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    1. Public shooting in Vienna (Allegedly terror attacks)

      Short Summary: On Monday, approximately 20:00 local time, public shootings occured at multiple places in Vienna, Austria. 4 deaths in total, one perp, 3 civilians. 15 people are severely injured,...

      Short Summary:

      • On Monday, approximately 20:00 local time, public shootings occured at multiple places in Vienna, Austria.
      • 4 deaths in total, one perp, 3 civilians. 15 people are severely injured, including one member of the police.
      • Attacker(s) is/were armed with a rifle and several handguns, and were wearing a dummy explosive vest.
      • The dead perpetrator has been investigated over the night, identified as a sympathisant of IS ("Islamic State"). There have been multiple arrests and house searches of the people surrounding this person by Austrian SWAT (Kobra).
      • Schools are closed on Tuesday (today).
      • In total, six places have been hit: Morzinplatz, Salzgries, Seitenstettengasse, Graben, Bauernmarkt und Fleischmarkt
      • The police is still currently working with military support.
      • Locals are urged to stay home today and it's difficult to get reliable updates.
      • The police has asked the public to refrain from posting videos/pictures on social media, and instead send it to them, as posting material could endanger the police and military working.
      • Multiple perpetrators are possible, but not confirmed.
      • The attack is currently considered to be an Islamic terror attack.

      Best place to get news: @LPDWien (local police department Vienna) on Twitter: https://nitter.net/lpdwien They post relevant information in both English and German.

      18 votes
    2. How do you (or your company) retrain staff for new roles?

      Hive mind: Does your company re-train people to teach them new skills? What about mindset skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking? What's worked -- and what doesn't? I'm writing an...

      Hive mind: Does your company re-train people to teach them new skills? What about mindset skills, such as problem-solving and critical thinking? What's worked -- and what doesn't?

      I'm writing an article on how to do effectively re-train workers, and I'd like to hear from you (particularly if you have a management or HR background). I might like to quote you, but I certainly would like your input even if that isn't possible.

      Companies have always needed to ensure their employee learn new tools (such as replacing OldProgrammingLanguage with NewLanguage) or entirely new skill sets (e.g. for those whose jobs are replaced by automation). But the rate at which old skills perish and new ones have to be learned is increasing.

      If we assume that technology changes jobs rather than destroys them, what does that mean for companies in practice?

      I was inspired to write this article after reading about “the work skills of tomorrow" https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/top-10-work-skills-of-tomorrow-how-long-it-takes-to-learn-them in which critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills employers believe will grow in prominence. But that made me wonder: How the heck do you teach soft skills? This isn’t like telling someone, “Take a course in data analytics.” What, if anything, can you do to improve a worker's agility in learning new things, or to become a better problem-solver?

      So: What has been your experience? What worked, what failed, what advice would you offer someone (particularly in larger organizations) who wants to take care of their people and move the company forward?

      Note that I'm thinking less in terms of training an individual with a new skill (PhotoShop) than skills for a different career (a move to the Accounting department). And please leave out the "I trained myself!" stories; they're a tangent that doesn't help me. And yes, I know plenty of companies just lay people off rather than retrain them; we can leave those out of the discussion, too. This is meant to be a useful how-to to guide companies that want to do it right, so I am interested in practical advice.

      We can take this to a private discussion if that's easier.

      5 votes
    3. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      8 votes
    4. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here. Please just try to provide fair warning of...

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      7 votes
    5. Seeking good programs for digitizing all our addresses

      What's your preferred program for typing up lots and lots of addresses? My mum's got multiple address books and they'll have to be typed up eventually, a block at a time. I don't really want to go...

      What's your preferred program for typing up lots and lots of addresses? My mum's got multiple address books and they'll have to be typed up eventually, a block at a time. I don't really want to go with the contacts function of Outlook/Hotmail/Live, because it requires signing in and the password could be misplaced. I also would like to use something that could ideally export the addresses to another Outlook/Hotmail/Live or Gmail account.

      7 votes
    6. What did you do this weekend?

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at...

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

      8 votes
    7. What projects/orgs are you donating to?

      Every year, I donate a modest sum to combat climate change. Since my employer matches my donations up to a certain amount, I try to maximize their contribution. This year, most of my donations...

      Every year, I donate a modest sum to combat climate change. Since my employer matches my donations up to a certain amount, I try to maximize their contribution.

      This year, most of my donations have gone to the following two orgs:

      • Information Technology and Innovation Foundation - a highly regarded US think tank focusing on clean energy research and advising policymakers
      • Eden Reforestation Projects - apparently $7 donated here offsets a year worth of personal carbon emissions

      Are there any projects/causes/orgs you are very keen on donating to? Are there any that we should look out for?

      Edit: Please feel free to list technical projects, Kickstarters, Patreons, etc.

      23 votes
    8. What are your favorite mods?

      Note that this question is touched upon here, but only for very large, expansive mods. Also, I don't play a lot of games and have never installed a mod (and most mobile games don't allow it anyway...

      Note that this question is touched upon here, but only for very large, expansive mods.

      Also, I don't play a lot of games and have never installed a mod (and most mobile games don't allow it anyway and none on console) so this is mostly based on how much I like the concept of the mod and the footage I've seen of it, which is obviously to be taken with a grain of salt and is gonna be a lot different from a list from someone who actually plays the game with the mod. This list will also be biased towards well known mods and won't be expansive for the same reason.


      KSP

      Principia

      Kerbal space program simplifies gravity by only doing calculations for one body generating gravity, meaning Lagrange points don't exist and orbits are generally simplified. This mod changes that, and not just for your ship, it does for the planets too.

      RSS (Real Solar System) mod

      Title. Basically it recreates the real solar system in Kerbal space program since KSP has it's own system with it's own planets. Usually followed by Realism Overhaul (a mod with includes real rockets because the KSP system is 10 times smaller for playability) and Realistic progression (a mod that makes all those rockets disponible in the game's tech tree and would probably be high on this list.)

      Outer planets mod

      Basically a mod that adds Saturn, Uranus and Neptune analogues to the game, and some of their associated satellites, while still being relatively original. (note that they do add a pluto analogue but the stock game already has a pluto analogue. It's turned into an Enceladus analogue around the Saturn analogue.)

      Honorable mentions:

      10x Kerbol system, because it scales up all the celestial bodies in the game to a realistic size without needing to change the rest of the game.

      Tilt' em!, for adding axial tilt into the game, something that is moderately important to orbital mechanics (if your planet is inclined relative to the rest of the solar system, your orbit might need to align with the solar system instead of the planet to reduce inclination in interplanetary space.

      16 votes