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When Brent and Jenn Nims announced plans to rent out their cozy 1,500-square-foot home in suburban Ventura, pack their two kids, two dogs, a cat and a turtle into a 35-foot RV and hit the road for a year, response from friends was understandably mixed. Since then, the Nims have clocked more than 27,000 miles and entered their second year on wheels, joining the ranks of an estimated 1.3 million Americans who live full-time in recreational vehicles. The Nims have no regrets, and the journey — both literally and metaphorically — has been rich with meaning, much of which Jenn has chronicled on her blog "Newschool Nomads."
The decision to live this somewhat unconventional lifestyle wasn't made hastily but it was made easily. Brent, a graphic designer and web developer, started his own business a few years ago; and when he was able to bring his work along while visiting relatives out of state, the two began to realize that full-time travel was not outside the realm of possibility. "Once we decided to homeschool [their kids], we thought, why not? What's the worst that could happen?" said Jenn. "We were tired of feeling busy all the time and wanted to simplify."
The children, 12-year-old Nathanael and 10-year-old Noah (or as their parents sometimes refer to them, Thing One and Thing Two), are both at an ideal age to travel, and the educational opportunities make for a strong argument in favor of going mobile. "They are old enough to remember the trip, but not yet at that age where they just want to be with their friends," said Jenn. The only negatives were being away from loved ones and the financial uncertainty of depending entirely on freelance income. (Jenn worked as a fitness instructor before they began traveling.)
Nathanael and Noah Nims and their best friends Nigel and Nico
at the Wright Brothers National Monument in Kitty Hawk, NC.
Preparation was a year-long process that involved selling their two vehicles in order to purchase a fifth-wheel RV and a truck to tow it with, and slowly letting go of the belongings they didn't want to store. The day before they left, they drove around town with a truck bed full of their stuff, asking friends to take what they wanted. "It was very liberating," says Jenn.
Liberating, but also bittersweet. Just before their big departure, Jenn wrote in her blog:
"Today, I sat on the floor folding my laundry as if it was an ordinary day. A day where I would wake up in my bed, a bed that is no more. A day where I would school the boys on the couch, a couch that has moved on. A day where I would drive the streets I know, the streets that I will miss."
When they did finally leave, it wasn't the sun-drenched Disneyesque daydream Jenn had imagined: birds singing, friends gathered, farewell kisses and well-wishes. Rather it was a somewhat clumsy escape on a cool, damp evening in late October. No birds, no friends, just the quirky Nims family doing their best to heed the call of the open road. "We felt like outlaws," she later wrote. "It was a combination of exhilaration, exhaustion and fear."
The Nims' two dogs, cat and turtle are along for the ride
as they travel the U.S. in their home on wheels.
They've been to every state except Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii, which they are hoping to visit this year — minus Hawaii, for obvious reasons. They've eaten fresh lobster in Maine; spent Independence Day in Boston, swum with manatees in Florida, celebrated a birthday at the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina, seen the Peabody Ducks in Memphis, shopped vintage in Austin and battled ticks in Yorktown. Among their favorite stops are New York City, the Badlands in South Dakota ("like being on another planet"), Washington, D.C. ("a homeschoolers dream"), and New Orleans. "Despite its reputation, it's a great place for families," says Jenn. They've seen flying squirrels, alligators, wild horses, prairie dogs, buffalo, foxes, skunks, wild turkeys, coyote, rabbits, turtles, javelina, snakes, stingrays, barracudas, crocodile, a porcupine that crossed the road and plenty of deer.
The kids probably know more about American history than most high school graduates. They've earned more than 70 Junior Ranger badges, including the special 150th Anniversary Civil War Historian badge. They've visited numerous historical, art and science museums, including the Smithsonian, the Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. While on the road, Nathanael has started pre-algebra studies and composes music for the piano (he even wrote a piece for his dog); and Noah, a voracious reader, consumed approximately 100 books last year. "I think the education goes beyond what we can even understand," says Brent. "A lot of it is just organic in the travel, getting to see places in person, a lot of the history and museums."
A family portrait at Crazy Horse in South Dakota.
As the boys have been soaking up all that knowledge and life experience, their parents have learned a few things too; technology, paradoxically, is what allows them to slow their roll (they didn't look at a paper map for an entire year and Brent has checks mailed to his virtual post office box) and community is not defined by geographic boundaries.
Though not intentionally part of a movement, the Nims are members of a national network of families who are traveling full time in RVs. "We're not perpetually on vacation," says Brent, though some people perceive it that way. They are living and working, paying bills, being schooled, just like everyone else — they're just doing it on the move. The most surprising aspect of this journey has been meeting kindred spirits. "It's been amazing, like a mobile neighborhood but a neighborhood where you actually know your neighbors," says Jenn. "I think since we are living a slower-paced lifestyle there is time to really get to know each other. We've also explored new places with our road friends, and something about discovering together deepens relationships rather quickly." Brent agrees and cites the shared moments as the most memorable so far. "We never experienced the richness of that kind of friendship before," he says. Even after they part ways, they stay in touch with other mobile families and often make plans to meet up again in new locations.
With the cost of fuel at an all-time high, one can't help but wonder if the economics of full-time RV living make it a cost-prohibitive lifestyle. The Nims consider themselves squarely middle class and say they've encountered people from a full range of socioeconomic backgrounds who have traded the perceived security of staying put for the freedom of a nomadic lifestyle. "I do think anyone could do it," says Jenn. "I've met so many people who sold businesses, or people like us living on a budget who can't eat out a lot, people who are working seasonal jobs, do eBay and campground hosting to make it happen, and people who use the YMCAs for showers." Brent has managed not only to retain his clients, he's also picked up a few new ones along the way.
Networks and RV clubs such as Thousand Trails also help make living on the road more affordable by offering huge discounts (after an initial membership fee) at campgrounds nationwide, and Walmart allows RVers to camp overnight in its parking lots, not the most idyllic place to wake up but nonetheless a privilege the Nims don't take for granted. While they do stay with friends and family from time to time, in a typical month they spend $225 on camping fees and $650 on gas. They prepare most of their meals and have suffered no costly vehicle repairs to date. They are able to tailor their budget to accommodate sightseeing and recreational or learning activities, staying longer in some locations to offset gas costs, for example. Jenn regards the National Park Pass as the best deal going at $80 for a year, which usually includes educational programs, movies and tours.
Learning on the road is like school with a view.
Living in such tight quarters with virtually no time alone isn't without its challenging moments, but for the most part they've managed to keep life peaceful. When they socialize with other road families, parents and kids usually split up, each group piling into a separate RV for a few hours. This provides necessary social opportunities for everyone. When one of them feels exceptionally irritable, he or she might go for a bike ride or take a walk for solitude. This lifestyle has also forced them to personally stretch and grow, as Jenn touches on in one of her more reflective, confessional posts:
"We have been forced to deal with each other. The good, the bad, and everything, oh yes everything in between. When you are together all the time in a 300 square foot space there is no sweeping things under the rug. The rug is just too damn small and the dirt just too much. We lost that parental luxury of 'pretending not to see' and oh how do I miss it! Problems are always two feet away and retail therapy isn't an option when your closet rod is already breaking under the weight of too much stuff."
They have responded to the everyday annoyances that become magnified in small spaces and unfamiliar places by simply adapting, though they may never get used to certain things: below-zero temperatures, frozen water lines, showering and doing laundry at campsites where big black spiders seem omnipresent, and searching for good-quality fresh produce. When living in Ventura, buying food at farmers markets multiple times per week was part of the family's normal routine. Now they regard it as a luxury. "I was in a small town in Texas and I understood why people eat [frozen, packaged] dinners because the produce was so pitiful and gross," muses Jenn. "It's something more people tend to value here, and we have a year-round growing season [to support it]."
So has the lack of delicious fresh food, not to mention relatively mild year-round weather, made them homesick? "Hands down, Southern California is the best weather and most beautiful, and so many activities you can't get bored," says Jenn. "On the other hand, it's so expensive and that's why we always feel torn. Every once in a while we feel like drifters, like we don't have a 'home.' We miss our friends in Ventura. We miss taking regular hikes in Arroyo Verde. We miss running into people around town."
"It seems like the cost of living in So Cal requires more hustle," says Brent. "Both parents working and the expectations of keeping up with the Joneses. It's all good stuff but it's taxing." While they do miss their friends at home, the relationships they've forged on the road have been so surprisingly fulfilling that making this lifestyle a permanent one is something they would definitely consider — once the boys are grown. "I think it's a great way to live. It seems like you wouldn't be able to have roots or settle down, but it's been the opposite for us," says Brent. For Jenn, "The freedom to come and go as we please is intoxicating."
The original plan was to travel for one year, but when they realized it was more enjoyable when they took their time, the Nims decided on an extension. The current plan is to return to Ventura in October, making it a full two years of life lived as full-time RVers. No doubt Nathanael (Thing One) will be quite ready to return to "normal" life. Being a preteen, stuck with his family 24/7 has been hard to take at times. Noah is still young enough to revel in the adventure, and Jenn and Brent will take what they've learned on the road and happily carry it forward. "One thing we are going to commit to doing when we get back to normal life in Ventura is to leave margins," says Jenn. "We never want to fill our schedules so full that we don't have time to deepen relationships."
The hardest part is over. They took the leap, they survived and they continue to thrive. They've given their sons perhaps the greatest gift possible (even if they don't know they want it): adventure. They've discovered what they're made of and they've found their comfort zone in the slow lane. From her blog on the first anniversary of their great entry into the unknown, Jenn wrote:
"I'm not afraid of a house without wheels — there are many wonderful things about having a home in a community — I'm afraid of a life without brakes."
To follow the Nims' travels, visit www.newschoolnomads.com. To learn about other mobile families, visit www.fulltimefamilies.com.
No place like mobile home
by Michel Miller
After much research and debate, the Nims decided a fifth-wheel RV would be the best option for living quarters on the road. The Cedar Creek Silverback 33LBHT is equipped with slideouts for additional space, a shower, toilet, range, oven, sink, refrigerator, microwave, queen bed, bunk beds and décor that didn't quite meet the style-conscious young family's standards of visual appeal. They spent about six weeks turning it into a house they
could call home and a home where dad could work.
A trip to the garment district in L.A. provided Jenn inspiration for colors and fabrics. After painting nearly everything, Jenn solicited the help of a close friend to sew new curtains and recover the sofa and dinette cushions. The Nims removed a sink from the bedroom to create a desk/work space for Brent and added a tiny sink to the toilet room. Jenn painted the London Bridge on their headboard (they were engaged in London) and hung a petite chandelier over the kitchen table "to add some quirkiness." Thanks to another friend, Brent was able to put in wood flooring throughout, and what had been an uninspired beige-on-beige interior is now a warm, whimsical, cheery place worthy of a spread in a home decorator magazine. "We wanted it to feel homey and unique since it was going to be our full-time home," said Jenn. "Most RV interiors are so generic and blah, like bad hotel rooms. We wanted something fun and comfortable."


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[Today is Spanish Friday but I won't be translating my entire post to Spanish today. Instead I will offer some vocabulary and phrase translations of the Spanish that appears within the dialogue at the end of the post.]
"Is that a snake?"
It was too late to be going anywhere, but Carlos and I were in the car, pulling out of the driveway. The plan was to sneak out and get ice cream without the kids or Suegra tagging along. The headlights lit up something black and twisted by the side of the road near our mailbox.
"Nene, that's just trash or something."
"No." He put the car in park and opened the door, "that's a snake."
I got out too, rolling my eyes. That big, black, twisted thing was just a trash bag or something. Where did he think we lived? The Amazon Rainforest? As if a snake that big would just be hanging out near our mailbox.
We walked up to the object. I carelessly walked closer to it than Carlos. The "piece of trash" slithered.
"Oh my God," I said, backing up and standing behind Carlos, "it's a snake!"
"I know," he said, "I need a flashlight, I can't see it well." He started back towards the house, leaving me and the snake to entertain each other.
The snake started to move towards our house. I picked up a big rock and threw it in his path, but missed. I threw another rock which landed right in front of his nose. The snake reared back and opened his little mouth. I stood my ground, armed with another rock, freaked out but determined not to let it anywhere near the house, until Carlos returned with a flashlight and a broom, the kids and Suegra trailing behind.
Carlos uncoiled the snake with the broom and it became clear that it was at least 4 feet long and, venomous or not, aggressive. The original plan was to carry the snake on the broom over to the nearby woods but the snake did not cooperate, and instead made every attempt to come at us or go towards our house.
Suegra kept telling Carlos to throw it in the road so the passing cars could run over it.
"Ay! Dejala, hijo," she pleaded, "Las culebras pueden tirar veneno a tus ojos y vas a quedar ciego!" (She must have seen an episode about spitting cobras on National Geographic en español.)
"I'm going to have to kill it," Carlos said to me. We didn't want to, especially not knowing if it was even dangerous, but we didn't want to take the chance of it getting into our house and hurting the kids.
"Traigame algo por matarla," Carlos said to no one in particular.
Suegra and our youngest son ran off for the house.
Suegra returned first… with a weed whacker.
"Mamá," Carlos said, exasperated. "Cómo voy a matarla con eso?"
Our youngest son, an animal lover, came out of the house with the white bucket that Suegra uses for washing her chones.
"Can we just capture it?" he asked, holding out the bucket.
"Cipote!" she said, grabbing it from him, "No! Con mi cumbo, no!"
"Get the machete," Carlos said. I went to our closet and got the machete.
All of the commotion attracted a crowd of gringo kids who had been playing flashlight tag or something in the neighbor's yard.
"Dude, what's going on?" one of the gringo kids said to my older son, seeing Carlos with the machete, looking like some sort of Salvadoran Crocodile Dundee.
"My Dad killed a snake," my older son answered, his voice calm, as if this was a normal activity for our family.
I really wanted Carlos to ask me if I was alright after the whole snake thing went down so I could be silly and use a line from the movie, but he was too busy putting everything back in the shed that Suegra had thrown all over the yard when she had pulled out the weed whacker.
…but since it's my blog, I'm going to pretend that he turned to me as he re-sheathed the machete.
"You alright?"
"I'm always alright when I'm with you, Carlos."
—Vocabulary for this post—
Nene – baby (term of endearment, from woman to man.)
Machete – A big ass knife
Suegra – mother-in-law
Culebra – Snake
Chones – Underwear
Ay! Dejala, hijo – Ay! Leave it, son
Las culebras pueden tirar veneno a tus ojos y vas a quedar ciego – Snakes can spit venom in your eyes and you'll be left blind
Traigame algo por matarla – Bring me something to kill it
Mamá, Cómo voy a matarla con eso? – Mama, how am I going to kill it with this?
Cipote – kid/male child (Salvadoran slang)
No! Con mi cumbo, no! – No, not with my bucket! ("Cumbo" means container or bucket. Salvadoran slang.)
Did you participate in Spanish Friday? Participaste en Spanish Friday?
Leave your link in comments! Deja tu link en comentarios!


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Having spent the last couple of months working with a South African ( hello Trevor) and being reminded, oh so gently, of that nation's recent cricketing success, I was hoping to get the opportunity to return the favour via the medium of Rugby Union.
The Springboks narrow defeat of England in the Autumn International did little to derail this cunning plan. Unfortunately, my emergency backup nationality failed at a crucial moment as the hitherto invincible All Blacks were roundly thrashed by England a week later.
People in glass-houses…
Anyway, what follows is a solution to a fairly specific problem we were confronted with recently.
Continue reading


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familychannelYouth services, activities and playRemove
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Information, help and advice
!! It's Your Videos !!
Weds 22nd July 4pm
Have you got any young people interested / starting a career in the Music & Video Industries? Shiny Shows has the following event coming up all related to Video Commissioning The Shiny Show - unusual, fun and free events for new directors and the commercial…
16 - 25?
16 to 25? Want access to £5 exhibition tickets, free events, creative opportunities and discounts across Tate? Sign up for a free Tate Collective account.
Tate BritainMillbankLondonSW1P 4RG
16th Westminster Scout Group
16th City of Westminster Scout Group (St Gabriel's), offers Scouting to male and female young people of all faiths and backgrounds between the ages of 6 to 18 in the Pimlico, Victoria and Westminster areas of Central London. Beavers - 6 to 8 year olds…
St Gabriel's HallsCHURCHILL GARDENSLONDONSW1V 3AA
07951 857 405
3 House Club
Childcare on Non Domestic Premises
3 House Club is a place for local families to make friends, learn about parenting, join fun classes for children and celebrate beautiful birthday parties. We offer classes for babies, toddlers, pre-school children as well as after-school classes. The creche service or school pick can be…
next to Barrow Hill Junior SchoolBridgeman StreetLondonLONDONNW8 7AL
020 7586 9871
3rd Paddington Scout Group
A range of activities. All activities need to be booked at the weekly meetings (Thursday). Note there are no meetings during August, ages 6-14 years. Restricted to scouts, cubs and beavers. Contact Diane New for details.
St Luke's Church CentreFERNHEAD ROADLONDONW9 3EH
020 7912 0640
4th City of Westminster Scout Group
Are you looking for adventure, outdoor excitement, challenges and new experiences? If so, the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts of the 4th are for you. Open to girls and boys, all are welcome. Beavers and Cubs meet at St Peter's School Lower Belgrave Street, and the Scouts…
8th St Marylebone
For over 75 years the 8th St Marylebone (The Diehards) has delivered high quality Scouting across North West London. Based in a fantastic ultra-modern, purpose-built headquarters in the heart of St John's Wood.
Mansergh Club 24-26Hill RoadLondonNW8 9QG
0207 286 8210
The Abbey Community Centre
Provides social and health care activities for a range of BME groups and others ranging from the age of 0 to 90+ years old. Hall/Room Hire for public and private use.
020 7222 0303
Able Me Disability Boxing
Wednesdays, 5pm – 6pm
Able Me Boxing is a FREE club for children with disabilities run by Little Venice ward Officer PC Reading with help from his colleagues.PC Reading has run a boxing club for years focusing on providing kids the opportunity to learn new skills, make friends and…
10 Crompton StreetLondonW2 1ND
Abundance Arts
Music, dance, story telling. Cultural education and therapeutic benefits.
020 7792 0935


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Today marks the first trading day of the week, as U.S. markets were closed yesterday in observance of President's Day. This coming week will be relatively calm compared to earlier in the year, as earnings season has ended and a lack of significant data from around the world will hopefully lead to calmer markets. Of course, there will still be a number of reports and economic indicators for investors to focus on, and our neighbors to the north are prepping a major data release for the day [see also Five ETFs George Washington Probably Would Have Liked].
Canada will detail its total retail sales for the month of December. This includes core retail sales, wholesale sales, and regular retail sales, with the focus being turned to core retail. That figure has surpassed analyst expectations for the last four months, but today's report does not have as rosy of an outlook. Though the official prediction is for sales to fall around 0.1%, many speculate that they could turn out worse given all of the recent turmoil in around the world [see also Doomsday Special: 7 Hard Asset Investments You Can Hold in Your Hand].
Wells Fargo actually predicts a 0.2% drop in core retail citing a number of economic headwinds in the process. "'Given the slowing momentum in Canadian consumer spending, it is hard to hold out hope for a fifth straight increase in retail sales.' They also add that the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone as well as slow economic activity in the US requires from Canada to base on 'domestic demand to sustain the economic expansion there.'" writes FXstreet. Canada's last miss in retail sales came in September of last year (for the month of July) as the nation fell flat amid expectations of a meager 0.2% rise.
In light of this major economic report, today's ETF to watch will be the MSCI Canada Index Fund (EWC). This fund is designed to track the performance of the Canadian equity market and is home to over $4 billion in total assets. Top holdings of the fund include a number of bellwether banks as well as the massive gold miner Barrick Gold. The fund has returned a solid 6.7% on the year while paying out a dividend yield of approximately 1.9%. If retail sales come in as expected or higher, look for EWC to make a jump on the day, but a sour report will likely lead to a rough trading session for this Canadian ETF [see also Why No Investor Should Own GLD].
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.
Click here to read the original article on ETFdb.com.
Read more posts on ETF Database »


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Terry Boudreaux donates unique meteorite to the Field Museum
The meteorite, named Northwest Africa 7325, was found in Southern Morocco in early 2012 and likely comes from an asteroid in the space between Mars and Jupiter. The rock has puzzled scientists, leading one to speculate that it comes from the planet Mercury; however most researchers find this claim weak due to lack of evidence. This rock is an ungrouped achondrite and comes from a planetary body that has not been sampled before. Its study will enhance our picture of the diversity of planets in our solar system, and help better understand the formation of the planets, including Earth.
Thanks to private collector Terry Boudreaux the Museum has now access to this incredibly rare and scientifically valuable rock. Another specimen of NWA 7325 is on loan from Boudreaux that will go on exhibit in about a year from now. Boudreaux, a friend of the Museum, has donated many meteorites in the past.


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Mr. Who?
Chances are that the name "Mr. Espresso" doesn't exactly hit you over the head as a symbol of the Bay Area's finest espresso — but it should. They were recently ranked 6th in CitySearch.com's 2005 Best San Francisco Coffee. At first, this may seem like a pretty good feat. You might even recognize Mr. Espresso as the only winner in the top ten that isn't in San Francisco. But what if I told you that they don't sell a single cup of coffee?
Mr. Espresso is a Bay Area espresso institution — as a roaster and as a provider of espresso equipment, service, consulting, and training for a large swath of the Bay Area's world-renowned gourmet food industry. The Bay Area's nouveau roasters like Blue Bottle Coffee and Ritual Coffee Roasters garner all the local (and some national) press these days — and deservingly so. Yet Mr. Espresso was advancing the art and science of great espresso in the Bay Area back when the owners of these newcomers were still in diapers.
Originally an electrical engineer by trade, Carlo di Ruocco founded this family business in 1978 by selling and servicing imported espresso machines. He also drew upon the coffee roasting experience he developed since he was a boy in Salerno, Italy. His love for his native Italian coffee was shared by those who had the priviledge of sampling it, and the resulting interest and demand quickly grew into a family business.
Carlo's son, Luigi di Ruocco, recently contacted me via e-mail as a fan of CoffeeRatings.com. He invited me to take a look around the place, and I finally got to take him up on his generous offer this past Friday (December 16).
Employee Perks
Mr. Espresso is located just north of Jack London Square, along the coffee-rich Port of Oakland (the biggest speciality coffee import port in the nation). It's an industrial office in an industrial location, marked by espresso machines, a long service bench, pallets of coffee piled high, roasting equipment, and a variety of industrial machines for processing and packing.
Yet when Luigi first walked me into the employee-only area, I came face-to-face with beautiful espresso machines on showroom display in the employee espresso bar. And when I say "employee espresso bar," I don't mean the trendy, wannabe espresso stations you find as employee perks at dot-coms (see: Yahoo!). I'm talking a serious two-group Faema E91 Diplomat that employees regularly use to connect with the lifeblood of their business.
With walls covered in coffee-themed vintage poster art, a mirrored back wall behind the bar, and bar sinks filled with empty cups and sampled macchiatos, Luigi stepped behind the bar and offered me an espresso made with their Neapolitan Espresso roast. He asked me how I wanted it — long, short, single, double, etc. Luigi remarked how confusing it has become since more and more places started offering naked shots (Ritual Roasters being a more recent example). Naked shots, or shots made with bottomless portafilters, are something of an invention by Seattle's Zoka, where a double shot is more like a long single shot with conventional portafilter spouts. (We'll save the discussion of naked shots for another time.)
Luigi's "with spouts" doppio was a good example of some of the best espresso I've had in the Bay Area. (Read the review.) While the crema wasn't terribly thick, it was the darker, reddish brown that you expect to find in textbooks. Flavorwise, the espresso didn't have a heavy reliance on a dark roast for body — as is typical in the Bay Area. The result was a rich, potent, and yet very balanced cup where no flavor component seemed to overpower the others. You could taste the wide variety in the blend.
While Luigi was just being a gracious host, his espresso shot also served as an indicator of the potential for Mr. Espresso coffee and equipment that is rarely realized out in the field. Through no real fault of Mr. Espresso, many of their customers are often too preoccupied with other priorities to get the training the need, to use the freshest beans, and to ensure the highest standards (e.g., the "restaurant disease"). Luigi had previously mentioned his concern over their many customers with low ranks on CoffeeRatings.com, and he was looking for ways to close the gap between what was possible (e.g., what was in my cup) and what was the reality. Just getting their customers into one-hour training sessions is a challenge for them.
Welcome to the Machines
Looking at the many espresso machines and grinders in their showroom, there was a slight museum element to it all — not unlike SF's Thomas E. Cara, Ltd. One of the machines on display is a four-group Rancilio, an IMO decent line which Mr. Espresso no longer offers. Luigi said that they used to offer Rancilio machines as an economical option for their customers, but today they deal almost exclusively with Faema and Iberital — the latter of which was a new discovery for me.
The Spanish-made Iberital machines are a prime example from latest new wave of high-quality machine suppliers: using tried and true components such as the E-61 group head, many of these upcoming businesses are more assemblers of quality parts than outright manufacturers per se.
Passing through the employee break room, with walls decorated in photos of Italian cyclists, we approached the workbench where all Mr. Espresso machines pass through final quality control checkouts before being shipped out.
Mr. E's Secret Sauce
Luigi noted that today everyone has pretty much the same access to the same grade or quality of coffee beans. (This is, of course, good news for coffee lovers.) One of the things that differentiates Mr. Espresso is their commitment to wood fire roasting using seasoned oak — a tradition Carlo picked up in Salerno. This specialty process is rumored to produce roasts with a higher lipid content (critical for capturing flavor elements) and a lower acidic content.
Using stacked pallets of chopped oak in the back, they heat their custom roasters with fires stoked at the bottom. Near this wood "oven" are flexible metal vents used to control air flow and temperature. The entire system is hooked up to sophisticated process controls to ensure even, controlled roasts of a lenghty 25 minutes or so.
Hills of Beans
The resulting roasts produce even, beautiful beans that generally run a touch lighter than what you find at your typical Bay Area roaster. They often venture towards a Viennese or Full City roast (an Agtron/SCAA #45), with generally lighter amounts of oil on the surface of the beans. This echoed the characteristics I tasted in Luigi's espresso just minutes before. A lot of the oak wood roasting would probably be lost in darker blends.
They keep these roasted beans in large plastic bags stored in sealed lids, resting the beans for a minimum of 3-4 days to dispel any CO2 gas bubbles that might otherwise detract from a good espresso.
Next to a fine batch of dry-processed Ethiopian Sidamo (which made an very good single-bean espresso later on), Luigi showed me their robusta stock. Mr. Espresso has also tapped into the higher quality Indian robusta that has come to prominence in recent years, and it had only a slight bit of the classic "rubber" smell. Luigi said they use about 7-8% of this robusta in their espresso blends to bring out the crema and some of the brighter flavors. (This is lower than the ratio I use with the Indian robusta I roast for my own espresso blends at home — I'm definitely going to try this!)
In their warehouse, they keep about six months of green coffee bean stock. Luigi's brother, John, learned much of the bean buying trade from their father, but he has since advanced his own skills even further through SCAA courses, certifications, and other accreditations. (While both their father and mother are active in the business, both founding parents are slowly stepping back for the next generation to take charge.)
They exclusively blend their beans after roasting. And they spend a lot of effort trying to keep their blends consistent over the years, despite the natural vagaries of any international crop.
Attack of the Pod People
In a world that's ever more automated, the pains it takes to make a truly great espresso often don't seem to fit in. While hand-crafting and an attention to detail have made quite a comeback in the gourment restaurant trade, coffee and espresso just hasn't followed its lead.
Enter the pod: those single-serving, prepackaged puffs of pre-ground coffee that are inserted into, and discarded from, pod-compliant espresso machines like rifle ammunition. Low mess, low fuss, low labor. Low flavor? I've long been a pod skeptic myself, thinking that it merely represented repackaging of the same inferior product…another marketing brainchild run astray. (Not coincidentally, some manufacturers of pod systems instead call them disks. Anyone remember the Kodak Disc format, the Sony MiniDisc, etc.? Do we sense a theme here from failed MBA students?)
However, Luigi informed me that pods are growing significantly in popularity back in Italy — particularly in low-volume establishments (small restaurants and cafés, etc.) A section of Mr. Espresso's floorspace is dedicated to two machines that crank out prepackaged pods of their coffee.
Back in the employee espresso bar, he demonstrated their pod espresso with a single-group Iberital machine. In Luigi's words, the resulting product is rather consistent and pretty good, although some tasters will definitely notice something missing in the cup.
He was right. Perhaps a bit of the oils and lipids trap some flavors as the espresso is pulled through the surrounding paper filter. While it makes a relatively honest espresso, there is a noticeably narrower spectrum of flavors in the cup — flavors that also seem somewhat muted.
At the end of my tour, Luigi left me with a package of their Neapolitan Espresso blend (call it the "home version" as a lovely parting gift). I'm not about to succumb to the generation of pod people just yet, and this package was evidence why not.
9 Responses to "Inside Mr. Espresso"
[…] In the corner of the central service/bar area when you walk in is their espresso bar — but you'll need to order further down the counter at the register. At the espresso bar is an older three-group Faema originally supplied by Mr. Espresso, but it is now serviced by Bay Area Coffee Service. The difference is not insignificant; Mr. Espresso would be all over a client who wasn't making good use of their equipment, offering them training and technical assistance. […]
[…] Even here in our backyard, businesses such as Mr. Espresso have been promoting the highest quality standards in beans, roasts, equipment, and barista training for multiple generations — i.e., since the likes of some of these self-proclaimed third wavers were still in Pampers. Quality espresso is not the sudden confluence of modern scientific discovery and magic. It's been around for decades, and its supposed "secrets" have largely remained unchanged throughout. […]
[…] Using a newer three-group Mr. Espresso Faema, they pull espresso shots with a whisp of a dark-to-medium brown swirl of crema. The resulting cup has almost no body and is almost tasteless – save for the faintest hint of mild spice and sawdust. Truly a waste of Mr. Espresso coffee and equipment (and I'm sure Mr. Espresso has their hands full trying to convince them of their need for improvements). Served in classic brown ACF cups. […]
[…] They serve a custom blend from Mr. Espresso — and the staff seem to know Luigi (which is a good sign). Using a three-group Mr. Espresso Rancilio machine, they serve a very large espresso in a short paper cup with an decent layer of medium-brown crema. It has an herbal flavor with some tobacco notes. This place originally overextracted their shots a bit, but that (and their espresso) has since improved with shorter pours of late. Their weekday baristas here are also generally better than the ones on weekends. […]
[…] That's the major downside I see in these pods and their machines. For the common coffee consumer who is only casually interested in the beverage (whom makes up the great majority), you could argue that they are raising the standards bar compared to the Bunn warmer. But in many other ways, the standards are being lowered — much in a similar way that the super-automated espresso machines that infiltrated Starbucks in recent years essentially installed a glass ceiling on their beverage quality. The big tradeoff of these pods is that you can't vary the strength of the shot, and most of all that the resulting shot is always — as Luigi di Ruocco of Mr. Espresso put it to me last year — "missing something". […]
[…] Mr. Espresso (formerly #6) — A deserving candidate. But I'm shocked that they even listed last year, given that they don't sell prepared coffee to the retail public. […]
[…] At l'università, they compared for him espresso made with 100% Arabica beans and with a 50/50 Arabica/robusta blend. Illy openly disdains robusta coffee as a cheaper coffee stock, so it's not surprising that they went for the full "cheap beans" effect. Yet there are others who argue that the American outright avoidance of robusta in quality espresso is a major problem. In any case, I find an espresso blend of 90/10 makes a nicely balanced espresso — particularly with some of the high-end, carefully processed robusta stocks now available from places like India. […]
[…] mentioned the phenomenon of naked shots here a couple years ago. Before Clover brewers were all the trendy rage in coffee, a few years ago the folks at Zoka Coffee […]
[…] *Although it's from a while back, you can also read up on the Mr. Espresso roasting facility here. […]


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Here's a good short review on a subject that doesn't come up too often in drug discovery, but can be a major headache when it does: atropisomerism. There are all sorts of structural isomers possible for organic compounds, and students in their second-year class have a joyful time learning them and keeping them straight. But what all those diastereomers and enantiomers in the textbooks have in common is that, fundamentally, they come down to invariant arrangements of the atoms and groups of each molecule. Enantiomers (like D-threonine and L-threonine), or diastereomers (like D-threonine and D-allo-threonine) differ from each other at a fundamental level of which atom is attached to which, and in which direction. Nothing can change that, without turning the molecule into another substance.
Atropisomers, though, are weirder. They happen when structures that would normally be identical through bond rotation are hindered enough for two separate species to exist. The example at right is the first pair that was ever described in the literature, back in the 1920s. If things were freely rotating around that bond between the two aryl rings, these two conformational isomers could never be seen alone. But the groups flanking the central bond keep things from being able to rotate, and you get the pair of enantiomers (mirror-image compounds) shown. They can be separated by making salts with chiral amines, and the resulting free acids do not interconvert, and have opposite optical rotations. They're enantiomers, all right, although they don't have any chiral carbons in their structures at all.
You can get into this situation in several kinds of structures. Ortho-substituted aryl rings shoved together are the classic way, as shown, but you can also have hindered amides that don't rotate any more, medium-sized rings that sort of chunk back and forth between two conformations (as in this case), bicyclic structures that can't quite get out of their own way, and more. As you might imagine, there's a whole range of these things. Freely rotating bonds are zipping around so fast that you'll never distinguish things, but atropisomers can interconvert on time scales of seconds, minutes, days, or years, depending on their structure and on the temperature you're observing them at.
This neat effect can be a major pain in drug development, though. As enantiomers, the two members of an atropisomeric pair can (and in fact almost certainly will) show different effects in living systems. We're very markedly chiral, after all (try to find some L-glucose or D-phenylalanine in your body). So what if you take a dose of a pure atropisomer, and over the hours that it's in your bloodstream, it slowly converts to a mixture of two different enantiomers? What if it does that over a period of weeks on the pharmacy shelf? There are, for sure, conventionally chiral drugs with labile chiral centers on them, although we try to avoid that sort of thing. Atropisomerism, though, can sneak up on you, because you're not always aware that you've up and made a chiral molecule.
In fact, as that review shows, what often happens when atropisomerism shows up in a lead series is that the med-chemists sigh and go back to the bench to find some way to get rid of it. There are two ways you can go – loosen things up to where everything is freely rotating again, or tighten things down to where the rate of interconversion slows down to where it can be ignored. There are successful examples of each approach. What doesn't work, though, is just hoping the problem will go away – come to think of it, that doesn't work too well in general.


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|Need willpower?
For a long time, the commonly held belief among psychologists was that willpower is like a muscle - it gets fatigued after use, but over time it can become stronger. Also, the general consensus is that we have one common pool of willpower - so after spending a day studying instead of watching reality tv reruns, you just might find yourself unable to resist the temptation of that delicious chocolate cake. Operating under this assumption, scores of research studies showed that people get depleted after engaging in a task that requires willpower.
A quick digression: one famous task used in psychological research that examines interference and self control is called the Stroop Task. This task requires you to read a list of words out loud. In the classic version, the words are a list of colors, such as 'yellow,' 'red,' and 'blue' and you have to read them as quickly as you can. Sounds easy right? Not so fast. The words are all colored. Give it a quick try below:


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Ebuild Functions
Ebuild Functions
Ebuilds provide the ability to define various shell functions that are used to specify various actions relating to building and installing a source or binary package on a user's system. When an ebuild is emerged, the following functions are called, in order:
- pkg_setup - variable intialization and sanity checks
- src_unpack
- src_prepare
- src_configure
- src_compile
- src_install
At this point, the files are ready to be "merged" into the live filesystem. This is when they are copied from the temporary build directory into /usr, etc. At this point, the following functions are executed:
- pkg_preinst
- (files are merged)
- pkg_postinst
src_* functions
Ebuild functions starting with src_ are all related to creating the ebuild or package from source code/artifacts, and are defined below:
src_unpack is intended to be used to unpack the source code/artifacts that will be used by the other src_* functions. With EAPI 1 and earlier, it is also used for patching/modifying the source artifacts to prepare them for building, but with EAPI 2 or later the src_prepare function should be used for this instead. When src_unpack starts, the current working directory is set to $WORKDIR, which is the directory within which all source code/artifacts should be expanded. Note that the variable $A is set to the names of all the unique source files/artifacts specified in SRC_URI, and they will all be available in $DISTDIR by the time src_unpack starts. Also note that if no src_unpack function is specified, ebuild.sh will execute the following function for src_unpack by default:
src_unpack() { unpack ${A} }
EAPI 2 and above support the src_prepare function, which is intended to be used for applying patches or making other modifications to the source code. When src_prepare starts, the current working directory is set to $S.
EAPI 2 and above support the src_configure function, which is used to configure the source code prior to compilation. With EAPI 2 and above, the following default src_configure is defined if none is specified:
src_configure() { if [[ -x ${ECONF_SOURCE:-.}/configure ]] ; then econf fi }
This function defines the steps necessary to compile source code. With EAPI 1 and earlier, this function is also used to configure the source code prior to compilation. However, starting with EAPI 2, the src_configure function must be used for configuration steps instead of bundling them inside src_compile. In addition, starting with EAPI 2, there is now a default src_compile function that will be executed if none is defined in the ebuild:
src_compile() { if [ -f Makefile ] || [ -f GNUmakefile ] || [ -f makefile ] ; then emake || die "emake failed" fi }
src_test is an interesting function - by default, an end-user's Portage does not have tests enabled. But if a user has test in FEATURES, or EBUILD_FORCE_TEST is defined, then ebuild.sh will attempt to run a test suite for this ebuild, by executing make check or make test if these targets are defined in the Makefile; otherwise, no tests will execute. If your Makefile supports make check or make test but the test suite is broken, then specify RESTRICT="test" in your ebuild to disable the test suite.
src_install is used by the ebuild writer to install all to-be-installed files to the $D directory, which can be treated like an empty root filesystem, in that ${D}/usr is the equivalent of the /usr directory, etc. When src_install runs, the Portage sandbox will be enabled, which will prevent any processes from creating or modifying files outside of the ${D} filesystem tree, and a sandbox violation will occur (resulting in the termination of the ebuild) if any such sandbox violation should occur. Once src_install has perfomed all necessary steps to install all to-be-installed files to $D, Portage will take care of merging these files to the filesystem specified by the $ROOT environment variable, which defaults to / if not set. When Portage merges these files, it will also record information about the installed package to /var/db/pkg/(cat)/$P. Typically, a src_install function such as this is sufficient for ensuring that all to-be-installed files are installed to $D:
src_install() { make DESTDIR="$D" install }
pkg_* functions
An ebuild's functions starting with pkg_* take a wider view of the package lifecycle, and may be executed very early or very late in the build or package installation process. They are also all executed even if installing a Portage binary package, so are the intended place for defining any global configuration changes that are also required during binary package installation, such as user and group creation. When these functions are executed, the $ROOT variable will be defined to point to the target root filesystem to which the package is to be (or has been) installed. All logic inside pkg_* functions must function properly even if $ROOT is something other than /.
The pkg_setup function is unusual in that it runs prior to any src_* function, and also runs prior to any other pkg_* function that runs when a binary package is installed, so it provides a useful place for the ebuild writer to perform any sanity checks, global configuration changes to the system (such as user/group creation) or set any internal global variables that are used by the rest of the ebuild. Using this function for defining global variables that are needed in multiple other functions is a useful way of avoiding duplicate code. You should also look to pkg_setup as the ideal place to put any logic that would otherwise linger in the main body of the ebuild, which should be avoided at all costs as it will slow down dependency calculation by Portage. Also remember that Portage can build binary packages, and this function is a good place to execute any steps that are required to run both prior to building an ebuild, and prior to installing a package. Also consider using pkg_preinst and pkg_postinst for this purpose.
The pkg_pretend function was added with EAPI 3, and it's the opinion of Daniel Robbins that the use of this function should be avoided. This function is especially unusual in that it is intended to be run during dependency calculation, and is intended to provide a polite mechanism to inform the user that a particular ebuild will fail due to a known incompatibility, typically a kernel incompatibility. That way, the user can know during emerge --pretend that a merge will fail. While this is useful, extending the dependency engine using bash is a very low-performance means to perform these tests. In addition, some of these problems may be resolved by to-be-merged dependencies. If extra pre-compile checks need to be performed, place them in
pre_src_compile so that they run immediately before the compile process.
To use
pkg_pretend properly, understand that it runs at dep calculation time, and may be prior to the ebuild building from source, installing from a binary package, or just building a binary package and not installing. To determine what exactly will be happening, examine the
MERGE_TYPE variable. It can have one of the following possible values:
- the ebuild is installing from binary package.
- the ebuild is installing from source.
buildonly; the ebuild is building a package, but not installing.
Based on the setting of
MERGE_TYPE. perform the appropriate checks.
The pkg_preinst function is called by Portage, prior to merging the to-be-installed files to the target filesystem specified by $ROOT environment variable (which defaults to /.) Keep in mind that these to-be-installed files were either just compiled and installed to $D by src_install, or they were just extracted from a .tbz2 binary package. The pkg_preinst function provides an ideal place to perform any "just before install" actions, such as user and group creation or other necessary steps to ensure that the package merges successfully. It also provides a potential place to perform any sanity checks related to installing the package to the target filesystem. If any sanity checks fail, calling die from this function will cause the package to not be installed to the target filesystem.
The pkg_postinst function is called by Portage prior to the package being installed to the target filesystem specified by $ROOT. This is a good place to perform any post-install configuration actions as well as print any informational messages for the user's benefit related to the package that was just installed.
The pkg_prerm function is called by Portage before an ebuild is removed from the filesystem.
The pkg_postrm function is called by Portage after an ebuild is removed from the filesystem.
The pkg_config function is called by Portage when the user calls emerge --config for the ebuild. The current directory will be set to the current directory of the shell from where emerge --config is run.
Skipping over a function
To skip over a function, create a function that does not do anything. The recommended way is to use bash no-op command:
# Skip src_prepare.
src_prepare() { :; }
Extra pre_ and post_ functions
Modern versions of Portage also support functions identical to the above functions but with pre_ and post_ at the beginning of the function name. For example, post_src_configure will be executed after src_configure and before src_compile. These additional functions are supported by all EAPIs, provided that the parent function is supported by the EAPI in use. The initial current working directory should be identical to the initial current working directory of the parent function.
Helper Functions
econf() is part of ebuild.sh and is intended to be a wrapper to the configure command that is typically used in the src_configure() stage. It has a number of behaviors that are important for ebuild writers to understand. Once you understand what econf() does, you are free to use it in your ebuilds. Note that the behavior of econf() is generally safe for most autoconf-based source archives, but in some cases it may be necessary to avoid using econf() to avoid some of its default behaviors.
Automatically set prefix
--prefix=/usr will be passed to configure automatically, unless a --prefix argument was specified to econf(), in which case, that --prefix setting will be used instead.
Automatically set libdir
If the ABI variable is set (typically done in the profile), then econf() will look for a variable named LIBDIR_$ABI (ie. LIBDIR_amd64). If this variable is set, the value of this variable will be used to set libdir to the value of {prefix}/LIBDIR_$ABI.
Automatically set CHOST and CTARGET
The --host=$CHOST argument will be passed to configure. $CHOST is defined in the system profile. In addition, the --target=$CTARGET argument will be passed to configure if $CTARGET is defined. This is not normally required but is done to make Portage more capable of cross-compiling the ebuild. However, this functionality is not a guarantee that your ebuild will successfully cross-compile, as other changes to the ebuild may be necessary.
Disable Dependency Tracking (EAPI 4)
In EAPI 4, the --disable-dependency-tracking argument will be passed to configure in order to optimize the performance of the configuration process. This option should have no impact other than on the performance of the configure script.
List of arguments
The following arguments are passed to configure and are all overrideable by the user by passing similar options to econf():
- --prefix=/usr
- --libdir={prefix}/LIBDIR_$ABI
- --host=${CHOST}
- if CTARGET is defined, then --target=${CTARGET}
- --mandir=/usr/share/man
- --infodir=/usr/share/info
- --datadir=/usr/share
- --sysconfdir=/etc
- --localstatedir=/var/lib
- if EAPI 4+, then --disable-dependency-tracking


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The law of armed conflict, or international humanitarian law, is one of the oldest areas of international law. This seminar will examine the two core prongs of that law: the limitation on methods of warfare (such as rules on targeting and bans on certain weapons), and the protection of people not engaged in combat (especially civilians and POWs). We will pay particular attention to recent developments, including challenges to the law from counter-terrorism operations and the conflict in Iraq. The last part of the course will turn to the implementation of international humanitarian law through the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, national armies, and methods of holding individuals criminally responsible for violations of the law of war.
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Regents of the
University of Michigan. All images property of Michigan Law
The University of Michigan Law School.
625 South State Street,
Ann Arbor, Michigan
48109-1215 USA - Contact Us


text:
Bob Johnston was giving his 21-month-old son, T.J., a bath in his home on Windsor Mill Road in Franklintown the night of Dec. 18 when he felt "a god-awful shaking" and looked outside.
Three lawns away, a large van had crashed into a neighbor's home. In Johnston's front yard, a small tree decorated for Christmas was in disarray. "I saw all the balls that my wife put on the tree on the ground, and I thought, 'He went right through the yard,'" Johnston said.
The van, registered to the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, had actually driven through three yards, gone airborne off a 6-foot embankment and clipped the home of Samuel Johnson, who said he heard "a loud boom along with a lot of screeching" before he jumped off his couch and ran toward the rear of his home. The van then smashed into the porch of Juan Tejada, who said the collision sounded "like a bomb."
The residents were startled, but not exactly surprised. The accident was not the first to threaten homes or cause damage on the street, where the 30 mph speed limit is often ignored, said residents, who have been pressing county officials for help.
Over the past five years, a two-mile stretch of the road — which cuts northwest from Leakin Park and the city line toward Woodlawn — has seen an accident with property damage every other week, on average. Those living on the stretch just past Kernan Hospital, where some homes are just feet from the road, say the area has become dangerous.
"If you surveyed any one of the residents in the 5400 block or the 5500 block, they'll all tell you the speeding in there is excessive and dangerous," said Gino Secola, a resident of the street for more than 20 years who says his home has been hit by cars three times. "One of these days, one of us is going to be standing in our yard and is going to get killed."
County police say there have been no fatalities on the stretch of road since 2008 — a fact that surprised some residents — and the road does not stand out to them as particularly problematic.
"I don't believe that the road is a troublesome road," said Lt. Chad Rosay, assistant commander of the Woodlawn Precinct. "But I do know that we get speeders up there, and we address them through enforcement."
Residents say enforcement is lacking. And fatalities or not, there have been plenty of accidents along the road. Residents say many are caused when southbound drivers come down a large nearby hill and don't expect residents to be turning into driveways or other motorists to be stopped, waiting to turn onto a side street.
Last year, for example, there were 11 hit-and-run accidents that caused property damage along the two-mile stretch between the city line and Gwynn Oak Avenue, according to police statistics. One, on Valentine's Day, totaled resident Krystle Housley's car, which was legally parked on the street.
"I came out and the whole side of my car had been sideswiped," she said. Another car of Housley's was hit on St. Patrick's Day, she said. Then, on New Year's morning, yet another car of hers was hit and totaled shortly before 5 a.m., she said.
"That's three in a year," she said. "I'm dead asleep and I hear this crash and I open my eyes and I say, 'That's my car.'"
Over the past five years, there were 133 accidents causing property damage along the two-mile stretch, including 29 that were hit-and-run incidents. There were also 31 accidents causing personal injury, one of which was a hit-and-run, and four accidents involving county-owned vehicles.
The Dec. 18 crash sent the driver, a corrections officer, to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. An investigation of the crash led to no citations, which means officers determined that speeding and other traffic violations were not involved, said Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman.
Residents say that's ridiculous.
There were also no traffic citations issued in the New Year's accident, Batton said, although the driver was cited for five offenses, including driving without a registration and license.
In September, the Franklintown Community Association surveyed residents and found all who responded want the county to step in to better control traffic. President Jack Lattimore said the association previously requested that the county conduct an engineering study of the road as well, but the request was denied.
In November, the association held a meeting with police and county officials, including County Councilman Ken Oliver, to air their grievances.
"There were a lot of neighbors there getting pretty riled up," Lattimore said.
Residents were promised the issue would be investigated, and a large, electronic sign that displays motorists' speeds was placed on the road. The sign has helped, residents say, but Lattimore said he was told by police it won't remain there for long, because different precincts in the county share it.
"Then we'll be back to the Talladega Speedway, as some of our neighbors call it," he said.
Oliver said last month that the county's Department of Public Works was looking into the issue. On Wednesday, he said he believed the road is not problematic and questioned whether accidents have occurred recently.
"What the community has told you happened two or three years ago," he said. Before he could be asked to comment on the fact that there have been a number of more recent incidents, he abruptly ended a conversation with a reporter.
David Fidler, a county public works spokesman, expressed surprise at the number of accidents along the two miles of Windsor Mill Road — which he called "pretty high for that small stretch."
But Fidler said accident statistics along the road "have not triggered the Department of Public Works' traffic engineers to do a study."
Because Windsor Mill is a "feeder road" for highways in the area such as Interstate 70 — which has had its own history of dangerous drag racing — it "probably would not qualify" for other traffic-calming measures such as speed bumps, Fidler said.
"It's a matter of perspective," he said. "They're rightfully concerned about their community, but it may not merit the same level of concern from traffic engineers, and there's a limit to what public works can do about the design of roads."
Residents said they are frustrated by such explanations. At the least, more speed-limit signs could be installed, they said.
Dan Knott, a 25-year resident of the street, said that "it has always been bad, but in recent years, it has gotten worse."
Not long ago, a truck came barreling through the neighborhood, "pulverized" a retaining wall surrounding Knott's yard and drove into a tree, the truck's speed forcing its front wheels vertically into the sky.
"When the truck finished riding up that tree, you could walk under it like a bridge," Knott said. "And that tree was the only thing stopping it from our porch."
Latest Baltimore County


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South Beach Wetlands
Qunitard St., Pearsall St., Frank Capodanno Blvd.
Staten Island
Directions via Google Maps
These wetlands, which take their name from the surrounding community of South Beach, were assigned to Parks by the City of New York on December 30, 1999. The park's 4.794 acres are undeveloped wilderness, home to an exciting variety of plant and animal species.
Originally part of a small 1661 Dutch settlement, the coastal neighborhoods of Middle and South Beach saw very little change until the 1880s. During that period, investors began to recognize the potential of opening the wide beaches to the teeming mass of Manhattanites trying to escape the city's summer heat. With the additions of hotels, bathing pavilions, theaters, beer gardens, shooting galleries, carousels, and Ferris wheels, the beachfront property was transformed almost overnight.


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Dale Graham: 13-Year-Old Pure Stock Racer
Concerns have grown over the years whether the amount of young auto enthusiasts have been shrinking. With that said, we need these young enthusiasts to help pave the future for our sport. We received a message online from Roger and Theresa Graham about their son, Dale.
This 13-year-old from Florida is taking the auto world by storm. Dale Graham was born in 2000 and races pure stock at North Florida Speedway after some much needed convincing of his parents. After he finally persuaded them to let him race, Roger, Dale's dad, found him a car.
Roger added more roll bars and a steel plate inside the driver's door for safety measures. The car already featured two fire-out systems, one he could pull and an automatic one. No point in repainting the car for the track, so they added a "G" (for Graham) in front of the 0, but some call it the "GO" car.
When it's your kid out there, safety is the first priority. Dale wears a HANS device when racing and one of the best firesuits for his size. For a kid that weighs only 100 pounds with a 28-inch waist and 30-inch inseam, a one-piece firesuit is hard to find.
This year on March 9, 2013, Dale drove his first race at North Florida Speedway in Lake City. He finished in 10th place out of 20 cars, beating out half of the other racers his first time out on the track.
During his 5th race, he was a close second on the white flag and tried to jump to first place, but ended up taking third, which is still more than impressive. On August 17, 2013, during the rainy summer season in Florida, the race Dale was scheduled for was rained out. So, that next weekend meant a double feature for Dale where he took home his first win!
And like almost everyone, sometimes racers forget stuff on the mental checklist, and that happened to the Grahams with Dale's firesuit. They were lucky to find out that somebody brought an extra firesuit, but it was a size 40. None of that matters when you're holding up that checkered flag.
Dale is the youngest driver in his class competing with men who have been racing for over 15 years. The next youngest driver is just 16 years old and raced this class last year. The average amount of cars is about 20 on race night, whereas Roger remembers that in the late '90s there might be just five cars out there on the track.
Soon Dale will be driving in a different class, but probably not until next year. Roger still has his Late Model #14 with a wing, and is already trying to figure out how to adjust the seat to accommodate little Dale. Soon Dale will be making the change from dirt to asphalt racing!
Now Dale has two feature wins under his belt and two sponsors, Hales Auto Parts and Graham Auto both out of Live Oak, Florida.
We look forward to hearing more about Dale's racing in the future.
Photos Courtesy of Raz Pewton.


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I have been a Poco/Barca end user since 2004. I wantPoco/Barca to survive. All PIM E-mail clients have limitations as previous members have stated. As other users have stated, too, I tried other clients. There is no doubt, I would pay for an upgrade version.
Cloud? No thank you. I prefer to control my PIM e-mail client.
Have a wonderful day!


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Sites We Like: An Event Apart, Ballard Pizza Company, Reno Chicago, and MuleNog '12
There's plenty of pizza, an AEA redesign, and some holiday cheer in this week's sites we like.
Ballard Pizza Company serves whole pies and fat slices to the pizza lovers of Seattle. Their website packs a lot of information into a narrow space, while exuding hard work and quick service; two widths of Proxima Nova (regular and Extra Condensed) deliver.
Taut type, glossy photography, and a burlap background emphasize the attention to surface and texture at Reno Chicago. A simple composition built with no-frills Refrigerator Deluxe helps bring out the content's warm glow.
For people who make websites, the An Event Apart redesign might be as educational as the conference itself. From its new RESS-based design to its masterful application of the upbeat and clever Freight Sans, the new site is worth studying.
Alright, that's enough working hard, paying attention, and studying — it's time to make a fake moon landing video and get invited to MuleNog '12. When you get there, be sure to compliment Alaska Dave on the pertinent use of BD Geminis. Source Sans does a fine, upstanding job despite the surrounding nonsense.
That's all for this week! Share sites that you like in the comments!