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|This is the article on the genin from Sunagakure. For the Academy student from Konohagakure, head to Matsuri.
|editMatsuri [1]
|マツリ Matsuri
|Volume #31, Naruto Chapter #280
|Naruto Episode #216
|Naruto Shippūden the Movie: The Will of Fire
|Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 4
|Appears in
|Anime, Manga, Game, Movie
|Voice Actors
|Ninja Rank
Matsuri (マツリ, Matsuri) is a genin-level kunoichi from Sunagakure.
In the anime, Matsuri is shown in more depth. She was initially a shy and very soft-spoken girl, but becomes braver and more outspoken under Gaara's tutelage. She remains polite to others, using the proper honourifics. While Matsuri is reluctant to use weapons in Part I, she has fewer inhibitions by the start of Part II; she will use weapons to protect her comrades and Sunagakure's reputation, but will avoid causing harm to others.
In the manga, Matsuri is shown simply as a reverent admirer of Gaara or any other powerful ninja. It is also hinted that she has romantic interests in Gaara.[1] This is also shown in her quickness to compliment him and insult others who suggest he could be defeated.[2]
Matsuri has medium length brown hair, dark eyes and fair skin. In Part I, she wore a blue-green blouse that hung off her left shoulder, a white and pink sleeveless shirt underneath, a short yellow scarf tied around her neck and a black short skirt. She also wore long, thigh-high stockings, brown sandals and black gloves with a grey elbow-length arm guard on her right arm.
In Part II, she wears a dark shirt with skirt of the same colour, a Sunagakure flak jacket and a black forehead protector where her scarf was. She still wears black gloves and stockings but now wears two arm-guards instead of one.
In the anime, she learned to use the jōhyō, a weapon mainly used to keep the enemy away with the short dart attached to a long rope. She was also chosen to fight in the Fourth Division of the Allied Shinobi Forces, although still being a genin. Matsuri appears to have some skill in Wind Release techniques, having joined other Wind Release users to battle the reicarnated Third Raikage. However, Temari states she isn't a long-distance user.[3]
Part I
Ultimate Weapon Arc
Matsuri débuted in the final arc of the anime. She was a student of Suna's new ninja academy. At the beginning of the weapon-handling lesson, Matsuri asked if weapons are just dangerous. While the class and the teachers pondered the question, Gaara replied suddenly with, "Your weapon is like…" and made Matsuri think that Gaara was trying to tell her something. Therefore she was the only person out of the entire class brave enough to choose Gaara to be her teacher. Gaara, sensing her hesitation and inhibitions, taught her how to use a Jōhyō, but she was fearful of it and other weapons because she had witnessed her parents' murders in the past. Gaara tried to tell her that weapons can be used to protect comrades, but Matsuri didn't understand him at first.
Later, the Four Celestial Symbols Men kidnapped Matsuri, because of her importance to Gaara, trying to lure him out, capture him, and steal the One-Tailed Shukaku's chakra stored within him. Gaara, his siblings, and the Konoha 11 (excluding Tenten) came to her aid, and fought her captors. After being freed, she saved Naruto from a fatal attack from Seimei using her Jōhyō, after finally realising that weapons can be used to protect comrades. After Seimei's defeat, she returned to Suna with Gaara, Kankurō, and Temari. But before she left, she asked Shikamaru to tell Naruto that he had made her understand what Gaara had been trying to tell her, and that she would continue to train as Gaara's student.
Part II
Kazekage Rescue Arc
In the anime, after Gaara is kidnapped by Akatsuki, Matsuri is assigned to a team led by Temari. When they start doing border patrol, Matsuri complains that they should be trying to rescue Gaara.
Later, in her first manga appearance, Matsuri is present when Gaara is revived. She becomes angry with Ittetsu when he voices his fears that Gaara had died. Matsuri and her best friend Sari then rush towards Gaara, pushing Naruto out of the way.[2]
Sasuke and Sai Arc
She made a cameo appearance in the anime, in which she appeared in Naruto's dream about peeping into a bathhouse where Sakura and other female characters from the series were gathered.[4]
Five Kage Summit Arc
Matsuri was seen in the crowd, next to Ebizō and Baki, telling Gaara to be careful as he left for the Kage Summit.
Shinobi World War Arc
In the anime, Matsuri is seen alongside Yukata and a few other Sunagakure shinobi, gushing over Gaara after he unites the troops with his speech.[5] Later, she is seen with Temari, Shikamaru, Chōji, and Yukata discussing about the topic of kekkei tōta. Soon, she is seen with Yukata, lending towels to Gaara, telling him that he must conserve his strength. However, to their dismay, he tells them to give them to Ōnoki instead. While they didn't know him, Ōnoki declares that he is the Tsuchikage, much to their surprise.[6]
The next day, the Fourth Division makes their move on the reincarnated Kage and Matsuri and Yukata join other Wind Release users in subduing the Third Raikage. Matsuri asks Temari their next move after Naruto could not damage the Raikage. Yukata asks who Naruto is and Matsuri explains he is the hero of Konoha who defeated the Akatsuki leader Pain. Annoyed with their discussions, Temari orders the two kunoichi to keep their distance.
- Matsuri's name can mean festival (祭) or Arabian jasmine (茉莉).
- A kunoichi resembling Matsuri made an appearance in Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja 4, walking around the Save point outside of Suna, although her shirt was red.
- In Naruto Shippūden 3: Inheritors of the Will of Fire, Matsuri appears in Gaara's thoughts along with several other villagers, including his siblings and Sari, when he thinks of the members of Suna, stating that his villagers lives now 'belong to him' and he considers it his duty to protect them.
- During the Shinobi World War Arc in the manga, Matsuri is not present among the Fourth Division as it is seemingly comprised of shinobi chūnin rank and above.


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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett won the Democratic primary Tuesday in Wisconsin's historic recall election, leaving him with a short four weeks to make the closing argument that Republican Gov. Scott Walker should be booted from office after 16 contentious months on the job.
Walker easily defeated token opposition in the GOP primary Tuesday, and Barrett's win set up a June 5 rematch of the 2010 governor's race.
It was an election that failed to hint at the turmoil to come. Once inaugurated, Walker almost immediately joined with Republicans who had also retaken control of the Legislature to strip most state workers of their collective bargaining rights. The move blindsided Walker's opponents, who proceeded to pack the state Capitol by the thousands for weeks of protest as Democratic lawmakers fled the state in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to block the newly minted governor's plans.
Walker emerged from the fight as a hero to Republicans nationwide, but a villain to unions and Democrats who responded by collecting more than 900,000 signatures to put Walker back on the ballot less than two years into his four-year term.
"We know that the real battle is ahead and it's really going to be a battle for the values of Wisconsin," Barrett told The Associated Press shortly after the race was called. "Our view is Scott Walker has done a lot of damage to the state and Wisconsin can't be fixed as long as Scott Walker is governor."
Walker planned to speak later Tuesday night.
Walker's deputy campaign manager Dan Blum issued a statement saying Barrett was about to enter his "third statewide losing campaign." Barrett also ran for governor in 2002 and lost in the Democratic primary.
"Rather than Tom Barrett's path of taking Wisconsin back to the days of billion-dollar deficits, double-digit tax increases and record job loss, we are confident that voters will choose to stand with Governor Walker and move Wisconsin forward," Blum said.
Carl Schramm, 77, a Whitefish Bay man who works part time for a plumbing and heating contractor voted for Walker in the primary.
"It should never have come to this crap," Schramm said. "It's stupid. It costs a lot of money. He was duly elected."
Based on preliminary results, Barrett got 55 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary. Former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who was the favored candidate of the unions that pushed the recall, came in second with 37 percent of the vote.
Union leaders said they were ready to quickly pivot and summon support for Barrett.
"I think we'll get just as much activism," said AFL-CIO national political director Mike Podhorzer. "This isn't about 'Are we for team A or team B,' this is about what workers need. And workers understand they are being hurt by Walker."
Barrett has had a rocky relationship with unions over the years and some Wisconsin union leaders urged him not to get into the recall race. He has promised to work toward restoring collective bargaining rights Walker took away, but he didn't go as far as Falk, who pledged to veto any state budget that didn't undo Walker's changes.
Still, numerous unions that had backed Falk — including the statewide teachers union and the largest state employee union — issued statements praising Barrett and pledging their support.
While the union fight spurred the recall, the campaign has been much broader and focused largely on Wisconsin's economy. Though the state's unemployment rate is at its lowest level since 2008, Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state between March 2011 and March 2012. Since Walker took office, only 5,900 private sector jobs have been created.
Jon Dzurak, a 55-year-old assistant principal in Milwaukee, said he initially was leaning toward Falk but decided to vote for Barrett because he was up in the polls and projected to fare better against Walker.
"Whichever one wins is going to get my vote," he said. "I just would like to see Scott Walker defeated. I've never seen a division in our state like this. I'm not talking to some of my friends right now because of it."
Other Democrats on the ballot finished far behind. State Sen. Kathleen Vinehout got 4 percent while Secretary of State Doug La Follette trailed with 3 percent. Gladys Huber, the fake Democrat, got less than 1 percent.
Walker easily defeated Arthur Kohl-Riggs, a Walker opponent running as a Republican.
The June 5 recall is one of the most closely watched elections in the nation outside of the presidential race. Walker has tapped his status as a national conservative rock star to raise $25 million so far, most of it from out of state, shattering fundraising records he set during the 2010 race.
Walker has embodied the Republican rise to power in 2010 and hopes to avoid becoming just the third governor to be recalled in U.S. history.
Barrett, 58, has been mayor of Milwaukee since 2004. He's popular in Wisconsin's largest, and mostly Democratic, city. He won re-election in April with 70 percent of the vote. Walker beat him by 5 percentage points, or about 125,000 votes, in November 2010.
Barrett previously served eight years in the state Legislature and 10 years in Congress.
(TM and © Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

subset: commoncrawl


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Early last week, my church suffered a lightning strike that did quite a bit of damage (relatively speaking) to computer and media equipment. I spent a lot of time last week during off hours working the issue along with some other very knowledgable folks. We're not out of the woods yet, but we were up and running and were able to cover a funeral last Friday and worship services on Sunday. In thinking about it all, it brought me back to business/disaster recovery. Since a church is a relatively simple model, I figured I would blog about it to hopefully stir some thoughts for more complex situations and conditions.
Understand What You Need and When You Need it By, Before the Disaster
This one should be self-explanatory, but I've seen cases where it has not been done. I'm the junior high youth pastor at my church and we're not very heavily computerized like some churches. So no one had really considered this thoroughly for us. We carry cell phones if members need to reach us. As long as we have a building with seating, we can hold most of the services we "provide." So our essential recovery is rather limited in scope. But if you're a business of any size, you need to do this before a disaster does hit. In our case we made a quick evaluation of what was critical for services. Getting all of our lighting back was essential. Sound and A/V for the funeral and services was most pressing after that. Establishing network connectivity, especially Internet connectivity for a couple of the systems followed. Everything else was after those key priorities.
Assess the Damage
After the lightning strike, one of the first things we needed to do was assess the damage. Actually, we took a slightly different approach, in that we assessed what "systems" didn't work. Knowing what is damaged tends to be a little trickier, because if you have multiple components/systems in-line, you've got to test 'em to determine what's actually broke. This is what we noted were down:
- A couple of the office phones
- The FAX machine
- All networking except for one office, and it only for systems within that office
- The projector in the sanctuary
- The second monitor on the soundboard computer (connected with the projector using a VGA splitter)
- Part of the lights in the sanctuary
Once we knew what was down, we started looking at the component parts. For instance, not all the phones were down. So we took the ones that were and tried to connect them to the lines that were working. No dice. When we plugged them in to the power bricks that were working, they were dead. So we knew the phones themselves were history. With respect to networking, the DSL router was fried. It didn't even power up. We had another power cord that was known good with the same power characteristics and that didn't work. The DSL router was also a switch. So I grabbed a known good switch and tried to network the computers. No Internet, but access to printers and the like could be had... except that didn't work, either. I suspected the NICs on those computers, especially after one of the office computers didn't recognize its NIC any longer. However, another did recognize its NIC, but I couldn't get connectivity. I suspected the wiring, especially since I had one component I believe to be good not working when connected to the switch. In any case, you get the idea. We did this for all the components.
Have Your Insurance, Service Provider, and Hardware/Software Reselleres Contact Information Ready
Once we had determined there was some damage, one of the church staff placed a call to the insurance provider to verify the process for submitting a claim. Before we did anything with the equipment, we wanted to know how to proceed. We were able to get the information and start handling the equipment appropriately. The last thing we wanted to do was handle the equipment in such a way that the insurance company could say, "You violated subsection A of your agreement and we won't reimburse." We also contacted the DSL provider and had a new DSL router sent. Part of recovering from a disaster is filing the claims to be able to pay for equipment that has to be replaced. And part of it is understanding where you can get the replacement equipment.
Determine Work-Arounds
We had an action plan on how to proceed with recovering capabilities (we're still executing on it). In one case, the Internet connectivity, once we got the DSL router in, like most nowadays, it had wireless capability. Thankfully, though it looks like our phones/networking got hit by the lightning, once the new router came in, it was apparent that we still had DSL service. I was able to get that connected and running fairly quickly. However, since I'm almost positive the wiring is shot but I can't be sure about the NICs, we ran out and grabbed a couple of USB wireless NICs to install to provide some capability for Internet connectivity within the church. I knew there was a strong signal throughout the top floor because I did a walk around with a laptop and made sure of it. There are plenty of tools out there for this purpose. But a rather simple thing to do is walk around connected and just see if you can hit particular web sites. That's the low tech solution and it works just fine. Because I didn't have my normal security tools on this particular laptop, I went with the low tech option. The USB wireless NICs worked great and we had two systems on-line on the Internet.
Keep a Running List of Unresolved Issues and Reprioritize As Necessary
One of the applications we use for AV was built for two monitors. We were able to determine the second output of the video card had been damaged, which meant we were down to the single monitor. While the second monitor was good, we were able to verify the projector was hit, too. We had a spare projector, but no one had done the research on how to get the application running on a single monitor. We had temporarily used PowerPoint and hand-typed lyrics in, but we wanted to use the app because it handled this and handled it well. So after Sunday morning, we looked at where we were and noted that we still hadn't fully restored that capability. So before evening service we sat down and did that research. While running on a single monitor isn't ideal, it's do-able until we swap out the soundboard computer within the next week.
Determine What Can Be Done to Avoid the Disaster or Respond Better to It (Lessons Learned)
In our particular case, we had surge protectors and the like in place, but we're talking lightning here. Some of it was sufficient based on the exposure of the equipment, but some of it wasn't. We're looking at the building and seeing what else can be done, but there's only so much that can be done in this situation. That's one of the reasons it is smart to carry insurance. But if you have a failure, use it as an opportunity to learn. What could have been done to avoid the situation, if any? Is it reasonable for the business? What was done that could have been done better to recover? Were the recovery procedures satisfactory? Is there something else that needed to be done? Once you've looked at the situation, go back to your recovery plan and make the appropriate changes.


text: The NHL and players' association have not reopened negotiations since December 6, when talks last broke down [Reuters]Donald Fehr and the players' association are ready to get back to the bargaining table at any moment. They are now just waiting for the NHL to feel the same way. "(We aren't talking) because the owners have not indicated a desire to resume,'' the NHLPA's executive director said Wednesday night before a charity hockey game. "We've indicated any number of times that we're willing to resume when they are (and) we're willing to resume without preconditions. "So we're waiting to hear back from them.'' The sides haven't negotiated with one another since December 6 in New York, when talks broke down. They also met with a US federal mediator for two days in New Jersey last week and reported no progress. Since then, there has been only limited contact between the sides, including a brief email exchange on Wednesday. Nothing new The NHL believes that negotiations should resume only when there is something new to say. "I don't think either party is refusing a meeting,'' NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in an email. "But unless there is an indication one side or the other is prepared to move or has a new idea to move the process forward - and so far neither side has indicated - I am not sure what we would do at the meeting. "What is the agenda? Who is directing the conversation? We don't have anything new to say right now.'' Fehr said he likes the idea put forward by Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey that the same parties who met two weeks ago return to the bargaining table, along with himself and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Progress was made during a session that included four new owners and a number of players, including Sidney Crosby. "That seems like it might work if the owners are interested in it,'' Fehr said. However, Daly indicated that doesn't hold much appeal to the NHL. He created a stir earlier Wednesday when he made an appearance on CBC's Hockey Night In Canada Radio and was asked to give a yes or no answer on whether there would be an agreement in time to save the season. Daly said, "Yes.'' "That's good news,'' Fehr said in response. "I'm glad to hear that. I certainly hope he's right. That's the players' goal, that's what we want to try and do. "Hopefully, we'll get back together and negotiate out the remaining issues as soon as possible.'' Cancellations expected The NHL has insisted on getting in at least a 48-game schedule - the same number it had after the 1994-95 lockout - which means an agreement will need to be reached by the middle of January. More than 500 regular-season games through December 30 have already been wiped off the schedule and further cancellations are expected to be made by the end of the week. Fehr is concerned about the damage being caused by hockey's fourth work stoppage in 20 years. "Any time you are preventing the fans from watching the sport they dearly love, which provides the business that we're all involved in, that's not a good thing,'' Fehr said. "It needs to be ended as soon as possible. We certainly hope we can do that. We certainly want to tell the fans we're doing everything we can to do it. "Hopefully it'll be over soon. That's what we're trying to do.'' SOURCE: AP Sport US Sports US & Canada United States


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Hyper90 wrote:i am not lady wu, but you can change class with the items you can buy from the shop.
you'll meet those items in some particular cities
EDIT : what i was meant before was changing to a higher class.
for changing to a DIFFERENT class items, you gotta get those items from battles (blue camps)
i'm trying to use every item, but it doesn't work o.O or i missed something or in my guan yu inventory.. i just got ma chao, by then how much change class item that i got ? errr, or can you list some of that item here, i can't read chinese
EDIT: errr, mean you must reset class before change it ? trying..


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David Banner & E-40 Interview: "Yes. The South Are Lyrically Inclined. They Just Do In Their Own Way Over Them Party Songs"
David Banner, E-40 and Davey D talk about the south, hyphy music and being in bands at Grambling and Southern (Bayou Classic). Courtesy of Hardknock TV
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If you had a database outage or failure while JBoss was up, you're likely in a situation where you would have to restart JBoss because the database connections didn't get reconnected for you. You're likely also faced with a massive set of log files due to the data source complaining about it not being able to connect to the database.
If you want JBoss to automatically reconnect the data source pool(s) for you, here's some settings to use (only valid if using a "local-tx-datasource"):
1) <autoReconnect>true</autoReconnect>
2) <check-valid-connection-sql>an efficient select statement</check-valid-connection-sql>
3) <failOverReadOnly>false</failOverReadOnly>
4) <maxReconnects>50</maxReconnects>
5) <initialTimeout>15</initialTimeout>
In the above settings, if the data source connectivity is lost (database down or network failure) – then JBoss will automatically attempt to reconnect 50 times every 15 seconds. You can obviously set those numbers to values suitable to your environment. It's also important to set the failOverReadOnly flag to false as it ensures that recovered connections are writable.
Additionally, some people prefer to include a valid and efficient SQL statement in the "check-valid-connection", it's completely optional but a good practice in environments where stale connections are common. Optionally, there's also "new-connection-sql" which will check on newly created connections.


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Alejandro Jodorowsky's follow up to his cult hit El Topo is a strange and surreal journey through the world of mysticism and the occult that forgoes the black leather clad Spaghetti Western styling of it's predecessor and instead focuses on the magical and spiritual aspects of various world theologies.
A thief bearing no small resemblance to Jesus Christ finds himself wandering through a strange world of religious imagery and strange arcane rituals. He eventually climbs a massive red tower (and in turn reaches a different spiritual plane) by using some large balloons and is taken in by 'The Alchemist', a mystical figurehead who, after proving himself by turning the thief's fecal matter into gold, introduces him to six powerful strangers of varied occupations (and based on the Tarot), each seeking enlightenment.
Each one of these individuals, naked and shaved, represents a different planet in the solar system. Teaming up with the thief and the Alchemist along with his assistant, they strip themselves of their possessions, burn all their money, and try to remove any form of self from their souls. Together they form a group who attempt to climb the Holy Mountain where they expect to overthrow the immortals that reside there and find true spiritual enlightenment.
Filled with its fair share of shocking imagery and sadistic violence, The Holy Mountain is a totally unique film filled with gorgeous compositions and amazing set pieces. The infamous reenactment of the Mexican revolution using frogs (as Spanish conquistadors) and lizards (as Aztecs) is humorous and disturbing at the same time, and in a sense it sets the tone for the rest of the movie. The thief, who is obviously a metaphor for Christ (when we meet him he is coming down off of a cross) and who is compared to him on more than one occasion not the least of which is when he drives the money lenders from the temple, represents all of us and mankind's need to find God in whatever form we may deem fit. Jodorowsky has said that with this film he hoped to make a sacred piece of cinema and so he uses symbolism from various different religions to build his own take on theological enlightenment.
Once again, Jodorowsky has cast himself in the lead and surrounded himself with primarily unknown performers. His theory on this is that having a star in your film is a waste of money that should be spent on production values rather than on arrogant talent and in many ways his theory is quite astute. Here he has made an absolutely beautiful film that is at times very down to Earth and at other times very alien in appearance. There's obviously been a lot of care put into each shot as well as into the set decorations and into the costumes and it pays off as the film is gorgeous to look at even if at times it's a little hard to decipher without an innate knowledge of world religions and the occult.
Leaving itself wide open for individual interpretation while at the same time having a fairly straightforward narrative, The Holy Mountain is a film just waiting to be explained, likely in a different manner by each person who sees it.
The AVC encoded 2.35.1 widescreen 1080p high definition transfer for The Holy Mountain is sharp and colorful and quite a noticeable improvement over the standard definition DVD release. Like the El Topo Blu-ray, there is evidence of some noise reduction having been applied and if you're one of those viewers who is susceptible to that, you'll notice it, but it's not a particularly overzealous application. Texture looks very strong, you'll really notice it not just in the costumes but in the various props and bizarre sets used throughout the film - a perfect example being the shot with the Christ mannequins, you almost feel the dirt. Black levels are very good and there are no problems with compression artifacts worth noting. The image is a bit cleaner than you might expect, and there are no issues with heavy print damage or anything like that. The improvement in detail offered by the higher resolution really makes it easier than ever to appreciate just how amazing the cinematography and attention to detail is in this picture. Jodo-heads should be pretty happy with the results - if it's not on par with the latest blockbuster, did anyone really expect it to be?
Audio options are offered up in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and PCM 2.0 Stereo, both tracks sounding full and well rounded. Dialogue is clean and clear and there are no problems with hiss or distortion to complain about. The 5.1 track basically just spreads the score around, with most of the dialogue staying front and center as it should be and only some occasional ambient effects coming from the rear. It's not an overly aggressive mix, but nor should it be. There's definitely more depth and range here when compared to the previous DVD release. Optional subtitles are offered in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
Anchor Bay supplies and audio commentary with Jodorowsky, in Spanish with English subtitles. Whereas the commentary on El Topo was more anecdotal and historical, this time around Jodorowsky's talk is more interpretive. He doesn't skirt around the history of the picture but he does put quite a bit of emphasis on explaining the symbols that appear throughout the picture and how many of the sets and set pieces relate to the thief's quest for enlightenment. He points out which symbols were taken from which religions, be they Islamic, Christian, Jewish or Pagan in nature, and he explains the alchemical side of things, the fecal matter into gold scene being a key moment where he delves into quite a bit of detail. He explains how George Harrison wanted to take the lead role but refused to show his anus on screen in the bathing scene and so he passed on that opportunity (he states that it probably cost him millions of dollars in the long run) and talks about why certain people were chosen for certain roles. Again, he covers his use of handicapped people in the picture and points out various scenes that involve some interesting contractions, such as the church full of prostitutes and the scene where the thief finds himself awake in a room full of fake Christs. Jodorowsky explains how he took aspects of many different religions and blended them together in an attempt to make a sacred film that would change people rather than simply entertain them, and he talks about how threats were made on his life by facets of the Mexican government who were upset over what they considered to be blasphemous imagery and with his use of uniforms in the film. This caused him to finish the shoot in New York City, where many of the indoor sets were built and where much of this footage was shot. It's very much to Jodorowsky's credit that he chose this approach for the commentary, as The Holy Mountain can be a very big pill to swallow. It's a heavy film with layers and layers of symbolism and mysticism built into its fiber and having the chance to hear some of the explanations from the writer-director-star's own mouth is very much a great way to garner further appreciation for this truly unique piece of cinema.
Also included here are some never before seen deleted scenes with commentary in Spanish with English subs. The first scene takes place in a Mexican restaurant, the second scene involves a Zen master's interaction with a student, the third scene again involves the Zen master's interaction with his students and shows them doing a ritualistic dance, the fourth shows the master feeding his students rice, the fifth scene involves the master and his students on the mountain, the sixth scene also takes place on the mountain and involves some rock climbing, the seventh scene deals with skin phobia, and the final scene involves the millionaire's son. Combined these eight deleted scenes run 5:58, and Jodorowsky's commentary explains why each of the scenes was removed and also provides some context for them.
Up next is The Tarot (7:52), a short with commentary that allows Jodorowsky to explain his fascination with Tarot cards and how he identified with much of their symbolism. He explains that The Tarot is not a way of looking into the future but a way of speaking about the present, and how you can use it to set your spirit on something to make it happen. It's an interesting short that fits in with the feature nicely in that it further explains some of the symbolism seen in the film as well as Jodorowsky's beliefs in The Tarot.
Rounding out the extra features are the original theatrical trailer with English voice-over, a restoration process short (5:30 of side by side comparison footage with narration), and a photo gallery with production stills and some interesting original script excerpts. None of the extras here are new, they've all been carried over from the previous Anchor Bay DVD release.
While there aren't any new extras to speak of, the improved audio and video quality on this Blu-ray release of The Holy Mountain definitely make it worth the double dip. The film itself holds up as a true original and this release comes highly recommended.
Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.


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The popular racing game franchise, Need for Speed, is getting an unique and innovative infusion of reality. With its many incarnations since its inception in 1994, Canadian Based Electronic Arts has been striving to remain on the cutting edge of entertainment and computer generated graphics.
The Game
The Need for Speed Franchise has enjoyed success with several other titles: Hot Pursuit (1998), High Stakes (1999), Porsche Unleashed (2000), and Most Wanted (2005) to name a few. The Need For Speed Franchise maintains its leadership in popularity and innovation with the of the sharpest, coolest racing video games around. NFS: Underground (2003-4) introduced new customization features which enable players to chose preferred car body design and allowing personalized vehicles, under the hood and bumper to bumper. EA has also taken the next step to improve the entertainment quotient by investing in the narrative portions of the game.
The New Players
Need For Speed: Undercover features narrative interstitials that drive the storyline. Undercover's key storyline centers around FBI Agent Chase Linh, played the seductive international film star Maggie Q (Mission Impossible III). What makes these narrative segments any different? The storyline of the game, shot by filmmakers on the ever-popular digital film surrogate, RED ONE Camera. The raw high definition "footage" of the RED ONE is arguably comparable to the 35mm film. As producer Eric Mofford of Unconventional Media explains, looks are everything. "Electronic Arts envisioned this movie within a game, and we gave them a big budget feature film look and a story backed up by fast-paced images and colorful characters."
Adds director / production designer Joseph Hodges ("24"), "… the bigger creative challenge for us was to develop something that was seamless with the game's look and keep it fresh." Director of photography Jeffrey Seckendorf notes that shooting with RED ONE "…allows EA to work at a much higher resolution level than previous games. The result is the interjection of live action segments and raising of the bar in terms of the look and style of the racing NFS, all melded into a cross-media platform emergence which is the first of its kind.
Gaming Goes Hollywood
Electronic Arts and Unconventional Media seem to recognize the growing sophistication of gamers and as well as media consumers. This collaboration creates a new model of invisibly combining large-budget, visually-heightened, feature film look and attention to engrossing, live action narrative, proves that both companies seems to smartly and respectfully acknowledge that their consumer base is in fact, their audience. EA and Unconventional are doing their best to provide an intricate and inclusive gaming experience which provides competitive racing excitement and a cinematic experience.
Unconventional's Eric Mofford best sums up the goal of the joint venture. "People still want engaging stories, but with the increased presence of filmed content for gaming…it's up to us, the content providers to develop ideas for their increasingly sophisticated tastes."
Need For Speed: Undercover is set for release on November 18, 2008.


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VANCOUVER — From the moment he walked in the B.C. Lions' door, a National Football League cut with the aura of "starting quarterback at Notre Dame" still clinging to him, Jarious Jackson never stopped believing he could do the job as a professional.
The transition didn't take.
The professionalism did.
Even after seven years as an odd-job man — with the occasional stretch as starter thrown in, if the No. 1 QB was hurt — when Jackson had to leave the Lions for Toronto with equally little hope of displacing Ricky Ray, he believed in himself when most everyone on the outside could only see a career understudy.
So perhaps it's fitting that in returning to Vancouver to retire as a B.C. Lion, signing a one-day contract Friday but really coming home to be the team's quarterbacks coach, it is again the outsiders who doubt.
Jarious Jackson is going to teach Travis Lulay how to play quarterback? How to make good decisions, how to throw touch-passes and read defences? These were the obstacles that held Jackson, who had speed and arm strength and courage galore, back from being a CFL starter.
Lulay is already adept at reading and reacting, and makes far more good decisions than bad.
But the outsiders are not going to win this argument.
Because from GM Wally Buono's sanctum to head coach Mike Benevides' office to Lulay's film room to the overwhelming feeling in the players' den, there are no dissenters: Jarious Jackson has all the qualities that really matter.
"When a guy is voted captain, and he's not your starting quarterback, that tells you how much the room believes in him," Benevides said.
"And Travis feels very strongly about him. Jarious has always been someone who can manage disappointment, and adversity, and the stresses of the position."
"I think playing the position and understanding how to play the position are a little bit different," Lulay said. "And I don't want to be critical of J.J. I have a ton of respect for him as a player, but I've always liked the way he views the game.
"And I want him to be critical of me, be hard on me, and help me be a better football player. And he will."
Having signed a $450,000-a-year contract, Lulay "is going to be held to a higher standard," Benevides admitted. "So we've gotta help him grow, we've gotta push him, and by having someone there by his side, all day every day, it's going to help him huge."
In hiring Jackson for a post that didn't previously exist, Benevides is perpetuating the Buono method of promotion from within, of veterans-as-teachers, of bringing players with integrity and intelligence along to positions of trust.
"These guys bleed orange, they understand the organization, we understand them ... and coaching is about trust. When things go sideways, you've got to know how people will deal with that adversity," Benevides said.
"I believe in loyalty to the program. I believe in organizational DNA."
On the Lions' staff today are former defensive back Mark Washington and offensive lineman Kelly Bates. Barron Miles coached defence here for two seasons after retiring as a player, and is now coaching in Saskatchewan.
Dave Dickenson was well on the way to being a coach by the time he left the Lions for Calgary. Before him, former QB Jeff Tedford went from an offensive assistant on Buono's first Calgary staff to earn a big reputation as an offensive innovator at Oregon and Cal-Berkeley. Another Stampeder backup, Mike McCoy, was Peyton Manning's offensive coordinator this past season in Denver and just replaced Norv Turner as head coach of the San Diego Chargers.
If Lulay's No. 2 in Vancouver last season, Mike Reilly, becomes the Edmonton starter, "half the league next season could be quarterbacks we've developed," said Benevides, evidently including Winnipeg's perpetually-endangered Buck Pierce and Hamilton's Henry Burris, who was Buono's quarterback for three seasons in Calgary.
Lulay's rapid progression — he was the CFL's outstanding player in 2011, his first full season as starter — doesn't mean he can't get even better.
"We all have glitches in our game, but I think that's why I'm here, to try to get Travis to be even better than he already is. He knows I'll be putting in the time, pushing him," Jackson said. "Just being an extra set of eyes and ears, from someone who's been a peer and played the position, not just someone on the sidelines with x's and o's. We've played a few years together, won a Grey Cup together."
Jackson actually won two as a Lion, both as backup, and another last year in Toronto. It's the latter that intrigues Lulay.
"To be fair, Jacques (Chapdelaine, B.C. offensive coordinator) was the quarterbacks coach, but as coordinator his focus was a bit more all-encompassing," Lulay said. "I just think with Jarious having played as recently as a year ago — he threw a touchdown in the Grey Cup game — when he's fresh off of playing, it's great to have that point of view.
"I'm also excited about the experience he gained from playing for Coach (Scott) Milanovich, who's a Marc Trestman (now Chicago Bears coach) disciple — they did a lot of good things in Montreal and obviously Toronto had a great run last year, winning the Grey Cup with Ricky Ray, and Jason Maas as his quarterback coach.
"Plus, Jason was Ricky's backup in Edmonton, now he's his quarterbacks coach, so there's a parallel there with Jarious and me."
Before he could commit to Benevides's offer of a spot on the staff, though, the 35-year-old Jackson had to come to terms with stepping away from the field.
"It's a little bittersweet, to be hanging up the cleats and knowing you're not going to play the game you've grown to love your whole life," he said Friday.
"(Benevides) gave me a lot of time to think about it, to be sure I was going to be stepping in the door with both feet, and not be halfway in and wondering in the back of mind whether I could still play."
Now, with untested Thomas DeMarco and Jarrett Brown as the alternatives to Lulay, what's the over-under on which game Jackson will be coaxed out of retirement?
He chuckled.
"We already crossed that bridge. I don't think that's going to be the case," he said. "I'll still work out, of course, but my job will be helping with the mental side of the game. As far as the physical side, today finishes it."
And tomorrow, it's on to triple the hours for half the pay. Or less.
The head coach didn't need to be reminded, 24 hours after learning that former Lions running back Yonus Davis will spend the next three years in a California jail for drug trafficking, that a team doesn't always know what kind of person it's getting when a new player shows up in town. But it knew Jarious Jackson.
"People are fragile. People disappoint you and surprise you in life. And athletes are no different. Recruiting is not an exact science," he said.
"But over time, character will be revealed. And that's why Jarious fits. That why, when people ask how come the coaching staff is so much the same, it's because consistency and good people are hard to find," he said.
"Our staff has 19 championships."
That, too, is hard to find.


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Only 17: Kobe Bryant's Between The Legs Dunk In A High School Game Back In 1995! (Rare Footage)
HoopMixtape reports "Here is 17 year old Kobe Bryant going between his legs and dunking at the Gym Rat Midnight Madness High School Showcase in 1995. Bryant pulls off this dunk in a GAME less than a year after Isaiah Rider made it a signature dunk in the NBA dunk contest the year before. Kobe Bryant went on to play his senior campaign at Lower Merion High School"
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- For a gallery of Telepathy users, see here.
Professor X (Marvel) is possibly one of the strongest telepaths ever to have lived.
Power/Ability to:
Mentally receive and/or transmit information.
Power to mentally receive and/or transmit information. Users of this power are often called Telepaths or Mind Readers.
Also CalledEdit
- Legilimency
- Mind Reading
The ability falls into two categories, Telepathic Communication, which is the ability to transmit information from mind to another, and Telepathic Perception, which is the ability to receive information from another mind.
Similar to "telekinesis", "telepathy" is an umbrella term for any ability that involves projecting, reading and manipulating thoughts.
Telepathic DefenseEdit
- Illusion Manipulation: The ability to manipulate what others perceive, such as making them see things that aren't actually present, or not see things that are.
- Psychic Shadow: The ability to mask psychic presence, hiding from other psychics.
- Psychic Shield: The ability to erect a psychic shield to protect the minds of oneself or others.
Telepathic OffenseEdit
- Binding: The ability to restrict the movements of others via the mind.
- Darkside View: The ability to communicate with and bring out the dark side of a person's personality.
- Download: The ability to quickly process, store, or download information through another's mind.
- Emotion Manipulation: The ability to make one feel pleased, happy, pained, or any other emotion.
- Lightside View: The ability to communicate with and bring out the good side of a person's personality.
- Mental Projection: The ability to project thoughts into reality.
- Mind Exchange: The ability to transfer one's mind into another's body, taking control of that body; can be done in inanimate objects as well, telekinetically controlling it.
- Mindscape Transportation: The ability to teleport objects into of one's mind.
- Neurocognitive Deficit: The ability to shut down an opponent's higher brain function.
- Pain Inducement: The ability to cause pain.
- Psionic Inundation: The ability to launch psi-bolts to cause mental damage.
- Psychic Constructs: The ability to generate constructs out of mental energy.
- Psychic Energy Manipulation: The ability to produce and manipulate mental energy.
- Psychic Inhibitors: The ability to place inhibitors in the mind to limit another's capabilities.
- Pushing: The ability to implant memories, thoughts, and emotions into others.
Telepathic SupplementaryEdit
- Audible Inundation: The ability to create voices and sounds in the minds of others.
- Consciousness Transferal: The ability to transfer ones mind to a new body if the users body is destroyed/killed.
- Electroreception: The ability to sense the presence of others.
- Mind Link: The ability to develop a permanent mental bond with any person, also called imprinting.
- Mind Melding: The ability to fuse one's consciousness with another.
- Omnilingualism: The ability to intuitively understand new languages.
- Psychic Communication: The ability to open up secret conversations and relay covert information.
- Psychic Navigation: The ability to create a mental map of the area.
- Psychic Wave Manipulation: The ability to generate and manipulate thought waves.
- Sensory Scrying: The ability to perceive through the sense of other beings.
- Telempathy: The ability to communicate through emotions.
- Telepathic Relay: The ability to act as a mental relay station for a group of minds, allowing said minds to "speak" to one another through the user.
- Telepathic Speaking: The user of this power can speak by using their mind combined with mental powers.
- Thought Manifestation - Project one's thoughts telepathically.
- Thought Manipulation: The ability to control the thoughts of others.
- Potentially all non-physical Mental Powers.
- Animal Telepathy
- Clairvoyance
- Dream Manipulation
- Mental Manipulation
- Mind Control
- Omnipathy (advanced version of this power)
- Telepathic Language Instruction
- Telepathic Mimicry
- Does not work on mindless beings (corpses, animated objects, robots,etc.).
- May be limited to a certain range to work.
- May be limited to one target at a time.
- May be unable to "turn off" their power and have to constantly hear thoughts.
- Since the user constantly hears thoughts, this power becomes ineffective in large crowds.
- May not be able to read impulsive actions.
- Psychic Shield users of a higher level are immune to this ability.
- Sometimes, it's better to not know what others are thinking.
- Being overwhelmed by so many thoughts can led to headaches.
- Unless one is multilingual or have the automatic ability to translate and decrypt, ability may not work if the target is thinking in alternate languages or encrypted codes.
Known UsersEdit
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.


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S.F. Market Street car ban urged by city agencies
Cars have already been pushed off stretches of Market Street downtown, but they could be banned altogether under a revitalization plan being designed by a collection of city agencies.
The Better Market Street plan aims to improve the city's central boulevard from the Embarcadero to Octavia Boulevard and "re-establish the street as the premier cultural, civic, transportation and economic center of San Francisco and the Bay Area," said Kris Opbroek, project manager for the Department of Public Works during a presentation to the Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors Tuesday.
A key part of that plan is limiting - or eliminating - private automobiles on the street. Under the most aggressive strategy, cars would be banned from Market Street in both directions between Franklin and Steuart streets.
"The goal is to have an overarching solution" that improves mobility, makes Market Street more of a public gathering place and spurs economic development, Opbroek said.
Improving mobility means finding a way to speed transit and limiting private motor vehicles and accommodating the growing numbers of bicyclists and pedestrians using Market Street, she said.
"One of the goals is eliminating conflict and confrontation," she said.
But a plan to keep cars off Market Street could face fierce opposition. The notion of eliminating cars from the downtown thoroughfare has been broached several times over the years and has always been dismissed when it became gridlocked in controversy.
This time, it's tough to tell how merchants and nearby residents will react, but it's important that they be listened to, said Daniel Hurtado, executive director of the Central Market Community Benefit District.
'A lot of positive'
"There is a lot of positive that could result in limiting access of private vehicles, especially in the Mid-Market area," he said "Particularly encouraging people to walk, eliminating congestion and increasing the efficiency of public transit."
But private vehicles should be allowed at night, he said, to improve safety in the area, which can be dangerous or at least feel uncomfortable after dark.
"It adds a set of eyes and ears," he said.
The plan contemplates three approaches for private autos, all of which reduce access and continue the 2009 experiment launched by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom to reduce the number of cars on downtown Market Street by forcing eastbound drivers to make right turns at 10th and Sixth streets. That temporary plan has since become permanent after studies found an uptick in the number of bicyclists along that stretch, that transit speeds increased slightly and that traffic on adjacent Mission Street was slightly more congested.
The least drastic of the proposals would extend the forced-right-turns approach to other yet-to-be-determined intersections along Market Street while a middle-of-the-road plan would extend forced right-turns and close Market Street only between Fourth and Fifth streets. Under the plan to ban autos, transit vehicles - buses and streetcars - as well as taxis, tour buses, paratransit vehicles and some delivery vehicles would be granted access to Market Street. Shuttles to hotels and some other businesses also could be allowed, Opbroek said.
Public input
Representatives of the city's Department of Public Works, Planning Department, Municipal Transportation Agency, Transportation Authority and Public Utilities Commission have been researching how best to rejuvenate the main drag since 2011, analyzing existing conditions, looking at what other cities have tried and developing possible concepts for Market Street. In July, they'll hold a series of workshops to see what the public thinks and will then work with interested parties to create a plan by the end of the year.
The plan would be designed and undergo environmental reviews for the next two to three years with construction taking place in 2015 to 2016. The project is tied to a planned repaving of Market Street. Funding for that work is already lined up, but more extensive improvements would require additional funding.
Ed Reiskin, the city's transportation director, said the MTA would apply for federal funding for the improvements. The cost will depend on the approaches the city chooses.
MTA directors lauded the plan Tuesday, with some members saying it matched the board's vision for Market Street.
"This board has been very supportive of making Market Street more of a transit, pedestrian and bike corridor, and placing less emphasis on autos," said director Cheryl Brinkman. "This is a good start."
Director Malcolm Heinicke agreed, noting that fears of chaos and gridlock with the forced-right-turn plan were unfounded.
"There really isn't a need for private (car) traffic on Market Street like there is on Van Ness or Geary," he said.
'A streetlife zone'
In addition to restricting traffic, the Better Market Street plan would reconfigure lanes and boarding areas to speed transit, accommodate bike riders by either creating a physically separated "cycletrack" or a shared lane with transit and vehicles, revitalize major public spaces along the street and introduce a "streetlife zone," an area between the street and sidewalk with benches, tables, trees and other amenities.
Opbroek knows the plan will face criticism, or at least a lot of questions, but said the city is ready to work with those who will be affected.
"All change is challenging," she said. "Each of these strategies, while beneficial, does have drawbacks."
Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: email@example.com Twitter: @ctuan


text: Received this pipe today, and already one of the better ones I've used, and will only get better. The finish is beautiful and flawless, it doesn't burn very hot, especially compared to the Meerschaum pipes I usually use (I smoke sort of fast, on breaks from work ect.) I was iffy on using a filter, as I never have before, but it doesn't make a difference negatively on my tobaccos, and it allows me to grind it a little finer to get it going quicker. Very nice product.


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You may be thinking your laptop is feeling a little warm and in need of a cooling down. Consisting of two fans set into the base of the stand, the Antec Notebook Cooler does exactly as the name implies. With high and low settings, it can match your needs.
In use, we found setting it on low was sufficient, as the high setting makes things a little too cool. Don't be too concerned about the noise of the fans either, as with a 25dB rating you'll find things quiet.
Powered by USB, you can slot it into one of your laptop's ports and because it comes with a two-way adapter, the USB slot is still free for use by other peripherals.
This is a great laptop stand that anyone with a high-end machine will appreciate, as it'll keep even the most power-hungry machine cool.


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City of BuckeyeHome Menu
Calendar Month View
Goju Ryu Karate - Interm Lvl
- Date: 02/19/2020 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
- Location: Sundance Crossings
21699 W Yuma RD
Buckeye, Arizona 85326
Return to full list >>
Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate is a Karate style founded by Chojun Miyagi. Goju Ryu emphasizes fitness, courtesy, and self-discipline. This class uses the physical parts of karate to make our minds and our hearts stronger. 6 months of recent martial arts experience is required for Intermediate Level. To preregister visit: https://goo.gl/oYWFQ5.


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Star Trek: The Next Generation , which reached many millions of viewers, will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year. When it comes to us, it is no surprise that the fashion of Star Trek is related with brightly colored and suspiciously form-fitting uniform. But it is all about Star Trek's costume? Let's see how Star Trek does the talking with fashion. Unlike Star Wars, you can easily copy its costume to the runway. Instead of that, the cinematic styles of Star Trek influence the fashion world in a subtle way.
The designs of some customs are really unique and weird. The shiny raver shirt that Pike wear on the Playa has strong metallic accents in different bold colors. Not to mention those weird accessories, such as green-and-red-dotted cravat, incredible necklace and so on. However, to some extent, it's in line with 60's fashion style with the weird design and psychedelic prints.
Besides, it combines elements of futurism in the clothes and explores futurism. Take a glance at the gold lame costume that slave girl wears, which has a strong metallic accent. In the TV or film, you must have noticed that the streamlined shapes, metallic accents, and bold colors of clothing have a strong visual impact and further to influence apparel design. Just as Vogue magazine put it, "it is more about an exploration of futurism that confronts conventions." In recent years, the futurism can be seen on the runway, such as AW17 Gucci and Fall 2017 Channel.
Take futurism back to the present, we can also wear these runway trends in a simple way, by opting for clothes that are mirrored, sleek silver or bronze accents on dresses, jumpsuits and tops. By adding just a touch of sparkle to an outfit, you'll be so modern we'll think you've struck outer space.
However, the discovery of Star Wars not only broadens our vision of outer space in future, but also reflects the variety of the adventures the crew got themselves into. Crop tops and thigh-high boots can be seen when they go to the mirror universe, but why not try some selected crop tops to discover the adventure in daily life.


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DBA Finance Committee Meeting
November 01, 2011 • 12:30 PM • Law School 3171
Main Content
Weekly meeting of the DBA Finance Committee. If your student organization has a funding request, please attend this meeting two weeks before your event. To request funds, please fill out the following form, http://www.law.duke.edu/students/dba/financialforms/Funding_Authorizati…, and submit one copy to Seth Reich's mail folder by 10am on Tuesday morning. Bring another copy for reference at the meeting.


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Yesterday evening, something historic happened in the homes, campuses, and community centers of America. From Biloxi, Mississippi to Monrovia, California, more than 4,000 people attended 375 teach-ins -- all volunteer-driven -- to learn "How the 1% Crashed the Economy, and What We Can Do About It."
The Occupy Wall Street movement has struck a chord with millions of Americans. It has given direction to our outrage and inspired curiosity about certain fundamental questions. How could the richest country in the history of the world find itself in such a grave economic crisis? How could the wealthiest in our society score record-breaking profits, while millions of Americans struggle?
People are searching for both answers and solutions. So Rebuild The Dream Innovation Fund (an organization I co-founded) and our partners created a special curriculum -- a teach-in toolkit to help people make sense of what's happening in America.
The teach-ins are based on an evocative slide presentation that describes the state of our economy, how we got here, and what we as progressives must do to restore the economy and reclaim our democracy. November 9th was just a start. The materials and information are available online for anyone to host a teach-in, tailored to our own communities.
In addition to powerful facts, the presentation weaves a powerful story. Ryan Senser, who created the story and the presentation, breaks down the narrative as follows: "We all have dreams, and freedom means being able to pursue them. But right now, the vast majority of people can't move forward because we're hitting a wall. It's a wall of extreme inequality, of debt, of joblessness, of social division. It's the largest barrier to opportunity we've seen since the 1920s, and it's holding our country back. We know who built this wall - Wall Street. Wall Street big corporations and the 1% built it, paid off our politicians to help them do it. And these are Wall Street's results: extreme inequality, which always leads to economic disaster for rest of us. We must elect politicians who will help us pave the path to shared prosperity, and not build walls that keep us from it."
Another major contributor to the teach-in curriculum was Heather McGhee, an economic policy expert at progressive think tank Demos, which works to create a more robust democracy and fair economy. Heather explained why the precursors of our crisis are key to understanding how we move forward as a nation.
"The economy is not like the weather," she said. "It's not something that goes up and goes down and that we have no control over as human beings. It's actually a very human-made structure in our political system that is guided by the decisions we make together as a people in a well-functioning democracy."
Our society today, which grants everything to the 1% at the expense of the rest of us, puts greed over common good, justice for some over justice for all, and next quarter over next generation. This is not an accident.
As Heather said, "The personal, individual problems that keep us up at night -- student debt, foreclosures, mortgages, credit cards, why rent is up and housing prices are down, why work isn't paying how it used to, why both parents have to work and there's no support for child care -- all of these private questions are part of our story. And the story says there are public causes and public solutions that have evolved over the last 3 decades."
In the 1930s, America emerged from the Great Depression with a vengeance. Ordinary American wrested the unjust concentration of political and economic power from the hands of the 1% to build the first and biggest middle class the world had ever seen. Our great-grandparents and grandparents deliberately paved a road to shared prosperity. But starting in the 1970s, the 1% again began to tear away at the accomplishments of our predecessors and they built the wall again.
We overcame once and we will overcome again. The Occupy movement has set off a wave of energy and enthusiasm that is determined to tear down the wall built by the 1% and create an economy that works for all. November 17th will be a day of mass action for the 99% to begin tearing down that wall. And possible solutions have already been outlined in the Contract for the American Dream created by 131,000 Americans and signed by over 300,000.
We will continue taking to the streets, starting with the mass mobilization on November 17th. Across the country, there will be hundreds of events at the very places that can put America back to work: our crumbling bridges, understaffed schools, and other sites that represent a failed economy. And next year we will occupy voting booths and ballots all over the country.
We must continue growing the extraordinary momentum of the 99%. The story we weave about ourselves, our economy, and the political power we hold will shape how we move forward from this unprecedented moment. We will tear down this wall.
Historic: Hundreds of Teach-In's Across U.S.A. on "How 1% Crashed Economy"
On November 9, 2011, thousands of people attended more than 400 teach-ins all across the country to learn the story about how the 1% crashed the economy, and what the 99% can do about it. November 9 wasn't the end, it was just the beginning. Teach-ins are still happening, and we invite you to host one of your own, any time! Click here for the teach-in materials, including the slide presentation, the discussion notes, and the video.[caption id="attachment_3075" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Nov 9 Teach-in in Oakland, California"][/caption]Here is Van Jones' piece about the teach-ins on Huffington Post.
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An attempt to ban circumcision is San Francisco has turned comical. But not everyone finds the debate amusing.
A group of activists, who ironically enough call themselves in-activists, have created a comic book that illustrates the plight of Lloyd Schofield to make it a crime to perform a circumcision on a minor in the City.
Schofield has been working for years to get a circumcision ban on the ballot in San Francisco. Last month, the activist finally collected enough signatures to put his measure before the voters.
Now a group has taken to Facebook to illustrate Schofield's activism with a comic book, which many could easily find to be anti-Semitic, or at least anti-religion.
"Foreskin Man" tells the story of a blonde hair, blue-eyed super hero in tights who fights a character named Monster Mohel and his rabbi-looking, weapon-wielding friends who perform circumcisions on children to protect their "Jewish heritage."
The book's hero must fight bearded-men who take a child to be circumcised against the mother's will. The entire book has been posted on Facebook since November, frame-by-frame to let you decide for yourself what you think.
SF Circumcision Debate Gets a Comic Book
An attempt to ban circumcision is San Francisco has turned comical. But not everyone finds the debate amusing.


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Scrum Sevens
A matter of life and death
November 5, 2009
"What do you mean you don't want to put another shrimp on the barbie?" © Getty Images
There are few rivalries as celebrated as the one between England and Australia. Whether it's rugby, cricket or tiddlywinks, the occasion never lacks for bite.
The latest chapter of England's battle with the Wallabies will unfold at Twickenham on Saturday and we take a look back at some of the greatest showdowns between the two countries in our latest Scrum Seven.
Australia 17-20 England, Rugby World Cup Final, Stadium Australia, November 22, 2003
It's still talked of in England as though Jonny Wilkinson's drop-goal sailed through the uprights only yesterday. A game packed to the rafters with drama, Clive Woodward's crowning glory as England coach is a classic regardless of your personal allegiances.
The Wallabies went in to the final off the back of a surprise win over the All Blacks and had the chance to defend their title on home soil. England, ranked No.1 in the world thanks to their semi-final victory over France, had their best pack of all time in place and a metronomic fly-half. Lote Tuqiri latched on to a steepling Stephen Larkham cross-kick to score Australia's try, and the man he beat to the ball, Jason Robinson, blazed over in response.
The rest of the game was a tale of two kickers, Wilkinson and the pugnacious Elton Flatley. It was Flatley's third penalty, on the stroke of full-time, which ensured an extra 20 minutes of tension for fans. He traded further penalties with his English counterpart in extra-time, but it was Jonny who stole the game with his now iconic drop-goal. Martin Johnson will claim the hard yards to set up position, Matt Dawson will rave about his delivery. It was all down to one man though, nerveless at the last and back to face the Wallabies this weekend.
England 6-12 Australia, Rugby World Cup Final, Twickenham, November 2, 1991
Twelve years earlier, the Wallabies won their first Rugby World Cup at the home of English rugby. Superb scrum-half Nick Farr-Jones led a side brimming with legendary characters. David Campese inspired their semi-final win over the All Blacks with his 'miracle pass', Tim Horan was on his way to being the best inside-centre of them all and Michael Lynagh was cool, calm and collected at fly-half.
England took a classic line-up and attitude into the tournament, with a bruising pack of forwards and the conservative yet reliable Rob Andrew pulling the strings. A close-run win over Scotland in the semi-final had not silenced the critics, and as much as it has been denied, England took a more expansive attitude in to the final.
The Wallabies went route one, and prop Tony Daly emerged from a mass of bodies to claim the only try of the game. Lynagh slotted two penalties and the conversion while England mustered only two penalties from fullback Jon Webb. It wasn't pretty, but the Wallabies had their hands on 'Bill' for the first time.
Australia 14-25 England, Docklands Stadium, June 21, 2002
There were rumblings that England were the best in the world as the 2003 Rugby World Cup neared. The acid test came in the summer of 2002, when they set off to face New Zealand and the Wallabies in successive weeks.
Wilkinson kicked five penalties to see off the All Blacks in Wellington but it was in Melbourne where Woodward's side proved their mettle. With a side showing only a single change from the one that would win the sport's biggest prize, scrum-half Kyran Bracken, England secured their first win on Australian soil thanks to tries from Will Greenwood, Ben Cohen and Mike Tindall.
Adding insult to injury, Woodward fired one last broadside following a war of words with Wallabies boss Eddie Jones.
"It's not about style," said Woodward. "I am getting confused with what is happening in this part of the world. Everyone wants to talk about anything apart from winning. You clearly haven't been watching England. Test match rugby union is an unforgiving place and it's about winning. I think one or two people in this part of the world involved in rugby union have forgotten that."
Australia 76-0 England, Lang Park, June 6, 1998
Ah, the tour from hell. England's lowest ebb came at the end of Woodward's first year in charge, when a young, injury-ravaged side set out for a catastrophically ambitious tour of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Their opening gambit was a thumping 76-0 defeat to the Wallabies in Brisbane, where Woodward called on seven debutants to face a strong home side. Openside Richard Pool-Jones, scrum-half Scott Benton, wing Dominic Chapman and centre Stuart Potter never played another Test after their line was breached on 11 occasions. Tim Horan and Stephen Larkham both enjoyed hat-tricks in England's heaviest defeat. England were subsequently hammered twice by the All Blacks and beaten 18-0 at a rain-drenched Newlands by the Springboks.
Australia 22-25 England, Rugby World Cup, Newlands, June 11, 1995
It may have ended in a mauling by Jonah Lomu, but England's campaign at the 1995 Rugby World Cup did at least provide a chance to hit back after the heartbreak of 1991. Andrew was the hero on this occasion, sending over a colossal drop-goal to snatch victory at the death.
Tony Underwood had rounded off a super length-of-the-field try to add some razzmatazz to the occasion but it was Andrew, dependable as ever, who held his nerve to send the reigning champions packing early.
England 22-19, Twickenham, November 18, 2000
In one of the most dramatic finishes ever seen at Twickenham, Dan Luger plucked the ball from the air to score the winning try as the Wallabies watched helplessly. A superb finish by Luger was greeted by wild celebrations as England notched a watershed victory over the world champions who had recently laid claim to the Tri-Nations crown.
The Wallabies had come from behind to lead, with the excellent and underrated Matt Burke starring. He bagged all of their points with a converted try and four penalties, while Wilkinson's steady boot kept England in touch until Luger landed their fateful blow. After this game, England would not lose to the Wallabies until June 2004.
England 12-10, Rugby World Cup, Stade Velodrome, Marseille, October 6, 2007
Less a game and more a war of attrition, England produced one of their most belligerent displays to book a surprise semi-final spot at the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
What it lacked in entertainment value it made up for in sheer bloody-mindedness. Andrew Sheridan was at his destructive best despite being hindered by a mixed display from referee Alain Rolland. The Wallabies had lead through a Lote Tuqiri try, but with four swings of his boot Wilkinson sent England through and bagged the mantle of all-time leading World Cup scorer in the process.
© Scrum.com
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Access Services
Use of the Library
A valid Columbia ID card, or visiting reader's card, is required for entrance to the library.
Visitors who wish to use Avery materials should consult Access to Columbia's Libraries for Visitors and Alumni. Avery's access policy conforms to that of the Columbia University Libraries.
For use of the Classics (Rare Book) collection, see details on the Classics page.
For use of the Drawings & Archives collection, see details on the Drawings & Archives page.
Please consult the Hours calendar. Hours change during vacation periods, summer sessions, and intersessions.
Avery Library, one of Libraries' distinctive collections, is an open-stack non-circulating research library containing over 500,000 volumes and 1,900 periodical titles. The Library is composed of three collections: Avery, Fine Arts, and Ware. The Avery collection, one of the world's outstanding collections in the field of architecture, also includes materials on archaeology and the decorative arts. The Fine Arts collection represents the range of literature in art history. The Ware collection, the library's only circulating collection, is composed primarily of urban planning, housing and real estate development materials, as well as some core English language art and architecture books.
Locating Material
CLIO, the online library catalog, contains records and circulation information for all materials cataloged since 1981, records for all currently received journals, and records for on-order/in-process materials since 1983. The Avery Library card catalog is a union catalog for all art and architecture books and periodicals on the Columbia campus added until 1987. LibraryWeb terminals provide access to a variety of periodical indexes, reference tools, Internet resources, and catalogs from other universities.
If you are a Columbia affiliate, any in-process item may be requested for rush processing by submitting an in-process request form. If an item is not found in CLIO or the Avery Library card catalog, see a reference librarian.
The Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals is an index to articles on architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, and urban planning in journals received at Avery Library.
Using Materials
Avery and Fine Arts books and periodicals do not circulate. Assigned shelves and carrels are available for Columbia graduate students and faculty. Temporary hold shelves, for all other patrons, are available. Ware books may be charged out for one semester, with renewals permitted.
Reserve materials for graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses in architecture, art history, urban planning, real estate development, and historic planning are shelved behind the Service Desk. Reserve materials may only be used within the Library. There are no overnight loans. Many course reserve readings are available online through CourseWorks to those registered in classes. Fines apply to Reserve books and Ware materials only.
Missing books will be searched for as time permits. Search request forms are available at the Service Desk and online.
Special Collections
- Classics
Rare books are designated "Classics" in Avery Library. The Classics Reading Room (Room 234) is open Monday-Friday (view hours). Rare books are paged once per day.
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The collection contains over 1.5 million items including original architectural drawings and a variety of archival materials. Drawings and Archives materials may be seen by appointment only, Monday-Friday (view hours).
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The Art Properties Department oversees the Columbia University art collection. The collection is comprised of works of art in all media, from all cultures and time periods. They encompass a broad range of art forms: paintings, sculpture, watercolors, drawings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts, including ceramics and tapestries.
General Information
Eating, smoking, and cellphone use are not permitted anywhere in the library.
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Restrooms are located on the 200-level off the Graduate Reading Room, and in the Wallach Study Center for Art & Architecture (this restroom is ADA compliant).
Personal security: Please keep a close watch on handbags, briefcases, cameras, laptops, and other valuables. Should you lose anything, please report the theft to the Lost and Found at the University Security Office, 111 Low.


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Our New Favorite Tumblr – Rom Com Romney
Oh rom-coms, the lighthearted romantic comedies that you'd never admit to your girlfriend that you really like. We all know the plot: boy meets girl, they fall in love but are kept apart due to some complicated circumstance. This awesome Tumblr RomCom2012 that we recently found has a new take on the typical rom-com: rom-com Romney. It Photoshops Mitt Romney onto various movie posters and then writes clever captions for each. Will this fall's blockbusters end in love in the White House? Or just heartbreak for Romney?
"A semi-likeable billionaire spends his fortune and his time chasing the one thing he can never have– the swing state female voter."
"A billionaire and his friend from Missouri get a hard life lesson when they meet the rarest of women – a legitimate rape expecting mother."
"An orator billionaire declares his love for country and promises to restore America's promise without committing to any details."


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Chamomile is another ancient-old medicinal herb that is widely used in Greece, Rome, and Egypt. The herb became more popular in the Middle Ages because a number of people started to suffer from different kinds of illness and chamomile was the easiest and tasteful remedy. Furthermore, it is native across the world with many countries cultivating the herb like Egypt, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Morocco and different parts of Eastern Europe.
The beautiful chamomile flowers blossom every summer which feature its golden color and fruity taste.
Components of Chamomile
Organic chamomile tea benefits are directed to its active ingredients that are said to have healing properties such as volatile oils (for example: bisabolol, matricin, and bisabolol oxide A and B), flavonoids that have antioxidant properties, and other therapeutic compounds.
Health Benefits of Chamomile Tea
The Herb Wisdom tackled the benefits of drinking chamomile tea. Surprisingly, there is an extensive scientific research performed at the plant for more than 20 years and confirmed its therapeutic benefits mainly antispasmodic. Antiseptic, antipyretic, antifungal, antibacterial and anti-allergenic.
One of the most popular is the health benefits of chamomile tea to sleep and anxiety since many people claimed that it helps them relax and sleep better. People with insomnia are also advised to take chamomile as a supplement rather than taking a medicine. The plant kind of has mild sedating properties that promote better and faster sleep. The Style Craze mentioned regular intake can eliminate troublesome sleep.
Anxiety is also treated using chamomile with the help of its wonderful fragrance which helps anyone relax. Studies said that the tea contains chemicals like luteolin and apigenin that promotes relaxation.
In addition, chamomile boosts the immune system to fight cold and common infections. It contains good anti-bacterial properties that will prevent the person from getting sick right away.
Its anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic properties sooth intestinal cramps. So if you are asking, "Is chamomile extract tea good for you?" Then go try ahead and see that it helps especially for people with an upset stomach.
Furthermore, girls suffering from menstrual cramps and abnormally painful periods can take chamomile since it is already proven to be safe to ease that trouble away. It has high levels of amino acid glycine that reduces muscle spasms.
Lastly, chamomile tea provides relief from headaches as mentioned in the Health Site. Migraines, for example, is a common illness that many are complaining of so the best and natural way to counteract it is to take chamomile tea.
Chamomile Tea Recipe
The first thing to do is know where to buy chamomile leaves tea so the leaves can be used to brew fresh tea. Now, get 2-3 teaspoons of the leaves and boil it with a cup of water. Leave it for 3 minutes to allow infusion and strain to remove leaves before drinking. Lemon and honey can be added for sweetened taste.
Photo Credits
The post The Health Benefits of Chamomile Tea appeared first on Chamomile Tea.


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dress (up) as (someone or something)(redirected from dress as you)
dress (up) as (someone or something)
1. To wear clothing or accessories that cause one to look like someone or something else. My daughter plans to dress up as Cinderella for Halloween.
2. To outfit someone or something in clothing or accessories. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "dress" and "up" or "as" (if "up" is not being used). I have a friend who really enjoys dressing her dachshund as different historical figures.
See also: dress
dress (up) as someone or something
to dress in the manner of someone or something. l am going to dress up as a ghost for Halloween. Larry will dress up as the pumpkin from Cinderella.
See also: dress


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GeneXpert® XVI
Fully integrated and automated on-demand molecular diagnostic system.Ordering Info
While implementing rapid MRSA surveillance testing with the GeneXpert® System, there were 138 patient care days saved and 230 more admissions, generating additional revenue of $1,150,000 during the 2007 – 2008 period."
- Denise Uettwiller-Geiger, Ph.D., DLM (ASCP) Director of Laboratory Services and Clinical Trials
John T. Mather Memorial Hospital
We can't think of better words than "game changing".
Improving patient outcomes is the primary goal of any diagnostic system. But our GeneXpert® family of systems have set a new standard in workflow flexibility, 24/7 testing accuracy, and user-friendly design — delivered in an astonishingly beautiful and compact package.
But we've done more than just repackage a good thing — we've improved on the fit, form, and function of the most popular molecular diagnostic platform on the market. GeneXpert System technology is the cornerstone of our unique approach to a molecular diagnostics product suite, which allows us to offer a complete menu of tests on a single, fully scalable, consolidated workstation.
The GeneXpert System is available in a one, two, four, 16, 48, or 80-module configuration. All have our proven GeneXpert module at their analytic heart, and use the same patented cartridge technology for every Xpert® test.
- Adding Institutional Value with a GeneXpert System
- Cepheid - Our Vision for a Better Way
- Catalog #:GXXVI-16-D
GeneXpert XVI
- Catalog #:GXXVI-16-L
GeneXpert XVI
- How can I place an order?
Submit your request using ourCall
+33 563 82 53 00, select option 1.
- What is the GeneXpert® System?
The GeneXpert Dx System automates and integrates sample preparation, nucleic acid amplification, and detection of the target sequence in simple or complex samples using real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The system is suited for in vitro diagnostic and research based applications that require hands-off processing of patient samples (specimens) and provides both summarized and detailed test results data in tabular and graphic formats. The GeneXpert system can only be used with the GeneXpert cartridge.
- What dyes can be used on the GeneXpert DX system?
The GeneXpert (Diagnostic System) is calibrated with FAM, Alexa Fluor532, Texas Red, and Alexa Fluor647.
- What assays can I run on the GeneXpert DX System?
The GeneXpert® Dx system can run a number of assays developed by Cepheid. Please refer to the products section of our website.
- Can I connect a different scanner or change the configuration?
No, we can only support the components that are shipped with the system. Do not replace or reconfigure any of the components. Using non-approved components can produce invalid results, cause loss of data, or damage other system components.
- How do I archive a test?
Click on Data Management/ Archive Test and click on the test(s) you wish to archive. Click Archive and follow the defaults. When emailing an archive run, do not use a Yahoo account or a MAC computer. Also, some filters may remove the .gxx extension. If this happens, change it to anything but .txt.
- How many GX instruments can be hooked up to a computer system?
The computer can support 1 GX instrument. However, we have an Ethernet switch (Cepheid part number 800-0038) to allow up to 4 GX instruments to work with a computer system. This would allow for up to 16 samples to be run on the GeneXpert System.
- Is the GeneXpert®Dx System licensed to perform PCR?
Conveyed with the purchase of real-time thermal cycler are the licensing rights to perform the patented real-time polymerase chain reaction process on the GeneXpert® under Applera's European Patent No. EP 0 872 562, Japanese Patent No. JP 3136129 and patents pending, for all field including human in vitro diagnostics except for diagnosis and monitoring of HIV and HCV infections.
- What dyes can be used on the GeneXpert Biothreat system?
The GeneXpert (Biothreat System) is calibrated with FAM, VIC, DRox and LIZ
- What is the cartridge?
Disposable, single-use GeneXpert Dx cartridge holds the samples and reagents that you want to process in the GeneXpert Dx System. Each cartridge consists of the following components:
- Processing chambers-Hold samples, reagents, processed sample, and waste solutions. One chamber is designated as an air chamber to equilibrate pressures within the cartridge.
- Valve body-Rotates and allows fluid to move to different cartridge chambers and to the reaction tube. Within the valve body, the specimen is isolated, PCR inhibitors are removed, and specimens are ultrasonically lysed (if applicable). After the sample is processed, it is mixed with PCR reagents and moved into the integrated reaction tube.
- Reaction tube-Enables rapid thermal cycling and optical excitation and detection of the tube contents. The reaction tube is automatically inserted into the I-CORE module after the cartridge is loaded into the instrument.
- The GeneXpert cartridges are not supplied with the Cepheid. Contact Cepheid Customer Service to order the assay specific cartridges: 1-888-838-3222 Option 1
Please refer to the website for further details regarding the GeneXpert® technology.
- What symbology is supported with the 2D scanner?
Codes 39 and 128 are supported.


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Q. Kevin, What is your advice on making cash sales from here on out? My crop looks "ok," not devastated, but the top-end is probably gone. My guess is, I am about 30% sold at an average of about $6.00 right now. I have great storage and can easily store my remaining unsold production. I also have a chance to lock in some nitrogen for 2013 and was wondering your thoughts.
A. Locking in prices for 2013 on a percentage of your inputs is highly advisable, especially with corn prices trending higher. All I suggest is that if you lock in your inputs, you turn right around and lock in a percentage of 2013 sales as well. There is nothing worse than locking in your inputs at the higher end of the range and then watching corn prices fall apart as you move closer to harvest. If you are locking in inputs you may want to consider the inverted SEP13 contract as a target for sales. With prices approaching $6.20 per bushel, I am certain you can lock in a very good profit. Those who are comfortable using options on the board can consider buying SEP13 corn puts and selling out-of-the-money calls to help finance the positions. Remember, these can be costly to hold so I would only suggest small doses at this juncture. As for your remaining 2012 production, take 30% out of the equation and move it to the sideline, especially since you have good storage. This should keep us somewhat safe in the event something unforeseen happens to your crop. I am assuming you have insurance that will cover you up to 70-80% of your estimated production in case of a catastrophe into harvest. The remaining 40% that you have "unpriced" will be what we target during the next several weeks. My suggestion is to divide this 40% out into 6-8 equal increments. From here I would start building a timetable and price targets for pricing these bushels. Basically you have 6-8 bullets in the gun and you will want to take your shots between now and harvest (at the latest). I am NOT saying the top is here, but if I were in your position I might fire off a few rounds before the USDA report on July 11th. In my opinion, there is no need for re-wonership after making these sales because you still have 30% of your estimated production unpriced. As we work closer to harvest you will also need to consider building a floor under the 30% you are holding back. Buying puts or building some type of bear-put spread would make the most sense at this time. From what I have seen, you can buy MAR13 $6.50 puts for about $0.50 cents which insures you $6.00 corn with unlimited upside, not a bad play. If you are wanting to reduce your expenses and raise your floor you can consider buying the MAR13 $6.50 put and selling the $7.50 call for about $0.20 cents. This gives you a floor at $6.30 and HTA type sales at $7.30, if we should continue to push higher. Hope this give you some ideas.
We are making some moves in response to what the market is showing us. You can sign-up here to receive a FREE trial of my Daily Grain and Livestock commentary in which you will see where I stand on cash sales and some strategies on how you can take advantage of "Money-Flow" and the Outside Markets. Just click here - Van Trump Report


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Bold, new public-private partnership launches series of neighborhood environmental initiatives that help tackle climate change and offer quality of life benefits for the City of Chicago
The Climate Group, in collaboration with Chicago 2016 and the City of Chicago (a member of The Climate Group), today officially launches Forward Chicago, a unique public-private partnership that engages leading area businesses and local, non-profit organizations.
By bringing together the resources and expertise of the public and private communities, Forward Chicago seeks to help the city achieve its greenhouse-gas emissions reduction targets, "green" the bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and leave an environmental legacy for all Chicago residents.
"Forward Chicago is a unique public-private partnership that brings together Chicago's corporate and non-profit communities to support our Climate Action Plan, make our 2016 Olympic bid the greenest ever and help improve the quality of life for all Chicagoans," said Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
"This effort seeks to help the city achieve its greenhouse-gas emissions reduction targets by combining the resources and expertise of leading Chicago-area businesses, non-profit organizations, the Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee and the City of Chicago. I want to thank all of our partners who have helped us get Forward Chicago up and running. And I encourage other businesses to get active with this program."
In June 2008, The Climate Group and Chicago 2016 introduced 21st Century Green Centers, geographically targeted areas surrounding proposed Olympic and Paralympic venues, a concept that was born out of Chicago 2016's environmental advisory council. Forward Chicago furthers this initiative by providing an ongoing platform for the program's partners and participating companies to work collaboratively to make Chicago the greenest, most environmentally friendly city in the country.
Companies that have signed on as Forward Chicago Founders include Motorola, Exelon, Allstate, Abbott, Baxter International Inc., HSBC-North America, ComEd, MWH and Corn Products International, Inc. Forward Chicago non-profit and government Partners include the City of Chicago, Chicago 2016, Chicago Public Schools, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Friends of the Chicago River and ICLEI .
"The environment has always been a top priority for the City of Chicago, the bid committee and the Olympic Movement, and we want to continue to employ innovative programs and become a model for our country and beyond," said Lori Healey, president of Chicago 2016.
"The powerful combination of business, non-profit and government partners will heighten the development of 21st Century Green Centers around the proposed Olympic and Paralympic venues."
"We are pleased to work with the City of Chicago, Chicago 2016 and our other Forward Chicago partners to advance the corporate community's commitment to Chicago's Climate Action Plan," said Michael Allegretti, The Climate Group's Head of Government Relations, North America.
"Through this ongoing partnership, we look forward to helping Mayor Daley achieve his ambitious plans to reduce the city's greenhouse emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2020, and to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050."
Based on existing research, Forward Chicago has identified the three major environmental challenges facing Chicago's neighborhoods: urban heat island effect, open space and greening and flooding. Each 21st Century Green Center will feature business and non-profits working together, focusing on various sustainability initiatives that support Mayor Richard M. Daley's ambitious plans to make Chicago the most environmentally friendly city in the country.
Forward Chicago's Founding companies will be supporting the following initiatives in and around the 21st Century Green Centers: Through Forward Chicago, Abbott is sponsoring the City of Chicago's $800 Challenge, an environmental initiative that empowers Chicagoans to take ten easy steps to reduce emissions and save up to $800 or more at the same time.
Exelon volunteers will work with Friends of the Parks to plant trees in Washington Park that will displace nearly two metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Motorola will install solar panels on two public schools, supplying the schools with up to 3 Kilowatts of green energy per year. Information about these renewable energy systems will be incorporated into the students' curriculum to provide hands-on, experiential learning opportunities.
Forward Chicago Founders including Allstate, Baxter, Corn Products International and ComEd will be supporting Chicago Public Schools by sponsoring student environmental clubs and working with students to build school "raingardens" that minimize flooding and provide green outdoor learning environments.
n the Ryan Field 21st Century Green Center, HSBC's employee volunteers will build a rain garden that employs native plant species to alleviate runoff into the Chicago River and reduce field maintenance costs.
MWH will develop an implementation plan for new "stormwater landscapes", which utilize vacant land to detain urban runoff and increase overall permeability to reduce the load on the city's sewer system - the main cause of Chicagoan's flooding complaints.