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1. Never spun before?
Great! We'll take you from zero to hero in an afternoon. This system is designed with the beginner in mind.
2. Already proficient?
This system will show you how break down moves in a way that allows you to unlock and achieve any skill you see. This how-to will also give you the Cheetah Codes, AKA the mental techniques that accelerate your ability to unlock big new moves at lightspeed.
Bonus gift! When you purchase the download, we're also going to give you a video tutorial that shows you how to assemble a totally workable starter staff for about 10 bucks worth of materials from the hardware store.
It's called a Fastaff and it's a surprisngly competent starter staff. It does everything you need it to in the initial exercises.
The Fastaff won't be your ultimate weapon of mass instruction, but it does means you can start leveling up immediately. Hence the name.
Bonus-Bonus level:That ten bucks will actually get you 2 full FastStaffs. So you can dual-wield or give one to a friend. Score!
It's highly advised that you make a day out of this, and really sync into it. So here's a free Prep plan that will give you some ideas on how to optimize the experience. (And yourself.)
Level 0.1. Prep properly.
Anytime you take on any significant endeavor, set yourself up to succeed. Gather what you need to proceed at speed.
Level. 0.2 -Free your mind, Neo.
This is the single most important part of the prep. This is going to be very different than whatever you think it might be like, so please let go of any and all expectations. Just go with the (Kung) flow.
Note: There's a good 20 minutes worth of theory to install before you even pick up the staff. Be ready for that. This is because we approach learning from the mind. This is the difference between KF and other tutorials. We're going to give you techniques that allow you to blast past the 1.0 ways of learning physical skills.
Quite often I will instruct you to do something that makes no sense what-so-ever in the moment. This is always for a reason. If you are able to take the direction, you will go further, faster. I promise.
Some of the information I'm going impart will also directly challenge long held beliefs. I'm going to use computers to prove to you that you are already incredibly powerful, more than able to accomplish anything you set your unlocked mind to.
What I'm about to share with you about you is so good, it may be hard to believe at first. But it is all true, a simple mathematical matter of science.
I won't ask you to take anything at face value though. I encourage you to research everything for yourself, in order to ensure veracity. I also encourage you to question everything, and most importantly, offer me constructive criticism and corrections.
If I'm doing something wrong, inefficiently, or in any way less than optimal, please let me know ASAP so that I can make it better. I am going to make a lot of mistakes during this process.
And that's totally cool, because Kung Flow is a mistake based learning system. We are not only OK with making mistakes, we expect them and appreciate them.
(In free-form contact staff spinning, quite often the "mistake" becomes the mind blowing new move no one ever even thought of before.)
This realization was one of the turning points of my life. It unlocked everything. Happily, I was able to realize there is exactly zero shame in an honest mistake, just an opportunity to level up if you can bypass the ego game.
I'm now one of the rare people that actually appreciates it when you point out an error or deficiency of mine. So feel encouraged to offer and all feedback, suggestions and corrections.
One of the things I allow myself to be proud of, is my ability to put my ego aside in order to serve the greater good. Which brings us to an extremely important point.
While I will be directing the approach and delivery of the online version of Kung Flow, my intention/hope/request is that this system becomes a community effort fully optimized by crowdsourcery.
Like I said, I need help. I'm great in person, but creating a static program is an entirely new endeavor for me. So only you can say what works and what doesn't.
Please also know that I will be overjoyed when you find a glitch of mine, or a way to upgrade the approach. If it's really good, I might just send you a free saber, or a coupon for Fro-yo or something.
PREP LEVEL 0.3. Staff Up.
We'd love it if you bought one of our SmartStaffs. But it's not necessary.
The initial phases of the Kung Flow download can be accomplished with something as easily obtained as a broomstick. Just make sure the staff is around chin high, perfectly straight, and the weight is evenly distributed from end to end.
Make sure it is perfectly round and smooth, so you don't cut your hands or get splinters when you spin. Any sharp edge on a saber hilt is a bad idea.
Being at this level means you have already unlocked a free schematic that will show you exactly how to assemble a Faststaff.
Personally, I'd suggest taking the time to make/acquire a staff you really, really like. If I do my job right, you're going to go on the same IRL epic adventure quest the staff propelled me onto. Having a saberstaff you connect with really adds to the fun of that.
I highly recommend against using a combat grade staff. Right now the only person you're going to hit you is you, so play for that. We'll get further into why weapons work against your RSA in the video portion. (Rapid Skill Acquistion.)
Also, you can learn on a sword. Just like you could learn to ski on a black diamond run, or learn to drive in LA during rush hour, or learn how to ride a bike on a unicycle.
Could and should are very different things. If you're new to spinning, I highly recommend using a staff to achieve the skill, then transferring the skill over to your saber. This approch will speed you through the learning curve.
PREP 0.4 Set the Space.
You're going to need enough room to spin, and drop, a five foot staff at speed. Repeatedly.
You're also going to be exploring the inner workings of your mind, so try to find somewhere you won't be hindered or interrupted in any way.
Make a day of it if you can. Best bet would to download the lessons onto your laptop, tablet or phone, and find a quiet, tranquil spot somewhere high up in mountains, preferably near big trees, and really sink in to this.
For those of you that just said "Yeah right.", I feel you. It's getting harder and harder to secure some personal space.
So if you have to spin in your living room like I did, PLEASE move the lamps, cover the flatscreen, and lock your little brother in the hall closet. (Don't do that. )
What I hope happens is that I impart the techniques properly, and you spend all day in a hyper-trance, unlocking and honing a surprisingly large number of sweet saber skills at speed.
So I highly advise laying out everything you're going to need like a surgeon before a heart transplant, so that you don't have to break the flow until you're ready to stop.
PREP. 0.5: Kung Fuel up your tank.
The physical and mental processes both require the right fuel in order to run optimally. The goal is to be able to hyper-clock our super-conscious drives, (We'll cover it.) so we really need to be on point with this.
Here are our fuel sources, in order of importance.
0.5.1 Air.
We burn oxygen as our primary fuel. For some reason we are not taught how to breathe properly. (Or in my case, at all. Yay public school.) I am not qualified to offer expert advice in this area, so I will ask you to spend some time learning from those who are.
If you want a starting point, I took a class from David Beaudry from Qi Revolution and was deeply impressed with him. http://iamdavidbeaudry.com/
0.5.2 Water.
Water is our secondary fuel source. It also acts as a coolant, lubricant, burns fat, aids digestion, flushes toxins, and does a ton of other really great things for us.
Many of us are actually spending most of our lives a bit dehydrated. Adequately hydrating is a major game changer. Find out what you need and make sure you get it.
Start now. You'll be amazed at how much better you feel.
For unlocking day, make sure you have way more than you think you need on hand. Especially those of you who are just getting back to fitness, or live in an area where safe H20 doesn't come out of the tap.
Pro-Tip. Now that bottled water is a commodity, I found that I wasn't drinking enough, because I wanted to be "cost conscious". That is not smart thinking. If you have to purchase water, do so abundantly. Nothing you can buy will be better for you.
Also, some expensive bottled water is just tap water. Do your research and find out where the good spring water in your area comes from.
0.5.3 Kung Food.
If you truly want to attain the advanced levels, you have to eat well. You can have the keys to a 727 horsepower dragster, but if you put nothing but Cheeto's in the tank it's going nowhere fast.
We'll get more into that in the forum, but for now, know that your brain needs protein to think, and the body needs quality carbs and fat to burn. A big part of what we're going to do as a community is get to the bottom of what is and what isn't good for us. So much of what we were taught is wrong.
Organic food is more expensive, but it's the second most important thing to allot your money to.
If you do plan on immersing yourself in the unlocking process for more than an hour or two, pack some healthy snacks so you can recharge as necessary.
As a random note, I've found that Reishi and Lions Mane mushrooms are very good for my training days. I just seem to think more clearly and have more energy when I add them to my meals.
Spinning a SmartSaber is 90% mental. Power up accordingly.
0.5.4. Tune up your Music.
Music as a fuel? That's kind of a M. Knight Shyamalam level plot twist to throw in at the end, I know. But it's also totally true.
Think about it this way, food goes in your mouth, music goes in your ear. Both cause chemical reactions that can give you energy, or drop your mood down.
The right music can pump you up, and help you blast past the blocks. If it gets your Adrenalin pumping in a healthy and heroic way, you're doing it right.
If you don't have a stereo to bump, put an MP3 player in your back pocket, run the headphone cord up your back, inside your shirt, up to your ears. Sport buds with clips are preferable and not too expensive.
Front pants pocket will work, but the mp3 player may take a few hits along the way. Best place is up against the base of your spine. You can usually procure a workout belt at a thriftstore for a few bucks.
Uplifting trance and liquid drum-n-bass are especially well suited to what we're exploring here.
Let's please start a playlist thread in the forum ASAP. On that note: We have a ton of pro-tips on how to optimize practice sessions. The forum is getting built as we speak, and there will be a dedicated section to these kind of hacks.
Remember kids, Dubstep leads to Dubpression.
PREP LEVEL 0.5.5. Take Note.
If all goes according to plan, you are going to give yourself some incredibly important insights into your own operating systems, so I'd suggest keeping a log of what you learned.
There's a certain magic in writing these insights out by hand. It allows you to capture all your cognitive hyper-links, while also burning them deeper into your mind.
I've had the biggest cognitive break-throughs of my life while spinning. The excellent book, "The Rise of Superman, decoding the Science of Flow" will explain exactly why that happens.
Also, PLEASE take note of my mistakes, so that you can bring them to my attention in the forum. Your feedback is imperative, so that we can get this right.
I detest how low-pro the tutorial looks right now, but it makes no sense to spend money on production values until the content is fully dialed in.
PREP LEVEL 0.6: Fast Friends.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with a group.
I love this old African proverb. It's proven so true for me.
I had the best, most exhilarating time of my life mastering the staff. The only way it could have been better is if I had a partner or two billion to share the ride with.
If you've got a fast friend, or better yet a tight crew of riders who are ready to level up to actual hero status and use their epic saber skills to save the real world in real time, more power to you.
Make that happen. Go camping, make a day out of it.
Let's be honest, we both know you can buy one download and share it with 10 people on a Saturday, and there's not much I can do about that.
Here's the thing. I'm totally cool with that. Money is not the first consideration here.
I believe the work will speak for itself. I'm trusting that I will somehow come out OK in the end. So do what you think is best. If your friends receive any value, please suggest they try to shoot a few ducats my way when you can. I do have to pay rent, and my current car was most likely imported in on the Mayflower…
(PayPal is firstname.lastname@example.com.)
Some my advisers have worried about my faith in the honor system. What they don't yet grasp is that the people that are attracted to the enlightening saber are already likely to live with a high level of integrity. We'll see.
Probably the biggest part of the challenge on my end, is figuring out how to help you see into your blind spots. Those dark corners are where all the magic is stashed.
Also, its not so much that we're adding in new power, so much as we're stripping away self imposed limits. Limiting self belief programs are the things that keep us from harnessing our full capacity.
The limits live in our blindspots.
The problem is that most of us have been conditioned to ignore and/or deny the ubiquitous glitches, knowledge gaps, and limiting self belief programs that we've all been unfairly saddled with.
Our blind spots keep us from becoming aware of our blind spots.
This keeps us in the dark about them, doomed to keep repeating problems without progress.
Don't think you have any blindspots? This should prove I-opening.
For example, I caught myself drilling a move (repeated attempts in order to gain mastery over a single skill) over and over again without progressing , not realizing I had wasted several hours, and endured a ton of unnecessary blunt trauma. All I was doing was making the same mistake in slightly different ways.
This was what illuminated the need to develop Secondary Self Awareness. This is when you are able to accurately assess your own cognitive processes, even when you really dislike what you see.
The staff was the thing that finally alerted me to just how self-defeating I had become. Blunt trauma is a very compelling teacher.
Gaining the ability to honestly and accurately self-diagnose our glitches is what truly rockets us forward. So we're going to dive deep up into that.
I know I'm going to need your input on that one. It's quite easy for me to help with that in person, but we have to think in terms of conveying that skill to a mass audience via an online video.
I know a bunch of you are going to have to take this path on solo for a while, so we need to come up with a way for the average person to gain the skill on their own.
We all have some holes in our armor, and they're usually somewhere we can't see them. At some point, you're going to need a second point of perception. This is where You-Tubiquity comes into play in our favor. We'll be able to spot for each other via video, and offer guidance.
If you are lucky enough to have a fast friend, the kind that will tell you exactly how, where and why you're messing up, that is your best ally against mediocrity.
And if that fast friend can call you on your BS, and make you laugh about it, treat them like treasure. Because that's exactly what they are. That skill is the mark of a Master.
PREP LEVEL 0.7. Suit yourself Up.
Clothes matter. A lot. Look the part. Engage the archetype.
Another non-obvious suggestion. I'm not saying go out and spend 800 dollars on custom bathrobes, but I can confidently say that I train way better when I dress sharp.
The bigger goal here is for you to achieve real life Super-hero status. Looking the part helps you feel the part.
Feeling the part helps you gain the skills that let other people know you are a person of consequence.
No comic book cover was ever graced by a guy in pizza stained sweat pants, rocking house slippers and an Ed Hardly Snuggie.
If you think you look good, you feel better. This makes for better performance. Also, if you're on the "path" from the Disney owned movie that shall not be named, it's going to be way more fun to dress the part while you install the system. 🙂
PREP LEVEL 0.8 Hit Record.
You might want to have camera on hand, to record your progress. This will also help you suss out errors. Also, if you intend to utilize the affiliate program, the excitement on your face will probably be the best online interest driver.
And perhaps the most important prep note:
Create ways for this to be more fun for you. Do what you like.
It's your system now. Custom tailor it to suit your needs. If you like bagpipe based EDM, rock that. If your alter-ego character is half were-wolf, half Harajuku girl, rock that.
Just have fun. Fun is the secret to unlocking new levels at lightspeed.
And once again, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!


text:
"Please note that this web site is not aimed at consumers as the information herein
contained does not make reference to finished products".
Rauvolfia vomitoria Afz.
Root bark
≥98% ≤102% by potentiometry
Please note that this documentation is available for various countries all over the world and hence it may contain statements not applicable to your country.

subset: commoncrawl


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Original URL: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/18/ibm_q3_2010_numbers/
IBM hits $24bn target thanks to big iron
Big Blue: less profitable than Apple
Posted in Business, 18th October 2010 23:01 GMT
People expecting some big and pleasant surprises out of Big Blue in its third quarter are probably going to be disappointed that IBM did exactly and precisely what it said it would do. Revenues were up 3 per cent to $24.3bn, and net income climbed 11.7 per cent to $3.6bn.
To help generate some enthusiasm for IBM's share price, Mark Loughridge, IBM's chief financial officer, made much ado early in his call with Wall Street analysts that about IBM raising its 2010 earnings per share guidance by 15 cents, to hit at least $11.40 this year. But that went a bit flat when the very first question during Q&A session made Loug[hridge admit that the extra 15 cents came exclusively through lower taxes paid to Uncle Sam in the third and fourth quarters. It was not anything that Big Sam was doing to boost the top line or expand the bottom line.
Oh, and by the way, it is interesting to note that Apple reported its financials at the same time today, breaking through the $20bn barrier for the first time in its history. Apple hit $20.3bn in sales for its fiscal fourth quarter ended September 25 and brought $4.3bn to the bottom line. Yes, Apple is nearly as big as Big Blue and it is more profitable. There ain't no app for that. Unless IBM merges with SAP and takes the fight to Oracle.
In the third quarter ended September 30, IBM's Systems and Technology Group, which is still being reported separately even though it was merged with the Software Group back in July, was the hero of the people this time around, with the new System zEnterprise 196 mainframes finally starting to pull a little of their weight and the high-end Power 795 and entry Power7-based servers starting to get a few weeks of traction in the quarter. Services continues to be problematic, but the situation is improving, and software sales just keep chugging along and are expected to accelerate into the fourth quarter alongside hardware sales, according to Loughridge.
IBM's Systems and Technology Group, which makes servers, disk and tape storage, chips, and other hardware, grew revenues by 10.4 per cent to $4.33bn. This is the best growth IBM's hardware business has posted in six years, said Loughridge.
This group saw 25 per cent growth (at constant currency) in the growth markets IBM is chasing like an old border collie racing down the country road after a car, and sales in Brazil, Russia, India, and China were up 40 per cent. System z mainframe sales rose by 15 per cent and aggregate MIPS (the ancient measure of relative performance for mainframes) shipped in the quarter was up by 54 per cent, which Loughridge said was the highest growth that Big Blue had seen in six years for its mainframe line. This is pretty good considering that the System z196 mainframes did not ship until late in the third quarter, and the so-called "system of systems" zBX Power and x64 blade extensions to the mainframe won't ship until later in the fourth quarter.
Big Blue's Power Systems business continues to slide, and Loughridge made excuses about product transitions that have been plaguing the Power-based lineup since this time last year. IBM's rollout of Power7 chips was choppy, with midrange and blades coming out in February, bigger boxes in April, and the entry and big iron boxes in August. With the entire Power Systems product line refreshed and the AIX 7.1 and IBM i 7.1 operating systems now shipping, the company has run out of excuses. The good news is that midrange Power7 sales were up 11 per cent compared to a year ago, so perhaps the rest of the Power Systems product line will catch up. This is undoubtedly the plan. Loughridge said IBM did 250 competitive Unix takeouts in the quarter, and these deals brought in an incremental $225m in revenue (including hardware, software, and services).
IBM doesn't give out precise revenue levels for its myriad branded products, but it is a safe bet that even with the mainframe bounce, the System x rack and tower and BladeCenter blade server businesses were together larger than IBM's mainframe or Unix businesses individually. The System x revenue (which includes BladeCenters sold with x64 processors) had a 30 per cent bump in sales, and IBM's high-end eX5 four- and eight-socket machines (based on Intel's Xeon 7500s) helped push up high-end System x sales by 27 per cent.
Loughridge said that IBM believes in gained share in both the Unix and x64 server spaces in Q3; IBM can't gain share in the mainframe market because it has no competition.
On the storage front, IBM said that storage hardware sales were up 7 per cent worldwide and rose by 23 percent in the growth markets. Disk array sales were up 14 per cent with DS8000 and XIV high-end arrays pulling the oars hard. IBM added 130 new customers for XIV clustered arrays and nearly doubled revenues from a year ago and when asked about acquisitions, Loughridge said, "Frankly, XIV has been one of the best acquisitions that IBM has done."
IBM's Microelectronics had a 28 per cent increase in sales in the quarter, and when you add it all up, pre-tax income for STG was $327m, up 45.6 per cent.
The softer side of Big Blue
If the hardware bump gave IBM some of the growth it managed to squeeze out of the IT racket, Software Group continues to be the profit engine. Software Group posted sales of $5.15bn in the third quarter, up a mere seven-tenths of a percent because IBM sold off its PLM software business to Dassault Systemes earlier this year, but up 4 per cent if you exclude that. IBM's WebSphere middleware product line, which has been bolstered by a bunch of acquisitions in the past two years, had a 14 per cent revenue bump, with databases and other information management tools up 5 per cent in the quarter.
Tivoli system management tools had a good quarter, too, with sales up 9 percent, with storage management products growing 20 per cent and security software up in the double digits. Lotus and Rational kind of stumbled along flatly in Q3 as these units have been doing for a while.
IBM's key branded middleware grew at 7 per cent, while the total middleware grew at only 3 per cent, which means that other middleware (predominantly on mainframes) and operating system sales declined.
The Global Services behemoth continues to dominate Big Blue in terms of revenues, with $14.1bn in sales, but up only 2.1 per cent compared to the year-ago quarter. While the Global Business Services unit, which does business process re-engineering and outsourcing, saw 5.4 per cent growth in the quarter, with $4.57bn in sales, the Global Technology Services unit, which does outsourcing, systems integration, and hardware maintenance, only had seven-tenths of a per cent of growth, to $9.5bn.
IBM's services backlog stood at $134bn at the end of the third quarter, up $5bn compared to the second quarter but flat year-on-year. IBM had $5.7bn in outsourcing signings in the quarter (including application outsourcing), down 15 per cent, while the transactional services businesses (systems integration, consulting, and application integration) had $5.4bn in signings, up 4 per cent.
On a geographical basis, IBM's sales in the Americas region rose by 3 per cent to $10.2bn in the third quarter (up only 2 per cent at constant currency, though), while revenues in the EMEA region were $7.4bnm, down 6 per cent as reported but up 1 per cent in local currencies. The Asia/Pacific region was the growth engine for Big Blue in Q3, with sales up 14 per cent (7 per cent in constant currency) to 5.9bn. IBM's OEM technology sales were $806m, up 27 per cent.
Loughridge was happy enough with growth in North America and Europe because they were a point or two better than in the second quarter, and Japan saw the first growth "in a long time" for IBM. But this is anemic compared to the BRIC countries, which had a 29 per cent revenue spike for Big Blue, and 28 other growth companies that IBM is pursuing had a combined double-digit revenue growth. Loughridge said that in 2008 the growth markets had revenue growth rates that were 8 points ahead of these major markets, and as 2010 has gone on, the gap is now 12 points.
"The growth markets are just out of the blocks faster than the majors," Loughridge said.
The fact that companies like IBM are constantly firing people in those major economies and hiring cheaper labor in those growth markets never seems to come up in the conversation. Funny, that. ®


text: From the combine: Andy Reid gets a hug from his old Eagles buddy, talks about the future in Kansas City (Video)Doug FarrarShutdown CornerFebruary 22, 2013INDIANAPOLIS -- it was the first time in Andy Reid's 14-year career as a head coach that he spoke to the media at the scouting combine, and his podium session on Thursday started off with an interesting and emotional moment -- as current Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman left the podium from his own media session, he saw the coach he helped fire, shouted, "Andy!," and the two men shared an embrace.From there, Reid's thoughts were mostly about the future."I am fired up to be here," Reid said of his new home in the Midwest. "I haven't been able to talk with you guys much, we're getting everything moved in, in Kansas City, and getting settled down a little bit. I am looking forward to this whole process that we are going through here with the combine and all the personnel decisions that need to be made in the next few months here. [New Chiefs general manager] John Dorsey and I have had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time together here over the last few weeks and he's had the opportunity to also have the scouts in here for a couple weeks and me with them. The process is in full movement ahead, and we'll see how things work out as time goes on."Reid then talked about a quarterback situation in Kansas City that has many people wondering of the Chiefs will try to trade for current Eagles quarterback Nick Foles, or take West Virginia's Geno Smith with the first overall pick, which Reid owns for the first time in his coaching career. Between Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn, there isn't much to see based on the 2012 Chiefs' game tape."He's not available," Reid said of Foles, giving the same standard answer any coach or GM gives when asked about specific players who are not on the open market. You just had Howie up here, so I think you know that. I'm glad you asked the question. I miss that. Listen, Nick is the property of the Philadelphia Eagles, and I think they like him. I've had the opportunity to go through and look at the quarterbacks. I think that Scott Pioli did a good job of bringing guys in to give us an opportunity to win games with some of the guys that are there. Again, we are going to go through the whole process of looking at the college kids that are here, free agency and any trade possibilities that come up."Story ContinuesAfter a very rough final year in Philly, Reid certainly looked regenerated and ready to roll with the challenge of coaching a new team.


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No doubt you have all heard of Yellow Bamboo, the self proclaimed self-development, protection, healing and white magic non-profit association (1) based in Bali, which boasts over 30,000 (unconfirmed) practitioners worldwide. Proponents of Yellow Bamboo (YB from now on) claim that performing certain exercises in order to cultivate and direct your "chi" grants the practitioner powers that can only be described as magic, and that include levitation, longevity, healing, and, last but not least, the ability to knock down an aggressor from a distance, without making any contact. For those interested, you can take a look at what a part of their training routine looks like here.
In addition to making such extraordinary claims, YB practitioners are notorious for spamming internet communities dedicated to the practice of martial arts of all sorts in order to attract more converts into their organization. This practice has led to a number of internet confrontations and challenges, as it usually is the case with such things, none of them have ever been carried through from the interenet to real life; until now, that is.
What started as a series of discussion on the usenet group rec.martial-arts, spanning at least a couple of years of heated debate, has finally matured into a physical test of these supposedly magical powers, announced in a post here.
Two Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners from Australia (THEMAD1 and GreenStar) have stepped forward to challenge their local YB representative to prove once and for all that no-touch or Chi knockouts are, and have always been, complete and utter bullshit. The test was set up as follows. The YB practitioner assumes a stance on the sand and is given time to prepare his Chi in accordance with YB practices. The challenger then runs 20 feet across the sand and attacks the YB practitioner. As the challenger is making his run, the YB practitioner has to effectively disable or deflect him using his chi. Here's how it played out.
1) www.yellowbamboo.com


text:
Leave your mark at Cadillac Ranch
Published 5:30 am, Saturday, June 23, 2007
AMARILLO — The legendary Cadillac Ranch rises without warning on a humdrum stretch of Interstate 40 west of Amarillo.
Ten Cadillacs are parked face-down in the dirt with trunks and torsos exposed. There is no sign, no admission. Just a metal gate opening onto a dirt path that leads to the cars, all built between 1949 and 1963.
Empty cans of spray paint litter the area but, as landmarks go, Cadillac Ranch is cool and of the people, a place to leave your mark with paint, pen, whatever you've got. Most messages on the cars are road trips memorialized.
The ranch is a major international draw: The day we stopped, a man and woman wrote Rejean et Priscilla, 2007, Quebec on one car, and three tall blondes from Denmark asked me to take their picture.
If you're a repeat visitor, don't be thrown by the location: In 1997, after 23 years on the same spot, creator Stanley Marsh III shifted all the cars about two miles farther west to avoid the hassles of encroaching development.
Access www.visitamarillotx.com for information about this and other Amarillo attractions.


text: Pull up a seat, get comfy, and start here… LEARN MORE ABOUT JENN What everybody ought to know about Samhain… by Jenn | October 27, 2017 | body, Recipes, spirit | 0 Comments Soul Cakes 3 3/4 Cups Flour 1 Cup butter 2 Cups Sugar 1 teaspoon Cinnamon 1 teaspoon Ginger 1 teaspoon Allspice 1 teaspoon Nutmeg 2 eggs 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 3 tablespoons milk Put your flour in a large bowl and cut in the butter using a pastry blender,... Read More A Letter I Found by Jenn | June 22, 2017 | Emotions, mind | 0 Comments I wake up in the morning and if I dreamt the night before, I try to always write down what I remember before it escapes me. This morning as I was writing a letter feel out of my journal. I want to share this letter with you all now, to show you how the work of flower... Read More The truth about what frustrations, irritations and just giving up will really get you by Jenn | April 20, 2017 | LifeStyle, mind | 0 Comments facebook Follow Instagram Follow I was hoping this year would start off with an amazing bang of focus, drive and determination. And when I think about it, it did but dwindled rather quickly. At the beginning of the year I was making head way in what I wanted to create... Read More Disconnected and Depressed? You're not alone…Why not work with the energy that surrounds you instead of fighting it? by Jenn | January 20, 2017 | Emotions, LifeStyle, mind | 0 Comments This past week when I was with Greg to get his MRI, I ran into an old co-worker from the NRO. It was oh so good to see her she was someone, in a world that was drenched in ego, that really understood me. We spent time catching up on family members, to include our... Read More Full Moon Forecast and Flower Formula for September 2016 by Jenn | September 15, 2016 | Uncategorized | 0 Comments Sometimes with oppositions of the planets in the sky can create tensions in our lives. When we have a full moon setting, it is an opposition between the sun and moon in the sky. My sense is there is a strong energy going on right now of individuals seeing things in... Read More Looking for a place to... celebrate your accomplishments, express the challenges you are facing and be a part of unconditional love, fun and encouragement? Head on over here! Looking for a place to... celebrate your accomplishments, express the challenges you are facing and be a part of unconditional love, fun and encouragement? Head on over here!


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Now you know why Astros fans wanted George Springer so badly, why some screamed and yelled when he was nowhere to be seen on opening day. He wasn't the only hero of the night, but he might have been the most important.
Two innings after his home run tied the game Wednesday night, Springer called the winner.
Matt Dominguez banged one off the wall in right-center in the ninth inning, scoring Dexter Fowler from second to finish a 5-4 Astros walk-off over the Rangers, a team that has menaced the 'Stros for more than a year.
"When he came up, I told Bo (Porter), 'I'm ready to jump,'" Springer said.
The whole team is showing signs of life that would've sounded far-fetched just a couple weeks ago. A night after the Astros played their most complete game of the season at Minute Maid Park, they played their most exciting game of the season, overcoming a four-run deficit to win. The Rangers, who had won seven straight series over the Astros at Minute Maid — and hadn't lost any series to the Astros since 2008 — finally dropped two of three in the Astros' house.
"I had guys in scoring position all night with Fowler and Castro getting on and I was finally able to come through," Dominguez said. "We've had some games this year where we fought back and tonight was one of those where we got down 4-0 and didn't give up."
The largest hole the Astros had come back from all season was two runs. Down 4-0 early Wednesday, the Astros tied it at 4 in the seventh inning on a two-run Springer homer.
Fowler's one-out single to right off Rangers righty Nick Martinez gave the Astros their first base runner of the ninth. Jason Castro followed with a walk that put Fowler in scoring position for Dominguez.
The Astros third baseman didn't even reach second base on the long, full-count single — the first walk-off hit of his career — before he was mobbed by his teammates. Martinez left a fastball over the plate.
"I knew he wasn't going to catch it," said Dominguez, who was drenched in water and Powerade by his teammates. "The three ice coolers were real cold."
The Astros have had two walk-off hits this month, and they have a scheduled off-day to soak it all in on Thursday. They've won three of four and are playing better than they have at any point this year. They've oddly recorded 11 hits in five straight games. The time they had at least 11 knocks in five straight was 2008.
An oft-maligned bullpen was excellent after Scott Feldman's mediocre five-inning start and overshadowed by the dramatic hits. Darin Downs, Paul Clemens, Tony Sipp and Chad Qualls allowed just one hit and one walk combined in the final four frames. Sipp has retired all 17 batters he's faced to start his Astros career, and is the first to make his first four appearances with the team without allowing a base runner.
The turning point, though, was the sparkplug Springer.
His seventh-inning swing was the closest moment yet to the daydream. When Astros fans sat at home and at Minute Maid Park through all the misery, just wondering about what the kid could really do, how special he could be when he finally arrived, this was the vision: the sensational, crushed two-run home run to left field — complete even with a tiny bat flip — to tie a ballgame in the late innings.
A 2-0 fastball low and over the inside half from Rangers righty Jason Frasor left Springer's bat at 112 mph and sailed into the Crawford Boxes for his third career homer, tying the game at 4 with one out. It looked as good as it sounded, and counted as the second-hardest hit ball at Minute Maid this season, according to Astros analyst Mike Fast. The first? A Springer single at 114 mph.
"It's obviously a big spot," Springer said of his game-tying homer. "I wasn't really trying to hit a home run. It's a huge win for the team."
The rally started with a single from Jose Altuve, who wasn't at all surprised by his rookie teammate's big shot. Altuve's on a seven-game hit streak, hitting .419 during it.
"I didn't see the ball," Altuve said. "As soon as I heard it I started running slow. He's a guy that every time he hits the ball on the barrel he's going to hit it out."
Before the start of this series, the expectation was that ace Yu Darvish would make Wednesday's start for the Rangers. He was pushed back, however, and righty Nick Tepesch was penciled in for his first start of 2014.
Early on, Tepesch flashed a little Darvish. He struck out seven Astros four innings, and he began his final inning of work, the sixth inning, with a 4-0 lead.
The comeback began with plate discipline. Five straight Astros reached base with one out in the bottom of the sixth, and the Astros plated two runs in the frame to cut the deficit in half. One was charged to Tepesch.
Feldman's second start back from the disabled list wasn't as strong as his first, in part because of some bad luck on well-placed ground balls that weren't hit very hard. All four Rangers runs were his.


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The home page of Intelpedia, Intel's corporate wiki.
Other companies should take a page from Intel's collaborative workspace
Wikis are the poor cousins of social media. Seldom loved, often feared, always unsexy, a wiki is simply a collaborative website that can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. At its heart, a wiki is an online space for building collective info banks. (I've created more than a dozen wikis over the years, for Ourmedia, the Traveling Geeks and other organizations.)
In recent years, wiki software has entered the workplace, with companies like Socialtext, Atlassian, CustomerVision, MindTouch and Traction rolling out business-friendly versions, and a good number of Fortune 1000 companies, including Microsoft, Disney, Xerox and Sony, now using wikis. Wikipedia, natch, lists some of the features of enterprise wikis.But one early success story hasn't received the attention it deserves: Intelpedia. I can't link to it because it's a private wiki, but I did spend an hour on the phone interviewing its creator, Intel engineer Josh Bancroft. In November 2005 Josh decided that his co-workers should have quick and easy access to a raft of company information, from internal projects to historical background. (Disclosure: I am an advisor to Intel and a member of the Intel Insiders, and I met Josh at Gnomedex 2006.)
Like so many successful projects, this one bubbled up from the bottom, and the idea quickly caught on inside the company. By April 2008, the wiki had grown to about 25,000 pages and received 100 million page views. About 500 changes to the wiki take place each day, and more than 8,700 people have contributed to it.
"In the four-plus years that Intelpedia has been up and running, I have had exactly zero reported instances of an unwanted edit — of someone spamming or vandalizing or doing something inappropriate," Josh said. I've heard the same from other companies, which should allay the fears that some corporate executives still harbor.
What about the traditional corporate culture of locking up information? "By necessity, a lot of sensitive information needs to be controlled," Josh said. Only information that couldn't hurt the company if it leaked out to the public could be posted to the wiki.
"We haven't had an example of sensitive information being shared outside the company," said Ken Kaplan of corporate communications.
At its outset, there were handfuls of evangelists saying on an almost daily basis, "Hey, we should put this on Intelpedia!" The wiki got covered by Circuit, Intel's internal online newsletter, which brought in a big influx of users. Josh and some of his colleagues then formed a voluntary group, the Intelpedia Distributed Editors, to help steer the wiki with a mailing list, a weekly meeting and to by helping to "garden" content contributions by newcomers. "No funding or resources from the company has been needed, and it probably never will be," Josh said.
How Intel employees use Intelpedia
Intelpedia doesn't serve every business purpose, of course. Wikis are good for knowledge sharing, but other tools — blogs, forums, email, instant messaging — are better for communication and short-term collaboration.
One of most popular pages on Intelpedia is devoted to company and industry acronyms. Another page is devoted to employees providing self-help guidance to Firefox, which Intel's IT department doesn't support. But employees quickly got past the idea that only encyclopedia-type articles should be eligible for inclusion, so you'll see information about the Intel Sailing Club, the Intel Classic Car Collectors Club and neighborhood pickup football games. In recent months, employees have been using Intelpedia to share their Twitter handles, from personal accounts to product and business group accounts.
Intelpedia was built on on MediaWiki, the open-source wiki software that powers Wikipedia. "It's a world-class wiki platform — easy to set up and amazingly powerful," Josh said. "Imagine that you could have all the features and functionality that Wikipedia has on your own internal wiki." Though Intel is a global company, Intelpedia pages are written entirely in English, just as most corporate communications are. A widget installed early last year allows people to embed videos on the wiki.
All in all, Josh deserves kudos for helping to enable collaboration and information sharing across departments and national boundaries.
Production note: I recorded my conversation with Josh and intended to produce it as a podcast, but the files became corrupted in Audacity, so I'm writing this post from notes I took during our call.
• Screenshots of Intelpedia on Flickr
• Intelpedia Grows Up (Intel internal newsletter — PDF)JD Lasica, founder of Socialmedia.biz, is now co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.


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Becky Yeker
Chicago, IL
I am the Managing Editor and Co-Founder of Hooligan Magazine, a webzine that celebrates art. I am passionately in love with literature, music, film, and comics. I am a student at DePaul University double majoring in Public Relations/Advertising and Media & Cinema Studies with a Creative Writing minor. I am an intern, a barista, and barely have time to breathe.


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To try the thousands of add-ons available here, download Mozilla Firefox, a fast, free way to surf the Web!Close
Welcome to Firefox Add-ons.
Choose from thousands of extra features and styles to make Firefox your own.Close
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Thanks Rated 5 out of 5 stars
Simple but very usefulThis review is for a previous version of the add-on (18.104.22.168-signed).
DuckDuckGo (HTTP)
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Good word and easy to use. Don't stop its name.
Cela fait son charme. Une belle trouvaille.
To create your own collections, you must have a Mozilla Add-ons account.


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Daily Wine News: Pleasure & Confidence
Posted by Wine News | Posted on 11-16-2012| Posted in
"The whole conference had a seriousness that, I'm sorry to say, isn't really associated with blogger get-togethers in the US." W. Blake Grayreviews the 2012 European Wine Bloggers' Conference.
Elsewhere, Gray explains why he loves Jordan Winery. "I'll order and drink it with pleasure. And confidence." I agree!
From WineSpecator.com, a 2012 vintage report from across the United States.
GrapeRadio chats with Ken Forrester – who talks about the history and deliciousness of Chenin Blanc in South Africa.
Allon Schoener — the father of Abe Schoener of Scholium Wines – writes a fantastic essay on the history of Brooklyn's waterfront, the "spirit and fruits of Brooklyn's artisanal" shops, and Red Hook Winery.
Dave McIntyre explains how Virginia wine ended up in the Smithsonian.
Dr. Vino loves the latest releases from Lapierre and Coudert.
Fredric Koeppel tastes through a number of Randall Grahm's wines.
Drones are, indeed, being used outside Afghanistan. They're helping the wine industry.
Laura Ness writes about the "rare opportunity to sit at the feet of the colorful and often controversial, Josh Jensen of Calera."


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Ciro Ferrara: "It was an intense match. Considering all that we created, I'd say we deserved more from this, but we accept the draw against an important side."
Giampiero Ventura: "There are some regrets because we had taken the lead so close to the end. We're in good shape and the point was no fluke."
See the latest Serie A predictions and betting tips with Eurotips.co.uk


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We're called "Someday My Printz Will Come" for a reason; we kiss a lot of frogs. Which is necessary if we want to read widely — and we do, because that gives us the best sense of the year. The Printz is, after all, an award for literary excellence in the publication year — wider […]
In Brief (at length)
A Time to Dance
A Time to Dance, Padma Venkatraman Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin), May 2014 Reviewed from ARC Joy referenced the #weneeddiversebooks movement a few posts back, when she talked about two black ballerinas, one fictional and one actual. In some ways, A Time to Dance could have been included in that post: it's a book about a […]
Pick of the Day: Maple
This is a fresh addition to the standard new sibling fare, and young naturalists will identify with Maple's adventurous and tender spirit.
Beneath a Meth Moon
Beneath a Meth Moon, Jacqueline Woodson
Nancy Paulsen Books, January 2012
Reviewed from final copy
Remember how we talked about stars and the way a book can deserve a star for reasons that in no way correlate to Printzliness?
Beneath a Meth Moon could be Exhibit A to illustrate the gap that can exist between stars and the gold. […]
Pick of the Day: Love, Mouserella (CD)
Love, Mouserella. By David Ezra Stein. cassette or CD. 30 min. Recorded Books. 2012. cassette: ISBN 978-1-4640-4034-1, CD: ISBN 978-1-4640-4033-7. $15.75; book, ISBN 978-0-3992-5410-9. $15.99.
PreS-Gr 1–Mouserella's letter to her Grandmouse describes her days with the meandering topics of a child, occasionally concluding "and that's all…but" as she continues with descriptions of her daily activities. Listeners learn about her pet caterpillar and the ladybug she has taught to fetch, a visit to the zoo with a scary cat, a blackout, and […]


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They say that if you drop a frog into boiling hot water, they'll jump out, but if you gradually turn the heat up higher and higher they don't notice until it's too late, effectively boiling themselves to death.
Eren ponders this as that cop (no, Rivaille, he corrects himself, and then wonders again about just how deep in he is) bites into his shoulder, earning a moan from the younger man.
How did this happen again?
Eren sighs and rolls his neck as he drives into the hotel parking lot, glancing around at the town he had just driven into. Some tiny little dot on the east coast, a place that was probably more of a pit-stop to by-passers than somewhere to stay.
He had picked the place randomly, circling it on the map mostly based on it's proximity to a beach. It was inconspicuous enough, and would probably be fine for the week or two he had planned on staying.
Small places seemed to work the best, he noticed. When you lived in a smaller community, everyone knew everybody and there was a higher trust level all-around. Easier to find unlocked doors, which made his job considerably simpler.
He flipped his wallet open, checking how much money he had before he went to go check in at the hotel. Definitely more than enough to live here for a while, thanks to his last excursion. Either that grandma was richer than he thought or that pawn shop really gave him a good deal.
He shook his head. It didn't matter now, the jewels were sold and Eren was long gone.
Such was the life of a thief.
Flashing his fake ID at the hotel receptionist as she typed in a few numbers, he took the key card she handed to him and went to check out his new room.
He walked down the hotel hallway, noticing the tacky green wallpaper that was plastered everywhere. Just who designed these places?
Thankfully, the awful wallpaper was replaced by cream-colored walls in the actual hotel rooms. The first thing Eren noticed besides the walls was how simple the room looked. Nothing too fancy, a decent-sized bed in the middle with a small TV sitting on a dresser in front of it. Next to the window on the other side of the room was an uncomfortable-looking chair that matched the brown drapes.
It was perfect for what he wanted. He never got expensive hotel rooms - that was money better spent on food and things to survive, or even more importantly, to send back home to Mikasa.
Mikasa. His little sister, who had gone through so much chemo that they'd be paying the bills forever. He was grateful she was a survivor, but his parents could never cover the costs all by themselves.
He made phonecalls home a lot.
Eren fell backwards onto the bed, letting out a sigh. It had been a long trip, from the last spot he had hit to here, and he was glad to finally be able to stop and get some rest. He rolled over onto his side, kicking off his shoes haphazardly and closing his eyes. Things like exploring the small town and taking showers could wait until he woke up.
As it turned out, this town was a lot smaller than Eren had thought at first.
It was evident in the way that he kept running into people that he had seen already. More alarmingly, how he kept running into the same cop everywhere he went. The first time, literally, as he almost spilled hot coffee onto the shorter man. It was probably just the fact that he was so wary of police officers, but the man's face stuck out in his mind. He looked like he was perpetually scowling, his features sharply defined. He wasn't unattractive, but...
Eren frowned at where his own train of thought was headed. Nevermind his looks, he should be worried about how out of the 5 places he visited, the shorter man had appeared in four of them. The coffeeshop, the beach, the bookstore (hey, even thieves had to have some way to pass the time), and now the grocery store.
It was really putting Eren on edge, and it showed.
"There something wrong with you, kid?"
And for the first time, the man spoke. Eren froze at the voice. He could talk to normal people fine, but no matter what he found it hard to act natural around members of the police force. He swallowed.
"N-No, sir." he replied, hand still on the can of green beans resting on the store shelf. "Just shopping."
The officer's eyes narrowed. "I've been seeing a lot of you, but I don't recognize you. You from out of town? What's your name?"
Eren nodded. "I'm a traveling artist. Photographer." Not exactly a lie. He did take a lot of pictures when he was out. "My name's Ere- Uh...min." Smooth.
"Ere-uh-min?" the other man quirked his eyebrow, and Eren backpedaled. Not good.
"Eremin. It's Italian." He mentally slapped himself for merging his childhood friend's name and his own. If only he could have recalled the name on his fake ID fast enough.
The officer seemed unconvinced, but turned back to the shelf anyway. Picking up a can of corn, he then brushed past Eren, who pretended to be thoroughly fascinated with the label on the canned vegetable he was holding.
"Well, Eremin, I'm Rivaille and as long as you stay out of trouble, we won't have any problems."
Eren watched as the shorter man disappeared into the next aisle, gently hitting his head against the shelf was he was out of sight. "Stupid, stupid, stupid..."
It was near impossible to avoid the other man, no matter where he went. Not that there were that many places to hit up in a town as dinky as this one. Eren quickly memorized the cop-car and it's address plate, making sure to avoid at all costs any places he knew Rivaille was. But still, it was like they were destined to meet, because if Rivaille wasn't at a place before Eren, he was there not too long after. He wasn't sure if he was being stalked, or if he was accidentally stalking the other, but either way he was sufficiently creeped out.
He thought about locking himself up in his hotel room, a place where Rivaille definitely wasn't at, but he couldn't spend all of his time cooped up in there. He had went and bought a few groceries, but they were mostly snacks. It's hard to make meals without a kitchen. Not to mention, Eren never did have a very long attention-span. It was one of his downfalls, he always felt the need to be on the go.
Thankfully, spending time at the beach was innocent enough. He was sitting on a bench, spacing out when he noticed it in the distance: a fairly large house overlooking the beach. It was like a sitting duck, and he was already plotting it out in his mind. Strike during the day, when the owner would almost certainly be out working. Judging by the size, probably a dentist or a lawyer or something. As long as he was unseen, he could make it back to the beach and blend right in after it was done. Nothing unusual about a person walking around with a backpack at the beach.
It would be a peace of cake. Even better, there was a forest for a backyard. He could sneak in through there, his car wouldn't even need to be close. He hadn't seen a job this easy since-
"Kid, you're freaking out that lady over there."
Eren's eyes snapped into focus at that, realizing there was a bikini-clad young woman sitting on a towel a few yards in front of the house giving him quite the death glare. He coughed loudly and ripped his gaze away, only to find that Rivaille was standing to his side.
"Here, brat, take this. My break's over and I can't finish it anyway." he said, dumping a McDonald's bag into his lap. Eren frowned.
"U-Uh? Sir, you don't-"
"I don't know how much vagabond teens have to eat, but just accept it. It's better than throwing it away." the older man cut him off before he could protest.
"I'm twenty-one." Eren said it automatically, having thoroughly memorized what his fake ID said after the last incident. Rivaille scoffed.
"Yeah, and I'm a 12 year old girl. Just eat the burger and shut up."
Eren was more than confused. He had been to a lot of small towns, sure, but never had the people been so friendly as to give him free meals. Warily, he checked the contents of the bag.
Some fries and a cheeseburger, sure enough.
"What did you expect, a severed hand? Don't answer that." the Police officer sensed Eren's shock. "I don't know for what reason you left home, but it's probably for a good one, so don't look a gift-horse in the mouth and ask questions, brat." he turned to leave, and Eren was at a loss.
"Wait, sir! Er, Rivaille." the dark-haired man turned his head around, looking unamused at being stopped again. Eren cleared his throat. "Thanks."
Rivaille rolled his eyes. "No problem, Eremin." he bit out the last part, still clearly unconvinced about the name. Eren watched him leave.
He never would have expected the angry looking police officer to be so kind.
A/N: I swear things will get more interesting (and more Riren based) next chapter. I'm pretty sure this is going to be split into 3 parts, with maybe an epilogue. Chapter 2 should be up fairly soon, since I'm already almost done with it!
Thanks for reading!