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POPSVyew Vyew (pronounced "view") is the work of Simulāt, Inc., a Berkeley, California start-up that builds powerful web-based applications. Founded by a team of UC-Berkeley graduates, the company has a rich set of technical know-how and intellectual property. Born of a vision to merge virtual space with human interaction, Vyew includes standard web conferencing tools plus first-of-its-kind asynchronous collaboration capabilities. Vyew has been built to work across platforms and with third-party plug-ins and software.
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POPSThe Charter for Compassion The video is three minutes of pure inspiration. Beyond that, the Charter for Compassion is super cool! Every human who can get her/his words to the internet (directly or by proxy) can contribute to this landmark event (the internet isn't the only way to participate). Prompted by an idea from the TED institute, the Charter for Compassion puts us all into a virtual universe that includes the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Ever wish you could express your deepest and most fervant dreams regarding compassion? Here's your chance...
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POPSInspriation The video here is unclippable. Go and view it (it's only about 3 minutes long). Whether you're theist or atheist doesn't matter. It speaks for humanity.
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POPSePals ePals is the largest and fastest growing K-12 online community for meaningful learning. More than half a million educators and millions of learners across 200 countries and territories safely connect, collaborate and build community.
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POPSHonda's Walking Assist Device Honda unveiled a walking assist device that helps support bodyweight to reduce the load on the user's' legs while walking, going up and down stairs, and in a semi-crouching position.
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POPSCaste in the colony: How fate is determined between workers and queens
How, then, is it determined which individuals, as developing larvae, becoming queens or different types of workers? A collaborative research team of scientists at four universities has found that caste determination in the Florida harvester ant is much more than meets the eye. Larvae become different castes (small workers, large workers, or new queens) based largely on the nutrition they receive. Those fed more insects than seeds are more likely to become larger individuals (queen>large worker>small worker). However, genetic differences also contribute and bias the larva's developmental pathway. Even once caste is determined, nutritional, social (colony size), and genetic factors all contribute, but in different ways, to how big an individual grows. "Caste determination in most social insects likely involves both nature and nurture, but most interestingly in this species, these two forces contribute differently in different castes," says lead researcher Chris R. Smith of the Univers
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POPSMedia's Mum On Fannie Mae's "Love Connection" “Herb Moses, who helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs, has left the mortgage industry,”Darryl Hicks wrote for NMN. “Mr. Moses - whose last day was Feb. 13 - spent the past seven years at Fannie Mae, most recently as director of housing initiatives. Over the course of time, he played an instrumental role in developing the company’s Title One and 203(k) home improvement lending programs.” While Moses served at Fannie Mae and was Frank’s partner, Frank was actively working to support GSEs, according to several news outlets. In 1991, Frank and former Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass., lobbied for Fannie to soften rules on multi-family home mortgages although those dwellings showed a default rate twice that of single-family homes, according to the Nov. 22, 1991, Boston Globe.
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POPS Barack Obama's Important Executive Experience
Mr. Ayers made presentations to board meetings chaired by Mr. Obama. Mr. Ayers spoke for the Collaborative before the board. Likewise, Mr. Obama periodically spoke for the board at meetings of the Collaborative. The Obama campaign has struggled to downplay that association. Last April, Sen. Obama dismissed Mr. Ayers as just "a guy who lives in my neighborhood," and "not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis." The point, says Mr. Ayers in his "Teaching Toward Freedom," is to "teach against oppression," against America's history of evil and racism, thereby forcing social transformation. The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming "guilt by association." Yet the issue here isn't guilt by association; it's guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle. That is a story even if Mr. Ayers had never planted a single bomb 40 years ago.
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POPSEncyclopedia of Life - by the World's Leading Scientists An epic effort to promote biodiversity and document all 1.8 million named species on the planet. When completed, http://www.eol.org will serve as a global biodiversity tool, providing scientists, policymakers, students, and citizens information they need to discover and protect the planet and encourage learning and conservation. The Encyclopedia of Life is a collaborative scientific effort led by the Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library, a consortium including the core institutions and also the American Museum of Natural History (New York), Natural History Museum (London), New York Botanical Garden, and Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew).