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Partner With STEM Learning to Sponsor a Mini Science Centre

Pollination: Busy as a Bee

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With this bold new campaign, St. Baldrick�s shows kids as their truest selves � fun-loving, carefree, refreshingly honest, and always a little goofy. Donate today at StBaldricks.org.

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Productive Innovation Index 2016

Hi there everyone.

This is such a challenging time.

Every day we're having to sit and watch in disbelief as people lie to our faces about COVID-19, how bad things are, and what to do about it. We watch in disbelief as nonviolent protesters are arrested and accused of violence — while the police use tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper spray, and batons against them. We watch in disbelief as white women pull guns on Black people after saying the actual words, "White people aren't racist… No one is racist." Our president lies so often, so willfully, childishly, self-centeredly, and so without compunction that FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics, has a Donald Trump archive that is 107 pages long. And now I read that we've started executing federal prisoners again — despite what we all know about how flawed our criminal justice system is.

It can be hard to keep on top of how awful everything is.

I wanted to provide a few clarifying links, and recommend a book.

First, if you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of people in denial around you — and the capacity for people to lie to themselves and others about reality — I want you to know that you're not alone. Also, you're not crazy. Also, THERE IS AN OBJECTIVE REALITY. Keep hold of it. And if you don't know what cognitive dissonance is — this might be a good time to learn! A couple links —

• Cognitive dissonance is a huge factor in people, especially white people, denying the existence of structural racism and refusing to acknowledge our own investment in it. For just one example of how this plays out, check out "The psychological phenomenon that blinds Trump supporters to his racism," from the Washington Post a year ago.

• Cognitive dissonance is also playing a huge role these days in the pandemic. Check out "The Role of Cognitive Dissonance in the Pandemic," at The Atlantic.

Cognitive dissonance, when handled badly, is a killer. It makes people inexcusably ignorant, hurtful, and destructive. I find it helpful to learn about it, so at least I know what we're up against — and also so that I can be better equipped to watch for it in myself, because after all, I was socialized into this society too. Maybe you'll also find it helpful, especially now. When you're surrounded by people who are lying to themselves… It can be incredibly disorienting! And distressing, if these are people who profess to care about you. Learn about cognitive dissonance and shine some light through the bullshit around you.

Next, on the not unrelated topic of "The Letter" ("A Letter on Justice and Open Debate," published on July 7 at Harper Magazine and signed by 153 writers, artists, academics, and journalists). I really liked Hannah Giorgis's thoughts about The Letter, over at The Atlantic: "A Deeply Provincial View of Free Speech". Giorgis skewers The Letter's vagueness. She also reminds us of what free speech actually is, and what threats to free speech actually look like. An excerpt: "Any good-faith understanding of principles such as free speech and due process requires acknowledging some basic truths: Facing widespread criticism on Twitter, undergoing an internal workplace review, or having one’s book panned does not, in fact, erode one’s constitutional rights or endanger a liberal society." Yes!

Finally, I'm listening to a really great audiobook: Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair, by Danielle Sered. Sered is the director of Common Justice, which is a program in Brooklyn that provides a survivor-focused alternative to incarceration for violent crime. What I love about this book is that while I've been aware that our criminal justice system is broken — and that it's a lie that prisons keep anyone safe — I hadn't realized that there are workable alternatives already in play. Sered presents an alternative to incarceration that creates not just safety, but healing. The program is very survivor-focused. Survivors are deeply involved in decisions about how the people who harmed them are held accountable. And since most people who commit violent crime have also been victims of violent crime, the program helps those who've caused harm to heal too. The book is realistic about why people harm each other, and about how to change the system. It's a good introduction to the growing movement of restorative justice, and reading it makes me hopeful.

A heads up that Sered has a crystal clear grasp of what it's like to have PTSD and is searingly articulate about how it feels to want and need a person who harmed you to accept responsibility for what they did. If you are a survivor — of any kind of harm, not just violence — parts of this book may be gutting. I recommend taking breaks now and then.

Also, if you don't have time to read a book or if you can't access it right now while the libraries are in flux, I can recommend a recent podcast episode on the same topic. It's from the The Ezra Klein Show and it's the episode called: "A former prosecutor's case for prison abolition: Paul Butler on how our criminal justice system is broken — and how to fix it". I learned a LOT about how broken our criminal justice system is from that episode. I noticed that Ezra also has an even newer episode, an interview with sujatha baliga called "The transformative power of restorative justice." I haven't listened to that one yet, but it's on the same topic, so I'm guessing that's also an interesting and informative conversation.

Okay! So those are the things I wanted to share. Hang in there, everybody. I'll be writing another craft lesson blog post soon. Also, in Winterkeep news, I expect to have a cover (or several) to share with you soon! Be well, everyone.

A couple time-sensitive pieces of book news for those of you not on Twitter, where, among other things, I've been posting my sister's careful scrawled calculations of the vote count in Pennsylvania :o).

One, Flatiron Books invite me to chat with Melissa Albert, author of the gorgeous and chilling Tales from the Hinterland, tonight (Friday) at 8:30pm ET as part of  #yallwrite. 

 Info at @YALLFest and https://www.yallwrite.org/schedule#specialevents. 

Come join us! I for one will be exhausted yet (I suspect) calm, and Mimi and I will have plenty of bookish stuff to talk about!

Two, Penguin Teen has organized an exclusive map giveaway for anyone who preorders Winterkeep. Here's the entry form: http://bit.ly/WinterkeepPreOrder

Tag @PenguinTeen with any questions. And enjoy! :o)

Just a note to those readers who receive my blog post via email: The service that provides this, Feedburner, is shutting down in a couple of weeks, so I'm going to be migrating my subscribers to a new service. If you get an email from me in the next couple of weeks, please pay attention, because you may need to reconfirm your subscription with the new service! 

Thanks, and stay tuned!

Hi again everyone,

Just an announcement that I think I've successfully migrated all email subscribers to a new working email service (MailChimp). I tried my best to transfer all verified subscribers to the new list -- and not to transfer any unverified subscribers. Time will tell whether this blog post goes out successfully as an email. (There's a box in the dropdown menu on the left of my homepage for anyone who wants to subscribe to my blog posts via email.) 

If there are problems with the new service, I expect I'll realize it pretty soon, and I promise I'll do my utmost to rectify them quickly. Apologies in advance if anything goes amiss! 

In the meantime, I have another craft post planned, and a few other thinky posts too. So, more soon. Thanks for your patience with all of this, everyone!

Check out the latest developer updates for Google Earth and Google Maps Platform, including grounding with Maps.

Here are all the latest updates for Google Maps, Earth, Waze and our developer platforms.

Here's how we built adaptive audio in Meet, which transforms multiple laptops in close proximity into a unified audio system so you can create ad-hoc meeting spaces IRL.

Google is committed to make benefits of AI more accessible and inclusive for everyone in the Middle East and North Africa.

We recently launched a completely reimagined version of Machine Learning Crash Course.

HBO CEO Casey Bloys has given an update on the Game of Thrones movie reportedly in the works. Speaking during a press event on Tuesday, Bloys did confirm that a movie is forthcoming. However, he stressed that it’s more in the development stages than actually being fully fleshed out. Bloys considered the project more of […]

The post Game of Thrones Movie Update Given, George R.R. Martin Will Be Involved appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

While Democratic candidates suffered major losses in this year’s U.S. elections, elsewhere on the ballot voters supported liberal positions. In the wake of tightening federal and state restrictions on abortion, historic ballot measures enshrining the right to an abortion passed in seven states, while other initiatives to raise the minimum wage and codify marriage equality also won by wide majorities. We’re joined by Chris Melody Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center to examine the role of ballot measures, a form of direct democracy, in elections, and why this “powerful tool” may be at risk as conservatives flood elected office. “Because we are resisting, we are winning on these progressive issues, they are trying to take that power away from us.”

Read The Customer Used “Call Corporate”: It Was Not Very Effective

Customer: "Well if you're not going to be doing [possibly illegal thing] for me then I suppose I will just need to call your Corporate office!"
Me: *Not skipping a beat.* "Well, actually I think you’d be better off contacting Jane Lastname at the regional office; here’s her card."

Read The Customer Used “Call Corporate”: It Was Not Very Effective

अमेरिका में ट्रंप सरकार 2.0 (Trump Government 2.0) के आने के बाद रिपब्लिकन पार्टी के लिए चुनावी प्रचार अभियान में अग्रणी भूमिका निभाने वाले भारतीय मूल के अमेरिकी इंटरप्रिन्योर विवेक रामास्वामी की धमकी बढ़ने की पूरी उम्मीद है। अब तक रिपब्लिकन

By Election 2024 Live Voting: झारखंड में विधानसभा चुनाव के पहले चरण के साथ आज 10 राज्यों की 31 विधानसभा सीटों पर उपचुनाव के लिए वोट डाले जा रहे हैं। जबकि केरल की वायनाड और महाराष्ट्र की नांदेड़ लोकसभा सीट पर भी

Vivek Ramaswamy: पूर्व रिपब्लिकन राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार विवेक रामास्वामी, निर्वाचित राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रंप की एक घोषणा के बाद Google पर सबसे ज्यादा खोजे जाने वाले नामों में से एक बन गए हैं कि विवेक रामास्वामी। अरबपति एलन मस्क के साथ

Vivek Ramaswamy: भारतीय मूल के विवेक रामास्वामी ने निश्चित रूप से अमेरिकी राजनीति में अपनी छाप छोड़ी है और अब डोनाल्ड ट्रंप के दूसरे कार्यकाल में उन्हें बड़ी जिम्मेदारी देते हुए एलन मस्क के साथ डिपार्टमेंट ऑफ गवर्नमेंट एफिशिएंसी (DOGE) का

Amazon is developing smart eyeglasses aimed at enhancing the efficiency of its delivery drivers during the final stage of package deliveries. These glasses, still under development, will feature a small screen to provide turn-by-turn navigation. This innovation is intended to guide

The merger between Reliance Jio's Viacom18 and Star India Private Limited is set to transform India's streaming landscape. This collaboration will introduce a new OTT platform, likely named Jio Star, combining JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar. The domain jiostar.com is live, hinting

Amazon's Children's Day Store is now open, featuring an array of products specially discounted for the occasion, including top-selling Android tablets ideal for e-learning. With price reductions of up to 75% on select items such as headphones, tablets, and kids' smartwatches,

Redeem Codes for Garena Free Fire Max on November 13, 2024: Gain an advantage over your opponents or enhance your character's appearance with these codes, offering in-game items for free. Acquire weapons, skins, diamonds, and more through these codes. Garena Free Fire

After months of speculation, the OnePlus Ace 5 is inching closer to its official debut. Leaks first surfaced in August detailing the device's display and processing power, and now a well-known tipster, Digital Chat Station, has confirmed that the smartphone is

NFRA recommends revision of the Standard quality control (SCQ1) and Standard quality management (SQM1 and SQM2), on the lines of the global Standards...

DSV said that the objective of these acquisitions are three-fold: to augment its position within the semiconductor industry; align with its new Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport operations; and support its growing cross-border services into Latin America. It added that these acquisitions are expected to be made official next month.

More than 500 fires have burned across Colombia, including in its delicate and unique highland wetlands, one of the fastest evolving ecosystems on Earth

En Colombia han ardido más de 500 incendios, incluso en sus delicados y únicos humedales del altiplano, uno de los ecosistemas de más rápida evolución de la Tierra

Geordie Greep “Holy, Holy” Congratulations to former Black Midi member Geordie Greep for writing the most Steely Dan-ish lyrics I’ve ever heard outside of anything Walter Becker and Donald Fagen actually made themselves. The Dan-ness carries over to the vocal melody and cadence, but the arrangement mixes in some aggro-prog flavor along with the suave […]

Vader really is the galaxy's greatest detective because he kills anyone who doesn't give him the answers he wants. Just watching him walk up to you, pipe in face mask, fire in his eyes, intimidates you into giving away who the murderer on Cherry St. is. Also, his Force sensitivity is greater than anyone else's. He can just sense if the killer is hiding in the cupboard under the staircase. He doesn't even have to look. He'll hold his lightsaber up to the door and activate it, making it thrust through the guy. This is the kind of shirt you wanna wear around your torso if you're in the middle of writing a genre-bending fan fiction. $7-21 | URL | Paypal Credit | S - 3XL ')}

Jon recently started a new project. When setting up his dev environment, one of his peers told him, "You can disable verbose logging by setting DEBUG_LOG=false in your config file."

Well, when Jon did that, the verbose logging remained on. When he asked his peers, they were all surprised to see that the flag wasn't turning off debug logging. "Hunh, that used to work. Someone must have changed something…" Everyone had enough new development to do that tracking down a low priority bug fell to Jon. It didn't take long.

const DEBUG_LOG = process.env.DEBUG_LOG || true

According to the blame, the code had been like this for a year, the commit crammed with half a dozen features, was made by a developer who was no longer with the company, and the message was simply "Debugging". Presumably, this was intended to be a temporary change that accidentally got committed and no one noticed or cared.

Jon fixed it, and moved on. There was likely going to be plenty more to find.

"Check out Visual Studio optimizing their rating system to only include the ratings used," shared Fiorenzo R. Imagine the performance gain!

 

"This sounds about right," says Colin A.

 

"Wow! Must snap up some sweet Anker kit with this amazing offer; but less than four days to go!" exclaims Dave L., who then goes on to explain
"The actual WTF is this though. I sent this image to Anker with this email: But only 3days left? I hope this offer continues!
Anker replied: Thank you for your feedback! I understand that you appreciate the savings on the Anker SOLIX PS100 Portable Solar Panel and wish the offer could be extended beyond the current 3-day limit. Your suggestion is valuable and will be considered for future promotions to enhance customer satisfaction. If you have any other requests or need further assistance, please let me know.
I for one welcome our new AI overlords. "

 

Graham F. almost stashed this away for later. "Looks like Dropbox could use a few lessons in how to do Maths! Although maybe their definition of 'almost' differs from mine."

 

Finally Joshua found time to report a brand-new date-handling bug. "Teams is so buggy; this one just takes the cake. I had to check with the unix cal program to make sure I wasn't completely bonkers." For the readers, November 8 this year is supposed to be a Friday. I suppose things could change after the US election.

 

Have a great weekend. Maybe I'll see you next Friday, or maybe all the weekdays will be renamed Thursday.

Matt needed to add a new field to a form. This simple task was made complicated by the method used to save changes back to the database. Let's see if you can spot what the challenge was:

public int saveQualif(String docClass, String transcomId, String cptyCod, String tradeId, String originalDealId, String codeEvent, String multiDeal,
            String foNumber, String codeInstrfamily, String terminationDate, String premiumAmount, String premiumCurrency, String notionalAmount,
            String codeCurrency, String notionalAmount2, String codeCurrency2, String fixedRate, String payout, String maType, String maDate,
            String isdaZoneCode, String tradeDate, String externalReference, String entityCode, String investigationFileReference,
            String investigationFileStartDate, String productType, String effectiveDate, String expiryDate, String paymentDate, String settInstrucTyp,
            String opDirection, String pdfPassword, String extlSysCod, String extlDeaId, String agrDt) throws TechnicalException, DfException

That's 36 parameters right there. This function, internally, creates a data access object which takes just as many parameters in its constructor, and then does a check: if a field is non-null, it updates that field in the database, otherwise it doesn't.

Of course, every single one of those parameters is stringly typed, which makes it super fun. Tracking premiumAmount and terminationDate as strings is certainly never going to lead to problems. I especially like the pdfPassword being stored, which is clearly just the low-security password meant to be used for encrypting a transaction statement or similar: "the last 4 digits of your SSN" or whatever. So I guess it's okay that it's being stored in the clear in the database, but also I still hate it. Do better!

In any case, this function was called twice. Once from the form that Matt was editing, where every parameter was filled in. The second time, it was called like this:

int nbUpdates = incoming.saveQualif(docClass, null, null, null, null, null, multiDeal, null,
                null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null,
                null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null);

As tempted as Matt was to fix this method and break it up into multiple calls or change the parameters to a set of classes or anything better, he was too concerned about breaking something and spending a lot of time on something which was meant to be a small, fast task. So like everyone who'd come before him, he just slapped in another parameter, tested it, and called it a day.

Refactoring is a problem for tomorrow's developer.

Amateur physicist B.J. is going on vacation, but he likes to plan things right down to the zeptosecond. "Assume the flight accelerates at a constant speed for the first half of the flight, and decelerates at the same rate for the second half. 1) What speed does the plane need to reach to have that level of time dilation? 2) What is the distance between the airports?"

 

Contrarily, Eddie R. was tired of vacation so got a new job, but right away he's having second thoughts. "Doing my onboarding, but they seem to have trouble with the idea of optional."

 

"Forget UTF-8! Have you heard about the new, hot encoding standard for 2024?!" exclaimed Daniel , kvetching "Well, if you haven't then Gravity Forms co. is going to change your mind: URLEncode everything now! Specially if you need to display some diacritics on your website. Throw away the old, forgotten UTF-8. Be a cool guy, just use that urlencode!"

 

Immediately afterward, Daniel also sent us another good example, this time from Hetzner. He complains "Hetzner says the value is invalid. Of course they won't say what is or isn't allowed. It wasn't the slash character, it was... a character with diacritics! Hetzner is clearly using US-ASCII created in 1960's."

 

Finally this week, we pulled something out of the archive from Boule de Berlin who wrote "Telekom, the biggest German ISP, shows email address validation is hard. They use a regex that limits the TLD part of an email address to 4 chars." Old but timeless.

 

Some time ago, poor Keith found himself working on an antique Classic ASP codebase. Classic ASP uses VBScript, which is like VisualBasic 6.0, but worse in most ways. That's not to say that VBScript code is automatically bad, but the language certainly doesn't help you write clean code.

In any case, the previous developer needed to make an 8 element array to store some data. Traditionally, in VBScript, you might declare it like so:

Dim params(8)

That's the easy, obvious way a normal developer might do it.

Keith's co-worker did this instead:

Dim params : params = Split(",,,,,,,", ",")

Yes, this creates an array using the Split function on a string of only commas. 7, to be exact. Which, when split, creates 8 empty substrings.

We make fun of stringly typed data a lot here, but this is an entirely new level of stringly typed initialization.

We can only hope that this code has finally been retired, but given that it was still in use well past the end-of-life for Classic ASP, it may continue to lurk out there, waiting for another hapless developer to stumble into its grasp.