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How to Give the Perfect Last Minute Gift and Totally Win Christmas | Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
How to Give the Perfect Last Minute Gift and Totally Win Christmas
You’re welcome.
Maybe some of you are confident, happy gift-givers. Maybe you’ve never had any of those moments of doubt: did I spend too much? Too little? Will they like it? Is it the right size? The right proportion? Can I take it back? Can I get one for myself, or is that just tacky?
If you’ve never worried about any of these things, you may be excused. Please go read something else while we normal people deal with our issues here.
The problem is that we still believe that a gift should bring pleasure to both the giver and the receiver. But in a country like the United States, where we are already surrounded by more material goods than we can keep up with, it becomes harder and harder to hit upon another thing that will be unique or lovely or special enough to be incorporated into the already crowded spaces we inhabit.
So we cleverly give consumables — gourmet food gifts to people who will just throw out the sugary stuff on January 1 when they go back on keto — or resign ourselves to doling out “gift cards.” Whenever I give a gift card — and sometimes it’s the right thing to do — I just feel like one of the criminals in The Godfather, piously wishing each other a Merry Christmas while swapping envelopes of cash.
But this year, it’s different
This year, we’re all sick of looking at our stuff, or we’re broke, or both, and it’s just not the year for a big gift swap, somehow, when people are suffering. For children, I have no advice except be prepared for the younger ones to have more fun with the boxes and the ribbon. But for the adults on your list, I believe I have the solution for the pandemic year.
It comes from a woman I’ve known and admired for years. She emailed her circle of friends, family, colleagues, and clients and told them exactly what gift she would want this year. As it was a time of transition for her, she asked that people not buy her any more things — in fact, she was in the process of downsizing, already getting rid of material goods. She also just frankly said that her finances were such that she, thankfully, had no immediate needs. But she appreciated people’s good wishes…
She went on to say that if anyone wanted to gift her or honor her, they could donate to their favorite charitable cause in her name and let her know about it, and she believed that would create lasting happiness for both, without adding to the landfill of tissue paper.
So yesterday, I got a notice that she has made a donation in my name to Feeding America — which happens to be a terrific organization and one that my beloved supports. And you know what?
That gift made me totally, smiling, all-day happy
Happy enough to do the same thing for my extended family and friends, to share what I have with those who need it rather than Jeff Bezos, who gets plenty of my Amazon business already, believe me…
Happy enough to write this newsletter I’ve been putting off — to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year…
Happy enough to remind everyone to keep the faith… to share the faith, the faith that regular people, sharing with each other, can and will prevail.
So there’s your solution — go now, today, to the websites of the organizations that have been helping the people when the oligarchs and the politicians haven’t.
Make gifts in the name of those you love, and tell them about it, and pat yourself on the back for a minute, because dammit, you cared and you did something.
And that’s not nothing.
That’s a gift. | https://medium.com/notes-on-the-way-up/how-to-give-the-perfect-last-minute-gifts-and-totally-win-christmas-a3878fbb8f1b | ['Rev Dr Sparky'] | 2020-12-19 16:15:53.221000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Humor', 'Charity', 'Faith', 'Life'] |
“Homosexuals are also God-made human beings” | Arshad Sulahri
Objection to the rights and support of homosexuals and the attitude of cursing and blasphemy by some people by giving religious references is very unfortunate. In the following line, I have had to resort to the words of individuals for the sake of compulsive homosexuals and for those who gossip and a curse. Homosexuals are also human beings. It is human sympathy that they too should be considered human beings and their human rights should be discussed. They should be given the right to live. The main purpose of supporting homosexuals and talking about their rights is to keep them alive. No person or institution has the right to give or take their life. It is a grave sin to take the life of any human being for his unintentional act.
God loves human equality. Homosexuals are also created by Allah and are human beings. If a man or a woman has mental, physical and sexual defects, then He has not created them. Allah Almighty has created them with a special quality. It is not the fault of the man or the woman, nor do they have the power to do so. Therefore, expressing hatred towards such persons is tantamount to interfering with the law of nature. In addition to men and women, the third sex is recognized all over the world, while other identities between men and women are also recognized.
Hate on the basis of faith, race and identity is a violation of basic human rights. Which no religion allows. It is very unfortunate that in just two years in Pakistan, 80 people with different sexual identities have been deprived of their right to live. Most of them belonged to the eunuch community.
The sanctity and value of human life is more important than all beliefs, traditions and religions. It is generally said that homosexuality is a grave sin in Islam. Without research and thought, the fabric of homosexuality is linked to the nation of Lot. They had no separate identity at all. In the oldest traditions, people with distinct identities had an important place in ancient societies. He was considered worthy of love and special attention. Periods of recent monarchies also gave them special importance.
Today’s era on Pakistani soil has become a practical example of oppression and barbarism. It is haram for a child, a young person, or an adult to live in the society when their identity is revealed. Schools, colleges, universities, workplaces, offices and such places should be gathered here.
It is these oppressors who are teaching Islam. Instead of imposing Islamic morality on themselves, they impose it on others. This double standard and hypocrisy has become the first form of society.
The current era is one of personal freedom and human rights.
The demands of today’s age are to get rid of self-made chains and give every human being the right to live as he pleases. Pakistan is a constitutional state and recognizes the international charters of the United Nations. Every citizen of Pakistan is a part of the international community. Pakistan is not a country of a separate planet and is not a separate religious state.
Which has its own separate constitution and law. It is the duty of every citizen of Pakistan. Obey the constitution and law of the land. No citizen is above the law. According to the constitution and law of the country, homosexuals are equal citizens and have the right to live. | https://medium.com/@arshad-sulahri/homosexuals-are-also-god-made-human-beings-a922d1bff543 | ['Arshad Sulahri'] | 2021-03-22 22:51:42.240000+00:00 | ['LGBT', 'Muslim', 'Homophobia', 'Pakistan', 'Islam'] |
That Tall Blonde at the Callback — I’d Like to Thank the Academy… | Actors love validation, especially from their peers. “You like me, you really like me!” So it’s no surprise that the various awards programs in the Bay Area are always top of mind for lots of us. Getting named a Theatre Bay Area (TBA) recommended production is #squadgoals. And an individual acting nomination is the career goal of many a local actor (I’d certainly take one!)
That said, surprisingly few of us know how the nominations and awards work. And I’ve heard SO MANY comments from people about the validity or the non-validity of various awards. Things like “isn’t everything TBA recommended these days?”, “they don’t even watch the shows that they nominate” and “so-and-so just picks their friends and family”. So I did a bit of research to at least understand the basic process for the three local awards programs that I hear about most often — the TBA Awards, the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) Awards and the Shellie Awards. I did not dig into the various “vote for me on this website” awards — we’ll just ignore those for now!
TBA
From the website: The TBA Awards are designed to honor excellence in professionally oriented theatre through a peer-based, Bay Area-wide adjudication process. Each week, all season long, hundreds of TBA Awards adjudicators attend and evaluate eligible productions all over the Bay Area. Based on the overall production scores from these adjudicators, Theatre Bay Area publishes a weekly list of productions that have reached the required threshold of scoring to be deemed “TBA Awards Recommended.” All adjudicator votes throughout the season are then tabulated to determine that year’s TBA Awards Finalists and TBA Awards Recipients.
Of the three — TBA is the newest awards, but also seems to have the most formal, transparent process, and the largest number of adjudicators out there seeing shows. Theatres do pay to participate, however, and the theatres choose which productions they want adjudicated. (Registration fees for the 2018–19 season are as follows: Tier I: $250, Tier II: $175, Tier III: $125) I like the tiered process too, it’s by annual production budget and union (Actor’s Equity Association or AEA) involvement, so it’s a good attempt to similarly group productions, rather than pitting a world-class ACT show against a small community show. The tiers are:
· Tier III: Productions in this tier have no Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) requirement and operate on an annual budget below $400K. Tier III productions must be seen by a minimum of (6) six adjudicators.
· Tier II: Productions in this tier operate on some AEA contract and/or an annual budget of $400K or above. Companies operating under some AEA contract and an annual budget of below $400K may choose to participate in either Tier II or Tier III. Tier II productions must be seen by a minimum of (9) nine adjudicators.
· Tier I: Productions in this tier operate under LORT or BAT contracts with AEA. Companies operating with LORT or BAT contracts with an annual budget in excess of $1M must participate in Tier I. Companies operating with LORT or BAT contracts with an annual budget below $1M may choose to participate in Tier I or Tier II. Tier I productions must be seen by a minimum of 12 adjudicators.
How are the adjudicators chosen? Any individual member of Theatre Bay Area may apply to be an adjudicator. Chances are you know a handful of them! They must commit to score 18–36 performances per year. Adjudicators choose their first performance from a list of available complimentary tickets provided by the production company. Adjudicators are then assigned to their next production based on their selecting a performance date and time during which they are available to attend a production. The adjudicator can then choose their third production, be assigned to their fourth, and so on.
Within 48 hours of attending a production, adjudicators log in at the awards program website, select the ballot for that production and record numeric evaluations (from 0.01 to 10.0) on line on the ballot. They are required to evaluate all ballot lines except those that would create a conflict of interests or where the listed artist was absent from the performance attended. I drilled into this conflict of interest concept with all three programs. It’s always an honor system, so the adjudicators have to call out their own conflicts. TBA includes the following: ongoing paid or volunteer staff positions, board service, and close personal relationship (spouse/partner/family member) of someone in the production and/or related to the company. What’s missing here to me is close friends and people who may have auditioned for the show and were not cast. Now, I know we all know a LOT of people in the theatre community, so I see how it would be practically impossible to have a “friend” rule that was enforceable. None of the three programs seem to have a rule about not rating shows you were rejected from — I suppose it’s rare. But I did hear scuttlebutt that one of the adjudicators that came to see “Company” had auditioned but not been cast. Hope he/she/they were kind! All that said, the rigor in the process at TBA was very impressive.
Company was TBA recommended! I don’t have any individual nominations, but I have been in two “Best Musical” shows. WAY back in the day, I was in a Chabot College production of “Good News” that won the SFBATCC Award for Best Musical. And (also quite a few years ago) I was in the Diablo Light Opera Company production of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” that won the Shellie for Best Musical.
San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle
While TBAs are mostly peer-adjudicated, the SFBATCCs are decided by both peer reviewers AND the community of theatre critics. There are adjunct and full members who each must see 40–100 shows per year. Full members are regular reviewers in print, radio, TV or digital media. Adjunct members are NOT critics, and have no requirement to post reviews, but “as directors, designers, performers, non-reviewing media members, etc., bring an additional level of critical perspective and experience or other theatrically-related background to the Circle.” This year’s awards ceremony was the 43rd annual — so they have been around a very long time. Similar to TBA’s “recommended” designation, SFBATCC awards certain productions that score highly a “Go See!” designation. There is tiering of the awards by house size (<100, 100–300, and 300+ seats), and some regional awards for best production (SF City, East Bay, North Bay, South Bay/Peninsula).
Like all three programs, there is a lot of rigor around the process. Affidavits attesting to having seen the shows they are nominating. Rules against nominating any work where there is personal involvement. A minimum of three critics must have seen the show to be considered for awards.
Shellies
These awards are not Bay Area wide, but are focused on the Contra Costa County area. But they have also been around a very long time — 2019 was the 40th Annual Shellie Awards ceremony. Currently, the regional companies participating are: Brentwood Theater Company, Center REPertory Company, Clayton Theatre Company, Contra Costa Musical Theatre, Onstage Theatre, Pittsburg Community Theatre, Town Hall Theatre Company and the Vagabond Players.
The nomination process here was different than the other two programs. Nominees are NOT selected by the “voting body” called the Shellie Committee, but are selected by each participating organization. So, for example, CCMT or Town Hall looks at their shows for the season, and picks and chooses what they think the best work was, and puts those forward, and then a ballot is prepared to be voted upon by the Shellie Committee (a confidential group of individuals). They stress that these individuals from the Shellie Committee DO attend each production. The Shellie Committee members then complete their ballots and forward them to the independent accountant who tallies the ballots and prepares the sealed envelopes which are not opened until the awards ceremony.
I hope this helps highlight some of the process differences across the three programs, and that you know a little more about these programs. What it highlights for me is just how much amazing theatre happens in the Bay Area every year! And for all three of the programs, it really is an honor just to be nominated. And a good excuse to get dolled up and put on a fancy dress, which I never complain about. :) | https://medium.com/@susantonkin/that-tall-blonde-at-the-callback-id-like-to-thank-the-academy-883bb8a949a7 | ['Susan Tonkin'] | 2019-06-01 09:35:21.074000+00:00 | ['Bay Area', 'Awards', 'Recognition', 'Musical Theatre'] |
How Blockchain Technology is Transforming Sustainable Development | ixo Foundation is a South African organization leveraging blockchain technology to optimize sustainable development impact. Using the ixo protocol, organizations and funders can use a decentralized impact exchange to create verified impact claims, essentially “proof of impact”. This proof can be used to access social impact bonds and government subsidies, and drives down the cost of evaluation. The data from these impact claims becomes a part of a global impact ledger, an open data commons that organizations, governments, and researchers can access to make informed decisions and optimize impact initiatives. ixo is proud to be partnered with Singularity University Venture, Innovation Edge, and UNICEF.
Shaun is an explorer and creative thinker who is on a personal quest to discover, design and invest in better ways for people to meet their health and human development needs.
Working as a medical doctor and international development practitioner, his career mission has been to increase access to better quality health services and life-saving medical interventions.
He has pursued this through conceptualising and implementing innovative development projects and by founding ambitious social ventures that have become successful programmes at scale and sustainable enterprises that continue to deliver social impacts.
Shaun Conway:
LinkedIn | Twitter
Ixo Foundation:
Website | Facebook | Medium | https://medium.com/blockchain-review/how-blockchain-technology-is-transforming-the-impact-economy-ixo-foundation-b5ad1aad8aba | ['Julien Breteau'] | 2018-03-23 20:15:08.935000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Videos', 'Blockchain', 'Founders'] |
NEW ERA FOR ETHEREUM: ASIC MINING | What it means for Ethereum to be mined with ASIC machines ? What will happen to GPU’s? Are they ASIC-resistant no more?
That’s the question circulating Tuesday in the wake of news that Bitmain, the China-based maker of hardware specialized for cryptocurrency software, had developed a new “ASIC” mining chip designed specifically to process ethereum transactions and claim the protocol’s rewards.
Bitmain confirmed the release of its Antminer E3 chips, which will retail for $800, in a tweet that broke what had been weeks of speculation that it would soon launch such a product, one that ran counter to statements from company officials to CoinDesk even hours before.
Still, for ethereum’s developers and users, the news wasn’t exactly a surprise — it had long been theorized, even in creator Vitalik Buterin’s earliest blog posts, that no algorithm for managing mining rewards would remain immune to ASICs forever.
Over time, Buterin’s argument was that innovations would prevail, try as developers might to keep their code optimized for general-purpose computers.
Yet, ethereum developers have been quietly building defenses for this future, long promoting design choices intended to protect the blockchain against hardware meant to consolidate rewards in the hands of companies or individuals capable of operating at scale.
As such, some have even gone so far as to propose further changes following the day’s news.
Such a step, a radical reworking of the software to render the new hardware unusable, might seem extreme if that weren’t becoming the norm among cryptocurrencies. Already, monero and siacoin, two smaller cryptocurrencies, are taking steps to propose a change to its software that would effectively block efforts by Bitmain to grow its business there.
As for the impact on ethereum, however, much remains unclear at the moment.
For one, there are doubts in the ethereum community that Bitmain’s mining chip is capable of significant performance increases, ones that would, say, be so pronounced they would inspire the widespread adoption of the hardware in the way bitcoin ASICs replaced hobby miners.
Further, there’s the ethereum technical roadmap, which already includes a planned shift away from proof-of-work, the system that today enables mining at all.
Indeed, Buterin has remained silent on the launch, though in his past remarks, he’s mostly focused on the idea that the impact of such an innovation is likely to be short-lived.
Speaking in a developer chat in February, Buterin wrote:
“I’m not convinced it’s worth expending resources caring too much, except to push faster on Casper.”
Poisoning the well
Stepping back, it’s important to understand ethereum’s mining algorithm and the platform’s historical attitudes toward the practice of mining — a mechanism it has always aimed to eradicate entirely.
Prior to the launch of the platform, a method for staving off the use of mining hardware even made it into the ethereum white paper, in which developers were encouraged to seek to analyze ASICs so as to render their ability to more quickly capture protocol rewards moot.
“Engineers can analyze existing ASICs, determine what their optimizations are, and dump transactions into the blockchain that such optimizations simply do not work with,” Buterin wrote.
However, due to security concerns, the initial methods described were spiked. Instead, developers implemented a proof-of-work algorithm similar to the one used in bitcoin.
Named ethash, the algorithm differs from bitcoin’s, though, in that rather than being suited for computationally intensive hardware like ASICs, it requires a lot of memory. This means that regardless of whether its mined on an ASIC or a GPU, both devices are necessarily encumbered by the storage requirements.
This definition is important, as it’s not clear whether Bitmain’s E3 ASIC has broken this fundamental aspect of ethash.
Speaking to CoinDesk, developer Nick Johnson said the ASIC doesn’t seem to have achieved any improvements that would qualify it as having achieved a performance boost much higher than the GPU cards used today.
“It looks like they’re basically just making a whole pile of special-purpose GPUs with a huge amount of memory in a case,” he told CoinDesk.
Possible response
Still, given the stakes of the shift, there are potentially more aggressive methods to pursue, the most obvious of which would be a change in the ethereum software to block Bitmain’s miners.
Developer sentiment concerning such a change has been heated, if inconclusive, spurred by long-held fears among developers about the profit-seeking behaviors of miners.
In a discussion on Github, a number of potential methods for blocking Bitmain’s ASICs have surfaced, ones which in the coming days are likely to calcify into a formal strategy that could help keep ethereum open to smaller miners and hobbyists.
As one user wrote on Github, citing the centralization of ethereum: “If a hard fork can prevent them from doing so, at least until [proof-of-stake] becomes reality, then my vote is in favor of the hard fork. Brick’em.”
As the comment provides evidence, even with an ethereum protocol change coming soon to potentially abolish mining, a vocal majority of developers would also support a fork that seeks to keep barriers to entry for mining low.
That’s not to say there aren’t those who see the matter differently. Speaking in a blog post, Cornell researcher and ethereum enthusiast Phil Daian warned that efforts to block Bitmain’s participation is akin to “censorship.”
Indeed, this mirrors past counterarguments that large-scale mining is a kind of “co-opetition” that, given its entrepreneurial nature, should be encouraged for the security it provides blockchains, even if it is at odds with the democratized access desired by developers.
Others aren’t as convinced. Indeed, some extreme proposals for preventing ASICs have surfaced, including the possibility ethereum could go so far as to mix multiple algorithms, though these have been largely dismissed as ill-conceived.
One thing’s for sure, however, tensions are high, even if formal action — or indeed even the basic facts of the situation — are still coming into focus.
According to the Bitmain site, the ethereum ASIC mines at 180 million hashes per second — less than conventional GPU miners. However, some ethereum users feel the numbers are flawed, writing on Github that the numbers have been fabricated.
Still, much won’t be known until the units ship.
Otrovio on the other hand, has already started taking precautions in the sense that his hardware shift was expected.
Humors’ got real! What do you think will happen? | https://medium.com/otrovio/new-era-for-ethereum-asic-mining-2345d8a7a129 | ['Vladamir Sergeyev'] | 2018-04-08 00:14:04.303000+00:00 | ['Ethereum', 'Bitcoin Mining', 'Blockchain', 'Ethereum Blockchain', 'Bitcoin'] |
Strategic Risk Management in Real Estate/ a snapshot into Simulations | Risk Management Support
The idea behind strategic risk management is to support a decision maker in taking a market position in accordance with the venture’s strategic goals, backed by the current market situation, based on predominating market dynamics, the circumstances of the own portfolio and what can be expected from respective target markets in the future.
The evaluation of those expectations is therefore data-driven and quantified in terms of — which future scenarios are more probable to materialise.
The practical convenience is the flexibility of implementation (it can be used as SaaS, APIs, Edge solution or even implemented as part of Excel based risk management programs) with 24/7 support.
In order to offer truly advanced analytics as well as quantified approaches and to uphold this support, a whole arsenal of advanced predictive analytics risk management tools is to be combined.
Here, in this article, we have a look at one of those tools, namely mid- to long-run simulations.
For this purpose, we do not run a whole simulation to get risk/ performance metrics results.
We rather want to see, how much more flexible and adaptable simulation methods are (expecially compared to a, e.g., sensitivity analysis in the more traditional business analytics environment) by focusing on one topic in the early stage of a simulation.
In short, we have a look at the correlation between investment yields in a regional market risk cluster.
The Data Set
Starting point of a simulation:
defining of market parameters of the asset classes in question,
of the asset classes in question, revealing of their respective market patterns and
and the identification and implementation of related markets in order to reveal the impact of a potential cluster risk behaviour.
All this is ingrained in the interdependencies of the market features represented by the correlation grid.
Here is a simplified example of the empirical correlation grid of a regional market cluster consisting of two markets:
image by author
Based on this net of associations, we take out one instance, i.e. the correlation among the investment yields of those two markets. The historic development of both yields revealed a quite strong association, i.e. so far they showed very similar patterns. The correlation factor equals to 0.8.
image by author
So, let’s see how this specific item is taken into account in the overall simulation.
Investment Yield Correlation
The correlation grid is embedded in the overall simulation which is otherwise fed by the marginal probability distributions of the single market features as well as the joint probability of all the market input as the spanning umbrella.
As mentioned before, the historic development of both yields revealed a quite strong empiric correlation equalling 0.8.
Given this fact (as well as all the other factors), the expected yield development in both markets within, say a 5-years term, is expected to be as follows (the plot below shows some of the simulated scenarios; the dotted black line represents the current market level):
image by author
But how does the correlation in those simulated scenarios perform? After all, our empirical baseline was 0.8.
As can be seen in the graph below, the yield correlation does not statically stay at the 0.8 — benchmark. It allows for a much wider range (see the grey area in the graph) compared to the 0.8 — cut (see the dotted red line).
image by author
This seems logical as the empirical correlation coefficient of 0.8 is based on the historic yield developments which could change in the future. Additionally, that 0.8 is just a glance into the real market dynamics which we actually do not know.
Therefore implementing a wider range of possible correlation factors does reflect a much more realistic approach than sticking to the given benchmark.
Nevertheless, the highest probability stays with a strong positive correlation among the investment yields to be realised in future movements. For example, a strong correlation ranging from 0.5 to 0.9 comes with a probability of around 67%. On the other hand, chances to have a correlation factor above 0.9 or even to have a negative correlation are a mere 4% each.
Adaptable and Flexible
Just keep in mind, how many potential future scenarios are incorporated in just this one snapshot of the overall simulation.
And all this potential scenarios are “weighted” by probabilities. In other words, at any step you know what are the odds that such a situation might materialise.
Also, consider that we just talked about one tiny piece in the puzzle. In contrast, there are so many more items (as you can see in the first graph/ correlation grid) which follow the same principles.
In such a risk simulation, all potential scenarios of a market development are evaluated and quantified in terms of their chances of getting materialised. Those results are combined with project/ portfolio data in order to derive a data-driven risk/ performance metrics and to offer “the big picture” to the decision makers.
This calculation which is happening in the background is a very complex statistical modelling approach, but focused on the goal to provide a simple-to-obtain result — with a single “push of a button” in an application which is available 24/7.
Especially, when you compare the possibilities this method offers with the limitations of sensitivity analysis in a more traditional risk management information system, it gets clear that there is a new generation of strategic risk models available which changes the “risk mindset” we had in previous decades.
Traditional sensitivity analysis is simply limited by the natural boundaries of creating different scenarios and combining different input features at once. Those traditional analytics miss to link up the different scenarios with their quantification, i.e. answering the question how serious it is that a range of scenarios might occur.
Different scenarios are simply weighted the same way giving the decision maker no real direction, and therefore not providing the necessary insights to take an informed market/ risk position.
This small example gives a very good indication how broad the possibilities and insights are, advanced predictive analytics methods are offering while paving the way for a strategic risk management, which is a complete change of concept we had up to now.
Instead of hours of manual work with a limited range of results, now we have a flexible, practical and fast way to offer decision makers a strategic tool with an advanced analytical background, using data driven models in order to detect risks and opportunities — the next generation risk management indeed! | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/strategic-risk-management-in-real-estate-a-snapshot-into-simulations-d2ddb0bbe724 | ['Christian Schitton'] | 2021-07-20 05:35:09.312000+00:00 | ['Predictive Analytics', 'Finance', 'Real Estate Investments', 'Big Data', 'Risk Management'] |
Laws of Nature: Waves | “As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated “building blocks,” but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitute the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the properties of any atomic object can be understood only in terms of the object’s interaction with the observer.”
― Fritjof Capra
Soundwaves
Sound is a sequence of pressure waves, able to propagate through various mediums like air or, to a much lesser extent, water. Unlike lightwaves, soundwaves can reverberate around objects; while this means that it’s easier for them to travel around objects and obstacles alike, it allows for the possibility of distortion.
This distortion must be accounted for on many levels, most notably for our purposes, those of a social importance. Information, by its very nature, is subject to variable kinds of distortion as it travels from receiver to receiver. We ought to apply this fundamental rule of nature to our own social interactions, individually or collectively, and appreciate the fact that such reverberations can be employed as filters, amplifiers, scramblers or conveyors of any given message.
There are various elements in nature that muffle or carry sound. Subtle elements which influence sound in subtle ways. Or obvious elements which can influence sound in more obvious ways.
For instance, a dense enough fog can carry certain types of sounds exponentially farther than they would otherwise travel, bouncing and vibrating off the suspended water molecules in the air; the closer the molecules are to each other, the easier and farther the sound can travel.
We ourselves can, if we so choose, consider our actions and our maneuverings through the world to be like sound. We can move through the various mediums which we inhabit, riding certain elements with a relative ease compared to being smothered by other elements.
In a vacuum, we can’t do much, as we have little to no molecules to vibrate. In a sea of noise, we can be drowned out. But, all the while, the soundwave carries along, propagating itself throughout the surrounding world.
Lightwaves
Like sound, light is also a series of pressure waves — electromagnetic radiation. It’s much easier said than understood that humans can only perceive a sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum, what we call our range of visible light.
Countless lifeforms in this world can pick up on various ranges of the spectrum that we can’t. For instance, how some birds perceive UV light and some reptiles perceive infrared.
Still, from that limited portion of electromagnetic radiation that we can see, it lights up our world in ways we seldom appreciate.
To see light from the sun being both entrapped and released as an iridescent scintillation of colors glistening atop snow is to realize that even a photon of light is comprised of many elements that can disperse and consolidate.
To appreciate how the various colors of light become absorbed or photosynthesized by nature, that plants and animals like possess cryptochromes — photoreceptors — that regulate light absorption and tune the circadian clocks is to understand the inherently intricate design of our biological systems.
To appreciate how light can equate to heat and how heat can, itself, illuminate; to also appreciate that heat need not signify light and that light need not radiate heat is to understand the interplay of energy. To understand that heat loss and heat transfer is the signature of entropy in our reality, signifying the perpetuity of motion and change, is to appreciate our ever spiraling existence from order to disorder.
I encourage anyone to sit atop a mountain on a windy day and notice how the sun, upon emerging momentarily from the pacing clouds, creates a sudden but subtle reaction in the atmosphere, as wind gusts emanate from nowhere and the sudden impact of light photons raining upon the surrounding area is felt everywhere. | https://medium.com/borealism/laws-of-nature-waves-e2486e43c0b7 | ['Michael Woronko'] | 2020-11-27 17:24:36.845000+00:00 | ['Science', 'Philosophy', 'Life Lessons', 'Lifestyle', 'Energy'] |
I get back my lost phone!! | Photo by Matteo Fusco on Unsplash
Hello there ! Prem here. I completed bachelors in Information & Technology from one of the Tier-3 colleges in the first half of this year. Currently, I am doing Job in IT company as Software Engineer and have industrial experience of 16 months. This is all about me.
First of all, I take you to the time when i got my phone. After completing my exams of 12th science (aka 10 + 2 / Junior College), I got my phone (I-phone 6- Space grey- 16GB) from my father ( on 10th April 2016, Sunday I guess). This was my first phone means i can put this phone in my pocket for longer span and play games whatever i want. At that time, I am fond of I-phone like others but actually this is not tenacity. Since its 4 years and x months, I am still using that same phone now.
Now I shed some light on what happened to my phone. Its time of Covid crisis and in the time of pandemic, Every country, state and people face severe problems. I was living in Ahmadabad-Gujarat, India and it was lock-down time. We are little bit tense but living life as i was working WFH for company and my father is working for Transport company so that time sometimes he was called by company for work.
Photo by Nigel Tadyanehondo on Unsplash
One day in Afternoon, we got call from our town (Ladol-Vijapur, Gujarat) that my grand mother died 😢. so at that moment we (means my parents and some relatives) went for our town for funeral & last rites. It was difficult time for our family but problems were not steer clear from us. In the memorial service (બેસણુ / बेस्नु ) of my grand mother, relatives from every nearby towns came and met us. I belong to Rajput family and there, its rituals which were followed from longer time.
After some days, My moti-mummy (Elder mother / Wife of Elder brother of your father) suffered from difficulties. As she is diabetic and BP patient, its usual for her to face this kind of things. but condition become little bit complicated and mota-pappa took her to the hospital. Town hospitals doesn’t have proper technology and instrument so they suggested to move on city side hospital. she is hospitalised by city hospital and take some measures. My moti-mummy tested +ve for Corona. Condition became too critical as his health is also not good and she died in a day. Back to back deaths make us too emotional. We thought that they infected by corona in grand mother’s memorial service. But its our assumptions and we can't do any thing now.
funeral and last rites was done by us and my brother (son of moti-mummy)came to Ahmadabad from Australia in 3–4 days. In the memorial service, as usual relatives from nearby towns came and met us.
At that morning, i put my phone on change in home and sat in compound with brothers and relatives. People from Around 10–12 towns came and sat with us. After some time when i needed my phone for some work and went home to grab it. There was no Phone !! 📱 I searched every where and also tell my mother whether she take it or not. I called in my phone but no one is responding. At last, some one received call but no answer.
Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash
Little bit upset but what can i do now ?? Its not mine fault. How can someone steal something in this time. 💢
At that time, i thought about Find My Iphone and take my laptop and search it on google. and i got the location of my phone. Little bit hope !!!!
My Jijaji (Husband of my Sister), Uncle and one Brother (name: mitu) took a car and just tracking the location. After some time Phone was switched off by theft but we almost got that the theft belongs to specific this town (I don’t want to mention name as not everyone in the town is like him/her).
We didn’t get the phone but got the location where we could find my phone. we met the local govt. council of village and person gave a hint as well this person(lady) might be the thief but no one is ready to talk with her as she is criminal minded and use laws / woman card in her on way.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Now we found out the thief but not phone. I lose my hope and i can’t do anything now. I reported in local police station with my mobile bill as i have a proof that my phone was stolen at that time, if wrongdoers use this phone in wrongdoing.
Now the coincidence time, My maternal uncle was also from that town and he also knows that evil woman. He told other people of town that “my nephew was filed complain and IT engineer so he can able to find out phone easily in 1–2 days. He got the location as well. and talked with local govt. of village.” Evil woman frightened by this words and now she got that now i should place this phone in that place where i got my phone. And she placed my phone compound of my maternal uncle. Maternal Uncle called my mother and told her that space grey coloured phone is found from the compound and Is it sonu’s phone?? (sonu, my nick name). And this is how i got my phone back.
Thanks to the everyone who supported me in this time !!!!!! As this present 🎁 is really really important for me.😊 | https://medium.com/@prem-parmar/i-get-back-my-lost-phone-c68f863a980c | ['Prem Parmar'] | 2020-12-30 03:55:12.855000+00:00 | ['Police', 'Apple', 'Thief', 'Findmyiphone', 'iPhone'] |
LIVE-BOXING || Joseph Parker vs Junior Fa Fight Live Tv FREE Coverage 2021 | Joseph Parker vs Junior Fa: Great rivals face off in biggest fight in NZ history
BOXING
Junior Fa and Joseph Parker face off in Auckland in a huge NZ boxing clash on Saturday.
🔰LIVE🔴🆗✅GO📲💻► http://bit.ly/parker-vs-fa
Junior Fa and Joseph Parker face off in Auckland in a huge NZ boxing clash on Saturday.
Source: Getty Images
One of the biggest bouts in New Zealand boxing history takes place on Saturday night when heavyweight pair Joseph Parker and Junior Fa face off in Auckland.
The pair split the honours across four fights in the amateur ranks, but now meet again for the first time in eight years in a hotly-anticipated professional bout with plenty on the line.
🔰LIVE🔴🆗✅GO📲💻► http://bit.ly/parker-vs-fa
Here’s everything you need to know.
Watch Junior Fa v Joseph Parker only on Foxtel’s Main Event, on Saturday 27 February at 5.30pm AEDT. ORDER NOW >
Joshua v Fury not even closeJoshua v Fury not even close1:12
Parker (27–2) has only lost to UK superstars Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, but has since rebounded with a KO win over Shawndell Winters in February 2020.
The 29-year-old is ranked inside the top 10 among world heavyweights, and a dominant win would launch him back into world title contention.
For Fa, 31 years old and unbeaten in 19 pro fights, the bout represents the biggest opportunity of his career. He currently holds the WBO Oriental interim heavyweight title, with his last fight a unanimous decision over Devin Vargas in 2019.
A win would send him onto the world stage.
Parker weighed in at 108.9kg, typical for his career, while Fa tipped the scales at 118.1kg.
Along with the big weight difference, Fa boasts a reach advantage of 11cm, and 3cm in height.
Parker said he was not looking to bigger things, but was purely focused on victory tomorrow.
“Everyone can talk about the other fights in the future, but my focus is purely on Junior Fa … this is the fight that matters most to me. There’s no point thinking about future fights if I can’t get past Junior Fa.”
HOW TO WATCH
Watch Junior Fa v Joseph Parker only on Foxtel’s Main Event, on Saturday 27 February at 5.30pm AEDT. ORDER NOW >
The CLEANEST KO you’ll ever seeThe CLEANEST KO you’ll ever see0:24
FULL CARD
Main Event
Not before 8.30pm AEDT
Heavyweight: Joseph Parker (108.9kg) v Junior Fa (118.1kg)
Undercard
From 5.30pm AEDT
Heavyweight: Julius Long (148.2kg) v Hemi Ahio (104.6kg)
Cruiserweight: David Nyika (90.4kg) v Jessie Maio (85.7kg)
Cruiserweight: Nik ‘The Greek’ Charalampous (90.2kg) v Panuve Helu (89.4kg)
86kg catchweight: Jerome Pampellone (81.7kg) v Anthony Amouta (86.5kg)
FIGHTER BIOS
Joseph Parker (27–2)
Age: 29
Height: 193cm / 6’4”
Reach: 198cm / 78”
Nationality: New Zealand / Samoa
Former WBO Heavyweight Champion
Rankings: WBO #3, IBF #6, WBC #7
Has won his last three fights by KO
Of his 27 victories, he has won 21 by way of knockout
The only other person to defeat Andy Ruiz alongside Anthony Joshua
Has never been stopped
Junior Fa (19–0)
Age: 31
Height: 196cm / 6’5”
Reach: 204cm / 80.5”
Nationality: New Zealand / Tonga
Undefeated in 19 fights (10 KOs)
WBO Interim Oriental Heavyweight champion
53 per cent KO rate
Ranked №5 by the WBO
Has only been down once in his professional career | https://medium.com/@superbowlonline/live-boxing-joseph-parker-vs-junior-fa-fight-live-tv-free-coverage-2021-249f92a421bf | ['Boxing Fight Live Free Streams'] | 2021-02-26 18:25:26.710000+00:00 | ['Live', 'Boxing', 'Fight', 'Coverage', 'TV'] |
The Best Gifts for Writers in 2020 | The Best Gifts for Writers in 2020
Surprise the writer in your life with the perfect gift
Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash
Are you looking for a great gift for the writer in your life? Or are you a writer who wishes your friends and family would get you a thoughtful gift that aligns with your passion as a writer? InspireFirst has you covered right here with our list of best gifts for writers!
Don’t go the easy route by slapping a gift card into an envelope and calling it day. Be thoughtful with your gift choice. Buuuuuuuut if you decide to get a gift card for the writer in your life, get them a Barnes & Noble gift card because writers love to read good books.
Some of the following links are affiliate links and could pay us a small commission at no cost to you. Check out our Affiliate Disclaimer.
Best Tech Gadgets for Writers
Let’s start with some cool tech gadgets for writers. Electronics make cool gifts because they can make writing tasks more enjoyable, efficient, and convenient. Here are our favorite tech gadgets for writers:
Photo by Aleksi Tappura on Unsplash
Best Laptop for Writers
Your friend or family member would love you forever if you took the time to research and purchase the best laptop for a writer. We dedicated a huge review article that breaks down the best laptops for writers. Here are our two favorite laptops for writers:
Apple MacBook Air
The Apple MacBook Air owns the crown as the best laptop for writers because of its speed, durability, and almost 12 hours of battery life!
ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 2-in-1 Laptop
This ASUS Chromebook is the best laptop for bloggers because it’s lightweight, has the super-fast and easy-to-use Chrome OS, possesses elite battery life, and delivers seamless connection to Google Docs and Google Cloud.
Photo by Tomasz Gawłowski on Unsplash
Headphones for Writers
A good pair of noise-canceling headphones helps writers focus during their writing process. Brands like Sony, Bose, Skullcandy, JBL, and of course Apple Beats are all in the competition for the writers’ demographic. Here are our favorite noise-canceling headphones for writers.
Bose QuietComfort 35 II Wireless Bluetooth Headphones
Sony WH1000XM4/B Bluetooth Noise Cancellation Wireless Over-Ear Headphones
Time Management Gadgets
Time management is important in order for writers to be productive in their craft. You or the writer in your life needs to write when they’re supposed to write and generally organize their life optimally. Why? Because writing requires a lot of focus and diligently sticking to a schedule is the best way to dedicate time for focused writing sessions. Here are our favorite time management gifts for writers:
Time Timer Audible Countdown Timer
Use the Time Timer Audible Countdown Timer to do focused writing sessions. Use it to do the Pomodoro technique or any other time management technique that’s helpful for writers. This cool clock operates quietly, which is good for those who are easily distracted. The Time Timer is also a great timer for helping people with ADHD.
Purchase the Time Timer Audible Countdown Timer
Best Software and Services for Writers
At InspireFirst, we utilize some of the best SaaS (software as a service) applications to keep us efficient and productive. Writers, authors, and bloggers need the proper tools to build a professional brand, one that consists of quality content, an informative website, and a clean and attractive visual brand. This is when good software comes to the rescue.
Grammarly Premium
Grammarly is a dream for writers who want to boost their content’s quality grammatically and stylistically. We covered Grammarly Premium in-depth here at InspireFirst. Grammarly Premium would make a great gift for a writer because it will help them improve their content for their readers’ enjoyment. We use Grammarly Premium to review every letter for our content. Make Grammarly a gift for the writer in your life!
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
Audible and Kindle Unlimited
Good writers love good books. An Audible subscription (audiobooks) and Kindle Unlimited subscription (unlimited reading of over 1 million eBooks) will give the writer in your life unlimited access to their favorite books to keep them inspired and entertained during their downtime.
Rev Audio Transcription
What if you need to record and transcribe audio as part of your writing duties? Recording and transcribing audio is important for journalists and podcasters. If you want to be a solid friend, give Rev Audio Transcription to the writer in your life. Learn more about audio transcription services.
Asana
We love Asana because it helps us stay organized and on top of our tasks. The Asana project management platform will help you or the writer in your life know what to work on and when it needs to be completed. And it can be used on a laptop, desktop, tablet, or mobile device. This is why we believe an Asana subscription would be a great gift for a writer.
Best Notebooks and Journals for Writers
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
A good notebook or journal for ideas and brainstorming can help writers overcome a pesky case of writer’s block. A beaten and worn notebook is a well-used and purposeful notebook. Give your loved one the opportunity to wear out a good notebook! Get your friend a notebook that’ll last them — one that is of sustainable material and character. Here’s a list of the best notebooks for writers (in our humble opinion):
Paperage
Field Notes
AndSoTheyMade Personalised Notebook
Lightning Design Store
Pens for Writers
Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash
I know it may seem old-fashion, but fountain pens and ballpoint pens make great gifts for writers. Just like there’s a whole community of photographers who find comfort in shooting with film/analog cameras, there are many writers who do not write on laptops and tablets but on pen and paper.
You may be thinking, “A pen is a pen. As long as it functions, you should be capable of knocking out some good work.” However, there’s just something about a good fountain pen or ballpoint pen.
If you want to purchase a great ballpoint pen for your writer friend, we’ve got you covered. You can go super fancy with a Montblanc Meisterstuck Platinum Line Classique ballpoint pen. Montblanc pens can cost a pretty penny, but their value is undeniable. They can last up to 7 or 8 years! Just don’t lose it! Geesh.
I understand if you want to find a more affordable pen for your writer friend. In this case, you can’t go wrong with the PILOT Precise V5 RT Refillable & Retractable Liquid Ink Rolling Ball Pens (12-Pack) or the Schneider Slider Rave XB Ballpoint Pen (Box of 5).
Bags and Backpacks
Photo by Lina Verovaya on Unsplash
If not working from home at a desk or in bed, many writers travel around to find that perfect spot for inspiration. Writers like to get out of the comfort of their homes and write from other places — maybe a coffee shop, a library, or at the park. For these kinds of outings, it would be extremely helpful for the writer in your life to have a great bag or backpack.
There are a number of nice options to consider. There’s the messenger bag, the tote bag, and the good ol’ bookbag. Most backpacks come with laptop cases nowadays, and if you’re looking for gift ideas for a writer in the form of a bag, you’ve got to know your writer. Do they use a laptop? Do they prefer a pen and pad? This will help when buying a bag for your writer friend. Here are our favorite bags for writers:
Wxnow Tote
Cloele Tote
Kattee Store Leather Tote
Herschel Backpack
Mactso Messenger
Rustic Town Messenger
Need More Help?
We’ve given you a good number of ideas for great gifts for writers. They make good gifts for aspiring writers too…maybe just the right gift from this list will inspire them to write their first article or book!
A lot of the tools and supplies that writers value aren’t common knowledge. It’s my hope that this list was helpful for you and will be a blessing for the writer in your life.
But maybe there’s something else that you’re looking for. Join our writers’ community on Facebook and ask the community what they think would be a great gift for a writer.
Lastly, if you’re a writer and you like some of the items that I listed above, share this article with your family and friends so they can get you a great Christmas gift or birthday gift. | https://medium.com/inspirefirst/the-best-gifts-for-writers-in-2020-1c20493f0d08 | ['Christopher Luxe'] | 2020-11-17 19:55:48.198000+00:00 | ['Shopping', 'Gifts', 'Writers', 'Writing', 'Christmas'] |
Redesigning Google Analytics from the Ground Up — How to Design User-Friendly Data Visuals | Google Analytics is a tool with a high learning curve that focuses on powerful functionality and customizability. Here is a screenshot of a demo account.
As you can see, it uses an open sandbox design.
However, for newbies and veteran marketers alike, open sandbox designs are often overwhelming and can lead to questions that are not addressed by the design.
For example: which analyses should be performed routinely and which for special cases? How do I confirm a campaign’s effectiveness? Is the growth I’m seeing in my traffic good or bad?
The biggest weakness of this sandbox design is the underlying assumption that the user knows where to look for an insight and how to look for it. On the other hand, user-friendly data visuals assume almost nothing about the skill level of the user so, for today, we’re going to focus on how to build an effective one.
The first thing to understand is that user-friendly design requires a ground-up approach. Simply put, first we understand the user’s needs and pain points with GA. Then, using design, we try to resolve their pain.
Who are our users and what are their needs?
This is the first question that needs to be addressed for any user-friendly design. In order to do this, we first hypothesize about the needs of our core audience: marketers at small to medium e-commerce businesses.
To help put a face on our audience, we’ll call our hypothetical marketer Brendan. Brendan works with a small team on marketing and he gives weekly reports using Google Analytics metrics.
Brendan is interested in his website’s performance this week and has been monitoring his traffic with Google Analytics once a week. He wants a visual that allows him to accurately judge whether his metrics are going up, going down, or staying the same — in other words, which metrics are doing well and which are doing poorly.
Standard practice is for marketers to assess website performance by looking at how their metrics have changed during the last week and how drastic that change is.
So, we need our data visualization to convey 2 primary things.
The change of the default Google Analytics metrics (there are 9 of them) since the previous week.
The magnitude of their change.
Designing Visuals for the Needs of the User
In order to move away from the sandbox design, we need to look for effective data visualizations that tell strong narratives. In the visualization list from Storytelling with Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, the emphasis on change over short time periods suggests the use of text and slope graphs. (Slope graphs are essentially mini-line graphs that only show two time points.)
Let’s Start with Text.
Don’t underestimate text because it’s not “complex.” If text can communicate both change and magnitude effectively, why reinvent the wheel? Looking at one metric, text isn’t too bad. Brendan can clearly see and understand whether the metric has changed and by how much. Unfortunately, our real-life case involves 9 metrics.
This is visual overload. It’s pretty unreasonable to ask Brendan to piece together a narrative from 9 blocks of text about changing quantities. The idea of change is getting across, but the main issue is that nothing visually differentiates the magnitude of change. This means that it’s a lot more work for Brendan to interpret. After some deliberation, we settled on adding a visual aid and arranging it into a dashboard.
Not bad. With the addition of a small visual aid and some re-arrangement, we made a dashboard that helps Brendan with certain aspects of analysis. Brendan can now quickly scan and understand that these metrics belong in groups. The top group shows amount of traffic. The middle group shows type of traffic. The bottom group shows quality of traffic. Also, by adding an additional arrow for each 10% change, Brendan can get a much better sense of the magnitude of change. As such, Brendan can immediately compare the changes between grouped metrics and then begin hypothesizing based on the data shown.
For example, users have gone up by 2 arrows but sessions and pageviews have only gone up by 1 arrow.
So, the increase in pageviews and sessions is lagging relative to the increase in users. This suggests that new users are not exploring as many pages or making repeated visits as often.By adding a visual aid and grouping the information, Brendan is better able to hypothesize about the website’s performance. Now, we have a strong candidate for data visualization, and we haven’t even fully left the realm of text yet.
Now, Let’s Try a Trendline
To simplify things, we’ll isolate it to users, sessions, and pageviews. We want to see if this improves our dashboard.
It’s immediately obvious that trendlines have the clear advantage of being more visually pleasing and concise. They clearly show where the metric started and where it ended up. The slopes of each line seems to represent the magnitude of each change. This visualization seems well suited for weekly metric analysis.
Now, it seems natural for Brendan to look at that graph and say “Woo! Everything is increasing! Hooray!”
However, there is a hidden implicit assumption made that isn’t shown in a normal trendline. I’ll add it below.
After seeing this, Brendan might not be celebrating anymore. Notice how sessions and pageviews both had steeper slopes when going from 0 to last week? Since last week, their slopes have leveled off to the exact same slope as users. This graph suggests that newer users are visiting the site once, looking at a single page, leaving, and never coming back. That doesn’t sound too healthy from a marketing standpoint despite the fact that all of the metrics are experiencing growth.
Therein lies the weakness with using a trendline. While slopes excel in showing the absolute change from last week to this week, they do a poor job of showing the percentage change.
Even with the 0 segment added, and having a theoretical slope to compare with the current slopes, there is no clear indication of how much the slopes have leveled off. This forces Brendan to judge percentage changes by trying to visually assess the difference in slope between the dotted slope and the corresponding solid slope, further complicating analysis.
Text or Trendline? Which is More Useful to the User?
In designing our user-friendly data visualization, we need to choose which design is most helpful to Brendan.
These two visuals essentially tell the same story, and each one has pros and cons. Let’s look at both together to summarize their strengths and weaknesses. | https://medium.com/analytics-for-humans/redesigning-google-analytics-from-the-ground-up-how-to-design-user-friendly-data-visuals-ca166b3b275e | ['Zach Diamond'] | 2018-06-08 19:40:05.056000+00:00 | ['Analytics', 'Design', 'Data Visualization', 'Google Analytics', 'Data'] |
How to Easily Increase Instagram Followers (17 Hidden Tricks) | Getting ahead on Instagram can seem like hitting your head against a wall. For every new Instagram follower, it’s like you lose tons more. If only there was a way to increase your Instagram followers without having to play that game of cat and mouse.
Luckily there is!
In this article, we’ll show you how to increase Instagram followers with a few of our secret tips and tricks.
Here’s a table of contents to help you navigate this post:
Develop a unique style Improve your Instagram image quality Get creative with captions Spark conversations with popular hashtags Make the most of your Instagram bio Use Instagram stories for authenticity Remember to use calls to action Display an Instagram feed on your website Embed your Instagram feed in an about page Curate content with hashtag feeds Display full-screen Instagram stories Highlight product review posts in your Instagram feed Create shoppable Instagram feeds Show social proof on cart pages Highlight Instagram posts you’re tagged in Enable easy sharing for Instagram posts Run a viral Instagram giveaway
How to Increase Followers On Instagram Without Following Everyone
As we just mentioned, it’s entirely possible to grow your Instagram followers without having to follow everyone. And it’s even easier when you use Instagram Feed Pro to display custom Instagram feeds on your WordPress site.
Instagram Feed Pro from Smash Balloon is the #1 highest-rated Instagram feed plugin for WordPress. And besides helping you add stunning Instagram feeds to your website, it’s super-simple to set up, which is perfect for beginners with little design experience.
With that in mind, let’s look at how to increase followers on Instagram without following…well, everyone!
1. Develop a Unique Style
One of the easiest ways to get more Instagram followers is to develop a unique style and aesthetic for your account.
Because there are so many people all vying for attention on Instagram, you need to stand out to get noticed. A clear visual content style sets you apart from the competition and makes it easier for people to recognize your brand.
Rosie Clayton does an excellent job with her Instagram theme of bright, color pops. And with over 100,000 followers, her style choice certainly paid off.
2. Improve Your Instagram Image Quality
Since Instagram is an image-heavy social media platform, it’s crucial you pay particular attention to the quality of your images.
Great-quality images have the power to draw in tons of traffic, engagement, and followers. But photos that look thrown together can have the opposite effect of driving people away from your profile.
You don’t need expensive equipment to take great photos for Instagram. Your smartphone camera will do the trick if you’re careful with lighting, props, and filters.
This photo shot with a Google Pixel demonstrates how smartphone photography can create some insanely good images.
Even though we’ve talked about the power of images on Instagram so far, it doesn’t mean you should ignore the words you use. Your image captions are a great place to engage with your audience and use persuasive language to encourage them to follow you.
Try using image captions as a way to tell a story about your photo. That way you can tap into readers’ emotions, and give them an interesting experience.
Chances are, if they enjoy what they read, as well as what they see, they’ll come back for more and follow you.
Hashtags are an excellent way to help other Instagram users find your posts. And if you add a range of topical and popular hashtags to each post, there’s a high chance you’ll spark some interesting conversations.
For example, you can combine topical hashtags like #wedding and #weddingphotography with a few popular choices such as #Instagood, and #photooftheday to encourage more people to click through and follow you.
Pro-tip: Want more exposure for your branded hashtags? You can also use Instagram Feed Pro to display a hashtag feed on your website, just like what Fenty Beauty did below. To recreate this for your own brand, check out the full tutorial on how to add a hashtag feed to WordPress here.
5. Make The Most of Your Instagram Bio
Your Instagram bio is the most important real estate of your account. It’s from there that users get to know more about you and your brand, as well as discover your website, and the other places you hang out online.
Make your bio as interesting as you can to get more Instagram followers with some of these tricks:
Add relevant hashtags to make it easier for people to find your profile
Include your website URL so people can learn more
Choose words carefully to describe your brand using as little space as possible
Add emojis to convey emotion, character, and personality
6. Use Instagram Stories for Authenticity
Did you know that Instagram stories can help you develop a personal connection with people?
Because stories are more informal and have a shorter lifespan than typical Instagram posts, you can afford to be a little less polished. This can make you seem more approachable and authentic, which is something people love to see in brands on social media because it shows you’re human.
Even better, authenticity builds trust, which makes it more likely you’ll attract followers as a result.
7. Remember to Use Calls to Action
Next up is a trick lots of people forget about. And that’s adding calls to action (CTA) either in the captions of their posts or in the image.
CTAs tell people what action you want them to take next, so if you want them to follow your profile, it’s worth giving them a nudge in the right direction. If you don’t ask, you won’t find out, right?
In this example, the CTA is to help the author come up with a title for their new book, which shows how a clear CTA can spur people into action.
8. Display Your Instagram Feed on Your Website
Another great way to grow Instagram followers is to add your feed of Instagram posts to your website. That way, site visitors get an instant snapshot of your Instagram content as soon as they land, which improves engagement and followers.
Even better, automatically pushing Instagram posts straight to your site keeps it looking fresh and updated. And that bolsters engagement on Instagram even further.
So how about we take a look at how to add an Instagram feed to your WordPress site? Just follow the guide below.
Connecting an Instagram Account
First, get your copy of Instagram Feed Pro here. Then when you’ve downloaded the plugin, follow these instructions for installing WordPress plugins to your site.
Now from your WordPress dashboard, click Instagram Feed “ Settings to configure the plugin.
To connect your Instagram account, click the blue Connect an Instagram Account button, as shown below.
From there, you can opt to connect a Personal Instagram Profile for users' feeds. Or you can select a Business Instagram Profile to display hashtag feeds etc.
When everything’s authorized, confirm your account, and you’re all set to start setting up your Instagram feed.
From the same settings page, you can choose to show photos from the following sources:
Your user account
Specific hashtags
Photos you’re tagged in
Mixed sources
You can also set the time Smash Balloon checks for new Instagram posts to display.
When you’re happy with your settings, click Save Changes.
Customizing Your Feed
To personalize your Instagram feed, click the Customize tab at the top of the screen.
From there, you can change how posts are shown on your website, as well as choosing to show or hide your feed header, load more buttons, and follow buttons.
There are 4 ways to display your Instagram feed with Smash Balloon. The options are:
Grid — A uniform grid of square-cropped images. Carousel — Posts displayed in a slideshow carousel with custom row settings. Masonry — Images in their original aspect ratio without any vertical space between them. Highlight — Masonry style and square-cropped images with highlighted posts displaying twice as large.
When you’ve chosen your settings, remember to click Save Changes.
Displaying Your Feed
To view Instagram feeds on your website, there are a few options. You can embed it in a WordPress post or page, or add it to a widget-ready area of your sites like your sidebar or footer.
First, we’ll tackle how to add your feed to a new WordPress page.
To begin, head to Pages “ Add New Page from the WordPress admin area. Then click the plus icon to add a new content block.
From there, type ‘Instagram feed’ into the search box to find the content block.
Now click the block to add it to your page. Your feed then populates the content area to display your Instagram posts with the settings you set earlier.
Now go ahead and publish your page to see your stunning feed on your website.
If you’d like to add your feed to a widget-ready area of your site, head to Appearance “ Widgets.
Then drag the Instagram Feed widget to the sidebar, and click Save.
Perfect! Site visitors can now engage with your feed on both a page and in your sidebar. Even better, they can follow you from there too!
9. Embed Your Instagram Feed on Your About Page
Another way to increase Instagram followers is to engage your target audience when they’re trying to learn more about you.
Your ‘About’ or ‘Start Here’ page is one of the first places new site visitors explore to get to know you and what your site is about. So, embedding your Instagram Feed in your about page gives curious visitors another way to connect with you.
It’s also the perfect way to show your personality less formally. And that can be the key to attracting more followers.
To add an Instagram feed to your about page, simply follow the steps we outlined earlier. But don’t forget to include engaging content to keep your readers interested. For help with that, here are some of the best about page examples on the internet.
10. Use Tailored Hashtag Feeds to Curate Relevant Content
You don’t have to use your own content to increase Instagram followers, either. Instead, you can curate content relevant to your industry and display it in the tailored hashtag feeds on your website.
That way, site visitors get to see fresh, relevant content, and you develop the reputation of being an influencer on those topics. And as you may already know, Instagram influencers can have massive sway over their followers’ purchase decisions.
Adding a tailored hashtag feed to your website to boost your following is pretty straightforward.
To begin, go to Instagram Feed “ Settings from your WordPress admin area.
Then click the radio button labeled Hashtag next to the Show Photos From heading. Then enter the hashtags you want to use separated by commas and click Save Changes.
Pro Tip: To display a hashtag feed, you’ll need an Instagram Business account connected to Smash Balloon.
When you’re happy with your settings, configure the display settings, as we detailed earlier. Then when you publish your feed, there’ll be a fresh stream of your chosen hashtags on your website.
Pretty easy, right?
For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to embed an Instagram hashtag feed on WordPress.
11. Use Immersive Stories to Showcase Full-Screen Instagram Stories
Did you know that Instagram stories are an excellent way to connect with Instagram users on a more informal and personal level? It’s true!
Stories on Instagram are more forgiving than the traditional feed, so you can upload content that’s not as polished, making you appear more authentic and down-to-earth.
You can also add Instagram stories to your website. Our Immersive Stories feature showcases your Instagram stories in a full-screen display. And not only does it increase engagement, but it keeps users on your site longer too.
To make your stories accessible on your website’s Instagram feed, head to Instagram Feed “ Settings “ Customize.
Then scroll down to the section labeled Header. Click Show Customization Options, then at the bottom where it says Include Stories, tick the checkbox.
Click Save Changes after.
Now navigate to your website’s Instagram feed. When you click your profile picture, your Instagram stories appear in a stunning full-screen lightbox.
12. Highlight Product Review Posts with Visual Moderation
Another way to increase Instagram followers is to build trust with your target audience using the power of customer reviews and testimonials. If people trust you more, they’re more likely to engage with your content and follow your profile.
An excellent way to build that trust is to display product reviews on your website. Product reviews offer real-life testimony for your products. And that can be the difference between more sales and none at all.
Product reviews come in all shapes and sizes. And nowadays, many people choose to express their feelings about a product or service on social networking sites like Instagram.
So what better way to improve trust than by displaying specific Instagram review posts on your website?
With Smash Balloon, you can highlight specific product review posts and photos with our smart Visual Moderation system, which is guaranteed to improve trust.
To do that, head to Instagram Feed “ Settings “ Customize tab. Then click the Moderation heading as shown below.
To allow visual moderation, click the Visual radio button next to the Moderation Type heading, and click the Save Changes button.
Now when you view your published Instagram feed, there’s an orange Moderate Feed button.
Click that button to open up visual moderation. From there, you can click individual posts to hide them from your feed. That way, you can display only the product review posts you’d like to include.
You can even set up a whitelist of posts to automatically include in your feed. For full instructions on how to configure a whitelist, see our documentation here.
13. Use Shoppable Feeds on Instagram to Boost Sales
Buying products right from an Instagram feed has fast become the new way to shop online. More and more people use Instagram to find the ideal purchase, so creating shoppable Instagram feeds makes a lot of sense for businesses.
Shoppable feeds link directly to your product page, so users can simply browse, click, and buy without any fuss. And offering that direct shopping experience can boost sales and followers significantly.
You can use Smash Balloon’s signature Shoppable Feeds feature to send users directly to your product pages.
To do that, head to Instagram Feeds “ Settings “ Customize tab. Then click the checkbox next to the Link Posts to URL in the Caption heading.
To link an Instagram post to a specific product page, simply paste the page URL into the post’s caption before you publish it.
Now when anyone clicks that post in your feed, they’ll go right to the linked product page.
Want to set up shoppable Instagram feeds for your own business? Just follow the instructions on this post about how to set up Instagram shopping on your website and you’re good to go!
14. Show Social Proof on Cart Pages to Reduce Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment is one of the leading causes of lost sales for online businesses. It’s where people leave your website at the shopping cart and checkout page before they’ve bought anything.
There are tons of ways to reduce shopping cart abandonment, but one of the best ideas is to show social proof on cart pages.
Social proof is where people follow the actions of others. And for your shopping cart, seeing that customers are talking about and buying your products can give shoppers the confidence they need to make a purchase.
You can display social proof on cart pages with custom Instagram Feeds.
Simply follow the instructions above to highlight review posts in your feed. Then, publish the feed on your cart pages to boost conversions and Instagram followers.
Interested in using the power of social proof to increase your sales? Check out more examples of social proof to help you grow your business in this article.
15. Display Tagged Feeds to Highlight Posts You’re Tagged In
Chances are you’ve got a bunch of posts you’re tagged in from other Instagram users. And they’re probably sitting there gathering dust and getting little interaction.
Here’s a way to transform those tagged posts into audience-building assets.
Use tagged feeds to display posts you’ve been tagged in by other users so you can increase your audience’s engagement with your Instagram account. And even grow your Instagram followers.
To set up a tagged Instagram feed on your website, head to Instagram Feed “ Settings from your WordPress dashboard. Then select Tagged next to the Show Photos From heading and click Save Changes.
Now your site’s Instagram feed will show only the photos you’re tagged in.
16. Enable Easy Sharing to Quickly Share Instagram Posts
Having content that’s easy to share on popular social networking sites is crucial for attracting more Instagram followers. If people don’t know you have an Instagram account, they simply can’t follow you there.
With that in mind, adding Instagram feeds to your site with easy sharing options will help you increase Instagram followers quickly.
Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed includes easy sharing to allow users to share Instagram posts right from your site quickly.
To see it in action for yourself, click any post on your website’s Instagram feed and click the Share link.
A small lightbox appears with options to share the post on:
Then you can let visitors do their thing and share your posts to increase brand exposure and Instagram followers.
17. Run Viral Instagram Contests to Boost Engagement
Our final secret tip for increasing your Instagram followers is to run a viral contest from your website. Giveaways and contests attract tons of traffic to your site, as well as helping to skyrocket your social media follower growth.
RafflePress, the best contest plugin for WordPress, lets you create Instagram contests without the hassle.
The ready-made Instagram contest template automatically populates your contests with powerful entry methods. Then you can grow your Instagram followers with a few clicks.
And when it comes to publishing your giveaway, you can embed it in WordPress using the handy contest widget block. Or for a distraction-free experience, you can craft a giveaway landing page to encourage tons more entries.
And the result?
Loads more Instagram followers, engagement, brand awareness, and traffic to your website.
And that’s it!
Now you know how to increase Instagram followers without following everyone you come across.
What are you waiting for? Grow your following today by adding beautiful feeds to your site using Smash Balloon.
Get Instagram Feed Pro today!
If you enjoyed this article, feel free to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more inspirational content. | https://medium.com/@midshop19/how-to-easily-increase-instagram-followers-17-hidden-tricks-484fbf0dc155 | ['Hamid Hayani Errai'] | 2021-04-07 16:46:22.396000+00:00 | ['Followers', 'Instagram Marketing', 'Following Christ', 'Instagram'] |
Virtual Holiday Party Ideas to Engage Remote Employees | With all the ups and downs that we have experienced this year, it is nice to know that we can still count on each other. A virtual holiday party for your remote team is one way to show them that we are all in this together and to remind people of the goodness and warm feelings that the holidays can bring.
If your team is new to the remote workforce life, then you and your virtual team may have by now adjusted to remote work.
So while it is not altogether enticing to have an office holiday party over the internet, it will surely get your remote team in the holiday spirit and bring together your remote staff in a way that is more enjoyable than a typical virtual meeting or work event.
Things to Consider When Hosting a Virtual Holiday Party
We have all been through a lot this year! Therefore, it’s important that you think about giving back to your team somehow. There are several things to consider when hosting a remote holiday party, such as what your remote employees can do, how much time they could give, the cost, and specific holiday observances.
If you have any budget, consider sending some small treats to your employees that are earmarked for the holiday event. That way they will be prepared for the event and the onus is not on them to prepare.
Try to find a time that works for everyone to maximize attendance. Consider hosting the event early in December so that it is out of the way and your employees are free to enjoy other holiday-related events like shopping and spending time with their families.
Depending on the size of your team and what the holiday party will consist of, it might be best to go with a professional virtual event software so that the event runs smoothly. Virtual event software has networking capabilities, which allows for more interaction and streamlining compared to a video conferencing app.
Virtual Holiday Party Ideas to Engage Remote Employees
A virtual holiday party is a great way to celebrate all the hard work that your remote team has done for the company. To give you some help, we’ve come up with a few virtual holiday party ideas to engage your remote employees.
1. Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Since you will be connecting with your team through a virtual interface, you might as well use it! In addition to dressing up and decorating your screen for the holidays, consider hosting a virtual scavenger hunt. Ask your remote employees to search the web for fun items like:
A quote from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
All of Santa’s reindeer’s names
An image of a Hanukkah menorah
The ugliest holiday sweater
Your company’s holiday hours
And much more!
Consider gifting the winning remote employees with something like a gift card or an extra day or half-day of time off!
2. Virtual Secret Santa
One great virtual party idea is, of course, the virtual Secret Santa gift exchange!
You can name this anything you want, but the idea is that your remote employees put some thought into getting another employee a gift for the holidays! You’ll have to start the Secret Santa a few weeks before your actual event so that your employees have enough time to get the gift situated.
If your team is really remote and in different parts of the world, ask that each remote employee provide suggestions that will be easy for anyone in the world to find. Remote employees could also give the recipient a placeholder gift and then coordinate with them after the fact (like a printout of a scarf). However, be sure that the recipient has something to “open” during the virtual event.
Be sure to put a cap on the price. Anything over $20 will be considered excessive.
3. Virtual Gingerbread Making
Virtual gingerbread making will require that your employees have gingerbread supplies on hand. However, this is a great holiday event for your remote employees to do with each other and with their families!
Recommend that your team gets the supplies about a week ahead of time. If you can, offer to give them a $5 or $10 gift card to cover the costs. Or, consider gathering the necessary items yourself and shipping them to each member of the team.
You can give a reward for the best gingerbread house and cap it at 30 minutes to make it!
4. Ski Chalet Theme
Ski Chalet is a ‘hybrid’ holiday party, which asks for your remote employees to keep busy on their end. You can either send them items or send them a gift card for items so that they can follow along. Guests should wear an ugly holiday sweater or their best chalet gear, have hot cocoa and marshmallows, and bring candy canes.
Don’t be afraid to ask your staff to tune in with their family, while at a holiday vacation home, or doing something fun, like being in the winter chalet hot tub! This theme is designed for your remote employees to be doing something fun while also staying connected to the team.
While video conferencing, ask your remote employees to play games like holiday trivia, holiday bingo, or you can watch clips from classic holiday movies together!
5. Winter Cocktails or Mocktails
Winter cocktails or mocktails are the perfect addition to any of these virtual holiday party ideas. A mocktail is a fun way to really get in the festive mood, so let your remote team know that they should plan for a company virtual happy hour so that they come prepared with mixers.
Don’t hesitate to provide recipes that use ingredients like cinnamon, peppermint, and schnapps. Winter cocktails or mocktails will go great with a festive outfit and holiday decorations. In addition to whipping up those drinks, ask your remote employees to decorate their home office. Tinsel, wreaths, and lights can be strung up around their desk. Give treats to those who do the best job!
6. Virtual Holiday Bingo
If your team loves bingo or other board games, then you can set up a virtual game session. Bingo is easy as templates can be printed out online. Create your own holiday-themed bingo that asks guests to list a Mariah Carey song reference or indulge those who still believe in Santa. Or, download a holiday bingo template off Pinterest.
Try to mix in some fun bingo ideas that also involve your company so that you get people thinking! Virtual holiday bingo is also a great team building exercise, which can be used as company icebreakers and getting to know your team better!
7. Virtual Murder Mystery
Murder mysteries are extremely popular and are a great way of engaging with your friends, family, and coworkers. They work through a remote environment, too, so don’t be afraid to set up your own virtual murder mystery!
If you are the creative type, then you can consider setting up your own storyline. Allow your remote employees the opportunities to get into a character, whether they develop their character themselves or you provide them with character options.
You can download a murder mystery online or order a board game and run the event virtually. There are plenty of downloadable murder mystery themes to choose from! Go wild!
8. Movie Watch Party
Streaming services like Netflix have a party feature, so you could consider hosting a virtual movie watch party. Ask your remote employees to coordinate a Netflix movie on their TV.
Be sure to give them a warning in case they don’t have a Netflix account (they can get the free 7-day trial!). While you’re watching the same movie you can engage with the “party” through the Netflix app or on a video conference software, which often allows video streaming and chat features.
If you don’t want to deal with Netflix, ask your remote employees to get the same festive movie, and then you can all start it together, separately!
9. Real Goodie Boxes
If you can splurge, a real goodie box sent to your remote employees’ homes will be a welcome treat. Not only will they know that you are thinking about them, but they will also be able to use the treats engaging with the team.
Try to send the goodie boxes early so that you know they will arrive on time! If there are perishables in the boxes, don’t send them too early! Or ask remote employees to refrigerate the box. You can have everyone open up the box at the same time while on a video call!
10. Full-on holiday party
Of course, you can use any or all of these ideas to host an all-out holiday party. While your remote employees may be tired of being on the computer all day, you can consider setting up these events and asking remote employees to do them over the course of a week.
Ask them to send pictures over. Everyone can vote on gingerbread houses, the best (or worst) holiday sweaters, or the best mocktail online via live chat or poll!
2020 has required a lot of creativity and innovation. The upcoming holiday season will be no different. We have all been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in one way or another so taking an opportunity to celebrate, be grateful and joyful, and enjoy the holiday traditions with your remote employees. This can go a long way to boosting morale and hopefully setting up a brighter 2021. | https://medium.com/accelevents/virtual-holiday-party-ideas-to-engage-remote-employees-39851003a199 | ['Ariane Ramirez'] | 2020-11-19 14:02:32.614000+00:00 | ['Event Planning', 'Live Streaming', 'Online Event', 'Event Platform', 'Virtual Events'] |
Pennsylvania veteran makes a difficult transition to civilian life with assistance from disabled veterans group | Pennsylvania veteran makes a difficult transition to civilian life with assistance from disabled veterans group Help DAV Feb 4·3 min read
Pennsylvania’s Ronald Kirby served 17 years in the U.S. Army, including four tours in Iraq.
Pennsylvania’s Ronald Kirby served 17 years in the U.S. Army, including four tours in Iraq. His service allowed him to earn a Bachelor’s degree in Homeland Security Crisis Management, graduating at the top of his class. It was Mr. Kirby’s return to civilian life, however, that proved one of his greatest challenges.
“I didn’t fit in,” said Mr. Kirby. “I wasn’t able to be as productive as I was in the military.”
Mr. Kirby attended a DAV job fair and earned a job working in a healthcare system.
“Putting that military uniform on each day made me so proud. Now I can continue to serve on the front lines — at home,” said Mr. Kirby. “I couldn’t have done it without DAV.”
DAV (Disabled American Veterans) is a non-profit charity that provides a lifetime of support for veterans of all generations and their families, helping more than one million veterans in positive, life-changing ways each year. DAV membership is available to individuals who served in the armed forces, were discharged under honorable conditions, and were wounded, disabled or became ill as a result of their military service.
“DAV partners with top recruiters and employers, offers networking with fellow veterans, and provides different career and life paths from which you can choose,” added Mr. Kirby. “DAV is one of the greatest resources you can use.”
Job fairs and other DAV programs are sustained by contibutions from individuals. One of the most popular DAV fundraising efforts is through the donation of vehicles. Thousands of individuals have learned that making a DAV vehicle donation is easy and can be tax deductible.
Donors receive free and convenient pick-up that is a touchless experience. DAV works around the donor’s schedule to pick-up DAV vehicle donations — as long as the auto donation for veterans is towable and tow truck accessible.
Those who make a DAV vehicle donation can get a tax deduction. An initial receipt is provided for the DAV vehicle donation at the time of the pick-up. If a vehicle donation sells for $500 or less, the donor will be mailed a thank-you letter within 30 days of the sale of the vehicle, which serves as a tax receipt.
If the vehicle donation for veterans sells for more than $500 and a tax identification number has been provided, an IRS Form 1098-C will be mailed within 30 days of the sale stating the amount of gross proceeds (the maximum amount of your tax deduction) received from the DAV vehicle donation. For specific tax-related questions, donors are encouraged to consult a tax advisor.
Make a DAV vehicle donation and turn your car, truck or boat into a resource that helps individuals like Mr. Kirby and thousands of other U.S. veterans.
Donate your vehicle to DAV today or get more information by calling 844–440–4267 or Car4DAV.com. | https://medium.com/@helpdav/pennsylvania-veteran-makes-a-difficult-transition-to-civilian-life-with-assistance-from-disabled-9f7cdb700671 | ['Help Dav'] | 2021-02-04 18:05:40.350000+00:00 | ['Veterans', 'Vehicle Donation', 'Disabled Veteran', 'Car Donation', 'Dav'] |
Cobalt Toxicity: The Poison in Her Hip Replacement | On her way to work one morning, Frances found herself lost in an area she had regularly driven for ten years. This was the result of a hip replacement she had undergone several years prior.
Frances, 47, was 39 when the cobalt alloy hips were implanted. Within weeks, her skin broke out in boils that would crack open and bleed. A multitude of harrowing symptoms soon followed.
“I developed memory loss, severe tinnitus, visual disturbances, confusion and PTSD-like rage/anxiety attacks,” she shares, as well as a migraine that landed her in the ER.
The effects of the cobalt alloy hips were life-altering for Frances. Unfortunately, her story is one lived by the many who cope with neurological issues as a result of cobalt toxicity.
The Data on Cobalt Poisoning and Neuropsychiatric Complications
A 2017 study in BMC Psychiatry looked at ten cases of metal-on-metal hip replacements. Out of 10 patients studied, nine experienced neuropsychiatric complications due to cobalt and chromium toxicity.
All nine participants who experienced those complications fulfilled the criteria for depression, and three of those patients were being treated for it.
Seven of the nine in the study showed short term memory loss and possible dementia.
In another study dating back to 2016, researchers suggested that some implants released metal particles and could be responsible for toxicity. These metal particles predominantly consist of cobalt and chromium ions.
In addition to the neurological concerns that cobalt poisoning poses, when combined with chromium, the cobalt ions can contribute to loss of appetite, weight loss, and low energy.
Chromium poisoning alone has also been associated with skin inflammation, renal failure, cardiovascular issues, and more.
While the studies and patient concerns establishing the invasive impacts of cobalt toxicity resulting from metal-on-metal hip implants are accessible online, however, metal-on-metal hip implants are still widely used in total hip replacement surgeries today.
The Chrome Cobalt Whistleblower
In the Academy Award-nominated documentary, which follows the lives of patients like Frances who have been personally affected by the dangers of the medical device industry, one doctor speaks to his own personal experience suffering as a result of his own medical device.
Dr. Stephen Tower is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in complex hip replacements. So, it came as a surprise to him when he began experiencing symptoms of illness due to his hip replacement surgery.
What were those symptoms? He labeled one of them “rapid behavior” after the cobalt poisoning led him to draw all over the walls of his hotel room. This behavior compounded by frequent tremors caused concern for his mental health among his friends and family.
Taking a scientific approach to the abnormal behaviors , Tower decided to look at the levels of cobalt in his blood and urine. He found his cobalt levels were over a hundred times the normal amount.
In excruciating pain, Dr. Tower underwent surgery once again — this time to have the medical device replaced.
What followed was gruesome. While on the operating table, Dr. Tower’s surgeon found the metal from the hip implant seeping into his body.
Once the body has been exposed to this metal in large quantities, risks are serious as deafness, nerve problems, thickening of blood, and issues with the heart.
The New York Times describes what the doctor saw, reporting, “[it] looked like a crankcase full of dirty oil.”
“Tissue surrounding the hip was black. Cobalt leaking from the ASR hip had caused a condition called metallosis, destroying not only local muscle, tendons and ligaments, but harming Dr. Tower’s heart and brain as well.”
A month after the metal was removed, Dr. Tower’s life was back to normal again, but he’s made it part of his life’s work to save the rest of the world from chrome cobalt implants.
Following extensive research into his own case and others like it, Dr. Stephen Tower’s coined the term Arthroplasty Cobalt Encephalopathy, or ACE , when addressing the array of neurological symptoms that resulted from his cobalt-hip-induced metal poisoning.
His list of common side effects include tremors, memory problems, fatigue, weakness, mood alteration, sleep issues, pain, weight loss, and blindness.
How Frances Copes
When Frances first struggled with ACE, she didn’t have Tower’s insights.
After initially noticing the symptoms, Frances reached out to a medical professional. She explains that they all seemed to find an excuse that varied from one diagnosis to the next.
Her hip surgeon denied that this was caused by the metal in her blood; a dermatologist said her painful boils were simply adult acne. At that point, even smiling caused her pain as contracting her muscles would cause the boils to ooze and burst.
Eventually, other professionals encouraged her to get an FDG PET scan to detect changes in the brain, however her insurance wouldn’t cover it.
Frances spent seven years of regular MRIs, cobalt and chromium tests, echocardiograms, and ultrasounds, and she there was no possible way she could afford the FDG PET on her own.
Today, she takes NAC, which Dr. Tower advised her to take . NAC is a medication used to treat acetaminophen overdose.
In addition to NAC and a mostly raw, plant-based diet, Frances notes, “I take cracked cell wall chlorella and spirulina, high dose niacin and vitamin C, bentonite clay capsules and psyllium husk capsules in an effort to help my excretory system get rid of the heavy metals in my blood.”
One-year following her bilateral revision surgery, she feels much better.
“ I don’t feel foggy, forgetful, confused or depressed like I did for most of the seven year period when I had the cobalt-chromium parts in my hips. I’m no longer scared of not being able to control my emotions and behavior like I did when my cobalt levels were at their highest. I have less fear now about my future, now that I know the poisoning devices have been removed. I pray my body can somehow repair the damage done by the cobalt.”
Nevertheless, ACE still affects Frances. She often thinks about others who are going through the same ails and trauma she endured for seven years.
Public Warnings
The UK’s Medical Products and Healthcare Devices Regulatory Agency published a 2010 device warning — advising patients to check in annually on their device for the fiver years following surgery.
In 2012, Canada addressed the issue, and Australia similar released a disclaimer. Recently, the FDA published a statement discussing the issues concerning metal on metal hip replacements.
It’s imperative for health care providers to disclose the risk of cobalt poisoning and how it can cause cardiac and neurological side effects.
With no real understanding of the possible risks, patients are left confused and in serious danger. Activists like Frances and Dr. Tower are only the beginning for increasing transparency on medical devices and the invasive risks of metal poisoning.
➕
Cobalt is found in batteries, chemistry sets, drill bits, saw blades, dyes, magnets, and tires.
Why should it be in a body?
→ Learn more about medical device problems ←
Featured photo by Ashley Lombardo
S. Nicole Lane
S. Nicole Lane is a freelance journalist based in the Southside of Chicago where she covers women’s health, the LGBTQ voice, arts, and entertainment. Her byline can be found in Playboy, Rewire News, i-D, Broadly and various other corners of the internet. She is also a visual artist who works with small-scale sculptures. | https://medtruth.medium.com/cobalt-toxicity-the-poison-in-her-hip-replacement-730041a140c5 | [] | 2019-08-08 19:25:16.380000+00:00 | ['Medical Devices', 'Implants', 'Public Health', 'FDA', 'Patient Safety'] |
2020’s Top Ten Stories: 5 things to know about the Poseidon | 2020’s Top Ten Stories: 5 things to know about the Poseidon
In at number 7 is 5 things you need to know about the RAF’s new P-8A Poseidon aircraft. As we countdown to 2021, we are taking a look at some of our most-read stories from the last year.
Each day in the run-up to New Year’s Day we will be reposting our most-read stories from 2020.
So far we’ve had;
10–2020’s Top Ten Stories: Inside Strategic Command
9 — 2020’s Top Ten Stories: Airborne soldiers make history
8–2020’s Top Ten Stories: What kit does an Apache Pilot carry?
5 things to know about the Poseidon
The RAF’s new P-8A Poseidon is designed for anti-submarine warfare. Did you know it was borne from a Boeing 737? Find out why it’s so unique.
1. In August, the Poseidon intercepted its first Russian warship.
The UK’s purchase of the Poseidon is in response to threats, such as Russian submarines in the Atlantic returning to Cold War levels. China is also expanding into the Arctic.
The Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston, says:
“Russian submarines have nowhere to hide.”
Read more here.
2. It can carry almost the weight of a blue whale.
To put its size into real terms, the Poseidon’s maximum take-off weight is as much as 14 elephants, or 4/5ths of a blue whale.
At 189,000 pounds, it is an incredibly strong aircraft.
3. As well as surveillance technology, it can fire torpedoes and harpoons.
Here is a graphic of what the plane can do, including search and rescue, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare: | https://medium.com/voices-of-the-armed-forces/2020s-top-ten-stories-5-things-to-know-about-the-poseidon-8909db7ec464 | ['Ministry Of Defence'] | 2020-12-22 11:57:40.262000+00:00 | ['UK', 'Russia', 'Aviation', 'Tech', 'Military'] |
Say Hello to FishDAO, Polkastream’s New Strategic Investor! | Polkastream is excited to officially share that it has teamed up with a new strategic investor, FishDAO. Similar to Polkadot’s crusade as noted by Dr. Gavin Wood below,
Polkastream’s team is inspired by FishDAO’s dedication and efforts to empower the “small fish to swim in the big boy sea”, as they say; and equally important, how the FishDAO founders have created an incredibly loyal community, their #FishFam and #FishArmy of 4,000+ followers on Twitter.
FishDAO is a decentralized investment firm whose mission is to try to democratize access to early-stage investment opportunities for the small guy. The founders believe in making investing a fair level playing field for all, not just the wealthy. FishDAO has established several strategic partnerships with top-tier launchpads (including BSC-Solana launchpads), audit firms, business analyst-data scientists, and crypto media and marketing firms. With those connections shared and community support, we believe FishDAO will help bring Polkastream’s concept and vision to life!
Polkastream is poised to be the next innovative addition to the growing Polkadot network by building an integrated and intelligently monetized platform for the decentralized live and on demand streaming market. Users can stream short and long videos of different genres like music and entertainment for mobile, gaming streams and podcasts for web, and premiere films and series for live and on demand television.
As Polkastream expands the project, we welcome other strategic partners and investors to reach out to the team.
[email protected] | Telegram | Twitter | Reddit | YouTube | https://medium.com/@polkastream/say-hello-to-fishdao-polkastreams-new-strategic-investor-d45c117a925 | [] | 2022-01-11 07:44:16.599000+00:00 | ['Gaming', 'Polkadot', 'Polkastream', 'Blockchain', 'Streaming'] |
So, I Guess I'm Solo Poly | Whenever I hear my friends talk about polyamory versus monogamy, most of them speak as if it's a sexual orientation. You're either poly or mono, cut out for loving multiple people or... not.
To be perfectly honest, I have never felt particularly oriented to polyamory or monogamy. Whether I date one person or many has always felt like a choice, or maybe a choice born from a preference. But nothing that must or cannot be.
Lately, I feel like the circumstances of my current life go much further in determining who or how I might love.
As a working single mom, my time is limited. Anyone who wants the full girlfriend experience with me must also deal with that reality. And they likely have to take on more responsibility than if I was child-free.
Solo poly makes sense for a lot of single moms.
We run our own households and don't necessarily need or want to combine forces with anyone else at home... unless it ticks an awful lot of perfect little boxes for all parties.
Even so, single moms still need love, companionship, fun, and sex. Polyamory offers unique benefits that monogamy lacks. Instead of looking to one person to meet all of your needs in a partner (which may be very particular for single moms), you can enjoy each relationship for exactly what it is.
I think it's hard for people who have only known monogamy to fully grasp those benefits until they actually experience this for themselves. For many poly couples I know, it's not about sex. It's all about freedom and honesty.
For a solo poly person like myself, it just means that I'm not looking for a single partner. And it's not necessarily that I don't want a nesting or primary partner. But I don't really need one.
If I'm honest with myself, I am probably not in the right place in my life for any of that. And I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of in admitting that either.
Is polyamory a choice or disposition?
Realistically, I think that's a question for individuals to ask themselves. I can't help but wonder, however, just how many people would choose polyamory if they were more honest with themselves and their partners.
Or, if they even knew it was an option. Virtually everyone in America has grown up believing that monogamy is the only responsible choice, and folks choose it because our society is set up to see monogamy and marriage as the end goal.
Some people try to choose monogamy, and then wonder why it never feels right.
Truthfully, I have no qualms in saying that some folks might be more wired for polyamory than others and that for others like me, it may be more of a choice.
At the same time, I won't be surprised if more people begin to choose polyamory rather than trying to make their relationships fit into a certain monogamous mold.
I'm still figuring out who I am and what I want.
And I'm not ashamed to say that I'm not sure where I stand. Will I be polyamorous forever? I can't say.
I know I'm demisexual. I typically crave sex and connection, friendship and affection. I have always fallen for men, but I can imagine some fluidity there too.
I guess you could say that I'm open to a variety of possibilities when it comes to love, and I don't want to get bogged down in any expectations of what I think love is supposed to be.
Though in recent years, there's been more talk about people "coming out" as poly. Or, why they can't come out for fear of losing their jobs or social standing. I suppose that as a solo poly woman without many strings in my life (beyond my child), I'm lucky.
I'm still just dating around and building the life I want.
Which means I have the luxury to fly under the radar as little or much as I can.
So here we are.
I'm perfectly happy to chalk up my current life as a solo poly person to my circumstances and experiences. My body, my choice. My love life, my reasons.
And I'd say that's more than good enough. | https://medium.com/polyamory-today/so-i-guess-im-solo-poly-2f5ab8ce0b90 | ['Shannon Ashley'] | 2019-06-05 21:02:48.338000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Relationships', 'Polyamory', 'Love', 'Culture'] |
Mask Confusion Settled: Here’s How Effective They Are | New study confirms consensus that masks protect the wearer and others
Face masks are widely considered by infectious disease experts to be a key layer of protection against catching or spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. A new study confirms this consensus and provides helpful details for buying or making a mask.
https://www.reddit.com/live/167lbl1l47zkp
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http://www.4mark.net/story/2976610/live-!-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit
http://www.raptorfind.com/link/884232/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit
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https://www.topsearch123.com/link/884233/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit
https://www.88posts.com/post/288094/live-streams-official-49ers-vs-cardinals-live-stream-reddit
Well-fitting masks can easily trap 50% or more of infectious particles, according to a series of lab tests led by Linsey Marr, PhD, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech. Masks made of two or three layers of cotton and other filtering materials can capture up to 90% of the particles. … | https://medium.com/@jarin646289/mask-confusion-settled-heres-how-effective-they-are-93329fe50f9d | [] | 2020-12-26 20:33:20.060000+00:00 | ['Testing', 'Covid Test', 'Public Health', 'Coronavirus'] |
Beneath the Layers | A Journey to Self-Discovery
Beneath the Layers
Who are you when the masks come off?
How many personalities do you have? And don’t say just one, because if you can’t be honest with yourself…
We’ve all got them. Whether we want to admit it or not, we become different versions of ourselves in different situations, and with different people. With our parents, we’ll be The Good Child. Respectful, polite, and of course not, mom, I’ve never smoked weed!
With friends, we become The Extrovert, even if we’re not really — we’re more open, adventurous. Don’t want to be left out or left behind. Don’t want to be uncool.
At work, there are typically two personalities that come out: The Dedicated Employee and The Empathetic Complainer. We’ll put in our hours, be diligent in our tasks, and do it all with a smile on our face or a frown of concentration whenever the boss is around. And this might very well be your authentic self, but then you turn into the empathetic complainer when the boss shuts his door and your co-workers start to nag and complain. I mean, you have to work with them, so better play along, right?
With strangers, we’re usually the closest version to our most authentic self, because we just don’t care what they think — we’ll never see them again. But it’s still not 100% — we might lose some inhibition and become more assertive than you normally would be, or go in the opposite direction and become shyer and more reserved. I guess it depends who the stranger is.
But who are you when the lights go off?
What does your internal dialogue sound like? Is it like any of the personalities listed above? Something completely different? Or does the real you come out of hiding once you’re the only one around to judge? | https://medium.com/live-your-life-on-purpose/beneath-the-layers-fa1463faf7b0 | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2019-09-20 00:15:50.359000+00:00 | ['Self Discovery', 'Masks', 'Self', 'Self Love', 'Authenticity'] |
Moving from Ego-Centric to Eco-Centric | “The first half of life is devoted to forming a healthy ego. The second half is going inward and letting go of it.” -Carl Jung
Organizations are no different. The early years focus on identity, differentiation, and getting noticed. These are very important to getting established. However, for organizations to experience long-term success, they need to grow up and move from an ego-centric identity to an eco-centric identity.
So what is the difference?
“Ego” is defined as “self-important”
“Eco” is defined as “combining form.”
The personal ego that Carl Jung was famous for discovering is not all bad. In fact without ego, we wouldn’t get anything done. The ego helps us execute and “reality test” like the definition describes. However, if the ego is given too much authority to grow, it will dominate in a self-serving way and leave a path of destruction in its wake, much like our modern businesses have done without regard to it’s effect on human development or the Earth.
Moving From Ego-Centric
Ego-centric companies embody a mindset that operates primarily from the left-side of the brain. This is the half that analyzes, controls, and sees a linear future. It thrives off of rational, reductionistic thinking. It's a binary, either or world. Either your in or your out. Either it works or it doesn't. It is very mechanistic and grew in popularity in the recent industrial age.
Ego-centric organizations experience trouble in primarily in two ways:
1. Increased Rigidity — when the ego goes unchecked, organizations grasp tightly to past patterns of success in light of evolving industry changes. They begin a slow and insidious process of rigidity much like a corpse. When the blood stops flowing, the body dies, and then stiffens.
2. Myopic Vision — control is good to an extent, but when organizations let the control dominate the culture and decision-making, they lose relevancy, stifle relationships, and lack a broader vision that is beneficial beyond the company’s interests.
Example — Blockbuster Video experienced unprecedented growth with it’s video store model. It was a household name and a destination for many families.
I remember the Blockbuster stores being packed on Friday night. But, as all life shows us, the world evolves, and in order to thrive, you must adapt.
When the DVD world began migrating to digital streaming, Blockbuster hung on too tightly to it’s successful store model and failed to innovate with the changes.
Meanwhile Netflix started gaining market share with it’s DVD-shipping model and created a customer base that was ready to move to digital streaming when broadband became speedy enough.
Netflix is now worth approximately $10 billion. Blockbuster went bankrupt. Blockbuster was operating in an ego-centric, too-big-to-fail mindset. It was this rigidity and myopic “brick-and-morter” vision that ultimately lead to its demise.
Moving To Eco-Centric
Eco-centric companies operate from a mindset that includes both sides of the brain as well as a broader ability to sense and respond to ever-changing externalities.
Eco-centric companies lean more heavily on the use of right brain thinking, which tends to be more creative, inclusive, and collaborative. However, they don’t eliminate the left brain logic altogether, but rather use both simultaneously and embrace the natural paradox and tension that occurs by acknowledging both.
Furthermore, eco-centric organizations recognize that thriving in uncertainty requires a move from mechanistic thinking to living systems thinking.
The machine-like logic of the industrial age has permeated our culture in both our way of operating and our way of thinking. The ego thrives off of this linear logic because it provides very clear processes and ways to measure and grow.
However, it has lead to massive destruction of the natural world with its hyper-competitive consumptive logic and created depressing work cultures that suppress human development and growth.
From Breakdown to Breakthrough
Moving from ego-centric to eco-centric is shifting to a mindset that is a more inclusive, less partial way of moving through the world. All living things teach us how to operate harmoniously in diversity. How to grow and adapt. How to collaborate and co-create. How to move through seasons with grace.
If we see ourselves and our organizations as “combining-form” we can begin to recognize opportunity in times of disturbance. We can let go of the iron grasp of control and focus on the here and now.
The companies that I work with that are moving in a direction of eco-centricity are experiencing a rare form of empowerment in their workplaces that is also spilling over into their home lives. They are dissolving the unconcious wall between their workplace personas and their home-life personas. There is a rare integration that is occurring that is not only visible, but felt.
Like Carl Jung stated, these companies are “going inward and letting go.”
This shift in logic requires bravery to let go and breakdown old patterns and create new eco-centric ones. The good news is that much like the natural world and our current fall season teaches us, following the breakdown there is always a breakthrough. | https://medium.com/limen/moving-from-ego-centric-to-eco-centric-349ec11682a1 | ['Joel De Jong'] | 2016-12-04 21:04:26.103000+00:00 | ['Mindfulness', 'Management', 'Leadership', 'Innovation', 'Strategy'] |
What is Hair Restoration with PRP ? | What is Hair Restoration with PRP?
Do you know stressing about hair loss can be the reason behind your hair loss? Are you constantly stressing about Hair Fall? Stop Worrying and start doing something about it! Forever MedSpa provides the best Hair Restoration in New Jersey. Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) is a popular method of hair restoration that employs the patient’s blood to stimulate hair growth. Hair Restoration with PRP is now helpful for other purposes, including skin rejuvenation and hair restoration. This is by far the best and safest hair restoration method in use. We know what you are looking for here, let us help you with your doubts. Christian balle Oct 19, 2021·2 min read
What is Hair Restoration with PRP ?
In PRP treatment, patient’s blood cells are processed and injected back into their scalp, which helps in natural healing. After injecting, centrifugation is used to separate the platelets. Which is known to increase the concentration of growth factors by 4 to 9 times.
Why Choose Hair Restoration with PRP in New Jersey?
Helps treat Thinning of hair
Overcome Male-Pattern Hair Loss
Overcome Female-Pattern Hair Loss
Completely safe and secure
Important Information about the best Hair Restoration with PRP in New Jersey
Can I get a PRP hair restoration done?
PRP hair restoration helps both men and women suffering from Androgenic Alopecia, also known as Male Pattern Hair Loss MPHL or Female Pattern Hair Loss FPHL. People with blood disorder, immune compromised, blood related cancer treated, people on chemotherapy, bleeding disorder, local site infection, other causes of hair reduction like skin diseases, fungal infection, low blood count, thyroid problems and are advised to avoid this treatment.
Is it Permanent?
It is suggested to get the Hair Restoration with PRP in New Jersey performed twice a year after the initial series of treatments are completed. The number might vary from person to person. A series of three sessions is advised every 3–6 weeks apart. We give consultation with your best interest in mind.
Never hesitate to get ahead of your problems in life. Forever MedSpa & Wellness Center is the best Hair Restoration with PRP in New Jersey. We have helped a lot of clients overcome their hair fall and baldness problems. Feel free to book an appointment with us to achieve similar results for your problems. | https://medium.com/@christianballe75/what-is-hair-restoration-with-prp-2f6fe303d995 | ['Christian Balle'] | 2021-10-19 08:27:36.317000+00:00 | ['Hair', 'Hair Loss', 'Hair Loss Treatment', 'Health'] |
Summus Global: A Focus on Provider Experience can Change Healthcare | Interview with Julian Flannery, Founder & CEO of Summus Global
Interview with Julian Flannery, Founder & CEO of Summus Global
Tell us about Summus Global. What do you do?
Summus Global, the leading virtual specialist platform, empowers families by providing access to a network of 4,000+ top specialists across 48 leading hospitals — within days, from anywhere in the world. The Summus model sets a new standard for speed of access to high-quality medical expertise and drives industry-leading engagement with employers. Pioneering the future of corporate health benefits, Summus Global partners with companies across the country to create an elevated healthcare experience for their employees and to support better, cost-efficient outcomes across all health questions and stages of care.
What is your startup’s origin story?
I am the founder and CEO of Summus Global. I previously served on the management team at Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), the world’s largest membership-based platform for professional expertise. I oversaw GLG’s service operation, products, and content, and directed management of its 400,000+ expert membership base.
After GLG, I had a conversation with a friend, who is a former surgeon, and an idea clicked. The question we arrived at was: “What if we could bring a similar marketplace concept to healthcare?” With experience in building and running marketplaces, and my personal background coming from a family of doctors, Summus was created as a way to access high-quality medical expertise from anywhere in the world. Today, we have built a new way for families to make more informed medical decisions through fast, virtual access to high-quality providers across the US healthcare system.
Had you been involved in the industry before this startup? What is your background?
Before founding Summus, I didn’t have experience in healthcare, outside of knowing the provider experience from my family. At GLG,I developed great experience building tech-enabled marketplaces and specifically around scaling of knowledge / expertise. I did have experience in financial services which has served me well in managing and capitalizing Summus in the right way. Formerly, I worked at Morgan Stanley as Associate and Chief of Staff to the Chairman & CEO and in Special Situations and Investment Banking. In 2001, I served in The White House as an aide to the Chief of Staff to the President. I received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and B.A. from Duke University.
What’s unique about your company? What are the key differentiators between you and other players?
Summus has built the most attractive virtual platform for specialist doctors. We’ve learned how to create the right experience and incentives for busy, accomplished doctors. We like to think we are the choice platform for leading specialists. We are a unique virtual specialist model. Summus allows our members to access high quality specialist expertise across all health questions. Our model broadens the funnel inside of employers (meaning, we are a solution for 100% of health questions requiring specialist expertise) which drives market-leading utilization (engagement) and impact. Our model empowers employees and their families to make better medical decisions and feel more powerful in healthcare. A focus on quality across our network, service, and technology.Consumers of healthcare rank the caliber of providers and hospital systems where they are being treated as the #1 and 2 indicators of ‘quality’ (Mercer 2020). Summus has built a platform that attracts leading doctors from top hospitals and makes it easy for them to connect with Summus members. We relentlessly focus on the provider experience and by doing so, we improve the consumer experience. Great doctors like working with Summus and choose to engage with our members within days. And because we’ve made the patient experience great (being ‘delighted’ as a healthcare consumer is a first for many of our members), they choose to engage us on an increasing range of issues.
Take us through a day in your life. What does the typical day look like?
There is no typical day. COVID has changed everything for us fundamentally. Our team is fully virtual and we are supporting members around the world who are challenged in accessing healthcare in a pandemic. We feel grateful to be able to provide a powerful solution, and the weight of responsibility that comes with helping our members with their health.
What has been the most challenging part of growing your company?
Building a business that has marketplace concepts in healthcare takes time. Healthcare is complex and hard. We know this and always try to think a few steps ahead of where we are today. Large, complex systems take a long time to change, so patience, combined with picking your moments to accelerate change, is important.
Healthcare is also human. Technology or a business model can’t solve problems in healthcare without a focus on compassionate human interactions to support families.
What has been your best marketing channel? What are some channels you are looking to explore next?
This past year, we have built our direct sales team under a great sales leader, and are pleased with the wins we have achieved, and the pipeline the team has built. We get a lot of inbound interest from health systems, so we tend not to market there too heavily at this point.
As we look ahead to 2021, we are focused on selling a unique virtual specialty care solution to employers and large groups; and partnering with health systems to deploy a SaaS platform to scale specialist expertise.
Do you have a book, podcast, or Youtube channel you would recommend to other Entrepreneurs?
I’m not sure I have any mainstream recommendations for entrepreneurs. I read a lot about history, politics, and innovation in business. I tend to read faster than someone’s ability to talk, so prefer books over podcasts. Generally, I’d recommend reading lots of different things and not just focus on the industry you’re in. It broadens your perspective and prevents shiny object chasing.
If you could go back in time to the day you founded your company, what advice would you give yourself?
Understand the sales cycle deeply. How much time (cash) do you need to prove traction and/or get to breakeven is critical. Your first hires are critical. Hire well and have a view on the upside of everyone you hire.
What’s something you’ve learned from building your business that someone else can learn from?
Diversify your bets to increase your chance of success. Stay lean, place smart bets, accelerate quickly where you see traction. | https://medium.com/startup-thread/summus-global-a-focus-on-provider-experience-can-change-healthcare-58677ef5dea7 | ['Dan Stein'] | 2020-12-19 01:59:35.772000+00:00 | ['Founder Interviews', 'Startup Life', 'Entrepreneur', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup'] |
Your Political Discourse Needs A Safe-Word | Artwork by Matt Pettigrew at Digital Absurdist
Political discourse between consenting adults can be exotic and deeply satisfying; however, for newcomers to politics, it is best to talk with your partner about a safe-word before engaging in discourse.
Political safe-words let your partner know when the discourse is getting too rough or weird. Saying your safe-word in the middle of a discourse lets your partner know when to stop, or when to go back to regular, vanilla political discourse such as gentle back and forth between center-left and center-right positions.
Choosing the right safe-word is crucial. If you choose a word that is too commonly used in everyday politics, such as “Nazi,” “Stalinist,” “Hitler,” or “Crypto-Anarchist,” your partner may not realize that things have gotten too intense. In fact, using those everyday, common words may actually encourage your partner to discourse even harder, resulting in even more intense polarization than you bargained for.
For that reason, it’s best to choose uncommon safe-words like “Compromise,” “Humility,” and “Self-Reflection,” so that your partner can easily identify that something is definitely not right. To ensure partners don’t overlook genuine distress, some people advocate for using safe-phrases instead of safe-words, such as “I hadn’t thought of that before,” or “I recognize the validity of your side and will seek to better understand your ideas in the spirit of friendship.” Even the most chaotic and rigorous of discourses would be brought to a halt if such a safe-phrase was uttered.
Have you spoken to your partner about a political safe word?
Equipped with a solid safe-word or phrase, the world of political discourse is now open to you, more than any other time in history. Whereas our grandparents would have been socially shunned for openly discussing Universal Basic Income or Techno-Libertarianism, people these days are increasingly free to casually try discourse with a political partner, or multiple partners in what is known as a “political forum.”
Newcomers to this space are often tempted to explore the exotic world of role-playing, where one can masquerade online as a Post-Capitalism Anarchist while living day-to-day as a mid-manager at a car insurance company. With niche political discourses proliferating online, you can role-play just about anything these days from Bourgeois-Proletariat Marxist fantasies to Secular Liberalism-Populist Theocracy conflicts, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Poly-politicalism has a history in various religious traditions, where people experiment with supporting many seemingly competing stances at once. You could support Unregulated Campaign Finance while simultaneously entertaining Anti-Corruption positions, but maintaining multiple conflicting ideas may prove difficult. Whatever the case, it’s always best to research what you’re getting into before you engage, otherwise, you might find yourself in a chatroom being whipped by multiple strangers, while shouting safe-words to no avail.
Although the variety and sheer quantity of political discourses available may seem exciting at first, it is important to recognize that it can become overwhelming if precautions are not taken. And as always, please remember to talk to your kids about how to practice safe political discourse, otherwise, someone online will do it for you. | https://medium.com/slackjaw/your-political-discourse-needs-a-safe-word-b11e201614ca | ['Matthew Pettigrew'] | 2020-09-07 14:11:01.340000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Humor', 'Elections', 'Polarization', 'Satire'] |
Best 18–200mm Lenses | The best 18–200mm lenses on the market today are usually categorized in the super zoom bracket. This means they cover far more focal range than traditional lenses, where the common thought process is to use two or more zoom lenses to cover the same distance. This is generally because there will be too much optical correction needed with a super zoom for ultimate quality.
Most photographers will use 18–55mm, 24–70mm, and 70–200mm zooms to cover the same range. But, it’s not always feasible to carry a few key zoom lenses around all day long, which is where a super zoom slots in. These type of lenses can be useful for travel or where you need to keep the amount of kit you carry sparse in size and weight.
Many of the current offerings in this category now have more advanced features such as image stabilization, advanced optics, and a zoom lock to stop the lens barrel extending when not needed. So, let’s have a closer look at what is currently available on the market.
(We get commissions for purchases made from links in this post.)
1. Sigma 18–200mm f/3.5–6.3 DC Macro OS HSM (Overall Winner)
The Sigma 18–200mm f/3.5–6.3 DC Macro OS HSM is a deceivingly compact lens, which extends like a telescope and provides a lot of features for the money. This lens is the latest iteration of this super zoom, now with smaller dimensions, a macro mode of 1:3 and a minimum focusing distance of 39cm, and built-in image stabilization. The lens is currently available for the Nikon, Canon, Pentax, and Sony mounts.
Inside the lens are 16 elements arranged in 13 groups, with four Special Low Dispersion (SLD) and three aspherical lens elements to control things like chromatic aberration and lens distortion, while a Super Multi-Layer coating has been applied to reduce ghosting and flaring. The included image stabilization system comes with the Canon and Nikon versions, while Sony and Pentax copies have to rely on the camera’s built-in stabilization.
The lens barrel itself is built from high impact plastics, with a metal mount and a non-rotating front element which fits tightly with the included lens hood. As for overall image quality, the sharpest images can be found at 18mm, with good center and edge sharpness, while the edges do suffer as you approach 200mm. Stopping down to f/8 produces the sharpest images across the frame and throughout the focal range.
Considering the price point and overall features, the Sigma is great value for money, while also providing good overall quality. As a super all-rounder lens, it provides lots of scope for creativity from landscape shots to events and wildlife photography.
Aimed squarely at the enthusiasts photographer, the Canon EF-S 18–200mm f/3.5–5.6 IS is designed for crop sensor camera bodies and provides an equivalent focal length of 29–320mm. Optical image stabilization has been included with up to four stops of compensation, which will help out tremendously at the most telephoto end of the range.
Optically, the lens consists of two ultra-low dispersion and two aspherical elements, with a Super Spectra coating and 16 elements arranged in 12 groups. The diaphragm blades are a slight letdown, having only six in total, which means you’re not going to get those super creamy bokeh effects. But, you cannot have everything with a do-it-all lens at this price point.
On the plus side, the DC Micro Motor is quick to snap into focus and sharpness is very good from the widest to medium telephoto range. Sharpness does tail off approaching 200mm and does exhibit some chromatic aberration, but in general the image results are pleasing across the board. Considering the focal range this lens has to cope with, it does a respectable job of producing good image quality in a wide range of scenarios.
This is the second version of this highly capable Nikon travel lens. The AF-S DX NIKKOR 18–200mm f/3.5–5.6G ED VR II now features a very useful zoom lock switch, which stops any type of lens creep when you are shooting directly overhead or straight downwards. Designed specifically for the ‘DX’ format, the lens comes in at an equivalent 24–300mm and although it can be used on a full-frame DSLR, the vignetting will be too much for most applications.
The lens itself consists of 16 elements arranged in 12 groups, plus two extra-low dispersion (ED) and three aspherical elements. It also has seven rounded diaphragm blades and a Super Integrated coating to reduce reflections, flaring, and ghosting. The VR II (Vibration Reduction) image stabilization system provides 3.5 stops of compensation, with an overall compact weight of 560g.
The lens is at its sharpest between 18–70mm, with relatively good center sharpness up to 200mm. Corner sharpness suffers the most at 200mm as with barrel distortion, but is still acceptable for this price point of lens. Generally, images are rich in color and when this lens is given enough light, resolution is better than expected. Overall, the Nikon may be one of the priciest lenses on this list, but it’s also one of the most worthwhile, considering the range it has to cover.
The Sony E 18–200mm f/3.5–6.3 OSS LE may be the most expensive lens on this list, but it also provides exceptional image quality, while also looking quite fancy with its silver and black layout. Designed for the APS-C-format of cameras, the focal range comes in an equivalent 27–300mm and a respectable weight of 524g.
Inside the lens are 17 elements in 12 groups, with a seven-blade rounded diaphragm, plus one extra low dispersion and four aspherical elements. The Optical SteadyShot image stabilization combines effectively with an Active Mode and also features a zoom lock switch to stop any lens creep.
Color and contrast are rendered extremely well with this lens, with sharpness levels being very good across the frame at 18mm, with edge softness only starting to appear at 200mm. There is only a small amount of barrel distortion throughout the focal range and the lens is very adept at handling aberrations such as purple fringing, with only small amounts visible at the widest and most telephoto ends.
As an all-rounder lens, the Sony is a very good choice if you want to balance price with image resolution. Plus, it’s a great lightweight solution for travel purposes or a budget wildlife lens.
When it comes to the most bang for your buck, Tamron is usually included in the mix. In this case, we’re talking about the Tamron 18–200mm f/3.5–6.3 Di II VC.
It’s quite remarkable that this lens maker has included features such as Vibration Compensation (VC) for the money, while also producing respectable image quality. The lens consists of 16 elements arranged in 14 groups, with one hybrid aspherical and one low dispersion element. It also sports a moisture-resistant lens construction.
A DC motor handles auto focusing, while the zoom ring provides just enough resistance to be easily turned, while also stopping the majority of lens creep. When the aperture is wide open, images are at their sharpest at the widest focal, but sharpness levels tail off up to 200mm in both the center and the edges. Stopping down to f/8 sharpens things up considerably, but there is still a relatively high amount of barrel distortion which will need correcting in post-processing.
Considering the Tamron’s cheap price point, it delivers image quality on par with the rest on this list. Which means if you want the most cost-effective solution in the 18–200mm range, the Tamron is a good option.
Summary of the Best 18–200mm Lenses
Considering the range a typical 18–200mm lens has to cover, it’s remarkable that the image quality is still very good, while also having high-end features such as image stabilization for the reasonable prices. For the ultimate in image quality, shorter range and more costly zooms are the usual way to go. But, for an all-in-one solution which is very affordable, a 18–200mm is a great option. | https://medium.com/lumoid/best-18-200mm-lenses-75c568f80de | ['Lumoid Staff'] | 2020-04-12 17:01:35.849000+00:00 | ['Gear', 'Lenses', 'Buying Guide', 'Photography', 'Best Of'] |
Direct I/O writes: the best way to improve your credit score. | I have recently written about how major changes in storage technology are changing conventional knowledge on how to deal with storage I/O. The central thesis of the article was simple: As fast NVMe devices become common place, the impact of the software layer gets bigger. Old ideas and APIs, designed for a time in which storage accesses were in the hundreds of milliseconds should be revisited.
In particular, I investigated the idea that Buffered I/O, where the operating system caches data pages on behalf of the user should always be better than Direct I/O, where no such caching happens. Once we employ modern APIs that is simply not the case. As a matter of fact, in the example using the Glommio io_uring asynchronous executor for Rust, Direct I/O reads performed better than Buffered I/O in most cases.
But what about writes? In this article, we’ll take a look at the issue of writes, how it differs from reads, and show that much like credit card debt, Buffered I/O writes are only providing the illusion of wealth on cheap money. At some point in time, you still have to foot the bill. Real wealth, on the other hand, comes from Direct I/O.
How do reads and writes differ?
The fact that reads and writes differ in their characteristics should surprise no one: that’s a common thing in computer science, and is what is behind most of the trend towards immutable data structures in recent years.
However, there is one open secret about storage devices in particular that is nothing short of mind-blowing:
It is simply not possible to issue atomic writes to a storage device. Or at least not in practice. This stackoverflow article does a good job summarizing the situation, and I also recommend this LWN.net article that talks about changes some Linux Filesystem developers are discussing to ameliorate the situation.
For SSDs the situation is quite helpless. For NVMe, it is a bit better: there is a provision in the spec for atomic writes, but even if all devices implemented it (which they don’t), there’s still a big contingent of devices where software has to run on where this is simply not available.
For this reason, writes to the middle of a file are very rare in applications, and even when they do happen, they tend to come accompanied by a journal, which is sequential in nature.
There are two immediate consequences of this:
Append-only data structures vastly dominate storage writes. Most write-optimized modern stores are built on top of LSM trees, and even workloads that use more traditional data-structures like B-Trees will have a journal and/or other techniques to make sure data is reliably written. There is usually a memory buffer that is used to accumulate writes before they are passed into the file: this guarantees some level of control over the state of the file when the write happens. If we were to write directly to an mmap’d file, for instance, flushes could come at any time and we simply would have no idea in which state the file is in. Although it is true that we can force a maximum time for a sync with specialized system calls like msync the operating system may have to force a flush due to memory pressure at any point before that.
What this means is that coalescing, which is the usual advantage of buffering, doesn’t apply for writes. For most modern data structures, there is little reason to keep a buffer in-memory waiting for the next access: likely what is sent to the file is never touched again, except for future reads. And at that point the calculations in my read article applies. The next write is likely for the next position in the file.
This tips the scale even more in favour of Direct I/O. In anticipation of using the recently written pages in the future, Buffered I/O may use an immense amount of memory in the operating system page cache. And while is true that this is cached memory, that memory needs to be written to the device first before it can be discarded. If the device is not fast enough, we can easily run out of memory. This is a problem I have written about in the past.
Since we can write an entire Terabyte-large file while keeping only a couple of kilobytes in memory, Direct I/O is the undisputed way to write to files.
But how much does Direct I/O cost?
Much like reads, you need to make sure you are measuring the right thing to realize the advantage of Direct I/O. And how to do that that is far from obvious.
Recently, one of our users opened an issue in our Github page, in which he noted that despite what we advertise, Direct I/O writes consumed a lot more CPU than buffered writes. So why is that?
The reason is: Buffered writes are like a loan: you can get your asset for cheap now, but you then have to pay it back in the future, with interest. When you issue a Direct I/O write, you are paying most of the costs related to the transaction right away, and in the CPU that dispatched the I/O — which is predictable. The situation is different for Buffered I/O: the only cost to be paid immediately are the very cheap memory writes.
The actual work to make the data persistent is done in kernel threads. Those kernel threads are free to run in other CPUs, so in a simple system that is far from its saturation point, this can give the user the illusion of cheaper access.
Much like a loan, there are certainly cases in which this can work in your favour. However, in practice, that will happen at an unpredictable — and potentially inconvenient time in the future.
Aside from this unpredictability, in order to make the right decision one needs to be at least aware of the fact that the total cost of the loan may be higher. More often than not it can be the case that at or close to saturation, all your CPUs are busy, in which case the total cost is more important.
If we use the time command to measure the Direct I/O vs Buffered version of the same code provided by the user, and focus on system and user times, we have:
Direct I/O:
user 0m7.401s
sys 0m7.118s
And Buffered I/O:
user 0m3.771s
sys 0m11.102s
So there we have it: all that the Buffered I/O version did was switch user time to system time. And because that system time is consumed by kernel threads, which may be harder to see, we can get the illusion that buffered writes are consuming less CPU.
But if we sum up user and system times, we can clearly see that in reality we’re eventually paying interest on our loan: Buffered writes used 1.7% more CPU than Direct I/O writes. This is actually not very far from current monthly interest rates on my credit card. If this is a shocking coincidence or a big conspiracy, is up for you, the reader, to decide.
But which is faster?
Many users would be happy to pay some percentage of CPU time to get faster results. But if we look at the real time in the examples above, Direct I/O is not only cheaper, but faster.
You will notice in the example code that the user correctly issued a call to close. By default, Glommio’s stream close imply a sync. But not only that can be disabled, most of the time in other languages and frameworks this is not the case. In particular, for Posix, close does not imply a sync.
What that means is that even after you write all your buffers, and close your file, your data may still not safely be present in the device’s media! What can be surprising, however, is that data is not safely stored even if you are using Direct I/O! This is because Direct I/O writes the data immediately to the device, but storage devices have their own internal caches. And in the event of a power loss data can still be lost if those caches are not persisted.
At this point it is fair to ask: if a sync is necessary for both buffered writes and Direct I/O, is there really an advantage to Direct I/O? To investigate that behaviour we can use Glommio’s example storage benchmark.
At first, we will write a file that is smaller than memory and not issue a sync. It is easy to have the impression that Buffered I/O is faster. If we write a 4GiB file in a server with 64GiB of DRAM, we see the following:
Buffered I/O: Wrote 4.29 GB in 1.9s, 2.25 GB/s
Direct I/O: Wrote 4.29 GB in 4.4s, 968.72 MB/s
Buffered I/O is more than twice as fast! That is because since the file is so small compared to the size of memory, it can just sit in memory for the whole time. However at this point your data is not safely committed to storage at all. If we account for the time-to-safety until our call to sync returns, the setup costs, lack of parallelism, mapping, and other costs discussed when analyzing reads start to show:
Buffered I/O: Wrote 4.29 GB in 1.9s, 2.25 GB/s
Buffered I/O: Closed in 4.7s, Amortized total 642.54 MB/s Direct I/O: Wrote 4.29 GB in 4.4s, 968.72 MB/s
Direct I/O: Closed in 34.9ms, Amortized total 961.14 MB/s
As we can see, Buffered I/O loans provided us with the illusion of wealth. Once we had to pay the bill, Direct I/O is faster, and we are richer. Syncing a Direct I/O file is not free, as previously noted: but 35ms later we can predictably guarantee it is safely stored. Compare that to the more than 4s for Buffered I/O.
Things start to change as the file gets bigger. That is because there is more pressure in the operating system virtual memory. As the file grow in size, the operating system is no longer able to afford the luxury of waiting until the end to issue a flush. If we now write 16 GiB, a 32Gib, and a 64Gib file, we see that even the illusory difference between Buffered and Direct I/O start to fade away
Buffered I/O: Wrote 17.18 GB in 10.4s, 1.64 GB/s
Buffered I/O: Closed in 11.8s, Amortized total 769.58 MB/s Buffered I/O: Wrote 34.36 GB in 29.9s, 1.15 GB/s
Buffered I/O: Closed in 12.2s, Amortized total 814.85 MB/s Buffered I/O: Wrote 68.72 GB in 69.4s, 989.7 MB/s
Buffered I/O: Closed in 12.3s, Amortized total 840.59 MB/s
In all the cases above Direct I/O kept writing at around 960MB/s, which is the maximum throughput of this particular device.
Once the file gets bigger than memory, then there is no more pretending: Direct I/O is just faster, from whichever angle we look at it.
Buffered I/O: Wrote 107.37 GB in 113.3s, 947.17 MB/s
Buffered I/O: Closed in 12.2s, Amortized total 855.03 MB/s Direct I/O: Wrote 107.37 GB in 112.1s, 957.26 MB/s
Direct I/O: Closed in 43.5ms, Amortized total 956.89 MB/s
Conclusion
Having access to credit is not bad. It is, many times, crucial for building wealth. However we need to pay attention to total costs, make sure the interest rates are reasonable, to be sure we are building real, and not illusory wealth.
When writing to files on modern storage, the same applies. We can write them for cheap at first, but we are bound to pay the real cost — with interest, later. Whether or not that is a good thing, is certainly situational. But with high interest rates and a potential for memory spiralling out of control if you write faster than what the device can chew, Buffered I/O can easily become subprime. Direct I/O, with its fixed memory usage, and cheaper CPU costs, is AAA.
I hope this article will empower you to make better choices so you can build real storage wealth. | https://itnext.io/direct-i-o-writes-the-best-way-to-improve-your-credit-score-bd6c19cdfe46 | ['Glauber Costa'] | 2021-05-18 06:59:16.613000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Storage', 'Technology', 'Rust'] |
Words Will Hurt | Many ignorant people in this world are unaware that words can hurt. Words do hurt. Words will hurt. They really do not comprehend because they do not want to. They have plenty of time to do other things, such as spend time with their friends, buy ice cream, or go on trips. However, they do not have time to consider the thoughts of others.
You’ve probably witnessed someone being bullied before. If you haven’t, consider yourself fortunate. This means you haven’t seen something despicable that could leave a person scarred. Consider this scenario: You’re just going about your business before someone comes along and throws it into disarray. You used to be confident, but now you’re hurt, sad, and depressed. All those words, like “you’re a piece of s***,” or “you’re worthless,” and so on, will stay with you forever. Just imagine that happening
Let’s imagine for a moment. And remember, I said pretend, so don’t take it to heart, please. Anyway, let’s say you’re a school student. So, there’s this beautiful girl. She takes a seat at a table and pays no attention to you. She’s just going about her business and socializing with her friends. What do you think she’ll feel if you approach her and drop a milk carton on her or say hurtful stuff like, “Nice shirt, loser?”
Now it’s your turn to think about yourself. Consider how you’d feel if you were in that situation. But not only once, but almost every day. Every day of their lives, approaching the person and saying deeply hurtful things. Imagine being the cause of someone’s need to give up. Imagine being the cause of someone’s grief. Imagine being the cause of someone else’s death.
Imagine hurting somebody
This happens a lot during school times. If you’re related to bullying, much as the victim, I want you to look at yourself in the mirror right now. Remember: You are beautiful. You are breathtaking (of course in a good way). You are astonishing. You are lovely. You are influential. You are wonderful. You are worthy. You are you.
Remember this: You are one of a kind
Tell me. If you were to leave this world, do you think anybody is able to replace you? Anybody is able to replace your beautiful face, nose, lips, ears, hair (if not your head then :D), your perfect features, your personality, your everything. Tell me, would they be able to?
I think we both know the answer to that, huh? If I were to ever leave, I don’t think you could replace me. If you were to leave, I could never replace you. Even if we ever tried, we can never replace anybody, because they’re one of a kind. Do you hear me, hun? You’re one of a kind! Okay? You’re lovely, charming, beautiful, and I just wish that if I were with you, I could hug you forever. I hope so. Because words do hurt. Words Will Hurt. | https://medium.com/@hermacoy165/words-will-hurt-761f4330be03 | [] | 2021-07-25 06:17:20.602000+00:00 | ['Sad', 'Depression', 'Depression Is A Killer', 'Depressing', 'Lifechanging'] |
Why Is Empathy Important? | Empathy definition by oxford languages is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It can help you understand other’s feelings better. It also can help you build strong friendships, relationships with other people. With empathy, you would understand people around you better. Empathy also gives you the power to support others. When other people suffer injustice things, you have strong power to support them. Me, too movement originally’s goal is “empowerment through empathy.”
Also, empathy not only makes you a good person, but it means you also have strong observation skills. Strong observation skills let you have deep insight into objects. A successful writer needs these skills. A good doctor also needs empathy. A good therapist needs empathy too.
Not only the successful writer, in your career life, strong observation skills means that you would often have new ideas in your job. You would be creative. Creative work often can be successful, in other levels, many creative people create a business. You also work better at your job, because of empathy. Why? Because you can understand people’s emotions and actions very well, that you can communicate well with your colleagues, your boss, and your clients. You would work smoothly. People with empathy are more likely to succeed in their job.
Empathy empowers people and makes this world better. | https://medium.com/@gogleqi123_9072/why-is-empathy-important-29ab491cec7a | ['Elizabeth Chen'] | 2021-09-14 15:03:20.982000+00:00 | ['Empathy', 'Human Behavior', 'Humanity'] |
Few ways that technology innovation will help fleet management industries | Fleet management is an arrangement of advancements and strategies intended to help an association and fleet supervisors run at the most proficient limit, and as organizations face developing interest and other industry challenges, fleet management is essential to separate themselves in a packed market, improve profitability and security and emphatically sway the primary concern. Fleet management innovation carries numerous advantages to drivers just as fleet directors. Take a run of the mill day out with a driver in our most recent infographic and discover the six fundamental manners by which it can make your drivers’ lives essentially simpler.
As fleets and organizations receive innovation to separate themselves in a jam-packed market and upgrade activities, fleet supervisors are answerable for planning an expanding number of frameworks, advancements, outsider mixes and representatives. Organizations should deal with developing interest and fixing limit close by other industry challenges like the driver lack, rising fuel costs and industry guidelines. Having the option to deal with a fleet completely, from everyday errands to the 10,000 foot view, is imperative to keep organizations running easily and beneficially, while making a protected, agreeable climate for drivers.
Present day fleet management arrangements offer substantially more than specks on a guide with regards to GPS usefulness. Search for programming that finds, tracks, and deals with your fleet vehicles (preferably continuously) with intelligent guides to assist you with reacting what’s going on out and about and proficiently oversee assets. Progressed GPS fleet following permits you to discover and dispatch drivers in a split second, set geofences with alarms, share ETAs with clients, and audit full outing narratives.
A rapidly developing field of innovation that has wide-arriving at suggestions for fleet management, telematics is the reconciliation of broadcast communications and data innovation. At the point when combined with GPS innovation, telematics gives a multi-faceted strategy to following and observing a fleet of vehicles, gathering a wide scope of informational collections to help fleet directors settle on educated choices. Utilizing vehicle telematics, fleet administrators can screen the area, development, status and conduct of all vehicles in their fleet.
Fleet management arrangements or any resource global positioning framework never exist in disengagement. Having them coordinate with the remainder of the innovation in everyday use has consistently been basic, however with the most recent Programming interface innovation, it’s currently more conceivable than any other time to give protected and solid admittance to data to frameworks outside the association. Perusers of this article will be very much aware of the advantages that fleet management arrangements have been offering the business for longer than 10 years. However, similar to the old PC that has been sat around your work area for a couple of years at this point, the abilities of the most current innovation can essentially improve the business esteem that assets produce.
With second-by-second subtleties from fleet management arrangements about vehicle area and employment progress, fleet chiefs approach information and bits of knowledge in one focal spot to improve measures. Numerous information focuses conveyed to fleet supervisors from telematics permits them to use key measurements, similar to vehicle use, driver conduct and inert occasions, providing answers to inquiries regarding profitability. Fleet administrators are then ready to make changes or improve measures during the workday and continuously. A more proficient fleet is a more practical fleet; as administrators recognize and right for failures like driver conduct prompting over the top lingering or better than expected fuel use, they can cause cost investment funds.
As we advance toward more noteworthy dependence on innovation, it’s intriguing to perceive how it keeps on forming our lives and impact our way to deal with set up techniques for management. Fleet management is one of numerous businesses that is being changed by ongoing innovative headways. When it’s more significant than any time in recent memory for transportation organizations to intently screen their fuel utilization to minimize expenses, there are currently more ways than any other time to screen, examinations and at last improve driving practices to upgrade execution. Here we investigate a portion of the manners by which the new advancements have affected the business and will keep on molding the eventual fate of fleet management in the coming years.
Associations have been attempting to consummate fleet management essentially since Henry Portage rolled the principal vehicle off the mechanical production system. It is difficult, however it is conceivable. The best fleet administrators can control operational expenses and proficiency, vehicle upkeep and usage, driver wellbeing and consistence, course arranging, fuel utilization, and significantly more. Fleet management innovation is utilized to help fleet directors save time, cash, and labor, while getting experiences that can just come from cutting edge machine estimations.
Wellbeing is a need for each association, and fleet management is a significant piece of building a security first organization. Telematics permits fleet and wellbeing chiefs to adequately screen for hazardous practices at the individual and fleet-wide level. Information can be utilized to create driver security programs, and by incorporating dashboard camera and wellbeing examination innovation, make customized, applicable preparing to mentor drivers on safe conduct, making a more secure fleet.
With ongoing fleet management instruments, you understand what’s going on in the field, as it occurs. Fleet administrators can get live updates on the sorts of occasions they need to think about and, contingent upon your framework, even video film. Fleet information is accumulated and bundled into slick investigations that show clear patterns and trouble spots. With ongoing fleet management arrangements, it’s simpler to screen tasks and settle on fast choices that can help improve productivity and wellbeing. Latent fleet management arrangements gather significant information, yet when you get the information, it very well might be past the point where it is possible to act. Regularly, information is gathered through a gadget in a vehicle and afterward downloaded physically or remotely. By and large, it takes more time to arrange the information and these latent frameworks don’t give as much investigation.
The main part of a fleet management arrangement is a finding an adaptable arrangement that offers an entire, 360-degree perspective on fleet tasks and shows the information so that it assists directors with settling on basic business choices. For rough terrain fleets, fleet management gathers information from hefty gear and other development resources, estimating hardware area, usage and upkeep to help development organizations increment efficiency, diminish costs and improve generally speaking tasks. | https://medium.com/@stevepattinson669/few-ways-that-technology-innovation-will-help-fleet-management-industries-fb713fce419d | ['Steve Pattinson'] | 2020-12-24 09:58:26.456000+00:00 | ['Fleet Management Software', 'Digital Transformation', 'Fleet Management', 'Automotive', 'IoT'] |
EconHacks 2021— The largest Economics Hackathon | Despite the ongoing pandemic, the financial sector is ever rapidly expanding with the introduction and advancements of new technological innovations, and digital forms of currency are becoming increasingly ubiquitous even in our daily lives. With the presence of online banking, the intersection of technology and economics has finally arrived. However, according to a 2014 study from the National Endowment for Financial Education, only 24% of Millennials could answer 4 out of 5 questions on a basic financial literacy test. Approximately 77 million Americans are accumulating debt in collections, according to the Urban Institute, and around a third of Americans only pay the minimum amount on their credit cards monthly, stated by a study conducted by FINRA, titled National Financial Capability. The need for citizens, especially teenagers, to be educated on finance has never been greater.
In hopes of bridging this gap, 5 teenagers started brainstorming for a hackathon to educate others about economics and technology. EconHacks, coined by lead director Benjamin Chen (TAS), is a 24 hour online hackathon being held across the world from 12 pm on February 13th, 2021 to 12 pm on February 14th, 2021. In order to make it accessible for as many students as possible, it is free for anyone to enter as long as they are in grades 8–12.
“We wanted to make sure that secondary school kids could access and learn about the uses of financial technology with no restrictions whatsoever”, said director, Ashley Pandya. The hackathon will feature lectures from world renowned professors from universities such as Stanford Business School, as well as entrepreneurs in the finance field. “Getting taught from the best can be a transformative experience for a lot of people, and we want as many people to discover their passions in the areas of economics and computer science”, said director Ishan Panchamia.
Participants will have 24 hours to create an innovative project that aims to improve an aspect of the financial sector or helps to solve a current economic problem. To promote education beyond the hackathon, Econhacks is also planning on holding biweekly lectures about different fields in economics, from behavioral economics to basic quantitative trading. “We really want to make sure that people gain access to as many resources as they can get to understand how economics works in the real world”, said director Rishabh Varshney. They already have plans to hold a second in-person hackathon in fall of 2021 with the option of internationals competing via video chat.
See you there! | https://medium.com/econhacks/econhacks-2021-the-largest-economics-hackathon-56104c6a468d | ['Benjamin Ian Chen'] | 2020-12-19 16:30:37.995000+00:00 | ['Hackathons', 'Economics', 'International', 'Students', 'Finance'] |
You are either a brand or a commodity | Irrespective of the sector whether real estate, food, automobiles or fashion, the market always tries to force companies and products into a commodity. This is because commodities, like corn or steel, are price driven, and consumers still want the lowest possible price. Take Walmart for example. They’ve done a brilliant job forcing most of their products to behave like commodities. They can wipe out their competition and gain even more price-conscious consumers because they can get products cheaper than almost anyone would
Every small business knows that it’s better to be a brand than a commodity. But what is the difference between a brand and a commodity?
The Difference
Expectations! That is the simple difference between them. When people use or choose a brand, they have an expectation in mind, reverse is the case for a commodity. If Mr. Cole chooses Apple products over Samsung it’s simply because the former meets his expectations not withstanding the cost.
When consumers purchase commodities they try as much as possible to consider cost by going for the least expensive alternative. This simply implies that commodities are products that can easily be substituted for another commodity.
Demand exist for commodities quite alright but there is no qualitative difference across a marketplace.
In contrast, brands create differentiated products which are highly desired by their customer base. Their customers have some degree of brand loyalty, seeking out those specific goods in the marketplace. Brand customers are less likely to substitute products based on price or availability.
Its important to know that brands are built to meet or exceed consumers expectations. How is this achievable?
Brands Connect With Emotions
Humans are fundamentally emotional creatures. The greatest brands, from Apple to Starbucks to Coca-Cola incite immediate emotional reactions just from seeing their logo or hearing their name. They speak our language of emotion and incorporate themselves into our belief systems.
Brands like Starbucks can take a cheap commodity like coffee and get people to buy a $5 cup as part of their daily routine. There are countless ways to get a more inexpensive caffeine fix, and yet Starbucks enjoys legions of loyal fans all over the world. This is because they’ve keyed into a core component of running a top-notch brand: customers get a consistent, positive emotional experience every time they interact with the company.
The critical question for strengthening your brand is to answer the question “how does my company make people feel?”. If you have a great answer to this question, your brand is well on its way to success.
Research shows that the major reason why people like Apple products is because they make the consumer feel like they are a better person for having their product.
Visibility
In addition to an emotional connection, there are three key elements that top brands share: their visibility, size, and brand equity.
Brands are visible. Commodities are invisible. For a brand to stick to the mind of consumers it has be visible. This entails physical locations, outlets, online presence, advertising, brand equity and size. Just to ensure your brand is seen out there. Taking McDonalds for example, with over 14,000 restaurants in the United States these days, you can never be more than 115 miles away from the nearest McDonalds.
But always remember that the goal is to focus on long-term growth over short-term profits while maintaining consistent branding and quality.
Brands Put Long-Term Promise Over Short-Term Profits
Brands create differentiated products which are highly desired by their customer base. Consumers buys promise that meets their expectations.
Does Apple have the best computers in the market? Some might say they do. The simple fact is their customers believe their products are better than anything else, and they’re willing to pay whatever Apple cares to charge.
This is the power of a successful brand. It convinces people to value what you offer for far more than a similar product from a competitor.
Apple would be nowhere if they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain with premium product design and an inviting user interface which is what they boast of, but it’s their brand that ultimately drives their enormous profits.
Conclusion
Phenomenal brands don’t happen overnight or without a lot of painstaking work. Cherish your brand and guard it with your life. It is your lifeblood, even if your business isn’t firing on all cylinders at the moment. Your brand is your identity: if you don’t actively define it someone else will, and it will be nearly impossible to redefine.
Credits: DIY Marketers, Lucky Break Consulting
— Danosagie | https://medium.com/@danosagie/you-are-either-a-brand-or-a-commodity-93e813771335 | [] | 2021-02-20 08:59:11.990000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Design', 'Branding', 'Brand Strategy'] |
How Unsolicited Advice is My Favorite Holiday Gift | HUMOR
How Unsolicited Advice is My Favorite Holiday Gift
Random strangers bless me with this gift daily
Sweat dripped into my eyes and blurred my vision. I shifted the weight of my pack from my hips and paused to take in the view. I’d taken a solo trip to a 10,000-foot peak I frequented. I wanted to best my time running up the trail — thirty minutes to reach timberline. And I did.
I summited the last line of Evergreens in twenty-three minutes. But, my chest threatened to erupt and sweat soaked my hair. I wanted to give up.
Thankfully, a man in a visor, sweatshirt, and jeans sat with his family just off the trail. He anticipated my arrival, and waited with the gracious gift of unsolicited advice.
He was wearing Crocs — with socks, and most likely, he’d strolled up the trail in an hour or so. But he yelled to me, “You can do it, champ! ‘Just lock those legs and take long strides. Heck, if we can make it, so can anyone.” He laughed as he motioned toward his family.
My heart swelled, and I was so relieved. What a thoughtful and kind gesture to make. Patronizing barks toward a perfect stranger — so compassionate and an excellent example for the kids sitting by his side. An internal warmth filled me and my smile widened at this amazing gift. | https://medium.com/muddyum/how-unsolicited-advice-is-my-favorite-holiday-gift-ca128331e259 | ['Sarah Paris'] | 2020-12-28 17:30:15.497000+00:00 | ['Fiction', 'This Happened To Me', 'Satire', 'Humor', 'Self'] |
Step 3: Setting up a MyEtherWallet address | Setting up an address on a wallet that supports participating in Token Sales
The following are steps to set an address on MyEtherWallet.
Step 1:
Open your Web Browser and navigate to: https://www.myetherwallet.com/
Note: As the MyEtherWallet repeatedly warns, please check the URL: https://www.myetherwallet.com/. If your URL is different, you are likely on a phishing website.
Step 2:
Check that you are on the MyEtherWallet network.
Step 3:
Enter (AND REMEMBER) a secure password in the box and click “Generate Wallet”.
Step 4:
Click “Download” to save your Keystore File and back it up in a safe location. An example is to store it an encrypted USB device which is then placed in a secure safety deposit box.
This is required to access your account for future transactions.
If you misplace this, you will not be able to access your account again.
If it is stolen, you may lose all of your ETH or other tokens in the wallet.
Step 5 (Recommended):
This step is optional but very useful. Click “Print” to obtain an unencrypted copy of your wallet’s essential information.
This is an example of a paper wallet.
Alternatively, you may wish to print a physical copy.
The same rules on storing it in a safe location apply for both the paper wallet and the physical copy. Never share it with any other person.
Step 6 (Recommended):
You should practice unlocking your address on MyEtherWallet multiple times before sending any ETH to it. You can:
Go to Send Ether & Tokens Select Keystore File (UTC / JSON) Select your Wallet File (where you saved your keystore file) Enter your password Select Unlock
You will then be able to see your address and account balance. | https://medium.com/hellogold/step-3-setting-up-a-myetherwallet-address-bbde77f17537 | ['Harith Kamarul'] | 2017-08-27 17:53:12.670000+00:00 | ['Token Sale', 'Ethereum', 'Myetherwallet', 'Wallet', 'Hellogold'] |
Dancing like Chewbacca it hit me: I am autistic | Everyone I love sort of knew, except me. And I think I know why.
The most adult moment of my life happened while I was dancing dressed up in that costume, shimming in front of my family. I realized that I was 51 going on 6, and confused took in my neurodivergent epiphany.
Last week I was diagnosed with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder), and when I shared the report with my loved ones, not one questioned it. Not even a bit. That surprised me. I was expecting at least some skepticism. I got intense looks of loving energy and some jokes. Then a few cute “awwws” after I confessed crying all night long reading over and over the study’s pdf under the sheets. Then more jokes came and we moved on sharing ridiculously funny Mandalorian memes.
ASD girls who turn into women like me are rarely identified as such, I fear even less by their own selves. I am 51 years old, and throughout my life never checked in many of todays common diagnosis criteria: I don’t remember mean bullies calling me freak or weirdo. I was the restless social classroom clown, not the sad kid faded in some corner. I thrived in college, succeeded in the workforce and lived fairy tale love, and passionate forbidden romances a la telenovela.
I beat the odds on many levels, and am determined to wear with pride my ASD diagnosis as a certification of the hardships I’ve conquered and those I’m ready to face in the future. I want to be proof that being in the spectrum is not a tragedy when you are raised around certain kind of people.
Nonetheless, I feel furious of why after decades of therapy, psychologists, medications, self help books and psychiatrists I wasn’t diagnosed properly, and earlier. Looking back I conclude it was a matter of good luck. I didn’t present the classic ASD symptoms because I grew under different circumstances of most girls today.
In high school no one made fun of me when I shaved half my head, fluffed the other half, and wore construction boots through the halls of a posh private school my mom barely could afford.
I was voted “Most Popular Senior”. I lost my yearbook the same day I got it, but remember smiling in the picture, sporting a very Madonnaish* torn hair rag and attitude. I looked a bit lost, but cool, hugged by the hottest boy in school; a smart guy with deliciously popular lips who ended up going to Harvard.
(*BTW making up words like Madonnaish is common in people with ASD )
My girlfriends used to keep my books and PE clothes in their lockers, and take them to class so I wouldn’t be lost and late running around like the road runner after the bell rang. They always carried extra pens, tampons and maxi pads in case I needed them. I wrote their book reports, and gifted them good grades because I read fast, and loved the assigned authors they didn’t care for. I corrected their grammatical errors, not only in my native Spanish, but in English.
(BTW Please pardon the errors in my posts, English is not my first language.)
I improvised last minute poems, touching haikus and grand essays for their college applications. It was a piece of cake for me. They slipped me their answer sheets in Physics and Calculus final exams – that was terrifying, but helped me build up nerves of steel. I proudly taught them perfectly choreographed Grease and Menudo dances, we had fun. We had each other. My good friends always had my back and my true love and friendship. Most are still in my life.
I’ve been successful in my career because many coworkers in the past kindly covered up my executive shortcomings organizing paperwork and handling money for me over coffee and pastelitos. Many still do today.
Same thing took place with my favorite bosses; they regularly overlooked my organizational flaws, while encouraging my creativity and assigned me great assistants and interns to help me out. I still mentor some of them, and we often exchange loving eyes and thumbs up on Social Media as they climb up the corporate ladder.
I’ve been loved to the core by young boyfriends and by my amazing husband who has patiently rescued my lost cell phones for 25 years. Yes, I misplaced even the huge brick sized ones of the mid 90s, and can’t count the beepers that disappeared inside my huge purse.
My kids, now in college, laugh in good spirits of my inappropriate questions and feed my obsession with Star Wars, buying me the coolest pajamas and blankets. My oldest girl got me a Chewbacca pajama onesie that brought me so much joy that the minute I tried it on, my body started dancing, channeling Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music. It was then, in the middle of a crazy twirl that I saw my reflection on the window and realized I’m weird. Very. Really. I couldn’t picture another mom, in fact anyone my age, or any human above 5 doing what I was doing at that very moment.
The most adult and revealing moment of my life, happened while I was dancing shamelessly, not in a night club wearing cool heels, but in the kitchen dressed up in that costume.I was joyfully twirling and shimming in front of my family when I realized that I was 51 going on 6, and confused took in my neurodivergent epiphany.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe my kids are rarely embarrassed by the way I act or by my out of place comments. They’re used to a mom like me and they enjoy it. I think it’s true because as young adults, they still dance goofily in front of the TV screen when the theme of “Law and Order” fills the room. I’m not the only one who hurries to pop up the volume. In the cluelessness that characterizes me, I may doubt of plenty of facts I believe to be true, yet I’m 100% sure of one thing: my kids love me.
My mom helped me raise them. She still lives with me and loves me with the intensity Latina moms do. My first month in kindergarden I had meltdowns and vomited every single day because I wanted to stay home with her. She diligently went to school to shower me, then changed my uniform for a clean one — drenched in Baby Johnsons cologne, and lovingly held my hand and escorted me back to the classroom. I ended up loving school.
I didn’t like to attend birthday parties. I wasn’t good at socializing with kids willing to hit Minnie Mouse with a piñata stick. Being expected to dive on a dirty floor to fetch candies in a crowd of sweaty kids terrorized me. I’d rather stare at was what left of Minnie, still smiling with her cute bow and destroyed womb.
My mother started taking an extra gift to every party. She conspired with the clowns and moms so I always won a raffle or a fun contest and felt triumphant. I remember that feeling in my gut expecting my number to be called and then winning a prize and then hearing the applause and then feeling the joy of everyone in the party rooting for me. It was so nourishing and beautiful.
A funny thing is I’m still super lucky at winning stuff, and love throwing the biggest and loudest birthday parties ever — where zero piñatas are destroyed.
When I reminiscence on the first half of my life undiagnosed, it’s the light of unrelentless kindness, inclusion, community support and unconditional love what faded up some of my obstacles and difficulties. That’s why I was safe from the heartbreak, bullying and isolation many with ASD experience. I’m proof of the power of good people to make any child grow lucky and happy. Feeling different, maybe. But never less.
I can’t even guess how many people around me felt there was something neurodivergent about me, but I’m sure that at every stage of my life, someone chose to exert their patience and loving heart to welcome my quirkiness into their life. My diagnosis reminded me that the good humans of the world need a call to action to put their power in practice regularly, until it becomes a habit, a way of life for a better world.
I hope my story serves as a testament of the potential of kindness, as a reminder of the super power we all have in inclusion and tolerance in such a diverse world. May the force be with you. | https://medium.com/@erlinda-piza/i-twirled-in-my-chewbacca-pajamas-and-it-hit-me-i-am-autistic-4f98f7ee4154 | ['Erlinda Piza'] | 2020-12-29 17:00:26.813000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Life', 'Autism'] |
The New Racism Is Polite Racism | The American racist has certainly evolved. Not via their own volition. This growth is the offspring of racism’s primary modes. Its original brand was brutal, psychopathic, deadly, Christian. A couple hundred years later, systemic racism bloomed. It was nuanced, insidious, also deadly. It repeatedly lynched, but kept your heart beating so that you saw another day and invisible noose. Systemic racism didn’t replace the original recipe, it expanded the menu. Today, the unsophisticated original and its predecessor are as alive and unwell as ever, in plain sight from California prisons to Bushwick real estate. Together they’ve procreated a less visible heir; one that’s continued the family’s predatorial business with a more polished, less obtrusive manifestation. This evolution in racism is both systemic and overt. It is polite.
What makes polite racism such a potent evil is its neutralization of black and brown fear. Similar to the close-range fighting style of Jujutsu, polite racism attacks its brown target by first leaning into their conditioned trauma. The lead hand or jab is verbal, at times articulate, often from the mouths of politicians. It parcels messaging via empathetic vocal tone and text, often from the beacons of formal education (ie. legalese). The dominant hand’s power is all psychology. Instead of decrying integration like its oldest parent, polite racism feasts off inclusion, inviting the minority closer for a cleaner strike. African-Americans are so accustomed to being hunted and ejected that the perception of a Caucasian’s open arms is as addictive as glucose. Polite racism is the most seductive mind fuck in the history of American racism.
Your Human Resources department has mastered the art. The executive branch designed an employee handbook with mandates and parameters created under the mirage of equality. As with most American institutions since the Constitution was inked and betrayed for the first of a billion times, said rules were plotted to serve the interests and prejudices of its authors. Today, when Naima floats through her company’s pristine hallways into a meeting wearing a business-blue suit and Kenyan cloth swirled into a head-wrap, she will not be criticized for reflecting her ethnicity. Instead, she will receive a mass email from HR politely corralling “everyone” back to the employee handbook’s section on “professional dress code.” This is passive aggressive; what many race experts refer to as a micro-aggression. Not an attack on Naima’s culture per se, but a friendly reminder that only the culture of the corporation matters.
Polite racism is the most seductive mind fuck in the history of American racism.
To understand the varied applications of polite racism, one must first be reminded that no form of racism is as simple as “bad person versus good.” Racist acts are often committed by those who are genuinely pro-integration and possess no conscious ill will towards another. Ignorance and fear remain the roots of all racism. Whether fear is replaced with curiosity or another social agent, ignorance remains a constant, especially on social terrain. Time-honored tropes are “You speak so well,” or a former teacher’s raised eyebrow and “Well, good for you” after learning of your Ivy League acceptance letter. We’ve experienced these slights longer than memory allows. Today it’s a white co-worker smiling and assuming I must’ve tried the Popeye’s chicken sandwich, or that the writer and actress Mindy Kaling can teach them how to wrap a sari. It’s Liam Neeson using Freud theory to mask his fraud.
Some years ago, a friend of mine, then a graphic designer at a prestigious advertising agency, worked on a campaign for Chase Bank. The visual focus was a photograph of a black family camping lakeside. My friend told me that during one of the edit rounds, he was contacted by a superior (Caucasian) who gently proposed that he digitally reduce the crotch on the father’s swimming trunks. “I’m a heterosexual black man and it wasn’t that serious,” my friend said to me, meaning that the trunks didn’t warrant an edit. The manipulation of any accurate physical appearance to fit a personal or collective perception or comfort is unequivocally racist (see the Sphinx’s nose). That the alteration was ordered as a “request” by a white person makes it polite racism.
Controlling the body parts of brown people has always been a gateway towards determining their existence, like a hunter penning the lion’s narrative. The Academy Award’s 2019 Best Picture, Green Book, is a recent triumph in Hollywood’s history of politely racist expressions — as was its Oscar win. The film, billed as the story of African-American pianist Don Shirley’s travels through the Jim Crow south, was essentially another white savior tale in which Mahershala Ali’s portrayal of Shirley peculiarly scored him a Supporting Actor Oscar. For the record, when Jessica Tandy was chauffeured by Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy (also P.R. cinema), she won Best Actress.
African-Americans are so accustomed to being hunted and ejected that the perception of a Caucasian’s open arms is as addictive as glucose.
The literary world was infected long before moving pictures. A fitting example is a term lit professors occasionally used to describe the palpable bigotry of characters born by scribes like Eudora Welty: “quirky racism.” Although the label prides itself on not condoning racist language and interaction, its purpose is to excuse the offensive, making it as delusional as it is politely racist. The audacity to forewarn Toni Morrison that she will one day have to write about the “real confrontation for black people” — white people — (“As though our lives have no meaning or depth without the white gaze,” said Morrison) is politely racist as fuck.
A sure way to recognize evolved racism is to develop a healthy nose for exclusion. The quicker you confirm your absence within a message, the sooner you’ll sniff out the inequality. America’s response to the current opioid crisis is a polite middle finger to the black and Latino families gutted by their country’s answer to the crack era: mass incarceration. Like your corporation’s handbook, Make America Great Again speaks for those who believe only their culture and kind matter. On the surface, the slogan is positive. At its core, Make America Great Again is an offering to Trump country that blacks be returned to hell. And who doesn’t love a gift?
The irony is that although Trump relentlessly pulls from the well of polite racism — “What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?” — he doesn’t have the panache to represent this newer brand. He often offends American history’s politest racists. This population consists of white people who take issue not with their president’s xenophobic or racial attacks, but his archaic heavy-handedness. Similar to the mafia, these are traditionalists who aren’t averse to brown blood being spilled in the streets but realize it’s not the cleanest way to shovel dirt.
Like all racism, the psychology of its most civil version isn’t limited to its execution. The depth and breadth of its lasting effects on black and brown minds are why its stock is appraised premium. White liberals’ encouragement of integration and championing of profitable black culture has dizzied the American minority to a degree that they’ve grown farsighted to subtlety. With lesser vision comes a more detrimental symptom: the inability to clearly see oneself. When that occurs, minorities default to the lens of the majority race. This avalanches into brown and black people loving one another the way their oppressors prefer them to love: unhealthily (holding those with lighter skin to a higher beauty standard; equating gangs with family).
The psychosis of it all struck me most while reading Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be an Antiracist. Kendi recounted a speech he gave in a high school oratory contest. He admitted that in the spirit of being pro-black, he painted his own people with egregious adjectives (to raucous praise from a black audience): “[Black people] think it’s ok to climb the high tree of pregnancy! They think it’s ok to confine their dreams to sports and music!” Despite positive intentions, young Kendi was so brainwashed that he ultimately became a spokesman for his oppressor. That is, until he awoke: “Racist ideas make people of color think less of themselves, which makes them more vulnerable to racist ideas,” he’d say later, denouncing his behavior. “Racist ideas make white people think more of themselves, which further attracts them to more racist ideas.” Kendi’s pages threw me back to my sophomore year in college.
I sat in the off-campus apartment of a biology major who was one year older than me, feeling weird. Two seconds prior, she paid me a compliment that to this day I wish she hadn’t. “I mean, of course, you’re black,” she said. “But you’re different. You know how to switch it off. You don’t always have to act ghetto.” My brain scrambled. Different how? Which blacks are forced to act ghetto? Residential poverty as behavior? The crazy variable is that she was African-American. Ironically, at the time, to me, she too was different: She was the daughter of two (still married) upper-middle-class parents, she grew up in a suburban New Jersey home, and she started college with a red sports car. She squealed and spoke like the girls on the intro of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” From my perspective, she seemed black only when it served her — reciting Lil’ Kim verses during campus parties or pulling the race card when a white professor offended her sense of entitlement.
But her “compliment” said it all. She considered black Americans ghetto and herself, along with anyone else who sat outside of her narrow paradigm, as other. The tinted vision she acquired via her chocolate-chip-in-a-bowl-of-milk upbringing conditioned her into spewing praise that sporadically haunted me throughout the next decade. The effects: occasional fear of appearing too ghetto around people with a poor perception of black people, and being perceived as other by black people who didn’t have the option to not “act ghetto.” Two educated HBCU students mind fucked by the miseducation of the negro. If you’ve ceased keeping score, that’s a 2-for-1 for polite racism. | https://gen.medium.com/the-new-racism-is-polite-racism-ce3232e1809a | ['Bonsu Thompson'] | 2020-03-24 21:43:56.087000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Culture', 'Trump', 'Politeness', 'Racism'] |
How to Value Cryptoassets (Part I) | Prophesying moons and dips with the power of valuation
This is Part I of a two part series. Check out Part II on valuing cryptoassets here!
Photo by Gianni Zanato on Unsplash
Bitcoin has gone through a lot: from being worth basically nothing (at inception), it has seen highs of USD$19,650.01; and for the past two months, have seated comfortably between USD$6,000–7,000. It is unbelievable for the early investors to see how this humble currency multiplied almost 2,000,000% in the span of 8 years. However, even without the well-publicized dip in May 2018, many are doubtful of Bitcoin’s potential. So, how does one even begin to value Bitcoin, or any cryptoassets in general?
To date, cryptoassets lack any proven valuation models, making their speculative value and volatility exceptionally unpredictable. Even Bitcoin, which enjoys more price stability than lesser-adopted altcoins due to its relatively large user base, is victim to violently soaring and crashing values. It is common knowledge that news (real or fake) could impact the trading prices of the coins.
But, so what?
Why are valuations important to you ?
Two of the most prominent reasons why you should care about valuations, whether you are a retail investor or active trader are:
1. Valuations demonstrate growth potential.
Growth potential indicates the mathematical probability of business expansion, with regards to its sales, revenue, production or workforce. This is an indicator if the business is set out to grow or shrivel. If you are a retail investor (i.e. not actively trading, maybe checking your account twice yearly), growth potential of the coin is important to you, since your focus is most likely in selecting a great project whose coin will moon over time.
2. Valuations help spot value bubbles.
Value bubbles occur when the market’s price for an asset surpasses its fundamental value greatly (i.e. paying more than what the coin is worth to obtain it). If you are an active trader, the identification of bubbles and knowing beforehand that it will eventually pop, is crucial to the trade decisions.
Hence, although there are no proven valuation models in the cryptoscene, the importance of it has gotten people to put forth their expertise and knowledge to propose such models.
We currently value BTC/ETH using NVT Ratio or NVT Signal
NVT Ratio
Traditional financial valuation means utilize the P/E ratio to determine if a company’s shares are over or undervalued, relative to its per share earnings. The problem with applying these traditional financial valuations to the cryptomarket is that there are fundamentally incompatible characteristics of cryptoassets. This makes us unable to value cryptoassets — e.g. if a cryptoasset does not have reported earnings, then one can’t use this model.
Thus, Willy Woo proposed a valuation method: the Network Value to Transactions (NVT) ratio. The NVT ratio measures the dollar value of a cryptocurrency’s market capitalization relative to the daily on-chain transaction activity.
Initial NVT Ratio
Its roots lie in quantity theory of money; where MV = PQ, in which
M = size of the asset base
V = velocity of the asset
P = price of the digital resource being provisioned
Q = quantity of the digital resource being provisioned
as interpreted by Chris Burniske.
Burniske explained this theory in the context of the cryptomarket very succinctly here. Put simply, the indicator of the currency’s usefulness is estimated by transaction volume. Hence, a higher NVT value roughly translates to a more expensive cryptoasset, which might be an overvalued or a high-growth asset.
A caveat that should be noted is that the daily transaction volume used in the equation only includes on-chain transactions. This includes transactions shuttling assets between exchanges and wallets (boosting NVT). Also, it does not account for trading activity happening on exchanges (resulting in a lower NVT). Thus, NVT acts as a rough estimation of its value, and may not be accurate in what it sets out to measure.
NVT ratio is touted as the index that could call out the difference between a bubble and consolidation.
Graph of Bitcoin and its NVT Ratio. Source: Woobull.com
Bitcoin’s two bubbles (highlighted in green) detected by NVT Ratio retrospectively. When NVT Ratio exceeds the ceiling of the normal NVT range (dotted lines), it signifies a bubble. If the NVT Ratio remains within the range, drops in prices (network valuation represented by the solid yellow line) is generally a consolidation instead of a bursting bubble.
However, if you look closely, the NVT Ratio ‘danger’ spikes do not precede Bitcoin’s price corrections. Cryptolab Capital astutely pointed out another flaw of NVT: NVT does not predict nor describe bubbles.
“The spike in NVT follows the bubble with a considerable lag of a few months. Peak NVT coincides with the middle of a correction period. NVT is neither predictive (doesn’t precede the overvaluation), nor descriptive (doesn’t coincide with it). You can only detect the bubble a few months after it bursts.” — Dmitry Kalichkin (emphasis, his), 2018
NVT Signal
Thus, Kalichkin tried to overcome the issue of this “considerable lag” by building upon Woo’s creation to derive the NVT Signal. It saw a revision of NVT Ratio to a 90-day moving average (as in the formula below). NVT Signal is arguably known as the P/E ratio of Bitcoin, where earnings are proxied in form of network size.
Kalichkin’s NVT Signal
For details on why Cryptolab chose a 90-day moving average, read Kalichkin’s explanation.
Graph of NVT Signal (dark green dotted line) and BTC price (red solid line). Source: Dmitry Kalichkin’s calculations
As seen on Kalichkin’s chart, whenever NVT Signal (dark green dotted line) crosses into the yellow or red zone (after July 2013, July 2014, and December 2017), BTC witnessed price correction (i.e. dip in prices). Also note that the peaks in NVT Signal into the ‘danger’ red and yellow zones preceded or coincided with the falls in BTC prices. In this, the NVT Signal shows improvement from the classic NVT Ratio by predicting or describing price consolidations.
Even Woo recognised the usage of NVT Signal:
“(NVT Signal is) responsive enough to use as a trading indicator.” - Willy Woo, 2017
NVT Signal, despite its successes, still was unable to correct for a major flaw: it does not account for off-chain transactions (as mentioned before as a weakness in NVT Ratio).
Also, NVT Signal might not be this accurate in predictions for all coins, since only 2 factors are included in the metric (i.e. network value and on-chain transaction volume). It is also likely that its use is limited to large cap coins, since small cap coins do not have the network value or history, yet, to be analysed in this manner. Also, if there are projects that utilize blockchain technology in the backend of their service provision, we might need a totally different valuation technique to accurately assess it.
“At its essence, Bitcoin’s NVT ratio is a comparison of how much the network is being valued to how much the network is being used. If you’re applying the NVT ratio to a different network, the value transmitted on-chain needs to be a good representation of how much the network is being used. This is not always the case.” Willy Woo, 2017
Together, these metrics can be coupled with an assessment of the cryptocurrency’s ownership base characteristics to further analyze and compare the value of certain coins.
Photo by Kendall Ruth on Unsplash
On Creating your Own Multiples
Why not give it a shot? Understand the trends and data available, and break down factors you believe that make up fundamentals of cryptocurrency. Next, find proxies to indicate quantitative measures in the selected fundamentals. This may come in the form of twitter hashtag uses on social media buzz.
Alternatively, you could choose to review existing indicators (like P/E ratio) and translate it to fit the cryptoclimate, or overcome limitations faced by existing multiples.
In this relatively new industry, it is anyone’s game to come up with a useful ratio. Don’t be afraid to be wrong, just work the mistakes into insights. For, as Warren Buffet’s timeless advice goes,
“It is better to be approximately right than precisely wrong”.
Check out Part II on Price-to-Metcalfe’s Ratio as a cryptoasset valuation model! | https://medium.com/whaleblocks/how-to-value-cryptoassets-part-i-49f244962c7d | ['Iris Loh'] | 2018-10-18 09:29:36.448000+00:00 | ['Investment', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain'] |
NASA Is Manufacturing Space Telescope Specialized for Hunting Asteroids | An asteroid wiped out dinosaurs some 64 million years ago. And, there is no saying that something like this couldn’t happen to us. And, considering that, this new development at NASA makes more sense.
Recent reports have alluded to the fact that NASA is considering a range of steps in view of their planetary defense project. And, part of the efforts to defend the planet from space objects is building a telescope that can hunt for threatening asteroids. If you are not well caught with recent news regarding asteroids, here is the synopsis. It was revealed in 2019 that humans could not accurately predict when a catastrophic asteroid collision might happen with earth. It means that if an asteroid is predicted to graze past Earth thirty years from now, there is no saying that it will happen thirty years from now. It could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, and it could happen within hours.
Yes, it’s a complicated concept. But, space, as you know, is not a child’s play.
Anyways, an infrared telescope is in development at NASA after the pre-eminent agency has given clearance for the production. The infrared telescope to be developed by NASA would actively look for fast-moving objects that could potentially threaten life on earth upon collision.
The new telescope, which is still at the planning stage, has been dubbed as NEO Surveyor. The NEO Surveyor is an acronym for Near-Earth Object Surveyor. The space agency gave the clearance for the object in the aftermath of a successful mission review. The news has come forward courtesy of a post posted on the JPL website.
Mike Kelley, who works at NASA and now is a part of the NEO Surveyor program, has given a statement saying that the telescope would escalate NASA’s ability to detect the presence of calamitous comets more rapidly and accurately.
Kelley also revealed that the infrared telescope would detect the presence of 90 percent of the objects bigger than the threshold of 140 meters within ten years of its launch. Kelley alluded to the fact that objects would increase NASA’s ability to find out objects that pose a threat to life on earth. The primary objective of the project is to decrease the chances of an asteroid collision on earth.
It was also revealed earlier those humans don’t have much technology to destroy comets headed towards the earth without destroying themselves. However, humans can defend themselves if they can accurately predict the imminent collision. The key aspect here is time for preparation. If we can predict that an asteroid is about to impact the earth in 2078, then there is ample time to put capable minds on the problem and figure out a way to destroy or deflect the comet.
However, if NASA or any agency fails to detect the comet and imminent annihilation is revealed ten days prior to the impact, then there would be hardly anything humans could do about it other than instigating panic.
Victor is an inventive person who has been doing intensive research in particular topics and writing blogs and articles on Canon IJ Setup and many other related topics. He is a very knowledgeable person with lots of experience.
Source: NASA Is Manufacturing Space Telescope Specialized for Hunting Asteroids | https://medium.com/@stefanforbes318/nasa-is-manufacturing-space-telescope-specialized-for-hunting-asteroids-1ffbd212519f | ['Stefan Forbes'] | 2021-07-05 10:45:33.551000+00:00 | ['Asteroids', 'Science', 'NASA', 'Spacetelescope', 'Telescope'] |
Omaha to have new City Attorney, following the retirement of Paul Kratz | Omaha to have new City Attorney, following the retirement of Paul Kratz
The Omaha City Council extended their best wishes to long-serving city attorney Paul Kratz who is entering retirement December 11. The council presented a proclamation, which had the Official Seal of the City of Omaha affixed, and stated the accomplishments by Mr. Kratz.
Paul Kratz, Omaha City Attorney in his last city council meeting.
At their regular meeting on Monday, December 8th, Mr. Kratz stated the following:
“It’s been enjoyable working with this council. You guys work very well together; you’ve worked very well with the mayor. Contrary to my first council in 1998, that Ben [Gray] knows and Brinker [Harding] knows, we had some very difficult times working together. So I am glad that everybody can get along now. Good luck to you and keep Omaha good. Thank you.” — Paul Kratz
Watch the formalities presenting the proclamation the Paul Kratz.
Some facts in the proclamation:
•Paul Kratz graduated from he University of Nebraska Law School in 1975
•After working in private practice and for the Nebraska Department of Labor, Mr. Kratz was hired by Mayor Hal Daub to be the City Attorney for the City of Omaha in 1998.
•Mr. Kratz has Served on numerous boards and committees to include the American Laboratories, Inc. Board of Directors, Conrhusker Football Breakfast Club of Omaha, Dubuque Packing Company Board of Directors, the Certificate Need Review Committee, and the Presbyterian Church of the Cross.
•Mr. Kratz enjoys volunteering his time and being active with the Shriners, the Scottish Rite, the Presbyterian Church of the Cross, YMCA Youth Basketball and Baseball, and the Nebraska and Douglas County Republican Parties.
•Mr. Kratz has been instrumental in several significant City of Omaha projects to include the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, TD Ameritrade Park, the College World Series, the city-owned Hilton Hotel, and the arena and convention center.
•Mr. Kratz enjoys spending time with his wife, Diane, his two adult sons, Jeff and Gregory, and his five grandchildren.
•Mr. Kratz will retire December 11, 2020, after 22 years of service to the city to enjoy his family and other interests.
All council members were present: Aimee Melton, Pete Festersen, Brinker Harding, Rich Pahls, Ben Gray, Council Vice President Vinny Palermo, and Mr. President Chris Jerram for the send off. Through out the meeting, several supporters of various agenda items also congratulated Mr. Kratz on his service to the City of Omaha. | https://medium.com/@codexoma/omaha-to-have-new-city-attorney-following-the-retirement-of-paul-kratz-4cd97fcbd8d2 | ['Codex Omaha'] | 2020-12-11 02:09:54.755000+00:00 | ['City Prosecutor', 'City Council', 'City Proclamation', 'Retirement'] |
SQL ZOO | List each country name where the population is larger than that of ‘Russia’.
Table ‘world’ is as below:
world(name, continent, area, population, gdp) select name from world where population > (select population from world where name = ‘Russia’)
2. Show the countries in Europe with a per capita GDP greater than ‘United Kingdom’.
select name from world where gdp/population
> (select gdp/population from world where
name = 'United Kingdom')
and continent = 'Europe'
;
3. Neighbours of Argentina and Australia
List the name and continent of countries in the continents containing either Argentina or Australia. Order by name of the country.
select name, continent from
(select continent from world where name in ('Argentina', 'Australia')) order by name;
4. Between Canada and Poland
Which country has a population that is more than Canada but less than Poland? Show the name and the population.
select name, population from world
where population > (select population from world where name = 'Canada') and population < (select population from world
where name = 'Poland');
5. Percentages of Germany
Germany (population 80 million) has the largest population of the countries in Europe. Austria (population 8.5 million) has 11% of the population of Germany.
Show the name and the population of each country in Europe. Show the population as a percentage of the population of Germany.
Decimal places
You can use the function ROUND to remove the decimal places.
Percent symbol %
You can use the function CONCAT to add the percentage symbol.
select name, concat(round(population/(select population from world where name ='Germany')*100,0), '%') as 'Percentages of Germany' from world where continent = 'Europe';
6. Bigger than every country in Europe
Which countries have a GDP greater than every country in Europe? [Give the name only.] (Some countries may have NULL gdp values)
select name from world where gdp > all(select gdp from world
where continent = 'Europe' and gdp > 0);
7. Largest in each continent
Find the largest country (by area) in each continent, show the continent, the name and the area:
select continent, name, area from world x
where area >= all(select area from world y
where x.continent = y.continent and y.area > 0)
8. First country of each continent (alphabetically)
List each continent and the name of the country that comes first alphabetically.
select continent, name from world x
where name <= all(select name from world y
where x.continent = y.continent);
9. Difficult Questions That Utilize Techniques Not Covered In Prior Sections
Find the continents where all countries have a population <= 25000000. Then find the names of the countries associated with these continents. Show name, continent and population.
select name, continent, population from world x
where 25000000 >= (select max(population) from world y
where x.continent = y.continent);
10. Some countries have populations more than three times that of any of their neighbours (in the same continent). Give the countries and continents.
select name, continent from world x
where population > all(select 3*population from world y
where x.continent = y.continent and x.name <> y.name)
Link
Reference | https://medium.com/jen-li-chen-in-data-science/sql-zoo-68484f8fe36a | ['Jen-Li Chen'] | 2020-12-25 02:57:21.787000+00:00 | ['Sql'] |
Which Doctor Can Help My Colon? One Cuts Butts and One Deals With Guts | Which Doctor Can Help My Colon? One Cuts Butts and One Deals With Guts
The difference between a gastroenterologist and a colorectal surgeon
Tools of the Colorectal trade. copyright Carmen Fong 2020
This is one of the most common questions I am not asked, as the majority of my patients believe we are one and the same. While we treat a lot of the same diseases and some of our procedural skills overlap, there is one major difference. Colorectal surgeons do surgery and gastroenterologists don’t. To date, I have not seen much online about this, likely because people don’t know to ask.
Training
When we graduate from medical school, we have to decide on a path. The algorithm divides into medicine and surgery. Wait, you ask, isn’t it all medicine? You graduate from medical school, not surgery school.
Yes, it’s all under the big umbrella of Medicine, but we have to choose our specialties, so the two branches are medicine (Internal Medicine) and Surgery. There are a ton of other specialties that are categories of their own, but generally, you have to decide whether you want to operate on people or not.
Just Google ‘medicine specialty decision tree’ and you will see algorithms people have made up over the years for how to decide what to do with your life, like this classic one from BMJ, “Physician, Know Thyself”. Some are more humorous than others.
The split between medicine and surgery. copyright Carmen Fong 2020
Gastroenterology
Gastroenterology (abbrev. GI), is a subspecialty of Internal Medicine, another 3 years of training on top of 3 years of residency training. Since they are a branch of medicine, they do not do surgery — that is, ‘large’ operations that generally involve cutting open the belly and general anesthesia.
Part of the confusion stems from the fact that gastroenterologists perform a lot of procedures — generally, smaller things that can be done in the office or in an outpatient setting. Most notably, these involve scopes- colonoscopy (for the colon/large bowel), or esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD), which is an upper GI endoscopy for the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum.
This is sometimes is just called ‘endoscopy’ even though endoscopy actually refers to anything involving a scope. Because GI is a medical subspecialty, they have the knowledge to treat a lot of diseases with medication. While some surgeons will do that, they generally leave medical management to the GI docs.
Colorectal surgery
Colorectal surgery is a subspecialty of General Surgery. This requires another one year on top of five years of surgical training. We are trained to diagnose all diseases, but especially diseases that may eventually require surgery.
We consider the abdomen our domain because once you have seen the inside of the abdomen during surgery, you have a much better correlation between things that happen on the outside and things that happen on the inside.
Surgical emergencies generally include bleeding, perforation of the colon, or obstruction of the colon (usually by tumor or infection), or ischemic colon which is colon devoid of functional blood supply. Sometimes, these issues are diagnosed by GI, and then a surgeon is consulted. Most often, surgeons are involved from the beginning.
Similarities
GI and Colorectal surgeons have overlapping areas of disease pathologies that we treat. The list is quite extensive and encompasses both benign and malignant colon, anal and rectal diseases (and some small intestine as well). These problems include colon or rectal cancer, diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, hemorrhoids, chronic constipation, fecal incontinence, and sometimes small bowel tumors or benign idiopathic abdominal or pelvic pain.
Both GI and Colorectal surgeons do colonoscopies, though I will be the first to admit that, in their training, GI physicians perform many more colonoscopes than we do in our surgery training. While we may do 1000 surgeries and 300 scopes, GI does 1000 scopes.
This makes for a natural divide, one that I am happy to facilitate: GI is much better at routine, screening colonoscopies. I will also do screening colonoscopies, generally for patients who specifically ask me to because I am their surgeon, but I try not to step on the toes of the lovely GI docs who refer cancer patients to me.
What I will do are diagnostic colonoscopies — that is, patients who are already known to have a tumor in order to determine the location and mark it before surgery. I also perform colonoscopies on patients whom I’ve operated on, and I have first-hand knowledge that their colon anatomy has deviated from normal.
GI physicians will also do smaller, in-office procedures such as banding hemorrhoids, which colorectal surgeons do as well. But here we start to delve into our differences.
Differences
GI can also subspecialize into upper GI, which is the first part of the digestive tract including the esophagus, stomach, and the liver (hepatologists treat diseases of the liver and bile duct, such as Hepatitis C). Some GI do upper GI procedures via endoscopy, such as clearing out gallstones from the biliary tract (ERCP).
Colorectal surgery deals with the hindgut, that is, the last part of the digestive tract, including small bowel, colon, rectum, and anus. (Some of us are also board-certified general surgeons and can operate on the upper digestive tract, such as stomach, gallbladder, liver.)
copyright Carmen Fong 2020
Colorectal surgeons spend a lot of time learning about anal and pelvic anatomy. This sets us apart from any other specialty. This allows us to be specialists in anal fistulas, fissures, anal warts, anal cancer — all of which may require small surgeries or pathologies of the rectum such as fecal incontinence and rectal prolapse.
Gastroenterologists tend not to do anorectal procedures, aside from hemorrhoid banding. What we learn in training are the eight other ways to surgically treat hemorrhoids (some are better than others), which I will not go into here, but include excision, laser, injection, stapling, and a ‘minimally-invasive’ approach that I do call transanal hemorrhoidal dearterialization.
Gastroenterologists and colorectal surgeons have a lot of overlap in terms of the diseases we treat and the procedures we do, in fact, we work very closely most of the time and even have joint conferences on complicated patients.
The main difference is that while gastroenterologists will treat conditions medically, only colorectal surgeons can treat them surgically. In general, if you are seeing a doctor and not quite sure the scope of their practice (no pun intended), just ask! We are always happy to elucidate. | https://medium.com/beingwell/which-doctor-can-help-my-colon-one-cuts-butts-and-one-deals-with-guts-332fd9ac510c | ['Carmen Fong'] | 2020-05-27 19:20:12.170000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Surgery', 'Wellness', 'Science', 'Medicine'] |
Azure Data Fundamentals — Almost All You Need to Know — Part II | Azure Data Fundamentals — Almost All You Need to Know — Part II
An Azure Data summary — a start to your data journey on Azure or for DP-900 exam preparation
This is the second part of a multi-part introduction to Azure data fundamentals. You can read the first part for an introduction to data types, data processing options, CAP Theorem, ACID, BASE etc. here. This part will introduce more concepts like NoSQL Databases and various Azure products — so let’s get started.
Non-relational / NoSQL Databases
I’ll start by saying there is no such thing as non-relational data. Relations between the data don’t just disappear — the only thing that changes is how you organize these relations. The term “non-relational data” has however somehow stood the test of time.
Instead of saving the data in highly-normalized form where the related data is generally stored in a separate tables, in NoSQL databases all the related data is stored in the same “table”. Depending upon the type of NoSQL database, the concept of table changes and has a different convention. Types of NoSQL databases include:
Key-Value Store — A key-value database is a type of non-relational database that uses a simple key-value method to store data. A key-value database stores data as a collection of key-value pairs in which a key serves as a unique identifier. Both keys and values can be anything, ranging from simple objects to complex compound objects. Key-value databases are highly partitionable and allow horizontal scaling at scales that other types of databases cannot achieve.
Write operations are usually restricted to inserts and deletes. If you need to update an item, you must retrieve the item, modify it in memory (in the application), and then write it back to the database, overwriting the original (effectively a delete and an insert). Azure Table storage is an example of a key-value store. Azure Cosmos DB also implements a key-value store using the Table API.
Document database — A document database is a type of non-relational database that is designed to store and query data as JSON-like documents. Document databases make it easier for developers to store and query data in a database by using the same document-model format they use in their application code, for e.g. javascript applications.
The document model works well with use cases such as catalogs, user profiles, and content management systems where each document is unique and evolves over time. Azure Cosmos DB implements a document database approach in its Core (SQL) API. | https://medium.com/swlh/azure-data-fundamentals-almost-all-you-need-to-know-part-ii-d82ee012e3e6 | ['Amulya Rattan Bhatia'] | 2020-12-09 12:57:03.934000+00:00 | ['Azure Services', 'Azure', 'NoSQL', 'Data', 'Data Analytics'] |
The contract: Harden still has two years and over $85 million | As the old saying goes, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
For disgruntled NBA superstar James Harden, one of the teams where the grass is greener… is now the Green Team.
As the former MVP tries to force his way out of Houston, he has reportedly added Boston to his list of “preferred destinations” according to The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Kelly Iko. The Trail Blazers are another recent addition to the list, which also includes some of the C’s biggest Eastern Conference rivals: the Nets, 76ers, Heat, and Bucks.
Just because Boston is now on Harden’s list doesn’t mean Celtics fans should expect a trade anytime soon, however. According to the report, “the viability of a possible deal with the Celtics or Trail Blazers is unclear at this time.”
While the Celtics have reportedly had exploratory talks with the Rockets about Harden, the 31-year-old comes with a heavy price tag in many ways: his contract, the cost to acquire him… and his off-the-court drama.
First, the contract: Harden still has two years and over $85 million left on his existing deal, plus a $47.3 million player option for the 2022–23 season. Then there’s the cost. Any potential package for the three-time scoring champ would include a treasure trove of assets, from established players like Jaylen Brown and Marcus to future first-round draft picks.
Finally, the off-the-court drama. Where do we even start? He’s currently quarantining for four days after attending a private party which allegedly took place at a strip club, violating the league’s health and safety protocols. He was fined $50,000 for his actions and the Rockets’ season-opener against the Thunder was postponed. And that’s not all. Harden also had a heated exchange with rookie Jae’Sean Tate at practice this week, throwing a ball in the rookie’s direction.
All of those aforementioned reasons make Harden ending up in Boston seem unlikely — but there’s no denying his talent. Harden is an eight-time All-Star who has averaged 33.7 points per game over the last three seasons.
But even though the Celtics are among his “preferred destinations,” that doesn’t mean Danny Ainge would prefer to do everything it would take to bring Harden to Boston. | https://medium.com/@fanjiramdan11/the-contract-harden-still-has-two-years-and-over-85-million-3cf0d61a5a11 | [] | 2020-12-25 07:21:21.100000+00:00 | ['James Harden', 'Startup', 'Games', 'Strategy', 'Sports'] |
Analyzing and Exploiting CVE-2020–15160 | PrestaShop Blind Sql Injection | AWAE/OSWE Prep | There was No public exploit available for this CVE so i thought why not give it a try, though Understanding the code flow and Exploiting this took me quite a lot time, at last all of it seems straightforward.
Exploit script for this is CVE, now available at exploit-db
CVE Details: CVE-2020–15160 (Basic user authentication is required)
PrestaShop from version 1.7.5.0 and before version 1.7.6.8 is vulnerable to a blind SQL Injection attack in the Catalog Product edition page with location parameter. The problem is fixed in 1.7.6.8
Setting up the vulnerable docker:
I had some problem installing the vulnerable version, i tried on kali,ubuntu but i was getting some errors, long story short i tried installing multiple version and 1.7.6.7 installed successfully without any issues:
Installing: https://hub.docker.com/r/prestashop/prestashop
docker network create prestashop-net docker run -ti --name mysql_z --network prestashop-net -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=admin -p 3307:3306 -d mysql:5.7 docker run -ti --name prestashop_z --network prestashop-net -e DB_SERVER=mysql_z -p 8080:80 -d prestashop/prestashop:1.7.6.7
Access Docker shell by:
docker exec -it prestashop_z /bin/bash
docker exec -it mysql_z /bin/bash
Prestashop is successfully deployed and running on port localhost:8080
Complete the installation from localhost:8080
Make Sure to give mysql_z as “Database server address” when asked during installation
I spent good amount of time understanding the code flow of application since its using symfony framework which i didn’t know about before this.
Understanding the Code
As mentioned in CVE description: Catalog Product edition page with location parameter is vulnerable so first lets find this location parameter
So this might be a user controlled get or post parameter:
grep -ir -F “\$_GET[‘location’]” --color
grep -ir -F “\$_POST[‘location’]” --color
src/PrestaShopBundle/Controller/Admin/ProductController.php
Stepping into the code :
function named processLocation is called with the user supplied location parameter
setLocation function is called from StockAvailable Class
classes/stock/StockAvailable.php
Okay so we finally found what’s happening with location parameter:
If the existing_id is > 0 which it always is(I confirmed with debugging) then the update function will construct the sql query with the given parameters and execute it.
Okay! but How to send payload though location parameter?
As mentioned in CVE description: Catalog Product edition page
There’s a “go to catalog” option in that page.
Intercepting the request:
Create Or edit Product with Combinations selected as Simple Product -> Click Go to Catalog and intercept that request. By default the location parameter(form[step3][location]) is set to null, change that to something eg: TESTINGPARAMETER and send that request
I did enable mysql log in mysql_z docker and found the query executing is:()
Injecting the payload: 0' #
This will change the location column for every id_product to 0 everything else will be commented:
0' # (URL ENCODE THIS)
Query executed will be:
UPDATE `ps_stock_available` SET `location` = '0' #' WHERE id_product = 22 AND id_shop = 1 AND id_shop_group = 0 Everything after # will be commented in the query.
Burp POST req
Exploiting Blind Sql Injection:
Limitations:
Cannot use ; and = in the injection query
Payload: 0'|(ascii(substr(user(),1,1)) regexp 114)#
Payload Explanation:
The idea is to set location to 0, or 1 if the supplied condition matches.
substr will retrieve the first character of the output of user() function and ascii will convert it and then regexp will match if the first retrieved character is 114 which decodes to “r”
regexp is a very handy mysql operator we use it to solve our equals sign restriction
Doing this manual is not quite possible so i wrote a python script to retrieve the data.
This script is also available at exploit-db.
The script logins the application, fetch the tokens required for request and loop through vulnerable parameter with injection query and check for location to be 1 in every iteration. if the location is 1 it means that the payload returns to be true, so the script give us the output character of the sql query we injected. | https://medium.com/@vanshal/analyzing-and-exploiting-cve-2020-15160-prestashop-blind-sql-injection-awae-oswe-prep-de29d3c57005 | ['Vanshal Gaur'] | 2021-04-09 14:23:23.153000+00:00 | ['PHP', 'Infosec', 'Code Review', 'Sql Injection', 'Hacking'] |
Know Your ‘Basis Risk’ in the Modeled Vulnerabilities of Your Customers’ Exposures | Dr. Lawson is Chief Risk Engineering and Resiliency Officer at Archipelago.
SOVs contain crucial data about construction attributes that insurers across the commercial real estate market use as inputs to their catastrophe models. These attributes, such as Construction Class, Year Built, Number of Stories, and Occupancy (not to mention myriad secondary modifiers) map in various models to specific vulnerability curves which then define the damageability of the buildings. Along with hazards, these vulnerability curves are crucial to the modeled losses and drive the AALs and other metrics insurers use to underwrite and price their submissions.
Vulnerability curves, while based on sound empirical data and engineering considerations, are generalizations about the performance of specific types of buildings. While this approach can work well in an aggregate analysis involving a diversity of property types and vulnerability classes, there are some cases where the default use of generalized vulnerability curves do not adequately address the performance of a particular construction style. This ‘basis risk’ can be particularly pronounced for certain types of submissions where an insured focuses on a specific kind of asset class or property type.
A notable example of this can occur when modeling a submission from certain owners of large industrial warehouses. Industrial warehouses, across the country, are often constructed using precast concrete tilt-up walls. And, when coded as such, they are typically modeled by a singular “primary” vulnerability curve (subject to secondary modifiers) that have been constructed across the US for the last 20 years.
In most models, the seismic vulnerability curves for precast concrete tilt-up buildings tend to produce higher damage ratios than many other types of structures. These parameterizations were heavily influenced by the performance of older tilt-up construction of smaller warehouses where the connections between the roof diaphragm and the exterior tilt-up walls failed resulting in a partial collapse of the building. In these older structures, the lateral load resisting system was limited to exterior concrete (tilt-up) shear walls with the gravity loads carried by the exterior walls and interior steel columns. This failure mode was observed in the 1971 San Fernando EQ and repeated itself, although to a much lesser degree, in the 1994 Northridge EQ. Building codes were updated for precast concrete tilt-up construction in 1997 and have remained essentially the same since then.
However, the trend over the last 20 years has been to develop increasingly larger warehouses with many contemporary warehouses now constructed in the 250K to 1M+ square feet range. A major difference in the construction of these large warehouses is that they are designed with multiple interior bays of braced (or moment resisting) steel frames that resist the lateral loads caused by seismic and wind events. As a structural engineering best practice, it was determined that a flexible steel (or wood) diaphragm should not be required to collect and distribute lateral loads when spans exceed 400–500 feet. Therefore, with these large warehouses, the lateral load resisting design utilizes interior steel braced frames as the primary load resisting system, not the exterior tilt-up walls. I say, ‘primary’, since warehouse roofs are generally flexible diaphragms made of steel decking (or sometimes wood decking) and flexible diaphragms distribute lateral loads based on tributary area, therefore, an interior column line of steel braced frames will typically carry twice the lateral load as compared to an exterior concrete shear wall. For example, if the building has two column lines of steel braced frames, the steel frames carry 66% of the lateral loads, whereas for three column lines, 75% of the lateral loading is carried by the steel frames.
In terms of structural design of these types of buildings, they can be considered to be a dual system with the primary lateral load resisting system being steel braced (or moment resisting) frames with redundancy provided by the exterior concrete shear walls. This is quite different from a default to a traditional ‘tilt-up’ vulnerability curve, which would overestimate the damage potential of such a property. It’s important, as in this example and in others that I’ll explore in subsequent posts, to understand the basis for the modeling assumptions, and their fit with your customers’ portfolios in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of their risk and how to contextualize the resulting AALs generated by the models. | https://medium.com/onarchipelago/know-your-basis-risk-in-the-modeled-vulnerabilities-of-your-customers-exposures-c9a75fdd9fde | ['Scott Lawson'] | 2020-10-28 09:54:00.613000+00:00 | ['Startup', 'Insurance', 'Commercial Real Estate', 'Underwriting', 'Risk Management'] |
Introduction to HTML | Mr. Tech Code | Tamil | The purpose of this blog is to learn programming languages in Tamil. Web development, Blogging, Cyber security, Operating System, and Linux. | https://medium.com/@mr-techcode/introduction-to-html-mr-tech-code-tamil-17d67ca00e88 | ['Mr. Tech Code Tamil'] | 2020-12-20 15:59:30.179000+00:00 | ['Web', 'Website', 'HTML', 'Web Development', 'Technology'] |
My Productivity Mega List | 14 Strategies | I’ve read, watched, learnt, practiced and preached productivity for a while. There’s always a steady stream of great strategies out there and I’m a huge fan.
I’ve picked these strategies up along the way and use them every single day. Mind you, I could write a 10 minute piece on each of these making my case as to why they’re great. But the list is long so I kept each one short. They’re a great help to me, hopefully you find at least one of them useful!
1 | The Morning Memo
At the end of every day, set out a small but substantial goal for the next day and regardless of what you do the next day, you have to complete that task. Whatever else happens that day, you will have achieved something.
2 | The 3 Second Rule
Force your survival instinct to kick in while you leave your analytical mind behind. If you know you need to do something, count to 3 and do it. After you get to 0, you have to do it, otherwise this rule will never work for you again. This rule will force you to throw away all the time you will have otherwise spent talking yourself out of it or procrastinating. It’s basic, it’s simple and seems like an ill thought throwaway ‘rule’. I promise it’s not, try it.
3 | Hardest Thing First
Tackling the hardest part of your day, as the first thing you do in the day will make the rest of your day oh so smooth. Everything will come effortlessly and you’ll be exponentially more productive, able to keep the momentum going when each task get’s easier and easier.
4 | Divide And Conquer
The trouble with productivity or lack there of, is trying to take something huge and tackle it head on. This will almost always be so daunting that you will resort to procrastination. If you divide up the work into more digestible chunks, you’ll be able to bring yourself to do the work and one step at a time, finish the previously gargantuan task.
5 | Effort Management and Delegation
You have 1000 effort points a day. You want to spend all those effort points on the things that matter. Let’s say the optimal task to spend a single effort point on brings you $1. If task X takes 200 effort points (1/5 of your daily limit or $200 in potential value) but it only costs you $100 to get someone else to do it, then just delegate and don’t do the task yourself. Spend the effort on what matters, delegate smaller tasks. Logically it makes perfect sense, practically, we all neglect it.
6 | Rubber Duck Debugging
You have a problem that you’re working through in your head, the issue with that is, things in your head can get a little complex and muddled. This causes you to hit an all time productivity low. You have a persistent problem and it’s hard to work through. To fix this, you get a rubber duck and explain the problem to the rubber duck. This helps you verbalise the problem and most of the time, when you verbalise it by using actual communication, you tend to fix the problem. (you don’t really need to use a rubber duck, an inanimate object or disinterested friend is ok too)
7 | The Knowledge Card Trick
Sticky notes, Trello, a whiteboard… something. Getting tasks from head to paper is a fantastic way to de-clutter the mind. There’s no better way of getting things done than actually knowing what needs to be done. And make no mistake, even though those tasks are in your head somewhere, you tend to not know about it until it’s facing you in the ‘To-Do’ column in Trello. Bonus points if you stick a deadline on each task, this does a lot of preventative work. What are we preventing you ask? A never ending To-Do List I answer.
8 | The Marathon vs Sprint
You should put maximum effort into not relying on motivation. I love motivational and eye-opening quotes from better people but that doesn’t exactly help me. Neither I or you or anyone will achieve their goals from random sporadic moments of motivation followed by a decline in effort. Avoid going cold turkey on bad habits and avoid going all in on good habits. You aren’t a switch, you’re a human and you need to condition yourself by making small changes that will eventually turn into big results.
9 | The Community Architect
The old adage of “you’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” has a lot of truth to it. We’re social creatures and as intrinsically valued as we might be, we will always look for external validation, competition and support among other things. If you’re a hustler that hangs out with drones, your hustling won’t improve, won’t be appreciated and feeling out of place might put you in a state of mind that won’t be healthy for anyone, least of all yourself. You’re the architect of your own community, make sure you spend extra care when picking your friends.
10 | Steam, Serenity, Sports and Sex
You’re not a robot and neither is anyone else. You can’t be expected to or can’t expect perfection and pure productivity of yourself. So put away that guilt because I know you feel it. Everyone needs to blow off steam, meditate one way or another, keep physically active and get physical as much as possible. These things aren’t a luxury, they’re requirements. If you still feel guilty, treat it like maintenance, because that’s what it is.
11 | The False Substitute
I hate Gary Vaynerchuk. Not because he’s a bad guy — he’s not, not because his content isn’t valuable — he’s got great tips, and not because of that aura of arrogance. You know, the usual reasons why people aren’t a fan. I hate Gary because whether it’s intentional or not, an army of aspiring entrepreneurs neglect sleep and substitute it for work because of his content. Look, If you need 8 hours, don’t do 6. You don’t need to do 6. Getting 2 extra hours at the expense of losing quality for every other hour in your day is just no worth it. It’s a false substitute. I need 7–8 hours of sleep for maximum on-the-ball time. You best bet that I’m taking those hours. If you can have maximum on-the-ball time with 5–6 hours, power to you sir and/or madam. If a ‘hustler’ laughs at you for sleeping 8 hour nights, crack a smile and move on.
12 | 15 Minute Self Care Routine
Every day, I block out time for deliberate and focused self care. Making my bed, tidying my desk, shaving and showering. I’ve found that I can’t fully take care of tasks and problems throughout the day, if I don’t respect myself enough to spend some time on myself. It doesn’t have to be over the top, it doesn’t have to be huge. Making it deliberate and focusing on only that will be enough to build up a small routine with huge dividends. If you haven’t walked into a tidy work space, or ended the day by retreating into a tidy bedroom, give it a try.
13 | Social Media Trading Hours
Delete all social media applications from your phone, and have a designated time in the day to check these on your desktop/laptop. You can try setting the schedule and being disciplined enough to not look at them until the time comes but bare in mind… Top apps tend to be owned by companies worth billions of dollars, and they tend to invest quite a bit of time and money to make you an addict through behavioral triggers and complex algorithms, neatly packed into smart UX design. Get rid of them and enjoy the extra hour in your day that you magically created.
14 | Fear Deconstruction
If your productivity in relation to new undertakings, and general progression to more fulfilling things has ever been hindered, you can blame fear. Starting a new workout regimen, trying a new diet, taking a new class are all productive. But fear of the most mundane sort will take over and stop you from doing these things. Physically write down every fear you have relating to the action. You’ll find that writing them down and taking a moment to read will help you realise how ridiculous some of these fears are, eventually allowing you to work through them. | https://medium.com/swlh/my-productivity-mega-list-14-strategies-4bbb36e650e6 | ['Sah Kilic'] | 2019-12-11 02:06:17.066000+00:00 | ['Personal Growth', 'Life Lessons', 'Self Improvement', 'Life', 'Productivity'] |
How to better define your design problems — or why Thanos didn’t double resources | How to better define your design problems — or why Thanos didn’t double resources
Avengers: Infinity War features a powerful super villain: Thanos. The central plot follows him on his quest to kill half the population of the universe. He isn’t doing this for evil reasons though, his stated goal is to “restore balance” to the universe. Thanos sees overpopulation as a threat and believes the solution is to kill half of all creatures so the other half can live better on the available resources.
This brings up an important question: if he’s all powerful, why not grow more food and double the resources instead?
When we face a design problem, we often spend most of our time going from problem to solution. But could we be ignoring better options because we haven’t defined our problem well in the first place?
A solution too early could interfere with how you think about your problem
Thanos first considered his own home: Titan. He saw Titan struggle to provide for its populace and blamed overpopulation. He proposed to his government that the solution was in killing half of their people. This was rejected as genocide and not acted upon. As he predicted though, the planet did suffer and his civilisation collapsed. That led him to conclude that his solution was the only way forward.
Left: Titan, now entirely destroyed Right: Thanos’ vision of a more perfect Titan
Since Thanos was already convinced that he had a great solution, he interpreted the results only from his perspective. Although there is no evidence that a smaller population would fare better, he is now certain his solution is perfect and applicable to the entire universe.
This is often referred to as a confirmation bias. The reasons for the collapse may have been more complex than “overpopulation”. His solution may not have worked as well as he’d hoped. But since the end result was just as he expected, it confirmed his world view. He was now even more convinced that killing half of everyone was the right thing to do.
Thanos has a solution looking for a problem. His stated goal was to “restore balance”, but because his solution only involves killing, he starts to define his problem as “too many people”. From here, his attention is on how to kill people efficiently.
Limitations of building a partial solution
When a problem has been defined by a solution, rather than the other way around, it can limit its effectiveness. The solution may not be holistic, but since the problem was rewritten to fit, it seems perfect. We’re moving to production half-baked leading to a limited scope of work. The team we build and the processes we develop, will now only answer the poorly defined problem.
In Thanos’ case, he has moved his focus to destroying entire populations. He has hired staff based on ability to kill. He has invested in a warship. The only task he is prepped to handle, is killing populations. Each new planet he visits could have individual concerns, implementation could be localised, but all he has is a killing machine.
“To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.” —Abraham Maslow
As an example, let’s take Earth: killing 3.6 billion people would take us back to our population in 1972. That gives us only 50 years before we’re right back to where we are now. Without additional support systems and planning, nothing has truly been improved. Thanos built none of this infrastructure to aid the remaining populace. Because his process only involved reducing the population, sustaining the rest is outside his scope of work and he built nothing toward that end.
Poorly defined KPIs can kill your strategy
An important thing to note here is his metric for success—his Key Performance Indicators. The only one he has set for himself is to kill half the creatures—half of all the creatures. So animals as a food source, those that help pollination, or assist in cultivation, are killed as well. Both creatures populations generating resources and those consuming them are cut in half. He is reducing the very resources people are meant to survive on.
This seems counter to his stated goal of “restoring balance”. If you have an unbalanced scale and halve both sides, the scale remains unbalanced. | https://uxdesign.cc/why-thanos-didnt-double-resources-framing-design-problems-7714e7136881 | ['Ashim D Silva'] | 2019-05-15 00:19:02.640000+00:00 | ['Avengers', 'Life Lessons', 'Process', 'Design', 'Culture'] |
Blockchain and Real Estate — one plus one not always equals two | It’s not very revolutionary to say that Real Estate has one of the most inefficient and expensive transactions processes that exist nowadays. Physical documents for proof of identity and to the lack of accessibility and transparency in the markets increase the time and cost spent by all parties involved in a transaction. Compared to other industries, it is still a real pain to deal with this one.
The market is not efficient. We know that. If there is any financing involved, the sale/rental process becomes even more complicated as many documents and steps become duplicated by both the buyer and the seller. Not fun at all.
Blockchain is clearly not the magic solution to every problem (although some people say it is), but it is clear that it can be used as a really useful tool to cut down unnecessary costs and inefficiencies in this particular case.
By using blockchain & smart contract technology, AREX aims to be the first to create an international real estate market as liquid as stock markets are nowadays. Sounds ambitious, I know, but let us explain.
Real Estate nowadays has three main issues: The price of the properties, the international barriers to trade and the amount of bureaucracy/paperwork. By implementing Blockchain, we want to eliminate the second and third problem.
The tools that already exist will help us to standardize a common due diligence process for investment in Real Estate assets. As a result we will create a common Set of International Standards for Investment (it’s really the highest time to develop it!). Companies and individuals will be required to comply with those Standards to be able to list assets in the exchange.
We know that trading tokenized assets is the future, but only when everybody (including the market, companies and regulators) is ready to adopt it. That being said, not yet.
The main goal right now is to create a real financial market in which its inputs are Real Estate assets. We don’t think blockchain is a magic solution to everything, but it is a tool and an enabler that can make the market work in a much more efficient and liquid way.
AREX wants to use blockchain as a tool for managing properties, certifying documents, providing transparency to the market and develop smart contracts that will later serve for co-investment in Real Estate assets.
We hope to bring some major improvements to the way the industry functions today and reinvent the way we interact with it. We believe that the Real Estate, as messy as it seems, still deserves our hope.
That’s why we’re here.
…
AREX creates a Real Estate Exchange with asset management optimisation via blockchain. Stay tuned for our next article about the detailed plan for our mission. And if you have any questions or comments — please say hello!
Written by Daria Krauzo | https://medium.com/arex-blockchain-real-estate/blockchain-and-real-estate-one-plus-one-not-always-equals-two-11f5d55a083c | ['Francisco Hernández Parga'] | 2018-12-05 16:20:07.987000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Real Estate', 'Proptech', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Finance'] |
3:44 AM | We’re 9 months into the global pandemic caused by the viral disease COVID-19. It’s 3:44 in the morning on December 26th. That was an interesting Christmas. I’m standing at the front desk of The Pearl Hotel in San Diego, where I recently picked up a part time night auditor position. Everyone told me not to do it, as it would mess up my sleep schedule and therefore throw off my social life, mental health, etc. Maybe they’re right. Maybe they’re wrong. This is my first shift, so I suppose I will find out.
In my eyes, as an aspiring UX Designer, this is the perfect opportunity to get paid to work on my craft. With few tasks provided by the hotel, I am given hours on end to do what I please, within reason. Im choosing to focus on what inspires me, design.
To briefly touch on something I feel I have been struggling with, I will refer back to what I mentioned in the first paragraph, “Everyone told me…” I’ve been being told what to do, how it is, how its going to be, how it was, and what’s going to happen if I don’t, the entirety of my life. This gets old, as I hope you know. On some levels, I seek and value other people’s insight and guidance as it is a way for me to gauge my judgement on decisions or thoughts I’m having. While on other levels, being told what to do and how things are by someone who is failing to acknowledge they are only speaking from their experience, gets old. Am I ranting? Somewhat. Might I feel differently tomorrow? Or today, as its 4:13 AM now? Probably. So why do I mention this? Im 25 years old, and coming to a place in my life where I would like to start trusting myself and my own experience more. I often let the doubts, fears, and worries of others become my own. If I look at my life experience, for the most part, things always turn out okay, and my worry is more times than not fruitless and unnecessary.
How can I apply this knowledge to my process of becoming a UX Designer. Well for starters, I could come to terms with iteration. Life is about iteration. We make mistakes, constantly, and we learn from them, and avoid them in the future. A friend shared an analogy with me that I enjoyed, he said, “Imagine you’re walking down the street and fall into a pot hole. The next day, you’re walking down the same street, and fall in the same pot hole. Later that week, as you approach the same street, and the same pot hole, you decide to walk around it yet you trip and fall in sideways. Next time that wont happen you tell yourself. The next day, you walk around the pot hole smiling, you get a couple blocks down the road, turn around, run and jump in the pot hole.” Why do we do this? I don’t know, but I can totally relate.
As I learn to iterate on my work, and accept feedback from others, I am convinced that I will become a better designer. Suggestions and help from others is crucial in my pursuit to be the best I can be. But, I must also be taking and honoring my own suggestions and ideas while trusting the intuition that I have slowly been developing over the years. I feel as if I am starting to get to know myself, and it’s exciting.
My point is, I’m grateful to be employed and working, I’m grateful for this time to work on becoming a better designer, and I’m grateful for this time to study the San Diego buoys and to get to surf a sweet south swell in just 2 more hours!!!!!!!!!!
Over and out. | https://medium.com/@matthew-designs/3-44-am-660663fb60e5 | ['Matthew Roberts'] | 2020-12-26 12:46:35.585000+00:00 | ['UX Design', 'Iteration', 'Designlab', 'Reflections', 'Junior Designer'] |
Periodisation of the Posterior Chain | Increasing the Deadlift for Football Players
The power output for almost all sport-specific movements such as sprinting, jumping and throwing comes from a powerful hip extension.
A double body weight deadlift might provide you the physical base to improve athletic performance, but there are no weight classes on the football field!
The transfer of training the deadlift for football players of all codes is the ability to brace whilst overcoming the inertia of an opposition player (i.e. winning a collision).
When I get asked about what “strength” looks like on a football field, I imagine the ball carrier… generating momentum, catching at the line, playing flat and fast… accelerating into contact with good body lean, sparking his opponent with good bumpers, absolutely folding him in half… creating a line break or half break (or assisting a support player to do so) … or increasing the ruck speed for his team to capitalise on in the next play.
Attack is obviously only one side of a football game though!
Lower body strength has been shown many times in research to correlate with tackling ability, however wrestling is often where a team asserts it dominance in defence.
Initial contact is an explosion of opposing forces, whilst the wrestle to the ground in comparison is more of a slow grind (much like the lockout of a heavy deadlift).
The goal during defensive wrestle is to be in control of the attacking player, by utilising proper grips and handles whilst getting “HIPS IN” as close as possible to either hold up (rugby union) or take down and hold on the ground (rugby league).
Note: overcoming the inertia of an external object such as a barbell is one thing. Picking it up and carrying it is another! Loaded carries possibly have a higher degree of transfer to collision-based sports. A double body weight Farmer’s Walk for distance is a great challenge.
Programming the Deadlift for Football Players
For the last four seasons with the Sydney Roosters, I have used the approach of alternating 3-week phases of shorter range of motion variations to accumulate volume and switching to regular deadlifts when aiming to intensify load.
Partial lifts like a rack pull prepare the spine for the axial load of a deadlift, using an integrated hip hinge movement without the synchronised knee extension component.
Shifting the centre of mass with a trap bar deadlift means the athlete can consistently pull from the floor, however the lower back is spared whilst typically competing with very high running volumes on field.
Decreasing range of motion however is an idea that goes against my general philosophy on preseason strength training!
Phase 1 (Weeks 1–3): Accumulation 1 — Snatch Grip Deadlift
Previously, I have shared my thoughts on using the snatch grip deadlift to DEVELOP strength and the clean grip or conventional deadlift to EXPRESS that strength.
The snatch grip deadlift is a great tool to increase both strength and size (as well as mobility) of the entire posterior chain.
Prescribing tempo increases the total time under tension (TUT) which induces muscle hypertrophy of particularly the spinal erectors, glutes and hamstrings.
This is an advanced variation which I have only used with select individuals, particularly in a rehab setting at the Roosters. If coaching in a group setting, especially with younger athletes, stick to the rack pull or trap bar deadlift.
Fletcher Baker Snatch Grip Deadlift 140x5
Phase 2 (Weeks 4–6): Intensification 1 — Deadlift
If strength training were a game of chess, the squat and all its variations would be the Queen. Without doubt the most utilised pattern of exercises to develop lower body strength.
The deadlift would be King. It is the single best exercise to strengthen the back. They build and display full body strength like no other.
I seldom use the mixed grip with the Roosters when we deadlift.
I prefer the double overhand with a hook grip. Not only does this keep the wrists and shoulders symmetrical, but a strong grip is essential for contact- and combat-sport athletes.
Fletcher Baker Deadlift 180x3 (double overhand, hook grip)
As mentioned earlier, rugby league players are constantly juggling various elements in their training — field, weights, wrestle (and that’s just the physical components).
If player is ever going to miss a rep, I’ll take grip as the limiting factor over lower back strength (or fatigue) every day of the week! I would also prefer DOMS in the forearms over lower back for subsequent field sessions too.
Finally, lifting with a rounded back position may well be a safe and optimal technique for elite powerlifters to pull extreme loads. I coach elite rugby league playing athletes, not elite powerlifting athletes.
Maintaining thoracic extension during a deadlift is a nonnegotiable in my gym. Anti-flexion strength of the core and torso prevents players from being the ones who get folded in half during a collision. | https://medium.com/@appliedstrength/periodisation-of-the-posterior-chain-ab289a3cddf0 | ['Patrick Lane'] | 2021-01-17 18:08:48.177000+00:00 | ['Strength', 'Rugby', 'Strength Training', 'Weightlifting'] |
Computer Vision Tutorial — Lesson 7 | Decision Tree is a tree shaped algorithm used to determine a course of action. Each branch of the tree represents a possible decision, occurrence or reaction.
Information Theory:
Information Theory is the fundamentals of decision trees. In order for us to understand Decision Tree algorithm, we need to understand Information Theory.
The basic idea of information theory is that the “informational value” of a data-set depends on the degree to which the content of the message is surprising or messy. If an event is very probable, it is no surprise (and generally uninteresting) when that event happens as expected; hence transmission of such a message carries very little new information. However, if an event is unlikely to occur, it is much more informative to learn that the event happened or will happen.
For example, there are at-least 3000 varieties of fishes available in both coast of India alone, if we are building a “shark” classifier to identify whether, it is a Shark or not. It is important for us to introduce non-shark images to the datasets as negative samples in-order for the classifier to distinguish between a shark and a non-shark fish. The entropy is high only when the mixture of positive samples (shark) and negative samples (non-shark) are equal, implying the data-set has interesting features to learn.
If all images in our data-set are positive(shark), then we don’t learn anything new — no matter how many images of shark it contains.
It is observed that the entropy is maximum when the probabilities are equal.
Decision Tree:
The basic idea behind a Decision Tree is to break classification down into a set of choices about each entry (i.e. column) in our feature vector. We start at the root of the tree and then progress down to the leaves where the actual classification is made.
For example, lets assume we are on a hiking trip to lake district and the rain is on and off, we need to decide whether to stay indoor or go on a hike.
FIG 1: AN EXAMPLE OF A DECISION TREE THAT WE CAN USE TO DECIDE IF WE WANT TO GO ON A HIKE OR STAY INDOOR
As you can see from FIG 1 above, we have created a decision tree diagram where the decision blocks (rectangles) indicate a choice that we must make. We then have branches which lead us to other decision blocks or a terminating block (ovals). A terminating block is a leaf node of the tree, indicating that a final decision has been made.
Tree Construction:
Decision tree algorithms use information theory in some shape or form to obtain the optimal, most informative splits (i.e. the “decisions”) to construct a series of “if/then” rules in a tree-like manner.
First step in constructing a decision tree is forming the root node of the tree. ie, which feature is split to form the rest of the tree.
In order for us to find the root node, we calculate the information gain from each feature column. The feature column with maximum information gain is selected as the root node and split is made from the selected root node to construct the decision tree.
Formula to calculate Entropy :
Where , p = number of unique values in a feature column / total number of features in a feature column
For example, Lets find the entropy of the below animal dataset
FIG 2 : ANIMAL DATASET
The dataset is looking quite messy and the entropy is high in this case
Total number of animals= 8
Number of Giraffe in Dataset = 3
Number of Tiger in Dataset = 2
Number of Monkey in Dataset = 1
Number of Elephant in Dataset = 2
Hence the entropy is calculated as below,
import math
entropy = -(3/8)*math.log2(3/8)+(2/8)*math.log2(2/8)+(1/8)*math.log2(1/8)+(2/8)*math.log2(2/8) print(entropy)
The entropy here is approximately 1.9. This is considered a high entropy , a high level of disorder ( meaning low level of purity).
Example : Decision Tree
Lets take an example data-set below and build a decision tree on it. Here “play” feature is the independent variable and rest of the feature columns are dependent variables.
FIG 3: SAMPLE DATASET TO DECIDE WHETHER TO PLAY OR NOT PLAY
We will take 5 steps to build the decision tree:
Step 1: Compute the Entropy of data-set (target variable) — E(s)
Compute the Entropy of data-set (target variable) — E(s) Step 2: Compute Information gain for each dependent variable — Gain(Outlook), Gain(temp), Gain(humidity), Gain(windy) using the below equations:
I(outlook) = ((total number of sunny /total features in outlook) * E(outlook=sunny)) * ((total number of overcast/total features in outlook) E(outlook=overcast)) * ((total number of rainy/total features in outlook) E(outlook=rainy)) Gain(outlook) = E(s) — I(outlook) I(temp) = ((total number of hot/total features in temp) * E(temp=hot)) * ((total number of mild/total features in temp) E(temp=mild)) * ((total number of cool/total features in temp) E(temp=cool)) Gain(temp) = E(s) — I(temp) I(humidity) = ((total number of high/total features in humidity) * E(humidity=high)) * ((total number of normal/total features in humidity) E(humidity=normal)) Gain(humidity) = E(s) — I(humidity) I(windy) = ((total number of true/total features in windy) * E(windy=true)) * ((total number of false/total features in windy) E(windy=false)) Gain(windy) = E(s) — I(windy)
Step 3: Find the feature with maximum Gain and select that as root node Gain(Outlook) or Gain(temp) or Gain(humidity) or Gain(windy)
Find the feature with maximum Gain and select that as root node Gain(Outlook) Gain(temp) Gain(humidity) Gain(windy) Step 4 : Find the next node to split the tree further
: Find the next node to split the tree further Step 5: A decision tree would repeat this process as it grows deeper and deeper till either it reaches a pre-defined depth or no additional split can result in a higher information gain beyond a certain threshold which can also usually be specified as a hyper-parameter!
Step 1: Compute the Entropy of data-set (target variable) — E(s)
The entropy of data-set E(s) is 0.94
Step 2: Compute Information gain of each features
Feature 1: outlook
The information gain from the ‘outlook’ feature is 0.24
Feature 2: temp
Feature 3: Humidity
Feature 4: windy
Step 3: Find the feature with maximum Gain and select that as root node Gain(Outlook) or Gain(temp) or Gain(humidity) or Gain(windy)
So, the maximum gain is identified as 0.24 , hence Outlook is our ROOT Node
Step 4: With more than two features the first split is made on the most informative feature and then at every split the information gain for each additional feature needs to be recomputed because it would not be the same as the information gain from each feature by itself. The entropy and information gain would have to be calculated after one or more splits have already been made which would change the results.
Step 5: A decision tree would repeat this process as it grows deeper and deeper till either it reaches a pre-defined depth or no additional split can result in a higher information gain beyond a certain threshold which can also usually be specified as a hyper-parameter!
Hope you had a great insight on decision tree algorithm by understanding the computations behind information gain and entropy.
Do let me know your feedback in the comments | https://medium.com/@rakesh-thoppaen/computer-vision-tutorial-lesson-7-419270b8388a | ['Rakesh Ts'] | 2020-12-24 07:12:53.639000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Machine Learning', 'Computer Vision', 'Decision Tree', 'Opencv'] |
Being a person who has tried many outlets to release the craze in my head and never finding… | Being a person who has tried many outlets to release the craze in my head and never finding something that works makes you feel, well, alone. However knowing that oh so many people out there are dealing with the same thing makes you also feel, alone if that makes any sense. Of course we all say “..knowing you are the same makes me not feel alone.” wether that being in school when you don’t do the homework and someone else admits to forgetting it too, or just flat out mentally. But, in reality do we ever truly mean it? I mean of course we do right? We all go through tough shit and sometimes that shit is the same but, never the exact same. I’ve never been one to talk about myself, hence why i’m not in therapy. But maybe talking about myself on my terms will make me relate to, well, me. Here I am to share day by day about how, what some would say a perfect life, is not all that perfect, for some strange reason. I’m just 17, mentally and spiritually fucked, living in a religious area where god is the only way to fix the mentally ill, but not believing in the big man up there. Now that might not sound all bad but, try being a ginger (aka a spawn of satan) on top of that. What a life of peace. | https://medium.com/@williams.alikat/being-a-person-who-has-tried-many-outlets-to-release-the-craze-in-my-head-and-never-finding-817f4b1fc348 | ['Depressed Teen'] | 2020-12-17 02:12:40.702000+00:00 | ['Teenagers', 'Mental Illness', 'Daybyday', 'Ginger', 'Depressed'] |
3 Weeks Beginners Guide to Ace Data Science Interview: #Day 10 | 3 Weeks Beginners Guide to Ace Data Science Interview: #Day 10
Interview Questions on Model Evaluation Techniques for Regression Algorithms
About the Series Data Science field is an exciting career choice and seeing a lot of hiring across fresh, lateral and experienced job positions. It’s one thing to know the concepts and totally another to crack the rigorous interviews for data science positions. If a candidate is aware of the different questions and the interview process, he is on the right path to an excellent career in the evolving Data Science field. This 3-week beginners guide to Ace Data Science Interview will be a useful asset for individuals who are preparing for the Data Science interviews. Every day for the next 21 days, we will talk about the different areas of the Data Science field and cover them elaborately. So sit back and start reading the article to get a finer understanding of the Data Science field and go prepared for the interviews.
While training a model is a key step, how the model generalizes or performs on unseen data is an equally important aspect that should be considered in every machine learning pipeline. We need to know whether it actually works similarly like it if for the train data and, consequently, if we can trust its predictions.
Could the model be merely memorizing the data it is fed with, and therefore unable to make good predictions on future samples, or samples that it hasn’t seen before?
In this article, we explain the techniques used in evaluating how well a Regression machine learning model generalizes to new, previously unseen data.
Question1: State out the evaluations matrix used for generalization of regression algorithms.
Answer:-
Mean Absolute Error
Mean Square Error
Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE)
Root Mean Squared Logarithmic Error
R-squared/Adjusted
Question2: Out of three given three evaluation metrics (MAE| MSE|RMSE) which evaluation metrics give rise to a better generalization model.
Answer:-
Claiming about any of the metrics is certainly baseless all depends on the kind of data we have.
(1) Mean Squared Error (MSE):
Useful if we have unexpected values that we should care about. We should pay attention to a very high or low value.
If we make a single very bad prediction, the squaring will make the error even worse and it may skew the metric towards overestimating the model’s badness.
(2) Mean Absolute Error (MAE):
The MAE is a linear score which means that all the individual differences are weighted equally in the average. For example, the difference between 10 and 0 will be twice the difference between 5 and 0. However, the same is not true for RMSE.
in the average. For example, the difference between 10 and 0 will be twice the difference between 5 and 0. However, the same is not true for RMSE. It penalizes huge errors not as badly as MSE does. Thus, it’s not that sensitive to outliers as a mean square error.
Thus, it’s not that sensitive to outliers as a mean square error. Eg: MAE is widely used in finance, where $10 error is usually exactly two times worse than $5 error. On the other hand, MSE metric thinks that $10 error is four times worse than $5 error. MAE is easier to justify than RMSE.
(3) Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE):
RMSE is just the square root of MSE. The square root is introduced to make the scale of the errors to be the same as the scale of targets.
Question3: Suppose you are given a student's score data. After all, preprocessing of data, when you plot a scatter plot between your features and the target variable you found there are many data points that deviate from the rest data points(Outliers). If you drop these outliers you are certainly gonna lose a large amount of data. So you decide to train your model as it is now, which of the following evaluation metrics(Mean Square Error or Mean Absolute Error)will tell about the betterness of your model?
Answer:-
MAE is more robust (less sensitive to outliers) than MSE.
The following questions help you to decide:
MSE vs MAE
Question4: What Is the Coefficient of Determination?
Answer:-
The coefficient of determination is a measure used in statistical analysis that assesses how well a model explains and predicts future outcomes. It is indicative of the level of explained variability in the data set.
Generally, it is known by the term of R-squared
Question5: From the below image explain the term SSregression & SStotal.
Answer:-
SSregression: The sum of squares due to regression, or SSR . It is the sum of the difference between the predicted value and the mean of the dependent variable .
The due to regression, or . It is the sum of the difference between the and the . SStotal: The sum of squares total, denoted SST, is the squared differences between the observed dependent variable and its mean.
Question6: In a linear regression problem, we are using “R-squared” to measure goodness-of-fit. We add a feature in linear regression model and retrain the same model. Which of the following options is true?
(A) If R Squared increases, this variable is significant.
(B) If R Squared decreases, this variable is not significant.
(C) Individually R squared cannot tell about variable importance. We can’t say anything about it right now.
(D) None of these.
Answer:- C
“R-squared” individually can’t tell whether a variable is significant or not because each time when we add a feature, “R squared” can either increase or stay constant. But, it is not true in case of “Adjusted R squared” (increases when features found to be significant).
Question7: Why do we need Adjusted R-squared when we have R-squared already?
Answer:-
The adjusted R-squared is a modified version of R-squared that has been adjusted for the number of predictors in the model. The adjusted R-squared increases only if the new term improves the model more than would be expected by chance. It decreases when a predictor improves the model by less than expected by chance. The adjusted R-squared can be negative, but it’s usually not. It is always lower than the R-squared.
Note: The adjusted R-squared is always smaller than the R-squared, as it penalizes the excessive use of variables.
Question8: Can we have -ve R-squared value? This one is a bit dubious, Some books suggest it is and some suggest it is not.
Answer:-
R2 compares the fit of the chosen model with that of a horizontal straight line (the null hypothesis). If the chosen model fits worse than a horizontal line, then R2 is negative. Note that R2 is not always the square of anything, so it can have a negative value without violating any rules of math. R2 is negative only when the chosen model does not follow the trend of the data, so fits worse than a horizontal line.
Common Misconception: A lot of articles in the web state that the range of R² lies between 0 and 1 which is not actually true. The maximum value of R² is 1 but the minimum can be minus infinity. For example, consider a really crappy model predicting highly negative value for all the observations even though y_actual is positive. In this case, R² will be less than 0. This is a highly unlikely scenario but the possibility still exists.
Example: fit data to a linear regression model constrained so that the Y-intercept must equal 1500.
Guys this is a just case to understand when will be the R-squared is negative. But when you train your model you never found such a worse model.
Question9: MAE and RMSE — Which Metric is Better?
Answer:-
Similarities: Both MAE and RMSE express average model prediction error in units of the variable of interest. Both metrics can range from 0 to ∞ and are indifferent to the direction of errors. They are negatively-oriented scores, which means lower values are better.
Differences: Taking the square root of the average squared errors has some interesting implications for RMSE. Since the errors are squared before they are averaged, the RMSE gives a relatively high weight to large errors. This means the RMSE should be more useful when large errors are particularly undesirable. The three tables below show examples where MAE is steady and RMSE increases as the variance associated with the frequency distribution of error magnitudes also increases.
Conclusion
RMSE has the benefit of penalizing large errors more so it can be more appropriate in some cases, for example, if being off by 10 is more than twice as bad as being off by 5. But if being off by 10 is just twice as bad as being off by 5, then MAE is more appropriate.
From an interpretation standpoint, MAE is clearly the winner. RMSE does not describe average error alone and has other implications that are more difficult to tease out and understand.
On the other hand, one distinct advantage of RMSE over MAE is that RMSE avoids the use of taking the absolute value, which is undesirable in many mathematical calculations.
Eg: The squared difference has nicer mathematical properties; it’s continuously differentiable (nice when you want to minimize it), it’s a sufficient statistic for the Gaussian distribution. The mean absolute deviation (the absolute value notation you suggest) is also used as a measure of dispersion, but it’s not as “well-behaved” as the squared error. | https://medium.com/international-school-of-ai-data-science/3-weeks-beginners-guide-to-ace-data-science-interview-day-10-56026ab6a8d7 | ['Vinay Vikram'] | 2020-03-30 05:12:23.068000+00:00 | ['Interview Questions', 'Machine Learning', 'Interview', 'Python', 'Data Science'] |
Part of a Journal | Right now we’re going to go pick up my new computer I hope everything will be ok with it. I really have nothing else to say for now maybe I’ll come back later when I feel like venting some more. We lost my phone in the car and my mom is still so controlling but I guess it’s ok. Also my computer is fucking awesome. I still don’t wanna check Instagram since everyone posting pics of hoco and I’m still here just had a boring time prob not going to Sadies unless I get asked or robin and David are going so I’m just bored. Ok so back to the computer it loads up so godamn fast and its so cool. But unfortunately it doesn’t have WiFi or vga on the graphics card so I have to get a new monitor. The problem with my rich friends rn are that they are really selfish and also rich people almost always care about money more than anything else and that’s pretty annoying. Also I was listening to a podcast and they said that it’s important to have friends that love you unconditionally and I really don’t know if I have one of those except maybe Kip and I haven’t talked to him in so long cuz he doesn’t understand the meaning of bros before hoes so fuck him you know. I really want to get a new iPad cuz the standard one is 329
October 20, 2019, 12:57 PM (America/Los_Angeles)
Holy shit we just came back from the Library and we saw Maddie who told me she liked me during the summer. Holy fuck that was so scary and awkward and she didn’t seem that awkward when she talked but oh my god that was terrifying. Other than that school went ok I realized that Mr. Platt is kinda narcissistic. I have some homework to do that I should probably do like math and so much chemistry. That’s pretty much it rn. Not much else no girls for now and idk. It’s pretty funny that Felipe is 100% hitting on those freshman but since I started like actually noticing girls I found it so hard to just normally talk to girls. Well I guess it’s only pretty girls cuz like chair and Bella and amber are really not pretty or girls that I would like idk why but other girls like Isabel and that’s really it are hard to talk to especially if they really don’t talk back normally. The girl that sits next to me in math is kinda pretty cuz she where’s a lot of makeup and she laughs when I make fun of Mrs. Grant so idk I think she’s a junior tho.
October 21, 2019, 6:11 PM (America/Los_Angeles)
Came back from confirmation it was pretty fun and a new kinda pretty girl but I talked to her and she’s kinda boring. Kelly is not as pretty as other girls but she’s really fun to talk to and to be around. Other than that the guys in my group are ok they’re kinda boring to talk to and Evan and Matt are really opposite of Troy like not smart but like not dumb I guess. They’re probably not as annoying and far less anti social than my regular friends. Mr. Platt just droned on for what felt like hours during AP Lang today and that was super boring but altogether today was pretty good since I really didn’t have anything to do. Except Ms. Deliz pulled the try hard looking Asian girl from my group she fucking new that we were too smart to be in one group so she had to pull us apart. And I really wanted that one hot girl Paige to be in my group cuz she didn’t get put in a group at the end and I hoped so bad that I would get her in my group since I never talked to her I just know she’s easily one of the hottest girls at my school there’s no way she’s not except there was another girl who sits with the cheerleaders who’s super pretty. Idk why I think things like this cuz I can never get a girl like that in a million years but it’s fun to imagine. Also my new computer started working since I moved it super clean to the office room thing and hooked it up to Ethernet so the internet is crazy fast and the graphics and processor are absolutely insane compared to what I used to run. I played Destiny 2 and Apex cuz those are the only games that I wanted to try and were free so u know I gotta save the money for idk what.
October 22, 2019, 10:15 PM (America/Los_Angeles)
Today had its ups and downs. It started out pretty good with minimal work in cs and and substitute for math. But also fucking Felipe told the story to those girls who talk to us before school and then in mech stupid fucking Pranay told the story to basically like 25% of the whole fucking class. I hate him so much rn fuck everything. Idk what happened the rest of the day. The golf tryout meeting was super scary cuz I’m totally fucked cuz 1 is range and 1 is on the gd course 9holes! Holy crap I’m so screwed as long as I behave nicely and work hard to improve and keep a level head I hope I can do enough to make the team. That was pretty much my day. I got to play my pc today too and it was super fun to play Destiny 2 but it’s a little difficult and I really want to get Overwatch but really just don’t know when cuz I don’t want to get addicted to the game and yeah. I kinda just hate all of my friends right now cuz they all kinda suck in their own different ways.
October 23, 2019, 8:37 PM (America/Los_Angeles) | https://medium.com/@flashj-awesomekid8/part-of-a-journal-4fbc06009df8 | [] | 2020-12-23 06:43:30.751000+00:00 | ['Daily Life', 'Journal', 'High School'] |
Cancel Culture Is Hurting the Left | Why cancel culture is going to haunt Democrats in November.
Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash.
“Two things form the bedrock of any open society: freedom of expression and the rule of law. If you don’t have those things, you don’t have a free country.” — Salman Rushdie
Some in the media simultaneously deny cancel culture exists and insist it isn’t a problem anyway. Some media outlets ignore the phenomenon entirely.
Some members of the press dismiss cancel culture as a complete fabrication, a fever dream of right-wing provocateurs. Others embrace cancel culture proudly, boasting of its seeming efficacy. Some even claim it doesn’t really hurt anyone.
These media authorities can waste all the digital ink they like assuring people that cancel culture is not real, that free speech isn’t really in danger. They can insist it is only “hate speech”, which never should have been permitted in the first place, which is getting people “cancelled”. They can imply that people with nothing to hide have nothing to fear.
People are free to express their opinions, they assure us; but no one is free from the consequences of doing so. People with opinions deemed to be racist, bigoted, transphobic, or otherwise problematic deserve to be held accountable for their speech.
There is one major glaring error in this argument.
Not every voting Democrat looking on at any of these instances of “cancellation”- from J.K. Rowling to people being hounded out of online knitting communities- feels completely confident they will never face a similar fate themselves.
After all, opinions expressed decades ago are held to today’s standards; those daring to have expressed them in the past have been held to account in the form of job losses, expungement from societies and clubs. They have been socially ostracized. Authors, and their works, have been cancelled.
Ordinary people have had entire 3,000 word Washington Post hit-pieces written about them.
Almost all have been publicly shamed, hounded by strangers on the internet, and bombarded on their social media pages with insults and threats.
Unpopular high school students are being preemptively cancelled by groups of their peers who “call them out” on social media for anything deemed “problematic”. Everyone in the school piles on; then everyone else on Twitter, including the New York Times. Are the accused actually guilty of these crimes?
Who knows. Cancel culture certainly isn’t anything as organized and dignified as a trial by a jury of one’s peers, where one has the expectation of facing their accuser and presenting a defense under the presumption of innocence.
The problem is, everyone has done and said things for which they aren’t proud. In a moment of anger, on a bad day, we’ve all treated someone disrespectfully, said something we regret. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, long forgotten.
Perhaps we didn’t mean to be hurtful at the time; it is only now we understand that our good intentions don’t always translate into right actions. An exchange we may have perceived as perfectly innocent may have been understood differently by the other person or people involved.
Everyone has almost certainly offended someone. Especially since we all recently started sharing our innermost thoughts and opinions with everyone on social media.
Perhaps high school students, having grown up with their life recorded for posterity, have been more mindful? That seems rather doubtful.
Technology has improved; people are just as fallible as ever.
Which means that today’s impulsive teenagers who lack mature judgement and are likely experimenting with drugs and alcohol probably still make plenty of mistakes.
Everyone watching friends, coworkers, and peers torched online for thought-crimes, fired and ostracized, wants to run as far from cancel culture as they can possibly get. People disagree. They say stupid things.
If the Democratic Party isn’t a party that can tolerate the moral failings of human beings, there aren’t going to be as many Democrats. In taking this hard-line, in unleashing the Twitter-mob on those who “deserve it”, liberal progressives are pushing voters towards the Republican Party, however reluctant they are to vote for Donald Trump.
It isn’t merely right-wingers who are falling victims to this new trend of online public shaming. On the contrary; luminaries from everywhere on the political spectrum are warning against the insidious creep of cancel culture. Ordinary people are worried, too.
“This hostile culture is getting results. According to one brand-new survey, it is only far-left Americans who do not feel compelled to self-censor their views because of a hostile climate. Everyone but the far-left feels the threat.” “And 50 percent of self-identified strong liberals say that simply contributing to the GOP presidential candidate ought to be a fireable offense for a business leader. In this country?” — Sen. Mitch McConnell
Cancel culture is making the progressive leftists of Twitter look like a bunch of bullies. And no one likes a bully.
In November, when voters make their choice, will they identify more with the members of the Twitter mob, or with its victims?
(contributing writer, Brooke Bell) | https://medium.com/discourse/cancel-culture-is-hurting-the-left-3c981d1a8bc6 | ['Dr. Munr Kazmir'] | 2020-07-26 00:56:50.360000+00:00 | ['Politics', 'Election 2020', 'Media', 'Trump'] |
How A Dentist Does A Denture Try-in? | How A Dentist Does A Denture Try-in?
When constructing a full or a complesite denture for a patient, a dentist needs to go through various stages of construction that is common to all denture fabrication processes.
The minimum number of visits required is four but that can increase to 8 or more.
The first stage is called the impression stage. This is when your dentist will record the details and the shape of your mouth. The more accurate this is, the more accurate the final denture will fit in your mouth.
The impression of your mouth is sent to the dental technician who creates a negative of this and produces something called a stone study cast. The technician will use this stone study cast in order to fabricate your new dentures.
The second stage in fabrication of full or complete dentures is called the bite stage. The dental technician constructs wax bite rims on the model that has been produced in the first stage. You, as a dentist will then place these wax bite rims in the patient’s mouth and carry out various adjustments.
The various adjustments will represent how the patient will bite when they have the new final permanent dentures. These various adjustments will also include the length of the teeth, the amount of teeth that the patient will ultimately show, the forward protrusion of the teeth, the midline and importantly the curve of the smile line.
There are two curves which are very important and these are known as the curve of Manson and the curve of Spee.
The wax bite pattern is sent back to the technician again and he will then construct a denture try in.
The denture try-in stage is really like the final stage before constructing the permanent denture and it is a final opportunity to make any adjustments. There are many factors to check at this stage.
Here is a list of the important practice points to check at this stage.
Firstly, let’s look at the appearance of the teeth and positioning which at this stage are set in wax.
Most importantly, is the shade of the teeth which correlates and is correct as to what a patient would like. It is always important to ask the patient for the opinion because as a dentist you may think that the teeth may be too light in colour but the patient actually prefers this colour.
We also need to take a careful look at the size and shape of the teeth. Does the size of the teeth fit in with the patient’s facial size and features? Next the actual detail of the teeth needs to be looked at. This is largely governed by the patient’s finances. On the NHS, you can’t really expect too much other than basic teeth with little fine detail.
Using teeth on a private basis, you have a lot more choice and variety and control over how realistic you want the final teeth to look like. On a private basis, the technician has a larger list of moulds that he can use and many of these are so good that they are almost indistinguishable from normal healthy natural teeth.
The following aspects include that you need to look at the angulation of the teeth. Are the teeth too proclined or are they too retroclined? Once again if there are errors at this stage, they can easily be corrected.
The length of the teeth is important because if they are too long, the patient will look like a horse and in addition the teeth will encroach excessively on the patient’s lower lip.
Finally, we mentioned the curve of Manson and the curve of Spee. In general and as a general guide the curve could mimic the curve of the lower lip with the teeth corresponding to the midline and be vertical and not at a slant.
Once the denture try-in has been finalised, then you can go ahead and instruct the dental technician to construct the final permanent denture which you will then fit at the following visit.
Although the minimum usual number of dental visits to make a denture is 4, often additional visits are required when taking secondary impressions using special trays, or when an additional try-in is required or when a process has to be repeated.
The photo diagram above is actually a photograph of a denture try-in that we recently did for a patient. We actually replicated what her natural teeth looked like.
Unsurprisingly, when she received her final denture, she received many compliments and even when she spoke to somebody that she had not seen for a long time, they would be totally surprised to hear that these were not her own teeth but they were in fact denture teeth because they just looked so natural and realistic. | https://medium.com/@dominicthorncroft/how-a-dentist-does-a-denture-try-in-7be6ec9d6418 | ['Dominic Thorncroft'] | 2021-11-18 14:01:04.335000+00:00 | ['Dentistry', 'Dental Health', 'Dental Care', 'Dentist', 'Dominic Thorncroft'] |
Why You Should Go With Natural Human Hair Wigs Over Synthetic Alternatives? | Why You Should Go With Natural Human Hair Wigs Over Synthetic Alternatives?
A wig is an amazing solution to cover any signs of hair loss or baldness and can completely transform your looks. If you are a victim of baldness and wish to cherish a full head of hair, then a quick and seamless solution to adopt would be to avail a good quality wigs and weaving solution.
For those looking into opting for hair wigs, there is a choice to make while avail of the same. You can either go for natural human hair or synthetic wigs. While both serve you a flawlessly natural look and undetectable hair loss, there are a few major differences that can favor one type over the other.
Available in a variety of shapes and custom sizes, you must choose the right wig that will best help transform your looks and serve you An amazing aesthetic makeover. To guide you in selecting the right choice of a hair wig, here are the major differences between natural hair wigs and synthetic wigs.
Human Hair Wigs
The major considerable difference between human hair and synthetic hair wigs is that human hair wigs are 100% natural and offer a natural feel and look as well. Available in a wide variety of textures, colors and styles, human hair wigs convey a realistic appeal and there is no visible sign to differentiate the wig from your real hair.
Here are a few unrivaled benefits to gain with human hair wigs from MAX Hair Clinic, the best hair studio in Karnataka-
100% realistic appearance
Versatile styling choices
Wide texture options
Exceptional durability and longevity
Seamless style changing flexibility
Remarkable softness and natural shine
Synthetic hair wigs
The technical advancements of the recent past have resulted in vast popularity of synthetic hair wigs. These are made from synthetic material fibers that duplicate the density as well as textures of natural hair. Being crafted from an artificial material, synthetic hair wigs have a memory for style, wave and texture. They cannot be easily manipulated and changing styles is very complicated.
The lack of versatility and a non-natural essence makes them a second preference when compared to human hair wigs. However, synthetic wigs are all weather proof, easy to maintain, cost-effective as well as simple to wear.
If you wish to cherish 100% natural looks and desire for an authentic feel as well as texture for your hair, then you must opt for the human hair wigs from MAX Hair Clinic. Such wigs demand all the care and attention of natural hair and you will be bestowed with an amazing transformation. At MAX Hair Clinic, you also find a hair tattoo solution to mimic the appearance of hair. | https://medium.com/@mymaxhairglobal/why-you-should-go-with-natural-human-hair-wigs-over-synthetic-alternatives-edb8d7b9aec | [] | 2021-10-30 06:26:38.072000+00:00 | ['Hair Loss', 'Hair'] |
It’s Time To Talk About Rape Cases In this era Rape has reached at its peak. | It’s Time To Talk About Rape Cases
In this era Rape has reached at its peak. It’s a critical issue in Pakistan like other south Asian countries. Yes it’s common about 93% of Pakistani women experience sexual harassment.
Pakistan is among those countries where 73% of young girls and women face physical or sexual abuse in public area. Rape in Pakistan came into international attention after the politically sanctioned rape of Mukhtaran Bibi. The group against War against Rape (WAR) documented the severity rape in Pakistan, and the police indifferences to it. According to late lawyer Asma Jahangir, who was the co-founder of the Women Action Forum, up to seventy two percent of women in custody in Pakistan are physically or sexually abused.
In 2019, Government of Pakistan has established more than 1,000 special courts accros the country. The special courts are specially made for women’s rights, to focus only on addressing issue related to sexual abuse.
Notable cases
In 2002, A 30 year lady named Mukhtaran Bibi was ganged raped on the orders of the “village council” as an honor rape after allegation that her 12 year old brother had physical relation with women of higher caste. Although custom would expect her to condemn suicide but, Mukhtaran stood for right raised her voice she pursued the case. On September 1, 6 men (including the 4 rapist) hanged to death. A 23 year women in Faisalabad made public accusations against the police, saying that her husband had been arrested for creating forged documents; She alleges that she was raped on the order of the chief police. Kainat soomro was 13 year old school going girl she was ganged raped for four days. Her protest led her brother to death. Shazia Kahlid was raped in Baluchistan during the presidency of Pervaiz Musharaf In 2014, layyah rape murdered incident a 21 year old girl was gang raped and murdered in layyah. In September 2014, three sons of Mian Farooq, a ruling parliamentarian party from Faisalabad were accused of abducting and gang raped a teenage girl. The rapist was later released from the court. In July 2017, a panchayat ordered rape of a 16 year old girl in Multan for her brother’s conduct.
8. In December 2017, a 25 year old woman was ganged raped during robbery at her house.
9. In January 2018, a seven year old girl named Zainab Ansari was raped and murdered in Kasur. The incident caused nationwide outrage in Pakistan. The same month a 16 year old girl was raped and killed and the medical report confirmed sexual assault. In Faisalabad the same day, a 15 year old boy was found dead reports confirmed that it was a sexual rape case. A few days later a 3 year old girl, named Asma was found in Mardan, who had been reportedly missing for 24 hours.
10. In 2020, a resistant of France was gang raped while she was travelling with her children on the motorway. This led to protest in the city. A lead police officer commented that she should not have travelled alone at night. In addition a 5 year old girl was raped in Karachi, hit on the head and set on fire. | https://medium.com/@mamosuggests32/its-time-to-talk-about-rape-cases-in-this-era-rape-has-reached-at-its-peak-2a0782f92649 | ['Mamoona Aslam'] | 2020-11-09 18:47:17.324000+00:00 | ['Rape', 'Rape Culture', 'End Rape', 'Control', 'Victim Shaming'] |
WAVES Weekly No. 6 | New Website and ICO Site Withdrawals
Firstly, we strongly encourage those investors who have not yet withdrawn their balances from the ICO site to do so as soon as possible. The new website has been launched and the original crowdfunding site will be disabled next week. If you have not done so already, please log in, save your Waves address on the ICO site, confirm through email and wait for your tokens to be transferred to your local wallet (or directly to an exchange, if you prefer).
The Waves lite client can be downloaded from our website, and you can find instructions on how to create a new account here.
The ICO website will not be maintained beyond next week. After this point, withdrawals will only be processed manually and at less frequent intervals.
LPoS White Paper
The white paper for Waves’ Leased Proof of Stake consensus system is now in its review stage, pending release to the wider community. LPoS is the lynchpin of the Waves network, allowing for fast (ten seconds) block times, whilst remaining far more energy efficient than proof-of-work mining systems.
LPoS builds on the standard PoS implementation by allowing users to lease their balances to other nodes, fine-tuning the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) approach used by BitShares and others. Ensuring a clearly-defined set of active nodes reduces latency and increases block capacity. The essence of this approach is the limited pool of full-nodes taking care of transaction processing in the network. Having unlimited numbers of stakers changes the system dynamics drastically, so in a production-ready system it makes sense to maintain a balance between decentralization and usability. The Waves network seeks to establish a relatively large number of active nodes without unnecessarily sacrificing performance.
This approach will be complemented by the addition of a centralised order-matching service. This will match buyers and sellers via a central server on a near-instant basis, whilst the trades themselves will be cleared on the blockchain for security and transparency. The Matcher is obliged to execute the order submitted to it if it can be matched by an order from another node — it cannot prevent the trade being executed. This scheme mimics the way centralized exchanges work, the only exception being that the Matcher does not control users’ funds.
Asset Specification Update
The asset specification has been updated on Github. A new scheme for asset exchanges has been created. You can see the changes from the previous version here.
Full nodes
After several weeks of testing and a number of bugs addressed, full node code is now almost ready and will be released as soon as possible, allowing all users to run their own nodes.
As most users appreciate, this is a critical step, since it forms the foundation for everything that follows — including our custom tokens implementation. With a secure and stable public network, development can proceed more rapidly. Full decentralisation of the Waves network is also a necessary and desirable step for proper security and confidence in the platform. The experiences of numerous other cryptocurrencies demonstrate that this step cannot be rushed, and if done wrong can have serious consequences. We therefore look forward to the successful launch of a large number of staking nodes, and thank you for your participation in the Waves project!
You can always find the latest version of the client at https://wavesplatform.com and https://wavestalk.org. | https://medium.com/wavesprotocol/waves-weekly-no-6-8dfe53e588db | ['Waves Tech'] | 2016-08-10 11:04:39.152000+00:00 | ['Bitcoin', 'Decentralization', 'Blockchain', 'Fintech', 'Startup'] |
Outsourcing to the Machine | Outsourcing to the Machine
Leveraging Revit, Reducing Your Workload and Getting Back to Enjoying your Chosen Profession
In a career working at firms large and small I have encountered Architects who enjoy a variety of experiences related to the profession. Some enjoy design, while others get engrossed in construction details, but I have yet to encounter an architect whose passion is window schedules. In today’s profession there is always the option to outsource these less desirable tasks. Despite the up-front appeal of this, what you get back may not be ideal. I’ve seen this first-hand, with results ranging from tolerable to unusable. So what is the solution? Outsource to your machine.
Revit is that elusive Architect who seeks out every opportunity to take on monotonous tasks. Not only that, it can do them exactly the way you want, because you are pulling the strings, leveraging the software’s capacity for organizing data and documentation while using your professional expertise to do so.
If you are a Principal at a 600 person firm, you probably are never going to touch Revit. But if you are working at a three person firm and your two employees are already working 60 hour weeks, there are significant and immediate benefits to going from a 2D line based workflow to a 3D BIM workflow. It is as simple as a reduction of time, and I’ll illustrate three quick ways to use it for an immediate impact:
1. Get everyone working in the same file — Using a Revit central model is simple to set up and ensures everyone is seeing updates in real time. I would suggest utilizing the Workshare Monitor that is automatically installed with Revit 2018 so you can see when certain people might be syncing or are in the model. In future posts I will go more into best practices as well as low cost solutions to allow people working offsite to work in the central model. The first and most important thing is getting all team members to consistently re-sync every 15 minutes. If the team can get in the habit of pressing that one button every 15 minutes, it will save hours of headaches and overhead later on.
Syncing often will save you from potentially losing work
2. Revise it once to Revise it Everywhere — Revit’s name is a contraction of the phrase “Revise It”. Often what happens in 2D Cad software is that you redraw a section in one place, and then you need to redraw another to match, then a plan and several elevations and you are suddenly bouncing between numerous files, slowly whittling down the inconsistencies.
Elements such as stairs can be coordinated much more quickly than in AutoCAD
With Revit you can be sure that if you draw it in one place, it is going to show up accurately in another. Sure, you still need to clean up the graphics for your drawings, but the underlay is always accurate because it’s the same element whether you are looking at it in plan, section or elevation. In future posts I will explain how to use Revit for deeper model coordination both within the design team and with consultants. A quick way you can start leveraging Revit for this type of coordination is with stairs. For each stair in the project set up a 3D view using the section box tool. Label these views under a new view type titled “Coordination” so they are easy to find. Now whenever you are in a plan, section or other drawing and can’t quite understand what is going on with the stairs, you can split screen between these 2D views and the 3D section box to try and figure out exactly what the problem is.
3. Data Rich Models –BIM stands for Building Information Modeling. People (and firms) often make the mistake that it is simply about 3D Modeling and forget the Information part. Future posts will get into all kinds of creative ways to leverage this element of BIM. A great place to start is building wall types that accurately reflect their real-world construction. Editing walls is easy and if you get into the habit of it early on, it will ensure that your walls not only are embedded with a ton of information you can use for scheduling and detailing, it also means you will be modeling correctly from the start and won’t have to move all the walls 3/8” later because you didn’t give a 1” thickness to your 5/8” drywall.
Walls can be embedded with material metadata to provide accurate takeoffs for the entire project
BIM is intimidating at first. It is hard to go from decades in the comfort of 2D Autocad, where everything is a known commodity, to a whole new environment with a whole new set of rules. Yet if one is willing to take the leap, both in terms of growing pains and initial investment, the result is a new lease on your practice. Rather than spending countless hours drawing line after line in AutoCAD, you can focus on what’s really important to you, whether it’s design or in the details. | https://medium.com/paper-architecture/outsourcing-to-the-machine-a91160f99ed5 | ['Dan Edleson'] | 2019-03-17 03:36:11.439000+00:00 | ['Autodesk Revit', 'Revit', 'Bim', 'Autocad', 'Architecture'] |
Big O Notation | Big O Notation
Arrays and their Built-in Methods
Photo by Oliver Schwendener on Unsplash
In my previous Big O Notation blogs, we discussed Time and Space Complexity and Objects. Now we are going to look at Big O and how it relates to arrays and their built-in methods.
An array is an ordered data structure and can be used to store data of any type. Or, in more technical terms, “When we initialize an array in a programming language, the language allocates space in memory for your array, and then points that starting variable to that address in memory. Then the program assigns a fixed amount of memory for each element” (Learn). Below is a simple example of an array with multiple data types.
const array = [ "a", {}, 7, [], false]
In terms of Big O, arrays are favorable when we need fast access to elements. In the example above, we can access each element by its index; array[0] = “a” and array[4] = false. Since the elements are indexed, our computers know exactly where the element is and can go directly to the element. Moreover, an array with 2 elements or 2,000 elements has the same time complexity, O(1), for accessing methods.
Arrays can also be fast in some insertion or removal methods. These types of methods have either an O(1) or O(n). The difference comes from where in the array elements are inserted or removed. If elements are inserted or removed from the end of an array, these methods have an O(1) because just the last indexed element is impacted. However, if elements are inserted or removed from the beginning of an array, all elements are impacted. For example, if we add an element to the beginning of the array, the added element takes over index 0, and the element that previously was in index 0 is now at index 1 and so forth. Since the number of operations grows with the number of elements in the array, these methods have an O(n).
Lastly, Arrays have an O(n) for searching methods. This is because the worst case scenario for a search method is checking every element in the array.
Array Built-in Methods
Arrays come with many different built-in methods, but the methods we will look at here are push, pop, shift, unshift, concat, slice, splice, sort, and map.
The first two methods push and pop involve adding or removing an element from the end of the array. As we mentioned earlier, these types of methods have an O(1) because they only impact the array’s last element.
Shift and unshift, involve adding or removing from the beginning of the array. As explained earlier, the run-time of these methods grow with the inputs or O(n) because they impact all indexes in the array.
Similar to shift and unshift, concat, slice, and splice have an O(n). Concat is used to combine two or more arrays into a new array. Moreover, as the number of inputs in each array that you are combining grows, so does the run-time in a linear fashion. Slice involves making a copy of an array and, also, has a run-time that grows in a linear fashion with inputs. Splice is a method that, “changes the contents of an array by removing the existing elements and/or adding new elements” (MDN). Although splice can remove/add elements from anywhere in the array it has an O(n) because, in the worst case scenario, all array inputs would be impacted.
Sorting methods have an O(n * log n) which is worse than O(n). This is because sorting methods require comparisons between the elements and elements may need to be visited more than once.
The last built-in method we will discuss for arrays is map. This method has an O(n) and works by creating, “…a new array populated with the results of calling a provided function on every element in the calling array” (MDN). The reason that this function has an O(n) is due to fact that it must interact with every element in the array at least once. So, the size of the array directly impacts the run-time.
See below for a summary of the method types and built-in methods discussed in this blog and how they relate to Big O Notation.
Summary Table based on lecture material presented in Colt Steele’s Udemy Course
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about arrays through the lens of Big O notation. This is the last blog in my Big O notation series, I hope you now understand the importation of Big O notation and can apply it as you write and interpret code.
Resources
Steele, C. (n.d.). JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures Masterclass. Online Course.
Arrays Underneath. (n.d.). Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://learn.co/lessons/arrays-underneath
“Array.prototype.splice().” MDN Web Docs, developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/splice.
“Array.prototype.map().” MDN Web Docs, developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/map.
Gain Access to Expert View — Subscribe to DDI Intel | https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/big-o-notation-14fa1e4538a1 | ['Matthew Sedlacek'] | 2020-11-07 16:32:51.102000+00:00 | ['Big O Notation', 'Software Engineering', 'Arrays', 'Algorithms', 'Data Science'] |
How waking up early can changed my life | I believe walking up early can change anyone’s life because it worked wonders for me. I am a night person and I am not used to believing the waking up early science but after many suggestions from my parents and close ones I tried it and man it worked wonders for me. Now I am going to tell u my personal experiences and happenings of waking up early and why everyone should give it a try.
Walking up early in the morning can give us more positive vibes. Let me give an example
So you have set an alarm for 5 am and woke up at sharp 5 am after the alarm rung then your mind feels it as an achievement so waking up in the morning with a victory with your self can give you the most benefit on the contrary if you wake up late at 9 am or so first you will hear your parents scoldings so your morale will be down by some means but you will not be able to notice that later it will affect you.
Now coming to another thing mornings are so peaceful so you will not hear any tv sounds annoying brothers and sisters voices or any other distractions so it will be the best time to study or complete projects anything which needs your brain at its full potential
The most important thing is sunrise people who woke up late misses out one of the most important and beautiful creation of nature i.e, sunrise.
So try it for yourself for a week and you will notice a change in yourself.
It soothes out your mind and one of the most essential and important vitamin for your body vitamin D is available naturally when you expose yourself to the early sun rays so there are benefits physically and mentally also.
Also when it comes to physical fitness give yourself some time and work on your fitness because if your body is fit it coordinates with the mind more perfectly and helps to get the lethargic nature away
Last but not least you will have more time to arrange and organize for your schools/colleges it makes life more simple and will face no problem like skipping breakfast, forgetting our books etc
So I have been trying this for 2 months this has been working wonders for me that’s the reason wanted to share this with you all and try out and see the magic. | https://medium.com/@sai29112001/how-waking-up-early-can-changed-my-life-405e04f051e5 | ['Sai Nookala'] | 2020-12-24 06:59:31.102000+00:00 | ['Lifestyle', 'Routine', 'Habits'] |
Pick a card — In the next 1 year, what will you need to be careful with? — Tarot Reading | Photo by Soulful Stock on Unsplash
Topic: In the next 1 year, what will you need to be careful with?
== Rules ==
Concentrate on what is on the mind And choose the deck of cards that most appeals to you
Ps. is just predict to the overview only, not directly specifying who it is
Number 1
- you have something that you want to do. but with many things, it might come from someone close to you, a family member, or someone older. So you can’t do that. You’re waiting for a chance. Waiting for success that you don’t know when to come. Be careful about your thoughts, confusion, and decisions. Don’t let your negative thoughts or dark minds get too overwhelming.
Number 2
- be careful about using too much power to force others because it becomes pressured and makes them not want to be near you. beware of selfishness. Being a third party or meddling with other people’s relationships, being malignant, showing off over pressing others, will have a negative effect on yourself
Number 3
- be careful of thinking over and over with the same story distracting and is an obstacle that leads to success. When you know something, just close your ears and close your eyes. So that you will feel more at ease, clearer, and not suffer from yourself. If you can, it will be successful. It’s important to let it go
Number 4
- beware of being malicious in secret or is there anything hidden underneath the feelings of someone you didn’t expect, or someone who seems to be friendly (friendly here means including all ages not only the same age) if investing in shares with anyone, or make a contract with someone to check the detailed information. There may be something that is hidden until you are at a disadvantage. When you don’t know how to solve the problem, find someone with specialized knowledge to consult and give you advice.
© This article is the copyright of ‘Prediction by Daisy’ | https://medium.com/@predictionbydaisy/pick-a-card-in-the-next-1-year-what-will-you-need-to-be-careful-with-tarot-reading-f696d244302a | ['Prediction Daisy'] | 2020-12-18 08:55:46.588000+00:00 | ['Tarot', 'Predictions', 'Future', 'Astronomy', 'Horoscopes'] |
A Good Support System Will Go A Long Way In Helping You Cope With Your Mental Struggles | I’ve written a couple of times about the mental struggles that I’ve gone through in my life. From being in the darkest moments of my life more than 15 years ago to having smaller attacks of worries and anxieties since then, I’ve shared my experiences with my readers openly.
What I’ve not really done though, is shared with people that I know personally in real life.
Aside from my wife, I’ve not really spoken about the mental struggles that due to the pandemic that we’re currently facing and all the changes it has brought to our lives, have occurred on more than a couple of occasions in the last couple of months.
My Medium community is made up of people that I mostly have known through the platform itself. I do have a couple of other writers/readers on the platform that I know personally in real life and who are good friends too but at the moment, we’re on different continents.
Those who are living in the same country as me, who I interact with on an almost daily basis probably don’t really know about my little adventure as a writer on this platform and probably have no idea about the stories and experiences that I’ve shared over the last year and a half that I’ve been writing.
But it was about time someone did, someone aside from my wife.
That person was my immediate supervisor and the relief I felt after letting her know about the struggles that I’ve been going through, especially over the last couple of months was nothing short of amazing.
If a drug addict or an alcoholic was able to go days/months/years without falling back into their addiction, it would be called being ‘clean’ because they were able to abstain from the very thing that caused them harm in the first place.
I would like to think that not having had any anxiety or panic attacks for many years would make me ‘clean’ too.
When I was in a deep depression at 19 years old, that was the darkest place I’d ever been in my life. It was even worse than the depression that I was in when my dad passed away back in 2013 (when I was 27 years old) and that says something.
After I recovered on both occasions, I rarely had any depress feelings nor went through any anxiety or panic attacks. I think when I recovered back when I was 19 years old, I didn’t go through any depressive state until my dad passed away more than 8 years later. And when I recovered and started to get over my dad’s death, I didn’t have any depress feelings nor went through any anxiety or panic attacks — until this year.
I don’t know if it’s a direct result of the pandemic or the effects that the pandemic has brought to everyone, but things definitely went downhill for me emotionally after my country went into lockdown.
I had one panic attack after another or I would just start to feel really anxious for no reason at all.
It affected me personally and also professionally.
Needless to say, my colleagues started to notice it and it was getting harder and harder to just brush it off and come up with excuse after excuse as to why I wasn’t performing at the standards that I had been in previous years.
Things finally came to a point that I just had to come clean with my supervisor and there was no better time to do that than during my latest performance review.
It started off normal, at least for the first few minutes.
Then the dreaded question came.
“Benny, is everything OK with you? I’ve noticed you’ve been quite different these last few months. Are you having any problems?”
I went quiet for a good 10–15 seconds.
I then took a deep breath and told my supervisor that there was something that I needed her to know.
I started off with what happened to me back when I was 19 years old, to give her a brief history. Aside from my wife (and all you readers out there), no one really knows about what I went through back then.
But to tell her what’s happening to me now, my supervisor needed to know what happened to me then.
After a short 5 minutes of ‘Benny history,’ I told her that in the last couple of months, I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting random panic and anxiety attacks and whenever it happens, I get paralyzed and just crippled. I wouldn’t be able to function properly and it has affected not just my personal life but also the work that I have to do on a daily basis.
I told her that I wasn’t sure how to bring it up with anyone because all this while, the only other person who knew about it is my wife. Not even my parents or siblings know about what I’ve been through or am going through.
I apologized for any problems that I may have caused my team or department but I just felt that I wasn’t able to handle things by myself anymore and because it was affecting my work more than ever, it was important that someone in my workspace knew and the most logical person for me was my supervisor.
She was quiet at first.
But she finally broke her silence and told me that she didn’t expect it at all, especially from me as I was always the happy-go-lucky one in the office. I was always the optimist, positive one that would be smiling and cracking jokes.
I told her that usually, the ones that seem happiest are usually the ones that have unseen problems or are actually sad like the late Robin Williams used to say.
She then told me that she was thankful that I trusted her enough to tell her. She said that she probably doesn’t fully understand what I’m actually going through but that she’s glad she now knows the truth and she can understand why I’ve been the way I’ve been over the last few months.
I felt relieved when I heard that.
She wasn’t blaming me for anything. She wasn’t blaming me for the delays in some projects that I was handling. She wasn’t blaming me for slowing my other team mates down because I took longer than I should with my portion of the work.
Instead, she was thanking me for being honest with her and for trusting her with something that is probably not an easy thing to admit to others (it’s not).
But the thing that really got to me was when she said, not to worry as she will help me to figure out ways to beat it again. She said that because I’ve had it before and managed to stay ‘clean’ for quite sometime after that, she said I could do it again and she wants to help and give me any support that I may need.
Help and support.
Those were the two keywords that I needed to hear, that anyone in a position of feeling down and hopeless, needs to hear.
I’ve had tremendous support from my wife over the years but I do feel bad for her because it is a heavy burden.
So, to have someone else willing to be my support as well, that was a much-needed thing for me to hear.
I immediately felt better. I felt like a big burden had been lifted off of me.
What was supposed to be a short 20 minutes session turned into a good 2 hours plus of just talking and listening to one another. She shared some personal stories with me and I shared more with her. We worked out plans on how to manage my workload, especially if I suffered any more panic or anxiety attacks.
By the end of the session, I felt so much better compared to when it started. To know that I wasn’t judged for the struggles that I was going through, that I wasn’t blamed for being a burden to others, that I was actually offered help and support, it was a huge relief.
And needless to say, it’s definitely helped me in terms of managing stress from work as well. I know that although I’m still expected to perform at a certain level, I’m able to not stress so much about it and am allowed to work according to my circumstances.
Having that support has so far helped in keeping the random attacks at bay. Where in the last few months I’ve had over a dozen sudden attacks, I’ve not had any since my conversation over 2 weeks ago.
It just goes to show that a good support system (or two) goes a long way in helping to cope with any mental struggles you may have. | https://medium.com/narrative/a-good-support-system-will-go-a-long-way-in-helping-you-cope-with-your-mental-struggles-cba26c50ee82 | ['Benny Lim'] | 2020-12-12 07:01:27.289000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Mental Health', 'Support', 'Mental Illness', 'Mental Health Awareness'] |
Day 7-9— My journey to learning how to turn my car into a self-driving automobile | Day 7-9 – 05-07 Dec 2020 — Recap
A few days ago I finished the Lanes finding module and today I will briefly explain in this post what that was about, and share some of my thoughts regarding the topic.
Progress
I will attempt to list out A the necessary steps at a high level and detail as much as needed on the most important ones. I should start by stating that for this module, and probably for the subsequent ones too, the libraries I will use are NumPy and OpenCV. NumPy allows for complex multi-dimensional arrays and matrices mathematical operations, and OpenCV is a library of functions aimed at real time computer vision [ref], I use it in this module for image loading, processing and rendering.
The code for this module can be on my GitHub, here.
Step 0 — Understanding what an image is
It is important mentioning that an image is is a set (list/array) of pixels. Each pixel has its own colour, represented in the RGB (red-green-blue) space.
Given the image above, its dimensions are 2400 x 1600 px, meaning the width is 2,400 pixels across and the height is 1,600 (vertically).
Each pixel is, like stated above, represented by an RGB color value, such as (37,114,184), which is the color of one pixel of the sky in this image. Each number represents the intensity of the color it represents on a scale from 0 to 255. Where 0 means no intensity (black), 255 means high intensity (white). Hence black is (0, 0, 0) and white (255, 255, 255).
In code, an image like such is represented as a multidimensional array of colour codes just like in the examples above. Here is an example of a cut-down version of an example image, where I printed to the console an image read using OpenCV:
It is important to understand the structure of an image, because it will help us better understand how it gets processed.
Step 1 — Loading and displaying
First off, I’ll have to import NumPy and OpenCV in my app:
import cv2
import numpy as np
As easy as that. I could then use OpenCV across the file as cv2 and NumPy as np.
Loading the image is simple, I placed a sample image in the same directory as my Python file and with just one line of code, using the
image = cv2.imread(‘test_image.jpg’)
To display it, I just use cv2.imshow(“result”, final_image)
Step 2 — Turning the image greyscale
This step is necessary because, by doing it, we help the program run faster and be more efficient in detecting the lanes, you’ll see why later. The only thing I would add here is a brief explanation of what grayscaling actually is. It turns a pixel RGB color (37,114,184) into just a single number on the 0–255 scale, but it holds only one value. For example, the blue color in the color code above, grayscaled is 112. So on the gray scale, the new color looks like this (355).
But how did I come up with 112 from (37,114,184)? Well that’s simple, it’s just the mean average of the three color intensities (37+114+184)/3. Cool right? So OpenCV does that for each and every pixel in the image input.
Here’s the code and output result:
gray = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_RGB2GRAY)
Step 3 — Gaussian Blur
Now a Gaussian Blur/Filter is necessary. This is because It makes it easier for the next step, which is edge detection. Here is the code and the result:
blur = cv2.GaussianBlur(gray, (5, 5), 0)
The OpenCV GussianBlur does what is says on the box, adds a blur to the given image. The second argument is the number of pixels (width, height) it takes the average colour from. And so to add the blur it takes the average color for the surrounding 5 pixels on all sizes, resulting in this:
Step 4 — Canny Detection
This step is really cool. As the heading says, it detects all the edges. It does this by applying a threshold over the colors of the image. This threshold is meant to tell the algorithm what color intensities are considered acceptable. Here is the code:
canny = cv2.Canny(blur, 50, 150)
The last 2 arguments are the thresholds. 50 means that colours with intensities lower than 50 are turned off (0/black), and colours higher than 150 are turned white (255). So everything becomes literally black and white:
Step 5 — Defining area
This step narrows the view field to allow for better lines detection. It is not worth asking the program to find the lanes in the fields, when we know it’ll always find them at certain positions. This could be problematic for generalised use, but this module is meant to provide an introduction to lanes detection. Later, more advanced algorithms will be used to detect lanes.
def region_of_interest(image):
# height is the first axis from the shape property
height = image.shape[0]
polygons = np.array([
[(319, height), # point B
(982, height), # point C
(554, 258)] # point A
])
# draw a mask of the same shape as the image
mask = np.zeros_like(image) # zeros is color black
# fill the polygon with our triangle, bg color of white
cv2.fillPoly(mask, polygons, 255)
return mask
Here I define a function to do this, it takes an image input, we can work with the original image at this step, we’re only making a mask in preparation for what’s to come.
To better understand the code, here is a graph I generated using pyplot:
That is the canny image on a graph, to help us see its dimensions. As you can see, the processed image height is 704px and width ~1279px. To get the height, we need to access the shape property of the image. Which is uni-dimensional array that looks like this:
(704, 1279, 3)
Where 704 is the height and 1279, you guessed it, the width in our case (3 is the depth).
So we need to draw a triangle as a mask, like the one on the left.
The three points, A, B and C are the ones in the code (coordinates). We use those coordinates to make an array that we pass in to OpenCV fillPoly function a bit down. Before then we do one more thing. We create a maks. And we do this by creating an exact copy of the image, but all black. np.zeros_like creates an identical array such as the image, but with zeros instead of all the colour codes (zero represents no intensity therefore color black, remember?). Then we use the mask along with our new array to fill the mask with the polygon drawn. The result so far looks like this:
Step 6 — Bitwise and
This step below creates a true white triangle over a black background with the same exact dimensions of the original image. Now the mask is passed into a function cv2.bitwise_and(mask, image) along with the original image, to create this:
Figure 1
But what is bitwise_and you might ask. It takes in two arguments, the mask and the original image (we’re only working with arrays, so when I say image, that’s what I mean, not the actual image, but the rgb colour representation).
Figure 2
Then it applies an AND operator over each of the elements of the array compared to the counterpart. In Figure 1, you can see the color code and their representation in binary. Color black is represented by number 0, which translated to binary is still 0. Color white is 255, which represented in binary, is 11111111. In Figure 2, I applied my Microsoft Paint skills to show you how the function turns the colours in binary. Then the last part of this step is to apply an end over each element of the array compared to the canny image. Under the hood it looks something like this:
Given color 75 (dark grey) in binary is 1001011. 0 AND 1001011 = 0. Therefore if that color grey is present in the areas masked as black, the resulted color is always going to be black.
However, if color 75 (1001011) is compared against the white triangle the calculation looks like this: 1 AND 1001011 = 1. This means that everything inside of the triangle stays unchanged, whereas the areas outside, gets turned to black, so this is what we’ve achieved in this step:
Step 7 — Hough Lines
Now that we have our lanes simplified and clear, we can use an OpenCV function HoughLinesP, to draw the lines that can be later used as guidance for driving in between them, as follows:
cv2.HoughLinesP(cropped_image, 2, np.pi/180, 100, np.array([]), minLineLength=40, maxLineGap=5)
I should begin this step by explaining what Hough space is. Every line in the Cartesian space is represented by a point in the Hough space, courtesy of the following linear equation:
y = mx + b
Where m is called slope and b is y-intercept.
Let’s start with m. This is the rate at which our line rises or falls. So its definition is this:
m = vertical change / horizontal change
or
m = (y2-y1)/(x2–x1)
b is the location the line hits the y-axis, hence why it’s called y-intercept.
I would suggest watching a YT video about this, it’s way easier to understand when you have visuals.
Moving on, a dot (point) in the Cartesian space is represented by a line in the Hough space. This is because an infinite number of lines can pass through a dot. And so an infinite number of points in Hough, form a line.
The bottom line is this: If multiple points in the Cartesian space intersect in Hough, it means they can form a line, like in the figure above.
So getting back to our function:
cv2.HoughLinesP(cropped_image, 2, np.pi/180, 100, np.array([]), minLineLength=40, maxLineGap=5)
The first argument is the cropped image generated in Step 6. The second argument is the bin size used to decide whether the line detected is worthy of being considered a lane line. The third argument is the precision in degrees. Argument 4 is a threshold that specifies the minimum number of intersections for a line to be considered. Argument 5 is just an empty array passed in. The sixth argument is the lenght of the line in px accepted in the output. And the last one is the max line gap: the maximum distance in px between segmented which we’ll allow to be connected into a single one.
Finally, still as part of this step I created a function to draw the lines on a black background:
def display_lines(image, lines):
line_image = np.zeros_like(image) # draw a black background
if lines is not None: # if there are any Hough lines detected
for line in lines: # iterate though each of them
“””
Note: each line in lines is a 2D array reshape turns it into a 1D
array or better yet, for each line, save the coordinates into their
respective variables.
“””
x1, y1, x2, y2 = line.reshape(4)
“””
Use the coordinates to draw the line.
arg1: the background
arg2: Starting point of the line segment (x and y coordinates)
arg3: Ending point of the line segment (x and y coordinates)
arg4: Line color
arg5: Line thickness
“””
cv2.line(line_image, (x1, y1), (x2, y2), (255 , 0, 0), 10)
return line_image
We do this by firstly drawing up a black background, nothing new here. Then iterating through the array of lines detected previously. I then take the line (on each iteration) and using the reshape function, I save its coordinates into 4 local variables (x1, x2, y1, y2). The following part of the code is pretty self explanatory, I draw the line over the black background generated above the while loop. Therefore we end up with a bunch of lines like so:
Hough lines on top of a black background
Hough lines over the original image
Step 8 — Optimization
At this last step, I created a function to calculate the average slope and y-intercept to draw a single line for each side.
At first we define a couple of arrays to hold the slope and y-intercept for each side:
left_fit = []
right_fit = []
Then we iterate over each line defined at Step 7:
for line in lines:
Again, we take the coordinates of the line (through each iteration):
x1, y1, x2, y2 = line.reshape(4)
Then we calculate the slope and y-intercept values (given the coordinates of the line) using the following function:
parameters = np.polyfit((x1, x2), (y1, y2), 1)
That returns an array where the first item is the slope and the second the y-intercept, we store them as follows:
slope, intercept = parameters[0], parameters[1]
Then we decide if the line pertains to the left or right side. If the slope of a line is negative, it means it pertains to the left side. Again, a video is better at explaining this than myself. We apply this logic bellow:
if slope < 0:
left_fit.append([slope, intercept])
else:
right_fit.append([slope, intercept])
When the iteration is complete, we end up with 2 arrays containing a bunch of slopes and y-intercepts for each of the lines detected. Then outside the iteration, we calculate the average slope and y-intercept for each of the sides, like so:
left_fit_average = np.average(left_fit, axis=0)
right_fit_average = np.average(right_fit, axis=0)
This is pretty easy to understand, it calculates the average values on the axis 0, meaning vertically on the arrays given: [[1, .78], [1.34, .12]] is (1 + 1.34)/2 and (.78 + .12)/2.
Once we have these we define the left and right line like so:
left_line = make_coordinates(image, left_fit_average)
right_line = make_coordinates(image, right_fit_average)
The make_coordinates function is created by me and it just turns the slope and y-intercept back into coordinates using y = mx + b.
slope, intercept = line_parameters
y1 = image.shape[0]
y2 = int(y1*3/5)
x1 = int((y1-intercept)/slope)
x2 = int((y2 -intercept)/slope)
return np.array([x1, y1, x2, y2])
Firstly we grab the slope and y-intercept for the line passed in. Then we take the y1 (which is just the image height). Then we calculate the y2 (which is approximately towards the middle of the image, where the road ends). Then x1 and x2 are calculated using the Hough inverse formula: x= (y-b)/m. finally we combine all those coordinates into an array that we draw on top of our image to get this:
Averaged Hough lines on top of the original image
As you can see above, we have two clean-cut lines on top of the original image.
Step 9 — Video functionality
The final step is to allow lanes detection for a video. But we know that a video is just a bunch of images bound together. So we can accommodate for video input with very little effort.
cap = cv2.VideoCapture(‘test2.mp4’)
I place a video in the same directory as my python file. Then reference it using the above function.
while cap.isOpened():
_, frame = cap.read()
if render(frame, 1):
break
cap.release()
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
Then all I do is iterate over each frame and call the function render, which is all the above functionality nicely refactored for reusability.
Our end result, is this:
As you can see, the lines are wobbly and sometimes intermittent, but remember, this module was meant to getting me used to edge detection, image processing, Hough calculations, etc.
Thoughts
This module was a pretty nice introduction in the power of NumPy and OpenCV. Learnt a lot, and definitely expanded my knowledge in terms of Computer Vision (from 0 to 1 at least).
Next
The next module is now Perception. Looking forward to it, I’ll come back with updates tomorrow. | https://medium.com/@iulianoana/day-7-9-my-journey-to-learning-how-to-turn-my-car-into-a-self-driving-automobile-7fd5624c8df1 | ['Iulian Oana'] | 2020-12-07 12:39:23.169000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Challenge', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Machine Learning'] |
EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF 46 Review | The Skin Care Culture
H ow To Take Better Care of Your Skin
EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF 46 Review
I am always on the hunt for a good sunscreen that feels lightweight on the skin, doesn’t make my skin greasy, won’t irritate my skin, and won’t break me out.
I’ve been hearing about the EltaMD UV Clear for a long time now; however, I never had the chance to try any of their sunscreens because they weren’t available for shipping to my country.
Once I found out about Harben House and saw they are carrying the brand, I decided it was about time to give the sunscreen that every skincare professional praises and recommends a try.
And after using it for over six weeks, I am ready to give you my opinion.
This is my EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF 46 review, so let’s jump right into it:
EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF 46
EltaMD UV Clear Broad-Spectrum SPF 46 is a daily oil-free sunscreen that shields sensitive and oily skin from harmful UVA/UVB sun-rays and further blemish breakouts.
The mineral sunscreen is very lightweight and is easily worn underneath makeup that does not streak or give an unappealing greasy sheen.
With continuous daily use, the EltaMD sunscreen reduces the signs of aging and decreases the risk of skin cancer.
Ingredients
The EltaMD UV Clear is packed with beneficial ingredients that address more than one skin concern besides offering great sun protection.
Let’s take a look at a few of these:
Zinc oxide is a natural mineral compound that works as a sunscreen agent by reflecting and scattering UVA and UVB rays. It’s also ultra-gentle and one of the best ingredients to use on inflammation, such as acne as well as burns.
It’s suitable for all skin types and skin concerns, including very sensitive skins, rosacea-prone skins, and someone who is dealing with a compromised skin barrier due to using harsh products.
Niacinamide (vitamin B3) is an anti-inflammatory agent that reduces redness, minimizes the appearance of dry or damaged skin, and restores suppleness.
Niacinamide’s effect on blemishes such as acne and skin discoloration has been proven scientifically many times over.
Niacinamide’s management of acne and hyperpigmentation in several studies suggests it to be highly effective even at concentrations of as little as 4%.
Hyaluronic acid is a humectant that attracts and retains moisture into the outermost layers of the skin, improving skin feel and restoring plumpness and suppleness.
Lactic acid is an AHA and an exfoliating agent with humectant and brightening properties, which is why it’s present in this formula at a low concentration.
Besides the few ingredients that stand out, this product also contains a few excellent emollients and antioxidants to boost the beneficial effects and help the formula spread easier onto the skin.
Consistency
The EltaMD UV Clear has a very lightweight consistency that glides easily on the skin and applies effortlessly.
Scent
The EltaMD UV Clear has a very pleasant scent of almond. I am not exactly sure which ingredient the scent is coming from, but the product itself doesn’t contain added fragrance.
I personally don’t mind the scent at all as it’s pleasant enough initially, and it also fades soon after.
Performance
My skin is oily and acne-prone.
Having a good skincare routine helps a lot, but by default, it’s prone to congestion, breakouts, post-inflammatory redness, texture, and dullness.
It also always gets oily throughout the day, no matter how much I set my skincare and makeup with powder. I have to blot at least once a day and most often more than once.
I wasn’t expecting this product to be mattifying because that’s not what the description says.
There is “oil-free” in the description; however, there are still quite a few emollients here that help give the formula that nice glide, which is one of my favorite things about this product.
I was immediately impressed by how lightweight the product is and how easily it glides when applied to the skin.
The application is smooth, and it doesn’t feel sticky or chalky like some Avene sunscreens and even a few La Roche Posay ones that I hate.
It also gives my skin a very nice glow when it sets; however, this doesn’t last long, and my skin becomes oily if I don’t set it with powder after 15–20 minutes.
I also love how gentle and non-irritating it is, I can apply it right after cleansing on dry skin without having to use a moisturizer as an extra barrier between my skin and sunscreen, and it doesn’t irritate, sting, or burn my skin at all.
I also love applying the EltaMD UV Clear on my eyelids which is often the most neglected area due to unsuitable products that sting the eyes, but it’s also one of the areas that tend to droop and show signs of aging earlier than other areas.
However, the EltaMD Clear has never burned or stung my eyes. On the contrary — my eyelids feel moisturized and replenished upon applying it.
And lastly, which is definitely the most important thing is that it doesn’t break me out. I’ve been using it for over a month now, and my skin has only been getting better since I also introduced the iS CLINICAL Active Serum into my routine.
To be fair, I am not really a fan of how oily it becomes; however, what’s important to me is that it doesn’t burn or sting, and it feels good on my skin, which is why I will definitely repurchase it and recommend it to people who are dealing with sensitivity, irritation, acne, rosacea, dry skin, compromised skin barrier, etc.
EltaMD UV Clear Pros:
It’s super gentle and can even be used on the eyelids.
Doesn’t sting or burn.
Glides on the skin with ease and spreads evenly.
It has a pleasant, nutty scent.
Doesn’t leave a white cast.
Leaves a nice glow in the beginning.
Doesn’t break me out.
EltaMD UV Clear Cons:
It gets very oily if not set with powder.
I wish it comes in larger packaging.
Where To Buy?
You can buy the EltaMD UV Clear on:
Beauty In The Bag Beauty Tomorrow Dove Men+Care women.com UNC Women's Care alayne white BEEBIO Skincare Skincare nerd Beyond Organic Skincare Muslim Women Professionals UN Women USA Los Angeles Advancing Women in Product Women Beauty Magazin Women 2.0 | https://medium.com/@amazon-review/the-skin-care-culture-a93f47f5508d | ['Care'] | 2021-06-17 14:53:43.255000+00:00 | ['Skin Care Products', 'Skin Care Tips', 'Skin', 'Skincare', 'Beauty'] |
‘Nitty-Gritty Crack’: Unasked Questions Lead to Anxiety | Why is it so addicting to answer trivial questions? I start with E: and expand. The reasons I find are that it distracts us, dumps us out of ourselves, serious problems doze off, and rocks us like a boat in calm waters. We can spend hours playing just for the fun of it, whether or not there is an award. Playing gives us pleasure, instant gratification, we learn, we socialize, we develop our personality and get a little happiness. It’s valuable and healthy. Playing is too good!
Entertaining ourselves, as participants or spectators, has been something that television perfected since its inception and evolution with Pronto Raffaella! from Italian ‘La Carrà’, to ¡Hola Susana! from the Argentine homonymous Giménez, to Steve Harvey, Jeopardy! and a very long etcetera. Television channels were the ‘Gamelords’ of questions and answers in the 20th century until Trivia Crack disembarked. An online app without the divas or the stars of the small screen. Without schedules or limits, now the star is the user, cell phone is the remote and the advertising continues to bother us as much or more! than before.
A phone. A game released at the end of 2013. Worldwide success! The most downloaded year-end game of 2014. Almost 1 billion downloads reaching 2021. Its extreme popularity can be attributed to the Question Factory were anyone can suggest, rate, and translate questions for them to enter the game. Users are able to see the questions that have been approved and translated, as well as those that are still pending approval. Something like a collaborative mini Wikipedia or as coordinated nanomites GI Joe style that spread exponentially.
Máximo Cavazzini (owner of Etermax, the mother company of Trivia Crack) leveraged its success using mobile devices: “Mobile is not the future, mobile is the present. Companies that do not understand this are missing out on exposing users to the message of their brands in the most effective way” said its CEO at the time. It is good not to agree that the permanent bombardment of the user is the most effective way for a brand, business or company. But Etermax success speaks about their strategy. My opinion in Incognito: genios del No-Marketing speaks more about my claims than about my trophies. But, success and utility kill fantasy. Something similar to the relationship between Louis Van Gaal and Juan Román Riquelme on that elegant Barcelona from 2002–2003.
A: Because it lets us be useless (Jaya Saxena)
So, then we come to the first option. Flowing through games is useless. In a society that awards a disproportionate premium for use, utility, and practicality, playing trivial questions and answers is easy, but unproductive. We all know something about something. We all have an area where we feel we know quite a bit, and when that question comes up, we finally have our chance to prove to ourselves, for a moment, that we are useful in the idleness of the game.
B: Because is entertaining. The 10 Benefits of Having Fun (Rebecca Crespo)
1. Reduce stress
2. We improve the quality of sleep
3. Increase our creativity
4. It keeps us young
5. We improve social skills
6. It can help heal emotional wounds
7. Improve memory
8. It energizes us
9. Increase productivity
10. Improve your love life
C: Because of our endless curiosity (Grant Currin)
Curiosity encompasses such a large set of behaviors that there is probably not a single “curiosity gene” that makes humans wonder about the world and explore their environment. Although that said, curiosity has a multiple genetic component. Genes and the environment interact in many complex ways to shape individuals and guide their behavior, including their curiosity.
D: Because it is a brain training method (George Page)
By answering questions and learning, we are improving cognitive skills. Retaining information on topics that interest us is like an exercise for the mind that allows us to expand intelligence and improve mental abilities. This leads to greater creativity, innovation, and problem-solving skills.
+++
Now why don’t we like to ask ourselves unique, profound and really difficult questions? Because this is a major challenge to our temperance. The reasons I find are that it overwhelms us, turns us inward, awakens serious problems and makes us dizzy like a boat in stormy waters. We cannot spend more than a few minutes in that state, whether or not there is a reward. Meditating, brooding, reflecting annoys us, we dislike it, it seems that we do not learn (but we experience the greatest possible education), we tailor the moment, we develop our personality and we obtain peace, happiness, harmony and splendor.
Playing Nitty-Gritty Crack is not something that necessarily makes us feel unskilled, is not entertainment in the manner of a game, and is not a mere act of curiosity that disproportionately improves our cognitive abilities. Just thinking about asking ourselves these questions gives us abundant anxiety. But questions cannot go unanswered unless they are asked first. And there is much worse anxiety, much worse insecurity, that comes from being afraid to ask the right questions, because they can go unanswered. One of the moral ills we communicate with each other in society comes from huddling in the pale light of an insufficient answer to a question we are afraid to ask. And that anxiety is the mark of spiritual insecurity. (Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island)
What are those questions we are afraid to ask? The first that comes to mind is “Who am I?” Immediately, pulling on our pants: “What have I done here on Earth so far?” and then, “Is it enough?” (Angela Doll Carlson)
For the Trivia Crack you have to think carefully, respond quickly, win with revelry. For Nitty-Gritty Crack you have to ask with tears, seek with obedience and knock with patience. Play is necessary. Answer the essential questions too. Betting fully on the interrogations of the almost impossible would be something that we love as much as the trivial.
Those questionings lead inevitably to these adapted paradoxes form Thomas Merton’s No Man Is an Island:
We become ourselves when we die to ourselves.
We win only what we give up, and if we give up everything, we win everything.
We cannot find ourselves within ourselves, but only in others, but at the same time, before we can go out towards others, we must first find ourselves.
We must forget ourselves in order to become truly aware of who we are.
The best way to love ourselves is to love others, but we cannot love others unless we love ourselves.
But if we love ourselves in the wrong way, we become incapable of loving anyone else. And, in fact, when we love ourselves unjustly, we hate ourselves; If we hate ourselves, we cannot help but hate others. | https://medium.com/@pablolacasia/nitty-gritty-crack-unasked-questions-lead-to-anxiety-a90fa4b2b46b | ['Pablo Lacasia'] | 2020-12-16 03:12:05.431000+00:00 | ['Trivia', 'Funny', 'Nitty Gritty', 'Questions', 'Games'] |
Why do hotels need security systems? Why should you invest in one? | Guests go to hotels to be taken care of during their stay. They also expect privacy and security at all times. While privacy is a given, we have often noticed that security systems are not up to the mark in many hotels.
Hotel security of the highest order is a must to protect guests and assets, and to prevent crime. The absence of such a system can increase vulnerability. Guests will, thus, not feel safe staying at such a hotel.
Intrusions can be of many types — uninvited guests could enter the building, stealing may take place, and privacy may be at stake. None of these looks good on the profile of a hotel. So, do hotels need security systems? Absolutely! But will a simple CCTV setup do? No!
To underscore our point, we would like to highlight exactly why hotels must invest in security systems.
Prevention of crime
CCTVs and 24/7 monitoring act as instant deterrents. Criminals will think twice before doing something nasty in an area that is under video surveillance. The possibility of theft or lone attacks is significantly lower due to this.
Fraud prevention
Along with protecting guests, hotel security protects the hotel from fraud and damages. It can help mitigate damage costs by providing proof when necessary.
Alarm checkpoints
Most hotel security packages come with intrusion alarms. These alarms immediately start ringing when there’s an intrusion. Thus, guests are safe from intruders. Alarms are usually placed at all points of entry so that no one even enters the hotel without prior appointment or booking.
Better customer service
As aforementioned, guests stay at hotels for premium services. This includes customer service. CCTVs help assess the situation at the hotel and provide data on wait time, traffic, services, etc. With the help of this data, the staff can improve the delivery of services, providing the utmost satisfaction.
Access control
We have all heard of merchandise theft in hotels. It is a very common phenomenon that costs the hotels dearly. Access control systems can avoid this from happening, ultimately saving a lot of money for hotels.
Better productivity
Service personnel and technicians tend to work more productively under CCTV surveillance. This is because all the data about the work done, time taken, and the professionalism is recorded. When you are being watched, you automatically watch every step. This is how efficiency increases.
Other ways in which security systems are helpful in hotels include panic buttons, locking systems, access cards, etc.
Choose the best hotel security systems — K9 Security
K9 Security Services are among the leading hotel security services today. We work with an array of hotels and similar establishments to provide 100% security from intrusions and other security threats. Our services include CCTV systems, intruder alarms, panic alarms, VIP security strategy, etc.
We also conduct virtual site tours and have fully-trained professionals on-guard to deliver the highest quality of security services.
For hotel security and more, please feel free to speak to us. We will offer the best and ensure that your hotel is fully protected. | https://medium.com/@judelewisstok/why-do-hotels-need-security-systems-why-should-you-invest-in-one-49861c85c215 | ['Stok Security Services'] | 2020-07-17 12:08:06.593000+00:00 | ['Security Services', 'Security Camera', 'Hotel Security'] |
How Do I Get Dash? | There are many ways to get Dash but this article will only focus on a few of the easiest ways.
If you’re new to cryptocurrency and aren’t ready to dive into the exchanges like Poloniex or Bittrex, there are options for you right now to buy Dash directly.
This option is available in the USA and many other countries as well. I’ve talked to some people who have used Wall of Coins to buy Dash, and it is a safe and highly respected company. Here’s a great, easy-to-understand video that explains the entire process:
The main thing to know about Wall of Coins is that you buy Dash with your own cash. No credit cards, no sending your bank information over the internet.
You physically go to the Dash seller’s bank and make a cash deposit into their account. So, you’ll never be sending your own bank account information over the internet. This system matches individual buyers with individual sellers so it is a truly peer-to-peer network. When I first heard about this, it seemed quite bizarre, but the more I think about it, the more I realize just how safe it actually is since it’s dealing with cash.
Because it is a peer-to-peer network, the system depends on people willing to sell their Dash. This means that there still may be places where there are not enough sellers as Dash was just recently added to their coin offerings.
If you’ve used Wall of Coins, add your voice. I’d be interested to know how your experience went. | https://medium.com/dash-for-newbies/how-do-i-get-dash-c2b0a5b28aa7 | [] | 2017-04-21 14:47:46.652000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Payments', 'Bitcoin', 'How To', 'Dash'] |
Skills Recommended for a JavaScript Enthusiast | Photo Courtesy — Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash
After having some years of experience working with JavaScript, I realised that a person who loves working with JavaScript or wants to establish his/her career in JavaScript must have knowledge about some of the advanced concepts. To be honest, when I started my career, I did not know any of these concepts, but I learnt them over a period of time.
You’re never too old to start learning, and you’re never too young to aim high and achieve great things. — Asa Hutchinson
IIFE — Immediately Invoked Function Expressions
As the name suggests, an “Immediately Invoked Function Expression” is a function which is executed immediately as soon as it is created. There cannot be separate invocation call for such function after its execution is completed. The main benefit of using an IIFE is that it does not pollute the global object. The variables defined within an IIFE cannot be accessed in outer scope. Syntax for defining an IIFE is as below:
(function() {
/* code to be executed */
})();
Closures
A closure is an inner function which has access to the variables from it’s enclosing function’s scope. The closure function has access to variables in three scopes — variable in its own scope, variables in the enclosing function’s scope, and global variables.
var userName = "Jade";
function greetUser(name) {
var greeting = "Hey there, " + name + "!";
var welcomeMessage = function() {
var welcome = greeting + " Welcome!";
console.log(greeting); // access to outer scope's variable
console.log(userName); // access to global scope's variable
};
return welcomeMessage; // access to its own scope's variable
} var greetingMessage = greetUser("John");
greetingMessage();
Here the method welcomeMessage is a closure function as it is defined within an enclosing function greetUser having access to variables of global scope, enclosing function’s scope and its own scope.
Currying
It is a process of transforming a function with more than two arguments to a sequence of functions each with a single argument. Its main benefit is it prevents calling the same function frequently with the same argument.
function multiplyNumbers(a, b, c) { // traditional method
return a * b * c;
} var result = multiplyNumbers(3, 4, 5);
console.log(result); // prints 60 function multiplyNumbers(a) { // currying function
return (b) => {
return (c) => {
return a * b * c;
}
}
} var result = multiplyNumbers(3)(4)(5);
console.log(result); // prints 60
Scope
Scope in JavaScript refers to accessibility of the variables. There are two types of scope in JavaScript— Global and Local scope.
Global Scope : Variables defined in the global scope can be used or referred in any of the functions defined in that scope. The variables which are only defined but not declared will automatically be treated as global scoped variables.
: Variables defined in the global scope can be used or referred in any of the functions defined in that scope. The variables which are only defined but not declared will automatically be treated as global scoped variables. Local Scope: Variables defined in any function are termed as local scope variables. Function arguments are always local scoped variables limited to the scope of the function.
var userName = "John Doe"; // global scoped variable function transformUserName() {
var userName = "Jade"; // local scoped variable
console.log(userName); // refers to local scoped variable
} console.log(userName); // refers to global scoped variable
Variables in JavaScript can be defined using keywords like var , let and const . Variables defined with keyword let and const have block scope and is recommended after introduction of ES2015. The keyword var was used prior to ES2015 and has function scope.
var — Variables defined with var keyword can be re-assigned, re-declared and are always hoisted by JavaScript engine.
— Variables defined with keyword can be re-assigned, re-declared and are always hoisted by JavaScript engine. let — Variables defined with let keyword can be re-assigned, but cannot be re-declared and are never hoisted by JavaScript engine.
— Variables defined with keyword can be re-assigned, but cannot be re-declared and are never hoisted by JavaScript engine. const — Variables defined with const keyword can never be re-assigned, re-declared and are never hoisted by JavaScript engine.
Hoisting
As the name suggests, it moves all the variable declarations to the top of the script during the initialisation phase of the execution context. However, all the variables declared with var keyword are defined with undefined . This allows using variables directly without defining them. The variables declared with let keyword are not hoisted so it causes Reference Error when trying to use them without declaring them explicitly. Like variables, function declarations are also hoisted by JavaScript engine. This allows invoking of functions before they are initialised. Function expressions and arrow functions are not hoisted, which means the JavaScript engine will throw an error if we try to access them before they are defined.
console.log(a); // undefined // this works
var a = 1; console.log(x); // this does not work
let x = 1;
Prototypal Inheritance
As the name suggests, inheritance allows us to inherit properties and methods of one object into another object. JavaScript does not support such classical inheritance, instead it supports inheritance via prototypal inheritance. JavaScript objects have a special property known as “Prototype” whose value is either null or references link to another object.
let Parent = {
name: "abc",
age: 23,
walk: function() {
console.log('walk');
}
};
let Child = {
education: "Graduation",
run: function() {
console.log('run');
}
};
In the above mentioned code snippet, we have two objects Parent and Child, now we want Child to inherit all properties of Parent, so we can use dunder proto syntax (__proto__) for achieving this.
Child.__proto__ = Parent; // it will pass properties of Parent object to Child object
Now, if we try to access property or method which is not available in Child object, it will try to find that in its prototype (which in this case is Parent).
Child.walk(); // will print walk to console from Parent object
Call Stack
A call stack is a mechanism for a JavaScript engine to keep track of the functions it executes in LIFO — Last-In-First-Out manner. Whenever a script starts its execution, JavaScript engine creates a Global Execution Context and pushes it onto the top of the call stack. When a function is called, JavaScript engine creates a new Function Execution Context and pushes it on the top of the stack and starts its execution. Each function call will create a different Function Execution Context and be pushed onto the top of the stack. As the function execution gets completed, its corresponding execution context gets popped from the stack.
function doSomething() {
// code execution...
doSomething1();
// code execution...
}
function doSomething1() {
// code execution...
}
doSomething();
The code above would be executed like this:
Ignore all functions, until it reaches the doSomething() function invocation. Push the doSomething() function to the Call Stack. Call Stack:
- doSomething Execute code inside the doSomething() function. Get to the doSomething1() function invocation. Push the doSomething1() function to the Call Stack. Call Stack:
- doSomething
- doSomething1 Execute code inside the doSomething1() function, until it reaches its end. Return execution to the line that invoked doSomething1() and continue executing the rest of the doSomething() function. Pop the doSomething1() function from Call Stack Call Stack:
- doSomething When everything inside the doSomething() function has been executed, return to its invoking line to continue the execution of the rest of the script. Pop the doSomething() function from the Call Stack. Call Stack:
EMPTY
Async/Await
With the introduction of ES2017, we got a new addition of Async/Await functions which will allow developers to convert their asynchronous tasks to synchronous code without writing the callbacks. We can make a function async by simply writing async before the function declaration. await is a new operator introduced which will wait for a Promise to resolve or reject. It works only with async functions. | https://medium.com/swlh/skills-recommended-for-a-javascript-enthusiast-81c61b81b228 | ['Pooja Mehta'] | 2020-09-29 08:53:58.850000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'Javascript Development', 'Javascript Interview', 'Javascript Tips', 'Advanced Javascript'] |
5 Types of Content for When You’re Uninspired | 5 Types of Content for When You’re Uninspired
What if you lack time and energy to write a long blog post?
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
Content creation is hard. You have to be consistent, you have to deliver a ton of value, you have to publish content multiple times a day, you have to come up with new ideas all the time, you have to make sure your content is good, and you have to put out so much content in order to get noticed.
Content marketing is only efficient if you keep practicing and if you stay consistent, following a content plan.
In an ideal world, you would wake up, publish 50 pieces of content per day and deliver the best value possible, and then you would go back to sleep.
But we all know that it’s not as easy in reality and that publishing only one piece of content is already hard, demanding, and daunting.
You may say that skipping a day is fine and that you’ll be back on track the next day with even better content. And I agree with you — it’s not the end of the world to skip a day. But skipping a day makes it tempting to skip the one after that. And then the entire week. And then the month.
Here’s the truth: It’s a lot more comfortable to not put out content when you’re uninspired. But that won’t make you grow and that won’t make you learn.
But the good news is, you don’t need to publish three YouTube videos and five long blog posts per day to have an efficient content marketing strategy. As long as you deliver value, and as long as you post consistently and regularly, your content strategy will pay off and you’ll quickly see results and traffic.
Think of it this way: Every single piece of content that you post is an entry point to your profile, your website, your sales funnel, your contact page, or whatever it is that you’re trying to drive traffic toward.
So don’t skip a day, and use these other forms of content for when you’re uninspired or way too tired to write that article or film that YouTube video. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/5-types-of-content-for-when-youre-uninspired-7c01525f8974 | ['Charles Tumiotto Jackson'] | 2020-10-15 14:48:46.609000+00:00 | ['Content Marketing', 'Startup', 'Marketing', 'Digital Marketing', 'Social Media'] |
Having Skin in the Game Made me Realize Facebook is Not Really Evil | Having Skin in the Game Made me Realize Facebook is Not Really Evil
I deleted my Facebook account in mid-2020.
That time was what seemed like the peak of social media hysteria: a perfect storm of data abuses, political interference, and the threat of an AI apocalypse.
I listened to podcasts, read articles, and followed hundreds of Twitter accounts of people who would attest to Facebook’s negative influence on society. Every other day, it seemed, there was a new smear against Zuckerberg or some aspect of his monstrous company.
I did what was the only logical think to me: took action. Rather than only expressing my discontent with the platform, I removed myself from it. How can one go around saying that this platform is destroying our democracy, blurring the lines between truth and lies, and taking too much control over people’s lives — and the keep on using it. This baffled me, yet it’s what many people did.
For them, the pros that Facebook offered ostensibly outweighed the negatives of being off of it complete. So my departure from the platform was a way for me to test that hypothesis:
Are the actions of Facebook truly as bad as many claim they are? And if so, is deleting it the solution?
If the hypothesis proved true, Facebook would inevitably slowly die as a company. Because companies fail when they lose the fail of their customers, which in turn causes a decline in revenue.
If the things Facebook was doing directly resulted in a large number of people leaving the platform, then it would mean that all the hysteria was justified. But if it’s all talk, and no action, then how can one actually support their claims of abuses and exploitation.
The result: Journalists continued to investigate, to expose, and then they used Facebook itself to spread their reports to the world. Meanwhile, Facebook‘s userbase continued to grow during the time I was off of it.
While there may have been some extreme cases where people, like me, took action, these were the exceptions, because the advantages of what Facebook offers — the ability to remain connected with people in our lives through technology — greatly outweigh the cons of whatever alleged “evils” journalists love to highlight. People’s perception of reality, and reality itself, had grown far apart.
Facebook paranoia had essentially become a form of entertainment. In some masochistic way, we were convincing ourselves that Black Mirror was real, perhaps because we wanted to be a part of something unbelievable — our lives are unfulfilling as they are, so we feel we have to be a part of something greater, even if that greater movement doesn’t actually exist.
I created a new Facebook account earlier this year, and started to reconnect with old friends. Nothing had really changed. People were still sharing photos of their Sunday picnics, their dogs, the occasional meme, as well as a barrage of political and ideological content. Because that’s just it — ideologies are an excuse to complain, and complaining has become a pastime, just like cooking or going to the park. They have no bearing on real-life, because if they did, we would be taking action by adjusting our way of life accordingly, rather than posting memes about them. (Protesting, by the way, is not an example of taking action — it’s just another form of complaining, just on the street instead of on social media). | https://medium.com/@nicholasrobert1/having-skin-in-the-game-made-me-realize-facebook-is-not-really-evil-7463773d90c2 | ['Nicholas Robert'] | 2021-01-02 04:07:51.535000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Personal Growth', 'Social Media', 'Digital Life', 'Technology'] |
Visualizing Noise, Census, COVID-19, and Happiness Data — DataViz Weekly | We have put together a roundup of new awesome data visualizations from around the web. Look what we’ve got for you to check out this Friday on DataViz Weekly:
Noise pollution in Brussels — Karim Douïeb
Census 2020 undercounts and their consequences — NYT Opinion
COVID-19 symptoms search trends — Google People + AI Research (PAIR)
World happiness by region — Wayde Herman
Noise Pollution in Brussels
Karim Douïeb from Jetpack.AI, a data science company, made a fascinating interactive data visualization under the title “Noise City.” Embracing a map and a gauge, this project allows everyone to explore noise pollution in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. What makes this presentation especially interesting — in addition to a beautiful, neat view of the data — is audibility.
Turn the sound on, volume up, and click on the “With sound” button once you’ve opened the visualization. Then hover over the map and you’ll hear the noise which is usual for the respective place. The circular gauge on the left displays the annual average noise intensity in decibels as you mouse around.
Census 2020 Undercounts and Their Consequences
The 2020 Census is ongoing in the United States, and its mission is more than simple enumeration for statistical purposes. It is a very important official procedure. The census results will determine, for example, how seats in the U.S. Congress and federal payments will be apportioned among the states.
This year, when the Census Bureau first had troubles due to the lockdown and is currently pushed by the Trump administration to end the count on September 30, some states can be expected to experience significant undercounts. And a low completion rate may result in reduced representation and funding.
Gus Wezerek and Andrew Whitby looked into the available data to find out how many Americans across the country, according to the currently recorded response rate, will remain uncounted next Wednesday and to understand the way the congressional makeup and federal funding figures can therefore change for some states. Look at the interesting charts on The New York Times Opinion section.
COVID-19 Symptoms Search Trends
In the meantime, as the pandemic persists, COVID-19 remains one of the hottest subjects among data visualization experts and enthusiasts all over the world. Google’s People + AI Research (PAIR) team charted aggregated search trends for over four hundred signs and symptoms from the COVID-19 Search Trends database shared by Google in early September.
Choose a symptom — like “Fever” on the picture — and you’ll be able to explore the relative volume of the respective searches across the United States along with its nationwide change over the past three years. Then you can focus on some of the most frequent symptoms by looking at the additional charts. Reveal seasonal patterns, investigate geographic distributions, and understand the coronavirus impact.
World Happiness by Region
Noise, elections, viruses — regardless of or taking into account all that and much more, people are happier in some places than others. Wayde Herman, a data visualization developer, decided to find out the details. He took data from the World Happiness Report, a survey of the state of happiness around the world, and made a cool interactive box plot that nicely shows how happy people are in ten macroregions: Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, Middle East and Northern Africa, Latin America and Caribbean, Southeastern Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southern Asia.
The box-and-whisker chart does a great job here. Look what conclusions you can draw from such a visualization. If you deal with creating charts for sites or apps, you might also like to study Wayde’s entire article in which he provides a clear step-by-step explanation of how he created this chart from scratch (with the help of the AnyChart JavaScript charting library, by the way). We’ve reposted his marvellous box plot tutorial from Towards Data Science this week, with his permission. | https://medium.com/data-visualization-weekly/visualizing-noise-census-covid-19-and-happiness-data-dataviz-weekly-d9882b92267 | [] | 2020-09-25 22:02:46.986000+00:00 | ['Charts', 'Data Science', 'Data Journalism', 'Data Visualization', 'Data'] |
The growing opposition against the ECB | Few investors and market observers were really surprised when Mario Draghi announced the ECB’s next massive easing package in mid-September. Cutting rates further into negative territory and the revival of QE were largely expected sooner or later, as the “whatever it takes” outgoing ECB President is now faced with a wide economic slowdown in the Eurozone. After all, over the last decade, the ECB has proved to be a “one trick pony”, with negative rates and bond-buying being used as a cure-all and as the means to reach that ever-elusive 2% inflation target. Thus, the markets had already taken the new intervention for granted and that was reflected in the lukewarm reaction to its announcement. However, what was much less expected was the series of objections, challenges and even resignations, that both preceded and followed the decision.
Recent reports have revealed rising tensions and exposed a very deep and wide rift within the ECB. According to the Financial Times, President Draghi ignored the advice of the ECB’s own officials, even as they vehemently protested and warned against the new easing package. As the article described, “the bank’s monetary policy committee, on which technocrats from the ECB and the 19 Eurozone national central banks sit, advised against resuming its bond purchases in a letter sent to Mario Draghi and other members of its governing council days before their decision”. A few days after the new measures were announced, Sabine Lautenschlaeger, Germany’s appointee to the board of the central bank and an outspoken critic of its policy direction, resigned from her position, in a move that many saw as a protest. This level of dissent and discord at the top of the ECB have never been seen before during Draghi’s tenure, while the announcement marks one of the very rare occasions upon which the committee’s position has been ignored in the last 8 years.
The main argument against the revival of QE at this stage was that it would be much wiser and more prudent for the central bank to wait and to “keep its powder dry” for an emergency, such as a no-deal Brexit, or to fight off an acute recession. This opposition came, among others, from the governors of the Bank of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Estonia, representing more than half of the euro area’s economic output and population. For many critics, this fact alone suffices to question the mandate and the legitimacy of the ECB’s decisions.
Of course, the opposition to the ECB’s policy direction is not limited to officials within the bank itself or to the central bankers at the center of this debate. Attacks from multiple fronts, that have been on the rise for years already, have intensified dramatically after the announcement of the new package. Oliver Bäte, the CEO of Allianz, Europe’s biggest insurer, did not mince his words and called out the politicization of monetary policy in the euro area. He also sharply criticized the ECB’s policies for “making it easy for people to spend money they don’t have” and for “multiplying risk” by reinforcing the “doom loop” of banks’ investments in government debt. Christian Sewing, the Deutsche Bank CEO, seems to concur, as he recently warned that negative rates will “ruin the financial system”.
A group of former senior central bankers also recently released a memo outlining the reasons behind their emphatic opposition to the ECB’s new easing measures. The memo, signed by numerous German, French, Austrian, and Dutch former central bank officials and chief economists, claimed the easing decision was “based on the wrong diagnosis”. It also went on to echo the widespread concerns over the ECB’s politicization by pointing out that “from an economic point of view, the ECB has already entered the territory of monetary financing of government spending, which is strictly prohibited by the [Maastricht] Treaty.”
This fiery conflict on this level foreshadows a very bumpy ride ahead for incoming President Christine Lagarde. She has repeatedly expressed her support for Mr. Draghi’s approach in the past and is widely expected to continue down that same path, especially as she will be faced with a widening economic slowdown in the region once she takes over at the end of October. However, from a bigger-picture perspective, this sharp discord more than anything serves to highlight the level of discontent with the central bank’s ultra-loose policies and the toxic effects they have already had on banks, on insurers, on pension funds and, of course, on individual citizens and savers.
While we can still expect to see “more of the same” in terms of monetary policy, it is important to note that a growing resistance is gaining traction, which is likely to intensify as the impact of these policies is being felt, not just by the banks, but by the average citizen, who increasingly sees their savings shrink and their retirement planning become near-impossible. No matter how this conflict is ultimately resolved, a reversal of these deleterious measures is definitely not in sight. Thus, for the foreseeable future, physical precious metals continue to present the safest and the most reliable hedge against economic, monetary and systemic risks.
Claudio Grass, Hünenberg See, Switzerland
www.claudiograss.chh | https://medium.com/@proaurum-ch/the-growing-opposition-against-the-ecb-30cff192abcf | ['Pro Aurum Kilchberg Zh'] | 2019-10-17 10:07:29.756000+00:00 | ['Ecb', 'Economics', 'Market', 'Investors'] |
A Green New Deal is Popular with Both Political Parties…for now | The concepts behind a Green New Deal are currently widely popular with members of both political parties. But there’s a catch. Most don’t know much about it…
The Green New Deal (GND), in its most basic sense, is a robust series of programs involving investment in clean energy jobs and infrastructure resulting in a transformation of the energy sector, and the economy overall. In addition to these massive investments into clean energy programs, citizens are given a federal-job guarantee, and there is a transformative effect on the U.S. economy.
The concept of a GND in the US was first mentioned in a column written by Thomas Friedman in 2007 and expanded upon in his subsequent book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. It was also included as part of Barack Obama’s campaign platform in 2008. After remaining dormant for several years, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined a number of young climate activists to thrust the idea back into the spotlight following the 2018 midterm elections.
Over Forty congressional representatives backed the idea of a select committee to draft Green New Deal legislation in December of 2018, and many potential 2020 presidential candidates are already signing on to the general idea of a Green New Deal.
GREEN NEW DEAL POPULAR WITH BOTH DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS
The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication conducted a survey of registered voters who were given a brief summary of what the Green New Deal was all about, and these registered voters were then asked how much they supported or opposed the idea. From the data garnered, a total of 81% of registered voters were in support of the idea. Also, surprisingly, this figure cut through both Democrats and Republicans, with 92% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans supporting the idea.
It was also noted that many of the Republicans in support of the Green New Deal, were unaware that it was being promoted by Democrats. This led the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication to say, “..these findings may indicate that although most Republicans and conservatives are in favor of the Green New Deal’s policies in principle, they are not yet aware that this plan is proposed by the political Left. For any survey respondents who were previously unaware of the Deal, it is likely that their reactions have not yet been influenced by partisan loyalty.”
CATCH: MOST PEOPLE ARE NOT AWARE OF THE GREEN NEW DEAL
While people are generally supportive of the policies of a Green New Deal, one large caveat is most people are unaware on the concept in general. Participants were asked during the survey how much of the Green New Deal they were familiar with, if at all. Results showed that a very large number of respondents, about 82%, had heard absolutely nothing about the Green New Deal. Only about 3% had heard a significant amount about the Green New Deal, while a slightly larger number, 14%, had heard only a little about the deal. This is largely reflective of the general ignorance by the larger society about the deal. Details of the survey are expressed in the chart below, showing the ratio of registered voters who were aware of the deal, to those who were not.
“Indeed, before we shared our description of the Deal with survey participants, we first asked them how much, if anything, they had heard about it. Very few people had heard about it. In fact, 82% of registered voters had heard ‘nothing at all’ about the Deal”, according to the Yale Program on Climate Control Communication.
CHALLENGE TO PROMOTE THE DEAL, FOR SUPPORT FROM BOTH PARTIES
From what has been observed about the larger ratio of registered voters’ ignorance about the Green New Deal, we have been posed with the challenge of promoting GND to all Americans, especially in a way that does not alienate the potential supporters of the Deal.
According to Abel Gustafson, co-author of the survey report, “Given that most Americans have strong support for the components and ideas of the Green New Deal, it becomes a communication strategy problem. From here, it’s about how you can pitch it so you can maintain that bipartisan support throughout the rest of the process.”
Due to the possibility of a subsequent increase in the partisan polarization of the Green New Deal, there is the need that the Deal accesses support from political and media elites of both parties, to ensure the alignment with the general public. Also, this would serve to ensure the maintenance of the nonpolar backing already in existence. Another way to encourage bipartisan support for the Deal is to anticipate and alert the public of the possible arguments that could be used to tackle the validity and feasibility of the Green New Deal. Also, there should be the total avoidance of partisan framing in the communication of the deal, by either party, as this could pave the way for partisan associations with the deal, and destroy the already present bipartisan support for the idea.
From what has been observed and stated, it is very necessary to keep knowledge of the Green New Deal open and accessible to the public, especially in a manner that encourages support from both parties.
Originally published at progressivelabs.org
KJ Meyer is an attorney, organizer & advocate working on labor and environmental issues. He writes on the Green New Deal and progressive framing at Progressive Labs. Follow him on Twitter @LivinOutWest | https://medium.com/@sustainablesolutions/a-green-new-deal-is-popular-with-both-political-parties-for-now-c7bcb37f0b78 | ['Sustainable Solutions'] | 2019-02-18 23:10:27.601000+00:00 | ['Green Energy', 'Politics', 'Green Economy', 'Green New Deal', 'Innovation'] |
I never thought I’d see an upside to Brexit! 😀 | There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live and too rare to die. | https://medium.com/@whereangelsfeartotread/i-never-thought-id-see-an-upside-to-brexit-acbbc1b4d3e6 | ['Where Angels Fear'] | 2020-12-26 22:19:07.465000+00:00 | ['Satire', 'Funny', 'Christmas', 'Peace', 'Humor'] |
KML viewer and converter | KML file creates trouble. When KML file are shown people are worried about how to convert it into a compatible file format. If you want to convert KML file into KMZ, TopoJSON, GeoJSON, CSV, and GPX then in a market many of tool is available to convert a KML file. Now you can convert your KML file smartly and effortless.
There are one of the Apps are available in a play store and also the app store. One of the tools in an App store or play store is KML viewer and converter, that converts your KML file into KMZ, TopoJSON, GeoJSON, CSV, and GPX format this App is free available in the app store or play store.
What is KML?
KML stands for keyhole markup language this is an XML based file format and that is store geographical data to store and accurate content and is an Open Geographical Consortium (OGC) standard. KML file has a .KML file extension. That can include line, polygon, images. It is used to identify label location, find a camera angle, overlay texture and add HTML tag.
How to convert KML file with KML viewer and converter
KML viewer and converter are available on App store and play store free tool to convert your KML file. Here are some simple steps to convert your KML file into KMZ, TopoJSON, GeoJSON, CSV, and GPX. follow these simple steps and convert your KML file effortless.
Steps to convert the KML file
In KML viewer and converter you have to do the following steps and then you can convert your KML file easily by the use of KML viewer and converter tool.
Import your KML file from Dropbox or else in your google drive. In this step, many of your KML file and here you choose any one KML file When you choose your file here you can see your instant preview that how it shows look like. To convert the file choose your format KML to KMZ, GPX, Geojson, Topojson, CSV, KML choose any one format. Now click on share and you have done.
Those simple five steps are done and your KML ( keyhole markup language )file converted into your compatible file format. This is an easy way to convert your KML file. So what are you waiting for download it and try it for free. | https://medium.com/@khyati-rathod/kml-viewer-and-converter-cc6b541a0427 | ['Khyati Rathod'] | 2019-06-18 12:43:02.485000+00:00 | ['Csv', 'Kmz', 'Kml', 'Maps', 'Converter'] |
TechNews.io Versus Cision: It’s All About the Search | When I brought my company’s’s PR function in-house in August of 2018, I realized that I needed a media database.
With hundreds of thousands of reporters, contributors, and bloggers in the market at any given moment, and something close to a 30 percent rate of annual turnover, my focus was on vendors that specialized in maintaining reporter contacts rather than ones that relied on web-scraping to obtain their data.
That requirement led me to Cision, which appeared to be the last and best game in town for this type of database. (Cision had actually acquired and digested two other providers I had worked with in the past, and they seemed to be the last firm that claimed it went through the epic process of contacting reporters to confirm contact details a few times a year.)
The Cision database is fairly complete. If you know who you are looking for, you can usually find their name and contact information there.
It’s a different story for discovery.
Beat designations within Cision seem very rudimentary and “thick”— reporters listed as “Technology,” for instance, might cover “artificial intelligence” or “embedded analytics” or “machine learning” or some combination of the three.
Given the fact that an off-beat pitch can easily result in a communications representative being added to a reporter’s spam list, it’s critical that you know exactly what a reporter is writing about, or risk having no way to contact a reporter ever again.
Decent Monitoring
Cision does have monitoring and search functions built in to the product to cope with the challenge of bloated beat titles, and reporter specialization.
The news monitoring function — alerts which track news published online — is outside of the scope of this review, but I will say it does a fairly good job of giving me a heads-up about coverage.
What’s more, if you want to track coverage by source type against particular names or keywords, Cision monitoring will sometimes produce sources that Google alerts will not, and it will usually beat the alerts by a day or so.
As you might expect, this monitoring will often reveal new reporters covering a beat of interest… although this happens incidentally and accidentally, over a long period of time — not helpful when you need to respond quickly with a reactive pitch opportunity.
Difficult Search
For media search, Cision has proved to be more frustrating.
I had cut my teeth in media strategy with a combination of Factiva (now greatly diminished in the number of sources it accesses, unfortunately) and Lexis Nexis (now much more expensive than it was). I learned advanced Boolean search and, with my skills and these platforms, I had a reliable way to get a fairly comprehensive overview of relevant media coverage by any way I wanted to slice and dice it — topic, outlet, subject, etc.
Cision promised that functionality but, without getting too far into the limitations of their archiving, their provider agreements, and their search functionality, I found it a very clunky and inefficient way to search coverage on the fly.
In the end, to find reporters I hadn’t already identified, I was usually left doing it the way that I had before I had contracted with Cision: Google searches.
Enter TechNews.io
It was at this point that I ran across TechNews.io.
TechNews.io does a lot of things well but, for me, the most valuable functionality is providing an easy, quick way to see who is writing about a given set of topics in the English-language technology space.
TechNews.io provides a very easy-to-use search interface — maybe a little basic for Boolean search geeks like myself, but one that seems to be very good at intuiting deeper meaning from coverage without requiring more sophisticated search strings.
If you want to see the reporters who cover “IoT” and “neural network,” for instance, you just type in those two terms. The results will sometimes miss a story, but it’s fairly comprehensive, and it almost never produces an off-topic result.
A Reasonably Effective Database
What’s more, TechNews.io provides contact information for most of the reporters in the results it produces.
To be sure, these names are obtained through a web-scrape — something that I had hoped to avoid in my initial search for a media database solution.
In the end, this didn’t prove to be a huge handicap, at least when it came to TechNews.io. Reporter information in TechNews.io is driven by recent coverage, and most reporters now include their current contact information in their stories.
There are unusual instances where reporter contact information is missing entirely, requiring me to go online to search or going back to Cision. But, most of the time, the reporter contact is there, and correct.
The Verdict: Search Wins
The two platforms are not true comparables. Cision is a comprehensive database for every reporter, everywhere, which is updated regularly. It also contains robust monitoring functionality that, while not of use for me, is probably very valuable for larger companies.
TechNews.io, on the other hand covers tech-only media coverage, and reporter names are derived by web scraping that is sometimes out of date, and seldom includes contact information like phone numbers.
That said, finding the right reporters to pitch your story to is the most important part of the media research process — for me at least. In the rare cases where I can’t obtain a reporter’s email address or phone number through TechNews.io, I can usually track down this information on my own with some detective-work.
On the other hand, having a huge, all encompassing database full of names, and not knowing which ones to reach out to, is a much more difficult challenge to cope with.
The bottom line is that, for tech TechNews.io provides a reasonably good database for North America- and UK-based reporters, while providing a VAST improvement over Cision in my ability to identify reporters who might cover fairly esoteric combinations of topics.
The powerful search functionality in TechNews.io has been a game-changer for me — allowing me to produce highly targeted media lists in minutes, which could have taken hours or days with Cision.
Not every PR person has the same needs but, for me, it’s all about search and, for this, TechNews.io is the clear winner versus Cision. | https://medium.com/@davidzweifler/technews-io-versus-cision-its-all-about-the-search-9a0afac9b355 | ['David Zweifler'] | 2019-02-07 15:51:19.872000+00:00 | ['Public Relations', 'Media Database', 'Media Relations', 'Product Reviews', 'Technology'] |
Episode6: From Scratch | Hello, welcome back to my blog!
Learning a new language is not easy at all. No need to disappointed in yourself.
Field trip to Gardens by the Bay with SPP students when I was G9. Photo with my friends from Japan and Poland.
As I talked about my English skills in high school, it was almost a ZERO understanding of it. I think my total grade at junior high school was average or below. I wasn’t a hard worker. However, high school changed me.
At high school, I started with English class, SPP level1 for beginners. It was for beginners not for me. Still hard for me. Students in my class understood English more than I did. I didn’t even understand the meaning of male and female before getting into this school. I was that bad.
In SPP class, all I need to do is study English. Learning English in English. It just made me confused, but after the first semester was over, I was kind of used to do it. Listening to English all the time in class was improved my hearing skills.
My grammar was terrible but still able to listen to English at level2. At level3, my English skills didn’t change so much but able to speak (slowly). And after I left SPP and moved to mainstream classes, I did not communicate with students in my classes well. There was a problem that only listening skills rapidly improved but other skills.
OFS has lots of Japanese students so that I started to get along with, and hang out with them. Since I’m a shy person, I didn’t speak up in all my classes. That means, most of the time I spoke in Japanese and listened to English. This is why my speaking/grammar skills were not improved than listening skills.
Regretting that I didn’t even try to communicate with people in the class.
To be honest, I think I did a good job. I began from NO ENGLISH then ended up with English which can communicate with people. That is a big improvement I guess.
It depends on people, but I improved a lot in these 3 years. At the same time, if I studied harder, I could get confident with my English. In my opinion, I do not think anyone gets able to speak or understand English/other languages perfectly in 3 years. I still have lots of struggles after 2.5 years later today. So. Do not get stressed out, it is fine.
Anyway, Thank you for coming and I hope to see you again in the next episode! | https://medium.com/@mana_hashimoto/episode6-from-scratch-b5488cac55fe | ['Mana Hashimoto'] | 2020-02-07 07:08:59.636000+00:00 | ['International', 'Reality', 'High School', 'Experience', 'Language Learning'] |
THE MAJOR STAGES OF DESIGN THINKING. | DESIGN THINKING
Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process that teams use to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. Involving five phases—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test—it is most useful to tackle problems that are ill-defined or unknown.
Using and considering the stages involved in design thinking, a case study of an online food application.
Empathize
This stage of design thinking, tries to communicate with the user or intending users through the use of either questionnaires, market survey or perhaps run an online question and answer section concerning the online food application, here the designer tries to put himself or herself into the shoes of the users in an attempt to get major or minor difficulties users experience while trying to use an online ordering platform both old or new, it could be issues relating to signing in and up for the application, the design transparency, simplicity of the application and the flexibility.
Having gotten the common problems, the designer proceed to the Define stage.
Define
This stage involves getting and collating the research results, outlining and highlighting the problems, understanding the problems is an important aspect of defining. Making guidelines on how to solve the problems, making means on how the application will ease the users needs and expectations of the application.
Ideate
During this stage the designer is ready to generate ideas having grown to understand the users and their needs and synthesised the observations to arrive at a human centered problem statement which enables him or her think outside the box. The designer can even take a step further by studying other related online food applications trying to preview how they were designed, the uniqueness, the easy access, simplicity and flexibility, before sketching and wire framing out the designs.
Prototype
After all have been put into sketch and wire framed and there is a framework to build upon, the designer can now design a scaled version of the application where specific features, functions will be found in the application. The designer will also try to get a true representation of the user interface of the application.
The solution having been implemented into the prototype are investigated and either accepted, improved, re-examined or rejected on the basis of the user experience.
Test
This is the stage to test run the application to see if it is ready for usage, its also to test responsiveness and usability.
At this point, any further problems detected is taking back to the drawing board and the design thinking process is repeated all over again.
Design thinking actually doesn’t end because there is always room for improvement and updates. | https://medium.com/@ogundejiabiola46/the-major-stages-of-design-thinking-d901e8eb8229 | [] | 2021-02-20 07:15:23.214000+00:00 | ['Ui Ux Designer', 'Design Thinking', 'Designer'] |
My Top 11 Games 2020. My personal list with My Top Games of… | My personal list with My Top Games of 2020
This year we had many cool games of multiple different styles. This list only contains the ones that I personally like the most and that make my style.
To choose the games, I picked only those I’ve finished.
Games considered and/or played that I didn’t like enough to be on the list: | https://medium.com/@nauan/my-top-10-games-2020-fbd3c7eca56e | [] | 2021-02-24 22:29:51.421000+00:00 | ['The Last Of Us', 'Games', 'Top 10', 'Game Of The Year', 'Gaming'] |
Goals | Goals are meant as a guide
A road map to show the way
With no guidance
There is no direction
Goals are like a pathway
Giving us something to achieve
With no goals
What have we to look forward to
Where is the direction
It like a roller coaster
Or a mountain
Full of peaks and valleys
Goals can change
Keep them within your sight
When you lose direction
Your goals can be lost | https://medium.com/@peteraedwards/goals-dcfd40d0206c | ['Peter Andrew Edwards'] | 2020-12-17 20:13:14.603000+00:00 | ['Poet', 'Poetry Writing', 'Poetry On Medium', 'Poetry', 'Poems On Medium'] |
Be Wary Of Freelance Writing Pimps | Be Wary Of Freelance Writing Pimps
If They’re Hocking You Like Jaffa Cakes At A Sports Stadium, Run For The Fucking Hills Michael Cohen Feb 2·5 min read
Hello. You a writer? Wait till you hear about this deal
It’s been more than half a year since I last penned an entry here.
As I posted back in May, I attempted — over the course of about two months — to automatically spam every company on Crunchbase.
At peak production, I had three domains churning out low quality template spam selling my writing services on an essentially 24 hour basis. All running entirely without my intervention.
It was by no means easy. I was bounced around between email service providers, the illicit prodigy of desperation and greed. Like a fugitive running between safe houses, I was forced to move email provider every few days as another technology company received wind of my illegitimate spamming and shut down my account.
I woke up every morning to a headache-inducing inbox full of spam complaints, bemused responses from inappropriate targets, and the odd hopeful lead. Although I can’t say that the complain yielded a satisfactory ROI, it did keep the lights running bright at Every Company In The World HQ. Which brings me to the present.
We Have A Hot New Account
Just when I thought I’d seen it all in the prodigious shitshow that passes for today’s freelance writing marketplace, I received, several days ago, an unsolicited email from a gentleman who chanced upon my writing website.
This gentleman demurred that my writing skills were a match for their new “client.” I didn’t ask too many questions. Questions, I have learned, are to be asked by those on a higher pay grade.
My gut reaction, however, was that this was another agency situation. Marketing agencies routinely reach out to freelance writers when they are trying to sell some prospect on their services, typically passing breadcrumbs onto the peasant writers while they jack up retainers large enough to pay for several months-worth of Ramen noodles and boxes of Kleenex issues (for the writers to weep into, that is).
Only Mr. Writing Pimp (of Pimp Corp) was not an Agency.
Mr. Writing Pimp in fact failed to disclose his motivation for making the connection at all other than to say that he wanted to “make a connection”. Which left yours truly scratching his bowl of Ramen wondering what this strange man’s philanthropic motivation might be (…but this writer has become wise to the ways of the world and knew that such a magnanimous gesture was most unlikely.)
I wasn’t left wondering long however. The phone soon rang again and at the other end was Pimp Corp’s “client” who worked for a company called Tech Corp. The conversation went something like this:
Client: I got your number from Pimp Corp. I understand that you’re a writer.
Me: That is correct.
Client: So you work for Pimp Corp, right?
Me: No, actually, they’re some random company that contacted me this morning.
Client: Oh. Yeah they seem like some random third party that showed up in Google. Could you send me a quote? Here’s my email.
That Wasn’t Supposed To Happen
After putting down the phone, I provided Tech Corp with a number. But no sooner had I done that than the line rang again. It was Pimp Corp on the other end.
The three days of emails and phone calls that follows is long and tiresome. So I will share with you only the details.
Pimp Corp, it turns out, indeed did not have magnanimous intentions. Instead they operating some kind of freelance writing pimping service, the variety of which I have not since encountered.
Pimp Corp’s representative acknowledged that he had royally messed up by not disclosing any details of his firm’s motivations by putting me and his marketing lead in touch. The motivation however was that billing would pass through Pimp Corp while they took a markup, without doing any of the activities one would typically associate with an agency.
I spent the next two days speaking to Pimp Corp and Tech Corp. Pimp Corp fought furiously to interject his middle man / freelance writer pimp firm into the deal, with the vigor one might expect of a businessman trying to insert himself into a multimillion dollar arms contract. However when pressed he admitted that the firm would do nothing other than bill their “client”.
Their business model consisted of “connecting” freelance writers and leads. And then forcing the freelance writers to bill through their proprietary invoicing system. As happened in this case, in a highly irregular arrangement, they allowed freelance writers and their clients to directly communicate. Effectively they would work together. Only that the freelance writers would be deprived the right of being able to bill the clients directly or claim them as their own. In other words, Pimp Corp was attempting to cream off the profits typical of an agency without actually doing any of the project management or any of the work.
I feel somewhat sorry for Pimp Corp. Their middleman disclosed that they were in perennial fear of freelancers “running away” with their “clients.” Which makes complete sense because freelancers, once they realized they were being swindled, would indeed feel tempted to stop accepting a bad deal.
The ending of this story is that Tech Corp saw through Pimp Corp’s machinations. After a flurry of phone calls and repeated efforts to “resend” the “client” the quote with their illicit (and unknown) markup — only to be rejected — Pimp Corp finally gave up the chase and accepted that a direct working relationship would have to eventuate.
Today’s lesson from the chaotic world of freelance writing:
Not everything that glistens and employs account managers is an agency.
Another breed of organization exists which profits solely be “connecting” marketing leads with other service providers, banning direct billing, but doing absolutely nothing else.
Freelance writing pimps are out there, looking for gullible freelance writers like you and I. My advice is to steer clear. | https://medium.com/@michaelcohenwrites/be-wary-of-freelance-writing-pimps-4b7d03cd2cff | ['Michael Cohen'] | 2021-02-02 03:08:42.631000+00:00 | ['Freelancing', 'Writing', 'Freelance Writing', 'Freelancing Tips', 'Scams To Avoid'] |
Rural Idiocy and the Socialist Boogeyman | I’m just going to say it. Americans are becoming increasingly stupid. We’re too busy doom scrolling fake news on Facebook and watching conspiracy theory videos on YouTube to pick up a book. All hail Mark Zuckerberg. The end of literacy will surely mean the end of American democracy as we know it. Some thinkers and writers like Margaret Atwood argue that you can’t have one without the other. I have zero fears of Communism, but ample fears of Idiocracy.
I grew up in rural Wyoming, otherwise known as Redneck Paradise. One comedian aptly described the state as “one big Walmart parking lot.” I was surrounded by masses of white proletariat, a handful of low-level bourgeois, and even fewer upper-class bourgeois. I know my people. And I know the self-interested aristocratic and parochial Republican masters who control and indoctrinate them into their love for White Jesus and their fear and hatred for the Socialist Boogeyman. Both powerful figments of their cultural imagination.
Proletariat? Bourgeois? Aristocrats? For a population absolutely terrified of communism, I can promise you that the vast majority have no idea what it is and are unable to identify the language of class that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels defined in their manifesto. Today, communism and socialism are just words; words used by Republican power players to terrify and manipulate the white working-class and religious masses of middle America. Like the imaginary monster under the bed, they are terrified this Socialist Boogieman will eat them alive. Propaganda is a powerful force to be reckoned with, especially when books are no longer in fashion.
America is not at risk of falling to communism; communism is a failed economic and political experiment. After two hundred years of trying, the only purely communist/socialist state to succeed is post-war Vietnam. And they are still evolving, no doubt influenced heavily by prevailing capitalist powers. Yes, looking at you capitalist China; communist only in name because it hates freedom. Socialist Bolivia is TBD.
Economic utopia is a fantasy. Always has been, always will be. As that great Eastern teacher Jesus once reportedly said, “The poor will always be with you.” And a forced and failed utopia, led by Marxists revolutionaries and dictators like Stalin, Castro, and the Kim dynasty, usually results in dystopia. A visit to the Eastern Block after the fall of the Soviet Union or a trip to modern Cuba, North Korea, or Venezuela should cure any bright-eyed young communist of their romantic notions of a centralized economy. If only Karl Marx had a crystal ball.
Utopia might be a fantasy, but that doesn’t mean we should forgo the fight to establish basic human decency as the foundation of our free market. Most modern liberals and progressives aren’t advocating for Marxism. They are advocating for free and competitive commerce that is also fair and ethical.
Unregulated capitalism, what Ghandi called “Commerce without Morality”, has resulted in the transatlantic slave trade, hundreds of years of slavery in the Americas, child labor, sweat shops, drug trafficking, the destruction of the environment, the mass slaughter of American bison to near extinction, sex trafficking, and the list could go on. Because capitalism without morality is just despotism.
Most black and indigenous Americans have been so blatantly oppressed by white capitalists in this country for four hundred years, that they are unashamed to acknowledge the unfairness and demand economic reform and justice. And they are often the leading voices, or at least they should be, in these conversations surrounding economic reform. We should listen to them. It has been progressive, liberal policies and voices that have abolished immoral capitalist practices, one by one, since the abolition of the slave trade. That doesn’t mean we should scrap capitalism as a whole and trade it in for pure socialism. Either/or thinking is never the answer.
Your stereotypical liberal elitist in 2020 still wants little Samantha to graduate top of her class at private school, attend a top tier university, and get a well-paying job upon graduation. No way are they giving up that privilege and wealth. Fuck communism. But as they sit in their brand-new SUV outside the ballet studio, sipping a $6 latte from Starbucks, they think to themselves, “Let them eat cake.” And by cake, they mean, “At the very least, let the poor have health care.”
But the white rural idiots respond with, “Universal health care is a communist abomination. I don’t need health insurance. We can take care of ourselves.” Meanwhile, their teeth are falling out, they’re dying of suicide and opioid overdoes by the millions, and they are starting socialist Go Fund Me pages to pay for medical bills and funeral expenses. “Give me liberty or give me death,” they cry. “But please,” they beg of friends, family, and strangers, “help me pay for my freedom.”
All the proletariat masses and religious fanatics of the Republican Party are controlled by a handful of very smart and wealthy men and women using them as pawns, with claims that the liberals will take their guns and shut down their churches. So, they bow to their god Trump and his aristocrat cronies, demanding the God-given right to be poor, sick, and stupid.
Because the poor and/or rural white man is most afraid of one thing, which drives him to stupidity and suicide. Pity. He will demand his right to be poor and illiterate before he ever takes a handout; and by handout he means equitable access to health care or education. His privileged whiteness is the only tangible thing he can hold onto with certainty. This ignorant and illiterate mass of humans, referred to as peasants in the Communist Manifesto, are suffering from what Karl Marx called “rural idiocy”, characterized by hidebound conservatism, religious fanaticism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, ignorance, distrust, conspiracy theories, economic risk aversion, and the inability to cooperate with others in collective endeavors.
Marx was convinced that such attitudes prevented peasants from acting as a revolutionary class. But what I don’t think he could have foreseen was the mass amounts of firepower in the hands of the rural idiots. Our modern peasants are heavily armed. So, it makes sense that most mass shooters are disenfranchised white dudes. If there is another “revolution”, we can be assured it won’t be an intellectual one or well organized. My rural idiot brother, who I love and respect for his many good qualities, assures me that he and his friends can easily gun down me and my friends. And I believe him. Again, I don’t fear communism. I fear Idiocracy.
At the end of the day, for our country and our economy to sustain and succeed, we all need access to basic human dignity — whether we’re rich or poor, rural or urban, white or indigenous, male or transgender. Dignity is qualified with nutritious food on the table, quality and affordable education, life-saving medical treatment without bankruptcy, worship in the church or temple of our choice, a decent job, safe housing, and the right to love and marry and procreate as we so desire.
The either/or combat between capitalism and socialism is old and tired. Truth be told, the most successful countries and economies in the modern era are a hybrid of both. And as a democracy, we get to decide for ourselves the perfect mix of capitalist enterprise and social policies that will promote healthy competition and innovation in the free market, while providing access to basic human dignity for all. This is what the founders of our constitution called, “forming a more perfect union”. But in order for us to progress, the Socialist Boogeyman must be put to rest and we must learn to read and think critically again. Let’s get to work and make something new and better, together. | https://medium.com/@amberinezjohnson/rural-idiocy-and-the-socialist-boogeyman-c696607612cf | ['Amber Johnson'] | 2021-01-08 17:09:38.702000+00:00 | ['Socialism', 'Rural America', 'Communism', 'Free Market', 'Capitalism'] |
5 Things I wish I could tell my High School self | They say “middle school’s a jungle” (quoted from one of my favourite films — Bride Wars) but I grew up in the UK, we have no ‘middle school’. High school, however, was indeed a jungle; a place of societal hierarchy and full of snakes. Perhaps that’s an exaggeration but if I could give my high school self some advice, here’s what it would be:
1. Stop following the crowd.
Being a follower is boring, lead the crowd. Don’t be afraid to have the attention on you. If you don’t have all eyes on you, you’re not doing it right.
2. Don’t be sucked into the ‘cliquiness’.
Even as a young adult, you see cliquey behaviour follow some but if you manage to stay above it from a young age you will surely save yourself the hassle when you’re older. Cliquey behaviour is peoples’ compensation for being insecure!
3. Grades aren’t everything.
Oh my god, I really thought grades were the be-all and end-all. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in working your butt off to get the best possible grades you can achieve but don’t stop living over your exams!
4. What do you REALLY want to achieve from school?
I know it seems overly deep but what is it that I really wanted to get out of high school? For a long time, I told myself I went to school to have friends but when I finished High School, I had very few real friends to show for it... I just wish I hadn’t let myself get lost in the politics of “friendships” and had focused my energy on what I wanted to achieve instead.
5. Things get better with time.
It’s safe to say I did not have an enjoyable time at school for a host of reasons. My mental health for one definitely took a toll and looking back, I really wish I could’ve given myself a hug because I sure needed one! But note to all, in all situations — things really do get better with time.
Here’s to healing with time and thank God high school is over! | https://medium.com/@nikixkx/things-i-wish-i-could-tell-my-high-school-self-10e01639d5d4 | [] | 2020-12-20 22:35:14.631000+00:00 | ['High School', 'Past', 'Letter To My Younger Self', 'Looking Back', 'Advice'] |
Impact by Design | Back in 2009, when very few people were thinking about impact investing and the term social enterprise was only starting to emerge on the academic scene, Hult Prize founder Ahmad Ashkar identified a gap in the marketplace. Whereas NGOs had become widespread, there was no efficient sustainable market-driven business enterprise looking to tackle the world’s toughest challenges. He created the Hult Prize platform as a direct response to this gap, which we ultimately have come to view as a massive opportunity.
“Most people were thinking they’d make money and then do good, we challenged students to make money by doing good”
The Hult Prize’s objective became providing the right incentives and platform for top tier business and other students to make a difference in the world, immediately, by launching for profit businesses that tackle humanity’s greatest challenges. Most people at the time (and many still today) were thinking they’d make money and then do good, we challenged students to make money by doing good — and it largely worked.
Today, nearly a decade later, millions have been inspired, over one hundred thousand have competed, and hundreds of companies have been formed, raising millions each year from impact investors around the globe. Through its annual competition, the Hult Prize has now become the largest pipeline generator in the world, receiving nearly 30,000 applicants per year from hundreds of global Universities in over 130 countries. In 2016, 14 of the entrepreneurs who were honored in the ‘Forbes top 30 Entrepreneurs changing the world’ list became entrepreneurs directly as a result of the Hult Prize accelerator.
TRY.FAIL.ITERATE
The pioneering challenge-led innovation framework originally developed by Ahmad Ashkar came two years before Michael Porter’s pivotal shared value initiative, and was re-designed and refined over the last 7 years at significant expense. Recently, Harvard Business School took notice, and decided to teach a new Hult Prize case in class fall of 2016, while researchers at the University are working on a report called the ‘Hult Prize Effect’. Through its academic partner, the Hult International Business School, the Hult Prize is also exploring the idea of designing an entire accredited degree-granting program around the same breakthrough reverse engineered challenge framework.
“Successful platforms like the Hult Prize require large benefactors over many years with ample bandwidth for trial and error”
This framework is not just restricted to startup challenges though; the model has been effectively deployed within Companies, Universities, and governments by the Hult Prize team. We advise countries, for example (Mexico, Lebanon, India, etc), seeking to leverage the reverse engineered challenge model to activate entrepreneurs, create jobs, spur innovation, solve their most pressing problems, and engage millions of their youth.
While many organizations have tried to develop similar models, they often fail because of limited resources and financial support — in general, successful platforms like the Hult Prize require large benefactors over many years with ample bandwidth for trial and error to develop the IP. We learned the key characteristics and ingredients of designing and executing successful challenges through an iterative and organic seven-year market-centered innovation process; and we’re still learning. This is a major, intentional, almost decade-long breakthrough that encompasses the ‘what’ and ‘how’ but also the community element — a loyal, passionate, and dedicated cohort of millions. We crowd source over 2.4m hours per year on any given challenge including judges, speakers, competitors, mentors, coaches, etc. The coupling of an on-demand community with an award-winning framework is a major breakthrough that is very difficult to replicate.
INNOVATION IS NOT A SIDE-PROJECT
Challenges, competitions, and awards are popping up everywhere these days. Universities (MIT, Harvard, etc.), Companies (Google, EY, etc.), NGOs (USAID, World Bank, etc.), and others are awarding anywhere between $1k-$150k to early stage startups, entrepreneurs, ‘intra’preneurs, and students who come up with good ideas/ businesses. Approaches and budgets vary widely, and all hope to generate breakthroughs, though most fail.
A majority of the organizations we speak to, inside and outside the United States, simply have no idea how to run a successful challenge that leads to measurable and real outcomes. They waste millions of dollars and countless hours designing and managing failed competitions. They set overly ambitious goals, provide insufficient support to competing teams, miscalculate prize money requirements, misallocate funds, and hire the wrong staff.
We receive regular inquiries, invitations to ‘retreats’, requests for proprietary documents, and other asks that leave us perplexed given our private sector backgrounds. We’ve worked incredibly hard over the last seven years and spent millions getting this right. To help answer the most common questions, here are a few tips on how to launch a successful challenge that generates real solutions and game-changing companies:
1. Clearly and beautifully present the problem you’re seeking to solve (in detail)
2. Match incentives with desired outcomes ($25k to change the world just doesn’t work)
3. Choose a broadcast partner wisely (for maximum exposure)
4. Don’t offer a prize without being willing to build/ incubate the solutions
5. Hire a partner who has done this before (you’ll save time and money)
6. Leverage the crowd (tap into an existing user base) | https://medium.com/hultprize/impact-by-design-e5d45622f614 | ['Karim Samra'] | 2017-03-25 10:42:39.766000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneurship', 'Startup', 'Social Enterprise', 'Innovation', 'Impact'] |
Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe De Cebu | Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe De Cebu
Cultural Historian from the Philippines, Louie Nacorda shares this beautiful story in her honor
Patroness of the Archdiocese of Cebu and of Barangay Guadalupe and Parish.
The 33inch tall image of the canonically crowned Our Lady of Guadalupe de Cebu is the fourth and latest canonically crowned (July 16, 2006) image of the Blessrd Virgin Mary under this title.
The oldest Guadalupe Marian title is in Extremadura, Spain circa 700AD; followed by the one in Gomera, Canary islands, Spain; third is the Mexican Guadalupe in Tepeyac, Mexico City, with an apparition in 1531; and the fourth and latest one is the 17–18th century image in Cebu, The Phillipines.
Our Blessed Mother Mary must like Guadalupe title so much that four different versions are canonically crowned in the world.
Guadalupe is an archaic Arabic word that translates to “Beautiful River” and true enough, wherever this Marian title is venerated, torrents upon torrents of graces and spiritual blessings run abundantly, as in a wide, crystal clear waters of a river, where Our Lady’s ardent devotees can draw sweet spiritual water to quench their spiritual thirst for Jesus, Her Son and our Elder Brother.
From Spain in the Old World, to Mexico in the New World, and to the Philippines in the Third World, Our Lady of the Beautiful River makes God’s blessings continously flow abundantly.
While the two Guadalupe titles in Spain are feted on September 8 (Extremadura) and on the Third Sunday of October (Gomera), the two other Guadalupes in Mexico and in Cebu are both feted on December 12.
The discovery of the Cebu Guadalupe image is shrouded in mystery.
Popular oral Cebuano history narrates that a native Cebuano wild chicken hunter was lured by a colorful and unusually colorful chicken into a bush covered and unknown cave by a river, in a place where Lunas (Japanese bamboo) grew abundantly, and was called Kalunasan.
Upon entering, the man did not see the chicken but found the Marian image, carved from Molave wood, in the style of the Spanish Imaculada (standing alone, hands gathered in prayer), with the two ends of a quarter moon protruding from each side of the base, where three cherubs were carved.
The image is obviously of local make, and suffers from certain anatomical imbalance (the hands are too big for the body, the torso is twisted) but the face of Our Lady is very well sculpted, portraying a compassionate and motherly looking woman.
A small chapel was built beside the cave because as soon as the news of its founding spread, people started going to the cave to pray for healing and drink from the water that slowly drips from the roof of the cave, beside where the image was found.
Because of the image’s similarity to the Mexican Guadalupe, the Cebu image was also called Virgen de Guadalupe.
La Guadalupana Cebuana’s greatest miracle was the cessation of the cholera epidemic that hit Cebu in 1902, and killed thousands of Cebuanos. But thousands of other Cebuano devotees are ready to narrate how they experienced God’s mercy through Our Lady of Guadalupe de Cebu’s powerful intercession.
In 1933, Guadalupe was made a separate parish from San Nicolas (est. 1584).
In 2006, by decree of Pope Benedict XVI, upon the representation of Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu, during the curacy of the Rt Rev Msgr Carlito Pono, the Virgen de Guadalupe de Cebu was canonically crowned on July 16th.
This year 2020, the parish celebrates its 87th annual fiesta, but long before it was made into a parish, the whole barangay and other devotees from different parts of Cebu, already celebrated her fiesta on December 12, preceeded by a nine day novena and a 3-hour foot procession around Guadalupe, the biggest barrio or barangay of Cebu City with about 80,000 residents.
¡VIVA LA VIRGEN MARIA GUADALUPANA CEBUANA! | https://medium.com/ave-maria/nuestra-se%C3%B1ora-de-guadalupe-de-cebu-338efe3a9d7b | ['Vic Alcuaz'] | 2020-12-12 11:39:08.672000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Inspiration', 'Miracles', 'Blessed Virgin Mary', 'Catholic'] |
How to Create a Hub-and-Spoke Plot with Plotly | How to Create a Hub-and-Spoke Plot with Plotly
Plot lat/long data on the map with lines connecting the locations
A while ago, I needed to plot the lines connecting the latitude (lat) and longitude (long) coordinates of some locations on the map. What I needed to draw is known as the “hub-and-spoke” plot. Knowing that Plotly already has some samples such as the one here, I was able to do it pretty easily. But real-life data won’t always lend itself perfectly to Plotly’s examples, and there may be other requirements that out-of-the-box examples don’t meet.
In this blog, I’ll show you how to build one of these graphs on your own. In particular, we’ll assume that:
The data is not always from the same region (like the US). Our geospatial data can be for North America, South America, or Europe.
The plot needs to be saved as an HTML file.
The graph should be offline*.
*This was actually something that required more effort prior to Plotly version 4, especially since their documentation emphasizes online mode, as you can see here. But version 4 is offline only. You can read more about the migration of online features here.
Some Background on Plotly Figures
There are multiple ways to represent a figure in Plotly. Two of the most common ways are using (a) dictionaries or using (b) graph objects. Though each has its pros and cons, Plotly recommends the latter for its additional benefits, which you can check out here.
To create a figure, we need two main components: the data and a layout. From the documentation:
You can build a complete figure by passing trace and layout specifications to the plotly.graph_objects.Figure constructor. These trace and layout specifications can be either dictionaries or graph objects.
The layout dictionary specifies the properties of the figure’s layout, while data is a list of trace dictionaries with configuration options for individual traces (trace is a word Plotly uses to describe plots).
Now that we know how figures are constructed, we can prepare our data and plot them on the map. Although the code below is for Plotly version 4, you can find the implementation for both versions 3 and 4 in this Jupyter Notebook.
Data Preparation
The data (as you can see in this sample .csv file) consists of information about each origin and destination location (namely, city, state, country, lat, and long). To draw the plot, we only care about:
Lat/long of origins and destinations.
Location attributes on the map, such as size, color, and shape.
And any other information about a location, or the path between the locations that we’d like to show on the map. For example, you may want to show the name of each location, or the length (in miles) of each path when a user’s mouse hovers over it (We only do the former here.)
So first, let’s load the data:
import pandas as pd
import plotly.graph_objects as go data = pd.read_csv('sample_us.csv')
Next, create the location dataframe with all needed attributes:
After that, we can add each location and its attributes to the figure:
After that, we can add each path to the figure:
Finally, let’s specify the layout of our map:
Since we want to show the map as an HTML file, we need one more line:
fig.write_html(file=f'{title}.html', auto_open=True)
That’s it! This works as intended, but only if the lat/long data is confined to the US. To make it more responsive to different kinds of underlying data (like European locations, for example), we need to make one small change.
General Data
If you look closely at the codes above, you’ll see that in the layout dictionary, we specified scope='usa' . According to Plotly’s documentation, scope accepts one of the following values:
"world" | "usa" | "europe" | "asia" | "africa" | "north america" | "south america".
In order to decide what scope to use, we should look at the range of lats and longs in our data.
We can then compare our range against the approximate range of each scope to decide which one to use (I found these by searching for them online — they should serve our purposes just fine.)
All that’s left to do is to change scope=scope in layout and we’re all done.
And voila! We’re done. Let’s test out this method on two different datasets.
This is a map of US data:
And this is one from Europe:
Note that the sample data and the more-detailed code for this blog are available on GitHub. | https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-create-a-hub-and-spoke-plot-with-plotly-d11d65a4200 | ['Ehsan Khodabandeh'] | 2020-01-08 14:42:57.860000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Programming', 'Data Visualization', 'Python'] |
Kerberoasting with Jupyter Notebook | Kerberoasting with Jupyter Notebook
By Elkayam Harel And Azrati Lee
Introduction
We have conducted several research projects in the threat hunting field and many times we have said to ourselves “we have done great research and we wrote an advanced detection notebook regarding the topic, why don't we share it with our community?!”
So after a very long time, we have decided to share some of our work with the community and this blog will be the beginning of our analytic sharing series.
In this blog, we will cover the process of creating a threat hunting notebook for the Kerberoasting technique. We recommend reviewing the great blog post “Cracking Kerberos TGS Tickets Using Kerberoast – Exploiting Kerberos to Compromise the Active Directory Domain” to gain a bit of knowledge about Kerberos terminology and Kerberoasting fundamentals.
TGS request flow (the picture taken from ADsecurity.org)
Kerberoasting (T1558.003) by MITRE :
“Adversaries may abuse a valid Kerberos ticket-granting ticket (TGT) or sniff network traffic to obtain a ticket-granting service (TGS) ticket that may be vulnerable to Brute Force.”
The Research Process of Kerberoasting
The process was as follows:
Set up a dedicated lab that simulates an enterprise network including Active Directory Domain Controller, SQL and web servers(registered as SPNs), and several windows 10 hosts. Deploying sensors, in this case, we chose: Sysmon for endpoint visibility, Windows Event Logs(Security Channel) for Kerberos ticketing visibility, and SilkETW for LDAP queries visibility. Ingesting sensors data to the HELK threat hunting platform, which enables an analysis framework using Jupyter notebooks with Spark and ELK stack. Create a Kerberoasting tool and gather up some of the very known tools (like Rubeus and Impacket and etc). Simulate the technique by the attack tools of phase 4 and observe how the attack reflects on the sensors’ data.
Attack Artifacts :
We assume that our attacker already has access to our network and has a valid domain user. Specifically for this blog, we assume the attacker does all steps on the same endpoint(even though it is not in the code— the notebook concepts are relevant also to distributed attack version or attack which spread on multiple endpoints).
We will review the attack steps, mention the relevant loggings(visibility), and view the different steps as they were reflected by our sensors :
Step 1- Reconnaissance, the attacker discovers who are the service accounts in the domain, can be observed by ETW Microsoft-Windows-LDAP-Client provider. Step 2- The attacker requests service tickets for each service account, can be observed by Windows Event Logs, Security log (event_id: 4769) Step 3- Extracting tickets from memory and storing them on the local disk, can be observed by Sysmon events (event_id: 11). This step doesn't occur in every attack implementation. Step 4- Bruteforcing the tickets and crack the TGS-REP hashes.
STEP 1
The common initial step on the Kerberoasting - is the AD enumeration. An adversary tries to collect data on service accounts via the LDAP query mechanism. In many cases the LDAP query will look like : | https://medium.com/@hx015/kerberoasting-with-jupyter-notebook-5e96c119ab9a | [] | 2020-11-19 15:57:16.894000+00:00 | ['Mitre Attack', 'Threat Hunting', 'Cyber', 'Jupyter Notebook', 'Kerberoasting'] |
Terraform & Serverless framework, a match made in heaven? (Part I) | TL;DR
The general belief is that Terraform is the de facto way of deploying infrastructure across multiple platforms. On the other hand the Serverless Framework is more specific and aims to aid deployments of Serverless applications across multiple platforms.
There are clear benefits of being generic, and there are benefits of being specific. However, I am going to attempt to convince you why I believe that deployment of Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) and infrastructure resources on AWS ought to be deployed using the Serverless framework in conjunction with Terraform and they are not mutually exclusive.
First, we need to appreciate the fact that a multitude of tools exists when thinking about deploying infrastructure resources. Each of these tools seems to offer a slightly different approach to solve the same problem. Unsurprisingly, it seems to boil down to personal preference or market demands when it comes to picking the right tool. Let me clarify; the tool is right when it fits your use case, the current skills and the audience.
There are two families of tools that have emerged over the past few years (which is an eternity in the modern IT), one being the more declarative and more straightforward to understand with the second being the full-featured, programming geared.
To fully appreciate the variety in the tooling, we must understand that the origin of the userbase has driven the genesis of both families. Declarative tools aim to support professionals from the more traditional ops backgrounds by providing them with an easy-to-learn tool that provides value as quickly as possible. Some examples of that group include CloudFormation, Terraform or ARM templates. On the other hand, there are the more developer-friendly options such as Cloud Development Kit, Pulumi or the Serverless framework that are much more featureful and easier to adopt by the target userbase.
This series focuses on the comparison of tools from both families and their suitability in traditional enterprise environments.
And our candidates are CloudFormation, Terraform and the Serverless framework. My judgment will be slightly biased towards deployments of Lambda functions from the perspective of a DevOps engineer developing event-driven software to run on AWS.
Let’s see how the competitors compare:
Comparison between Terraform, CloudFormation and the Serverless Framework
I would strongly recommend checking out some of the mentions in the above matrix: checkov, terraform-compliance, cloudformation-guard, terragrunt and also the Serverless Framework Plugins and Terraform Custom Provider Development Program, these are super useful tools to help you to expand the possibilities when deploying serverless applications and infrastructure in general.
So, here comes the question: why exactly you say that terraform and the Serverless framework are the best choices when deploying serverless applications and more specifically lambdas on AWS? CloudFormation would be the way. (pun intended) it is worth noting that the Serverless framework transpiles to CloudFormation!
And the answer is two-fold:
unopinionated — Terraform allows you to deploy to any cloud
— Terraform allows you to deploy to any cloud flexible — Serverless framework is flexible aside from app definition
The approach here is to utilise as many benefits of both tools to obtain as much value as possible.
Exercising the flexibility of the Serverless framework and standardising approaches of deploying our apps on a multitude of FaaS platforms (knative, AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, kubeless) is an excellent boost to our productivity. As an added benefit, we are becoming more agnostic by reducing the number of tools required for the devs to learn. Besides single file deployments, the plugins, and the overall heavy lifting the framework does for us make it better suited than CloudFormation.
On the other hand, similar value points are being gained by Terraform when it comes to deploying infrastructure. It is the tool where we can easily choose the provider of choice and invest in a single deployment tool of choice. Also, the security, testing and the compliance being the more critical aspects within the enterprise environments make Terraform the perfect candidate.
Let’s take an example.
We have two AWS Lambda functions, and each one uses an SQS queue as its event source and forwards the events. We have three distinct choices of deploying the whole stack, including the lambda functions:
Deploy supporting resources and the functions using Terraform
Deploy supporting resources and the functions using Serverless Framework
Deploy selected supporting resources using Terraform and functions using the Serverless Framework
The issues arise, when we want to move to a different FaaS provider (kubeless, knative), the transition with the Serverless framework only option may not be possible due to inconsistent provider support, especially for the supporting infrastructure resources.
The Terraform-only option seems to be a better choice, especially when considering the variety of providers available.
I would recommend that you go with a third option: | https://medium.com/contino-engineering/terraform-serverless-framework-a-match-made-in-heaven-part-i-69af51155e00 | ['Adam Jasinski'] | 2020-12-02 09:16:35.728000+00:00 | ['Serverless', 'Nodejs', 'AWS', 'Serverless Architecture', 'Terraform'] |
ETHOS ($ETHOS, $BQX) Update with the TCL Fundy Team | ETHOS ($ETHOS, $BQX) Update with the TCL Fundy Team
$2.45/BQX or ETHOS listed #75 on coinmarketcap
ATH Jan. 2018 @ $10.86.
Market Cap $188,371,008 USD
ETHOS, originally known as Bitquence (hence the BQX ticker on Binance but the ETHOS elsewhere), proposes an easy-to-use universal wallet and fiat Ethos offers a range of cryptocurrency-related services that are powered by the community. The Universal Wallet includes innovative social and sharing features that allows users to interact with each other, sharing insights that can lead to smart investments.
Where’s the wallet?!
The Universal Wallet was planned to be completed in Q1 2018 but has been pushed back to June 2018. The Beta testing is underway and there were 200+ selected to complete this “final” stage of testing.
Team:
Founder and CEO Shingo Lavine is young but has done a great job in surrounding himself with an experienced and driven team although there are no big names that stood out.
In the ETHOS News:
A partnership with Fusion Financial Advisors, LLC (“Fusion”). Fusion is the first federally registered investment advisor regulated in the United States, offering diversified portfolios consisting of cryptocurrencies. This has given the ETHOS universal wallet additional functionality and weight.
ETHOS has brought the whole package but is leaving the power and security in YOUR hands. The fiat/crypto you trade and invest with, as well as your private keys and information, are all held securely in your own possession. This is something that neither Coinbase or Robinhood have yet to offer. With numerous other features including social networking and access to exchange traded funds (ETFs), cryptocurrencies and other limited investment products through the Fusion partnership, ETHOS is poised to make a huge splash with their delayed but impressive Universal Wallet.
Join us at tradecryptolive.net and on Facebook (tell us you saw us on Medium.com!) | https://medium.com/trade-crypto-live/ethos-ethos-bqx-update-with-the-tcl-fundy-team-da24a09c1d8e | ['Ti Naugs'] | 2018-06-20 18:45:34.503000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Fusion', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Digital Wallet', 'Bitcoin'] |
Across Patagonia | The cover of Lady Flo’s book: Thankfully, I kept crossing rivers on horseback to a minimum.
I spent the month of January in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ostensibly to complete a short-term exchange and get some study credit during the holidays, but mostly just to go on an extended holiday to an exotic new continent. I think little nail-pulling is needed to reveal something similar as the honest collective motive of most Uni students who undertake various study trips or exchanges.
I stocked up on 36mm film — rationalising that I’d be more likely to treasure a few rolls of 24 exposures than the infinite contents of my iPhone camera roll — and ramped up the Spanish on DuoLingo. My travel reading of choice was Lady Florence Dixie’s 1880 memoir, Across Patagonia. Somewhat obscure, I’d ordered it online a few weeks in advance of my departure date.
I’m glad I chose such an old book. I’m also glad it didn’t have a plot, because I wasn’t anxious about ‘feeling something’ super strong by the end of it. The pressure of falling in love with a bestseller (the way in which everybody else has done so, thus making it a bestseller) can be suffocating. Instead, this memoir was more like a personalised time capsule of research rather than narrative. Since I didn’t get to go to Patagonia (OS-HELP will take you far, but not that far), I liked reading about it.
For context, Dixie wrote Across Patagonia ‘for’ the future King Edward VII. Not many people had been to South America yet, which meant her recounts were decently useful information. That also meant she included some pretty painful (i.e. racist) descriptions of the indigenous people. But what I couldn’t help noticing was that it meant she showed off a lot when describing various events along the road. If something is beautiful, its stunning. If the horses wander from the camp, they stray miles away. If they shoot a guanaco for dinner, its only after a long and dramatic chase.
Even if her stories are true and I’m not just pathetically cynical, even if she’s not over-exaggerating the prairie fire or whatever it may be, she still gets to pick and choose the stories she includes. And that’s where I found the most similarity between my own trip and Dixie’s, more so than being in the same country or eating the same food.
Those finite film photos I painstakingly develop, only to upload them straight to Instagram, represent a calculated, glorified, and filtered version of my trip. The steak is only ever ridiculously delicious (never mind the below-average one from the first night), and the streets are only ever perfectly quaint (never mind parts of the city that just… well, look like Brisbane). When something is bad, it’s disastrous (thank you to the night-long blackout and freaky classmates for that content).
Both Dixie and I are taking the opportunity to filter our travels before we share it with people whose opinions we care about. And perhaps that blunts the significance of what we do share. I’m not trying to depress, or polarise, or cry woe-is-us, the social media generation. If anything it shows that after all these years we still do the same old shit when telling stories. Nobody’s lives are consistently interesting, but we continue to chase the moments when they are. And that’s not just tolerable, it’s good.
It allows us to grasp for relation with this woman who decided to head off to the new world two-months post-partum, returning with a jaguar and some corrections for Charles Darwin regarding observations from his own trip to the region. My own exploits in South America may have not have been quite as dramatic, but it didn’t stop me from trying to get a good story and photo out of it. | https://medium.com/statecraft/across-patagonia-1880725a57d2 | ['Greer Clarke'] | 2019-10-17 23:54:27.344000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Patagonia', 'Argentina', 'Instagram'] |
Learning How to Learn How to Program: “I’ve Coded and I Can’t Get Up!” | “Yo. I’m like ya’ll. I’m here to program, but I’m confused. I googled “how to program”, and I saw some free stuff and some paid stuff. I just want to make the money they do, or I want to make the cool stuff they do, or I want to hack the cool stuff they make. “
That’s pretty much it, isn’t it?
The worst thing about programming is starting. This shit is lawless.
After all, there’s a mystery to programmers. What do they do? Are they good? Are they bad? Aren’t they [insert wrong thing here]?
I’ve been programming for a while now, but let’s round it to about a year. That means — if you’re just starting to learn how to program — I’m where you’ll be in around 6 months.
Nevertheless, I wanted to impart some information I've learned throughout my year.
Now, let’s get something clear. This isn’t a guide on how to program. There is no one guide on how to program, and you’ll understand why a little later. For example, I’m working through guides on how to program. Difference is, they’re official guides on Jest or Vue. If you’re just starting out, that sounds weird. If you’ve been programming for a few months now, you probably already know your way around Vue attributes better than I do.
This is a guide on how to use what you’re using to program. Let me explain.
s01: The Wall
Starting programming is like being face to face with a wall.
I want you to stand face to face with a wall. Find a wall in your room, and stand face to face to face with the wall.
It’s weird and unnecessary. Humanity stood for a reason; we need to view our surroundings. We need to be aware. We can’t possibly expose our back to the elements, while facing an immediate barrier that obscures total view of the horizon.
People don’t just stand face to face with walls. It’s uncomfortable, aside from being awkward, aside from serving no immediate purpose.
Welcome to Programming.
Programming is very complex. It would take an hour to explain a basic project to an average person. For detractors: attempt to explain the complete Google search website to a non-techie person. Explain — underneath the simple veneer of a minimal UI — the algorithms required to find sites, the responsive aspects of the search timer, the hidden source files, the JS files with no spaces, the dependencies, the ad dynamics, the platform dynamics, the UI/UX dynamics, etc. In that respect, it is complicated.
It’s also layered. To create a react app, you have to know what React is, what an app is, what comprises both, and why one would, on top of how to go about it. With each tidbit come other tidbits, and so on and so on. In that respect, it is complicated.
It is also confusing. Most of the stuff we read is so obscure … of course you feel uninspired. On most basic levels of human interaction, there’s no need to know what an ng-For. In that respect, it is complicated.
It’s also pretty doable, tbh. The breaking point — the point at which fundamental logic starts clicking in your head — depends solely on how much, how hard, and how often you’re willing to punch the all-encompassing wall that is beginner programming.
Regardless of what you consider success in programming, as everyone starts with some motive in mind, it’s doable. It’s doable with pretty much any computer, any internet connection, and any screen setup. You can’t deny, programming is cheap, fast, well documented, and well taught. In short, there’s no doubt it’s doable. Difficult, sure. Nearly impossible, okay.
Doable? Definitely.
Action Item
Start coding. Whatever that means, however that means.
Start coding. Code for a day, whatever that means to you. Code for an hour, a week, or a month. It doesn’t matter for now, you’ll get locked in soon enough. I mean it: I didn’t have anything guiding me, and for now, you have nothing guiding you.
If you don’t know how to start, use your senses. Yes, really. You probably know what coding looks like, right? It’s text. Know what you need to write text? A … text editor. There, you’ve started coding!
If you’re not willing to do this, if you’re not willing to pretend you’re a child and look around the incredible world of programming, then you have control issues stemming from your ego.
Really? You aren’t willing to wander aimlessly and ignorant? Well then, you aren’t willing. Learn about documentation, or mess around with the developer tools. Tinker aimlessly, for a given amount of time.
Why?
I’m one of those that explain why.
You have to fill your brain with data about programming. Terms, images, names, concepts, graphs, signs, etc. When you do that enough, your brain will start organizing the data automatically. You have to fill it with everything visual and verbal you can before the organizing function starts kicking in, though.
Why? At this point, programming is a gigantic, solid clump. Or, a wall. You don’t understand this: programming is commensurate parts, a box of individual tools, that work together to create a finished, processed, and often packaged, product. You have to begin small, by understanding difference. The difference between HTML and CSS. The difference between a tag and an attribute. The difference between <h3> and <p> tags.
Your differences will grow more and more nuanced over time, and lead to the overall cohesion of your ability. You’ll magically note you’ve been writing ES5 code in an ES6 world. You’ll note the differences between the quality of official documentation, and how they relate to the overall success of a language or framework.
I had the luxury of being a graphic designer before I became a programmer, so I didn’t have to hurdle of learning how to turn a computer on. I knew how to use complex software, was familiar with IT basics, and so on. If you don’t, but you’re on Medium somehow, you’re probably fine.
If you know absolutely nothing about computers, do the following exactly:
Go to the Youtube or Google homepage. Type in [keyword] fundamentals or [keyword] course. In this case, it’s “IT fundamentals”. Click on anything from Google or another reputable company. If none are available, just pick the most viewed one. I did the work for you … still follow along. Join it in tandem with a few relevant MIT courses or reputable Udemy courses. Watch it at twice the speed, twice.
Literally this for hours is how programming is learned.
Do this for everything you don’t know at this stage. If you’re just starting out, don’t worry about text-based information (official documentation, books, etc.).
Everything you learn about programming will make more efficient use of the S01 (Step One) phase. Once you learn about data sorting, you’ll understand the type of data sort that meshes best with your brain. Once you learn about folder structure, you’ll start using tree graphs for everything. Again, it’s difficult to pinpoint a purpose for this first phase. Yet, it’s crucial to fill your brain with information before it, automatically, orders and preserves that information for later.
s02: The Sand
Remember the wall? It’s sand now.
How did that happen? A second ago, this was a wall. Now it’s sand and it’s falling.
Hear me out.
Freedom is presumed by burden. The burden of Eden’s rules led to Adam’s original sin, and the freedom of an imperfect world. In the Matrix, the child capable of bending the spoon did so only when realizing there was no spoon in the first place. Why is that scene cool? The spoon is metal, yet it acts like a liquid in the young padawan’s hand. Naruto doesn’t understand how to implement the Rasengan until Jiraya teaches him the boring, composite parts of the jutsu.
… I’m not insane. They’re all opposites. Boolean values, existing only in binary terms. Spoon, no spoon. Metal, liquid. Hard, soft. Concrete, abstract. Wall, sand. In short: no, then yes. 0, then 1.
In order to break your inability to program, you have to realize there’s no such thing as programming. Programming is a set of computer science (CS) fundamentals that, executed well, perform specific tasks. It just so happens, of course, that performing those functions can also pay rather lucratively.
After S01, you’ll start to feel a bit less anxious and a bit more nervous. Sure, you’ve printed out “Hello World”. Has the world said it back? You could’ve just said it out loud, would’ve been easier. Wouldn’t have forced you to install all of these weird programs for … something called syntax highlighting?
You might have even bought a book. Great.
How dare you. As a new programmer, you have to realize one crucial thing. Programming is not some A Beautiful Mind bullshit. It’s sitting down at a desk and writing things that only make sense to the computer right now, because they don’t make sense to you yet.
Now, realize that all you’ve done in S01 — no matter how long you did it for — is useless. Absolutely useless. You’re not going to use any of it in a professional capacity. That’s not what S01 is for. S01 is to prep you, a sort of trial by fire. You familiarize yourself with the chaos you’re about to control. Consider it stretching. Sure, it hurts. Sure, it’s hard.
Athletes don’t get paid to stretch.
Programming isn’t something you do. Programming is something you plan, and then type. You’re almost never doing both at the same time as a beginner, and if you are, you’ve done each individually before. It’s one of those “spend most of the time sharpening the ax” things.
Now, in S02, you have to anchor your data.
If data is metal bits, S02 is your magnet. You need to use an actual piece of educational material to propel you forward. Educational material has two benefits: it is structured — often structures your thinking as a byproduct — and it often covers concepts using differing levels of sophistication. Differing levels of sophistication help with the climb of education: the best way to learn anything is starting from the fundamentals and filling in the nuance of your field niche over time. Hackers use the same things Web UI Devs use the same things AI Devs use.
This intellectual process then works to cement your overall understanding about any particular programming tool or concept. You learn programming the same way websites load; from the ground, up.
Alright. This is called the Saint-Venant’s Principle. It stipulates that “local effects of loads on structures have negligible global effects”. That means, for example, that a bolt can only stress metal so far before another bolt must be added to support weight. A side-effect of that is: you can space bolts out so that the area they stress overlaps and creates a weld-like connection. Intellect works in this way. The more data you gather on a particular subject, the more a logical framework for that structure cements in your brain. It’s also the reason brilliant, humanitarian, philanthropic people still voted Trump.
The more you practice with different CSS frameworks (Bootstrap, Bulma, Semantic UI), the stronger your overall understanding of CSS will be. The more HTML5 websites you make, the greater your overall understanding of HTML. Like Java and C++? You’ll be an expert in OOP faster than you’d like to be. It’s not my job to teach you the pillars. Even if I did, you wouldn’t understand the why of them. Why, exactly, you shouldn’t code Chrome extensions in Python. Why, exactly, you shouldn’t place all your JS in script tags.
Action Item
Pick a course, book, tutorial, and so on, and complete it. Complete all of it. If you weren’t a completionist before, by God become one now. All of it. Pretend it’s a plate of vegetables and you’re a child. All of every chapter, every video, and every page. Every practice. Every link, one by one.
Why? You must not have been listening before. Any HTML you do benefits all HTML you do. You will rely for months on tangential information while your fingers do the rest. Finish all of it.
In order to get past the work, I recommend a technique I use called driving.
By far the only thing you should read on this post:
Driving is the act of continually writing a bit of code crucial to an end result in succession. A lot of programming is setting up and checking syntax pipes that connect data to display. We’re trying to make something go somewhere, in order to do something. In that sense, we’re no different than plumbers.
Shitty code, you get the pun.
For example:
const message = [“You”, “are”, “ugly.”] message.forEach(function (word) { console.log(word); })
Feel free to type this in your Console (you should know what that is by now). It’ll call you ugly.
More importantly, you’d be surprised what happens when you type this over and over again. For now, just read it over and over.
const message = [“You”, “are”, “ugly.”] message.forEach(function (word) { console.log(word); }) const message = [“You”, “are”, “ugly.”] message.forEach(function (word) { console.log(word); }) const message = [“You”, “are”, “ugly.”] message.forEach(function (word) { console.log(word); }) const message = [“You”, “are”, “ugly.”] message.forEach(function (word) { console.log(word); }) const message = [“You”, “are”, “ugly.”] message.forEach(function (word) { console.log(word); })
Kinda turns into a mantra, right? You start noticing spacing is important, keywords are important, no word is wasted, and so on. You start noticing little typing ticks you didn’t before, the relationship between method and array, perhaps you develop a newfound appreciation for ES6 — I don’t know or care. Just drive.
If there’s a hard bit of code you can’t wrap your head around, go for a drive. Piece of code you see over and over? Drive. Feeling lazy or tired? Drive. Can’t drive? Then, you can’t code. Back to S01, and we live to fight another day.
Join this in tandem with a Pomodoro technique timer ( 25 minutes working, 5 minutes rest ) and you’re done. Consider them sets and do the whole exercise. Don’t drive for the whole 25 minutes, mind you. You drive when you want to, it’s your car. Use the Pomodoro technique for the whole of the lesson you’re working on, book you’re reading, video you’re watching or coding along with, and so on. Don’t know where to start? The Odin Project, period. Enjoy your new career.
P.S. Seriously, the Odin Project link is the only link worth clicking in this and any other article about learning how to program. Trust me, I’ve read them all.
Why?
It’s not enough to know the code. You’re not going to get paid to know the code. Yes, it’s a necessity, but that’s not what you’re paid for.
Oh, you’ll know the code or you won’t be in the building. You won’t be on the in-house computer. Get to know the code before you even think you’re going to get paid.
You get paid to code. You get satisfaction from coding. You might as well get used to it.
Now, I know the more practiced folk will preach it’s more nuanced than this. You aren’t paid to code all the time, just to commit time to your projects and to work hard.
That’s a given.
What I’m saying is: if you’re new, don’t worry about the nuance. You’re miles away from the nuance. You haven’t even gotten to S03. S03 is when you can begin starting to think you can even get paid to code. You’re one away, and then some.
What I’m actually saying is, drive a language around before you buy it.
s03: The Sandcastle
Alright, now you have a bunch of sand. Great. You’re staring at the sand.
No, you’re supposed to make something with the sand. You make a sandcastle with the sand, and the more of them you make, the better builder you become.
That’s pretty much it. I’ve heard from Linus (Torvalds) enough to know I’m not half as good at anything as he is at programming. The why is painfully obvious: he has so much more of a command of the craft.
I imagine he has programming disfluency sometimes. Speech disfluency is when you go “Umm…” in a conversation. It’s a sort of linguistic stalling technique, and gestures though before speech. I imagine he does that while he’s coding, can yawn in code, can sneeze in code. What I’m saying is, it’s clear he codes a lot. That’s the point.
That said, there’s a way to go about creating a project.
The best projects you can build are the ones you think up and design. Despite what some may believe, everyone has an idea for an app. You don’t need an idea for a fucking project. Everyone. Everyone can think of a beginner project. That’s why there are so many!
However, people are very skittish about their projects. They think, unless it connects to the internet it’s not worth it. Unless it’s a social media clone, it’s not worth it.
Well, it’s not. It’s not worth it to commit S03. That is, until it is. That’s the point. That’s why you’re not suddenly struck by the lightning of success the second you spit out a “Hello World” or “You are ugly.”
No piece of code will suddenly solve all of your problems. Pieces of code can only solve individual problems. You’re the solution.
The fact that coding is for everyone means exactly the same in programming as it does in Christianity or in stardom. Few are chosen. When everyone can do it — when it’s so open source, but so susceptible to wild success if one were only to work tirelessly — there’s going to be competition.
In short: there’s no one way to be successful, but regardless of what it looks like, it’s difficult.
One meter of success that outpaces all others, however, are your sandcastles.
You can always tell a professional programmer by their work. They’re artisans of a strangely attractive but pedantic craft. Programming is overly complex, but more akin to design than mathematics. It can be both wildly lucrative, and incredibly deprived.
Yet, most of the time, you just like the page. You appreciate the little digital creation. You enjoy the seamless functionality, speed, elegance, and cohesion of the final demo, because you understand the number of plates they had to spin. You like that the code is succinct, or clear, or complex, or clever, and so on.
The best websites aren’t necessarily artistic. They’re not grand, dramatic gestures. They’re not philanthropic feats. They’re a means to an end. Programming is not a way to make art. It can make art, sure. I’m as much a fan of Processing as the next nerd.
That said, programming is principally used in the workplace to funnel data. I feel that is the end new programmers should aim for. After all, the greatest artists often started out in very strict and disciplined settings before settling into their groove. Richard Pryor started off a clean comedian. Albert Einstein started off in electrical patents. Mike Tyson started off a classically trained boxer. MLK Jr. was a minister.
You are Jackie Chan in The Drunken Master. You are Jackie Chan in The Legend of the Drunken Master.
It’s necessary to start boring, start back end, start legacy, start long form, etc.
Always try to use the best programming practices — as they’re often best for a good reason — but practice everything. Drive over and over while you create you project, too. Do victory laps after you get something working.
What you make will depend on what you like. For example, I have two project ideas outlined: one is from Reddit’s trash tag event, where you can GPS request someone clean up a mess and get paid for it, start accounts and get both virtual and real money for neighborhood clean up of various resources with simple picture uploads over data, and a drawing app with media integration so teachers can use it to hold classes online.
I like education, and I enjoy Reddit’s cleanliness. That’s it. The rest, from the GPS requests to canvas manipulation, are a result of previous practice. Someone more practiced than I would probably know the exact component layout, design schemes, and libraries they would use without ever moving a finger.
Play retro games? Make a retro game. Like pictures? Make a filter. Like social media? Design a layout. If it works, it’s good. Is the project too small? Even better! Take a bunch of small projects and merge them together. You’ve been working with components and you didn’t even know it!
No matter where these ideas end up, they’re the product of plenty of useless ideas. Some were coded and trashed. Some were trashed. Some were burned. Most weren’t done because they didn’t stick.
That’s the great thing with something like programming. Since it’s so inherently flexible, it’s becoming more powerful and accessible over recent years.
Plenty of people complain about how quickly the programming world fluctuates before they’ve pushed a fucking git repo. These are the same people that complain about how deep the ocean is before dipping their toes in it.
Think of how insulting that is. A programmer who invests time and effort daily towards understanding and implementing coding projects should quit because “tHiNgs chAnGe FaSt”. An AI expert and a web UI dev sans SCSS expertise have the same chance at making it because programming changes. The logic breaks easily.
The belief in fluctuating language markets lies in the idea that things ever stop changing in the first place. Change is the truth, stability is the illusion. You have to practice programming fundamentals regardless of its future, and that’ll make you a good programmer regardless of what you code.
No one gets worse at coding by coding, and you can do it sitting. You don’t like sitting?
Action Item
A project is a full thing, like a complete song or a full painting. It can be any type of full thing. It can be a full function, a full extension, a full application, or a full site. In fact, it can be all of those consecutively if you know what you’re doing.
You have to finish it. Once you have a working version of it, upload it to Github. Or, start it and work on it on Github. Never have something half finished on Github. It defeats the purpose of version control, robs you of an easy demo site, and is just overall disrespectful towards Git technology (Thanks, Linus). Always have finished products up. Regardless of whether you have a live version or not, finish everything on Github.
Well. Finish it well. Design it well. Center everything, and if you can’t center things … well, it’s the easiest part of the whole thing so figure it out. Sheesh, if the only problem I had was centering things. I wish I only had to worried about centering one … <p> TAG?! MY KINGDOM FOR A <p> TAG THAT’S SLIGHTLY OFF CENTER. Things are getting to the point where my rest periods are spent chain driving to outpace the cruel clock, ticking away at my sanity.
Code a project, which is a full thing. If you’ve seen a website, you can replicate it. If you’ve used a function, you can re-purpose it. If you can do it on paper, you can program it.
Again, the best projects to look toward for inspiration are the ones you use. Like Instagram? Do Instagram. Can’t do Instagram? Do it in parts. Then, learn JS frameworks. Then, do it in components.
If you think you can’t do something, you haven’t broken it down enough. You can do it, you just can’t lift it. Rock too heavy? Take the hammer out.
Do images in boxes. Then, make it dynamic. Do icons and layout, then make it dynamic. Do accounts, then make them dynamic. Authorization, make it dynamic. Account page, dynamic. Dynamic store. Dynamic to-do. Dynamic site. Dynamic dashboard.
Get the closest to done as fast as possible. Sandcastles aren’t castles. Castles are enterprise. Nothing you code is worth preserving yet. Rule 01 of programming, if there are any rules, is:
DO NOT WORSHIP YOUR CODE.
Store it wherever you can, whatever way you can. Preserve it whatever way you have to. Keep it safeguarded and away from evil, but you cannot worship it. You should be able to replicate it anyway, or know how to. Forgot a part? Fine, look it up, but don’t forget that part altogether. There’s a difference.
If your end goal is to build a website, you should learn about routes (RESTful or otherwise). If you don’t know routes, you have to before building a website. Build a few routes, then practice them — since you’re going to be building routes anyway —to then, finally, create a project.
Why?
“A pimp is only as good as his [or her] product…” — The Mack
Programming, on top of being difficult, is esoteric. That means it’s obscure. That means it’s rare.
In the world, that is. Programming in the programming community is popping. Programming in the financial community is popping. Programming in the entertainment community is popping. In the world? Not so much.
That’s precisely why it’s easy for programmers to lie to themselves. The simple act of programming makes them think they’re programmers, because no one else does it. They work on a bit here. They steal a bit there. They put it in a file. No beginning. No end. In short, no full thing. Many fractured things. No discipline, many fractured whims.
There seem to be two initial levels to programming: either you’re a beginner, or a master. Either you don’t know anything, or you can intuitively code anything. If you’re not in the cold purgatory of tutorial hell, your fingers magically glide around the board like a prodigy pianist.
Then it comes time to apply for jobs, and you realize you amount to little more than a few fractured projects that you may or may not be able to demo. It’s not about what you think good or bad programming is any longer; it’s about having to code, period. All you have is paste bins gathering dust, and you’ve retained nothing. Back to S01.
In reality, you only need one or two truly impressive projects to make yourself a viable candidate. Then, you weigh your resume on work software rather than personal projects.
Focus on those, and do them in chunks. That’s not difficult to do in the slightest, and a casual peppering of mid-level projects for zest every so often isn’t difficult to do either. The difficult part is planning it, and then being willing to type it.
In Closing
You can do S01, S02, S03, S02, S01. You can do S01. S02, S03, S02, S03, S02, S01. You can do S01, S02, S01, S02, S03, S02, S01. You can do S01, S02, S03, S01, S02, S03. 123, 123, 123. It’s counting. It’s rhythm.
You cannot do S01, S03, S02.
The point of following this pattern is to put yourself in a self-imposed yoke. A yoke is what oxen wear on their shoulders to plow fields. Programmers affectionately refer to the term a number of corny ways, like being plugged in, zoned in, in the zone, etc.
You have to learn how to be in a yoke before being put in one. It limits mobility, feels heavy, stiffens the neck and causes welts on the livestock’s back. Then, over time, it becomes a tool like any other. Eventually, it’s necessary.
It’s called conditioning. Why condition yourself? You’re a work horse. Don’t want to be a work horse? Don’t learn programming. Prance on a prairie. Go away.
Uninstall your text editor, you’re not using it anyway.
You can’t learn programming without developing an ethic for it. It’s obvious at first glance; in order to learn something, you have to do it. Yet, how many things do people learn well in a lifetime? How often do we take up this advice? Once, to earn a living? Maybe twice?
We don’t reflect on how we learn, simply because we don’t bother learning much. Then, we undercut our abilities before we achieve them. “I’m not good at math, so I can’t be a good programmer” becomes “I’m not good at JavaScript, so I can’t be a good programmer” becomes “I’m not good at Angular JS, so I can’t be a good programmer”. We’re always focused on impossible goals, regardless of all the ones we’ve already surpassed.
That’s why I prefer the sand castle analogy. Analogies are cheap, logistic tools you can replicate at will. Understanding MVC pattern would be leagues more difficult without the bartender analogy. HTML isn’t just markup, it’s also a spine. Don’t like sand castles? Use bowls. Don’t like bowls? Use paintings. I don’t care. You get the point. Type the code.
Don’t skip parts, or you’ll be misshapen. S01 is arms. S02 is core. S03 is legs. Focus too much on the one, and you’ll ignore the others. Hence, tutorial hell. Hence, imposter syndrome.
Problems are a result of imbalance. 1 + 1 = 3? 2 = 3? No.
Following this pattern will also help work against frustration. Again, programming is difficult. Whenever you feel anxious or upset, it’s because you’re unbalanced and have no other outlet to express that frustration. This repetitive ethic will restore your want to program in the first place which, trust, will be very important.
That’s pretty much it, unless it isn’t. In which case, welcome back to the beginning.
Fin
As is custom on Medium, apparently, I’d like to close this selfless article with an entirely selfish self-plug. It’s a personally hand-picked & curated Spotify playlist containing over 1,000 of the best Hip-hop, Rap, and R&B songs ever created in the history of humankind. That’s over 63 hours of music, to guide you through your journey.
Consider it your Virgil in this hellfire we call learning how to program. After all, it’s dangerous to go alone! Take this. | https://medium.com/weekly-webtips/learning-how-to-learn-how-to-program-d3f8b9d37222 | ['Christian Alexander'] | 2020-10-23 16:33:59.830000+00:00 | ['JavaScript', 'CSS', 'Programming', 'HTML', 'Coding'] |
Global Sliding Bearing Market to be Driven by the Expected Growth in the Railway Infrastructural Projects in the Forecast Period of 2021–2026 | Global Sliding Bearing Market to be Driven by the Expected Growth in the Railway Infrastructural Projects in the Forecast Period of 2021–2026 Sofia Williams Dec 23, 2021·4 min read
The new report by Expert Market Research titled, ‘Global Sliding Bearing Market Report and Forecast 2021–2026’, gives an in-depth analysis of the global sliding bearing market, assessing the market based on its segments like type, material, application, railway type, and major regions. The report tracks the latest trends in the industry and studies their impact on the overall market. It also assesses the market dynamics, covering the key demand and price indicators, along with analysing the market based on the SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces models.
Request a free sample copy in PDF or view the report summary@ https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/sliding-bearing-market/requestsample
The key highlights of the report include:
Market Overview (2016–2026)
Historical Market Size (2020): USD 928 Million
Forecast CAGR (2021–2026): 5.75%
Forecast Market Size (2026): USD 1381 Million
In the coming years, the projected growth in railway infrastructure projects is expected to be the primary demand driver for sliding bearings. Rapidly increasing urbanisation is driving up demand for light trains and metros, which will help the sliding bearing market expand over the forecast period. Sliding bearings are expected to continue to increase in popularity due to their cost-effectiveness, high performance, and reliability. The market’s expansion, however, may be hampered by raw material price fluctuations and the limited use of sliding bearings in the railway industry over the forecast period, the market is likely to benefit from rising demand for hybrid and autonomous train technologies, and also growing use of non-metallic sliding bearings.
Industry Definition and Major Segments
A plain bearing, also known as a sliding bearing or slide bearing (also known as a solid bearing, journal bearing, or friction bearing in railroading), is the most basic type of bearing, consisting of only a bearing surface and no rolling parts.
Explore the full report with the table of contents@ https://www.expertmarketresearch.com/reports/sliding-bearing-market
By type, the market can be divided into:
Linear
Thrust
Radial
Angular Contact
Others
Based on material, the industry can be bifurcated into:
Metallic
Non-Metallic
The market can be categorised based on application into:
Engine
Brakes
Bogie
Interior
Exterior
On the basis of railway type, the industry can be segmented into:
Locomotive
Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU)
Electric Multiple Unit (EMU)
Coach
Wagon
Light Rail and Metro
High-Speed Train
Regionally, the market is classified into:
North America
Latin America
Europe
Middle East and Africa
Asia Pacific
Market Trends
The need for custom-designed cars has grown as the potential for freight movement between the countries has grown. To withstand such enormous weights, the bogies must be modified. These changes will necessitate a greater number of sliding bearings, resulting in an increase in demand for sliding bearings for bogie applications. Regional governments’ efforts to expand their railway networks have boosted demand for locomotives, carriages, and coaches. Moreover, measures at the national level to improve public transit and minimise traffic congestion will raise demand for this sector. As a result of all of these forthcoming needs in railways, sliding bearings will be installed in a variety of applications. Over the forecast period, high efficiency, dependability, and cost-effectiveness, and an increase in railway infrastructure investments and supply contracts, are likely to drive demand for sliding bearings.
Key Market Players
The major players in the market are SKF, NTN Corporation, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Pampus GmbH, The Timken Company, and Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, among others. The report covers the market shares, capacities, plant turnarounds, expansions, investments and mergers and acquisitions, among other latest developments of these market players.
About Us:
Expert Market Research is a leading business intelligence firm, providing custom and syndicated market reports along with consultancy services for our clients. We serve a wide client base ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to small and medium enterprises. Our reports cover over 100 industries across established and emerging markets researched by our skilled analysts who track the latest economic, demographic, trade and market data globally.
At Expert Market Research, we tailor our approach according to our clients’ needs and preferences, providing them with valuable, actionable and up-to-date insights into the market, thus, helping them realize their optimum growth potential. We offer market intelligence across a range of industry verticals which include Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, Technology, Retail, Chemical and Materials, Energy and Mining, Packaging and Agriculture.
Media Contact
Company Name: EMR Inc.
Contact Person: Sofia Williams, Corporate Sales Specialist — U.S.A.
Email: [email protected]
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Website: https://www.expertmarketresearch.com
*We at Expert Market Research always thrive to give you the latest information. The numbers in the article are only indicative and may be different from the actual report. | https://medium.com/@imsofiawilliams/global-sliding-bearing-market-to-be-driven-by-the-expected-growth-in-the-railway-infrastructural-29062eaa955e | ['Sofia Williams'] | 2021-12-23 10:36:43.967000+00:00 | ['Market Analysis', 'Market Research Reports', 'Market', 'Sliding Bearing Market', 'Market Analysis Reports'] |
Animations of Logistic Regression with Python | This article is about creating animated plots of simple and multiple logistic regression with batch gradient descent in Python. In the end, I will also present a visual explanation of why the cross-entropy cost function is the method of choice to quantify costs in logistic regression. In terms of structure and content, this article relates to — and partially builds on — previous articles I wrote about creating animations of batch gradient descent with the example of simple linear and multiple linear regression. The general idea is to set up a logistic regression model and train the model on some arbitrary training data while storing parameter values and costs for each epoch. After confirming our results through sklearn’s built-in logistic regression model, we will use the stored parameter values to generate animated plots with Python’s celluloid module. The animations we use to visualize logistic regression will be similar to the ones we created for previous articles on linear regression.
Setting up the model:
Logistic regression is a classification algorithm that predicts probabilities of particular outcomes given one or more independent variables. The independent variable can be continuous or categorical. The outcome can be interpreted as taking membership in one of a discrete set of classes. In this article, we confine the number of classes to two classes although it is theoretically possible to generalize logistic regression to multiclass problems with more than two possible outcomes. Probabilities can be calculated with the sigmoid function, which is a special case of the logistic function. For a given, single measurement X and n independent predictor variables, the probability of the response variable Y equaling a case (“1”) rather than a non-case (“0”) can be expressed as:
with our predictor variable X and our weights w given as:
and a scalar b representing the bias term (y-intercept). As with linear regression, we try to find the optimal model parameters θ, consisting of our weight(s) w and our bias b, to minimize the costs J of our model. This can be achieved by various optimization algorithms. One of these algorithms is batch gradient descent, where we adjust parameter values proportional to the negative gradient of our cost function until we reach model convergence. Mathematically, this can be expressed with the following formula:
with ∇J(θ) representing the gradient of our cost function and α representing the learning rate. In this equation, e is representing the respective epoch. So far, so good. Logistic regression, however, differs decisively how we define our cost function. While we technically could apply the mean squared error (MSE)-method, like we did with linear regression, this would result in a non-convex cost function in the case of logistic regression. Non-convex cost functions may have multiple local minima. Accordingly, gradient descent is not guaranteed to converge to the global minimum with non-convex cost functions.¹ In order to overcome this issue, the concept of cross-entropy was introduced to quantify costs in logistic regression. For a dichotomous outcome variable y, the costs J can be calculated as follows:
with pᵢ∈[ 0;1] representing the model’s prediction for each of our N samples, on which the model is trained. Since we aim to compute the gradient of our cost function, we need to determine the partial derivatives of J with respect to a particular weight wⱼ and b and get the following:
In the following PDF, I gave a detailed explanation of how to derive the partial derivatives of the binary cross-entropy loss functions with respect to its parameters.
In Python, we can import some libraries and define our model. In order to set up a logistic regression model, which is flexible to the number of independent variables, we introduce a weight matrix w with one weight wⱼ for every input variable. I decided to arbitrarily set the initial parameter values for the weights to 0 and 0.5 for the bias:
Simple logistic regression
Equivalently to simple linear regression, we have one predictor variable in simple logistic regression. In Python, we introduce our training data and fit our model to the data:
The learning rate is intentionally set to a particularly small value of α=0.0001 in order to avoid large steps especially at the beginning of our animations. In order to compare the results of our simple logistic regression model to those we get with sklearn’s model, we display both models’ results after their respective fitting process.
Since the results of both models are consistent with each other, we can begin to create our first animation:
Logistic regression curve and surface plot of costs (large)
In the upper half of the animation, we can observe how the logistic regression curve is fitted to the training data. By defining which epochs are being used for the animations, we can smoothen the temporal sequence of the fitting process which results in more appealing animations. I thought it was useful to draw dashed connection lines between actual data points and those predicted by the model. It is worth mentioning that in logistic regression our goal is not to minimize the (squared) distances represented by these connection lines since we are using a completely different cost function. I would like to come back to this in more detail later on. In the lower half of the animation, we can see how costs drop simultaneously after each epoch and finally end up in the global minimum of the surface plot. The surface plot portrays the costs for a given range of respective parameter values given our training data. In the literature, these surface plots are also being referred to as loss landscapes. In Python, we can create loss landscapes by calculating the costs for particular combinations of two model parameters via meshgrids. In the case of simple logistic regression, the model parameters are the weight and the bias term.
Multiple logistic regression
Multiple logistic regression analysis applies when there is more than one predictor variable. In the following example, we will fit our model to a training dataset with two independent variables. Since we can only portray costs for two parameters at once in our three-dimensional animations, we have to keep one parameter fixed. Therefore, we define yet another model — this time with a fixed intercept— and also train this new model on the new training data. In the new model, the part of code where b is being updated is removed. The bias term is set to the bias the former multiple logistic regression model converged to. Theoretically however, we could use any other value for the fixed bias term. The parameter values we obtain during the fitting process are once again stored in arrays.
Like we did before, we return the final model parameters and costs and compare it to the results we get with sklearn’s model:
In multiple logistic regression, we intend to fit a 3D curve to our training data. For this reason, we need to calculate y-values for yet another meshgrid, this time spanned by x₀- and x₁-values. Lastly, we can give out the final parameter values and costs portrayed in the animations to ensure that we approximately visualized model convergence despite substantially restricting the number of epochs used to create the animations (see commented-out code!).
Logistic regression curve in 3D and surface plot of costs (large)
Additionally, we can also portray the path of gradient descent via a contour plot.
Logistic regression curve in 3D and contour plot of costs (large)
Cross-entropy cost function (CE) vs. Mean squared Error (MSE)
Finally, let me come back to why we need the cross-entropy (CE) loss function in logistic regression. First and foremost, it can be shown mathematically that the CE-cost function is convex with exactly one minimum, which is the global minimum. In contrast, applying the MSE-cost function on logistic regression results in a non-convex cost function.² In the following, I will use a graphical approach to compare both methods on the example of our training data.
In Python, we introduce a new cost-function “MSE_cost( )” to quantify costs by the use of MSE. Like we did before with the cross entropy-cost function we can then create loss landscapes with respect to our training data (x_train2, y_train2) and our weights (w₀,w₁). I intentionally increased the range of possible values for our weights regarding the MSE-method to w₀,w₁ ∈ [-5,5] since this will help to illustrate the differences of both loss landscapes. Furthermore, numerical instability is not much of a concern with MSE as it is with CE.³
Loss landscapes created with CE-cost function (left) and MSE-cost function (right)
Obviously, the loss landscape on the right is looking “bumpier” now compared to the smooth and convex loss landscape of the cross-entropy cost function. For a more detailed view, we can try to visualize the MSE-loss landscape with a contour plot:
Contour plot of MSE-cost function with ‘global’ minimum (“x”) and local minimum (*).
First, we can recognize that there is a minimum (“x”), located at roughly the same point where the CE-loss landscape had its global minimum (0.089,0.19). I will refer to this point, marked by “x” as the ‘global’ minimum of the MSE-loss landscape. I put ‘global’ in parenthesis because we lack the mathematical proof that this point actually is the global minimum of the MSE-loss landscape. Without further investigation, we could also assume that there is a local minimum in close proximity to the asterisk. With starting values for our weights within this area, gradient descent might get stuck and not converge to the ‘global’ minimum (“x”) in the middle of the contour plot. The following animation once more illustrates the full extent of non-convexity of the MSE-cost function above:
Loss landscape calculated with MSE-cost function (code)
I will address gradient descent with the example of non-convex cost functions in more detail in my next article about neural networks.
I hope you found this article helpful. Should any questions arise or if you noticed any mistakes, feel free to leave a comment. The complete notebook can be found on my GitHub. Thank you for reading!
References:
Appendix: | https://towardsdatascience.com/animations-of-logistic-regression-with-python-31f8c9cb420 | ['Tobias Roeschl'] | 2020-11-17 13:43:01.461000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Regression', 'Statistics', 'Python', 'Animation'] |
Dynamic resource generation of resources using CloudFormation Macros. | One of the things you can do with this new feature is generate and deploy a number of resources based in a parameter value or the resulting value of the describing the number of AZs in order to create a subnet for each AZ for example.
In this example I’m defining a dynamic number of IAM users (depending on the int I provide in the parameter) that will have the same custom EC2 policy for EC2 resources tagged with Owner:devteam. The user will be prompted to reset their passwords on next sign-in. Also an EC2 instance will be created for each user simulating a classroom.
How to work with Macros:
In order to use this feature you need two things:
-One stack containing a AWS::CloudFormation::Macro resource along a “AWS::Lambda::Function”.
-The stack that will use the Macro which will process a section or the whole template by using on it the Fn::Transform function or a Transform section to transforming the whole template.
Biggest Caveat:
- Your Function will receive the whole template minus transform sections.
Take care of how you send the Macro Response in your lambda function.
You need to send the proper “Fragment”, this is the the processed template CFN receive from the lambda function.
def lambda_handler(event, context): FinalFragment= event[“fragment”] …loops adding new objects to the template.
…. …. … … …. response[“requestId”] = event[“requestId”]
response[“status”] = “success”
response[“fragment”] = FinalFragment print (FinalFragment[“Resources”]) return response
In the sample attached I’m using python and just looping to create the number of resources I need in the final template. However you can go further with your function and implement more complex logics using the SDK to do API describes etc…
You can keep several Macros in your account doing different types of processing and using them whenever you need unlimited power to process your template suiting to a huge amount of use cases.
Outcome: | https://medium.com/pablo-perez/dynamic-resource-generation-of-resources-using-cloudformation-macros-f6baba75d730 | ['Pablo Perez'] | 2019-10-10 16:01:40.460000+00:00 | ['Macros', 'AWS', 'Dynamic', 'Cloudformation'] |
Will Psychedelic Stocks Be The New ESG Favorites For 2021? | By: Jeff Nielson
ESG_cover by Jackie
Psychedelic drug stocks are among the best performing equities in 2020
Psychedelic drugs are the world’s best hope in alleviating a Mental Health Crisis that afflicts over 1 billion people
Psychedelic medicine can generate $100s of billions in savings for the global economy each year
While many investors remain purely focused on profits, a new class of investor has been acquiring greater prominence in recent years: the “socially conscious investor”.
These investors focus not only on profit/loss parameters, but also on how companies measure up in terms of Environmental, Social and Governance criteria. Known as ESG investing, companies that make positive contributions to the environment or society are being rewarded for these good deeds — via more investor dollars.
Why psychedelic drug stocks are strong ESG candidates
Investors are becoming more educated about psychedelic drugs and psychedelic drug medicine. As they learn more, psychedelic stocks are looking more and more like not merely great investment opportunities, but great ESG investment opportunities.
Why?
Start with the obvious. We are in the midst of a rapidly-worsening Mental Health Crisis that already afflicts over 1 billion people — centering on stress-related conditions like depression, anxiety, addiction and PTSD.
The COVID pandemic is causing rates of depression, anxiety and addiction to skyrocket. Existing therapies for these conditions have proven grossly inadequate.
This is a humanitarian catastrophe. Want to do something about it?
Invest in psychedelic drug stocks.
Clinical research on these psychedelic substances is showing the clear potential to revolutionize mental health care. Instead of ineffectually treating symptoms (the current standard of care), psychedelic medicine represents potential cures for these conditions.
Behind only hunger, poverty and war, the Mental Health Crisis is the greatest humanitarian crisis on the planet today.
You won’t find an investment that can “cure” hunger, poverty or war. But you can invest in cures for the Mental Health Crisis.
Also looking to make investments that support the economy? Psychedelic drug stocks.
The economics of psychedelic medicine
According to the World Economic Forum and the Lancet Commission, the Mental Health Crisis is already costing the global economy over $1 trillion per year — in lost productivity alone. Mental health conditions are a leading cause of disability.
Along with this, each year $100s of billions is spent (wasted?) treating mental health conditions. In the United States alone, mental health care eats up $300 billion per year. But with existing standards of care so inadequate, there is little to show for all this spending.
Psychedelic medicine has the potential to dramatically reduce the $1+ trillion per year in productivity losses related to mental health.
Psychedelic medicine can also directly save enormous sums. An economic study on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy by MAPS showed potential treatment savings of $103,000 per patient.
With our economies just as sick as our populations, investing in psychedelic medicine (and psychedelic drug stocks) is an investment in not just mental health but also economic health.
Companies like Compass Pathways (US:CMPS), MindMed Inc (CAN:MMED / US:MMEDF), Numinus Wellness (CAN:NUMI / US:LKYSF), Mind Cure Health (CAN:MCUR / US:MCURF), Cybin Corp (CAN:CYBN / US:CLXPF), Field Trip Health (CAN:FTRP / US:FTRPF), Mydecine Innovations Group (CAN:MYCO / US:MYCOF) and Entheon Biomedical are among the corporations leading the charge in this Psychedelic Drug Revolution.
They have also been delivering fantastic investment returns.
But what if there was an even larger hidden savings from developing and commercializing psychedelic drugs?
Can psychedelic drugs cure our minds and save our hearts?
As the Psychedelic Drug Revolution spawns an explosion in clinical research, important/exciting discoveries are being made on practically a weekly basis.
Recent research has discovered that the same region of the brain that is affected by depression and anxiety is also linked to heart disease risk.
(Excessive) stress is one of the leading risk factors for heart disease. Depression and anxiety are also caused by stress — and all three conditions are linked to the same part of the brain.
If we cure this depression and anxiety (via psychedelic medicine) will we also dramatically lower the risk of heart disease for those treated?
Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally, killing approximately 17.3 million people each year. Treating heart disease eats up a large percentage of healthcare dollars.
Can psychedelic medicine (potentially) save millions of lives each year — as it cures mental health conditions — while saving our healthcare system additional billions?
We don’t know. Invest in the psychedelic drug industry and find out.
Maybe psychedelic medicine can ‘only’ cure mental health conditions that afflict over 1 billion people, while saving the global economy $100s of billions each year.
Maybe psychedelic medicine can also represent a major breakthrough in the battle against heart disease.
Either way, psychedelic drug stocks could emerge as new favorites for ESG investors in 2021.
DISCLOSURE: The writer holds shares in MindMed Inc, Numinus Wellness, Cybin Corp and Mind Cure Health. Mind Cure Health is a client of Psychedelic Stock Watch. | https://medium.com/@psychedelicstockwatch/will-psychedelic-stocks-be-the-new-esg-favorites-for-2021-7e4ca9213a34 | ['Psychedelic Stock Watch'] | 2020-12-21 20:39:19.935000+00:00 | ['Medicine', 'Governance', 'Psychedelics', 'Environment', 'Stock Market'] |
Is it safe for babies to sleep on their stomach | Photo by Tara Raye on Unsplash
If you’re a parent in the 21st century, then you’ve no doubt heard the recommendations about safe sleeping for babies, right? By now, just about every new parent understands that the safest way for a baby to sleep is on her back, and not on her stomach. Why? Because back sleeping reduces the risk of SIDS (presumably because it reduces the risk of baby re-breathing carbon dioxide and therefore not getting enough oxygen).
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
This recommendation was the cornerstone of the 1994 Back to Sleep campaign, and at that time, it was fairly earth-shattering. Up until 1994, parents were urged to place their babies on their tummies to sleep, since it reduced the risk that baby would spit up and then choke during the night.
But here’s what’s tricky: in our experience, some babies seem to prefer sleeping on their stomachs. And typically, once a baby can roll onto his stomach, he’ll roll mid-nap, or in the middle of the night, and end up sleeping on his stomach.
This is what we’re discussing today. If your baby just won’t sleep on her back, can you put her to bed on her stomach? And what should you do when your baby is able to roll from her back to her stomach during sleep? Should you leave her on her stomach, or should you roll her back the other way?
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
Baby Sleeping On Stomach: What If My Baby Prefers To Sleep That Way
Oh, this is tricky. First off, it’s important to remember that we are not in the business of dispensing medical advice here at The Baby Sleep Site®, so when it comes to determining the safest sleeping arrangements for your baby, you should absolutely talk to your healthcare provider.
That said — we’d first advise that you try to get your baby used to laying on his back. While many babies seem to prefer to sleep on their stomachs, a baby can get used to lying on his back, and will eventually grow more comfortable sleeping that way. So try this as a first step: have your baby spend time on his back, during his awake time, and try to start off each nap and bedtime with your baby on his back.
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
If your baby is still fussing like crazy, then you may want to try swaddling your baby for sleep. Many babies object to back sleeping because they can’t curl up tightly into their snug fetal positions, the way they can when they’re on their stomachs. But if you swaddle your baby snugly, you can re-create that cozy, womb-like feel while still placing your child on her back. Just be sure to follow safe swaddling recommendations.
If your baby just will not settle and sleep on his back, however — even when swaddled — then you may need to talk to your healthcare provider about whether or not it’s safe for your baby to sleep on his stomach. No one other than your healthcare provider is qualified to comment on the safety of putting your baby to sleep on his stomach, so it’s important that you have this conversation.
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
Now, if your healthcare provider clears it, then you can try placing your baby on his stomach for sleeping. As many SIDS researchers point out, most babies will naturally assume the sleeping position that will allow them to breathe freely and comfortably, so provided your baby is healthy and full-term, and that your healthcare provider is on board, it is probably okay to allow your baby to sleep on his stomach, if he just won’t sleep on his back.
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
Baby Sleeping On Stomach: If My Baby Rolls, Can I Just Leave Her On Her Stomach?
This is a question that our consultants hear quite often in the Helpdesk, so we thought we’d take some time to answer it for you here. The fact is, while it may be relatively easy to place your baby on her back for sleep when she’s a newborn, that newborn will quickly become mobile: by about 3–4 months of age, many babies are learning to roll, and while rolling is an important milestone that paves the way for even greater mobility in the coming months, it concerns many parents when they check in on their babies and find them sleeping on their stomachs.
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
So what’s a safety-focused parent to do? Do you leave your baby on her stomach, or do you roll your baby over again onto her back, and risk waking her up?
Again, it’s important that you talk to your healthcare provider about your baby’s sleeping position, particularly if your baby is premature or has health problems. That said, it’s widely accepted that if your baby has the ability to roll from her back onto her stomach, she likely also has the muscle control and neurological maturity to regulate her breathing well, and to shift her position if she is not getting enough oxygen. In other words, a baby who can roll onto her stomach can no doubt sleep safely that way. It is recommended that you start each sleep time by putting your baby down on her back, but then, if she rolls onto her stomach, you can leave her to sleep that way.
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
Baby Sleeping On Stomach: As Always, Follow Safe Sleep Guidelines
It is always important that you follow safe sleeping guidelines with your baby — but if your baby will be spending any time sleeping on her stomach, then it’s downright crucial.
Here’s a quick overview of safe sleeping recommendations that you’ll want to follow in your home:
Your baby should sleep on a firm surface that’s covered by a tight-fitting sheet.
There should be no loose bedding, soft pillows, or stuffed toys in your baby’s sleeping area.
It’s safest if your baby is sleeping near your bed (so that you can keep an eye on her), but not sleeping in your bed, which carries risks of suffocation. (That said, we pass no judgment on parents who make informed decisions to bed-share, and who do so safely.)
Try running a fan in your baby’s room — there’s evidence that it can reduce SIDS risks by up to 72%.
Speaking of fans — overheating is linked to SIDS, so dress your baby in light layers for sleep, and keep the bedroom temperature on the cool side.
👉 BABY SLEEP MIRACLE PROGRAM 👈
Article Source : https://www.babysleepsite.com/ | https://medium.com/@chirag5676/is-it-safe-for-babies-to-sleep-on-their-stomach-38364b172de1 | ['Chirag Chauhan'] | 2020-12-02 02:34:10.535000+00:00 | ['Baby Sleep Training', 'Baby Sleep Routine', 'Baby Sleep Miracle', 'Baby Sleep Music', 'Baby Sleep'] |
INTERNET FROM A BEGINNERS PERSPECTIVE | What exactly is a Network
Before we talk about the internet, let understand what a computer network is. A Computer network is basically the connection of two or more computers with the purpose of sharing information and resources. Just as a road network connect roads together, the computer network connects computers together. The type of the computer network is defined by the number of devices connected, how they are connected and the type of devices within the network. The two main types of computer networks are the LAN and WAN.
LAN (Local Area Network): A LAN connects network devices over a relatively short distance. A networked office building, school, or home usually contains a single LAN, though sometimes one building contains a few small LANs (perhaps one per room), and occasionally a LAN spans a group of nearby buildings.
WAN (Wide Area Network): A WAN spans a large physical distance. The internet is the largest WAN, spanning the Earth. A WAN is a basically a collection of LANs together across different states, countries, or continents.
The Internet
The internet is known as the largest network on earth. This simply means that, the internet is a way of connecting all the computers on earth together. The internet is mostly defined as the global connection of computer networks. On its most basic level, the internet is the network of other computer networks.
Basic Internet Concepts:
Protocols: A network protocol are basically rules and conventions that must be observed by all devices within the network. They are like policies that governs the behavior of all devices.
IP Address (Internet Protocol Address): An IP address is a unique number assigned to every device connected to the network. They are like usernames on twitter that allows people to mention and follow one another. Computers on the internet use IP addresses to find and communicate with one another.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol): The TCP controls how information flows between different devices in a computer network. The IP address finds the computer, whilst the TCP controls how the information is to be transmitted. The TCP determines which information to send, which one has been received, which one is to be resent etc.
Router: A router is a network device that routes information from one network to another. It is usually connected to two or more different networks. When the router receives an information from an external network, the router reads the address data to determine which computer the information will be sent to. A router connect different network together thus making it possible for the internet to exist.
ISP (Internet Service Provider): ISP are usually large companies or organizations that provides internet service to its customers. If we can recall that the internet is just a network of networks. These ISPs owns the networks that are connected to other ISP’s networks thus creating the network of networks that make up the internet. In other to connect to the internet, you must first connect to the ISP’s network which then allows you to connect to other networks and thus giving you the internet connection (network of network)
Conclusion
The internet is just a network of other networks. To connect to the internet, one need to connect to a network that is connected to other networks. The job of the Internet Service Provides(ISPs), is to create smaller networks for people to access easily. By connecting these smaller networks to other smaller networks, everyone can connect to anyone. | https://medium.com/@clarkifre/internet-from-a-beginners-perspective-a390becc64b8 | ['Clark E'] | 2021-08-10 19:18:09.571000+00:00 | ['Internet', 'Computers', 'Networking', 'Web Development'] |
5 Books That Will Make You Happier and More Productive | 1. ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill
I found this book by doing research several years ago on finance and investing books. Incredibly, despite the deceiving title, this book has very, very little to do with investing or making “riches” in the form of money. Quite the opposite. Instead, what Napoleon Hill talks about is the power to harness our faith, focus on desire, to plan appropriately and adopt a positive attitude.
He spent many years of his life interviewing some of the titans of the 20th Century, people like Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford. He developed a foundation of positive thinking, principles and values that lead to long-term goal planning and success.
He discusses the need to rise above our circumstances by harnessing the power of our minds with an idea. How faith, desire, imagination, persistence and the help of others serve as a critical foundation that will get us to where we want to be in life.
From there, initiative and action must take over. The book is partly a personal success story, partly a self-help guide and partly a philosophical account. It is no slight exaggeration to say that this book completely altered the course of my life. Look no further than this classic tome. | https://medium.com/mind-cafe/5-books-that-will-make-you-happier-and-more-productive-e323f9e5ded5 | ['Christopher D. Connors'] | 2020-04-02 08:58:47.708000+00:00 | ['Reading', 'Books', 'Productivity', 'Self Improvement', 'Life'] |
Subsets and Splits