Invictus

• Format: DVD
• Rating: PG-13
• Release Date: 5/18/10
• Run Time: 133 min
• Director: Clint Eastwood

A troubled young rugby player is given the choice between jail or playing for a rival team coached by a man known for building not only championship teams, but championship boys. Based on a true story, Forever Strong offers stand up and cheer sports drama combined with the consequences of a strong ethical code to achieve victory on and off the field

Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG-13
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 113 minutes
If you get caught up in the sweaty fight scenes in Never Back Down--and, despite the formulaic plot, you very likely will--it will be due to the sheer kinetic pleasure of muscular bodies in motion. Jake (Tom Cruise look-alike Sean Faris, Yours, Mine, and Ours), full of anger after his father's deat! h, starts to find a place for himself at his new Florida high school--until Ryan, the head of an underground mixed-martial arts (Cam Gigandet, The O.C.), picks Jake out as a prime opponent. After being trounced by Ryan in front of everyone in school, Jake begins training under the firm, moral guidance of a martial arts master with a hidden past (Djimon Hounsou, a long way from Blood Diamond, but still bringing his essential gravitas to the screen). Basically, Never Back Down boils down to a cross between The Karate Kid and Fight Club, minus the sociopolitical commentary. The story and characters are a bundle of featherweight cliches, but that won't stop the aggressively edited fight sequences from stoking a viewer's adrenaline. Also starring Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) as the very blonde love interest, who (along with an abundance of girls in bikinis--'cause, y'know, it's Florida) is there to assure everyone that thes! e handsome, chiseled boys are strictly heterosexual. --Bret! Fetzer< /I>'Try' is the inspirational journey of three American rugby players pursuing their dream of representing their country in the world's third most popular sporting event- the Rugby World Cup.

Their story of sacrifice will inspire the most hardened of cynics as you travel with them through many ups and downs as each player strives to become a `USA Eagle', a group of men who play the world's toughest brand of football truly for the pure love and respect of the game.

And despite representing the world's richest country while playing one of the globe's most popular sports, most will not earn a cent while competing against fully professional sides.

Dan Payne, a former amateur wrestler who came within seconds of realizing his Olympic dream, has one final chance to complete a pact he made with his brother to make the USA Rugby team and represent his country at the highest levels of sport.

Latu Paloka is an Iraq war veteran, whose best friend d! ied in his arms after being ambushed while on patrol. His goal is to make the national squad in honor of his fallen friend and to give the military a much needed morale boost.

Jarvis Albury, a brilliant athlete and vivacious personality who always looks to the future despite his tough past, has turned down lucrative opportunities with other professional sports for the chance to compete on the sport's biggest international stage.

But just as it appears likely they will finally achieve their dream, fate deals a cruel hand and one will have to make the most difficult decision of his life.

`Try' reminds us all what true sport and sportsmanship were meant to be.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.What does Nelson Mandela do after becoming president of South Africa? He rejects revenge, forgives oppressors who jailed him 27 years for his fight against apartheid and! finds hope of national unity in an unlikely place: the rugby ! field. C lint Eastwood (named 2009's Best Director by the National Board of Review) directs an uplifting film about a team and a people inspired to greatness. Morgan Freeman (NBR's Best Actor Award winner and Oscar nominee for this role) is Mandela, who asks the national rugby team captain (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Matt Damon) and his squad to do the impossible and win the World Cup. Prepare to be moved--and thrilled.After South Africa elected Nelson Mandela president, the racially divided country could've easily erupted into civil war. In Clint Eastwood's determinedly populist, yet heartfelt look back at that time, the director examines one of the more ingenious steps Mandela (Morgan Freeman in a performance of sly charm) took to prevent that from happening. Knowing that his country was set to host the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela believed the national team could provide an example of reconciliation in action. Led by François Pienaar (an unbelievably buff Matt Damon)! , the mostly white Springboks inspired devotion among Afrikaners and disgust among native Africans. Instead of changing their name or colors, Mandela encouraged them to win for the sake of their homeland. During the year leading up to the event, the team learns to work together as never before, just as Mandela's newly integrated security detail, a combination of cops and activists, finds a way to bridge their ideological differences. By the time of the big day, the poorly ranked Springboks are well equipped to hold their own against New Zealand's All Blacks (so named for their uniforms, not their racial composition). Drawing from John Carlin's Playing the Enemy, Anthony Peckham's script takes its title, Latin for "unconquerable," from a British poem Mandela held close to his heart during the 27 years he spent in prison. If Damon's accent is more convincing, Freeman serves as the film's heart--and as a timely reminder that reconciliation is never easy, but that it wil! l always trump revenge. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Playskool Alphie

• There's a whole lot to discover when you're a preschooler and this Alphie figure shares one of the most important lessons, too
• Fun and engaging electronic robot figure
• Introduce your child to letters, math skills, special reasoning, cause and effect and much more
• Robot figure sings and plays music and features light up buttons
• Robot figure comes with 30 double-sided cards

Fun and engaging electronic robot figure introduces your child to letters, math skills, special reasoning, cause and effect and much more. Robot figure “sings” and plays music and features light up buttons!

• Robot figure comes with 30 double-sided cards
• Includes 3 “AA” batteries
• Recommended Ages: 3 years & up

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Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India

• ISBN13: 9780307269584
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century.

In a new foreword, noted peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok urges us to adopt Gandhi's "attitude of experimenting, of tesing what will and will not bear close scrutiny, what can and cannot be adapted to new circumstances,"in order to bring about change in our own lives and communities.

All royalties earned on this book are paid to the Navajivan Trust, founded by Gandhi, f! or use in carrying on his work.Gandhi's nonviolent struggles in South Africa and India had already brought him to such a level of notoriety, adulation, and controversy that when asked to write an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain himself. Although accepting of his status as a great innovator in the struggle against racism, violence, and, just then, colonialism, Gandhi feared that enthusiasm for his ideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding. He says that he was after truth rooted in devotion to God and attributed the turning points, successes, and challenges in his life to the will of God. His attempts to get closer to this divine power led him to seek purity through simple living, dietary practices (he called himself a fruitarian), celibacy, and ahimsa, a life without violence. It is in this sense that he calls his book The Story of My Experiments with Truth, offering it also as a reference for t! hose who would follow in his footsteps. A reader expecting a c! omplete accounting of his actions, however, will be sorely disappointed.

Although Gandhi presents his episodes chronologically, he happily leaves wide gaps, such as the entire satyagraha struggle in South Africa, for which he refers the reader to another of his books. And writing for his contemporaries, he takes it for granted that the reader is familiar with the major events of his life and of the political milieu of early 20th-century India. For the objective story, try Yogesh Chadha's Gandhi: A Life. For the inner world of a man held as a criminal by the British, a hero by Muslims, and a holy man by Hindus, look no further than these experiments. --Brian Bruya A critical masterpiece, GANDHI is an intriguing story about activism, politics, religious tolerance and freedom. But at the center of it all is an extraor- dinary man who fought for a nonviolent, peaceful existence, and set an entire nation free. Winner of 8 Academy Awards® includ! ing Best Picture, Best Director (Lord Richard Attenborough) and Best Actor (Sir Ben Kingsley), GANDHI’s highly acclaimed cast also includes Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, Sir John Gielgud, Roshan Seth and Martin Sheen.

The extras include more than 90 minutes of new material, including interviews with director Lord Richard Attenborough; actors Geraldine James, Saeed Jaffrey, and Edward Fox; Diana Hawkins (Director of Publicity), Terry Clegg (Executive in charge of production), Billy Williams (Cinematographer) and Stuart Craig (Production Designer). The DVD includes a Director’s commentary with Attenborough, who also filmed a personal introduction to the film. The featurettes include In Search of Gandhi, Reflections on Ben, Madeleine Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad, The Funeral, Shooting an Epic In India, Looking Back, Designing Gandhi (3 mini featurettes) and From the Director’s Chair (2 mini featurettes). Sir Richard Attenborough's 1982 multiple-Oscar winner (including! Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Ben Kingsley)! is an e ngrossing, reverential look at the life of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who introduced the doctrine of nonviolent resistance to the colonized people of India and who ultimately gained the nation its independence. Kingsley is magnificent as Gandhi as he changes over the course of the three-hour film from an insignificant lawyer to an international leader and symbol. Strong on history (the historic division between India and Pakistan, still a huge problem today, can be seen in its formative stages here) as well as character and ideas, this is a fine film. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Gandhi (click for larger image)

Beyond Gandhi on Amazon.com

Other Oscar Winners at Oscar Central

More Biographies on DVD

The Films of Ben Kingsley

Mohandas K. Gandhi, called Mahatma (“great soul”), was the father of modern India, but his influence has spread well beyond the subcontinent and is as important today as it was in the first part of the twentieth century and during this nation’s own civil rights movement. Taken from Gandhi’s writings throughout his life, The Essential Gandhi introduces us to his thoughts on politics, spirituality, poverty, suffering, love, non-violence, civil disobedience, and his own life. The pieces collected he! re, with explanatory head notes by Gandhi biographer Louis Fischer, offer the clearest, most thorough portrait of one of the greatest spiritual leaders the world has known.
“Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. . . . We may ignore him at our own risk.” â€"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

With a new Preface drawn from the writings of Eknath Easwaran

In the annals of spirituality certain books stand out both for their historical importance and for their continued relevance. The Vintage Spiritual Classics series offers the greatest of these works in authoritative new editions, with specially commissioned essays by noted contemporary commentators. Filled with eloquence and fresh insight, encouragement and solace, Vintage Spiritual Classics are incomparable resources for all readers who seek a more substantive understanding of mankind's relation to the divine.A highly original, stirring book on Mahatma Gandhi that deepens our ! sense of his achievements and disappointmentsâ€"his success in! seizing India’s imagination and shaping its independence struggle as a mass movement, his recognition late in life that few of his followers paid more than lip service to his ambitious goals of social justice for the country’s minorities, outcasts, and rural poor.

Pulitzer Prizeâ€"winner Joseph Lelyveld shows in vivid, unmatched detail how Gandhi’s sense of mission, social values, and philosophy of nonviolent resistance were shaped on another subcontinentâ€"during two decades in South Africaâ€"and then tested by an India that quickly learned to revere him as a Mahatma, or “Great Soul,” while following him only a small part of the way to the social transformation he envisioned. The man himself emerges as one of history’s most remarkable self-creations, a prosperous lawyer who became an ascetic in a loincloth wholly dedicated to political and social action. Lelyveld leads us step-by-step through the heroicâ€"and tragicâ€"last months of this selfless leader’s long! campaign when his nonviolent efforts culminated in the partition of India, the creation of Pakistan, and a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing that ended only with his own assassination.

India and its politicians were ready to place Gandhi on a pedestal as “Father of the Nation” but were less inclined to embrace his teachings. Muslim support, crucial in his rise to leadership, soon waned, and the oppressed untouchablesâ€"for whom Gandhi spoke to Hindus as a wholeâ€"produced their own leaders.

Here is a vital, brilliant reconsideration of Gandhi’s extraordinary struggles on two continents, of his fierce but, finally, unfulfilled hopes, and of his ever-evolving legacy, which more than six decades after his death still ensures his place as India’s social conscienceâ€"and not just India’s.Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2011: With Great Soul, Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Lelyveld accomplishes the difficult task of humanizing ! the fabled "Mahatma." Utterly unafraid of depicting Gandhi's l! ess pala table tendencies--shameless self-promotion, inscrutable sexual mores, and an often narrow and ethnically specific application of his evolving political tenets--Lelyveld instead stands the man up against the myth. Comprehensively researched and confidently written, Lelyveld's exploration of Gandhi's politically formative years in South Africa, and the international profile he later secured in India, demonstrates laudable (if not unflinching) critical distance from his subject. It takes a brave biographer to pull this off respectfully. (See Christopher Hitchens’s book on Mother Theresa for a contrary and maudlin example.) Lelyveld is up to the job, delivering an ultimately indispensable take on the flesh-and-blood man who may have been his own best hagiographer. Everyone with an interest in Gandhi--from incurable skeptics to unabashed devotees--should find much to learn from one of the year’s best biographies to date. --Jason Kirk

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Cyalume SnapLight Industrial Grade Chemical Light Sticks, Green, 6" Long, 12 Hour Duration (Pack of 10)

• SnapLight industrial grade green light stick for providing illumination for up to 12 hours
• Measures 6" long and provides 360 degrees of illumination
• Hook and gate top for hanging or attaching the light
• Chemiluminescent substance is non-toxic and plastic body is phthalate free for safety
• Five-year shelf life from date of manufacture for a maintenance-free alternative to other lighting

The Cyalume SnapLight is a green industrial grade chemical light stick measuring 6" long, for providing instant 360 degree illumination, that can be seen up to a mile away for up to 12 hours in optimal conditions. The SnapLight is waterproof, non-toxic, and non-flammable. To activate the light stick, bend, snap and shake the tube. The light stick has a hook and gate top, for hanging or attaching the light. Each light stick is individually foil-wrapped for protection from light a! nd moisture, and has up to a five-year shelf life from date of manufacture.

The durable, waterproof, external body of the light stick is made from low density polyethylene (LDPE), and is phthalate free for safety. The internal illuminating chemical substance is non-toxic and non-flammable, and the components of the light stick are recyclable. The light stick floats in water and works best between 40 to 80 degrees F (4 to 27 degrees C), and although the light stick works at higher or lower temperatures, it is less effective in colder temperatures.

All sticks are tested at a temperature of 72 degrees F (22 degrees C) to determine the illumination duration. Each 10-degree C (50-degree F) increase or decrease in temperature doubles or halves the reaction rate, and therefore the brightness and duration. For example, the same light stick that emits approximately 30 lux (a unit that describes how much light is visible over a square meter) at 15 minutes after acti! vation at 24 degrees C (75 degrees F) will be half as bright b! ut glow twice as long at 14 degrees C (57 degrees F). At 34 degrees C (93 degrees F), the same light stick would be twice as bright, but glow half as long. Storage at elevated temperatures (above 120 degrees F or 49 degrees C) will decrease shelf life and start to soften the plastic tube, and increase the risk of a leak. Exposure to cold temperatures will not affect the light sticks if they are warmed above 40 degrees F (4.5 degrees C) before activation, unless they are frozen (which occurs at -15 to -20 degrees F, or -26 to -29 degrees C). Once light sticks have been frozen, they will still produce some light, but performance will not be as reliable. Humidity and atmospheric conditions do not affect the light sticks.

Light sticks are chemiluminescent substances in plastic tubes that provide hours of illumination in a number of safety, industrial, and military applications. Light sticks are waterproof, non-flammable, and non-sparking, which makes them useful in hazardous si! tuations where sparks or flame could cause an explosion. Duration is determined by the chemistry of the formulation. Brightness is affected by temperature: the warmer the temperature, the brighter the light will appear. Viewing distance can be affected by temperature, moisture, and other elements. Exposure to direct sunlight can reduce shelf life and effectiveness.

Cyalume Technologies manufactures chemiluminescent products used for safety, industrial, and military applications. The company, founded in 1970 and headquartered in West Springfield, MA, makes products under ChemLight and SnapLight brands. ChemLight products meet military specifications, and the company meets ISO 9001 standards.

What’s in the Box?

• 10 individually foil-wrapped light sticks

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