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March 2010: Volume 36, Number 3
NCI Launches National BiobankWhy High-Quality Specimens Have Researchers ExcitedBy Bill Malone
With all the bad news about the banking industry and the economy of late, the American public might not notice the emergence of a relatively new type of bank that is catching the interest of the lab community. Biobanks—also known as biorepositories—collect, store, process, and distribute biological materials and the data associated with those materials. Typically, these biological materials are human biospecimens—such as tissue or blood—and the clinical information pertaining to the donor of that biospecimen. Although individual researchers and institutions have long contended with storing their own frozen specimens, now a surge of cash from last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is speeding the launch of the first centralized, standardized biospecimen resource in this country.
Spearheaded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the new national biobank, called the cancer Human Biobank (caHUB), will at least initially have a more narrow objective than some of the independent biobanks already in the U.S., such as Mayo Clinic's venture that began collecting specimens in April 2009. And as of yet, there are no plans to recruit and monitor massive numbers of healthy patients such as the half million-participant UK Biobank.
But while it will not replace other burgeoning efforts, caHUB will play an important role in meeting the growing demand for high-quality, well-documented biospecimens that are needed to keep translational research moving forward, according to Stephen Thibodeau, PhD, professor of laboratory medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, co-director of molecular genetics, and co-founder of Mayo Clinic Biobank. "Biobanking is really one of the cornerstones of a translational research program. It all comes down to the quality and the availability of biospecimens," he said. "We in lab medicine and the Mayo research community are going to be so dependent on availability of biospecimens, that I think caHUB is really an important initiative that NCI needs to continue. But it won't be sufficient on its own, and other biobanks will continue to be important."
Playing Catch-Up
Perhaps the most well known biobank involves an entire country. deCODE Genetics in Iceland—where some 60% of the population has given a specimen—and other such projects in other countries are matched by a patchwork of more modest independent endeavors in the U.S., a disparity that has not gone unnoticed by the scientific community here. Other countries, including Japan, Estonia, and the U.K., grappled with the shortage of high-quality, well-documented biospecimens by setting up enormous national population-based banks of specimens and data.
Why is a national biorepository so important? Some researchers have complained that progress in pharmacogenomics and other cutting-edge lab medicine areas has been exceedingly slow. The frustration, they complain, is the lack of the blood specimens for biomarker discovery and validation. A chorus of reports from the Institute of Medicine, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) have also lamented the slow progress of personalized medicine and identified the critical need for high-quality biospecimen banks.
"Despite tremendous excitement about the potential value of molecular biomarkers…this potential has largely gone unfulfilled," noted the 2008 PCAST report, Priorities for Personalized Medicine, with bottlenecks in validation as "the most important constraint on progress." The report's recommendation to address this problem includes both disease-specific biobanks and population biobanks for longitudinal health and disease studies. NCI's caHUB will be first national project that tackles the first with an opportunity to take on the second in the future.
One of the world's largest single biobanks, UK Biobank belongs to this second category, with a collection of nearly 500,000 sets of blood and urine samples from people age 40–69. Central to the project is a plan to annotate precisely each participant via a thorough initial questionnaire and physical workup and then to follow their health records indefinitely. Another reason that this biobank will be such a treasure chest of information is that The U.K. National Health Service treats the single largest group of people anywhere in the world and keeps detailed records on all of them from birth to death. As a result, follow-up of UK Biobank participants through routine medical records will allow researchers to pinpoint those who develop a wide range of diseases and make studies that utilize the biobank's samples that much more meaningful.
Key to making this large project successful was almost a decade of careful planning and pilot projects that have ensured a smooth collection process, high-quality specimens, and the necessary ethical-legal framework for an endeavor with huge implications for society at large, said UK Biobank CEO and principal investigator Rory Collins, FMed Sci, FRCP, British Heart Foundation professor of medicine & epidemiology at Oxford University. Before a single sample was collected, special working groups conducted wide consultation with the scientific community and the public. "These working groups looked at key questions to ask participants about exposure to a wide range of potential risk factors, what kinds of initial measurements to make, what kinds of samples to collect, and how to collect them in such a way that they would be usable for a range of assays, including assays that haven't been invented yet," Collins said. "And particularly in all of this, bearing in mind that we were trying to do a study that was a hundred times bigger than Framingham, efficiencies of scale have been critical."
With its scale and depth of involvement with participants, UK Biobank has become a sort of proof of concept that with careful planning and technological creativity, large biobanking projects can be successful and financially feasible. Relying on a mix of public and private money has kept the project moving below budget and on schedule, with more than 80% of the 500,000 participants already recruited. In fact, Collins and his colleagues were recently invited to Washington to meet with NIH leaders and share their expertise.
Researchers Voice Their OpinionsThe Critical Need for Quality Biospecimens
As part of the planning phase for the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) new national biospecimen resource, called caHUB, the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research conducted a survey of researchers funded by NCI, as well as federal agencies, cancer centers, industry, foundations, and advocacy groups about the need for quality human biospecimens. The survey results indicated that acquiring quality biospecimens was a major barrier to progress in many research areas, including discovery and validation of new diagnostic assays.
Source: Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research, 2009. Available online.
Focus on Quality
At the same time that other countries have pushed forward with national biobank schemes, researchers in the U.S. have been burdened by a surprisingly ineffective system composed of silos of samples that vary greatly in quality, according to Jim Vaught, PhD, Deputy Director of NCI's Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR). "The rationale for caHUB is that we think the standards need to be raised across the board," Vaught said. "Samples in U.S. biorepositories were not consistently collected, processed, and stored. So, after observing biospecimen-related quality issues in studies we've been a part of at NCI, we believe that the best plan is to prospectively collect samples under very carefully designed conditions, standard operating procedures, and careful quality control—all well documented and applied consistently."
Before embarking on detailed planning for caHUB, OBBR started with an analysis to see what researchers were up against when it came to biospecimens, surveying primary investigators at NCI and other institutions. The survey showed that about 40% found it difficult or very difficult to acquire enough biospecimens, with half of the respondents saying it was equally challenging to get the quality of biospecimens they needed. Even more disturbing, 20% said they often or always question their data because of the poor quality of biospecimens. About 40% said they at least sometimes question data.
Even with the best intentions and protocols, individual investigators face innumerable challenges trying to collect and maintain their own biospecimens, said Allison Hubel, PhD, Director of the University of Minnesota Biopreservation Core Resource (BioCoR), a knowledge base, research, and education resource for the biospecimen community. Hubel is a professor of mechanical engineering and former member of the department of laboratory medicine and pathology at the University of Minnesota. "When individual investigators store their own samples, they just can't match a biorepository's monitoring, maintenance, and database management system, which allows you to have a sense of security about the quality of your samples," she said. "In addition, a software system should be assigning identification to and tracking each sample. An individual investigator is going to have trouble justifying implementation of a laboratory information management system, while for the central repository it can be part of the infrastructure."
After its survey and other study of the issue, OBBR decided that its previous efforts at developing best practices documents and an online network among independent biobanks—while successful—were not enough. "We decided that the best way to address the problem was to develop our own procedures and then have the various clinics, hospitals, laboratories, and repositories collect samples for us in carefully prescribed ways so there is a consistent set of samples and data," explained Vaught. "This way when collaborators request specimens and data, they know what they're getting."
Commercial and other independent biobanks will continue to provide tissue and blood samples, and many do have high quality standards of their own or have adopted OBBR's Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources, Vaught said. However, caHUB will be aiming still higher. "The difference between what they do and what caHUB will do is that we'll have a much richer data set that will be collected in a longitudinal fashion, and the combination of the quality of the samples and the rich clinical, demographic, and specimen quality data set will be of a much broader and higher quality than the commercial providers."
A better quality of specimens is the link from discovery to practice in lab medicine, and especially personalized medicine, emphasized Vaught. "We are promoting the connection between caHUB and personalized medicine because we think it's really important. Sample integrity and quality are essential for the research that leads to new biomarkers and more personalized treatment. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was a prime example that required very high quality samples and produced results." TCGA is a project working to catalogue the genetic mutations associated with cancer.
Now is the time for laboratorians to provide feedback on the caHUB project as OBBR evaluates what kind of specimens the research community needs, Vaught said. Currently caHUB has several existing clients, including TCGA and various clinical trials under NIH, from which caHUB will collect samples, in addition to a separate "benchmark" or reference collection of tumor and normal tissues collected under contracts being solicited over the next few months. "Initially this will be a disease-based collection, but we have interest from population-based study investigators. We have to take their concerns into consideration and think about whether there are certain biomarker assays or validation studies that will require a different approach to specimen collection. We will be forming a committee to assess potential study designs," he said.
Mayo's Own Bank
The dearth of quality biospecimens has also lead to other new biobank projects in the U.S., such as the Mayo Clinic Biobank. Similar to the population-based UK Biobank model, Mayo Clinic aims to recruit 20,000 participants from among the institution's own patients and then track them through their Mayo Clinic electronic medical records indefinitely. The focus of this collection will be on a generally healthy population as opposed to a disease population.
These biobanking projects have, and will continue to have, a large impact on new discoveries and their translation into clinical practice, Thibodeau stressed. "Access to well annotated, high quality material will be essential for a wide variety of studies. When I think about the use of biospecimens for these purposes, I think of lab medicine as being one of the many beneficiaries. These translational discoveries will ultimately lead to the development of a variety of novel assays—diagnostic markers, prognostic markers, predictive markers for drug response, and tests for genetic predisposition," he said. "And with the implementation of new high-throughput, high-content technologies such as next generation sequencing, along with studies that require larger and larger number of participants, the need for a substantial number of quality biospecimens will be even more important. This will be true for samples obtained from both disease as well as healthy donors."
Thibodeau also sees a trend where lab medicine and pathology are becoming more involved in the discovery of new biomarkers, especially in personalized medicine. However, this growing involvement of laboratorians will stall without the ability to properly validate novel tests before they are used clinically, he said.
Before one of these novel diagnostic assays can be implemented in a clinical laboratory, there's an important next step. "There's been a tremendous amount of work performed in both industry and research laboratories developing new markers, but what's really critical before these things can be introduced into the clinical lab is our ability to clinically validate them: to demonstrate that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing," Thibodeau explained. "And the only way that you can complete such studies is to have a large number of high-quality samples. The work in clinical labs is fundamentally changing, and with those changes, the access and need for biospecimens has become more acute."
Pushing the Envelope with Technology
Just as breakthroughs in technology are driving trends in research and clinical labs, the biobanking community is grappling with the need to improve the technology behind preserving the high-quality specimens. Biobanks themselves are under pressure to keep up and are now drawing upon cutting-edge technology from other disciplines in science and engineering in order to collect and maintain the biospecimens that the tests of the future will demand. "Most of the technology that has been developed to actually facilitate the preservation of biospecimens is on the order of 30 to 40 years old," said Hubel. "It was really developed for systems for which a very small number of samples are preserved, which translates into very labor-intensive and operator-intensive processes." Hubel, an engineer herself, has been working on projects that will make biobanking as up-to-date as the assays researchers need them for.
One of these projects developed through Hubel's BioCoR consortium at the University of Minnesota is an innovative microfluidic device to process biospecimens and reduce the amount of labor involved. When preserving a specimen, multiple steps have to occur. For example, components like red and white cells, plasma, and serum must be separated. Then a cryopreservative solution has to be introduced into the biospecimen being preserved. In order to be used, the specimen must be thawed and the protective agent removed. A microfluidic device could be used at each one of these steps in order to handle the volume of liquid and cells in a semi-automated and controlled fashion, thereby reducing dependence on an operator for some of the processing steps, as well as reducing loss of cells and samples to human variability.
BioCoR is also developing 3-D Raman confocal microspectroscopy techniques to understand the relationship between the state of the intracellular cryoprotective agent during cryoprocessing and the ensuing thermal and osmotic damage to cells. "The Raman study is allowing us to take the latest in molecular characterization techniques and apply that to the science of preservation for biobanking. Now that we have a tool that allows us to image down to the nanoscale, we can use it to expand our understanding of damage or stabilization, and possibly develop a new paradigm of preserving biospecimens," said Hubel.
One of the discoveries that has come out of the BioCoR Raman study is helping researchers understand why cells within a block of tissue fare so poorly compared to cells isolated in a suspension. "The conventional wisdom has been that heat and mass transfer limitations frame the freezing of a tissue versus the freezing of an isolated cell suspension. Those issues are true, but we believe there are other issues involving cell-to-cell communication that are present in a tissue versus isolated cells which play a role in long-term freezing response," Hubel explained. "Those are very exciting discoveries, in particular because we have a lot of challenges freezing tissue samples right now, whether they be normal or pathological samples."
Using more advanced technology and cutting-edge methods is, in fact, the only way that the larger projects have been successful. This strategy fits right in with the advice that the UK Biobank's Collins has for caHUB. "If you're going to do a large study, you have to be efficient. You can't just take what you would normally do with a few thousand people and multiply it up," he said. "It's really worthwhile having an industrial approach to the way in which the study is done and the way in which the quality is maintained. You can be a bit ad hoc if you're just studying a few thousand people. But you can't if you're studying a few hundred thousand people. I think that's the main thing. Design the study for its scale, and in particular invest in systems that manage a very large-scale study in a very efficient way in order to get much higher quality data."
The Ethical Side
Simultaneous with the unique needs of biobanks that are driving new technology and preservation science, caHUB will also have to grapple with an increasingly complex burden of ethical questions surrounding collecting samples and using them for research. Most of these questions focus on obtaining informed consent to use a person's blood or tissue in the first place. Plus, the ensuing information associated with that person's sample creates more ethical issues down the road.
"The expectation and the classical requirement in traditional research is that research participants have to be fully informed, which includes understanding the nature of the research, and knowing exactly what it is they are consenting to," explained Karen Maschke, PhD, a research scholar at The Hastings Center, an independent nonprofit bioethics research institute. Maschke also sits on caHUB's ethics subcommittee. "The problem that emerged with research involving biospecimens was that the classical approach to informed consent was not always going to be possible, especially when biospecimens are collected and stored for future use that researchers may not be able to specify at the time they're collected. So you can't always fully inform a person about all the potential types of research they're consenting to with their biospecimens."
Due to the often large leaps that science makes, such as the sequencing of the human genome, researchers and biobanks learned that to make biospecimens useful, it was important to make consent for their use wider, accommodating future advancements in science and unknown directions that researchers might take. However, having a completely open-ended consent in which a researcher or a biobank asked to be able to perform any kind of valid research, even if it wasn't yet conceived, left a lot to be desired for many observers concerned with ethics, Maschke said.
This has led to two other approaches. Closer on the spectrum to specific consent, so-called tiered or layered consent evolved from studies at the NCI where participants were given a sort of multiple choice on how their specimen might be used, with check offs for each type of research or disease like cancer, diabetes, or Alzheimer's. "The challenge with tiered consent is that the biospecimen resource that collects the samples must then maintain a database to track each combination of consent for each specimen," Maschke explained. "Some researchers have argued this is too complicated and expensive, while others don't like it because it limits the use of the biospecimens and makes it hard for people doing less common kinds of studies to get the number and quality of specimens they need."
While tiered consent opened up the use of biospecimens beyond a single, specific type of consent, the compromise just doesn't work for the scope of a new generation of biobanking initiatives that must include as-yet unknown research possibilities. The desire of UK Biobank, Mayo Clinic, and others to be a library for future research has lead to a third, hybrid approach: essentially open-ended consent, coupled with independent oversight that keeps the participants' interests in mind.
This is why going forward, caHUB and other large projects will have to put so much stress on governance by data access committees and ethics committees, Maschke emphasized. Though not without controversy, UK Biobank has been a leader in this new model, depending on an independent committee called the UK Biobank Ethics and Governance Council to act as an autonomous guardian of the overall governance and ethical framework. The council monitors and reports publicly on the biobank's conformity to the framework and advises on the interests of research participants and the general public. This way, the biobank can use a very open-ended consent from participants and still maintain the public's trust as new uses for biospecimens develop beyond what any original participant might have imagined.
Getting Underway
As caHUB begins collecting its first samples later this year, it will have the advantage of observing larger and more complex initiatives in other countries, while Mayo Clinic and others continue with independent projects that have their unique features. Due to the distribution of care in the U.S., it's unlikely that caHUB will ever match the depth and breadth of a project like UK Biobank, Thibadeu predicted. Yet the Mayo Clinic initiative and others can produce good results and all deserve the support of laboratorians.
"Quality biospecimens will lead to new diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic markers, and that's why NIH is devoting so many resources to their own program. Downstream, it's going to mean a lot to patients," he said. "Our end goal here is to have these assays in a clinical environment, but how do we get there? These biorepositories are one of the tools, so we need to continue to invest in them."
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We have lots of wonderful people working here at Bluestone – you may already have met them or read about them.
Well, we're giving them chance to tell you what's going on here at Bluestone and around us in Pembrokeshire, or what they find interesting at the moment. There'll be nature updates from Rob Parry from the Wildlife Trusts, who will tell you more about the local birds and beasts, and Martin and Phil might share a few gardening tips, while Terry gives us something to think about with his fascinating insights into local history. Check back when you can and catch up with what's going on in Bluestone. It's almost as good as being here.
There's been a lot in the news this year about staycations in the UK and how more and more people are opting for short break holidays spread throughout the seasons. This year, here at Bluestone National Park Resort, we're pleased to reveal our additional 60 new luxury lodges have encouraged this.
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Recap: Connect comes to London
17 Jun
Connect 2014 opened in London today and it was buzzing with customers, industry leaders and experts from around the globe. The focus: optimizing data management and sharing ideas to overcome some of the main challenges we face as an industry. Externalization was the topic du jour which came up time and time again.


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Dr. Sylvester Gardiner became the unwitting founder of a city in 1754, when he decided to use a 130-foot waterfall on the Cobbosseecontee Stream to provide energy for two saw mills, a felting mill, a potash factory, and a grist mill. Nearly 100 years later, in 1849, his plantation became the city of Gardiner. Today, the historical New England mill town is a home to artists, merchants, and students, and also hosts an array of seasonal events, such as an Easter parade, the Ride Into Summer festival, the Swine and Stein Oktoberfest celebration, and a Christmas tree lighting.
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12373-12381 Mount Jefferson Terrace
Lake Oswego, Oregon, 97035
Most errands require a car.
12373-12381 Mount Jefferson Terrace has a Walk Score of 29 out of 100. This location is a Car-Dependent neighborhood so most errands require a car.
This location is in Lake Oswego. Nearby parks include McNary City Park, Kerr Natural Area and Kerr Site.
Nearby schools include Sonshine Express Preschool, Touchstone School and Kindercare Learning Center.
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12373-12381 Mount Jefferson Terrace is near McNary City Park, Nansen Summit Park and Kerr Site.
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As Giving Goes GlobalPhilanthropic activity is increasing worldwide in ways that reflect a shared ethos of humanitarian "virtue."
ArticlesAll Individual Giving Articles
Combining charity with financial gain can seriously tarnish others' appreciation of altruistic efforts.
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Reinventing Philanthropy presents a new look at individual giving, focusing on maximizing actual impact rather than donor gratification.
A properly designed sponsor-a-child program can have real, long-term impact on the life course of its beneficiaries.
Major local events, with some notable exceptions, spur locally based companies to increase charitable giving.
Where levels of workplace diversity are higher than average, the level of charitable giving also tends to be higher.
Pioneering groups of foundations and philanthropists have pooled their talent and resources to help solve social sector problems too big for any one to tackle alone.
Nostalgia is more than just a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Giving circles are powerful ways to transform the world while also transforming participants' giving.
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How strategic use of social media, project-based donations, and peer-to-peer fundraising can build a base of millennial supporters.
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U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Chairman of the House Committee on Education George Miller, address the NewSchools Summit 2010.
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Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and host of "Shark Tank," hasn't quite gotten over the 2006 NBA Finals. You know, the one Dwyane Wade went HAM in and nearly-single-handedly beat Cuban's Mavs.
From the Dallas Morning News:
"Hate's a strong word, but it's probably not strong enough," Cuban said of how he feels about the Heat.
"It's not the individual players at all," he said. "It's just the whole representation of 2006 still sticks with me."
You would think the 2011 Finals victory would help him get over it. I guess not.
Tags: Miami Heat


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Genre: Science Fiction, General Science Fiction
This first of the Destroyerman trilogy will absorb readers who enjoy history as well as science fiction. It succeeds on many levels. It's an exciting story of a World War II battle in the Pacific with accurate historical and technical detail. It's also a great adventure in an alternate world. This gripping read is hard to put down.
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Publisher: Roc
Published: June 2008


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Dust off those wellie boots people – festival season is fast approaching! We're particularly excited here in Dublin, as this summer the city is set to become one giant music event. From intimate venue gatherings to urban festivals, there's something to suit everyone's needs. And that's before we even begin to look at the impressive array of musicians set to perform! To help with the decision-making, we've put together a poster featuring some of the hottest acts set to play here over the summer. Here's who we're most excited about seeing…
(Click poster to view full version)
Conveniently located just a short Luas ride away from the city-centre, you'll find the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, which provides the lush green setting for one of the newest additions to the Irish festival calendar; Forbidden Fruit (May 31 – June 1). Among those set to perform over the bank-holiday weekend are The Flaming Lips, 2manydjs, Warpaint and Public Enemy. At the same venue later in the summer, you can catch the Modfather himself, Paul Weller (June 24), and US singer and former one-half of legendary The White Stripes; Jack White (June 26).
In Marlay Park meanwhile, hip-hop legends Kanye West and Pharrell play a one-off show together on July 2, before annual Longitude bash returns to the venue (July 18 – 20). This year's event feature a very tasty line-up indeed, including Massive Attack, Disclosure, Haim, John Talabot, Chvrches and Bastille.
That same weekend (decisions, decisions..!), legendary US act The National take to the picturesque surroundings of the city-centre's lovely Iveagh Gardens (a mere stroll from St. Stephen's Green) for two shows (July 18, 19).
A little further afield - but just a short drive / bus / train journey away - you'll find a host of festivals taking place across Ireland's famous green countryside. Step forward Body & Soul (June 20 – 22), a charming boutique affair in rural Ballinlough, Co. Westmeath. When you're not wandering through its twinkling, fairy-lit forest, you can catch live sets from (deep breath) Goldfrapp, John Grant, Darkside, Of Montreal and The Field. There's plenty of non-music-related fun to be had too; be sure to check out the wonderfully theatrical Midnight Circus, Holistic Haven (should you fancy a bit of pampering) and Wonderlust area, where a series of talks, discussions and live performances will take place throughout the weekend. Find out the best way to get to Body & Soul here.
Equally intimate is Castlepalooza, which runs on the grounds of the majestic (and apparently haunted!) Charleville Castle (August 1 – 3) and welcomes in 2014 Gilles Peterson, Andrew Weatherall and Gruff Rhys, to name but a few. Again, trains and buses run regularly from the capital.
Which leads us to the mac daddy of Irish festivals; Electric Picnic. Now in its eleventh year, the Picnic takes place once again in Stradbally, Co. Laois and will play host to Portishead, Outkast, Beck, St. Vincent and the mighty Nile Rodgers & Chic! Travel details here.
And that's just a taste of what to expect over the summer in Dublin; your music capital. But remember, even if you can't make it along to any of that lot, there's always live music to be found in the city! We recommend you check out Whelan's and Grand Social for indie rock, the Mercantile, who host a weekly showcase of homegrown talent, and the Button Factory, Twisted Pepper, and Bernard Shaw if it's late-night electro and hip-hop you're after.


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Back to my old love, which is rock. Yeah. Blame #1 Crush by Garbage 😉 | Camou jacket, Twin skull muscle tee, black bandage skirt, Silver glittered pumps 👌 #OOTN #OOTD
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ONLY FOR 2,5k!! Slightly negotiable 😊
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"All laws against homosexual acts should be repealed. I do not approve of such practices or regard them as necessarily moral, but it is improper for the law to interfere with a relationship between consenting adults."
— Ayn Rand
"The great enemy of the traditional family in the United States today is not the desire of gay couples to get married; it is the failure of heterosexual couples to get married and stay married. Over the past 10 years or so, while the country was busy debating same-sex marriage, the number of cohabiting couples doubled. Because of cohabitation, divorce and single parenthood, a third of children today do not live with two married parents — an ominous trend that began decades before same-sex marriage came along. The top priority for family policy today should be to reinforce the norm of marriage, which is exactly what gays want to do. By underscoring that marriage is something to which all Americans can and should aspire, same-sex unions are part of the solution, not part of the problem."
— Jonathan Rauch
"More so than equal rights, more so than fairness, more so than justice or injustice, the word that allowed us to move forward was really dignity: The dignity of every home, the dignity of a job, the dignity of work, the dignity of every family, the dignity of every individual. When we succeed, if this goes to a referendum, I believe it will be because of that evolution of the public discourse."
— Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, on his state's passage of same-sex marriage legislation


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☆ www.kublakhanent.co.uk ☆
Welcome to our blog. Follow our likes and keep up to date with the Kubla Khan Ent. team and our adventures!
13 10 / 2011
Bloody Elle!
Now if you don't know about Elle Varner "get to know" . The 22 year old LA raised singer is a breath of fresh air with her quirky style, cool vibe and natural hair (thank JESUS) which can all be seen in the video of her debut single "Only Wanna Give It to You" which features J. Cole and was released August 16, 2011. The song serves as the lead single off her upcoming album Perfectly Imperfect. The artist rocks a $148 Teacup dress from PatriciaField.com (pictured above) which we have to admit the girls in the KKE Office are dying to get their hands on. Enjoy!
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The Office of Animal Care and Institutional Biosafety (OACIB) serving the Animal Care and Institutional Biosafety Committees (ACC/IBC) will observe the UIC reduced service schedule for non-essential services. OACIB will close at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, December 23, 2014 and will reopen at 8:30 AM on Monday January 5, 2015.
To allow time for the review and approval process prior to the reduced service schedule, please remember the following deadlines:
Sep 26
The UIC Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is pleased to announce the 2014 UIC Researcher of the Year Award program. This program is intended to recognize and inspire commitment and innovation in research at UIC.
This program recognizes both senior and early career investigators.
Oct 28
Groundbreaking studies of mental health, substance abuse
Oct 28
University Scholar Ghanshyam Pandey
Over the past 30 years, Juan Carlos Campuzano, PhD, has built a distinguished career as an outstanding scientist. An accomplished researcher, Dr. Campuzano has made significant contributions to the science of high-temperature
superconductors and to the phenomenon of photoemission spectroscopy. He is recognized as one of the two undisputed world leaders in the use of angle resolved photo-emission spectroscopy (ARPES), now universally recognized as one of the most powerful experimental tools used to probe novel materials.


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|Regulatory Story
|Go to market news section
26 November 2012
Stobart Group Limited ("Stobart" or "the Company")
Retail Bond Issue
On 13 November, Stobart announced that it intended to explore the retail bond market with the offering of a 5.5% per annum fixed rate six year Sterling bond.
The board of Stobart had considered the issue of a retail bond as perhaps a useful mix to its funding. However, in the light of the entry to the market in the last weeks of larger bond issuers at higher coupon pricing, the board of Stobart has decided not to proceed with a bond issue.
Stobart Chief Financial Officer, Ben Whawell, said: "We will keep under review the possibility of issuing a retail bond in the future, as we see it as a potential attractive funding option, but only when we feel the cost of the bond to the Company, its attractiveness to investors and its liquidity characteristics are in the right alignment."
- ends -
On behalf of Stobart:
James Andrew
Influence 07545 505 058 or email@example.com
David Bick/Mark Longson
Square1 Consulting 0207 929 5599 or email@example.com
About Stobart
Stobart is listed on the London Stock Exchange in the FTSE 250 (LSE:STOB). With over 6,600 employees operating from more than 50 sites across the UK and Europe, Stobart is a UK front-runner in the multimodal logistics, warehousing, civil engineering, rail infrastructure and biomass fuel sectors. At the core of the Group is the Transport and Distribution division, incorporating Eddie Stobart - the iconic name behind a huge road haulage fleet totalling some 2,500 vehicles, over 4,000 trailers and over seven million square feet of warehousing. Stobart Estates, Stobart Infrastructure and Civils, Stobart Air and Stobart Biomass divisions complete the Group's business structure. See: www.stobartgroup.com
London Stock Exchange plc is not responsible for and does not check content on this Website. Website users are responsible for checking content. Any news item (including any prospectus) which is addressed solely to the persons and countries specified therein should not be relied upon other than by such persons and/or outside the specified countries. Terms and conditions, including restrictions on use and distribution apply.
|©London Stock Exchange plc. All rights reserved


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ATLANTA (AP) - S. Truett Cathy, the billionaire founder of the privately held Chick-fil-A restaurant chain that famously closes on Sundays but also drew unwanted attention on gay marriage in recent years because of his family's conservative views, died early Monday, a company spokesman said. He was 93.
BLYTHE, Ga. (AP) - The Richmond County coroner says a 76-year-old man died after his truck crashed into a house.
ATLANTA (AP) - A Georgia man whose son died after he was left in a hot car for seven hours has been charged with murder in the toddler's death.
ATLANTA (AP) - Secretary of State Brian Kemp is reminding the public to stay alert for those who may be collecting personal data during voter registration drives.
ATLANTA (AP) - Thunderstorms spawned intense lightning and powerful winds across Georgia, sparking house fires in suburban Atlanta and toppling trees and power lines in several counties.
CLARKSTON, Ga. (AP) - Students, faculty and alumni will be marking the 50th anniversary of Georgia Perimeter College with events beginning this week.
WINDER, Ga. (AP) - Powerful lightning and high winds from storms over Barrow County kept firefighters and emergency crews busy all night.
NEWNAN, Ga. (AP) - Police say a pit bull was repeatedly stabbed during a pet adoption event inside a PetSmart store in the west Georgia town of Newnan, horrifying adults and children.
A look at things to watch in the Southeastern Conference during Week 1 of the season:
ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia transportation officials plan to suspend many construction-related lane closures for the upcoming holiday weekend.
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - Authorities say a veteran sheriff's captain is accused of using a computer to have an inappropriate relationship a 14-year-old boy.
ROSWELL, Ga. (AP) - Labor Day came early for a Roswell woman who gave birth inside a Walmart near Atlanta.
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - A city committee in Marietta has approved a plan aimed at extending retirement benefits to same-sex couples.
MACON, Ga. (AP) - Authorities say a brush fire burning in the Macon area is expected to smolder until the next significant rainfall.
SOCIAL CIRCLE, Ga. (AP) - State wildlife officials say an emerging snake disease similar to one that has killed millions of bats has been found in a wild Georgia snake.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) - Retired managers Joe Torre, Tony La Russa and Bobby Cox have been unanimously elected to the baseball Hall of Fame by the expansion era committee.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Nearly 100 demonstrators and their dogs gathered in Augusta on Saturday to protest Georgia Regents University's use of dogs to test human dental implants.
ATLANTA (AP) - A former Newton County sheriff's deputy has pleaded guilty to a federal firearms charge.
ATLANTA (AP) - A Wendy's employee who dropped a partially smoked blunt in a customer's cheeseburger has been fired and charged with marijuana possession.
PERRY, Ga. (AP) - A man who spent 29 years in prison after pleading guilty to a deadly armed robbery has been acquitted by a jury in Houston County.
COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - A western Georgia man who called his ex-girlfriend from jail to talk about the Iron Bowl game has been charged with stalking.
CHAMBLEE, Ga. (AP) - A motorist who plugged his electric car into an outlet at a school near Atlanta is facing a theft charge, sparking debate about where and when it's acceptable to use power.
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - A judge said Thursday that he needs more information and time to decide the case of a group of young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and want the Georgia university system to grant them in-state tuition.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) - Court records state that a surgeon found dead in an east Georgia creek was lured to Augusta for a sexual encounter.
BUFORD, Ga. (AP) - Someone made off with $2,000 worth of calendars for 2014 in an unusual heist at the Mall of Georgia.
NEW YORK (AP) - Chick-fil-A says it's removing high-fructose corn syrup from its white buns and artificial dyes from its sauces and dressings as part of a push to improve its ingredients.
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP) - City officials on Tybee Island are having second thoughts about plans to install computer-linked cameras that would read and record the license plates of every car and truck coming onto the island.
ATLANTA (AP) - Police say they consider the death of a woman struck and killed by a car in Atlanta as an intentional act.
TUCKER, Ga. (AP) - DeKalb County police say Georgians can take several steps to avoid becoming a crime victim during the holiday shopping season.
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) - The University of Georgia intends to erase Social Security numbers from millions of computer records in a move aimed at protecting the personal information of employees.


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The Portland Trail Blazers will honor legendary coach Jack Ramsay by wearing custom "Dr. Jack" jersey patches for the remainder of the playoffs.
PORTLAND, Ore.
HOUSTON -- LaMarcus Aldridge scored 43 points and Damian Lillard made six free throws down the stretch to give the Portland Trail Blazers a 112-105 win over the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night
The slumping Portland Trail Blazers came up just short against the two-time defending champs, but they appear to have a good chance to regroup before leaving Florida.
MIAMI (AP) Chris Bosh had another postgame scream. For the Miami Heat, that was outstanding news.


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Comment posted on A83 landslide closure updates by Catherine Gillies
It think it is testament to the work they did in the former main landslip area that it has held throughout the appalling amount of rain we have had this year. It is not at all surprising that it has burst somewhere else: that hillside is never going to be stable, and the cost of stabilising all of it would be vast.
The solution to this type of problem in the Alps (and it is common) eliminates both landslip and snow problems: putting a sloped roof over the road with open supports on the downhill side so that it is like a semi-tunnel. Expensive initially, but ultimately much cheaper. That is not to say that some debris clearance might not be required at times from the roof, but the road wouldn't have to close.
Catherine Gillies also commented
- Landslides are nothing new!! Crikey, a swift look back at the Oban Times will show repeated landslides, and don't forget that the Callander to Oban railway was eventually closed because of persistent landslides in Glen Ogle (our other roulette route). Climate change and the increase in rainfall might be having an impact – but this is the first landslide (or at least the first newsworthy one) this year, and it has been a torrential year.
As for the ugliness of these snow galleries, the ones I am thinking of are in the world heritage site of the Chamonix valley, and actually are pretty invisible now that the hillside has claimed the top of them.
Recent comments by Catherine Gillies
- Audit Scotland report on Argyll and Bute Council now available
If you know my political affiliation than you are way ahead of me. I never vote the same way twice!
- Audit Scotland report on Argyll and Bute Council now available
Hardly!! You would need a thicker skin than I've got, and also have to prepared to compromise and wheeler-deal which I would be hopeless at. There would be no changing anything without joining the old guard. And they wouldn't accept a mouthy woman – anathema!
- Audit Scotland report on Argyll and Bute Council now available
Various things have depressed me about this prolonged period of political upheaval, and this audit report simply rounds up the chaos which we can all see.
Firstly we finally got rid of the old guard who had presided for so long over a static, old fashioned, narrow-minded and eternally mysogenist administration.
Then we got a set of newbies, some of whom had good fire in their bellies, but not enough political ability to cope with the wrecking ball which a few of the old guard (who had honed their old boys club for a very long time)managed to continue to swing. Nor enough political ability to make anything stick though lord knows some tried.
Now the old guard are back. We can look forward to A&B continuing to disappear into a dot on the dusty horizon in the national context.
Never mind what the political affiliations were, this was only ever about petty power and personal gain from chairmanships of committees. People desperate to get back up the tree. Nothing whatsoever to do with the good of the communities in A&B, nor the future of this place.
I am reminded of the Maggie Thatcher jibes about parish councils, and feel saddened that A&B isn't even run as well as that. Personal fiefdoms, parochial powers, self-serving internal politicking, and so much ignorance – of how it should be, how it could be, and how we as the A&B communities would like it to be.
- Labour announces formidable candidate for Argyll for 2015 General Election
All of the above makes me feel that Mary Galbraith deserves a medal for standing for election in Argyll and Bute.
Nil illegitimi carborundum.
- How do you write a tender and appoint a bidder when you know nothing about the subject yourself?
I might add that the terms of the tender were drawn up in consultation with a steering group made up of people from within the arts and heritage sector in Argyll – so collectively they DO know what they are doing. I wasn't on it (as I declared an interest) but it had/has a lot of good people on board.
I do know that HIE and A&BC put cash into the process, which is good, but I am not sure who was on the panel for assessing the tenders.
Instead of mystery and accusation around procurement I think we should all share knowledge – after all it is a matter of public money and interest, and everybody INCLUDING the procurer is better protected in the end if there are no secrets.
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WCC students who are also parents face a common dilemma each semester: how to juggle child care with the demands of school, work and more. The problem multiplies since Windward is the only UH community college without some form of child care on campus. The average child care cost for infants and toddlers under the age of 3 is higher than a year's tuition and fees at a public college in Hawai'i, according to a recent survey. Available spaces are very limited, especially on the Windward side, for the children in this age group. However, the good news is WCC's recent $9.9 million federal Title III grant will help student-parents on campus who need a convenient, lower-cost child care option. [...]
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Friends say her beauty is undeniable, her intelligence praise-worthy and her poems powerful enough to capture your soul. They describe her as "a force of nature" and "a smoking gun," a nickname given to her after winning a boxing match in her youth. It also happens to be the image tattooed on her forearm. But WCC student Ashley Shankles also [...]Read more →
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Radicalized American members of the terrorist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, are returning to the United States homeland and pose a threat to national security, according to Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson. In a 42-minute audio clip released by the terrorists on Sept. 22, an ISIS member states that they are willing to bring [...]Read more →
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Art is a universal language that can bring people together from completely different backgrounds. Gallery ʻIolani's latest exhibit features artists who all call Hawaiʻi home. "Clay" opens its doors to the public on Friday, Oct. 24 and runs through Nov. 23. Although ceramics has been part of many exhibits, "Clay" is the first in the gallery's history to focus on [...]Read more →
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MySuccess assists academic journey
College is the land of opportunity, and one way to guarantee success is to use those opportunities from the start. MySuccess is a new tool WCC is launching to help students map their path to higher learning. This Laulima tool is based on the importance of communication between students and their school. There are many factors that play into both [...]Read more →
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Windward Ho'olaule'a
"No amount of rain could dampen the aloha." That's how Windward Ho'olaule'a chair Bonnie Beatson summed up a day that drew crowds of folks from across the island — despite the steady showers. One of big attractions was the stellar entertainment line-up that stretched into the evening. Families also enjoyed the WCC booths, food, crafts, silent auction, garage sale, shows [...]Read more →
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GMO issue on Maui's ballot as questions persist
In a three-hour WCC forum on Sept. 26, the bottom line seemed to be that there's still a lot we don't know about GMOs. GMOs (genetically modified organisms) have been hotly debated for quite a few years now, with as many falsehoods as there are truths. "Be skeptical, (of) the businesses and (of) the opponents. Don't just take anything on [...]Read more →
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Why do you think Hawai'i has had one of the lowest voter turnouts in the nation?
I think Hawai'i, like the rest of our nation, has lost faith in our politicians. Nothing seems to change for the better, regardless of the candidates' political party or political views. I think the people of Hawai'i have gotten to the point where every time an election comes around they ask, "What's the point?" Our government nowadays seems too preoccupied [...]Read more →
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Who's Online:
Current Status of Things -- Please Read!First of all, this site is in read only mode right now. This means that you are not able to login, post comments or upload stories. Browsing and reading should work fine.
I'm still working on things and ironing out a few bugs so until then, access will be limited.
I've already gotten a lot accomplished in the way of making the site more stable and secure and moving us to a better server. However, there are other issues that have been causing a lot of problems around here. I want you guys to bear in mind that I'm only one person and it's simply not possible for me to monitor everything that users submit. I've gotten so frustrated recently that I almost shut down the site permanently. But I don't think responsible members should have to miss out either and so the site is going to stay online.
I'm going to be cracking down on things around here though. I'm sorry if I seem harsh, but after spending the last 18 hours beating my brains out and trying to fix so many unnecessary issues, I can't help being frustrated. Even more so because so many of these things are avoidable if people would just follow the rules.
I'm going to make things very clear in this post and if people continue to ignore our guidelines, I'm going to start banning them outright without warning. I'm sorry, but I simply don't have time to follow after people who repeatedly violate the rules. So if anything below applies to your account, I suggest you fix the issues as soon as account access is restored.
I'm interested in taking on moderators to help check over stories and make sure that the rules are being followed. You can send an e-mail to email@example.com if you're interested, but I would like any potential moderators to meet the following requirements:
Thanks a bunch and I will have the site fully restored as soon as possible!
--Adora on 09/03/07 - 10:06 pm 30 Comments
Thank you, Adora! The site is once again beautiful!
- Wyn Telemnar on 10/03/07 - 01:55 am
You are amazing, Adora! Thank you so much for all the hard work you do! Us fans really appreciate it.
- Brassen on 10/03/07 - 02:02 am
I appreciate it guys!
- Adora on 10/03/07 - 03:06 am
Thanks so much! *checks over rules* I don't think they apply to me ... Anyway, I would volunteer to be a moderator ... except I'm under 18, and, though I've read millions of stories with ... questionable material ... within them, I don't qualify ... ;;;-.- Anyway, thanks so much for getting the site back! You're amazing! If I ever tried to make a site like this, I would cause some sort of nuclear explosion that would still be smouldering 900 years into the future ... XP :D
- BookLuva7 on 10/03/07 - 03:13 am
Ok, I think rule one applys to me *Bangs head against wall* Sorry Dude, didn't realise I was causing trouble!
Thanks for fixing the site up again!
- Gemini_Elf on 10/03/07 - 09:32 am
Thank you so much, Adora. The site looks wonderful.
- sylc on 10/03/07 - 12:37 pm
Thank you for clarification on the rules - I agree wholeheartedly and I hope there will be more stories and less "why my day sucked" up on lotrff.com in the near future:)
Anyway, I thought you wanted to upgrade the site to 3.0? I'm still seeing 2.0. Mhm, maybe I should empty my cache...
- Michelle on 10/03/07 - 03:50 pm
Hey, I just have one little question. You said poetry is allowed, but are you allowed to post poems that aren't related to LOTR in the off-topic category? I have a lot of poems up, but none of them are really about Tolkien's works. Are they allowed, or do I need to take them down?
- ArwenUndomiel on 11/03/07 - 01:21 am
Michelle, I did want to upgrade but I tried several times and there are a lot of problems. Since 3.0 is brand new, there seem to still be a lot of bugs in the script. I'm going to hold off until the new version is a little more stable before I install it.
Arwen, off-topic poetry is fine but you may want to combine them in a single story and add new poems for each chapter as opposed to making a separate story for each one. That would be better anyway, because people could just subscribe to that one story and get updates every time you post a new poem. Would also help us save some space around here.
Thanks to the rest of you for commenting!
- Adora on 11/03/07 - 07:00 am
Really??? Oops ... I better change that ... XP :D
- BookLuva7 on 11/03/07 - 07:33 am
@Adora: Thanks for clearing that up!
- Michelle on 11/03/07 - 08:51 am
It's a awesome site and upkeep must be tough, you really do a great job, Adora!! Aw, bugger. I'd offer to moderate but I'm fifteen and just don't have the time with all my homework. Good Luck!!
- GreenWoodElleth on 01/04/07 - 06:28 pm
Hey Adora. You said that it would be better if we would combine our non-LotR poems into one story. I would gladly do that, but is there a way to move them into one fic without losing the reviews I have already recieved? Reviews are what motivates me the most, and I don't want to lose them all. Or should I just put all my new poems into one fic from now on?
- Aerlinniel on 06/04/07 - 12:28 pm
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text:
prattler - meaning in Hindi
Pronunciation of prattler
Meanings of prattler[Show Transliteration]
Inflected formsprattlers (noun plural)
Definitions of prattlerprattler - noun
- someone who speaks in a childish way
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Synonyms of prattler
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Antonyms of prattler
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Meaning and definitions of prattler, translation in Hindi language for prattler with similar and opposite words. Also find spoken pronunciation of prattler in Hindi and in English language.


text:
Grab your friends for a great night with this Washington, DC girl's night out cocktail tour. Head into the historic Logan Circle neighborhood to sample classic and creative libations from the city's best bartenders. The guided walking tour lasts an hour and half, making a total of four stops at bars and lounges and light appetizers.
If you're new to the area or a longtime local, this is a great way to enjoy the city's nightlife. Experience history, architecture, great company and delicious cocktails. Sign up for this girl's night out now and fring the flavors of DC!
Perfect for locals and tourists, this Washington DC girl's night out is a great way to get away with the ladies. Tours last from 6:00pm - 7:30pm and run Thursday through Sunday. A specific meeting location will be provided to you upon registration. Please note that gratuity is not included in the tour price. Sign up now to taste the best that DC has to offer!


text:
I always say that there are two types of readers. The first reads to
escape. This reader wants to visit worlds that he couldn't get to on
his own. He wants to be swept away and shocked and to forget real life
while he dives into plot twists and worldbuilding. He wants to read
characters he would love to meet in real life. He wants to be
completely outside of himself for a while. It's an amazing way to
read. I wish I could do it.
The second reads to have his hand held. He wants little glances and
words that he sees everyday. He wants the people he knows and doesn't
understand. He wants to read sentences that make him think, "I thought
I was the only one who felt that way, and there it is put into words."
I am the second type entirely. It's much more selfish, I think. I read
to see myself. But it's the only way I know the words for what I'm
"The theater is the only art form that concerns itself predominately with social issues. Can we get along? Can we get along in this room? Can we get along as a society? How might we get along better?" - Anne Bogart, certified theatre genius
"I, too, am a woman who takes my rights with my own arms."
-Hassan Wassef as quoted by Jenna Krajeski in Postcard from Egypt: Rebellion, The New Yorker, March 14, 2011
Two new books soon arriving from the hilarious Tina Fey and Mindy Kalin. Check out more at here.
-Mary Frye
"I think of the chimp, the one with the talking hands.
In the course of the experiment, that chimp had a baby. Imagine how her trainers must have thrilled when the mother, without prompting, began to sign her newborn.
Baby, drink milk.
Baby, play ball.
And when the baby died, the mother stood over the body, her wrinkled hands moving with animal grace, forming again and again the words: Baby, come hug, Baby come hug, fluent now in the language of grief."
— Amy Hempel (The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel)
from http://therumpus.net/2011/02/dear-sugar-the-rumpus-advice-column-64/. For all the lady-writers-in-progress.
Dear Sugar,
I read your column religiously. I'm 22. From what I can tell by your writing, you're in your early 40s. My question is short and sweet: what would you tell your 20-something self if you could talk to her now?
Seeking Wisdom
Dear Seeking Wisdom,
Stop worrying about whether you're fat. You're not fat. Or rather, you're sometimes a little bit fat, but who gives a shit? There is nothing more boring and fruitless than a woman lamenting the fact that her stomach is round. Feed yourself. Literally. The sort of people worthy of your love will love you more for this, sweet pea.
In the middle of the night in the middle of your twenties when your best woman friend crawls naked into your bed, straddles you, and says, You should run away from me before I devour you, believe her.
You are not a terrible person for wanting to break up with someone you love. You don't need a reason to leave. Wanting to leave is enough. Leaving doesn't mean you're incapable of real love or that you'll never love anyone else again. It doesn't mean you're morally bankrupt or psychologically demented or a nymphomaniac. It means you wish to change the terms of one particular relationship. That's all. Be brave enough to break your own heart.
When that really sweet but fucked up gay couple invites you over to their cool apartment to do ecstasy with them, say no.
There are some things you can't understand yet. Your life will be a great and continuous unfolding. It's good you've worked hard to resolve childhood issues while in your twenties, but understand that what you resolve will need to be resolved again. And again. You will come to know things that can only be known with the wisdom of age and the grace of years. Most of those things will have to do with forgiveness.
One evening you will be rolling around on the wooden floor of your apartment with a man who will tell you he doesn't have a condom. You will smile in this spunky way that you think is hot and tell him to fuck you anyway. This will be a mistake for which you alone will pay.
Don't lament so much about how your career is going to turn out. You don't have a career. You have a life. Do the work. Keep the faith. Be true blue. You are a writer because you write. Keep writing and quit your bitching. Your book has a birthday. You don't know what it is yet.
You cannot convince people to love you. This is an absolute rule. No one will ever give you love because you want him or her to give it. Real love moves freely in both directions. Don't waste your time on anything else.
Most things will be okay eventually, but not everything will be. Sometimes you'll put up a good fight and lose. Sometimes you'll hold on really hard and realize there is no choice but to let go. Acceptance is a small, quiet room.
One hot afternoon during the era in which you've gotten yourself ridiculously tangled up with heroin you will be riding the bus and thinking what a worthless piece of crap you are when a little girl will get on the bus holding the strings of two purple balloons. She'll offer you one of the balloons, but you won't take it because you believe you no longer have a right to such tiny beautiful things. You're wrong. You do.
Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.
When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kisses you while explaining that this kiss doesn't "mean anything" because, much as he likes you, he is not interested in having a relationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back. Your daughter will have his sense of humor. Your son will have his eyes.
The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people's diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.
One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, don't look at her skeptically after she tells you she thought the coat was perfect for you. Don't hold it up and say it's longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly even too warm. Your mother will be dead by spring. That coat will be the last gift she gave you. You will regret the small thing you didn't say for the rest of your life.
Say thank you.
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
by Mary Oliver
Its true, there's no end to you and I
With the best of intentions
They put the needles in our arms
Take your treatment, your medications
They'd be kinder to let us die
Double paned glass in the window
Couldn't break it if I tried
This lifetime of walls and monitors
I'd trade it for three seconds to fly
Dimly lit hallways
I can't see in front of me
I once floated in a dress of satin
Now I shuffle in my paper dress
I feel so ugly
Next to you
Silent in starched sandpaper sheets
Was this where my life was supposed to be saved?
Is this the heaven for which my mother prayed?
Dripping life into my veins
Time forced in my mouth
Theres no wound they can't stitch closed
But I feel my soul seeping out
There is a kiss
in this photo
between the edge of a shadow
just slightly below her collar bone
and a busted tile on the floor
head tilted down
where her glance is held captive
what are the bounds of cleansing?
an oleander breaking wave
still a poisonous secretion
flowing into the splits of her fingertips
this contact
another photograph taken
if we make friends
out of the ashes of anger
will the relationship end there, too?
her face gave light
without confine
slightly just
all the answer I needed
for the moment
Great question!
Yes, absolutely! Submitting your own work is both welcomed and encouraged, but only if you provide a link to a) your own personal website where people can read more of your work, even if it's only excerpts, b) a link to your publisher, or resume or something or c) a little blurb that lists a couple places where your work has appeared. We give credit to the submitter as well as the artist if they are two different people and if you provide us with a link to your website/blog/whatever, we will include that as well. Please be aware that not everything submitted is ultimately deemed appropriate to the mission of the blog and that if a great many submissions are focused around the same artist we are likely to pick and chose which ones end up as posts.
That said - Yes! Please, send us your work, the work of a talented friend, an admirable enemy or videos/links/news articles/images/excerpts of things you have stumbled across we might be interested in. Don't by shy. We aren't judgmental and we possess a wide variety of interests. Even if what you submit isn't posted due to lack of relevance, we very much appreciate your interest and involvement. It wouldn't be unusual for your submission to make it onto the personal sites of the founders in that situation. (In which case we will certainly let you know.)
Remember we like (some we outright adore) gentlemen writers too and we do accept work by them, but only if the submitted work is supportive/positive/inspiring to lady writers.
Thank you again for your interest! And, as always, if you have any further questions please feel free to get in touch — email@example.com.
Jenny, Katie, Christine & Casey.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
Happy International Women's Day! If you'd like read more wise words from Ms. Wollstonecraft (mother of Mary Shelley), check out our Pforzheimer Collection.
(via nypl)


text:
A Christian, a Muslim & an Atheist
What happens when you take a Christian, a Muslim and an Atheist and put them in a room together? It sounds like the beginning of a joke but as Ashley found, it can be start of something much more serious. It can be the start of something incredible!
Getting involved with Campus Ministry is a great way to get involved in the way Ashley did.


text:
|13 Nov 2013
windows 7 64
script in heat
Hmmm. Now having another problem with a script that is evidently in rut. I keep getting the message:
A script on this page may be busy, or it may have stopped responding. You can stop the script now, or you can continue to see if the script will complete.
Script: http://l.yimg.com/zz/combo?yui:3.9.1...3d3226c6.js:19
My screen gets overlayed with a rather opaque whitish waxlike "film" until I click the "stop script" button. It happens mostly on Yahoo the Finance main page, and during emailing. The script is much longer than the one that I have condensed below the message bolded above. I've run Microsoft Essentials and a couple programs from Iobit but with no success. Can anyone suggest what might be happening?
|My System Specs
|Thread Tools
|Similar help and support threads for2: script in heat
|CPU heat
|Hardware & Devices
|I Need Help To Reorder The Context Menu Script In Script Form?
|VBS script: Cannot find script engine
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|script error when running a vbs script.
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text:
Product Information
- LEGO Monster Fighters Vampyre Castle from LEGO
- Part of the Monster Fighters brand
- We recommend this product for ages 9 and up
What It Is
The Vampyre Castle is one of the lead items in the LEGO Monster Fighters line, with characters and storylines inspired by classic horror fiction and films. This 949-piece set lets kids build a castle scene for the final showdown with the vampyre. The vampyre has gathered all six moonstones at his castle and is about to cloak the world in darkness forever so that his followers can roam free for the rest of eternity, or so the story goes. Kids must help Dr. Rodney Rathbone and Jack McHammer survive the castle's hidden spikes and traps to disable the moonstone device. The Vampyre Castle features the moonstone device, shooting spiders, hidden spikes, a trapdoor, stairs, secret entrances, a coffin, an organ, and a dungeon. Kids will also build a hero car with net launcher. Six minifigures are included: Rodney Rathbone, Jack McHammer, the Vampyre, the Vampyre's bride, and two manbats. Four weapons are also included. As with other sets in this series, there are glow-in-the-dark elements to add more dramatic play.
Is It Fun?
After building this dramatic model, there are plenty of features to enhance creative, narrative-based play. This set is designed for 360-degree play so multiple kids can play together. This is classic play done with lots of detail and creativity. Kids who are into the Monster Fighters line will really enjoy this set.
Who It's For
The LEGO Monster Fighters Vampyre Castle is for ages 9–14.
What To Be Aware Of
Because of the large number of pieces in this set, it may take some time to build. No matter how long it takes you to put together, remember that building is part of the fun and play of LEGO.
See more products from our All Construction Toys category
First Builders Pony Palace
from MEGA Bloks
Junior Builders Thomas & Friends Thomas at the Sodor Steamworks
from MEGA Bloks
Hot Wheels Rodger Dodger
from MEGA Bloks
Roominate 3-in-1 Helicopter
from Roominate
Thomas and Friends MEGA Bloks Junior Rescue Center Heroes Builder Set
from MEGA Bloks
Hot Wheels MEGA Bloks Baja Bone Shaker Monster Truck
from MEGA Bloks
YOXO MegaBuilder
from Play from Scratch
Hello Kitty Sailboat
from MEGA Bloks
First Builders 1-2-3 Learning Train
from MEGA Bloks
LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar
from LEGO


text:
Halo 4 Finished
Now onto Spartan Ops and War Games…tomorrow.
life is designed to be lived
Now onto Spartan Ops and War Games…tomorrow.
Never Lost - Halo 4 Poster
I'm getting excited for Halo 4, reading up on the story of the Spartans and the Forerunners. It's fascinating stuff. So I decided to make a poster for Halo 4. As of early 2553 Master Chief, Spartan 117 was pronounced MIA. But as we've seen he's far from dead, and in 2557 he'll be found just in time to save us all again. Or something like that to get people to buy the game.
Halo Saga
Inspired by the art of Fabio Castro Soto and his Mass Effect Trilogy posters, these pieces focus on the Halo series (not counting Halo Wars) and the story of Earth, the Covenant, Master Chief, and the Forerunners.
[Available @ RedBubble]


text:
Dr. Jeffrey J. Du Bois, MD
Pediatric Surgery, Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Medical Center
- 2025 Morse Ave
Sacramento, CA 95825
- 1 Office Location
- Email a Friend
- (916) 973-5000
Dr. Jeffrey J. Du Bois has been practicing medicine for 31 years. Dr. Du Bois graduated from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Hebert School of Medicine in 1983. He practices medicine in Sacramento, CA and specializes in Pediatric Surgery. Dr. Du Bois is affiliated with Kaiser Permanente Medical Center.
Gender: Male
Years in Practice: 31 Years
Languages Spoken: English
Medical School: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Hebert School of Medicine
Graduation Date: 1983
Hospital Affiliations: Kaiser Permanente Medical Center
Specialties: Pediatric Surgery
©2005-2014 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.


text:
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A collection of additional Safari 4 Beta hidden settings
That was my initial reaction too, but after a few days' use I can see that the Top Sites thumbnail is the last impression of that site from the cache. It isn't being reloaded.
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