theory that it is so much easier to be reactionary and have no improvement than to actually make a difference. There is no way to avoid conflict on the playground short of putting all the children in individual bubbles.
The administrator claims that there were complaints of children being "harassed or chased against their will." Again, rubbish. By definition, it is impossible to be chased against your will. If you aren't running, you're not being chased. The rational response is to keep children from harassing other children, right? If the harassed child is encouraged to deal with the issue themselves and then if necessary take it to a teacher, then the root of the problem is at least being addressed.
This is exactly what happened when I was in school. The powers-that-be perceived that North Colorado Springs had a gang problem so they took the only logical step (only logical because their brains were rotted in graduate school) and banned.... guns?.... Nope..... knives?.... Wrong.... gang signs? ....wouldn't have mattered since there were no real gangsters. They banned LONG BRAIDED BELTS, which happened to be the style at the time. It solved exactly zero because were one of the wanksters to decide he wanted to shoot someone (never happened), the status of his belt would have made no difference.
It is a mindset that leads our nations youth to show up in college and still know nothing about what it is to be an adult. Ask a college counselor who is deluged with students crying on their shoulders because they are incapable of handling an environment that makes demands on them (ie. the real world).
I must be frustrated...I've been reduced to referring to the University as the real world.
Kerch is an ancient city that began as a Greek colony and has been populated by a variety of people for over 2500 years. The painting above is from 1839 and shows a bustling shipping town. The high ground is Mount Mithradates topped by the harbor lighthouse.
This is the top of the aforementioned Mount. This is one of the nicer Soviet-era monuments to the Great Patriotic War, which we Westerners call WWII. Since the Soviet Union only spanned 3/4 of a century, they have very little to celebrate other than the victory over fascism and protection of the Fatherland (Ukrainians use the paternal form instead of Motherland like Russians). 
Another shot of the monument atop Mithradates. The cannons are not reproductions. 2 of the 3 have patches on the "gunner's shield" where bullets had passed through the armor during their active use.
Another shot from just above "our beach" looking northeast across the channel. Through the haze you can see just a slight outline of the Russian coast in the upper right-hand corner. 
This is a great example of the booths at the market across the street from the camp. All are the same color and roughly the same size. Most day-to-day items can be bought here though the "normal" food selection is limited. There is also a small grocery store just behind the market itself.
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