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nine cool things on a tuesday (stay home, save lives edition)

No doubt — this is a crazy, scary, sad, worrying time for everyone. Most of us are sheltering in place and trying our best to adjust to a new reality. While we are not performing heroic deeds like all the frontline healthcare workers and first responders, grocery store employees and delivery drivers, we can all … Continue reading nine cool things on a tuesday (stay home, save lives edition)




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[spicy guest post] Pippa Park’s Favorite Korean Stew by Erin Yun

So pleased to welcome NYC author Erin Yun to the blog today. Her debut middle grade novel, Pippa Park Raises Her Game (Fabled Films Press, 2020), is a contemporary reimagining of the Dickens’s classic Great Expectations.     Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her … Continue reading [spicy guest post] Pippa Park’s Favorite Korean Stew by Erin Yun




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Again, the Maltese judicial system is proven to have collapsed and now it also seems ridiculous



Today one can read in The Times of a man being sentenced to one month in prison and fined 233€ for illegal gambling. The fantastic and almost unbelievable fact is that the crime was committed in 2001 and the man pleaded guilty in 2002. The man had to wait ten years to be punished for a crime he had admitted almost immediately! To make this even more surprising (well, maybe not so surprising; this is probably typically for the judicial system in Malta) the judge found that the prosecution had failed to prove the allegations against the man, but, since he had admitted the crime the judge had to find him guilty. The Observer sincerely hopes that the latter is not true. In most other countries, with a more sophisticated and functioning judicial system than Malta, an admission is not enough to prove that a person has committed a crime.  When famous murders occur, quite many people come to the police and plead guilty. This is a well-known fact among Alphacriminologists. Probably and hopefully The Times has not published full details about why the judge had to find the man guilty.






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Histogram: You have to know the past to understand the present by Tomas Petricek

Histogram: You have to know the past to understand the present by Tomas Petricek, University of Kent

Programs are created through a variety of interactions. A programmer might write some code, run it interactively to check whether it works, use copy and paste, apply a refactoring or choose an item from an auto-complete list. Programming research often forgets about these and represents programs as the resulting text. Consequently, thinking about such interactions is often out of scope. This essay shifts focus from programs to a more interesting question of programming.

We represent programs as lists of interactions such as triggering an auto-complete and choosing an option, declaring a value, introducing a variable or evaluating a piece of code. We explore a number of consequences of this way of thinking about programs. First, if we create functions by writing concrete code using a sample input and applying a refactoring, we do not lose the sample input and can use it later for debugging. Second, if we treat executing code interactively as an interaction and store the results, we can later use this information to give more precise suggestions in auto-complete. Third, by moving away from a textual representation, we can display the same program as text, but also in a view inspired by spreadsheets. Fourth, we can let programmers create programs by directly interacting with live previews as those interactions can be recorded and as a part of program history.

We discuss the key ideas through examples in a simple programming environment for data exploration. Our focus in this essay is more on principles than on providing fine tuned user experience. We keep our environment more explicit, especially when this reveals what is happening behind the scenes. We aim to show that seeing programs as lists of interactions is a powerful change of perspective that can help us build better programming systems with novel features that make programming easier and more accessible. The data exploration environment in this interactive essay may not yet be that, but it gives a glimpse of the future.





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"She Saved Us From World War Three"

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Very few people in the science fiction community ever came face to face with Alice Sheldon, who wrote SF under the pseudonym James Tiptree, Jr, much less met her tarantulas. One of those very few was Gardner Dozois. When he sold his papers to UC Riverside (the proceeds went to keeping his wife, Susan Casper, alive for several years longer than would otherwise have happened), bookman Henry Wessells became aware of the correspondence between Sheldon and Dozois.

Now, Henry has created a chapbook, She Saved Us from World War Three, containing the two most significant letters from that correspondence. The first is from Sheldon, telling Gardner that the secret of her identity was about to go public and that she was not a man but a woman. The second is her relieved response to Gardner's assurance that they were still friends.

Which understates how Gardner felt about Sheldon/Tiptree. He was in awe of her as a writer and remained so after the murder-suicide that ended her life.

To go with the letters and give them some context, I interviewed Gardner about his friendship with Alice Sheldon and this introduction now forms the bulk of the chapbook.

Today is the publication date for She Saved Us from World War Three and it is currently available for sale. It costs $20, which is not cheap for twenty pages of prose but is cheap for a beautifully made limited edition chapbook with fold-out facsimiles of the letters themselves.

Those of you who need it know who you are. Me, I already have my copy. I'm going to dig up the oversized paperclip which Sheldon gave to Gardner  as a souvenir of their meeting and Gardner gave to me because souvenirs meant nothing to him and keep the two of them together. This is a very meaningful publication for me.

You can find ordering information here.


Above: The chapbook's cover. Photo by John DeChancie and used with his permission. John is a Mensch. I esteem him highly.


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Should college football players have draft flexibility? Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh thinks so

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh penned a two-page open letter advocating flexibility for college athletes looking to enter the NFL Draft.




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European slaves in the year 1000

Valerie Hansen has a new book just out: THE YEAR 1000: When Explorers Connected the World — and Globalization Began.  New York:  Scribner, 2020. A NYT review of Hansen's landmark volume is copied below, but let's first look at some interesting language notes concerning the background of the word for "slave" (Chapter 4 is on […]



  • Etymology
  • Language and business
  • Language and history
  • Language and travel


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Things every website should have

If you're brand new ot creating websites or blogs you may feel a little like a deer caught in the headlights of a truck when it comes to figuring out what things your site needs. There are thousands of things to choose from such as GIF files, videos, widgets, slide shows etc. But before you start getting carried away adding these things you need to add the basics, call them your core fundamentals if you will. Without these your site won't be as effective as what it could be, and won't attract the traffic that you want.




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How To Add A Favicon To Your Website

First off what is a favicon? If you look at the browser bar on this webpage just before the sites URL address is a small picture. When it comes to helping make your website or blog stand out there a huge benefit. They allow your readers to find your web pages easily if they have many browser windows and tabs open at once. If a visitor bookmarks your site in their favourites list the standard “e” icon is replaced by your picture helping your link stand out from the rest so they can return to visit. And they can also be used to help brand your site. Who would have thought a tiny 16x16 picture could help that much.




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12 Things Your First Aid Kit Should Have

When it comes to making a bug out bag, or having an emergency bag for long road trips, or camping, and hiking trips. One of if not the most important items you need for your emergency gear is a first aid kit. And while they can be bought almost anywhere, there contents can vary depending on there size or price range. Regardless of your budget there are some items you should always have present in your first aid kit. Here is a list of 12 things I recommend everyone have that aren’t always included in an off the shelf first aid kit.




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The Wolfman What Have You Done

I’m a huge fan of horror movies and movies about things that go bump in the night. The Wolfman is one of my favourites and one of the best werewolf movies to come out in a long time. For this video I was originally going to use the song Du Riechst So Gut (translated from German means you smell so good) by the band Rammstein.




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Leaving Comments - How To Get Noticed

One of the ways to get people to notice your site is to comment on other blogs and websites. The benefits of leaving good comments are that you not only get to add your two cents about a topic, you can also gain valuable links pointing to your site. Sounds easy right, and for the most part it is, but when selecting blogs or websites to comment on you need to consider some things. First try to find sites related to your niche, while you can comment on any site you want you stand a better chance of getting traffic from that site if it’s a related site. You also want these sites if possible to be on the number one page of Google for keywords you’re trying to rank for




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Crap Comments - How You Can Hurt Your Site By Leaving Bad Comments

Leaving comments on blogs and websites. It doesn’t matter if the site is a “do follow” or not, building links through comments can help get the word out about your site. Comments are also a good indicator if you’re doing something right and can give you great feedback. Of course in a perfect world every comment would be a good one, the reality is that at some point your going to get bad comments or comment vomit if you will. Self centered crap that’s there to only advertise their site, bash yours, and all other types of garbage that adds nothing of value.




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Can You Have Too Much Content (blog post)

I was recently asked this question “If I add content to my blog too fast does that mean Google will penalize my blog?” Google won’t penalize your website for adding a lot of content fast; in fact it’s the complete opposite. If you add content everyday to your blog or website it actually helps............




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14 Black Hat SEO Tricks To Avoid

Black hat SEO, if you’re not familiar with it, it’s a general term that covers everything that’s considered unethical or “cheating” to get your site ranked in the number one spots in the search engines. In the short term many of these tricks do work at getting your site the number 1 spot, in the long term however your site will be penalized, pushed down in search engine rankings, or your domain may be completely abandoned by them. And if your website is about trying to make money, or is part of a business this can have a serious impact. So how do you know what’s considered black hat seo if you’re brand new to the whole website or blogging game? Here is a list of 14 black hat seo tricks to avoid.............




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SEO Scams To Avoid

There are literally countless companies promising you top ranking for your niche, thousands of hits, and the ability to make you lots of money quickly. Sound too good to be true, chances are it is. There are thousands of SEO scammers out there peddling B.S and false promises in order to do one thing PART YOU WITH YOUR MONEY. These companies don’t care if it hurts your website and how well it could rank in the search engines. They don’t care if their hurting your business, they just want your cash and are willing to lie to get it............................... The reality is that SEO is not a get quick rich scheme; it takes hard work, lots of good content, patience, link building, and time to see results. This isn’t to say that all SEO companies are con artists out to rip you off; there are plenty of good ones.




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A Typical Email Scam To Avoid (Blog Post)

I get scam emails all the time, all claiming that I have untold riches waiting for me. All I need to do is fill out a simple form with either my credit card or social security information or simply send them a cheque to “release my money” It’s hard to imagine that anyone would buy into these scams, but they wouldn’t keep doing them if there wasn’t some poor sucker out there buying into it.




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4 Things To Avoid When Making Videos (Blog Post)

Go onto any site like Yahoo Answers and your going to see a lot of questions about YouTube. Questions like how to get more views, how to get your videos to the top of search results, how to be a YouTube partner, etc etc. However one of the most common is people asking others what they think of their videos. While some of these videos are good (I’m no video expert myself) most are well for lack of a better term crap. So here is a list of 4 things to avoid when making videos..........








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Should You Get A Nintendo Switch Lite If You Can’t Find Switch Availability? It Depends - Forbes

  1. Should You Get A Nintendo Switch Lite If You Can’t Find Switch Availability? It Depends  Forbes
  2. Nintendo Switch Lite is in stock at Amazon and Best Buy: Latest inventory update  CNET
  3. Best Switch Games So Far In 2020  Trusted Reviews
  4. Nintendo Switch Capture Cards: How to Record Video of Your Gameplay  Screen Rant
  5. View Full coverage on Google News











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Coronavirus restrictions to lift in NSW from Friday, but will not be following all National Cabinet measures - ABC News

  1. Coronavirus restrictions to lift in NSW from Friday, but will not be following all National Cabinet measures  ABC News
  2. Berejiklian's roadmap to freedom in NSW  Sydney Morning Herald
  3. Mother's Day state by state: What can and can't you do?  The Canberra Times
  4. Permission to mingle: NSW will ease lockdown laws on Friday  Daily Telegraph
  5. NSW to ease lockdown restrictions from Friday  The Age
  6. View Full coverage on Google News




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Who let the dogs out? A few Spaniards defy coronavirus lockdown

Under partial lockdown due to the spiraling coronavirus pandemic, Spaniards are allowed to leave home only for essential outings, walking a dog being one of them.




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Sex toy sales take off amid Colombia's coronavirus quarantine

Gerson Monje holds up his cellphone to proudly show off his online sex shop. A red banner reading "sold out!" is plastered across half of the products.




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Superheroes, from near and far, join Indonesia's coronavirus battle

Volunteers clad as Superman and Spider-Man sprayed disinfectant against the coronavirus on Indonesia's island of Java, flanking a colleague wearing the winged helmet of local superhero Gatotkaca who shouted, "Wear masks, wash hands and stay alert."




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President queries Tanzania coronavirus kits after goat test

Coronavirus test kits used in Tanzania were dismissed as faulty by President John Magufuli on Sunday, because he said they had returned positive results on samples taken from a goat and a pawpaw.




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Thailand's pet groomer reopens as new coronavirus cases slow

Chewy and Miley, both two-year-old Schnauzer dogs, are getting their hair cut at a groomer in Bangkok for the first time since the new coronavirus outbreak began in Thailand in January.




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Only the Brave Will Want to Sightsee on the Glassy Glacier Skywalk




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Crazy Russian Guy Puts Dog Gadgets to the Test so You Don't Have To









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Is AI rejecting your job application? Here’s how to avoid being digitally denied – and impress once in human hands

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.