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Unreal Engine: Lunchtime Lessons

Want to learn more about Unreal Engine, but don't have time for a lengthy, in-depth course? In this weekly series, instructor George Maestri shares expert techniques tailored for artists and developers looking to build their Unreal Engine skills in their spare moments. Each week, George shares tips on everything from geometry to materials to lighting to interactivity. Discover how to create an architectural water effect, use vertex painting to interactively paint multiple materials, import specific terrain into Unreal, and much more. Tune in every Monday for a new tip.

Note: Because this is an ongoing series, viewers will not receive a certificate of completion.




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Leading in Uncertain Times

A crisis can spark uncertainty and chaos that challenges leaders, their people, and the structures they depend on. But leaders can take charge of what they can control to establish new routines and tactics that adapt and change with what is needed. In this course, review key leadership strategies gleaned from some of our very best LinkedIn Learning courses. This selection of curated highlights offers wisdom for leaders to help them lead themselves, their teams, and their organizations during this time of enormous change. Discover ways to turn adversity into opportunity, create conditions that encourage your team to practice a growth mindset, remain transparent when communicating with employees and customers, and much more. (Author: LinkedIn Learning Instructors)




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Plagues, Pestilence, and Prophecy - Signs of the Times

As Christians we need to have both a practical and a biblical perspective on what is going on in the world. Most importantly, God does not want us to live in fear. We have an unprecedented opportunity to show people where to find peace and the Prince of Peace.



  • Pastor Doug's Weekly Message

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Indian Police Force Tourists Violating Lockdown To Write 'I Am Very Sorry' 500 Times

Indian police have the unenviable task of enforcing the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown . But last weekend, they handed down a punishment more common in a middle-school classroom than a police station. Ten foreign tourists caught flouting India's coronavirus restrictions Saturday were made to write the phrase "I did not follow the rules of lockdown. I am very sorry" 500 times and submit the paper to police. The incident happened at a sandy beach along the Ganges River near Rishikesh, a tourist hub in northern India famous for yoga retreats and hippie hangouts. It's where the Beatles made a spiritual pilgrimage in 1968. An officer who answered the phone Monday at the Muni Ki Reti police station near Rishikesh confirmed details to NPR, but declined an interview. The tourists were reportedly from Israel, Mexico, Australia and Austria, and were walking along the river when Indian police intervened. Under India's lockdown, all nonessential outings are banned. Video shared online by




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Plugin Spotlight: Cooper Time Cube MkII by Universal Audio

This plugin spotlight features the Cooper Time Cube MkII by Universal Audio, a unique emulation of the original garden hose-based mechanical delay device.

/files/2017/02/cooper_time_cube_thumb.png

The post Plugin Spotlight: Cooper Time Cube MkII by Universal Audio appeared first on Dubspot Blog.




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Plugin Spotlight: Moog Multimode Filter Collection by Universal Audio

This plugin spotlight features the Moog Multimode Filter Collection by Universal Audio, a set of truly authentic, analog-sounding Moog filter emulations.

/files/2017/04/Moog-Multimode-Filter-Thumb.png

The post Plugin Spotlight: Moog Multimode Filter Collection by Universal Audio appeared first on Dubspot Blog.




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Server move and downtime

In order to move MetaFilter to a new server*, the site will be offline between 22:00 and 01:00 PDT Thursday evening.

The moderator e-mail (via admin@mefi.us) will still be working during this time.

In other time zones:


EDT: 01:00-04:00
BST: 05:00-09:00
CEDT: 07:00-10:00
IST: 10:00-13:30
CST: 13:00-16:00
AEDT: 16:00-19:00

* More specifically, a new AWS account. (closed)




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Server move and downtime, take 2

In a second attempt at moving MetaFilter to a new AWS account, the site will be offline between 22:00 and 01:00 PDT Sunday evening.

The moderator e-mail (via admin@mefi.us) will still be working during this time.

In other time zones:


GMT: 05:00-08:00
EDT: 01:00-04:00
BST: 06:00-09:00
CEDT: 07:00-10:00
IST: 10:30-13:30
CST: 13:00-16:00
AET: 15:00-18:00

(hopefully these are all correct this time)




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By phunniemee in "Intimidated by guy I'm dating" on Ask MeFi

Do you actually like this guy? You've written an essay here and the only positives you list about this person are qualities you assumed about him during the period you had no personal contact. Of course he makes himself look interesting in his own blog.

Stop worrying if he likes you or not, or likes you enough or more than your friend maybe. For the next few weeks, your sole focus should be "do I actually like this guy, really?"

If it's your anxiety telling you you're not good enough that's one thing, but I don't get the impression from what you've written that you've spent a lot of time looking at this dude with a critical eye. HE needs to be right for YOU before you start concerning yourself with whether you're good enough for him.




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By ananci in "ultimate goal: go off grid, live self sufficiently" on Ask MeFi

I live most of the year in a small, fairly self-contained village of about 8 people. We do use grid power where we can't get micro-hydro. There's not enough sun to make solar workable (we're in a valley). We all have wood stoves to heat and cook, big gardens, forage for food and medicine, and hunt and fish for meat as well as raise chickens and sheep. Our main needs from the outside world are salt, grains, cooking fats, sweeteners, tobacco, and tea/coffee. There is a large vegetable farm our friend owns up the road, and most of us work there during the summer and we get lots of free produce. We have neighbors we visit to harvest from their orchards and wild berries.

Being totally self-sufficient all on your own is honestly almost impossible unless you are willing to really, really rough it. The things you need depend on your climate, but outside of a few outlier 'lives in the woods by himself in a cave' folks, this is not easy to achieve.

So you need a house. Insulated from heat and cold. This means building a good shelter with air flow and heating. Wood burning stoves are a good solution. If you're in a 4 season climate, you will need between 2 and 4 cords of wood, (60 hours or so of chopping if you know what you're doing) which have to cure for a year before you can use them, even from dead standing. So chainsaw, axes, wedges, and probably a truck. Which means gas. This means money on an ongoing basis.

You need water. A well or a spring, or a creek close enough to the source to not need filtering. This all means pipes or tubing and maybe a pump unless your sources is higher than your house. Also costs money, and needs to be replaced eventually.

You need food. Most gardens are geared to fruits and veg, and you'll need a lot of space to grow enough to live on without supplementing from stores. Depending on where you are, you might be able to harvest some berries and fruit if you have producing bushes/trees on your land. Or you can plant them and wait until they are mature enough to produce. You will need to freeze, dry or can what you pick or it's gonna go bad before you can eat it all. So you need canning stuff (big pot, grabber tongs, hella mason jars, and those lids have to be replaced every couple years). A root cellar (lots of digging! So much!) will keep your root veggies and apples fresh through the winter if it's deep enough. Wash your cabbages and carrots in bleach water every now and then. You'll add a month to their viability. You'll want a dehydrator for sure. you can build a passive solar one, but we use an electric one as fall fruit in an outdoor space is a bear fun time pantry. You need garden tools. They cost money and need to be replaced periodically.

You still need protein. Say you live in a place where you can fish and hunt (in season). You need to pay for licenses for these things. You can trap smaller game, but that's much more challenging. If you are hunting larger game you will need a deep freezer to store (electricity!) or be content with a massive salting / smoking process that will allow you to store meat long term.

You also need carbs. Grains need a lot of land space, and the right climate. Getting them to an edible state means you'll need to thresh, winnow, and grind your wheat/oats/spelt etc. Grinding means you need a stone mill. A hand crank meat grinder isnt going to cut it (literally) but you'll want one anyway for other stuff. Potatoes are a good source, and are easy to grow in the right climate. These need to be stored in a cool dry place away from rodents and insects to last all year.

You need fats. Wild crafted diets are low in fat, which is not always a good thing. Game meat is low in fat, and you can't make cooking oil from it. Deer tallow will make soap and icky candles. You need bees for good candle wax (and honey!) Raising chickens can get you both fat and eggs. But they need a place to roost that keeps them safe from predators.

You'll need fencing to protect your garden from deer and bears. Without an electric fence, your garden and chickens are going to get eaten or trampled. Dogs help with this, as do shotguns.

So you need micro hydro (only if you have an accessible, appropriate water source that has enough flow rate) or solar (if you live in a place that gets enough sun all year round.

You need medicine. Our mainstays are tinctures and teas. A very small sampling: nettle, mint, mullein, poppy, willow bark, chamomile, chaga, lions mane, spruce tips, elecampane, milky oat, pearly everlasting, ghost pipe, pine pollen, raspberry leaf, and red clover.

If you really want to go all out, you need clothing and cleaning cloth, so you'll need to tan leather or weave flax or cotton. We have alpacas we shear for fiber. They are cute and less trouble than llamas, but won't haul anything, so sometimes we have to borrow a donkey if we're pulling things up a steep path. You'll need soap, so save your tallow.

I could go on. But really, this is a massive, MASSIVE effort for a single person. Without access to money or the outside world it is going to be a slog. But wow, if you're into it, go try it! I don't recommend you buy some remote property and cut yourself off from the world to see if you can hack it. One bad winter where you run through your firewood? One bad frost or dry summer that kills your crops? There's a reason people tend to settle together.

So yeah, you need good land, good water, good equipment, many years to get established, some friendly neighbors, and some way to get money when you need it. Or a bunch of people already doing this that like you and want your help.

Go look up a victorian household guide on Project Gutenberg. So many good ideas! They have instructions for making everything from soap to paint.

Good luck!




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Optimizing Your Pandemic Charity




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Special Edition: Songs of Hard Times & Hope

Hello podcast listeners! Were dropping this special episode a little early because were finding a lot of hope and comfort in these songs, and we wanted to say thanks for listening. We also want you to know we are looking for your help scheduling our upcoming radio broadcasts. Since we cant make any fresh new shows for the time being, were going to revisit some of our favorite episodes. Point your browser to the link below and choose which shows youd like to hear again in the coming weeks. https://bit.ly/39GFKLuFind a playlist for this special on our website and stay tuned to your public radio stations for more exciting live performances from our archives. www.mountainstage.org




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Former CNN President Tom Johnson On A Lifetime In Journalism

On this edition of “Two Way Street,” Tom Johnson shares stories about his life and career in journalism. We’re revisiting this conversation — and other favorites — as part of our “Two Way Street” anniversary celebration. To kick off our fifth year, we’re listening again to the shows that we can’t let go: the conversations that challenged us, surprised us and have stuck with us all these years. This show originally aired on January 14, 2017.




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Plagues, Pestilence, and Prophecy - Signs of the Times

As Christians we need to have both a practical and a biblical perspective on what is going on in the world. Most importantly, God does not want us to live in fear. We have an unprecedented opportunity to show people where to find peace and the Prince of Peace.



  • Pastor Doug's Weekly Message

tim

Full-Time (Salaried) Retail Associate at the Crow Museum of Asian Art (Dallas)

Posting on behalf of my boyfriend, who's looking to fill this position and having a hard time finding candidates. They're targeting a fresh high school or college grad but are open to anyone with enthusiasm for Asian Art. It's a super-cool, high-end museum store. Not a bad gig for an young creative type, and they'd technically be a University of Dallas employee.

Position Title Sales Associate
Functional Title Lotus Shop Sales Associate
Department Crow Museum
Salary Range Up to $27,955.00
Pay Basis Monthly
Position Status Regular full-time
Location Dallas
Posting Open Date 09/25/2019
Posting Close Date
Open Until Filled Yes
Desired Start Date 10/21/2019

Job Summary
As an integral member of the team, the sales associate provides best in class service while assisting customers with their selections and purchases. Sales associates are also responsible for re-stocking the floor and for keeping the store clean and presentable. Work hours include weekends and evenings.

Minimum Education and Experience
High school graduate or equivalent. A minimum of six months of office and/or customer service experience.

Preferred Education and Experience
1 year boutique/luxury retail experience.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
• Greet customers and provide a welcoming atmosphere.
• Actively engage store guests on the sales floor.
• Know and provide information about the museum, current exhibitions, store merchandise, and Asian cultures.
• Present merchandise and explain significance, use, and care of merchandise to customers.
• Know current sales and promotions, policies regarding payment and exchanges, and security practices.
• Open and close the cash register, which includes: counting money, separating charge slips, and balancing the cash drawer.
• Transact sales in Counterpoint and process cash, check, or credit card payments.
• Maintain records related to customer counts, sales, and inventory.
• Recognize security risks and assists to control shrink through customer service.
• Providing gift wrapping when requested.
• Re-stock the sales floor and keep clean and tidy.

Physical Activities
Working Conditions
Additional Information
The Lotus Shop at the Crow Museum is an indoor, climate controlled, cool environment that is designed to provide a comfortable experience for visitors of the museum and staff. Occasionally, you will be requested to work outdoors at public festivals and events. Noise and crowd levels fluctuate depending on internal and external programming

Special Instructions Summary
Important Message
1) All employees serve as a representative of the University and are expected to display respect, civility, professional courtesy, consideration of others and discretion in all interactions with members of the UT Dallas community and the general public.

2) UT Dallas does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, genetic information, or veteran status in its programs and activities, including in admission and enrollment. For inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies, contact the Director of Institutional Equity at InstitutionalEquity@utdallas.edu or the Title IX Coordinator at TitleIXCoordinator@utdallas.edu, or call 972-883-5331.

Application link here:

https://jobs.utdallas.edu/postings/13085?fbclid=IwAR2KGBrgVAQHzbhu6G5F_-1snQKz4zVwwuvLz2K-EmZAL1AUsEA_CVnwxiA





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Hiring a part-time MeFi moderator (work from anywhere)

MetaFilter is hiring a part-time moderator for our web-based, text-centric community. You'll work as a member of a small moderation team who collectively provide 24/7 discussion moderation and community management support to the thousands of folks in the active MetaFilter community.

A candidate should be:
- familiar with and interested in moderation or community management practices
- skilled at communicating clearly and promptly in written English to people with a variety of communication styles
- able to coordinate with your fellow moderators, and to do independent decision-making during scheduled shifts
- confident of your ability to respond diplomatically and empathetically in stressful or complicated social situations
- committed to the privacy of user information

Previous experience moderating online communities is preferred but not required; past participation in and familiarity with discussion-based communities and some of the challenges they can present is a must.

MetaFilter's moderators work with and support a diverse community of users around the world. Our community management ethos means trying to be generous with people as individuals, while at the same time not tolerating intolerance. We’re committed to more actively making space for marginalized perspectives—see our recently-updated Community Guidelines document—and you should be aligned with and comfortable working to support these goals.

To better serve our diverse community, we are specifically seeking to expand the diversity of life experiences and cultural backgrounds represented in our moderation team. Currently our moderation team has particular need for perspectives from non-Americans and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color) Americans. Candidates are invited to briefly address how their personal or professional background could contribute to the breadth and strength of the moderation team ability to support the MetaFilter community.

We especially encourage people of color, women, sexual and gender minorities, people with disabilities, and members of other marginalized or underrepresented groups to apply.

This is a remote position; you can work from anywhere you have a reliable internet connection. Primary work hours are negotiable on hire, based on an expectation of at least two regularly scheduled 8-hour shifts weekly during US daytime/evening hours. There is the long-term possibility of growing the position toward a 40-hour work week schedule based on budget and performance.

This is an hourly contracting position with no additional paid benefits available at this time. Starting pay is $28/hr, including paid training.

To apply, email hiring@metafilter.com with the subject line Mod Job Application, and include:
resume/CV, and a brief letter of interest noting (a) your relevant experience with online communities that makes you think you’d be good at this job and you’d like to do it, (b) your username if you’re a Metafilter member, and (c) optionally, how your personal or professional background can help meet our team’s need for more diverse perspectives. If you have other constraints or things we ought to know, feel free to include them.

If you have questions, or would like to schedule a brief informational chat about the position, you're welcome to contact us at that same email address.

We will acknowledge receipt of your application and will keep you posted as the process moves along, including notifying candidates whose application is ultimately unsuccessful. Please submit your application by February 15th to guarantee consideration; while we may extend the application window as needed to find an ideal candidate, we are aiming to complete the hiring process within about two months.




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Wie der Körper bestimmt, in wen wir uns verlieben

Was lässt zwischen zwei Menschen den Funken überspringen, was hält manche ein Leben lang zusammen? Forscher haben neue Antworten gefunden – und warnen vor einem Anfängerfehler.




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Coronavirus Victims: Students From 3 States Remember Their Teachers

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST: Nearly 70,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. Some of them worked in schools - teachers, coaches, counselors. Today we remember three of those people as seen through the eyes of their students. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Paula Pryce-Bremmer was a guidance counselor at Careers in Sports High School in New York City. She was 51 years old. Michael Westbrook was 54. He was the band director at Hardin-Jefferson High School in Sour Lake, Texas. And Ron Hill was a coach and substitute teacher at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Fulton County, Ga. He was 63 years old. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) BRITT WHITSTEIN: My name is Britt Whitstein (ph). I graduated from Mount Vernon Presbyterian High School in 2017. Coach Hill was one of my varsity basketball coaches. Coach Hill had a way of changing your perspective without you even knowing it. Because he believed in me, I did things in high school and even going into college that I




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Cinema Chat: 58th Ann Arbor Film Fest Preview, 'Wendy,' 'The Times Of Bill Cunningham,' And More

In this week's "Cinema Chat," WEMU's David Fair sits down with Michigan and State Theater executive director to discuss the latest movie news and all of the new flicks landing at your local movie house this weekend. Plus, Leslie Raymond stops by to talk about this year's Ann Arbor Film Festival, including precautions being taken amidst the current public health crisis.




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Political Rewind: The 2-Month Timeline Behind Murder Charges

Friday on Political Rewind , a brief look at the two-month timeline that led up to murder charges this week in the case of Ahmaud Arbery. New developments draw into question decision-making at the local level.




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Time, Attention, and How To Complete Tasks

Time is important, especially when it comes to the brain. In this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke talk about how our brains process and understand Time, and how we can reorient out goals within tasks to stay motivated and get more done.




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Time

Time flies when you’re having fun, the old saying goes. But how can time – maybe the most fundamental concept of the universe – feel different under different conditions? On this edition of Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman, and Dr. Bob Duke – break down the factors influencing our perception of time.




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156: Wasting All My Time Time

Jessamyn! Me! Podcast! MetaFilter! Talking!

Helpful Links

Podcast Feed
Subscribe with iTunes
Direct mp3 download

Misc
- some facts about the number 156
- Lurking, by Joanne McNeil

Jobs
- Help plan a DIY US tour for an indie stage magician type by divabat
- Photos in Vienna, Austria by eleanna
- Adjust a sewing pattern by Melismata
- Purchase a ticket for a show in Osaka by btfreek

Projects
- Cheating Hangman by avapoet (MeFi Post)
- A Forest Tale by coevals
- ButtyStock - the number one site for free crisp sandwich photos by malevolent (MeFi Post)
- Incredible Doom: Season One by churl
- I built a text-based trivia game. by juliebug

MetaFilter
- Odious ideas are not entitled to hide from criticism by sfenders
- G'day, Chris here by noneuclidean
- Grievous Spectacle Y/N? by Miko
- a comment by jessamyn
- Look, up in the sky! It's a flying squirrel! No, wait--a sugar glider! by sugar and confetti
- The Unsolved Case of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet by hippybear
- Libraries Battle Over eBooks by MrGuilt
- Novel Fencing Material by Eyebrows McGee
- You can automate a lot of things. Sewing isn't one of them. by bitteschoen
- This is just to say by Mchelly
- "It tastes like hot bread that a strawberry sneezed on" by Johnny Wallflower
- Welcome...To The Fumble Dimension by NoxAeternum
- CROOOFFMEE by overeducated_alligator
- first day of March will be slightly noisier than most by cortex
- Gizapon my works and despair by GnomePrime

Ask MeFi
- Pronouncing 'jojoba' by dianeF
- a comment by desuetude
- Can anyone read/identify this inscribed tablet, Arabic maybe? by gudrun
- Does anybody know anything about Antique Typewriters? by Sphinx
- Jews of Metafilter, lend me your opinions, please. by BlahLaLa
- Non-Obvious and Easy Pop Culture Vampire Costumes by superlibby
- Entertainment for decompressing by crunchy potato
- a comment by Serene Empress Dork
- What's up with the New Pornographers' chord progressions by umbú
- Single mefites with no dependents, what does your will look like? by exceptinsects
- How can I talk to my partner about decluttering? by jschu

MetaTalk
- Climate Strike Day on Metafilter by restless_nomad
- Good discussions on the Blue about Big Things at their infancy? by AgentRocket
- Metatalktail Hour: Fashion Police by Eyebrows McGee
- This is Just to Say by Ghidorah
- Just Happy Things. by Fizz
- Happy birthday, Jessamyn! by lauranesson

FanFare
- The Good Place is back for a final season
- Bake Off is back too
- speaking of back, also SNL

Music
Featured on this episode:
- In the Key of Escape by The Vice Admiral of the Narrow Seas
- It Don't Matter Who's First In Line by ORthey
- Time by Bluebird Wine
- Both Hands - cover (Ani DiFranco) by howfar
- Manhattan Skyline by rangefinder 1.4




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Higher Ed: Yes, Extra Credit Can Enhance Learning – But Don’t Overestimate Its Value

Academia is divided over the wisdom of offering students extra credit on tests or projects. In this episode of the KUT podcast “Higher Ed,” KUT’s Jennifer Stayton and Southwestern University President Dr. Ed Burger discuss the utility and merit of offering extra points for extra effort. Ed says for the most part he supports extra...




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Higher Ed: Want An Exciting Life? Ask This Question At Graduation (Or Anytime, Really)

Most of us have the best of intentions when we graduate from high school or college to make our way in the world and lead meaningful and productive lives. But the minutiae of everyday life can eat into our plans to exist outside our comfort zone. In this episode of KUT’s podcast “Higher Ed,” Southwestern...




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Semisonic - Closing Time

The song “Closing Time” by the American rock band Semisonic came out in March 1998. It hit #1 on the Alternative charts, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Song. It gets played in stadiums, Weird Al covered it, and it’s the last song of the night in countless bars.

Since then, Dan Wilson, the lead singer and songwriter of Semisonic, has become a powerhouse songwriter who has written or co-written for artists like John Legend and Taylor Swift. And he’s won Grammys for his songwriting with the Dixie Chicks and Adele. But over two decades ago, Dan and his bandmates John Munson and Jacob Slichter were in Minneapolis, getting ready to start work on their second album, Feeling Strangely Fine. In this episode of Song Exploder, Dan breaks down how that process led to "Closing Time."

songexploder.net/semisonic




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Tame Impala - It Might Be Time

Tame Impala is the project of Kevin Parker, a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Perth, Australia. Since putting his first EP in 2008, Tame Impala has been nominated for two Grammys and won eight of Australia’s ARIA Awards. Multiple albums of his have been named best of the year. As a producer, he has collaborated with Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, The Weeknd, and more. The most recent Tame Impala album is The Slow Rush, which came out in February 2020. For this episode, Kevin chose to take apart the song, "It Might Be Time."

songexploder.net/tame-impala




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Coping Through Tough Times

How can we triumph despite our trials? Why does God allow difficult things to happen?



  • Amazing Facts with Doug Batchelor


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Everyone's A Critic: Time Slip Edition


Eagle-eyed 1920s viewers wanted to know why these kids were awake, overdressed, and rambling about at 11 pm

It's oddly comforting to know that people have always been fussy about make-believe. — Burhanistan

Ten Cold Hot Dogs posts the Tropes, Cliches and Sloppy Mistakes that Annoyed Moviegoers 100 Years Ago





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259: ‘Start a Bakin’ Timer’, With Marco Arment

Special guest Marco Arment returns to the show. Topics include MacBook Pro rumors, breakfast cereal, Siri frustrations, and more.




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Finding Good in Bad Times

Despite the global pandemic, people are rediscovering the good about family. Will these changes last? And what part do we have in providing hope for a better tomorrow?




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Coping Through Tough Times

How can we triumph despite our trials? Why does God allow difficult things to happen?



  • Amazing Facts with Doug Batchelor

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Dr. Timothy M. George, MD. (Ep. 9, 2020)

This week on In Black America, producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. presents an interview recorded in 2013 with the late Dr. Timothy M. George, who passed away in November 2019. Dr. George had been Medical Director of the Pediatric Neurosurgery Center of Central Texas at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas.




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Printer with the fastest feed rate (not actual printing time)?

I have a very large amount of papers that need to be counted, to the extent that doing it by hand will take dozens of hours. I have considered doing it by weight with an accurate scale, but I require a lot of accuracy, and some of the groupings of papers need to be separated, so I need to work in smaller batches. I was thinking of using a printer for this purpose - load up as much as it can hold, then "print" blank pages in groupings of 50 for example.

For this purpose, I can probably just get a used printer on ebay (I literally don't need it to even be able to print, just run through a center number of pages). However, I don't know what parameter I'm trying to optimize for. Typically, printers advertise a certain number of pages per minute. However, I'm not going to print anything on any of the pages, so it should run faster than this speed. How can I analyze the rate at which different printers will feed me blank paper (if such a performance characteristic exists)?




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BPL: Little Storytime with Bethany: Let's Find Mommy

Thank you for enjoying Bellingham Public Library's virtual storytimes! Videos will remain available through the duration of our closure. Click "Show More" below for more information and lyrics to the songs and rhymes shared....

This item belongs to: movies/cobewa.

This item has files of the following types: Archive BitTorrent, Metadata, h.264 HD




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Mayor Stimpson Daily Update May 5, 2020

No description available.

This item belongs to: movies/comal.

This item has files of the following types: Metadata




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Gary Husband and Markus Reuter: Music Of Our Times


Rarely has an album title been so perfectly descriptive. In March, 2020 the Stick Men with special guest Gary Husband had just begun a Japan and China tour. But it was cancelled by the pandemic after one show at the Blue Note in Nagoya... [ read more ]




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Se cumplen 50 años de lanzamiento de 'Let it be', último álbum de The Beatles




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In roughly 24 hours coronavirus makes sports, a longtime sanctuary in times of crisis, disappear


Sports has always been the escape during times of crisis and collective stress. But now the very act of conducting sports threatens to add exponentially to perpetuating the coronavirus pandemic and growing the stress.





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Increasing Time on Site

Changing User Intents

Google's search quality rater document highlights how the intent of searches can change over time for a specific keyword.

A generic search for [iPhone] is likely to be related to the most recent model. A search for [President Bush] likely was related to the 41st president until his son was elected & then it was most likely to be related to 43.

Faster Ranking Shifts

About 17 years ago when Google was young they did monthly updates where most of any ranking signal shift that would happen would get folded into the rankings. The web today is much faster in terms of the rate of change, amount of news consumption, increasing political polarization, social media channels that amplify outrage and how quickly any cultural snippet can be taken out of context.

Yesterday President Trump had some interesting stuff to say about bleach. In spite of there being an anime series by the same name, news coverage of the presser has driven great interest in the topic.

And that interest is already folded into the organic search results through Google News insertion, Twitter tweet insertion, and the query deserves freshness (QDF) algorithm driving insertion of news stories in other organic search ranking slots.

If a lot of people are searching for something and many trusted news organizations are publishing information about a topic then there is little risk in folding fresh information into the result set.

Temporary Versus Permanent Change

When the intent of a keyword changes sometimes the change is transitory & sometimes it is not.

One of the most common ad-driven business models online is to take something that was once paid, make it free, and then layer ads or some other premium features on top to monetize a different part of the value chain. TripAdvisor democratized hotel reviews. Zillow made foreclosure information easily accessible for free, etc.

The success of remote working & communication services like Skype, Zoom, Basecamp, Slack, Trello, and the ongoing remote work experiment the world is going through will permanently change some consumer behaviors & how businesses operate.

A Pew survey mentioned 43% of Americans stated someone in their house recently lost their job, had their hours reduced, and/or took pay cuts. Hundreds of thousands of people are applying to work in Amazon's grueling fulfillment centers.

To many of these people a lone wolf online job would be a dream come true.

If you had a two hour daily commute and were just as efficient working at home most days would you be in a rush to head back to the office?

How many former fulltime employees are going to become freelancers building their own small businesses they work on directly while augmenting it with platform work on other services like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Upwork, Fiverr, 99 Designs, or even influencer platforms like Intellifluence?

If big publishers are getting disintermediated by monopoly platforms & ad networks are offering crumbs of crumbs there's no harm in selling custom ads directly or having your early publishing efforts subsidized through custom side deals as you build market awareness and invest into building other products and services to sell.

Wordpress keeps adding more features. Many technology services like Shopify, Stripe & Twilio are making most parts of the tech stack outside of marketing cheaper & easier to scale.

Some universities are preparing for the fall semester being entirely online. As technology improves, we spend more time online, more activities happen online, and more work becomes remote. All this leads to the distinction between online and offline losing meaning other than perhaps in terms of cost structure & likelihood of bankruptcy.

Before Panda / After Panda


Before the Panda update each additional page which was created was another lotto ticket and a chance to win. If users had a crappy user experience on a page or site maybe you didn't make the sale, but if the goal of the page was to have the content so crappy that ads were more appealing that could lead to fantastic monetization while it lasted.

That strategy worked well for eHow, fueling the pump-n-dump Demand Media IPO.

Demand Media had to analyze eHow and pay to delete over a million articles which they deemed to have a negative economic value in the post-Panda world.

After the Panda update having many thin pages laying around and creating more thin pages was layering risk on top of risk. It made sense to shift to a smaller, tighter, deeper & more differentiated publishing model.

Entropy & Decay

The web goes through a constant state of reinvention.

Old YouTube Flash embeds break.

HTTP content calls in sites that were upgraded to HTTPS break.

Software which is not updated has security exploits.

If you have a large website and do not regularly update where you are linking to your site is almost certainly linking to porn and malware sites somewhere.

As users shifted to mobile websites that ignored mobile interfaces became relatively less appealing.

Changing web browser behaviors can break website logins and how data is shared across websites dependent on third party services.

Competition improves.

Algorithms change.

Ads eat a growing share of real estate on dominant platforms while organic reach slides.

Everything on the web is constantly dying as competition improves, technology changes and language gets redefined.

Staying Relevant

Even if a change in user intent is transitory, in some cases it can make sense to re-work a page to address a sudden surge of interest to improve time on site, user engagement metrics & make the content on your page more citation-worthy. If news writers are still chasing a trend then having an in-depth background piece of content with more depth gives them something they may want to link at.

Since the Covid-19 implosion of the global economy came into effect I've seen two different clients have a sort of sudden surge in traffic which would make little to no sense unless one considered currently spreading news stories.

News coverage creates interest in topics, shapes perspectives of topics, and creates demand for solutions.

If you read the right people on Twitter sometimes you can be days, weeks or even months ahead of the broader news narrative. Some people are great at spotting the second, third and fourth order effects of changes. You can spot stories bubbling up and participate in the trends.

An Accelerating Rate of Change

When the web was slower & easier you could find an affiliate niche and succeed in it sometimes for years before solid competition would arrive. One of the things I was most floored about this year from a marketing perspective was how quickly spammers ramped up a full court press amplifying the fear the news media was pitching. I think I get something like a hundred spam emails a day pitching facemasks and other COVID-19 solutions. I probably see 50+ other daily ads from services like Outbrain & similar.

The web moves so much faster that the SEC is already taking COVID-19 related actions against dozens of companies. Google banned advertising protective masks and recently announced they are rolling out advertiser ID verification to increase transparency.

If Google is looking at their advertisers with a greater degree of suspicion even into an economic downturn when Expedia is pulling $4 billion from their ad budget & Amazon is cutting back on their Google ad budget and Google decides to freeze hiring then it makes far more sense to keep reinvesting into improving any page which is getting a solid stream of organic search traffic.

Company Town

After Amazon cut their Google ad budget in March Google decided to expand Google Shopping to include free listings. When any of the platforms is losing badly they can afford to subsidize that area and operate it at a loss to try to gain marketshare while making the dominant player in that category look more extreme.

When a player is dominant in a category they can squeeze down on partners. Amazon once again cut affiliate payouts and the Wall Street Journal published an article citing 20 current and former Amazon insiders who stated Amazon uses third party merchant sales data to determine which products to clone:

Amazon employees accessed documents and data about a bestselling car-trunk organizer sold by a third-party vendor. The information included total sales, how much the vendor paid Amazon for marketing and shipping, and how much Amazon made on each sale. Amazon’s private-label arm later introduced its own car-trunk organizers. ... Amazon’s private-label business encompasses more than 45 brands with some 243,000 products, from AmazonBasics batteries to Stone & Beam furniture. Amazon says those brands account for 1% of its $158 billion in annual retail sales, not counting Amazon’s devices such as its Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers and Ring doorbell cameras.

Amazon does not even need to sell their private label products to shift their economics. As Amazon clones products they force the branded ad buy for a company to show up for their own branded terms, taking another bite out of the partner: "Fortem spends as much as $60,000 a month on Amazon advertisements for its items to come up at the top of searches, said Mr. Maslakou."

Amazon has grown so dominant they've not only cut their affiliate & search advertising while hiring hundreds of thousands of employees, but they've also dramatically slowed down shipping times while pulling back on their on-site people also purchase promotions to get users to order less.

While they are growing stronger department stores and other legacy retailers are careening toward bankruptcy.

Multiple Ways to Improve

If you have a page which is ranking that gets a sudden spike in traffic it makes a lot of sense to consider current news & try to consider if the intent of the searcher has changed. If it has, address it as best you can in the most relevant way possible, even if the change is temporary, then consider switching back to the old version of the page or reorganizing your content if/when/as the trend has passed.

One of the pages mentioned above was a pre-Panda "me too" type page which was suddenly flooded with thousands of user visitors. A quality inbound link can easily cost $100 to multiples of that. If a page is already getting thousands of visitors, why not invest a couple hundred dollars into dramatically improving it, knowing that some of those drive by users will likely eventually share it? Make the page an in-depth guide with great graphics and some of those 10,000's of visitors will eventually link to it, as they were already interested in the topic, the page already gets a great stream of traffic, and the content quality is solid.

Last week a client had a big spike from a news topic that changed the intent of a keyword. Their time on site from those visitors was under a minute. After the page was re-created to reflect changing consumer intent their time on site jumped to over 3 minutes for users entering that page. Those users had a far lower bounce rate, a far better user experience, are going to be more likely to trust the site enough to seek it out again, and this sends a signal to Google that the site is still maintained & relevant to the modern search market.

There are many ways to chase the traffic stream

  • create new content on new pages
  • gut the old page & publish entirely new content
  • re-arrange the old page while publishing new relevant breaking news at the top

In general I think the third option is often the best approach because you are aligning the page which already sees the traffic stream with the content they are looking for, while also ensuring any users from the prior intent can still access what they are looking for.

If the trend is huge, or the change in intent is permanent then you could also move the old content to a legacy URL archived page while making the high-traffic page focus on the spiking news topic.

The above advice applies to pages which rank for keywords that change in intent, but it can also apply to any web page which has a strong flow of user traffic. Keep improving the things people see most because improvements there have the biggest returns. How can you make a page deeper, better, more differentiated from the rest of the web?

Does Usage Data Matter?

Objectively, if people visit your website and do not find what they were looking for they are going to click the back button and be done with you.

Outdated content that has become irrelevant due to changing user tastes is only marginally better than outright spam.

While Google suggests they largely do not use bounce rate or user data in their rankings, they have also claimed end user data was the best way they could determine if the user was satisfied with a particular search result. Five years ago Bill Slawski wrote a blog post about long clicks which quoted Steven Levy's In The Plex book:

"On the most basic level, Google could see how satisfied users were. To paraphrase Tolstoy, happy users were all the same. The best sign of their happiness was the "Long Click" — This occurred when someone went to a search result, ideally the top one, and did not return. That meant Google has successfully fulfilled the query."

Think of how many people use the Chrome web browser or have Android tracking devices on them all hours of the day. There is no way Google would be able to track those billions of users every single day without finding a whole lot of signal in the noise.




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