The Convocation of Lovers scheduled for August 2020 in Cleveland has been indefinitely postponed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Those with hotel reservations for this event should cancel them. There should be no cancellation fee charged if you made a reservation at the Courtyard Cleveland Westlake using the conference reservation link.

In today's The Times, you can read in an article by David Pace O’Shea, that, in general, Maltese are a helpful people, generous, hardworking, humble, careful with their money, welcoming, peaceful and unaggressive and that they love their families and, especially, their children. In the Observer’s opinion, anyone who states that he or she has all those qualities also might add the words conceited and boastful. The word humble is not the first that comes to one’s mind when reading all the other characteristics Mr. O’Shea states that Maltese in general possess. Thank God (just an expression!) that most Maltese do not consider themselves to have all those qualities (and I do not know of any other country’s citizens that would claim all these good characteristics). Since the article is written by a convinced catholic believer it might be interesting to hear his humble view, from a moral and Christian standpoint, on prostitution in Malta. Every time one passes the area around the closed Empire Stadium one can see prostitutes hanging out from windows or standing on the street offering men their services. In Malta it is allowed to buy and sell sexual services; such services are forbidden in many other EU states. One can ask how this complies with the Maltese character as described in today’s Times. The Maltese government and the Church might not officially be in favor of prostitution but they certainly do not try hard to solve the problem. Prostitution is closely connected with criminality such as trafficking and drug related crimes. There is no reason whatsoever to let young women be treated like slaves in any country and especially not in a country like Malta, which is said to be one of the most Christian in the world. It is a shame for Malta!

Seven Sketches in Compositionality: An Invitation to Applied Category Theory

2018 by Brendan Fong and David I. Spivak

Category theory is becoming a central hub for all of pure mathematics. It is unmatched in its ability to organize and layer abstractions, to find commonalities between structures of all sorts, and to facilitate communication between different mathematical communities. But it has also been branching out into science, informatics, and industry. We believe that it has the potential to be a major cohesive force in the world, building rigorous bridges between disparate worlds, both theoretical and practical. The motto at MIT is mens et manus, Latin for mind and hand. We believe that category theory—and pure math in general—has stayed in the realm of mind for too long; it is ripe to be brought to hand.

An enjoyable 25-minute introductory talk: YOW! Lambda Jam 2019 - Ken Scambler - Applied Category Theory (slides)

What do programming, quantum physics, chemistry, neuroscience, systems biology, natural language parsing, causality, network theory, game theory, dynamical systems and database theory have in common?

As functional programmers, we know how useful category theory can be for our work - or perhaps how abstruse and distant it can seem. What is less well known is that applying category theory to the real world is an exciting field of study that has really taken off in just the last few years. It turns out that we share something big with other fields and industries - we want to make big things out of little things without everything going to hell! The key is compositionality, the central idea of category theory.

Previously: Seven Sketches in Compositionality: An Invitation to Applied Category Theory.

(via Brian McKenna)

Let's talk about Blockchain. Goal is to use this forum topic to highlight its usefulness to programming language theory and practice. If you're familiar with existing research efforts, please share them here. In addition, feel free to generate ideas for how Blockchain could improve languages and developer productivity.

As one tasty example: Blockchain helps to formalize thinking about mutual knowledge and common knowledge, and potentially think about sharing intergalactic computing power through vast distributed computing fabrics. If we can design contracts in such a way that maximizes the usage of mutual knowledge while minimizing common knowledge to situations where you have to "prove your collateral", third-party transactions could eliminate a lot of back office burden. But, there might be benefits in other areas of computer science from such research, as well.

Some language researchers, like Mark S. Miller, have always dreamed of Agoric and the Decades-Long Quest for Secure Smart Contracts.

Some may also be aware that verification of smart contracts is an important research area, because of the notorious theft of purse via logic bug in an Ethereum smart contract.

I find myself incredibly frustrated with Adobe products again. I don’t know why it’s so hard to make sorting and tagging software that just works, although I suppose having over 465,000 photos may stretch the limits of any software. But … Continue reading →

Today's xkcd: Mouseover title: "DOWNSIDES: Adobe people may periodically email your newsroom to ask you to call it an 'Adobe® PDF document,' but they'll reverse course once they learn how sarcastically you can pronounce the registered trademark symbol." My own pet peeve, speaking of how normal humans choose to communicate, is people who send an […]

The other day while going through my analytics I noticed a referral hit from a blog I’d never heard about. Often when I get referrals from sites I’ve never heard of I like to check them out to see what their about. What I found though was a blog that was copying word for word some of my older posts...............

Living Room Lifesavers brings lifesaving skills to the home during social isolation  Great Lakes Advocate

(This March 17 story corrects stock symbol of Zoom to ZM.O, not ZOOM.PK in the last paragraph)

A British vicar got more than he expected from his first attempt at an online sermon when he leaned too close to a candle on a cross and his sweater caught fire.

As Thailand's capital cautiously reopens many restaurants shuttered over coronavirus fears, the feline "employees" of the Caturday Cafe are back at work.

Goodness gracious, Happy Saturday! I don’t normally pop in on a weekend, except when I want to share a few …

We’ve all heard the statistic that employers only spend a few seconds reviewing your résumé. Now, thanks to technology, artificially intelligent algorithms scan it even quicker. With more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies and over 70% of large employers using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to help manage their recruitment and hiring processes, making your way […]

The post Is AI rejecting your job application? Here’s how to avoid being digitally denied – and impress once in human hands appeared first on DiversityJobs.com.

Building the future: shaping our social work identity newly qualified social worker conference was held on 31 May 2018 in Edinburgh. Delivered with the University of Edinburgh (in partnership with the Higher Education Heads of Social Work Group), Iriss, Scottish Social Services Council, the Scottish Association of Social Work, Social Work Scotland and the Scottish Government, it provided an opportunity for newly qualified social workers to come together to connect and reconnect.

In this episode, Martin Kettle of Glasgow Caledonian University gives an overview of research on newly qualified social worker perceptions of social work education and practice.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

On 24 October, Iriss attended Navigating Troubled Waters: Women in social work education in Scotland seminar, where we heard from Emeritus Professor Viv Cree and Dr Mary Mitchell about a study funded by the Carnegie UK Trust, which began with the realisation that women in the academy fare less well than men across all disciplines: they are less likely to be promoted, they earn less pay, and they are much less likely to become professors.

What this means for the discipline of social work education is explored.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

The benefits of open access (OA) are undeniable and increasingly evident across all academic disciplines and scientific research: making academic publications1 freely and openly accessible and reusable provides broad visibility for authors, a better return on investment for funders, and greater access to knowledge for other researchers and the general public. And yet, despite OA’s obvious … Read More "Why Sharing Academic Publications Under “No Derivatives” Licenses is Misguided"

The post Why Sharing Academic Publications Under “No Derivatives” Licenses is Misguided appeared first on Creative Commons.

The CC Certificate aims to increase our global community’s expertise in open licensing and awareness of our shared, digital commons.  Our first goal is to train at least one person interested in open licensing in every country and territory, around the world. So far, we have CC Certificate graduates from 44 countries and counting! One … Read More "Creative Commons Welcomes Our 2020 CC Certificate Scholarship Recipients!"

The post Creative Commons Welcomes Our 2020 CC Certificate Scholarship Recipients! appeared first on Creative Commons.

NFPA's 2017 Conference & Expo features presentations informed by research and practice and reflect thought leadership in the field. Sessions address new areas this year such as: effective and efficient enforcement, building electrical safety

This publication presents information on support to carers and in particular respite care services provided or purchased by local authorities in Scotland over the financial years 2007 / 2008 to 2014 / 2015.

ARCH, the National Respite Network and Resource Center in the United States of America identified that evidence-based research on respite care has, to large extent, been lacking. Across ages, needs and settings, respite is based upon the premise that providing caregivers periodic relief from daily, ongoing caregiving responsibilities will directly benefit them in terms of their physical health, immediate and long-term psychological health, and social-emotional relationships with family members. These benefits are assumed to result in secondary benefits for care receivers and even larger societal benefits in the form of cost benefits or improved employee productivity. Some research studies point to the merits of these assumptions. However, evidence-based research supporting this premise - or going beyond it to demonstrate how to best provide respite care that results in maximum benefits - has not been available. This report presents the findings of an expert panel composed of academics, researchers, service providers, advocates, policymakers and administrators representing a range of age groups, disabilities and professional disciplines. Over a period of 18 months the panel explored the current status of respite research, proposed strategies to overcome barriers to research, and developed a plan to encourage rigorous research in key areas.

To #TrumpYourCat, you should brush your pet, then form the hair into a "toupee", and place it on top of their head. Oh, and you can thank Donald Purrump for this genius idea!

And if you need some more Trump memes <-- those are simply tremendous

This default podcast has been automatically generated by the libsyn system. Feel free to delete it at any time. Welcome to Liberated Syndication, and happy casting

Got that #fridayfeeling? Get motivated with a game to help you communicate effectively with all service users https://t.co/zHA94rgxZv #AAC

Investor slang; a brief recovery in the price of a falling stock. Term is derived from the idea that "even a dead cat will bounce if it falls from a great height."

I tried to buy GX on the dead cat bounce but got burned.

  Clusterfuck Nation For your reading pleasure Mondays and Fridays Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page Had enough excitement yet? At least the stock markets are following an established script: the bubble pops, the elevator drops, for a while it stops… and then investments sink to the deepest sub-basement, where they linger for a long, more »

The post Black Swans, Dead Cats, Live Bats, and Goodbye to All That appeared first on Kunstler.

25% Off ROCCAT Vulcan Aimo Keyboard Black & White/Silver (Expires April 18th)

10% Off My Arcade Gamestation Assorted Items (Expires April 22nd)

Cats can be great companions, or they can sit on your keyboard.

Mine converted my Chrome "language" into Arabic.

You can see more videos at Furball Fables.

Open thread below...

Intelligence: Cats is a puzzle game in which you want to build an image (with cats) so that the picture was like the original image. Move the tiles of the puzzle wisely to collect the correct order of the pieces of images. The essence of the game as in the old game "Fifteen" (15). The game will have 6 levels with a 3x3 field size, as well as 6 other levels with a 4x4 field size. Each level has a different image.The game contains images of twelve cats. Key game features: - 12 different levels - Random generation of tiles at the start of the level - Developing the brain - Achievements!

Test your knowledge: Cats is a test game that will test your knowledge of different cat breeds. Do you know how to look like a variety of cat breeds? Havana, Somalia, Oriental, Peterbald, Maine Coon, Pixibob and many others. Test yourself with our interesting test. The essence of the game - is to choose one correct answer from four options! Answer all the questions correctly and get 48 beautiful achievements!Don't forget to share your result in the comments! Key game features: - Allows you to test your knowledge of feline - For children and adults - Helps to remember and learn how to look and called certain breeds of cats. - 48 achievements

Puzzles for smart: Cats is a fairly simple, educational game. Collect the puzzle of kittens from separate fragments of the picture. The game of puzzles will seem to your child very fascinating as he will gradually achieve that he wants to see rather. It will take the child's attention for a long time, and you will be pleased to watch his actions. This educational game will allow you to spend time with your baby. For fans of the popular puzzles of different complexity. From simple puzzles with the image of cats and kittens to complex. At any age and level of play. In this section, selected puzzles with cats. White, gray and black kittens. One cat or several cats. Collect a puzzle with the image of these small animals. Key game features: - The game has 12 levels of difficulty - The game has 12 different images of kittens - Unlimited puzzle time - Suitable for all ages - Achievements!

From TPM Reader ANON … Your brief write-up is true as far as it goes, but doesn’t even scratch the...

Recent experiences with combustible gas releases in residential buildings have led to a proposal for NFPA Standards Development for locating combustible gas detectors and consensus on installation location requirements. NFPA is considering a proposed

The Scouts acknowledged the necessity to "Be Prepared" over 100 years (!) ago; the industry should have, as well. Yet COVID-19 took businesses – more like the entire world – by surprise. Very few were prepared for the explosion of remote access, and the challenge of instantly shifting an entire organization to work from anywhere. Cato Networks shared its increase in remote access usage post

By Isaac Cabe  Published: May 07th, 2020 

I’m quite behind with Holidailies this year, so I’m going to catch up with one long post of pieces parts instead of trying to make, uh, eleven separate things. OK with you? Good, let’s go! Every December starts out snail-slogging through the first week and then all of a sudden Christmas is next week wait... Continue Reading →

About a month ago, we had yet another health worry with Butter Bib (a/k/a Zen). Since then she has bounced back and is in fine form, still going up and down the stairs, and also going up and down the little plastic steps we have by our bed. Now that the weather is colder, I... Continue Reading →

Since February 2009, we have chosen 15 current Featured Projects from around Craftster. Ten years of amazing featured projects. Today, though, in lieu of the site closing, we are bringing you the final collection of Featured Projects for Craftster — ever. And today, we are not featuring current projects. Today, we are featuring a collection […]

Me: I’m back from my work trip. Do you still need those modifications to your logo files? 

Client: Hey! I was actually able to talk with my IT guy and he taught me how to use gimp to do all of that. But I will definitely let you know if I need anything else done.

Me: (WRITHING IN SYMPATHETIC PAIN FOR USING GIMP)

BY WADNER PIERRE

Nearly two months since Haiti’s Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Electoral Provisional Council), know as the CEP, announced the final results for the first round residential, second round legislative and local elections that plagued with massive frauds. The controversial results for the presidential elections placed Haiti’s ruling Party candidate, Jovel Moise at the first place with over 34 percent of the popular and the former 2010 presidential candidate Jude Celestin in second place. Since then protest against those tainted results have been widened through the country.

After candidates and their backers, religious leaders (Catholics and Protestants) and national and international human rights and advocacy groups urged the CEP to form an independent commission to investigate the electoral frauds that were no longer mere allegations, the CEP rejected such proposition and proceeded to schedule the presidential runoff on Dec. 27 with the two candidates obtained the majority of the vote. Celestin, a member of group of eight presidential candidates, known as G8, who have been protesting the CEP’s results, declared he would not participate at the runoff unless the CEP satisfied the demand of G8.

The United States, a staunch supporter of the current administration, and spent over $30 millions for the organization of these log-overdue elections, sent Kenneth Merten, the U.S former ambassador to Haiti and State Department’s Special Envoy to Haiti to convince candidates, most importantly Celestin, to accept the CEP’s results. Merten, a close friend of Martelly, and one the controversial figures that engineered Martelly’s election in the 2010 controversial elections, failed to his mission.

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Oswin sleeping on my desk. #cat https://ift.tt/30d1MCx

Oswin: a portrait. #cat https://ift.tt/3adw6l1

Oswin is starting to enjoy her backyard walks. #cat https://ift.tt/2uRzodQ