text:
But no:
In a Paris hotel room on Monday night, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton... changed course, forming an unlikely alliance with a handful of top administration aides who had been arguing for intervention.
Within hours, Mrs. Clinton and the aides had convinced Mr. Obama that the United States had to act...
... Mrs. Clinton joined Samantha Power, a senior aide at the National Security Council, and Susan Rice, Mr. Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, who had been pressing the case for military action, according to senior administration officials speaking only on condition of anonymity. Ms. Power is a former journalist and human rights advocate; Ms. Rice was an Africa adviser to President Clinton when the United States failed to intervene to stop the Rwanda genocide, which Mr. Clinton has called his biggest regret.
Now, the three women were pushing for American intervention....
To ally with Power and Rice, Clinton had to make "an unusual break with Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, who, along with the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, and the counterterrorism chief, John O. Brennan, had urged caution." Oh, timid men. Step aside! Yield to the boldness of women.
So... man, the power.


text:
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Height: 5' 9"Waist: 25"Hips: 36"Bust: 34CWearing Size: 6
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ReturnsR&M Richards wants you to be happy with your dress purchase. If for some reason you are not, we will gladly accept your return if it arrives at our distribution center no more than 30 days from the day you receive the package. The merchandise must be in its original unused condition with all original tags attached. Please include the bottom half of your packing list in the returned package as well, this is required in order to process your return.Please note: There is a red security tag attached to the dress. If this red tag is removed we cannot accept the return.We do not provide prepaid labels for returns. You are responsible for paying your shipping costs to return your item(s).Once your return is received, please allow for 7-14 business days in order for us to process and inspect your return. If the criteria for a return are met - it was received within 30 days, in its original unused condition, and with the red security tag attached - you will be approved for a refund. Please note, if any of these criteria are not met, your dress will be returned to you and you will not receive a refund.If you are approved, then your refund will be processed, and a credit will be applied to your credit card or original method of payment.Return Address:Return Department219 Murray Hill ParkwayEast Rutherford, NJ07073
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
vs. the Environment
President Obama's TPP
Hydrofracking and Mining?
Panel Discussion on Friday, October 26, 2012
What You Don't Know CAN Hurt You!
Risk: Our Jobs, Our Environment, Our Food, and Our Health!
Join us for the first of a series of
educational forums to learn more about the Trans-Pacific Partnership
and what we can do to stop it! Each event will feature different
speakers and cover different aspects of the TPP.
" [Natural gas] is an ideal fuel
– energy source that we can use for the next hundred years. So
I want to encourage natural gas production." – President
Barack Obama, July 16, 2012
Behind closed doors, the Obama
administration and the governments of 10 other countries are
negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive expansion of
NAFTA,, , the North American Free Trade Agreement that will increase
the profits of the 1% - at the expense of * family farmers * decent
jobs * the environment * internet freedom * access to lifesaving
drugs * animal rights * freedom of speech * indigenous communities *
financial industry reform * national sovereignty * democracy * labor
rights * food safety.
Leaked texts have revealed that TPP
will contain rules that give foreign investors in fracking projects
the power to sue the US in international tribunals for unlimited sums
if our government decides to ban hydrofracking! Plus, TPP will
eliminate the public interest review process for liquid natural gas
(LNG) terminals designed to export fracked gas to TPP member nations!
Join a panel of speakers to learn
why TPP threatens public interest laws, how NAFTA-style free trade
agreements have already helped extractive industries violate human
rights and pollute then environment in Latin America, and how the
fracking industry may use TPP to eliminate public review and
undermine anti-fracking legislation.
Friday, October 26th, 2012
* Alisa Simmons, Public Citizen's
Global Trade Watch
* Ilana Solomon, Trade
Representative,The Sierra Club
* Manuel Perez-Rocha, Associate
Fellow, Global Economy, Institute for Policy Studies
* Bill Weinberg, World War 4 Report,
Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade
Community Church of New York, John Haynes Holmes
House, 28 East 35th Street between Madison & Park Avenues,
Manhattan, NYC.
DONATION: $5-15 for each event; FREE if you can't
afford to pay.
(we'll send directions & updates)
INFO: Phone: (718) 218-4523 Email:
firstname.lastname@example.com Web: http://gjae.org
Alisa A. Simmons is the National Field
Director for Global Trade Watch. She has worked on a range of social
and economic justice issues, including global trade, worker's rights,
student's rights, LGBT civil rights and voter's rights. Alisa helped
organize anti-WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999 and joined an
international group of activists to protest the World Trade
Organization meetings in Prague in 2000. She has degrees and
certificates in sociology, liberal arts, international conflict
resolution and non-profit management but mostly credits her personal
development and organizing success to the countless number of
traditionally underrepresented and marginalized people who taught her
what it is get up and fight every day. As a native New Yorker, Alisa
has a fierce passion for jay-walking.
Ilana Solomon, Trade Representative:
Ilana Solomon joined the Sierra Club's Labor and Trade program
in March 2012. Before coming to the Club, Ilana was a Senior
Policy Analyst with ActionAid, a rights-based anti-poverty
organization. Ilana started her work at ActionAid in 2004,
working on a diverse range of issues including women's rights
and the right to human security in times of emergency. From
2007-March 2012, Ilana focused her work on international climate
justice. She advocated for the creation of a new equitable and
effective multilateral fund for climate change and for public finance
for adaptation in developing countries. Ilana has authored and
co-authored numerous articles and reports focused on the need for a
new global climate fund and on proposals for how to generate
substantial public finance for climate change. Before joining
ActionAid, Ilana worked with the International Rescue Committee
in Atlanta, Georgia, working on program development with women
refugees. Ilana graduated from Oberlin College with majors in Latin
American Studies and Music and has a Masters of International Service
from the School of International Service (SIS) at American
Manuel Pérez-Rocha helps to
coordinate the Networking for Justice on Global Investment project,
as part of the IPS Global Economy Project. In this role, he works
together with allies at the Democracy Center in Bolivia and
organizations in several countries. Prior to that, he directed "The
NAFTA Plus and the SPP Advocacy Project," as part of the Global
Economy Project. He is a Mexican national who has led tri-national
efforts to promote just and sustainable alternative approaches to
North American economic integration for more than a decade. Prior to
moving to Washington, DC in 2006, he worked for many years with the
Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) and continues to be a
member of that coalition's executive committee. For the past
several years, he has also contributed to the Alternative
Regionalisms project of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, and
worked as a consultant to Oxfam International on trade issues in the
Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean region. Manuel studied
International Relations at the National Autonomous University of
Mexico (UNAM) and holds a M.A. on Development Studies from the
Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at The Hague, Netherlands.
Bill Weinberg is an award-winning
25-year veteran journalist in the fields of human rights, indigenous
peoples, ecology and war. He is the author of Homage to Chiapas: The
New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico (Verso Books, 2000), and War on
the Land: Ecology and Politics in Central America (Zed Books, 1991).
As a correspondent and contributing editor for Native Americas,
Cornell University's quarterly journal of hemispheric indigenous
issues, he won three awards from the Native American Journalists
Association for his reportage from Nicaragua to Arizona between 1996
and 2000. He also won an award from Project Censored in 2007,
although he hates Project Censored. His work has appeared in The
Nation, Newsday, The Progressive, The Village Voice, New America
Media, AlterNet, NACLA Report on the Americas, Middle East Policy,
Toward Freedom, In These Times, Yes! Magazine, Indian Country Today,
The Amsterdam News, The Ecologist, Earth Island Journal, City
Limits,Cannabis Culture and numerous other publications. He also
served as news editor at High Times in the 1990s, covering the global
war on drugs, and was a regular contributor to New York's Guardian
newsweekly in its final years. He continues to cover the drug war
beat for High Times, Kush and other magazines. With Ann-Marie
Hendrickson, he for 20 years co-produced the anarchist variety show
Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade on WBAI-NY, 99.5 FM. He was removed
from the air in 2011 for his political dissent. He lives on New
York's Lower East Side. Earlier this year, he was in Peru on
assignment for the Progressive.
(WBAI 99.5 FM) http://www.comicbookradioshow.com/eco-logic.html
Justice for Animals and the Environment http://gjae.org
The Green Sanctuary
Committee, CCNY, UU www.ccny.org
Health Global Access
Project http://healthgap.org
New York Committee in
Solidarity with the People of El Salvador http://nycispes.org
Occupy Wall Street
Environmental Solidarity Working Group
Occupy Wall Street Trade
Justice Working Group http://tradejustice.nycga.net
Pure Imagination
(Progressive Radio Network)
Sierra Club -
TradeJustice New York
Metro http://tradejustice.net
Forum #2: Thurs, Nov 15th :
Topic & Speakers to Be Announced
Location: Brecht Forum, 451 West
Street between Bank and Bethune Streets, Manhattan, NYC.
Time: 6:30-9:30 PM


text:
unspeakable merch hoodies.
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- Gildan®
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text:
Recently four North Carolina 4-H'ers represented North Carolina 4-H by participating in the Electoral College process held in Raleigh on December 17th, 2012. These 4-H'ers participated by leading the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of the opening ceremonies for the North Carolina 2012 Electoral College.
Two of the 4-H representatives were from our area. Nathan Barrick, current State 4-H President and son of Michael and Melinda Barrick of Winston-Salem represented Forsyth County. Bryan Hartman, 2011-2012 State 4-H Secretary/Treasurer and son of Keith and Sharon Hartman of Walnut Cove represented Stokes County. North Carolina General Statue, Chapter 163, Article 18 dictates that the electoral process will take place in the old Hall of the House of Representatives in the State Capitol in Raleigh at noon on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December following their election. At that time, the electors meet and vote on behalf of the State for President and Vice-President of the United States.
For more information on this event or other 4-H programs, please contact April Bowman, 4-H Agent in Forsyth County at 336-703-2850. North Carolina 4-H has over 235,000 youth enrolled in the program as well as over 20,000 youth and adult volunteers. North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T State University commit themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex, age, veteran status, or disability. In addition, the two Universities welcome all persons without regard to sexual orientation.


text:
In a break with traditional release schedules, Microsoft will probably not issue a second Windows 7 Service Pack, according to The Register. The Service Pack bundles the company's monthly updates and also usually provides additional security and performance updates. It's meant to help IT managers (and many home consumers as well) install fixes in one fell swoop, without having to keep tabs manually on monthly updates.
Sources "close to Microsoft's sustained engineering team," which builds and releases service packs, told The Register Microsoft has not yet begun preparing a second Service Pack. With Windows 8 about to hit the general public this week, the timeline for a practical Windows 7 Service Pack release is closing. The likelihood of a second update bundle has become very small.
Windows Vista waited two years before it was given SP2, and Windows XP waited three years for its second Service Pack. Windows 7 is now coming to the close of its third year. Customers are nearing the end of Microsoft's support of Service Pack 1 (which ends in 2013), and support for the operating system as a whole (which ends in 2015, or 2020 for those with extended support).
Ultimately, this may be seen either as a bid to force enterprise users onto Windows 8 more quickly, or simply as a prioritization of engineering resources. After all, why release a major update pack if many customers seem reasonably satisfied with the fixes of SP1? Whatever the case may be, customers shouldn't get their hopes up for a second bundle of updates.


text: Backs, pins, and clasps on all broaches & pins are made of solid sterling silver. Cloisonné jewelry is handcrafted by fusing kiln-fired glass to a sterling silver foundation, and each color is outlined by a fine braid of silver wire. All Bamboo Jewelry is enameled on both the front and back which strengthens pieces and makes the backside smoother to the touch. Lastly, all Bamboo Jewelry comes packaged in eco-friendly bamboo gift boxes lined with anti-tarnish fabric


text:
Select the correct transmission cooler by determining where there is enough space to mount it.
The diagram on the left numbers the best three positions to mount the transmission cooler in order.
Transmission coolers are more efficient when they receive maximum air flow.
At Position 1, the transmission cooler is 100% efficient.
Position 2, between the air conditioning condenser and radiator, is 75% efficient
while Position 3, between the radiator and fan, is only 60% efficient.
If positions 2 or 3 are used, a larger transmission cooler will be needed to compensate for the loss of cooling power.
If this is the case, choose a transmission cooler that is one or two sizes larger.
Tech Tips: Transmission fluid cannot be over-cooled,
but it is critical in extreme cold conditions to allow the vehicle to warm up before driving.
Code: FLX400117
Transmission Coolers Specs:
Filter Products (2)
Contact and Help
What our customers are saying:
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text:
Today in the News: Dennis Rodman takes NBA stars to North Korea
News to know
Dennis Rodman, former basketball star and "friend" of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, arrived in North Korea today with a group of former NBA stars to play a game for Kim's birthday. Rodman, who has visited the country several times now, took with him Kenny Anderson, Cliff Robinson, Vin Baker, Craig Hodges, Doug Christie, and Charles D. Smith. The game comes just weeks after Kim had his uncle executed.
Quote of note
"Skin freezes in just five minutes with a wind chill of minus 50." - HLN meteorologist Bob Van Dillen, talking about the "polar vortex" that is enveloping much of the country this week. Today in the Midwest, wind chill temperatures reached negative 60, and many cities were seeing record lows. Even the South saw extreme cold, as Atlanta registered temps lower than Moscow, according to CNN.
Hot video: National Zoo prepares panda cub for debut
The National Zoo is preparing panda cub Bao Bao for her public debut this month. She spent the morning in front of the media, climbing on rocks and following her mother, Mei Xiang, around the indoor exhibit.
More Content Now


text:
AOL grabbed headlines last week when it announced that it was making its online services freely available to anyone with Internet access. Today, the company is making news for what is an inexplicable turn of events. The company freely made available the private search history of over 650,000 users without permission. The 439MB compressed download features over 20 million search queries over a three month period and was made available on AOL's research website along with a readme file detailing the results. In an effort to ease damage control, AOL has removed both links, but mirrors for both search data and the AOL readme (for better or worse) are mirrored at multiple sites.
The vast amount of data included in these search queries is staggering and the possibilities for abuse are endless. TechCrunch reports:
AOL has released very private data about its users without their permission. While the AOL username has been changed to a random ID number, the ability to analyze all searches by a single user will often lead people to easily determine who the user is, and what they are up to. The data includes personal names, addresses, social security numbers and everything else someone might type into a search box. The most serious problem is the fact that many people often search on their own name, or those of their friends and family, to see what information is available about them on the net. Combine these ego searches with porn queries and you have a serious embarrassment. Combine them with "buy ecstasy" and you have evidence of a crime. Combine it with an address, social security number, etc., and you have an identity theft waiting to happen.
It's one thing to make private search data available to the federal government upon request (and even that has been widely debated over the past eight months), but to make it freely available from a public website is downright malicious. It'd be interesting to see what AOL's response to this whole fiasco will be.
Improving dual-core compatibility for gaming
The piracy police made one 9-year-old a very unhappy camper
ZMAX will come with a Snapdragon 400 processor and 720p display
UC Davis dares to go where Toyota won't with the Prius
An Apple spokesperson fires back over Microsoft's latest commercials
Engadget gets the scoop on Dell's latest "ultra-portable" notebook


text:
Kathryn Heivilin, CPIA, RBP
Senior IACUC Manager
UM Biosafety Officer
Laboratory Animal Resources
The University of Montana recognizes the need for the judicious and ethical use of animals to fulfill its goal as being an educational and research center. LAR staff members are certified by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, and have had many years of experience caring for laboratory animals.
The University of Montana's Animal Care and Use Program has been accredited by the American Association for the Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) since 1967. UM is proud to be one of the very first participants in this voluntary accreditation program which focuses on all aspects of the use and care of animals.
The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) plays a key role in maintaining the University's strict adherence to relevant laws and guidelines pertaining to the use of live animals in research and education. The IACUC, through the protocol review process as outlined in the Public Health Service Policy on the Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, upholds the most stringent laws concerning the use of animals.
An Animal Use Protocol (AUP) must be approved by the IACUC prior to the commencement of any research project using live animals. A copy of this approved form must be on file in the office of the IACUC Coordinator, (406) 243-6395, prior to the initiation of any such study. For research and/or instructional programs seeking external support (e.g., NSF, NIH, private foundations), this form must be submitted no later than the submission of ORSP's Checklist for Sponsored Programs Approval via E-Prop.
Key Personnel
Kelly Carrick, rLATG, ILAM
Facility Manager, Department of Laboratory Animal Resources
(406) 243-4892
Kathryn Heivilin, BS, CPIA, RBP
IACUC Manager and Vice-Chair; Biosafety Officer
(406) 243-6395
Pam Broussard, DVM
Attending Veterinarian
(406) 552-9599


text:
Most Popular »
Categories »
Download free tracking app »
Live tracking and technical data element details for STARLINK-4184 (NORAD 52852). STARLINK-4184 can be tracked NOW for your location showing map with azimuth and elevation plus other details from your city location.
Track the satellite on the map from your city or location and see movement details for azimuth, elevation, latitude, longitude, range, height, and movement on the map or in text.


text:
In the early 1990s, a favorite place to escape my troubles was the arcade in the Student Union Building at the University of British Columbia. Every lunch hour and every afternoon, when I should have been studying, I would head inside and lose myself in the darkness, the flickering colors, and the sounds.
Sometimes I would throw away a few quarters and play a game or two, but most of the time I would lurk in the shadows, watching people with more disposable quarters than I had work through their own frustrations against an unfeeling computer opponent. I wasn't the only one. When someone was playing an amazing game, a small crowd would form silently around him, mentally cheering him on as he reached hitherto-unknown levels of skill and achievement.
I was thinking back to those long-vanished days recently as I stepped on the plane to Anaheim, California. My destination was the Major League Gaming (MLG) Pro Circuit, brainchild of Sundance DiGiovanni. MLG started its life in 2002 featuring primarily console games, but experienced unexpectedly large growth with the release of Blizzard's StarCraft II in 2010 (read our review). After arriving in Anaheim, I experienced this growth myself as I found my way to the end of a gigantic line stretching all the way to the end of the Anaheim Convention Center and into the adjacent parking lot. Passing tourists with their Mickey Mouse ears would sometimes turn and stare at us, and I could see them thinking: who were these people and what exactly were they lining up for?
I wondered that myself after making my way inside and past the registration desk, receiving my paper orange wristband, and finally wandering into the main hall. I had never been to an event like this before and wasn't sure what to expect. Three large banners hung from the ceiling and divided the gigantic room into its respective game sections. On the left was Halo: Reach, the latest incarnation of Microsoft's sci-fi shooter for the Xbox 360. On the right was Call of Duty: Black Ops, a team-based military shooter played on the PlayStation 3. But it was the center area, leading all the way up to the main stage, that I was primarily interested in. This was StarCraft II territory.
The original StarCraft appeared in 1998, with its expansion pack Brood War coming out a year later. Professional Brood War tournaments became massively popular in South Korea, to the point where they were recognized by politicians as part of that country's unique culture. The much-anticipated StarCraft II was also expected to be a hit in Korea, but instead it wound up igniting the electronic sports scene in the rest of the world. Thanks to new technologies like live video streaming over the Internet, the game became popular with a whole new generation of fans.
As the international e-sports scene grew, some of the Korean Brood War players switched to StarCraft II and increasingly began competing in foreign tournaments. The tournament organizers welcomed these new arrivals, some of them celebrities in Korea but relatively unknown outside their home country except to fans. The greatest of these players was Lim Yo Hwan, also known by his gaming tag "SlayerS Boxer."
Imagine, if you will, that you are an obsessed basketball fan who lives outside the United States. You have followed the game for years, with your biggest idol being Michael Jordan. One day you hear that Jordan has come out of retirement and will be playing in a tournament in a city on the same continent as you, so you rush to buy a plane ticket and fly over to the stadium. While walking around the lobby, you notice a tall man practicing with a basketball. You stop and stare. It's him! You are right there—you are close enough to touch him!
That's the level of respect pro gaming fans have for Boxer, so it came as something of a shock when I wandered through the large array of computers set up for the upcoming Open Bracket competition. I turned around, and there he was. When he got up to leave, another fan shouted out "Lim Yo Hwan Fighting!" Boxer turned back, somewhat surprised, and gave a hint of a smile.
The Emperor's legacy
It's difficult to overstate the impact that Boxer has had, not only on the professional StarCraft scene, but on e-sports itself. He was the first "bonjwa"—a player who dominates all others for an extended period of time—winning almost every tournament he entered between 2000 and 2002, and he gained the nickname "The Emperor" for his skillful command of the Terran race. But it was his will, charm, and personality that carried the game to a new level. He personally formed the first professional Brood War team and found corporate sponsors, setting the stage for what would become a self-sustaining industry. His team, which became known as SK Telecom T1, won the first Proleague title and to this day has the most championships of any team in Brood War history.
Back in 2004, Boxer had fallen from bonjwa status as newer and younger players overtook him. However, after an amazing run in the OnGame Star League (OSL) championship, Boxer once again reached the finals. His opponent was his teammate and protege, Choi Yun Sung, who went by the handle "iloveoov." Iloveoov had taken Boxer's tutelage a step further by emphasizing the relentless construction of more buildings and units, never letting up for a second. (At the time, iloveoov's nickname was "The Cheater Terran" because he could produce more tanks and marines than anyone else.) This "macro" play would forever define how Brood War would be played in Korea.
In the championship, Boxer played brilliantly, utilizing every trick in his arsenal to hold off iloveoov's assault, but ultimately he lost the series three games to two. When Boxer went over to congratulate iloveoov, it was the protege who broke down in tears; defeating a teammate, a legend, and an inspiration proved too much for him. Iloveoov would go on to become the second great bonjwa before he too was surpassed by younger and hungrier players.
Flash forward to 2011 at the MLG event held in Columbus, Ohio. Boxer, after a triumphant return to the world of StarCraft, had yet again created a top-ranked team of StarCraft 2 players, called "SlayerS" after his old clan name. However, Boxer himself was struggling, his shoulder wrecked with the pain of tendonitis that doctors admit usually affects men twice his age. Boxer was invited to Columbus but wasn't in good enough shape to compete, so he gave his invitation to teammate Moon "MMA" Sung Won. Boxer's fiancee, actress Kim Ga Yeon, told MMA half-jokingly: "Go and win MLG or don't come back." Inspired, MMA won the entire event.
Now, in Anaheim, MMA was back to defend his title and Boxer at last felt he was worthy enough to challenge the competition. As luck or fate would have it, the two were destined to meet in battle. First, however, they would have to survive a gauntlet of North American and European players.


text:
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A glider is a heavier-than-air aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine.
Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary and some are even powerful enough to take off.
There is a wide variety of types differing in the construction of their wings, aerodynamic efficiency, location of the pilot, controls and intended purpose. Most exploit meteorological phenomena to maintain or even gain height.
Gliders are principally used for the air sports of gliding, hang gliding and paragliding.
However some spacecraft have been designed to descend as gliders and in the past military gliders have been used in warfare. Perhaps the simplest and most familiar types are toys such as the paper plane and balsa wood glider.


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This bastide, located to the west of the main route connecting Rodez and Albi, is one of the best preserved and least affected by modern development and influences. Its plan consists of nine rectangular blocks arranged in a 3 x 3 pattern, with the central one left open. Forming the edges of this marketplace are four unbroken lines of arcades. Their arched openings look out on a space more than two hundred feet long and about one hundred thirty-five feet wide. More
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December 6, 2012
|Participants at the Catholic Divorce Ministry Conference, held at St. Ann Parish, gathered in a prayer circle. (Photo by Wendy Pandolo/NTC)
Catholics from across the country gathered at St. Ann Church in Burleson for the Catholic Divorce Ministry Conference Oct. 4-6. The non-profit organization met for the first time in six years with hopes of restoring the ministry.
Executive Director Gregory Mills of Fort Worth said the ministry is not well publicized due to inaccurate presumptions of its mission. Mills explained CDM's purpose: to reach out to divorced or separated Catholics in need of healing. They work to keep them in the Church and do that through the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church.
"Our mission in this ministry is to provide care and comfort to divorced and separated Catholics and their families as a peer ministry, meaning we are all equals," said Mills.
The weekend first featured a leadership training led by Marianne Skrobiak, a psychologist from Milwaukee who developed a six-week healing series for the divorced and separated. Also divorced, she ministered to leaders seeking to start support groups for divorce ministry.
"I've had excellent feedback from people," said Skrobiak. "Because I'm a therapist, and I guess because I've been in recovery for so long myself …I challenge leaders to look at themselves and see what areas they still might need help in."
|Gregory Mills, executive director of Catholic Divorced Ministry, addresses the participants during the CDM conference held at St. Ann Parish is Burleson. (Photo by Wendy Pandolfo/NTC)
Saturday began with an opening prayer and a tribute to the late Father Jim Young, a Paulist priest who founded the organization in 1974. Mills said his mission as a Paulist is important to the ministry because the charism of the order is to bring people to the Church and to help Catholics remain in the Church.
Bishop Kevin Vann, the episcopal liaison for the CDM, delivered the keynote address reflecting on the Year of Faith. He encouraged them to lead others to Christ, to serve others, to deepen their prayer and spiritual lives, and to reflect on the new evangelization and the notion of gratitude.
"The image of the family of God is shown to me in another way with the colonnades of Bernini at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City, where the colonnades extend to embrace the whole world, to embrace us here today, as the arms of our mothers," Bishop Vann said in his address. "The Church, as a mother, seeks to embrace all who seek the love of Christ in all moments of their lives, good and bad."
The conference also featured talks by Chris Vaughan, diocesan director of Marriage and Family Life, and Father Hector Medina, pastor of St. Matthew Church in Arlington.
Vaughan plans to help develop the Catholic Divorce Ministry by encouraging other parishes in the diocese to start support groups. He said this ministry is greatly needed.
"So many people call me and want to know, 'What can the Church do for me? I am really hurting right now,'" Vaughan said. "Sometimes the answer is, 'Well, there's a class starting in two months,' and that's just to me unacceptable."
Fr. Medina gave a talk about annulments. He said Catholic Divorce Ministry impacts those suffering from separation or divorce in a positive way, especially by addressing problems in a group setting.
"It helps them to heal, and it lets them see that they're not the only ones going through this. The more that people get the chance to tell their stories and name those hurts, the more control they have over their lives," said Fr. Medina.
One Grapevine resident who had separated from her husband five months earlier said the conference helped her to know she is not alone in this struggle.
"It's giving me more direction. You question a lot of things when a tragedy like this happens, and then you try to figure out your purpose in life, or what you're supposed to do, or what to do now," she said. "I often see the need for myself to be strong because I have three little children. I guess this affirms what I'm doing — that I'm doing the right thing to find strength in the Lord and with this. I give the same lessons and faith to my children."
For more information about Catholic Divorce Ministry, visit www.nacsdc.org.
Catholics from across the country gathered at St. Ann Church in Burleson for the Catholic Divorce Ministry Conference Oct. 4-6. The non-profit organization met for the first time in six years with hopes of restoring the ministry.


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This interview was originally broadcast on Dec. 13, 2010.
The HeLa cell line — one of the most revolutionary tools of biomedical research — has played a part in some of the world's most important medical advances, from the polio vaccine to in vitro fertilization.
The cell's power lies in its immortality, or ability to be kept alive and grown indefinitely. But few people know that the cells originally belonged to a poor Southern tobacco farmer named Henrietta Lacks who was being treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins University when her doctor reserved samples of her body tissue for his research. Lacks died of cancer 60 years ago, but her cells — taken without her knowledge or consent — are still alive today.
Writer Rebecca Skloot spent years researching Lacks and tells her story in The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks.
Skloot tells NPR's Neal Conan that in 1951, when Lacks' cells were first harvested, there was a different understanding of what doctors could and could not do.
"We didn't even have the concept of informed consent that we have today," she says. "Taking of tissue samples was absolutely standard — but so was doing things like injecting people with radioactive material to see what kind of harm that would do."
Skloot says that 60 years ago, doctors could never have known what their experiments would lead to.
"They didn't know what DNA was, they didn't know what we could someday learn from these samples," she says. "So the idea that there would some day be rights associated with cells would just have been baffling to them."
What's more, Skloot says the treatment Lacks received for her cervical cancer included radiation and chemotherapy that rendered her infertile, which doctors never warned her about. She describes the medical standard of time as "benevolent deception."
"Often doctors didn't even tell you what was wrong with you," she says. "They just treated you, and sent you home."
But despite Lacks' status as a poor African-American woman, Skloot says her treatment on the public ward at Johns Hopkins was top-of-the-line.
"The sort of thinking at the time was, 'Well, we're giving you access to medical care which you wouldn't otherwise be able to get, so your payment is that we get to use you in research.'"
Even so, Skloot says the country's history of segregation in medical care meant that African-American patients were often treated as second-class citizens.
"Black patients were treated much later in their disease process," she says. "They were often not given the same kind of pain management that white patients would have gotten and they died more often of diseases."
Skloot says those conditions likely applied to Lacks as well. But for the family Lacks left behind, one of the sorest spots in their foremother's story is the question of who profited off her stolen cells — because in addition to being some of the first cells to be grown, they were also the first to be commercialized.
"There's now a multi-billion-dollar industry based on buying and selling tissues and cells and patenting genes," Skloot says, "and that really all started with her cells."
The doctor who first cultivated Lacks' cells, Dr. George Gey, originally shared them with colleagues for free. Several years later, a factory was set up to mass-produce the HeLa (Henrietta Lacks) cells at a rate of about 6 trillion cells a week. That's when a for-profit model took hold.
"For scientists, growing cells took so much work that they couldn't get much research done," Skloot explains. She likens the process to a scientist having to build a new microscope from scratch each time he or she wanted to look through one. "So the selling of cells was really just for the sake of science, and there weren't a lot of profits."
Of course, that's all changed. Today, Skloot says, a vial of HeLa cells can be purchased online for about $250 a vial.
Still, the question of who should and should not have profited from the cells is a complicated one.
"If you'd taken Henrietta's cancer and put it on a table, it would have died," Skloot says. "It took innovation and various other things to make the cells grow, but obviously, they needed the cells in the first place."
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. More than 60 years ago now, a doctor in Baltimore sliced tissue samples from an African-American woman suffering from cervical cancer and set off an astonishing chain of events that revolutionized medical research and changed one family forever.
Taken without permission or consent, those cells became the first to thrive outside the human body, an immortal line of cells known as HeLa that played a critical role in research on everything from polio to in-vitro fertilization to gene mapping to AIDS.
But there's another story, the story of that woman, Henrietta Lacks, and her family, which opens critical questions about medical ethics, racism and what happens to the parts of our cells that we leave behind at the doctor's office or in the hospital.
Both stories form the subject of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," where author Rebecca Skloot traces not just the impact of the HeLa cells on science, but their unintended legacy for Lacks' family. Please note this is a rebroadcast of an earlier interview, so we're not going to be able to take any new calls in this hour.
But if you'd like to leave the story of your experience using HeLa cells in research of giving doctors the right to use your tissue for research, you can do so on our website. Just go to npr.org and click on TALK OF THE NATION. Later in the program, Patrick Symmes' revenge-fueled mission to catch a bike thief. But first, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." Rebecca Skloot joins us from member station WBEZ in Chicago. And it's good to have you with us today.
REBECCA SKLOOT: Thanks for having me.
CONAN: And there's a phrase that comes up towards the end of the book: tissue rights. And it struck me that in 1951, 60 years ago, this is a phrase that would have occurred to no one.
SKLOOT: Oh, absolutely.
SKLOOT: Yeah, in 1951, when they took her cells, we didn't even have the concept of informed consent that we have today. So they were doing research on people, you know, that varied from - you know, taking of tissue samples was absolutely standard, but so was doing things like injecting people with radioactive material to see whether - what kind of harm that would do.
And the type of research being done on people was really vast, and there was no way that they could have guessed in '51 what would someday be possible with these little cells and bits of people.
They didn't know what DNA was. They didn't know what we could someday learn from these samples. So the idea that there would someday be rights associated with cells would have just been baffling to them.
CONAN: And this whole idea that people should even be informed about what this extraction is being used for, or that it's even being done, indeed Henrietta Lacks has a hysterectomy as part of her treatment for her cancer, and nobody tells her.
SKLOOT: Right. She actually didn't get a hysterectomy, but the radiation treatment and the, you know, the chemotherapy that she got basically rendered her infertile. And they - right. They didn't tell her that that was going to happen as a result of the treatment.
And she really didn't know what was being done to her at all. She didn't know much about her treatment, and that was pretty standard at the time, too. They called it benevolent deception. You know, often doctors didn't even tell you what was wrong you. They just treated you and sent you home.
CONAN: And we have to look at that part of the story, and a question you return to again and again throughout the book: Was Henrietta Lacks treated differently than other people were? She was a very poor woman in the charity ward at Johns Hopkins Hospital and getting treatment for free. Was an African-American woman denied treatment that would have been provided to someone wealthier or someone white?
SKLOOT: Right. It's hard to tease out the ways that her treatment was or wasn't different from other people. But she wasn't denied treatment at all. Hopkins was one of the top cancer centers in the country, and she did get the top-of-the-line treatment. And she did this in the public ward, which is where black patients were seen because, you know, this was the era of Jim Crow and segregation. She couldn't have gone into most hospitals.
So she went to Hopkins because it was the only place she could get treated, and that was also the place where a lot of poor people went. If you didn't have money to go to a hospital, you went into these public wards. And the sort of thinking at the time was, well, we're giving you access to medical care which you wouldn't otherwise be able to get. So sort of your payment is that we get to use you in research.
So she did get the top-of-the-line care, but, you know, we now know, looking back at the history of segregation in medical care, that black patients were treated much later in their disease process. They were often, you know, not given the same kind of pain management that white patients would have gotten. And they often died - they died more often of diseases. And those are certainly possibly and probably true of Henrietta. And in some ways, it's still true today.
CONAN: And in some ways still true today. And as we look at the doctors, though, who took her tissue cells and managed to grow them - and this is an enormous triumph for medical research. And there are questions that I think exist to this day: Did they profit from this? Were they made rich by this? Was Johns Hopkins made rich by this?
SKLOOT: Right. That's one of the big - the sore spots in the story for her family. So Henrietta's cells, in addition to being the first ever grown and some of the most, you know, important research done on them, they were the first cells ever commercialized.
And there's now, you know, multi-billion-dollar industry based on buying and selling tissues and cells and patenting genes, and that really all started with her cells.
But in the beginning, the doctor who grew her cells, George Guy, just gave them all away for free. Anyone who wanted to use them in research, he would just, you know, put some in a test tube and send them off.
And it wasn't until several years later that people started actually mass-producing them. There was a factory set up where they were grown, to the tune of about six trillion cells a week and sent out to labs around the world. And that's when they started being actually sold for profit.
And that happened in the beginning, really, just to allow science to move forward. You know, for scientists, growing cells took so much work that they could not - they couldn't get much research done. It was sort of like if you had to build a microscope from scratch every time you wanted to look through it.
And so the selling of cells was really just sort of for the sake of science, and there weren't a lot of profits. But, of course, now that's sort of a different story. But there's no way you could trace how much was actually made off of HeLa cells.
Today, you can - anyone can go online and buy a vial of HeLa cells for about $250, or you can buy products made using them for up to, like, $10,000 a vial. And there's a lot of sort of discussion about, okay, so what of that is HeLa cells?
You know, if you'd taken Henrietta's cancer and put it on a table, it would have died. It took innovation and various, you know, other things to make the cells grow, but obviously, they needed the cells in the first place. So teasing out how much of that was HeLa and how much of it was everything else is pretty tough.
CONAN: There's this extraordinary moment in your book where - this is before the big factory, with the six trillion cells a day. This is a moment where they set up a smaller factory to replicate her cells at the Tuskegee Institute. This is at the height of polio research, and they need these cells to test the vaccine that's going to save, well, many, many, many people's lives.
Yet at the same time, getting back to that racism part of this, upstairs at the Tuskegee Institute, the syphilis experiment is still going on.
SKLOOT: Yeah. It's an amazing moment in the history of science. Here, the Tuskegee syphilis studies are one of the most famous sort of unethical studies done in this country, where black men with syphilis were essentially studied to watch how syphilis killed them from infection to death, without being offered treatment once it was available.
And that was happening on the same campus, yes, right, like, down the hall from where there was this first factory set up to grow HeLa cells. And at the time, no one knew that Henrietta was black. So they didn't know these cells had come from a black woman.
And what's interesting is that the first HeLa production center set up at Tuskegee was actually - the reason it was at Tuskegee was because there was one, a black man who was on the board of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis who really fought for it to be at Tuskegee because of the prestige that would come with it, the jobs it would bring to black scientists.
So at the same time you have this very prestigious, you know, cell production factory going on that these cells are going out all over the world and literally saving - helping to save millions of lives, white people, you know, everyone, at a time when, you know, black people couldn't even drink out of the same drinking fountains.
So here you had black scientists at an all-black institution using a black woman's cells to save millions of white people who wouldn't have let them sit next to them, and who had no idea that any - that there was any role that black people were playing in the production of the vaccine.
CONAN: We're talking with Rebecca Skloot about "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." And we'll start with Greg, Greg on the line with us from Syracuse.
GREG: Yeah, hi, Neal. Thanks for taking my call. I - my two-year-old was diagnosed with brain and spinal cancer in 2007. And while he was on the operating table in Boston on a 14-hour procedure, a fellow came to us and asked us for consent to take the CNF fluid and tumor samples, as well as surrounding tissue samples and use them in what they were hoping would be the largest low-grade glioma brain tumor study in the world.
And my wife's a health care professional, and her first reaction was emotional, and she said absolutely not. And my reaction was we absolutely have to do this because every advance that has come to treat our child and to save his life has come from these studies, from these samples and tests that have gone before us.
And, you know, after this fellow did a fantastic job of, you know, talking through the details and getting rid of the emotion, my wife was willing to sign the consent. It's interesting listening to your guest today, though. I wonder if these cells have been sold or something now.
But the other thing we did, we also - we had a baby on the way, and we cord-banked and packed all of the umbilical cord cells from our next-born and are storing them for the potential treatment for himself, as well as his brother.
CONAN: And he's doing okay? And how is he doing?
GREG: My son Jack just had a scan in Boston last week, and he is still stable. Everything is stable. So we're still in the fight.
CONAN: Nice to hear about that, Greg. But Rebecca Skloot, those two reactions, that seems to encompass everybody's reactions.
SKLOOT: Everybody. Yeah, exactly. That was - and it's interesting that your wife's a health care professional. And I think people often assume that health care professionals are all of the mind of, of course, you must do the research. You must do the research. But, in fact, I find that often, they have the same reaction that your wife did. And one of the things - oh, uh-huh?
GREG: I was absolutely surprised. I was astounded. I just sat there with my mouth agape, and I just thought we'd be on the same page. And you're right. It was just shocking to me that she was not on the same page.
SKLOOT: Yeah. And it is - it's a very emotional thing. I mean, people - and this is something that scientists often are a bit surprised by, that, you know, this is - it's a piece of you. You know, it's a sample that is really considered garbage, in a lot of ways. You know, if you left the hospital, you weren't going to go to them and say, okay, we'd like to take all of our, you know, our son's samples with us so we can throw them away at home.
But at the same time, having someone else save them and do research on them, it does - it hits really close to home.
CONAN: It's a remarkable story. Thanks to Greg for the call. Rebecca Skloot author of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is with us. We'll have more about Henrietta Lacks and her family in just a moment. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. Our guest is Rebecca Skloot. Her book is titled "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." If you just joined us, it's the story of the tissue taken from Henrietta Lacks without her knowledge or consent six decades ago. Those cells led to incredible breakthroughs in modern medicine. Her family, though, got nothing.
You can read about how Rebecca Skloot's journey to find the Lacks family began in a community college biology class at the TALK OF THE NATION page at npr.org. And while you're there, you can weigh in. If you've used HeLa cells in research, or if you've signed a form to give doctors the right to use your tissues for research, tell us your story. We welcome your comments online, but please note this is a rebroadcast of an earlier interview, so we're not going to be able to take any new calls today.
Let's go next to - this is Geri(ph), Geri with us from Sag Harbor in New York.
GERI: Hi, Neal. Thank you so much. It's a wonderful program.
CONAN: Thank you.
GERI: I have read now - I've just actually purchased this book. I've yet to read it completely. My interest in it is that I did 10 years as an embryologist in in-intro fertilization, fertility work.
Part of my education was culturing HeLa cells and using them and providing them for use in research. They were a wonderful, wonderful tool that really advanced research in medicine light years when it came to eukaryotic culture.
I empathize completely with, you know, the state of medical research and how it applies in racial segregation and racial discrimination. I agree, but I - to be honest with you, I think a lot of this is really being brought about simply because they continue to keep the name HeLa. Had they called it cell Strain No. 27, none of this would have happened, and we wouldn't be as concerned about this as we are today.
CONAN: Rebecca Skloot, HeLa was misidentified for many years under any number of names.
SKLOOT: That's right.
CONAN: But yes, it could be deduced from the first two letters of her first and last name.
SKLOOT: Right. People have asked me, you know, would this happen today? And in some ways, you know, the answer is it happens all the time. You know, people go into the hospital, and they get samples taken for routine biopsies or blood work. Those are often saved and used in research.
And if your name is removed from them, then that doesn't require consent. So people often don't even realize that that's happening, and that those are banked and used for various research projects. But the attachment of her name to the cells is certainly something that would not happen today. Privacy is a big concern when it comes to research on tissues.
But it's interesting. You know, I've been traveling around, talking about this book and the story for - since it came out, you know, almost at the beginning of this year. And, you know, it's interesting. This is the one case we can really talk about, where we can say, okay, this is what happened when, you know, the sort of ramifications of using tissues in research without consent. And we can do that because her name was attached to the cells, which, you know, is certainly, as you said, was sort of an ethical breach, in a sense.
But people are still actually concerned. It's not just the privacy questions. You know, the big issue with regulation cell research right now is that if your identity is attached, it requires consent. If it's not, it essentially doesn't. And a lot of tissue research doesn't require consent because of that. But we're at a time when - I mean, we know that we can go and, you know, use DNA and find out - find a person's identity. We can learn a lot about them.
So the way that tissue research is regulated right now hinges on anonymity, even though a lot of scientists and ethicists - it's you know, it's sort of well-known that, you know, oh, that anonymity, even at this point, probably doesn't exist in the sense that we sort of thought it did. And 50 years from now, who knows what that's going to mean?
And so despite the fact that, you know, she was initially identified, you know, or that her name was released, if her name hadn't been released, I mean, people still do have concerns about the cells being used in research. So it's not just about her identity, but that definitely gave us the ability to talk about her story.
CONAN: I wonder, Geri, when you were working with the cells, were you ever curious about the person who provided this breakthrough?
GERI: Well, I did in-vitro fertilization for 10 years. So I knew who provided them. When I was working with the HeLa cells, the tremendous -I think gratitude is the proper word. Before we had HeLa cells, we couldn't culture human or animal cells. It wasn't possible.
So we could never study cancers. We could never study skin grafting. We couldn't study things that have brought us and saved so many lives today. We just couldn't get these cells to survive in culture. Henrietta Lacks' cells provided us with a tool that never - that we would have waited another 10 years to develop.
CONAN: It sounds like you've got other priorities there, Geri. We'll let you go.
GERI: Thank you. Thank you.
SKLOOT: Yeah, the sense of gratitude is something I hear over and over again from, I mean, scientists and the general public. And it's pretty astonishing the personal response that people have to this story. There are, you know, probably thousands and thousands of scientists who use HeLa cells in their labs, who feel very personally connected to them.
There are so many people out there who, you know, I'm alive - certain people are saying, you know, I'm alive today because I took this drug that was developed using HeLa cells, or my mother is because she did.
And a lot of people assume that scientists are sort unhappy about this story being out there. I think they expect that scientists will be mad that I've sort of outed them about any of this.
And, in fact, what I hear overwhelmingly from researchers is just gratitude. And they say, you know, I've been using these cells in my research my whole career. I feel like I owe a lot of my professional life to them. In a lot of cases, they just say I never stopped to think about where they came from or whether she gave permission. And they're really glad to know.
And I often get calls from scientists, saying, you know, and I worked with this other cell line, you know, MCS-72. Do you know who those came from? And so I think I could probably spend a lot of years trying to find - write books about other cell lines now, too, which I'm not doing.
CONAN: It's interesting. We mentioned that started in a community college biology class. And you were a little befuddled by the scientific terms. You understood right away that there was a great story with Henrietta Lacks. Your penance for finding out this great story is you've had to learn an awful lot about biology.
SKLOOT: Yeah, and I was actually a biology student, initially. I was planning to be a veterinarian. I had no interest in becoming a writer. So my interest in HeLa cells really initially was as a science person.
But at the same time, I just sort of became obsessed with this question of who was she, and did she have any kids, and what did they think about all this stuff that was done with her cells. And then eventually, when I got interested in writing, yeah, I sort of went down that path.
And I think some would say my penance was the - you know, it took me about 12 years to write the book and to do all the research and find everything. So, yeah, I spent many years trying to sort of uncover the story of both the science and the person behind it all.
CONAN: Let's go next to Rita, Rita with us from Charleston.
RITA: Yeah. I'm calling in as both a cancer researcher, as well as a cancer patient. But I want to follow up on what the prior caller had mentioned, and that's even to this day, I want to make sure that it's clear, even to this day, if tissue is collected for clinical purposes and then used for research, and if that tissue is going to be otherwise discarded, it can be used for research without any kind of consent or without the patient knowing that their tissue was used for a cell culture.
And up to this point, up to this last caller, the impression was being given that times have changed. And in that case, as long as there's no patient identifiers being revealed, tissue that is otherwise going to be discarded can be used for research.
SKLOOT: Right, absolutely. And that's - you know, it's a big source of debate right now, you know. There's - I think people for the most part do not know that that's what's going on, and one of the things that's been pretty amazing to me in traveling around talking about the book is just the volume of people who say we're not okay with that.
The general response from the public is this research is important. We want this research to happen. We just want to know. And there's actually, after my book came out, there started to be some studies about people's attitudes towards research being done on their tissues without consent, and overwhelmingly, it matches up with what I've been seeing on my book tour.
There was one study that found that 76 percent of people didn't know that their tissues were being stored for research and that of the people who did know, only eight percent had found out from their health care providers. The rest of them found out in other ways.
And one study, which I think is sort of amazing, is that 76 percent of parents said that they were very or somewhat willing to allow their children's samples to be stored for research if they were asked permission. But if they weren't asked permission, that went down to about 25 percent saying that they would allow it.
So people really are starting to say, you know, we do want you to ask. And we're also seeing a lot of lawsuits that are sort of emphasizing that point, where people are actually suing over their tissues being used without consent.
CONAN: Rita, though, you're in the middle on this.
RITA: Oh, yeah. I can see both sides of it.
CONAN: And where do you come down? Are you - you're obviously the beneficiary from research from Henrietta Lacks' cells, among others, but - at the same time.
RITA: I think as long as the identity of the patient is not revealed, I think it's in the interest of science to go ahead and use the tissue for research, and it would in no way damage or cause any injury of any kind to the patient. But the caveat is that as long as the identifiers are not revealed.
CONAN: And if there were to be commercial exploitation, should that be revealed?
RITA: I don't think it should be. Having said that, I'm not sure about the extent of the commercial exploitation. I understand that there's a variety of places where one can buy tissues or cells for culturing. However, many of those, like the main one, ATCC, is not really for commercial exploitation, it's for maintaining the availability of stocks of these cells, growing them up and maintain availability for researchers to use.
CONAN: Okay. Rita...
SKLOOT: Yeah.
RITA: Exploitation, I think, is a very rare event compared to the federal agencies that provide cells for research.
SKLOOT: Yeah, your - I think your position on the use of this as long as their identity is not revealed is one that I often hear from scientists, but not - but there are actually a lot of them who don't feel that way. And I think one of the - where we are right now with this issue is that everybody really feels very differently about this. There are some people who say, if my identity is not going to be revealed, great, do whatever you want with it.
But then, you know, we also know, well, we can actually find out people's identity from these samples. And, you know, it's not like we're doing it routinely now, but someday we could. And, you know, so what does that mean to not reveal someone's identity?
And, you know, there are a lot of people who, their religious beliefs, say they can't have, you know, bits of themselves that are outside of their body when they die because they'll be stuck in this in-between place and not able to go into the afterlife. Or, you know, there are some people who say, well I don't want my cells used for this kind of research.
And so everybody has different feelings about this. And I think that's one of the places where we are right now, as saying, so how do we deal with that, when there are so many different people who have different feelings? And one of the things...
RITA: Well, the possibility is for - if patients do have these really strong beliefs, that they can - let's say prior to a surgery or blood drawn - they can say I don't want these cells to be used...
SKLOOT: Right.
RITA: ...for research or any other purposes besides the clinical (unintelligible).
SKLOOT: Right. But they have to know that that's happening in order to say that. That's one of the sort of clinchers, is you can't say I don't want you to use my cells if you don't know that's happening in the first place. So that's, I think, where - I think we're probably at a point where we're going - there's going to have to be some disclosure of that, and that people are going to probably, you know, be demanding to know what's done, in a sense.
CONAN: Rita, thanks very much for the call. Good luck.
RITA: All right, thanks.
CONAN: We're talking with Rebecca Skloot about her book "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks." You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
And you tell a story that includes an extraordinary cast of characters, that includes a con man and a eugenicist. And one of those, though, is a man who is informed that his tissue and his body parts are very valuable, and then does profit from selling that.
SKLOOT: Yeah, that's Ted Slavin. And his story, I think, is an - is fascinating because of what it says about the difference between being informed and not. And, yeah, he was a hemophiliac and his body - he had been exposed to hepatitis B repeatedly during blood transfusions and he - so his body produced a very high level of certain antibodies that scientists were really needing in an effort to develop the hepatitis B vaccine.
And his doctor just told him. He said, you know, you've got this thing that's really valuable and there are a lot of companies that would like to get their hands on this. And so he started his own company and basically sold access to his body - by the vial. He would sell his blood products. And that was how he was able to support himself. Because he would get sick with hemophilia, he would have these attacks - that he couldn't work.
And - but at the same time, he really did want his - this valuable, you know, product that his body produced to do something good for science. So he tracked down this one researcher who he believed would be the most likely to develop the hepatitis B vaccine. And he said - he just sent him a letter one day, that just said, basically, you have access to me for free, you can have my body when you die. You can - whatever you want as long as you use it for developing a vaccine that everyone will potentially benefit from. And that's why we have the hepatitis B vaccine today. And that researcher did use samples from body.
And, you know, and that - one of the - some of the resistance to talking about tissue rights and giving - letting people know when their tissues are being used or when they are commercially valuable, one of the big, historically, the reason that some people have been resistant to that is basically, well, people are going to hold out for profits. They're going to interfere with the progress of science. And we sort of, historically, that hasn't been the case. And, you know, people like Ted Slavin have behaved in that way.
And, you know, one of the things that's tough about this issue is - and the previous caller mentioned this - that, you know, science benefits, it's sort of there's this attitude that everyone owes it to science to donate tissues and let this research be done, consent or not, because everyone benefits. But in fact, of course, in our country not everyone does benefit, because we don't all have access to health care.
So you get situations like Henrietta's family, where this one woman did so much for science yet her family doesn't have access to health care because they can't afford health insurance, so they don't benefit from the advances made using their mother's cells. So, often this idea of universal benefit is really what the discussion comes down to.
CONAN: And let's see if we get one more call in. This is Mary, Mary with us from Portland.
MARY: Hi. I was wondering, you discussed a lot about the issues of using someone's cells for medical research. But when I was reading the book, it seemed like there was a lot of parallel issues for using someone's story, even when people would benefit by reading the story learn stuff. I was wondering if you - how much you had thought about this, particularly early on in your research, when the family was more reluctant to talk to you.
SKLOOT: Yes, a lot. And this is something - yeah, the book is about many different things. It's about the importance of sharing information with the public or scientists being able to talk to people. It's about research ethics. It's also, in a lot of ways, about the ethics of journalism.
You know, I tell the story of many writers, journalists of other kinds who came along before me, and had impacts on the family. And I did wrestle with that quite a bit as I was working on the book. You know, it took me about a year and a half to convince them to even talk to me because of all that they've been through. And along the way, part of how I convinced them to talk to me, was by telling Henrietta's daughter, Deborah, in particular, you know, you can come with me when I do my research. I'm not trying to hide anything from you. And she really wanted to learn about her mother and these cells, so she would. She would come with me.
And because of that, she ended up in a situation she wouldn't have been in otherwise, and some of them - I mean, she very much wanted this information. But in some cases, she wasn't necessarily prepared for what we found. And I really wrestled with that. And, you know, in some certain situations, it became very dangerous for her. I mean, she came very close to having to a stroke at one point during the research process, because of some of the stress involved with some of the information we found. And a lot of how I dealt with that was by putting it in the book. And so that is the reason, in a sense, that the story of Deborah and I is in the book.
CONAN: Mary, thanks very much for the call. We appreciate it. And we want to thank Rebecca Skloot for her time. She joined us from WBEZ, our member station in Chicago. The book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."
Coming up, thieves stole Patrick Symmes' bike in broad daylight in a crowded New York City street. He set out for revenge on any bike thief he could find. He joins us next to tell us what happened. I'm Neal Conan. Stay with us. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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Jimbo: "How come you aren't blowing things up? Its summer!"
To download as a ringtone put the URL below into your cell phone's browser: (Not all cell phones support this feature.)
echo $site_shortdomain.'/'.$site_fldr.'/'.$media.'/'.$type.'/'.$movie_.'/'.$file; ?>
To use as ringtone on your iPhone open the m4r audio file with iTunes and it will automatically be put in the "Ringtones" folder. Then sync your phone. You may need to check the "Sync ringtones" box under the "Ringtones" tab in iTunes for your iPhone. (Unfortunately if the sound clip is over 40 seconds it will not work because iTunes puts a limit on it.)
Jimbo: "How come you aren't blowing things up? Its summer!"
The sound clip should start playing automatically...
Right click the link and select save target as to save the file.
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text:
Fosdem 2012
OpenEmbedded booth
You are going to FOSDEM and can spend some time at the OpenEmbedded stand to explain interested individuals the virtues of OpenEmbedded? Add your name and on which day you'll be available.
- Robert Schuster (Saturday, Sunday until ~4pm)
- Alex Lennon (Saturday, Sunday)
- Henning Heinold (Saturday, Sunday)
- Ulf Samuelsson (Saturday, Sunday)
- Paul Eggleton (Saturday, Sunday)
- Marco Cavallini (Saturday)
- Radoslav Kolev (Sunday afternoon) - I'll be leaving Brussels on Monday, so I can stay until later to help with cleaning up tables, etc.
- Florian Boor (Saturday, Sunday)
- Philip Balister (Saturday, Sunday (as needed))
A bunch of tasks need to be carried out to make our attendance a pleasant experience. Each task needs a volunteer who is willing to help.
Table cloth
We only have a single table cloth (it washed but has a negligible stain from a quick soldering action that happened last year). We definitely need a 2nd one to also cover our second table. The FOSDEM tables are pretty huge (2.5m length), so chose a reasonably sized cloth. Additionally it would be super cool to have the OpenEmbedded logo printed on it. The idea would be to show the logo on the front side of our tables. For that the 'OE' sign should not be taller than say 50cm (The tables are approximately 70cm high.).
Volunteer: Philip Balister plans to bring 2 table cloths carrying the OE logo.
Bringing an TFT LCD
Displaying a presentation during the time of the conference makes our stand visually more attractive. We have a simple OpenDocument presentation in our SCM that can be used for this. However we need a display as well. If you come by car and can transport a display that'd be great. Getting a screen is not so complicated. Robert Schuster could send one to you by mail.
Volunteer: Florian Boor, a display is part of an event box he brings
A nice poster with updated sponsor was used for 2011's LinuxTag in Berlin. This poster needs to be brought to FOSDEM. Where is it right now and can it be taken to Brussels?
Volunteer: Henning Heinold (brings it from Berlin)
Years ago we printed a bunch (2500) of flyers. We still have a bunch of them left (exact number unknown; will update this as soon as I know). As the text is already a few years old it makes sense to update the actual document (it is in openembedded/contrib/marketing/oe-flyer.pdf) and print new ones.
Volunteer: Henning and Florian bring some
Device Tags
People standing in front of our booth often want to know what kind of device it is that blinks so funnily. ;) We could make things easier by being able to print small tags providing some information about board manufacturer, CPU, RAM and what its relation to OpenEmbedded is.
Alex Lennon - please send details of any tags needed to me, (ajlennon at dynamicdevices.co.uk) in reasonable time.
Robert Schuster - Pandaboard - Hopefully booting Angstrom with some desktop and Java foo.
Alex Lennon - Gem (i.MX28 based telematics board) - Booting OpenEmbedded with an end-user demo running (hopefully)
Ulf Samuelsson - Atmel AT91SAM9Gx5 Kit with 5 CPU Modules (G15,G25,G35,X25,X35)
Will boot the OpenEmbedded from www.linux4sam.org A raffle for the kit will be held in the Embedded DevRoom, and you have to visit the OpenEmbedded stand to leave your business card.
Flyers and posters
You can bring and/or print OpenEmbedded flyers and posters? Add your name and what you'll bring.
Power extensions, adapters and other stand material
Bringing devices is cool but we need a way to bring power to them too. Additionally people might need power sockets for different systems than the european one. List your name and what stuff you can bring.
- Robert Schuster:
- 3-socket power extension (EU)
- tape
- WiFi-Router in client mode to provide Internet access for Ethernet-based devices
- 2 1m-Ethernet cables
General attendance
Attending FOSDEM 2012? Add your name to this page so that other developers can look out for you!
- Robert Schuster (rschus/thebohemian)
- Henning Heinold (woglinde)
- Paul Eggleton (bluelightning)
- Marco Cavallini (mckoan)
Although FOSDEM itself takes place at the ULB campus, most folks prefer to stay nearer the city centre.
The Astrid has traditionally been the default choice for OE developers, though there are many other hotels in the area. If you are staying in a hotel other than the Astrid, feel free to add it to this section for the benefit of others.
Scandic Grand Place.
Rue d'Arenberg 18 Close to beer event (300 m) and Central Station. Tram to Fosdem around the corner.
Saint Nicolas
Hôtel Saint Nicolas *** Rue Marché aux Poulets 32 1000 Bruxelles Tél. +32/2-219.04.40 Fax +32/2-219.17.21 http://www.st-nicolas.be/contentENG/home.asp close to beer event, bus to Fosdem few minutes by walk from hotel.
IBIS Brussels off Grand' Place
Grasmarkt 100 Rue du Marché aux Herbes 100 1000 BRUSSELS


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The 2013 holiday season turned out to be a particularly eventful one for e-tailers and the shippers that deliver all those packages to your door.
Factors like fewer than average shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas and an increasing comfort level with online buying helped push holiday e-commerce up significantly. In fact, demand exceeded expectations and stressed shippers' capacity, causing some late deliveries of their goods.
Package delivery is clearly a growth industry and the Postal Service expects its piece of that business to rise 6 to 7 percent annually through fiscal year 2017. But is the Postal Service ready for all these packages? Can it meet the growing demand, or is it hampered by a delivery infrastructure that is largely geared toward letters and flats? We recently took a look at the issue and the results were mixed.
Our audit report, Readiness for Package Growth – Delivery Operations, found the Postal Service has done a good job of managing package growth in terms of mail volume and workhours. But it could make some changes to better handle future increases. For example, to-the-door delivery works well but curbside mailboxes were primarily designed for letters, flats, and small parcels, and they can't easily accommodate multiple or large packages. We suggested the Postal Service look at modifying cluster boxes to accommodate more packages.
We also encouraged the Postal Service to explore investing in shelving space on delivery vehicles to accommodate packages and to continue to develop an advanced dynamic routing system. Dynamic routing analyzes individual addresses to tell the carrier how to get to them more quickly. The tool takes into consideration things like traffic congestion and left-hand turns, both of which can eat up time and fuel. These and other steps outlined in the report should help the Postal Service expand services and increase revenue to meet growing customer demand.
So, what was your experience over the holidays? Were you among the many Americans who bought more gifts online than in previous years? Were your delivery services reliable or did any part of the experience discourage you from future online buying? What changes would you like to see in delivery and returns?


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- Crafted from the Finest Solid Brass Materials
- Made with 3/8" thick tempered glass for safety and strength
- Decorative caps mounted under shelf for plenty of capacity
- Concealed screw mounting hardware installs easily
- Wall mounted design is an ideal use of space
- Products are provided with a limited lifetime warranty
Specification & Documentation
Product dimensions, in. (LxHxW): 18x7.3x8.6
Box dimensions, in. (LxHxW): 22x12x12
Shipping weight, lbs: 8
|Installation Instruction
|Technical Specification
Returns Policy
If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, you can return the product for a full refund. You can return a product for up to 30 days from when the order is received. Any product you return must be in the same condition you received it and in the original packaging. If you would like to return your purchase please contact customer service by emailing email@example.com or by calling 540-967-5970 to obtain a return authorization.
** The return shipping is the responsibility of our customers. Please note, merchandise being returned for any reason needs to be individually wrapped and then the one or more items carefully packed in the box with adequate stuffing to protect them from damage in transit during the return shipment. Returned merchandise received back damaged due to negligent packaging will prompt an adjustment to the refunded amount. Thank you for your cooperation.
Payment & Security
Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information.


text:
13-22 Garage Eggert Place, Queens, NY 11691
Building Open Data
1 year bedbug history: no
Litigation history: no
Evictions: 0
A violation is issued to a building when a city inspector from NYC's Department of Housing Preservation and Development validates and confirms a complaint made to 311. The violations listed below are open violations that have yet to be addressed or have not been confirmed as resolved by the city.
0 violations over null units
0Class A
Non-Hazardous violations (i.e. no peephole on a door, or no street # on the building)
0Class B
Hazardous violations (i.e. smoke detector issues, inadequate lighting)
Immediately hazardous
0Class C
Immediately Hazardous (i.e. rodents, inadequate heat or hot water)
Approval DateDescriptionCurrent Status
No class A violations
Property Owners and Associates
Building Ratings
Water Pressure
Water Pressure: 5
Cleanliness: 3
Pest Control
Pest Control: 2
Heat: 5
Noise Levels
Noise Levels: 4
Owner Responsiveness
Owner Responsiveness: 5
Neighbors: 5
Garbage Management
Garbage Management: 5
Renter Recommendations
60%of renters recommend this building
60%of renters approve of this property owner
Rents and Deposits
95% of renters received their safety deposits back
NO reported rent-stabilized units in this building.
COVID-19 Measures
It has been reported that this building's property owner DID NOT implement new sanitation measures in response to COVID-19.
Rent Flexibility
It has been reported that this building's property owner DID NOT offer flexible rent arrangements due to the economic stress caused by COVID-19.
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text:
Donovan doesn't believe in revenge games
Florida coach Billy Donovan isn't a big believer in payback.
"I don't know what that means," Donovan said. "What do you get back? This is the next game that is in front of us."
When the No. 5 Gators (21-4, 11-2 SEC) face Arkansas (17-9, 8-5) tonight at the O'Connell Center, Donovan is more concerned about how his team will respond to a tough road loss earlier this week against Missouri.
Yes, Arkansas handed Florida its worst loss of the season, an 80-69 drubbing at Bud Walton Arena. But Donovan said any feelings of revenge should be tempered by focus on the scouting report.
"We have to learn from last game," Donovan said. "We have to look at things we can do better, things they hurt us in, things we can work to get better from the game. But if our focus is we're going to focus on what happened there ... you lose sight of what you need to do in the game. That's the most important thing."
Florida trailed by as many as 27 points in the second half of the Arkansas loss. The Razorbacks started the game 10-of-13 from floor and 7-of-9 from 3-point range to score the most points in a game against the Gators this season.
"We have a very strong desire to beat them," Florida junior point guard Scottie Wilbekin said. "We're ahead in the SEC. We've got to keep winning to stay ahead. Obviously we're going to be ready for them because they beat us pretty good in Arkansas."
Arkansas is coming into the game with some confidence, having won five of its last six games. That includes back-to-back two-point wins at home over Missouri (73-71) and Georgia (62-60), won by clutch plays by sophomore guard B.J. Young. But the Razorbacks are coming off a quick turnaround after playing Georgia on Thursday night and are just 1-6 on the road this season.
"You always talk about challenges, this is the ultimate challenge," Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. "You're going into the O'Connell Center and those guys will be ready."
Young said he knows the Gators will be motivated, but says Arkansas has much to prove as well.
"We want to show it wasn't a fluke, or whatever they say," Young said. "We just need to take energy on the road and play as hard as we did here and try to get that 'W' down there at Florida."
Wilbekin will likely get the early defensive assignment on Young, who is third in the SEC in scoring at 16.5 points per game. Young scored 13 points against Florida in the first meeting between the two schools.
"I just gotta be more locked in," Wilbekin said. "We all have to be more locked in as a team, because I don't think we were playing defense to our potential that game. But we're going to be ready. We're going to be ready to play with passion and defend the right way and play hard."
The Gators have proven capable of blowing teams out this season, winning eight games by 30 or more points this season (including five in the SEC). But a win by any margin will help Florida keep its hold on first place in the conference. The Gators are one-game ahead of Alabama with five conference games left to play.
So for Donovan, revenge isn't as important as the Gators playing a complete game on both ends of the floor.
"Hopefully our guys would want to do that regardless of who they're playing against," Donovan said. "We're playing in the SEC right now. We're in first place. I hope our motivation would be bigger than that. We've got a lot that we're playing for. They're playing for a lot too."
G Kenny Boynton 6-2 Sr. 13.0 ppg, 3.2 apg
G Mike Rosario 6-3 Sr. 12.9 ppg, 2.5 rpg
G Scottie Wilbekin 6-2 Jr. 9.3 ppg, 5.4 apg
F Erik Murphy 6-10 Sr. 12.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg
C Patric Young 6-9 Jr. 10.1 ppg, 6.5 rpg
G B.J. Young 6-3 So. 16.2 ppg, 3.7 apg
G Mardracus Wade 6-2 Jr. 6.5 ppg, 1.6 rpg
G Rickey Scott 6-3 Jr. 5.0 ppg, 2.2 rpg
F Coty Clarke 6-7 Jr. 6.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg
F Marshawn Powell 6-7 Jr. 15.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg
Notes: Florida returns home, where it is 12-0 this season. … The Gators have won eight straight at home against the Razorbacks . … Florida ranks third in the nation in scoring defense, holding opponents to 53 points per game. The Gators have held 11 opponents under 50 points and 18 opponents under 60 points. … Offensively, the Gators are shooting an SEC-high 39 percent from 3-point range while making 9 3-pointers per game. … Florida senior guard Kenny Boynton (1,913 career points) is 17 points shy of tying Andrew Moten (1,930 points) for second on UF's all-time scoring list. … Arkansas leads the SEC in turnover margin (+6.46) and is second in the league behind Florida in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4-1). … Florida was outrebounded for just the sixth time this season in its 63-60 loss to Missouri. The Gators are 3-3 when they get outrebounded and 18-1 when they outrebound their opponents.
Who: No. 5 Florida Gators (21-4, 11-2 SEC) vs. Arkansas Razorbacks (17-9, 8-5 SEC) When: 7 p.m. Where: O'Connell Center, Gainesville Gainesville-area TV: ESPNU Gainesville-area radio: AM-850, 103.7 FM


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Canonical has long made the most popular desktop version of Linux, but actually making money off Ubuntu is easier said than done. When a typical user downloads Ubuntu for free and installs it on a computer with a Windows license that the user did pay for, Canonical gets nothing in the form of payment.
There's nothing wrong with that—this is the open source world, after all, and many people contribute to Ubuntu with code rather than money. But starting this week, Canonical is presenting desktop OS downloaders with an optional donation form.
"Pay what you think it's worth," and "Show Ubuntu some love" are among the messages users will see, and downloaders can direct their donations to specific parts of Ubuntu development. The options are "Make the desktop more amazing"; "Performance optimisation for games and apps"; "Improve hardware support on more PCs"; "Phone and tablet versions of Ubuntu"; "Community participation in Ubuntu development"; "Better coordination with Debian and upstreams"; "Better support for flavours like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu"; "Tip to Canonical—they help make it happen."
By default, the page puts in $2 for each, a total donation of $16. Depending on what you contribute, Canonical shows what else you could buy with that money. Bizarrely, $200 equates to "the price of a pair of sexed Emu chicks." The most you can donate at once is $1,000, or "the price of an eight year-old dromedary camel."
Once you donate, the Ubuntu desktop starts downloading. Or, you can just skip the donation and download the OS for free, just as you always could. For some reason, the donation page is not presented to Ubuntu Server users.
Canonical accepted donations prior to this week, but in a blog post about the move yesterday, Canonical VP Steve George wrote "we're making it easier for people to financially contribute to Ubuntu if they want to."
"By allowing Ubuntu users to choose which elements of Ubuntu they're most excited about, we'll get direct feedback on which favourite features or projects deserve the bulk of our attention," he wrote. "We're letting users name their price—depending on the value that they put on the operating system or other aspects of our work. That price can, of course, be zero—but every last cent helps make Ubuntu better."
Ubuntu isn't the only Linux desktop distribution looking for donations. Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu code) does as well, for example. While Canonical gives away its software for free, it is a private company rather than strictly a community project, and some people may not feel comfortable donating to a business rather than a charity.
Although Distrowatch shows Ubuntu as being only the third most popular Linux distribution (after Mint and Mageia), a more extensive and likely more accurate gauge of real-world use comes from a Wikimedia traffic analysis report. Over the most recent 12-month period, Ubuntu accounted for 1.1 billion hits to Wikimedia, with the next-most popular Linux desktop distribution—Red Hat's Fedora—accounting for 36.7 million.
Yet after eight years in business, it's not even clear whether Canonical is profitable. The company has branched out with business products and support, struck distribution deals with desktop hardware vendors, and is eyeing mobile devices, but it doesn't seem to be enough. Witness a recent move to add Amazon search results into Ubuntu's desktop search tool, in order to get money through affiliate links.
Some users were disturbed by the Amazon move, telling Canonical Founder Mark Shuttleworth so in the comments on his blog. But even users who don't want Amazon search results when they're searching for a file on their desktop may want to support Ubuntu financially. Providing an easy-to-find donation page and the option to direct money to whichever part of Ubuntu development one prefers seems like a reasonable way to raise money without affecting the behavior of the operating system itself.


text:
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The rollerball refills listed below fit Lepine Rollerball pens. Please, carefully compare the shape and dimensions with your original refill. If you need a different type of refill for your Lepine rollerball pen, please contact me and I will try to help you locate the refill you are looking for! Require Ballpoint Pen Refills instead ? Or Fountain Ink Cartridges ?