Daily Archives: August 29, 2016

Euthanasia in the United States – Wikipedia, the free …

Posted: August 29, 2016 at 7:47 am

Euthanasia is illegal in most of the United States. Physician aid in dying (PAD), or assisted suicide, is legal in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Vermont;[1] its status is disputed in Montana. The key difference between euthanasia and PAD is who administers the lethal dose of medication: Euthanasia entails the physician or another third party administering the medication, whereas PAD requires the patient to self-administer the medication and to determine whether and when to do this.[citation needed] Attempts to legalize PAD resulted in ballot initiatives and "legislation bills" within the United States of America in the last 20 years. For example, the state of Washington voters saw Ballot Initiative 119 in 1991, the state of California placed Proposition 161 on the ballot in 1992, Oregon voters passed Measure 16 (Death with Dignity Act) in 1994, the state of Michigan included Proposal B in their ballot in 1998, and Washington's Initiative 1000 passed in 2008. Vermont's state legislature passed a bill making PAD legal in May 2013. However, on May 31, 2013, Maine rejected a similar bill within its state legislature (95-13).[citation needed]

Debates about the ethics of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide date from ancient Greece and Rome. After the development of ether, physicians began advocating the use of anesthetics to relieve the pain of death. In 1870, Samuel Williams first proposed using anesthetics and morphine to intentionally end a patient's life. Over the next 35 years, debates about euthanasia raged in the United States which resulted in an Ohio bill to legalize euthanasia in 1906, a bill that was ultimately defeated.[2]

Euthanasia advocacy in the U.S. peaked again during the 1930s and diminished significantly during and after World War II. Euthanasia efforts were revived during the 1960s and 1970s, under the right-to-die rubric, physician assisted death in liberal bioethics, and through advance directives and do not resuscitate orders.

Several major court cases advanced the legal rights of patients, or their guardians, to practice at least voluntary passive euthanasia (physician assisted death). These include the Karen Ann Quinlan (1976), Brophy and Nancy Cruzan cases. More recent years have seen policies fine-tuned and re-stated, as with Washington v. Glucksberg (1997) and the Terri Schiavo case. The numerous legislative rulings and legal precedents that were brought about in the wake of the Quinlan case had their ethical foundation in the famous 1983 report completed by the Presidents Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine, under the title "Deciding to Forgo Life-Sustaining Treatment" (Angell, Marcia. "How to Die in Massachusetts." The New York Review of Books. 21 February 2013: 60.3. Web. 14 Jul. 2014.). The Commission sustained in its findings that it was morally acceptable to give up a life-supporting therapy and that withholding or withdrawing such a therapy is the same thing from an ethical stand-point, while artificial feeding and other life-supporting therapy are of the same importance for the patients and doctors. Before this report, to withdraw a medical therapy was regarded as much more serious decision than not to start a therapy at all, while artificial feeding was viewed as a special treatment. By 1990, barely a decade and a half after the New Jersey Supreme Courts historic decision, patients were well aware that they could decline any form of medical therapy if they simply choose to do that either directly or by expressing their wish via appointed representative.

In a 2004 article in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Brown University historian Jacob M. Appel documented extensive political debate over legislation to legalize physician-assisted suicide in both Iowa and Ohio in 1906. The driving force behind this movement was social activist Anna S. Hall. Canadian historian Ian Dowbiggen's 2003 book, A Merciful End, revealed the role that leading public figures, including Clarence Darrow and Jack London, played in advocating for the legalization of euthanasia.

In the 1983 case of Barber v. Superior Court, two physicians had honored a family's request to withdraw both respirator and intravenous feeding and hydration tubes from a comatose patient. The physicians were charged with murder, despite the fact that they were doing what the family wanted. The court held that all charges should be dropped because the treatments had all been ineffective and burdensome. Withdrawal of treatment, even if life-ending, is morally and legally permitted. Competent patients or their surrogates can decide to withdraw treatments, usually after the treatments are found ineffective, painful, or burdensome.[3]

The California legislature passed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide in September 2015, and the bill was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on October 5, 2015. [4] The law went into effect in June 2016.[5]

On May 31, 2013, the Maine state legislature rejected decriminalization of physician assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia (95-43).

On December 5, 2009, state District Court judge Dorothy McCarter ruled in favor of a terminally ill Billings resident who had filed a lawsuit with the assistance of Compassion & Choices, a patient rights group. The ruling states that competent, terminally ill patients have the right to self-administer lethal doses of medication as prescribed by a physician. Physicians who prescribe such medications will not face legal punishment.[6] On December 31, 2009, the Montana Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the case of Baxter v. Montana. The court held that there was "nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy," although prosecutions under the state's assisted suicide statute are still possible.

In the United States legal and ethical debates about euthanasia became more prominent in the case of Karen Ann Quinlan who went into a coma after allegedly mixing tranquilizers with alcohol, surviving biologically for 9 years in a "persistent vegetative state" even after the New Jersey Supreme Court approval to remove her from a respirator. This case caused a widespread public concern about "lives not worth living" and the possibility of at least voluntary euthanasia if it could be ascertained that the patient would not have wanted to live in this condition.[7]

Measure 16 in 1994 established the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which legalizes physician-assisted dying with certain restrictions, making Oregon the first U.S. state and one of the first jurisdictions in the world to officially do so. The measure was approved in the 8 November 1994 general election in a tight race with the final tally showing 627,980 votes (51.3%) in favor, and 596,018 votes (48.7%) against.[8] The law survived an attempted repeal in 1997, which was defeated at the ballot by a 60% vote.[9] In 2005, after several attempts by lawmakers at both the state and federal level to overturn the Oregon law, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 to uphold the law after hearing arguments in the case of Gonzales v. Oregon.

In 1999, the state of Texas passed the Advance Directives Act. Under the law, in some situations, Texas hospitals and physicians have the right to withdraw life support measures, such as mechanical respiration, from terminally ill patients when such treatment is considered to be both futile and inappropriate. This is sometimes referred to as "passive euthanasia".

In 2005, a six-month-old infant, Sun Hudson, with a uniformly fatal disease thanatophoric dysplasia, was the first patient in which "a United States court has allowed life-sustaining treatment to be withdrawn from a pediatric patient over the objections of the child's parent."[10]

In 2008, the electorate of the state of Washington voted in favor of Initiative 1000 which made assisted suicide legal in the state through the Washington Death with Dignity Act.

On May 20, 2013, Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed a legislative bill making PAD legal in Vermont.

Attempts to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide resulted in ballot initiatives and legislation bills within the United States in the last 20 years. For example, Washington voters saw Ballot Initiative 119 in 1991, California placed Proposition 161 on the ballot in 1992, Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act in 1994, and Michigan included Proposal B in their ballot in 1998. Despite the earlier failure, in November 2008 physician-assisted dying was approved in Washington by Initiative 1000.

In 2000, Maine voters defeated a referendum to legalize physician-assisted suicide. The proposal was defeated by a 51%-49% margin.

Reflecting the religious and cultural diversity of the United States, there is a wide range of public opinion about euthanasia and the right-to-die movement in the United States. During the past 30 years, public research shows that views on euthanasia tend to correlate with religious affiliation and culture, though not gender.

In one recent study dealing primarily with Christian denominations such as Southern Baptists, Pentecostals, and Evangelicals and Catholics tended to be opposed to euthanasia. Moderate Protestants, (e.g., Lutherans and Methodists) showed mixed views concerning end of life decisions in general. Both of these groups showed less support than non-affiliates, but were less opposed to it than conservative Protestants. Respondents that did not affiliate with a religion were found to support euthanasia more than those who did. The liberal Protestants (including some Presbyterians and Episcopalians) were the most supportive. In general, liberal Protestants affiliate more loosely with religious institutions and their views were not similar to those of non-affiliates. Within all groups, religiosity (i.e., self-evaluation and frequency of church attendance) also correlated to opinions on euthanasia. Individuals who attended church regularly and more frequently and considered themselves more religious were found to be more opposed to euthanasia than to those who had a lower level of religiosity.[11]

Recent studies have shown white Americans to be more accepting of euthanasia than black Americans. They are also more likely to have advance directives and to use other end-of-life measures.[12] Black Americans are almost 3 times more likely to oppose euthanasia than white Americans. Some speculate that this discrepancy is due to the lower levels of trust in the medical establishment.[13] Select researchers believe that historical medical abuses towards minorities (such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study) have made minority groups less trustful of the level of care they receive. One study also found that there are significant disparities in the medical treatment and pain management that white Americans and other Americans receive.[14]

Among black Americans, education correlates to support for euthanasia. Black Americans without a four-year degree are twice as likely to oppose euthanasia than those with at least that much education. Level of education, however, does not significantly influence other racial groups in the US. Some researchers suggest that black Americans tend to be more religious, a claim that is difficult to substantiate and define.[13] Only black and white Americans have been studied in extensive detail. Although it has been found that minority groups are less supportive of euthanasia than white Americans, there is still some ambiguity as to what degree this is true.

A recent Gallup Poll found that 84% of males supported euthanasia compared to 64% of females.[15] Some cite the prior studies showing that women have a higher level of religiosity and moral conservatism as an explanation. Within both sexes, there are differences in attitudes towards euthanasia due to other influences. For example, one study found that black American women are 2.37 times more likely to oppose euthanasia than white American women. Black American men are 3.61 times more likely to oppose euthanasia than white American men.[16]

In "Gender, Feminism, and Death: Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia" Susan M. Wolf warns of the gender disparities if euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide were legal. Wolf highlights four possible gender effects: higher incidence of women than men dying by physician-assisted suicide; more women seeking physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia for different reasons than men; physicians granting or refusing requests for assisted suicide or euthanasia because of the gender of the patient; gender affecting the broad public debate by envisioning a woman patient when considering the debate.[17]

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Ascension Symptoms & Signs of Spiritual Awakening

Posted: at 7:42 am

The Ascension process and the Signs and Symptoms associated with it are occurring on a personal and planetary level. Ascension involves the acceleration of vibrational energy and the expansion of awareness which creates a shift in consciousness. When a particular life system raises its vibrationary state from one energetic state of being/realm of existence, to another higher one, it is ascending. Put simply, it is like tuning into a particular radio station frequency--you can't hear a particular radio station unless you're tuned in to it's particular frequency.

During the ascension process changes are occuring on all levels of your being. Ascension is a completely natural universal evolutionary process. As one shifts in vibrational frequency and as their awareness expands, symptoms are experienced on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. Your system is rebooting, being 'tuned up' or upgraded. Old patterns begin to fall away as one starts to embody much more light.

As one moves through the Ascension process there may be periods where the energy and symptoms become much more intense for several days or weeks at a time; then suddenly these symptoms may abruptly cease altogether for awhile, or symptoms may suddenly change or shift in intensity or frequency. The ascension experience is different for everyone and symptoms can vary according to one's individual degree of awareness, personal vibration, spiritual practice and even individual purpose on the planet.

[Read Expanded version]

You just 'know' or sense that something is happening/changing. You just feel different for reasons you can't explain.

Stomach and digestive issues, IBS, gasto-intestial problems; loss of appetite; periods of unexplained nausea.

Sudden changes in body temperatures; increased sensitivity or intolerance to heat or cold; abnormal heat and/or cold in certain body parts.

Cold or Flu-like symptoms that appear and then dissapear just as suddenly without escalating.

Frequent headaches; head pressure or other unusual sensations in the crown area; warmth, tingling, pinpricks, pulsating energy.

Increase in sensitivity of smell; strange smells from time to time that seem to come out of nowhere; Sinus and allergy issues.

Changes in vision and perception; catching glimpses of shadows, mist or smoke, flashes of light, sparkles, colors and swirling forms of energy.

Changes in hearing or sensitivity to sound; hearing strange sounds, tones and frequencies in your ears; whooshing, buzzing or ear popping/pressure.

Periods where you feel extremely cold for long periods of time or have a chill in your body, cold hands or feet; circulation issues.

Changes in diet, appetite and eating habits; Sudden cravings for or aversions to certain foods; Unexplainable weight gain or loss.

Sudden intolerances/allergies to certain food or other products and chemical sensitivities.

Changes in sleep patterns; waves of extreme fatigue that come and go unexpectedly; periods of restlessness or insomnia; a need for more or less sleep than normal;

Sporadic sleep schedules; repeated waking in the middle of the night especially around 3 am; unusual dreams or more lucid dreams.

Increase in daydreaming, fantasy; flashes of insights and visions; increased creativity and imagination.

Intense waves of heat throughout the body, hot flashes, chills or night sweats; feeling extremely hot or waves or warming energy in various chakra centers.

Increased static electrical charge in the body; energy 'zaps', tingles, itching, pinpricks; muscle spasms or twitches that occur sporadically in certain parts of the body.

General body aches and pains, tension and soreness not caused by injury or exercise.

Clumsiness, lack of coordination at times, bumping into or dropping objects more often; dizziness or feeling ungrounded.

Sporadic bursts of increased energy or inspiration; feeling hyper-active or frantic energy; panic attacks; accelerated mental energy; racing or scattered thoughts.

Unexplainable nervousness or anxiety that comes and goes spontaneously for no apprent reason.

Feeling Intense or unusual vibrations; experiencing pulsating or rushing waves of energy, tingling sensations pressure throughout the body or in specific areas (chakra centers).

Exteme sensitivity; feeling over-emotional; Episodes of crying for no apparent reason or bouts of hysterical laughter for no apparent reason.

Periods of intense frustration, anger or rage, short-tempered or easily agitated or impatient.

Moments where you experience increase in heart rate out of the blue, or unusual sensations in the heart chakra area.

Unusual skin changes that come and go (rashes, hives, itching or tingles).

Changes in hair and nail texture, color or rate of growth. Hair and nails may grow faster than normal.

Feeling more drawn to be in nature and in more serene environments.

A sudden increase in synchronicity (meaningful coincidences); seeing 11:11 or other recurring numbers often.

Abrupt changes with job, friends, hobbies, interests, or living environments or strong urge to relocate.

Physicality may feel 'unreal' at times and external reality appears dreamlike at times.

Increased "self talk" or inner dialogue; issues with voice or speech.

A need for more personal space and alone time; introversion.

Feeling invisible, alienated or detached from from others and/or the world around you.

Feeling lost or a sudden loss of your old 'identity' and a calling to find your true self.

A deep longing to go Home even though you may not know where 'home' is.

Asense of urgency like you are running out of time or that 'something is about to happen'.

Moments of heightened energy where you may receive channeled information ; or automatic writing.

Sudden lack of mental focus and ability to concentrate or comprehend linear information; feeling scattered; brain fog; confusion; forgetting things more often.

Feeling ungrounded at times, scattered or spacey thoughts; feeling detatched or in a dream-like trance.

Time distortions; losing track of time; a sense that time is 'speeding up' or 'slowing down' at various moments;

You begin to see halos of light around people, animals and objects; distorted or blurred vision; sensitivity to bright light; more intense closed-eye visions.

Increased Telepathy with other people and animals; flashes of insight and increased Intuition.

Feeling that you have a Divine purpose on the planet and that you are on a special 'mission'.

Profound feeling of love, peace, understanding and interconnectedness with All things.

Increased psychic awareness and sensitivity, clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, and intuition.

Bizarre or intense dreams; prophetic or precognitive dreams or dreamlike visions occuring more often.

Electronic devices may malfunction often in your presence (lights may flicker or bulbs burn out often).

A feeling that you are not alone or that there is a non-physical presence near you (visits from angelic beings, spirits, e.t's, messengers and guides)

Experiencing sudden inspirations and divine revelations, rushes of energy and flashes of deep insight.

A feeling that something is 'about to happen' or something important is coming, although you don't know what or when.

Remember that not all of these symptoms may be due to the ascension process. Please follow your own inner guidance and consult a health care professional as needed. If you are experiencing a majority of these symptoms it is a good indication that you are experiencing the ascension process more fully or at an accelerated rate. For treating ascension symptoms, more holistic healing methods and natural remedies are always encouraged alongside any other necessary treatment and for overall long term health and healing benefits.

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Xcalibur Magnetic Field Generator | Ascension Energy Program

Posted: at 7:42 am

The Xcalibur machine has been in development for the last 5 years and is the latest addition to the AscensionEnergyprogram now comprised of 5 separate technologies under one basic subscription price.The Xcalibur Magnetic field Generator is based on the Dotto Ring technology that was developed in the 1970?s by Giovanni Dotto as an Age Reversal Device. It mimics and amplifies the frequencies found in the Hunza valley in Northern Pakistan, where the inhabitants as opposed to the citizens live up to 150 years according to more legends. The original Dotto Ring was a big bulky Thermo-couple that generated a magnetic field with both heat and cold at the same time on a copper-nickel ring that would move vertically up and down. The magnetic field would increase the replication rate of cells and also re-grow the telomeres the aging clock of the bodies cells. The frequencies of 1.9Mhz-2.1Mhz, Dotto claims triggers DNA replication. Dan Winter claims that more Gravity=Life, charge compression through the heart chakra leads to an increase in life force energy. Christ would describe it as going the eye of the needle of zero point energy without the attachments to the physical plane. You are on this world but not of this world. Essentially, you live in overlapping realities at the same time. Magic is a function of living in the higher planes and being anchored in the lower planes at the same time. more 5D than 3D in attitude and actions. The process of moving through ascension is essentially accumulation of energy which could also be described as an increase in magnetism or the aura. The concept of the halo is a visible aura emitting from a person that has become holy or unified. Esoteric religion describes and teaches the use of Quantum mechanics, String theory and the Grand Unified Field theory application to become an ascended being, someone that moves out of time and becomes immortal beyond the effects of entropy. Age Reversal, I believe is a pre-cursor to becoming an ascended being. It will show up in the physical body as a sign of Youthing. If it is not, you are probably not as evolved as you think you are. The wage of sin is death after-all, which is simply a dissolution of the physical body and a failure to alchemize or fire the DNA coding.This machine produces a magnetic field over 10x as strong as the planetary magnetic field. My hypothesis is that the garden of eden had magnetic anomalies that were much stronger that is currently available and was the main reason for the average lifespan of over 1000 years reported in the bible. The garden of Eden was a heavier gravitational environment. Nuclear radiation has degraded our DNA through unhealthy mutations. Essentially genetics is a function of consciousness, higher evolved beings have longer DNA strands. There are functions within the junk DNA, that when fired with magnetic charge are rearranged and will lead to much extended lifespans. My contention is that this can be achieved in this lifetime with the use of Bridge technologies such as theXcalibur Magnetic Field Generator.

The Readers Digest is that Gravity=Life. More gravity=More Life or Negative Entropy or Anti-aging. Dotto studied an area in Northern Pakistan called the Hunza valley where the average lifespan was over 120 years old. Most people attribute the longevity of the Hunzas to the food and the water found in that particular area. Dotto discounted this as the reason for the long lifespans. Dotto said the region contained magnetic anomalies not found anywhere else in the world. The Hunza valley has a unique juxtaposition of a mountainous glacier area next to a hot valley. Dotto states that it is the thermal unbalance of the region that creates a magnetic field stronger than the surrounding area.

The originalDotto Ring is a Thermo-couple that creates a hot and cold magnetic field equivalent to 5X the field strenght of the Hunza valley. According to the legend, Dotto reversed peoples age over 20 years. The premise is that the device created magnetic induction or energy transfer directly into the DNA. The DNA is a spiraling coil like a caduceus, as you age the coil shortens and tightens as a function of conservation of energy. The DNA bases are proteins that hold magnetic charge like a battery. The proteins convert the magnetic energy into electrical energy to run the processes of the cells. This is known as pre-natal chi by the Chinese. The Chinese system believes you have a limited amount of pre-natal Chi and that once it is exhausted you die.

The RNA is on both ends of a DNA base, as the cells replicate pieces of the RNA are lost. The RNA strands shorten until they are too short to communicate to the DNA to split.

This essentially is also death from a western scientific point of view. In addition as the DNA coil shortens and tightens electrical impedance increases. Electricity is harder to run through the DNA coil. The replication process slows down as impedance increases. As you age you notice, you do not have as much energy and you need to sleep more. The feeling that people are growing younger around you and that you are growing older is another function of loss of energy within your genetics. The Bible has stories of people living for close to 1000 years old. We live for approximately 120, why the difference?

On Wed afternoon, June 15th, 2011; 30 minutes before the full lunar eclipse, I heard a knock on the door and a clump outside the door as boxes were being dumped on the floor. It was like a scene out of the matrix, the Xcalibur machine had arrived

The Xcalibur Magnetic Field Generator has more flexibility than the original Dotto Ring and is much smaller and more portable.This is the second generation device, the first one I had briefly in the summer of 2007 for six months. That device could only be run for about 15 minutes at a time before it would over-heat. Even with the limitations of the original device, I noticed during that brief period that both my eye color and hair color changed from hazel to blue and auburn to a brighter red.

The Xcalibur Magnetic Field generator has three settings, the Dotto Ring frequencies 1.9-2.1Mhz, the Schumann resonance 7.83hz which is the planetary field and a external music subliminal function, where there is a microphone that will pick up either external music or a IPOD or a MP3 player. The Music/Subliminal function then converts the music into a magnetic field. Russian studies have shown that DNA can be re-programmed with common language. This is the best device on the market that I am aware of for DNA activation and can be used re-motely as a radionics device. I have added it to the Ascensionenergyprogram.com and it is being included in the price of a general subscription. You could say it is a sum total of all my experiences over the last 21 years, starting with my relationship to Preston Nichols of the Montauk Project fame. The few experiences that people have had with the machine so far are a sense of timelessness and a return to innocence. There is a feeling that life is again unlimited in potential similar to one had in youth. The Xcalibur magnetic field generator is the beginning of a new world and is the latest addition to the AscensionEnergyProgram.

Click link for a brief video on theXcalibur Magnetic Field Generator Age Reversal Subliminal

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3 Beaten-Up Virtual-Reality Stocks: Are They Bargains? — The …

Posted: at 7:38 am

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

As computing and display technology continues to relentlessly advance, it seems inevitable that the virtual-reality and augmented-reality industries will benefit. In fact, research firm Digi-Capital estimates that the combined augmented and virtual reality space will grow to represent a $120 billion market by 2020, up from less than $5 billion this year.

But finding the best virtual-reality stocks to profit along the way is easier said than done, especially as the price of many of those stocks already reflects much of that growth potential. Tohelp get you started, then, here are three beaten-up virtual-reality stocks to consider adding to your portfolio.

First, GoPro (NASDAQ:GPRO)is striving to expand the scope of its business to play a key role enabling the rise of virtual reality through media capture and software services.

GoPro's OMNI VR rig. Image source: GoPro,

More specifically, GoPro offers compelling virtual-reality hardware rigs such as Omni, a synchronized six-camera spherical array that allows each camera to act as one. And to help optimize those spherical videos, last year GoPro acquired Kolor, a leader in virtual reality and spherical media software solutions. Under GoPro's umbrella, Kolor's software enables users to combine multiple images or videos to produce high-res panoramic or spherical content, which can then be displayed on mobile devices, on web browsers, or in virtual-reality environments.

As it stands, however, GoPro still derives the bulk of its revenue from sales of its core action-camera devices. And shares of GoPro are down nearly 70% over the past year as of this writing, as demand for those cameras has waned.

It doesn't help that GoPro's highest-end HERO4 Black and Silver cameras were introduced nearly two years ago. And the company botched last year's release of its (now) more affordable HERO4 Session model by introducing the compact camera at too nhigh a price point, only to subsequently drop its priceby $100two times in five months to its current MSRP of $199.

But as of GoPro's second-quarter 2016 report last month, the company was still on track to launch both its new HERO5 series cameras and its new Karma quadcopter in time for the lucrative holiday season, which will mark what GoPro's founding CEO, Nick Woodman, describes as the "largest introduction of products in our history." If GoPro is able to follow through on that launch, it could be exactly what the company needs to once again start delivering sustained, profitable growth.

Next, no virtual- or augmented-reality platform would be complete without a decent motion-sensing chip to enable the experience. That's whereInvenSense (NYSE:INVN)comes into play.

Image source: InvenSense

As it stands,shares of InvenSense are down around 30% year to date on softness in the mobile market. Butthat decline would have been even worse if an analyst upgrade hadn't sent shares of InvenSense soaring a few weeks ago. Incidentally, that analyst -- Pacific Crest's John Vinh -- singled out the "significant opportunity" InvenSense's chips have to further penetrate the market for entry-level and mid-tier devices, many of which don't include high-quality gyroscope chips required for their users to enjoy augmented-reality platforms and games. One prominent recent example Vinh mentioned is the unprecedented popularity of augmented-reality game Pokemon Go.

That sentiment also echoed the thoughts of InvenSense CEO Behrooz Abdi two weeks earlier, when he stated, "Given strong consumer demand, we expect to see the emergence of many more augmented reality applications and games beyond Pokmon Go, and we believe that their proliferation in mobile devices will expand our TAMs to be mid-tier and low-tier smartphone markets for high-performance gyro."

Indeed, as virtual and augmented reality continue to become more ubiquitous, InvenSense should be better off for it.

Finally, consider organic LED (OLED) technologistUniversal Display (NASDAQ:OLED), shares of which are technicallyupmore than 60% over the past year but also trade more than 20% below their 52-week-high as of this writing, thanks to the company's weaker-than-expected second-quarter 2016 report earlier this month.

Image source: Universal Display

But as Iwroteshortly after that report, our market was recoiling after Universal Display management told investors there would be a roughly six-month delay in UDC's expected ramp in revenue growth -- which isn't entirely surprising, given the number of variables underlying that growth in these early stages of the OLED industry. To blame, UDC says, were delays in the adoption of new higher-margin OLED emitter materials and customers' more efficient use of OLED materials ahead of their own impending ramps in OLED manufacturing capacity. But over the longer term, Univeral Display should still realize that growth, even if it takes more time than expected.

More pertinent to our topic, Universal Display is poised to benefit from virtual reality as its flagship phosphorescent OLED materials enable displays that are more compact, can be made flexible and even semi-transparent, and sport richer colors and deeper blacks than any competing display technology can offer. All of these features make OLED displays ideally suited to creating more immersive virtual- and augmented-reality solutions.

For patient investors willing to watch Universal Display's long-term story continue to unfold, I think the pullback represents a perfect opportunity to open or add to a position.

Steve Symingtonowns shares of Universal Display.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends InvenSense and GoPro.The Motley Fool recommends Universal Display.Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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VR, Virtual Reality | Virtalis

Posted: at 7:38 am

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President Obama Makes Virtual-Reality Debut in Tour of …

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Virtual reality is getting the presidential treatment.

In honor of the centennial celebration of the National Park Service, President Obama is set to make his virtual-reality debut in a video filmed on his family's visit to Yosemite Valley in June.

In a partnership between National Geographic and the virtual-reality company Oculus, viewers get an up-close 3-D, 360-degree experience to bask in some of the country's most scenic views with its most powerful occupant. The piece was directed and produced by Felix & Paul Studios, which was the creative lead behind the experience and used its own technology to shoot and edit the piece.

In a Facebook post Thursday, Obama called Yosemite "one of the most stunning places I've ever been."

"I get to share that experience with you -- in a 360 degree view," he noted. "Thanks to some high-tech virtual reality cameras, you can stand amid Yosemite's giant sequoia groves or float on Mirror Lake in a canoe. I checked this out for the first time yesterday. It was pretty surreal, like being transported back into the park."

Obama narrates portions of the video, describing the importance of national parks to generations of Americans. He is also shown talking with a park ranger, joking with a group of children and standing on a bridge with the first daughters and the first lady.

But the Secret Service is notably absent from the videos. Thats because the agents were instructed to hide behind trees in the park, a White House official told ABC News.

The video, available to download for Oculus users, is also up for viewing in 2-D format on National Geographic's Facebook page. Watch here on your mobile device.

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Virtual Reality – SI.com

Posted: at 7:38 am

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit franchise honors tradition of innovation by introducing a series of first-of-their-kind virtual reality experiences to go along with the print issue and digital extensions, including an all new SI Swimsuit App and fully responsive digital destination on SI.com/swimsuit. The VR content will feature behind the scenes immersive experiences at the famed SI Swimsuit shoots with some of the world's most beautiful models at some of the most exotic locations on the planet, beginning today with former Swimsuit cover models Nina Agdal, Hannah Davis and Irina Shayk.

SI Swimsuit partnered with the award-winning VR firm Wevr to produce this exclusive content utilizing the most cutting edge VR technology on the market.

The VR content was all shot over a series of days in the Dominican Republic at the same time as photo and video shoots were taking place. The suite of content offers a mix of experiences, form one-on-one, intimate access with the models and the beautiful surroundings to transporting the viewer to actually being on set of a cover-style shoot where you can look over your shoulder and see the full crew behind you. These experiences were designed to offer something different every time and to have some fun with different types of interaction.

"Sports Illustrated Swimsuit has a long tradition of innovation, from the first ever Swimsuit photo shoot on Antarctica to a sub-orbital swimsuit photo shoot in zero gravity," explained Creative Director Christoper Hercik. "This years virtual reality shoot answers the question we get every day: 'What is it like to be on a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit photo shoot?'.

"Partnering with WEVR for our first-ever VR shoot allowed us to utilize both of our collective resources, including their best in-market technology and creative network, to help direct, produce and post produce this one-of-a-kind experience. Our partnership was phenomenal from start to finish and allowed us to create the highest-quality, fully-immersive experience. We want our fans to experience swimsuit on every level."

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Virtual Reality | Technology | GeForce

Posted: at 7:38 am

Virtual Reality is finally here after years of anticipation, and it's been well worth the wait. At NVIDIA we've been working from the beginning of VR's resurgence to create technologies, tools and best practices that enhance the VR experience.

Now, with the new GeForce GTX 1080 and the new Pascal Architecture, we're enabling a new level of presence in VR by introducing new technologies that will make your VR experiences more immersive and realistic.

With VR performance is key - Virtual Reality headsets render games and applications at a resolution equivalent to 3024x1680, and need to do so at a sustained 90 FPS. Failure to maintain a constant 90 FPS results in stuttering and hitching that ruin the experience.

With the new GeForce GTX 1080, Virtual Reality performance is up to 2X faster than with the GeForce GTX TITAN X. This remarkable improvement comes courtesy of the amazing graphics horsepower of Pascal, combined with our new Simultaneous Multi-Projection technology, which enables new VRWorks Lens Matched Shading and Single Pass Stereo rendering techniques.

For decades PC gamers enthusiastically enjoyed their games on flat 4:3, 16:9 and 16:10 monitors. Thankfully technology has advanced, and we can now play with three monitors in NVIDIA Surround, on curved monitors, and even in Virtual Reality.

With the new Pascal-architecture Simultaneous Multi-Projection technology we can implement several new techniques that improve your experience on these displays. And in Virtual Reality, improve performance, too.

The first of these new Virtual Reality techniques is Lens Matched Shading, which builds upon the Multi-Res Shading technology introduced alongside our previous-generation Maxwell architecture. Lens Matched Shading increases pixel shading performance by rendering more natively to the unique dimensions of VR display output. This avoids rendering many pixels that would otherwise be discarded before the image is output to the VR headset.

Single Pass Stereo turbocharges geometry performance by allowing the head-mounted display's left and right displays to share a single geometry pass. We're effectively halving the workload of traditional VR rendering, which requires the GPU to draw geometry twice once for the left eye and once for the right eye.

This improvement is especially important for geometry-heavy scenes, and those featuring significant levels of tessellation, which remains the most effective way of adding real detail to objects and surfaces in VR.

With tessellation, affected game elements can be accurately lit, shadowed and shaded, and can be examined up close in Virtual Reality. With other solutions, such as Bump Mapping or Parallax Occlusion Mapping, the simulation of geometric detail breaks down when the player approaches or examines affected objects from any angle, which harms immersion. By increasing geometry performance and tessellation by up to 2x, developers are able to add more detail that players can examine up close, significantly improving the look of the game and the player's level of presence.

Together, Pascal's improved performance, and new Single Pass Stereo and Lens Matched Shading significantly improve the Virtual Reality experience for GeForce GTX users.

NVIDIA has spent decades working to perfect 3D graphics, but with VR great graphics demand great audio to create a sense of presence. To this end, NVIDIA has created a game-changing advancement called VRWorks Audio.

Today's VR applications provide positional audio, telling users where a sound comes from within an environment. However, sound in the real world reflects more than just location of the audio source -- sound is a function of the physical environment. For example, a voice in a small room will sound different than the same voice outdoors because of the reflections and reverb caused by the sound bouncing off the walls of the room. Using NVIDIA's OptiX ray tracing engine, VRWorks Audio is able to trace the path of sound in an environment in real-time, delivering physical audio that fully reflects the size, shape, and material properties of the virtual world.

Simply put, we're able to simulate physically-accurate, super realistic real-time audio using the power of your graphics card.

If you've been a gamer for some time you've almost certainly played a game with CPU or GPU PhysX, or our new FleX effects. These technologies add more realistic physics effects, and enable interactions between the player's character and the world they're inhabiting. In Virtual Reality, more often than not you are the player in the center of the action, directly interacting with objects and the world itself. As such, the world needs to react realistically to maintain the user's sense of presence in the virtual world.

Realistically modelling touch interactions and environmental behavior is critical for delivering full presence in VR. And by adding touch interactivity with haptics we can amplify the degree of immersion.

Existing VR experiences deliver these effects through a combination of positional tracking, hand controllers, and haptics. With NVIDIA's new VR Touch PhysX Constraint Solver, we can instead detect when a hand controller interacts with a virtual object and enable the game engine to provide a physically-accurate visual and haptic response.

By providing this improved, ready-made, all-in-one solution to game developers we can save them time, effort and money, and improve the experiences of gamers.

As you might expect, we're also bringing our PhysX and FleX visual effects to VR, so that interactions, events and actions involving the player or occurring around the player are realistic, physically accurate, and representative of what players would expect to see in the real world.

Over the years PhysX and FleX have created visual effects for just about anything you can imagine - explosions, cloth, water, snow, gore, volumetric weather effects, and on and on, and on. PhysX has done them all, and more, and now your own actions in the virtual world can influence the actions, reactions, and interactions of these effects.

The great news is that you won't have to wait long to experience VRWorks Graphics, VRWorks Audio, and VR PhysX - all three are fully utilized in "NVIDIA VR Funhouse", a NVIDIA-developed VR experience that's coming soon. Learn more about this highly immersive, extremely entertaining experience here.

Combined, the technologies discussed in this story form VRWorks, a comprehensive suite of features that allow developers to create more detailed, more immersive, and faster-performing VR experiences that you won't want to miss.

To benefit from these features, and those released previously, register your interest now to be notified when the GeForce GTX 1080 pre-order program begins.

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Mental Health Counseling, Personal Empowerment | Kansas …

Posted: at 7:36 am

The challenges that led you to this webpage can be your 'window' into discovering more about yourself and finding greater contentment and emotional well-being. Together we'll take a look at these challenges and find their hidden possibilities for creating positive change.

Our world is a complicated one! Because of all the external pressures, It is easy to lose track of ourselves and what we need.. Whether you're struggling with personal or relationship issues, I will be your objective collaborator. Together, we will discover more about the real you - your core values and strengths. You will learn how to embrace who you are and put yourself first. This is not a selfish agenda, but instead allows you to build a calm and serene inner foundation , leaving you with more to give.

My clients work on a variety of issues, but I have special interest and training in the areas of addiction (substances, gambling, sex, eating, gaming, etc.) LGBT issues, self-esteem and self-discovery.

I have offices in Kansas City and St. Joseph, Missouri, all which provide a safe, casual , and comfortable environment. I take most insurances and am also available by skype, phone, text, webcam, IM ,and email and will take emergency appointments.

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Religion and Nihilism – The African Perspective Magazine

Posted: at 7:34 am

I was going through some of my school notes today and i came across the following lecture notes id taken from a class on religion and illusions when i was still a student. Hence, I figured I introduce you guys to this very interesting topic as most of what we are tought regarding religion in the mainstream media is usually all but the same. Hope you enjoy it and find it interesting. Dont hesitate to leave your opinion at the end.

Nihilism as a philosophy seemed pass by the 1980s. Few talked about it in literature expect to declare it a dead issue. Literally, in the materialist sense, nihilism refers to a truism: from nothing, nothing comes. However, from a philosophical viewpoint, moral nihilism took on a similar connotation. One literally believed in nothing, which is somewhat of an oxymoron since to believe in nothing is to believe in something. A corner was turned in the history of nihilism once 9/11 became a reality. After this major event, religious and social science scholars began to ask whether violence could be attributed tonihilistic thinkingin other words, whether we had lost our way morally by believing in nothing, by rejecting traditional moral foundations. It was feared that an anything goes mentality and a lack of absolute moral foundations could lead to further acts of violence, as the goals forwarded by life-affirmation were being thwarted by the destructive ends of so-called violent nihilists. This position is, however, argumentative.

Extreme beliefs in values such as nationalism, patriotism, statism, secularism, or religion can also lead to violence, as one becomes unsettled by beliefs contrary to the reigning orthodoxy and strikes out violently to protect communal values. Therefore, believing in something can also lead to violence and suffering. To put the argument to rest, its not about whether one believes in something or nothing but howabsolutistthe position is; its the rigidity of values that causes pain and suffering, what Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen calls the illusion of singularity.Since 9/11, nihilism has become a favourite target to criticize and marginalize, yet its history and complexity actually lead to a more nuanced argument. Perhaps we should be looking at ways nihilism complements Western belief systemseven Christian doctrinerather than fear its implementation in ethical and moral discussions.

Brief History of Nihilism To understand why some forms of nihilism are still problematic, it is important to ask how it was used historically and for what motive. Nihilism was first thought synonymous with having no authentic values, no real ends, that ones whole existence is pure nothingness.In its earliest European roots, nihilism was initially used to label groups or ideas asinferior, especially if they were deemed threatening to establishedcommunal ideals. Nihilism as alabelwas its first function.

Nihilism initially functioned as apejorative labeland a term of abuse against modern trends that threatened to destroy either Christian hegemonic principles or tradition in general.During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, modernization in France meant that power shifted from the traditional feudal nobility to a central government filled with well-trained bourgeois professionals. Fearing a loss of influence, the nobility made a claim: If power shifted to responsible government, the nobility claimed that such centralization would lead to death and destructionin other words, anarchy and nothingness. Those upsetting the status quo were deemed nihilistic, a derogatory label requiring no serious burden of proof.Such labelling, however, worked both ways. The old world or tradition was deemed valueless by advocates of modernization and change who viewed the status quo as valueless; whereas, traditionalists pictured a new world, or new life form, as destructive and meaningless in its pursuit of a flawed transformation. Potential changes in power or ideology created a climate of fear, so the importance of defining ones opponent as nihilisticas nothing of valuewas as politically astute as it was reactionary. Those embracing the function of nihilism as a label are attempting to avoid scrutiny of their own values while the values of the opposition are literally annihilated.

Since those advocating communal values may feel threatened by new ideologies, it becomes imperative for the dominant power to present its political, metaphysical, or religious beliefs as eternal, universal, and objective. Typically, traditionalists have a stake in their own normative positions. This is because [t]he absoluteness of [ones] form of life makes [one]feel safe and at home. This means that [perfectionists]have a great interest in the maintenance of their form of life and its absoluteness.The existence of alternative beliefs and values, as well as a demand for intersubjective dialogue, is both a challenge and a threat to the traditionalist because [i]t shows people that their own form of life is not as absolute as they thought it was, and this makes them feel uncertain. . . . However, if one labels the Other as nihilistic without ever entering into a dialogue, one may become myopic, dismissing the relative value of other life forms one chooses not to see. This means that one cant see what they [other cultural groups]are doing, and why they are doing it, why they may be successful . . . Therefore, one misses the dynamics of cultural change.

Through the effect of labelling, the religious-oriented could claim that nihilists, and thus atheists by affiliation, would not feel bound by moral norms, and as a result would lose the sense that life has meaning and therefore tend toward despair and suicide.death of God. Christians argued that if there is no divine lawmaker, moral law would become interpretative, contested, and situational. The end result: [E]ach man will tend to become a law unto himself. If God does not exist to choose for the individual, the individual will assume the former prerogative of God and choose for himself. It was this kind of thinking that led perfectionists to assume that any challenge to the Absolute automatically meant moral indifference, moral relativism, and moral chaos. Put simply,nihilists were the enemy.

Nihilists were accused of rejecting ultimate values, embracing instead an all values are equal mentalitybasically, anything goes. And like Islam today, nihilists would become easy scapegoats.

Late 19th 20th Century;Nietzsche and the Death of God

Friedrich Nietzsche is still the most prestigious theorist of nihilism. Influenced by Christianitys dominant orthodoxy in the nineteenth century, Nietzsche believed that the Christian religion was nihilism incarnate. Since Christian theology involved a metaphysical reversal of temporal reality and a belief in God that came from nothing, the Christian God became the deification of nothingness, the will to nothingness pronounced holy. Nietzsche claimed that Christian metaphysics became an impediment to life-affirmation. Nietzsche explains: If one shifts the centre of gravity of life out of life into the Beyondinto nothingnessone has deprived life of its centre of gravity . . . So to live that there is no longer any meaning in living:that now becomes the meaning of life.What Nietzsche rejected more was the belief that one could create a totalizing system to explain all truths. In other words, he repudiated any religion or dogma that attempted to show how the entire body of knowledge [could]be derived from a small set of fundamental, self-evident propositions(i.e., stewardship). Nietzsche felt that we do not have the slightest right to posit a beyond or an it-self of things that is divine or the embodiment of morality.

Without God as a foundation for absolute values, all absolute values are deemed suspect (hence the birth of postmodernism). For Nietzsche, this literally meant that the belief in the Christian god ha[d]become unworthy of belief.This transition from the highest values to the death of God was not going to be a quick one; in fact, the comfort provided by an absolute divinity could potentially sustain its existence for millennia. Nietzsche elaborates: God is dead; but given the way of men, there may still be caves for thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown.And wewe still have to vanquish his shadow too.

We are left then with a dilemma: Either we abandon our reverences for the highest values and subsist, or we maintain our dependency on absolutes at the cost of our own non-absolutist reality. For Nietzsche, the second option was pure nothingness: So we can abolish either our reverences or ourselves. The latter constitutes nihilism. All one is left with are contested, situational value judgements, and these are resolved in the human arena.

One can still embrace pessimism, believing that without some form of an absolute, our existence in this world will take a turn for the worse. To avoid the trappings of pessimism and passivity, Nietzsche sought a solution to such nihilistic despair through the re-evaluation of the dominant, life-negating values. This makes Nietzsche an perspectivism a philosophy of resolution in the form of life-affirmation. It moves past despair toward a transformative stage in which new values are posited to replace the old table of values. As Reginster acknowledges, one should regard the affirmation of life as Nietzsches defining philosophical achievement. What this implies is a substantive demand to live according to a constant re-evaluation of values. By taking full responsibility for this task, humankind engages in the eternal recurrence, a recurrence of life-affirming values based on acceptance of becoming and the impermanence of values. Value formation is both fluid and cyclical.

Late-20th Century 21st Century;The Pessimism of the Post-9/11 Era

Since the events of September 11, 2001, nihilism has returned with a vengeance to scholarly literature; however, it is being discussed in almost exclusively negative terms. The labelling origin of nihilism has taken on new life in a context of suicide bombings, Islamophobia, and neoconservative rhetoric. For instance, Canadian Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff described different shades of negative nihilismtragic, cynical, and fanaticalin his bookThe Lesser Evil.Tragic nihilism begins from a foundation of noble, political intentions, but eventually this ethic of restraint spirals toward violence as the only end(i.e., Vietnam). Two sides of an armed struggle may begin with high ideals and place limitations on their means to achieve viable political goals, but such noble ends eventually become lost in all the carnage. Agents of a democratic state may find themselves driven by the horror of terror to torture, to assassinate, to kill innocent civilians, all in the name of rights and democracy. As Ignateiff states, they slip from the lesser evil [legitimate use of force]to the greater [violence as an end in itself].

However,cynical nihilism is even more narcissistic. In this case, violence does not begin as a means to noble goals. Instead, [i]t is used, from the beginning, in the service of cynical or self-serving [ends]. The term denotes narcissistic prejudice because it justifies the commission of violence for the sake of personal aggrandizement, immortality, fame, or power rather than as a means to a genuinely political end, like revolution [for social justice]or the liberation of a people.Cynical nihilists were never threatened in any legitimate way. Their own vanity, ego, greed, or need to control others drove them to commit violence against innocent civilians (e.g., Saddam Hussein in Kuwait or Bush in Iraq).

Finally,fanatical nihilism does not suffer from a belief in nothing. In actuality, this type of nihilism is dangerous because one believes in too much. What fanatical nihilism does involve is a form of conviction so intense, a devotion so blind, that it becomes impossible to see that violence necessarily betrays the ends that conviction seeks to achieve. The fanatical use of ideology to justify atrocity negates any consideration of the human cost of such fundamentalism. As a result, nihilism becomes willed indifference to the human agents sacrificed on the alter of principle. . . . Here nihilism is not a belief in nothing at all; it is, rather, the belief that nothing about particular groups of human beings matters enough to require minimizing harm to them.Fanatical nihilism is also important to understand because many of the justifications are religious. States Ignatieff:

From a human rights standpoint, the claim that such inhumanity can be divinely inspired is a piece of nihilism, an inhuman devaluation of the respect owed to all persons, and moreover a piece of hubris, since, by definition, human beings have no access to divine intentions, whatever they may be.

Positive Nihilism In the twenty-first century, humankind is searching for a philosophy to counter destructive, non-pragmatic forms of nihilism. As a middle path,positive nihilism accentuates life-affirmation through a widening of dialogue. Positively stated: [The Philosopher] . . ., having rejected the currently dominant values, must raise other values, by virtue of which life and the universe cannot only be justified but also become endearing and valuable. Rejecting any unworkable table of values, humankind now erects another table with a new ranking of values and new ideals of humanity, society, and state.Positive nihilismin both its rejection of absolute truths and its acceptance of contextual truthsis life-affirming since small-t truths are the best mere mortals can hope to accomplish. Human beings can reach for higher truths; they just do not have the totalizing knowledge required for Absolute Truth. In other words, we are not God, but we are still attempting to be God on a good day. We still need valuesin other words, we are not moral nihilists or absolutistsbut we realize that the human condition is malleable. Values come and go, and we have to be ready to bend them in the right direction in the moment moral courage requires it.

Nihilism does not have to be a dangerous or negative philosophy; it can be a philosophy of freedom. Basically, the entire purpose of positive nihilism is to transform values that no longer work and replace them with values that do. By aiding in a process that finds meaningful values through negotiation,positive nihilism prevents the exclusionary effect of perfectionism, the deceit of nihilistic labelling, as well as the senseless violence of fanatical nihilism. It is at this point that nihilism can enter its life-affirming stage and become a compliment to pluralism, multiculturalism, and the roots of religion, those being love, charity, and compassion.

Source; Professor Stuart Chambers.

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Religion and Nihilism - The African Perspective Magazine

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