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Pascal, the programming language he created in the early days of personal computing, offered a simpler alternative to other languages in use at the time.Dr. Wirth died of heart failure on Jan. 1, 2024 at his home in Zurich, his daughter Tina Wirth said. He was 89. He wasn’t nearly as well known as programmers such as Steve Wozniak, who founded Apple with Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft with Paul Allen. But to legions of computer scientists Dr. Wirth was one of the most influential and inspiring scientists of the early computer age. The Association for Computing...

Voevodsky’s friends remember him as constitutionally unable to compromise on the truth — a quality that led him to produce some of the most important mathematics of the 20th century. Vladimir Voevodsky at the Institute for Advanced Study in 2016. In math as in life, Vladimir Voevodsky played by his own rules. Voevodsky, a Russian-born mathematical prodigy, produced a string of daring insights in the 1990s that revolutionized one of the central fields of mathematics and established him at the pinnacle of his profession. His work continues to reverberate today. On Sept. 30, Voevodsky died in Princeton, New Jersey, at...

March 22, 2013, 10:22 pm GOP lawmaker seeks 'virtual Congress' with telecommuting plan By Jennifer Martinez Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) wants to create a "virtual Congress," where lawmakers would leverage videoconferencing and other remote work technology to conduct their daily duties in Washington from their home districts. Under a resolution Pearce introduced on Thursday, lawmakers would be able to hold hearings, debate and vote on legislation virtually from their district offices. While Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer may have recently nixed the Web company's work-from-home policy to boost its performance, Pearce believes a remote work arrangement may benefit Congress and make...

Author Iain Banks has died aged 59, June 10, 2013, two months after announcing he had terminal cancer, his family has said. Banks, who was born in Dunfermline, Fife, revealed in April he had gall bladder cancer and was unlikely to live for more than a year. Banks was the author of a remarkable range of books, most notably his Culture series. He was noted for his wildly imaginative themes, his dark and often savagely funny sense of humor and his wry outlook on the foibles of human nature. He will be missed

It was unbelievable: As soon as Newt Gingrich failed to win both Alabama and Mississippi in the GOP race for president, most members of the mainstream media and political strategists with whom I talked readily admitted, off the record, that he was the most qualified among the Republican candidates to serve as president. Now these are objective pros that have been around presidential politics for years. I have no doubt they were telling me the truth because these folks only tell you this stuff when it is relatively clear that the candidate is no longer a viable alternative. The Gingrich...

One of the reasons to be skeptical that Rick Santorum could win the Republican nomination is that we now have a pretty good idea of how the vote will play out from state to state — and the coalition that he is building seems short of a majority. It is not that Mr. Santorum’s delegate deficit is mathematically insurmountable. But he’s behind, and he is very unlikely to win states like New Jersey and California that either have a lot of delegates or use winner-take-all rules to award them. That might not leave enough fertile opportunities for him to gain...

As a card-carrying member of the media elite, it’s hard for me to say something nice about Newt Gingrich. But here it is: He doesn’t wear blue jeans in public. [SNIP of SNARK due to excerpt limit] For many Republican primary voters, the only thing worse than a regular elite is an intellectual elite or a media elite or especially a liberal intellectual media elite. [SNIP] More to the point, does the fact that a guy reads books and deals in ideas disqualify him? For many Americans, it does. Anti-intellectualism has been a consistent theme throughout American history. The political...

Medicare and Medicaid are to be headed by a new Obama appointee, and I smell trouble. Robert Pear of the New York Times reports: President Obama will soon name Dr. Donald M. Berwick, an iconoclastic scholar of health policy, to run Medicare and Medicaid, the programs that serve nearly one-third of all Americans, administration officials said Saturday. This is a crucial appointment: The law, signed Tuesday by Mr. Obama, will expand Medicaid to cover 16 million more people, squeeze nearly a half-trillion dollars out of Medicare in the next 10 years and establish many demonstration projects to test innovative ways...

Dennis Kucinich is currently on the floor of the House presenting his bill to impeach President George W. Bush. C-SPAN, 8:00 PM 9 Jun 2008.

While saying my daily prayers today, the name Rhoda Wise popped into my head. I remembered that back in the '40s when I was a small child, my folks took my brother and I to Canton, Ohio. It's a long time ago but if I recall, there was to be "something" special happening and many, many people made the pilgrimage. Checked out the name on the search engine and came up with a lot of links. Following are a few: http://www.rhodawise.com/ http://www.visionsofjesuschrist.com/miraculous_images.htm http://www.visionsofjesuschrist.com/miraculous_images.htm

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

by Br. Shane Johnson, LC Other Articles by Br. Shane Johnson, LC The Visionary 01/05/06 He is a pope of surprises. He always seems to be the Benedict we thought we knew, but didn’t. He was the surprisingly endearing father at World Youth Day and the equally endearing grandfather at his recent encounter with young first communicants in Rome. He was a defanged, compassionate German Shepherd at his private heart-to-hearts with dissident theologian Hans Küng and the head of the schismatic Lefebvrite movement, bishop Bernard Fellay. In This Article...A Transcendent HopeLies and SeductionsThe Truth of Peace A Transcendent Hope And so,...

Al Rantel on KABC is nailing the RATS big time regarding Star Wars. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the RATS have always mocked the idea of a missile defense shield. Well, how many of them are laughing now? If we had a missile defense shield, those on the West Coast would be a little less worried about Korea. In case you missed it, CIA Director George Tenet confirmed that the maniacs of North Korea have a missile that can reach the West Coast. When President Bush spoke of it in the SOTU, Republicans cheered and RATS sat on their hands. I'll...