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The only time Islam Aboutaha drove, it was in a straight line through a quiet suburb, in her older brother's car with him in the passenger seat, and she barely reached the end of the block before she put it in park. "It's too nerve-racking," says the 17-year-old.
It's been five years since Chris Doleman, 27, last got behind the wheel, to drive a load of drunken friends home after the bar, a trip so stressful that he's made up his mind never to drive again. Says the economics graduate, "There are too many variables out of my control."
Of the four times Elysia Turner has driven, twice she panicked at the sight of a car in her rear-view mirror, and once because the hood of her company vehicle was smoking. The last time was to get her licence. That was 17 years ago. She's 33 now. "I just don't feel equipped to deal with any possible scenario that will occur," Turner says.
The three Calgarians live on opposite sides of the city, have disparate interests and will likely never cross paths, but they represent a trend across North America of young people saying to hell with driving. Compared to the same cohort a decade ago, 16 to 34 year-olds are driving fewer miles, delaying getting their licences or abstaining from it altogether. Even in Calgary, a city that is by all definitions car-centric—busting at the seams with triple-car garages and strip malls bigger than the Saddledome—it is happening fast.
According to Alberta Transportation, since 2001, the proportion of young people in Calgary with a driver's licence has fallen by 6.6. percent for those aged 16 to 24 and by 15.8 percent for those aged 24 to 34.
For decades a Class 5 card wasn't just a licence to drive but a passport to freedom, independence, a bigger world, sex. It was a rite of passage, what made Sweet 16 sweet. But in just under two decades nearly half as many 16-year-olds carry a licence—not even a learner's permit. This once-baptismal tradition has seemingly become a burden.
How could I be so stupid? I wondered this even before I reached the other side of the intersection. I had mastered the shoulder check, nailed the lane change, showed parallel parking who was boss, but I blew the big red octagon that spelled it out for me: STOP. I heard my passenger's pencil scratch the exam form, no doubt in two criss-crossing lines. It could only mean one thing: an automatic fail.
Afterward, I sulked in the backseat of a green Chevy Blazer, failing to contain my tears as my mom steered my 16th-birthday present home. Three weeks later, though, my dignity was restored as I pulled up to the doors of my high school blasting Insane Clown Posse—alone. Over the next six years, that '97 Blazer was my "third place," the term for comfortable community environments separate from home and workplace (or in my case, school). I made out in it and got dumped in it. I hot-boxed it and got busted in it. I drove it through almost every milestone of my youth until it started to sound like I was sharpening knives with every turn and it was finally time to part ways. I'm 28 now and drive a more practical Dodge Calibre. Gone are the subwoofers; present is the talk radio.
Though I'm young, the virtues of driving might seem old-fashioned to my fellow Millennials, a.k.a. Generation Y. The year I got my licence, 2001, marks two significant turning points in car culture: It was the last time oil was under $20 a barrel (now it's over $100) and it was also when the drop in young drivers occurred, not just in Calgary and Edmonton, where I live, but in cities across Canada and seven other industrialized nations.
Jeff Caird, director of University of Calgary's Driving Simulator, part of the Cognitive Ergonomics Research Lab, watches young people drive. Inexperience being one of the most common factors contributing to car accidents, he puts them through high-risk and quick-reflex situations for research. But lately he's noticed a change: "When I grew up, getting your licence was a stamp of entering adulthood; it's just what you did. Some view it that way still; maybe they buy into the car culture, but now it's a bit different. The norms may be changing."
Take Islam Aboutaha, for instance. The 12th-grader lives in Cougar Ridge on the southwestern edge of Calgary. The closest retailer is a 22-minute walk away. Every morning she has to drag herself out of bed and onto a packed bus for an even longer trip to Ernest Manning High School. If she's lucky she gets to sit. Still, she has no desire to get a learner's permit, not even after her dad offered to buy her a car, cover the insurance and, until she gets a job, give her gas allowance.
In the kitchen her mother Ghalia overhears this offer for the first time, but instantly approves if it means she doesn't have to schlep her daughter around anymore. "It's not the money, it's just that I don't want to," retorts Islam, balled up on a sofa, rapidly thumbing her iPhone. Besides, none of her friends drive.
"So it's not like I'm missing anything."
Ninety-six years before the first Facebook friending, a Model-T Ford rolled off the assembly line and allowed an American to connect with another American more efficiently than ever before. The love affair with cars was immediate and passionate. Even as pedestrians were killed or maimed by automobiles, North America paved the way for car culture with traffic signs, freeways and laws such as jaywalking that favoured steel over bone. As John Steinbeck wrote in Cannery Row, "Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris."
But that romance has chilled. Up until this summer, Detroit's Big Three saw U.S. sales decline for six years. At the same time, insurance premiums rose and, most dramatically, so have fuel prices. In 2002 it cost $72 to fill up Canada's most popular vehicle, a Ford F-150. Now it's $115. "Once a symbol of freedom and America's can-do spirit, the automobile has become for many a financial straitjacket that limits life options," reads Transportation and the New Generation, a report by the Frontier Group, a progressive U.S. think-tank. "The open road that once beckoned to an earlier generation of young people has been replaced by congested highways traversing a landscape of suburban sprawl."
Meanwhile, the other highway, the one paved with information, has become faster and cheaper to travel. Many of our former in-person interactions have been replaced by connections through the parlours in our pockets. But it's not just a boon to our relationships. Social media allows for a novel sense of freedom, privacy and self-expression that Henry Ford couldn't dream up. Aboutaha's iPhone is her third place.
"People are connecting in different ways," says Calgary senior urban planner Rollin Stanley. "I sit there looking at my 16-year-old stepson; he couldn't lift his head from the iPad long enough to steer a car in the right direction."
As general manager of planning, development and assessment, Stanley oversees the city's urban development, which historically has been planned for the ease of drivers and the newer residences they live in. Some have criticized him for championing policies that are at odds with suburban life, but he calls it smart growth, a philosophy that puts density, the environment and long-term planning first.
Three-quarters of Calgarians still commute to work by automobile, according to Statistics Canada, but since 2001 public-transit ridership has grown by half. Downtown bike commuting has increased by one-fifth in the past year alone. The population boom is partly responsible—and one need only experience Deerfoot Trail's daily gridlock to know that—but it's also because alternative transportation is less intimidating. The city has designated more lanes for bikes and invested more in public transit, while Google Maps and other apps make trip planning for these alternative commuters a cinch.
Smart phones are also a handy time-killer for passengers on said transit, but in the hands of someone driving a vehicle, the ubiquitous cellphone is just a killer. Reza Safai, a driving instructor for longer than most of his students have lived, says that after decades of being the primary cause of car collisions, speeding has taken the backseat to human error (read: distracted driving; reread: texting). "When I started driving the atmosphere was completely different," Safai says. (Click here it read A Driver Instructor's Harrowing Tales.)In his opinion, this generation just doesn't value driving. But what, if not the joys that come with a set of car keys, does matter to them?
All week Chris Doleman has been waking up at 5 a.m. to catch two city buses and then a Greyhound to High River for flood-relief work. With the travel there and back, he's lucky to get five hours of sleep. But today is his day off and he's going to enjoy it. He strides through his inner-city neighbourhood to the retail pleasures of Marda Loop, drops a couple of Woody Allen movies in the Casablanca Video slot and heads to Phil & Sebastian's for two bags of beans and a bottle of cold-brewed coffee. The total is $42. "That would last my dad six months," he says. "But I wouldn't be buying craft coffee if I was driving. I'd be at a Tim Hortons drive-thru, blocking the road."
Doleman grew up in Fort McMurray, surrounded by half-ton trucks and an economy built on the energy that fuels them. On commutes to his job at Taco Time, it dawned on him that, at 17, he was the oldest one on the bus. It seemed everyone his age drove but him.
"A lot of kids put on skates and it feels really unnatural to them," he explains. "To me, driving didn't feel like a natural extension of my body."
At University of Alberta, where he completed his bachelor's degree, he discovered Edmonton's pedestrian-oriented urban communities, so he prolonged not driving a little more. Tuition left him too cash-strapped to seriously consider it anyway. The only cost to spike as dramatically as gas prices might be a university education, which on average is $5,800 a year in Alberta, up from $1,551 when Doleman entered Grade 1. This is also what's driving almost half of 20-something Canadians to live with their parents. By skipping on having to pay rent, maybe they can afford tuition, or save money for a car. But for those who insist on living alone, like Doleman, a car only competes with their independence instead of enabling it.
Doleman recently completed a master's degree in economics. He hopes to become a "suit" some day soon and finally end those yawn-inducing commutes, instead riding 20 minutes by bus to one of the glass towers downtown. Still, Doleman sees himself much like his dad, middle-class, only Doleman's chosen to spend his money differently. He buys mostly organic groceries at Market 17, where his wife works, and they like to eat out together at trendy restaurants like Una Pizza + Wine or Ox and Angela. "These are luxuries we otherwise couldn't afford," he says. "It does suck to be tied to these bus schedules, but I feel like I'm not tied to a car and payments either."
For this cohort that's increasingly eschewing cars, it may all be about opportunity cost. This might mean higher education or eating out (Millennials eat out at upscale restaurants more than any other age group, even more than Generation Xers, the Food Network's prime demographic), but it also might mean paying premiums to live somewhere where everything one needs, including friends, is close by.
"I've always been more of an urban person," says Elysia Turner, a public-events programmer at the Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary. "I have no desire to live out in suburbia, where I'd be forced to drive." The 33-year-old grew up in Vancouver, lived in Europe, moved to Calgary for university, and now shares a home with her husband in Bankview. She walks 35 minutes to work, five minutes to her sister's and not much longer for friends and groceries. She got her licence at 16 because "that was the thing to do," but she's not sure why she keeps renewing it (or, for that matter, why she's allowed). Anyone can get around without a car, she says, so long as you tailor your life to it. That's the easy part. But tailoring a city to citizens like her is a different story.
Rollin Stanley loves cars.Once he owned five of them, including a '61 Alfa Romeo, a '67 Mercedes Benz and a '73 Camaro. He's now down to a Volvo station wagon and a motorbike. But the planner also knows that to a growing number of young people, cars are a thing of the past—or, perhaps, when they finally have kids, a thing of the future. Either way, he has to build a city for them, as they are now, Canada's youngest metropolitan work force.
Stanley says there are already some advantages for young non-drivers in Calgary. It's unusual to have an LRT system go so deep into new suburbs instead of just serving older neighbourhoods, for instance. And for those who are willing to drive a car, just not their own, there's the car-sharing service car2go. Since the Austin-based company introduced a fleet of 150 Smartcars in the summer of 2012, it's gained 35,000 local members and added another 250 vehicles to meet the demand. Calgary is now the fastest-growing car2go market in North America.
The Municipal Development Plan, adopted by city council in 2009, also espouses more density and improved transit. Currently, cycling makes up two per cent of all daily trips; in 50 years planners hope it will be 20 per cent. But Stanley is not naive and admits there's a long road ahead. Developers are still more gaga for greenfields than infills, and retailers continue to flock to big-box centres requiring vast parking lots. Taking away a car lane for bikes can bring out the worst in drivers who see it as an assault on their way of life. Re-appropriating a parking lane is no easier when it's adjacent to businesses.
"The other challenge is finding money to improve our pedestrian streetscapes," says Stanley. But it's not just sidewalks that are limited. There's no plan to replenish GreenTrip, Alberta's alternative transportation development fund endowed with a healthy $2 billion in 2010, once the tank is empty.
"Obviously, if you have fewer people driving and fewer kilometres driven on roads, you're likely not going to invest as much in roads in the future," says Alberta Transportation spokesperson Trent Bancarz. "But it's hard to predict what an 18-year-old who makes a decision today will decide in another 10 years." And, of course, the population boom across the province has only added wheels to the road—hundreds of thousands of them.
Stanley hopes that over the next generation, a substantial number of those drivers will decide instead to park it and ride public transit or bicycle instead. He sees no downside to this. It benefits the environment, drives the price of transit tickets down, decongests roads and adds to their longevity, too.
It's also good for the soul, he says.
"Cities with great public transit tend to have tremendous civic spirit, tremendous integration and more civic engagement. You see people of different ethnicities or income brackets, people who aren't as fortunate. It pulls communities together."
But are there also virtues to driving at a young age? Though I have, like many of my generation, extolled urbanism—purchased a condo close to downtown and become the kind of bike commuter you want to chuck your latte at—I can't pretend that the unique memories from that Chevy Blazer didn't colour my life richly and permanently. For me, it was my first taste of adulthood, spawning a strong sense of accountability, leadership and caution.
And, let's face it, people who absolve themselves of designated driving, grocery runs and putting time behind the wheel on long highway stretches are annoying. I don't know a single non-driver who passes up a ride when it's offered, or prefers a Greyhound to a road trip, or hasn't called a Class 5-carrying friend to help with moving, but few will ever admit to being a social burden to us, the schleppers.
If these Millennials finally come around to joining our car culture—and they very well could, as the number of 30-somethings getting their licences has grown over 20 years—they will only contribute to public safety.
"If you start driving later you're less likely to be in a crash," says Caird at the U of C. "There's more maturity and possibly less risk-taking."
That's good news for Turner, Doleman and Aboutaha, all of whom admit to a phobic, almost pathological fear of driving.
"What if you crash, what if you kill someone, what if you get killed?" worries Aboutaha at the thought of driving. Asked if she's gaining anything by avoiding it, she says dryly, "I'm still living."
These are not irrational fears. It's the No. 1 killer of people her age. And mine. In August, on the four-hour drive to my high-school reunion, I counted three people from my yearbook who'd been killed in an auto accident since we graduated.
In her teens, Elysia Turner competed in dressage, and would jump over hurdles on horseback. Driving, however, causes her such anxiety that she has recurring nightmares of having to drive a family member or loved one to the emergency room. But lately she's been looking at that little plastic card in her purse and scouting out car2go vehicles—which she thinks are "cute" and "manageable"—and has been thinking to herself, "Maybe it's about time."
Besides, not all of her nightmares end badly. Sometimes she gets to the hospital just fine.
Editor's Note:
Due to statistics supplied in error by Alberta Transportation, this article originally reported a 30 percent decline in the number of Calgarians aged 16-34 with driver's licences between 2001 and 2013.
Updated statistics show that the decline is seen only in relation to the total number of people in that demographic. So, while the number of people 16-34 with licences is increasing, it is not increasing at the same rate as the demographic itself. The decline in the proportion of drivers aged 16 to 24 with licences is 6.6 percent; of those aged 24 to 34, the decline is 15.8 percent.
The article has been changed to reflect these corrected statistics.


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RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, GERMANY -- In an effort to get families fit and to spend more quality time together, fitness professionals at the Kaiserslautern Military Community in Germany have created new fitness programming.
Renee Champagne, a personal trainer who has worked with kids for more than 16 years, created new classes at the Ramstein Youth Center and the Vogelweh Community Center. Classes include Core Conditioning for New Moms (for babies 6 weeks to 3 months old), Mommy and Me Fit and Yoga (for kids 2 to 4 years old), Sunshine Class (for children with special needs from 6 to 12 years old), Yoga Fitness (for kids 8 to 12 years old), and Teen Core Conditioning (for kids 12 to 18 years old).
Champagne says fitness classes involving parents and children are important because participants are able to spend quality time together, fit in a workout and have fun.
"The kids follow their parents' lead," Champagne says. "If we are rolling around on the ground, the parents need to be rolling on the ground with us."
In all her classes, Champagne mixes fitness activities with games and skills. Games are especially important in the classes for children with special needs. From catching and throwing a foam ball to shirt-buttoning relays, children are working on their motor skills, getting exercise and having fun at the same time, she says.
The bonding experience in the classes can start as early as 6 weeks old. For example, the core conditioning class gives new mothers the chance to bond with their child while focusing on core conditioning. The class includes floor exercises and other safe and effective ways to exercise with a newborn.
"These classes create a bonding time between children and their parents, lower stress, encourage fitness and a healthy lifestyle, and most importantly, they are fun," she said.

subset: commoncrawl


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The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) is a network of experts who provide knowledge and advice on species and a wide range of conservation issues. Recently, the IUCN SSC Horseshoe Crab Specialist Group proved how successful this network can be at influencing conservation action by leading an intervention that has led to an import ban on Asian horseshoe crabs destined to be bait in the USA.
After being informed that horseshoe crabs were being imported into the USA for use as bait in the eel and whelk (conch) fishing industry, the IUCN SSC Horseshoe Crab Specialist Group contacted various US Federal and State Agencies to convey their concerns. In a letter they highlighted the risks importing the crabs pose such as the introduction of harmful invasive parasites or diseases into the American marine environment, the detrimental impact of the trade on Asian horseshoe population numbers and the potential risk to human health should the horseshoe crabs be sold for human consumption.
The situation also highlighted the lack of laws or regulations prohibiting the export of horseshoe crabs from Asia and lack of restrictions for their import into the USA. In their letter, the Specialist Group referred to various IUCN guidelines and policies in order to emphasize the need for risk assessments prior to import that analyze the impact of introducing non-native animals and diseases and identify the potential hazards, something that was not done before the import of Asian horseshoe crabs into the USA began.
Although Asian horseshoe crabs are not alive when placed into the marine environment of US Atlantic waters, the IUCN SSC Horseshoe Crab Specialist Group expressed their concern that parasites, pathogens or non-native, invasive species introduced via the Asian horseshoe crabs could have a detrimental effect on American horseshoe crab populations. Furthermore, any impact on the native horseshoe populations could have knock on effects on other species dependent on the horseshoe crab or their eggs, such as shorebirds, including the Red Knot (Calidris canutus).
The IUCN SSC Horseshoe Specialist Group is currently revising the IUCN Red List Assessment for the three Asian species of horseshoe crab, (Tachypleus tridentatus, Tachypleus gigas and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda) which are currently listed as Data Deficient. Based on available evidence, the Specialist Group believe that many populations of Asian horseshoe crabs have experienced serious declines and any incentive to export horseshoe crabs to the USA could lead to further population declines.
The actions of the IUCN SSC Horseshoe Specialist Group initiated a rapid response from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) who adopted the resolution to ban the import and use of Asian horseshoe crabs as bait. In doing so, the IUCN SSC Horseshoe Crab Specialist Group have highlighted how the IUCN SSC can play a pivotal role in addressing complex and controversial conservation issues and bring about measures that protect populations of threatened species.
For more information please contact:
Camellia Williams, IUCN Species Programme Communications, IUCN, t +41 22 999 0154, e email@example.com


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Tag / design
Beyond Objects
In the past week, I was given the opportunity to share at the 10th Anniversary of the Osaka Design Forum organised by the Osaka University of Arts and had the chance to…24 May 2016
About Us
Supermama is a little Singapore gallery store founded by Mei Ling and Edwin.
Here, we collect and create meaningful objects, and hope to engage every consumer as an individual, curating a space to allow each to slow down.
We work closely with some of the best designers and crafts facilities to produce authentic souvenirs and design pieces.
With direct partnerships with multi-generational Japanese crafts facilities (in metal smithing, porcelain making, woodcrafting, glass blowing etc.), we regularly present some of the finest design collection in Singapore and Tokyo.
Store Locations
Supermama Flagship Store
265 Beach Rd, Singapore 199544
11am – 8pm Daily


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Bisbee Deportation Legal Papers and Exhibits
Collection contains photostats of legal papers and exhibits pertaining to the suit of the State of Arizona vs. Harry Waters, and the suit of Michael Simmons vs. the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad Company et al. in the Superior Court of Cochise County. ...
castanoe - 2014-03-10 14:20
The Truth About Bisbee
Typescript account compiled from legal evidence and other authenticated documents concerning the I.W.W. deportation on July 12, 1917, from Bisbee, Ariz. and its aftermath. Includes text of a letter to Robert Jay from Joseph P. Hodgson, Manager at Phelps ...
castanoe - 2016-01-20 09:05
Minutes of Meetings of the Bricklayers, Masons, and Plasterers International Union of America
The collection includes holograph record book of minutes and accounts of monthly meetings of Local 2, Douglas, Ariz. Included materials: Manuscript Subject Area: Labor Collection Area: Arizona & Southwest 1912 to 1935 Number: AZ 138 ...
castanoe - 2016-01-27 08:41
Roll Book of the Tucson Central Trades Council
Roll call for weekly meetings; lists unions and their representatives at the meetings, including barbers, bricklayers, boilermakers, carpenters, culinary workers, lathers, musicians, painters, printers, pressmen, signalmen, post office clerks, and others. ...
castanoe - 2016-02-04 09:35
Harry J. Blacklidge Papers
Harry Blacklidge was a carpenter. As a member of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in America, Local No. 857, he served as chairman of various committees. The collection includes letters, work cards, two photographs, newspaper clippings, ...
castanoe - 2014-03-10 14:31
Collection of the Arizona Ecumenical Council, Truth Squad Committee
This collection consists of photocopies of reports, correspondence, memos, clippings and pamphlets relating to the work of the Truth Squad Committee. Included is the data collected and reports compiled from that data, supporting materials used and ...
castanoe - 2014-03-10 17:30
Russell Lee Photograph Collection
The majority of the photographs in this collection were taken at a time when Russell Lee was actively photographing for the FSA. ...
castanoe - 2014-03-11 08:51
Political Pamphlets collected by Vincent Longo
Political Pamphlets collected by Vincent Longo contains a variety of pamphlets, serial underground magazines and publications distributed chiefly by the Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action, Fourth International / Fourth Internationalist Tendency and ...
Molly Stothert-... - 2017-06-21 15:07
American Association of University Professors, University of Arizona Chapter printed materials
Minutes, reports, newsletters, correspondence, and chapter letters concerning American Association of University Professors (A.A.U.P.), University of Arizona Chapter business and labor concerns of university professors mostly in the 1950s and 1960s. ...
Molly Stothert-... - 2018-11-20 11:56


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Here's hoping the Force is strong with this bit of news.
While giving an interview with Palm Beach Illustrated, Carrie Fisher was asked point-blank if she could confirm that she would be reprising her role as Princess Leia in the seventh Star Wars film.
"Yes," the actress said matter-of-factly.
U.S. & World
Sounds like a confirmation, right?
Of course, Fisher did joke (we assume) about what Leia would be like today, saying with a laugh, "Elderly. She's in an intergalactic old folks' home. I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle."
What's more, she added that her character's fashion sense hasn't changed much, noting that Leia's still wearing "the bagel buns and the bikini, because probably she has sundowners syndrome. At sundown, she think that she's twentysomething. And she put it on and gets institutionalized."
As for whether Fisher will indeed be costarring in the next installment or was simply playing with the media, time will tell. Right now, it's her word against, well, nobody's, as there's been no official comment yet from her rep or the studio.


text: Jason Tyler Grace, On the Road in Thailand: Part IV A while ago at a convention I bought a shirt off of Permanent Mark that had a rad tiger design on it from Thailand, but the shirt was too big for me. While I was in Peru last year I cut it out and sewed it on the back of a flannel, which I brought with me, but it got stolen. So I was excited to come and find that design out here. I met a real cool, old Thai dude that drives a tuk tuk around Attuhaya, giving tourists trips to see the awe-inspiring Wats (temples) that are strewn about the city, which were erected there around 700 years ago. I met him on the first day and he showed me his tattoos. I told him I was looking for a tiger design, he lifted his shirt and showed me his sternum. It was like I found my Thai uncle. He set me up with a friend of his that knew a bunch of tattooers working in temples and other spots. The next day I was off to hunt down the design and get it, if the vibe was right. We rode in his friend's tiny tuk tuk, with the engine between the two of us –hot as the devils cleft foot. I was really hung-over and my mind and my stomach were revolting against me. We looked at each other trying to communicate but it was worthless. All we could do was smile and nod to one another. He took me to a Buddhist temple, with a couple of buildings spread around the compound. We took our shoes off, opened the gate and walked up the stairs. A golden statue stood at the entrance covered in incense and flowers and he was holding old tattoo tools. There were four Monks in their orange robes, all tattooing, sitting Indian-style –using long rods with the needles at the end. The client also sat Indian-style leaning forward on a triangular pillow. They were using toilet paper to wipe with and smoking cigarettes with their inky black hands. No gloves. I looked and saw they were using ink caps. It was incredibly quiet, with maybe eight or nine people sitting waiting their turn or giving support to their friends. The monks paid me no mind as I sat down to look at the books. My tuk tuk driver spoke to them, telling them that I wanted a tiger. I looked through and they did have some tiger designs, one of which I came close to getting but it wasn't the one I was looking for –and it was hard to find a spot for it to fit –they kept suggesting I just put it over my Grime back-piece. All the time, as tattooers, we have people coming and asking us, "What's that mean and what's this mean?" But with American tattoos we really don't have much meaning to our designs. They look good and strong and that's enough. Looking at the Thai designs though, I knew they were steeped in meaning and I couldn't bring myself to pick one without knowing something about it. Unfortunately, no one there spoke English, so it was a bust. One kid was just finishing up getting his tattoo done and I asked to take a look, it was done well. All of it just made of little dots. Stippletastic. Other than his new one, the rest of his back looked great –he had THE tiger I was after! It was so good. I got some photos of his work and left for the next place… Little yapping dogs barked their little yapping heads off as we pulled into the dirt road entrance of the next spot. This was a different kind of place. It looked more like a house. Again we took off our shoes and walked up some stairs to a large room where two men were working in the same style as the monks. But these guys weren't monks and those little dogs were everywhere. Neither of the men looked up as we walked in. On the right side was a Thai man getting something on his back and on the left was a dude from Russia getting his back done as well. This place was heavy, the same as the last, very quiet –after the dogs shut-up. It felt almost as if I was intruding… It reminded me of what a tattoo shop was like for me as a kid. I sat down and looked at this book of designs, which had English definitions –the designs all have different meanings. The majority of which seem to provide the wearer with some form of protection from sharp, and or, blunt objects –protection from catastrophic events etc… Some also offer blessings such as good will from strangers and financial good luck. Without intruding too much I managed to get a peak at this guy at work, he was also smoking and using toilet paper to wipe with, which he would pick up off of the floor. He was just dipping his point into an ink bottle, no ink caps. I was close to getting one with this guy –he didn't have the tiger but some of the other designs were very good. When I walked over to talk to him, one of the dogs nipped at my heel and growled. He laughed. I sat next to him and asked if he would show me his tool, it was two pieces of steel with an opening dividing them in half, running along the center the reservoir for the ink, there were no needles. Then the dog bit my back and my hangover crept over me like a storm cloud, I thought of Greg Irons. I thanked him and left. I also visited the electric tattoo shop in town. A girl from the guesthouse brought me –it was like time travel. The dude had been tattooing 20-years, you could see he loved it. He was wearing short cut off jean shorts with rock 'n roll patches sewn all over them and had a full set of gold front teeth, he had a "HEAVY METAL" tattoo on his shoulder. It was a small shop with photos covering all of the walls. There were clippings of old magazine articles with photos from Tattoomania, Sunset Strip, Purple Panther (the Hollywood shops) –and the pages were sun bleached. Every square inch of wall space was covered with flash or photos or skulls –tons of skulls –all sorts of animal skulls and horns everywhere. Through the girl, and with some traveler's sign language I asked if I could see his machines. He brought a key out of his pocket and opened up a little cupboard beneath his workstation. Inside there were five machines, with tubes already in them. Thin tubes. He grabbed a Spaulding and Rogers machine and showed it to me. I grabbed the obviously dirty tube and checked the contact gap –there was no throw at all on that thing. He was just changing the needles and using the same tube on everyone, rinsing it out after. The tunes might have well been welded into the tube vice. The girl that brought me to the shop got a tribal piece touched up. He set-up on his workstation (a wooden desk) with no plastic wrap or paper towels or anything… He started to tattoo –the busted capacitor produced a nice blue spark. He grabbed the lamp to adjust it and I heard his hand stick to it. I could hear the latex remove itself from all of the old Vaseline, blood and ink. It sounded like earwax. Gnarkill, but no matter how gnarly it was, it was still amazing. I would never get tattooed there. Ever. But the people there have no other options. They can get what they can get, maybe they are stronger than us or impervious to Hep –ignorance is bliss. Thanks for reading -JTG From the border of Laos and Thailand Feb 2011 (Jason Tyler Grace is a contributing blogger for Tattoo Artist Magazine. He can currently be found traveling the world and sometimes at Idle Hand Tattoo in San Fransisco, CA.)


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How does Google work? Here is a short version and a long version.
Google gets information from many different sources, including:
- Web pages,
- User-submitted content such as Google My Business and Maps user submissions,
- Book scanning,
- Public databases on the Internet,
- and many other sources.
However, this page focuses on web pages.
The short version
Google follows three basic steps to generate results from web pages:
The first step is finding out what pages exist on the web. There isn't a central registry of all web pages, so Google must constantly search for new pages and add them to its list of known pages. This process of discovery is called crawling.
Some pages are known because Google has already crawled them before. Other pages are discovered when Google follows a link from a known page to a new page. Still other pages are discovered when a website owner submits a list of pages (a sitemap) for Google to crawl. If you're using a managed web host, such as Wix or Blogger, they might tell Google to crawl any updated or new pages that you make.
To improve your site crawling:
- For changes to a single page, you can submit an individual URL to Google.
- Get your page linked to by another page that Google already knows about. However, be warned that links in advertisements, links that you pay for in other sites, links in comments, or other links that don't follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines won't be followed.
- If you ask Google to crawl only one page, make it your home page. Your home page is the most important page on your site, as far as Google is concerned. To encourage a complete site crawl, be sure that your home page (and all pages) contain a good site navigation system that links to all the important sections and pages on your site; this helps users (and Google) find their way around your site.
After a page is discovered, Google tries to understand what the page is about. This process is called indexing. Google analyzes the content of the page, catalogs images and video files embedded on the page, and otherwise tries to understand the page. This information is stored in the Google index, a huge database stored in many, many (many!) computers.
To improve your page indexing:
- Create short, meaningful page titles.
- Use page headings that convey the subject of the page.
- Use text rather than images to convey content. (Google can understand some image and video, but not as well as it can understand text. At minimum, annotate your video and images with alt text and other attributes as appropriate.)
Serving (and ranking)
When a user types a query, Google tries to find the most relevant answer from its index based on many factors. Google tries to determine the highest quality answers, and factor in other considerations that will provide the best user experience and most appropriate answer, by considering things such as the user's location, language, and device (desktop or phone). For example, searching for "bicycle repair shops" would show different answers to a user in Paris than it would to a user in Hong Kong. Google doesn't accept payment to rank pages higher, and ranking is done programmatically.
To improve your serving and ranking:
- Make your page fast to load, and mobile-friendly.
- Put useful content on your page and keep it up to date.
- Follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines, which help ensure a good user experience.
- Read more tips and best practices in our SEO starter guide.
- You can find more information here, including the guidelines that we provide to our quality raters to ensure that we're providing good results
The long version
Want more information? Here it is:
Crawling is the process by which Googlebot discovers new and updated pages to be added to the Google index.
We use a huge set of computers to fetch (or "crawl") billions of pages on the web. The program that does the fetching is called Googlebot (also known as a robot, bot, or spider). Googlebot uses an algorithmic process: computer programs determine which sites to crawl, how often, and how many pages to fetch from each site.
Google's crawl process begins with a list of web page URLs, generated from previous crawl processes, and augmented with Sitemap data provided by webmasters. As Googlebot visits each of these websites it detects links on each page and adds them to its list of pages to crawl. New sites, changes to existing sites, and dead links are noted and used to update the Google index.
How does Google find a page?
Google uses many techniques to find a page, including:
- Following links from other sites or pages
- Reading sitemaps
How does Google know which pages not to crawl?
- Pages blocked in robots.txt won't be crawled, but still might be indexed if linked to by another page. (Google can infer the content of the page by a link pointing to it, and index the page without parsing its contents.)
- Google can't crawl any pages not accessible by an anonymous user. Thus, any login or other authorization protection will prevent a page from being crawled.
- Pages that have already been crawled and are considered duplicates of another page, are crawled less frequently.
Improve your crawling
Use these techniques to help Google discover the right pages on your site:
- Submit a sitemap.
- Submit crawl requests for individual pages
- Use a simple, human-readable, and logical URL paths for your pages and provide clear and direct internal links within the site.
- If you use URL parameters on your site for navigation, for instance if you indicate the user's country in a global shopping site, use the URL parameters tool to tell Google about important parameters.
- Use robots.txt wisely: Use robots.txt to indicate to Google which pages you'd prefer Google to know about or crawl first, in order to protect your server load, not as a method to block material from appearing in the Google index.
- Use hreflang to point to alternate language pages.
- Clearly identify your canonical page and alternate pages.
- View your crawl and index coverage using the Index Coverage Report
Googlebot processes each of the pages it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page. In addition, we process information included in key content tags and attributes, such as
<title> tags and alt attributes. Googlebot can process many, but not all, content types. For example, we cannot process the content of some rich media files.
Somewhere between crawling and indexing, Google determines if a page is a duplicate or canonical of another page. If the page is considered a duplicate, it will be crawled much less frequently.
Note that Google doesn't index pages with a noindex directive (header or tag). However, it must be able to see the directive; if the page his blocked by a robots.txt file, a login page, or other device, it is possible that the page might be indexed even if Google didn't visit it!
Improve your indexing
There are many techniques to improve Google's ability to understand the content of your page:
- Prevent Google from crawling or finding pages that you want to hide using noindex. Do not "noindex" a page that is blocked by robots.txt; if you do so, the noindex won't be seen and the page might still be indexed.
- Use structured data.
- Follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
- Read our SEO guide for more tips.
Serving results
When a user enters a query, our machines search the index for matching pages and return the results we believe are the most relevant to the user. Relevancy is determined by over 200 factors, and we always work on improving our algorithm. Google considers the user experience in choosing and ranking results, so be sure that your page loads fast and is mobile-friendly.
Improving your serving
- If your results are aimed at users in specific locations or languages, you can tell Google your preferences.
- Be sure that your page loads fast and is mobile-friendly.
- Follow the Webmaster Guidelines to avoid common pitfalls and improve your site's ranking.
- Consider implementing Search result features for your site, such as recipe cards or article cards.
- Implement AMP for faster loading pages on mobile devices. Some AMP pages are also eligible for additional search features, such as the top stories carousel.
- Google's algorithm is constantly being improved; rather than trying to guess the algorithm and design your page for that, work on creating good, fresh content that users want, and following our guidelines.
An even longer version
You can find an even longer version about how Google Search works here (with pictures and video!)


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The vessel, named Vidar, is being built in the Polish Crist shipyard in Gdansk, where its larger sister ship Innovation is currently being fitted out prior to assignment to the Global Tech I wind farm. It will start operating in 2013, and be used for both the company's own offshore construction contracts and for external contract work.
Vidar's main features will be a 1,200 tonne crane and a loading capacity of 6,500 tonnes. It will have a top speed of 12 knots and will be able to operate in water depths of up to 50-metres.
The new vessel has been financed by a group of backers including Santander Bank and KfW IPEX Bank, the latter being one of the world's largest ship financiers.
Hochtief Offshore is a joint venture between construction company Hochtief and venture capitalist Ventizz Capital. The JV has JV ownership of five North Sea wind projects, which it is developing with a view to selling on for construction.
Hochtief Offshore also operates two further jack-up platforms, Odin and Thor.


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Our Vision: Lifelong Learning
Our vision for education is easy to embrace. We help every student develop his or her unique gifts using a proven, holistic approach. Waldorf students become independent, creative thinkers who can act with a sense of responsibility and compassion.
Mission Statement
The mission of Waldorf School at Moraine Farm is to help students discover and develop their individual capacities so that they can fully engage in the world and contribute meaningfully to society. We aim to cultivate clarity of thinking, compassion and moral strength, and purposeful action in our students.
Our educational approach is founded on the time-tested insights into human development applied by Waldorf schools throughout the world. We integrate a rich, age-appropriate curriculum in the humanities, math and science, with music, visual and practical arts and movement. We work to make lessons active, filled with imagination and connected with practical life. We recognize that the heart of education is the relationship between teacher and students, which grows and changes to meet the distinct developmental stages of the child.
Building community is also vital to our mission. Faculty, parents, alumni, and friends collaborate to tend and grow the school, modeling the lifelong learning, fruitful cooperation and purposeful work we aim to develop in our students.
Annual Report
To view our Board of Directors please see our current annual report.
Our Home: Moraine Farm
The nearly 200 acres of Moraine Farm include meadows, woodlands, formal gardens and farmland. Visitors who walk the carriage roads are rewarded with sweeping vistas of Wenham Lake, acres of open meadows, woodlands and access to the J.C. Phillips Nature Preserve. The property is also home to Project Adventure, and to the Moraine Farm CSA, owned by The Trustees of Reservations.
For help getting here, please visit our Directions page.
Our History
Waldorf School at Moraine Farm was founded in 1986 as the Cape Ann Waldorf School in Gloucester, MA. In 2010 we moved to our current, permanent location on 10 acres of the historic Moraine Farm property in Beverly. Today we are a vibrant, growing school, serving students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade.
Our Community is Local and Global
We are one of 121 Waldorf schools in the United States and nearly 1,000 Waldorf schools worldwide. Waldorf Education is truly global in its scope and its approach. The curriculum cultivates a deep appreciation for cultural traditions from around the world, while being deeply rooted in its local culture and context.
A Holistic Education
Waldorf Education is time-tested and proven. We are not buffeted about by the latest educational fad or testing regime. Our holistic approach helps students to grow and flourish intellectually, emotionally and socially.
Lots of Outdoor Learning
Waldorf students are not afraid to get their hands dirty. Our love for the outdoors is shared by both students and parents. We ensure that every school day, regardless of the weather, includes plenty of outdoor time for exploration and imagination.
A Reverence for Nature
Exploring the grounds of the Moraine Farm property brings new surprises every day. Our students never tire of the beauty that surrounds them and with our new outdoor science and nature curriculum, they have daily opportunities to gain a better understanding of their world.
Choose Waldorf Moraine
When you choose Waldorf School at Moraine Farm, you're choosing a warm, nurturing and richly rewarding experience for your child. You're choosing a school where they are allowed the time and space that they need to learn, in an unhurried, unstandardized environment.


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Orange for Animal Cruelty Awareness wants to
Justice for Cabela.. Skamania County Sheriff's (http://skamaniasheriff.com/) deputies arrived to the home of
Justice for Cabela.. Skamania County Sheriff's deputies arrived to the home of 45-year-old Christopher Dillingham, who operates Thundershack Fireworks, after 911 calls came in about an explosion of some sort. According to Oregon Live, when deputies responded to Dillingham's property, they found the body of the dog, whose head had been blown off. Dellingham is said to have told the authorities…
Bringing awareness to the world of the need to end animal cruelty.


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Sweden's EU Presidency
Posted by jonathanfryer on Monday, 6th July, 2009
The first full working week of the Swedish EU presidency starts today, with an informal meeting of health ministers from the 27 member states and a visit to Stockholm by the leaders of the different political groups in the European Parliament, the outgoing President of the Parliament, Hans-Gert Potttering and 40 other Euro-parliamentary representatives. The Conference of Presidents — as the collective of group leaders is known in rather ponderous Euro-jargon — is having meetings with the Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, and the Speaker of the Riksdag (Parliament), Per Westerberg, to discuss the Swedish presidency's priorities. As the Lisbon Treaty is in limbo, awaiting the rerun of the Irish referendum, the EU is still operating under a six-month rotating presidency — an absurd system which is nonetheless in tried and safe hands with the Swedes.
Interestingly, the Swedish presidency's priorities mirror exactly the main themes on which the British Liberal Democrats campaigned in last month's Euro-elections: closer 'horizontal' cooeration across the EU to emerge stronger from the economic recession, joint action to tackle climate change and other environmental challenges, and enhancing cooperation to promote security while protecting human rights and individual freedoms. On the last of these three goals, the Swedish government has declared, 'The EU must continue to develop towards a more secure and open Europe. The Presidency wants to develop cooperation across borders to protect democratic values and the rights of individuals, and to meet the challenge facing Europe. Joint efforts are necessary to combat international crime. The EU needs to establish a more efficient asylum and migration policy. The Presidency aims to develop cooperati0n in the field of justice and home affairs via the Stockholm Programme which will be adopted in the autumn.' Watch this space!
Link: www.se2009.eu
One Response to "Sweden's EU Presidency"
Tuesday, 7th July, 2009 at 7:55 pm
[…] blogs on the Swedish Presidency: European Tribune, Gerald Loftus, Jonathan Fryer, La Oreja de Europa, Margot Wallström, Reuters Global News Blog, Tony […]


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Samoa v Nambia, Rugby World Cup, September 14
Samoa set for blast off
ESPNscrum Staff
September 13, 2011
Fuimaono-Sapolu led the celebrations as Samoa beat Australia in July © Getty Images
Samoa will launch their Rugby World Cup campaign against Namibia at the Rotorua International Stadium on Wednesday.
After the lull of a late start to their World Cup, Samoa have a hectic schedule with a crucial match-up against Wales on Sunday following their opening game against Namibia. But coach Dickie Taufa is refusing to be distracted by the looming Welsh Dragon and has named a full strength team to face the Welwitschias - the same team that claimed a famous 32-23 win over Australia in July.
Namibia, who are still looking for their first Rugby World Cup win, began this campaign with a 49-25 defeat to Fiji on Saturday. The Welwitschias struggled to live with the pace and power of Fiji after staying in contention in the early stages thanks to the boot of Theuns Kotze. Namibia coach Johan Diergaardt has opted to bulk-up his side forward and inject pace into the backs for the threat of Samoa.
Samoa - Player to Watch: Seilala Mapusua is preferred to the talented Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu at inside centre and the abrasive but skilful centre has the ability to blast over the gainline as well as unleash the pace of the wide men.
Samoa - Team News: Coach Dickie Taufa names the same team that defeated Australia in July with Leicester Tigers' Alesana Tuilagi and London Irish's Sailosi Tagicakibau lining up on the wings. They are joined in the back three by former Sale Sharks fullback Paul Williams. London Wasps prop Zak Taulafo packs down alongside captain Mahonri Schwalger and Anthony Perenise in the front row while club-mate Dan Leo is in the second-row with Kane Thompson and Ospreys signing George Stowers is at No.8. Gloucester centre Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu can only find a place on the bench alongside Toulouse's Census Johnston.
Namibia - Player to Watch: Predictably Namibia captain and Saracens flanker Jacques Burger was his side's top tackler against Fiji and he will once again have to get through a mountain of work with Samoa boasting dangerous strike runners throughout their side.
Namibia - Team News: Second-row Nico Esterhuyse drops to the bench as Henk Franken comes in for his first cap while flanker Tinus du Plessis and wing Conrad Marais are dropped from the side. Jacques Nieuwenhuis shifts from No.8 to flanker and Llewellyn Winkler moves from the bench into the starting side. PJ van Lill will wear the No.8 jumper and TC Losper has been named on the bench.
Key Battle: Namibia fly-half Theuns Kotze kicked with great accomplishment against Fiji - landing two penalties and three drop goals and finding distance and accuracy in his punting - and he will look to pin Samoa's dangerous runners back in their own half. While opposite number Tusi Pisi is certain to take up a more aggressive, front foot approach.
Trivia: Kotze became only the fourth player to drop three goals in a Rugby World Cup match against Fiji - following in the footsteps of Jonny Wilkinson, Jannie De Beer and Juan Martin Hernandez.
Stats: Alesana Tuilagi is fifth on Samoa all-time top try scorers list with 12 touch downs in 22 matches - still 17 short of Samoa legend Brian Lima.
Quote Unquote:
"He's a monster and he's got a bit of speed. He's quite brainy, too, and rugby-smart. You just give him the ball and let him do his thing," - Samoa scrum-half Kahn Fotuali'i predicts a big performance from Alesana Tuilagi
"The No.8 (van Lill) that is in now is an excellent ball carrier, and the wing (Winkler) he brought in is really quick and can use his speed. On the kick chases we want to pressurise Samoa." - Namibia coach Johan Diergaardt reveals the reasons for his selection changes
Prediction: Samoa to kick-start their World Cup campaign with a ruthless showing against Namibia and set up a mouth-watering clash with a Welsh side wounded by defeat to South Africa in their opening match.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Communication error please reload the page.


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PLAY FUTURAMA: WORLDS OF TOMORROW to find out!
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Download the game and embark on the all-new adventure imagined and written by David X. Cohen and Matt Groening! New worlds, strange species, and unforgettable stories are all waiting for you!
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playfuturama/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/playfuturama
Futurama: Worlds Of Tomorrow is free to download and play, however some game items can also be purchased for real money. If you do not want to use this feature, please setup password protection for purchases in your settings.
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A device which could restore sight to patients with one of the most common causes of blindness in the developed world is being developed in an international partnership.
Researchers from the University of Strathclyde and Stanford University in California are creating a prosthetic retina for patients of age related macular degeneration (AMD), which affects one in 500 patients aged between 55 and 64 and one in eight aged over 85.
The device would be simpler in design and operation than existing models. It acts by electrically stimulating neurons in the retina, which are left relatively unscathed by the effects of AMD while other 'image capturing' cells, known as photoreceptors, are lost.
It would use video goggles to deliver energy and images directly to the eye and be operated remotely via pulsed near infra-red light- unlike most prosthetic retinas, which are powered through coils that require complex surgery to be implanted.
The prosthetic retina is a thin silicon device that converts pulsed near infra-red light to electrical current that stimulates the retina and elicits visual perception. It requires no wires and would make surgical implantation simpler. The device has been shown to produce encouraging responses in initial lab tests and is reported in an article published in Nature Photonics. The technology is now being developed further.
Dr Keith Mathieson, now a Reader in the Institute of Photonics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, was one of the lead researchers and first author of the paper. He said: "AMD is a huge medical challenge and, with an aging population, is continuing to grow. This means that innovative, practical solutions are essential if sight is to be restored to people around the world with the condition.
"The prosthetic retina we are developing has been partly inspired by cochlear implants for the ear but with a camera instead of a microphone and, where many cochlear implants have a few channels, we are designing the retina to deal with millions of light sensitive nerve cells and sensory outputs.
"The implant is thin and wireless and so is easier to implant. Since it receives information on the visual scene through an infra-red beam projected through the eye, the device can take advantage of natural eye movements that play a crucial role in visual processing."
The research was co-authored by Dr. Jim Loudin of Stanford and led by Professor Daniel Palanker, also of Stanford, and Professor Alexander Sher, of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Professor Palanker said: "The current implants are very bulky, and the surgery to place the intraocular wiring for receiving, processing and power is difficult. With our device, the surgeon needs only to create a small pocket beneath the retina and then slip the photovoltaic cells inside it."
Dr Mathieson was supported through a fellowship from SU2P, a venture between academic institutions in Scotland and California aimed at extracting economic impact from their joint research portfolio in photonics and related technologies.
Strathclyde leads the collaboration, which also includes Stanford, the Universities of St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Glasgow and the California Institute of Technology. SU2P was established through funding from Research Councils UK- as part of its Science Bridges awards- the Scottish Funding Council and Scottish Enterprise.
The research links to Photonics and Health Technologies at Strathclyde- two of the principal themes of the University's Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC), a world-leading research and technology centre transforming the way universities, business, and industry collaborate.
Through Health Technologies at Strathclyde, academics work with industry and the health sector to find technologies for earlier, more accurate disease detection and better treatments, as well as life-long disease prevention.
The article in Nature Photonics can be seen at http://www.


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By: Brett Dickinson and Barry Kamen
The 2014 trade deadline will likely go down as one of the most exciting days of all time. Two aces changed addresses, World Series champions were shipped out and All-Stars were sent to other sides of pennant races. So after the dust has settled, the standings have not changed but the strongest teams in the AL have just gotten that much stronger. In the end, if the Orioles do keep up the pace and make the playoffs, they will see one of these stacked rosters come October at some point. So which team made the moves that might push ahead of the likes of Baltimore and into a World Series? Which team should the Orioles fear the most in the AL now?
Detroit Tigers (Brett)
Well it may have been one of the final trades of the day, but the Tigers made the biggest splash for the biggest commodity. Finishing off the day by acquiring former Cy Young Award winner David Price certainly fills the mantra "saving the best for last." As a team that already has two other Cy Young winners in Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, and a legit front of the line starter in Anibal Sanchez, Price may be better than all of them.
Could the Orioles have made an comparable offer to get an ace from the Tampa Bay Rays? The likes of Chris Davis and a combination of a young pitcher (Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy or Hunter Harvey) may have been enough for a deal. But Baltimore obviously was not willing to part ways with key pieces of their future. And the Rays likely did not want to deal within the division either.
Though the Tigers had to give up their everyday centerfielder in Austin Jackson (along with young starting pitcher Drew Smyly and shortstop prospect Willy Adames), they have plenty of fire power left in their lineup with All-World hitter (and two time MVP) first baseman Miguel Cabrera, along with All-Stars designated hitter Victor Martinez and second baseman Ian Kinsler. Oh by the way, almost half their roster has World Series experience to help guide them through a tough series in October. And if they can bank on their starters to keep them in the game through 7th,8th or even 9th inning, anyone would pick Cabrera (and company) to come through with enough runs to handle their playoff competition.
The biggest question with this team is the back end of their bullpen, which they addressed by acquiring closer Joakim Soria from the Texas Rangers a couple weeks ago. Detroit is certainly a complete team, that made the extra effort on July 31st to get over the hump. With the most decorated starting rotation in league history, any team should have some fears heading into a seven game series.
Oakland Athletics (Barry)
It is often said that in the playoffs, good pitching beats good hitting. After acquiring Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel in a mid-July deal, as well as former Red Sox ace Jon Lester at the trade deadline, the Oakland Athletics firmly believe in this philosophy. The trade involving Lester and OF Jonny Gomes for OF Yoenis Cesepedes on the morning of July 31st may not have been the BEST trade of the day, but it was the most important. The Athletics are in position to win their third straight American League West title, but their lack of playoff success over the past two seasons frustrated the front office and the fanbase. In Lester, the Athletics get a pitcher who has won two World Series rings with Boston and was vital to the Red Sox run in the 2013 playoffs, finishing with a 4-1 record (2-0 in the World Series) and an ERA of just 1.56.
Trading away Cespedes, a fan favorite who wows the masses with his arm and home run power, will be difficult to replace. However, the combination of Gomes and another new acquisition, Sam Fuld, will do a fine job as platoon players. A healthy Josh Reddick will help substitute the home run numbers of Cespedes, while Gomes (career .335 OBP) and Fuld (.370 OBP with Minnesota) each have something to offer to manager Bob Melvin. For a team that relies heavily on their farm system and savvy free agent signings, it is refreshing to see Billy Beane and co. make trades with an eye on late October baseball. The Athletics are no longer going to settle for winning the division; acquiring Lester, Gomes, and Fuld at the trade deadline keeps them at the top of the American League food chain.
I expect the Athletics to finish with the best record in the American League, which means that if the standings held, the Orioles would avoid Oakland until the championship series should both teams make it that far. For a team that will throw Samardzija, Lester, Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir in a seven game series, there isn't a single pitching matchup that would favor the Orioles. All four of Oakland's starters would be Baltimore's number one starter, and having two dominant right-handed and left-handed starters will pose problems for any team in a playoff series.
There is still plenty of baseball left to be played, and there is no guarantee that the Orioles can hold off the surging Blue Jays or the stubborn Yankees for the American League East crown. After the trade deadline, the East division became much weaker as a whole, which makes the Orioles and their acquisition of relief pitcher Andrew Miller look that much better. With the difficult West coast trip over and done with, time will tell if the Orioles can play their way into an ALCS series with either of the big trade deadline winners.
For more on the MLB Trade Deadline, listen to the Brett & Barry Show with Brett Dickinson and Barry Kamen this Saturday from 9a-12p on AM 1570 and WNST.net!


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I'll be joining The Michael Koolidge Show this morning, Wednesday, September 28th, at 10:15am. Click here to listen live on Rockford's News/Talk 1440 WROK. For more info, click on the logo below:
Posted by Leave a Commenton Monday, April 7, 2014 |
I'll be joining The Michael Koolidge Show this morning, Wednesday, September 28th, at 10:15am. Click here to listen live on Rockford's News/Talk 1440 WROK. For more info, click on the logo below:
Last week, AFSCME Council 31 released a short online video taking some swings at the Illinois Policy Institute:
All in all, this is pretty ho-hum stuff, and just about what you'd expect rhetorically from AFSCME. Up to and especially including the obligatory, "Ahhhh, the boogeyman!" mention of the Koch Brothers.
But let's take a quick look at some of the liberties AFSCME took with this video.
First up, the Chicago Tribune column from Diana Sroka Rickert. Rickert is VP of Communications at IPI, and regularly publishes a guest column in the Tribune. Here's the freeze-frame from the video where they highlight the headline and the byline:
Notice the byline. Now look how it actually appears on the Tribune's website:
Just a name. No identifier. Here's now the identifier shows up in a footer at the bottom of the column, emphasis mine:
Diana Sroka Rickert is a writer with the Illinois Policy Institute. The opinions in this essay are her own.
I've looked, and I can't find where this article appears with the byline as displayed in the AFSCME video. I'm left to assume that the video image has been edited to add "a writer with the Illinois Policy Institute" behind Rickert's name or to remove the second half of what appears in the footer, clarifying that "the opinions in this essay are her own."
The second part is important. Rickert is not writing this piece in an official capacity for IPI. She's expressing her own opinions. I would like to imagine that AFSCME would appreciate the same courtesy being extended to their members and officials when expressing their opinions in a private-citizen capacity and not as speaking on behalf of AFSCME. Otherwise, it's fair game to attribute everything AFSCME members say to the union itself. Things like, perhaps, this.
Also left on the cutting room floor? The real, complete thrust of Rickert's proposal:
Lay off the entire state workforce, and close the pension system. Work with the General Assembly to open a different retirement plan for newly hired government workers, modeled after the nation's most popular retirement vehicle: the 401(k). Then offer to rehire state workers under the new retirement plan.
Guess they forgot to mention that whole "hire them all back part." Oops.
Overall, there's no sourcing for anything in this video. Most political campaign ads include some kind of citations where, if you're really interested, you can go find and examine their justification for the claims being made. But AFSCME doesn't tell you where you can find any context for what they've chosen to excerpt here.
For example, they've attributed the words "abandon pensions" to IPI CEO John Tillman. A quick Google search for John Tillman "abandon pensions" returns no results. And even if I stipulate that Tillman has said these two words consecutively at some point in time, there's no way to access any greater context for those remarks. They're two words. I imagine if we went back through the statements of AFSCME officials we could have some tremendous fun excerpting two-word phrases out of context from their greater statements.
Later on, the video asserts that IPI's agenda is to "Wipe Out Unions." Their justification for this claim is this:
Establishing local right-to-work zones = "wipe out unions?"
First of all, we're only talking about localized right-to-work zones. In this particular case, this is about legislation that was approved in Lincolnshire that only governs that village. Simply put, there are unions within right-to-work zones. There are 26 right-to-work states in the country, including union-heavy Michigan. There are unions existing and operating within all of those states. The only difference is that there are no closed shops. No one has to join a union (or pay tribute) in order to take a job and work in those states. They can choose to. But they're not compelled against their will.
Claiming the establishment of local right-to-work zones is tantamount to "wiping out unions" is absurd, and pretty self-indicting the part of the unions. What they're really saying is that they believe when people are extended a choice on whether or not to join a union, people will overwhelmingly choose not to join, thus resulting in the union being "wiped out." They're saying that they themselves believe unions are only sustainable when people are coerced and compelled into joining and supporting them. What does that say about unions?
If this is really the best that AFSCME has to offer, then that's pretty weak sauce.
There are plenty of people who are disenchanted with the current election cycle. But I think it's safe to say that Reboot Illinois publisher and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Madeleine Doubek is not looking forward to this fall's state contestso:
Why should we care about what happens in contested state legislative races all over the state this year? Each really is about the battle for control between GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan. You knew that, but perhaps you didn't realize we all will lose no matter who wins.
I can empathize with the general feeling. I've accepted that, for me, this year's presidential election ends in tears no matter what happens. I've taken to describing it as the Alien vs. Predator election. Whoever wins… we lose:
Anyway, let's get to why Doubek thinks this:
Every election cycle, there typically are a couple dozen hotly contested state legislative races, even after one political party or the other gets done rigging maps in their favor. Each party in both chambers has seats they can swipe from the other side. It's in those races, traditionally, where most of the money is raised and spent.
This year is no different. But where it has changed, is that Republicans now are energized because of GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner. Rauner changes the political landscape in Illinois with his determination to shake up Springfield and his bottomless checking account. After years and years of failure, Republicans have their best shot in decades at winning the nuclear arms race that is funding and winning campaigns. …
Rauner shook up Springfield all right. Now, instead of one dictator, we now have two.
Rauner and Madigan control how much money goes into the key races like never before.
::eye roll::
Tthe importance of money to political elections is generally overstated. Yes, it's important. But it's not everything. If you think money is everything, be sure to tell that to people like Republican Presidential nominee Jeb Bush or Illinois U.S. Senator Blair Hull. Or Bryce Benton, who challenged State Sen. Sam McCann, backed by a large amount of money, and lost by a sizable margin. They're all examples that spending all the money in the world can't make people vote for you if they don't want to.
And the "dictator" line is just ridiculous hyperbole.
But this general consternation over how much money is being spent in Illinois political races, of the type being expressed here by Doubek, seems to be a recent phenomenon. And, at that, one prompted mostly by Gov. Bruce Rauner's regular and significant investments in Republican candidates and infrastructure.
But for years, House Speaker Mike Madigan was the central bank of political contributions in the state. He controlled a fortune that was doled out to the candidates of his choice. And yet, it seems that far fewer people ever batted an eye at that hegemonic control of the campaign purse than they are at Rauner's attempts to level the playing field for Republican candidates.
Doubek closes:
How can we constituents fight to be heard when the politicians all owe their jobs to Madigan and Rauner?
I'd say they can be heard in that there's an alternative to Madigan's singular control over politics in this state. At least there's an alternative. And I think she gives far too little credit to voters, assuming they don't know what they're buying, or what is generally at stake in this election.
We'll find out in a few weeks time what the voters think.
If there is one thing that Chicagoland politicians are good at, it's finding all kinds of new and creative ways to separate you from your hard-earned money. Take, for example, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who has the benefit of being viewed as reasonable and competent by far too many people mostly because she's not Todd Stroger. According to Fran Spielman of the Chicago Sun-Times, she's currently mulling a tax on soda and other sugary drinks as a desperation ploy to try to close the county's budget gap:
County Board President Toni Preckwinkle is "looking hard" at a new tax on sugary soft drinks — anywhere from half a penny to a full penny an ounce — to close a $174.3 million budget shortfall without employee layoffs, sources said Tuesday. …
Now, Preckwinkle is returning to another controversial revenue idea she considered last year: a tax on sugary soft drinks long championed by public health advocates to curb obesity and diabetes that drives burgeoning health care costs.
Anything to avoid admitting the need for structural reform, I guess.
Back when the state was considering a similar tax, I wrote about why taxing soda — and other so-called vice taxes — are inherently contradictory in rationale and just generally terrible public policy:
First, the notion that obesity is an epidemic is commonplace but also grossly overstated. And the idea that people aren't aware of what the First Lady of the United States has spent the last 5-plus years working to combat is absurd.
But the bigger insult to logic and reason is the 2nd paragraph in the quoted text above. We hear this same kind of reasoning, typically from Democrats and the left, when it comes to cigarette taxes. It goes like this: "This tax increase on [cigarettes, soda, whatever] will be a good thing because that tax revenue will help fund this really, really, really important government program. And, also, by raising the price of [smoking, drinking soda, whatever] it will discourage people from doing something that really just isn't all that good for them."
I hope you can clearly see the problems there. Cigarette taxes, and now soda/sugary drink taxes, are seemingly the one area of life where the left will acknowledge that what you tax you get less of. You tax cigarettes, you get less smoking. You tax soda, you get less consumption of soda. You tax income/work … you get less work? Of course. Except the left usually never makes that connection on that last one. Weird.
On the other side of the argument is the notion that said cigarette or soda tax revenue is going to help pay for some critical government program. Except that typically there won't be enough revenue generated by the tax to actually fund the program, especially when you consider the diminishing returns on the tax revenue by the higher cost of consuming the drinks. The cigarette tax that was to fund the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP, had one major problem: it needed about 22 million MORE smokers in order to fully fund the program. Oops.
That's all assuming that this tax will actually be successful in driving people to other drinks. …
For the tax to have the effect Rep. Gabel desires, to drive people to drink something other than soda or other sugary drinks, it needs to be significant enough to make it costly enough for people to seek other alternatives. Will a penny per ounce do that? Unlikely. Adding extra $.12 to a can of soda or $.20 to a bottle, or $.32 or $.64 to fountain drinks isn't likely to be enough of a cost burden to drive people to seek alternatives. There are a whole gaggle of people who regularly shell out $4 or $5 for a coffee or cappuccino at Starbucks. Do you really think that less than a dollar of extra cost is going to make that big of a difference? For most people, again, unlikely.
Which brings us to the last big problem: the problem of acceptable alternatives. Say the tax is effective in driving people to want to buy something other than soda or the other sugar-filled drink they like. It won't be, but let's say it does work. What alternatives exist out there? It seems clear that most people won't be satiated with just water. Not everyone is going to want to drink coffee instead — into which people often put a significant amount of sugar. Nor does it seem likely people will flock to tea — iced tea often being sweetened, as well.
There just doesn't seem to be a lot of alternatives out there for people to choose from if they don't want to bear the cost of the tax on sugary drinks. So, they're then still likely to just bite the bullet and buy the drink they want.
This tax just isn't significant enough to have the discouraging effects that they proponents claim to want.
Which makes the real point of this gambit clear. It's about revenue. It's not about a concern for people's health. And, why is it any of Rep. Gabel's business what people want to drink any way? It's a clear example of politicians feigning concern for your well-being in order to regulate the minutia of your life. And, finding new and exciting ways to separate you from your hard-earned money, to boot.
It was a terrible idea then. It's a terrible idea now. And if Preckwinkle pursues it in this year's budget, it's nothing more than kicking the can of real, meaningful reform down the road even further for Cook County.
If you haven't seen it yet, the Illinois Policy Institute has a new documentary film coming out on Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. The trailer:
The kicker: the website for the documentary is www.MichaelMadigan.com. Which begs the question, even if he famously eschews technology, how on earth did Madigan's team not own that URL?
Capitol Fax's Rich Miller is in the film. But he's claiming that he was "duped" into participating. From Miller's Crain's Chicago Business column:
I was duped by a right-wing organization into appearing in what will probably be a propaganda movie. It's my own fault. The producer claimed that while some people were pointing fingers at House Speaker Michael Madigan, his company was interested in doing a fair and balanced film about "what's really at the center of it all."
Two days later, I found out that the forthcoming "documentary" is backed by an arm of the well-funded Illinois Policy Institute, one of Madigan's fiercest critics and a staunch ally of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. The institute's top executive is also a close Rauner adviser. I'm not exactly popular with that group, although I have strongly supported several of its small-business initiatives in Chicago. I'm not expecting to come out of the editing room looking too well.
Such is life.
I'm curious if Miller really thinks that the film will slice and dice what he said to make him look bad, ala the modus operandi of The Daily Show. Anyway, I can't wait to see what he had to say if he's openly fretting that he won't "come out of the editing room looking too well."
As for this controversy… look, I wasn't there. But I'll say this much: there's a lot of pre-judging of a film that no one has seen yet going on here. It's hardly uncommon for documentaries to have a distinct point of view. Take a look at some of the recent Oscar winners for Best Documentary:
And those are just some of the winners. Nominees with distinct points of view have included films like Super Size Me, Jesus Camp, Sicko, Food Inc., Gasland, and plenty of others that were never nominated. If "propaganda" is now being defined as a film having a point of view, then you'd have to say all of these films are propaganda. And it's pretty hard to judge the Madigan film, since it hasn't been released yet. Let's cross that critical bridge when we come to it.
But something caught my attention in the comments on the first Capitol Fax post about this story. Here's a supposedly anonymous comment:
And Miller's response:
Sounds awful threatening. And so much for anonymous comments being anonymous, I guess.


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It's hard to put in words the energy that radiated throughout the Anaheim Convention Center that morning when thousands of players walked through the doors of BlizzCon 2007.
When the next expansion for World of Warcraft was announced -- and especially when the gameplay trailer for Wrath of the Lich King rolled -- the convention hall erupted with cheers.
And that was only the very beginning of an outstanding first day. Huge crowds watched the StarCraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft tournaments, cheering on their favorite players and carefully following every move of every match. To quote one viewer, "I never played StarCraft before, but watching these pros was awesome. It makes me want to be as good as them, so I can be up there on that stage in that soundproofed booth, with the crowd cheering me on. I literally had goose bumps."
Another unique highlight was the developer panels, which covered material ranging from World of Warcraft class design, to the new single-player campaign in StarCraft II, to what it takes to land a job in the game industry. "During the Raids and Dungeons panel, Tigole fielded a lot of tough questions from players, and it was clear [with every answer] that he's really passionate about the game," said one attendee.
But for some, the best thing about BlizzCon was the atmosphere of being in a huge crowd of fellow gamers. "If you can carry on a conversation with a complete stranger that consists almost entirely of 'Whoa, dude, bam!' then you know you're in the right place. It feels great to be here, with a ton of people who all share the same passion. You just have this total connection with everyone here."
These were just a few quick snapshots of day one at BlizzCon, but we hope this short glimpse can give you some idea of the incredible energy that permeated the event, thanks to everyone who shared their passion for games with us.
Enthusiasm and excitement filled the Anaheim Convention Center as the attendees filed in that morning, eager to get to any exhibits they might have missed yesterday. Huge crowds amassed in the StarCraft II and Wrath of the Lich King hands-on gaming areas. Others flocked to the jousting pit to do a little real-life PvP or to the Elekk ring to try their hand at staying on the back of the mechanical Elekk.
The developer discussion panels were again one of the big highlights of day. Players took advantage of these opportunities to learn more about nearly every aspect of World of Warcraft and StarCraft II, as well as to have their questions answered by members of the different teams at Blizzard. At the World of Warcraft Items and Professions panel, the development team discussed their plans for the Inscription profession and for professions in Wrath of the Lich King in general, which generated a fair amount of applause from the crowd. At the Warcraft Movie panel, representatives from both Blizzard and Legendary Pictures provided some information concerning the moviemaking process and the challenges of bringing the Warcraft game universe to the big screen... and at the end, the audience was treated to a piece of movie-storyboard art depicting Teldrassil.
Throughout the day, players could also explore the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, not only in a dedicated discussion panel, but in a variety of demos and tournaments. Veteran TCG players offered advice on deck building and general strategies, while tournament winners walked away with prizes ranging from TCG booster packs to brand-new console gaming systems. Speaking of tournaments, the Warcraft III, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft tournaments all wrapped up that day. With all of these events drawing to an end, attendees retired to their rooms to prepare for the night's closing celebration featuring Jay Mohr, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain, and Video Games Live.
Blizzard players came from all over the world to attend BlizzCon, and with so many together in one place, the atmosphere was been beyond words. Though many have just met each other for the first time in person this weekend, their common passion for gaming has offered a basis for lasting friendships.


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It's related to syrah, but is more like cabernet sauvignon.
Wine: Clearing up confusion about petite sirah
I had an interesting chat with a Montreal Gazette reader a few weeks back, revolving around what he said was his new favourite grape: petite sirah. I had mentioned this grape as a solid option for you cabernet sauvignon drinkers in a column last June.
We got on the subject due to a misunderstanding on his part: he had ordered a glass of syrah, and although he liked it, he found it didn't have the power of other wines he had tried.
That's because they are different grapes. Petite sirah — or petite syrah, or Durif as it was originally called and is still known in Australia — was created in the late 19th century by a French nurseryman, Dr. François Durif. He was trying to find a way to make syrah more resistant to powdery mildew, so he crossed syrah with a grape called peloursin.
While the new variety was more resistant, I find it's more like cabernet sauvignon than syrah. Petite sirah is much less floral than its parent, and tends to show darker fruit and much more tannin. Lovers of big red wine may find it's even bigger than cabernet sauvignon, though a touch less refined. But I love its grittier tannins. In certain respects, I would compare it to Italy's montepulciano.
So, where does one find petite sirah wines? The vast majority that are available in Quebec hail from California. This shouldn't come as a surprise, since the grape was once among the most-planted red varieties in the state — even more than cabernet sauvignon.
You can find it as a single varietal or as the dominant grape in a blend, but as suggested by the 75 petite sirah wines listed at SAQ.com, it often is part of a zinfandel-based blend. Some of my favourite zins — like Ridge's Geyserville ($67, SAQ # 12986188), Seghesio's Sonoma ($29.85, SAQ # 12297446), Ravenswood's Lodi ($21.75, SAQ # 630202) and the Old Vines from St. Francis ($32.50, SAQ # 13317015) — have important amounts of petite sirah in the blend. The reason is that it brings tannin and acidity, which zinfandel tends to lack.
But when petite sirah is on its own, you can truly taste the grape. Mexico's L.A. Cetto ($11.45, SAQ # 429761) is a softer version, but at less than $12, you can't go wrong if you want an inexpensive introduction. If it proves to be a taste profile you like, try the Foppiano ($32.50, SAQ # 611780), Concannon ($20, SAQ # 13692940) or Vina Robles ($33.50, SAQ # 12182382).
If you want even more info about petite sirah, there is a Californian organization called PS I Love You (psiloveyou.org).
Try a few of the wines I have mentioned and see if you love them, too.


text:
Carers Cuppa 11 August
AUG ellenor Coldharbour Road Gravesend Kent DA11 7HQ
AUG ellenor Coldharbour Road Gravesend Kent DA11 7HQ
Are you, or perhaps someone you know, caring for someone with a life limiting illness and looking for support and friendship? ellenor is pleased to extend an invitation to the Carers' Cuppa. Local carers are welcome to come along for company, a chat and a cuppa with others at this informal gathering, where we hope you will share experiences and make friends. Please feel free to share with anyone you think might benefit from attending this group. For more information please call Fiona Drozdiak on 01474 320 007


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Are Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump violating White House email rules? A guide for journalists
In an era where #FAKENEWS is tweeted from the highest office in the land, it's more important than ever that reporters and journalists get their facts right. When it comes to White House email, here are the facts.


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|Southington, CT
|High School:
Collegiate Personal Bests:
800 Meter Run: 2:18.41
1,000 Meter Run: 3:13.73
1,500 Meter Run: 5:03.46
2012 Cross Country: Best finish of the season came at the Ted Owen Invitational on Sept. 22 where she placed 67th with a time of 20:48.64...Placed 93rd at the CCSU Mini Meet, crossing the finish line in 12:07.55.
2012 Outdoor Track: Placed eighth in the 4x800 meter relay at the Northeast Conference Outdoor Championships with a time of 9:39.28...Ran a 2:24.24 in the 800 meter run at the Holy Cross Invitational for 23rd place.
2012 Indoor Track: Ran a 2:24.81 in the 800 meter run preliminary at the Northeast Conference Indoor Championships...Finished 14th in the 1,000 meter run with a time of 3:13.73 at the Yale Giegengack Invitational.
2011 Cross Country: Competed in the sub-varsity meet at the 2011 New England Cross Country Championships on Oct. 8 where she placed 183rd out of 341 participants with a time of 21:32.
Before Central: Ran cross country, indoor and outdoor track at Southington High School...Took first place in her age group in the Apple Harvest Road Race and second place in the Freemason's Road Race.


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peter1402 avait besoin d'un nouveau design de logo et a lancé un concours sur 99designs.
Un gagnant a été sélectionné de 41 designs proposés par 18 designers freelance.
We are currently have our site redesigned and coded so are in need of a new logo and header for the template we have chosen
Desired Color Scheme:
current colours on template
Desired Style:
clean, modern and professional
Accepted File Formats:
eps, jpg, psd, png
Our site is currently being revamped and the our new template can be found here http://www.loanwize.co.uk/mt
The site deals with all types of UK loans.
The logo should have a white background and the size should be 300x83. The logo colours should use the existing colours in the new template. The logo design should be clean, modern and professional
The background header image can be found here http://www.loanwize.co.uk/template/…header.gif. I am only looking for the image on the right hand side of the header to be changed but still using the existing background colours and dimensions.
With regard to the image I am open to ideas but it should relevant to loans or borrowing money (UK£) Like the logo it should be clean, modern and professional. The size of the image should be around the same as the existing one.
Savoir comment fonctionne un concours de design ou en savoir plus sur nos services de design de logo.


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Massachusetts Securities Regulator William Galvin ordered five independent broker-dealers Wednesday to pay $8.6 million in restitution to investors and fined them a total of $975,000 for improper sales of nontraded REITs.
The firms involved in the settlement are Ameriprise Financial Services, which will pay $2,592,890 in restitution and a $400,000 fine; Commonwealth Financial Network which will pay $2,074,710 in restitution and a $300,000 fine; Royal Alliance Associates, which will pay $59,000 in restitution and a $25,000 fine; Securities America, which will pay $778,400 in restitution and a $150,000 fine; and Lincoln Financial Advisors Corp., which will pay $503,940 in restitution and a $100,000 fine.
"Our investigation into the sales of REITs, triggered by investor complaints, showed a pattern of impropriety in the sales of these popular but risky investments on the part of independent brokerage firms where supervision has historically been difficult to maintain," Galvin (right) said in a statement.
In addition to these settlements, Galvin said that LPL Financial had completed the second round of its restitution in connection to similar violations settled with the securities division in December.
With the additional amount of $2,592,150.87 from LPL, total restitution retrieved for investors in Massachusetts this year from improper REIT sales now totals more than $11 million, and fines total more than $1.4 million.
"The independent firms must spend as much manpower and resources on compliance and supervision as they do on growth and revenue if regulators are to consider this model a truly viable option for investors," Galvin said. "The willingness of the five settling firms to correct this problem today is a small step in the right direction."
The REIT investigation, conducted by the securities division's enforcement section, revealed "significant and widespread problems" with the firms' compliance with their own policies, practices and procedures rules, as well as adherence with Massachusetts prospectus requirements, which left "investors often trapped in illiquid and underperforming financial products."
The Massachusetts securities division noted that because REITs have become a popular investment, but present risks to investors, the state has imposed a rule that an investor's purchase of these instruments can be no more than 10% of their liquid net worth.
More on AdvisorOne:


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Speculation's rife that Nokia has developed a stylish touchscreen talker, following publication of a leaked teaser image.
Nokia's latest iPhone killer?
The picture, which Nokia has already confirmed is authentic, shows three shots of a full touchscreen talker. In each shot, the phone's running a different application, ranging from a weather information screen to an iPhone-style layout of an SMS conversation.
Accompanying the images is a short teaser that describes the UI. "Direct UI simplifies interaction with standard strokes and gestures," we're told.
What's interesting is that the UI looks nothing like those on modern-day Nokia phones, including the recently launched N97. However, this latest, unnamed phone's UI does appear to be widget based, as is the one on the N97.
Nokia's been quick to silence speculation that the pictured phone is an upcoming device, though. The phone firm told SlashGear that the talker's purely a way of highlighting its latest UI improvements, presumably following the firm's acquisition of Symbian earlier this month.
But why couldn't these enhancements - whatever they may be - have been shown off on an existing talker?
Sponsored: How to simplify data protection on Amazon Web Services


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The Air Jordan IV made its initial debut in 1989 and was instantly praised for its unique design. The Tinker Hatfield creation features a 3/4 (or mid)... cut similar to the Air Jordan III, large "Flight" logo on the tongue, plastic lace hole accents, and a visible Air-Sole unit. Although the Air Jordan IV did not need help in the popularity department after its release, the Air Jordan IV was famously featured in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing" catapulting its appeal into a new realm. Read More
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