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I'm so jealous that Anna and Lib got to ride the ever-elusive Carousel in DUMBO….we took our wedding photos in many of the same spots down there but that was the ONE that was closed 🙁
Anna & Liberty
September 19th, 2008
SmackMellon Studios, BROOKLYN, New York
Lib and I had a GREAT time planning our wedding. For us, getting married was just declaring publicly what we have known for a really long time, that we love each other deeply and are meant to be together. We are a pretty non-trad couple and we wanted everything about the day to reflect our style. Every thing we did had meaning and symbolism for us, we made it all count! We knew we wanted a short, but very meaningful and spiritual ceremony and then…throw a huge, awesome party to celebrate with all the people we love! We had a very diverse crowd – backgrounds, age ranges, country of origin – so we wanted to make sure we everyone felt included and part of the party, in every aspect. We chose to use local businesses and artists as much as possible. The quality of their work and dedication far surpassed anything we've ever seen. We had the best day of our lives and when I think back, all I do is smile, the room was completely full of love – it was amazing!
Ceremony & Reception Site
We had our ceremony and reception at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn (www.smackmellon.org/rent.html) – we loved the venue from the second we saw it. I really wanted a blank canvas for the wedding so we could set things up exactly as we wanted it to be. The space is located between the foot of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges in DUMBO and the views are spectacular. It brings the feeling of old Brooklyn, together with the new – and since Lib and I are both born Brooklynites, and so proud of it, we felt it fit perfectly.
Karen Mordechai (www.karenmordechai.com) of Brooklyn. I found Karen through a post on Brooklyn Bride! I thought her photos were fantastic, so I called her immediately and booked the date. She met with Liberty and I and we were on our way. She is talented, calm, sweet and extremely professional. Karen shoots in more of a photo-journalistic style – and that's what we wanted – someone who could go with the flow. She honored all our requests and was genuinely concerned that we be satisfied and happy. Karen totally surprised us when she told us she obtained permission for us to take pics on the beautiful antique carousel in DUMBO – something Liberty really wanted to do!
Always a Bridesmaid (www.alwaysabridesmaid.us)
Possibilities are endless when you rent a raw space, and so is the list of things you have to do to make it all work out. Since the venue comes with, well, 4 walls and a bathroom, we were really going to need help coordinating the days leading up the wedding and the day of. Xochitl and Mayra were the unbelievable! They went above and beyond what they signed on to do, and the day went off without a hitch (at least none that I know of)! They have a terrific relationships with their past and current vendors and knew exactly what to do when they were faced with new challenges. Liberty and I enjoyed every second, they kept everything organized and on track, and were absolutely graceful and amazing and lovely. Liberty and I don't know what we would have done without them, and we cannot say enough about them and the amount of joy they brought to our day.
Our Amazing Ceremony
My sister was my maid of honor and Liberty's nephew was his best man. My mother walked me down the "isle" to Israel Kamakawiwo'oles' version of "Wonderful World." Our officiate was Ali Berlin (www.aliberlin.com) who we feel blessed to know! She is an amazing, spiritual woman who is a life coach in San Francisco, CA. Liberty and I wrote our own vows and asked Ali to incorporate several themes into our service – including having our guests be a part of it. Ali asked all our guests to join hands and pledge to support us not only on that day, but throughout our marriage. Our ceremony was about 15 minutes, but every single word was meaningful! After Ali finished her beautiful ceremony, we recessed to "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles. There was hardly a dry eye in the house!
Invites, Cards, all things paper (and beyond)
All by Jessica and her staff at Artez'n on Atlantic Ave (www.artezn.com). We knew the vibe we wanted and Jessica caught on right away. We wanted to use a photo Liberty took of the Brooklyn Bridge, so she worked her design magic and made it into our "Save the Date" postcard. The invites, envelopes, place cards, table cards, menus and our thank you notes all keep in the same "Brooklyn LOVE" theme. We got so much positive feedback about them – some of our guests framed them! Jessica also put together our hotel bags which were Brooklyn themed and contained Brooklyn Soap, Brooklyn Fudge, Brooklyn maps, magnets, postcards…
Our talented friend Scott Bragin of Rhythm of the Night Entertainment (Brooklyn again!) ruled the turntables! Liberty is a musician and he and I met when I was working in the music business – so this was perhaps the most important part of our reception for us! Lib had stacks of song lists by the hour and after a few meetings with Scott, we knew it would be flawless. Our guests were pretty surprised that with a room full of musicians we chose to have a DJ. For us, it was a no brainer – we wanted our guests to dance, not play music all night (which is what happens when musicians and instruments are in the same room). Originally we didn't want a "first dance" but so many people told us that we needed to get the party started by getting up there first, I'm glad we did! Lib dedicated, "Feels Like Home" to me and I dedicated "No One" to him. We played music during our cocktail hour by our musician friends who were in attendance, mixed in with Americana and Lounge and the rest of night covered everything from Funk and Soul to the Stones and Jane's Addiction. Scott did an amazing job – the dance floor was always FULL – including all the musicians who kept going, "Oh – I love this song! (email@example.com). We closed the evening with The Beatles, "All You Need Is Love." I would not change a single note played.
Steve Carapella, Three Brothers Butchers/Caraleo Catering – We are way into food and Lib has serious Italian roots, so we really wanted everything to be outstanding. It was. We worked with Steve who also helped us with rentals of staff, chairs, tables, linens, silverware – lots of planning and sampling (which was fun). They even brought in uplighting for us for the room. We didn't want any "typical wedding food." Our menu was completely custom created from our wishlist and they tweaked everything we wanted so that we could make it work in a space that does not allow open flames and has a limited kitchen. We added Brooklyn Wine (www.redwhiteandbubbly.com) and Brooklyn Beer (www.brooklynbrewery.com) to our full bar, as well as several 'non-alcoholic' customized drinks for our guests – so they would have more than the same old soda and juice options.
Brooklyn Dessert
We didn't want a traditional wedding cake, so we brought in all of our favorite desserts, gigantic chocolate cream filled cupcakes (they look like the famous ones with the white squiggle on top – only twice the size) from Downtown Atlantic Bakery on Atlantic Avenue (www.downtownatlantic.com), trays of caramel bread pudding from 3 Brothers, all different flavors of delicious Junior's Cheesecake (www.juniorscheesecake.com), cannolis, fruit and pastries and…what turned out to be the biggest hit of the night – and a surprise for Lib from me -a Mr Softee truck (www.mistersoftee.com)! We attached tickets to the back of everyone's place card that they could turn in to the ice cream man for whatever they would like. In a matter of seconds, all the guests turned into a bunch of kids running out the door to get to the truck! It was terrific (and it is a great value)!
Flowers & Decor
We are all about the vintage and antique vibe and I wanted something really special for our centerpieces, so we spent months collecting vintage antique depression glass pitchers and glass sets from flea markets and antique shops – no two were the same. I printed out tons of pictures of flower arrangements and color schemes and brought them to Joe at Langdon Florist (212 962 4371). After being endlessly patient with me (I am clueless about flowers) we decided on arrangements that were antique looking and let the beauty of the glass shine. Joe filled each pitcher with flowers and the matching glasses were filled with tea lights and placed around the pitchers on each table. I bought tons of vintage amber juice glass sets and amber candleholders and we used them on the tables, window sills – everywhere! Joe also made a few large arrangements that we used for multiple purposes at venue (on the card table, as a backdrop for the ceremony, then the bar, then the buffet – you make the most of your budget that way) as well as the bouquet for my sis, boutonnières for Liberty and Eric and flowers for our parents. He went out of his way to make sure everything was perfect. Joe took our budget and showed us how to get the most out of it. At the end of the night, whomever had a purple ribbon tied to their chair, took the vintage pitcher and glass set home as their favor. Also, we set up 2 Polaroid cameras and sign in books for our guests to take pics, and write notes (lots of people snuck extra pics and took them home as mementos).
This was a very important part of the day for Lib and I and we wanted to make this happen in a way that was positive and happy.
I asked our photographer Karen for one posed shot – and one only! When my mom got married, her photographer took a few pics of her getting ready with my Nana in front of her vanity mirror. My nana passed when I was little, but we were very close. My mom still has that mirror, so she brought it to our apartment where Karen helped set it up in my bedroom, and we placed a photo of my nana and pop off to the side. My mom posed in the mirror with me, and I got a new version of her picture. Karen also took photos of the original Polaroid's, which was a nice surprise to see when I got my pictures back! Also, I put my nana's bedspread and a pretty little pillow she had on our so it's in the background of all our "getting ready" shots.
During our ceremony, Ali spoke about those whom we wished could be with us, more specifically mentioning Liberty's brother who passed away very young. She pointed out that he was there with us through his son Eric, Liberty's best man. Ali also thanked my mother on my behalf, for being both my mom and my dad my whole life, and how much that means to me. The photos of nana and pop went on my mom's table, as well as a few other photos. My cousin, Father Giles (who is 80!) is a Franciscan priest and he blessed our marriage and said grace prior to dinner, pulling all of our family members and guests together. I searched all over for a vintage locket that could hold multiple pics for a gift my sis (which I found on Etsy). I filled it with photos of all the generations of strong women in our family who we are descendants of. I wanted her to know that's he is one of those strong women and that I love her not only as my sister, but as my best friend. I added my mom's blue butterfly pin to my bouquet, as well as a locket (Etsy again) with pictures of my family who could not be with there with me, but were all definitely there in spirit!
Beauty & Attire
My hair was done by the talented Paul of PANYC Salon in NYC (www.panyconline.com). I've been going to him for about 10 years now and he never lets me down! Brooklyn make up artist Elizabeth Kamp was amazing! She not only did my make up, but also did my sister's and mom's. She is the calmest person in the world and she's a great listener! Fellow redheads will understand this – she didn't try to cover my freckles or cake on crazy amounts of makeup! Both Elizabeth and Paul offer amazing pricing for what they do. My dress is Jenny Packham, Liberty's suit is John Varvatos.
My earrings were borrowed from my oldest friends, Jennifer Gandia of Greenwich Jewelers NYC (www.greenwichjewelers.com) I carried a purse that my sis got for me from a vintage shop specifically for this purpose – when I got engaged (5 years ago)! My sister's jewelry is by Maleeka on Atlantic Ave (www.maleeka.com).
[images by Karen Mordechai]


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Pfc. Caleb A. Lufkin landed on the helipad at about 12:30 p.m., screaming at the sky as a small all-terrain vehicle carried him past the palm trees and concrete bunkers to the emergency room. Doctors inside cut off his blood-covered boots and prepared to sedate him and insert a breathing tube, and he pleaded with them to keep him alive.
"Don't let me die," he said.
"I won't let you die," answered Capt. David Steinbruner, an Army doctor. "I promise. I give you my word."
Lufkin was bleeding from multiple blast injuries and compound fractures, so the medical team at the 10th Combat Support Hospital gave him red blood cells to replace his lost blood and plasma to help him clot. But they quickly concluded that he was on a perilous course toward a massive transfusion and that his odds of survival were decreasing with each minute that he continued to bleed.
At 12:41, without waiting to see if surgery or more transfusions would be enough to stop the bleeding, they ordered a 7.2 milligram dose of Recombinant Activated Factor VII.
When Lufkin arrived at the Army's combat hospital in Baghdad on May 4, he was the first of three American soldiers brought in over a 24-hour period, each with injuries severe enough to require blood transfusions and emergency surgery. Like more than 1,000 of the war's seriously wounded troops, each was treated with Factor VII, a powerful and largely untested blood-coagulating drug that the Army considers a wonder of modern trauma care, but which researchers have linked to deadly blood clots that lodge in the heart, lungs and brain.
All three soldiers left Baghdad alive, their doctors anticipating full recovery. One experienced no problems and later said he was grateful for whatever steps were taken to save his life. But two later suffered unexplained blood clots and died from subsequent complications.IraqIraq[From Page 1A]
Some doctors worry that the Army, in its effort to push the limits of modern trauma medicine, is going too far with its enthusiasm for Factor VII, that giving it to the war's casualties could be doing more harm than good. But the physicians in Baghdad say that a war is no time to be cautious and that they'll consider any new advancement or technique that might save lives.
"All we can do is give these guys the best chance we can, with the best equipment and training we have," said Lt. Col. Bob Mazur, who served as the chief emergency room doctor in Baghdad that day. "This is war, and bad stuff happens."
Private Lufkin's injuries
Lufkin, 24, was wounded just before noon on a busy street in downtown Baghdad. He had joined the Army a year earlier after trying odd jobs that all seemed to be dead ends. He hoped that military service on his resume would help him land a job as a professional firefighter, but mostly he just wanted his life to go somewhere.
He still lived in his hometown of Knoxville, Ill., in the flatlands near the Iowa line, and he had a reputation for always smiling, even at odd times. In his yearbook from basic training he's the only soldier without a frozen scowl. He loved his friends and fishing and playing the banjo, his relatives say. And he hated Iraq.
"He believed in what he was doing, but he couldn't understand how some of the people in Iraq loved them and how some hated them," said Pat Houston, Lufkin's grandmother. "The hate bothered him a lot."
Lufkin's unit, the 5th Engineer Battalion out of Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., had one of the most dangerous jobs of the war: driving around Baghdad at 5 mph in search of roadside bombs. But he told his mother not to worry, that the oversized armored truck he rode in - a fortified mine-clearing vehicle called an RG-31 - could withstand anything, particularly an improvised explosive device.
"He said, `Mom, I'm telling you, these things are built to survive the blast,'" said Lufkin's mother, Marcy Gorsline. "He'd been hit by IEDs I don't know how many times before and said it'd always just blow out a tire."
The one that hit him May 4 wasn't a typical IED, but a military-style bomb designed to pierce armor and inflict maximum damage.
The blast injured one soldier only slightly, but killed two others and left Lufkin bleeding so badly that he was certain to die without prompt medical care. With the vehicle still burning, Lufkin's platoon leader dragged him out through the gunner's hatch, medics quickly placed tourniquets on his arms and legs, and a helicopter lifted him out minutes later.
The Army's hospital in Baghdad is inside a former Baath Party medical center, down the street from the main palace in a section of the city that American officials call the International Zone but which nearly everyone else calls the Green Zone. Many of the signs are still in Arabic, but otherwise it looks much like any small hospital in the United States, right down to the harsh lights and the green tile.
Factor VII arrived there in early 2004 after Army officials got a look at results from a clinical trial suggesting that it was safe. But as military doctors have embraced the drug, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration only for certain patients with hemophilia, doubts about its use for trauma patients have grown. The FDA warned in December of risks to non-hemophiliacs, citing reports of deadly blood clots in patients who got it. Many civilian trauma centers use it only as a last resort.
The needle with Factor VII went into Lufkin's arm 20 minutes after he arrived, just as he received his fourth unit of blood. Then he was wheeled to an operating room upstairs for emergency surgery.
"He had, maybe, another 10 minutes," said Mazur, the emergency room doctor. "He was on death's doorstep. You can't wait."
A Kevlar helmet and body armor had protected Lufkin's head and torso, but the rest of him was peppered with burns and puncture wounds, some of them serious. His right ankle was fractured, and his left kneecap was shattered so completely that doctors said it contained nothing but pink tissue and "bone dust."
The most serious injury was less obvious. His right hand, which looked as if it had been chopped with a dull ax at the wrist, remained attached by little more than an inch of flesh and skin. Maj. Charles Fox, a vascular surgeon, released the tourniquet around Lufkin's upper arm, and dark blood shot from the wounded wrist in rhythmic bursts, indicating a severed artery.
Blood-clotting dressings and modern-style tourniquets are innovations of the war, and doctors said they likely kept Lufkin alive until he reached the hospital. But in the operating room, with those battlefield dressings removed, the surgeons marveled that Lufkin was no longer oozing blood from the many cuts and punctures that covered his body, as he had been an hour earlier. They credited Factor VII for the difference.
As a technician picked up Lufkin's legs to scrub off the dirt and shrapnel blasted into his skin and prepare him for surgery, the doctors stood back and remarked at the absence of bleeding.
"His blood pressure was 80, he'd lost about 40 percent of his blood volume, and in surgery an hour later he's stable and hardly bleeding at all," said Col. John B. Holcomb, Lufkin's surgeon and the Army official largely responsible for Factor VII's introduction in Iraq. "We're learning how to deal with these kinds of massive injuries."
A convoy struck
By about 11 a.m. the next day, as Lufkin was being prepared for a helicopter flight to Balad, Iraq, for transfer to a recovery hospital in Germany, Capt. Shane R. Mahaffee and Staff Sgt. Heath Berry left in a convoy near the southern town of Hillah. Both men, who had been in Iraq only a few weeks, were traveling outside their protected base as part of a training mission with the men they were replacing, to give the new arrivals a feel for the town and the surrounding country.
Unlike Lufkin's unit of young, hardened combat troops, Mahaffee and Berry's unit was a civil affairs battalion, staffed with lawyers and engineers and soldiers whose primary mission was diplomacy, not war. They and three other soldiers were driving along a rural road in the lead Humvee when the gunner spotted what he thought was a roadside bomb.
The discovery touched off a frantic discussion among the vehicle's occupants over whether they should stop or attempt to drive past, Berry said. Mahaffee, in the front passenger seat, called for advice on the radio as 1st Sgt. Carlos N. Saenz continued driving forward. The other occupants, fearing that they would be within range if the bomb detonated, yelled at Saenz to stop, Berry later recalled. But they got too close, so Mahaffee shouted, "Floor it!"
The bomb killed the gunner and a back-seat passenger almost instantly and mortally wounded Saenz, who cried out, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Berry, soaked with blood and tissue, thought he'd been cut in half before realizing that he was covered in the gunner's remains.
Medics rushed forward to treat Berry and Mahaffee, the ground around them littered with candy that Saenz had been carrying for Iraqi children. They tightened a tourniquet around Berry's mangled left arm and slapped a blood-clotting bandage on his neck, and he sat by the side of the road with a loud ringing in his ears. Mahaffee, frantically trying to help the others, refused medical treatment, but then he weakened and had trouble breathing, and waited with Berry for the helicopters to come.
Once they were in the emergency room, Berry garnered the most attention. His left hand, which would later be amputated, looked like pulp, and his blood dripped from both sides of the gurney. Doctors quickly gave him plasma and red blood cells, sedated him, inserted a breathing tube and then injected him with a dose of Factor VII. He was upstairs in the operating room before anyone had done much with Mahaffee, who was partially conscious and writhing in his bed.
Hemorrhaging diagnosed
Chest X-rays soon revealed that Mahaffee, who didn't appear to be bleeding at all, was in fact hemorrhaging into his chest cavity. Doctors gave him a dose of Factor VII as well, less for the bleeding they could see than for the bleeding they expected in the operating room.
"He needs it," one of the doctors said, "because he's going to bleed like hell."
Bleeding from veins or arteries can ordinarily be fixed with surgery. The type of bleeding Army surgeons fear most is called "coagulopathic" bleeding. It develops more slowly, when a patient's blood uses up all of its natural clotting proteins or becomes too diluted with fluids pumped into the veins to clot. Once such bleeding starts, which doctors say they can recognize from the blood's lighter color and Kool-Aid--like consistency, it can be very hard to stop.
By injecting Factor VII on the mere anticipation of coagulopathic bleeding, Army doctors are working on the fringes of acceptable practice, civilian doctors say. Civilian patients often bleed for hours and sometimes days before doctors resort to using Factor VII. But because Army doctors believe it works best when given early, war casualties in Baghdad often get it within minutes of their arrival at the hospital.
Mahaffee's bleeding appeared to be under control in the operating room as surgeons cut into his upper chest to repair a nick in the artery under his left clavicle. But then blood started to appear in his breathing tube, and his condition and prognosis changed quickly.
Suspecting an injury to his left lung, the surgeons cut an L-shaped opening in his chest, from his neck to his abdomen. One of them grabbed the lung and twisted it, pinching off the airway and blood supply so he would no longer bleed into the respirator. An anesthesiologist was called to insert a two-pronged airway tube, which could isolate Mahaffee's right lung and let him breathe freely while doctors worked on the left.
The surgery, which took several hours, required doctors to replace roughly half of Mahaffee's blood supply. Capt. Ronald White, the anesthesiologist, used blood tests to monitor Mahaffee's clotting capability, which remained normal. But he injected two more doses of Factor VII to be certain. The bleeding never got out of hand, and doctors said the drug made the difference.
"With these poly-trauma patients, once they start to get oozy, they can just spiral downhill," said White. "You can't wait for that to happen."
Within hours of his surgery, Mahaffee was awake in the hospital's intensive care unit, unable to talk because of his breathing tube but scribbling notes on a clipboard of white paper to his friends and the hospital staff. A page taped to a machine behind his bed, said simply: "Thank you."
To Capt. Matt Lawton, a friend who had gone through training with Mahaffee and went to his beside, he scrawled: "Tell the guys I'm OK." To others in his unit he wrote: "This job is not done." On yet another he scratched: "Hold all calls."
"That's the way he is," Lawton said. "Being funny and thinking about everyone else."
A 36-year-old lawyer from Gurnee, Ill., with a wife, two young children and a successful general law practice back home, Mahaffee never imagined even eight months earlier that he would be working for the Army in Iraq. He had finished his stint with the Army in 1999, retiring after eight years in the Reserves, and he hadn't drilled or worn a uniform since.
But in October of 2005 he came home from vacation to find a FedEx package from the Pentagon calling him back to service. Like many retired soldiers, he was still part of the Individual Ready Reserve, a limbo status that allowed the Army to reactivate him. The program is so rarely used that few soldiers give it much thought, but the Army, suffering a desperate shortage of junior officers, summoned him out of retirement.
His wife and colleagues say he never complained, figuring he'd been trained by the Army and wouldn't turn his back when they needed him.
"He should have just been in the military anyway, to tell you the truth," said his wife, Jennifer. "He was worried about his law office, and about leaving me and the kids, but I don't think he was worried about himself. He supported the president and the president's decision, and said, `OK. This is my job.'"
Mahaffee left home on Jan. 8, headed for the Army Training Center at Fort Jackson, S.C., and then to civil affairs training at Fort Bragg, N.C. The local newspaper ran a photo of him kneeling down in the airport, looping his arms around his 5-year-old daughter, Adelia Rose, and kissing her goodbye.
"The Army talks about this warrior ethos, of never quitting, of putting the mission first. And to most people I'm sure it's just something written on a little card they give us," said Maj. Lisa Forsyth, who served with Mahaffee in Iraq. "But you look at Shane, he's it."
Like Lufkin, Mahaffee and Berry flew out of Baghdad within a day or two of their injuries, first to the U.S. Air Force Theater Hospital in Balad and then to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany for transfer to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.
Most casualties spend only a few days at the hospital in Landstuhl; when relatives try to visit, the Army tells them not to bother. If family members are encouraged to come to Germany, it usually means that the patient is too unstable to fly, which is almost always bad news.
Jennifer Mahaffee was told not to come. Her husband had been progressing well and was scheduled to fly to Washington soon after he arrived in Germany. But the day he was to leave, a blood clot lodged in his healthy lung.
The clot deprived him of adequate oxygen and forced his doctors to get "aggressive" with artificial respiration, according to Air Force Maj. Tim Woods, the surgeon who treated him at Landstuhl. With his condition listed as "critical but stable," Mahaffee's wife, his father, and his mother and stepfather were soon on their way to Germany.
Trauma specialists know that clots in the lungs, called pulmonary embolisms, sometimes afflict severely injured patients. But the clots typically travel to the lungs from the veins of the legs - a condition called deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. Doctors in Germany had checked Mahaffee's legs for DVT with an ultrasound machine, but the results were negative. So the source of his pulmonary embolism was a mystery, Woods said.
But others say multiple doses of Factor VII would be a leading candidate if they were trying to determine the source of blood clots in a patient.
"When you give a patient a powerful clot-promoting medication, you may well induce a clot some place you don't want one," said Dr. Rodger L. Bick, a University of Texas blood specialist.
Mahaffee was unconscious as his family gathered around, alternating shifts between the lobby and the chairs by his bed. He remained on a breathing tube, but doctors were encouraged by his condition and offered hope that the tube would be removed.
He developed pneumonia a few days later, however, and the last hints of optimism gradually melted away. On May 15, the doctors said they were running out of options and told the family to prepare for the worst.
In desperation the doctors reopened Mahaffee's chest in his hospital room and massaged his heart by hand while his father offered prayers nearby. Mahaffee's wife said she stayed in the room as long as she could bear it.
Mahaffee's death was attributed to complications from pneumonia and infection, but his doctors said it was the ventilator that likely prompted the infection, and it was the clot that put him on the ventilator. He would probably have survived his injuries in Iraq, they said, if not for the "second hit" he suffered with the blood clot.
Lawton flew back to the United States for the funeral and read Mahaffee's notes from Baghdad during the service. Jennifer Mahaffee, who spent much of the day carrying Adelia Rose and 2-year-old Ethan, said the last of her energy had been drained.
"I had a very bad feeling about his injury from the beginning," she said afterward. "I don't know why. Even when other people were being optimistic, I just didn't think he was ever going to come back."
Sergeant Berry's recovery
Berry's recovery was largely uneventful. At Landstuhl someone hung a sign behind his bed saying he was a Marine, creating some confusion among the Army and Marine Corps ambassadors who roam the hospital every day and visit the wounded men and women from their branch of the armed services. Berry thought it was funny and was too drugged up on fentanyl to care.
Besides, the sign was half-right. Berry, 28, had been in the Marine Corps five years, joining right out of high school. But he never liked it and quit as soon as he could. Once back home in Philadelphia, Tenn., he went to a technical college and earned a degree in computer graphics design, and then joined the Army. Soon after arriving at the hospital from Iraq, he'd decided to leave the Army too.
"I just want a different life, after all this," he said.
Berry's only medical complication was a high fever that struck at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington a few weeks after he was injured, but the doctors controlled it with antibiotics. He needed skin grafts and surgery on his arm, and he had bruises all over his body that took some time to heal. But by summer he was content and looking forward to going home, surfing the Internet from his hospital bed in search of a one-handed video game control built for amputees.
He had never heard of Factor VII, had no idea he'd been injected with it, and never suffered any clot-related complications. He was grateful for everything the Army's physicians had done to take care of him in Baghdad.
"I wish they could have saved my arm," he said. "But I'm happy they saved my life."
A clot during surgery
Lufkin threw a blood clot on May 18, three days after Mahaffee died, during surgery at Walter Reed to repair his left leg. The clot lodged in his lung, and doctors had to stop the surgery, then put him back on a respirator and wheel him into intensive care. They didn't know where the clot had come from, but clots almost always break free from veins in the legs, and Lufkin's left leg was a mess inside and out.
He'd been recovering well. His mother took her first airplane ride to visit him at Walter Reed on May 8 and was horrified at the extent of his injuries and the glassy look in his eyes, but she went to work spoon-feeding him and cleaning the dirt from his fingernails.
"Try to imagine walking through that door and seeing your perfect child lying there, blown apart, with cuts and pieces of shrapnel all over him and his eyes just lifeless," said Gorsline, his mother. "I'd never felt so angry before."
His teenage brothers came, too, then his grandmother and other family members, feeding him cookies and Subway sandwiches. He was in pain much of the time, made worse by bouts of intolerable itching, but the son and brother he was before Iraq began to slowly emerge from the wounded soldier in Room 5733.
He talked about the attack. A child on a bicycle rode alongside the vehicle just before the blast, and a huge crowd of Iraqis gathered as the injured soldiers lay bleeding on the ground. He remembered lying there thinking he had to survive to see his brothers, Lance and Taylor.
A sergeant from his unit visited and photographed him holding a sign that said "Keep Kicking Ass!!" and then sent the picture back to friends in Iraq. The man known for his smile frowned as he stared at the camera, the same look he had for much of his time at Walter Reed.
Doctors rescheduled the surgery on his leg for May 25 and on the day before told Lufkin he wouldn't have to stay in Washington for physical therapy but could move closer to his home in rural Illinois. It was exciting for him, and he started planning a cookout with friends, right down to the menu. But he didn't stop there. He talked about taking a trip to Australia and planning new adventures. It was, family members said, one of the happiest days since he'd come back from Iraq.
"He was starting to finally come to life," Gorsline said. "He could see an end to all of it."
Lufkin crashed again during the second surgery, with the same symptoms as before, but this time doctors couldn't revive him. Gorsline was doing a crossword puzzle in the lobby when a team of doctors and counselors invited her into a private room, then said her son had gone into cardiac arrest on the operating table. In that room, she said, they cried with her.
The doctors never explained how he had died, and an autopsy report the family asked for later offered little clarity. During surgery doctors performed an echocardiogram that indicated that Lufkin had an air bubble in his heart - a rare occurrence, often caused by problems with a catheter in the veins. But a cardio-thoracic surgeon who was called cut into Lufkin's pulmonary artery in search of another clot, even after being shown the echocardiogram.
No clot was found, the records say, and pathologists ruled his death "consistent with an air embolus" but never performed tests to confirm it. Lufkin's official cause of death was "complications of blast injuries," according to the autopsy report.
"To say 'complications of blast injuries,' that's just a worthless statement that obscures what the real cause of death is," said Dr. Joseph I. Cohen, a former New York City medical examiner and now chief forensic pathologist in Riverside, Calif. "It sounds like they don't have an answer."
"No one's ever been able to explain to me how someone so young and so healthy could die of a heart attack like that," said Gorsline, a cardiac-care nurse.
Lufkin, like Mahaffee and many soldiers killed in Iraq, was awarded the Bronze Star at his funeral, a medal given for bravery, heroism and meritorious service. Firetrucks from the surrounding towns used their ladders to form an arch over his funeral procession, and family members stood for 10 hours shaking hands in front of his casket.
UUnder the flag
His mother selected a grave site next to the flagpole at the municipal cemetery in Knoxville, Ill., because it is illuminated 24 hours a day and because she heard the flag snapping in the wind as she walked around the site with the funeral director.
"I looked up and saw that flag flying and said, `I want him right here, right under that flag,'" Gorsline said. "He died for that flag, and everyone who comes here will hear it flapping in the wind."
The Sun made repeated requests with the Army to interview Lufkin's doctors at Walter Reed or view the official records about Lufkin's and Mahaffee's injuries and deaths, but each request was either denied or did not get a response. The only information available publicly says the same thing about the two soldiers - that they died of injuries received when an improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicles.

subset: commoncrawl


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Resistance against Israel is justified
Resistance against the Israeli apartheid state is not a threat to the existence of Jews, but rather legitimate self-defense by Palestinians being brutally oppressed while being forced off their lands.
The inhuman treatment of Palestinians cannot be justified by the history of oppression against Jews by other people in another time on a different continent. The global protests against Israel are direct repercussions of the bloody Israeli offensive in Gaza, the siege on Gaza and the illegal occupation of Palestine.
The brutal and asymmetrical use of force against civilians and those standing for life and justice for the people of Palestine is intolerable. Those acting in resistance to Israeli racism and aggression are legitimized by the continued expansion of illegal settlements and Israel's defiance in the face of international condemnation for its brutal occupation.
I stand with the millions of Jews, Arabs and socialists around the world calling for an end to the siege on Gaza and an end to the racist apartheid state in Israel and occupied Palestine.
Ryan Navickas
Thanks to all who supported benefit
We recently hosted a benefit garden party for the Basic Rights Oregon organization. It was great fun and a fine success due in large part to our local sponsors.
Thank you so much to the generous contributions from Caldera, Albertson's, Safeway, Shop'n Kart, the Ashland Food Co-op and All About Parties. And special thanks to personal contributions from Alex Adsitt, Brian Freeman, Jane Maynard, and Julie Simon.
David Hogan & Susan Baird
Letters to the Editor
Resistance against Israel is justified


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Little girls will love making this fun & inexpensive Princess Castle. An easy and rewarding preschool craft that kids can make and it can be used for long term play. Paint it pink, purple or multi-color. Recycle your household items to make this castle. It's a fun toy to make from cardboard recyclables.
How to make a Pirate Castle
Items needed:
- 4 toilet paper rolls
- Lightweight cardboard
- Pink paint
- Straw
- Glue or tape
- Scissors
- Brush
- Princess stickers or glue-ons.
- Cut four pieces of cardboard, 31/2 in. x 51/2 in.
- 1/2 in. from both sides (sides are 31/2 in. high), cut a slit 21/4 in. long from bottom.
- Use one piece to cut an arched doorway, also from the bottom.
- For each tube, cut one slit 21/4 in. lengthwise, towards center. Then cut a second slit a quarter of the way around from first slit. (0 and 90 degree mark)
- Attach a tube to each side end by sliding the two pieces together where slit meet and push together.
- When attaching the final side, insert side into both tubes, simultaneously, and slowly push together.
- Cut a triangle or square flag, then cut a small slit halfway up the side of the flag and slide onto the straw "flagpole".
- Paint castle and flag. When dry, attach flagpole to inside of tower with glue or tape.
- When completely dry, attach Princess decorations. Stick-on jewels are a favorite.


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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls
Where can you find the intellectual output of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls?
The students, staff and faculty at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls produce a plethora of scholarly materials each year. These scholarly materials include research conducted by faculty and staff, UWRF student papers and projects, UWRF conference proceedings and papers, various reports and articles produced by campus institutes and organizations and much more.
But where can you find examples of these materials?
Well, now there is a place where all the examples come together...
MINDS@UW-River Falls is an open access institutional repository designed to capture, store, index and preserve the intellectual output of the university in one central location. MINDS@UW-River Falls is part of a larger institutional repository called MINDS@UW.
We would like to invite you to join us in developing this institutional repository for the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Please view our resources for more information or for a quick overview of the project, view our informational brochure. If you have any questions or if you wish to participate in MINDS@UW-River Falls, please see our contact information.
About Institutional Repositories


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All of our Spin Doctor mechanics keep up-to-date with the latest in bicycle repair and maintenance – earlier this month, a group of Spin Doctor mechanics from our Colorado stores attended an excellent refresher class at SRAM Technical University (STU) in Colorado Springs. At STU, our Spin Doctors received in-depth hands-on training from SRAM instructors on the latest SRAM products and maintenance techniques.
Here's a group shot of our graduating team of Spin Doctors – we don't want to brag, but their instructors did mention several times that it was the best bunch of students they'd had in a long time!
As you can see, STU looks like a science classroom, and the training was just as rigorous. It was a great experience for all of our Spin Doctors, as they learned to overhaul and maintain 3 suspension forks, one rear shock and Avid XX disc brakes.
Here's Mark, a Spin Doctor in our Greenwood Village store, learning the finer points of Avid XX brake maintenance. Having your disc brakes properly set up is key to performance and feel out on the trail – disc brakes nowadays are quite robust, but a little maintenance and fine-tuning can make a big difference.
Above, Tim, a Spin Doctor in our Colorado Springs store, fine-tunes his brake-bleeding skill. In addition to disc brakes, our team also got the chance to tear down and re-build both front and rear shocks. The engineering that goes into modern shocks is impressive, but this is an area for maintenance that most folks neglect until it's too late! Like other moving parts on your bike, suspension systems should be overhauled on a recurring basis, to replace worn parts before they become an issue out on the trail.
The trip to STU was a fantastic experience for our Colorado Spin Doctor team, and they can't wait to apply their fine-tuned skills in their home stores – although, as you can see below, they will miss the stunning view of Pikes Peak out the door of STU!
If you need some work done on your disc brakes or suspension (if you can't think of the last time, then you probably do), or need anything else on your bike checked out, drop by your local Performance Bicycle store and let one of our Spin Doctors diagnose the problem. Our Spin Doctor mechanics are all highly trained and experienced, and ready to work on any make or model bike – from an entry-level road bike to your brand new full-suspension 29er.


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The Climate Coalition spans over 100 organisations, from environment and development charities to unions, faith, community and women's groups.
Check them out below, or use the drop down menu to filter by organisation type.
Baldernock Community Council
We are a small parish of around 280 households 7 miles north of Glasgow. Our closest town is Milngavie and we are a largely dispersed rural community but include the villages of Bardowie and Balmore. We have a thriving playgroup and primary school, a church and we are home to the Balmore Trust, a charity. We were lucky enough to secure Climate Challenge Funding and ran a project which ended in March 2011. We carried out energy surveys and held awareness-raising events and think there has been a lasting positive effect. We were the first Community Council to join SCCS.
Changeworks is a recognised leader in the delivery of practical solutions that enable people to live and work more sustainably. We are an environmental charity and social enterprise, with over 20 years' experience, working in collaboration with organisations, schools, communities and businesses to: inspire and enable action to reduce CO2, waste and fuel poverty; build confidence and skills to make sustainable choices; share our knowledge and learn from others to maximise our impact; and deliver the best possible service creatively and professionally.
Christian Aid
Christian Aid is a Christian organisation that insists the world can and must be swiftly changed to one where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance where need is great, tackling the effects of poverty as well as its root causes.
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland is concerned that climate change poses a serious and immediate threat to people everywhere, particularly to the poor of the earth; and that climate change represents a failure in our stewardship of God's creation. We accept the need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases urgently to avoid dangerous and irreversible climate change; and to promote a more equitable and sustainable use of energy.
Cycling UK Scotland
Cycling UK Scotland is an elected volunteer committee of Cycling UK members from across Scotland, committed to representing everyday cyclists at national meetings and in responding to consultations. Policy topics include cycling as transport, land access, climate change, air quality, planning, road safety and wider transport policy which affects or is relevant to cycling. The Cycling UK Scotland committee also supports the activities and projects of Cycling UK in Scotland, promotes membership and brings Cycling UK members in Scotland together at an annual gathering.
Eco-congregation Scotland
Eco-Congregation Scotland is an ecumenical movement which helps churches link environmental issues to their faith and take action in their church and local community. We are concerned about the impact climate change is having on the world's poorest people. We believe that faith can be an important motivator in behaviour change and are working to harness this to reduce Scotland's carbon emissions. There are currently 286 Eco-Congregations in Scotland. 100 of these hold the independently assessed Eco-Congregation Award.
Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council
The Edinburgh and Lothians Regional Equality Council (ELREC) is a non-profit organisation working with communities in Edinburgh and the Lothians to eliminate discrimination in all forms, reduce inequality, promote a culture of human rights, and foster good relations between communities and individuals. Founded in 1971, ELREC has over four decades of experience working in the field of equality and engaging with the diverse communities of Edinburgh and the Lothians. As a result ELREC now has strong links with educational institutions, EM associations, public bodies and charities. ELREC works with diverse public and third sector organisations to support communities and individuals.
Edinburgh University Students' Association
Edinburgh University Students' Association is a democratic, student-led organisation representing Edinburgh University students to the University and beyond. We are an autonomous body with registered charity status and value our independence from the University of Edinburgh. We work closely with the University to ensure a world class student experience for all students at the University. In addition to running campaigns and representing the students views to the University and other external bodies the association operates a range of commercial services including bars, catering and retail outlets. Our buildings are also host to the main events of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Energy Agency
The Energy Agency is a non-profit making organisation, providing free, impartial and expert advice to households, businesses and communities covering energy efficiency, sustainable transport and renewable energy. The Energy Agency's mission is to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, thus contributing to national reduction targets. The Energy Agency manage the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre for South West. It is tasked with assisting householders and local businesses throughout Ayrshire & Dumfries & Galloway to help reduce energy use as well as acting as a bridge between local authorities, consumers, trade, businesses and the energy market.


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Snow expected to change to sleet, rain
Snow is falling across the region, thanks to a weakening low-pressure system tracking east across the Great Lakes that's dragging a warm front along with it, the National Weather Service says.
But the snow will be short-lived. It's expected to change first to sleet and then to all rain in southern Fairfield and New Haven counties by mid-afternoon. An increasing flow of air from the southwest will send temperatures above freezing by evening.
Lows tonight will be just above freezing, however, so there could be some sleet accumulation in places. There will be drizzle after midnight.
Tuesday will see a chance of showers all day long, especially in the afternoon, with highs in the mid-40s.
Wednesday will be warm and showery, with highs in the low 50s.


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Schroders' International Media Conference was created to bring together talented financial journalists and investors. Within this forum, investors will give their perspective on markets, and where they see investment opportunities in the current global economic environment.
It's a media event for financial journalists, but you won't find the standard conference format or see typical presenters. What you will find is intelligent and thoughtful commentary, leaving you with insightful, take-home stories which will better inform your readers.
The SIMC 2012 mobile app provides quick access to conference details including agendas, speaker and venue information, and social media feeds.


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If you are looking for an antidote to the Hunger Games mania, as I was this past week, this less-action-oriented Young Adult dystopia might be worth a read. A 2004 Printz Award and British Guardian Children's Fiction Prize winner, the story is written from the perspective of Daisy, a 15 year-old girl from a not-too-distant future set New York City, who is sent to live with her cousins in the English countryside to get away from her father, her unliked stepmother, and their newborn child. Almost as soon as she is there, the country is invaded and war breaks out, leaving Daisy and her cousins to fend for themselves in what can only be said, without spoiling the plot, to be a truly harrowing experience.
While I had some personal nitpicks with the narrative, I mainly liked this book because it is without any supernatural elements or glossy romantic triangle (though it does include some gruesome descriptions of violence and its effects, as well as a rather disconcerting romantic relationship). The main character is a strongly written one, because she is the 'head we are in' throughout the entirety of the book. It reads as if Daisy is telling us the story conversationally, out loud, with a frequently sarcastic and guarded adolescent tone. The rural setting is a descriptive focus, sometimes presented as a respite from the details of the war being fought nearby (and Daisy's previous city life). Its themes of self-discovery through forced maturity are universally relatable, but of heightened interest by the obvious perils of war. Daisy's view of her pre-war troubles (anorexia and medicated anxiety are hinted at) are reflected on as trivial by comparison, sending a nice post-ironic message of perspective to her YA readers. At just shy of 200 pages, it is a quick read. The newly released, middlingly reviewed, oddly R-rated movie starring Saorise Ronan doesn't seem to be coming to our neck of the woods (thanks, AMC), but it is on video-on-demand already and will probably be out on home video in the Spring (while it follows the basic story, there are, as is to be expected, some significant changes from book to screen). Though a bit more apocalyptic story-wise, parts of this book reminded me of the more recent The Age of Miracles. For more recommendations, take a look at one of our book lists on Young Adult Dystopian Fiction.


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You know that unthinkably tough line that gets you every time? Trek's Remedy 9.8 27.5 doesn't. Either roll over it or air it out, you've got the stability of a 29er with the playfulness of 26-inch hoops. This carbon ripper is stacked with a huge list of features: E2 head tube, EVO link, and a 95mm bottom bracket for the stiffest possible chassis end to end. Rocks, roots, and all other hits are demolished by 140mm of travel from a Fox 36 Float fork and Float RE:aktiv shock, along with Trek's Full Floater and 142x12mm ABP rear end keeping you in full control on and off the XT brakes. A full XT 2x11 group, carbon bar, Reverb Stealth dropper post and tubeless-ready Bonty wheels make up the specs. All fun, zero compromise, you're going to have to find a new unthinkably tough line.
For a clean dropper post setup, Trek uses RockShox's Reverb Stealth dropper seatpost and internal frame routing. The housing runs inside the frame for a clean look and zero hose issues as the saddle moves up and down.
For every full-suspension mountain bike that they sell, Trek donates $10 to the IMBA to help build new trails. Join the IMBA today!
Pedals sold separately
|Trek OCLV Mountain Carbon w/aluminum chainstay, E2, ABP, BB95, 140mm-travel
|Fox Performance 36 Float, FIT4 3-position damper, E2 tapered steerer, 140mm travel
|Rear Shock
|Fox Performance Float EVOL, Re:aktiv
|DT Swiss E1900
|Bontrager XR4/XR3 Team Issue, 27.5 x 2.35
|Shimano Deore XT
|Front Derailleur
|Shimano Deore XT
|Rear Derailleur
|Shimano Deore XT Shadow Plus
|Rear Cogs
|Shimano, 11-speed: 11-40
|Shimano Deore XT
|Bontrager Rhythm Pro, OCLV carbon
|Bontrager Rhythm, dual lock-on
|Bontrager Rhythm Pro
|Brake Levers
|Shimano Deore XT
|Shimano Deore XT hydraulic disc
|Bontrager Evoke 3, Ti rails
|RockShox Reverb Stealth dropper
RE:aktiv: All-new mountain bike suspension technology
Read 1 ReviewsWrite a Review
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®by PowerReviews
- Beefy fork
- Carbon frame
- Component spec
- Geometry
- Reactive shock
- Heavy rims and tires
- Press-fit bottom bracket
Best Uses
- Trail and enduro riding
Reviewed by 1 customers
Sort by
- Geometry
- Reactive Shock
- Carbon Frame
- Beefy Fork
- Component Spec
- Heavy Rims And Tires
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Best Uses
- Trail And Enduro Riding
I was looking to upgrade my aluminum 5 inch travel, 26 inch bike for a while, and this bike caught my eye. I was torn between the 2017 Fuel EX 9.8 and Remedy 9.8 until this bike went on sale. Not being a huge fan of the new knock-block system anyway, I saved some serious cash and bought the 2016 model. This bike could be the best balance between technical climbing and descending out there. It charges the flats and climbs better than my Stache 29+ does, and charges down steep, rutted out, loose, rocky singletrack like a slot car. The upgrade to a carbon frame combined with the Re:active suspension is amazing. I can feel the bike floating over bumps and rocks that my other bikes seem to just plow and smack through. The frame is plenty stiff with perfect geometry and gear range to negotiate tight switchbacks, steep rock drops, all-out downhills, and steep sandy and gravelly climbs. I love the Shimano XT double setup compared to the SRAM 11spd single-ring setup on my Stache. It's nice to have the granny gear option for those occasional gut-wrenching climbs. After the second or third ride, the press-fit bottom bracket was already creaking away, which is my only complaint. The rims are pretty heavy, but seem unlikely to ever get any flat spots or come out of true. Also, the stock tires aren't bad, but they are a little too stiff and heavy for my taste. Overall, a great all-around trail bike that far exceeded my expectations. It has changed the way I ride, and I now find myself finishing my usual local trail circuit about 10-15 minutes faster than before.


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Springfield Armory EMP
1 post • Page 1 of 1
Springfield Armory EMP
Get a good look at a whole new class of pistol -- the short-action 1911. The new Springfield Armory 9mm Enhanced Micro Pistol (EMP) is the first production 1911 made from the ground up to shoot short cartridges like 9mm, 40 S&W and 45 GAP. The result? The smallest, most concealable 1911 you can buy. - [url="http://www.springfield-armory.com/assets/pdf/1111SPRINGFIELD_Book_armory_PI9209LP.pdf"]SOURCE[/url]
As a lifelong enthusiast of 1911s I have developed the belief that sub-4" 1911 variants aren't reliable enough to serve as primary carry weapons. While some may disagree with that statement, I find that one failure in five hundred is unacceptable in primary carry weapons. This in mind I had no intention of ever purchasing another (sub-4").
That changed when I happened by this little guy sitting on the shelf at one of my local gun dealers. I made the fatal mistake of asking to hold it, and from that point I had to bring it home. The $1,200 seemed a bit steep to me, but ultimately my desire to own this weapon overwhelmed my sense of fiscal responsiblity.
I've read that this sub-4" 1911 is infact reliable enough to serve as a primary carry weapon because it isnt simply a 1911 with a shorter barrel; it is actually a shrunken 1911 style pistol (minus the bushing barrel, as with all sub-4.25" 1911s). Ultimately the truth lies in performance; no other aspect of defensive weaponry is as important as reliability.
EMP Failure Video[/url]
The first trip to the range was an absolute failure. Click the video image above to see it for yourself. It was a miserable performance, and I felt pretty angry for having spent $1,200 on a weapon that wouldn't function. When it worked, it worked amazingly well. The problem however, was that it wouldn't work with any sense of consistancy. The weapon failed to feed as often as it fed, and there were many instances of failures to ignite.
I shipped the weapon to Springfield Armory on 5/18/09 with a copy of the above video. I asked Springfield (assuming they could make the weapon function reliably with 147 grain JHPs) to send it over to the custom shop to have the front strap checkered prior to shipping it back. The folks at Springfield were great to deal with. They took time to answer all my questions and explain everything to me from the nature of my failures to the proper fix. They told me to expect my weapon back in 6-8 weeks.
CLICK HERE for Springfield invoice[/url]
Springfield called June 15th (just less than four weeks from the date of return) to tell me they were shipping my weapon back the following day. I was out of town and asked that they instead ship the weapon on the 18th so that I would be there to receive it on the 19th. In the meantime I also ordered at set of [url="http://davidsonknives.com/grips/grips.htm"]G10 "Monkey Grips"[/url] that are also shown in the above pictures. Thanks to Larry Davidson for such excellent service on the grips. I ordered them at standard 1911 thickness (much thicker than the OEM EMP Cocobolo grips) on a Monday and had them in hand that Friday. Larry is a true craftsman and I plan to order more of his grips for my other 1911s.
Having the front strap checkered was one of the best decisions I have made. Although the cost of checkering seemed high to me ($210 total), the quality made it worth every penny. The checkering in addition to the Monkey Grips gives this weapon a very unique and positive feel. I cannot express how great this weapon now feels in my hand.
EMP Shooting Video[/url] (old and new video)
Now that I have $1,500 into this weapon, I expected to be absolutely thrilled by its range performance. I loaded up 300 rounds of WWB FMJ, 50 rounds of Federal HST 147 grain 9mm, 50 rounds of Federal HST 147 grain 9mm +P, 50 rounds of WWB 147 grain JHP, 50 rounds of 147 grain SXT +P, 20 rounds of corbon 115 +P, 20 rounds of corbon 125 grain +P, and headed to the range.
I could publish a lengthy video of the range session, but it wouldn't differ from the short clip above and it would surely bore you. The weapon functioned flawlessly with every load. I had no failures of any kind, and the additional control from the checkering and the Monkey Grips made me shoot pretty dang good too. [:)]
[size=4]What I Like:[/size=4]
It is essentially a shrunken 1911! ...who doesn't love a 1911? [:D]
Ergonomics: It's a 1911!
Trigger: Being a mid-grade 1911 variant, the EMP has a decent 1911 trigger.
Accuracy: Although I didn't exceed common pistol defensive combat distances of seven yards, I was notably impressed at how well this very tiny pistol grouped.
Concealability: This weapon will disappear just about anywhere.
[size=4]What I Don't Like:[/size=4]
Cost: $1200 is ridiculously expensive!
Capacity: In this modern age of polymer wonder-guns, I have grown used to having 15 rounds per magazine.
Manual Safety: For my own reasons ([url="http://concealedcarryforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8442"]CLICK HERE[/url]) I don't like manual safeties on carry weapons.
Alloy Frame: As an active shooter I prefer either a plastic frame or an all steel frame. The steel frame can withstand the punishment of +P loads because its malleable and simply stronger than the alloy, and plastic can withstand the punishment of +P loads because it flexes with the recoil. Although alloy frames have proven themselves durable for most gun owners, I shoot a minimum of 1000 rounds per month and for this kind of duty I don't trust aluminum alloys.
[size=4]How does it compare?[/size=4]
Although difficult to find another weapon that is truly comparable to this little 1911, for the sake of comparison I will use both a Glock 19 and an HK P7.
HK P7, EMP, Glock 19
HK P7 next to the EMP
Glock 19 next to the EMP
Just an irrelevant family photo showing some of his bigger brothers, all Springfields.
EMP [:)][:)][:)] (Consider my bias created by initial failures.)
EMP [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D] (This is one sexy little pistol!)
G19 [B)] (Ugly little bastard, but true beauty lies in proper function anyway.)
Now that I've gotten over my frustration from the initial failures as well as my elation for its proper function and excellent feel, I've had time to carefully and rationally consider both the positive and negative aspects of this beautiful little 1911. Cost alone will prevent most from buying the EMP, but if you conclude that you want a very small 1911 style pistol I cannot imagine it getting much sweeter. Checkering the front strap and adding the G10 Monkey Grips gave this EMP everything it needed to feel perfect in my hand. That it feels absolutely perfect and performed flawlessly makes this weapon an excellent addition to my carry gun stable.
Nathan in
NRA Certified Instructor in Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Personal Protection Inside the Home and Personal Protection Outside the Home.
NRA Certified Instructor in Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Personal Protection Inside the Home and Personal Protection Outside the Home.
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Difference between revisions of "Ruby"
m (→Installing Ruby)
Ichimonji10 (talk | contribs)
(Removed the one-liner for generating GEM_HOME, as it did not work correctly. Updated the suggested install directory from ~/.gem/ruby/1.9.3 to ~/.gem/ruby/2.0.0)
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Bundler seems to want to install gems system-wide, contrary to the current default behaviour of ''gem'' itself on Arch. To correct this, add the following line to your {{ic|~/.bashrc}}:
Bundler seems to want to install gems system-wide, contrary to the current default behaviour of ''gem'' itself on Arch. To correct this, add the following line to your {{ic|~/.bashrc}}:
export GEM_HOME=~/.gem/ruby/..
export GEM_HOME=~/.gem/ruby/
To start a new bundle:
To start a new bundle:
Revision as of 20:56, 26 March 2013
Ruby is a dynamic, interpreted, open source programming language with a focus on simplicity and productivity.
Installing Ruby
The version of Ruby you need to install depends on your requirements, as not all 3rd party code is compatible with all versions. Here is a summary of the versions below and how to get them:
Ruby 1.9.3 (Stable)
Summary: Ruby 1.9 is recommended usage for new projects.
- Vastly improved performance over 1.8
- New features for concurrency such as fibers.
- Various other language improvements, such as an improved CSV parser.
- Not compatible with many older gems (and Ruby On Rails versions prior to 2.3)
- Changes in the language might cause older Ruby code not to run, or exhibit unexpected bugs.
To install Ruby 1.9, simply install ruby.
Ruby 1.9 also includes RubyGems (detailed below), so you can easily update to the latest RubyGems using:
# gem update --system
Ruby 1.8.7 (Deprecated)
Summary: Use Ruby 1.8.7 with any incompatible or out of date code as necessary.
Last stable version of 1.8, which is incompatible with 1.9. However, there is still code that is based on it.
You can install ruby-1.8.7-svnAUR or ruby1.8AUR from the AUR.
RubyGems is not included with the ruby1.8AUR package, so install rubygems1.8AUR from the AUR.
Multiple versions
If you want to run multiple versions on the same system (e.g. 1.9.3 and 1.8.7), the easiest way is to use RVM or rbenv.
gem is the package manager of sorts for Ruby modules (called Gems), somewhat comparable to what pacman is to Arch Linux. The gem command will be installed if you followed the installation instructions above.
Running as normal user
When running gem as a user, the gems will be installed into
~/.gem and not affect anyone else, although it might be worth noting that not all gems are happy with being installed in this way, and might insist on being installed by root (especially if they have native extensions). This is considered the best way to manage gems on Arch.
To use gems which install binaries, you need to add
~/.gem/ruby/1.9.3/bin to your
This per-user behavior is enabled via
/etc/gemrc and can be overridden by a
~/.gemrc file.
Running as root
When running as root, the gems will be installed into
/root/.gems and will not be installed to
Bundler solves these problems to some extent by packaging gems into your application. See the section below on using bundler.
Updating RubyGems
$ gem update
Installing a gem
This example installs the MySQL ruby gem:
$ gem install mysql
The process can be sped up somewhat if you do not need local documentation:
$ gem install mysql --no-rdoc --no-ri
The gem will now be downloaded, compiled if necessary, and installed.
Bundler installs gems (including those with native extensions) directly into your application, which works very well for shared hosting and easy deployment of Ruby on Rails applications for example. Bundler also resolves dependencies as a whole, rather than individually like RubyGems, making things a lot easier. To install:
$ gem install bundler
Bundler seems to want to install gems system-wide, contrary to the current default behaviour of gem itself on Arch. To correct this, add the following line to your
export GEM_HOME=~/.gem/ruby/2.0.0
To start a new bundle:
$ bundle init
Then add your required gems into "Gemfile" in the current directory (created by bundle init):
gem "rails", "3.2.9" gem "mysql"
Finally, run the following to install your gems:
$ bundle install
Or, alternatively, in order to install locally to
.bundle under the working directory:
$ bundle install --path .bundle
Managing RubyGems using pacman
Instead of using the gem command directly you can use pacman to manage the installed gems like normal packages. There are a lot of ruby packages available from AUR. Ruby packages follow the naming convention ruby-[gemname]. As an alternative you can use the tool pacgemAUR which automatically creates arch packages from gems and installs them afterwards using pacman.
--no-user-install or
--user-install command line switches, bypassing the global setting found in
/etc/gemrc or the users own
~/.gemrc. You're editing the PKGBUILD file before you install, right?
See also
- Ruby - http://ruby-lang.org/
- Rubyforge - http://rubyforge.org
- Bundler - http://github.com/carlhuda/bundler


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Latest TPP Round Locks Out Public Interest Groups Who Flew To New Zealand; Gives Them 15 Minutes Of Access
from the shameful dept
Academics, experts, consumer groups, Internet freedom organizations, libraries, educational institutions, patients and access to medicines groups have flown a long way from around the world to Auckland, New Zealand, to engage with delegates in the 15th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.This is really shameful behavior on the part of the New Zealand hosts.
For the first time, however, we have been locked out of the entire venue, except for a single day out of the 10 days of negotiations. This not only alienates us as members of public interest groups, but also the hundreds of thousands of innovators, educators, patients, students, and Internet users who have sent messages to government representatives expressing their concerns with the TPP. All of us oppose the complete unjustifiable secrecy around the negotiations, but more importantly, the IP provisions that could potentially threaten our rights, and innovation.
These new physical restrictions on us are reflective of the ongoing lack of transparency that has plagued the TPP negotiations from the very beginning.


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Hunter Hays finished a career-best 11th in the 1,500 meters at the Big West Championships ... ran a lifetime-best 3:51.96 in the final ... also ran 4:01.86 to finish third at the Tiny Lister Classic ... clocked a career-best 1:56.76 in the 800 meters to place 13th among 41 runners at the Asics/Steve Scott Invitational ... placed 31st in the 3,000 meters at the MPSF Indoor Championships after running a season-best 9:03.14 ... ran the anchor leg of the distance medley relay that finished 10th in 10:30.75 ... clocked a season-best 15:39.14 in the 5,000 meters at the UW Invitational.
Hays finished 15th in the 1,500 meters at the Big West Championships in a time of 3:59.55 ... ran a season-best 3:59.34 at the Tommie Lister Classic at Cal State LA (Apr. 24) ... also had Northridge's best 3,000 meter time of the season, clocking a 8:51.37 at Cal State LA ... also ran the 800 (1:59.51) and 5,000 (15:19.16) ... competed in the mile and 3,000 indoors ... finished 25th in the 3,000 at the MPSF Indoor Championships in a season-best time of 8:58.11 ... ran a season-best 4:30.80 in the mile at the Boise State Invitational (Feb. 13).
Competed in track, cross country and soccer at Oaks Christian High School in Westlake Village, Calif. ... earned All-Tri Valley League in cross country in 2008 and earned All-CIF honors in 2007 ... was the league champion in the 800 meters in 2009 ... the Lions were three-time state finalists ... ran best time of :53 in the 400, 2:00 in the 800, 4:20 in the 1,600, 9:58 in the 3,200 and 15:58 in the 5k ... graduated in 2009 with a 4.2 grade point average.
Born September 28, 1990 in Burbank, Calif. ... parents are Cecilie and Harrison Hays ... has one brother, Harrison and two sisters, Heather and Hayley ... his father ran cross country and track at Wichita State ... favorites include the Los Angeles Dodgers, U.S. soccer player Landon Donovan, the TV show "The Office" and the movie "Lord of the Rings" ... lists Chad Hall as the best athlete he's ever competed against ... major is Business.


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Nov. 21, 2005
CAMRBIDGE, Mass. - A year after becoming the first MIT field hockey player to earn All-Region honors since Theresa Power was tabbed in 1998 and 1999, senior Deanna Lentz was again named to the New England East Region First-Team. Also receiving honors in the announcement of the 2005 Dartfish/NFHCA Division III All-Region Team today was senior Cheryl Texin and junior Anna Ayuso. Texin and Ayuso both were named to the Second-Team for the first time.
In four years with MIT, Lentz compiled 34 goals (T-fifth) and 24 assists (T-second) for 92 career points (T-second). Texin totaled 14 goals and 16 assists (T-fifth) for 44 career points, while adding five defensive saves. Ayuso, still with one year remaining, has produced 16 goals and 16 assists for 48 career points. She had a breakout season for the Engineers this year, totaling eight goals and eight assists for a career-high 24 points, up from four goals and three assists in the 2004 season.


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The Bisons closed out the 2010-11 regular season on a disappointing note Saturday as they fell to the Mercer Bears 68-67 at the University Center in Macon, GA.
Lipscomb senior Josh Slater had an opportunity to win the game on a last second 12-foot jump shot. However, after hitting the rim twice, the ball bounced out and the horn sounded.
Lipscomb will face Mercer next Thursday in the first round of the General Shale Atlantic Sun Championships.
The Bisons connected on only 17-of-46 shot attempts and only hit three shots from behind the arc.
Despite the poor shooting, Bisons head coach Scott Sanderson said the team's defense was his biggest concern.
"We had a hard time making shots," Sanderson said. "As bad as we were at making shots, shooting just 37 percent and 16 percent from three, I was probably more disappointed with our defense.
"That is something that we have been preaching all year long. To have that many rotations against that team, in my opinion is sickening."
The lead changed 10 different times between the two teams and neither team led by more than eight points.
After leading much of the first half, Lipscomb allowed Mercer to close the half on a 7-2 run and tie the game at 32 at halftime. In the second half, both teams battled back and forth with Mercer taking a four-point lead with 22 seconds left.
Slater went down and quickly drew a foul on a made layup. He connected on the three-point play to cut the Bears lead to one point. Lipscomb sent Mercer senior Mark Hall to the free-throw line with 13 seconds remaining, and he missed on both attempts.
Slater came out with the rebound and immediately went to work to try and take it to the basket. However, the Bears forced him to attempt a jump shot from about 12 feet out that bounced off the rim as the final second came off the clock.
"We were just trying to get back to the basket," Sanderson said. "We had a play called and we didn't really want to call a timeout. We knew we wanted to get the ball into Josh's hands and get back to the basket the best we possibly could."
Slater led the Bisons in scoring with 23 points and seven rebounds. He went 15-for-17 from the free-throw line. Adnan Hodzic paced Lipscomb with nine rebounds and chipped in with 17 points. They were the only two Bison players to score in double figures.
In a game that included 50 fouls and 62 free-throws, the Bisons never seemed to get into an offensive rhythm. Lipscomb has yet to win a game this season in which they have shot less than 43 percent and scored less than 70 points.
Free-throws proved to be one of the bright spots for the Bisons. Lipscomb connected on 30-of-37 from the line (81.1 percent). Lipscomb also out-rebounded the Bears 40-27.
The Bears shot 23-of-53 from the field (43.4 percent) and 6-of-20 from downtown (30 percent). Mercer connected on 64 percent of their free-throws (16-of-25).
Mercer improved to 14-7 overall and 11-9 in the Atlantic Sun. Lipscomb dropped to 17-12 overall and 12-8 in the A-Sun.
"We will go back home and get a couple of days of practice under our belt," Sanderson said. "We will come back down here on Thursday night and be ready to throw it up."
Next Thursday's quarterfinal matchup is scheduled for 8 p.m. central time at the University Center. Coverage on the Lipscomb Sports Network will begin at 7:30 p.m.


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Hackfest.ca Quebec's finest and largest Information Security conference (and according to statistics one of the bigger ones in Canada) is set for November 4th & 5th. This year promises to be as exciting as the years previous. Great sponsors, good roster of speakers in both English and French and some good prizes up for crabs during the evening events. Check their website (link provided above).
For those that are not familiar with Hackfest, I'll do my best to describe the experience, the atmosphere and the overall "feeling" of the event. This from my point of view and by comments made by others while I was their in past years. Although I have never attended any other InfoSec convention (Defcon, BlackHat, Brucon etc), I have been to many IT related convention and others.
First thing that pops out when one sets foot at Hackfest is the crowd. Every year it just keeps getting bigger and yet still has that small personal feel. Everyone is open to discussion, nice and polite to each other. We are all there for a common purpose, to share and learn from one another. I've seen people that are normally so shy they have trouble talking to their own shadow. At Hackfest they open up and spark conversations with perfect strangers. That in my opinion is a strong point for any convention. The environment makes you feel invited and welcomed.
The talks are, of course, interesting. A wide range of topics are always on the table. From the legal perspective to the actual demonstrations and theories displayed on large screens. Having a broad selection of topics makes the convention accessible not only to the IT guy or gal, but also to management that may want to understand more on whats going on behind the scenes when it comes to IT security. Another good thing are the talk's languages. Being in Quebec Canada, the predominant language up here is French. I must add to this, a good percentage of French speaking Quebec are either bilingual or have an excellent understanding of the English language. So this opens up the convention to foreign speakers (either from the US or UK) without any trouble. And lets face, if one is going to work in IT you have no choice really to understand English in the first place. I have to mention the language issue, seeing the wide spread misconception that Canada and/or Quebec is French speaking only… it is not. Last thing about the speakers, and the way the convention is setup, they are available to the public after their talk… And usually available at the bar during the evening's event.
A few comments from speakers past range from (paraphrasing here) "Great little con not too crowed so we can actually hear ourselves speak" -Mick Douglas 2009 to Mike Kemp's comment (2010) "This is like Defcon's little brother much better then the one in Toronto…" Many speakers actually participate in the events, so that alone shows their enjoy it. They wouldn't stay otherwise no?
For the atmosphere and setting, well the convention is held in the beautiful city of Quebec. Although in November it is on the cooler side of the thermometer, it's nothing a heavy sweater won't fix. The city has many attractions such as historical monuments and great restaurants if one wishes to go out for some site-seeing.
Finally the glue that makes this event hold together and possible are of course the organizers. The hard work these guys put into this thing is impressive… probably obsessive. Sharing information about information security is their primary motivation. They don't do it for fame and fortune and it shows. They accept suggestions and help from anyone willing to put some time. They are open and very accessible outside the event as well. In a word "human". Very nice humans at that I must add. I've had the privileged to meet them on several occasions, and contribute (in my own small way) to this event.
In a nut shell, everyone can/will/would enjoy this convention. It may not be 10,000 strong like Defcon, but one must remember it had humble beginnings as well. Everything starts small and as long as the quality is present the quantity will eventually follow.
I really do hope that more people outside the Quebec InfoSec community will come this year and in future years. Hackfest deserves to be on the map along side it's US counterparts. Pretty sure there's enough room to share.
Hope to see you there.
-Steven McElrea
aka loneferret


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While Israel has a right to protect its citizens, the security barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian territories raises human rights concerns, said a U.S. cardinal. "The most tragic thing I have seen is the miles-long wall that separates Jerusalem from Bethlehem and separates families and keeps farmers from the land that has been in their families for generations. It is humiliating and distressing," Cardinal John P. Foley, grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, told participants at the 11th international conference of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation on Oct. 24. "I appreciate the Israeli government's concern for security" and respect it, he said. "But many of these measures raise serious human rights issues that they refuse to acknowledge and address." The security barrier is a series of barbed-wire fences, security roads and looming cement slabs that if completed as planned, would stretch 400 miles through the West Bank and restrict the movement of 38 percent of its residents.
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A lot of people are very unhappy with the state of TV. You need only have combed through Twitter's firehose during the opening ceremonies for the Olympics last month for evidence. The frustration over NBC's decision not to air live the kickoff in London boiled over in social media, resulting in a rabid snarkfest and the inevitable, insulting hashtag: #NBCFail.
You can also see the yearning for better television in the fascination with rumors about Apple's possibly expansion into the TV business. For years, speculation that the gang in Cupertino would sell a television set with slick interface and a disruptive approach to programming has run rampant. Both the late Steve Jobs and current CEO Tim Cook have dismissively referred to the current, $99 Apple TV product as "a hobby", but the hopeful are certain that's insincere. Surely, something more awesome is in the wings, right?
Maybe, and maybe not.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal played catch-up with these rumors, reporting that Apple was trying to convince the big cable operators to let it offer a set-top box on their systems. As you'd expect, the Journal found that these established businesses weren't keen on having Apple disrupt their party by, you know, possibly giving people TV the way they really want it.
In his Monday Note blog, former Apple executive Jean-Louis Gassée explores the difficulties Apple is facing in trying to change television in the same way it did the music and smartphone businesses.
Gassée points out that Apple's business model has always been to deploy friendly and useful software and services that drive extremely profitable hardware sales, and whatever it does in the TV business must follow that approach. That likely explains why – if the Journal story is correct – Apple's focusing its efforts on a set-top box rather than a embedding its technology in a big-screen TV set, a market with relatively low margins.
To make this work, Apple would also have to grow its share quickly, so it can become a serious channel for content distribution, and it would want to do so on its terms, Gassée says:
There's another, longer term strategy at work: At some point, the growing Apple TV installed base will gain enough mass to become a viable distribution channel. (The same would apply to a successful Google TV effort.) When this happens, someone will crack. ESPN will offer its fare as apps — some free with ads, some paid-for without intrusions — and the others will follow.
It's a nice theory, it plays into Apple's ability to deploy the iOS platform more fully on Apple TV, to offer a UI miles ahead of today's set-top boxes. But in order to matter, the product line will eventually have to reach revenue in the $100B range. What sort of numbers can an Apple TV bring in?
Let's start with a modest $100/month cable bill. What portion does Apple want? We see the 30% number bandied around, I'm skeptical such a percentage would fly but let's go with that for the order of magninute experiment. If we look into a distant future, a time when Apple has 100 million TV subscribers (today, in the US, we have about 50M cable and 35M satellite TV customers), that's $3B/month, about $40B per year in recurring revenue. If we assume that the new-fangled Apple TV hardware fetches $300 per box, we get an additional yield of $30B — stretched over the number of years needed to reach 100M customers.
As you look at the various factors in play, it becomes obvious why Apple continues to dabble in, rather than try to dominate, the TV business. Apple's success in music and smartphones have TV executives battening down their hatches. They don't want to cede power, control and revenue to a company known for achieving success by giving customers easier-to-use products.
And in order for Apple to convince people to buy a higher-priced TV product, it would have to offer television in a more perfect form. Let's call it Perfect TV, which would be television that:
• Doesn't require viewers to pay for bundles of channels they don't want to get the ones they do. Apple's vision reportedly is of channels as apps, which would force content providers and cable operators to offer content a la carte. They have resisted that for years.
• Would be watchable anytime, anywhere, on any device. Of course, Apple would want you to watch TV on its own devices, but if the company disrupted the TV business successfully, other platforms would benefit as well. For example, right now there's a Showtime app for iOS that lets you watch its series on iPhones and iPads, but none for Android smartphones and tablets.
• Established players currently control how and when you can watch new and old programs, so you can't easily catch that one episode you missed of last season's "Nurse Jackie". Perfect TV would let subscribers to content-as-app watch the complete catalog, all the time.
While it's true that television badly needs an upheaval, there's a lot of inertia. One need only look at the ratings for NBC's tape-delayed Olympics coverage, which hit record numbers, to see that the huge numbers of viewers are happy with the status quo. The technically savvy know that things could be a lot better, but the masses are not necessarily insistent on such change. That may ultimately be the biggest impediment to Apple – or anyone, really – upending TV.


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acornsales needed a new other design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 19 designs submitted by 4 freelance designers.
Acorn Sales
We are looking for a cleaver design that will attract fans and get our company facebook page 'liked' by more people.
We are looking to have a landing page designed that will accomplish this. We are using the application FBML so I would envision this design that would consist of a profile picture redesign along a banner or two where we can create an effective FB landing page.
Our current page is http://www.facebook.com/acornsales
And we are planning on using this under the 'Acorn Sales' Tab
We would like to get our profile picture reworked as well so we can take advantage of the valuable above the scroll line real estate for product and company advertising.
The top items we like to push on the company side is
Quality Products
Excellent Customer Service
Fast Turnaround (24-48 Hour)
The Top Product Categories that push are:
Notary Public Supplies
Custom Rubber Stamps
Embossing Seals (Both Personal and Logo Designs)
Professional Seals and Supplies
Our URL is http://www.acornsales.com
Target Audience is mainly professionals so we will need to have a business focused landing page - but we do have a lot of products focused for personal use as well.
We are willing to negotiate with the designer with implementation if needed. We will require the deliverables in a editable PSD and PNG File formats.


text:
This event has passed.
Wander Oxford – Free Walking Tour
April 6 @ 10:30 am - 12:30 pm
Heart of Oxford Walking Tour 2018
Award Winning Free walking tour of Oxford
Your friendly and informed guide will reveal Oxford's secrets as well as it's many famous former residents and beautiful architecture – all giving an historic insight and providing fabulous photo opportunities.
What will we see?
The tour takes in many aspects from the heart of Oxford including:
- Many of the colleges that make up Oxford University
- The Bodleian Library
- The Sheldonian Theatre
- Oxford University Exam School
- The Radcliffe Camera
- The Divinity School
- St Mary's Church – The University Church
- The colleges that Bill Clinton and David Cameron attended
- Pubs frequented by Morse and Lewis
- Harry Potter filming locations
- The City Wall
- England's first coffee house
- Bridge of Sighs
- Halley's house
- Oxford Museums
- Martyr's Memorial
- Many places you can get in to for free after the tour
- Great places to take the best photographs of Oxford from
- X-Men filming location
- and much more


text:
State Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, detects the scent of social change in the air.
And darned if it doesn't smell like marijuana.
"This actually has a shot at passing," Russell said this week as she prepared to roll out a bill that would legalize small amounts of pot not just for Mainers who use it for medicinal purposes, but for those who simply want to get a good buzz on.
Think she's crazy?
Think again.
For the second time in as many years, Russell is asking her fellow lawmakers to consider that: a) the war on drugs is a lost cause when it comes to keeping marijuana out of the hands of our kids; b) the ton of illicit money now spent on pot is an opportunity lost for Maine's economy and the state's squeaky-tight treasury; c) police have better things to do than run around Maine with their noses in the air and; d) the best thing lawmakers could do in these ever-so-contentious times is gather in a circle beneath the State House dome and pass around a big fat doobie.
OK, that last one was just my wishful thinking. Still, Russell isn't blowing smoke when she insists that the times they are a changin' when it comes to the erstwhile evil weed — not just here in Maine, but all over the country.
To wit: In November, when Maine voters became the first to approve same-sex marriage at the polls, voters in Colorado and Washington legalized pot by near-identical majorities of just over 55 percent.
In December, President Obama told ABC's Barbara Walters that he has no plans to go after those two states – or the 16 others that allow medicinal use of marijuana – despite the fact that they're technically violating federal drug laws.
"We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama observed.
And just this week, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee emerged from a closed-door meeting with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and told The Seattle Times that the chat was "very satisfying" and a "confidence builder" as his state goes about implementing its new law.
In other words, the feds clearly are mellowing out on the pot issue.
And as they do, the state-based, legalized-marijuana juggernaut is fast altering the nation's social landscape much as state-based, same-sex marriage decisions have in recent years.
Which brings us back to Maine — and some three-year-old numbers that speak volumes about how we as a state just might be feeling about marijuana these days.
Remember the off-year election in 2009?
That was the year conservative voters flocked to the polls and, by a solid 53 percent majority, summarily rejected same-sex marriage.
Yet in that same election, those same voters approved the expansion and implementation of Maine's 10-year-old medicinal marijuana law by a whopping 59 percent.
Translation: Legalized marijuana, at least when used medicinally, was not as big a deal to Maine voters in 2009 as same-sex marriage was.
Three short years later, same-sex marriage is the law of the land.
So it's hard not to wonder: Is legalizing the possession of 2.5 ounces of marijuana for any Mainer 21 or older another idea whose time has come?
"The question of whether or not to legalize marijuana has already been answered (with Maine's medical marijuana law)," Russell noted. "We've had the tipping point."
What's more, she said, marijuana advocates fully intend to launch a citizens initiative calling for legalized pot in 2016.
Russell would rather get out in front of that often imperfect process and pass a law – still subject to a referendum this fall – that nips any unintended consequences (as it were) in the bud.
But is the Legislature, which trounced a similar bill introduced by Russell in 2011, ready to take a second look this soon?
Russell thinks so – and she's getting support from, of all places, conservative Republicans.
Enter Rep. Aaron Libby, a libertarian Republican from Waterboro who appeared with Russell at Thursday's news conference to stoke support for the bill.
"I definitely think you're going to see a change from last session to this session," predicted Libby, one of five Republicans who supported Russell's bill last time. "I think it's going to be very close."
Maybe Libby's dreaming. Or maybe the more lawmakers on both sides of the aisle take a whiff of this once-unheard-of legislation and float it past their constituents, the more they'll warm up to it.
There is, after all, money behind all that cannabis — Russell estimates that her proposed $50-per-ounce excise tax on marijuana wholesalers would generate at least $13 million a year in state revenue. (Not to mention the sales tax paid by consumers and income tax paid by legal dealers.)
There's also a better chance of keeping legal pot out of the hands of kids, who tell pollster after pollster that it's far easier to score a joint than it is to buy a cigarette or a beer.
"When was the last time you heard of a drug dealer carding a kid?" mused Russell. "It doesn't happen."
(Speaking of those street-level pot dealers, wouldn't it be smarter social policy to put them out of business rather than spend millions keeping them locked up in jail?)
Finally, there's the chill factor.
Let's face it, folks, alcohol can be one messy recreational drug.
Depending on who's drinking it and how much, booze frequently leads to fistfights inside and outside bars, hangovers, serious addiction, domestic disturbances, trouble with the cops and, in cases of extreme consumption, trips to the emergency room.
Marijuana, on the other hand, leads to the munchies, fascination with inanimate objects and the occasional case of the giggles.
Heck, with all the snarling across The Great Divide these days, a bipartisan bong or two might even produce some sorely needed tranquility.
As Russell, a self-proclaimed "bourbon girl," so aptly put it, "Why do you think they call it a peace pipe?"
Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at:
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