Perron-Frobenius theorem and linear algebra have many virtues to extol

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Statement Highlights: While significant improvements have been made in resuscitation and post cardiac arrest resuscitation care, mortality remains high and is mainly attributed to widespread brain injury.Better science is needed to support the ...

DALLAS, March 31, 2020 — Many people have concerns about staying healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those with a chronic condition such as high blood pressure — a reading above 130/80 — may face an increased risk for severe complications if they get...

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 14, 2020 — Yesterday, a federal district court struck down a rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that rolled back nutrition standards in schools.   Last fall, The American Heart Association, the world’s leading...

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule that threatens to undermine the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards. The American Lung Association, Allergy & Asthma Network, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, American...

Research Highlights: Young adults using e-cigarettes experienced arterial stiffness and blood vessel damage similar to those who smoke traditional cigarettes. There was no evidence that using e-cigarettes reduced the cardiovascular injury associated...

Investigate the simmering tensions between groups of Australians that led to racially motivated violence at Sydney’s Cronulla Beach in December 2005.

DALLAS, May 5, 2020 — An estimated five million patients in the United States live with heart valve disease, and many have had upcoming valve repair surgery rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The American Heart Association, along with 14 North...

Successful design manages cognitive load. Cognitive load is a technical term for “mental effort,” more specifically it’s the total amount of mental effort required for a given task. Completing any task requires some level of mental effort. This includes learning new information, analyzing stimuli, and working with short and long-term memory. Mental energy which has […]

The post What is cognitive load and why does it matter in web and interface design? appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

Personas are antiquated… this coming from someone who has relied on and written about them for years. For years at 3.7 Designs, we’ve created personas during the design discovery phase. I recently realized that the traditional marketing persona is no longer a relevant practice. The keyword here is “traditional.” At 3.7 we’ve adopted a practice […]

The post Why personas are antiquated (and what you should use instead) appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

As the time passes by, the online businesses are growing rapidly with the support of already available online business platforms, plugins etc. And to Achieve the same, WordPress is much louder than anything else around to fulfill the required online business existence without any boundaries and limitations....

The post 7 Online Business Ideas That You Can Start With Just WordPress Plugins appeared first on SmashingApps.com.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine was gaining popularity. In 2018 and 2019, online searches for telemedicine increased nearly 25 percent. Healthcare organizations had already turned to telemedicine to deliver care and increase accessibility. In a March 2020 survey, 41 percent of healthcare providers said that they were using telemedicine technology, an increase from 22 percent in 2018. When...

Undoubtedly clients come and go. Some, you’ll know it’s coming. Others may be a surprise. Regardless, you need to know how to deal with the situation.

The post What to Do When a Web Design Client Leaves appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

When Joe Sample started posting photos of his takeout food stops in the days after Iowa restaurants were ordered shut down to dine-in service in March, he didn’t think much of it. He just...

An Iowa judge has ruled unconstitutional a state law that would have blocked Planned Parenthood of the Heartland from receiving federal money to provide sex education programs to Iowa youth. Fifth...

In August 1919, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette opined in favor of the passage of a $5 million congressional appropriation to “investigate influenza, its cause, prevention and...

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Dubuque woman who helped her boyfriend and another person buy heroin that later led to a fatal overdose was convicted Thursday in federal court. Jacqueline M. Birch, 23,...

KARINE HATESA LEOTA-EVANS
Cedar Rapids

Karine Hatesa Leota-Evans, 16, of Cedar Rapids, passed away on April 20, 2020 at St. Luke's Hospital. Home going services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 17, at Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery, Garden of Serenity.
Karine was a sweet, loving, well-mannered and soft-spoken daughter, granddaughter, sister, niece and cousin.
She loved to watch and take pictures of sunsets, road trips to her aunts and uncles in Missouri and Wisconsin, sing, dance, connecting on social media, shopping and her cat Miss Samoa. She will be greatly missed by her family and everyone who knew and loved her.
Karine was preceded in death by her mother/grandmother, Karine Hatesa Apineru-Evans.
Left to cherish Karine's memories are her parents, Jennifer and Nofoasaefa Leota; sisters, Fagaeolemasina "Mary" and Taofegauia'i "Amayah"; brother, Rapi Quincy; father/grandfather, Shawn Evans; her Apineru Family; and her Leota Family.
Condolences may be left at www.cedarmemeorial.com under obituaries.
Messages from your sisters.
A message to my little sister:
Karine, this was such unexpected timing, I was hoping to go see grandma first, but I guess you beat me to it. You were such a special girl, beautiful and always full of imagination and the resemblance between the two of us is uncanny. This year 2020, I am to graduate high school, and I was hoping to finally get to meet you in person, I loved our long phone calls but I wanted the real life version of everything but I guess that shall wait till it is my turn to join you up there. It has been four years since I have heard your sweet voice, and it pains me to say I was not able to hear it again one final time before your departure. Here on Earth everything feels different, there is an emptiness. I hope you're dancing in the sky; I hope you're singing in the angel's choir, and I hope the angels know what they have. It must be so nice up in Heaven since you arrived. Never had I ever cried a river of tears, but when you decided to leave there was no holding back, the 4 oceans could not withstand the flood of tears that ran quickly down my face. But I am sorry, I never told you all I wanted to say, never had I imagined living without you, but I know you're shining down on me from Heaven. Tell grandma, Mama Susie, Pops, Nana, Pago and everyone we love up there with you that I said I hope one day I can make all of them proud, and that I miss all of them very much. I am your big sister Rine, and I hope you know how much I love you uso! Always and forever, till no end.
-- Taofegauiai Amayah Leota

To my dearest beloved baby sister,
No words can explain how much I love and miss you, it's even harder for me to write this to you because I never thought of losing you in such a short period of time. Ever since I heard the news of your loss I didn't know what to do or how to feel but deep inside there's a pain that I never felt in a long time, especially losing my own baby sister it was something really unexpected and heartbreaking. I was really looking forward to seeing you one day and spending time with you and have a sisterly bond with you that I will cherish every moment of it. But now without you, my life will be like a book without page numbers. The story will go on, but it might feel out of order. I miss her, my sister, her spirit dulled to a whisper. My sister was a gift I never asked for, but I always wanted. A lost sister is like the missing piece in the game of life. When she was alive, I didn't always miss my sister - now I can't stop missing her. See you when I see you ok, kisses to the sky to you uso. I love you with every beat of my heart and I miss you every day of my life.
--Your older sister, Fagaeolemasina Mary Leota.

RITA M. THATCHER
Williamsburg

Rita M. Thatcher, 72, of Williamsburg, died on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
A graveside service will be held at
11 a.m. Monday, May 11, at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Oxford, Iowa. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Rita's GoFundMe page, www.tiny.cc/qiyooz.
A full obituary may be viewed and online condolences made at www.lensingfuneral.com.

Watch my video and see what a decentralized WordPress environment might look like. Almost everything we rely on to operate online is a centralized platform. WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, you name it—they’re all gigantic, centralized platforms. Ok, sure, but why does that matter? It matters because the bigger centralized platforms get, the less freedom users […]

It’s simple—I don’t like recurring payments. And I don’t know about you, but with most recurring payments, I feel anxiety around this need to “get my money’s worth.” In other words, I often feel like I under-utilize the product and thus overpay to some extent. So why do I sell my software under a recurring […]

Note: This post is adapted from my original viral Twitter thread. Ffrom November 2003 through July 2005, I worked in the prepaid cell phone and phone card industry. Most of my work was in BFE meth towns and urban ghettoes. I learned things about the poor in America you won’t want to believe… But this […]

In August 1919, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette opined in favor of the passage of a $5 million congressional appropriation to “investigate influenza, its cause, prevention and cure.”

“We all remember without effort the darkness and terror which engulfed the land last fall and winter as death stalked swiftly from seaboard to seaboard, into crowded city and unto lonely plain, sparing not the cottage of the poor nor the mansion of the rich,” the editorial said. “In four short months, influenza claimed a half million lives and pressed millions of others onto beds of sickness, suffering and helplessness. The nation’s mortality rate leapt high and with astounding speed. The nation was unprepared to cope with a disease calamity such as it has never known.”

The Gazette lamented that billions of dollars in loss were wrought by the pandemic of so-called Spanish influenza, compared with only $5 million being spent to investigate the virus.

“More has been spent in studying diseases of hogs,” the editorial argued.

Just less than a year earlier, The Evening Gazette did not see “darkness and terror” coming. A front page, above-the-fold story Sept. 25, 1918, asked: “Spanish Influenza just the old-fashioned grippe?” “Grippe” is an old-time term for the flu, by the way.

“As a matter of fact, in the opinion of City Physician Beardsley, and a good many other Cedar Rapids men in the same profession, Spanish influenza is just another name for the regular old fashioned influenza and is no different from the influenza we have always had. A bad cold is a bad cold, and a worse cold is grippe, which covers a multitude of things ...,” The Gazette reported, optimistically.

An earlier strain of influenza in the spring of 1918 had been less virulent and deadly. But the second wave was no ordinary grippe.

By mid-October, according to reports in The Evening Gazette, influenza caseloads exploded. On Oct. 12, 1918, the local health board shut down pool rooms, billiard halls and bowling alleys. It pleaded with store owners to avoid allowing crowds to linger. On Oct. 16, stores were ordered to discontinue any special sales that might draw more shoppers.

Restrictions tightened as the pandemic worsened.

Death notices were stacking up on Gazette pages, in rows reminiscent of small tombstones. Many victims were cut down in the prime of life by a virus that struck young, healthy people hardest. Mothers and fathers died, leaving young children. Soldiers serving in World War I died far away from home. Visitors to town never returned home.

Young brothers died and were mourned at a double funeral. A sister who came to care for a sick brother died, and so did her brother.

Ray Franklin Minburn, 24, died of influenza, leaving behind six sisters and two brothers. “Mr. Minburn was a faithful son, a devoted companion, a good neighbor,” concluded his death announcement on Oct. 21, 1918.

On the same page that day came news, tucked among the tombstones, reporting that Iowa Gov. William Harding had recovered from influenza, in the midst of his reelection campaign, and was back in the office. You might remember Harding as the governor who banned German and other languages during World War I and who was nearly impeached for bribery in 1919.

Not far from Harding’s update came news from the prison in Anamosa that “whisky and quinine” were being deployed to attack the grippe.

The pages of The Evening Gazette also were dotted with advertisements for supposed cures and treatments.

“Danger of infection from influenza or any contagious disease can be eliminated by using preventive measures,” prescribed by Ruby S. Thompson, chiropractor and naturopathic physician. Those included “Sulphur-vapor baths, Carlsbad mineral bath.”

You could build up your blood using “Gude’s Pepto-Mangan,” the “Red Blood Builder.” Keep your strength up with Horlick’s Malted Milk.

One ad looked exactly like a news story, carrying the bold headline “Druggists still asked to conserve stocks of VapoRub needed in ‘flu’ districts.” In a tiny notation at the end of the “story” were the words “The Vicks Chemical Co.”

That August 1919 Gazette editorial I mentioned makes me wonder what we’ll be writing in a year or so after our current pandemic.

Death stalking us swiftly from seaboard to seaboard in an unprepared nation, preceded by the casual insistence it’s no worse than the seasonal flu, sounds eerily familiar in 2020. More attention is being paid to hogs than the health of humans working in meatpacking plants.

Will we be writing in 2021 how reopening states and counties too soon led to our own second wave? Here in Iowa, reopening began before we had a fully working predictive model to chart the pandemic’s course and before new testing efforts had a chance to ramp up. Will decisions made without crucial information look smart in 2021? Or will we wish we’d waited just a couple more weeks?

What of the protesters demanding liberation? What about the president, running for reelection in a nation harmed by his crisis mismanagement? What will a new normal look like?

Will there be newspapers around to editorialize in the aftermath? After all, most of the pitches for fake cures are online now, some even extolled at White House briefings.

And will we be better prepared next time? I bet editorial writers in 1919 figured we’d have this pandemic response thing down to a science by now.

Little did they know that in 2020 we’d have so little respect for science. And after a century-plus, the darkness and terror apparently slipped our minds.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

When it comes down to creating your brand you want something that is original but stands out. Here is what makes a good logo so you can stand out. More

Ever wanted to display the title of a post somewhere but limit the amount of characters that are shown? For instance, this post has a very long title, and if I were to use <?php echo the_title() ?> it would show as follows: Limit the characters that display on the_title. That may not fit well […]

The post Limit the characters that display on the_title appeared first on WPCult.

Hatchet has grown from the status of a bright idea to a fully realized solutions provider, connecting businesses in Perth with a unique set of comprehensive web services across app development, software development, web design, hosting and databases. We’re digital … Continued

The post Hatchet appeared first on WeLoveWP.

When Joe Sample started posting photos of his takeout food stops in the days after Iowa restaurants were ordered shut down to dine-in service in March, he didn’t think much of it. He just wanted to get some good food while supporting restaurants.

“I have a lot of friends in the food business. My wife worked at Elevate Salon and Emil’s Deli, so she’s not working right now,” he said. “I felt it was a great way to support local businesses.”

But then a new Facebook group dedicated to promoting curbside, delivery and takeout food options in Cedar Rapids sprung up — this week, it had more than 15,000 members — and Sample started sharing photos there. The 46-year-old Cedar Rapids resident quickly found himself having a new experience — going viral.

In a pandemic, that phrase could have negative connotations, but this was the positive kind of viral spread. The kind where hundreds of people liked his photos and commented on them. Then a Cedar Rapids T-shirt maker, Ivory Pearl Designs, started selling “Be Like Joe” T-shirts and other people started showing up to order takeout in the shirts. Soon, restaurants were asking if he would come take a photo at their restaurant.

“I just started it to have fun and posted a few fun pictures, and then I started having restaurants reach out to me,” Sample said.

He decided to dedicate his stimulus check from the federal government to the effort. Sometimes, he said he hits up more than one restaurant a day.

“I’ve hit close to 60 restaurants,” he said.

He’s leaned into the enthusiasm and found ways to play up the efforts. One day he dressed as Oscar the Grouch while visiting’ Oscar’s Restaurant in Hiawatha. On another day, he and one of his daughters bought plastic pig noses to wear on a stop at the Blind Pig in Cedar Rapids. He wears a Superman costume to some stops.

“I was totally surprised at how viral it went,” he said. “Now I’m just trying to keep it exciting.”

In his day job, Sample is a salesman for American Building Components in Mount Pleasant. He normally spends a lot of time on the road, selling metal roofing, siding and steel frame structures around the Midwest. These days, he’s working from home, making sales over the phone instead. He said going out to get carryout is a chance to see other people and get out of the house.

“It brings some normalcy to my life,” he said.

He has two daughters at home, age 9 and 15, and one son, 22. When he’s not eating out, he likes to spend time outdoors with his family, fishing, camping, hunting and coaching soccer. He admits his last name is a bit on-the-nose for his newest hobby.

“A lot of people ask, ‘Is that really even your real name?’” he said with a laugh.

Sample was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, which fuels his desire to support his town.

“My dad had Sample Pharmacies when I was growing up. People helped support us, so I figured it was the least I could do, to support other local businesses,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is, we want to keep them here. There are so many great restaurants in Cedar Rapids, and we don’t want to lose half of them. I’m going to try to keep going with this until they open the places back up, as much as I can.”

He also has helped do deliveries of donated meals to area hospitals and long-term care facilities. That effort started when his younger daughter’s Girl Scout troop had dozens of boxes of unsold cookies and few options to sell them once the pandemic hit. Sample’s family purchased them and sent them to staff at Mercy Medical Center. Since then he’s dropped off boxes of pita, hummus and gyro meat from Pita’z Mediterranean and American Cuisine, trays of cinnamon rolls from Oscar’s and other places.

“People seem to be very supportive in Cedar Rapids,” he said.

He gave a lot of credit to the Cedar Rapids Facebook group, which was started by Lindsay Leahy, Brooke Murphy-Fitzgerald and Shannon Hanson. Others like it have sprung up in Marion, North Liberty and Iowa City.

“I think this has opened a lot of people’s eyes; it has given people an opportunity to try new things,” Sample said. “I’ve seen more restaurants on here than I’d ever tried before.”

He’s also started to promote nonprofits like the Freedom Festival. He is helping sell the $5 commemorative buttons — even though the 2020 festival was canceled, the buttons will help support the organization’s operations. And he helped with a Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraiser, an effort which inspired him so much he signed up as a volunteer.

He said he hopes his efforts, and others like it inspire others to support the community.

“Keep supporting local, do your best to stay healthy, and when restaurants open back up, keep going to them,” he said. “They’re going to need our help for a long time to come.”

Comments: (319) 398-8339; alison.gowans@thegazette.com

An Iowa judge has ruled unconstitutional a state law that would have blocked Planned Parenthood of the Heartland from receiving federal money to provide sex education programs to Iowa youth.

Fifth Judicial District Judge Paul Scott on Wednesday ruled the law “has no valid, ‘realistically conceivable’ purpose that serves a legitimate government interest as it is both irrationally overinclusive and under-inclusive.”

“The act violates (Planned Parenthood of the Heartland’s) right to equal protection under the law and is therefore unconstitutional,” Scott ruled in issuing a permanent injunction to prevent the law’s implementation.

House File 766, passed in 2019 by the Republican-controlled Iowa House and Senate, excluded any Iowa organization that “provides or promotes abortion” from receiving federal dollars that support sex education and related services to Iowa youth.

Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and ACLU of Iowa challenged the law, filing a lawsuit shortly after Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law.

Polk County District Court issued a temporary injunction blocking the law, which was to go into effect July 1, allowing Planned Parenthood to continue providing sex education programming throughout the past year.

The governor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ruling.

In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood and ACLU argued that by blocking the abortion provider from the two federal grants — the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) and the Community Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (CAPP) — the law violated protections of free speech, due process and equal protection.

“The decision recognizes that the law blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving grants to provide this programming violated the constitutional requirement of equal protection,” ACLU of Iowa Legal Director Rita Bettis Austen said in a statement Thursday.

Though Planned Parenthood would be excluded, the law did allow “nonprofit health care delivery systems” to remain eligible for the federal funding, even if they are contracted with or are affiliated with an entity that performs abortions or maintains a facility where abortions are performed.

By doing so, the law effectively singles out Planned Parenthood, but allows other possible grant recipients to provide an array of abortion-related services, according to the court documents.

“The carved-out exception for the ‘nonprofit health care delivery system’ facilities undermines any rationale the State produces of not wanting to be affiliated with or provide funds to organizations that partake in any abortion-related activity,” Scott ruled. .

In fiscal year 2019, Planned Parenthood received about $265,000 through the federal grants, including $85,000 to offer PREP curriculum in Polk, Pottawattamie and Woodbury counties.

It was awarded $182,000 this year to offer CAPP curriculum in Linn County, as well as in Dallas, Des Moines, Jasper, Lee, Polk, Plymouth and Woodbury counties.

The grants are administered by the Iowa Department of Human Services and the Iowa Department of Public Health.

Planned Parenthood has provided sex education to students in 31 schools and 12 community-based youth organizations in Iowa using state-approved curriculum since 2005, according to a new release.

The focus has remained “on areas with the highest rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections,” the news release said.

“Today’s decision ensures that teens and young adults across Iowa will continue to have access to medically accurate sex education programs, despite the narrow and reckless policies of anti-abortion lawmakers,” said Erin Davison-Rippey, executive director of Planned Parenthood North Central States.

Comments: (319) 368-8536; michaela.ramm@thegazette.com

In August 1919, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette opined in favor of the passage of a $5 million congressional appropriation to “investigate influenza, its cause, prevention and cure.”

“We all remember without effort the darkness and terror which engulfed the land last fall and winter as death stalked swiftly from seaboard to seaboard, into crowded city and unto lonely plain, sparing not the cottage of the poor nor the mansion of the rich,” the editorial said. “In four short months, influenza claimed a half million lives and pressed millions of others onto beds of sickness, suffering and helplessness. The nation’s mortality rate leapt high and with astounding speed. The nation was unprepared to cope with a disease calamity such as it has never known.”

The Gazette lamented that billions of dollars in loss were wrought by the pandemic of so-called Spanish influenza, compared with only $5 million being spent to investigate the virus.

“More has been spent in studying diseases of hogs,” the editorial argued.

Just less than a year earlier, The Evening Gazette did not see “darkness and terror” coming. A front page, above-the-fold story Sept. 25, 1918, asked: “Spanish Influenza just the old-fashioned grippe?” “Grippe” is an old-time term for the flu, by the way.

“As a matter of fact, in the opinion of City Physician Beardsley, and a good many other Cedar Rapids men in the same profession, Spanish influenza is just another name for the regular old fashioned influenza and is no different from the influenza we have always had. A bad cold is a bad cold, and a worse cold is grippe, which covers a multitude of things ...,” The Gazette reported, optimistically.

An earlier strain of influenza in the spring of 1918 had been less virulent and deadly. But the second wave was no ordinary grippe.

By mid-October, according to reports in The Evening Gazette, influenza caseloads exploded. On Oct. 12, 1918, the local health board shut down pool rooms, billiard halls and bowling alleys. It pleaded with store owners to avoid allowing crowds to linger. On Oct. 16, stores were ordered to discontinue any special sales that might draw more shoppers.

Restrictions tightened as the pandemic worsened.

Death notices were stacking up on Gazette pages, in rows reminiscent of small tombstones. Many victims were cut down in the prime of life by a virus that struck young, healthy people hardest. Mothers and fathers died, leaving young children. Soldiers serving in World War I died far away from home. Visitors to town never returned home.

Young brothers died and were mourned at a double funeral. A sister who came to care for a sick brother died, and so did her brother.

Ray Franklin Minburn, 24, died of influenza, leaving behind six sisters and two brothers. “Mr. Minburn was a faithful son, a devoted companion, a good neighbor,” concluded his death announcement on Oct. 21, 1918.

On the same page that day came news, tucked among the tombstones, reporting that Iowa Gov. William Harding had recovered from influenza, in the midst of his reelection campaign, and was back in the office. You might remember Harding as the governor who banned German and other languages during World War I and who was nearly impeached for bribery in 1919.

Not far from Harding’s update came news from the prison in Anamosa that “whisky and quinine” were being deployed to attack the grippe.

The pages of The Evening Gazette also were dotted with advertisements for supposed cures and treatments.

“Danger of infection from influenza or any contagious disease can be eliminated by using preventive measures,” prescribed by Ruby S. Thompson, chiropractor and naturopathic physician. Those included “Sulphur-vapor baths, Carlsbad mineral bath.”

You could build up your blood using “Gude’s Pepto-Mangan,” the “Red Blood Builder.” Keep your strength up with Horlick’s Malted Milk.

One ad looked exactly like a news story, carrying the bold headline “Druggists still asked to conserve stocks of VapoRub needed in ‘flu’ districts.” In a tiny notation at the end of the “story” were the words “The Vicks Chemical Co.”

That August 1919 Gazette editorial I mentioned makes me wonder what we’ll be writing in a year or so after our current pandemic.

Death stalking us swiftly from seaboard to seaboard in an unprepared nation, preceded by the casual insistence it’s no worse than the seasonal flu, sounds eerily familiar in 2020. More attention is being paid to hogs than the health of humans working in meatpacking plants.

Will we be writing in 2021 how reopening states and counties too soon led to our own second wave? Here in Iowa, reopening began before we had a fully working predictive model to chart the pandemic’s course and before new testing efforts had a chance to ramp up. Will decisions made without crucial information look smart in 2021? Or will we wish we’d waited just a couple more weeks?

What of the protesters demanding liberation? What about the president, running for reelection in a nation harmed by his crisis mismanagement? What will a new normal look like?

Will there be newspapers around to editorialize in the aftermath? After all, most of the pitches for fake cures are online now, some even extolled at White House briefings.

And will we be better prepared next time? I bet editorial writers in 1919 figured we’d have this pandemic response thing down to a science by now.

Little did they know that in 2020 we’d have so little respect for science. And after a century-plus, the darkness and terror apparently slipped our minds.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Dubuque woman who helped her boyfriend and another person buy heroin that later led to a fatal overdose was convicted Thursday in federal court.

Jacqueline M. Birch, 23, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of aiding and abetting the distribution of a controlled substance.

During the plea hearing, Birch admitted she knew that another person was going to illegally distribute a drug last May, and she aided in that distribution.

Evidence at a previous hearing showed that Birch drove her boyfriend, Mateusz Syryjczyk, 29, of Rockford, Ill., and another person, not identified in court documents, to a residence in Dubuque on May 27. Birch and the other person went into the residence and bought heroin from a dealer. The three drove to a hotel in Dubuque and all used the heroin.

The other person began to overdose in the room, but Birch and Syryjczyk didn’t immediately call 911, according to evidence. Over many hours, Birch occasionally would perform CPR on the person to restore some breathing function, though the person never regained consciousness.

Eventually, Birch and Syryjczyk decided to call 911, and Syryjczyk took the remaining drug paraphernalia from the room to prevent law enforcement from finding it, according to court documents. Birch and Syryjczyk also made false statements to police about the cause of the person’s condition.

Court documents showed the overdose victim died at the scene. An autopsy later determined the cause of death was use of heroin, fentanyl and valeryl fentanyl.

Syryjczyk previously pleaded to misprision of a felony and remains free on bond pending sentencing.

Birch faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a $1 million fine and supervised release for life following her prison term.

Sentencing will be set after a presentencing report is prepared.

The case was investigated by the Dubuque Drug Task Force and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Chatham.

Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com

I like the philosophy behind shooting with primes; that a photographer shouldn’t stand still but instead, continuously move closer, further, lower, or higher relative to his/her subject as a means of establishing a deeper connection. ????????
—
Save 50% on my custom Lightroom presets with HOLIDAY50. Link in profile. (at Toronto, Ontario)

I just realized that I can export my entire story all at once now, which means uploading my tutorials to my Facebook page will be a million times easier (it was tedious to stitch all the individual clips together before). ????
.
Related: I posted a story this morning deconstructing the edit on yesterday’s shot.
.
Also related: I uploaded the 3 tutorials from my November feature on @thecreatorclass to my Facebook page this morning too. More to come! (at London, United Kingdom)

Quick survey: on average, what time is it when you check Instagram for the first time on any given day? (Be sure to include your timezone!)
.
PS: Thank you for all the incredible support on yesterday’s announcement. ❤️ (at Toronto, Ontario)

If you have your visa refused or cancelled, you need to get expert advice a soon as possible. Strict time limits apply to drafting submissions and appeals. A visa refusal or cancellation can limit the type or visas you can apply for in the future or even prohibit you from applying for any visa to […]

The post What happens if my visa is refused or cancelled due to my character? appeared first on Visa Australia - Immigration Lawyers & Registered Migration Agents.

The Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business is considering removing the following occupations from the Skilled Migration Occupation Lists (Skills List) in March 2020: Careers Counsellor Vehicle Trimmer Business Machine Mechanic Animal Attendants and Trainers Gardener (General) Hairdresser Wood Machinist Massage Therapist Community Worker Diving Instructor (Open Water) Gymnastics Coach or Instructor At […]

The post Occupations that may be taken off or put onto the skilled migration occupation lists appeared first on Visa Australia - Immigration Lawyers & Registered Migration Agents.

Seasonal Worker Programme and Pacific Labour Scheme workers can extend their stay for up to 12 months to work for approved employers as long as pastoral care and accommodation needs of workers are met to minimise health risks to visa holders and the community. Approved employers under the Seasonal Worker Programme and Pacific Labour Scheme […]

The post What can I do if I am on a working holiday or seasonal worker visa in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis? appeared first on Visa Australia - Immigration Lawyers & Registered Migration Agents.

It’s been a few months since the release of the Recipe Card Blocks PRO plugin, and our team continued to release new updates constantly for both versions of the plugin: Free & PRO. As we’ve released many major updates for both versions in the past months, let’s make a quick overview of the most important changes and new features we’ve […]

What should all businesses do at least once, and do properly, and (like the title of this blog post suggests) designers need to do repeatedly? The answer is: Understanding the target market they’re catering to. Sure, that makes sense—but why are graphic designers any different? Why do this repeatedly? When you’re in business, you’re in the […]

Hello! I have updated this very popular post to include a free downloadable PDF of this checklist.  Preparation is key to successful management of any project, and design projects are no different. The more preparation that both client and designer do right at the start, the more smoothly the work will go. I find checklists […]

I sometimes get asked by regular people in the actual real world what it is that I do for a living, and here's my 15 second answer:

We built a sort of Wikipedia website for computer programmers to post questions and answers. It's called Stack Overflow.

As of last month,

https://uxdesign.cc/i-hate-photoshop-49781b426aed

There’s nothing better than finding a new design tool that will make your life a million times easier. After all, we all want to get our work done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and if there’s a tool for that, then I want it. And I did find some tools that I absolutely love […]

Read More at 5 Incredible Free Tools For Designers That You Need To Try