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iRobot Roomba 980
iRobot Roomba 980 Features
|Cleaning Features
|Suction Power
|1700 Pa
|Сleaning Area
|1991 ft2 / 185 m2
|Dustbin Capacity
|600 ml
|Automatic Dirt Disposal
|Wet Mopping
|Barrier-cross Height
|0.79 in / 20 mm
|HEPA Filter
|Washable Filter
|Battery Capacity
|3300 mAh
|Run time
|120 min
|Charging Time
|120 min
|Rated Power (Watts)
|IR Remote Control
|Wi-Fi / Smartphone App
|Wi-Fi Frequency Bands
|2.4 GHz
|Amazon Alexa Support
|Google Assistant Support
|Magnetic/Optical Virtual Walls
|App Features
|Real-time tracking
|Digital Blocked Area
|Zoned cleaning
|Multi-floor maps
|Manual movement control
|Selected Room Cleaning
|No-mop zones
|Carpet Boost
|Anti-drop / Cliff Sensor
|Dirt Detect
|Full Bin Indicator
Product Description
The Roomba 980 is the latest flagman robot from the iRobot family. It comes equipped with an upgraded dirt sensor that finds the dirtiest area and provides deep cleaning. Along with this, the Roomba 980 has a carpet boost option that maximizes its suction power up to 10 times once the Roomba understands it is on a carpeted surface. Its iAdapt 2.0 Navigation with Visual Localization technology is based on a camera sensor. After the robot creates a map, it builds the best cleaning path. The robot has silicon rollers that are supposed to work better on a bare floor and are ideal for pet hair.
The Roomba 980 comes with virtual walls that keep it from places the robot should not cross
The iRobot Home app allows start/stop the robot, see cleaning history, scheduling it, etc. Roomba 980 is integrated with Amazon Alexa and Google Home. You can just ask Alexa or the Google Assistant to start, stop, or dock your robot. With the recharge & resume function, the Roomba 980 works for about 120 minutes, gets back to recharge and continue cleaning when it's done charging. A dustbin indicator tells you when you need to empty it.
If you have pets, the dustbin fills up during every cleaning session and has to be emptied before the Roomba finishes working.
10 reasons to buy the Roomba 980 over other robot vacuums?
- Dirt detect. Only presented in the Roomba model line. It recognizes high-traffic areas and boosts air power to a max level providing deeper cleaning on these spots.
- Full bin indicator. It alerts when the container has to be emptied. You can either stop the cleaning cycle or pause the robot to clean the box.
- Brushless rollers. These are tangle-free, perfect for pet hair.
- The robot is equipped with a camera sensor to remember your home layout thus making cleaning more efficient.
- Recharge & Resume feature makes the vacuum cover a bigger area.
- The Roomba 980 recognizes carpetted surface. Only 11% of models have this option.
- A few models in the industry are able to climb an obstacle up to 20 mm height. It makes the Roomba 980 ideal for thicker carpets.
- The battery life is longer than most of the robot cleaners have.
- Compatibility with Amazon Alexa and Google Home allows controlling the robot with simple voice commands.
- The Roomba is easy to connect to Wi-Fi.
Best of the Roomba 980
- Decent battery life
- Tangle-free rollers
- Virtual walls included in the box
- Great bare floors performance
- Works well on carpeted surface (low and medium-pile ones)
- Compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Home
- Carpet boost provides deep cleaning
What could be better
- The robot is loud
- It gets stuck occasionally
- The map disappears after every cleaning, the Roomba 980 creates a new one every time when it starts cleaning.
iRobot Roomba 980 maintenance
Even the best robots require some maintenance the Roomba 980 is no exception. Regularly check the side sweeper, it might get some hair wrapped around. Monitor sensors, they should be clean from dust to help the Roomba move around. Even though the rollers are tangle-free, it would be great if you look after them once in a while. It is very important to keep the filter and dustbin clean.
It will take a few minutes a week to look after your Roomba to keep it alive longer.
Questions and Answers
Question 1: How well does the Roomba 980 handle pet hair?
Answer: The Roomba 980 has brushless silicone rollers that do a superb job at agitating pet hair on carpets and bare floor. They are almost maintenance-free and have to be cleaned every couple of days. You will find rolled-up hair in the ends of them that are very easy to remove and dispose of.
Question 2: How loud the Roomba 980 is?
Answer: When on carpets and with carpet boost enabled, it uses more suction and will be louder. However, you can control this and turn it to "eco boost" to keep it quieter. On hardwood floors, it is quieter as it never uses carpet boost. Even though it does make noise, it is not as loud as an upright vacuum.
Question 3: How many square feet does he Roomba 980 clean before needs to recharge?
Answer: It depends on the surface. On bare floors carpet boost feature is off and does not give extra power saving battery life so the robot will run longer and covers more before it needs to recharge. On carpets, the battery will run out of energy faster so it will cover less. The manufacturer claims the Roomba 980 cleans around 1991 ft2 / 185 m2 before needs to recharge.
Question 4: What's the size of the Roomba 980 dustbin??
Answer: It has a 600 ml dustbin.
Question 5: Can the 980 be used on more than one story?
Answer: The Roomba 980 does not save maps, it disappeared once it finishes cleaning. You can place the cleaner manually on the second floor but let it run from the charging base so it knows where to return to when finishes cleaning. Or you can get another charging dock and leave it upstairs, carry the robot to the dock and start from the dock.
Question 6: Can the Roomba 980 pick up cat liter on tile?
Answer: Yes, the robot does a great job at picking ultra-fine to large things on any bare floor including tile.
Question 7: How well the robot vacuum performs in corners?
Answer: Pretty much every round vacuum cleaner leaves a tiny bit in a corner but it is so small so it should not bother you. Yes, you would still need to manually clean the corners every once in a while which you probably will do with a traditional vacuum as well.
Question 8: Will the Roomba 980 stop cleaning once the dustbin get full?
Answer: It has a "full bin" indicator that aware when the container needs to be emptied. It will notify you via the app & a blinking light. Once it gets full, the robot stops working.


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Immersing yourself in an English-speaking environment, while getting a taste of what musical drama is like?
Get ready to embark on a dazzling musical journey!
We offer a theatrical program that will engage and inspire you like never before. You will be working with some of the most talented performers to reinterpret a broadway musical performance, the process of which will be a unique and exciting learning experience. We believe in nurturing each individual through an experience that encourages self-expression and creativity. This is the opportunity to have a better grasp of the English language and showcase your talent as a performer.
Activity Detail 活動細節
Age 年齡3 - 6
Rehearsal Date 排練日期
21/12/2019-23/12/2019 (Sat- Mon)
Rehearsal Time 排練時間
Junior Group Subclass A: 10:00-12:00
*Please kindly note that our regular classroom maintance work will be held on the morning of the 23rd, therefore junior class A will have their musical class at 12:00-2:00 on 23rd
The overall lesson date and time are as follows:
21st (Sat) 10:00-12:00
22nd (Sun) 10:00-12:00
23rd (Mon) 12:00-2:00
Junior Group Subclass B: 2:30-4:30 (FULL)
Rehearsal Location 地點
Shek Mun Dance Studio
Full Address: 1015 (10/F), New Commerce Centre, 19 on sum street
Full- Dress Rehearsal
24/12/2019 (Tue) / 3:00-6:00
Final Performance
24/12/2019 (Tue) / 6:00.-7:00
Performance Location 地點
Hong Kong Arts Centre
Programme Fee (4 Days) 課程費用
Companion Offer 二人同行優惠 $2100/ 10 hours
General Admission 一般課程費用 $2300/ 10 hours
* Special* Early Bird Discount $150 off per student if apply on or before 30th Nov
Costume and 2 Final Performance Tickets are included.

subset: commoncrawl


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Pixel Club Seminar: Reading into the MAP: how mean is it ?
- דובר:
- תאריך:
- יום שלישי, 19.10.2010, 14:30
- מקום:
- חדר 337, בניין טאוב למדעי המחשב
Should penalized least squares regression be interpreted as
Maximum A Posteriori estimation?
Penalized least squares regression is often used for signal denoising and
inverse problems, and is commonly interpreted in a Bayesian framework as a
Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) estimator, the penalty function being the
negative logarithm of the prior. For example, the widely used quadratic
program (with an $\ell^1$ penalty) associated to the LASSO / Basis Pursuit
Denoising is very often considered as the MAP under a Laplacian prior in the
context of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) reduction. The objective of
this talk is to highlight the fact that, while this is {\em one} possible
Bayesian interpretation, there can be other equally acceptable Bayesian
interpretations. Therefore, solving a penalized least squares regression
problem with penalty $\phi(x)$ need not be interpreted as assuming a prior
$C\cdot \exp(-\phi(x))$ and using the MAP estimator. In particular, I will
show that for {\em any} prior $p_X(x)$, the conditional mean estimator can
be interpreted as a MAP with some prior $C \cdot \exp(-\phi(x))$.
Vice-versa, for {\em certain} penalties $\phi(x)$, the solution of the
penalized least squares problem is indeed the {\em conditional mean}, with a
certain prior $p_X(x)$. In general we have $p_X(x) \neq C \cdot
If time allows I will also discuss recent joint work with Volkan Cevher (EPFL) and Mike Davies (University of Edinburgh) on "compressible priors", in connection with sparse regularization in linear inverse problems such as compressed sensing. I will show in particular that Laplace distributed vectors cannot be considered as typically "compressible": they are not sufficiently well approximated by sparse vectors to be recovered from a low-dimensional random projection by, e.g., L1 minimization. This may be somewhat of a surprise considering that L1 minimization is associated to MAP estimation under the Laplace prior!


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It is Saint Patrick's Day and it is time to celebrate Mc LAUGH-in!
Please join McDonald and Carney (and friends) as they bring the McLAUGH-in Comedy Tour to Atlantic City NJ for the high holy day of drinking and laughing. The comedy show will explode in one of the event rooms at the world famous SHOWBOAT.
The comedy show will be headlined by McDonald and Carney. The comedy duo of McDonald and Carney have performed at the Tropicana and Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, at hotels and venues from Vermont to Florida and have been seen on MTV, TruTV, ABC's Live with Regis and Kelly and movies.
The show is a comedy variety showcase featuring improv comedy (like Whose Line is it Anyway) and the hottest stand-up comedians from NYC today. The show is interactive and based on audience suggestions and participation.
Other comedians include:
Natty Bumpercar (BUMPERPODCAST, Greenwich Village Comedy Club)
KP Burke (The STAND's Roast Battle Champion, Uncle Vinnie's and Sirius/XM)
Jackie Byrne (NYC's United Citizen's Brigade, Seclusion movie, and Taj Mahal)
Kevin Garifo (SHINING WIZARDS PODCAST, NY Comedy Club and Tierney's Free Stuff)


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We're planning a trip to the ABBEY THEATRE, having lunch at AIRFIELD ESTATE and hunting for ANTIQUES at the County Clare Antiques Art & Vintage Fair …
WHAT: The hot ticket this weekend is undoubtedly Michael Keegan-Dolan's adaptation of Swan Lake/Loch na hEala at the Abbey Theatre. Opening today (February 8) it is performed by a cast of 13 and is a powerful mix of story telling, song and live music. The latter combines Nordic and Irish traditional music with experimental influences. Having been a huge success at 2016 Dublin Theatre Festival, it won Best Production in The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. With nine performances at the Abbey, Swan Lake will also be touring to Nomad Theatre Network venues in Letterkenny, Roscommon, Sligo, Newbridge, Mullingar, Drogheda, Cavan and Longford.
Abbey Theatre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, until February 17; www.abbeytheatre.ie or 01 87 87 222.
WHO: Improviser, songwriter and composer, Trish Clowes has been described as "a fiercely talented jazz saxophonist" and her take on the genre is playful and engaging. That's why we're keen to see her in concert with her trio of collaborators this weekend. They will be playing original tunes from Clowes' fourth album My Iris. The quartet will be performing at Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, on Friday 9; The Model, Sligo on Saturday 10, and National Opera House, Wexford on Sunday 11. All performances begin at 8pm, with tickets from €10. www.musicnetwork.ie.
WHERE: To Airfield Estate for a family get together at the weekend, where chef Luke Matthews has taken over the culinary lead at Overends Kitchen and will be bringing their "GLAS" food ethos to life. (Go seasonal, Local produce, Avoid waste and use Sustainable ingredients). All dishes will be created from produce harvested from Airfield's farm, gardens and orchard.
Overends Kitchen is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm, Saturday and Sunday. Airfield Estate, Overend Avenue, Dundrum, Dublin 14; www.airfield.ie.
WHY: Keen to learn a new skill – there's still time to sign up for a couple of weekend courses. Anglo-Indian chef and food entrepreneur Arun Kapil (of Green Saffron in Cork) will be running a three-hour masterclass and demonstration in the School of Food in Kilkenny on Saturday. In the run up to the Hindu festival of Holi, on March 1, which traditionally heralds the arrival of spring, Arun will be concentrating on recipes and dishes packed with bold, warming, vivid flavours and colours. Tickets cost €50 per person. www.schooloffood.ie.
At Fumbally Stables learn about the health benefits of, and how to make, fermented probiotic drinks such as ginger bug, kombucha and kefir with Ailbhe Walshe this Saturday from 12 – 2pm. All you need to bring is a jar. Tickets are available from www.thefumballystables.ie.
AND … On Sunday February 11, the County Clare Antiques Art & Vintage Fair is much bigger than normal. It's being held at the Inn at Dromoland Castle Hotel from 11am – 6pm, providing plenty of inspiration for decoristas.
Penny McCormick
Love THEGLOSS.ie? Sign up to our MAILING LIST now for a roundup of the latest fashion, beauty, interiors and entertaining news from THE GLOSS MAGAZINE's daily dispatches.


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My father is 80+, and as it turns out a former Maths teacher in secondary schools and subsequently Wellington Polytechnic. Just prior to taking up teaching I asked for advice on what Dad considered was most important about teaching.
In summary his advice…. As it is now, and as it was 50 years ago, good relationships with students are essential. This does not mean "friends" or "being liked" but maintaining a good professional relationship to enhance learning.
The more things change the more things stay the same.


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Date: Saturday, September 2, 2017
Time: 7 pm - 10 pm - nighttime; 12 - 4pm - daytime
Phone: (415) 524-3940
ANNOUNCING our Target Dates for NIGHTTIME TELESCOPE VIEWING for the upcoming months. (Dates are subject to change or be cancelled due to inclement weather or poor visibility.) Viewing times are from about 7p - 10pm - nighttime; 12-4pm - daytime:
9/2- daytime AND night time viewing
9/30- daytime AND night time viewing
10/28- daytime AND night time viewing (International Observe the Moon Night)
Telescopes will be set up in the plaza outside the museum. Dress appropriately, it can get cold.
* Telescope clinics are available at daytime viewings, except Solar Sundays. Bring your own telescope and have an expert teach you how to use it or troubleshoot problems!
Telescopes are provided through museum volunteers and members of the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers. (Please note that at times there may be a volunteer emergency which could cancel the viewing at the last minute.) Thank you for your continued support. We hope to see you at the Museum!
Additional Location or Other Information
The Space Station Museum, 464 Ignacio Blvd, Novato, CA


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In vatsim, if you press the push-to-talk button, a little "T" indicator appears in the top left.
Can similar be achieved in the PilotEdge X-plane client?
Or does someone have a lua script or something, which can be used?
Thank you.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


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Brode, S. K., Ling, S. C., & Chapman, K. R. (2012, September 4). Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency: A commonly overlooked cause of lung disease. CMAJ JAMC, 184(12), 1365-1371. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3447047/
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. (2017, August 4). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/copd/index.html
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). (2013, March 29). Retrieved from https://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=77
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes: Chronic bronchitis and emphysema. (2017, May 3). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/copd.htm
Cunningham, T. J., Ford, E. S., Rolle, I. V., Wheaton, A. G., & Croft, J. B. (2014, September 10). Association of self-reported cigarette smoking with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and co-morbid chronic conditions in the United States. COPD, 12(3), 276-286. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4454614/
Denguezli, M., Daldoul, H., Harrabi, I., Gnatiuc, L., Coton, S., Burney, P., … Tabka, Z. (2016, March 24). COPD in nonsmokers: Reports from the Tunisian population-based burden of obstructive lung disease study. PLoS ONE, 11(3). Retrieved from http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0151981
Diagnosis COPD. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.blf.org.uk/support-for-you/copd/diagnosis
Explore COPD. Causes. (2017, April 28). Retrieved from http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/copd/causes
Explore COPD. Risk factors. (2017, April 28). Retrieved from https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/copd/atrisk
Greenlund, K. J., Liu, Y., Deokar, A. J., Wheaton, A. G., & Croft, J. B. (2016, January 7). Association of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with increased confusion or memory loss and functional limitations among adults in 21 states, 2011 behavioral risk factor surveillance system. Preventing Chronic Disease, 13. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4708003/
How serious is COPD. (2016, November 1). Retrieved from http://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/copd/learn-about-copd/how-serious-is-copd.html?
Lamprecht, B., McBurnie, M. A., Vollmer, W. M., Gudmundsson, G., Welte, T., Nizankowska-Mogilnicka, E., … Buist, S. A. (2011, March 26). COPD in never smokers: Results from the population-based burden of obstructive lung disease study. Chest, 139(4), 752-763. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168866/
Liu, Y., Croft, J. B., Anderson, L. A., Wheaton, A. G., Presley-Cantrell, L. R., & Ford, E. S. (2014, January 15). The association of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, disability, engagement in social activities, and mortality among US adults aged 70 years or older: 1994-2006. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 9, 75-83. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3896280/
Lord, V. M., Hume, V. J., Kelly, J. L., Cave, P., Silver, J., Waldman, M., … Hopkinson, N. S. (2012, November 13). Singing classes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A randomized controlled trial. BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 12, 69. Retrieved from https://bmcpulmmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2466-12-69
Mirabelli, M. C., Beavers, S. F., & Chatterjee, A. B. (2014, June 21). Active asthma and the prevalence of physician-diagnosed COPD. Lung, 192(5), 693-700. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4514018/
Respiratory diseases. Input: Occupational risks. (2012, December 21). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/programs/resp/risks.html
Rochester, C. L., Vogiatzis, I., Holland, A. E., Lareau, S. C., Marciniuk, D. D., Puhan, M. A., … ZuWallack, R. L. (2015, December 1). An official American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society policy statement: Enhancing implementation, use, and delivery of pulmonary rehabilitation. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 192(11), 1373-1386. Retrieved from https://www.thoracic.org/statements/resources/copd/implem-pulm-rehab.pdf
Spruit, M. A., Singh, S. J., Garvey, C., ZuWallack, R., Nici, L., Rochester, C., … Wouters, E. F. M. (2013, October 15). An official American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society statement: Key concepts and advances in pulmonary rehabilitation. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 188(8), 1011-1027. Retrieved from https://www.thoracic.org/statements/resources/copd/PRExecutive_Summary2013.pdf
Wheaton, A. G., Ford, E. S., Cunningham, T. J., & Croft, J. B. (2014, October 5). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hospital visits, and comorbidities—National Survey of Residential Care Facilities, 2010. Journal of Aging and Health, 27(3), 480-499. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441204/
Wheaton, A. G., Cunningham, T. J., Ford, E. S., Croft, J. B. (2015, March 27). Employment and activity limitations among adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease – United States, 2013. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 64(11), 289-295. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6411a1.htm
Wheaton, A. G., Ford, E. S., Thompson, W. W., Greenlund, K. J., Presley-Cantrell, L. R., & Croft, J. B. (2013, September 17). Pulmonary function, chronic respiratory symptoms, and health-related quality of life among adults in the United States – national health and nutrition examination survey 2007-2010. BMC Public Health, 13, 854. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3848467/
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Yeh, G. Y., Roberts, D. H., Wayne, P. M., Davis, R. B., Quilty, M. T., & Phillips, R. S. (2012, February 15). Tai chi exercise for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A pilot study. Respiratory Care, 55(11), 1475-1482. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3280096/
Yuan, C., Chang, D., Lu, G., & Deng, X. (2017, May 10). Genetic polymorphism and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, 12, 1385–1393. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5436778/
Source Article from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319640.php


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Second Floor [AF-04] / Foods & Beverages / Foodcourt, Member day.
09:00–22:00 (cuối tuần và ngày lễ)
View all shop's recruitments
"Phở" is a well-known traditional dish of Vietnam, also considered as a symbol of Vietnam cuisine. No one knows when it started, but the taste of it remains dynamically to each person's sense. Pho can be consumed anytime of the day, breakfast lunch or dinner. Pho is at its best when it's served freshly hot.
"Pho A – Pho & Cuon" is born not only with the mission to serve you the best bowl of Pho but also the most deliciously traditional Vietnamese wrap and roll dishes. From simple apertisers to the most savoring wrap and roll dishes that can be hand wrapped by yourself, together with green vegetable for a taste of freshness, "Pho A – Pho & Cuon" will always bring you a taste of Vietnam.
Promotional Day Members (5th & 20th Monthly)Discount 10% in total invoice, not apply together with other sales promotion & set combo.
Are you a fan of shopping? Would you like to own quality products at affordable prices? But there are so many shopping options that make your head spin around?
Come to AEON MALL Binh Duong Canary on AEON Members' Day – 5th & 20th per month.
A lot of shopping opportunities with MASSIVE deals up to 50% that you can not miss!
For more information, please click to the following link: https://aeonmall-binhduongcanary-en.com/promotion/


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Sailing the Legendary Northwest Passage
Cruise Line & Cruise Ship Crystal Cruises Theresa Norton September 16, 2014
PHOTO: Ponant's Le Soleal visits Hershel Island in the Beaufort Sea. A&K is chartering sister ship Le Boréal for a Northwest Passage cruise next August. (Courtesy of Abercrombie & Kent; Copyright by Capt. Etienne Garcia/Ponant)
One of the hottest cruise destinations right now is one of the coldest places on the globe. Suddenly, the Arctic — in particular the legendary, ice-choked Northwest Passage — is in the spotlight.
Cruises through the Northwest Passage are not new, of course, but are still relatively rare. Small expedition companies have taken adventurous travelers through the rugged polar terrain, mostly on hydrographic survey vessels and ice-breakers originally built for the Russian government. The first passenger transit through the Northwest Passage was completed by the Lindblad Explorer in 1984, and even now fewer than 200 vessels have successfully completed the entire route.
What's different now is the proliferation of mainstream luxury cruise ships choosing to explore more exotic destinations such as the 900-mile Northwest Passage, which is more accessible today as ice recedes due to climate change. Still, the Northwest Passage cruises only take place in August and September, the warmest time of the year.
For example, luxury line Crystal Cruises recently announced it will undertake a 32-day expedition through the Northwest Passage, 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle, starting Aug. 16, 2016. The Crystal Serenity will depart Seward, Alaska, circle Alaska before sailing east, north of the Canadian coastline through the Northwest Territories to Greenland, before heading south to Maine, Boston and New York City, where the cruise concludes. Fares start at $20,755 per person.
Another luxury line, Silversea Cruises, on Sept. 1 completed its inaugural voyage through the Northwest Passage, from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, to Nome, Alaska. Silversea has been expanding its luxury expedition product and operated the 23-day, 3,500-mile Arctic cruise on the 132-passenger Silver Explorer, an ice-rated vessel built in Finland in 1989. While the Northwest Passage transit was a first, the Silver Explorer is no stranger to polar regions, having cruised to the Svalbard archipelago, Iceland and Greenland as well as Antarctica. The ship was upgraded to Silversea's brand of luxury in 2007.
To plan or simply dream about transiting the Northwest Passage, watch this video from EYOS Expeditions.
No stranger to adventure voyages, Abercrombie & Kent will operate its first Northwest Passage transit, a 23-day trip starting Aug. 20 from Montreal, with the actual cruise sailing from Kangerlussuaq to Anadyr in the Russian Far East. What's different, though, is that A&K is chartering the luxury cruise ship Le Boréal from Ponant for the trip as it has for Antarctic voyages since 2010.
"It's a very different experience than the expedition ships of yore," said A&K spokesperson Jean Fawcett. "Many guests who never would have considered taking a cruise like this have changed their mind with the new stylish luxury offering."
The ice-rated Le Boréal normally accommodates up to 264 passengers but on this trip will limit capacity to 199 passengers so every stateroom has its own private balcony. Fares start at $24,995.
Also noteworthy is Hapag-Lloyd's completion on Sept. 10 of a 6,000-mile voyage through the Northeast Passage, also known as the Northern Sea Route, which takes a more northerly path above Russia, along the north coasts of Asia and Europe from the Bering Strait to the White Sea. The ice-strengthened Hanseatic carried 175 passengers from Nome to Bodö, Norway, making it the first non-Russian cruise ship to complete the Northeast Passage, Hapag-Lloyd said. The company said the ship also set a record on Aug. 26 when it reached the northernmost point for a cruise vessel, about 300 miles from the North Pole.
"Polar cruising been popular for a long time, and there was a massive surge in Antarctic tourism around the millennium," said Tim Soper, founding partner of EYOS Expeditions Ltd. and an expert in adventure cruising. "But there's been a lot of interest in the Arctic in general lately. I think you might be seeing a shift as more of the mainstream cruise brands like A&K, Crystal and Silversea offer more expeditionary voyages."
EYOS specializes in organizing expeditions for private yachts, and its sister company, Expedition Voyage Consulting, is working with Crystal on the planning and operations for its 2016 Northwest Passage voyage. The company did the same for The World, the luxury residential ship, when it transited the Northwest Passage in 2012.
Expedition Voyage Consulting is arranging for an escort vessel to accompany the Crystal Serenity. The escort vessel will carry additional safety and environmental protection equipment, as well as personnel specifically trained in its use. It also will serve as a platform for a helicopter and Zodiac rafts. The Serenity will use environmentally friendly low-sulfur fuel.
Crystal has a devoted following and regularly schedules out-of-the-box itineraries to appeal to those who've sailed in most traditional cruise destinations.
"Crystal has been going to Antarctica without making landings for quite a few years," Soper said. "I'm sure the Northwest Passage is one of the places their past guests expressed interest in. It's a pretty legendary route and a big accomplishment to make that transit. It's along the coast of your home continent that few people ever see."
Crystal said the Northwest Passage voyage sold out within three weeks, although the line is accepting names on a waiting list. "Over the course of the last few years, guests have told us they want to see new itineraries, and we're listening," Crystal spokesman Paul Garcia said. "When we officially announced the voyage on July 18, we opened the reservations window first to our Crystal Society Guests who are repeat guests on Crystal Cruises. As you can imagine, it was immediately received with a great deal of interest and bookings. That trend continued when we opened the reservation window in early September to the general public."
Sailing to such remote regions takes careful planning, Soper said. "Obviously, a lot of preparation is required for a voyage like this. It's a serious undertaking and they need to make contingency plans if ice conditions are not what you expect them to be," he said. "I must say Crystal is really wonderful to work with as far as its attitude and approach to safety and doing this right."
Adding excitement to the Arctic region was the discovery, just earlier this month, of a British Navy ship that disappeared in the 1840s trying to find the Northwest Passage under the command of Sir John Franklin. The finding could help solve "one of the most enduring and tragic mysteries of British maritime history," Philip Sherwell wrote in the Telegraph newspaper.
"This is really exciting for us, as this location is exactly where we will be sailing, so we'll be incorporating it into our program," A&K's Fawcett said.
Of course, passengers also will see varied wildlife, including polar bears, walruses, seabirds, whales, and seals, as well as beautiful scenery and remote settlements.
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We just delivered three (3) Physio Control Medtronic AEDs (Defibrillators) to a large Orlando Hotel next to the Orlando Convention Center. Orlando Florida - We sell AEDs and will beat any advertised price! What is an AED and how does it work?An Automated External Defibrillator or AED is a portable, battery operated electronic device about the size of a laptop computer. The AED automatically diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in a victim and is able to treat the patient by an electrical shock which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to re-establish an effective rhythm. AEDs are designed to be simple so that anyone can use one. So simple that I often start my classes by selecting someone from the class that has never seen an AED and I ask them to demonstrate how to use an AED by following the AEDs voice instructions. To date, the youngest person to effectively demonstrate the AED in one of my classes was 9 years old.Why should I buy an AED?In June of 2009 Michael Jackson died from Sudden Cardiac Arrest in June of 2008 Tim Russert of NBC's Meet The Press also died from Sudden Cardiac Arrest. According to the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest claims about 340,000 lives each year – or around 930 every day in the United States. Sudden cardiac arrest, which is the leading cause of death in the United States kills more people than breast cancer, lung cancer, and AIDS combined. Currently 95 percent of all cardiac arrest victims die.How expensive are AEDs?AEDs range in price from about $1,200 to about $1,800. Although this is not inexpensive it is invaluable if it saves your life or the life of a friend, family member or coworker. Buying a used AED or buying an AED from a salesperson that has little or no knowledge about the AED is never a good idea. These are life saving devices – if they fail, your patient dies.Who should purchase an AED?Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are becoming more popular and can be found in many public places. FAA regulations require commercial aircraft that fly passengers to have AEDs on board. In Florida dental offices are required by law to have AEDs as are public schools. You will also find AEDs in many restaurants, health clubs, hotels, casinos, cruise ships, sports stadiums, malls, condo and homeowners associations, movie theaters and a variety of other locations.What are the benefits of owning an AED?Without the AED the chances of surviving Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) outside of a hospital setting are very small – less than 5%. However, if the AED is applied to the victim quickly their odds increase to about 70% - 90%.Placement and Availability of AEDsAutomated external defibrillators are events or are public access units which can be found often found in public places including corporate and government offices, shopping centres, airports, restaurants, casinos, hotels, banks, sports stadiums, schools and universities, community centers, fitness centers, health clubs, churches, auto dealerships, dental offices, workplaces and any other location where people may congregate.Why do you need an AED program in the workplace?Sudden Cardiac Arrest accounts for 13% of on-the-job fatalities. OSHA has indicated the importance of AEDs and encourages the use of these live saving devices in the workplace. With the cost of AEDs starting at just $1,200 it's a small price to pay for saving a life.What does OSHA indicate about AEDs?"Because the use of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) can save the lives of workers who experience cardiac arrest while on the job, OSHA today encouraged employers to consider making this equipment available in their workplace." - US Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs, Dec. 17, 2001What about Federal Laws regarding the use of AEDs?The Cardiac Arrest Survival Act (CASA) of 2000 is our nation's first legislation recognizing the lifesaving role played by automated external defibrillators (AEDs). The law highlights the need to make AEDs accessible to anyone who has had proper training, not just professional medical personnel. The law protects trained AED users from liability, and also protects any person who has maintained the device, provided training, tested the device or acquired it. The law also augments existing state "Good Samaritan" laws by ensuring federal liability protection for trained users and purchasers of AEDs.Liability - Am I safer with or without an AED?Florida is a very litigious state. Attorneys are advertising everywhere and many people view filing lawsuits as hitting the lottery. But not having an AED may put you at greater than owning one. The increasing number of AEDs in public places, coupled with the fact that AEDS dramatically increase cardiac arrest survival rates may establish a standard of care. If the property down the road has an AED program in place to save lives, why doesn't your property offer the same protection?Signed into federal law in 2000, the Cardiac Arrest Survival Act (CASA) provides limited immunity from civil liability for those who acquire or use an AED if the state has not otherwise granted immunity for such persons under other statutes.Will my health insurance cover an Automated External Defibrillator or AED?There are some medical conditions that may meet the criteria for medical necessity for an Automated External Defibrillator. If a physician determines that the Automated External Defibrillator is medically necessary, a letter written on the physician's letterhead may help an insurance carrier or other payer to understand the patient's situation. Please note - Due to the wide range of health insurance policies and patient conditions, The CPR School cannot guarantee that an insurance company will cover or pay for your AED. Please contact your health insurance company.
How many companies make AEDs?There are six companies that are actively selling AEDs in the Florida market. The AED companies are Medtronic Physio Control, Cardiac Science, Defibtech, Heartsine, Philips and Zoll.Does The CPR School sell AEDs?Yes, and we will beat any advertised price on new AEDs. We also offer discounted package deals on AEDs, AED Cabinets and CPR AED First Aid Training. Contact The CPR School at 877-6-AED-CPR We already own an AED – do you sell batteries and electrode pads? Yes, if your AED needs a new battery or AED electrode pads we sell these. We can also test and inspect your AED, upgrade your AED software to the new AHA guidelines and if you wish to purchase a new make and model AED you can trade the old AED in for a new one.We sell AED batteries and AED electrodes pads for you AED. Medtronic Physio Control CR Plus Charge-Pak 3201616-002, Medronic Physi Control Battery Pak 3005380-026, Cardiac Science Powerheart G3 Battery 9146-001, Powerheart Adult Pads 9131-001, Heartsine Samaritan Battery and Pad (PadPak) Pad-Pak-01, Defibtech Lifeline AED Battery DCF-200, Defibtech AED Adult Pads Electrodes DDP-100, Philips OnSite Adult Smart Pads M5071A, Philips OnSite Pediatric/Child Smart Pads M5072A, Philips OnSite frx Standard Battery M5070A, Philips FRX Smart Pads II 989803139261, Philips FR2 Adult Defibrillator Pads 989803158211, Zoll AED Plus CPR-D Padz 8900-0800-01, Zoll AED Plus Pedi-Padz II 8900-0810-01 and Welch Allyn
My company already owns several older low energy AEDs. Does The CPR School offer us credit for trade ins? Yes, you can trade in your older AED and apply it as credit towards the purchase of any new model AED from The CPR School. Upgrade to the latest and best technology in AEDs. Call The CPR School at 877-6-AED-CPR to get the latest trade in price. Once we receive your AEDs a credit will be applied to your purchase of a new AED - Automated External Defibrillator. Keith Murray, owner of The CPR School in Jupiter Florida adds, "The AED that you purchase might save your life. Make certain that everyone who as access to the AED has been properly trained by a skilled instructor that has actually used CPR and AEDs in real life saving situations." Murray, a Florida firefighter EMT recently used an AED in the Atlanta airport to save a travelers life. The victim went into cardiac arrest, one of the passengers started CPR compressions, another rescue breathing, and Murray turned on the Medtronic Physio Control AED, applied the pads to the patients chest, pressed the shock button and it worked. The patient started breathing and is alive today because of the quick use of an AED.
Keith Murray, owner of The CPR School, LLC is a licensed Florida EMT Firefighter who hold a masters degree and both the Florida 220 and 215 insurance licenses. Mr. Murray consults with Florida businesses and risk and safety managers regarding Automated External Defibrillators (AED), CPR AED and First Aid Safety Training Classes and other risk management issues.The CPR School can help you every step of the process from A to Z. We start by helping you find the right make and model AED. Next we help you select the right location for the AED. Then we train your staff how to use the AED. Then we train your staff how to properly maintain and inspect the AED. And finally, if you use the AED we help you download the event data and get the defibrillator back into service. Automated external defibrillator sales, AED Program Management, AED Maintenance, AED Batteries and AED Electrode Pads, Onsite CPR, AED First Aid Safety training classes at your Florida business. Contact The CPR School at 877-6-AED-CPR or 877-623-3277
Orange County Florida AED - Defibrillator SalesApopka AED Defibrillator SalesPlymouth AED Defibrillator SalesBelle Isle AED Defibrillator SalesEatonville AED Defibrillator SalesEdgewood AED Defibrillator SalesMaitland AED Defibrillator SalesOakland AED Defibrillator SalesOcoee AED Defibrillator SalesOrlando AED Defibrillator SalesWindermere AED Defibrillator SalesWinter Garden AED Defibrillator SalesWinter Park AED Defibrillator SalesBay Lake / Lake Buena Vista AED Defibrillator Sales


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The REAL truth about Trump's popularity that the media isn't telling you
Source: The REAL truth about Trump's popularity that the media isn't telling you
The REAL truth about Trump's popularity that the media isn't telling you
Source: The REAL truth about Trump's popularity that the media isn't telling you
Japan Times, Oct 26, 2015: Tepco hopes the wall will significantly reduce the amount of contaminated water that has continued to flow into the Pacific more than four years after the 2011 meltdown crisis… 400 tons of groundwaterwas draining along the sides of the buildings and into the sea each day, after being contaminated with fallout from the 2011 meltdown crisis, according Tepco. The utility says an estimated 150 tons of underground water is still flowing into the basements of the damaged reactor buildings each day… Recent tests of water samples from the nearby sea have detected radioactive substances such as cesium-137 and strontium-90, but scientists have said the density is so low that it poses no immediatedanger to human health. Yet, the ongoing flow of tainted water from the plant has raised anxiety and concerns among local fishermen and many consumers across the country. Tepco plans to keep monitoring the density of radioactive materials in the nearby sea over the next month. To isolate the four reactor buildings from the underground water, Tepco hopes to freeze the soil around them… The Nuclear Regulation Authority has yet to give permission for the operation, saying creation of frozen soil could drastically change the underground water level around the plant. If the water level outside falls lower than that inside, the contaminated water could leak out. Meanwhile, Tepco has not explained exactly how it will control the water levels, an NRA official said.
Dr. Keith Baverstock, former World Health Organization regional adviser for radiation and public health, published Oct 23, 2015 (at 37:00 in): "I'm reallyappalled at the way the international system has failed… Quite frankly, we don't get anything through the media… There is no general understanding of the situation here in Europe, because the media are not putting this view forward. In fact, I think many people would be very surprised that it was still a matter for discussion. They would be even more surprised to learn that it's still an ongoing accident, and that it hasn't terminated yet. They'd be even more surprised that nobody has any good ideas on how to stop it. So this is a very big black point… for the nuclear industry — that they can cause a situation like this, where there'sno foreseeable end to it. It's against international law to dump radioactivity into the sea, but that is precisely what is happening on a daily basis."
In Media Lens ALERTS 2015
One of the defining features of the corporate media is that Western crimes are ignored or downplayed. The US bombing of a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on the night of October 3, is an archetypal example.
At least twenty-two people were killed when a United States Air Force AC-130 repeatedly attacked the hospital with five strafing runs over the course of more than an hour, despite MSF pleas to Afghan, US and Nato officials to call off the attack. The hospital's main building, which contains the emergency operating room and recovery rooms, was heavily damaged. Dave Lindorff noted:
'the hospital was deliberately set ablaze by incendiary weapons, and the people inside not incinerated were killed by a spray of bullets and anti-personnel flechettes.'
Lindorff added:
'The AC-130 gunship is not a precision targeting weapon, but a weapons system designed to spread death over a wide swath.'
Shockingly, MSF had already informed US military forces of the precise coordinates of the hospital in order to prevent any attacks. Indeed, the hospital is:
'a well-known and long-established institution with a distinctive shape operating in a city that until recently was under full [Afghan] government control. That the US/NATO command did not clearly know the function of that structure is inconceivable.'
MSF were unequivocal in their condemnation of the American attack. The hospital was 'intentionally targeted' in 'a premeditated massacre'. It was, they said, a 'war crime'. The organisation rejected US assurances of three inquiries – by the US, Nato and the Afghan government. Instead, MSF demanded an independent international investigation.
In the days following the attack, the US changed its official story several times. At one point, as Glenn Greenwald observes, the dominant narrative from the US and its Afghan allies was that the bombing had not been an accident, but that it had been justified because the Taliban had been using the hospital as a base; an outrageous claim that MSF vehemently rejected. It was even reported that an American tank had later forced its way into the hospital compound, potentially destroying evidence of the war crime that had just taken place.
Yes, the bombing was reported in the 'mainstream' media; sometimes with harrowing footage of ruined hospital corridors and rooms. Hospital beds were even shown where patients had burned to death. But the US bombing did not receive the extensive headline coverage and editorial outrage that it deserved.
If you are unsure of that, just imagine the response of the British media if it had been a Russian gunship that had bombed a hospital with the loss of 22 lives, despite pleas from doctors to call off the attack. Western leaders would have instantly condemned the Russian bombing as a 'war crime', and the corporate media would have taken their lead from the pronouncements coming out of the offices of power in Washington and London.
By contrast, we have not found a single editorial in any UK national newspaper condemning the US bombing of the hospital or calling for an independent investigation. This is one more example of the dramatic subservience of the corporate media to the state and indeed its long-term complicity in state crimes against humanity.
In the meantime, with nothing to say on Kunduz, the Guardian has found space to publish editorials onhoverboards and the Great British Bakeoff, as well as Guardian editor Katharine Viner's 'grilling' of George Osborne at the Tory party conference. To compound the paper's ignominy, it still proudly carries Tony Blair in its Comment section where it describes him merely as 'a former British prime minister', rather than the notorious and unpopular war criminal he so clearly is. That accurate description is only emphasised by the weekend's revelations of a memo written by Colin Powell, then George Bush's US Secretary of State, that Blair had pledged his support for a US invasion of Iraq fully one year in advance, even while telling Parliament and the country that a 'diplomatic solution' was still being sought.
On BBC News at Ten on October 15, 2015, BBC North America correspondent Jon Sopel told viewers over footage of the ravaged Kunduz hospital that it had been 'mistakenly bombed by the Americans'. Not intentionally bombed, as MSF were saying, but 'mistakenly bombed'. BBC News were thereby adopting the Pentagon perspective presented earlier by General John Campbell, the US senior commander in Afghanistan, when he claimed that:
'A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility'.
In fact, the US has done so before, many times. In November 2003, the first target of the huge American ground assault on Fallujah, following several weeks of bombing, was the city's General Hospital. This was a 'war crime', Noam Chomsky noted, and it was even depicted on the front page of the New York Times, but without it being labelled or recognised as such by the paper:
'the front page of the world's leading newspaper was cheerfully depicting war crimes for which the political leadership could be sentenced to severe penalties under U.S. law, the death penalty if patients ripped from their beds and manacled on the floor happened to die as a result.'
Going further back in time, US veterans of the Vietnam war have reported that hospitals in Cambodia and Laos were 'routinely listed' among targets to be struck by American forces. In 1973, Newsweekmagazine quoted a former US army intelligence analyst saying that:
'The bigger the hospital, the better it was'.
And now, in the case of the MSF hospital in Kunduz, Associated Press reported that:
'US analysts knew Afghan site was hospital'.
Moreover, it has since emerged that the American crew of the AC-130 gunship even questionedwhether it was legal to attack the hospital.
Our repeated challenges on Twitter to Sopel and his BBC News editor Paul Royall were ignored. Is this really how senior BBC professionals should behave when publicly questioned about a serious breach of impartiality? Simply deign not to answer?
However, one of our readers emailed Sopel and did extract a remarkable response from the BBC North America correspondent which was kindly forwarded to us.
Sopel wrote in his email:
'At this stage whether the bombing of the hospital in Kunduz was deliberate or accidental is the subject of an investigation – and I know there are doubts about the independence of the inquiry – but what it most certainly WAS was mistaken. Given the outrage the bombing has provoked, the humiliating apology it has forced the US into, the PR disaster it has undoubtedly been, how can anyone describe it as anything other than mistaken? If I had used the word accidentally you might have had a point.'
But this is, at best, disingenuous nonsense from Sopel. Most people watching his piece, and hearing him say that the hospital had been 'mistakenly bombed by the Americans', would have assumed he meant that the Americans had not intended to bomb the hospital rather than that bombing the hospital was misguided.
As we saw above, the notion that US forces did not know the target was a hospital is the Pentagon propaganda claim, and is not the view of MSF. Moreover, it contradicts the evidence that was both available at the time of Sopel's BBC News report and what has since come to light (that the US aircrew actually questioned the legality of the strike on a hospital). Christopher Stokes, general director of MSF, told Associated Press that the US bombing was 'no mistake'.
'The extensive, quite precise destruction of this hospital … doesn't indicate a mistake. The hospital was repeatedly hit'.
The rest of Sopel's remarks in the exchange are irrelevant (the bravery of war journalists), verging on cringeworthy (his proud support of MSF with a standing order).
Sopel's attempt to exploit 'the outrage', 'the humiliating apology' and 'the PR disaster' to justify his use of 'mistakenly bombed' is desperate sophistry. Is he really trying to say that a war crime is 'mistaken' because it is a 'PR disaster', requiring a 'humiliating apology'?
Perhaps the airstrike was a 'mistake' in much the same way that the killing of eight Afghan schoolboys by US-led troops in 2009 was a 'mistake'? This was a 'mistake' that Nato brushed away with payments of $2,000 for each dead child, in a kind of macabre 'fire sale'.
Perhaps the airstrike was a 'mistake' in much the same way as the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in the eyes of Bridget Kendall, the BBC diplomatic correspondent. She declared on BBC News at Six:
'There's still bitter disagreement over invading Iraq. Was it justified or a disastrous miscalculation?' (BBC1, March 20, 2006)
That the Iraq invasion was, in fact, an illegal and immoral war of aggression – indeed, the 'supreme international crime' judged by the Nuremberg standard of war crimes – was not a permissible description for BBC News.
But that is the ideological norm shaping corporate media output and 'mainstream' debate. Western political and military leaders may occasionally make 'mistakes' or 'disastrous miscalculations'. But their essential intent is always honourable: to 'keep the Taliban at bay' (Sopel again), to destroy Islamic State or to 'bring peace to the Middle East'.
We asked John Pilger to comment on Jon Sopel's report for BBC News and his subsequent remarks on email. Pilger told us (via email, October 19, 2015):
'Serious journalism is about trying to set the record straight with compelling evidence. What is striking about Jon Sopel's report is that he offers not a glimpse of journalistic evidence to support his assertion that the US attack on the hospital was "mistaken" – thus calling into question facts presented by MSF: facts that have not been refuted and he makes no attempt to refute. Neither is the dissembling by the US military challenged by Sopel. Instead, he is "certain" the attack was mistaken. What is the basis of his "certainty"? He doesn't say; and he clearly feels under no compulsion to say. Instead, in full defensive cry, he tells us what an experienced frontline reporter he is, implying that his word is enough. Well, I have reported more wars than Sopel has had White House briefings, and I know – as he knows – that journalism of this kind is no more than a feeble echo of the official line. He does reveal his agency by telling us – quite unabashed — that President Obama has "very little option" but to continue his campaign of destruction in Afghanistan. Some might call this apologetics; actually, it's anti-journalism.'
Perhaps it is not surprising that the header photo at the top of Sopel's Twitter page should show him listening respectfully to US President Obama. The tragic irony is that Obama, the 2009 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has just committed a war crime in bombing Médecins Sans Frontières, the 1999 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
If you decide to contact a journalist in response to our alert, please keep the tone civil. We do not condone abusive language.
Jon Sopel, BBC North America correspondent
Email: email@example.com
Twitter: @BBCJonSopel
Paul Royall, editor of both BBC News at Six and News at Ten
Email: email@example.com
Twitter: @paulroyall
Please forward any replies to us:
"Die, you son of a whore!! Die!!" shouted Israeli men at a seriously wounded Palestinian child, who was left to die while police stood around him doing nothing. One of the officers repeatedly pushed the boy down with his foot, whenever he tried to sit up.
While the child was bleeding to death, Israelis surrounded him, shouting at him in a mix of Arabic and Hebrew, "Die, you son of a whore!", "Die, you son of the biggest whore!", and telling the police to "Do him a favor, and shoot him in the head!"
The officers did not shoot him, but left him bleeding with head injuries, broken legs and other serious injuries on the ground. The boy was able to raise his head a few times, but the police officers kicked him back down until he bled to death.
The slain Palestinian child has been identified as Hasan Khaled Manasra, 15 years of age, while his cousin Ahmad Saleh Manasra, 13, suffered a serious injury. They are both from Beit Hanina, in Jerusalem.
The incident took place near Pisgat Zeev Israeli settlement, in occupied Jerusalem. The police claimed that the boys stabbed two settlers, wounding them.
A settler who chased the boys with his car also rammed Ahmad. But the police presented no evidence to connect the two children with the crime that they claimed the boys committed.
The following are some of the insults and curses hurled at the seriously wounded child before he died (warning: strong language):
"Die you fucker, die you son of a whore, die you son of a bitch…"
"Shoot him in the head, this son of a bitch"
"Die you son of a whore"
"Die you son of a bitch"
"Shoot him in the head, shoot him in the head!"
"Shoot him in the head, do him a favor"
The police eventually approached the Israelis, including the one who apparently was filming, and "asked them not to approach."
Palestinian Presidency spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rodeina, said the execution of the child is an ugly Israeli crime committed by Israel in violation of every legal and humanitarian law, and demanded the apprehension of those responsible for his death.
He added that "If Israel continues its policies and violations, the entire region will reach a situation that cannot be contained, and everybody will pay a high price for that."
Since October 1st, when two Israelis were killed in a 'lone wolf' attack by a Palestinian in Jerusalem, 26 Palestinians have been killed, including a pregnant woman and her two-year old child killed in an Israeli bombing on Sunday morning. Over 1200 Palestinians have been injured, many of them hit by live ammunition fired by Israeli troops at Palestinian demonstrators armed only with stones.
During that time period, no Israelis have been killed beyond the two who died in the October 1st attack, but six have been wounded in alleged attacks by Palestinians. No Palestinian faction has claimed responsibility for any attack, and it appears that the Palestinians who wounded Israelis were acting on their own.
In addition, Israeli authorities have been revealed on several occasions to have lied about the Palestinians they have killed – claiming falsely that the Palestinians had been attempting to stab or attack Israelis, but eyewitness and video evidence disproved this claim in a number of cases.
The Memory Hole of Continuous Proven Fraud over Nine Years
Canadians are within a few days of stopping or allowing the Harper regime to continue to destroy the democracy and life fabric of Canada. But the dots are taboo to connect. The PR-led opposition has joined the corporate media in a public stage ritual of forgetting. The endless lies, election cheats, and bullying abuses through nine years of PMO civil destruction go scot free.
The Harper regime has cheated or stole every election. Yet not even the Conservative robo-call fraud to deprive up to 500,000 citizens of their votes in the 2011 election has been raised in the official campaign. No-one on stage remembers any of it back to the first Harper theft of power in 2006, featuring the Harper-RCMP deal to falsely accuse the Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale in criminal investigation just prior to the election. Nor is Harper's violation of his own Election Act in calling the 2008 election and its massive illegal spending on attacks ads filling the airwaves with public hate just before the vote. All has been proven off the campaign stage, but all has been silenced on it. The regime's near-daily record of lies, scandals and violations has gone the memory hole of the electoral campaign, with $54 million on hand for attack ads.
Nothing sticks because public information is repressed in every form by the Harper PMO, the corporate media publish only transient details and flattering pictures, and the mainstream parties silently submit to the rule of amnesia. Yet every destruction tracks back to the Mafia-like despotism of the Harper PMO whose rule of fear, division, lies, character assassination and public sector dismantling runs free with no connection on stage. Even as I write, Harper tells more public lies that "there are no cuts at the CBC" and that "marijuana is far more dangerous than tobacco'.
The Wheat Board clause is the addition replacing the gagging clause (which comes in enough). We may recall how the proven big liars and war criminals of the US Republican party getting re-elected there despite their crimes against democracy and law. Harper is the branch-plant version with more years allowed to strip the country's public accountability and wealth to serve the rich. Constituencies of bigotry and greed provide the energies of attack always in motion.
From Fraud, War against Science and Dispossession of the Poor to tthe Niqab Sting
Fraud, war against public knowledge, and dispossession of the poor are the hallmarks of the Harper regime exposed in many forms off stage from an aroused Canadian public. But they are amnesiac in the official campaign. They continue with impunity and the tacit support of official opposition silence. The clear majority of citizens loathe the man destroying Canada's common life substance and identity. But the pathological meaning is taboo to name on the public stage.
In the turning point of the election campaign that Harper was losing on the ground, national attention was suddenly diverted to the veil rights of two indoctrinated women claiming duty to Allah and the Prophet to keep their faces hidden in citizenship ceremony. How could such a red herring reverse the Harper defeat overnight when not even the Koran prescribes veils?
Yet a feudal harem duty became solemnly claimed as a public right by the politically correct even in swearing citizen allegiance to Canada. Incredibly the leader of the Quebec stronghold of the opposition NDP took the bait. Playing against the role that had been long fit up for him by the corporate press – the angry man – he donned the image of liberal tolerance. He stood up for the symbol of an ancient, foreign right of possession of women, and predictably alienated his Quebec support. Along with the NDP's me-too neo-liberalism of "no deficit", the party blew the national election lead into third place within days.
Public relations and political correctness are dear to marketing men and pollsters running the NDP too. But they do not work with citizens who dislike turncoats to neo-liberal dogma and are used to seeing people's faces as fellow citizens.
Thus dragged into a stand enabling no-one's life in the country, the campaign for the working people of Quebec and Canada became weak and alien – a betrayal of its voter base. In truth, the stand does not even protect the veiled immigrants. Their fathers and husbands can now demand the right of their proprietorship over them as a sacred right in Canada itself against long evolved citizen norms of openness and trust. Thus the entire Harper record of perpetual lies and harms against the common life interest of Canada disappeared into the memory hole over a false right serving no-one's better existence in the country.
Thus a total diversion to a sectarian demand in citizenship oath itself succeeded. It completely switched the life-and-death of the 2015 election to an unconscious visceral plane where emotional knee-jerk was guaranteed – the master psych-op of the Harper regime. The fact that the issue is still before the courts known to rule against Harper over-stepping laws of every kind was ignored. But Harper rule won again by appeal to the knee-jerk unconscious of the masses.
This is in fact the crypto-fascist key of all Harper public appeal. Play the primeval fear card and step up PMO command to stop the fabricated danger to the country. Transnational attack dog Lynton Crosby, "master of the dark arts of dirty politics", was on hand to orchestrate the diversion in the midst of a losing election. Simultaneously Harper's-re-jigged Election Commission overrode the Election Act that says no non-Canadian may "induce anyone to vote" one way rather than another. Anything goes in this regime of corruption all the way down.
The Underlying Grammar of Amnesia and Illusion
The underlying deep structure of amnesia and illusion can be formulated in one sentence. National elections are increasingly reduced to a corporate market game of propagandas to sell one product rather others to targeted private-interest groups who will behave predictably as an aggregate as buyers of commodities for sale. The first premise here is that public intelligence does not exist, and the second is that any lie and fraud you can get away with is smart. .
No-one seems to see the entailment that the common life interest of citizens is ruled out a priori.Slogan rhetoric and partisan hype is all there is for the P-R managers of the game. "Middle class" can be asserted as vehemently by one party as the other with no meaning. The health, home and literacy of all citizens, not just the middle class having more money, is repelled by the marketing mind. Here the common interest is the latest opinion poll of selves with no facts involved.
The deciding force is private money, but this too is taboo to speak on the public stage. So is is the predictable result. Those who control more money more fund the party that wins even it cumulatively destroys the collective life capital of society and world.
The party meant to oppose this refuses to say it nd the mass media never allow it into their ad vehicles. So the 'left' party buys in and presses everyone on its lists to give more money to pay corporate media for more ads. One X on a card at the end decides it all in the end. Yet ever more people cannot access even that. This is the design of Harper's Orwellian 'Fair Elections Act', excluding all those without an official identification resident address – in short, the poor and native citizens. Buttressing this fix of the election, Harper rule redefines electoral boundaries at the same time so that his party picks up an extra 22 seats, compared to the NDP and the Liberals adding six and two seats respectively. The riggings and frauds never stop.
In the dominant value system, the underlying formula is that more money in private pockets is the final good. Worship of riches that contribute no life function and increasingly pollute and deplete the world are kept out of public view. That the global gold baron patron of the Munk Institute debate been featured in this election is a metaphor of this regime's total corruption. The instant institute becomes the private corporate ground for where Harper is willing to debate. No media or even opposition party reports that the Munk institute is a special recipient of many millions from Harper's government, lavishes Tory front-men with rich company positions when they step down, helps to reset University of Toronto to a transnational corporate propaganda site, and causes continual human rights abuses in poor countries by its world-leading gold extractions from their lands. The right-wing audience repeatedly applauded Harper alone, and no mass media reported the fix.
This is one way in which the Harper regime reduces the country to a looting basin for borderless corporate market vehicles. His "economic record" never deviates from this outcome, but this again is taboo to say in the campaign. Mass ignorance rules along with absolute power to command. But no-one names the game. What distinguishes the Harper regime, from prior administrations is its war on public knowledge and democracy at every plane – its market-fascist logic. But who thinks through the meaning of every step? None is seen or connected on stage. Aan Orwellian propaganda field is the ocean to the voters and citizens surrounded by it.
As always in this totalizing corporate game, images are the only reality. Corporate media carry the only common messages the majority see. The truth becomes whatever sells.
Yet which contending party does not buy in? For the Harper regime, taxes like death are bad by definition, and the more money in private pockets is the ruling public value. One meta law governs the war of movement – to feed without limit on the public purse and expropriate all life-serving programs outside private profit and control.
The Harper Corruption of Canada Spreads by the Taboo Against Naming It.
Even the official opposition with the most progressive tradition of the three major parties has played the corporate-ad game instead of naming the proven despot, liar, and fraud in the PMO. As in BC in 2013, the NDP snatches defeat from the jaws of victory by empty advertising logic with no life substance. And as with Jack Layton who first let the fanatic Harper in the door by attacking only Liberals in the 2006 debates, the NDP is too busy going after Liberals to expose the usurper destroying the country.
A narcissism of small differences prevails, with the Liberals now outflanking the NDP to the left. The NDP's leader, Thomas Mulcair, has the capacities of an ace prosecuting attorney to expose the Harper regime as tyrannically corrupt. Yet there has been no mention of the Harper record of continual public lies, cheating, criminal behaviors, war-mongering, and – most lethal to democracy – stripping of public science, communications and accountability at every level.
Consequences follow. The Harper regime has not only torn up the Kyoto Protocol. It has closed down scientific monitorings of everything from freshwater fish and contaminants to unique carbon load detectors, fired 2000 federal scientists, shut down and destroyed public archives of fisheries and oceans, prohibited any public communication of scientific information by those remaining, and abolished habitat-protecting laws 99% of Canada's waterways.
Not only Canada's environment and environmental knowledge, laws and resources have been attacked non-stop by the Harper regime. It wages war against all life-protective intelligence and knowledgethat can recognize the disastrous consequences. Its master goal is to serve the runaway global corporate juggernaut that devours the world to maximize private money demand as the only value there is.
Try to think of an exception. The long train of lies, abuses, interferences, public information destructions, criminal appointments, violations of laws, and vengeful uses of the state beggars belief in its perversion of the democratic process. Even more deeply, the collective life capital bases on which every one of us depends from the atmosphere to the ocean bottoms to the rule of life-protective law and common knowledge are exactly what are targeted and defunded to turn all of government into more private market riches at the top.
Yet the near-daily Harper outrages have already come and gone with no connected tracking of them in the official campaign. So silenced have the public positions of the opposition parties been that a complicity under partisan appearances seems hard to deny. Yet we need to know the depth of the corruption that has spread into Canada's very metabolism and marrow. Unconscious submission to the ruling game of corporate mass sales has become the way we decide how to live even if it increasingly destroys Canada and life on earth.
Tracking the Beast Not Named
We need to recall out of the memory hole of all that has been forgotten in the 2015 election what destruction Harper has wrought on Canada's abilities to function as a democratic society and intelligent civilisation. In fact, his meta program is to destroy everything that cannot be bought and sold for private profit – the underlying fanatic goal that is not seen.
It includes what is not publicly tracked or connected – destroying the public post delivery and financially gutting the nation's only public broadcaster CBC; attacking the prairie family farm by dismantling the Canadian Wheat Board; continuous gaggings of elected representatives; continual appointment of criminals to office; stripping Statistics Canada and the mandatory Canada Census that are the recording memory of the nation; destroying the country's gun registry against provincial and law-enforcement requests; continual anti-union interference in collective bargaining; smearing of veteran advocates resisting abuse and dismissal of their federal ombudsman; tax agency attacks on venerable social charities not towing the Harper line; gag orders on any federal civil servant not controlled by partisan public relations officers; lying attack ads without remission on any opposition leader who may compete against Harper; putting protestors under blanket state surveillance with black lists of their leaders; covering up torture and lawless police and armed-force killings across continents; risking the lives of Canada's foreign troops for Harper photo-ops (he forbids any photographers but his own at press conferences); continuously false cost estimates of public money for new institutional violence, dispossession and caging policies; falsification or disappearance of documents across jurisdictions; use of Government of Canada identifiers and publication channels for party propaganda including even government cheques, altogether costing over $700 million of taxpayer funds; implicitly accepting bribes in return for public offices on the public purse for significant donors in every possible form of partisan pay-off; public contempt of parliament twice as prime minister with endless parliamentary abuses; fixed blocking of parliamentary and individual access to public information; silencing of the public service in every domain; forced loyalty oaths to political incumbents; omnibus bills that sneak through fascist-style overwhelming of any debate; secret trade deals that ruin the productive lives of countless thousands of citizens; dismembering Statistics Canada and lying about it; arbitrary shut-downs of Parliament when convenient for continued rule; incessant interferences in independent bodies like the National Energy Board, the CRTC, the Integrity Office and – for reporting vast sums of illegal spending – the Parliamentary Budget Office itself.
As for foreign affairs, Harper's attack-dog regime has been by far the most war-mongering administration in Canada's history. It has declared without any evidence Iran as the "greatest threat in the world" while applaudingd the continuously war-criminal actions of the Israel state. It has led the NATO bombing of once thriving Libya to irreversible ruin. It has jumped to recognise the violent and neo-Nazi-led coup in Ukraine and blame Russia for the resulting civil war and failed state. It has constructed endless false claims of Islamic terror threats and rushed to bomb in the Middle East to "stop ISIS" in ignorance of its Saudi-CIA funding, arming and creation. It has completely reversed Canada's tradition as a peacemaker nation, voted off even the UN Human Rights Commission.
All follows the fascist pattern not named. Harper long ago gave notice of his readiness to commit the supreme crime under law in demand that Canada join the war-criminal bombing and genocide of Iraq on completely false pretexts in 2003. Here again, however, he has been given a free pass by the opposition parties in Parliament and on the 78-day campaign.
The Cover-Up Not Seen
Marketing elections run by private money for private money can override or silence all that a society needs for its better life. Once the corporate media control all perceptions to serve self-maximizing marketers from the top down with no common life interest binding across differences, no shared life value or ground can be seen.
If corporate-market PR machinations capture opposition parties themselves, there is no centre of gravity of the common good. There are only sales pitches to targeted consumers. Nothing else gets in. Since private money alone can buy the media time to pitch political products, the competition becomes over who has more money to buy ads. That the election is won by those with most private money backing is an underling meaning that disappears into the frenetic contest to get more of it to win. Nothing else is defined but more-money-needed in the 2015 campaign of the NDP even after all the evidence is in.
The shared life infrastructures of air to breathe, green space to enjoy and vocations to serve disappear from the conversation. Even the continuous frauds, lies, civil society destructions, and giveaways to the corporate rich are forgotten in this cover-up process not seen. Incredibly, no-one charges Harper for his proven record to destroy the very fabric of Canada's democracy and capacity to govern for the public. It does not exist in this field of meaning. Only the memory hole remains on the campaign stage.
Do You Trust this Man?
The electoral opposition to the Harper regime's decade of society destruction and transfer of public wealth to the rich has one more big lie to consider. Just 12 days before the election, it was announced that the TPP ('Trans-Pacific Partnership') had been rammed through before the election and before Canadians or Parliament have had a chance even to read it. No matter. Harper proclaims he "is 100% certain that it is good for Canada and all Canadians". All the terms and details remained secret and inaccessible. Not one of the factually certain costs to Canadians is admitted as an issue. No citizen or party and knows any more than allowed to be told to them. The Trade Minister refused to be interviewed. All the certain life sacrifices of local economies, people's secure livelihoods, food security, and vast new transportation pollution and carbon loads are simply erased from the ledger. They do not exist to this mind-set.
The TPP was announced the day I complete this analysis. But already one can recognize that every step follows in the tracks of Harper's absolutely unaccountable and fraudulent rule – unlimited central control, complete secrecy, exclusion of public information in every detail, silencing of everyone else around including his own party's elected MP's, worship of the transnational corporate system of ever more profit as infallible, omnipotent boast of knowing the future for all citizens, and a very big-lie core of all he proclaims.
One might say Harper is a fanatic beyond all precedent in Canada's prime ministry, and a pathological liar by demand of the corporate market doctrine of which he is a creature. This is why the life-blind inner logic of what drives him is not available to his mind. What sustains him are the corporate media barons and the extreme right-wing business roundtables from which he graduates. This is why he must always have them around in debates, as at the Munk centre. They pump him on in the CEO-despotism and greed they all bow to that destroys the world. The same happens across oceans in different variations. The TPP organizes corporate rule across the most distant continents into global dictatorship over all sovereign governments involved, over new and old unions of organized workers who can withdraw labour, over public policy shifts to serve people instead of endless foreign profits out of their countries, and over evolved recourses of democracy and government by collective life need.
This is the covered up meaning of Harper's certitude of better lives for all. What life-blind doctrine has ever been so mindlessly ignorant of the facts of human life and the common life support systems of our planet? They simply do not exist to this corruption of mind. A borderless corporate market ever larger and more unaccountable to the public, human life and the biosphere itself is the God of the world destruction.
Masked in the absurd slogan of "free trade" which is free for none but transnational corporations – and why they always love it – no media challenges this deranged mind-set any more than its big advertisers. And the two mainstream parties are always funded by its agents. This is why the evil consequences are always ignored even though they follow necessarily from these one-sided treaties of transnational corporate rights. These are the real certainties that even the money masters and their servants cannot deny – that big transnational foreign corporations will always displace and ruin small and local businesses in every sphere they enter; that jobs and wages will always be lost, lower and less secure in the aggregate; that organized workers in unions will always be smashed or reduced further; that environmental restraints and regulations will always be eliminated if they do not conform to corporate rights to the profits they expect; that no-one except corporate lawyers will be able to judge by secret tribunal operations accountable to no one or no international law whether a public policy is valid if a private corporation sues it at public expense; and that every penalty for not conforming to this corporate treaty mechanism, with no non-profit public body allowed to dispute it, is without upper limit of money punishment to be paid by the taxpayers of the country that has disobeyed the new global corporate rights as judged by the private and unelected corporate-lawyer tribunal made up of the same people who wrote the treaty in secret and without public debate.
This is the already established format of the 'Trans-Pacific Partnership' which no-one can truthfully deny, and this what Stephen Harper is "certain is good for Canada and Canadians" as he gives away Canada's sovereignty and imposes still secret foreign terms on the country in the middle of an election. Official Opposition leader Thomas Mulcair has for the first time in this election stood against the job-destroying, hollowing-out system that Harper leads with big lies – just as Brian Mulroney did before him with NAFTA promising "jobs, jobs, jobs" when 500,00 secure manufacturing jobs with living salaries and benefits were soon destroyed in fact.
The Harper regime has already lost 400,000 jobs under its watch. But the TPP will disemploy more than that when race-to-the-bottom Asian wages, safety, financial and environmental regulations are available to transnational corporations and banks to feed on at the expense of Canadian society, sovereignty, family security, youth opportunities and natural life and resources. This is the competition to the lowest denominators of life and life ruin that Harper adores as his ideal, 'the free market' of private corporate money sequence that override all else. .
Yet the real Canada beneath corporate-money functions sees through the endless lies and betrayals that are masked as "Conservative". This worse-than-Mulroney despot and quisling of money power might come unstuck in his latest destruction of the common life bases of the country. Recall that this party of sell-out to private and transnational money powers ended up with two seats once the people caught on to the fraud.
At a time when violence is flaring between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, Americans are being deprived of crucial information about the conflict. Our press portrays the clashes as a cycle of violence between two groups with ancient enmity; and while there is some truth in that description, it is vacuous if reporters fail to describe the power balance here. At the very least, reporters should say that the violence is taking place in the context of a 48-year-old military occupation of Palestinian lands by Israelis.
Today National Public Radio did a piece on the latest violence in Israel and Palestine and referred again and again to events in occupied territory, but never provided that simple fact to readers. Host David Greene began by saying that the latest stabbing took place "just outside Jerusalem's Old City." Yes: it took place in occupied East Jerusalem, at the Damascus Gate. Palestinians who live there can't even vote for the government that controls their lives.
NPR's correspondent Emily Harris reported that the stabbing "didn't come out of nowhere. There are always tensions simmering at some level here, though it does go up and down." The ancient enmity idea. Then she referred to the murderous arson attack in a "Palestinian village last summer." That July 31 attack was inside the occupied territories, and said to be perpetrated by Israeli colonists. She didn't say so.
Harris went on to talk about the dispute over access to the Holy Sanctuary, or Temple Mount, in occupied Jerusalem. Again, not a word about occupation, and religious zealots were made out to be "interested" in equal rights:
Jewish groups that are interested in expanding Jewish rights on the Holy site
Harris spoke of Israeli security forces' efforts to "figure out how to respond to" Palestinian attacks; again, not a word about their being occupiers. And spoke of the killing of an Israeli couple "in the West Bank" and another stabbing at "a checkpoint." That couple were settlers killed deep in the occupied West Bank. Checkpoints exist to enforce an occupation.
The terrible paradox here is that other parts of the world are getting this information. In today's Guardian, imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti writes that the occupation is the root cause of the violence:
Imprisoned Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti on Sunday delivered an impassioned plea to the international community to tackle the root causes of violence between Palestinians and Israelis, as he praised the "new Palestinian generation" for resisting the Israeli occupation.
In an article for the Guardian written from his cell in Hadarim prison – his first for an international publication since 2002 at the height of the second intifada – Barghouti said he was pleading with the world as then to "to deal with [the violence's] root causes: denial of Palestinian freedom"…
Here are excerpts of Barghouti's op-ed:
"This new Palestinian generation has not awaited reconciliation talks to embody a national unity political parties have failed to achieve, rising beyond political divides and geographic fragmentation.
"It has not awaited instructions to uphold its right, and its duty, to resist this occupation. It is doing so unarmed, while being confronted by one of the biggest military powers in the world….
"The escalation did not start with the killing of two Israeli settlers [in the West Bank]. It started a long while ago and has been going on for years. Every day there are Palestinians killed, wounded, arrested.
"Every day colonialism advances, the siege on our people in Gaza continues, oppression and humiliation persist. As many want us today to be overwhelmed by the potential consequences of a new spiral of violence, I will continue, as I did back in 2002, pleading to deal with its root causes: denial of Palestinian freedom…
"Some suggested that the reason why a peace deal could not be reached was late President Yasser Arafat's unwillingness or President Mahmoud Abbas's inability, while both of them were ready and able to sign a peace agreement.
"The real problem is that Israel has chosen occupation over peace and used negotiations as a smoke screen to advance its colonial project. All governments across the globe know this simple fact and yet so many of them pretend that returning to the failed recipes of the past could allow us to achieve freedom and peace."
Shouldn't NPR be reflecting this perspective? Any Palestinian would describe the conflict in these terms, if not so eloquently. They just want their freedom.
Finally, look at this report from South Africa:
"Apartheid in South Africa was a picnic compared to what we have seen in the occupied territories," Parliamentary Speaker Baleka Mbete said following a visit to Palestine.
A picnic compared to South African apartheid. I was told very much the same thing nine years ago in Hebron by a South African church worker. Jimmy Carter tried to tell Americans Palestine was headed for apartheid that same year and was slamdunked by Terry Gross for the analogy. Charney Bromberg regretfully told a Columbia audience it is apartheid, The Nation has said it's "apartheid on steroids," even Jeffrey Goldberg has said it's apartheid but "temporary" or "provisional." When will our press decide that the public is adult enough to hear this truth? I do believe that #BlackLivesMatter is our greatest ally in this discursive struggle, because its efforts have been treated fairly, even sympathetically by many NPR journalists, including Arun Rath and Audie Cornish.
Thanks to James North.
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Sandwiched between the Everglades and the ocean, the laid-back city of Pembroke Pines is well-placed for many of Florida's natural attractions. Whether it's surfing on the Space Coast, dining out in Miami Beach, or spotting snappy alligators in the Everglades National Park, there's something here for everyone. Go eye-to-eye with flamingos, bobcats, and otters at Flamingo Gardens, or cool off on the many water slides in Paradise Cove Water Park. Whatever you choose, a Pembroke Palms vacation rental makes a great base for your southern Florida adventures.
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Saverapura, April 04, 2015 : Easter, the feast of Risen Lord was celebrated here on Saturday April 4 during evening 7.30pm Festal Eucharistic Celebration. Rev. Fr. Eugene D'Silva celebrated the mass and Rev. Fr. Rakesh Mathias and Rev. Fr. Franklin Lobo concelebrated. Fr. Eugene delivered a befitting homily on the occasion.
The Holy Week which began with Palm Sunday, culminates with the Easter Sunday. The congregation lit candles signifying the victory of light over darkness and thereby enlightenment.
The candlelight ceremonies included the blessing of the Pascal candle and blessing of fire and holy water. The church choir sang melodious hymns on the occasion.
The Holy Week liturgies including Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were also meaningfully observed in the Chapel.
- News & pics by Wilson D'Souza, Saverapura / saverapurachurch.org


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The International Technical Fair is one of the most established brands in the exhibition industry in Southeast Europe, a key forum for business contacts and a starting point for emerging markets. It presented the most promising trends in modern economy with the exhibitions of innovative technologies, machines and modern solutions for industry and home.
Its 75th edition will offer even more opportunities for the effective presentation of companies and their products, as well as a number of privileges for participants.
INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL FAIR 2018 in brief
- 586 companies - 225 Bulgarian and 361 foreign ones
- new exhibitors – 35%
- 9% growth of foreign participants
- 34 countries from Europe, Asia and North America
- more than 26 000 visiting specialists from Bulgaria and Europe
- 25 events in the business program
- over 550 publications in national and specialized media
INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL FAIR 2019 – data
A gateway to Industry 4.0
The International Technical Fair is a demonstration center for the directions in which Industry 4.0 is developing and it outlines the directions for successful business projects.The most prestigious technological meeting on the Balkans is a useful forum for both, exhibitors and visiting specialists.
A gateway to new markets
With the innovations it demonstrates, the International Technical Fair attracts about 30 000 visitors annually – mainly managers and specialists from across Europe. Thus the largest business event in Bulgaria becomes a center for interregional cooperation, for investment and trade contacts that help participants expand their activities and markets.


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