Is it finally our time?

Let’s be honest… we’ve been on top of the food chain for a while now.

And we’ve done some pretty cool things – discover agriculture, build megacities, perfect our guacamole recipe…

Some geologists think we’re such a big deal that a name change is under consideration. Currently, we live in the Holocene epoch, which began over 11,000 years ago.

Now the more flattering Anthropocene may be formally proposed in our honor in 2016.

Our very own epoch! Sounds rather fitting.

Although this might seem like a species-wide vanity project, considering all the carbon emissions, radiation, and plastics we’ve dispersed, there’s solid evidence that we’ve changed the Earth for good.

Scholars are debating when the period should start. The line has been drawn anywhere from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution to somewhere in the distant future.

Changing the time scale is a big decision. As one author puts it,

“The geological time scale is as fundamental to the discipline as the periodic table is to chemistry.” 

Science may be ready to formally acknowledge that this is our time. Now, it’s up to us to make the most of it.

Sustainability Marketing & Outreach Intern

at UMBC Office of Administration and Finance

1. Drive awareness on sustainability efforts, including the new vegetated roof at the Administration Building, throughout campus.
2. Work in partnership with the Administration to engage and educate their peers about environmental sustainability and climate change including components of science, social justice, and social responsibility,
3. Engage and educate their peers about UMBC’s commitment to becoming a leading campus in sustainability.
4. Assist the Climate Change Task Force in facilitating behavior changes throughout the community to ensure UMBC is carbon-neutral by 2050, through participation in broader working groups.

Designmodo have just released their latest product, Startup Framework, designed to build sites for new startups and 9 months in the making, it’s built on a modular component basis, enabling you to rapidly combine its parts into hundreds of different combinations.

Based on Twitter Bootstrap, the Startup Framework’s components use a single consistent style, and include Designmodo’s hugely popular Flat UI. What’s more, existing Flat UI Pro customers, can extend the framework by copying and pasting Flat UI Pro into the Flat UI Free folder. The framework’s code has been carefully constructed based on best-practices and is mobile-friendly right out of the box.

As the name suggests, the Startup Framework will principally be of interest to startups that need a site fast and can’t afford the cost or time of a professional designer. To aid with this, Designmodo have also released Generator, their drag and drop website builder for Startup Framework. Generator allows you to create projects by dragging different components from its extensive list and dropping them into your work area. When you’re happy with your design you can export the design to HTML, CSS and Less. It’s a great solution for in-house design.

When asked what inspired Startup Design Framework, Designmodo replied: 

Startup Framework was a logical continuation of all our previous products. We were inspired by the desire to make something new, very beautiful and useful. That’s why we developed the concept of website creation in blocks, and not in website elements. We believe it is more efficient, without altering the overall design of the page and final website.

Designmodo are also keen to increase the number of components in the framework:

We are already preparing new blocks and new samples to be implemented in Startup Framework. We will continue developing new designs and improve old ones so Startup Framework will stay up-to-date and on-trend.

And the future sounds bright, with Designmodo planning future revisions:

I won’t disclose all our plans, but we are going to make something unprecedented in terms of the framework’s functioning. Designers and developers will like that innovation, and it will make project customization even easier.

Plenty of designers are already using Startup Framework with Generator to produce some fantastic websites. Just take a look at what’s possible:

Included in Startup Framework are 25 design samples, which are actually Bootstrap templates. You’re free to use these ‘as is’ or, more usefully, as the basis for fast-tracking your own design. A demo version has also been produced that uses eleven components and two samples, Designmodo have even included a couple of Apple product shots, a Macbook image and an iPad image; ideal for showing off your application to prospective customers—it’s a great way to learn the framework quickly.

Designmodo have created a coupon code for WebdesignerDepot readers, just enter wddepot20 at the checkout for a 20% discount.

[-- This is a sponsored post for Designmodo --] 

Designed To Sell: The Unconventional Guide to Creative Freedom – 50% off!

Author Sarah Lewis discusses some counterintuitive pathways to breakthroughs.

The path to a great achievement—whether it is a technological innovation or a masterwork of art—is almost never direct. On the contrary, creative breakthroughs often come after wrenching failures. That idea animates The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, a book by Sarah Lewis, an art curator who is completing her PhD at Yale. Based on 150 interviews with artists and explorers as well as scientists and entrepreneurs, the book is neither a self-help manual nor a bundle of case studies. It’s a meditation on accomplishments that come from seemingly improbable circumstances and the connections between art and science. Lewis spoke with MIT Technology Review’s deputy editor, Brian Bergstein.

Why can't I edit my tweets?! Twitter should allow that.

It's so simple right? CRUD apps (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) are app-building 101! What a gross oversight. But wait. Just as a fun nerdy little exercise, let's think about what a feature like this might take for the Twitter team. I don't work there or have any inside knowledge, so this is all hypothetical for the sake of understanding app development.

• Should you be able to edit any tweet you've ever tweeted at any time?
• Or should you just have a few minutes to do it until it locks?
• Do you offer this to everyone? Opt-in? Opt-out?
• Should you be able to edit tweets or direct messages also?
• What does it look like to edit a tweet? Can it be simple and obvious? Does it need additional UI? How do you expose that UI? Is it worth the extra UI?
• Does the tweet go out to the public timeline immediately or after the editing grace period?
• What if someone favorites a tweet and it is later edited? Does it shed the favorites? E.g. a tweet that originally said "I like pancakes!" could be later edited to "People that favorited this like clubbing seals!" (or much worse).
• Same question, with retweets. And with replies.
• Are there any social or moral implications of this?
• How does tweet editing affect the overall feel of using Twitter? Would a time delay affect that feel? Would people think of tweets differently?
• Does tweet editing make hacked accounts an even more dangerous prospect?
• How do third party clients handle tweet editing? Is there a public API for it? How complex is that?
• Or do you only offer tweet editing through the web? How does that move go over with developers?
• How do you ensure third party editing offers an up-to-par UX? Does that matter?
• If tweets aren't time-delayed, how do you handle edited tweets through the API? - How do you tell third-party clients to update a tweet they are currently displaying rather than show a new one?
• Where do edited tweets go? Back on top of the timeline, or stay where they are?
• Should it be visually displayed that a tweet has been edited? How do you enforce that in third-party apps?
• Are there legal implications here? What if someone tweets something illegal and then changes it to something legal?
• Does tweet editing open up any kind of bad guy behavior? What kind of mis-use can be expected?
• What are the infrastructural concerns? Are all revisions saved? How much additional web server and database load is this?
• Do you throttle editing like you presumably do for tweet creation?
• How actually requested is this feature? Is it just a vocal minority?
• What's in it for Twitter if they go down this path? Happier users? Is that a guarantee?
• How much time, effort, and money is this going to take? (Design, development, UX, testing, etc) Are they prepared to support this for the life of the product?
• Is the team into the idea or would it be grueling and not-fun?

We could probably double that list on our own and that's just looking from the outside. Software is tough. Being smart and responsible with the features of that software is even tougher.

Features Are Complicated is a post from CSS-Tricks

Imagine the scene — you walk into a church, expecting simple pews and a cross at the altar.

Instead, you’re faced with a fight ring surrounded by bleachers filled with families.

Two men lumber down to the ring — their biceps are splattered with tattoos of crosses and windy Bible verses.

Welcome to Fight Church, where you “can love your neighbor as yourself and then at the same time knee him in the face as hard as you can.”

This new documentary (premiering in Boston on April 24th) explores various churches that add Mixed Martial Arts  to their activities bulletin, alongside yoga classes and Bible study.

In the trailer, one pastor explains his feelings about the feminization of Mainstream Christianity.

While Jesus never endorsed violence, Biblical legends like David and Samson were renown for their physical strength.

MMA attracts the stereotypical “tough guy” to a church where he might not feel as welcome when services include feel-good messages and soft guitar music.

The directors intend for the film to generate conversation about the connection between fighting and faith – another example of post-modern Christianity in our society.

Paul Burress is one of the fighting pastors featured in the film. His father was also a pastor and ran a martial arts program called “Karate for Christ.” Burress described the program in an interview with FOX Sports:

We would break bricks and bend nails and we’d play a game called ‘Kill the Preacher’ where we’d let someone put a knife to our throat and we’d take it out of their hands and stuff like that.

It sounds silly, but Burress said it was a great way to attract people to church who wouldn’t go otherwise.

Winners at the matches first thank God when they are finished fighting and feel more comfortable at church knowing they can be the same person in and out of the sanctuary.

Burress explained how people shouldn’t feel obligated to act differently from who they are when they walk into church:

I don’t think you should be ‘this is my Sunday me, and this is my Monday-Friday me’.  Like God made you… for a reason.  If he made you a computer guy, you be the best computer guy for God and use it for him… He made me a fighter so I’ll fight for him.

What do you think?

Is this new type of Fight Church a holy outreach or wholly illogical?