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Why did you choose this product?
Love my new pots and pans...
ITEM#: 14050402Click here for $20 mail-in rebate
This cookware set from Paula Deen features an aluminum construction with an easy-to-clean nonstick surface. This 15-piece set is dishwasher safe and is oven safe up to 350-degrees Fahrenheit.
The red-speckled cookware set includes two saucepans, two skillets, one stock pot and a saute pan. The lids are clear glass to monitor cooking at a glance. The lids have large knobs that are easy to grasp. The nonstick interior of the pans makes cleanup quick and easy. The pan's handles are red, feature a soft-touch grip and have convenient copper rings for hanging storage.
- Finish: Red
- Surface: Nonstick
- Materials: Aluminum
- Handle attachment: Comfortable grip handles
- Care instructions: Dishwasher safe
- Oven-safe to: 350-degrees Fahrenheit
- Number of pieces: 15 pieces
Set includes:
- 1-quart covered saucepan
- 2-quart covered saucepan
- 6-quart covered stock pot
- 2.75-quart covered saute
- 8-inch skillet
- 10-inch skillet
- 5-piece measuring spoon set
|Set Include
|15 Piece
|Product Features
|Includes Lid Non-Stick Surface
|See description
|See description
Customer Reviews
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Love my new pots and pansRead More
Nice color
I bought this as a gift for my SIL. she loves them! The pans are a little small, so consider that before purchasing.Read More
So disappointed !
I have had this exact set for years and LOVE it. When I finally decided it was time to replace it I wanted the exact same one again. The first set I ordered had a defect in the large pot. It was badly out of round and the top could not fit on. Customer service was excellent and quickly replaced the set. However, the second set had the exact same problem with the same pan. This time it will go back and I won't try to replace it.Read More
Nice set
With a few extra sizes or replacements, this would be an ideal set. A large skillet and a pasta size basin or even a wok size would make this perfect! So far a good set.Read More
These are some of the greatest pots and pans I used. Thank you for getting them to me so quickly.Read More
Balanced cooking and clean up is easy.
This absolutely the best cookware I could have purchased. Even cooking, not hot spots. I only put my glass lids in the dishwasher, the pans I just use a bit of detergent, rinse off and towel dry.Read More
Love this Cookware Set
I love these pans. They live up to everything said about them. I would certainly recommend them. Also love the color and design.Read More
non stick pan set
I don't care what they say about Paula Deen. These pans are great and go well with the tools (sold separately) It might not make me a better cook but they are very pretty and easy to cleanRead More
Positive Review
First new set of new cook wear in 21 years first set was great set but i would have to say these are much heavier then old set ! So easy to clean ..nothing sticks to them !!! Love them!!!Read More
These pots and pans make a great starter package.
Pots and pans are easy to cook with and clean up is a snap with the non-stick surface.Read More
Questions & Answers
needed, heard good quality
I was given a set 6 yrs. ago as a wedding gift. Best pans I ever had.
I have a set and love it. My sister wants one and I am getting her one for her birthday. ,please see that It is shipped to her. Thanks
good value
Reviews were good- price was right. Wouldn't have bought without the 10% discount, thanks!
love all of Paula Dean kitchen ware
Paula Deena is a good cook & her products are good
because it has paula's name behind it
I already have her large skillet and love it; it washes up so nice and easy. I compared the price to Rachel Ray's and liked Paula's price better too!
I'm a fan of Paula Deen and I really needed some "NEW" cookware. Plus, it matches my new kitchen! :)
I have a pan this style and needed the entire set.
I chose this product because I like the red color with the dark speck design.
What type of material is the nonstick surface? I'm looking for ceramic or similar material that doesn't contain harmful chemicals. Thank you.
Not sure, I bought these for the niece and she LOVES them.
Can the Paula Deen Collection porcelain nonstick 15-piece set, red speckle be used on a ceramic top stove?
Hi cathyanns9, this set works great on ceramic. Thanks for shopping with us.
Yes, I have a ceramic top and use them everyday.
Can it be used with an induction stove top?
Why is this Paula Deen cookware set dishwasher safe and other sets that are the same but different colors not dishwasher safe? I've looked on other websites and they say this set is not dishwasher safe so I'm confused can you find out if this set the Red speckle design by Paula Deen is really safe to put in your dishwasher and why other sites say it's not safe..
Hello jaynae01, the cookware is not dishwasher safe, nor are the other colors. we apologize for the confusion. I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any additional questions. Thank you for shopping with us!
Hard to tell from the pic, are the lids glass or aluminum?
The lids are glass.
When you staate "Oven Safe" do you mean handles and lid tops as well?
Yes, the complete item is able to withstand temperature of up to 350-degrees Fahrenheit.
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Cookware Buying Guide
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How to Care for Nonstick Cookware
How to Care for Nonstick Cookware from Overstock.com. Improper care can ruin the nonstick coating, which causes foods to stick, makes cleaning more difficult, and reduces the lifespan of your cookware.
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How to Season Stainless Steel Pans from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with information about how to season stainless steel pans and advice about our many brand-name products.
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How to Season Cast-Iron Cookware from Overstock.com. Regular seasoning creates a natural non-stick surface and protects the cookware from rusting. Here's how to do it.
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Average Customer Review
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Competent And Influential
Fowler's refactoring has become a classic in the field of popular software engineering books. It's a good book that clearly explains the basic ideas of refactoring and develops a standard vocabulary for refactoring; the power of this vocabulary is demonstrated by the development tools like IntelliJ Idea and Eclipse that now incorporate its nomenclature directly to allow...
Published on July 9 2004 by Vladimir Levin
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good addition
Matin surely presents a good strategy which is easily proved in the book. However I do not think it is a big enough issue to justify the whole book. He filled the content with many basics of object oriented and good programming practice. While many are not familiar with patterns and these techniques are not used as much as they should, I expect better material from...
Published on Oct. 28 1999
Most Helpful First | Newest First
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Competent And Influential,
Vladimir Levin (Calgary, AB, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
Fowler's refactoring has become a classic in the field of popular software engineering books. It's a good book that clearly explains the basic ideas of refactoring and develops a standard vocabulary for refactoring; the power of this vocabulary is demonstrated by the development tools like IntelliJ Idea and Eclipse that now incorporate its nomenclature directly to allow rapid automated refactoring. Refactoring together with Test-Driven development, both concepts developed largely by Kent Beck as part of his Extreme Programming methodology, are in my opinion the most powerful and innovative ideas in the last 10 years or so in software development. It is a fairly quick read for an experienced developer, and often admittedly presents concepts that any experienced develop would have discovered on his/her own. Nevertheless, all of the refacorings together in one book serve as an excellent reference and reminder. I think this book certainly belongs on the bookshelf of any developer wishing to improve his or her craft.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for the professional,
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
I got this book at the recommendation of another book (Ken Henderson's Guru's Guide to Stored Procedures) and was simply blown away by it. I have been preaching the lessons this book tries to teach for years. Now I finally have a text I can point people to to say "Hey, this code is really broken even though it still runs. We need to fix it!" Thank you, thank you, thank you for such a wonderful book.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Good addition,
By A Customer
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
Matin surely presents a good strategy which is easily proved in the book. However I do not think it is a big enough issue to justify the whole book. He filled the content with many basics of object oriented and good programming practice. While many are not familiar with patterns and these techniques are not used as much as they should, I expect better material from Martin.
5.0 out of 5 stars An instant classic,
wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
This remarkable book is the next logical step after 'Design Patterns'. In fact, it would be fair to call this 'Re-Design Patterns'.
It follows closely in the DP community's habit. For each way of improving a program, it systematically presents a name, set of conditions when it does or does not apply, and (unlike most DP books) clear, demonstrative examples and variations. As with design patterns, many of these recommendations have a sense about them of "I already knew that." That's a good thing - it means you bring familiarity to the reading, instead of starting cold. That lets Fowler get on with his real business, which is to systematize the knowledge and regularize the process of choosing a technique to use.
I hope this follows another habit of the DP community, too: the public cataloging, collecting, and sharing of new techniques for refactoring. I could add bunches to the list, as I'm sure any other seasoned programmer could. One thing is distinctive about the refactorings: the number that come in matched, opposite pairs. This just emphasizes the context dependency of refactoring - each technique has its place, but is not appropriate in all places. Also, paired opposites effectively double the number of choices a practitioner has.
Design patterns are very helpful, almost like power tools for programmers. Face it, though: initial design and implementation are only 1-10% of a large program's life. Maintenance, extension, and re-design are the other 90-99%. DP techniques get a program started, refactorings keep it going.
If you started programming before most of your co-workers were born, you may not get the most out of this book. Get it anyway, and make sure the young pups read it. This knowledge needs to be spread.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on a variety of levels.,
Robert Gamble (Falmouth, MA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
First, a bit of information about where I'm coming from. 10 years ago I came away with a Computer Science minor but never really utilized the programming skills I'd learned in any of my subsequent jobs (Marine Biology). However, I did dabble in teaching myself C++ and loved the concept of Object Oriented programming. Recently I landed a job working with IDL (Interative Data Language - NOT Corba IDL) which was originally designed to create quick 2D and 3D plots and images for scientists. While still primarily a scientist's language, it has been adding more and more features, including Object Oriented support.
So this means, I'm now a programmer. My new boss really wants almost everything done as an OO design, which I was more than happy about. However, much of my work will be to modify/extend old code which is in every form from procedural to pseudo-OO (uses a few objects here and there but is still mostly procedural). I originally convinced the boss to pick up this book by pointing out the section on converting Procedural Code to OO. Turns out this section is very short, but gives an overview of how to do it using the other refactorings in the book. So it's helpful there.
One place I haven't seen it mentioned in many reviews is the benefit this book can have for someone new to programming professionally (note, I do NOT mean to imply that this is a beginner programmer's book, you should have a good understanding of OO programming already). It has already had many benefits for me:
1. Smells in Code: I love this section. As everywhere in the book, it applies directly to poring through old code and picking out the 'smells' present that indicate poorly structured code. But it's also as valuable in pointing out what to watch for as you write a new program. The book does advocate a design/refactor approach, and this is the best example of it. As you design, you notice one of the 'smells' creep into your code, and you can refactor it then and there. This has been of immense value to me in my first programming projects.
2. Advocation of testing: I already have Kent Beck's "Test Driven Development" and utilized some concepts from it, but "Refactoring" also talks about testing, and it seems to flow much better for me in Fowler's book as far as understanding how to use tests. It 'clicked' when he mentioned that most of the time spent creating a program wasn't design/programming, but rather tracking down a bug. Combining quick and frequent tests on new refactorings (or just new bits of code added in) focuses the programmer very swiftly on just what went wrong. The longest I've ever spent puzzling out a bug so far on my first major project has been 30 minutes, and that's because I forgot a return statement. As soon as I got up, took a break and sat back down it was obvious. Most other bugs have been along the lines of "run the test, watch it crash, fix within 2-5 minutes".
3.Ideas on how to structure code I haven't written yet: Maybe "Design Patterns" is a better book for this, but everytime I've looked at it, it overwhelms me. "Refactoring" somehow seems to put into focus more clearly how to fix a problem that's stumping me. For example, the program I'm working on requires two ways of creating a new object. One creates it directly from a file, one creates it from a GUI where all data is entered, and then added by hitting the 'create' button. I got the 'initFromFile' constructor working nicely and then proceeded to start work on the 'initFromGUI', recreating most of the steps until I hit the point where the object had to create a linked list based on the number of swimbladders (each of which is an object in the linked list) within the main fish object. Long story short, I thought about creating the object separately and just passing it in as a parameter, but besides requiring more knowledge of the object the GUI was working with than I wanted the GUI to have, it also led to one Init call with a huge list of parameters). So I flipped through "Refactoring" and found "Duplicate Observed Data" which described the exact problem I was trying to solve and goes into enough detail on using the 'Observer' Pattern that I was able to get my code to work in a much cleaner fashion than I would have otherwise.
4. Teaches the 'obvious' to new programmers: Some of the complaints I've read involve "Well, any real OO programmer knows this already, it's a waste of space to include that." In my case this is not necessarily true. Some of the refactorings are indeed obvious to me. Others that are obvious to others are not obvious to me. Even more important, you will see some of these 'obvious' things in previously created 'legacy' code, and this book will allow you to spot it.
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterly, Comprehensive Reference on Refactoring,
Puneet S. Lamba (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
The refactoring concept fits perfectly with extreme programming (XP).
XP (aka ready-fire-aim) recommends that developers get the solution coded and working ASAP (without big-up-front-design or analysis-paralysis) and then (shed your inhibitions; you won't really understand the problem until you've coded it) gradually improve on the design by refactoring the code.
This very accessible book has contributions from Kent Beck, John Brant, William Opdyke, and Don Roberts.
The author uses fragments of Java code to demonstrate refactoring.
The book contains a section on code "smells" that identify ugly code and a catalog of about 50 refactoring patterns, diagrammed using UML and documented per the template popularized by "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" by Erich Gamma et al.
In his book "Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change," Kent Beck has this to say about Martin Fowler's book "The reference for refactoring. Get it. Study it. Use it."
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't wait as long as I did,
Amazon Customer (Southern California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
I've known about this book for over a year. Initially, I thought it was about re-engineering legacy systems. I don't do that, so I didn't give it much thought. Over the past year, I have stumbled across repeated references to this book. Everyone seems to cite it, and now I understand why.
It's very easy to fall into 'analysis paralysis' when doing object design. A commonly heard complaint is "I have created 27 different class diagrams, and 42 separate sequence diagrams, but I can't seem to get any code written..." XP's popularity is due, in part, becuase it get's you into action--you begin writing code immediately, instead of creating diagrams for weeks (or months) on end. XP's motto could be "just do it!"
But how does one reconcile this "code first, ask questions later" mentality with an acknowledged need to at least do some design work? In "Refactoring", Martin Fowler provides the answer. His prescription is to create some code to get something working, then look at the code to see how it might be improved-- refactor it.
In Fowler's view, you won't really understand the problem until you have coded it, so instead of spending the next three weeks trying to find the perfect pattern for your next task, forget the pattern, and get some code going. Once you've got something workable, then think about patterns you might back into from your existing code.
Of course, that's a gross oversimplification of the process, but it gives a flavor of the ready-fire-aim process that 'Refactoring' is built around. And it seems to work--even people who don't buy into other core practices of XP seem to have adopted refactoring as a central element in their process.
The catalog of refactorings that the books provides are a first class reference on how to clean up particular problems. But to me, the most valuable part of the book is its first fifty pages.
Fowler starts the book with a simple, but ugly, example, that he proceeds to refactor, step-by-step, into something rather elegant. If you like to learn principles first, you might want to read the second chapter before going through the example, but I found it a very valuable exercise. I recommend coding the example in your language of choice, then refactoring along with Fowler as you work through the example.
There is a temptation to relegate refactoring, like testing, to simply another development technique. But like testing, refactoring is at the core of a development philosophy: "I know I'm not going to get it right on my first pass, so I'll be satisfied with making it as right as I can. Having done that, I'll have a much better idea how to make it better, and I will. But time's a' wasting, so I need to get moving."
This philosophy of continuous improvement allows the developer to get into action fairly quickly, and it reduces the risk of failure-by-delay. Fowler's book is a top-notch resource that will help the developer create more flexible code more quickly. I can recommend 'Refactoring' without reservation.
5.0 out of 5 stars An Inhibited Programmer is often a Less Productive One,
By A Customer
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
This book is a classic, it changes the way you think about programming.
If you are two or three years into your programming career, you have probably had the urge to take a project and redesign it from scratch. You may have said to yourself "if only I had known about x methodology or y framework, this code could have been a lot cleaner." Sometimes these experiences can amplify a programmer's inhibitions. An inhibited programmer is often a less productive one.
Refactoring eases a programmer's inhibitions in two ways. First, it shows why there is no need to create a PERFECT design up front. If better ideas emerge later, they can be integrated safely and securely. Second, the book provides methods for changing existing code using step-by-step "recipes" for dozens of refactoring scenarios. These recipes guide you through the tasks in such a manner that all possible holes exposed along the way are protected.
Another small gem of this book is a guide for identifying "code smells". Code smells are pieces of code that compile, test and run correctly but nonetheless look bad or ugly. The section on code smells help you pinpoint what is ugly about it. As they say, "a well-stated problem is a half solved one".
After reading this book you will finally understand the XP edict "Refactor early and often".
4.0 out of 5 stars Refactoring: Why and How,
Ray Ye (Dallas, Tx) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
Before I read this book, when someone mentioned refactoring, I would imagine it would be either "code cleanup", e.g., refactoring out the common behavior to the base class or a subroutine or "total redesign", e.g., breaking up current architecture, all these two can be avoided and unnecessary if we analyze the problem right, abstract the model right, architect the application right, design and code right.
I am a bigot of OO technology, design patterns, iterative software develop process from analysis, architure, design, construction to testing, and I know to get all the above things "right" would be very hard if not impossible at all. But that is what our designers and developers' job, facing the challenge right? So how is refactoring going to affect us as designers and develoers?
The first chaper(example) is particular interesting and attractive to me, as it just pointed out some signs of "evilness" in the design, e.g., a lot of tag/case for runtime type checking, responsibility was assigned to the wrong class, inaccurate/insufficient abstraction. Actually, it is this chapter which made me decide to get the book and see how the author would correct these problems. Mr. Fowler did excellent job on this topic.
Most Software developers may not have the luxuery to always work on the new project from start, we may inherit legacy codes which was not designed to solve today's problem, even an initial good design could go decayed, be it lack of documentation, insufficient of communication, different levels within the develop team, etc. Now with this book, we can take a breath and start refactoring the existing design/code to make it solve today's requirement, to even make it extensible for tommorrow's change. Initial design is no longer a huge burden, as it can be refactored, extended to fit the unseenable things when it was made.
The only thing in this book that annoys me is the verbosity of the refactoring steps in each chapter. It exposed to much details. I think the text decription and UML notation would be enough for any experienced developers to see the design problems and how to correct them. All those steps would only serve the needs for refactoring tools developers. But even with all the details, it is a "light" reading :-)
5.0 out of 5 stars Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code,
Christopher Taylor "aspmatrix" (Gilbert, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (Hardcover)
A little while back I was introduced to a word I had never heard before, Refactoring. I was told to
get Martin Fowler's book and read it so I could gain a better understanding of what Refactoring
was. Well folks, I would classify this book as a 'Hidden Treasure'.
Although it is not a flashy or well known title, I believe its impact can be much deeper and long
lasting than many of the mainstream, more popular technology books. The underlying theories
that it teaches can be applied for years, even when languages change.
There are only a couple of things I would change about this book, which I will mention below.
The Preface it brief enough, and gives the definition for the word Refactoring. This is a good thing
because right form the start you get the true definition of Refactoring. In short, refactoring is the
process of changing code to improve the internal structure, but not changing the external
Chapter 1: Refactoring, a First Example
In this chapter Mr. Fowler tries to start by showing a simple Refactoring example. The problem is
that the chapter then goes on for 50+ pages. Mr. Fowler explains his reasons for doing this, but I
think that a simple example should have been much simpler. Especially when it is in the first
chapter of the book. It's not that this isn't a good chapter. I feel it's just too soon in the book. I
would have put it at the end.
Chapter 2: Principles of Refactoring
This is an excellent chapter. The definition of Refactoring is discussed as well as the following
questions: Why should you refactor? When should you refactor? What do I tell my manager? This
last question may seem funny, but when you read this chapter you will understand why it is in
there. This chapter also discusses common problems that occur during Refactoring, and
Refactoring and performance.
Chapter 3: Bad Smells in Code
In this chapter things that cause code to 'smell' are discussed. When code 'smells' it could be an
indicator that refactoring is needed. 22 different 'smells' are discussed. My favorites were
Duplicated Code, Large Class, and Lazy Class. This is a chapter full of awesome hints.
Chapter 4: Building Tests
Building tests is an important part refactoring. Refactoring is done in small steps, and after every
step you should test. In this chapter the discussion covers the processes and methodology of
applying tests during refactoring.
Chapter 5: Toward a Catalog of Refactorings
This chapter is a quick setup for chapters 6 to 12. Mr. Fowler explains his method for cataloging
the individual refactorings. What is pretty amazing is that he has taken a lot of time naming and
detailing each refactoring.
Chapter 6: Composing Methods
One of my favorite chapters. Mr. Fowler opens by saying, "A large part of my refactoring is
composing methods to package code properly." This chapter is all about that. 9 total refactorings
are explained. My favorite ones are Inline Method and Extract Method.
Chapter 7: Moving Features Between Objects
Sometimes you need to move things from one object to another. This chapter discusses the art of
moving features between objects. 8 total refactorings are discussed and detailed. My favorite
from this chapter is Extract Class.
Chapter 8: Organizing Data
A very large chapter that discusses in meticulous detail 16 refactorings that will make it much
easier to work with data. One thing that becomes very obvious in this chapter is that certain
refactorings can go either way. What I mean is illustrated by these two: Change Value to
Reference and Change Reference to Value. So some refactorings are not just one way deals. It
just depends on the situation.
Chapter 9: Simplifying Conditional Expressions
This is a very useful chapter since conditional logic is a common occurrence in the programming
world. Because conditional logic has a tendency to get very complex, this chapter has 8
refactorings that will help you simplify things.
Chapter 10: Making Method Calls Simpler
The 15 refactorings in this chapter help teach us how to make method calls easier to deal with.
They range from the very simple Rename Method to the more complex Replace Constructor with
Factory Method.
Chapter 11: Dealing with Generalization
Here are 12 refactorings dealing with the situations that arise from generalization. Inheritance,
Delegation, and Interfaces are some of the topics discussed.
Chapter 12: Big Refactorings
Kent Beck co-wrote this chapter with Mr. Fowler. They discuss what they call the 4 Big
Refactorings: Tease Apart Inheritance, Convert Procedural Design to Objects, Separate Domain
from Presentation, and Extract Hierarchy. These refactorings are of a more all-encompassing
type than the smaller individual refactorings from the preceding chapters. The co-authors do a
great job at putting in a nutshell what would normally take very long explanations.
Chapter 13: Refactoring, Reuse, and Reality
William Opdyke writes this chapter. He discusses his experiences with refactoring as well as
other subjects like why developers are reluctant to refactor and reducing the overhead of
refactoring. This chapter is an excellent 'putting it all together' chapter, and really helps put into
perspective the ideas that the book teaches.
Chapter 14: Refactoring Tools
Don Roberts and John Brant co-author this chapter. They discuss, as the chapter title would
indicate, refactoring tools.
Chapter 15: Putting It All Together
Kent Beck gives a quick 4-page wrap up.
One other thing I would change about the book is that I would want there to be examples in other
languages besides Java. I have practically no Java skills. For me the book would have been an
easier and faster read if it would have had examples in VB.net. Fortunately I understand enough
to get the idea of what is being taught, and that is the most important point.
Well as I said above, this book is really what I would consider a 'hidden treasure'. The things
discussed will help many people write better, more understandable code for years to come. I
would give it a 9.5 out of 10. It is well worth the {price}
Most Helpful First | Newest First
Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Don Roberts (Hardcover - June 28 1999)
In Stock


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Muslim Perspectives
This blog intends to open windows into the Muslim mind that is cordoned off the mainstream society, to develop communication, understanding, and better relations, especially in the Northwest. It will cast light onto Muslim perspectives on issues ranging from doctrinal to sociopolitical and more.
Yearly Archive for 2010
Imam Rauf's CNN interview about Park51
An insightful interview of Imam Rauf by CNN, and a brief overview of the controversy against the mosque despite positive contributions by US Muslims. [Read More]
Redstate's use of Army's exception to target Muslims
An article published by a conservative blog cites Army's exception on uniform policy for a Sikh to launch a tirade against Muslims. [Read More]
So, who is Allah after all?
The word "Allah" predates Islam. This article discusses the meaning of the word, and its use by non-Muslims. [Read More]
Joining the University of Washington
A number of things have kept me busy over the last few months, and so I return to writing after a while. The biggest news I have is that I am joining University of Washington as a graduate student this fall in its Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department. I will be majoring in Arabic and Islamic Studies – the subject I have been passionate about for the last ten years. My matriculation in this program provides me with an invaluable opportunity to learn it formally with some of the renowned … [Read More]
Event on radicalization among Muslim Americans
Join an event organized by the Muslim Sudents of Social Work at the University of Washington on radicalization among Muslim Americans on Wednesday January 27. [Read More]
Show More


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so classes are all prepared and at last I am free to create for myself again.
Here is the 6 x 6 page I finished tonight for the Deco swap on UKS. It is very difficult to get the camera to pick up the detail but needless to say it took a lot more work than it looks.
The base is cream linen card coloured using Tattered Angels Autumn Leaves Glimmer Mist and dabbed with a piece of kitchen roll. (You can see the circular marks it left which gave me my background.
Next the wording on the left was stamped in red stazon.
On the right I stamped the Buddha using The essential Glue pad and then laid gold leaf over the top. I put a piece of paper on top of the gold leaf,pressed firmly and then used a stencil brush to remove any unused leaf.
The same technique was used for the dragonfly on the red card which was then backed on a piece of black card and sewn to the page with gold thread.
I finished off the piece with a dragon coin suspended by twisted gold wire.
The maple leaves were cut from some paper I had and decorated with a Gold Dabber.
Here are the 3 rejected backgrounds which I can adapt for another project in the future.
I really enjoyed doing it. Hope you like it.
I'm hanging Up My Scissors….
10 months ago


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Get Great Abs Right Away
wayne 65 Views
Getting back in shape and dropping excess fat has become a pipe dream of a large number of people for years. It really is more frequent right now because the photographs beaming in from Hollywood display paper thin performers and top models. Even nearly all glossy catalogues show wafer thin young ladies on the covers. […]
Full Description
But let's suppose there was a means to shed fat and build muscles causing you to be healthy and fit. Would you at least think about looking at it? I'm sure you would. Physical fitness that will provide you with 6 pack abs that are awesome.
You will find two to three elements to getting to this level and the 1st I'll mention is diet. Your diet plan must be stringent and disciplined to accomplish six pack abs. Reduced carb and increased protein is the way to go. It is likely you have no doubt about what is proper and completely wrong in terms of what you can eat. Be intelligent and only choose foods to guide you. The following is an interesting article about it.
Mind-set is the vital thing. You've got to be continuously thinking about the best way to improve, get healthier, more ripped. Do not let weaknesses to creep into your life that can derail your goals. I read about the best method for this here.
All in all now that we know that for getting ripped, toned and bulging you must have the best mindset, take in the suitable food items and exercise to keep fit. Make it happen and pretty soon you'll be the envy of everybody down by the pool this summer time.
Other articles you might like;


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boboff wrote:Oh and just for MMM, (thanks)
SusieGee wrote:Milims wrote:I had a massive cook yesterday so I have tea pretty much done for the next week and a half! Tonight is tamale pie, tomorrow night is shepherds pie, then it's sausage made with black pudding and corriander with mash. After that we have a very large gammon and some lentil soup to go thru - Oooohhhh I love "tumble down" cooking!
OK I give in what's tamale pie please
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For Immediate Release
Contact: Deborah Gilleran
Lakewood, N.J., May 30, 2008—Join Georgian Court University for a trip to see A Catered Affair on Saturday, June 28, at 2:00 p.m. You can leave the transportation details to GCU, as round-trip bus transportation is included to the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City from either the GCU campus in Lakewood or the Garden State Parkway Cheesequake rest area.
Tickets are $130 per person, which includes orchestra seating, round-trip transportation, and snacks. The bus leaves GCU's Seventh Street Gate at 10:00 a.m. and the GSP Cheesequake rest area between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. Lunch is on your own in the city. For further information and tickets, please contact the Office of Conferences and Special Events at 732.987.2263 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
About A Catered AffairThis new musical, written by and starring four-time Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein, explores the meaning of family and the need for love. Set in the Bronx in 1953, A Catered Affair reveals relationships strained to their limits when a couple must decide whether to spend their life savings on a family business or to launch their only daughter's marriage with a lavish catered affair—the grand wedding they never had. Harvey Fierstein's book and John Bucchino's score explore the meaning of family and the need for love, both new and reawakened.
Fierstein also stars alongside a cast of musical pros including Tony-winner Faith Prince and Tony-nominee Tom Wopat as the struggling parents. Based on The Catered Affair, a 1956 movie written by Gore Vidal from an original teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky, this funny, heartwarming new musical is uplifting for audiences of all ages.
Founded in 1908 and sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, Georgian Court University is a comprehensive university with a strong liberal arts core and a special concern for women. A forward-thinking university that supports diversity and academic excellence, Georgian Court serves over 3,000 students of all faiths and backgrounds in a residential Women's College and a coeducational University College with undergraduate and graduate programs. Georgian Court's main campus is located at 900 Lakewood Avenue, Lakewood, N.J., on the picturesque former George Jay Gould estate, now named a National Historic Landmark. Georgian Court also offers classes at its site at 90 Woodbridge Center Drive in Woodbridge, at Coastal Communiversity in Wall, and at Cumberland County College in Vineland.
# # #
Tuesday, Aug 4Graduate Information Sessions
Wednesday, Aug 12Summer Visit Days
Monday – Friday and selected Saturdays throughout the year
Campus Tours


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Southwest Airlines
7115 West North Avenue
Apartment 226
Oak Park, United States. 60302
(773) 745-3981
|(773) 284-4970
About Southwest Airlines
Southwest is the United States' most successful low-fare, high frequency, point-to-point carrier. Southwest operates more than 3,200 flights a day coast-to-coast.
It should go without saying that corporations want and need to make money. Profits provide job security for Employees, growth for current and new Customers, and returns for investors. Southwest Airlines needs to make a profit so that our Employees can prosper, and so you can have frequent flights at low fares.
However, I'm firmly convinced that there is a right way to be profitable, and it involves good citizenship on the part of a Company and its Employees. In fact, I'll go one step further and say that true, sustained, year-over-year profits are only attainable if a Company is a good citizen.


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We have written many posts about the MIQE real time PCR standards that are basic requirements for anyone engaged in real time PCR experimets. Now there is a new tool for all ipod/iphone users to add to their arsenal. A MIQE qPCR app!
The MIQE app helps scientitst review scientific work and check their own project's MIQE compliance. Plus, the app includes a list of the most current qPCR news and events and "emergency" contact numbers that you can call/email should you have any questions about your qPCR experiments.
The application was developed by Dr. Afif Abdel Nour, Associate Professor in Nutrigenomics at LaSalle Beauvais, in collaboration with Dr. Michael Pfaffl and was sponsored by Bio-Rad Laboratories .


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A memorial built with sacrifices
At the Feb. 23 council meeting, some City Council member proclaimed their respect for veterans while at the same time voting for demolition of Memorial Coliseum. These council members tried to justify their demolition vote by promising that a "new" veterans memorial would be built to take the place of the Coliseum. A replacement memorial is akin to having a wooden leg — perhaps serviceable, but not authentic.
Seventy years ago, in 1939, the seawall was being constructed, adding 19 new city blocks to the bayfront. On April 13 of that year, Mayor A.C. McCaughan used his inaugural address to announce that plans were in the works for construction of a municipal auditorium on the bayfront. He said, "We are now digging up the bottom of the bay to provide a site for an auditorium and I hope that in the not too distant future we will be able to submit a proposal to the people of Corpus Christi."
With the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II, Corpus Christi's plans for an auditorium were put on hold until after the war.
In 1947, the Chamber of Commerce Civic Affairs Committee began promoting a proposal for a public auditorium that would be dedicated to the World War II war heroes. The local chapter of the Gold Star Mothers, a nonpolitical group of women who had lost children in military service, was very active in Corpus Christi at that time and had been influential since the 1920s. The group obtained a promise from council members that the new auditorium would be dedicated as a memorial to the 400 war casualties from Nueces County. With this strong community sentiment and the support of the city's business leaders, dedicating the building as a memorial became an integral part of the auditorium project.
As the building neared completion in early August 1954, city officials met with representatives of the Gold Star Mothers to plan for the dedication of Memorial Auditorium. They decided to hold the ceremony during the state convention of the Gold Star Mothers of Texas which was slated to be held in Corpus Christi on September 24-26.
Memorial Auditorium was dedicated on Sept. 26, 1954. The Caller-Times article describing the program said: "Memorial Auditorium will be dedicated in ceremonies to be held at the auditorium at 4:30 p.m. today. The dedication will climax a three-day convention here of the Gold Star Mothers, who will unveil a memorial plaque bearing the names of 400 Nueces County men and women who died in World War II. . . . At 3:40 p.m., a Navy plane will drop a wreath in the bay in front of the auditorium in memory of the World War II dead."
Demolishing a memorial that was built by the Greatest Generation to honor their peers who died for our country cannot be glossed over by promising a "new" memorial.
Memorial Coliseum was built not only with steel and brick, but also with the sacrifices, the tears and the heartbreak of that era. No "new" memorial will ever have the same emotional impact nor will it make up for demolishing Memorial Coliseum. A wooden leg is never a replacement for the original.
Carol Wood is a Corpus Christi resident with a longtime interest in history and architecture.
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MORGAN COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) – Students in Morgan County were minding their P's and Q's, and all the other letters Wednesday morning.
WHNT News 19's Carson Clark served as the word caller for the Union Hill School Spelling Bee.
Students in the second through eighth grades participated, and fourth grader Lucky Royster spelled the winning word, 'lanai'. Way to go, Lucky!
In case you're wondering what 'lanai' means – we were too – so we looked it up. It's a veranda or roofed patio. Or, the capitalized form of the word, Lanai, is one of the Hawaiian islands.


text: The telling problem is the "no CERT subject match the ID" message, all the other messages follows from this one. isakmpd tries to find subjectName and subjectAltName from the certificate and then matches these against the expected value (for FQDNs, this is the name, i.e "xyz.qobra.com"). Most likely this is due to the SafeNet client not encoding the certificate in a way that isakmpd can properly decode (yet). We saw the same with PGPnet. The reason there is not error when you put the certificate manually into certs/ is that the OpenSSL parts of isakmpd will then use it directly. I guess you get some other errors in this case..? (Otherwise, the VPN should really have been setup by this...) It could be helpful with some more information. For example, if you could provide debug output from the isakmpd side ('isakmpd -d -DA=99 -D1=70' is usually good), the interesting parts are, say, the two hundred or so lines up to the "no CERT subject match the OD" and twenty or so lines afterwards. Another thing that would help is to use the '-l' flag to isakmpd to have it capture the packets in the IKE session. They are captured un/de-crypted so they can be read by tcpdump etc. The default capture file name is /var/run/isakmpd.pcap, and this is only available with an isakmpd from the 2.9 tree or (since yesterday) 2.8-STABLE. (If you capture the session, the "best" way to view it is with something like 'tcpdump -nvs1500 -r /var/run/isakmpd.pcap'.) /H PS. In your policy file, I'd make a slight modification while testing. (look below) On Wed, 9 May 2001, Jack Xiao wrote: > Hi All, > > I want to set up VPN with isakmpd and x509 certificate between one > host(bigbox.qobra.com) and the other SafeNet client(ire.qobra.com). I followed > the step in Readme.pki. After creating CA and certificates on OpenBSD 2.8. I > copied bigbox.qobra.com.crt to /etc/isakmpd/certs/, bigbox.qobra.com.key to > /etc/isakmpd/private/ and ca.crt to /etc/isakmpd/ca/ on host. I moved > ire.qobra.com.p12 and ca.crt on SafeNet client. > > When I run isakmpd on host and ping from client, the following error comes. > > Default rsa_sig_decode_hash: no CERT subject match the ID > Default rsa_sig_decode_hash: no public key found > Default dropped message from 188.8.131.52 port 500 due to notification type > INVALID_ID_INFORMATION > > After I copied ire.qobra.com.crt to bigbox.qobra.com /etc/isakmpd/certs/, > there is no error. But VPN doesn't set up. I tried, tried and tried. But I can > get it work. Who can give me help or some hint? Thanks a lot!!! > > By the way, without x509 certificate, VPN can be set up successfully with > preshared key. > ... > KeyNote-Version: 2 > Comment: This policy accepts ESP SAs from a remote that uses the right > password > Authorizer: "POLICY" Try to leave this line out while you test the VPN functionality: > Licensees: "DN:/CN=key.qobra.com" > Conditions: app_domain == "IPsec policy" && > esp_present == "yes" && > esp_enc_alg != "null" -> "true"; -- Hĺkan Olsson <email@example.com> (+46) 708 437 337 Carlstedt Research Unix, Networking, Security (+46) 31 701 4264 & Technology AB


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Masters Degree in Business Administration
A Masters Degree in Business or Business Administration is one of the most sought after degrees for individuals seeking to improve their business skills and increase their salary. The program, often referred to as an MBA, provides a comprehensive business education building on the basic lessons taught at the bachelor's level, expanding on business, management and accounting skills.
A masters degree in business administration may also be referred to as simply a business masters degree, depending on the institution. Either of these provides an in-depth but broad based education in micro and macro economics, finance, the psychology and sociology of business operations and leadership skills.
The ultimate goal of a business masters degree program is to install outstanding leadership and diagnostic skills in order to maximize the potential of a company in both profitability and customer satisfaction. Critical thinking, innovation, an entrepreneurial attitude and corporate communication are all part of the typical masters degree in business administration.
What Will You Learn in a Masters of Business Program?
In addition to the various finance and accounting programs mentioned earlier, a student pursuing an MBA will also learn details of international law, business ethics, executive management, supply chain management, operations and internet technology. The end result is an exceptionally well-rounded individual who is aware of the ins and outs of all aspects of corporate operations from the day-to-day requirements through the "big picture" need to project long term profit and loss goals and develop comprehensive growth strategies.
You'll be able to analyze and track data and predict market trends based on current business models and theoretical business management profiles. The first year of studying for a master in business will focus on classroom studies, usually taught by business leaders and successful entrepreneurs. The second year of a typical master of business administration program focuses on an independent study that will demand rigorous research, analysis and integration of multiple disciplines in order to produce a report or presentation geared toward demonstrating executive leadership skills.
Why is the Master Degree in Business So Popular?
The education you get in a master of business administration degree program is extremely comprehensive and is widely sought because it is appropriate to just about any of today's industries. You don't have to narrow yourself down to a particular field or body of knowledge to learn valuable skills that will transfer to any company you work for. It is truly one of the most versatile degrees available because it is so cross-disciplinary in nature.
For those who are already in the work force, a Masters Degree in business also affords the opportunity to increase their income by as much as fifty percent in only a few years. Many individuals pursue an online master of business administration that is tailored to the working business executive while working full time so that they can offer their employer additional skills at the end of their studies.
You also benefit from networking with other masters in business students who are entrepreneurs, business leaders and managers, giving you the opportunity to form valuable associations you can put to good use after graduation. The many friendships you form while pursuing an MBA can be valuable for years after graduation.
Click here to view master degrees in Business Administration


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Contact: Kristina Johnson
Senate Passes Historic Protection for Wilderness, Rivers, Parks
The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 passed 73-21. The bill protects more than two million acres of wilderness in eight states, including the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, Oregon's Mt. Hood, and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.
"This is the biggest wilderness protection bill in decades," said Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope. "Through their leadership on this bill, Senator Reid and Senator Bingaman have helped ensure that we will have a wild legacy to pass on to our children and grandchildren. Now future generations will be able to hike in pristine forests from California to West Virginia. They'll be able to fish America's untouched rivers, watch antelope migrate through Wyoming, and enjoy the majesty of treasures like Rocky Mountain National Park."
In addition to protecting new wilderness, the lands package codifies the 26-million-acre National Landscape Conservation System, protects hundreds of miles of free-flowing rivers in six states, and designates numerous new National Scenic Trails, Natural Historic Sites, and, National Heritage Areas across the United States. It also protects over a million acres of key hunting and fishing grounds on the Wyoming Range from oil and gas drilling.
"Wilderness, rivers, trails and parks support important tourist economies across the country," said Pope. "This legislation will protect the tourist dollars and jobs that outdoor recreation generates by keeping our last, best places safe from unchecked industrial development."
Overview of the Omnibus Lands Package:
-The bill codifies and adds permanence to the National Landscape Conservation System, which includes all of the Clinton/Babbitt-era national monuments, wilderness study areas, and other protective designations, encompassing more than 26 million acres.
-The bill will protect more than 1 million acres of the Wyoming Range from oil and gas development.
-The bill also includes the Forest Landscape Restoration Act and the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act.
-The package includes five important ocean protections:
1. NOAA Undersea Research Program Act
-Wilderness Protection includes:
1. Wild Monongahela Wilderness - WV


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The Star-Ledger NewsLocal NJ politics, crime & Statehouse coverage from The Star-Ledger
A damaged brain drives a man to obsessively create art.
Learn about Jon Sarkin by viewing the story, photos and video.
Latest user-submitted photos:
- Share the videos you've shot - it's easy!
Please go to http://www.nj.com/starledger/index.ssf?topstories for top daily news and update your bookmarks.
AIDS doctor saves the children, one at a time
A powerful respirator pushes air through the lungs of a 4-month-old baby girl with AIDS-related pneumonia.
Down the hallway at University Hospital in Newark, an 8-year-old child gets medication to lower her high HIV levels.
And nearby, a teenager with AIDS watches the intravenous drip that treats a new infection.
For these children and their doctor, James Oleske, the pediatric AIDS epidemic in America is not a distant memory, but a constant presence.
Twenty-five years after the epidemic's first warning, Oleske � one of the world's first pediatric AIDS doctors � remains deeply involved in HIV research and treatment. The professor at the New Jersey Medical School still follows 300 patients with the disease. Many of them are now teenagers and young adults.
Oleske was among the first to challenge assumptions that AIDS could infect only gay men and intravenous drug users. His groundbreaking 1983 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association convinced a skeptical medical establishment that children also could contract the deadly disease.
"If you talk about the handful of people who early on had the foresight to see that this was indeed an important pediatric problem, Dr. Oleske's name has to be among them," says Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
Oleske, who has a teddy-bear face and unassuming demeanor, recounts the early days of AIDS like it all happened yesterday. Pictures of patients, some of them now dead, fill his office, along with honors and awards.
But his most prized memento is Old Fred, a stuffed rabbit. Years ago, a little boy with AIDS told Oleske he thought he would die that night. Would Oleske look after his favorite stuffed rabbit? Oleske took the toy but reassured the boy that he was not going anywhere.
That night, Oleske's home telephone rang at 3 a.m. The little boy was dead. The next morning, Oleske found the bunny in the pocket of his lab coat � a humbling reminder, he said, that children know about death and "you have to stop and listen to them."
Oleske, now 61, has kept Old Fred ever since.
Soon other children come to him with enlarged spleens, obscure types of pneumonia or rare infections, their immune systems barely functioning.
Because inherited immune disorders are extremely rare, Oleske can't fathom the sudden emergence of severe immune dysfunction in two, then six and then a dozen children.
I am seeing all these kids here in Newark. Why? Then adults with this immune dysfunction start piling up and my colleagues ask me to do more and more tests in my immunology lab on adults. And we're seeing kids with these strange immune deficiencies. I'm thinking, is this inherited? Are they candidates for bone marrow transplants? But these kids had lots of immunoglobulin, so this was atypical of anything we saw in immunology.
As times passes, Oleske watches a great human plague unfold. In 1981, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control issues an alert about five gay men in Los Angeles with pneumocystis pneumonia. No one knows what is causing the immune dysfunction, or links this new disorder to children, certainly not to those children in Newark.
Then drug users begin showing signs of the disease. Leon Smith, an infectious disease physician at Saint Michael's, asks Oleske to draw blood from one IV drug user. As a pediatrician, Oleske is good with small veins, and IV drug users usually have bad veins.
I'm drawing blood from this guy and he says to me, �Dr. Oleske? You don't recognize me, do you?' I said, �No, I'm sorry I don't.' He says, �Don't you remember my little girl who died of that strange pneumonia that you couldn't understand?' This man is wasting away. I take the blood immediately to my laboratory and see he has no T-cells. Clearly he has this disease. And the eight or nine children who have this disease we can't explain must have it, too. It was like a bolt of lightning.
Oleske and his colleagues embark on an investigation into the lives of these pediatric patients. Eventually they see a disease, like syphilis, that can be sexually transmitted and also passed on to babies by their pregnant mothers.
By the time Oleske's journal article comes out in 1983, he and his team are treating 40 to 50 children. They find creative ways to help children suffering from a disease with no history, and no real treatments. Despite their efforts, many of these children die.
One devoted foster mother whose child dies gives Oleske a poem about an old man who chides a younger man for trying to save starfish that have washed ashore. He says the man can make no difference to the thousands of beached starfish. Then the young man throws one starfish into the sea. "It made a difference to this one," he says.
I told our team we must take as good care as we can of the one child in front of us. If you look up and see everyone dying you give up. We were all part of a team. I was not the doctor making all the decisions. I didn't know how to express my grief. I decided to go to funerals. Eventually, I almost had my own parking space at Perry's (Funeral Home in Newark.) I wanted to show respect for the families and show how we cared for the children.
In these early days, Oleske sends blood samples to Robert C. Gallo, one of two researchers who, in 1983, discovers that HIV is the virus that causes AIDS. "I am indebted to him for his wonderful collaboration, without which we could not have learned what we know about pediatric AIDS," Gallo said recently. After a test is available, Oleske checks out the blood of the first girl he treated in 1978. It's positive for HIV.
The staff of the pediatric AIDS program become especially close to one child named Cynthia. She lives beyond expectations, giving the staff hope that they can make a difference. Then she dies. Everyone is devastated. Later, Oleske is asked to speak to the children at Cynthia's church, a cramped little building located near a burned-out bar on a street littered with abandoned cars.
Inside are 20 children and 15 adults around an open kerosene heater. A woman named Sister Evelyn said, �Can the children ask you questions?' I said, �Can I give honest answers?' She says yes. The children wanted to know why Cynthia died and if she suffered. I said she did not suffer. One adult wanted to know if the U.S. Army created AIDS to kill black people. I said it was too hard to create this virus, but the genocide would be if we don't treat people. Two hours zip by. Sister Evelyn said they didn't have anything to give me but a blessing. A little girl pulls out an old La Choy soy sauce bottle with the label removed. She puts oil on my head and the children sing a song. I felt blessed for the first time in my life.
But the worst is still to come as the UMDNJ-Pediatric AIDS program, which moves to United Children's Hospital in Newark and then to University Hospital, experiences its highest death toll ever. The year is 1995.
Thirty-five children die. A year-end memorial service is held at a Baptist church in downtown Newark. A local high school choir is asked to sing.
What we didn't anticipate is that most of the kids in the choir knew some of the children who died, and they could not continue singing. For this memorial service we just got together at the altar � the children, the families and the people in our program � and we had a good cry. Imagine losing 35 children in one year?
Slowly, the doctors and nurses get new tools to help the children. The drug AZT can help people with the disease and, as important, it can prevent HIV transmission from pregnant women to their babies. The drug is tested for the first time on a woman at UMDNJ. Her baby is born healthy and free of HIV. A remarkable drop in the number of new babies born with HIV follows.
Last year, six New Jersey children were born infected.
That's still six too many for Oleske, who complains that 10 percent of the women who deliver babies at University Hospital have had no prenatal care. He complains that charities and government agencies have scaled back or canceled programs for pediatric AIDS.
He knows the number of new pediatric AIDS cases has fallen dramatically. To Oleske, that's no excuse. Children still need help and new treatments.
The outspoken doctor has even criticized his own employer, UMDNJ, and in 2004 he sued the university for breach of contract and back pay in a case settled out of court.
"Sometimes people who are very passionate don't play the political games," said Robert Johnson, acting dean of the New Jersey Medical School.
"But I don't think Jim's outspokenness is thought of in a negative way. He has accomplished an enormous amount. In terms of papers and grants he is one of our most productive faculty. He could sit back now and do nothing and instead he does things all over the world."
For Johnson, the big fear is that Oleske's story will be forgotten by a new generation of doctors.
"Every time I get the chance to tell it I do, even if it embarrasses Jim," Johnson said.
Oleske is a rainmaker for the university and during his career he estimates that he has generated more than $70 million in research grants. A French countess impressed with Oleske's work donated $2.25 million to what is now the UMDNJ-Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center, named after her son killed in a helicopter crash in Africa.
Oleske now trains young AIDS doctors who return to their homelands to treat children, and he has traveled to Uganda, South Africa, Russia, India and other countries. He works with groups such as the Children Affected By Aids Foundation.
"They have not forgotten the domestic agenda," Oleske says of the Los Angeles-based organization.
Science can still learn from his earliest patients, including the first girl he treated in 1978. She was born in 1973 and Oleske believes she was the first documented case of AIDS in the world.
He recently took tissue samples obtained from her autopsy to a Canadian laboratory for analysis with the latest virus technology. The goal is to learn how the virus has changed. Oleske hand-delivered the samples.
"They're precious," he says.
The doctor still dreams of additional testing for a therapeutic vaccine he developed. The vaccine marshals the immune system to battle AIDS in people already infected with the virus, but it doesn't prevent infection. He tested his vaccine in a dozen children with AIDS back when few options existed. He believes it helped them, but he has not had additional funding. It remains one of his great research disappointments.
But he still has his starfish.
One baby he cared for 25 years ago beat the odds and lived to see the days of new drugs that are turning AIDS into a chronic illness instead of a deadly one. The young woman recently graduated medical school and will, fittingly, begin her residency in pediatrics.
Carol Ann Campbell covers medicine. She may be reached at (973) 392-4148 or email@example.com
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(NBC News) Thousands lined up Monday night for the midnight release of "Call of Duty: Ghosts", the latest entry in the popular "Call of Duty" video game series.
The franchise has been a top seller in recent years, and "Ghost" is just the latest highly anticipated release in what has already been a banner year for the video gaming industry.
"Grand Theft Auto V" racked up more than a billion dollars in sales in just three days when it was released in September.
"According to some metrics, 'Grand Theft Auto 5' made more money in less amount of time than anything in the history of pop culture," notes Entertainment Weekly's Darren Franich.
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For anyone who's interested, I've posted a trip report of our New Year's Eve spent at Disneyland. A full day (from park opening to park closing) and a little time spent on New Year's Day as well. New Year's Eve is cloudy, windy and rainy at times, but as in all Disney stories, the tale ends happily ever after. Also includes pictures of new Valentine's Day merchandise, and horses can celebrate birthdays too!
Here's the link: http://www.colddeadfish.net/dlr/dlr123105tr.html.