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Seven Tips on Successfully Buying Your Dream House
By Tanya Marchiol
1. Be preapproved: About three or four months before homebuyers even shop for a home, they should review their credit reports to make sure they're accurate and take short-term steps to improve their credit score, says Michael Corbett, author of "Before You Buy!" Corbett says buyers should then get a bank's preapproval. While that won't guarantee they'll get the loan, it shows sellers that a lender has verified the buyer's income and credit score to determine that he or she can afford payments on a mortgage for a certain amount.
2. Don't lowball: Buyers may only get one chance to get the home they want in a competitive market. They may not get a second try to sweeten the deal later, so a low-ball offer the first time around could cause them to lose out. Buyers should use sales prices of comparable properties in the neighborhood to submit their best offer the first time around.
3. Consider an escalator clause: These purchase contract clauses are becoming more popular again. This is when the buyer agrees to increase their offer if there's a higher bid from another buyer.
4. Add earnest money: The extra deposit can show sellers how serious the buyer is. Some buyers may even double the amount that the seller requests to show their commitment in purchasing the home.
5. Keep contingencies to a minimum: Sellers prefer no contingencies, but buyers want to protect their interests too. "Offset a financing contingency with preapproval and a strong earnest money deposit," Kiplinger's Personal Finance reports. "If you have enough cash, temper an appraisal contingency by assuring sellers that if the appraisal comes in lower than the purchase price, you'll pay the difference or split it with them (up to a certain amount)."
6. Write a letter: Personal love letters about the home addressed to the sellers are winning over some hearts lately. The letters tell the seller about the buyer and what drew the buyer to the home.
7. Give the gift of time: Express your willingness to work with the sellers' timetable to go to closing. If the sellers want to remain in the home for a while after closing, offer them a "lease back" or "rent back," which means that you will be their temporary landlord. This is a legal arrangement, and you'll need to work out the details with your agents and be sure that the sellers keep their homeowners insurance during their stay. If you are bidding on a short sale, make clear to the sellers that you are patient and can wait for the bank's decision .
Tanya Marchiol has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business News & Wall Street Journal is Author of the new book "The Prosperity Principles." In 2013, Arizona Business Magazine named Marchiol "Realtor Of The Year."
Today's Top Stories


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When I first started working this summer I use to go to Starbucks and get a small vanilla bean frappuccino every Wednesday and Friday during my lunch break, not to mention the Starbucks runs with Vashti on the weekends. I have since cut back due to gas prices, but it seems that I am not the only one. Many Americans have cut back on their Starbucks coffee intake, although some are slightly addicted and can't seem to shake their habit lol. Even Starbucks is cutting back by getting rid of 600 Starbucks Cafes nationwide. I mean 600 sounds like a lot but when you think about how many Starbucks there really are, its not. In D.C. there is one Starbucks per city block near the White House. They have oversaturated the market with the gorilla business tactics and plans of world domination, but now they are paying the price. With a slowing economy and sky high gas prices, a $3.69 medium cappuccino or a small vanilla bean frap at $3.10,many Americans are fiiling their gas tanks instead of there bellies.
-Doe Chee$e

subset: commoncrawl


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An Orion Township resident found dead in a Pontiac parking lot Saturday has been identified, and deputies are searching for two men last seen with her.
The 23-year-old woman, who was found at about 4 p.m. Saturday in a vacant lot in the 300 block of E. Wilson Avenue, was identified by her mother, according to the Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office.
Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said his department is searching for two Orion Township men who were last seen with the woman prior to her death.
The cause of death is pending toxicology results, which could take six weeks. There was no trauma to the body. The woman had a history of drug use, the sheriff's office said.
There were fresh tire tracks found leading away from the woman's body.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's office at 248-858-4911.
Staff writer Monica Drake contributed to this report.


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BBC Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason discusses the current global economic crisis from a journalist's perspective, asking – "When and how will the crisis end?" Writing in the International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, Mason argues that the global economic crisis needs to be seen as "an attempt to return to stability after the great disruption of the decade before the 2008 crunch." He reported on the crisis of 2008 as it happened from the US and in his book Meltdown was apparently one of the first to describe publicly what went wrong. His hypothesis is that the strain of preventing a major slump as was experienced by the industrialised nations in the 1930s Great Depression has introduced significant "systemic tensions" in global financial and commercial systems that are yet to be released.
"The long-term choice involved in recovery is between rethinking the nature of the global economic and financial architecture and some type of competitive solution to the crisis," Mason suggests. Unfortunately, we are to put it figuratively, stuck between a rock and a hard place, between the Devil and the deep blue sea, caught between Scylla and Charybdis because as he adds, "Both of these have unpredictable outcomes."
In his paper, Mason concedes that he is not an economist, he does not even have a high-school qualification in economics. But, he says that has not hindered his understanding of the bigger issues. Indeed, there is one school of thought that an "outsider" attempting to grasp the intricacies of a specialist subject either gains a clearer understanding than many of those on the inside or else becomes a specialist through their research endeavours. Of course, as a journalist, Mason does have access to endless financial reports that the lay public simply never sees, including those published by Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, the World Bank, the OECD and many other organisations.
From Mason's perspective he sees two extreme outcomes of the releasing of those inherent tensions across global economics. On the one hand, there might be a competitive race, currency walls, runaway inflation resulting from quantitative easing (banks printing money) in which China perhaps emerges victorious and stronger, Japan and perhaps peripheral Europe lose, and the US is left in a kind of limbo. At the other extreme, a reinvention of globalisation in which the state takes a serious belly blow to allow the global economy to re-emerge. Unfortunately, no state could survive a second such injury. "This is the problem of the crisis," Mason concludes.
Mason, P. (2012). When and how will the crisis end? An economic journalist's perspective, International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 6 (3) DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2012.049945


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CFR Senior Fellow Steven A. Cook says U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to project "a friendly partnership" in their White House meeting but appear to remain divided on core issues -- a two-state solution for Palestinians and Israelis and how to confront Iran. He says Obama and Netanyahu are far apart on whether to press for a two-state solution, with the current Israeli leadership not able to move past the vision of "some kind of notional Palestinian entity." On Iran, Cook says Netanyahu is driven by the view that time is running out on Iran's ability to make nuclear weapons while Obama is willing to prod the Iranians into a dialogue and wait until the end of the year to assess the progress, and then to consider tougher sanctions.
President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had their first meeting since they both won their elections. From the discussion with the press afterwards in the Oval Office there seemed to be a friendly atmosphere without any breakthrough on the major policy questions. Would you agree?
Yes. I think that neither President Obama nor Prime Minister Netanyahu have an interest in projecting anything but a friendly partnership. The president is quite popular at home and abroad and it's clearly not in Prime Minister Netanyahu's interest to be seemingly at odds with President Obama due to the fact that Israelis consider the U.S.-Israel relationship to be one of those existential issues. President Obama doesn't seem to be someone who wants to get things done through confrontation but rather through co-opting people and bringing them along with his vision. But I think you're right that on those core issues--a two-state solution and what and when to do something about Iran--there doesn't seem to be a meeting of the minds.
More on:
Diplomacy and International Institutions
The Obama administration is taking the issue of negotiations or engagement with the Iranians very seriously, and putting a very specific timeline on this would be the best way to undermine those negotiations.
President Obama in his remarks specifically called for a two-state solution, which of course has been U.S. policy for years. Netanyahu talked about wanting to start peace talks with the Palestinians immediately, but he didn't use those magic words "two-state solution." Maybe that's for his own political reasons at home. What do you think?
In some respects, I think that's the case. There tends not to be an appreciation of the political pressures that Prime Minister Netanyahu confronts in Israel. Unless he wants to have a revolt within his own party and own coalition, it's probably not in his interest to come right out of the gate and talk about a two-state solution. At the same time though, his advisers and people he's known to be close to articulate a vision that is essentially a non-starter for the Palestinians. It's some kind of notional Palestinian entity. Once again, it is not defined as a state: this entity would not be able to sign treaties with other countries, would not have control of its own airspace, and would not have control of its own radio spectrum.
He said also that the Palestinians would have to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, something that the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has declined to do.
Such a declaration doesn't seem to be too heavy of a lift from the perspective of the people in the United States and elsewhere, but of course 20 percent of Israel's population is non-Jewish, which is why there's significant Palestinian and Arab reluctance to recognize Israel specifically and only as a Jewish state.
More on:
Diplomacy and International Institutions
On Iran, there are a lot of subtle differences even though both leaders were talking in a friendly way. The Israelis have been urging a deadline on any discussions with Iran about halting its nuclear program. Obama did not seem to be too interested in a deadline, but he said that we ought to have a pretty good idea by the end of the year on where these talks are going.
First of all, let's step back and point out that the Israelis have often said that the Iranians are going to have nuclear weapons in two years and time's running out. At the same time, they've consistently accommodated those timelines slipping. Again, there's an issue of Netanyahu's domestic political constraints that are at issue here. The Obama administration is taking the issue of negotiations or engagement with the Iranians very seriously, and putting a very specific timeline on this would be the best way to undermine those negotiations. In an effort to keep it open ended without placing demands on the Iranians, the United States clearly sees this as a way of bringing the Iranians to the table rather than creating a situation where the Iranians do nothing other than dig in their heels.
Obama made it clear that he saw no point in getting into any major diplomatic effort with the Iranians until after their presidential elections, which will occur in mid-June. Another thing I saw in this mini press conference was that Obama made the point that he thought getting major progress on the Israeli-Palestinian, dual-state front would help in getting world focus on the Iranian problem. I didn't get the feeling that that sequence is what Netanyahu necessarily favored.
No. In fact the Israeli position is essentially a mirror opposite of that, which says that in order to have progress on the Palestinian front something needs to be done about the Iranian issue, specifically the nuclear issue. The United States sees the linkage in the other direction: the Palestinian issue provides opportunity for the Iranians to meddle in the Arab street; it puts Arab governments on the defensive, and most of all makes it difficult for the United States to forge a coalition in the region to oppose an Iranian nuclear program and to in essence contain Iran's influence throughout the region. Given the fact that so many in the Muslim world and elsewhere see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the core issue in the region, whether we believe that to be the case or not, there is a certain logic in trying to address the issue in a way that will bring others along with other policy initiatives that the United States would like to pursue in the region.
[T]he two-state solution provides the Holy Grail, the political horizon that the Palestinians need in order to engage in negotiations where they're going to have to make a fair amount of concessions. Peace negotiations only mean, from an Israeli perspective, the same thing as what has been going on intermittently since the early 1990's, which has not produced an agreement.
Both men, in somewhat different ways, pointed out that we now have a growing Arab coalition worried about Iran that could be used to broaden this peace settlement beyond the Palestinians. But there were no specifics on how to get this done.
Arabs do calculate their security threats in a way that is increasingly concerned with Iran, nevertheless, they aren't on board with U.S. or Israeli policy should U.S. policy become a robust one. They do support dialogue with the Iranians, but they don't support dialogue with the Iranians when it will fundamentally undermine their own security. But at the same time the Arabs do not want the United States or Israel to undertake military action against Iran, fearing that it will destabilize the region in a way that would be extraordinarily difficult for these governments to contend with.
I thought it was interesting that Obama on his own volunteered to say that Israel should live up to its commitments to stop building settlements. This is a delicate issue for Netanyahu, although I don't know what his position is right now on settlements.
Generally, the Israeli position and the Netanyahu government's position has been that there's been no new settlement construction. But, in fact, it's impossible to ask Israelis not to build in existing settlements: building in existing settlements, the Israelis say, is entirely appropriate. What they point out is that let's say a family wants to live next to their parents or that we have growing population in the West Bank. That all sounds quite reasonable, but we have very different views on what a settlement freeze is. To the Israelis, if you look at the master plan of settlements in the West Bank, you might have Settlement A, Phase One--which is populated and built up and so forth--and Phase Two of that settlement is outside the current boundaries in Settlement A. They consider building in Phase Two as building in an existing settlement. It's a semantic problem that has very real consequences, because it means expropriating additional territory for Israeli settlements.
Obama meets next week with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. Presumably the dialogue will continue. Do you think this will evolve toward a broad U.S. Middle East peace framework?
I don't think we're going back to the Madrid Conference process of big conferences and multiple tracks at multiple levels. But I think there's a real effort on the part of the Obama administration to be actively involved in getting all of the players engaged in a meaningful diplomatic process; which means obviously talking to the Israelis, obviously talking to the Palestinians, and certainly working with our primary Arab interlocutors. Egypt is one of our primary interlocutors, along with Saudi Arabia, and of course Jordan. Those are three critically important states in moving this process forward. This kind of dialogue and engagement on the part of the United States had been missing during the Bush era because the Bush people had a different theory about how you're going to forge peace in the Middle East. The Obama administration has quite a different view, and it means engaging with these governments and getting them together to try and restart these negotiations. Hopefully you'll have some fruitful outcome, although I think in the short run it will be something short of peace.
Obama also volunteered a statement that the humanitarian situation in Gaza had to be improved. There's been a lot of criticism by the UN and others that Israel's been blocking building materials from coming in. There was no response by Netanyahu on that.
This is something that the Israeli security establishment is going to have to come to grips with because they see almost everything that could be used for humanitarian purposes in Gaza as dual use. This is clearly a situation that cannot continue. There's a tremendous amount of suffering in Gaza. The Israelis look like they are purposely engaged in punishing an entire population, and I think that the administration and the president had it just right. The United States has committed $300 million to humanitarian relief in the Gaza strip and there have not been rocket attacks. The Israelis need to step up and cannot keep 1.5 million people in the current situation that they are in the Gaza Strip. It's just an untenable situation for both the Palestinians and the Israelis.
When Netanyahu says he's ready for immediate peace talks with the Palestinians, what makes that different from Obama saying we have to restart the two-state policy?
The difference is that the two-state solution provides the Holy Grail, the political horizon that the Palestinians need in order to engage in negotiations where they're going to have to make a fair amount of concessions. Peace negotiations only mean, from an Israeli perspective, the same thing as what has been going on intermittently since the early 1990's, which has not produced an agreement. It does not necessarily include a political horizon. In order to support Mahmoud Abbas and his path of negotiation rather than confrontation, there needs to be a political horizon that Abbas can turn around and sell to his people. Otherwise, it provides extremist groups like Hamas an opportunity to say "look, peace negotiations mean nothing because it gives us nothing. The Israelis aren't going to withdraw, so confrontation is the way to go." If there is a political horizon and if the Israelis agree to it, it only strengthens Mahmoud Abbas.


text: I feel I am in, or thought I was in great shape. I started having hot flushes and later angina. I excesize daily, or did, but it worries me. Where do I go from here. Suggestions for supplements, etc. Aslo where did I go wrong that got me to this point ? I don't want to conitnue that line !


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With yesterday's iPad VLC release and now Napster, iOS devices are receiving a fair amount of big, multimedia press. Of course, this isn't the Napster you grew up with as a shifty-eyed teenager at the end of the 90's. Napster was bought by Best Buy back in 2008 in one of the better ironic moments in history. Anyway, it's back, and evidently, it's out to turn up the sleeves of rental P2P music sharing – if you're in the US of A, that is. And if you can stomach the "awful" sound quality. Napster reckon they stream both new and old tracks in 128kbps (a number that still carries the stigma of poor sound), but its customers reckon that music sounds like the radio. If Nappy wants to get its mojo on, it's gonna have to dish out at least 128kpbs sounding files in a music app! But then, what's Napster without complaints from audiophiles?
For the uninitiated:
Some of the things you can do with Napster plus mobile access:
• Save songs, albums, and playlists to play even when you're offline
• Kick back with playlists, recommendations, and Billboard® charts dating back to 1955
• Create your own playlists for a customized listening experience
• Save your last 100 songs played so you can easily replay favorites
• Automix your favorite song to create an instant playlist blending similar artists
Napster LLC, a Best Buy company, Napster®, 1.85MB – Free
Full details after the gap:


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From Lori Drew To Dharun Ravi, Punishing People Based On Others' Suicides Is A Mistake
from the giving-the-wrong-message deptA few years back, we covered the Lori Drew case, involving charges brought against a woman who stupidly set up a fake user account on MySpace to try to find out what was going on with a girl the woman's daughter had some issues with. The "fake account" was of a boy who the real 13-year-old girl became very friendly with. At some point, the "boy" turned on the girl, said some nasty things to her -- including "the world would be better off without" her -- and cut off communications. The girl committed suicide soon after. Lots and lots of people wanted Lori Drew brought up on charges for the girl's death. While we found Drew's actions to be incredibly immature and ridiculous, we were much more concerned with efforts to pin the suicide on her. Of course, the law wouldn't allow such a thing, so prosecutors trumped up some charges, involving a claim that she committed a felony by not following MySpace's terms of service. She was found guilty of a misdemeanor (not felony) charge -- which was then dropped by the judge, who wasn't comfortable with the ruling.
Of course, this did lead to a flurry of attempts to pass "cyberbullying" laws -- which try to make it a crime of some sort to be a jerk online. This is problematic for a variety of reasons, especially since it raises significant First Amendment issues, in part because "being a jerk" is extremely subjective. But the worst part is that much of what is considered to be "jerky" behavior is determined after the other party commits suicide. This is extremely problematic -- because whether or not your actions are seen as criminal depends almost entirely on how someone else reacts to them. If they shake off your actions, then you're fine. If they commit suicide, you get punished. Thus, the incentive then is actually for kids to seriously hurt themselves, if someone acts in a mean way towards them, as that increases the likelihood of the bully getting punished. That doesn't sound like a good incentive system.
I'm thinking about all of this after hearing about the guilty verdict against Dharun Ravi -- the Rutgers student who surreptitiously filmed his roommate engaged in a sexual encounter with another male. That roommate, Tyler Clementi, later killed himself, once he found out about it being filmed. Like the Lori Drew case, much of the prosecution focused on the dead teenager -- and you can understand why. It's a horrible (and horrifying) story. But, again, the reaction is much more based on the end results, rather than the initial action. No doubt, what Ravi did was despicable, but is it really criminal? Law professor Paul Butler has an excellent opinion piece explaining why this is an overreaction. He notes that Ravi was clearly immature and did an obnoxious thing in invading his roommate's privacy, but the desire to see him locked up (and apparently there's a good chance he'll be deported to India, despite not having lived there since he was 2 years old) is almost entirely because of Clementi's tragic death:
Let's be honest. A lot of people want a pound of flesh from Ravi because they blame him for Clementi's death. Tyler's reaction was tragic, and it was idiosyncratic.... No judge in the country would have allowed a homicide prosecution, because, legally speaking, Ravi did not cause the death, nor was it reasonably foreseeable. Of the millions of people who are bullied or who suffer invasions of privacy, few kill themselves.As Butler notes, the rush to the criminal justice system, and the focus on blaming Ravi, takes us away from a more reasonable place in thinking about how to deal with these things:
For his stupidity, Ravi should be shamed by his fellow students and kicked out of his dorm, but he should not be sent to prison for years and then banished from the United States.
The problem with broad laws like New Jersey's is that they come too close to punishing people for what they think. Bigotry, including homophobia, is morally condemnable, but in a free country, it should not be a punishable offense....Indeed, as tragic as Clementi's death is, it did inspire thousands of people to act in a positive manner against homophobia by launching the It Gets Better project -- a very powerful way that tons of people have gathered to try to pass along the message to bullied teens (mainly from the LGBT community) that things do, in fact, get better. That response is a way of trying to deal with the actual problems. Going after Ravi with these charges just seems like a punitive action based on what Clementi did after Ravi's clearly childish and obnoxious actions. It certainly can be difficult to separate out what Ravi did from what Clementi did later, but in a society based on law, that's what we're supposed to do. Being a jerk should get you shunned, but not put in prison.
Ravi did not invent homophobia, but he is being scapegoated for it. Bias against gay people is, sadly, embedded in American culture. Until last year people were being kicked out of the military because they were homosexuals. None of the four leading presidential candidates -- President Obama, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich -- thinks that gay people should be allowed to get married. A better way to honor the life of Clementi would be for everyone to get off their high horse about a 20-year-old kid and instead think about how we can promote civil rights in our own lives.
Though a national conversation about civility and respect would have been better, as usual for social problems, we looked to the criminal justice system. The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any country in the world. We are an extraordinarily punitive people.
Filed Under: cyberbullying, dharun ravi, free speech, lori drew, suicide, tyler clementi


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According to the Department of Defense, American Indians and Alaska Natives have one of the highest representations in the armed forces. VA consults with American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments to develop partnerships that enhance access to services and benefits by Veterans and their families. VA is committed to ensuring that Native American Veterans and their families are able to utilize all benefits and services they are entitled to receive.
Native American Veterans may be eligible for a wide-variety of benefits available to all U.S. military Veterans. VA benefits include disability compensation, pension, education and training, health care, home loans, insurance, vocational rehabilitation and employment, and burial. See our Veterans page for an overview of the benefits available to all Veterans.
The NADL program helps eligible Native American Veterans finance the purchase, construction, or improvement of homes on Federal Trust Land or reduce the interest rate on such a VA loan. Native American Veterans may use these direct loans to simultaneously purchase and improve a home or refinance another VA direct loan made under NADL to lower the interest rate.
Learn more about the Native American Direct Loan (NADL) Program.
The VA Office of Tribal Government Relations (OTGR) consults with American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments to develop partnerships that enhance access to services and benefits by Veterans and their families. OTGR also sponsors regional training sessions for Tribal leaders, Veteran Service Organizations, and Tribal Organizations to increase access to Veteran access to VA Healthcare and benefits through informative presentations and interactive discussions.
Learn more about the Office of Tribal Government Relations.
The specific VA benefit or program web page will provide tailored information about how to apply for a particular benefit or program. Generally, Servicemembers, Veterans, and families can apply for VA benefits using one of the methods below.
Veterans Crisis Line:
1-800-273-8255 (Press 1)
Social Media
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs | 810 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington DC 20420
Last updated March 27, 2018


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New drugs faster with filters
The identification of compounds that could be promising candidates for drug development has become easier following research by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute's medicinal chemistry group.
Dr Jonathan Baell and Dr Georgina Holloway have developed a series of 'filters' that can be used to weed out those molecules likely to come up as false positives when screening a chemical library for compounds that could be useful in drug development.
High-throughput chemical screening (HTCS) seeks to identify chemical compounds that interact with a target protein and are therefore potential candidates for drug development. There can be from 30 000 to one million compounds in a screening library and thousands of compounds may be flagged as 'positive' for interaction with a protein of interest. These compounds then become the subject of time-consuming medicinal chemistry as scientists seek to refine them for entry into the drug development pipeline.
Dr Baell said about 10 per cent of compounds in any commercially available screening library might show up as false positives, potentially wasting hundreds of hours of scientists' time as they undertake labour-intensive medicinal chemistry to optimise these molecules.
"We're trying to remove molecules from the screening process that trick scientists into thinking they could be useful for being developed into drugs to treat disease but instead become a dead end," Dr Baell said.
To this end, Dr Baell and Dr Holloway analysed data from previous chemical screens and developed a way of clearly identifying those molecules likely to show up as false positives.
"These pan assay interference compounds, or PAINS as I like to call them, caused us some grief not so many years ago. For that reason, Georgina and I have taken some effort to identify these PAINS."
Dr Baell has made it possible for others to identify these troublesome molecules by developing 'filters', text files that can be incorporated into the software used to screen chemical libraries.
The filters were made publically available on 4 February through online publication in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.
High-throughput chemical screening has been used by large pharmaceutical companies for more than 20 years. In the past decade scientists at universities and research institutes and in small biotechnology companies have had increasing access to HTCS. "Many of them have spent vast amounts of time and money optimising and patenting molecules that were never going to amount to anything," Dr Baell said.
"We were in a position where we had all the data, we had the software, and we had the expertise to identify these molecules. Importantly, we also had the ability to publish our data.
"Pharmaceutical companies, which have used high-throughput chemical screening for many years, would know about many compounds that turn up as false positives. But they also operate in a competitive environment where publishing this data could compromise their competitive edge. For this particular situation, we didn't have such constraints."


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We haven't had a chance to take Hori's HD LCD Monitor 3 for the Playstation 3 for a full test run yet, but I wanted to give you a look at this high-def video monitor in action.
As I mention in the video, the HD LCD Monitor 3 hit Japan in May of this year, but it doesn't hit the U.S. until the end of this week. The 11.6-inch widescreen LCD monitor supports a 720p picture, includes built-in speakers, plugs for headphones and other external composite inputs.
The drawbacks we see with this set-up, at least initially, are that it only works well with the PS3 Slim and it will set you back $250. Yikes! But it is tiny, form-fitting and HD.


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Tigers open season at Alabama on November 14; travel to Georgetown and Temple while hosting LaSalle
TOWSON, Md. – Road contests at Alabama, Georgetown and Temple and a home game against 2013 NCAA "Sweet 16" participant LaSalle highlight the 2014-15 Towson University men's basketball non-conference schedule, which was released by Tiger head coach Pat Skerry on Monday.
Coming off a season in which the Tigers won a Division I school record 25 games and advanced to the quarterfinals of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT), Skerry and the Tigers will look to build off that recent success by taking on a challenging non-conference schedule.
"We're excited to play a strong non-conference schedule, which we always do," said Skerry. "It'll test us early and prepare us for the rigors of Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play."
After graduating four senior starters, including two-time CAA Player of the Year Jerrelle Benimon, the Tigers will have a new look heading into the 2014-15 season. Fans will have a chance to get an early preview of the team when Towson hosts an exhibition game against Slippery Rock inside SECU Arena on November 7. The exhibition contest will be part of a doubleheader with the Tiger women's team.
The Tigers then go on the road for the first five games of the regular season. Towson opens its 2014-15 campaign by taking on Southeastern Conference (SEC) foe Alabama in Tuscaloosa on November 14. That game will be part of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.
After battling the Tide, the Tigers will visit local rival Morgan State on November 17. Towson then finishes off play in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic at Monmouth University from November 21-23. The four-team field also includes Central Connecticut State, Bethune-Cookman and host Monmouth.
The Tigers play their first regular season game inside SECU Arena, where they went 15-1 a year ago, onNovember 26 against Division III foe, Goucher College.
Towson will take on a pair of teams from Baltimore next, traveling to UMBC on November 29 and hosting Coppin State on December 3.
On December 7, the Tigers will make their second trip in three years to the Verizon Center to take on Georgetown. The game will be part of the BB&T Classic, which will be a doubleheader broadcast on Fox Sports 1. The opening game of the BB&T Classic pits George Washington against Charlotte.
Towson will then collide with a pair of teams from Philadelphia. On December 10, the Tigers will travel to Temple and on December 20, they'll host LaSalle.
Before Christmas break, Towson will make the short trip to Annapolis to take on Navy on December 22. The Tigers wrap up non-conference play at home on December 29 hosting Fairleigh Dickinson.
All game dates are subject to change. Stay tuned to TowsonTigers.com as game times, ticket information, the CAA schedule and TV broadcast schedules will be announced in the coming weeks.
2014-15 Towson Men's Basketball Schedule
November 7 Slippery Rock (exhibition doubleheader with women's basketball team)
November 14 at Alabama (CBE Hall of Fame Classic)
November 17 at Morgan State
November 21 vs. Central Connecticut State (CBE Hall of Fame Classic)
November 22 vs. Bethune-Cookman (CBE Hall of Fame Classic)
November 23 at Monmouth (CBE Hall of Fame Classic)
November 26 Goucher College
November 29 at UMBC
December 3 Coppin State
December 7 at Georgetown (BB&T Classic)
December 10 at Temple
December 20 LaSalle
December 22 at Navy
December 29 Fairleigh Dickinson


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Four episodes in, and we are beginning to see the shape of Mystic Falls and its surrounding university campuses. One of the reasons we decided to take this show in chunks a little bit more is because the crazy-twist play-by-play can be so exhausting that it's hard to do it justice. Only when you take a look at it with a bit of distance can you really process the enormity of what these people go through on a regular basis.
So now that season 5 has had a minute to establish itself, let's see what we can glean?
"America's most boring self-righteous vampire" Katherine & Elena
It is fair to say that Katherine has always been my favourite part of the show, and equally fair to say that when she's around, Elena pales in comparison. To the point of making her always seem self-righteous and exhausting. Elena has made strides, but she changes her tune when Katherine comes around. She's a misery-guts – and the show has finally called it out, which is magnificent. I like that they can laugh at themselves, and it goes a long way. Human Katherine is lots of laughs, too. I'm not sure I ever thought her needing cold medication would actually be a thing that would slay me but the addition of Katherine points out that the show now suffers from a particular CW problem. In point? There are just too many long, flowing brown-eyed brunettes on this show. Like, far too many. We could really use a redhead or a spiky blonde or someone with short (!) hair to shake things up. Ketziah and Silas' handmaiden are different people, but at the same time, not really. Caroline alone cannot stand in for "diversity". Please.
Gregor lives inside Matt
Someone else on Twitter pointed out that Matt has had zero to do for the past four years except to be human bait, and suddenly has an awesome storyline. There was always a question of why this random human would be able to still be friends with all his supernatural friends, and now this is answered. I think it's satisfying, especially since the last episode pointed out to us that Matt is so completely alone.
The question for me is what kind of dark side Gregor will reveal in Matt. The worst thing about him, up to now, is that he's too nice. The fact that he's got a demon-type someone living inside him is maybe going to be his salvation…
Stefan, rewritten.
WOW, does it make a difference to have Paul Wesley allowed to do something between a bloodthirsty Ripper and a sulking, castrated pouty-pants. He has nuance and a bit of intrigue and for the first time in years, I'm not totally, absolutely sure which way things are going to go. He could be anyone at this point. He doesn't want to be Old Stefan – and when your brother changes his position on things, birth order dictates that you have to change your position too, Damon. I don't know that this can contain itself for 22 episodes – it feels a lot like Stefan having run off with Klaus – but it feels like, especially without the shackles of Mystic Falls, there might be somewhere new to go.
Bonnie is dead.
This has affected the show…not really at all. In fact, she might be a little bit more useful when she can barely talk to anyone. Am I being too flippant? I think so, but I also think a little bit of Kat Graham goes a long way. Having said that, I bawled and bawled in the funeral scene, because I'm not made of stone and it was really hard for all the actors and the running mascara was real, which was a nice touch. No, seriously. Stopped typing to sob. The funeral scenes on this show are always wrenching, and even though I agree with Elena – how many more of these can we take? – this seemed emotionally true.
But I don't know what this means for the series as a whole. Having Bonnie only able to talk through one person is going to really limit her usefulness. Maybe we'll meet another witch or maybe Jeremy will start to be able to do her spells, but how soon before Bonnie goes beyond the veil? If we never see her fight with Damon again, has she outlived her usefulness?
Romance Is Complicated
Lest we be distracted, let's not forget that Matt and Rebecca banged their way across Europe. That's something. I mean, it's a moment in time, but it's a pretty spectacular one.
In other news, we have Elena and Damon just beginning their sexy, steamy – no, wait. That was last season when it was forbidden. Now that they're together out in the open, the relationship is punctuated with moping, anxious dreams, second-guessing a relationship with Stefan now that all that pesky weight of his past transgressions isn't dragging him down. Plus, she makes her boyfriend responsible for her brother's academic past. I'm not sure whether any of the events of this season were inspired by real life-ones, but the inevitable pull from one brother to another is something we've seen. We know we've seen this. Right?
As for Caroline and Jesse – or Caroline and Stefan, even – either seems more palatable than yet another go-round with Tyler, and not just because his name is Tyler. He's just always seemed impervious to any real development and kind of Teflon to anything except Klaus actively running him out of town.
So in conclusion…
I know Bonnie said we had to go back to school and have fun, but I'm not sure I am excited. I'm not sure that the current issues, which do feel dramatic (even if the professor who's into vampires feels like a homage to when Buffy went to college) don't necessarily feel fun and delicious in the way that Damon's smarming around Mayor Lockwood used to do. I can be committee to the characters, but the show used to be kind of campy fun, too – so I hope we get some deliciousness back sometime soon…there's only so much crying I can take. At least before May Sweeps.


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When the Kardashian clan dropped by Oprah Winfrey's "Next Chapter" program on Sunday, they dished on a bevvy of hot topics: divorces, sex tapes, the family's much-publicized beauty and, of course, their mother.
The reality TV stars told the world that regardless of all the follies, missteps and drama, they're hopeful for the future.
"I'm totally growing up," Kim told Oprah. "A lot of my friends, the people that I love to just sit and talk to and spend my time with, are wiser, a little bit older than me."
U.S. & World
Winfrey told Kim she was pleased with the 31-year-old's level of maturity after her marriage to Nets power forward Kris Humphries ended after just 72 days and her subsequent coupling with rapper Kanye West.
But then the big question: Was her marriage to Humphries a PR stunt?
"We don't do anything for ratings. I think anyone who knows me knows that I fall in love hard," Kim said. "I would have had a big wedding regardless of who I am."
As for her infamous sex tape with Ray J, Kim said she's just happy she didn't have to explain it to her father, the late Robert Kardashian.
Winfrey also asked if the family felt exploited because their mother, Kris Jenner, was their manager. Oprah even asked Jenner if she thought she was "pimping out" her own flesh and blood.
"I think that's so ridiculous, because first of all, we have to hire a manager, so regardless, someone is going to get that [money]," Kim said. "No one will fight harder for you than your own mother."
And in crediting her mom for being "open and honest" with her when she was growing up, she dropped a bit of a bombshell — revealing when she went on birth control.
"I was almost 15," she said. She explained that she told her mom she wanted to have sex with a boyfriend she had been dating since she was 12, and her mother steered her toward the pill.
Young Rob Kardashian had the line of the night, however, when he answered Winfrey's question about if his sisters' looks had anything to do with their success.
"They're not skinny women," he said. "They're not models here."
On her blog, Winfrey was surprised by the answers the Kardashians gave her, but championed them for their honesty. But in the end it all came back to Kim and Humphries.
"This interview I'd say was another level of forthrightness and honesty," Winfrey said on her Facebook page."Why did she leave after 72 days? Her answer leveled me."
Part two of the special — in which Oprah chats with the Khloe, Lamar, Kourtney and Scott Disick — airs at 8 p.m. ET on June 24 on OWN.


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The New CYBERGRASS® has a purpose! Cybergrass is the home of the Bluegrass Music News Network and we provide daily articles on bluegrass music. We also do reviews of new releases, event announcements and share ideas and commentary about bluegrass music.
Some people have asked why the New Cybergrass. The answer is simple -- to give you more of what you're looking for. This is a web site for you so please tell us what you want here. As technology evolves so must we. This is our 5th major revision of the site since its early text-only beginnings.
We want to achieve a large dialog of bluegrass, acoustic and Americana/roots music ideas, news, and other topics related to what is going on with Acoustic music.
· Can anybody send us articles to use on CYBERGRASS®?
Yes. If you have something of interest in your acoustic music world, let us know. Use the "Contact Us" page for more info.
· Where is the music?
The music died with DMCA. Also, royalty licensing became a royal pain. Not only did BMI and ASCAP charge us (we didn't mind) but so did the equivalent organizations in every country start to put their hands into our pockets. With DMCA, they also want label and producer royalties. Eventually, royalty payments exceeded 200% of our total gross revenue. We couldn't afford it. Once they ever get the blanket licensing worked out, we'll gladly return music to the site. We need your help though. We can't pay for the music if we don't get a lot of traffic so spread the word about the new Cybergrass!
· What is CYBERGRASS®?
CYBERGRASS® is a private company that began operating on the web in 1992. Cybergrass has had a lot of firsts on the Internet but the most important is that the site has always been a great place for Bluegrass and Acoustic music information. We used to carry music and other entertainment however modern licensing has made that option go away. Even with the support of most record labels, it just isn't feasible at this time.
Our purpose is to promote bluegrass music. Help us by promoting your music in your area too. Please become active on our forums and submit major items of news interest to our web site. In that way, it becomes your web site too.
· Who owns CYBERGRASS®?
Bob Cherry created the first bluegrass web site on September 9, 1992 while working on an electronic documentation project. His site was hosted on the Xerox PARC Vax server. This was one of the first 10 websites with content. It got the name Cybergrass in 1995 thanks to Karen Quick.
Bob worked at Xerox in research doing imager design, electro-optical VLSI, Artificial Intelligence, advanced reprographics, computer graphics and electronic documentation from 1980-1995. As a member of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 80's, he helped write the test suite to validate LISP language compilers. Bob has multiple patents including the Optical Mouse and Satellite Audio Broadcasting System. He has also been published in technology journals.
From 1995-2003, he worked on advanced networking protocols including Voice Over IP (VoIP), security systems for financial institutions, and E-Commerce.
He was active in the Microsoft anti-trust case providing remedy input to Drexel Sprecher for the prosecution in the Microsoft Antitrust case. His primary input was regarding the OLE interfaces and functionality as well as input on operating Windows software on non-Windows platforms.
In addition to running Cybergrass, he is also a Cyber-Security consultant and independent contractor residing in Colorado.
He was the past president of the Colorado Bluegrass Music Society (CBMS), on the Telecommunications Committee for the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and remains active in bluegrass music.
· About CYBERGRASS®
Welcome to CYBERGRASS® - The Internet's Bluegrass Music Newspaper! Where There's Always Something New in Bluegrass!
We're not a blog although, we used to be. We have evolved into an online newspaper providing serious bluegrass music news. Many blog type sites are today and gone tomorrow. Many become obsolete and stop losing interest over time. Cybergrass has been in continuous operation longer than anybody. Our history speaks for itself. We're the first news source dedicated to bluegrass music on the web.
Why Cybergrass®? The answer is simple. We're an innovator and a leader of providing bluegrass music information on the Internet.
We've had many firsts. Cybergrass was one of the first 10 web sites using the NCSA/Cern implementation in the world. Cybergrass is the best news and events resource for bluegrass on the net. Why? Because we're the first to use new technology for the benefit of bluegrass music information.
We created the first IBMA and IBMM Web sites. We helped many others get started on the web and most of those sites are still operating today.
While some other bluegrass sites claim they were the first, we were on the net many years before the others. Some sites added features we had years earlier and claim they are the first. Cybergrass has always been the site others follow. Through true innovation, we continue to be a leader in bluegrass music promotion.
We've started the Bluegrass Music News Network (BMNN) and post press releases and news of bluegrass music to a wide audience.
Cybergrass has been promoting bluegrass music since 1992 - longer than any other web site and we have an established readership of over 2000 registered users. Our content is carried on sites around the world and all over the U.S. Bands, other bluegrass sites, news outlets and many others carry the Cybergrass news. Why? Because it is reliable, accurate and current. News is posted daily on Cybergrass.
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CYBERGRASS® reserves the right to accept or refuse any editorial contant that we receive. There is no guarantee that any material submitted will be used.
CYBERGRASS® reserves the right to edit all content submitted by others. This includes text, images and multimedia. Images may be substituted with file images or may be created by CYBERGRASS® for use in articles we run.
Press Releases, Reviews and other content may be edited to fit our style guidelines, to improve readability and to add interest to the material submitted. This may include the addition of multimedia, biographical text or other content.
All submissions must be newsworthy and a minimum of four full paragraphs. Announcements indicating an artist will play some venue on a given date will not be considered for publication.
Visit us often and thank you for reading Cybergrass.
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Vegan Sage-Rubbed Pork Chops with Warm Apple Slaw
Somehow, I'm always unintentionally sparking proverbial fires. If you read my Goat Cheese Stuffed Pork Chops recipe, you already know about my accidental collegiate hell raising. Well, fellow vegans, I've done it again. Apparently, two separate Avril Lavigne fan sites caught wind of last week's post (one in Brazil, one in Argentina) and all out chaos ensued. Nasty comments started popping up on my blog, my inbox was FLOODED with e-mails, 85% of which were in Portuguese or Spanish. My personal favorite stated that I was "an Avril want-to-be hating whore" and that I should "shove cow liver in between my lips and die".
Apparently, my sense of humor doesn't cross cultures.
Avril fans worldwide, I would like to now issue this formal statement of apology. My white flag is up and waving, my tail between my legs:
Avril fans, I am deeply sorry for offending your love of Ms. Lavigne. I shall never again in my wildest dreams long to stand in her spotlight. My hands will never lovingly caress a Skater Boy. I would rather have a Roller Derby Girl, anyway. I will toss out my neck-ties, and opt for the dramatically less fashionably bow tie. I may even abandon neck wear all together and buy a snazzy broach. If a Skater Boy should happen to cross my path, I definitely will not utter the words, "See you later, boy", but will politely decline his offers of courtship with a simple, "No thanks, I'm taken".
My skinny jeans will be burned. I will now only wear my dowdy pair of baggy brown cords, making my non-existent ass look even more lacking.
I hope you will take these concessions with sincerity, as I know I certainly do.
Again, my deepest regrets for upsetting you,
There. Now that the air's been cleared, on to this week's recipe.
I've been on a bit of a kick with these seitan pork chops lately. I don't know why, because I certainly disliked real pork chops. Regardless, I was given the opportunity by some good friends of mine to use their ASS KICKING VIKING OVEN RANGE! The heat distribution was flawless, and the lighting in their kitchen was great to boot.
Thanks, you two ;)


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DescriptionCan you become a famous painting artist? Colour the canvas by popping the balls of paint and create works of art that are totally unique!
- Aim and shoot with your mouse
- Every time two balls collide, they increase in size.
- When they are big enough, or hit a razor, they will burst!


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Cable Cat Communications - South Melbourne Fibre Optical Cabling, Communications and Telecommunications specialists
Fibre Optic Cabling South Melbourne
Fibre Optic Cabling is typically used to deliver a high speed data connection between different parts of a building. The main benefits of using Fibre Optic Cabling for your data communications in your South Melbourne business are ease of installation due to the smaller cable size and the ability to carry larger high speed signals without a need for repeaters. Another very important benefit of using fibre Optic Cabling for your secure business data communications is that there are no radiated magnetic fields around the optical fibres making it impossible tap or hack a signal being sent via a fibre optic cable.
Cable Cat Communications are specialists in the supply and installation of Fibre Optic Cabling to businesses in South Melbourne. With over 20 years experience we guarantee that you won't be disappointed with our Fibre Optic Cabling solutions for your South Melbourne business. Our Fibre optic Cabling solutions include both forms of Multi Mode and Single Mode Fibre optic Cabling as well as the supply of Fibre Optic leads and accessories.
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Structured Cabling is the term used to describe the telecommunications systems of an office. Cable Cat provide Structured Cabling Systems to South Melbourne offices large and small. We guarantee that we always use the best products to suit your telecommunications needs. Our Structured Cabling System products include CAT5e, CAT6, Cat6a, Cat7 and Fibre optic Cabling to ensure you get the most out of your telecommunication needs.
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2 killers registered as felons after their escape
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Within days of strolling out of prison without a hitch, two convicted killers freed using bogus paperwork went to a jail and registered in person as felons, records showed. They were even fingerprinted and filled out paperwork to apparently keep up the ruse.
Authorities are now searching for Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, who were mistakenly freed from a Panhandle prison within the last month. Both men were serving life in prison but were let go when authorities said forged documents duped the Corrections Department and court system and reduced their sentences to 15 years.
The error has prompted prosecutors and prison officials to review their records to make sure no one else had been mistakenly released.
Jenkins was released Sept. 27 and registered at the Orange County jail Sept. 30. Walker was set free Oct. 8 and registered Oct. 11.
Felons are required to register by law. When they register, their fingerprints are digitally uploaded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and a deputy at the jail verifies that felons don't have any outstanding warrants, said jail spokesman Allen Moore.
The jail is about 300 miles from the prison where they were serving their sentences.
It's not clear exactly who made the fake documents ordering their release or whether the escapes were related. Authorities said the paperwork in both cases was filed in the last couple of months and included forged signatures from the same prosecutor's office and judge.
The state Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Corrections are investigating the error, but so far have not released any details.
Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry said Thursday there were several red flags that should have attracted the attention of the court clerk's office or the Corrections Department. Namely, it's rare for a judge to order a sentence reduction, and even more uncommon for the request to come from prosecutors.
Sen. Greg Evers, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he spoke to Perry on Friday. He said the judge will offer a proposal in which judges review all early release documents before court clerks send them to prisons.
"They're working on some fail safe plans," said Evers, a Pensacola Republican. "If the court administrator put these plans in place throughout the state it will solve the problem."
The Corrections Department said Thursday it verified the release orders with the Orange County Clerk of Court's office. Evers said Friday he spoke with prison officials, who told him they made the verification by phone and email, but clerk's office spokeswoman Leesa Bainbridge said it has no record of receiving an email from the state agency about the cases. She didn't know if they had received a phone call.
Even if somebody from the corrections agency had called, it would be to verify if paperwork had been docketed in the clerk's office, not to authenticate documents, Bainbridge said.
"If they questioned whether it was a judge's signature, they would call the judge," Bainbridge said.
Prisoners have had varying success trying to use bogus documents to escape. Many forgeries are discovered, but there have been cases where inmates walk free.
In 2010, a Wisconsin killer forged documents that shortened his prison sentence and he walked free, only to be captured a week later. In 2012, a prisoner in Pennsylvania was let out with bogus court documents, and the mistake was only discovered months later.
Jenkins, 34, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing and botched robbery of Roscoe Pugh, an Orlando man.
State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton said he learned Jenkins had been released when Pugh's family contacted his office. They reviewed the paperwork and found that it was a fake, then notified law enforcement.
Later, they discovered Walker's release documents were also fake. The paperwork also forged prosecutors' signatures, Ashton said.
"It is now clear that the use of forged court documents to obtain release from prison is an ongoing threat which all law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, court clerks and prison officials must address and stop," Ashton said.
Walker, 34, was convicted of second-degree murder in a 1999 slaying in Orange County. He told investigators that 23-year-old Cedric Slater was bullying him and he fired three shots intending to scare him.
In a statement, Department of Corrections Secretary Michael Crews said his agency was reviewing records to make sure no other inmates had been released in a similar fashion.
Ashton said another man serving a life sentence for attempting to kill a law enforcement officer was also scheduled to be released using forged documents, but an investigator discovered the scheme before any release.
Florida legislators have called for hearings while Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he was focused on the manhunt.


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OTTAWA — The federal government nailed down its moving target for balancing the budget on Thursday, saying it will eliminate the shortfall over the next three years and post a surplus by 2015-16, as Canada's economic outlook improves.
"We are on track," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Thursday as he tabled his 2012 budget.
"In less than two years, we have already cut the deficit in half," Flaherty said. "We did it by ending our targeted and temporary stimulus measures, and by controlling the growth of new spending."
The government on Thursday cut its deficit estimate for the current year to $24.9 billion from $31 billion — roughly in line with economists' expectations — and set the shortfall for 2012-13 at $21.1 billion. The deficit is expected to shrink to $10.2 billion in 2013-14 and go down to $1.3 billion the following year.
The surplus should come in at $3.4 billion in 2015-16, and reach $7.8 billion a year later.
"Canadians need to be confident in our prospects for economic growth," Flaherty said. "To provide this confidence, we must ensure that Canada's finance are sustainable over the long term."
"To that end, we will fulfil the commitment we made in the Economic Action Plan budget of 2009, to return to balanced budgets in the medium term."
Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said the timetable for deficit reduction is "a relatively go-slow approach."
In fact, RBC Economics this week projected the government could balance the budget even before 2015-16.
"Using the better-than-expected 2011-12 deficit and maintaining the growth rates from the (November fiscal) update, the projections show a return to balance is possible as early as 2014-15, two years ahead of plan,'' RBC said.
In his November fiscal update, Flaherty pushed back the government's original break-even target of 2014-15 amid a weaker-than-expected recovery in both Canada and the United States and a growing debt storm in Europe.
Since then, the economic picture in North America appears to be improving slightly and the possibility of a major default by Greece — which threatened to spread elsewhere in Europe — has eased.
Recent government numbers had already telegraphed a much smaller-than-expected deficit for 2011-12.
And on Thursday, the Finance Department released its monthly Fiscal Monitor, which showed the government actually swung into a $1.7-billion surplus for the month of January.
That followed a deficit in December of $353 million, although that was still down from $1.5 billion in the same month in 2010.
Meanwhile, the shortfall for the first 10 months of fiscal 2011-12 fell to $16 billion from $27.7 billion in the same period a year earlier, according to the department's estimates.
On the economy, meanwhile, the government Thursday said private sector economists are forecasting growth of 2.1 per cent this year and 2.4 per cent in 2013, little changed from the outlook in the Finance Department's November update.
By comparison, gross domestic product rose 2.5 per cent in 2011, down from 3.2 per cent the previous year, according to Statistics Canada.
The Bank of Canada, for its part, had previously forecast 2.4 per cent growth for all of 2011. The central bank's most recent outlook for 2012 is for two per cent expansion, followed by 2.8 per cent in 2013.
CIBC's Shenfeld attributed the moderate growth outlook in the budget to the fact "there are still a lot of uncertainty" in the global economy.


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Size chart: Size m(girth:35-40cm) size l(girth:40-45cm) size xl(girth:45-50cm) note: It is manual measurement, there may be 2-4cm error. And item color displayed in photos may be showing slightly different on your computer monitor since monitors are not calibrated same. Hope you will be understanding. Specification: Material: High quality soft fabric. Helps relieve muscle and joint… Read More »


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Pope Benedict Says to 'Go Green'
Holy Father encourages governments to focus on clean energy in a responsible manner.
VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) — The governments of the world should back "the exploitation of clean-energy sources," Pope Benedict XVI said June 9.
The Pope made his remarks in an address to a group of ambassadors at the Vatican. His comments came on the same day Switzerland voted to phase out its nuclear- energy program.
"The first half of this year has been marked by many tragedies that have affected nature, technology and people," the Pope said in reference to the March earthquake in Japan that triggered radioactive leaks at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
At the same time, the Pope cautioned, "Man, to whom God has entrusted the safeguarding of nature, cannot be dominated by technology or become its object."
The Pope said this awareness should lead all countries to "reflect on the short-term future of the planet" and "their responsibilities with regard to our life and technology."
"Human ecology," he stressed, "is an imperative."
"We must adopt a lifestyle that respects the environment and support research and the exploitation of clean-energy sources, respectful of the heritage of creation and harmless to humans — these must be our political and economic priorities."
The Pope's comments carry a particular political significance for many Western countries currently questioning the future of their nuclear industries. The vote in the Swiss parliament follows an identical decision in Germany last month. Pope Benedict's homeland will now phase out nuclear power by 2022.
The Pope said we all have to undergo a "change of mentality" so as to arrive at "an overall lifestyle that respects the balance between man and nature."
"All governments must commit to protect nature and help it fulfill its essential role in the survival of humanity," he said, suggesting that the United Nations seems to be the obvious forum to achieve this.
Pope Benedict also critiqued the way that technology is sometimes used without any ethical consideration.
He warned that when societies believe that technology is the "exclusive agent of progress or happiness," they may embark on a road that "leads to blindness and misery."
He told the assembled ambassadors that putting too much trust in "an all-powerful and ultimately uncontrolled technology" deprives man of his humanity. The antidote to this, he said, is for governments to "promote a humanism that respects the spiritual and religious dimension of man."


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2014 Commencement Information
by Iowa Central Information
Posted on 4/16/2014
1. Report to Applied Science and Technology (AST) 101 (northwest door) no later than 5:30 p.m. on May 9th. You will need to pick up your name card first, then your cap and gown. WE REQUEST STUDENTS ONLY IN THE AST BUILDING DUE TO LIMITED SPACE. You may pick up your cap and gown as early as 4:30 p.m. The earlier you arrive, the better. Please do not bring any personal items with you; they cannot be left in the AST building and cannot be carried into the ceremony. Iowa Central is not responsible for personal items as the AST building will be locked once the ceremony starts and will remain locked for the rest of the evening.
2.If you feel it would be beneficial to provide us with the phonetic pronunciation of your name as you would like it announced during the ceremony, please call Student Records at 515-574-1019 by Friday, April 25th. On the message, please make sure to speak clearly and slowly and pronounce your name multiple times.
3.If you require any special accommodations on the day of the ceremony, such as special seating or assistance across the stage, please contact the Student Records office prior to the ceremony (1-800-362-2793, ext.1022).
4.Parents, relatives, and friends are cordially invited to attend the commencement ceremony and reception. Seating is available in Hodges Field House. Overflow seating is available in Decker Auditorium where the ceremony will be streamed live onscreen. Hodges Field House does fill up quickly, so it is recommended to arrive early. The doors open at 5:00 p.m. If you have friends or relatives who need special seating accommodations for graduation, please make those arrangements with the Student Records Office prior to the ceremony (1-800-362-2793, ext. 1025). Tickets for special seating are issued for elderly and disabled persons and TWO persons to accompany the elderly or disabled person. NO TICKETS ARE REQUIRED FOR GENERAL PUBLIC SEATING.
5.There will be a shuttle bus running from the parking lots on campus before and after the ceremony. Please review the attached campus map for further details (see attached).
6. A reception in the Triton Café will follow commencement. All graduates, family, and friends are invited to attend. If you and your family plan to attend the reception please RSVP to firstname.lastname@example.com.
7. Lifetouch Special Events Photography will take your picture as you cross the stage. You will have the option to buy a variety of photo packages for a minimal cost. You are under no obligation to buy this photograph. You will receive an order form from Lifetouch Special Events Photography in the mail. The order form will be sent to your home and your email address. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Lifetouch Special Events Photography Customer Service at 1-800-505-9496 or e-mail email@example.com. The commencement stage is kept intact for one hour after the ceremony so that you can take your own pictures.
If you are graduating with a 3.50 cumulative G.P.A. or above, you should have received a gold honor cord at the Night of Academic Excellence on April 8th. This honor cord may be worn at commencement. If you have not received your cord, you may pick it up in Samantha McClain's office in the Bookstore after April 8th or PRIOR to graduation day. No cords will be given out the day of graduation.
If you are a member of Phi Theta Kappa, you may check out a gold stole to wear for graduation from Samantha McClain in the Bookstore. You will need to return the stole to Samantha McClain after commencement or the week following the graduation ceremony. If you would like to purchase the stole, the cost is $25, payable to Iowa Central. Stoles will not be available the day of graduation.
Your graduation fee pays for your diploma, diploma cover, tassel and signet, and rental of the cap and gown.
1. Caps and gowns will be available at 4:30 p.m. in AST 101 on May 9th. **CAP & GOWN MUST BE RETURNED TO THE TRITON CAFÉ FOLLOWING THE CEREMONY. TRANSCRIPTS WILL BE HELD IF NOT RETURNED, DUE TO AN ADDITIONAL CAP & GOWN FEE THAT WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR ACCOUNT.**
2. Your tassel should hang from the left side of your cap before you graduate. You may keep your tassel, signet, diploma cover, and honor cord.
1. You will be lined up according to degree: GED, AAS, AS, AGS, AA, Diplomas and Certificates. You may choose which line to walk in if you are receiving more than one degree.
2. Marshals will lead the graduates into the field house followed by faculty and platform guests. After marching in, DO NOT SIT DOWN. Remain standing until you have been directed to be seated.
3. When your degree category is called, stand together and move left up to the stage. Marshals will guide you.
4. Please hand your name card to the attendant and whisper the pronunciation of your name. The attendant will then pass the reader card to the reader. Your name will be read just as it spelled out on the card so please make any corrections that need to be made prior to the ceremony.
5. As soon as the reader starts reading your name, you should go across the stage and receive your diploma cover. Move down the other side of the stage, stop for a photo, and proceed to your seat. SIT IMMEDIATELY SO THOSE BEHIND YOU CAN SEE.
6. Recessional order will be platform guests, faculty, and then graduates. We will continue out of the field house, through the faculty receiving line, and into the Triton Café for the reception. Please make arrangements to meet your family at the Triton Café.
If you have any questions, please stop in or call Student Records at 1-800-362-2793, ext. 1022.


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Economists Spar Over U.S. Recovery
PHILADELPHIA—Economists John Taylor and Larry Summers exchanged pointed words Saturday about the best approach to spurring the economic recovery.
The exchange came amid a discussion on "Rapid Growth or Stagnation for the United States Economy?" at the American Economic Association meeting here.
Mr. Taylor, of Stanford University, suggested that the slow recovery—and the economy's downward trajectory during the 2007-2009 recession—was in part due to the movement of regulatory, monetary and fiscal policy toward "more discretion, more intervention and less predictability."


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Here you can find out about upcoming events and view photo galleries of past events. Some events may allow for online registration and the ticket purchase. Click the event name to view more details.
If you would like to post your industry event to the SEMPO calendar, click here.
- This event has passed.


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booker, female author, fiction, women
Reader unmov'd and Reader unshaken, Reader unseduc'd
and unterrified, through the long-loud and the sweet-still
I creep toward you. Toward you, I thistle and I climb.
I crawl, Reader, servile and cervine, through this blank
season, counting—I sleep and I sleep. I sleep,
Reader, toward you, loud as a cloud and deaf, Reader, deaf...
- olena kalytiak davis


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Travertine Pavers in Bad Axe, MI
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THE EFFECT OF FAMILIAL MUTANTS OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE ON MEMBRANE REMODELING ANURI. N. SHAH A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology University of Southern California School of Pharmacy Fall 2013
Object Description
|The effect of familial mutants of Parkinson's disease on membrane remodeling
|Shah, Anuri N.
|Author email
|Master of Science
|Document type
|Degree program
|Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology
|School of Pharmacy
|Date defended/completed
|Date submitted
|Date approved
|Restricted until
|Date published
|Advisor (committee chair)
|Haworth, Ian S.
|Advisor (committee member)
Langen, Ralf
Okamoto, Curtis Toshio
|The pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD) is the presence of Lewy bodies or cell inclusions in neurons, comprising an amyloid protein known as alpha synuclein. These aggregates of protein are normally found with the presence of lipid fragments. Whether these fragments of lipid are derived from disrupted cellular membranes is unknown but more and more evidence corroborates the plausibility of this phenomenon. ❧ A recent breakthrough in the realm of alpha synuclein research is suggestive of its membrane binding and curvature inducing ability. Alpha synuclein has been shown to tubulate negatively charged phospholipid vesicles and even remodel them into nanoparticles at higher protein: lipid ratios in the oligomeric state. This property of alpha synuclein is similar to that of apolipoproteins, which are lipid carriers found in the blood stream. Studies till date have been targeted at understanding better how these properties of alpha synuclein play a physiological role, likening it to a lipid carrier or chaperone in exo/endocytosis. On the other hand, if these very same properties are out of control they may surpass physiological relevance and set in motion hazardous events such as cellular permeabilization, having neurotoxic implications that might abet the pathophysiology of PD. ❧ The 3 familial mutants of alpha synuclein associated with PD i.e, A30P, E46K and A53T have consistently over the years shown a range of different properties. The A30P and A53T mutants are known to be more prone to aggregation. Previous literature suggests that it is this property of theirs which confers them toxic. The E46K mutant however does not exhibit this property and must therefore cause cellular toxicity by another mechanism. To gauge this predicament better, I aimed to characterize the membrane remodeling properties of these familial mutants using tools such as clearance assays, leakage assays and electron microscopy. The goal was to see whether these mutants possessed enhanced or diminished membrane remodeling abilities and whether this could be a trigger for neurodegeneration. The E57K mutant which is a well- known artificial but toxic mutant was tested as well. Based on the results of my study, the E46K mutant exhibited greater membrane leakage and clearance, possibly implying that it generates its toxic effects by remodeling membranes to an exaggerated extent and disrupts their nature. A30P and A53T on the other hand were not proficient in their membrane remodeling and leakage causing abilities further consolidating that the major role they play is of enhanced aggregation. Thus they could bring about their effects by enhanced misfolding. Therefore two distinct mechanisms for toxicity seem plausible based on these results, which could then be used as an ideal tool for studying physiological membrane remodeling gone awry and how that might lead to disease.
|Parkinson's; alpha synuclein; membrane remodeling; mutants
|Format (imt)
|Part of collection
|University of Southern California dissertations and theses
|Publisher (of the original version)
|University of Southern California
|Place of publication (of the original version)
|Los Angeles, California
|Publisher (of the digital version)
|University of Southern California. Libraries
|Electronically uploaded by the author
|Legacy record ID
|Contributing entity
|University of Southern California
|Shah, Anuri N.
|Physical access
|The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.
|Repository name
|University of Southern California Digital Library
|Repository address
|USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA
|Repository email
|Archival file
|Page 1
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|Full text
|THE EFFECT OF FAMILIAL MUTANTS OF PARKINSON'S DISEASE ON MEMBRANE REMODELING ANURI. N. SHAH A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology University of Southern California School of Pharmacy Fall 2013


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Bike lanes, turn lane coming to Ponce
On Feb. 7, John Wolfinger and I attended the City and BeltLine's Open House about the planned improvements to Ponce de Leon Avenue.
Here were the improvements discussed: note, #3 is a very big change!
1. Resurfacing of Ponce between Juniper and Briarcliff/Moreland (GDOT)
2. Pedestrian safety improvements between Piedmont and Briarcliff/Moreland (GDOT)
3. Improvements from Boulevard/Monroe to Freedom Parkway. (BeltLine)
This would reduce the number of traffic lanes from three in each direction, to two wider lanes in each direction but add:
a) a center lane for turns and with some pedestrian islands and
b) as far east as Ponce de Leon Place, a bike lane in each direction. The bike lanes will be buffered from the car traffic by barriers approx. 1 to 2 feet wide. Unfortunately, the road is not wide enough so that the bike lanes can stretch as far east as Freedom Parkway.
The City rep told us there is not a fixed date, but he expected the work to be completed in the summer.
4. Ponce City Market Plaza Interface (BeltLine)
– A plaza that will let pedestrians walk between the BeltLine and the rail shed along the east side of Ponce City Market. (The rail shed will be turned into retail and food outlets). The BeltLine is hoping that funding will also allow for a ramp at North Avenue.
Well, that will connect Ponce City Market – but what about access from Ponce itself, without going through the Market? (I asked). The City planning rep told me that there are plans for a ramp to the BeltLine from the CVS on Ponce and also the Ponce City Market is considering an elevator from the top level of the rail shed down to street level.
On a related note, here are some links to some additional projects underway in Midtown: project descriptions on the Midtown Alliance website and a recent progress report published on the Midtown Patch site.
Please also see the full handout from the event below, and the map presented:
(note: a "HAWK" signal is a signal at a mid-block pedestrian crossing)


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HOLLYWOOD — The British Academy of Film & Television Arts/Los Angeles will honor Mike Newell with the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for artistic excellence at the Britannia Awards, to be presented Nov. 10 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.Newell began his career in television, directing more than 40 made-fors and 11 series as well as docs and specials. He received worldwide recognition in 1994 with romantic comedy "Four Weddings and a Funeral." His next pic is "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," due out in November. As previously announced, Tom Cruise will receive the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for excellence in film.
BAFTA/LA to fete Newell
Prize to be presented Nov. 10 at Beverly Hilton


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Five Petal Plantable Confetti in Lavender
This biodegradable confetti is perfect for an eco-friendly wedding or a green baby shower. When thrown outside, as done in the Martha Stewart Weddings Winter Issue and the wedding of Martha's assistant Liesl Menning to Kevin Haynie, the five petal shaped plantable confetti will grow into wildflowers. The plantable paper is made from post-consumer waste so it leaves no waste. It's eco-friendly, fun and memorable!
Quantity: Approximately 350 biodegradable confetti pieces per bag.
Size: 7/8" in diameter
Wildflower Seed Mix: Grows a blend of colorful wildflowers including Bird's Eye, Clarkia, Black Eyed Susan, Sweet Alyssum, Catchfly and Snapdragon.
Planting Instructions
Plant seed paper under 1/8" of soil. Water thoroughly. Place in a sunny corner and keep moist during germination.
There are no reviews for this product.


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Eventbrite, and certain approved third parties, use functional, analytical and tracking cookies (or similar technologies) to understand your event preferences and provide you with a customised experience. By closing this banner or by continuing to use Eventbrite, you agree. For more information please review our cookie policy.
Sat., 1 June 2019
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Potential customer turns in fugitive salesman
Photo: Brazos County Judicial Records
A door-to-door salesman in College Station was arrested after authorities learned he's a fugitive from Ohio.
Steven Terrell Wynder, 25, was arrested about 6:35 p.m. Thursday in College Station's Foxfire subdivision after a resident complained about a solicitor.
A responding officer found Wynder, who had a permit that showed he was selling cleaning supplies for T&B Sales, according to a news release from the College Station Police Department.
The officer discovered Wynder had an outstanding warrant for escape from Cuyahoga County, Ohio, where authorities said they would extradite him.
Wynder was booked into the Brazos County Jail while awaiting extradition, the release said.


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As Proud members of The Genuine Lamp Alliance' to enable our customers to make a fair comparison when purchasing a replacement lamp we would like to offer the following information:
Search engines will throw up a host of choices, requiring decisions to be made. These decisions can spark a range of consequences spanning from simple dissatisfaction with the quality of the product, to health and safety risks – and even questionable ethics and legality where intellectual property is abused or counterfeit lamps are passed off as original replacements.
In today's market for replacement lamps, the cheapest option doesn't always represent the best value; products are not always what they seem and even the presence of a manufacturer's brand or technology provider's logo is not always a guarantee that a replacement lamp is genuine.
Online retailers who offer 'Genuine Lamps'
This is an alternative to sourcing a replacement lamp from the original device manufacturer (OEM), the leading lamp technology rights owners authorised a small number third party suppliers to manufacture compatible replacement lamp modules using the same technology as the original, branded product installed by the projector and rear-projection TV manufacturers. – These are equivalent to our 'Diamond Lamps'
Is the replacement lamp on offer just too cheap?
There is a hierarchy of lamp pricing. Original lamps supplied by the manufacture of the projector or rear-projection TV are usually the most expensive, but offer the replacement lamp buyer reassurance on issues such as continuing warranty protection.
Next in the hierarchy come genuine lamps, manufactured with the consent and support of the lamp technology rights owners and using exactly the same lamp components as the original lamp fitted to the projector or rear-projection TV. Genuine replacement lamps are made by a small number of authorised manufacturers. For example, Philips has authorised Diamond Lamps to make replacement lamp modules using genuine UHP technology.
Finally, the cheapest lamps available will almost certainly be copy lamps. The manufacturers save costs in a variety of ways, none of which are generally favourable to lamp module buyers
The emergence of copy lamps has triggered a host of internet-based dealers to enter the market for replacement lamp modules. Some of these have excellent credentials, often linked to an established audio-visual or consumer electronics business, while others are simply opportunistic.
When buying on the internet it can be difficult to assess the quality or ethical policy of the supplier. Helpful signs of a quality supplier include relationships with projector manufacturers, such as authorised dealer status, or a specialist replacement lamp distributor.


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Indicative Rate * AU$194 to AU$580
Experience the unique allure of one of Australia's most relaxed escape destinations, Peppers Blue on Blue Resort on Magnetic Island. Just 20 minutes by ferry from Townsville, Magnetic Island is a blend of native Australian bushland, breathtaking beaches and sandy bays.
Your suite at Peppers Blue on Blue Resort will be your private sanctuary. With the choice of Hotel Rooms, Studios, One, Two and Three Bedroom Apartments and Penthouses, you will be perfectly accommodated throughout your stay on Magnetic Island.
Take full advantage of the contemporary design and stunning seascapes, boasting uninterrupted marina views. Studios and One Bedroom Apartments feature kitchenettes, balconies and complimentary WiFi. Two and Three Bedroom Apartments and Penthouses also have the added benefit of full gourmet kitchens.
Peppers Blue on Blue Resort is the perfect place to experience the great outdoors – whether you're fishing or diving, exploring reefs or rainforests, biking or boating. For those desiring more leisurely pursuits, laze around the magnificent saltwater lagoon, stroll along the marina or dine at Boardwalk Restaurant and Bar.
With stunning views over Blue on Blue marina, these modern air-conditioned hotel rooms have an ensuite with a large shower and are fully appointed with bar fridge, large flat-screen television and private balcony.
Perfect for the unplanned getaway with all the conveniences of a modern resort, these hotel rooms have an ensuite with a large shower, are air-conditioned, offer full mini-bar, large flat-screen television and private balcony.
These spacious open plan studio rooms feature a kitchenette, laundry facilities and dining suite perfect for a quiet weekend escape. Featuring modern conveniences such as a large flat screen television, DVD, mini bar, deep bath and private balcony with comfortable modern furniture.
Overlooking the marina, this spacious open plan studio with kitchenette, laundry facilities and dining suite is modern and contemporary with all the appointments you expect including large flat screen television, DVD, mini bar, deep bath and private balcony to soak up the views.
With the added space of a separate lounge room and bedroom, this self-contained apartment offers a queen bed, kitchenette, laundry facilities and private balcony. Designed for the guest who appreciates some extra space in which to relax.
The perfect family apartment is spacious and conveniently situated close to the gorgeous lagoon pool. It features modern conveniences such as a gourmet kitchen including full size fridge, laundry facilities, open plan lounge and dining areas and a large private balcony. The bedrooms consist of either one king and one queen bed or one queen and two singles.
The stunning Three Bedroom Apartment is gorgeously appointed with a flat screen television and a beautiful ensuite with a free standing bath. Relax on your private balcony featuring a large seven piece table setting and enjoy the convenience of modern appliances in your gourmet kitchen.
Private and well-appointed with your own private plunge pool and roomy balcony. Featuring three large bedrooms, two bathrooms, a designer kitchen and spacious living and dining areas.
The Three Bedroom Penthouse offers three bedrooms, two bathrooms, your own laundry facilities, powder room, study nook, and two large separate living areas. You'll enjoy beautiful views of the Blue on Blue marina from your private balcony. Bedding is configured with two queen beds and two twin single beds, or a king bed in the third bedroom.
With spectacular views of the glistening Blue on Blue Marina, beach and mountains from your spacious balcony, along with three bathrooms, two living areas, and outdoor furniture, the Four Bedroom Penthouse will cater for your every need. Bedding includes two queen beds, one double and two singles or one king.
The Two Bedroom Superior Apartment overlooks the lagoon swimming pool and features a gourmet kitchen with full size fridge, laundry facilities, two bathrooms, open plan lounge and dining areas and a large private balcony. Bedding is either one king and one queen bed or one queen and two single beds.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).