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Timeline for Data Science Competence | Timeline for Data Science Competence
Timeline for data science competency depends on the level: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced
I. Introduction
For anyone interested in jumping into the field of data science, one of the most important questions to ask is: How long does it take to gain competency in data science?
This article will discuss the typical timeline for data science competency. The time required to gain competency in data science depends on the level of competency. In Section II, we will discuss the three levels of data science. In Section III, we discuss the time required for gaining data science competency based on the level of interest. A short summary completes the article.
The views provided here are my views and are based on my own journey to data science.
II. The 3 Levels of Data Science
Before discussing the timeline for data science competency, let us first consider the three levels of data science. This section will discuss what I consider to be the three levels of data science competency, namely: level 1 (basic level); level 2 (intermediate level); and level 3 (advanced level). Competency increases from level 1 to 3. We shall use Python as the default language, even though other platforms such as R, SAS, and MATLAB could be used as programming languages for data science.
1. Basic Level
At level one, a data science aspirant should be able to work with datasets generally presented in comma-separated values (CSV) file format. They should have competency in data basics; data visualization; and linear regression.
1.1 Data Basics
Be able to manipulate, clean, structure, scale, and engineer data. They should be skilled in using pandas and NumPy libraries. Should have the following competencies:
Know how to import and export data stored in CSV file format
Be able to clean, wrangle, and organize data for further analysis or model building
Be able to deal with missing values in a dataset
Understand and be able to apply data imputation techniques such as mean or median imputation
Be able to handle categorical data
Know how to partition a dataset into training and testing sets
Be able to scale data using scaling techniques such as normalization and standardization
Be able to compress data via dimensionality reduction techniques such as principal component analysis (PC)
1.2. Data Visualization
Be able to understand the essential components of good data visualization. Be able to use data visualization tools including Python’s matplotlib and seaborn packages; and R’s ggplot2 package. Should understand the essential components of good data visualization:
Data Component : An important first step in deciding how to visualize data is to know what type of data it is, e.g., categorical data, discrete data, continuous data, time-series data, etc.
: An important first step in deciding how to visualize data is to know what type of data it is, e.g., categorical data, discrete data, continuous data, time-series data, etc. Geometric Component: Here is where you decide what kind of visualization is suitable for your data, e.g., scatter plot, line graphs, bar plots, histograms, Q-Q plots, smooth densities, boxplots, pair plots, heatmaps, etc.
Here is where you decide what kind of visualization is suitable for your data, e.g., scatter plot, line graphs, bar plots, histograms, Q-Q plots, smooth densities, boxplots, pair plots, heatmaps, etc. Mapping Component: Here, you need to decide what variable to use as your x-variable and what to use as your y-variable. This is important especially when your dataset is multi-dimensional with several features.
Here, you need to decide what variable to use as your x-variable and what to use as your y-variable. This is important especially when your dataset is multi-dimensional with several features. Scale Component: Here, you decide what kind of scales to use, e.g., linear scale, log scale, etc.
Here, you decide what kind of scales to use, e.g., linear scale, log scale, etc. Labels Component: This includes things like axes labels, titles, legends, font size to use, etc.
This includes things like axes labels, titles, legends, font size to use, etc. Ethical Component: Here, you want to make sure your visualization tells the true story. You need to be aware of your actions when cleaning, summarizing, manipulating, and producing a data visualization and ensure you aren’t using your visualization to mislead or manipulate your audience.
1.3 Supervised Learning (Predicting Continuous Target Variables)
Be familiar with linear regression and other advanced regression methods. Be competent in using packages such as scikit-learn and caret for linear regression model building. Have the following competencies:
Be able to perform simple regression analysis using NumPy or Pylab
Be able to perform multiple regression analysis with scikit-learn
Understand regularized regression methods such as Lasso, Ridge, and Elastic Net
Understand other non-parametric regression methods such as KNeighbors regression (KNR), and Support Vector Regression (SVR)
Understand various metrics for evaluating a regression model such as MSE (mean square error), MAE (mean absolute error), and R2 score
Be able to compare different regression models
2. Intermediate Level
In addition to skills and competencies in level I, should have competencies in the following:
2.1 Supervised Learning (Predicting Discrete Target Variables)
Be familiar with binary classification algorithm such as:
Perceptron classifier
Logistic Regression classifier
Support Vector Machines (SVM)
Be able to solve nonlinear classification problems using kernel SVM
Decision tree classifier
K-nearest classifier
Naive Bayes classifier
Understand several metrics for accessing the quality of a classification algorithm such as accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, recall, f-l score, confusion matrix, ROC curve.
Be able to use scikit-learn for model building
2.2 Model Evaluation and Hyperparameter Tuning
Be able to combine transformers and estimators in a pipeline
Be able to use k-fold cross-validation to assess model performance
Know how to debug classification algorithms with learning and validation curves
Be able to diagnose bias and variance problems with learning curves
Capable of addressing overfitting and underfitting with validation curves
Know how to fine-tune machine learning models via grid search
Understand how to tune hyperparameters via grid search
Be able to read and interpret a confusion matrix
Be able to plot and interpret a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve
2.3 Combining Different Models for Ensemble Learning
Be able to use the ensemble method with different classifiers
Be able to combine different algorithms for classification
Know how to evaluate and tune the ensemble classifier
3. Advanced Level
Be able to work with advanced datasets such as text, images, voice, and videos. In addition to the Basic and Intermediate skills, should have the following competencies:
Clustering Algorithm (Unsupervised Learning)
K-means
Deep Learning
Neural Networks
Keras
TensorFlow
Theano
Cloud Systems (AWS, Azure)
III. Timeline for Data Science Competency
Level 1 competency can be achieved within 6 to 12 months. Level 2 competencies can be achieved within 7 to 18 months. Level 3 competencies can be achieved within 18 to 48 months.
Approximate timeline for data science competency. Image by Benjamin O. Tayo
We remark here that these are approximate values only. The amount of time required to gain a certain level of competence depends on your background and how much amount of time you are willing to invest in your data science studies. Typically, individuals with a background in an analytic discipline such as physics, mathematics, science, engineering, accounting, or computer science would require less time compared to individuals with backgrounds not complementary to data science.
IV. Summary
In summary, we’ve discussed the 3 levels of data science. Level 1 competency can be achieved within 6 to 12 months. Level 2 competencies can be achieved within 7 to 18 months. Level 3 competencies can be achieved within 18 to 48 months. It all depends on the amount of effort invested and the background of each individual.
Additional Data Science/Machine Learning Resources
How Much Math do I need in Data Science?
Data Science Curriculum
5 Best Degrees for Getting into Data Science
Theoretical Foundations of Data Science — Should I Care or Simply Focus on Hands-on Skills?
Machine Learning Project Planning
How to Organize Your Data Science Project
Productivity Tools for Large-scale Data Science Projects
A Data Science Portfolio is More Valuable than a Resume
For questions and inquiries, please email me: [email protected] | https://medium.com/towards-artificial-intelligence/timeline-for-data-science-competence-1b724e7977e0 | ['Benjamin Obi Tayo Ph.D.'] | 2020-12-02 06:33:23.363000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Scientist', 'Timeline', 'Education'] |
Weeknotes s02e48 | TL;DR: Finally I can reveal I got the Group CDIO job! Experiencing reverse mentoring and discussing unconcious bias training.
[week ending 24/12/2020]
Short one this week due to only working 3 days. Last weeknote for the year — 48 this year, 46 last year. Season 3 ahoy!
Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? The good folk from EMIS, talking about the forthcoming NGH EPMA implementation.
What was notable? It was confirmed this week that I’ve been appointed to the Group Chief Digital Information Officer role, with Debbie being appointed as the CEO for Kettering. I’m really chuffed to continue the work I’ve made a start on over the past few weeks whilst acting up into the role. I’ve had some lovely comments and some great ideas fed to me already. I put a lot of effort into the prep for the interview, but took more out of me that I realised, so I’m looking forward to a bit of a rest over Christmas and then kick things off in the New Year.
What do you wish you could have changed? I started some work to understand the supported discharge process at NGH and KGH and soon realised it was a lot more complicated that I’d appreciated, such that I’ve not yet talked to anyone who fully understands it. This is a prime candidate for doing a short sharp piece of service design in the new year. This has been on my job card for a few weeks, so I’m a bit annoyed to only getting round to looking at it in more detail this week.
What did you learn? I had my first reverse mentoring session. All of the Exec team at KGH are being paired with mentors from our BAME staff group. I can tell already that I’m going to get a lot of the sessions, and my mentor is clearly not going to hold me accountable for the things we agree, which is fabulous. We talked about a lot of stuff, and I know I’m going to ask questions and learn a lot to be better equipped to help drive our Trusts to be more inclusive. I was able to talk to this person about a situation earlier this year with my barber and talk about if there was anything I could have done differently.
I also talked to the BAME Network chair and co-chair in the week about Unconcious Bias training and that the Civil Service had cancelled their training programme after research showed it didn’t work. We talked about alternatives and methods that would help people to be more culturally aware. We agreed to work some ideas up to discuss next year.
I had a 1–2–1 with Simon, the first one after my appointment. He talked me through the feedback from the interview; the good, the bad and the ugly. I’m not planning on having any more interviews any time soon, but good to note the things that worked and things that could be improved. We also talked about some draft objectives I’d put together for 2021, which will get another iteration early next year.
What did you enjoy? Observing our teams across the group working really hard to stand up the process around vaccination booking and tracking. Really impressive at the pace they’ve done it across both Trusts.
What did you achieve? I pulled some stuff together in preparation for a session on our Group Digital Strategy in January. My aim will be to get the final Strategy to the Boards in March.
I reviewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the RPA Centre of Excellence at NGH, which I was happy to sign. Looking forward to that kicking off in 2021 -there’s a lot to do between now and March 2021.
What are you looking forward to next week? Some time off with the family, watching some Christmas films, working on a blog that’s been brewing for a few weeks and riding my bicycle.
Interesting Stuff read/consumed:
Books finished this week:
Fiction: None.
Non-Fiction: None.
Currently Reading (challenge is on to finish all this by 31 Dec 2020 to score an all time PB for books read in a year): | https://weeknot.es/weeknotes-s02e48-f1bbaba314b8 | ['Andy Callow'] | 2020-12-23 22:55:22.763000+00:00 | ['Mentorship', 'Diversity', 'Nhs', 'Inclusion'] |
Don’t Fall Into the “Target Trap” | The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and/or policies of Debt.com.
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Upon moving to the suburbs last year, there was one thing that I was excited to acquire: a Target (actually two Targets) within 5 minutes of our house.
Living in the city, I couldn’t ever appreciate the Facebook stories of moms and friends who frequented the store and complained of how much they spent there. I longed for being able to stroll leisurely through the aisles and stock my red cart with adorable tchotchkes to adorn my home.
So when I moved, I fell for Target — and I fell hard. I’d go there at least a few times a week to pick up toiletries, new sheets, a coffeemaker, baby food — not thinking twice and just enjoying the wide aisles and carts big enough to hold my infant son’s car seat as he slept in it.
The trap is set
Sure, I could probably get some stuff cheaper from Walmart or the grocery store, but there was just something about Target that was comforting. It’s what most of us feel when we walk in there, and it’s part of the Target trap. Like a siren song, the shiny glitter, cute cursive writing and adorable animals lull me into a false sense of security, where I’m tricked into buying unnecessary notepads, stickers and socks because they are all “under $5.”
It’s not until you leave the store and realize that it got you. You needed deodorant but wound up spending $127 on stuff you didn’t need or things that could have waited until you actually needed them.
So how do you avoid the trap? Much like Odysseus, you must avoid the sirens’ song to come out unscathed. But you don’t have to go so far as stuffing beeswax in your ears and being tied up. You just need a plan, and you need to stick to it.
Target tips
Here are my tips for coming out of Target with your wallet still intact…
Go in with a list . Before you go, make a list of the things you need. Really think about it and write down everything you might need. Otherwise, you will 100 percent walk by something and say “Oh yeah! I need this, too!” And then you’ve fallen into the trap.
. Before you go, make a list of the things you need. Really think about it and write down everything you might need. Otherwise, you will 100 percent walk by something and say “Oh yeah! I need this, too!” And then you’ve fallen into the trap. Do not deviate from the list . This is probably the hardest part. Like the tip above, if you’ve forgotten something on the list, then you see it, it’s a gateway to unintentional spending. If you need help staying on budget, try a budgeting spreadsheet like Tiller so you stay on track.
. This is probably the hardest part. Like the tip above, if you’ve forgotten something on the list, then you see it, it’s a gateway to unintentional spending. If you need help staying on budget, try a budgeting spreadsheet like Tiller so you stay on track. Limit how often you can go to the store . This was one of the biggest problems when I first started going to Target, which led to a constant stream of spending.
. This was one of the biggest problems when I first started going to Target, which led to a constant stream of spending. Use the Target app . The Target app is actually really helpful when it comes to saving money when I’m spending. If I’m already in the store, I look at what’s in my cart and search to see if any of it is on sale and add it to my coupon area or swap it out if there’s something comparable I can use instead. I’ll also try scrolling through once a week or so to add in coupons of things that I usually purchase there so that when I need it, it’s already loaded and ready to use.
. The Target app is actually really helpful when it comes to saving money when I’m spending. If I’m already in the store, I look at what’s in my cart and search to see if any of it is on sale and add it to my coupon area or swap it out if there’s something comparable I can use instead. I’ll also try scrolling through once a week or so to add in coupons of things that I usually purchase there so that when I need it, it’s already loaded and ready to use. Get a Target credit card . While it sounds counterintuitive, if you have the ability to pay it off every month, a Target card could be an additional way for you to save. It’s 5 percent off every purchase, which can add up if you go there often enough. Again, don’t get a credit card if you aren’t planning on paying it off each month, because the high-interest fees will offset any savings you might get.
. While it sounds counterintuitive, if you have the ability to pay it off every month, a Target card could be an additional way for you to save. It’s 5 percent off every purchase, which can add up if you go there often enough. Again, don’t get a credit card if you aren’t planning on paying it off each month, because the high-interest fees will offset any savings you might get. Comparison shop . Sure, Target is all things to everyone, but one thing it’s not is cheap. Check around at other stores to see if you can find your essentials cheaper somewhere else.
. Sure, Target is all things to everyone, but one thing it’s not is cheap. Check around at other stores to see if you can find your essentials cheaper somewhere else. Limit the kinds of things you buy at Target . If you love their textiles, save Target for when you need sheets or towels, and buy your paper products in bulk somewhere else. Same for its holiday items. Don’t go overboard when you see their plethora of goodies. Pick out two or three irresistible things and get other items from a discount store.
. If you love their textiles, save Target for when you need sheets or towels, and buy your paper products in bulk somewhere else. Same for its holiday items. Don’t go overboard when you see their plethora of goodies. Pick out two or three irresistible things and get other items from a discount store. Target accepts manufacturers coupons! Don’t get the newspaper? No worries, we’ve got all the best coupons right here.
It hasn’t been a cure-all for me, but following my own “rules” has helped put me back on budget, leaving me less stressed when I see those receipts at the bottom of the bag when I get home later. It’s all about setting limits and sticking to it. Good luck on your next Target run!
Read more on our website…
Originally published at www.debt.com on May 25, 2018. | https://debtcom.medium.com/dont-fall-into-the-target-trap-5ad3c723ff33 | [] | 2018-09-04 13:38:31.204000+00:00 | ['Target', 'Shopping', 'Money Tips', 'Save Money', 'Money Management'] |
This One Thing is Causing Your Bloating | This One Thing is Causing Your Bloating
Photo by Jannes Jacobs on Unsplash
Gut by Giulia Enders is one of the most interesting books that I have read this year. As a long-time IBS sufferer, I am obsessed with gut health and finding new ways to optimize my own digestive system. In the book, the author provides the lowdown on the inner working of the gut and deciphers information for ordinary people that is often reserved for scientific journals. The author refers to the gut as, “our body’s most underrated organ”, and with good reason; there are many secrets to unearth including a lesser-known function of the gut that helps control bloating.
Bloating is a chronic issue for many due to a combination of a bad diet and poor lifestyle choices. Although some cases of IBS, of which bloating is a common symptom, can be attributed to biological factors, in many cases, including mine, it can be fueled by our food choices. It’s important to look at what we eat but also how often we eat — this is the real reason that you’re bloated and here’s why.
The gut’s tiny housekeeper
The Migrating Motor Complex (MMC), a sequence of electromechanical activity in the stomach and small intestine, is responsible for maintaining a clean and tidy gut. Many scientists refer to it as the gut’s ‘little housekeeper’ as it works to sweep the undigested food from our meals and snacks onward from our stomach and small intestine to the lower parts of the digestive system. In her book, Enders writes that “an hour after the small intestine has digested something, it begins the cleanup process”. The MMC ensures that all food is processed and sent on its way into the large intestines and beyond, but critically the function only kicks in during periods of fasting, which is bad news for enthusiastic snackers. | https://medium.com/@rater05pakhi-41095/this-one-thing-is-causing-your-bloating-966c3c3611ac | [] | 2020-12-23 12:45:04.314000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Diet', 'Science', 'Advice', 'Self Improvement'] |
How I felt when my birth father died | “We were talking the other night, and I searched for Peter. I found out he died a couple of years ago. I wasn’t sure if you knew.”
I received the above text from my ex-husband. My kids told me a few days later that they had been discussing the movie, Madagascar, and my birth father's name had come up in conversation. My ex got curious, and he discovered the obituary via Google.
I am adopted, and while other people may consider that a curse, I have always considered it a blessing. My parents are awesome people, and I was raised well with plenty of love. Honestly, I never really had much curiosity about my biological beginnings. I remember talking with someone about being adopted in college. They asked me, “Do you know where your mom is?” I answered, “She’s at work.” I didn’t even realize the person was referring to my birth mother.
After the birth of my second child, I agreed to have my tubes tied, and while they were doing that, they found two large tumors/cysts. Thankfully, they were benign, but the doctor indicated it would be helpful to know more about my biological family’s medical history. So for the first time, I actively wondered about my biological heritage.
My ex had been curious for a while, and although what I wanted was just a paper filled with medical information and not necessarily a meeting, he was hoping to find both of them and meet them. And since he was unemployed, he had lots of time to search. I was somewhat ambivalent, but he told me that having something to focus on helped him not to be as depressed about losing his job. Honestly, I didn’t see how he would find them. We only had my name at birth and the hospital at which I was born.
I’ll skip the long and winding process, but my ex did actually find them both. He found my birth father first, and then my birth mother. I ended up meeting both of them, though obviously not at the same time. I still occasionally speak with my birth mother. I spoke with my birth father several times, and I met him twice. However, once he realized he would not be able to convert me to his denomination, he lost interest.
Even though I can see myself in photos of him, I never really felt that mythical Lifetime Movie instant bound with either of my birth parents.
I wasn’t sure how to feel when I learned that he had died. Even though I can see myself in photos of him, I never really felt that mythical Lifetime Movie instant bound with either of my birth parents. Some gaping abyss was not magically filled…because I had no abyss. So I wasn’t grief-stricken. I honestly wasn’t sure what to feel.
This was, in part, because my birth father wasn’t what most would call a great guy.
Let me explain. My birth father, who I’ll call Peter, met my birth mother, who I’ll call Kathryn, in 1967. Kathryn was attending a university, and Peter was doing some sort of course or professional development there. They met and had a spring/summer romance. Kathryn got pregnant.
When she told Peter, he shared a little tidbit that he had neglected to tell her before: he was married. She was devastated and heartbroken and ashamed. He left the university, basically saying, “sucks for you,” and went back to his wife and three children. Kathryn was not his first dalliance, and she would not be his last.
Around 8 weeks before I was born, Kathryn needed a place to stay. She had already decided to give me up for adoption, but she did not have anywhere to go, having left the home of the family she was living with for the first part of her pregnancy. You see, her parents were very strict missionaries of their denomination, and she was afraid to tell them she was pregnant.
She tracked down Peter, and he agreed she could live with him at a boarding house as long as she did not put her name on the birth certificate. She agreed. While she stayed with him, he would often spend his evenings on the phone with his current mistress, the one who his wife and his denomination found out about. He was relieved of his parochial school duties and was working a government job. He left the boarding house three weeks before I was born, leaving my birth mother to fend for herself.
It turns out that when he divorced his first wife, he took custody of the youngest of their children and left the older two with her. The youngest child was more like him, so he wanted that one, but not the others. He ended up working outside his church for a while after leaving the boarding house. He fell in love with the mistress he had, but he couldn’t stop thinking about my birth mother. Maybe he had been wrong to leave the woman who had his child.
A year after I was born and being raised by my parents, Peter found Kathryn and asked her to dinner. He apologized, told her he was moving out of the country to run a denominational school, and he told her that he wanted to marry again. Basically he couldn’t choose between Kathryn and the mistress, and he was giving Kathryn first choice. If she said yes, he promised they would find me, reverse the adoption, and be a family. Kathryn told him, in her own words, to go to hell.
I remember feeling sick when she told me this story. I am so so thankful she rejected him. I cannot imagine being ripped from my parents to be raised by him. And people’s obsession with DNA being what it is, there is no doubt he would have won a case. It still makes me shudder.
The first time I met Peter, he took me to dinner. We had invited him to our home, but he wanted to spend time with just me rather than my husband and children. I heard his side of the tale, including the story of his long marriage to the mistress, who dies in an accident, his short marriage to someone else, and his current marriage to his 4th wife, a woman from the village where he had moved. It was in Madagascar.
He told me bluntly that they married because she had a young son and needed his protection, and he had “needs as a man.” Who tells their 30-year-old long lost daughter about his “needs”? Yeesh!
As I mentioned, we lost touch after I did not convert, and I really didn’t know much about his life except that at some point he had retired and moved back to the states. And then he died. He was around 80 years old. Including me, he had five children and one stepchild.
It would have been easy for me to even think “good riddance.” He never did anything for me, I didn’t really know him, and, let’s face it, he was kind of a douche.
It would have been easy for me to roll my eyes. It would have been easy to delete the text and think, “who cares?” It would have been easy for me to even think “good riddance.” He never did anything for me, I didn’t really know him, and, let’s face it, he was kind of a douche.
But I had seen pictures of his family. He had restored his relationship with his oldest children, he was very close to his son, and he was close to his later children. I believe the woman he married in Madagascar truly loved him. That meant at least 8 people were mourning the loss of a loved one. At least 8 people grieved at his graveside and felt the hole in their lives where he used to be.
The only thing my snark over his death would do was to reveal some serious personal issues and character flaws in me. I was conceived in betrayal. But I was conceived. I wouldn’t exist had he and Kathryn not had a relationship. Had he not been a coward when he found out she was pregnant, Kathryn might not have given me up for adoption. I had and have a great life and loving parents. I can’t imagine not having them.
So I prayed for his family. I searched my heart for any unforgiveness that might be there and let go of that. I thanked God that His promises found in places like Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11 were true. And I wished Peter well. He hurt some people, but his work in the school in Madagascar also helped many people. Like every single human walking the earth, including me, he was a complex combination of goodness and imperfections.
In the play Julius Caesar, Marc Antony says in his famous speech:
The evil men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.
In case your interpretation of literature is rusty, Marc Antony did not mean that phrase as a compliment, but as an indictment. The idea that we are only as valuable as our greatest failure might be a “natural” human response, but it is also a very insensitive and flawed one.
Peter was many things besides the married guy who left my birth mother high and dry. He had people in his life who loved and mourned him. And just like there will be people who can list my flaws after I am gone, there were probably already enough people doing that to him.
I chose compassion and humanity. And I still do. After all, I exist with his nose and his height and his blue eyes because he existed. And while I am certain there are people who are not thrilled about that, there are a whole lot of people who are glad I’m around. And they are the ones I love and the ones who matter. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/how-i-felt-when-my-birth-father-died-577aa53300ef | ['Laurie Livingston Nave'] | 2020-01-27 18:44:00.011000+00:00 | ['Self-awareness', 'Grief', 'Death And Dying', 'Compassion', 'Life Lessons'] |
Create futures you’re in love with | Photo © 2020 Elaine France: Into the Blue
There were moments back in April 2020 when, I swear, I heard the trees breathing. The planes had stopped flying, the sky was crystal clear both day and night, clouds were clouds, not contrails masquerading; and the tinnitus of engine noise had ceased. A stillness like nothing I’ve ever known happened. It was stillness rather than quiet, because as it turns out Nature is spectacularly deafening.
And, I’d like to create that to be the normal. I want the reassuring susurrations of trees deafening me every day. It reminds me that they’re breathing me.
Rather than watching history in the making, what’s happening right now for us all, is that we’re seeing the future unfold. What we breathe, imagine, and create now, manifests then.
When I’m present to that understanding, it’s liberating, hope-filled, a call to action, galvanising me out of fear because it gives me choices of how to arrive in each day.
Imagine December 2030, if we all show-up today imagining the flourishing futures we want to unfold?
2030 is the target year for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 10-year horizon for making significant steps towards net-zero.
Which is why, I think, that NOW is exactly the right time to fall in love…
with protecting the planet that breathes you,
with yourself and the purpose that’s living through you,
with your beloved ones who love you exactly as you are,
with dreaming a new narrative into existence.
Real love, is about being present to the now, knowing it unfolds the future. It gives us the grace to braille our way forward step-by-step.
Which means it’s time to pop on our wonder-goggles to look at the world and create futures to be in love with.
If we’re looking with eyes of wonder at the world, then futures to love become more than possible. The seeds are planted for them to become real.
I keep asking myself…what is the future of air? It is after all our have-to-have value proposition for breathing.
In 2030, what will air be like? When I look at that question without my wonder-goggles on, it’s a terrifying proposition. When I put them on, I am instantly connected to the possibilities of a planet restored with multiple nature-based and nature-inspired solutions.
Now, step back to today.
Put on your wonder-goggles, pick your gig, show-up as ‘unprecedented you’ and imagine a more beautiful story. How can you be ‘of’ the planet, not just ‘on’ it?
No need to worry if you’ve forgotten how to put your wonder-goggles on (it’s ok…most adults have), then get in touch with me and we’ll go together.
So, “Would you like an adventure now, or would like to have your tea first?”
JM Barrie, Peter Pan | https://medium.com/@elainefrance/create-futures-that-youre-in-love-with-652dae6f5858 | ['Elaine France'] | 2020-12-07 10:26:30.013000+00:00 | ['Climate Action', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Ideas', 'Love', 'Futures Thinking'] |
How do you BECOME a famous song writer | Benjamin Britten: ‘The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.’
Yes, that is true. You need a restful sleep as a famous and creative song writer. But do you only need creativity to write popular music? What are the key drivers? Are there hidden rules to write a song? Not just any song, but a song which will become popular!!!
In this study based on a Spotify Dataset from Kaggle with 170k tracks released between 1921 and 2020 I investigated a set of input features and their dependence on song popularity.
During the analysis of the dataset a set of questions came into my mind:
In order to write a popular song, is the key and mode of the song important? 1955–1960: The popularity level climbs up — Who were the most famous artists at this time? Which actual top artists write/have the most popular songs? How do you become a famous song writer?
Let’s start the investigation:
The dataset splits into 170653 rows and 19 columns. Those 19 data columns are divided into 13 numerical and 6 categorical columns:
Numerical columns:
acousticness: The relative metric of the track being acoustic, (ranges from 0 to 1)
danceability: The relative measurement of the track being danceable, (ranges from 0 to 1)
energy: The energy of the track, (ranges from 0 to 1)
duration_ms: The length of the track in milliseconds (ms), (integer typically ranging from 200k to 300k)
instrumentalness: The relative ratio of the track being instrumental, (ranges from 0 to 1)
valence: The positiveness of the track, (ranges from 0 to 1)
popularity: The popularity of the song lately, default country = US, (ranges from 0 to 100)
tempo: The tempo of the track in Beats Per Minute (BPM), (float typically ranging from 50 to 150)
liveness: The relative duration of the track sounding as a live performance, (ranges from 0 to 1)
loudness: Relative loudness of the track in decibel (dB), (float typically ranging from -60 to 0)
speechiness: The relative length of the track containing any kind of human voice, (ranges from 0 to 1)
year: The release year of the track, (ranges from 1921 to 2020)
id: The primary identifier for the track, generated by Spotify
Categorical columns:
key: The primary key of the track encoded as integers in between 0 and 11 (starting on C as 0, C# as 1 and so on…)
artists: The list of artists credited for production of the track
release_date: Date of release mostly in yyyy-mm-dd format, however precision of date may vary
name: The title of the track
mode: The binary value representing whether the track starts with a major (1) chord progression or a minor (0)
explicit: The binary value whether the track contains explicit content or not, (0 = No explicit content, 1 = Explicit content)
Ok, now we tackle the first question…
Part I: In order to write a popular song, is the key and mode of the song important?
Let’s start with key/mode distributions: Take a look at the plot setting below. In the bar plot (figure 1, left) you can see the distribution of the primary keys usage between 1921 and 2020 in descending order. It is not a surprise that most of the songs are written in C, G or D major scale (approximately 20% of all songs between 1921 and 2020 are written in the keys C major or G major). In addition, more than 70% percent of the songs are written in major mode (figure 1 right). It is a known fact that for the majority of musicians songs in major C or G are easier to sing or play than in other keys. | https://medium.com/@hartmann-david/how-do-you-become-a-famous-song-writer-ff3a4668a8c8 | ['David Hartmann'] | 2021-03-24 15:15:36.377000+00:00 | ['Spotify', 'Music', 'Songwriting', 'Linear Regression', 'Machine Learning'] |
Amuse UX Conference 2017 — Takeaways Part 2 (Day 2 & Amuse Special Edition Meetup) | “ We have mental power tools we were born with — cultivate them, make them stronger!”
Banish Your Inner Critic v2.0
Speaker: Denise Jacobs (Twitter)
Talk: Banish Your Inner Critic v2.0
Swipe left: mentally replacing something you don’t want with something better. It is about the power to change your mind.
2009 SXSW Interactive: A moment happened that changed her life. “I’m looking for someone to write a book on how to troubleshoot CSS code.” And she said: “I could write that book.”
Mean voices in your head: the inner critic is no joke.
We all have mean voices in our heads. It leads to Impostor syndrome. The main concern with the inner critic: it blocks creativity (+ causes emotional damage). Creativity is power, it feels great being in a creative flow. Creative flow = there is no inner critic.
The prefrontal cortex is responsible for self-evaluation and judgement. When this part is quiet — that is when the ideas can come out.
The inner critic comes from the fears about ourselves. Plus the negative things we have heard from other people (especially in our earlier years).
Negativity Bias + Fear Conditioning: Let’s imagine you are a hunter-gatherer, in the woods, looking for food. You see a snake come out, then jump back. Later you see a beautiful butterfly. If you go back to that area, you are going to remember the snake.
Negativity Bias makes us scan for danger & negative things. Fear conditioning: it goes into the implicit memory — you don’t have to think about it (you can quickly access it as an automatic action)→ Same way when we get criticism. We will remember forever, and it affects our actions.
We have mental power tools we were born with — cultivate them, make them stronger!
#1. Powertool — Neuroplasticity: Our brain’s ability to shift and change in the face of different kinds of stimulus.
It is about what we think about the most. You keep walking down on the same path. If we start to think different thoughts: the longer we do this the more synaptic pruning will start to get rid of the former path.
#2. We can do this by Attention and Focus. Live test with our hands:
Look at your right hand Hold up your left, don’t look at it yet Shift focus from your right hand to your left Is your right hand still there? Yes. Are you paying attention to it? No. Does it matter what’s going on with it now that you are not paying attention to it? No.
Same with thought: the thoughts are going to be there, but the less you pay attention to them (+ the more you pay attention to different thoughts), the less strong these thoughts are going to be.
Attention is determined by 3 things:
How new and interesting the stimulus is The strengths of the signal (e.g. really loud) How much attention we pay
#3. Mindfulness: Presence of mind. We have to ability to know that we are thinking about something. Not getting wrapped up in what we are thinking.
#4. Self-compassion: If you had a friend who was having a really tough time, and came to you, you would be empathetic, you would care and really listen.
So many times we don’t treat ourselves that way. It is about treating yourself like you would treat a friend.
Recognize Your Inner Critic — finish these sentences:
If I _________, then people will _________.
I’m not _________ enough.
I can’t _________ because I’m not as _________ as others.
I shouldn’t _________ because I haven’t _________.
I _________ because my ideas _________.
(e.g. If I create something, then people will judge me; I’m not educated enough) → You will start hearing your inner critic.
Step into your creative power
Overcome self-doubt: she told a story, she was at a girl scout camp, age of 12. She drew a mermaid, and one girl said: “It looks like a frog”. She thought: “Maybe I’m not as good at drawing as I thought I was.”
Judgement Dread — I’m afraid of being wrong/judged.
Creativity Denial — I’m not creative at all.
It was an unsolicited mean comment that affected what she thought about herself.
Your thoughts aren’t true (just because you are thinking something…) You internalized the inputs from other people.
Cognitive reappraisal: Think like a scientist.
Take your critical talk (“I’m such a loser”)
Then turn it into a question (“Am I a loser?”)
You have to get evidence.
Rumination: When we have a thought, and thinking about it over and over again, auto-repeating. (Llamas, camels, cows: take food and chew it over and over again.)
2 kinds:
oppressive: something that happened in the past (“I can’t believe I did that…”)
anxious: “What if…?” — has not happened yet
You can trick your brain: take a squeeze ball, use your non-dominant hand.
Idea flow blocked: work with your hands! E.g. she made earrings. It truncates these processes in your brain. You can doodle, color books, play LEGO etc.
Owning your expertise: Her story about her basketball team. She was 182 cm tall, 14-year old. One would expect: she was playing well, dunking etc. But she wanted to go back to the library and read. During a game she tried to hide on the bench. Comparison syndrome: She thought that she is not as good as she should be being a tall black girl.
High self-criticism
Stop hiding in plain sight
Know Your Uniqueness Advantage: that sets you apart from other people. How much easier life is if you are who you are (instead of trying to be someone else)?
Inner Critic = Self-talk gone awry: self-talk is part of your actual thinking and how you motivate yourself.
Self-talk Reboot: Self-distancing. Refer to yourself by third person, by your name. Be your own coach of greatness (athletes use this technique).
Confirmation Bias: You think that you are going to see that thing, then you see that thing. E.g.: “All people are rude at the post office.” It works both to the positive and to the negative, so we can use that to our advantage.
Swipe File of Support: In marketing, a swipe file means little snippets of marketing copies (e.g. interesting headlines — later use them as inspiration). → collect nice things that others said about you (feedback, clients, conference, tweets, messages), e.g. “You did a great job.”
Start Doing Your Best Work: At the age of 24, she graduated, and her father asked: “What do you want to do for work?” Her response: “I’d like to be a writer.” Her dad’s answer: “Do you know how hard is to get published?”
Her dad was the first in his family who finished college, he was an optometrist, an aeronautical engineer and built experimental airplanes. He believed that artists starve, the creativity is something that you do in your freetime (not a job), and very few writers get published.
Deficiency Anxiety: Thinking that I’m not enough.
Reprogram your mind: research conducted at the University of Chicago about gestures and learning — making motions with your hand affects your learning.
We have a very common gesture we use often: swiping left. It is about deleting. (I don’t want it; Go away; Not good enough etc.) “It looks like a frog: swipe left on that.”
Taking in new information? Proficiency Anxiety: people think that they can’t learn information quickly enough (it is a type of Deficiency Anxiety). Hard to keep track of all the things. Technique: explain it to a Teddy Bear / 4-year old.
Be & Share Your Brilliance: You probably know something better, and it can be valuable to another person. Be a mentor, write blog posts, speak at conferences, teach workshops etc.
Step into your creative power: “I’ve got this!” By standing up to your inner critic. She became a designer, a strong player (& performer, and an author (twice).
It will help you to
be a stronger contributor (do what is meaningful),
be a collaborator (you won’t think that you do is not good enough) and
be a leader.
It is a process of continuous improvement. The potential for greatness is in all of us → our job is to figure out what it is. Allow yourself to be fully magnificent.
Get in touch with Denise Jacobs!
A question:
How do you activate your inner critic when it is needed? Research has shown that when you are self-critical, it damages your progress. Difference between the inner-evaluator and the inner critic.
Inner-evaluator: Knows what is good and what isn’t. It is about iteration, asking for feedback (tells you if you need to work a bit more)
Inner-critic: It is just mean. “I can’t believe you think it is good enough.”
Link: Denise’s website | https://uxdesign.cc/amuse-ux-conference-2017-takeaways-part-2-day-2-amuse-special-edition-meetup-33d7cf68353c | ['Krisztina Szerovay'] | 2018-01-15 08:23:55.160000+00:00 | ['Interaction Design', 'Amuse Ux', 'UX Research', 'UX Design', 'Ux Events'] |
The US Likes the UN Again; Warnings to Ethiopia; Biden’s Pick for UN Envoy | The US Likes the UN Again; Warnings to Ethiopia; Biden’s Pick for UN Envoy
by Dulcie Leimbach. Read more on PassBlue.
On Nov. 24, Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, urged the parties to the intensifying conflict in Ethiopia “to give clear orders to their forces to spare and protect the civilian population from the effect of the hostilities.” JEAN MARC FERRE/UN PHOTO
The United States embraces diplomacy again; human-rights warnings in Ethiopia; who is the US nominee for UN ambassador?
You are reading This Week @UN, highlighting the most important news on the world body. The information is drawn from the UN spokesperson’s briefings, our original reporting and other sources.
We know from diplomats and many other readers that our weekly summary of UN activities is very popular, but we need your support to keep it going: that is one way donations are used by PassBlue, to produce columns that readers rely on and need. So please help us keep this service going into 2021 by donating to our campaign and doubling your gift. Our deep thanks to everyone who has given so far — it has been wonderfully encouraging!
In case you missed it: Our latest UN-Scripted podcast episode offers a perfect lowdown on how the US, under the incoming President Joe Biden, can re-engage with the UN — at least legally — featuring interviews with four experts. (A translation of the podcast episode’s accompanying article was translated into German by the Friedrich-Ebert foundation for its website.)
Monday, Nov. 23
“Advice is pouring into President-elect Joe Biden from around the United States and across the world on how to turn around the damage the Trump administration has inflicted in key policy areas. Advocates for public health, women’s rights and a semblance of restored American leadership are among those hoping for quick action starting the day Biden is sworn in on Jan. 20.” News of his Cabinet picks, including the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, became public on Nov. 23. What it all portends for the world, by Barbara Crossette. (The story was reposted by Ms. Magazine.)
Spokesperson’s briefing: The Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reported that carbon-dioxide levels grew again in 2019 and that the annual global average breached the significant threshold of 410 parts per million. The rise continued this year as carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and for longer periods in the ocean. The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just a blip on the long-term graph.
Additionally, the spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, was asked about the news that John Kerry, the former US secretary of state, will be President-elect Biden’s climate change envoy. Response: “On climate, the role of the United States, whether the federal, the state or the business level, has always been very important and will continue to be.”
About the nomination of Linda Thomas-Greenfield as US ambassador to the UN, a reporter asked: “Is the [UN] Secretary‑General doing cartwheels in his office? Do you have a comment on this new US representative?” Response: “I have never known nor can I ever imagine the Secretary‑General doing cartwheels in his office or anywhere else. What I can tell you is that the Secretary‑General has always worked very closely with every US Permanent Representative that has been sent by Washington and will do so in the future.”
Tuesday, Nov. 24
President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to move quickly once he is in office to reverse Donald Trump’s pledge to cut ties to the World Health Organization during a deadly worldwide plague. But, Irwin Arieff writes in his analysis, “it will not be easy for Biden to erase the damage, which will weigh on Washington’s standing in the international health arena and could well have a lingering impact on the management of the current pandemic as well as future ones.” Equally important, Arieff asks, will the money the US pays into the agency’s budget flow again too?
Spokesperson’s briefing: Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, urged the parties to the conflict in Ethiopia “to give clear orders to their forces to spare and protect the civilian population from the effect of the hostilities.” She added that “the highly aggressive rhetoric on both sides regarding the fight for the city of Mekelle is dangerously provocative and risks placing already vulnerable and frightened civilians in grave danger.” Bachelet said she was also “deeply disturbed at the continuing communication blackout in Tigray, making it very difficult for civilians to communicate with families, and for the UN to monitor the human rights and humanitarian situation.”
Meanwhile, the African Union’s new envoy team to help mediate the crisis — all former presidents of their countries: Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia president and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa — met with President Abiy Ahmed Ali of Ethiopia on Nov. 27. The day before, he tweeted, in part:
Wednesday, Nov. 25
Spokesperson’s briefing: Secretary‑General António Guterres “commends the people and Government of Burkina Faso for the peaceful and timely holding of elections on 22 November, despite the enormous security challenges in parts of the country.” (Preliminary results of the presidential vote show that Roch Marc Kaboré has been re-elected.)
Read PassBlue’s interview with the only woman candidate who was running for Burkina Faso president, against 12 men. (The story was reposted on the independent WomenLead blog.)
Additionally, a reporter asked if Guterres has had any discussion with President-elect Biden or his nominee for secretary of state, Anthony Blinken. Response: “No. . . . And that’s actually fairly standard for us, that we deal with one government at a time. And at some point in the future, we will be talking to Mr. Biden.”
Thursday, Nov. 26
No media briefing was scheduled because of the US holiday.
Friday, Nov. 27
No media briefing was scheduled.
Originally published at https://www.passblue.com on November 27, 2020. | https://medium.com/@passblue-un/the-us-likes-the-un-again-warnings-to-ethiopia-bidens-pick-for-un-envoy-3dbf6f527a87 | [] | 2020-11-29 23:34:03.997000+00:00 | ['Biden', 'Trump', 'United Nations', 'Ethiopia', 'Foreign Policy'] |
6 Life Lessons I Learned From Being in Prison | 1. Use adversity as a growth opportunity.
The worst things that ever happened to us are incredible growth opportunities. They can transform our lives in extraordinary ways — but only if we’re willing to look beyond the pain and find meaning in our suffering.
When I was in prison, I read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. This incredible book taught me how to overcome my anger, despair and bitterness by finding a deeper meaning in what happened. Here’s a quote from Frankl that really helped me at my lowest point:
We may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. When we are no longer able to change a situation…we are challenged to change ourselves.
I had to change how I saw this situation and the world. Instead of blaming the legal system, the guy who snitched on me, and others—I finally took ownership of the things I had done.
Once I admitted that I was responsible for manufacturing illegal drugs and ending up in prison, my deep anger at the world and other people began to disappear.
Then I began to look at the positive aspects of my situation.
Prison was one of the best things that happened to me. If I didn’t go to prison, I could’ve later been arrested for more serious drug crimes. I could’ve ended up dead, like some of my fellow drug dealers and friends.
I was exactly where I needed to be.
When you find yourself in a terrible situation, first figure out what you can change and what you can’t change. When change is possible, make positive changes.
When change isn’t possible, determine the best ways to adapt to the situation. Ask yourself:
What do I need to do to get the best outcome here?
If I keep holding onto these negative, self-defeating emotions, how will my life look?
What can I accomplish if I can see this bad situation thru a more positive lens?
I couldn’t change the fact that I was in prison. I could change what I did with my time while I was there. I stopped wasting time being negative and wallowing in self-pity. I thought about the purpose of my life for the first time.
I began planning how I was going to rebuild my life when I was released. I began reading more books. I wrote more. I pondered the lessons life was teaching me.
When you go thru something traumatic, ask yourself:
What is life teaching me in this situation?
How can I use what I’ve learned from this situation to become a better and stronger person?
2. Re-align your values with who you are.
One of the best things about adversity is that it can help you get in tune with your core values. It will help you figure out what you value the most. It may also help you determine the ways in which this bad situation occurred because you failed to honor some of your top values.
I had to get rid of my toxic values and replace them with positive core values that would allow me to become who I was meant to be.
I found that one of my top core values was growth. When I began using this growth mindset in a healthy (and legal) way, I began to reach higher.
I got a graduate degree. I have a successful career in the technology and life/business coaching sectors. I’m constantly learning, growing and living at the outer edge of my comfort zone.
When you’re in a bad situation:
Identify any toxic values that contributed to that situation. Remove those values from your life. Replace any negative values with positive ones that will allow you to live an authentic life that’s aligned with who you really are. Identify which of your values you weren’t honoring and how not living up to them created this terrible situation. Were you failing to love yourself? Did you give up your integrity? Did you lose your authenticity by doing things you really didn’t agree with? Did you sacrifice your physical health?
3. Realize you are the only person who can save you.
In prison, you quickly learn that you’re on your own. Even if you join a gang or are part of a bigger racial group, you can still be manipulated, hurt or killed.
You have to depend on your intelligence, street smarts, common sense, insight, experience and best judgment to make good decisions every day. If you can’t rely on yourself to make the best decisions, you’ll pay a big price.
Life outside of prison is similar in many ways. We have to rely on ourselves to make good decisions. Doing the wrong things can get us fired, destroy our best relationships, kill a big business deal, put us in bankruptcy or make our lives hell.
When we find ourselves in the worst situations, we have to get ourselves out of them. Family and friends can help and support us, but they can’t save us.
When you’re in a tough situation:
Take 100% responsibility for any role you played in the situation.
Be 100% conscious of reality. Don’t distract yourself from the painful and harsh events that are cropping up around you.
No matter what happened, love and accept yourself.
Don’t ever rely on some hero to swoop in and save you during your darkest hours. That hero is you.
4. Create strong boundaries.
“You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop, and what you reinforce.” — Tony Gaskins
If you do anything that shows weakness in prison, people will quickly take advantage of you. You may think you’re being “a better man” by walking away after people have openly disrespected you or even physically assaulted you on the prison yard. You’ll later find that more people will disrespect or assault you.
You may think you’re being generous by giving away half of your food and cosmetic products. You’ll later be shocked to see that there’s a guy at your cell door who’s there to take everything you have.
Just like people in prison will take advantage of you if you show weakness, people in the free world will also take advantage of you if you don’t set strong boundaries.
If you don’t impose your rules on the outside world, the outside world will impose its rules on you.
To set strong boundaries:
Know exactly what you will and won’t tolerate. When you stand up for yourself, some people will get angry and pushback. Stand your ground.
Realize you’re responsible for your own happiness.
Don’t let other people try to manipulate you or lie to you without calling out their bullshit.
Live your truth. Be who you authentically are — not who you think you need to be to get other peoples’ approval.
Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want or need.
In prison and the free world, even those who don’t agree with you will secretly respect you when you firmly defend your boundaries.
5. Help other people who are suffering.
I now go back into prisons to help incarcerated men learn the business, personal development and job readiness skills they need to start their own businesses or get good jobs when they’re released.
Neuroscience has shown that helping other people makes us happy by releasing dopamine, the main pleasure-inducing chemical in the brain.
Helping others is also a very important part of growth and healing. Helping people who are in pain is a great way to give your own life more purpose and meaning.
And there are a lot of people in this world who will benefit greatly from the hard-fought lessons that you learned thru adversity.
6. The worst prisons aren’t made out of concrete and steel.
“Your mind can be your prison or your palace. What you make it is yours to decide.” — Bernard Kelvin Clive
This experience later taught me the biggest lesson of all: the worst prisons aren’t made out of concrete and steel. The worst prisons are the ones that we create in our own minds.
I had incarcerated myself in several mental prisons that caused me to make a shit ton of bad decisions, which ultimately landed me in a prison made out of concrete and steel.
All of us are in our own mental prisons, such as fear, anger, negativity, low self-esteem, over-thinking, self-doubt, procrastination, guilt, shame, addiction and many others.
These prisons stop us from reaching our full potential and achieving all of our dreams.
What mental prisons are affecting your life and stopping you from achieving your dreams?
Conclusion
Sometimes our biggest failures lead to our greatest successes. Going to prison was one of my biggest failures, but the lessons I learned from that experience allowed me to later create an exciting, fulfilling and purposeful life.
When you experience extremely traumatic things, your knee-jerk response may be to block out all of those horrific events. Just bury them deep in your unconscious mind so you don’t have to relive the pain.
Don’t do that.
Sift thru the pain, the ugliness, the trauma, the shame and the other uncomfortable feelings, memories and emotions.
When you sift long enough, you’ll find those golden lessons that will transform your life in a very positive way. You’ll find opportunities to replace destructive values with good ones, set stronger boundaries, become more self-reliant and help other people who went thru the same pain you did.
And you’ll realize that the worst prisons aren’t made out of concrete and steel. | https://medium.com/the-ascent/6-life-lessons-i-learned-from-being-in-prison-77daa709fd83 | ['Charles Amemiya'] | 2021-01-11 06:47:04.183000+00:00 | ['Trauma', 'Life Lessons', 'Growth', 'Prison', 'Transformation'] |
Making creativity tangible with data physicalization | Part of my data physicalization installation
My firm belief is: Knowledge is useless without creative processing.
In order to prepare knowledge for communication/knowledge transfer you need to be creative. If you are a knowledge worker it is especially helpful to be creative with your hands. It is relaxing and builds up embodied knowledge. That’s what this article is about.
Furthermore, I want to show how statistics about creativity can be made tangible with data physicalization.
German version -> https://wissendenken.com/visuelle-kommunikation/daten/data-physicalization/
Making Creativity Tangible
This was my goal for my contribution to an art exhibition. Four female artists from Styria in Austria planned an exhibition and invited me to take part. Previously I had some photo exhibitions or took part with photos in collective exhibitions. But now I wanted to challenge myself with another visualization format. And I wanted to challenge the visitors too :-)
Styria, women and creativity requires creativity. This led to my idea to visualize the creativity of women in Styria with data art.
Mankind physicalizes data throughout the history and uses these data-objects too. But the more alternatives we developed, the less clay tokens and the abacus were being used. And we did no longer physicalize data. But some years ago, there was a renaissance of data physicalization due to the fact that it generates interest.
You can easily skip reading numbers on paper, but you rather not overlook interesting data-objects.
The Journey is the Reward
The journey from my initial idea towards the exhibition was quite long. As this was side project in my time off, I was grateful that the exhibition was being planned months ahead. I work a lot and don’t have so much free time. Creativity needs incubation. So I was able to incubate a lot :-)
Finally, at the end of May our exhibition took place:
My collage for our exhibition
As it is the case with (all?) visualization formats the journey was a reward too, in fact there were many rewards:
=> I challenged myself and not only my students. And I learned something for me and for my students.
=> I produced somethings with my hands. Even so I am originally a bookbinder by profession, I no longer practice this. And my daughter is an adult, so we stopped playing years ago. I wanted to use my knowledge worker body not only to transfer my brain from A to B.
=> I could trust my know-how regarding work with knowledge which I transfer to my students and clients.
Statistics, Please
First, I had to collect data. I wanted to get hold of female creativity in Styria via asking creative associations and organizations for numbers of their female members. I did not always receive an answer. But many people helped me or pointed out other sources.
In doing so the resulting installation can only show an accidental picture of female creativity in Styria. It is just an opening into that topic. But I suppose this constraint can be useful. It encourages to think about who and what is missing.
I visualized numbers of
the Austrian Union of Visual Artists in Styria (Bundesverband der Bildenden KünstlerInnen Österreichs, Landesverband Steiermark),
the University of Applied Sciences Johanneum GmbH (FH JOANNEUM Gesellschaft mbH),
the Künstlerbund Graz,
nextliberty,
the Oper Graz,
the Schauspielhauses Graz,
the Sezession Graz,
the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz),
the Association of Visual Artists in Styria, (Vereinigung Bildender Künstler der Steiermark)
the Werkbund.
Just before the exhibition a questionable Bachelor Thesis of the University of Applied Sciences Johanneum GmbH made news. As I know the progressive side of the University and value it very much and as no design courses, I was going to visualized, were being involved, I decided to keep their numbers. Moreover, the University deals with the situation very openly.
With a heavy heart I had to leave out the many female pop singers and pop musicians of Styria. Their numbers were beyond my means for physicalization.
Now let’s look at the challenge to find data-objects to show the numbers.
Objects, Please
I have the feeling that at the moment there is a lot of knitting and 3d-printing in data physicalization. I had the intention to find a form not so much in use today. Another prerequisite was, that I should be able to take everything from Vienna to Graz by train and set it up in the exhibition space in some hours. This meant to forgo some ideas. But only for that exhibition. I have now data-object ideas that I could use for a variety of statistics. And my next side project is in its planning phase. Watch this space!
After a long process of using the analogy technique to find ideas, after testing and rejecting ideas, there was the result: flowers.
“And while she was talking, she breezed spring roses…” says Ovid about the goddess Flora Mater. I used my flowers as an example for the creative (F)flora of Styria.
Let 673 Flowers Grow
First, there were the flower prototypes. And then the “real” flowers made of wooden sticks for plant growing (stem) and paper of the Büttenpapierfabrik Gmund GmbH & Co. KG (blossom). No, this is no advertisement. I paid for all the material I used. But as an engineer for printing technology I love good paper, that is why I used Gmund Paper.
To get off your desk onto the balcony in order to colour another batch of wooden sticks green, refreshes the mind.
Cutting out blossoms on the train to teaching at the University of Applied Sciences in Burgenland can lead to appraisal of young fellow travellers.
And it was so good to get out of my head and use my hands for other tasks than typing.
I had this central explanation next to the flowers and one next to each new flower colour in the installation
From top to the bottom:
singer, ensemble, guests, choir, opera studio, young artists, including students (smaller flowers); musicians, conductors, composers, including students (smaller flowers); dancers; actors, including students (smaller flowers); communication, media, sound, interaction design, information design, industrial design, stage design, including students (smaller flowers); visual artist including students (smaller flowers).
The “flower meadow” in form of the federal state of Styria was ready in the official CI green of the state, including the board below. But out of the blue my head said: ”Stop it!” Late at night, with 3 days to go till the exhibition!
We know from research that our brain continues thinking about something even if we are not aware of it. My inner warning told me that the idea of Styria in proportion to the number of planned flowers was not correct. One thought behind it: the flowers would have covered the whole area leaving no space for men in Styria. But there are men in Styria…
And to make matters worse, the next morning, I realized that the idea of Styria as “meadow” was too obvious, too boring.
The way out was a train ride I had to make. So I was able to let my brain get into those productive semi-conscious alpha waves. Looking out of the window at the countryside I remembered an artist, who use real flowers for free art installations. And I remembered a photo of a very, very long flowerbed she did — flower behind flower.
That’s when the idea hit me: “Take the letters S T E I E R M A R K (=Styria) and use them each as single flowerbeds. And in the evening after teaching I found myself running to the local hardware store — just before a public holiday — in order to buy small boards.
Testing the flowerbed idea, two days before the vernissage.
Flowerbeds in the making in the gallery space
They would have been nice too as single letters = flowerbeds spread in the room, but as the space was limited, I did it this way (photo of me and of my flowerbeds by Andrea Pierus)
Each woman of my statistics was one flower. Students were smaller flowers. You could possibly question this.
And questions were being asked at the vernissage. It was an unusual view at an art exhibition. I hope I praised female creativity in Styria and showed the value of numbers in a new way to many visitors.
Why Is Data Physicalization Of Use?
Working through this creative process with my head and my hands was a wholesome challenge. It showed me which creative limits I can move away and which not yet.
I am of the opinion that this visualization format can be worth a try in a firm or organization too in order to make statistics
· visible in a way that no one can overlook them,
· visible in a surprising way,
· memorable.
Gratitude
Many people helped me to get statistics, of course anonymous statistics. I am grateful for the donated statistics and for links to other potential sources.
I am grateful that I got invited and the other artists trusted me and my idea. I am grateful that my partner has so much patience when I discussed new ideas with him. And I would like to thank Susanne Strampfer-Rigerl for her introduction at the vernissage.
Did you like my little project? Then watch this space for my next data physicalization project. | https://medium.com/@ainvienna/making-creativity-tangible-with-data-physicalization-1194748deaba | ['A. Hexelschneider'] | 2019-07-25 14:06:54.040000+00:00 | ['Data Visualization', 'Data Physicalization', 'Dataviz', 'Datenvisualisierung', 'Visualization'] |
Outrageous, Alarming, and Evocative of Science Fiction: Why We Need Geoengineering | The case for geoengineering.
A strong case in favor of geoengineering isn’t something that began in the late 2000s when we discovered that we had a global warming problem. Instead, it began long before that.
In 1841, an American meteorologist by the name of James Pollard Espy published a book in which he postulated that by generating large storms, “rain might be produced artificially in time of drought”. He was neither the first nor the last. From then on, ideas about geoengineering ranged from the concerning to the politically charged, to not half-bad ideas.
For instance, in 1908, Svante Arrhenius suggested that by adding carbonic acid to the atmosphere, global warming would occur, resulting in people being able to enjoy the benefits of a warmer climate. That sure didn’t age well.
In 1932 and 1946, the Soviet Union and the United States respectively undertook studies surrounding cloud seeding as a method of altering the weather. As politically charged as this era was, some great technology came out of it, including the capacity to change the weather on a small scale using cloud seeding technology.
More recently, Dr. Edward Teller, known as the “father of the hydrogen bomb”, became a supporter of two methods of geoengineering that increase the albedo of the planet. In short, albedo is the built-in cooling mechanism of the planet. The polar ice caps are a great source of albedo (or, whiteness), as the snow and ice reflect sunlight into space. However, because of their fast melting rate, Dr. Teller proposed two other methods of increasing planetary albedo. The first, and most simple, is to send small particles into the atmosphere that will act to scatter and reflect sunlight. The second, and more expensive and technologically difficult, would be launching mirrors into space to reflect sunlight.
The first of Dr. Teller’s proposed methods have been extensively discussed and modeled by scientists. The theory behind this method comes from global dimming (cooling) that is associated with major volcanic eruptions.
The famous eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 is the perfect case study for global dimming. During the eruption, 15 million tons of sulfur dioxide were added into the stratosphere. Once in the stratosphere, the sulfur dioxide reacted with water to form aerosol particles that were made up of sulfuric acid droplets. Over several years, winds spread the particles around the world. The particles remained in the stratosphere for years due to the stratosphere not having any rain clouds to wash away the pollutants. Over time, the pollutants were slowly removed by chemical processes and atmospheric circulation. The important thing to gather here though is that these particles, once in the atmosphere, contributed to the deflection of sunlight, resulting in a global drop in temperature of approximately 0.6 degrees Celsius (1 degree Fahrenheit).
Because of this eruption-caused drop in global temperature, the theory remains that by adding sulfates into the stratosphere, the resulting buildup of particles would act to deflect solar radiation as it tries to reach Earth. This would mimic massive volcanic eruptions and the Earth would cool.
However, the addition of particles to the stratosphere to keep sunlight out could have a serious impact on weather systems. Once released into the stratosphere by specially equipped planes, little can be done in the way of evenly distributing the particles. An uneven distribution could affect regions differently, causing potential changes in rainfall patterns and ocean circulation patterns. As you might have guessed, this can affect regional temperatures and precipitation levels. Furthermore, there is little known about the impact of the aerosol particles on human health and the environment once they begin to leave the stratosphere.
Another method of geoengineering is to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This can be done through several methods, including using devices to extract carbon dioxide from the air and seeding oceans to produce more carbon-absorbing algae.
Using devices to extract carbon dioxide from the air works on the theory that the captured carbon would be turned into biomass that would power these carbon-harvesting systems. The result would be net-zero emissions. The problem with this method is that the amount of land required for these systems would be enormous. Furthermore, fuel would have to be provided to the machines initially, before they could become self-sustaining using the carbon they pull from the atmosphere.
However, instead of planting trees to feed into these machines as biomass in order to pull carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, couldn’t we just plant trees instead? Trees are the ideal, and most efficient greenhouse-gas-extraction-device, aren’t they? Also, wouldn’t trees be cheaper, easier to maintain, and take up less space than an entire building full of machines dedicated to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?
Basically, yes.
Therein lies the tried-and-true method of geoengineering that has been around for millions of years. Right under our noses.
Restoring forests has all of the benefits on the same scale as geoengineering without any of the potentially negative effects. According to an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, “natural climate solutions can provide 37% of cost-effective CO2 mitigation needed through 2030 for a >66% chance of holding warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.” The paper defines natural climate solutions as being various “conservation, restoration, and improved land management actions”. These actions would result in improving carbon capture by the soil and plants and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions found in various natural locations. This more natural method of geoengineering has a list of positive side effects that go along with it, including “water filtration, flood buffering, soil health, biodiversity habitat, and enhanced climate resilience.”
Forest restoration wouldn’t need a significant replanting effort either. Forests restore themselves naturally, and by allowing multiple species of trees to grow in an area instead of planting “crops” of trees, forests would grow healthier and stronger and would be much more capable of pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. | https://medium.com/predict/outrageous-alarming-and-evocative-of-science-fiction-why-we-need-geoengineering-e399faec5f63 | ['Madison Hunter'] | 2020-11-15 19:17:52.557000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Science', 'Geoengineering', 'Global Warming', 'Environment'] |
Trip to a Perfect Paris | Eurostar, Le Petit Prince and Amelie café, and lots and lots of laughs throughout the city with such an amazing time spend together. Surprisingly I actually liked Paris on this trip. Each trip keeps getting better and better.
I was caught in two minds of this trip — on the one hand, I didn’t really want to go as I am not a big fan of Paris. I thought it would not be that fun, but on the other hand, I wanted to go as we had spoken about it in the past and she was quite excited about the possibility of visiting Paris. I have to admit now that we have been, I am so glad we went.
Arrived in Paris around mid-morning after a cool Eurostar trip, aside from my usual nervousness to get to the station much earlier than required and that somehow I managed to choose the only seat without a window.
Arrived in Paris and what better way to experience the city than getting on the Metro to really feel and smell the ambience. The fragrances tickling our noses. Eventually got to the hotel and deposited our bags to go out exploring.
Returning to the hotel was an experience I have never come across before. Opened the door to our room expecting our bags to be there, but they were nowhere to be seen. Went to reception and the manager says to look again as it must be there. After convincing him that we had checked with our eyes open, angrily, he grabs a few keys to check for himself as in typical French style “the customer is always wrong and knows nothing”.
He checks the room and surprise surprise no bags. At this stage the poor guy is looking a bit worried, and he decides to call the employee that was on reception when we arrived and stored our bags. After a hush hush conversation between them, we were off on an adventure opening two or three rooms where our bags could be. Eventually, we found our bags in room XXX which other guests had occupied. Luckily the room’s guests were out, so the manager opens the door, and there were our bags, phew, panic over for us but more for the manager who was sweating with worry.
I learned two things from this odd experience
1. People are rude and idiotic, these guests see a bag which is not theirs in their room and do not think to say anything?
2. Never leave anything of value in the room, it was so easy for the manager and us to pop into occupied rooms that who knows how often this happens.
In addition to doing the touristy stuff like Eiffel Tower, Louvre (from the outside as neither of us are big fans of museums), Arc de Triomphe, and Le Moulin Rouge, we also went to the Le Petit Prince store and the café of the film Amelie.
It was also cool to try out different things with her like crepes, croque monsieur (aka croque mansoula or croque sheroulerou) and to walk around, get the tour bus, and experience something a bit different.
The surprising thing about this trip was that I am not a fan of Paris; if I can avoid going, I will, but this trip actually made me enjoy it. I saw the beauty of it and the city’s sights in a completely different light — the only difference to my usual trips to Paris, the company. | https://medium.com/@ednico/trip-to-a-perfect-paris-7d955c95a76d | ['Ed Nico'] | 2020-12-26 18:09:15.505000+00:00 | ['Paris', 'Travel', 'France', 'Explore'] |
Why we invested in arive | We at Balderton are delighted to announce our investment in arive, backing two exceptional, free-spirited founders and Co-CEOs Max and Linus. arive is pioneering a new way for consumers to access the brands and products they love with near-instant delivery in select cities across Germany. Let everything you love arive.
Over the past 10 years, we at Balderton have seen a generation of consumer e-commerce success stories such as Depop and THG. Depop demonstrated that the connection between consumers and brands can become more intimate online, and THG demonstrated the importance of fulfilment execution. arive has both.
arive founders Linus and Max
We have always wondered what the next generation of internet-enabled consumption might look like. arive is a logistical play, but it’s also much more than that: it’s a home to lifestyle brands with a carefully curated assortment of lifestyle products that arrive at your doorstep in 30 minutes. Themselves late Millennials and Gen-Zs, the founders alongside the core team have built a customer-loved assortment rapidly, ranging from Aesop liquid soaps to Izipizi Sunglasses, Ava & May Scented Candles, Apple Air Tags and much more. The founders have executed exceptionally well over the last quarter, aided by their relentlessly practical — and yes, scrappy and rapid — approach. The entire team at Balderton is incredibly excited to be backing Max and Linus in building the next-generation consumer champion. | https://medium.com/balderton/why-we-invested-in-arive-4bbb0fe0e346 | ['Shikha Ahluwalia'] | 2021-09-02 12:07:40.593000+00:00 | ['Consumer', 'Balderton', 'Technology', 'Munich', 'Instant Delivery'] |
Shadowing Solidity Storage Variables in Memory | This article discusses the technique of shadowing Solidity storage variables using memory in Solidity, the defacto smart contract language for the Ethereum blockchain.
Sort those jelly beans, quickly. Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash Retouched by Kitty West
Background
During the development and testing of Datona Labs’ Solidity Smart-Data-Access-Contract (S-DAC) templates, we needed to sort some small sets of persistent data, for example:
import "DiSort.sol"; contract SDAC100 is ... { uint[] fileKeys; function sortFileKeys() internal {
DiSort.quickSort(fileKeys);
} // ...
Solidity effectively has 2 data locations, storage and memory. Storage is persistent across multiple smart contract calls, whereas memory is transient and only exists for each call. There is a 3rd data location, known as calldata, which is effectively the same as memory.
The array in the code fragment above must be persistent across multiple contract calls, hence it must reside in storage.
But access to storage consumes much more gas than memory, so any algorithm which consistently accesses the data is going to be very expensive.
Any of the traditional sorting algorithms, such as Insertion_Sort or Quick_Sort, uses a lot of data accesses in order to carry out element comparison and swapping. A non-comparison sort, such as Counting_Sort saves on element comparison and swapping, but only works with a known small range of numbers. See this article by the same author which discusses the possible benefits of non-comparison sorting in Solidity, and provides the source code for the sorting algorithms. It also considers the use of different array data types.
The sorting algorithms must be rewritten in order to address the correct data location, for instance:
function quickSort(uint[] storage data) internal { // ...
Shadowing Data
One technique to reduce gas consumption is to copy the persistent storage array to memory (shadowing the original data), perform the sort, then copy the array back again.
function sortFileKeys() internal {
uint[] memory shadow = fileKeys;
DiSort.quickSort(shadow);
fileKeys = shadow;
}
This function consumes gas in order to copy the array between data locations, but will that be insignificant compared with the cost of sorting?
Let’s measure some example data to find out.
We will measure different sorting algorithms across our expected number of elements, in both storage and shadow memory data locations. The element values will be generated using a pseudo-random number generator which produces a deterministic sequence of values.
Results
All the contracts were run and the data collated in spreadsheets to produce the following results.
(Fig 1) Gas cost of different sorting algorithms in Storage
Note that Counting Sort is much faster then Quick Sort and Insertion Sort in storage (Fig 1).
(Fig 2) Gas cost of different sorting algorithms in shadow Memory
Note that the cost of copying from storage to memory (S => M) and back again (M => S) dominates the consumption of gas (Fig 2).
(Fig 3) Gas cost of different sorting algorithms in Storage cf Memory
The combined curves are shown for comparison (Fig 3).
The outstanding result is that the Counting Sort is almost as fast in storage as in shadow memory (Fig 3). That’s because it is skipping all the expensive element comparison and swapping. Unfortunately, Counting Sort is only suitable where the element values are in a small known range.
Also outstanding is that the gas consumption of the comparison sorts (Quick Sort and Insertion Sort here) using shadow memory is 6 times less than using storage (Fig 3), despite the additional gas consumption due to copying the array between different data locations (curves S => M and M => S in Fig 2).
As an aside, if the data is likely to be in a sorted state before invoking the sort routine, it would be beneficial to only copy the array back from memory to storage if the data has been changed.
function sortFileKeys() internal {
uint[] memory shadow = fileKeys;
if (DiSort.quickSort(shadow)) // if data has changed
fileKeys = shadow;
}
The sorting routine would require modification to indicate whether the data has been changed in this case.
Conclusions
Using sorting is painfully expensive in Solidity’s storage data location, so it is always worth shadowing the data in the memory data location and performing the sort there.
Other algorithms that perform many data accesses may also benefit from using the shadow technique.
As for sorting algorithm, use either Quick Sort or Insertion Sort. The latter is a much more simple algorithm and thus produces less Bytecode. It gets our vote.
Bio
Jules Goddard is Co-founder of Datona Labs, who provide smart contracts to protect your digital information from abuse.
website — twitter — discord | https://medium.com/coinmonks/shadowing-solidity-storage-variables-in-memory-b56f471edd81 | ['Jules Goddard'] | 2020-09-22 09:26:02.507000+00:00 | ['Solidity', 'Testing', 'Ethereum', 'Sorting Algorithms', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
Day 4: Realizing your place#300DaysofSurf | Big scary walls of water — that’s how I would sum up Day 4.
One thing that I love about the ocean is how it always puts us back in our place. There are days where I feel I know it all, an illusion of mastery — feeling I am getting better with my surf journey. Then a day like this comes where all it takes is a few waves and 5 minutes to show me my place.
This is one alluring reason why I fall in love with the ocean every day — it always humbles everyone around always proving that you can never ‘conquer’ mother nature. You can just feel like a master one day and be a pupil/apprentice the next one, just learning from scratch.
I was hoping the surf would be manageable but it literally took 5 minutes of paddling through the channel to the surf for the ocean to put me back in my place! I was humbled, overwhelmed but also driven to control my fear in the face of big lines/walls of water marching in.
I paddled out to be surrounded by 6.5/7 ft pumping waves from the east! They were definitely outside my comfort zone, almost double overhead but I tried to stay composed.
Crest of a wave! Always a teacher…
I definitely need to start feeling more in control in conditions outside my capability. I realized that focus on my breathing, staying calm, and just thinking straight without panic helped me through the situation.
In the coming few months, I want to work on my awareness of the ocean, rips, a better understanding of swells, train for heavier conditions, and ensure I can take on conditions slightly beyond my comfort zone at least for overhead surf.
Overall to sum up today, I couldn’t find the strength to paddle into any of the big waves coming in and hardly had the drive to take/commit to a big fall on the incoming waves. I feel like a complete beginner again and want to start overcoming this feeling by training/increasing my awareness. I had mentioned this earlier but fear comes from a lack of understanding and preparation. Preparation comes from repetition.
However, one thing that helped today and something I was proud of was just the objective of trying to get used to bigger surf and I was mentally prepping myself to feel at place in those conditions. I stayed out for an hour, dodged sets but still paddled around trying to mentally familiarize the conditions.
I don’t know if it applies to all situations in life but maybe in conditions someone feels anxious, serenity and composure is your way out. | https://medium.com/@something-feral/day-4-realizing-your-place-300daysofsurf-9f207f0422e3 | ['Bhanu Prakash'] | 2021-07-02 10:29:11.654000+00:00 | ['Fear', 'Productivity', 'Oceans', 'Mindfulness', 'Surfing'] |
by Martino Pietropoli | First thing in the morning: a glass of water and a cartoon by The Fluxus.
Follow | https://medium.com/the-fluxus/sunday-have-a-light-c2b02a2e98b7 | ['Martino Pietropoli'] | 2017-02-26 01:19:16.516000+00:00 | ['Humor', 'Alien', 'Comics', 'Cartoon', 'Sunday'] |
Paleo Lifestyle | In this short grass prairie region of eastern Montana, the paleo lifestyle is more than eating and working out. For us the paleo lifestyle includes our environment, and how we live within it. The paleo lifestyle is a form of biomimetics — where our paleo nature serves as model.
Anne and I have been following a diet based on pre-agricutural food choices. Being hunters, and loving to eat meats and saturated fat, it suits us perfectly. We grow our own vegetables, eat wild fish from Fish Fry Lake and avoid processed foods, especially sugar and sodas. I call it “Renaissance paleo” to suggest an “enlightened” form of pre-agricultural lifestyle — the version that includes wine and chocolate and hot baths!
As we get more into it, we’ve begun to relate what we are doing with our diet and lifestyle to how we steward land and water. We are passionate about both, and the Shepherd Research Center reflects our biases.
Wisdom, creativity, and joy are rarely stated as goals today.
What we see in our water today is an aquatic version of obesity: too many nutrients left over from our attempts to grow more and more food for human consumption. Ironically this is the very food that leads to human obesity. There is a connection and it’s a vicious cycle. So we ask, can we get back to a more primal kind of stewardship and what might it look like? That’s what I am reflecting on here and I’ll ask you to join me.
Growing squash and other food to eat with fish and game.
Every visitor Anne and I have had at our place has contributed to the thinking, the testing, the prototyping and ultimately the vetting of ideas. Not just around the health of water, but also mind, body and spirit, the land, the atmosphere, wildlife, fisheries, and more. But certainly our focus has been around water, the environment, and our personal commitment to mind and body.
Here is some of what we’ve learned, and concluded:
1. Our paleo ancestors vectored with shoreline, especially along ocean edge. Today 90% of humans live within 100 miles of an ocean. In the past, this number was even greater due to the biocomplexity and verdancy associated with such “edge.”
2. Technology advances of the last 200 years are a hiccup. They have camouflaged many truly worthy human goals. For example, wisdom, creativity, and joy are rarely even stated as goals today. And as environmental health diminishes, such goals become even more distant.
3. A paleo model for water and environmental health is not just achievable…but fundamental.
Here at Shepherd we’ve designed and managed for harvest of wild game and heirloom fruits and vegetables. We also harvest some wild plant material. Initially, the bounty of fish, venison, upland birds like pheasant and grouse, and waterfowl and fruit and vegetables would make up perhaps twenty percent of our diet. As a private pond in Montana our harvest of fish is not restricted. Wild game however does fall within bag and possession limit regulations. Even so, today our entire dietary requirements are met by fish, game, vegetables and fruit garnered from the property.
The exceptions to this within our diet are those times we choose to dine elsewhere. A key point here is that this property was “conventional” when we started. Today it is not conventional. Today it is a test site where an experiment in paleo lifestyle is unfolding.
Our paleo ancestors lived primarily along seashores. Those that lived inland, invariably were associated with waterways. A delightful/thoughtful book called The Living Shore by Rowan Jacobsen tracks how North America was likely initially colonized by humans migrating down the Pacific rim from Alaska. Not fighting and competing with massive predators and herd beasts of the inner continent, but instead stewarding the most delectable of oysters, collecting marine vegetables and fish, thriving on the verdancy of riparian edge.
Today as humans fight to understand how to fix their predilection towards over population, and its impact on quality of water and life, that Paleo model is before us.
Maybe it’s the lack of marine derived iodine, and its connection with cranial development that’s kept us from seeing this interconnectedness earlier. But it isn’t too late. Let’s apply Paleometrics to our lifestyle, and watch what comes of it. Perhaps movement towards a paleo lifestyle, with its countless personal benefits, can inspire a modern renaissance. It’s apparent that humanity is in transition. So is the planet.
A lead article in the June, 2013 edition of Scientific American, “Tiny Plants that Once Ruled the Seas,” describes how the planet’s food web base is shifting from diatoms to green algae….after 250 million years. The article also associates diatoms with remarkable biodiversity, and raises the question of “what’s next?”, as excess nitrogen biases in favor of green algae. A challenge for paleo practitioners…not that any of us really need more challenges!…is how do we relate to such a phenomenon? One answer is that we can at least have our paleo water back. But abiding with the status quo does not get us there. I don’t have a formula. But we do have a model here.
Fish Fry Lake and the Shepherd Research Center is an ongoing experiment.
What do you think are the most interesting elements of a paleo lifestyle? Are you embracing a paleo diet because you want to be fit or you want humans to fit in better with the ecology of this planet? | https://medium.com/@brucekania/paleo-lifestyle-b7c08b0734ff | ['Bruce Kania'] | 2020-12-21 21:31:07.444000+00:00 | ['Water', 'Hunting', 'Fishing', 'Paleo', 'Conservation'] |
The 5 Marketing Skills You Should Hire for Today | The 5 Marketing Skills You Should Hire for Today
On November 12th, Tim Ito of the Marketing Nice Guys hosted a webinar with Kathy McConnell and Sue Keith of Ceres Talent. Kathy and Sue have been recruiting marketing talent for companies in the greater Washington, D.C. area for over a decade. They regularly interact with CEO’s, CMO’s and hiring managers. They have seen trends come and go. They are acutely aware of the massive shift driven by the coronavirus lockdowns and how those changes have trickled down from corporations to individual contributors. Here they share their wisdom and how marketers and hiring managers can position themselves for success in the coming year.
How the Marketing Landscape is Shifting Due to Covid-19
In order to understand why these marketing skills are important for companies in today’s environment, we must first understand the trends impacting the marketplace. Here are the top trends:
Spend shifting to digital channels: with traditional channels such as tradeshows and events in decline, companies are shifting spend to digital. A greater focus on PR and earned media: these channels aren’t free. You need a human being to manage them. Conversion rates are no longer predictable: across the board, conversion rates are changing. You need people to determine what’s happening and how to optimize those channels.
Emphasis on existing customers: A greater focus is being put on retaining existing customers and managing those relationships throughout the buying and usage cycle. Content is amazingly important: companies have to give their prospects and customers something valuable in order to engage with them. Content is important throughout the marketing funnel for both new and existing customers.
The 5 Marketing Skills
These are the most sought after marketing skills right now based on current trends. As the marketplace continues to evolve, hiring managers are placing a greater emphasis on marketers having multiple skill sets. That is, marketers must be able to understand strategy as well as to execute, a rare combination in some of the most high demand skills in marketing. In fact, this combination of strategy and execution is the primary thread that links these marketing skill sets together. As Sue mentions in our previous conversation, it pays to make use of downtime during the pandemic to expand one’s skill set.
Digital Marketing
Digital breaks down into three subcategories. The first is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This skill is important because marketers are looking for any way to boost conversion rates. SEO helps marketers ensure the organic stuff is doing it’s best work. Furthermore, companies are now focusing on their website as a product and a channel and treating it as such. This aspect involves the more technical stuff like page feeds, page loads, tagging, metadata, backlinks and authenticity.
The second digital skill is paid digital media. This is where companies are putting their money right now. It is also becoming a highly specialized skill set. There are a lot of channels, and each channel has it’s own distinct ad platform. With the proliferation of social media complexity, it is increasingly important to be able to understand strategy as well as execute.
The third digital skill set that is in high demand is content marketing. This again breaks down into two areas. The first is to understand content strategy. That is, what content do we need to engage, influence and drive leads? The second is content writing. This is where copywriters are worth their weight in gold. Podcasts and video are also taking off, so having those content skills are important as well.
PR and Social Media
Social Media is now a table stake for companies and it must be tied at the hip with the overall marketing strategy. Previously, social media was usually managed by a PR person who took it on as an extension of the PR strategy. But as social media becomes more complex and more integrated into the overall marketing strategy and marketing message, executing it requires someone with a broader skill set who understands PR, social media and the overall marketing communications approach. So those skill sets are dovetailing.
Account Based Marketing
This is a fancy name for what marketers have been doing since the dawn of marketing. It’s a more surgical approach to priority prospects and existing accounts, pulling them out of the mass marketing and treating them differently. This is nothing new, but it does require a lot of additional work. For this to be successful, marketing has to be in lock step with sales. What is new are the marketing automation platforms. So this specific skill set revolves around having experience using a marketing automation platform to differentiate your marketing.
Product Marketing
Product Marketing is making a comeback, this time as a mini-CEO role of a product or service. It requires a broad skill set, strong strategic chops, collaboration and political savviness. These people have to be really good at pulling together the overall product strategy, getting the product to market and then continuing to promote the offering. Companies are realizing the value of having someone who has a holistic view of what it takes to make a product successful.
Writing Skills
With the increased focus on content marketing, writing skills are also becoming critical. Marketers, by nature, have to be able to communicate, so everyone has to have some level of writing skills. But not everyone is an agency caliber writer. Being able to get a content piece 80% of the way there is helpful to a lot of companies. Short form writing, being able to communicate in a pithy way, is being driven by the increase in social media.
For a more in depth discussion on the forces shaping the current marketing environment, including bonus skills, trends and recruiting tips, watch the entire webinar on YouTube. This content is reproduced with permission from Ceres Talent. | https://medium.com/illumination/the-5-marketing-skills-you-should-hire-for-today-18e71ee60767 | ['Clint Perez'] | 2020-12-14 18:15:52.145000+00:00 | ['Content Marketing', 'Recruiting', 'Social Media', 'SEO', 'Marketing'] |
A Partisan Love Story | She was perfect. Everything about her. She was smart. Funny. Beautiful. Drop dead gorgeous beautiful.
Our eyes met that first time and we both knew we were meant for each other. The conversation flowed freely. The electricity between us was palpable.
And then, she told me who she was voting for.
Shit.
She was no longer perfect. No longer smart. No longer funny. I started to notice physical imperfections on her face that detracted from her beauty.
Our gaze broke. Our illusion shattered.
And we walked away from each other never to speak again — two soulmates refusing to see the connection because we were on different teams. | https://medium.com/the-coffeelicious/a-partisan-love-story-408d1b4ad613 | ['M E Lehrer'] | 2016-11-02 22:37:40.640000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Microfiction', 'Love', 'Fiction', 'Short Story'] |
The economics of Airbnb | Airbnb just went public in a debut that’s been widely celebrated. We dug into the company’s prospectus and learned some interesting facts about their business and travel trends.
Cash flow is highly seasonal. ABNB makes all it’s money in Q3. As you can see, that’s pretty much the only quarter in which the company is comfortably EBITDA positive in any given year. This is due to the fact that the bulk of ABNB’s customers travel in Q3, hence revenue is earned at that point.
Airbnb generated EBITDA. During 2017 and 2018, the company did generate material positive EBITDA. In 2019, they swung back to a loss due to rising costs across the board, and it looks highly likely they’ll burn again in 2020.
Airbnb generates significant free cash flow. Thanks to unearned fees, which is the payment customers make when they book a reservation, Airbnb does generate free cash flow even in years where they are unprofitable. Cash flow is especially strong in Q1 and Q2 when customers book their stays, and then declines in Q3 when many of the stays actually occur (see seasonality above) and Airbnb has to pay those reservations out to the host. Airbnb keeps 15% of every booking.
Strong founder ownership. The three founders (Brian, Nathan, Joseph) own 14.1% to 15.3% each. This is an extraordinary level of ownership for a 3-founder company going public. This is due to two things: strong free cash flow generation and more importantly the ability for Airbnb to raise capital at consistently high valuations.
Covid hurt a lot. Bookings in Q2 fell to $3.2bln whereas in Q2 2019, bookings were $9.8bln. That’s a 67% decline. The rebound in Q3 of 2020 however was dramatic as demand for travel exploded.
Short trips are in. Thanks in part to covid, people are taking shorter trips. “Short-distance travel within 50 miles of guest origin has been highly resilient, even at the peak of the business interruption in April. Short-distance stays were one of the fastest growing categories prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. This growth was further bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as many guests chose short-distance trips instead of long-distance travel.”
Airbnb’s prospectus provides a very interesting look into travel trends and the economics of running a marketplace.
Visit us at blossomstreetventures.com and email us directly with Series A or B opportunities at [email protected]. Connect on LI as well. We invest $1mm to $1.5mm in growth rounds, inside rounds, small rounds, cap table restructurings, note clean outs, and other ‘special situations’ all over the US & Canada. | https://medium.com/@blossomstreetventures/the-economics-of-airbnb-dd2ed4828bf7 | ['Sammy Abdullah'] | 2020-12-17 13:41:52.505000+00:00 | ['Airbnb', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Founders', 'Startup', 'Venture Capital'] |
+SocialGood Empowers Youth For A Greener Future | Photo by Miriam Espacio on Unsplash
2020 has challenged world leaders and stakeholders of environmental stewardship to re-imagine the contours of an inclusive, sustainable, green world. International lockdowns and travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may have improved air quality or reduced fossil fuel consumption, but experts warn this is a temporary side effect. If there is anything that 2020 has taught us, it is that more urgent action is needed now more than ever to heal our planet, including more climate-friendly economic practices, protecting biodiversity, and enhanced public and private sector commitments. During this past year, the +SocialGood community gave their voices, time, and ideas to help build momentum on climate action and environmental sustainability — both in their communities and on the world stage.
As part of the G20 Think20 Saudi Arabia (T20) climate change and environment task force, Qatar-based youth climate activist Neeshad Shafi worked with other experts around the world to develop recommendations for empowering youth to take action on climate change and environmental protection. He and his co-authors point to a global disparity in climate and environmental education, with youth in developed countries more aware of issues such as pollution, climate change, and renewable resources than their peers in developing countries.
To address this gap, they suggest a few ways that the G20 could enhance global environmental education, including: mandating environmental curricula in schools worldwide; empowering teachers with the tools they need to both learn and teach about environmental issues; gamifying environmental awareness by using scenarios from real life; and organizing summits and gatherings for youth to connect about these issues. Shafi — a 2019 +SocialGood connector who has spent most of his career advocating for environmental awareness in Qatar and the Middle East, as well as on the global stage — and his team believe that only if youth are educated in environmental issues can they change their behavior to better protect the planet.
According to Shafi, once youth are educated in how climate change impacts their local communities, they must then amplify these stories on a regional and international stage. In a recent conversation, he explained that it is rare that we hear from young climate activists from his region, the Middle East, for example: “We need to give young people the platform to speak about climate issues in their communities.”
As the T20 task force highlighted, youth summits and training opportunities are an important step to turning young people into advocates for the environment. Peru’s +SocialGood chapter president Jose Arrieta was selected as the Peru country coordinator at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of Youth (COY) in Glasgow. The gathering of young climate change action and sustainability enthusiasts from around the world will come together a week ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to exchange experiences and address the inclusion and impact of climate change on young people. Arrieta was also selected for the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, a training program with environmentalist Al Gore for global activists to learn how to better communicate and advocate for climate change action. The program equips participants with storytelling, digital media outreach, and community organizing skills to translate big-world environmental challenges into how they tangibly impact the daily lives of people around the world.
Communicating complex challenges such as climate change can mean the difference between ambivalence and action, as Nigerian climate activist Esther Agbarakwe knows. This year, she completed her MSc in corporate communications and public affairs from the Robert Gordon University, where her research focused on how public relations can shape the global response to climate change. Most recently, Agbarakwe has been using her people-centered communications skills in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, where she previously helped develop strategic engagement around the SDGs, including the first UN Youth Climate Summit.
Spearheading events such as the Climate Summit calls for visionary thinking and willingness to think without limitations. That takes leadership. Ruba Al-Zu’bi in Jordan also pushed for progress on environmental issues — as a leader and collaborator focused on the green economy and environmental mainstreaming. She was recently selected for Common Purpose’s Sky Blue training program, which brings together leaders from across the world to tackle common issues such as environmental challenges. The program challenges participants to think across sectors, geographical boundaries, and disciplines to brainstorm projects and creative solutions to environmental issues. Al-Zu’bi also received a Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Award this year, which recognizes the accomplishments of women working in the clean energy field.
The environmental challenges we face are multifaceted and require multifaceted solutions. Whether it’s developing environmental literacy programs or developing innovative storytelling strategies to convey the urgency of climate change, the +SocialGood community worked hard, despite the challenges, to reimagine and advocate for a sustainable, green future. | https://medium.com/@plussocialgood/socialgood-empowers-youth-for-a-greener-future-f4daebed1941 | [] | 2020-12-22 22:34:15.121000+00:00 | ['Youth', 'Partnerships', 'Earth'] |
Using Twitter to forecast cryptocurrency returns #3 — A time series analysis using VAR | Using Twitter to forecast cryptocurrency returns #3 — A time series analysis using VAR
Find out which features can forecast the returns with Granger Causality Test
If you have followed my first article, it’s tough scraping Twitter for the sentiment analysis. Here are my initial thoughts:
A Tweet can be super positive but has no impact if there are no followers on the Tweet
A Tweet can be neutral (probably posted by bots) but the frequent postings of such Tweets can increase awareness and attention to the cryptocurrency
A Tweet can have a large number of followers but not all followers agree with the Tweet. Perhaps the favorite attribute of the Tweet will be able to show the amount of consensus the Tweet has.
Bitcoin has higher Tweet volume than Ethereum but Ethereum has a more positive bullish ratio. Does that imply Ethereum will have better growth than Bitcoin?
Looking at Tweets from different perspectives, I cannot bring myself to accept that the cryptocurrencies’ returns can simply be forecast by a single feature such as the Twitter sentiment.
In this article, I will be exploring the below to find out if any of the attributes from the Tweets can be used to forecast the returns of cryptocurrencies:
Probable time-series of features that can be used for forecasting
Performing Stationary check and making the time series stationary
Testing causation using Granger Causality test
Using Vector Autoregressive Model (VAR) to forecast the returns of the cryptocurrency
Possible analytics time-series
From the cryptocurrencies, I considered only two features — price and returns in my case as I am interested to see if the Tweets can be used to forecast these features. From Tweets however, I have many possible features that I can get, e.g. the Tweet’s attributes:
Number of retweets
Followers count (of the authors who posted)
Favorite count
I can also derive the following features:
Tweet volume
Tweet polarity (emotions expressed in the post — positive, negative or neutral)
Tweet’s bullish ratio (number of positive tweets over number of negative tweets)
Similar to the Bull/Bear ratio which is a market sentiment of investors towards the financial market, I created a bullish ratio for the Tweets.
A bullish ratio greater than one indicates audiences’ belief that the cryptocurrency’s return will increase. Otherwise, a value lower than one shows greater negativity towards the cryptocurrency and the market will be pulled back in near future.
Let’s use all these time-series as our features and load them into atoti.
Note that for each cryptocurrency, I set aside the last 7 days as the test data and the rest as the training data. This means that I’m going to forecast up to 7 days of returns.
Stationary time-series check
Most time-series analyses require the time-series to be stationary. There are many articles on why stationarity is important, so I shall skip the specifics here. Instead, let’s see how we can detect stationarity in time-series:
Visual checks by plotting
Auto-correlation function (ACF)
Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF)
Visual checks by plotting
Using Matplotlib, let’s plot the time-series:
Plots for features of BTC
Judging from the shape of the plot, it seems that the time-series of returns, polarity average and probably bullish ratio are stationary for Bitcoin. As you can see, this method has a couple of problems:
There are 12 time-series for each of the 12 cryptocurrencies (total of 144 charts). This can get pretty lengthy. It’s manual and is subjected to my judgement.
Auto-correlation function (ACF)
Autocorrelation is the degree of similarity between a given time series and a lagged version of itself over successive time intervals. It can cause problems in conventional analyses (such as ordinary least squares regression) that assume independence of observations (based on Gauss-Markov condition). With the presence of autocorrelation, we may be underestimating the error variances, making confidence interval calculation etc invalid.
That apart, by plotting the autocorrelation of the time-series by lag, called the AutoCorrelation Function (ACF), we can determine if the time-series is stationary.
Using “acf” and “pacf” functions from statsmodels, I generated the auto-correlation for 50 lags and stored them as a vector:
Why am I not plotting the time-series? From the previous visual check, we can see that there are simply too many charts to plot for all the cryptocurrencies.
I figured that I would need a better way to manage my data. Hence I loaded the data back into atoti and created a dashboard that allows me to filter my data by the cryptocurrency.
I can now compare the ACF alongside the time-series plotting.
In the ACF plots for Bitcoin, we can see that the price time-series has a good positive correlation up to lag 36 before it cuts through the upper confidence level of 95%, showing a gradual decline in value and therefore a non-stationary time-series. The ACF for returns however showed a sharp dip from the beginning, implying a stationary time-series.
This way of determining the stationarity of a time-series is more definitive compared to the first method. However, given we have multiple time-series, it would be nice to be able to determine the stationarity programmatically and apply differencing to the time-series directly.
Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF)
Using the augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF), I am going to test the null hypothesis that a unit root is present in the time-series and hence, implying a stochastic process that is non-stationary. By using ADF, I can recursively apply differencing on the time-series until no unit root is detected.
I retained the differenced time-series and the order of differencing before loading them into atoti as a scenario:
By doing so, I am able to see the change in the time-series with each differencing:
Since the time-series for returns is a stationary process, no differencing is applied. However, the time-series of price after differencing becomes exactly the same as the returns time-series. In this case, I can safely ignore the price time-series.
Granger Causality Testing
Now that my time-series are stationary, I would like to find out if any of the time-series can be used to forecast the returns of a given cryptocurrency using the Granger causality test. The idea behind is that for a given variable Y that can be predicted based on its own past values, a variable X is said to Granger-cause Y if the past values of X and Y give a better prediction.
Y in this case is the returns, and X is composed by the other features that we have identified earlier on. For each cryptocurrency, I iterate through each feature to see if it can Granger cause returns up to maxlag 50 (similar to ACF earlier):
Below shows the output for a lag for Tweet volume against Returns of Bitcoin:
Again, I upload these attributes into atoti and I can quickly visualize the p-value of each feature of a cryptocurrency against returns for 50 lags:
In the above pivot table, the green cells show features that have the null hypothesis rejected based on 95% significance level. The null hypothesis is given as follows:
The time-series in the second column (features) does NOT Granger cause the time series in the first column (returns)
With atoti, I create a measure that gives a scoring of 1 when the null hypothesis is rejected for a lag:
We can see how many lags of each feature has the null hypothesis rejected together with other test output:
Forecasting with Vector Autoregression model (VAR)
Using Statsmodel VAR, I’m going to use the features with null hypothesis rejected from the previous section to forecast the returns.
Cube query returns a Pandas dataframe. Notice that x contains only those features with value for Granger causality.
Since Granger causality test returns results from 4 different types of testing, I chose the features using the p-value from the ssr_ftest which is based on F distribution.
Below shows the time-series selected based on 95% significance level for Bitcoin:
I apply VAR on my train data at daily frequency level as per the granularity of my data.
Looking at the selected order, we can see that both AIC (Akaike information criterion) and FPE (Final prediction error) returns an order of 5 while BIC (Bayesian a.k.a. Schwarz) returns an order of 0 and HQIC (Hannan-Quinn) returns order of 2. I choose to fit my model with a maxlag of 5 based on AIC.
Let’s quickly take a look at the results for the returns:
It happens that the lag order for Bitcoin with the given features is 5. Which is confirmed in the results table here above where we can observe that the first coefficient with associated probability less than 0.05 (95% confidence) corresponds to Followers average variable at lag 5. We will take the last 5 days of the features to forecast our returns.
Previously I have put aside 7 days of test data for which I want to forecast. However, to achieve more precise forecasting, I limit the number of days to forecast to the lag order returned by the fitted model. The steps to forecast is therefore the least value between my initial target of 7 days and the value of the lag order:
Let’s fit the value back into our dataframe:
I’m going to load this data back into atoti as a scenario named “Forecast 0.05” since this is based on features obtained from Granger causality test at 95% significance level:
I can now compare our forecast against the actual. The forecasted values are nowhere near the actual values except for the last 2 days (there is a chance that the number of examples observed is less than 7 days).
We can spot 2 days with the correct trend forecasted. Let’s create some measures in atoti to measure how accurate the model forecast trends instead of the values.
I compared the current return with the previous day and return:
-1 if it is less than the previous day,
1 if it is greater than the previous day
0 if there’s no change
Alternatively, I can also replace the value with emoticon:
With atoti’s pivot table, I greyed out the dates which are not forecasted due to the difference between the lag order and the number of days intended to forecast.
We can see that the trend on 2020–09–21 and 2020–09–22 are predicted correctly and there are only 5 forecasted values.
Validation of our VAR model
Autocorrelation testing in the residual
Durbin-Watson Statistic can be used to check autocorrelation in the residuals (difference between the observed and predicted values from the VAR. It allows us to verify if there is remaining information to be explained in the residuals, which would invalidate our model..
Positive correlation here would impliy that if the value increased yesterday, it would most likely increase today as well. Negative correlation would imply that if the value increased yesterday, it would most likely decrease today. To validate our VAR model, I aimed to have zero autocorrelation for our residual.
From the fitted model, I obtained the residual and apply the durbin watson:
Together with some other metrics, the data is loaded back into the scenario “Forecast 0.05” in atoti. This allows me to visualize the durbin watson value in the pivot table as shown below. For my testing, I assumed that there is no auto-correlation for a value between the range 1.5 to 2.5.
No autocorrelation based on the residuals
Distribution of Residual
For our VAR model to be valid, the residuals must be:
normally distributed
non-autocorrelated
To verify whether the residuals are normally distributed or not we perform a normaltest using SciPy “normaltest” .
Again, I loaded the data into the scenario “Forecast 0.05” in atoti together with the durbin watson from the previous section.
If p-value from the “normaltest” is less than or equal to 0.05 (at 95% confidence level), we will reject the null hypothesis below.
Null hypothesis: Data looks Gaussian
Alternative hypothesis: Data looks non-Gaussian
We can do so with the following measures:
From the above, we see the Kurtosis value from the residual based on Fisher’s definition of kurtosis. 0 is returned if all values are equal. Kurtosis value of less than -1 shows that the distribution is too flat while a value greater than 1 is too peaked.
Skewness value between -0.5 and 0.5 shows that data are pretty symmetrical. Values between -1 and -0.5, or between 0.5 and 1, shows that data are moderately skewed. Otherwise, the data are highly skewed.
It seems that the residual of returns are non-gaussian even though it is pretty symmetrical for ADA, LTC and LINK.
But, these results have to be taken with caution because the small size of the test data (only 7 points at most for each cryptocurrency) makes it difficult to assess normality of the data using such a test.
We should at least consider a non-parametric test or increase the size of the test data.
Putting together the analysis for all cryptocurrencies
We see the forecast performed for one single cryptocurrency above. I iterated the same set of testing for different cryptocurrencies and stored the analysis into atoti so that I can put all the test results together:
While this is a benefit of storing the test output into atoti, what I am going to leverage is really the scenario simulations which we shall see in the next section.
Scenario simulation with different significance level
Changing the level of significance (alpha) affects the features that are being selected for the VAR model as the basis for rejecting the null hypothesis changes.
With atoti, we shall see how the features are changed if the level of significance is changed by setting up a simulation that replaces the alpha value. The base scenario (initial forecast at 95% confidence level) is labelled as “0.05”.
Let’s replace the alpha value with 0.1 and 0.01 in the scenario “0.1” and “0.01” below, rejecting the null hypothesis for Granger Causality test at 90% and 99% confidence level respectively:
I can now re-query atoti to get the new set of features based on the two simulations above.
I can now repeat the forecasting with VAR using the new set of features and compare the differences:
Finally, to summarize our analysis, the features identified by Granger causality test at 90% significance level have forecasted the highest number of cryptocurrencies correctly at 50% accuracy and above (in term of trend).
Let’s have a look at the features that helped in forecasting the trend of those cryptocurrencies with more than 50% correct.
To conclude, Twitter sentiment alone cannot be used to forecast the returns of the cryptocurrencies. However it is one of the features that can Granger cause and therefore be used to forecast the returns of Ethereum, Tether, Bitcoin Cash, Binance Coin and EOS.
However, the predictive power of our VAR models here are underestimated. In fact, as we found out that cryptocurrencies were Granger-caused by some variables at lags greater than 1. When predicting a given point in time, we need to use its actual corresponding past values and this is what we have not done in this use case. Consequently, in our predictions we accumulated predictions errors over the different time steps. For instance, the predicted returns at day 5 misses information of the past values at days 4, 3, 2, 1 and 0 (correlated lags), which represent errors that sum up together resulting in a decrease of the accuracy of the prediction.
Still, there are many other things that could be done to improve the forecast, I welcome you to share with me your thoughts if you have done something similar. You may also find my notebook here. | https://medium.com/atoti/is-it-enough-to-focus-just-on-twitter-sentiment-9e1f65a867c2 | ['Huifang Yeo'] | 2020-12-15 02:48:01.236000+00:00 | ['Twitter Sentiment', 'Time Series Forecasting', 'Jupyterlab', 'Use Cases', 'Machine Learning'] |
Taking Action as Impulse | “Change happens at the speed of trust.”
In the last few weeks in particular, in a year filled with undeniable markers of how systems and institutions must fundamentally change, one of our nonprofit sector’s “automatic defaults” has become very apparent to me: the bias for action. Painfully so, at times.
Though incisive, the bias for action is reactive, anxious, a killer of trust. The bias for action lets people believe in motion is the best state of being. The bias for action makes people believe that they are doing something even if it is merely keeping themselves busy. It treats time as a scarce commodity. In our sector, we have created tool after strategy after report that reflects this bias for taking action.
The bias for action ensures we get things done, no doubt. But we end up valuing that effort and striving/solving energy more than we value building and maintaining relationships. We remain focused on ourselves rather than looking around and noticing what’s really happening in the literal and figurative ecosystems around us. We don’t make room or leave energy for deliberation or discernment between options, for consent, for celebration, for grief, for disagreement, for repair, for trust and togetherness. This has had major implications on the progress made (or rather, not) on anti-racism within the global development sector.
This year it has been so readily apparent that our speed, our “doing”, has been more important than our direction. In that impulse, that unconsciousness of taking action, we uphold the status quo.
Doing keeps us occupied and placated. Doing ensures we never look at what’s in the shadows. Doing becomes a futile attempt to prove our worthiness and our commitment and our relevance by our busyness. We choose it over and over again, because our bodies and the land have been reduced to resources for the taking — the result of racialized, settler colonial capitalism.
Sitting in the unknown is so uncomfortable, and I noticed a severe aversion to it in our sector in 2020, the year that more than ever before, we learned we cannot predict the outcomes. For me, 2020 revealed the danger of not interrogating our bias for action.
I won’t pretend that it won’t be painful to unwind from the bias for action. It means we will have to sit with ourselves, with our failures, with our fears, our histories. It means that it will be harder to ignore suffering — our own and other people’s.
And…there is good news! We have the freedom to do something differently if we dare shift our bias for action in 2021. We can dare to navigate uncertainty in a time when it can seem so difficult and so necessary to dream. To do so, we can break pace, rest, reflect, invite the questions, integrate, unlearn disconnection, and relearn togetherness. We must establish new practices — apart from our standard ways of working in the sector — so that as we are left with only ourselves, we are not still looking for a way out of 2020, but a way forward in 2021.
Let our action have the heft of our wisdom. ~Krista Tippett
***
Related Posts from 2020
The both/and of our days
Welcome to the uncertainty
Willing to say what needs to be said
Why I use the term “do-gooder” (and count myself as one)
The Death of the Changemaker
Time to get uncomfortable
Solve, Fix, Save…Conquer | https://medium.com/@intldogooder/taking-action-as-impulse-384d30f4810 | ['Jennifer Lentfer'] | 2020-12-22 17:52:20.902000+00:00 | ['Decolonization', 'Global Development', 'Healing', 'Nonprofit', 'Covid 19 Crisis'] |
Automatically Find & Re-post Popular Instagram Content with Python | What it does?
This takes a keyword as an input from the user and using it as a hashtag, retrieves public Instagram posts. It then sorts those posts based on the number of likes. The post with the most likes is then downloaded to be reposted later. It then pulls any hashtags from the caption, finds other hashtags being used with these hashtags on twitter and Instagram and use them in the caption, along with credit to the original poster of the selected post. The script then opens Instagram, logs into the user’s account and uploads the picture along with the caption.
Importing required libraries and set up the variables:
import requests
import urllib.request
import urllib.parse
import urllib.error
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import ssl
import json
from IPython.display import Image
import re
import time
import autoit
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import *
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
import operator import tweepy as tw
import bs4
import requests consumer_key= ‘your-consumer-key’
consumer_secret= ‘your-consumer-secret’
access_token= ‘your-access-token’
access_token_secret= ‘your-access-token-secret’
auth = tw.OAuthHandler(consumer_key, consumer_secret)
auth.set_access_token(access_token, access_token_secret)
api = tw.API(auth, wait_on_rate_limit=True)
Get input from user:
Here we will ask the user for the key word. This key word will be used as a hashtag to find relevant Instagram posts.
key_word = input('Please enter your key word:')
Finding the Instagram photo for re-posting and then download it:
The following function with use the Instagram explore option and retrieve posts using the key word provided by the user.
url= '
html = urllib.request.urlopen(url).read() def get_posts(key_word):url= ' https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/'+key_word+'/' html = urllib.request.urlopen(url).read() soup = BeautifulSoup(html, 'html.parser')
script = soup.find('script', text=lambda t: \
t.startswith('window._sharedData'))
page_json = script.text.split(' = ', 1)[1].rstrip(';') posts=json.loads(page_json)
b=posts['entry_data']['TagPage'][0]['graphql']['hashtag']['edge_hashtag_to_top_posts']['edges']
return b
The following function will use the above function to get a list of Instagram posts, and then find the one with the most likes to return.
def get_top_post(key_word):
posts= get_posts(key_word)
l=[]
for item in posts:
d={}
d['likes']=item['node']['edge_liked_by']['count']
d['url']=item['node']['display_url']
d['urlcode']=item['node']['shortcode']
d['owner']=item['node']['owner']['id'] d['caption']=item['node']['edge_media_to_caption']['edges'][0]['node']['text']
l.append(d)
l.sort(key=operator.itemgetter('likes'), reverse=True)
return l[0]
This function returns a dictionary containing attributes of the top post.
Download the photo:
We write a function that takes a URL and downloads the photo at that URL and saves it as downloaded.jpg.
def download_image(url):
f = open('download.jpg','wb')
f.write(requests.get(url).content)
f.close()
The URL for this function will come from the dictionary containing attributes of the top post.
Building the caption:
What I want to do is to credit the original uploader, therefore I want to get the username of the original uploader. Our post dictionary contains ‘URL code’. The following function takes that URL code and returns the username of the original uploader.
url= '
html = urllib.request.urlopen(url).read() def get_owner(shortcode):url= ' https://www.instagram.com/p/'+shortcode+'/' html = urllib.request.urlopen(url).read() soup = BeautifulSoup(html, 'html.parser')
script = soup.find('script', text=lambda t: \
t.startswith('window._sharedData'))
page_json = script.text.split(' = ', 1)[1].rstrip(';') post=json.loads(page_json)
return post['entry_data']['PostPage'][0]['graphql']['shortcode_media']['owner']['username']
Another thing we want to add to our caption is relevant hashtags. Following are the functions to do that. I have written detailed tutorials on how this code works (Part 1, Part 2).
def return_all_hashtags(tweets, key_word):
all_hashtags = []
for tweet in tweets:
for word in tweet.split():
if word.startswith('#') and word.lower() != '#' + key_word.lower():
all_hashtags.append(word.lower())
return all_hashtags def extract_shared_data(doc):
for script_tag in doc.find_all("script"):
if script_tag.text.startswith("window._sharedData ="):
shared_data = re.sub("^window\._sharedData = ", "", script_tag.text)
shared_data = re.sub(";$", "", shared_data)
shared_data = json.loads(shared_data)
return shared_data def get_hashtags(key_word):
tweets = tw.Cursor(api.search,
q='#' + key_word,
lang="en").items(200)
tweets_list = []
for tweet in tweets:
tweets_list.append(tweet.text) url_string = "https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/%s/" % key_word
response = bs4.BeautifulSoup(requests.get(url_string).text, "html.parser") shared_data = extract_shared_data(response)
media = shared_data['entry_data']['TagPage'][0]['graphql']['hashtag']['edge_hashtag_to_media']['edges'] captions = []
for post in media:
if post['node']['edge_media_to_caption']['edges'] != []:
captions.append(post['node']['edge_media_to_caption']['edges'][0]['node']['text']) all_tags = return_all_hashtags(tweets_list + captions, key_word)
frequency = {}
for item in set(all_tags):
frequency[item] = all_tags.count(item)
return {k: v for k, v in sorted(frequency.items(), key=lambda item: item[1], reverse=True)}
Binding it all in one function:
Now that we have written all the helper functions, we can write one function to make a post using all out helper functions. This function will find the top post, download the image, build the caption which will include credit to the original uploader and then relevant hashtags and return the caption.
def make_post(key_word):
tag = clean_input(key_word)
top_post = get_top_post(tag)
download_image(top_post['url'])
caption = 'Repost from @'+get_owner(top_post['urlcode']) + '
' + ', '.join(list(get_hashtags(tag).keys())[:10])
return caption
Now that we have downloaded the picture that we want to re-post and have built a caption, we need the script/code to upload it to Instagram.
Autogram:
The Autogram class contains all the code required for automatically loading Instagram, logging in and then uploading the picture. The Autogram class code can be found here. I did not write this code therefore decided not to go over it. However the whole code is available here as mentioned above.
The following code opens a new chrome window and logs into Instagram.
ig = Autogram('your-instagram-username', 'your-instagram-password')
ig.open_instagram()
ig.login()
ig.popup_close_save_login_info()
ig.popup_close_turn_on_notifications()
ig.popup_close_add_to_home_screen()
I usually like to watch it load and log in. Instagram can be unpredictable in giving you pop-ups on logging in. Therefore the script might miss an unexpected pop-up and you might have to make one or two clicks manually.
Once it is logged in, you can execute the following script to upload the picture.
ig.upload_image(os.path.normpath(r'full-path-to-folder\download.jpg'), description=make_post(key_word)
ig.popup_close_turn_on_notifications()
Improvements:
Definitely there’s a lot that can be improved with this script. The first thing I can think of, right now, we are using a fixed path and name to the file that is downloaded and then uploaded (download.jpg), however, to make it more universal, the path can be programmatically extracted and then re-used during upload.
Another improvement would be completely automating selenium driver and close app the pop ups that Instagram throws at you. If that can be achieved, then the whole script can run “headless” meaning you will not see the chrome window loading Instagram and everything will happen in the background, however, I do enjoy watching chrome go on it’s own. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/automatically-find-and-re-post-popular-instagram-content-a3a27d28b72b | ['K. Nawab'] | 2020-11-17 04:35:13.288000+00:00 | ['Instagram Marketing', 'Instagram', 'Automation', 'Python', 'Social Media'] |
Use Ansible to setup HAproxy as a Load Balancer | What is HAProxy ?
HAProxy is a high-performance, open-source load balancer and reverse proxy for TCP and HTTP applications. Users can make use of HAProxy to improve the performance of websites and applications by distributing their workloads.
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https://blog.goo.ne.jp/mncsrfd/e/2048d9aa7df5fb1f2c20ff6bd391a7daPerformance improvements include minimized response times and increased throughput. HAProxy is used in high traffic services such as Github and Twitter.
HAProxy Architecture :
Load balancers can be used to distribute workloads across computers, networks, disk drives or CPU’s. A reverse proxy accepts a request from a client, forwards it to a server that can fulfill it, and returns the server’s response to the client. A load balancer distributes incoming client requests among a group of servers, in each case returning the response from the selected server to the appropriate client.
What is Ansible ?
Ansible is an open-source software provisioning, configuration management, and application-deployment tool enabling infrastructure as code.
Let’s start the configuration in Ansible …👇
Follow the below steps in Controller Node(CN) :
Step-1 : In CN, create a inventory file which consists of IP’s of load balancer and webservers.
Step-2 : Check the network connectivity to the webservers as well as load balancer using ping module.
ansible host_name -m ping
Step-3 : Create an ansible playbook (lb.yml) containing all configuration of webserver and HAProxy server(Load balancer).
Step-4 : To update HAProxy Configuration file automatically on each time , write the below code at the last in “haproxy.cfg.j2”
Step-5: Run the playbook using command :
ansible-playbook lb.yml (playbook_name)
Step-6: Check the Managed Node (load balancer) , configuration file is updated dynamically. (/etc/haproxy/haproxy.cfg)
The port no. is changed to 8081.
It’s adding entry of every webserver present in the inventory file of CN.
Step-7: Check the working of load balancer on client browser, as the Client uses load balancer IP only, it doesn’t know from which webserver it is getting the content.
Task completed !✌️
Thanks for Reading !!🙏 | https://medium.com/@boxinglivesstreams/use-ansible-to-setup-haproxy-as-a-load-balancer-65d520b4fc16 | [] | 2020-12-13 14:39:48.103000+00:00 | ['Haproxy', 'Ansible', 'Load Balancer'] |
Water Spouts to Stop Hurricanes | ~ cool the Gulf and bring gentle daily rains to weaken storms ~
image from southernboating.com
TL;DR — Hurricanes strengthen due to warm waters. Create water spouts (a weak ‘humidity-tornado’ at sea) to cool the waters and prevent hurricanes’ strengthening. They’ll also bring gentle, cool, regular rains, siphoning the intensity off of heavier downpours. How? Giant black tarps floating a few inches below the waves.
The Problem of Having Too Much Power
Hurricanes cost societies billions of dollars in damages and hundreds of lives each year, aside from disrupting those balmy zones’ tourist seasons and stifling development in the poorer regions. Those same semi-tropical zones see lethal floods from that same force of hot humidity rising off their coasts.
If we can ‘tap’ that keg of steamy air, venting the energy in small doses every day, then we prevent the build-up of humidity that powers damaging hurricanes and floods. Water spouts might do the trick. Here’s how to build one:
DIY Shark-nado
By laying a wide circle of buoys to support a black tarp between them like a trampoline, a few inches beneath the water, we can concentrate the heat of the day into those top few inches of water, rapidly steaming away. That steam we create means the waters beneath are kept cool — but the steam can’t be left piling-up above the water, or it will accelerate those hurricanes and floods.
So, in the center of this wide black lily-pad, position a buoy with solar panels and fans — to push air into an upward spiral once humidity sensors reach a threshold. Just a little nudge of fan-power is all that’s needed for ‘ignition’ of the water-spout vortex. When it takes-off, this water spout siphons the humidity from above the water surrounding the lily-pad for miles— cooling all of those waters, as well.
That vortex of humidity is carried high into the air, where it cools rapidly to form fluffy clouds that reflect sunlight, helping to cool things down more. When they fall as rain (inland, if you position them well), it is a brief sprinkle — by sputtering these spouts daily, you can provide irrigation for free to thousands of square miles of dry hillside in areas like the coast of Texas and Mexico.
Cost-to-Benefit?
With durable marine-grade plastics, no intention of letting them degrade at sea or cause harm, a lily-pad covering a square mile would cost a couple million dollars and last many years. If each lily-pad, spouting daily during all the warm seasons, siphons and clears enough humidity from the surface waters in an area twenty times its own diameter, then the entire Gulf of Mexico would require 1,500 such lily-pads — for an up-front price in the $5–10 Billion range, with minimal annual operating costs. That’s much cheaper than all the clean-up and rescue, insurance premiums, lost wages and tourism, debt traps! A single major hurricane can cost twice as much in direct damages. Water spouts would more than pay for themselves after their first hurricane season.
Considering other impacts — these lily-pads would only cover 1/400th of the water’s surface, so they wouldn’t impede travel or disrupt fisheries. Instead, by keeping the waters cool, these lilies would protect native habitats from climate change — the Gulf waters are currently becoming too hot to thrive. Additionally, the water spouts drizzle regular, gentle rains — oxygenating the surface waters steadily. Contrast that with the deluge of intermittent hurricanes, too much oxygen all-at-once to make use of it, followed by anoxic dead zones.
The potential economic value of gentle rains inland can be immense — not just in terms of net profits, but as a percentage improvement for the poorer communities in those dry regions.
Another feature of the lily-pads — you don’t need to build a singular, monolithic structure that can fail catastrophically. Each lily-pad is its own redundant sub-system, and you can roll-out more of them along the coastlines, then further out into the deeper Gulf waters in successive stages. The costs are not born in one lump-sum. So, they can scale well. And that makes bulk production simple, driving down costs long-term. It might not be the best fix, but a water spout lily-pad can be rolled-out quickly, which might become critical as the waters continue to warm. | https://medium.com/predict/water-spouts-to-stop-hurricanes-f891d89a48f9 | ['Anthony Repetto'] | 2021-09-16 00:35:50.610000+00:00 | ['Innovation', 'Environment', 'Climate Change', 'Science', 'Future Technology'] |
Watch A Robot Perform Surgery On A Banana | As we march relentlessly towards an Automated Society, scenarios emerge to provide signals. How far will we take this automation scenario? My post last week focused on sports and a robot that Shoots Baskets with stunning accuracy. My post for today looks into robotic surgery, which is traditionally defined as any surgery done with a complete robotic surgical system. It was originally developed for the military so that surgeons could remotely do open surgery on wounded soldiers in the field. This Article on the topic describes it this way:
During these procedures, a surgeon sits at a console several feet away from the patient, and the motorized effector arms of the robot are the ones in actual contact with the patient. The operating surgeon is not wearing a sterile gown or gloves and only the robotic arms and surgical assistant are in contact with the patient. A telemanipulator is a remotely-controlled device that enables the surgeon to control surgical instruments using manipulators and motorized end-effectors. During the Lindbergh Operation in 2001, when the first Trans-Atlantic minimally invasive surgery was done, a telemanipulator was also used, but an additional computerized system was necessary to control the end effectors and robotic arms across such a great distance.
To explore the possibilities, watch this robot perform surgery on a banana. | https://medium.com/@frankdiana/watch-a-robot-perform-surgery-on-a-banana-6392a95eea7d | ['Frank Diana'] | 2020-12-21 15:57:18.064000+00:00 | ['Robotics', 'Health', 'Wellness'] |
5 Things that can help you to the best version of yourself in 2021. | Self Talk
Self-talk has a magnificent process for self-analysis, it can be your tool for development as well as for your destruction, Positive self-talk plays a very vital role in the improvement of your decision-making skills so you can analyze the situation better. When you are talking with your self your all focus on that inner voice that can be enhanced your concentration. You are facing any sort of situation when you talk with your self it can make your mind and heart lighter.
2. Comfort Zone
We millennials are so used to our comfort zone that we just go with the flow in every matter of life like the dead fish and often complain that circumstances don't change around us. Everything that we carve for it can be your success, goals and the new year Resolution resides outside of your comfort zone.
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. Create New Habits
If anybody wants to evolve and adapt according to the changing trends around us they have to step out of their comfort zone and carve new habits in themselves, you have to develop the habit of new learning skills and adapt to the environments you are living in. Start with small you will develop a small habit each week and improve 1 percent daily at the end of the year you have 52 new habits and 365% evolved from the previous version of yours.
4. It’s okay to ask for help
You are unable to good at all things simultaneously, there are many people in your circle who are good at something, and it's perfectly alright if you ask for help from your peers in this way you can learn from their experiences and can move ahead rapidly.
5. Fake it until you are able to make it.
In the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) you can behave your way into a way of thinking (B-CT).
Fake it till you make it is the approach based on (B-CT). An example, if I am unhappy with my current Circumstances and there is nothing I can do about it, then I might put a smile on my face even if I don’t want to. Of course, there is a reason for this. At first, my mind might think this is a strange thing to do when unhappy. I might even ridicule myself for a while. But I keep the smile there.
After a while, my mind starts looking for reasons to have a smile on my face. Then I start recognizing things to smile about. All of a sudden the unpleasant situation becomes more bearable to handle.
So these are some tips that have helped me a lot to be my better version, I hope it will help you a lot so you can put that into practice and can rock in your life. | https://medium.com/@abdulmajeed-164/5-things-that-can-help-you-to-the-best-version-of-yourself-in-2021-4e35e799d8a8 | [] | 2020-12-26 12:50:58.167000+00:00 | ['Amal Academy', 'Self Improvement', 'Productivity', 'Amal Totkay'] |
5 Ways to Achieve and Live the Life You Desire | Be your own fan and support
In going after your dreams, you wouldn’t find people to support you most of the time. Everybody is busy being conventional. So, when you decide not to be one of them but different going after a life bigger and better than the narrative, most people will become disappointed and wouldn’t support you. Everything about you and your journey will be a lonely one. Not even your family or parents will help and spur you. Therefore, you must have it in mind and be courageous and self-supportive when things turn out this way.
You must always have it at the back of your head to be your own fan, cheerleader, and motivator. Suppose you believe that what you are doing or going for is the best thing for you to make your life better and live the life that you desire. In that case, you want to help and encourage yourself without waiting for someone because pursuing a dream is a lonely thing to do, and you must have the courage to do it alone.
All my life and going after my dreams, I have been my own fan. Nobody has ever done that for me. The people who are supposed to do that don’t understand what I’m doing with my life than to talk of supporting me. I know it alone, and I have to be my motivator. The same is you. And that’s what you must-do if you are going to achieve the life you desire. | https://medium.com/illumination-curated/5-ways-to-achieve-and-live-the-life-you-desire-a62cb655eb9d | ['Emmanuel A. Anderson'] | 2020-12-15 20:48:52.268000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Life Advice', 'Self', 'Inspiration', 'Success'] |
Where Can I Find My Niche? | Finding Your Ideal Prospects So You Can Sell To Them | Most showcasing specialists will disclose to you that you need to select a speciality or an intended interest group. That you can’t simply market to “whoever is focusing” and be effective.
Why would that be? Consider it along these lines: in the event that you are having a discussion with a complete outsider, how would you realize what to discuss? Except if you can locate some shared view, the discussion will most likely be fleeting.
Since neither of you has a comprehension of the other, you should figure out how to make a connection to include each other into the discussion.
Similar remains constant for advertising. You should make an association with your crowd on the off chance that you need them to focus and remain around to discover what is the issue here.
What’s more, to make an association, you need to know something about them. You need to understand what issues they have that you can assist with fathoming. You need to get them.
That is the reason it is so imperative to choose a speciality or obviously characterized target crowd. Since whenever you’ve chosen an unmistakable gathering of individuals you trust you can best assistance, you can investigate them so you start to get them.
At that point and really at that time can you truly discuss viably with them. Also, that is the thing that promoting is; correspondence.
However, whenever you’ve distinguished your objective or speciality, you should likewise have the option to discover and market to them.
The initial phase in doing that is to characterize them all the more explicitly. How?
My proposal is to ask yourself the accompanying 10 inquiries to help build up an extremely away from your objective. At that point, it will turn out to be much more clear to you where you can discover them.
You may have to make some informed thinks about while addressing these inquiries and that is alright. It’s a beginning and you can generally refine your answers as your business develops and you start to comprehend your objective more.
As I experience these 10 inquiries, I will utilize an illustration of a customer of mine who is a holistic mentor who needs to help grown-ups who are youth survivors of abuse or exploitation, improve their well being and health.
For what reason am I utilizing this model? Since it is an obviously characterized gathering, BUT these individuals don’t wear a sign around their neck promoting what their identity is. In this way, they can be hard to track down and market to. Subsequently, it makes an incredible model.
You can apply these equivalent 10 inquiries to your business or speciality, paying little mind to what they are. They are all-inclusive inquiries that apply to a business or target crowd.
1. What is their essential issue you can help understand?
Our holistic mentor needs to unmistakably distinguish the current issue her potential customers are managing because of their youth abuse. That is simply the difficult she can position to help them survive. Is it relationship issues? Is it work issues? Be as explicit and engaged as could be expected under the circumstances.
2. Is it true that they are basically male or female?
Our holistic mentor has distinguished her objective as females.
3. How old would they say they are?
Our holistic mentor says they are advanced, proficient ladies. All things considered, I’d state we’re essentially discussing ladies between the ages of 25 and 45 years of age.
4. Where do they live? What kind of network or neighbourhood; metropolitan region; rural zone? Likewise, do you have any geographic impediments (genuine or willful) with respect to where you can advertise or convey your administrations or items?
On the off chance that they are advanced proficient ladies, they likely live in a more pleasant rural area or maybe a metropolitan zone. Our holistic mentor should recognize where she accepts the larger part live in her general vicinity and whether she just needs to work with ladies in her nearby geographic territory, or on the off chance that she needs to do remove training.
5. What kind of work do they do? Also, where accomplish they probably work? Their sort of business just as geographic area.
Proficient ladies could be corporate experts, specialists, lawyers, business people or solo-experts. Our holistic mentor should recognize the fields she wishes to zero in on, thinking about the ones she feels incorporate the best number of her objective customers.
6. What is their financial status or yearly family unit pay?
Advanced proficient ladies are most likely getting a charge out of monetary achievement, making them of a higher financial class. They likely procure decent pay and appreciate the better things throughout everyday life. Cash is most likely not an issue.
7. How would they invest their recreation energy?
Do they have a place with an exercise centre or gym? Do they go out to see the films or out to supper habitually? Or then again, do they have small kids and invest their energy at primary school capacities, family picnics, youngsters’ birthday celebrations or end of the week soccer competitions? Our holistic mentor may have to make a few presumptions here dependent on what she thinks about her objective. Once more, that is alright to begin with. She can generally adjust this later as she comprehends these ladies better.
8. What is their family structure or home climate?
This speciality of expert ladies likely incorporates single ladies just as the individuals who are hitched and have kids. Hence, their home surroundings may change. They may have no help or family organization. They may have solid family uphold. Or then again, they might be having issues with their family dependent on their past. Our holistic mentor should remember this when she chooses to showcase roads and thinks of her promoting messages. She’ll need to zero in on what they share for all intents and purpose and steer away from zones of ambiguity.
9. Do they have a place with any affiliations or expert associations?
On the off chance that our holistic mentor chooses one or a few enterprises to target, she should have the option to handily recognize affiliations or expert associations these ladies have a place with. When recognized, these are amazing scenes for systems administration and talking openings.
10. What are their media propensities?
Do they read the paper or magazines? Assuming this is the case, which ones? Tune in to the radio? Assuming this is the case, which organizations do they probably tune in to? Do they stare at the TV? Assuming this is the case, which projects do they probably watch? Do they invest energy on the Internet? Assuming this is the case, what sorts of sites do you think they are visiting? Where do you think they are at present getting their data about well being and health? These are on the whole likely places to arrive at your speciality with your showcasing message.
Indeed, again our holistic mentor may have to make a few suppositions. Anyway, these media can furnish you with itemized segment profiles of their crowd. So in case, we’re searching for proficient ladies in a specific geographic zone, we’ll have the option to see whether they are among the crowds for these various mediums.
Answer every one of these 10 inquiries as well as could be expected. Converse with current customers to get experiences. Or on the other hand, converse with companions or partners who fit your customer profile to pick up a superior comprehension of who and where they are.
When you fabricate this objective customer portrayal, you’ll have a greatly improved feeling of where you can discover them.
The following stage is assembling an advertising message that talks straightforwardly to them and what they are managing. The more you get them, the more you’ll have the option to create a message that will strike a chord with them. That message will turn into your magnet, pulling in the individuals who you can best assist. | https://medium.com/@dopetoolz/where-can-i-find-my-niche-finding-your-ideal-prospects-so-you-can-sell-to-them-75a7e902abcd | ['Tolu Akinfolarin'] | 2020-12-12 19:20:40.926000+00:00 | ['Niche', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Prospects', 'Entrepreneur', 'Customer Service'] |
Code learning app — UI/UX Case study | This is my Personal project which I have designed in April 2021 as a Product Designer.
Introduction
LCode is the coding app for all type of users. With fun, quick lessons on a mobile device, the app teaches the users how to code with respect to the language they are learning.
The main motive is to provide easily consumable coding content along with test-driven learning.
Why did I decide to create Lcode?
Let me share a personal experience, being from an engineering background, my friend asked me about any good platform where he can learn coding as he is from a non-engineering background.
I hopped onto Google play store to see the apps and didn’t found an app that has beginner-friendly. So I decided to create such kind of an application.
Target audience
Beginners in coding, Experts, People looking to upgrade their skills, Hobbyist.
Research
Background research
Whopping 69 per cent of the developers reported that they were totally or partially self-taught, with 13 per cent saying they were completely self-taught.
Src: Washington Post Tech sectors seem to be booming all around the world over the last few years. The jobs for developers are increasing in the market day by day.
Src: Orrisadairy
So a platform where people can learn is much required.
Competitive analysis
I compared all the leading apps available in the market on the basis of some important features. | https://medium.com/@prathammaner123/code-learning-app-ui-ux-case-study-7cbd7d49baea | ['Pratham Maner'] | 2021-06-17 07:49:33.978000+00:00 | ['UI', 'UX', 'First Post', 'Case Study', 'Ui Ux Design'] |
BACKTRACKING 2020, Part One — SIGHTSEEING | BACKTRACKING 2020, Part One -- SIGHTSEEING
Some of the worst accidents I've ever had on my mountain bike were due to the fact that I was "sightseeing" instead of… | https://medium.com/@mountnbiker51/backtracking-2020-part-one-sightseeing-8dc55fe39ca4 | ['David Raymond'] | 2020-12-17 21:55:57.935000+00:00 | ['Nature', 'Cycling', 'Hiking', 'Photography', 'Outdoors'] |
Queen of Waste | The project sells itself
GoodHout has a technology to make the most amazing engineered wood out of coconuts. We mill the husk into very fine bits. Then we press it at very high temperatures so the natural glues in the coconut activates and permeates the whole. Nothing else.
I think this is the coolest thing in the world, that you can make an awesome product out of a waste stream. A mediocre product out of a waste stream would have been cool enough but making an exceptionally awesome product out of a waste stream, is kind of mind boggling. The project sells itself and has so much potential.
Queen of waste
Three years ago I went to Indonesia to discover my roots. I started looking for a product that had little value in Indonesia, but a lot of value overseas. You quickly come up with coconuts, and I started researching the potential of coconut water, but in fact saw that nothing was being done with the coconut husks.
Wageningen University was already exploring the possibilities of utilizing coconut husk waste. Engineering wood was one of the obvious options. Wageningen didn’t seem convinced it could be a commercial product but we continued looking at market viability and this is where we are today.
Wouldn’t it be cool to be a game changer, the first one to get a whole movement going? With GoodHout I might turn into the queen of waste.
So embarrassed
When I was as kid my dad would pick up rubbish and other people’s garbage from the ground. I would be so embarrassed that he cleaned up after them. He’d say: ‘this is what we do for the planet.’
Nowadays I catch myself doing exactly the same. I can’t comprehend why people in a beautiful place such as Indonesia litter and just throw away rubbish on the streets. I want to change this. Once GoodHout becomes successful, I would like to start a new project, a recycling project where locals can earn cash for handing in rubbish. And we earn money from recycling and separating valuable commodities. Only then can such a change in mind-set become sustainable. I might then become the queen of waste! | https://medium.com/twentie-four/queen-of-waste-c7c5a897154c | [] | 2016-01-29 12:15:42.902000+00:00 | ['Startup Life', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup'] |
The Moment I Truly Learned What Culture Shock Is: And How It Changed My Life Forever | Febuary 2019 I traveled to Kenya, Africa. I went on this trip with the Global Autism Project — A Non-Profit organization that trains staff at Autism Centers around the world. I spent a month working at Kaizora, the Autism ABA Center in Nairobi.
https://www.globalautismproject.org
Now, this was only my second time leaving the country, and my first time doing it by myself (I went to Paris and London in 2017 with my family for a conference I was presenting at— ABAI (Applied Behavior Analysis International — https://www.abainternational.org/welcome.aspx). When I landed in Paris, I did feel Culture Shock. The language barrier. The way of life. However, I fought it, I never embraced it. I THOUGHT this was what culture shock meant at the time, and since I was only spending a week in Paris and then traveling to London I thought, “Why embrace it?” Once I got to London this feeling of shock faded, I was in a different part of the world, yes, but there were less barriers reminding me of where I was.
Picture from my presentation at ABAI on teaching young adults with IDD to ride the public transit system, independently
Anyhow, back to Africa.
I was excited to go, nervous as well. Africa had been on my bucket list for as long as I could remember. I was expecting to to feel the same ‘shock’ as I did when I landed in Paris…I was ready…but I was mistaken… | https://medium.com/@richard.albert.price/the-moment-i-truly-learned-what-culture-shock-is-and-how-it-changed-my-life-forever-1af625dcd435 | ['Richard Albert Price'] | 2020-12-24 03:09:49.690000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Travel', 'Behavior Analysis', 'Culture', 'Disability'] |
How blockchain will change webcam business: security and anonymity | Live Stars offers a fresh perspective at the problems of webcam industry — combine porn and blockchain technology
Blockchain will soon change many aspects of our lives. Usually, we hear about introducing blockchain into financial sphere, but it can be used in many other fields. For example, Live Stars company has found, one might think, an unexpected application for blockchain — webcam business.
Webcam is the most technologically advanced branch of online porn industry. Models (usually, women) converse with video chat users and, for additional payments, pose, strip and perform certain actions of sexual nature. It’s often done with own funds and resources — all you need is a web camera, Internet access and a room. However, there are specialized studios, where several models can work at the same time. Webcams monumentally differ from offline part of sex industry and porn videos. The key differences are the absence of physical contact between the model and the client and all the payments are non-cash.
How does it work?
Behind every model, there is a crowd of other personnel: agency owners, studio managers, staffed internal transaction platforms.
Each link in this chain deducts their share of the model’s earning. A model working at the agency usually receives 20–25% of what her client paid. Even self-employed models get about 40%, with the rest taken by the webcam hosting platforms.
The client never pays directly to the model, they usually use some form of conditional currency, valid on one particular website. The funds do not go directly to the model and at the each stage the paid sum suffers transfer and conversion fees. When the “tokens” are purchased, a percentage goes to the online wallet or banking service, when the client pays with this token, webcam platform gets its share and there is another intermediate party at the cash withdrawal stage.
Besides, to receive their payment in the first place, the model must first earn the minimal required sum, specified in the contract, usually about $50. Incidentally, 99% of male models usually do not get paid even this much. Besides, these payments do not reach their recipient right away. The platform can hold the payment for any period of time between a week and a month or even more. And you can add 3–5 days spent for bank transfer process.
These are just symptoms of the core problem of this sphere — lack of transparency. Nobody feel confident in anyone — clients are afraid of identity theft and models are afraid of deanonymization, blackmail and threats of exposing their work to their friends and loved ones. Studio management might use threats and fear to force the models to continue working and the streaming services might illegally use personal information of both, models and clients.
Such platforms always use some form of ID to verify the identity of their models for internal purposes, it is a vital part of how they work. And each platform makes their own client database, collecting the payment information about when, what for and how much each client pays, geolocation data and sometimes demands ID as well.
Security and anonymity of provided data completely depends on the integrity of the intermediaries. The web is full of interviews with webcam models who fell prey to blackmail.
— It’s not safe to work at the studio if you want to keep your identity secret. I can tell you a story of a model, whose work was recorded and the videos were sent to her boyfriend. There were threats to send these videos to her parents as well. The same can happen when the contract runs out or when the model just wants to quit. What to do with that, nobody knows.
Lena, a webcam model
Blockchain the Savior
According to Live Stars, how can blockchain improve this semi-legal and often dangerous field of work?
The main difference is complete anonymity guaranteed by the system and replacement of internal payment system with tokens.
This solves almost all problems we mentioned thus far.
Tokenization removes the need for intermediaries and completely removes them from the chain. Security of data storage and transfer in blockchain technology is above and beyond anything else we have today. Identity verification will still take place, since all models must be of the full legal age to work in this field, but the model can remove any of their personal information from the system at any point in time, which is supported by the open source code. The uploaded data, after having been approved by management, will always be encrypted.
Blockchain transactions fully solve the issue of the client’s anonymity.
The very transaction process will be significantly quicker, as the intermediary banks and the need to convert money into the platform’s internal payment means are completely removed from the picture. The latter is replaced by LIVE tokens, which can be used to pay for the service or be sold at a token exchange platform. At the moment, if the client happens to have some internal platform currency they bought but did not spent yet, they cannot get their money back in any way, if they wish to do so, since no platform offers refunds or resale opportunities.
The payment process itself becomes simpler and includes possibility of attaching additional modules and ways of payment.
The models do not have to wait for months to get what they earned. The transaction comes at the moment of the payment and not a moment later.
Possibility of transaction errors is removed as well — blockchain technology does not allow for mistakes and transaction errors, when the customer’s funds are blocked by the bank.
What will Live Stars change?
What does such platform looks like? What will change for its participants: clients and models?
Some data:
On average, 250 new models register on the top-tier websites daily.
80% are newcomers, who never worked at this platform
10% of them will continue working on the same platform
60% are forced to quit, due to not reaching the minimal required earning.
The low percentage of webcam newcomers is easily explained: emotionally taxing job, danger of deanonymization, psychological pressure from the platform’s admins, huge transaction fees and low payments that never come on time. It results in a situation of many young models completely leaving the field after their first experience.
A platform built on open source code, transparency and blockchain infrastructure will radically differ from current semi-legal and closed platforms.
Low entry barrier will attract more models and lack of negative financial experience will increase the percentage of those who will chose to stay.
If the clients are 100% certain of their own security and anonymity, the number of people willing to pay for the model’s service will increase. Currently, majority of webcam audience is content with free live streams and doesn’t pay anything, afraid of dealing with unclear and potentially dangerous payment system. If some of them will move to the category of paying clients, it will completely change webcam industry landscape. It is quite possible, that the general direction of such platform will become less porn-orientated and move towards just personal communication, which is what attracts the clients in the first place.
Another important aspect: private video chats and text chats will use webRTC based on one-to-one principle, independently of servers. Nobody, including the website administration, will have access to a private chat.
Every website has its diva. They are usually promoted by the website itself, put at the top of the ratings and viewed by the largest audience. It is always a closed mechanism, which harms the customer who’d like to see the actual information about the model’s rating and it harms other models who lose the income due to unfairly low ratings. Besides, unfair rating is just an extra source of psychological stress for the model. The open source code will allows anyone to make sure, that the rating is distributed in a fair and objective manner.
The future of webcam industry
In the end, blockchain will lead to creation of a unique unprecedented online platform, with independent financially backed webcam models who finally left behind the discomfort of constant stress and the customers completely certain in their security and anonymity.
The content is bound to change as well: currently models feel pressured to have “mainstream” shows, something, that majority of clients are ready to pay for, just to have some income. In the conditions of a secure and open platform, they can produce income from providing services for a smaller audience. It can be just a friendly conversation or specific sexual interests. | https://medium.com/live-stars/how-blockchain-will-change-webcam-business-security-and-anonymity-121688beca19 | ['Live Stars'] | 2018-05-14 12:30:58.577000+00:00 | ['Weeklyupdate', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Blockchain'] |
All we heard nowadays is Vaccination. But do we know what happens to our body once we are vaccinated? | All we heard nowadays is Vaccination. But do we know what happens to our body once we are vaccinated? Vociferous Writers Jun 24·3 min read
I guess you all are safe and healthy during this critical period of the COVID-19 pandemic. A solution to this pandemic is vaccination. But we have observed certain side effects or severe illness after getting a vaccination. Let us know from a medical point of view, what happens to our bodies once we are vaccinated and how does it prevent us to get affected by the disease.
What is the vaccine?
The vaccine contains weakened or inactive parts of a particular organism that triggers an immune response in the body. Newer vaccines contain the blueprint for producing antigens rather than the antigen itself.
Body’s natural defence against infection:-
To understand how vaccines work we need to first look at how the body fights natural disease. When any pathogen such as bacteria or virus invades the body and multiplies, this invasion causes an infection which leads to illness. The immune system uses many tools to fight the infection such as RBCs and WBCs. white cells contain primarily macrophages, T Lymphocytes and B lymphocytes:
MACROPHAGES: These cells swallow up and digest pathogens and dead cells and leaves behind parts of invading organisms called antigens. The body identifies it and stimulates the formation of antibodies
T LPHOCYTESYM: T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. They attack the cells in the body that are already infected.
B LYMPHOCYTES: These lymphocyte cells produce antibodies that attack antigens that are left behind by macrophages.
When the first-time body encounters any pathogen it takes several days to get over that infection through this antigen-antibody reaction of the immune system. After the infection, the body keeps few T cells as memory cells to remember how to protect the body against that particular pathogen. When that pathogen enters the body again the B cells produce antibodies to attack them.
Process after taking vaccine in the body:- | https://medium.com/@vociferouswriters/all-we-heard-nowadays-is-vaccination-16ce1b2e8aee | ['Vociferous Writers'] | 2021-06-24 04:32:20.767000+00:00 | ['Corona', 'Vaccines', 'Covid 19', 'Coronavirus', 'Virus'] |
Code Smell 40 — DTOs. DTOs are widely used and the ‘solve’… | Code Smell 40 — DTOs
Problems
Anemic Object
Inconsistent Data
Duplicated logic
Duplicated structure
Class Polluting
Information Hiding Violation
Code repeated among mutators, accessors, serializers, parsers
Ripple Effect
Data integrity
Solutions
Transfer anemic data on arrays. Use real business objects. If we want to transfer partial objects: use proxies or null objects to break the reference graph.
Sample Code
Wrong
Right
Detection
We can use the same anemic object detectors.
We can check for anemic classes with no business object behavior (removing serializes, constructors, mutators etc).
Tags
Anemic
Conclusion
DTOs are a tool and an established practice in some languages. We should use them with care and responsibility.
If we need to disassemble our objects in order to send them away from our realms, we need to be extremely cautioned. Since dismembered objects have no integrity considerations.
His author warns us about its actual abuse.
Relations
More info | https://medium.com/dev-genius/code-smell-40-dtos-ca35f5d8f7c9 | ['Maximiliano Contieri'] | 2020-12-02 12:44:29.053000+00:00 | ['Code Smells', 'Anemic', 'Dto', 'Clean Code', 'Programming'] |
You need to fix this | The transparent, and therefore 100% surveillance-friendly, nature of almost every single blockchain out there.
And that is good. Because this should undoubtedly concern you. Because this is not a suspicion, or a conspiracy thinking.
At least if you want cryptocurrency for personal freedom, individual liberty, self-sovereignty and greater control over your own personal affairs.
If you’re in this for “mad gains”, then save some time and stop reading now, you’d be wasting your time.
But if, to insist on this very point, cryptocurrency fascinates you for the radical change in society and freedom offered if you are your own bank, the master of your personal finance, and sidestepping the mass-surveillance dragnet massively catalysed since 9/11 with terrorism serving as the eternal excuse to chip away at civil liberties and privacy, as undoubtedly you have by now at least suspected.. then consider this.
We are up against large, insane, and unclear forces. Who exactly is pushing for the extinction of privacy, whether online or offline, is somewhat unclear.
It certainly involves many of our elected officials. Those who dine and wine with other elected (and unelected) officials around the world. Those who dictate from above (FATCA, CRS, war on drugs, war on terrorism, war on cash, war on this, war on that) what the unwashed masses must accept .. or else.
At some point you have to ask yourself. Are they really doing what’s in your best interest? Are they really concerned about your well-being?
Do they want you to succeed and become the best human being you can be?
I think the answer is a resounding NO.
This totalitarian gang seems mostly interested in dictating what you can and cannot put in your own body, what (correct, you see) opinions you may or may not express, increasingly what you can and cannot read online, where you can or cannot spend your money.
And in the mean time, they would very much like (and for the most part have successfully achieved) to know who you talk to. What you read. Who your friends are. What opinions you hold.
And most importantly: How you spend your money. (But make no mistake, these points are all connected)
This is totalitarianism at its core: the base, ugly human desire to use power not to raise yourself and others, but to control, micromanage, and dictate from above. It is the way of the tyrant.
The situation for individual liberty and personal privacy is dire. The Internet is under extensive mass-surveillance “to keep us safe”, the government has databases on everyone. This is a gross violation of civil rights that we have become numb to. Apathy towards this tyranny sets a very dangerous precedent.
YOU must be different. Only you can fix this.
We need you to become the best you can be. To educate yourself to the fullest extent you can. To learn from the great masters — past and present, to realise that tyranny has reared its ugly head before, and surely will once again, unless good people everyone unite and say: not on my watch.
I urge you: don’t let them take your privacy away. The tyrant wants full visibility into the life of every citizen, because then people are scared: scared to read the “wrong” things, scared to voice the “wrong” opinion, scared to stand up and fight, because with full visibility, we become atomised. It becomes easy, trivial even, to pick us apart.
This is one of the great tasks of our generation. To dismantle the surveillance state.
There is plenty of historical evidence available. The time for this beast to be slain is yesterday: it will only keep growing, feeding on your life force (you are paying for your own enslavement through taxes) like a parasite.
Better stop it sooner rather than later.
Or one day, all that you take for granted right now, will vanish before your very confused eyes. You will realise, you’ve been owned. You will come to know the true meaning of slavery.
Only you can fix this. Reclaim your privacy. Educate yourself. Educate others.
You have vast swaths of mankind’s knowledge freely available from your pocket today.
We need you. Liberty hangs by a thread, when will enough be enough? | https://medium.com/cryptolinks/you-need-to-fix-this-ddcb1b700b31 | [] | 2019-11-01 00:07:04.949000+00:00 | ['Surveillance', 'Privacy', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Anonymity', 'Government'] |
All You Need To Know | ALL ABOUT KETO DIET
All You Need To Know
The ketogenic diet depends on the rule that by exhausting the assortment of sugars, which are its essential wellspring of energy, you can drive the body to consume fat for fuel, in this manner expanding weight reduction. At the point when you burn-through food sources that contain starches, the body changes over those carbs into glucose, or glucose, which it at that point utilizes for energy.
How It Works
When you eat but 50 grams of carbs each day , your body eventually runs out of fuel (blood sugar) it can use quickly. This typically takes 3 to 4 days. Then you’ll start to interrupt down protein and fat for energy, which may cause you to reduce . this is often called ketosis. it is vital to notice that the ketogenic diet may be a short term diet that’s focussed on weight loss instead of the pursuit of health benefits.
Is it safe to do the keto diet?For specific individuals, keto can present well-being chances, so converse with your medical services group first. A few gatherings that might need to keep away from keto are: anybody with a basic ailment like diabetes, pregnant or breastfeeding ladies, the individuals who don’t have a gallbladder, anybody with a background marked by a dietary problem, and anybody taking professionally prescribed prescription. | https://medium.com/@rr708082001/all-you-need-to-know-738c52024432 | ['Rahul Krishnan'] | 2021-05-27 05:47:11.883000+00:00 | ['Twitter', 'Fat Burning Foods', 'Weight Loss', 'Keto', 'Cutting'] |
CHE has listed on 2 exchanges -Exrates and Coinexmarket | Very excited to announce that our currency CHE has listed on 2 exchanges in this week.
#1 Exrates
Exrates is TOP30 exchange in CMC and has $39M daily trading volume. And their platform has both simpleness and functionality, order book, trading charts, online chat support, company news and trading history window.
3 pairs are live now.
CHE / BTC
CHE / ETH
CHE / USD
https://exrates.me/
#2 Coinexmarket
Coinexmarket is a new exchange. Although they are ranked 100 place in CMC and their daily trading volume is $2M for now, but have interesting system that we can custom trading pair with all currencies that listed there. So make your good trading pair with CHE!!
https://www.coinexmarket.io | https://medium.com/cryptoharbor/che-has-listed-on-2-exchanges-exrates-and-coinexmarket-e8a7b06f0761 | [] | 2018-07-13 05:43:32.638000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Ecosystem', 'Exchange', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Odd One Out | Trigger warning: Bullying/Food/Body image
Credits — Anemone123 on Pixabay.com
Tuesday afternoon. I was sitting at the table in the kitchen, cutting fresh scarlet strawberries, waiting for my daughter Madison to come back from school. The buttery sunlight poured in through the window, filling the kitchen with warmth. It would have been a lovely day for Madison at school, perfect for running on the playground with her little friends, playing tag and hide-and-seek. In my school days, I loved being outdoors with my friends too.
The bright, happy thoughts in my head suddenly faded away, replaced with a fog of greyish memories.
***
2003
The sky was very cloudy when I approached the school gates on Tuesday morning. My mom was out of town for a week, so I had to spend fifteen minutes walking all the way here instead of her dropping me in the car, as she usually does. I was early: it was only 7:30 am, and classes were starting at 8:00 am. Moments like these are when I wish I could turn back and just go home.
I walked up the front steps and inside the building, heading straight to my homeroom class; aside from a few other students’ bags kept on the desks, there seemed to be no one else. Days like these, even a thirty-minute wait before the first class was painful; I sat anxiously chewing out my nails, peeking now and then at the hallway to see which students were coming today, my stomach churning uncomfortably. When Sabrine finally entered, it was five minutes past eight, and the class was already abuzz with all the chatter between classmates, waiting for the teacher to arrive. I shifted to the left as she approached my desk, motioning for her to take the empty seat next to me. She passed by without even glancing at me, staring straight ahead.
The first class was biology, probably the least interesting of all my seven courses in the second semester of sophomore year. Sabrine was with me too; I eyed her cautiously as she went to sit amongst the cluster of people at the back of the class who were chattering excitedly: Tavia, Vivian, Delia and a few other girls. I watched as her demeanor completely changed as she began participating in their conversation, all cheery and lively.
She just would not look at me. As if I were invisible, insignificant; like air. How many times had it been already? It wasn’t normal of her to be acting like this.
When it was lunchtime, I caught sight of her sitting with the back-benchers at one table; noticing an empty chair, I made my way over nervously.
“Hi, can I sit with you guys?” I asked, forcing a smile as I did.
Sabrine’s dark eyes darted away from me to look elsewhere; I thought I saw her scowl when Vivian suddenly dumped her bag on the empty chair in front of me, her arm across it. Nobody answered. I saw Jonas roll his eyes.
“What?” snapped Tavia, making me jump. My mouth moved awkwardly for a few seconds before I mumbled, “Nothing,” and walked away.
The next few days at school were nothing different from what they had been ever since the start of the semester. Sabrine would not pay me any mind, and neither would anyone from her clique. They would avoid me in classes, in the hallways, at lunch and all around the school.
One rainy day in late October, I was making my way through the noisy cafeteria to one of the tables at the back. All the girls I used to hang out with were seated at a table right in the middle. As I passed them, trying not to catch their eye, I felt an outstretched leg come into contact with mine; the next moment, I had hit the floor, my salad spilt all over my white shirt. The peals of laughter ringing from the tables all around were too much to bear; my breath hitched in my throat as I felt tears blurring my vision.
The only thing that hurt more was Tavia’s very loud comment: “So honey, what’s your excuse for being so clumsy?” Of course, that resulted in more raucous laughter.
After dropping my wasted food in the bin, I rushed to the bathroom to clean myself up; upon entering, the stares and muffled giggles I earned from people painfully pinched my insides. Once alone, I burst into tears, suppressed hiccups escaping my lips in breathy groans.
From then on and throughout sophomore and junior years, each snarky comment and remark I heard would cut through me like a knife. In a matter of time, the people I used to call my friends were no longer by my side. When I passed them in the hallway, they’d either look away, give me overtly nasty looks or snicker and start whispering. At lunchtime, I couldn’t bear to be around them because the dreadful feeling in my gut told me they’d be talking about me if I were around. I often ended up eating on the steps by the football field all alone, or sometimes skipped lunch altogether.
Classes, on the other hand, were torturous because I could not avoid them here. I made sure to sit as far from them as possible, but the nagging fear inside would often make my head twist around to see if they were glancing my way, ears perking up to catch any hints of whispering. Slowly but surely, others avoided sitting with me in class or talking to me. In biology class, I was alone while everyone else had lab partners. I was all alone in the library too.
It soon came to a point where I could bear it no longer, and I found myself skipping lunch to avoid the dreaded hallways and spend the remainder of the time in the bathroom, crying my eyes out where no one could see me.
I don’t remember home being a safe haven either. As a business consultant, mum never had the time for me that I would have liked her to have: she was always travelling. There was no one I could speak, no shoulder to cry on. Walks to school became extremely agonizing. Deep knots of anxiety churning dread in my gut: the dread of having to face the same people, my eyes burning from crying each morning, was something I had gotten used to. Typically, I would’ve had Sabrine with me, but I had learnt long ago she wasn’t any real friend. She seemed pretty happy with her new, relatively popular group.
It was Vivian who started the trend of poking fun at my appearance: I was too pale, next week too short, another day too fat.
I once had a packet of frosted strawberry doughnuts with me at lunch, but before I could take one bite, her shrill voice cut through the bliss as she spoke: “You don’t really wanna eat that, do you?”
It turns out she was right. I didn’t.
Once they realized this incident made me self-conscious, they’d stare at me on purpose if they ever spotted me eating anything too sweet or too salty. I stopped eating any of the snacks I liked to eat. Only a week after this began, I often found myself eyeing my body up and down in the mirror, both in school and at home. Found myself clutching at my belly — at the few inches of fat around the edges. My eyes would always avert from my body in shame.
After some time, I started to skip school. Days off were a momentary relief, but every other day I dreaded the prospect of having to face them in the hallways. My grades began to drop, especially in algebra and biology class. School was no longer fun like it used to be: I withdrew from class activities, parties and important events like the annual art competition, even though I loved sketching in my notebook.
It continued for the rest of the two years, on and off, like bouts of pain older people get sometimes. Sometimes it would stop, but the moment things began to look a little bit better, something would happen — some remark, some deliberate snicker — that would make me retreat into my shell of self-loathing again.
By the time we had prom in our final days of high school, a couple of them -like Vivian - had already left school, so things seemed a bit better.
Sabrine was still there, though. I was brought back to our days of freshman year together, where we’d sit and laugh in the cafeteria over lunch, hang around in the library and help each other out with homework.
Looking back, she wasn’t the friend I had thought her to be: she had no problem joining the same clique that ganged up against me. On prom night, when we accidentally caught each other’s eye, I turned away swiftly. She didn’t say anything, nor did she frown or scowl.
It was like I hadn’t ever really known her.
***
Present
The loud footsteps on the porch made me jump as I was shaken out of my reminiscence. Madison came stomping in, her little face twisted into an infuriated glower. “Mely tripped me!” she wailed, tugging up her shorts to show a small purplish bruise on her thigh. I gazed at her angry little face for a moment, then sighed and put down the knife in my hand.
“Come here, we’ll wash it,” I said, getting up. “And let’s talk about why Mely did it. I have some things to tell you too.” | https://medium.com/thecontextmag/odd-one-out-c9c9a8a8845f | ['Trisha Ghosh'] | 2020-12-11 06:32:29.106000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'Fiction Writing', 'Bullying', 'Short Story', 'Body Image'] |
Using the power of beer and some diagram I found on the internet: 2020 A Year in Review | Using the power of beer and some diagram I found on the internet: 2020 A Year in Review Remy Dec 23, 2020·13 min read
2020 has been a long year.
Camus claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate, he is freed to realize the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that “all is well,” indeed, that “one must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
My avatar icon is a Rat because I like Rats, but also a lot of times I feel like a Rat in a maze; Trapped in complexity. One must imagine Remy happy.
Listed below the fold are personal projects I undertook this year. Some are one-offs, some are crazy behemoths, some I literally don’t remember if there was ever a purpose. I’ll talk about each a little bit as well as link to the Twitter thread where they took place if the topic is of interest to you.
This is a year in review of pushing various stones to the top of the hill only to see them roll back again. And that’s okay. I had a hell of a lot of fun in the process and I’d do it all again. | https://medium.com/@_mattata/using-the-power-of-beer-and-some-diagram-i-found-on-the-internet-2020-a-year-in-review-4da6a00a571a | [] | 2020-12-23 21:59:45.424000+00:00 | ['Networking', 'Machine Learning', 'Tacos', 'VR', 'Netsec'] |
The startling Nazi plot to kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin | Night of the Assassins: The Untold Story of Hitler’s Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin by Howard Blum (2020) 384 pages @@@@@ (5 out of 5)
The Big Three at Tehran, November 1943. Image: National WWII Museum
Two engaging central characters
Blum’s story revolves around Mike Reilly (1910–73) and Walter Schellenberg (1910–52). Reilly was the head of the United States Secret Service during World War II and served as President Franklin Roosevelt’s personal bodyguard. Schellenberg was the equivalent of a brigadier general in the Nazi SS, for which he headed foreign intelligence. He was the counterpart of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the military intelligence unit, the Abwehr, which Schellenberg’s organization absorbed later in the war. These two characters dominate the action. However, a third person, SS Captain (later Colonel) Otto Skorzeny (1908–75), plays an important role as well. Skorzeny, “Hitler’s favorite soldier,” was the commando who rescued Mussolini.
An immensely complex story made simple
Blum does a masterful job of simplifying an immensely complex story using techniques familiar to any thriller reader. An academic attempting to relate the same events would struggle to make it readable. After all, the assassination plot at the center of this tale involved not just Reilly, Schellenberg, and Skorzeny but also Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, and Wilhelm Canaris. Others who enter the story include Adolf Hitler, Reza Shah Pahlavi, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and a long list of Nazi commandos as well as both Allied and Nazi diplomats, spies, and double agents. The story involved Iranian wrestlers and a powerful Iranian tribal leader, too. In Hollywood, this might have been called a “cast of thousands.”
It’s not as though Blum was unaware of all these players. His six-page list of sources makes clear how intensively he researched this long-neglected story. Night of the Assassins is a marvel of popular history. Blum conveys as a comprehensible Nazi plot to kill FDR what might in other hands have degenerated into a confusing survey of dueling Nazi and Allied intelligence services.
The amazing story in a nutshell
Forcing a livable settlement
Walter Schellenberg had long dreamed of an espionage coup that could change the course of the war. When spies brought him word that the Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) would meet late in November 1943, he fantasized that his chance had come. He teamed up with his rival, Wilhelm Canaris, to design a joint operation to assassinate all three. Both Schellenberg and Canaris were realists. Neither was a Nazi zealot. They realized Germany had lost the war. What they hoped to achieve by killing the Big Three was to force the Allies to negotiate a livable settlement that would prevent their facing a war crimes tribunal.
A Nazi plot to kill FDR with hundreds of moving parts
When the pair learned the conference would be held in Tehran, they counted themselves lucky. Both the SS and the Abwehr had placed agents there who could help hide paratroops dropped nearby and guide them through the city. Elaborate preparations then began to train and equip two commando teams to carry out an extremely clever attack plan one of the Nazi agents in Tehran devised.
From the first, the plan went awry in its execution. Soviet agents rounded up most of the commandos (and executed them without delay). However, a small, third team meant to spy on the two larger groups survived. Hiding out in the Iranian capital, they prepared to carry out with six men what had been planned for fifty. And they just might have pulled it off.
The monumental challenge to protect a wheelchair-bound leader
Meanwhile, as the Nazi plot graduated from fantasy to reality and finally went into operation, Mike Reilly faced a constant struggle to protect FDR. The Boss, as he called him, was confined to a wheelchair and limited to brief, excruciating times on his feet in heavy braces. Reilly faced endless challenges to move the President on and off ships and airplanes and through city streets in the open automobiles FDR favored.
Those challenges multiplied in Cairo, where FDR met Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek in advance of the Big Three conference, and then proliferated in the teeming streets of Tehran. Reilly seems to have gotten little sleep for months as the event drew near. As word of the Nazi scheme trickled out to him from Soviet intelligence, he grew increasingly agitated. Blum adroitly conveys the terror that kept him awake at nights until the President left Tehran at long last.
About the author
Howard Blum is the author of more than a dozen nonfiction books, several of which were bestsellers. Previously he worked as a reporter for the Village Voice and the New York Times. Night of the Assassins is the third of his books about World War II. He is based in New York.
For additional reading
I’ve also reviewed another of Howard Blum’s books: In the Enemy’s House: The Secret Saga of the FBI Agent and the Code Breaker Who Caught the Russian Spies (How the Soviet atomic spies were caught).
For more great reading about espionage, see The 10 top espionage novels reviewed on this site and 20 good nonfiction books about espionage.
You might also be interested in:
And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, plus a guide to this whole site, on the Home Page of Mal Warwick on Books. | https://medium.com/@malwarwick-98471/the-startling-nazi-plot-to-kill-fdr-churchill-and-stalin-c36c2cf0aad7 | ['Mal Warwick'] | 2020-12-23 14:46:56.912000+00:00 | ['Espionage', 'History', 'World War II', 'Book Review', 'Nonfiction'] |
HBTCCrv LP Strategy Guide | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/nuts-foundation/hbtccrv-lp-strategy-guide-f09c60ab78b7 | ['Terry Lam'] | 2021-01-18 07:17:33.526000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Guides And Tutorials', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum'] |
Arguments Against Effective Altruism | Arguments Against Effective Altruism
"The only wealth you truly keep is the wealth you give away." - Marcus Aurelius
Photo by Suraphat Nuea-on from Pexels
In my previous article, we saw what Effective Altruism (EA) is and why it is important. In case you missed it here it is in a nutshell:
Effective altruism is a philosophy and social movement that advocates the use of evidence and reasoning to determine the most effective ways to benefit others. It urges us to be rationally compassionate instead of emotionally empathetic.
But there are several arguments raised against the ideology. Let us look at them, shall we?
Argument #1
The argument goes like this:
Going by EA’s philosophy, if I see a destitute person on the street, I should not help him out financially. Instead, I should donate that money to one of the charities that have been analyzed to give the best return per dollar. Isn’t that cruel?
Firstly, EA does not say that you should do anything.
Secondly, it seems cruel to donate to a charity instead of someone who you see suffering on the street every day on your way to work. But your mind only perceives this to be cruel because witnessing suffering first-hand can make you tunnel-visioned i.e you are so deeply moved by the suffering you physically see that it makes you forget about the millions of people in other parts of the world who are perhaps suffering more than this poor guy.
This is proximity bias at work. Proximity Bias is when we unconsciously favor whatever is closest in time, space, and ownership while also undervaluing those in remote locations. Thanks to this bias, we pay attention and give value to whatever or whoever is literally closest to us¹.
Just because the outcome of donating to a charity is not palpable doesn’t mean it’s less effective. It is as effective or even more effective than donating to a guy on your street. Hence, doing so is not cruel.
Argument #2
So the value of the life of someone in a remote part of the world is more than someone in my local community? Are you putting a value on life? Isn’t a person’s life invaluable?
This argument is illogical. EA never said one life is more valuable than the other. Neither did it try to quantify the value of life. EA simply urges us to be cognizant of how our brain undervalues the efficacy of financial aid if the beneficiaries are living remotely.
Argument #3
What if this guy I see on the street, with financial help from me, goes on to become Bill Gates and helps millions of others? Surely it is more effective than me donating to the most effective charity.
This one is interesting and understandable. The argument essentially makes the assumption that the probability of a Future Bill Gates (FBG) is highest with the poor guy on the street than any other poor guy that the EA charities are going to help. Is there any basis for this assumption? I don’t think so. But let us still try to build a case for this argument.
Getting someone out of poverty is one thing. How do you ensure they remain out of poverty? By giving them a job. There are countries where it is relatively easy to help someone stay out of poverty simply because of the abundance of job opportunities. India is one such country with an enormous number of job opportunities for people in the lower class and this is because India has a booming economy. One indicator of a nation’s economic health is the increasing size of the middle class. According to this study, in the 1990s, the total number of people in the middle class approximated 30 million. By 2012, the size of the middle class was 600 million. A rise in the middle class also means a rise in demand for janitors, maids, cooks, gardeners, construction workers, etc. Such opportunities employ the lower class population and keep them out of poverty.
Since we have established how instrumental jobs are in the fight against poverty, let us look at another relevant metric: the unemployment rate. According to this paper:
“Unemployment rate reflects the inability of an economy to generate employment for those persons who want to work but are not doing so, even though they are available for employment and actively seeking work.”
Emerging economies like China, India, and Indonesia have unemployment rates of 3.9%, 5.6%, and 8.8% respectively². Economically backward countries like Kenya and Syria have unemployment rates upwards of 40%³. There are so few job opportunities that the probability of an FBG coming from such countries is lower than that of a country like India, China, or Indonesia.
The global average unemployment rate is 10.31% which is higher than India’s unemployment rate. So if you are in India, you have a higher chance of funding the next Bill Gates by donating to nonprofits that work in India than nonprofits that work at a global level or in countries like Syria and Kenya.
Does this imply that this FGB argument is valid? Not quite. While the argument makes logical sense, it does so only in theory. If we look at it pragmatically, the chances of an average person becoming Bill Gates is microscopically low; the chances of someone poor becoming Bill Gates is even lower. In fact, the probability is so impossibly low that it is immaterial whether you are helping the destitute in India or helping the destitute in Syria.
I think it is safe to conclude that the probability of someone becoming Bill Gates is equal across the world. Given that the probability is equal, our best course of action is to donate to charities that put our money to use most effectively.
Consider the following hypothetical scenario: 1 dollar is the amount required to pull someone out of poverty. Now say you donate 2 dollars to a non-EA NGO. After deducting for overheads, person X (who is in poverty) receives a benefit of 1 dollar. Say you donate the same 2 dollars to an EA NGO. After deducting for overheads, person X gets 1 dollar and person Y (who is also in poverty) gets 1 cent (because EA charities give you a better bang for the buck). Effectively, you would be helping 1.01 people.
Now imagine this scenario at scale. According to a study done in 2014, in India alone, in a span of one month, 249 million people donated money. Let us assume that all of these 249 million people donated 2 dollars. If they had donated to a non-EA charity, the number of people they would have ushered out of poverty is 249 million. Had they donated to an EA charity, they would have helped 24.9 million (0.01*249M) people in addition to the 249 million.
By helping 25 million more people out of poverty, we would surely be increasing the chances of an FBG.
Argument #4
If everyone donates to charities that tackle the most important causes identified by the EA community, who works on the issues that are not on the ‘most important causes’ list?
This is another understandable objection and this scenario is similar to the classic trolley problem where you have to choose between saving 5 lives and one life.
Which one would you choose? If you are a utilitarian (like myself), you would choose to save 5 lives and sacrifice one. No matter which choice you make, it still sucks.
Thankfully, real life is not as binary as this hypothetical situation. You do not have to donate all of your money to EA-identified causes. You can diversify.
In personal finance, we diversify our investments. For example, the popular 60–40 strategy asks you to invest 60% of your money in risky instruments and the rest 40% in safe instruments. You can do something similar here. You can choose to donate 60% of your allocated money to EA-identified issues and the rest 40 to non-EA-identified issues. Someone who has a friend who is a rape victim would want to donate to nonprofits that work on women’s safety. If a person’s relative suffers from Alzheimer’s, he might want to fund research projects that study Alzheimer’s. We all have causes that we are particularly passionate about so go ahead and allocate 40% of your philanthropic budget to such causes.
Oh and 60–40 is just an example. Choose a split that gives you the most satisfaction.
Bonus: How much should you donate?
Obviously, the split itself is not as important as whether you are donating or not. Admittedly, I haven’t been donating much myself. To fix that, I need to make sure that I am disciplined about donating money. That is why I decided to allocate X % of my investment budget for charity.
As I mentioned in my series on personal finance, this has been my investment strategy until now:
I am changing it to this:
I am not going to reveal how much X is but the EA community recommends that you give away 10% of your income. (Note that it is 10% of your income, not 10% of your investment budget.) Here is why:
We chose 10% because it strikes a good balance. It is a significant proportion of one’s income, in recognition of the importance of the problem and the need to take real action. But it is also within reach of most people in the developed world. - Giving What We Can
In case you are worried that 10% is too big that you consider it to be a sacrifice rather than philanthropy, I urge you to read this research paper which begins like this (slightly edited for coherence):
In the following, we present empirical evidence to show that giving away 10% of your income will most likely require no substantive sacrifice on your part, and may even be better, from a purely self-interested perspective, than spending your income in the common fashion. | https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/arguments-against-effective-altruism-b3c5d207aafb | ['Raghul Chandrasekar'] | 2021-09-02 12:42:45.231000+00:00 | ['Altruism', 'Effective Altruism', 'Compassion', 'Charity', 'Donations'] |
İçinden Çalışmak Gelmediğinde Uygulayabileceğin On Basit Teknik | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/t%C3%BCrkiye/i%CC%87%C3%A7inden-%C3%A7al%C4%B1%C5%9Fmak-gelmedi%C4%9Finde-uygulayabilece%C4%9Fin-on-basit-teknik-c9c323f58593 | ['Emre Peker'] | 2020-12-23 11:53:20.415000+00:00 | ['Verimli Çalışma', 'Değişim', 'Psikoloji', 'Türkçe', 'Kişisel Gelişim'] |
Basics of Machine Learning: K-Means Clustering | As we dive into the world of “Unsupervised” Machine Learning, we will encounter problems that would require us to cluster the data available to us. This means we have to divide the data into clusters based on their level of similarity. K-Means Clustering allows us to do just that.
As the name suggests, the algorithm makes use of the “means” of the data to cluster them. Here “K” is just the number of clusters we want our data to be divided in. We have to choose the value of “K” ourselves, and there are ways in which can select the right “K” for our data.
About Unsupervised Machine Learning
When we are dealing with unlabelled data, we are dealing with unsupervised machine learning. So our data is not already labelled. K-Means clustering is a form of unsupervised machine learning.
How does K-Means Clustering work?
We explore the logic behind K-Means using an example. Suppose we have a dataset consisting of multiple rows. We want to divide the dataset into clusters based on how similar the records are to each other.
The K-Means Clustering Algorithms works in the following way:
Suppose these are our data points that we want to cluster. We have to first decide a value of K. We will see how we can optimize this value and choose the right K, but first let's assume we want to divide the points into 3 clusters.
Our random data set
1. Using the value of K that we supply, it chooses k random points that may or may not be the means of the dataset. These will be our cluster “centroids”. They are called centroids even though they are randomly chosen.
Choosing K random centroids
2. It calculates the distance of each point of the dataset from these centroids and assigns that data point to that cluster whose centroid is closest to the data point.
Assigning each data point to a cluster based on the minimum distance from the centroids
3. And thus, in our first iteration, it clusters our data. We cannot say that the clusters obtained are the ideal clusters, as our choice of the k centroids was arbitrary. We have to do more iterations to attain better accuracy.
Clustered data after the first iteration
4. Now, we calculate the centroids of these clusters. These calculated centroids would serve as the centroids for our next iteration!
New centroids calculated
5. The algorithm runs again and again until either the centroids no longer need to be re-allocated or the maximum number of iterations are reached. We finally get our clustered data points!
Our final clusters
Let us take a very popular dataset, called the iris dataset, as our example.
We first plot the dataset to see our points:
Finding the right K value — The Elbow Method
The Elbow Method is one of the best ways to find out which value of ‘K’ will give us the most stable clusters. The Elbow Method is based on the concept that the best value of ‘K’ is the one where the ‘Within Sum of Squares’ value is the least. The total WSS measures the compactness of the clustering and it should be as small as possible.
The ‘Within Sum of squares’ or WSS value is defined as the sum of the squared distance between each member of the cluster and its centroid. Mathematically, this can be represented as:
Formula for WSS
Here the x values are the data points and the corresponding c values are the centroids to which these data points are assigned. We want a minimum WSS value for good clustering. When we plot this value along with the corresponding value of ‘k’, we will observe a sharp decrease in the WSS value at some value of ‘k’. After this, the value will keep on decreasing, but very slowly. Clearly, the larger the k, the lesser the WSS value, but we don't want the least WSS value in that sense. We want a suitable value of ‘k’ such that our WSS value is low and if we take any value larger than this ‘k’, the change in WSS value is minimal.
Let's try this out with our example. Execute the K-Means clustering algorithm with different value of k. Plot the graph with the k values and the corresponding values of inertia (Which can be accessed using .inertia_ )
We observe that we get an ‘elbow point’ at k=3. This is our required k value!
Commands for finding the right k-value
We get this graph after plotting
We can see the elbow point at k = 3
Finally, clustering our data!
Now that we know the appropriate value of k for our K-Means clustering, we can perform the clustering using this value of k.
Performing k-means clustering with k = 3
Here, the y_clus variable is an array where each value will signify what cluster the corresponding data point at that value will belong to. Since we have k = 3, we will get 3 clusters. This means the values in y_clus would be 0,1 or 2.
y_clus
From this we can see that the first data point belongs to Cluster-1, and the last data point belongs to Cluster-2 and so on.
Now we can plot our data points again, but this time colour code them based on their clusters and also see where our final centroids are. The centroids of a k-means clustering can be accessed using .cluster_centers_
Here, the big blue dots are the final centroids that gave us stable clusters. | https://medium.com/swlh/basics-of-machine-learning-k-means-clustering-f5c16678aa4 | ['Eshita Goel'] | 2020-08-24 22:50:25.341000+00:00 | ['Clustering', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Data Visualization', 'Algorithms'] |
40% Off Sale on Micro-Chop Substack Subscriptions | Hello,
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Physics or Chemistry: The Reunion Temporada 1 Capitulo 1 — ESPANOL “COMPLETO” (SEASON 1) | The old classmates of the Zurbaran school reunite in the wake of a secret that they all kept and has greatly affected their lives.
✅📺 P-l-a-y NOW JOIN US 📺: ➤ http://fullstream.online-tvs.com/series/386083/1/1
Title : Physics or Chemistry: The Reunion
Episode Title : Episode 1
Release Date : 27 Dec 2020
Runtime : 60 minutes
Genres : Drama , Mini-Series
Networks : ATRESplayer Premium
» Watch Physics or Chemistry: The Reunion Season 1 Episode 1 On’ATRESplayer Premium «
♚ I do not own this song or the Image, all credit goes,
It’s so Awesome. Subscribe and Share with your friends! to my channel. See for more videos!!. I want to say ‘thank you’ for being the friend!! Atelevision show (often simply TV show) is any content produced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a television set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed between shows. Television shows are most often scheduled well ahead of time and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings. A television show might also be called a television program (British English: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A television series is usually released in episodes that follow a narrative, and are usually divided into seasons (US and Canada) or series (UK) — yearly or semiannual sets of new episodes. A show with a limited number of episodes may be called a miniseries, serial, or limited series. A one-time show may be called a “special”. A television film (“made-for-TV movie” or “television movie”) is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video. Television shows can be viewed as they are broadcast in real time (live), be recorded on home video or a digital video recorder for later viewing, or be viewed on demand via a set-top box or streamed over the internet.
✨ CREDITS ✨
The first television shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within a very short range from the broadcast tower starting in the 202044s. Televised events such as the 202044 Summer Olympics in Germany, the 202044 coronation of King George VI in the UK, and David Sarnoff’s famous introduction at the 202044 New York World’s Fair in the US spurred a growth in the medium, but World War II put a halt to development until after the war. The 202044 World Series inspired many Americans to buy their first television set and then in 202044, the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the US took place on September 2020, 202044 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets. The first national color broadcast (the 202044 Tournament of Roses Parade) in the US occurred on January 2020, 202044. During the following ten years most network broadcasts, and nearly all local programming, continued to be in black-and-white. A color transition was announced for the fall of 202044, during which over half of all network prime-time programming would be broadcast in color. The first all-color prime-time season came just one year later. In 202044, the last holdout among daytime network shows converted to color, resulting in the first completely all-color network season.
💫 CREDITS 💫
Television shows are more varied than most other forms of media due to the wide variety of formats and genres that can be presented. A show may be fictional (as in comedies and dramas), or non-fictional (as in documentary, news, and reality television). It may be topical (as in the case of a local newscast and some made-for-television films), or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional series). They could be primarily instructional or educational, or entertaining as is the case in situation comedy and game shows.[citation needed] A drama program usually features a set of actors playing characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 202044, shows (except for soap opera-type serials) typically remained static without story arcs, and the main characters and premise changed little.[citation needed] If some change happened to the characters’ lives during the episode, it was usually undone by the end. Because of this, the episodes could be broadcast in any order.[citation needed] Since the 202044, many series feature progressive change in the plot, the characters, or both. For instance, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time drama television series to have this kind of dramatic structure,[2020][better source needed] while the later series Jujutsu Kaisenlon 2020 further exemplifies such structure in that it had a predetermined story running over its intended five-season run.[citation needed] In 202044, it was reported that television was growing into a larger component of major media companies’ revenues than film.[2020] Some also noted the increase in quality of some television programs. In 202044, Academy-Award-winning film director Steven Soderbergh, commenting on ambiguity and complexity of character and narrative, stated: “I think those qualities are now being seen on television and that people who want to see stories that have those kinds of qualities are watching television. On January 20200, 2020202020202020, WHO announced an outbreak of a coronavirus new (COVID-20204) as a Concerning Public Health Emergency World. To respond to COVID-20204, preparedness and response is needed critical nature such as equipping health personnel and facility management health services with the necessary information, procedures, and tools can safely and effectively work. health workers play an important role in responding to outbreaks COVID-20204 and become the backbone of a country’s defense for limit or manage the spread of disease. At the forefront, power health care providers that suspect patients need and confirmed COVID-20204, which is often carried out in challenging circumstances. Officers are at a higher risk of contracting COVID-20204 in their efforts to protect wider society. Officers can be exposed to hazards such as psychological stress, fatigue, mental exhaustion or stigma. WHO is aware of their duties and responsibilities this big responsibility and the importance of protecting health care facility personnel.
💫 Aim
This material aims to protect health workers from infection and prevent it possible spread of COVID-20204 in health care facilities. This material contains a series of simple messages and reminders based on technical guidelines WHO is more comprehensive about infection prevention and control in facilities health services in the context of COVID-20204: “Prevention and control infection in health services when the new coronavirus (nCoV) infection is suspected “ (20204 January 2020202020202020). Further information can be found in the WHO technical manual.
✨ Readers of this material
This material is intended for health personnel and service facility management health and may be distributed to other health workers and to facilities health services. The Ministry of Health can provide this material to all hospitals and government health service facilities. Copy this material needs to be provided to private physician networks, medical associations, medical, nursing and midwifery to be shared and fitted accordingly necessity. The contents of this material can be adapted into local languages and placed in places in the service facility
💫 ALL CATEGORY WATCHTED 💫
An action story is similar to adventure, and the protagonist usually takes a risky turn, which leads to desperate scenarios (including explosions, fight scenes, daring escapes, etc.). Action and adventure usually are categorized together (sometimes even while “action-adventure”) because they have much in common, and many stories are categorized as both genres simultaneously (for instance, the James Bond series can be classified as both). Continuing their survival through an age of a Zombie-apocalypse as a makeshift family, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Wichita (Emma Stone), and Little Rock (Abagail Breslin) have found their balance as a team, settling into the now vacant White House to spend some safe quality time with one another as they figure out their Jujutsu Kaisen move. However, spend time at the Presidential residents raise some uncertainty as Columbus proposes to Wichita, which freaks out the independent, lone Jujutsu Kaisen out, while Little Rock starts to feel the need to be on her own. The women suddenly decide to escape in the middle of the night, leaving the men concerned about Little Rock, who’s quickly joined by Berkley (Avan Jogia), a hitchhiking hippie on his way to place called Babylon, a fortified commune that’s supposed to be safe haven against the zombies of the land. Hitting the road to retrieved their loved one, Tallahassee and Columbus meet Madison (Zoey Deutch), a dim-witted survivor who takes an immediate liking to Columbus, complicating his relationship with Wichita.
💫 ANALYZER GOOD / BAD 💫
To be honest, I didn’t catch Jujutsu Kaisen when it first got released (in theaters) back in 404. Of course, the movie pre-dated a lot of the pop culture phenomenon of the usage of zombies-esque as the main antagonist (i.e Game of Thrones, The Maze Runner trilogy, The Walking Dead, World War Z, The Last of Us, etc.), but I’ve never been keen on the whole “Zombie” craze as others are. So, despite the comedy talents on the project, I didn’t see Jujutsu Kaisen….until it came to TV a year or so later. Surprisingly, however, I did like it. Naturally, the zombie apocalypse thing was fine (just wasn’t my thing), but I really enjoyed the film’s humor-based comedy throughout much of the feature. With the exception of 202040’s Shaun of the Dead, majority of the past (and future) endeavors of this narrative have always been serious, so it was kind of refreshing to see comedic levity being brought into the mix. Plus, the film’s cast was great, with the four main leads being one of the film’s greatest assets. As mentioned above, Jujutsu Kaisen didn’t make much of a huge splash at the box office, but certainly gained a strong cult following, including myself, in the following years. Flash forward a decade after its release and Jujutsu Kaisen finally got a sequel with Jujutsu Kaisen: Double Tap, the central focus of this review post. Given how the original film ended, it was clear that a sequel to the 404 movie was indeed possible, but it seemed like it was in no rush as the years kept passing by. So, I was quite surprised to hear that Jujutsu Kaisen was getting a sequel, but also a bit not surprised as well as Hollywood’s recent endeavors have been of the “belated sequels” variety; finding mixed results on each of these projects. I did see the film’s movie trailer, which definitely was what I was looking for in this Jujutsu Kaisen 2020 movie, with Eisenberg, Harrelson, Stone, Breslin returning to reprise their respective characters again. I knew I wasn’t expecting anything drastically different from the 404 movie, so I entered Double Tap with good frame of my mind and somewhat eagerly expecting to catch up with this dysfunctional zombie killing family. Unfortunately, while I did see the movie a week after its release, my review for it fell to the wayside as my life in retail got a hold of me during the holidays as well as being sick for a good week and half after seeing the movie. So, with me still playing “catch up” I finally have the time to share my opinions on Jujutsu Kaisen: Double Tap. And what are they? Well, to be honest, my opinions on the film was good. Despite some problems here and there, Jujutsu Kaisen: Double Tap is definitely a fun sequel that’s worth the decade long wait. It doesn’t “redefine” the Zombie genre interest or outmatch its predecessor, but this Jujutsu Kaisen chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen still provides an entertaining entry….and that’s all that matters. Returning to the director’s chair is director Ruben Fleischer, who helmed the first Jujutsu Kaisen movie as well as other film projects such as 40 Minutes or Less, Gangster Squad, and Venom. Thus, given his previous knowledge of shaping the first film, it seems quite suitable (and obvious) for Fleischer to direct this movie and (to that affect), Double Tap succeeds. Of course, with the first film being a “cult classic” of sorts, Fleischer probably knew that it wasn’t going to be easy to replicate the same formula in this sequel, especially since the 4-year gap between the films. Luckily, Fleischer certainly excels in bringing the same type of comedic nuances and cinematic aspects that made the first Jujutsu Kaisen enjoyable to Double Tap; creating a second installment that has plenty of fun and entertainment throughout. A lot of the familiar / likeable aspects of the first film, including the witty banter between four main lead characters, continues to be at the forefront of this sequel; touching upon each character in a amusing way, with plenty of nods and winks to the original 404 film that’s done skillfully and not so much unnecessarily ham-fisted. Additionally, Fleischer keeps the film running at a brisk pace, with the feature having a runtime of 44 minutes in length (one hour and thirty-nine minutes), which means that the film never feels sluggish (even if it meanders through some secondary story beats / side plot threads), with Fleischer ensuring a companion sequel that leans with plenty of laughter and thrills that are presented snappy way (a sort of “thick and fast” notion). Speaking of which, the comedic aspect of the first Jujutsu Kaisen movie is well-represented in Double Tap, with Fleischer still utilizing its cast (more on that below) in a smart and hilarious by mixing comedic personalities / personas with something as serious / gravitas as fighting endless hordes of zombies every where they go. Basically, if you were a fan of the first Jujutsu Kaisen flick, you’ll definitely find Double Tap to your liking. In terms of production quality, Double Tap is a good feature. Granted, much like the last film, I knew that the overall setting and background layouts weren’t going to be something elaborate and / or expansive. Thus, my opinion of this subject of the movie’s technical presentation isn’t that critical. Taking that into account, Double Tap does (at least) does have that standard “post-apocalyptic” setting of an abandoned building, cityscapes, and roads throughout the feature; littered with unmanned vehicles and rubbish. It certainly has that “look and feel” of the post-zombie world, so Double Tap’s visual aesthetics gets a solid industry standard in my book. Thus, a lot of the other areas that I usually mentioned (i.e set decorations, costumes, cinematography, etc.) fit into that same category as meeting the standards for a 20204 movie. Thus, as a whole, the movie’s background nuances and presentation is good, but nothing grand as I didn’t expect to be “wowed” over it. So, it sort of breaks even. This also extends to the film’s score, which was done by David Sardy, which provides a good musical composition for the feature’s various scenes as well as a musical song selection thrown into the mix; interjecting the various zombie and humor bits equally well. There are some problems that are bit glaring that Double Tap, while effectively fun and entertaining, can’t overcome, which hinders the film from overtaking its predecessor. Perhaps one of the most notable criticism that the movie can’t get right is the narrative being told. Of course, the narrative in the first Jujutsu Kaisen wasn’t exactly the best, but still combined zombie-killing action with its combination of group dynamics between its lead characters. Double Tap, however, is fun, but messy at the same time; creating a frustrating narrative that sounds good on paper, but thinly written when executed. Thus, problem lies within the movie’s script, which was penned by Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese, and Paul Wernick, which is a bit thinly sketched in certain areas of the story, including a side-story involving Tallahassee wanting to head to Graceland, which involves some of the movie’s new supporting characters. It’s fun sequence of events that follows, but adds little to the main narrative and ultimately could’ve been cut completely. Thus, I kind of wanted see Double Tap have more a substance within its narrative. Heck, they even had a decade long gap to come up with a new yarn to spin for this sequel…and it looks like they came up a bit shorter than expected. Another point of criticism that I have about this is that there aren’t enough zombie action bits as there were in the first Jujutsu Kaisen movie. Much like the Walking Dead series as become, Double Tap seems more focused on its characters (and the dynamics that they share with each other) rather than the group facing the sparse groupings of mindless zombies. However, that was some of the fun of the first movie and Double Tap takes away that element. Yes, there are zombies in the movie and the gang is ready to take care of them (in gruesome fashion), but these mindless beings sort take a back seat for much of the film, with the script and Fleischer seemed more focused on showcasing witty banter between Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock. Of course, the ending climatic piece in the third act gives us the best zombie action scenes of the feature, but it feels a bit “too little, too late” in my opinion. To be honest, this big sequence is a little manufactured and not as fun and unique as the final battle scene in the first film. I know that sounds a bit contrive and weird, but, while the third act big fight seems more polished and staged well, it sort of feels more restricted and doesn’t flow cohesively with the rest of the film’s flow (in matter of speaking). What’s certainly elevates these points of criticism is the film’s cast, with the main quartet lead acting talents returning to reprise their roles in Double Tap, which is absolutely the “hands down” best part of this sequel. Naturally, I’m talking about the talents of Jessie Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin in their respective roles Jujutsu Kaisen character roles of Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita, and Little Rock. Of the four, Harrelson, known for his roles in Cheers, True Detective, and War for the Planet of the Apes, shines as the brightest in the movie, with dialogue lines of Tallahassee proving to be the most hilarious comedy stuff on the sequel. Harrelson certainly knows how to lay it on “thick and fast” with the character and the s**t he says in the movie is definitely funny (regardless if the joke is slightly or dated). Behind him, Eisenberg, known for his roles in The Art of Self-Defense, The Social Network, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, is somewhere in the middle of pack, but still continues to act as the somewhat main protagonist of the feature, including being a narrator for us (the viewers) in this post-zombie apocalypse world. Of course, Eisenberg’s nervous voice and twitchy body movements certainly help the character of Columbus to be likeable and does have a few comedic timing / bits with each of co-stars. Stone, known for her roles in The Help, Superbad, and La La Land, and Breslin, known for her roles in Signs, Little Miss Sunshine, and Definitely, Maybe, round out the quartet; providing some more grown-up / mature character of the group, with Wichita and Little Rock trying to find their place in the world and how they must deal with some of the party members on a personal level. Collectively, these four are what certainly the first movie fun and hilarious and their overall camaraderie / screen-presence with each other hasn’t diminished in the decade long absence. To be it simply, these four are simply riot in the Jujutsu Kaisen and are again in Double Tap. With the movie keeping the focus on the main quartet of lead Jujutsu Kaisen characters, the one newcomer that certainly takes the spotlight is actress Zoey Deutch, who plays the character of Madison, a dim-witted blonde who joins the group and takes a liking to Columbus. Known for her roles in Before I Fall, The Politician, and Set It Up, Deutch is a somewhat “breath of fresh air” by acting as the tagalong team member to the quartet in a humorous way. Though there isn’t much insight or depth to the character of Madison, Deutch’s ditzy / air-head portrayal of her is quite hilarious and is fun when she’s making comments to Harrelson’s Tallahassee (again, he’s just a riot in the movie). The rest of the cast, including actor Avan Jogia (Now Apocalypse and Shaft) as Berkeley, a pacifist hippie that quickly befriends Little Rock on her journey, actress Rosario Dawson (Rent and Sin City) as Nevada, the owner of a Elvis-themed motel who Tallahassee quickly takes a shine to, and actors Luke Wilson (Legally Blonde and Old School) and Thomas Middleditch (Silicon Valley and Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie) as Albuquerque and Flagstaff, two traveling zombie-killing partners that are mimic reflections of Tallahassee and Columbus, are in minor supporting roles in Double Tap. While all of these acting talents are good and definitely bring a certain humorous quality to their characters, the characters themselves could’ve been easily expanded upon, with many just being thinly written caricatures. Of course, the movie focuses heavily on the Jujutsu Kaisen quartet (and newcomer Madison), but I wished that these characters could’ve been fleshed out a bit. Lastly, be sure to still around for the film’s ending credits, with Double Tap offering up two Easter Eggs scenes (one mid-credits and one post-credit scenes). While I won’t spoil them, I do have mention that they are pretty hilarious.
💫 FINAL THOUGHTS 💫
It’s been awhile, but the Jujutsu Kaisen gang is back and are ready to hit the road once again in the movie Jujutsu Kaisen: Double Tap. Director Reuben Fleischer’s latest film sees the return the dysfunctional zombie-killing makeshift family of survivors for another round of bickering, banting, and trying to find their way in a post-apocalyptic world. While the movie’s narrative is a bit messy and could’ve been refined in the storyboarding process as well as having a bit more zombie action, the rest of the feature provides to be a fun endeavor, especially with Fleischer returning to direct the project, the snappy / witty banter amongst its characters, a breezy runtime, and the four lead returning acting talents. Personally, I liked this movie. I definitely found it to my liking as I laugh many times throughout the movie, with the main principal cast lending their screen presence in this post-apocalyptic zombie movie. Thus, my recommendation for this movie is favorable “recommended” as I’m sure it will please many fans of the first movie as well as to the uninitiated (the film is quite easy to follow for newcomers). While the movie doesn’t redefine what was previous done back in 404, Jujutsu Kaisen: Double Tap still provides a riot of laughs with this make-shift quartet of zombie survivors; giving us give us (the viewers) fun and entertaining companion sequel to the original feature. | https://medium.com/physics-or-chemistry-the-reunion/physics-or-chemistry-the-reunion-temporada-1-capitulo-1-espanol-completo-season-1-495216e55538 | ['Chris J. Marquez'] | 2020-12-27 09:36:53.445000+00:00 | ['Mini Series', 'Drama'] |
D4S Sunday Briefing #69 | Issue #69
D4S Sunday Briefing #69
A weekly newsletter with the latest developments in Data Science and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Sept 20, 2020
Dear friends,
Welcome to the 69th issue of the Sunday Briefing.
This week we are taking a break from blogging, but you can catch up on the most recent post in the Causality series were we cover the concept of d-separation, the fundamental tool in understanding how to make any pair of variables conditionally dependent or independent. As always, all the relevant code can be found in GitHub. You can also checkout the latest in the Epidemic Modeling series where we go over the basics of Network Structure, Superspreaders and Contact Tracing.
We’re proud to announce two new events coming up in November: Data Visualization with matplotlib [Register] and seaborn and Deep Learning for Everyone [Register]. Looking forward to seeing you there!
In our regularly scheduled content, we have a Guide to Training LSTMs, and overview of Data-oriented Programming in Python, a new programming methodology made possible by Python 3.7, an overview of Decision Table Patterns, a powerful but relatively unknown algoritm and a deep dive to Multi-Armed Bandits and the Stitch Fix Experimentation Platform.
On the academic front, we have an overview of Array programming with NumPy, A survey of Twitter research an interesting toy (and open source) election forecasting model and a look at the role of geography in the complex diffusion of innovations.
Finaly, in the video of the week, Daniel Chen teaches us about Cleaning and Tidying Data in Pandas
Data shows that the best way for a newsletter to grow is by word of mouth, so if you think one of your friends or colleagues would enjooy this newsletter, just go ahead and forward this email to them. This will help us spread the word!
Semper discentes,
The D4S Team | https://medium.com/data-for-science/d4s-sunday-briefing-69-50ec835259a1 | ['Bruno Gonçalves'] | 2020-09-24 21:55:46.556000+00:00 | ['Deep Learning', 'Big Data', 'Machine Learning', 'Data Science', 'Neural Networks'] |
The Insomniacs’ confession | After A.E. STALLINGS: “Another Lullaby for Insomniacs”
Mayfield Lavender London — Photo by Nguyen Pham Thanh Ha
Dear my Beauty Sleep,
I regret of being unkind to you
when I was a little youngster.
As growing older,
your soul and mine no longer side by side. | https://medium.com/@evelyncheung/the-insomniacs-confession-2b6910ca9d3f | ['Evelyn Cheung'] | 2020-12-28 21:59:55.191000+00:00 | ['Insomnia', 'Sleep', 'Lullaby', 'Insomniac', 'Poetry'] |
Berulang kali senyum dan tawa yang terdengar itu terasa asing bagiku, kesedihan yang kini datang… | welcome to the place where you can become anything | https://medium.com/@tifaniamalia001/berulang-kali-senyum-dan-tawa-yang-terdengar-itu-terasa-asing-bagiku-kesedihan-yang-kini-datang-3824af591969 | ['Tifani Amalia'] | 2020-12-27 13:09:12.878000+00:00 | ['High School', 'Drama', 'Insecure', 'Teenagers', 'Pimples'] |
Gazmend Freitag — The Red Bed | Gazmend Freitag: The red bed, 2014, oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm
Red, white and green form the stage on which a young woman appears to lie lost in thought before or after lovemaking. Clean shapes and extensively applied colors create a sense of powerful feelings. The angle of bed and body put the viewer right into the scene. At the same time the tilt of the head and the expression of the face suggest wistfulness at odds with what is happening. A masterful painting in the style of Post-Impressionism. | https://medium.com/@gazmendfreitag/gazmend-freitag-the-red-bed-7a5a6d59b720 | ['Gazmend Freitag'] | 2020-12-20 21:03:08.937000+00:00 | ['Kultura', 'Erotica', 'Gazmend Freitag', 'Kunst', 'Art'] |
Quinn: Pensions Threaten MAP Grants | Pension reform arises conflict due to its hinderance for future college students’ MAP grant eligibility.
Gov. Pat Quinn talks about MAP grants at DePaul University. (Photo/Bob Smith)
Editor’s note: This story was originally posted on Dec. 12, 2012 and is housed at RedLineProject.org
By Bob Smith
Gov. Pat Quinn visited DePaul University’s Loop campus on Wednesday to discuss how pension reform is harming the Monetary Award Program (MAP) college scholarships and access to higher education in Illinois.
“This is so important to our state, not only in the past, but certainly now and in the future,” Quinn said. “We want everyone to have the opportunity to go to college that has the ability to go to college.”
MAP grants are need-based college scholarships that allow merit students who are in need across the state and do not need to be repaid by the student. Quinn said that due to cutbacks and having to pay more money in the pension amount, almost 18,000 students lost their MAP grant scholarships this year.
“We do not want anyone denied that opportunity because of finances,” Quinn said. “We can’t afford to lose all the talent that exists, all the ability that exists for higher education to help our economy and to help all of us, because there are financial challenges that deny someone the opportunity to go to community college or a four-year university — public and private — in our state.”
Quinn was joined by several Illinois college students, including DePaul Student Government Association Vice President Casey Clemmons.
“Every year over 5,000 DePaul students receive MAP grants, and just like the students who have already spoken here today, all of these DePaul students rely on this funding in order to continue their college careers,” Clemmons said.
“Because the number of Illinois students eligible to receive MAP is currently increasing, existing funding does not allow the state to assist all the eligible students. As a result, without action by the Illinois state leadership, more DePaul students than ever will see their MAP funding disappear this year and more
DePaul students than ever will be forced to give up their education due to finances.”
More than 150,000 students nationally receive MAP grants each year.
Clemmons told the audience that on Tuesday, DePaul’s SGA unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Illinois general assembly and the governor to ensure the longevity of the MAP program. He read the resolution aloud and presented a copy to Quinn.
Ken Thomas, a University of Illinois Board of Trustees student member, MAP recipient and University of Illinois Chicago student, told how he wouldn’t be where he is today if it wasn’t for the MAP grant.
“My mom, when I was in high school, had to work two jobs just to keep food on the table,” Thomas said, “and if we didn’t have [the] MAP program like we do today, I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today; graduating with a degree, hoping to be a productive member of society.”
Having a productive and functioning society and economy is what Quinn says it’s all about.
“Jobs follow brainpower,” he said. “We want to make sure we have smart people in Illinois. Well-skilled, well-educated students coming out of college with graduate degrees and diplomas so they can create jobs, create new businesses,” he said. “Our goal in Illinois is to have at least 60 percent of the adults in our state with a college degree or college associate degree or career certificate by the year 2025. In order to achieve we have to make sure we have a good scholarship program.”
Clemmons said that in order for that to happen, state legislatures need to reflect upon the question, “What must be done?” and do what’s required. | https://medium.com/@mmargaritatorress/quinn-pensions-threaten-map-grants-54eeb0271c18 | ['Margarita Torres'] | 2021-01-13 00:17:44.424000+00:00 | ['Grant', 'Map', 'Uicdigital', 'Pension', 'Quinn'] |
How to Get Your Coding Bootcamps Sponsored by Your Employer | This comprehensive step-by-step guide has all the information you need to pitch to your employer why they should invest in your upskilling through a coding bootcamp.
Do you want to learn new technical skills but aren’t sure how to pay for it? Want to explore whether your employer may be able to help fund your coding bootcamp, and potentially even hire you for a technical role? We’ve partnered with Career Karma to create a comprehensive guide with all the information you need to have a smart conversation with your employer about your interest in building a career in tech. If you want to learn more about how we can help you find the time and money to learn new skills while working, drop your email at Learn In or have a member of your HR team reach out.
Learn More
Step 1: Check your benefits!
If you’re working for a large firm, chances are they already have some sort of tuition assistance program in place. According to a survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP), 92% of U.S. employers offer tuition reimbursement as part of their benefits package, though few employees typically take advantage of this benefit.
Even if there isn’t a publicized program, don’t give up hope. Ask around to see if any of your coworkers have received educational assistance, and check in with your HR department. Many companies have a budget for learning and professional development. Resources that may have historically gone to cover travel for industry conferences could now be used for continuing education online.
Employers may offer education benefits in a few different ways; the most common are tuition reimbursement, tuition assistance and employer-sponsored scholarships.
Tuition Reimbursement: The way tuition reimbursement typically works is that you pay the upfront cost of tuition, and your employer reimburses you. Heads up: some employers only reimburse upon program completion!
The way tuition reimbursement typically works is that you pay the upfront cost of tuition, and your employer reimburses you. Heads up: some employers only reimburse upon program completion! Tuition Assistance : With tuition assistance, employers may offer economic support upfront, thus helping employees for whom the upfront cost is a significant hurdle to upskilling.
: With tuition assistance, employers may offer economic support upfront, thus helping employees for whom the upfront cost is a significant hurdle to upskilling. Employer-Sponsored Scholarships: While tuition reimbursement and tuition assistance tend to be widely available across the firm, employer-sponsored scholarships may only be available to select subsets of employees based on categories such as job functions and the need for a particular skill.
Step 2: Choose the right program for both you and your employer
The COVID-19 pandemic is fast-tracking digital transformations in companies as they try to become more resilient to disruption. In order to do so, companies need employees that can keep themselves up to date with the rise of new technologies. Because technical skills are in increasingly high demand, it’s crucial to research which coding bootcamps or programs best match your employer’s technical needs.
Depending on your industry of work, certain technical skills, such as data science or software engineering, may be in higher demand than others. Here are some of our suggestions on how to figure out what skills might benefit your company:
Check out your company’s job postings to see if they are actively recruiting for certain technical roles
Research adjacent skills — look at the work being done by the people around you. What skills are essential to the work done by your manager or your colleagues?
Research transferable skills: what are some general skills that can be transferred between jobs, departments and industries? These can range from engineering or cybersecurity to analytics or design.
Step 3: Review the advantages of offering tuition assistance with your employer
If your employer does not yet offer tuition assistance, you can bolster your pitch for why they should invest in your education by bringing up the advantages of offering tuition assistance:
Employee retention. A major reason why companies offer tuition assistance benefits is that they help attract and retain talent. Studies by Lumina Foundation found that offering tuition assistance programs (TAP) can cut attrition by more than half for entry-level employees. This is also why some programs require employees to stay on the job for a certain period of time in order to qualify for reimbursement.
Tax incentives. Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) allows for an employer to pay up to $5,250 in educational assistance benefits per employee each year on a nontaxable basis, which means that educational investments of up to $5,250 are both tax deductible for the employer, and tax free to the employee. Educational assistance programs can cover everything from degree programs from universities to non-degree programs such as coding bootcamps. These tax benefits apply regardless of whether the courses taken are related to your current job responsibilities, which means they can be used for career switchers. Something to keep in mind is that, for the tax benefits to hold, the educational assistance benefits must be available to all employees working at the firm.
Step 4: Help your employer find the money
Showing to your employer that you’re willing to put in the extra effort of applying to scholarship programs will help signal your commitment to upskilling. Here are a few areas we recommend exploring, including this blog post by Career Karma which has a comprehensive list of the best coding bootcamp scholarships.
If you are a veteran, you may qualify for funding under the GI Bill.
If you identify as a woman or member of another group typically underrepresented in tech, you may qualify for certain scholarship opportunities.
Check if your state offers skills development scholarships. Certain states, such as Texas, have a skills development fund that can help cover some of your boot camp costs.
Additionally, your employer may be interested in starting their own Income Share Agreement (ISA) program as a way to expand their tuition assistance budgets. An ISA is an alternative to a traditional loan wherein you receive funding for your education upfront and, depending on the terms, pay it back with a portion of your salary once you start earning above a certain threshold after graduating from the program.
Finally, if your employer wants to upskill several employees, they may benefit from an upskilling-as-a-service platform. We can supercharge a company’s upskilling initiatives by helping them track employee’s progress within bootcamps, measure the return on investment, and allocate time and money to learning.
Step 5: Read the fine print
Finally, we recommend you really dig into the fine print of your company’s tuition assistance offering. In order to qualify for certain tuition assistance programs, you may have to spend a certain amount of time working for your employer, either before or after the program. Make sure you meet those requirements! Many education contracts ask you to commit to stay with the company for a certain period of time, usually anywhere from six months to two years, but it varies by company.
Also, make sure you are clear regarding completion requirements. If, due to unforeseen circumstances, you are unable to finish the bootcamp, will you be forced to repay any tuition that has already been reimbursed? Finally, make sure you clarify whether your company can help you pay for the program upfront upon enrollment versus afterwards upon completion.
To sum up, there are many reasons why your employer may want to sponsor your coding bootcamp, and we hope this guide helped prepare you for that conversation to pitch your upskilling. | https://medium.com/@learnin/how-to-get-your-coding-bootcamps-sponsored-by-your-employer-f9d3eb6e192b | ['Learn In'] | 2020-12-22 18:31:19.929000+00:00 | ['Education', 'Employee Engagement', 'Coding', 'Training', 'Bootcamp'] |
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TELEVISION SHOW AND HISTORY
A television show (often simply ) is any content prBookmark this siteoduced for broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, cable, or internet and typically viewed on a tv set, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are usually placed between shows. s ‘re normally scheduled well ahead of The G0G with Grandpa and appear on electronic guides or other TV listings.
A television show may also be called a tv program (British EnBookmark this siteglish: programme), especially if it lacks a narrative structure. A tv set Movies may be the G0G with Grandpaually released in Movies that follow a narrative, and are The G0G with Grandpaually divided into seasons (The G0G with Grandpa and Canada) or Movies (UK) — yearly or semiaual sets of new Movies. A show with a restricted number of Movies could be called a miniMBookmark this siteovies, serial, or limited Movies. A one-The G0G with Grandpa show could be called a “special”. A tv set film (“made-for-TV Movies” or “televisioBookmark this siten Movies”) is a film that`s initially broadcast on television instead of released in theaters or direct-to-video.
Television shows may very well be Bookmark this sitehey are broadcast in real The G0G with Grandpa (live), be recorded on home video or an electronic video recorder for later viewing, or be looked at on demand via a set-top box or streameBookmark this sited over the internet.
The first television set shows were experimental, sporadic broadcasts viewable only within an extremely short range from the broadcast tower starting in the. Televised events such as the 60006 Summer OlyBookmark this sitempics in Germany, the 60006 coronation of King George VI in the united kingdom, and David Sarnoff’s famoThe G0G with Grandpa introduction at the 6 New York World’s Fair in the The G0G with Grandpa spurreBookmark this sited a rise in the medium, but World G0G II put a halt to development until following the G0G. The 626 World Movies inspired many Americans to get their first television set and in 622, the popular radio show Texaco Star Theater made the move and became the first weekly televised variety show, earning host Milton Berle the name “Mr Television” and demonstrating that the medium was a stable, modern type of entertainment which could attract advertisers. The firsBookmBookmark this siteark this sitet national live tv broadcast in the The G0G with Grandpa took place on September 2, 6000 when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San FraThe Walking Dead: World Beyondco was transmitted over AT&T’s transcontinental cable and microwave radio relay system to broadcast stations in local markets.
❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏
Streaming media are multimedia media that are continuously received by an end user and presented to an end user while being provided by a provider. The verb to be streamed identifies the process of providing or receiving media in this way. [Clarification required] Streaming identifies the delivery method of the medium rather than the medium itself. The distinction between the delivery method and the distributed media is particularly true for telecommunications networks, as most delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or not streaming by nature (e.g. books, video cassettes, sound CDs). There are challenges associated with streaming content on the Internet. For example, users whose Internet coStarzection does not have sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, delays, or slow buffering of this content. And users who lack compatible hardG0Ge or softG0Ge systems may have problems streaming certain content.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet content in real time, similar to how live television broadcasts content over the air with a television signal. Live internet streaming takes the form of source media (e.g. a video camera, sound interface, screen capture softG0Ge), an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and serve that content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the point of origin, although it is often the case.
Streaming is an option for dBBC Oneloading files. The end user receives the full file for the content before viewing or hearing it. Streaming allows an end user to use their media player to begin playing digital video or audio before the entire file has been transferred. The term “streaming media” can apply to media other than video and audio, such as: B. Live subtitles, ticker tape, and real-time text that are considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONTENT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its BBC Oneer the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[2][2][000][2][000] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[6][6][2] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][6][20][22][22] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[2000]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not extend beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsistent.[22]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 0000 to 22 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[000] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[6]
❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[2] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and extensible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[2] Credit is extended by a creditor, also knBBC One as a lender, to a debtor, also knBBC One as a borrower.
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Analysts: Despite Crypto Mining Decline, Nvidia Will See Increased Revenue This Quarter | Analysts polled by FactSet suggest that Nvidia will see increased revenue this quarter despite “waning” cryptocurrency mining, Marketwatch reported August 10. The purported increase is due to strong demand for gaming devices and data-centers.
While analysts suggest that the company’s revenue from crypto mining hardware will decline, the U.S.-based graphic processing units (GPU) manufacturer will see significant growth in its gaming and servers sales. Revenue from Nvidia’s gaming sector is expected to grow by 47 percent to $1.75 billion on a year-on-year basis while data-center revenue is expected to surge 78 percent to $740 million.
C.J. Muse, an analyst at Evercore, concurs with other analysts, saying that “data Center/AI remains an area of strength, particularly when considering additional benefit of a new gaming cycle favoring Nvidia.” Muse added:
“We believe concerns around a likely falloff from cryptocurrency-driven Ethereum GPU mining strength are largely exaggerated, and Nvidia will likely power through any tough compares from cryptocurrency-driven tailwinds.”
In May, Nvidia reported that it generated $289 million from processor sales to the crypto market. Nvidia’s first-quarter crypto sales amounted to over 9 percent of overall revenue for the company, which stood at $3.2 billion.
Chips for crypto mining made up 76 percent of (Original Equipment Manufacturer) OEM revenue, which was up 115 percent from the previous quarter. Nvidia, however, suggested that sales to the crypto market will likely decrease by two-thirds in the second quarter.
In July, the company’s estimates were proven as the price of specialized GPUs declined along with sinking prices in digital currency markets. Nvidia’s main competitor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) unveiled in April that 10 percent of the company’s revenue during the quarter was attributed to blockchain or mining, though the company’s CEO Lisa Su said that blockchain was “a bit of a distraction in the short term.”
The mining hardware price fall has not dissuaded manufacturers from producing new crypto mining hardware. In May, ASUS announced the release of its “second generation” cryptocurrency mining motherboard, which was scheduled to launch in North America at the beginning of the third quarter of 2018. | https://medium.com/pulsar-exchange/analysts-despite-crypto-mining-decline-nvidia-will-see-increased-revenue-this-quarter-15f777644022 | ['Darren Lee'] | 2018-08-15 07:16:01.472000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Nvidia', 'Tech', 'Mining'] |
Laravel 9 Tutorial: Laravel 9 new features | With the different features of Laravel, it is the most favorite framework amongst developers and companies using the PHP programming language. This adoption is due to the elegancy and scalability nature of the framework.
With the Laravel 9 release, the Laravel team switches from the traditional 6-month release cycle to a 12-month release cycle using the Semantic Versioning(Semver) approach.
The initial schedule of the Laravel 9 release was supposed to be September 2021, following the traditional approach. Still, the release date changed to January 2022 as stated by the creator and with a few valid reasons, as noted below.
In this article, we will discuss in detail Laravel 9 and the best features of Laravel. We will also detail how to update or upgrade to Laravel 9 and install and start building an app with the new Laravel 9.
Before you dive in, if you’re a backend developer or looking at delving into this career path, join other developers to receive daily articles on backend development that will boost your productivity.
What is Laravel?
Laravel is an open-source PHP web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. It is an MVC framework for building simple to complex web applications using the PHP programming language.
Laravel strictly follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern. It is known for its beautiful and elegant syntax as a web framework.
If you haven’t used Laravel, you can read through the ultimate guide to Laravel and peek at Laravel 8 new features to get started.
Laravel 9 and What to Expect
Laravel 9 is the first Long Term Support (LTS) released in a 12-month release cycle and was initially scheduled to be released by September 2021; however. The Laravel team decided to push it to January 2022.
This release schedule is due to these reasons outlined below: with these reasons below, the release date was pushed forward.
Laravel as a framework relies on different community-driven and 9 Symfony libraries, and Symfony is planning to release v6.0 by November 2021, making the Laravel team delay release of Laravel v9. To update or upgrade the entire Laravel framework to the latest version of Symfony will take a while and also lots of testing and monitoring against any breaking changes before releasing it to the public. Finally, delaying the release of Laravel 9 till January 2022 will better position the Laravel team to release subsequent LTS yearly which gives the Laravel team 2 months after Symfony’s releases.
Now that we know the reasons for the changes, let’s explore the new Laravel v9 before it is released by January 2022.
Newest Features in Laravel 9
Below is the newest features and improvement that we should expect in the Laravel v9 by January 2022:
Minimum PHP Requirement
Laravel 9 requires the newest version of PHP 8, PHPUnit 9, and a few other requirements specified in the future.
The PHP 8 requirement is because Laravel 9 is solely dependant on Symfony’s latest v6.0 release, which depends on PHP 8.
You can explore what is new in PHP 8 and the different PHP versions benchmarks to grasp the improvements and features of PHP 8 from Just-In-Time compiler (JIT) to constructor property promotion.
Anonymous Stub Migration
The anonymous stub migration released in Laravel version 8.37 to solve this Github Issue will be the default behavior of the newest Laravel 9.
Anonymous Stub Migration eliminates the collision of migration class names. The collision happens when multiple migrations have the same class name, it’ll cause issues when trying to recreate the database from scratch.
Here is the sample code snippet of how the new migration file will look like:
<?php use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;
use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Schema; return new class extends Migration {
/** * Run the migrations.
*
* @return void
*/ public function up() {
Schema::table('users', function (Blueprint $table) {
$table->string('first_name')->nullable();
});
} };
This code snippet uses Schema::table instead of the traditional Schema::create() method.
New Query Builder Interface
Type hinting is crucial as developers highly rely on refactoring, static analysis, and code completion in their IDEs.
With Laravel 9, developers can now enjoy a shared interface or inheritance between Query\Builder , Eloquent\Builder and Eloquent\Relation with the new Query Builder Interface.
You can read through this for all the details:
<?php return Model::query() ->whereNotExists(function($query) { // $query is a Query\Builder
}) ->whereHas('relation', function($query) { // $query is an Eloquent\Builder
}) ->with('relation', function($query) { // $query is an Eloquent\Relation
});
Laravel v9 added the new Illuminate\Contracts\Database\QueryBuilder interface and Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Concerns\DecoratesQueryBuilder trait that will implement the interface in place of the existing __call magic method.
PHP 8 String Functions
Laravel v9 requires PHP v8, so the Laravel team agreed to merge a PR to use the newest PHP 8 String functions.
The suggested functions include str_contains() , str_starts_with() , and str_ends_with() to be used internally in the \Illuminate\Support\Str class.
And More
Laravel v9 is still in active development and will introduce more future improvements and features that we have not listed yet in this article. Laravel v9 will most definitely come with lots of significant changes, bug fixes, features, and of course, many breaking changes.
Do well to subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead.
How to install Laravel 9
If you’re like us, we love to explore the newest technologies before being open to the public. You can start playing with the upcoming Laravel v9 for development and testing purposes. You can easily install and run it on your local machine following the guide below.
In addition, Laravel 9 supports PHP version 8. Make sure to check and upgrade your PHP version to use Laravel 9 before next January 2022.
To install Laravel 9, the first method is the Laravel global CLI which creates a new Laravel project from the branch specified. In this case, we will choose to create the new Laravel project from the dev branch.
Run the following command below in your directory to create a new Laravel 9 project. Make sure to have Laravel CLI installed globally.
laravel new laravel-9-todo-app --dev
Next, to install Laravel 9 using composer, run the following command to install Laravel v9:
composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel laravel-9-todo-app dev-develop
The composer command will create a new Laravel project with project name as laravel-9-todo-app , using the dev-develop will result in the latest Laravel 9.
Now that we have Laravel 9 installed, you can navigate to the new laravel-9-todo-app directory and run the following artisan command to check the version:
cd laravel-9-dev
php artisan --version //Laravel Framework 9.x-dev
Now that you have Laravel 9 installed, you should read the ultimate guide to Laravel to learn how to build scalable Laravel applications.
Conclusion
This article detailed the features of Laravel 9 and what to expect in future releases. It also explored how to update or upgrade to Laravel 9 and install and start building an app with the new Laravel 9. | https://medium.com/backenders-club/laravel-9-tutorial-laravel-9-new-features-3d1af79edad7 | ['Solomon Eseme'] | 2021-07-21 13:36:39.343000+00:00 | ['Laravel', 'Backend Development', 'Software Development', 'Software Engineering', 'Programming'] |
Blockchain Security Mechanisms | The Merkle Root is derived from hashing each transaction pair in a block until it is down to a single hash.
Merkle Trees
Merkle trees are a fundamental part of blockchain technology. A merkle tree is a structure that allows for efficient and secure verification of content in a large body of data. This structure helps verify the consistency and content of the data. Merkle trees are used by both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
How do Merkle trees work?
A Merkle tree summarizes all the transactions in a block by producing a digital fingerprint of the entire set of transactions, thereby enabling a user to verify whether or not a transaction is included in a block.
Merkle trees are created by repeatedly hashing pairs of nodes until there is only one hash left (this hash is called the Root Hash, or the Merkle Root). They are constructed from the bottom up, from hashes of individual transactions (known as Transaction IDs).
Each leaf node is a hash of transactional data, and each non-leaf node is a hash of its previous hashes. Merkle trees are binary and therefore require an even number of leaf nodes. If the number of transactions is odd, the last hash will be duplicated once to create an even number of leaf nodes.
The Merkle Tree of transactions A, B, C & D.
Let’s look at an example of four transactions in a block: A, B, C, and D. Each of these is hashed, and the hash stored in each leaf node, resulting in Hash A, B, C, and D. Consecutive pairs of leaf nodes are then summarized in a parent node by hashing Hash A and Hash B, resulting in Hash AB, and separately hashing Hash C and Hash D, resulting in Hash CD. The two hashes (Hash AB and Hash CD) are then hashed again to produce the Root Hash (the Merkle Root).
This process can be conducted on larger data sets, too: consecutive blocks can be hashed until there is only one node at the top. Hashing is usually conducted using the SHA-2 cryptographic hash function, though other functions can also be used.
The Merkle Root summarizes all of the data in the related transactions, and is stored in the block header. It maintains the integrity of the data. If a single detail in any of the transactions or the order of the transactions changes, so does the Merkle Root. Using a Merkle tree allows for a quick and simple test of whether a specific transaction is included in the set or not.
The entire dataset doesn’t need to be downloaded to verify the integrity of Transaction 5.
A Merkle tree differs from a hash-list in that with a Merkle tree, one branch can be downloaded at a time and the integrity of each branch can be immediately verified, even if the rest of the tree is not yet available. This is advantageous because files can be split up into very small data blocks, such that only small blocks need to be downloaded again if the original version is damaged.
Uses
Using a Merkle tree can significantly reduce the amount of data that a trusted authority has to maintain for verification purposes. It separates the validation of the data from the data itself. A Merkle tree can reside locally, or on a distributed system.
Merkle trees have three major benefits:
1. They provide a means to prove the integrity and validity of data
2. They require little memory or disk space as the proofs are computationally easy and fast
3. Their proofs and management only require tiny amounts of information to be transmitted across networks
The ability to prove that a log is complete and consistent is essential to blockchain technology and the general ledger concept. Merkle trees help verify that later versions of a log include everything from an earlier version and that all data is recorded and presented in chronological order. Proving that a log is consistent requires showing that no previous records have been added, altered or tampered with, and that the log has never been branched or forked.
Merkle trees benefit miners and users on the blockchain. A miner can calculate hashes progressively, as the miner receives transactions from peers. A user can verify parts of blocks individually and can check individual transactions using hashes of other branches of the tree.
Simplified Payment Verification (SPV)
Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) is a method of verifying if particular transactions are included in a block without downloading the entire block. Merkle trees are used extensively by SPV nodes.
SPV nodes do not have data from all transactions in a block. They only download block headers. Merkle trees enable SPV nodes on the blockchain to check if miners have verified the transactions in a block without downloading all the transactions in a block. This method is currently used by some lightweight Bitcoin clients.
Ethereum
Ethereum uses three different Merkle Roots in each block:
1. The first root is of the transactions in the block
2. The second root represents the state
3. The third root is for transaction receipts
Ethereum uses a special type of hash tree called the ‘Merkle Patricia Tree’
Indispensable Tools on the Blockchain
Innovations such as permissioned blockchains will further increase data security and accessibility. In permissioned blockchains the participants of the network have the ability to restrict who can participate in the consensus mechanism of the blockchain. Additionally, permissioned blockchains allow the users to assign permissions on who can access the data of their digital identity.
Cryptographic hashing has long played a role in cybersecurity, and is now poised to power the coming wave of blockchain applications. Merkle trees are powerful and indispensable tools for miners and users on the blockchain. They are extremely powerful and are at the heart of several peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent, Git, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. | https://towardsdatascience.com/mechanisms-securing-blockchain-data-9e762513ae28 | ['Shaan Ray'] | 2020-09-22 16:53:30.815000+00:00 | ['Hashing', 'Merkle Tree', 'Data Security', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptography'] |
JavaScript’s Magical Tips Every Developer Should Remember | JavaScript is the most popular technology for full stack development. While I have been focusing mainly on Node.js, and somewhat Angular.js, I have realised that there are always some tricks and tips involved in every programming language irrespective of its nature of existence.
I have seen (so many times) that we programmers can tend to make things over complicated, which in-turn leads to problems and chaos in the developing environment. It is beautifully explained by Eric Elliott in his post.
Without further ado let’s get started with the cool tips for JavaScript:
Use “var” when creating a new variable.
Whenever you are creating a new variable always keep in mind to use “var” in front of the variable name unless you want to create a global variable. This is so because if you create a variable without using “var” its scope will automatically be global which sometime creates issues, unless required.
There is also the option to use “let” and “const” depending on the use case.
→ The let statement allows you to create a variable with the scope limited to the block on which it is used.
Consider the following code snippet.
function varDeclaration(){
let a =10;
console.log(a); // output 10
if(true){
let a=20;
console.log(a); // output 20
}
console.log(a); // output 10
}
It is almost the same behaviour we see in most language.
function varDeclaration(){
let a =10;
let a =20; //throws syntax error
console.log(a);
}
Error Message: Uncaught SyntaxError: Identifier ‘a’ has already been declared.
However, with var, it works fine.
function varDeclaration(){
var a =10;
var a =20;
console.log(a); //output 20
}
The scope will be well maintained with a let statement and when using an inner function the let statement makes your code clean and clear.
I hope the above examples will help you better understand the var and let commands.
→ const statement values can be assigned once and they cannot be reassigned. The scope of const statement works similar to let statements.
function varDeclaration(){
const MY_VARIABLE =10;
console.log(MY_VARIABLE); //output 10
}
Question: What will happen when we try to reassign the const variable?
Consider the following code snippet.
function varDeclaration(){
const MY_VARIABLE =10;
console.log(MY_VARIABLE); //output 10
MY_VARIABLE =20; //throws type error
console.log(MY_VARIABLE);
}
Error Message : Uncaught TypeError: Assignment to constant variable.
The code will throw an error when we try to reassign the existing const variable.
2. Always use “===” as comparator instead of “==” (Strict equal)
Use “===” instead of “==” because when you use “==” there is automatic type conversion involved which can lead to undesirable results.
3 == ‘3’ // true
3 === ‘3’ //false
This happens because in “===” the comparison takes place among the value and type.
[10] == 10 // is true
[10] === 10 // is false
'10' == 10 // is true
'10' === 10 // is false
[] == 0 // is true
[] === 0 // is false
'' == false // is true
'' === false // is false
3. ‘undefined, null, 0, false, NaN, ‘’ (empty string)’ are all false conditions.
4. Empty an array
var sampleArray = [2, 223, 54, 31];
sampleArray.length = 0; // sampleArray becomes []
5. Rounding number to N decimal places
var n = 2.4134213123;
n = n.toFixed(4); // computes n = "2.4134"
6. Verify that your computation will produce finite result or not.
isFinite(0/0); // false
isFinite('foo'); // true
isFinite('10'); // true
isFinite(10); // true
isFinite(undefined); // false
isFinite(); // false
isFinite(null); // true
Lets take an example to understand the use case of this function, suppose you have written a database query over a table which contains large amount of data and after the execution of query you are not certain about all the possible result values of that query. The data of query changes on something that you put dynamically in the query. In such a case you are not sure about finite property of the result and if you use that result directly it can give you infinite condition, which can break your code.
Hence, it is recommended to use isFinite() before any such operations so that infinite values can be handled properly.
7. Use a switch/case statement instead of a series of if/else
Using switch/case is faster when there are more than 2 cases, and it is more elegant (better organised code). Avoid using it when you have more than 10 cases.
8. Use of “use strict” inside your file
The string “use strict” will keep you from worrying about declaration of a variable which I mentioned in 1st point.
// This is bad, since you do create a global without having anyone to tell you
(function () {
a = 42;
console.log(a);
// → 42
})();
console.log(a);
// → 42
“use strict” will keep you away from making above mistake. Using “use strict”, you can get quite a few more errors:
(function () {
“use strict”;
a = 42;
// Error: Uncaught ReferenceError: a is not defined
})();
You could be wondering why you can’t put “use strict” outside the wrapping function. Well, you can, but it will be applied globally. That’s still not bad; but it will affect if you have code which comes from other libraries, or if you bundle everything in one file.
9. Use && and || to create magic
“” || “foo”
// → “foo” undefined || 42
// → 42 function doSomething () {
return { foo: “bar” };
}
var expr = true;
var res = expr && doSomething();
res && console.log(res);
// → { foo: “bar” }
Additionally, don’t forget to use a code beautifier when coding. Use JSLint and minification (JSMin, for example) before going live. This will help you maintain a coding standard in your project and make it as standard as possible.
The above is a mere reflection of the power of JavaScript. | https://medium.com/swlh/javascripts-magical-tips-every-developer-should-remember-38c71b1cbfba | ['Tarun Gupta'] | 2020-12-25 14:45:06.231000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Technology', 'Productivity', 'JavaScript', 'Software Engineering'] |
People Eating Animals Isn’t Actually Like Lions Eating Animals | People Eating Animals Isn’t Actually Like Lions Eating Animals
What this vegan thinks of lions
Many people feel an uneasiness around the death of animals for meat — it’s not just vegans and vegetarians. I recently read this eloquent story by a proud Greek-Italian meat lover, who still had difficulty watching slaughterhouse footage.
Still, in our culture it’s easy to feel absurd for caring about the death of animals. Eating meat is so normalized, and has been for so long, that most people simply view it as the natural way of the world.
A common argument vegetarians and vegans hear is the ideas that avoiding meat goes against nature. After all, animals eat other animals. Why shouldn’t we? For some reason, when people discuss this, they almost always mention lions. There must be some kind of rule
What do I make of this, as a longtime vegan? Why do I continue to avoid eating animals — despite how ingrained it is not only in human traditions, but in the wide web of wildlife as well?
Whether you’re just trying to understand those who won’t eat meat, or whether you’re seeking reassurance that your feelings of compassion are rational, I hope this article is useful.
Unlike lions, we can choose to eat plant-based
Poor lions. They are constantly getting dragged into our human ethics debates. They just want to stroll the African savanna in peace.
“But what about apes?” might make more sense. Our closest DNA relatives make a slightly closer comparison to human habits. Bonobos and chimpanzees eat mostly plants, but they do also use tools to kill other animals.
Opinions conflict whether all humans can eat completely plant-based, but generally modern society affords incredible advantages to those of us who want to. There’s readily available information on the internet about what to eat and how to stay healthy, and many of us have access to abundant quantities of all kinds of healthy plant foods year round.
I’m grateful that both my biology and privileges let me thrive while harming fewer animals than I might otherwise.
Killing is a part of our nature, but so is compassion
A vegan lifestyle doesn’t necessarily deny that there are violent parts of human nature. It does, however, reflect a preference for the merciful aspects of our nature.
Human empathy is a well-developed aspect of our society and relationships. It’s that empathy which dissuades some people from eating animal products.
Lions on the hunt for antelope, or bigger fishes eating smaller fishes, can make us feel at peace about our human consumption of animals. Yet, nature also offers inspiration for not consuming animals: rabbits, nibbling their grasses and nimbly escaping from predators. The intelligence and strength of a grazing elephant. The way humpback whales protect other animals from orca attacks. Or when a hunting lion displayed a maternal instinct towards a baby wildebeest.
Animals looking out for each other, interspecies friendships, plant-eating… those things are all parts of the circle of life too.
We interfere with the lives of the animals we eat
Wild zebras live free in a healthy environment, doing what zebras do best Some are killed by lions, but not before living a natural life in their habitat, and often starting families of their own.
The vast majority of the land-dwelling animals that we humans eat come from overcrowded, unhealthy conditions. Based on United States Department of Agriculture data, it is estimated that 70% of cows, 98% of pigs and egg chickens, and 99.9% of meat chickens here come from factory farms.
Animals are not just our wild prey anymore. They’re regarded as property. They are bred by the billions, and their entire lives (and even their biological functions) have been redesigned to be efficient for our purposes. And because of this, they suffer — from stress and anxiety, as well as painful physical ailments that result from the unhealthy and unsanitary conditions they are kept in.
Nature isn’t always kind or fair — that’s what civilization is for
I do sometimes feel sad for the prey that are killed by predators, even though those predators must kill to survive. I also feel sad about diseases, accidents, infanticide, starvation, nonconsensual sex, bullying, and other perils of a wild world.
Many animals exhibit behavior that we call altruism, and social reciprocity. There is plenty of joy, friendship, safety, and thriving health that happen in nature too, for which I can feel grateful. But there are no ambulances or medical care, no foster care, no hunger relief efforts, and no legal protection against abuse. Nature is a harsh place compared with the safety and care that we’ve created in modern society.
While being inspired and informed by nature’s wonder, I don’t hope to replicate any violence that my animal neighbors have had to endure or inflict. We can appreciate nature’s beauty while choosing to lead a more peaceful life than the most dominant predators in the ecosystem.
Lions are eco-friendly by default; we have to work at it
Lions aren’t causing global warming. They exist in balance with their prey. By comparison, a United Nations report last year suggested that humans should eat less meat to combat climate change.
Even on a plant-based diet, we kill animals through accidental deaths in plant agriculture, construction, transportation, and other industries. Our pollution hurts animals, as does the depletion of their habitats.
This is not about guilting ourselves. It’s about being honest with ourselves so we can be better neighbors to the animals. Modern civilization has added comfort to human life while taking away the comfort (and homes) of non-human animals.
Personally, I wish to embrace personal responsibility for improving that impact on other creatures, while still enjoying my own life.
I imagine myself in the animals’ position
My last reason why looking at lions only increases my resolve to be vegan? It has to do with the golden rule.
We can have empathy for the nirvana that a lion feels as they accomplish a bloody murder, and share the feast with their kin.
We can also have empathy for the wildebeest who dies in terrible fear and physical agony, which I could never wish upon anyone.
Or even better: Experience empathy for farm animals. I am completely divorced from the particular predator-prey relationship that lions and wildebeest have, or that any natural animals have. That is between them.
What applies to me is my relationship with fish, chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, and all of the other animals who I could choose to be eating. I always try to put myself in others’ positions. That could be me getting killed and eaten, and I wouldn’t want it to be.
Being as lucky as I am, not eating animals is a choice I make to try and give back to this beautiful circle of life. | https://medium.com/tenderlymag/people-eating-animals-isnt-actually-like-lions-eating-animals-c93dbe344465 | ['Phoenix Huber'] | 2020-05-29 16:01:01.035000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Vegan', 'Outdoors', 'Equality', 'Environment'] |
Are we still feeling fine? | It’s been well over a decade since Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar created the We Feel Fine project. This book of the project is from 2009 but the work started way back in 2005 when they first built the system and started to collect the images and statements from personal blogs. Remember this was pre Twitter, it was all personal blog sites, MySpace, early Facebook. We were in the ‘golden age’ of social broadcasting when we still talked about the ‘blogosphere’. Back then it was about personal content creation and publishing more than conversion and social response.
We Feel Fine, like all great ideas, was a simple one. Crawl the blogosphere and collect any sentence that contained “I am feeling“ or “I feel” in the post. If there was an image in the post overlay the sentence on the image (yep, it was pre Instagram too). You end up with a dataset that captured how (those who felt they could post it online) were feeling. So simple, it’s beautiful.
The site they created to explore the data was one of the first truly wonderful pieces of social analytics. The mix of deeply personal content with a very rich dimensionality made it fascinating to delve into, but it was the scale that was most surprising. They captured almost 13 million feeling statements from over 2 million individuals and they had a wealth of metadata attached to each of these. This is a long time before you could easily access large social media datasets by API or find a dump of one to download. It’s still online at http://wefeelfine.org/ but needs Java to run (which dates it almost as much as needing Flash), but you can look at the summary data without it here: http://wefeelfine.org/findings.html. It’s a great example of designing data to engage the user and drive exploration. | https://medium.com/paper-posts/are-we-still-feeling-fine-21d3274cb7e6 | [] | 2019-01-28 20:11:37.370000+00:00 | ['Social Media', 'Data Visualization', 'Paperposts', 'Art'] |
Antelope Canyon | Our very first stop in Arizona was the city of Page. Antelope Canyon has been tagged on my Google Maps for awhile now, so coming here was a must. Due to COVID-19 the park has been closed, but after doing some research we found that the only way to access the canyon right now is to kayak or paddle board in. Those inflatable paddle boards that are taking up 90% of our garage in the van are finally coming to good use! Less than two hours of paddling and we were surrounded by these magnificent canyons, towering all around us. We parked our paddle boards on the sand when Lake Powell had come to an end. As we hiked through the slot canyon it was as if I had a new breath for life, I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. Novo Amor was playing in my head as I hiked, appreciating all of this beauty. I am beyond thankful to be here, to be pursuing this dream that I’ve had for years now. There are a great deal of times that I struggle to live in the moment, to stop living in the past or worrying about the future and just be present. Here, where I am surrounded by the beauties of this world I can be present, my mind quiets, I exhale.
Thank you to everyone who has encouraged us, especially when we needed it the most. The love we feel from you is encompassing.
If you would like to see more photos of this marvelous place… | https://medium.com/@living-it-right10/antelope-canyon-c21a4db117b1 | ['Keri Lynne'] | 2020-12-08 03:11:36.272000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Outdoors', 'Travel'] |
Does It Matter Where You Start From? | Does It Matter Where You Start From?
Image by Annelise Lords
“Emily, I need your help,” Dr. Sinclair begs. “Her name is . . . . . .” she pauses, giving her a file. Emily took the file and the first thing she noticed, they shared the same birth date, month, and year.
“She has attempted suicide three times in the past month, according to the nurse who bought her in,” Dr. Sinclair relates.
“Why me?” Emily asks, still reading her file.
“The last two patients that were sent to you have recovered and have been clean and drug-free for the past two years,” Dr. Sinclair said. “You are our last hope.”
Emily sighs and said, “Send her in.”
A lady walks in, looking twenty years older than her age. Her make-up failed to hide the black bags that hang under her eyes. Her pale whitewashed skin looks as if it was washed with colors that bleed. Her attire tells she was clinging on to youth. The sagging of her skin, the lines on her face that makeup couldn’t hide, showed a body ravaged by drugs and hard living.
She sat down, grabbing eye contact. Emily saw more pain than she knew, so she quickly blinks cutting the connection.
“My name is . . ..”
She cuts in, “I don’t care.”
Emily’s body eases back unconsciously, by her comment, then she asks, “What do you care about?”
“Nothing, I just want to die. Why won’t they let me.”
“All of the people I know, healthy or not are fighting to stay alive. You are doing the opposite. You don’t wonder why after three attempts to end your life; you are still here?” Emily asks.
She sighs and said, “Take a trip with me into my past, because you people think you know everything.” And the journey begins.
August 9, 1975, 8:45 AM, Sean and Bridget Mason welcome their only child, a girl they named Angelina, at Madison Memorial Hospital in Beverly Hills California. She was raised by nannies, along with maids, butlers, chauffeurs, and chefs who weren’t allowed to tell her no. Aided and abetted by parents who doted and adored her. Wealth made her life easy, denying her the knowledge and ability to experience life any other way. Life waited upon her. Easing through high school and college, graduating with honors, that her parents bought. She learned that everything in life could be bought. With limited knowledge of her father’s business dealings, after both parents died she sold her share of the company to his partner. In ten years, she went through more than 22 million dollars, also losing the mansion she grew up in. At forty-five years old she had been through five marriages, and four divorces. Paying alimony to four ex-husbands. Her fifth husband died six months after they were married. In grief, she turned to drugs and lost everything else that she owned. She finishes and said, “Now do you understand, why I want to die?”
“That’s nothing, follow me into my life,” Emily suggests.
August 9, 1975, 8: 45 AM, Emily Allen, the first of six children was born to 15-year-old Christine Allen at the Lacovia Jubilee Hospital in South Central Los Angeles. Emily had an impatient life from birth. While her mother works as a housekeeper for a rich family, she was forced to grow up quickly and learn as fast as she could. As her three brothers and two sisters were her responsibility. All of the fathers were missing in action. She was the first to learn many things in life, but the last to fulfill her dreams.
At forty-five years old, she graduated from college with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Counseling, with two years more to go for her Master’s. Witnessing the heartache and destruction drug addiction has done to families, friends, and her community, she hopes to make a difference as a Substance Abuse Counselor. Her degree gave her the power to live the life she dreamed of.
Volunteering for more than eight years, she already knew most of the addicts. She hopes to heal, help, and restores hope. Raising three brothers and two sisters, she didn’t know how to do anything else. Caring for others was thrust upon her early in life. She must live the life she knows. Now you see why I must live.”
Tears slowly slid down Angelina’s face and she said, “We were born the same time, day, month, and year in separate worlds. We each got a different start. You started at the bottom, and I started at the top. I had only one direction, and it’s down. I won’t survive down there. I don’t know how to. You are living the life you know. Don’t you think I should too?”
Emily closes her eyes fighting the tears. Going back was more painful than she thought, then release, “You are alive, you can learn. I will teach you.”
Angelina nodded, and said, “I had a tutor that often said, ‘certain things in life will have more value when it is taught early.’ I didn’t understand the meaning until now. Starting at the top, denied me the opportunity to live more than one life.”
“And starting at the bottom gave me wisdom, knowledge, power, and strength to live many lives,” Emily confirms.
The children of the rich have more to fight with, but less to fight for.
The children of the poor have less to fight with, but more to fight for.
Who wins?
Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it. Please enjoy more from other writers on this platform.
https://mediumauthor.com/@thisisanneliselords
https://mediumauthor.com/podcast
medium.com/illumination/interview-with-annelise-lords-421238e49b9f
https://twitter.com/ThisisAnneliseL
https://medium.com/authors-peeps/authors-peeps-interview-d43e38e53898 | https://medium.com/illumination/does-it-matter-where-you-start-from-26913ffd258e | ['Annelise Lords'] | 2020-12-10 10:27:14.137000+00:00 | ['Illumination Fiction', 'Poverty', 'Beginning', 'End', 'Wealth'] |
Ta dose crypto du mardi 13 mars — Le Ministre des Finances néerlandais souhaite une réglementation internationale sur les monnaies numériques | Thailand to Empower the SEC with Crypto Regulatory Powers | Finance Magnates
Thailand is on its way to regulate cryptocurrencies as the prospect has received the nod from financial experts… | https://medium.com/la-bulle-crypto/ta-dose-crypto-du-mardi-13-mars-le-ministre-des-finances-n%C3%A9erlandais-souhaite-une-r%C3%A9glementation-702406935e47 | [] | 2018-03-13 09:01:17.053000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Ethereum', 'ICO', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency'] |
Prestige Primerose Hills Bangalore | Prestige Primerose Hills Bangalore
Prestige Primerose Hills is the brand new creation by the reputed real estate builder Prestige Group. The accomplished architectonics in this project is being done by using the latest technologies and hence, is considered to be the most admirable address offering absolute amusement to each and every resident. The construction of Prestige Primerose Hills Bangalore is widely spread beyond wide acres of land having most charming greeneries that is entirely spread all through till your eyes can reach. The project is conveniently located in Bangalore and enjoys close proximity to all social facilities.
Sprawling over acres of land, Prestige Primerose Hills Pre Launch is one of the carefully planned project that is adorned with all the accelerating features of ultra avant garde era, enabling you to sense the exclusivity as well as character at every end. Hence, Prestige Primerose Hills allows you to lead life more auspiciously in the most comfortable manner witnessing the most international level facilities allowing you to feel altered from the blissful living. | https://medium.com/@prestigeprimerosehills/prestige-primerose-hills-bangalore-28aad37ec425 | [] | 2015-12-23 11:33:20.383000+00:00 | ['Real Estate', 'Real Estate Investments'] |
Where now for the SDP? | Kevin Kuehnert, head of the SPD’s youth wing, speaks during an SPD party convention in Berlin. Photo: Reuters
It is alleged that when she first became leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, Andrea Nahles’s authority was such that she could influence journalists on whether they should eat schnitzel or beef. A year later, her authority obliterated after the party’s worst results in elections since 1887, she had stepped down.
The SPD are haemorrhaging more and more support as weeks go by. Receiving 15.8% of the vote at the elections to the European Parliament, Germany’s Social Democrats experienced their worst ever performance in an election since 1887 — in other words, since Germany became a mass democracy. It lost control of Bremen, a city it has governed for 73 years. And every week, the SDP plumb new depths in the opinion polls. One survey last week placed them on just 12%.
The SPD’s problems stem from economic reforms under Schroeder and aiding and abetting the austerity politics of the CDU right. At the beginning of 2018, the Hans-Böckler Foundation, a think-tank with close links to Germany’s trade unions, published a study which provided a new taxonomy of German voters. First there were ‘those content with things’ (die Zufriedenen), which made up around 43% of the electorate and drew its membership from the upper and middle classes; ‘those concerned’ about their jobs (die Verunischerten) by factors such as automation, globalisation and immigration, who comprised 32% and were also from the upper and middle classes; and ‘the detached’ (Enttäuschte) who were drawn from the working class and formed the remaining 25%.
The SDP, as well as the CDU/CSU, has strong backing from those content with the way things currently are. Yet as economic conditions worsen in Germany, their popularity diminishes by the week. The SDP is increasingly reviled as a party unwavering in its managerial centrism, too stubborn to admit there is a problem and too supine to offer a prescriptive programme which differentiates it from the Christian Democrat Right.
How then to stop the rot?
For the SDP, the choice is simple. Either continue to work with the CDU in a coalition government and thereby continue to haemorrhage support; or rescind its support and renew its policy platform.
It is hard to see how Nahles’ successor as leader can allow the ‘grand coalition’ (or ‘GroKo’ as it has become known in Germany) to continue to exist. In the same poll that placed the SDP on 12% last week, when asked whether the party should terminate the GroKo, 57% of those asked said they should, with only 36% opposed to the idea and 7% undecided.
Nor are SPD voters keen to see their party prop up the CDU. According to a recent YouGov poll, 58% of SPD-voters are for ending the GroKo, while only 26% are in favour of its continuation. And in the electorate more broadly, the poll found that 52% were in favour of calling fresh elections, with only 27% wishing to keep things the way they were. Only 9% of those asked said that the current coalition was their preferred configuration of coalition parties.
Remember, this is Germany we are talking about — a country which for economic and historical reasons is purported to prize political stability above anything else.
Many such as Kevin Kühnert, who stands on the left of the party, are calling for it to undergo a thorough transformation. Who is this newcomer Kevin? Described recently as the man who ‘could end the Merkel era’, Kühnert leads the SPD’s ‘Jusos’ (‘Young Socialists in the SPD’). He wants to shift the party leftward. He has recently caused a stir when he called for the collectivisation of corporations such as BMW. “The distribution of profits must be democratically controlled. That rules out a capitalist owner of this company,” Kühnert told Die Zeit weekly. “Without collectivisation, overcoming capitalism is unthinkable.”
Kühnert’s mission is to move the party away from the tired centrism of Merkevellian managerialism, and towards the radical socialist left. He vehemently opposed the SPD leadership’s decision to go into government with Merkel after the 2017 election, spearheading the “NoGroKo” campaign at the time. For Kühnert, opposition is no less than an opportunity for policy reorientation leftward and grassroots renewal. “Saying no [to the grand coalition] does not mean ‘the end of the SDP’”, he told a party conference last year. “It would be the beginning of a new story.”
Remarkably for a country often held up as a paragon of political stability, the political winds are blowing in the direction of change in Germany. Both of the “people’s parties” (Volksparteien) are fragmenting and experiencing intense internal ideological contestation. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Merkel’s heir to the CDU throne, is probably wondering whether she will even be the party’s candidate for chancellor in 2021, as she attempts to keep at bay the ghoulish figures of the fringe right such as Friedrich Merz. Meanwhile, public opinion has shifted decisively in favour of the Greens, who have emerged as one of the most popular parties, even overtaking the CDU in one poll.
Kühnert recognises that the SDP must come to embody change if the party wants to remain relevant. Drawing inspiration from Corbyn’s successes in shifting the British Labour Party and the mainstream leftward, Momentum employees were sent to Berlin last year to help Kühnert’s Jusos oppose the grand coalition.
One of the great ironies of Brexit has been that Britain looks more and more European in its politics with the increased frequency of coalition governments and confidence-and-supply agreements. Likewise, Germany has come to increasingly mirror British politics as its establishment centre-left party returns to its radical origins on the Left.
Many have come around to Kühnert’s thinking that the party must forge alliances with parties on the left. Malu Dreyer, one of three caretaker leaders of the SPD, has raised the possibility of a leftist alliance with Die Linke (Left Party) and the Greens. “We need other constellations to boost our credibility. One option is of course a coalition of the SPD, Greens and Left,” she told Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Indeed, such is Kevin’s influence recently, Der Spiegel weekly ran a front-page cover simply asking ‘Is Kevin Coming Now? Why the SDP and the GroKo should fear the Jusos boss.’
The SDP elect their new leader on 24th June. To be sure, there are few obvious candidates from the establishment side of the party. However, while Kevin has the radical credentials and the vision to take the party in a new direction, he lacks a career outside politics with which to establish credibility as an outsider representing subaltern interests, as opposed to a thoroughbred party functionary. Whoever the party chooses, they will have to break with the Merkevellian past. | https://alexdpking.medium.com/where-now-for-the-sdp-5c470894109b | ['Alex King'] | 2019-06-16 19:41:18.721000+00:00 | ['Politics'] |
Git Part 2: The Three Worlds System | Today there are lots of different version control systems. One of the most famous is Git. But what are the reasons? How did Git manage to stand out? One important cause will be discussed today.
Agenda
3 Layer-System
Benefit of the Staging Area
Conclusion
3 Layer-System
Git consists of three areas. Below you can see their names and order. First, we’ll try to get an idea of how they work.
Working Directory
On the working directory, we have a single uncompressed version of the project. So we can make modifications and add new features. Besides, changes in the working directory are marked, but not stored in the Git database. If we lose changes, it’s not possible to restore them. Below is an overview of the flagged changed files.
Staging Area
The second layer is called the staging area or index. As soon as we move changes from the working tree to the staging area, we store a snapshot of all the changes to the files in the Git database. Files that we don’t change are only referenced. The corresponding command is git add filename . Or if you want to save all changes, you can use the wildcard. To do this, you must replace the filename with the dotted character. The changes are not saved permanently. All changes that aren’t committed to the git directory within a certain period are removed by the garbage collector. To see the status of the staging area, as well as the status of the working area as above, we need to type the command git status .
Git Directory
The last part is the Git directory. This is where the snapshots are stored permanently in the Git database. Additionally, all saved changes are linked to the project history. To do this we have to commit the changes from our staging area -> git commit -m "description" .
Benefit of the staging area
Most version control systems consist of a 2-layer system. One reason for Git to stand out is the layer between them. But why? What is the advantage?
In my mind, the greatest benefit is the control over what we want to commit to our git directory. In other version control systems, we simply store all the changes we have made. But in Git, it’s a bit different. Here, we can make changes and later decide which files we want to store group. We have commands like git reset , git stash , git commit -p and much more. So we can build our commits completely free. If you have additional benefits, it would be great to leave them in the comments.
Conclusion
Today we took a look at Git’s 3-layer system. In the end, you should know the differences between the layers and what they are used for. We also talked about the benefit of the staging area. If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know in the comments. See you soon.
In my following article, we will do an exciting tour through the .git directory. Buckle up and let’s go -> Discover the .git Folder. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/git-part-2-the-three-worlds-system-af756af2bf72 | ['Henry Steinhauer'] | 2020-12-07 15:14:37.926000+00:00 | ['Development', 'Technical Writing', 'Sofware Development', 'Git', 'Version Control System'] |
Git and Github: A Love Story or Something Like That. | Github Repo
As I continue my journey to becoming a software engineer, I’m trying to identify gaps in my knowledge. Basic things that I should probably know. As I research them I plan to write a post, which I feel is a good way of retaining the knowledge that I have acquired. Towards the end of my time at the Flatiron School, it occurred to me that this thing that I had basically been using the whole time was still a mystery. I knew how to fork and clone something, I knew how to initialize (or init) a repo, and add files and save them. I just didn't know the why’s or the how’s. I didn't really know what Git even was, and I barely knew about Github.
So that’s what I’m going to do here. I will discuss what git is, and why we use it. Then I will give some info about Github, history, who owns it, and why people seem to prefer it to other options. Then I plan to dive into some popular git commands. I will link all the resources I pulled from in case you want more info. So sit back and relax, it's going to be a bumpy road. Actually, it's going to be fine, I’m not sure why I said that.
GIT
To talk about git I first have to discuss version control. What is version control you may ask, and my response is that it is exactly what it sounds like? It’s a system that manages changes to the files you are working on so you can recall a specific version later. There are three different styles to version control and they are local, centralized, and distributed. This link will tell you more info about all three.
Now where does Git fit into all of this. Git is a distributed version contol system. It was created in 2005 by Linus Torvalds, for development with the linex kernal. They had been using Bitkeeper, but a breakdown with the commercial company that developed Bitkeeper ended in them loosing the free-of-charge status. So Linus, who also created linex, decided to create their own DVCS. They would use what they learned fom Bitkeeper and improve upon it. Thus Git was born. If you want a quick giggle read the naming of Git here, I found it humorous.
One of the main differences between Git and other version control systems is the way Git thinks about data. Most systems use delta based version control, where they store the information as a list of file-based changes.
Git on the other hand takes a snapshot of the information and compares it to the existing file and then only saves the differences. If a file hasn't changed then Git just links to the already existing file.
One of the key features to Git and is intergreal to its speed is that everything is local. Since everything has been cloned on to your computer it makes searching a project almost instintanous. Another benefit of this is the ability to work offline, and then pushing commits once you are on network again. Git also uses checksums to store and then refer back to that data. Which makes it impossible to change anything without Git knowing. This helps with not losing data and file corruption.
Git has three stages modified, staged, committed.
Modified: File has been changed, but not saved to the directory.
Staged: File has been marked to be saved.
Commited: File has been saved.
These three stages correlate to the three sections of a Git project the working tree, staging area, and the Git directory.
GITHUB
Github was launched in April 2008 by Tom Preston-Werner, Chris Wanstrath, P. J. Hyett, and Scott Chacon. It reported fairly early success with 46,000 public repositories in the first year. The numbers grew from there with 90,000 repositories and 100,000 users the following year. The numbers just continued to grow, until they caught the attention of Microsoft, which had been using Github since 2012. Micorsoft acquired Github in 2018, for $7.5 billion. Sidenote for my Javascript users out there Microsoft also acquired npm, this year.
So Github is popular, but why. This one is hard to anwser for me. I’ve only ever used it, so I have no reference for how it compares to other version control sites. I can say that as someone just getting started, that it is pretty user friendly, and it has a plethera of features. The community is a huge part of what makes it great. Being able to check out other peoples code, and in return have them look at yours, and give feed back is pretty great. It also has a bunch of integrations and features which just add to its usability. The one feature I currently use is Github Pages, which I use to host my portfolio page.
GIT COMMANDS
I’m going to go over some basic commands for Git, with links to more in-depth explanations. I will be assuming you are using Github to do this. Things you will need to do first is make sure Git is installed, and that you have an account set-up with Github. Also, most if what I’ll be talking about will be for use with MacOs, as that's what I use, but most will be universal. So to install git from the terminal us can use the command:
$ git --version
If you don't have Git it will ask you to install it. Instead of walking you through you first repo, I will just link you to Github guides walkthrough which is very details, with images and everything. I probably couldn’t explain it better than they can. Here are some basic Git commands with links to their documentation:
Here are some commands also with links to documentation that also may prove useful, but you might not need right out of the gate:
git rm — remove files from a working tree.
git mv — move or rename a file.
git checkout — switch branches.
git diff — shows changes between commits.
The last thing I wanted to explain is the Github flow, just so you have an idea of how it works. It has six steps:
Create a branch. Add commits. Open a pull request. Discuss and review code. Merge. Deploy.
CONCLUSSION
I learned so much by researching Git and Github. Not all of it is going to make me a more productive software engineer, but knowing it definitely makes me feel more like one. Having some background knowledge about things more experienced engineeres know, can really help with imposter syndrome. Make you feel like you have a little insight about this world you are trying to become part of. I know I will use all of this knowledge and put it to use, my command line abilities get better everyday, to the point were I don’t have to use the mouse for as much, which makes me that much faster.
I hope you found this helpful. I will split the links to all the resources I used as primary and secondary. That way you will know where the main source of information came from. I would encourage you to check them even if you are only cherry picking them and not reading the whole thing. They provided me with so much knowledge, I can’t even really begin to explain.
PRIMARY RESOURCES
SECONDARY RESOURCES | https://medium.com/swlh/git-and-github-a-love-story-or-something-like-that-f18f789a7144 | ['Robert M Ricci'] | 2020-12-14 01:38:24.328000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Informational', 'Git', 'Software Engineering', 'Github'] |
Who said money was heartless? | Back when I was a young boy, Monopoly was one of my favourite games. I liked to play the game with my sisters, not so much to win, but for the joy of planning and building a system that generated wealth. I could play all night. I wanted the fun to continue. In fact, I’d become so disappointed when one of my sisters ran out of money that I’d try to find a way for her to keep on going by giving her either money or properties.
When my older brother played with us, though, it was a different game. The faster he could push us to bankruptcy the better. That was how he played and as he said, he always played according to the rules. Through these nights spent playing with my siblings, I realized that people could approach Monopoly with very different goals in mind.
In real life, in my career, I also learned that money meant different things to different people. For those of us who are entrepreneurs, money is a mean by which we can build and realize our vision. For others, it represents security and for some, power.
But let’s not forget that the instruments we use to exchange money themselves have no tangible value. Whether they are shells, metal coins, or pieces of paper with images, the value that people place on them has nothing to do with their physical value. Money derives its value through trust. The trust in it being a medium of exchange, a unit of measurement and a storehouse for wealth. Money allows people to trade goods and services indirectly, understand the price of goods and gives us a way to save our wealth for future purchases.
Today though, looking at the facts, we must admit that the current economic system isn’t working for the vast majority of people on the planet. Awareness of system failure is now widespread and growing.
Today, we live in an economic system based on the false idea that money is wealth.
In 2016, half of the world’s wealth belonged to 62 people. Fewer and fewer people have more and more power and society pays the price.
¡Viva la Blockchain revolución!
Despite these economic challenges, we live in an exciting and interesting age.
If you thought that the advent of internet in the 90s was a major transformation of our world, wait and see how the Blockchain will revolutionize our society!
Blockchain technology is ultimately a means for individuals to coordinate common activities, to interact directly with one another, and to govern themselves in a more secure and decentralized manner.
In blockchain technology, the interactions and exchanges between users are tracked and registered without intermediary by using crypto currencies called “coins” or “tokens”. The first and most famous coin being the Bitcoin invented in 2009.
This means that users of a service can qualify both as contributors and beneficiaries of the platforms to which they contribute. And the value produced within these platforms can be more equally redistributed among those who have contributed to the value creation.
Primavera de Filippi, research fellow at Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, writes:
Blockchain technology makes it possible to replace the model of top-down hierarchical organizations with a system of distributed, bottom-up cooperation. This shift could change the way wealth is distributed in the first place, enabling people to cooperate toward the creation of a common good, while ensuring that everyone will be duly compensated for their efforts and contributions. If we, as a society, really value the concept of a true sharing economy, where the individuals doing the work are fairly rewarded for their efforts, it behooves us all to engage and experiment with this emergent technology, to explore the new opportunities it provides and deploy large, successful, community-driven applications.
Launching the impak Coin
At impak Finance, we are proud to be part of this transformative movement by launching impak Coin, the first cryptocurrency designed to support the growth of the impact economy — a fast-growing segment of the economy where organizations and individuals share the belief that economic activity should consider more than just its financial aspects, but also take into account the effect it has on people and the planet.
impak Coin, by design, will build loyalty, reward collaboration and encourage you (its holders) to buy from accredited impact merchants who are part of impak.eco, the social network dedicated to the impact economy.
We believe that money does matter. But where it’s used matters most of all.
Together, let’s build the impact economy. Join us at impak.eco, be part of the global movement and participate in the crowd sale of impak Coin.
Thank-you!
Paul Allard,
Chief Ecosystem Officer | https://medium.com/impak-finance/who-said-money-was-heartless-a800cb65b5bc | ['Impak Finance'] | 2017-06-09 18:55:04.807000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Social Innovation', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain', 'Impact Investing'] |
Too Much Light | Photo by Jorge Gardner on Unsplash
I saw a mountain
swallow a full moon
why did it want her so
I saw a mountain
spit out sun rays
why did it let her go | https://medium.com/scribe/too-much-light-62dbfdeda58c | ['Tima Loku'] | 2020-12-11 08:26:19.484000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Relationships', 'Love', 'Desire', 'Nature'] |
Retinal Inspired Neural Network Structure | If you’ve ever trained a GAN(Generative Adversarial Network) or an image classification neural network, you know just how data hungry it can be. Especially when you want to work with higher resolution images. The other day, I tried running a GAN on a couple hundred images. Just on a resolution of 256x256 and the compute time was close to an hour. And I’ve got a fairly decent graphics card: a GeForce RTX 2070 Super.
So that got me thinking: How in the world do animals process so much visual information on the go? Think about your own eyes for a minute.
Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash
We focus on a point in center, while everything else is out of focus. If you could look at the back of your eyeball under a microscope, you’d see around 130 million rods(think light/dark) and 7 million cones(think color). But the bulk of those rods and cones are smack dab in the center of your eye.
Photo by salvatore ventura on Unsplash
Having all of those sensors in the center allows you to see high definition at the focal point, while still being able to see if there is anything of interest is in the periphery.
So I wondered if a model based on nature could help reduce the high GPU requirements in any way. And it turns out, yes it can, and in a much more significant way than I could have imagined.
The Problem
To start, let’s consider a typical GAN and, say we were to feed it 10,000 images at 4,096 x 4,096 resolution. If you pull out your handy calculator, you’ll see that is shy of 17 million points of data in gray scale per image, and 3 times that if in RGB. Compare that to the 256x256 images I was processing earlier, which total around 65kb per picture. So we’re talking about an increase of 256 times the size for the larger images.
But that doesn’t take into consideration that training a neural network requires performing operations on humongous matrices. The time it takes to calculate the product of two matrices grows exponentially at just a measly* n³!!! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_multiplication_algorithm)
*dash of sarcasm
That turns our 256 times increase in data into nearly 17 million times the processing time! See the problem? So any way to reduce the amount of data needing to be processed will yield dividends.
Plus, it’s not like every part of an image is important for determining what you are looking at. With a quick glance at a dog, you know you’re looking at your furry companion and not a hungry crocodile.
Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
But you didn’t have to focus on the wall, floor, fur, etc. It was all there, but just not as clear.
So how could we turn a simple glance into digital code? I developed a method to do just this.
The RNN-i Structure
Meet the Retinal Inspired Neural Network Input method, or RNN-i, for short.
First, we want to choose a focal area size. For this example, we’ll use 4x4. That will be at the center of our focus. We will pass all of those data points into our first row of “glance” data. Since it is 4x4, that will be 16 data points in our first row.
Second, we will want to take an area of 8x8(two times the width and height), centered on the same focal point. But we will process each 2x2 part to take the mean average. The mean average is just (x1+x2+x3+x4)/4. That turns those four pixels into one averaged pixel. Then we continue doing this with each 2x2 subsection in the 8x8 section. This gives us, again, 16 points of data, which we now enter into our second row.
Third, we continue with this process, but with 16x16 as our area and 4x4 subsections to be averaged.
RNN-i Grid
Fourth, we can keep doing this as many times as we like, until our entire image is “in view”. Each time we double the width and height, we only add one row of 16 pieces of data.
You might be asking now, “Wouldn’t that be confusing since each row of data is starting with a new top left corner?” Maybe for us. But the cool thing about neural networks is that they can adapt to whatever way you feed the data, as long as you stay consistent. The order doesn’t matter if you just make sure you always send it in the same order every time.
The Result
So just how much data can this method save? Taking our 4,096 x 4,096 pixel image example earlier, instead of entering close to 17 million data points, we will be entering only 176 points of data per “look” with this method.
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
Game-changer.
Now, with so few data points, you would expect to lose a lot of accuracy. But I tested this method out on the MNIST fashion set here. And, in this experiment, the accuracy lost was only from 88.3% accuracy for whole images down to 81.4% accuracy with a single glance at center, using this approach.
Here is a link to the GitHub paper and code: https://github.com/therealjjj77/RNNi
How can we increase accuracy?
With just one look, we are already doing a fantastic job of categorizing the images. But suppose we have a self driving car and 80% survival is just not the kind of odds we want to leave in the hands of AI. Then we will need a more comprehensive solution.
RNN-Brn
So you’re driving on the road and, out of the corner of your eye, you see a truck plowing toward you. Within a few short instances, your eyes dart to see the massive object coming your way and determine how you can avoid it or if you have time to stop before entering its path.
Photo by Ernesto Leon on Unsplash
In this case, you needed multiple looks to understand the object and make some determination about it. A certain part of your brain (think neural network), that has been trained to identify peripheral threats, gave you a “heads up” that you should look that direction and see what’s going on.
Likewise, an RNN-i will need a processing neural network layered to analyze the output, certainty of classification, and decide below what threshold requires a second or third look at the object. And, lastly, where the new focal center should be relative to the first.
Utilizing a second look at the object may greatly increase accuracy, but only requires an additional 176 points of data. We’re still not even scratching the surface of what a whole 4,096 x 4,096 image view would cost in time and data!
So that is where a Retinal Inspired Neural Network Bidirectional Relay Node (or RNN-Brn for short) comes in. This will allow us to, if necessary, loop back through our trained RNN-i and see if a second look in another part of the image improves the certainty of classification.
I might come back to continue this at a later date with a follow-up article, depending on the how interested people are in this topic. Leave a comment if you have any questions or thoughts you’d like to share. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/retinal-inspired-neural-network-structure-79a3fed50cc2 | ['Jeremiah Johnson'] | 2020-12-07 15:14:32.932000+00:00 | ['Neural Networks', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Image Classification', 'Generative Adversarial', 'AI'] |
Stay Healthy. Stay Data-Informed. | This was first published on my mailing list The Year of the Looking Glass. Sign up to get essays like these in your inbox 1–2 times a month.
I have a confession to make.
As a designer, for years my primary goal was striving to improve my product intuition.
You see, I believed:
The most wonderful products are that way because of a leader’s keen insights borne of their intuition.
People in suits and ties looking at sheets and sheets of numbers are missing the critical point — what it feels like. What’s the story that’s going around. Where the culture is pointed.
The main difference between senior and junior designers was the strength and quality of their intuition.
I believed the above with a deep and abiding fervor. The best designers I knew at the time had an alluring confidence borne of their well-honed sense of what was good and wasn’t. I strove to be like them, listening and inhaling and jumping obstacles on the quest for that holy grail of taste. In fact, I wore my early-adoptnerness as a lifestyle, a badge of pride. I joined Facebook over Microsoft in 2006 because it was a product my friends and I used everyday. I sang the praises of my Welsh Airbnb hosts’ hearty breakfast when most people were like, You stayed in a stranger’s house in another country? I never advanced my poor cooking skills because I switched to getting meals delivered every day as soon as food delivery services got started.
As such, I regarded the use of big data to make judgements the way I would an attractive peddler with a golden voice coming to town to sell cures for a broken heart: with extreme skepticism.
And — it was true! — I saw misuses under the banner of “be data-driven!” everywhere. (And while we are at it, let’s retire the term “data-driven,” shall we? It implies spreadsheets are at the wheel of your decisions, not humans.) Hordes of A/B tests that had teams running on treadmills busily shipping, but doing little to truly improve things. Hours of analyses that focused on micro-optimizations. Data being used to justify decisions that plain and simply felt incorrect, only to later find — oops, the logging was wrong. I wrote lots of articles here and here and here to broadcast the message of “practice safe data-informedness!”
But really, I thought we were all really overdoing it. I nodded vigorously when Jeff Bezos said that in his experience, when anecdotes and data diverge, he believes the anecdotes. Here, in the living breathing world, we are not all perfectly rational beings. It’s stories that brings tears to our eyes, not numbers.
We follow our hearts and guts, not kanban boards and excel sheets.
I don’t know exactly when this started changing for me, but it did. Maybe it was one too many experiences like this one. Maybe it was the Nth time my intuition turned out to be wrong in some small way, like Wow, as much as I love me an aesthetically pleasing uncluttered set of icons with no labels, somehow the vast majority of the world appreciates and finds things easier to use with labels. Or maybe I just wised up and realized that data is no different than a sword or a hammer or that excel sheet I keep bashing — it can be used well or it can be used poorly. Whatever the reason, I’m now firmly on the other side. I believe that most people, teams, companies, industries could function better by using more data better.
One of the best things about working at Facebook-scale, where every day millions or billions of people interact with what you design, is that you quickly become humbled by how little you can intuit about what works for someone who just got on the Internet for the first time and is trying to set up their first profile and make their first post. The world is soaringly vast in its complexity. To think our little molecule of an individual experience can be relied on help us understand the nuances of its evolution and ecosystems and weather formations is hubris. Taste, that lovely thing, is simply an ability to make a small ripple in the small pond we are familiar with; sometimes, luck takes that ripple and propels it across other ponds and oceans.
These past few weeks, with the weight of the coronavirus situation, I’ve felt all this so much more keenly. How easy is it to dismiss the risk of contagion when it was happening on the other side of the globe? How simple is it to tell ourselves — especially those of us who are young and healthy — that going to that party, or grabbing that coffee down the street, or hopping onto that train — is no big deal?
The enemy is invisible. The greatest defenses against this threat are classic “slow ideas” as described by writer and doctor Atul Gawande — actions where the impact is not immediately seen or felt. You will not know that you were infected for maybe a week, if at all. You will not go to the hospital or die until two weeks after that, if at all. By the time the hospitals have sounded the alarms, it will be too late.
Our brains don’t do well with slow ideas. For years, I have been waging a war with myself to get more sleep and exercise. We’ve heard the refrain over and over again — this is good for us. And yet, my health in 5, 10, 25 years constantly loses battles to the immediate satisfaction of time spent with friends, the completion of an episode, a new check on the to-do list, or simply the allure of words across a bright screen.
But this is the beauty and power of data. As new and scary as the coronavirus is, we are not flying blind. We know things from Wuhan and Italy, from the H1N1 flu of 2009 and the H2N2 flu of 1957. My understanding of our current situation has been made all the more tangible with well-articulated analyses written by those who study numbers and make excel spreadsheets. For example, this chart (pasted below) makes it exceedingly clear that the US is on a similar trajectory to Italy and that we too will be fast approaching the red zone without greater steps (which luckily states and counties are starting to take.)
As another example, these two articles, Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now and Don’t flatten the Curve, Stop it! both left a deep impression on me because they get specific with their estimates based on well-founded numbers — how many hospital beds and respirators we have today, what the infection rate might be, what the transmission timeline looks like. As a result, you can critique the process, double-check the numbers, and judge the trustworthiness of the conclusion.
Many of you know that I’ve partnered with my friend Chandra Narayanan to start an advising company called Inspirit. Chandra ran data at Facebook and Sequoia, and I think of him as one of the best data leaders in the world. Besides the fact that I am forever trying to emulate his wisdom and depth of care, I feel so lucky to work with Chandra because I get a first-row seat into how he approaches problems.
One thing he said about data and design has always been on my mind:
Diagnose with data. Treat with design.
How wonderfully simple and powerful that statement is.
Great solutions are built upon solid and accurate assumptions about the world. You can’t solve jack if your assumptions are off. And they are likely to be off in any scenario that involves millions or billions of people, involve a topic you haven’t studied deeply, or where you don’t have good data.
Rather than surfing by on intuition and taste, the data-informed individual adopts a beginner’s mindset: Assume you know nothing.
Then, frame what you believe as assumptions or hypotheses. These are incredibly empowering words to help you get to great design. I am assuming… My hypothesis is… These words make it okay to be wrong, because they paint you as a truth-seeker rather than an egoist. These words invite contribution and follow-up questions from others, including the ever-critical Why?
These words opens the door for your assumptions or hypotheses to be validated through data, like what Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now and Don’t flatten the Curve, Stop it! have done. Are hospitals going be over capacity with the coronavirus? What would convince us one way or another? Let’s calculate the number of bed or special equipment needed to treat COVID-19 cases. Let’s calculate the number of people who are likely to be at the hospital for non-COVID-19 cases. Let’s calculate the likely rate of spread and hospitalization based on what we know from other countries. Trust the process, and you can trust the conclusion.
Furthermore, looking at data helps you spot opportunities for new hypotheses. Chandra noticed a few weeks ago that infections seemed greater in places that were cold. He hypothesized that perhaps the virus doesn’t spread as easily in hot temperatures. Chinese scientists had a similar hypothesis, and their preliminary study results from analyzing 100 Chinese cities seem to indicate a relationship between lower transmission rate and higher temperature and humidity.
Once you have a believable diagnosis of the problem, that’s where design jumps in.
Data cannot solve problems. It can only help you identify and understand them.
Design is the treatment, the phase where you brainstorm all the ways that the problem can be solved. Social distancing. Government policies that incentivize social distancing. Investments in faster production of critical supplies like masks and respirators. Greater and more efficient testing. Better ways for important information to get to the right people. Online learning. Giving aid to those most deeply affected. Developing and experimenting with new treatments. (If you are interested in how you can get involved, I just heard of this list of COVID-19 projects looking for volunteers here.)
There are also the things we must do for ourselves and our loved ones, to get through each day. Get a full night’s sleep. Count the blessings we do have. Text or call hello. Let nature rejuvenate our souls. Be kind to one another, especially those who are the most vulnerable or are the hardest hit.
There is a surreal quality to such massive disruption on a global scale, like an entire year’s (decade’s?) worth of drama compressed into one sychronized dance, where health systems, stock markets, sports, work, schools and elections are all spinning wildly in chaos together.
There’s a lot more to weather in the days, weeks and months ahead.
Stay healthy. Stay calm.
Let’s make the best decisions we can by seeking out the best data we have.
Some useful data sites related to COVID-19: | https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/stay-healthy-stay-data-informed-d62da66951d7 | ['Julie Zhuo'] | 2020-03-18 17:52:47.017000+00:00 | ['Design Thinking', 'Design', 'Data', 'Data Science', 'Coronavirus'] |
Jellyfish Reveal More Glowing Secrets & Bacteria Make Purple Sea Snail Dye | NEWSLETTER
Jellyfish Reveal More Glowing Secrets & Bacteria Make Purple Sea Snail Dye
This Week in Synthetic Biology (Issue #14)
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The Crystal Jelly Unveils Its Brightest Protein Yet
Aequorea victoria, the crystal jelly, hovers in the waters off the coast of California. Decades ago, Osamu Shimomura noticed that these jellies emit a faint, green light. So he took pieces from one of them, did some experiments, and found the protein responsible for the glow. That protein — GFP — is now used in thousands of labs to light up the insides of microscopic cells. Shimomura shared the 2008 Nobel Prize for that work, along with Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien, who died in 2016.
Now, it looks like the crystal jelly hasn’t given up all of its secrets just yet.
In a new study, nine previously unstudied proteins, also from Aequorea victoria and a related species, were reported. Several of the new fluorescent proteins have quirky characteristics, too. One of them is “the brightest GFP homolog yet characterized”, while another protein can respond to both UV and blue light. The scientists even found a couple of purple and blue-pigmented chromoproteins. The findings are further evidence that, in the darkness of the oceans, scores of mysteries remain to be discovered. This work was published Nov. 2 in the open-access journal PLoS Biology. Link
Will DNA Replace Grocery Store Barcodes?
A standard barcode — think grocery store rectangle, with black-and-white lines — contains 11 digits. Mixing up those digits in every possible way gives about 100 billion possible combinations. That’s a lot, but it’s not nearly as many combinations as what a barcode made from DNA could provide.
A new study, published in Nature Communications, reports a molecular, DNA tagging system that could become the future of barcodes. The DNA was dehydrated, which made it more stable, and the sequences were read out in just a few seconds with an Oxford Nanopore MinION, a small, portable DNA sequencer. To facilitate that speed, the authors came up with some clever ways to avoid complex, computational analysis of the DNA signals; they were able to read the barcodes directly from the raw sequence data. This study was published Nov. 3 and is open access. Link
Bacteria Produce Tyrian Purple Dye (From Sea Snails!)
As early as 1570 BC, the Phoenicians were dying fabrics with Tyrian purple. To make the dye required a process so intensive as to be nonsensical; as many as 250,000 sea snails (Bolinus brandaris) had to be smashed into goop to make just one ounce of dye. It was a color reserved for royalty, and literally worth more than its weight in gold.
Thank goodness, no more snails need to be smooshed to make Tyrian purple dye. Engineered E. coli bacteria can now make the dye’s predominant chemical, called 6,6'-dibromoindigo. To achieve this, scientists from Seoul National University added several genes to the bacteria; a tryptophan 6-halogenase gene, a tryptophanase gene and a flavin-containing monooxygenase. That’s a mouth garbling sentence, but I promise the result is easier to understand: the cells were able to produce 315 mg of 6,6'-dibromoindigo per liter in flasks, using tryptophan — an animo acid — as the chemical precursor. This work was published Nov. 2 in Nature Chemical Biology. Link
79 Different Cas9 Proteins Were Tested. Some Are Wicked Cool
Cas9 is maybe the most famous protein on earth. It’s like, the Kim Kardashian of the protein world. If there was a magazine for proteins, Cas9 would be on its cover. Oh wait, that already happened.
There’s a lot of different Cas9 proteins, but not all of them have been characterized. In a new study, scientists identified, and tested, 79 different Cas9 orthologs — proteins taken from different species, but that have the same function — and figured out how they recognize and cut DNA. Intriguingly, some of the Cas9 proteins only worked at specific temperatures; Cme2 Cas9, for example, “was only robustly active from ~30 °C to 55 °C suggesting the possibility of temperature-controlled DNA search and modification.” This study was published Nov. 2 in Nature Communications, and is open access. Link
CRISPR Shuts Down Fertilized Eggs
I didn’t know about the birds and the bees until my parents sat me down and told me. But if you’re wondering, a typical pregnancy starts like this: a fertilized egg latches on to the endometrium in the uterus. That activates a flood of genes to turn “on”, including one called leukemia inhibitory factor, or LIF. A new study has figured out a way to cut off fertility — with CRISPR — by targeting LIF and switching it “off”. The reason this is cool is because, well, the CRISPR-Cas9 system is photoactivatable, meaning it can be switched on with an LED.
The scientists, from Keio University in Tokyo, think that their work could prove useful in basic science research that probes the molecular signals underpinning this process. The study was published Nov. 2 in the journal PNAS, and is open access. Link | https://medium.com/bioeconomy-xyz/jellyfish-reveal-more-glowing-secrets-bacteria-make-purple-sea-snail-dye-37d03a3d58e9 | ['Niko Mccarty'] | 2020-11-06 13:39:00.501000+00:00 | ['Newsletter', 'CRISPR', 'News', 'Science', 'Future'] |
Trade Wars are Better With Friends | Trade Wars are Better With Friends
Instead of bickering with the EU, the United States should enlist their help in fighting China- the real trade cheaters
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
In an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, countries need rules and laws to govern their interactions. The fastest and most straightforward way to create new laws is through international agreements, specifically in the form of treaties or international conventions. These agreements can either be bilateral (between two parties) or multilateral (between three or more parties). Bilateral agreements might be easier finalize because there are fewer parties needed to reach a consensus, but often a united front from multiple sides is required to effect real change on challenging issues.
Previously, the United States, the European Union, and Japan worked together to put pressure on China to open its economy and level the playing field for international companies. Initially, China opened its economy a little when joining the WTO in 2001. Since then little progress has been made. By creating a trade war with China, Trump decided to press for change alone, instead of with allies. As the trade war sputters, Trump has shifted and started attacking the EU instead of restarting the coalition to invoke change in China.
Everyone Breaks the Rules Sometimes
When countries break the international rules that they have agreed to, legal cases can be brought to the WTO. The United States and the European Union have repeatedly brought cases to the WTO against each other over unfair government support for Airbus and Boeing. In early October, the WTO ruled that the EU broke the rules and provided unfair assistance to Airbus. The United States is allowed to punish the EU with tariffs. The EU will not respond with counter-tariffs until next month when the WTO rules on the EU’s case against the United States and its unfair aid to Boeing.
Working Together
The United States, the European Union, and the WTO all agree that with regards to aircraft companies, both sides have cheated. But for the most part, the two regions generally follow the international rules created over the last seven decades. These two regions tend to be models for other countries. These grievances are minor compared to the long list of corporate subsidies that China provides for domestic companies, especially the large and powerful State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). However, this skirmish about airlines is fracturing the united front needed to apply enough pressure on China to change these policies. The short-term win of imposing $7.5 billion in tariffs on the European Union is to the detriment of a possible long-term win against China.
Coordinated Efforts Make Multilateral Agreements More Powerful
Through multilateral agreements, trading partners can coordinate to exert more pressure on a country like China than any one country can achieve by itself. The United States is the largest economy in the world and a major Chinese trading partner, but alone the United States is struggling to affect real change in China. Even though the EU is not in a trade war with China, they see the benefits of Chinese economic reform. If the United States, the EU, and Japan can form a united front, the odds of success are higher.
The United States started imposing tariffs on China in January 2018. Over twenty months later the two sides are discussing a mini-deal. This deal will not contain the meaningful economic reforms that President Trump is seeking. Nor will it contain the necessary labor, environmental, or human rights reforms that Democrats in the United States want. If the mini-deal is signed then President Xi might not have to negotiate another international treaty for years to come.
Ongoing trade bickering from supposed allies is undermining individual efforts. To maintain the strongest front possible, the EU proposed trade talks to resolve the Boeing-Airbus saga in July. The United States did not engage. Then in mid-October the EU again suggested talks to resolve their aircraft differences. There is no sign from the Trump Administration that they are open to EU talks.
The aircraft fight is taking time, resources, and media attention away from more serious trade issues. Being able to impose tariffs on Airbus and other European products is a tiny win, possibly at the expense of the greater trade war. The research and development subsidies offered by the United States and European governments are minor compared to the uneven playing field that international companies struggle with every day in China. | https://medium.com/goods-services/trade-wars-are-better-with-friends-115c0f5c24ed | ['Michelle Klieger'] | 2019-10-22 10:01:03.048000+00:00 | ['World', 'Trade', 'Trump', 'European Union', 'Economics'] |
Get Everything Know about Diabetic Retinopathy | What is Diabetic Retinopathy?
Diabetes mellitus is a type of eye disorder when our body doesn’t use and store sugar properly. In this eye condition, high blood sugar levels can damage the blood vessels in the retina occur. The retina is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of the tissue that senses light and sends these signals to the brain for visual recognition. This damage to the retinal vessels is known as diabetic retinopathy.
Which Patients Are At Risk Of Developing Diabetic Retinopathy?
All patients with diabetes always have a potential risk of developing diabetic retinopathy. People living their lives with diabetes and it’s uncontrolled always have a higher risk of getting suffer from diabetic eye disease. The presence of hypertension, nephropathy, high cholesterol levels, and anemia add to the risk. All diabetic patients have the potential to develop diabetic retinopathy.
Can it Cause Blindness?
Diabetic retinopathy can cause severe vision loss as there is bleeding within the eye or a retinal detachment. Moderate vision loss can occur as a result of edema (swelling) of the retina.
Can It Be Detected Early?
A comprehensive eye examination performed by a retina specialist can be helping determine how much and how serious the disease is.
Can Diabetic Retinopathy be Prevented?
Diabetes retinopathy can be slowed down if systemic parameters such as blood glucose levels, blood pressure, lipid profile. You should be under the supervision of a doctor for blood sugar management.
What are the symptoms of diabetic retinopathy?
Patients may remain free of symptoms in the early phases of the disease.
Blurred vision.
Sudden loss of vision in one eye.
Black spots moving in front of the eye.
Distorted central vision.
Abnormal patterns in the field of vision.
Do All Patients Present with these Symptoms?
Many people with severe, vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy have no symptoms! Regular eye exams are crucial to obtaining treatment before it is too late.
What All Tests Available to Diagnose Diabetic Retinopathy?
Dilated retinal examination.
Digital Fluorescein Angiography (FFA or DFA).
Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT).
Ophthalmic ultrasound.
What is fluorescein angiography?
In this technology, magnified photography of the retina wherein a special dye (Fluorescein) gets injected into the arm. It takes only 8 to 12 seconds to reach the retina when dye gets injected into the arm. As the dye passes through the blood vessels in the retina, the pictures are taken. Fluorescein angiography test allows the doctor to identify any leaking blood vessels and recommend treatment. It helps to analyze the condition and to record changes in the retinal blood vessels.
What is Optical Coherence tomography?
Optical Coherence Tomography is a powerful, non-invasive diagnostic imaging technology that provides high-resolution, cross-sectional images of the retina. This technology gives the exact amount of retinal thickness, the fluid collection; the layers involved; any traction on the retina, etc. that great significance in the treatment plan. OCT helps in planning treatment with laser, intravitreal injections, or microsurgery.
How is Ophthalmic Ultrasound useful in patients with diabetic retinopathy?
If the patient has a cataract, a lot of hemorrhages, and visibility of the retina is poor then an ultrasound of the eye is very useful in planning surgery for diabetic patients.
How is Ophthalmic Ultrasound useful in patients with diabetic retinopathy?
If the patient has a cataract, a lot of hemorrhages, retina visibility is poor; then an ultrasound of the eye useful in the planning of surgery for diabetic patients.
What treatments are available?
Laser is the most widely used treatment modality for diabetic retinopathy. It can stop or slow the leakage of blood and fluid in the eye in case of proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Here the laser acts by regressing the new blood vessels. Researchers have found that laser in these cases reduces the risk of severe vision loss by 50%. Laser is also used in eyes which have swelling in the center that is macula area. It has to be properly timed. However, it generally cannot restore lost vision because of damage to the retina.
Intraocular injections of steroids and anti VEGFs (Avastin, Lucentis)-Latest treatment-help in reducing swelling of the retina especially cases that are not treatable with laser treatment.
Microsurgery (vitreoretinal surgeries). Advanced cases of unresolved vitreal haemorrhage (bleeding in the eye) and retinal detachments require microsurgery. Highly advanced technology, wide-angle viewing system, sophisticated instrumentation, and qualified retinal surgeon can make all the difference to achieve visual results in a large number of advanced cases also.
I am diabetic, but it is now under control. Do I also need an eye examination?
Yes, you need to schedule an eye exam as every diabetic is a potential candidate for diabetic retinopathy. The biggest thing of worry is that there are no symptoms at the initial stages. Periodic eye examination with dilated pupils is the only way to detect the disease at an early stage and prevent further deterioration of vision.
Important facts to remember:
• The risk of eye problems among diabetic people is twice as likely as non-diabetics. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common eye complication and other complications are cataract and glaucoma.
• There is approximately fifty percent of diabetics can have some degree of diabetic eye disease.
• In the case of diabetes the risk of blindness is 25 times higher than in non-diabetics.
• Early detection and timely treatment of diabetic eye disease is the only way to reduce the risk of vision loss.
• If we talk about diabetic retinopathy at its early stages then there are often no symptoms. It is only an ophthalmologist who can detect early signs of diabetic retinopathy. Therefore it is the recommendation for all diabetics that they should go for their eyes examined at least once every year. | https://medium.com/@windycityretina/get-everything-know-about-diabetic-retinopathy-e2f7c3e7e54b | ['Windy City Retina'] | 2021-04-09 12:49:17.049000+00:00 | ['Diabetes', 'Eyecare', 'Diabetic Retinopathy', 'Vision', 'Blindness'] |
The Dev Team says it’s impossible. What should Product Owners do? | Is it really impossible?
In my opinion, impossible is only a perception. Whenever we see something as impossible, I think we actually don’t know how to overcome that challenge. That’s why I don’t take the word “impossible” as the end of a conversation. Instead, I take as an opportunity for a meaningful collaboration.
The pillars of Scrum can help us to approach the impossible challenges. By inspecting and adapting, the Scrum team has the chance to sharpen their knowledge. Inspecting and adapting are powerful because they can reveal hidden opportunities.
Three pillars uphold every implementation of empirical process control: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. — Scrum Guide, November 2017
Whenever a Scrum team receives a significant challenge, which they don’t know how to overcome, they need to leave the comfort zone. The comfort zone is dangerous because though we have a feeling of control over it, we can never become a better version of ourselves. Therefore, we remain stuck. For many people, leaving this comfortable place is a big deal. Some people will avoid it at all costs. The unknown is scary but rewarding.
Some people are just soft. Maybe you’re one of these people. See, being soft simply means you’re addicted to being comfortable and you’re afraid of doing anything hard. You can be soft mentally, physically, spiritually, so it goes. The messaging of society is designed to keep you soft, weak, and complacent. See, here’s what the infamous “they” do to you. They take perfectly good, healthy, and reasonable concepts and bastardize them to the point they no longer become reasonable. — Ayodeji Awosika, How to Cure Your Addiction to Your Comfort Zone
My opinion is, if we live in the comfort zone, we miss the chance of developing ourselves! The bigger the challenge is, the more rewarding the outcome will be!
“The most rewarding things you do in life are often the ones that look like they cannot be done.” — Arnold Palmer
Photo by Giulio Del Prete on Unsplash
Understanding why it seems impossible
Approaching the word impossible as a perception allows us to change it. As a Product Owner, I strive to understand why the team has this perception. By exploring, we can uncover the real blockers. Open and explorative questions are useful in this case, for example:
What brings you to this conclusion?
Which challenges do you see?
Why do you think it is impossible?
What can we do to make it possible?
What are the alternatives we can explore?
Questions force the team to think and understand the scenario better. Explorative questions are powerful because they open the mind for reflection. That’s why we need to be careful with statements like “This is impossible!” because it shuts the conversation down. A great Product Owner is a curious person; the more questions we ask, the more alternatives we can find.
“Nobody makes progress by standing still. The beauty is in the push, and it’s never easy.” — Zat Rana, Andrew Wiles: How to Do the Impossible
Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash
We should take challenges as opportunities. They should never block us. Instead, they should push us forward!
“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; The size of your dream; And how you handle disappointment along the way.” — Robert Kiyosaki
Moving from impossible to possible
Let me share with you a real experience. Once we had a challenge to solve a complex problem, we needed to answer the following question: how can we define the best routes for our field-force team? The details were:
20.000+ stores spread all over Brazil.
4.000+ field-employees.
Diverse transport options: public, automobile, boat, and bicycle.
I remember as if it was today, when I presented that to the team, the reaction was immediate. One team member said, “That’s just impossible to solve!”. So I thought, now it’s time for an in-depth conversation, that went like this:
Me: Hum. Interesting, why do you think this is impossible?
Team: Because we have no technology and knowledge to solve it.
Me: Which kind of knowledge and technology do we need?
Team: Well, we would need to evaluate how to calculate routes dynamically. Maybe if we could use an API like Google Maps, we may find an alternative. But we are talking of tons of work. We have no time for that. The amount of work is insane! It’s a monster!
Me: What if we had no time constraint, what would you do?
Team: Hum. Maybe we could start exploring Google API and playing around with some small set of data. Then, we could get some knowledge and build it step by step. But I have no idea if we would succeed.
Me: What holds you back from giving it a try?
Team: Time and permission to fail. If we had time to focus, we might have a way out. But if we fail, that should be taken as a learning. No blaming is allowed.
Long-story-short we delivered the whole Route Solution in three months. If I had accepted the impossible as the final statement, the company wouldn’t have a solution that replaced the work of twenty analysts. In the end, the team was incredibly proud and motivated by the achievement. We understood that impossible was only our perception due to our lack of knowledge. | https://medium.com/serious-scrum/the-dev-team-says-its-impossible-what-should-product-owners-do-5ea2fcb062a7 | ['David Pereira'] | 2020-09-10 08:00:09.185000+00:00 | ['Agile', 'Leadership', 'Product Management', 'Software Development', 'Startup'] |
I’m specifically down this reading rabbit hole to determine whether OnlyFans is where I should post… | I’m specifically down this reading rabbit hole to determine whether OnlyFans is where I should post my behind the scenes dance training and personal practice while building the dance course/ app I’m creating…. So I LOVE your take on this.
I fell the same way, and it’s encouraging to hear from someone outside of my head 😊 | https://medium.com/@stirlingmoriah/im-specifically-down-this-reading-rabbit-hole-to-determine-whether-onlyfans-is-where-i-should-post-4716eea6e26b | ['Stirling Gets Creative'] | 2020-12-13 22:10:41.086000+00:00 | ['Content Creation', 'Onlyfans'] |
Spending Sustainably: How to Contribute to the Circular Economy | The 20th century saw enormous innovation, scientific discovery, and invention. It also saw environmental degradation and pollution caused by unsustainable business practices. The 21st century will see a similar magnitude of innovation as well: this time, making these practices sustainable. These discoveries and inventions will permit economic growth without environmental degradation. Humans will not have to flourish at the expense of the planet.
The blame for the profligacy of our modern economy rests on the shoulders of two men. Leo Baekeland discovered Bakelite: the first synthetic compound and modern plastic. This discovery was key to many of the 20th century’s discoveries and innovations, but came with a cost. Plastic takes centuries to biodegrade, and often causes environmental harm in the meantime. The other, Alfred P. Sloan, the CEO of General Motors, suggested the cars have annual changes. This would encourage consumers to buy a new car on a frequent basis as past models would be obsolete. This practice was so successful GM surpassed its competitor Ford in sales. Planned obsolescence was even lauded for bringing the economy out of the Depression.
So it stuck.
The majority of our economic output ends in a landfill, often in a developing country. Impoverished nations shoulder the burden of our wasteful behavior. Sustainability is as much a human rights issue as an environmental one.
Here’s what we must do.
Reduce
Buying less stuff should be pretty easy. You want to save money right? Except, money is boring. “Stuff” is fun. For a little while. Then stuff gets boring too. Only purchase what you need, or you suspect may be valuable long term. If you wish to try out things you don’t own, try Renting, as discussed below.
Reducing your consumption is only part of the picture. You can also put pressure on corporations to reduce their output. Supreme is a streetwear brand known for offering its merchandise in a limited supply. Other luxury prestigious brands destroy unsold merchandise. Supreme never has that problem.
Reuse and Repurpose
Finding new uses for things can be scintillating. But even if you can’t think of ways to reuse something, chances are someone else can.
One man’s trash is another’s treasure.
Reciprocation
So give it to others who may find your stuff more useful. Swap. Donate. Whether to a homeless person or a charity.
Recycle
Recycling is often out of our hands as everyday citizens. Often recycling companies promised to recycle and landfilled anyway. Fortunately there are many innovations that have made recycling cheaper and feasible.
What you can do to help with the adoption of such technologies is lobbying your local government. City and town jurisdictions have control over municipal waste. Residents need to YIMBY conversion/processing plants and recycling centers.
Other new companies help with recycling printer cartridges, tires, and electronics. Find these companies. Promote them. Raise awareness of them and help make them money.
Repair and Refurbish
Many companies have made it impossible to repair their products. Apple and Tesla are examples. Sometimes governments have passed legislation discouraging it as well. This is the influence of the planned obsolescence movement. There are two ways to combat this. One is finding companies that provide a lifetime guarantee. Teracube is a startup providing a smartphone with one such guarantee. The platform is Android, but the components are far more durable. The other is putting pressure on companies to offer repairs, or permit repairs.
Most affordable items are impossible to repair, hence their price tag.
Rent and Return
This is an often overlooked part of the circular economy. Renting from companies provides less incentive to make shoddy items. Because rental payments are recurring, companies have incentive to provide items that last. When items break or when they finally deteriorate, they can be returned and swapped out. The original manufacturer can then reuse and recycle those older items. There aren’t many companies helping with this, so this is a golden opportunity.
livefeather.com
Replace and Refuse
An easy way to encourage companies not to use materials that are difficult to recycle is to not accept them. Don’t take non-degradable disposable items. There are compostable alternatives for most single-use items. Put pressure on companies to use them and encourage others to as well. Boycott companies that aren’t sustainable. Seek out companies that are. Promote them. Reward sustainability.
Rot
By far the most important component of a circular economy is organic material. There are biodegradable alternatives to many items. Where there aren’t, there are opportunities for invention and innovation. Materials that are either compostable or burnable should substitute artificial inorganic materials. This again comes back to finding companies and promoting them.
Economies obey consumer spending. If you want the economy to change, change where you spend your money. Patronize circular economy companies. | https://medium.com/@bengreeley/spending-sustainably-how-to-contribute-to-the-circular-economy-fea54d1d596f | ['Ben Greeley'] | 2020-12-10 15:43:30.518000+00:00 | ['Minimalism', 'Circulareconomy', 'Recycling', 'Sustainability', 'Environment'] |
Artificial Intelligence: Its types and Implications | Artificial Intelligence: Its types and Implications
In recent days the trending topic is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has brought a drastic change in human capital as well as in workforce. Read further to know about AI and its types and also its implications on the real world.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Think of a machine or a program which acts as an intermediary between humans without direct contact. This is called Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, the response of people towards AI was a failure when it was introduced. But in recent days the people solely depend upon the Tech Giants like Google, Facebook, Apple, etc. and these companies use AI to improve their technologies in order to catch up people’s mind. Could you believe that a person has a lifetime dream to buy an iPhone? This situation was not there in the early 2000s. How is this possible?
AI Influences on People
You may wonder how a machine could replace a human but it’s happening. For example, in Google, if you type anything it gives out the best result for you. Probably you wouldn’t command it to give out the best results, then how is it possible? This is because of AI. Let me explain to you elaborately, Google sets up an AI program in the search bar where you search for your results where it will analyze your previous searches and optimizes the result and gives out the best for you. From this case, you can observe that AI reduces our workforce from typing in an elaborate manner. This may seem to be small scale but there are cases where AI is applied in a large scale too. For example, many companies are using highly advanced AI programs to manage their database environments and they also use for their software development. This influences people to produce more AI programs to manage works and other development stuff.
This graph represents the no.of startups developing AI programs and systems. It clearly represents the influence of AI on people over the years and it was at its peak on and after 2015. Many people were encouraged to do AI systems for enterprises to manage their work and today many companies relied on AI for workflow and development. The evolution of AI goes on and many new applications are found for effectiveness and capability as the expectations go on.
Applications of AI
Anyone can create their own AI program or system according to their own flexibility. As anyone can create their AI program it is called a User-Defined system. Being a user-defined system there are many applications of AI around the world. Some of the prominent applications are Machine Learning and Deep Learning.
Machine Learning
Machine Learning is an application of AI which deals with computer algorithms. You might have a question what is Computer Algorithms? It is a set of sequence which are pre-build in computers to solve cases and problems. Machine Learning provides a computer or software with the ability to learn automatically. The program for Machine Learning is not necessary to be in a precise manner which is considered as an advantage of Machine Learning. What can Machine Learning be used for? Machine Learning focuses on the development of computer programs and it is also used for identifying data patterns (tells us the way by which the data has been extracted). Being an automated learning program, Machine Learning identifies the Data Patterns and gives us the ideal decision to make and also used for predictions. Some of the well-known examples are Siri by Apple and Alexa by Amazon.
Deep Learning
Deep Learning is considered as a subset of Machine Learning where artificial neural networks( a series of algorithms which imitates the function of human brain )and algorithms which are inspired by the human brain provide the computer with a broader range of data. As the computer access a large amount of data Deep Learning helps the machine to solve complex problems even when it is using an unstructured data pattern. You can observe that I had related the human brain with Deep learning at places. Why is it so? There are many relations between our human brain and Deep Learning. Firstly, the functions of Deep Learning are well-related to the highly advanced functions of the human brain. Deep Learning has the presence of some large elements which are most similar to the neurons present in our human brain. Finally, Deep Learning consists of artificial neural networks which are designed way too similar to the networks present in the human brain. One of the main advantages of Deep Learning is the capacity to execute programs on their own and it combines data using networks to enable the program to be faster.
Types of Artificial Intelligence
There are many AI programs out there, but here we’re going to have a look at the three predominant types of AI. The three types are namely:
Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)
Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI):
ANI is artificial intelligence where it performs only one narrow or simple task at a time. It is used in areas such as weather forecasting, able to play chess, data analyzing and also helps to develop software like Siri and Alexa. This intelligence is also called Weak Intelligence due to its functions and capacity. ANI is considered as Stage-1 in this classification.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI):
AGI is the hypothetical intelligence of a machine which has the capacity to understand or learn any task that a human can do. It matches its intelligence with human brain when compared to functions. The paramount target of Artificial General Intelligence is Future Studies. One of the best examples is IBM’s Watson, which is an AI program considered as one of the smartest programs in the world.
Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI):
ASI is considered as the future vision of AI. This vision is accomplished when the capability of computers and machines outclass humans. This intelligence when improvised will be the dominant form or position in major sectors of the world. However, Technological researchers and Statisticians disagree with this Theory of machines surpassing human intelligence. One of the main drawbacks of Artificial Super Intelligence is that they can’t match the cognitive senses of human and the human perception skills. These two play a vital role in decision-making situations. For example, imagine there is a popular company which has a CEO. Now the CEO of the company has to make an important decision which has impact on employees across the globe, we can’t do any analysis at this time. So, we can’t expect anything from a program at this point and here is where humans use their cognitive and perception skills to find a solution. The advantage of ASI is that they have the capability to produce instant reports and they are smart at every moment where humans are not.
Implications of AI in Finance
There are many implications of AI in the finance industry. AI is one of the best in data mining. This advantage can be used in sectors like Wealth Management and Investment Banking where they use data mining for sentiment analysis which means the status of a company like performing, outperforming, poor etc. AI helps the Wealth Management sectors to be efficient by enhancing the accuracy of trading plans and decisions. Nowadays, top wealth management companies like Goldman Sachs, J.P.Morgan, and Vanguard Group are using AI for better insight. As AI being an user-defined system financial companies are using trading algorithms which are built using sentiment analysis and other public data sources, helps in processing the data. Banks use Artificial Intelligence to identify fraudulent cases and also provides personalized plans and recommendations for customers. AI has been very helpful in Risk Management by providing optimized models and paradigms (methodologies). Therefore, AI has been a ‘game-changer’ in the Financial World by shifting it towards technological innovations, and still, there are many implications of AI in finance.
Can AI change the world?
The world is fast evolving and there has been a trend in getting anything at instant. For example, in cricket people don’t like to watch a test series instead they are interested in T20 matches. Being a rush-up world people don’t have the patience to get a job done within a long period and here is where AI gives up a hand to people to get the job done at an instant. AI has the capacity and it functions competitively to our human brain. For example, if we got our hand at fire we would quickly take off our hand from it and this activity would take place within fraction of seconds and this is how AI performs. This is the reason why AI has become more popular. But the question is Can AI change the world? My answer will be a ‘No’ because the globe’s most abundant and important resource is Human Capital and how can a machine or a program replace it. Human emotions play a vital role in this world. Can you ever imagine a world with a sequence of algorithmic programs? If you ask what is the future of AI it would be robotic devices, smart intelligence, human interaction, etc. but the future of Humans is their vision and nothing is capable of replacing it. Apart from this, there is also a bright side of AI. Artificial Intelligence plays a key role in productivity in the future. AI is fully based on automated processes which helps in analyzing and predictions. According to a report, the market spending of companies is major in cognitive technologies and AI. This reflects how the companies are relied on AI for productivity. AI is also considered a good investment for the future as it is one of the fastest-growing technological chains in the world. Therefore AI can’t change the world by replacing humans in various sectors but can change the world by shifting people towards a technological side.
Originally published at my website https://www.insightbig.com/. You are welcome to visit my website. | https://medium.com/datazen/artificial-intelligence-its-types-and-implications-b95d5a4b9959 | ['Nikhil Adithyan'] | 2020-07-14 04:01:46.610000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Tech', 'Finance', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Technology'] |
Is Kamala Harris The Exception? | written by Valerie Morales
It feels as if Kamala Harris has been a Senator longer than two years. Her aggressive resistance to the current president and his policies, particularly immigration, have earned her affection, supporters, social media followers, and for her benefit, financial backers. Since winning the California Senate seat in 2016, her national profile has risen beyond California, as have her ambitions. The only mild surprise is announcing her presidential aspirations so early in her Washington career. In the past, she was known for her caution.
If successful in this bold new move, Harris would unseat a president who has exiled the kind of people that raised Kamala Harris to want to be president in the first place.
Her mother Shyamala left India to study at UC Berkeley and she met an immigrant from Jamaica, a black man named Donald. They married and Kamala, which translates into Lotus Flower, was born in Oakland, California. If back then was right now and the young Harris couple were trying to make a life in a country different than their birthplace, most likely, Donald Trump would have tried a variety of ways to deport them. Spared that kind of punishment is a relief all the way around. We wouldn’t be talking about Kamala Harris running for president.
But first some history. On a wintry, slick January day in 1972, Shirley Chisholm did the same thing Kamala Harris is doing now, galvanizing women by charting tenuous waters.
Chisholm, the daughter of Caribbean parents, and a seven term congresswoman from the 12th District (NY), was the first black woman to seek the presidency. That she didn’t win missed a larger point about pioneers and their responsibility to make a bright idea- a woman in the White House- seem possible and necessary.
14 years after Shirley Chisholm’s death, Kamala Harris has stepped into her footprints, a familiar kind of valor blowing at her sails. It’s a privileged place to find oneself, the daughter of immigrants seeking the highest office. Like Chisholm, Kamala Harris can be sentimental about her country. Her parents chose to come to a welcoming place. They were not kidnapped, dragged in chains and systemically abused. They didn’t have to recover from a history of malice and violence, nor fume about an apology that was never forthcoming from oppressors who deny their behavior.
Shyamala and Donald’s baby girl was born one year before the Voting Rights Act was signed, and one year after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Her father was a professor at Stanford and her mother a breast cancer researcher. The family lived in a working class black neighborhood in Oakland.
Despite perception, California has the same percentage of black residents as the state of Minnesota. A chilling 6%. But when Kamala Harris ran for Barbara Boxer’s senate seat in 2016, she was the front runner. At the state Democratic Party Convention, Harris won 78% of the votes when only 60% was needed.
When she entered the Senate race, Kamala Harris was the Attorney General of California and was responsible for the 2nd largest non-federal prison system in the United States with 136,000 inmates and 740 on death row. But like all political people and people in general, there were messy crumbs.
Her ex-boyfriend, Willie Brown, a powerful San Francisco Democrat, was bitterly despised or beloved, and Harris, who was the recipient of appointments, many believe because of Brown, was considered the beneficiary of nepotism. Like all women, she was saddled with the baggage that she didn’t belong, she didn’t earn what she had received, she had been granted privileges men had to work much harder for. But Kamala Harris was also spared. She was never denounced in quite the same way as Representative Maxine Waters, or labeled with the slander, “too black.”
When she won her Senate race, political observers took notice. California is a state of white and Latino voters. San Francisco and Los Angeles are liberal cities. San Diego is conservative. And the rest of the state is agricultural and Republican. That Kamala Harris was overwhelming elected provided insight on her national appeal.
Voters in a 40% Latino state weren’t bothered by her race. Her willingness to confront the racist, the bully, the liar and the criminal, and to deny them social capital and parity, is particularly soothing. She has protective instincts and is like an older sister who promises to beat up the boyfriend who hurts us in the dark. Women just respond to her.
But will they vote for her for President?
“When we look at where we are at this moment in the history of this country, I think our founders gave us the right charge. We are all here because we stand on other people’s shoulders. My mother taught us long ago, she would say to me ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do things, but make sure you are not the last.’ ”
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Black women are tribal and vote hyper-aware of the sister next to them, understanding when one of us rises, all of us do. White women vote individually and often with sabotage in mind while considering men and their approval. These are the gender stairs the 54-year old Kamala Harris must traffic and remain fluent in but unlike Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris isn’t the recipient of lopsided bitterness, spite, and shallow name calling.
Kamala Harris enters the presidential race with the energy of the young and untested, new to the national stage, experienced in liberal California but a neophyte elsewhere. In Washington, she has put people on notice with her prosecutorial style and her march for and towards justice. She is going to speak truth to power- and in double-time so beware. She believes in Medicare for all, and supports policy on behalf of immigrants, those similar to her parents who desire a better life for their family. Although she doesn’t have children, she herself was the product of divorce. When marriages end, women and children have their lives changed. There are small cruelties that damage the needle. Kamala’s mother moved to Canada for work and so Kamala left Oakland and went to high school in Montreal.
________________________
Is she more relatable than Hillary? Because voting is a humanistic exercise, we more often than not vote for people we like, and for people we think are like us, and people we’d like to spend an hour with, as much as we vote for policy and programs and platforms.
“Senator Harris has an advantage, but it would be a mistake for her campaign to assume that advantage will take her over the finish line. She will need to work, just like all the other candidates” warned Gilda Cobb-Hunter, Democratic state representative from Orangeburg, South Carolina, and the first black woman to represent the county of Orangeburg in the state house.
Kamala Harris is bilingual, as comfortable with Hindu as she is in a Baptist church singing in the choir. Multiethnicity is second nature to her, just as whiteness is second nature to the many women she is asking to vote for her, and, who voted for Trump. Her husband is a Jewish white man. Is that enough to sway some? Or, turn others off?
Very few white women- even the ones who say they are liberal- voted for Stacy Abrams when she was running for Governor of Georgia. There is still a fragile, somewhat paranoid boundary between black women and white women, a cynical mistrust.
Earlier in the month, Dianne Feinstein publicly and proudly announced she would cast her vote, when the time came, for Joe Biden, who has not officially announced his candidacy for president. The optics played like a back stab to Kamala Harris, who, at the time, had not officially announced her candidacy either, but everyone knew it was coming. It forced the Feinstein camp to came out later with a fasle and accommodating gush. “Oh, I love Kamala.”
She didn’t love her in 2004. The then District Attorney Kamala Harris pulled the death penalty off the table as her office prosecuted David Hill for the AK-47 murder of San Francisco Police Officer Isaac Espinoza. (He was murdered the day before Easter). Harris was publicly condemned for saving one life while mourning another. At Espinoza’s funeral, Dianne Feinstein stood in the pulpit and demanded that Kamala Harris change her mind. 2,000 mourners were in attendance. They gave Feinstein a standing, roaring ovation as she publicly shamed the District Attorney sitting in the front row. For many, a public stoning like Feinstein gave Harris, a senator powerfully objecting to a city district attorney, would have made them quiver.
Kamala Harris didn’t blink at the demand despite the public swell of animosity towards her. She refused to give the death penalty, despite the brutality of the Espinoza murder.
The 29-year old Espinoza was just finishing his shift when he encountered Hill who appeared suspicious. Espinoza asked him to stop. Hill didn’t. He turned. He fired 14 rounds. Two hit Espinoza, one hit his partner. Three hours later, it was Easter Sunday. Isaac Espinoza was dead.
When Kamala Harris was running for district attorney she pledged she would not seek the death penalty. And so, she didn’t.
When she ran for re-election after the Espinoza uproar, Kamala Harris ran unopposed. She leaned on her accomplishments. The felony conviction rate rose to 67% and 85% for homicides. Drug dealers went to jail 75% of the time. But she was dogged by accusations of prosecutorial misconduct on her watch- and worse- a thinning of the moral line, that when prosecutors lie or they withhold evidence to get a conviction, the end justifies the means. Check her record: she fought a court order to release inmates because of prison overcrowding. She’s complicit in wealth-based incarceration and the new Jim Crow. Justice matters as long as her side benefits.
Last week, she tweeted “to the transgender community: you deserve to move through the world with the utmost respect and dignity. You are not alone. We fight with you.” Her past reveals a mixed LGBTQ advocacy. She created a Hate Crimes Unit when she was District Attorney. She chaired a conference on the gay-transgender panic defense which was used to justify murder of LGBTQ. But she opposed giving a trans prisoner funds for sex reassignment surgery on the specious argument that hormone therapy, which the state was already providing, was enough. Either she didn’t understand the gravity of sex reassignment surgery, or, she didn’t care.
In 2015, she created the Bureau of Children’s Justice to attack the systemic problems of foster care, trauma, and truancy (but no such bureau was created to explore and revise bail and sentencing inequality). A year later, she targeted Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer, charging him with pimping and accusing him of sex trafficking minors. After she became a Senator, the FBI, the U.S. Postal service, the IRS, the Department of Justice became involved and Ferrer pled guilty to facilitating prostitution and money laundering.
She announced she was running for president on MLK Day. Some objected. King was an advocate against the prosecutorial reaches her office was known for and for which she rarely apologized. Yes, she believes in law and order. But does she believe in mercy?
Stylistically, she makes men nervous. Her Senate colleagues tried to silence her on two separate occasions, annoyed by her prosecutorial questioning and her unyielding tone. The optics were damning. White men scolding her for the very thing California voters wanted her to do in Washington in the first place. Work for justice. Be aggressive. The irony of the moment, masculine arrogance denying female empowerment like a father hushes a temperamental child, was familiar and a reminder of why Kamala Harris was elected Senator two years ago.
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Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris share many a thing. Both are lawyers and are aggressive on the topic of justice. Both were senators representing large states. Both introduced and initiated pilot programs that benefited children. Both were devoted public servants their entire adult lives. But where the commonalities end is at a familiar feminist arc. Hillary failed the art of being a submissive woman on screen and was unlikable to a horde of many, and because of the buttons she pushed that veered far from nice, respectful, courteous, she was systematically and virulently attacked. She was a trigger point. Why don’t you like her? I don’t know. I just don’t.
Kamala Harris is new to the national political scene, too new to be beloved or despised, and young in this kind of political career. Whatever her platform fleshes out to be when we reach 2020, accusations that she was, in years past, a black woman who loved locking up her own people, will drag her candidacy into the dark mud. She has to explain her prosecutorial behavior and its effect on the black and brown while District Attorney of San Francisco for seven years and Attorney General of California for six years. Her black college (Howard University) and black sorority (Alpha Kappa Alpha) inclusion doesn’t excuse or redeem her. It’s not a rationalization for extreme imprisonment of people of color.
“I am not perfect. Lord knows I am not perfect. But I will always speak with decency and moral clarity and treat all people with dignity and respect.” It was a promise made in front of 20,000 supporters in Oakland.
But what is real, separate from the venality of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’ candidacy, is that ambitious women, competent women, confrontational women, smart women are forced into duplicity. They are required to be both the insider and the outsider, the feminine on Monday, and the aggressor on Tuesday. Asked to speak truth to power when power is misogynist or racist or rapist is one specific and brutally honest thing. Expecting to prioritize men and children first is another. In essence, be human and motherly and bestow empathy but be strategic and precise. Have soft edges. Or get dogged. Women are required to fulfill dreams men benefit from, to give in luxuriously, and then have the temerity to enjoy life as a monument. It reeks, I dare say, of contempt.
In the 24 hours after announcing her presidency, the Kamala Harris campaign raised $1.5 million. She already has a constituency. But where she has struggled in the past is her tendency to be forceful but cautious and in that way she is the opposite of the man she is trying to send back to New York and she is different from Hillary Clinton too.
A Kamala Harris candidacy means her progressive ideas are up for debate by the very people who sent Hillary Clinton to her ruin. Her niceness will be weighed and sorted just like her health policies will be judged and analyzed. Grading on the feminine curve as the media and voters like to do- even when they deny it- is a pathetic chauvinistic exercise. Hillary couldn’t pass that test and patriarchy won.
It’s the Kamala Harris challenge for the next fifteen months. Pick up the disaster of the Hillary Clinton election night while remembering these are urgent and outrageous times. Perception is reality more often than not. If voters think Kamala Harris can’t beat Trump, can’t get white women support, can’t explain her institutional support of mass incarceration, her candidacy will come to a screeching dying halt and she will be an anecdote, a trivia question, a face to a name of what happened when Kamala Harris wanted to be president. | https://celieandpearls.medium.com/is-kamala-harris-the-exception-be486da79ac8 | ['The Talented Tenth Review'] | 2019-01-29 05:36:31.551000+00:00 | ['2020 Presidential Race', 'California', 'Women In Politics', 'Black Women', 'Politics'] |
Piggyvest Review: Is it a scam, Everything You Need To Know | Credit: Piggyvest
Many of you might have heard of PiggyVest on the web or by word of mouth, well this is a complete guide on everything you need to know about PiggyVest, what it is, how can it help you, how can make money from it or is it just another online scam?
What is it?
Piggyvest (formally Piggybank) is basically a type of online bank. It started in January 2016 as Piggybank.ng; as an online savings and investment platform, and in April 2019 was renamed asPiggyVest. They are the largest online savings and investment platform in Nigeria and they boast of saving over a billion naira worth of customers money every month.
Piggyvest has been featured on a number of reputable platforms including Forbes and Techcrunch they also received the 2020 Users’ Choice Award as best Nigerian app built for Nigerians by Nigerians on Techpoint Africa.
What services do they offers?
They basically offer two services Savings and Investments. In Savings you can automatically save money and earn interest on your savings; and Investments where you invest in low to medium risk investment options and earn interest on your investments. See these services better explained.
Saving options
PiggyVest has five saving types: Piggybank Savings, SafeLock Savings, Target savings, Flex account savings and the Flex dollar savings. You can have any or all of these types of Saving options at once when you open an account.
Credit: Piggyvest
1.Piggybank Savings: This is the main savings account on PiggyVest, you can save automatically by setting up Autosave tor manually saving using QuickSave — more on that below. You get up to 8% interest per annum on the funds in your Piggybank Savings account. Interests are paid on the 1st of every new month into a separate kind of account, Flex account where could easily get access to it for free.
Although there are one major thing you need to know about the Piggybank savings account is that you cannot withdraw your fund anytime you like; you are given four days in a year where you can withdraw for free (March 31st, June 30th, September 30th, and December 31st) or you can set your own withdrawal date which must be at least three months after your last withdrawal. Withdrawals outside approved/set withdrawal days will cost 5% of the fund being withdrawn. Funds withdrawn are sent to your bank account.
2.SafeLock: This is like a fixed deposit account but on PiggyVest you get paid interest instantly to your Flex account once the SafeLock is activated. You can then withdraw the interests anytime you like. PiggyVest pays
- 6% per annum for savings between 10–30 days.
- 7% for savings between 31–60 days.
- 9% for savings between 61–90 days and;
- 10% for savings between 90 days-1 year;
- 12.5% for savings between 1 year-2 years;
- 26–36% for savings over 2 years.
A SafeLock account is an account where you can transfer money to from your Piggybank to earn a higher quick interest. Or if you need to set money aside so you cannot get access to it. All funds in a SafeLock account cannot be withdrawn until the set duration elapses then the funds are transferred to your Flex account.
PS: — You can have multiple SafeLock accounts set for different duration.
3. Target savings: As the name implies, this is a type of savings where you save for a particular goal it could be a car, house, wedding, vacation, event etc. You can even save as a group and invite a friend to save with you and money is deducted from them also. You can set how much and how often daily/weekly/monthly you want to save for the target. You still get paid 8% interest on your target savings paid in parts daily to your Flex account. You can have multiple targets.
4. Flex account: This is the account where all interests on Piggybank, SafeLock and Target savings account are paid and can be withdrawn from anytime without any charges. Also on withdrawal days for you Piggybank account when you withdraw, the money goes straight to your Flex account then you can use anytime.
5. Flex Dollar: This is a rather recent addition to the Piggyvest lineup, it gives you the opportunity to save fund in a stable currency like the US Dollar or the Euro. It is a good option since the value of the naira has been falling in recent times as at November 2020 exchange rate in parallel market was N500 to $1 (source). So to keep your wealth from taking a hit due to naira reducing value you could you consider investing in US Dollars or Euro.
P.S: Ensure you check the current exchange rates before you take this route in case the naira value may be appreciating also.
Note: All interest rates where taken as at December 2020.
Funding options
Before I mention funding options I should say that there are NO bank charges whatsoever for any payments on PiggyVest. Moving on there are two ways to fund your accounts
-AutoSave: This is their most advertised funding option on the platform where you set a particular amount to be deducted from your account either on a daily, weekly or monthly basis on any particular day or time you choose, maybe 6am every morning, 7pm every Sunday evening or 1st of every month.You can set a particular target that the money should get to maybe for a new car or a new house; or just let it be an automatic money saver for you.
PS:
-The money will be collect via your debit card, so you should get a valid debit card.
-In case you miss a day/week/month you will not be penalized or automatically charged for those period. It just continues as it where set but if you need to make up for it you can use QuickSave.
- you can start as low as N50 per day, N800 per week and N3000 per month.
-QuickSave: This is another saving option on PiggyVest where you manually save money into your Piggybank savings. Maybe you missed a day/week/month in your AutoSave target or you just don’t want monies to be automatically deducted from you account you can use this method to save on PiggyVest.
Investments options (Investify)
Investify is a PiggyVest feature which allows users to earn more on their savings by investing their Piggybank savings on pre-vetted, low to medium risk, primary and secondary investment opportunities. On PiggyVest you get 12–25% profit on investments and on maturity of the investment — usually between 6–12 months, you are paid both your capital and profit.
Credit: Piggyvest
PiggyVest assures that all investments on their platform are pre-vetted to ensure insurance against loss. On the investment page you can even see that all investments are insured by known insurance companies and depending on the type of investment, Capitals are refunded in case the investment fails or is met by an unexpected incident like flood, fire etc. But if you’re investing huge funds and want more protection on your investment then PiggyVest also has ‘PiggyVestExtra’ protection which guarantees insurance on your capital on investments.
How do I earn on PiggyVest?
You can earn on PiggyVest by these three ways.
1. Interest on savings: You earn 8% interests on funds in your Piggybank and Target savings and up to 12.5% on funds in a SafeLock. So let’s say you invest
N1 million in a SafeLock for 91 days (10% interest) = N100K interest.
Then maybe you have 5 SafeLocks worth N1 million each then in 90days you get
100 x 5 = 500K interest in 91 days.
Good returns for money that might have just been lying in your bank account.
2. Profit on Investments: If your looking for investments then you can get up to 24% profit on your investment paid with the capital after maturity of the investment.
3. Refer and earn: You could earn a N1000 SafeLock bonus for referring anyone to PiggyVest with your special link. The bonus can be withdrawn after your set SafeLock period elapses. In doing this the person referred also gets a N1000 SafeLock bonus which they can easily be redeemed by having at least N1000 in any PiggyVestsavings or investment products (Piggybank, SafeLock, Target savings and Investify). You can get your N1000 SafeLock bonus signing up with this link https://piggyvest.com/l/71256b4
Is PiggyVest for me?
- If your finding it hard purposely putting money away every week or month for savings then you should try out PiggyVest.
- If your looking for a way to save up for a particular goal or event and you want to do that seamlessly then PiggyVest comes in handy.
- Or if you’re looking to expand your investment Portfolio and get some money on your capital you can do that with PiggyVest.
Is PiggyVest a Scam
Definitely NOT! Far from it; infact, it is two great things
1. It is a great way for those battling with their savings to seamlessly without much consideration about it, you can set money to be deducted from your account every month as your monthly savings or however you like it; you also get interest on your savings.
2. It’s also a great way to earn some extra cash on funds which you might normally just leave in your bank account.
One might wonder how PiggyVest manages to pay interest on Savings with little to no charges on their platform. Well since PiggyVest is an ONLINE financial institution they have less overhead cost since they don’t have various branches to run and like most banks we know they might probably invest monies in their long term savings on businesses, agriculture, real estate etc and get profit back before the owner actually gets need of it.
PiggyVest asset manager AIICO is registered and licensed by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and all financial information are encrypted and stored to PCI DSS Level 1 complaint standards the highest possible ratings in the electronic payment processing industry and all information are transmitted through 256-bit HTTPS SSL connection.
PiggyVest can be accessed online or on the PiggyVest app for Android and iOS.
You can sign up and install the app by clicking here
I think I have mentioned every major thing to know, their User Interface is quite user friendly so you should be able to figure out anything not mentioned here on your own or click the link above for more information. | https://medium.com/@oghenekevwe-king/piggyvest-review-is-it-a-scam-everything-you-need-to-know-116862733481 | ['Oghenekevwe King'] | 2020-12-23 22:38:01.554000+00:00 | ['Piggyvest Review', 'Piggyvest', 'Nigeria', 'Is Piggyvest A Scam', 'Finance'] |
Late summer light show: We asked an astronomer about this week’s big Perseid meteor shower | To start, can you explain the basics of a meteor shower? What exactly is happening up in space when we watch a phenomenon such as Perseid?
What we’re seeing with the Perseid meteor shower (as with all other meteor showers) is the earth is passing through the trail of dust that was left behind by a comet at some time in the past. And since comet paths are looping through the inner solar system, Earth passes through them at the same time every year.
When a meteor shower occurs, you can see more meteors than you would on an ordinary night, [when] normally, you might see between 2–4 meteors per hour early in the evening, and maybe double that just before dawn. During a meteor shower—depending on which shower—you might see several dozen meteors per hour. For the Perseid meteor shower the typical average is usually given as 60–80 meteors per hour. Now, that is under ideal conditions, which means a moonless night, clear sky, away from city lights. This year is not ideal, because the moon will be almost full, so it’s light is going to wash the fainter meteors from view.
With that in mind, my understanding is that there is a range of days when this particular meteor shower can be seen?
Sure, because the moon is approaching full on the day of the peak [estimated to be August 12 to the 13th] it might be a good idea for people to watch a few nights before the peak, so say…starting on Friday or Saturday night. But usually it’s good to spend a couple of night’s watching, don’t just concentrate on one single night.
Do we know specifically which comet this meteor shower is derived from? And does the debris that causes these showers vary from different comets?
Yes, it is from a comet called Swift-Tuttle; named after its two main co-discoverers.
The materials may vary a little bit. These are tiny particles — it could be silicate material, or rock or tiny bits of metal. Because they are liberated by comets they are most commonly bits of rock that are the size of a grain of sand or a grain of rice. And they’re actually not falling through the atmosphere, but Earth is moving into them. Earth moves through its orbit at about 66,000 mph, so when it runs into a stream of dust particles that are just sitting out there, these particles find themselves smashing through the atmosphere at 66,000 mph. And depending on the direction the comet’s path is coming from, the speed of the meteor particles might even vary from that.
There are some meteors that are catching up to Earth and so they don’t move that fast through the atmosphere. Others are slamming into Earth’s orbit head-on, so they might be moving faster. The Perseid meteors, in particular, are typically said to be moving twice as fast, so the figure that is often given is around 60 kilometers per second..and that’s fast enough to heat up the particles as they slam through the atmosphere. And they can get up to a couple thousand degrees, which causes that streak of light that you see in the sky. | https://thesixfifty.com/silicon-valley-stargazing-we-asked-an-astronomer-about-this-weeks-big-perseid-meteor-shower-c2f2f0bdea9c | ['Charles Russo'] | 2021-08-12 18:13:56.276000+00:00 | ['Meteor', 'Astronomy', 'Space', 'California', 'Space Exploration'] |
How I made a Neural Net that generated $100/Hour. | So how can we do predictions if factors such as News and People’s Emotions are involved?
The idea behind it is simple. Instead of going for longer time scales such as a week or even months, the idea here is to do “High Frequency Intraday Trades” i.e., doing quick trades in a matter of mere seconds or minutes.
The model I have created here tries to predict price movements for every minute so that the model’s performance doesn’t drop due to any news based uncertainties. The model serves as a trend predictor/follower instead of being the entity that sees the future of a stock after 1–5 years or months. The good thing about the model is that it doesn’t follow the market noises, and it does make steady decisions by a trained Neural Networks, so the worst case scenario will be that the model executing 30 trades in a span of 1 Hour resulting in huge Brokerage/Transactional charges.
The features I have used here is the stock’s Opening Price in a time window of 5 units i.e., 5 minutes here for training using a technique called Sliding window.
Sliding Window Technique
After a few Preprocessing techniques, data is fed into an LSTM (Long Short Term Memory) network to predict the outcome of the next minute.
For now the idea I have explained above is still in development phase, and the model generates $100 an hour on a virtual environment where live ticks are fed into the network for predictions. The live ticks data was used from yfinance and I considered to use BTC-USD just for its volatility. Some of the results generated,
Model Predicting on real-time data
Model Metrics | https://medium.com/@cyber-noob/how-i-made-a-neural-net-that-generated-100-a-day-ccaf9eca3948 | [] | 2020-12-14 08:23:54.841000+00:00 | ['Predictions', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Algorithmic Trading', 'Bitcoin', 'Neural Networks'] |
I am buying a liability — Agreement of Sale — Part 1 | In this series, I have been talking about my purchase of a property. (Which is a liability for me). The first two parts of the series are published which you can read here. 👇
Now, after deciding that I want to buy a property and finalizing a property, price negotiation, etc., the next step is to get the agreement of Sale registered. In this story, I will be sharing all the research that I did for the same and what the process was like for me. (My place of purchase being Karnataka, India). This is part 1 of 2. The main reason I decided to split it into two stories because it was getting to long and I wanted to keep the read times short.
What is Agreement of Sale?
This is the first document which needs to be registered in order to officiate the sale of a property. As the name says, this document is an agreement between two parties that a property will be sold. It has not been sold yet, just agreed that it will be sold in future when the conditions specified in the agreement are met. This is an assurance that the seller will sell the property on receiving the funds and the buyer will buy the property when it the construction is finished.
This document also prohibits the seller to sell the property to someone else whereas if only the token amount was paid and the Agreement of Sale was not registered, then the seller technically can sell the property to someone else. This is a good thing for buyer as the seller cannot go back from this deal. But, at the same time. If the Agreement of Sale is done, then the token money given by the buyer will be forfeited in case the buyer refuses to buy the property. This is a good thing for the seller.
So basically, this document gives peace of mind to both the seller and the buyer that the sale will happen in the future. After getting the Agreement of Sale registered, now I am peaceful that the property will be mine. (It is technically not yet mine as the Sale deed has not been executed yet).
Things to Check in this document
This is a very long document. (For me, it was roughly 55 pages of legal-technical language). This document was prepared by the builder and I found that most of the times, it is prepared by the builders as they have a strong legal team and wants things in their favours even if the deal goes south. Still, I checked the following things and made sure that the Agreement was fair enough for me as well. Now, obviously this will change from builder to builder and from property to property based on who creates the document, but for me I checked these things in the 52 pages long fine print.
Details of both the parties
This includes checking the name, addresses and identifiable information (Like Aadhaar Number, PAN Number, etc). For builders, this maybe the representative who might hold POA (Power of Attorney) to sell the property on behalf of the builders. This is to ensure that both the parties are who they claim to be.
Description of the property
This involves checking the size, dimension as well as location of the property. Generally a map is also included in the Agreement which shows the location of that specific property with respect to the whole project. This might also include a brief description of things which are on each side of the property. Checking this ensures that I am getting the property I paid for.
Earnest (Token) money information
Also referred to as Advance Payment, Blocking Amount, Booking Amount, etc. This is the money paid upfront to make the booking and block the property. Generally this is 10% of the Total Property Value (sometimes also referred to as Total Sale Value). It is to note that this excludes the GST that is paid on the property as that goes to the government. I also checked what would happen if the deal was to be backed off from my side and as expected, that would be forfieted.
Payment schedule
Since only 10% of the total property value is paid to the builders, I need to pay the rest of the amount. In my case the builders have given a 12 month payment schedule with payments being due every quarter. So, I checked the amounts and timeline. I also checked the bill generation date and the bill due date. So, on the generation date, the builders will generate the bill and send it to me and then I will have a couple of weeks to make the payment. If I don’t pay within those couple of weeks (defined in the due date), I will be charged penalties.
Penalties on Late Payment
Now, although I don’t plan to miss any of my payments, I still would check this part of the agreement to get an idea what territory I am getting into. For my case, teh builders were following SBI standard interest rates with additional 2.5% interest on that. I also checked the charges on dishonouring of check or non payment as well. It was pretty standard stuff.
Posession Date
This is important. This is the date before which the sale deed has to get executed. So, as a buyer, this date ensures that I will get the property before this date. Now, obviously this is a couple of years after what the builders have promised, but then this is considering any issues that might arise during the construction and might delay the project (like COVID-19). So, to be on the safe side, builders put buffer time on the officially promised posession date.
Penalties on Late Posession
Now just like if I make late payments I have to pay a fine to the developers. Similarly, if the developers delay the handover beyond the promised posession date, they will have to pay penalties to me. This is not something I expect, but again. It is good to know what will happen in a ‘What if?’ kind of a situation. | https://medium.com/@aayusharyan/i-am-buying-a-liability-agreement-of-sale-part-1-4c1c82174ea4 | ['Aayush Sinha'] | 2021-08-27 11:32:51.645000+00:00 | ['Property', 'Personal Finance', 'Legal', 'India', 'Money'] |
Autonomous Vehicle Development — A QA Perspective | “1872 — George Brayton invents the first commercial liquid-fuelled internal combustion engine”
“1876 — Nikolaus Otto, along with Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach, patents the compressed charge, four-cycle engine”
“1879 — Karl Benz patents a reliable two-stroke gas engine”
Brayton, Otto and Benz would be surprised looking at today’s regular passenger vehicles. A feature as simple as the ability to see in the dark was a milestone to be dreamed about back in their times. Created just to aid our travel woes, cars have become an integral part of our lives now with the ability to drive themselves or even deliver pizza, thanks to the latest Ford and Domino’s venture.
The increased power of computers over the past decades has led to immense advancements in terms of safety, efficiency and ease of use of most of the human indulged luxuries. Automotive technology, too, has progressed at an incredible rate. With the introduction of autonomous vehicles in all of our lives, the very aspect of travelling will be transformed into a much more advanced version of what we have now. We are likely to see changes within the next few years that are as dramatic as the difference between a Model T and a modern Porsche 911.
The self driving cars on entering the present society will remove the need for constant human interaction, monitoring and control. Now, if you live in Stuttgart and plan a road-trip to Paris with your friends, you’ll need to drive a minimum of 6 hours and what’s worse is that the route is plagued with traffic issues and presents little interest. A journey like this in a driverless car would allow all the friends the time to enjoy each other’s company rather than needing to concentrate on driving. There would be time to watch films, play games, interact or even sleep, letting the vehicle and its on-board systems take the strain.
True, a few of us enjoy driving but we have to accept the fact that the roads will become much safer. Over ninety percent accidents caused are recorded to be due to human error. Introduce a qualified and certified autonomous driving system and remove the human factor from the equation, you’ve got yourself an infallible digital system to control the vehicle within defined parameters. In the near future, these vehicles will be further enhanced by city networks and sensors, not only will accidents be a rarity, speeding and parking fines will be a thing of the past too. Not to mention the fact that alcohol will no longer present an issue for the driver or other road users.
What’s more? The very need for vehicle ownership may even become redundant. Rather than individuals or families owning vehicles that are only used for relatively short or for inefficient journeys, cars could be in-use and available 24/7. This would make them more economical and lower their environmental impact.
These vehicles, being managed by complex software and high-powered computers will also lead to a significant reduction in energy consumption by optimising driving efficiency. Moreover, electric cars are lowering the reliance upon fossil fuels causing rapid advances in renewable energy and battery technology. Reliable solar powered cars with a decent range are even on the horizon.
The replacement of people in vehicles by machines has the potential to cause massive workforce realignment. The insurance industry will have to adapt its stance as the driver is removed from the responsibility equation. There is also the cultural impact to consider, similar impacts were seen with the introduction of electronically captured bio-metrics with people initially perceiving the technology as highly suspicious and not to be trusted. Culturally, another result could be that cars will likely become less of a personal, aspirational commodity and much more of a functional one, a fact that could have sizeable effects on the automotive industry impacting sales figures, turnover and profits.
However, we are getting ahead of ourselves, Standards for Safety are still in development and will no doubt involve development of concepts outlined in ISO 26262 with systems level testing at a level that exceeds the current highest automotive safety integrity level (ASIL D). Safety criticality is the primary concern here. If autonomous vehicles are proven to be safe, drivers and society will have to learn to trust them. The only way to reach that point and the acceptance of “proven infallibility” is through thorough testing of the product before it reaches the market. Using advanced techniques to demonstrate safety, according to industry best practice will become more necessary than ever. Techniques such as static analysis and dynamic testing, including white box testing, structural code coverage, requirements-based testing, model based testing and regression testing will be an important part of the development toolkits for these technologies.
Not that long ago, a future of driverless cars was pure science-fiction rather than the “almost here tech”. In fact, the introduction of “driverless tech” is happening right now in every new car we see, ABS, Traction Control, Self-Parking, Night Vision, Lane Assist Control and Radar are all essentially the slow introduction of technologies that we will take for granted in the driverless cars of the future!
Driverless vehicles are undoubtedly the future for land-based travel. Safety will be of the utmost importance and the need for ever greater efficiency, driven by environmental concerns may be one of the key drivers.
Before we reach that point, the millions of lines of code required for vehicle autonomy, not to mention the potential for city grids and interaction with Smart Cities, will require immense software testing at the very highest levels of integrity and safety criticality. | https://medium.com/@millennial-talks/autonomous-vehicle-development-a-qa-perspective-8ac0697201e4 | ['Millennial Talks'] | 2020-10-12 14:50:28.895000+00:00 | ['Software Testing', 'Autonomous Cars Market', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Self Driving Vehicles', 'Quality Assurance'] |
The History Behind: The Antikythera Mechanism | Investigations into the problematic piece were dropped, the device primarily ignored and written off until 1951 when the eminent British physicist and historian of science Derek John de Solla Price became interested in what the discovery had actually been. Price and the Greek nuclear physicist Charalampos Karakalos published an extensive paper in 1974 under the title Gears from the Greeks: The Antikythera Mechanism, a Calendar Computer from c. 80 BC. The comprehensive 70-page work included x-rays and gamma-ray images of the device and laid out how it may have worked. Price was the first to conclude that the Antikythera Mechanism had been used to predict the position of planets and stars dependent on the month. He stated that the main gear would move and represented the calendar year, this, in turn, would move the smaller cogs which represented the planets, sun and moon. With the user providing input and the clockwork mechanism making a calculation to give an output, the device could legitimately be considered a basic computer.
“The mechanism is like a great astronomical clock … or like a modern analogue computer which uses mechanical parts to save tedious calculation.” Derek J. de Solla Price, Scientific American
The mechanism had initially been recovered in a single heavily encrusted piece, soon breaking into three and, since, many more as smaller bits have fallen off through handling and cleaning. Other parts of the device were later found on the sea bed during an expedition by the famed French diver Jacques Cousteau. There are overall 83 known surviving parts with seven of those being mechanically significant. These parts contain the majority of the device’s mechanism and inscription. There are also sixteen smaller parts to the device which have incomplete engravings.
Reconstruction | Moravec, Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The device was encased in wood and had doors, inscriptions on the back acting as an instruction manual of sorts. Inside the device, there is a front face and a rear face, with internal clockwork gears working an adjustable mechanism controlled by a hand crank. Adjusting the device would allow the user to predict astronomical positions and solar events such as eclipses decades in advance. The 30+ gears of the machine would follow the movements of the moon and sun through the zodiac, even modelling the moon’s orbit.
Knowledge of the technology used to create the Antikythera Mechanism mechanism was lost. Despite similar devices appearing during the Islamic golden age, nothing of such complexity would be made again until the invention of the astronomical clock in the fourteenth century. However, there is evidence that the devices may not have been all that rare in Ancient Greece.
Writing in the first century BC, the famed Roman statesman Cicero mentioned two such machines that predicted the movement of celestial bodies. Cicero said that these mechanisms were built by the scientist Archimedes and brought to Rome by General Marcus Claudius Marcellus following the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC. Marcellus had taken the device with him, reportedly being saddened by the death of Archimedes whom he’d held in the highest regard. The plunder then became a family heirloom and was still in existence at the time of Cicero’s writing.
Antikythera mechanism right sideview, showing the inner worings of the device, Thessaloniki Technology Museum | Gts-tg, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The two devices in Roman hands were said to be very different, one described as somewhat crude-looking compared to a second more ornate form. Perhaps indicating either a level of development or that unique versions of the device existed for the more affluent. The more elaborate form of the machine had been deposited at Rome’s Temple of Virtue by Marcellus. The links to Archimedes have been reinforced by later Roman writers such as Lactantius, Claudian, and Proclus. One of the last great Greek mathematicians of antiquity Pappus of Alexandria said that Archimedes had written extensively on the subject of the machines, penning a manuscript by the name of On Sphere-Making. Sadly this is now lost. Other documents do survive, however, with some even including drawings of such mechanisms and instructions on how they worked.
One of these devices was the odometer, the modern version of which is an essential component of any car dashboard. The original invention was used by the ancient Romans to place their famous mile markers alongside Roman roads. While the first descriptions of the device came from Vitruvius around 27 BC, the odometer has been attributed to Archimedes himself over 200 years prior. When scientists attempted to build the device depicted in the images, it failed to work until the shown square gears were replaced by the cogs of the type found in the Antikythera Mechanism, leading to speculation that the mechanism and Archimedes are linked.
Tying with the reports from Cicero, it seems that the Antikythera Mechanism may well have been invented by Archimedes of Syracuse. However, it could not possibly being one of the devices mentioned, with both stated to exist in Rome long after his death. Besides the two devices already highlighted, Cicero also identifies a third in production by his friend Posidonius, again, which can’t have been the artefact found in 1901. This then leads to a conclusion that the devices were not as uncommon as perhaps initially thought, with at least four known to exist and possibly many more.
The technology of Ancient Greece and Rome was seemingly lost for centuries following the conquest of Greece by Rome in 146 BC and then subsequently the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Similar technology would appear again, however, in the Byzantine Empire before flourishing in the Islamic World. In the 9th century, the Caliph of Baghdad commissioned the Banū Mūsā brothers, both noted scholars, to write the Book of Ingenious Devices, an extensive illustrated work on technical devices, amazingly including automata. The brothers were working at the legendary Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) where Islamic scholars poured over ancient Greek and Roman texts, largely forgotten and ignored in the West. The Banū Mūsā brothers described all manner of devices that would have been considered wonders in 9th century Europe such as automatic controlling systems and feedback controllers. Other automata included fountains, musical instruments and automated cranks.
“Nothing like this instrument is preserved elsewhere. Nothing comparable to it is known from any ancient scientific text or literary allusion. It is a bit frightening, to know that just before the fall of their great civilization the ancient Greeks had come so close to our age, not only in their thought but also in their scientific technology.” Derek J. de Solla Price
There is a tendency in the to believe that computers, automata and other modern marvels are the work solely of Britain or the United States, that our age alone is the first to see technological innovation. Yet, this is far from the truth. While much of the world was in darkness, Rome and Greece were making spectacular advances in computation and sciences such as astronomy. While Europe was fighting off Vikings, the Islamic world was deep in study, reviving these ancient technologies and adding their own modifications and advancements. Eventually, these theories of science and philosophy would drift into the West during the enlightenment, the dark ages that had covered Europe following the fall of Rome finally being overcome.
The Antikythera Mechanism stands as a symbol of what was lost with that fall and equally what might have been possible had Greece and Rome continued to thrive. The Caliphs of Baghdad knew that these ancient empires had much to tell us and that remains true even today, with much left undiscovered about the real power and technology of philosophers, thinkers and scholars such as Archimedes, Hipparchus and hundreds more besides. | https://medium.com/the-mystery-box/the-history-behind-the-antikythera-mechanism-4ca6240146d5 | ['Michael East'] | 2020-12-07 15:23:57.978000+00:00 | ['Archaeology', 'History', 'Ancient History', 'Technology', 'Science'] |
Sports Betting Research Will Become Easier When Blockchain is Adopted | Modern sports betting is considered a grind since the average research time required to even flirt with being a successful bettor has increased exponentially in recent years. Simply put, there is too much data to analyze without computers. Common bettors can only realistically make decisions using slivers of data of the larger total state of global sports information.
When I was a kid in the 80’s, sports betting data was collected from newspapers. My dad and his friends would have the odds, a box score of yesterdays game and their collective group opinions gathered from watching games at home.
In 2018, we have market state and game state data that can be accessed on the fly. Bookmakers have this data as well, but just at an asymmetric scale and speed compared to the average bettor.
From 2019 onward, the blockchain will start to take over as the medium for storing, retrieval and monetizing valuable sports betting data. As the world opens up to transparent and integrity protecting distributed ledgers, sports data usage will proliferate like never before. Data yearns to be free. | https://medium.com/fansunite/sports-betting-research-will-become-easier-when-blockchain-is-adopted-6a4e1754915b | [] | 2018-10-04 22:00:37.346000+00:00 | ['Data', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Sports Betting', 'Blockchain'] |
Amber Fort | Our next stop was one of the most beautiful forts in the state of Rajasthan, if not all of India, called Amber Fort (known locally as Amer Fort). The city of Amer gained prominence as the capital of the Kachhwaha Rajputs, a formidable clan of the ruling warrior class, from 1037 AD to 1727 AD, after which Maharaja Jai Singh II (the man who built Jantar Mantar) moved the capital 11 km southwest to Jaipur.
The Kachhwaha clan used marriage as a form of diplomacy, which they seem to have handled very well. Noticing the rise in wealth and power of the Mughal Emperors in Delhi, Agra, and Fatehpur Sikiri, the Kachhwahas ensured strong ties with the Mughals through marriage and military support. War booty contributed to massive wealth for the local Maharajas (kings). Maharaja Man Singh, the Rajput (warrior ruling class) commander of Mughal Emperor Akbar’s army (remember him from Fatehpur Sikiri and Agra Fort), began construction of Amber Fort in 1592.
Because the Kachhwahas were strictly Hindu and the Mughals strictly Muslim, the resulting architecture of Amber Fort is a unique blend of both architectural styles.
A corner of the courtyard surrounded by the 12 queens’ chambers
The Maharaja here would have 12 queens and many mistresses. Each queen lived in a separate room around the courtyard shown above. Secret passages in the walls behind allowed the Maharaja to travel freely throughout the palace and into each of the queens’ chambers in secrecy. Carvings of Kama Sutra still adorn the molding in some of the queens’ chambers. Although the Maharaja likely had dozens of children, only his first son was attributed to him.
Jaigarh Fort standing watch over Amer
I believe no invading force ever entered Amer to challenge the Kachhwahas, which was probably a good decision. The town of Amer is surrounded on most sides by steep, rocky mountains. A massive wall that resembles the Great Wall of China runs up and down the ridges of the mountains and is easily visible from miles away. The Amber Fort is halfway up one of the highest mountains and is directly downhill from Jaigarh Fort. Jaigarh serves as a massive citadel that overlooks and protects the entire town, wall complex, and Amber Fort below.
View into the valley from Jaigarh Fort
Jai Van Cannon
Situated on the highest point in Jaigarh Fort is Jai Van, the largest cannon on wheels in the world. Weighing in at 50 tons and with a barrel length of just more than 20 ft, Jai Van could use 220 lbs of gun powder to launch a massive cannonball over 22 miles. Impressive distance, but I am skeptical of the accuracy. Four elephants were required to move it into firing position.
The Maharajas used elephants to move up and down the steep paths as well as power to move supplies and military equipment. Elephants are still the luxurious way to enter the fort. However, each elephant is only allowed five trips up to the fort each day before it is taken home, fed, and given rest. The elephants are also rested in the middle of the day when the sun is highest in the sky. Although we did not get the chance to ride to the top, our tour guide took us to one of the ‘stables,’ for lack of a better word, where we were able to play with the elephants.
Their skin is tough and hair like cactus needles, albeit not as sharp or hard. Their eyes can almost talk. This elephant was eating as I stood under his trunk, which contributed to my laughter. Standing so close to a chewing mouth that looked like it could take my head off in one bite felt a bit strange.
We also did some shopping in Amer at a huge fixed-price store that I actually enjoyed shopping at. In preparation for the wedding this weekend, I bought this hand-embroidered kurta pajama, silk scarf, and pair of camel-skin jooties with the curly pointed toes straight out of Aladdin. | https://medium.com/squalor-to-scholar/amber-fort-48c0000278f0 | ['John Schupbach'] | 2017-06-27 15:09:51.471000+00:00 | ['India', 'Jaipur', 'Travel'] |
How to Change Your Brain In Your 20s (Despite Everything) | We’ve all laughed about going crazy from isolation. “My last braincell,” “smooth brain,” “brain worms,” etc., popped up a lot. As ever, humor copes with fear.
Legitimate fears, in a year of lockdown limbo.
Early on in the pandemic — mindlessly playing a Nintendo Switch through government announcements of stricter lockdowns, more death — I was worried about regressing to a teenager. Getting dumber, forgetting words, how to socialize, losing independence as a young adult, or having my mental well-being eroded in lockdown.
Instead, my brain genuinely feels more peaceful in December 2020 than in December 2019. I know — I’m surprised too.
It didn’t happen by magic. There is no magical immunity to being affected by COVID-19 this year.
Just knowledge, a slow adjustment process, and effort.
Most of all, effort around answering one question:
What habits can we establish to beat the mental drain of a pandemic and still grow as people?
If a Psychology degree doesn’t come in handy when experiencing a globe-wide traumatic event: when would it, right?
Here are some simple, condensed insights from Psychology & Neuroscience to answer that question. They’ve reassured me that my brain isn’t turning into a puddle and helped me like mental floss. I hope they can do the same for you.
No more brain worms. | https://medium.com/the-post-grad-survival-guide/how-to-change-your-brain-in-your-20s-despite-everything-5400d0d2a623 | ['Hannah Davies'] | 2020-12-15 16:58:59.936000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Growing Up', 'Neuroscience', 'Mental Health', 'Psychology'] |
A Sack of Christmas Books | Looking for some more holiday-themed books to read over your Christmas break? Take a look at these!
Dog-Free Dinner
This holiday short is only available through my website or by picking up Auntie Clem’s Bakery 1–12
Vic is looking forward to Christmas with her new Bald Eagles Falls family. Erin — not so much. But she wants to make it a special day for Vic.
An unexpected turn in events changes all of their carefully-laid plans.
This Christmas short, part of the Auntie Clem’s Bakery series, is only available through my website. The series — and your holiday — won’t be complete without it.
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Santa Shortbread
Somebody is stealing Christmas gifts from the Bald Eagle Falls children. At the rate that presents are disappearing, there soon won’t be a gift left in Whoville. Err, Bald Eagle Falls.
Gluten-free baker Erin Price and her friends are on the case to try to unmask the Grinch and bring him to justice, and toys to the children. But time is not on their side. Soon it will be Christmas Eve — will the winner be the Grinch or Santa?
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Delusions of the Past
What kind of a monster poisons a psychic’s cat?
When Starlight first fell ill, Reg thought that she was the cause of it. She should have been watching him more carefully. She should have found out about household plants and chemicals that could hurt her familiar. She was clearly a negligent owner.
But it soon becomes clear that there is some darker force at work, and Reg is going to need all of her resources to find the culprit before it is too late if she is to have any chance of saving her furry companion’s life.
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If you are looking for something grittier that is set around Christmas, though not Christmas themed, have a look at these:
She Wore Mourning
A dead child.
A mother deep in mourning.
Private Investigator Zachary Goldman’s life isn’t all roses, but he tries to put his own shattered life behind him to investigate the death of five-year-old Declan Bond.
Declan’s death has been ruled an accident, but his grandmother thinks there is more to it. She fears Declan’s mother will not be able to find peace until Zachary can give them an answer once and for all.
But as Zachary digs into the circumstances surrounding Declan’s death, he finds that all is not as it seems, and somebody doesn’t want him to find the truth.
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He Was Walking Alone
He met with tragedy.
Richard Harding was walking alone when he was struck by a vehicle and died.
A tragic accident that was no one’s fault.
But if that was so, then why was his girlfriend so sure that it was intentional homicide?
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And more
Here are some other authors whose books you might enjoy!
The Secret Santa Mystery
A Secret Santa–with a secret!
Security expert for a British bank by day, horse trainer at night, Izzy Paterson is a multi-tasking, dressage-riding computer whiz with an addiction to strong coffee and a penchant for CSI on Netflix. So when the Secret Santa at her office Christmas party hands her a perplexing riddle, she just can’t ignore the mystery.
Penned by a modern-day Robin Hood, the anonymous rhyme hints at financial misconduct that could put the future of everyone at her work in danger.
Despite herself, Izzy is drawn into solving the puzzle, delving into the furthest reaches of the internet in her quest to track down the mysterious wrongdoer. Can she solve the mystery before the company implodes, or before her adversary takes things from the virtual to the physical–and still get home to Scotland in time for Christmas?
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The Case of the Black Tulips
There’s a new detective duo in Victorian London…
When Katherine Demeray opens an unsigned letter addressed to her missing father, she is drawn into a quest to find the terrified letter-writer and learn the secret of the black tulips.
Struggling to support herself after her father’s disappearance, Katherine has neither time nor money to solve the mystery alone. She has no choice but to seek help from a woman she has only just met; awkward socialite Connie Swift.
As the letters become increasingly frantic, this unlikely team of amateur detectives must learn to work together, while struggling to navigate the rigid rules of Victorian propriety, their families’ expectations, and the complicating interference of men.
Confronting danger as they venture into new and frightening territory, Katherine and Connie risk arrest, exposure, and even their reputations to solve the Case of the Black Tulips.
$0.99
Sweets and Santa
Christmas mystery, magic, and matchmaking.
It’s Joanie’s first Christmas as a bakery owner, and although her recipes are perfect, her holiday window decorating skills leave something to be desired.
As items around town disappear, the spirit of the season gets overshadowed. Rumors swirl as residents speculate whodunnit. And when one of the missing pieces is an engagement ring last seen in her shop, Joanie’s reputation as a baker and matchmaker is put in jeopardy.
Joanie thought her new town was safe, but is it? Is it all a prank, or tied to the Christmas gnomes that get moved each night, or is something more sinister going on?
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The Case of the Snow White Lady
There is no such thing as a vampire … or is there?
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are summoned to Dartmoor by an old schoolfriend of Watson’s, Bill Holcombe. His sixteen year old daughter Amelia, who died a month previously, has been seen wandering the village at night. Witnesses swear that she catches animals and sucks their blood. The whole neighbourhood fears the ‘Snow-White Lady’, and Holcombe is desperate to prove she is not a vampire.
The great detective’s famous scepticism is put to the test in a mystery where boundaries blur between the living and the dead…
FREE
Seaglass Christmas
Long before Elm Sunday became a powerful sea priestess, she was the world’s greatest kid detective.
Eight-year-old Mercy-Faith “Elm” Sunday loves mysteries and now she has one. But if Santa and her parents didn’t send her the rare seaglass, who did?
Welcome to Little Blessing, the charming seaside town in New England where preparations are underway for the annual holiday events. Despite a year of behaving badly, Elm has visions of sugarplums and a truckload of presents under the tree. The Brownie scout is also determined to earn her “Philanthropist” badge and solve the “mystery of the seaglass” before Christmas.
Accompanied by her nemesis Snow Whitedove Smith, Elm learns about a mythical shipwrecked treasure. If she finds it, she will be richly rewarded, earning the admiration of everyone in town. Unfortunately, Elm’s not the only one looking for it — and the investigation is getting dangerous!
GET IT NOW
Murder at the Playgroup
Pippa Parker never wanted to move to the chocolate-box village of Much Gadding in the first place. When she meets the locals, she’s absolutely sure. There’s just one problem; she’s 8 months pregnant.
The village is turned upside down when Barbara Hamilton, pillar of the community, is found dead at Gadding Goslings playgroup. No one could have murdered her except the people who were there. The police suspect all of them, including Pippa herself…
With a baby due any minute, and hampered by her toddler son, can Pippa unmask the murderer? Will Much Gadding return to normal? And does anyone in Much Gadding even know what normal is?
FREE
Santa Got Run Over by a Vampire
Father Christmas has just been damned to darkness.
Jane Devereux is adjusting to her new life as a nocturne fabulously. She runs the most popular nightclub in the French Quarter and is married to the hottest vampire in New Orleans.
When she accidentally runs over Santa Claus and has to turn him into a vampire to save him, her perfect undead life begins to crumble like a week-old sugar cookie.
Whoops.
Jane has three days to teach Santa the ways of the vampire and get him back to the North Pole in time for Christmas Eve.
Oh, and if that’s not stressful enough, her dad is coming for Christmas.
And he doesn’t know she’s a vampire.
Or that she’s married.
Double whoops.
CHECK IT OUT | https://medium.com/@pdworkmanauthor/a-sack-of-christmas-books-e6ae9ed160b8 | ['P.D. Workman'] | 2020-12-25 03:35:34.147000+00:00 | ['Books', 'Mystery', 'Christmas', 'Holiday', 'Reading'] |
“Army of One” Film Review | Ellen Hollman shines as the titular 75th Ranger Division 1st Lieutenant Brenner Baker. Army of One, directed by Stephen Durham from a story co-written with Hollman, Mary Ann Barnes, and David Dittlinger, revolves around Hollman’s military trained character.
Deep in the Alabama’s backwoods, camping with husband Dillion, Brenner stumbles upon an illegal drug and gun storage compound. Before they can flee, after being painfully interrogated, Dillion is killed.
There is a plausibility to the cartel goons, not too bright, which points to them being overly confident. We can see this in the way they, without giving it a second thought, leaving Brenner for dead. It doesn’t occur to them Brenner might not actually be dead. One should seriously NEVER underestimate a 75th Ranger Division trained soldier.
Image Credit: IMDb.com
Brenner, seeking revenge on the goons that killed her husband, goes on a killing mission carving up everyone in her path until there’s only one person left standing.
Hollman, further to being part of the writing team and producing Army of One, plays the titular character. Her physical performance, throughout the film, reads like the actress took the time to do the necessary research before committing to any tangible character choices.
Further to Hollman, with strong performances turned in by Matt Passmore, Stephen Dunlevy, Gary Kasper, Barry Hanley, Casey Hendershot, Duke Jackson, and Michael Konanec, there is much that can be said for the way each person approaches their respective characterisations. | https://medium.com/harsh-light-news/army-of-one-film-review-92ad0a17f6ef | ['Shain E. Thomas'] | 2020-12-13 23:38:08.562000+00:00 | ['Action', 'Ellen Hollman', 'Army Of One', 'Revenge', 'Film Reviews'] |
Staying Clean While Homeless | Woman showering SFW
Staying clean is the hardest part of being homeless. It’s really easier to just let yourself go until you start smelling like the urinal in a bus station. But if you want to maintain your mental health, stay or get employed, well, you have to be clean, smell clean, look clean. Getting those rare, real showers—whether, at a truck stop, a friend’s home, or the gym make you feel awesome afterward. So, take them every chance you get. There were actually days I’d shower three or four times. It was summer, 100 degrees in the van, and I showered before and after work, and later in the evening, or even go into a truck stop at night to cool off with a cold shower.
SHOWERS
Find a place to shower. Planet Fitness has $10 a month memberships. For a bit more, you can get extra perks like massage chair access, and tanning beds. If there’s one in your town, join. You can maintain your health and hygiene there. If you can’t afford or find a gym, find a community center, or a YMCA. Some Y’s also offer low to free memberships for the homeless, and some even have free programs (like running) for the homeless. Exercise will keep depression at bay, provide a shower, a community, and something to work towards, whether it’s losing weight, or getting in shape.
If there is no Y, or gym, or community center (you’re rural), find a McDonalds or Burger King. They have the best bathrooms because most of their stalls have real doors. You can take a collapsible water bucket in, fill it with water and take a sponge bath in the privacy of the stall, then brush your teeth, etc. at the sink. You can find them at Amazon or outdoor stores for about $10-$15 bucks. They’re lightweight, made of silicone, fold up so you can tuck them into a backpack or carry them in inconspicuously. Use them in your vehicle, or in a bathroom stall or wherever, then dump out the water and store them away.
$11 Folding water bucket.
If you’re in a rural area there are almost always streams and rivers to bathe in. I bathed in a waterfall for two months when I worked as a raft guide in college. The well at the “dorm” was always running dry, and the cool, clear river water was the only option most days.
If you live in the west or midwest, many laundromats have showers as well as washers and dryers. I used to take a shower while my clothes washed. Then I’d rent a Video and eat take-out — all from the same laundromat! These are showers mostly used by campers and hikers and hunters. You still pay for them, but the cost ranges from a few dollars to $12 or more per shower or bath at truck stops. Sometimes truckers will give you their free shower, or sell it to you for $5 bucks (they get free showers with fill-ups to their rigs.)
You can search online at:
Join a gym or visit a public pool. I know with Covid many of these places aren’t available or open, but keep looking.
I carry a couple of packs of adult-sized washing wipes with me. I like this brand. You get 40 wipes — or 10 wipes per each of the four packs. They’re thick and you can rinse them out and reuse them if you’re tight on $$. They cost $19.95 but there are cheaper alternatives too. Look at the Dollar Stores.
Washing Wipes
If you can get a temp agency job at a manufacturing plant their lockerrooms almost always have free showers. Bring your own towels and soap etc. They also have lockers (bring your own lock).
I’ve found showers in public bathrooms, usually on the upper floors. Do NOT go in looking homeless. Put on sportswear so it looks like you’re an employee showering after a run. DO NOT ABUSE these showers as offices will put locks on them.
LAUNDROMATS
Laundromats are a must-have. Try to look for apartment complexes with laundry facilities rather than public laundromats. The cost is almost always $1 to $3 a load cheaper. If you are college-age, dorm laundry facilities are the best, but security on campuses, plus parking hassles, can be a deterrent. Some day shelters for the homeless have free laundry.
If you can’t afford to wash your clothes, go into a laundromat with ONE load of clothes and explain your situation I’m betting 90% of people will pay for your wash/dry for you. I certainly would.
If you’re in a big city, you’re in luck. Many high rise office buildings have bathrooms on the upper floors with showers. I found two in Denver and used those during the day to take a QUICK, and I emphasize QUICK, shower because employees use them in the am. and at lunch to shower after running or working out and they will know if you belong in the building or not. If you’re going to use a shower in a public building wear workout gear — sweat pants and t-shirt etc., so you at least LOOK like you work there and belong.
Some major airports have showers. In Europe, I noticed there were as many showers in the airports as bathroom stalls. They were generally free, but you had to provide your own towel.
Carry a superabsorbent (and small) bath towel, washcloth, and soap with you in your pack so if you ever do happen upon a shower you can take advantage of it. Never pass up the opportunity to take a shower, even if you had one a few hours prior. Use deodorant liberally, but don’t substitute it for a shower unless you have to. Wash your pits, crotch, and face every day (not in that order tho).
If you can’t find a laundromat, but have a job interview and no clean clothes, hit up Goodwill or the Salvation Army. You can throw together a good outfit for less than $10 if you shop right. Another point, always keep at least one outfit clean for job interviews. This is easier if you have a small storage unit or car to store extra stuff in. If all else fails, get a locker at a gym, or airport, or someplace to keep your stuff. Ask a friend if you can keep a footlocker in their garage or on their property where you can keep some things. Consider buying a small rubber tool tote you can padlock to a tree in the woods and camouflage if you have nothing else. Get creative.
People laugh at me and say these are not tips for the homeless. What they mean is they’re not tips for people who are mentally ill, addicted, or chronically homeless and unwilling to work to get off the streets. If you’re disciplined or motivated to get off the streets and are working at getting a job, saving your money, and getting into a place as soon as possible, this blog is for you. As you get creative in what you do you’ll find it’s almost a game. How cheaply and creatively and legally can you live while you set goals, look for affordable housing, or find the right place for you — be it buying land and living off-grid, or moving into a van or SUV, or creating a new career for yourself by learning a trade. Don’t worry about whether this will “work for all homeless people.” You’re not responsible for “all homeless people.” You’re responsible for YOU. Get YOU healthy, housed, and doing better. Then think about the next guy. You can’t give someone a drink out of your water bottle if its empty. FILL it first, then share. | https://medium.com/@beckyblanton/staying-clean-while-homeless-9e31c32ef6c3 | [] | 2020-12-18 02:57:31.271000+00:00 | ['Homelessfamilies', 'Homelessness', 'Showers', 'Homeless', 'Clean'] |
Burning Loss | All things change to fire
And fire exhausted
Falls back into things
Heraclitus, as translated by Brooks Haxton
The winter of my dissolution was the coldest of my life.
I refer not to the mere red-faced cold of this cloudy day these sixteen Decembers later here on Irene Farm in Lake County, California, this literal cold that nips my typing fingers so far from the blazing Fisher stove; I refer to the impossibly deep cold of the grave itself. After years of diminishing immunity since my HIV diagnosis eight years earlier, the terminal stage of the disease held me in its icy grip as 1995 neared its end. Outside the horror of a surging spike of fever, I could no longer understand even the idea of “warm.” Long housebound and ever more bedridden, I suffered a near-fatal handful of opportunistic infections while a host of others threatened. And most frightening of all, the grief, disease, and morphine had begun to paw into my very mind, undermining my fading resolve to survive.
Already I had far surpassed my own expectations of what I might endure, how far I would go to fight back, to fight AIDS. Had I not already undergone sickening therapies and horrific procedures — holding out longer than any of my t-cells, every one now long gone? Had I not kept the day-gagging schedule of pills and injections and aerosolized hope? Had I not satisfactorily demonstrated my faith in the singular creed of our biology and culture: “Life above all else”? I was so cold. Could I please quit? Could I just die now?
I seemed to be playing my life’s last act, huddled in a tiny basement apartment situated on Riggs Place in northwest Washington, D.C. the city where I had enjoyed modest, unlikely success as both television writer and political activist. A tidy brick alley afforded me entrance to my digs and communicated with the S Street apartment of my most faithful friend, J.B. One long night late in the year, when sleet, freezing rain, and snow had so glazed the alley with treachery I could not negotiate it unassisted, J.B. had laid a fire of Virginia oak in his fireplace. Already around its hearth he had lovingly arranged numerous boxes bulging with my personal papers. Having ignited the tinder and nurtured the flames to a roar, J.B. arrived at my door to convey me, hobbling in his arms like a man thrice my age, across the alley and into his overheated rooms — fever-pitch comfort to a dying man.
“Just do as much of this tonight as you feel like doing,” he instructed as he eased me onto the floor cushions before the fire and deftly replaced my overcoat with a blanket. “We can build as many fires as it takes.” Drawing open the fire screen, he reassured, “You can always trust me to finish up.”
The fire cracked, logs hissing as if in defiance of their mundane fate; in an age of pyres, alas, to be but a trash incinerator. And thereon I tossed the paper detritus of an abbreviated lifetime. From tax records and receipts to business contracts and medical bills, I burned it all. With what slight pyromaniac glee my cough-racked soul could muster, I burned every scrap documenting every detail of my nearly thirty-three years, surrendering it all to the colors of flames. There in gaseous blue were my pay slips from a brief stint writing a television program called “Trialwatch.” There in glowing yellow were my phone bills from an apartment on N Street, NW, when my number was still 234.0666. There in bright orange were the patient letters from my forgiving agent reminding me of the balance I yet owed him; he too, unbeknownst to me, was succumbing to the plague.
J.B. pushed yet-full boxes to within my reach, and chatted about ordinary things. J.B. had a gift for such chatter and understood its importance in the process of grief and loss. At times such as this and others, like when our friend Dennis was dying in my arms, he artfully narrated the unthinkable in the language of the inevitable. “Oh! I never showed you the bowling ball china! Well, it’s really just a set of plates. But when I was twelve my Aunt Fanny and Uncle Joe were moving to a retirement community, so they were setting things aside for the kids…” J.B. continued as he slipped out of the room to return with a pink vinyl case shaped like a hatbox, opened its zippered lid, and produced one of the gold-banded white porcelain plates from within to place in my shaky hands. An understated garland of laurel barely accentuated with pink blossoms swagged the rim. “Aunt Fanny said I could have Uncle Joe’s bowling ball or these exquisite plates, and I guess even at that age it was a pretty obvious choice for me. They’ve been packed in the bottom drawer of the tansu since I brought them home last Christmas. I forgot they were there. I think Dennis would have admired them — ”
“Coveted them, you mean?” I interrupted with a smile, although participating in a conversation exhausted me.
“Do you think?” The thought made J.B. smile, too. “I wish I had gotten to show them to him.”
I handled the plate nervously as the incinerator yawned for more, a landscape of paper embers already glowing then fading beneath the cracking logs, tiny tornadoes of paper ash swirling around the andirons with every settling of the oak. Returning the plate to J.B.’s much steadier hands, I reached for the stack of folders from Dennis’ files. I had long ago pulled what minimal legal documents must be kept and filed them separately in a folder that I now set aside in the otherwise empty box of materials to be spared the flames. The rest of it, so long avoided, I now fed bit by bit through the fire screen and into the burn.
Why was this happening? Was there reason to the madness of the last decade? Within but a part of a lifetime I had come of age, grown old with sickness, and seen buried a legion of comrades. The culture of personal responsibility in which I had been raised taught me to look to myself, of course. Had I not willfully pursued sexual pleasure for sport? Had I not overcome all inhibitions in that pursuit, convinced that my generation was waging a campaign of sexual disobedience meant to liberate all? Had I not believed myself willing to die for that cause?
Years later one of my mother’s friends would ask casually and ignorantly, “What did you expect? Anal sex is filthy. AIDS should come as no surprise to you.”
Had my entire life been a filthy mistake? Was this horrific death replete with open sores and swollen knots and burning lungs the punishment for my trespasses? Aside from credit for courage, or gracefully accepting my fate, or dying with dignity, what achievement might yet be wrested from my tragic end? And beyond any eleventh-hour awakenings I might personally experience on the brink of my own youthful demise, what success could be stolen from the larger tragedy of the AIDS epidemic overall?
Reams of work orders, invoices and receipts from Dennis’ restoration business sent a flash of white flames licking noisily beyond the flue before subsiding no less suddenly.
Grieving his death these last ten months, I couldn’t yet think clearly about Dennis, my guardian, mentor and friend of the previous eight years, but I believed he would have approved my efforts to leave behind only the smallest and tidiest piles. Foreseeing his own death plainly, he had worked furiously to simplify his own estate and ease my way as his heir. Now could I easily see his small, tidy piles imbedded within my own sprawling ones. What legacy he left to me ends here, I feared. I would not live to be old like my grandfathers. I would predecease my own parents, never to share what Dennis had taught me of food and art and opera, nor to speak of his exploits to future bedmates. Perhaps sitting there that cold night with that superficial papered-over version of myself afire before me, I realized fully for the first time: my life was at its end. Desiring death’s speedy arrival in painful moments of dark preceding months, I had not considered this aspect of my fate so unwaveringly. Thinking only of respite from the misery of recent memory, I had somehow failed to internalize the finality I truly faced. Like the postponed disposition of Dennis’s files now burning so robustly, my death could be forestalled no longer. My oft-whispered wish of the past year would be fulfilled. I would die and soon, perhaps before my approaching birthday, and even so, outlive many friends and lovers who did not survive their twenties, some of whom I may have infected with the fatal virus myself, magnifying my sense that my death was well-deserved.
“Why is this happening to us?” I asked, hiding my words under my breath.
“You don’t need me to tell you about that,” JB answered with the less-subtle drawl he reserved for sarcasm. “You know perfectly well that God hates fags and we have to die. Now finish emptying that one box while I fix us some supper. He didn’t say you had to die hungry.”
Truthfully, though I had no appetite, I was dying hungry, and not only in the figurative sense that I was hungry to invest the plague with meaning or to imbue my own death with purpose. I was literally hungry in the sense that my body was wasting away from malnutrition. A ubiquitous unicellular parasite, harmless to humans with working immune systems, Microsporidia (not to be confused with its equally threatening cousins Cryptosporidia or Toxoplasma) had infected my gastro-intestinal system and so interfered with my digestion that I was starving, not for want of food itself but merely for the ability to utilize it, the hunger of the prosperous. For having pursued my appetites so freely poetic justice or ironic fate or the God of Abraham, Himself, by some accounts, had sentenced me to die of hunger. In turn, my peers and I had endowed the proximate agents of execution with almost endearing nicknames, our lame answers to gods or fates; “micro,” “crypto,” and “toxo” were only the most recent ax-men.
The medical story of my survival through the worst of the AIDS epidemic thus far had been the story of the rare surfer who by sheer luck of timing and a gift of determination somehow rides the tsunami rather than be drowned beneath it. I watched as so many were swept beneath the very wave that held me aloft; they died of opportunistic infections that first took medicine by surprise only then to be mastered by prophylaxes administered according to ever more complicated standards of care organized by declining t-cell levels. I owe my life to those people. Their deaths taught doctors and pharmacologists how to protect those who followed, like me, from the same infections.
As management protocols and prophylactic therapies improved, people with AIDS began to live longer, allowing the disease to advance further, and the opportunistic infections to grow ever more gruesome and bizarre. Less than a decade earlier, patients had routinely died of Pneumocystis carnii pneumonia (PCP), but by the end of 1995, most people under treatment could rely on preventive drugs to keep PCP at bay. By the mid 1980’s, the purple-lesion-causing “cancer,” Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), previously diagnosed almost exclusively in middle-aged males of Mediterranean or Eastern European descent, had become the universally recognizable signature of AIDS, an AIDS-defining illness once commonly dubbed the “AIDS rash”; but already by the end of the decade, doctors had refined their responses to KS such that fatalities were growing rare. I suffered both PCP and KS on the heels of their deadly tenures as the most likely opportunistic infections to cause death in a person with AIDS, but survived both because my physician, Dr. Douglas Ward, was well-informed, risk-savvy and survigrous in his defense of my well-being, and because the timing of my diagnoses so auspiciously corresponded with burgeoning clinical understanding of how to treat those conditions — not to cure them necessarily, but perhaps suppress them, and possibly survive them.
Now, apparently, my rare surfer’s luck was nearly exhausted. I felt my balance waver. I knew my board was slipping from the crest. Just as I had once taken extreme but freshly-proven measures to fight PCP and KS, I would now have to take extreme and unproven measures to combat “micro,” and if those measures failed, or did not succeed quickly enough, I would have to submit to a yet more aggressive intervention, the insertion of a feeding tube through my chest, or die of wasting syndrome.
That very afternoon, hours before J.B. had escorted me to his hearth, my bathroom scale reported my weight at one hundred and eighteen pounds, a few lighter than the threshold weight at which Dr. Ward had insisted we revisit the need for the feeding tube, but I didn’t hurry to bring this fact to Dr. Ward’s attention. Within days of the doctor’s injunction, sickroom visitors had reported to me how two acquaintances had recently both died of toxo, one following a long battle with crypto, and the other, like me, after a long battle with micro, but the suspected common culprit was the feeding tube inserted to arrest wasting. Positively everyone who got that feeding tube ended up with toxo, they told me, and toxo as everyone (who knew anything) knew was the ax-man au courant. “Greg Scott you listen to us. You have to eat. You have to keep your weight up so you don’t have to get that awful tube.” So, rightly or not, had I come to conflate the insertion of that feeding tube with final surrender, total bare-necked submission to the ax-man “toxo,” reducing the fight for my life to a fight against starvation.
Wasting syndrome had long threatened, of course, and combating it thus far had seemed a challenge for which my life had prepared me well. I had been gardening and cooking since childhood, and as an adult had taught myself to cook quite well. Once unfit to cook for myself, I persuaded others to cook for me in exchange for instruction. I had been open to the appetite–enhancing and nausea-suppressing benefits of marijuana since watching a friend waste away years before, and was now happy to use it every day if a supply was at hand. My excellent doctor guided me to the appropriate anabolic therapies as well, long before they appeared on the standards of care, and thus I commanded an impressive anti-wasting arsenal including human growth hormone (HGH), testosterone, nandrolone, and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). Over time had emerged the maxim that lean muscle mass corresponded to time, time remaining before I died. And if my protruding ribs were any measure, time was precious indeed.
J.B. reappeared from the kitchen with two of the bowling ball plates, now filled with favorites: sliced tenderloin of beef, green peppercorn sauce, roasted Brussels sprouts glazed with balsamic. “Come try to eat some of this. I’ll feed the fire.” After helping me to the table, J.B. bent over the banker’s box at the hearth. “Everything in here goes?” I nodded as he withdrew stacks of travel vouchers and receipts from my days at Fox Television and slipped it all through the screen.
Looking down at the plate before me, my heart sank. Among the mounting losses I attributed to AIDS, I could now count the enjoyment of food. On the question of when to submit a dog to euthanasia, I had heard that one could always tell when the dog was finished with life, and one of the supposedly indubitable signs invariably cited was that the dog would no longer enjoy its food. Were I a dog, I suspected, I would have already been “put down.” I could sense the food was warm and nutritious, but beyond those qualities I registered only the intellectual awareness of beef, pepper, brassica, balsamic, and J.B.’s culinary skill; only the ideas of those things penetrated my discomfort. Leaning over the plate and inhaling deeply, the muted aromas were distorted. Coating the tines of the fork with sauce au poivre vert to taste it, the flavors met none of my expectations — luxuriously delicious food tainted by sickness and an utter lack of desire to eat.
Although I sometimes admitted to the persistent metallic taste left in my mouth by the medications, and although everyone witnessing my decline knew I was frequently nauseous and rarely hungry, I had told not one person, not J.B., not even my mother, that I had taken no pleasure in food for months. In November, I had even attempted the charade of preparing a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and was somehow well enough to do it, but afterwards wondered if everything was revealingly over-seasoned. Still believing everyone might wrongly attribute such a sudden and comprehensive failure of my palate to that metallic taste, I took a bite of the thankfully tender meat, and through chewing teeth and closed lips murmured, “Mmmmhhh.” J.B. cut his eyes to me as if to say I fooled no one. In that moment, without a word, J.B. had guided me to a second crucial awareness that night. If the first was the finality I faced, the second was that I did not face it alone. This finality that I must now embrace was not solitary, but shared. J.B. was there with me, the strength of his presence my bulwark against despair at a cost to him I dared not, could not calculate; I trusted he would be with me to the end, and when I died, I would number among the mounting losses he would attribute to AIDS. In at least that narrow sense, my death would embody finality for those I left behind as much as for myself, even as Dennis’s death had been final for all of us.
Prior to these, my presumably last months among the living, my own accumulated losses had isolated me, rendering my fate to the solitary, but not because I was unloved or lacking support. I enjoyed both love and support in abundance and would probably not have survived without them. Rather, I experienced the loss itself as contrast to the world of the living, opposition to everyone else’s normalcy, antithesis to life without AIDS. An endless succession of funerals and memorial services commemorated the losses of friends and lovers even then as if behind a shroud, the world roiling along as if not to care, isolating entire communities of the AIDS-affected. Likewise the loss of the ability to earn a living, have sex, drive a car, or leave the apartment separated me in a material way from the world of the yet truly quick, while the base physical reality of dying with AIDS simultaneously eliminated all the barriers that culture constructed between human and nature. Nothing illuminates desire like the loss of desire, and nothing illuminates our earthliness like the loss of bowel control.
Paradoxically, while the losses that gathered isolated me, creating new separations between self and others, the approach of death itself seemed to dissolve all such boundaries, so that even death seemed to live. Concepts I’d previously only perceived as dualities, such as life and death, had begun to merge into singular fluid spectra, endless continua rather than finite sets of binary opposites. Solid walls were dissembling into murky portals. Static categories were crumbling into chaotic flow. Straight lines were being tortured into meanders, and the edges of everything were in motion, including the edges of my very self. Death was dissolving everything within and without into a foamy surf. I believed I was experiencing the lifting of the veil between the worlds, with a boot in both, surrounding ghosts urging me through, to cross the threshold that already altogether isolated me from the living, in spite of my yet-beating heart.
If this all-encompassing sense of dissolution were instead only an affect of the morphine, prescribed to slow my overwhelmed digestive system and afford it a better chance to perform its function, then I’m doubly grateful to morphine; triply so when I consider the bonus palliative benefit. Surely I was more comfortable because I happened to be on morphine to slow the wasting; many people with AIDS took morphine for comfort during these terminal stages of the disease. Possibly it had also given me a new perspective on everything knowable.
With all boundaries dissolved I was free to discover my expanded self, no longer confined by narrow ego but extended, first to those who sacrificed to care for me, for without them I would have already ceased to be, then further to the food I ate and the water I drank until entire food-sheds and hydrological systems seemed to move through my veins, then to the whole of the biosphere as if the earth itself were conspiring to sustain, and finally to HIV itself, my teacher, my destroyer, my end. Years later, the deep ecological thinking of Arne Naess would supply the philosophical prose to articulate this emergence of my ecological self, but then I could cite only Whitman. “I am large. I contain multitudes.” And then: I am shrinking. I contain multitudes of retroviruses, parasites, bacteria, and fungi.
The boxes were almost empty when J.B. decided I could do no more. He left me by the fire while he crossed the frozen alley alone to ensure my own rooms were sufficiently warm before escorting me home to bed, mirroring his path of earlier that night like the yogic reversal of some love-releasing asana: the friend.
Such warm thoughts notwithstanding, recalling that bitter winter of my dissolution remains difficult even as I write these many years later. I hail from a generation of queers who walk the earth yet dazed from the trauma of the plague at its worst. The clinical cases of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) no doubt abound among us. Home for the holidays with family a few weeks later in Northern Virginia, someone took my photograph, in contradiction of my long-standing request. To my knowledge, it’s the only existing picture of me with the reaper on my back, and it horrifies me still. The lingering horror that is the shared aftermath of AIDS survivors everywhere might seem another AIDS-related loss to pile upon the heaping heap of losses, except for one potentially redeeming truth: we survived. We survived to change our lives to better reflect our best selves. We survived as living subtext to a grim but important history. We survived to share what we learned. Wisdom redeems all experience, if we permit it to do.
The howl of a lone male coyote wandering the woodlots bounding Irene Farm punctuates the hiss and crackle of tonight’s fire, but cannot disrupt the powerful memories of the fire J.B. laid for me sixteen winters ago, or the burning loss it will always represent to me. I would continue to ponder the earnest questions that had been illuminated for me as never before by that firelight. I would hold them close like clinging friends more welcome than any answers they might evoke: questions about desire and its departure, questions about means and meaning, questions about being and not being, in short, the questions of a lifetime clarified only by a deadly chill. To prepare for the ultimate loss, I gave up everything else — threw it all to the fire — and perhaps thereby gave myself whatever slim chance allowed an interloping fate to intervene. From atop the tsunami, gratefully, I still enjoyed a view of the beach and all that spread beyond, and out there I could spy the barest glimmer of hope.
Irene Farm
Lower Lake, California
December 2011 | https://medium.com/@malcomgregoryscott/burning-loss-235ea2682898 | ['Malcom Gregory Scott'] | 2020-12-02 02:07:47.963000+00:00 | ['Death', 'Queer', 'Survival', 'AIDS', 'HIV'] |
Warner Bros. will debut all its 2021 movies on HBO Max as well as in theaters | Warner Bros. will debut all its 2021 movies on HBO Max as well as in theaters Fernanda Dec 26, 2020·3 min read
We’ve already seen one movie after another skip movie theaters for streaming this year thanks to the COVID-19 epidemic, but nothing comes close to what Warner Bros. just announced: Every one of its 2021 films will stream online the same day they hit theaters.
Even with Warner Bros.’s assurances that its day-and-date streaming plans will only last through the end of 2021, it’s still jaw-dropping news, and one can’t help but wonder if the move will forever change the way we go to the movies,
There is some fine print to consider, including the fact that Warner Bros.’s latest movies will stream on HBO Max for only a month following their release dates; after that, the films will continue to play in theaters before eventually heading for iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, and the like. It’s unclear when they’ll return to HBO Max after that.
[ Further reading: Amazon Prime Video vs Hulu vs Netflix ]Warner Bros. parent company WarnerMedia also announced that all the studio’s 2021 movies would debut on HBO Max in 4K and HDR. Until now, HBO Max hasn’t supported 4K or HDR streaming, but Wonder Woman 1984, which is slated to hit HBO Max on Christmas Day, will be the streaming service’s first 4K HDR title.
In all, HBO Max will offer 17 Warner Bros movies on the same day they arrive in theaters, including The Little Things, Judas and the Black Messiah, Tom & Jerry, Godzilla vs. Kong, Mortal Kombat, Those Who Wish Me Dead, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, In The Heights, Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, Reminiscence, Malignant, Dune, The Many Saints of Newark, King Richard, Cry Macho and Matrix 4.
Shocking though it is, Warner Bros. decision to send its 2021 movie slate directly to HBO Max also feels inevitable. With COVID cases surging around the world, it’s pretty clear that nothing, including going to the movies, will be returning to normal—or even close to normal—before next fall, or even later.
“No one wants films back on the big screen more than we do,” said Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO of WarnerMedia Studios and Networks Group, in a press release. “We know new content is the lifeblood of theatrical exhibition, but we have to balance this with the reality that most theaters in the U.S. will likely operate at reduced capacity throughout 2021.”
Warner Bros. maintains that its “hybrid distribution model” will only last a year, ending (hopefully) around the same time that the pandemic is finally over.
That said, could the traditional movie release window be gone for good? Nothing beats seeing a Hollywood blockbuster on the big screen, but now that so many of us have big 4K screens—and in many cases, high-end audio systems—in our living rooms, complete with HDR, Dolby Vision, and in some cases Dolby Atmos, the convenience of streaming the latest Marvel, Star Wars, or Matrix epic at home will be hard to pass up.
Of course, once we are finally done with COVID, the “theater or streaming?” dilemma will be a good one to have.
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/@fernand09823176/warner-bros-will-debut-all-its-2021-movies-on-hbo-max-as-well-as-in-theaters-2d4f95a694a3 | [] | 2020-12-26 09:30:40.927000+00:00 | ['Cord', 'Chromecast'] |
Install CUDA on WSL2 with Ubuntu | Yoshio Yamauchi / SPARKLE / @sprkle_twtt
I post stories about machine learning, image recognition, and python.
1 Introduction — What is WSL?
WSL is short of “Windows Subsystem of Linux”. This is a sort of software you can install on your Windows 10 machine to use Linux over Windows. Before WSL, you had been able to use Linux operating system on a Windows machine through virtualization software like Virtual-Box. But these virtualizations are sometimes slow or you may not be able to use GPU to train AI models.
WSL or WSL2 solved these kind of problem. Because it’s not virtualization, you can access data stored on your Widows from Linux, and moreover, you can access data on USB drives. CUDA, which is a tool to train AI models, is also prepared for WSL2. In short, you don’t have to switch to Linux just to train AI models. Almost everything can be done on Windows with WSL2!
In this story I’m going to show you how to install WSL2 and CUDA.
2 Install WSL2 and Ubuntu on Windows 10
2.1 Requirements
Latest version of Windows 10 Home / Pro (inactivated one is also OK)
Basic Linux command line experience (such as navigating directories)
More than 20GB of storage space
2.2 Register the Windows Insider Program
You can register the program through the registration website. Just Follow the instructions on the website. Although the website tells that you need to activate Widows 10 Home or Pro, you actually don’t need to activate Windows. I tested with inactivated version of Windows 10 Home and it worked. After registering the program, you can install the insider program in the settings menu “Windows Update”. You can see that the program is already started to download and install. After the installation is complete, restart your computer. A Windows update will start. It will take a little bit long.
Make sure the following things such that you won’t encounter any issue:
Your Window 10 Home / Pro is updated to the latest version before registering the program. If not, you can update it in the settings menu “Windows Update”.
There’s no WSL installed before. If WSL1 or an older version of WSL2 exist on your computer, you may have to uninstall it. You can uninstall them as the you uninstall other programs.
There’s no Ubuntu installed on your computer before. If not, uninstall it.
Activate all feedbacks of your personal data. You may have asked that the first time when you install the Windows. If you rejected all of them when installation, you can turn them on in the settings menu “Diagnostics & feedback”.
Make sure your settings window of “Windows Insider Program” will look like this
2.3 Install WSL and update it to WSL2
Run the following commands as administrator to install WSL:
$ dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
The installed WSL is still the older version of WSL, so you now have to update it to WSL2:
$ dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
$ wsl — set-default-version 2
2.4 Install Ubuntu 18
The WSL2 itself does not have any operating system in it. It’s just an environment to run Linux operating systems. Thus the next step is downloading and installing a Linux OS on your Windows 10. You can do this as the same way you install software through the “Microsoft Store”. Just search “Ubuntu” and start installation of Ubuntu 18. The reason why I recommend Ubuntu 18 rather than the newer versions of Ubuntu is it’s not sure if CUDA would work on Ubuntu later than 19. The official document of CUDA for WSL2 is saying you should use 18 instead of 19 or 20.
Once you installed your Ubuntu 18, run the program. A command prompt will open with a message “Installing, this may take a few minutes…”. After that, you are required to set your username and password.
3 Install Nvidia Driver on Windows 10
You need a Nvidia driver to use your GPU. You can download and install an appropriate driver through this website. Just follow the installation process of the installer. A GPU managing software called “GeForce Experience” will be installed at the same time. One thing you need to note here is you must not install any GPU driver on the installed Ubuntu. This could make issues.
4 Install CUDA on Ubuntu
You can now install CUDA on Ubuntu. Run the command “wsl” to start Ubuntu on the windows command prompt. Then on the Ubuntu terminal run the following commands one by one with root.
$ sudo apt-key adv — fetch-keys http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1804/x86_64/7fa2af80.pub
$ sudo sh -c ‘echo “deb http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1804/x86_64 /” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cuda.li st’
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install -y cuda-toolkit-11–0
Once you installed CUDA I recommend you restart your computer. After reboot check if a folder named “/usr/lib/wsl”. If you can find the folder, the whole installation process is done successfully. You can check if CUDA and your GPU works on Ubuntu with a sample program. Navigate to /usr/local/cuda/samples/4_Finance/BlackScholes and then run the following commands:
$ sudo make
$ ./BlackSchooles
A message indicating CUDA is working should be shown
5 References
This document is available also in PDF:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15LrqlxwGZJETPYZ1VFPpBI5dlWkbnPUu?usp=sharing | https://medium.com/@sparkle-mdm/install-cuda-on-wsl2-with-ubuntu-2c5585ad5ebb | ['Yoshio Yamauchi', 'Sparkle'] | 2020-12-20 05:19:07.669000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Wsl', 'TensorFlow', 'Cuda', 'Machine Learning'] |
Diving into Symfony’s DependencyInjection — Part 2: Symbiosis with the Config component | Handling configuration with the Config component
Although the DependencyInjection component is itself sufficient, it’s more powerful when it’s paired with the Config component. It allows us to separate the container configuration in dedicated files, like yaml files in a standard Symfony app.
Let’s use it to draw the best potential of the DI.
composer require symfony/config
With the Config component, we are able to separate the container’s configuration in dedicated files. You can configure your container in various ways (using yaml , xml ,...). In this article, we'll use php file configuration for 2 reasons:
to limit external dependencies ( yaml configuration needs the symfony/yaml component).
configuration needs the component). to have a better understanding of what the container is doing during the configuration (which method is called, …)
The configuration will live in a config/config.php file. To load this file, we are going to use a Loader. For php files, there is a Symfony\Component\DependencyInjection\Loader\PhpFileLoader :
public/index.php
The PhpFileLoader::load() performs an include of our configuration file. The following variables will be accessible from the config/config.php file:
$container => ContainerBuilder
=> ContainerBuilder $loader => PhpFileLoader
=> PhpFileLoader $resource => config.php
=> config.php $type => null in our case (since we are using PhpFileLoader, the type does not matter).
Now, let’s create the config/config.php file.
config/config.php
Autoconfiguration
Now we have a dedicated config file, thanks to our loader, we can define some rules relative to our directories and namespaces in order to automatically configure services. To do so, we have to create a prototype definition, which will be used as the base definition of a group of classes. This prototype will be used for each class of this group. This is called autoconfiguration.
ℹ️ The DependencyInjection component will use the FQCN as the service’s id, therefore instead of doing get('access_manager') to access the AccessManager, you have to do get(AccessManager::class) .
To auto-configure services in a given directory, we use the Loader::registerClasses() function.
config/config.php
If we dump the container before the compilation, we get the following five definitions:
-definitions: array:5 [
"service_container" => Definition {}
"App\Authorization\AccessManager" => Definition {}
"App\Authorization\Voter\PostVoter" => Definition {}
"App\Entity\Post" => Definition {}
"App\Entity\User" => Definition {}
]
All classes in the src directory were automatically registered as services. However, we don't want the Entity directory to be autoconfigured. Let's exclude it by adding a third argument to the registerClasses() function.
// src/Entity directory is now excluded
$loader->registerClasses($definition, 'App\\', '../src/*', '../src/Entity');
Here is our new list of definitions:
-definitions: array:3 [
"service_container" => Definition {}
"App\Authorization\AccessManager" => Definition {}
"App\Authorization\Voter\PostVoter" => Definition {}
]
Remember, now you have to access the AccessManager through its FQCN. | https://medium.com/manomano-tech/diving-into-symfonys-dependencyinjection-part-2-symbiosis-with-the-config-component-b535c5a2c591 | ['Alex Makdessi'] | 2018-10-08 09:18:28.378000+00:00 | ['PHP', 'Symfony', 'Dependency Injection', 'Web Development', 'Backend'] |
Synthetic Dataset using Blender + Python: Part 2 | Rendering the dataset
Now that we are comfortable with the Blender starters (from PART 1), we can start using Python to automate some of its aspects and generate a synthetic dataset.
Pre-requisites:
I will be using Ubuntu 20.01 and Blender 2.91.
Objective:
To generate a dataset using Blender and Python, with the characteristics:
Assume our object is centered at the origin (0,0,0)
Capture the object from a particular distance (R), in a circular path, a total of 10 images
The script should also output camera locations and orientation (in Z axis) along with the frames
Such dataset may help us find out the camera/robot’s location given a test image; not so simple as it sounds ;)
Let’s start with setting up our environment.
Open the console and launch Blender.
$ blender
Start with default project: The default project (create one if you haven’t…) gives you a cube centered at the origin with a Camera and a Light. As discussed in the last part, the object can be replaced with your object of Interest by simply importing its 3D model. For better visualization, I have duplicated the default cube (CTRL+C and CTRL+V) and colored them.
Setup the Camera: We plan to take snaps of the object of Interest (OoI) from various points of the trajectory programmed/desired by us. So, we start with an initial setup for our objects: camera, light and all cube(s). It signifies the initial position of our camera, before it can start capturing anything. The Object Properties for Camera look like:
Automate Camera motion using Python script: Let’s first try to understand what are we trying to accomplish here. Here, I am trying to move the camera in a circular trajectory but only till a quadrant; camera starts at the X axis and ends up at the Y-axis.
For a particular radius, this trajectory is traversed by shifting the camera in small steps. The smaller the steps (or step-size), the better (and more) the data. The same step is repeated for different distances or better called as radii.
We are familiar with with the fact that the X and Y coordinate in Cartesian coordinate can be replaced with rCos(theta) and rSin(theta) in spherical coordinate system. So, we can first find theta, and for a particular radius (r), we can find x and y. The Setup the Camera section shows the initial camera orientation. The X and Y coordinates have been fixed by us initially. We find the angle made by the camera at this time. Let’s call it init_angle . This is very close to the X axis, as obvious. Now, we need to limit our motion to a maximum of 90 degrees (or a single quadrant). Let’s call it target_angle . Now, while going from init_angle to target_angle , the number of steps to be taken are specified by num_steps_revolution (just because the camera is revoluting about the origin or the first cube). For simplicity, we choose only a single radius for trajectory.
Let’s not change the lights and get to the code.
Import required dependencies:
import bpy
import os
import numpy as np
from math import *
from mathutils import *
Now, we define the locations and names of the objects that we will be needing: the target a.k.a the OoI (object of interest):
#set your own target here
target = bpy.data.objects['Cube'] #Do not forget to check the object name
t_loc_x = target.location.x
t_loc_y = target.location.y
The target object is the one around which we want the camera to face. In our case, its the cube centered at the origin.
cam = bpy.data.objects['Camera']
cam_loc_x = cam.location.x
cam_loc_y = cam.location.y
Now, define the angles and radius.
R = (target.location.xy-cam.location.xy).length # Radius
num_steps_revolution = 36 #how many revolution steps in each circle/revolution
#ugly fix to get the initial angle right
init_angle = (1-2*bool((cam_loc_y-t_loc_y)<0))*acos((cam_loc_x-t_loc_x)/dist)-2*pi*bool((cam_loc_y-t_loc_y)<0)
target_angle = (pi/2 - init_angle) # How much more to go...
Start looping the camera
for x in range(num_steps_revolution):
# Use alpha to locate new camera position
alpha = init_angle + (x+1)*target_angle/num_steps # Move camera
cam.rotation_euler[2] = pi/2+alpha # *Rotate* it to point to the object
cam.location.x = t_loc_x+cos(alpha)*R
cam.location.y = t_loc_y+sin(alpha)*R # Save Path for renders
file = os.path.join('/home/renders', x) # saves filename as the step number
bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = file
bpy.ops.render.render( write_still=True ) # render
The entire code (with slightly different variable names) can be found here
Running the entire code in a console (as shown in Part 1), should render and save 36 images in the path specified. A sample would be:
$ blender -b ~/Videos/blender/panel-synthetic-dataset.blend -P ~/Videos/blender/test_synthetic.py
To visualise if the camera trajectory will look like, I modified the initial script as follows:
I replaced the render part with camera generation. Thanks to this wonderful BlenderExchange Site As we increase the angle, progressing from initial angle init_angle to target angle target_angle , at each step, instead of rendering, I ask Blender to place a new camera at the newly calculated position. The result is as follows:
The blend file can be used for reference here: 10cams.blend
Except for the new cameras all facing towards negative Z axis, as it doesn’t affect our purpose, everything looks Good :)
A Step further:
This seemed very simplistic but great to understand how to get the job started. I used an upgraded version of the code, to give me even more data: I added rotation to revolution. Till now, our camera shifted to a new position in the same circular trajectory and took a snapshot and moved ahead. But now, we ask it to take even more snaps at the same exact spot, by rotating about itself. Further, I ask it to not only follow a single radius, but a range of radii; we need to specify the radii (r1, r2,…) for getting closer or farther from the object. This modified script can also be found here:
This script performs similar camera motions with rotation+revolutions and saves the camera data (location, orientation) as the file name. The process took a minimum of 5 hours on my non-GPU system and generated more thatn two thousand images
The memory consumption was as follows:
$htop
Please let me know if this helps you 😃 | https://medium.com/@prashantdandriyal/synthetic-dataset-using-blender-python-part-2-2f1c17a2b709 | ['Prashant Dandriyal'] | 2020-12-27 05:03:33.945000+00:00 | ['Synthetic Data', 'Computer Vision', 'Blender', 'Dataset', 'Python'] |
Oh yeah, the ‘Doctor Who’ trailer for “Revolution of the Daleks”… | There was a time when I’d have published something about a new Doctor Who trailer minutes after it went online. That time has passed. The 2021 New Year Special, “Revolution of the Daleks” has one intriguing thing about it: seeing The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) in a space prison. We’ve seen The Doctor trapped or incarcerated many times before, but seeing her in a red jumpsuit chalking up the number of days she’s been locker away is fun. I hope this special gives us all the prison escape tropes one could imagine, but with a Who-y sci-fi twist.
But, beyond that? Captain Jack (John Barrowman) is back, which I know is thrilling for those who were kids when he was in his late-2000s prime. It’s alarming to realise there are now adults in their mid-twenties who see that character as a throwback to “simpler times”. You know, back when the Wii came out. The “old days”. I suppose. (I’ll get my bus pass.)
And there are Daleks, again. And guess what, they’re attacking the people of England! They love doing that. And Chris Noth’s forgettable hotelier villain from “Arachnids in the UK” (one of the worst episodes in years) is back, by unpopular demand.
It just feels like reheated leftovers.
The Daleks have a new modern design, which does look cool, but it’s stretching credibility if this is going to be a present-day version of “Victory of the Daleks”. In that story, Winston Churchill was making Daleks to help Britain win World War II, unaware they are themselves metal space Nazis. Now it seems Noth’s businessman got hold of the Dalek design and has mass-produced them to bolster the UK government’s defences. Doesn’t anyone remember the countless times these flying tin cans have invaded and killed people? Is there some kind of memory-reset happening?
I know, I know… this show is primarily aimed at kids. It’s my stupid middle-aged man brain that sucks the fun out of nice things. But I want to feel excited by new ideas and fresh concepts.
Chris Chibnall has been running Doctor Who for two series now, and it’s clear to everyone that he’s opted to mimic the Russell T. Davies years — only with a worse grasp on characterisation, and not much in the way of new idea. And when he does come up with something radical, it drastically alters the fundamentals of the entire series and splits the fanbase down the middle. Yes, “The Timeless Children” is an infamous episode for shaking “new life’ into the show by making sweeping changes to The Doctor’s origins that undercut the simplicity of what everyone liked about the character to begin with.
Anyway, that’s another argument. Or an old argument now.
The Specials have always been crowd-pleasing trifles designed to appeal to non-Whovians, who grasp the basics of the show (uh, because they’re British) and want something breezily entertaining to watch during a day off work.
“Resolution of the Daleks” will probably achieve that aim, and I have to admit Chibnall’s previous Dalek story was solid stuff— and arguably the creative peak of his tenure so far. So maybe he’s also got a fresh spin on the “Dalek invasion” cliche, which this trailer just doesn’t have time to properly reveal. It’s a glorified “teaser” anyway, just announcing the release date. The full trailer may be a lot better. It tends to work that way.
And with strong rumours this Special is going to see Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole leave the show, I have my fingers crossed about that. Walsh has been good value for the show (a steady pair of hands holding a difficult ensemble together as they struggle to click), but his character narrative purpose a series ago.
Cole has been a total waste of time and easily the worst companion of the nu-Who era.
It makes sense to keep Mandip Gill around as a more traditional “twosome” with The Doctor for 2021, for a while at least. (I’m sure she’ll want to leave the show and do new things soon, too.) So that should help with the thirteenth series, as the writers don’t need to give four regulars something to be doing each episode.
Anyway, I’m a bit cold on this trailer. But are you more excited? And does your age play a part in that, perhaps? | https://dansmediadigest.co.uk/oh-yeah-the-doctor-who-trailer-for-revolution-of-the-daleks-d166a822af1f | ['Dan Owen'] | 2020-12-01 19:51:47.011000+00:00 | ['Television', 'News', 'Doctor Who', 'TV', 'Trailers'] |
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