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Iowa’s health care system is not overwhelmed. Why is our economy still closed?

In response to the coronavirus, Americans were told by their federal and state governments to shut down their businesses, stop going to church, work, school or out to eat, travel only when necessary and hunker down at home. Originally, Americans were led to believe this was for a two- or three-week period, in order to flatten the curve and not overwhelm our health care system.

At seven weeks and counting, with staggering economic loss that will leave families and thousands of small businesses and farmers with profound devastation, the question must be asked, are we trying to flatten the curve or flatten our country?

The initial models that pointed to staggering loss of life from the coronavirus have proved wildly inaccurate. As of May 2, the CDC placed the number of deaths in the U.S. from the virus at 66,746. While all loss of life is deeply regrettable, these numbers cannot be considered in a vacuum. For perspective, deaths from pneumonia in the U.S. during the same period were 64,382, with average yearly deaths from influenza in the same range.

The original goal of closing much of the U.S. economy and staying at home was to flatten the curve of new coronavirus cases so that our hospital systems would not be overwhelmed. Hospitals built by the Army Corps of Engineers to handle the increased volume have mostly been taken down. Except for a few spots in the U.S. the health care system was not overwhelmed. As the medical models of casualties from the coronavirus continue to be adjusted down, it is clear the curve has been flattened, so why do we continue to stay closed and worsen the economic devastation that tunnel vision has thus far kept many of our leaders from acknowledging?

Many health experts say 80 percent of Americans will get the coronavirus and experience only mild symptoms. The curve has been flattened. Our health care system is not overwhelmed. Why is our economy, for the most part, still closed?

A University of Washington study recently revised the projected number of deaths from the coronavirus in Iowa from 1,367 to a much lower estimate of 365. While all loss of life is horrific, we must also consider the devastation being done to our economy, our families and our way of life by actions taken to combat the coronavirus.

It must be noted that 578 Iowans died from the flu and pneumonia in 2017, a greater number than are likely to pass away from the coronavirus. We also know that many who die from the virus are elderly with underlying health conditions, increasing the likelihood that any serious illness could result in their death. Are draconian government restrictions in response to the coronavirus still needed and economically sustainable? The data shows that the answers to both questions is no. We are no longer flattening the curve; we are flattening our state and nation.

We have seen the medical data. What has been less visible in news conferences and in the overall reporting of the coronavirus and our response to it, are the economic and human costs of what we are doing:

• 30 million Americans are out of work and the number grows daily.

• Dairy farmers are pouring out milk they have no market for.

• Pork producers are euthanizing hogs they have no market for.

• According to a study by Iowa State University, the losses to Iowa Agriculture are at a staggering $6.7 billion and growing, with the largest losses in pork production and ethanol.

• In Iowa, the economic loss for corn is estimated to be $788 million, $213 million for soybean and $34 million for cattle.

• The Iowa Restaurant Association estimates that between 10 & 25% of Iowa’s restaurants will not reopen.

• Iowa’s public universities are predicting a $187 million loss.

• Iowa is spending $200 million or more per month on unemployment claims, with over 171,000 Iowans unemployed.

• 29 percent of the U.S. economy is frozen as a result of government action, with U.S. economic output down 29 percent.

• U.S. unemployment could soon hit 47 million.

• Losses to U.S. tourism are predicted to top $910 billion.

• Retirement plans for millions of Americans are being decimated, with recent reports projecting the average 401(k) loss at 19 percent.

• Drug and alcohol addiction and relapse are increasing.

• Testing for chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease are being delayed, which could lead to increasing health problems and life-threatening illnesses in the future.

• Economic damage to rural hospitals could lead to hospital closures and less access to health care in some areas.

• Warnings of a possible meat shortage in the U.S. have been issued by executives of Farmland and Tyson, with reports that the food supply chain is under stress. Several grocery store chains are now limiting meat purchases and some national restaurant chains are no longer offering certain meat products on their menus. Higher meat prices are almost certain in the months to come.

• Huge U.S. debt increases unlike anything seen since World War II, to the tune of over $3 trillion and counting, are adding to the already monstrous $22 trillion in U.S. debt. This does not bode well for our children or future economic stability.

The list of consequences goes on and on, and behind each of the statistics is a family struggling to survive, a father and mother fearful of how they will care for their children, a small-business owner seeing their dreams and hard work destroyed overnight by draconian government mandates, a restaurant owner deciding never to reopen, a dairy farmer throwing in the towel and a business owner postponing indefinitely plans for expanding.

Behind these numbers is an economy greatly impacted by the government response to the coronavirus, with implications for our economic well-being profound and long lasting. Expansion projects delayed, business closures, layoffs and contraction for many businesses will likely keep unemployment numbers high and depress economic expansion for an unknown amount of time.

Let us be clear, it grows worse every day we remain closed.

Steve Holt represents District 18 in the Iowa House.




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Why it’s a Bad Idea to Over-Customize Client Website Templates

Web clients love custom designs. Enough unique changes can turn a pre-made template into a beautiful, original site design. While there’s nothing wrong with tweaking a website for your clients, customization can be taken too far.   Granting excessive requests can put your projects into overtime and drive you mad. If you want to avoid […] More




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WordPress Multisite Masterclass: Getting Started

Multisite is a powerful tool that will help you create a network of sites to fulfill a variety of purposes, and which you can customize to make life easier for your users and help your network run more efficiently and make you money.




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Shared, VPS, Dedicated or Cloud Hosting? Which is Best for WordPress?

There are so many different types of hosting that it can be overwhelming to choose the right one for your WordPress site, but at the same time, it just means there are enough options so you can choose the perfect fit.




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Clever Pictures of Toy Cars on a Cardboard Road

Durant cette période de confinement, les créatifs rivalisent d’ingéniosité pour rester créatifs et continuer leur pratique. C’est le cas du photographe Florian W.  Mueller. Contraint de rester chez lui avec son fils de 6 ans et donc dans l’impossibilité de voyager pour réaliser des projets, il a opté pour la création à domicile. Lorsque son […]






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Nearly 25,000 more Iowans file unemployment claims

Nearly 25,000 more Iowans filed unemployment claims in the past week, Iowa Workforce Development reported Thursday.

Continuing weekly unemployment claims total 181,358, the department reported.

Iowa Workforce Development said 24,693 people filed unemployment claims between April 26 and May 2. That included 22,830 initial claims by people who work in Iowa and 1,863 claims filed by people who work in Iowa but live in another state.

State unemployment insurance benefit payments totaled $50,931,302 for the same week, the department said.

Also this week, a total of $111,378,600 in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefits was paid to 164,088 Iowans. Since April 4, a total of $439,126,200 has been paid.

A total of $10,046,089 was paid to 15,612 Iowans receiving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits.

The industries with the most claims were manufacturing, 6,053; industry not available, self-employed, independent contractors, 4,010; health care and social assistance, 2,988; accommodation and food services, 2,200; and retail trade, 1,768.

Gov. Kim Reynolds is continuing to allow more businesses to reopen, which may mean more Iowans going back to work.

On Wednesday, after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, Reynolds issued a proclamation permitting a variety of businesses to reopen, including dental services, drive-in movie theaters, tanning facilities and medical spas.

She also relaxed mitigation strategies in the 22 counties that remain under more strict orders because the virus is more widespread there.

Beginning Friday in those 22 counties — which include Linn, Johnson and Black Hawk — malls and retail stores may reopen provided they operate at no more than 50 percent of capacity, and fitness centers may reopen on an appointment basis only.

For more information on the total data for this week’s unemployment claims, visit https://www.iowalmi.gov/unemployment-insurance-statistics.

Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com




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Coronavirus closes the Iowa Writers’ House — for now

IOWA CITY — Once upon a time, there was a house in a city that loved literature.

It was a quaint, two-story home in the heart of the historic district with brick stairs, pale yellow siding, a hipped red roof and a rich history: Its original owner was Emma J. Harvat, who in 1922 became the nation’s first female mayor for a city of more than 10,000.

Nearly a century later, in 2014, Andrea Wilson was working in advertising in Florida and pined for a more “altruistic purpose” for her life. So she planned a return to Iowa, where she grew up in Columbus Junction.

But this time Wilson would live in Iowa City, known for — among other things — pioneering academic creative writing pursuits at the University of Iowa’s famed Writers’ Workshop.

Wilson wanted to write and found the idea of the historic Harvat house so charming she bought it “sight unseen” from down in Miami, aiming to run it as a bed-and-breakfast. But when she arrived, Wilson discovered a need in her new community she aimed to fill. It had a surprising dearth of literary resources for those outside the university.

“There wasn’t any place for the public to take a class or meet other writers or really be part of a writing community where people could just express their humanity through words,” she said. “It became my passion project — to try to create that for this community. I thought if anywhere should have a place like that, it would be America’s only UNESCO City of Literature at the time.”

So in March 2015, Wilson debuted Iowa City’s first community-based literary center for writers — or those aspiring. She had hoped to open a communal writing space closer to downtown but didn’t have the funding. So she gave her home a third identity: the Iowa Writers’ House.

She continued to live there and maintain her bed-and-breakfast business, which funded the writing endeavor and kept its cozy corridors bustling with interesting characters.

Famed visiting writers included Leslie Jamison, American novelist and essayist with works on the New York Times bestseller list; Hope Edelman, whose six non-fiction books have published in 17 countries and translated in 11 languages; Alison Bechdel, an American cartoonist and MacArthur fellow; and Piedad Bonnett Velez, Colombian poet, playwright and novelist of international acclaim.

And over the years, the Iowa Writers’ House connected, served and motivated thousands with its workshops, seminars, readings and summer camps. It offered editing services, founded a Bicultural Iowa Writers’ Fellowship, and — among other things — inspired a growing network of friends and creatives to value their own stories and the stories of others.

“I said yes to everything anyone ever asked of me,” Wilson said. “We gave tours. I received visiting scholars. We hosted dinners for visiting poets and writers for the university. And a lot of that was all volunteer. We never had a steady funding stream like most literary centers do.”

So when the coronavirus in March reached Iowa City, later shuttering storefronts, canceling events, curtailing travel plans and crippling the economy, the Iowa Writers’ House momentum stopped, too.

“Once COVID hit, because all of our programming is live and people come to the house, we had to cancel it,” Wilson said.

She dropped most of the organization’s spring season. She lost all her projected bed-and-breakfast business. And in a message posted to the Iowa Writers’ House website last month, Wilson announced her hard but unavoidable news.

“As the situation pushes on, and with no programming in the foreseeable future, we must make drastic changes,” she wrote. “Organizations must weather the storm or adapt, and in the case of this little organization with a big heart, evolution is the only option.”

And so after five years of intimate conversations, communal meals, singing, laughing, crying and lots and lots of writing and reading — all done in the shadow of Harvat — the organization is leaving the historic space and “taking a break to assess our mission and consider our best options for the future.”

Wilson said she plans to focus on her own writing. And the Bicultural Iowa Writers’ Fellowship program will continue — allowing for the release later this year of a third volume of “We the Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa,” including six new authors with multilingual stories of living in Iowa.

News of the goodbye — at least for now — has been met with an outpouring of support and testimonials of the impact the Iowa Writers’ House has had,

“I grew up without a writing community, and it was a very lonely experience,” Erin Casey wrote to Wilson after learning of its pause.

Casey — on the Iowa Writers’ House team and director of The Writers’ Rooms, an offshoot of the house — said her involvement in the project shaped not only her career but her personal growth.

“You, and the Iowa Writers’ House, helped me become a stronger person who felt deserving of companionship, respect, and love,” she wrote. “Watching the house grow, the workshops fill, and the stories come in about how much the IWH touched people’s lives added to the joy. I finally found a place to call home.”

Casey said that while the future is unknown, its legacy is not.

“The IWH will live on in the hearts of the people you touched,” she wrote. “Writers have found friends, support, guidance …”

Although the project isn’t getting a fairy-tale ending, Wilson said the story isn’t over.

“The organization is leaving the space. I’m leaving the space. We’re going on an organizational break so we can determine what a sustainable future might be,” she said. “But it’s really the end of a chapter. And we don’t know what the next chapter will be.”

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com




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Tyson outbreak: Short closure but enduring grief

As the coronavirus spread from the nation’s meatpacking plants to the broader communities where they are located, it burned through a modest duplex in Waterloo.

In the downstairs unit lived Jim Orvis, 65, a beloved friend and uncle who worked in the laundry department at the Tyson Foods pork processing facility, the largest employer in Waterloo. Upstairs was Arthur Scott, a 51-year-old father who was getting his life on track after a prison term for drugs. He worked 25 miles away at the Tyson dog treats factory in Independence.

The two men were not well acquainted. But both fell ill and died last month within days of each other from COVID-19 — casualties of an outbreak linked to the Waterloo plant that spread across the city of 68,000 people.

Similar spread has happened in other communities where the economy centers on raising hogs and cattle and processing their meat, including the hot spots of Grand Island, Neb., and Worthington, Minn.

The virus is “devastating everything,” duplex owner Jose Garcia, who received notification two days apart from his deceased tenants’ relatives, said recently. “These two guys were here last week. Now they are gone. It’s crazy.”

He said it’s possible one of the men infected the other because they shared an entryway, or that they each contracted the virus separately at their workplaces.

The virus threatens the communities’ most vulnerable populations, including low-income workers and their extended families.

“They’re afraid of catching the virus. They’re afraid of spreading it to family members. Some of them are afraid of dying,” said the Rev. Jim Callahan, of the Church of St. Mary in Worthington, a city of 13,000 that has attracted immigrants from across the globe to work at the JBS pork plant.

“One guy said to me, ‘I risked my life coming here. I never thought something that I can’t see could take me out.’ ”

In Grand Island, an outbreak linked to a JBS beef plant that is the city’s largest employer spread rapidly across the rural central Nebraska region, killing more than three dozen people. Many of the dead were elderly residents of long-term care facilities who had relatives or friends employed at the plant.

In Waterloo, local officials blamed Tyson for endangering not only its workers and their relatives but everyone else who leaves home to work or get groceries.

They were furious with the state and federal governments for failing to intervene and for pushing hard to reopen the plant days after public pressure helped idle it.

“We were failed by people who put profit margins and greed before people, predominantly brown people, predominantly immigrants, predominantly people who live in lower socioeconomic quarters,” said Jonathan Grieder, a high school social studies teacher who serves on Waterloo’s City Council. “This is going to be with us for so long. There are going to be very deep scars in our community.”

Grieder cried as he recounted how one of his former students, 19, lost her father to the coronavirus and has been left to raise two younger siblings. Their mother died of cancer last September.

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said he first became concerned after touring the Tyson plant April 10 and witnessing inadequate social distancing and a lack of personal protective equipment. As hundreds of workers began getting sick or staying home out of fear, Thompson joined the mayor and local officials in asking Tyson to close the plant temporarily on April 16.

But Tyson, with support from Gov. Kim Reynolds, waited until April 22 to announce that step after the outbreak intensified. The company warned of the significant economic consequences even a temporary shutdown would create.

The plant, which can process 19,500 hogs per day, resumed limited production this past week.

First, Tyson invited local officials and some employees inside for tours to show the new safety precautions, including plastic shields and more space between workers.

This time, Thompson said he was “reserved in my optimism” that worker safety would be a priority at the plant.

Although Tyson has declined to say how many of the plant’s 2,800 workers had been infected, state health officials announced last week that 444 — or 17 percent — had the virus.

In three weeks, Black Hawk County’s cases skyrocketed from 62 to at least 1,450, or more than 1 percent of the county population. Deaths because of the virus rose from zero to at least 15. Ninety percent of the cases are “attributed or related to the plant,” the county’s public health director said.

Thompson said the plant’s outbreak decimated the community’s “first line of defense” and allowed the virus to spread to nursing homes and the jail he oversees.

“These are the places we did not want to fight the COVID-19 virus,” he said.

The losses mounted.

A refugee from Bosnia died days after falling sick while working on the Tyson production line, leaving behind her heartbroken husband.

The virus also took an intellectually disabled man who died at 73, years after escaping forced labor at a turkey plant and retiring to Waterloo.

Scott, who went by the nickname Dontae, was planning to reunite in June with two teenage children he had not seen in person since he was incarcerated on federal drug charges in 2011.

A former small-time heroin distributor who suffered from addiction, he and his wife divorced during his prison term, and she moved to Mississippi with the children.

Since his 2018 release, friends said he was doing well and rebuilding relationships.

Scott told his daughter, Destiny Proctor, 18, that he suspected he became infected at the Tyson pet food factory, which has stayed open under federal guidance classifying the industry as critical infrastructure.

Proctor and her 15-year-old brother were looking forward to living with their dad this summer. Instead, their final talk was a video call from a hospital where he struggled to talk.

“It was so, so sad,” Proctor, who described her father as funny and caring and frequently sending her cards and gifts, said of their final call. “He told me he couldn’t breathe.”




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Flexsteel to close Dubuque plant, idling 200

An Eastern Iowa furniture manufacturer will permanently close two plants, laying off about 370 employees as it drops two lines of business.

Flexsteel Industries will close a factory in Dubuque with 200 employees that manufactures products for the recreational vehicle industry.

The publicly traded company also will close a plant in Starkville, Miss., that produces products for the RV and hospitality industries and employs about 170 people.

In a news release, Flexsteel said its decision to stop manufacturing RV and hospitality furniture was due to rapidly declining customer demand and changing market conditions resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Flexsteel said the two markets already had entered a cyclical decline before the effects of the pandemic occurred.

“It has become clear that what was thought to be a short-term hit to these two already challenged businesses will now extend well into the future and will likely not return to pre-pandemic levels for some time,” said Jerry Dittmer, Flexsteel president and CEO. “This pandemic has been unforgiving to many companies, including ours. We find ourselves making these hard decisions as we attempt to navigate these uncharted business conditions.”

The Dubuque and Starkville plants temporarily were shut down in late March due to sudden drops in demand as many of Flexsteel’s customers shut down in the wake of the pandemic.

Dittmer said the company will be working with its work force, customers and suppliers to determine a feasible ramp-down plan. While it is anticipated that both facilities could close as early as June, the date may fluctuate sooner or later based on business conditions.

Dittmer said the company will increase its focus on home furnishings, e-commerce and workspace solutions.




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How to Foster Real-Time Client Engagement During Moderated Research

When we conduct moderated research, like user interviews or usability tests, for our clients, we encourage them to observe as many sessions as possible. We find when clients see us interview their users, and get real-time responses, they’re able to learn about the needs of their users in real-time and be more active participants in the process. One way we help clients feel engaged with the process during remote sessions is to establish a real-time communication backchannel that empowers clients to flag responses they’d like to dig into further and to share their ideas for follow-up questions.

There are several benefits to establishing a communication backchannel for moderated sessions:

  • Everyone on the team, including both internal and client team members, can be actively involved throughout the data collection process rather than waiting to passively consume findings.
  • Team members can identify follow-up questions in real-time which allows the moderator to incorporate those questions during the current session, rather than just considering them for future sessions.
  • Subject matter experts can identify more detailed and specific follow-up questions that the moderator may not think to ask.
  • Even though the whole team is engaged, a single moderator still maintains control over the conversation which creates a consistent experience for the participant.

If you’re interested in creating your own backchannel, here are some tips to make the process work smoothly:

  • Use the chat tool that is already being used on the project. In most cases, we use a joint Slack workspace for the session backchannel but we’ve also used Microsoft Teams.
  • Create a dedicated channel like #moderated-sessions. Conversation in this channel should be limited to backchannel discussions during sessions. This keeps the communication consolidated and makes it easier for the moderator to stay focused during the session.
  • Keep communication limited. Channel participants should ask basic questions that are easy to consume quickly. Supplemental commentary and analysis should not take place in the dedicated channel.
  • Use emoji responses. The moderator can add a quick thumbs up to indicate that they’ve seen a question.

Introducing backchannels for communication during remote moderated sessions has been a beneficial change to our research process. It not only provides an easy way for clients to stay engaged during the data collection process but also increases the moderator’s ability to focus on the most important topics and to ask the most useful follow-up questions.




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CLI Equivalents for Common MAMP PRO and Sequel Pro Tasks

Working on website front ends I sometimes use MAMP PRO to manage local hosts and Sequel Pro to manage databases. Living primarily in my text editor, a terminal, and a browser window, moving to these click-heavy dedicated apps can feel clunky. Happily, the tasks I have most frequently turned to those apps for —starting and stopping servers, creating new hosts, and importing, exporting, deleting, and creating databases— can be done from the command line.

I still pull up MAMP PRO if I need to change a host's PHP version or work with its other more specialized settings, or Sequel Pro to quickly inspect a database, but for the most part I can stay on the keyboard and in my terminal. Here's how:

Command Line MAMP PRO

You can start and stop MAMP PRO's servers from the command line. You can even do this when the MAMP PRO desktop app isn't open.

Note: MAMP PRO's menu icon will not change color to reflect the running/stopped status when the status is changed via the command line.

  • Start the MAMP PRO servers:
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd startServers
  • Stop the MAMP PRO servers:
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd stopServers
  • Create a host (replace host_name and root_path):
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd createHost host_name root_path

MAMP PRO-friendly Command Line Sequel Pro

Note: if you don't use MAMP PRO, just replace the /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql with mysql.

In all of the following commands, replace username with your user name (locally this is likely root) and database_name with your database name. The -p (password) flag with no argument will trigger an interactive password prompt. This is more secure than including your password in the command itself (like -pYourPasswordHere). Of course, if you're using the default password root is not particular secure to begin with so you might just do -pYourPasswordHere.

Setting the -h (host) flag to localhost or 127.0.0.1 tells mysql to look at what's on localhost. With the MAMP PRO servers running, that will be the MAMP PRO databases.

# with the MAMP PRO servers running, these are equivalent:
# /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h 127.0.0.1 other_options
# and
# /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost other_options

/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql mysql_options # enter. opens an interactive mysql session
mysql> some command; # don't forget the semicolon
mysql> exit;
  • Create a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` with your username, which is `root` by default
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p -e "create database database_name"

or

# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p # and then enter
mysql> create database database_name; # don't forget the semicolon
mysql> exit

    MAMP PRO's databases are stored in /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db so to confirm that it worked you can

ls /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db
# will output the available mysql versions. For example I have
mysql56_2018-11-05_16-25-13     mysql57

# If it isn't clear which one you're after, open the main MAMP PRO and click
# on the MySQL "servers and services" item. In my case it shows "Version: 5.7.26"

# Now look in the relevant MySQL directory
ls /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db/mysql57
# the newly created database should be in the list
  • Delete a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p -e "drop database database_name"
  • Export a dump of a local database. Note that this uses mysqldump not mysql.
# to export an uncompressed file
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p database_name > the/output/path.sql

# to export a compressed file
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p database_name | gzip -c > the/output/path.gz

  • Export a local dump from an external database over SSH. Note that this uses mysqldump not mysql.

# replace `ssh-user`, `ssh_host`, `mysql_user`, `database_name`, and the output path

# to end up with an uncompressed file
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysqldump -u mysql_user -p database_name | gzip -c" | gunzip > the/output/path.sql

# to end up with a compressed file
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysqldump -u mysql_user -p database_name | gzip -c" > the/output/path.gz
  • Import a local database dump into a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p database_name < the/dump/path.sql
  • Import a local database dump into a remote database over SSH. Use care with this one. But if you are doing it with Sequel Pro —maybe you are copying a Craft site's database from a production server to a QA server— you might as well be able to do it on the command line.
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysql -u username -p remote_database_name" < the/local/dump/path.sql


For me, using the command line instead of the MAMP PRO and Sequel Pro GUI means less switching between keyboard and mouse, less opening up GUI features that aren't typically visible on my screen, and generally better DX. Give it a try! And while MAMP Pro's CLI is limited to the essentials, command line mysql of course knows no limits. If there's something else you use Sequel Pro for, you may be able to come up with a mysql CLI equivalent you like even better.



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Social Icons Widget 4.0 — Now With a Social Icons Block for Gutenberg Included

In 2015 we launched Social Icons Widget by WPZOOM with the intent to provide WordPress users with a simple and easy-to-use widget for adding social links to their websites. With over 100k installs at the moment and continuous positive feedback from the users, it kept us motivated to constantly improve and keep updating this free plugin. Now, to keep the […]




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How to Foster Real-Time Client Engagement During Moderated Research

When we conduct moderated research, like user interviews or usability tests, for our clients, we encourage them to observe as many sessions as possible. We find when clients see us interview their users, and get real-time responses, they’re able to learn about the needs of their users in real-time and be more active participants in the process. One way we help clients feel engaged with the process during remote sessions is to establish a real-time communication backchannel that empowers clients to flag responses they’d like to dig into further and to share their ideas for follow-up questions.

There are several benefits to establishing a communication backchannel for moderated sessions:

  • Everyone on the team, including both internal and client team members, can be actively involved throughout the data collection process rather than waiting to passively consume findings.
  • Team members can identify follow-up questions in real-time which allows the moderator to incorporate those questions during the current session, rather than just considering them for future sessions.
  • Subject matter experts can identify more detailed and specific follow-up questions that the moderator may not think to ask.
  • Even though the whole team is engaged, a single moderator still maintains control over the conversation which creates a consistent experience for the participant.

If you’re interested in creating your own backchannel, here are some tips to make the process work smoothly:

  • Use the chat tool that is already being used on the project. In most cases, we use a joint Slack workspace for the session backchannel but we’ve also used Microsoft Teams.
  • Create a dedicated channel like #moderated-sessions. Conversation in this channel should be limited to backchannel discussions during sessions. This keeps the communication consolidated and makes it easier for the moderator to stay focused during the session.
  • Keep communication limited. Channel participants should ask basic questions that are easy to consume quickly. Supplemental commentary and analysis should not take place in the dedicated channel.
  • Use emoji responses. The moderator can add a quick thumbs up to indicate that they’ve seen a question.

Introducing backchannels for communication during remote moderated sessions has been a beneficial change to our research process. It not only provides an easy way for clients to stay engaged during the data collection process but also increases the moderator’s ability to focus on the most important topics and to ask the most useful follow-up questions.




cl

CLI Equivalents for Common MAMP PRO and Sequel Pro Tasks

Working on website front ends I sometimes use MAMP PRO to manage local hosts and Sequel Pro to manage databases. Living primarily in my text editor, a terminal, and a browser window, moving to these click-heavy dedicated apps can feel clunky. Happily, the tasks I have most frequently turned to those apps for —starting and stopping servers, creating new hosts, and importing, exporting, deleting, and creating databases— can be done from the command line.

I still pull up MAMP PRO if I need to change a host's PHP version or work with its other more specialized settings, or Sequel Pro to quickly inspect a database, but for the most part I can stay on the keyboard and in my terminal. Here's how:

Command Line MAMP PRO

You can start and stop MAMP PRO's servers from the command line. You can even do this when the MAMP PRO desktop app isn't open.

Note: MAMP PRO's menu icon will not change color to reflect the running/stopped status when the status is changed via the command line.

  • Start the MAMP PRO servers:
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd startServers
  • Stop the MAMP PRO servers:
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd stopServers
  • Create a host (replace host_name and root_path):
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd createHost host_name root_path

MAMP PRO-friendly Command Line Sequel Pro

Note: if you don't use MAMP PRO, just replace the /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql with mysql.

In all of the following commands, replace username with your user name (locally this is likely root) and database_name with your database name. The -p (password) flag with no argument will trigger an interactive password prompt. This is more secure than including your password in the command itself (like -pYourPasswordHere). Of course, if you're using the default password root is not particular secure to begin with so you might just do -pYourPasswordHere.

Setting the -h (host) flag to localhost or 127.0.0.1 tells mysql to look at what's on localhost. With the MAMP PRO servers running, that will be the MAMP PRO databases.

# with the MAMP PRO servers running, these are equivalent:
# /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h 127.0.0.1 other_options
# and
# /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost other_options

/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql mysql_options # enter. opens an interactive mysql session
mysql> some command; # don't forget the semicolon
mysql> exit;
  • Create a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` with your username, which is `root` by default
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p -e "create database database_name"

or

# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p # and then enter
mysql> create database database_name; # don't forget the semicolon
mysql> exit

    MAMP PRO's databases are stored in /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db so to confirm that it worked you can

ls /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db
# will output the available mysql versions. For example I have
mysql56_2018-11-05_16-25-13     mysql57

# If it isn't clear which one you're after, open the main MAMP PRO and click
# on the MySQL "servers and services" item. In my case it shows "Version: 5.7.26"

# Now look in the relevant MySQL directory
ls /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db/mysql57
# the newly created database should be in the list
  • Delete a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p -e "drop database database_name"
  • Export a dump of a local database. Note that this uses mysqldump not mysql.
# to export an uncompressed file
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p database_name > the/output/path.sql

# to export a compressed file
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p database_name | gzip -c > the/output/path.gz

  • Export a local dump from an external database over SSH. Note that this uses mysqldump not mysql.

# replace `ssh-user`, `ssh_host`, `mysql_user`, `database_name`, and the output path

# to end up with an uncompressed file
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysqldump -u mysql_user -p database_name | gzip -c" | gunzip > the/output/path.sql

# to end up with a compressed file
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysqldump -u mysql_user -p database_name | gzip -c" > the/output/path.gz
  • Import a local database dump into a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p database_name < the/dump/path.sql
  • Import a local database dump into a remote database over SSH. Use care with this one. But if you are doing it with Sequel Pro —maybe you are copying a Craft site's database from a production server to a QA server— you might as well be able to do it on the command line.
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysql -u username -p remote_database_name" < the/local/dump/path.sql


For me, using the command line instead of the MAMP PRO and Sequel Pro GUI means less switching between keyboard and mouse, less opening up GUI features that aren't typically visible on my screen, and generally better DX. Give it a try! And while MAMP Pro's CLI is limited to the essentials, command line mysql of course knows no limits. If there's something else you use Sequel Pro for, you may be able to come up with a mysql CLI equivalent you like even better.



  • Code
  • Front-end Engineering
  • Back-end Engineering

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Design checklist: What clients should provide their designer

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 […]




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The Cloud Is Just Someone Else's Computer

When we started Discourse in 2013, our server requirements were high:

  • 1GB RAM
  • modern, fast dual core CPU
  • speedy solid state drive with 20+ GB

I'm not talking about a cheapo shared cpanel server, either, I mean a dedicated virtual private server with those specifications.

We were OK with that,




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New Branding & Website Design Launched for Enterprise High School in Clearwater, Florida

We recently completed a full rebrand and website design project for Enterprise High School, a charter school located in Clearwater,...continue reading





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Emilia Clarke to Host Virtual Dinner With Donors Who Pledge Money for Coronavirus Relief

Today, the Game of Thrones star announced that 12 random people will get to win a virtual dinner with her. She’s asking people to donate money to her charity SameYou, which helps people heal from brain injuries and strokes. Pledges will be used to assist brain injury survivors in recuperating at home, who have been asked to leave hospitals to make room for coronavirus patients.




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The 2020 WordPress Plugin Hacking Debacle

By now, anyone who has the internet has heard about how hackers targeted WordPress plugins during January and February 2020. Quite understandably, this hack job left many WordPress users wary about the damage done. For one of the most prevalent website template providers on the planet, this was an eye-opener. This hack job was also […]




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Tips on developing creative websites that will wow your clients

Web designers: we’ve got fabulous news for you. With the global market expanding without limits, clients are more demanding than ever before. They understand that the highly competitive business realm requires creative websites. That’s good news: as competition increases, web development projects become more challenging. That’s good news for Be Theme too as it is […]

The post Tips on developing creative websites that will wow your clients appeared first on WebAppers.




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James Hansen’s Climate Bombshell: Dangerous Sea Level Rise Will Occur in Decades, Not Centuries

By Lauren McCauley Common Dreams Even scientists who question findings say ‘we ignore James Hansen at our peril.’ Dr. James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who is widely credited with being one of the first to raise concerns about human-caused … Continue reading




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After 30 Years Studying Climate, Scientist Declares: “I’ve Never Been as Worried as I Am Today”

By Jake Johnson Common Dreams And colleague says “global warming” no longer strong enough term. “Global heating is technically more correct because we are talking about changes in the energy balance of the planet.” Declaring that after three decades of … Continue reading




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Creative Marketing Strategies For Law Firms To Engage With Potential Clients

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How to Foster Real-Time Client Engagement During Moderated Research

When we conduct moderated research, like user interviews or usability tests, for our clients, we encourage them to observe as many sessions as possible. We find when clients see us interview their users, and get real-time responses, they’re able to learn about the needs of their users in real-time and be more active participants in the process. One way we help clients feel engaged with the process during remote sessions is to establish a real-time communication backchannel that empowers clients to flag responses they’d like to dig into further and to share their ideas for follow-up questions.

There are several benefits to establishing a communication backchannel for moderated sessions:

  • Everyone on the team, including both internal and client team members, can be actively involved throughout the data collection process rather than waiting to passively consume findings.
  • Team members can identify follow-up questions in real-time which allows the moderator to incorporate those questions during the current session, rather than just considering them for future sessions.
  • Subject matter experts can identify more detailed and specific follow-up questions that the moderator may not think to ask.
  • Even though the whole team is engaged, a single moderator still maintains control over the conversation which creates a consistent experience for the participant.

If you’re interested in creating your own backchannel, here are some tips to make the process work smoothly:

  • Use the chat tool that is already being used on the project. In most cases, we use a joint Slack workspace for the session backchannel but we’ve also used Microsoft Teams.
  • Create a dedicated channel like #moderated-sessions. Conversation in this channel should be limited to backchannel discussions during sessions. This keeps the communication consolidated and makes it easier for the moderator to stay focused during the session.
  • Keep communication limited. Channel participants should ask basic questions that are easy to consume quickly. Supplemental commentary and analysis should not take place in the dedicated channel.
  • Use emoji responses. The moderator can add a quick thumbs up to indicate that they’ve seen a question.

Introducing backchannels for communication during remote moderated sessions has been a beneficial change to our research process. It not only provides an easy way for clients to stay engaged during the data collection process but also increases the moderator’s ability to focus on the most important topics and to ask the most useful follow-up questions.




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CLI Equivalents for Common MAMP PRO and Sequel Pro Tasks

Working on website front ends I sometimes use MAMP PRO to manage local hosts and Sequel Pro to manage databases. Living primarily in my text editor, a terminal, and a browser window, moving to these click-heavy dedicated apps can feel clunky. Happily, the tasks I have most frequently turned to those apps for —starting and stopping servers, creating new hosts, and importing, exporting, deleting, and creating databases— can be done from the command line.

I still pull up MAMP PRO if I need to change a host's PHP version or work with its other more specialized settings, or Sequel Pro to quickly inspect a database, but for the most part I can stay on the keyboard and in my terminal. Here's how:

Command Line MAMP PRO

You can start and stop MAMP PRO's servers from the command line. You can even do this when the MAMP PRO desktop app isn't open.

Note: MAMP PRO's menu icon will not change color to reflect the running/stopped status when the status is changed via the command line.

  • Start the MAMP PRO servers:
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd startServers
  • Stop the MAMP PRO servers:
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd stopServers
  • Create a host (replace host_name and root_path):
/Applications/MAMP PRO.app/Contents/MacOS/MAMP PRO cmd createHost host_name root_path

MAMP PRO-friendly Command Line Sequel Pro

Note: if you don't use MAMP PRO, just replace the /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql with mysql.

In all of the following commands, replace username with your user name (locally this is likely root) and database_name with your database name. The -p (password) flag with no argument will trigger an interactive password prompt. This is more secure than including your password in the command itself (like -pYourPasswordHere). Of course, if you're using the default password root is not particular secure to begin with so you might just do -pYourPasswordHere.

Setting the -h (host) flag to localhost or 127.0.0.1 tells mysql to look at what's on localhost. With the MAMP PRO servers running, that will be the MAMP PRO databases.

# with the MAMP PRO servers running, these are equivalent:
# /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h 127.0.0.1 other_options
# and
# /Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost other_options

/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql mysql_options # enter. opens an interactive mysql session
mysql> some command; # don't forget the semicolon
mysql> exit;
  • Create a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` with your username, which is `root` by default
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p -e "create database database_name"

or

# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p # and then enter
mysql> create database database_name; # don't forget the semicolon
mysql> exit

    MAMP PRO's databases are stored in /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db so to confirm that it worked you can

ls /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db
# will output the available mysql versions. For example I have
mysql56_2018-11-05_16-25-13     mysql57

# If it isn't clear which one you're after, open the main MAMP PRO and click
# on the MySQL "servers and services" item. In my case it shows "Version: 5.7.26"

# Now look in the relevant MySQL directory
ls /Library/Application Support/appsolute/MAMP PRO/db/mysql57
# the newly created database should be in the list
  • Delete a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p -e "drop database database_name"
  • Export a dump of a local database. Note that this uses mysqldump not mysql.
# to export an uncompressed file
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p database_name > the/output/path.sql

# to export a compressed file
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysqldump -h localhost -u username -p database_name | gzip -c > the/output/path.gz

  • Export a local dump from an external database over SSH. Note that this uses mysqldump not mysql.

# replace `ssh-user`, `ssh_host`, `mysql_user`, `database_name`, and the output path

# to end up with an uncompressed file
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysqldump -u mysql_user -p database_name | gzip -c" | gunzip > the/output/path.sql

# to end up with a compressed file
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysqldump -u mysql_user -p database_name | gzip -c" > the/output/path.gz
  • Import a local database dump into a local database
# with the MAMP PRO servers running
# replace `username` (`root` by default) and `database_name`
/Applications/MAMP/Library/bin/mysql -h localhost -u username -p database_name < the/dump/path.sql
  • Import a local database dump into a remote database over SSH. Use care with this one. But if you are doing it with Sequel Pro —maybe you are copying a Craft site's database from a production server to a QA server— you might as well be able to do it on the command line.
ssh ssh_user@ssh_host "mysql -u username -p remote_database_name" < the/local/dump/path.sql


For me, using the command line instead of the MAMP PRO and Sequel Pro GUI means less switching between keyboard and mouse, less opening up GUI features that aren't typically visible on my screen, and generally better DX. Give it a try! And while MAMP Pro's CLI is limited to the essentials, command line mysql of course knows no limits. If there's something else you use Sequel Pro for, you may be able to come up with a mysql CLI equivalent you like even better.



  • Code
  • Front-end Engineering
  • Back-end Engineering

cl

Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Recycle Bin Notification Icon

Welcome back to another Illustrator based tutorial, in which we’re going to learn how to create a recycle bin notification icon, using nothing more than a couple of basic geometric shapes that we’re going to adjust here and there. So, assuming you already have the software running in the background, bring it up and let’s […]

The post Illustrator Tutorial: How to Create a Recycle Bin Notification Icon appeared first on Bittbox.




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Squared Circle Pit #54 - AVATAR Frontman Johannes Eckerström Talks Wrestling Unlocking His Love of Metal Frontmen

We're back and this week, we're talking to Avatar's colorful frontman Johannes Eckerström. If you've ever seen the band live,...

The post Squared Circle Pit #54 - AVATAR Frontman Johannes Eckerström Talks Wrestling Unlocking His Love of Metal Frontmen appeared first on Metal Injection.







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Humanity ‘Sleepwalking Towards the Edge of a Cliff’: 60% of Earth’s Wildlife Wiped Out Since 1970

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Leonardo DiCaprio Premiers “Before the Flood” Climate Change Documentary

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‘A World Without Clouds. Think About That a Minute’: New Study Details Possibility of Devastating Climate Feedback Loop

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “We face a stark choice [between] radical, disruptive changes to our physical world or radical, disruptive changes to our political and economic systems to avoid those outcomes.” As people across the globe mobilize to demand … Continue reading




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Humanity ‘Sleepwalking Towards the Edge of a Cliff’: 60% of Earth’s Wildlife Wiped Out Since 1970

By Julia Conley Common Dreams “Nature is not a ‘nice to have’—it is our life-support system.” Scientists from around the world issued a stark warning to humanity Tuesday in a semi-annual report on the Earth’s declining biodiversity, which shows that … Continue reading




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After 30 Years Studying Climate, Scientist Declares: “I’ve Never Been as Worried as I Am Today”

By Jake Johnson Common Dreams And colleague says “global warming” no longer strong enough term. “Global heating is technically more correct because we are talking about changes in the energy balance of the planet.” Declaring that after three decades of … Continue reading




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‘A World Without Clouds. Think About That a Minute’: New Study Details Possibility of Devastating Climate Feedback Loop

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams “We face a stark choice [between] radical, disruptive changes to our physical world or radical, disruptive changes to our political and economic systems to avoid those outcomes.” As people across the globe mobilize to demand … Continue reading




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Intercellar - Accidental Anomalies of Particle Wallpapers

Intercellar - Accidental Anomalies of Particle Wallpapers

AoiroStudioMay 07, 2020

Intercellar is a series of free wallpapers designed 'by accident' by Crtomir Just. I mentioned 'accident' because 'the images are the results of errors in particle simulations'. I think they are super stunning and crispy. We took the liberty to share Crtomir's entire collection and their 'download links'. You can download the 8K wallpapers, this feature is a reminder of what we used to do back in the days. We are definitely living in different times but it's always a nice reminder to remember what we were made of.

These images are the results of errors in particle simulations. While accidentally trying to scrub through the timeline, the otherwise predictable simulation explodes and is forced to take strange turns by blindly filling the gap between missing frames.

About Crtomir Just

Crtomir is an art director and 3D artist based in Murska Sobota, Slovenia, his work slightly shifted and it’s plain awesome. Make sure to follow his work on Behance and store.

 

 

 

 

 




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Inform user about automatic comment closing time

To prevent spammers from flooding old articles with useless comments you can set WordPress to close comments after a certain […]




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Website Inspiration: CleanShot X

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Article: 25 Beautifully Dark-Schemed Landing Pages for Inspiration

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Can Business Save the World From Climate Change?

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