Phoenix flight attendant found dead in Mexico City (AP)

PHOENIX ? A US Airways flight attendant based in Phoenix was found dead in a Mexico City hotel room while on a layover, and authorities are investigating the death as a homicide.

A flight attendants union said the body of Nick Aaronson, 33, was found early Saturday in his room at a downtown Hilton.

The Mexico City prosecutor's office said the man was found naked on the floor, his hands tied behind his back with a cloth. He showed signs of beating and choking.

Prosecutors said no drugs, weapons or messages were found in the room. Police were checking security cameras, and an autopsy was planned.

Deborah Volpe, president of the Association of Flight Attendants Council 66, said Aaronson was "very popular" and "very loved" among the airline's Phoenix-based crews.

"It's tragic," Volpe told The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/vYzlAl). "We are caring for our co-workers. We're a tight-knit group in Phoenix."

A statement on the union's website says there doesn't appear to be a safety breach at the hotel but that crews will stay elsewhere temporarily while on layovers.

___

Online:

Association of Flight Attendants Council 66, http://www.afa66.org/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111030/ap_on_re_us/us_flight_attendant_death

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Romney'd Be OK Making Unpopular Decisions (ABC News)

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Coldplay keeps 'Mylo Xyloto' off streaming plans (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? British band Coldplay is withholding its latest album, "Mylo Xyloto," from all-you-can-listen streaming services such as Spotify and Rhapsody ? making it the biggest band yet to express reservations about a system that pays artists a fraction of a penny every time someone listens to a song.

The decision for the hot-selling album, released Tuesday, is a blow to such services, which have millions of tracks available but rely on new tunes to keep listeners interested.

Consumers typically pay $10 a month for the right to pick any track or album from a library of millions and listen on demand via online streaming. Users can also download songs to mobile devices. Some services offer lengthy trials or free options with ads.

Usually, new tracks are available on the services on Tuesday, the same day they are released for sale.

The lack of availability of Coldplay's fifth album on subscription plans could push consumers to buy the album outright.

Coldplay's recording company, EMI, said in a statement "We always work with our artists and their management on a case by case basis to deliver the best outcome for each release."

Rhapsody president Jon Irwin said he respects the band's decision and needs to do a better job explaining the benefits of the subscription system to artists.

In an editorial he wrote for Billboard magazine on Monday, Irwin said he agreed that some reported royalties paid to artists ? as low as 0.015 cents per play on Spotify and 0.91 cents on Rhapsody ? "seem awfully small."

By comparison, recording labels and artists share about 70 percent of the $1.29 per track or $9.99 per album when music is bought on Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

Irwin argued that royalties from subscription music plans are recurring, not one-time as is the case with iTunes sales. Thus, he said, revenue will build over time.

And in any case, he said it is better than what artists get paid for pirated songs ? zero.

"Those plays for that artist, they're going to get compensated by it," he said in an interview Thursday. "That goes on forever, and it doesn't end with the sale of an MP3" song file.

Spotify said in a statement that it also respects the decision of any artist regarding where their songs are made available.

But the company pointed out that its service has "convinced millions of consumers to pay for music again." Spotify said it has paid $150 million to recording companies, artists and publishers since its launch three years ago.

Spotify has said it has more than 2 million paying customers globally, while Rhapsody is the leading service in the U.S. with more than 800,000 subscribers. Other popular subscription services include MOG and Rdio.

Early indications are that "Mylo Xyloto" will be one of the top-selling albums of the year. Its debut single "Paradise" has racked up sales of 425,000 so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and Billboard estimates between 440,000 and 450,000 copies of the album will be sold through Sunday.

Coldplay's managers did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/digitalmusic/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_hi_te/us_coldplay_online_music_streaming

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Postseason Baseball Schedule

All Times EDT

DIVISION SERIES

American League

N.Y. Yankees vs. Detroit

Friday, Sept. 30

Detroit 1, N.Y. Yankees 1

Sunday, Oct. 2

Detroit 5, N.Y. Yankees 3

Monday, Oct. 3

Detroit 5, N.Y. Yankees 4

Tuesday, Oct. 4

N.Y. Yankees 10, Detroit 1

Thursday, Oct. 6

Detroit 3, N.Y. Yankees 2, Detroit wins series 3-1

---

Texas vs. Tampa Bay

Friday, Sept. 30

Tampa Bay 9, Texas 0

Saturday, Oct. 1

Texas 8, Tampa Bay 6

Monday, Oct. 3

Texas 4, Tampa Bay 3

Tuesday, Oct. 4

Texas 4, Tampa Bay 3, Texas wins series 3-1

---

National League

Philadelphia vs. St. Louis

Saturday, Oct. 1

Philadelphia 11, St. Louis 6

Sunday, Oct. 2

St. Louis 5, Philadelphia 4

Tuesday, Oct. 4

Philadelphia 3, St. Louis 2

Wednesday, Oct. 5

St. Louis 5, Philadelphia 3

Friday, Oct. 7

St. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0, St. Louis wins series 3-2

---

Milwaukee vs. Arizona

Saturday, Oct. 1

Milwaukee 4, Arizona 1

Sunday, Oct. 2

Milwaukee 9, Arizona 4

Tuesday, Oct. 4

Arizona 8, Milwaukee 1

Wednesday, Oct. 5

Arizona 10, Milwaukee 6

Friday, Oct. 7

Milwaukee 3, Arizona 2, 10 innings, Milwaukee wins series 3-2

---

LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

American League

Texas vs. Detroit

Saturday, Oct. 8

Texas 3, Detroit 2, Texas leads series 1-0

Sunday, Oct. 9

Detroit at Texas, ppd., Rain.

Monday, Oct. 10

Texas 7, Detroit 3, 11 innings

Tuesday, Oct. 11

Detroit 5, Texas 2

Wednesday, Oct. 12

Texas 7, Detroit 3, 11 innings

Thursday, Oct. 13

Detroit 7, Texas 5

Saturday, Oct. 15

Texas 15, Detroit 5, Texas wins series 4-2

---

National League

Milwaukee vs. St. Louis

Sunday, Oct. 9

Milwaukee 9, St. Louis 6

Monday, Oct. 10

St. Louis 12, Milwaukee 3

Wednesday, Oct. 12

St. Louis 4, Milwaukee 3

Thursday, Oct. 13

Milwaukee 4, St. Louis 2

Friday, Oct. 14

St. Louis 7, Milwaukee 1

Sunday, Oct. 16

St. Louis 12, Milwaukee 6, St. Louis wins series 4-2

---

WORLD SERIES

St. Louis vs. Texas

Wednesday, Oct. 19

St. Louis 3, Texas 2

Thursday, Oct. 20

Texas 2, St. Louis 1

Saturday, Oct. 22

St. Louis 16, Texas 7

Sunday, Oct. 23

Texas 4, St. Louis 0

Monday, Oct. 24

Texas 4, St. Louis 2, Texas leads series 3-2

Wednesday, Oct. 26

Texas at St. Louis, ppd., Rain.

Thursday, Oct. 27

St. Louis 10, Texas 9, 11 innings

Friday, Oct. 28

St. Louis 6, Texas 2, St. Louis wins championship 4-3

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/29/2478419/postseason-baseball-schedule.html

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UFC 137 press conference video: Diaz faces tough question, passes with flying colors

Nick Diaz has burned some in the media in the past, so when several media folks had the chance to grill him a bit they did it during today's final prefight press conference in Las Vegas.

A local television sports anchor went after Diaz particularly hard, but the highly volatile Diaz kept his cool. Watch the exchange on the full archive of the presser (25:50 mark).

Watch UFC 137 right here on Yahoo! Sports

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/UFC-137-press-conference-video-Diaz-faces-tough?urn=mma-wp8623

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Deficit-cutting panel looking at benefits, taxes (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Rival deficit-cutting plans advanced by Republicans and Democrats on Congress' secretive supercommittee would both mean smaller-than-expected cost of living benefit increases for veterans and federal retirees as well as Social Security recipients and bump up taxes for some individuals and families, according to officials familiar with the recommendations.

In all, the changes would reduce deficits by an estimated $200 billion over a decade, a fraction of the committee's minimum goal of $1.2 trillion in savings.

A final decision by the panel on legislation to reduce deficits is still a few weeks off, and given the political difficulties involved, there is no certainty that the six Republicans and six Democrats will be able to agree.

The two sides exchanged initial offers earlier this week, and each side swiftly found fault with the others' proposal in the privacy of the committee's rooms as well as in public.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, noting published reports that Democrats are seeking $3 trillion in higher taxes, said, "This is the same number that was in the president's budget, the same number that ? that they ? I don't know that they found any Democrats in the House and Senate to vote for."

"I don't think it's a reasonable number," he said. Boehner also chided Democrats for recommending $50 billion in savings from Medicaid over the next decade, well below what Republicans are seeking.

"Let's understand over the next 10 years, we're going to spend $10 trillion on Medicaid. I just think there's a lot more room there to help find common ground," he said.

At the same time, Boehner emphasized, "I am committed to getting to an outcome" that clears the committee and Congress. The speaker negotiated privately with President Barack Obama over the summer in deficit-reduction talks that failed to produce an agreement.

At a news conference of her own, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said she wanted a compromise that was "big, bold and balanced," a phrase that Democrats use to convey an insistence on higher tax revenue.

She pointedly declined to embrace what Democrats had presented to the supercommittee. She called it "Sen. Baucus' package," a reference to the Montana Democrat and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. That ran directly counter to his aides' statements earlier in the week that he was speaking for a majority of Democrats on the panel ? and tacit confirmation that at least two of the party's members had not signed on as supporters.

Ironically, while the Republican and Democratic panel members remain far apart, one of the relatively few items in common was a potentially controversial recommendation to change the calculation for annual cost-of-living increases in federal programs as well as the yearly adjustments in income tax brackets.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the recommended change "produces lower estimates of inflation than the traditional" measurement of the Consumer Price Index. Since December 2000 the difference on average has amounted to 0.3 percentage points, according to the agency.

A decision to base annual cost of living increases on the new calculation would lower Social Security costs by $108 billion over a decade, and the impact on benefits for federal civilian and military pension programs and veterans' benefits would save an additional $23 billion, according to calculations made in February 2010.

Congressional experts said the list of federal programs that would be affected is extensive, and included Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and more, but the absence of a written description by either side in the deficit negotiations makes a complete listing impossible.

Officials in both parties said their plans would affect income tax brackets, which currently are adjusted annually to make sure that inflation alone does not expose more earnings to taxation.

By slowing the rate of the adjustment, more income would be taxed than is currently forecast, a change that Congress' Joint Tax Committee recently estimated would produce $59.6 billion in revenue to the Treasury over a decade.

Just as changes to Social Security and benefit programs are politically problematic for Democrats, tax increases are difficult for Republicans.

Americans for Tax Reform, an organization led by anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist, earlier this year said slowing the pace at which tax brackets are adjusted for inflation "would most certainly be a tax hike."

There was one caveat, though.

"This idea can of course be part of a discussion of comprehensive and revenue-neutral tax reform, but stand-alone it is a tax hike."

Both Republicans and Democrats included tax reform in their presentations inside the supercommittee, and the issue has great political appeal.

But the two sides differ dramatically on the details. Democrats called for tax reform that would generate an additional $1 trillion in revenue over a decade, while Republicans said they envisioned no increase.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_go_co/us_supercommittee_debt

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Chapter 13 in addition to Auto Insurance: Exactly how do They must ...

[unable to retrieve full-text content]This morning I needed the chance to speak to a customer who was simply thinking of recording an instalment Six a bankruptcy proceeding inside Lower Location of Iowa. When dealing with their once a month cost of living, ...

Source: http://www.londonsportscouncil.org/general/chapter-13-in-addition-to-auto-insurance-exactly-how-do-they-must-do-against-each-other/

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North Carolina runaway No. 1 in AP preseason poll (AP)

North Carolina broke a tie with its fiercest rival and moved into one with one of college basketball's most storied programs.

The Tar Heels, who return all five starters from the team that reached the regional finals last season, were the runaway No. 1 in The Associated Press' men's preseason Top 25 on Friday. It is the eighth time they have received that honor since the preseason poll started in 1961-62.

That breaks a tie with Duke, North Carolina's Tobacco Road rival, and moves them into a tie with UCLA, the program that dominated the sport unlike any other under coach John Wooden.

"It shows that North Carolina basketball has had a tremendous level of success over a long, long period of time," coach Roy Williams said. "We are very proud of that and this is another indication of the program's great history."

North Carolina received all but three of the No. 1 votes cast by the 65-member national media poll, finishing well ahead of Kentucky, the team that eliminated the Tar Heels last season one step from the Final Four.

With the frontcourt of Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Tyler Zeller all passing up the chance to enter the NBA draft and point guard Kendall Marshall having a chance to run the team for the whole season instead of just the last 20 games, the Tar Heels have the personnel to start the season comfortably atop the poll.

"I'm happy that people feel this positive about our team, but the great thing about college basketball is you have to get it done on the court," Williams said. "This gives us a goal and it's up to us to work hard and be the best team we can be to reach that goal."

North Carolina has been the preseason No. 1 in three of the last five seasons. In 2008-09, the Tar Heels were a unanimous preseason No. 1 with five starters back, and that season ended with a national championship.

The Tar Heels' other preseason No. 1s were in 2007-08 (Final Four), 1993-94 (second round), 1986-87 (regional final), 1983-84 (regional semifinals), 1981-82 (national championship) and 1977-78 (first round).

"We have the opportunity to win it all, and we have the opportunity to completely fail," Barnes has said. "It's just a matter of we continue to stay humble and continue to take the right steps and get our way back on top like we did last year."

Ohio State, which got one first-place vote, was third and defending national champion Connecticut, which received the other two No. 1 votes, was fourth.

Kentucky has starters Terrence Jones and Darius Miller back to lead yet another outstanding recruiting class by coach John Calipari. Ohio State has All-America Jared Sullinger and senior guard William Buford back, while Connecticut has to find a way to replace All-America Kemba Walker, the all-everything guard who carried the Huskies through their 11-game winning streak to the national championship. Don't feel too bad for Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun as freshman Andre Drummond will give the Huskies a presence under the basket.

Syracuse, Duke, Vanderbilt, Florida, Louisville and Pittsburgh rounded out the top 10.

Memphis was 11th followed by Baylor, Kansas, Xavier, Wisconsin, Arizona, UCLA, Michigan, Alabama and Texas A&M. The last five teams were Cincinnati, Marquette, Gonzaga, California and Missouri.

Fourteen of the teams in the preseason poll were ranked in last season's final poll. Ohio State was No. 1 entering the NCAA tournament and the Buckeyes lost to Kentucky in the regional semifinals.

Duke was No. 1 in the 2010-11 preseason poll and went on to finish third in the final poll before losing to Arizona in the regional semifinals. Connecticut wasn't ranked before last season but worked its way to No. 9 in the final poll.

Vanderbilt had the longest stretch of not being in the preseason Top 25. The Commodores were last in the rankings in 1993-94. Xavier was next with its last preseason appearance in 2002-03, while Cincinnati was last in 2003-04.

Vanderbilt has all the starters back from a team that came on strong at the end of the regular season only to be knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the first round by Richmond.

"There has been some fixation on our early exits from the tournament, but we have been very excited about this team for a very long time. For good reason, we have good players," coach Kevin Stallings said. "If this team can stay healthy, I think we have a chance to have the best team we have ever had."

The Big East has six ranked teams, two more than the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference, while the Big Ten and Pac-12 had three each. Even with all the offcourt doings in the Big East ? Syracuse and Pittsburgh leaving, TCU never really showing up and some others ready to head elsewhere ? the conference that set the record for teams in an NCAA tournament last season is going to be tough again.

"In the past five years we've had the best basketball league in the country," Calhoun said. "We had 11 teams in the NCAA tournament last year and on paper today nine of them would be in it again."

Duke has the longest current streak of being ranked at 78 polls, a run that started with the preseason poll in 2007-08. Kansas is next with 46, a streak that began on Feb. 2, 2009.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_college_bkb_poll

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Lawmakers say environmental laws should be waived for Border Patrol operations (Star Tribune)

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Business activities disrupted - The Nation

The Nation October 25, 2011 9:00 am

The tourism industry is expected to be hit hard, as domestic and overseas travel demand should plummet.

On Tuesday, the Security Bureau in Hong Kong raised the outbound travel alert for Thailand from yellow to red. Residents intending to visit these areas should consider adjusting their tours heading to Bangkok from Wednesday to November 1.

Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung said that as a result of the travel warning, about 50 tours with 1,500 members will be cancelled.

Many functions and events are also rescheduled. Toshiba (Thailand) will postpone the Dealer Grand Convention 2012 to mid-January, in line with the Board of Investment?s decision to postpone the BoI Fair from November.

The Federation of Thai Industries today announced that it would indefinitely delay the seminar "New Government and Business Direction 2012". It was originally set for Oct 27 at Miracle Grand Hotel.

ARIP Co Ltd, the organiser of Commart Comtech Thailand 2011, on Tuesday decided to reschedule the event to Nov 24-27. The event was scheduled to take place during Nov 3-6 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.

"The severe flooding causes difficulties for travelling," Pathom Indarodom, general manager of ARIP, said in a statement.

The 5th Thailand Retail, Food & Hospitality Services 2011 (TRAFS) is also postponed from Oct 27-30 to Nov 24-27 at Bitec Bangna.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Business-activities-disrupted-30168499.html

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These Robotic Eyes Can Spot the Ripest Strawberries of the Patch [Monster Machines]

It's easy for people and most animals to tell the difference between ripe and unripe strawberries—just look for the red ones. But for robots, that's no simple feat. So researchers at the National Physical Laboratory have developed a four-part technology to teach robots how to pick only the sweetest berries. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/NDLoC0XvduY/these-robotic-eyes-can-spot-the-ripest-strawberries-of-the-patch

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Obama's Justice Department seeks legal license to lie | Wizbang

This, given who?s in charge, can?t really be a surprise can it?

A longtime internal policy that allowed Justice Department officials to deny the existence of sensitive information could become the law of the land ? in effect a license to lie ? if a newly proposed rule becomes federal regulation in the coming weeks.

The proposed rule directs federal law enforcement agencies, after personnel have determined that documents are too delicate to be released, to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests ?as if the excluded records did not exist.?

Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, says the move appears to be in direct conflict with the administration?s promise to be more open.

?Despite all the talk of transparency, I can?t think of what?s less transparent than saying a document does not exist, when in fact, it does,? Sekulow told Fox News.

?

A final version of the proposal could be issued by the end of 2011. If approved, the new rule would officially become a federal regulation with the force of law.

But the Justice Department got so much pushback in response to the proposal that it took the unusual step of re-opening the public comment period after it had already been closed. That second comment period closed last week.

When the new comment period began, the American Civil Liberties Union became one of the most vocal critics of the proposal. Mike German, Policy Counsel with the ACLU, authored a lengthy letter in opposition.

?It?s shocking that you would twist what is supposed to be a statute ? that?s supposed to give people access to what the government is doing ? in a way that would allow the government to actually mislead the American public,? German told Fox News.

It?s not so shocking with this bunch Mr. German. ?They deal in lies. ?All day, every day.

Shortlink:

Source: http://wizbangblog.com/2011/10/27/obamas-justice-department-seeks-legal-license-to-lie/

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[OOC] +~+( ?_?)*HAPPY HALLOWEEN* ( ?_?) +~+

Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.

Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Starship Battlefront Remix?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

End Saga Halloween Event Thread

CherrySwirl

Member for 0 years

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---

Dungeon Thread.

Dungeon Title: The Asylum.
Difficulty: Full Party.
Party members:
-
-
-

(Floors and short descriptions of them)
1st /_____MOBS_____/ A dark entranceway guarded by a group of Deathless Knights.
2nd /_____MOBS_____/ The dark community room where Wrights shuffle to their hearts content.
3rd/___MOBS___/ The hallways to lead to the patient's rooms... This is where Viti's consorts live their days.
4th/___MOBS___/ The outer courtyard the separates the segments of the asylum... its' thickly overgrown with Devourers
5th/___Boss___/ The Staff Wing and laboratories where Viti makes his stay alongside his Force of Dread.
6th/___Traps___/ The final hallway... trapped to appear endless and armed with razor wires to disembody and pitfalls full of vicious monsters... one should not come here with out a someone skilled in agility.
6th/___MOBS___/ An alternative path filled with Wrights.
7th/____Abyssal Titan__/ A vast spongy room in a Demi-plane. Here one shall face the Queen of Nightmares... may their screams be a warning to all others.

MOBS

Name: Devourer
Monster Type: Possessed Spiked Vines.
GRADING SCALE:
-Strength#Physical attk power#: C
-Agility#Dodge,Speed#: F
-Intellect#Magical power#: F
-Endurance#Resistance, health#: F

Monster Appearance

Attacks/Abilities:
-Melee Immunity: This creature is immune to Physical Damage.
Monster Description.
Magical Vines which thrash and coil around their target clawing at their flesh with venomous.

Name: Wright.
Monster Type: Undead.#Special#
GRADING SCALE:
-Strength#Physical attk power#: F
-Agility#Dodge,Speed#: F
-Intellect#Magical power#: F
-Endurance#Resistance, health#: F

Monster Appearance

Attacks/Abilities:
-Touch of the Damned: A successful hit drains .50 Experience. If you don't have XP every two hits you lose a stat point.#Restored with a remove curse spell.#
Monster Description.
Wrights are the most hated of the undead... weak but very dangerous in the long term.

Name: Deathless Knight.
Monster Type: Undead.#Special#
GRADING SCALE:
-Strength#Physical attk power#: D
-Agility#Dodge,Speed#: F+
-Intellect#Magical power#: F
-Endurance#Resistance, health#: D

Monster Appearance

Attacks/Abilities:
-Deathless: Upon dying these creatures will rise within three posts it is a bad idea to idle around them.
Monster Description.
These beings are not fully on the mortal plane... merely enough that their physical body is exposed to the naked eye.

Name: Viti's Consorts.
Monster Type: Corrupt Eitan
GRADING SCALE:
-Strength#Physical attk power#: D+
-Agility#Dodge,Speed#: D
-Intellect#Magical power#: D
-Endurance#Resistance, health#: F+

Monster Appearance

Attacks/Abilities:
-Alchemical Fire: Area effect fire damage.
Monster Description.
Once Eitan's who were... 'Enlightened' by Viti, their angel's slain and more then that stolen they are mindlessly devout to Viti.

Name: Force of Dread.
Monster Type: Entity of Insanity.#Demi-Boss#
GRADING SCALE:
-Strength#Physical attk power#: F
-Agility#Dodge,Speed: F
-Intellect#Magical power#: F
-Endurance(Resistance, health#: F

Monster Appearance

Attacks/Abilities:
-Sleight of Mind: Switches its' stats with target player.
-Shroud of Smoke: Smoke billows around this being obstructing vision as well as harming the eyes and lungs of enemies.
Render On To: Reaching out their hands their flesh phases through the chest of their victim as they rip out their heart. Target gets a free counter attack, Agility save Vs. Death
Monster Description.
Beings of absolute chaos and discord... they steal away the power of mortals and attack with out distinction between ally and enemy.

And? Here? We? Go..!

If I kill you in a forest and there isn't a law against it... is it murder?

I got 99 Souls but a Witch ain't one.

Need more players for my newest role-play World War Five If interested please join.

TheRaven&ThePawn

Member for 1 years

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Obama acts to ease burden of student loans (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama is taking steps to ease the burden of student loans, the White House said on Tuesday, potentially helping millions of cash-strapped college graduates in a tough economy.

Obama plans to accelerate a plan to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income, bringing it forward to start in 2012 instead of 2014.

"Steps like these won't take the place of the bold action we need from Congress to boost our economy and create jobs, but they will make a difference," he said in a statement.

The loans initiative will be the third such move by Obama in as many days, following action to aid homeowners and boost hiring of military veterans. The White House wants to show he is an activist president battling a "do-nothing" Congress.

The loan changes do not require approval by Congress.

Republican lawmakers blocked a $447 billion jobs plan put forward by Obama last month because it raises some taxes.

Students helped push Obama into the White House in 2008. As he campaigns for reelection in 2012, Obama's public approval ratings have fallen near 40 percent, the low of his presidency, because of discontent with his economic stewardship.

Americans owe more on student loans than on outstanding credit card debt, and total loans outstanding are slated to exceed $1 trillion this year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The rise in private student lending and growing debt defaults have also been highlighted by the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Obama will announce the student loan measure in Denver on Wednesday as he wraps up a swing through western states that will be vital to his re-election campaign in 2012.

The White House estimates the loan changes could cut monthly payments for 1.6 million graduates.

Student debt will also be forgiven after 20 years, compared with 25 years under current law.

More than 36 million Americans have federal student loan debt, but only 450,000 have so far taken advantage of the existing income-based repayment program.

Obama will also make changes to allow 6 million students to bundle together certain federal loans to allow a single monthly payment, reducing the risk of default caused by juggling multiple debt obligations.

The option will be open from January and those that take it up will also get a 0.5 percentage point cut in the interest rate on some of their loans, lowering monthly payments and potentially saving them hundreds of dollars in interest.

"College graduates are entering one of the toughest job markets in recent memory, and we have a way to help them save money by consolidating their debt and capping their loan payments," said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; editing by Todd Eastham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personalfinance/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111026/pl_nm/us_obama_students

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Video: Caterpillar Q3: Cashing In?

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45020967#45020967

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Italy government could fall over reforms: minister (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi faced growing pressure on Tuesday over European Union demands for swift economic reforms with a member of his cabinet warning that the government could fall over the issue.

EU leaders, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, have demanded that Berlusconi present firm plans for growth and reducing Italy's massive debt in time for a summit meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

However an emergency cabinet meeting late on Monday ended without agreement after Berlusconi's coalition allies in the Northern League party refused to budge on their opposition to raising the pension age to 67 years.

On Tuesday, as leaders from the coalition parties held a series of meetings in Rome, Infrastructure Minister Altero Matteoli said there was a risk that the government could fall because of its disagreements over the issue.

"I think there is this hypothesis, yes but certainly there is a margin for maneuver and we are talking," Infrastructure Minister Altero Matteoli said, in remarks confirmed by his spokesman.

Berlusconi, mired in scandal and facing sliding approval ratings, has survived a series of confidence votes this year with the help of the League but speculation has grown that the government will fall before the end of its term in 2013.

Italy is now at the center of the euro zone crisis with concerns mounting over its ability to stop its 1.8 trillion euro debt mountain sliding out of control and threatening the entire bloc.

Yields on Italian 10-year bonds are just under 6 percent, not far short of levels they reached in August when the European Central Bank stepped in to cap Rome's borrowing costs by buying Italian bonds on the market.

Berlusconi reacted angrily to the pressure from Germany and France, widely seen as a humiliation for Italy. He issued a statement on Monday declaring that no EU country was in a position to give lessons to its partners.

Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti has promised a package of reforms that would open up closed professions, cut red tape and raise revenue though steps such as privatizations and a new wealth tax, measures all aimed at boosting growth and righting the state's finances.

The package, intended to revive Italy's chronically stagnant economy, has been repeatedly delayed by deep differences between ministers, including Berlusconi and Tremonti.

(Reporting By Giselda Vagnoni, writing by James Mackenzie, editing by Barry Moody)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/ts_nm/us_italy_berlusconi

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An outside-in effort to help poor students achieve

NEW YORK?? What does the time kids spend outside school have to do with their academic success? Everything, according to some experts.

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For kids whose families struggle to meet basic needs like health care and nutrition, keeping up in school can be a daily challenge. Now a new federal program is taking an out-of-the-box approach to improving the classroom performance of such kids by focusing on their needs outside of school.

Patterned after the Harlem program featured in the documentary film ?Waiting for Superman,? the U.S. Department of Education?s Promise Neighborhood Program last year doled out $500,000 planning grants to 21 programs around the country. After gathering preliminary data on whether the outside-in approach can help students, it will give up to $30 million more annually to a handful of programs to see their plans through.

One fledgling program has been established in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, where almost a quarter of families live below the poverty line. For them, accessing essential services isn?t always easy. There are long waiting lists for day care and too few English language classes to accommodate the large immigrant population, contributing to relatively low educational attainment in a neighborhood where nearly half of adults lack high school diplomas. A third of families in Sunset Park reported not having enough food to eat last year.

The same percentage of families has no health insurance, meaning even a minor illness can have major consequences. When kids get sick, parents have to miss work to take care of them, stretching financial resources to the breaking point. Many parents of dropouts in the area say illness was the main reason their child left school.

Stretched to distraction
Experts say that when families spend so much time trying to make ends meet, they rarely focus on improving their situations.

?If I?ve got all these other things going on, how am I supposed to focus on my schoolwork?? said Stacie Evans, director of the Sunset Park Promise Neighborhood. ?How am I supposed to be able to get to the point where I can be successful??

The Promise Neighborhood Program aims to fill the voids by making sure kids have access to all of the services they need ? from ?cradle-through-college-to-career? ? in their community.

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Here?s how it works: Local organizations that receive grants connect existing programs, identify gaps in services and fund new operations where they are needed, creating a network where families can readily address all of their needs. Experts call these ?wraparound services,? and say they are critical to the success of students.

Angela Glover Blackwell, CEO of PolicyLink, an institute devoted to social and economic equality that endorses the Promise Neighborhood Program, said that the idea is to take programs with proven results and bring them to all those who need them.?

?The hope is that from the Promise Neighborhood Program we begin to learn how to coordinate what we already have,? she said. ?It?s not enough to have a wonderful boutique program. We have to take it to scale.?

In Sunset Park, 10-year-old Christian Trujillo knows what is at stake.?

?I am lucky to go to school,? he said.? ?Without an education you can?t really have a life.? You need to work hard and not just fool around.? Because when you fool around, you get nothing.?

But even with such focus at an early age, Christian is not optimistic that he?ll be able to attend college.

?If I keep up the good work, probably, but if I go down (in my grades) next year, probably not,? he said.

Many students at his school get bored and stop showing up to class, he said, adding that he worries that he, too, could get in trouble if his grades started to slip.

?The only way you can work without education is (selling) drugs, which you shouldn?t do, because after you do that the police find out, and you have the price to pay,? he said.?

Health checks, extracurricular activities
Christian?s chances of beating the odds may be improved now that the Promise Neighborhood Program is being established in his community.

Now he gets regular health checkups and attends extracurricular computer and dance classes. His mom, Carla Trujillo, goes to parenting classes, where she is learning ways in which she can be more involved in his education.?

The 50-square block Sunset Park program, which was established by a coalition of local organizations led by the Lutheran Family Health Center, even includes a community garden with a chicken coop, so families can learn where healthy foods come from.

?Promise Neighborhoods ties together all theses different supports that are looking at all parts of a person?s life, from when their parents first conceive that child up until the time that the child is ready to go beyond college and into a career,? said Evans, the program director.

The Promise Neighborhood Program was modeled after the Harlem Children?s Zone, a 97-block area where community leaders improved test scores, reduced the dropout rate and increased college enrollment by improving ?wraparound services? over a decade.

Some experts are skeptical about the return to investment of wraparound services. A July 2010 Brookings Institute report raised questions about the efficacy of the Harlem Children?s Zone, which operates its own charter school in addition to providing wraparound services.? The report compared test scores from the Harlem school ?with other New York City schools where students do not receive wraparound services. It found that students in the Harlem Children?s Zone did better than students in traditional public schools, but not better than other charter schools in the city.

Marty Lipp, a spokesperson for the Harlem Children?s Zone, called the report narrowly focused and short-sighted. ?Our perspective is larger than just test scores and academics,? he said. ?Those kids need more than just math and English.?

Read the Harlem Children Zone's reponse to the Brookings reports (.pdf).

Blackwell, the PolicyLink CEO, said that the Promise Neighborhood program really is based on a promise.? ?If you participate with us, and we can get you early ? and you?ll take the early childhood program, and attend the school and do your part ? we?ll help you succeed in life. We?ll help you get to college.? We?ll make sure you?re successful there.?

The Sunset Park Promise Neighborhood has applied for one of up to six implementation grants that will be awarded by the Department of Education in December, when it also plans to award additional planning grants.

If it is successful in obtaining the long-term funding, the Sunset Park Promise plan calls for expansion of the zone in five years to bring the services to more families.

Christian Trujillo said that for him, success would mean college, then a career as a lawyer so he can help more families like his own.?

?Justice means fighting for good, like you want good things to happen and get rid of the bad,? he said. ?Like no more drugs or smoke, and for kids to have an education.?

? 2010 msnbc.com? Reprints

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45022229/ns/today-education_nation/

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Pete Seeger enters 9th decade as an activist

FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2011 file photo, activist musician Pete Seeger, 92, left, marches with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, right, and nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests for a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle, in New York. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2011 file photo, activist musician Pete Seeger, 92, left, marches with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, right, and nearly a thousand demonstrators sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street protests for a brief acoustic concert in Columbus Circle, in New York. The demonstrators marched down Broadway singing "This Little Light of Mine" and other folk and gospel songs while ad-libbing lines about corporate greed and social justice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2011 file photo, Pete Seeger, age 92, center, joins Occupy Wall Street by marching after a concert at Symphony space to Columbus Circle in New York. Protesters sang his songs on the march and in Columbus Circle he sang his songs with accompaniment from other musicians, notably his grandson, Tao Rodr?guez-Seeger, far left. (AP Photo/Stephanie Keith)

FILE - In this Aug. 28, 1948 file photo, former Vice President and 1948 Progressive Party presidential candidate, Henry A. Wallace, making a political tour of the south, listens to Pete Seeger, on a plane between Norfolk and Richmond. Seeger's influence is incalculable. He's the rare artist whose music and message transcends time, speaking to his children and their children and on and on. The son of a socialist musicologist and a violinist, he began leading others in song at 8 and was introduced to protest music around 12. (AP Photo, File)

Tao Rodriguez-Seeger was halfway through Friday night's march down Broadway to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, a guitar strapped over his shoulder and his grandfather Pete Seeger at his side. Suddenly a New York City police officer stepped from the crowd and grabbed his elbow.

"Are you Tao Seeger?" the officer asked tersely. "Was this your idea? Did you think of this?"

Rodriguez-Seeger was certain arrest was imminent. The officer reached for his hand and he readied for the cuffs. Then something unexpected happened.

"He shook my hand and said, 'Thank you, thank you. This is beautiful,'" Rodriguez-Seeger said. "That really did it for me. The cops recognized what we were about."

That moment affirmed the message that his grandfather has preached tirelessly across nine decades. The causes and movements have changed from time to time over 75 years, but his message has always been the same: Song is the key to understanding and change.

"Music does something to you," Rodriguez-Seeger said. "It can cross rivers of meaning that entire books can't get across. . You take any one of Bob Dylan's songs and you get to the heart of the matter where it took Homer volumes and volumes of books to get to the same point."

Today, Pete Seeger is approaching the far end of a life lived walking hand in hand with American history, often at odds with the government that runs things. It failed to shut him up. The courts had no chance. Changing tastes and values? Never. Even time seems to have taken a step back in deference to the musical rabble-rouser's resolve and determination.

This time around, Seeger was carried along by two canes, not the sound of his banjo. But his presence, in a crowd of nearly 1,000 with guitar players and chanting sign-holders and police swirling around, gave the new protest movement something it seemed to lack over the last month.

A momentary clarity, longtime friend Guy Davis thinks, A purpose. A direction.

"It's his humanity," Davis said.

Seeger's voice first rose in the 1930s against Hitler. He met Woody Guthrie, Alan Lomax and Lead Belly, and began to advocate for migrant workers and miners in the 1940s. He stared down Sen. Joseph McCarthy and endured a blacklisting he simply shrugged away. In middle age, he was a key figure in the folk revival that produced Dylan and, later, the protests that helped shape modern America.

Seeger still takes delight in lending his presence to important things, even if his voice doesn't carry like it used to. He found himself attracted to the studied inorganization of the Wall Street protesters.

"Be wary of great leaders," he said Sunday in a phone interview full of songs and stories when asked what he identifies with in the Occupy Wall Street message. "Hope that there are many, many small leaders."

Other than the canes and snowy beard, Seeger hasn't changed much since he began singing out against fascism in the mid-1930s after dropping out of Harvard in frustration.

"The sociology professor said, 'Don't think that you can change the world. The only thing you can do is study it,'" Seeger said. "... But this was 1937 and Hitler had taken power. He was murdering people and was ready to go to war."

You could say Seeger inherited his activism. His great-great grandfather came to America seeking self-determination after reading the Declaration of Independence. His great-grandfather was an abolitionist. His father was a socialist who spoke out against World War I.

Seeger's influence is incalculable. He's the rare artist whose music and message transcends time, speaking to his children and their children and on and on.

The son of a musicologist and a violinist, he began leading others in song at 8 and was introduced to protest music around 12. Early on, he saw beauty and possibility in traditional songs often considered regional hokum or race records unfit for an upstanding white audience.

His message found an eager audience in the young generation of kids who would go on to define rock 'n' roll, changing American and world culture in myriad ways. He introduced Martin Luther King Jr. to "We Shall Overcome." In his hands, songs like "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" and "Turn, Turn, Turn!" became galvanizing anthems.

He remains a voice for the disenfranchised ? the poor of Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta and victims of racism and greed.

Kira Moyer-Sims, a 19-year-old participant in the Occupy Wall Street movement, was introduced to Seeger's music on mix CDs from her high-school social studies teacher. Those songs, from a time that seems far away in the age of the iPod, spoke to her with modern urgency and helped push her into the protest ranks.

"Hearing this new music for me was huge and made me realize totally the importance of our nation's history and the fact that we can change it if we want to," she said. "Seeing Pete Seeger there in solidarity with the thing I've been living the past 38 days ... was phenomenal for me."

The idea of protesting for progressive change seemed to have gone out of vogue in the U.S. ? or at least disappeared from public view. After the flower children moved on to mid-life and minivans, Americans turned their focus inward. Fewer people had time for simple songs with complex meanings.

Rodriguez-Seeger said he was attracted to the nascent Occupy Wall Street movement when he joined a support march two weeks ago in Las Vegas. He was drawn to the anti-establishment message but noticed immediately that something was missing.

"I saw a lot of people getting angry at us for marching, getting out of their SUVs and giving us the finger and screaming obscenities" and using anti-gay slurs, Rodriguez-Seeger said. "I thought, if we were singing right now my gut tells me they'd be less inclined to behave like that because it's very difficult when you're hearing music to get that angry."

Davis, a 59-year-old Bronx bluesman who has been friends with the Seegers for 50 years, saw more than a little something of the grandfather in the grandson when he looked over at the pair Friday night. Rodriguez-Seeger helped organize the march, which came together in 30 hours and was driven for the most part by social-media sites like Twitter, Facebook and now YouTube, where dozens of videos mark the night.

"Pete is seeing his life come to fruition," Davis said. "He is seeing the fruits of his labors. All the years he invested in Tao, all the years I used to see him take Tao around when Tao was just a teenager, have paid off beautifully."

And the grandfather doesn't mind the fact that a new generation of Seegers is lifting its voice, even as he gladly slides into the background. Pete Seeger, in fact, says he's a little bemused by all the attention.

"Of course it's a great honor, but I'd just as soon be anonymous," he said. He would like to go down to Zucotti Park, the heart of the movement, but he hopes he can just do it on the sly without the star power. Maybe next week on Halloween. "I won't be recognized," he muses. "Everybody will be in costume."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-10-24-Music-Pete%20Seeger/id-f2dd3646b1264f84b39a3d9270d4302b

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Director, actors face fear head-on in "Martha Marcy" (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? "Martha Marcy May Marlene" may be drawing attention as the movie with the weird title, or the movie with the other Olsen sister in it. But there's a lot more to first-time Sean Durkin's creepy, unsettling drama than those obvious hooks.

The film features a remarkable performance by Elizabeth Olsen (younger sister of those famous twins, actor/entrepreneurs Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) as a young woman trying to adjust to life outside the cult where she'd spent the last two years.

It takes place over the course of two weeks, where Olsen's Martha (the rest of the title consists of her various pseudonyms) battles dislocation and a paranoia that may or may not be justified.

Durkin's film does not offer easy or clear explanations, particularly with an ending that caused a Toronto festival audience to erupt in a chorus of confusion: "What just happened?" "Who was in that car?" "What's going on?"

Infuriating as it can be to some viewers, the approach makes perfect sense, and helps make the demanding and thought-provoking drama one of the year's toughest and most haunting films.

TheWrap spoke to Durkin, Olsen and last year's Oscar nominee (for "Winter's Bone") John Hawkes, who plays the cult leader with quiet menace.

GENESIS

Sean Durkin: Ultimately, the idea came out of my fear of cults, and fear of conforming. Religion always scared me growing up, and large conforming groups. But I was still like a huge soccer fan and would go to the stadium and be just as conforming as anything, so there's some hypocrisy there.

I found a story about a girl who escaped from a group that turned violent. The leader of the group later tracked her down, and instead of threatening her he gave her money and wished her well. And that struck me as a great place to start.

Elizabeth Olsen: True fear really fascinates me. This paranoid state that she's in was fascinating, and trying to figure out hope, and maybe some sort of light and possibility was also interesting. Every part of my body felt game and ready to do.

Durkin: I didn't want somebody who was just cut off and depressed, because then who cares? But when I met Lizzie, she was just the opposite of Martha. She was very vibrant, a bright personality, very infectious. So I thought that that, underneath Martha's shell, could create something interesting.

Olsen: It felt special to me, but I also was coming at it from a naive point of view of not really understanding what it meant to get a distributor, or to get a studio behind you, or a festival buzz.

I kinda wanted to make this movie in a really wholesome, blind way -- just thinking, this is a great role, this is a great script, these people really love this, this is awesome. That's what it was for me, making a movie without any understanding of what happens afterwards.

THE CULT LEADER

John Hawkes: After "Winter's Bone," the studio offers I got were roles that were similar to what I'd already played before in size or scope. I certainly wasn't being offered lead roles, and I'm not against playing the same size roles I'd played before, but I just didn't care for the material that much.

Put it this way: I got a pretty large pile of scripts after the nomination, and I chose probably the two cheapest movies, that paid the least, much to my agent's dismay.

This was a really well-written story, but I wasn't sure I was right for the part. I don't often play leaders of men. It was going to require a slippery thing called charisma, which I don't know how you manufacture or play. Some people just have it in their regular life, I'm certain I don't.

It was a choice to avoid the portraits and performances of cult leaders I'd seen in the past. No disservice to those -- a lot of them are scenery-chewing performances, and probably a lot of fun. But if we're going to follow this woman in her journey, she needs to be a credible person we can believe in and struggle with beside her.

If the moment you meet Patrick he's evil personified, a charlatan that you can spot a hundred yards away, it takes away from her character's credibility. If on the other hand you meet this guy and as the layers peel away you can see who he is but at the same time you can see why she fell in with these people, then it's a much more interesting story, to my mind.

THAT CONFOUNDING ENDING

Durkin: Every audience wants to know what's going to happen. But if they really take the time to think about it, I don't think that thing they think they want is as rewarding as they think it would be. It's like, all those questions you ask at the end of the movie, those are all the things that Martha is living with. And she's only two weeks out of an experience that takes years to process. She's going to keep living with those questions.

The film is supposed to take you through her experience, and when you leave the theater I want you living with what she's living with.

Olsen: It's an effective way of telling the story. If you're still in her head when the movie ends, you don't know what's happening. ... There are moments in the movie where we don't know if she's imagining things or not. But just to act it, I had to make sure everything was real and everything was a threat. That's the only way I knew how to do it. I know that's not Sean's intention. I know that when I read the script for the first time, I certainly didn't think that way. But for me, now it's hard to watch the movie, because everything was real in her mind and in my head. The people who are experiencing that kind of thing, it is real to them. So everything had to be real to me, even if it's not.

RECEPTION

Durkin: We made the film we wanted to make, we didn't have anyone to answer to, and so when we showed up at the festival, we knew we made the best movie we could have made. We finished it on Tuesday, overnighted it to Sundance for Wednesday, arrived Thursday, screened Friday.

I don't think I'll ever be that nervous again. The screening ends, and you have no idea how it went. And then the reviews started to come in, Searchlight called on Sunday, and we made the deal in the middle of the night.

ON BEING A SUNDANCE "IT GIRL"

Olsen: There were about five of us, so I was in good company. When I think about Sundance now, I literally imagine it being a snow globe. The world exists, and there's this one snow globe, and things happen in there but the rest of the world doesn't see it. I remember going home, and nothing had changed.

Well, maybe I got to read better scripts.

CELEBRITY

Olsen: Coming from my family definitely affected the choices I make. Because I'm not really interested in celebrity, I'm interested in working.

I also think I was affected just by going to the high school I did. A lot of different people in the business send their kids there, or their kids themselves are in the business, and you learn a lot from that. It becomes a job, and if it's a good job you have money for that six months.

It becomes a practical thing. So it's never been about celebrity or fame, it's always been about work because of the people that surrounded me as a kid. ... The idea of celebrities being bathed in gold light was kind of stripped away -- even though I still put some actresses and actors in that type of light. Certainly someone like Cate Blanchett, in my mind, literally glows when she walks. So it's nice to have that, but also nice to have the reality of the job.

Hawkes: I didn't know that her sisters were famous. I just saw her as this interesting and vital young person.

What I saw was someone who seemed able to carry this movie with a joy and an enthusiasm and an expertise that was really beyond her years. Having worked with Jennifer Lawrence just a year and a half previous, I was really struck by the wonderful similarities. One of them is the ability to play physically and emotionally dark scenes in a healthier way than perhaps I can, and let that go and return to a sunny disposition pretty quickly.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111023/film_nm/us_marthamarcy

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