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FANNIE MAE ANNOUNCES SPECIAL PROGRAM TO SUPPORT FLORIDA CONDO SALES
Lisa Magill; Becker & Poliakoff
Print EmailEDITED Fri, 16 April 2010 07:11:35 EDT
It has become increasingly difficult to obtain loans to purchase condominiums over the past two years. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA have all published eligibility guidelines that preclude borrowers from obtaining favorable loans to purchase condominiums if:
More than 15% of a condo project's units are more than 30 days delinquent on HOA dues. This was an existing guideline that is now being applied to new condo projects.
Fidelity insurance, ensuring that homeowner association funds are protected, must be in place in adequate amounts.
The borrower didn't obtain a condo-owners insurance policy unless the master policy provides interior unit coverage; coverage may not be less than 20% of the assessed value. A condo-owners policy, known as an HO-6 policy, covers personal property, personal liability, and the physical unit from the studs and in. Many policies also include special assessment coverage or the option to include a special assessment coverage rider.
More than 10% of a project is owned by a single entity.
More than 20% of a project consists of non-residential space; or
The association didn't have at least 10% of its budgeted income designated for replacement reserves and adequate funds budgeted for the insurance deductible.
However, on January 7, 2010, Fannie Mae announced it has appointed a team of employees to determine whether hundreds of condominium projects in Florida are entitled to relief from these guidelines.
Would like to learn more about this new development and what steps your community can take to improve mortgage options? Attend the CAI-SEFL Annual Day of Education and Exposition being held on January 30 at the Signature Grand in Davie, Florida. Fannie Mae's Senior Risk Manager, Joseph L. Minnich III, will deliver the keynote address. For the past six months Mr. Minnich has been working with the Florida Project team to develop a program to provide stability and liquidity to Florida Condominium Projects. He will explain the process and be available to answer questions. Don't miss it.
Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. - www.becker-poliakoff.com - is a commercial law firm with offices in Florida, in New York City, Nassau, Bahamas, and Prague, Czech Republic, plus affiliated offices in France and Israel. The firm provides legal services with respect to homeowner and community association law in addition to a variety of other legal service.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


First #365FeministSelfie of the year: "One-on-one with my girl"
Have you heard that the word 'selfie' was chosen as word of the year for 2013? Other articles, like on Jezebel, decried the narcissism in the selfie. When I saw that, I felt a little sheepish, being quite prone to Instagram selfies lately. But when I read this post over on Viva La Feminista, which I found via PhD in Parenting, I agreed more with Veronica than Jezebel. Selfies can be a feminist act, in the sense that you are making yourself visible. How often are women like us actually visible?
I have a few more questions for you. How many pictures of your children, your pets, your stuff, do you take in a year? A month? A week? How often do you include yourself in the shot? Think about why you don't. Is it because you're not wearing makeup? Maybe because you don't feel like you look good enough for a close up? You feel more comfortable behind the lens than in front of it? Why is that?
Though I post quite a few selfies, I often choose not to take photos of myself, or I take them & then don't share them because I don't feel that I look good enough, whatever that means. I'm struggling with body image issues since Bronte's birth, trying to love this new, larger me. So when I read about this project--taking a selfie every day for the entire year--it really resonated with me. Why don't I feel like I look good enough? Maybe because so many of the images I see are not of women like me. When was the last time you saw a nearly 40-year-old woman, un-botoxed, unphotoshopped bags under the eyes from chronic sleep deprivation, with a stretch-marked pot belly that's held babies in a magazine or on a website?
Yeah, I thought so. So let's become visible again. Let's take back the selfie from the duck face teenagers. Let's outnumber all those images of personal trained, cosmetic surgeried, photoshopped women with authentic images of ourselves. Let's turn the selfie into a feminist act. Here I am. Are you with me?
Go read Viva La Feminista's post about it if you haven't already. Post your selfies on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook & hashtag them #365feministselfie. I'm going to try to do it every day this year, but if that seems intimidating you don't have to--maybe weekly will work better for you? Looking forward to seeing your #365feministselfie!
I actually think the "selfie" is often unfairly maligned. Part of it comes from the years of people taking photos of themselves in virtually identical poses in bathroom mirrors (with the phone clearly visible) and posting them to Facebook. However, like you, I end up taking photos of myself with the kids because 1) the technology exists to do this and 2) there is often no one around to take photos.
I don't see it as narcissism, as I HATE the way I look in most of these photos. However, it is nice to have these moments with the little ones captured, as they grow up so quickly.
3) Ergo, I hate selfies.
This logic often informs people's taste in movies and music.
People also have all sorts of reasons why they hate all baby photos, but I no longer concern myself with that.
For the record, I love seeing your photos of yourself & L & B, so keep it up.
Thrilled to meet you thanks to #365feministselfie, and pretty surprised about how excited I am for this project - especially since I'm giving birth to my second daughter in a few weeks after a pregnancy that has not been all that self-care focused (walk, yoga, sleep....what? I have a business to run and a family to keep happy!). So, this is bound to be an interesting year personally but I totally agree that there's power in taking back representations of our faces and our bodies from the perfect myth of the media and daring to look and be looked at in all of our unkempt glory.


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Comics News Television
'Walking Dead' Season 3 Recap – Episode 16 'Welcome to the Tombs'!! Season Finale!!!
Apr 2, 2013 amc, robert kirkman, season 3, season finale, the walking dead, walking dead, welcome to the tombs, zombie, zombies
Misty Here….
What a great season finale of "The Walking Dead"! There is a lot to talk about between Rick vs the Governor, Carl vs. Rick and of course all the people that died. Lets get to it! The scene begins with a pulsating pupil of an eye. As the camera pulls out, you realize it is The Governors eye and that he is in the process of beating up someone. He is talking to the person about all the risks he took with killing the biters. A man replies that he was going to use them on whoever showed up. The Governor replied that he was and that eight of his men died. The Governor then takes another swing and the camera points to Milton taking the blow. The Governor states about how he kept him safe and feed. Milton replies with at as long as he turns the other way. Milton asks him what would his daughter think of the man he has become.
The Governor replied that she would be scared of him, but would still be alive. Milton asks if he killed Andrea. The scene changes to The Governor throwing Milton into the room with Andrea. She pleads for the Governor to stop this. The Governor plans to kill everyone in the prison. He sends Milton over to the table to retrieve the tools. Still weak, he drops them and picks all of them up but a pair of pliers. Milton brings them back and The Governor takes a knife off the tray. The Governor wants Milton to kill Andrea and will not let him leave the room until he does. Milton walks over to Andrea, spins around and lunges at the Governor. He misses and the Governor stabs him repeatedly in the gut. The Governor then leaves him for dead. He tells Milton that he will now turn and eat her. The final words to them are "In this life, you kill and you die; or you die and you kill"
In the prison, Carl and everyone else is packing and loading vehicles to leave. He is going through his stuff and he looks at a picture of him and his parents. He pulls out his dads star, puts that in his pocket, grabs his stuff and leaves. Carl walks towards the car and when Rick tries to talk to him, he yanks his arm away. Glen comments that he has never seen him this mad, even with Lori. Rick replies that he is still a kid and it is easy to forget. Rick then looks up and sees pregnant "Ghost Lori" again. Carol and Daryl talk about how Merle gave them a chance. Michonne tells Rick that she understands about thinking on the deal. Rick apologizes to her for it. Michonne thanks Rick for taking her in. Rick tells her that it is Carl that made the call and said that she was one of them.
The Governor and his troops are loading up to leave. He is yelling at them to remember the 8 people killed. He tells them that they are going to end this once and for all. Tyresse and Sasha stop him and tell him that they will not fight other people. They want to stay behind and watch the children. Tyresse says that when the Governor gets back and wants them gone then no hard feelings. The Governor hands him and machine gun and says thank you. The scene cuts to them driving up to the prison and shooting it up. They blow up the guard towers and mow down all the walkers in the fields. In the process of doing that, their truck with the machine gun gets stuck on the spikes. They drive into the inner portion of the prison and look around. Seeing no one, they pull open a door and enter into the prison. They see no one in the common area and no one in the cells. Hershel left out an open Bible and the Governor reads and discards it. In the common area, they hear noises coming from the tombs. The group goes down to check it out.
Milton is slumped on the floor dying. He tells Andrea about the pliers on the floor. She begins to reach to get them. She tells him that she is going to get them both out of there and that he is going to be ok. Milton tells her that she is going to get out of the chains and then stab him in the head. He tells her to keep trying.
The Governor and his group are exploring the tombs. They can still hear noises down below. The scene changes to Tyresse and Sasha in the room with the kids. They talk about possibly having to slip out before the Governor comes back. The scene changes to Andrea still trying to get the pliers. Milton is still alive. He asks her why she still stayed when she found out about everyone. She tells him that she wanted to save everyone and have no one die. Milton says that he is still there and still alive. He then tells that she needs to hurry. Andrea kicks off her boots and begins to try to pick up the pliers.
The Governor and his group walk into a trap. They ignite small explosions and cause the alarm to go off. As they are all running out of the prison, Maggie and Glen (in riot armour) begin to fire on them from the breezeway. Glen, Beth and Hershel are watching from the woods. The people from Woodbury run into their vehicles and drive away. Glen and Maggie smile and say we did it. Jody, from Woodbury, is running in the woods and run up Hershel and Carl. Hershel tells Jody to drop the weapon. Jody begin to hand the gun over to Carl and Carl shoots him in the head. Hershel watches in horror. Carl is in shock.
Rick and his group regroup in at the prison gate. Daryl and Michonne wants to go after them. Maggie says that they barely made it back alive. In the common room, Carl tells Rick that he wants to go to Woodbury. When Rick protests, Carl argues that he did his job in the woods. Carl tells him that Jody drew on the group and that he is going to Woodbury. When Carl walks away, Hershel tells Rick that Carl shot Jody for no reason. Rick started to argue but Hershel got his point across.
The Governor pulls ahead of his convoy and yells at them to pull over. The convoy pulls over and everyone gets out. The Governor is shouting that they need to continue fighting and the people are saying no. Allen is the only one agreeing with the Governor. Karen is talking about how they are not soldiers and in that moment the Governor snaps. He begins shooting into the crowd. Allen draws on him and when he can't shoot, the Governor kills him. The Governor then goes into the field and begins to shoot the dead. The camera shows Karen under a body waiting. The Governor stops shooting, leaving a few bodies (including the one on Karen) and gets back into the truck. He motions for Martinez and a soldier to get in. They get in with some hesitation and the Governor drives away.
Andrea is still trying to get out of the chains. She continues to check on Milton to see if he is alive. She finally gets the pliers in her hand when the camera shows one of Miltons hands moving.
Rick, Michonne and Daryl are packing up to go to Woodbury. Rick goes and talks to Carl about him shooting Jody. Rick asks if he was handing the gun over. Carl is stating that he had just attacked them and he could not take a risk. Carl brings up not killing the walker that killed Dale. He tells Rick that he did not kill Andrew and that he came back and killed Lori. He states that he was in a room with the Governor and let him go, then he killed Merle. Carl said he did what he had to do and then tells Rick to go. Carl drops the sheriff star on the ground in front of Rick and walks away. Glen and Maggie tell Rick that they decide to stay. Rick and the group drive upon the convoy on the road. Daryl and Michonne kill the "new" walkers. Karen comes out of hiding in a truck and tells Rick what happened.
Andrea is still in a chain when Milton comes back as a walker. She begins to frantically try to get herself out of the chains. Milton starts to walk towards her mouth opened. The scene shows the door to the room, but you can hear her yell and struggle. Then you hear some hitting noises and a thump.
It is now darkfall and Rick, Daryl, Michonne and Karen are walking up to the wall at Woodbury.Tyreese and Sasha begin to fire on them. There is a moment of cross fire when Karen yells out to Tyresse. He ask if she is ok and where the Governor is. She tells him that she is fine and that he fired on everyone and killed them all. He asks why she is with Rick and she says he saved her. Rick yells that they are coming out. Daryl looks at him like he is nuts. They come out while Tyresse and Sasha come out. Tyresse asked Rick while they were there. Rick says that they were coming to finish everything until they saw what had happened. He tells Tyresse that Andrea never made it to the prison and that she might be here. The scene changes to all of them looking for Andrea in a hallway. Daryl states that this is where they had Glen and Maggie and Tyresse is shocked that the Governor held people there. They come up to the door and see a pool of blood coming from behind it. Rick kicks open the door and you see a dead Milton and Andrea against the wall. Michonne runs to her and comments how she is burning up. Andrea then pulls back her jacket and shows bite marks. Andrea asks about everyone and Rick lies and tell her that everyone is ok. Andrea says how happy she is that Michonne hooked up with Rick. She comments on how nobody can make it alone out there and Daryl says that he never could. Andrea states how she did not want anyone to die. Andrea wants to shoot herself while she still can. Rick giver her a gun and Michonne stays behind while everyone steps out. Andrea last words were "I tried". The camera pulls away and show Daryl, Tyresse and Rick sitting and you hear a gunshot.
The sun is coming up over the prison. You see Daryl, a truck and a bus driving up into the prison. Everyone comes out of the prison to see what is going on. Tyresse is helping people off the bus and Carl asks Rick what is going on. Rick tells Carl that they are going to join them and Carl shakes his head and walks off. Rick looks up to see if Lori is there and she is not. Rick smiles and looks down. The last shot is the cross over Lori's grave.
I was not shocked at the death of Milton and Andrea. I was, however, saddened by the death of Milton. I knew after Merle was killed that there would be others that would lose their lives for the greater good. I am very glad that Tyresse and Sasha stood up for what was right and joined Ricks group. I think bringing the people back to the prison was a good idea. I wonder how the dynamic will now be in the prison. I hope they packed enough supplies to make it through another attack. We all know the Governor will be coming back. I am not sure how the storyline in the graphic novel pans out, but I am definitely looking forward to it. The most interesting storyline that has coming out of this is the issue friction between Carl and Rick. I know that Carl is the child in this, but remember that he has grown up in this world and has matured well beyond his years. This season ended with Rick coming back to reality. I know that he will be able to handle Carl. Season four will be promising with all the change up in production and writing. I will see you in October.
-Misty
Television Review: DirecTV's "Rogue"
Pixar's Next Project Will Be 'Finding Dory', The Sequel to 'Finding Nemo'!!!


The first pocket square dates back to ancient Egypt, but King Richard II of England is the gentleman credited for this debonair invention. Furthermore, they are back completing those 2 piece suits as they once did. Of course, we have our favorites at the moment.
A current favorite of television anchormen.
Styling the pocket square this way gives you a colorful hem.
Styling the pocket square this way emphasizes your casual suave.


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Souterrain is een hoorspel van Ankie Peypers. De NCRV zond het uit op zondag 14 januari 1973. De regisseur was Wim Paauw. De uitzending duurde 38 minuten.

Rolbezetting

Hein Boele (J.S., een jonge toneelschrijver)
Corry van der Linden (Janet, zijn vrouw)
Hans Veerman (O.S., hun vriend)
Bob Verstraete (een man)

Inhoud

In dit spel is een jonge toneelschrijver op zoek naar de werkelijkheid. Hij probeert er achter te komen door er over te schrijven. "De werkelijkheid, dat is een onstilbare, veerkrachtige vervalsing. Niet onder te krijgen." Hij probeert zijn werkelijkheid te vergelijken met de werkelijkheid van zijn vrouw Janet en zijn vriend. Gemeenschappelijke herinneringen moeten werkelijk zijn. Hij poogt aan de hand van zijn gegevens een stuk te schrijven en begint consequent: "Alle personen die in dit stuk voorkomen, zijn even werkelijk als de werkelijkheid." Maar na verloop van tijd weet hij zelf niet meer wat hij met "werkelijkheid" bedoelt. Ieder mens heeft immers zijn eigen werkelijkheid, afhankelijk van zijn verleden en zijn houding ten opzichte van dat verleden…

Hoorspel van de NCRV

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Scallops and Marinara Sauce on Spinach Fettuccine the Editors of Publications International, Ltd.
Quick-cooking scallops require no preparation. They are high in protein and low in fat–a perfect combination.
*Thai chili paste is available at some larger supermarkets and at Oriental markets.
For Marinara Sauce, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in saucepan over medium heat until hot. Add onion. Cook and stir 3 minutes or until onion is soft. Add mushrooms, pepper, tomatoes and chili paste. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cook fettuccine according to package directions, omitting salt. Drain; keep warm. Meanwhile, heat remaining 2 teaspoons olive oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Add scallops. Cook and stir 4 minutes or until scallops are opaque.
Divide spinach fettuccine among serving plates. Top with marinara sauce and scallops. Sprinkle with Parmesan and chives.


Six more blocks are done, and this is my progress so far. Not too many more to go.
Not much to report this week. I have been reading a really good book, "Daisy Jones and The Six", a story loosely based on the rock band Fleetwood Mac. It is really engrossing, and if you grew up with the music of the 70's you might enjoy it too. Even if you didn't, the book is well done. The format of the novel is as if it is one long Rolling Stone magazine interview about the band and the life they all led back in the day. Kind of fascinating. It had me listening to Fleetwood Mac songs all day and seeing the (previously to me) tension between Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham.
The book has been getting a lot of press lately, well deserved.


1 Pinterest Tactics for Business For free!
1 Beginners Guide to Pinterest (PLR) For free!
It's time to build and strengthen your business brand personality and create an experience that people will want to come back to. You'll learn strategies you can use starting today that will bring you closer to your end goal.
In this video, you'll be given a quick overview of the system so you know what to expect ahead of time. By understanding not only how things work, but how we will use them effectively, it gives you the ability to speed the process up faster. You'll learn Pinterest's general system and how it differs from other social media sites.
Before you start any system, you need to be aware of certain rules that Pinterest has and how to start off with the right foot forward. You'll learn these things in this video, as well as the common mistakes people make. This video will help you set yourself up for success, and avoid certain things that will set you up for failure.
What is your goal? Who is your audience? What similar interests do they have? Before you start creating Pinterest boards, following other users and using the strategies within this system, please wait. Similar to the previous video, you'll want to start off with the right foot forward. In this case, you will want to understand who your target market is so that you can target them. This video will teach you just that - and much more.
Just like any other system, knowing what keywords your audience is typing into Pinterest are vital to your success. In this video, we will discuss how to effectively use keywords and hash tags in your Pinterest pins so that you attract the right type of person. You'll also learn how to properly include your links in your profile.
Now that you know what to avoid and how to start off right, it's time to start setting up, and moving your company or website on Pinterest forward. While you will learn the basics, you will also learn how to get people to follow you, comment on your pins, and interact with you. If you can get someone to simply interact with you, these mini-transactions can eventually lead to a specific action you desire.
In this video, you will learn how to correctly use the Pin-it button on your website. You'll see step by step how to it properly, so you don't need to worry if you are not a technical whiz.
Pinterest has been found to be an efficient way to attract potential customers and generate traffic to your business site.
Learn some helpful tips on how to represent your company on Pinterest.
What Everyone Should Know About Generating Tons Of Profits Via The Latest Social Network.


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Waiting for Steven Pinker's Enlightenment
Books & the Arts
April 2, 2018, Issue
The PowerPoint Philosophe
Waiting for Steven Pinker's enlightenment.
By David A. Bell
Illustration by Tim Robinson.
Is Steven Pinker a modern Enlightenment philosophe? In some ways, the comparison seems reasonable. Like the French philosophes, but unlike most contemporary intellectuals, Pinker writes with enthusiasm about a wide range of human knowledge, from the humanities to the social sciences to physics and biology. He is himself an eminent experimental psychologist. Like the philosophes, but again unlike most contemporary intellectuals, he knows how to appeal to a broad general audience. Enlightenment Now is only the most recent of his best sellers, following on the heels of his defense of evolutionary psychology in The Blank Slate and his argument that we are witnessing a centuries-long decrease of human violence in The Better Angels of Our Nature.1
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
By Steven Pinker
But as Enlightenment Now clearly shows, Steven Pinker is no philosophe. The great writers of the Enlightenment, contrary to the way they are often caricatured, were mostly skeptics at heart. They had a taste for irony, an appreciation of paradox, and took delight in wit. They appreciated complexity, rarely shied away from difficulty, and generally had a deep respect for the learning of those who had preceded them.2
Enlightenment Now has few of these qualities. It is a dogmatic book that offers an oversimplified, excessively optimistic vision of human history and a starkly technocratic prescription for the human future. It also gives readers the spectacle of a professor at one of the world's great universities treating serious thinkers with populist contempt. The genre it most closely resembles, with its breezy style, bite-size chapters, and impressive visuals, is not 18th-century philosophie so much as a genre in which Pinker has had copious experience: the TED Talk (although in this case, judging by the book's audio version, a TED Talk that lasts 20 hours).3
Like a TED Talk, Enlightenment Now is easy to summarize. Despite all the doom and gloom bandied about today, Pinker argues, things are good—in fact, the best they've ever been. More specifically, human beings today lead longer, safer, healthier, wealthier, and indeed happier lives than at any point in recorded history, and they do so thanks to the Enlightenment. The nay-saying that is so prevalent in our culture is simply an error, the product of cognitive biases compounded by the influence of foolish intellectuals and ignorant politicians.4
It is not entirely clear what Pinker means by "the Enlightenment." At one point he calls it "a cornucopia of ideas, some of them contradictory," but at another a coherent "project." He locates it in the last two-thirds of the 18th century but makes little reference to the actual thinkers and writers of the period. Instead, he points to four "themes" that he highlights in his book's subtitle: reason, science, humanism, and progress. Some of these terms he defines very broadly: Science is "the refining of reason to understand the world." But by "humanism" Pinker essentially means a rigid, Richard Dawkins–style atheism. He calls a belief in the existence of an immaterial soul "factually dubious and morally dangerous."5
But the book isn't really about such definitions. Pinker devotes two-thirds of Enlightenment Now to surveying the stupendous advancements that the human race has made in modern times according to a dizzying range of metrics: life expectancy, hate crimes, famine deaths, leisure time, nuclear proliferation, pollution, democracy, human rights, "liberal values," literacy, levels of extreme poverty, "life satisfaction," and much, much more. He previewed some of this material in The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), in which he argued that the world has seen a decline in violence and war, but now he's attempting to generalize about virtually all of modern existence, complete with more than six dozen charts to visualize his flood of data. "The Enlightenment has worked—perhaps the greatest story seldom told," Pinker proclaims. We still face many challenges, he continues, but if we trust scientific experts, we can overcome them.6
To be fair, Pinker is right that much good news today tends to be underreported, even unreported. Most Americans probably don't realize that rates of extreme poverty worldwide have fallen over the past few decades, along with the worldwide rates of battle deaths and deaths from infectious disease. Pinker is also right that many prominent observers in the past grossly underestimated the ability of the human race to extract more resources from the environment and grossly overestimated the odds of imminent apocalypse. He quotes, to comic effect, a long string of mid-20th-century Cassandras who confidently predicted that civilization would come to an end long before now thanks to nuclear war, overpopulation, or environmental catastrophe. (Of course, one could also point to a long string of intellectuals, from the Enlightenment onward, who predicted the imminent arrival of paradise upon earth—but no matter.) And he is right that even if some of the predicted disasters do come to pass, humanity will probably not be reduced to fighting for survival in a Mad Max–style dystopia. "Even Hiroshima continues to exist," he points out, though the statement is not quite as comforting as he seems to think.7
If Pinker had simply made these points, Enlightenment Now would have its uses. But he wraps his arguments up in such a thick layer of exaggeration and misinterpretation that the book does more harm than good. It makes use of selective data, dubious history, and, when all else fails, a contempt for "intellectuals" straight out of Breitbart. Pinker might not have intended the book to do so, but it will bolster the claims of populist politicians against intellectuals and movements for social justice while justifying misguided, coldhearted policy choices in the name of supposedly irrefutable scientific rationality.8
Let's start with the exaggerations. For all of Pinker's apparently exhaustive command of statistics, the situation of humanity is hardly as rosy as he claims. The number of refugees worldwide, for instance, has climbed vertiginously over the past few decades, and is now approaching levels not seen since World War II. Pinker dismisses concerns about rising economic inequality with the blithe assertion that inequality matters less than actual levels of income and comfort. He barely raises the question of what it might mean for a society to have the lion's share of its economic resources and power concentrated in a tiny number of super-wealthy hands. He acknowledges only in passing that real wages in the United States and many other economically advanced countries have stagnated for several decades, and he has even less to say about the increasing precariousness of employment for millions of workers.9
Pinker uses IQ tests—whose biases, especially with regard to data from the early 20th century, are well-known—to make this incredible statement: "An average person of 1910, if he or she had entered a time machine and materialized today, would be borderline retarded by our standards." He spends considerable time pronouncing about the state of contemporary democracy and liberalism, claiming that two-thirds of the world's population now lives in "free or relatively free societies." But he takes his data here from a source that gives Hungary and Poland perfect scores and counts Russia as more democratic than not. Most experts on Russia would argue that it has grown more repressive over the past two decades. The same is true of China, an even larger and more powerful country.10
But even if we grant that in many domains human life has indeed improved enormously over the past two centuries, there remains a simple question: Can we count on the progress continuing? What, for instance, about climate change? Pinker is no climate-change denier, and admits that "the challenge is daunting." But then he quickly pivots from his position that things are getting better and better to say that we can avoid the looming doom if only we start taxing carbon emissions, increase the use of nuclear power, and engage in deliberate climate engineering to lower global temperatures.11
He largely disregards the fact that the political will to move in any of these directions is wholly lacking and will remain so as long as the party that controls the White House and Congress refuses to admit that a problem even exists. When it comes to his favored technological solution, nuclear power, Pinker also seems determined to ignore the problem that the people who manage plants do not always follow their own safety procedures and cannot plan for every possible natural disaster (as Fukushima showed all too dramatically). The industry, he insists, has learned from its mistakes. But has it?12
Then there is the matter of Pinker's version of history. Why did the indisputable improvements of the past several centuries take place? What does it mean to attribute them to "the Enlightenment"? In his account of progress, Pinker singles out for particular praise the inventors of vaccines, the developers of chemical fertilizer (two of whom "saved the greatest number of lives in history, with 2.7 billion"), and the "unsung cadre of inventors, engineers, policy wonks and number-crunchers" who have made daily life safer. Occasionally he also invokes "paternalistic legislators" and "humanistic moral campaigns," and he gives a quick shout-out to Nobel Peace Prize winners like Malala Yousafzai. But when it comes to issues like "democracy" and "equal rights," Pinker seems to believe that progress has occurred almost by itself, as a result of whole populations spontaneously turning more enlightened and tolerant. "There really is a mysterious arc bending toward justice," he writes. Almost entirely absent from the 576 pages of Enlightenment Now are the social movements that for centuries fought for equal rights, an end to slavery, improved working conditions, a minimum wage, the right to organize, basic social protections, a cleaner environment, and a host of other progressive causes. The arc bending toward justice is no mystery: It bends because people force it to bend.13
Pinker's history is just as problematic when it comes to the Enlightenment itself. Since he does not engage in any serious analysis of Enlightenment authors, he avoids having to contend seriously with the awkward fact that by far the most popular of them, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, was a fierce critic of most forms of progress, and that Denis Diderot, the editor of its single most important publication, the Encyclopédie, had some pretty severe doubts about the subject as well (read his "Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville").14
Pinker might also have to concede that, especially outside of France, most Enlightenment thinkers did not oppose reason to religious faith, as his book implies. They certainly did not consider forms of belief "generators of delusions" or consider a belief in the existence of the soul dangerous. He might have to admit that it was not just brave atheists, but devout Christians, above all Quakers, who were among the first who organized to fight the most barbaric European practice of all, namely slavery.15
Historians know that there was in fact no single, monolithic "Enlightenment project," and that the Enlightenment can be generalized about only with great caution. Throwing this caution to the wind, Pinker has taken his own 21st-century values and projected them back onto the intellectual scene of the 18th century. He has described his work as an "evidence-based take on history," but by "evidence" he clearly means numerical data. Aren't books evidence as well?16
Meanwhile, Pinker fails to acknowledge how very closely his own radical optimism echoes some of the wilder—and more misguided—pronouncements about the human future from the Enlightenment itself. "The human species…is capable of…unbounded improvement…mankind in a later age are greatly superior to mankind in a former age." This is not Pinker, but Joseph Priestley, writing in 1771. "No bounds have been fixed to the improvement of the human faculties…the perfectibility of man is absolutely indefinite." This time, the words come from the Marquis de Condorcet, in 1793–94. Even as Rousseau denounced progress, and Diderot and Voltaire cast a skeptical eye toward it, many other philosophes confidently predicted the end of war, the eradication of disease, and the worldwide spread of liberty. That few of these things have been fully realized after more than two centuries should, perhaps, have given Pinker pause. So, too, should the enormous spread of imperialism, the exploitation of indigenous peoples around the globe, the slaughter of world wars, the Holocaust, atomic weapons, and anthropogenic climate change, all of which followed the Enlightenment. A few months after writing his paean to human perfectibility, Condorcet committed suicide in prison during the Reign of Terror.17
Pinker's problems with history are compounded even further as he tries to defend the Enlightenment against the many scholarly critics who have pointed, over the centuries, to some of its possible baleful consequences. Did Enlightenment forms of reasoning and scientific inquiry lie behind modern biological racism and eugenics? Behind the insistence that women do not have the mental capacity for full citizenship? Not at all, Pinker assures us. That was just a matter of bad science.18
Indeed, it was. But Pinker largely fails to deal with the inconvenient fact that, at the time, it was not so obviously bad science. The defenders of these repellent theories, used to justify manifold forms of oppression, were published in scientific journals and appealed to the same standards of reason and utility upheld by Pinker. "Science" did not by itself inevitably beget these theories, but it did provide a new language and new forms of reasoning to justify inequality and oppression and new ways of thinking about and categorizing natural phenomena that suggested to many an immutable hierarchy of human races, the sexes, and the able and disabled. The later disproving of these theories did not just come about because better science prevailed over worse science. It came about as well because of the moral and political activism that forced scientists to question data and conclusions they had largely taken for granted. Again, progress did not just occur because the ideals of the Enlightenment mysteriously percolated out through society. It occurred because men and women fought, and sometimes died, for progressive moral values.19
It is the critics of science who most greatly annoy Pinker, and they drive him to the sort of populist anti-intellectualism more usually found on Fox News than at Harvard University. "Intellectuals hate progress," he declares, apparently forgetting about the many generations of socialist and liberal intellectuals who could more easily be accused of fetishizing it. "A loathing of industry has been a sacred value of…literary intellectuals," he continues, disregarding those many writers and artists whose hearts leapt at the sight of Soviet smokestacks. And he repeatedly accuses "intellectuals" of treating the ideals of the Enlightenment "with indifference, skepticism, and sometimes contempt," as if a long, long tradition of intellectuals, from the 18th century to figures like Jürgen Habermas, had not devoted their careers to defending those ideals.20
But Pinker is not exactly reliable when it comes to the intellectuals and their ideas. He takes as his guide to intellectual pessimism a book titled The Idea of Decline in Western History by Arthur Herman, a far-right author whose most well-known book is a rapturously favorable biography of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Pinker credits Friedrich Nietzsche with the idea that "all statements are paradoxical" and that "works of art are tools of oppression," raising the question of whether he has actually read Nietzsche or just relied on the summaries by Herman and others. (He also dismisses Nietzsche as "repellent and incoherent.") Pinker rightly criticizes those who issue blanket condemnations of modern science without bothering to understand it. But he himself has not taken the trouble to understand serious and difficult writers like Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, since he lumps them together into the "disaster of postmodernism" and seems to think that their work can simply be reduced to a "relativist" denial of truth.21
It is true that intellectuals, like journalists, tend to pay more attention to bad news than to good. They do so in part, Pinker argues, because of a sort of cognitive malfunction. Here, he relies on the psychological concepts of "Availability bias" and "Negativity bias," which hold that people judge events to be more probable if more instances of them come to mind, and that negative events and ideas have a deeper psychological impact than positive ones. But this very strategy of Pinker's shows how greatly he has misconstrued what journalists and intellectuals actually do. One of their prime responsibilities, after all, is to identify problems, abuses, and threats, to help the public and policy-makers understand them, and to search for solutions. If one chemical factory dumps dangerous waste products into the water supply while a hundred others obey environmental regulations, it is not "Negativity bias" to give that one offender the lion's share of the coverage. And if this coverage then gives readers the impression that the problem is more widespread than it actually is, the "bias" might still have useful consequences. It might, for instance, encourage the formation of citizens' groups to monitor the chemical industry and prevent further abuses. Running a story proclaiming that 99 percent of the chemical factories are doing just fine, on the other hand, might just encourage some factories to start skimping on their own observance of regulations.22
Given Pinker's scorn for intellectuals and disregard of social movements, it is no surprise that his politics, and his hopes for the future, can best be summed up as technocratic neoliberalism. He puts his trust in free markets and the guidance of enlightened scientists and moguls (is it really a surprise that Bill Gates calls Enlightenment Now "my new favorite book of all time"?). Let the rich get very, very rich, as long as everyone else's income is rising, and don't worry about the power they may be accumulating in the process. And when it comes to public policy, trust an expert class that proclaims its allegiance to science and progress alone and believes it is beyond politics. "To make public discourse more rational," Pinker proclaims, "issues should be depoliticized as much as is feasible."23
The Other Foucault
Bruce Robbins
If protesters start to march and shout in the streets, calling for politicians to respect the will of the people, then what is called for is "effective training in critical thinking and cognitive debiasing" so the people will respect the will of the experts. And, Pinker continues, "When people with die-hard opinions on Obamacare or NAFTA are challenged to explain what those policies actually are, they soon realize that they don't know what they are talking about, and become more open to counterarguments." It's a revealing sentence. Why do people with "die-hard opinions" not know what they are talking about? Are the "experts" always right?24
Enlightenment Now is not a book that deserves a wide readership, but much like Dan Brown's new novel, Origin, piles of it loom wherever books are sold. Oddly, Enlightenment Now has several points in common with Origin. They both, for instance, have long, windy passages musing about the relationship of the second law of thermodynamics to the meaning of life. Brown, riffing on the work of Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Jeremy England, proposes that life is "the inevitable result of entropy. Life is not the point of the universe. Life is simply what the universe creates and reproduces in order to dissipate energy." Pinker, alternately, believes that the "ultimate purpose of life" is "to deploy energy and knowledge to fight back the tide of entropy." The principal male characters in Origin are a wise Harvard professor and a farseeing tech mogul, and the climax is a TED Talk–like lecture in which the mogul reveals the destiny of the human race. But while Origin does little more than provide transient entertainment, Enlightenment Now may well have real influence.25
In a 2004 profile, Time magazine suggested that Steven Pinker "crystallizes an intellectual era." Fourteen years later, what Pinker has actually crystallized in books like Enlightenment Now is our anti-intellectual era, one in which data and code are all too often held to trump serious critical reasoning and the wealth of the humanistic tradition and of morally driven activism is dismissed in favor of supposedly impartial scientific and technological expertise. These attitudes in no sense stem from the great movement of thought of 18th-century Europe. They are not "progress," as the philosophes understood the term. The philosophes, in fact, would have condemned them. They are not enlightened. They are benighted.26
David A. BellDavid A. Bell is the Lapidus professor in the department of history at Princeton. His latest book, Men on Horseback: Charisma and Power in the Age of Revolutions, is forthcoming from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.


A major challenge in computational chemistry is the generation of novel molecular structures with desirable pharmacological and physiochemical properties. In this work, we investigate the potential use of autoencoder, a deep learning methodology, for de novo molecular design. Various generative autoencoders were used to map mole- cule structures into a continuous latent space and vice versa and their performance as structure generator was assessed.
Our results show that the latent space preserves chemical similarity principle and thus can be used for the generation of analogue structures. Furthermore, the latent space created by autoencoders were searched systematically to generate novel compounds with predicted activity against dopamine receptor type 2 and compounds similar to known active compounds not included in the trainings set were identified.


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Elmer "Moose" Vasko (* 11. Dezember 1935 in Duparquet, Québec; † 30. Oktober 1998 in Maywood, Illinois, USA) war ein kanadischer Eishockeyspieler, der im Verlauf seiner aktiven Karriere zwischen 1953 und 1970 unter anderem 864 Spiele für die Chicago Black Hawks und Minnesota North Stars in der National Hockey League auf der Position des Verteidigers bestritten hat. Mit den Black Hawks gewann Vasko im Jahr 1961 den Stanley Cup.

Karriere
Vasko, dessen Vorfahren slowakischer Herkunft waren, verbrachte seine Juniorenzeit zwischen 1953 und 1956 bei den St. Catharines Teepees in der Ontario Hockey Association. Mit dem Team nahm der Verteidiger 1954 am Memorial Cup teil, den die Teepees auch gewannen, nachdem sie zuvor bereits den J. Ross Robertson Cup in der OHA errungen hatten.

Nach der erfolgreichen Zeit im Juniorenbereich wurde Vasko zum Ende der Saison 1955/56 von den Buffalo Bisons aus der American Hockey League verpflichtet und debütierte im Profibereich. Zur folgenden Spielzeit stand er schließlich im Stammkader der Chicago Black Hawks aus der National Hockey League, dem er vorbehaltlos bis zu seinem Karriereende im Sommer 1966 angehörte. In den zehn Jahren in Diensten der Black Hawks entwickelte sich das Team mit Spielern wie Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita und Pierre Pilote, mit dem Vasko ein Verteidigerduo bildete, Jahr für Jahr zu einem ernsthaften Titelanwärter. Am Ende der Stanley-Cup-Playoffs 1961 gewann Chicago erstmals nach 23 Jahren wieder den Stanley Cup. Vasko, der gemeinsam mit Pilote eines der besten Abwehrduos der frühen 1960er-Jahre formte, wurde zudem in den Jahren 1963 und 1964 zweimal ins NHL Second All-Star Team berufen und nahm während seiner Zeit in Chicago dreimal am NHL All-Star Game teil.

Obgleich seines Rücktritts im Sommer 1966 gelang es Wren Blair, dem Cheftrainer und General Manager der Minnesota North Stars, den Abwehrspieler im Sommer 1967 zu einem Comeback zu überreden. Das neu in die NHL aufgenommene Franchise wählte den Kanadier daher im NHL Expansion Draft 1967 aus. Der inzwischen 31-Jährige verbrachte zwei Spielzeiten bei den North Stars, davon die zweite als Mannschaftskapitän und repräsentierte das Team in seinem vierten All-Star Game. Zum Ausklang seiner Karriere verbrachte er die Saison 1969/70 bei den Salt Lake Golden Eagles in der Western Hockey League.

Vasko erlag am 30. Oktober 1998 in Maywood, in der Nähe seiner Wahlheimat Chicago, im Alter von 62 Jahren einem Krebsleiden.

Erfolge und Auszeichnungen

Karrierestatistik

Weblinks

Eishockeyspieler (St. Catharines Teepees)
Eishockeyspieler (Buffalo Bisons, 1940–1970)
Eishockeyspieler (Chicago Blackhawks)
Eishockeyspieler (Minnesota North Stars)
Eishockeyspieler (Salt Lake Golden Eagles, WHL)
Stanley-Cup-Sieger
Kanadier
Geboren 1935
Gestorben 1998
Mann


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Antarctica Loses Grip
The European Space Agency (ESA) CryoSat mission revealed that, during the last seven years, Antarctica has lost an area of underwater ice the size of Greater London. This is because warm ocean water beneath the continent's floating margins is eating away at the ice attached to the seabed. Most Antarctic glaciers flow straight into the
Tuesday, March 20th, 2018
Far Northern Permafrost May Unleash Carbon Within Decades
Permafrost in the coldest northern Arctic—formerly thought to be at least temporarily shielded from global warming by its extreme environment—will thaw enough to become a permanent source of carbon to the atmosphere in this century, with the peak transition occurring in 40 to 60 years, according to a new NASA-led study. The study calculated that
USGS: Waterbirds at Risk in Chesapeake Bay
Manmade structures built along Chesapeake Bay shorelines to protect against sea-level rise, storm surge and erosion have been found to negatively impact waterbirds, according to a USGS study. In many coastal regions, shorelines are "armored" with wooden, concrete or steel bulkhead walls or riprap borders that consist of piles of large stones or boulders. Shoreline
White Paper Provides Insight on Atmospheric Methane's Impact on Global Warming
A new white paper developed by GTI's Center for Methane Research (CMR) addresses questions regarding the impact of atmospheric methane in global warming—technically identified as radiative forcing—and what role fossil fuels play. The paper integrates greenhouse gas radiative forcing data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with national and international annual greenhouse gas
Reducing the Footprint of a Greenhouse Gas More Potent than Carbon Dioxide
USC scientists have unlocked a new, more-efficient pathway for converting methane—a potent gas contributing to climate change—directly into basic chemicals for manufacturing plastics, agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. In research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, chemists at USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute say they have found a way to help utilize this abundant
2017 Was Third-Warmest Year on Record for United States
2017 will be remembered as a year of extremes for the United States as floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, fires and freezes claimed hundreds of lives and visited economic hardship upon the nation. Recovery from the ravages of three major Atlantic hurricanes making landfall in the U.S. and an extreme and ongoing wildfire season in the
Monday, January 8th, 2018
Federally Funded Study Calls for Agencies to Join Forces on Climate Change
NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) should join forces to track changes in Earth's temperature, according to a federally funded study on climate change. The three agencies should implement "a coordinated approach for their space-based environmental observations to further advance Earth science and applications for the next
Wet Winters May Not Dampen Small Wildfires
NASA scientists conducting research on the connection between fuel moisture and fires uncovered a paradox: a wet winter corresponds to more small wildfires in the following fire season, not fewer, as is commonly assumed. Large fires behave more "logically," with fewer large fires after a wet winter and more after a dry one. "This is
Can Smart Water Systems Prevent Wildfires?
Along with the larger forces of climate change, another contributing factor to the fierce wildfires in California has been the dry soil conditions. Light rainfall, combined with heavy use of aquifers by large farms, has created perfect conditions for an inferno. Stories of homeowners saving their homes by turning on sprinklers remotely are not as
Ardent Management Consulting to Donate up to 100 hours of Free GIS-based, Professional Aerial Imagery in Support of Fire Recovery Operations in Northern California
RESTON, Va. – Ardent Management Consulting (ArdentMC) has announced today that they have launched a drone initiative to offer free aid in wildfire ravaged areas of Northern California. The two-week initiative will aid in damage assessment in Napa through the use of GIS technology. Wild Fire Relief ArdentMC is dedicated to helping assess damage and restoring
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Finally I get this ebook, thanks for all these Unusual And Awesome Jobs Using Technology Roller Coaster Designer Space Robotics Engineer And More You Get Paid For That By Linda Leboutillier can get now!


We offer a rotating draught selection of 42 craft beers with a bias towards local, East Coast, brewers. However, some beers are just too good to resist, so you will find beers brewed from all over the country on our menu. We clean our draught lines regularly, constantly monitor the temperature of our keg rooms, and take great pride in machine washing our glassware thoroughly, in order to ensure that the taste of our draught beer is never compromised. For your convenience, we post our beer menu at beermenus.com and the list is always viewable from within our website. There is something for everyone on our beer menu, but we do welcome customer requests and suggestions.


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Google Continues to Archive Old Newspapers So We are not Doomed to Repeat
Sep 8, 2008 | News | 0 |
Google is continuing its effort to archive old newspapers to give us easy access to the days past. The scanning and archiving of newspapers has been something Google has been hard at work at for 2 years already. They have been working with the New York Times and the Washington post and are now expanding to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "the first newspaper West of the Allegheny Mountains, to the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph which has been in business for 244 years and makes it America's oldest paper to still be around.
The archive allows you to see the paper as it was intended whichc allows you to see the photographs, headlines, articles and even the advertisements. Google has posted an example of the moon landing in 1969 [Here]
[via Reuters]
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StumbleUpon Getting a Makeover, Dropping Toolbar
Palm Pre Syncs With iTunes, But How?
Apple Says Farewell & Good Riddance To DRM In iTunes, Adds 3G Downloads


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Michigan Man Remembers Life During WWII on 81st Anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Sophie Kephart
Sophie Kephart Published: December 7, 2022
TSM Media Center / Canva
Today marks the 81st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japan attacked the U.S. Naval Base in Hawaii, historically known as the entrance of the United States into World War II. Today, we honor and remember all of those who lost their lives during the attack.
As it has been 81 long years since this event occurred, there are few people still with us who remember what life was like at this pivotal time in American history. We spoke to one man who does remember, Husted Lynn, who was only four years old at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but still has vivid memories of this point in time.
His memories taught us a few things we did not know about mid-Michigan during World War II, for example, that the Owosso Speedway was a prisoner-of-war camp at that time.
Lynn was too young to fight in the war, but his older brothers, brother-in-law, and cousins did fight in the war. The following are his vivid memories of what was happening in his backyard, where he stayed home to tend his family's farm, while our country was at war. We invite you to share your own memories or family history associated with this day in the comments.
"Japan attacked Pearl Harbor there in Hawaii and World War II started for the USA 81 years ago. I remember it well, but I was only about four years old.
Edward, my eldest of five brothers, was the only one that was old enough to go in the military at the time and my brother-in-law Junior volunteered a little bit later. Junior actually ended up serving under General Patton. Even though we were too young to go into the military, we were ready to whoop ass! Anyway, a lot of my cousins also went into the military, the Navy, the army, and Marines.
Back then, it was hard to get tires for a vehicle. If you had a vehicle, people would put rags or sawdust in the tires so they could drive them because rubber at that time was for the military.
I remember the government would come around and confiscate chickens, hogs, and other livestock to feed the military. Sometimes they would only leave one rooster and maybe two hens for you to start off again. Sugar, coffee, lard all kinds of things like that were rationed. I still have some of my dad's ration books.
They even made a movie with the Little Rascals, an adaptation of Hal Roach's Our Gang short film comedy series, of kids collecting scrap metal and junk for the military. Back then, if you didn't want anything taken you put it under lock and key in your corn crib or your Smokehouse. You even had to watch your wire fence because people would come out at night time and cut the fence and steal it to sell it. If you had bigger families, you got more rations. A lot of families would trade ration stamps. We were very fortunate we lived on a farm because we could raise a lot of our food.
Just before my brother Edward got his draft notice, he had appendicitis and he got a deferment for 8 weeks and then they took him into the military and made a cook out of him when he was sent to Hawaii. His next stop would be North Africa, they already had issued those plastic goggles for the sand, but he was very fortunate—he did not see battle.
Pennies in 1943 went to steel as they used the copper for bullets.
I remember Joe said women's nylons were not made anymore so they could use the material for parachutes. Nylon was put on ration, so the women started shaving their legs and using eyebrow pencil to make a line up the back of their leg to make it look like they had nylons on.
And World War II we even sent troops over to Cambodia to protect China from Japan. Uncle Lionel was in the Marines and served in the South China Sea and then, when we got into the war with Germany, they would send German prisoners to POW camps all over the United States. We had one about five miles from us. Then after the war was over, they give the prisoners a choice: they could go back to Germany, or stay in the United States, and a lot of them became citizens. That's why the United States is made up of a lot of different nationalities.
This is all why people from my generation keep things so long. You get to thinking, "well, I might need that later!" I have to laugh now because I remember even you kids would come over to the house and say, "Dad if you got this or that…" and I'd go out and find it no charge!"
LOOK: 100 years of American military history
103 iconic photos that capture 103 years of world history
Stacker gathered some of the most iconic images from the past 103 years, beginning in 1918 and leading up to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Michigan Man Remembers Life During WWII on 81st Anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Filed Under: American History, history, interview, mid-michigan
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Like most of the virtual coins and altcoins, Ripple has been recording slight price losses throughout the last seven days. Although putting a spirited run, Ripple's prices failed to break the resistance level of 0.47 US dollars throughout the week, leading to its prices falling and revolving around 0.46 and 0.45 US dollars. Currently, XRP/USD is testing the 23 percent Fib level support taken between the highs and lows of 0.52 and 0.42 US dollar support levels respectively.
During the price depreciation, the price value broke below a connecting price surge line with support at 0.46 US dollars on the hourly chart of the Ripple US dollar pair. The XRP/USD pair settled below about the $0.46 support mark and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
Regarding the Fib retracement level, the pair settled at 61.8 percent from the 0.4375 US dollar low to the high of 0.47 US dollars. However, the 0.45 US dollar support level acted as a barricade for traders especially sellers. At present, Ripple's value is exchanging in a small range near the 0.45 price level, an increment from the previous support level of about 0.452 US dollars.
Over the years, Ripple has partnered and signed deals with influential financial players in the market gaining global recognition and appreciation for its growth. At present, Ripple has over 100 financial institutions and settlement providers on its portfolio of partners. Many other institutions and firms continue to show interest in adopting Ripple's (XRP) unique blockchain technology and solutions, thus positioning the digital coin on the advantageous ground.
However, according to research and market analysis, the price value of Ripple (XRP) does not reflect the growth in adoption that the virtual currency currently enjoys. The challenge has always been Bitcoin's (BTC) influence in the cryptocurrency markets that Ripple is a member.
However, this connection between Ripple and Bitcoin is going to cease. Bitcoin pairing is gradually falling with exchange listings gradually changing their ways of crypto trading leaning more towards altcoin-fiat pairing. As this emerging trend continues to gain momentum, more and more exchanges are following these footsteps creating a major blow to Bitcoin's dominance as the cryptocurrency of choice for crypto-to-crypto pairing.
On the other hand, the future looks uncertain for Bitcoin following one of the leading digital currency exchanges, Bittrex, revealing that it is focused on the introduction of fiat-crypto pairing issuing a problematic situation for the number one cryptocurrency in the world.
Bittrex is a major player and link in the cryptocurrency sphere as it has a wide customer base of over 3 million globally with a big percentage coming from the US, who are the largest beneficiaries of this progress at the moment.
The news of Ripple (XRP) disconnecting itself from Bitcoin is not the new one. This has been in the pipeline for a while, but present SBI holding activities have propelled this divorce. SBI Holdings intends to launch its very own Virtual Currency trading network that is going to incorporate Ripple as the only virtual currency on the platform's website.


These sweet slippers keep your little one warm and cozy…like being curled up with a real kitty! A flexible rubber sole makes for long-wearing comfort. These boot-style slippers feature grey faux suede on the outside and an incredibly soft faux sheepskin lining. The lovable cat faces feature striking pink details on the nose and ears, as well as real whiskers!
The item we ordered was of great quality. The shipment came fast than expected as well. The slippers are part of our grand daughter Halloween costume this year and she loves them.
Thanks for the fast turn around!


It turns out that exporting a motion tracked camera solve from Syntheyes to Blender and getting it working is quite easy – once you know what to do. Originally when I was trying to figure this out, the process was anything but clear. Now that I've put both together a Combined Arms Demo Video and Episode 6 of the Imperials, I'd like to share the process for anyone else trying to figure it out.
I do want to stress that this tutorial is just how to export from Syntheyes and get setup in Blender, it is not how to use either program in great detail and assumes that you have some prior knowledge of each.


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text:
A Poem to Mr Thomas Andrews - By Yvonne McIlree
One last chime of the clockIt stops, and time stands still…One last gather of my thoughtsI'm strong, with all my will…One last glance at my shipI fought, to keep her afloat…One last sound of the songI hear, with every note…One last drag of my smokeThat fl...
Lord Pirrie Book to Go on Public Display for First Time in a Decade
A book which hasn't been on display to the public in Northern Ireland for more than a decade will feature as one of the highlights of this year's Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival.The Lord Pirrie book, owned by Harland and Wolff, will be on display in the...
AFRIC BELL RETURNS TO HARLAND AND WOLFF
An enormous 80kg bronze forecastle bell from White Star liner, SS Afric, has been lent to Titanic Hotel Belfast for a limited time, where it will be on display during the summer. The bell makes its return journey to Harland & Wolff where the vessel wa...
Titanic Anniversary Marked in Titanic Quarter This Week
RMS Titanic sank on 15th April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg in the waters of the Atlantic. This week marks the loss of the Titanic 107 years ago. A series of events are taking place across Titanic Quarter to commemorate the tragedy. Titanic ...


SAMA hosted delegates from municipal governments and stakeholder groups at its 2016 Annual General Meeting at the Saskatoon Inn in Saskatoon on April 26, 2016. Once again this year, SAMA and the Ministry of Government Relations facilitated an Assessment and Taxation Training Session for local government administrators in conjunction with the Annual Meeting. Information provided at the Annual Meeting included a progress report from the CEO, plenary sessions discussing preliminary values for the upcoming 2017 revaluation, and an update on the Agency's technology innovations. This year's keynote speaker was John Gormley.


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- slip it under the bed.
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Rage Against The Machine Evil Empire 180g Import LP
Label: Music on Vinyl
MOVLPI017
Decrease Quantity of Rage Against The Machine Evil Empire 180g Import LP
Increase Quantity of Rage Against The Machine Evil Empire 180g Import LP
180 Gram Vinyl! Sophomore Album! Features "Bulls On Parade", "Down Rodeo" & More!!
While Run DMC and the Beastie Boys were rap groups who rocked, Rage Against The Machine were one of the earliest hard rock bands to rap. Tom Morello's distinctive guitar sound and vocalist Zack de la Rocha's messages of political and social consciousness came together to great effect, as RATM attained legendary status among 1990s alt-rock fans. The band released their second album Evil Empire (1996), debuting at No.1 in the Billboard charts.
"Lead vocalist Zack de la Rocha is caught halfway between the militant raps of Chuck D and the fanatical ravings of a street preacher, shouting out his simplistic, libertarian slogans over the sonically dense assault of the band... guitarist Tom Morello demonstrates an impressive palette of sound, creating new textures in heavy metal, which is quite difficult." - Stephen Thomas Erlewine, allmusic.com
"On a sonic level the band still anchors its sound in the music of Led Zeppelin and Red Hot Chili Peppers, but its horizons have widened, and it now incorporates influences like Fugazi and Helmet. Rage also have acquired a greater understanding of hip-hop and funk and have injected the techniques of artists such as Dr. Dre, Cypress Hill, and Sly and the Family Stone into their turbocharged rhythms. As a result, there's a greater synergy between the music and the message." - Jon Wiederhorn, Rolling Stone
• Audiophile 180g Vinyl
• Import
Zack de la Rocha, lead vocals
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Federal government finalizing plan to boost production of pandemic supplies
The federal government is finalizing a plan to boost production of ventilators and other medical equipment to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prime minister expected to make announcement Friday
Philip Ling · CBC News · Posted: Mar 19, 2020 7:48 PM ET | Last Updated: March 20, 2020
A hospital worker wears a mask during Toronto's SARS outbreak at North York General Hospital, on May 29, 2003. (Kevin Frayer/Canadian Press)
Senior government sources tell CBC News they're hoping to work with existing manufacturers — especially of gloves, masks and ventilators — on a supply chain that's resistant to disruption.
An announcement is expected from the prime minister on Friday, which will also encourage other industries to retool their production lines to make those products.
In addition, sources say, almost every program within the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development will be "refocused" on fighting the virus. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak publicly.
Major federal programs — such as the Strategic Innovation Fund, a pool of money set aside by Ottawa in 2017 to "spur innovation for a better Canada"; and the $950-million Innovation Superclusters Initiative — will be "tasked to be part of the solution," one source said.
WATCH | PM says military procurement could help produce medical equipment:
PM: Military procurement could help produce medical equipment
10 months agoVideo
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not rule anything out when it comes to ensuring Canadians have access to enough medical equipment, including using military procurement as a possible option. 0:47
The National Research Council of Canada, the country's primary research and development organization, will also be part of the response.
The goal, the source said, is "to fight COVID and help come up with a cure."
Ventilators in particular, could spell the difference between life and death for many patients with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus which can damage the lungs.
Canada's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam has said that while there is no current shortage of ventilators, federal officials are trying to prevent one by managing existing inventories and securing more of the machines — preparing for the possibility that the COVID-19 caseload could start overwhelming hospitals.
In a conference call with more than 300 Canadian business leaders on Thursday afternoon, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Navdeep Bains said he is looking at "how we use our current industrial capacity to … build some of those very essential pieces of equipment, from ventilators, to gloves, to gowns, to masks."
Federal cabinet considers leveraging military in mobilizing health manufacturing sector against COVID-19
No Indigenous community will be 'left behind' in COVID-19 response, says minister
Bains said he is "finalizing some of these details" with cabinet to fast-track procurement.
"Those are going to be critical for frontline health workers and how we deal with this crisis," he said on the call.
The World Health Organization warned last week of global shortages and price-gouging on ventilators and personal protective equipment, and urged companies and governments to increase production by 40 per cent.
Canada's automakers and aerospace manufacturers have recently been in talks with federal officials about stepping in to fill critical shortages of medical supplies.
Both the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association and Aerospace Industries Association of Canada said they have spoken to officials from Ottawa.
Meanwhile, high-end parka maker Canada Goose said it's in discussions about making medical gowns. Its retail stores and in-house production facilities are closed until at least March 31.
While working with companies already producing medical supplies is the preferred option, the sources say everything is "on the table."
But getting non-medical companies to produce unfamiliar, emergency medical equipment is no simple task. They face significant hurdles before they could build a complex piece of equipment like a ventilator, while other products need to be manufactured in a sterile environment.
Government expanding COVID-19 testing capacity and purchase of medical equipment, says federal health minister
It's not clear how long it would take for companies to reinvent themselves. Auto industry insiders say, for example, the process could take months for car companies.
In the United States, auto giants General Motors and Ford said they have been chatting with the Trump administration about making ventilators.
On Thursday, the prime minister said Canada might also use its military procurement policy to get medical equipment.
"We are considering using any measures necessary," Justin Trudeau said at a news conference outside his home. "We will, of course, look at military procurement as a solution as well."
With files from Vassy Kapelos, Rosemary Barton, David Cochrane
Canada's health sector at risk of cyberattacks as COVID-19 fear spreads: CSE
We won't know if social isolation is working for weeks, months: Tam
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After visiting several other places, Susan walked into The Village of Bedford Walk and her immediate thought was, "mother is going to love it here!" Now, several months later, Marjorie has settled in and is loving her life at The Village of Bedford Walk, while Susan and her family enjoy having her close.
Susan Williams, daughter of resident Marjorie Fleming, is a resident of Columbia, Missouri. She has spent the last few years talking with her mother, Marjorie, about moving to Columbia to be closer to her and her family. Marjorie had lived in the Kansas City area, in her own home, for close to 30 years. After much discussion, it was decided that Marjorie should relocate and the search for the perfect senior independent living home began.
My mother lives here at The Village of Bedford Walk. And she just liked the people everyone was very friendly and very nice. It just really fit her need. She really felt like this is the place she wanted to come.
The staff here is wonderful and that is what my mother comments on all the time to me. My mother tells me all the time, everyone is so nice, everyone is so friendly and it feels like family here.
I really see my mom getting out and having a lot of fun here and I think that has been one of the greatest things about her being here is watching her be involved because it used to be when she was at home she gets to the point she couldn't drive and she just wasn't getting out and interacting with people much. And now she gets a lot of great interaction.
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It's 3.00am now and I'm still awake merely to let my hair dry before I can go to bed. Nop…neither did I just came back from a late night movie nor clubbing nor just finished spring cleaning my house nor because of I just managed to settle down a crying baby. All because of the RAIN! Sometimes rain could be a blessing to us, sometimes rain can create disaster. This time is the latter!
There was a heavy downpour yesterday in the whole of Klang. Not too sure about other places. It started to rain at around 7.30pm. Getting heavier and heavier until at 10.00pm, the thunder alerted Darling's car alarm. Darling went down to check on his car. But suddenly, he called out for me and at the same time, my sis next door gave me a ring to check on my kitchen. So I went downstairs. The moment I saw my kitchen, it was flooding and the water was filling up almost 1 inch, reaching my living room.
Grabbing whatever cloth that was around, I tried to save the water from running up my living room. But the water speed was faster than me. The water ran underneath my staircase and everything there was wet. I can't be bothered of that anymore but to think of a way to prevent more water from coming into the kitchen. Luckily I have a sliding door in between the kitchen and living room so it helps a little. The water was coming thru the squatting toilet bowl and overflowed the bathroom then to my kitchen. The only thing I could do was to prevent more water from flowing in by scooping out the water. Sis even throw a sandbag into the toilet bowl to prevent more water from flowing out. The whole thing was so DRAMATIC. When situation were under controlled, we could still joke of it just to release our tension.
Surrounding the house, the water level was around knee high. The water only started to subside around 12.30am. It's still raining now but not that heavy. The whole housing area got affected. BIL almost got stucked in the middle of the road as everywhere was flooded. Our area is prone to flood but this is the worst in 6 years of my stay in this area. Some of my neighbours just watched the water flowing into their house as nothing much can be done to stop the water.
And now, all of us are suffering from backache, muscle pain, sore fingers and lack of sleep. Blame it on the rain!
p/s: Too busy with the scooping job so no time to take photos.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 3:00 am and is filed under Family News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
oh u poor thing.. is everything back to normal now?
oh dear.. hope everything is OK now.
i agree..a lot of work n cleaning to be done..also some repair work to prevent further banjir…..
Then came Uncle kimmy to the rescue. Your little rascal said, "Yea, My boat is saved".
OMG..really a big disaster !
omg! blame it on the poor drainage systems!!!
Julie, so now all the things in your living hall, for eg, sofa set, cupboard..all wet?
ohhhh…this just reminds me of my hometown's incident!
sure there will be a LOT of cleaning/repairing work to be done! arghhhhhhhhhh!
i'm so sorry to hear about this Julie, and i hope everything is well and ok by now and not much damage has been done!
what a shock to see water coming into your house! hope it's all dry again..
Merryn – No crocodile but got cockroaches.
Littlelamb – Yalor. Need to think of how to prevent the flood water from coming in.
Joanne – The water did not manage to go any further until the sofa area. But those boxes and stuff underneath my staircase all wet.
June – Not much of damage but the whole weekend spent in cleaning and housekeeping.
MC – Yeah, I was shocked the moment I see my kitchen floor was filled with water.
Oh, where do you stay? I thought you stay in PJ no?
My hubby told me about that..I was not in Klang last week….


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Review: CEBIT 2018
Autonomous Systems: Angela Merkel and Johanna Wanka accept the High-Tech Forum's report
Autonomous systems enable the development of self-driving cars, intelligent robots and interconnected infrastructures. Together with Reimund Neugebauer, Co-Chairman of the High-Tech Forum and President of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, acatech President Henning Kagermann handed over the report of the Expert Forum on Autonomous Systems to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal Minister for Education and Research Johanna Wanka during the CeBIT. The report analyses Germany's opportunities and also aims to initiate a social debate. Johanna Wanka announced a forward-looking project on this topic.
acatech president Henning Kagermann and Reimund Neugebauer, President of Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, hand over the report of the Expert Forum on Autonomous Systems to Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Minister for Education and Research Johanna Wanka
Autonomous Systems are able to make independent decisions and master increasingly complex tasks. Artificial Intelligence and the ability to learn make them autonomous. Autonomous systems present a core technology of the networked economy. They support humans at work and in their private everyday lives. Over 60 experts from science, industry and civil society developed implementation-oriented recommendations within the Expert Forum for Autonomous Systems. These have been received by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Federal Minister for Education and Research Johanna Wanka during their tour of CeBIT with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
On the occasion of the report handover Minister Wanka emphasised: "We have an excellent basis in Germany in research and also in industry concerning autonomous systems. We must make every effort to translate this into marketable products. For this purpose the Federal Ministry for Education and Research will be taking a close look at the Expert Forum's recommendations and launching a platform to quickly advance the work in this field with targeted measures. We will be setting up a forward-looking project on this topic shortly." Forward-looking projects of the Federal Government focus on societal and technological trends and formulate specific research and innovation policy models.
Why Germany would do well to develop autonomous systems
The report concludes that Germany's strength in the areas of artificial intelligence, industrial automation, sensor systems and mechatronics can make it a leading supplier of autonomous systems on the global market. The development of autonomous systems requires a modern, diverse industrial structure – a strength which Germany would bring with its flourishing small and medium-sized businesses and many other relevant suppliers. Even so, these businesses and start-ups need to be involved as early and comprehensively as possible.
Autonomous systems can promote good work but may also cost jobs. They can aid the transport system but also actually cause more traffic.
The Expert Forum on Autonomous Systems therefore advocates engaging in dialogue with society early on, saying: "Autonomous systems must prove themselves as providers of valuable, safe and reliable service to society. The autonomy of technology is always secondary to the autonomy of the human. We want to develop autonomous systems in Germany with this goal in mind and introduce their application to the economy," said Henning Kagermann, acatech President and Spokesperson of the Expert Forum on Autonomous Systems.
The Expert Forum recommends that the Federal Government include autonomous systems in the list of forward-looking projects. It will take a major national effort in the European context to position Germany as technology leader in the area of autonomous systems. This will require not only promoting key technologies but also establishing a legal framework which fosters innovation, and a dialogue with citizens in particular. After all, the moral and ethical aspects of the digital age must have a firm footing in our society", said Reimund Neugebauer, President of Fraunhofer and Co-chair of the High-Tech Forum.
The focus of the report by the Expert Forum on Autonomous Systems is on four key areas of application. Industrial production, road and rail transport, smart homes, and the use of autonomous systems in hostile environments were analysed with a view to the technological requirements, framework conditions and possible social challenges. Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), said: "In the future humans and autonomous systems will work hand in hand in teams where human and artificial intelligence complement each other. It is crucial that autonomous systems also steadily improve their capabilities through their machine learning.
Acatech and DFKI, in collaboration with the Deutsche Messe AG, exhibited some examples of networked autonomous systems from various fields of application at their booth at the CeBIT fair (Hall 12, Booth B63). An autonomous excavator machine, – a walking rover for space exploration, the control centre of an autonomous ship, intelligent assistant systems for rail systems, and the Franka robot, which is able to work without a cage. The Expert Forum on Autonomous Systems is one of eight expert forums in the Federal Government's High-Tech Forum. The innovation policy advisory committee consists of 20 high-ranking members from society, industry and science. The High-Tech Forum has monitored the implementation and further development of the High-Tech Strategy since early 2015. The Forum presented its findings to the Federal Government in May 2017.
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Yamada stretched his arms up in to the air, letting out a thunderous yawn. It had been a few weeks since he had been iin Konoha, and to be perfectly honest, the scenery was getting quite stale. Yamada looked around his dirty hotel room. The walls were filthy, there was mould on the ceiling, the bathroom stunk. He was living in a small box that the hotel called a room, with a lumpy excuse for a mattress sitting in the middle of the floor. It was time to do something for today, Yamada had been lazing around for the past few days and he needed some exercise.
Yamada thought back to his previous fight with Sarutobi Mitsuo. The guy leaked power, it was absolutely insane how fast he was. And then there was the sword, that flaming sword. Yamada knew that if he had been touched by that sword, his skin would not be where it was today. It would be in a charred mess, in the middle of Konoha's dense forest. Yamada somehow felt kind of drawn to this Sarutobi. He was a great shinobi. His power was insane. Yamada had spent long hours lying there, wondering if he could ever reach that level of power.
It was time to make money. Yamada was in desperate need of some ryo. He had been kicked out of the hotel after being unable to pay for 2 nights. THe audacity of it all. That shitpit, that absolute stinkhole, the disgusting excuse for a hotel, had kicked HIM out. Of the Honorable Konoha clan Aburame! Yamada cared little about this hotel. Once he was making good enough money he would be staying in decent establishments that would treat him like a human being, and accommodate him as such. Yamada grabbed his bags and head toward the mission board.
Yamada stared at the mission bored, a very uninterested look upon his face. There were very few missions upon the board. Train the Academy, punsih the students. These were all missions that Yamada had already taken, and hated. He did not want to go through all of this again. Yamada scanned the mission bored for any assignments that didnt involve babysitting bratty kids. Nope. Only B rank and above missions, and the Hokage would never let a genin level shinobi take it, let alone an outsider. This was real trouble for Yamada, either he took a nasty babysitting mission, or he got the heck out of Konoha. He let his eyes wonder, scanning for a moment, before he spied an announcement on the bulletin board.
"It is with great regret that the administrative board of Konoha announce that our honored Jounin, Sarutobi Mitsuo, has been Killed in Action. He was sent on a mission to kill a missing ninja and succeeded, however this came at the cost of his own life. Konohagakure has named him as an honored shinobi, and his name will be added to the monument. The funeral service for this great man and great ninja will be held in a few days"