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We need to have a difficult conversation about Google. | It’s been an busy week for tech journalists covering Google, considering the anti-trust investigation of Google’s monopoly and a maelstrom around how Google handles hate speech. Both of these stories are important and worth following, but they’re not the biggest Google story of the week. Not by a long shot. Because here’s what we learned this week:
Google profits from pedophiles.
I’m not hyperbolizing, not speaking metaphorically, certainly not making a joke. I’m just stating a fact, reported in the New York Times and responded to by Google itself; a fact that you can decide to respond to or not, but one that you must at least be aware of. Once again, it’s:
Google profits from pedophiles.
The New York Times article, from June 3, describes a horrifying way in which Google is profiting from home movies that feature small children. After the videos are innocently uploaded to YouTube by families, the YouTube algorithm shows the videos to the users who will show the highest level of “engagement” by watching the videos, one after another, as served up by Google’s algorithm.
These users are pedophiles. Google’s YouTube algorithm, when combined with the autoplay of the next recommended video, optimizes the YouTube experience for pedophiles.
Max Fisher, co-author of the Times story, explained in a Twitter thread:
Each video might appear innocent on its own, a home movie of a kid in a two-piece swimsuit or a nightie. But each has three common traits: the girl is mostly unclothed or briefly nude; she is no older than age 8; [and] her video is being heavily promoted by YouTube’s algorithm. We talked to one mother, in Brazil, whose daughter had posted a video of her and a friend playing in swimsuits. YouTube’s algorithm found the video and promoted it to users who watched other partly-clothed prepubescent children. Within a few days of posting, it had 400,000 views.
Those 400,000 views represent profit for Google, and that’s just from a single video over a few days. Consider the profit potential of monetizing thousands, even millions, of these home videos, for months, or years, for untold numbers of pedophiles watching on YouTube.
Anyone with even a nominal moral sense can see there’s a problem: Google is profiting, even optimizing its profits, from the sexual exploitation of children. Or, stated another way:
Google profits from pedophiles.
You might find these revelations sickening and shocking, but to Google this isn’t anything new. That video in the quote above, from Brazil? According to the Times story, the video was still being “promoted by YouTube’s systems months after the company was alerted that it had a pedophile problem, [back] in February, [by] Wired and other news outlets.” (Emphasis mine.) In other words, Google knew months ago that its YouTube profits were tainted, and it didn’t fix the problem.
Why wouldn’t Google immediately fix this problem? Because Google’s YouTube profits are based on “engagement” at any cost, and that means that:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Now, I’ll grant that I’m repeating the same phrase over and over, and one objection might be, “Hey, it’s not just pedophiles Google profits from.” That’s true and totally fair to bring up. Because Google also profits from terrorist propaganda, conspiracy videos, antivaxxers, political radicalization, “nightmare videos” specifically made for child viewers, and don’t forget the hate speech that I mentioned above.
So I’ll grant it’s not just pedophiles.
But here I’m focusing on Google’s profiting from pedophilia because I can’t imagine anything less acceptable, less honorable, less human for a company to do. Making money from the sexual exploitation of children is well below “troubling,” further down below “disgusting,” down past your everyday “evil,” right smack at the absolute bottom of the abyss. After all, you might meet someone who is willing to talk about their belief in a flat earth(thanks to YouTube’s recommended videos, as described here) — or perhaps someone would loudly voice their radical political beliefs — but no one is going to stand up publicly and claim an interest in sexually exploiting children. Google, in contrast, actively enables this behavior, as it has figured out how to profit from it. Once again:
Google profits from pedophiles.
After the New York Times described this profit stream, Google posted a public response on its corporate blog for YouTube. This response is a crucial document for understanding Google’s commitment to the profit engine that enables pedophiles (as well as terrorists, anti-vaxxers, conspiracists, and so on). Keep in mind that this response appeared months after Google was initially alerted to the pedophilia issue.
Here is Google’s response to the New York Times story. Read it for yourself. As you do so, see if you can find (a) any acknowledgement of YouTube’s sexual exploitation of children, or the complicity of Google’s business model in bringing this about, or (b) any pledge to fix the problem. I couldn’t find either. And this is because:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Notice how Google’s response…
starts with this claim: “Responsibility is our number one priority.” This from the company that profits from pedophiles, the company that was alerted to the issue months earlier and only responded after pressure from a leading news source. Does this shout “responsibility”? Would you agree that it’s the “number one priority” at YouTube?
doesn’t directly acknowledge the New York Times story, and doesn’t acknowledge the problem of sexually exploiting children for profit. Instead, Google’s response makes a vague reference to “videos featuring minors” in “recent news reports.” That’s not a good sign, if Google can’t bring itself to explicitly name and acknowledge the problem.
doesn’t pledge to fix the problem, instead listing superficial actions that don’t address the key issue of profiting from pedophiles. Google claims it has (a) disabled comments on some videos — but the comments are not the key problem here! — and (b) it’s “reducing recommendations” on unspecified videos — a statement which, though maddeningly vague, might mean, at most, that Google is pledging to send fewer pedophiles to kid-videos than they did before.
This isn’t good. Google claims the moral high ground, doesn’t acknowledge the problem, and doesn’t fix the problem. And let’s not forget what the problem is:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Finally, in an amazing feat either of arrogance or cluelessness, or both, the Google blog post actually defends the YouTube team, saying that “YouTube is a company made up of parents and families” … wow. It’s as though an oil company spills oil all over a fragile ecosystem and then says, “Our company is made of humans who also live on this earth, so we’re absolved.” To call this tone-deaf would be far too generous. Google’s response shows no indication that they are willing to address the key problem, which is:
Google profits from pedophiles.
There’s a simple fix to the problem. And Google knows what it is. I know this because the New York Times article stated it very clearly (emphasis mine):
YouTube has not put in place the one change that researchers say would prevent this from happening again: turning off its recommendation system on videos of children, though the platform can identify such videos automatically. The company said that because recommendations are the biggest traffic driver, removing them would hurt “creators” who rely on those clicks.
As I stated at the beginning of this column, the profit engine at YouTube is built from an algorithm that automatically serves up videos to optimize “engagement,” whether that means serving up flat-earth videos to conspiracy fans, or curating kid-videos for pedophiles. The obvious fix, as the Times story mentions, is to turn off the recommendation system. Unless and until that happens, Google’s business model remains as such:
Google profits from pedophiles.
Far from implementing the obvious fix, Google has to-date only shown passing interest in the occasional issue that blows up in the press or social media. Viral story on monetizing pedophilia? Social media outrage on monetizing hate speech? Google will make some superficial move and claim to be working on the issue of the day, whether by hiring more moderators or taking down some of the offending videos. And that’s just for whatever specificissue got the press attention. What Google never, ever, addresses is the key problem of profiting from serving up “engagement” at all costs. If you’re being treated unjustly by Google in some other way, and you don’t have a New York Times journalist writing about it, you’re out of luck.
The problem isn’t one type of video. Each is just a symptom of the root disease at the heart of the YouTube business model: the algorithm that recommends videos — even harmful, exploitative videos — for profit. Even profit from pedophiles.
My own suggested solution, as I detailed back in April, is as follows: The only way for users to get to a video should be if they specifically request it, search for it, or subscribe to it. This means killing Recommended Videos entirely, and disabling autoplay. Totally, system-wide, no exceptions. Kill the YouTube algorithm. Until Google is forced to do this (as it shows no signs of taking this step on its own), we can continue to state this fact:
Google profits from pedophiles.
I want you to keep this mind as you use Google products (if you still use them; I avoid them wherever I can).
• When you make a Google search, think to yourself: “My search activity feeds an algorithm so that Google can profit from pedophiles.”
• When you open your Gmail, think to yourself: “The surveillance Gmail conducts on my emails are not the only profit stream for Google. Google also profits from pedophiles.”
• When you use Google Maps, think to yourself: “This mapping was built by a company that profits from pedophiles.”
• When you open up Chrome, just remember that you’re accessing the Web through a browser built and maintained by a company that profits from pedophiles.
• And certainly whenever you watch a YouTube video, remind yourself that at that very moment, YouTube is serving up videos to pedophiles — and profiting from it.
If you feel some revulsion from these thoughts — and you should — don’t ignore it. Any usage we give Google products is an implicit vote that we accept what this company does, that we are willing to offer up our behavioral data to Google’s surveillance-capitalist profit model. We’re willing, in other words, to support the company that profits from pedophiles.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t, in good conscience, use Google products — unless it’s unavoidable. It feels wrong, in principle, to give my time, attention, and data to a company suffering from a shocking lack of moral leadership. And others feel as I do, at least in part: the aptly-named NoMoreGoogle.com lists dozens of alternatives to Google products. (I use DuckDuckGo for search and FastMail for email, for starters.)
As a closing thought I want to acknowledge that today is the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a single day when over 150,000 people risked, or gave, their young lives for a higher purpose. Call it democracy, call it liberation; whichever, it was something higher, much higher, than a grasping for profit at any cost. 75 years ago, thousands of young men plunged into the surf, just a stone’s throw from the machine guns, so that future generations might live in a better world. But today our economy celebrates, rewards, and bows to a company that profits from pedophiles. What a shame.
- Mark Hurst
- — -
More resources:
• YouTube’s algorithm makes it easy for pedophiles to find more videos of children — Technology Review, June 4, 2019 — a good accompaniment to the New York Times story covered above.
• Techtonic from June 3, 2019 (my WFMU radio show a few days ago, including my comments on the New York Times story that broke that day)
• Past Techtonic episodes, also available as a podcast.
• To share this column, retweet this, or copy and paste this text: | https://medium.com/@markhurst/we-need-to-have-a-difficult-conversation-about-google-90713c584b29 | ['Mark Hurst'] | 2019-06-06 19:12:20.681000+00:00 | ['Ethics', 'Morality', 'Business', 'Google', 'YouTube'] |
From Connection to Data Perfection | From Connection to Data Perfection
Vacations? Check. Focus? Check. Achievements? Double check. August has been good to us, so we’re proud to talk about a lot of cool new stuff.
🔬 What we focused on:
transforming data into intelligence
The right connections count, especially when talking about connecting data points. In August, that meant delivering insights to TV, media and apps. Talk about an all-around ensemble! 😊
🥋 What we accomplished:
#1 Launched a TV show with Clubbing TV
It’s called “Chart3 by Viberate” and it features three charts with the hottest Electronic acts. We’re super happy and proud to work with Clubbing TV, as quality music TV programs are not easy to come by these days.
Episodes air every first Friday of the month at 4.15 PM (CEST). Watch the first episode here:
#2 Revamped the Venue and Event Pages
Live events are slowly returning, and we’re celebrating the fact with a sleek new look for our Venue and Event Pages.
#3 Delivered a mobile app for Sea Dance Festival
Montenegro’s most popular summer party destination got their own mobile app, providing visitors with a more carefree experience.
The party’s obviously over by now, but you can still check out the app and download it for next year’s edition.
#4 Investigated the current landscape of streaming and airplay
You’ve probably suspected that Spotify listeners prefer “younger” artists. But do you know the differences in numbers and revenues? We crunched the figures.
Read the report on our findings here:
💡 What we learned:
We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Knowledge is the most powerful thing you can have. Piecing business intelligence together to forge your own path is a much better motivator than following other people’s ideas. The industry’s evolving into something better, and we’re here for it.
| Viberate.com |Instagram| Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Reddit | | https://medium.com/viberate-blog/from-connection-to-data-perfection-7e8e096eb6c8 | ['Matej Gregorčič'] | 2021-09-02 11:52:27.278000+00:00 | ['Clubbing', 'Music Business', 'Monthly', 'Data Analytics', 'Business Development'] |
Open letter to the Transgender Committee of the University of Hyderabad | To Prof P, and other members of the Transgender Committee
I am writing to you concerning a major issue that has complex and varied repercussions in society — and therefore, in the microcosm of society that is our campus: trans housing. The issue of trans housing is a contentious one under the best of circumstances, and it is definitely exacerbated by a shortage of available housing both in the wider society and on campus. Within campus, I understand that the allocation of a hostel room is not a guarantee, but a best-fit process of trying to accommodate those who need it most. Outside campus, it has been my experience that it is very very difficult to find rented/paying guest accommodation as an openly transgender person — people reject us at the outset without any reasons, and if pressed, call us beggars and slurs for sex workers. Even if accommodation is secured, it comes at a great cost, with us being forced to pay higher rents and refused legal lease agreements, making the housing very precarious.
This points to an urgent need for housing transgender students within the campus in a fair manner that takes into account the self-respect, lived experience, financial exigencies, and the social vulnerability of embodying a marginalised identity, while also accounting for that invisible entity known as ‘campus culture,’ the ethical standards of a world-class government university, and so on.
Upon inquiring about the university’s policies on transgender housing, I was not able to secure a face-to-face or telephonic meeting with any stakeholders from the administration, but I received an email from a public email account copying the university email account of the Deputy Chief Warden. [Note: the exact transcript is redacted here, but the key sentence in the correspondence reads “I am directed to inform you that at the time of hostel admission, transgender students may give their preferences.”]
This is a vague response — what does it mean to give a preference? Will this preference be unconditionally honoured? Will this preference be taken into a series of other factors that in combination decide where we will be housed, and if so, what are the other factors? Do any of these factors take into account private and personal characteristics of the student in question such as the shape of their genitals? Do we, as provisioned in the Transgender Persons (protection of rights) Bill 2019, undergo “medical screening” by the District Magistrate of Rangareddy district? Does an affidavit of self-identity, as provisioned in the NALSA judgement of 2014, suffice? Will we, as my worst fears indicate, be forced to live in hostels conforming to our gender assigned at birth?
Alongside these concerns, there remains a larger concern of housing transgender people in existing hostels as they exist now. The existing hostels are divided into men’s and women’s hostels. These divisions are very rigid both in general mindset and perception, and in the official hostel rules (such as that men aren’t allowed to enter women’s hostels and violation is considered a serious disciplinary offence). In a space so rigidly segregated, there would be various practical difficulties for transgender students of all identities in surviving and assimilating. The violence of housing trans women in men’s hostels or trans men in women’s hostels is obvious — we are forcing a student to occupy a space for a gender that gives them distress and dysphoria, and exposing them to the prospect of violence and harassment. However, there is a subtler violence in putting trans women in the existing women’s hostels as well. Transgender people forced into rigidly segregated cisgender spaces face many issues ranging from intrusive curiosity to physical and psychological violence when perceived as wrongfully entering gender-segregated spaces, such as bathrooms. To speak in plain language, trans women will be considered as predatory men invading women’s hostels.
Including to these concerns, there are transgender people with nonbinary gender identities, i.e., they are neither men nor women. I am one such nonbinary transgender person, and my personal preference is that I would feel comfortable neither in a men’s hostel nor a women’s hostel. To put it frankly, the men’s hostel is wrong for me because I am not a man and the women’s hostel is wrong for me because I have no intention of living as a woman. If somebody asks me if I’m a woman, the honest answer is ‘no,’ therefore I shouldn’t go to the women’s hostel — simple. And having lived in my body for 25 years, I know what will happen if I go to a men’s hostel, and I don’t want to go into the unsavoury details of it here.
I believe I have sufficiently established that housing transgender students in the existing hostels is not just a violation of the self-perceived gender identity of these students (‘preference’) but also subjecting them to an increased risk of violence.
To me, the only solution to this issue would be to have one or more gender-neutral hostels. How this will be logistically accomplished is a question to discuss next. To begin with I believe the only way forward is to take students’ explicit consent to agree to live in a gender-neutral space, explicitly agree to the possibility of encountering people of all gender identities in the hostel, and explicit consent to not discriminate against any other inhabitant on the basis of gender identity. (This is not a tall ask — students already do all these things in the classroom) I say this almost as a joke, but for good measure get their parents’ consent as well! With an explicitly demarcated gender-neutral space, the questions about “men in women’s spaces” becomes nullified, and students who have explicitly agreed to be in a gender-neutral space are less likely to be hostile to an unexpected gender presentation.
I think a gender-neutral hostel is plainly necessary in order to honour students’ preferences. It is only a true choice given to transgender students if the gender-neutral option exists; otherwise, you are asking us to box ourselves into a gender identity we may not be comfortable with and exposing us to gender-based violence. And to make myself crystal clear, I believe that absolutely no one under any circumstances should be forced to enter or live in a gender-neutral hostel. Everyone living in the hostel should have consented to it explicitly and in good faith (i.e., they are not in any way forced to choose the hostel, such as in situations arising from shortage of space.) Just as transgender students should have the choice to choose the gender-neutral hostel for themselves, they should have the choice to reject it for themselves.
As Audre Lorde said, ‘if I don’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for myself and eaten alive.’ The existence of gender-neutral housing is crucial for allowing transgender students to define themselves for themselves, free of the trappings of having to crunch themselves into a fantasy of performing for gendered spaces.
Sincerely,
Arvind | https://medium.com/@aruvi/open-letter-to-the-transgender-committee-of-the-university-of-hyderabad-818697629fa2 | [] | 2020-12-26 20:10:45.808000+00:00 | ['University', 'Housing', 'Transgender Rights', 'Open Letter', 'Transgender'] |
I Have Some More Misinformation about Global Warming to Share With You | I Have Some More Misinformation about Global Warming to Share With You
I’ve gotten to be more than just frustrated. Assorted scientists and engineers worldwide have solutions for ending global warming, and so do I. Fred Ermlich Aug 15·4 min read
Just like this, aimed at blue sky — sunlight that doesn’t warm the Earth, we’d need a few thousand earthbound arrays to get started. . . . By Amble — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37624786
We really do have solutions. And they would work — some are no-brainers, and are not too expensive either — considering the alternatives. I’ll tell you the problem right now:
We could begin deploying land-based mirrors today, only there is nobody to approve the project or to finance it. But there are hordes of people ready to shut us down immediately. Angrily. Saying we could destabilize the weather or climate irreparably.
(Is that true, are they right?)
Well, yeah, in a way. They could be right and I could be wrong. It’s a genuine mess because our human cognitive biases make us lie to ourselves and to each other. A true mess. How dare we take such risks at a time like this, when the world is dying from fires and floods and plagues. Isn’t that right? We should just step back. (Watch out! Don’t step back into that volcano.)
Oh, I should explain the misinformation remark in the title first, shouldn’t I.
I can’t deny that I’ll be misinforming you, but I’m up against a general negativity bias as far as deployment of these technologies, and I’ll be fighting your negativity bias as I suggest taking a few risks in the course of reversing global warming.
It’s misinformation to claim with certainty that mirrors would do the job. It’s also misinformation to fail to give the caveats — that I could make things worse with my efforts. That could happen.
I’m going to give you links to some excellent articles that explain the different kinds of biases, and hopefully help you see right now why everything is so fucked up about fixing global warming and also about stopping this coronavirus epidemic.
So let’s do those articles first. If you could spend a little time reading up on these biases that we inherited through the cruel process of natural selection, a lot of weirdnesses in our societies will begin to make better sense.
This first one is from one of ours, on Medium:
This one tells us how mother nature tricked us into making three mistakes:
This one explains why I’m thinking I can sell you my misinformation and that I can’t possibly be wrong and also why I have no doubts about your faith in me: | https://medium.com/@fredscottermlich/i-have-some-more-misinformation-about-global-warming-to-share-with-you-4f4943dfcb03 | ['Fred Ermlich'] | 2021-08-15 23:14:25.847000+00:00 | ['Technological Solutions', 'Global Warming', 'Misinformation', 'Petroleum Industry', 'Cognitive Bias'] |
Arduino companions for Nerves devices (Part 1) | The main goal of this articles is to show how to combine Nerves with an Arduino board (or a single AVR micro-controller) in a way that we can meet two objectives:
To have a mono-repo with the two projects as they are intimate related.
To keep the micro-controller firmware updated as easy as we do mix firmware && ./upload.sh or publish it through Nerves Hub.
This first part covers how to integrate the Arduino code into the Nerves project and how to tie them up to compile them both with mix firmware .
Once upon a time…
I started building things with Arduino (as many others) and moved slowly to other devices like the ESP8266. One of the wonderful features of these devices is the high amount of libraries you have to connect with many kinds of devices (Displays, Motor controllers, all kind of sensors, etc.).
A year ago (maybe a bit more) I got interested on Nerves. At that moment I had been working on an Elixir project for a while, and for that reason, using Elixir for embedded software sounded like an attractive concept to me.
So after some experimentation I decided to use it to re-implement an IR-Gateway device that I already had running on an ESP8266 to control my Air conditioner. The device wasn’t too complex, It was capable of send/receive raw IR signals and measure temperature and humidity. Sending/receiving the data through an MQTT server.
With an Arduino, the IR sending can done modulating a carrier signal generated by a PWM output, which is basically turning ON/OFF that carrier following the protocol timings.
So there I found the first issue: Using the PWM output on the Raspberry PI and depending on an Elixir process to turn the signal ON/OFF resulted in inexact timings. Probably, any process running in userspace will end up with the same issue because of the OS scheduler, and in this case, also the Erlang scheduler. Also the problem can be more serious if the system is on heavy load.
On that situation the posible solutions are:
To look for a library with a kernel-level driver that I could be used from Nerves. To move the IR management to an external micro-controller and maintain both projects.
At that moment I just gave up… but some months ago I decided to go for the second option and tried to design a solution that I could use in general when I want to combine both devices. And this is what this article is about.
Getting started
Let’s start creating the Nerves project:
mix nerves.new avr_companion_sample
Most people uses the Arduino IDE to edit/compile/upload Arduino sketches, however for this project we’ll use a Makefile build so we can use elixir_make to integrate it as part of the Nerves build.
Arduino-mk is a very robust Makefile that knows how to build Arduino sketches. Check the README to know how to install it.
We will put the Arduino code in the arduino folder on the root of the Nerves project.
We need to create a couple of Makefiles. The first one includes the Arduino-mk and configures BOARD_TAG var to uno as we going to use an Arduino Uno for this example.
# File: arduino/Makefile BOARD_TAG = uno
include /usr/share/arduino/Arduino.mk
NOTE: Check the documentation for your system in case the Arduino-mk file is installed in a different location.
The second Makefile has some definitions to make it work at Nerves compile time.
# File: Makefile NAME = arduino
PREFIX = $(MIX_APP_PATH)/priv
FIRMWARE = $(PREFIX)/$(NAME).hex # Unexport some vars defined by Nerves that
# will cause issues with the arduino Makefile
unexport CFLAGS
unexport CXX
unexport CXXFLAGS
unexport OVERRIDE_EXECUTABLES export TARGET = $(NAME)
export OBJDIR = $(MIX_APP_PATH)/obj $(FIRMWARE): build $(PREFIX)
cp $(OBJDIR)/$(NAME).hex $(FIRMWARE) build:
$(MAKE) -C $(NAME) $(PREFIX):
mkdir -p $@
Pay attention to the FIRMWARE var. It’s the place where we store the generated .hex file that we will need later in runtime. The file is stored in the application priv folder so it will be included in the release.
Now we need something to compile…
/* File: arduino/main.ino */ void setup() {
} void loop() {
}
Last but not least we have to include elixir_make in the project.
Add the lib to the dependencies:
{:elixir_make, "~> 0.4", runtime: false}
And to the project config:
def project do
[
...
compilers: [:elixir_make] ++ Mix.compilers(),
...
]
end
The project is now ready to do a little compilation test. For that you have to define the ARDMK_VENDOR environment variable depending on your system so you have to check the documentation.
In my case I’m using Arch Linux:
export ARDMK_VENDOR=archlinux-arduino
And that’s it! Now you can run mix compile and watch the output of the arduino compilation.
> mix compile [...] /usr/bin/avr-size --mcu=atmega328p -C --format=avr /tmp/avr_companion_sample/_build/dev/lib/avr_companion_sample/obj/arduino.elf
AVR Memory Usage
----------------
Device: atmega328p Program: 446 bytes (1.4% Full)
(.text + .data + .bootloader) Data: 9 bytes (0.4% Full)
(.data + .bss + .noinit) make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/avr_companion_sample/arduino'
mkdir -p /tmp/avr_companion_sample/_build/dev/lib/avr_companion_sample/priv
cp /tmp/avr_companion_sample/_build/dev/lib/avr_companion_sample/obj/arduino.hex /tmp/avr_companion_sample/_build/dev/lib/avr_companion_sample/priv/arduino.hex
Compiling 2 files (.ex)
Generated avr_companion_sample app
Conclusion
On this first part we learned how to add an Arduino Sketch into a Nerves project and how include the compilation output on the released firmware.
On the next part we will cover the code to update the companion device automatically and also we’ll include some code in both devices to interact with each other.
Continues on: Arduino companions for Nerves devices (Part 2) | https://medium.com/@luisgabrielroldan/arduino-companions-for-nerves-devices-part-1-2e3d618edc9f | ['Gabriel Roldán'] | 2020-03-25 22:03:52.483000+00:00 | ['Embedded Systems', 'Arduino', 'Elixir', 'Avr', 'Nerves'] |
Why I Write, and How it Changed Me | Photo Credit: Green Chameleon
“Why would a hard-nosed businessman become a writer?”
I didn’t know what to say to the middle-aged woman who asked the question at a talk I gave a few weeks ago. I finally replied with something sufficiently vague that she just nodded and sat down.
That evening after the talk, I thought about her question more seriously.
I did so the only way I knew how — by writing about it. The only way that any thought of mine can become intelligible (to me or anyone else) is by going through my process, which always means it ends up in written form.
Stephen King famously said, “Writing is refined thinking.”
My thinking process starts with a particular question or thought that dominates my mind for hours and days. I keep reflecting on it, unconsciously discussing it with myself, and finally putting pen to paper in my journal. From there, my thoughts might expand to a blog post, a talk, a task at work, or a project. I then revise and refine again and again till I have a final product.
My process of thinking — how my words reach paper — is similar to the preparation of coffee. Coffee passes through many levels of refinement before arriving at our palate in liquid form. Raw beans are roasted, ground, mixed with hot water, and then finally strained and served.
So it is with thoughts.
My interest in writing emerged almost five years ago when I began writing “Morning Pages” as heralded by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. I would decipher my dreams, then go on to analyze my previous day’s actions and consider in more depth the fears that were holding me back. I would also celebrate my victories, remind myself of all my good qualities, and appreciate the people and things in my life.
Writing has become like breathing to me; I must write to keep living. It has become my way of making sense of myself.
I don’t write for my loved ones. I don’t write to promote my business. I write for me.
We all need to have that “one thing” at our core — a vehicle for going deep into our essence, exploring the mysterious places of our heart, venturing into our past, and confronting painful moments stored away in our subconscious.
Through this creative endeavor, we face the stored up hurt rather than judging or numbing our feelings away for fear of meeting them. We allow our highest self to express.
In the last few years, my interest has grown into a passion. Writing and I have become one. Writing is me, and I am writing. Writing is now the foundation on which I lay all other building blocks to produce a better life for myself.
Writing transformed me. It released me from the shackles that had held me back since childhood. It has led to many of my spiritual trysts, wherein I meet my true self and feel the power of grace within me. It has penetrated deep into my soul, always asking and forever searching for the best way to be authentic.
I am still in my toddler years as a writer, but already writing has taught me many lessons that I can apply in my life. It has stripped me of my arrogant egoic ways and taken me out of the closed-box mentality that defined me for so many years.
I have been consistently blogging for the past two years, with one blog post per week. I rise early, meditate for twenty minutes, read for another thirty minutes while having my coffee, and then finally journal my thoughts for twenty minutes. These written thoughts then germinate in my mind. When I come back from work in the late afternoon, I find myself ready to write the first draft of a blog post or some words toward a book chapter.
This discipline of sharing myself — my soul — has not only changed me, but has also inspired many others to dig deeper into their hearts and lives. It has culminated in my first book, The Shift, in which I discuss the various human experiences that resonate with all of us.
I know that if I remain faithful to my writing and work to strengthen my inner voice, then I will become more consistently connected to my higher self.
And ultimately, this connection will bring greater mastery of the craft and broader service to humanity.
This is why I write, and why I will keep writing. | https://medium.com/emphasis/why-i-write-and-how-it-changed-me-6afb7ed00a16 | ['Mo Issa'] | 2017-11-23 14:04:41.669000+00:00 | ['Passion', 'Writing', 'Creativity', 'Lessons', 'Purpose'] |
Kotlin API — Spring Boot + PostgreSQL | Purpose of this article
To develop REST API using Kotlin with Spring Boot 2.3.1 and PostgreSQL.
Prerequisites
For this project, we are going to use IntelliJ CE, JVM 11 and docker.
Create the project
First of all, you need to install the spring initializr plugin on IntelliJ.
Creation of the project using spring initializr
Attention to project type and Language
Use HATEOAS and PostgreSQL dependencies
Import Gradle to IntelliJ
To import, you need to right-click the build.gradle.kts and then “Import Gradle project”.
Gradle file with dependencies
This Gradle file includes the exposed dependency and GSON, used to manipulate database data and to manipulate JSON, respectively.
import org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile plugins {
id("org.springframework.boot") version "2.3.1.RELEASE"
id("io.spring.dependency-management") version "1.0.9.RELEASE"
kotlin("jvm") version "1.3.72"
kotlin("plugin.spring") version "1.3.72"
} group = "com.example"
version = "0.0.1-SNAPSHOT"
java.sourceCompatibility = JavaVersion.VERSION_11 repositories {
jcenter()
mavenCentral()
} dependencies { implementation("com.google.code.gson:gson:2.8.6")
implementation("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-hateoas")
implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-reflect")
implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jdk8")
runtimeOnly("org.postgresql:postgresql") implementation("org.jetbrains.exposed:exposed-core:0.24.1")
implementation("org.jetbrains.exposed:exposed-dao:0.24.1")
implementation("org.jetbrains.exposed:exposed-jdbc:0.24.1") testImplementation("org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test") {
exclude(group = "org.junit.vintage", module = "junit-vintage-engine")
}
} tasks.withType<Test> {
useJUnitPlatform()
} tasks.withType<KotlinCompile> {
kotlinOptions {
freeCompilerArgs = listOf("-Xjsr305=strict")
jvmTarget = "11"
}
} springBoot {
mainClassName = "com.example.demo.DemoApplicationKt"
}
Create the controller
package com.example.demo.controller import org.springframework.hateoas.MediaTypes
import org.springframework.http.HttpStatus
import org.springframework.http.MediaType
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.* @CrossOrigin(maxAge = 3600)
@RestController
class AppsController(
) {
@GetMapping("/", produces = [MediaTypes.HAL_JSON_VALUE, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE])
@ResponseBody
fun helloWorld(): ResponseEntity<Any?> { return ResponseEntity("Hello World", HttpStatus.OK)
}
}
Run the application
After importing the grade, on the left side of your IntelliJ, in the Gradle tab, your project will be loaded and can be run using this task:
In your postman, you can do a request to your endpoint:
Let’s set up our PostgreSQL
Create a docker-compose.yml for your project:
# -------------------------- DEPENDENCIES ------------------ postgres: &POSTGRES
image: postgres:10.4 # ------------------------- DEV ---------------------------- postgres-dev:
<<: *POSTGRES
ports:
- 5432:5432
volumes:
- ./db/dev/databases.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/1-dev-database.sql
- ./db/dev/roles.sql:/docker-entrypoint-initdb.d/2-dev-roles.sql
We are using two volumes: one for the database itself and another one for the roles.
databases.sql
CREATE DATABASE demo_db;
roles.sql
CREATE ROLE demo_dev_rw WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'dev_database_passwd'; GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE demo_db TO demo_dev_rw;
Run PostgreSQL:
docker-compose up postgres-dev
Create your table dto file
package com.example.demo.database import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.Table object Demo : Table() {
val id = integer("id").autoIncrement()
val name = varchar("name", 50)
}
In my case, I put this in a package called database.
Connect your application with PostgreSQL
package com.example.demo import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import com.example.demo.database.*
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.Database
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.transactions.transaction
import org.springframework.boot.runApplication
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.* @SpringBootApplication
class DemoApplication fun main(args: Array<String>) { val dbUrl = "jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/demo_db"
val dbUser = "demo_dev_rw"
val dbPass = "dev_database_passwd" Database.connect(dbUrl, driver = "org.postgresql.Driver", user = dbUser, password = dbPass) transaction {
addLogger(StdOutSqlLogger) SchemaUtils.drop (Demo)
SchemaUtils.create (Demo) } runApplication<DemoApplication>(*args)
}
We are connecting to the database, dropping (to clean on each run) and creating the table.
Add mock data
Still, in your application file, let’s create some mock data.
package com.example.demo import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication
import com.example.demo.database.*
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.Database
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.transactions.transaction
import org.springframework.boot.runApplication
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.* @SpringBootApplication
class DemoApplication fun main(args: Array<String>) { val dbUrl = "jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/demo_db"
val dbUser = "demo_dev_rw"
val dbPass = "dev_database_passwd" Database.connect(dbUrl, driver = "org.postgresql.Driver", user = dbUser, password = dbPass) transaction {
addLogger(StdOutSqlLogger) SchemaUtils.drop (Demo)
SchemaUtils.create (Demo) Demo.insert {
it[name] = "Teste 1"
} Demo.insert {
it[name] = "Teste 2"
}
} runApplication<DemoApplication>(*args)
}
Create a list method on dto
package com.example.demo.database import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.Table
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.selectAll
import org.jetbrains.exposed.sql.transactions.transaction object Demo : Table() {
val id = integer("id").autoIncrement()
val name = varchar("name", 50) fun getAll(): List<Any> = transaction {
Demo.selectAll().map { it[name] }
} }
List data on endpoint
fun helloWorld(): ResponseEntity<Any?> { val list = Demo.getAll()
return ResponseEntity(Gson().toJson(list), HttpStatus.OK)
}
That’s it!
You’ve made the basis of an API using Kotlin with Gradle, spring-boot and PostgreSQL.
Next steps
You can try to create the /:id endpoint and try to get the data using the id of the table.
Good Luck and Have Fun! | https://medium.com/@matheus.mfgarcia/kotlin-api-spring-boot-postgresql-d402b4148681 | ['Matheus Garcia'] | 2020-08-21 15:22:39.266000+00:00 | ['Postgres', 'Gradle', 'Spring Boot', 'Kotlin', 'Rest Api'] |
8 Surprising Diseases & Disorders That Coffee Combats | 8 Surprising Diseases & Disorders That Coffee Combats
Photo by borphloy Adobe Stock
As an enthusiastic coffee drinker, I was happy to find out that coffee has some surprising health benefits that can fight many common diseases and disorders.
According to MedicalNewsToday, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer's, cancer, and suicide are within the top ten leading causes of death for Americans. Coffee can help lower these risks, as well as a couple of others.
Let’s break down exactly how your morning cup of joe can do more than get you through the day.
Alzheimer's Disease (and Dementia)
Alzheimer’s disease is an increasingly common neurodegenerative disease across the world and often leads to dementia. At this time, we don’t have a cure for Alzheimer’s, so focusing on prevention is essential.
Numerous studies have been done on coffee and Alzheimer’s prevention. Many show that daily coffee consumption can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by up to 65%.
The current idea is that caffeine is responsible for this reduction. But why?
Scientists and doctors have studied brain imaging with caffeine. Caffeine actually reduces inflammation in the brain.
In fact, adults over 65 years old who had high levels of caffeine in their blood (think about 3 cups a day of coffee), were able to delay or avoid Alzheimer’s disease even if they displayed mild cognitive decline already.
One neuroscientist, Dr. Cao, commented,
“These intriguing results suggest that older adults with mild memory impairment who drink moderate levels of coffee — about three cups a day — will not convert to Alzheimer’s disease or at least will experience a substantial delay before converting to Alzheimer’s.”
Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease caused by the death of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. Like Alzheimer's disease, there’s no cure. Therefore, prevention is extra important.
According to numerous studies from Annals of Neurology, JAMMA, and Movement Disorders, drinking 1–3 cups of coffee per day can decrease the risk of Parkinson’s between 30–60%.
The protective property in coffee that fights Parkinson’s? Again, caffeine. When similar studies were run with decaf coffee, the results were negligible.
Type II Diabetes
Type II Diabetes is a huge health issue. More than 34 million Americans are diagnosed with it. Type II diabetes is caused when your body becomes insulin resistant, usually due to the damaging effects of high blood sugar.
Interestingly enough, coffee consumption has proven to reduce the risk of developing this form of diabetes.
One study shows that coffee may lower your risk of Type II Diabetes by 7% per cup. So if you drink 3 cups of coffee, you would potentially lower your risk by 21%.
Researchers believe that the reason coffee would provide this protection is that it is rich in antioxidants, which lower inflammation. Sugar is known to cause inflammation, so the antioxidants in coffee would help to counter the negative effects of high blood sugar.
Cirrhosis
Cirrhosis is a serious medical condition in which the liver becomes covered in scar tissue and is unable to function properly. Different things can cause this condition, such as fatty liver disease or alcoholism.
Many studies show the relationship between coffee and reduced risk for cirrhosis. This study indicates that coffee consumption can lower the risk of cirrhosis based on how many cups you drink.
1 cup of coffee = 30% reduced risk
2–3 cups of coffee = 40% reduced risk
4 cups of coffee = 80% reduced risk
These effects were more prominent in people who were at risk or suffered from alcoholic cirrhosis.
Depression
Depression is not only a serious mental disorder that 6.7% of Americans experience, but it can also lead to suicide if left unchecked. Two studies show that moderate coffee consumption may lower the risk of depression and suicide.
A ten-year study on over 200,000 people, showed that those who drank 4 or more cups of coffee per day lowered their risk for suicide by over 53%.
A study done by Harvard found that women who drank 4 or more cups of coffee per day had a 20% decreased risk of developing depression, to begin with.
Cancer
Cancer claims many lives each year and is a leading cause of death in the United States. Luckily, coffee consumption can lower the risk of cancer. A study on liver cancer specifically showed that just 2 cups of coffee per day can lower your chances of liver cancer by 43%.
But what about coffee makes it such a seemingly magical elixir?
Caffeic Acid: This component of coffee creates an anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-tumor response in the body.
This component of coffee creates an anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-tumor response in the body. Chlorogenic Acid: Coffee is the main way people ingest this acid. Chlorogenic acid also has anti-tumor producing properties.
Coffee is the main way people ingest this acid. Chlorogenic acid also has anti-tumor producing properties. Cafestol + Kahweol: These chemicals protect against oxidative stress and DNA damage, essentially acting as antioxidants to fight off any cancer cell growth and carcinogens.
Heart Disease
Coffee often gets a bad rep for “raising blood pressure.” Whereas your blood pressure can indeed elevate, there are two reasons why it may not be a big deal for most people.
It usually raises a small amount of 3–4 mm/Hg AND
Most people who drink coffee regularly quickly grow resistant to this rise in blood pressure, meaning it will return to normal after a short duration.
Instead of hurting most people’s hearts and cardiovascular systems, a study done in the International Journal of Cardiology shows that women get a decreased risk of heart disease by drinking coffee.
Stroke
Two groundbreaking studies indicate that coffee may reduce your risk of stroke by up to 20%. Considering strokes are one of America’s top killers, this has huge potential to help citizens live longer lives. The studies are:
The first is a Japanese study that assessed nearly 90,000 Japanese adults. When looking at coffee specifically, they noticed that adults who drank coffee 1–2 times a day had a lower risk for strokes.
The second study looked at nearly 500,000 participants and concluded that moderate coffee consumption may lower your risk of stroke.
The Takeaway
Outside of being absolutely delicious and a highlight of any morning, coffee has many health benefits.
Moderate coffee consumption can lower your risk for some of the deadliest diseases and disorders, as well as make you a happier, more productive person overall. So, stop second-guessing if you should have that lunchtime cup, and go enjoy your coffee. | https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health/8-surprising-diseases-disorders-that-coffee-combats-1ae5aed61f35 | ['Malinda Fusco'] | 2020-12-20 19:14:09.825000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Advice', 'Health', 'Coffee', 'Health Foods'] |
WOMEN’S ROLE AND EFFECTS ON DIGITAL MEDIA | WOMEN’S ROLE AND EFFECTS ON DIGITAL MEDIA
INTRODUCTION:
There was a time when women were not encouraged to take part in practical activities. They were enforced to stay bound in the house. Circumstances were so bad that even they were no legally allowed to cast vote during elections.
But then circumstances tend to change. Not only they could cast vote but also allowed to work in organizations and corporate sector. Same revolution seemed in digital media industry. Today, women are not only comprising the position of low and middle level managers but also top-level managers. This proves they have potential of doing exceptional work.
STATISTICS:
When talking about statistics of women comprising digital media it is not a delightful figure. According to the research of International Women’s Media Foundation that was carried out in 2011, only one third of the women comprises the media industry.
Another study that was done by researchers’ Canadian researchers Gertrude Robinson and Armande Saint Jean shows that 28 per cent of newspaper editors are female.
According to study that was done by communication professor Martha Lauzen in San Diego State University, shows women comprises 18 per cent of the directors, executive producers, writers, cinematographers and editors on the 250 top-grossing films of 2011.
ROLE AND EFFECTS ON DIGITAL MEDIA:
When talking about the role of women in digital media it cannot be easily ignored. A woman has a God-gifted ability of maintaining discipline, analyzing circumstances in-depth, making plan, showing transparency and to be more empathetic as compared to man. Use and implementation of these abilities of women can also seem to be applied in digital media.
Their role can be better demonstrated with the help of the survey conducted by Sandip University. According to the survey conducted by Sandip University in India, Women are more competent than men and 28% more productivity can be seen in organization where women are working along with men. The top-level management is of opinion that women maintains discipline and unambiguous workflow process in the organization. Women are good in looking at every aspect and making plans before initiating a project. Women are more empathetic when it comes to make juniors involve in decision making. This inclusiveness factor drives creative thinking and a better solution to a specific problem.
Besides this, Sincerity and straightforwardness is another trait of the women working in digital media that cannot be ignored. When talking about this trait, death of Maltese journalist, writer and anti-corruption activist Daphne Galizia cannot be ignored who show transparency when publishing her investigation report on corruption, one-sidedness for relatives, favouritism, money laundering, connection between Malta’s online gambling industry and organized crime and payments from government of Azerbaijan.
Despite of threats and lawsuits, she denied giving up on her investigation report for many years. She was also arrested by Malta Police Force on two occasions. On October 16, 2017, Daphne Galizia died in car bomb attack when she was close to her home. This incident attracted the attention of lot of local and international journalists. On 17 April 2018, an association of 45 journalists from 18 organizations including The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde and the Times of Malta published “The Daphne Project” in which collective effort was done by them to complete Daphne Galizia’s investigative work.
This precedent shows us that when there is need to show transparency and facts, a woman will never become afraid and stay behind even she has to sacrifice her life. This precedent also shows that a woman has a full fledge caliber to fulfill duty.
CONCLUSION
All these traits and precedent shows that women have the caliber of proving themselves. Their role in Digital Media cannot be ignored. However, statistics showing their incorporation in Digital Media are not such delightful. They should be given more power and position to not only portray the difficulties of women in society but also of rest of the world. | https://medium.com/@naimasiddiqa475/womens-role-and-effects-on-digital-media-a6210d3568cf | ['Naima Siddiqa'] | 2020-12-10 17:25:32.950000+00:00 | ['Digital Media', 'Womens Health', 'Role', 'Effect', 'Women'] |
Prenez la parole en tant qu’expert dans les médias | in Both Sides of the Table | https://medium.com/outjo/prenez-la-parole-en-tant-quexpert-dans-les-m%C3%A9dias-1b6ada5458de | [] | 2018-02-02 10:44:28.116000+00:00 | ['Brand Content', 'Content Marketing', 'Public Relations', 'Startup Marketing', 'Content Strategy'] |
How To Remotely Manage Office Dashboard Screens | Office dashboard screens are common in every workplace, whether it be an air conditioned office or a factory workshop floor, we need these dashboards to keep us informed with the average office display rotating through 6 to 8 dashboards, so why is it such a pain to manage them once you have a handful spread around the workplace?
Traditionally, we’ve used some free tool or script that simply cycles through web pages in browser tabs. This works for a short period of time until you find yourself constantly walking around to screens, fumbling around trying to find the keyboard and mouse that’s gone missing (again) and endlessly adding new URLs to the rotation on screens across your office, frequently having to restart the browser because the machine rebooted for patching or whatever reason.
Tools like Microsoft Power BI, Klipfolio, Tableau, Plecto and Geckoboard often provide some basic options to display a full screen view of our shiny dashboard and sometimes the ability to loop through these web pages at different intervals although more often than not we have multiple tools from multiple vendors that display different sets of data for different teams in our organisations.
Microsoft Power BI Dashboard
Combine this with the fact that maybe these different teams are spread across multiple locations, on multiple floors in multiple buildings, not to mention patching causing these machines to restart every few days which kills the browser windows that display our dashboards.
How do you manage this? Are you still walking over to these screens manually? Better yet, how do you enable these individual teams to manage it themselves so you don’t have to waste your time walking across the building to add another URL to the sales or management departments big screen TV dashboard?
Ideally, we need:
Something that automatically starts looping through our dashboard web pages when the machine boots up A centralized interface to manage all our machines and their attached screens A centralized interface to manage the dashboard rotations. Be able to add, remove and update dashboard URLs The ability to display multiple dashboards on multiple screens from a single dashboard machine
There’s a common theme here, we want to be able do all this without leaving our desk (for productivity reasons of course)
Sound like you?
Well, VuePilot (https://www.vuepilot.com) was created for people like you to solve these exact same problems.
A few minutes is all it takes to get up and running with VuePilot and never again go searching for the keyboard and mouse.
Here’s a quick guide to getting started | https://medium.com/@cheynewallace/how-to-remotely-manage-office-dashboard-screens-20f0f6761e2 | ['Cheyne Wallace'] | 2020-02-20 01:19:58.046000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Dashboard', 'Analytics', 'Data Visualization', 'Power Bi'] |
Proscenic M7 Pro robot vacuum review: Watch your back, iRobot | The M7 Pro is the first Proscenic robot vacuum we’ve reviewed, and if it’s indicative of the rest of the company’s vacuums, it bodes well indeed. The M7 Pro performs both vacuuming and mopping duties, employs laser navigation and mapping, and offers plenty of cleaning customization for a solidly mid-tier price.
The M7 Pro doesn’t break any molds with its design, sticking to a standard circular shape in a black finish. It measures just over 13 inches across and its above-average 3.8-inch height reflects the laser turret—which allows it to map your floor plan—sitting on top. Underneath are two spinning edge brushes and a main rolling brush. A 600ml dustbin slots into the back.
This review is part of TechHive’s coverage of the best robot vacuums, where you’ll find reviews of competing products, plus a buyer’s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.You can control the vacuum with its physical remote, the Proscenic Home companion app, or with voice commands via Amazon Alexa. The app provides many ways to customize cleaning jobs, including scheduling, setting virtual boundaries, and zone cleaning. It also tracks cleaning stats and battery usage and alerts you when the vacuum gets stuck.
Proscenic The Proscenic M7 Pro has a max suction of 2700Pa, making it great for getting pet hair out of carpets.
SetupSetting up the M7 Pro is pretty simple. First, plug in its charging dock and set it against a wall—Proscenic recommends 3.9 feet of clearance in front and 1.6 feet on either side—then set the vacuum on it and power it on. To connect it to the app and your WI-Fi, you have to press the Clean and Home buttons on the vacuum simultaneously until the voice prompt says it’s ready to connect. The app takes over from there, prompting you through the connectivity steps with the vacuum’s voice prompts confirming the success of each one. I didn’t encounter any issues, and the whole process took just a couple of minutes.
[ Further reading: The best indoor air-quality monitors ]Performance Auto dust collector sold separately Proscenic Automatic Dust & Dirt for M7 Pro Robot Vacuum Cleaner See it For the first cleaning, it’s important to clear the floor of clutter, so the M7 Pro has unfettered access to build an accurate floor map. As it cleans, you can view its path on the map as a squiggly white line snaking around the room. The app also displays the area covered in square meters, the duration of the job, and the current battery level.
Once you have a complete map, you can set up restricted areas where you don’t want the bot to go. A clearly labeled button on the map screen opens this feature and prompts you to give the area a descriptive name: “dog bed,” for example. Then it drops a red bounding box on the map for you to drag to the appropriate spot and resize. The box disappears from the map once you save the area, leaving just the area’s name on the map.
Proscenic
Proscenic’s Automatic Dust & Dirt collector, sold separately for $99, automatically empties the M7 Pro’s dustbin.
The map also enables area cleaning for when you don’t want to vacuum an entire room or level of your home. To do this, select Custom Area from the map screen and then Add Custom Area. Again you’re prompted to give the area a name, then a green boundary box appears on the map for you to resize and place. Press Save Area Temporarily to finish.
You won’t see these custom cleaning areas marked on the main map; they’re saved to a separate map that appears when you access the More menu and select Multi-Zone Cleaning. All you need to do to clean one of these areas is select it and press the Go to Clean button.
Zone cleaning came in handy when I used the M7 Pro on my downstairs level. I was able to delineate my living room, kitchen, and bathroom as separate cleaning areas and dispatch the M7 Pro to each of them for vacuuming or mopping individually.
Michael Ansaldo/IDG Mapping allows you to clean custom areas and set virtual boundaries.
The M7 Pro was able to transition over medium-pile carpet, hardwood, and vinyl tile flooring without a problem. It’s laser navigation and 24 on-board sensors allowed it to move around furniture, along walls, and through doorways without banging into anything or taking inefficient routes. Its turret-boosted height prevented it from getting under my low couch, but that was really the only issue I encountered.
The vacuum has three suction strengths—Quiet, Standard, and Strong—the last with a whopping 2700Pa max suction power. That was pivotal in pulling up pet hair and debris from my carpet. I generally used the M7 Pro in Auto mode, so it would automatically boost the suction when it detected the rug, but there is also a Spot mode for cleaning small, extra dirty areas.
The dustbin removes and opens easily for emptying, but if you have allergies or are particularly sensitive to dust, you may want to consider using Proscenic’s Automatic Dust & Dirt collector. Sold separately for about $99, it will empty the M7 Pro in a similar fashion to the iRobot’s Roomba i7+, s9+, and i3+ models. Unfortunately, we weren’t provided one for testing, so I can’t tell you how effective it is. I can tell you that replacement bags for the dust collector cost about $16.50 for a three-pack.
MoppingThe M7 Pro includes a separate mopping module, a 110ml water reservoir to which you attach a microfiber cloth. It performs about as well as similarly outfitted mopping robot vacuums, which is to say good, but not great. Once you fill the reservoir with water and attach it to the M7 Pro, it drags the dampened cloth across the floor to wipe away surface grime. It’s fine for maintenance, but it won’t replace your stick mop for removing tougher dirt.
The main issue, though, is that the M7 Pro doesn’t know to avoid carpet when it’s in mopping mode. That makes area cleaning essential for homes like mine where the two types of flooring are immediately adjacent to each other. Area cleaning allowed me to use the M7 Pro in my kitchen, entryway, and bathroom for mopping without worrying too much it would stray onto the living room carpet. Still, I had to monitor it during these cleanings because its dock, which it automatically returns to when it’s finished a job, was in the carpeted area.
The M7 Pro’s microfiber cloth is machine washable, but the manufacturer also provides 10 disposable mop cloths in the box with the appliance.
VerdictThe Proscenic gets high marks for its vacuuming performance, its excellent app, and ample cleaning customizations. It’s a middling mopper, but no worse than other hybrid-style competitors. It compares favorably to Roborock’s S4 Max in both features and price, and in that light, the mopping feature is a bonus. The Automatic Dust & Dirt collector option should probably factor into your decision, too, as even with the added expense of that accessory, the total cost would be less than one of iRobot’s self-emptying models.
Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details. | https://medium.com/@rick89510241/proscenic-m7-pro-robot-vacuum-review-watch-your-back-irobot-7906b73379f | [] | 2020-12-19 08:56:56.094000+00:00 | ['Chargers', 'Deals', 'Home Theater', 'Security Cameras'] |
The US Tree Map | The US Tree Map
Who doesn’t love trees? They are benign beasts that bring beauty to our lives. Some grow to dizzying heights, eke out a living in the most inhospitable of places, or live to be thousands of years old. Others simply shade us from harsh weather, light up in brilliant colors each autumn, and provide habitat to wildlife. When grown in large numbers, they not only support the largest timber industries globally, they can also be effective carbon-sequesters, climate-regulators, water-filtrators, and ground-stabilizers. Undoubtedly, our nation’s forests are an American heritage.
Trees say a lot about us as a society. They are managed, cultivated, and cut down as per our demand for wood resources. They have been known to influence real estate values, or reveal social and racial inequities that plague our cities. Urban neighborhoods are getting greener as a result of an increasing value in green spaces, and to many, planting more trees is a solution to the worsening climate situation. The point is: trees deeply matter to us.
Why map them [again]?
It’s been done before. Like all natural resources, mapping the distribution of trees is a tool to better manage our forests and study changes over time. Even dated maps such as the one below have their value in understanding long-term changes to forest cover.
Woodland Density Map in 1873 by W.H. Brewer for the “Statistical Atlas of the United States” — courtesy of the US Library of Congress
In the era of remote sensing and machine-learning, mapping trees has become quicker, more accurate, and can be done with greater frequency. Take the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for instance, which relies on 30-meter Landsat imagery to produce a tree canopy density map across the nation. With seven epochs of this dataset dating back to 2001, the NLCD is the longest-running land cover database available here in the U.S.
While the NLCD might suffice to observe spatial-temporal trends over larger tracts of forest, it lacks the finesse required for high-resolution, large-scale analyses. What if we want to observe the individual trees themselves rather than proxies like “density” or “probability,” yet maintain the sheer spatial and temporal scale that the NLCD succeeds in? Cue the US Tree Map. | https://medium.com/earthdefine/the-us-tree-map-bd3712bf3777 | ['Taylor Mcdowell'] | 2020-10-12 16:42:10.900000+00:00 | ['AI', 'Remote Sensing', 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Geospatial', 'Trees'] |
How to Create an Animated Bar Chart With React and d3 | How to Create an Animated Bar Chart With React and d3 Michael Tong Follow Sep 22 · 3 min read
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
Have you ever looked at data visualizations and be wowed by all the effects and animations?
Have you ever wondered how to integrate visualizations with react?
In this article, we will talk about how to make an animating bar chart using d3 in react.
To understand how to create the bar chart, let’s understand what d3 is and how it works.
D3 is an open-source javascript library that is used to create custom interactive data visualizations. It is data-driven and generates visualizations from data that can come from arrays, objects, jsons, or data from a CSV or XML file.
It allows direct selection of elements/nodes in the DOM and attach styles and attributes to generate visualizations.
Here is an example of a d3 bar chart:
I know this is a bit long so let me break this down.
Above we set the margins for the graph and on line 28/29, you would see there is an xscale and yscale. The xscale determines our range on the x-axis and in our case, that would be the range of the years(1993, 1994, etc).
On the other hand, the yscale determines the scale depending on the height of the values.
Afterward, we select the current ref and initializes a bar this way:
we select the “g” element of the current SVG, which is the bar chart itself.
Over here, we start joining the data we get from another file. Normally, this will be data from a CSV or JSON file. Afterward, we initialize the chart.
Here is where it gets interesting. After I set the attr of width, a call to make duration and delay how fast the bars show up.
Let’s look at how the rest of the chart is setup:
Over here, we set up the bar labels first. Afterward, we determine the location of the x-axis and y-axis labels, which we attach to the element “g”. “g” is our master node for the whole barChart.
We also select x-axis-title and y-axis-title and bind its data attribute to the respective fields of year and yAxisTitle. We also dictate other attributes that come along with it, such as x, y position, transform, and its font-size.
Pretty straightforward, right? Let’s take a look at how it’s being utilized inside App.js:
Over here, we have a bar chart, where we set the width and the height as well as the y-axis title. We also give radio options for users to select between us and japan data, which maps to a different set of values from the data JSON under ‘./utils/constant’.
It’s hard to show the graph with the animation here but here is a brief overview of how it would actually look like:
That’s it! I know I talked a lot about the visualization but I will also provide the steps to set this out from scratch.
Step 1: install node on your machine and run the following command:
curl “https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/node-${VERSION:-$(wget -qO- https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/ | sed -nE ‘s|.*>node-(.*)\.pkg</a>.*|\1|p’)}.pkg” > “$HOME/Downloads/node-latest.pkg” && sudo installer -store -pkg “$HOME/Downloads/node-latest.pkg” -target “/”
Step 2: run the following command:
npx create-react-app economic-growth-chart
Step 3: go to app.js and replace with the following content:(already shown once in this article)
Step 4: run the following command:
npm install -- save d3 @material-ui/core
Step 5: Creates a utils folder under the src folder and create constant.js with the following content:
Step 6: under the src folder, create a folder called components and create a class called BarChart.js(this is also mentioned in this article already):
Now go into your terminal and run npm start! Your project is all set up. | https://medium.com/weekly-webtips/how-to-create-an-animated-barchart-with-react-and-d3-b4fd3662633f | ['Michael Tong'] | 2020-09-23 06:10:31.808000+00:00 | ['D3js', 'Web Development', 'React', 'JavaScript', 'Data Visualization'] |
Become More Self-Aware in the Next 3 Minutes | Become More Self-Aware in the Next 3 Minutes
Deciding to be alone is always the hardest part
Photo by Houcine Ncib on Unsplash
Everyone wants to be self-aware, but no one wants to be by themselves.
Unfortunately, if we never spend time alone, we’ll never know who we are.
Often, it’s not being alone that’s hard, it’s deciding to be alone. The prospect of loneliness — what we might feel when no one’s around — scares us so much that we never make time for it.
We might end up alone by coincidence, but we don’t plan for it, and we definitely don’t plan for it frequently. Thus, we rarely ever get there.
Once we actually are on our own, however, almost always, we realize: “Hey! This isn’t so bad. The world is still turning!” And then we learn something new about ourselves.
One such thing you can learn in the next three minutes, and it might not even require physical solitude. All it takes is finding your reflection.
Grab the small mirror in your bag or stand in front of your large one at home. Go to a restroom or turn on your laptop’s camera. You could even use the front cam of your phone, look at its shiny back, or stare at a window.
Wherever you can find it, once you see your twin inside the glass, take a deep breath. Sit or stand straight. Close your eyes. Inhale through the nose, hold for a second, then exhale through your nose as well. Then, open your eyes.
What you see right now is your face at rest. What does it look like? Is it a happy face? A bored face? A sad face? Are you smiling? Do you look grumpy?
Whatever it looks like, without realizing it, this is the face you’re wearing 95% of the time you’re awake.
It’s the face people see when you pass them in the street. It’s the face looking at your screen as you work, at your phone as you chill, and at your TV while playing games. It’s the face behind the windshield of your car, the face that walks into a grocery store, and the face that looks at new people as you meet them for the first time.
Unless…you change it.
If you don’t smile, people won’t see you smiling. If you don’t laugh, no one knows you’re having fun. If you don’t look focused, how should we know not to interrupt you? Facial expressions matter.
Knowing ourselves is our responsibility, and it starts with the look on our face.
It may seem small, but every day, that’s the message we’re carrying into the world. If we want to change that message, we first have to know what it says.
Self-awareness is something we all aspire to, and yet, because of what’s necessary to get there — being alone — we shy away from it at the same time.
Today, spend three minutes with the person in the mirror. Get to know them.
Take a bathroom break, pretend you’re fixing your makeup, or spend a long time “preparing for a selfie.” It’s okay to make up an excuse. If it helps you know yourself better, it’ll be worth it.
Self-awareness is a skill. It takes practice, and to practice, we must make time. Staring at yourself in the mirror won’t be the end of it, but it sure is a start. | https://ngoeke.medium.com/become-more-self-aware-in-the-next-3-minutes-58310d556d12 | ['Niklas Göke'] | 2020-06-08 15:04:37.628000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Life Lessons', 'Psychology', 'Body Image', 'Self-awareness'] |
More Than Enough, Part One | I’ve pretty much given up on being published again, but having spent years writing and re-writing this story, I’ve decided to let my characters out of my laptop and into the world. Nobody I’ve hired to answer such tough questions has been able to explain why they aren’t worthy, so here they are; they won’t be more ignored on Medium, after all, than they were before. In case anyone decides to bother, the opening section of this novel, whose first draft dates back to the late 90’s, is called, “Michael.”
CHAPTER ONE
Even at 11 p.m., the end-of-July heat and humidity made Syreeta’s dress cling like a childhood humiliation. She hated being cold, but still appreciated the polar blast of air conditioning that greeted her, her sister, Anita, and her future brother-in-law, Jay, as they entered the posh, downtown environs of The Kasbah on the second night of Caribana 1993, Toronto’s 26th annual celebration of their West Indian heritage.
If a fresh crop of black men bent on having a good time couldn’t distract her from the imminent threat of senior year, nothing could. She scanned the room, hoping that somewhere in the mass of melanated humanity surrounding the gleaming ebony curve of the bar, leaning against the aubergine walls, lurking behind the alabaster gauze curtains and gyrating on the dance floor, the man who would end her dry spell waited for her. And that he’d find her skintight scarlet dress and matching pumps impossible to ignore.
She spotted her Prince Charming the moment she entered the club. Well, so did everybody. He was hard to miss: 6’2, underdressed in a jet black tank and matching jeans, his bare arms cut and muscular, his stomach flat, his thighs twin columns of statuesque loveliness. His face impressed her even more, with onyx skin, lips like ripe plums, slanted eyes and high cheekbones that made her think of exotic lands she’d heard of only in legend. The diamond stud in his ear only added to the mystique. In short, he was the kind of man who makes grammatically correct sentences a challenge.
Their eyes locked for a tantalizingly long moment. Then, she forcibly turned her head. Why bother? A man like that had at least five women already. Besides, he scared her, leaning against the wall in a dark corner drinking beer, his expression so cold it dared anybody to approach him. Most of all, though, she hated it when people went to a dance and then just stood there, posing.
With three strikes, he would have been out if Syreeta had met another interesting male that night. Instead, she’d spent most of the evening trying not to choke on second-hand smoke and listening to Anita and Jay playing fashion police with the club’s customers, a pastime she found both hilarious and depressing. Syreeta glanced at her dress, regretting the decision to wear a take-no-prisoners outfit that intimidated more men than it attracted. Should have gone with common sense instead of fashion sense.
She was down to four piercings, two in each ear, she’d cut back on over-the top makeup, and while she sometimes wore Daisy Dukes and cropped tops, she never combined them anymore. But alcohol still calmed her down, so she was thankful for the constantly circulating, model-beautiful waitstaff, who made it easy for her to keep drinking rum punch so mouthwateringly sweet and tangy that after her third one, she demanded the recipe.
Maybe lime, coconut rum, grenadine, pineapple juice, Myers and Bacardi are a magic potion, or maybe she was trying harder than usual to kill the ache that comes from being disappointed, but that night Syreeta was this close to being drunk. Not that she embarrassed herself. When she needed to dance to Fatback’s version of “I’ve found Lovin’,” being high just meant she asked Prince Charming instead of somebody else. (One more drink and, as much as she liked that song, she would have danced by herself.)
She emptied her glass, handed it to a Halle Berry clone, and strode across the room, her inhibitions chemically nullified. As she approached, The Prince’s eyes widened with what appeared to be fear, surprise, or both. Syreeta smiled reassuringly. He smiled back, his angular face softening as the corners of his mouth forced his cheeks into symmetrical mounds, the expression in his eyes so endearing that she wished she’d asked him sooner. Then again, it took a while for her to have imbibed enough to have the guts.
“Would you like to dance?” she yelled in his ear. (The music was too deafening for seductive invitations. Besides, she always spoke loudly when she had a buzz).
“Sure,” he replied, in a voice like black sable on bare skin.
` The dance floor was an impenetrable wall, but as The Prince spoke, Syreeta could have sworn a path to the middle appeared, just like in a romantic movie. The crowd forced them close enough for her to smell his scent — Hugo Boss with an earthy touch of musk — and bask in the radiating sunshine of his body. Perfect, if the girl to her left hadn’t kept jabbing Syreeta with her elbow.
They jockeyed for position for about a minute, then Prince Charming took Syreeta’s hands and guided her a few steps backwards. Even though she’d never believed levitation could be a means of moving from place to place, she got so lost in The Prince’s eyes that she started to wonder. Somehow, Syreeta managed to smile at him and start dancing again, concentrating furiously on her equilibrium, painfully aware of the encroaching fog in her brain.
“Where are you from?” he asked, leaning close, tickling her ear with his breath.
“Edmonton, but I’ve been in Toronto about three years. You?”
He leaned in again. “I’m from New York.”
Syreeta nodded — a weekend visitor. She would have picked up on that if he’d asked someone to dance, but since he’d followed the lead of the majority of the best-looking Canadian guys, she hadn’t guessed. Actually, that made his behavior even more bizarre…
“You came for Caribana?”
“Yeah.”
“By yourself?”
He smiled. “Something wrong with that?”
“No.”
Syreeta smiled back and glanced away, trying not to stare, ingesting his presence like a pomegranate, one nourishing seed at a time. Her heart stayed in her throat until she’d stopped looking at him long enough to get caught up in the music again. He hasn’t even asked your name, she realized, a thought that relaxed her a bit.
After one more song, he asked, “Can I buy you a drink?”
She wasn’t ready to leave the floor, so she said, “Oh, did I wear you out already?”
He chuckled and responded, “Not even close, baby. I just want to talk to you some more, that’s all.”
Gazing at him felt like the pull of a riptide. Syreeta suppressed a strong impulse to make an excuse and flee, then followed him off the dance floor. The music was so loud where they were standing that she could have sworn her pulse changed its rhythm with every song. Good, because he had to speak directly into her ear to be heard, but bad because all that dancing could have diluted her sister’s Chanel №5 with the aroma of perspiration.
The Prince bought her ginger ale. She clutched it for dear life, happy to have something useful to do with her hands while she struggled not to become overwhelmed by her spinning brain.
“Thanks,” she said, leaning as inconspicuously as possible against the bar.
“You’re welcome. So…what’s your name?” His teeth actually seemed to glow, beacons in the midst of The Kasbah’s artful gloom. He has five other women, Syreeta thought desperately, swallowing hard.
“You know, I thought about that,” she said, swirling her ice so fast it was a miracle it stayed in the glass. “You asked me where I was from, but you didn’t ask me what my name was.”
The Prince’s eyes crinkled with amusement. “I would have asked you what your name was, but you obviously didn’t want to talk anymore.”
“Well, I was kind of interested in dancing.”
“I like that. I mean, that’s what we’re here for, not to get picked up.” He shifted his weight.
“That’s hard to believe. I mean, you haven’t danced all night.” Damn — just admitted watching him for hours…
“I haven’t tried to pick anybody up, either.”
“True. Which makes me wonder why you came.”
“Checking out the scenery.” He sipped his drink, taking Syreeta in with his eyes, making her insides tingle. “I’m a student of human nature. I wanted to see if people in Canada are the same as they are in New York.”
“Are they?”
“Yes and no. The single brothers here don’t ask you to dance, do they?”
“Yes and no. The better they look, the more they just hang out. Which is why I was sure you were Canadian.”
The Prince’s laughter had the color and flavor of a sip of fine merlot. “Nah.”
“What’s your excuse, then? Wait…don’t answer. I think I know.”
“Oh, really?”
He folded his chiseled arms. The artist buried deep inside Syreeta longed to draw those lovely contours…being an artist is a FANTASY! Then again, so is this man…
“Yes, really,” she continued. “You’re just afraid to get turned down.”
“I am not.”
“Oh yes, you are. Look, it’s no big deal. I mean, every time you ask someone to dance, all eyes are on you because you’re so damn big and handsome, and you never know, you could ask one of those girls who think dark-skinned guys can’t possibly look good. Then you’d have to walk all the way back to your spot on the wall empty-handed. Which is almost expected if you’re ugly, but when you’re gorgeous…well, it’s embarrassing.”
“Wow,” he said, shaking his head. “What was your name again?”
“Syreeta Evans. And I’m right, aren’t I, uh — ”
“Michael. You’re definitely not shy, are you, Syreeta?”
In her imagination, she watched Anita roll her eyes as Little Sister committed yet another dating faux pas. “Look, I’m sorry if I offended you. We can talk about something else, if you want…why are you looking at me like that?”
“Do you model?”
She chuckled nervously. “No.”
“What’s so funny?”
“It sounds like a line.”
“You’re a trip,” he said, with a bemused grin, furrowing his forehead.
“Is that good or bad? Or are you still trying to decide?”
He laughed. “Maybe. Anyway, it wasn’t a line, and if you don’t model, maybe you should think about it.”
“Are you an agent or something?”
“No, but I know a little about the business.”
“You’re a model?”
“Sometimes,” he said, still analyzing her face. “So, what do you do?”
He’s a model, Syreeta thought, even more convinced that she would probably never see him again, and even if she did, she probably couldn’t trust him. Which didn’t matter, because his beautiful head was full of nothing but air. Then again, he didn’t seem stupid. Besides, a lot of models weren’t dumb anyway, from what she’d read in fashion magazines.
“I’m a student,” she replied.
“What do you study?”
“Sociology.”
He grinned. “A student of human nature.”
Human interaction. She chose not to correct him. “Something like that. Although to be honest, I don’t think they’ve told me very much that couldn’t be picked up by anyone with a little common sense.”
“If you’re observant. A lot of people aren’t.” He surveyed the drunken crowd, smiling in a way that made Syreeta wish he lived closer. And that the DJ would play something slow.
“Is this your first time in Toronto?” she asked, more hopefully than she would have liked.
“Yes. But I have a feeling I’ll be back. Unless you plan on coming to New York.”
Her blood pressure spiked. He can say anything, she reminded herself. Doesn’t mean he’ll follow through. “I’ve always wanted to, but you know how it is for us poor students. We can’t just pick up and travel when we want to.”
“You don’t have a car?”
“I’ve got TTC.”
“What’s that?”
“Depends. But it comes with a chauffeur, plus a whole bunch of other seats, and you ring a bell when you want to get out, unless you’re underground.”
Michael chuckled. “Mass transit.”
“Toronto Transit Commission, to be exact. You drove up here?”
“Yeah.”
“What do you drive?”
“Are you into cars?”
“No.”
“So what difference does it make?”
He sounded so defensive, Syreeta decided to drop it. “Just making conversation,” she said, amazed it had taken that long to ask such a dumb question. She glanced around, finishing her drink. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her sister tapping on her watch. Syreeta looked at her wrist — 1:30. Not overly late, but Jay had to work at seven. Being in the hotel business had its perks, but Sundays and holidays were only occasional days of rest. “Seems like I’ve got to go.”
“Already?”
Syreeta pointed to Anita and her fiance. “That’s my chauffeur over there, and that’s my sister. They’re leaving, so that means I am, too.”
“If you want, I can drive you home.”
“Thanks, but I’d better not. It was a pleasure.” Syreeta put her glass on the bar and extended her hand. Michael clasped it with his giant mitts, pulling her in gently and kissing her cheek.
“Can I have your number, Syreeta Evans?” he whispered in her ear as he pulled away.
His breath against her skin made her shiver again. “Sure,” she said, trying to seem cool. Impossible, even with all that air conditioning.
Syreeta gave him her number, said goodbye, and picked her way across the room as steadily as she could, aware of the cold stares of a number of women as she passed. What is it with females, sometimes?
Anita’s smile was so broad, it belonged in an orthodontics commercial. “What’s his name?”
“Michael.”
“He looks like a hoodlum,” said Jay.
Anita stared at him. “Why?”
“Who dresses like that to go to a club?”
“He’s wearing a tank top,” Syreeta said. “If you looked that good in a tank top, maybe you’d be wearing one, too.”
Jay clenched his fist jokingly.
“Really, Jay, why?” Anita asked again, trying not to grin. “A good reason, this time.”
“Dressed like that and wearing an earring and driving a Mercedes…I mean, what does he do for a living?”
“He’s a model,” said Syreeta, resisting the urge to look down in embarrassment. “And how do you know he drives a Mercedes?”
“I saw him come and get something out of it while we were still in line. Where’s he from?”
“The States.”
“See? You can’t be too careful. You know how Americans are.”
“How are they?”
“He’s probably living in the car and wearing the rest of his paycheck on his back,” Anita said breezily, “but so what? Everybody needs a boy-toy now and then.”
Jay glared at her. “Really? You need one, too?”
Anita put her arm around him and purred, “I’m playing for keeps. Why would I want to mess with something disposable?”
He smiled slightly, then turned back to Syreeta. “You still can’t explain how he’s driving that car.”
“Are you implying that the only way a young black American can drive a Mercedes is by being a criminal? Are West Indians the only ones who know how to earn money honestly?”
“No, but — ”
“But what?”
“Well…what kind of job is a model anyway?” Jay replied exasperatedly. “What kind of man makes a living doing something so frivolous?”
“A drop-dead gorgeous one,” said Syreeta, and Anita gave her a high five that made Jay glare at her again.
“Be careful,” said Jay. “That’s all.”
Syreeta glanced at Michael, who caught her and smiled. Jay is just jealous, she thought, because he could never be that sexy in a million years. She’d always considered him an attractive guy, in a buttoned-down kind of way, but definitely not her type. She pinched his cheek and said, “No need to be careful, Jay-jay. He lives in New York, so I’ll never see him again. Weren’t we leaving?”
Syreeta looked around for the Mercedes as they headed for Jay’s Nissan. Maybe Michael is a criminal, she thought. Or maybe he thinks every woman is a gold digger.
She decided not to talk about Michael anymore around Jay, because she didn’t have enough information to argue. But as soon as they got home, she told Anita absolutely everything she could remember. Then she went to sleep, knowing sweet dreams were guaranteed. | https://medium.com/@mariathompsoncorley/more-than-enough-part-one-46d0e87b377c | ['Maria Thompson Corley'] | 2020-12-26 18:26:27.795000+00:00 | ['Fiction Series', 'Fiction', 'Coming Of Age', 'African American', 'Novel'] |
TRAVEL TIPS: Top 5 West Country Destinations (UK) | TRAVEL TIPS: Top 5 West Country Destinations (UK)
Check out our Instagram page and our website https://www.westcountryfamily.com/
A family of three currently living in Bath who love being outdoors exploring together. Blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world and excited to share all our future adventures throughout the West Country. Here are our top 5 destinations, let us know what you think:
Bath
We may be biased, as we currently live in Bath but we don’t think any city/town in the West Country trumps this historic city for a day trip! We are not going to list all the incredible tourist attractions within the city, as you can easily visit the official website (link below), but we will suggest a few hidden gems in the city! Castle Farm in Midford is our favourite restaurant, based on the outskirts of the city — their breakfasts are to die for (Chapati Wrap with hot sauce is our favourite). Best view of the city is from Alexandra Park in Bear Flat, which is a perfect place for a picnic. Our favourite hidden attraction and walk is Prior Park (National Trust), a historic landscape garden with acres of land and the beautiful Palladian Bridge!
2. Padstow
We know this will feature on a lot of other people’s list, what is there not to love about Padstow! This charming fishing town attracts thousands of tourists every single year and we can see why. Everybody knows about the Gordon Ramsey Fish & Chips, famous pasty shops and the harbour so we have come up with a few top tips of our own. Bring bikes or hire them from the town and cycle from Padstow to the Camel Valley Vineyard along the Camel Trail (Sparkling Rose is our favourite). Get a boat from Padstow over to Rock, a stunning village across the Camel estuary. Our favourite picnic spot is next to St. Saviours Point (photographed) overlooking the coast and village.
3. Castle Combe
We only visited Castle Combe for the first-time last year and were totally blown away. Often regarded as the prettiest village in England and we can now see why. Tucked away in the countryside, this beautiful village is rich with history and boasts quintessential Cotswold stone across all the village properties which is why so many TV and film crews have visited down the years. Lots of great walks are nearby and you should head for a well-deserved drinks and bite to eat at the White Hart once your done, their roast dinner is amazing! You should also head to the Medieval Market Cross located in the lower village which was erected in the 14th century, the perfect opportunity for a photo!
4. Newquay
Somehow, all of Newquay’s glorious beaches just missed out on our ‘Top 5 Beaches’ list but there was no doubt the North Cornwall town was going to be left out here! There is so much to do in Kernow’s most famous surfing town, with some of the country’s most beautiful golden sand beaches. Once again, we are excited to share a few hidden gems with you all. Firstly, we advise you start your day having breakfast and coffee at the The Pavilion Bakery (make sure you try their cinnamon buns!). Then spend the day on Crantock Beach (quieter than it’s neighbouring Fistral Beach) and just as beautiful with stunning dunes throughout the long stretch of beach between the Pentire Headlands (photographed). Once you’re ready to call it a day on the beach, head up to the Lewennick Lodge to watch the sun set over Fistral from their balcony with a refreshing drink in hand… day complete!
5. St. Ives
We placed Carbis Bay Estate & Spa in our top 5 hotels and as we loved our trip so much, we both had to feature the gorgeous St. Ives in our top 5-day trips too. The small town in the far West of Cornwall is a very popular staycation destination and rightly so, this fishing village is a hive of activity throughout the year! Of course, many of you know about the Tate Gallery and Porthminster Beach, so we have tried to give you a few top tips that you can’t find on a google search. If you are able to watch the sunrise on a clear day, the best place enjoy this magical moment is from the St. Nicholas Chapel at the tip of the Island. As you’ve woken up so early, head to the St. Ives Bakery in town and treat yourself to a tasty pastry, they are out of this world! Seal spotting at Carbis Bay Beach — You are gauranteed to spot seals on Carbis Bay beach and you can even swim with them too, worth trekking along the coast to watch them pop their head out of the water — they are very friendly. | https://medium.com/@westcountryfamily/travel-tips-top-5-west-country-destinations-uk-d52b32a0507a | ['West Country Family'] | 2020-07-03 11:07:20.363000+00:00 | ['Travel', 'Uk Travel', 'Travel Tips', 'Travel Blog', 'England Travel'] |
5 must-know array methods in React | Improve your skills as a react developer
React is the most popular front-end library at the moment. This makes it very important to understand some core concepts that will help you improve your development process. In this blog post, I’ve compiled some very popular array methods that are frequently used in react project. I trust you'll find this very helpful.
First off, let’s consider what is an array method. Simply put, an array method is a method that can be called on an array to perform an action on or with that array. Here are a few javascript array methods used in react.
.map()
This array method takes in a function that will be called on each element in a given array and it returns a new set of an array without modifying the original array. Simply put, it helps us create a new set of array based on an existing one.
Quick Example
The code snippet below shows a new set of an array after using the map method to add 3 to each element in the numbers array.
const numbers = [1, 3, 5, 7];
const newNumbers = numbers.map( number => number + 3);
// newNumbers will be equal to ['4', '6', '8', '10']
.reduce()
This is a great array method that uses an accumulator to reduce all elements in an array to a single value. It basically takes in two augments, a callback function and an initial value, performs an action, and returns a single value, the value being any type i.e. object, array, string, integer. The call back function takes in two parameters namely: accumulator and current value.
Quick Example
The code snippet below shows a single or the cumulated value being returned, after using the reduce method to add the accumulated value with the current value, the function is iterating over.
const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; const newValue = numbers.reduce( (accumulator, currentValue)=> accumulator + currentValue); console.log(newValue); // newValue will return 15
It is also worthy of mentioning that there are other cool features you can use the array method to do. For more on that, check the MDN docs for example of that. Be sure to thank me later😁
.filter()
Just as it sounds, it works similar to the way the .map() method works. It filters an array based on if an element in the array, meets the condition passed in the function and then, it returns an array.
Quick Example
const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]; const newValue = numbers.filter( (number)=> number >= 3); console.log(newValue); // newValue will return [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
.includes()
This method simply checks if an element exists in a given array and returns a boolean(true or false). Do note that there are some constraints with regards to the data types that the include method can check for. This is because of the way Javascript treats objects and primitive types.
Quick Example
const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]; const newValue = numbers.includes(3); console.log(newValue); // newValue will return true
.find()
This method takes in a function that checks for a specific element in an array and returns the very first occurrence of the condition.
Quick Example | https://medium.com/@raymondosy/5-must-know-array-methods-in-react-da531a02b0ef | ['Raymond Akalonu'] | 2019-12-11 17:58:14.638000+00:00 | ['Array Methods', 'React', 'JavaScript', 'Arrays', 'Reactjs'] |
PANEL: Redefining the Role of Data Stewardship and Data Collaboration for COVID-19 | Richard Benjamins (Telefonica), Claudia Juech (Cloudera Foundation), Brennan Lake (Cuebiq) at the 2020 Responsible Data Summit
Data collaboratives are a new form of collaboration, beyond the public-private partnership model, in which participants from different sectors — in particular companies — exchange their data to create public value. This emerging data approach can bring together a wide range of inter-sectoral experience to generate new insights and innovations. However, the success of these arrangements often depends on data stewards — responsible data leaders empowered by their organizations to proactively initiate, facilitate, and coordinate data collaboration.
In a panel published Tuesday for the 2020 Responsible Data Summit, The GovLab’s Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer Stefaan Verhulst spoke with real-world data stewards Claudia Juech (Cloudera Foundation), Richard Benjamins (Telefonica), and Brennan Lake (Cuebiq) about the value of their role. Addressing the renewed need for data amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they spoke specifically about how they had contributed to the COVID-19 response and recovery effort.
Brennan Lake began the conversation by noting how his organization’s prior experience working on public good issues benefited it during the pandemic.
“I think if we were a company that just solely focused on for-profit models and satisfying private-sector needs, we might have been scrambling to respond to the call and the need for this kind of data but luckily responsible data stewardship is baked into Cuebiq’s DNA.”
He added: “The key ingredient to success was having that network in place and having the infrastructure to be able to share data better in a responsible way with folks we knew would take up the mission in a very action-oriented way.”
Richard Benjamins echoed these points and noted how private-sector organizations can glean lessons from their normal business models.
“When the whole pandemic actually happened, we went proactively to the Spanish government and said, ‘hey, we have nice insights for managing the crisis.’” He noted. “Since then, we’ve been sharing this kind of information through dashboards or executive reports at different levels, just following movements of people across the country.”
Complimenting the anecdotes of the previous two speakers, Claudia Juech noted several major takeaways from her work. First, she said that, as Richard and Brennan indicated, many of the Cloudera Foundation’s grantees had embedded coronavirus-related activities into their data work. Second, she found that many of the criteria for grantees — such as security and governance and data science capacity — continued to be relevant amid the pandemic.
The attendees subsequently expanded on these points and discussed a variety of other issues, including the need to promote long-term sustainability, the value of a community of data stewards, and the importance of engaging with the public on data reuse.
You can watch the full discussion on these points through the video above. | https://medium.com/data-stewards-network/panel-redefining-the-role-of-data-stewardship-and-data-collaboration-for-covid-19-5edcf6aa610f | ['Andrew J. Zahuranec'] | 2020-07-31 19:22:11.030000+00:00 | ['Events', 'Interview', 'Data Collaborative', 'Data Responsibility', 'Data Steward'] |
Gerton Bejo: CREATIVITY IN THE ERA OF REMOTE WORKING | Likewise other previous important events in history have brought about great changes, the Covid-19 pandemic, among other things, has profoundly changed our relation to work and, of course, how we work.
Shifting from working at the office to working at home, shifts, or other settings outside of the office existed even before this pandemic, but the massive spread it had this time all over the world seems to have landed for good and it is here to stay. Such events of extraordinary social and economic impact also suggest the closure of some markets and the opening of some others. Online education, online fitness, e-commerce, online health education, etc. have flourished alongside remote working in various industries. The communication industry remains among the industries that not only will resist, but will also be strengthened under the new conditions.
At first, adjusting was hard as many companies did not have previous experience in remote working and did not have any ready-made protocols and tools to make it work. What is more, operating under the stress of the pandemic and fear for the future created an even more difficult situation: many lost their lives, sick family members, online schooling, and fear of losing one’s job/business and the lockdown came together to create a very stressful background to aim for high efficiency. However, besides the reasons for which this method was embraced immediately and globally, companies discovered their benefits, by reducing costs for employers themselves, but also increasing financial benefits for employees.
WHAT IS THE IMPACT THAT THIS SUDDEN CHANGE HAD ON WORK PRODUCTIVITY?
From the experience of our agencies, naturally many work behaviors and processes and internal and external communication changed during the pandemic and became part of ours even after coming back to the office.
Some changes observed during this period:
1. Productivity has increased, as the new context has evoked the need to experiment with new things, new thoughts and has encouraged “out of the box” thinking, bringing innovations for solutions in unusual situations.
2. While working at home, each employee adapts his/her daily agenda, which has given them a sense of freedom at work, but also even greater responsibility.
3. Willingness to retain their jobs increased, in such difficult times when many lost theirs.
4. There is a sense of fading social skills, but there is also an increased sense of empathy.
5. There is also a reorientation in personal development in order to survive the new circumstances.
6. The focus is on going back and solving priorities. Online meetings are shorter (or even when a few are present) and attention is directed to crucial issues.
7. In this whole new reality, technology plays the most important role in the efficient functioning of remote working, so investing in technology (in both skills and equipment) is necessary.
8. Once everything seems to have been reformatted, there is one thing that remains not only unchanged, but that has taken on an added value in the new context in our industry: talent and creativity.
This last point in particular is the essence of our industry. You can change budgets and communications, they may attain new numbers and forms in different times, but human resources that come up with ideas and apply creative solutions can’t be substituted by robots and digital innovations. Utilizing these talents in a proper and effective way and the creativity they bring to the marketing industry in the new reality of remote working, will be the utterly important challenge of marketing agencies and all communication professionals, as the competition gets tougher. A challenge that, in fact, remains the “ace up the sleeve” for both agencies and freelance professionals in this industry. The need to come up with solutions in these unknown circumstances will produce new modes of communications, a new language when sending messages, creativity in realizing new events and protocols, perfecting digital communication and design in a new level of creativity to adapt to the times we are living.
Apparently, remote working will indefinitely take on even larger dimensions and will be part and solution to our routine, therefore we, as specialists, in the field of marketing and communication will have to reflect and find ways to perfect our strength, which is the remedy that will take us forward in a world that needs healing: creativity. | https://medium.com/@gerton-bejo/creativity-in-the-era-of-remote-working-3703a45fa950 | ['Gerton Bejo'] | 2020-12-07 14:07:38.924000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Remote Working', 'Design', 'Creative Process', 'Agency'] |
CHEMO IN THE CLASSROOM | Stories, Meaning — and the Sense of It.
Gazing toward the Pacific during a chemo session.
There’s something I say to filmmakers in my classes, for many years at AFI Conservatory but now online worldwide, to the effect that as we follow the course of a story we long for a victory of some kind while fearing a defeat, yet in a good story what we discover at its end is a sense of meaning, often paradoxical, often hard to articulate, but with a resonance that renders either outcome almost irrelevant. The tragedy we dreaded, we find, offers a reward. The painful ending reverberates, stays with us while the happy dénouement we longed for withers in our memory from the moment we leave the movie theater (in the days when we could attend such venues) — unless it’s come with a cost so that along with the victory comes the pang of defeat. This sense of meaning — and it generally comprises of questions, contradictions and mystery rather than easy answers or moral reassurances (Spotlight went dark for me the moment the lights came up, if not some time before) — is what story and storytelling offer us. Through paths of emotion denied the philosophical treatise, story speaks to us in all aspects of our humanity. Yes, I love philosophy: Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard, Kant, Aristotle, Locke, Lao Tzu — but it’s Hitchcock, Kubrick, Lynne Ramsay, Lucretia Martel, Andrea Arnold, Barry Jenkins, Martin Scorsese and Ari Aster who get to me deep down in my heart and guts. It’s through their work that I find connection, a sense of meaning, of truth. A story, Nobel laureate Alice Munro says, has a sturdy sense of itself, of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you. Those filmmakers don’t seek to shelter or beguile us, don’t attempt to make everything “alright”, but to show us what they’ve let be built out of its own necessity: a story, like it or not, to take us to the core of something we cannot deny, ignore, still less escape, but to the contrary must come to accept.
This weekend marks exactly eight years since the procedure I underwent that saved my life. That transhiatal esophagectomy left me deprived of a couple GI tract components — let’s not dwell on the details — but otherwise left me in one grateful piece. Thanks to the craftsmanship of the surgeon, my guidance from the oncologist and the care given me by the health workers who made my treatment so much less unpleasant that might otherwise have been the case, here I am today, sitting down trying to do justice to what I want to say. I may be several superfluous pounds lighter, may not be able to scarf down a burger and bun with bacon, cheese, pickles, tomato, lettuce and all the rest of it, not able to scarf down anything for that matter, perhaps a little askew physiologically, and a touch more fragile to be honest, but I remain above ground, on the planet, and struggling still to work out what’s going on with the world, with my life, with the lives of everyone around me — a bewilderment now all the more puzzling given the events of the last few months.
Where’s this going? you’re wondering, as you ponder any unlikely connection between the golf ball-sized obstacle lodged in my craw eight years ago, the treatment that rid me of it, and my pontification on the nature of story and why it proves so essential to the lives of so many of us. To explain, I need to recall those days of chemo and radiation, the surgery and recovery period after, and the course of brutal “insurance” chemo following. Chemo does you in — no profound revelation in my saying that. The nausea, the shriek of pain as your hands and your feet morph into shrunken talons one moment, and a polystyrene numbness as they succumb to neuropathy the next, tend to wear one down. The radiation doesn’t help either, although the radiation folk accuse the chemo folk of the side effects as the chemo folk accuse the radiation folk — such Hitchcockian transfers of guilt offering only passing amusement. Then comes the surgery, the cut in the neck, the slit down the front. The snatching out of what lies in between. Post surgery the feeding tube arrives, conduit for nutritional substances distinctly less than appetizing. Not a bundle of fun.
And still… it wasn’t all bad. The biweekly chemo sessions, the major hits, had me gazing, over my feet, out of the window before me to Santa Monica Boulevard, hurrying away to the Pacific and a distant glimmer that struck me as the sparkle of hope, the infinity it intimated seeming the harbinger of some manner of timeless permanence. There were the aforementioned health workers too, people who seemed to enjoy a selfless devotion to those of us fortunate enough to be in their charge. Diversity, along with kindness, reigned supreme among their ranks, so that for once, despite my English predilection for outsiderness and miserablist alienation in general, I began, somewhat unusually, to feel a part of humanity.
Yet there was something even more profound, if that’s possible. There were moments when, lying back plugged into dangling sac-fulls of chemo agent — the heavy artillery as I used to describe it, irony the means of consolation — I thought of the opening title sequence of the first Star Trek episodes, a show my family would watch together after “tea” when I was in my early teens and living deep in leafy southern England. (Each ep was as good an introduction to philosophy as any book). Cosseted under my blanket and in my reclining chair at the UCLA Medical Center, I one morning discovered myself hurtling at warp speed into that all encompassing cosmos, clusters of stars, of galaxies rendered speeding pinpricks of light to rush past me as I tore forth into the darkness ahead. Stars, stars, and more stars, as if the big bang was never going to stop — not much a bang as one perpetual roar of joyful existence. This was me, nano-sized, accelerating forward; this was the universe, fathomless in its unimaginable dimension, coming at me at the speed of light, inviting me into its heart… Somehow, in that moment, I became a part of it, at one with it, and no matter how minuscule I might have been — a Lilliputian dot so tiny I barely existed at all — without me it could not have been the same universe: different only imperceptibly, admittedly, but different nevertheless. I could not escape belonging to it, nor, sentient or insentient, could it escape my belonging.
People talk about “battling” cancer, about “beating” it. I never battled or beat anything. What was I supposed to be fighting against? Myself? The replicating cells were a part of me, not of anyone else. What what was I supposed to be battling with? And how? I found myself not so much battling as traveling, and with those brief seconds of interstellar overdrive came to see I might accept my place in the universe, accept it as I’d previously found it difficult to accept very much of anything, so that although I have not the slightest wish to return to the predicament of that fall, winter, and spring, I came to accept what it was I was going through. There was a truth in it, a mystery, one I neither had to “battle”, nor resign myself to passively, but one I found I could accept actively. This was my decision, my agency, and yet with the rescuing humility it presented. Understanding is not a piercing of the mystery, but an acceptance of it, a living blissfully with it, in it, through and by it, Henry Miller wrote. No certainties, no homilies, no easy answers, but a truth like that derived from a good story built of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you, but to have you live with it, in it, through and by it.
I wore my chemo pump in my sleep. I wore in the shower. I wore it to class. I wore it as I worked with the students on the stories they wanted to tell. It made my hands and my feet shriek as they morphed into talons, then tingle with the numbness of neuropathy, then twist tight again like the dead contorted feet of a bird clinging, as if still for dear life, onto thin air. But with this pump came the memory of that warp speed Star Trek epiphany and the acceptance it afforded, just as with the stories and films those students were striving to put up on the screen might come the acceptance of paradoxes known and accepted only through the journeys along their narrative paths.
We know when we see a good movie, when we follow a good story. We know, and it pleases us, when we can do nothing but accept it. We know when the sense of meaning it offers connects us to ourselves, to each other, and to the universe of which we form our human part. And with movies there’s no need for sickness, for chemo, no pump, no talons, no polystyrene feet, just the screen, the drama, the emotions, and the sense of meaning that only story can deliver, taking us deep into its core as its stars rush past, so that we may live with it, in it, through and by it.
Peter Markham October 2020
Author: What’s the Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplay. (Focal Press/Routledge)
https://linktr.ee/filmdirectingclass | https://medium.com/@pmarkhamca/chemo-in-the-classroom-4147090113b2 | ['Peter Markham'] | 2020-10-25 22:42:40.120000+00:00 | ['Meaning', 'Storytelling', 'Film', 'Filmmaking', 'Cancer'] |
PR: come usarle bene tra la Fase 2 e la Fase 3 dell’emergenza COVID-19 | Director @ Mirandola Comunicazione. 13 years of work in PR for digital innovation culture at the service of the end customer. In any case: “Ave Maria e avanti!”
Follow | https://medium.com/ipresslive/pr-come-usarle-bene-tra-la-fase-2-e-la-fase-3-dellemergenza-covid-19-620de7a205c8 | ['Marco Ferrario'] | 2020-04-21 15:49:33.541000+00:00 | ['Pr', 'Pr Agency', 'Punti Di Vista', 'Covid 19', 'Covid 19 Crisis'] |
Setup GeoServer for a local GIS Application (like CesiumJS) | This is a summary of how to get GeoServer working nicely together on a local machine. I had a heck of a time doing this, going to a bunch of different groups, posts, YT videos, etc. So I am putting this all in one place for people to follow. And for me later down the line if I have to do this again! It should not be this hard to get this going so I hope this helps you. Here is my one caveat: I had to get this running in a ‘disconnected from the Internet’ kind of way. When we are done here you will have your own mapping server. And then you can jump to the other article I finally completed on Getting CesiumJS to work with a local GeoServer for GIS map data.
Introduction, a.k.a. WHY I had to do this
Recently I had to create a Geospatial Information System (GIS) for displaying a map, points on the map (tracks), trackpoints (movement of tracks), points of interest and drawings on the map. I had used CesiumJS in an earlier lifetime and really liked it so I chose to start with that. In addition, I needed to load GIS maps, images, streets, etc. locally where I may not have a broadband Internet connection. So I went back to GeoServer which I had talked about in my past lifetime but not used. This is to document what I did, how I did it, and hopefully help someone else from going to 17 articles and websites to find all the pieces you need to get started!
When we are done, you should have a working skeleton for running local maps. In another post, I will explain how I got CesiumJS to call this and dropped in a sliding menu to show/hide options, added event listeners for keyboard commands and line drawings, and other things to make your GIS-based application get up and running quickly!
For now, let us just get this piece started…
Install all the foundational pieces
First things first: you need to pull down PostgreSQL and make sure the PostGIS extensions are setup. On my Mac, I ran the command brew install postgis and it used Homebrew (which I love!) to connect and get every single thing you need. This takes a little bit to pull down all the pieces and dependencies. I have a script to run PostgreSQL when I want to. Or you can set it up as a service to run on boot. pg_ctl -D /usr/local/var/postgres start is the command I use and put into a .sh file. Make sure you chmod +x to allow it to run as a shell command. NOTE: If you have PostgreSQL you may have to uninstall an older one or just get the PostGIS extension working with your current one. As an example, rm -rf /usr/local/var/postgres && initdb /usr/local/var/postgres -E utf8 would be the “blow it all up nuclear” option on this. Do what you need to do base on your specific setup.
If you do not have a Mac, then you can Download PostgreSQL separately. And download the PostGIS extension as well. Follow the instructions for installation of both of these applications with defaults. PostgreSQL will run on port 5432 unless you specifically change it. (As an alternative, you can pull down the PostgreSQL and PostGIS setup inside a Docker image to run locally.)
Next get the latest GeoServer stable release for your operating system and unzip into the /usr/local/geoserver/ directory. You can cheat and run brew install geoserver however you then have to specify a data directory and such. I wanted all mine together so I downloaded and copied it to that folder. Make sure you setup permissions so you can add data to this later by owning the folder. Something like chown -R your-user-name:group geoserver to recursively setup ownership. In the /usr/local/geoserver/bin folder is a ./startup.sh file that runs the default setup. We will get to this later.
Another thing you need to have is bzip2 which is a zip/unzip tool for the OpenStreetMap data. If you do not have that you can use brew to install (or upgrade) it or go to https://www.sourceware.org/bzip2/ to download the proper version.
Finally you need to have the utility osm2pgsql to take OpenStreetMap (osm) files and put them into PostgreSQL. Again using Homebrew you can do a brew install osm2pgsql command to install osm2pgsql locally. Ok now that all that is on your box, let’s get to some fun stuff!
Download some Imagery and Databases for GIS information
First, get your world view. If you do not want to use the Bing Maps or other providers for a base layer map, you need a “world map” view to show continents and land masses/water correctly. I used the Natural Earth files at https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/50m-raster-data/50m-natural-earth-1/ and they worked great. I am using the Shaded Relief and Water one. You need to download that zip file and then unzip the contents into /usr/local/geoserver/data_dir/data/ (or wherever you put your GeoServer installation). I actually made a “worldmap” directory to keep this data area from getting too busy with imagery files. You will point to this later in your GeoServer setup. The file NE1_50M_SR_W.tif is the file you need to put into a folder under the ./data/ directory mentioned. So mine ended up being /usr/local/geoserver/data_dir/data/worldmap/ and I put all the files from that zip in that directory. Now you have the whole world!
Second, pull down some more detailed data for when you zoom into a certain area on your map. I am based in the USA I am going to pull down the state of Florida GIS data. You can use the website at https://download.geofabrik.de/north-america.html to find and pull down the .osm.bz2 file for the proper data similar to OpenStreetMap. I downloaded the linked file and then used the bunzip2 florida-latest.osm.bz command to uncompress it. That gives us a raw file to load into our database with the osm2pgsql utility you downloaded earlier. Geofabrik has a boatload of map data up there and the process to load that data in GeoServer is the same as what we will go over below. If you do not want to use Florida then adjust accordingly for your particular mapping needs. Soon you need to load this into your PostgreSQL database. This is something that takes a while to run. Just be aware…
Make sure GeoServer works
Now go to your /usr/local/geoserver/bin/ directory and run ./startup.sh. You should see a lot of logging information load into your screen and eventually a “Server:main Started” message to show this is running on port 8080. Open a local web browser to http://localhost:8080/geoserver/. You can log in with the default admin user/pwd and then see a Welcome page. If you can do that, you are good to go! If not troubleshoot this and get GeoServer running locally. Make sure nothing else is running on port 8080 locally when you do this.
If GeoServer works as is, now we can load some data into it for use. That is the main point of this anyway!
Load Local GIS maps with PostgreSQL and PostGIS
Now you need to add the downloaded detailed map data from Florida (or whatever you downloaded) into PostgreSQL to use. To do this, connect into your PostgreSQL machine and create a database to load the Florida data. I am using psql to talk to PostgreSQL as I am a CLI person, so I ran psql postgres to connect into the database. To setup this database for GIS data you need to run the commands below to create the database, switch to it, then setup all the extensions:
create database floridamaps;
\c floridamaps;
create extension postgis;
create extension postgis_topology;
create extension hstore;
Finally, we need to run the osm2pgsql command to load your Florida data into the new database like below. This takes all the OSM data and sets it up to insert into the proper tables in PostgreSQL with PostGIS setup. I ran the following command as I did not need to worry about logging. If you do, you will want to tweak the osm2pgsql command as it runs FOR A LONG TIME with logging. Here is what I ran: osm2pgsql -C 2048 -s -H localhost -P 5432 -d floridamaps ./florida-latest.osm -C 2048 --slim --number-processes 2 to load the .OSM file into the database floridamaps we just made using my login as the user login. I have no password on my local instance as I am just testing. Update this command as appropriate for your server and user/pwd. You also can add --unlogged to make it go a little faster if you wish.
Let that run for a bit (mine ran for 12 minutes on a 5 yr old MacBook) until it is done in the command window where you ran it. To make sure it works, connect your psql command to the database and run the command below in the new database. I have ~811k points, ~1.92M polygons, and ~1.34M lines in mine for now.
SELECT ‘point’ AS tbl, COUNT(*) AS cnt
FROM public.planet_osm_point
UNION
SELECT ‘line’, COUNT(*)
FROM public.planet_osm_line
UNION
SELECT ‘polygon’, COUNT(*)
FROM public.planet_osm_polygon;
Load extra GIS maps and data in GeoServer
So let’s see if we can load that imported Florida map data and Natural Earth layer…
In Geoserver, log in w/ the default credentials and click on the Workspaces link. Then click “Add new workspace” to add a new area to put all this data. I use workspaces to group a collection of files, databases, and layers logically so I can structure sets of data. As you use GeoServer you will come up with ways to keep your data structured and keep your sanity in all this! For this walkthrough, call the workspace “florida” so we can reference it later. Make the NamespaceURI “http://geoserver.org/florida” and if you wish, make it the default workspace as I did. Click Submit to save that.
GeoServer Workspaces screen
Now click Stores just under Workspaces and add a new store. A store in GeoServer is a place that your GIS data is coming from. It can be things such as a file, a directory, or in our case for Florida a database. For this first part to get the world map, we are going to use that TIF file we downloaded from Natural Earth. Click “Add a new Store” on the Stores page and then choose the GeoTIFF option. Name it whatever you want (i.e. world-geotiff) and enter a description you prefer. For the URL, click the Browse button link and go to the data/worldmap/ directory we made. Find the NE1_50M_SR_W.tif file and click on it. Click the Save button to save this store. That was step 1! Thankfully once all this is done, it is done. But as I said at the outset, it is kind of a PITA.
Adding a new Store for the Natural Earth TIF file
Now you need to publish this so click the Publish link that shows up. Keep all the defaults and scroll down to the bottom of that page. Click the Save button and now you should see that as a Layer in the listing within GeoServer. Congratulations you just added the world to your GIS Server!! To check it out, click the Layer Preview link just above Workspaces in GeoServder. Then in the search field near the top right of the page type “florida” and press the Enter key to filter the layers. You should see your layer listed now. You can click the “OpenLayers” link to see something like the image just below. If all works, you can now serve this up as a layer in GeoServer for your GIS related applications.
The Natural Earth layer in GeoServer
To import, publish, and use the Florida map database we imported earlier you actually go back to Stores and choose PostGIS under adding a new store. Specify a name for this data store, the server and port (i.e. localhost and 5432) and for me I used my MacBook login name as the user. I have no password setup locally as I bring this up and down disconnected from the Internet. You would NOT do this for any stable development, test, or production server. Use whatever server, login, and password you require. And specify the floridamaps database we setup earlier. Click Save to test the connection and if all is well, it saves and again presents you with layers to publish as it did with the Natural Earth TIF file. You can click Publish on the first layer (I chose the roads) and update the name and title so it is not so generic. If you import a lot of areas or states or regions, you will want to come up with a good naming convention so you don’t drive yourself crazy! I put “FL_” at the beginning of mine to make sure I knew they all were for Florida.
Scroll down to the “Bounding Boxes” area and click the “Compute from data” link and “Computer from native bounds” link to give a bounding box around the area we are importing based on the actual data being used. This sets up the data so GeoServer knows its geolocation and only appears when the GIS is called with a bounding box that includes these features. (This will make sense later on when we demo the layers near the bottom, don’t worry!) Before you save click the Publishing tab on the top of the Edit Layer page and make sure the Default Style field in the middle of the page is set as a line. Click the Save button and BOOM! You just published the roads layer! Again, to view this you can click Layer Preview, enter “florida” in the search box and press enter. Click the “OpenLayers” next to the roads to see the roads appear in a new window.
Adding the Florida Roads from OpenStreetMap data
That is pretty cool to see as you start to see this come to life. You can repeat these steps with other Layers (6 remaining for Florida) by clicking Layers in the left menu of GeoServer, and clicking the “Add a new layer” link. Choose the “florida:floridamaps” area (workspace:datastore) from the dropdown and pick another layer that is not yet published. Repeat the steps above until all 7 layers from the Florida data are imported. Once all are in you can actually create a Layer Group so you can call one group from GeoServer and all layers will show up correctly with a smaller call URL. The “Optional” area below talks on that as well with the GitHub link. For each layer you can go to Layer Preview when done, filter on “florida” and see the OpenLayers version of the file as you did before. The one below is the polygon layer from OSM.
Imported Florida OSM data for polygons (buildings/structures)
FYI, if you click on the “Compute from data” when adding layers and it does not show valid information for the Geo referenced data (a 0 or a -1), I usually just cancel and move on to the next one. If someone knows of a better way please leave a comment below and I can update that.
View the GIS data by calling the Web Mapping Service (WMS)
Once all the data is in GeoServer, there is a way to view these layers by calling the same URL or API that GIS-enabled applications would call on GeoServer. You can go to the Demos link in GeoServer on the left menu near the bottom and then click “Demo Requests” to get a list of Requests you can choose. The URL is like below and you can see there are styles, format, and the layers listed as well as the height and width of the image returned. The “bbox=” area of the URL shows the bounding box (think of a “top left corner, bottom right corner” for the map) as well as the layers to use. The default uses the topp:states layer however you could enter one of the workspace:layers combinations from the Layers listing from the Florida data r a Layers group to get back your own data. You even could call the florida:world-geotiff layer we added for the Natural Earth picture for that bounding box area.
I would spend some time playing with and hacking against these URL calls like the map URL or the OpenLayers URL to see how the GeoServer works behind the scenes when your GIS-enabled application calls it. It helps to explain in your mind how GeoServer works from front to back.
http://localhost:8080/geoserver/wms?bbox=-130,24,-66,50&styles=population&Format=application/openlayers&request=GetMap&layers=topp:states&width=550&height=250&srs=EPSG:4326
Web Mapping Service demo URLs to show your GIS data
So, that is it! You have a working local GeoServer to connect your GIS enabled applications with such as CesiumJS or even OpenLayers. Yes I know…it is a lot to setup. However, once you know the pieces you can repeat sections to add more or different data, add layers, and call the Web Mapping Server URL to see what it returns. See if you can add more layers, import them, reference them in GeoServer, and use the Demo URL area to bring up the area you wish to see.
Optional Step: Customize the look and feel of the OSM data
If you do not want the gray/black/blue lines on your map and want a softer look, I actually liked the way https://github.com/fegyi001/osmgwc ran through the look and feel of Google Maps using CSS to make GeoServer serve up roads, waterways, counties, etc. So I highly recommend going here to see that. I did not write this up on this blog, as this person has a great writeup on it in GitHub and it is fairly easy to follow. I did the layer groups and used the CSS add-in as described in their GH README. I recommend this as the end result looks fantastic IMO! Remember to download the CSS plugin for the correct version of GeoServer you are using. This setup has about 17 layers it creates versus the 7 that are made when you import the OSM data. It logically separates the data into things like roads, counties, country border, waterways, buildings, etc. and styles them accordingly.
The CSS used in the link from GitHub above makes the Open Street Map view much more familiar as most have used Google Maps one way or the other. See if you can try that yourself!
Reference Links
CesiumJS Documentation: http://cesiumjs.org/refdoc.html
Downloading OpenStreetMap data by country: https://download.geofabrik.de/
Natural Earth map download: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/50m-raster-data/
PostgreSQL Download: https://www.postgresql.org/download/
Homebrew for package management: https://brew.sh/ | https://medium.com/@dale-bingham-cingulara/setup-geoserver-for-a-local-gis-application-like-cesiumjs-14322f1178d5 | ['Dale Bingham'] | 2019-09-12 11:49:04.647000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'GIS', 'Openstreetmap', 'Geoserver'] |
My Advent Of Rust, Day 4. | I’ve always considered programming challenges a fun way of experimenting new languages.
For this edition of advent of code (2020), i decided i would give Rust a try.
Rust really makes your head spin a bit with supposedly trivial problems (and this is a good thing!).
This is mainly because programming in Rust requires you to think differently.
Replicating patterns that are common in other languages is tricky and sometimes quite hard or even impossible.
Day 4 was a good example, so let’s examine the challenge, which i will try to resume:
You have a big string input, containing representations of passports.
On double newline, you have a passport.
Each valid passport consists of the following fields: “byr”, “iyr”, “eyr”, “hgt”, “hcl”, “ecl”, “pid”.
passport consists of the following fields: “byr”, “iyr”, “eyr”, “hgt”, “hcl”, “ecl”, “pid”. Find all valid passports.
We’ll, first lets transform the input into something useful. This is the “similar” part of the Rust code to the rest of the other languages.
I’m sure there would be many ways of doing this but i have chosen:
let result = fs::read_to_string("input_day_four.txt").unwrap();
let passports = result.split("
");
so i have copied the input into a file (as a noobie, i preferred not to perform an http request :p ), read it to a String (unwrap to obtain the string is unsafe an discouraged, i know. but since i am controlling the input, it is sufficient) and then split it to obtain each passport.
Why not doing it in one line like :
let passports: Vec<&str> = fs::read_to_string("input_day_four.txt")
.unwrap()
.split("
")
Well… because using unwrap creates a temporary which is freed while still in use. And in Rust this means that i need to create a new variable if i want to continue.
So how do i verify which passports are valid?
Using a language like Go, i would probably loop the separated strings, find the index of : and then try to delete an entry using the index. Then i would assert if the len of the map was equal to zero. If yes, then it is a valid passport. That could be represented as such:
validPassportCounter := 0
for _, passport := range passports {
control := map[string]struct{}{
"byr": struct{}{},
"iyr": struct{}{},
"eyr": struct{}{},
"hgt": struct{}{},
"hcl": struct{}{},
"ecl": struct{}{},
"pid": struct{}{},
} for i, ch := range passport {
if ch == ':' {
delete(control, passport[i-3:i])
}
} if len(control) == 0 {
validPassportCounter++
}
}
another way would be to split whitespace an find the strings starting with the desired fields like so:
validPassportCounter := 0
for _, passport := range passports {
control := 0
fields := strings.Fields(passport)
for _, field := range fields {
if strings.HasPrefix(field, "byr") || strings.HasPrefix(field, "iyr") ||
strings.HasPrefix(field, "eyr") || strings.HasPrefix(field, "hgt") || strings.HasPrefix(field, "hcl") ||
strings.HasPrefix(field, "ecl") || strings.HasPrefix(field, "pid") {
control++
}
} if control == 7 {
validPassportCounter++
}
}
Using these patterns proved to be quite challenging in Rust. I kept fighting the compiler, and the compiler kept winning.
So i went back to sketching… what was i really trying to do?
I have a vector of references to strings to which i wanted to filter the ones containing the right values and then count the collected values.
Looking at Iter i found that using an iterator i could filter elements with a predicate and then count the filtered entries.
Horaay!
So i am on to something. I wrote:
let valid_passports = passports
.filter()
.count();
So now i only need a predicate that filters the strings i need!
the predicate could be similar to the second golang approach:
fn check_validity_part_1(passport: &str) -> bool {
let fields = vec!["byr", "iyr", "eyr", "hgt", "hcl", "ecl", "pid"];
fields.iter().all(|field| {
passport
.split_ascii_whitespace()
.any(|passport_field| passport_field.starts_with(field))
})
}
so again i ask for my new BFF Iterator, which holds an all method that tests if every element of passport verifies a predicate.
The predicate i want is for each field of a passport, determine if the passport_field starts with any of the values of fields.
For that, i’ve use a split_ascii_whitespace to obtain the passport fields, and any to verify passport correctness.
Voila!
Now gluing it all together… it compiles!!!!! YES!! We are the champions!!!!
i just had to make every passport pass the predicate check_validity_part_1 that i wrote previously:
let result = fs::read_to_string("input_day_four.txt").unwrap(); let passports = result.split("
"); let valid_passports = passports
.filter(|passport| check_validity_part_1(passport))
.count(); println!("{}", valid_passports);
and this piece gives the correct input to the first challenge of the 4 day :) | https://medium.com/@seomisw/my-advent-of-rust-day-4-bc3a9e76a85b | ['Pedro Simões'] | 2020-12-13 15:23:06.510000+00:00 | ['Advent Of Code', 'Go', 'Rust', 'Golang'] |
Nonprofit Bookkeeping Questions: Real World Answers | Changing Fiscal Year
Question: Our nonprofit organization is considering a Fiscal Year change from Sep 1 — Aug 30 to July 1 — June 30, to better align with financial accounting quarters (and also because 7/1 is a standard FY start for many orgs). Are there unintended negative impacts of this change that we should be aware of? Would love to hear about pros/cons between 7/1 vs. 1/1, cautionary tales, etc. Thanks!
Answer: If your primary funding sources have a 06/30 year end, it is advantageous to switch for fiscal year end to align with your funding sources. The only caveat to that switch is you will have to file year and reports for a 10 month period of September — June when you make the switch.
PPP Loans and Restricted Funds
Question: I do the bookkeeping for an affordable after-school and summer child care program. Their main sources of income are from these programs as well as fundraising events. They had to close the program for a while and opened back up with limited numbers. They also had to cancel all events, therefore their unrestricted income was down about 46% on average last year (it even ranged up to 73% in one quarter that they were down). They got the first round of PPP loans and id like to go for the second. The question I have is if restricted income is considered in PPP round 2 or if it is excluded? They also started up a coronavirus impact fund with a whole separate committee under the 501c3 that they put on with a local homeless prevention council and those funds make them WAY up to 2019. Something like 200% up I think but they can’t take that money and use for payroll.
Answer: The second round of the PPP loan would first be classified as a Liability until the loan is forgiven. It is not income, until it is forgiven. You must make sure you properly categorize your expenses incurred for salaries, rent and utilities as being PPP expenses for applying for loan forgiveness. Once the loan is forgiven, then it would be classified as unrestricted income.
The funds raised from the Coronavirus Impact Fund must be used for the designated purpose as outlined by the committee. If the funds raised are for general operations to supplement lost revenue because of COVID, then they can apply the revenue against program expenses.
Fixing Inefficient Check Deposit Procedure
Question: I am so frustrated with procedures we have for depositing checks. The CEO hoards the checks, then every week he enters each check, number, amount, GL code on an excel spreadsheet, gives it to the office manager to bring to the bank to deposit, then she gives it to me to enter into QB. It makes NO sense. CEO says we need to this for audit purposes, but using an excel spreadsheet?? Why?? It’s not a true backup when everything should tie out to QB, NOT EXCEL. And this separation of duties things leads to so many f-ups. Like donors payments not being recorded properly and we look like idiots asking for proof of payment. I just don’t understand why this basic bookkeeping procedure is done by 3 people.
Similar issues with bills. CEO hoards the bills so I can’t even enter them into AP. He checks each bill to see if we’ve made any Payments and circles what he wants me to pay. I just don’t get it, I’ve been doing AP for 20 years. I know how to check to make sure we’re not making overpayments.
Answer: There is no easy solution to your problem, since the problem is the CEO. His procedures are not because of internal controls, it is more of his wanting personal control. I would suggest writing up proper internal control procedures for processing cash receipts and vendor invoices and try to diplomatically approach the CEO to try to implement these procedures. It would also help if you had an independent, outside auditor back you up on your concerns.
Cash Accrual: Accounts Receivable vs Pledges Receivable
Question: I’m really confused. This nonprofit works on a cash basis but lately there have been a few times that I have to enter in invoices. I just noticed that half of them went in AR and half went in Pledges Receivable. Why would this happen (as opposed to just one or the other)? When I create the invoice I just enter the service item which eventually links to the right income account. Where is this “middle man” account chosen? Thanks! we’ve made any Payments and circles what he wants me to pay. I just don’t get it, I’ve been doing AP for 20 years. I know how to check to make sure we’re not making overpayments.
Answer: Postings to Accounts Receivable should be restricted to receivables for program services, or grants. Postings to Pledge Receivables should be restricted to pledges for charitable contributions. I have no idea what you mean by ‘middle man.’
Bottom Line
In the normal course of performing nonprofit bookkeeping tasks, you may have encountered some of these issues. It is good practice to consult a nonprofit accounting pro to determine the best course of action to prevent costly errors. | https://medium.com/@araize/nonprofit-bookkeeping-questions-real-world-answers-96870266746e | ['Joseph Scarano'] | 2021-12-14 14:51:36.387000+00:00 | ['Bookkeeping', 'Nonprofit', 'Accounting'] |
Quillette Face IDW Backlash For Critiquing Online Partisanship | There’s trouble in centrist paradise as Quillette and The Rubin Report, two of the largest online platforms for reactionary politics, wage their own internalised culture war. Over the past few weeks, Quillette has faced the firing line of the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW), an emerging movement of seemingly marginalised moderates, after it posted three constructive articles criticising members for being bad faith actors with poorly caricatured arguments of the opposition and partisan loyalism to reactionary orthodoxy.
The IDW’s response only cemented these observations as proven reality.
In early April, the popular author and podcaster Sam Harris tweeted out a graph showcasing the IDW’s political positions, taking seven of the most prominent members — Harris, Dave Rubin, Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and both Eric and Bret Weinstein — to compare each other on a select handful of issues on a liberal vs conservative spectrum. By these results, with exception to Shapiro, the group mostly frames itself as “a collection of disillusioned liberals looking for a place to have an honest conversation”, according to the graph’s author Daniel Miessler.
Miessler’s framing, however, was immediately called out by Uri Harris, a contributing journalist for Quillette, who stepped off the magazine’s obvious IDW-sychophant reservation by offering legitimate scepticism. “This is misleading,” Harris outright tweeted. “Just take a look at @RubinReport’s timeline; he relentlessly attacks Democrats, retweets Trump Jr., and hangs out with Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk. The proof is in the pudding. Some of the other people are debatable, but clearly, the chart is missing something.”
This ‘something’ is the comparison between belief and behaviour.
Generally, it makes sense that anyone on the political spectrum can show their thinking matches their own record. This is the case whether it’s leftists arguing for universal healthcare, conservatives arguing for border security or centrists flip-flopping across the aisle. For radical neo-conservatives like Shapiro, this standard holds when his social media, publications and events are overwhelmingly embraced by rightwing voices who endlessly push rightwing positions. It’s a simple matter of whether they’re both talking the talk and walking the walk.
The same can’t be said Rubin and Peterson, so-called “classical liberals”, who are so often embraced by the likes of Tucker Carlson on Fox News, Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens and Donald Trump Jr. through Turning Point USA, the Koch brothers through the IHS subsidiary Learn Liberty, the objectivist think-tank The Ayn Rand Institute and Dennis Prager’s own propaganda YouTube channel Prager University. It’s important to ask how can a liberal be embraced by conservatives by approval through their own standards?
The relationships aren’t exactly adversarial. Scan their Twitter feed or watch their interviews and the positions often taken by Rubin and Peterson are also those embraced by their opposition, from conservative victimhood culture perpetrated by big tech platforms, climate change scepticism, opposition to sexual liberties to attacks on centre-leftist politicians for civility. Sure, their disagreements on specific social issues are discussed, such as abortion and the death penalty, but how do these compare when they also claim there is a “much bigger threat to western civilisation” such as the “regressive left” and “social justice warriors”?
Harris asks is some “mass delusion”? Are liberals and conservatives suddenly singing kumbaya despite their disagreements to reach across-the-aisle? We’re hardly living in this bipartisan utopia if there’s also a divisive culture war over whether western civilisation and its institutions deserve to exist. Has society achieved peak civic harmony where the issues are discussed to find common ground? Or is it a simple case of building a reactionary alliance, joining forces with the enemy of your enemy in order to secure some united better tomorrow? Use Occam’s razor however you see fit.
“A significant selling-point for the IDW has been that it fosters both political bridge-building and across-the-aisle debate,” Harris writes. “If one accepts Miessler’s claim that issues such as abortion and gay marriage are the main points of contention between liberals and conservatives today, then it does indeed seem that this is what the IDW is doing. If, however, one accepts that the main point of contention between the left and right… is rather acceptance or rejection of the new left and its focus on identity and structural oppression (i.e., modern “social justice”), then it’s pretty clear that this is not what the IDW is doing… Either [Miessler]’s wrong about their positions on the most important political issues, or he’s wrong about which issues truly divide liberals and conservatives.”
These are important questions to bring into the so-called “marketplace of ideas”, the term coined by Rubin to describe when society allows bipartisan criticism to be freely exchanged across the political divide. If you’re genuinely committed to this concept, the marketplace should allow criticism from the leftist opposition and those giving their grievances a fair hearing. Harris even cites Ezra Klein, the editor-in-chief of Vox, who used the debunked study from Data & Society to explain how the IDW alliance developed based on reactionary principles and emerging political issues.
Thankfully, the modern political division isn’t based on the merits of slavery, segregation, women’s suffrage or ethno-theocratic rule. Klein explains were the fundamental issues solved decades past. Things change, certain labels are no longer fit for purpose and new divisions are formed as a result. “The coalition Rubin is a part of, is best understood as a reactionary movement because, well, that’s what it is — a movement united by opposition to changes it loathes… whether you support legal pot has nothing to do with it.” As we move into new definitions of what it means to be a leftist vs a rightist, the classic blue dog liberals like Rubin are left wondering why screaming old values isn’t enough to gain new-school liberal cred.
Instead of taking these criticisms of the IDW like an across-the-aisle good sport, Rubin shutdown the marketplace by demanding Harris and editor-in-chief Claire Lehmann apologise for “garbage pieces” used to smear his name as a political partisan. Lehmann, also considered a friend of Rubin’s and an IDW member, responded by saying his outcry to “mild, rational criticism” made him an overly sensitive “big baby”.
The full exchange can be found across Rubin’s own subreddit (which happens to post similar critiques). This sudden rift within the IDW caused Rubin to post an elongated counter-defence, which amounts to saying he’s debated the right on that select handful of issues, therefore, don’t criticise the alliance or whether there are true across-the-aisle debates. When there are many leftists requesting Rubin for debate — whether it’s Sam Seder of the Majority Report, Natalie Winn of ContraPoints, Oliver Thorn of Philosophy Tube or even Ana Kasparian of Rubin’s former network The Young Turks — the marketplace starts to stink of rotten gatekeeping and stale partisanship on his behalf.
Personally, I find this all quite ironic considering both Rubin and Lehmann have blocked my own personal Twitter account for criticising whether they actually commit to free speech principles (which are questions I consider answered). If there are people who are less qualified to lay claim to the free exchange of ideas and bipartisanship, these two names would make the list. That said, Lehmann’s publication took a brave stance by examining whether Rubin and company are the reactionary right excesses of modern politics.
The IDW can offer some of these diverse discussions, evidenced in Peterson’s recent exchanges with Slavoj Zizek on Marxism, Harris debating Klein, Peterson and TYT’s Cenk Uygur on identity politics and religion, and even Shapiro who’s somehow DESTROYED every leftist under the sun on any given issue anywhere. Whether in good faith or bad, these members adhere to some these principles more than a discussion dodger like Rubin. Is Quillette the only member to cut the fat of their movement? Or will colleagues and followers demand better of their own if there’s a genuine interest in the free exchange of ideas? The grift of striking down caricatured arguments about how “math is a patriarchial construct” and “all white people are racist” can only work for so long.
“The IDW needs to make a choice,” Harris concludes. “Does it want to be a partisan organisation, where its members get together in front of an audience to iron out their differences and strategise on how to defeat the new left, or does it want to be genuinely non-partisan? If the latter, it needs to open itself up to new left people and ideas. The new left isn’t going anywhere, and issues of identity, structural oppression, privilege, critiques of classical liberal notions of free speech and assembly, and similar topics will probably play an important role in the cultural and political discourse in the future. The question is whether the IDW will take a leading role in these discussions or will it allow itself to be pigeonholed?”
Thanks for reading! This article was originally published for TrigTent.com, a bipartisan media platform for political and social commentary, truly diverse viewpoints and facts that don’t kowtow to political correctness.
Bailey Steen is a journalist, graphic designer and film critic residing in the heart of Australia. You can also find his work right here on Medium and publications such as Janks Reviews.
For updates, feel free to follow @atheist_cvnt on his various social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Gab. You can also contact through [email protected] for personal or business reasons.
Stay honest and radical. Cheers, darlings. 💋 | https://atheist-cvnt.medium.com/quillette-face-idw-backlash-for-critiquing-online-partisanship-ad316617095d | ['Bailey', 'The Libtardtarian'] | 2019-05-12 21:52:38.207000+00:00 | ['Idw', 'Free Speech', 'Debate', 'Censorship', 'Politics'] |
Cypherium | New Tech for a New Political Age | Today — this very moment — is one of the most politically charged times in modern history. Simultaneous unrest in some of the world’s geopolitical capitals has contributed to a global atmosphere of uncertainty, fear, and enervation that seems always at risk of boiling over. In Hong Kong, protestors continue their months-long demonstrations contesting the government’s non-democratic policy making. British lawmakers have become increasingly embroiled in the UK’s exit, but have not arrived at any clearer solution as to when and how such an exit may take place. And now, here in the United States, the House of Represented has begun a formal inquiry to impeach the President on the grounds that he bid a foreign government investigate and attack his domestic political adversary.
In this political landscape, tech has been elided with the industries and fortunes of the ultra-rich. American political rhetoric has largely focused on tech to target its monopolized structures and its CEOs, whose wealth harkens back to the rail and oil tycoon of the gilded age. Largely, the American press and politicians are right to do so. Over the course of the last twenty years, technology has continually promised to deliver our global societies from the social strife and upheaval of the 20th century. In some cases this promise has held: it has enabled coordination and mobilization on an unprecedented scale, and it has accelerated national conversations regarding particular policies and social movements. However, largely by replicating and amplifying preexisting social conditions, the tech industry has exacerbated a number of economic trends in the direction of inequality.
There exists a crucial distinction, though, between tech as a utility and tech as a socioeconomic phenomenon. Amazon, Twitter, Google, Facebook, and other now-globally-integral technologies have no innate allegiance to political ideology; as such, they have effectively risen the tides of the affluent, creating a historically large number of new millionaires, as well as disenfranchising the labor and opportunity of a large portion of the working class. As a result, many in the U.S., U.K., Hong Kong, and other nations have voices opposite and contentious claims as to the proper corrective action. Some call for governments to serve as regulators and watchdogs, while others demand that corporate accountability win out and that government interference in these new industries will only lead to censorship and steeper, more slippery than ever slope towards state-sanctioned surveillance, interference, and oppression.
Without a doubt, this conversation will continue over the next several decades, and various solutions will be implemented in accordance with their particular ideological resonances. Yet, the emergence of decentralized technologies offers the world something historically unique: a technology that inherently opposes censorship, promotes free association and democratic decision making, and belongs to no government.
Blockchains — invented in reaction to the 2008 financial collapse and an explicit distrust of elites — combat revisionism by design. History is made permanent and transparent through permissionless DLTs. These projects, moreover, allow not only financial association but also collective decision making and contract writing for group otherwise fractured by national, geographical, or material distances through open networks. This is not a silver bullet, of course — nor is it meant to be. Instead, we must look to these technologies as facilitators of a future in which generations to come want to live. This technology — and especially the technology that can arise from the foundations being laid now — will be used to safeguard against the violent swings in political sentiment that ultimately cause to our most vulnerable communities. | https://medium.com/cypherium/where-the-rubber-hits-the-road-new-tech-for-a-new-political-age-ffb7b2e44688 | [] | 2020-04-22 11:19:17.045000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Opinion', 'Blockchain', 'Economics', 'Politics'] |
A gentle introduction to GIS | Crime Distribution
Maps are one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Map making technology (also known as Cartography) traces its origin back to 14,500 BC. Throughout history humans have had an unquenchable thirst to explore the unknown. Initially started as a dot map carved on the cave walls of constellations, present day maps integrate various technologies such as Remote Sensing & Photogrammetry, Cartography, Data Science, Computer programming etc. Hence maps have acquired the power to store, manage, analyse and visualize data across various fields like urban planning, medical science research, agriculture, geology etc.
Map can be used as a pictorial representation of a geographical area or region to visualize relationships between various parameters and area. Maps leveraging latest advancements in technology, commonly called as Geographic Information System(GIS), can be used as spatial data infrastructure (SDI). SDI gave way to a new era in GIS technology as it paved way to share and exchange GIS data across various departments from government to other organizations globally. This helped in creating an inter-operable mechanism to work efficiently across organizations. Inter-operability is the ability of different systems, devices or applications to connect, in a coordinated manner, across organizational boundaries to access, exchange and cooperatively use data among stakeholders.
For community-based professionals like architects, environmentalists, geologists and transportation engineers, it is essential to be aware and use appropriate data in decision making process rather than simply rely on existing practices or anecdotal data. With the advent of the availability of data in the present era, the expectation is that all decisions are data driven. This is where GIS can be a savior and can also help communicate to stakeholders and higher management.
What can GIS do for me?
✔ GIS can use existing data to improvise, analyse and visualize the output.
✔ GIS is the technology to be transparent with the decision making process.
✔ GIS can use all the available information to identify high level of risk parameters in a community which may not be so obvious in existing practices.
✔ GIS can identify and investigate spatial patterns which creates maps to emphasize their spatial relationships. These spatial relations can in turn improve in planning and implementation of process.
Hence we can summarize GIS (Geographic Information System) as a system devised to gather, manage, analyse and visualize the spatial data. This integrates Spatial data with mathematical and scientific methods to capture, store, monitor, analyse, manipulate, manage and present on geographically area. In short, GIS is used to create “INTER-OPERABLE/ INTELLIGENT MAPS”.
You can find more details on how maps can be used for crime mapping
http://ecospatialgis.com/Crimemapping.html | https://medium.com/@preethi.dinesh/a-gentle-introduction-to-gis-19f288157f89 | ['Preethi Raj'] | 2019-11-27 13:05:05.165000+00:00 | ['Geography', 'Smart Cities', 'Maps', 'Decision Support', 'GIS'] |
AppExchange and the Salesforce Ecosystem | DreamTX is Over But Here’s How Partners Keep Learning
From product launches, to Trailhead quests, to The Roots, there was a lot of excitement around DreamTX. And partners were a big part of the action. The partner channel on Trailhead Day was packed with sessions, demos, and tips for all types of partners. But partners have the chance to go beyond this and get ready for a new year. It’s time to go from idea to app and launch it for the world to see.
To make 2021 the best year yet, here’s a look at the best places for partners to learn and gather insight to succeed with Salesforce.
1. A Trailblazing Entrepreneurs podcast for those that like to hear the innovation as it happens.
Buckle up and get ready to learn about strategy and practical tactics to build successful businesses and achieve growth even faster. You’ll get inspired by world-class entrepreneurs and founders, diving into their journeys and lessons learned along the way. Tune in wherever you get your podcasts.
2. A Tech Talks broadcast so you can watch, drool over, and then build the latest technology.
Tech Talks broadcasts every other Thursday at 11 a.m. PT, and are full of information about the latest partner and customer innovation. See engaging demos, product roadmap overviews, and interviews with technical experts. You won’t want to miss out on these essential updates if you’re a partner in a technical role.
3. Trailhead modules designed just for partners, so you have zero reasons not to earn badges.
Take a trail and complete more than 10 ISV modules on Trailhead. If you’re getting started, take the Platform Trailhead modules, and begin with Salesforce Platform Basics. Work to complete all ISV-related Trailhead modules. Check out the ISVforce Guide for information on packaging, licensing, upgrading, trialing, and distributing your application.
4. The latest Salesforce branding so you can be the snazziest person in the sales meeting Zoom room.
Use the templates in this updated sales kit to cut through the noise by catering your message specifically to Salesforce sales teams. It includes step-by-step instructions for building out your own sales kit with a handful of Salesforce branded templates.
5. The Partner Community so you can stay connected even though we’re all working from our living rooms.
The Partner Community connects you to other partners and employees. Similar to the Trailblazer Community and your Salesforce org, Salesforce teams actively monitor and moderate Chatter to ensure questions are answered. Join the Partner Community to get access to groups and conversations or learn about it on Trailhead.
6. Technical documentation for those of us that love reading the release notes the second they come out. Come on, I know you do.
Technical documentation prepares partners for the latest Salesforce updates, which can be used to better your product as a partner. The most important Salesforce documentation is the release notes, and there are many release notes resources to help get you, and your customers, ready for what’s coming your way. Salesforce adds resources throughout the release.
Plan ahead with pre-release details. You can get early access to the brand-new features when you sign up ahead of time (note a new link is provided for each new release). From there, Salesforce will send login information for your new trial account. Here’s a tip: sign up for a Developer Edition pre-release org as those do not expire and get automatically upgraded to all subsequent releases moving forward.
One more tip: Check out this channel’s Tech Experts section for even more technical know-how.
7. DreamTX replays for those of us that want to see Snoop Dogg and Martha decorate cookies again.
Did you watch the Partner Channel on Day 4 of DreamTX? While tuned in, partners saw Salesforce technical evangelists demo how to get things done with some of the most exciting technologies for partners. If you missed it, or want to watch it again, tune in to the playback of these episodes on Dreamforce.com:
Stay tuned to Dreamforce.com for the latest replays. | https://medium.com/inside-the-salesforce-ecosystem/dreamtx-partners-850fad6fe3c9 | ['Amanda L. Nelson'] | 2020-12-21 13:02:23.394000+00:00 | ['Salesforce Partners', 'Tech Experts', 'Dreamforce', 'Salesforce', 'Partner Program'] |
Wednesday, April 22, 2020 — Earth/Birth | The first Earth Day observed was on my third birthday. It’s an ethereal connection I’d not thought hard about until this year. Earth Day is 50.
My dad called me tonight. He always calls on my birthday. He asked me if I thought we will learn the lessons we’re meant to when it’s time to reconnect.
I honestly have no idea what lies ahead.
Am I supposed to? Are any of us supposed to?
We’re used to knowing, planning and forecasting.
But it’s time to listen.
“If we listen from the place of connection to the Spirit That Lives in All Things, Mother Earth teaches what we need to know to take care of her and all her children. All are provided by our mother, the Earth.” (
There has been much suffering. There has been so much sorrow. There has been so much injustice. There has been greed. There has been loneliness. And there has been despair.
Mother Earth has been tired. So very tired.
Many have tried to protect and honour her but even that has polarized us. Imagine having one child fighting to protect you from harm and another rolling the dice on your expiry date, while spending their inheritance.
All I know is, she won’t last forever. And of course, neither will we.
Have we learned anything through this pandemic? Have we changed habits? Have we taken a breath?
Each day seems new; a new policy; a new funding announcement; a new death toll; a new prediction; a new normal.
Will there be a ‘new normal’? And will it stick?
I hold out hope.
Birth
Feverish wander under a black sky,
Doors close in an angry boil,
Carrying the burden of emotional tax.
It’s time.
I hear the quake in the centre of you,
The noise settles in the grace of your suffering,
Social gap, common purpose,
Longing to connect in grief.
It’s time.
Empathy overflowing,
Radiating through armour’s steel,
Yearn no more,
Let go.
It’s time. | https://medium.com/@shaunarae67/wednesday-april-22-2020-earth-birth-b852afa244fa | ['Shauna Rae'] | 2020-05-30 15:46:05.301000+00:00 | ['Reflections', 'Pandemic Diaries', 'Earth', 'Pandemic'] |
Validating your Models in Go | Go is one of the recent programming languages developed by Google and has become popular quite soon, with the Go community growing everyday. Go’s principles and philosophies are a bit different from other modern programming languages. There are various reasons for choosing Go over others, such as it’s ease of use, speed, support for concurrency and so on.
I have been working with Go more recently, while there are things I miss, like Generics, I have been enjoying writing in Go. It has worked well so far for our projects, mostly because they are not so domain heavy. Small microservices that deals with only one thing and does it well.
While working with Go, one pattern I have found useful is writing a reusable validator for your model objects(or structs).
Let’s say, you are building an API to store and retrieve a user configuration. A json request might look like,
{
"firstName": "Bob",
"lastName": "Medium",
"age": 65,
"preferredTheme": "DarkTheme",
"backgroundColor": "Cream"
}
This corresponding struct in Go would look like,
//UserConfiguration ...
type UserConfiguration struct {
FirstName string `json:"firstName"`
LastName string `json:"lastName"`
Age int `json:"age"`
PreferredTheme string `json:"preferredTheme"`
BackgroundColor string `json:"backgroundColor"`
}
In languages like Kotlin, when using Springboot, you can make use of annotations to add validations to each field. In Go, one way do that is to have a validator object, that can take custom validations and validate them against the request object(your struct).
One of the features of Go is the ability to create higher order functions. Higher order functions are those that can take another function as a parameter and/or return another function.
An example of a higher order function would look like,
//GetHandler ...
func GetHandler() func() error {
return func() error {
// Do something
return nil
}
}
GetHandler is the function that returns another function of type func() error . GetHandler can take parameters and use those inside the returned function too.
//GetHandler ...
func GetHandler(value *string) func() error {
return func() error {
// Do something
if value == nil {
return errors.New("nil string)"
} return nil
}
}
We can make use of this concept to build a framework of validation. We can define a validator, that takes a list of these functions, evaluates each of these and returns all the errors at the end. Each of these functions can validate a single field in your struct.
We start with a struct that can hold all these validators, and has a validate method,
//Constraint is type alias for func() error
type Constraint func() error //Validator ...
type Validator struct {
constraints []Constraint
}
I have defined a type alias constraint for func() error to make it easier. The validate method looks like this,
//Validate does the validation
func (validator *Validator) Validate() error { errors := []string{}
for _, constraint := range validator.constraints {
err := constraint()
if err != nil {
errors = append(errors, err.Error())
}
} if len(errors) == 0 {
return nil
} return fmt.Errorf(strings.Join(errors, ", "))
}
It iterates over all the constraints , each constraint is a function that returns an error, so we can just call them like an normal function constraint() , collecting any errors. Finally, we join all the errors and return a single error or simply return nil if there were no errors.
You can then define few constraints on string type and int type or any other type.
//NotEmptyConstraint checks for non-empty string
func NotEmptyConstraint(value string, fieldName string) Constraint {
return func() error {
if strings.TrimSpace(value) == "" {
return fmt.Errorf("%s cannot be empty", fieldName)
}
return nil
}
} //PositiveNonZeroConstraint checks for value > 0
func PositiveNonZeroConstraint(value int, fieldName string) Constraint {
return func() error {
if value <= 0 {
return fmt.Errorf("%s cannot be zero or negative", fieldName)
}
return nil
}
}
Your model will now have a validate method, that has a validator with constraints for the necessary fields,
func (userConfiguration *UserConfiguration) validate() error {
validator := validation.Validator{} return validator. AddConstraint(validation.NotEmptyConstraint(userConfiguration.FirstName, "firstName")).
AddConstraint(validation.PositiveNonZeroConstraint(userConfiguration.Age, "age")).
Validate()
}
You can then also create custom constraints and add them to the validation,
func validColor(color string) func() error{
if(isAValidColor(color)) {
return nil
}
return fmt.Errorf("%s is not a valid color", color)
}
Add this to your validator using the AddConstraint method,
...
AddConstraint(validColor(userConfiguration.BackgroundColor))
...
And that’s how we can add validations to our models.
This pattern is particularly useful when you have many request objects that need validation. All you need to do is add these validate methods to your models with the necessary constraints, and in your handlers, you just call the validate method to validate the model.
func handlePost(request Request) {
// ...
var userConfiguration UserConfiguration
err := json.Unmarshal([]byte(*requestBody), &userConfiguration)
// ...
err = userConfiguration.validate()
// ...
}
This looks cleaner and easier to maintain.
So happy coding, and as always #cleancode. | https://medium.com/@abyu/validating-your-models-in-go-e2f27b637d27 | ['Kishore Kumar'] | 2019-11-27 22:14:32.517000+00:00 | ['Validator', 'Design Patterns', 'Framework', 'Golang'] |
Move. | Buzzing chatter fills the chilled carriage.
I exit the public transport — going home…
pulling out my wallet, the ruler of all,
my card beeps with agreement.
I traverse the streets — to reach my personal transport,
Then realise that I am at bliss.
No one but myself to disturb and be disturbed
the life that is truly desired — by who though?
I contemplate, as I step into the car — transport to wherever I can muster.
Wouldn’t it be better to be like this… or not at all?
Go home. Alone. Be Quiet. Alone.
Or do I crave that for poor intentions? — Uncertainty is all that I hate
I return home, to a full house, no idea where it exists though
I hate existing in such a space
but, when they leave — enjoyment
…No troubles to share or people to care.
What do I really want? | https://medium.com/void-dcd/move-d63f7b54ed0a | [] | 2020-06-30 12:08:18.834000+00:00 | ['Postvoid', 'Poetry', 'Poetry On Medium'] |
I love watching House Hunters (BUT)— — I enjoy seeing the architecture and style of all of the houses …. and when there is relationship drama, it’s just a great bonus, BUT ……but I did start to wonder… | HOUSE HUNTERS TV SHOW
I love watching House Hunters (BUT)— — I enjoy seeing the architecture and style of all of the houses …. and when there is relationship drama, it’s just a great bonus, BUT
……but I did start to wonder about some aspects of the show, such as why so many of the smaller and international homes are being sold fully furnished. And although we all know that reality shows are fake, I was disappointed to read about just how plastic this show really is.
Warning/ Spoiler Alert:
______________________________________________ | https://medium.com/@contentintrovert/i-love-watching-house-hunters-i-enjoy-seeing-the-architecture-and-style-of-all-of-the-houses-263952b5e7ca | ['Content Introvert'] | 2021-01-22 19:32:47.878000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Reality TV', 'Reality', 'Real Estate', 'TV Shows'] |
How To Get Back In Shape? | Step 1: Get Your Mind Right
The first part of getting back into shape is conditioning your mind to get back into shape; you need to understand your motivation for getting back in shape. This step is usually overlooked by many, but it is the most important step to getting back in shape. Comedian and actress Rebel Wilson successfully lost over 60 after failing several times prior. But what made this time different for her? Well, according to her, she started with a mindset change. She prepared her mind for the journey.
How do I get my mindset right?
To get your mindset right for your fitness journey, you must first figure out your “WHY”. Your “WHY” is your reason; your motivation for wanting to get healthy and get back in shape. Why is this an important step? Well, when things get tough (and they will get tough) on those days when you do not feel like eating right and doing your exercises your “WHY” will keep you going and pushing towards your goal.
Once you’ve identified your “WHY”, your next step will be to determine the negative lifestyle behaviors that have brought you to the point you are now (where you are out of shape). This exercise will require you to examine and write down your current behaviors towards food and exercise, then you will examine how those behaviors are impacting your life (what effects it is having on your relationships, your emotional state, your finances and your spirituality). This exercise will require you to think, deeply, how your behavior is impacting your life. Lastly, you will think about changes you can make and the benefits it will have on the various aspects of your life. Then you will determine how you can replace your negative behaviors with positive behaviors that will support your new life goals.
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
Step 2: Write Down Your Goals
The next step will be to write down your goals. You can use the S.M.A.R.T Fitness Goal Model to help you with your goals.
S — Make your goals specific and clear.
M — Making your goals measurable, so you can track your progress
A — Make your goals attainable. Set goals that you can achieve.
R — You goals must be relevant to where you are at the moment and what you are striving to achieve at this moment.
T — Set a deadline to achieve your goals because a time limit motivates you to take action.
Now that you have an idea how to set your goals, you should create your goals for the next 30, 60, and 90 days.
Step 3: Create a Concrete Plan
After you determine your goals, your next step will be to create a concrete plan to move forward on your fitness journey. Try to be as specific as possible when creating a plan. This plan will include your nutrition plan along with your exercise plan. When creating your plan make sure to make provision for you to consume lots of water in your diet and get lots of sleep (aim to get at least 6 hours of sleep every day).
*** Before starting any workout routine please seek advice from your doctor.
Step 4: Implement your Plan
Now that you have your plan, it is time to implement your plan. Start off slow and gradually build up to your target. Everyday make sure your exercise level and daily dietary intake choices are consistent with your plan and goal. Be mindful of what you put in your mouth and your activity level.
Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash
Step 5: Evaluate your Progress
Evaluate your progress when you reach each milestone outlined in your plan. This step is very important because it allows you to review your progress and see if you are hitting your goals.
Once I figured out how to get back in shape, it is up to you to make the daily choices to achieve your goals. When you are disciplined you will see the results of your efforts. The process may not be easy, but the process is simple. So, take the step today to get back in shape. | https://medium.com/@kaylawalshpcs/how-to-get-back-in-shape-5d7484dd5e55 | ['Kayla Walsh'] | 2020-12-20 05:12:47.422000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Nutrition', 'Exercise', 'Fitness', 'Workout'] |
Smith’s, Kroger offer COVID-19 vaccine | Kroger will before long open up contribution the COVID-19 antibody through its organization of drug stores and centers, the public staple joining spoken Tuesday.
Kroger Health is collaborating with the national government, and state wellbeing divisions to manage the much-anticipated antibody “in vibrations with the rollout plan,” equivalent to a guest news discharge.
Dosages of the immunization will be made misanthrope at progressively than 2,200 Kroger-claimed drug stores and 220 centers in 35 states, the guest said.
That incorporates all Kroger Co. brands and auxiliaries including Ralph’s, Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter and others, a representative for Kroger revealed to McClatchy News.
Dr. Marc Watkins, senior clinical official for Kroger Health, said the guest is “prepared to assume a zippy job” in getting individuals inoculated.
Kroger said it is set to open up regulating portions of the Pfizer-BioNTech antibody this week, beginning in Anchorage and Juneau, Alaska.
WASHINGTON U.S. long haul contract rates dropped for the current week to a record low for a sixteenth time in 2020, mirroring an economy nonflexible hit by the Covid pandemic.
Home loan monster Freddie Mac said Thursday that the generalization rate on the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate home advance slipped to a record-low 2.66% from 2.67% a week ago.
A year prior, it remained at 3.74%
The generalization rate on 15-year fixed-rate advances, well known among property holders look to renegotiate their home loans, plunged to 2.19% from 2.21%. A year back, it was 3.19%.
The 5-year delicate rate contract was unaltered this week at 2.79%. A year prior, it was at 3.45%.
Aided by absolute bottom rates, the lodging market has been a wellspring of solidarity in an economy beat by the Covid episode.
The Federal Reserve has pushed the financing cost it controls to focus with end goal to help the economy bounce back from a springtime closure.
TAIPEI, Taiwan It was a definitive example of overcoming adversity of China Inc 2.0: a private-area innovation startup turned into a web juggernaut that vanquished the Chinese market and put its focus on the world.
Be that as it may, as in the society story, Alibaba originally struck gold and afterward met inconvenience.
Chinese controllers spoken a multipronged antitrust examination Thursday into its best web organization, taking actions that might disentangle up Alibaba’s rambling web-based business merchantry or splinter its exceptionally rewarding monetary administrations’ offshoot.
While it has developed into the prevailing part in Chinese web-based shopping presently rounding up $50 billion every year in incomes, Alibaba in the most recent decade has consistently infringed on China’s firmly controlled monetary area through its Ant Group turn off.
Insect Group, a $16 billion-a-year business, has been chipping there at amazing state banks’ piece of the overall industry and startling controllers with speculation and loaning items that have shriveled so mainstream that Ant once in a while goes about as a moneylender to government banks not the opposite way around.
The organizations have added up to a tremendous, inexactly connected aggregate under the occupancy of the tycoon Jack Ma, China’s most extravagant man that could rencontre the state itself.
On Thursday, the state retaliated. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said it would squint into grievances from online shippers well-near Alibaba’s requests for selectiveness bargains.
In a synchronous declaration, monetary controllers said they were bringing Ant Group heads for conversations well-near the monetary stage’s serious and shopper assurance rehearses. | https://medium.com/@trenda321/smiths-kroger-offer-covid-19-vaccine-fc0622861a31 | [] | 2020-12-25 06:07:42.194000+00:00 | ['Covid 19 Testing', 'Covid Vaccine', 'Covid 19 Crisis', 'Covid 19', 'Covid Treatment'] |
Dating Other Men Made Me Appreciate My Husband More | When you think about it in the abstract, opening up your relationship sounds like nothing but excitement. But that’s not the full picture.
At first, you imagine all the dates you’ll go on and all the people you’ll get to know.
You smile to yourself, realizing you’ll do the kind of bashful flirting you haven’t experienced in over ten years.
You already have the comfortable intimacy of an old relationship. Now, you’ll also have the rush of emotions that come from freefalling in love with someone new.
And there’s all the sex, too.
I’m polyamorous, not a swinger. That means I’m in it for the relationship, the romance, and the emotional connection. But I’m not going to sit here and pretend that getting to fuck someone new isn’t a big part of it.
Sex with someone you relate to in a different way. Sex with someone who fucks in a different way. Someone who has different techniques, new kinks, and a world of things they can introduce you to.
A sex life full of variety excites me, and I can’t think of a better way to have variety than to get it from multiple people.
But then I seriously considered taking that step and it became a lot more real. When I wasn’t just fantasizing about a polyamorous life but actually giving it serious thought, all those promising possibilities came packaged with worries and fears.
Opening myself up to loving other people could be the best decision of my life. But what if it messes things up?
I have a deep bond with my husband. We have a strong relationship and I would never give it up for anything.
I don’t ever see us splitting up. We have a profound love for each other, a family we’ve created together, and enough happy history to entangle us for good.
But I couldn’t shake the thought that I was putting our relationship at risk. That somehow, everything would change.
He might feel emotionally neglected when all I’d want to do is text whoever I’m getting involved with. Maybe he’d get jealous of my new relationship energy and how effortlessly horny I could get for someone new.
Or would he feel a profound sadness when he saw me going through the same giddy, obsessive, electric early romance we had when we first met, knowing we can never relive it ourselves?
If I’m being honest, I tried to focus on his feelings a lot more than mine because my feelings were the ones that scared me the most.
If he had some insecurities about this whole thing, that would just be normal. But what if he had good reasons to be insecure?
Whenever someone in a committed relationship reveals they’re polyamorous, some people assume it’s because they’re dissatisfied with their relationship. Their partner just isn’t doing it for them, so they have to go looking for a more decent match somewhere else.
That always struck me as mononormative nonsense.
But now that I was actually making that decision, I couldn’t help but ask myself if there was some truth to it.
Could I actually lose interest in my husband? He’s dependable, loving, and kind but what if he seemed boring once I met someone new? What if I met someone I connected with so deeply that I didn’t really want to spend that much time with him anymore?
If my love for a new partner was big and bright enough, would my love for my husband start to get duller?
Those didn’t feel like real possibilities, but it didn’t matter. Just imagining them was enough to make me lose sleep.
But it only took a year of trying to meet someone to reassure me that our relationship would be more than fine.
New Relationship Excitement Is Real
Since opening up my marriage, I’ve flirted with a few men, tried to meet some online, and had a fling with two of them.
It was all long-distance, which is ideal given my social anxiety and my chaotic home life. Some of them knew me from my work, which is a mistake I’m going to try not to repeat.
They weren’t fairytale romances. And both of the guys I got tangled with for weeks left me with a heap of heartache.
But for all the trouble it put me through, I still had some really great experiences, even if they were fleeting. I look back on it with some regret, but I can’t deny that there were lots of thrills along the way.
The feeling of being drawn to someone was downright intoxicating. I hadn’t had a crush in years, and going through one breathed new life into me.
My attraction for some of those guys was powerful. I spent hours thinking about them. I looked forward to every email or text. For a while, my life was a series of anticipations and excited conversations.
Seeing one of their names pop up on my phone became the highlight of my day. I could feel myself smiling wide as soon as I heard the notification. Getting some banter going made me giddy, and I would wake up in the middle of the night to see if they wrote to me.
I loved getting to know them in a way that felt fast and deep all at once. I became endlessly fascinated and loved every little detail they shared about themselves.
I also felt seen and desired in a way I hadn’t in a very long time.
I’m not the kind of girl who turns heads. I’m chubby, awkward, somewhat frumpy, and usually surrounded by four loud kids and a stressed out husband who’s helping me wrangle them.
When I’m out, people stop to tell me my kids are cute. Older people will often feel the need to tell me what a great husband I have because he’s holding one of our kids instead of totally neglecting them.
Needless to say, no one hits on me. Women will sometimes compliment me on my purple hair, but sadly it’s never in a flirty way.
That’s fine, of course. But it made the attention I was getting from these guys feel really special.
And I loved the person I was when I got interested in someone new.
When things were going well, I was happy. I felt hopeful and optimistic. I felt like my best self for the first time in ages.
I was horny as hell. My mind was almost constantly on sex. I had such a strong desire for a sexual connection with my flirty flings and I spent a big part of my day thinking of ways I could turn them on the way they aroused me.
If my thoughts were dirty before, they were filthy now. I fantasized about things I never thought I would do. Things that used to turn me off I was now wishing I could do with them.
Because I’m a hopeless romantic, I also spent a lot of time fantasizing about the kind of future we could have together.
Truth be told, it’s more about anxiety than romance. I’m a chronic planner, so I like to think ten steps ahead. That way, when I’m moving things along, I can feel confident that they at least have the potential to go somewhere.
If this turned into a long-term thing, what kind of living arrangement would we have?
Would it ever be realistic for them to move in with me? Is my house big enough or would we have to move? Could they handle the Canadian winters or would they grumble whenever they had to brush snow off the minivan?
Would it make more sense for me to just fly over to spend time with them once a month? Would that kind of jet-setting double life feel sexy or just inconvenient?
One question kept coming back to me whenever I thought about settling down.
I had been worried about how my husband would feel about the guys I was introducing into my life. But how would they feel about him?
Not because they fell short in any way. Not because I couldn’t see myself being happy with them — I could, at least while things were good.
It’s just that I started to see how Mr. Austin and I were so deeply compatible.
I Found My Perfect Match
I never felt comfortable with the idea of a soulmate until I started dating again. Now, it makes perfect sense to me.
When I stepped out of my housewife bubble, I liked a lot of what I saw. But that didn’t make me appreciate my husband less. It just made me realize how perfect we are for each other.
I told myself I wouldn’t compare the people I’m dating. And to some extent, I stuck to that. I didn’t turn it into some kind of competition where I weighed the pros and cons of each person or ranked them or anything like that.
But I couldn’t help but notice some things.
I saw how different each guy was. How they made me feel certain ways. How I was drawn to them for their unique reasons.
I fantasized about different things depending on who I was thinking of. Each of them inspired me to think of a different kind of future and to want different kinds of sex.
And that made me see my husband differently. All the things I loved about him, all the things I got comfortable with, and all the things I took for granted became obvious to me again.
Like all the ways that we’re eerily similar.
We can make each other laugh like fools because we have the same sense of humor. I never have to worry that he won’t get my jokes, and no one can make me laugh as hard as he does.
We even have the same shitty background. I was raised by an emotionally distant and narcissistic father, and his mother’s basically the same. We get each other’s damage and baggage because it’s more or less the same.
And his sex drive might be more active than mine, but we both have a very high sexual energy, the same dirty minds, and the same fascination for all things sexual.
I often joke that we have ESP because we’re so often on the same wavelength.
I’ve even developed a wanking ESP — I can tell how long it’s been since he last jerked off and I’m right about 87% of the time.
There are differences between us, but most of them are complementary.
Our sexual chemistry is off the charts because he’s basically a daddy dom and I’m a middle who likes to submit without pain.
He’s into shy, chubby girls who wear glasses and I fit that bill.
I’m into slim guys with nice beards who can rock some plaid. And that just happens to be precisely who he is.
I mean, okay, the beard was my idea. But still, it suits him.
I also started paying close attention to the role he played in my life. When I was dating other guys, he wasn’t always the one I was the most excited to talk to. But he was the one I wanted to share my joy with.
Talking to him after I spent time texting or talking to someone else really felt like coming home. They might have given me the butterflies I craved, but he gave me the comfort and safety I needed.
And as much as I desired the phone sex I was getting from someone else, fucking my husband made me feel deeply connected to him — and got me off with extreme satisfaction.
I had a really strong urge to get closer to the guys I was dating, and that helped me realize why I didn’t feel the same way about Mr. Austin. It’s because we were already as close as we could be.
Falling in Love Again
A few weeks into my first semi-serious fling, I was sitting in bed crying my eyes out.
Nothing bad had happened. In fact, everything had been going really well at that point. My flirty exchanges were fun and this situation I found myself in felt promising.
And that scared me.
Before I started dating, I was worried that I would get bored of lying in bed with my husband, watching YouTube videos while he cuddled me. Part of me thought our mundane little life couldn’t compare with all the other exciting lives I could lead.
Now I was in tears realizing that I might lose some of it.
A new partner would mean a lot of great things, but it would also mean sacrificing some of the time I had with my husband. And that was bittersweet at best.
The sorrow I felt made me realize that I was sometimes bored of my routine, I occasionally wished I had someone else to have deep conversations with, and I fantasized about a more varied sex life — but none of it was because I wasn’t satisfied with my husband.
Getting involved with other people made me see that I’m not in love with my husband because he’s my husband. I don’t feel stuck with him or in our marriage.
It reminded me of all the reasons I fell in love with him in the first place and all the reasons I love him even more now.
There’s still room in my life for someone else. But looking for that someone else taught me that I want to create new connections, take in new experiences, and enjoy bonds with others.
It’s not about dissatisfaction at all.
It didn’t work out with any of the guys I met. But I learned some important things from them.
I learned about some dating red flags that I unfortunately overlooked. I learned that the flirty, eager, horny girl I was as a teenager is still part of me — she’s just buried under routine and responsibilities. I learned how awkward it is to get to know someone when you’ve already put so much of your life online.
Mainly, though, it showed me just how lucky I am. I’ve found my soulmate, and that’s something I’ll never take for granted again. | https://medium.com/love-emma/dating-other-men-made-me-appreciate-my-husband-more-6eca403f2bd8 | ['Emma Austin'] | 2020-12-29 12:35:18.993000+00:00 | ['Polyamory', 'Self', 'Dating', 'Relationships', 'Sexuality'] |
The Future of Federal Prison Privatization is Bleak… Or Is It? | Criminal Justice
The Future of Federal Prison Privatization is Bleak… Or Is It?
New research explains why private prisons may survive
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to announce his pick for attorney general this week. This pick is significant for several reasons — including the fact that the attorney general (AG) heads the Department of Justice — but it is perhaps most important to an industry deeply dependent on government partnerships: the private prison industry.
The federal government began contracting out to private prison companies in the 1980s to manage and operate federal prisons and immigration detention facilities. In 2017, over 27,000 people were held in private federal prison facilities, an increase of 77% from 2000 (see here).
In that same year, over 26,000 immigrant detainees were held in privately run facilities, 73% of the total detained population and an increase of 442% since 2002. The federal government comprised a majority of both CoreCivic and GEO Group’s business in 2019, the two largest private prison operators in the United States. The choice of not only AG, but their deputies and staff beneath them, will have significant consequences for the future of private prisons at the federal level.
After the 1980s, the federal government steadily ramped up prison privatization, though that growth came to an abrupt stop in 2016. That’s when former deputy attorney general Sally Yates released a memo indicating that the federal government would begin phasing out the use of private prisons, “the first step in the process of reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.” Private prison companies’ stocks immediately plummeted as stockholders feared the end was near for private federal facilities (see below). This concern was not long lived, however, as the election of Donald Trump in November 2016 sent private prison companies’ stock levels back to pre-Yates memo levels.
Closing prices of CoreCivic and GEO Group’s stock, 2016–2017. The first dotted line reflects the Yates memo, and the second dotted line is Donald Trump’s election as president. Graph from the draft of Captive Market book manuscript.
Trump’s administration was a boon for private prison companies, as stocks rebounded and Trump announced Jeff Sessions as his pick for AG. Less than two weeks into Sessions’ tenure, he rescinded the Yates memo as it “impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.”
Since then, CoreCivic and GEO Group have made millions in contracts with the federal government (and state and local governments as well), though their business was somewhat adversely affected with the revelation that they were housing migrant children and their families in the Trump administration’s controversial family separation policy.
The election of Joe Biden puts the private prison industry back in flux, as these companies are totally dependent on the government to continue contracts with them.
For instance, the most recent annual report from CoreCivic laments, “we are dependent on government appropriations … Resistance to privatization … could result in our inability to obtain new contracts … We depend on a limited number of governmental customers for a significant portion of our revenues.” This is particularly of concern for these companies as Biden’s platform suggests he “will end the federal government’s use of private prisons … the federal government should not use private facilities for any detention.”
On the other hand, my research (published in the journal Perspectives on Politics) and book draft, Captive Market, highlights the bipartisan nature of support for prison privatization, and suggests that desires to limit legal and political accountability are at the forefront of privatization decisions, at least at the state level.
It is difficult to know how the Biden administration will eliminate federal private prisons — as those inmates will need to be housed elsewhere — or the speed at which that will happen. And perhaps most importantly, though the federal government is a large source of revenue for these companies, state and local governments continue multi-million dollar contracts with private firms. Will lower-level governments follow suit if and when the federal government ends their contracts with private companies? There is still much money to be made in American corrections and private companies are also constantly diversifying and expanding their portfolio above and beyond physical incarceration to other programs, like healthcare, prisoner transport, parole or probation, among dozens of other services.
And, if Biden sticks to his plan to end federal private prisons, there are three options: (1) permanently release all the individuals currently held within them (likely politically unrealistic); (2) end contracts early (and potentially be on the hook for any remaining money due); or (3) wait out the contract, though companies have recently inked long, 10-year contracts with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to maintain the private facilities even in the face of the Biden transition. Either way, the path forward is unclear and by no means can these facilities (or the companies that operate them) disappear overnight.
Biden’s pick for AG will determine the speed and method by which the federal government may finally start moving away from private prisons and is extremely consequential for the future of the American criminal legal system. Outside of the AG position, the deputy attorneys general and those below them can also influence federal privatization policy (as Sally Yates did in 2016). Though this pick may spell the beginning of the end of private companies’ involvement in at least federal prison privatization, my book project suggests that profit will always play a role in American corrections and these companies will adapt to fill the needs of carceral policymakers. | https://medium.com/3streams/the-future-of-federal-prison-privatization-is-bleak-or-is-it-93cbc526d0ac | ['Anna Gunderson'] | 2020-12-11 11:32:07.310000+00:00 | ['Joe Biden', 'Private Prisons', 'Criminal Justice', 'Prison Reform', 'Attorney General'] |
Machine Learning — Deploying Model using Docker Container | Prerequisites
Overview
In this blog, we are going to deploy the simple linear regression model (a Machine Learning Model) that we have prepared in Machine Learning — Simple Linear Regression blog.
Following are the steps that we will be going to perform in the blog:
Exposing Model’s functionality using Flask APIs Creating the Dockerfile Building & Running the Docker Image
Step-1: Exposing Model’s Functionality using Flask APIs
We’ll start with creating “app.py” module. In this module, we’ll be going to create Flask APIs to expose our model’s functionalities. Here, I’m assuming that you guys have basic understanding of Flask.
First, we are going to expose an “/SimpleLinearRegression/Train” API that will be used to train the model.
To learn more about what we are doing in the train() method kindly refer to Machine Learning — Simple Linear Regression blog.
When the “/SimpleLinearRegression/Train” API is invoked, it trains the model and save it in a file named as “linear_regression.pickle”.
Now, in order to make the predictions, we are going expose “/SimpleLinearRegression/Predict” API that will take height from the user and returns the predicted weight value.
To learn more about what we are doing in the predict () method kindly refer to Machine Learning — Simple Linear Regression blog.
What the “/SimpleLinearRegression/Predict” API does is that it loads the trained model (from the file “linear_regression.pickle” created by the “/SimpleLinearRegression/Train” API) and use it to predict the weight.
Step-2: Creating the Dockerfile
After creating the flask app, the next step is to create the docker file. This will be used to build the docker image.
I’m using python 3.7 as base image. I’m specifying my contact information for the image maintainer. Then, I’m copying the requirements.txt into the working directory. After that setting the working directory. The next couple of commands are going to update the pip and then going to install all the requirements, respectively. Finally copying the content of the directory, containing the docker file, into the working directory. The last two commands are use to run the created Flask app.
Step-3: Building & Running the Docker Image
Uptill now, we have created Flask app that is going to expose our model’s functionalities and prepared a Dockerfile . The next step is to build the docker image from the docker file. To build the docker image run the following command in the CMD.
To run above command, CMD should point to the directory where Dockerfile is present. After the command is executed, a docker image will get created.
Finally, we are going to run the image using following command:
Once the above command is executed our flask app will be available on http://localhost:5000/.
To train the model we’ll have to invoke the “/SimpleLinearRegression/Train” API as shown below:
To predict the weight for height equals to 2, invoke the “/SimpleLinearRegression/Predict” API as shown below:
Congratulations we have successfully deployed our first Machine Learning Model using docker containers.
Resources:
You can find the code that I have written in the blog from my GitHub Repository. | https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/machine-learning-deploying-model-using-docker-container-6df27ccdd9e6 | ['Iftikhar Liaquat'] | 2020-06-09 15:49:49.794000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Docker Image', 'Ml Model Deployment', 'Data Engineering', 'Data Science'] |
How to choose the right brand for your e-commerce business | Story contributed by Raj Jana
Today, online shoppers have more choice & power than ever. Customer acquisition depends on you having a strong brand that resonates with your target audience. To get there, you need to be consistent, authentic, and fully aware of who you’re talking to.
Getting this messaging right is a big challenge, but it’s not impossible. By researching your audience and your niche, you can discover which kind of brand is right for you. Consider the following advice as you strive to make the right branding choices for your e-commerce business.
Know your customers’ values
Learning your customers’ values means building a relationship with them that goes deeper than just producer/consumer. When people recognize and trust your brand, it’s because they see their own values reflected in it.
One of the easiest ways to learn about your customers’ values is simply to ask them. You could do some informal research on social media (or your blog) by covering certain topics and testing the engagement. Or, you could be even more scientific by conducting surveys and focus groups to learn more about the audience you’re pursuing.
After you’ve done this research, look back at your company. What do you already do that’s aligned with the values of your customers? These are the messages that will ring out the loudest.
When you can back up what you say with what you do, people will trust you and be drawn to your brand. [Click to tweet]
Begin by looking for the values you already share with your target audience, then find ways to embody the others.
Know yourself
The competition out there is endless, and the best way for you to stay afloat is to give customers something different to latch on to. This can be the products you sell, but if you combine this with a strong brand, you strengthen the connection you’ve already made with the customer.
How do you uncover these strengths and differences? Start by developing your brand identity and brand personality, because these determine how you’ll communicate with your target audience.
These two dimensions exist to humanize your company. As social beings, people want to feel like they’re buying from real people, especially when buying from an e-commerce business. It’s a risk to purchase online, and they want to feel like they can trust you to do the right thing.
By giving your brand an identity and personality, you’re helping to create the image of a person inside the minds of shoppers. When they have a person in mind, they’ll be more receptive to your brand messages.
Beyond that, brand identity and personality serve different functions. A brand identity explains who and what your company is. It’s your name, logo, colors, slogans… all the elements that identify your brand. As an e-commerce business, your identity will likely resemble a salesperson — you sell products people want or need.
Your personality is more than that. It’s how you sell. How do you present yourself? How do you talk? Do you care about certain issues? What do you believe? What do you not believe? These are things people connect to, and they’ll develop stronger feelings about your brand when they know what these are.
To choose the right brand for your company, you need a clear idea of who you are as a company. Consider writing down a mission statement, a vision, and a list of core values. This will crystallize the things your brand stands for, and as a result, your brand messaging will be more authentic and resonate better with your target audience.
Know your story
For as much as things have changed in the world, people still love a good story. Whether it’s the story of a hero, an underdog, or simply the shared challenges and pleasures of the human experience, a good story moves people’s hearts and minds.
Every brand out there has a story — every one. The challenge is to share that story in a way that’s authentic and relatable. It might take some time to discover the best way to communicate your story to your target audience.
Start by zeroing in on your company’s purpose, or more specifically, the problem you solve. Let’s consider an example.
Say you manage an e-commerce brand that sells eco-friendly furniture and clothing. What’s your story? In short, you provide people with comfort and security in an environmentally friendly way.
But there’s something larger going on: climate change and the movement to address it. Your role in this global story is to meet people’s basic needs at a significantly lower cost to the environment. Your brand creates better harmony between humans and the earth, and people who care about the planet will want to help your cause.
In this example, your story represents and exemplifies your brand’s values. Positioning your brand as an environmental activist, or as a lover and defender of nature, will help you connect with your target audience. This powerful brand image comes from digging into the story, bringing to light what it really is.
L.L. Bean is a good real-life example of this. It started with a man designing his own pair of boots to make it easier and more enjoyable to walk around outside. But the larger story is about humanity’s love of nature. Through this narrative lens, you can easily recognize L.L. Bean’s brand. This is no coincidence.
Of course, your history might not be as deep as L.L. Bean’s, but it’s still meaningful. Take some time to find the best way to communicate your story, and it will clarify and reinforce your brand in the eyes of your customers.
Key takeaway
For your e-commerce brand to stay successful, it needs to be authentic. When you’re laying out your brand strategy, choose values and messaging that you and your customers truly believe in. By staying true to yourself and focusing on what you share with your audience, the right brand will emerge on its own. It might be challenging, but it shouldn’t feel forced, and the results will definitely be worth it.
About Raj Jana
Raj Jana is the founder of JavaPresse, a specialty coffee company. Choosing and implementing the right brand strategy has been one of the biggest challenges in building his business, but he’s learned a lot along the way. | https://medium.com/lucidpress/how-to-choose-the-right-brand-for-your-e-commerce-business-c473adfa3326 | ['Kendra Madsen'] | 2018-07-12 18:33:12.412000+00:00 | ['Branding', 'Brand Experience', 'Brand Strategy', 'Brand Stories', 'E Commerce Business'] |
Congressional Daily Briefing | Building Blocks of STEM Act [Passed House]
The House of Representatives passed the Building Blocks of STEM Act (H.R. 1665), a bill led by Representative Haley Stevens, the Chairwoman of the House Science Subcommittee on Research and Technology. The Building Blocks of STEM Act was introduced jointly by Representative Stevens and Representative Jim Baird in the House of Representatives, alongside Senators Jacky Rosen and Shelley Moore Capito in the Senate.
If passed, the bill would direct public resources to study opportunities for early childhood STEM education and strategies to encourage girls to engage in STEM & computer science. The bill would increase federal support for research and programming that engages girls in STEM, the Building Blocks of STEM Act brings us closer to realizing the benefits of a more diverse and representative STEM workforce that can advance our country’s technological, economic, and security interests.
Expanding Findings for Federal Opioid Research and Treatment (EFFORT) Act [Passed House]
The House of Representatives passed Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton’s Expanding Findings for Federal Opioid Research and Treatment (EFFORT) Act, which directs the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support research on opioid addiction. The bill is designed to will help to decrease preventable deaths caused by opioid overdoses and will drive better treatment approaches by directing the NSF to expand research focused on opioid addiction, allowing for further understanding of how to more effectively treat the many aspects of opioid addiction.
The American Manufacturing Leadership Act (H.R. 2397) [Passed House]
The House of Representatives passed legislation by Congresswoman Haley Stevens to strengthen our nation’s largest investment in advanced manufacturing — the Manufacturing USA Program.
The bill will reauthorize and improve the Revitalize American Manufacturing and Innovation (RAMI) Act by increasing funding for the program, strengthening the institutes’ role in advanced manufacturing workforce development, and facilitating regional supply chain development.
Ryan Kules Specially Adaptive Housing Improvement Act of 2019 [Passed House]
The House of Representatives passed a bill introduced by U.S. Representatives Mike Levin and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) that would improve the Veterans Benefits Administration’s Specially Adapted Housing (SAH) program. This program provides grants to veterans and servicemembers with service-connected disabilities to assist them in constructing, purchasing, or remodeling homes to fit their needs.
Helping Expand and Launch Transitional Health (HEALTH) (H.R. 2942) [Passed House]
The HEALTH bill, authored by Representative Cisneros, helps female veterans receive healthcare. Because servicewomen face unique healthcare challenges, the legislation would help educate women about health care that is available to them at the VA while they transition into civilian life.
Palestinian International Terrorism Support Prevention Act [Passed House]
The House of Representatives passed a bill, sponsored by Congressmen Brian Mast, that imposes sanctions on foreign persons, agencies and governments that assist Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad or their affiliates. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad are foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated by the United States government as global terrorists. The bill would require the president to supply an annual report to Congress identifyingforeign persons, agencies or instrumentalities of a foreign state who knowingly and materially assist Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, or an affiliate or successor of one of those organizations.
LEGION Act [Passed House]
The House of Representatives passed LEGION Act — a Senate bill sponsored by Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema. The legislation extends American Legion membership to honorably discharged veterans since World War II.
Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need (HAVEN) Act (H.R. 2938) [Passed House]
The HAVEN Act amends current bankruptcy law to better protect the economic security of veterans and their families. The legislation — sponsored by Representative Lucy McBath — aims to remove this unequal treatment of disability payments made to veterans or their dependents and would to amend bankruptcy law to treat Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense veteran’s disability payments the same as Social Security disability benefits, which are exempt from bankruptcy means-testing. | https://medium.com/@luisagroher/congressional-daily-briefing-c6266d0ac1b3 | ['Luisa Groher'] | 2019-07-24 13:42:12.419000+00:00 | ['House Of Representatives', 'Veterans', 'Politics', 'Senate', 'Opioids'] |
Product Update: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Expands Service Hours and Improves Customer Satisfaction | Product Update: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Expands Service Hours and Improves Customer Satisfaction
By Jason Maeder, Director of Product
Local governments and utilities hold the unique responsibility of serving customers across an entire jurisdiction, inclusive of their diverse preferences and needs. What may be a convenient way for one customer to request service or pay a bill may look very different for that person’s neighbor. That’s why it’s important to provide multiple channels for a customer to interact with their service provider.
CityBase is excited to announce an additional channel for our clients to interact with the residents and businesses they serve. With Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology, customers can now check their account status, pay a bill, or request a service by call or SMS text. Users can now access services and information from the comfort of their home, 24 hours a day / 7 days a week; reducing the number of in-person visits and phone calls to city agencies or utility payment centers during business hours.
Key Features
24/7 access to government services via local or toll-free number
Accessible for people with vision impairments
Credit, debit, or direct bank transfer payments
Multi-language support, with text-to-speech functionality standard in English and Spanish
Complete most transactions in two minutes or less
Real-time account management for customers
Transfer customers out to a call center, another IVR system, or specific staff
Configurable workflow and messages for agency administrators
How It Works
Routine tasks such as making a payment each month, checking hours of operation before leaving the house, or verifying account balance before making a payment can help customers accomplish tasks faster, with fewer interactions and higher satisfaction.
Pay A Bill in Minutes (or Less!)
Jim needs to make a water payment but doesn’t want to use his lunch break to visit a payment center and pay in person. He doesn’t have internet access at work and is worried that he may be assessed a penalty if his payment isn’t received today. By calling the number provided by his water company, Jim is able to look up his account balance by entering his service address, and make a payment over the phone in minutes, following intuitive voice prompts. Instead of rushing to the water department and back to work hungry, he enjoyed lunch with his co-workers and kept a few more dollars in his pocket; who doesn’t enjoy that?
Know Before You Go
Lisa needs to apply for a permit but isn’t sure what time her city’s building department closes today. Before she makes the trek to city hall, she would like to ensure they are open. She texts her city’s automated telephone service with the name of the department and promptly receives a message back listing the building department’s contact information and hours of operation. Now that she knows the department is still open, she confidently makes her way to city hall. Completing her transaction in one visit makes Lisa happy and allows her to focus more time on growing her business.
More Options = Happier Customers
Utilities and agencies can offer excellent customer service by providing services to customers in their preferred method of interaction. Every person will have personal preferences, resource and technology constraints, and limited time to complete their task. Providing a variety of channels to complete common tasks provides people with the ability to choose their preferred method of interaction, resulting in a better user experience and happy customers.
If you’re interested in learning more, request a demo! | https://medium.com/@citybase/product-update-ivr-expands-service-hours-and-improves-customer-satisfaction-f5c0140e114e | [] | 2019-10-08 19:48:35.750000+00:00 | ['Ivr', 'Govtech', 'Smart Cities', 'Product Update', 'Customer Service'] |
I love walking but feel bad for not doing more intense workouts. Is low-impact exercise enough to improve my health? | Dear Wandering,
My initial reaction to your question is that you should stop thinking about what “counts” as exercise, and simply consider in what ways you enjoy moving.
Our bodies are designed to move and we always feel better for it (even though sometimes it takes a lot of mental effort when the couch is so comfy), but exercise shouldn’t feel like a chore.
Different types of movement will bring about different benefits and changes, but ultimately, forcing yourself to do anything you hate is only going to make you miserable.
If you love walking, that is wonderful.
For me, listening to a podcast and going for a stroll is a great way to break up a sedentary work day and, when I put my phone on airplane mode, also boosts my mental wellbeing by allowing me to take a breather from everything going on.
There are endless benefits to walking
Experts recommend we take 10,000 steps a day, and for people in sedentary jobs — especially now many of us aren’t commuting further than our living rooms — getting anywhere close to this target requires actively going on a walk.
Whether it “counts as exercise” or not, there are tons of proven health benefits to walking.
One study found that a half-hour walk five times a week reduces risk of heart disease by 19%, another suggested that a 15-minute walk after each meal of the day could lower blood sugar levels, and further research found links between walking and a stronger immune system.
Gaby Noble in her classical pilates studio. Photo: Exhale Pilates
“We live in a highly stressed instant gratification society so finding balance is hard for many,” Gaby Noble, a classical pilates instructor and the owner of boutique London studio Exhale Pilates, told Insider.
“Low intensity movement like walking can often be more beneficial to someone’s overall health and wellness as it provides less pressure on the heart, lungs, and joints and won’t stimulate the adrenal gland as much which can lead to fatigue, anxiety, bad sleep and in some cases burn out,” she continued.
Walking can contribute to your activity targets
If you’re someone who likes to track their activity, you’ll be pleased to know that experts say walking does count as exercise.
“Walking definitely counts as movement and is great for you!” strength and conditioning coach and sports scientist Emma Kirk Odunubi told Insider. “Plus trying to stay active and moving every day in any way will be positive for you and your health. Exercise needs to be enjoyable and if that’s walking then do that.”
Emma Kirk-Odunubi is a London-based sports scientist and coach. Photo: Emma Kirk-Odunubi
Ideally, you want to do some cardio and strength training too, because walking alone doesn’t provide all the benefits those workout styles would. However, you certainly don’t need to be out of breath and dripping with sweat for movement to be beneficial.
“Walking, even leisurely, does count as exercise, although at slow paces, it probably doesn’t boost cardiovascular conditioning and endurance much,” Dr. David Geier, sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon, told Insider.
He continued: “But the act of moving and getting outdoors does have positive health benefits. Plus, the act of walking on a regular basis might stimulate the formation of an exercise habit which includes more strenuous activities like jogging and lifting weights.”
Short bursts of movement over the day are beneficial
When it comes to fidgeting, some people naturally do so more than others, which may contribute slightly to their NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis).
NEAT essentially means all the movement you do that isn’t formal exercise, such as cleaning, unloading the dishwasher, or walking to the bus stop. And all this movement can really add up.
Dr. David Geier is a specialist in sports medicine. Photo: Dr. David Geier
“I’m not aware of any benefits to fidgeting, but standing is certainly better for our health than sitting for many hours per day,” Dr. Geier said. “I encourage my patients to use a standing desk, or even a treadmill desk, at work. I promote taking the stairs instead of the elevator if possible. I encourage them to park at the far back of the parking lot to get some extra steps in. And I promote making and taking all phone calls while standing up or even walking around.”
These little bursts of movement throughout the day burn calories, prevent you from getting too stiff, and can boost your energy levels.
Keeping active however suits you is what’s most important
“Focus should be placed towards increasing daily activity rather than how hard your next HIIT session is,” Noble told Insider. “Just because you are not sweating buckets during an activity, does not mean it is not a great form of activity or exercise.”
She continued: “Whether it’s walking, swimming, gardening, playing with your kids, anything that gets you working your muscles and joints, boosting circulation around your body is good for you.”
Movement of any kind — high or low intensity — expends energy and is good for our body and mind (provided we balance it with enough rest time too).
“It’s important to find a movement that you enjoy, that you can stick to, and is good for your body and most importantly mind,” Noble said. “By being kind to your body and mind, you will achieve far greater results, sooner.”
Wishing you well,
Rachel
Rachel has a wealth of experience covering fitness, nutrition, and wellness, and she has the hottest experts at her fingertips. She regularly speaks to some of the world’s most knowledgeable and renowned personal trainers, dietitians, and coaches, ensuring she’s always up to date with the latest science-backed facts you need to know to live your happiest and healthiest life.
Have a question? Ask Rachel at [email protected] or fill out this anonymous form. All questions will be published anonymously.
For more great stories, visit Insider’s homepage. | https://medium.com/insider/is-walking-enough-exercise-to-improve-health-4bf1083c0548 | [] | 2020-12-28 19:02:46.758000+00:00 | ['Exercise', 'Fitness', 'Advice', 'Walking', 'Fitness Tips'] |
Stoicism | 1. Introduction
Stoicism is a school of thought that was formed in the Hellenistic age in Athens. It was one of the three most notable schools at the time, besides Epicurean and Sceptic school. Its founder was Zeno of Citium, hence the original name of Stoicism was Zenonism. The name was soon dropped as later Stoics did not want the philosophy to become a cult of personality. The name, as we know it today, was derived from the “Stoa Poikile” or “painted porch”, on the north side of the Agora in Athens, where Zeno and his followers gathered to discuss their ideas. Interestingly, one can refer to Stoicism as the philosophy of The Stoa, or philosophy of The Porch.
To the average person this action-oriented, and paradigm-shifting way of living has become shorthand for “emotionlessness”. The modern usage as a “person who represses feelings or endures patiently” was first cited in 1579 as a noun and in 1596 as an adjective. However, its definition in the dictionary is not necessarily misleading to the philosophy.
Stoicism is a philosophy meant to be applied to everyday living, focused on ethics (understood as the study of how to live one’s life), which is in turn informed by what the Stoics called “physics” (nowadays, a combination of natural science and metaphysics) and what they call “logic” (a combination of modern logic, epistemology, language, and rhetoric).
2. Development
2.1 Zeno of Citium
Zeno of Citium was a Hellenistic philosopher and the founder of Stoicism. He was a wealthy merchant that despite his abundance lived a rather ascetic life. Making his way to Athens, after a voyage, he was introduced to philosophy by the Cynic philosopher Crates. He joined the Cynics and was on his way to becoming one of their spokesmen though was not capable to assimilate Cynic shamelessness. Therefore, Crates, desirous of curing this defect in him, gave him a potful of lentil-soup to carry through the Kerameikous (an area in Athens), and when he saw that Zeno was ashamed and tried to keep it out of sight, Crates broke the pot with a blow of his staff. As Zeno began to run off in embarrassment with the lentil-soup flowing down his legs, Crates chided, “Why run away, my little Phoenician? Nothing terrible has befallen you.”
Ashamed by the experience, he decided to form his school and began teaching in the colonnade in the Agora of Athens known as the Stoa Poikile in 301 BC. Influenced by the philosophers of the Megarian school (emphasis on logic), dialecticians (emphasized the factually based debate), Platonists (followers of Plato), and Cynic school of thought (emphasis on the simple life and free of emotional involvement), he formed Stoicism.
2.2 The stoas and their representatives
The chronology of Stoic initial development in the Hellenistic age is divided into three periods: the early Stoa, middle Stoa, and late Stoa. The Greek phase of the Stoa embraces the first two, while the Roman phase refers to the latter.
The early Stoa lasted from Zeno of Citium (the founder of the school, around 300 B.C.E.) to the third head of the school, Chrysippus. Chrysippus of Soli created an original system of propositional logic (it deals with propositions (which can be true or false) and relations between propositions) to better understand the workings of the universe and the role of humanity within it. He adhered to a deterministic (everything is predestined) view of fate but sought a role for personal freedom in thought and action. Chrysippus made the Stoic system what it was. It was said that “without Chrysippus, there would have been no Stoa”.
The middle Stoa included Panaetius (late II and I century B.C.E.). Panaetius was the last scholar of the Stoic school in Athens. He put more emphasis on physics than logic and ethics. He rejected the doctrine of apatheia (state of mind, where one is not distracted by passions), and instead affirmed that certain pleasurable sensations could be regarded as in accordance with nature (explained further down).
The late Stoa or the Roman Imperial period, with Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius lasted from I — II century C.E.
Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist. He became Nero’s tutor and his advisor when he ascended the throne. Certain doubts exist concerning Seneca’s lifestyle in accordance with Stoic philosophy, but non the less his credibility has held strong due to his contribution to philosophy. As a writer, Seneca is known for his philosophical works, and for his plays, which are all tragedies. His prose works include a dozen essays and one hundred twenty-four letters dealing with moral issues. These writings constitute one of the most important bodies of primary material for ancient Stoicism. Much of what we know about Stoics today, is owing to the fact of Seneca’s work. Seneca’s influence over Nero declined with time, and in 65 C.E. Seneca was forced to take his own life for alleged involvement in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate Nero.
Epictetus was born a slave. With the permission of his wealthy owner, he studied Stoic philosophy. Obtaining freedom, he started teaching philosophy in Rome but was exiled to Greece where he arose with his school. Epictetus thought that philosophy is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are beyond our control; we should accept calmly and dispassionately whatever happens. However, individuals are responsible for their actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. None of his writings are known and were transcribed and compiled by his pupil Arrian. *
Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor from 161–180 C.E., the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor to retain Pax Romana (time of relative peace in the Roman empire). Marcus acquired the reputation of a philosopher king within his lifetime, and the title would remain after his death. His son Commodus was a complete diametric contrary to his father who strived for peace. His reign is commonly considered to mark the end of the golden period of peace. The only work that Marcus Aurelius wrote were his Meditations that were not intended to go public. *
*(Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus believed that you do not live longer through your written work or fame, as time is proportionate with human indifference.)
In the Roman Empire, Stoicism became the predominant philosophy and Stoa ethics (way of living) are seemed to have exceeded physics and logic (the other two pillars of Stoicism).
3. The three topoi
A fundamental aspect of Stoic philosophy is the twofold idea that ethics is central to the effort, and that the study of ethics is to be supported by two other fields of inquiry, what the Stoics called logic and physics. Together, these form the three topoi of Stoicism.
Roughly, logic means the study of how to reason about the world, physics means the study of that world, and ethics how to act in the world.
One could use an allegory to transform the holistic topoi from abstraction to a more perceivable picture. Think of a garden: the fence is the Logic — defending the precious inside and defining its boundaries, the fertile soil is the Physics — providing the nutritive power by way of knowledge of the world, and the resulting fruits are the Ethics — the actual focal objective of Stoic teachings.
3.1 Logic
The term logic, that stoics used, was a much broader term as we know it today. It encompassed logic (the study of reason), the study of language and rhetoric, and epistemology (the study of knowing).
We already mentioned that Chrysippus of Soli created an original system of propositional logic. An example of such would be: If there is day, then there is light; but there is day, thus there is light and if there is day, then there is light; but there is no light, thus no day. Stoics developed such principles, in the whole system of logic, together with the rules for the derivation of complex arguments in their simpler versions.
Stoics claimed that every individual was born as a tabula rasa and perceived the objective reality as information through their experiences. Besides the sensual recognition of the objective reality, they also claimed that thoughts can be a basis for objective reality. Their theory of thoughts being as true as sensual experiences were complicated as it was based on a materialistic view of the passive nature (explained in the paragraph of Physics) that they adopted from Epicureans and Democritus. The latter viewed the world as totally materialistic and did not believe humans could experience another “real” world in their minds.
3.2 Physics
To Stoics, all reality was bodily. Everything in the universe — for them, in one world system — is caused by an active principle, the God, on a passive principle, that is matter. The matter is without any distinct quality and is inert (lacking the ability or strength to move), hence the name passive. The active substance, which can be called Fate or Universal Reason and divine order (logos) was described to be a primordial (existing from the beginning of time) fire.
For Stoics God was present in the whole universe, even more, one could say that God was the universe. Chrysippus thought that the center of God (his governing principle) is on the celestial vault (our governing principle was believed to be in our chest).
Everything is subject to the laws of Fate, for the Universe acts according to its nature, and the nature of the passive matter it governs. Humans and animals are passive matter, but our soul originates from the pantheistic God. We are a part of an entity, or to put it differently, our soul is the divinity within us. Stoics claimed that people are subjects to fate, thus declaring Stoicism as deterministic philosophy.
“Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things that exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the structure of the web.”
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Since reason is the foundation of both humanity and the universe it is logical to live life according to reason or according to nature.
It is worth mentioning that to Stoics existence is repetitive, meaning that the universe is ought to be destroyed and recreated again.
3.3 Ethics
Stoic ethics were not just another theoretical subject, but an eminently practical one. Indeed, especially for the later Stoics, ethics was the point of doing philosophy. In the modern era of materialistic consumption and the psychic deterioration of individuals, Stoicism has been used as an ideal to fight such difficulties and has been proven effective within behavioral psychology.
Based on physics, Stoics believed that the universe was governed and was the logos. Logos is divine order and universal reason, which means it operates with reason. People were believed to have a spark of universal reason too, which made Stoics conclude that using your reason was the best way of living your life.
Living according to nature, as Stoics viewed life should be lived, meant not obstructing or resisting the fate that one was a subject to. The best way of living according to nature was to resist passion (the word passion meant passively reacting to external events, e.g. suffering or anguish) and work in harmony with your own and universal reason. Stoic ethics stressed the rule: “Follow where reason leads”. However, Stoics did not want to deny the existence of feelings, but to control them through an ascetic lifestyle ruled by reason. They viewed feelings as a source of suffering and wanted to reach peace of mind.
They recognized and lived based on four cardinal values, which were also recognized by Plato and even adopted by Christianity: prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. Prudence or wisdom is the ability to choose rightly. Fortitude or courage signifies endurance and the ability to confront fear and uncertainties. Temperance is the ability of self-control and was considered to be the most important for Plato. Justice or fairness is the ability to act righteously.
Stoics stressed all importance on the present and claimed that you should be responsible for your actions but not burdened by actions over which you have no control.
“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. “
– Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
4. Conclusion
Stoicism is a philosophy I am fond of. Having read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and delving deeper into the philosophy, currently studying logic and physics, I can assure you that it is an excellent way of fighting with modern problems. It is a philosophy that neglects social inequality. Interestingly enough, Epictetus was a slave and Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man on the planet Earth, but both tried to act according to nature. It is something that we can use in the times of segregation.
Stoicism proves to be quite a practical philosophy, though not all questions can be answered by what was left of Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius. As Nietzsche said: “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy” nothing provides more genuine and honest answers to your questions than you. | https://medium.com/@feliks-v-m/stoicism-12ef1a443715 | [] | 2020-12-15 08:44:49.376000+00:00 | ['Virtue', 'Stoicism', 'Philosophy', 'Eudaimonia', 'Psychology'] |
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Degree or Certificate: What’s Needed in Today’s Workforce? | When you live in cities like Boston and work in higher education, it’s impossible not to feel simultaneously a tremendous sense of history and some trepidation about the future.
The broad expanse of the Charles River outside my windows offers a sweeping, encompassing view of wealthy universities with 400-year old traditions, historically working-class colleges, and younger upstarts that are determined to serve the needs of a growing workforce.
Yet the demands of this workforce are changing. Immediately across the Charles is MIT and its biotech enclaves — one of America’s epicenters of innovation and creativity — where there are growing concerns about whether traditional forms of higher education will continue to meet the needs of a post-industrial workforce.
If degree-granting institutions fail to adapt to the economic engines that will power these expanding, dynamic, transformative hubs, what will become of the very institutions that fueled this economic growth?
Benefits of Liberal Arts Tradition are Many
The answer, in part, carries with it the baggage of accumulated history. Liberal arts colleges and universities, upon which most of American higher education is based, educate the productive citizens that build the new generations. A college degree continues to be among the best investments, paying a handsome return in higher salary and often job satisfaction.
America’s colleges educate broadly, providing access, choice, and a full range of employment options to build a strong economy and a stable democratic republic.
These are good reasons and excellent arguments for traditional liberal arts institutions. But the world is becoming a technologically complex place that has changed dramatically. The fax machine of the 1980s and the technologically-enhanced mobile phone of today seem at best distant cousins.
Today’s Innovation Requires Ongoing Education
Learning today happens differently — and at a different pace — than even a couple of decades ago. We sometimes seem overwhelmed by our capacity to gather information without fully understanding what is true, relevant, and meaningful.
Access to information is different from distilling and defining what is fact-based and useful.
It’s not surprising, then, that there is a continuing discussion about the value of certificate-based training. We are a long way from earlier college-based learning steeped in classical tradition that sought to train preachers and teachers. Yet we risk the danger of so narrowing our focus to meet specialized workforce needs that we lose sight of the greater good.
Higher education must be a lifelong, seamless pathway that prepares us to be useful — nimble, agile, and well-versed — to meet the technical challenges ahead.
Degree or Certificate: Not an Either/Or Proposition
It’s not an either/or proposition. With the growth of for-profit and online and in-residence certificate programs by non-profits, there is already some history behind us.
As the U.S. economy cranks to near full employment and immigration policies become more restrictive, the pool of trained, available workers will likely be unable to meet the demands of a growing economy, even if a recession looms ahead. What America must not do, however, is abandon the historic traditions that have built its workforce.
Higher Education Must Respond to Workforce Needs
This suggests that American higher education must find compelling, responsive ways to respond to the needs of employers. Three early suggestions arise:
Higher education must make a much better case for the liberal arts. The old arguments are correct, but they do not resonate fully with employers. We must demonstrate that the core strength of the liberal arts is that degree graduates are trained to think through an academic program that teaches them to write, articulate, apply quantitative methods, use technology, and work in a collaborative setting. The “product,” as defined in economic terms, is a well-educated citizen with the skills necessary to be agile and adaptable. Certificate programs only train for specialized skills.
The old arguments are correct, but they do not resonate fully with employers. We must demonstrate that the core strength of the liberal arts is that degree graduates are trained to think through an academic program that teaches them to write, articulate, apply quantitative methods, use technology, and work in a collaborative setting. The “product,” as defined in economic terms, is a well-educated citizen with the skills necessary to be agile and adaptable. Certificate programs only train for specialized skills. Certificate programs must be fully incorporated into the academic program and mission. They must not be seen as efficient, low-cost cash cows that keep the rest of a creaking academic enterprise afloat. Instead, they should be value-added initiatives that are responsive to the public good, fully integrated into the institution’s mission, and flowing logically from its degree-granting foundation.
They must not be seen as efficient, low-cost cash cows that keep the rest of a creaking academic enterprise afloat. Instead, they should be value-added initiatives that are responsive to the public good, fully integrated into the institution’s mission, and flowing logically from its degree-granting foundation. Colleges and universities must be responsive to the workforce. Certificate programs are a partnership between business and higher education often to meet “point in time” needs. But colleges and universities must be ready and open to being responsive to the growing demands of the workforce. Fundamentally, this mandates that they have a firm commitment across the curriculum to an assessible and verifiable liberal arts program tied to mission that defines and differentiates their graduates.
Business and Higher Ed Must Recognize Need for Both Types of Learning
There is a need in the American workforce for both degrees and certificates. It would be shortsighted for business leaders to embrace certificates without understanding and appreciating more fully the value of a comprehensive degree. It is equally critical that American higher education make a better, unapologetic case for why college degrees matter. | https://medium.com/academic-innovators/college-degree-or-certificate-workforce-25c3cf6c235d | ['Brian C. Mitchell'] | 2018-10-09 12:09:17.242000+00:00 | ['Certification', 'Innovation', 'Higher Education', 'College Degree', 'Workforce Development'] |
How to Include an asynchronous third party library in Angular | We use Drip for Marketing Automation as a part of our Content Marketing service and we use Angular2 for our Front-Ends as a part of our Development service.
Drip has a very simple JavaScript API for adding email subscribers to their database.
The Problem this post offers a solution to is “How do I integrate Drip with an Angular 2 project?”
Problem 1: Where do I include the Drip provided <script> tag?
Drip provides a <script> tag to include in every page. Drip recommends putting it at the end of the <body> tag, however that doesn’t play nicely with Angular. So I included this script in my index.html in the <head> tag.
Problem 2: Where do I invoke the API?
I recommend invoking the API in a service so that you can re-use code in multiple places in your app.
However, since this is Angular 2 and Angular 2 uses TypeScript, you’ve got to jump through a hoop. At the top of your service include this line:
Adding the declare statement will stop TypeScript from complaining in your editor like it did in mine:
TypeScript complaining that _dcq is not found
Now with the declare statement in place, we can create a simple service that returns the response or the error from the Drip API. In the code below I use a Promise to handle the async. It’s a simple method but its not the Angular 2 way.
The Angular 2 way involves Observables and Subjects. Of course, you already know what Observables are all about, but your friend doesn’t. So for your friend, a Promise.
Problem 3: How do I display the returned data in my component template?
I know that Drip will have a success response with an email property.
However, that email property will only exist when the Promise resolves. So our template must account for that. As well, the Promise resolves asynchronously so we must use the Angular async pipe.
The result looks like the below:
I’ll break down the critical line:
{{ (response | async)?.email }}
We pipe the response to async so that its value will update when the Promise resolves. And we’ll optionally display the e-mail from the response. Thats what the question mark is about, optionally displaying a value.
Done! | https://medium.com/upstate-interactive/how-to-include-an-asynchronous-third-party-library-in-angular2-82bc24f4e633 | ['Peter B Smith'] | 2018-05-22 02:07:46.534000+00:00 | ['Software Engineering', 'JavaScript', 'Typescript', 'Angular', 'Drip'] |
How I escaped Apache-POI and found my dream 3rd party excel writer | Apache POI is a popular giant when it comes to handling excel files
This is how I got rid of slow excel file generation, memory exhaustion traps and finally found the one solution which worked wonders for my team and project.
Before we move on to what worked for me, let’s take a look at the problem statement.
PROBLEM
We need to gather records from our SQL database which match a given set of query parameter, populate these results in an excel sheet and let the client[in this case an Angular app] download it. The columns in the excel sheet should be auto adjusted to content width.
OLD FRIEND
Enter Apache POI. Apache POI has long been the go to tool for Java developers to read and write excel files. Hence, we hailed the old conqueror and integrated it in our Spring Boot backend to generate Excel files[.xlsx]. Things seemed to be going well and good until one day the load increased. Result sets started growing larger now. A couple of thousand records cap had now increased to lakhs[1 lakh = 100000] of records.
PANIC has entered the chat room…
OUR VAIN EFFORTS
Developers who have worked with spreadsheets know that Apache POI supports the following : HSSF, XSSF and SXSSF. We were previously using XSSF workbook which was giving us memory issues when generating excel files with lakhs of records. The application would run out of memory and crash.
We switched to the SXSSF workbooks for a while but couldn’t get the auto column width adjustment to work. Although SXSSF did solve majority of problems, there were still some that needed to be addressed.
A DISCOVERY IS MADE…
My search for the perfect solution to my woes landed me at this page : https://github.com/dhatim/fastexcel.
Reading the following excerpt from the page had my mouth salivating already at the possibilities that could be :
There are not many alternatives when you have to generate xlsx Excel workbooks in Java. The most popular one (Apache POI) includes many features, but when it comes down to huge worksheets it quickly becomes a memory hog.
Its streaming API may mitigate this problem but it introduces several limitations:
Its sliding window mechanism prevents you from accessing cells above the current writing position.
It writes stuff to a temporary file.
It comes with an overhead on the file size because shared strings are disabled by default. Enabling shared strings is likely to consume much more heap if you deal with string values.
So, fastexcel has been created to offer an alternative with the following key points:
Limited set of features (basic style support, no graph support yet) and very simple API.
Reduced memory footprint and high performance by accumulating only necessary elements. XML stuff is piped to the output stream at the end.
Multithreading support: each worksheet in the workbook can be generated by a different thread, while fully supporting shared strings and styles.
TALK IS CHEAP, SHOW ME THE STATS
Below is the scenario explained for the comparison.
Report Generated : An excel report with 22 columns.
Server location : Local
Client location : Local
DB location : Singapore
Response time comparison when generating 196 records
Response time comparison when generating 95136 records
Response time comparison when generating 224376 records
NOTE : All timings are average of 5 attempts and network lag has not been taken into account.
Here are some charts from the github page showing the memory footprint and other comparisons :
Generation time comparison with POI
Memory footprint comparison with POI
NOTE : Heap memory usage is measured just before flushing the workbook to the output stream.
CONCLUSION
Fast-excel was like a ray of sunshine after days of a thunderous storm between users, managers and code that crashes when put to test with huge loads. | https://medium.com/@deepakschoudhary/how-i-escaped-apache-poi-and-found-my-dream-3rd-party-excel-writer-5e56dd73e407 | ['Deepak Choudhary'] | 2019-06-07 06:22:01.945000+00:00 | ['Performance', 'Excel', 'Java', 'Performance Testing', 'Spring Boot'] |
From Kafka to BigQuery: A Guide for Streaming Billions of Daily Events | Over the past few months, we have been working on building a new event processing pipeline for MyHeritage. We have collected billions of events a day of many different types, from request logs originating in web servers and backend services, change data capture logs that are generated by our databases and activity events from our users across different platforms.
In this post, I’ll share the journey we’ve made building our data pipeline, while exploring a scalable, reliable and efficient way to deliver data for analysis, providing quick insights for our stakeholders.
We decided to ship our events to Apache Kafka, due to its proven abilities at high volumes of traffic, its durability, and its fault-tolerance. Different event types in our system are maintained in separated Kafka topics, allowing us to control their scale independently. We use Kafka as a message distributer for multiple consumers, streaming the data for their own needs. One of our main goals is streaming data for analysis.
We searched for a data warehouse system that can ingest the data instantly and perform near real-time analysis. We evaluated BigQuery - a scalable, fully managed, no-ops system that is highly available and runs SQL queries. While analyzing data on a massive scale, the BigQuery daily partitioning feature allowed us to avoid costly full scans, and we paid only for the days queried. Partitioning can be done using one of the following concepts:
Processing time: partition data according to the time a record was observed in the ingesting system, that is, the wall-clock processing time. This approach is simple to implement, but note that delayed processing may lead to storing data in the wrong partition. Such delays can occur as a result of a system failure, a service upgrade, or any unexpected latency.
partition data according to the time a record was observed in the ingesting system, that is, the wall-clock processing time. This approach is simple to implement, but note that delayed processing may lead to storing data in the wrong partition. Such delays can occur as a result of a system failure, a service upgrade, or any unexpected latency. Event time: partition an event by a timestamp generated at the source. This can be useful in cases of late data arrivals; Imagine that your user sits on an airplane with no internet connection, performing offline activities in your mobile app. These events will be produced to Kafka only when the plane lands and internet connection resumes.
As one of our main focuses has been making data available for analysis within seconds of an event, we placed the streaming feature as a top priority. Due to BigQuery support for data ingestion in batch and streaming methods into its native tables, we decided to choose it as our cloud data warehouse. Now let’s start our search for the best data loading technique.
Batching data to GCS
The first technique we tried was batch loading to GCS (Google Cloud Storage). We used Secor, a tool built by Pinterest, designed to deliver data from Kafka to object storage systems, such as S3 and GCS. Secor itself is not capable of loading data directly into BigQuery; however, once the data is available on GCS, it can easily be loaded into BigQuery using a load job. The diagram below illustrates the process:
Secor has some nice features. It supports multiple output formats, including Hadoop Sequence files, columnar formats and delimited text files. Secor can parallelize its work by assigning a worker for every Kafka partition. It also allows you to specify how the data should be partitioned in the destination, that is, how to store your data in a logically ordered way.
We have considered three alternatives for partitioning:
Partition by Kafka offsets. This method fully mimics the source of the data, storing records in GCS by Kafka’s record offsets. Persisting data by offsets disregards the event timestamp, making it difficult to load it to date-partitioned tables in BigQuery. In a pay-as-you-go system, this approach can be very costly, as it may force full scans for most queries. Partition by ingestion date (processing time). Data can be loaded to GCS partitioned by Secor’s processing time. Although this gets us one step forward, delayed processing may lead to wrong bucket partition. Partition by record timestamp (event time). Within the underlying data of every record, we placed a timestamp field representing the time of the occurrence. Reading this timestamp in Secor and acting upon it delivered all events to their correct GCS bucket, making the final queries as accurate as possible. This was our chosen alternative.
Using Secor presented couple of issues:
First, as Secor lacks support for Avro input format, we had to use Json-based topics. Second, Secor wasn’t designed to load data directly to BigQuery, as it only uploads files to GCS by design. We could have created federated tables and query GCS source directly, but this model presents inferior performance, as compared to querying data stored in BigQuery, which made it an unrealistic option for our use case.
There are several alternatives for loading data from GCS to BigQuery. It can be done manually from BigQuery UI, with job object in Google’s REST API or with its command-line SDK. Another option is to using Google Cloud Functions as a trigger-based NodeJS function, executes upon a file creation in a bucket. We chose to work with the bq load command, a part of Google’s SDK. Using this method, we were able to load data to a specific daily partition in BigQuery, by specifying it along with the ‘$’ decorator:
bq load dataset.table$20170615 gs://bucket/topic/dt=2017–06–15/*
Running load jobs, as well as the other options above, are all done in batches, either performed manually or done automatically after a file has been created in GCS. This is therefore not pure streaming, and does not provide real-time analysis to the end users.
Streaming with BigQuery API
In order to get near real-time results, we examined the option of streaming data directly to BigQuery, with no preliminary step as GCS was. BigQuery API allows streaming data in, up to a quota of 100K rows per project, per second. As opposed to batch loading, where you pay only for storage, real-time data streaming comes with a cost (currently $0.05 per GB).
In our use case, where the data is stored in Kafka, you have to consume the data by writing your own consumer, or use your favorite stream processing framework, ingesting the data to BigQuery as you process your records.
Our stream processing framework of choice was Kafka Streams, an open-sourced library for building scalable streaming applications on top of Apache Kafka. Kafka Streams supports both processing time and event time semantics and presents an auto-replicated application state.
Kafka Streams’ ease of use allows you to execute your code as a regular Java application; Below is a basic code sample, which reads its input from a Kafka topic, filters some records, and sends them to BigQuery:
The missing part is how to deliver the data using BigQuery API. The following example will stream one record to the BigQuery table MyTable:
As you can see, BigQuery provides streaming support for simple types (string, bool, etc) and nested records. This makes data ingestion quite convenient, as your table doesn’t have to be flattened by persisting nested data. Here’s another example, this time streaming a full record, represented as a JSON file:
As seen in the examples, streaming API allows you to specify an insert id. This id will assist BigQuery in determining whether the record was already uploaded, while retrying due to failures.
Using streaming API has its benefits, as it gives you complete control over the records you sink downstream. But with this control comes responsibility to write a robust service. You have to tune your records in batches, as you don’t want to make a request for every record observed. You should design your code to handle possible streaming errors, and may want to parallelize your requests. Of course, the process may create a lot of headaches; Here comes Kafka Connect to the rescue.
Streaming with Kafka Connect
As we discussed, building a stable, fault-tolerant system that streams data to BigQuery is not an easy task. Confluent’s Kafka Connect was designed for the purpose of delivering data in-and-out of Kafka, integrating with file systems, databases, key-value stores and search indexes.
Confluent provides connectors making your life easier by dealing with redundancy, scale and robustness of your system. A “sink” connector continuously consumes data from configured Kafka topics and streams them to an external system of your choice, within seconds. Its flexible scaling allows the execution of multiple workers, distributing the workload throughout several nodes.
As there was no BigQuery connector bundled with Confluent’s installation, we used an open-sourced Connector implemented by WePay. When applying this connector, BigQuery tables can be auto-generated from your Avro schema, providing you the ease of plug-and-play.
The connector also deals with schema updates. BigQuery streaming supports only backward compatibility, so you can easily add new fields with default values, and data streaming will continue flawlessly.
Kafka Connect handles errors out-of-the-box, by committing the consumer offsets to Kafka only after a successful write to BigQuery. Retries will be made in case of failures.
A few important configurations you should know about:
Decide on your topology first. You have the option to work with one node and configure the number of tasks that are performing simultaneous work (up to the number of Kafka input partitions), or execute on several nodes, building a redundant system by running multiple workers.
Control the interval of committing consumer offsets using offset.flush.interval.ms (Default is one minute).
The connector Java heap size is set by default to 256MB. For some pipelines, this can stand, but in big scale you’ll be out of memory quickly. Change environment variable KAFKA_HEAP_OPTS to control it.
Kafka Connect provided a robust solution to our problem. By pushing data to BigQuery quickly and reliably, it enabled us to provide near real-time, accurate analytics.
Streaming with Apache Beam
There are still a few issues left unresolved.
First, while using the existing BigQuery connector in the previous step, we were only able to ingest data by its processing time, which can lead to data arriving to the wrong partition.
Second, we wanted to reprocess old events, providing a system that supports both batch and streaming.
Third, we wanted to split events from a single stream to their relevant BigQuery tables. As an example, a stream of pageview events can be divided to real users and bots, where different queries should be applied.
Apache Beam was developed as a unified model for both batch and streaming, supporting real-time processing and replaying old data. Furthermore, Beam is a portable platform, where you write your code once and are able to deploy it on multiple execution engines, either on-premise or in the cloud. While using its Cloud Dataflow runner, your code is executed as a cloud job, making it fully managed and auto-scaled; Google will change the number of workers according to your current load, and alter the cost of execution accordingly.
Loading data by event time using Beam is described in details in this post, implemented by windowing the data in event-time semantics, and ingesting it to BigQuery by its windowed event time. I’ll take a different approach, by fetching the event timestamp from the metadata of the record. As for dividing a stream to separate tables, Beam’s DynamicDestinations was designed to do just that, giving you full freedom to choose a destination table for each event. Here’s a code sample achieving both these goals:
In this example, you are examining a Beam pipeline handling page-view events. The core of this sample is within the getDestination function, receiving a page-view event and acting upon it:
Composing the table name by the event type: bot or user pageview
Deciding on the partition according to an embedded timestamp
Summary
To summarize what we have learned, here are the main tradeoffs between batch and streaming load to BigQuery:
As there’s always a tradeoff, every project will embrace a solution fitting its own needs. Choosing your stack is not an easy task, especially when running a real-time data pipeline, where tools are created and evolved every day.
Integrating systems at a massive scale will force you to choose carefully, as you want to build a robust system that can handle the unexpected. This will allow you to bring the data to your users as fast as you can, while preserving the stability of the system. | https://medium.com/myheritage-engineering/kafka-to-bigquery-load-a-guide-for-streaming-billions-of-daily-events-cbbf31f4b737 | ['Ofir Sharony'] | 2018-11-03 20:15:02.034000+00:00 | ['Bigquery', 'Big Data Analytics', 'Analytics', 'Kafka', 'Big Data'] |
A New Injustice, Pt. 1 | Itzap, receiving confirmation at the consultorio she was pregnant, wanted the baby taken out from the very first. Her implant had expired two months before and she’d lost track. She was embarrassed to have willfully ignored all the symptoms for so many weeks, but now some of the tension subsided and she quickly forgave herself, not least because she’d caught it early. Her nurse (a woman in her late thirties and pretty except for a heavy, seemingly permanent veil of acne) stood under the bright lights with all the serenity of a nun, gently urging her to go home and reflect before making any decisions. In her experience, attitudes had the tendency to change drastically when it came to a pregnancy.
But Itzap’s feelings were not ambiguous, not even emotionally murky. Childlessness was a virtue she had fought and argued for her entire adult life, not just with boyfriends and family members, but even now, serving as a delegate on the Congreso de las Mujeres de Guanajuato, where maybe it shouldn’t have surprised her certain women remained remarkably conservative on the subject of motherhood. Her status as a delegate put her in a well-connected position to secure an abortion in Mexico City, and Leopoldo would be in agreement — would probably even offer to pay for it (she would suggest half) — so, as far as reflecting on things was concerned, the decision was already made.
Walking home she spotted a pack of spotted, sand-colored mules hauling bulging sacks of produce from one of the outlying campos, huffing languidly up the cobbled glorieta on the other side of Túnel Santa Fé and being driven along by a robot. The thing was little more than a matte-black polycarbon stick mounted atop swivel treads made of composite rubber, a shiny camera lens serving as its face and catching sunlight like a monocle. Following the mule train was a group of three impoverished haitianos all in an uproar over something, arguing in explosive French. People stared, customers and shop owners starting to peek out of storefronts to see what was going on. The steady stream of taxis and motos flowing through the glorieta slowed. The tallest of the haitianos was struggling with the other two, who were attempting to restrain him. Itzap saw from the corner of her eye four older men, construction workers standing in front of an abarrotes shop sipping Coca, begin to strut wolfishly toward the weird procession, paint stains on blue jeans and cowboy boots clacking on cobble. The haitianos spotted them, the one in hysterics finally breaking away from the other two and dashing past the sinewy mules up to the robot driver, but before he was able to attack the machine he was forced to turn and face the men. He was on some kind of drug, eyes wide and wild, barefoot and clad in ripped pants, shouting broken castellano at the mexicanos quickly encircling him. Itzap, on the other side of the glorieta, could hear only the gist of what they were saying.
I am Mexican!
No, friend, we don’t do that here.
I am Mexican, I deserve a job!
Calm down. We don’t do that in this neighborhood. Here, we respect other peoples’ property.
I respect when they give me a job!
Oye, negro, cálmate. There are families. You need to go.
Itzap watched the robot and huffing mules ascend one of the steep streets branching off the glorieta.
When she got home she called Leopoldo, as she’d promised, to give him the news. Answering, he sounded typically half-drunk but unusually emotionally disheveled, his voice foregrounded against bubbly noise of what she already knew was some smoky cantina of the type she’d been to with him hundreds of times, arguing and nuzzling at corner tables, nipping at bottles of Victoria. She decided not to go to the trouble of any sort of preamble and just laid it on him in two vicious, succinct strokes.
“I’m back from the consultorio. I am.”
Nothing but modulated bar clatter through speakerphone, the unpleasant sound of a nearby table of drunk men bursting into laughter.
“I’m just calling to let you know I’m going to get it taken care of, so you don’t need to worry about anything.”
She was faced with more silence, a few sonic sparkles of bottles clinking. She imagined, in an admittedly sick way, he might derive a weird sexual satisfaction from her decisiveness, but he wasn’t saying anything.
“Okay,” she said, “I’ll talk to you when I know more.”
“Itzap — ” deep smoker’s voice flanged with something between emotional and physical anguish.
He didn’t often call her by anything but pet names.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you to get an abortion.”
Her breath caught. “Leo, I — ”
“Or,” he suddenly backtracked (possibly qualified), “it’s not that I don’t want you to, but I don’t like the idea of you having it done before we get a chance to discuss it together.”
She couldn’t help noting the stinging irony: Toño — had this been his baby — would have opposed getting rid of it too. The only difference being, objecting to an abortion would’ve been keeping perfectly with his character.
—
Acidic disappointment rose inside her. Rather than focus on it, she pushed it away. She wasn’t used to feeling negative emotions toward Leo, and for that reason she was loath to start. But it wasn’t something she could just forget or ignore. Her trust in him was shattered. She recognized the manipulation in his vocabulary, especially the word discuss.
Leopoldo was a professional when it came to discussions, a history, philosophy and history of philosophy professor with an altogether overactive sex drive for a 52-year-old, and (she felt certain) more girlfriends than just her. Not to mention his wife, of course, and his two grown step-children. She had been dating him nearly two years (two years seeming worthy enough to dispose of the term having an affair) and was sufficiently versed in his habits and personality to know his precondition of “discussing it together” was precisely the kind of reasonable-sounding thing he usually said to get his way. Of course, his manipulations would’ve been ineffectual were it not for the fact they always came cloaked in sincerity.
They’d had many discussions on the topic of having children. It was one of the things they always circled back around to because of her stance, and Leo’s opinions had always been equal to hers if not even more stridently opposed. In his analysis, to have a child at this moment in history was tantamount to an immoral act. He condemned the desire to add another person to an already dangerously overpopulated planet simply so “one could look upon a projection of oneself,” as a shamelessly egotistical impulse, especially while so many other children — already born — were in need of parental figures. But in Itzap’s mind, Leo’s principal objection to having a child was a selfish one, even though he considered it a matter of pragmatism. He was deeply involved in a pan-American political resistance movement, and a child would be a crippling distraction from his activism. What that activism entailed, however, she didn’t know. He kept her knowledge of it purposefully limited: the group was composed of people from many nations across the Americas. Their goal was the undermining and overthrow of every ethnonationalist member-state in the COAN. She figured the whole thing was just as likely an elaborate lie so he could hop between women.
As for her reasons for not wanting a child, they were less ornate. She saw some truth in Leo’s claims that the world had become a polluted, inhospitable, maybe even irredeemable place, but for her those were little more than excuses. Her objection was rooted in nothing more than a feeling, one she didn’t see any need to explain. A feeling that to bring another life into the world would be an inconceivable injustice.
So why such an abrupt reversal of ideals on his part? Maybe he’d just been fleetingly sentimental. But as a general rule, when it came to matters of love, Leo was only ever sentimental about sensuality, and never about sacrifice. In this sense, at least, he was a good materialist. What was it, she wondered, with moderately intelligent men and sheer physicality? She couldn’t really criticize, though, when this was actually what she liked most about him, his immediacy and dispassion set against an oddly unbeaten romanticism.
He had been her teacher during her second year of university. Back then he offered a creative writing course in extremely high demand due to the fact he’d managed to write a very objectively good novel (damn him) that young literature majors with little reading experience had started to list alongside the works of Rulfo, Pacheco, Bolaño and Márquez as among their favorites. But that wasn’t when she’d started dating him. Even that long ago, she and Toño had already been together three years.
Her second year of university was also the year Toño’s father was killed in a car accident. His father’s ex-wife — Toño’s older brother’s mother — succeeded in laying claim to half his assets, which left Toño’s mother and little sister in Irapuato without an income. He quit university in the middle of a law degree to move back, an hour away from Guanajuato, to start driving a taxi in order to support them financially.
Even before his father’s accident, they had mostly stopped having sex. Itzap had no explanation for it. If she tried asking him directly, he was defensive to the point of anger, and naturally she had assumed he was cheating. Incredibly, though, there was no evidence to back up her suspicions. She knew his daily schedule, looked through his phone without him knowing, did everything possible to catch him in the act, but as far as she could tell he barely spoke to other girls. She eventually blamed it on his simply having a low sex drive. But even that was confusing. When they’d first got together during their final year of preparatorio he had been like a pent-up dog, so eager he’d been almost like a cartoon, and then all that sexual energy faded as quick as the details of a fantasy, leaving her with meager reality.
They were a smart socioeconomic match, both of them from protective, lower-middle-class families with designs to send them to school, and there had been many benefits for Itzap in keeping her parents pleased. She was afforded privacy, allowed to live in Guanajuato with Toño rather than with the family of an older cousin. She had gone so far as to announce they intended to marry at some point in the future.
Back in prepa, Toño had been studious but strong, projecting a kind of unflappable masculinity for a boy of eighteen. His personality, however, had meant far less to Itzap at that age than his looks: he’d been a straight-edge but brooding type, vulnerable and tough in equal measure, boyishly groomed but mannishly built, with a rounded, full-cheeked smile and exceptionally benign eyes. His reticence around her drove her crazy in a teenage girl way, had made her wonder, what was he thinking? — was he as into her as she was him? — was he just shy or did he possess a fearsome self-control? True to the stunted nature of their relationship, these questions were never resolved for her, though now she couldn’t have cared less to discover the answers. He’d become little more than an inert force in her life, constant and bothersome.
Their first year of university she had lost the ability to arouse him, and he precipitously lost all interest in her. He’d always been stoical in character, but this was something else. His personality flattened down to nothing when around her. He expressed nothing personal, became enraged when she inquired or requested anything of him. She groped for reasons, cycling through several different theories — the stress of his degree, or too many video games, or another girlfriend, or boredom with her sexually. Nothing explained it. Finally, she was past the point of caring. She’d made up her mind to leave him and needed only to work up the nerve.
Then Toño’s father died, and things got hopelessly complicated.
She couldn’t end things under the circumstances, but the shock Toño experienced reopened him to her emotionally, as if a shell that had been covering him had cracked and flaked away in pieces. He began to confide in her again, grew talkative and even cautiously intimate. She went with him to the funeral, stayed by his side through the grieving process, and found herself slowly regaining some of the love she’d lost.
But his openness didn’t last. Once the funeral ended and the initial pain had had time to deaden, the shell regenerated more rigid and callous than before.
Adding to the problems was a second, and in some ways more difficult, tragedy. Toño’s father, after remarrying, had never updated his will, and as a result his first wife inherited the majority of his assets. There was a brief legal fight but to no avail, and Toño’s mother and little sister were left without an income. The family had gone into debt to pay for the funeral and burial, and they were left with no other option but to sell their home. Instead, Toño decided to leave school, took out a loan to rent his cousin’s cab and started working full-time as a taxista in Irapuato to support them.
The taxi job was meant to be temporary. His plan had been to return the following semester once his mother’s financial situation stabilized. But the fact he would be leaving Guanajuato came as a relief to Itzap. She hadn’t been happy with their relationship for a long time, but she knew breaking up with him in the midst of so much turmoil would leave her with an unbearable guilt. Not to mention she would be upending her own world. So she embraced his absence as an easy way out.
What was meant to be temporary slowly turned permanent. Toño didn’t return to school the next semester, or the next, and finally at all, never quitting the taxi job, never moving back to Guanajuato. Likewise, their relationship never formally ended either.
One reason for this was that almost as soon as Toño moved back to Irapuato she had begun cheating on him. Never anything serious, just an adventure here or there that never lasted beyond a week or two. Even though the guys she turned to to satisfy her sexual urges were more interesting than Toño, and better lovers, she never really considered leaving him for someone else. She already had a long-term, passionless relationship, one which had accumulated years of pressures and complexities, family expectations and deceits. She let herself get strung out on new loves, new losses, experiencing what she felt had been denied her, and throughout all of it she stayed with Toño. He had come to represent an insuperable guilt in her life, a Catholic-grade pasteup of shame and personal failure. But there was another part of her that didn’t feel guilty at all. A rationale took shape in her mind, one that viewed having more than one partner as normal, natural. Maintaining the illusion of being with Toño had kept her family from meddling with her life, gifting her with an easy independence she didn’t have to justify to anyone.
She finished school, abandoned her writing aspirations to graduate with a philosophy degree in women’s studies, avoided Toño’s pleas to move back to Irapuato with him, and got a job at a bar in Guanajuato where she ran into Leopoldo. He recognized her immediately as having been in one of his classes years ago, but couldn’t remember her name. He asked if she was still writing, then surprised her by telling her he had given up on it too. She was confused. He was famous, in the literary sense of the term. He said the world had fallen into a lamentable state, and politics had finally corrupted his love of writing. She said that was too bad, she had enjoyed his book. A regrettable fate for both of them, he said. Then she served him drinks without further conversation for several hours. By the time she clocked out he was still there, smoking away and reading. She was not very attracted to him — he was older than her by more than twenty-five years — but was drawn to him for other reasons. His eloquence, his knowledge (or pretense of it), the way that, in only a few words, he had intrigued her, made her feel seen and heard. She sat down at his table and their conversation lasted three hours. He somehow understood her right away, got her to say things in the course of twenty minutes she’d never been able to discuss with anyone else. She found herself pouring out every secret and emotion about Toño. Regarding her belief that it was natural to have more than one man, he assured her not only was it normal, it was her right. She clearly hungered for a broader experience, the opportunity to freely empathize with others outside the neuroses of monogamy. His own view was that love was an illogical thing, a necessarily animalistic emotion subject to absolutely no set of morals, an instinct which craved, even thrived on, a certain level of depravity. But he also leveled with her, telling her that to deceive was unfair, cowardly and undignified.
Outside the bar she kissed him, and tasted for the first time his pungent but oddly not altogether disgusting smoker’s breath. It wasn’t that the things he’d said to her had never crossed her mind before, or that she even found them so smart, but that he had listened so intently as to have immediately hit upon the issues she’d been grappling with for so long, and assure her, in honest terms, that he could understand why she had done what she did. They started sleeping together, and she discovered he was endlessly energetic, devoutly romantic (in the idealistic sense), that he treated her as an equal, inviting her to political and academic discussions with professionals twice her age, always encouraging her to realize her potential. By being introduced to so many of his political contacts, she secured a spot for herself on the Congreso de las Mujeres, an organization working to draft a national women’s bill of rights in México. Leo had been ecstatic.
She had lived apart from Toño for five years, and been together with him nearly eight. At the same time, she’d given up on new loves for Leopoldo and was now pregnant with his child. | https://medium.com/@bramble_52354/a-new-injustice-pt-1-ecad0a2c7d7c | ['Steven T. Bramble'] | 2020-12-10 20:33:23.499000+00:00 | ['Short Story', 'Abortion', 'Relationships', 'Ethics And Morals', 'México'] |
Jaws (1975) • 45 Years Later | Jaws (1975) • 45 Years Later
When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it’s up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.
In a film as near-perfect as Jaws, it’s almost impossible to pick out highlights. With a few minor exceptions, every scene helps progress a story that’s as relentless as it is simple; finely-crafted in the tiniest details but never self-conscious about them.
The beginning is as good a place to start as anywhere. The opening few minutes of Jaws illustrate why it remains such an effective movie 45 years after its release in the summer of 1975, even for those who’ve seen it more times than they can count in an era when VFX has vastly improved.
The first shot is underwater, creeping through murk and ocean flora. It’s teasing audience who know they’re watching a movie about a shark. The soundtrack is ominous thanks to John Williams’ famous Jaws theme, one forever associated with sharks now. And there’s even a touch of shrieking strings, bringing the shower scene from Psycho (1960) to mind… and this segues directly into a young guy playing the harmonica at what seems to be a college kid’s beach party.
The sea felt sinister, but now we’re on land, so we must be safe, hearing jollier music… right?
Already the fundamental power of Jaws is clear: it’s not a story about a shark but a story about water. A liquid that covers most of the planet and in which humans are almost completely helpless. The shark is more of a convenience for the narrative; a way of concentrating that threat into deeper unease — rather like how the fire in The Towering Inferno (1974) was a vivid manifestation of wider fears about technological hubris.
From this late-night party emerge two young characters, Chrissie (Susan Backlinie) and Tom (Jonathan Filley), who leave the group to go for a swim. Chrissie strips off and enters the sea (looking for all the world like a coed unwisely taking a shower in one of the 1980s slashers Jaws helped influence), while Tom collapses drunk on the beach.
Next, in one of the most striking compositions of a film where the photography’s always careful despite looking naturalistic, Chrissie dives beneath the surface… and as she does so her arm rises above the water, resembling a shark’s dorsal fin, symmetrically balanced in the frame by a buoy. We notice, perhaps, just how tiny both her arm and the buoy are compared with the sea. Now we cut to the underwater again, but this time the implications are unmistakable: it’s a shark’s point of view, but we don’t yet see the creature itself.
Certainly, we don’t see this shark while it eats Chrissie. We mostly see the ocean. The buoy to which she briefly clings is a pathetic and useless substitute for land, and the shot foreshadows the way Roy Scheider’s character likewise clings to the mast of a sinking ship in the climax: another futile attempt by humans to impose their will on the sea.
Tom, meanwhile, is still on the shore, oblivious to Chrissie’s plight. The gentle remnants of a wave wash over him as if warning us that even those on the land aren’t going to be safe from the water for long.
But the next scene is as different as could be. It’s now daytime, the colours are bright and pastel and the mood domestic as police chief Brody (Scheider) and his wife Ellen (Lorraine Gary) chat away. “Somebody feed the dogs,” she says, and there’s a distinct pause after the word “feed” as if alluding back to what we’ve just watched. The Jaws of myth (and marketing) may be a terrifying thriller, but it’s also a film brimming with humour.
This vein of comedy continues as their son (Chris Rebello) enters the house with a bleeding hand. “I got hit by a vampire!” he exclaims happily. (It remains a mystery why he says hit and not bit), then asks his parents “can I go swimming?”
And in just those couple of lines, screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and promising young director Steven Spielberg have managed to casually sow two more seeds in the audience’s mind: the idea this shark is a monster (something almost supernaturally lethal like a vampire) and the idea it will soon get personal for Brody. All this has taken around six minutes, and it’s a rarely paralleled masterpiece of an opening.
Indeed, what makes Jaws such an achievement is that it seems so uncomplicated and unfussy on the surface despite being so meticulously constructed. It’s mostly driven by a forward narrative rather than by contemplation (as Gottlieb said, “nobody but the story was the star”), and though the three principal characters — chief Brody, scientist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and shark-hunter Sam Quint (Robert Shaw) — never feel unbelievable, no time’s wasted in giving them complex motivations or backstories. Those emerge from their performances.
It’s also a virtually non-stop film where only one sequence is questionable — the flabby beginning of the 4th of July beach scene, which doesn’t add much to what audiences already know. Apart from that, every moment contributes to the whole endeavour; whether to push the narrative forward, crank up the tension, lull audiences into false security, or develop characters. Yet it never feels hyperactive. In fact, despite the urgency of the situation it portrays, most of the time it has the same relaxed atmosphere of a summer beach resort where it’s set.
Indeed, two of the most powerful scenes are among the stillest: the confrontation between Brody and a woman who’s lost her child to the shark (where the town’s hubbub seems to cease to focus solely on her fury), and Quint’s account of a shark attack on shipwrecked sailors during WWII.
The plot is well-known and straightforward. After the attack on Chrissie, the shark strikes three more times off the fictional town of Amity, New England. (The movie was actually shot in Martha’s Vineyard near Cape Cod, with nearly all the ocean scenes shot offshore using real boats). Chief Brody, a newcomer to both his job and community, wants to close the beaches to protect people, but the mayor (Murray Hamilton) initially won’t let him, concerned about the effect on tourism.
Eventually, it’s accepted even by the hesitant mayor that this shark must be hunted down and killed. And so, just a few days after the attack on Chrissie, Brody sets off in a small craft (the Orca) with shark expert Hooper an irascible sailor Quint. The rest is cinematic history….
Broadly, it’s the same plot as Peter Benchley’s best-selling 1974 novel but trimmed down. In the book, for example, Ellen and Hooper have an affair, the mayor has links to organised crime, and class issues loom larger. In Spielberg’s film, there’s certainly a class-conflict aspect to working man Quint’s relationship with the wealthy and educated Hooper, but the book and film remain different enough that Spielberg reportedly asked Dreyfuss not to read the source material.
In other words, Jaws the movie directs its attention more single-mindedly to the water than Jaws the book, with its political and sexual shenanigans. The water is a constant, usually shown or being discussed even during the moments on terra firma. The shark barely appears at all before the climax, and nor are there as many attacks as its reputation might suggest.
The creature strikes five times in all, with the fatalities including a child and a dog (surprising for Hollywood tastes), but Quint’s is the only death we actually see in detail. This relatively low body count and restrained gore helped get Jaws a PG-certificate when it was released in the US, but it’s a stretch to consider this family-friendly even today. At the time, Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times warned that “ Jaws is too gruesome for children and likely to turn the stomach of the impressionable at any age.”
Surely the blood and guts are in the service of deeper meaning, though? At the time of its release, many certainly thought so. Yet the range of interpretations conferred on Jaws perhaps reflected the preoccupations of the mid-1970s more than anything inherent in the film itself: the shark allegedly represented the silent and deadly Viet Cong, or Communism, or phallic male aggressiveness, or economic decay, or even nuclear weapons. The latter is an especially unpersuasive theory, supported only by one tenuous connection-that the USS Indianapolis, on which Quint had sailed in the war, delivered parts of the bomb that fell on Hiroshima.
The land story, meanwhile, was suggested by some to recall Watergate, perhaps helped by Hamilton’s vague resemblance to President Nixon. (More recently this same fictional mayor’s reluctance to close the beaches has been compared to US governors unwilling to impose social lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Much more persuasive is the position of critic Antonia Quirke, who argues that Jaws doesn’t have any special meaning. Just as the shark kills and eats without any subtle motive, the makers of Jaws entertain simply because that’s what they do. That doesn’t mean it’s a dumb film. Indeed, the absence of any characteristics in the shark apart from hunger is a stroke of genius; nobody can ever accuse Jaws of anthropomorphising the way that they might King Kong, for example, though it does manipulate our bloodthirsty selves into rooting slightly more for the shark than for the people in the first half, at least.
Gottlieb, Spielberg, and a team including cinematographer Bill Butler extract a huge amount from the potent land/sea contrast, too, even extending it to water/air contrasts with some shots that are partly beneath the surface and partly above. More than half the movie is set in the town of Amity, so most of the time the sea is out there, threatening but not too familiar. This heightens the tension in the second half after the Orcasets out, and indeed the real terror at the end is not that the shark is prowling, but that the boat is sinking.
Even the three main characters are differentiated by their approach to the water. Quint is the old salty sea dog, Hooper is the scientist fascinated by the sea but detached from it (symbolically so by his shark cage), and Brody is downright afraid of the water, giving him the clearest arc in the film as he grapples with his fear.
The three main players meld beautifully in these roles, much of their success ironically coming from the long delays in filming caused by the malfunctioning mechanical shark. All from theatre backgrounds, they were able to improvise and develop their characters while waiting for shooting to resume, despite some offscreen clashes (especially between Shaw and Dreyfuss).
None of the actors was a major star in ’75, though Scheider had come to prominence in William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971), while Dreyfuss had received award nominations for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) and, before that, George Lucas’s American Graffiti (1973). But the characters they create are among the most memorable of the decade, and of Spielberg’s oeuvre.
Quint may be the most boldly drawn-almost a parody, singing “yo ho ho and a bottle of rum” as the Orca sets sail. Like many Spielberg characters, he’s obsessive. One of the best-known scenes in Jaws tries to explain that obsession as Quint recalls being adrift in the sea with fellow sailors for days after the sinking of the Indianapolis in 1945, the survivors gradually picked off by sharks.
There’s still controversy about who wrote this iconic speech because it’s not in the novel, and there’s an intriguing subtext to it as well. Several details Quint mentions are incorrect or self-contradictory. Although the Indianapolisincident undoubtedly occurred, this raises the question of whether such a teller of tall tales was really there to witness it…
At other times Jaws builds character through briefer touches; for example when Hooper struggles to control his shock after seeing the chewed-up remains of Chrissie in the morgue. And particularly strong insights come from contrasts in the way they’re portrayed. Consider, for example, how Brody is such a meek klutz in an Amity shop buying sign-painting equipment before closing the beaches, while Quint (in a deleted scene available on YouTube) completely dominates another shop that he enters to buy piano wire. Or consider how the seafaring novice Brody is still learning to tie a knot at exactly the same moment the old hand Quint is strapping himself into his chair on the Orca, after noticing a tiny movement in his line.
The leads are inseparable from Jaws in the collective memory now. It would surely have been a lesser movie with Jan-Michael Vincent as Hooper (as the studio wanted), and would’ve sunk without a trace had Charlton Heston succeeded in getting the part of Brody. But some other actors under consideration, like Jon Voight as Hooper and Robert Duvall as Brody, might have become part of the legend too.
Few others stand out, apart from Hamilton’s wonderfully insincere mayor with his lurid jackets, and many smaller parts were taken by Martha’s Vineyard locals. Screenwriter Gottlieb appears as the town’s newspaper editor, novelist Benchley cameos as a TV reporter, while Spielberg’s voice can be heard as a coast guard.
And then, of course, there is the titular star: the mechanical shark nicknamed ‘Bruce’ after Spielberg’s lawyer, a relatively realistic Great White though sleeker than any living animal its length would be.
The unreliability of the three complex shark models and budget overspends, with a planned schedule of 50-odd days growing to nearly 160, led the film to be nicknamed Flaws. But the setbacks were perhaps crucial to its success. Not only did they give the actors time to hone their performances, but it’s also because filming with Bruce the shark was so difficult that it was rarely seen until the ending. Instead, it existed mostly in everyone’s imaginations, stoked by Williams’ iconic theme.
Flaws wasn’t expected to be a major success. “It was considered a big B-movie”, Gottlieb recalled. Universal had pinned more hopes on The Hindenburg (a now nearly-forgotten disaster movie redeemed only by a gripping closing sequence). Spielberg himself was still a relative newcomer to feature films, and while Duel (1971) and Sugarland Express (1974) had been well-received, neither was a big hit. Indeed, Spielberg worried that Jaws might be too similar to Duel and could unhelpfully pigeonhole him as a “shark-and-truck director.”
But scepticism about its fortunes was soon replaced by huge confidence, and the heavily-advertised Jaws opened in the US on more than 400 screens simultaneously — a remarkable statistic back then, if small by the standards of the modern blockbusters it became the template for. It became the highest-grossing movie of all time, beating The Godfather (1972) and The Exorcist (1973), although Star Wars (1977) trumped it a few years later.
Jaws got nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards, too, though it only picked up three Oscars. Alongside its ‘Best Sound’ award, Verna Fields won for ‘Best Film Editing’ (it was in her swimming pool that the famous head-in-the-boat scene was shot after principal photography had finished and audience previews had started), and Williams for ‘Best Original Dramatic Score’. His music for Jaws is now considered a high point of film composing. Not always foreboding, it’s sometimes summery in an Aaron Copland style, sometimes exuberantly dramatic, and works so well that he went on to score nearly all Spielberg’s subsequent movies.
Critics were largely enthusiastic about Jaws, many singling out its humour as well as its thrills. “It’s a film that’s as frightening as The Exorcist, and yet it’s a nicer kind of fright, somehow more fun because we’re being scared by an outdoor-adventure saga instead of by a brimstone-and-vomit devil,” wrote Roger Ebert. “You will recognize it as nonsense, but it’s the sort of nonsense that can be a good deal of fun,” agreed Vincent Canby in The New York Times. It was “funny in a Woody Allen way,” said Pauline Kael in The New Yorker.
There were three sequels, none directed by Spielberg, though he had wanted to do one based on Quint’s Indianapolisanecdote. The first of them, Jaws 2 (1978), is workmanlike enough but ultimately a weaker retread of the original, emphasising the slasher idea with a focus on a group of teens.
For Jaws 3-D (1983), the first movie’s designer, Joe Alves, took the directorial reins and Richard Matheson (who’d written Duel but turned down Jaws for being too similar) wrote the screenplay. Reviews of that one were poor, and by the time Jaws: The Revenge (1987) arrived in cinemas, the franchise had sunk into ludicrousness, with a Great White shark somehow following the Brody family from Amity to the Bahamas!
As significant as its own sequels are the films Jaws helped influence. And not just the obvious cash-ins like Piranha (1978), Tentacles (1977), and Orca (1977), but a multitude of other killer-creature flicks like Grizzly (1976) and Day of the Animals (1977). In the latter two, Susan Backlinie (who played Chrissie in Jaws) again plays the first victim! She also appeared in Spielberg’s own mini-Jaws spoof, as part of his flop comedy 1941 (1979).
Jaws’ impact wasn’t limited to the screen. Time magazine called the 1975 season “The Summer of the Shark”. Toothy merchandise of every kind proliferated. The Killer Shark arcade game seen at the beginning of Jaws’s 4th of July scene turned out to be prescient. Universal opened its first Jaws theme-park ride in 1976. The movie thrust sharks into the centre of pop culture discussion, in much the same way Spielberg’s own Jurassic Park (1993) did with dinosaurs nearly 20 years later. Hooper’s description of “an eating machine, a miracle of evolution” could equally well apply to the T-Rex.
And, just as Hamilton’s mayor had warned, beach resorts suffered from low attendances!
Inevitably, the huge literature on Jaws seeks to identify its forerunners as well as its successors. There are the obvious monster movies, like Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), as well as a distinct element of the Western genre — Gottlieb even compares Jaws to “High Noon, pumped up” with its lone sheriff going out to confront evil. Beyond the cinema, Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play Enemy of the People, with its nervous small-town mayor, and Herman Melville’s 1851 tale of whale-obsession Moby-Dick are often cited.
These influences are undoubtedly real. Jaws, unlike the shark, didn’t appear out of thin air. But they aren’t why it works so well. The actors are great, the script makes every line a valuable contribution, the action sequences are exciting, the pacing is astutely judged, and the shark actually isn’t terrible even by the high standards of our photorealistic CGI era.
No, above all, this movie succeeds because of how Spielberg hones in so ruthlessly on connecting audiences through empathy, amusement, anticipation, apprehension, and shock. 45 years and innumerable viewings later, the ‘head in the boat’ shot still makes you jump. And that’s the point of Jaws: it convinces you there’s something nasty out in the water, where we don’t belong. | https://medium.com/framerated/jaws-1975-45-years-later-afdbf6d2cff6 | [] | 2020-06-14 20:26:11.825000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Film', 'Steven Spielberg', 'Review', 'Retrospectives'] |
Teaching Kids to Think Like a Stock Picker | A good way to introduce your kids to the idea of the stock market is by talking about the businesses they see in their everyday life.
If we’re preparing our kids for the real world, we owe it to them to teach them how to handle and understand money, and also to be aware of the basics of business. If done well, you can use the conversation about money to springboard your kids towards even larger lessons about stocks.
You see, business is happening all around you, and pointing it out to your kids can pay dividends in the long run (literally). Chances are, most of the time you’re spending money there’s a business associated with it.
Business is Happening All Around You: Point it Out to Your Kids! Photo credit to Martina Perhat on FreeImages.com.
Some of these businesses are small, locally run operations; some are enormous corporations.
At some point in the conversations, explain that some companies are available for anyone to purchase. Some companies are private — some companies are “publicly traded” — meaning you can become one of the partial owners by buying their stock. Maybe one of these companies could become a potential stock pick for them!
My wife and I began having these conversations when our kids were quite young. Once our kids started thinking about this, they would routinely ask, “Is so-and-so company publicly traded?” If I didn’t know the answer, we would do some “Googling” together to find out.
In those early years when the kids were young, the most frequent question was, “Is Lego publicly traded?” The answer we found was no, it’s not. It’s a privately-owned company called The Lego® Group based in Billund, Denmark. The company is still owned by the Kirk Kristiansen family who founded it in 1932. (Note that this is the Lego bricks side of the business. The theme parks are owned by a separate company.)
We all visit businesses (or at least we used to) as part of our everyday life, and often we do this with our kids. Use this as an opportunity to not just talk about money and how much things cost, but to talk about the business you are supporting. Whether you are at the grocery store, at a restaurant, or taking your child to spend their own money… Talk about the business. Explain how they make money. Talk about the product you are purchasing.
The more relevant to their world you can make the conversation, the more the ideas will stick. If you are standing in line at Chipotle Mexican Grill or Starbucks, talk about the company. If your kids are into computer games, talk about the companies that make the games, the computer and the computer components. Maybe you just got done binging watching a show on Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime — that’s right, talk about the company.
These conversations not only lead you to discussions about stocks and the stock market, they help your child view the world from the eyes of the business owner, not just the eyes of the customer.
Talk about how a particular company makes money if you know. It doesn’t have to be complicated. If you’re at a restaurant, explain how the business tries to make a profit by spending less on food, staff, and rent than it receives from customers buying food.
If you’re at the grocery store, explain how the grocery store buys things in bulk at “wholesale” prices and sells it to us for more. We pay more because of the service the store provides: the convenience of a huge selection of products in one location. Explain that the products the grocery store or restaurant sells also represent other businesses for other companies
If you are buying veggies or milk, there’s a farmer out there working hard to make that happen. If they are paying rent, there’s a landlord that owns the building as a business.
Also teach them to be value conscious and that the same thing might have a different price depending on where you buy it. If you observe a big markup on something, where the company is undoubtedly making a lot of profit, point it out to them. Doing these things will not only help them be more prudent consumers as they grow up, it will help them recognize good businesses and therefore, good investment opportunities.
Stocks are businesses. Not every business is a good one. We’ve all had experiences with a product or service that didn’t meet expectations. The same is true with the stock market. Not every stock is worth owning.
Look for businesses that even a kid will say “man — I wish I owned THAT company.
In our family, we have a saying: If there’s a line out the door, do some research. Some of the best stocks of the last 10 years featured lines of happy paying customers out the door waiting to give them their money. Think about it… Apple, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Starbucks, Costco… Even Amazon. Amazon obviously didn’t have lines of customers waiting out their doors… but I know I had a line of Amazon boxes waiting for me at the overflowing recycle bin for years. It’s a fool-proof method, but it is a good start.
As our kids began to learn about money, and they began to spend the money they saved or were given as gifts… they became more astute consumers. One of our early experiences was with the toy store Toys R Us. When the kids were very young, they used to LOVE going to Toys R Us to see all the cool new toys. Once they began spending their own money, their opinions changed. They realized that they could stretch their dollars further by being price conscious.
It didn’t take a math whiz for them to realize that $25 at Toys R Us didn’t go as far as $25 at Wal-Mart or Target. It wasn’t a shock for my children, who were not very old at the time, to discover that their old toddler stomping ground was shutting its doors.
I’m not suggesting that price is the only thing that matters. There are many locally-owned stores that may not offer the best deal compared to a chain, but we shop there anyway because we want to see our local businesses survive. The point is to have the conversation with your kids so that they understand how we vote with our dollars.
I encourage you to talk to your kids about money and business as early as you can. Teach them the value of money early and often. These conversations help them learn the language of business and provides a foundation for future lessons, including how to buy stocks when they are ready. | https://medium.com/an-idea/teaching-kids-to-think-like-a-stock-picker-e5e53473f01 | ['J. J. Wenrich Cfp'] | 2020-11-24 02:46:18.980000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Finance', 'Stocks', 'Investing', 'Parenting'] |
How I Managed to Write a Novel Alongside a Full-Time Job | If you asked my ten-year-old self what she wanted to be when she was older, she would’ve answered without hesitation: “I want to be an author.” Reader, let me tell you, my younger self would be proud because as of the 3 October 2020, I finished my 80,000-word manuscript.
This is hopefully the first of many novels I’ll write in my life, but having finished my first project of that scale is an indescribable feeling. Of course, it’s not really finished — the manuscript is currently resting, and after a few weeks away from it I’ll revise it before I start querying agents. But it has a beginning, a middle and an end, hence I use the word ‘finished’.
Lots of people want to write books, but few people actually do. What’s the secret to finishing your masterpiece? I don’t profess to know it all, but here are a few things that helped me.
I spent time planning the project
I’ve got several ideas for novels, but few that I’ve actually taken the time to sit down and map out properly in terms of what happens chapter-by-chapter. I always used to read writing manuals by established authors that told me to plan, plan, plan, but for some reason I thought I was too much of a prodigy to follow their guidance. Surprise, surprise, I hit a wall. Every damn time. I’ve got another book that I’ve written 13,000 words of, that I don’t know where it’s going next. Why? Because I didn’t plan it properly. I knew the overall storyline, but I had no idea what happened chapter to chapter.
But this project was different. Before I even started writing, I knew the birthdays of each of my characters. I knew exactly what motivated them, how they would act in a certain situation, and crucially why they behave a certain way. I didn’t realise it before, but these are the things that drive your plot forward, which is why it’s important to take the time to establish credible motivations for your characters.
I had the planning documents sat on Google Drive waiting for the right time to start writing for a few months. So why was 2020 my year? Well, it’s got something to do with an abundance of time spent inside.
Lockdown: an introvert’s dream
2020 has been a challenging year, but compared to most people my situation throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has been very fortunate. I’ve had a stable source of income throughout, and a job I could easily do from home (I work in Marketing). As an introverted person, I’ve got an abundance of hobbies I can do inside; I love reading, cooking, drawing, and of course, writing has always been a go to. So I found it easy to fill all the extra time we had inside due to the pandemic. My extroverted boyfriend who loves sport? Not so much.
In the early stages of the Covid-19 lockdown, I coordinated the first print magazine edition of my website ‘The Indiependent’. We raised money for the British Lung Foundation while also providing lots of early career stage journalists with their first ever print byline — that felt pretty damn special. But, almost as soon as the project went to print I found myself thinking: “What do I do now?”
I spent a few months reading, and even picked up my sketchbook for the first time in a while, but I was still restless. I needed something challenging to do.
I wrote a few articles, but I wanted something bigger, meatier to sink my teeth into. And so, I started writing my book in the evenings after work, and on weekends. But I was working in Google Docs, and jumping between character profiles, and my chapter plot summary notes. It was a bit disorganised, and sometimes I spent so long re-reading what I’d written the day before to get back into it that I barely wrote anything in each session. But then something magic happened.
I learned about Scrivener
This is not a paid product placement, just to be clear. Scrivener is simply so brilliant, it sells itself. I follow a journalist who has been busy writing her own book and she tweeted a screenshot of the software, which allows you to set yourself session word targets, as well as an overall target for your manuscript. I enquired what the software was, she replied, and I downloaded the free trial.
The best thing about the trial is that it only counts the day where you open the software to write on your book, which is pretty neat if you’re trying to fit in writing as of when you have 30 minutes to yourself and don’t have the luxury of being able to write every day. It’s also only $47, so when you decide you can’t do without it in your life, it doesn’t break the bank.
It’s hard to describe, but the way the software is laid out makes it incredibly easy to jump between planning documents, character or place sheets, research and best of all none of that stuff gets included in the overall word count. You can also annotate your project with ease, with different coloured markers for different stages of your revision process. Once you’re done, you can easily compile it into a manuscript which meets industry requirements within a couple of clicks, too.
The software made the process of sitting down to write a lot more straight-forward. But how did I get past the inevitable slump?
I used social media for accountability
If you haven’t already sussed it out yet, I’m one of those people who always has a project on the go. This means that I am constantly juggling a lot of balls at any one time, and sometimes, balls fall by the wayside after something new and shiny catches my attention. I start and don’t finish a lot of projects, which is why actually seeing my novel through to the end feels like such a major achievement. But one way I’ve found to make myself more accountable is by using social media to document the progress of my projects.
Fairly early on, I posted a photo of my word count on Twitter which showed that I was in the process of writing a novel. A couple of days later, I shared the updated word count with a comment about my progress. A few days later, another photo, with a few words about my rate of progress. People favourited and engaged with the post, asking what software I was using (“It’s this great thing called Scrivener, I’m honestly not getting paid to write about it — I swear!”). Others spurred me on, with words of encouragement. The more words I wrote, the more invested my followers seemed to be, applauding me when I passed the 50% mark, and then later, the 75% mark. My final tweet where I shared that I had finished the manuscript had a whopping 200+ likes, and 10 comments.
Posting about your writing journey on social media isn’t going to get the words on the page any faster — in fact, you might find yourself mindlessly scrolling on Twitter instead of typing. But having that community of people to support you will help you on the days that you don’t really feel like writing. You’ll be writing not just for yourself, but for them too.
Here are just a few of the things that helped me finish my novel this year. I hope you find it useful — if you have any other tips or tricks for finishing your damn manuscript, let me know in the comments below! | https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-managed-to-write-a-novel-alongside-a-full-time-job-cd54cc2b737c | ['Beth Kirkbride'] | 2020-10-24 19:40:36.859000+00:00 | ['Literature', 'Writing', 'Creativity', 'Writing Tips', 'Books'] |
Recent Instability & What’s Next | Over the past few weeks, Discord has had a number of outages. Two of those were particularly severe, on the 7th and 8th, resulting in hours of downtime each.
This is clearly unacceptable, and we’re sorry. We understand how important Discord is to each of you — whether you’re talking to friends, playing games together, or building your communities — and these kinds of interruptions are just not okay. We want you to be able to rely on us to be there for you, and we’ve let you down.
The TLDR is that we’ve grown a lot this past year (in terms of users and features), and we did not stay ahead of that growth in a couple of places that have been behind the recent outages.
To address this,
As of last week, we’ve reprioritized most of Discord’s infrastructure engineering team to be part of a new Reliability Strike Team . Among them are some of our most senior engineers.
to be part of a new . Among them are some of our most senior engineers. The goal of this team is to focus on improving the stability and performance of our platform for the rest of the year and through 2020.
for the rest of the year and through 2020. The team has already worked through the weekend and shipped dozens of improvements , including adding more capacity to many of our systems and reducing load on our main user database by about 50%.
, including adding more capacity to many of our systems and reducing load on our main user database by about 50%. We believe that, with these improvements already deployed and more to come this week, the majority of the incidents that have been happening will not continue to happen.
The work does not stop here. We will continue to double down on stability investments throughout the future.
Discord is supposed to just work — wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. That’s our goal, and we haven’t been hitting that. We’re sorry, and it’s our promise to you that we’re doing everything we can (and making progress!) towards fixing this.
I know this blog post is brief and light on detail (because we’ve been busy fixing things!) but stay tuned. We will write up and share the technical details of these recent outages, what we’ve been doing, talk about the details of our infrastructure plans for next year.
Thanks for reading. | https://blog.discord.com/recent-instability-whats-next-ce7e4a9e3139 | ['Mark Smith'] | 2019-12-18 18:40:44.580000+00:00 | ['Company', 'Outage', 'Startup'] |
Yes, White People Can Sell Tortillas | Sean Brock is among the more famous chefs in America, and probably the most famous in the South. But he’s famous for different reasons depending on who you talk to.
To many foodies and chefs he’s the godfather of southern-oriented New American cuisine, piecing together a culinary renaissance with little-known or (supposedly) forgotten ingredients, techniques, and dishes, all served from his four gastro-temples spread across three of the most humid states in the whole damn world.
To many Black and Indigenous people, he’s a White boy getting rich off Big Mama’s Sunday dinners, or worse.
Here’s an example:
Over a year ago, Sean posted an image of “Cherokee frybread” to his Instagram account and referred to it as “traditional,” thereby attempting to profit from three awful things:
Misinformation: nothing about frybread, which is made from flour and sugar before being deep-fried in peanut oil, is traditional Dispossession: after the lands were stolen and hunting/fishing/foraging rights denied, indigenous people dubiously fortunate enough to make treaties with the U.S. were forced onto reservations where they had to subsist on government-provided shipments of flour, sugar, and other basic non-Indian staples, known to us as “commods.” Death: Commods — anathema to thousands of years of Indian dietary evolution — are, to this day, the key driver of stratospheric levels of chronic disease for tribes tied to the rez or rez culture
I roasted Brock (who, like everyone else in the world, makes vague claims to Cherokee ancestry) over this in the post’s comments, detailing the genocidal roots of frybread. His post disappeared almost immediately. Imagine my surprise when, months later, I happened upon an article in Post & Courier featuring Mr. Brock all but reciting my IG comment as his own:
For instance, he featured fry bread on the menu not because it’s indigenous to the tribe, but because it’s a symbol of the Native American struggle. It was created by American Indians from the Southwest who were forced to rely on government commodity goods during and after their displacement. “This was not food that their DNA was designed to process,” says Brock. “It’s led to high cholesterol and diabetes. I enjoy the opportunity to tell those stories and raise awareness.”
(Update 12/23: some folks accused me of making this up. Luckily, I posted my response to Brock along with a screenshot of his post, in my own account, which you can see here, dated December 1, 2017. The Post & Courier article appears on December 12, 2017. That would be one spectacular hell of a coincidence.)
When confronted with appropriation or racial blindspots, most White folks will ghost or get defensive. What Sean did, however, was so next-level brilliant it was almost hard to be mad at him: HE STOLE THE CONFRONTATION AND MADE A PROFIT FROM THAT, TOO.
This guy gets called out for appropriation in public, buries the confrontation in the ground, and out it emerges three months later as a flower of self-inspired cultural awareness; a puff piece nestled inside a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper.
Sean’s very White self goes on in that article to extoll the virtues of three-sisters companion planting and the health benefits of traditionally indigenous diets, all from the peak of a small empire of brick & mortar restaurants while another Sean — one who speaks an indigenous language and doesn’t express his heritage as a percentage — has to win a freaking James Beard Award for his cookbook before even getting to CONSIDER opening his FIRST restaurant.
Sean Brock is a better farmer than I’ll ever be, wielding a green thumb that prints stolen money.
I’m exaggerating when I say Garden & Gun credits Brock with discovering the very existence of southern food… but only by a little. You’d be hard pressed to pick up an issue of the magazine without coming across an entire article or a throwaway line crediting him with “discovering” some “lost” culinary treasure that I’ve been eating at family reunions and cookouts since before I could talk.
It happened again when I picked up the Dec/Jan issue a few minutes ago, and I decided it would be the last time. I put down the magazine forever, and started writing this essay. | https://medium.com/sylvanaquafarms/yes-white-people-can-sell-tortillas-but-not-yet-774f3404d272 | ['Chris Newman'] | 2018-12-23 15:14:38.575000+00:00 | ['Food', 'Sustainability', 'Racism', 'Cultural Appropriation', 'Good Dog'] |
Why Competitive E-Commerce Companies Rotate IP Addresses | Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
We all know the feeling when you want those sneakers so bad you keep checking different websites for the best price. But it seems that they all decide to change the price at the same time. How do they do it? Do e-commerce companies have a secret agreement and email each other as soon as someone decides to raise the price?
Well, not really. But they all have rotating proxies, and they all monitor each other’s businesses. How? Why? What are proxies? How do they rotate? You may have all these questions popping into your head right now, and they’re about to be answered.
What is the IP address rotation?
First, let’s visit the basics: What is an IP address?
An IP address identifies every device connected to the internet, just like our physical addresses identifies where the letters, parcels, and other goods should be delivered.
IP rotation is a process where assigned IP addresses are distributed to a device at random or at scheduled intervals.
For example, when a connection is active via an Internet Service Provider (ISP), an IP address is automatically attached from a pool of IPs. As soon as a disconnection and reconnection occur, the ISP will distribute the next available IP address.
ISP rotate IP addresses because they usually have more users than IP addresses at their disposal. Hence, when a particular user disconnects, the ISP will bring back the user’s most recently used IP address to their pool of IP addresses, thus ensuring the optimization of existing resources.
What is a proxy rotation?
ISPs rotate IP addresses, and this process is transparent to their users. However, out there in the online world, there are plenty of cases when internet users intentionally rotate their IP address. In fact, not even an IP address, but they rotate proxies, which allows them to operate under multiple different IP addresses.
If the proxy server is accurately configured, rotating IP addresses from a proxy pool of IP addresses is possible. With rotating proxies, you can manage numerous connections from a single device, and carrying out web crawling and data scraping operations becomes a much easier task.
Why rotate proxies?
First and foremost, proxy rotation enhances the level of anonymity. Secondly, as already mentioned, it is a widely used practice to automate such tasks as data scraping and web crawling in order to increase success rates.
When it comes to web scraping operations, a common challenge faced by many is avoiding getting blocked by websites while trying to gather the data.
Several techniques can aid the prevention of blocks, and one of them is proxy rotation. It can help to operate scrapers past most of the anti-scraping measures as it allows them to imitate the behavior of multiple organic users. Hence, strengthening the chance of being undetected while gathering vast amounts of data.
There are countless cases out there when proxy rotation is being used. Here are some examples:
SEO firms use proxies that automatically rotate to check keyword rankings from various locations or to promote specific content on social media accounts.
Data intelligence companies rotate proxies automatically to scrape websites for analytics and performance purposes.
E-commerce companies gather product information from competitor’s sites. Why? You’re about to find out.
Scraping and e-commerce industry: the close ties
What do scraping and rotating proxies have to do with e-commerce? If you are in the e-commerce waters yourself, you probably know that the competition is becoming harsher every passing day. At the same time, markets are becoming saturated, consumers are becoming more price-sensitive, and search engines play a vital role in product research.
Today, more than ever, businesses in this industry need to get their hands on as much data as possible. This goes beyond making data-driven business decisions and also has something to do with business growth, market penetration, and sustainability.
Scraping streamlines competition research and provides powerful insights into what the competition is doing. Product information pages have a lot to tell. The price and product description copy only scratch the surface. For instance, scraping product descriptions can help you pick up the keywords the competition is using to rank high. User reviews can help you understand the target customers’ pain points.
Manually doing all this is time-consuming, not to mention the number of errors that are pretty common in repetitive tasks. More importantly, information on product pages changes, including prices, discounts, and sales. You are basically unable to detect these changes and identify patterns if you do it manually.
Scraping comes as the best answer to all your competition research needs. It is ultra-fast because it is carried out by bots. Basically, you get all the information you need in real-time without breaking a sweat because the process is completely automated. The data is well structured so that you can immediately spot trends, patterns, and find specific information.
Since we have established the link between scraping and e-commerce, let’s see why IP rotation is relevant here.
Rotating proxies for scraping product information
Big players in e-commerce verticals are very well aware their competitors are going to scrape their websites. As far as we know, they are doing it themselves as well. However, scraper bots can ruin the customer experience. They can generate a lot of traffic in a short time window. This amount of traffic and requests sent to the server can slow down an e-commerce website or even bring it down.
As a result, many e-commerce websites implement anti-scraping technologies. These technologies enable servers to spot suspicious user behavior and user agents. Telling bots from users is easy today. Frequent requests and a high quantity of requests from a single IP address is one of the main tell-tale signs. This is exactly where rotating proxies become relevant.
Given the fact that you are performing a large scale scraping operation because the number of product pages is substantial, getting blocked is the most probable, if not imminent, scenario.
It appears that rotating proxies are the option in this particular use-case. It is the only way to ensure that requests sent to a server for scraping services originate from a different IP address. Besides, rotating proxies change your scraping pattern.
You can set the proxy rotator in different ways to bypass anti-scraping technologies and run your operation without any disruptions.
There are two ways to do it. You can set it to assign a new IP address for each request, or set a time-based IP address rotation.
Conclusion
Now you know what benefits a combination of proxies and IP rotation provides, and the purpose it serves. If you yourself are carrying out data scraping and web crawling tasks, you simply have to implement a high-quality proxy rotation solution to increase your success rates and protect your proxy pool infrastructure. After all, well-established e-commerce companies are doing this already, and we all have something to learn from them. | https://adelina-kis.medium.com/why-competitive-e-commerce-companies-rotate-ip-addresses-89d5d833f8b6 | ['Adelina Kiskyte'] | 2020-11-25 08:45:05.227000+00:00 | ['Data', 'IP', 'Ecommerce', 'Web Scraping'] |
HELLO NEPAL | HELLO NEPAL
This is my personal blog where I use to share my professional experience. knowledge and skills related to development management, political issues, women empowerment, health, education, financial issues of Nepal. Please enjoy reading and write your comments and suggestions.
If you wish to publish any stories related to anything about Nepal, you are always welcome to do so. For that, you can send your articles to [email protected]
Blog Title : HELLO NEPAL
Blog Address: www.birenbangdel.com
NEPALI POLITICS
This is my another blog where I mostly write about politics, political leaders, corruption and other issues and concerns of general people of Nepal. I am sure you will like it and be tempted to continue looking for my blogs. STAY SAFE.
If you wish to publish any stories related to Nepal politics, you are always welcome to do so. For that, you can send your articles to [email protected]
Blog Title : NEPALI POLITICS
Blog Address: https://politicsnepali.blogspot.com | https://medium.com/@birenbangdel/hello-nepal-d8d27d739be4 | ['Biren Bangdel'] | 2021-03-16 07:31:41.508000+00:00 | ['Irresponsible', 'Politics', 'Power', 'Corruption', 'Federalism'] |
Institutional Investors Buy Bitcoin on Drawdown and Invest in Finplether | New survey data show that institutional investors intend to increase the volume of their bitcoins regardless of the short-term drop in the price of BTC, according to China Daily. The researchers also conducted a survey on investments in Fintech projects.
A new survey commissioned by blockchain company China Block showed that institutional investors are planning to significantly increase their stakes in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and other digital financial projects in the future. First of all, for investments, institutions are considering Fintech and DEFI, such as Finplether.
After polling 50 institutional investors who jointly manage over $ 90 billion in assets worldwide, as well as in the US and Asia, the outstanding response was that 35% of participants believed that pension funds, insurers, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds will increase their shares in the cryptocurrency “dramatically”.
54% of participants believe that the increase in engagement will be moderate, but the group also expects hedge funds to become more active in Fintech projects such as Finplether. 29% of respondents have already invested in Finplether from 10% to 38% of their portfolios, since Finplether is a unique financial instrument for hedging cryptocurrency risks. Hedge funds will dramatically increase their crypto assets in the future with Finplether hedging.
“Finplether is undoubtedly the most innovative thing that has been invented since the inception of Bitcoin,” said Henry Feldman of Global Hedge Fund.
Institutional investors seem to be keen to invest in Fintech and other cryptocurrencies in part because they believe the rules for the crypto market will improve and become clearer in the future.
Others believe that the market will eventually get bigger, providing the best liquidity that most institutional investors require. Many also believe that as market conditions improve, institutions will have access to a wider range of investment vehicles.
Finplether seems to be gaining momentum and becoming truly the most common risk hedging tool for portfolio investors in the United States — noted Joseph Cooper private manager of Goldman Sachs
More than half of the participants said they were concerned about the lack of digital asset insurance, while others were concerned about the quality of custody services, trading desks, reporting tools and procedures of other companies operating in the sector. Therefore, Finplether as a hedging tool for portfolio risks is very timely and largely replaces digital asset insurance and is guaranteed to increase profits with a stunning APY of 1916.05%. Recently, you can often hear that DeFi (decentralized finance) promises up to 2000% APY. Many respondents agreed that for the cryptocurrency market in 2020 is a good and stable APY from 1900% to 2000%. Taking into account the operating costs (transaction fees of the Ethereum network), the final APR will be less, around 1500% -1700%.
The outlook for regulating Bitcoin and other established cryptoassets could be positive among institutional players and for other sectors of the cryptosphere. These sectors include Decentralized Finance (DeFi) and stablecoins, which have grown significantly in 2020.
While Bitcoin’s price did not survive the rally after the halving that many investors expected, institutions remain interested in Bitcoin and Finplether. Bakkt Bitcoin futures trading volume recently hit a new record with over $ 200 million in contracts traded, which
indicates that large investors are still accumulating BTC.
Moreover, major fund managers are starting to enter the market, which most of the participants in the Chaina Daily survey believe is an important factor in the institutional adoption of cryptocurrency.
Just last week, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Sailor followed in the footsteps of seasoned investor Paul Tudor Jones by buying 21,454 BTC. Earlier this year, Jones disclosed his stake in Bitcoin, calling the assets the “fastest horse” with the best chances of performance.
As investor interest in crypto assets grows and the regulatory framework for these assets becomes clearer, the wave of organizations flocking to Bitcoin and fintech projects like Finplether is expected to continue to grow. | https://medium.com/@forbesfintech/institutional-investors-buy-bitcoin-on-drawdown-and-invest-in-finplether-c111991f10d9 | [] | 2020-09-23 16:41:45.545000+00:00 | ['Earn Money Online', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin', 'Institutional Investor', 'Finplether'] |
Can LinkedIn get you a job? | A big YES!!
LinkedIn is like a gold mine for those searching for job opportunities. According to the Jobvite survey, social media is used by 92% professionals in their work today and LinkedIn is the favourite place of 87% recuriters for searching candidates. It provides an overview of the candidate’s experience, education and other activities.
How to search jobs on LinkedIn ?
There are many ways to search for jobs on LinkedIn. Personally I have got best results from below methods —
Use Hashtags (#)
You can search using with relevant hashtags on the search bar. And apply the filter “content”, you will get all posts with your hashtag.
Example — If you want to search for Android Developer role, you can use #AndroidDeveloper, #recruitment, #job, #developer, etc. for your search. This will give you different posts and people who have written the post. You can apply and if required have conversation with recruiter as well.
Connect with recruiters
You have got to connect with recruiters/hiring managers of your desired company. You can ask them if there is any vacancy/job opening they can consider you for. This is a great way to know about the company and job openings both.
Job ID and Referral
You can visit the company page to get any job openings and if you get one, you can ask for referral on LinkedIn. Remember whenever you ask for referral, go with your job id for which you need referral.
Connect with college alumni
Your college alumni can help you in a lot of ways. If they are in a good company you can ask for referral or other connections who can help you get one. Your 1st degree networks are always going to work in one way or the other so keep networking !
How to optimize your LinkedIn profile ?
You can hunt for job on LinkedIn only if you have an appealing and expressive profile. Here are a few tips to optimize the profile that will definitely help you get more job opportunities.
Profile picture
Profile picture is one of the most important things on LinkedIn. It increases your profile views chances by 11X. The picture needs to be professional. Gresham say LinkedIn prefers complete profile for searches much more than incomplete profile.
Be active and make quality connections
You need to be active on LinkedIn. Surf the feed at least once a day to know what is going on. Also, Quality connections are very important, for that you have to know people and then send them connection request.
Experiences and achievements
It’s important to add your previous experiences and whatever achievements you have had. This gives recruiters an insight of your work and increases your chances of being selected.
Resume
If you are applying to any job, always edit your resume according to job description. This is the biggest mistake that people do. Recruiters spend 10–20 seconds on each resume. If you can highlight yourself within that time through your resume, then only you’ll be selected !
Conclusion
LinkedIn can be used by job seekers to get a job, recruiters to get employees and businesses to get leads. It’s the budding social media with 700 million users. Recruiters, CEOs, hiring managers, company pages all are present at the same platform. If used properly, it can help anyone to get their desired results ! | https://medium.com/@sandhyagpt45/can-linkedin-get-you-a-job-9ca931166440 | ['Sandhya Gupta'] | 2020-12-08 06:14:41.463000+00:00 | ['Networking', 'Recruiting', 'Jobs', 'Placement', 'LinkedIn'] |
Lockdown, The Docudrama | So you want to know what it’s like inside?
I heard you were curious about how we live in here. I’ll tell you, but you probably won’t believe me. I mean it’s not like on TV, or movies. Even the documentaries you have seen don’t fully do it justice. You see I can only tell you about my personal experience. I can’t tell you what it was like for the 100 or so men involved, or the 38 men that were hospitalized, or the 8 in intensive care with severe injuries, or the one that died in the 2-day 6 prison riot. I can only speculate about what it’s like to stand in the middle of an all-out race riot that started because of some off handed remark, and now panic, fear, and hatred are the currency traded on this concrete with hesitation and haste; because we don’t really want to do this but what will my “brothers” say if I don’t. I don’t know anything about fashioning a piece of my steel table into a barbaric murder axe, just to sink it between the ribs of my neighbor. I was smoking and joking with him yesterday, but now he is my mortal enemy. I just don’t know about that type of thing. And to be honest most of us don’t.
Sunday was a normal day, as these things go. I woke up, made a bowl of oatmeal, and drank some orange juice. It was about 7:45am and I sat in relative quiet for the few minutes it took me to heat and eat it. Of course there were people around,
…there are always people around.
But as long as no one is talking to me, I can almost block them out and have a similitude of privacy and solace. Since it was Sunday, and my day to work in visitation, I got dressed in my best Orange uniform (l only have one set). I don’t generally wear the orange jump suit, I pride myself on my prison fashion. But the bottom line is I can make even prison orange look good. I headed out around 8:30am on my way to the visiting room. I am a member of the photo club which means we set up a green screen and a table in the corner of the visiting room in order to take pictures of inmates and their family members. It’s a good fund raiser that brings smiles to families in hardship. I really like doing it. It was almost 2pm count time when I got back to the unit. I work the Crossings Church service on Sunday evenings, so I showered in order to be ready to head out when count clears. During count I found the Raiders’ game on TV. I almost hoped for a lockdown count so that could watch more of the game. No such luck. Count cleared on time, and I ran back to the visiting room, this time to move the tables and set up about 200 chairs for the service. There are several of us that do this task so it goes pretty quickly. Once done I had some time, so I went back to catch more of the game.
The Raiders were up 10–0 in the first quarter, but after the 2nd quarter the Chiefs took off. Patrick Mahomes is a beast, what can I say…
I needed to head back to the visiting room at 4:30pm. That meant I had 40 minutes to chill. Right at 4:20 my cellie (cell mate) came to the door. That is strange because he is the sound man at the service and cannot leave the equipment unattended. He said, “It’s a lockdown cellie.” He didn’t know why, he only had speculation that it “fell down” at another prison. So with that, at about 4:30 in the afternoon on Sunday, we were locked in our cell.
It’s crazy that events and circumstances unbeknownst to us affect our lives so immediately and drastically. If there is a huge fight, or even a shooting at the Walmart across town does the Walmart near you get closed down with police tape? Obviously, what actually happened in this case is completely different from the Walmart scenario; but that is how it feels for those of us that not only didn’t have anything to do with it, but also were completely unaware of it until we were remanded behind locked doors.
Let me describe the cell. From the door to the back wall its about 12 feet long. From one side to the other it is approximately 8 feet wide. Not too bad right? But that doesn’t take into consideration the 6' by 3' steel bunk beds on one side, or the locker boxes mounted to the wall on one end of the cell, or the steel desk that protrudes from the middle of the wall opposite the beds. It also doesn’t account for the sink directly inside the door on the right hand side, or the toilet on the left inside the door. That leaves maybe 8 square feet of bathroom for 6'2" me and my 6'10" cellie to eat, sleep, relax, exercise, and toilet in. Two giants but we make it work; luckily we are both skinny. Suffice it to say, I was able to watch the Raiders’ get beat 28–10 by the Chiefs. The rest of the night was spent flipping channels. At one point I looked out of the small window in the door and was hit with the seriousness of this lockdown. Normally men are escorted to medical for evening medication, this time the nurse came door to door. Not only that, but with her was an officer I did not recognize carrying what looked to me like a Mini 14 Machine Gun. Come to find out it was a pepper gun, but it appeared to be a fully automatic small arms rifle with a collapsible butt stock, and about 12–14 inch barrel. A sight I have never seen in my nearly 2 decades behind bars.
That was night one.
Monday I woke up like normal at 6am, though I soon realized we would not be getting out, so I went back to sleep. If you have ever done time in a cell locked down you know getting up, eating breakfast, and going back to bed is common. That’s when the best dreams happen. Today though, it was 9am before breakfast came. It consisted of a piece of wet coffee cake and an apple. Monday was spent reading, pacing the floor, and trying to catch up on things I had been neglecting. Lock-downs can be a blessing in disguise in the beginning for a person that is always busy like me. I even took a nap; though it was a little hot. We do not have air condition contrary to popular belief, and it is the end of summer. That night I watched the rest of the state out at the fair on the news then drifted off to sleep. That was night two.
Being locked down is just like the movie Ground Hog Day with Bill Murray. Except without the comedy. I get up, read my Bible, do some yoga, and think about what I should do for the day. Exercise is not a good idea on lock down because you don’t want to overly sweat. There are no showers for the first week or so of a lockdown, after that it’s only 3 times a week if you are lucky. I personally take Bird Baths in the sink though. I know you know what a Bird Bath is. No? Okay well I don’t literally hop my tall lanky self into the sink and splash around. That would be funny though. First I gather up what I need like soap, shampoo, towel, wash cloth, and clean undies.
Good hygiene is essential kids! So when you get to prison remember this
process.
I take my bed sheet and fashion a curtain between the sink area and the bed, so I can have a little privacy. I also put something over the window in the door, I don’t want to surprise an unsuspecting officer with an eyeful if they come around. Then I strip; it’s about to get real wet over here, so maybe put an old towel down or get out some cleaning rags. I start with my head, mind you the sink is just under 3 feet high, so I have to bend down pretty far to get my head under the water. Beauty is pain right? I soak myself down and soap up the essentials: head, pits, and under bits. Get a good lather then take the wet wash cloth and rinse repeat until the soap is gone. This is not a shower substitute friends, but it will knock the stank off, and give you a semblance of being clean before bed. One thing no one wants to do is get in bed for the nigh feeling slimy.
Prison for me has its ups and downs. Most “normal” days are fine. I mean there is always a dull ache in the back of my brain to remind me that l am not free, but mostly it’s bearable. I am involved in programs and activities, have a full time job that I really enjoy, play music with the band, and perform regularly. I guarantee most of my time is spent in non-prison related activity. Then there are the days where the dull ache turns all the way up. When it’s not an unspoken reminder that you are incarcerated, but an overt exclamation that you are the scum of the earth with no rights or validity. Lockdowns are like that. It can be a struggle to simply get toilet paper, let alone dignity. Staff that normally treat you well, even friendly on normal days, now give you the cold shoulder and looks of disdain. I can’t stand in my door to look out of the window at what is happening outside without feeling like a creep. You’re familiar with the saying, “if looks could kill,” in prison you get used to those looks, they even become normal.
Helplessness is your main companion when prison becomes all-too-real. Let me give you an example:
Earlier I mentioned that my family lives far away. My little sister, her husband and kids, live in North Carolina. I am very close with them. We planned well in advance for a special visit this weekend. We filed all the proper paperwork, and were approved. They wanted to come at this time because they are leaving the country to go be missionaries in Europe. They don’t know when they’ll be back in the U.S. but it will be at least a few years. They rented a truck, and a pull-behind camper for the drive. Traveling that distance with young kids and a trailer is a long, slow ride. Which is why they left on Tuesday. They were set to arrive mid-day on Thursday. It was Wednesday afternoon before they were made aware that visitation was cancelled; they had driven from North Carolina to Little Rock Arkansas. I had no way of knowing where they were, and no ability to contact them.
Helplessness is my constant companion. I do not feel bad for myself; this is just a day in the life. I feel horrible for them especially my nieces and nephew. Though I have been gone their entire life they love me deeply. They were so excited to come see their uncle, and I can only imagine the confusion and sorrow on their faces when mom and dad pulled the truck over and told them they cannot visit with their uncle. They just turned around and headed home. “Your uncle is a failure kids, he messed up big time and he will always let you down. Do not love him.” That’s the lesson that I sometimes think that they are learning at times like this. Pain, tears, and helplessness.
I love you kids, hopefully I can show you someday.
Today is Friday. We should be hugging today! I have another sister whose family is planning to visit in a few months. I haven’t seen them in 8 years. Hopefully this won’t happen again.
The key to maintaining sanity in prison is staying busy. While I was still in county jail waiting to come to prison an old school told me, “When you get there youngsta’ you need to get a job off the unit, establish a routine. Exercise daily, stay busy, and get off the unit as much as possible!” It didn’t take long for me to learn why that was valuable insight. Number one, staying busy and productive makes time go by quickly, sleeping all the time and living moment by moment slows time down. Number two, most problems start on the unit or cell block. Having a job helps prevent you from being caught-up in the nonsense. I would even go as far as halfway to say of the men involved in the recent incident, few if any were involved in any programs or had positive gainful employment. They say idle hands are the devil’s play thing, and we see that proverb lived out all the time in here.
I believe there are two types of people in prison: purposeful and accidental people. Those with purpose are driven and motivated, they are disciplined and forward thinking. They know they are headed somewhere and are willing to put in the work required to get there. They are successful upon release with extremely low recidivism rates. Accidental people are the opposite. They are blown around with the wind; whatever is in front of them at that moment is the most important thing of all time. Accidental people are who you see on the news most of the time, and they can derail a person with purpose if that person is not careful. The actions of the relative handful of accidental people at six prisons around the state have landed the entire state on this lock down.
Today is day 28. I am not complaining, simply stating my opinion, because as an old friend used to say, “This is what we hustle for.” That is my mantra now for any quintessential prison moment. When humanity and dignity are lost, and inmate status is the focus… this is what we hustle for. All the drugs we sold, all the chaos we wrought.. this is our payday. We cannot complain because we brought it on ourselves.
l am so tired of watching TV. But at least I have one. I’m a lucky one. I have a TV, radio, MP4, and a fan. Pretty much every electronic you can buy on canteen. A lot of guys have none of these things. We call it “Dry Celling” when you are locked down with nothing. Thinking about them makes me feel guilty for being bored. I’ve been there though, so I can relate. In the spirit of gratefulness, I have to say this prison I am in now is not like anywhere else I have been. Don’t get me wrong it is still horrible, prison is prison no matter how you slice it, but my unit team seems to be going above and beyond to make this as painless as possible. This will probably change the longer we stay down, but right now they seem to be extremely understanding. They are passing out the food, ice, and removing trash each day. They are running around all day taking care of this or that and I have not heard them take out their frustration on any of us. That is very commendable in my opinion, and rare! These are the unit staff that generally do administrative duties, not direct security. No one likes a lockdown, not even the staff, except for the sadistic few that exist at every prison.
Its Sunday evening again which make this day 34.
This lockdown could be over this week but that is doubtful. The rumor is at least another 2 months, maybe more. All in all we have spent 10 out of the past 17 months on some form of lock down. A lot of it was COVID related, but some of it was due to violence. Sometimes problems are unavoidable. This is prison after all. There are gangs, and all types of people, who have committed all types of crimes. But most often these things can be avoided. Overcrowding caused by lengthy sentencing and little chance for early release is an aggravating factor.
There is more to this docudrama, but I am going to make you wait for the rest. | https://medium.com/@aka467839/lockdown-the-docudrama-a94c69ca9f0d | ['Luke Sinclair'] | 2021-08-03 02:04:59.279000+00:00 | ['Prison Life', 'Life Lessons', 'Perspective', 'Prison', 'Prison Reform'] |
What’s in a Name ? | Inspired by Jola Ayeye’s Who Do You Think You Are?
Vignettes — described by Fu’ad as multiple streams of thoughts — detailing experiences with my name.
Girl in the Garden by Michele Lim (June 2021)
“Ope mi”
My grandfather was 84 when I first moved in with him. I was 16 and in my first year in university. He wore thick, round glasses, lace pants and white vests. Every morning, he walked around the house he built in the late 60s, tapping a cane on the cemented ground of the long narrow hallway, inspecting hinges, walls and windows.
As he made his way around the compound, he sang. I no longer remember the songs, but they must have been hymns. The compound was wide with a u-shaped courtyard. The room I slept in could be accessed through one side of the u-shape. At the end of his walk, he’d stand behind the window to my room, a room that had belonged to my grandmother before she died, and call for me in a teasing voice: Ope mi. Warmth spread around my chest when I heard the tenderness in his voice, the way he said ‘my’ as though I belonged to him and was important to him. Through the dusty windows, he saw me.
Girl (Date Unknown)
We didn’t always get along. I was quiet and reserved, slightly annoyed by the gender roles he imposed on me. He was from a different time, and instead of extending grace to him, I judged his beliefs harshly. It didn’t help that my Yoruba was limited, that I said Ekaaro sir, fluently, but stuttered when trying to communicate what I learned in school or strained my ears to understand the stories he told me. His English was straight, enunciated, but the stories never flowed as well in a borrowed language. So there were days we sat together outside the house staring at the road, saying nothing, enjoying how the sound of cars filled the silence between us. Still, whenever he called me Ope mi, I became putty, melting like butter.
When he fell sick, I was at my parent’s. It was during a long ASUU strike, and he’d collapsed by the well in the compound. I didn’t panic. My grandfather was a strong man. He drank Guinness, but he also walked to church and ate healthy food. Unfortunately, by the time I returned in March 2013, his sickness had gotten worse. He no longer recognised me and would never call me Ope mi again. At the time, I didn’t know.
After he died, my step-grandmother would recall how he called my name and laughed. It was sad laughter, the kind that followed folded lips. Less than a decade later, my uncle would tell me my grandfather gave me the name Ope. After having five biological sons, then two male grandchildren, he had thought God was withholding girls from him. He’d always wanted a girl. So when my older sister came, he named her after his mother. When I arrived, he was grateful that God had given him a second female grandchild. For the first time, I understood what it meant to be his Ope.
Opeyemi: A Short Play
What’s your name?
Ope
What’s the full one?
There’s no full one. It’s just Ope.
No, there has to be a full one. It can either be Opeyemi, Opemipo, Opeoluwa, Opemidayo.
It’s just Ope.
Okay. Can I call you Opeyemi?
No, you may not.
Okay, Opeyemi.
Opeoluwa
Breaking the fourth wall: I’ll tell you a story, but I won’t show it to you.
In my mother’s mouth, the full version of my name is pineapple sweet.
When Sugar says it, he’s trying to trigger me or scold me. My name is Baby. Or Alakija. Or Alaye. Never this.
In my mouth, it’s wrong. It’s been 26 years, and I still need to test it in my head before I say it out loud. I say it slowly so I don’t miss any vowel sounds. Still, it comes out wrong.
I rarely use it.
Baby Girls. (June 1995)
‘Ope,’ my mother shouted.
Press the o in orange like you’re about to sing the national anthem — the first syllable in Arise. Release the pe sound, like you’re letting go of your problems. Imagine an orchestra. The conductor waves his baton, but one of the singers goes off-key.
That’s what it sounds like when my mother screams my name. I know I’ve done something wrong. She follows it with ‘wa n bi’. I jump out of bed and run down the stairs, panicking. I take stock of my chores for the day: Did I leave the stew on fire? Did I not spread the clothes she asked me to? Did I kill someone?
One evening, I was doing the dishes when a bowl slipped under my foamy fingers and shattered. The sound of a broken plate silenced the house. Next came her cries — the sturdy voice behind the sturdy face. I listened to her scolding, how it morphed: from plates to carelessness to womanhood. Is this how you’ll behave in your husband’s house, eh? Answer me, Ope. The Ope here was quiet and softer, but it accused me, so I hated it. I hated the name in my mother’s mouth, and I hated the name for being mine.
A few times, I’m lucky. The o in orange sound starts, and my heart begins racing. Before she can say more, she’s replaced the song with Tobi, my sister’s name, and I sigh, relieved.
Identity Crisis: Are You Ope or Tobi?
Tobi and Ope for Twentysix.co (April 2019)
You’re a big girl. Your sister isn’t. Your sisters aren’t. Your feet are long and wide. Your uncle asks, where are you growing to? Nibo lo n ga lo? Another says, I hope you play basketball. You smile politely. A teacher calls you a giant. The market women say you’re orobo. Your mother calls you iya pati. Whatever that means. They never find your size in the market, so you walk from shop to shop under the sweltering heat, searching. Once in Yaba market, the day before your 10th birthday party, you’re wearing the tight yellow shorts your mother’s sister sent from London. Men snatch your hands, grab your cheek. Your aunty — you’re not sure how you’re related — asks if you didn’t have better clothes to wear. Don’t you know you’re a big girl? You try to shrink yourself. Girls shouldn’t be this big. You look like your daddy. Girls should look like their mummies: dainty and small. Who’ll marry you?
A clementine-faced talkative girl in church jokes that they should’ve named you Tobi, that your parents made a mistake. You’re the big one, she says. She’s the small one. She should be Ope.
Your daddy is a funny man. He once placed his right hand on your head and his left on your sister’s head. He asked if you wanted to swap places. I’ll make you Tobi. I’ll make you Ope. He mumbled incantations, magic words. You giggle. Your sister giggles. After the spell, he asks, what’s your name? You play along.
You say Tobi.
Your sister says Ope.
You wonder if the spell worked. If indeed, there was a mistake and you’re Tobi, true to the name, a big girl.
Identity crisis: Grace of God or Thank God
One afternoon in 2018, I randomly searched Yorubanames.com for the meaning of my full name, Opeoluwa. I was at work in the publishing company where I was the managing editor. It was a slow day, and the internet was even slower. I listened to the sound of passing cars, the hum of the air-conditioning, the laughter of colleagues upstairs.
Then the result popped up on my screen.
Meaning of Ọpẹ́olúwa
The grace of God.
Morphology
ọpẹ́-olúwa
Gloss
ọpẹ́ — grace, permission
olúwa — lord, God
Not thank God — decades earlier, Mrs Aliyu, the Yoruba teacher, gave my class an assignment to find out the meaning of our names. Mine meant thank God. My lips partly open, I typed a short message to my friend, a linguist who worked on the project. I think there’s been a mistake. I can’t remember the result of the conversation, but he said both versions — thank God and grace of God — were right.
Then the website should say that, I thought.
The alternate translation pleased me, but I panicked. Was it grace, or was it thanks? What bearing did that have on my person? What did it mean to translate your name into another language? I secretly loved Grace; I wrapped the words in my tongue. I couldn’t use thanks in the same way.
My mother said any translation of the name was acceptable. This irked me. For days, I had panic attacks, waking up from empty dreams with a gasp. And then one evening, a week after, as I walked home, staring at orange lines in the blue sky — the sun setting the horizon — birds flying across the sky, I said thank you. Despite the okada men threatening to run me off the sidewalk, the creepy yellow-toothed smile of the man who sold puff-puff at the side of the road, the cars honking, frustrated drivers swearing at themselves, I felt gratitude, a feeling that was encapsulated in my name. I chose thank you.
I Would Have Named You Opemipo
My uncle says he would have given me the name Opemipo. His voice is stern, the tone he uses to tell my siblings and me stories from when he served in Zamfara and the pranks we played on him as children. But I already have an ope name. And so? He’s annoyed, but it’s not with me. I can barely see his face on my phone — it’s pixelated, and the house itself, my parents’ house, is dark. But, without clearly seeing, I know about the lines on his face — his forehead and cheeks — that he’s an older man than when he lived with us, and we teased him with songs like, ‘uncle Seyi daleru, somebody tun le se’.
They made me clean everywhere, but they didn’t allow me to give you a name because I was just a small boy.
This time I laugh. I like Opemipo.
Ope, Okpe, Obe, OP — A Brief History of A Mispronounced Name
Party in the Garden (April 2021)
We had a garden party on Easter Sunday. It was a sunny evening, and we set the table with wine, chicken, and potatoes. The guests were from our cohort, but one of us brought his girlfriend, who I’d never met. She had friendly eyes. We couldn’t shake hands, but I imagined her grip would be firm.
My name is Ope.
Can you say that for me again?
Ope, but it’s OK. You can just call me OP.
Ope?
Yes! Wow. You’re the first person in this country to pronounce my name correctly.
She smiled.
Everyone else called me OP. I asked them to.
#
In the old house, before we moved to the island, we had a neighbour whose baby sister we loved. She was only a little girl, but she made so much noise and incoherent baby nonsense. She knew my name: Obe.
#
My tailor. She called me Okpe. And spelt my name Okpe.
Text message from my tailor. (June, 2020)
Ope o!
June 22, 2018. The World Cup. Nigeria beats Iceland 2–0. The men and women in the viewing centre scream Ope o.
When NEPA brings light, right in time for Super Story or days after they’ve held it selfishly, the neighbourhood erupts in Ope o.
When the buka has hot amala, or the beans woman shows up with fresh agege bread, we mutter Ope o under our breaths.
When we hear of near-death experiences, testimonies of survival, we shake our heads and, with a weight in our tongue, say Ope o.
Ope o — not just a name, a word that breaks the language barrier. A collective language of thanks.
Why did the church people gossip about me? A funny one.
Start reading this by singing any of the following songs out loud:
Ope lo ye o, baba olore. Iyin ogo ye o, Olorun Oba, Hosanna ye o, e se o baba. Gbo’pe mi Oluwa, osuba re ma re. Saara re na re o olugbala, bi o ti nse pelu mi ni ko ma se. Ope ye o o Baba, Ope ye o o omo. Opelope re, opelope re, aiye Iba yeye mi opelope re.
Before I knew anything about the world — how the earth moved around the sun, or how London wasn’t in the sky — I had funny thoughts in my head. Someone’s face was an onion bulb. My parents were Mary and Joseph. The people in the house behind ours watched us on their television. We watched the people in the house in front of us on our television. If I closed my eyes long enough, the world would disappear. People were what they smelled like. My Sunday school teacher smelled of kerosene.
The church people passed a secret message through several songs with the words ‘Ope’. They were gossiping about me.
Sometime before this thought first appeared in my head, I dreamt that Jesus didn’t like me. We were in the long narrow hallway of my grandfather’s house. He sat on a bench with a bunch of kids. I stood at the door to the entrance of the house, longing to join but feeling I didn’t belong there. A song, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, played, but I heard I was condemned.
The thought came naturally. I didn’t understand Yoruba, so I didn’t know what they were saying. I also didn’t ask because I was afraid of the wrong they would reveal to me. They were narrating stories about how bad I was. I only felt better when I heard other people’s names in songs.
Oluwa e tobi, e tobi o, e tobi — My sister’s name is Tobi. … A o ma damilare… My brother’s name is Dare.
I wasn’t the only bad person.
Omo ati Mama.
We called my maternal grandmother Mama. When we shouted her name to help us tamba or tell her we were hungry, she responded ‘Omo’ with the same pitch we called her.
Asake
During a long holiday that stretched and stretched until the days were the same, I asked Mama about my other names. In school, Four Akinbamidele, I discovered it was possible to have more than three names. My classmates had told me that they had seventeen names, twenty names, thirty names — all Yoruba kids whose parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties had given them more names than they could carry. Anytime I asked my parents about my other names, they would say they didn’t matter as long as they were not on my birth certificate. Finally, my grandmother would tell me the truth. She called me Asake.
The Other Names: Jesus Loves Ope or Jesufemi
My earliest memory of Sister Yinka is running away from Mama in her Ajinomoto shirt, out the door into the next house, Sister Yinka’s house. I am a chubby child, but I am fast and too slippery for my old grandmother. I’ve just returned from playgroup, the pink school where we sing, ‘toys, toys, toys, who will buy me toys?’ I am not wearing any shirt, just my nappy or underwear. Sister Yinka laughs. I think she’s in secondary school, wearing a green waistcoat and pleated skirt. Or is she already in university? She says, Jesufemi, throws me up and then down. Go and meet Mama. When you finish eating your eba, I’ll come and carry you. Her voice is singsong, with laughter in the edges. I don’t want to eat eba. Mama will force it into my mouth. We’ll fight about it. But Sister Yinka’s voice, the way she says my name is a promise. So I return home, into my grandmother’s willing hands. To date, Sister Yinka is the only one who calls me Jesufemi.
Esther is better. It’s English. Easy to pronounce.
Girl dancing (June 2005)
My primary two teacher, Ms Afoloyan, went to Mecca and returned wearing colourful scarves and calling me ‘Esteri Ayaba’ (Esther, wife of the king). I loved this version of a name I was told my paternal grandmother gave me, a name I shared with my mother.
Two years before this, on the evening before my first day in primary school, my sister told me that I had to stop using my middle name, the name everyone called (Ope) and begin using my first name (Esther). I don’t remember why, but it must have made sense to a five-year-old. I recognise it now as placing value on the English language over Yoruba (or being ashamed of the latter).
By the time I finished primary school and started secondary school, I didn’t want to be Esther anymore. So I switched back to Ope. It was the first act of reclaiming my roots.
But you don’t even look Yoruba?
Sad Girl (June 2005)
Everyone in my family has had a moment in their life where strangers assume we’re not Yoruba. My mother tells the story of the day she stood at a bus stopin the 80s. A stranger walked up to her and started speaking Igbo passionately to her. He might have been toasting her. She doesn’t know.
When my older siblings were in nursery school, they told their teacher they were Igbo because of their complexion. Their teacher believed them, even though they had Yoruba names. My uncle, who tells this story, is more disappointed in the teacher than my siblings.
One evening a long time ago, my family discussed this. It wasn’t a planned conversation, neither was it serious. We joked that we had to investigate why we were all being told that we didn’t look Yoruba, what it meant to look Yoruba. The irony: we agreed that my father didn’t look Yoruba.
There are two very memorable experiences for me here: when I studied law at the University of Lagos, I had to sign a form with the sub-dean. As she went through my form, she paused each time she read new information.
Your name is Ope?
You’re from Oyo? Where in Oyo?
That place doesn’t exist. I know Oyo very well. Go and do your research properly. You might not be Yoruba.
In a second experience, I attended a monthly dinner on the island that a friend organised. When I got there, most people hadn’t arrived. But there was one guy. We got talking, and someone, the topic of my ethnicity, came up. I didn’t look Yoruba. He agreed. He called me Chioma. I called him Emeka. We’re friends now, and we’ve kept our secret names.
One more: At NYSC camp. They had this argument about my tribe too. One guy was confident I was lying about my name. He didn’t think I was Yoruba, but he was also sure I didn’t look Igbo. So he said I was from Rivers.
Nickname
(April 1999)
As a child, all my nicknames revolved around my size. I had one family friend who would always say ‘o ti wu wu wu, o de ma be’ every time he saw me. It was practically a nickname.
As an adult, my subconscious started to dissociate from these names, and I began to call myself names that I chose. It’s fascinating how easy nicknames can stick, how friends and loved ones will accept them and replace your real name with these nicknames. Spicy Ops. General. Butterfly. Sunshine. Ope Dollars.
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”
Girl in Spring (April 2021)
Philosophizing:
A name is a fluid thing. It’s more than the sum of your existence. It’s who you are at this moment. Who you’ll be tomorrow. It transforms itself, taking on different meanings, depending on who uses it, how it sounds in their mouth. It’s also not you. It has a separate identity outside you, so you can bend it and make it conform to your will. A name is not a dictator. It won’t determine the course of your life. It’s a label, distinguishing A from B. Even if I weren’t Ope, I would still be Ope.
Cause a rose is still a rose (still a rose)
Baby, girl, you’re still a flower (still a flower)
’ | https://medium.com/@opeadedeji/whats-in-a-name-97bd2699e82 | ['Ope Adedeji'] | 2021-06-20 09:35:16.357000+00:00 | ['Yoruba', 'Birthday', 'Labels', 'Culture', 'Name'] |
New Adventures for a New Decade | Mark hiking near OJo Caliente, NM, pic by Will Kirkpatrick
It’s already been an exciting new decade for me. In early January of this year, I passed on the reins of Descartes Labs to a new CEO and I became Executive Chair of the board.
I’m so proud of what the team at Descartes Labs has built over the past 5 years. At over 100 Cartesians strong, we’re tackling the toughest problems for some of the world’s largest organizations, and we’ve never forgotten our commitment to better understanding the planet. All of that we did in an unlikely place, New Mexico. Initially, we were here because most of the co-founders were scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, but we stayed because New Mexico is such an incredible place to live and thrive.
Even though I’m enjoying my sabbatical, I can’t stop thinking about the future. As Executive Chair of Descartes Labs, I don’t have any day-to-day responsibilities and don’t go into the office. My focus is on the the vision of Descartes Labs and how we fit into how the world is changing.
One area of my focus will be why AI startups are a unique beast which don’t look like a traditional SaaS company. Thinner gross margins, consulting, custom projects, struggling to package all of your tools into a product, finding projects with good data and real ROI… the road of an AI startup is a unique one. If you’re running an AI company, I’d love to talk to you and compare notes.
Another area of deep thinking is around the data refinery as a foundation for the data-animated organization. Essentially, a data refinery is a platform designed to pull in multiple data sources, fuse them, and allow scientists to build models, which will allow organizations to adjust operations automatically—to become data animated. I’d love to explore that thesis further. Descartes Labs used geospatial data to build models about the natural world, in particular about global commodities like food, mining, and energy. What data refineries exist in other industries? How will companies use data to disrupt themselves? How will companies create shared data refineries to pool valuable data? How will the government contribute data without compromising individual information?
Skiing at Taos, NM
I blame New Mexico for slowing my efforts to write. Since though it’s winter here, I’ve been enjoying skiing at our own ski resort here in Santa Fe, or popping up to Pajarito in Los Alamos before meetings, or getting terrified on the steep, stunning slopes of Taos. On nicer days, I’ll take a hike or hop on my bike. I feel so blessed to live somewhere so beautiful with so many opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.
I’ve also been taking the time to reset my mind. I (finally) finished Eco’s winding, erudite mystery The Name of the Rose. I jumped back in history to read about Enron in The Smartest Guys in the Room. Right now I’m tackling Tolstoy short stories, warming me up to read a long, epic Russian novel. And, I’ve been cooking almost every day. Even though it takes way longer to make chicken soup from an actual chicken, there’s something satisfying about watching a dish go from ingredients to a finished product, with only your own labor.
In terms of what’s next for me, my biggest goal right now is to recharge and reconnect.
I’ll be starting a road trip this weekend with the intention of landing in San Francisco around the Ides of March. Let’s please catch up if you’re in SF or along the way.
Follow me on Instagram to keep abreast of my next steps! | https://medium.com/@philosophygeek/new-adventures-for-a-new-decade-66b6070dedfa | ['Mark Johnson'] | 2020-03-04 23:11:03.772000+00:00 | ['Founder Stories', 'Vision', 'Sabbatical', 'Startup', 'Change'] |
A hijab by Decathlon: France’s problem with visible symbols of Muslim faith | Decathlon briefly posted a Kalenji hijab for sale on its website
En français
After the “burkini” ban controversy, France is yet again divided on the question of Muslim veils: this debate revolves around a sports hijab for sale at Decathlon, the go-to sports store for the entire country. The brand has since promptly removed its offer due to the amount of backlash and threats it received from the French public. A Twitter analysis using NexaIntelligence gave us insight into the situation.
U.S. fencing champion Ibtihaj Muhammad in Nike’s sports hijab ad
A majority of videos among top shared links
The most shared link was a picture of Nike’s ad for a sports hijab, worn by the American sabre fencing champion Ibtihaj Muhammad. The tweet’s author writes “Let me tell you, in New York and the US they don’t give a damn, debates over the Hijab and Decathlon are far away”, but comments range from criticisms of the U.S. over President Trump’s behavior to arguing there is no comparison to be made between the two countries.
The 2nd and 3rd top links were shared by Damien Rieu, an outspoken right-wing activist who notably led civilian groups to stop asylum-seekers in France then bring them to the police. He tweeted videos of Franck Allisio, local representative of the Rassemblement National, France’s extreme-right party, telling journalist Nadiya Lazzouni (who wears a headscarf) that women who want to wear the veil should return to countries where that is acceptable because wearing it in France goes against the country’s culture.
The 4th most shared link showed another side of the French political spectrum, with a video of political scientist Clément Viktorovitch arguing that the notion of laïcité means freedom to wear whatever one wishes, so it does not in fact prevent women from wearing the hijab. Laïcité is the principle of separation of state and church; it is meant to stop religious involvement in public matters and as such, forbids wearing religious symbols in the public sphere (when attending school or working for the government for instance). In theory, it guarantees the equal consideration and treatment of citizens by the state, no matter what their religion is.
French people disagree on the practical ways in which this principle — which has been enshrined in the law since 1905 — should apply to modern society given that multiple religions coexist in the country. At the heart of this debate are the different connotations given to women’s veils, the most common argument against them being that they symbolise women’s subservience to men and a patriarchal order that people believe to be absent in non-Muslim contemporary France. Whether women who do not wear the veil truly enjoy the freedoms and equal treatment boasted by critics of the veil is rarely considered.
After these videos came a tweet by renowned contemporary philosopher Raphaël Enthoven, in which he contends that defending freedom should mean defending both the freedom to wear a hijab and the freedom to mock or caricature Prophet Muhammad (or any other religious figure). Anyone who defends one but not the other, he says, is essentially a hypocrite. Enthoven references the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, whose offices were attacked by terrorists in 2015 in response to a caricature of the Prophet published by their paper. In essence, these are two of the extreme positions one finds in France on the topic of Islam: those who believe it should be treated as all other religions, which includes the freedom to mock it, as well as those who think Islam doesn’t belong in France in the first place and that people should not exhibit signs of faith in public.
Next came Claude Askolovitch’s essay for Slate.fr titled “When the hijab becomes cool, the bourgeoisie goes crazy”, in which the journalist laments the hypocrisy of those who say they defend freedom to then denigrate women’s choice to wear the hijab. He concludes, “we feel, within ourselves, that we formerly possessed reason, but are now insane”.
Finally, yet lower on the list of shared links, is an article from Le Monde depicting Decathlon’s decision to cancel sales of the sports hijab from its stores in France following death threats and an overwhelming amount of disapproval from French politicians including non-Muslim women.
Looking at top content, it seems that opponents to the sports hijab are quite outspoken and popular online, but proponents of the freedom to wear what you wish are just as present and represent a more diverse part of the population. Muslims and non-muslims alike have garnered attention on Twitter with tweets and inventive hashtags criticizing the outcome of this hijab sale debate. Within the top 20 hashtags, we find #liberté (freedom) in 3rd position, #peace (5th), #pourmessoeurssportives (for my athletic sisters) in 10th position. Ranked 15th, however, is #decathlonafondlobscurantisme, meaning Decathlon supports (religious) obscurantism.
NexaIntelligence made it infinitely easier for us to sift through all the Twitter data one gets when searching for “hijab” and “Decathlon”, by giving us a digestible synthesis of the content that matters. By looking at top shared links we found that people were tuned in to French news television and sharing video excerpts to prove their point or show allegiance to particular politicians and commentators. The ranking of hashtags gave us insight into a different portion of the debate and to answer the question: who uses which words to say what? In this particular case, interesting hashtags were made up by users, clearly signaling their take on the subject. We will now delve further into the different sub-conversations at the heart of this debate.
Lexical map: discovering conversations surrounding the hijab and Decathlon
The lexical map helped us discover sub-conversations happening around the Decathlon hijab debate. The map is built using co-word association and measuring the frequency to which words are used alone and together.
Captured by NexaIntelligence (click to zoom in)
We found several additional interesting points when perusing the clusters. Some people pointed to the absurdity of the polemic considering that Nike has been selling sports hijabs since 2017, others noted that Marlène Schiappa, Secretary of Equality between women and men, has not yet expressed her opinion on the matter in public.
The orange cluster points to an ongoing conversation about France’s lack of tolerance for anything that pushes against the norm: debates over a male highschool student who was chastised for wearing makeup and high heels to school, and the sports hijab controversy are cited together as proof that French society refuses to move forward and relinquish beliefs descending from Catholicism. See some tweets here and here.
A tweet by Deputy Aurore Bergé (En Marche) drew attention from both sides of the debate, showing how polarized French society is on the question of the veil. Bergé, a non-Muslim woman, argues that sports are a means of emancipation, not submission, which she says the veil symbolizes. In her opinion, Decathlon is significantly breaking away from French values when offering hijabs for sale.
In his response to Ms. Bergé, @marcomaximo020 further explains the ideological contradictions between French representatives: democrats find it great that veiled women will be able to run while republicans like Bergé think it is a heresy to normalize the sale of religious (Muslim) clothing.
Yet another female politician, this time from the extreme-right party Rassemblement National, denounced Decathlon’s choice and called their cancellation of the sale a victory. Isabelle Surply goes as far as to mention terrorism and jihadists in the same tweet celebrating Decathlon’s final decision.
Another French woman, copywriter Cécile Pimont turns the argument on its head by qualifying the threats against Decathlon of terrorist.
Finally, several clusters pointed to Yann Amiry, Community Manager at Decathlon, whose Twitter account blew up after he handled the company’s public responses to online threats. Amiry said he woke up to 12,000 new followers and thousands of notifications and messages.
Users wrote to thank him for his work and praise his handling of the situation, and some, like @AdrienChirac included a joke about the possibility of shipping one of those sports hijabs to his sister who runs marathons. Amiry even went on to be interviewed by the French media.
We also looked at a tweet by France Inter radio host Guillaume Meurice, which caught the public’s attention. In the linked video, Meurice and his colleagues listen to recordings of people’s outrage over the sports hijab and mock one fellow citizen’s failure to define laïcité despite claiming he believes in it.
Driven by a decisively French penchant for arguments, the Decathlon hijab controversy is yet another manifestation of the country’s polarization over the presence of Muslim religious symbols in the public sphere. On Twitter, we find a divided public opinion with a visible majority of outspoken members of the extreme-right clashing with the smaller number of vocal proponents of the freedom to wear whatever one wishes. This latest debate over women’s veils fits within the context of previous controversies over the “burkini” and the extent to which women can cover themselves in order to be identifiable in official contexts. As such, it’s essential to look at it as an episode in a longer series of arguments over the same topic.
NexaIntelligence helped us delve deeper into each side of the debate so we could, for instance, comprehend the nuances of opposition to the sports hijab and identify influencers of public opinion. It allowed us to find the key politicians, journalists, and philosophers commenting on the matter and to see which of their tweets attracted more attention. Most importantly, we were able to get a broad picture of the debate, then (figuratively) zoom in on the aspects we judged interesting and worth exploring further in depth.
What surprised us in Twitter conversations was how this essentially religious question was brought on par with that of a teenage boy wearing makeup to school, and to see the words islamophobia and homophobia being used not in opposition to one another, but as representing two equally wrong traits of contemporary French society. This seems to suggest that citizens critical of the French status quo are starting to consider intolerance towards non-normative behaviors as a flaw in the system, something to be corrected because it prevents France from truly being the “country of human rights”.
Related readings
Libération gives french muslim women a platform to expose their daily struggles in France. | https://insights.nexalogy.com/a-hijab-by-decathlon-frances-problem-with-visible-symbols-of-muslim-faith-a3a74a5ed268 | [] | 2019-03-06 20:31:12.589000+00:00 | ['Hijab', 'Womens Rights', 'Politics', 'Muslim', 'France'] |
Zume Retro Part 3: Don’t Manage. Lead! | I have left the most crucial lesson for last. Like Maria Montessori’s insight regarding education that provided the proper environment children will flourish driven by their curiosity, teams of knowledge workers thrive when given the right conditions, and can lead themselves. For my final post in this Zume retrospective, I describe how we went about restructuring and revamping a typical engineering/product org into an empowered and performant self-managed team. And while the example here is grounded in a technical team’s experience, the principles and takeaways can apply to almost any team regardless of discipline.
These principles helped 23 people from 10 different teams come together after a painful reorg in which the company we were now to rally behind had just let go of the majority of our friends and colleagues. These principles were the foundation of a quickly-formed, healthy community that was self-organizing, motivated, and fast.
Focus on Getting out of the Way
Historically at Zume, similar to many other high-tech companies, engineering teams were structured rather conservatively: engineering manager at the helm of roughly 5 to 10 engineers. The opportunity to create a cross-functional team and rethink the team structure and product building process from the ground up was vital in my decision to stay at Zume after the January layoffs. I was determined to create an environment that people would thrive in, where they would feel motivated and empowered, not micro-managed, stifled, or in-the-dark.
It’s not “fire all the managers,” but it’s fire all the managers in the traditional sense of managing another human being — that a boss is responsible for the human being and the employee is a ‘subject.’
As I began restructuring my new team, I read an interview with Chris Rufer, founder of Morning Star, that helped shape my thinking. Rufer described the rationale behind their renowned self-managed culture. “If you need a manager to manage a truck driver, the assumption is the truck driver can’t do the job. If the truck driver can’t do the job, do you want to be in the truck with a truck driver who can’t do the job? It’s not “fire all the managers,” but it’s fire all the managers in the traditional sense of managing another human being — that a boss is responsible for the human being and the employee is a ‘subject.’”
Why go through all the trouble and expense of hiring such incredible talent — engineers, designers, product thinkers — if you don’t trust them and need to ‘manage’ them? Focus instead on getting out of their way and figuring out what else is slowing them down.
While seeming extreme and unconventional, I realized that a self-organizing team structure would be the ultimate way to empower the team and truly hand them the ball.
Riffing off Spotify
I studied Spotify’s engineering culture and Henrik Kniberg’s excellent videos (part 1 | part 2) for inspiration. One point, in particular, really stuck with me: “Most organizational charts are an illusion. So our main focus is community rather than hierarchical structures. A strong enough community can get away with an informal volatile structure. If you always need to know who is making decisions, you are in the wrong place.”
So how did we go about creating a ‘strong,’ empowered, self-organizing community?
Instead of a hierarchical structure with managers managing people, we built Guilds to manage workstreams. Each sprint, we formed small cross-functional Squads to work on each project. And we created Growth Chapters to help support and mentor people.
While we riffed off of Spotify’s structure and nomenclature (many might be familiar with Spotify’s Tribes and Guilds), we made it our own. This process didn’t happen overnight. We took the time to experiment and figure out what we needed and what worked for us.
Although I don’t recommend you copy and paste any of this verbatim, below, I explain each of these mechanisms in more detail to provide a sense of how a self-organizing team can function. The principles behind these mechanics are what is essential.
1. Guilds
We formed three guilds, each named with a question: the “What do we build?” guild, the “How do we engineer?” guild, and the “How do we Phoenix?” (Phoenix was our team name) guild. For short, we referred to them as the Build, Eng, and PHX guilds. Each guild formed to focus on the three main workstreams we identified: the product we were building, how we were building it, and how we functioned as a cross-functional team. Each guild’s responsibility was to essentially answer the question in the name of their guild on an ongoing basis. Each guild came up with spikes and projects and maintained the priority of the guilds’ backlog.
As I mentioned in my first post, we adopted a hypothesis-driven development approach in developing our backlogs, projects, and spikes. For example, a hypothesis for the “How do we Engineer?” guild might have been: “Our current build and deployment process is slowing us down. Using a hosted tool like Codefresh would speed us up.” The hypothesis would contain an observation and an idea of how to solve the observed issue. If our confidence level in the proposed solution were high, we would go ahead and implement it. Otherwise, we would use spikes to run shorter experiments or conduct more research to increase our confidence level.
As recommended by this HBR article on cross-functional teams, we created a Portfolio Governance Team (PGT) to coordinate the three guilds, streamline the different backlogs and determine what would go into each sprint. Our PMs and the Build guild maintained a tight connection to the rest of the business org to ensure what we were building was relevant to where the business was going.
Takeaway principle: given the right inputs, resources, and trust, a talented team can figure out on its own what to build, how to build it, and how to best work together.
2. Squads
At the beginning of each two-week Scrum sprint, the entire team reviewed the work planned for that sprint. We would go down the list starting from the highest priority and asked for volunteers for each project and spike. Team members gravitated to projects based on their expertise and interest.
We had rough guidelines of how many engineers, designers, and product managers we would need for each initiative. The team working on a project was called a Squad. At first, we divvied up all the work in the sprint at the beginning of the sprint. But after a few sprints, we moved to a one project/spike per team member model to mitigate context-shifting. If you finished your work before the end of the sprint, you either picked up the next project/spike from the sprint backlog or volunteered to help an existing squad.
There were clear advantages and disadvantages to this method. A few of the pluses:
Members could work on what they were interested in and got to learn parts of the codebase they weren’t necessarily familiar with
People got to work with new team-members almost every sprint.
Quickly cut down knowledge silos.
Some disadvantages and what we did to mitigate them:
Some engineers required time to ramp up when they worked on projects that touched unfamiliar parts of the codebase. We addressed this by ensuring there was always an SME (subject matter expert) on a given Squad. Pair programming also helped to transfer knowledge quickly.
At times people finished work and weren’t sure what they should work on next. We fixed this by inviting folks who had completed their work to be more vocal in our daily stand-up and via the team’s Slack channel.
Takeaway principle: giving a team agency to self-organize around their work means giving them a sense of genuinely owning their time and sprint, trusting them to know where they can best contribute and where they need to grow the most.
3. Growth Chapters
Since we had forums to manage workstreams and Squads to work on projects, we didn’t need ‘managers’ in the traditional sense.
Nevertheless, we wanted to provide mentors and advocates to all team members to make sure we heard them and cared for their needs. So we created Growth Chapters with Growth Chapter leads. These leads were the ‘managers’ on paper and in Workday. But again, they did not manage their members’ work. They conducted weekly one-on-ones. They helped figure out what areas their chapter members wanted to grow in and helped them figure out ways to accomplish that growth.
Each chapter consisted of a chapter lead and up to 3 members. We could have increased the number of members by a few. But since all our chapter leads were also directly contributing code, design, or product guidance, we did not want to overburden them with growth chapter responsibilities. It was fascinating to see how decoupling the role of ‘mentor’ from the traditional position of ‘manager’ enabled chapter leads to focus on being present for their members and think of ways to help them grow and thrive.
Some questions that we began dealing with in regards to the Growth Chapters included:
If chapter leads weren’t managing their members’ work, how do we handle performance reviews?
What meaning is there to the chapter if the primary relationship is between the chapter lead and the members? Some leads began holding chapter sessions, and I envisioned this becoming a space where members supported and mentored each other, further decentralizing and democratizing that dynamic from the chapter lead.
Takeaway principle: removing the onus of managing ‘work’ from a manager allows them to focus on their team members’ growth and needs. By creating the right dynamics, team-members can, and should, also support each others’ growth.
Conclusion
My goal here has not been to provide a template model for how a product team should be structured. But instead, make a case for:
Seeing each of our team members as leaders, not ‘subjects,’ whom we trust with ‘driving the truck.’ In turn, they trust us to create the environment in which they can do their best work together and continue to grow. Creating a culture of empowerment in which teams have a real say regarding what they build and how they build it. Realizing that how we organize our teams and our time directly shapes that culture.
While this self-organizing model of Guilds, Squads, and Growth Chapters seemed a bit odd for some at first, since we embraced a spirit of experimentation, the team trusted our ability to iterate and figure it out. Within just a few weeks of tweaking, the team felt empowered and excited, worked extremely collaboratively, and the fastest we had in months. The model might seem complicated and burdensome, but it ended up taking less time than people had spent in meetings prior and guaranteed that we were always devoting the right resources to the right work without ‘managing’ anyone. And since no one was ‘managed,’ people began to think bigger, take more initiative, and lead.
Don’t think your team can handle this level of independence and responsibility? Give it a try. They might just surprise you.
And with this, I close out my Zume retrospective and this insane year.
Happy holidays and happy new year, everyone! | https://medium.com/@edoecohen/zume-retro-part-3-dont-manage-lead-39c90380bd7 | ['Edoe Cohen'] | 2020-12-20 14:43:07.651000+00:00 | ['Agile', 'Teamwork', 'Self Managed Teams', 'Organizational Culture'] |
Sum of sub-matrices using dynamic programming | Given a non-empty matrix (2D array) like the one below, we are asked to return a new matrix (that we can name sumMat for example) where each element sumMat[i][j] represents the sum of elements of the sub-matrix that goes from mat[0][0] to mat[i][j]
mat
For example, sumMat[2][1] would be equal to the sum of elements of this sub-matrix:
In other words, sumMat[2][1] = 3 + 2 + 4 + (-5) + 7 + 1 = 12
Solution 1: Brute Force
Using brute force method to solve this problem consists of always calculating sumMat[i][j] from the beginning. By doing that, we will end up with four nested loops (two first ones to iterate over elements of sumMat and two last ones to count sumMat[i][j]), so the time complexity would be O((n*m)²), where n represents the number of rows and m the number of columns.
First method implementation in JavaScript
But you can notice that we went through each element of the original matrix many times, thing that we can avoid by using the second solution.
Solution 2: Dynamic programming
In this method, each element of sumMat is calculated based on values of elements we calculated before it.
Explanation:
To better visualize the solution, we gonna decompose our result matrix into four parts like this:
sumMat
Part 1:
The first part contains only the first element (mat[0][0]), so there is no calculations to do because sumMat[0][0] = mat[0][0], this one is like a base case. So sumMat now looks like this:
sumMat after filling the first part
Part 2:
The second part contains the remaining elements of the first row.
Let’s take for example sumMat[0][1], sumMat[0][1] is equal to mat[0][1] + mat[0][0], we can replace mat[0][0] by sumMat[0][0] because they have the same value.
So sumMat[0][1] = mat[0][1] + sumMat[0][0].
Let’s move to summat[0][2], summat[0][2] is equal to mat[0][2] + (mat[0][1] + mat[0][0]), but you can notice that we calculated (mat[0][1] + mat[0][0]) just before, it’s sumMat[0][1].
So sumMat[0][2] = mat[0][2] + sumMat[0][1].
And we can use this technique over and over to fill all elements of part 2, because each element will give us the possibility to calculate the next one, because in a general way: sumMat[0][i] = mat[0][i] + sumMat[0][i-1].
How is part 2 filled
Part 3:
The third part contains the remaining elements of the first column.
We will apply the same technique we used for the part 2, so sumMat[i][0] = mat[i][0] + sumMat[i-1][0].
How is part 3 filled
After filling part 1, 2, and 3, sumMat now looks like this:
sumMat after filling part 1, 2, and 3
Part 4:
This part contains the remaining elements.
Let’s take for example sumMat[1][1]:
We can see that sumMat[1][1] is equal to mat[1][1] + mat[0][1] + mat[1][0] + mat[0][0]. But our goal is to use values we already calculated to avoid always starting from the beginning. So we can write sumMat[1][1] as mat[1][1] + sumMat[0][1] + sumMat[1][0] — sumMat[0][0]. Don’t worry, I’m gonna show you the reason in two ways:
Mathematically:
Introducing an element to an equation then subtracting it later doesn’t change the value (e.g.: x is equal to x +1–1), so:
Mathematical demonstration
Graphically:
You can see in the picture below that sumMat[0][1] and sumMat[1][0] are overlapping, so if we add sumMat[0][1] and sumMat[1][0] together, the intersection will be counted twice, and we can avoid this problem by subtracting the intersection (which is sumMat[0][0]) once, and we get that sumMat[1][1] = mat[1][1] + sumMat[0][1] + sumMat[1][0] — sumMat[0][0]
And we can apply the same technique for the remaining elements in part 4 because in a general way: sumMat[i][j] = mat[i][j] + sumMat[i-1][j] + sumMat[i][j-1] — sumMat[i-1][j-1].
This solution’s time complexity is O(n*m), which is way faster than O((n*m)²).
Second method implementation in JavaScript
Final result:
sumMat fully filled
Now you would think: “why is the second method better when both methods give the same result?”.
In fact, both methods return the right answer, but as mentioned earlier, the second method is way faster than the first one, and we will prove it by comparing time needed to return the result of a 100*100 matrix.
Step 1:
Let’s generate a 100*100 matrix of random numbers between 0 and 9:
Step 2:
Let’s set a timer on both methods:
Step 3:
Let’s call both methods with the 100*100 matrix:
Method 1:
Method 2:
You can see that the first method took around 74ms while the second one took less than 4ms, the difference is huge, so imagine if n and m were way bigger than 100! This is why time complexity is important, and it’s better to avoid brute force method, especially when dealing with large quantities of data.
P.S: This is my first Medium article, so knowing your review about it and what to improve would really help me! | https://medium.com/@syphaxp/sum-of-sub-matrices-using-dynamic-programming-317bb26bd481 | ['Syphax Ait Oubelli'] | 2019-12-22 22:19:42.998000+00:00 | ['Time Complexity', 'Algorithms', 'Dynamic Programming', 'Arrays', 'Data Structures'] |
Interview answers to Employment gap | Most people take their time off from working for varied reasons. At times, it is by choice due to purposes like traveling, looking after an ill relative, raising a kid or for further studies. In other instances, you may take a break as you were fired or laid off and searching for a job. While such an employment gap isn’t an automatic downgrade towards new job prospects, still you should stay prepared to deal with them. This is because, during an upcoming job interview, the interviewer will generally be interested in questioning you about the employment gap in your history.
To begin with, remember that the way you address questions related to your employment gap wouldn’t be the same for others. Your approach towards such questions depends upon several factors like how you utilized your time off work, your success level in previous jobs, etc.
Below are a few best answers/reasons you can give the interviewer for having employment gap in your history:
If possible, try to emphasize on anything constructive that you did while you took your time off from work. This could include elements that reflect positively upon the job you are applying for or your character. For instance, responses such as ‘I took a break to finish my MBA,’ or ‘I concentrated on volunteer tasks and began a new youth mentoring program,’ highlight positive elements of your employment gap. Make sure your answer includes any valuable skills you learned during your time off from work.
A few candidates will not have such clear reasons to tell. It may be that you took a break from work due to personal reasons like dealing with some family issues. If you successfully resolved the issue, then you may want to share your story with the interviewer. The key is to explain the problem as something which remains in the past and won’t affect your productivity anymore.
Some take a break from their work due to fun activities such as a trip to Australia, a trekking adventure or learning golf. If you are one these then you need to explain that you held a strong work ethic after and before your hiatus. For instance, you should offer examples of the hard work you put in on significant projects before as well as after the break.
If you were fired from your previous job then you need to be honest with the interviewer about it. Share the reasons behind the termination and prove to the interviewer that they don’t impact your performance and productivity anymore. You should also be open to explaining if the gap in your resume was because you had been laid off. Tell the interviewer why the previous office had to lay you off. Also, include any skill or volunteering activities you may have cultivated during your time away from work.
If you were on a job hunt for a long-time period, and this gets questioned in the interview, explain how you were searching for the right company and position and not just the pay-check. Describe why you believe that this job is the right one for you to win the confidence of the interviewer.
The best plan of action is an honest and straightforward answer which clarifies any doubts the interview may have. Appear unapologetic and composed as this will help the interviewer feel that you are confident with the reasons you provide. | https://medium.com/@waysandworks/interview-answers-to-employment-gap-feff1c224af1 | ['Ways'] | 2020-02-20 09:40:45.766000+00:00 | ['Human Resources', 'Job Interview', 'Interview Questions', 'Employment Gap', 'Interview Tips'] |
Tree Trimming Guide for Property Owners | Trees that surround your yard, side of your home, or even your commercial space can amplify the beauty of your property tremendously. From providing ample shade to using its trunk for a tire swing or a hammock, trees can offer plenty of benefits, alongside memories and beauty.
However, for them to increase the longevity of your landscape and to bring out the aesthetic beauty of your property, it is essential to ensure that tree pruning and trimming are scheduled regularly.
This will not only help your trees control infestations better, but will also protect your home, car, and property from damages caused by falling branches. So, before we list out a thorough tree trimming guide, let’s have a quick look at the core reasons why tree trimming and pruning are essential.
Why is Tree Pruning and Trimming Important?
According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), trees ought to be pruned regularly, not just to maintain and improve the health of your trees, but also for safety reasons. The prime reasons include:
Safety of your property, neighbors, and pedestrians. To increase the aesthetics of your property and to improve fruit/flower production of trees. To maintain tree health and to make it stronger to withstand extreme weather conditions. Additionally, when opting to trim your trees, always seek the help of professional arborists who can guide you through the trimming and pruning process by thoroughly assessing the health of your trees and receive a complete guide on tree pruning, tree relocating, tree transplanting, tree nursery, and much more. Since the state of Florida has set specific rules for tree trimming for individual tress like mangrove, seeking the help of a certified tree service company in Tampa will help you avoid any unnecessary fines and liabilities to the state.
When should I consider trimming my trees?
Although the trimming and pruning of trees are widely dependent on the season, it is ideally recommended that you trim them at least once a year. Although, this varies depending on the species of your tree as well. Nevertheless, here are a few essential points to consider when deciding:
If your tree’s growth has reached a point that is threatening, either to your home, property, or your assets, it is time you get them pruned or trimmed for safety reasons. Your local arborist can guide you through the right method to be adopted. As a property owner, it is essential that you understand property lines and avoid your trees or plants from entering into your neighbor’s property, avoid all obstructions either for vehicles or for pedestrians, and ensure they do not cause any disturbance at intersections.
If your trees do cause any form of inconvenience to the public or your neighbors, do keep in mind that you’re violating property rights. Lastly, if your property, home, or commercial space is located around power lines, ensure that your trees do not obstruct or interfere with the power lines. You can either get in touch with a tree service company in Tampa, if you’re located in Florida, or contact your local arborists and the local utility company to help you proceed with the required trimming/pruning measures.
How can I safely trim my trees?
When you contact a tree trimming company in Tampa, like Panorama Tree Care, the arborists will personally visit your property to assess the health of your tree and recommend the right measures to be taken for its pruning or trimming. However, before scheduling an appointment, try and assess the condition of the trees yourself. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has outlined some core self-trim tips for trees, take a look:
The first and foremost step is to assess the branches of your trees. If the branches are 5 centimeters in diameter, which is smaller than two inches, you can proceed with tree pruning, either by yourself or with the help of your local arborist. If the branches are within 5 and 10 centimeters, between 2–4 inches, it gets a tad trickier. So, unless you have prior experience in tree trimming or pruning, seek the assistance of professionals to help you out. If the branches are 10 centimeters or over, which is over 4 inches, you need to contact your local arborists to guide you so they can adhere to the necessary protocols of tree trimming and seek appropriate licenses for conducting the procedure.
Best Practices For Tree Transplanting :
If you’re a property owner, transplanting your trees and shrubs is yet another way of beautifying your home/commercial space. However, while doing so, make sure that you do not risk damaging the roots of your tree. Tree relocating or tree transplanting can cause immense shock to your tree, and thus, it is always recommended that you conduct the necessary pruning or trimming a few months or even a year before intending to relocate it. This will reduce the added amount of stress for your tree.
Tree transplanting Steps: | https://medium.com/@marketing_56159/tree-trimming-guide-for-property-owners-4408bb77c9c9 | ['Aaron Hurlbert'] | 2020-02-20 06:30:08.792000+00:00 | ['Plants', 'Tree Trimming', 'Tree Care', 'Gardening', 'Trees'] |
Is Nanox ($NNOX) Over or Under Valued? | I have been looking into Nanox Imaging for a while. Infact, first I posted about their IPO. Then I made an article about whether Nanox can garnish long term support. I thought I wouldn’t need to talk about Nanox for a while afterwards, but then firms shortened it. My last two articles were in response to Citron and MuddyWaters Research. In-fact, this draft was anticipated to be written on the 21st of September, but a lot already happened. The day I was going to release this post, it was delayed because of the recent short report, which I believed happened on a SSR day. The question now relies, is Nanox over or undervalued? This paper will look at my few cents, (considering my confirmation bias) in being bullish on Nanox.
First let us start with the total addressable market. Zion Market Research states that by 2025, the global medical imaging market will reach $48.6 billion. You also need to consider that Nanox wants to target the “2/3rds of the world not scanned”. This can set Nanox to become a key player in the medical imaging market, but is speculative. Hence why, I’m excited.
Nanox Imaging also has a whole bunch of intellectual property. Infact, their intellectual property patents may give them a competitive edge or barrier to entry in comparison to some of the bigger players. One of the top things Nanox has for them is an opportunity to still be considered early into the market with a barrier to entry.
Analyst have also been seemingly positive on the sale side. You see here, that 3 analyst rated it with 2 buys and 1 hold. If you look at Zack’s Ranks scorecard however, 3 researchers are giving it a hold. Zack’s Ranks said, they are in the top 31% in their sector, but bottom 35% in their industry. This isn’t too bad considering it just IPO’d then people shortened it. The industry is also quite large. However, with positive buy side or people indicating hold, a moderate buy isn’t bad.
The tool WalletInvestor also seems bullish, but the tool isn’t that reliable given targets change a lot and a 70.39% accuracy metric. However, although the fluctuations, generally I find WalletInvestor quite useful. ChartMills have given it a low setup rating, but for the past two weeks the data that showed up on the ChartMills page was inaccurate. It was only recently updated. It is still too early for a TA rating from them, and I think I am more excited about what the analyst been saying.
I also have came out previously with a chart on why I might be super long for Nanox. This is something I sort of mentioned many times prior, and many of the reasons still stand.
Source: algowins.com
Seeing the table above, recent short volumes trending around the 40% or more shows some bearish correlations. However, you have to keep in mind the short sell reports that came out and the percentage float. With what has been going on with Citron, Empirical Research, and MuddyWaters Research, I wouldn’t be surprised if the resistance level pops soon.
Source: Finviz
Also looking at what analyst are expecting for year over year growth, as well as current ratios + debt, I don’t see this business being run into the ground any time soon. I see the potential of a financially responsible business, with decent market growth tackling different aspects of the market.
Also, look at the MSaaS Model they have (from their presentation)
MSaaS Slide
True, this says potential. However, they already were able to garnish a variety of partnerships and distributors + are working extensively as we speak. This includes the SPI Medical Agreement, The Gateway Group and the factory (amongst others).
You can see that they were outperforming the S&P500 before the short sell reports, and after the short sell reports how much the volumes have increased. Even considering the short percentage isn’t too high when looking at the stock’s overall history, it has been incremental. There are reasons to believe that the shorts could potentially be “squeezed” soon. This is especially looking at the short interest vs. support levels.
Another thing you need to consider is the executive team. The CFO is Itzhak Maayan, who was part of Perrigo, a previous CFO at Cisco Systems in Israel, an early XTIVIA’s CFO, and a CFO for Kulicke & Soffa. This guy also has previous auditory experience. It is almost as if the company went out of their way to find the best CFO in Israel.
Even MorningStar which rarely gives 5 star prices, at least put Nanox as fair valued. I personally think a marketcap of $5 billion for a company about the size of where Nanox is now, isn’t too far fetched.
Other sectors that Nanox’s tech can disrupt include:
X-Ray imaging for airports
The manufacturing industry
Self-Driving Cars (AI and Chip design)
and many others. Nanox is currently focused on medical imaging, but whose to say licensing or outside of medical deals are off the table? I think people are potentially undervaluing or underestimating Nanox, and that the future might be quite surprising. That being said, it seems like anything can happen.
I do engage in research related to the sensory tech and medical device industry. However, I hold no relations to Nanox Imaging or working with Nanox Imaging. My only current conflict of interest is being long on its stock.
Disclosure: Please keep in mind, everything I say is on an opinion based basis. This is not meant to be taken seriously or as actionable financial advice. Do your own due diligence and any trades/investments you do is at your own risk. We are not responsible, proceed with caution and we are trying to voice an opinion not meant to warrant action. This is solely meant to be viewed as a non actionable opinion not meant to be taken as seriously or as a form of actionable advice. | https://medium.com/quantportal/is-nanox-nnox-over-or-under-valued-1d3904dc90f5 | ['Andrew Kamal'] | 2020-09-23 03:26:42.552000+00:00 | ['Stock Market', 'Stocks', 'Technology', 'Medical', 'Startup'] |
Why I switched from Excel to Python? | Photo by Myriam Jessier on Unsplash
After spending a good portion of my adult life using Excel to carry out all forms of analysis from Undergraduate Assignments and Projects to Product Performance Metrics evaluation, in 2020, I finally decided to complete my switch to Python to improve the speed and reproducibility of my results.
Anyone who uses Excel often enough knows how tedious working with large files can get. Those large files and their accompanying computations can force you to take mandatory breaks as your computer is nothing but useless in that period.
Some Background
I joined gomoney to lead the Strategy and Analytics Function (Data and Financial) to guide performance analysis, financial analysis, and provide the strategy to help achieve our growth targets.
The goal here was to ensure the product was performing according to the agreed benchmarks and measuring these metrics frequently enough to ensure we were nimble with our market approach.
At the time, this involved measuring the following daily:
Transaction Performance;
User Acquisition Performance;
Google Analytics Information and Metrics
In the first few weeks, this was not tedious as I was using a decently powered computer and created what I had considered a “scalable” approach.
My “Scalable” approach:
These are the steps that I thought were scalable at the time.😂
I see you judging me!
Download the transaction reports for the previous day as a CSV
Add this information to the Excel Sheet with all transactions.
Apply all the transformations needed for my analysis
Create a mini-dashboard to evaluate all the results from the transformation.
My Experience
For the first three (3) weeks, this was phenomenal, I thought I had conquered the reporting, and my thoughts were around how to improve the reporting to get more information and better evaluate the metrics such as Retention and Customer Activation (I will talk about these in future posts)
At the end of Week 3, I noticed that the report was taking about 18 minutes, and I just assumed this was because I had not restarted my computer in the last ten (10)days. The slow down persisted into the new week and got worse over the next couple of week. Still, as anybody who uses Excel knows, this tends to happen with reports that include dashboards, so I just scheduled the work till I did not have to use my computer actively and accepted this to be my “new normal” (before COVID ruined the meaning of that phrase).
…the straw that broke the camels back
In June, we ran a marketing campaign that drove up adoption and, consequently, the solution's usage. This campaign drove up downloads, activation, transaction value and volume. The increased volume meant the report now required an average of 90 minutes with my fan at full blast and the laptop sitting on our Air Conditioning unit.
Then it happened, the report was running for a while, and suddenly my computer just went off and restarted itself.
Me when the computer restarted after 90 minutes of running a report
And at that point, I knew that I needed a new solution to this. I had been tinkering with Python for years. Still, I had never made the switch entirely, and I had not used it for anything outside the occasional Linear Regression due to the results' speed and reliability.
When this happened, I decided to double down and design a training plan that replicated the things I regularly did with Excel in Python to get my feet wet and manage the transition.
How I made the transition?
I decided to understand the most fundamental libraries for Data Analysis and picked those I was going to learn.
I also wanted a place where I could see the analysis in real-time, and this is where Jupyter Notebooks came in handy as opposed to Pure Python where the output would have required print statements and could have been a bit tedious.
An actual Scalable Approach
Connect directly to the Database to get all the information required for transactions based on the period under consideration
Create a transformation script that captures all the changes required to carry out the analysis
Prepare a function that outputs all the considerations for the period and then make decisions or carry out further analysis if there is a need for this.
Feeling like a boss
Guide to Getting Acquainted with Python (Using the Chipotle Data set)
Though I achieved the Scalable Approach, I had to take baby steps to get there, and those baby steps are itemised below.
I will use the Chipotle dataset to capture some of the things that I would consider the first steps to seeing Python as a natural extension of Excel.
Before we jump ahead, let me provide some context on the libraries that will be the most useful for your transition.
The Primary Libraries for Data Analysis
Pandas — This is an open-source library that can be used for data analysis, data manipulation and data visualisation (Though, data visualisation in pandas is quick, it is a bit limited and you should consider other libraries such as Seaborn and Plotly — my personal favourite)
— This is an open-source library that can be used for data analysis, data manipulation and data visualisation (Though, data visualisation in pandas is quick, it is a bit limited and you should consider other libraries such as Seaborn and Plotly — my personal favourite) Numpy — This is a scientific computing library that brings speed to a lot of computation. The execution speed comes from the implementation that converts Python to well-written C Code that is optimised for numerical analysis. Numpy is fast, like really fast.
— This is a scientific computing library that brings speed to a lot of computation. The execution speed comes from the implementation that converts Python to well-written C Code that is optimised for numerical analysis. Numpy is fast, like really fast. Matplotlib (I’m not too fond of it, but it is a necessary evil) — This is a visualisation library with a lot of flexibility. Still, the default leaves a lot to be desired. I don’t use it, but it provides an excellent introduction to visualisation. My preferred library is Plotly (I will write some posts on this as I love the library because of its flexibility).
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
Jupyter Notebook: Viewing and Understanding your data and analysis
Jupyter Notebook
Jupyter Notebook comes in handy where you need to understand your data, manipulate your data, and see your evaluation results. It runs in what is called a REPL (Read → Evaluate →Print → Loop) model. REPL means that Jupyter reads your code, Evaluates it, Prints an output (optional) and then repeats this in the next cell.
The installation is super easy, and once you go with the Anaconda Distribution Default installation, you are good to go.
In a case where you have space constraints, you can go with mini-conda installation and install only the packages you want.
If you don’t have time for all of these and want to get started or use a work computer where installations are limited, I suggest you go with Google Colab and get started right away. For Google Colab, there is no installation, and you can get right into your analysis.
Open my CSV and Excel Files in Python
This involved reading files that are typically double-clicked and switching this to lines of code. The good thing is that only two code lines are required to open an XLS/XLSX/CSV file in excel.
Reading CSV and EXCEL files was achieved by importing pandas and using the read_table or read_csv or read_excel options.
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_table('http://bit.ly/chiporders')
OR
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('chiporders.csv')
The output here shows the number of rows and the number of columns that are contained in the dataset, but you are unable to see all the information at a glance, so it is advisable to “understand” your data using describe and info.
df.info()
Interpreting the output:
Columns in Pandas are only one data type. Hence, the consistency in Dtype.
order_id — This means that the order_id column contains no empty rows (non-null), and all the values in this column are integers;
— This means that the column contains no empty rows (non-null), and all the values in this column are integers; quantity — This means that the quantity column contains no empty rows (non-null), and all the values in the columns are integers
— This means that the column contains no empty rows (non-null), and all the values in the columns are integers item_name — This means that the item_name contains no empty rows and all the values in this column are objects. I would be careful with items because a lot of data types can be represented as objects by default, so a cursory review of the column is usually necessary to make the necessary steps
— This means that the contains no empty rows and all the values in this column are objects. I would be careful with items because a lot of data types can be represented as objects by default, so a cursory review of the column is usually necessary to make the necessary steps choice_description — This means that the choice_description column contains 3,376 non-null rows which means that 1,246 columns here have no information. There are ways to manage missing values, but that would be communicated later and is a function of your exercise's objective and an understanding of the data set.
— This means that the column contains 3,376 non-null rows which means that 1,246 columns here have no information. There are ways to manage missing values, but that would be communicated later and is a function of your exercise's objective and an understanding of the data set. item_price — This means that the item_price column contains no empty rows and all the values in this column are objects. However, we know that prices should not be objects and should be decimals (2 Decimal places typically for finance professionals when reporting currency outside JPY 4DP). The issue here is the dollar sign.
df.describe()
The describe function returns an evaluation of the numeric values in the dataframe (table we imported) and provides context to how the data is distributed. | https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/why-i-switched-from-excel-to-python-ac77304dcc2c | ['Wole Olorunleke'] | 2021-03-31 05:40:07.564000+00:00 | ['Data Science', 'Business Intelligence', 'Pandas', 'Excel', 'Data Analysis'] |
America Keeps Claiming Governments It Hates Are Paying Bounties On US Troops In Afghanistan | We’re now getting mass media reports that yet another country the US government doesn’t like has been trying to kill American troops in Afghanistan, with the accusation this time being leveled at China. This brings the total number of governments against which this exact accusation has been made to three: China, Iran, and Russia.
“The U.S. has evidence that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] attempted to finance attacks on American servicemen by Afghan non-state actors by offering financial incentives or ‘bounties’,” reads a new “scoop” from Axios, quoting anonymous officials who refused to name their sources.
“The Trump administration is declassifying as-yet uncorroborated intelligence, recently briefed to President Trump, that indicates China offered to pay non-state actors in Afghanistan to attack American soldiers, two senior administration officials tell Axios,” the evidence-free report claims.
The Axios report is already being circulated into public consciousness by mass media outlets like CNN. It is co-authored by Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, whose career lately has been focused on churning out extremely aggressive narrative management about China for a liberal audience, including a ridiculous hit piece on The Grayzone and its coverage of Xinjiang which failed to list a single piece of false or inaccurate reporting by that outlet. This eagerness to help manipulate public perception of America’s number one geopolitical rival has seen Allen-Ebrahimian rewarded with plenty of attention from “sources” who provide her with endless career-amplifying “scoops”.
A few months ago, it was Iran we were being told is trying to use proxies to kill US troops in Afghanistan.
“US intelligence agencies assessed that Iran offered bounties to Taliban fighters for targeting American and coalition troops in Afghanistan, identifying payments linked to at least six attacks carried out by the militant group just last year alone, including a suicide bombing at a US air base in December,” CNN reported in August without any evidence.
Before that it was Russia this same accusation was being leveled at, with mainstream news media shamelessly regurgitating claims by anonymous intelligence operatives and then citing each other to falsely claim they’d “confirmed” one another’s reporting back in June. The story was sent so insanely viral by mass media narrative managers eager to pressure Trump on Russia during an election year that when the top US military commander in Afghanistan said in September that no solid evidence had turned up for this claim it was completely ignored, and to this day the liberal commentariat still babble about “Russian bounties” as though they’re an actual thing that happened.
Three imperialism-targeted nations, same exact accusation. Pretty soon they’ll be telling us that bounties are being paid on US troops in Afghanistan by China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Hezbollah, WikiLeaks, Jimmy Dore, and the entire staff of World Socialist Website.
The “Bountygate” narrative was one of the most brazen psyops we’ve seen rammed straight from the US intelligence community into public consciousness with no lube in recent years, and it was so successful that they’re just spraying it all over the place to see if they can replicate its effects on other targeted governments.
It is not a coincidence that the information landscape is so confusing and bizarre right now. Our psyches are being hammered with more and more aggression by mass-scale psyops designed to manufacture support for increasing aggressions against the governments which have resisted absorption into the US-centralized empire, because as China rises and the US declines we’re moving toward a multipolar world.
A movement toward a multipolar world should not be a frightening prospect — it’s been the norm throughout the entirety of human civilization minus the last three decades — but after the fall of the Soviet Union the drivers of the US power alliance decided that US global hegemony must be preserved at all cost. Drastic measures will be undertaken to try and retain hegemony, and propaganda campaigns is being rolled out with increasing urgency to grease the wheels for those measures.
Meanwhile we’ve got nuclear-armed nations brandishing armageddon weapons at each other with increasing urgency and unpredictability because a few imperialists decided the entire planet should be governed from Washington DC. This, to put it gently, is an unsustainable situation.
_____________________
Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Poems For Rebels or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.
Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 | https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/america-keeps-claiming-governments-it-hates-are-paying-bounties-on-us-troops-in-afghanistan-2108edde2bd | ['Caitlin Johnstone'] | 2020-12-31 03:32:20.847000+00:00 | ['News', 'Iran', 'Russia', 'Propaganda', 'China'] |
Vue.Js Mobile Desktop Optimized Images | Note: Photo editing and coding are similar in that it’s a good idea to make a copy that you can fall back on if things go south.
To optimize our images, open the original image in Gimp. To Scale an image in Gimp, go to Tools > Transform Tools > Scale
Once the Scale tool is active, click the image, and a dialog box will appear for you to set the new width and height. I always scale the height proportionally to the width, this can be done automatically with Gimp, but selecting the chain link icon in the scaling dialog box. Set the image width to 1600px, and the height will update automatically.
Once the image has been scaled to our desktop dimensions of 1600 x 1200 pixels, copy the image by holding Cmd + C, or Shift + C on Windows and Linux machines.
Next create a new Gimp image file with File > New. Set the width and height on the new Gimp file to 1600 x 1200 pixels and click OK. Once the new Gimp file loads, simple paste your scaled image from clipboard into the new Gimp image with Cmd + V or Shift + V.
Optimizing for mobile devices is much the same process, with a small caveat. Our mobile images will be portrait not landscape, so we need to select only a section of our original image that will look best on mobile devices.
To select a portrait section of our original image, go to Gimp Tools > Selection Tools > Rectangular Select. Once the rectangular select tool is active, drag across the original image until you find a portrait selection that looks good to you. Once you’ve got it, scale the selection to 500 x 750px, copy the scaled selection, create a new 500 x 750px Gimp image and paste the selection into the new file. | https://medium.com/swlh/vue-js-mobile-desktop-optimized-images-7b93f2afc43b | ['Ethan Ozelius'] | 2020-07-18 02:05:52.711000+00:00 | ['Vuejs', 'JavaScript', 'Performance', 'Photoshop', 'Responsive Design'] |
Great points and email! | Great points and email! It’s such a great depiction of how relational humans are — when we use that to our advantage, everybody benefits. | https://medium.com/@marinaharris20/great-points-and-email-8e06e1a938dd | ['Dr. Marina Harris'] | 2020-12-18 23:44:06.980000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Psychology', 'Mental Health', 'Relationships', 'Connection'] |
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Género: Thriller
Estrellas: Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy, Mike Colter
Personal: David Loughery (Writer), Deon Taylor (Director)
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THE STORY
After graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) forgoes the standard opportunities of seeking employment from big and lucrative law firms; deciding to head to Alabama to defend those wrongfully commended, with the support of local advocate, Eva Ansley (Brie Larson). One of his first, and most poignant, case is that of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx, who, in 62, was sentenced to die for the notorious murder of an 2-year-old girl in the community, despite a preponderance of evidence proving his innocence and one singular testimony against him by an individual that doesn’t quite seem to add up. Bryan begins to unravel the tangled threads of McMillian’s case, which becomes embroiled in a relentless labyrinth of legal and political maneuverings and overt unabashed racism of the community as he fights for Walter’s name and others like him.
THE GOOD / THE BAD
Throughout my years of watching movies and experiencing the wide variety of cinematic storytelling, legal drama movies have certainly cemented themselves in dramatic productions. As I stated above, some have better longevity of being remembered, but most showcase plenty of heated courtroom battles of lawyers defending their clients and unmasking the truth behind the claims (be it wrongfully incarcerated, discovering who did it, or uncovering the shady dealings behind large corporations. Perhaps my first one legal drama was 624’s The Client (I was little young to get all the legality in the movie, but was still managed to get the gist of it all). My second one, which I loved, was probably Primal Fear, with Norton delivering my favorite character role. Of course, I did see To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in the sixth grade for English class. Definitely quite a powerful film. And, of course, let’s not forget Philadelphia and want it meant / stand for. Plus, Hanks and Washington were great in the film. All in all, while not the most popular genre out there, legal drama films still provide a plethora of dramatic storytelling to capture the attention of moviegoers of truth and lies within a dubious justice.
Just Mercy is the latest legal crime drama feature and the whole purpose of this movie review. To be honest, I really didn’t much “buzz” about this movie when it was first announced (circa 206) when Broad Green Productions hired the film’s director (Cretton) and actor Michael B. Jordan in the lead role. It was then eventually bought by Warner Bros (the films rights) when Broad Green Productions went Bankrupt. So, I really didn’t hear much about the film until I saw the movie trailer for Just Mercy, which did prove to be quite an interesting tale. Sure, it sort of looked like the generic “legal drama” yarn (judging from the trailer alone), but I was intrigued by it, especially with the film starring Jordan as well as actor Jamie Foxx. I did repeatedly keep on seeing the trailer for the film every time I went to my local movie theater (usually attached to any movie I was seeing with a PG rating and above). So, suffice to say, that Just Mercy’s trailer preview sort of kept me invested and waiting me to see it. Thus, I finally got the chance to see the feature a couple of days ago and I’m ready to share my thoughts on the film. And what are they? Well, good ones….to say the least. While the movie does struggle within the standard framework of similar projects, Just Mercy is a solid legal drama that has plenty of fine cinematic nuances and great performances from its leads. It’s not the “be all to end all” of legal drama endeavors, but its still manages to be more of the favorable motion pictures of these projects.
Just Mercy is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, whose previous directorial works includes such movies like Short Term 6, I Am Not a Hipster, and Glass Castle. Given his past projects (consisting of shorts, documentaries, and a few theatrical motion pictures), Cretton makes Just Mercy is most ambitious endeavor, with the director getting the chance to flex his directorial muscles on a legal drama film, which (like I said above) can manage to evoke plenty of human emotions within its undertaking. Thankfully, Cretton is up to the task and never feels overwhelmed with the movie; approaching (and shaping) the film with respect and a touch of sincerity by speaking to the humanity within its characters, especially within lead characters of Stevenson and McMillian. Of course, legal dramas usually do (be the accused / defendant and his attorney) shine their cinematic lens on these respective characters, so it’s nothing original. However, Cretton does make for a compelling drama within the feature; speaking to some great character drama within its two main lead characters; staging plenty of moments of these twos individuals that ultimately work, including some of the heated courtroom sequences.
Like other recent movies (i.e. Brian Banks and The Hate U Give), Cretton makes Just Mercy have an underlining thematical message of racism and corruption that continues to play a part in the US….to this day (incredibly sad, but true). So, of course, the correlation and overall relatively between the movie’s narrative and today’s world is quite crystal-clear right from the get-go, but Cretton never gets overzealous / preachy within its context; allowing the feature to present the subject matter in a timely manner and doesn’t feel like unnecessary or intentionally a “sign of the times” motif. Additionally, the movie also highlights the frustration (almost harsh) injustice of the underprivileged face on a regular basis (most notable those looking to overturn their cases on death row due to negligence and wrongfully accused). Naturally, as somewhat expected (yet still palpable), Just Mercy is a movie about seeking the truth and uncovering corruption in the face of a broken system and ignorant prejudice, with Cretton never shying away from some of the ugly truths that Stevenson faced during the film’s story.
Plus, as a side-note, it’s quite admirable for what Bryan Stevenson (the real-life individual) did for his career, with him as well as others that have supported him (and the Equal Justice Initiative) over the years and how he fought for and freed many wrongfully incarcerated individuals that our justice system has failed (again, the poignancy behind the film’s themes / message). It’s great to see humanity being shined and showcased to seek the rights of the wronged and to dispel a flawed system. Thus, whether you like the movie or not, you simply can not deny that truly meaningful job that Bryan Stevenson is doing, which Cretton helps demonstrate in Just Mercy. From the bottom of my heart…. thank you, Mr. Stevenson.
In terms of presentation, Just Mercy is a solidly made feature film. Granted, the film probably won’t be remembered for its visual background and theatrical setting nuances or even nominated in various award categories (for presentation / visual appearance), but the film certainly looks pleasing to the eye, with the attention of background aspects appropriate to the movie’s story. Thus, all the usual areas that I mention in this section (i.e. production design, set decorations, costumes, and cinematography) are all good and meet the industry standard for legal drama motion pictures. That being said, the film’s score, which was done by Joel P. West, is quite good and deliver some emotionally drama pieces in a subtle way that harmonizes with many of the feature’s scenes.
There are a few problems that I noticed with Just Mercy that, while not completely derailing, just seem to hold the feature back from reaching its full creative cinematic potential. Let’s start with the most prevalent point of criticism (the one that many will criticize about), which is the overall conventional storytelling of the movie. What do I mean? Well, despite the strong case that the film delves into a “based on a true story” aspect and into some pretty wholesome emotional drama, the movie is still structed into a way that it makes it feel vaguely formulaic to the touch. That’s not to say that Just Mercy is a generic tale to be told as the film’s narrative is still quite engaging (with some great acting), but the story being told follows quite a predictable path from start to finish. Granted, I never really read Stevenson’s memoir nor read anything about McMillian’s case, but then I still could easily figure out how the movie was presumably gonna end…. even if the there were narrative problems / setbacks along the way. Basically, if you’ve seeing any legal drama endeavor out there, you’ll get that same formulaic touch with this movie. I kind of wanted see something a little bit different from the film’s structure, but the movie just ends up following the standard narrative beats (and progressions) of the genre. That being said, I still think that this movie is definitely probably one of the better legal dramas out there.
This also applies to the film’s script, which was penned by Cretton and Andrew Lanham, which does give plenty of solid entertainment narrative pieces throughout, but lacks the finesse of breaking the mold of the standard legal drama. There are also a couple parts of the movie’s script handling where you can tell that what was true and what fictional. Of course, this is somewhat a customary point of criticism with cinematic tales taking a certain “poetic license” when adapting a “based on a true story” narrative, so it’s not super heavily critical point with me as I expect this to happen. However, there were a few times I could certainly tell what actually happen and what was a tad bit fabricated for the movie. Plus, they were certain parts of the narrative that could’ve easily fleshed out, including what Morrison’s parents felt (and actually show them) during this whole process. Again, not a big deal-breaker, but it did take me out of the movie a few times. Lastly, the film’s script also focuses its light on a supporting character in the movie and, while this made with well-intention to flesh out the character, the camera spotlight on this character sort of goes off on a slight tangent during the feature’s second act. Basically, this storyline could’ve been removed from Just Mercy and still achieve the same palpability in the emotional department. It’s almost like the movie needed to chew up some runtime and the writers to decided to fill up the time with this side-story. Again, it’s good, but a bit slightly unnecessary.
What does help overlook (and elevate) some of these criticisms is the film’s cast, which are really good and definitely helps bring these various characters to life in a theatrical /dramatic way. Leading the charge in Just Mercy is actor Michael B. Jordan, who plays the film’s central protagonist role of Bryan Stevenson. Known for his roles in Creed, Fruitvale Station, and Black Panther, Jordan has certain prove himself to be quite a capable actor, with the actor rising to stardom over the past few years. This is most apparent in this movie, with Jordan making a strong characteristically portrayal as Bryan; showcasing plenty of underlining determination and compelling humanity in his character as he (as Bryan Stevenson) fights for the injustice of those who’s voices have been silenced or dismissed because of the circumstances. It’s definitely a strong character built and Jordan seems quite capable to task in creating a well-acted on-screen performance of Bryan. Behind Jordan is actor Jamie Foxx, who plays the other main lead in the role, Walter McMillian. Foxx, known for his roles in Baby Driver, Django Unchained, and Ray, has certainly been recognized as a talented actor, with plenty of credible roles under his belt. His participation in Just Mercy is another well-acted performance that deserve much praise as its getting (even receiving an Oscar nod for it), with Foxx portraying Walter with enough remorseful grit and humility that makes the character quite compelling to watch. Plus, seeing him and Jordan together in a scene is quite palpable and a joy to watch.
The last of the three marquee main leads of the movie is the character of Eva Ansley, the director of operations for EJI (i.e. Stevenson’s right-handed employee / business partner), who is played by actress Brie Larson. Up against the characters of Stevenson and McMillian, Ansley is the weaker of the three main lead; presented as supporting player in the movie, which is perfectly fine as the characters gets the job done (sort of speak) throughout the film’s narrative. However, Larson, known for her roles in Room, 6 Jump Street, and Captain Marvel, makes less of an impact in the role. Her acting is fine and everything works in her portrayal of Eva, but nothing really stands in her performance (again, considering Jordan and Foxx’s performances) and really could’ve been played by another actress and achieved the same goal.
The rest of the cast, including actor Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk and O Brother, Where Art Thou) as incarcerated inmate Ralph Meyers, actor Rafe Spall (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Big Short) as legal attorney Tommy Champan, actress Karan Kendrick (The Hate U Give and Family) as Minnie McMillan, Walter’s wife, actor C.J. LeBlanc (Arsenal and School Spirts) as Walter’s son, John McMillian, actor Rob Morgan (Stranger Things and Mudbound) as death role inmate Herbert Richardson, actor O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Long Shot and Straight Outta Compton) as death role inmate Anthony “Ray” Hinton, actor Michael Harding (Triple 2 and The Young and the Restless) as Sheriff Tate, and actor Hayes Mercure (The Red Road and Mercy Street) as a prison guard named Jeremy, are in the small supporting cast variety. Of course, some have bigger roles than others, but all of these players, which are all acted well, bolster the film’s story within the performances and involvement in Just Mercy’s narrative.
FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s never too late to fight for justice as Bryan Stevenson fights for the injustice of Walter McMillian’s cast against a legal system that is flawed in the movie Just Mercy. Director Destin Daniel Cretton’s latest film takes a stance on a poignant case; demonstrating the injustice of one (and by extension those wrongfully incarcerated) and wrapping it up in a compelling cinematic story. While the movie does struggle within its standard structure framework (a sort of usual problem with “based on a true story” narrations) as well as some formulaic beats, the movie still manages to rise above those challenges (for the most part), especially thanks to Cretton’s direction (shaping and storytelling) and some great performances all around (most notable in Jordan and Foxx). Personally, I liked this movie. Sure, it definitely had its problem, but those didn’t distract me much from thoroughly enjoying this legal drama feature. Thus, my recommendation for the film is a solid “recommended”, especially those who liked the cast and poignant narratives of legality struggles and the injustice of a failed system / racism. In the end, while the movie isn’t the quintessential legal drama motion picture and doesn’t push the envelope in cinematic innovation, Just Mercy still is able to manage to be a compelling drama that’s powerful in its story, meaningful in its journey, and strong within its statement. Just like Bryan Stevenson says in the movie….” If we could look at ourselves closely…. we can change this world for the better”. Amen to that! | https://medium.com/@emmy-byler-79/ver-hd-fatale-p-e-l-i-c-u-l-a-completa-2020-espanol-sub-94adffa1a803 | ['Emmy Byler'] | 2020-12-15 07:06:57.286000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Thriller'] |
09/16/2019: Andrew Yang under fire | On the Agenda
SEN. PAN’S VACCINE BILLS SPRINT TO THE FINISH LINE: California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed a pair of measures authored by State Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) into law. The ugly debate over the bills, which tighten medical exemptions for children’s vaccines and ignited raucous protests in the state capitol, was marked by racist tweets by anti-vaxxers and a physical assault on Pan in August. Read more.
CENSUS UNDERCOUNT THREATENS FUNDING, PA AAPI COMMISSION SAYS: Roughly 40 percent of Pennsylvania’s AAPI community is at risk of going uncounted in the 2020 Census, according to the state’s advisory commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs — putting funding for hospitals, schools and community organizations in jeopardy. Read more.
ORANGE COUNTY VIET-AMERICAN COUNCIL MAJORITY IN TURMOIL: Westminster’s City Council, which became the nation’s first with a Vietnamese American majority, has been paralyzed for months by verbal brawls and infighting, the Los Angeles Times reports — spurring recall campaigns against all five council members. Read more.
LEANA WEN, PLANNED PARENTHOOD SPAR OVER EXIT PACKAGE: Leana Wen, who was ousted as Planned Parenthood president in July, accuses the group of withholding her health benefits and departure payout as “ransom” to pressure her to sign a confidentiality agreement, the New York Times reports. Planned Parenthood denies the claims. Read more.
MAKING MOVES: Kimberly Yam, the editor of HuffPost’s Asian Voices vertical, says she will join NBC News next month. Read more.
VANDERBILT STUDENT JOURNAL DELETES OP-ED QUESTIONING CHINESE INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS: An op-ed in the student-run Vanderbilt Political Review titled “What Do We Gain from Allowing Chinese Espionage” has been removed following a firestorm of criticism from the university’s Asian American community. The piece, which called for a halt in the “wholesale import” of Chinese nationals into U.S. educational institutions, was “undoubtedly discriminatory and derogatory,” the Vanderbilt Undergraduate Chinese Association’s Viola Zhou tells the Vanderbilt Hustler. Read more.
NURSING HOME CLOSURE HITS SEATTLE’S JAPANESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY: The decision to shutter Seattle’s oldest and largest Asian American senior-care facility last May has set off discussions on how to care for the city’s rapidly aging Japanese population, the Seattle Times reports. Read more.
THE LONG READ — HOW A NATIVE HAWAIIAN FAMILY IS STANDING UP FOR ITS ANCESTRAL LANDS: HuffPost’s Megan Kaleipumehana Cabral and Marie Eriel Hobro document the housing and land rights struggle underway in Hawaii. Read more. | https://medium.com/yappie/09-16-2019-andrew-yang-under-fire-9a073be831ca | ['The Yappie'] | 2019-09-22 02:00:21.142000+00:00 | ['Andrew Yang', 'Politics', 'Asian American', '2020 Presidential Race', 'Issues'] |
Identifying opportunities for Camden Council and their local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) to collaborate on data to support the Camden Food Mission | Identifying opportunities for Camden Council and their local Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) to collaborate on data to support the Camden Food Mission Local Digital Collaboration Unit Follow Sep 13 · 6 min read
In this guest blog post, the team from the Data Sharing with the VCS #LocalDigitalC19Challenge funded project shares an update on their progress.
In July 2020 we were awarded funding as part of the Local Digital C-19 Challenge to develop a Community Insight Project User Guide — setting out at a high-level approach for engaging with the VCS around a data project. As part of a second award from the fund in February, Camden is now expanding on this work on data sharing with the VCS. Specifically we’re exploring closer data sharing with the VCS around the Camden Food Mission — that by 2030 everyone in Camden eats well every day with nutritious, affordable, sustainable food.
In this follow-on stage we’re looking to implement many of the principles embedded in the Community Insight Project User Guide by focusing on developing a specific data product.
What we’ve achieved so far
So far we’ve spent the time setting up the project and building the team. In the User Guide this is the setup phase (see page 5).
Most importantly we’ve been spending time exploring the delivery ecosystem for the Food Mission and understanding what data products and services already exist. We’ve adapted techniques from systems thinking, in particular ecosystem mapping, and combined them with a detailed listing of the hypothesised user needs of key actors in the system. These techniques have helped us begin to identify opportunities for the development of specific data products.
At points this early work has felt a bit unfocussed but, having gone through the initial pain of trying to map a complicated system, we are finding it a useful tool. The map also helps us to communicate with others in the Council about our interests, and enables others to contribute their understanding of relationships and data products.
This ecosystem map has also been accompanied by an ever-expanding list of users. This includes a brief pen portrait of who they are and their key user needs in relation to the Food Mission, which we’re hoping might also be useful to other teams.
A map showing the delivery ecosystem for the Camden Food Mission.
Looking to the next phase of collaboration
A key question for us has been whether this next phase of collaboration with the VCS should build on work related to the delivery of emergency food support through food banks in the borough, or whether it should examine how data could further more preventative aspects of the Food Mission.
There has been a lot of collaboration already between the Community Response Team in Camden, the team developing Time to Spare, and managers of food banks around the borough in developing the functionality of Time to Spare itself, some of which includes collecting data which is shared with Camden.
Initial design principles
We have also agreed some initial design principles for the work
Delivering to Business Needs — any further testing of the Community Insights Project needs to help deliver prioritised work
— any further testing of the Community Insights Project needs to help deliver prioritised work Sustainable — any products / services which are developed have to be sustainable after funding finishes
— any products / services which are developed have to be sustainable after funding finishes Agile Approach — work in an agile way, e.g. meet weekly to review update progress (Scrum meeting) and using asynchronous communication (Teams, Slack) and project management (e.g. Trello).
— work in an agile way, e.g. meet weekly to review update progress (Scrum meeting) and using asynchronous communication (Teams, Slack) and project management (e.g. Trello). Using Best Practice — build on the methodology developed in the initial Community Insights User Guide, incorporates approaches from the GDS Service Manual, as well as ‘design thinking’ techniques.
— build on the methodology developed in the initial Community Insights User Guide, incorporates approaches from the GDS Service Manual, as well as ‘design thinking’ techniques. Capacity Building — activity needs to build the capacity of the internal Camden team to deliver to the VCS and not create reliance on outside funding / services
— activity needs to build the capacity of the internal Camden team to deliver to the VCS and not create reliance on outside funding / services Consider the system as a whole — we are interested in how the whole system operates not just the council services
— we are interested in how the whole system operates not just the council services User Centred — all products and services are designed to deliver to user needs and will be built through user research and testing as core parts of the process
The Camden Insights web page.
Building the right team
Another key part of this stage is making sure that we have the right people in the team. The core team consists of the team of Data Engineers, who are already providing data products to the Council as well as the range of open data products — including Camden Insights — which are already used by the VCS community.
We’ve recruited a Delivery / Product Lead, Jessica Nichols, and we’re working closely with Time to Spare, who are already developing products and services for many of the organisations in the Camden food system.
The team also includes key members of the Community Response team in the Community Services directorate. They have been able to inform our thinking on the basis of their collaborative relationships with the VCS and detailed understanding of what is and isn’t working at the moment.
We’re also working with Ed Parkes from Emerging Field who is fulfilling the role of Facilitator as set out in the User Guide. Ed is helping to shape the project, connecting us to innovative practice as well as a similar project being undertaken by Central Bedfordshire Council.
One of the growing pains of the team building process has been finding a ‘stack’ of collaboration tools that all members of the team have access to and are comfortable with. We’ve settled on using Slack for team communication, Google Docs for documentation, Trello for task management and Miro for our more creative thinking.
Looking at the wider system
An important next step is for us to understand the capacity for work on data in the rest of the ecosystem. We want to make sure that whatever is produced by this work takes into account the capabilities of the users in the system as a whole.
Having spent time setting up our internal team and processes, we’re now at the stage of starting to engage with VCS colleagues about some initial ideas for work that we’ve identified through our mapping.
We’re aware that through the previous development to the user guide there was a lot of engagement with FutureGov, and so we’re keen to engage VCS partners with some more developed starting points. This is also important given the additional pressure that many of the VCS are still having to contend with due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
We’ve recently started to build a list of propositions for products which are based on the user needs we’re beginning to identify. Before getting too wedded to any of these ideas, we’re looking to engage with key members of the VCS to get their thoughts and ideas and find out what they really want from a data collaboration.
Some of the ideas we’re looking at include:
The VCS sharing data back to Camden about their activities
Camden sharing specific information about those at risk of food insecurity
Trying to develop a data product that predicts food insecurity
A tool that helps all of those involved in the Food mission across Camden understand the impact of the work they’re undertaking
We’re developing these into more detailed propositions and working out how best to test them with key members of the VCS.
Follow the project
Throughout the project we intend to do open ‘Show and Tell’ meetings about our work and encourage those who are interested in our work to get involved.
If you’re interested in this work and would like to keep in touch with its development, please do get in touch with Jessica Nichols at [email protected] or Ed Parkes at [email protected]. | https://medium.com/ldcu/identifying-opportunities-for-camden-council-and-their-local-voluntary-and-community-sector-vcs-4d1a7f97c502 | ['Local Digital Collaboration Unit'] | 2021-09-13 09:05:32.893000+00:00 | ['Local Digital', 'Digital Government', 'C19 Challenge', 'Local Government', 'Data Sharing'] |
The Lies I Once Believed About Sex Work | “How did I get here?”
That was the thought going around my head as I arrived at the office to start my new job. It was a steady job, one that required a lot of the experience I already had. On paper it was perfect for me, and just what I had been looking for. The challenge was the industry it was in.
Photo by Charlie Howell on Unsplash
I thought I understood sex work. Newspapers put prostitution on the front page, shedding a light on the poor unfortunate souls who found themselves doing this work. TV shows painted a picture of escorts living the high life, but it wasn’t so simple. Escorting had a dark and dangerous side to it, as the escorts always ended up as the victims in dramas. The stigma around sex workers was the story I bought into.
It didn’t take long for me to realise that everything I thought I knew about sex work was a lie.
My role included moderating the forum where escorts and clients frequently talked, moderating reviews, and submitting ugly mugs reports. The first day on the job challenged everything I’d ever assumed about sex work and now, nearly six years on from my first day, I’m looking back on the lies I once believed about sex work.
It’s easy money
When I thought of sex work, the phrase “lie back and think of England” came to mind. Sex was easy, the sort of thing that required little effort. I’d think of the women involved in the industry (because it was always women in my mind) as wanting an easy job and a quick way to get money. Sex was it.
At least, that’s what we’re supposed to believe about sex work. Being a moderator on the forum meant actually getting to know the people I was stigmatising. The belief I had that sex for money was an easy thing to do was shattered almost instantly. I tried vainly to cling to the broken fragments of my beliefs, because if I didn’t see sex work as easy money, what else could it be?
How about work?
The sex workers I got to know made it obvious that sex work is work, a lot like anything else. There would be days when it was hard, but there would also be days where it was great. The key difference between sex work and any other work is the rights that the workers have.
Last year, Juno Mac and Molly Smith released the book ‘Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights’. I was fortunate enough to attend one of the launch events, where they spoke about the book. They highlighted the fact that they were focusing on the ‘work’ aspect of ‘sex work’, which is often overlooked. I overlooked it when I first began working in the industry. In an extract from the book, they point out why seeing it as work is so vital.
“Just because a job is bad does not mean it is not a “real job.” When sex workers assert that sex work is work, we are saying that we need rights. We are not saying that work is good or fun, or even harmless, nor that it has fundamental value. Likewise, situating what we do within a workers’-rights framework does not constitute an unconditional endorsement of work itself. It is not an endorsement of capitalism or of a bigger, more profitable sex industry.”
Sex workers are all women in need of rescue
Remember the escorts I saw in TV dramas or in newspaper articles? They were all women. As a result, the ignorant Lara Mills from six years ago believed that all sex workers were women. Not only were they women, but they were women with no better options open to them, and no way of getting out of the industry. They needed to be rescued, much like the entire plot of ‘Pretty Woman’.
My work on Escort Scotland quickly proved otherwise. I spoke to female, male, transgender escorts on a regular basis. None of them matched the rigid idea in my head of who is a sex worker. The largest UK online sex work survey showed that it wasn’t simply the directory I work for where this was the case. Their results showed that the majority of sex workers are female, but there were still plenty of male, transgender, and non-binary or intersex escorts.
As for the dangerous side we constantly see on the TV? The results show that “81% of those involved in the survey stated that they ‘had experienced at least one form of work-related crime’.” It wasn’t just a plot point to make a story more dramatic. It was a very real part of the industry, but sex workers don’t want rescuing. Sex workers want rights — rights which will help to protect them as workers, much like other workers get.
End the demand and the supply will follow
Since coming to the realisation that everything I believed about sex work was a lie, I’ve been an advocate for decriminalisation… but I didn’t used to be. I held the naïve and frankly damaging view that ending the demand for sex would mean that the supply would follow, and those involved would magically become a part of society once more. It didn’t take long when I first began working for Escort Scotland for me to learn that this approach was already in place in a number of countries.
Sweden had been the start, putting the law in place in 1999 and so the law became known as the Swedish Model. When other countries adopted the model, it became better known as the Nordic Model. In theory, the model decriminalises sex workers while criminalising the client. Clients won’t want to visit sex workers for fear of being prosecuted. The demand for sex will diminish, and more sex workers will seek exit strategies. Sex work would cease to exist.
Except the model doesn’t work that way. Clients become more reluctant to share information with sex workers. They don’t want to get caught! This makes the screening process more difficult, forcing sex workers to take greater risks. The industry is pushed further underground and made more dangerous by this law that will apparently ‘save’ sex workers. Sex workers do not want this law.
The best way to address the purchase of sex is by full decriminalisation. Decriminalisation makes it a job like any other. It means that the workers can have rights and stay safe while they work, instead of having to sacrifice one for the other. Two sex workers sharing a flat for safety wouldn’t be prosecuted for brothel keeping. Street workers wouldn’t be forced to make snap decisions to avoid drawing attention to themselves. The stigma surrounding sex work kills, and decriminalisation would help to end that stigma. Barriers that prevent people from exiting the industry would be removed with decriminalisation, and the lies that we believe about sex work would be shown for what they are.
When it comes to the truth about sex work, the only people we should be listening to are sex workers. | https://medium.com/@laramills/the-lies-i-once-believed-about-sex-work-a0a680d8cb71 | ['Lara Mills'] | 2019-02-07 10:44:06.388000+00:00 | ['Sex Work', 'Sex Workers', 'Feminism', 'Sex Worker Rights'] |
Improving readability with typealias in Swift | Swift’s type-safety is one of the language’s main features, and it is extremely powerful to harness the compiler type-check to your code. Meaning that making good use of protocols, protocol composition, default values, type-constraints, inheritance and, type aliasing, is important to guide a developer to use your classes, modules, or frameworks in the intended way, as the types constraints the data and its flow. In this short article, I’ll give some tips to improve readability and clearness of intent using some typing resources available.
This article is in a way, an iteration on the last one about naming in software. You can read this one independently, but if you are interested in the subject, you can read it here. The article explains why naming is so important and gives some general advice on how to choose good names in software.
Typealias
In Swift, typaliases declarations introduce a new name to an existent type. The typealias access scope might be modified by the access modifiers public , private , and so on. You can read the official documentation here.
Observe the example below. It shows how to use typealias in its simplest form, and is a nice and simple use case on how typealias can make code easy to understand.
// Typealias declaration
typealias OrderUUID = String
// Typealias used on a function header
func appendOrder(with: OrderUUID)
// Function being used
appendOrder(with: “08129d15–2246–4157-ace9–5ad896d04764”)
Typealiasing String as OrderUUID in this context makes the use of this function unambiguous, and we could even drop the label with . Keep in mind that making code as obvious as we can is our main goal here.
Although one could argue that this function is obvious even without the typealiasing, which is reasonable, most projects have some complex functions that receive many arguments, and in some cases, the complexity resides in the model. An Order object could have multiple identifier parameters like uuid , number , analyticsID and so on, so depending on the function context, you might be unsure on what is the identifier you should provide, so having the type OrderUUID regularly used on the project whenever this identifier is needed, could be the difference-maker.
Another useful use case of typealias is typing closures. The example below shows two functions that fetch and returns a page of items.
typealias ItemPageCompletion = (Result<ItemPage, Error>) -> Void
func fetchItemList(pageNumber: Int, completion: func fetchHighlightedItems(completion: @escaping ItemPageCompletion)func fetchItemList(pageNumber: Int, completion: @escaping ItemPageCompletion)
Using the typealias ItemPageCompletion to substitute Result<ItemPage, Error> -> Void makes function declaration compact without losing meaning. It also makes it easier to glance over the two functions and perceive that both deal with the same type of data.
Last but not least, TimeInterval from Foundation is a very good example of how type aliases can be effective.
// From Foundation.NSDate
public typealias TimeInterval = Double
// An example of foundation that uses TimeInterval
extension NSDate {
open func addingTimeInterval(_ ti: TimeInterval) -> Self
}
Since Double is a really broad type that can be used for an infinity of contexts and can mean roughly anything, when dealing with time intervals, Apple’s APIs uses only TimeInterval . This way the developers that are interacting with the API are not in doubt if the number that they have to provide is the timestamp of some date or an interval. Think of how ambiguous it would be if the function from the example above were written like the following:
extension NSDate {
open func adding(_ ti: Double) -> Self
}
And the coolest thing about the TimeInterval example is how it is possible to add documentation to the type if more information is needed.
TimeInterval documentation on XCode
You could create documentation for your own type aliases the same way you would create for a class or function. If you are new to documentation on XCode, this guide has everything you have to know (plus some cool formatting tips for playgrounds).
/// The UUID of an Order, found in the parameter UUID from Order
typealias OrderUUID = String
Thanks for reading!
Liked this content? I always announce new articles on my Twitter Account, or you can also read more at my blog. Suggestions, feedback, and corrections are always welcome. | https://medium.com/@lucas1295santos/improving-readability-with-typealias-in-swift-14b1e6c3fbd2 | ['Lucas Oliveira'] | 2020-12-14 23:37:26.305000+00:00 | ['Clean Code', 'iOS App Development', 'Swift', 'iOS', 'Typealias'] |
Blockchain benefits transforming FinTechs | Don Tapscott, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute held a TED Talk a few years ago saying that “The technology most likely to have the greatest impact on the next few decades has arrived. It’s not Social Media, big data, it’s not robotics, not even AI, and you’d be surprised to know it’s the underlying technology of digital currencies such as Bitcoin. It’s called Blockchain.” Well, it’s four years later, and the reality is, he was absolutely right.
Even though it was initially created to support the idea of Bitcoin, blockchain is not limited to cryptocurrencies. Still, due to its decentralized nature, it can be incorporated into any business. With plenty of uses in healthcare, manufacturing, supply chains, and even education, blockchain affects and changes everyday life in extraordinary ways.
But even though blockchain is just as intriguing no matter which domain it tackles, in the following, the focus is on its impact on FinTechs.
Back to the beginnings
If you feel passionate about cryptocurrency or already invest in such digital assets, the name Satoshi Yakamoto is probably already familiar. It’s the name of the person or group that created this blockchain technology to develop Bitcoin further. This technology is a decentralized, distributed, and public digital ledger used to record transactions. What makes it unique is the fact that blockchains are impossible to crack. One block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the network’s consensus.
“Time is money” might be one of the oldest sayings there is, but in the fast-paced world we live in nowadays, it has never been truer. That is one of the biggest reasons why fintechs and the banking industry had to incorporate blockchain technology as soon as possible. With so much technology around us, we can instantly communicate with someone on the other side of the globe, with the click of a button, but it might take around three business days to transfer money to the same person — this, of course, with commissions to a third party involved. Well, the first thing that blockchain did with Bitcoin, and later in fintech, was to eliminate the third party and bring everything closer to the user — faster, easier, and with no intermediaries. This, of course, was a great success as the adaptation of FinTechs is growing in all economics worldwide, and the blockchain in the financial technology market is expected to reach 6700.63 million dollars by 2023.
The opportunity
With so much at stake, it’s no wonder that FinTech companies turned to blockchain and now operate with them.
Nearly 40% of new fintech firms in Hong Kong are operating in the blockchain sector.
Blockchain comprises the fastest-growing segment of the territory’s fintech industry.
Around 77% of the financial services industry will adopt blockchain for some parts of their operation in 2020.
A 2017 report by PWC revealed that 77% of fintech companies expect to involve blockchain as part of their systems.
The benefits of blockchain technology
Still wondering what’s the big deal about blockchain technology? Then take a look at these three undeniable benefits.
Decrease the cost of various transactions. Blockchain has enabled peer-to-peer transactions. There is no need for a middleman in an office to clear the transaction, protect data, charge commissions, and ensure a safe transaction. It also makes online payments possible — which are fast, dynamic, and, ultimately, convenient. When referring to the equity markets, in the long term, blockchain means fewer costs for record-keeping and trading on the platforms. The peer confirmation also implies an almost instantaneous process, compared to the classic transfers that take up to a few business days to complete, when talking about international transactions. As all participants have access to the transaction’s records and therefore holding’s investors, blockchain is responsible for complete transparency. Global payment options. The peer-to-peer transaction is valid even in the case of international or global transactions. Blockchain transactions are internet-based and don’t need a special kind of set-up. As a 2016 Statista study showed that over 60% blockchain-based transactions involved cross-border payments, the instancy and reduction of costs were two features highly expected. Identity theft issues. In a more traditional way, wanting and applying for different banking services required paperwork, thorough research, background checks, and, most often than not, face-to-face sit-down. Through the use of blockchain technology in fintech, the verifying parties don’t need to check “the validity of the actual data in the provided data, but rather use the blockchain to check the validity of the attestation and attesting party from which they can determine whether to validate the proof.” To get a grip on what this means, when a fintech asks for documentation, rather than assessing the data inside the document, they simply verify the documentation issuer’s validity. This makes for a faster, more reliable process of verification. In the end, data isn’t stored or endangered by identity thieves, but rather safely deposited in the blockchain that can’t be interfered with.
Final thoughts
New or emerging technologies aren’t to be ignored. They hold a lot of issue solvers that we longed for. Whether as mere consumers, investors, bank operators, fintech startups or giants, blockchain solutions can ease traditional processes, create safer environments for transactions and acquisitions. They can offer better data protection, make instancy a primary selling point and arguably most important, improve the user experience. Nonetheless, the stakes are high, but the benefits priceless. | https://medium.com/salt-pepper/blockchain-benefits-transforming-fintechs-20adc45e70c3 | ['Flavia Mocan'] | 2020-07-27 08:56:32.535000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Fintech', 'Blockchain Tech', 'Financial', 'Blockchain Technology'] |
~$1 trillion of real estate is on the move … here’s why | ~$1 trillion of real estate is on the move … here’s why Subscribe to our mailing list if you don’t want to miss future research like this. Autonomous vehicles, aka self-driving cars, are coming. And the world is going to change because of them. A lot has been written about the “first order” effects of autonomous vehicles (AVs): How they will reduce traffic fatalities, make rides more comfortable, or put truck drivers out of work. But the bigger story here is the “second order” effects — how improvements in mobility will cause us to reexamine fundamental assumptions of how we live. Let’s start with real estate. Cars (the Henry Ford kind) completely reshaped the built environment of the United States — giving us the suburbs, shopping malls and pulling people out of cities. What will self-driving cars do to our cities and suburbs? Surely something equally as dramatic. Levittown, PA circa 1959. Made possible by the car. What towns will self-driving cars make possible? 99mph was founded to take on difficult and uncertain questions like these. Our approach is rooted in hard data rather than armchair punditry. To examine the impact of AVs on real estate, we have built a proprietary model that draws in over 1 million data inputs and can yield predictions on how property will be impacted by changes in mobility at fine granularity. In this post, we will share some of our high-level findings. Want to learn more about the methodology? Email [email protected] with “1 Trillion methodology” in the subject line and we’ll share more detail. Punchline: A wild ride for property owners We conservatively estimate that ~$1 trillion of residential property value is going to shift across 13 major US cities due to autonomous vehicles. This value will shift from properties with a convenience premium reflected in their current price (e.g. near public transit, short commute) to properties that currently have an inconvenience penalty baked into their price(e.g. long commute, far from city center). $1 trillion may seem excessive but keep in mind that the property market is enormous — Zillow estimates that residential property in the US is worth a cartoonishly large $29.6 trillion. For these 13 cities, the AV-driven shift represents 2% to 13% of total residential property value. The below chart shows which cities will be most heavily impacted on a percentage basis. Let’s try to put $1 trillion into perspective: This is more than the market caps of ExxonMobil, Walmart, and JPMorgan combined. Many fortunes will be made (and maybe some lost) in this shift. Why? AVs will impact where we choose to live Let’s start with three simple consequences of AVs: Autonomous vehicles make commutes more pleasant, so people will be willing to live further out: A 40 minute commute in traffic is a different animal if you are watching TV, napping or answering email instead of focused with hands on the wheel. I used to work at Facebook and did the daily 1–1.5 hour commute from San Francisco to their HQ in Menlo Park on one of their wifi-enabled “tech shuttles.” Everyone hated the commute — who wants to spend 1.5 hours in traffic? — but the difference between a) being driven vs. b) driving myself was the difference between a) moving to a less-desirable suburban location closer to work and b) staying in my beloved San Francisco. Slight changes in commute quality will alter the calculus for millions of individual decisions on where to live. Look mom, no hands. Concept by IDEO 2) Autonomous vehicles may even shorten commutes: This one is hotly debated, but some believe AVs will reduce travel time by packing roadways with more cars per lane or increasing average speed through vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Others counter that the “induced demand” of more vehicle-miles traveled (“VMT” for the traffic wonks), created by better cheaper and more pleasant rides, will counteract these gains. How this will play out remains uncertain, but a reduction in actual travels times would allow for more sprawl. The theory: AVs result in higher traffic flow than human-piloted vehicles (Friedrich 2016) 3) Autonomous vehicles will eat away at public transit: This will be true for even the most convenient transit corridors. Public transit, which already struggles fiscally in most major cities and is starting to lose share to Uber, simply won’t be able to compete with the combination of convenience, comfort and price offered by efficient on-demand autonomous vehicle fleets [Btw — We don’t have to like this conclusion for it to be true… it makes us at 99mph a little sad]. Expect a correction for anywhere that “public transit proximity” is baked favorably into property values.
In short, AVs compress (by either transit time or transit comfort) distances. They squish our mental maps and change the spatial relationships that govern property value. Hundreds of millions of Americans will reconsider where they live in relation to where they need to go. And businesses and employers will do the same in response. These shifts, of course, have a significant impact on property values. The next section explores where and how much. The model: AV impact on property values Factor #1: Driving distance to city centers 60 minute commute (red) and 45 minute commute (blue) horizons from Downtown San Francisco in 5pm traffic Much ink has been spilled on this topic, but not recently (most studies took place from 1960–2000) and not comprehensively (most look at a single city). With modern “big” data sources and analysis techniques, we took on a more comprehensive version. For this analysis, 99mph combines a proprietary database of 190k+ recent (<6 month) property sales within 80 miles of 13 major metros of the US. We mash it with public census data and that state-of-the-art traffic database known as Google Maps (who thankfully provide an API to all their wonderful data). How does driving time to city centers relate to property values today? This might help us answer how it is going to shift in the future. Let’s start with a relatively clean example: Washington DC: In Washington DC, a large amount of variance (61%) in property values can be explained by how close the property is to the city center. We’ll see shortly that this is not true of every city. But it is true in DC. From this chart alone (not controlling for other factors), here’s what you might conclude: If someone’s painful 40 minute commute to downtown Washington DC magically begins to feel like a 35 minute commute, a $376k home, the average for DC in our dataset, should be worth $19,000 more. (e^(5 mins * 0.0098) * $376k = $395k). This is real money for an individual homeowner and a huge economic shift aggregated across a metro area. What does this mean for the DC metro area as a whole? The actual model we use at 99mph considers more factors than just the single variable above. In our full model we estimate that $88bn will shift in DC. Some of the biggest beneficiary zipcodes are below. Washington DC: Some zipcodes that stand to gain big from AVs (99mph model) Factor #2: Commutes in polycentric cities But wait.. (you say) … people don’t always commute to the center of the city. You are correct. A city is called a “monocentric” city when a large portion of people commute to a central downtown. DC behaves like a monocentric city. Let’s take another example: Phoenix. Phoenix is a “polycentic” city. People drive every which way to get to work. As a result: The relationship between city center drive time and property value looks different than DC. Drive time to city center is NOT a good explanatory variable for property values in Phoenix (R² = 6%). No fit. Don’t assume monocentricity when it’s not there. Will autonomous vehicles impact property values in polycentric cities like Phoenix? Yes, they will. People’s commutes to their work will still be impacted, even if they don’t commute to a single city center. Polycentricity is harder to model, but the impacts will be just as real. 99mph’s model accounts for Phoenix’s polycentricity by considering multiple places of work outside of the city center. As a result our model is able to explain 70% of the variance in housing prices in Phoenix. We estimate, modeling for Phoenix’s polycentricity, that $8 billion of property value will shift in Phoenix due to AV commute flattening. Here are the places we think this will matter most: Phoenix: Some zipcodes that stand to gain most from AVs (99mph model) Factor #3: Public Transit: A value driver no more Historically, proximity to public transit has had a favorable impact on real estate prices. The table below demonstrates the impact of a handful of transit projects. Another study by APTA pegs the value premium of being within 1/2 mile of transit at 42%. From National Association of Realtors: http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/assets/Uploads/cpatransport2.pdf Real estate near transit is likely to be a loser in the coming shift to AVs. The “premium” from transit proximity will shrink as AVs eat away at usage, particularly for rail lines (some think buses will fare better in an AV world because they can adapt to the new tech). This premium will likely be disbursed broadly amongst non-transit neighborhoods. | https://medium.com/99-mph/1-trillion-of-real-estate-is-on-the-move-heres-why-94ee9233e5eb | ['Phil Levin'] | 2018-01-23 18:27:58.731000+00:00 | ['Self Driving Cars', 'Autonomous Cars', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Real Estate', 'Real Estate Investments'] |
“Stack Too Deep”- Error in Solidity | When one starts coding smart contracts in Solidity, sooner or later, s/he will hit a very annoying obstacle. The “Stack Too Deep” error. It is easy to fall into this trap, and when that happens, it is often hard to find a way out. To be fair, the underlying reason is not in Solidity itself, but in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (the EVM), and so will likely affect other languages that compile into EVM (ie LLL, Serpent, Viper), but that is a subtle distinction in the day-to-day job of coding smart contracts.
Surprisingly, given the level of annoyance this can cause, it is very hard to find good resources on how to deal with it, so I decided to write this post to try to shine some light on it, for my own benefit and for anyone else who may be despairing with it.
In general terms, this error seems to be generated when the code needs to access a slot in the stack that is deeper than its 16th element (counting from the top downwards). How we get there, though, can be done in more than one way. This post does not aim to offer a full theory of how this error is generated: from my experience, there are too many ways to do it. But it will give a good rationale for a common trigger, and will hopefully make the reader more aware of how the EVM manages its stack. It may even be possible to extend the same logic to other situation where the error occurs, and look for ways to avoid it.
In Solidity, most types (ie elementary types, like numbers, addresses and booleans for example, but not arrays, structs nor mappings) are passed by value to a function: when the function is called, a part of the stack (ie a stack frame) is allocated to hold the return position the program should go to when the function returns (the ‘return address’) and a copy of the function value-type input and output arguments. Each argument will normally hold a slot in the stack, where each slot is 256 bits.
This provides the most basic way of hitting a “Stack Too Deep” error: have a total of more than 16 input and output arguments. But in reality, if we want that function to do something useful, we will have to be very careful and probably have to reduce the number of arguments.
To test this, I created a small contract in Remix like this:
pragma solidity ^0.4.24;
contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint);
function logArg(uint a1) public {
emit LogValue(a1);
}
}
Remix is great for an investigation like this because we can quickly write a contract and query it, but fundamentally because Remix gives a powerful debugger with opcode disassembly and a full listing of the stack, memory and storage. It’s also easy to move back and forward through the code, giving one of the best debugging experiences I’ve had in any language.
This contract is very simple: it has no state variables and only one function, which also is extremely uncomplicated. This function takes only one argument and logs it.
I copy this contract to a new file in Remix, compile it and deploy it. There should be no errors and warnings, and so I go to the Run tab, and hit Deploy.
Then, I extend the list for the SimpleFunction contract, and enter a single value in the box in front of logArg. I press the button and check the output in the console:
As you can see, I entered the value 7, and that was returned as the only element in the logs. Although logs are worth another post, there are a few things I should mention here.
This is the JSON-formatted logs object of this call:
logs [
{
"from": "0xef55bfac4228981e850936aaf042951f7b146e41",
"topic": "0xfcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250",
"event": "LogValue",
"args": {
"0": "7",
"length": 1
}
}
Logs are created by the emit keyword in solidity, which raise a solidity event and correspond to LOGn opcodes.
keyword in solidity, which raise a solidity and correspond to opcodes. Logs can be filtered by client-side applications running off-chain. A filter is a condition on any of the topics available in the log.
A log always has a topic 0, which is an encoding of the event’s signature.
Further topics can be created by making an argument indexed. There can be up to 3 indexed arguments. The remaining ones are considered event data
In this simple example, we can easily identify that there is only one topic ( "0xfcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250" ) and that the data are displayed as part of the args member of the log object. We can also verify the code is working as expected.
Let’s now test the limits of this contract and change the function to accept the maximum number of arguments.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24; contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint);
function logArg(uint a1, uint a2, uint a3, uint a4,
uint a5, uint a6, uint a7, uint a8,
uint a9, uint a10, uint a11, uint a12,
uint a13, uint a14, uint a15, uint a16
) public {
emit LogValue(a16);
}
}
I have 16 input variables, no output variables, therefore I only need to use 16 stack slots. I invoke the function passing the values 1 to 16 and emit the last value. I check the logs and see the value 16. Brilliant, this works!
Then, I make a very small change to my contract: I log the first argument instead:
Wait, what?! Simply logging a different argument has turned a perfectly fine contract into a “Stack Too Deep” error. Wow, what’s going on in here?
This is not something Solidity can elucidate. At that level, the change looks perfectly harmless. I need to go down into the EVM bytecode to understand what is going on. But before I do that, I want to make another test, to gather some clues. I create a third version of this contract, but logging a2 instead:
pragma solidity ^0.4.24; contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint);
function logArg(uint a1, uint a2, uint a3, uint a4,
uint a5, uint a6, uint a7, uint a8,
uint a9, uint a10, uint a11, uint a12,
uint a13, uint a14, uint a15, uint a16
) public {
emit LogValue(a2);
}
}
This works, and logs the correct value. The same happens when I log a3 . I hypothesise then that all the arguments between a2 and a16 can correctly be logged.
The resulting opcodes are in these three files:
log(a2)
log(a3)
log(a16)
I compared all the 3 logs between themselves, and the very first thing that struck me was that they all differed in size (number of lines). The second thing is that they are remarkably equal until line 237, with only one exception. The code after this line is very different and apparently unpredictable. However, since that seems to come after the function has returned, I will simply ignore it.
Then I focused on the one difference between line 237, occurring at line 198. I was happy to confirm an idea that I had thought could explain the stack too deep error — that in some place of the code we would logically need to call some non-existing DUP or SWAP opcode. That indeed seems to be the case here: all 3 versions are the same until line 237, except for one single difference on line 198:
log(a2): DUP16
log(a3): DUP15
log(a16): DUP2
The opcodes DUPn duplicate the value at the nth level of the stack. There are only 16 such opcodes, from DUP1 to DUP16. DUP1 pushes to the stack a copy of the value currently at the top, and DUP16 copies the 16th highest value in the stack. There is an evident relationship between the place of the variable in the argument list and the value of DUPn in this line, and if I extrapolate it to the case log(a1), this rule implies we will need an opcode DUP17. But such an opcode does not exist, it points to a value lower in the stack than we can reach, which justifies the error message “Stack Too Deep”.
Satisfied with this, my natural curiosity asks the question: what role is this DUP opcode performing here? What is its purpose?
Bytecode is intimidating. The last time I looked at assembly code with some level of intention of understanding it was in my teens, playing with the Spectrum’s Z80 processor. I have not any experience of doing it with the EVM, so I don’t plan to parse 200 lines of an assembly-like listing in my head. But Remix does offer quite good tools in this respect. In the debug tab, we can replay the transaction opcode by opcode, and at a glance see the contents of the stack, the memory and the storage, among others.
Before I proceed, I’d like to point you towards this series of posts in the Zeppelin blog by Alejandro Santander on the structure of assembly EVM code. It is a priceless introduction to EVM assembly, and will save me from having to explain the boilerplate. Another extremely useful link is this list of EVM opcodes, that is my favourite reference to find the functionality of each opcode. I highly recommend it.
There is not much to this function, and most of the bytecode is repetitive. There are 17 occurrences of the opcode CALLDATALOAD. The first one appears in the first block of the code, before the function dispatch. It checks whether the calldata is too short (line 12), in which case the function would revert. After this, it compares the function selector to those of the methods known to the contract (in this case, only one: e898288f ) and if it matches any, directs the flow to the address that implements that function. Otherwise, the call reverts.
In this case, the code has called the only existing function and so the flow jumps to address 70 (line 25) to process it.
The remaining 16 instances of CALLDATALOAD are exactly the number or arguments we have, they appear at exactly 9 lines intervals, and are probably responsible for processing each argument to the function. So, I ran over these lines with the Remix debugger and observed that they do load each successive argument onto the stack (I’m not worried with how exactly those 9 opcodes copy these data). These are followed by 3 POP instructions that clear the part of the stack we no longer need (which was used to calculate the position in the call data of the next argument to be read). At this point, the top of the stack holds the 16th argument, the second element holds the 15th argument and so on. The 16th element of the stack is, at this stage, the first argument. This is followed by the return address of the function ( 0x109 ) and the function selector.
The code then pushes into the stack the 32 byte identifier of topic 0 fcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250 , which pushes the first input out of the top 16 elements of the stack, and follows this with the DUP opcode that puts at the top of the stack the argument for the log event (eg a2 or a16 ).
The next 20 lines or so prepare the memory to hold the argument of the log event at memory position 0x80 , and guarantee the stack has in its top two positions this address and the length of the data ( 0x20 ). Then, it calls the opcode LOG1, which emits a log event with one single argument and one topic, using the data at the top 3 positions in the stack:
0: 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000080
1: 0x0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000020
2: 0xfcf771399d75a67a6d0e730ae98d34c40b6bfe6ebf8053b98ddf4da8c2706250
There are in total five LOGn opcodes, LOG0 to LOG4, where n indicates the number of topics in the log. Topic0 is always the identifier of the event type, defined by the hash of its signature, but it can be skipped by using LOG0, which specifies an anonymous event. Each additional topic requires another slot in the stack, pushing that many more arguments out of the reachable list.
This analysis shows that an event with one argument prevents one variable of being used, because topic0 is placed in the stack before the event data. This raises a couple of questions:
What if we have more topics? Are they placed in the stack before the data as well?
And what is the impact of more event arguments, are they PUSHed after or before the topic?
To test that, I’ll change the contract again. Notice that events can have any number of arguments, and up to 3 of them can be indexed. Indexed arguments become topics, while the others are lumped in the data section. My hypothesis, at this stage, is that each topic (indexed argument) will be placed in the stack before the data, and so will prevent the access to more of the early variables.
In my tests, I covered several scenarios, but they all lead to the same conclusion so I will save you the minute details. I will just illustrate with another interesting and counter-intuitive case, and then draw final conclusions.
First, let’s try this version of the contract, where the event has one indexed value and two non-indexed ones.
pragma solidity ^0.4.24; contract TestStackError {
event LogValue(uint indexed a1, uint a2, uint a3);
function logArg(uint a1, uint a2, uint a3, uint a4,
uint a5, uint a6, uint a7, uint a8,
uint a9, uint a10, uint a11, uint a12,
uint a13, uint a14, uint a15, uint a16
) public {
emit LogValue(a2, a3, a4);
}
}
The bytecode for this function (after the function dispatch) until the event is emitted is this:
265 JUMPDEST
266 DUP15
267 PUSH32 a5397a5faa0ec7cfb89428503b91a13bbd737592f7561e6773fa3e1458c8735c
300 DUP16
301 DUP16
302 PUSH1 40
304 MLOAD
305 DUP1
306 DUP4
307 DUP2
308 MSTORE
309 PUSH1 20
311 ADD
312 DUP3
313 DUP2
314 MSTORE
315 PUSH1 20
317 ADD
318 SWAP3
319 POP
320 POP
321 POP
322 PUSH1 40
324 MLOAD
325 DUP1
326 SWAP2
327 SUB
328 SWAP1
329 LOG2
The opcode that emits the event is LOG2 . This means we have two topics, one the default topic0 (ie the event signature) and the other the only indexed argument in the event signature. The remaining two values are grouped in memory.
If we check Ethervm for this opcode, we see that the last value read from stack, and the first to be pushed onto it, is topic1, that is, the indexed argument — a2 . Initially, this is placed at position 15 of the stack. The opcode DUP15 places a copy of the value at the top of the stack, and consequently pushes all the other arguments down. From now on, for example, a2 is in position 16, and a1 is in position 17.
The next instruction pushes a 32-bit value to the stack, that simply corresponds to topic 0. This value is hardcoded. This also has the effect of pushing again the arguments down. Now, a2 is in position 17.
The following instructions are two DUP16 opcodes. The first one copies the value at position 16, which is currently the third argument, a3 . But since this pushes a new element onto the stack, when the next opcode is called DUP16 will copy the fourth argument to the function, a4 . At this stage, at the top of the stack we have the data for the event (two words), the indexed argument and the event unique identifier.
The following lines copy the first two values to memory:
(302–305): places the contents of memory 0x40 at the top of the stack, twice. This is the position in memory where the event data will be located (and is 0x80 in my execution).
at the top of the stack, twice. This is the position in memory where the event data will be located (and is in my execution). (306–308): places the first data word at the first free position in memory (ie places a3 in position 0x80
)
in position ) (309–311):places the next free position in memory at the top of the stack
(312–314): places the second data word at the next free position in memory (ie places a4 in position 0xa0
)
in position ) (315–321): calculates the next free position in memory and leaves it at the top of the stack, after eliminating values that are no longer needed.
(322–327): finds the length of the data submitted to the event, by subtracting the initial address of next free position in memory from the current value of that position (held at the top of the stack).
(328): reorders the first two elements of the stack, making the first element the beginning of the event data, and the second address the length of this data.
(329): finally calls the logging opcode.
I gave this detailed explanation so that you can understand how this process works, if you wish. In that case, perhaps you can now explain the next apparent oddity. Change only the signature of the event to:
event LogValue(uint a1, uint indexed a2, uint a3);
Yep, another Stack Too Deep error. Can you see what is causing it?
…
……
………
The bytecode does not change much. We still have the same number of topics, so the opcode at the end will still be LOG2 . And it still expects to receive its arguments in the same order, that is, the topics first, then the data.
Now, the second topic must be loaded first, so a3 would be the first value to be pushed to the stack with a DUP14 . Then topic0 would be pushed. Now, the EVM would place at the top of the stack the two arguments it needs to store in memory, a2 and a4 . These were originally at positions 15 and 13. However, the EVM has made two pushes already, which makes these positions 17 and 15. It is impossible to place the first value in the stack ( DUP17 does not exist) and so the compilation errors.
So now that we understand this, I try changing just one more thing, the log function to:
emit LogValue(a3, a2, a4);
This code works, since it corresponds very closely to the last block before I changed the order of the indexed arguments. In that code, the indexed value of the event was called with a2 . In this version, it is still a2 that is passed to that position, and the others remain the same. The bytecode explanation is virtually the same.
Conclusion
This has been a long post. If you have arrived this far, it is worth leaving you with an organised view of what is happening, so that you can go back to your programs and think if your “Stack Too Deep” errors could have been caused by a similar behaviour. Although this post covers only the case of emitting events, other functions will use other opcodes, but will still have the same logic, in copying the function arguments (or intermediate values) to the stack when some computation is needed.
So here are some streamlined notes to keep in mind:
When a function is called, a stack frame is created. This includes, from bottom to top:
the function selector
the return address
the leftmost value-type argument of the function
…
the rightmost value-type argument of the function
“Stack Too Deep” errors depend on the central opcode of an action (eg arithmetic, hashing, calling another function, emitting events, etc.)
If these central operations are performed on pure function arguments, the order in which they are passed to the function may decide the occurrence of a “Stack Too Deep” error. (Stack slots can also be used for intermediate calculations and local variables, but I intend to study those in a later post.)
It is crucial to know the number and order of the arguments for the opcode. These arguments are typically read from the stack (the only exception is the PUSH opcode).
opcode). Opcode arguments have to be pushed to the stack before executing the opcode. Each PUSH moves the function arguments down at least one slot. The function arguments deeper in the stack are the ones that were processed first, that is, the leftmost ones in the function signature.
moves the function arguments down at least one slot. The function arguments deeper in the stack are the ones that were processed first, that is, the leftmost ones in the function signature. If some of the function arguments are not used in that opcode operation, then they should come first in the function signature, to reduce the chances that opcode arguments will be off-reach when they need to be stacked.
Opcodes use arguments at different levels in the stack. Deeper levels are pushed first. If an argument is pushed after another, it should appear in the function signature after the former as well, otherwise it would push the other one down the stack before it could be used. Example:
Consider an event with two indexed arguments t1 and t2 in this order, that is called inside a function with several arguments, among which a1 coming before a2 If the event is emitted with t1 = a1 and t2 = a2 , the opcode LOG3 will be called. Before calling this opcode, t2 = a2 will be pushed first into the stack. This will push a1 down and put it at risk of being unreachable when the time comes to push the value of t1 = a1 . This would be avoided if a1 came after a2 in the function signature, since it would be higher in the stack than a2 . Assuming a2 was reachable when it was pushed, so would be a1 afterwards.
The above post concentrated on LOGn opcodes only, in particular on versions requiring 3 or 4 arguments in the stack. A more difficult case will be calling functions in other contracts or libraries, since the opcodes CALL and DELEGATECALL take 7 or 6 input arguments each, with a lot more possibilities of interaction between the opcode and function arguments.
I hope this gives you some clues on how to debug and handle “Stack Too Deep” errors. There is a lot more to say, but that will have to wait for other opportunities.
Until next time. | https://medium.com/coinmonks/stack-too-deep-error-in-solidity-608d1bd6a1ea | ['Aventus Network'] | 2020-08-26 15:46:37.849000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Ethereum', 'Blockchain', 'Stack', 'Solidity'] |
Δεν είναι άνοιξη | in Change Your Mind Change Your Life | https://medium.com/@efstratiospapanis/%CE%B4%CE%B5%CE%BD-%CE%B5%CE%B9%CC%81%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B9-%CE%B1%CC%81%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%B9%CE%BE%CE%B7-9c4cf0578ef6 | ['Efstratios Papanis'] | 2020-11-22 17:01:34.034000+00:00 | ['Spring', 'Expectations'] |
The New York Times Nearly 30-Year Take Down of Hillary | I have seen a lot in my 72 years. But I have never seen the likes of the unprecedented, nearly thirty- year assault on Hillary, led by the New York Times.
Hillary, of Midwestern, Methodist stock, and carrying a Yale Law School pedigree, emerged on our national scene with Bill as two of our best and brightest.
She arrived attached to the hip of Bill Clinton, a young governor of a southern state; political novice, charismatic, charming, opportunist, and a many would say a sexual predator. I do not forgive him his proclivities (for God’s sake, Bill, you were the president, keep it in your pants). In sexual matters, he was also an opportunist in a position of power. Power is sexy.
But, what of Hillary? I love smart, strong, career-focused women. I married one. Hillary led the first effort to reform our healthcare system, got pilloried, and lost. Where would we be now if that effort had passed and we spent the last 25 years tinkering with it? A lot of lives would have been saved and a lot of bankruptcies prevented. Just saying.
She was the First Lady for eight years and did nothing to embarrass us. She stood by her man, and was pilloried for that, as well. It does not matter whether you think it works for the wrong reasons. You do not have a vote. They made it work. The rest of us can get a life.
The number of women who hate her has astounded me. Even my wife finds her voice “grating.” Meow.
She became a senator and won a second term, handily. She earned that second term because she did the heavy lifting. She knuckled down and served all of New York, traveling throughout the state. She earned a reputation for digging in and consuming an issue, and for working across the aisle. She was on the ground right after 9/11 and did whatever she could to help New York City. This is all a matter of record.
She announced for president in 2008, and an upstart senator from Illinois won out. Initially, I supported Hillary. But, after I read both of Obama’s books, I switched. She did not wane in my mind; Obama surged.
Obama asked her to be his Secretary of State. Smart move. By all of the accounts, most importantly from the international community, she served our country well, traveling often and everywhere, tirelessly. She was in the room with Obama when we took out Bin Laden. She weathered the Benganzi endless investigations and grilling with aplomb and stamina — eleven hours in the final grilling. Show me the last time a man did that.
But, the emails.
Where do I begin? Officially, even the Trump state department has now cleared her of any intentional wrongdoing. The New York Times buried the story on page 14. Thanks, New York Times. And while we are on the New York Times, they led the charge into the investigation of the Clintons over Whitewater, an investment in which they lost money. Seriously? Seriously. The Times served as a pep squad in the ramp-up to the Iraq War under Dubya. Even Dick Cheney quoted the New York Times in his defense of the run-up to Shock and Awe. They were all over the swift-boating of John Kerry. They were little less than scribers for candidate Trump, as was most of the Press. They put Hillary and her emails on the front page countless times, including the front page, right side, when Comey re-opened the investigation less than two weeks prior to the 2016 election. By all measurements, this cost her two points and was the final straw in her electoral coffin.
A favorite blogger of mine, on Mother Jones, wrote back in 2016 that he initially considered Hillary’s handling of the emails, “sloppy bad judgment but not illegal.” Then he read the 58-page FBI Report. He changed his opinion to “Hillary did nothing wrong, period.” One wonders if the New York Times bothered to read the report in its entirety? If they did, and still pursued the “story” the way they did, then we have a Hillary bias afoot.
Speaking of emails, many in the Trump Administration, including Ivanka and Jared, use private servers. Nothing here, move along. Who remembers when Karl Rove destroyed over 20 million emails during the Dubya presidency? Nothing here, move along.
Most recently, the New York Times claimed that Hillary said the Russians were grooming a Democratic presidential candidate to run as a third-party candidate. Hillary did not say Russians. She said Republicans. Seriously? Seriously.
I have followed Hillary’s career since 1992. Buried articles spoke of her loyalty to her friends and her friends’ loyalty to her. I have never read about an embittered employee, not even one in her outer circle. I read about how devoted she is to her staff, how she never missed a birthday, anniversary, or an important event. You can call that good staff support. I call it humanity. This alone spoke volumes to me. By all accounts, she and Bill raised a fine daughter.
Hillary should have been president, but for the “but fors.” But for lukewarm support from Bernie. But for five million less votes from blacks than Obama in 2012. But for those emails. But for third-party candidates: Johnson and Stein. Most importantly, but for Russian meddling.
Five strikes and you’re out. To take out Hillary, it took five strikes, and the New York Times — a perfect storm.
Still, she earned three million more votes than Trump. In other countries, it is called “the vote.” In the United States, it is called the Electoral College, one of the most archaic systems in our world. I am incapable of explaining the Electoral College to my foreign friends.
American exceptionalism.
Hillary will be a footnote in history. She deserved better. | https://medium.com/@keithfrohreich/the-new-york-times-nearly-30-year-take-down-of-hillary-12a8566bc192 | ['Keith Frohreich'] | 2019-10-29 19:26:43.333000+00:00 | ['Bill Clinton', 'Hillary Clinton', 'James Comey', 'New York Times', 'Obama'] |
CodeSubmit for Mobile App Developer Assessment | CodeSubmit for Mobile App Developer Assessment
Test candidates for iOS and Android dev skills on CodeSubmit
CodeSubmit is excited to add mobile development to our library of programming aptitude tests! Hiring teams can create their own assignments for iOS and Android, or use one of the CodeSubmit Library assignments to assess mobile development skills.
With CodeSubmit for Mobile, you can test candidates on all the skills you may need in an app developer. For iOS, that includes skills and capabilities like:
Knowledge of iOS programming languages (Swift, Objective-C)
Ability to develop an app for different devices: smartphones, tablets, etc.
Ability to work with most frequently used APIs and open-source libraries
Knowledge of IDE, REST/JSON/XML standards; MVP, MVVM architecture patterns
If you’re hiring an Android developer, you can test for:
Practical knowledge in Android programming languages (Kotlin, Java)
Experience working in open-source ecosystems and libraries
Knowledge of Android NDK and architectural patterns — MVP, MVVM
Familiarity with Android version updates and their APIs
And after your candidate is finished, reviewing their assignment is also easier than ever — with CodePlay for Mobile, your candidate’s application is easily previewed right in your browser:
CodePlay for Mobile
After launching CodePlay for Mobile, you can view your candidate’s submission in whichever device you prefer, making it easy to simulate how the app would perform in the real world.
Wanna give it a try for yourself? Simply sign up here to try it for free, no credit card required. | https://medium.com/codesubmit/codesubmit-for-mobile-app-developer-assessment-74a6850b5efe | ['Tracy Phillips'] | 2020-04-05 15:26:36.207000+00:00 | ['Mobile App Development', 'Andriod App Development', 'Hiring', 'iOS App Development', 'Recrutement'] |
Team AKASHA: Ânderson Quadros | This post was first published on AKASHA’s blog in 2019.
I first heard about AKASHA not long after the founding team unveiled the project on World Press Freedom Day 2016 — May 3rd, a date that today we celebrate as “AKASHA Day.”
Learning that one of Ethereum’s co-founders, Mihai Alisie, mastermind behind AKASHA, was eager to step into the sensitive and controversial arena of social media platforms and connect the Ethereum blockchain with the IPFS network (both such promising and exciting names) in order to build a censorship-resistant publishing platform, was immediately exciting.
Fast-forward one and a half years to Thailand. I had just finished a consulting contract and had to start thinking about my next gig. I had been teaching, advising, and working as a consultant for almost 20 years, orbiting around product, project, and process management in companies from different countries, domains, and sizes, from early-stage startups to big, global corps.
Remote office, Phuket Town, 2018.
At that moment, I had something different in mind though. Perhaps motivated by Thailand’s stunning landscapes, rather than looking for something that would only be just another gig, I decided I would work with an organization effectively engaged in changing the world.
I had been collaborating with multiple social, cultural, and open-source projects and organizations already for many years, but never as a full-time collaborator — and that idea seemed like the perfect next step at that moment. So I made a small list with the name of a few particular organizations — AKASHA among them — and started getting in touch with them.
Jump forward a few weeks to the countryside of Brazil. From a barn with poor Internet connection, I found myself attending to a call with two exhilarating Romanian guys: Mihai and AKASHA’s technical lead, Marius Darila. I was honoured to meet one of Ethereum’s founders and the three of us had a nice and promising chat.
Just a few emails and calls later, they surprised me by inviting me to spend a few days in Bucharest with the entire AKASHA team, participating in an internal event they called “An Odyssey of Discovery,” alongside other invitees — scientists, researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
I cannot properly describe how awesome those days were and how excited I was to meet all those super smart and cool people, to learn a little bit more in depth about what the AKASHA team was up to, their vision and crazy ideas, and in particular about their clear mission to make an impact in the world.
Things went so well that I ended up staying for a couple of months in Romania rather than only a few days, and — fucking yeah! — I landed that super cool job I dreamed about a few months before in Thailand.
An Odyssey of Discovery, Bucharest, 2018.
Moving to the present day. About one year after that first call with those two exhilarating Romanian guys, I have wandered through a few different countries meeting people from our community, witnessed and contributed to the genesis of the first AKASHA hubs in Barcelona and Dublin, and have been participating in the metamorphosis of the AKASHA Foundation, proudly helping to build the decentralized Internet and a better home of mind.
At AKASHA, I look after processes and the day-to-day operation as part of the People & Ops, Community, and Brand & Identity teams — and I contribute to the development of the AKASHA Hubs and to the design of AKASHA.world.
I’m from Brazil and I deeply believe in global citizenship, open access to information, and free-culture. I love comics, fiction books, TV shows, and movies (the usual stuff); and in my free time, you’ll find me either contributing to cultural projects, coaching skydiving, or teaching coral gardening.
If you’re interested in joining us, you can find our job listings here. You can also join the conversation on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Discord, and subscribe to our newsletter to make sure that you’re always kept up-to-date with what we are up to! 🤗 | https://medium.com/@42piratas/team-akasha-%C3%A2nderson-quadros-5773e05c7551 | ['Ânderson Q.'] | 2020-12-03 12:25:23.214000+00:00 | ['Akasha', 'Community', 'Team'] |
3 Ways Breakups are More Refreshing than New Socks. | Well… its true
It was going to be a perfect evening for you.
You’d made sure you looked ravishing that evening. You got to the venue, eat, drank and talked a little. Then you felt that sudden tension in the air. And in that moment, your world came crashing with these dreadful words;
“I’m breaking up with you”.
It’s hard to swallow the fact of not having that certain someone check up on you. It’s all part of the hardship every broken love most face but that doesn’t mean you should wallow in regrets. It doesn’t help rather it destroys a person’s life.
How it can destroy a person’s life?
You constantly wonder on how your relationship ended which makes it harder for you to move on.
Due to the circumstances of your breakup, you'll fear rejection.
You become less motivated.
You become Sad, Frustated, bitter,
And depression takes hold of you.
A bad breakup shouldn’t determine how your life should be. Rather, it should create a part in your life where you feel happier and more fulfilled.
A fact about breakup you already know is that…
You won’t die.
No matter how many times your heart shatters. But here’s one thing you should know.
All breakups aren’t bad. Yes!
There’s a gaping hole in your heart right now, and your world crumbles. Yet, You’re in a relationship that demeans, lacks respect, controls. it’s best when you call that relationship Quits.
Still finding it hard to believe that breakups are terrible. Then here are 3 reasons why its more refreshing than a new socks.
A breakup should Challenge You
Into becoming someone better. You understanding yourself more and doing things you feel is impossible. Most times, it’s difficult to become motivated to do anything even if it’s something you love doing due to a breakup. You find it hard to look good, feel good, be around friends that care about you, watch movies or even do your job well.
Rather, a breakup should mould you into becoming a go-getter. Breaking that limit you felt you couldn’t reach. It should encourage you into becoming a better version of who you want to be. No matter how challenging it can be. Never ever feel you are not good enough because of how your relationship ended. it shouldn’t be an excuse for you to become lazy.
You become Self-Reliant:
In difficult situations you rely on yourself. You realize that you can solve issues, you once thought only having a partner can. You learn to make decisions by and for yourself. Without needing help from others to make such decisions for you. You become more committed in keeping your decisions firm.
You face Reality
The reality that life doesn’t go the way you plan or want at times. You realize that a future you once dreamt of with that person won’t happen. You face reality - the relationship wasn’t meant for you. When you face your reality, you face your truth.
And whats your truth?
That you’re enough, unique, and you’re worthy, regardless of you being in a relationship or not.
You’re the only one that can find your truth. No one else.
TAKEAWAY:
If you’re going through a breakup, and all you know are the bad reasons. One thing you should realize is that even with those negative aspect, there’s a positive. It all depends on how you’re ready to build yourself and not have any setbacks take over. You shouldn’t tie yourself down because a person called it Quits.
It should be a time for you to relax, explore. And find more of who you are if you feel you haven’t.
It shouldn’t confine you to a place of “should I call!” | https://medium.com/@simimarg.iamfreelancing/3-ways-breakup-are-more-refreshing-than-new-socks-57bc8e24edf0 | ['The Orange Emoji'] | 2021-01-16 16:38:06.244000+00:00 | ['Relationships', 'Love Yourself', 'Mental Health', 'Self Improvement', 'Life'] |
WE ARE ONE | December 1st 2018
A year ago in December, our Founding Members stepped into 1880 for the first time.
Since we opened our doors, we’ve debated the issues dearest to your hearts, re-imagined the world in technicolour, traded ideas, traded bitcoins. We did it with grace, elegance, and a sense of humour. We’ve shared meals and drinks, we’ve celebrated and commiserated. We are truly one, and we thank you for being on this insane journey with us.
December 1st 2018
We are looking ahead to the next year — the terrible twos and a possible sibling for 1880 in Southeast Asia.
In 2019, we’re inviting every member of 1880 to a private conversation with His Holiness The Dalai Lama in India on March 27th. We will be making an 1880 documentary about Matthew Spacie’s Magic Bus Foundation — that will be the first project that 1880NE, our 1880 Impact Foundation, will be funding. 1880NE is all about giving back to the community, helping people, and pushing forward. We believe that one person, one conversation, and one club can change the world.
We’re expectant. | https://medium.com/1880singapore/we-are-one-1330358f983d | [] | 2018-12-10 08:35:05.358000+00:00 | ['Anniversary', 'Membersonly', 'Community', 'Conversations', 'Dalai Lama'] |
You Want to Pay Me $250 for a Marketing Strategy? That’s Cute | Let’s not talk about the time I was offered $250 for a marketing strategy — weeks worth of work — and say we did.
We talk about this in private Facebook groups and behind closed doors in fear of losing work. We trade emails about editors who offer, with a straight face, $25 for 500-word articles, complete with secondary sources and rounds of revision. We have rage blackouts over the fact the tenured who have portfolios and case studies are being passed over by people who are “energetic self-starters” with zero experience. Someone once told me that they could get what I offer at a third of the place, to which I responded: Good luck with that. No doubt they’ll call me when they need me to clean up someone else’s mess. I have friends who made more money ten years ago than they do now, yet we’re all paying 2019 rents. Years ago, Victoria Philpott shared a perfect scenario of this bullshit parade in her incisive essay:
A new startup wants you to review their app on your site, host a competition to give five away to your readers and write about them on the App Store. In return, you’ll get to be one of the first to try the new app. You go back and tell them that’s advertising and will cost but they ‘don’t have the budget for that’. So, they want a good few hours work, and access to your audience, in return for an app you didn’t ask for or want?
In a hustle economy, everyone’s juggling side gigs and projects like a pro acrobat. But the refrain is constant: we’re working harder for less.
I worked throughout college — balancing a 20+ hour work week with a full course load, volunteer activities, and some semblance of a social life. My internships were paid because I couldn’t afford not to make money, and while I understood that what was I being paid was reflective of my experience, I never even considered competing with full-time employees who had years of experience.
Now, this isn’t a get-off-my-lawn rant, a Gen X vs. Gen Y kerfuffle rivaling Biggie and Tupac. We need each other, and there’s power in mentorships that are symbiotic. There’s power in being a perennial student when you can set aside your ego and realize everyone — regardless of age — has something of value to contribute. What I’ve learned most from my millennial friends is the power of reinvention. Of taking something old and seeing in it the new.
So if you’re ready to get riled up at the kids today, there are plenty of articles on Medium that cover that territory. Or you can scroll through Bret Easton Ellis’ bitter Twitter feed. But this is not one of them.
Over the past few years, I’ve witnessed a disturbing trend, where to preserve their fragile P&L, companies are throwing vanity titles at kids in hopes that they’ll magically transform overnight into someone with twenty years of experience. The result? An entire non-existent middle layer of management, senior executives too deep in the weeds and overwhelmed newbies non-equipped to manage the work and situations in which they have little experience.
Some people surprise you — they’re natural leaders, exuding confidence and wisdom beyond their years. Yet, there’s something to be said for tenure, for having the years, for enduring experience and learning from it and then having the perspective that only time and distance brings to bear on new situations, and being fairly compensated for the value you bring. I will always believe that you get what you pay for. Replacing tenured talent with cheap labor to preserve bottom-line impact isn’t a viable long-term strategy. Placing band-aids on dams might work in the short-term, but inevitably the dam will burst.
There’s real value in having the younger perspective. There’s value in having someone, who knows the nuances of social media and how people want to connect and communicate, give input on content and strategy. However, their value is complementary, not interchangeable. Complement, don’t hit “select” and “replace all.” Just because someone will work for free (and I’m not even touching the inherent privilege of people who can afford this career strategy) doesn’t mean you need to capitalize on it for the sake of saving dollars.
But let’s come back to the time when someone offered me $250 for a marketing strategy, baiting me with the I can get a million kids on Upwork to do this line. Building a strategy requires (and I’m summarizing big time here):
Discovery & Research: A complete brand and business immersion and analysis, which includes market and consumer research, an internal company audit of staff, processes, technology, best practices, and prior marketing and brand plans, a resulting PESTLE or SWOT analysis, and so on. And this is just to understand the current state of play. Key Learnings: Identify internal and external challenges and opportunities, along with some quick fixes or wins because everyone has the patience of a toddler these days. Since I’m removed from the day-to-day, I have the fortune of distance and perspective and can usually identify issues and opportunities that staff too close to the business might miss Objectives & Goals Discussion: This process is vital because it sets the strategic direction. We have to not only understand what we need to do to move the business forward, but we also have to know our customers — their behavior, motivations, pain-points, habits, and influences. We evaluate prior performance, establish benchmarks, and define quantitative and qualitative goals and objectives. We discuss how we define success and the associated KPIs (key performance indicators), which is a fancy way of saying that we have a set of tools to gauge whether what we’re doing works. Strategy Outline and Formulation: This is the “what” stage, i.e., what we’ll do to service the goals and objectives. This isn’t a tactic, a “we’ll launch an Instagram channel” or “we’ll hire a YouTube celeb to get some buzz on our products” — this is the overarching concept and platform that spans across all paid, owned, earned, and partner media. Tactical Roadmap: While the strategy articulates what we’ll do, the tactics answer for how we’ll put our plan into action. This stage will also involve an assessment of budget and resources and what can realistically be achieved.
So you think all that work — weeks of labor, years of experience, and a solid track record — is worth $250? I’ve worked for over twenty years to be paid $250 for a marketing strategy? Surely you jest. You think the hours it takes for writers to find sources, compose interview questions, transcribe interviews, draft articles, and make revisions are worth $25? $100? $250?
As Shannon Barber so sagely wrote: “No one can eat exposure.” I tell prospects that I’m not running a non-profit. Would I ask my dentist to reduce her rate for my cracked tooth because I decided I needed to stress-eat hazelnut granola at two-thirty in the morning because someone down the street charges less? Would I nickel and dime a plumber? Would I ask someone to paint my apartment for free in exchange for an Instagram post? Why is it that people find it easy to diminish the value of writers and marketers (non-tactile skills)? Why is it so easy to sacrifice quality for short-term profit?
I’ve lost count how many times prospective clients want a Mercedes on a Pinto budget. They’re excited about how I can shape and change their business, but only if they can pay bottom dollar for it. They scoff at the $15,000 price tag (try paying that fee to an agency and see how loud they laugh you out the door) I charge for building their brand without realizing that what I’m creating is a blueprint, the infrastructure for their business through which all decisions are made.
You ask me what’s the ROI for your brand platform and strategy. Let’s take a walk through the land of reality for a moment.
We live in a frenetic, attention-deficit era where our phones are our appendages and 77% of people wouldn’t care if all the brands in the world disappeared. So you want to know the ROI of your brand platform and strategy — the intangible that defines and develops the tangible? It’s saving you from the land of irrelevance. It’s capturing your customers’ attention and holding it. It’s the stories you tell and how you tell them. It’s the products you create because you know what your customers want.
It’s the success of your business. And you want to pay me a Pinto project rate? LOL. | https://medium.com/falling-into-freelancing/you-want-to-pay-me-250-for-a-marketing-strategy-thats-cute-3793a2f12009 | ['Felicia C. Sullivan'] | 2019-06-25 02:41:56.974000+00:00 | ['Money', 'Freelance', 'Marketing', 'Productivity', 'Work'] |
5 Forgotten Foods You Should Eat More Often | There are plenty of healthy foods that don’t get the attention they deserve. Here are five forgotten foods that deserve another look.
Why are some foods popular and others aren’t? I’m not talking about foods that taste better than others, or are more fun to eat — I get that. But I do wonder why certain foods are trendy, while others just aren’t eaten all that much. It’s hard to find a restaurant in Los Angeles these days that doesn’t feature kale salad. Not that there’s anything wrong with that — kale salad is delicious, and kale is jam-packed with nutrients. But why is it that certain foods gain superstar status while other forgotten foods — equally healthy and equally delicious — get the short shrift?
There’s no question that food trends come and go (oat bran, anyone?). It’s just a matter of time before our current enthusiasm for kale and quinoa starts to wane. I can’t say what the next trend will be, but I think it’s time to give a few under-appreciated foods their due. Here are five not-so-popular foods that are worthy of your attention.
5 forgotten foods that deserve more attention
Millet
While quinoa seems to be the grain that’s getting all the attention these days, millet has its own nutrition virtues yet it’s sadly overlooked.
A cup of cooked millet offers up more than 6 grams of protein, nearly 3 grams of fiber, about a quarter of your daily magnesium needs and it’s also a good source of thiamin, niacin and zinc.
Like quinoa, millet is technically a seed, but it’s cooked and eaten like a grain. It cooks just as quickly — in about 15 minutes or so — and has a deliciously sweet, nutty flavor. Oh, and did I mention that it’s gluten-free?
Kohlrabi
To me, kohlrabi looks like a turnip from Mars. It’s large, round and green. It’s usually sold with all the leaves trimmed off, so it has these short little stems that stick out every which way.
As a member of the cabbage family (just like kale), this funny-looking vegetable has plenty to boast about. A cup of cooked kohlrabi provides more than 100% of your daily vitamin C, and it’s a good source of potassium, too.
Kohlrabi is milder and sweeter than many of its cabbage cousins, and can be eaten raw or cooked. If you can find kohlrabi leaves, you can prepare them the same way you’d prepare kale — and maybe even start a new food trend.
Kiwifruit
Many of the kiwifruit I find at the supermarket are hard as rocks, and have about as much flavor. Too bad, because when they’re picked at their peak, they’re absolutely delicious and so good for you.
A single kiwifruit gives you enough vitamin C for two days, has more potassium than a banana, and gets its lovely green color from lutein — an antioxidant pigment that supports eye health.
Kiwifruit are easy to eat, too. Just cut in half and scoop out the edible flesh and seeds with a spoon. If you’re really brave, you’ll eat the whole thing — the skin is edible, too
Salmon in cans or pouches
Chances are you’ve got some canned tuna in your pantry. It’s one of those staples that most people keep around the house. Many people aren’t even aware that you can buy salmon in cans or shelf-stable pouches, but it’s widely available and so handy.
Most brands are wild-caught, and canned salmon has up to four times more omega-3 fatty acids and five times more vitamin D than light tuna. Try it in any dishes that call for tuna.
Butternut squash
Sweet potatoes get plenty of attention for their nutritional content and are often touted as a ‘superfood’ — which may help explain the sudden popularity of sweet potato fries (not a superfood). But big, beautiful butternut squash is a nutritional powerhouse, too — and it deserves some recognition.
Portion for portion, butternut squash has more fiber, calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamin C and folate than sweet potatoes, with about half the calories. And a typical serving will give you enough vitamin A to last you more than four days.
For more on healthy nutrition and other topics, visit Herbalife Nutrition. | https://medium.com/herbalife-nutrition/5-forgotten-foods-you-should-eat-more-often-8bb071b34120 | ['Herbalife Nutrition'] | 2020-12-04 17:03:05.495000+00:00 | ['Nutrition', 'Food', 'Foodies', 'Healthy Lifestyle', 'Kiwi Fruit'] |
Justice Kayode ESO Sustainable Development Goals Summit: Youth Participation in Achieving The SDGs | What is relatively new is the importance of youth integration in achieving this goal. The United Nations recognizes young people as rights-holders who can promote and facilitates, accountability, and responsiveness from governments towards actualizing the SDGs. Youths are Critical thinkers, Change-makers, innovators, Communicators and leaders.
Today, there are 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10–24; they are the largest generation of youth in history. Connected to each other like never before, young people want to and already contribute to the resilience of their communities, proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress and inspiring political change. When well informed, they can also be agents of change, mobilizing to advance the Sustainable Development Goals to improve the lives of people and the health of the planet. To this end we at ICCDI Africa passionately advocate for discussions on the SDGs amongst the youth demographic.
The Justice Kayode Eso Students Chambers SDG Summit was a platform to discuss and educate students of the University of Lagos on the SDGs and ways in which we can all contribute to attaining them.
The Summit consisted of two panel sessions focusing on three core areas;
· Gender and Education
· Goals centered on Environmental Protection
The program started by 1:00 pm, with an opening speech by the Head of the Justice Kayode Eso Students’ Chambers — Oloyede Agbolarin, followed by a Keynote Speech by the Secretary General of the Lagos Model United Nations, 2019 — Ipinnuoluwa Ade-Ademilua
The first panel session on Gender and Education was discussed by Ms. Gracious Ernest, Ms. Zulu Uwolloh and Mrs Lillian Idowu.
The discussuion centered on the importance of educating the girl child so as to close the gap of gender based inequality, in turn tackling SDGs Goal 4 and 5
The second panel session was discussed by Ms. Anumenechi Deborah (ICCDI Africa), Dr. Bunmi Afinowi (UNILAG) and Mr. Chukwuemeka (SustyVibes).
The discussion explored the importance of environmental protection, and ways in which we can contribute to the sustainable development goals. | https://medium.com/climatewed/justice-kayode-eso-sustainable-development-goals-summit-youth-participation-in-achieving-the-sdgs-c74a050e48f5 | ['Iccdi Africa'] | 2019-09-30 17:56:19.463000+00:00 | ['Climate Change', 'Wash', 'Sdgs', 'Youth', 'Sustainable Development'] |
Community Conversations: Behind the Scenes with Vincent Botbol, Research and Development Architect at Nomadic Labs | Hello everyone and welcome to the fifth installment of Community Conversations! As the community manager for Blokhaus, I am on a journey to interview builders, creatives, and community members from around the Tezos ecosystem. Our guest today is Vincent Botbol, Core Developer at Nomadic Labs.
Nomadic Labs houses a team focused on Research and Development. Their core competencies are in programming language theory and practice, distributed systems, and formal verification. They have been instrumental in the development and evolution of the Tezos core software. They are one of the key organizations behind the Granada proposal.
Check out the interview below!
—
Can you start off with a short background about yourself and your work at Nomadic Labs?
I joined the project a few years ago just prior to the launch in 2018. Right now, I’m one of the architects at Nomadic Labs and I lead the shell team. I’m pretty involved in all the code base; plus, I’m currently working on developing Tenderbake, the next consensus algorithm. Prior to Tezos, my (PhD) research domain was the formal verification of distributed systems.
What got you into Tezos?
At first it was just out of curiosity. Some former colleagues from my academic background were working on Tezos and were looking for developers. I thought it would be a good challenge. I didn’t know much about blockchain but I worked my way through and I learned a lot.
What made finality a priority for the team? Why is Tenderbake so important?
We are looking at instant finality because we think it’s required for a lot of applications — especially financial applications where you need to make sure that your transactions clear in a matter of seconds. If you don’t have this guarantee, some applications just can’t be realistic; you wouldn’t want to wait 5 minutes or more after paying your bill at a restaurant until they are sure that the payment went through.
So, you see this as something that will appeal to institutions and enterprises that want to build on Tezos?
Yes, exactly.
What would you say is the general order of priority for features to work on and include in future Tezos protocol upgrade proposals? What comes after Tenderbake?
Our immediate priority is Tenderbake; our longer-term priority would be to increase throughput and maximum transactions per second. A lot of different blockchains publicly state that they are able to process a lot of TPS. It’s definitely useful to have — it’s important for scalability, sustainability, and usability.
What is Tezos’ current maximum transactions per second?
Based on my recent computations, we should be around 200 TPS. The node implementation may occasionally lower this number for security reasons or because the hardware is not powerful enough to handle many more transactions.
Can you explain what actually goes into limiting maximum TPS and then what the potential scaling solutions would be?
The current limitation is probably the gas usage. While sending money from one account to another is very simple, executing big smart contracts is very complex and requires a lot of gas. Reducing the required gas for expensive smart contracts and such will indirectly increase max TPS.
Granada plans on lowering gas costs anywhere from three to five times all the way up to eight times — would that increase maximum transactions per second by the same degree or by a smaller degree? How would you estimate Granada will affect max transactions per second?
Theoretically, it will increase the max TPS. However, it’s not only about the theoretical cap, but about hardware requirements as well. If someone runs a node on a low-end server, they will still bake blocks but they won’t be able to include all the operations that they could have. Therefore, these kinds of nodes would globally limit the transactions per second.
Would you say it’s a trade-off — where you’re lowering throughput in exchange for decentralization?
In some sense, yes.
Would there be an effort in the future to boost the hardware requirements to run the Tezos network?
Perhaps. However, there are a lot of low-hanging fruits that we can tackle right now. Tons of improvements can be made to scale the network without changing hardware requirements. The Granada upgrade proved that. Personally, I really enjoy the fact that you can run a node and be a baker on a Raspberry Pi. If we want to really scale up, for thousands of transactions per second, then we will probably need to change the minimum requirements.
Would you say that the focus on maximum transactions per second is overblown in the wider cryptocurrency community? Do you think placing too much emphasis on maximizing TPS leads to neglecting other aspects?
Yes and no. At this current stage, it’s usually not needed to have thousands of transactions per second; as a blockchain gains in usage and users, then it will be. One solution to improve the TPS is to use a layer 2, or some sort of mechanism like that. The main problem, to me, with a layer 2 is that it brings centralization. There is an entity that supposedly aggregates operations and includes them as a single transaction on layer 1. For some specific usage, it’s completely justified — some applications don’t necessarily care about decentralization. For the more general use case, however, I think it’s quite important to be able to process a lot of transactions without a layer 2. I mean, the major strength of blockchains is decentralization.
What’s the current goal for maximum transactions per second by the end of the year?
Well, for the end of the year, our goal is set to reach 1000 TPS or more.
How would you say a system like LPoS compares to alternative mechanisms like PPoS, PoH, etc.?
Although I’ve looked into it, I’m not an expert on the specifics of these different algorithms. I’ve been through many interesting academic papers and my understanding is that all these consensus algorithms aim to achieve fast finality and Byzantine Fault Tolerance. So, to me, it’s a matter of different approaches to solve the same problem.
Does this really help with the TPS? I don’t think so, to be honest. Solana specifically made the choice be more centralized. They have a few block producers with highly optimized infrastructure that are all very well connected so they can process transactions extremely fast. It’s normal that they can reach their high TPS when they have these setups. The drawback of this approach is that you trade TPS for centralization.
What would you say are the positive aspects to Tezos’ approach to development in comparison to other projects? If you want me to narrow that down a bit: Tezos is one of the only projects that has formal governance and it’s also one of the projects that seems to heavily prioritize decentralization — how important do you think that is in comparison to the priorities of other projects?
From a social point of view, decentralization is extremely important. I mean, that’s the initial idea behind Bitcoin and that’s what made it a success, in my opinion.
I agree that the main strength of Tezos is the self-amendment process. Basically, it really helps us to evolve with the times. A lot of other blockchains have very interesting ideas, scaling solutions and such, and it would be too bad not to integrate them. I think Tezos is probably the only blockchain capable of smoothly merging the strengths of other projects into its own protocol. We’ve already done that with zk-SNARKs, we are currently doing that with Tenderbake, and we will keep doing that with other innovative ideas in the future.
The fact that Tezos is built with this idea in mind, so that you’re completely able to change everything about the code and how the implementation is done, is really game-changing. Take Ethereum — it’s understandable that moving from PoW to PoS is very difficult — you have to adapt a lot of intertwined code that was not initially designed to ever be modified. This is a good example of how important Tezos’ focus on sustainable evolution and upgradeability really is.
So, you’d say Tezos is the most flexible blockchain?
Yes.
What do you see in the future of Tezos?
Anybody who follows the news knows that there’s recently been a large increase in awareness surrounding blockchains; I think Tezos will have a big part to play in this area. Tezos is hugely adaptable due to its unique self-amendment feature and I feel this makes the Tezos blockchain a very attractive platform. Also, development is completely distributed, open, and transparent. The capacity to evolve is really the main highlight of Tezos. We built Tezos to be something strong and it will be a real game changer. By continually improving and taking in good ideas, I think Tezos is growing into something really big.
Is there any message that you’d want to send out to the community?
We welcome your ideas, which you can send in on Tezos Agora or even as merge requests on Gitlab! The more input we have, from a range of voices, the more open and decentralized the Tezos ecosystem will be. I am well aware that it’s quite complex for newcomers to get involved in the development process, especially when it concerns the Tezos protocol. We organize training sessions to help developers learn about the Tezos ecosystem through building applications for Tezos or learning about the Tezos back-end. Tezos will always be an open and open-source community and all contributions are always welcome. | https://medium.com/tqtezos/community-conversations-behind-the-scenes-with-vincent-botbol-research-and-development-architect-45614e2b0c34 | ['Michael Of Blokhaus'] | 2021-06-17 17:25:58.232000+00:00 | ['Nomadic Labs', 'Blockchain', 'Tezos', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Tenderbake'] |
i wish i was free | Poet Notes
Poetry, and other content created and curated by teyuna t. | https://medium.com/the-tdarris-zine/i-wish-i-was-free-ffdc707dd03a | ['Teyuna T. Darris'] | 2018-10-24 05:56:11.568000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Literature', 'Poem', 'Poet', 'Poems On Medium'] |
The Imperial Presidency, Secrecy, and the Intelligence Community | In “The Imperial Presidency Continues to Flourish Part I,” I wrote that the consistent growth in the Executive Branch has been a bipartisan effort. In this piece, I intend to focus more on, as historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. calls it, “the all-purpose invocation of ‘national security’, the insistence on executive secrecy, [and] the withholding of information from Congress.” There continues to be concerted efforts to use the tools of the Executive to interpret constitutional and legislative requirements in favor of the Executive Branch, in the sphere of Separation of Powers. The current administration is no outlier; instead it is merely continuing a long-term trend.
The Intelligence Community, a set of national security institutions accountable and responsive to the President, is notorious for referencing ‘national security’ and ‘sources and methods’ as justifications for redacting classified information. The use of these defenses is largely justified, however, the large-scale use clouds a democratic prerogative — transparency. One vital tool in combating government secrecy is the Freedom of Information Act, commonly referred to as FOIA. FOIA is a 1960s law requiring the disclosure of unreleased information and documents controlled by the federal government, upon request. Legislators intended to promote transparency so that the public could more thoroughly understand issues and pressure Congress and administrative officials to address them. Often times, documents are released with little to no pushback. On occasion, the agencies will redact, or conceal certain passages deemed applicable to the FOIA exemptions.
FOIA exemptions include the following:
Properly classified as secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy
Related solely to internal personnel rules and practices
Specifically exempted by other statutes
Privileged interagency or intra-agency memoranda or letters, except under certain circumstances
These statutory exemptions are not prima facie evidence of any concealment. The American people expect that administrative agencies take steps to protect the national interest, namely diplomatic negotiations and military operations. The question becomes: Who defines national interest and what is the national interest? As one could imagine, this standard fluctuates depending on the administration.
Each President has specific political and diplomatic goals. For example, the Obama Administration was keen on seeking more relaxed diplomatic efforts with the Iranian regime, while the Trump Administration seeks harsher sanctions on what they deem to be a hostile foreign power. Another example includes President Trump’s August 23rd, 2019 tweet wherein he “hereby” orders American companies to seek immediate alternatives to China.
Political and diplomatic goals may shift between administrations, but efforts to protect national security remain as strong as ever. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer famously said, “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” For those on the receiving end, this characterization is terrifying. The Obama Administration pursued nine cases involving whistle-blowers and leakers, tripling the amount prosecuted by all previous administrations combined.
At The New York Times, James Risen writes, the Obama Administration “has repeatedly used the Espionage Act, a relic of World War I-era red-baiting, not to prosecute spies but to go after government officials who talked to journalists.” Risen further states that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) spied on reporters, labeled a journalist an “unindicted co-conspirator” for reporting, and “issued subpoenas to other reporters to try to force them to reveal their sources.” President Obama justified some of these prosecutions using the ‘national security issue’ mantra. As Risen reports, these leak prosecutions largely began during the Bush Administration with the Valerie Plame case. The Plame case involved the outing of Ms. Plame as a covert CIA operative, which led to “a series of high-profile Washington journalists being subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury.”
The precedent set by the Obama Administration was quickly built on by the Trump Administration. In August 2017, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions pledged to target government officials who publicly disclosed classified information; he followed through, as the number of leak investigations has tripled under the Trump Administration. The Department of Justice announced that a recent charge was “one of six unauthorized disclosure cases in just over two years.” Why does this matter to the Imperial Presidency?
Government prosecution of unauthorized disclosure, or leak, investigations pose a challenge to the practice of journalism and effective governance. Often, elected officials or law enforcement will rely on whistle-blowers or journalists for information. For example, the well-known Mueller Report, or Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, cites news reports ad nauseam. Such unauthorized disclosure investigations may dissuade journalists or members of Congress from discovering evidence that may implicate a given politician committing a criminal or nefarious act. Add to this the abilities of the FBI and DOJ to utilize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
FISA is a 1970s law that solidifies the process by which the federal government can conduct authorized surveillance, or spying, of “foreign agents.” FISA authorizes a whole host of surveillance tools to be utilized under specific guidelines. In 2013, CIA employee Edward Snowden exposed global surveillance programs conducted by the federal government, with the cooperation of telecommunications companies. Under the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act, Congress granted the Intelligence Community additional tools. Most problematic with the entire operations of FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court’s (FISC) rubber-stamping of FISA requests. There have been allegations, floating among conservatives, that the Obama Administration weaponized the FISC against members of the Trump Campaign and utilized the National Security Agency’s databases to conduct surveillance on politicians. Additionally, a newly declassified ruling from the FISC demonstrates “a stinging rebuke to the FBI’s overreach of its ability to search surveillance intelligence databases.” Despite Republicans’ grievances with the controversial law, the law was ultimately re-authorized by President Trump | https://medium.com/discourse/the-imperial-presidency-continues-to-flourish-part-ii-db87079543cf | ['Mitchell Nemeth'] | 2019-10-26 20:50:35.860000+00:00 | ['National Security', 'Conservatives', 'Donald Trump', 'FBI', 'Politics'] |
It’s A New Land Geek Coach Alert! Are You Ready? | On this week’s round table episode, the Land Geeks welcome our new Land Geek coach, Teria Harris to the family.
Joining Mark this week are:
Scott Bossman
Erik Peterson
Tate Litchfield
Scott Todd
…and our new coach, Teria Harris!
Listen in as they go around the table and ask Teria a series of questions that prompt her to share with us her story before becoming a land investor, her reason for getting in the business, and some of her early experiences. She also shares with us the skillset that qualifies her as a good coach and what she’ll use to coach her students.
TIP OF THE WEEK
Mark: Read the book, “The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova. The metaphor that she makes for learning how to play Poker and how it translates into life is phenomenal. Poker is a beautiful analogy to life.
Are you ready to learn more about land investing? Just click HERE to schedule a call.
Isn’t it time to create passive income so you can work where you want, when you want, and with whomever you want? | https://medium.com/@thelandgeek/its-a-new-land-geek-coach-alert-are-you-ready-482abe8ff6 | ['Mark Podolsky'] | 2021-01-16 15:02:29.224000+00:00 | ['Roundtable', 'New Beginnings', 'Passive Income', 'Land Investing', 'The Land Geek'] |
I Checkmated Beth Harmon | Anya Taylor-Joy as Chess Grandmaster Beth Harmon (Netflix, “The Queen’s Gambit)
CHESS
I Checkmated Beth Harmon
And you can too.
If you have yet to see the new Netflix mini-series, The Queen’s Gambit, worry not. This article contains (almost) no spoilers.
My Queen’s Gambit game vs. Bot Beth Harmon on Chess.com
The story follows the career of (fictitious) Elizabeth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy). After her mother’s tragic (of course) death, Beth is sent to live at the Methuen Home for Girls. She begins her study of chess at age 9 under the guidance of the school’s custodian, Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp).
The Queen’s Gambit is a work of fiction. However, the Internet has vivified Harmon’s chess career. YouTube chess experts analyze her games, (which are based on historical games). Chess is unlike any other sport in that the full details of an entire game will fit on a 3 by 5 card.
Antonio Radić dissects Harmon vs. Borgov (Source).
Today, I played White against 8-year-old Beth on chess.com. I opened with the Queen’s Gambit (of course). Poor Bot Beth (Chess.com rating: 800) didn’t stand a chance. The website hosts seven Beth Bots, which simulate her play from ages 8 to 22.
Considering Harmon first sees a chessboard at age 9, perhaps I shouldn’t be so cocky about beating a simulated 8-year-old. | https://medium.com/mathadam/i-checkmated-beth-harmon-739f0371581f | ['Adam Hrankowski'] | 2020-11-26 00:58:03.891000+00:00 | ['Math', 'Chess', 'Netflix', 'The Queens Gambit', 'YouTube'] |
Remote Design Sprint in the middle of a pandemic in 2020 | I think we can all agree that year 2020 has been a challenging year, but for many of us, the show had to go on — just not always face to face.
For me personally, it has meant a lot of work, studying and grinding my way through it. As an Interaction Design masters student in the joint programme offered by Cyprus University of Technology and Tallinn University, one of the courses this semester was focused on Design Sprint. And not just in that familiar workshop style with post-its flying through the air in a room full of participants and one facilitator as a cheerleader, but a remote design sprint. We were all in different countries and in several time zones, which made it both challenging and interesting.
So, what are we doing exactly…?
The topic for our Design Sprint was given to us by the lecturers of the course, and can be summarised as:
Design a system/product/service that fosters the participation of women in STEAM workforce.
During the ‘understand’ phase it became clear that the topic is big, has many dimensions and opens up various rabbit holes to follow. We needed to narrow it down, but before that, we combined our findings into a mini literature review and problem statement. The topic surely is very interesting and current, and not as simple as one might think. Even in our small group all team members had different kinds of experiences, depending on what kind of culture they come from.
And who are we?
We are from all over the world — and it means that scheduling a meeting so that the time is convenient for everyone is CHALLENGING.
Our multicultural team consisted of five students from 3 different continents and 5 different countries:
Hazel Cyril (India), Alfredo Espitia Beltrán (Colombia), Ivo deCarvalho (Portugal), Anu Ylänen (Switzerland) and Özge Öztürk (Netherlands).
We were assigned to the same team quite randomly, so kicking off the sprint also meant getting to know each other. Teamwork is not always easy, but when the team members are in different time zones, it’s even trickier.
However, we polished our team dynamics throughout the sprint, and in the end it really felt like we’re all in the same room together. Positive attitude and supporting each other made it a really pleasant experience. Defining clear roles and responsibilities also helped.
My role for most sprint days was the role of the decider — when something needed to be decided, I appeared like a genie from the bottle and made a wish come true (slight exaggeration). We also tried out a funky new system to change the facilitator for each sprint day! Hey, if it’s never been done before, we’re up for it. And it seems like we can even write a research paper about it. Win-win!
This is just 0.0000001% portion of our massive Miro board!
Where did the process lead us?
The early-mid stages of the sprint were our decisive moments, and it was intense, but the team was quite unanimous on which direction to take. As a decider, I felt like most of the time we were aligned and I didn’t have to make any hard decisions. We were a democratic team.
However, looking back at that phase now, I feel like we should have kept our sprint goals and sprint questions more focused and clear on our minds, and narrow down even more — or even adjust them on the fly. But on the last sprint day (Friday) everything came quite nicely together and the ‘circle of the sprint’ closed, so no regrets. :)
Isn’t this nice? Who wouldn’t want to work hard with a team like this, awww!
Online — the best and sometimes only option in 2020
Running a remote Design Sprint is completely different than what I imagine a sprint to be when it’s done on site and everyone in the same room. However, this was my first experience of a design sprint, so I cannot really compare. It definitely took some time to get used to the virtual whiteboard (we used Miro). Also, spending several hours on a Google Meet staring at the screen was an exhausting experience.
On the other hand, remoteness provided some flexibility — I was able to be at home in my work-at-home outfit, lounge around and get comfortable. The intensity level was still high, with most sprint activities involving strict time limits. We were aiming for a pressure cooker environment, to be able to produce a diamond in the end — and I felt like in the end we managed to accomplish that.
A couple of screens from our prototype — we got very encouraging feedback from user tests!
Diversity is the key
I have always appreciated diverse and inclusive teams, and I think it can only be a benefit to have a gender balanced team, with people from different backgrounds, cultures and countries.
That’s exactly what our team composition was — and there was a great deal of useful things to learn from it. I feel like our topic was definitely examined from various different angles and viewpoints — we learnt (first hand) for example that the topic of women working in STEAM is approached quite differently in more ‘macho’ countries. We might have missed that kind of insight, if we were all from the same kind of backgrounds.
In a similar fashion, we all have different work experience and education: we had the ‘pro’ who already had a lot of experience in design sprints to guide us, and we had the product management angle covered as well. Some of us were more visual, some less, some where thinkers, some were tinkerers. With all this variety, I would say our team was a wonderful example of a diverse team.
When the anxiety kicked in — and was resolved
The most difficult part was the process we went through to get to the storyboarding phase. When everything was still quite vague, and when we were not sure what direction to take. That’s a tough task: to produce something concrete, something that can be transformed into a working prototype. However, once that phase was done, it felt easier and easier. It was all worth it in the end, and made sense. I needed to remind myself several times throughout the sprint, that we need to trust the process. Everything will make sense in due time. And it did.
I wonder what they think about our prototype?
The most rewarding moment was definitely the user testing. We all did interviews with selected participants, and it felt good to see the response from them. They had not been involved in the sprint, and had not seen the process that led to them testing the prototype. It felt nerve wrecking and exciting at the same time. But good feedback kept coming in, and we were relieved to discover that our app generated a lot of opinions, feature ideas, comments and encouraging feedback. It resonated with the users, which was great to hear. Phew, now I can breathe.
It’s worth mentioning that we didn’t do this sprint in one week. The purpose was to learn — so we worked in two week intervals, each sprint day spreading into 2 weeks. I definitely feel like I got a grasp of design sprint facilitation, and am feeling comfortable in doing it again.
Thank you 2020, the year of the remote design sprint! Let’s see what 2021 has to offer. :) | https://medium.com/@anuylanen/doing-a-remote-design-sprint-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic-in-2020-2eeebf357778 | ['Anu Ylänen'] | 2020-12-16 07:42:04.272000+00:00 | ['Women In Tech', 'Interaction Design', 'Remote Design Sprint', 'Design Sprint', 'STEM'] |
And also, and also, and also | There are so many wonderful things to say about your idea. all the problems it solves, all the things it can do, all the thought you have put in to make it perfect.
In the middle of the “and also, and also, and also, and also” the audience gets bored and wonders what it actually boils down to. In 99% of pitches I have designed, there is one original idea that is more important than all the other features.
Design your presentation around this. When describing the problem (always easier to do than selling the solution), focus on the most important issue. When presenting the solution, hammer in that one crucial innovation. After that is done, you can mention other elements of your story as a “by the way”. But, watch out not to get carried away here.
Prioritising that one big idea out of all your smaller ideas is not a matter of diluting things with generic terms: “we deliver ROI”. It should be highly specific. | https://medium.com/slidemagic/and-also-and-also-and-also-be7ed4cb9f0c | ['Jan Schultink'] | 2016-12-27 08:40:57.736000+00:00 | ['Keynote', 'Presentation Design', 'PowerPoint', 'Presentation', 'Investor Presentation'] |
Come to Me Now | Come to Me Now
Poetry
Neolithic wall painting from Tell Bouqras at the museum of Deir az-Zor. Public Domain
The meat —
Tender and sweet
Falling off the bones
The blood —
Glistening nimbus
Exiting the rind
Come to me now
Bare, scraped
Thinly wrapped in life membrane
Come to me now
Bleak but warm
Soft but dead
Pretty but derelict
White as a corpse
Silent but pounding
Down but in command
Song in the sea, people in a circle
Flowers and gauntlets, swords and rayon
Come to me now
Tears and laughs
The only place — home
There is no shame, in pleading for a place
For life in the mud. For life after all
Come here, you know
We don’t end
We fly in the nets
As a woman and her cloud
As a man and his kite shaped gut
We fall off the bones
We are tender and sweet
We stay in the hole of life
We are the white ends of death
Alive in a way. Burnt but
plastic ash flakes that do not ~ dissolve | https://shringikumari.medium.com/come-to-me-now-2aa0b7b03d70 | ['Shringi Kumari'] | 2019-11-16 12:50:18.842000+00:00 | ['Grief', 'Music', 'Poetry', 'Life', 'Death'] |
Why Ethereum Has the Potential to Reach $10,000 in the Foreseeable Future | We’ve seen the power of the blockchain and we’ve seen the power it has to persuade investors. Bitcoin and Ether prices have soared this past year, and that’s just a taste of what Blockchain has been able to accomplish as of recently. Bitcoin has shown extreme promise in various fields. We can see that the future of digital payments can definitely be created with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and general, however, Ether holds extreme value in the potential it has to revolutionize the investment world. Ethereum has also been quietly racking up its arsenal in its ability to revolutionize the financial industry, and we’re only recently now starting to see its potential. Therefore, as a whole, there is a strong possibility that Ethereum can truly reach the $10,000 price point within the foreseeable future.
the Ethereum platform really allows for startups and newer companies to allow for investors which will become a “10 Billion Dollar industry”, according to Andreas Antonopolous the famed crypto supporter.
Participating in ICOs in today’s world are generally supported primarily by using an Ether-associated wallet. These wallets allow for startups or new developers without licenses to allow investors to theoretically invest in their companies and receive their created tokens as forms of digital “dividends”. The idea is genius, and since Bitcoin has some restrictions when it comes to creating these payments, Ether has become the primary source for these ICOs as of November 2017. The market for ICOs has started to blow up as of recently, and although China seemingly banned ICOs, it seems its popularity has only grown since then. In conclusion, the Ethereum platform really allows for startups and newer companies to allow for investors which will become a “10 Billion Dollar industry”, according to Andreas Antonopolous the famed crypto supporter. These investment opportunities have potential to grow Ether to unprecedented amounts.
Photo by Zerohedge
Additionally, Ether can reach $10,000 because of its efforts to adapt cryptocurrency and blockchain technology to modern society. Ethereum has a team dedicated to its adoption and public integration which is really what can help to drive its integration, and therefore its price. Take for example the Ethereum team’s efforts at creating a decentralized social media platform. Imagine a platform that rewards you for participating in social media? That’s a million dollar industry — one that Ethereum is currently working on, according to Vitalin Buterik. Ether platforms are also pushing the boundaries in terms of utilizing computing power to mine cryptocurrencies without interfering with your computer usage. With the idea of how the passive income market has grown tenfold since 2008, imagine how something like this technology would affect Ether price.
Photo by Wikimedia
Ether has more tweaks and knobs to it than Bitcoin; so why shouldn’t it reach Bitcoin attained prices? The Ether market continues to grow exponentially each quarter and has no signs of slowing down. Don’t take my word for it though. Take for example Ethereum platform’s new roadmap to achieve their widely acclaimed “Proof of Stake (PoS)”, the algorithm that keeps Ether’s network in sync:
Conclusively, Ethereum has more tools and abilities than most cryptocurrencies for programmers to implement it into their creations. The new generation of programmers are going to need easy access for platforms like Ethereum, as they can’t go through waves of verifications just to implement a payment system. Most country regulations make this process very difficult for startups or new developers. Ether allows this to be completed effortlessly. With this in mind, the value of Ether has potential to reach milestones we may have never thought possible. | https://medium.com/wespostdotcom/why-ethereum-has-the-potential-to-reach-10-000-in-the-foreseeable-future-1bac06a5e8c3 | ['John Iadeluca'] | 2017-12-16 06:04:48.987000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Sentiment'] |
Natal, Top dan Meriah? | in In Bitcoin We Trust | https://medium.com/@anju0gerald/natal-top-dan-meriah-4782c1d4b8ed | ['Anju Gerald'] | 2020-12-25 04:15:40.161000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Indonesia', 'Natal', 'Banser', 'Freedom Of Religion'] |
Supervised versus Unsupervised Learning | In this article, we will discuss the basics of machine learning and understand deeply the various subsections of machine learning. The aim is to help you decide which algorithm to use under different scenarios. Let us initially answer some basic questions, such as what is machine learning.
Machine Learning definitions:
Tom Mitchell: A computer program is said to learn from experience ‘E’ with respect to some class of tasks ‘T’ and performance measure ‘P’, if its performance at tasks in ‘T’, as measured by ‘P’, improves with experience ‘E’. Investopedia: Machine learning is the concept that a computer program can learn and adapt to new data without human interference. Machine learning is a field of artificial intelligence (AI) that keeps a computer’s built-in algorithms current regardless of changes in the worldwide economy.
Also Read: What is Machine Learning? How does It Work?
There are various approaches to implementing machine learning. We list the three main approaches:
Supervised Learning Unsupervised Learning Reinforcement Learning
What is Supervised Learning?
Supervised learning algorithms create a mathematical model for a set of data that contains both the inputs and the desired outputs. We train the machine using data which is “labelled.” It means the data tags are available with the required answer. It is like the learning process which takes place in the presence of a supervisor. A supervised learning algorithm learns from labeled training data, helping you to predict outcomes from new data.
What is Unsupervised Learning?
Unsupervised learning algorithms take a set of data that contains only inputs, and identify structure in the data, like grouping or clustering of data points. Unsupervised learning is a machine learning technique, where you need not supervise the model. Instead, you need to allow the model to work on its own to discover information. It mainly deals with the unlabelled data. Unsupervised learning algorithms allow you to perform more complex processing tasks compared to supervised learning.
Also Read: Overfitting and Underfitting in Machine Learning
Examples For Supervised Learning
To give you an example, here is an image of a fruit and I ask you to identify it. You would immediately tell that this is an apple! But how did your brain process this information? If we give a machine this image, would it be able to tell that it’s an apple and it’s not an orange?
In the beginning, no! Because a machine does not know what an apple looks like unless we train the model to recognise it. In Supervised Learning, we give labelled data to the machine to process it and learn from it! What it means is we give the Machine a set of images which are labelled apples and oranges. In short, we give a lot of data/images to the machine telling it this is what an apple looks like and this is what an orange looks like. Now once the machine has studied the features of an apple and an orange, it has broken down that image in different parameters like shape, size, colour, and mapped these features with the specific fruit. Now next time you give the image of an apple without telling the machine and ask it to recognise it, it would have previous data to learn from and immediately tell that it belongs to Apple Category.
Examples for Unsupervised Learning
In Unsupervised Learning, the input data is not labelled. What that means is we feed the machine with images of apples and oranges without telling it which ones are apples and which ones are oranges. Now the machine studies those images, recognises that there is some similarity between how apples look and similarity between how oranges look without knowing they are apples and oranges. So the machine clusters all apples together and all oranges together based on their shape, size and colour. Now when you feed the machine with a new image, and if it is an orange, it immediately recognises that it belongs to the orange cluster by finding the similarity to the data of oranges.
Applications of Supervised Learning
Natural language processing, computer vision, data analytics are filled with supervised learning tasks. The growth in the field of AI is mainly attributed to the field of supervised learning. Machines are getting better at learning what is being taught to them. They do this better than humans. Many tasks that come under this category are as follow:
Image Recognition Image Segmentation Sentiment Analysis Text Prediction on Search Engines
Applications of unsupervised learning
A common application of Unsupervised Learning is the Recommendation System. The purpose of a recommender system is to suggest relevant items to users. These are algorithms aimed at suggesting relevant items to users which can include movies to watch, text to read, products to buy, or anything relevant which makes the customer engage more with the platform. The output variable i.e. the recommended product/content to populate is learned by the machine by categorising the user profile and past behaviour.
Supervised Learning algorithms
K-Nearest Neighbours SVM Linear Regression Logistic Regression Linear Discriminant analysis Decision Trees Naive Bayes Neural Networks
Also Read: Top Applications of Machine Learning
Unsupervised Learning algorithms
Principal component analysis (PCA) K- Means Singular value decomposition Apriori algorithm for association rule learning problems
Recent and Major Publications
Let us look at a few algorithms and papers that have had a huge impact on the AI community.
Batch Normalization: Accelerating Deep Network Training by Reducing Internal Covariate Shift: A deep learning technique that massively reduced the problem of overfitting and today, we use it by calling a one-line function from frameworks like Keras or PyTorch. Generative adversarial nets: Generative adversarial networks opened a plethora of new opportunities. It has tremendous potential and may guide the development of deep learning through a thorough understanding of the same. How transferable are features in deep neural networks: This paper introduces transfer learning. Today, all major models are trained in large clusters and we just reuse the data. That’s the power this paper gave all of us. ALBERT: A Lite BERT for Self-supervised Learning of Language Representations: The BERT model is one of the best attempts at natural language understanding. The intention behind BERT models is to implement transfer learning in the domain of NLP. Challenging Common Assumptions In The Unsupervised Learning Of Disentangled Representations: This is our pick in the field of unsupervised learning. Enabling machines to understand high-dimensional data and turn that information into usable representations in an unsupervised manner remains a major challenge in machine learning. In this paper, the joint team of researchers from ETH Zurich, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, and Google Research prove theoretically that unsupervised learning of disentangled representations is impossible without inductive bias in both the learning approaches being considered and the datasets.
Recent Developments
Coronavirus has been the single biggest challenge that the entire world has had to face together for a very long time. Therefore, many doctors have come forward and made datasets available to the deep learning community. The intention behind the same is to fasten the process of coronavirus detection. There are various approaches taken to tackle the same.
Computer Vision: Using X-Ray reports to identify whether the person is infected with COVID-19 or not Natural Language Processing: Identifying the degree of impact and fatality rates through social media. Analysing Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin feeds to understand the impact of the virus. Natural Language Processing: Understanding medical needs and social sentiment to better handle the situation. South Korea controlled the situation with the help of the above process.
Also Read: 10 Ways How AI is Fighting the Coronavirus
Overall, the two mentioned fields are massive in sizes and anyone who wants to enter the field of machine learning and artificial intelligence should begin with supervised learning. It is more intuitive and easier to grasp. The real essence and massive scope lie in unsupervised learning. It is an unexplored field (relatively), and therefore our understanding of the world partly depends on the quality of research undertaken in the field of unsupervised learning. To help you understand the gravity of the situation, let us end the article with a quote.
“Unsupervised learning is the way most people will learn in the future. You have this model of how the world works in your head and you’re refining it to predict what you think is going to happen in the future.” Mark Zuckerburg, CEO, Facebook Inc. | https://medium.com/@raosrinivas2580/supervised-versus-unsupervised-learning-8ef2b9411b81 | ['Srinivas Rao'] | 2020-03-23 07:57:16.863000+00:00 | ['Machine Learning', 'Deep Learning', 'Supervised Learning', 'Unsupervised Learning', 'Artificial Intelligence'] |
Top Online Gifts Delivery Service In Faridabad With Same Day | Gifts are a physical manifestation of your love and more than just an obligated gesture one needs to perform on special occasions. These wonderful items wrapped with love are meant to strengthen bonds and compensate for your presence when you cannot be physically present. From classic red rose bouquet to a cliche cake, gifts are meant to express your feeling when words do not seem enough. For your loved ones who reside in Faridabad, you can now surprise them with online gifts delivery to Faridabad on the same day itself. These wonderful presents are meant for special occasions mostly and are responsible for half the anticipation one feels for birthdays, anniversary and every other festivity.
online Gifts Delivery in Faridabad
Flowers, Cakes And Many More Gifts To Be Sent Via Online Gift Delivery
Online Flowers Delivery in Faridabad
However, there’s nothing more foreboding than distance when you are away from your loved and this gap becomes a looming void when you miss them when special occasions roll on. To bridge this gap modern day digitization has given way a number of online gifting services to send flowers to Faridabad. With these online gifting stores, you can send gifts anywhere, anytime. These online gifting stores and websites are like virtual stores with thousands of gift items to their name which you can buy online and send anywhere across the world.
Online Cakes Delivery In Faridabad
Besides flowers, you can also opt for cake delivery in Faridabad and delight your loved ones with a range of flavors that will excite their taste buds. From traditional go-to flavors like vanilla, chocolate, and pineapple to exotic ones like red velvet and butterscotch, a cake in your loved one’s favorite flavor is the sweetest gesture ever. To keep up with the trend you can order tiered cakes or themed fondant designer cakes which will be the life of the party leaving everybody awestruck. Also, these sumptuous treats can be ordered via midnight cakes delivery in Faridabad to surprise them and make their special day extra special. | https://medium.com/@onlinegifting/top-online-gifts-delivery-service-in-faridabad-with-same-day-42607c97dcff | [] | 2019-04-12 09:37:26.747000+00:00 | ['Cakes In Faridabad', 'Online Flowers Delivery', 'Online Gifts Delivery', 'Online Cakes Delivery', 'Flowers'] |
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