Should I own bonds inside my investment portfolio?
Most investors lose sight of what bonds actually are and why they are so vital within an investment portfolio.
If you merely look at the interest rate, when judging whether to include bonds within a portfolio and to what extent you will be sadly mistaken.
Bonds are such a crucial and important component within a portfolio. Not so much to drive investment return but rather to provideprotection from when the higher returning equity investments suffer.
However, I can totally understand how investors are persuaded to act otherwise.
For example, US equity markets over the past 40 years have yielded over a 9% return per year whereas US bonds have produced much less….Averaging approximately 6%.
Seems clear, right? It is easy to see that owning equities over that long of a period of time would provide superior results to owning bonds.
But that is the point….You have to stay invested.
Not to mention that each and every decade has been a different experience for investors as well.
Without a doubt, every 10 year period in the past has provided at least one very significant decrease in global equity markets and sometimes more often.
Investors certainly realize that owning equities over the last 15 years has not produced a tremendous return overall. Yet there were most certainly some amazing returns within than period for equities. It's just that when your portfolio suffers losses it requires even more return to just get back to even.
For Example, if you have a $100,000 investment portfolio and you lose -10% in an upcoming equity market correction your portfolio is now $90,000.
That folks, is where bonds come in, especially longer duration bonds, such as 20 – 30 year bonds. They provide the most non-correlated return to equities.
Let's take 2008 for an example….Yes, equity markets have performed well overtime but tell me how many people have the stomach to lose over -40% of their investment portfolio and not begin to panic???
Now let's say that you had an appropriate blend of non-correlated bonds within your portfolio, say at a 50% / 50% split.
A truly balanced & diversified portfolio.
Guess what the return would have been in 2008?
With the worst market crash within the past 50 years where stocks fell from its peak over -40% or greater???
Yup, those so called "boring", "low returning", "unsophisticated" bonds provided the protection that was needed.
A 50 – 50 split of Equities with Long Term US Treasury Bonds would have been almost flat.
Bond markets are *non-correlated* to equity markets. That means that when equity markets perform very well, bonds almost always falter. And when bonds perform well, you are sure to expect equities to have done poorly.
It's important to know that the yield or interest rate of a bond does NOT ever change. It is the market price of the bond that adjusts upwards or downwards based on different market conditions. And almost always predictably opposite to that of the stock market movements. Now, the pricing of bonds is beyond the scope of this short blog post. We'll aim to cover the pricing of bonds in a later post but for now it at least gives you the proper understanding of why bonds are so important.
Not because they provide a return higher than stocks….
But rather because when your plane is going down you want to make sure that your parachute opens.


Decorating your house: Don't make these 7 mistakes!
The curtains cover the windows perfectly from edge to edge. But the room appears dark, pokey and inelegant.
The solution: Make your curtain rod longer than the window so the curtains hang on either side of the glass. This way the curtains won't block the light. Make it run right from the ceiling to the floor as well. The window will appear larger and the room will look taller and more elegant too.
The most common mistake many people make when arranging furniture, is to back everything up against the wall. Suddenly you have a big empty space in the middle of the room.
The solution: Use the sofa or just a single sofa-chair to create a passageway or divide the living room from the kitchen. It also helps to shift everything just a few inches away from the wall.
So you've got the freedom to decorate and finally you get to decorate with your favourite colour or pattern. Everything has been lovingly chosen and arranged along the one colour scheme. Then guess what, everything is too matchy-matchy. It's too over the top and the decor feels heavy and contrived.
The solution: Break free with small accessories and accent colours in a range of colours. Your base colour still does a good job of holding everything together, but the room now has a sense of liveliness and interest.
Dark shades are awesome in a home. Rich and dark tones make a room look distinctive, regal and striking. But what looks great on a sample swatch at the store can look far too dark when it covers a whole wall.
The solution: Lighten up the feel of the room with light coloured furniture, light decorations and lots of reflective surfaces. Metallics are a good choice.
Knick-knacks are addictive! If you find some soul satisfaction in buying a beautiful little bowl, a little ceramic something or yet more candlesticks you won't use then you know what we're talking about. These little things feel like an expression of your interior design style so there is nothing wrong with this. But lots of little unnecessary things can easily clutter up the room and make it look messy.
The solution: Gather up your scattered objects and create a collection. Perhaps you could mount your favourite retro items on one wall, hang old musical instruments in a corner or set up a colour themed shelf for your ceramics. The secret is to display them as groups and confine them to one area. The rest of the room will look pristine and clean in comparison.
The home feels cluttered, small and hard to navigate. Perhaps the furniture even blocks natural light entering the far reaches of the room.
The solution: If you are just about to buy furniture, take the time to properly measure the space. If your home is already overfurnished, have a look at some Japanese interiors for inspiration and cull! A home free of clutter will feel spacious and calming. It will also draw attention to architectural features in the home.
The room may feel dark, corners are in shadow or the room as a whole feels cold and harshly lit.
The solution: Stop relying on one common light source and build your lighting in layers. Consider where you might need a strong task light, then look at building up texture with lamps, strip lights and pendant lights.
Finally, if all this makes you appreciate just how much work goes into a successful interior, hire a professional interior designer and decorator.
For more ideas, have a look at 7 simple steps to decorating your first apartment.


The Umpqua Singers return to Spain to perform in Aranda de Duero.
The Umpqua Singers performed a program that featured vocal arrangements by Jason Heald, including several new arrangements of Spanish and Latin American jazz standards. The Spanish audiences were enthusiastic in their response, prompting several encores. The tour schedule also included a performance in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the Umpqua Singers' music was also met with a very warm reception.
See the Umpqua Singers perform MAMBO #5!
Triptych for Guitar and Viola, is featured at the Corvallis Guitar Society and Jefferson Classical Guitar Society.
A new three movement suite for guitar and viola, Triptych, was performed by guitarist James Bishop-Edwards and violist Kimberly Fitch at two recent concerts. The duo performed at the Corvallis Guitar Society on March 5, 2018, and the following night at the Jefferson Classical Guitar Society at the Pachal Winery in Talent, Oregon.
Nancy Rumbel performs two new works by Jason Heald on her recent tour.
Grammy award-winning multi-instrumentalist Nancy Rumbel premiered two new compositions on her February, 2018 performances in southern Oregon. The new works included "Meditation", a piece or oboe and string orchestra, and "Tropical Sunrise", a lively composition for ocarina and choir.
Violinist Alex DePue will perform with the Umpqua Chamber Orchestra and Umpqua Singers on November 14, 2017 at the First Presbyterian Church of Roseburg. The program will include a wide mix of musical styles, ranging from Bach's A Minor Violin Concerto to a Michael Jackson/Yes Medley. The performance will also include the premiere performance of Jason Heald's "Entr'acte" for solo violin and chamber orchestra.
Contralto Samantha Stiner features "Lighting the Blue Lantern" on concert series, Hot Off the Press.
Samantha Stiner premiered Jason Heald's "Lighting the Blue Lantern", a setting of a poem by Ho Nansorhon, at University of Wyoming in September, 2016, and included the song in a recent performance at Immaculata University in Pennsylvania on September 9, 2017. Stiner's program, "Hot Off the Press" featured new works from prominent international composers.
James Bishop-Edwards premieres Four Pieces for Guitar on recent tour.
Ashland guitarist, James Bishop-Edwards, featured a new Heald composition, Four Pieces for Guitar, on an Oregon Coast tour in September, 2017. Bishop-Edwards is a professor at Southern Oregon University and renown touring artist.
The Umpqua Singers perform at the Seldovia Summer Solstice Music Festival!
The Umpqua Singers made multiple appearances at the Seldovia Summer Solstice Music Festival on a recent tour of Alaska. Among the crowd favorites was an inspiring arrangement of the state song, "Alaska's Flag".
The Roseburg Concert Chorale performs Three Settings by Robert Louis Stevenson on their 2017 Scotland Tour.
The Roseburg Concert Chorale returned to the British Isles for a third time, touring Scotland in March, 2017. The tour included performances in Edinburgh, Roslin, and Inverness. Three Settings by Robert Louis Stevenson feature some of the author's most quintessentially Scottish poems, "Where Go the Boats", "In a Railway Carriage", and "I Know Not How".
The Delgani String Quartet, featuring James Bishop-Edwards, perform Five Brief Conversations in Roseburg.
Five Brief Conversations for Twenty-Two Strings received a warm reception on a hot Tuesday night in First Presbyterian Church of Roseburg on May 23, 2017. The piece was performed by the Delgani String Quartet with special guest, James Bishop-Edwards, guitarist and music faculty member at Southern Oregon University.
The Tesla Quartet performed "Moll Roone" for String Quartet #5 as its encore selection on its tour in March 2017. The Tesla Quartet is Quartet-in-Residence at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick as well as Artists-in-Residence in Hickory, North Carolina.
Soprano Laura Wayte performs Passwords for Songs at Tsunami!
Eugene soprano Laura Wayte, accompanied by pianist Nathalie Fortin, performed Passwords, three settings by William Stafford, for a packed house at the opening night of the performance series, Songs at Tsunami, on October 22, 2016. The Stafford selections were part of a diverse and emotionally charged program that displayed Ms. Wayte's amazing technical and interpretive skills.
Kirk and Spock sing in Pon Farr: A Green-Blooded Love Story.
The Trek Theatre in Eugene Oregon premiered a new musical, Pon Farr: a Green-Blooded Love Story in August and September of 2016. The musical is based on the Star Trek episode, Amok Time, with original musical selections.
Choir Girls: On the Road premiered at the 2015 Oregon Musical Theatre Festival. Directed by Troy Pennington, the sequel to the 2012 production, Choir Girls, features the original cast quartet of Tonnie Bernhardsen, Debra Gaddis, Donna Priestly, and Donna Spicer in a hilarious and sometimes poignant musical.
Prometheus rocks high school audiences in Douglas County!
The Umpqua Singers featured Prometheus - An Epic A Cappella Operetta on a recent tour of Douglas County High Schools. The 30 minute musical comedy is a funny, bizarre take on the Aeschylus play, Prometheus Bound.
Consonare Chorale commissions new work for choir and harp.
Sonnet XVII (Te Amo) was premiered by the Consonare Chorale, under the direction of Georgina Phillipson, on March 12, 2016, at the First Congregational Church in Portland, Oregon. The performance featured harpist Dr. Rachel Brandwein, faculty member at Luther College. Sonnet XVII is a setting of a poem by Pablo Neruda.
The new musical, Constance, premiered at the Oregon Musical Theatre Festival!
Constance Lloyd and Oscar Wilde, scandalous celebrities of the Victorian Era, are the personalities, both real and imagined at the center of the original musical production in Center Stage during the Oregon Musical Theatre Festival's 2013 summer production. This original musical, brought to life by the book of Troy Pennington, and the music and lyrics of Jason Heald is an absurdist depiction of this heartbreaking, tough and yet vibrant couple. An explosion of imagination and relentless churn of intellect and wit!
The Umpqua Singers perform in Rio de Janeiro!
The Umpqua Singers, the vocal jazz ensemble from Umpqua Communtiy College, received a warm Brazilian welcome during their recent tour which included performances in Rio de Janeiro. Their repertoire included Brazilian favorites by Dorival Caymii and Antonio Carlos Jobim arranged by Jason Heald, and several new a cappella arrangements.
The Roseburg Concert Chorale featured Daughter of Erin, a new cantata by Jason Heald, on its tour of Ireland in March 2013. The cantata tells the story of Maud Gonne, the fiery Irish revolutionary, through original lyrics and settings of poems by William Butler Yeats. Mezzo-soprano Donna Spicer was featured as the voice of Maud Gonne. The Roseburg Concert Chorale tour included performances in Dublin, Kilkenny, and Cork.
The 2012 Oregon Musical Theatre Festival presented eight performances af Jason Heald's new music, Choir Girls. Choir Girls is a sneak peek into a rehearsal of a women's quartet, the Sabbath Serenaders, from the Church of Saint Paul in the Mall. We follow the four women and their male accompanist through a rollicking Thursday night rehearsal where more time is spent discussing their personal lives then actually rehearsing the Sunday anthem.
never copyrighted and therefore is considered the Ukrainian folk song.
Portland Taiko and Consonare Chorale collaborate on the premiere performance of Sakura.
Sakura was premiered in Spring, 2011 by Consonare Chorale and Portland Taiko at the First Congregational Chuch in Portland. The rousing work included not only the traditional Japanese folksong, "Sakura", but a lush reharmonization of the National Anthem of Japan, "Kimigayo".


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"Rise Today" is a song by American hard rock band Alter Bridge. Written by lead guitarist Mark Tremonti and lead vocalist Myles Kennedy, it was produced by Michael "Elvis" Baskette and appeared on the band's 2007 second studio album Blackbird. The track was released as the lead single from the album on July 31, 2007, peaking at number 3 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart.

Composition and lyrics
According to Alter Bridge lead guitarist Mark Tremonti, "Rise Today" is a song written "about asking yourself what you can do to change the world for the better [...] what [you] can do to make the world a better place [... and] how you can be a better person". Speaking after the song's release, Tremonti explained that fans had initially misconstrued the meaning of the song somewhat. In an interview with The Pulse of Radio, the guitarist commented that "it's already getting kind of looked at the wrong way, where people think it's an anti-war song or whatnot, [but] it's more of a, you know, let's check ourselves and see if we can do something better for any given situation".

Promotion and release
"Rise Today" was released as the first single from Blackbird on July 31, 2007. The song was also used in a number of television commercials, including promotional spots for CSI: Miami and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and was used as the main theme song of the WWE pay-per-view Unforgiven in September 2007. Tremonti described the partnership by noting that "It's kind of an uplifting, energetic song that seems to fit well". "Rise Today" has been performed consistently during live shows since its release; according to set list aggregation website Setlist.fm, it is the band's second most-frequently performed song, after "Metalingus". It is often played as the final song of the set.

Music video
The music video for "Rise Today" was filmed in a rehearsal space in the band's hometown of Orlando, Florida with director Dale "Rage" Resteghini and released on October 5, 2007. Speaking about the production process, Resteghini commented that "I feel [this] is going to be one of my biggest rock videos ever. The song is amazing and the way we shot it, on anamorphic and spherical lenses on 16mm using all kinds of film stocks including reversal film, true black-and-white as well as cross processing some of the neg, allowed me to really get creative with this video".

Reception

Commercial
"Rise Today" entered the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart at number 32 for the week of August 18, 2007. It peaked at number 3 on the chart three months later, spending a total of 26 weeks on the chart. On the Alternative Songs (then known as Hot Modern Rock Songs) chart, the song entered at number 38 and peaked at number 32, spending 12 weeks in the top 40. Outside of the US, "Rise Today" reached number 3 on the UK Rock & Metal Singles Chart in October 2007.

Critical
In his review of Blackbird, Vik Bansal of musicOMH praised "Rise Today" as one of the highlights of the album, alongside "Before Tomorrow Comes", noting that the two singles "have obvious but oh so pleasurable hooks" and claiming that all three represent the record's "peak creative powers". In a 2016 feature for TeamRock, Henry Yates ranked "Rise Today" as the second best song by the band (after "Blackbird"), praising its "emotional resonance" and "force-ten execution".

Track listings

Chart positions

References

External links
"Rise Today" music video at YouTube

2007 songs
2007 singles
Alter Bridge songs
Songs written by Myles Kennedy
Songs written by Mark Tremonti
Song recordings produced by Michael Baskette
Universal Republic Records singles
Music videos directed by Dale Resteghini

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Democrats are losing their slaves again and they are just as incensed today as they were in the 1850s. The latest defector from the Democrat Plantation, Kanye West, is being hounded and hunted down by the house slaves of their Democrat Party masters. West committed the liberal crime of praising a conservative Christian for achieving great things for America when he spoke well of President Trump.
Did Kanye West grow a functioning brain and moral heart? Leftists are incensed that West, who once damned President George W. Bush as hating black people because he believed their propaganda about Katrina, who praised Barack Obama and voted for him twice, and who did not vote in 2016 for Hillary, is now saying he loves President Donald Trump! West is taking the slings and arrows of the Left for daring to take a stand with Candace Owens against the Democrat Plantation that he, too, is now calling "a prison for your mind." Conservatives have been striving to expose Democrat propaganda for decades, but Republicans are always too fearful of inciting the liberal media against them and being called racists. By calling Republicans racist, Democrat have silenced most of them because propaganda has a strong influence on the weak-minded, especially those who are seeking public approval to win a popularity contest to obtain a seat in Congress. Obama learned very early that they easiest way to win was to smear his opponent with lies and promise treats and free benefits to the masses, i.e. pandering through demagoguery. But the rise of Donald Trump has pulled back the curtain to reveal the true nature of the Democrat Party as America haters inciting scorn for all things righteous, slandering any who speak out against them, and offering to be the government thieves stealing from the rich by establishing themselves as the socialist rulers of America.
West may have taken the Red Pill and opened his eyes to what Democrats have been doing to enslave their former slaves over the past century. Democrats lured the descendants of their former slaves back to their plantation, except that now that plantation isn't a manor home surrounded by cotton pickers, but a ghetto inhabited by voter slaves subsisting on welfare. Democrats achieved this by encouraging black racism against whites, offering them table scraps on which to live rather than low paying jobs from which they can rise, and by sending their House N*ggers out to keep them in line when they strayed. Leftists love to call black conservatives like Justice Clarence Thomas, Dr. Ben Carson, and CEO Herman Cain "House N*ggers" for working with white people. But there is a difference between working with white people or working for a white boss, and working in service to white overlords. It is Representatives like Elijah Cummings who was beaten by Democrats at Selma and then joined them to keep voters in line, Maxine Waters who expresses blithering idiot stupidity on a weekly basis screaming, "Impeach 45," before Trump had even taken office, and Corey Booker whose anti-white racism is laughable in the face of his service to his ruling Democrat overlords. Democrats teach ignorant young people that they are not the Democrats of the past, but that they are the ones who freed the slaves.


This 1 1/2 story home in El Dorado is the perfect fixer-upper or rental opportunity! Featuring 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, and nearly 3,000 sq. ft., there's plenty of space within. You'll love the wood floors and picture windows all throughout, plus there's a 2 car garage that adds great value! It's listed as-is and under the county tax value so you'll be walking into instant equity. A similarly sized house across the street sold for $185,000! Located right next to Summit Park and very close to tons of restaurants, you've found a fantastic home in a convenient location. Schedule your private showing today and get this one before it's gone!


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Coronavirus Updates Top Stories
Coronavirus Updates (May 16): Reopening Beaches, Guidelines for Phase 1
May 16, 2020 May 16, 2020 Beth Young 0 Comments beaches, coronavirus, Covid-19, New York, Suffolk County
It's time to get used to wearing a face covering.
As New York prepares to reopen its economy, the state is beginning to roll out guidelines for businesses and public spaces to reopen safely and prevent the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, with the focus on common-sense safety practices like wearing a mask when in close proximity to other people, maintaining social distancing and providing ready access to hand sanitizer.
We're bearing down on Memorial Day Weekend, and both New York State and Suffolk County announced Friday that state beaches, and the county ocean beaches at Cupsogue in Westhampton Beach and Smith Point in Shirley will be open for the holiday weekend, with new occupancy restrictions.
Members of recently formed Nassau/Suffolk Joint Summer Operations Task Force are expected to announce their plans for reopening town and village beaches by Monday. The task force is a joint project of the Suffolk and Nassau County supervisors associations.
"For kids who don't have playgrounds, pools, movies and amusement parks, all these things that aren't operating and don't exist right now, we have to have something for them to do," said Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on Friday. "It's far better to develop a safety plan allows us to proactively plan for and open in safe manner, protect public health and enable families to enjoy the beach."
New York State has cut its beach occupancy limit by 50 percent, reduced parking, and mandated that picnic areas, pavilions and arcades at beaches remain closed, with no concessions operating. Contact sports like volleyball and football will also not be permitted.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday that beachgoers must wear face coverings when in public areas at beaches, but do not need to wear them when they find a spot to sit with their family group, or while in the water.
"Local governments can decide to open or stay closed," he said. "If they chose to open, they must adopt the state's requirements at a minimum. If they want to impose additional requirements, they're allowed to."
Mr. Bellone said Suffolk County lifeguards had worked with the county health department to determine the reduced occupancy at the county beaches based on the square footage of beaches.
He added that Suffolk's beach employees will have their temperatures checked before each shift, and bathroom attendants will be on hand to regularly clean bathrooms. Hand sanitizer will also be provided for people to use before and after they enter bathrooms at the beaches.
Only one lifeguard will be on each lifeguard stand at county beaches, but if more than one lifeguard is needed for a rescue, they "will do what is needed to save a person's life," he said.
Mr. Bellone said the county's has not yet opened its bay beach at Meschutt in Hampton Bays, but will likely do so later in the season.
"Beaches are part of the fabric of life on Long Island," he said. "This virus has taken so much from us. We couldn't allow it to take our ability to go to beaches this summer."
Getting to Phase 1
As of Saturday morning Long Island was meeting just five of the seven metrics necessary to reopen its economy, awaiting a 14-day decline in new hospitalizations and hospital deaths, according to New York State's Regional Monitoring Dashboard.
Landscaping and gardening businesses, along with outdoor recreational businesses like tennis courts, and drive-in movie theaters were allowed to open statewide as of Friday, May 15.
The state has prepared a guide for businesses to safely reopen in Phase 1 of the four phases of reopening the economy, which includes construction, manufacturing and curbside pickup at retail stores.
Mr. Cuomo said construction workers must wear masks when within six feet of one another, their employers must provide masks and other safety equipment, and no congregate meetings are allowed at job sites.
With curbside retail pickup, employees, purchasers, and everyone in the purchaser's car must be wearing a mask. If a retail business can't provide curbside pickup, they're allowed to let people into the store for pickup, but not to browse and shop, as long as the business doesn't exceed 50 percent of its normal occupancy.
Businesses must also provide enough staffing to enforce these standards.
Manufacturing and wholesale businesses must also not exceed 50 percent of maximum workforce occupancy in their place of business.
Industry-by-industry details on these requirements are online here.
Phase 2 of reopening includes professional, financial and administrative services, real estate and retail. Phase 3 includes restaurants, food service and hotels, followed by arts, entertainment, recreation and education in Phase 4.
Regions will be permitted to progress to the next phase of reopening if they continue to meet the seven hospital and testing metrics on the state dashboard after two weeks. The leaders of each regional "control room" have been tasked by the state with dialing back the reopening of the economy if the region falls below those benchmarks.
New York has not yet provided detailed guidelines for later reopening phases.
Editorial: From the Deep North
August 31, 2019 Beth Young 0
A New Leader for East End Arts
Sharpshooters set sights on East End deer; public concern abounds in towns
October 21, 2013 Beth Young 0
Please prove you're human: 6 − = one

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Home Innovation
Prysm LPD 6K Video Monitor Raises the Bar for Video Walls
Chris Preimesberger
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Remember all those predictions from years ago about what life was going to look like in the 21st century? Flying cars, space travel, robot maids, "beam me up"—you know the drill.
There was another one that always seemed to be included in those futuristic fantasies: wall-size video screens. Up to now, whenever someone wanted to have a super-large display, he or she had to do it in sections, using lots of smaller video screens clustered and coordinated to comprise one large one.
Not anymore. Now an enterprise can station a very-high-quality (6K) Jumbotron-size video monitor in its own executive meeting room—we're talking about a 190-inch screen on a unit that's 6 feet high and only a couple of feet thick.
It was designed and built using Prysm Laser Phosphor Display (LPD), in which vertical bars instead of dots are used to show colors and images onscreen.
Whole New Segment Being Created
Prysm, Inc., a new-gen display and visual collaboration solutions provider, is helping create a whole new segment for the video monitor industry with this humongous video screen. Earlier this month, the San Jose, Calif.-based startup introduced its top-of-the-line Prysm Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) 6K Series. These interactive large-format single panel displays offer a panoramic image uninterrupted by seams or bezels with power consumption similar, the company claims, to a commercial coffee maker. The displays are shatter-resistant, flexible and the screens come off and roll up for transport.
The frame unit is a different story. It breaks into smaller sections but, as one might imagine, it's not a portable device. But once it's in place, it is indeed an impressive presentation tool.
I was on hand for eWEEK in 2006 when Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers introduced the company's TelePresence system, which for the demo had participants in places such as London, Tokyo and Frankfurt. They were smaller high-definition screens than Prysm's, but the images were so sharp and lifelike that if someone in one of the other locations sneezed, you thought you should turn your head to avoid catching germs.
That demo was 12 years ago, and it was mere HD. Now Prysm has 6K ultra-high definition, and the screen is much larger. The future of wall-size video systems has indeed arrived.
New Era for Video Walls: LPD 6K's Defining Technology
Prysm claims that its LPD 6K can deliver top-notch experiences across vastly different use cases. From an up-close ideation session using touch, to a private theater setting with a large audience, the images and content remain crisp. Having seen a demo, I can attest to the high quality of this video screen; I've never seen anything as sharp, nor the colors as bright and true, as this one.
In fact, it is very difficult to describe the screen quality of the LPD 6K in an article. Even if we tried to show a video, it wouldn't do the job. One has to actually sit right in front of it to see what we're talking about.
Here are some factoids from the company about the LPD 6K:
An immersive, bezel-free viewing experience, featuring a high fill factor and an exceptional contrast ratio, resulting in striking picture quality and built-in interactivity with more than 30 simultaneous touchpoints
A cool-to-the-touch screen with low power intake, consuming at least 20 percent less energy than similarly sized LED/LCD video walls with 96 percent recyclable materials
Better serviceability with easier access from the front of the unit
The LPD 6K Series is uniquely optimized for the following markets:
Collaboration and innovation centers: Coupled with Prysm's visual collaboration platform, the LPD 6K makes meetings more engaging and immersive, ultimately resulting in better, faster decisions
Digital signage: Delivers a beautiful, uncompromised distance-viewing experience at 6K to draw in customers with the ability to easily switch to an immersive, touch-enabled experience
Private theaters: Provides an ultra-clear, color rich 6K experience with an uninterrupted viewing experience
Modular Design a Key
The new modular design helps speed display integration and permits installation in a variety of locations. The durable front screen, which is made of a specialty coated polycarbonate layer, is rolled into a cylinder for easy transport. Thanks to this feature, integrators can negotiate tight corners and enter through standard doors and passenger elevators during setup–something that is pretty much impossible for conventional large-format displays.
The LPD 6K Series is currently in general availability and shipping to partners and customers. The new package is helping to define a new category of interactive large-format single panel displays, with bezel-free viewing above 100 inches, with screen sizes available at 190 and 135 inches.
"The Prysm LPD 6K is the centerpiece of our new Media Learning Center, where we conduct advanced clinical education and training for our healthcare practitioners," Dr. John P. Troup, vice president of clinical science, education and innovation at Standard Process, told eWEEK. "At a time when practitioners are looking to incorporate more 'wholistic' approaches to support their patients, we require a technology solution that can help us better illustrate and share our message.
"We love this new Prysm technology, because it makes the patient come alive for our audience, delivers augmented reality-based education and provides a more engaging and effective experience than ever before."
For more information, go here.
https://www.eweek.com/author/cpreimesberger/
Chris J. Preimesberger is Editor Emeritus of eWEEK. In his 16 years and more than 5,000 articles at eWEEK, he distinguished himself in reporting and analysis of the business use of new-gen IT in a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, data center systems, storage, edge systems, security and others. In February 2017 and September 2018, Chris was named among the 250 most influential business journalists in the world (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-250-business-journalists/) by Richtopia, a UK research firm that used analytics to compile the ranking. He has won several national and regional awards for his work, including a 2011 Folio Award for a profile (https://www.eweek.com/cloud/marc-benioff-trend-seer-and-business-socialist/) of Salesforce founder/CEO Marc Benioff--the only time he has entered the competition. Previously, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press since 1983 and resides in Silicon Valley.


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Immigration agency reverses, says it will still approve leniency for deportations
In this July 9, 2019, file photo, immigrants line up in the dining hall at the U.S. government's newest holding center for migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas. The government will be able to hold immigrant children detained at the ... more >
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, September 2, 2019
Homeland Security announced Monday that it will once again begin approving petitions for a stay of deportation for migrants with hardship cases such as major medical problems, after being hit with a ferocious backlash when it stopped taking the cases.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it will still consider "limiting" its role, but said it will at least go through all the cases that were pending as of Aug. 7, which is when the decision was first made to halt deferred action for all but military families and "Dreamers," immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children.
Deferred action is a grant of a stay of deportation. It's perhaps best known as the mechanism President Obama used for his deportation amnesty for Dreamers — DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals — but it's long been a more limited power the government has had in other cases.
USCIS's decision earlier this month to curtail deferred action approvals was a misstep by the agency, which had been on a winning streak in fulfilling President Trump's immigration goals. USCIS said at the time that another agency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, could still use deferred action to stop deportations at the back end.
USCIS insisted that ICE was the right agency.
But ICE officials said they were blindsided by the announcement.
"We have no program to do this. We have no intention of taking this over," an ICE official said at the time.
The move also spurred a series of stories in the press of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and dealing with health conditions — either their own or their children's — who'd had requests for deferred action denied and were fearing they'd be deported.
One activist called the move "a death sentence" for migrants affected.
"Deporting caretakers of U.S. citizen children with serious medical conditions is an affront to common decency and American values — and forces parents to choose between family separation or a death sentence," said the Rev. John L. McCullough, president of Church World Service.
Advocacy groups said USCIS made the change without advance notice, denying the public a chance to weigh in beforehand.
It appeared the agency knew its move would be controversial, since it explicitly said it wouldn't apply to cases involving the military, which are among the most sympathetic figures in any immigration debate.
Deferred action isn't supposed to be a legal status, though some migrants are able to use it as a bridge to remain in the U.S. while they wait for another avenue of legal status to come open, such as a family-based green card.
USCIS said in looking at the applications already pending, it will make "case-by-case discretionary decisions" about who is worthy. And the agency suggested it is looking to scale down the program so its adjudicators can work on other immigration benefits.
"As USCIS' deferred action caseload is reduced, the career employees who decide such cases will be more available to address other types of legal immigration applications on a more efficient basis," the agency said in a statement announcing the program's limited reboot.


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Acasa/Analize si studii, Blog, Democratie & Drepturile Omului, Harlan Ullman, Pace & Securitate, Subiecte/The longest day and our finest hour
The longest day and our finest hour
Two days hence marks the 70th anniversary of Operation Overlord (Neptune for the naval portion) and the Normandy invasion. Supreme Allied Commander U.S. General Dwight David Eisenhower's orders were to occupy Europe and destroy the Nazi war machine. D-Day marked the start of Ike's crusade in Europe
Standing atop the Ponte du Hoc heights overlooking Omaha Beach where the U.S. Rangers valiantly assaulted German defenses was always more telling for me than visiting great battlefields from Yorktown to Waterloo and Agincourt. Perhaps because World War II was as close as any conflict in history matching good against absolute evil, Normandy epitomized the ultimate allied victory in smashing the fiendish Hitlerian enemy.
Writer Cornelius Ryan used the title "longest day" in his great history of Overlord. Winston Churchill called the Battle of Britain, his nation's "finest hour." Both were fitting descriptions of the amphibious invasions that took place at Omaha, Utah, Sword, Juno and Gold beachheads.
Churchill and his key military advisors supported an indirect strategy to retake occupied territory in North Africa and the Mediterranean prior to launching the attack on Hitler's "Festung Europa." In fact, the British were highly critical of what they believed was the lack of experience and competence of American generals. The Mediterranean strategy was meant to close those deficits in generalship. Churchill also had ulterior motives to weaken the Soviet Union by deferring the invasion of Europe.
Franklin Roosevelt and his chiefs of staff favored an early invasion of the continent. In part, FDR rightly understood that keeping Stalin and the Soviet Union in the war was crucial to an allied victory. In Washington's view, an invasion of Europe was strategically more imperative than Churchill's indirect approach.
Fortunately, success or failure largely hinged on Adolph Hitler's instincts. The Fuhrer was convinced that the invasion would come at Calais at the narrows of the English Channel not Normandy. Hitler also refused to understand that amphibious assaults were best defeated on the beaches and not after the enemy had secured a landing bridgehead. Hence, Hitler withheld his reserves from the point of attack.
Eisenhower and his staff brilliantly gamed Hitler. Disinformation and propaganda deceived Hitler by reinforcing his intuition that Calais was the object of D-Day. A fictitious First U.S. Army Group was created under General George Patton, the one American general the Nazi high command seemed to fear most. Patton's communications designated Calais as the objective. Despite dissent from the High Command, Hitler took the bait.
Unfortunately, as the invasion force was gathering, the foul weather was worsening. The initial D-Day assault was postponed. Ike's meteorologist RAF Group Captain James Stagg predicted a slackening of the storm during the night of June 5th. Ike gave the order to go. He also drafted a message in the event the invasion failed assuming full responsibility for the defeat. Clearly, that message was never sent. On June 6th, the allies stormed ashore at Normandy not Calais.
The temptation to draw lessons and conclusions from Normandy is powerful. While the allies made it ashore successfully although with great casualties and had overwhelming numbers and firepower, it took weeks to engineer a break through. Why was that? Despite allied courage, sacrifice and gallantry, man for man, the Wehrmacht (German army) was formidable even though it was militarily inferior. Surely that meant something.
Actually, Normandy should be celebrated for different reasons. First, it signaled the beginning of the end of Hitler. Second, Normandy demonstrated how different nations could band together for a higher purpose no matter the cultural differences and personality disorders among commanders. Third, it succeeded.
The real heroes were Churchill and Roosevelt who chose Ike to lead. Ike's personality was crucial in keeping the ragged band of brothers from committing fratricide. The hostility and animosity with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery was of legend. And George Marshall, who desperately wanted to command Overlord but was kept at home because he was too vital to the war effort to leave Washington, was a less sung but nonetheless crucial architect of victory.
Conceiving when or where another Normandy like effort will ever be mounted is difficult. As with battles at sea from the defeat of the Spanish Armada at the hands of Queen Elizabeth's brigands in 1588 to Nelson's triumph at Trafalgar against the combined French and Spanish fleets in 1805 and the Battle of Midway in the Pacific in 1942 that effectively set Japan on the path to defeat, future Normandy's may rest only in fiction. Still, June 6th, 1944 was a monumentally important day in history and one this nation must never forget.
By Harlan Ullman|2017-11-14T21:28:09+02:0017 iulie 2014|Analize si studii, Blog, Democratie & Drepturile Omului, Harlan Ullman, Pace & Securitate, Subiecte|0 Comentarii
Ce urmează pentru Erdogan după estul Mediteranei şi Caucaz?
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Eric Alexander Magaña you should read the Hacktoberfest 2018 T Shirt. There are some differences but for the most part it's sticking close enough to Venom: Lethal Protector. Spider Man didn't even show up until the end to help Venom fight the other symbiotes. Roberto, you should read Secret Wars and learn how the symbiote is initially introduced and who it attaches itself to first. Eric Alexander Magaña lol I already know the origin. I'm older than you and I've been reading comics longer than you. I said there are differences. Did you miss that or just decide to ignore it so I can school you again. Name one Marvel movie that is accurate. Don't even entertain these ppl bro. You are absolutely right. The men tees of venom and the way he looks is because he was attached to peter Spider Man first. Venom hated peter for getting rid of him. And that how venom came to be. To answer your question this is the newer version of the venom origin. Just because spider man isnt in the movie dont mean he doesn't exist at all tho.
You also know that 4 seeds were extracted from the Venom symbiote right. I swear you fanboys swear you know it all, but don't. the symbiote looks like a symbiote. He doesn't look like spiderman. I guess you guys missed the part where I said that I know it's a stand alone or re telling. I'm well aware of the differences and it doesn't even bother me, to be honest not nearly as much as it seems to bother of you, apparently. Lol. Venom also didn't start out an anti-hero per se until later, but I'm sure they already have it all planned out for this movie's incarnation. Movies always take a few liberties with the origin stories. Especially Marvel. wonder if anyone here realizes peter will or at least is meant to be in this, BUT hes still young and hasnt gotten his power yet will soon. actors have mentioned that spiderman and exist in the same universe. She was the Hacktoberfest 2018 T Shirt girl at the playground asking if you want to see a nickel disappear. But seriously in all reality. Good job for herl.


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CIA are drug smugglers - Federal Judge Bonner, head of DEA
Robert Fisk: Syrian war of lies and hypocrisy
Has there ever been a Middle Eastern war of such hypocrisy? A war of such cowardice and such mean morality, of such false rhetoric and such public humiliation? I'm not talking about the physical victims of the Syrian tragedy. I'm referring to the utter lies and mendacity of our masters and our own public opinion – eastern as well as western – in response to the slaughter, a vicious pantomime more worthy of Swiftian satire than Tolstoy or Shakespeare.
While Qatar and Saudi Arabia arm and fund the rebels of Syria to overthrow Bashar al-Assad's Alawite/Shia-Baathist dictatorship, Washington mutters not a word of criticism against them. President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, say they want a democracy in Syria. But Qatar is an autocracy and Saudi Arabia is among the most pernicious of caliphate-kingly-dictatorships in the Arab world. Rulers of both states inherit power from their families – just as Bashar has done – and Saudi Arabia is an ally of the Salafist-Wahabi rebels in Syria, just as it was the most fervent supporter of the medieval Taliban during Afghanistan's dark ages.
Indeed, 15 of the 19 hijacker-mass murderers of 11 September, 2001, came from Saudi Arabia – after which, of course, we bombed Afghanistan. The Saudis are repressing their own Shia minority just as they now wish to destroy the Alawite-Shia minority of Syria. And we believe Saudi Arabia wants to set up a democracy in Syria?
Then we have the Shia Hezbollah party/militia in Lebanon, right hand of Shia Iran and supporter of Bashar al-Assad's regime. For 30 years, Hezbollah has defended the oppressed Shias of southern Lebanon against Israeli aggression. They have presented themselves as the defenders of Palestinian rights in the West Bank and Gaza. But faced with the slow collapse of their ruthless ally in Syria, they have lost their tongue. Not a word have they uttered – nor their princely Sayed Hassan Nasrallah – about the rape and mass murder of Syrian civilians by Bashar's soldiers and "Shabiha" militia.
Then we have the heroes of America – La Clinton, the Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, and Obama himself. Clinton issues a "stern warning" to Assad. Panetta – the same man who repeated to the last US forces in Iraq that old lie about Saddam's connection to 9/11 – announces that things are "spiralling out of control" in Syria. They have been doing that for at least six months. Has he just realised? And then Obama told us last week that "given the regime's stockpile of nuclear weapons, we will continue to make it clear to Assad … that the world is watching". Now, was it not a County Cork newspaper called the Skibbereen Eagle, fearful of Russia's designs on China, which declared that it was "keeping an eye … on the Tsar of Russia"? Now it is Obama's turn to emphasise how little clout he has in the mighty conflicts of the world. How Bashar must be shaking in his boots.
US banks unable to pay back government loans
Ron Paul's 'Audit-The-Fed' Swan Song Passes House, Unlikely To Pass Senate
When Paul first introduced his bill a decade ago, it was written off as another piece of his far-flung libertarian worldview is how Politico juxtaposes today's (now successful) vote on Ron Paul's Fed Transparency Bill. "I want to appreciate and congratulate Dr. Ron Paul for his tireless pursuit of openness and transparency," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). "Without his leadership, we wouldn't be at this point today." Via Bloomberg:
•*FED AUDIT BILL OPPOSED BY BERNANKE GAINS APPROVAL BY U.S. HOUSE
•*FED AUDIT BILL NEEDS SENATE APPROVAL, PRESIDENT'S SIGNATURE
•*FED AUDIT BILL SPONSORED BY REPRESENTATIVE RON PAUL OF TEXAS
The House passed H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2012, in a 327-98 vote. pic.twitter.com/TDWNNabf
"I'm pleased. It's something I've worked on for a long time, and it's a good first step," Paul told POLITICO. "It's coming to the floor as a response to the American people, because I don't have a whole lot of clout around here."
Paul really doesn't want this bill to be treated as his swan song in Congress, but to some extent this vote represents a coda to an eccentric congressional career. Paul's movement has always been stronger outside the Capitol than inside it, yet the fact that at least one of his ideas is starting to break through shows that he may still have some clout on the national stage, even if he's leaving the congressional payroll and ditching his presidential runs.
Ron Paul on his Final Showdown with Ben Bernanke
The Careerists
The greatest crimes of human history are made possible by the most colorless human beings. They are the careerists. The bureaucrats. The cynics. They do the little chores that make vast, complicated systems of exploitation and death a reality. They collect and read the personal data gathered on tens of millions of us by the security and surveillance state. They keep the accounts of ExxonMobil, BP and Goldman Sachs. They build or pilot aerial drones. They work in corporate advertising and public relations. They issue the forms. They process the papers. They deny food stamps to some and unemployment benefits or medical coverage to others. They enforce the laws and the regulations. And they do not ask questions.
Good. Evil. These words do not mean anything to them. They are beyond morality. They are there to make corporate systems function. If insurance companies abandon tens of millions of sick to suffer and die, so be it. If banks and sheriff departments toss families out of their homes, so be it. If financial firms rob citizens of their savings, so be it. If the government shuts down schools and libraries, so be it. If the military murders children in Pakistan or Afghanistan, so be it. If commodity speculators drive up the cost of rice and corn and wheat so that they are unaffordable for hundreds of millions of poor across the planet, so be it. If Congress and the courts strip citizens of basic civil liberties, so be it. If the fossil fuel industry turns the earth into a broiler of greenhouse gases that doom us, so be it. They serve the system. The god of profit and exploitation. The most dangerous force in the industrialized world does not come from those who wield radical creeds, whether Islamic radicalism or Christian fundamentalism, but from legions of faceless bureaucrats who claw their way up layered corporate and governmental machines. They serve any system that meets their pathetic quota of needs.
These systems managers believe nothing. They have no loyalty. They are rootless. They do not think beyond their tiny, insignificant roles. They are blind and deaf. They are, at least regarding the great ideas and patterns of human civilization and history, utterly illiterate. And we churn them out of universities. Lawyers. Technocrats. Business majors. Financial managers. IT specialists. Consultants. Petroleum engineers. "Positive psychologists." Communications majors. Cadets. Sales representatives. Computer programmers. Men and women who know no history, know no ideas. They live and think in an intellectual vacuum, a world of stultifying minutia. They are T.S. Eliot's "the hollow men," "the stuffed men." "Shape without form, shade without colour," the poet wrote. "Paralysed force, gesture without motion."
It was the careerists who made possible the genocides, from the extermination of Native Americans to the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians to the Nazi Holocaust to Stalin's liquidations. They were the ones who kept the trains running. They filled out the forms and presided over the property confiscations. They rationed the food while children starved. They manufactured the guns. They ran the prisons. They enforced travel bans, confiscated passports, seized bank accounts and carried out segregation. They enforced the law. They did their jobs.
Obama & UN Coming For Your Guns!
The McCarthyite Conundrum
After all the twists and turns of our eternal "war on terrorism," the logic of perpetual war has finally caught up with its most ardent advocates. It seems some conservatives – the kind who can usually be counted on to march to the War Party's tune — are riled up over Mitt Romney's support for arming Syria's rebel army. Here's Andrew McCarthy, National Review's number one "the-Muslims-are-coming-to-get-us" ideologue:
"Congratulations to Mitt Romney. In calling for 'opposition groups' to be armed and trained for their ongoing jihad against Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the GOP's presidential contender has managed to align himself with al-Qaeda emir Ayman al-Zawahiri and Muslim Brotherhood icon Yusuf al-Qaradawi."
Now I don't want to accuse anyone of stealing my ideas without giving me credit, but this sounds awfully similar to what I wrote in my Friday the 13th column, which was entitled: "Al-Qaeda's Alliance With Washington." In that piece, I recount the history of the WOT, from the neoconservative vision of a regional "transformation" brought on by the Iraq war to the Bush administration's turn toward the Sunnis as allies against the rising Shi'ite "menace" (i.e. Iran). Right-wing ideologues like McCarthy supported the invasion of Iraq and McCarthy is himself a leading advocate of setting up a veritable police state in order to deal with the alleged threat of Muslim subversion from within. Yet now the McCarthyites – to re-coin a phrase – find themselves in a conundrum, as the Obama administration plays the Sunni card to the hilt, and allies with the Muslim Brotherhood and its more radical offshoots in Libya and Syria in an effort to hijack the "Arab Spring." This has culminated in the latest project undertaken by the US and its Gulf allies: the creation of a "Free Syrian Army" in order to carry out regime change in Damascus.
How do the McCarthyites reconcile their historic support for the War on Terror with the alignment of US and Al-Qaeda on the same side in Syria? The answer is: they can't.
In Libya, we utilized the local Al-Qaeda affiliate, which supposedly had disavowed bin Laden, to get rid of Gadhafi, and the same scenario is being played out in Syria, albeit to the nth degree. The latest evidence of Al-Qaeda's key role among Syria's "opposition activists" is a suicide bomb attack on the central headquarters of Bashar al-Assad's national security apparatus, killing the defense minister, as well as an inlaw of the Syrian dictator and a number of other top officials.
Dick Eastman Pentagon
Supreme Court in London: A Jewish Closed Shop
There is a temptation to see the UK as a country under Jewish occupation. When one looks at the over-representation of Jews in Finance, Government, the Media etc, it does appear that the Ruling Class of the UK is not only socio-economically dominant over the rest of the population, it is also ethnically distinct. I am not for a moment trying to say that all Jews are a part of the Establishment, or that there are no poor and downtrodden Jews; I know a fair number of Jews (by ancestry) who are struggling to get by just as everyone else is, and they certainly are not a part of the despotic elite.
Whilst it is ridiculous to group together all people who happen to have some Jewish ancestry, as exploiters of the common people, there is a certain amount of truth in the idea that the Jewish elite is synonymous with the UK Establishment. The Monarchy and Aristocracy are so interwoven with the Jewish banking families, that it is nigh on impossible to separate them. Whilst the Jewish infiltration of the Ruling Class is obvious, we need to be careful to separate the 'little Jew' from those who rule over all of us (and exploit the little Jew as much as they exploit the Goyim), but this should not cow us into silence as to the obvious racial and/or religious character of those in positions of power.
In the UK, the Media is thoroughly Zionist; the ruling families are of Jewish stock; the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are Jewish; the economy is squarely in the hands of Jewish financiers; the servile political attitude to Israel would make the sycophantic philo-Semitic men and women in Washington DC blush.
All who comment on the Jewish domination of the UK are accused of anti-Semitism, and are jeered as fantasists. One body which cannot be smeared by such infantile name-calling is my favourite Kosher read, the Jewish Chronicle. The Jewish Chronicle has confirmed quite openly what non-Kosher researchers are vilified for stating; the Judiciary is dominated by Jews! So, not only the Legislative and Executive branches of government are Jewish-controlled, the Judiciary is also. As the Jewish Chronicle boasts, the previous, current, and next incumbent of the Office of Chief Justice of England and Wales, was, is and will be, a Jew. If any other source provided such information, it would instantly be attacked by Searchlight, the UAF and myriad other self-righteous anti-indigenous organisations. However, it is the Jewish Chronicle which has stated what many dare not.
The following two articles from the Chronicle throw a spotlight on the Jewish domination of the Supreme Court, and by extension the entire legal system of not only England and Wales, but the entire United Kingdom. They illustrate how the Goyim are not masters in their own house, but are subject to the rule of the self-Chosen people. These are not anti-Semitic fantasies spread by (boo hiss) evil fascists, but are facts as told by the main newspaper of the Jewish community....
"The Surveillance State Is Clearly Part Of The War On Whistleblowers"
The Great Transformation: From the Welfare State to the Imperial Police State
Central to the rise of the police state and the consequent decline of the welfare state have been the series of imperial wars, especially in the Middle East, launched by every President from Bush (father), Clinton, Bush (son) and Obama. These wars, aimed exclusively against Muslim countries, were accompanied by a wave of repressive 'anti-terrorist' laws and implemented through the rapid build-up of the massive police state apparatus, known as 'Homeland Security'.
The leading advocates and propagandists of overseas militarism against countries with large Muslim populations and the imposition of a domestic police-state have been dedicated Zionists promoting wars designed to enhance Israel's overwhelming power in the Middle East. These American Zionists (including dual US-Israeli citizens) secured strategic positions within the US police state apparatus in order to terrify and repress activists, especially American Muslims and immigrants critical of the state of Israel.
The events of 9/11//01 served as the detonator for the biggest global military launch since WWII, and the most pervasive expansion of police state powers in the history of the United States. The bloody terror of 9/11/2001 was manipulated to institute a pre-planned agenda – transforming the US into a police state while launching a decade- long series of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and, now, Syria as well as covert proxy wars against Iran and Lebanon. The military budget exploded and government deficits ballooned while social programs and welfare were denigrated and dismantled as the 'Global War on Terror' swung into full gear. Programs, designed to maintain or raise living standards for millions and increase access to services for the poor and working class, fell victim to '9/11'.
As the wars in the Middle East took center-stage, the US economy tanked. On the domestic front vital public investment in education, infrastructure, industry and civilian innovations were slashed. Hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars flowed into the war zones, paying mercenaries (private contractors), buying off corrupt puppet regimes and providing a golden opportunity for military procurement officers and their private contractor-cronies to run up (and pocket) huge billion dollar cost overruns.
As a result, US military policy vis a vis the Middle East, military policy, which at one time had been designed to promote American imperial economic interests, now took on a life of its own: wars and sanctions against Iraq, Iran, Syria and Libya had undermined profitable oil contracts negotiated by US multi-nationals while enhancing militarism. Indeed, the Zionist-Israeli power configuration in the United States has become far more influential in directing US Middle East military policy than any combination of Big Oil – and all to the benefit of Israeli regional power.
9/11 Flight 93 - Banned Newscast
Strategies for Undermining the Globalist Agenda and Restoring Power to Local Communities
As difficult as it might be for some to believe, Syria's problem is not violence, armed insurrection, or political upheaval. Neither is it economic or social. These are but symptoms, many purposefully induced from abroad, of Syria's real problem, and therefore any solution aimed at treating only these symptoms will provide only but the most superficial and temporary relief.
Many geopolitical analysts know this, and yet champion for the immediate treatment of these symptoms, particularly the end of violence, which makes perfect sense in a sense of "triage," but will ultimately fail if the root of the problem is not also exposed and a solution for "digging it out" not formulated and appropriately promoted.
Syria's problem is not the "Free Syrian Army" nor the "Syrian National Council," nor the myriad of terrorist organizations operating under this umbrella - but rather the corporate-financier driven foreign interests that created them, fund them, arm them, and both tactically and politically perpetuate their activities. Syria's problem is that it has attracted the attention of Wall Street and London and found itself in the middle of their geopolitical aspirations for global hegemony.
Syria is seen as the key to breaking the power and influence of Iran, which has so far thwarted attempts aimed at its own transformation into a Western client state. Syria has long been on the list itself for "regime change" and has been the target of political, social, and military attacks for years (see timeline here). It has fought an exhaustive proxy war against Western interests in and around Lebanon vis-à-vis Israel and now finds itself fighting Western proxies on its own territory.
The Struggle for Health Freedom
Casino Capitalists Playing With Fire
Comes now news from across the pond that executives at one of the world's most respected banks, Barclays, rigged Libor. Even the venerable Bank of England is apparently being investigated.
For sports fans, this is like fixing the Super Bowl or doping a horse in the Derby. But it is rather more serious. For the London Interbank Offered Rate is the benchmark interest rate for trillions in loans around the world.
Manipulate Libor a small fraction of a point, and lenders reap millions more in interest income on hundreds of billions in loans.
How many more such blows to their credibility can the financial elites sustain before people turn on the capitalist system itself?
Recall. Three years into the Great Depression, the Republican Party—America's Party since Abraham Lincoln's time—was crushed by FDR. Socialist Norman Thomas won 900,000 votes in 1932. Communist William Z. Foster won more than 100,000.
Charging "money-changers in the temple of our civilization" with moral culpability, FDR became the century's most successful politician.
World mum on Israel threatening peace
Assange's Last Stand?
If there was ever a clear cut case of good versus evil, then surely it is the contest between Julian Assange and most of the world's governments. They hate him because he exposed their lies, their manipulations, and their routine violations of the most elementary rules of human decency. By publishing virtually the entire corpus of messages sent to and fro between Mordor Washington and their Nazgûl diplomats in the field, WikiLeaks has given us the true history of the world in modern times, or, at least, a good glimpse into its secret underside historians rarely uncover.
The release of the "Collateral Murder" video showing the shooting of journalists and innocents in Iraq by our cackling wise-cracking US military pilots was arguably the tipping point in the public relations battle, after which support for continued prosecution of the war even among the political elites dropped precipitously and never recovered. It was the 21st century equivalent of the infamous photo of a napalmed Vietnamese children running down a road, an icon of another unpopular and utterly immoral war. That's why Bradley Manning, who probably supplied the video to WikiLeaks, has been held incommunicado for over a year, subjected to treatment the UN defines as torture. He will never get a fair trial in the US.
The US government would dearly love to get its hands on Assange: rumor has it a secret grand jury indictment has already been handed down. And they've devised a transparently brazen maneuver, which reeks of covert activities, in order to to get him: accusations of rape have been made by two Swedish "feminists," at least one of which — a former Swedish consular official in Havana — has ties to Cuban dissidents with CIA connections. I told their story here, here, and here, and won't go into the rather gruesome details of the "case" against Assange, except to note that the narrative his accusers are spinning reads like something out of a very bad spy thriller, the kind with a sleazy cover and a lurid title. In short, just the sort of thing some overpaid CIA bureaucrat — the kind who's writing a novel in his spare time — might come up with.
Once the Swedes get their politically-correct hands on Assange, and subject him to a show "trial," he'll be extradited forthwith to the US, where his lawyers claim he's likely to be locked up in Guantanamo. Assange has wisely chosen not to surrender to British authorities — who have been a key cog in the frame-up machine all along — and has taken refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy, seeking political asylum in that country.
Ecuador is already being threatened with all sorts of retaliation by US government insiders and their patsies, and the pressure is on: if Correa grants Assange asylum, expect the Ecuadorian President to be routinely likened to Hugo Chavez, who no doubt has more than one US covert operation aimed at destabilizing his rule, although cancer may get him before Washington does. With Chavez about to go, the War Party will need a quick LAV (Latin American Villain) replacement, and Correa — who was interviewed by Assange in his last broadcast for "Russia Today" — fits the bill.
Chomsky on America fighting AGAINST INDEPENDENCE
Can Americans Escape the Deception?
Hot Air Day is upon us. On July 4 hot air will spew forth all over the country as dignitaries deliver homilies to our "freedom and democracy" and praise "our brave troops" who are protecting our freedom by "killing them over there before they come over here."
Not a single one of these speeches will contain one word of truth. No speaker will lament the death of the US Constitution or urge his audience to action to restore the only document that protects their liberty. No speaker will acknowledge that in the 21st century the Bush/Obama Regime, with the complicity of the Department of Justice, federal courts, Congress, presstitute media, law schools, bar associations, and an insouciant public have murdered the Constitution in the name of the "war on terror."
As in medieval times, American citizens can be thrown into dungeons and never accounted for. No evidence or charges need be presented to a court. No trial is required, and no conviction.
As in tyrannies, US citizens can be executed at the sole discretion of the despot in the Oval Office, who sits there drawing up lists of people to be murdered.
Protestors exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association are attacked by armed police, beaten, tasered, tear-gassed, pepper sprayed, and arrested.
Whistleblowers who report the government's crimes are prosecuted despite the statute that protects them.
'West seeks to ignite civil war in Syria'
The End of American Independence
We celebrate the fourth of July with fireworks, memorializing the American colonists' struggle against the British empire by reenacting, in symbolic fashion, what was a war for independence – that is, an assertion of American sovereignty. As we've built an empire of our own, however, the celebration has naturally degenerated into an orgy of nationalist vaunting, with the original conception obscured and mostly lost. Indeed, the US government disdains the very concept of national independence, routinely violating the sovereignty of others – and even denying its own.
When the colonists declared their independence, they recorded their reasons in a document – a Declaration that demonstrated this wasn't just a territorial matter. They asserted their right to make a revolution because sovereignty resided in the people – not the king and his councilors. They didn't want to create a centralized European-style state that would mimic the imperial grandeur of Britain. They wanted a republic – and they wanted to be left alone.
Flash forward 236 years, and – poof! – the republic is a bloated empire, one that asserts its "right" to attack any nation on earth for any reason. Having divested itself of its modest republican cloth coat, and taken to wearing the imperial purple, Washington has also discarded the old-fashioned concept of popular sovereignty as conceived by the Founders. When the President can take the country to war with a single command, without consulting anyone, sovereignty is no longer in the hands of the people, but of one person – our de facto king.
If this hegemonic power has no respect for the sovereignty of other nations, neither does it honor its own. Instead of petitioning Congress to unleash the dogs of war, American presidents routinely go before the UN Security Council to seek international sanction first – while stoutly maintaining congressional approval is unnecessary. When George Herbert Walker Bush went to war against Iraq he did it in the name of a "New World Order" – a concept that takes old-fashioned imperialism to a new level. For it would not be an American empire so much as it would be a trans-national entity, one that hovers over the world, but owes no special allegiance to any particular spot.
The idea was taken up by Bush I's successors. "In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete," declared Strobe Talbot, Bill Clinton's Deputy Secretary of State and one of that administration's Deep Thinkers. "All states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn't such a great idea after all." The American revolutionaries, according to Talbot's logic, should have saved themselves the bother of Valley Forge.
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PREMIERE: JON ARRINGTON- 'COMING TO RIDE'
Written by: Kemdah Stroud (@chiefsaveahoe)
This premiere today is somewhat of a public service announcement about one of Chicago's newest artists, Jon Arrington. This is the first time listening to the R&B artist, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. As soon as I pressed play though, I was captivated first by the vibes of the music: everything from the summery guitar riff, to the classic 60's, beach rock sound made me excited for the voice to follow.
Jon Arrington, then, graces the already angelic music with his gentle voice, to tell narrate a beautiful love story. A few moments later, the track picks up tempo for an even more prefect hook, letting us know he's down to ride with all the love life has to offer.
This is one of the most beautifully composed, and curated songs I've heard come out of our city in a while. I would not be shocked if I heard this song on every major radio station in the country. Yes, it's that great of a track. So, soak up some sun, kick back, relax, and vibe with Jon Arrington's latest track "Coming To Ride" below.


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Q: How to load WP categories into array for autocomplete? I am currently making a new site and i am stuck with the autocomplete for the standard search form from wordpress. Anyone knows how can i load my wordpress categories to use in this script?
Its a mix with javascript and php(to load my categories from wp)

A: It is not clear what autocomplete function you are using in JS, if it is from a library or custom, but I'm assuming that it expects an array where locations is passed and not a string, which is what you're feeding it.
The function you should be using is get_terms(), not wp_list_categories(), the former being used for returning an array of terms in a taxonomy, the latter is for returning a string of HTML markup. You can use the fields argument to filter which fields you want included in the results.
Example:
  $locations = get_terms( array(
    'taxonomy' => 'category',
    'hide_empty' => false,
    'fields' => 'names'
) );

Secondly, as mentioned above, your locations variable is populated with a string in JS not an array. This might be fine if the autocomplete function were to parse it as JSON automatically, but in that case your string would not be valid JSON anyway as you are outputting a <ul> markup string inside the brackets. Try this:
var locations = ["<?php echo implode('", "', $locations); ?>"];

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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COVID-19 update for May 11: Federal government unlocks $740 million in airport relief | WHO declares mutant virus now in B.C. is a variant of concern | 1,758 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend and 20 deaths
Home/COVID-19 update for May 11: Federal government unlocks $740 million in airport relief | WHO declares mutant virus now in B.C. is a variant of concern | 1,758 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend and 20 deaths
Health Local Health Local News Newsairport cases concern COVID19 deaths declares federal government million mutant relief unlocks Update Variant virus weekend
Scott Brown, Tiffany Crawford, Cheryl Chan, David Carrigg
• New cases since May 7: 1,759
• Total deaths: 1,622 (20 new deaths)
• Total vaccinations: 2,159,103 doses administered (106,058 second doses)
• Cases under public health monitoring: (not provided)
3 p.m. – Health officials are set to share latest figures on COVID-19 in B.C.
Health officials are expected to update the number of COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries across the province.
5 a.m. – Federal government unlocks $740 million in airport relief
The federal government is launching a basket of programs to bolster airports with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding
first announced back in November.
A government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement is not yet public, says Ottawa has laid out the criteria for airports to access $740 million in capital investments over the next six years.
Nearly $500 million of that windfall is bound for large airports to put toward critical infrastructure such as runway repairs and
transit stations.
Most of the rest is en route to smaller airports, whose definition has been loosened temporarily to allow eight more sites
to apply, from Prince George, B.C., to Gander, Nfld.
The government previously announced $435 million roughly evenly split between airport rent relief and support for regional air
The aviation industry has been among the hardest-hit sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic, with profits and passenger numbers plummeting amid travel restrictions and border shutdowns.
12 a.m. – WHO declares mutant virus now in B.C. is a variant of concern
A fast-spreading strain of COVID-19 first identified in India and already in B.C. has been classified as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization.
This means there are now four variants of concern circulating in B.C.
"There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility," a WHO spokesperson said at a media briefing Monday, referring to the B.1.617 mutation that is ravaging India.
"A study of a limited number of patients that has not undergone peer review also suggested that the mutant can evade some key antibodies. As such, we're classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level."
12 a.m. – Health officials report 1,758 new cases and 20 deaths over weekend
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reported 1,758 new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend and 20 deaths.
There are 6,140 active cases of the disease in B.C., of which 415 are being treated in hospital, including 150 in intensive care. These tallies are falling slowly.
Henry said two of the people who died were in their 40s, and the others all aged over 70.
There have been 2,159,103 doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered, of which 106,058 are second doses. In B.C. second doses are generally offered four months after the first injection. The vaccination campaign began last December.


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I'm Yours
I Won't Give Up
Lucky (feat. Colbie Caillat)
Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat
The Remedy (I Won't Worry)
Have It All (Acoustic)
Know.
Love Is a Four Letter Word (Deluxe Version)
Jason Mraz's Beautiful Mess - Live On Earth
We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things (Bonus Track Version)
Mr. A-Z
More Than Friends (feat. Meghan Trainor)
Could I Love You Any More (feat. Jason Mraz)
Might As Well Dance
Love Someone
Artist Playlists
Jason Mraz Essentials
Tumbledown lyrics and bright folky songs with Tiggerish bounce.
Jason Mraz: Next Steps
Rarities and live gems from the laidback San Diego troubadour's secret stash.
Christmas Valentine - Single
Disco Sun (Fantastic Fungi: Reimagine) - Single
Look For The Good (Single Version) - Single
Have It All (Easy Star All-Stars & Michael Goldwasser Reggae Mix) - Single
Have It All (Acoustic) - Single
Love Someone (9 Theory Remixes) - Single
Yours Truly: The I'm Yours Collection - EP
The Live Album Collection, Vol. One
Life Is Good - EP
Selections for Friends
Geekin' Out Across the Galaxy - EP
Tonight, Not Again - Jason Mraz Live at the Eagles Ballroom
Jason Mraz Live & Acoustic 2001
The Studio Album Collection, Vol. One
Bad Wolves (feat. Jason Mraz, Miki Vale & Veronica May) - Single Rebecca Jade
Right Now Not Tomorrow - Single (feat. Jason Mraz) - Single Gregory Page
Green Lights & Blue Skies (feat. Jason Mraz) - Single Gregory Page
Could I Love You Any More (feat. Jason Mraz) - Single Reneé Dominique
Carry Your Own Weight (feat. Jason Mraz) [Remix] - Single Buika
Let's Get Lost (feat. Jason Mraz) Two Spot Gobi
Bushwalla
Tristan Prettyman
Eric Hutchinson
Raining Jane
Two Spot Gobi
Gavin DeGraw
About Jason Mraz
A former busker with a self-described hippie streak, singer/songwriter/surfer Jason Mraz has a gift for observations about life's silver linings and effervescent melodies that are a staple of contemporary pop radio and bonfire strum-alongs. Born in Mechanicsville, Virginia, in 1977, Mraz was a natural performer from his early days in school plays and talent shows. In high school, he fell under the sway of the local jam circuit before picking up the guitar himself at 18. Mraz's eternally sunny pop seemed destined for California, so he headed west in 1999 and, after making the rounds of San Diego's coffeehouse scene, secured a weekly gig at Java Joe's, which once hosted a residency by Mraz's future tourmate Jewel. In 2002 he signed a record deal and released his debut, Waiting for My Rocket to Come, which was propelled by the slippery half-spoken lyrics and deep-pocket groove of "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)". Through the 2000s, Mraz toured and recorded relentlessly, issuing increasingly polished albums—2005's Mr. A-Z and 2008's We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things—that float effortlessly in the warm cross-currents of melodic folk, rootsy pop and soft rock. He returned to a simpler acoustic sound with 2014's Yes!, a shuffling folk-pop album backed by all-female band Raining Jane. In 2017, he appeared alongside singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles on her What's Inside: Songs from Waitress and made his Broadway debut in the Waitress role of Dr. Pomatter that same year. The transition from the studio to the stage was another seemingly effortless triumph in a career that's been filled with them.


Delta Police are investigating a shooting this morning at a car wash on the Delta/Surrey border.
Delta Police investigating a shooting in North Delta on Oct 24.
At approximately 11:15 a.m., police responded to shots fired at Elite Auto Spa, at 9215 120 St. at the corner of 92nd Ave. On scene, police found an adult male who had sustained a gunshot wound to his lower body.
Police locked down the area while they conducted a canvass of the area for video coverage as well as a forensic examination of the scene, backing up traffic on Scott Road for several hours.
The victim, who police described as a 25-year-old South Asian male, was transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Although the victim isn't cooperating with their investigation, police are confident the shooting was targeted.
Brooks could not confirm whether how many suspects police were looking for or exactly how many shots were fired, but did say that a suspect vehicle described as a "dark-coloured smaller import vehicle" was seen fleeing northbound on 120th from 92nd.
Anyone with information that would assist in the investigation is asked to call the Delta Police at 604-946-4411 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).


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Fangirl is Three Stories in One (and They All Have Strong Female Characters!)
Books Featured GeekMom
February 22, 2014 Sophie Brown3
Fangirl © Rainbow Rowell/Pan Macmillan
For me, nothing beats the times when I'm reading a book and I really, truly, identify with a character. It's a fairly rare occurrence but when it does happen the bond you form with this fictional person can be intense. Rachel Rowell's latest young adult novel, Fangirl, had that effect on me.
Fangirl is the story of Cath, an 18-year-old freshman starting her college life at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Cath is a geek and very comfortable in that role. She is obsessed, completely so, by the fictional world of Simon Snow, a book series that bares more than a passing resemblance to the Harry Potter series. Cath is a popular fan fiction author with readers numbering in the tens of thousands, but now she has to find a way to balance completing her epic fanfic Carry On Simon with completing her first year of college. Of course her path isn't easy. Numerous challenges are thrown in her way including boys, roommates, her manic-depressive dad, and her twin sister Wren who is rapidly going off the rails–and that's before we get to her actual classes.
Fangirl could easily become something of a cliche, but the dual worlds Rainbow Rowell creates–Cath's real world and Simon Snow's World of Mages–are so believable and detailed that you end up falling right in. In between each chapter from Cath's life, Rainbow throws in snippets from the World of Mages. There are passages from the seven-book canon series (the events in Fangirl occur over the months prior to the eighth and final book's publication) and excerpts from Cath's fanfics; there's even a snippet from a Newsweek article about the rise of the Simon Snow fandom. It's all mixed in so perfectly that I found myself forgetting that the Simon Snow series doesn't really exist–I wanted to know how his story ended too.
Art, Wren, Cath, Levi, Reagan, & Nick © Noelle Stevenson/Pan Macmillan
However, the heart of the Fangirl story is Cath. I identified heavily with her in a way that I rarely have with other fictional characters and on more than just the superficial "oh I prefer to stay home writing fanfic rather than going out partying too" level. Cath comes from a troubled home, but, unlike many tragic backstories, hers doesn't overwhelm her. She has a loving, close-knit family, just one that's been through the ringer a little. She is thoroughly likeable without being a doormat and I was happy to see her progress through college life without it changing the fundamentals of who she is. This could easily become a lesson about choosing to live in the "real" world rather than hiding in a beloved fictional one; instead it is about finding the right balance between the two.
One final thing I loved about Fangirl was the sheer quantity of female characters present. Not only do we have Cath, a female protagonist, but we also meet her roommate Reagan, sister Wren, mother Laura, Wren's roommate Courtney, and Professor Piper. This is in contrast to the two main characters who are male with another two lurking on the sidelines. Even in the world of Simon Snow the number of named female characters equals the boys and Simon's two best friends (his Ron and Hermione if you like) are both female. It's really refreshing to read something with such a variety of female characters and I was delighted to see that Cath's idolized fiction writing professor, who is also a published author, was a woman.
Fangirl is an easy read but it is one that will make you want to keep reading. I fell in love, both with Cath and with her beloved World of Mages, and I wanted their stories to keep going. This is the perfect book for any fangirls you know who are heading to college this year; in fact it's the perfect story for fangirls of any age. Rainbow Rowell has recently signed a contract to publish some graphic novels and casually dropped the suggestion on her website that "a Simon Snow comic would be so much fun to write." I for one would love to see that come to fruition because I hope we might get to read more from these two universes one day.
GeekMom received this item for review purposes.
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3 thoughts on "Fangirl is Three Stories in One (and They All Have Strong Female Characters!)"
Hello Nerdy Girl (Lauren) says:
This looks like a good series. And we definitely need more graphic novels penned by female writers and/or artists. Plus, how awesome is the author's name?
Are you by any chance the same Sophie Brown who's authoring the new Hercule Poirot book out this fall?
Sophie Brown says:
I'm afraid not; I don't know the first thing about Poirot!
I love her name. Considering that my parents were enormous hippies I'm surprised me and my sister have such ordinary ones.
noida says:
Noelle Stevenson, who illustrated the book (or at least I assume she did, since you placed her artwork as an illustration for the article) is also a great fangirl and goes by the name GingerHaze. She created hipster Hobbits 🙂
Here is her page:
http://gingerhaze.tumblr.com/
https://media.go2speed.org/brand/files/sheismedia/1355/10290-1075625.jpg