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Archive for December, 2016

Cheers to you, my blog readers!  Here are a few suggested resolutions for 2017:
1)  Give of yourselves…
2)  Love others (and tell them / show them often)…
3)  Enjoy long walks (preferably while holding someone’s hand), nutritious food and candle-lit meals, good reading, music which touches your soul, and quiet moments for reflection…
4)  Laugh frequently and loudly…  Cry freely and unashamed when you must…
5)  Look forward (Hope), while living in the moment (Enjoy), and not forgetting the past (Memories)…
May you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2017!
Please have a happy (and safe) New Year’s Eve!
[Yes, this is a similar post to many of my earlier New Year’s Eve suggestions.  And, no, I’m not just being lazy!  LOL    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Best Wishes For 2022!
A Toast To Innocence
2020 Best Wishes For 2021!
Tomorrow Starts A New Year
2019 Best Wishes For 2020!
World Views: End Of 2019
2018 Best Wishes For 2019!
2017 Best Wishes For 2018!
2016 Best Wishes For 2017!
2015 Better Red Than Dead
Tomorrow Starts A New Year
2014 Recovering
Best Wishes For 2015!
2013 Best Wishes For 2014!
2012 My Creed
2011 It Probably Isn’t So

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It is frequently a misfortune to have very brilliant men in charge of affairs;  they expect too much of ordinary men.
     —    Thucydides
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On This Day In:
2021 Let Yourself Soar In 2022
Where You’re Concerned
2020 The Most Dynamic Link
Looking Forward To 2021
2019 A Proud Assertion
2018 Ask #45 About Anything
2017 Playing Makes Sense
2016 And Fathers, Sons
2015 My Suspect Confidence
2014 Disguised Blessings
2013 Be
2012 The Only Way to Win
2011 Honest Writing

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It usually takes a big man to delegate responsibilities to others – and then leave these others to handle them.  He will install a man, give him a free hand and watch results.  He does not actively supervise his men, but he does – actively and minutely – supervise the results.  The man afraid to deputize will retard growth – his own and that of his organization.
     —     B. C. Forbes
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On This Day In:
2021 I Hope To See You Later
To Do With You
2020 More Than Satisfying Hunger
End Of Year Thoughts Of Those Gone Before Us
2019 Still Hoping To Soar
2018 Why America Stinks More Than It Did 50 Years Ago
2017 No Universal Thinking
2016 Supervise The Results
2015 Just Magic!
2014 It Lies Ahead…
2013 At Least One Difference
2012 Are We, Are We?
On Not Playing The Game
Scale
2011 Nutcracker And Nooks
Seeing Differences

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A leader is best when he is neither seen nor heard, not so good when he is adored and glorified, worst when he is hated and despised.  But of a good leader, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, the people will say, “We did this ourselves.”
     —    Lao-Tzu
[If you elect an amoral con-man to be your President and he drives the country into deeper debt, continues to destroy the middle-class by transferring wealth to the top 1% and who engages in off-the-cuff twitter diplomacy, perhaps we should remind ourselves that “elections have consequences” and modify Lao-Tzu’s quote to:  “We did this TO ourselves.”    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Almost, But Not Quite
Just Messin’
2020 The Definition Of A Modern Republican Senator
#45 Has Got To Go
2019 Just Rewards
2018 Diet Resolutions For The New Year
Day 3: Late December Diet / Fast
2017 Daily, Mr. President, Daily
2016 We Did This
2015 I’m Talking To You
Forced (Again)
2014 We Are Not A Fearful Nation!
2013 Risking Truth
2012 Working On Reality
2011 Massive Contradictory Changes

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The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.
     —    Elbert Hubbard
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On This Day In:
2021 Someone Should Tell Senator Joe Manchin
One Of The Things We Need
2020 Boxing Day 2020
Fractal Branches
Advice For Sons, Too
2019 Almost Soulful Pleasure
2018 Cursive In The News
2017 Coffee Crunch
2016 Preparation
2015 Scarcely Asked
2014 They Resemble Us
2013 Both
2012 That’s Success!
2011 Losing At Dominoes
2010 1,001

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The implications of an unparsable machine language aren’t just philosophical.  For the past two decades, learning to code has been one of the surest routes to reliable employment — a fact not lost on all those parents enrolling their kids in after-school code academies.  But a world run by neurally networked deep-learning machines requires a different workforce.  Analysts have already started worrying about the impact of AI on the job market, as machines render old skills irrelevant.  Programmers might soon get a taste of what that feels like themselves.
 …
This explosion of indeterminacy has been a long time coming.  It’s not news that even simple algorithms can create unpredictable emergent behavior — an insight that goes back to chaos theory and random number generators.  Over the past few years, as networks have grown more intertwined and their functions more complex, code has come to seem more like an alien force, the ghosts in the machine ever more elusive and ungovernable.  Planes grounded for no reason.  Seemingly unpreventable flash crashes in the stock market.  Rolling blackouts.
These forces have led technologist Danny Hillis to declare the end of the age of Enlightenment, our centuries-long faith in logic, determinism, and control over nature.  Hillis says we’re shifting to what he calls the age of Entanglement.  “As our technological and institutional creations have become more complex, our relationship to them has changed,” he wrote in the Journal of Design and Science.  “Instead of being masters of our creations, we have learned to bargain with them, cajoling and guiding them in the general direction of our goals.  We have built our own jungle, and it has a life of its own.”  The rise of machine learning is the latest — and perhaps the last — step in this journey.
 …
To nerds of a certain bent, this all suggests a coming era in which we forfeit authority over our machines.  “One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand,” wrote Stephen Hawking — sentiments echoed by Elon Musk and Bill Gates, among others.  “Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.”
   —    Jason Tanz
From his article:  “The End Of Code
Appearing in the June 2016 issue of Wired Magazine
[Every 10 years or so we are cautioned about computers, the end of programming, Artificial Intelligence and “the end of code”.  And, as always, I am reminded of the quote:  “The survival value of human intelligence has never been satisfactorily demonstrated.”   —   Michael Crichton from his book:  “The Andromeda Strain“.   I guess we may see, sooner rather than later.   —   kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Live Well
Lately
2020 Every Touch Vibrates
When She Smiles
2019 Six Reasons Why #DumbDonald Will Always Be A Failure
2018 The Trouble With Bookstores
Another No Chew Diet
2017 Biased World View
2016 Control In The Age Of Entanglement
2015 Okay, Maybe Not Ceaseless
2014 Can Do
2013 Are You Helping?
2012 Inside All Truth Is A Vacuum
2011 So, Whom Are We Trying To Fool Then?

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santa-clause-sparkle-animation
You will find, as you look back upon your life, that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.
     —    Henry Drummond
[Merry Christmas to all… !!   —    kmab]
[The image was “borrowed” from one of the comments I’ve rec’d from a fellow blogger.  Please visit his site if you have a few minutes:  http://pacificparatrooper.wordpress.com/    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Christmas Wishes For 2021
This Simple Phrase
2020 Christmas Wishes For 2020
Best Wishes For All
2019 My Thoughts About The X-mas Turkey…
2018 Merry X-mas – 2018
2017 Focus On Christmas — 2017
2016 Merry X-mas – 2016
2015 Merry X-mas – 2015
2014 Merry X-mas – 2014
2013 Merry X-mas – 2013
2012 Merry Christmas – 2012
2011 I Have Seen

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The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes
    —    Donald J. Trump
President-elect, Twitter account December 22, 2016
How can we dispel the notion of some people that anyone will survive a nuclear war?
    —    Dr. Yevgeniy Chazov
Official physician to Leonid Brezhnev
Nuclear War…  When you’ve seen one, You’ve seen them all.
    —    Bumper sticker from the 1970’s
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On This Day In:
2021 Everything Good In You
Within Your Heart
2020 Keeping Christmas
What Will You Give?
2019 Looking Forward To Tomorrow (2019 Version)
2018 Not One Cent!
Looking Forward to Tomorrow
2017 Make Glad The Heart Of Childhood
2016 Sincerest Flattery
The President-elect: Making Spirits Bright
2015 What Are You Looking At?
2014 Ite, Missa Est
2013 I Hear Voices
2012 Positive Thoughts
Hope Works
2011 Look! Up In The Sky…
Humility Before The Unknowable

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Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
    —    James Baldwin
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On This Day In:
2021 Everything Good In You
Within Your Heart
2020 Keeping Christmas
What Will You Give?
2019 Looking Forward To Tomorrow (2019 Version)
2018 Not One Cent!
Looking Forward to Tomorrow
2017 Make Glad The Heart Of Childhood
2016 Sincerest Flattery
The President-elect: Making Spirits Bright
2015 What Are You Looking At?
2014 Ite, Missa Est
2013 I Hear Voices
2012 Positive Thoughts
Hope Works
2011 Look! Up In The Sky…
Humility Before The Unknowable

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Ever since our love for machines replaced the love we used to have for our fellow man, catastrophes proceed to increase.
    —    Man Ray
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On This Day In:
2021 And Still Don’t Understand
Unconditional
2020 I Hope She Keeps Laughing
Christmas Is Near
2019 Ruff Clean
2018 Sounds Like A Blog To Me
2017 My Fear For America
2016 Proceeding Still
2015 Seeing Rainbows
I Am A Runner
2014 The Law Of The Perversity Of Nature
2013 One Standard Deviation
2012 High Anxiety
2011 And I’m Taking Me There
2010 1,000

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Love must be given without thought of reciprocation.
     —    Frank Tyger
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On This Day In:
2021 Climate Change Is Already Raising Sea Levels
Running From You
2020 Speaking For Us
Tears Don’t Wash Away
2019 Foundational Pillar Of Civilized Discourse
2018 Seven Minutes. Not Six, Not Eight
2017 Falling Forward One Step At A Time
2016 And Without Expectation
2015 Just Do It
I Am A Runner
2014 Some Things I Learned (Mostly) In The Army:
2013 Who You Are
2012 Mine Stands
2011 Aversions

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The right of dissent, or, if you prefer, the right to be wrong, is surely fundamental to the existence of a democratic society.  That’s the right that went first in every nation that stumbled down the trail toward totalitarianism.
    —    Edward R. Murrow
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On This Day In:
2021 Being Constantly Great
Hopeful Realization
2020 Sapping Joy
Blew Out My Flip-Flop
Really Wheelie
2019 Word Up
2018 But Much Is Worth Learning
2017 Mr. President, About Global Warming
2016 Starting To Stumble
2015 Begin Combat
I Am A Runner
2014 Just Dig ‘N It, Why?
2013 Additions
The Object Of Instruction
2012 Telling Her
2011 On Torture

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The recurring discovery I made in each virtual world I entered was that although every one of these environments was fake, the experiences I had in them were genuine.  VR does two important things:  One, it generates an intense and convincing sense of what is generally called presence.  Virtual landscapes, virtual objects, and virtual characters seem to be there — a perception that is not so much a visual illusion as a gut feeling.  That’s magical.  But the second thing it does is more important.  The technology forces you to be present — in a way flatscreens do not — so that you gain authentic experiences, as authentic as in real life.  People remember VR experiences not as a memory of something they saw but as something that happened to them.
     —    Kevin Kelly
From his article:  “Hyper Vision
In the May 2016 issue of Wired Magazine
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On This Day In:
2021 If You Do Nothing About Climate Change
Standing By
2020 Each Over All
Rollin’ Along
2019 And Integrity For Today’s Elected Republicans
2018 A Faulty Start, Too
Honorable Resignation And Syria
2017 Beneath The Tree Of Wisdom
The Republican Rape Of The American Middle Class
2016 Something Authentic Happened
2015 Back On The Bricks
On, Rocinante!!
2014 Changing Frequently
2013 Trifles
2012 Simple, Ordinary And Wonderous
2011 Humane Writers

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One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men.  No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
    —    Elbert Hubbard
[Yet.   —   kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Most Likely Beast
Memories To Last A Lifetime
2020 Meet Unexpected Success
Sweet Love
2019 Curing With Salt
2018 A Politician With Skills
And / Or A Genuine Smile
2017 A Lone, Brave Voice…
2016 Job Security
2015 For I Have Always Lived Violently
2014 We Stand !! (I Stand With George)
Additional Requirements
2013 In The Present Day
2012 Feeling It
2011 Stretching Science

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A fellow who is always declaring he’s no fool usually has his suspicions.
    —    Wilson Mizner
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On This Day In:
2021 Bring In Peace
Glad I Found You
2020 And The Past Is Much Better Than It Used To Be Too
A Winter’s Day
2019 I Just Remember It As Fun
#45: IMPEACHED!!!
2018 Prediction: Morning Is Coming After A Long Night Of #LyingDonald
2017 While Congress Slept
2016 And A Fellow Who Insists On Telling Us He’s Smart?
2015 Curves Ahead
2014 Sitting?
2013 Misperceptions
2012 Essential Experience
2011 Lest We Forget Those Still In Harm’s Way
Sound Familiar?

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