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2019 for Voltaire | 2019 is here. You might have noticed that we’ve been relatively quiet during the so-called ‘crypto winter’. That’s because we’ve had our heads down building new and exciting features for Voltaire. In this blog, we’re going to briefly summarise what lies ahead.
New Pairs are imminent
Starting from next week, we’ll be integrating three new currencies to Voltaire: Bitcoin SV, Litecoin and Ethereum. These are reflected by the availability of three new markets:
BSV/BCH LTC/BCH ETH/BCH
We’ve chosen to make these currencies available because we’ve observed that they are the most demanded by our users and the wider crypto ecosystem.
Needless to say, any users who held Bitcoin Cash on Voltaire during the latest hard fork will receive a 1:1 pay-out.
Voltaire Cashback
Another exciting development is the introduction of Voltaire Cashback. Exchanges have tried various schemes to reward users over the years, with mixed success. We’ve introduced an innovative fee structure which pays out 0.2% cashback on every maker order you place. That means you’ll get an extra 0.2% of whatever you’re trying to acquire.
As an example, if you place an order to buy 1 BTC, you will have 0.002 BTC (0.2% of 1BTC) deposited into your BTC balance once the order is filled. The order must be a maker order, meaning it is not immediately filled when it’s placed.
Your Cashback that you receive will always be in the cryptocurrency you are acquiring. If you make a trade to buy ETH (therefore selling BCH), the cashback reward you receive will be in ETH.
Cashback will be live in just 14 days. We’ll release a blog with more details soon.
The launch of Voltaire Foundation
We’ve been thinking and speaking about this for a while. We’ll be donating 5–10% of monthly profits to exciting projects in the BCH ecosystem. Specifically, those that help drive adoption and use of Bitcoin Cash.
A fiat gateway, margin trading and advanced trading tools
We’ll be adding in a fiat gateway allowing users in certain jurisdictions to deposit and withdraw fiat. This is the next step in Voltaire’s mission by connecting the legacy banking system to cryptocurrency.
A quality margin trading product has to come with strong liquidity. We recognise this will longer and will keep you updated.
We also expect to work on creating a more enhanced trading experience for our more advanced users.
And not forgetting 0-conf deposits. The aim is for Voltaire to be the fastest exchange in the world to make a trade.
Continuing the mission of seeing daily electronic cash transactions a reality.
This is the ultimate goal. We will partner with great organisations that will help accelerate our vision: names like Bitcoin.com and HandCash.
Happy trading.
— The Voltaire Team | https://medium.com/hello-voltaire/2019-for-voltaire-86aa17bf3b9f | ['The Voltaire Team'] | 2019-01-30 15:57:50.722000+00:00 | ['Trading', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Cryptocurrency Exchange', 'Bitcoin'] |
ShakeIt — Fitness App: A UX Case Study on habit formation | Challenge: To create a Fitness mobile Application
Role: UX Design (User Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design)
Research
Every person is different, their diets, their daily routines, metabolic rates, sleep patterns vary greatly. This makes the task more challenging. So I set out to uncover the needs and frustrations of the target users to understand them better.
Research Goals
1. Determine needs and frustrations of target users
2. Learn about popular fitness Apps on the market
3. Define common behaviours of people who workout
4. Understand the challenges in current apps
5. Identify areas of the fitness experience that could be improved
6. Determine common and most expected features
Target Audience
Age group — 23 to 45
Busy Lifestyle
Office goers
Secondary Research : Competitive Analysis
Firstly, a competitive analysis was performed to understand the strengths, weaknesses, similarities, and differences between potential competitor fitness Apps.
Then I tried all of these apps to learn in detail about their functionality, approach, task flows and styles. A few heuristics like Navigation, Task flows, Labelling, Support, Integration were considered for comparision . From this, I found a few strengths, weaknesses, and some insights that would help me in the future. | https://medium.com/@anusha_malla/shakeit-fitness-app-a-ux-case-study-on-habit-formation-21fdc49dd550 | ['Anusha Malla'] | 2019-12-24 06:57:48.849000+00:00 | ['User Research', 'UX Design', 'Interaction Design'] |
#PowerPlay: Reflecting on the Role of Power and Privilege in Global Health (and Beyond) | #PowerPlay: Reflecting on the Role of Power and Privilege in Global Health (and Beyond)
In honor of Women Deliver, we’re calling on the GHC community to share stories about power — your relationship to it, its impacts on your community, and the role you play in shifting dynamics to foster a more equitable world.
In a 2014 TED Talk about civic power, Eric Liu asked listeners some important question: Do you want power to benefit everyone or only you?
Talking about power and privilege can feel…uncomfortable at best and painful at worst. But as Eric put it: Every day, we move through systems of power that other people made. So it’s important to understand power, where it comes from, how it impacts us, and why it matters.
We’ll be exploring what power looks like in all its messiness and beauty while honoring the wide array of faith traditions, ability levels, socioeconomic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, education levels, and political persuasions represented in our global GHC community.
Power can be complicated and personal. We want to know why.
In the Global Health Corps (GHC) universe, we recognize how forces outside of our control influence our life paths. Because of this, we can often grapple with feelings ranging from pride to shame, anger to guilt, fear to boldness, defenselessness to defensiveness, and beyond.
As Eric stated, “power + character = a great citizen, and you have the power to be one.” So as social justice leaders committed to transforming broken systems, we are on a lifelong journey of transformation and shifting power dynamics to build a more equitable world.
In the lead up to Women Deliver’s “Power. Progress. Change.” conference in early June, we’re launching the #PowerPlay campaign. Spanning the individual, structural, and movement levels, we’ll be exploring what power looks like in all its messiness and beauty while honoring the wide array of faith traditions, ability levels, socioeconomic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, education levels, and political persuasions represented in our global GHC community.
Photo source: Women Deliver
Share your #PowerPlay story on AMPLIFY.
All month long, we invite you to publish your thoughts on power and privilege on AMPLIFY. We’ll work with you to finalize and brand your content as part of our #PowerPlay campaign, tied to Women Deliver’s 2019 conference. Check out some inspiration to get started:
What does power mean to you? In what situations do you feel more or less powerful as a young leader?
Can you think of a time you realized you had more/less power and privilege than you thought? What happened and how did you react and navigate that?
What does power have to do with global health/health equity, historically or right now?
When — personally or professionally — have you seen power dynamics shift for the better?
How do power imbalances dehumanize even those who seemingly benefit from them?
Photo credit: 2018–2019 Malawi fellow Christine Bedenis
Are words just not enough? Submit photos to the #PowerPlay photo contest. 📷
It can be difficult (impossible?) to articulate what power means using words alone, so we’re turning to the *power* of images to further illuminate the concept.
Fill out this short form and submit 1–3 photos that depict the concept of power in some way. We’ll share them on GHC’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts and credit you in the month of May. The top three winning photos — those with the most cumulative likes across platforms at the end of the month — will be printed and displayed in GHC’s offices with photo credit.
We believe growth happens when we get uncomfortable. Join us in embracing the power of vulnerability, self-reflection, and community. What’s your #PowerPlay?
Global Health Corps (GHC) is a leadership development organization building the next generation of health equity leaders around the world. All GHC fellows, partners, and supporters are united in a common belief: health is a human right. There is a role for everyone in the movement for health equity. To learn more, visit our website and connect with us on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook. | https://medium.com/amplify/powerplay-reflecting-on-the-role-of-power-and-privilege-in-global-health-and-beyond-48c8aa545f2 | ['Global Health Corps'] | 2019-04-23 16:56:32.386000+00:00 | ['Social Justice', 'Leadership', 'Global Health', 'Women Deliver', 'Power'] |
Embrace Happiness | Let go of the negativity.
Photo by KAL VISUALS on Unsplash
Let go of your fears, it holds you from moving ahead, the people who hurt you and are no longer with you.
Let go of the love that never was yours, your last relationship that broke you apart.
Let go of your problems, you have no control over them,
The situations that put you in a mess.
Let go of impediments that keep bothering you everyday,
The past that makes you sad, ego that stand on the way of your happiness.
Let go of avarice that pushes you towards excessive, unwanted desires,
Worries, which works as a slow poison. | https://medium.com/the-story-hall/embrace-happiness-472905996b6 | ['Shruti Sinha'] | 2019-06-30 17:04:12.444000+00:00 | ['Hapiness', 'Poetry', 'Desire', 'Love', 'Fear'] |
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐫𝐚? | ❓𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐫𝐚?
Quora is a platform where you can ask a question to other people and get answers from them. It is a QnA platform and It is the best option for long-term organic traffic. It is best to the source to get traffic on your site.
The direct affiliate link is not allowed on Quora and Quora will not allow you to put a link in your answer it considers as spam and will be deleted by Quora. Quora is a platform where you get some real answers to your question it is also a relevant approach to make a relationship with your audience.
It is not mean that you can’t promote products on Quora. If you want to start affiliate marketing with Quora.
✅𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲
It is your hobby and interest in which thing you are passionate about. Make sure you have expertise in your niche. It will help you to solve your audience's people query. Quora has a lot of queries that you can solve by your answer but first the exact answer you should know after that you can tell it to others.
If you focus on Niche then it will stand you out from the crowd. It makes you professional. It is like real life like you are a doctor that is professional in dentists. Here is a lot of example in real life that will help you to choose your niche and focus on a particular thing in which you are really good and have good expertise.
✅𝗪𝗲𝗯𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲/𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗴
If you have a website/Blog then is the best option to target your audience from Quora. It is best to approach promoting products with your own website & Blog. Make a website for a particular niche in which you are really an expert. Quora is a great platform to demonstrate your expertise. What you can do?
Make a website/blog for a particular thing and connect people with your answer will solve people’s problems. What they are facing and what is the exact solution.
Quora Boosts your long-term organic traffic with your answer because more questions are popup on Google's top search rank and If you are giving a good and useful answer then you will keep receiving the organic traffic on that source as well in the future. If you getting regular upvotes from your followers then your content has a chance to shows up in the upvoter’s feed.
You can get more opportunities to get viral or content with other major sites like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and many more. These company always active on that platform and choose some great answers and put them on their website and give you an opportunity to write the content on that particular topic with them. It is a really good thing you will be a part of some major sites.
➡️𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘘𝘶𝘰𝘳𝘢
✅𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗲
Quora is a famous QnA site and It is like a blue ocean of a lot more questions and answers. So you need to make yourself better from others and try to stand out from the crowd. A good profile and bio describe your expertise, experience, and interests. How your answer will target your audience and how your content gets more engagement.
Make your profile and put some effort into optimizing your profile. Always give the real life solutions to people’s problems, Your answer will be simple and will focus on the exact issue.
✅𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲
All the question is answered by someone who is expert and gives the exact answer for people and people are loving their answer and it is helping them. So you have a big competitor that already exists with so much expertise and knowledge. You can learn from them how they actually give the answers to their audience.
After that, you can start answering the questions on Quora. Your answer will be called to action and put a link that sends traffic to your website and blog where you are promoting the products.
✅𝗔𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲
You have to focus on value to your audience. Quora is for spread knowledge not to promote yourself. Be Original and genuine with your people. It is doesn’t matter if your answer that question which has already been answered by others, If you doing this thing then make sure to add extra relevant information and more deep knowledge in your answer.
✅𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥.
✅𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘴.
Connect with me on Facebook- Suraj Nagarwal | https://medium.com/@surajnagarwal1/-2d3b219037d9 | ['Suraj Nagarwal'] | 2020-12-17 07:37:14.701000+00:00 | ['Content', 'How To', 'Affiliate Marketing', 'Content Marketing', 'Quora'] |
F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Beauty of His Broken Dreams | Image courtesy of Canva.
You probably had to read The Great Gatsby in high school. And you might have also seen the relatively recent cinematic remake featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. To refresh your memory with a summary in a nutshell, it’s the story of a rich tycoon — Jay Gatsby — who is hopelessly in love with an old flame remarried to another wealthy fellow.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel is regarded as his magnum opus— a reflection of the glitz and glamor of the Roaring Twenties and a comment on the shortcomings of the American Dream.
You may or may not be surprised to learn that pretty much all of Fitzgerald’s other books and short stories explore the same themes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because each one is an expertly written piece of literature. But if you read through his works, or even if you just sample one, you will see a few key themes emerge.
#1: The magic allure of alcohol.
Image courtesy of Canva.
Prohibition was in full force during the time period in which Fitzgerald wrote, giving alcohol an extra source of allure and excitement. But for the protagonists of Fitzgerald’s novels, alcohol is not just an escape: it’s a sublime spiritual experience. When characters like Anthony Patch from The Beautiful and Damned descend into the underworld of the Speakeasy, they find themselves in a state of clarity about life and its problems. They meet up with unlikely characters for a bout of fun that gives fresh vitality to life. This penchant for libations among Fitzgerald’s characters mirrors his own biographical struggle with alcoholism…which was perhaps, also a muse for Fitzgerald as it was for many other authors such as Ernest Hemmingway.
#2: The pain of an unreachable woman.
Image courtesy of Canva.
Many of Fitzgerald’s stories (pretty much all of them) have the pain of spurned romantic overtures or disconnection from a difficult spouse as a core element. From out-of-reach Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby to the fickle Gloria in the aforementioned The Beautiful and Damned to the almost psychotic Nicole Diver in Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald’s stories are driven by the theme of unrequited love or love that cannot be emotionally consummated. This too might mirror Fitzgerald’s own biography, since his marriage to Zelda Fitzgerald was often disrupted by her mental health challenges with schizophrenia.
#3: The emptiness of wealth.
Image courtesy of Canva.
One of the most telling scenes in regards to this theme is in The Great Gatsby: Jay Gatsby stands alone at the end of his dock, reaching out across the bay to the lights of Daisy’s home. This lonely moment is in stark contrast to the wild and lavish parties he throws at his mansion. But at the end of the day, all the wealth, excitement, and celebrity mean nothing to Gatsby. It’s much the same way for Dexter Green at the end of “Winter Dreams.” He climbed the ladder of corporate success only to realize how it all means nothing; he is thrown into a depressed state when he learns that the woman he loves is married to man who treats her coldly. This theme is also perhaps reflective of Fitzgerald’s life story. He was not the typical starving artist, but saw acclaim and financial success from his work, which allowed him to mix in with elite social circles.
So what does it all mean?
Image courtesy of Canva.
I believe that Fitzgerald’s key themes all revolve around the American Dream. Though the idea of that dream has changed over the years, in the main it is the idea that hard work can bring you to the top of the world. And yet, the question remains: what happens when you get there?
Though I myself do believe in that dream from a financial perspective, I do not believe it is the ultimate source of satisfaction in life.
For many, fulfillment and happiness continue to be as elusive as Daisy Buchanan or Nicole Diver. Their American Dream becomes like an unreachable woman, forever filling her worshipful followers with a sense of emptiness.
In their pain, they turn to the magic allure of alcohol, which has become their spiritual experience. For some, that alcohol is actual alcohol, or drugs. For others, it might be immersion in a distraction like television or social media.
Unfortunately, Fitzgerald’s works don’t really pose a solution to this problem. Almost all of them end on a note of broken bitterness, with the protagonist dead or as good as dead in the gutter or broken-hearted. His last novel, The Last Tycoon, remains unfinished. Perhaps we would have seen a solution therein, but we’ll never know. I suppose it’s somewhat ironic, or telling, that he left if unfinished.
In case you’re wondering, Fitzgerald did not come up with the idea of writing around themes that center on longing and loneliness. He got them from writers and poets before, most noticeably the romantic poet John Keats. In fact, the quote that opens Tender is the Night comes from Keats’ own poem, “Ode to a Nightingale.”
The longing that is often expressed in Keatsian poetry — whether it is the longing of love or the longing to experience sublime union with some beautiful object — itself becomes a source of beauty and poetic inspiration.
In the same way, this eternal state of unrequited love and longing haunts the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald. It fuels the creation of beautiful works of literature, but ones that are painful reflections of a broken dream.
And yet, that is exactly what makes them beautiful. | https://medium.com/curious/f-scott-fitzgerald-and-the-beauty-of-his-broken-dreams-182e466bb1af | ['Charles Hanna'] | 2020-11-24 18:39:06.050000+00:00 | ['Life', 'Society', 'Literature', 'Life Lessons', 'Art'] |
Lovestruck in the City < "Season 1 :: Episode 2" > FULL~EPISODE | ⭐ Watch Lovestruck in the City Season 1 Episode 2 Full Episode, Lovestruck in the City Season 1 Episode 2 Full Watch Free, Lovestruck in the City Episode 2,Lovestruck in the City NETFLIX, Lovestruck in the City Eps. 2,Lovestruck in the City ENG Sub, Lovestruck in the City Season 1, Lovestruck in the City Series 1,Lovestruck in the City Episode 2, Lovestruck in the City Season 1 Episode 2, Lovestruck in the City Full Streaming, Lovestruck in the City Download HD, Lovestruck in the City All Subtitle, Watch Lovestruck in the City Season 1 Episode 2 Full Episodes
Film, also called movie, motion picture or moving picture, is a visual art-form used to simulate experiences that communicate ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound, and more rarely, other sensory stimulations.[2] The word “cinema”, short for cinematography, is ofNETFLIX used to refer to filmmaking and the film Lovestruck in the City, and to the art form that is the result of it.
❏ STREAMING MEDIA ❏
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. The verb to stream refers to the process of delivering or obtaining media in this manner.[clarification needed] Streaming refers to the delivery method of the medium, rather than the medium itself. Distinguishing delivery method from the media distributed applies specifically to telecommunications networks, as most of the delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television, streaming apps) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio CDs). There are challenges with streaming conNETFLIXt on the Internet. For example, users whose Internet connection lacks sufficient bandwidth may experience stops, lags, or slow buffering of the conNETFLIXt. And users lacking compatible hardware or software systems may be unable to stream certain conNETFLIXt.
Live streaming is the delivery of Internet conNETFLIXt in real-time much as live television broadcasts conNETFLIXt over the airwaves via a television signal. Live internet streaming requires a form of source media (e.g. a video camera, an audio interface, screen capture software), an encoder to digitize the conNETFLIXt, a media publisher, and a conNETFLIXt delivery network to distribute and deliver the conNETFLIXt. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, although it frequently is.
Streaming is an alternative to file downloading, a process in which the end-user obtains the entire file for the conNETFLIXt before watching or lisNETFLIXing to it. Through streaming, an end-user can use their media player to start playing digital video or digital audio conNETFLIXt before the entire file has been transmitted. The term “streaming media” can apply to media other than video and audio, such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered “streaming text”.
❏ COPYRIGHT CONNETFLIXT ❏
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to make copies of a creative work, usually for a limited time.[2][2][2][2][2] The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is inNETFLIXded to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself.[2][2][2] A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Some jurisdictions require “fixing” copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is ofNETFLIX shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders.[citation needed][2][1][1][1] These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and moral rights such as attribution.[1]
Copyrights can be granted by public law and are in that case considered “territorial rights”. This means that copyrights granted by the law of a certain state, do not exNETFLIXd beyond the territory of that specific jurisdiction. Copyrights of this type vary by country; many countries, and sometimes a large group of countries, have made agreements with other countries on procedures applicable when works “cross” national borders or national rights are inconsisNETFLIXt.[1]
Typically, the public law duration of a copyright expires 1 to 2 years after the creator dies, depending on the jurisdiction. Some countries require certain copyright formalities[2] to establishing copyright, others recognize copyright in any completed work, without a formal registration.
It is widely believed that copyrights are a must to foster cultural diversity and creativity. However, Parc argues that contrary to prevailing beliefs, imitation and copying do not restrict cultural creativity or diversity but in fact support them further. This argument has been supported by many examples such as Millet and Van Gogh, Picasso, Manet, and Monet, etc.[1]
❏ GOODS OF SERVICES ❏
Credit (from Latin credit, “(he/she/it) believes”) is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[2] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and exNETFLIXsible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[2] Credit is exNETFLIXded by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower.
‘Lovestruck in the City’ Challenges Asian Americans in Hollywood to Overcome ‘Impossible Duality’ NETFLIXween China, U.S.
NETFLIX’s live-action “Lovestruck in the City” was supposed to be a huge win for under-represented groups in Hollywood. The $2 million-budgeted film is among the most expensive ever directed by a woman, and it features an all-Asian cast — a first for productions of such scale.
Despite well-inNETFLIXtioned ambitions, however, the film has exposed the difficulties of representation in a world of complex geopolitics. NETFLIX primarily cast Asian rather than Asian American stars in lead roles to appeal to Chinese consumers, yet Chinese viewers rejected the movie as inauthentic and American. Then, politics ensnared the production as stars Liu Yifei, who plays Lovestruck in the City, and Donnie Yen professed support for Hong Kong police during the brutal crackdown on protesters in 122. Later, NETFLIX issued “special thanks” in the credits to government bodies in China’s Xinjiang region that are directly involved in perpetrating major human rights abuses against the minority Uighur population.
“Lovestruck in the City” inadverNETFLIXtly reveals why it’s so difficult to create multicultural conNETFLIXt with global appeal in 2020. It highlights the vast disconnect NETFLIXween Asian Americans in Hollywood and Chinese nationals in China, as well as the exNETFLIXt to which Hollywood fails to acknowledge the difference NETFLIXween their aesthetics, tastes and politics. It also underscores the limits of the American conversation on representation in a global world.
In conversations with seLovestruck in the Cityl Asian-American creatives, Variety found that many feel caught NETFLIXween fighting against underrepresentation in Hollywood and being accidentally complicit in China’s authoritarian politics, with no easy answers for how to deal with the moral questions “Lovestruck in the City” poses.
“When do we care about representation versus fundamental civil rights? This is not a simple question,” says Bing Chen, co-founder of Gold House, a collective that mobilizes the Asian American community to help diverse films, including “Lovestruck in the City,” achieve opening weekend box office success via its #GoldOpen movement. “An impossible duality faces us. We absolutely acknowledge the terrible and unacceptable nature of what’s going on over there [in China] politically, but we also understand what’s at stake on the Lovestruck in the City side.”
The film leaves the Asian American community at “the intersection of choosing NETFLIXween surface-level representation — faces that look like ours — versus values and other cultural nuances that don’t reflect ours,” says Lulu Wang, director of “The Farewell.”
In a business in which past box office success determines what future projects are bankrolled, those with their eyes squarely on the prize of increasing opportunities for Asian Americans say they feel a responsibility to support “Lovestruck in the City” no matter what. That support is ofNETFLIX very personal amid the Lovestruck in the City’s close-knit community of Asian Americans, where people don’t want to tear down the hard work of peers and Lovestruck in the City.
Others say they wouldn’t have given NETFLIX their $1 if they’d known about the controversial end credits.
“‘Lovestruck in the City’ is actually the first film where the Asian American community is really split,” says sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen, who examines racism in Hollywood. “For people who are more global and consume more global news, maybe they’re thinking, ‘We shouldn’t sell our soul in order to get affirmation from Hollywood.’ But we have this scarcity mentality.
“I felt like I couldn’t completely lambast ‘Lovestruck in the City’ because I personally felt solidarity with the Asian American actors,” Yuen continues. “I wanted to see them do well. But at what cost?”
This scarcity mentality is particularly acute for Asian American actors, who find roles few and far NETFLIXween. Lulu Wang notes that many “have built their career on a film like ‘Lovestruck in the City’ and other crossovers, because they might not speak the native language — Japanese, Chinese, Korean or Hindi — to actually do a role overseas, but there’s no role being writNETFLIX for them in America.”
Certainly, the actors in “Lovestruck in the City,” who have seen major career breakthroughs tainted by the film’s political backlash, feel this acutely. “You have to understand the tough position that we are in here as the cast, and that NETFLIX is in too,” says actor Chen Tang, who plays Lovestruck in the City’s army buddy Yao.
There’s not much he can do except keep trying to nail the roles he lands in hopes of paving the way for others. “The more I can do great work, the more likely there’s going to be somebody like me [for kids to look at and say], ‘Maybe someday that could be me.’”
Part of the problem is that what’s happening in China feels very distant to Americans. “The Chinese-speaking market is impenetrable to people in the West; they don’t know what’s going on or what those people are saying,” says Daniel York Loh of British East Asians and South East Asians in Theatre and Screen (BEATS), a U.K. nonprofit seeking greater on-screen Asian representation.
York Loh offers a provocative comparison to illustrate the West’s milquetoast reaction to “Lovestruck in the City” principal Liu’s pro-police comments. “The equivalent would be, say, someone like Emma Roberts going, ‘Yeah, the cops in Portland should beat those protesters.’ That would be huge — there’d be no getting around that.”
Some of the disconnect is understandable: With information overload at home, it’s hard to muster the energy to care about faraway problems. But part of it is a broader failure to grasp the real lack of overlap NETFLIXween issues that matter to the mainland’s majority Han Chinese versus minority Chinese Americans. They may look similar, but they have been shaped in diametrically different political and social contexts.
“China’s nationalist pride is very different from the Asian American pride, which is one of overcoming racism and inequality. It’s hard for Chinese to relate to that,” Yuen says.
Beijing-born Wang points out she ofNETFLIX has more in common with first-generation Muslim Americans, Jamaican Americans or other immigrants than with Chinese nationals who’ve always lived in China and never left.
If the “Lovestruck in the City” debacle has taught us anything, in a world where we’re still too quick to equate “American” with “white,” it’s that “we definitely have to separate out the Asian American perspective from the Asian one,” says Wang. “We have to separate race, nationality and culture. We have to talk about these things separately. True representation is about capturing specificities.”
She ran up against the Lovestruck in the City’s inability to make these distinctions while creating “The Farewell.” Americans felt it was a Chinese film because of its subtitles, Chinese cast and location, while Chinese producers considered it an American film because it wasn’t fully Chinese. The endeavor to simply tell a personal family story became a “political fight to claim a space that doesn’t yet exist.”
In the search for authentic storytelling, “the key is to lean into the in-NETFLIX. weenness,” she said. “More and more, people won’t fit into these neat boxes, so in-NETFLIX. weenness is exactly what we need.”
However, it may prove harder for Chinese Americans to carve out a space for their “in-NETFLIXweenness” than for other minority groups, given China’s growing economic clout.
Notes author and writer-producer Charles Yu, whose latest novel about Asian representation in Hollywood, “Interior Chinatown,” is a National Book Award finalist, “As Asian Americans continue on what I feel is a little bit of an island over here, the world is changing over in Asia; in some ways the center of gravity is shifting over there and away from here, economically and culturally.”
With the Chinese film market set to surpass the US as the world’s largest this year, the question thus arises: “Will the cumulative impact of Asian American audiences be such a small drop in the bucket compared to the China market that it’ll just be overwhelmed, in terms of what gets made or financed?”
As with “Lovestruck in the City,” more parochial, American conversations on race will inevitably run up against other global issues as U.S. studios continue to target China. Some say Asian American creators should be prepared to meet Lovestruck in the City by broadening their outlook.
“Most people in this Lovestruck in the City think, ‘I’d love for there to be Hollywood-China co-productions if it meant a job for me. I believe in free speech, and censorship is terrible, but it’s not my battle. I just want to get my pilot sold,’” says actor-producer Brian Yang (“Hawaii Five-0,” “Linsanity”), who’s worked for more than a decade NETFLIXween the two countries. “But the world’s getting smaller. Streamers make shows for the world now. For anyone that works in this business, it would behoove them to study and understand Lovestruck in the Citys that are happening in and [among] other countries.”
Gold House’s Chen agrees. “We need to speak even more thoughtfully and try to understand how the world does not function as it does in our zip code,” he says. “We still have so much soft power coming from the U.S. What we say matters. This is not the problem and burden any of us as Asian Americans asked for, but this is on us, unfortunately. We just have to fight harder. And every step we take, we’re going to be right and we’re going to be wrong.”
☆ ALL ABOUT THE SERIES ☆
is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), but promises either to repay or return those resources (or other materials of equal value) at a later date.[2] In other words, credit is a method of making reciprocity formal, legally enforceable, and exNETFLIXsible to a large group of unrelated people.
The resources provided may be financial (e.g. granting a loan), or they may consist of goods or services (e.g. consumer credit). Credit encompasses any form of deferred payment.[2] Credit is exNETFLIXded by a creditor, also known as a lender, to a debtor, also known as a borrower.
‘Hausen’ Challenges Asian Americans in Hollywood to Overcome ‘Impossible Duality’ NETFLIXween China, U.S. | https://medium.com/lovestruck-in-the-city-series-1-episode-2-4khd/watch-%E1%B4%B4%E1%B4%B0-s1-e2-lovestruck-in-the-city-series-1-episode-2-full-episode-2b80889a19d6 | ['Alice Jennings'] | 2020-12-25 17:58:55.645000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Lifestyle', 'Coronavirus', 'TV Series'] |
Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment Market Insights 2020, Global and Chinese Analysis and Forecast to 2025 | Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment Market Insights 2020, Global and Chinese Analysis and Forecast to 2025 Malia rossi Jun 8·3 min read
Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment Market Insights 2020, Global and Chinese Scenario is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2015–2025 global and Chinese Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment market covering all important parameters.
The key points of the report:
To learn more about this report @ https://bit.ly/34WDUWW
The report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology.
The report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2015–2020 market shares for each company.
Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export.
The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application /type for the competitive landscape analysis.
/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2020–2025 market development trends of Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out.
The report makes some important proposals for a new project of Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment Industry before evaluating its feasibility.
There are 3 key segments covered in this report: competitor segment, product type segment, end use/application segment.
For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment as well as some small players. At least 12 companies are included:
ABB
Emerson
Honeywell International
Schneider Electric
Siemens
Badger Meter
For complete companies list, please ask for sample pages.
The information for each competitor includes:
Company Profile
Main Business Information
SWOT Analysis
Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin
Market Share
For product type segment, this report listed main product type of Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment market in global and china.
Product Type I
Product Type II
Product Type III
For end use/application segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for key applications. End users are also listed.
Software systems
Hardware components
Reasons to Purchase this Report:
Estimates 2020–2025 Oil and Gas Pipeline Monitoring Equipment market development trends with the recent trends and SWOT analysis
Market dynamics scenario, along with growth opportunities of the market in the years to come
Market segmentation analysis including qualitative and quantitative research incorporating the impact of economic and policy aspects
Regional and country level analysis integrating the demand and supply forces that are influencing the growth of the market.
Market value (USD Million) and volume (Units Million) data for each segment and sub-segment
Competitive landscape involving the market share of major players , along with the new projects and strategies adopted by players in the past five years
, along with the new projects and strategies adopted in the past five years Comprehensive company profiles covering the product offerings, key financial information, recent developments, SWOT analysis, and strategies employed by the major market players
1-year analyst support, along with the data support in excel format.
Any special requirements about this report, please let us know and we can provide custom report. | https://medium.com/@malia00rossi/oil-and-gas-pipeline-monitoring-equipment-market-insights-2020-global-and-chinese-analysis-and-25f5dd65d9e9 | ['Malia Rossi'] | 2021-06-08 08:38:04.394000+00:00 | ['Monitoring', 'Oil And Gas', 'Pipeline'] |
Setting Focus For Accessibility In React Native | Attempt 1: useRef()
If you have a functional component, you might reach for useRef() like you would in React… However, you might be surprised when your attempt doesn’t work.
import React, { useRef } from 'react';
const EditableField = () => { const myElement = useRef(); const onModalClose = () => {
myElement .current.focus();
}; return (
<View>
<TouchableOpacity
accessible
ref={myElement}
onPress{() => {
Alert.alert(
'I am an alert',
'Which tells you more information',
[{ text: 'Okay', onPress: onModalClose }],
{ cancelable: true },
);
}}
>
Click Me!
</TouchableOpacity>
</View>
)
};
};
Attempt 2: createRef
In my case, I had a large class component, so I reached for createRef. I wrote the code as I normally would for a React component. However, this approach wasn’t working.
import React, { createRef } from 'react';
import { Alert, TouchableOpacity, View } from 'react-native'; renderElement() { const myElement = createRef(); const onModalClose = () => {
if(myElement && myElement.current) {
myElement.current.focus();
}
} return (
<View>
<TouchableOpacity
accessible
ref={myElement}
onPress{() => {
Alert.alert(
'I am an alert',
'Which tells you more information',
[{ text: 'Okay', onPress: onModalClose }],
{ cancelable: true },
);
}}
>
Click Me!
</TouchableOpacity>
</View>
)
};
The Key To The Solution for React Native
The key to the React Native solution are two elements:
findNodeHandle: obtains a native node handle for a component
AccessibilityInfo: Identifies whether or not the device has a screen reader that is currently active.
Using these two react-native elements, you can come up with something like this to grab the element and set the focus:
const reactTag = findNodeHandle(myElement.current);
if (reactTag) {
AccessibilityInfo.setAccessibilityFocus(reactTag);
}
Solution for Functional Components:
import React, { useRef } from 'react';
import { Alert, TouchableOpacity, View, AccessibilityInfo, findNodeHandle } from 'react-native'; const EditableField = () => { const myElement = useRef(); const onModalClose = () => {
if(myElement && myElement.current) {
const reactTag = findNodeHandle(myElement.current);
if (reactTag) {
AccessibilityInfo.setAccessibilityFocus(reactTag);
}
}
}; return (
<View>
<TouchableOpacity
accessible
ref={myElement}
onPress{() => {
Alert.alert(
'I am an alert',
'Which tells you more information',
[{ text: 'Okay', onPress: onModalClose }],
{ cancelable: true },
);
}}
>
Click Me!
</TouchableOpacity>
</View>
)
};
Solution for Class Components:
Although this approach might have worked in web, for React Native, there is a different way. | https://medium.com/dev-genius/setting-focus-for-accessibility-in-react-native-cd7bbe891c5d | ['Jessica Byrne'] | 2020-08-11 09:04:19.084000+00:00 | ['React Native', 'Software Development', 'Mobile App Development', 'Accessibility', 'Code'] |
HOODSTAR PRODIGY UPCOMING RAPPER | 17 year old artist. upcoming. about to be 18 in a month from Long Island New York go by tray gunna with the goal to take his family out of poverty with his music . 2021 he said he making a statement in the industry that’s it his turn be the next big artist coming out of New York don’t matter the situation and that one day people will understand why he in the game and will want be apart of his journey to the top . | https://medium.com/@salowillams/hoodstar-prodigy-upcoming-rapper-fab6aa8a98de | ['Jason Smith'] | 2020-12-16 21:51:08.950000+00:00 | ['Rape Culture', 'New York', 'Rap', 'Us', 'Culture'] |
Writers-How to Avoid The Dreaded Blurry Story On Your Profile | Writing | Short-Form Story
Writers-How to Avoid The Dreaded Blurry Story On Your Profile
Unsplash, screenshot by author
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but stories written in the new ‘short-form’ format, display differently in your profile.
If you’re not sure what a Short Form story is, here’s a quick description to get you up to speed.
In a Short Form story, you don’t use a title, the ‘Subtitle’ is often linked to the story, resulting in a bold, underlined look. The entire story is under 150 words. The idea is to highlight an important news item and the format is intended to be short, like a tweet.
You can add a comment line after that ‘Subtitle’, and how you format that comment makes all the difference.
Here are 3 examples:
No special formatting
I recently wrote a short-form story. Click through and have a look at my formatting in the actual short-form article:
That resulted in this look on my profile page: | https://medium.com/illumination/how-to-avoid-the-dreaded-blurry-story-on-your-profile-54548c3c88b0 | ['Tree Langdon'] | 2020-12-18 16:41:39.073000+00:00 | ['Writing', 'Art', 'Self Improvement', 'Profile', 'Short Form'] |
Shaping Seattle | Max and Rami discuss Energy, Climate Change and Startup Leadership | Shaping Seattle | Max and Rami discuss Energy, Climate Change and Startup Leadership Seattleshapers Mar 19·23 min read
Max Mankin: [00:00:00] Natural gas burns at something like 1500 degrees Celsius. But you heat your home, maybe at 30 degrees Celsius. There’s a huge amount of energy that is effectively thrown away and we like to joke that this is a big thermodynamic tragedy on the order of Shakespeare, where you take really valuable heat at 1500 degrees and you trash it and bring it down to 30 degrees where it can’t do anything except heat air.
[Shaping Seattle is a podcast that highlights the work of Seattle Shapers and other local impact leaders in the greater Seattle area. In our fourth episode of Shaping Seattle, our very own Max Mankin and Rami Sayar talk energy, climate change, and startup leadership.
Max Mankin is the co-founder and CTO of Modern Electron, an energy technology startup in Seattle working to decarbonize home energy use. He has a decade of experience building and leading teams, designing and characterizing semiconductors and energy systems. Max earned a BS with honors in chemistry from Brown University and a PhD in physical chemistry from Harvard University, where he held fellowships from the Hertz and National Science Foundations. Max is an inventor on a few dozen patents pending and granted. His accolades include one of Inc. Magazine’s most brilliant entrepreneurs under 30 (2017) and Forbes 30 Under 30 (2016). Find him on Modern Electron.
The host, Rami Sayar, is a technologist exploring the intersection of design, startups, and the web. He is currently shipping new machine learning-powered user experiences to millions of visitors at Microsoft Bing. He is also an elder shaper who has been part of the Montreal, New York City, and Seattle hubs. Find him on his website.]
Episode 4 | Energy, Climate Change and Startup Leadership (Recorded: September 27th, 2020)
Rami Sayar: [00:00:40] Hello Max, welcome to the podcast. I’m really excited to have you here. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? I’m very excited to share your background with our listeners.
Max Mankin: [00:00:50] Thank you. And I’m excited to be here. So my name is Max Mankin and I am the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of a startup in the Seattle area called Modern Electron. And what we’re working on is decarbonizing home energy use, which it turns out contributes to about 10% of greenhouse gas emissions throughout the high-income world.
I have a deep, technology and science background. I got into it, initially by majoring in chemistry and material science. And then I did a PhD in Physical Chemistry and Materials, and around year three of my PhD. I started thinking a lot about what I wanted to do with my life and what kind of impact I wanted to have after I got out of school. I’d been on the professor track for a long time. And after thinking deeply about it and talking to lots of people, I realized that’s probably not for me. So I started exploring options and, I did a whole bunch of introspection about, what makes me tick? What makes me excited to wake up every day in the morning, ended up through a series of conversations, ended up being recruited, to be an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at a deep tech incubator out in the Seattle area and it was out of that, that Modern Electron was created.
Rami Sayar: [00:02:18] Can you tell us a little bit more about Modern Electron? You mentioned that it’s, in the home energy space. Tell us more.
Max Mankin: [00:02:24] Yeah. So Modern Electron is a team of about 25 and we’re building a new type of technology that makes home heating a whole lot more efficient and cost-effective. So it turns out in the United States, Canada, Europe, and significant parts of Asia about 80% of the energy used in these homes is for space heating. So think heating up your living room on a cold day or for water heating. So like when you turn on the shower, you need hot water.
And typically a lot of these homes use natural gas. So you just burn natural gas and then use the heat from that to heat up your rooms or your water. We have a new technology that transforms typical gas heating appliances into small power plants. So every time they turn on, in addition to producing heat, they also produce electricity.
And so this electricity then offsets what you buy from the utility grid and saves you hundreds of dollars per year on your utility bills. And at the same time, offsets your carbon emissions from your home.
Rami Sayar: [00:03:38] I grew up in Montreal, Canada and, the heating bill, especially in the winter was probably my dad’s biggest complaint. You can imagine it gets pretty cold in Montreal. We get quite a bit of snowfall and that snowfall and cold weather really increases the heating bill of most Montrealers. So a lot of Montrealer’s invest a lot of time in sealing their windows and improving the structure of their homes. And the interesting thing that I remember growing up is boiling water for showers, for all the things that we need water for was very expensive. So would you with your products be able to help make that more efficient? Especially in places like Quebec, where we are constantly heating water to go use our showers.
Max Mankin: [00:04:24] Yeah, that’s the general idea. The Northeast United States and that the sort of South Southeast part of Canada is a great case study. So about half people there heat their homes with natural gas. And what kind of heating did you have in your
Rami Sayar: [00:04:41] I had electric, but I’m curious, can we use the same technology to switch to natural gas. I knew of some people that had geothermal heating that kind of helps supplement the usage from the electrical grid. So tell me a little bit more about the technology. Can we use it in all these different places?
Max Mankin: [00:04:58] So the technology is best suited for use with natural gas. It would not really work with electric heating, or geothermal. So by the way, electric heating is probably why your bill was so expensive. It’s very expensive and fairly inefficient compared to other forms of heating.
You know, bigger picture. The world is slowly decarbonizing and the EU and Japan are really leading the way on this. And the US is following Canada following. But generally people are decarbonizing. The challenge is that 80% of our primary energy still comes from fossil fuels. Despite decades of exponential growth of renewables, that still only comprises something like a few percent of our primary energy source.
So for better or worse, natural gas will be around for a long time. And we view this as a way to continue using natural gas and make it a lot more environmentally friendly and save people money at the same time. You wouldn’t necessarily want to go backwards from geothermal to natural gas.
I think that would be poor for the environment and it turns out in a place like Quebec. There’s a lot of hydroelectric. And so what that means is that the carbon dioxide intensity of electricity generation in Quebec is fairly low. So in that sense, even though you may be heating with electricity, the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of electricity per kilowatt hour might be lower than burning natural gas for the same amount of heat even if it is a little bit more efficient.
There was a lot of technical mumbo jumbo there. Sorry, I can, we can back off that if you want.
Rami Sayar: [00:06:43] Oh, no, absolutely. I love the technical aspects of all this stuff. And actually, I want to ask you a little bit more for those of us that are having a hard time imagining what is this product? How would you describe it? Is it like a black box or is it piping? What is it exactly?
Max Mankin: [00:06:58] So imagine going to buy a furnace. When yours breaks and you have two choices, you see one on the left that has a typical brand name. And then you see one on the right that has our brand name. And they look the same, except ours says saves you $200 per year. Which one would you choose? So ultimately what my company is building is a specific technology that goes inside the combustion chamber of the furnace. So it actually sits directly between the flame and what’s called a heat exchanger, which passes heat from the flame into heating for you. And so you don’t see it as an outside user of the appliance.
it’s in there working every time the appliance turns on.
Rami Sayar: [00:07:46] You’re rendering that furnace a lot more efficient with your technology, by capturing energy that may be wasted and converting it into electricity.
Max Mankin: [00:07:56] Yeah, that’s right. So to give you some sense of this natural gas burns at something like 1500 degrees Celsius. But you heat your home, maybe at 30 degrees Celsius. There’s a huge amount of energy that is effectively thrown away and we like to joke that this is a big thermodynamic tragedy on the order of Shakespeare, where you take really valuable heat at 1500 degrees and you trash it and bring it down to 30 degrees where it can’t do anything except heat air. So in that sense, this is an opportunity really, to more efficiently use the energy that’s in that fuel to generate both electricity and heat instead of just heat.
Rami Sayar: [00:08:43] If I was trying to install this into my home, what are the steps that I would have to do so I can take advantage of this electricity.
Max Mankin: [00:08:49] Yeah, so effectively you have to call your HVAC technician, and, and they’ll install it for you. Oftentimes consumers don’t actually do the installation or have much of a choice it turns out when they’re installing their appliances. But the install looks effectively the same as a normal furnace with one extra electrical hookup in this case, because you’re producing electricity, in addition to heat, but otherwise everything is plug and play and swappable with existing appliances.
Rami Sayar: [00:09:20] So this is pretty exciting technology, right? Because you’re finding ways to take inefficiencies that are out there in home eating and converting them to electricity that could be useful and helps most homeowners save on their electricity bill.
Now, in terms of the environmental impact of that, it’s I can imagine it’s pretty tremendous, but you probably have some numbers or you’ve made some calculations to tell us how: if everyone just installed these Modern Electronic furnaces, how much would the planet be improved in terms of CO2 emissions
Max Mankin: [00:09:51] So worldwide, there are about 300 million people or 300 million homes that heat with natural gas and, each one of these appliances, depending on where you live can avoid up to about a ton of CO2 emissions per year. So when you multiply that out, it turns out you’re at a good fraction of a gigaton of CO2 avoided per year. So that would be a huge dent, positive dent in the world. if we could pull it off.
Rami Sayar: [00:10:22] Do you believe there will come a time when we will move away from natural gas as the main fuel that we use to heat our homes and what would Modern Electron do at that point?
Max Mankin: [00:10:34] We get that question a lot, actually. And I do believe that yeah, the world is trying to decarbonize and that’s the right thing to do. As I said earlier, wind and solar have been on an exponential growth path. That’s amazing and wonderful for the world. And the challenge is really that fossil fuels are affordable right now.
The experts in energy and I had referred to the IEA or, the Department of Energy Analyses, generally project that it’ll be hard to get off of fossil fuels completely in the next several decades. And we’re going to transition there’s no question that the future will be a large mix of solutions.
And electrification and renewables and bio gas and other sorts of fuel sources are coming and that’s wonderful. So in terms of Modern Electron, there are two, two ways that I think about it. One is that long-term energy transitions take decades and what’s in the DNA of Modern Electron is technology innovation and I expect that we’ll stay ahead of that and on top of that and continue innovating in the energy space. Second is that I’m really excited lately about hydrogen. So hydrogen is a fuel, that also has pretty high energy density like fossil fuel, and it can be burned for high-grade heat, just like fossil fuel.
But when you burn it, it only emits water, not CO2. And so hydrogen is like a wonder fuel. If we could switch to it. The challenge is that right now, hydrogen is very expensive. So it’s expensive to make and it’s expensive to ship. Lately, we’ve seen a huge trend toward decarbonizing sectors like steel making and glass making and petrochemicals by switching from natural gas to hydrogen. Even transportation now, people are looking at hydrogen cars, although, no pun intended. That’s been labeled a pipe dream for many decades now. Even though the technology has been around and that’s largely because of the high cost of hydrogen relative to natural gas. So what we’re seeing is that the EU and Japan in particular are really pushing hydrogen as a fuel and as a replacement to natural gas in a lot of these industries.
And assuming that trend continues. And everyone thinks that it probably will. Modern Electron’s technology actually works better with hydrogen it turns out than with natural gas, for a variety of technical reasons that we don’t need to get into. And so that would be a way, actually to offset the cost of hydrogen by affording energy bill savings with our technology and that could actually accelerate the transition to hydrogen.
Rami Sayar: [00:13:23] So in the future, you believe that hydrogen may actually become a replacement for natural gas in in home heating. Is there anything that if you could do to make that transition faster, what would it be?
Max Mankin: [00:13:35] If we want to accelerate the transition to hydrogen, we need to bring the cost of it down. So right now, the cost of hydrogen. For home heating in particular will be related to the transmission infrastructure. So hydrogen has two main challenges. One is generation. So you have to generate it at a scale at a cost that’s comparable to natural gas.
And the other is that you have to then transmit it. The problem is that hydrogen doesn’t work with the majority of the gas lines and pipes that are in the ground today. So for instance, if you wanted to switch the United States gas grid to be hydrogen compatible, it would cost you trillions of dollars and you’d have to rip up or put in new pipes across the entire United States.
So that’s not a transition that can happen in the scale of years. That’s going to take decades if it happens at all. So one of the things that I’m really excited about is seeing work on distributed generation of hydrogen. And the idea here is that you actually generate hydrogen locally, and then, that way you don’t have to ship it.
So you avoid this massive infrastructure investment and timeline that could take decades to install and also, cost taxpayers, trillions of dollars in one form or another either on their bill, sort of normalized into their bill or on their tax bill. And that could be a way to sidestep this need for deploying massive new infrastructure.
So I think that speaks to a general theme in new energy technology, which is that technology by itself, isn’t enough. The technology to generate hydrogen exists, but it’s not yet economical. And so if you look at an analogy in solar, solar panels existed nearly in their present form 30, 40 years ago. But it wasn’t really until solar financing came into play that they became more widespread. And so one of the messages is that I hear, a lot in deep energy technology is we need more R and D we need more R and D we need more breakthroughs. And that is absolutely true, but you also need to pair those R and D people, those breakthrough people that the geniuses and the innovators with experienced business savvy people. Energy is a $5 trillion industry and, when you really think about that, in order to reach scale, something has to be economical. It has to have a financial incentive, in order to scale and make a real dent.
Rami Sayar: [00:16:16] Tell me a little bit more about what excites you the most.
Max Mankin: [00:16:20] I think there are a few things. I look at this on kind of the big picture and the little picture, and I think both are important. So big picture, we have an opportunity to make a really positive dent in the world, and that’s not something that a lot of people can really say about their work.
This is something I’m thankful for and that gets me up out of bed every morning. The opportunity to work on one of humanity’s grand challenges is, is once in a lifetime and something that I’m very grateful for. Small scale I think there are a few things that really excite me.
One is I get to work with some of the smartest people I know every day. I lead a team of about 20 and it spans physicists and material scientists all the way through engineers with 20 to 30 years of experience. And they are best in class. They come from top companies and top universities and their tenacity and intuition and ingenuity is just staggering.
One of the great joys that I take in my job is developing teams. The most effective model for teams that I’ve seen has been pairing an engineer with a physicist, or an extremely experienced materials engineer with a fresh out of school chemist for instance, and these pairings of very different people often create a poll for different people to stretch in ways that they’re not used to doing. And that’s when I’ve seen the most creative results. So something that I’m excited about on kind of the microscale is team engineering, and making sure that, I’m able to find and recruit amazing people, but also then that they have the opportunity to do their best possible work, in whatever environment that I’m able to craft.
Rami Sayar: [00:18:09] You’re clearly a great leader at your company. How did you develop these leadership skills?
Max Mankin: [00:18:14] Lots of failures. by the way, I, I’m not yet convinced I’m a great leader. It’s a constant work in progress and, if you really want the truth, you should ask some folks on my team about it. The way I learned, for better or worse was I was effectively thrown in the deep end.
And when we started the company, there were three of us and it scaled fairly quickly up to about 12 or 13. And when we hit 13, things broke, it was a totally flat organization. We all met every day to talk about what we were working on and agree on priorities. And around 13, everything broke. And at that point, I was still a cofounder doing investor relations and fundraising.
I was the CTO, trying to set plans and budgets and roadmaps. I was recruiting. I was still a test engineer. So I was actually doing measurements on electron beam physics in the lab every day. And then moonlighting as a manager and a CTO and trying to fundraise and it didn’t work and everything started to break.
One of the best things that I’ve ever done is found people who have done this before. And I think regardless of what career anybody’s in, this is worth doing. And I formed what I’d call a personal board of directors. So this is like a whole bunch of people that I look up to for some reason or another.
And, like I may look up to person a for their management skills and I may look up to person B for their roadmapping skills and person C for their fundraising skills. And they don’t all have to be amazing at everything, but with a personal board of directors like this, I’m able to pick and choose, and these are relationships that I’ve actively cultivated and they’re incredibly important.
And so oftentimes I’d go to these folks and say, Hey, I have this problem with this person, what do I do about it? Or I have this problem where I’m having trouble balancing resources. How do you think about this? How do you put a framework to this? And these are folks who have been doing this, sometimes times for just a year, more than me, sometimes for 30 years, more than me.
And they’ve all been incredibly generous with their time and they would help me through some of these things. I can also tell you that my team actually helped me through a lot of these things. I work with a whole bunch of very brilliant people who oftentimes are, not at all shy about saying when something isn’t working for them.
And I really deeply appreciate that. So I have one engineer who, who comes in and I got to talk to you. She sits down. And she says, this isn’t working, you got to stop, quit doing whatever. And she’s that straight with me. And that kind of learning I’m on the job has been, I’d say arguably more valuable than any management or leadership book that I’ve ever read.
Of course, there’s lots of reading. There’s lots of self reflection. There’s lots of journaling. But a lot of it was honestly learned through trial and error and lots of failure and lots of very valuable feedback from my team.
Rami Sayar: [00:21:21] What would you consider your biggest management success?
Max Mankin: [00:21:23] There are a few engineers on my team who, when they started, I was worried about their fit. And now there’s some of my top performers. They consistently produce results. They are leading the rest of their team members. They’ve really emerged as defacto leaders in the day to day and the strategic direction setting on my engineering team.
And I think my biggest success was transforming them from people I was worried about who were on the edge of startup fit or professionalism or technical ability into people who are true leaders.
Rami Sayar: [00:22:03] So Max you told us about your greatest success, but what about your greatest failures?
Max Mankin: [00:22:08] So many, it’s hard to even know where to start. I’ll give you one. So around the time when we were maybe 15 or 16 people, it became time to institute a project management framework, and this wasn’t something you needed. When your company’s 12, 12 people, you can get in a room and talk about what you’re going to do.
Around that time, I went out and I read a whole lot about management and project management and software engineering best practices, even though we’re not a software company. And I picked a tool and I forced my team to use it and it turned out it was the completely wrong tool. It was the totally wrong practice and my team, finally moved off of this tool, but, since then it’s become this kind of running joke of, I, I don’t want to name the tool, but the name of this tool has been a running joke for management mishaps, making decisions that just didn’t work. Again, I’m very thankful to my team for bearing with me on that one and rolling with the punches and giving me the feedback that it just wasn’t working.
Rami Sayar: [00:23:12] When you look at your role as a leader of this very technical company, how are you able to balance your desires as a chemist, as a technical person to jump into the technical side of the work and really just instead focus on your responsibility as a leader of the company.
Max Mankin: [00:23:35] This is a huge challenge. So as I mentioned earlier, Around 12 to 13 people, everything broke. We couldn’t just get in a room anymore and talk about priorities. And so at that point, I really had to transition from a kind of individual contributor, wearing a leader hat into a full time manager and leader and drop a lot of my individual engineering and scientific work.
And that was really hard. I started off, frankly, by driving people absolutely bananas by trying to come in and still be involved. And this is something you often see with first time managers I’ve learned and now observed in other people, where, they’re still transitioning roles and that mindset shift takes awhile.
Every once in a while, I’m still able to get back in the lab and do something myself. And I get to scratch that itch every once in a while at work. But I’ve also recognized at this point that some of the best things that I can do, or get obstacles out of the way for my team and empower them, to do their best work and then stay out of their way.
It’s my job to define the goal and the swim lane and the resources and make sure they have everything they need to get to that goal. And then step out of the way these are super smart people and they can handle themselves. The way that I scratched that itch now is actually I occasionally go home and do hobby projects at home where I do a lot of home automation and kind of building things and tinkering. So I play a lot with the raspberry PI. I’ve been learning microcontrollers and Alexa skills just for fun. And I’m actually working on my first Alexa skill now, as a side project and that’s how I scratched that technical itch at home.
Rami Sayar: [00:25:23] I want to follow up on how you learnt that from your team. It sounds to me like the team must have had an intervention to tell you to stop breaking things, because you were probably coming in to where it’s random moments and making some changes that probably broke some stuff.
Am I right? Is this suspicion right?
Max Mankin: [00:25:42] You’re absolutely right. And I don’t think it was so much of an intervention as a few people who were for lack of a better word, courageous and trusted me enough to be able to give me some really hard feedback and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that. These are folks who would come into my office and sit down and say, Hey, I appreciate your input, but you got to back off because every time you open your mouth in that meeting, you confuse the team as to what the priorities are.
Or every time you touch my experiment, it breaks. Stop. That one. That one was the hardest, because I prided myself or I still do on my experimental ability and my good hands and my knowledge of how to do good measurements. And and that one was the hardest, but they were right.
Ultimately. And so I think what’s really key is that especially in a small team, you need to establish an environment where feedback is appreciated and people have enough trust with each other to be able to give that hard feedback and enough professionalism in general decency to give it in a kind way, right?
If somebody comes in and trashes on my attempt intentions and says, Hey, quit trying to sabotage me. That’s not going to go over super well, but if somebody comes in and says, hey, I felt that in that meeting, when you said this, it undermined my authority as the project leader, because you come in with the title of leader, and you say something different from me. And that really confuses the team and doesn’t really empower me. So I’d appreciate if, you could run those things by me first, before coming to the meeting and just riffing. And that candid feedback that I got from both engineers and managers on my team really did help.
And as you said was an intervention. So I’m incredibly grateful to those people.
Rami Sayar: [00:27:40] The second question that I wanted to ask you on that point, you mentioned that you’re going back home to create all of these automations. Any one in particular that you’re proud of?
Max Mankin: [00:27:51] Yes, but I can’t talk about it yet. It’s in stealth mode.
Rami Sayar: [00:27:58] I have a feeling that you’re going to come up with a new product line aren’t you?
Max Mankin: [00:28:01] Perhaps, maybe someday. Maybe that’ll be my next startup, but for now it’s still just a hobby, not quite ready to talk about it, but in the past I’ve worked on things like automated cat toys. So I used to have a cat and it would turn on at a random time of day and move a laser pointer around my apartment just to keep the cat busy and entertained. Other sort of simple things like that and automated plant watering which was really fun, but really messy once when a pipe leaked all over my desk. So that one got put away pretty quickly.
Rami Sayar: [00:28:34] Okay, Max, what book are you reading now?
Max Mankin: [00:28:37] I just finished Neal Stephenson’s Fall; or, Dodge in Hell. And that was a really thoughtful and scary take on the future of Neuroscience and AI and Quantum Computing. And what could happen. It also dovetailed really interestingly into this current trend of fake news and exponential growth of fake news in social media.
So I would recommend that if you’re into that dystopian future, cyberpunk technology and speculative technological fiction literature.
Rami Sayar: [00:29:15] What leader are you looking up to right now?
Max Mankin: [00:29:17] Pass come back to me. In two minutes,
Rami Sayar: [00:29:21] How many hours of sleep are you getting?
Max Mankin: [00:29:23] I get about seven hours of sleep and I make sure I do that every day. That’s really important to being able to function.
Rami Sayar: [00:29:30] I totally agree with you there.
Max Mankin: [00:29:32] I also just read Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep. And it scared the hell out of me. If anybody’s on the fence or doesn’t believe in why sleep is important, go read that book and you’ll want to get seven hours of sleep every day.
Rami Sayar: [00:29:46] Yeah, I have that book and every time I read a chapter, it just makes me very upset about all of the times that I didn’t sleep very well and absolutely agree. That’s a great recommendation. If there was anything you could wish that a genie could grant you, what would be that wish?
Max Mankin: [00:30:02] I wish that we could, as a species erase our us versus them cognitive bias. I think one of the greatest challenges we’re going to have and I see this in energy. You see this in the news. These days is squaring off side versus side instead of coming together into a unified common dialogue to reach compromise. Inevitably, there’s going to be different opinions and different assessments of what we need to do and how we need to do it.
One of the big challenges in energy, at least I think is that a lot of people tend to square off in an us versus them way. And the dialogue is really broken. If I had to make one, one wish for the betterment of the world, I would love for people to be able to overcome that squaring off, and establish a common, robust dialogue so we can reach some compromises and then take some action on some of the really pressing and challenging issues that our world and our species are facing.
Rami Sayar: [00:31:02] What leader are you looking up to the most right now?
Max Mankin: [00:31:05] This is hard. There are too many good options and no good options.
Rami Sayar: [00:31:08] Doesn’t have to be anyone that people know. It could just be someone in your company.
Max Mankin: [00:31:12] I like that. Sorry too many good at this is hard to choose. Okay. I’ll I’ll just pick one. So I really look up to one of my engineers. We’ve been having some hard conversations lately about what we think is possible with our first product and the timelines in terms of specifications. And she’s been, incredibly courageous in terms of having these conversations with me and engaging with me and the other leadership members to reach some compromises on what we think we can do and what’s going to be really challenging.
Rami Sayar: [00:31:46] That’s great leadership right there.
Max Mankin: [00:31:48] It is. Yeah, hard conversations are never really fun. but the people who are courageous enough to step up and have them of their own volition are people who I really admire. And I think, I have lots of people on my team who are doing that, but one engineer in particular has just really impressed me the last six months with this.
Rami Sayar: [00:32:06] All right. Last question, Max, where can we find you?
Max Mankin: [00:32:09] So I do my best to stay off of social media as much as possible. But you could probably find me hiking out in the woods of Washington State, or potentially at the zoo, which is one of my favorite places in the world.
Rami Sayar: [00:32:23] I love that answer. So there is a great zoo in Washington State. You’re going to have to go to all of them and maybe you’ll find Max. I love that.
Well, Max, thank you so much for joining us in our podcast for the Seattle Shaper hub. Really appreciate the time that you have given us here today and your expertise and your insights into the technology and energy spaces.
I am very excited to hear from our listeners about what they thought of this podcast. If they have any additional questions to Max, I speak to Max on a regular basis. So I’d be very happy to get more answers to your questions and share them in a follow-up episode. Thank you so much, Max.
Max Mankin: [00:33:08] Thanks for having me. This has been great. | https://medium.com/@seattleshapers/shaping-seattle-max-and-rami-discuss-energy-climate-change-and-startup-leadership-2d26ab320b08 | [] | 2021-03-19 16:38:59.985000+00:00 | ['Energy', 'Startup', 'Natural Gas', 'Climate Change', 'Decarbonization'] |
Sula Indian Restaurant in Vancouver — Frequently Asked Questions About Indian Cuisine | Sula Indian restaurant is an award-winning Indian restaurant in Vancouver. It is known for serving authentic spicy aromatic Indian curries, tandoori meats and veggies with Naans and Rotis (Indian Bread). The chefs at Sula Indian Restaurant serve carefully crafted recipes natively from Indian states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Chennai.
Order different dishes at Sula but we assure what doesn’t change here is the care and vibe that goes into making every dish, and the service will always be the same. Alongside the delicious food, we even serve refreshing cocktails, draft, local, international and Indian wines, local and international beers, spirits and homemade non-alcoholic drinks.
Sula also offers a cozy and warm space to enjoy your meals. Visiting Sula will give you a homely and welcoming feeling. Create a perfect vibe for your dinner by booking our gorgeous candlelit dining room that consists of several water features, plants, and colorful fishes. The elements that we have chosen for our setting will relax you to the core and help you unwind.
Sula is one of the top Indian restaurants in Vancouver, here, we take you on a culinary journey to different states and regions of India. We are about offering food to every guest from vegan, meat-eaters, vegetarian, spicy & non-spicy eaters and even to dairy and gluten intolerant.
Frequently asked questions about Sula Indian Restaurant in Vancouver -
1. Where are you Located?
A. We are located at 1128 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5L3X2.
2. How can I contact you?
A. You can call us on +16042151130 or email us at
[email protected]
3. What are your hours of Operation?
A. We are open for:
Dinner: Everyday from 5:00 PM to 10:30 PM
Last Seating/Takeaway/Home Delivery: 9:15 PM, Door closes at 10:30–45 PM
Lunch: Monday to Friday 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
4. Do you take online reservations?
A. Yes, we are open to taking online reservations. Just go to our website and book your table instantly and get more information on our reservation policy.
5. What services do you offer?
A. We offer food delivery and catering services.
6. Can I make online orders?
A. Yes we have built-in online ordering links on our website, visit our website to know more or you can visit — Order Food Online from Sula Indian Restaurant In Vancouver.
7. How fast do you deliver?
A. That depends on a few factors like the distance of your location, traffic outside, snowing outside, and so forth. However, the average time we take is approximately 45 minutes which could fluctuate. Either way, if its going to take more than 60 minutes we will call you.
8. How can I pay for my orders?
A. We accept cash and all major debit & credit cards. Our delivery boys will be carrying a bank machine with them as well to process the payment upon delivery.
About Indian Food
It is a myth that Indian food is all about spice, the Indian culinary art is vast and it never fails to intrigue the food explorers from around the world. Indian cuisine is a perfect blend of taste and health at the same time. Traditional Indian food comes from our ancestors. Our ancestors used to believe that our kitchens have a cure for any illness, for instance, they used turmeric as an antibiotic for injuries.
There’s an astonishing intricacy in the flavor profiles of Indian dishes, be it simplest snacks or elaborate of the occasional feast in the diversity of all regional and local versions of Indian cuisine. As you may notice, Indian cuisine is a blend of ancient traditions and centuries of global influences and the dynamics of contemporary trends altogether. Indian cuisine showcases ingredients and preparation techniques of centuries and edged according to various religious beliefs too.
Some frequently asked questions about Indian food:
1. What is unique about Indian cuisines?
A. What makes Indian cuisines unique is its perfectly balanced blend of flavors. The Indian spices are popular around the world for its uniqueness, they add a whole new dimension to the native dishes making dishes warm and homely.
The different masalas (spices) serve a different purpose in Indian dishes, such as garam masala adds a unique aroma to the dishes and other spices and herbs like cumin, turmeric, cloves, mint, coriander, saffron, curry leaves etc. add to the taste of appetizing dishes.
2. What dishes does an authentic Indian restaurant offer?
A. An authentic Indian restaurant’s menu typically consists of some totally finger-licking starters like Onion Bhajia, Pakoras, Samosas, Chaat, Tandoori Chicken and so forth. The main course would comprise some of the popular Indian dishes like Kadai Paneer, Dal Makhani, Palak Paneer, Mattar Paneer, etc. in veg and Butter Chicken, Chicken tikka masala, Rajasthani Lamb Masala, etc in Non-veg.
Try the above-mentioned dishes only at Sula Indian Restaurant to experience the flavors of India in Vancouver Bc.
3. What does a typical Indian Meal consist of?
A. A basic traditional Indian meal is incomplete without its core, Roti (whole-wheat flatbread) or Dal (a lentil bases stew) & rice. The combination of vegetable dishes usually accompanies these basic elements and sometimes a few garnishes like chutneys, relishes and pickles add up as condiments. The flavors of Indian meals-tend to cover a full spectrum with spicy, sour, sweet and sometimes bitter notes in a balanced proportion.
So head to Sula Indian restaurant in Vancouver to try out this extremely palatable treat. | https://medium.com/@sulaindianrestaurantvancouver/sula-indian-restaurant-in-vancouver-frequently-asked-questions-about-indian-cuisine-fdd5c94703b4 | ['Sula Indian Restaurant'] | 2020-03-05 09:39:22.420000+00:00 | ['Indian Food', 'Foodies', 'Restaurant Business', 'Vancouver', 'Indian Restaurant'] |
Four Years Of Isolation | It’s worth looking back at the Trump administration’s view on foreign policy and how it has shaped the world today. After a cursory glance at all the minefields of American foreign policy today, one might be forgiven for thinking that not a lot has changed in four years. The world is still struggling to grapple with climate change in a meaningful way. China’s rise continues to baffle the US, and North Korea has only gotten bolder in flexing its nuclear program. Additionally, the war in Yemen rages on, Iran is still branded as the boogieman of the Middle East, and US troop deployments remain dotted across the Middle East and Northern Africa. The Taliban and the Afghan government are once again attempting to cement some form of a peace agreement that could lead to a full troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
We’ve witnessed the Trump administration’s failure to extract any meaningful concessions from Iran through its campaign of “maximum pressure.” We’ve seen Trump’s inability to find a solution to critical issues involving places like Venezuela or North Korea. There have been two disastrous trade wars with China and the European Union that only succeeded in pissing countries off. Trump has fawned over dictators repeatedly and escalated bombings and airstrikes across the Middle East. He’s opted to leave international agreement after international agreement, convinced that the US is better off alone, and sold arms to theocratic regimes in the hopes of securing some form of tenuous peace with Israel and its neighbors.
In all of this, if there was one overarching theme to the current administration’s view, it is the oft-heard refrain of “America First!” This phrase attempts to highlight the inordinate investment America puts into the international order in solving conflicts abroad and the return on investment that has, in their view, amounted to little and even in some instances, to America’s diminishment. For them, it is past time to reassess America’s investment, pull back in many cases where needed, and utilize economic and military force in other areas to ensure America is getting the “fair deal” it demands.
Now, four years later, it’s hard to see how this policy of militant isolationism has had any success on the world’s stage. The same problems continue to fester, with many getting even worse. Power vacuums created in America’s absence have been filled by despots, and the average American is paying a steeper cost because of all of this. The world is less secure, and it is more important now more than ever that the Biden administration works as fast as possible to undo many of the disastrous actions taken during the Trump era.
The list is long and winding.
Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, rejoining the Iran Nuclear Deal, canceling our planned defunding of the World Health Organization (WHO), ending our involvement in the disastrous war in Yemen, reevaluating our alliance with Saudi Arabia, reengaging forcefully with North Korea on nuclear disarmament, engaging in a logical strategy with China to push them on human rights and prevent them from exerting undue influence on American companies, a reopening of relations with Cuba, renewing the New START treaty with Russia, working with the UK on a mutually beneficial trade deal post-Brexit, encouraging a robust peace agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government, reevaluating various arms deals with countries in the Middle East, and pushing the Israeli government on its inhumane treatment of Palestinians are all on the agenda for a Biden administration.
And since he will most assuredly be consumed with handling COVID-19 here at home, President-Elect Joe Biden has nominated Antony Blinken as Secretary of State to start checking some of these items off. Blinken, who can be described broadly as a consummate interventionist, wrote an op-ed last year outlining his views on foreign policy, saying that, “A responsible foreign policy seeks to prevent crises or contain them before they spiral out of control. That requires a combination of active diplomacy and military deterrence.” The term interventionist may be surprising to some, especially in the wake of almost two decades of war in the Middle East, but Blinken’s primary point is fair here. A successful foreign policy should be one of preventative care instead of crisis management. Diplomacy, cooperation, and collaboration should be the driving force, with military deterrence as an end resort.
Whether or not, Blinken is up to the task of reorienting our foreign policy remains to be seen. There will be several important tests within the first one hundred days, that will leave little doubt of that answer. Nevertheless, as has always been the case, the problem comes in putting these beliefs into practice. Stopping crises from spiraling out of control is incredibly difficult for a variety of reasons:
Like in so many other areas of the US government, the foreign policy machine is a mammoth that often takes a herculean effort to get going in a different direction. One only needs to look at America’s history of intervening to see how fraught it can be. Too often diplomacy has been an afterthought, routinely discarded in favor of military alternatives.
Blinken argues that fixing the third reason listed here is of particular importance to his strategy. It’s a trend that began long ago when diplomats and foreign service workers slowly got muscled out of rooms and replaced by generals and admirals. Over the last four years, that pattern has only skyrocketed, with the last two Secretaries of State practically gutting the Department of State from the inside out and in some cases, even treating the job and their employees with utter contempt. Blinken echoes this, saying, “Successive administrations have underfunded and undervalued our diplomacy, none more dangerously than the present one. With a depleted senior diplomatic corps and key posts still unfilled, with cuts to foreign aid, with tariffs targeted at our closest allies, and with confidence in U.S. leadership at a nadir, we are depleting one of our greatest assets: the ability to defuse conflicts and mobilize others in collective action.”
He’s right. Frankly, this is a colossal failure on the part of the US government and a huge reason why diplomatic solutions to issues seem few and far between. If you wonder why the US seems to always jump the gun to troop deployment or bombings, this is it. Our diplomatic structures are crumbling, wasting away in a world that needs diplomacy more than ever. The Iran Nuclear Deal, Paris Climate Accords, Taliban Peace Talks, reopening of relations with Cuba all happened because of diplomacy, and it’s hard to argue that the world would be better off without any of these frameworks in place.
Foreign policy is only ever shades of grey.
Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes, once famously referred to the US’s foreign policy establishment as The Blob. An astute assessment that summed up why the US hasn’t had anything close to a discernible overarching theory of the foreign policy case for a while now. Instead, we seem to lurch from crisis to crisis. Unforeseen consequences abound, institutions are rife with competing agendas, and the infrastructure of it all seems to grow and grow every year with no clear goal. It’s all-consuming and destructive more often than not, leaving those devoted to doing more good in the world jaded and broken.
So, where does that leave us now? Ultimately, I agree with the prevailing assessment to a point. It is not only fair but crucial to skeptically assess America’s role in the world. Much of the results of our actions abroad tend to weigh us down more than uplift. From a purely transactional view, there is some sense in the US pulling back and letting everyone else figure out how to proceed on certain things by themselves. There’s no question that certain countries need tough love and that America has been far too trigger-happy in the past, but employing caution when it comes to our entanglements abroad can’t mean an abdication of our leadership role.
America is uniquely positioned, but whether we act as a force multiplier for good or chaos will depend on if we have the political will to redefine what it means to be an international leader. The old way of thinking was one of competitiveness. We have to be better than others. We have to show strength and continuously throw our weight around. That has failed. Instead, we need to be a leader that focuses exclusively on collaboration and cooperation. Foreign policy is long overdue for innovation, and what we should be turning to instead of isolationism is diplomacy. Equip are diplomats with the tools they need, and you’d be surprised at the preventative care that can be applied around the world. You’d be surprised at the burgeoning fires that can be put out just before they spiral out of control. Making our foreign policy about diplomacy and cooperation again is the only way for Biden, Blinken, and the rest of the incoming administration to course-correct after four years of Trump. | https://aninjusticemag.com/four-years-of-isolation-94547ce34929 | ['Robert Potter'] | 2020-12-09 02:57:25.029000+00:00 | ['State Department', 'Joe Biden', 'Donald Trump', 'Foreign Policy'] |
An MVC Approach to Flutter | An in-depth look at an MVC Project Template Sample App
This is a follow-up to the free article, Your Next Flutter Project, where I introduced a ‘Project Template’ you can use for your next Flutter project. It contains the foundation, the files, and the directories, that make up a Flutter app based on the MVC design pattern represented by the library package, mvc_application. You’re to take it and fill it up with your code for your next Flutter app. I hope to someday make such a template a ‘New Project’ option in IntelliJ and Android Studio, but that’s another story.
In this article, I wish to further demonstrate the suggested implementation using the Contacts sample app currently incorporated in one of the project templates. Download this zip file and start it up. You’ll be greeted with the Contacts app. It’s suggested you use your IDE’s debugger and ‘walk through the code’ to get a better understanding of how the MVC framework works and, what’s more, how the Flutter framework itself works.
I Like Screenshots. Click For Gists.
As always, I prefer using screenshots over gists to show concepts rather than just show code in my articles. I find them easier to work with, and easier to read. However, you can click/tap on them to see the code in a gist or in Github. Ironically, it’s better to read this article about mobile development on your computer than on your phone. Besides, we program on our computers; not on our phones. For now.
No Moving Pictures, No Social Media
There will be gif files in this article demonstrating aspects of the topic at hand. However, it’s said viewing such gif files is not possible when reading this article on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, etc. They may come out as static pictures or simply blank placeholder boxes. Please, be aware of this and maybe read this article on medium.com
Let’s begin.
Let’s Add Contacts
When you begin using this sample app, you’ll no doubt start entering Contacts. Let’s look ‘under the hood’ to see what happens when, after you’ve typed up a particular Contact, you then press the Save button. Now in the MVC design pattern, the View aspect here, in this case, is the build() function found in the _AddContactState object listed below on the left-hand side.
At a glance, you can see the ‘Save’ event is handled, and rightly so, by a Controller object called, con. The Navigator is then called to pop back to the previous screen. On the right-hand side is a screenshot of that onPressed() function. We see the function performs some validation routines before calling its own ‘add’ routine. After that, it calls its refresh() function. A lot is going on here. Further note, the name of the function mimics the API used by Flutter itself. In other words, the function is named after the named parameter, onPressed. We’ll talk more about that soon. | https://medium.com/follow-flutter/an-mvc-approach-to-flutter-f333d6288078 | ['Greg Perry'] | 2020-11-10 22:00:05.192000+00:00 | ['Programming', 'Flutter', 'Android App Development', 'Mobile App Development', 'iOS App Development'] |
The use of Narrative in the Crypto Space and The Secret Network | We are entering a new paradigm shift of capital allocation. There are more investors playing the game across the globe. These are not your traditional investors and it seems to be more of a narrative style of investing that’s been adopted in the space. So, the next opportunity in this space wont come from jumping on the flavor of the month, not looking at the tile everyone is already stepping on, instead, look at where the next tile will be. How do we find out where the next tile is going to be? By looking at the Narrative.
Why Narratives?
Stories are easy to remember. In this space, we use it as a type of heuristic, bypassing fundamental analysis such as financial reports, debts, earnings, EBIT, EBITA, EBITDA and all sorts of Ebits, not that these would apply anyway. Enter speculative assets. The crypto space is heavily driven by narrative, perhaps because of its immaturity according to Raoul Pal. So we look to narratives or stories. Stories are as old as language, it is the best way we understand the world. It helps us make connections to concepts or memories in our heads that are locally apart. Particularly in a very top-down big picture kind of way, this is why I think the Macro guys “get” bitcoin much more easily than others.
You will hear from certain people in this space that price drives adoption, but I think its obvious that the price in itself doesn't exclusively drive something or even majorly drive anything, it is just a fraction of the story. That’s why you can sell the rocks you pick up near the river, call it “Pet Rock” and make it a business. I think the price is driven by the narrative and the more that narrative is accepted by more people then it forms a feedback loop to the price. Since crypto has distanced itself from the traditional metrics of gauging fundamentals and the fact that traditional finance has not entrenched itself in influencing certain practices, A few ways investors are forming narratives is either looking at crypto as an Investment, as a Technology, or as the road to Self Recognition. I will focus more on how self recognition has played a major part on the crypto narrative, which I think is the biggest driver of this space.
Self Recognition
Lets explore why Self recognition is an important driver in the crypto space. Francis Fukuyama is the author of The End of History and The Last Man. In his book he discusses a concept introduced by Hegel: Man’s struggle for recognition.
“The struggle for recognition is the desire of man to be recognized, by projecting his internal values unto the world, but when these values are not recognized, naturally, man is angered and will fight to uphold them” — Fukuyama
A human being’s ability to exercise his freedom shows that history is a progression towards the ultimate manifestation of that nature, which is free in its out-most sense, and this is captured by liberal democracy. As this ideology can satisfy every man’s need to be recognized through the equal treatment and acknowledgement of his rights.
Fukuyama’s book is titled The End of History is because it proposes that a particular economic or social system would be subservient eventually to mans ideal and final form of government. Thus, we are at the end of history, which means that the dominant form of government we have today is a reflection of our battle for self recognition as individuals with certain values. This seems to me is the same thing that led us to the Crypto revolution.
The Secret Network
With Secret Network, it has always been the same privacy narrative since Bitcoin, but when most people realized bitcoin transactions are pseudonymous instead of anonymous yet the price kept going up, we dusted it under the carpet, this problem was forgotten, or perhaps we hope someone will solve it at some point in the future, and that it could wait. This is what Secret Network is focusing on, but its doing much more than that, it is bringing privacy to secret contracts, in other words — programmable privacy.
The hype, the flashing lights, the euphoria, those are all nice, but when this space eventually wakes up the morning after its drunken night, it will have to face the real issues, and we will come back to whats really important, which is solving actual real problems of the blockchain, and the Team at Secret Network is trying to solve as much of it as they can.
Privacy or No Privacy?
Already we have seen government push-backs against monetary obfuscation, but the same government will stand with the people when a social media giant leaks your personal information. It is this strange cognitive dissonance that needs to be reconciled in peoples minds. I have no doubt we will get there, and if our privacy is of any importance to us as individuals who strive for self recognition, then according to Fukuyama, this being expressed in our social or economic infrastructures is inevitable.
The road to Privacy wont always be the easiest path, but that makes it the most important one.
To learn more about Secret Network and what’s been going on, head over to the official website https://scrt.network/ | https://medium.com/@deck02/the-use-of-narrative-in-the-crypto-space-and-secret-network-ed8ac369b5ee | [] | 2020-12-26 11:08:48.052000+00:00 | ['Secret Network', 'Altcoin', 'Investment', 'Crytocurrency', 'Narrative'] |
i believe Allah will judge me based on how i respond to suffering | i believe Allah will judge me based on how i respond to suffering Amelia Noor-Oshiro Mar 25·5 min read
this is my buddhist/muslim inspired trauma training at work
its no secret that i have a very hard time trusting men. but i think even i was ignorant of the extent to which this ran. and it ran deep. ohh, so, so deep.
.
i met my first trauma-informed therapist on some date in february 2019 i believe. the 22nd i believe., but im not sure. his name was mohammad and thats what i called him. i called him exactly like how its spelled, mo-ham-mad. like how white people say it. that definitely helped set him apart in my mind from what i knew was going to be inevitable mindfuckery (this is one of the rare instances where i apologize for the brash nature of my cursing, so be forewarned, cuz where there’s trauma talk, there’s potty mouth with me).
..and this minfuckery looked like this: he’s a short-statured, light skinned, santa claus look alike, which i’ve actually said to him a couple times and it was met with a sardonic chuckle. he’s astute behind his rimless crystal clear rectangular eye lensframes. his beard was literally never a hair out of place. it was as if he earned the “immaculate” badge whenever he stepped foot outside every morning. he always wore a suit, very crisply sat on in his traditional furniture second hand chair in his office which itself was a jungle of recluse beyond my wildest dreams. i do believe every therapist office should like like his in some version, because there were literally plants breathing around me and i’ve even had long dreams where i’m still sitting in his office, weeping my heart out, crying each breath along with my plant friends around me.
so, mohammad is a persian, a very proud one at that, and quite revealed to be a narcissist, but that doesn’t make him a bad human being. it just means that there is still some self awareness that he needs to work through. and because he had not yet worked through his own, i found it hard to work through it myself, so in the end, i parted ways with him when i realized there just wasn’t any growth left there anymore.
—
what makes trauma informed therapy such a bright idea is its inherent nature to change the way we treat trauma, to treat illness, to pathologize human emotion, and, of course, to continue the legacy of the surival of modern society.
trauma informed therapists, then, are essentially the factory workers in the line of command chaining from the prophetic wisdoms of great people like Buddha and our beloved Prophet, the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad. OH-yeah — a side note, i believe each of those leading popular prophetic figures were messengers of God and taught the holy message of tawhid early on.
—
i tried falling asleep tonight and i couldn't, because i could only get one thought in my head. what if we made social change profitable? what if we could actually “capitalize” on making people better human beings? why, we would disrupt the entire industry by creating an earth-shattering new category, and even more, beat capitalism at its own game. what if we could economically out-do capitalism? what if? wouldn’t that create a massive wave, no — a shocking torpedo tsunami of a change in revolutionizing the world, the way modern society, the way human nature “works”???!!!
!!!!
!!!!
!!!!
are you with me yet?
…
mohammad celebrates christmas but always looked so uncomfortable wishing me a happy eid. i guess that would describe the kind of “muslim” he was — if we’re using antiquated terminology, we would say he “culturally identifies” but not spiritually or otherwise. maybe i am speaking on his behalf, but i place my bets that he wouldn’t protest on those definitions.
being buddhist and practicing buddhist principles did quite change his life. i know it, because i saw his heart.
yeah, i saw his heart.
i don’t think you’ve ever done this in your life, but if you have, you must email me a paragraph on your experience doing it (you can reach me at [email protected]).
here’s the thing: when i first sat across him for the very first time, our very first therapist session, i had my foot postured firmly to the floor, my body very congruent to all its right angles, sitting upright, with my hands folded into my thighs and sort of energetically slumped into his attention, as if, waiting for him to speak magic into existence.
but, he didn’t.
he sat there, and being true to himself, literally just stared me straight in the eyes, straight into my soul, for… i kid you not … at least 3 minutes.
i mean, i don’t even think i’ve truly stared at a pimple on my face for 3 minutes. HA!! that’s saying something.
so yeah, it was long.
and it was IN-
TENSE.
lemme, tell, you. lemme tell ya.
—
whatever insight was there the first day stayed with me for the following 49–53 sessions. it piqued my curiosity certainly. anyways, why do i share this?
because the fundamental connection between buddhism and islam and all other faith traditions is how to heal ourselves from trauma, from trauma of any kind. how to liberate our self-serving notions and live as a collective, breathe as a collective, and acknowledge that we have the power to create an egalitarian just society without the oppressive power structures in place that make us act on our greed, that tempt our nafs, that capitalize on our shaytanic inclinations.
—
yes, i believe Buddha was a prophet. i believe he delivered a message. and just like Muhammad, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the message of submission to God, the one and only, required a dedicated discipline for the wise guidance provided only through what can be understood as a divine source.
that there are so many rituals to cleanse us of our sins is our way of coping with trauma, of healing spiritual wounds that occur because we’ve destroyed a part of human society by continuing to engage in colonizing practices, by continuing to engage our lower selves, not call unto a higher self, a higher spirit, a state of being. instead, we get lost in indulging our acts of betrayal with even more self-sabotage than we give to the people around us.
and that’s not fair. because if we are to be strong as a collective, we must be strong as individuals. and i think ultimately when i wonder about how Allah swt will evaluate me: how did i chose to worship him while on earth? the path i chose is to commit to changing, truly, fundamentally, radically, changing this earth and the world and societies lived in, hosted by, and cross connected to our lives. and how does that happen? | https://medium.com/@anooroshiro/i-believe-allah-will-judge-me-based-on-how-i-respond-to-suffering-71b94522359f | ['Amelia Noor-Oshiro'] | 2021-03-25 06:23:40.853000+00:00 | ['Spirituality', 'Capitalism', 'Trauma', 'Muslim', 'Islam'] |
Story Retouch | When the world order has begun to break down. Then they “Asassin” which will combat crime 🦸♂️.
.
In this mortal world, many humans are greedy and stupid. By using his authority. They make chaos in the public community 💰📉💔.
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“Intelligence is a fortune. However, it requires a balancing force called wisdom.”💃. | https://medium.com/@balgozy31/story-retouch-c6df264196d2 | ['Muhammad Thorriq Ridho Bey Alghozy'] | 2020-12-20 17:48:41.598000+00:00 | ['Photoshop', 'Editing', 'Retouching', 'Photographer', 'Photography'] |
For a Critique of Vulgar Reason. | “Il messaggero non is important” Stigmata, 1999.
So, I believe that in order to understand the consequences of the greatest structural crisis in the history of mankind, and its multidimensional manifestations in the real world, an original, objective and engaged response from both the humanities and political activists will be needed. This task necessarily involves understanding the symbolic and relative nature of social and materialistic relations in history.
Although the use of knowledge generated by the human sciences for military or mental control purposes is not something new in the processes of domination of the dominant classes, its appropriation by the postmodern State Ideological Devices — PSIs (Althusser, 1970), which were enormously enhanced by the recent advances in information and communication technologies via cyber platforms, by the ubiquitous algorithms and popularization of smartphones.
As it was predicted in the Manifesto of the Communist Party (MARX, ENGELS, 1848), the State has always been (and will be) at the service of Consortia of Oligarchic Classes. Such (transnational) Consortia, in possession of state resources, have historically hacked social institutions to perform “surgical interventions” in multiple layers of the social fabric, to reframe the meanings of the real, social representations and social consciousness (with dramatic impacts on the psyche of individuals ) and thus guarantee the continuity, in time and space (in history) of its Class hegemony.
However, a critical look at the history of Capitalism reveals a constant instability and inability to sustain bourgeois values, ideologies and institutions in the face of Capital’s irremediable contradictions. The powerful forces liberated by the French Revolution (1789–1799), imbued of humanitarian and social justice ideals, have since then been transforming the world in an increasingly accelerated and frantic way far from those noble ideals, turning them into something else. We will return to that point later.
Jean Baudrillard in the book “The symbolic exchange and death” (1976), affirms that, in modern times, the relentless acceleration of time makes the necessary organizing character of the supporting narratives of bourgeois civilization unfeasible since, in the face of such an innovative frenzy, the symbolic field only subsists in the precarious form of the “simulacrum”: arbitrary and unrelated representations of the real. Thus, the ideologies, the original utopias, which propelled the bourgeois revolutions or even the socialist utopias, become self-simulations, artificial narratives originating in the centers of power that need to be replaced from time to time to feed the agendas and interests of the ruling classes and its discontents.
Thus, if in modernity the truth is the first victim of war, in postmodernity, meaning (representation, sign and meaning) took the place of truth. Our tragedy is that, in the current public debate, we insist on interpreting the real in the light of the simulacrum (precarious mediation of the real) without realizing that the simulacrum is par excellence an “epistemological obstacle (Bachelard 1938) to the knowledge of that same reality. We live, therefore, in the “post-truth” era: a situation in which, when it comes to creating and shaping public opinion, objective facts have less influence than appeals to personal emotions and beliefs. (wikipedia, 2020) Everyone and nobody else has the prerogative of the truth because it is no longer possible to locate it in the “real” since the parameters on which people are based to interpret the real are incessantly destroyed / reconstructed to make way for the future. Therefore the revolt against the system, it’s a revolt against the future (COSMOPOLIS, Cronenberg, 2012)
To use a recurring example of simulacrum, I call attention to the advent of “identity politics” understood as ideological devices, which have infected the entire social fabric. The identitarianism reconfigured by the AIEs gained strength in the late 90s through the hijacking (instrumentalization) of the libertarian agendas that emerged in the midst of countercultural movements and civil rights in the 60s (Feminism, anti-racism, LGBT, environmentalist etc.) and it is part of a “psyop” strategy (psychological operation, cultural war) with well-defined objectives: infusing hatred and divisions between people, movements and parties, so that no one can act more clearly and rationally, often to the detriment of their interests and thus prevent any movement of criticism of Capitalism’s class contradictions. (LEIRNER, FERREIRA, 2020)
The efficiency of psyop is demonstrated by the profound and uncritical assimilation of identity narratives, whether by the academy, intellectuals or social movements. However, because one is “unconscious” (or resistant to criticizing) such arbitrary “reality”, the social scientist or political activist due to his belief in outdated simulacra is vulnerable (to false consciousness) and, therefore, susceptible to believe that, (historical!) meaning attributed to the ideological construction of the bourgeois world, by the western bourgeois episteme (Cartesian, mechanistic, rational) established by the bourgeois institutional framework (Republicans, Democrats), by bourgeois values (Human Rights), by the conflict within bourgeois democracy (i.e left / right dichotomy) still have some substance or “sense” when in fact they were metamorphosed into simulacra. The cognitive dissonance results from the desperate search for meaning whether to “save the planet”, capitalism with a human face, socialism, fascism, anarcho-primitivism or any other narrative created by chaos engineers (EMPOLI, 2019) that is still relevant to sustain accumulation capital and keep the capital accumulation growth functioning at any cost.
Although it may seem contradictory to the thesis supported until now, criticism of devices like that is conditio sine qua non to overcome such predicament. It is essential to differentiate them from authentic and historic civil rights causes and relentlessly denounce them as cultural fraud. The role of the humanities is crucial in this process. Anyone who wants to overcome this condition must start from the recognition of these historical antecedents if one wants to make use of a transformative praxis, either for himself, in politics, in academia or in social life.
A final note on the mention of the film Stigmata at the beginning of this article. The author starts from the premise that the exercise of criticism in a society immersed in simulacra and unable to think objectively, although necessary, can be inglorious as the individual does not have the resources of the State (or of the Oligarchies) to influence an environment so contaminated by artificial narratives. Since narratives are easily absorbed by all social specters, any “dissident” is immediately stigmatized, including by their own peers in function of their political, sexual, economic agendas, etc. which are somewhat paradoxically engendered by the very immanent contradictions of the bourgeois social order. The dominant narratives (simulacra), seem to have an “ad hominen” built-in device (referring to an argument in which the opponent’s own words are used to challenge him) that acts in the psyche as a defense mechanism of the dominant narrative. Therefore, it is necessary to kill the messenger to hide his dissenting and / or challenging message.
Finally, humanity finds itself in an unprecedented civilizing impasse. Either continue to believe in the myths of infinite growth and it´s relentless mechanisms of creative destruction (SHUMPETER, 1942) of Capital, at the cost of an increasing state of structural chaos and social schizophrenia, or seek alternatives that are consistent with ancestral human needs and with the ecological systems that support the life of all living beings on the planet. As a first step, it is essential to combat the perception crisis (CAPRA, 2003) produced by Cultural War and its suicidal simulacra and adopt critical models that lead to a profound transformation in our perceptions, thoughts and values, that is, it requires a radical paradigm shift. | https://medium.com/@edsaints/for-a-critique-of-vulgar-reason-4e8daeb4bc50 | [] | 2020-10-25 15:29:21.107000+00:00 | ['Crisis', 'Capitalism', 'Ecology', 'Activism', 'Gender'] |
The Strange Double Nucleus of the Cocoon Galaxy | A galactic collision resulted in the creation of a strange pair of galaxies, and the larger one holds a second hidden core, a new finding reveals.
Roughly 30 million light years from Earth, the Cocoon Galaxy (also known as NGC 4490) is home to two galactic cores, a new study shows. Optical observations clearly show one core which has long been known to astronomers. However, a second core was recently found by astronomers using radio telescopes, hiding in clouds of gas and dust.
This pair of galaxies are the products of an ancient collision between a spiral galaxy and a barred spiral galaxy (the shape of the present-day Milky Way, but much smaller). The pair, drawn together by gravity, collided, triggering a period of active star building in each cluster of stars.
The galaxy NGC 4490, seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Red areas are regions of active star formation. Image credit: ESA/Hubble/NASA
“One nucleus is visible in the optical, while the other is only visible at infrared and radio wavelengths. We find the optical nucleus and the potential infrared visible nucleus have similar sizes, masses, and luminosities. Both are comparable in mass and luminosity to other nuclei found in interacting galaxy pairs and much more massive and luminous compared with typical non-nuclear star-forming complexes, researchers wrote in Astrophysical Journal.
This event radically altered the shape of NGC 4490 (the larger of the pair of galaxies), while leaving the smaller of the two with a semblance of its former spiral shape. This galactic pair is small — together possessing a total of just 20 percent as much mass as the Milky Way. | https://medium.com/the-cosmic-companion/the-strange-double-nucleus-of-the-cocoon-galaxy-3084645ccdca | ['James Maynard'] | 2020-02-07 23:11:09.029000+00:00 | ['Astronomy', 'Science', 'Astronomy News', 'Space', 'Physics'] |
Taking the Hype Out of Our Digital Future | Our interest in the future is increasing and it’s increasing rapidly. Everybody wants to know what a “near-future” world of artificial intelligence, robots and blockchain will look like.
Stories about “smart machines” and “singularity” (the moment when the capacities of an AI “super-intelligence” surpass are own) are always fascinating. The imagined future of sci-fi movies and TV shows has never seemed so close.
And yet, it remains a tricky task to make predictions about the future. Especially for someone, like me, who takes a (generally) positive view of technology-driven social change. Whenever I speak at conferences and other events about how the digital age is changing the way we live, work and learn, there are always people in the audience who are skeptical.
Some of these skeptics refer to “bad” stories about technology.
For instance, cryptocurrency fraud or the dangers of a super-intelligent AI. For them, the key issue is controlling technology now to avoid catastrophe tomorrow.
A second group of skeptics are those who think that all this talk about “how technology will change the world” is just hype.
They believe that nothing much will change (at least in the short- to medium-term) and that “future talk” is wasted energy. Better to focus on tackling today’s problems, rather than engage in idle speculation about an unknowable tomorrow.
I think it is important to listen to such skepticism, even if I don’t always agree.
And, recently, I have begun to think that everyone may be asking the wrong question.
While preparing for a talk about what our working lives will look like in 2030, I realized that instead of making predictions about the future, it might be smarter to ask: “What should we be doing now to prepare for the future?”.
We shouldn’t be asking “What will 2030 bring?”, but “What will bring us to 2030?”. “What must I do now to be better prepared for tomorrow?”
What must I do now to help design a better future?
Why Predicting the Future is Out
The development and adoption of new technologies is quicker than ever. We live in an age of the exponential growth of multiple technologies. I genuinely believe that the effects of new technology are very real and that ignoring or denying such change is naïve and, potentially, irresponsible.
Take automation. Automation doesn’t only have an impact on manual work. Knowledge workers are also being affected. Computers, software and algorithms are not only augmenting our knowledge and experience, but they’re also replacing more and more office jobs that involve standardized or procedural work.
The very pace of this change means that we have much less time to understand, get used to and adapt to new technologies.
But something else is also going on. We now live in a world where more and more technologies are simply “beyond” human understanding.
As such, we need to accept that the fast speed and uncertain direction of technology-driven social change makes “predicting” the future a difficult, even impossible, exercise.
Let’s put it this way: the task of predicting the future is probably best left to the world of fiction (novels, TV and film) where the accuracy of any prediction is much less important than the richness of the world that is portrayed. Orwell’s 1984, for instance, was — in many ways — a poor prediction of the future but it remains powerful and relevant even today.
“Futurists” should resist the temptation to “predict” where we will be in ten or twenty years’ time from now, even if we believe that the world will be radically different from today.
What Should We Be Focusing On?
What does seem clear is that the world is revolving more and more around technology and data. The winning companies of today already embrace these two ingredients, and it is clear that other companies need to follow suit. At least, this appears to be the smart thing to do.
In that sense, “technology” and “data” are transforming the way the economy works. We hear more and more about “new” economy models. Here are just some examples.
The Platform Economy
Digital technologies change the way businesses are organized. Instead of hierarchical and asset-heavy companies, we see more and more flatter companies with less assets and employees. Coordination of the assets and workers isn’t done by managers, but technology. This means that organizations can be become more open, more like communities or networks (think Airbnb).
The Sharing Economy
Digital technology enables the sharing of under-utilized assets and peer-to-peer transactions (think Uber).
The Circular Economy
Digital technologies encourage companies to move from selling “products” to offering “services”. The emphasis shifts from ownership to access to the service. This means that business models will change, and companies are forced to collaborate and partner more with parties outside their industries. A focus on services also means that there is more focus on “refurbishing”, “parts harvesting” and “recycling”.
So, How Can We “Act Now to Prepare for Tomorrow”?
So, what can be done? Too many times, people and organizations are adopting a “just talk (no action)” strategy. Here are three practical steps that I think everyone (and every organization) needs to take in order to act now to better prepare for tomorrow.
As a first step, preparing for tomorrow means identifying and understanding the core technologies, processes and values that are driving the new economy. By this I am not only thinking of artificial intelligence, robots, and blockchain (more generally, automation), it is also important to better understand “social media”, crowd behavior and data analytics. Studying the building blocks of our new world is a vital first step.
As a second step, all of us need to think about the new roles that are emerging and our own place in this new digital order. How are existing “jobs” already changing? What skills do we need to perform these new jobs? And how can I develop my own skill set in such a way as to make a meaningful contribution that adds value?
And, as a third step, we need to focus on developing our own personal story and projecting our own unique personal brand. As mentioned in numerous posts on Medium, storytelling has become a very important skill again. And it isn’t only about companies and organizations, it’s also about the individual.
In this way, we can shift our focus from making predictions about the future to designing a better future. | https://medium.com/personal-growth/taking-the-hype-out-of-our-digital-future-30db38675127 | ['Erik P.M. Vermeulen'] | 2018-03-18 14:06:56.174000+00:00 | ['Technology', 'Personal Development', 'Business', 'Innovation', 'Life'] |
Consensus 2018, the Blockchain summit of the year! | Today we want to remind you about one of the best worldwide event for the cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
We’re talking about the Consensus 2018, the blockchain technology summit that will feature more than 70 Countries and more than 4,000 attendees among professionals, start-ups, investors, financial institutions, enterprise tech leaders, academic and policy groups who are building the foundations of the blockchain and digital currency economy.
About Consensus
Consensus 2018, organised by Coindesk, will take place in New York between the 14th and 16th of May 2018.
The first interesting and positive data of this year is the increase in participants which recorded a 125% growth.
This important summit will not be just an opportunity to talk about important topics such as the state of blockchain, the new Icos Process, the use of blockchain in government etc (you can find the full agenda here) , but also to make New York the capital of the blockchain.
Expectations for the Consensus 2018
Last year Bitnovo attended the Consensus 2017 summit and it was a great experience not only for the interesting topics covered, but also for the positive effects that this event contributed to bring in the cryptocurrencies market.
Bitnovo at Consensus 2017 — May 22–24, New York Marriott Marquis
If we think about the positive feedback reached last year, just after the Consensus 2017, when the price of Bitcoin passed from 1,068 $ in April to 2,728 $ in May and the cryptocurrencies showed growth in the range between 10% and 70%, it is not difficult to predict how all the experts in the sector, as well as the whole crypto commuity , wish for a positive effect on the dynamics of the cryptocurrency market.
The co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors Tom Lee himself believes strongly that, by the end of the year, the price of bitcoin will reach $25,000.
We only need to wait, cross the fingers and… let’s see what happens ;) | https://medium.com/bitnovo/consensus-2018-the-blockchain-summit-of-the-year-842675af827 | ['Roberta Quintiliano'] | 2018-05-15 08:42:09.926000+00:00 | ['Coindesk', 'Bitcoin', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Consensus'] |
Winter’s Rest | The Womb is the keeper of the inner mysteries which in the old ways was seen as the living matrix of life, the dark portal, the void.
The old Celts practiced the Womb Mandala whereby the four seasons of a woman’s cycle from the Summer of ovulation to the Winter of menstruation, like the four cycles of the moon, were seen as synchronously rebirthing new life and generating personal truth in alignment with nature.
From Maiden, Mother, Enchantress to Crone — womb or not — all folks benefited from ‘Wombology’, honouring the natural ebb and flow of life.
Winter is a time to draw deeply from the dark fertile earth, to allow outworn parts of ourselves to be fully seen and fall away. What we shed creates new ground for visions to be planted and creative essence to grow.
And again I find myself embracing it this year….but not.
Resisting the drop, the long nights, the dreaming depths…
But something came through for me in October so very profoundly — the need to fully celebrate and accept the total earthy, ordinariness of life.
To ground deeply with the cyclical everyday and make my baseline strong.
And something I love doing in Winter is reading books about animals, plants, trees, all nature really.
So now I’m snuggling up and learning about owls!
Owls live the Winter’s mystery all year round, nocturnal creatures long misunderstood.
‘An owl is to the night as an eagle is to the day.’
To rest in this moment is a courageous act — all those pieces of ourselves we tend to keep behind the veil come to the fore to be seen and released. | https://medium.com/queen-s-children/winters-moon-d8459612971e | ['Kat Magik'] | 2021-01-01 21:09:43.145000+00:00 | ['Health', 'Feminism', 'Sacred Feminine', 'Inspiration', 'Winter'] |
How Blockchain Is Driving The New Energy Economy | How Blockchain Is Driving The New Energy Economy
Founders in Focus Episode #2
We’re pleased to bring you Episode #2 of our Founders in Focus series. A show that gives you unprecedented access to the most influential startup founders in the world of blockchain. We’re on a mission to educate and inform founders and investors on the current affairs of the blockchain industry, providing an accurate and up to date perspective on the competitive business environment, global investment landscape, and the leaders who are changing the game.
In this episode we sit down with Dr Jemma Green, co-founder and Chair of Power Ledger, a leading full stack energy blockchain technology company.
Tune in as we discuss: | https://medium.com/blockchain-review/how-blockchain-is-driving-the-new-energy-economy-with-jemma-green-power-ledger-64de0ac10611 | ['Julien Breteau'] | 2018-03-23 20:12:10.492000+00:00 | ['Blockchain', 'Bitcoin', 'Ethereum', 'Videos', 'Founders'] |
How to Build a Clean Redux Architecture With Redux-Observable and Typescript | Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Easily create completely typesafe actions with less boilerplate and completely typesafe Reducers.
To be honest I used to hate Redux but my perspective changed quickly as soon as I had to work with large complicated codebases. Redux is amazing for that and once you have experience with such, you’ll appreciate it. In this article, I’m going to show you how I setup redux with redux-observables (also works with other middlewares like redux-saga ) and typesafe-actions to be clean and scalable.
Folder structure
The folder structure is pretty straightforward. Inside my src folder, I’ve added several folders:
components
pages
utils reusable fetch function and localstorage function
reusable fetch function and localstorage function services with an http folder for my requests
with an http folder for my requests redux well for redux 😆, notice I’m using the ducks architecture
Basically, in ducks architecture, you have a separate folder per domain or feature containing actions, epics/sagas, reducers, and selectors files.
On the official documentation of Redux they strongly recommend Structure Files as Feature Folders or Ducks
they strongly recommend Structure Files as Feature Folders or Ducks
In this example, I will create a simple application where you can search for NBA players and sort by name. I’m receiving data from www.balldontlie.io API.
Git Repo
📁 test-app/
┣ 📁 public/
┣ 📁 src/
┃ ┣ 📁 components/
┃ ┣ 📁 pages/
┃ ┣ 📁 redux/
┃ ┃ ┣ 📁 player/
┃ ┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 actions.ts
┃ ┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 epics.ts
┃ ┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 reducers.ts
┃ ┃ ┃ ┗ 📄 selectors.ts
┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 rootAction.ts
┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 rootEpic.ts
┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 rootReducer.ts
┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 store.ts
┃ ┃ ┗ 📄 utils.ts
┃ ┣ 📁 services/
┃ ┃ ┗ 📁 http/
┃ ┃ ┗ 📄 nbaRequests.ts
┃ ┣ 📁 utils/
┃ ┃ ┣ 📄 fetchApi.ts
┃ ┃ ┗ 📄 localstorage.ts
┃ ┣ App.tsx
┃ ┣ 📄 index.tsx
┃ ┣ 📄 interfaces.ts
┃ ┣ 📄 react-app-env.d.ts
┣ 📄 package.json
┗ 📄 tsconfig.json
Actions Setup
We create a simple fetch player’s actions inside players. Players, in this case, is the domain/feature of this application.
import { createAction } from 'typesafe-actions';
import { FetchPlayersRequest, Player, PaginationMeta, ErrorResponse } from '../../interfaces';
export const getPlayers = createAction("GET_PLAYERS")<FetchPlayersRequest>();
export const getPlayersSuccess = createAction("GET_PLAYERS_SUCCESS")<{data: Player[]; meta: PaginationMeta}>();
export const getPlayersFailed = createAction("GET_PLAYERS_FAILED")<ErrorResponse>();
Notice how createAction from Typesafe-actions helps us to reduce types verbosity. So basically getPlayersSuccess returns an action with an object of dataPlayer and meta as payload. for example
const getName = createAction("GET_FULL_NAME")<{firstName: string; lastName: string}>();
getName({firstname: "Samuel", lastName: "Rafini"}); // {type: "GET_FULL_NAME", payload: {firstName: 'Samuel', lastName: 'Rafini'}}
In the root of the redux folder, we then add rootAction.ts file with the following, so we can join actions from other features/domains.
import * as playerActions from './player/actions';
export default {
player: playerActions,
};
Before going any further we can extend and add types of typesafe-actions like so
import { StateType, ActionType } from 'typesafe-actions';
/// <reference types="react-scripts" />
declare module 'typesafe-actions' {
export type Store = StateType<typeof import('./redux/store').default>;
export type RootState = StateType<typeof import('./redux/rootReducer').default>;
export type RootAction = ActionType<typeof import('./redux/rootAction').default>;
interface Types {
RootAction: RootAction;
}
}
Reducers Setup
the Reducer is also straightforward. for our player state, we create a PlayerState interface and an initial state, then we use createRudecer from Typesafe-actions which helps us write our reducers without the switch case statement.
import { createReducer } from 'typesafe-actions';
import { Player, PaginationMeta, ErrorResponse } from '../../interfaces';
export interface PlayerState {
players: Player[];
pagination: PaginationMeta;
loading: boolean;
error?: ErrorResponse;
}
const initState: PlayerState = {
players: [],
pagination: {
total_pages: 0,
current_page: 1,
next_page: 0,
per_page: 100,
total_count: 0,
},
loading: false,
error: undefined,
}
const playerReducer = createReducer<PlayerState>(initState, {
GET_PLAYERS: (state, _) => ({...state, loading: true}),
GET_PLAYERS_SUCCESS: (state, action) => ({...state, loading: false, players: action.payload.data, pagination: action.payload.meta}),
GET_PLAYERS_FAILED: (state, action) => ({...state, loading: false, error: action.payload}),
});
export default playerReducer;
Just like the actions we have a rootReducer file where we combine all our reducers
import { combineReducers } from 'redux';
import playerReducer from './player/reducers';
export default combineReducers({
player: playerReducer,
});
Middleware Setup (Redux-Observables)
I will not go in details on Redux-observables but its worth noticing the isActionOf function from typeSafe-actions filter(isActionOf(getPlayers))
import { combineEpics, Epic } from 'redux-observable';
import { filter, mergeMap, debounceTime } from 'rxjs/operators';
import { isActionOf, RootAction, RootState } from 'typesafe-actions';
import { getPlayers, getPlayersSuccess, getPlayersFailed } from './actions';
import { fetchPlayers, fetchSeasonAverages } from '../../services/http/nbaRequests';
import { Player, SeasonAverages } from '../../interfaces';
export const getPlayersEpic: Epic<RootAction, RootAction, RootState> = (action$, state$) => {
return action$.pipe(
debounceTime(500),
filter(isActionOf(getPlayers)),
mergeMap(async ({payload}) => {
const response = await fetchPlayers({search: payload.search, page: payload.page, perPage: payload.perPage});
if (response.data) {
const playersIds = response.data.map((player: Player) => player.id);
const playersAvg = await fetchSeasonAverages(playersIds);
const findAvg = (id: number) => playersAvg.data.find((item: SeasonAverages) => item.player_id === id);
const players: Player[] = response.data.map((player: Player) => ({...player, seasonAverage: findAvg(player.id)}))
return getPlayersSuccess({data: players, meta: response.meta})
}
return getPlayersFailed(response);
}),
)
};
export const playerEpics = combineEpics(
getPlayersEpic
);
Yep, you’ve guessed it! RootEpics! 😆
import { combineEpics } from 'redux-observable';
import { playerEpics } from './player/epics';
export default combineEpics(
playerEpics,
);
Store Setup
Last but not least you can set up the store as following nothing new actually.
import { createStore, applyMiddleware } from 'redux';
import { RootAction, RootState } from 'typesafe-actions';
import { createEpicMiddleware } from 'redux-observable';
import rootReducer from './rootReducer';
import rootEpic from './rootEpic';
import { composeEnhancers } from './utils';
import { loadState, saveState } from '../utils/localstorage';
export const epicMiddleware = createEpicMiddleware<
RootAction,
RootAction,
RootState
>();
const middlewares = [epicMiddleware];
const enhancer = composeEnhancers(applyMiddleware(...middlewares));
const initialState = loadState();
const store = createStore(rootReducer, initialState, enhancer);
store.subscribe(() => {
saveState(store.getState());
});
epicMiddleware.run(rootEpic);
export default store;
Alternative ways
If you still find setting up the store requires too much boilerplate or complicated you can use redux-toolkit which also is highly recommended in the official documentation of Redux.
It is intended to be the standard way to write Redux logic. I never used it myself yet, but will use it in my next project. | https://medium.com/@samuelrafini/how-to-build-a-clean-redux-architecture-with-redux-observable-and-typescript-c1133e0ae5a7 | ['Samuel Rafini'] | 2020-11-17 11:09:55.574000+00:00 | ['Typescript', 'Redux Observable', 'Frontend', 'Redux', 'React'] |
Online games for designers | How pixactly trained are your eyes?
Pixactly is an online pixel game that tests how well you know your pixels. Try out the quiz for yourself and test your… | https://medium.com/dsgnrs/online-games-for-designers-dee991c5166f | ['.Dsgnrs. Team'] | 2018-01-23 16:35:24.388000+00:00 | ['Designer', 'Colors', 'Games', 'Typography', 'Design'] |
How do cryptocurrencies gain value? | Limited supply
To illustrate these points, I’m going to take us back to 1998 when the first Pokemon cards were released.
As many can remember, buying Pokemon cards as a child was the adult equivalent of picking up a 6 pack of beer on the way home from work. Kids were constantly scrounging up money (myself included) to buy a new pack of cards.
But Why?
We were after the holographic cards. They were rare, and if you were lucky enough to find one in your pack, you’d be the ultimate hero amongst your friends for the next week.
People lusted after these rare, holographic cards because they were limited in supply.
As a result, the more rare the card was, the more value it held. Even though all the cards virtually cost the same to produce, the rare holographic ones could sell for 50x-100x the price of a standard card! This same logic can be applied to cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrencies by default have a fixed supply, meaning the more coins that get purchased, the rarer the coin becomes, and thus the value of the coin increases.
Parents on the other hand, had a very different outlook on these Pokemon cards. To them they were just pieces of card stock that had infiltrated their homes and kept their children occupied for hours on end. While a young Pokemon fan might spend even hundreds of dollars on a rare Pokemon card, parents likely wouldn’t buy a single one for themselves.
This leads to the next factor: A loyal following / community.
Loyal following / community
Successful cryptocurrencies often have a loyal following, with users fully invested in their reason for existence. They are likely buying into the cryptocurrency and cheering on the sidelines as it makes headway in the marketplace.
Parents of Pokemon fans did not have a personal (and thus financial) stake in the movement and Pokemon’s success. This aspect of community draws a fine line in the sand between a mere product or service, and the inertia a cryptocurrency might hold for its potential to influence products and services.
If you need to buy a USB drive, you might go to Best Buy and find a reasonably priced one that fits your needs. You aren’t purchasing a Kingston branded USB because you believe in Kingston as a company and the overall relevancy their USB’s will have in the next decade. You just need something to get the job done.
On the contrary, Pokemon fans created clubs and hosted events. They played after school. They watched the show, and discussed it amongst their friends. A strong, loyal following emerged with kids around the world that were invested in every next move.
A loyal following/community that believes in the existence of a certain crypto is arguably the primary driving force for long term sustainability — but what exactly rallies a community behind it’s existence?
Utility
Since we are still in the infant stages of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, we are just beginning to scratch the surface with it’s full potential. Even so, companies are being formed in efforts to integrate blockchain and crypto to enhance everyday lives. Some are focused on security, while others may be focused on enterprise usage, or frictionless worldwide micro-transactions. Some are also creating tokens which can be used as a form of currency specific to one application or use case.
Foresight of their full potential requires a fundamental understanding of blockchain, which may be better served in a later post. If you are new to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, just know there are massive use cases in virtually every industry worldwide, as well as many companies ready at the helm to tackle them.
It’s also important to note — just like some kids enjoyed Pokemon cards for the actual gameplay, there was also a subset of people just looking to collect the cards, and perhaps sell them when the value increased. Similarly, a cryptocurrencies community is likely comprised of a subset of users just playing the market, which leads us to our final point — Market speculation.
Market Speculation
As with the stock market, market speculation can have a heavy influence on the demand for a cryptocurrencies. Analyst predictions, official announcements, and rumors can induce trading behavior and cause shifts in demand and price. Market speculation likely played a large role in the volatility we saw in 2016–2017 in the crypto space, but hopefully will normalize in the future as the market matures and adoption rates increase.
To recap: Limited supply, a loyal following, the underlying utility, and market speculation can influence the price of cryptocurrencies.
Head over to Devslopes if you want to learn blockchain, code your own cryptocurrency and build decentralized apps!
Thanks to Brian Leip & Team Devslopes for contributing thoughts to this | https://medium.com/devslopes-blog/how-do-cryptocurrencies-gain-value-41aa6b5ba21b | ['Evan Leong'] | 2018-03-08 09:06:21.010000+00:00 | ['Crypto', 'Blockchain', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Ethereum', 'Bitcoin'] |
Absolutely do this. | Absolutely do this. Not only because is eases your reentry, but also because is helps you to closeout the current year and enjoy your time off. Even if your first couple of days will be going back to that unfinished project, your brain (okay, *my brain*) needs that feeling of closure to avoid that mental to-do list that usually makes Sunday evenings hell. | https://medium.com/@anne.dougherty/absolutely-do-this-bfbcfc9ae15d | ['Anne Dougherty'] | 2020-12-21 14:36:55.925000+00:00 | ['Project Management', 'Planning Ahead', 'Work Life Balance', 'Anxiety'] |
5 Decades, 1 Rosary, Endless Prayer | 5 Decades, 5 Mysteries, 7 Day a Week
The first thing every morning or the last thing every evening
I call onto my God and his mother, I call to the very person
Who we call our own mother
1 Rosary, 1 God, 1 Mother
My thoughts begin to clear and my mind is calm
Each utterance when I call out to you
In my anger, frustration, and anxiety
In my joy, peace, and smiles
You are there lifting me and guiding me always
Endless Prayer, Endless life, Endless love
You are my God, You are my mother
Your love unconditional, Your love pure
10 decades, 1 Rosary, Endless Prayer | https://medium.com/@annethanyamendis/5-decades-1-rosary-endless-prayer-f4b7183015ef | ['Anne Mendis'] | 2020-12-12 17:05:23.672000+00:00 | ['Rosary Beads', 'Mother Mary', 'God', 'Rosary', 'Catholic'] |
Tips to get a higher GPA in college | Hello folks! Below may be a helpful message for all the students out there. I listed 5 tips I’ve learned throughout college that helped me get a high GPA. I hope you also find these tips useful.
1—Know what goes into your grade.
How your grade is determined is likely different for every class. One class could have participation being a bigger part of your grade, another could be mostly based on exams. It’s important to know this for your classes so that you know what to focus your time on. The syllabus is the best way to know this. If a class doesn’t have a syllabus (happens sometimes), I’d ask the professor how the grade is given. I still remember taking organic chemistry my sophomore year and not knowing my final was worth 45% of my grade. I thought it was worth less (15%), so I didn’t study that much. With the exam score I got, I would’ve gotten with a A if it was worth 15%. But, I ended up with a B. That was a lesson learned.
2— Prioritize courses that are worth more credits
Getting an A for a four-credit course and a B for a one-credit course will lead to a higher GPA than vice-versa. If you’re taking courses that are worth different credits, focus on the courses with higher credits because they will be worth more of your GPA. To me, this mattered most when I had exams/projects for multiple classes that were all due within a week. For one reason or another, I didn’t have enough time to do well on all of them. I knew the outcome in this situation was do well on one exam/project and not so well on another. I had to decide which class would take a hit. The choice was always the class worth less credits. The situation here is “I screwed up, now what’s the best that can come from this?” The strategy here is to lighten the damage.
3 — Learn how YOU study.
There are so many ways to study — going to class, watching online videos, using the textbook, flashcards, etc. They’re not all going to work, so each student has to find the right style. If you already know how to best study, that’s awesome. I’d say keep using the same study strategies and maybe find new ways to make studying even easier or faster. If you don’t know what style is best for you, that’s fine! I’d say spend some time trying different methods and see what works best. This is most likely not happening overnight, so patience is key. I think it’d usually take at least a week to see if a study method is a good fit. Now how would you know if a study method is a good fit? I’d think about how quickly I’m taking in the material (relative to other methods). For example, some people retain barely anything from lectures but learn so much from doing flashcards. You might’ve also heard this from all the youtube videos out there — active recall is best. This means instead of reading off paper (textbooks, notes, etc), you’d try to recall the knowledge from your brain. This is the idea behind methods like flashcards. There is more mental effort to active recall, but it is an efficient study strategy. Once you find your style, studying will be easier and faster. You’ll be more productive and have more time for other things.
4— Plan the courses you will take, semesters beforehand.
Being proactive is great. I knew someone who planned all four years of college during her first semester. When it was time for her to register every semester, it was a stress-free and quick process because she already knew what she was taking. Registration usually happens towards the end of each semester — a busy time with upcoming exams/projects. She was able to register quickly, instead of worrying about what classes to take. Now this might be a little extreme, but the idea is to plan 1–3 semesters before. For myself, I remember taking biochemistry, organic chemistry, and physics in one semester so I could be ready to study for the MCAT. I had to squeeze all of these classes together when I could’ve taken some earlier. This was intense for me and my GPA suffered. Had I been proactive and planned semesters before, I would’ve taken these classes in different semesters, making my coursework more balanced.
5 — Talk to peers, upperclassmen and mentors
I think the best advice comes from those who’ve went through the same challenges you’re facing and learned how to overcome them. Reach out to students who’ve already taken the same classes and did well. I’d ask them what they did that made them successful and what mistakes to avoid. Professors can also be a great resource. They may have good advice on how students can do well in their classes. Another thing now that we’re talking about upperclassmen. Getting a high GPA is most definitely not the most important goal for professional success. Learning all of the skills that are important for the career you want to have after college is. I’d make sure to talk to upperclassmen who have similar professional goals and learn not only how to succeed academically, but also in other ways that would help for your career. For myself, I don’t think I would’ve gotten into med school without the valuable advice I received from my mentors. | https://medium.com/@pandango/tips-to-get-a-higher-gpa-in-college-7b5de65be2b0 | [] | 2020-12-26 19:47:09.911000+00:00 | ['Gpa', 'College', 'Studying', 'Tips'] |
A day in my life | 7:00 I open my eyes and a big furry creature is staring at me. I close my eyes again. The creature disappears.
8:00 I wake up again and search for my phone. The creature gets up, sits down in front of my bed, and stares at me. His name tag says ‘Bunny’. He might climb into my bed for a while, to pretend that he is interested in cuddling, but he really wants me to get out of bed. What follows is lots of yawning, touching, stretching, checking the windows, as we move together from the bedroom to the front door. For a few minutes, we look at the world, with Bunny between my legs. These are among the best minutes of the day. We talk about the sky and the weather and the dogs.
Then the first dog walk of the day. Most days it’s a quick round in the neighbourhood, our local beach, our road, our backcountry. One mile, perhaps more in the summer. Very quiet, few people out, but lots of smells. The only training we do is recall and loose leash, usually without a lot of success.
Ritual handwashing for me, ritual brushing for the dog. I make breakfast for us and we eat together. He finishes after ten seconds, I need ten minutes. I change into my working pants. They are just pants, I just think it’s important to wear them from time to time, to maintain a level of structure in my life.
At some point the old Aleks comes into the kitchen, makes himself coffee and disappears again towards the living room to start on emails. He doesn’t eat breakfast, ever.
9:00 I settle down in front of the laptop in the living room, Bunny somewhere else without a laptop. The next two or three hours I work, on the things that I have decided to work on. Sometimes I videotalk to people. Sometimes I videotalk to myself. Bunny checks on me every once in a while, which is always an attempt to lure me outside. His most successful strategy: sitting next to me, staring at me, while trying to give me his paw.
Old Aleks takes a shower, gets dressed, and drives to the university, maybe around 10 or 11. It’s a source of great stress for him. He has to focus on driving, listen to disturbing news on the radio, find a parking spot, and then make small talk with various people until he is back at his job. At that point he is inevitably hungry and exhausted. Upon arrival at work, a pile of tasks has accumulated on his desk, sometimes in form of an actual pile of things.
12:00 Lunch break, which means: Bunny and I go for our mid-day walk. It takes a while to get all our things together. This could be a trip down the coastal path, Caiplie and back, or the small Wormiston loop, or once around the village, perhaps three or four miles overall. We hope that most of the other dogs are indoors, except the ones that we like. We might encounter sheep, but nowadays Bunny is cool with sheep. The walk may include swimming (for me) or mouse chasing (for Bunny). It’s very exciting. And often a bit nerve wrecking.
I have a text from Old Aleks saying he can’t focus on what he was planning to do because there is constantly someone in his office. ‘Do you have a minute’, they keep asking him, and of course he has the minute that turns into half an hour. I tell him to work from home and schedule all meetings properly. On the other hand, he has a cafeteria and vending machines and grocery stores and can eat whatever he wants through the day without earning jealous looks from an ever-hungry dog.
13:00 We are back home, exhausted, but happy. Ritual handwashing for me, ritual toweling for the dog. Ritual eating of something we both like, a banana, an egg, something. We need to sit down and relax for a bit. When we are done with relaxing, I make ‘lunch’ for both of us, safely before Bunny decides to eat me instead. It’s not really lunch, it’s just food, whatever is available, a handful of something.
Old Aleks has managed to escape to the observatory. It seems he is not very productive there either, but he maintains the appearance of being at work, which is what matters most. I’m not really sure what his job is. Although it’s supposed to be the same as mine, he spends his time quite differently. For example, he works with actual telescopes, and sometimes he uses them to look at stars. I haven’t seen stars in a while. I miss them. When measured in hours, Old Aleks is also working a lot more than I do.
14:00 In principle I could work for another few hours, and often I have to. But the presence of multiple beds nearby may cause an interruption. Overall, the day loses structure and purpose and direction, but that’s fine, because you can only have so much purpose on a day. We try to play a bit, because games create structure. Oh man, I’ve become a morning person.
At some point Old Aleks comes home, perhaps goes for a swim, and then proceeds to make his dinner, the only real meal he is eating. He doesn’t really seem to eat a lot, but he is gaining weight. I on the other hand eat tons and lose weight. He might join us for our last walk and tell me about the university, the town, and the people. He always has a lot of interesting stories that I would miss without him.
18:00 The last walk of the day is mostly meant to explore and have fun, but not too much fun. Perhaps two miles of fun. It’s typically a round through and around the village, which is now again empty. We try to avoid other dogs. Bunny is very interested in the lobster cages at the harbour, the house of the butcher (who also has seven huskies), the local sheep, and the park, always the park. The tennis courts in the park have a high fence. Bunny gets off leash, we play and train, but he is not very patient. He wants to explore instead.
19:00 Coming back home. Ritual handwashing for me, ritual brushing for the dog. Realistically, brushing happens whenever Bunny is calm enough to stand still for a while. We eat something, one more time, an actual meal. Bunny and I eat different things, by the way, but at the same time. He gets fish and chicken based kibbles with some vegetables and extras, in a dark broth. Pretty good.
Old Aleks manages to get some work done in the evening. Sometimes I join him. He is still much more awake, presumably because he hasn’t walked seven miles at an insane pace. We have different rhythms, he and I, and different priorities. He is more a sea creature. He is more mobile. He is more interested in the rest of the world. I’m very keen on knowing everything about the patch of grass directly in front of me.
20:00 We wind down the day. I pay bills, play piano, order dog treats, and drink tea. My entire social life, on Zoom or Skype or Gather, happens in these short evenings as well. Bunny is often excessively nervous for a while. He chews on soft things, whines, paces around, until I sternly tell him to go to sleep, and then he does that. He varies his sleeping pattern a lot. He sleeps in the porch, in the hallway, next to me, far away from me. He has established around eight sleeping bases around the flat, one of them in my bed, where the day ultimately ends.
22:00. Around that time, the dog insists that we really go to bed. What this means is that we start our evening routine. One last time, Bunny and I open the door and stare out into the darkness, another good moment. I share a cookie with Bunny, which makes both of us happy, and go to bed. We eat different cookies, Bunny and I, of course. Again he tries to find a place to sleep, it is hard to predict where that will be. I sing a lullaby to him, in German. All night when I wake up, I wonder where he is and what he is doing. Mostly the answer is at my feet, asleep.
Old Aleks has the night for himself. From the browser history I know that he is spending a lot of time on youtube, on Netflix, and on NBA livestreams. He is planning future travels and trips, which is something he seems to be interested in. He will inevitably get hungry again and start eating again. He will stay awake because he has the feeling he doesn’t want to miss anything. There is so much going on in his life. He complains that there is white fluff everywhere.
(All times are plus minus one or two hours, because neither Bunny nor me nor Old Aleks are machines.) | https://medium.com/@dalcashdvinsky/a-day-in-my-life-cba163bdbbdd | ['Dalcash Dvinsky'] | 2021-03-12 23:37:01.550000+00:00 | ['Academia', 'Diary', 'Dogs', 'Routine'] |
Winning After Losing | “An entrepreneur is a man who knows he can fail, but he does not accept to fail before he actually fails, and when he fails he learns from his errors and moves on.”
~Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity~
When things were not going as planned, I used to panic and was busy with my own mind.
“Just remember that everything happens for a great reason. You must take a rest. Go and have the massage, I know that it always helps.”
That simple conversation with Silver has opened my mind.
When I feel tired or stuck with something, just stop and step back.
To this day, I win a lot in my life because of my failures.
I learned the lessons.
It made me a stronger person.
I’ve grown so much from it.
“Keep running; keep dreaming, keep alive the flame of hope; defeat and despair will not catch up with you”
~Bangambiki Habyarimana, Pearls Of Eternity~
Now when I look back, I can’t thank you enough for all those obstacles along my journey.
It has built my character as well as my career.
Come to think about it, the more something pushed me, the bigger I become.
It’s just like throwing gasoline into the fire.
The struggle is always real.
I’ve been there, and I am sure that another one will come again.
I found out that the biggest battle is always between me and myself.
How much I take things for granted, how much I am willing to see it with my open mind and grow out of it. | https://medium.com/@sylvia-silvers/winning-after-losing-210946d5c0b5 | ['Sylvia Silvers', 'Aka Sylvia Astuti Gunawan'] | 2020-12-11 13:27:01.180000+00:00 | ['Failure', 'Obstacles', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Challenge', 'Winning'] |
All The Pretty Colors | There are often stories that I always seem to go back to every once in awhile.
There are moments in time that seem to transcend and just will sometimes randomly pop up in your head and make you smile. So in 2004 I went to the Glastonbury festival in England and it was four days of you know I often struggle in telling the story because it was such a powerful experience for me being in an environment like that. But I still you know remember the whole weekend very vividly. There was an on hour stretch of that night that I like to remember.
So the last night of the festival I remember I was by myself just walking the grounds. Just watching things exploring different paths. There were about five or six different acts going on at at the same time. I stopped at the “Other Stage” to see Orbital. So I was way in the back during all set and it was possible and in their final shows. But I think they went on to do a few more. I just remember the sound of the lights and the and then the people. There was just this beautiful wave of people jumping up and down. There was this explosion of colors in the sky and it was it was a cold summer night. But I remember just standing mud up to my knees looking around at this moment. I knew at the time this was something special.
It’s often one of those times to where I you know. My mind is almost blank. I remember just really being in that moment. My mind was clear and I was free.
These are the moments that help me push through it. These are the moments that inspire me to create. I like to put all good memories in a little book so I can go back there. | https://medium.com/100-naked-words/all-the-pretty-colors-4c0ffa16bf58 | ['John Siwicki'] | 2017-02-13 12:02:00.481000+00:00 | ['Poetry', 'Life', '100 Naked Words'] |
How to show sidebar in SwiftUI for macOS | Starting from macOS 11, we can use List with SidebarListStyle inside NavigationView to declare master detail view. The SidebarListStyle makes list translucent. It automatically handles selection and marks selected row in list with accent color.
struct MainView: some View {
var body: some View {
NavigationView {
sidebar
ContentView()
}
} private var sidebar: some View {
List {
Group {
Text("Categories")
.foregroundColor(.gray)
ForEach(categories) { category in
NavigationLink(destination: ContentView(category: category)) {
Label(category.name, systemImage: "message")
}
}
} Divider()
NavigationLink(destination: SettingsView()) {
Label("Settings", systemImage: "gear")
}
}
.listStyle(SidebarListStyle())
}
}
To toggle side bar, we can use toggleSidebar selector since for now, sidebar is backed by NSSplitViewController
mainWindow.firstResponder?.tryToPerform(#selector(NSSplitViewController.toggleSidebar(_:)), with: nil)
We can specify tool bar items on either sidebar or content.
.toolbar{
//Toggle Sidebar Button
ToolbarItem(placement: .navigation){
Button(action: toggleSidebar) {
Image(systemName: "sidebar.left")
})
}
}
For tool bar to work, we must use App and embed views inside WindowGroup | https://medium.com/fantageek/how-to-show-sidebar-in-swiftui-for-macos-c3100f890c2a | ['Khoa Pham'] | 2020-12-17 05:31:25.890000+00:00 | ['Sidebar', 'Navigation', 'Swiftui', 'List', 'Mac'] |
Feng Shui: Finding Deeper Meanings in Connection to Nature | via Unsplash
Originating from China, feng shui is the ancient “art of placement” that helps individuals find balance with their surroundings. The basic goal of feng shui is to harmonize chi (also spelled qi) energy that is composed of the female (yin) and male (yang) principle, as the life source of all living matter. This energy flows through the world by wind (feng) and water (shui). When interrupted, it can bring problems in every area of your life. That’s why the main goal of feng shui is to attract chi energy into your space and ensure its constant flow, through your exterior and interior without natural or manmade obstacles.
A practitioner will try to attract the chi energy, by activating five elements (wood, earth, metal, fire, and water) in different areas of your home. To decipher which room needs which element, feng shui practitioners create bagua maps. There are two types of bagua maps — classical and western.
source: pinterest
Classical Bagua Map
Classical or traditional bauga map requires a special compass (named Luo Pan) for an accurate reading. After complex calculations that take into account the direction of the building, the day you moved in, renovations of space, etc. feng shui practitioner will create a bagua map of your home with sectors representing different family members, life areas, elements, colors, body parts and numbers.
Number 2, abdomen, pink, relationship sector, and element earth represent the mother, middle daughter is awarded with the element fire, color red, number 9, fame and eyes and heart, etc. By following the map you will be able to organize the space to avoid abdominal issues, improve mental clearness, romantic relationships and so on. Classical Chinese feng shui is highly personalized, and an arrangement that works for the youngest person in the family, might not work for another family member, which is why every room has to be adapted to the person inside.
source: Pinterest
Western Bagua map
Since times and family relationships have changed, modern readings of the bagua map (also known as Western or BTB), has replaced the complex calculations with a simple 3×3 square map. The Western bagua map brought another simplification. Instead of using the compass, the arrangement is made by laying out a square bagua map over the blueprint of your home. The three bottom squares represent knowledge, career, and helpful people, and travel. Wealth, fame, and relationships are located at the top. In the middle squares, the family is on the right, and creativity and children on the left. In the center, lays the ninth square that signifies health and vitality.
Every area of the map is controlled by one of 5 feng shui elements. For instance, water represents the career sector and wood controls family and wealth. Fire influences fame, while metal controls the areas of travel and helpful people as well as children and creativity area. By overlaying the map with the blueprint of your home, you will know in which area to activate the water, wood, fire, etc.
5 Elements of Feng Shui
Now that you know which area needs which element, it’s time to get down to decorating. Here’s how you can activate every one of the 5 elements in your living or working space.
METAL
Metal symbolizes intelligence and logic and has positive effects on people’s creativity and mood. Use metal furniture, bedroom metal frames, or decorative bowls to add this element to your space. If you want to make your home artsier, consider getting metal sculptures or statues. Just make sure they are well scaled and placed away from the walking paths in the house.
FIRE
The element of love, and romance fire, will bring the energy of the sun into your home. Having a fireplace will definitely activate the most passionate element of feng shui, but there are many other ways you can activate fire in your home. First, you can use candles to purify and calm the space. Second, you can evoke fire through color and experiment with red furniture, textiles, pillows, and bold red statement art pieces. Keep in mind that you should keep the fire elements moderate, as it is believed that too much fire can burn down the house.
EARTH
The earth element brings stability and peace. It will help you reduce the stress of everyday life. You can activate the earth element with rocks, crystals, and landscape imagery. Add rocks to your bowls or plant pots. Purchase crystal chandeliers, crystal lamps, or other light fixtures. You can also use terracotta, rugs made from natural fibers, or color your walls into warm sandy shades.
WOOD
Adding items that represent wood into your living space, will entice your health, vitality, and personal growth. It can be anything from wooden floors, wooden furniture to plants. House plants are very important in feng shui, as they symbolize vitality and freshness. Adding more plants to your home will radiate harmonious energy and bring joy. Place plants next to your computer to filter electromagnetic energy, or keep jasmine near the south-facing window to improve romantic relationships. Adding bamboo will help you stay flexible and open, to the uninterrupted flow of chi.
WATER
In feng shui water symbolizes wisdom, clarity, and wealth. Positioning a fountain near your entrance can help you attract chi energy and money into your life. If getting a fountain seems a bit excessive, you can always turn to mirrors and other reflective surfaces for the representation of the element. Mirrors are considered a remedy in feng shui, and if used right they can completely change the flow of energy. Color blue and black can also activate the water element, so picking furniture or painting walls in these colors should help. Black and white photographs or images of water can serve the same purpose.
Feng Shui Interior Design: Extra Tips
Apart from activating the energy of five elements, there are plenty of other tricks you can use to harmonize your space. For starters, you should unclutter your house to keep the chi flowing. That particularly goes for your entrance. Since it is believed that this is where the energy enters your home, it’s important to make the area inviting. Then make sure to remove obstacles from the pathways you often use in your house. Think about the paths you use on a daily basis, for example, the one from the bedroom to the bathroom or from the kitchen to the dining room. | https://medium.com/lotus-fruit/feng-shui-finding-deeper-meanings-in-connection-to-nature-faeb71095e9 | ['Art Acacia'] | 2020-11-21 22:39:39.525000+00:00 | ['Culture', 'Feng Shui', 'Philosophy', 'Chinese', 'Nature'] |
Bitcoin BTC Prediction Nov 17 — Dec 17, 2020 | The Surprising Course Ahead for Bitcoin
Dear All. Welcome to this Bitcoin BTC price prediction.
The Dasha sequence is Moon-Ketu-Mercury.
The time frame is from November 17th until December 17th, 2020.
The activity of traders will nurture Bitcoin.
The weekend prior to this time frame, on November 14th and 15th, the Sun enters Scorpio. Meanwhile, Venus enters Libra and therefore Saturn’s 10th Aspect, as Mercury transits the same degree point that caused an upward trend at the beginning of October.
Jupiter enters Capricorn on Thursday, November 19th, initiating the earth sgn conjunction with Saturn as well the trine to exalted Rahu in Taurus.
The price climb will strengthen further on Tuesday, November 24th when Mercury transits Bitcoin’s Lagna at the same time that the Moon transits Bitcoin’s natal Jupiter.
Further positive gains can occur on Monday, December 7th when Venus transits Bitcoin’s Lagna while the Moon transits Magha Nakshatra.
But, on Tuesday, December 15th something will happen, such as miners instigating a mass sell-off, as the Sun enters Sagittarius while Mercury joins Ketu in transit and the Moon transits Moola Nakshatra. A sustained price drop will commence. | https://medium.com/@shiningbullastrology/bitcoin-btc-prediction-nov-17-dec-17-2020-88e6bc5971e1 | ['Shining Bull Astrology'] | 2020-11-30 22:25:42.728000+00:00 | ['Astrology', 'Bitcoin', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Predictions', 'Financial Planning'] |
Email Marketing | What is Email Marketing?
Despite the fact that email marketing has-been over for a moment. It remains to drive important outcomes for tiny trade over the state.
As a substance of actuality, these earlier some years. Email-Marketing methods have an adult to be extra exhaustive. The trades aren’t any larger that specialize in decries and hype simply. What they rank recently area unit content that really methods to their clients, searching incorporation, and extra.
In the year 2023, it has been estimated by Statistica that there will be 4.3 billion those that can apply email. That means all yields $44 for every $1 they give on their email-marketing scheme on a little note.
Constant with the growth in features of many marketing stages like- social-media, email-marketing remainder 1 every of the most effective appearance that logo will apply to prosper in and collaborate with their target market.
Benefits Of Email-Marketing
1. Your clients monitor their email every single day-
How many periods does one end up hole up your email on your mobile device or pc? Whether or not it is work-relevant or individual, most people observe their email a minimum of once on a daily basis to check what new messages they have got. Especially, they notice their inbox 20 times in a daily case. And 68.9% of those recipients open promoting messages exploitation their mobile phones 2–3 days every week. This expresses that email promoting offers tiny trades the advantage of stepping in front of their clients on a daily basis. The simple proven fact that your clients notice their email every day is that the most notable benefit.
2.It will increase traffic to your website-
Email selling messages may also assist you to grow traffic to your website. You will be able to link to related website content inside your email message that asks readers to go back to your web-site to demand a nominated activity. If you actually wish to form your CTA extend, you will wish to use a multicolor clip. That builds it straightforward as potential for readers to demand to observe of your CTA. And create their approach past to your website. | https://medium.com/@riarodriquesdm/email-marketing-51aab5283ce | ['Ria Rodriques'] | 2020-12-28 07:07:00.160000+00:00 | ['Email Marketing', 'Email Marketing Tips', 'Email Marketing Lists', 'Digital Marketing', 'Digital Marketing Agency'] |
Humanising Remote UX Research — Part 2 | Having touched in the first part on how to collaborate with stakeholders remotely, recruiting remote testing participants, conducting an interview online, and how important building rapport is, this part will now go a little deeper into the following:
Meet-up with thought leaders
Downsides of conducting research remotely
Don’t call it user testing
Upsides of conducting research remotely
Have a thought out plan
Our settings and the participants’ environment
Encouraging thinking out loud and frustrations
Change it up
Shadowing research colleagues
The diary study
Meet-up with thought leaders
A screenshot of the meetup we hosted on MeetButter
After our initial research on how to build rapport in a remote research setting and how not to lose the human touch shifting online, we decided to conduct a diary study ourselves. We invited thought leaders in the field of UX Research to participate in an online workshop to dig even deeper into the pain points and the experts’ opinions on remote research.
The downsides of conducting research remotely
First and foremost, shifting online sets you apart physically. Instead of communicating face-to-face in 3D, there is now a metallic piece of tech in between the participant and you. So what impact does this have on your research?
Physical language gives us indirect information and is key to conduct research. Gestures give us a lot of hints about how someone feels and thinks whilst using a product. Observing, interviewing, or testing a product with the participant through a screen brings up various challenges:
Few physical language or gestures to observe
Non-spoken communication is assumptive (and has to be validated a lot more)
The engagement of participants might be unclear
People act differently if they know they are being recorded
The devices used by the participant cannot be chosen
The participant might act differently online than in person
3D cube is changing to the 2D cube; representing the shifting online
The conversation with the experts in the meet-up let us agree that remote research is demanding a lot more effort on validating the sure intuitions and instincts we can grasp whilst being in person. We see the participant through a camera, and cannot observe what is outside of the frame. We are tied to the 2D view of pixels that project the participant and their shared screen to us and rely even more on verbal interaction than ever.
Don’t call it user testing
As stated before, verbal information is so crucial when conducting user research. To build rapport successfully remotely, you have to consider your approach to communication and how it affects the participant.
There is a huge difference between conducting user research in person and online. Whilst being in person and giving the participant a device/product to test and brief them on how they can help us improve by giving feedback on the product, shifting online it might just be a link sent out, tested on the same device where the communication with the participant is happening meanwhile. That brings up some challenges for your remote research. People might feel like they are being tested themselves.
It is so crucial to brief the participant before starting to test that they are testing us — our products. Phrasing it as a great opportunity for us to collect the participants’ rich feedback takes out perceived pressure from the participants’ side of view regarding their performance.
Throughout a remote research session the participants may want you to help them, but as the participants are there to help you first, never ever make them feel like they are being tested. They are helping us!
The language we use or the way we phrase things can have a huge impact on the quality of our findings. To avoid making participants feel as though they are being tested we can simply address the activity as prototype testing or product testing. In doing so we implicitly direct the attention of participants towards the testing of our designs.
The upsides of conducting research remotely
Having stated all the downsides we unveiled throughout talking to thought leaders in the field, we now have some good news to share.
There is a silver lining to the shifting remote due to the pandemic — people are more receptive. Now the world is partially stuck at home and our leisure time is tied to our 4 walls. People are more available and willing to participate, so we agreed that the pandemic is good for B2B research.
Furthermore, there is an upside to the fact that the devices used by the participant cannot be chosen by us. People use their own devices in their own use case. And that is exactly what they will be using the products on in the future. This brings up huge opportunities in analysing the surrounding, the natural distractions, and the diverse use cases our product has to fit in. It helps us identify, clarify, and organise system requirements. We now can effortlessly combine user research with analysing the particular environment our products have to be tied to. We will touch on that in detail later on.
There is one more important upside to remote research. Safety. Remote research is Covid-19 safe and doesn’t make you go to places you might feel uncomfortable or unsafe. It saves you worries, time, and money.
So let’s continue with a detailed look at takeaways for improvement for remote research.
Have a thought out plan
It is true that going remote gives us flexibility in terms of time management, space, and participant reach. However, this also means that any additional time we save by not having to travel or meet with people in person is time we should spend on a plan that makes our sessions seem effortless to our participants.
Allocate sufficient time, budget, or material to make it as easy as possible for the users who help us design great experiences because in the end, it is all about them. When going remote, always consider that some technical difficulty may arise and we must be able to talk participants through it so they don’t become frustrated with the process. This can usually be prevented by having a quick call 10 minutes prior to the session to go over any doubts.
Our setting and the participants’ environment
In our previous article, we stated how important it is to have an adequate setting. The appearance is not only how we speak but also the background and the amount of space we leave between the screen and our bodies. If we get all of this right we improve the chance of establishing our trustworthiness but there is more to it. What is happening on the other side of the screen and how important is it to understand the context of our participants?
There is a lot going on in the life of our participants and most of the time we only get a glimpse of their behaviours or attitudes. Even though remote sessions present the challenge of being apart, there are many ways to overcome this obstacle and some experts agree that it might be even better for understanding users in their surroundings. First of all, participants get to use their own tech in a setting of their own choice which means it is closer to real-life than a controlled environment of our choosing.
However, we are constrained to the pixels projected by the screen as there is only so much of the user’s context that can fit into our displays. In our latest conversation with local thought leaders, the idea of asking participants to use the camera on their phones to send a picture of their set at a specific time of the day was well received. We can make use of technology or even a drawing of a mental map of their home to gather more information about their space and the type of distractions that person might have around them to make better design decisions.
Encouraging thinking out loud and frustrations
As moderators and facilitators of UX Research one of our goals is to capture our participants’ natural behaviours and feelings towards our ideas and to do so we must first help them get to a state of mind where they feel at ease. When we successfully have them in this state of mind it is more likely that thinking out loud will occur. Here are some of the benefits that this technique can bring to the table:
It improves participants engagement with the activity
Allows venting about the product to understand frustrations
Normalises awkward silence and considers it to be a window of opportunity to better understand discoverability issues.
Having a clear communication plan that allows people to feel comfortable saying what they think while they perform a task is essential for our work. We should always be encouraging participants to think out loud and this is again accomplished by proper language use. For example, we can set the scene by telling interviewees and testers that we expect for some things to go wrong, that it is completely normal for them to feel frustrated at a given moment and that our work (and the experience of more people like them) can greatly benefit from their honest reactions.
Even though we want participants to think out loud, we should also embrace the power of silence. At first, you may feel the need to help participants achieve a task or jump in and fill the awkward silence but you must stay strong as many times this is when we can grasp a users’ true frustrations or even an insightful aha moment. According to our expert panel practice is everything. The next time you find yourself in this awkward moment try:
Counting to 55 before saying something
Think about the silence as a helpful indicator of aha moments
Trust that the participant will speak up if something is not clear
Change it up
Another interesting approach that came up in our meet up was making the most of the time. We are used to conducting “single piece” interviews or testing sessions when we can in fact design a workflow that allows for multiple interactions with participants spanning over a period of several weeks. Stripe partners shared an article on designing remote ethnography in which they also posit the benefits of diversifying interactions with users. They propose that multiple touchpoints with participants, in a variety of formats, can paint a more complete picture of their behaviours and attitudes because they are not restricted by a single moment.
An example of a remote research journey can include 3–5 sessions and this is where we can play with time. We should aim to make these interactions be easily digestible, meaning that some sessions can be quick like the initial ice breaker and others can be lengthier like a virtual shadowing to observe participants performing a task. We can also send pre-task exercises to later have a conversation about them.
Having a variety of exercises or activities will not only improve the likelihood of capturing different perspectives but it will also help with participant engagement.
Shadowing research colleagues
The technique of shadowing someone to observe their behaviours and approaches on something is widely implemented in user research. The idea is simple, the researcher accompanies a participant and observes how they use something within their natural environment.
Other than observing participants, we now want to embrace a different kind of shadowing; You as a UX researcher can learn and pick up on rich insights if you ask an expert in the field to shadow them whilst conducting remote research. In our meet-up, Kristine Kalnina (an expert in UX research) mentioned how you can boost your skills as a remote researcher. You can help your colleagues in their projects by participating as an interviewee or tester and learn best practices from them to apply in your projects. The more you participate in research activities the better you will become.
The diary study
Having talked to colleagues and friends in the sector researching for our first part of this series, we quickly understood that there are lots of different use cases to share, different experiences to have a look at, and a need for talking about common experiences and pain points. So we decided on facilitating a natural conversation among experts in UX research.
We were looking for the contextual understanding of experts in remote research to follow up on different experiences and use cases we gathered in order to fully understand the challenges and the frameworks of humanising remote research.
This meet-up let us discover the rich insights we stated earlier in this article regarding the techniques to follow on remote research. But it also was a case study itself.
How can we ensure facilitating a successful workshop whilst hosting it online?
Facilitating meet-ups and moderating the conversations among experts remotely is a whole sector we haven’t touched on yet.
What didn’t work so well
Even though 24 people signed up, just 7 showed up (spread the event even more)
Introverts and extroverts have an even bigger gap online (while some people are unmuting continuously to give their rich feedback, some might have the camera off, stay in the background, and just observe)
The battle of who is to unmute first (there has to be a structured plan on how you order each person’s verbal input, as there is no technical support on who is to speak first)
A variety of communication options makes it harder to be across all the messages quickly (unmuting and speaking, texting in the chat, reacting to a statement with an emoji,…)
Reasonable internet bandwidth is needed and due to audio optimisation for speech, the ‘natural sound’ almost vanishes
What we think worked well
It was crucial for us to have everything planned out. Most importantly after having run a pilot session, we agreed on fixed roles we will have in the meet-up. And we can truly recommend having 2 people hosting a remote meet-up. So let’s have a look at the roles:
The Facilitator: Makes sure the link is working, that everyone can access the Miro board, that everything is sticking to the timed agenda, is sharing the screen whilst the quiz is being played or collaborative tasks are being done, answers all questions regarding tech-issues & also participates in the conversation.
The Moderator: Introduces and does the Icebreakers, asks follow-up questions, explains tasks, and is the main communicator in the meet-up, moderates through the whole session.
Conclusion: We are remote UX research fans
2D cube is changing to the 3D cube; representing that we are able to humanise UX research
We believe that it is possible to humanise remote UX research. Of course, it will never be as humane as research in person, but with the right tools and techniques, you are able to rock it!
The secret ingredient for us is: Talk about your experiences. The UX community is truly open to communication and collaboration and with a continuous conversation among experts in the field, we bring all our forces together and embrace the technological transformation. We UX designers can bring the 3D feelings to remote research, the human touch to the pixels in the screen, and the empathy for everyone recently shifting online. Thanks to all the rich insights from the participating experts in the meet-up!
Sources: | https://medium.com/@m-safinu/humanising-remote-ux-research-part-2-24286b60b6df | ['Mohamad Safi'] | 2020-12-23 18:06:52.442000+00:00 | ['UX Research', 'UX Design', 'User Experience', 'UX', 'Remote Research'] |
Haftanın Patent Raporu #40 | Patent Effect supports technology-driven companies and research institutes to unleash the power of patents for creating an impact on their innovation journey.
Follow | https://medium.com/patenteffect/haftan%C4%B1n-patent-raporu-40-3be3e691614a | ['Patent Effect'] | 2020-12-21 08:10:42.845000+00:00 | ['Girişimcilik', 'Yatırım', 'Teknoloji', 'Türkçe', 'Patentraporu'] |
Visual Trends on Instagram | New year, new feed?
2021 is already on the doorstep, but first we should say goodbye to the current year. Let’s review what was the cool stuff on IG in the last twelve months!
Visual Trends on Instagram 2020 / 2021
In 2020 Carousel posts got increasingly popular, even combined with videos. We could also notice a spread of structured feeds. Besides the more well-known Row by Row Layout, other setups like Vertical Lines Feed, Diagonal Grid and Rainbow Feed gained ground. However, the biggest in 2020 was the Puzzle Layout, which brought even more success to those who managed to make the single posts look cool and stylish without having to post the 3-piece lines together.
All kinds of motion picture content were big as well in 2020, probably due to their pretty high reach. Instagram Lives were in the mainstream — as half of the globe was spending most of the time at home because of the pandemic, after a while many of us got kind of bored and started creating content to entertain ourselves and our followers as well.
But what should we expect for the next year? How will we keep our audience engaged and entertained? What are the visual trends for 2021?
There’s a high chance that videos and Carousel posts will remain on top and become even more popular. If this is right, then the need for something different will arise soon, as with more and more users creating these kinds of content it will be more and more difficult to catch the audience’s attention. What do you predict to emerge from this challenge? I say animated posts are definitely an option to create difference — they might even take the place of Carousels.
Looking at a few social media marketing experts’ forecasts, motion picture content trends are everywhere, from IG Stories being in the center of influencer marketing through the rise of Reels to GIFs becoming even more popular.
Do you have any thoughts on what to expect next year? Do you think animated content will become more prominent? I’d love to see your opinion in the comments! | https://medium.com/@dsgnhorf/visual-trends-on-instagram-7aed45e02096 | ['Ferenc Horváth'] | 2020-12-16 16:30:15.291000+00:00 | ['Instagram', 'Marketing', 'Visual Design', 'Motion Design', 'Social Media'] |
Restorative Justice in the Workplace | Restorative Justice in the Workplace
Mashaun Hendricks presents at our 99th Public Newsroom. (Photo: Harry Backlund)
On March 14, we hosted our 99th Public Newsroom with staff at Local Legends Films, a video production company, and Mashaun Hendricks, a restorative justice practitioner who helped them integrate RJ practices into their workplace.
Restorative justice has a lot of buzz lately, but who in Chicago is practicing it?
In the past, we have hosted Public Newsrooms (1, 2) on restorative justice in a legal context. In 2017, City Bureau reporters followed the Restorative Justice Community Court in North Lawndale, which opened July of the same year. There, young adults accused of non-violent crimes can opt into a process where they, their victims, members of the community and court staff sit in peace circles to develop a repair-of-harm agreement. The approach is meant to center community accountability as opposed to punishment.
Restorative justice is also at work in classrooms, sometimes led by nonprofits who offer to facilitate programming, like Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) or Umoja, and sometimes by students. The Peace Warriors, a student group at North Lawndale College Prep, run peace circles to mediate conflicts between their peers and support classmates who have lost loved ones to gun violence.
When she started Local Legends Films, founder Jayme Joyce employed seasoned professionals and apprentice employees. Early on, she knew she wanted to foster a working culture that was based on a restorative justice framework. With Hendricks’ guidance, they have brought in RJ practices and now sit in a peace circle every Wednesday.
(Photo: Eliza Lambert, Local Legends Films)
“We’ve been spending the time getting acquainted, building relationships and discussing our values and commitments; the first three steps of the peace circle process,” said Christine Fugate, director of operations. She explained that when conflict does arise, it’s typically resolved in a “mini circle,” where the two staff members in disagreement work with the help of a mediator to come to a resolution. “After we hold these mini circles, grievances have been aired and cleared and everyone feels lighter, even the rest of the team who has sensed the tension between the two members,” said Fugate.
At the Public Newsroom, Hendricks took the time to make sure attendees had a foundational understanding of restorative justice. He explained restorative justice is not just a process to address and remedy wrongdoing, but a philosophy that prioritizes relationship-building. Unlike a typical punitive model, where the threat of punishment deters people from breaking rules, a restorative justice model asks participants to consider their accountability to one another.
Hendricks and Local Legends staff emphasized the importance of taking things slowly. “A big part of RJ is shedding the Western pace of tactics, productivity and process and adopting a much slower healing pace of building relationship,” Joyce said. “I only hope that more organizations will see the value in this and be willing to pay the price and investment of time, energy, active contribution to fully adopting this culture.”
We ended the evening with an activity about how to incorporate restorative justice into our work. See the prompt in the tweet below.
If you’re interested in learning more about restorative justice, you can sign up for a workshop with Hendricks in the upcoming months. In the meantime, to get a sense for the basics of restorative justice, listen to our audio recording below.
Support City Bureau’s free programming like the Public Newsroom by becoming a City Bureau Press Club member today. | https://medium.com/city-bureau/restorative-justice-in-the-workplace-b87ab6cf6047 | ['Ellie Mejía'] | 2019-04-01 17:37:42.571000+00:00 | ['Workplace Culture', 'Restorative Justice', 'Public Newsroom', 'Chicago'] |
The Fairy Tale Guide to Licensing | The Fairy Tale Guide to Licensing
Stephanie Hsieh, began her career as an IP attorney helping a wide range of clients to find and negotiate their ‘happily ever afters,’ and now does the same for her company, Meditope. In this article, she shares some tips on how to avoid getting eaten by a wolf or stuck with a frog.
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Licensing intellectual property can provide core revenue to your business. Everyone dreams of the fairytale deal … the brand name “Prince Charming” to fund your “happily ever after”! However, to truly maximize your IP’s value, it’s important to view any partnership as a long-term relationship. Don’t underestimate the challenges of finding the right partners and structuring a healthy marriage … I mean deal!
“Prince Charming” doesn’t grow on trees! Have patience when searching for ‘eligible’ partners. Beyond brand names and deep pockets, make sure you’re truly compatible: Do they understand your business? Do they have the experience and reputation to help you advance? Do they share the same values? Is there mutuality? Diving in too quickly without really knowing your partner, at best, will waste time and, at worst, cause irreparable damage to your business. It’s easy (I know, I’ve done it!) to be lured by a sexy upfront payment, especially when you need the cash. Many times, my ‘Prince Charming’ ended up being a wolf in disguise. Thinking they could distract me with upfront cash, partners have made overreaching “land grabs” for IP; sometimes claiming ownership of all future IP or demanding exclusive rights — rights that I might need in the future or that other partners might want … and give more value for. Don’t forget, you need to be their “Prince Charming” too! Otherwise, every discussion and interaction will be unbalanced and haunt you “from this day forward”!
Have patience when searching for ‘eligible’ partners. Beyond brand names and deep pockets, make sure you’re truly compatible: Do they understand your business? Do they have the experience and reputation to help you advance? Do they share the same values? Is there mutuality? Diving in too quickly without really knowing your partner, at best, will waste time and, at worst, cause irreparable damage to your business. It’s easy (I know, I’ve done it!) to be lured by a sexy upfront payment, especially when you need the cash. Many times, my ‘Prince Charming’ ended up being a wolf in disguise. Thinking they could distract me with upfront cash, partners have made overreaching “land grabs” for IP; sometimes claiming ownership of all future IP or demanding exclusive rights — rights that I might need in the future or that other partners might want … and give more value for. Don’t forget, you need to be their “Prince Charming” too! Otherwise, every discussion and interaction will be unbalanced and haunt you “from this day forward”! “Happily ever after” takes careful thought and planning. Both sides need a shared vision of ‘happily ever after’. Define it and agree to a plan for getting the deal done at the outset. Know your ultimate goal, understand your limits, but also know theirs: Are your goals, objectives and timelines aligned and complementary? Quickly assess whether you both share how the deal will get done and implemented: What is the decision-making process for you? For them? Identify the decision-makers and ensure they’re engaged in the project. Map out and agree to a timeline, including diligence, negotiations and execution of the definitive agreement. Be realistic and transparent with each other: Are there competing priorities that might interfere? Sufficient bandwidth? Tight timelines? Budget identified and secured? Don’t be afraid to ask what they see as obstacles to executing a deal. Beware of ever-shifting plans. I’ve been strung along by shifting plans — it’s a red flag for sure! Don’t be afraid to walk away. The sooner you know there’s no deal, the more time you’ll have to find the real Prince Charming.
Both sides need a shared vision of ‘happily ever after’. Define it and agree to a plan for getting the deal done at the outset. Know your ultimate goal, understand your limits, but also know theirs: Are your goals, objectives and timelines aligned and complementary? Quickly assess whether you both share how the deal will get done and implemented: What is the decision-making process for you? For them? Identify the decision-makers and ensure they’re engaged in the project. Map out and agree to a timeline, including diligence, negotiations and execution of the definitive agreement. Be realistic and transparent with each other: Are there competing priorities that might interfere? Sufficient bandwidth? Tight timelines? Budget identified and secured? Don’t be afraid to ask what they see as obstacles to executing a deal. Beware of ever-shifting plans. I’ve been strung along by shifting plans — it’s a red flag for sure! Don’t be afraid to walk away. The sooner you know there’s no deal, the more time you’ll have to find the real Prince Charming. There’s no “magic” to “magic beans”. People will throw around jargon or, worse (my personal favorite), tell you they can’t change ‘the template’. Understand the other side’s intent — what are they trying to achieve with a given term. If you know their intent, you are freed to be creative and tailor terms to the situation — rather than just accept the ‘magic’ of the template. When I review agreements I think through the value of every term, not just to us, but also the value of us to our partner. Absolutely everything has value: an option to license, exclusivity, scope or field of use … and the one most people forget (or undervalue) time. If you ‘give’ someplace, you should be able to ‘get’ someplace else — finding balance and maintaining mutuality. Recently, we were able to gain some early concessions by explaining the reputational value to us of a joint press release with our major global pharma partner. Truly understanding what ‘happily ever after’ looks like to and the objectives of the other side will free you to think creatively and negotiate more effectively — tailoring the ‘magic template’ to the situation.
Find mutuality and people you can (maybe even enjoy!) working with to ensure success. If the vision for the future keeps changing and/or they (or you) get hung up on a specific term, then reread point 1: maybe this ain’t Prince Charming and it’s time to kiss a few more frogs…
Stephanie Hsieh is CEO/President of Meditope Biosciences, Inc., an early stage immuno-oncology company, based in Los Angeles. She is an industry veteran having enjoyed close to 30 years in biotech/biopharma. Stephanie began her career as a patent litigator, where she represented a wide range of clients from Fortune 50 companies to biotech start-ups to major academic/research institutions. Prior to taking the helm at Meditope, Ms. Hsieh worked in senior management roles, leading cross-functional teams to develop and execute business and new product strategies built heavily upon the intersection of the patent laws and regulatory landscape. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Wellesley College, majoring in Biological Chemistry. She also holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, graduating as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and an M.B.A. from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. | https://medium.com/been-there-run-that/the-fairy-tale-guide-to-licensing-600cc84f80c7 | ['Springboard Enterprises'] | 2020-10-23 13:53:13.904000+00:00 | ['Negotiation Tips', 'Strategy', 'Licensing', 'Women', 'Entrepreneurship'] |
Moving Toward Wholeness through Yoga & Plant Medicine | The state of yoga may be attained through dharmic birth, the use of sacred plants, mantra, tapaha, or samadhi. — Patanjali, Yoga Sutra 4.1
Entheogens — ayahuasca, San Pedro, psilocybin, DMT in various forms — are having their moment right now. A lot of my friends are either working with plant medicine or wanting to work with it. Michael Pollan has even written a bestseller about psychedelics and their transformative benefits.
Another healing and growth modality that’s continuing to gain popularity despite its seeming ubiquity is, of course, yoga; there’s no denying the explosive popularity of Western postural yoga. But even more traditional yogic practices are growing in popularity around the world now.
In the twentieth century, psychedelic drugs were the entry point into yoga and spirituality for many. Perhaps most famously, Ram Dass, who credited psychedelic mushrooms with his discovery of, and passion for, yoga.
In my experience, yoga and plant medicine are complementary modalities. They are both aimed at helping people to identify more with the heart and soul, to feel and integrate all of their emotions, and ultimately to experience true freedom and joy. Furthermore, they are both essential practices for helping humanity transition gracefully into the dawning wisdom or consciousness revolution that Peter Russell, Stanislaw Grof, and others talk about.
In this post, I will talk about how sacred plants and yoga can be complementary practices (providing access ultimately to the same experience of Unity Consciousness) and how yoga can also be a viable alternative to working with plant medicine, especially the holistic, transformational style of yoga that I teach. I offer Elemental Yoga as both an integrative complement to working with plant medicines and a viable alternative for those who are not able or not inclined to work with plant medicine. I describe specific integrative practices below, and will be offering plant medicine integration practices through a private online yoga group starting in January 2021.
The Perennial Philosophy
As Aldous Huxley chronicled beautifully in his book by the same name, every one of the world’s spiritual and religious traditions share a single, metaphysical truth. This Perennial Philosophy is most succinctly expressed in the Sanskrit formulation, tat tvam asi, or hari om, or so hum. This is that, in other words. Another way to state it is that there is a subtle, unitary, underlying reality to everything that connects everything, and that it is possible for us to know it experientially. That’s what we learn in yoga. And that thing, that spiritual substrate in the world is a part of all of us and we are all a part of it. The explicit purpose of yoga is to access that state and experience of unity directly, experientially, through the practice of yoga.
In my experience, working with plant medicine offers the same experience. I had the direct experience of what I had been trying to achieve for a long time (through yoga) and had only managed to catch the briefest of glimpses here and there. My experiences with plant medicine in the past made the state of yoga seem like more of a real possibility.
It turns out there has long been a symbiotic relationship between sacred plants and yoga.
The Longstanding Symbiosis between Yoga and Sacred Plants
Nature is alive and talking to us. This is not a metaphor. — Terence McKenna
The mythical Patanjali, in yoga sutra 4.1 circa 400 BCE–400 CE (the dates of The Yoga Sutras are disputed), lists the five means to become accomplished in yoga, or to experience the state of yoga: sacred plants (oshadhi), mantra, tapaha, meditation, and being born with ready access to that state because of spiritual work performed in past lives.
The mythical Patanjali
As any yoga teacher will tell you, no commentator really tackles the final two padas (chapters 3 and 4) of The Yoga Sutras, except for B.K.S. Iyengar, whose commentary on them is the most in-depth I have encountered, (although Edwin Bryant offers his characteristic depth of scholarly research in his lengthy commentaries). This is because, in general, those last two padas of The Yoga Sutras are primarily concerned with the siddhis (yogic powers) that arise from a consistent, dedicated yoga practice. And most teachers will tell you that, for yogis aspiring to evolve toward samadhi and the state of yoga, siddhis are primarily a distraction, an ego trap. With this admonition to avoid talk of siddhis, perhaps there is also a hint of skepticism among western teachers that siddhis exist at all. In any case, that question is irrelevant to this discussion. I am focused in this post on ways to achieve the state of yoga (unity) and practices that facilitate that. Patanjali’s sutra referencing sacred plants appears in the fourth pada because, for Patanjali, not only are they means to the state of yoga but also to certain siddhis. And there are worthwhile, modest siddhis. But this is a topic for another post.
Many yogis and yoga teachers may be surprised to encounter this reference to sacred plants in The Yoga Sutras. As Patanjali does with ‘asana’ and ‘kriya’ in other sutras, he (she?) introduces a term and then says nothing more about it (probably because asana, kriya, and even oshadhi were all well-known practices in Patanjali’s time). Nevertheless, let us tease out what we can from this mention of sacred plants alongside mantra, tapaha, meditation, and dharma.
The etymology of the Sanskrit word oshadhi is “to make known, to reveal something surprising.” And ‘osha’ means “light bearing.” So here we have an herb or plant that brings clarity, or fosters increasingly greater values of light (the simplest definition of the word ‘enlightenment’). And the etymology tells us that what these plants reveal is surprising. What is surprising about it? That the direct experience of unity is available to us here and now? That our true nature is bliss and infinite love? All of the above and more I am sure.
Again, few commentators have been willing to explore the significance of this sutra. Part of the reason might be the relative lack of popularity of use of plant medicine at the time of those writings. Iyengar (1993) tells us in his commentary to The Yoga Sutras that Sage Mandavya and King Yayati were two historical yogis who attained the state of yoga and great siddhis through use of this mysterious “elixir of life.” Edwin Bryant (2009) merely mentions in passing that the substance Patanjali references here was likely soma. And Swami Satchidananda (1978) tells us that Patanjali “also gives us some clues about the people who get some experiences through their LSD and marijuana,” a sentiment effervescing out of the mid-1970s.
So nobody knows with certainty what sacred plants or herbs Patanjali was referring to in Sutra 4.1. Commentators like Bryant suggest it was soma, a plant mentioned in early Vedic texts thousands of years prior as a brew that yogis extracted from the juice of a plant. In fact, there is an entire mandala devoted to this mysterious soma in the Vedas: the ninth Mandala of the Rigveda, also called the Soma Mandala, has 114 hymns devoted to Sóma Pávamāna, “purifying Soma”, the sacred potion of the Vedic tradition. Those hymns attest rapturously that “half of us is on earth, the other half in Heaven, we have drunk soma” and “we have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light, the Gods discovered.”
In that Vedic mandala the author describes the preparation of soma as mashing the stalk of a plant with stones, similar to how ayahuasca is prepared by pounding the ayahuasca vine in advance of brewing it with the chakruna plant.
There is much debate about what this mysterious soma from the Vedas was. Some scholars think it may have been a mixture of poppy, Chinese ephedra, and cannabis. Others propose one of several psychedelic mushrooms, or wild rue. Although we may never know what psychoactive substance ancient yogis were working with, it appears to be something psychoactive that required mashing and brewing, like ayahuasca.
The important point here is that ancient yogis and the great Patanjali himself (herself?) acknowledged the use of certain plants as a valid path to the direct experience of yoga (and the obtaining of siddhis). In other words, there is scriptural precedent for use of plants as one of several paths, perhaps one to be woven with the others in a holistic practice. In short, use of sacred plants has been a complementary practice to other yogic practices for thousands of years. It’s not new; it was just forgotten.
Not that we need scriptural authority to work with plants. Given how effective plants are at getting us out of our linear, rational minds, that would be the highest of irony. My only point in exploring this sutra and this lesser known tributary of yoga history is to offer a justification to those who need it that the practices have been complementary for thousands of years. Ultimately, you use the intellectual knowing to get you over your resistance and then throw it away once you begin your ascent. After all, advanced yoga and meditation practices grant us access to the pituitary gland, and then the pineal gland, where DMT resides.
Using plants to aid one’s evolution will appeal to some, especially those who prefer to take Terence McKenna’s advice to “avoid gurus, follow plants.” Yoga and meditation alone will appeal to others. Different practices for different folks. Reliance on plants probably falls away naturally as one progresses. However, in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with asking for a little boost along the way. The ancient yogis tell us that nature is infinitely intelligent, a self-organizing consciousness far beyond our wildest imaginations. So there can be no harm in communing directly with nature through its various expressions, including plants.
And this brings us to the advantages and disadvantages of relying on sacred plants.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Working with Plant Medicine
“These medicines will allow you to come and visit Christ, but you can only stay two hours. Then you have to leave again. This is not the true samadhi. It’s better to become Christ than to visit him — but even the visit of a saint for a moment is useful. . . . But love is the most powerful medicine.” For love slowly transforms you into what the psychedelics only let you glimpse. — Ram Dass, quoting his guru Neem Karoli Baba
There are advantages and disadvantages to relying on plant medicine to do the hard work of self inquiry and shadow work, living the life of ashes, as Robert Bly calls it. It can be a great jump-start for people, opening them up to parts of themselves they had previously had no contact with, getting them out of their heads and into their hearts, and shifting from analysis to intuition. Plant medicine, like yoga, can help us to feel intense emotions in a safe container, and then integrate those experiences. In the beginning of spiritual growth, most people do not want to change, they simply want to want to change — hence the prevalence of spiritual bypass. Plant medicine can get you over that hurdle of resistance to true inner change.
In my experience, working with plants also turns up the volume on one’s intuition, the small, quiet voice that whispers deep truths to you but you refuse to listen because the roar of your conditioned mind and your fears is too loud. Plant medicine can be a sacred pause or reset button that most people would never otherwise have access to. It doesn’t require years on a yoga mat or surrender to a guru. In addition, yoga and plant medicines like ayahuasca are both heart-opening modalities, moving one from the head toward heart intelligence.
“Gringos are easy to work with because their problem is simple. They read too much. They talk too much. They think too much. They live too much in their heads, not enough in their hearts.” — Brian James quoting a curandero
Krishna shows his true form to Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita
However, as Ram Dass points out in his commentary on The Bhagavad Gita, those who start their journey (like he did) with psychedelics before yoga are like Arjuna starting with Krishna’s showing Arjuna the entire universe as it is in Chapter 11 of the Gita before receiving all the preparatory wisdom and yogic practices of earlier chapters. So there’s another benefit to yoga: It prepares the body, heart, mind, and soul for higher experiences of consciousness, greater experiences of truth.
Of course, as with the eight limbs of Patanjali’s yoga, there is no prescribed order or set of practices for spiritual growth. Maybe some people are the jump-right-in-and-work-backwards types. You start where you are. And sometimes you need the inspiration of the grand visions to set you on the dedicated and steady path of regular yoga practice, like Ram Dass. There are no mistakes or “correct” paths. Only grace and love and practice. Like everything in life, there is no absolute right or wrong. Find your own right proportion, through intuition or trial and error.
The Advantages of Yoga Over Plant Medicine
As much as I support and have personally benefited from plant medicine, holistic yoga like Elemental Yoga is ultimately a more sustainable, long-term practice of transformation. Working with sacred plants is an extremely powerful practice and perhaps even necessary for some people. But working with the powerfully transformational practices of yoga is something that everyone can do. It is a practice that can reliably and sustainably be woven into the fabric of one’s daily and weekly existence.
First, not everyone has the luxury of traveling to South America to partake in plant medicine ceremonies, or even spending two or three days in ceremony in their own country, where the substance is often illegal. Plant medicine requires financial resources, large chunks of time, and a certain tolerance for intense physical and emotional experiences far outside the norm. Plant medicine ceremonies also require a lot of concentrated time and energy — days, weeks, sometimes months of dedicated ceremony and integration time.
Second, not everyone is ready for or wants to dive deeply into their trauma and darkest emotional states. Different modalities for different people. Many want a practice that lets them feel their feelings gradually, in more “manageable” bite-sized chunks. Yoga is that practice. Elemental Yoga can be intense like an ayahuasca ceremony but also gentle or graduated. Yoga is accessible, adaptable, and available in small or large portions. Everyone has time for, and access to, affordable yoga, especially now with so much online.
Finally, yoga is adaptable and manageable. With yoga, you can practice for fifteen minutes a day, an hour a day, or two hours a day. It is completely within your control. If you enter a transcendental or Unity Consciousness state, you can take yourself out of it, if necessary, to deal with mundane reality. And, over time, you begin to normalize and ground those elevated states, thereby becoming more capable and adaptable in ground-level reality. The deep inner journeys prompted by plant medicine are not conducive to functioning in the world while you are having the experience. Again, working with plant medicine is powerful and effective but also requires a serious time and energy commitment. And usually lots of integration.
Even though Patanjali talks about working with psychoactive plants in The Yoga Sutras, I think at some point you leave the plants behind, and I surmise that Patanjali would have agreed, given how little he talks about sacred plants in the Yoga Sutras. Everything you need to access your inherent bliss nature is inside of you. Yoga provides all the tools.
Elemental Yoga is a way to realize the same benefits you realize in an ayahuasca ceremony by working with the prana and kundalini that naturally arise within the human body and soul in order to experience unity, to bypass spiritual bypass, to install deep inside your heart and soul the unshakable knowing that you are softly, quietly invincible, that you can truly do whatever you want in this life. Elemental Yoga helps you to more consistently enter that state at will. It gives you the tools to become more yourself.
Both yoga and plant medicine are heart-centered practices
Weaving Yoga and Sacred Plants Together
Loving your own being; fully accepting yourself; accepting what Life wants to do through you; releasing your ambition to transform yourself into someone or something else, some imagined ideal; and, at the same time, fully allowing and making space for your natural process of transformation to unfold — this is the heart of the spiritual life. — Christopher Wallis, Recognition Sutras
You could say that yoga is integration. Integration of atman with Brahman. Integration of self and other. It is a process of making one whole at every level. It is also the perfect practice to help one integrate the deeply transformative experiences of working with plant medicine.
As I discussed above, plant medicine is great for jump-starting spiritual growth, for purging trauma and samskaras quickly. But the quicker the purge the deeper the integration that commences afterward. Yoga is perfect for that. It addresses the whole person—physical, energetic, emotional, mental—and can purify and move things at each level of being.
For those who feel called to work with plant medicine in some form, yoga is an invaluable bookend to the practice. Personally, I have found that having a solid yoga practice allowed me to have both a more grounded and a deeper experience with plant medicines, for several reasons:
At a basic, physical level, I was able to sit comfortably on a mat on the floor for longer periods of time. Yoga has instilled in me a deep certainty that no experience is too big for my soul to handle, as it did for Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. This inner knowing can come in handy during intense ceremonies. During more intense phases of ayahuasca journeys, I was able to draw on specific yogic energetic practices, like pranayama and mantra, to help ground, stabilize and sooth me. I have even used asana several times to help ground me during particularly emotional purges with ayahuasca.
In short, yoga is perfect for preparing one to work with the plants, for serving as a helpful tool, during the process, and for integrating the experience afterward.
I offer a specific set of practices that help those working with plant medicine to integrate the experience through grounding practices, devotional practices, and healing practices that address the energetic and emotional bodies. These include restorative and yin yogasana, breathwork / pranayama, healing kriyas, grounding kriyas, centering kriyas, blissful kriyas, devotional kriyas, and sacred rituals like puja. Through the use of movement, mudra, breath, and mantra, we balance the lower chakras and help awaken the upper chakras, and restore and strengthen your aura.
Sacred Rituals
Sacred rituals are an essential component of both traditional plant medicine work and yoga. In fact, when you work with plant medicines like ayahuasca in a traditional ceremony, the whole thing becomes a sacred ritual.
A traditional yogic fire ceremony (yagya)
Sacred rituals are essential to tuning into the intelligence of nature, and developing a powerful vulnerability and devotional bhava. These rituals also help to replace mindless rituals (unhealthy habits and addictions). And the more we can cultivate a sense of the sacred in life the more we can become our true selves.
Most of us live in an abstracted, mental world of concepts disconnected from the sensual world. These rituals help us to reconnect with ground level reality and meet it fully, like in a Japanese tea ceremony. After all, plant medicine and yoga are only ever putting us in more direct contact with the unity of existence. This is done through the heart, not the head, and through surrender, not force.
In yoga there are sacred rituals like puja, yagya, and bhuta shuddhi that help us to access our higher and deeper selves. Through the five elements of nature we can access these qualities within ourselves.
So, in the integration practices we will incorporate sacred rituals.
The Importance of Meditation
Having a consistent meditation practice can be immensely helpful in both entering plant medicine ceremonies and in integrating plant medicine experiences. Meditation is a practice in growing quiet. Meditation allows you to listen deeply and enter a state of total self-acceptance. I am offering a separate, 4-week meditation course starting in January 2021, which will be discounted for plant medicine integrators.
About My Online Plant Medicine Integration Group
As I said above, I have personally found yoga to be the most effective in integrating plant medicine experiences, especially the blend of movement, breathwork, and kriya that make up Elemental Yoga. This is why I am offering plant medicine integration services, online for now; in-person hopefully some time in 2021.
As part of the private plant medicine group membership, you get access to:
an initial private consultation with Chad
weekly plant medicine integration sessions using breathwork, kriya, and some gentle asana to ground and stabilize
advice and discussion around creating sacred rituals
regular live community check-ins and discussions focused on holistic integration
the premium weekly practice videos offered to the wider Cosmic Collective community
a supportive, private online community, dedicated to healing, transformation, and increasing values of spiritual truth.
In this private group we will not only help you integrate powerful experiences but give you the tools to continue your journey of expansion and celebration in a way that fits your lifestyle, to learn to access unity states within yourself on a more consistent basis.
Those who are already working with plant medicine will find the practice of Elemental Yoga very familiar. As I have said elsewhere, I first fell in love with these powerful Himalayan energetic practices because of their ability to offer the same experiences I had previously had with plant medicine, and ayahuasca in particular.
Me with two curanderos in Peru
Conclusion
People are looking for deep transformation and healing, especially now. In my experience, a full-spectrum yoga practice like Elemental Yoga can help with that as much as plant medicine, and the two modalities can work side-by-side in an integrative spiral of change and returning home to one’s self. In fact, the name Elemental Yoga was inspired in part by my primal experiences of unity through working with plants, the ways in which the interplay of the fundamental elements offer a direct means of experiencing that unity, inviting in the infinite intelligence of nature. My yoga offerings are heavily influenced by these ancient elemental shamanic practices. I like to bring a sense of ceremony to them, and to work with certain rhythms that support the inner journey we take in a given class.
Yoga and plant medicine are both ultimately paths of love. All of these healing modalities for helping us to open our hearts and have the direct experience of unity are crucial at this moment, riven with so much strife and pregnant with so much possibility. We need all the help we can get. | https://medium.com/atha-yog%C4%81nu%C5%9B%C4%81sanam/moving-toward-wholeness-through-yoga-plant-medicine-da7bb5bff950 | ['Chad Woodford'] | 2021-01-02 12:17:46.058000+00:00 | ['Plant Medicine', 'Yoga', 'Ayahuasca', 'Integration', 'Community'] |
Simple And Inexpensive Productivity System | I need to precise a lack of obligation doesn’t equate to “doing nothing”. What it does mean is complete freedom, control, and responsibility for your life.
Decisions and actions always bear consequences. Sometimes with many great benefits such as learning a skill or improving yourself. Sometimes with major losses like smoking cigarettes every day. Other time with somewhat inconsequential actions such as choosing what to eat this afternoon.
A lack of obligation does not mean a lack decision — because we always make decisions even when the decision is to avoid making any decisions — but it means you should be aware and accept the consequences that come with it. You do not have any outside obligations, but you do have personal responsibility. I know obligation and responsibility are pretty much the same, but the main difference lies toward whom it is directed. Obligations are toward others while responsibilities are toward yourself.
Do this means, you should avoid altruism altogether? No, but if you value friendship or self-improvement, the mental frame should not come from “I have to do something for them” but “I want to do something for them”.
But that’s selfish!
Yes, it is. I hate to break to you, but everybody is selfish. As Scott Adams in How To Fail at Almost Everything And Still Win Big:
when it comes to the topic of generosity, there are three kinds of people in the world:
1. Selfish
2. Stupid
3. A burden on others.
Your best option is to be selfish, because being stupid or a burden on society won’t help anyone.
Image yourself in an airplane, something happens and the oxygen mask drops from the ceiling. What do you need to do? Well, you help yourself first before you can help others. Helping yourself first is selfish, but it is the kind of selfish that will make you useful for others instead of a burden for them. | https://medium.com/mastering-oneself/simple-and-inexpensive-productivity-system-36f991404f53 | ['Julien Samson'] | 2019-03-03 18:01:00.583000+00:00 | ['Productivity', 'Tools', 'Freedom', 'Simplicity', 'Responsibility'] |
Why Giving Free Value Is Still the Best Brand-Building Strategy | There is strong competition
Competition is everywhere. You compete with hundreds or even thousands of people who want to build their presence in your niche. It’s a fact, accept it or you won’t stand a chance.
People are trying different strategies. Some of them are common and some are unique. To be honest, it doesn’t change a lot. You just need to have a plan, be patient and persistent. You won’t build your audience quickly. You won’t have thousands of customers by taking shortcuts.
Why? Precisely because the competition is strong. You have to show up and most importantly you have to stand out from the crowd. Without that, you’ll lose. You must find and understand your competition. After that, you’ll be able to prepare a plan that will help you win.
You must change your name, your person into a strong brand. People recognize brands. They believe them and trust them.
It’s the same thing with products. We’re more focused on the brand than on the product itself. So take an example from big companies and take care of your personal brand.
Don`t give content, give value…for free
What can I say? That’s the reality. People are giving an enormous amount of value for free. Without a strong audience and a well-established group of customers, you won’t sell a lot. The only way to get those two things is by giving them VALUE.
To do that you must understand that content is not value. You can’t just push worthless babble onto the internet. It’s not about generating a huge amount of articles, films, or Insta stories. It’s about providing value that your customers can benefit from.
People want to grow, they want to develop their skills. They want to become better. Use that for your purpose.
There’s no better time for that than today. The internet, YouTube, social media, platforms like Medium are mines of knowledge. You can learn everything for free.
Your job is to deliver value using those platforms and build your brand. Your task is to build the recognition of your name.
If you want to sell something, people must trust you. They have to believe that what they pay for is worth it. How do you do that? The recipe is very simple.
Show yourself to people. Remove obstacles to reaching your knowledge and experience. Show that you’re not just another entity that wants to become rich and famous. Give them more than you ask from them.
But you must know one thing. It’s a hard job. It requires a lot of effort. Not everybody can do that. If you don’t persevere in it, you’ll only lose precious moments of your life. So you have to think about whether you want to get involved. If you don’t do it, you won’t build a strong brand and you won’t achieve anything.
Adapt the strategy to your possibilities
If you’ll use Google for finding the best strategy for publishing your content, you won’t learn a lot. You’ll find articles about the need to publish daily. But also you’ll find information that the best way is to publish something every other day, or three times per week, or daily but without weekends.
If there is one thing that I’m 100% sure is that it doesn’t matter. Why? Because you’re targeting thousands or even hundreds of thousands of potential clients.
You’ll never find a strategy that will be good for each one of them. So the best way is to prepare a strategy that will allow you to prepare and deliver high-quality content.
Valuable content is much more important than a large amount of content. The equation is simple:
Value > Amount
There are a couple of things you need to consider:
Where (on which platform) will you find your customers?
How are your clients using this platform?
What kind of content must you deliver there?
How much content can you deliver without losing quality?
Think about those things, prepare a plan and strategy, and start building your brand. | https://medium.com/better-marketing/why-giving-free-value-is-still-the-best-brand-building-strategy-835c2744b744 | ['Dawid Pacholczyk'] | 2020-01-04 05:34:19.474000+00:00 | ['Marketing', 'Self Improvement', 'Branding', 'Daily Manager', 'Social Media'] |
Estimating the compressive strength of concrete using Machine Learning | Photo by Ben Allan on Unsplash
Concrete dates back to approximately 300 BC when the Romans packed a mixture of volcanic ash, lime and seawater into a wooden block and stacked them like bricks once hardened. I mean, sure the definition and the ingredients of concrete have changed along the way, but the durability and endurance of the material never fail to fascinate researchers. For any concrete to be durable, it must first be manufactured as a high-quality concrete. One of the many ways to evaluate the quality of concrete is in terms of its compressive strength.
What is compressive strength, anyway?
Compressive strength is a measure of the concrete’s capacity to resist loads that aim to compress it. How well a concrete can withstand load determines the quality of the concrete. Generally, the concrete is tested for a period of 28 days which can be cumbersome and could be subject to errors. To avoid all this mind-numbing work, we could automate the process using Machine Learning to predict the compressive strength and arrive at an estimate.
Dataset Description
The dataset was taken from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. It contains 1030 instances and 9 attributes with surprisingly no missing values. Among the 8 input variables, 7 represent the amount of raw materials needed and 1 represents age. The target variable is Concrete Compressive Strength (obviously) measured in Mega Pascal(MPa).
Raw materials
Cement (component 1)(kg in a m³ mixture)
Blast Furnace Slag (component 2)(kg in a m³ mixture)
Fly Ash (component 3)(kg in a m³ mixture)
Water (component 4)(kg in a m³ mixture)
Superplasticizer (component 5)(kg in a m³ mixture)
Coarse Aggregate (component 6)(kg in a m³ mixture)
Fine Aggregate (component 7)(kg in a m³ mixture)
Other stuff
Age (day)
Target variable
Concrete compressive strength(MPa, megapascals)
Importing the dependencies
Let us first import the libraries that we need.
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
import pickle as pkl
from sklearn.model_selection import train_test_split
from sklearn.tree import DecisionTreeRegressor
from sklearn.metrics import mean_squared_error, mean_absolute_error, r2_score
from sklearn.ensemble import RandomForestRegressor
%matplotlib inline
After importing the libraries and the dataset, we can see that the column names appear to be really messy, so we can rename those for better readability and easy access.
rename_cols = ["Cement", "Blast_Furnace_Slag", "Fly_Ash", "Water", "Superplasticizer","Coarse_Aggregate", "Fine_Aggregate", "Age", "CCS"]
cols = list(df.columns) map = {}
for i, name in enumerate(cols):
map[name] = rename_cols[i] df = df.rename(columns=map)
Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
To get a better understanding of what we’re dealing with, we ought to explore the dataset and get insights from it. Exploring the dataset involves looking for missing values, plotting pretty graphs between different variables etc. You don’t have to go all Dora on this, but a little bit of curiosity is appreciated.
Let us first print the first few rows of the dataset.
df.head()
Fig 1 : First four rows of the dataset
df.info()
Fig 2 : Overview of the dataset
A quick overview of the dataset tells us that all of the variables in the dataset are integer and float variables. And now, we check for missing values in the dataset (if any) to perform the missing value analysis.
df.isna().any()
Fig 3 : Checking for missing values
Fortunately, there are no missing values in the dataset. This makes our job much easier!
df.describe()
Fig 4 : Statistics of the dataset
The average age is 45.666 days and the lowest is 1 day.
Data Visualisation
And now, the fun part! To make pretty graphs we’re going to make use of a library called Seaborn in python. Seaborn is a data visualisation library based on matplotlib which provides a top-notch interface for drawing statistical graphs that are nice to look at.
dist = sns.distplot(df['CCS'], color = 'limegreen')
plt.title('Distribution of Compressive Strength')
Fig 5 : Distribution of Compressive Strength
To see how every feature affects another, we have to check for the correlation between them. In order to make use of the linear regression models, we must remove the correlated features.
corr = df.corr()
plt.figure(figsize=(13,8))
plt.title("Feature Correlation Heatmap")
sns.heatmap(corr,cmap= "Purples_r",annot=True)
Fig 6 : Feature Correlation Heatmap
From the above heatmap, we can infer that Cement is strongly correlated with CCS with a value of 0.5. Superplasticizer and Age are also highly correlated with CCS with values 0.37 and 0.33 respectively. Water does not influence Superplasticizer at all. These values allow us to comprehend the data in-depth as they provide an overview of how each feature affects the other.
Since Cement, Superplasticizer and Age are strongly correlated with CCS, we can draw scatter plots between the same.
plt.figure(figsize=(10,7))
sns.scatterplot(data =df,y="CCS",x="Cement",hue="Superplasticizer",size="Age",sizes=(50,300))
plt.title("CCS vs (Cement,Superplasticizer, Age)")
Fig 7 : CCS vs Cement, Superplasticizer, Age
Compressive strength increases with the amount of Cement.
Compressive strength increases with Superplasticizer as well.
Cement with low age requires more cement for higher strength
plt.figure(figsize=(10,7))
sns.scatterplot(data = df,y="CCS",x="Coarse_Aggregate",hue="Water",size="Superplasticizer",sizes=(50,300))
plt.title("CCS vs (Coarse_Aggregate,Water, Superplasticizer)")
Fig 8 : CCS vs Coarse_Aggregate, Water, Superplasticizer
Compressive strength decreases with increase in water but increases with increase in Superplasticizer ( since CCS and Superplasticizer are highly correlated)
The amount of coarse aggregate is larger when less amount of water and superplasticizer is used.
Data Preprocessing
Before we build the models, we need to split the data into testing and training sets.
x = df.iloc[:,:-1]
y = df.iloc[:,-1]
X_train, X_test, y_train, y_test = train_test_split(x, y, test_size=0.2, random_state=2)
Building the model
Decision Tree Regressor
Decision Tree is a widely used supervised learning algorithm for decision-making problems. The model predicts the target variable values by learning simple decision rules obtained from the data features. It could however have an overfitting problem that can be overcome using the Random forest algorithm.
Fig 9 : Decision Tree Model
Random Forest Regressor
To get a more accurate and reliable prediction, Random Forest constructs several decision trees and merges them together. It uses averaging to improve the predictive accuracy and control overfitting. One of the significant advantages of a random forest is that it can be used for the majority of existing machine learning systems for both classification and regression problems.
Fig 10 : Random Forest Model
Comparing the models
Fig 11 : Decision Tree vs Random Forest based on their RMSE values
Now that we have analysed the dataset, created our models and picked a model to estimate the CCS values, it’s time to put them to test. Here, I’m initialising an array called random_values with the following:
Cement = 520
Blast Furnace Slag = 130
Fly Ash = 17.5
Water = 173
Superplasticizer = 2.5
Coarse Aggregate = 999
Fine Aggregate = 825
Age = 275 days
Fig 12 : Estimation of Compressive Strength
Conclusion
We’ve successfully analysed the dataset and estimated the compressive strength using Decision Tree Regressor and Random Forest Regressor. The Random Forest model provided the least RMSE. Hence, it is the relatively best model for predicting the strength of concrete. The accuracy of the model can be further improved by using ensemble learning and other techniques.
Kudos to you, if you have made it this far! Thanks for reading this article, I hope you find it helpful!
Resources
You can find the link to my Github repository with relevant files here : | https://medium.com/@sruthi-sivakumar/estimating-the-compressive-strength-of-concrete-using-machine-learning-1637c9ca2c73 | ['Sruthi Sivakumar'] | 2020-12-28 09:08:24.973000+00:00 | ['Predictions', 'Compressive Strength', 'Machinelerning', 'Regression', 'Concrete'] |
React Native Tutorial: Build Your First React Native App | React Native is a cross-platform development library built on top of React by Facebook, for mobile development platforms. React Native was developed in 2013 as a hackathon project inside Facebook and was later released for public use in 2015. It gained huge popularity in the developer community and multiple tech companies adopted it as a mobile development solution because React Native apps share a single codebase for both iOS and Android and could hardly be distinguished from truly native apps. According to the React Native website:
In 2018, React Native had the 2nd highest number of contributors for any repository in GitHub. Today, React Native is supported by contributions from individuals and companies around the world including Expo, and Microsoft.
Before we go ahead and build our first React Native app, I’m going to show you the pros and cons of React Native and more details on what it actually is.
What is React Native?
React Native is a hybrid mobile development library.
React Native apps are written in JSX and Javascript and compiled into native code.
React Native apps contain 85–90% shared Javascript and JSX code
What is React Native not?
React Native is not a webview
React Native is not React
React Native is not PWA
React Native as of this writing supports web development using React Native for Web
Why should you adopt/learn React Native?
Targets multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Web, TVOS) with the same codebase and effort
Has a large and growing community that is there to provide adequate support
Has native support meaning that you can customize the native code to suit your use-case/business logic
Requires knowledge of Javascript. Javascript is a language in high popular demand and learning it will pay off immensely
Has a feature which I personally refer to as the sweet spot: Fast Refresh (Hot Reloading)
React Native Drawbacks?
React Native has some drawbacks too, but the developers of the library are consistently trying to improve them as the community grows:
While the codebase is mostly shared among various platform, knowledge of native development is sometimes required in developing more advanced React Native projects
Despite the fact that most React Native apps look the same in appearance to native apps React Native seems to lack the smooth navigation achieved by native apps.
React Native developers agree that React Native style of error reporting is not the best out there but they cope with it over time.
Build Your First React Native App
Let’s build a React Native app to display a simple list of countries. The app will contain only one screen, and we are going to keep its functionality and styling to a minimum, since the purpose of this tutorial is to help you set up your React Native developer environment and dip your toes into the React Native programming language.
In this React Native tutorial we are going to use Expo in order to build your first React Native application. Expo is a powerful tool for those how are beginners in the React Native world, since it lets you run and preview React Native apps on your devices easily.
1. Install Expo
Follow the official documentation on how to install Expo. Once you’ve installed it, come back to this tutorial and follow the next steps in order to build your first React Native app.
2. Create a New React Native App
expo init firstapp
Select the ‘blank’ project
Select ‘Y’ to work with yarn.
Yarn v1.19.2 found. Use Yarn to install dependencies? (Y/n)
Once you click Yes, Expo will work its magic and create all the necessary files for you. You can take a look at the directory structure to get an idea of what is going on in the project.
3. Run Your First React Native App
Run the following commands to start your newly created React Native app:
cd firstapp yarn start
At this point, if you set up Expo properly at the previous steps, the new React Native project should have loaded successfully and you should be able to see the app as in the following screenshot:
There you have it, the very first React Native application that you’ve build. By default it says ‘ Open up App.js to start working on your app’ and I agree that it’s not the best welcome message Expo could offer but we’re going to go ahead and do as they say. Let’s open App.js file, which looks like this:
import { StatusBar } from 'expo-status-bar';
import React from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Text, View } from 'react-native';
export default function App() {
return (
<View style={styles.container}>
<Text>Open up App.js to start working on your app!</Text>
<StatusBar style="auto" />
</View>
);
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
container: {
flex: 1,
backgroundColor: '#fff',
alignItems: 'center',
justifyContent: 'center',
},
});
Now let me give a concise summary of what’s going on before we move on.
The styles variable contains various style dicts of the components
The Function App is a React Native Functional Component, the default one that renders what we currently see on our screen and above are import statements that import components to be used and composed to create our parent component App.
4. Add List of Countries
Let’s move on and rewrite this dummy screen with our own UI. As we mentioned before, we are going to display a list of countries. For this, we need to implement the following:
import React from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Text, FlatList } from 'react-native';
export default function App() {
const countriesData = [{"name":"Afghanistan"},{"name":"Åland Islands"},{"name":"Albania"},{"name":"Algeria"}]
return (
<FlatList
data={countriesData}
contentContainerStyle={styles.container}
keyExtractor={item => item.name}
renderItem={({item})=> <Text style={styles.text}>{item.name}</Text>}
/>
);
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
container: {
paddingTop: 30,
},
text: {
fontSize: 20,
margin: 10
},
});
As you can see, we have updated our App.js and added a few things:
A Flatlist to display the list of countries
to display the list of countries A dummy dataset to display to be displayed on the list
We updated the style object to contain the style for our text
Run your app if you haven’t started it already, and you should be seeing this:
We now have something to work with. But the data is static and we would like a longer dynamic list, that can change and we need those changes to be reflected in the UI. So we need the UI to be “reactive” to the changes in the data model. This is the core concept of React, and therefore React Native. So we need to introduce the State concept.
A React Native component holds data in its state, and whenever the state changes, the UI is re-rendered to reflect those changes. Let’s add a state variable, named countriesData which will store the dynamic list of countries displayed on the screen.
const [countriesData, setCountriesData] = useState([])
The useState is called a “hook” in React Native. According to official React documentation on hooks
A Hook is a special function that lets you “hook into” React features
We just declared a state for our app countriesData with default value as an empty array [] and a function setCountriesData to update the value of countriesData. For example, calling setCountriesData([1,2,3,]) will update the value of countriesData to [1,2,3,].
Another important hook useEffect is going to be applied in the following code snippet. Simply put, any code written inside the useEffect runs when the component is mounted.
import React, {useState, useEffect} from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Text, FlatList, Pressable, Alert } from 'react-native';
import { StatusBar } from 'expo-status-bar';
export default function App() {
const [countriesData, setCountriesData] = useState([])
function fetchCountriesData() {
fetch('https://restcountries.eu/rest/v2/region/africa?fields=name;capital')
.then((response) => response.json())
.then((json) => setCountriesData(json))
.catch((error) => console.error(error))
}
useEffect(()=> {
fetchCountriesData();
})
return (
<>
<StatusBar style='light'/>
<FlatList
data={countriesData}
contentContainerStyle={styles.container}
keyExtractor={item => item.name}
renderItem={({item})=> <Text onPress={() => {Alert.alert(`The Capital of ${item.name} is ${item.capital}`)}} style={styles.text}>{item.name}</Text>}
/>
</>
);
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
container: {
paddingTop: 30,
backgroundColor: '#483D8B'
},
text: {
fontSize: 18,
margin: 5,
color: '#fff'
},
});
Please don’t be scared of what’s going on. We are using the fetch API to retrieve countries data from an API endpoint and display a list of African countries. The fetch API is how you make network requests in React Native. As you can notice, we’ve used a free API endpoint, exposed on the restcountries.eu website. This returns a JSON object, parsed in the then() clause of the fetch method. Once parsed successfully, we update the countriesData state variable with the new list of country, newly retrieved. As a result of updating the state object, the UI also gets re-rendered and we can see the countries on the screen:
5. Styling Your First React Native App
Let’s now focus on making the design of the app slightly better, since we already have the core functionality in place. We are going to focus on styling the app and our focus is on the styles dictionary.
import React, {useState, useEffect} from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Text, FlatList, Pressable, Alert } from 'react-native';
import { StatusBar } from 'expo-status-bar';
export default function App() {
const [countriesData, setCountriesData] = useState([])
function fetchCountriesData() {
fetch('https://restcountries.eu/rest/v2/region/africa?fields=name;capital')
.then((response) => response.json())
.then((json) => setCountriesData(json))
.catch((error) => console.error(error))
}
useEffect(()=> {
fetchCountriesData();
})
return (
<>
<StatusBar style='light'/>
<FlatList
data={countriesData}
contentContainerStyle={styles.container}
keyExtractor={item => item.name}
renderItem={({item})=> <Text onPress={() => {Alert.alert(`The Capital of ${item.name} is ${item.capital}`)}} style={styles.text}>{item.name}</Text>}
/>
</>
);
}
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
container: {
paddingTop: 30,
backgroundColor: '#483D8B'
},
text: {
fontSize: 18,
margin: 5,
color: '#fff'
},
});
As you can see, we’ve changed the color of the background to purple, by providing the backgroundColor attribute with ‘#483D8B’ hex code.
While the syntax is very similar to CSS, it is slightly different. But the core concepts are the same, so if you already know CSS, learning how to style React Native apps will be extremely easy. Especially if you are already familiar with flexbox layout.
Conclusion
We saw what are the biggest sell points for using React Native in your mobile development process, and how easy it is to create apps for both iOS and Android.
We’ve set up Expo, which is an amazing tool for beginners who are new to the React Native world. We then leveraged Expo to create our first React Native project.
After that, we learned about functional components, hooks and state. We’ve used the fetch API to retrieve data via a network request, and we styled the visual components by modifying the stylesheet.
Congratulations! You were able to build a React Native app. Now it’s time to learn more advanced concepts, in order to add more complex functionalities and develop fully functional mobile apps, that you can publish to the App Store and Google Play Store. Check out this list of the best React Native resources to learn more about React Native and dive into the next level.
Next Steps
Now that you have learned about best React Native development tools, here are some other topics you can look into
If you need a base to start your next React Native app, you can save months of development by leveraging one of our React Native templates. | https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/react-native-tutorial-build-your-first-react-native-app-af66345c5e63 | [] | 2020-08-28 14:29:12.853000+00:00 | ['React', 'React Native', 'JavaScript', 'Programming', 'Mobile App Development'] |
Why using Facebook in 2020 means supporting Trump | Mark Zuckerberg has chosen his side, and if you don’t quit the platform, knowing everything we do now, you’re complicit.
It’s been four years since Facebook, the world’s most popular social network and owner of Instagram and Whatsapp, completely failed to regulate the intentional use of its platforms to spread disinformation, a key factor in the election of Donald Trump. This was followed by a rash of promises to make Facebook a more open, ethical, and safer social network.
Today, though, as we approach another Presidential election, Facebook has not only failed to reform, but has openly embraced its role as enabler of Trump and those like him around the world. The reason that Facebook hasn’t changed is because users haven’t held it responsible. There’s been no large-scale shift from any of their platforms. By now, it’s clear that the post-election promises were Mark Zuckerberg paying lip service to ethics while accepting unregulated political spending ad from the far-right, while also letting engagement-driving disinformation continue to spread.
The lack of meaningful action since 2016 makes one thing clear. Using Facebook now means openly supporting the re-election of Trump, because it’s what the platform, and Trump, both want. But it’s not Zuckerberg we should blame. It’s us, the nearly 230 million Facebook users in the United States. Here’s why.
The case against Facebook
It’s remarkable how little Facebook has changed since 2016. It’s made token efforts to ramp up fact checking with media outlets, only to have several partners leave because the company ignored their concerns and failed to use their expertise to combat misinformation. They’ve run massive ad campaigns claiming that “from now on, Facebook will do more to keep you safe” while, in fact, disinformation, hate, and harassment continued. Zuckerberg even went to Congress, where he apologized and promised change. We’re still waiting.
The past four years have been a series of false promises. The latest faux-plan is to create an Oversight Board that would supposedly act like a Facebook Supreme Court, but has no clear guidelines for jurisdiction. Many believe it’s another fig leaf to critics, meant to show action but in reality do it little. Conveniently, this board won’t even get started until after election day.
The key problem is leadership — of which, at Facebook, there is just one. Zuckerberg is the CEO, Chairman of the Board, and he controls the majority voting block of all shareholders. He is the dictator of Facebook. Is it any surprise that a platform run dictatorially is enabling dictatorial-minded leaders not only in the US, but also in the Philippines, India, and Brazil?
Few corporations are truly democratic, but most have at least some checks and balances on CEO power. Shareholder resolutions have forced other tech giants, like Amazon and Google, to take action on user privacy. Other companies have independent boards that can, if necessary, remove a rogue CEO, as happened last year with WeWork. But because of Zuckerberg’s dual-role and total control of voting power, there’s no check whatsoever at Facebook. Only Zuckerberg can stop Zuckerberg.
By now, it’s clear that his only motivation is growth and profits. Facebook has little incentive to police disinformation on its platform because viral disinformation is the addictive material that keeps so many people glued to its platform. Evidence shows that disinformation performs better on Facebook than factual news stories, and also generates considerable revenue. As state actors in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere join the disinformation game, it’s increasingly backed by money, too. As the 2016 election showed, Facebook provides a captive audience, ripe for manipulation, all around the world.
It’s time to blame users too
Facebook hasn’t changed because we haven’t changed. Despite the seemingly non-stop scandals and constant betrayal of user trust and privacy — RussiaGate, Cambridge Analytica, inciting anti-Rohingya violence — Facebook’s user numbers haven’t dropped, and its ad revenue and stock price have continued to grow.
Credit: Author
Other social networks, at least, try. Twitter has its issues, but they’re done a lot more to tackle disinformation than Facebook. Researchers have access to data and can monitor and track bot networks — something that’s impossible to do on Facebook. They’ve curtailed the ability of state media actors to buy ads, and have even hidden some of Trump’s tweets — content that Facebook still won’t restrict. They’ve also been pro-actively taking down bot networks, while Facebook usually is reactive. YouTube, too has taken similar measures.
The irony is that Facebook is going to be rewarded by its inaction — with millions in ad spending that YouTube and Twitter won’t accept, especially around this fall’s election, targeting you, your family members, and others with disinformation meant to skew and, perhaps, destroy democracy.
There’s a political issue at play too. Calls are growing for government regulation of Facebook. Elizabeth Warren, during her Presidential campaign, called for breaking up Facebook and regulating it so “that Russia — or any other foreign power — can’t use Facebook or any other form of social media to influence our elections.”
In Asia, countries like Indonesia, The Philippines and Thailand are passing digital taxes that would force companies like Facebook to finally pay their fair share to state coffers — something it has cleverly avoided thus far.
Who is standing behind Facebook? The man who the platform helped elect. Trump has made no moves to regulate tech companies, investigate their monopolistic power, and he’s threatening to launch another trade war against countries that try to tax US digital giants. Zuckerberg’s platform won’t police Trump because Trump’s policies are beneficial to Facebook. A Trump presidency likely means four more years of inaction on regulation — exactly what Zuckerberg wants.
Yes, there is an ad boycott now, but is it mostly toothless. For now, it seems that whatever Facebook would lose from Unilever, Patagonia, Coca-Cola and others does not make up for that it might lose if it really cut disinformation and hate content (and lost users), or had to accept state regulation.
It’s a bigger problem than just political ads and hate speech content. Senators are concerned about the spread of climate change disinformation (backed by big money) on Facebook, which isn’t being fact-checked or monitored at all. When Anne Borden King was diagnosed with cancer, her Facebook feed became full of alternative care ads promoting dangerous pseudoscience. Anti-vax disinformation has been spreading for years, including as, you guessed it, ads. Disinformation = profits for Facebook.
The only power over Zuckerberg is us. Quitting Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp is the only way to impact Facebook’s share price. There’s no oversight, no accountability. Are we willingly going to let one man control 25–30% of all internet traffic in the US? Determine what content we get to see? And, perhaps, destroy democracy.
Alternatives
I’m tired of hearing about how you won’t be able to keep in touch with your aunt anymore without Facebook. Your laziness is not an excuse anymore. We live in an interconnected age, with an unprecedented array of digital communication tools. There are other ways to keep in touch with distant family members, high school friends, former co-workers, or other quasi-friends besides Facebook.
I closed my personal Facebook profile back in 2011 because I didn’t like how the social network was affecting my mental health while in graduate school. I was able to keep in touch with nearly all my friends, in many cases, through more meaningful ways like phone calls.
It wasn’t a clean break. When I became a freelance journalist, I set up a Facebook author page, to share articles I wrote and shortly thereafter, a page for my Chili Pepper Project, along with an Instagram profile. I was also an active use of Whatsapp, having joined before the platform was acquired (and ruined) by Facebook.
No more. Earlier this year, I closed my fan pages, deleted my Facebook account, deactivated my Instagram, and, after migrating most of my contacts to more secure chat apps, deleted Whatsapp from my phone. I am now completely free of the Facebook empire, for the first time since I joined the platform as a junior in College, in 2004.
Two years ago, I wrote a guide on how to #QuitFacebook, and alternatives to more safety, securely, and ethically keep in touch with friends and family. It’s really not that hard — yes, it requires effort, but isn’t that what relationships are all about? Here are a few.
Slack for communication in workplaces or within teams — instead of Facebook groups.
Chat apps like Telegram and Signal for small groups instead of Messenger.
Dropbox, Photobucket, Unsee or Cluster for photo sharing.
Pocket, SmartNews and Pulse for news instead of Facebook’s NewsFeed.
Please feel free to share other alternatives in the comments.
The Time to Quit is Now
In 2016, us Facebook users could use ignorance as a defense. We were unaware of how Facebook was being used by Trump and his backers, both within and outside the country, to win the election. We also could take the promises by Zuckerberg to fix the platform at his word.
That is not possible anymore. Facebook hasn’t changed, and Zuckerberg has chosen a side, quietly, alongside Trump. Now it’s our time to pick a side too. 2020 is the year of taking stands. All around the country, people are standing up against police violence, against fascism, and against the racist man in the White House. Meanwhile, the top shared posts on Facebook are critical of Black Lives Matter, and oh, and by the way, the company won’t even try to regulate election disinformation, perhaps because Trump is spending millions every week on ads.
For Zuckerberg and investors to take notice, our shift must be massive. Despite dozens of brands pledging to temporarily halt advertising, there’s been no response from Facebook. Zuckerberg knows that if he were to accede to demands from ethical brands, he would lose out on far more potential revenue from Trump, dark-money PACS, Chinese and Russian state media outlets, and other nefarious actors.
Now we can say it clear — Facebook is enabling racist, fascist ideology to spread. If you can’t quit the platform, you need to accept that you’re supporting Donald Trump. There’s no line anymore. Zuckerberg wants Trump to win to preserve his social media monopoly. The company he controls, Facebook, has enabled this dangerous Presidency and is destroying democracy for profit and control of our digital lives.
Either you’re part of the movement to save America. Or you’re willing to accept your responsibility in allowing disinformation, violence, and more to spread on a platform that is clearly harming society.
Your choice. | https://medium.com/scientya/using-facebook-in-2020-means-supporting-trump-8311b40e254d | ['Nithin Coca'] | 2020-08-10 05:05:41.840000+00:00 | ['Facebook', 'Trump', 'Social Media', '2020 Presidential Race', 'Election 2020'] |
Homeless Feeling | Homeless Feeling
Yes I was born into a family,
People spoke fixed as to what they see,
No home is what’s felt inside of me,
It’s hard to imagine a desired home clearly,
Home is a feeling not a tangible thing,
Physical things won’t bring me the feeling,
It’s been repeated over and over,
Burned into my tissue all for me to render,
The home will appear when the heart is accepted,
Nurtured, loved and without rejection,
For the outer matches the states of the inner,
This insight helps to see things clearer,
For the sake of a balanced mind,
I feel into my heart one day at a time,
Clearing the clutter of the harsh past,
Will be soon embodied; a joy that lasts,
One day a home I feel proud of,
Full of reflections of a beautiful love,
A space I feel safe to fully embrace,
Followed the bread crumbs back to this space,
Where the feeling of safety is many of the beauties,
Possibilities cultivate with much ease,
I wonder if this is a tangible vision,
Or just a projected inner reflection | https://medium.com/blueinsight/homeless-feeling-aa5629effb17 | ['Dave Larocque'] | 2020-12-08 13:30:25.551000+00:00 | ['Home', 'Family', 'Blue Insights', 'Love', 'Homeless'] |
A Major Instigator of Modern Conflict | When my daughter was in high school, she constantly questioned why it was so important to learn about history. Why did she have to study what happened hundreds or thousands of years ago, and when would she ever need to use any of that knowledge throughout her life?
Although I often wondered the same, my automatic response would almost always be that it was important to know where we came from, and how the world got to be what it is today. And it’s true, we do! But what we choose to do with that information can be a little conflicting.
How much weight should we allow past history to have on shaping the present and the future? I’m not arguing the fact that it’s important to know about our ancestors — what has shaped the world we live in today. However, we need to learn where to draw a very real line between knowing about it and re-living it.
I’m going to start by saying that this is an opinion piece, and should only be taken as such.
History vs. Heritage.
There are many history buffs who feel it’s extremely important to know what happened before us. For example, did Christopher Colombus really discover America? History books say yes, but research tells us that he probably didn’t.
I personally love learning and hearing about things that happened throughout history, not only in my own country and culture but in every country and culture. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And there’s a whole lot of ugly, from every point of view. Humans have a history of doing really horrific things to one another.
That being said, I tend to question a lot of it and not just take everything at face value. History books were written and re-written, translated and updated. As we are mostly all writers here, I’m sure you can attest that most of what we write is tainted by our own often biassed opinions.
How one person perceives an event might not be how the next person sees it. And just like rumours tend to evolve over time, we should probably expect that some of what was written as history may not be exactly as it happened. Just as we should expect that some of what happened may never have been written at all, or that some of what was written may have never happened. The only true experts on history are those who lived it.
Why are so much time and energy spent (wasted?) on worrying about what has already happened? Heritage is one thing — but history is something entirely different, although it’s often mistaken for the same.
Should we not be less concerned with a past that cannot be changed, and more with making sure we don’t repeat it? Should we not be focused more on how we can live our lives to the best of our abilities today, in order to create a beautiful tomorrow?
We are currently writing the history books that will grace library shelves — or internet sites, or whatever technology will have overtaken the world — in another hundred years. What kind of legacy are we prepared to leave behind? What kind of ancestors do we want to portray?
Our heritage tells us where we came from — what our customs were, the kind of lives our ancestors lived. Heritage is where family and cultural traditions come from, as a people. History, on the other hand, recounts events, both traumatic and memorable, such as wars, conflicts, and victories. Do not mistake the two.
The Weight of History
History, because we allow it, has the undeserved power to create chaos by reminding us of all the horrible things that have happened in the past. And let’s face it, the human race has recorded many more horrific events than we have good ones. Many more, I’m sure, have gone unspoken. Unwritten. And even most of those things that we consider to be ‘good’ have emerged out of conflict and war.
Humans are a cruel, self-serving species. We’ve orchestrated horrifying events throughout the past centuries. We’ve gone to war more times than I can count, and continue to do so. We’ve enslaved or eradicated entire groups of people. We’ve traumatized, demoralized, dehumanized, and administered unspeakable torture.
And instead of choosing to heal from these hurts, we hang on for dear life. We feel sorry for ourselves and pick at the wounds, we let it fester. We refuse to let go of the things that were done by our ancestors — and to our ancestor. We cling to it with fierce determination, hell-bent on retribution. Validation and revenge. We rant and scream about hate when we should encourage love.
Who was right? Who was wrong? We endlessly debate this question with no right answer, instead of living in the present to create a peaceful future. Instead of making ‘now’ a good place to be, by our words and actions. We continue to revive and relive history, taking offence in the actions of our predecessors, and ultimately recreating them, taking vengeance on those who look the part. We bring history back to life and take our self-justified revenge on the people of this generation as if they were the ones who personally persecuted us.
I ask you: should we let events that happened hundreds of years ago dictate how we live our lives today?
People. We are not our ancestors. They were not us! Let us love, not hate!
Do we make a child pay for the sins of his father? Or do we teach that child a better way instead?
Live and Learn
To live is to learn. To learn, to live. We can usually learn from our own mistakes, but we should also take notes and learn from the mistakes of those before us. Learn what to do. What not to do. We can see — both first and second hand — by being the product of what was, what needs to change in order for us to ensure a better outcome for what will be.
This Woman’s [Unpopular] Opinion
My thoughts on this may not be shared by many, but it’s my hope that they are at least shared by some. In my mind, the concept is quite simple. Or at least, should be simple.
We are but one race: humankind.
We have but one home: planet earth.
A planet we did not create, therefore, do not own. We have ignorantly chosen, and continue to choose segregation. We have repeatedly chosen to divide. To conquer. To argue about who discovered what. To fight over land that we put our name on, to plant our flag in, but is not ours to fight over.
We mistreat our home, and each other, with disregard, arrogance, hatred, and unspeakable violence.
Where there should be unity, there is division. War, where there should be peace. We judge and hate those who appear different from us when we should accept, love, and embrace the undeniable beauty of diversity and individuality.
History has proven time and again that there are no real winners in war. And yet we choose to continue down the same destructive paths paved by those who came before us. We choose to expand the divide.
Real humanity knows no colour. Knows no language but love. It knows no judgement.
Humanity is inclusive, completely. Regardless of whether you believe in one God, or many. Whether you are far left, or far right. Whether your skin is made of light or dark pigments, or no pigments at all. Whether you love men or women, or both, or neither.
Where history has destroyed, humanity should rebuild.
It is our duty as humans to go forth in unity, with love for all as our one guide.
Because we all bleed red.
And because when you turn out the lights, we all look the same. | https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/a-major-instigator-of-modern-conflict-705086443f8a | ['Edie Tuck'] | 2019-10-24 22:26:29.714000+00:00 | ['Society', 'Life', 'Conflict', 'History', 'Change'] |
It has Never Been Easier to Create Animations in Flutter | The UI of a website or an app feels intuitive if it has well-designed animations. A good animation contributes to the look and feel of your application and improves the user experience. Flutter has good animations support which allows you to come up with cool animations. There are many widgets in Flutter. For example the Material Widget, which comes with standard motion effects defined in their design specification.
Let’s Get Started:
Let’s start with a very simple rotation animation. Create a new file in Flutter and copy this code inside it.
If you look at the initState() method you will see that _arroAnimationController variable is initialized at 300 milliseconds. It means the duration of the animation will be 300 milliseconds.
After that _arrowAnimation is initialized with the beginning value of “0.0” along with the end value been set at pi (value = 180). Which means the animation will rotate at 180 degrees.
Let’s now talk about the layout part of the screen. Copy the code given below inside the build method:
Now lets create the firstChild() widget. This is where the actual widget is present which itself contains a widget that needs to be animated and another widget that starts the animation.
This code is easy to understand. The first child of the row icon which needs to be animated is wrapped with AnimatedBuilder widget.
Animated builder widget is the most commonly used widget for creating animations. Instead of calling the setState() method on each change in the value of animation it would be effective and efficient to AnimatedBuilder widget to create animations.
AnimatedBuilder Widget Properties used:
Animation: It expects the variable animation controller which is responsible for controlling the animation.
It expects the variable animation controller which is responsible for controlling the animation. Builder: It is the call back function which is called every time the value of the animation changes. In the above code inside the builder function, we passed the Icon widget wrapped with Transform.rotate() widget.
You may be wondering what Transform.rotate() widget is?
What is Transform.rotate()?
It is a widget that transforms its child along the center for the specified angle the widget needs to be rotated.
This is one example of animation which you can implement in flutter. There are numerous examples of animation techniques. What is more important is to understand and remember the concepts used in running animations in the flutter development platform.
Then there are two widgets which you come across when you do animation in a flutter:
Transitions:
As compared to animation widgets, transition will be harder to use but they will give you cleaner code and create advanced animations. For example, SlideTransition is more lightweight and cleaner to combine. This is not needed to be added in the StatefulWidget because it needs to have access to the Animation object.
Current Transitions in Flutter Animation:
SlideTransition, ScaleTransition, RotationTransition, SizeTransition, FadeTransition, PositionedTransition, RelativePositionedTransition, DecoratedBoxTransition, AlignTransition.
Animated Widgets:
These are compound and prebuild solutions. Some widgets might integrate multiple animations. For example, AnimateContainer can animate color, border, and size simultaneously. When it comes to code, to make similar animations using transitions, you would require much more line of code as compared to Animated Widgets.
One disadvantage of Animated Widgets is that they are much less flexible to change. They need to be in StatefulWidget as setState() needs to be called.
Current Animated Widgets in Flutter Animations:
AnimatedCrossFade, AnimatedContainer, AnimatedPadding, AnimatedAlign, AnimatedPositioned, AnimatedPositionedDirectional, AnimatedOpacity, AnimatedDefaultTextStyle, AnimatedPhysicalModel
We hope this information will help you create awesome animations in the Flutter development environment. Concetto Labs is the best flutter app development company in the market. Our flutter development services are unmatched in the industry. If you need custom applications with the most intuitive UI for your clients then we are the ones you are looking to partner with.
Originally published at https://www.concettolabs.com on October 22, 2019. | https://medium.com/@manish_41106/it-has-never-been-easier-to-create-animations-in-flutter-68a896816843 | ['Manish Patel'] | 2019-10-23 06:53:48.508000+00:00 | ['Flutter App Development', 'Hybrid App Development', 'Mobile App Development'] |
Jean Nassif Launched New Tip In 2022 | How To Run Real Estate Business In 2021–2022 | Real estate development is one of the most profitable small enterprises in the present landscape. A knowledgeable business-minded person willing to take moderate risks can earn a fortune that will allow them to live a happy and satisfying life.
Here are three insights from Toplace Group’s Jean Nassif to guide anyone interested in buying properties and establishing a real estate empire just like he did.
Impossible to Build Rome in a Single Day
Maybe you own a few properties, you’re paying rent, or perhaps you’ve just completed a house flip and are ready to go full-time. Or just maybe, you want to start building a real estate portfolio and generating all of your income from it. As Jean Nassif often says, Rome was not built in a single day.
As a successful real estate developer, Jean Nassif continuously reinvests the profits from his previous projects. He believes in having a solid foundation (figuratively and literally) to build rather than attempting to fund new initiatives with excessive debt.
By experience, Jean Nassif knows that developing effective properties takes extensive time and research effort. It becomes even more essential to take your time regarding a wide range of legislation, construction management, and property administration.
For Jean Nassif, going slow and steady harnesses your ability to accomplish these things optimally. It leads us to Jean Nassif’s following insights: improving your communication skills and understanding the market inside out.
Improve your communication abilities.
Most of the time, real estate developers believe that when it comes to purchasing or selling real estate, “location” is the only keyword that matters. However, for Jean Nassif, a successful real estate developer must possess essential business leadership qualities, the most important of which is communication.
Jean Nassif has put in a lot of effort to create a vibrant work culture at Toplace Group. Everyone from top to bottom is evident in the organizational vision and the measures they need to take to achieve their objectives.
All of this is considered internal communication. It’s just as vital to have a clear understanding as it is to articulate it to others. As such, Jean Nassif views Real estate development as a team effort that requires effective collaboration with bureaucrats, investors, contractors, attorneys, and renters.
It’s not only about being able to talk and write effectively; it’s also about being structured enough. In doing so, you will ensure to not leave any of your coworkers in the dark about vital information. According to Jean Nassif, a successful developer should quickly identify their strategy for communication with various partners mentioned above. Also, Bear in mind, marketing and advertising is only one kind of communication for a real estate developer.
Jean Nassif has created an appealing brand with Toplace Group that he promotes regularly. He also formulates consistent marketing strategies. However, Jean Nassif also recommends disseminating your message far and wide continuously. These three pointers capture everything it takes to be a successful real estate developer.
Using one’s intelligence while improving their learning, thinking, and communication skills is the key to financial success. And, what could be more fulfilling than being wealthy via intelligent decision-making?
Take control of your market by understanding it
Your market is the place where you’ll want to build the properties. Jean Nassif maintains that you can eventually select multiple cities close to each other or go further. However, every time you move to a new town, there are new restrictions, possible purchasers, competitors, and so on.
So, understanding the market dynamics is the key to building a sustainable real estate business.
Jean Nassif deems it as vital to design at least a preliminary approach before going into the nitty-gritty of knowing the demographics of a county or city, the general availability of properties, property pricing, and valuations.
For Jean Nassif, it’s as much about committing to a market, niche, and strategy as it is about finding a good bargain when it comes to choosing a location. The only way to establish this kind of niche strategy is to understand everything you can about the market environment and all the aspects that shape the market.
https://30seconds.com/jeannassif/
https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jean-nassif-jean-nassif-toplace
https://twitter.com/JeanNassifWork
https://www.f6s.com/jean-nassif | https://medium.com/@jeannassif/jean-nassif-launched-new-tip-in-2022-how-to-run-real-estate-business-in-2021-2022-b090a554ee02 | ['Jean Nassif', 'Jean Nassif Toplace'] | 2021-12-30 11:09:19.851000+00:00 | ['Real Estate Investments', 'Real Estate News', 'Jean Nassif Toplace', 'Real Estate', 'Jean Nassif'] |
The ugly mirror | The system is not broken, it was built this way. We need to acknowledge that which this country was built upon. Although, powerful principles attempted to permeate our fabric, by those we entrusted, sewn in were slave ownership, poorly executed equal opportunity laws, and assassinations of those who spoke change. All followed by the forward motion of implicit bias that continues to seep into our communities, families and the individuals that have not been taught better.
And here we are, Now what? I am not horrified, I am not shocked. I am pained as deeply as I was as a 10 year old girl, learning of MLK and the dream that appeared so real, so close, yet so fiercely taken away. The systemic oppression must be acknowledged in order for us to take true accountability for what has been created. We must understand our history, not the history taught in the textbooks, our real history. My heart is heavy because of humanity. Of course that heaviness is for my black brothers and sisters, but within this lies the child of color who is denied a good education, it’s a parents fear about that conversation she has to have with her child about safety and why this looks different. It’s the communities that feel hopeless because the system is designed for spacial profiling, health disparities and despicable expectations and assumptions.
Speak up…not you.ME, yes YOU, yup and YOU.
I have spent my life seeing it all and knowing very little about what action to take, or how to manage the array of emotions that accompany this sad truth. Education has mobilized me, social media disgusts me and fear paralyzes me. What if what I do changes nothing? But imagine, if all those before me, with me and after me allowed this thought to rule their inaction. I am responsible-despite the discomfort, uncertainty or knowing of the right tasks. Privilege persists. Let us insist on using it for the necessary good. | https://medium.com/@citro-emc/the-ugly-mirror-d3fa67d68e75 | ['Maria Citro'] | 2020-11-05 21:20:22.839000+00:00 | ['Hope', 'Racial Justice', 'White Privilege'] |
How to show collaborative skills on a resume | How to show collaborative skills on a resume
“Any time I’m looking at a candidates resume, I look for words like “collaborative”. Simple enough. But what you want to see is that it’s not “I, I, I.” And that’s very common because people think that if they don’t promote themselves, they won’t be seen for what they’re actually doing.
That’s the opposite of what needs to happen when you’re working for tech companies. Something as simple as group projects. Even if you’re an experienced professional, I’m looking at you talking about team interaction. And leadership. People think leadership means management, and it doesn’t. Sometimes being a servant leader, get my hands dirty and play my roll, is more effective.
But I go beyond the resume. I’ve had instances where someone is great on paper, but if I brought them onsite, my hiring managers would be perturbed. Because that person would not be able to get that you have to collaborate and be comfortable with group thought.”
From the XFN Conf 2020 panel: “Show Your XFN: How Companies Hire for Collaboration” | https://medium.com/xfn-community/how-to-show-collaborative-skills-on-a-resume-620b2abd0ef2 | ['Nicky Depaul'] | 2020-12-18 23:04:34.741000+00:00 | ['Professional Development', 'Advice', 'Resume Writing', 'Recruiting'] |
Star and Bone | POETRY
Star and Bone
A free-verse poem
Perspective View of the Visible Creation by Thomas Wright, 1750
the ribs have remodelled
and my lungs expand bright
the year after I died,
after groping tissues
faltered through lost eras,
the cage protecting the heart
needed breaking
to release its osteoblasts,
the mineral shimmer
in fabric of flesh
of constellation building,
the cellular matrix
survives the fractured dark,
in photon body
living the breaks,
I’ve entered nothing,
that leaves nothing
but light | https://medium.com/loose-words/star-and-bone-5cea444283e2 | ['Jessica Lee Mcmillan'] | 2020-12-27 16:38:12.024000+00:00 | ['Healing', 'Survival', 'Connection', 'Poetry', 'Life'] |
Are Digital Wearable Gadgets the Best Way to Detect Covid-19… | Are Digital Wearable Gadgets the Best Way to Detect Covid-19…
I work as a part-time substitute teacher in colleges and schools. Occasionally I am called for ‘cover’ where there is a teacher sick or unable to take a class. I have found myself particularly wanted during the ‘Covid’ period — many teachers have had to take periods of self-isolation on account of family members, or for themselves. To stop me from bringing COVID into the host college despite being asymptomatic, I am stopped at the entrance where a security guard takes my temperature with a digital thermometer — a 1-2-second procedure. If my temperature shows above 37.5 degrees centigrade (99.5F), I will not be allowed to enter. This seems a widespread practice among UK educational institutions — I have often wondered how accurate it is.
The method of taking people’s temperature on entering public buildings to detect possible Covid-19 symptoms in a visitor, is not the most effective, warns Ruth Reader in Fast Company. A sudden bout of fever, present at the moment of tracking, is an event not always guaranteed even in virus carriers, as fever symptoms go ‘up and down’ — they can resurface at different times of the day and are assuaged in cold weather.
Much more reliable are wearable devices, like the Oura ring, which can provide an insight into baseline temperature fluctuations over periods of time, longer than the momentary capture. University researchers from both California and San Diego have studied the patterns provided by the constant temperature surveillance of finger-worn sleep trackers in medical professionals and volunteers, to conclude that these are a ‘promising method’ for predicting the onset of fever, triggered by Covid-19.
An experiment in a North Carolina elementary school, which provided its students and their families with smart thermometers and a tracking app, proved effective in the early detection of outbreaks of the flu virus, managing to send the affected kids home before they could infect their friends. The school had been monitoring the students’ temperature baselines over several days — they claim that ‘’smart thermometers could be the secret to re-opening schools’’.
According to Prof. Dr. Ishani Ghanguli from Harvard Medical School,
‘’From a public health standpoint, understanding if [a disease] is coming from one grade or one classroom — where we know the kids are clustering together — helps you stem a potential outbreak of flu or another virus….”
It seems that the same principle could be applied to future coronavirus epidemics, of which Covid-19 may be only the onset. | https://medium.com/illumination/are-digital-wearable-gadgets-the-best-way-to-detect-covid-19-8c530bc7a61 | ['Chrissie Powers'] | 2020-12-28 18:06:06.148000+00:00 | ['Gadgets', 'Covid 19', 'Health', 'Tech', 'Society'] |
What is APC Replacement Battery Cartridge #17? At a cheap price Morgan Atlantic Ae | What is APC Replacement Battery Cartridge #17? At a cheap price Morgan Atlantic Ae Morgan atlanticae Aug 17·4 min read
APC RBC17-Replace RBC battery-operated
The new replacement battery-operated pack for APC RBC17 comprises 1 battery-SP12–9HR (12V 9 AH). You must use current cables and hardware to connect the UPS cordless.
· First-class UPS battery
· High rate release design
· Presentation assurance
· Brand new, fresh from the unique factory
· List and same-day distribution
· Expert customer support
Our spare APC RBC17 battery is intended for high-rate release UPS requests that require higher power production in a short retro. Our tech-savvy staffs will for myself test all our UPS series and ensure that they meet or exceed OEM stipulations.
General battery specifications
RBC is a spare battery box for an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The UPS is a cordless backup power source.
• 12-volt battery
• 1 maintenance-free closed lead-acid battery (12V 9ah)
• Maintenance-free sealed lead-acid watertight battery
• APC RBC17 spare battery pack technical specifications
• Distance: 5.95 inches (151.00 mm)
• Size: 3.72 inches (94.00 mm)
• Height: 2.56 inches (65.00 mm)
• Heaviness: 5.00 lbs.
Shipping weight: 7.00 lbs.
• Working environment: 0–40 degrees. C
• Storage fever: -15–45 degrees. C
• Meets or exceeds the stipulations of the original UPS builder
APC RBC17 Replace the battery Contents of the battery pack
• 1 sealed lead-acid battery with restraint and connector
• Connection guide and reprocessing guide
• Refillable packaging, old batteries can be sent back to ABC for recycling
• Plug-and-play and hot-swappable whole mechanisms
• Predictable battery life: 3–5 years
UPS battery replacement instructions and attributes
• Factory-made according to the exact stipulations of the OEM battery
• The RBC meeting comes with all essential connectors, cables, fuses, and appropriate metal inclusions. “No assembly required”
• The ABC cordless is pre-charged and can be used directly, reducing connection time and UPS stoppage
• Plug and play and hot plug compatibility to simplify connection
• Connection and reprocessing guide comprised with the product
• ABC battery is a reliable holdup power source that maximizes working time while plummeting the risk of losing critical info
Single battery technical conditions
• Label size: 0.25
• 5.95" x 2.56" x 3.72"
• 1 battery: 12V, 9Ah
Use ABC UPS to replace batteries to reduce costs and save money
ABC’s UPS extra battery workings are 20%-70% inexpensive than OEM batteries. Our series will provide you with a first-class presentation and dual the industry standard guarantee. This will save you money when you buy and decrease the number of times you need to acquisitions replacement batteries for UPS gear. This can save you hundreds of dollars through the life cycle of UPS.
End of life
At the end of its useful life, the crops in the spare battery box series have been enhanced to reduce the quantity of waste and allow the reprocessing of product mechanisms and resources. This product line contains batteries that should be unglued from the waste stream to enhance end-of-life action through special conduct. The location of these mechanisms and other references are given in the end-of-life orders for the creation family.
The “ECO’DEEE recyclability and recyclability control method” (V1 version, succumbed to the French ecological and energy organization agency: ADEME on September 20, 2008) has been used to assess the recyclability possible of the product. According to this method, the probable recoverable rate is 41%. As labeled in the recyclability control technique, this ratio only comprises metals and plastics from proven manufacturing reprocessing procedures.
Suitable and compliant UPS battery replacement
The leak-free lead-acid stratagem of APC RBC 17 fully obeys global safe transport regulations. We also allow our clientele to easily contribute to protecting the situation from damaging metals and substances through our cordless recycling program, in which we reuse most of the lead in the series repaid to us. | https://medium.com/@morganatlanticae/what-is-apc-replacement-battery-cartridge-17-at-a-cheap-price-morgan-atlantic-ae-9f5dfc3e91b5 | ['Morgan Atlanticae'] | 2021-08-17 11:10:01.034000+00:00 | ['Apc', 'Battery', 'Cartridge'] |
A Story of Photography | When I was thirteen years old, I decided to take a Photography as one of my elective classes. Photography had seemed interesting since I was a little kid. A few years before I took this photography class, I went to a one day photography camp in a small town a short ways away from this big city I live in. That was when I got my first camera, which was the stereotypical feminine color of my childhood: hot pink.
To be quite frank, it was hideous; shiny and bold, yet so predictable. But even so, I loved that camera with every fiber of my being. I took it with me to the aquarium, to the park, to my school, and on hikes, snapping so many pictures and recording dozens of videos. I filled it’s memory card up with luminescent jellyfish and blurry pictures of the people that I loved. Now that beloved camera is lost inside of a bin that I’ve filled with cords and wires and batteries.
Because when I was in eighth grade, that Photography class warped and crushed up my fondness for photographs. Due to a mix of the words spoken by my teacher and the comments made by my classmates, I began to realize that photography is just a way of holding onto the things that you need to let go of. I decided to live in the moment, take photographs with my eyes and store them inside of my internal memory card.
On certain rainy days, throughout specific years, I will go back and look at my old photos. Why did I try to make something that was ugly and messy look beautiful and serene? Was it to mask the pain, the hurt, and the bitter parts of the sweetness this world has to offer? Maybe I just wanted to pretend like that world was perfect and pretty and whole. But pretending can only get you so far in life and masks come off over time. I’m ready now, I suppose, for the harsh reality that is the world we live in today.
Instead of trying to trap destruction inside of a camera and call it art, I will make the world beautiful on my own, using the small flicker of hope inside me to start a fire of happiness in the world around me. | https://medium.com/@emmaelisesladden/when-i-was-thirteen-years-old-i-decided-to-take-a-photography-as-one-of-my-elective-classes-406f2b39bb63 | ['Emma Sladden'] | 2020-12-26 03:02:50.946000+00:00 | ['Blog', 'Photography', 'Storytelling', 'Thoughts And Feelings', 'Thoughts'] |
Best Practices: Harry Saag | The co-founder and CEO of Roster Health on addressing social determinants of health and redefining healthcare delivery with more equitable, localized solutions.
By Maya De La Rosa-Cohen
As the former Medical Director for Ambulatory Quality and Network Integration at NYU Langone Health and a practicing hospitalist, Dr. Harry Saag has a deep understanding of the unique challenges facing healthcare organizations today — particularly when it comes to care and payment models.
Two years ago, Dr. Saag co-founded Roster Health to redefine healthcare delivery beyond the traditional four walls of clinics and hospitals. Read on to learn more about his passion for leveraging social determinants of health to deliver actionable health insights and developing equitable, value-based payment models.
How did you get started in medicine and how did you choose your specialty?
I was first exposed to medicine through my father, who was an HIV doctor in Birmingham, Alabama during the height of the epidemic. Thanks to his work and that of his colleagues, I had a unique lens through which I observed the arc of HIV. I saw how it started as a death sentence for many, and continued to evolve up to the point where it became what it is now: A manageable and treatable chronic disease. Although no one referred to it as ‘social determinants of health’ back then, I also saw how important addressing the non-medical barriers his patients faced could impact their ability to lead healthy, happy lives. He and his colleagues at the HIV clinic in Birmingham called the 1917 Clinic were ahead of their time in providing whole-person care and that has always stuck with me.
Even still, when I started college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was very interested in economics, and decided to major in it while taking science classes on the side. By the time I applied and entered medical school, my economics background sparked a genuine interest in learning more about how we pay for healthcare in the United States.
Over time, I gravitated towards this question and spent a lot of my non-clinical work with hospital administrators and mentors who helped me understand how we finance healthcare in this country. It was an important and formative experience that opened my eyes to the complexity of financing in the US healthcare system.
When it came time for my residency, I knew that I wanted to become an internist, but I also wanted to go to an institution that would provide a diverse patient experience and enable me to see multiple hospital systems at work. I was fortunate to match at NYU, a residency program that comprises three independent hospitals: NYU, an academic medical center, Bellevue Hospital, one of the largest publicly funded hospital systems in the country, and the VA, which is a single-payer federally funded system. As someone who was interested in investigating the ways in which we pay for health care, it was a fascinating place to train.
What inspired you to co-found Roster Health?
During residency, I gravitated toward alternative payment models, which include any form of reimbursing or financing healthcare that isn’t a fee-for-service model — the predominant way that healthcare is currently funded in this country.
After I completed my residency, NYU offered me the position of Medical Director of their Value-Based Contracts Division, which we called the Division of Network Integration. I soon had a front-row seat to see how these alternative payment models worked in action.
By participating in value-based contracts, doctors and hospitals assume some amount of financial risk, instead of offering a simple fee-for-service model. In this alternative payment model, we at NYU had to work around quality and cost benchmarks in order to effectively manage a population and keep them healthy and happy at home. Working with these value-based models also demonstrated how the system, doctors, and administrators were aligned as one group around a central mission: treating people in the right place, at the right time, and with the right resources.
What I saw come up time and time again, was that it wasn’t a lack of clinical care that was the biggest obstacle in achieving this goal, but helping patients address their non-clinical barriers to good health. In other words, it wasn’t that we as practitioners didn’t know how to treat diabetes, or heart failure, or COPD, or even the 30-minute office visits that were affecting outcomes. Instead, it was the 30 days in between appointments when what now we all refer to as the social determinants of health can significantly impact a good or bad outcome for patients — and for our larger healthcare systems, too.
There were three pain points or blind spots I was seeing in the social determinant space: One was the lack of social determinant data that organizations had to understand their population from the lens of whole-person care. The second was what interventions or solutions can be deployed to address these social determinants, and the third was how to finance these efforts sustainably. Seeing these unmet needs was the genesis of my decision to step out of academia and start Roster Health.
Your work is rooted in addressing social determinants of health. Can you tell us more about this work?
At Roster Health, we help health systems, clinics, and health plans uncover the hidden layer of information that isn’t available in traditional claims and clinical data. By leveraging this data, we help them understand how to meet their patients where they are in order to drive the best outcomes possible.
We feel strongly that this is an unprecedented opportunity to help uncover what’s really going on in a patient’s life besides their disease states, diagnosis codes, or past utilization data.
On a concrete level, we help them to understand the social determinants that are impacting their patients’ or members’ health. Factors like does your patient live alone, own a car, or have social connections in the community? Do they have access to broadband and digitally connected devices?
We weave all of that data and information into actionable insights that community health workers, care managers, or social workers can use to do their job more effectively and ultimately help the patient have the best outcome at the lowest cost.
How has Covid informed this data?
The global pandemic has shone a brighter light on social determinants of health and how important they are in dictating health outcomes.
The pandemic has made it very clear that if we’re serious about finding ways to deliver better outcomes at lower costs, we’re going to have to start doing things very differently. And one of the biggest things that we have to learn how to do is to treat the whole person. I think the pandemic has accelerated the recognition that we’re going to have to change the way that we think about data, engaging patients, and providing meaningful and successful care.
We’ve heard from many practitioners about how telemedicine has improved access to care. Can you tell us more about how you’ve experienced it exacerbating health inequity?
I think it’s clear that the digital health revolution and the general concept of care moving outside the clinic and into people’s homes and communities is only going to grow once the pandemic ends. This is a good thing, but it’s also highlighted an existing disparity when it comes to digital literacy and digital access.
As a system, we need to be cognizant of not unintentionally worsening health care disparities. When it comes to telehealth, this means making sure that everyone has access to broadband and digital devices, but it also means making sure everyone has the digital literacy to leverage these tools.
The other key success factor is who can provide the whole-person care experience. It may start with a basic two-way audiovisual feed, but building and delivering effective telehealth programs is also about managing follow-up care, especially for someone who has chronic diseases. Ensuring key care elements like obtaining vital signs, performing medical reconciliation, virtual physical exam tools, and helping patients execute the ‘after visit plan’ will separate the successful models from the unsuccessful ones. The concept of whole-person care will be even more critical in a digitally-enabled world.
How can we ensure that no one gets left behind as we explore new models of care delivery?
Partnerships, scalability, and financing models will be key to ensuring no one gets left behind. Taking scalable technology and crafting local solutions is essential. It’s about fostering partnerships between payers, physicians, health systems, and community groups to co-create solutions with tight goal congruence across stakeholders.
Even if we create a great piece of technology, or have all of the right data, when you get down to the actionable solution, it has to be tailored to the community. And its champions have to be the local members of the community because that’s who patients trust most. And trust is the ultimate currency in healthcare.
So, how do you help local communities grant accessibility to tools and technology in health? Let them be a part of the solution in partnership with established payers, health systems, and physician groups.
I’m more optimistic than ever that we have finally reached a boiling point where a system as complex as our healthcare system is ready for transformational change. There is so much energy and enthusiasm right now about new payment, delivery, and data models — I think we’ll start to see this collective experience, as well as the catalyst of the pandemic, lead to meaningful positive change in the industry.
Vital Signs
Where’s your favorite place to go for a walk in New York? Battery Park, I love looking at the Statue of Liberty.
How do you de-stress? I take my English bulldog, Lumpkin, out for walks.
Do you have a favorite book, TV show, or podcast of late? Team of Teams, by Stanley McChrystal.
What’s one healthful habit you’d love to see patients adopt? Find a coach. It can be a friend, mentor in your field, or even an acquaintance — anyone that you have some trust with that can be an objective sounding board. This is something that I found incredibly helpful, both personally and professionally.
You can learn more about Dr. Harry Saag here.
Know a great doctor or medical practice? We’d love to connect with them; introduce us here! | https://medium.com/capsule-cares/best-practices-harry-saag-9071e9f3eebc | [] | 2021-01-26 02:46:57.624000+00:00 | ['Healthcare Delivery', 'Best Practices', 'Healthcare Technology', 'Value Based Care', 'Hospitalist'] |
Why network? | Every successful (or even unsuccessful) entrepreneur says that number one priority for people like him should to be network like mad.
So why do entrepreneurs network so vigorously? Well, some studies show that 70% of the deals funded come through referrals. Some VCs even insist that all the business plans that come to them directly (through email) usually end up going to either spam or trash folder. Neither folder is a good destination. So moral of the story is: if you *ever* want to get venture funding in your life make sure you know a couple of people who know VCs. And what better way to know these people except going to conferences, having a chat and then exchanging business cards with them.
But it doesn’t just end here. Come on, now admit that of all business cards you have, how many people you actually know and how many would you like to refer to somebody in future. Chances are that the number is zero. In India, people just dole out their business cards at every opportunity possible (even I do that!). With this deluge of business cards pouring in to the person you want to network with, how do you make sure that he actually remembers you?
The answer is two-fold: have a non-standard card which stands out of the bunch and follow up with the person honestly. Following up is much important than having an oval shaped magenta colored card. After you hand over your card to someone, graciously ask for her card. And then after 1–2 days, email her saying that you enjoyed meeting her and then end the email with a broad question. This will force her to reply so that you can continue with the conversation for weeks to come and form a strong relationship.
And even generally, if you come across someone’s homepage who is interesting, just shoot him (for example, me) a mail and form a connection. Trust me, this would really, really help you in long term. | https://medium.com/@abishekbabu/why-network-9d8fb697e05f | ['Abishek Babu'] | 2020-12-22 18:51:57.261000+00:00 | ['Entrepreneur', 'Networking'] |
Are You a Perfectionist? | How to quiet our inner critic and tap into our greatness.
Perfectionists spend endless hours researching the ultimate school for their child, creating the ideal family holiday, or finding that elusive gift.
At work, they are so consumed with self-doubt about their performance, an upcoming project, or an important meeting that they feel paralyzed.
They may never be satisfied with their appearance, the tidiness of their house, or their achievements.
Living a life of perfection is exhausting. Sometimes when I write my weekly blog, I struggle to find a balance between what is “good enough” and what “could be better.” I often spend too much time trying to make my writing flawless. I find myself stuck in the wasteland of perfectionism.
When we are overwhelmed with our need to make things perfect or obsess about what is wrong, we block our creativity and intuition from flourishing. It’s the fear of making a mistake that keeps us from moving forward.
There may be a powerful voice inside your head filling you with self-doubt and telling you you’re not good enough or you are not worthy. It’s your inner critic exuding pressure to try to keep you safe from embarrassment, humiliation, and the fear of being judged.
Dr. Paul Hewitt, one of the most respected research psychologists said, “The need to be or appear to be perfect is a defensive position and serves, in a costly and ineffective manner, the purpose of attempting to solve problems of not fitting, not belonging, not being accepted or mattering to others, and problems of feeling, at the core, not good enough, flawed, defective, fragile, and unworthy.”
We often lose sight of what’s really important: connecting with our loved ones, stepping into our authenticity, and sharing our unique gifts. Here are 3 things you can do to get unstuck:
Identify it. Bring awareness to that voice inside your head that is trying to subvert your gifts. Observe it with curiosity and grace. Validate it. Accept that this is a part of you that is trying to keep you safe from embarrassment. But it does not represent all of you. Regain your power. Thank it for keeping you safe from humiliation and let go of its control over you. You don’t need it anymore.
Each week I challenge myself to get out of my head and into my heart-to quiet that inner critic and find the courage to publish my blog. I lean into vulnerability and tap into confidence, knowing that being a life coach is what brings meaning to this chapter of my life.
Let’s all disempower our inner critic and tap into our greatness.
“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
-Maya Angelou | https://medium.com/@jeaninemouchawar/are-you-a-perfectionist-cb1c0b481fce | ['Jeanine Mouchawar'] | 2020-12-17 22:10:34.521000+00:00 | ['Empowerment', 'Life Coach', 'Vulnerability', 'Energy', 'Confidence'] |
First Crypto Asset Hedge Fund Launched by Tradecraft Capital | LOS ANGELES, CA. MAY 14, 2018 — Tradecraft Capital, a crypto asset hedge fund and investment company, announced today the launch of its first fund, the Tradecraft Crypto Asset Fund (the “Fund”). The Fund is an actively-managed portfolio of concentrated, high-conviction positions. Unlike many crypto hedge funds that act more as a long-term focused venture fund or a typical long-short trading hedge fund, the Fund is focused on active management with a medium-term time horizon.
Crypto assets have continued their growth in awareness as an alternative investment class, including currencies such as Bitcoin, Ether (the token of Ethereum) and others. The total market cap for all cryptocurrencies is currently around $400 billion, with projections of up to $10 trillion according to RBC Capital Markets. The Fund sees this as a prime opportunity to get in early on something that could be more transformational globally than the Internet.
“Crypto assets are the first invention in ‘money’ since double-entry accounting was invented in the 1400’s. Blockchain and crypto assets will revolutionize how we transact business because it offers new ways to accumulate, govern, store and transfer value,” said Jake Ryan, Founder and Fund Manager of Tradecraft Capital. “The Tradecraft Crypto Asset Fund aims to encompass the transformative elements of this new monetary invention and provide investors exposure to this new asset class.”
The Tradecraft Crypto Asset Fund is a long-only fund, which means it doesn’t take short positions on the crypto market. This is also an always-long fund, so it will always own some crypto assets. The investment objective of the fund is to achieve capital appreciation and maximize absolute returns by offering investors exposure to a broad range of crypto assets, whose value is secured by cryptography and other blockchain technologies.
Founded by entrepreneur and investor Jake Ryan, Tradecraft Crypto Asset Fund seeks to maximize risk-adjusted return by active management of 15–35 high-conviction portfolio positions. The company uses defined crypto asset classes to assist in the portfolio asset allocation and rebalancing processes.
Prior to founding Tradecraft Capital, Mr. Ryan had 20 years of professional experience in developing software technology, as well as personal experience managing his own investment accounts, including trading and investing in stocks, bonds, real estate, and more recently, crypto assets. From 2001 to present, Mr. Ryan has been the founder and CEO of Venice Consulting Group (VCG), a custom software development firm. He’s an angel investor, an advisor at Mucker Labs and an advisor to two startups. Mr. Ryan is also the managing principal and portfolio manager of the fund.
Mr. Ryan is an author of research work in artificial intelligence (AI), security and privacy. He has been the keynote speaker at AI conferences and has published his work, “Intrusion Detection with Neural Networks”, which has over 600 Google Scholar Citations.
For more information, visit: https://www.tradecraft.capital/
___________________________________________________________________
About Tradecraft Capital
Tradecraft Capital is a crypto asset hedge fund and investment company. The investment objective is to achieve capital appreciation and maximize absolute returns by offering investors exposure to a broad range of crypto assets whose value is secured by cryptography and other blockchain technologies. The Fund is an actively-managed portfolio of crypto assets offering exposure to the hyper-growth of blockchain technologies. Request a fund fact sheet for more information by visiting https://www.tradecraft.capital/.
Twitter: @TradecraftC Medium: Tradecraft Capital
###
Media Contact:
Anastasia Vedrova
[email protected]
855–202–0824 x12 | https://medium.com/tradecraft-capital/first-crypto-asset-hedge-fund-launched-by-tradecraft-capital-6287fdc339fb | ['Jake Ryan'] | 2018-06-04 19:19:47.836000+00:00 | ['Cryptocurrency Investment', 'Crypto', 'Investing', 'Cryptocurrency', 'Hedge Funds'] |
How Hydra Solves the Supply Problem | The coin supply of a blockchain is one of its most fundamental economic properties. But even more interesting than the actual supply is the rate at which it changes. Is the rate of change fast or slow? And what are the factors impacting it?
Although Bitcoin is known for its limited supply property, truth is that it started out from an hyper-inflation state (1,000%+) and still continues to mint new coins with each block.
Why is it so important? To put it simple: miners must be paid for their work, for which there are only two sustainable sources.
Transactional Economy
The first option is to reward miners with transaction fees. However, this fundamentally good idea has its problems. For example, there is no guarantee that there will be enough transactions, generating sufficient income to maintain a high number of miners. If there is no income, they may give up their work due to the lack of attractive returns, which means that the protection of the blockchain is no longer adequately secured.
It is also possible that many transactions are made — but that the maximum capacity of the blockchain has already been reached. When this happens, there is no way for a stagnating transactional economy to compensate for a price increase of the underlying coin. If the network value rises over time (through the coin price increasing), but the income for miners doesn’t grow at the same rate, it makes the blockchain increasingly attractive for an attacker. Just imagine the potential reward for attackers continuously growing while the difficulty of attack remains constant.
Inflation
This is why it’s good to have a second source of income, namely inflation-based block rewards. In contrast to the first source described above, they are not dependent on the transactional activity at all and thus represent a base-line income for miners. It guarantees miners a minimum yield, regardless of the actual performance of the chain. Since the rewards are minted in the form of coins, there is also no risk in terms of over-performing coin prices. The security of the blockchain scales proportionally to its value.
However, the guaranteed protection comes at the cost of a growing supply.
Fixing the Supply Problem
Most blockchains try to predict complex dynamics far into the future and decide on a one-size fits all setting upon launch. Bitcoin is a perfect example for this. The rate at which new coins are minted is scheduled to half every 4 years, with no regard to the actual market environment, transactional economy or its security factor. All of these change dynamically over time, with the direction and magnitude of the changes impossible to predict. Yet, Bitcoin operates according to its code and has no mechanism to adapt. So far it turned out to be sufficient, however as block rewards continue to shrink over time and the chain value continues to grow, it is very likely that at some point the chain will become compromised.
Hydra as a chain is neither inflationary, nor deflationary. Although it can turn into a state of both, the direction and magnitude of the supply change can be voted on by coin holders. This gives the chain a very agile character and allows it to dynamically adapt to various external and internal developments. Let’s examine them below.
High Inflation State
At the launch of mainnet, Hydra chain will have limited organic activity, which is why it starts with a strong inflationary setting of 20%. This incentivizes the build-up of a strong staking community right from the beginning and ensures that the chain operates smoothly. However, this setting can be voted up or down by the community through the decentralized governance protocol.
The maximum inflation rate of the chain is 25%. Once it reaches this setting, it is no longer possible to vote it upwards.
Example #1 — Inflation Only
In this example we simulate the Hydra chain at its start-up phase, with high inflation and virtually no or very low transactional activity.
The calculation results in the following outcome:
It is no surprise that the inflation comes out at the 20% rate it was set at. However, because not all coins are staking, the ROI for stakers ends up significantly higher than the inflation rate. At the same time, since there is no transactional activity, 100% of staking rewards are coming from inflation-based block rewards.
Hint: Changes between examples are marked this way.
Example #2 — Adding 1 Transaction per Second
In this example we simulate a more advanced state of the chain, with the main difference being that we now have 1 transaction executed per second (on average).
The calculation results in the following outcome:
The inflation rate remained constant, however we now see the effects of the transactional economy. The ROI for stakers has skyrocketed to above 90%, as transaction fees now make up 42.7% of the staking rewards.
Low Inflation State
As mentioned above, the inflation setting is not a constant and can be changed through a democratic governance mechanism. This is very useful when it comes to rebalancing the macro-economy of the chain as a result to major changes. In example #2 we have seen how the transactional economy started lifting the ROI for stakers notably.
Why not take advantage of this by reducing the inflation rate? There are two ways how we can do this. The most straightforward is to simply vote down the inflation rate.
Example #3 — Halving Inflation to 10%
In this example we halve the inflation rate from the previous 20% to only 10%.
Leaving all other factors the same as before, we arrive at the following outcome:
We now have a much more modest inflation rate of only 10%, while still maintaining a very attractive ROI for stakers. The weight of transaction-based rewards has now grown to 60%, which means that more than half of the staking income now depends on sustainable transactional economy.
However, reducing the inflation rate is not the only way to slow down supply growth. Burning coins can be an effective path too.
Example #4 — Introducing Coin Burns
In this example we will keep the inflation rate at 20% and vote up the burn rate to 50% instead. This will burn 50% of all transaction fees at protocol level.
The calculation results in the following outcome:
The outcome turns out to be very comparable to the one of example #3. Both inflation and ROI perform very close and we are able to slow down the inflation by counterbalancing it with coin burns. The biggest difference shows in the weight of transaction fees among the staking rewards. It is only 24%, which is much lower than the 60% of example #3.
This of course is expected, as the transaction fees were heavily used for burning coins before they can arrive at the wallets of the stakers. The advantage of increasing the burn rate as opposed to decreasing inflation is that by keeping inflation-based block rewards as the main pillar of income, it remains highly predictable for stakers. Transaction-based fees on the other hand can turn out to be very volatile and show strong variations from one day to another.
Fixed Supply State
Now we have seen how it is possible to reduce the net inflation by either voting down the inflation rate or voting up the burn rate. But what if we want to go one step further to arrive at a state of fixed supply? Would this be possible?
Let’s run the calculator again. This time we will take both of the actions described above, but simultaneously.
Example #5 — Halving Inflation + Enabling Burn
For this example we reduce the inflation to 10% and at the same time set the burn rate to 50%.
The calculation results in the following outcome:
Although the outcome is not perfectly 0, an inflation rate of 1.48% is close enough for the purpose of demonstration. In this scenario, coins are burnt at the same rate as they are minted, thus cancelling each other out. However, stakers still enjoy an impressive 42.5% ROI for securing the network.
Low Deflation State
The question in the room is now whether this can be extented towards a deflationary state too.
Example #6 — Disabling Inflation
Let’s assume that the chain is seeing some adoption and averages out at 3 transactions per second. As a result, we also set the price of HYDRA to $2.50, in an attempt to reflect the higher demand created by users. As a last change, we also disable the inflation setting, by voting it down to 0%.
The calculation results in the following outcome:
Negative inflation means that the total supply shrinks by 10% per year, which is a very significant rate of reduction. Despite the high deflation, stakers are still able to enjoy a 20% ROI.
However, there is one key limitation to this: HYDRA market price.
Example #7 — Simulating High HYDRA Prices
Let’s simulate the same scenario as in example #6, with the only difference being a much higher price. We keep all settings equal and simulate a $10 HYDRA price instead of $2.50.
The calculation results in the following outcome:
As is clearly visible, both the deflation rate as well as the ROI for stakers has come down significantly. In such a scenario, it may be a good idea to vote up the inflation rate to e.g. 5% to improve the security factor of the network.
High Deflation State
The impact of the HYDRA price also works in the opposite direction. In an oversold state of HYDRA, the burn rate can reach much higher values.
Example #8 — Simulating low HYDRA Prices
Let’s consider the same scenario as in examples #6 and #7, but with a HYDRA price of $1.
The calculation results in the following outcome:
The results show that a $1 price for HYDRA at 3 transactions per second would be a massively oversold condition. More than 25% of the total supply would be burnt within a single year and stakers would enjoy 50% returns in addition to the supply reduction.
This acts as a natural protection against price dumps and ensures that the network has a real and strong fundamental value, based on its transactional economy.
Summary
Hydra is neither an inflationary, nor a deflationary chain. It is simply a flexible chain and can quickly react to pretty much any scenario. This ability to adapt to internal and external factors makes it very resistant and allows for a perfect balance between managing the coin supply and keeping the network secure through happy stakers.
To get a better understanding of the different factors, we invite you to play around with the numbers for yourself through the staking calculator:
Join the Hydra Telegram Community 👇🏼
Hydra is a truly decentralized POS (proof of stake) blockchain and emerged out of the combination of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Qtum. It unifies the best features of all three chains and carries a unique economic layer on top. This makes Hydra not only cutting-edge technology, but also enables a very strong shared economy of which all parties can benefit fairly. | https://medium.com/locktrip/how-hydra-solves-the-supply-problem-b7047b843925 | ['Locktrip.Com', 'Loc Token', 'Official Blog'] | 2020-11-22 16:51:31.273000+00:00 | ['Mining', 'Staking', 'Blockchain', 'Coin', 'Bitcoin'] |
Create a Network Topology Setup in such a way so that System A can ping to two Systems System B and System C but both these systems should not be pinging each other without using any security rule e.g | Create a Network Topology Setup in such a way so that System A can ping to two Systems System B and System C but both these systems should not be pinging each other without using any security rule e.g. firewall etc. Sheetal Agarwal Jun 8·3 min read
❗️ Task Description❗️
🔰 14.1 Create a network Topology Setup in such a way so that System A can ping to two Systems System B and System C but both these systems should not be pinging each other without using any security rule e.g. firewall etc.
Step 1: Create 3 systems and the find the IP addresses of the 3 systems.
In my case -
System_A IP=192.168.43.180 System_B IP=192.168.43.159 System_C IP=192.168.43.60
Step 2: First of all change the IP address of the system A and add a Manual IP as 192.168.43.1.
ifconfig enp0s3
ifconfig enp0s3 192.168.43.1/24
Now check the IP address of System_A.
ifconfig enp0s3
Step 3: Now add the Manual IP to the routing table in System_A.
route -n
route add -net 192.168.43.0/30 enp0s3
Step 4: Now add Manual IP to the System_B as 192.168.43.2.
ifconfig enp0s3
ifconfig enp0s3 192.168.43.2/24
Now Check the IP address of System_B.
Step 5: Now add the Manual IP to the routing table in System_B.
route -n
route add -net 192.168.43.0/31 enp0s3
Step 6: Now add the Manual IP to the System_C as 192.168.43.3.
ifconfig enp0s3
ifconfig enp0s3 192.168.43.3/24
Now Check the IP address of System_C.
Step 7: Now add the Manual IP to the routing table in System_C.
route -n
route add -net 192.168.43.0/31 enp0s3
Step 8: Now ping the System_A to System_B and System_C.
Here, we can see that System_A is pinging to both System_B and System_C.
Step 9: Now Ping the System_B to System_A and System_C.
Here, we can see that System_B is pinging to System_A and not pinging to System_C.
Step 10: Now ping the System_C to System_A and System_C to System_B.
Here, we can see that System_C is pinging to System_A and not pinging to System_B.
That’s it. Task Completed !! | https://medium.com/@sheetalagarwal26/create-a-network-topology-setup-in-such-a-way-so-that-system-a-can-ping-to-two-systems-system-b-and-71bf5b65993 | ['Sheetal Agarwal'] | 2021-06-08 10:09:03.737000+00:00 | ['Linux', 'Networking', 'Redhat Linux', 'IP', 'Network'] |
NYS Paid Leave — 10 Things You Need to Know | New York State paid leave — new law
The new law effective January 1, 2021, with accrual beginning September 30, 2020. The new law allows employee time off for medical treatment, diagnosis, or care for themselves or family members, OR any domestic violence situations, including reporting, treatment, or re-location. Every NYS employer must provide sick and safe leave to all Full-time AND Part-time employees.
Sick and safe leave to full-time and part-time employees
Have four (4) or fewer employees and less than $1 million in revenue?
At least 40 hours of Unpaid sick leave each calendar year.
Have four (4) or fewer employees and more than $1 million in revenue?
At least 40 hours of Paid sick leave each calendar year.
Between 5 and 99 employees?
At least 40 hours of Paid sick leave each calendar year.
More than 100 employees?
At least 56 hours of Paid sick leave each calendar year.
Employers’ obligation
Must notify all existing employees and all new employees upon the date of hire. Must provide all accrued, used, and remaining time upon verbal or written request within 3 days. Must maintain all records for at least six (6) years. Must update leave policies and employee handbook. Must provide these minimum hours of leave, but can offer more.
Extra NYC Requirements
Accrued, used and remaining hours must be present on all employee paystubs. Poster notice is required, “notice of employee rights: safe and sick leave”. Leave can be used if the employer or childcare provider is forcibly closed by order of a public official due to a public health emergency. Any employer, regardless of location, must provide this leave coverage for any employee who works as little as one (1) hour in NYC. Domestic workers are covered. If the employer asks for supporting documentation and the provider charges the employee, the employer is obligated to pay the fee.
What if employers don’t comply?
Violations can lead to fines as high as $15,000 and $500 for each employee.
How can VantagePoint help?
Call to see if you qualify for a free employee handbook and PTO policy review.
Interested in simplifying your PTO obligations and process? Give us a call. We have the platforms and support you need to ‘set it and forget it’. | https://medium.com/@vpointbenefit/nys-paid-leave-10-things-you-need-to-know-96312569eb02 | ['Mark Derosa'] | 2020-12-23 14:08:06.677000+00:00 | ['Benefits', 'Paid Sick Leave', 'New York State', 'Human Resources', 'Paid Leave'] |
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Livestreaming, what’s in it for us?
Technology has advanced significantly since the first internet livestream but we still turn to video for almost everything. Let’s take a brief look at why livestreaming has been held back so far, and what tech innovations will propel livestreaming to the forefront of internet culture. Right now livestreaming is limited to just a few applications for mass public use and the rest are targeted towards businesses. Livestreaming is to today what home computers were in the early 1980s. The world of livestreaming is waiting for a metaphorical VIC-20, a very popular product that will make live streaming as popular as video through iterations and competition.
Shared Video
Do you remember when YouTube wasn’t the YouTube you know today? In 2005, when Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim activated the domain “www.youtube.com" they had a vision. Inspired by the lack of easily accessible video clips online, the creators of YouTube saw a world where people could instantly access videos on the internet without having to download files or search for hours for the right clip. Allegedly inspired by the site “Hot or Not”, YouTube originally began as a dating site (think 80s video dating), but without a large ingress of dating videos, they opted to accept any video submission. And as we all know, that fateful decision changed all of our lives forever. Because of YouTube, the world that YouTube was born in no longer exists. The ability to share videos on the scale permitted by YouTube has brought us closer to the “global village” than I’d wager anyone thought realistically possible. And now with technologies like Starlink, we are moving closer and closer to that eventuality. Although the shared video will never become a legacy technology, before long it will truly have to share the stage with its sibling, livestreaming. Although livestreaming is over 20 years old, it hasn’t gained the incredible worldwide adoption YouTube has. This is largely due to infrastructure issues such as latency, quality, and cost.
Latency is a priority when it comes to livestreams.
Latency is the time it takes for a video to be captured and point a, and viewed at point b. In livestreaming this is done through an encoder-decoder function. Video and audio are captured and turned into code, the code specifies which colours display, when, for how long, and how bright. The code is then sent to the destination, such as a streaming site, where it is decoded into colours and audio again and then displayed on a device like a cell phone. The delay between the image being captured, the code being generated, transmitted, decoded, and played is consistently decreasing. It is now possible to stream content reliably with less than 3 seconds of latency. Sub-second latency is also common and within the next 20 or so years we may witness the last cable broadcast (or perhaps cable will be relegated to the niche market of CB radios, landlines, and AM transmissions).
On average, the latency associated with a cable broadcast is about 6 seconds. This is mainly due to limitations on broadcasts coming from the FCC or another similar organization in the interests of censorship. In terms of real-life, however, a 6 second delay on a broadcast is not that big of a deal. In all honesty a few hours’ delay wouldn’t spell the doom of mankind. But for certain types of broadcasts such as election results or sporting events, latency must be kept at a minimum to maximize the viability of the broadcast.
Sensitive Content is Hard to Monitor
Advances in AI technologies like computer vision have changed the landscape of internet broadcasting. Before too long, algorithms will be better able to prevent sensitive and inappropriate content from being broadcast across the internet on livestreaming platforms. Due to the sheer volume of streams it is much harder to monitor and contain internet broadcasts than it is cable, but we are very near a point where the ability to reliably detect and interrupt inappropriate broadcasts instantaneously. Currently, the majority of content is monitored by humans. And as we’ve learned over the last 50 or so years, computers and machines are much more reliable and consistent than humans could ever be. Everything is moving to an automated space and content moderation is not far behind. We simply don’t have the human resources to monitor every livestream, but with AI we won’t need it.
Video Quality
In the last decade we have seen video quality move from 720p to 1080p to 4K and beyond. I can personally remember a time when 480p was standard and 720p was considered a luxury reserved for only the most well funded YouTube videos. But times have changed and people expect video quality of at least 720p. Live streaming has always had issues meeting the demands of video quality. When watching streams on platforms like Twitch, the video can cut out, lag, drop in quality, and stutter all within about 45 seconds. Of course this isn’t as rampant now as it once was, however, sudden drops in quality will likely be a thorn in the side of live streams for years to come.
Internet Speeds
Perhaps the most common issue one needs to tackle when watching a live stream is their internet speed. Drops in video quality and connection are often due to the quality of the internet connection between the streamer and the viewer. Depending on the location of the parties involved, their distance from the server, and allocated connection speed the stream may experience some errors. And that’s just annoying. Here is a list of the recommended connection speeds for 3 of the most popular streaming applications:
Facebook Live recommends a max bit rate of 4,000 kbps, plus a max audio bit rate of 128 kbps.
YouTube Live recommends a range between 1,500 and 4,000 kbps for video, plus 128 kbps for audio.
Twitch recommends a range between 2,500 and 4,000 kbps for video, plus up to 160 kbps for audio.
Live streams are typically available for those of us with good internet. Every day more people are enjoying high quality speeds provided by fibre optic lines, but it will be a while until these lines can truly penetrate rural and less populated areas. Perhaps when that day comes we will see an upsurge of streaming coming from these areas.
Language Barrier
You can pause and rewind a video if you didn’t understand or hear something, and many video sharing platforms provide the option for subtitles. But you don’t really get that with a live stream. Pausing and rewinding an ongoing stream defeats the purpose of watching a stream. However, the day is soon approaching where we will be able to watch streams, in our own native language with subtitles, even if the streamer speaks something else. Microsoft Azure’s Cognitive Speech Services can give livestreaming platforms an edge in the future as it allows for speech to be automatically translated from language to language. The ability to watch a livestream in real time, with the added benefit of accurate subtitles in one’s own language, will also assist language learners in deciphering spontaneous speech.
Monetization
One of the most damning features of a live stream is the inherent difficulty in monetizing it. As mentioned before, videos can be paused and ads inserted. In videos, sponsored segments can be bought where the creators of the video read lines provided to them. Ads can run before videos etc. But in the case of a spontaneous live stream sponsored content will stick out. In the case of platforms like YouTube there are ways around ads. Ad blockers, the skip ad button, the deplorable premium account, and fast forwarding through sponsored segments all work together to limit the insane amount of ads we see every day. But in the case of a live stream, ads are a bit more difficult.
Live streaming platforms could implement sponsored overlays and borders or a similar graphical method of advertising, but the inclusion of screen shrinking add-ons like that may cause issues on smaller devices where screen size is already limited.
Monthly subscriptions are already the norm, but in the case of a live streaming platform (Twitch Prime not withstanding), it may be difficult for consumers to see the benefit in paying for a service that is by nature unscheduled and unpredictable. Live streams are great for quick entertainment, but as they can go on for hours at a time, re-watching streamed content is inherently time consuming. For this reason, many streamers cut their recorded streams down and upload them to platforms like YouTube where they are monetized through a partnership program. It is likely that for other streaming platforms to really take off, they would need to partner with a larger company and offer services similar to Amazon and Twitch.
What Might the Future of Livestreaming Look Like?
It is difficult to say, as it is with any speculation about the future. Technologies change and advance beyond the scope of our imaginations virtually every decade. But one thing that is almost a certainty is the continued advancement in our communications infrastructure. Fibre optic lines are being run to smaller towns and cities. Services like Google Fiber, which is now only available at 1 gigabit per second, have shown the current capabilities of our internet infrastructure. As services like this expand we can expect to see a large increase in the number of users seeking streams as the service they expect to interact with will be more stable than it currently is now. Livestreaming, at the moment, is used frequently by gamers and Esports and hasn’t yet seen the mass commercial expansion that is coming.
The future of live streaming is on its way. For clues for how it may be in North America we can look to Asia (taobao). Currently, livestreaming is quite popular in the East in terms of a phenomenon that hasn’t quite taken hold on us Westerners, Live Commerce. With retail stores closing left and right, we can’t expect Amazon to pick up all of the slack (as much as I’m sure they would like to). Live streaming affords entrepreneurs and retailers a new opportunity for sales and growth.
Live streaming isn’t the way of the future, video will never die, but the two will co-exist and be used for different purposes, as they are now. Live streaming can bring serious benefits to education as well by offering classrooms guest lessons and tutorials by leading professionals. Live streaming is more beneficial for education than video as it allows students to interact with guest teachers in real-time.
The live streaming market is waiting to be tapped. Right now there are some prospectors, but in North America, no one has really found the vein leading to the mine. So maybe it’s time to get prospecting.
Premier League leaders Liverpool will lock horns against West Bromwich Albion at Anfield on Sunday. The Reds will look to continue the great start they have hard in the season so far and consolidate their position at the top of the points table.
Klopp’s men have found some great form after they have won their last couple of matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace.
West Brom, on the other hand, lost their first match against Sam Allardyce on Sunday when they were handed a 3–0 drubbing at the hands of Aston Villa.
Premier League 2020–21 Liverpool vs West Bromwich Albion: Team News, Injury Update
Thiago Alcantara, Xherdan Shaqiri and James Milner all returned to team training, and we could see Milner and Shaqiri could be available for this game.
West Brom will have to do without Jake Livermore as he is currently serving a suspension. Conor Townsend, Hal Robson-Kanu and Kyle Bartley are also ruled out.
Liverpool vs West Bromwich Albion Probable Staring XI
Liverpool Probable Staring XI: Alisson Becker; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Fabinho, Andy Robertson; Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Naby Keita; Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane
West Bromwich Albion Probable Staring XI: Sam Johnstone; Darnell Furlong, Semi Ajayi, Dara O’Shea, Kieran Gibbs; Matt Phillips, Romaine Sawyers, Matheus Pereira, Connor Gallagher, Grady Diangana; Karlan Grant
Whatever was supposed to happen when the Baggies hired Sam Allardyce clearly hadn’t happened in time for Aston Villa’s visit last weekend.
West Brom created nothing, apart from the strong impression that Big Sam won’t need to worry about how he’s going to spend his £1million survival bonus.
Still, short of turning up and finding where to plug in his sandwich toaster, Allardyce had little time to work his magic. | https://medium.com/@opoitopew/2020-soccer-live-2d73fb1a2641 | [] | 2020-12-27 10:28:10.044000+00:00 | ['Soccer'] |
Genesis | Lyrics
If you just stare into the water yeah I guess you’ll never drown
And if you’re scared to die a martyr then I guess just back out now
But when the tide rolls into town I bet you’ll wish you learned to swim
And when their bullets strike you down I bet you’ll wish you learned to live
I feed the wild fire and dance with vampires
To stay awake
You built an empire inside some barbed wire
And died a slave
Take a glance between the blinds see through windows of your mind
Take a chance and roll the dice if you’re not here to just survive
And if the window breaks will you escape or hide inside your head
And if the dice you played don’t land your way would you dare to roll again
I feed the wild fire and dance with vampires
To stay awake
You built an empire inside some barbed wire
And died a slave
Pull back the Veil to no avail
Too big to fail This world’s a business
You’re so different like a Muslim a Jew and Christian
Inside the system divide and conquer
They can turn a great man to a monster
Guard the borders like the lines exist
I guess a New World Order wasn’t just a myth
Got something to say? better plead the fifth
Before we play know the game was rigged
Fuck the fame i wanna live for something real
Maybe one day you’ll hear this and break the wheel my sun
If the stars align and the time ever comes
When they kill me off before the job is done
Here’s the blueprint go make some music
And go tell the world that the world is one
I feed the wild fire and dance with vampires
To stay awake
You built an empire inside some barbed wire
And died a slave | https://medium.com/livin-to-inspire/genesis-3d9ed63e083a | [] | 2017-11-10 16:28:26.743000+00:00 | ['New World Order', 'Poetry', 'Music', 'Renaissance', 'Lyrics'] |
Queer Representation is Still a White Men’s Club | YouTube & Queer Representation.
YouTube was founded in 2005 in San Bruno, California, and is now estimated to be worth as much as $300 billion. A list of twenty richest celebrity YouTubers states that queer makeup mogul Jeffree Star ranks number one, with his estimated net worth being $200 million. Other queer YouTubers that make the list are James Charles (an estimated $22 million net worth) and Shane Dawson ($12 million), both of whom are also in the makeup and beauty YouTube industry.
Intersecting Identities.
Jeffree Star identifies as an androgynous cisgender gay male and in an interview for Out magazine Star described himself saying “I’m going to stay a man and look like a girl and everyone’s gonna fuckin’ like it!” Additionally, James Charles identifies as a cisgender gay man and Shane Dawson identifies as a cisgender bisexual man. All three of these beauty influencers are white and Star, Dawson, and Charles have all been embroiled in public controversy regarding racism. All of these particular YouTubers present in ways that are at times feminine or gender-fluid, but they all could be considered prominent “men in makeup.”
Expansion of Queer Representation.
The most notable expansion of queer representation through these prominent YouTubers has been the proliferation of genderqueer and femme presenting identities that have become more widely embraced and supported through massive viewership and online social media fan-bases. Historically, even within the queer community, femme presenting queer people have faced significant marginalization due to heterocentrism and misogyny. However, prominent queer YouTubers such as Star, Dawson, and Charles have utilized their femininity to speak towards a wide market of both heterosexual and queer people who are interested in buying, using, and celebrating makeup.
Continuity of Queer Representation.
Although the expansion of femme genderqueer identities as a powerful cultural and financial source of power is notable, there are significant gaps in queer representation on YouTube. Queer cisgender male whiteness is still the most dominant force in YouTube pop culture representation, and the YouTube beauty world is in many ways a queered cultural replication of a ‘white boys club.’ Internet femme beauty culture and standards, mostly in the form of makeup, is still dominated and primarily shaped by white queer men or people assigned male at birth. Queer representation on YouTube starkly lacks queer-identified cisgender women, trans men, and genderqueer people assigned female at birth who are additionally people of color. The success of Star, Dawson, and Charles is highly tied not only to the usage of makeup but to the rabid consumption of makeup products which all three have directly sold to their audience through makeup-branding deals or even the creation of their own makeup brand. The successful monetizing of femme queerness through commercial products by white queer men has fundamentally led to their mass popularity and accumulation of wealth.
Implications
Ultimately, whether the media platform is YouTube or daytime television, the collective demands of the audience and consumers drive the success of mainstream public figures. The current status quo of capitalist, cisgender, white, and male queer representation is a result of public demand that is not being sufficiently challenged or interrogated. In order to create a more diverse expression of queer representation, the public needs to shift their support to queer content creators and figures that are not currently being launched into the mainstream.
If all of your favorite queer content creators and public figures are starting to look the same, ask yourself why you are only drawn to these creators and who you can also branch out to support. You may just surprise yourself with how much you appreciate the rich content that is derived from people’s diverse perspectives and their creative outlets. | https://medium.com/an-injustice/queer-representation-is-still-a-white-mens-club-b0225d4ab271 | ['Caitlin Laughney'] | 2020-12-24 02:20:39.900000+00:00 | ['LGBTQ', 'Sexuality', 'Racism', 'Social Media', 'YouTube'] |
Patent Newz Box- Stay on top of global patent news- Nov 1, 2020 | MIT Researchers applied patent for a heated face mask
foxnews
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have filed a patent application for a mask with heated copper mesh. The face mask disclosed in the patent application is built to blast the coronavirus particles with heat.
Canon patents lens attachment for smartphones
ubergizmo
The recently granted patent of Canon discloses a lens accessory attachment for a smartphone. This lens accessory disclosed in the patent accommodates a larger glass to improve the overall image quality without relying on the smartphone’s camera.
Researchers secured a patent to improve efficiency in power electronics
news.uark
Researchers at the University of Arkansas have received a patent for a flip-chip wire bondless power device. The power device explained in the patent facilitates higher power efficiency motor drives, solar inverters, and hybrid electric aircraft as an example of its widespread utility.
Read more global patent news and stories… | https://medium.com/@dexpatent/patent-newz-box-stay-on-top-of-global-patent-news-nov-1-2020-cd99f7e9525c | [] | 2020-12-23 11:09:35.106000+00:00 | ['Masks', 'Vaccines', 'Intellectual Property', 'Coronavirus', 'Patents'] |
AKvsAK — Bollywood finally goes Kafkaesque | “Mera ek hi dharam hai, Cinema! Jeena yahan aur marna yahan”
- AK (I’ll keep you guessing which one though)
A riot of real-reel reflections!
Started as what seemed like a parody of sorts, AKvsAk takes a fast-paced, action-packed, intentional, and well laid out jibe at Bollywood itself.
While Anurag Kashyap embodies an all-encompassing spirit of world-directors from Benegal, Stanislavaski, Scorsese, to Tarantino; Anil Kapoor brings forth a culmination of his roles and the ultra-actor performance manifesting Lakhan-Nayak-Mr.India all at once.
The film is a funny-dark-witty work of art with its classic Motwane-Kashyap elements and moments of darkness and chills. The hand-shaking, the leg-thumping, the blood, the bruises, the abuses, and the abstract of creation give life to debutant writer Avinash Sampath in a marathon of what seems like a Race against time (and people) itself.
Developed over more than half a decade, the rolling-breathing heavily-never-stopping camera work, following a running, panicking, sweating Anil Kapoor with Kashyap throwing mind games like a deck of cards, is a fresh take on our own obsession with documenting life rather than living it. This burlesque and brash take continues to mock the facade of social media and our tech-obsessions. Peel another layer and it makes you wonder whether people are actually fooling the algorithm or if the algorithm continues to fool us all. The plot, changing and thrilling, raises more question of what’s real and what’s not. (Like Morpheus peeping at us from under his glasses and through our black mirrors)
At some point, Yogita’s repeatedly asking AK after he rams into a car,” Sir, are you okay, are you okay, are you okay “ is another real jibe at Bollywood and its unreal action-dialogue symbiosis in mainstream cinema.
The movie absolutely has negligible female presence, but despite that, manages to bring forth the question of female safety. The plot single-handedly (in a very Pierre Morel’s Taken-styled manner) highlights the insecurities entailing the mere ‘absence of the female lead role’.
It’s like Childish Gambino’s ‘ This is America’ had a rebirth, but only to hold the mirror to the Indian Bollywood. The actor-director tension is birthed and maintained through the narrative. The obnoxious obsession of the masses with fame and celebrities is further weaved into motion, scene by scene. Furthermore, the satirical media coverage shown in the movie is another slap in the face of our present fourth-estate standards and a mockery of how recent events have been covered or continue to be communicated at a mass scale. (Think Sridevi’s and SSR’s demise)
All an all, a riot, a revelation, a subtle slap and slaughter of cinema itself, AKvsAk is an idea or a taste of what the future potential holds here. Made me nostalgic about the Franco-Rogen-Jonah.Hill-styled visual-verbal-vulgar extravaganza ( think This is the end)
Welcome home, meta-cinema! | https://medium.com/@sharonahluwalia/akvsak-bollywood-finally-goes-kafkaesque-4a0a6dc699f4 | ['Sharan Ahluwalia'] | 2020-12-27 12:18:54.758000+00:00 | ['Movies', 'Bollywood', 'Netflix', 'Akvsak', 'Review'] |
[Linux] 시간 변경 명령어 | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/zoaeo/%EB%A6%AC%EB%88%85%EC%8A%A4-%EC%8B%9C%EA%B0%84-%EB%B3%80%EA%B2%BD-%EB%AA%85%EB%A0%B9%EC%96%B4-f6471ba14c54 | [] | 2020-12-21 00:30:33.001000+00:00 | ['Ntp', 'Programming', 'Linux', 'Ti̇me'] |
[敗物] ADATA SSD for PS4 Pro 外接硬碟 | in In Fitness And In Health | https://medium.com/ddsakura-blog/%E6%95%97%E7%89%A9-adata-ssd-for-ps4-pro-%E5%A4%96%E6%8E%A5%E7%A1%AC%E7%A2%9F-714509fbbe13 | [] | 2020-02-16 00:44:06.972000+00:00 | ['Ssd', '3c', 'Adata', 'External Ssd', 'PS4'] |
Without Turkey, there is no solution in Syria | Without Turkey, there is no solution in Syria
The tensions between the United States and Turkey are getting worse with each passing day due to conflicting views on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who are led by the People’s Protection Units (YPG). We find that the YPG, another cell of the PKK terrorist organization operating in northern Syria, being portrayed in the Western world as only a Syrian-Kurdish group absolutely unacceptable. They are not giving the full details about this organization. Yet the fact remains that there are other Syrian-Kurdish groups, who are not aligned with the YPG, being neglected and hidden from the public. Turkey’s current Operation Peace Spring is not against Kurds in northern Syria but against the YPG, which is aligned with PKK insurgents and guerrillas whose mission is to destabilize Turkey and establish their own country by employing terrorism; they have been attempting this for almost 40 years.
The main objective of Turkey’s military operation is to ensure its security needs on the Turkish-Syrian border, neutralize the terrorists who are aligned with the YPG and the PKK in the region and free the Syrian people from this terror cell’s oppressive hegemony. Also, the Western world should be reminded that this operation is being carried out according to international law, which specifies Turkey’s right to self-defense as outlined in Article 51 of the U.N. Charter while respecting Syria’s territorial integrity and unity.
Turkey has tried to explain this security concern patiently and in a respectful manner, while making clear that it has no more patience when it comes to solving this concern. This has resulted in Turkey taking the necessary precautions on its own. As NATO allies, if the U.S. and Turkey are indeed partners against international terrorism as well as defending democracy, then the U.S. should demonstrate that it understands Turkey’s security concerns by showing support for the people of Turkey.
Ignoring the facts
Even though the PKK, which embraces a Marxist-Leninist ideology, refuses to accept the fact that the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the YPG are oppressing the Syrian people and committing atrocities such as ethnic cleansing against the Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens in Syria, their actions have been well-documented by human rights organizations as well as the millions of Kurds who are living in Turkey and are horrified by these organizations.
Additionally, it is known that the YPG is training children, some even younger than 10 years old, to be fighters, which is a crime according to international law. Bear in mind that Turkey currently shelters approximately 320,000 Syrian Kurds who fled from both Daesh and the YPG. However, the Western world chooses to ignore the fact that Turkey has embraced 3.6 million refugees regardless of their ethnicity, language, religion or race.
Moreover, Turkey’s struggle against the PKK group has taken 40,000 lives so far in three decades of conflict. In that sense, it is erroneous to view the YPG and PKK as separate entities; this only means that Turkey’s struggle against PKK terrorism is being forgotten because the magnitude of the threat these two groups pose in Turkey is not being recognized.
In addition, Turkey has been actively engaged in fighting against the Daesh threat on multiple fronts. We need to remember that Daesh committed 14 attacks in the country, which resulted with the loss of 300 innocent lives. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) neutralized over 3,000 Daesh terrorists and with Operation Euphrates Shield, which was launched in August 2016, enabled 320,000 Syrians to return their homes in northern Syria. So far, Turkey has been an active member of the Global Coalition Against Daesh as the co–chair of the Foreign Terrorist Fighters Working Group, which was formed to contribute to the war effort against the notorious group.
It is clear that at this point a solution in Syria without considering Turkey’s security concerns is impossible to achieve for all parties in the region. Apart from Turkey’s effort to combat terrorism, it has a significant role on the contribution to post-war infrastructure and projects for the refugees and Syria in general.
Therefore, it is safe to conclude that Turkey’s responsibility toward Syria should not be underestimated by backlash in the West due to the current course of events for Turkey, which is working to maintain its security from groups like the PKK, the SDF, the YPG and the PYD — all of whom have been a constant threat to Turkey for nearly three decades.
Source: https://alicinar.com/en/articles/without-turkey-there-is-no-solution-in-syria_1547 | https://medium.com/@alicinarcom/without-turkey-there-is-no-solution-in-syria-e4c393234dbe | ['Ali Cinar'] | 2020-03-07 00:04:57.002000+00:00 | ['Turkey', 'Syria', 'Us Turkey Relations', 'Turkey Syria'] |
In a small house with white walls explaining how your father took his life | Hippie family farm house crash
You needed comfort you I think. Looking at you, long hair, slight femmish beard Adams apple very large for my point of view, and the tears welling, sobbing.
Now knowing what to do and feeling bad. I put my hand on you back but I only could get it on your side. You were too big or I think my hand was too small, I kept saying you were ok rhetorically.
We were in a farm house in San Ysidro. Very dry, dusty area with a set of grain silos and a large field towards the border. We were in a house that looked like it was dumped there, the linoleum floor was a layer thin. Lis, my mother, had transformed it in to a rustic hippie spot with low tables and pillows instead of chairs. It was really bare, Sergio Leone.
Knelling semi Indian style on a pillow on the floor, you took your glasses of and held the brim of your nose while you cried. You sobbed more actuary, honking.
You said your dad had called you, it was going to be his birthday soon. He sounded lonely too me. You said you felt very bad for not visiting him, I asked why you didn’t? You said you didn’t know, that you wanted to smoke some pot with friends and you didn’t call him back.
Later he pulled up his plumbing van to the edge of the train tracks, you said another car pulled up behind him. It looked like your dad was gunning to make it across the track before the train came by but his wheel got stuck.
Hearing all of this, it was like it came out in one breath or my breath came out of me. I felt dizzy.
Then the train hit the van you said, you said it hit the van on the corner of the bumper and it flipped the car up, tore off the roof like a can, Terry flew out and broke his neck and, according to the police, died instantly.
When the police called, you said you were stoned and drove to the accident site. Terry’s tools hand flung all around. All the tools he had collected all of his life you said. You took one of his plumbing wrenches.
You said you had wished you’d called him back or went to visit him. | https://medium.com/@electriquesunshine/hey-pop-i-remember-you-telling-me-your-father-killed-himself-that-was-my-first-memeory-of-talking-8dac7a5c6d98 | ['Electrique Sunshine'] | 2021-01-02 12:38:51.627000+00:00 | ['Hippies', 'First Memory', 'Stoned', 'Suicide', 'Fathers'] |
A Comprehensive Look at My Slightly Unhinged Planning System | My life is a very all-or-nothing proposition.
Either I do all the things or none of them.
So, I’m constantly on the search for some system or program that will work to keep me on top of staying organized. A magical planner or app or something.
I’ve bought an Erin Condren Life Planner every year for the last three years. I usually do pretty well with it until about February. But it’s big and bulky. Too easy not to open up and use. And so I don’t.
And then I spend the rest of the year feeling guilty about the $60 planner that I’m not using — and dealing with that awful pit-of-your-stomach feeling when you’re sure you’re forgetting something miportant.
This year I’ve kind of cobbled together a system that’s finally working for me. I designed part of it myself. Part of it I took from other people. I thought it might be useful to you to know what I’m doing, but also how I came up with it.
Because what I’m using might not be a perfect fit for you. But how I came up with it might help you figure something out that will work perfectly for you.
What I Need to Organize
I started by thinking about what I need to keep track of — and what I don’t. I think what I don’t is just as important as what I do. Because nothing will put me off a plan faster than trying to make myself keep track of things that I don’t really need or want to keep track of.
What I Need to Keep Track Of
Work appointments.
Personal appointments.
Travel schedules.
Work events (launches, etc.)
Goals and habits.
Writing.
A meal plan.
Clients and students.
A work log.
What I Don’t Need to Keep Track Of
My daughter’s sports schedules (her dad does.)
Housekeeping schedules.
Charts micromanging things like how much water I drink or how many steps I take.
Holiday planning.
A personal journal or diary.
Your lists will probably look different from mine. Things that aren’t important to me right now might be very important to you and vice versa. That’s okay! It’s just good to know what you want to keep on top of and what you don’t need to worry about so much.
My Systems
It occurred to me that the reason why the systems I’d tried to use the past didn’t work for me is because they were full of stuff I didn’t need or want. So this time I really thought about exactly what I needed help with.
Keeping track of appointments and deadlines and the thousand things I need to do every week.
Staying on top of student/client information.
A work log.
Accountability.
Once you know what you need help with, you can figure out which systems will work best for you. Here’s what’s been working for me.
Simple Monthly Planner
I use a plain month-at-a-glance calendar with large squares to keep track of my appointments. I’ve found that I really like being able to see my whole month all at once.
You can see that I’m not going for fancy or Instagram ready here. I usually use a pencil so that I can at least make an attempt at erasing if something changes.
FRED
FRED is my Folder for Reaching the End of my Draft. You can read all about FRED below. Or get your own here.
I use FRED to track my writing goals and to keep a work log. Keeping a log is one of the most effective ways I know of staying accountable. That’s incredibly important when you’re self-employed and there’s no outside force imposing deadlines on you.
I use the outside of my FRED to take notes about writing projects. | https://medium.com/the-write-brain/a-comprehensive-look-at-my-slightly-unhinged-planning-system-8a01bdb6a8b4 | ['Shaunta Grimes'] | 2019-11-25 19:50:25.808000+00:00 | ['Life Lessons', 'Planning', 'Organizational Culture', 'Life', 'Productivity'] |
The pandemic CRUSHED my startup, but… | The pandemic crushed my startup back in March, but somehow, that was one of the best things that could’ve happened to me.
Most people don’t know, but I spent most of 2019 building the MVP for my now defunct startup called Bagdrop, a short-term luggage storage and delivery service.
How did it work? Imagine checking out of your Airbnb at 11 AM, but your flight doesn’t leave until 7 PM. What are you going to do with all your luggage?
In the same manner you call an Uber, you can request a Bagdrop by putting in your pickup time and location, drop-off time and location, number of luggage items, and a Bagdrop driver comes to meet you at your pickup time and location to take your luggage to storage, freeing you up to roam the city luggage-free. When it’s time for drop-off, another driver meets you at your drop-off time and location to return your items back to you.
My plan was to launch right before SXSW 2020. Imagine, you land in Austin, TX for SXSW and instead of having to first rush to your Airbnb or hotel to drop-off your luggage, a Bagdrop driver meets you in the airport lobby to take your luggage to storage so you can go catch a show or meet up with friends. Later that day, another driver meets you at your hotel or Airbnb to return your items back to you.
I thought I had it all figured out. 2020 was my year lol
I finished building the MVP (minimum viable product, the most basic version of the app) early February and swiftly switched to business development mode, on the phone and emails trying to set up partnerships with Airbnb hosts and hotels in Austin, as well as partnerships with other luggage storage companies to be their delivery partner.
The initial reception was great! I had hosts signed up on the platform, hotels that were interested, and almost 50 drivers ready to go!
My startup was geared for a breakout launch at SXSW!
Like Mike Tyson said, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”.
That pandemic punched me so hard I thought I got JUMPED!
NOT ONLY did SXSW get cancelled early March, but a couple weeks later Austin, TX went on lockdown and the travel industry came to a halt 🤦🏿♂️. My business, which revolved around the travel industry, had to pack its bags and… nvm 🙃
I was crushed. Seeing my brainchild get popped like that was heartbreaking. A year’s worth of hard work went out the window in a matter of days. No way I could fund the business through the pandemic, especially considering the new safety measures that would’ve had to be put in place to protect my drivers and users, and the potential liability issues. I had to shut down.
But, this story ends well though.
After my startup failed, I refocused on my initial business where I teach people how to code, ROOTs Technology, and launched a YouTube channel (ToluVsTj) to support it. That channel just crossed 2K subscribers, is a few months away from being monetized, and ROOTs Technology has taken off as a result.
Moral of the story: when life gives you pepper, make pepper soup. | https://austinstartups.com/the-pandemic-crushed-my-startup-but-870bf4a47e14 | ['Tj Oyeniyi'] | 2020-12-20 08:14:10.048000+00:00 | ['Covid 19', 'Startup Story', 'Startup Life', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Startup Lessons'] |
Nonstop Dan has a special deal for you — get a password manager and a VPN with a discount | Nonstop Dan has a special deal for you — get a password manager and a VPN with a discount Pete Doot Feb 11, 2020·3 min read
Nonstop Dan is a YouTube channel that shows all the tips and tricks you need to afford that luxury travel. He is a great example that everything is achievable — he’s a college student who travels around the world and can show others how to do it too, without spending thousands of dollars in the process. Dan reviews first and business class, as well as economy and premium class flights. As his schedule is super hectic, Dan tries to find as many time-savers as possible, therefore he encourages his viewers to use a password manager — a tool that can manage all of your most important information in one spot, from your passwords to your credit card credentials.
Are you interested in getting the best password manager deal?
Nonstop Dan offers a discount to a premium password manager but now there’s another deal with an even heftier discount. Another premium password manager — NordPass, now has a great ongoing deal which gives a 50% discount to its 2-year deal and gives 6 extra months. The deal comes down to only $2.49/month. To grab the deal, just click on the link below, as the deal coupon code will apply instantly.
https://nordpass.com/special/?coupon=nordpassdeal
Why choose NordPass?
NordPass is not only a password manager that can autosave and autofill your passwords, but also offers a password strength checker as well as a random password generator. You can import and share your passwords securely with others. Its advantages consist of strong encryption and high-level security, keeping your information private. NordPass also offers its users not only browser extensions, but also apps for easier password maintenance and cross-device sharing.
Why not get a premium VPN service too?
Nonstop Dan’s suggests a password manager that also has a VPN for WiFi protection, but if you’re in need of a dedicated VPN service provider with a few more features — grab NordVPN. NordVPN now has a deal that gives a 70% discount to it’s 3-year deal (only $3.49/month). Click on the link below to get the said deal.
https://nordvpn.com/coupon/deal/?coupon=dealfornord
Why choose NordVPN?
NordVPN is a cybersecurity product that encrypts all your Internet traffic, making you private and secure online. It also lets you easily change your IP address, helping you bypass geo-blocks. Want to stream US Netflix? Just connect to a US server and you’re virtually there. NordVPN has more than 5000+ servers in 60 countries, an adblocker and other convenient features. | https://medium.com/@pbeetdoot/nonstop-dan-password-manager-vpn-deal-ca01d794eb82 | ['Pete Doot'] | 2020-09-17 09:48:33.901000+00:00 | ['Coupon', 'Password Manager', 'Discount', 'Deal', 'VPN'] |
Level Up Your Meeting Culture | „Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results“, says a famous quote. It is often attributed to Einstein. The quote depicts so accurately where we are with meetings. We know about the problems of meetings, and yet we don’t fix them.
Development of time spent in meetings since 2000 according to HighFive.
We have taken it way too far.
Meetings have developed a life of its own, as it seems. It acts a bit like a monster that will eat all the time you give to it. And ask for more.
Most of us are unhappy with our meeting culture. You can hear people moan all over the hallways of our companies. It’s too much. Even worse: too many meetings are a waste of time. People say it steals them all the time for what they call the real work. But it seems we like the pain. We don’t seem to bother enough to make a change. We act a bit like the rabbit before the snake. Freezing instead of doing something.
But we do not have to accept this as our fate. Now is the time to make a change.
In these times, you will probably expect me to talk about asynchronous communication. I will. But I will look at it from a different angle. I will tell you, how to spice up your existing meetings. Along the way, you will learn the basics for a move towards asynchronous communication.
So, get yourself a coffee and lean back — this will be a long read.
Why do we meet?
Good beginnings start with a question: why am I doing this?
For meetings, the overarching question is: what do we meet for? What is the problem we want to solve?
In one word: communication.
I want to remind you that we are doing meetings for a reason. We want to inform people and stay informed. Exchange and discuss ideas. Showcase our products and get feedback on it. Take decisions. We want to establish relationships and strengthen them. We have many good reasons to stay in touch and communicate. But a meeting is often not the least intrusive nor the most effective way to do it.
Sometimes we meet because it’s so easy. Writing down what you have to say seems hard. Harder than verbalizing your thoughts in a meeting or getting on a stage and tell a story. But here comes the problem. There is an asymmetry between you and the receivers of the information. The time you communicate rarely matches the time people need it. It rarely matches the time when people are ready for it.
No wonder that meetings often fall short in achieving the desired outcome.
Think about your audience
What comes to your mind when you think about the audience of your meetings? Do you think of their clothes, the color of skin, or their gender?
There is more than meets the eye.
Take Peter from the introduction as an example. He is widely considered to be a smart guy. He is solving problems for the company. Many of them. Some people say he has a quick perception. In meetings, he often feels slow. He needs time to process and think about new information before he can contribute. If he does, he can often provide valuable input. There are people in your audience that have a hard time focusing on your words for an hour. Others might have a problem to speak up in front of a group. You may not realize it, but those people are there.
In sociology, there is a term called neurodiversity. It coins individual differences in human brains. Like how we learn and process new information. Like how we manage our attention and other mental functions. You don’t have to craft your meetings for people with neurological specialties. But if you think about them, you will end up with strategies that help other people in your company, too.
Ask yourself: How would you communicate with those people and involve them?
It will help you to make more impact.
What can we do?
The ideas below help you improve your meetings. If you apply some in practice, you also build up some habits. Habits that will be fundamental for embracing asynchronous communication.
Respect the time of your fellows
In the introduction, I showed you a situation that you may be familiar with.
Many meetings don’t start or end in time.
Waiting for people who are late seems like a polite thing to do. But is it? Try to put yourself into the position of those who were on time. They also have piles of work on their desk. They might have gone through a stretch to attend your meeting. Respect the time of the people attending your meeting.
If you are the one who’s late: no worries. It happens. Try to reduce the impact of your late arrival. Enter the room in silence. If it’s a video call, make sure to mute yourself.
Be on time if you are running the meeting.
Reduce the impact on the work schedule of your colleagues
I know this is a tricky one.
It’s hard to find a meeting slot, which doesn’t conflict with the working schedule of your colleagues. But it’s crucial to try. For many people in your company, meetings make it outright hard to get anything done. That is not only because there are so many meetings. It’s because the meetings fragment their day. Many jobs need dedicated time to focus. And each meeting is an interruption that is more costly than just the meeting time.
Free blocks of time are golden as they allow to focus.
A tool that could help, although I haven’t personally tested it, is Clockwise. Its job is to optimize your calendar for focus time.
Other than that, here are some simpler tricks:
Aim for shorter meeting slots.
In Google Calendar, there is the option to configure “Speedy meetings”. That shortens the typical meeting slots offered to you by around 5 to 10 minutes. So, 30 minutes become 25 minutes, for example. An hour becomes 50 minutes.
In Google Calendar, there is the option to configure “Speedy meetings”. That shortens the typical meeting slots offered to you by around 5 to 10 minutes. So, 30 minutes become 25 minutes, for example. An hour becomes 50 minutes. Ensure breaks between meetings.
Some people need to breathe, grab a coffee, or go for a walk between meetings. It will help them get ready for the next meeting. As an extra benefit, it's more likely they are on time.
Some people need to breathe, grab a coffee, or go for a walk between meetings. It will help them get ready for the next meeting. As an extra benefit, it's more likely they are on time. Divide the day in a half and reserve one half for deep work
Free blocks of continuous time to work are worth gold for many at your company. Run a survey to find out what suits your people best.
Free blocks of continuous time to work are worth gold for many at your company. Run a survey to find out what suits your people best. Establish meeting-free days.
Aim for one to two days a week, but be pragmatic on it. GitLab, for example, established Focus Fridays. That makes sense because Fridays are a terrible day for meetings, especially for the important ones.
Share a good deal of information upfront
I assume you already prepare your meeting. Like having an agenda and alike? No? Start with it today. A meeting without an agenda is like life without fun. Possible but pointless.
You do it for two reasons:
It allows people to decide if the meeting is interesting for them and if they can contribute. In return, your attendees are more likely interested in participating.
Now, if you want to level up your meeting game, you share as much information as possible upfront. Not all the attendees will prepare themselves for the meeting, but some do. Remember Peter? He likes to be prepared and will appreciate that you allow him to.
I know there are situations where you can’t share too much upfront. Think about it, at least. Storytelling is important — but don’t let it get in the way of effective communication.
Be serious about making attendance optional
Making attendance optional is an excellent idea. But do it half-hearted, and my heart bleeds.
There is often a real risk of missing out. That’s because written communication is often treated step-motherly. Usually, in a way that is barely useful for people who didn’t attend the meeting. Often the best you get is a video recording and a copy of the slides. Reasons for decisions: buried in time.
Here are some guidelines to consider:
Make sure every meeting of relevance gets recorded.
Provide written information about meeting content. Make sure it’s informative for persons who did not attend the meeting.
Deliver it timely. Like, right after the meeting. The easiest way to achieve that is to write a live protocol. You can do that collaboratively.
Do not make decisions in a meeting without sharing information upfront. Even worse: without telling on the agenda that you will ask for a decision.
Think about taking decisions outside of meetings.
Give people the chance to share questions up front if you plan to discuss those questions in the meeting. This is obviously way more effective, if you share a good deal of information up front.
Make all information available at a single point of truth.
Update existing published documents if they are no longer current after the meeting.
Keep in mind that during a meeting, much information is shared verbally. People lack this context if all you provide is slides. It’s your job to offer that context. A recording is better but still not perfect. Provide information in written form if you want to level up. Don’t tell me it’s hard to get writing right. I know. Think about the cost of having meetings with a large audience, if you need an incentive for the amount of work.
Written information is fundamental to asynchronous communication. It’s the concrete for asynchronous communication.
Learn from each other … and others
Take a look at your company. How do people communicate when they don't meet?
Take your development teams as an example, if you have. Of course, they have meetings. But they also use tickets in Jira, comments on Confluence pages, and announce important changes in Teams or Slack channels. They create Merge Requests for code changes and discuss right next to the code. Yes, writing your thoughts down takes time. You also have to think a bit to make those communication channels useful. | https://medium.com/swlh/level-up-your-meeting-culture-54fc0d3f695 | ['Patrick Schönfeld'] | 2020-11-03 02:07:26.823000+00:00 | ['Business', 'Work', 'Meetings', 'Communication', 'Productivity'] |
The Latest: Apple News+ joins the audio article trend (May 18, 2020) | The Latest: Apple News+ joins the audio article trend (May 18, 2020)
Subscribe to The Idea, a weekly newsletter on the business of media, for more news, analysis, and interviews.
THE NEWS
Apple is asking publishers on Apple News+ for permission to create audio versions of some of their stories. According to Digiday, publishers will be compensated 50% of subscriber revenue based on how much time users spend with the content (the same way revenue is split for written content). Apple will also cover all production costs and audio articles will be hosted exclusively on its platform.
SO WHAT
Apple is joining a long list of publishers and platforms that are producing audio versions of articles to reach audiences and retain readers. Audio articles are convenient and accessible, hence their appeal with readers. As The Atlantic’s head of partnerships Kim Lau told News Media Alliance: “Audio articles are about convenience and delivering content in a way that works best for our readers.”
For the past few years, a number of publishers and platforms have been investing in producing their own audio stories. Some, like The Washington Post and Financial Times, have experimented with text-to-speech AI services like Amazon Polly. (In 2017, the Financial Times built a “subscriber-only podcast player of audio articles.” The app shut down in 2018). HBR partnered with the audio news app Noa in June 2019 and has so far converted 50 articles into news narrations. Last fall, Google rolled out a new Google Assistant feature that uses an algorithm to deliver users a custom-build audio news stream. Google’s product manager of audio news told The Verge that the company hopes to foster an “audio web” ecosystem.
The New York Times made a significant investment in the space two months ago when it acquired Audm, a subscription-based audio news startup that produces audio articles for publishers including The Atlantic and The New Yorker. Since launching in 2016, Audm has acquired 20,000 subscribers to its app. Currently, The Times is using Audm to host “The Sunday Read” — a new segment of The Daily show that features read-aloud essays from The Times’ more recent archive to give listeners a brief respite from COVID-19 coverage (read our Q&A with The Times’ Theo Balcomb to learn more about the company’s audio efforts).
Zetland, a Danish digital magazine featured in NiemanReports, has taken the audio article concept further than perhaps anyone: It offers audio playlists on its app that start with a conversational podcast and transitions into audio articles. Zetland co-founder Hakon Mosbech says that these playlists function as a radio: users open the app, press play, and listen until the end of their commute.
Publishers have seen positive returns on their investments so far — which suggests either that listening to articles is a convenient or even preferred way for some audiences to consume their content. Mosbech told NiemanReports that the “average completion rate for an audio story is 90%.” HBR began working with Noa upon realizing that it was missing out on “busy would-be readers.” Maureen Hoch, editor of HBR.org, told NiemanReports: “If you don’t have the time to sit down and read a feature article in the latest issue of the magazine, we’re trying to deliver you something that makes it easier to get that.”
LOOK FOR
The creation of new and innovative publisher digital audio experiences. With more audio articles, publishers have the potential to expand their audio presences and build editorially curated audio news feeds (both on their apps and sites). Partnerships with audio journalism apps also present opportunities to capture new audiences. One reason HBR was excited to work with Noa, according to NiemanReports, “was the company’s potential to work with Land Rover and Jaguar to get their audio into connected cars” and curate content based on location.
Look specifically for how Audm fits into The New York Times’ audio strategy. While Audm will continue publishing audio stories for its partners, HotPod’s Nicholas Quah suggests that perhaps Audm will contribute to the creation of a Times-owned audio product. Bleacher Report’s Noah Chestnut takes it one step further and posits, “What if the NYT was just a play button?”
And finally, look for how audience responses to the usage of playlists, especially ones designed to evoke a radio listening experience. Playlists aren’t entirely new in the narrative audio space, but they are still a relatively fledgling experience. Smart speaker news briefings have been around for just over five years, while Spotify just launched Podcast Playlists earlier this year. | https://medium.com/the-idea/the-latest-apple-news-joins-the-audio-article-trend-may-18-2020-939ecffa6fc8 | ['Tesnim Zekeria'] | 2020-05-19 16:09:07.350000+00:00 | ['Journalism', 'Radio', 'Media', 'Audio', 'The Latest'] |
This Is How I Went from a Youtube Video Creator to a Full Time Filmmaker | Photo: Travis Robertson
I began making videos at the age of 7 years old. A time before speaking to a camera was even cool or understood.
Uploaded to Youtube in 2010. Screenshot Photo: Travis Robertson
I’ve always been obsessed with story telling. I began posting videos to Youtube at the age of 7. My first video was a lego stop-motion video around 8–10 seconds long. I was so excited to put something out there for the world to see. I remember watching the Indiana Jones films growing up and being so inspired. I would always have them playing in the background while I filmed my lego videos. I grew up in a small town, played a lot of sports as a kid. Although once I found my passion for filmmaking, nothing else mattered. I would film tests, search Youtube tutorials, construct crazy DIY filmmaking rigs and couldn’t get enough of it.
After a few months of posting short films to Youtube for myself, I began to receive comments on my videos which fuelled me with excitement. Lego stop-motion films wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, although I had to work with what I had. Having no budget, no cast, no camera operator, writers or editors I had to wear all of the hats. Being a kid who locked himself in his bedroom to film lego videos probably wasn’t exactly what my parents had in mind. Luckily for me, my parents were my and are still my biggest supporters. My dad would let me use his still and video cameras. My parents are a few of the only people who never gave up on me and my crazy dream.
Behind the scenes of a lego stop-motion film of mine.
One questions I’m constantly asked is how did I break out of the shell and become a filmmaker. Growing up from a small town with a population of roughly 500 people at the time, filmmaking was considered a hobby and was unattainable. Everyone would either end up settling or working for a friend, cousin or relative. This may sound cliché, but I was put on this earth to create.
The answer to this question isn’t as simple as you may think and is a slow process. It’s very important that you must know becoming a filmmaker is very difficult and takes years of experience, and you must absolutely love it. When you’re driving and see the sunsetting behind a set of tree’s, your mind begins to mentally record images. Radio is playing music, you begin to write a story in your mind. My brain is constantly projecting out scenes everywhere I look. I always have a note-pad with me (Yes I’m old fashioned). You never know where inspiration may strike.
Photo: Travis Robertson
Surrendering to the 9–5 stereotype wasn’t an option for me. I told myself that I would work harder than anyone I know, live in a car if I had to, stay up for days and do whatever it takes. That mindset may sound a little bit much but I think it’s necessary to obtain if you truly desire something.
Eventually after a few years had gone by, I managed to convince some of my close friends to star in a few home movies. I’d never had so much fun in my entire life. I didn’t even care if anybody watched them, I had so much fun making them it didn’t matter.
My parents continued to support me in this dream I had. For Christmas they had bought me my first real HD camera. Which at the time was I believe to be one of the first (vlog) cameras you could buy that had a flip camera. Behold the Sony PM1 Mobile Snap.
I used this camera every single day. Filming myself in my room, behind the scenes of editing all the way to being a complete idiot with my brother in our stupid home skits.
I kept filming lego-stop motion videos for a few years since it was easy, I had all the control. My lego mini-figures were my actors and I was directing them. I would record all the dialogue voiceovers in post-production and everything in between.
Everything had changed when one of my stop-motion videos had gone viral for me. I had filmed a short film titled: “Lego Batman vs Star Wars”. I don’t think the term viral really existed at the time but the video had received over 70,000 views within a few weeks. I was absolutely blown away. Keep in mind this was back in 2010–2011. I then began investing more and more time into content creation.
About a month later my parents received an envelope in the mail with my name. I was 13 at the time and had no idea why I was receiving a letter. I had no clue what it was so I showed my parents. It was a cheque from Google written out to my name in the sum of $100 USD. I was so confused and had no idea you could get paid from Youtube. Still to this day, I have that $100 sitting in a separate bank account and I will not spend it. It’s where my journey began.
I continued to film lego stop-motion videos for a few years until the age of 15–16. I had received a ton of comments asking for update videos and real life content. With a mix of lego videos, gaming and home made movies, I was a 15 year old pulling in roughly $500-$1,000 per month living at my parents. I would reinvest all of my earnings back into the business, buying new lighting, a new computer and continued to upgrade my gear.
Opening up my first business. My film company, RobertsonFilms.
Once I was nearly finished high-school, still creating videos weekly pulling in roughly anywhere from $1000 — $3000 a month from Youtube ad revenue. I had a decision to make. What did I want to do after I graduate. College, University or apply to a private film school. Film school is expensive, so even with the Youtube ad revenue I knew I had to apply for another job while attending school. I managed to apply for the CO-OP program at school which gives you experience in the work force. I worked as a contractor, framing rooms, buildings and hanging drywall.
Mentally and physically exhausted. Photo: Travis Robertson
Waking up at 4:30am to drive an hour to the city, begin work at 6am and finish at 3pm. Drive back home an hour, film a video and edit it for the next day’s upload, go to bed and repeat. I did nothing but work, work and work.
I eventually managed to visit a few film schools but to be honest, it didn’t feel right for me. Now I am not saying film school isn’t worth it or that you should drop out if you are currently attending. Just because the system did not work for me, does not mean that for you.
Now underlies telling my parents.. I felt terrible opening up to them and telling them that I didn’t want to attend film school. They had just spent thousands of dollars on travelling and visiting different schools for me. The cost of hotels, food, travel etc.. I’m still so grateful to this day that they were so understanding and supportive. They knew the drive I had and saw the potential in me. I took all of the money I had saved and invested it in RobertsonFilms, my film company.
To those who aren’t aware of the risks or uphill battle that comes with opening a company, it isn’t easy. I had no help, no clients, no marketing and no income other than my Youtube ad revenue. I knew I had to do something. I began researching marketing techniques and how-to’s. I’ve done it all since then, drop-shipping products, selling merchandise, building websites, videography, photography, music video, shorts, promos etc. I immersed myself into podcasts and books. Gary Vee said; You need to taste things before you decide. I knew I wanted to make films, but I had to start somewhere.
My social media continued to grow which lead me to some exciting opportunities to travel and meet new people. Youtube has given me so many incredible opportunities over the years. Visiting Peru, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Las Vegas, Europe, Cuba and the list goes on..
I began signing more and more clients while running Facebook ads. Growing my business and brand in a way I had always envisioned. Fast forward to 2020, I had multiple viral videos under my belt and just shy of nearly 30 million video views, with a total of nearly 250,000 followers across my platforms.
Fast forward to 2020 currently writing this during a pandemic, I’ve surprisingly had a lot of incredibly opportunities come my way. In late May of this year I signed the biggest contract of my career with a distribution company. And since then, have signed 2 others on-top of that. I’ve had multiple meetings via Zoom with some very important people in the film industry which I don’t think I would have ever had if Covid hadn’t happened. I kept telling myself locked in the house over quarantine, how can I be productive in this moment. It hit me like a truck, I told myself everyone is at home not working. They must have time on their hands just like me.
I began sending cold emails to working filmmakers, producers, directors etc. A few got back to me and we are now connected. I was able to pick their brains and show them my work. To the point where I’m now invited to shadow them on set anytime I wish. I had very few contacts in the film industry prior to 2020 and am now scheduled to film 2 shorts and 1 feature in 2021. It’s a little intimidating to think that I’m being watched by some important people in the business, but I’m using it as fuel to show them what RobertsonFilms is truly made of.
Screenshot from Untitled RobertsonFilms project.
Breaking into the film industry is not a straight line. The road underlies massive curves, hills and explosions along the way. People will chew you up and throw you to the curb. Learn to accept rejection and use it as motivation to come back stronger. You’ll never know how far you can truly make it, until you try. Take control over your life and make something happen, I’ll be watching. | https://medium.com/@robertsonfilms/this-is-how-i-went-from-a-youtube-video-creator-to-a-full-time-filmmaker-6c980d589fe9 | ['Travis Robertson'] | 2020-12-21 16:47:12.620000+00:00 | ['YouTube', 'Money', 'Entrepreneurship', 'Influencers', 'Filmmaking'] |
What is Affiliate Marketing or network? | What is an Affiliate Marketing?
There are lot of companies are selling their products on internet. To generate sales companies do affiliate marketing. Companies will give you commission on every sales if you help them to sell their products. You just need to sign up that company affiliate program then after activation of account you need to generate links, Text, Text + images. You can share these products on social media pages etc. If company get sales from your generated link you will get commission on that product. These are peoples are earning good income from affiliate marketing. You don’t need to spend money on this business you just need medium where you can share your generated links.
Free images on pixabay
How you earn from affiliate marketing program? | https://medium.com/@techbeats-com/what-is-affiliate-marketing-or-network-ffce0930b847 | [] | 2020-12-24 14:45:53.235000+00:00 | ['Affiliate Marketing'] |
I Didn’t Want To Be Aroused By My Sexual Assault, But I Was | by Suzannah Weiss
Modified from flickr / Marixa Namir Andrade
Genital arousal is a learned response, the way Pavlov’s dogs salivated in response to the bell.
In October 2013, shortly after I moved to New York, a hot Londoner struck up a conversation with me in Starbucks. We had dinner that night and met up for breakfast two days later, then I followed him back to his Airbnb while he packed.
I didn’t want to get too involved because he was leaving, and I barely knew him. So, when he leaned in to kiss me, I said, “Let’s not go further than this.” When he took off my shirt, I said, “No further, OK?” He didn’t seem to listen, because he then took off my bra and started kissing my chest.
Although I didn’t agree to what was happening, I was physically getting aroused by it. Once it became clear that my attempts to stop it weren’t succeeding, I figured all I could do to make the situation less unpleasant for myself was try to enjoy the arousal I felt mounting in my body.
So I laid back and made little sighs of pleasure. It was only when he grabbed my hand and put it on his crotch that I jumped up and told him to stop. “Sorry,” he said. “I guess it’s a guy thing.”
“At least he apologized,” I thought. I didn’t want to believe I’d been violated. And because of the satisfied noises I’d just made, it was a difficult thing to convince myself of anyway. Telling myself I’d just engaged in a normal, consensual hookup, I made out with him and gave a heartfelt goodbye as he hiked his bags onto his shoulders and caught a cab to the airport.
But I returned home confused about what had just happened. I had not consented to parts of that encounter, but I had gotten pleasure out of it. I didn’t want to go that far for emotional reasons, but physically, I wanted it.
My mind raced back to that infamous line from Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines”: “I know you want it.” Perpetrators often justify sexual assault by saying the victim secretly wanted it. But did the fact that part of me desired his touch mean I had consented to it? Even if I hadn’t wanted to act on that desire?
As it turns out, many individuals describe feeling arousal and pleasure during sexual assaults. In one study — “Problems With Sexuality After Sexual Assault” — 21% of women said they had a “physical response” to their assaults, and 10% felt attracted to their perpetrators. Additional research and clinical reports suggest that four to five percent of women have reported orgasm during sexual assault, but the numbers could be higher because people may not report this, according to a paper in the Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine.
“I didn’t think of it as sexual assault for years because I had an orgasm, because I didn’t try harder to stop it when it started to feel good,” says Stephanie, a content creator in her 30s. “To this day, I call it ‘nonconsensual sex.’ And I’m a former rape victim advocate. I know what assault is. I didn’t want this to happen, I said no, I was very drunk and past the point of consent — there are so many ways I know this was assault.”
I had not consented to parts of that encounter, but I had gotten pleasure out of it.
And it’s not just survivors themselves who discount their assaults because of their bodies’ reactions. The professionals charged with the task of helping them often do the same.
The Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine paper quotes a doctor responding to a post in an online forum about a survivor who orgasmed during her rape by her estranged husband:
“For a woman to have an orgasm, she needs to be at least on some level, mentally and emotionally invested in the experience…Fear, repulsion and pain are not conducive to orgasm. Psychological acquiescence or complacency does not mean the woman did not enjoy the experience, and on some level, love her husband.’’
Similarly, male survivors of assault are very often doubted due to the misconception that if their penis was erect enough to have intercourse, they must have consented. I once told a sex educator about how I’d guilted an ex-boyfriend into sex, and she replied, “Guilted? Really? Was his dick hard?”
“Survivors’ genital response has quite literally been presented as evidence in court that they ‘consented,’ even if they said no, even if they were too young to give consent,” says sexologist Emily Nagoski, PhD tells me. This type of thinking is proffered all over the media as well. In 50 Shades of Grey, Christian claims that Ana’s wetness shows how much she enjoyed a spanking that she wasn’t actually into, Nagoski points out.
Such depictions reflect a widespread myth about how sexual arousal works: that in order to be physically aroused, you have to be mentally and emotionally into the whole experience.
“‘Liking’ — pleasure — is one system in our brains, the opioid system; ‘wanting’ — desire — is another, mediated by dopamine; and ‘learning’ — physiological response to learned cues — is a third,” explains Nagoski.
“Genital arousal is the third — a learned response, the way Pavlov’s dogs salivated in response to the bell. The salivation didn’t mean the dogs wanted to eat the bell or that they found the bell delicious. It just meant that the bell was a cue that was associated with food. Genital response can happen in response to sex-related cues, whether or not those cues are wanted or liked. I’ve been doing work related to sexual violence for over two decades, so I’ve met many, many survivors who’ve experienced arousal and even orgasm.”
In fact, because fear activates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing blood flow throughout the body — it’s possible that it could even facilitate genital arousal, according to the Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine paper.
Sometimes, perpetrators make a calculated effort to turn their victims on. “Pedophiles often groom children for sexual assault by first using ‘appropriate’ pleasurable touching (stroking hair, rubbing a hand) and then pushing and pushing boundaries, working up to sexual assault,” educational psychologist and sex educator Kathryn Stamoulis, PhD, LMHC tells me. “I have heard accounts in which a rapist tried to give their victim pleasure, perhaps as a way to rationalize their crimes.”
Another common situation where people feel aroused during their assaults is when they consent to one activity, but then another takes places without their consent, explains sexologist Damian Jacob Sendler, PhD, MD to me. “This sometimes happens with couples who are into BDSM, with one person going beyond the scenario that was agreed upon. Consent needs to be given for any kind of behavior that involves crossing the safe space of one’s body.”
It’s even common for people to have feelings for their perpetrators, especially if they’re assaulted by someone within a romantic relationship.
“It is possible for two opposing feelings to coexist: on the one hand disgust, rage, fear, or terror, and on the other, a genuine desire to merge with the assaulter, feelings of desire for them, and even longings to be taken care of by a person who seems more powerful,” psychoanalyst Claudia Luiz, PsyaD says. Sometimes, getting aroused can be a defense mechanism when the painful feelings resulting from the assault are too much to bear.
Many survivors feel as if their bodies have betrayed them for responding to unwelcome stimulation, says Nagoski. Some even view it as a moral failure to get turned on by something so horrific. “Can you imagine, walking around all day, every day, inside something that betrayed you? Needless to say, it comes as a tremendous relief for them to learn that their genital response just means something sex-related happened.”
Many survivors feel as if their bodies have betrayed them.
Often, people don’t even realize they’ve been assaulted, since they assume their physical pleasure must be evidence of consent.
“[People] have told me about an experience from childhood or college and what they are describing is rape, but they never viewed it that way before because of the physical response they experienced,” Stamoulis explains. “In fact, some straight males have wondered if they were gay because they had a physical reaction during an assault by a male abuser.” Even when people recognize the event as an assault, they may hesitate to report it out of fear that their arousal could be used against them.
This shame, self-blame, and confusion could be avoided if we learned about the complexities of sexual violence: that it doesn’t always involve a morally unambiguous criminal who the victim despises, and the victim can experience emotions other than pure disgust.
“If, while in sex education teaching people about sexual assault, we were taught about all the varied reactions to assaults, both physical and emotional, we would normalize this and people wouldn’t have to suffer in silence,” Stamoulis says..
Sometimes, getting aroused can be a defense mechanism when the painful feelings resulting from the assault are too much to bear.
Because I hadn’t learned about any of these aspects of sexual assault — physiological or psychological — I, too, thought my encounter that day in New York was consensual. I Facebook messaged with the man who violated my boundaries and felt a mixture of excitement and anger as he talked about potentially moving to New York and seeing me again.
But when he actually got a job offer there and proposed we meet up when he arrived, something clicked inside me. “Actually,” I replied, “what happened at your Airbnb last time wasn’t OK with me, and I’m not interested in seeing you again.”
“You’re joking, right?” he replied, as if my attraction to him made that statement unbelievable. But then, I thought back to his apology after that incident. He knew he’d done something wrong. And I wasn’t going to let him use my physical desire to eclipse that knowledge. I may have been aroused, but arousal is not consent.
No amount of blood flow to someone’s genitals should override what their mind — and mouth — is telling you. | https://medium.com/the-establishment/i-didnt-want-to-be-aroused-by-my-sexual-assault-but-i-was-ec5b9e9c04c1 | ['The Establishment'] | 2018-09-13 05:31:01.075000+00:00 | ['Sex', 'Sexual Assault', 'Desire'] |
Weihnachten in Palästina — Ein Spotlight | 'The bells would ring': How Palestinians celebrated Christmas before life under occupation
Perched next to a large and brightly lit Christmas tree at the home of one of her children, Victoria Baseer surveys an… | https://medium.com/@occupied-news/weihnachten-in-pal%C3%A4stina-ein-spotlight-8050ec8bf3dc | ['Occupied News'] | 2020-12-20 17:29:37.962000+00:00 | ['Christmas', 'Palestine', 'Weihnachten', 'Palästina', 'Occupation'] |
World War Two WWII Netherlands Holocaust Europe History Japan | The Common Thread in Nations’ Mythologized War Stories
Yellow star, “Jew” in Dutch (http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org/#/exhibitions/workers/un104/description)
The Common Thread in All Nations’ Mythologized War Stories
The Netherlands is the third stop on our WWII mythology tour, after WWII east vs west and Italy. The common thread that links all the stops on our tour: narcissistic nationalism that evades uncomfortable truths that threaten victimology if the nation was defeated and occupied, or an emotionally satisfying glorious victory if it was on the winning side. The latter is the keystone of national ego in the UK, the USA, and the former USSR. Commemorating mythologized glorious victories defines a backward-looking, nostalgist sense of national identity that feeds into contemporary anti-globalization nationalist populism.
Reality denial begins with a mythologized history and has contributed to blitz and Dunkirk-fed Brexit, America First Trumpism, Putin’s revanchist nationalism and the war in eastern Ukraine. Nations, like individual psychotherapy patients, can remain stuck in the Einsteinian definition of insanity — deceiving themselves with the same story over and over again and expecting a better result. Nations, even more than individuals, remain possessed by scripted mythology that prevents looking in the mirror of their defeats shorn of mythologized victimology and their victories without the glorification that feeds populist paranoia and fantasy. Reflective, collective emotional intelligence is not part of the business model of building the scaled-up imaginary communities of unrelated strangers we call nations. The cost? Just ask any German or Japanese in bombed-out Berlin or Tokyo in 1946 whether indulging in ego-feeding stab in the back or Bushido fantasies was worth the price paid.
Each country on our WWII Mythology Tour has paid for its own mix of hubris, delusional self-deception, and evasion of uncomfortable truths, though differently. The USSR and the UK won the war and lost the peace economically and geopolitically. The Germans, Italians, and Japanese lost the war and full sovereignty but won the peace economically. Germany’s eastern European allies — Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia — lost all three. The USA won all three but confused picking low-hanging postwar geopolitical and economic fruit and cold war victory with permanent global dominance. Confronted with the cost of two forever wars, a disillusioned post-crash America revived Lindbergh’s pro-Nazi isolationist America First slogan.
Most of the stops on our WWII Mythology Tour involve nations confronting the costs of empire-building. Nazism’s Lebensraum and Italian fascism’s neo-Roman imperial fantasies involved European imperialism’s white supremacist ideology boomeranging back onto Europe, at the cost of millions of lives. This played no small part in the German occupation of the Netherlands and the Japanese occupation of its Indonesian colony.
Martyrology Marker #1: Rotterdam city center after German bombing of May 14, 1940…..(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Rotterdam%2C_Laurenskerk%2C_na_bombardement_van_mei_1940.jpg) and before the bombing:
Dutch Martyrology: Rotterdam, Arnhem, Anne Frank, Hunger Winter, Last to be Liberated
The Dutch narrative of WWII focuses on the May 1940 bombing of Rotterdam, their resistance (the Netflix movie about the executed “Resistance Banker”), the Bridge Too Far battle for Arnhem in September 1944, Anne Frank, their Hunger Winter of 1944–45 and Amsterdam as the last European capital to be liberated. These are images etched into the Netherlands’ collective memory:
Martyrology Marker #2: Arnhem after Operation Market Garden, September 1944 https://europeremembers.com/destination/the-battle-of-arnhem/)
Martyrology Marker #3: Dutch children eating rationed soup during the Hongerwinter of 1944–45 (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/BC856_HUI-2050.jpg)
The Dutch Shoah: a Western Route to an Eastern Outcome
The Dutch view their wartime behavior toward their Jewish community through the lens of this martyrology and the distorting lens of Anne Frank. She was, after all, successfully hidden for two years and her father survived. Also, the Dutch were historically Europe’s most tolerant nation toward Jews, welcoming Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal, to the point of giving the Jewish philosopher Spinoza a lavish burial in Amsterdam’s Protestant New Church in 1677 in recognition of his genius, “an astonishing gesture of acceptance.” (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/the-cut-out-girl-by-bart-van-es-review). Before 1940 the 10% of Amsterdam’s population that was Jewish was so integrated into local life that in Amsterdam dialect “mishbochah”, the Hebrew and Yiddish word, was slang for family.
But Dutch tolerant acceptance of Jews was superficial, as shown in this description by the health minister, Dr. Els Borst-Eilers, aged 13 at liberation:
“This lack of interest in the fate of the Jews was a consequence of prewar antiSemitism in the Netherlands. It also existed in my nice family. I had a fully Jewish uncle who had married a non-Jew…Yet before the war, for instance at family gatherings…it was quite common to hear comments such as ‘a typical Jewish trick’ or ‘the Jews take good care of themselves.’ That was when someone had done something smart with money. I noticed this already as a small child. “None of us would have wanted to do any evil to a Jew. Yet there was a feeling of ‘they have done very well financially’ despite the fact that there were many very poor Jews in Amsterdam.” (Judging the Netherlands, Gerstenfeld, page 209)
Nevertheless, the legend of tolerant Dutch exceptionalism persisted for two generations:
“Internationally, the benign Dutch war image has held on for over fifty years. In its introduction to “The Netherlands,” the 1999 Jewish Chronicle Travel Guide still wrote: “The Germans transported 100,000 [Jews] to death camps in Poland, but the local population tended to behave sympathetically towards their Jewish neighbors, hiding many.” (Judging the Netherlands, Gerstenfeld, page 24)
In the law-loving Netherlands, superficial tolerance collided with law-abiding obedience and lost. The catastrophe began at the top:
“In five years of radio speeches from London, Queen Wilhelmina devoted only five sentences to the fate of her Jewish subjects. Nevertheless, an international myth grew about her identification with the persecuted Jews….former Dutch deputy prime minister Els Borst said: “We now know that the persecution of the Jews hardly bothered Queen Wilhelmina…Borst added: “The government’s attitude testified that its members, like many others, saw the Jewish Dutchmen as a special group who were not ‘real Dutchmen.’” (Judging the Netherlands, page 25)
The relative absence of intense, popular anti-semitism in the Netherlands begs the question: why was the survival rate for Dutch Jews — 27% — closer to that of Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Hungary than neighboring Belgium and France. (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-losses-during-the-holocaust-by-country)? The explanation typically cited by the Dutch: geography. The Netherlands is a densely populated, flat and unforested country with no obvious places to hide. But this explanation is easily refuted by the large regional variation in survival rates within the Netherlands and how
“from mid 1943 until the end of the war between 200000 and 300000 Dutch men trying to evade forced labor in Germany found refuge underground shows that hiding opportunities were not primarily determined by the Dutch landscape.” (Holocaust and Genocide Studies, https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/11105, pages 477–78) .
Of the 25000 Dutch Jews who went into hiding, 15000, or 60%, survived. About the same number of Belgium’s 90000 Jews went into hiding — 28000 — but double the percentage — and earlier in the war with help from more active resistance, Jewish and non-Jewish (https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/11105, page 477).
So we have to look elsewhere to explain the Netherlands’ eastern European survival rates without eastern Europe’s virulent anti-semitism, a reverse proportion of perpetrators and bystanders.
East-West Divide in Genocide
Despite Dutch Jews’ survival rate resembling eastern Europe’s, Anglo-Americans, French, Italians, Belgians, Norwegians, and Danes view Dutch wartime behavior as fundamentally western, as opposed to eastern like Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovakia, where many locals enthusiastically participated in pogroms, in some case before German occupation troops arrived, or hunted Jews for the Germans. The prevailing view is that the Dutch were nothing like their counterparts in eastern Europe; no Jedwabnes (Neighbors, Jan Gross, https://www.amazon.com/Neighbors-Destruction-Jewish-Community-Jedwabne/dp/0142002402) or Arrow Cross, Budapest in Amsterdam, Utrecht or Rotterdam. It’s true that Jews were not being shot at in the train station by local anti-semites as they sought to flee before the Germans’ arrival, as occurred in Riga (personal testimony, David Kagan, Riga, 7 years old in 1941), Kaunas (Kovno) and Vilnius (Vilna, https://defendinghistory.com/).
There are several problems with the view that Dutch bystanders and perpetrators as fundamentally different from their counterparts in eastern Europe:
It ignores the thousand small betrayals and compromises that the Nazi system deployed to envelop all occupied countries’ institutions and civilians, but with less success in France, Belgium, Italy than the Netherlands.
It ignores how such betrayals often took place with no prompting from the Germans. On May 21, 1940, a mere one week after the Dutch surrender, AVRO, the Dutch broadcasting company, fired all nine of its Jewish employees. No German order was needed for this precautionary measure by company management. (van Liempt, Hitler’s Bounty Hunters, 2005, page 6)
It ignores the institutionalized financial incentives employed with special effectiveness in the Netherlands vs other western European countries: the 7.50 FL bounty (kopgeld, literally “head money”) per Jew arrested paid to the Dutch volunteers of the Colonne Henneicke, which resulted in the arrests of 8000–9000 Dutch Jews in 1942 and 1943 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henneicke_Column)
As cited above, it ignores simple results: the percentage of Dutch Jews murdered resembled Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, and Lithuania more than France, Italy, or Denmark.
Dutch Reckoning and Confessional
A reckoning is now underway, first with the publication of Ad van Liempt’s The Bounty Hunters in 2005, then with the Netflix movie Riphagen, about Dries Riphagen, one of the leading bounty hunters who was never tried for his crimes.
Now with the Dutch Reformed Church’s confession of guilt, 75 years after liberation, on the eve of the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938:
“On Sunday afternoon in Amsterdam’s Obrechtsjoel, PKN leader René de Reuver swore penance for the role the church played in the rising anti-Semitism before the Second World War, and for its lack of courage during the German occupation ‘for the Jewish residents of our country.’…..He discussed the background of Kristallnacht in Germany, a pogrom on the night of 8 to 9 November 1938, and made a connection with the theological sources of Protestantism. In doing so, he mainly highlighted the anti-Semitic work of Martin Luther. Born on November 10, this 16th-century reformer “could not wish for a better present than burning shuls!” Verdoner quoted a bishop as saying. Luther had called for “all Jewish schools and synagogues to be burned down”. “The Nazis often used Martin Luther’s writings as a basis for their terrible deeds. Verdoner also recalled Henrik Colijn. This Reformed Prime Minister banned Jews who fled Germany after the Kristallnacht, because all those refugees were “foreign elements” in his opinion, detrimental to “the maintenance of the character of the Dutch volk”. The Protestant Church in the Netherlands wants to recognize without hesitation that the church has helped prepare the breeding ground in which the seeds of anti-Semitism and hatred could grow. For centuries, the rift was maintained that could later isolate the Jews in society in such a way that they could be deported and murdered. (https://www.trouw.nl/religie-filosofie/joodse-gemeenschap-omarmt-schuldbelijdenis-protestantse-kerk~b2522bf5/, https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2020/11/protestant-churchs-declaration-of-guilt-towards-the-jews-is-a-historic-step/ )
An Orderly Western, Efficient, Financialized Pogrom
The pogrom in the Netherlands was top-down, orderly, and bureaucratic and had one motive similar to the Jedwabne, Poland case, and other eastern European counterparts: the plunder of Jewish property. What’s been ignored until recently is that the Germans could never have murdered such a high percentage of the Netherlands’ Jewish community without:
The efficient Dutch civil service did not hesitate to turn over its meticulously kept residential records of 159806 Dutch Jews and children of mixed marriages with its IBM punch cards to the Germans. Dutch residential records included religious identity data (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_in_World_War_II#Holocaust). This total included 25000 Jewish refugees from the German Reich. Without the collaboration of the Dutch police and civil service, the Germans could not have succeeded in deporting 107000 Dutch Jews nor segregating 15000 Jews in the Westerbork transit camp by 1942.
Ordinance 6 of January 10, 1941, mandated all Jews, including one half or one-quarter Jews to report to and register with the Office of Public Records. The data were necessary to prepare for a planned Amsterdam ghetto, modeled on those in Poland.
“All Jews would have a large J stamped on their identity cards, making them instantly recognizable….on a modern technologically ingenious identity card in order to thwart would-be forgers. The development of such a document was another important condition for the total isolation of the Jewish population.” (van Liempt, page 8)
To build a ghetto the German commander, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, needed to know exactly which streets were inhabited by a Jewish majority. The head of the Office of Public Records, a Mr. F. Sijdzes, deployed a team of 20 civil servants for six days and
“the eagerness with which Sijdzes tackled the assignment was remarkable, particularly when one considers the jobs he had ahead of him: the introduction of identity cards and the registration of Amsterdam’s Jews….a huge amount of work for scores of civil servants…..In the end the planned ghetto was never realized. No matter how the officials drew the boundaries, there proved to be too many non-Jewish workers living in the neighborhoods in question to create a ghetto without causing tremendous social upheaval” (van Liempt, pages 8–9)
Genocide, Dutch Edition, an Information Enterprise
The Germans’ Polish style ghetto-centric model couldn’t work in Amsterdam. So they pivoted, copy-pasting the eastern Judenrat model to the Netherlands with replacing geographic with bureaucratic segregation. Genocide in the Netherlands was an information game played through the Office of Public Records. This explains the scene in the movie Riphagen in which the Dutch resistance carried out a daring raid on the State Printing Office to steal 10000 ID cards. It also explains why
“The Germans demanded the creation of an organization which they could hold responsible for the implementation of their policy…..This moment marked the start of a process of non-stop blackmail. It was primarily the city commissioner Böhmcker who pressured the Jewish Council to carry out the most degrading measures, with the standing threat that if they refused, he would do it himself, and less mercifully….and thus began a pattern, in which the Jewish Council itself had to nip protests in the bud and select the victims of each successive decree…..
The operation was simplified by concentrating virtually all Jews from the province of North Holland (and some from South Holland) in Amsterdam: village by village, town by town, the Jews were instructed to leave their homes and find accommodation in the Dutch capital….At the same time, fear began to take hold of the Jewish community, as men and boys were now being forced to go to special labor camps in the region. And although the Jewish Council swore that these were normal measures aimed at combating unemployment, many sensed the danger: Jewish labor camps offered the possibility for mass arrests of Jewish men” (van Liempt, pages 10, 12)
Jewish Council employees and their families were given exemptions (Sperren) from deportation. The Council asked the Germans for 35000 Sperren. The Germans gave it 17500, but these were issued only temporarily, “bis auf weiteres” — until further notice. The Sperren system gave Amsterdam Jews, which was home to 57% of Dutch Jews and who held 93.1% of them, a reason not to hide. However, other evidence shows that a docile Jewish Council and Sperren-seeking Jews did not impede Jews from going underground:
“From September 1942 onward about half of the Jews ordered to report for transport to Westerbork refused to show up even though they knew they could….be sent to Mauthausen, a concentration known to mean certain death.” (https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/11105, page 487)
Also, as children from orphanages, the elderly in nursing homes, and the sick were deported, the explanation of forced labor in the east lost credibility and panic mounted.
The efficiency of this information came through the Office of Public Records and the disinformation game played through the Jewish Council explains why, Adolf Eichmann, the Shoah’s grand vizier was confident enough to manage the process remotely:
“Adolf Eichmann visited the Netherlands only once, to check on the progress of the preparations. That was in April 1942. To meet his quotas, the Netherlands had to ship 15,000 Jews to Poland during the 1942 calendar year…The day after Eichmann’s visit, the Zentralstelle demanded a list of the names and addresses of all Jews of foreign origin in Amsterdam. The mayor passed the order on to the Municipal Office of Public Records, which ensured its prompt execution…. Eichmann kept the tempo of deportations from the Netherlands high; thanks to the well-functioning municipal administration, the whole process went relatively smoothly there, more smoothly, at any rate, than in Belgium and France.” (van Liempt, “Hitler’s Bounty Hunters”, 2005, pages 13, 17)
The final link in the supply chain was the special rail line laid by the Dutch Railway company to the Westerbork transit camp from the village of Hooghalen (van Liempt, page 12).
Who Resists, Who Complies
Contrast the behavior of the Dutch police and civil service with the general strike by Dutch workers on February 25, 1941, to protest the arrest and deportation of several hundred young Dutch Jews to Buchenwald and Mauthausen (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-netherlands). The Germans arrested and executed the leaders of the strike, which was the only anti-pogrom strike of WWII.
This showed that parts of Dutch civil society were ready to defend the Netherlands’ Jewish community, had the Dutch elite, from the exiled royal family on down, done so, as the Danish royal family and elite did. Dutch movies like Netflix’s The Resistance Banker, show the Dutch elite as paragons of anti-Nazi resistance. With respect to defending the Netherlands’ Jewish community against genocide, this simply did not happen.
Only 27% of the Netherlands’ Jewish community of 140000 survived, much lower than the 60% of neighboring Belgium’s Jews and France’s 75%. The Netherlands had the highest percentage of Jews killed in all of Western Europe.
Why the much lower survival percentage in the Netherlands? Citing the Netherlands’ geography — flat, densely populated, unforested land compared with Belgium and France — as the culprit conveniently absolves human perpetrators and bystanders. The real reason is hiding in plain sight — money and the ferocious hunt for Jews it generated:
“Try not to think about it too much, because it only makes you miserable. At the moment, a human life does not count for much, especially if it is a Jewish life.” — Dutch shopkeeper, diary entry, September 1942 (http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org/#/exhibitions/workers/un104/description)
The Bounty System
When the number of Dutch Jews caught decreased in the spring of 1943, the Germans instituted an incentive system to meet quotas.
“The civilian Jew hunt was undoubtedly the blackest page in Dutch history. It is striking how few Germans appear in Van Liempt’s book: the arrest of Jews was carried out exclusively by the Dutch. A Price on Their Heads sketches a depressing world: motivated by a thirst for power and wealth, ordinary Dutchmen, socially unsuccessful, were prepared to turn their Jewish countrymen over to the Germans.”
Dries Riphagen, Dutch Nazi, gangster, bounty hunter, star of Netflix movie “Riphagen”
“Marnix Croes and Peter Tammes have examined these hypotheses by looking at the variations in survival between the different regions of the Netherlands. They conclude that most of these hypotheses do not explain the data. They suggest that a more likely explanation was the varying “ferocity” with which the Germans and their Dutch collaborators hunted Jews in hiding in the different regions.
In 2002, Ad Van Liempt published Kopgeld: Nederlandse premiejagers op zoek naar joden, 1943 (Bounty: Dutch bounty hunters in search of Jews, 1943). It was published in English as Hitler’s Bounty Hunters: The Betrayal of the Jews (2005). He had found in newly declassified records that the Germans paid a bounty to police and other collaborators, as in the Colonnie Henneicke group, for tracking down Jews.”
“Drawing upon administrative documents and post-war trial records, Ad van Liempt reconstructs the membership and activities of the so-called Colonne Henneicke group within the Zentralstelle fur Judische Auswanderung (Dutch Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration). Originally engaged in tracking down Jewish goods, this group of just over fifty civilians started tracking down Jews in hiding in the spring and summer of 1943. Although not authorised to arrest individuals, they ignored such legal niceties and handed over an estimated 8,500 Dutch Jews. Despite post-war claims to the contrary, van Liempt points to the payment of seven guilders fifty per Jew as a critical incentive to these activities. This money came from the proceeds of Jewish property sales, and was thus another example of self-financing genocide seen elsewhere in Holocaust Europe. Financial gain was, van Liempt suggests, ‘the most important motivating factor’ (p. 210) for the group of ‘middle-aged…” (https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/CXXI/494/1562/389360?redirectedFrom=fulltext)
“Van Liempt describes some particularly shocking cases. The most gripping are the arrests of young children. Two bounty hunters travelled hundreds of kilometres across the country to get their hands on a two year old girl who was living in a safe house; a month later she was gassed at Sobibor. The father of three other young children had all his teeth knocked out; in this way the Henneicke Column were able to learn the addresses where the children were being put up.” (http://www.letterenfonds.nl/en/book/76/a-price-on-their-heads)
In court the bounty hunters said they weren’t paid for finding hidden Jews. Van Liempt’s research proves they were lying: “Family members of the perpetrators give detailed accounts of how much was earned from their activities and where all the money went.”
Van Liempt found out about the premiums collected by Dutch police for catching Jews only when presented with a receipt for one by the Dutch historian Loe de Jong in 1989. But he had to wait 11 years to get access to the court records when they were transferred to the national archives in 2000.
Van Liempt explains why this episode has remained unknown for so long:
“The fact that it has taken so long for the true nature of the hunt for Jews to be revealed is remarkable to say the least. One obvious explanation for this would be that it is typical of the Dutch character to turn a blind eye to the very blackest pages of our nation’s history. But the reason might also be far simpler: this in-depth study of the perpetrators was based largely on information revealed in the course of their trials, and such records remain classified for a long time in the Netherlands. Even serious researchers have always had difficulty obtaining access to them, and this is probably the reason so little is known about this episode.”
“At this point, the leaders of the Zentralstelle (Central Office for Jewish Emigration) decided to refine the system of deportations somewhat….a new police unit, the Amsterdam Police Battalion, was sent into action. The members of the battalion had been trained by the Nazis, so the Germans had no cause to fear sabotage or opposition from them: they could always be deployed in mass round-ups. The ordinary Amsterdam policeman was an unstable factor in such operations. That notwithstanding, within the municipal police force a Bureau of Jewish Affairs was established, consisting mainly of NSB (Netherlands Nazi Party) men and led by the fanatical Nazi R. Dahmen von Buchholz. It would be an important factor in the gigantic operation awaiting Amsterdam: the deportation of about ten percent of the population.” (van Liempt, page 15)
The Plunder Bonus Revealed: After Half a Century
Why did it take more than half a century to reveal the bounty system? At the special court’s postwar trials of collaborators proving the existence of the bonus system was not a requirement for a conviction for deporting Jews. Therefore prosecutors didn’t challenge defendants’ denials. But the defendants had a very good reason to deny receiving bonuses for arresting Jews. Three friends on trial in March 1946 who had worked together in the card catalog of the Zentralstelle fur Judische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish Emigration, where deportation records were kept:
“In the summer of 1943….found themselves with a lot of free time on their hands, and so they asked the heads of the Zentralstelle for permission to go out and arrest Jews as overtime work, just like their colleagues in the Colonne Henneicke. They also asked their superiors if there was any chance of receiving compensation for such work. Eventually they were given the green light: they could look forward to a bonus of fl.5 per Jew (now about $32)…
Over the course of the trial, it became clear they had brought between 200 and 300 Jews to the Dutch Theater. For the prosecution it was an open and shut case. The three men were not only in the courtroom as defendants but also as sworn witnesses for the state. Their statements were thus legal evidence. For that reason judge-advocate Gelinck demanded the death penalty at the close of the session. On appeal, the youngest of the three, a former barber who was known to have helped some Jews, had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment. The other two were executed in March 1947 (Van Liempt, page 59).
After this trial that ended with two death sentences, every suspect denied the existence of the bonus system. Even when some receipts showing bonus payments turned up in the records of the Hausraterfassung (Household Inventory Agency) turned up in Amsterdam’s main synagogue in Tulpstraat in 1947, prosecutors ignored them.
“A few of them have survived. There is, for example, one for the sum of fl.37.50, five times fl.7.50.10 On March 17, the date on the receipt, five Jews were brought in. It is not easy to decipher the florid handwriting on the form, which was evidently filled in with great care, in German, but the five people in question were members of the Roos family: father (47), mother (45) and three children (17, 14 and 11). SS-Hauptsturmführer Ferdinand Aus der Fünten put his initials under the words “richtig übernommen” — indicating that the five were “duly received.” (van Liempt, page 60)
The Plunder System and the Bonus Supply Chain
Plundering Jewish property for shipment to the Reich required a sophisticated Dutch supply chain and logistics operated through the Hausraterfassung:
“Even before the deportations began in earnest, a comprehensive inventory system had been set up. There was a central card catalogue, in which each object was individually registered. Every Jew received one or more cards, sorted on the basis of Hausraterfassungsnummer, or HR number. There were separate departments (and warehouses) for carpets; paintings; antiques; furniture and bronze; gold, silver and jewels; and bric-a-brac….the card catalogue survives, full of thousands of index cards on which the goods were recorded.6 Such a rigid system demanded a rigid hierarchy. The Hausraterfassung had four subdivisions, known as “Colonnes,” which were named after their leaders…” (van Liempt, page 21)
The NSB, the Dutch Nazi Party provided most of the recruits to the HR, many hired from the unemployed referred by the city job center, a recipe for social envy and anti-semitism motivated plunder:
“It was not trained detectives who did this work; the Hausraterfassung got its people wherever it could, mainly from the files of the unemployed at the municipal job centre. As the deportation of Jews and the accompanying administrative machinery required more and more manpower, the prerequisites for new workers were soon relaxed. Membership of the NSB was a plus in this sort of work: virtually all new employees of the Hausraterfassung were in the NSB.” (van Liempt, page 21)
The German head of the Zentralstelle, Willi Lages, understood how the system was a thieves’ dream and
“Following a theft Lages called upon all of us to obey the rules and conduct ourselves in a professional and courteous manner. He promised us that there would be severe penalties for anyone who broke the law. He threatened us, ‘If you so much as take the dust from underneath the Jews’ fingernails, you’ll be arrested.’” (van Liempt, page 22)
As we’ll see below, the bonus system was set up to bring order to plunder by sharing it with Dutch functionaries.
But it was the scale, speed and efficiency of the operation and how it was enmeshed with Dutch business that was striking:
“Historian Gerard Aalders speaks of it as a well-oiled looting machine, which finished the job in a year and two months…the contents of 29000 houses were hauled away…In the autumn of 1943 no fewer than 666 canal boats and 100 train cars travelled to the Ruhr Valley, filled with Jewish property….Transporting the goods to the harbor was the work of a moving company that would win eternal infamy for its role during the occupation: the firm of A. Puls cleared out vacant Jewish homes and brought the contents to the harbor. During that time a new verb, pulsen, came into vogue; the word was more or less synonymous with roven (“to rob”).” (van Liempt, page 20)
NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam (http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org/#/exhibitions/workers/un2994/related/un2996 , Some were neighbors: collaboration and complicity in the Holocaust)
The Germans and their Dutch collaborators ingeniously used a Jewish-owned bank, Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co, to rob Dutch Jews. Jews were told their funds and valuables were merely being put on deposit at the bank and its warehouse and given receipts for all assets turned over.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lippmann,_Rosenthal_%26_Co.#/media/File:Amsterdam_-_Lippman-Rosenthal.JPG Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co in 1944. I’ve biked past it dozens of times without knowing its real history as a “Roofbank”, quite literally a plunder bank.
The underlying principle of all anti-Jewish measures: extermination would be financed entirely with Jewish assets:
“For this purpose the Germans chose the venerable Jewish bank Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co., which had to undergo a special reorganization. The bank was split into two. The office on Nieuwe Spiegelstraat remained a bank, albeit under German management. But the office at 47–55 Sarphatistraat, which had previously been a branch of the Bank of Amsterdam, became the roofbank. In reality it was more like a storage depot/sales office for stolen Jewish property than a regular bank.14 It became an executive agency under direct supervision of SeyssInquart’s Reich Commissariat; its primary task was selling off Jewish possessions as they came in.” (van Liempt, page 11)
Who Plundered, How and Why
When Colonne Henneicke member Gerritt Mijnsma went to work for the National Labor Front in late 1943 after working in the Colonne Henneicke, his salary dropped 40% to 140 FL/month. “For men like bankrupt taxi driver Nico Evertsen, living off the welfare of 13 FL/week, and Jacob Gist, whose girlfriend’s mother refused to let him in the house, “the Colonne Henneicke was a goldmine. Their lifestyle changed overnight.” (van Liempte, page 59).
The plunderers and the plundered came together at the Dutch Theater, the transit stop on the way to the Dutch concentration camp in Westerbork. Employees of the Jewish Council, the Dutch version of the eastern Judenrat, the Germans created to force the Jewish community to choose deportees, would often hear the Colonne Henneicke police talking business. The Dutch Theater was both a deportation and plunder hub, as well as the final opportunity for Dutch Jews to bribe their captors.
Jewish Council employees noticed the growing prosperity of the Colonne’s members:
“Maurits Allegro was able to observe a couple of Jew hunters from close by. ‘Every day I saw them smoking expensive cigarettes”, he told detectives Prasing and Verduin after the war, ‘and everything about their lifestyle suggested they were rolling in money.’” (van Liempt, page 59)
“Jacob Brand: Among the personnel of the Jewish Council it was common knowledge that the staff of the Colonne Henneicke received a premium for every Jewish person they took into custody….higher premiums were paid for sick and handicapped Jewish refugees….Salomon van Thijn: “I also heard them say that when there were fewer Jewish people coming in the bonuses were higher….the premiums varied from fl. 5 to 15.….
Machiel Gobets, an accountant who worked for the Jewish Council…They would create these penal cases themselves, going through the garbage of Jewish people they had arrested, to see if they could find fruit peels. Jews were forbidden to eat fruit….
Mozes Jacobs…once overheard four members of the Colonne talking about the fl. 60 they had earned that night, fl 15 per man….so they could spare five cents for a cup of coffee….
Jacques van der Kar, who also worked for the Jewish Council, happened to catch a glimpse of the payroll, which showed that some members of the Colonne were paid as much as fl. 200 a week. (van Liempt, page 61)
Police officer Karel Weeling was present several times when Henneicke paid his personnel at the end of the month: “I also saw Henneicke paying out sums varying from fl. 300 to fl. 450 per person…sums much higher than their salaries.” (van Liempt, page 63)
This only partially explains why the Colonne Henneicke’s officers were such efficient Jew hunters. But 85% of the Colonne were NSB (Dutch Nazi Party) members. Founded in 1931, the NSB had obtained 8% of the vote in 1935 and sent two members to the Dutch Senate. Tolerant, law-abiding Holland was not completely immune from the fascist virus. An acquaintance of one Colonne officer named Joop Bouman (*pseudonym) had told her “we’ve got to get rid of that Jewish scum. I’ll give you fl. 5 for every Jew you can bring me.” Bouman’s ex-wife testified:
“when I got married to him he wasn’t earning enough to provide for us. He then got a job with the Hausraterfassung (Assets Custodial Agency), where he earned fl. 60 a week instead of fl. 19….At a certain point he started arresting Jews, and all of a sudden he went from making fl. 60 a week to making fl. 150. I told him to stop doing that work, but couldn’t talk him out of it….” (van Liempt, page 63)
Deportees Meet Their Deporters: Westerbork Transit Camp, May 1945
The Netherlands’ Canadian liberators began filling the transit camp of Westerbork in April 1945 with suspected collaborators even before Amsterdam’s liberation and Amsterdam Jews stuck in the transit camp with nowhere to go had left. Thus, the deported met their deporters and helped get them prosecuted. One example was testimony at the trial of Martin Hintink on September 24, 1948:
“One of the witnesses for the prosecution was Mozes Jacobs, a businessman who worked for the Jewish Council as a doorkeeper at the Dutch Theater in 1942–3. Jacobs ultimately ended up in Westerbork, but he was never deported….Jacobs told the court about how he had run into Martin Hintink at Camp Westerbork; in the chaos of 1945 perpetrators and victims wound up behind the same barbed wire. The meeting took place on May 7, Jacobs remembered. “I saw that he was standing apart from the others, and I saw and heard four Jews yelling and gesticulating at the defendant. I then called out to the defendant, ‘You got seven guilders fifty in bonus money for every Jew you brought in.’” Hintink, Jacobs recalled, admitted it.” (van Liempt, page 64)
And there was another witness: Jacob Barend, a businessman. Hintink arrested his mother-in-law, even though she had just been discharged from the hospital and was recovering from an operation. “She had to go along, despite my appeals and my wife’s pleas,” Barend wrote in his deposition. “We saw and recognized each other here at Westerbork.”
“The businessman L. Benninga was also present for the confrontation at Westerbork. Benninga wrote an official statement in English for the benefit of the Canadian authorities, who were in charge of tracking down war criminals. The letter is in Hintink’s dossier. Benninga wrote: “It was here (Westerbork) I recognized Hintink and when he told me that for every Jew he did arrest and deliver to the Jewish Theater he collected seven guilders and a half from the Zentralstelle fur Judische Auswanderung.” There was thus evidence on the table as early as May 7, 1945. (van Liempt, page 65)
Here is Hintink’s own confession, along with his wife’s“I participated in the arrest of Jews, for which a bonus was paid of seven guilders fifty per Jew. It was only later I discovered that I was doing work for the Sicherheitsdienst….Jannetje Hintink-Rudolfs said quite openly to the detectives questioning her: “In the time he was with Lippmann-Rosenthal, he would be called up for work in the evening and sent out to arrest Jews. In addition to his salary of 230 guilders a month, he received a bonus of seven guilders fifty for every Jew he brought in. He was responsible for checking [the papers of] Jews during the day as well.”” (van Liempt, page 67)
A minor pre-war criminal, Tonny Kroon, who “hunted down Jewish property with grim determination” was:
“perhaps the shrewdest Jew hunter of them all. His sister-in-law Anna Kroon said the following about him: “Tonny was earning a lot of money then. He received ten percent of the capital and jewelry of the Jews he had arrested. In addition he received five or ten guilders in bonuses for every Jew he had picked up. I am quite sure about this, as he told me about it himself on a number of occasions.” (van Liempt, page 68)
Kroon’s colleague, Sjef Sweeger, also testified that they got 10% of the value of the Jewish property they seized. (van Liempt, page 69)
Retiring on Taxable Plunder
Thus, the Colonne Henneicke became a club of nouveaux riches, with wives decked out in jewels and one of its members declaring the astronomical figure of fl. 6000 on his income tax return, a paradox of plunder coupled with law-abiding obedience to the Dutch revenue service.
One Jewish furrier offered to auction off his inventory to avoid deportation. Colonne members Van den Borch and den Ouden got fl. 20000 each from the auction, the equivalent of $139,500 in 2005 money. The two men confirmed to detectives in 1948 that they were in no hurry to return to work. (van Liempt, page 73)
Nor did they have to worry about the victims returning for their assets.
In studying the survival rates in 47 of the Dutch municipalities with at least 100 Jews in 1939, Croes and Tammes have found these factors uncorrelated to lower local survival rates:
Obedience to authority is measured by correlation of religious affiliation to voting totals in the Netherlands’ confessional party and “pillars” system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillarisation).
A pro-German burgomaster
An early starting date to deportations, giving the Colonne more time to find Jews.
Factors that correlated with higher survival rates:
Higher Catholic population.
Presence of more Jewish converts to Christianity as a bridge to Dutch gentile social networks
Non-NSB Dutch police instead of Sicherheitspolizei (the “Colonne”) in charge of hunting Jews, as occurred in Utrecht.
Less polarization between Catholic and Protestant confessional political parties ((https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/11105, page 484–86).
Low-Level Accountability Only + Coverup
The Dutch punished many Dutch Nazis and collaborators after the war, but none of those were high level Dutch civil servants and railway company managers who formed the key part of the machinery of genocide. No police chiefs were ever punished. In addition, the coverup began right after liberation:
“After the liberation, the new Dutch government…decided that it did not want any incriminating material in the archives. Therefore the original archival material pertaining to the registration of the Jews, including the registration forms the municipalities had sent to the RvB, was destroyed. The central authorities then instructed the municipalities at the end of April 1946 to send for destruction the population registration cards that were marked with a “J” for “jew”. (https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/11105, page 480)
Sampling Error in the Family
Stories the Dutch tell themselves were typical: The maternal side of my sister-in-law’s family from Maastricht hid a Polish Jewish family in their attic for 22 months until Maastricht was liberated in October 1944.
But fortunately, the Rijnbout family had eight very noisy children and pro-Nazi neighbors on either side. Her parents, Jacobus and Eelkje Rijnbout, parents of eight children, have a tree at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, an honor granted to them by Israel’s ambassador in April 2004 at a televised posthumous ceremony in Maastricht on the edge of that field. Families like the Rijnbouts are commemorated precisely because of how rare they were.
One Dutch Jew wrote:
“In a full hall he heard his boss say to him: “The good Jews are dead, the bad ones have returned.” Presser added that this boss was a “greatly respected personality with a doctor’s degree.” Such experiences were neither universal nor rare.” (Judging the Netherlands, page 30)
“The Dutch prime minister said that they could not expect him, as a socialist, to help restore money to Jewish capitalists….Joop Voet, later Dutch honorary consul in Tel Aviv, who had worked at the Netherlands Property Administration Institute (NBI). Voet was often told that “full legal restitution to the Jews would be in conflict with the postwar economic reconstruction of the Netherlands.”” (Judging the Netherlands, page 32)
The kind of story in my Dutch family and the salience of the Anne Frank story have enabled the Dutch to organize their historical memory in the service of forgetting the most unpleasant parts of their history. Stories like Anne Frank and the Rijnbout family should be remembered precisely because of how exceptional they were:
“In 2010 the chief rabbi of the Dutch Provincial Rabbinate, Binyomin Jacobs, said that he had never been in the Anne Frank House…“because this one case is an exception. The Anne Frank House encourages the belief in the myth that the Dutch were hiding the Jews from the Nazis.” (Judging the Netherlands, page 26)
The Rijnbout and Frank cases hide in plain sight the larger truth of elite indifference to and active bureaucratic connivance in genocide that empowered the greed and hate-driven uniformed gangsters of the Sicherheitspolizei Colonne.
This airbrushed history has had official sanction:
“In an interview with an Israeli government radio station in 2000, then Dutch PM Wim Kok said: “The Dutch have never been responsible for the misconduct of the Germans in the Netherlands during the war.” (https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/netherlands-hypocrisy-jews/)
A logical view if you’re worried about the cost of survivors’ and survivor descendants’ restitution claims:
“Then finance minister Piet Lieftinck led to changing the law to favor members of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange to the detriment of Jewish holders of securities. Lieftinck also wanted to retroactively change insurance laws to favor the Dutch insurers at the expense of the heirs of Dutch Holocaust victims.” (Judging the Netherlands, Gerstenfeld, page 13)
Clearly, little distinguishes the motives of the Colonne Henneicke police and the government minister.
The Netherlands’ airbrushed holocaust history has also served national populist purposes two generations later. Geert Wilders’ PVV (Freedom Party) needs the Netherlands’ WWII history airbrushed of guilt to demonize Muslim immigrants for their anti-semitism:
“In the Netherlands Mein Kampf is outlawed. When it was outlawed, the politically correct leftist and liberal parties applauded it. My point was that for the same reasons and (legal) arguments that Mein Kampf was outlawed in the Netherlands, the Koran could and should be outlawed since both books are full of incitement to violence. Geert Wilders, email interview with Human Rights Service, Jan. 2010.” (Who’s the Fascist? Uses of the Nazi Past at the Geert Wilders Trial, Working Paper (2012) Robert A. Kahn)
Wilders’ xenophobic PVV needs the Manichaean opposition of good, democratic, tolerant Holland to intolerant, anti-semitic, Islam to ignore that
“a large minority of Dutch (31%) think Jews talk too much about the Holocaust, and a majority (53%) would find a Jewish prime minister unacceptable (even though (the Jewish former Amsterdam mayor) Job Cohen was the Labor Party candidate for prime minister in 2003) (ibid).
War Crimes, Plunder and Reluctant Restitution a Half Century Late
The other side of Dutch WWII mythology and martyrology lies on the other side of the world: Indonesia. It’s a key link in the chain of Dutch self-deception and coverup. The two linked up after the war when the repatriated Dutch victims of the Japanese complained about the larger restitution claims of surviving Jews, as recounted by the Dutch Minister of Public Health, Dr. Els Borst-Eilers, whose ministry was charged with administering both sets of claims:
“The laws of previous governments regarding war victims and the special pensions and social benefits due to them were under our management. I had to execute or supervise these laws. They brought me into contact with the problems of postwar restitution. The renewed restitution discussions at the turn of the century gave me a sense of great shame. Previous governments had done nothing or very little….
Borst was also responsible for negotiating the restitution of the assets lost by the Dutch in the East Indies, who experienced far fewer deaths than the 107000 murdered Dutch Jews, but nevertheless expressed “jealousy toward the Jews”:
“Nobody there had even a scrap of paper to show that he had had any possessions that had been looted by the Japanese….when I talked with them there were often annoying conversations in the style of “Why do they get more per person than we do?” It was a relief to deal with the Jewish representatives, not only because they brought proof, but because they also had — besides the emotions involved — a rather businesslike and realistic attitude.” (Judging the Netherlands, Gerstenfeld, page 208).
Gerrit Zalm, the finance minister in Wim Kok’s government during restitution negotiations with both communities, confirmed Borst’s view:
“I consider that a very different case. The emotions were equally great, but the two issues were not comparable. The Dutch state did not possess assets that had belonged to these Dutchmen. These people had also suffered damage, but the government had not enriched itself from this….The Dutchmen who had lived in the former Dutch East Indies wanted to be treated like the Jews….(Judging the Netherlands, page 204)
Zalm knew the details of how the plunder of Jewish assets had not ended with liberation:
“On a TV program that year (1997) it was revealed that part of the Lippman Rosenthal (LIRO Bank) archive had been found. That was the looting bank where….the Jews had to deposit their possessions. The archive had been abandoned in an Amsterdam building that was inhabited by students. This was very negligent, to put it mildly. It later became known that what remained of the LIRO assets had been raffled off at a low taxation value of many years earlier to the personnel of the agency that, after the war, handled the remaining possessions. I founded that shocking. It was a discovery that deeply shamed me.” (Judging the Netherlands, page 202)
The best conclusion to this story of murder, plunder, coverup and self-deception is William Faulkner’s: “the past isn’t dead, it isn’t even past.”
Now that we’ve seen the common thread in the East Indies and Dutch homeland asset restitution process, let’s travel to the other side of the world.
Indonesian Support for Japanese Invaders and Postwar Dutch Recolonization
The Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia, already had an incipient nationalist independence movement when the Japanese invaded in January 1942. The Japanese government envisioned this Dutch colony as one of the linchpins of its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, supplying labor, oil and raw materials to industrial Japan.
One of its leaders who greeted the Japanese as liberators was the future president Sukarno. Famed Indonesian writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer noted: “with the arrival of the Japanese just about everyone was full of hope, except for those who had worked in the service of the Dutch.”
“The Japanese occupation was initially greeted with optimistic enthusiasm by Indonesians who came to meet the Japanese army waving flags and shouting support such as “Japan is our older brother” and “banzai Dai Nippon”. As the Japanese advanced, rebellious Indonesians in virtually every part of the archipelago killed groups of Europeans (particularly the Dutch) and informed the Japanese reliably on the whereabouts of larger groups.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies ).
One of the Japanese officers interviewed in Japan At War, by the Japanese-American couple Haruko Taya and Theodore Cook, confirmed this. Nogi Harumichi told them:
“We travelled through the southern part of the Celebes by car. All seemed to be functioning well, and we Japanese were being treated as liberators who had expelled the Dutch for the Indonesians. The haughty Dutch who had lorded it over the Indies found themselves prisoners overnight. When I got to areas where Japanese forces had never been, village chiefs welcome me. They waved the sun flag and the Indonesian flag too….To me they looked as if they favored us. This lasted through the end of 1942. (Japan at War, 1989, page 107)
Many Indonesians didn’t mind when the Japanese interned tens of thousands of Dutch colonizers and other local Europeans and Chinese in concentration camps. The local Indonesians who replaced them in professional and technical jobs were happy to be promoted. The Indonesian political and economic elite that had cooperated with the Dutch collaborated with newly arrived Japanese companies that supplied the Japanese military’s war effort. They at first believed the Japanese slogan, “Asia for the Asians”. Some are pictured here:
Young Indonesian boys being trained by the Imperial Japanese Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies
The Japanese, the “Light of Asia” according to their propaganda, paved the way for Indonesian independence by:
Dismantling the Dutch colonial state apparatus. Lifting the ban on the nationalist name of Indonesia for the Dutch East Indies and encouraging Conscripting and training tens of thousands of Indonesians from many different islands, which enabled them to defeat the Dutch recolonization effort from 1945–49. Disrupting the rigidly hierarchical racial and caste social order that had prevailed before the war: “the Japanese had opened training schools for government officials, normal schools, agricultural and forestry schools, commercial schools, engineering colleges, medical colleges, merchant marine school, for provide higher education to Indonesians, and made “Indonesian” the official language instead of English or Dutch. The Japanese banned the use of Dutch and English language.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies#End_of_the_occupation)
But the reality did not match the Japanese propaganda. Asia was for Japanese Asians. Our war criminal witness, Lieutenant Harumichi, shows how:
“Japan recreated exactly the same structure the Dutch had used. If we’d removed that we couldn’t have administered the country. This was true even at the lowest levels. Each local district had its own head, with its own system of self-government. It was almost completely feudalistic and practically universal….The Japanese military authorities followed the same pattern. We used the feudalistic system as it was.” (Japan at War, page 107)
After the end of 1942 the locals understood they had exchanged one colonizer for another:
“Then the military demanded an allotment of the rice harvest from the depths of the Celebes. There was a stirring of tension among the locals and the troops had to be mobilized to control it. Allied bombing started in 1943…Just before each air raid, it seemed a flare would be sent up showing our location….At first, the pedicabs had stopped the instant I called out to them. Now they kept going as if they didn’t hear.” (Japan at War, pages 107–08)
Lt. Harumichi was put in charge of a naval facility that trained local Indonesian ferry boatmen on the island of Ambon, near the New Guinea front. Part of his job was explaining to the trainees that if Japan lost the war they would remain a colony. But “I didn’t truly believe thoses arguments any longer, but I used them anyway.” (Japan at War, page 109).
By 1944 Lt. Harumichi knew that
“our military occupation would be powerless if the locals began guerrilla activities against us….the local Kempei unit had been…cooking up false cases, just to get points for doing something. They dragging in village heads one after the other. Calling them spies and then executing them.”
The Japanese conscripted at least 4 million Indonesians as forced laborers while 4 million died in the famine that resulted from the Japanese looting of the local economy and infrastructure. The would-be liberators’ plunder triggered rebellion, aided by the British, Australians and Dutch. Essentially, the war proved to be a school for national revolution, teaching masses of Indonesians by example that violence could be effective in pursuit of political and social revolution. During the occupation the Japanese had beheaded entire families of many local sultans who had joined the resistance. Acehnese (Sumatran) clerics and their followers who rebelled against the Dutch in February 1942, rebelled against the Japanese in November of the same year.
According to Lt. Harumichi, the returning Dutch colonial officials had no issue with Japanese atrocities committed against Indonesians:
“the Dutch did not charge those who had followed official military legal procedures carried out by the Japanese army and navy. They did not question them even if there were horrible things in the trials. And so, although the Dutch came to investigate these martial law sentences, they never filed complaints against me.” (Japan at War, page 112)
This shows that the coverup of Japanese war crimes in Indonesia was a Dutch-Japanese joint venture. Lt. Harumichi, who personally beheaded Indonesian village headmen and downed allied pilots, explains:
“Today, Japan’s government justifies what the military did during those war years. I’m saying this because I’m receiving a pension today. The time I spent in Sugamo prison as a war criminal is included in my service. This is the Japanese state saying, “Thank you very much for your efforts.” You acted for the sake of Japan.” Although I was given 30 years by America for a crime I committed, it’s treated as just a foreign sentence, unimportant.” (Japan at War, page 113).
Covering for Japanese war criminals in Indonesia facilitated forgetting the Dutch mass murderers who succeeded them:
“Consider, for example, the case of Dutch officer Raymond Westerling, who was in charge of “pacifying” parts of the island of Sulawesi during the Indonesian war. An interview with him in which he admitted to war crimes was filmed in 1969. Not a single Dutch TV station agreed to broadcast it. It was finally shown in 2012. In 1971, Westerling told a journalist over a glass of diluted whisky that he had court-martialed 350 captives and personally executed them. Again, no action was taken by justice authorities.(https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/netherlands-hypocrisy-jews/)
Coverup Hiding in Plain Sight
The brief Indonesian part of the Dutch WWII story seems added on almost as an afterthought. This illustrates how the Pacific part of a worldwide conflict was, in relative terms, a mostly American run sideshow, sensibilities of China, Korea, Burma and Indonesia nothwithstanding. Though Germany’s defeat doomed the Japanese empire, Japan’s defeat would not have necessarily led to Germany’s defeat. To defeat Germany the world’s largest empire (the UK), the world’s greatest industrial power (the USA) and the world’s largest country (the USSR) had to form an awkward alliance of convenience. No two of them alone without the third could have defeated Germany and its eastern European satellites. Also, Japan, unlike Germany, had no nuclear weapons development potential. So the fate of the Netherlands and the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe depended on this odd alliance of British imperialism, American liberalism and Soviet communism.
As in Italy, self-deceiving martyrology produced a coverup hiding in plain sight. Through Japanese war crimes and cruelty, the German bombing of Rotterdam and occupation of the Netherlands and the hunger winter of 1944–45, the Dutch could look good as helpless victims by comparison. This hid and prevented accountability for the Netherlands’ civil society, civil service and police taking a different, less overtly violent, route to the same genocidal destination as most of eastern Europe. With the bar set so low, they could forget that their government threw in the towel in their war against Indonesian independence only when the US threatened to withdraw Marshall Plan aid. They could also forget that after Japan’s surrender thousands of British troops beat back Indonesian nationalists in Java using recently surrendered Japanese troops, as the French did in Indochina. The Netherlands could not have launched a war of recolonization in Indonesia without the help of their erstwhile enemies. Imagine the impact on the Dutch self-image if recently surrendered German troops been available and used for the same purpose to suppress a resistance rebellion in the Netherlands itself that brought elite collaborators to justice. Though a seemingly absurd speculation, the moral dimensions of national memory are sometimes best served by the shock therapy of counterfactuals and speculation.
_________________________
References
The Holocaust in the Netherlands and the Rate of Jewish Survival, Marnix Croes, Research and Documentation Center of the Netherlands Ministry of Justice, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 20, Number 3, Winter 2006, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/11105
Hitler’s Bounty Hunters: The Betrayal of the Jews, Ad van Liempt, 2005
Judging the Netherlands: The Renewed Holocaust Restitution Process, 1997–2000, Manfred Gerstenfeld, 2011, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Netherlands Profound Hypocrisy on the Jews, Manfred Gerstenfeld, 2019, BESA Center Perspectives Paper 1,068, The Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, January 20, 2019
Anti-Antisemitic Enthusiasm & Selective Philosemitism: Geert Wilders, the PVV and the Jews, Evelien Gans, Proceedings / International conference “Antisemitism in Europe Today: the Phenomena, the Conflicts” 8–9 November 2013, Organized by the Jewish Museum Berlin, the Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” and the Center for Research on Antisemitism Berlin
WHO’S THE FASCIST? USES OF THE NAZI PAST AT THE GEERT WILDERS TRIAL Working Paper (2012) Robert A. Kahn Associate Professor of Law University of St. Thomas School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper №12–10
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Some were neighbors: http://somewereneighbors.ushmm.org/#/exhibitions/workers/un104/description
USHMM, Jewish Losses by Country: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-losses-during-the-holocaust-by-country
The Henneicke Column: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henneicke_Column
The Netherlands in World War Two (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_in_World_War_II#Holocaust)
Trouw, Dutch newspaper, https://www.trouw.nl/religie-filosofie/joodse-gemeenschap-omarmt-schuldbelijdenis-protestantse-kerk~b2522bf5/,
Dutchnews.nl, https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2020/11/protestant-churchs-declaration-of-guilt-towards-the-jews-is-a-historic-step/
Dutch Foundation for Literature, http://www.letterenfonds.nl/en/book/76/a-price-on-their-heads
The Guardian, January 7, 2019, The Cut-out Girl by Bart van Es review. (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/the-cut-out-girl-by-bart-van-es-review)
Defendinghistory.com (https://defendinghistory.com/)
Yad Vashem: https://righteous.yadvashem.org/?searchType=righteous_only&language=en&itemId=4440260&ind=NaN
Japanese Occupation in the Dutch East Indies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_occupation_of_the_Dutch_East_Indies)
Japan At War: An Oral History, 1989, Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore Cook. | https://medium.com/lessons-from-history/wwii-mythology-tour-the-netherlands-1da9113ab649 | ['Lester Golden'] | 2020-12-02 14:30:10.669000+00:00 | ['World War II', 'Europe', 'Holocaust', 'Netherlands', 'History'] |
Switzerland | One for all, all for one — that is the motto.
New vocab from the new topic!
landlocked
surrounded by other countries and having no coast.
Switzerland is a small landlocked nation.
sparcely
with only a small number or amount of people of things.
There are sparcely populated villages in the nord region.
extinction
a situation in which something no longer exists.
A large fraction of species will be committed to extinction.
Species
a set of animals of plants in which the members have similar characteristics to each other or can breed with each other.
Some speices can be found only in Africa.
desiduous
a deciduous tree loses its leaves in fall and grows new ones in the spring.
I’ve been to the deciduous forests of Belarus.
artificial
made by people, often as a copy of something natural.
The arfificial turf is often used in soccer fields.
abundance
the situation in which there is more than enough of something.
Abundance is opposed to scarcity.
Thank u for attention:-) | https://medium.com/@meleana/switzerland-419298c8921d | ['Lyubov Obsholova'] | 2020-12-13 11:41:43.566000+00:00 | ['Switzerland', 'Vocabulary', 'Words', 'Topics', 'Definition'] |
Of ecommerce & false promises — How product matching can deliver on long forgotten promises. | You’ve most likely seen an Eames ‘Eiffel’ chair. It would’ve been there in some office lobby you waited at, cafes you’ve walked by or a co-working space you frequent.
It’s everywhere.
Now if you feel like you want to buy one and search on Amazon you will get quite a few options.
via Amazon
Here’s where the problem starts.
Are they all the same color? What about the nifty rod design which gave the chair its famous name — is that identical? Material? Manufacturer?
Can you tell them apart using just 2-D images?
Should you have to?
In a recent Quartz article journalist Mike Murphy talks about the trouble with finding similar items across websites especially when they have been obscured by different names, descriptions and prices.
Let’s consider a few simple examples which compare product images without added distractions of dissimilar layout, rehashed descriptions and arbitrary prices — how fast can you tell if the items are matched?
EXAMPLE1: Ice-cream — colour saturation or new flavor?
EXAMPLE2: Toy Carriage — new toy or repeat purchase?
EXAMPLE 3: Rug — the same or unique?
You could probably tell the answer after a pause but imagine trying to pick from Amazon’s packed UI or even a more regular listing style like Wayfair’s:
Screenshot from Wayfair
You are likely doing a minor version of this exercise every time you make a purchase. It’s exhausting, inefficient and frankly unnecessary.
People shouldn’t need to put their detective hats on every time they want to shop for something. Ecommerce was supposed to take the guesswork out of shopping.
So what’s the solution?
An AI-powered solution to product matching.
At Semantics3 we’ve taken a multi-modal deep learning approach towards solving the problem of finding matching products. Multi-modal here implies that our algorithms take into account images, names, descriptions, features and all of the other data points that sites provide to describe their products.
The above product images were from an article by Govind, our head of data-science, which takes a look at the tricky nature of product matching.
A person trying to figure out matching products between sites is inundated with a ton of information — different angles and saturation for images, variant text, prices and non-standardized features. Add in unique website layouts and product matching by humans is, optimistically speaking, non-scalable (and realistically speaking — impossible).
Match.
Not a match. Notice that the number of windows aren’t identical
Not a match. The design is different.
Instead our Product Matching AI, trained and tuned on painstakingly curated datasets built over many years, can scalably take all available data and weigh it in context in order to decide whether two given products match.
And that, can make ecommerce much better for all.
Interested in our AI-based Product Matching API? Check out our AI solutions! | https://medium.com/datascience-semantics3/of-ecommerce-false-promises-4594bcb769ae | ['Anjali Krishnan'] | 2018-02-26 22:28:32.168000+00:00 | ['Retail Technology', 'Ecommerce', 'AI', 'Amazon', 'Retail'] |
How Accurate Are HD Maps for Autonomous Driving and ADAS Simulation? | In our mission to create digital twins of real world roads, our team at atlatec has taken on a number of HD Mapping projects all over the world, delivering HD maps and 3D models for autonomous vehicle operations and AV/ADAS simulation.
Along the way, we’ve discovered a number of topics and questions that are of relevance to almost all project partners involved — and we want to take the opportunity to discuss some of these in more detail. To start, we’ve decided to answer one of the most prominent and frequent questions we get:
“How accurate are HD maps?”
Maintaining high accuracy is one of the biggest challenges in building HD maps of real-world roads — and a rather complex one. Let’s dive right in and start by looking at what accuracy means in this context:
What does “accuracy” mean for HD maps?
With regard to accuracy, there are two main focus points that determine the quality of an HD map:
Global accuracy (positioning of a feature on the face of the Earth)
Local accuracy (positioning of a feature in relation to road elements around it).
It is important to note that, in terms of road mapping, accuracy is an index that cannot be derived from a single variable. With regard to our mapping technology, accuracy is directly dependent on 3 potential sources of error:
Stages of the mapping process and accuracy-related errors that may originate from them.
GPS-based global referencing (error in tracking global sensor position)
Local referencing/drift (error in capturing the pose and motion of a survey vehicle)
Local sampling (error in labeling road elements in a processed 3D model)
Let’s look at the different aspects in more detail — we’ll also provide some specific numbers, derived from projects that atlatec has completed in the USA, Europe and Japan.
Global/GPS error
Global accuracy of maps is generally bound by the accuracy of GPS: This challenge is the same for map providers all over the world. With regard to this type of error, then, the main cause is poor GPS signal quality. It is most often affected when driving a survey vehicle in areas that are covered by roof-like structures (most commonly under bridges and through tunnels), as well as surrounded by tall buildings (within street canyons).
The challenge to accurately determine the position of ones sensor pod is a very old one. It’s basically the same that seafarers used to have when navigating by the stars: In order to accurately pinpoint your goal and chart a course, you need to first determine where you are located. Similarly, in HD mapping, you can’t answer the question “Where is this sign we’re detecting?” unless you first answer the question “Where are we currently positioned?”.
As a result, your ability to accurately survey a road and its surroundings is directly dependent on your ability to first pinpoint the position and pose of your survey vehicle — along all trajectories it was driven. Any errors in determining a sensor’s position and pose will subsequently result in a global accuracy error of the map created from this sensor’s data.
To maintain a high degree of global accuracy, our sensor pods contain survey-grade differential GPS sensors: This ensures optimized signal reception and allows to supplement the real-time satellite signal by using correction data from GPS base stations, which exist almost all over the world. In combination, such correction data significantly enhances the accuracy, compared to using only GPS satellite signals.
atlatec combines GPS satellite and base station data for optimal global accuracy.
Local error
Before a survey vehicle enters a tunnel and after it comes out at the other end, the differential GPS receiver usually provides accurate global coordinates to determine its position. However, as mentioned above, attempting to track its movement on a global scale whilst it is driving through a tunnel produces error — there is no GPS satellite signal underground.
This is where the importance of the stereo cameras comes in: Imagery that we collect from the two, calibrated cameras whilst driving through a tunnel allows us to compute and track the pose and motion of a survey vehicle by using computer vision technology. To further supplement accuracy, we add another, redundant sensor in the form of a motion sensor, or IMU (inertial measurement unit).
When it comes to the processing stage, then, we use sensor fusion to combine the data from the cameras, GPS and IMU to successfully reconstruct the trajectory of a survey vehicle and its surroundings, maintaining high accuracy throughout the entire data set. The advantages of using computer vision technology stand out in contrast to other systems that are mainly IMU-based: Their main side effect is that, in areas with no or poor GPS, the trajectory of a vehicle can go off (drift) and may only be corrected once GPS signal is recovered. In the context of autonomous driving, such errors can not be afforded.
Using imagery collected from the stereo cameras allows us to recreate a very consistent trajectory, even in GPS-denied areas. If the GPS signal is lost for a very long distance, though, drift/local referencing error will eventually occur, as is the case for all known approaches.
The benefit of using a camera-based approach — also called visual odometry — over an IMU-based system lies in the nature of how the error accumulates over time: whereas the total error of an IMU accumulates in a cubic fashion (at a factor of x³, with x being the distance travelled), atlatec’s vision-based approach only makes for linear accumulation of error.
Mapping in a tunnel: atlatec’s computer vision-based approach maintains high accuracy even in GPS-denied areas.
Sampling error
This type of error is caused by incorrect calculation of distance between a point of interest (for example a stop line or a traffic light) and a sensor pod camera. Local sampling, or annotation takes place after the collected data is translated into a 3D model and is the process of labelling features within this model, thus making them identifiable to simulation tools or autonomous vehicles. In other words, annotation is the process of translating 3D imagery, which humans can easily understand and process, into a vectorized “digital twin” which can be processed by algorithms and AI.
A 3D model of an intersection, with lane geometry/topology and other features annotated.
In order to annotate road objects accurately, we use a combination of AI and manual work, which will be discussed in more detail later on.
What is atlatec’s approach to creating accurate HD maps?
Attempting to deal with all three causes of accuracy error in the practice of road mapping poses a number of challenges both in terms of software and hardware development. Our mapping technology employs a number of tools and solutions which allow us to achieve high HD map accuracy in a cost-effective manner.
Portable, camera-based mapping setup
At atlatec, we use a sensor setup that is mainly camera-based. Having two cameras and a GPS receiver at a fixed distance from each other in a small, portable box allows us to map roads worldwide with very little logistical difficulty: The metal case containing all sensors is the size of a suitcase and can be set up on any car in a matter of minutes.
Leveraging the survey-grade differential GPS and our computer vision expertise as explained above, we manage to accurately recreate all trajectories driven during data acquisition. As both our hardware and software are developed inhouse, the sensor pods’ configuration and the pipeline for processing the data from them are heavily optimized for each other.
An atlatec sensor pod mounted on a rental car using suction cups, ready to begin data acquisition.
Loop closure
Strong emphasis on achieving extremely accurate loop closure is a crucial step in creation of coherent datasets. Our survey methods include driving on every lane of a road we set out to map, extending initial driving duration but ensuring higher data quality (and eliminating occlusion issues). The main reason why this increases mapping accuracy is that, by driving on every lane of the same stretch of a road, the same road object can be detected multiple times, enabling us to determine its global position more accurately. The process of bringing the sensor data from these multiple survey trajectories together into one consistent result is what’s called loop closure.
To exemplify this, let’s say a vehicle equipped with an atlatec sensor pod drives on a lane framed by dashed lane borders. The survey vehicle will drive on that lane at least once (the example of driving past a desired point on the road twice is represented in the schematic image below as trajectory a and trajectory b). Moreover, the vehicle will also drive on its neighboring lanes (if there are any) as part of the same survey session which starts and ends at the same location. In turn, once it comes to the annotation stage, we will be able to represent, for example, a corner of any individual dash as a point in a 3D map.
In complex cases such as sharp turns where a certain point can be absent in some trajectories, then, we will still be able to determine the position of a dash accurately. The reason for it is that, thanks to loop closure, our data sets are very coherent. That makes it possible to connect the data acquired from both stereo cameras and track key points from multiple trajectories in which they are visible.
Capturing the same point multiple times allows us to accurately determine its position, even when it is hardly visible from certain perspectives.
Human-assisted AI
Our third and main strength is our software. Data retrieved from the stereo cameras, the GPS receiver and the IMU is first pre-processed in order to accurately reconstruct driving trajectories and mitigate potential incoherences from driving in areas with poor GPS signal. Following this stage, we use a combination of AI and manual work to reconstruct a broad spectrum of road objects in a virtual environment. Although our software can detect and identify a wide range of road elements accurately, integration of manual work is an important step in ensuring high accuracy and consistency throughout the entire map.
Top view of an automatically processed map, showing lane geometry/topology annotated in color.
How accurate are atlatec HD maps?
Based on thousands of kilometers of HD maps we’ve created all over the world and the results of various tests and audits, we conclude that accuracy errors will be lower than the following for 95% of atlatec HD map coverage:
Global/GPS accuracy
In areas with good GPS reception we achieve a global accuracy of less than 3 cm deviation using satellite signals and correction data from base stations.
In GPS-denied areas, however, inaccuracy rises with distance traveled through the area, being largest in its middle. This means that the maximum GPS error can be expressed as a percentage of the distance traveled through a GPS-denied area: We have quantified this through repeated tests which indicate that this value is less than 0.5%.
For instance, if we drive through a tunnel that is 500 meters long, our GPS-based estimation of the global position of a survey vehicle will not deviate more than max. 1,25 m from the truth in the middle of that tunnel.
As this is still a relatively high margin of error, we leverage computer vision as discussed above to mitigate the error on a local level:
Local accuracy (drift)
By using computer vision technology to reconstruct the trajectory driven on any route we can work around GPS, keeping consistency and accuracy at a high level even in tunnels and urban canyons.
As mentioned above, the error that occurs when relying on visual odometry accumulates far slower than e. g. IMU-based approaches: Within a certain horizon (h) around a survey vehicle, the drift of the reference trajectory will contribute to an error of less than 0.1%*h.
For instance, a feature located at 20 meters distance from a survey vehicle will not be displaced by more than 2 cm due to local drift of the reference trajectory.
Sampling accuracy
Inside of a corridor of 10 meters width around the mapping trajectory, features in the finished 3D model can be surveyed with less than 4 cm deviation. At a larger lateral distance, precision will drop.
Which kind of accuracy matters most for HD maps?
We have taken on a number of mapping projects all over the world so far, a typical customer use case being the creation of 3D models for (ADAS) simulation. With that in mind, it is important to note that, when it comes to virtual testing environments, the relevance of the accuracy errors mentioned above can differ.
Usually for simulation use cases, a low local and sampling error are of highest significance. Meanwhile, global accuracy and GPS positioning are often irrelevant in this context. In fact, GPS receivers weren’t even a part of our sensor setup in the beginning: This is due to the nature of virtual testing, where what matters is that the local environment is reproduced accurately — e. g. in the process of simulating lane-keep assistance on a digital twin of real-world lane geometry. As long as the positioning of the vehicle in relation to road elements is correct, it usually does not matter where on the globe these road elements are located. We will discuss map development for simulation in more detail in a separate article.
If you want to see for yourself how atlatec data can boost simulation, you can download a free sample map of Downtown, San Francisco here — provided in the OpenDRIVE format, as supported by a growing number of simulation tools. | https://medium.com/atlatec-gmbh/how-accurate-are-hd-maps-for-autonomous-driving-and-adas-simulation-9f68fa89f840 | ['Atlatec Gmbh'] | 2020-10-23 07:11:35.279000+00:00 | ['3d Mapping', 'Autonomous Vehicles', 'Self Driving Cars', 'Autonomous Driving', 'Hd Maps'] |
Mejoramiento genético ¿Es una amenaza para las especies domésticas? | Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more
Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore | https://medium.com/intersecciones-bioblogs-utec/mejoramiento-gen%C3%A9tico-es-una-amenaza-para-las-especies-dom%C3%A9sticas-c4d087e16968 | ['Bioblogs Utec'] | 2020-12-03 23:12:47.930000+00:00 | ['Science', 'Genetic Engineering', 'Biotechnology', 'Genetic Modification'] |
Kubernetes' four reasons behind Docker deprecation | Photo by Stanley Dai on Unsplash
Kubernetes is deprecating Docker as a container runtime after the v1.20 release. On a high-level, Kubernetes will show the deprecation message after upgrading the cluster to v1.20, and Kubernetes plans to remove Docker container runtime support as early as the v1.23 release.
Technically, Kubernetes is not removing Docker as a container runtime. Rather, it is deprecating dockershim, a component in Kubelet that helps communicate to Docker to create/delete containers. When the dockershim is removed, Kubelet has no way to communicate to Docker; hence deprecating Docker.
Before we understand the deprecation part, let us talk about the basics:
What are Container Runtimes?
Is Docker a high-level or low-level container runtime?
Container Runtime Interface between Kubernetes and Docker
What are Container Runtimes?
Container runtime is software that maintains and administers the containers. There are two types of container runtimes, high-level and low-level runtimes. Consider the high-level runtime manages the low-level runtime, where the low-level runtime focuses on just running containers.
Container Runtimes
High-level container runtimes have elements like a daemon, API, and an interactive CLI. These elements help in managing, unpacking, and passing the container image to the low-level container runtime. In contrast, low-level container runtimes are responsible for the actual mechanics of running containers.
Some examples of high-level container runtimes are Docker, containerd, CRI-O, etc., while runC, RailCar, lxc, etc., are low-level container runtime.
Is Docker a high-level or low-level container runtime?
Docker is a widely-used OCI compliant open source container runtime. It manages the container lifecycle by building, packaging, sharing, and running the containers, plus it has additional features like volumes and networking.
Docker is based on client/server architecture and has both high-level (Docker Daemon and Containerd)and low-level container runtimes. It comprises three primary components Docker Daemon, Docker REST API, and Docker CLI. The Docker CLI uses the Docker API to interact with the Docker Daemon to manage objects, such as images, containers, networks, and volumes.
Docker Engine Architecture
Now, let us see an example of how Docker creates a container; if a user executes a Docker command from the CLI,
docker container run -it — name <container-name> <image>:<image-tag>
the Docker client talks to the Daemon’s endpoint with an API payload. Once the Daemon accepts the payload, it invokes and forwards the API payload to the containerd (high-level runtime). Containerd then unpacks the image and communicates to the runC (low-level runtime) with an OCI bundle to create a container. runC interacts with the host kernel and starts a container.
Note: In theory, runC does not have any idea about images. It cannot execute a command runc run nginx:latest to create a container using an image. Instead, runC expects an OCI bundle, i.e., a root filesystem and a config.json file.
Now we know what and how Docker works, let us know how it is tied to Kubernetes.
Container Runtime Interface between Kubernetes and Docker
Initially, Kubernetes used Docker as the only container runtime to create/delete pods on the worker nodes. Given that the container runtime space has been rapidly evolving, Kubernetes has developed a plugin API called Container Runtime Interface (CRI) to connect the kubelet to various container runtimes.
Kubelet with Containerd runtime
As an example, cri-containerd (now integrated within containerd and maintained by containerd) is a CRI plugin between containerd and kubelet.
For any container runtime to work with Kubernetes, they need to be CRI and OCI compliant. Containerd and CRI-O runtimes are CRI and OCI compliant, whereas Docker is just an OCI compliant runtime. Given Docker’s broad user base, Kubernetes has created a temporary solution as a part of the Kubelet code called dockershim to interact with the Docker engine.
Kubelet with Docker runtime
Suppose Docker engine is used as container runtime on the Kubernetes worker nodes as represented in the above image. In that case, the Kubelet communicates the container creation request to dockershim through gRPC as they run on the same host, and dockershim forwards the request to Docker daemon, which again rerouted to containerd to invoke the OCI binary(runC) with an OCI bundle to create a container.
Note: The dockershim is an alternate for Docker’s UX developed by Kubernetes to act as a bridge between Kubelet and Docker.
Well, those are the basics about Docker and how it works with the Kubernetes CRI.
Let us get back to the topic on why Kubernetes has deprecated Docker as a container runtime,
Docker seems fine, why the deprecation?
If not Docker, what are the other options?
What if I still need Docker as my Kubernetes runtime?
Who/What is impacted by this change?
Docker seems fine, why the deprecation?
Although Docker provides elements like UX, storage, networking and managing containers, Kubernetes only needs a container runtime to pull and unpack an image to an OCI bundle and invoke an OCI binary (low-level runtime) like runC to create and destroy containers.
Given what Kubernetes needs, these are the reasons why Kubernetes is deprecating Docker,
Reason 1: Docker is not a CRI compliant runtime. The CRI of Docker (a.k.a. dockershim) is part of kubelet code and runs as part of kubelet. It is tightly coupled with the kubelet’s lifecycle and has some inconsistent integrations with the Kubelet.
Reason 2: Because it is all in the Kubelet’s code, deprecating it should eliminate the kubelet’s maintenance burden on the Kubernetes community.
Reason 3: A Kubelets’s request to dockershim has to hop through various elements to create a container, while other runtimes like containerd and CRI-O has lesser jumps and has shown more reliable performance than Docker.
Reason 4: Docker’s scope is too large for Kubernetes clusters as Kubernetes does not care about native Docker services like storage and networking, and deprecating it will reduce the attack surface.
If not Docker, what are the other options?
As I said, Kubernetes can run any OCI image format on a CRI and OCI compliant container runtime. Container runtimes like containerd and CRI-O are well suited for Kubernetes’ needs and are CRI and OCI compliant.
Containerd initially started as part of Docker and was eventually moved out as an open-source container runtime. It abstracts the syscalls or kernel level details and acts as a client to the platforms such as Docker or Kubernetes to interact with the low-level container runtimes like runC. CRI-O is a light-weight container runtime purely developed precisely for Kubernetes needs.
Fun Fact: I was in the front row when Red Hat announced about not supporting Docker and introduced CRI-O for OpenShift in 2019 Red Hat’s Boston Summit.
What if I still need Docker as my Kubernetes runtime?
There is still hope to use Docker as a Kubernetes runtime, as Mirantis and Docker are partnered to maintain the dockershim by taking it over from the Kubernetes. This means you can continue to use the Docker engine as a container runtime for Kubernetes by switching from the built-in dockershim to the external one.
Who/What is impacted by this change?
The deprecation may or may not impact your environments depending on your current Kubernetes configurations and use cases.
Are the businesses impacted?
If you are using a cloud provider’s managed Kubernetes service like EKS, GKE, or AKS, most of these providers are already supporting containerd as a runtime. Otherwise, work with your cloud provider to ensure that the worker nodes use a supported container runtime.
If the Kubernetes clusters are setup on-premises with Docker, switching the container runtime will cause downtime as Kubelet requires to re-adjust its settings to the new runtime. For zero downtime node upgrades, use a rolling update method by cordoning and draining the nodes one by one while the application pods move to an active node from the cordoned node.
Do Developers / Admins need to care?
Developers, absolutely not! They can continue writing the Dockerfiles and build application images with Docker as it is an OCI compliant runtime. This means a Docker image can run on any OCI-compliant runtime, including containerd and CRI-O.
For admins, if the Kubernetes clusters are setup on-premises with Docker, you need to replace it with the supported runtime and start learning to use the crictl CLI tool to inspect and debug container runtimes.
What about the Kubernetes based CI/CD processes?
If your CI/CD pipelines are running in Kubernetes clusters using the /var/run/docker.sock for Docker image builds, its time to look for alternate options,
CI/CD builds with or without Docker
Create a dedicated build machine that has Docker installed and replace the /var/run/docker.sock configuration with the dedicated machine’s configuration to run Docker builds.
configuration with the dedicated machine’s configuration to run Docker builds. Use the OCI compatible container image builders such as Kaniko, img, or buildah as an alternative.
Closure
To summarize, Kubernetes is deprecating Docker in late 2021 since it is not the end of the world and will make things more manageable; you have plenty of time and multiple choices plus techniques to work this out.
If you are using a cloud provider’s managed Kubernetes service like EKS, GKE, or AKS, please work with your cloud provider to ensure a stable upgrade process. As Kubernetes said,
This change is coming. It’s going to cause some issues, but it isn’t catastrophic, and generally, it’s a good thing.
Hit me up on Medium, LinkedIn, or Twitter if you want to talk about upgrading your Kubernetes clusters with zero business impact. If you are working on AKS and planning to take Azure DevOps certification, here are my thoughts on it.
I hope the content is educative, and thanks for reading!! Happy Upgrade 🚀🚀 | https://medium.com/@suryalolla/docker-seems-fine-why-did-kubernetes-deprecate-it-b6c87b401b72 | ['Venkata Surya Lolla'] | 2020-12-15 18:07:46.012000+00:00 | ['Containers', 'Development', 'Kubernetes', 'Docker', 'DevOps'] |
Google Apps 如何給用戶做應用程式推薦 — Wide&Deep Model | Neural Network Embeddings Explained
How deep learning can represent War and Peace as a vector | https://medium.com/%E6%95%B8%E5%AD%B8-%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E6%99%BA%E6%85%A7%E8%88%87%E8%9F%92%E8%9B%87/google-apps-%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E7%B5%A6%E7%94%A8%E6%88%B6%E5%81%9A%E6%87%89%E7%94%A8%E7%A8%8B%E5%BC%8F%E6%8E%A8%E8%96%A6-1641d1ce99e6 | ['Edward Tung'] | 2020-09-02 08:39:36.958000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Data Science', 'Recommender Systems'] |
Descriptive statistics in Time Series Modelling | There are various statistical tests that can be performed to describe the time series data. Time series modelling requires the data to be in a certain way, and these requirements vary from model-to-model. These models, once fitted to the data, need some kind of validation which can be done through statistical tests.
But most commonly, what we look for in time series are properties like stationarity, causality, correlations, seasonality, etc. Models like ARMA, ARIMA, SARIMA, Holt Winters address different types of time series data. The data needs to be checked for its underlying attributes and statsmodels has a variety of tests to explore and play around with these attributes. Following is a brief overview of these properties.
Stationarity
A time series is said to be stationary if it doesn’t increase or decrease with time linearly or exponentially(no trends), and if it doesn’t show any kind of repeating patterns(no seasonality). Mathematically, this is described as having constant mean and constant variance over time. Along, with variance, the autocovariance should also not be a function of time. If you have forgotten what mean and variance are: mean is the average of the data and variance is the average squared distance from the mean.
Stationary data: Total number of daily female births
Non- stationary data: Number of airlines passengers over the years
Some models make a general assumption of stationarity of time series, but most of the models like ARMA, ARIMA, SARIMA , VARMA, etc., need the data to be stationary. But, how do we determine whether the given data is stationary or not?
The most basic approach for understanding this is to plot the data and check if there’s any hint at the presence of underlying trends or seasonality. This visual practice rarely helps and often its difficult for the human eye to tell this. So we can add rolling statistics (like moving average) to the data with a fixed window size to check for stationarity.
Rolling mean with a window size of 12
Sometimes, it’s even difficult to interpret the rolling mean visually so we take the help of statistical tests to identify this, one such being Augmented Dickey Fuller Test. ADCF Test is implemented using statsmodels in python which performs a classic null hypothesis test and returns a p-value.
Interpretation of null hypothesis test: If p-value is less than 0.05 (p-value: low), we reject the null hypothesis and assume that the data is stationary. But if the p-value is more than 0.05 (p-value: high), then we fail to reject the null hypothesis and determine the data to be non-stationary.
Once the stationarity of the dataset is determined, we perform the transformation based on the requirement. If the data is found to be stationary, we proceed to do some modelling on it, but if its found to be not stationary, then we must transform it before fitting the model. “Differencing” is a common way to transform the data to stationary, which is nothing but finding the differences between consecutive data terms and shift them by 1. First, we try the first -order differencing to the data and then the second , third, and so on, until the data becomes stationary. But each differencing step comes at the cost of losing a row of data. (since we shift the rows/data points by 1 for every step) If the data shows seasonality, then the differencing is done by season. For example, if we had monthly data which has yearly seasonality, then we difference the data by a time unit of 12.
Causality
Causality is related to the phenomenon of causation: if one time series can be used to predict another time series, then those two are said to have some causal relation. How to test for causality? Granger Causality test is undoubtedly the best way to check for it. It can be again implemented using statsmodels in python.
Visually, to determine whether there is an causality in the data becomes difficult. It’s extremely unlikely for us to understand the causality, as we see in the below example.
The two time series ‘a’ and ‘d’ have causality
In the above graph, the two time series have some sort of causality; if you shift ‘a’ by two units ahead , it gives you the ‘d’ values.
Interpretation of Granger causality test: when p-value is more than 0.05, there’s no causality and when the p-value is low, i.e., less than 0.05, there is a sign of causality in the data.
Evaluating forecasts
Time series modelling involves seeing correlations in the data by plotting the data with a lagged version of itself by some time units. When we compare the time series against a lagged version of itself, it gets difficult to see any correlations with a considerable increase in time. To evaluate the model-fit and the quality of the forecasts, we use metrics like MAE, MSE, RMSE, AIC and BIC.
Mean absolute error, mean squared error and root mean squared error are few such errors that we use for regression problems, thereby also used for regression- based time series models.
What we would like to understand are the AIC and BIC metrics.
AIC: Akaike Information Criterion, developed in 1971, evaluates a collection of models- it evaluates the quality of each model relative to the others and compares the models against each other.
AIC is specifically used for ARIMA based models to determine the p,d,q parameters. So, we you’re going to run the ARIMA model with different orders of p, d and q, you would need a metric that can compare the models against one another. AIC is a perfect metric to do this job. Th advantage of this metric is that it provides the penalties for number of parameters used in an effort to thwart overfitting. Let’s say you have a simple model that is performing relatively well and a complex model that is performing slightly better than the previous one. If there’s a minor performance improvement between these two models, then AIC is going to take this into account and will tell you to choose the simpler model rather than going for the complex one. In this scenario, the complex model will have a lower information criterion value than the simpler model. In a way, AIC penalizes the models that use too many parameters.
Thanks for reading the article! | https://towardsdatascience.com/descriptive-statistics-in-time-series-modelling-db6ec569c0b8 | ['Snigdha Cheekoty'] | 2019-07-30 08:21:55.114000+00:00 | ['Time Series Forecasting', 'Data Science', 'Time Series Data', 'Time Series Analysis', 'Machine Learning'] |
Everything You Should Know about Infant Formula | In becoming a new mom, it’s almost as though everything in life needs recalibration. Everything is brand new territory. Topping the charts of something one has probably never considered before having a baby or exposure to one regularly is: infant formula.
The conversation on breastfeeding can be pretty aggressive, and attitudes about formula have their range. This is your notification, mama. If you’ve chosen to use formula, well on you. The goal is to feed your baby, and if you’re doing that-you’re doing GR8.
Here’s everything you need to know about formula.
What Kind of Formulas Exist?
There are three commonly used types of formula cleared by the FDA for consumption by infants.
Dairy: A blend of processed cow milk that makes it more digestible for babies and is adjusted in nutrient content.
Soy: Animal protein-free, soy is a good alternative for babies who do not do well with animal protein-based mixtures. It is important to note, however, that both can trigger allergies.
Hydrolysate: Protein has been shrunk and broken down for the easiest digestion possible. In this form, protein is available in a dosage that is safe for babies with a protein allergy.
There are different blends of formula that serve infants who are particularly sensitive or have a specific health condition that requires specialized care such as premature birth.
How They Come
Varying in price, you can purchase formula in the following forms:
$$$ Ready-to-use: For convenience, pre-mixed and ready for immediate use.
$$ Concentrated: A liquid blend that you mix with water.
$ Powdered: A blend in powder form that you mix with water.
How Do I Know What Kind of Formula to Use?
In most cases, an iron-fortified formula is the best choice. Even in babies who do not lack iron, adverse effects are not likely. However, checking with your doctor is always advised. Speaking with a doctor will also help to identify your baby’s specific dietary needs, if any.
For example, if a baby’s digestive system is acting up outside of switching from dairy to plant-based, it might be useful to try a formula that integrates probiotics. Similarly, if you’re aware of common heredity allergies in your family, hydrolysate formula may be good as not to disrupt sensitivity.
Understanding the Signals
If only babies could speak and tell us what they need. Well, they certainly try! Among trying to decode cries and tantrums, paying careful attention to how the infant responds to the formula is a worthy focus. The following are indications of what to look for.
Signs the Formula is Working
You’ll know if a formula is safe and effective for your baby if:
They urinate 6–8 times per day.
They gain weight within the first ten days after birth.
Their stool is runny in the beginning but regulates as they grow.
They have 2–5 bowel movements per day.
Signs the Formula Should be Changed
Reconsider the formula you’re trying if:
Skin irritations occur.
They have diarrhea.
Vomiting occurs.
Crying and tantrums after feeding worsen.
Loose, liquid stool.
Excessive gas.
How to Prepare Infant Formula
Directions on how to prepare formula will depend on the kind you use. Keep these tips in mind for preparing it properly for ingestion.
Check the expiration date. Never use formula past its expiration date.
Make sure to wash hands before preparing.
Ensure that all tools are sterile, including any caps, rings, bottles, and the nipple.
Follow instructions closely.
Do not store formula after one hour of using as the bacteria it has been exposed to can multiply and become harmful for the baby.
Note temperature: Optimal formula temperature will vary from baby to baby. Some are okay with it cold, some room temp, and some warm. If you’re heating formula, never do so in the microwave. Uneven heating can result in an overly abrasive and hot blend that could burn their mouth.
The most important aspect of formula? If it’s contributing to your baby’s health in the way that it needs to. If you observe some sort of irregularity, don’t hesitate to reach out to a pediatrician regarding the formula you’re using, and any other potential complications. | https://medium.com/@gr8er-self-care/everything-you-should-know-about-infant-formula-f2076e940a2d | [] | 2020-05-22 18:30:57.039000+00:00 | ['Baby', 'Formula', 'Newborn', 'Infant', 'Baby Products'] |
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WEDDING- WEDDING CHECKLIST | Memories get sweeter with time. And the wedding is the most memorable of all. Marriage or the union of two beautiful souls give a partnership for life. Two people who promise to stand by each other in all thick and thins of life.
To plan the perfect celebration, you should know about some key points to plan your big day and make a checklist
Start the guest list:
When it involves making the wedding guest list. Before you begin adding everybody, take into thought the minimum and also the most range of guests that you’re allowed at your wedding venue. You’ll additionally have to be compelled to think about your wedding budget at this point too.
In addition, Below could be a general list of individuals that you just might invite to celebrate with you on your big day. Whether you select them to the day a part of your wedding or simply the evening reception is up to you…
-Immediate family
-Distant family
-Friends
-Work colleagues
-Family Friends/Friends of friends
Book the Cool Venues:
Find the proper venue for your big day. You can hire a skilled venue expert for your event to assist you with a new venue, pricing, designing & execution — all at the press of a button. You’ll be able to Book the proper venue hassle-free at affordable costs.
Hire the Best Wedding Photographer & Videographer:
Wedding Photographer and videographer saves your memories that you will cherish later. The memories of joyful relatives, the brewing romance and much more.
WEDDING INK, The best Wedding Photographer in Lucknow & Allahabad is here to convert your moments of joy into memories of sweetness for the times to come. From Mehendi to Haldi to the big day, they are just a booking away to bring the best memories on photographs and video clips.
Choose the best place and a proficient photographer like Wedding Ink for the best wedding photography in Lucknow and capture every moment of your special days in the lenses.
Book bands, florists, and caterers:
Meet vendors and instruct them on wherever to line up (i.e. band/DJ, florist, baker, and caterer) check that band, DJ or selected person will properly pronounce the marriage party’s names (and within the right order) for the introductions. Assist caterers to verify the food timeline.
Purchase Invitation Cards:
Find your vogue and style, do you love romantic handwriting or fashionable graphic design? offer your guests a style of the celebration to come back. There are several nice samples of wedding invite card vendors on-line, you’ll be able to purchase simply.
Finalize the menu:
There are several details that guests can keep in mind concerning your wedding day: nice music, the happy couple beaming, and, of course, the food. Yes, selecting the menu ought to on the highest of your list of priorities. The Big Fat Indian Wedding is incomplete without delicious food.
Shop your Wedding Dress:
We will all agree that selecting the marriage dress for the bride is doubtless the toughest job out there. The marriage is that the big day for everybody and hence, your selection of the dress must be unique. Wear one thing that bespeaks the importance of the big day. Moreover, Opt for significant floor-length designer … read more … | https://medium.com/@singhania.garima25/things-you-should-know-about-wedding-wedding-checklist-f728e3778fe7 | ['Garima Singhania'] | 2019-09-14 06:35:27.394000+00:00 | ['Wedding Checklist', 'Wedding Dress', 'Wedding Photography', 'Weddings'] |
Scraping Google Maps Using Selenium and Python | SELENIUM is a free and open-source automated testing framework used to validate web applications across different browsers and platforms but is also used as a scraping tool like scrapy and beautiful soup.
In this article, we will be looking at how we can use Selenium to scrape all the Location Data from Google Maps using the URL of the location.
So without further adieu let’s get started…
Quick Note: Any data collected from websites can be subject to copyright, thus meaning that should not be reused without owner consent and that should not be definitely used for commercial purposes. The main objective of this article is to show how to collect data as a coding exercise, as well as a way to build datasets for research and/or personal projects.
Items Scraped
1. Location Data
Average Rating
Total Reviews
Address of Location
Phone Number
Website URL
Open and Close Time for each Day
Busy Percentage for each hour of the Day
2. Reviews Data
Reviewers Name
Reviewed Date
Reviewed Text
Reviewed Rating
Let’s Get Started
Step 0: Bird’s Eye View
Let’s first get the visual view of the functioning and the steps that we are going to code,
Reach onto the Location Page on Maps and get the location data,
Get Open and Close Time for each day,
Get the busy percentage data for each day,
Click the “More Reviews” button and go onto all reviews page of the location,
Scrolling the Page to load all the reviews because the page is implemented using AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML) which means all the reviews will only be loaded onto the website when we scroll down to look for them.
Click the “more” button for large reviews to load them completely on the website.
Finally, scrape the Reviews Details from the website
Step 1: Installation
Create and activate your python virtual environment and install Selenium using,
$ pip install selenium
Now download the Google Chrome WebDriver, which is basically a piece of software that automatically runs the browser instance and over which Selenium will work.
#Note: Download the same version as your Chrome Browser.
Add the downloaded .exe file to your current working folder.
Step 2: Import Essential Libraries
Create a new “main.py” file into your working directory and import these essential libraries,
Step 3: Create a main class and initialize
Let’s first initialize our main scraping class that will contain all the upcoming functions
The __init__ function is the constructor that will automatically get called and initialize these necessary parameters.
Step 4: Get Location Data
Now we will create a function that will scrape the location data like Average Rating, Total Reviews, Address, Phone Number, Website URL.
The self.driver.find_element_by_… are the Selenium functions that automatically find out the HTML elements with that class name or id name and stores them into a variable, and later we can use the text() function over those variables to get the respective values.
Step 5: Get Open & Close Times
Now we’ll create two functions one that clicks the open & close time button and then another that gets all the days and their respective open and close time.
The class “lo7U087hsMA__row-header” contains all the days and “lo7U087hsMA__row-interval” contains the respective open and close times.
Step 6: Get Busy Percentage for each day
The class that will get all the days and for each day finds out the busy percentage for each hour in a day of the location.
The variable “a” is a list of all the days, then we loop through “a” and find out all the times available in that day and store it into list “b”, then loop in b and find out the busy percentage for that respective hour in a day and store it in our final data list.
Step 7: Click the all reviews button
Now that we have scraped all the location data, it’s time to move onto the all reviews page where we will scrape the reviews data.
To do that we will find the All reviews button on the HTML and use the selenium .click() function to click it and get redirected to that page.
The selenium WebDriverWait function basically tells selenium to wait until that element gets loaded into the Html.
Step 8: Load all reviews
Now that the selenium is on all reviews page, before any scraping we have to load all the reviews by scrolling down to the bottom as this page like most other modern websites is implemented using AJAX which means the rest of the reviews will only be loaded into HTML when you scroll down to look at them.
Let’s create a scroll page function that will first scroll and load all the reviews before we further proceed to scrape reviews.
The above code will scroll the page 5 times, which means it first brings the scroll bar to the bottom, waits for new reviews to load, and then again scroll it to the bottom.
Step 9: Expand long reviews
To see the long reviews we have to click the more button under each review to make it load into the Html.
So let’s create a expand all reviews function that will find all these more buttons on the already loaded page and clicks them to load the entire reviews.
The element is the list of all those buttons present on the loaded page.
Step 10: Scrape Reviews Data
Now that everything is been loaded we will create a function that scrapes the reviews data like each reviewer name, text, posted date, and rating.
Final Step
Now that we have all our functions created let’s just create the main function that will simply call them one by one and execute the entire scraping process.
Full Code
Conclusion | https://medium.com/swlh/scraping-google-maps-using-selenium-3cec08eb6a92 | ['Rohan Goel'] | 2021-02-02 11:55:15.705000+00:00 | ['Python', 'Selenium', 'Web Scraping', 'Projects', 'Google Maps'] |
As Trump once again takes credit for a Dow Jones all-time high, we must remember that the stock… | As Trump once again takes credit for a Dow Jones all-time high, we must remember that the stock market isn’t the economy.
The tweet hereunder, by former Secretary of Labour Robert Reich, highlights the discrepancies in stock ownership between the richest and the bottom 50%.
Pushing the math just a little further reveals just how shocking the reality is.
The overall capitalisation of the US stock market sits at about 36 trillion dollars (that’s 36,000,000,000,000). The current US population is around 328 million people.
The richest 1% (3.28 million people) own $18 trillions worth of stocks. That’s $5.5 million each on average.
The bottom 50% (164 million people) own $252 billions worth of stocks. That’s an average of $1,536.59.
The stock market is not the economy, indeed. | https://medium.com/@ncarteron/as-trump-once-again-takes-credit-for-a-dow-jones-all-time-high-we-must-remember-that-the-stock-a1bb2122a30e | ['Nicolas Carteron'] | 2020-12-17 19:25:27.193000+00:00 | ['Wealth', 'Politics', 'Economics', 'Society', 'Inequality'] |
How to Find Stillness, Productivity, and Enjoyment Every Day | Success is nothing more than an accumulation of positive acts.
How can I succeed in business? What’s the secret to becoming a full-time writer? And where can I find the magic formula for learning new skills?
Those are common personal growth questions that many people ask themselves.
They believe that someone has a recipe for success and that they just need to find it. Those thinking patterns hold you back.
No matter if you’re building a business, learning a new language, or improving your physique, a combination of small habits will lead to success.
You need to become a little bit better every day and add a small piece to the puzzle.
That’s where stillness, productivity, and enjoyment come into play.
No matter what you are trying to accomplish, you’ll need those three elements daily.
First, stillness will help you remain calm, focused, and determined. Productivity, on the other hand, will help you achieve more in less time. In other words, you’ll use your time wisely. Finally, you need to enjoy your endeavor to stay motivated and retain your purpose.
Together, the three can help you attain any summit by creating a daily merger of calmness — ensuring that you do the work without distractions, productivity — boosting your time management, and fun — transforming arduous chores into playful challenges.
How do we combine the three?
There are various effective methods to incorporate these three positive states into your everyday life.
On this basis, here are five ways to find stillness, productivity, and enjoyment every day. | https://medium.com/the-innovation/how-to-find-stillness-productivity-and-enjoyment-every-day-d2f49920595c | ['Jack Krier'] | 2020-12-27 20:32:52.056000+00:00 | ['Self', 'Self Improvement', 'Lifestyle', 'Mindfulness', 'Productivity'] |
Animal Rights in 2020 Hindsight | December 22, 2020
by Alex Hershaft, PhD, President — Farm Animal Rights Movement
The slow pace of social change may make us wonder whether our struggle to save animals is bearing fruit. Our success becomes so much more evident from the perspective of 40 years since our movement got going. Here is a brief look at the growth of our movement and the associated reduction in the use of animals for food, fashion, experimentation, and entertainment.
Our Movement
40 years ago, animal rights was a quaintconcept fancied by a small handful of academicians. Today, scores of books and hundreds of essays and videos cover every aspect. Most law schools include a course in animal law, and a dozen schools offer animal law as a major.
In fact, 40 years ago, the U.S. had no animal rights movement. None of the national animal protection organizations had embraced animal rights, and there were no other animal rights groups. Today, scores of national and local groups advocate animal rights in the U.S. Scores more actually save animals in local sanctuaries. A dozen national organizations promote animal rights in other countries.
Food
40 years ago, nutritionists were unanimous that one could obtain a “complete protein” only from animal sources, or perhaps by careful combination of “complementary” vegetable proteins. Today, the conservative Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and every respectable nutritionist fully endorse a plant-based diet.
40 years ago, few had ever heard the word “vegan,” and even fewer knew what it meant. Our small handful of vegans were viewed as social outcasts. Today, several members of Congress are vegan, and dozens of celebrity entertainers claim to be. Major publications and hundreds of videos are touting plant-based eating, and dozens of websites offer multiple recipes.
40 years ago, restaurant choices for vegans were lettuce and baked potatoes. Today, major U.S. cities feature several all-vegan restaurants. Most other eateries, including thousands of national franchises, offer a choice of plant-based entrees.
40 years ago, a few Seventh Day Adventist stores had a suspicious-looking canned food as replacement for animal meat. All milks and milk products came from cows or goats. Today, every supermarket features a large selection of delicious, convenient, and healthful plant-based meat and milk products. Major food processors, including meatpacking and dairy companies, are planning their own production of such products.
Experimentation
40 years ago, the use of animals in research, training, and testing was loosely governed by the permissive Animal Welfare Act of 1966. Today’s amended version of the Act regulates the trade and care of these animals and requires formation of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees to limit the number of animals and the severity of each project.
40 years ago, hundreds of chimpanzees were subjected to cruel medical experiments in a national network of primate research centers. Today, all survivors are retired.
40 years ago, the infamous LD50 (Lethal Dose 50) test exposed one hundred small animals to increasing doses of a toxic substance, until half of them died, then killed and autopsied the survivors to find out why they didn’t. Today, that test is no longer in use.
Nearly all U.S. medical schools have stopped using live dogs and other animals in training their students.
Fashion and Entertainment
40 years ago, wearing fur was a high fashion statement in the U.S. Today, all major fashion brands, including Armani, Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, Hilfiger, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Versace have banned fur.
The number of mink farms in the U.S. has plummeted from 1,027 in 1988 to fewer than 300. Excellent animal-free replacements are available for leather, fur, wool, silk, and feathers.
40 years ago, as many as 10 million homeless animals were killed each year by local pounds. Today, that number is down to 1.5 million.
40 years ago, dog racing and fighting were a popular form of entertainment. Today, dog fighting and cock fighting are illegal in every state. Dog racing is illegal in 41 states and only four states still have active tracks.
The Ringling Brothers animal circus is no longer in business, and SeaWorld has drastically curtailed its animal operations under pressure from animal activists. A number of inhumane roadside zoos have been shut down by local authorities.
A Closing Note
Social change occurs in stages. In the alerting stage, people first become aware that a change may be needed. In the discussion stage, they learn more about it and resolve to make a change. In the reform stage, the change actually takes place.
Over the past 40 years, the animal rights movement has moved our society deeply into the discussion stage. People already knew how to practice respect and compassion for their dogs and cats. Our movement has made such considerations respectable and applicable to other animals.
The reform stage, ending the use of the 98percent of animals who are raised for food, will arrive when plant-based meats become more available than animal meats, because of cost, convenience, and taste. It’s already happening with nut milks widely replacing cow’s milk in the dairy aisle.
People will express their natural affinity toward animals and embrace the animal rights ideology much more readily, when they are no longer asked to change their eating lifestyle three times a day.
In 1776, our nation’s founders declared that “all men (meaning white male property owners) are created equal.” Women had to wait 144 years to gain their right to vote. African Americans had to wait an additional 45 years to have their voting rights respected. By these measures, we are progressing at lightning speed.
While the slow pace of social change may make us wonder whether our struggle to save animals is bearing fruit we can reflect back on 2020, the “Year of the Vegan” and know that our efforts are making change happen. Each one of us has the power to make a difference and stand up for animals. As 2020 comes to a close, please consider a tax-deductible donation to FARM. Your gift goes a long way toward positive change: farmusa.org/donate. | https://medium.com/@alex-vegan/animal-rights-in-2020-hindsight-efd406dacff8 | ['Alex H'] | 2020-12-22 23:27:57.164000+00:00 | ['Fashion', 'Plant Based', 'Vivisection', 'Vegan', 'Animal Rights'] |
How It All Happened at the ‘Everything of Foresting’ Meetup at DeCentre Blockchain Caffe | How It All Happened at the ‘Everything of Foresting’ Meetup at DeCentre Blockchain Caffe
DeCentre Blockchain Cafe in Gangnam
Over 100 blockchainers and crypto enthusiasts turned up for the maiden Foresting Meetup, held at the DeCentre Blockchain Caffe in Gangnam, last Tuesday. Titled ‘Everything of Foresting,’ the event aimed at unraveling everything that Foresting is about, to a teeming audience.
The Caffe happens to be the first blockchain-themed coffee shop and coworking space to be opened in Korea. It is a safe and cool space for the general public, especially crypto-maniacs to meet, share knowledge and talk blockchain. The floor is very spacious enough to accommodate over 100 people for startup and blockchain events.
Participants at the Meetup
The Foresting Meetup brought together blockchain industry experts, ICO advisors, token investors, and enthusiasts to learn more Foresting’s services, but more importantly, the 1st Public ICO Pre-sale which will end on Friday, August 24, 2018. | https://medium.com/foresting/how-it-all-happened-at-the-everything-of-foresting-meetup-at-decentre-blockchain-caffe-e3cce28c3828 | ['Williams Nana Kyei'] | 2018-10-19 01:39:04.661000+00:00 | ['Events', 'Blog', 'Cryptocurrency News', 'Blockchain Technology', 'Meetup'] |
A Week of the Keto Diet: 7-Day Keto Meal Plan! | The objective of a ketogenic diet — a nourishment plan high in fats and low in carbs — is to assist you with shedding pounds all the more effectively by accomplishing ketosis. Ketosis is the point at which your digestion begins to consume fat for fuel rather than carbs and sugar. Atkins is a ketogenic diet, however, not at all like the standard keto diet, Atkins is less prohibitive, which means you get more food decisions and a superior equilibrium of macronutrients.
With Atkins 20®, net carbs are confined to 20g or less each day for a fourteen-day acceptance stage to ensure that ketosis is accomplished, before progressively adding limited quantities of net carbs back into your eating routine. Burning through an all-around built keto diet that is low in carbs, moderate in protein, and high in sound fats — as you do on Atkins 20® or Atkins 40® — has demonstrated to be protected and successful. Common of Atkins 20 ®, this 7-day keto plan is separated as follows:
60–70% fat: Keto diets replace the calories that typically come from carbs with an increase in the percentage of calories coming from fat. But not all fat is created equal. Reach for healthy fats from high-quality plant and animal sources, such as olive oil and coconut oil as well as eggs, avocados, cheese, and fish.
20–30% protein: Following a keto diet requires eating an adequate amount of protein to supply your liver with amino acids, which help make new glucose for the cells and organs in your body that can’t use ketones as fuel. Eating too much protein can suppress ketosis, but not consuming enough can lead to a loss in muscle mass.
5–10% carbs: On a keto diet like Atkins, you’ll limit your net carb intake to 20 to 40 grams per day. To ensure you’re getting all of your required nutrients, especially fiber, it is important that the carbs you do eat come from vitamin and mineral-rich foundation vegetables.
Sample Keto Diet 7-Day Meal Plan
The vast majority can burn through up to 50g all-out starches each day and keep up with ketosis. This example 7-day keto diet plan, with a normal of 20.5g net carbs each day, will tell you the best way to eat right, not less, with Atkins keto while as yet partaking in an assortment of fulfilling food sources.
Day 1: Monday
Total net carbs: 20.7g
Breakfast (4.6g net carbs): Eggs Scrambled with Sautéed Onions and Cheddar Cheese
Snack (2g net carbs): Atkins Peanut Butter Fudge Crisp Bar
Lunch (5.8g net carbs): 6 oz deli ham over 2 cups mixed greens with ½ Hass avocado, 5 large black olives, ½ cup sliced cucumbers, and 2 Tbsp blue cheese dressing
Snack (4.5g net carbs): 3/4 medium zucchini cut into sticks and 2 oz provolone cheese
Dinner (3.8g net carbs): Baked Catfish with Broccoli and Herb-Butter Blend
Keto tip of the day: Low carb abstains from food like Atkins keto have a diuretic impact, so ensure you’re drinking no less than 6 to 8 glasses of water every day. Not devouring sufficient water — particularly when beginning a new low-carb diet — can prompt obstruction, unsteadiness, and sugar/carb desires. Additionally, ensure you add additional salt to your eating routine to ensure you’re getting an adequate number of electrolytes. Take a stab at tasting on full-sodium stock or adding some additional salt to your food.
Day 2: Tuesday
Total net carbs: 20.1g
Breakfast (5g net carbs): Atkins Frozen Farmhouse-Style Sausage Scramble
Snack (4.4g net carbs): 1 cup sliced red bell pepper with 2 Tbsp ranch dressing
Lunch (5.4g net carbs): 1 serving Tuna-Celery Salad with Mixed Greens and 3 cherry tomatoes
Snack (2.2g net carbs): 1 stalk celery with 2 Tbsp cream cheese
Dinner (3.2g net carbs): 7 oz bone-in pork chop with Cauliflower-Cheddar Mash
Keto tip of the day: Get moving! Practicing consistently can assist you with accomplishing ketosis by helping your body in spending its overabundance glucose prior to putting it away as glycogen. It’s typical to feel somewhat drowsy when beginning a keto diet, so assuming that you’re new to the low carb way of life, remain dynamic with low-force development like yoga and strolling. At the point when you’re feeling more empowered, include some focused energy practice a couple of days seven days.
Day 3: Wednesday
Total net carbs: 19.7g
Breakfast (2.9g net carbs): Spinach and Swiss Cheese Omelet
Snack (1g net carbs): Atkins Strawberry Shake
Lunch (6g net carbs): Grilled chicken over baby spinach, tomato, and avocado salad
Snack (2.2g net carbs): 2 oz ham, 2 Tbsp cream cheese, and 2 dill pickle spears
Dinner (7.6g net carbs): Beef Sauteed with Vegetables Over Romaine
Keto tip of the day: If you are new to a low-carb way of life, you may begin to catch what’s known as keto influenza. A term authored by the keto local area, this is a brief incidental effect experienced by certain individuals when they start the keto diet. Assuming you are encountering migraines, shortcomings, and helpless fixation, don’t call it quits! Electrolytes and water are immediately drained when you initially start a keto diet, so ensure you are drinking a lot of water and devouring some additional sodium and potassium. It additionally assists with getting sufficient rest and ensures you are eating a lot of sound fats.
Day 4: Thursday
Total net carbs: 19.3g
Breakfast (4.7g net carbs): Cheese and Spinach Omelet Topped with Avocado and Salsa
Snack (1g net carbs): Atkins French Vanilla Shake
Lunch (6g net carbs): Atkins Frozen Crustless Chicken Pot Pie
Snack (2.2g net carbs): ½ medium zucchini cut into sticks and 1 oz Monterey jack cheese
Dinner (5.4g net carbs): 5 oz hamburger topped with 1 oz pepper jack cheese, 1 small tomato, ½ Hass avocado, and 2 romaine lettuce leaves
Keto tip of the day: Craving something sweet? Prepare a debauched sweet with this simple formula for Chocolate Pecan Pie Bites appropriate for all Atkins stages. Note that one serving of this formula will add 1.8g net carbs and 7.1g of fat to the present menu. Peruse Atkins’s broad formula data set for all the more low-carb dessert plans.
Day 5: Friday
Total net carbs: 21.9g
Breakfast (2.6g net carbs): 2 large eggs, ¼ cup shredded cheddar, and 4 Tbsp Salsa Cruda
Snack (2g net carbs): Atkins Cafe Caramel Shake
Lunch (6.9g net carbs): Atkins Frozen Chili Con Carne with a side of 2 cups mixed greens and 2 Tbsp Italian Dressing
Snack (4.4g net carbs): 1 cup sliced red bell pepper with 2 Tbsp ranch dressing
Dinner (6g net carbs[3] ): Half of a California Cobb salad with ranch dressing from California Pizza Kitchen
Keto tip of the day: It’s the finish of the week of work, so get together with your companions or family for supper! Living low carb doesn’t mean you need to cook all of your suppers. Remain focused when feasting out by asking the eatery for nourishment data, picking meat and veggie dishes, quitting dull sides like pureed potatoes, and staying away from sweet toppings like BBQ sauce. Also, look at these other keto-accommodating cafés!
Day 6: Saturday
Total net carbs: 20.7
Breakfast (4.9g net carbs): Red Bell Pepper Filled with Creamy Eggs and Spinach
Snack (1g net carbs): Atkins Strawberry Shake
Lunch (2.5g net carbs): Tuna salad with 4 oz tuna, 2 stalks celery, 1 dill pickle spear, 2 Tbsp mayonnaise
Snack (4.5g net carbs): 1 portobello mushroom cap, ¼ cup Salsa Cruda, and 1 oz pepper jack cheese
Dinner (7.8g net carbs): 5 oz Italian sausage, ¼ medium onion sliced, and ½ red bell pepper sliced with a side of 2 cups baby spinach, ½ cup sliced mushrooms, and 2 Tbsp Blue Cheese Dressing
Keto tip of the day: If you’re feeling celebratory or are making the rounds, partake in a low-carb drink without losing your week. One 3.5 ounce glass of dry red wine has 2.6g net carbs, and 1 ounce of whiskey has 0g net carbs. In any case, keep an eye out for buried carbs in blenders, and recollect that these are extra carbs to the present menu. You can without much of a stretch monitor your day-by-day net carbs with the Atkins application or this aide.
Day 7: Sunday
Total net carbs: 20.8
Breakfast (2.9g net carbs): Pumpkin Flax Pancakes
Snack (1.7g net carbs): 5 whole snap peas and 2 oz cheddar
Lunch (3.1g net carbs): 6 oz chicken breast over 2 cups Romaine hearts with 5 radishes and 2 Tbsp Creamy Italian Dressing
Snack (3.2g net carbs): 2 stalks celery and 2 Tbsp cream cheese
Dinner (9.9g net carbs): Baked Salmon With Charmoula Over Broccoli
Keto tip of the day: Head to the general store and supper prep for the forthcoming week to remain focused with your low-carb way of life! Change everything around by making a portion of your cherished suppers with low-carb fixing trades. What’s more, review how to keep away from the most well-known keto botches.
===> Click here & Get The Ultimate Keto Meal Plan | https://medium.com/@faisalbutt6786/a-week-of-the-keto-diet-7-day-keto-meal-plan-3d9e0495d334 | ['Muhammad Faisal Butt'] | 2021-12-26 18:37:07.048000+00:00 | ['Weight Loss', 'Weight Loss Program', 'Weightloss Foods', 'Weight Loss Tips', 'Keto Meal Plan'] |
Daily Kickoff: JI interview with Marco Rubio | Biden brags “I’m more Jewish than Hillary is” as she considers him for Secretary of State | Daily Kickoff: JI interview with Marco Rubio | Biden brags “I’m more Jewish than Hillary is” as she considers him for Secretary of State Jacob Kornbluh Follow Oct 30, 2016 · 14 min read
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JI INTERVIEW with Senator Marco Rubio — by Jacob Kornbluh: In a conversation earlier today, Rubio discussed his Senate reelection bid, the 2016 race for the White House, and his plans for the Senate if reelected. Rubio insisted that his initial decision not to run for reelection had nothing to do with his distaste of working in DC. “I was committed to continuing in public service. I had made a decision to try to do it as president. I believe that members of Congress can help shape the direction of our country, but the president sets the agenda. So I made the decision that I would run for president, I wasn’t going to do two things at once, and when that decision didn’t work out I was prepared to move on and be a private citizen and seek other ways to serve. But I did become convinced that it was important for our country to have a senator in Washington prepared to stand up to the next president, no matter who it is.”
Q: Do you plan to bridge the partisan divide in DC?
Rubio: “The partisanship and the gridlock, I am troubled by it. It’s unfortunate. I can tell you, the Iran nuclear deal is a very disappointing development because many of my Democratic colleagues know that it’s a bad agreement, but they chose their party over the right thing. I thought that was an example of hyperpartisanship. And my own party took far too long to address Zika, something I didn’t think was a political issue. I am not happy about it. There are plenty of issues we could fight over, but there are some that we should be able to put partisanship aside, and too often that’s not happening.”
Q: Were you disappointed that Sheldon Adelson didn’t support you in the Republican primary?
Rubio: “No. I am not disappointed. He is a good friend. He’s always been very supporting and encouraging in many different ways. He chose not to participate in the Republican primary. He didn’t want his money to be used by Republicans to attack other Republicans, and I respect that. My affinity to Mr. Adelson and to his wife Miriam extend beyond politics. I think he is a phenomenal story. I, of course, lived in Vegas for a number of years. I have tremendous admiration to the way he runs his properties there, the way he treats his employees, and, of course, his wife Dr. Adelson is one of the world’s leading experts on addiction. They have always been very helpful to me in so many different ways.”
Q: Has Donald Trump hurt your Senate fundraising efforts the past few months?
Rubio: “It has not. We have been very blessed to have good friends all across Florida and the country who have donated to our campaign. The average donor has given more than $100. We rely on a lot of everyday people who believe in our cause. Just in the last 48 hours, we learned that my opponent lent himself one million dollars of his father’s money and Harry Reid gave him over a million dollars to spend against me. So, we need those resources to communicate, but it hasn’t impacted our ability to get the resources that we need more of.”
Q: Have you made up with Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz since the primary?
Rubio: “Of course. I have talked to Ted a number of times. We had dinner together a month ago, and I talked to Governor Bush just yesterday. He was one of the first people that endorsed me within the hour of me announcing that I was running and he encouraged me to run again. The primary has long been over, and the relationships are enduring. Politics is one thing, and, I think when you are a competitor you respect other competitors. We all wanted the same job and none of us got it (chuckle), and we’ve all now gone in our own direction. Ted, obviously, continues in the Senate and Governor Bush continues to be very active on education reform and his business life, now teaching at Harvard. So, I think we are in good shape.” Read the full interview [JewishInsider]
TOP TALKER: “Clinton eyes Biden for secretary of state” by Edward-Isaac Dovere: “Neither Clinton, nor her aides have yet told Biden. According to the source, they’re strategizing about how to make the approach to the vice president.”He’d be great, and they are spending a lot of time figuring out the best way to try to persuade him to do it if she wins,” said the source familiar with the transition planning… Among the names most discussed: former undersecretary of state Wendy Sherman, Bill Burns, Nick Burns, Kurt Campbell, Strobe Talbott, and James Stavridis.” [Politico] • Biden campaigning for Ted Strickland in OH: “I have as many yarmulkes as you do .. These are Hillary yarmulkes. I’m more Jewish than Hillary is.” [CSPAN; JTA]
“J Street prepares for shift in approach under Clinton” by Michael Wilner: “Top aides to Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, said, if elected, she plans to shift the administration’s tone with Israel — away from public fighting in favor of private disagreements — to reestablish trust with the Israeli people. “I don’t think it matters to J Street whether the conversations are private or public. What matters is that it’s very clear the lines the United States is drawing on what has to stop, from both parties,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, said in an interview.” [JPost]
In an interview on “TheAxe Files” podcast, Sec. of State John Kerry Kerry refused to rule out the possibility that Obama would act on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before leaving office:“I think we want to encourage the preservation of a two-state solution and our first choice is to try to do that with the government, with the prime minister [of Israel]. I think President Obama is very, very concerned that, increasingly, pressure is being put on the capacity to hold onto that two-state effort.” On settlement activity: “I’m not going to get into intent, but the fact is that it is a problem and it runs contrary to American policy under Republican and Democratic presidents.” [CNN; iTunes]
Kerry to students at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on how the Iran deal protects Israel: “We thought that the principal threat to the region was the fact that Iran was two months away from being able to make bombs, that they had enough fissionable material to be able to make up to 12 bombs. And so for Israel and for the rest of the region, we thought the urgency is to get that program out of the way, because all the other issues would be greatly affected in any negotiation by whether or not they have a nuclear weapon. So if you didn’t get rid of the nuclear weapon, you were going to have a very different negotiation about Hizballah, about Israel, about terrorism, than you do now…”
“I would hope that within the next 15 years we’re going to resolve a lot of these differences. We can get away from this sectarianism. We can begin to deal with the problem of Israel-Palestine and get a peace agreement that would change the dynamics of Hezbollah and Lebanon and the region and other challenges we have. So you’ve got to believe in the possibility of changing things, and I believe we have a sufficient hedge against the notion that it won’t change, that Israel is protected, we are protected, the region is protected, and that’s why I think it’s a good agreement.” [Transcript] • Attorney General Lynch ‘Pleads Fifth’ on Secret Iran ‘Ransom’ Payments [FreeBeacon]
“Rival Palestinian Leaders Agree to Agree, but Not on the Details” by Peter Baker:“Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, run by the Fatah faction, met in Qatar with Khaled Meshal, the political chief of Hamas, and Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza. A photograph of the three men smiling was posted online. The rival leaders agreed that it was time to repair the rift, establish a national unity government and prepare for elections, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. But it was not clear whether the meeting would lead to an actual agreement, or that such an agreement, even if reached, would prove any more enduring than at least five others sealed over the years.” [NYTimes]
“Is Obama Preparing A Parting Shot At Israel?” by Charles Krauthammer: “Before the election, Obama dare not attempt this final legacy item, to go along with the Iran deal and the Castro conciliation, for fear of damaging Hillary Clinton. His last opportunity comes after Election Day. The one person who might deter him is Clinton herself, by committing Obama to do nothing before he leaves office that would tie her hands should she become president. Clinton’s supporters who care about Israel and about peace need to urge her to do that now. It will soon be too late.” [WashPost] • Foundation for Defense of Democracies Vice President Jonathan Schanzer on a White House plan that would kill the peace process [WSJ]
“US Amb. Shapiro keeps open continued tenure under next president” by Herb Keinon: “In a Twitter Q&A session, Shapiro was asked whether there was a chance he would serve here under the next administration. “Every ambassador serves at the will of the president,” said Shapiro. So only time will tell. I am sure that whatever position I will hold, I will want to continue to contribute to Israel-US ties, whether in a public or private capacity.” He also gave no indication of what Obama plans to do in the Mideast in the waning months of his presidency. “I can’t predict any specific decisions that haven’t been taken yet,” he tweeted. “But any decision would be motivated by our goal of keeping two states for two peoples alive and viable for the future.”” [JPost]
“In Florida, Ivanka Pitches Trump As Champion for Israel, Jewish People” by Jacob Kornbluh: “My father will be an unbelievable champion for Israel and for the Jewish people,” Mrs. Trump said during a campaign event at The Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside, Florida, according to a recording obtained by Jewish Insider. “You will not be disappointed.” [JewishInsider] Video[YouTube]
— “I wanted to know how your father embraced your decision to convert to Judaism?” they asked her. “I so respect the fact that he supported me from day one. There was no question, there was no argument, there was no asking me if I’d miss Easter or Christmas or trying to persuade me otherwise,” she responded. “He was very supportive and you know I think for two reasons, I think he respects me to know that I will make an educated decision that is well reasoned.” [CBSMiami] • ‘You can’t buy that. It’s Ivanka’: How Trump’s campaign is hurting his daughter’s clothing line [WashPost]
More Podesta emails — Why Hillary preferred sending a letter over meeting Jewish Orgs re:BDS — Jake Sullivan: “HRC is now thinking that she can send a letter to a broader group — like all the names you’ve offered and then a few more — RATHER than hold a meeting. She is now worried about how to manage a meeting given competing perspectives and the like.” [06–25–2015]
“Holocaust Survivor Who Fought Purse Snatcher Gets Note From Hillary Clinton” by Danielle Tcholakian: “Zuckerman also got a letter from Clinton, after DNAinfo New York reported that she planned to vote for the Democratic candidate. “I don’t like rude men,” Zuckerman said in a previous interview after her attack, referring to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “[Clinton] was very sorry it happened to me,” she said Thursday. “She wishes me to get better, and she’s proud of me that I am so brave.” The Clinton campaign confirmed the letter, in which she told Zuckerman, “I agree, I don’t like rude people either.” [DNAInfo]
“Is Trump reversing the gains Republicans have made among American Jews?” by Jan-Jaben Eilon: “Kenneth Waltzer, professor emeritus at Michigan State University, believes the slight decline in Jewish vote going to Democrats in the last election will disappear this year. “Trump is ruining the Republican incursion and making the Republican Party an iffy choice [for Jews this year],” he says, predicting the percentage of Jews voting for the Democratic nominee will be in the mid- 70s. “There were some political and demographic reasons to think the Republicans were making some headway in the Jewish vote the last three elections, but Trump disrupts all of that,” says Waltzer.” [JPost]
“Among Cleveland’s Orthodox voters, reluctance reigns” by Ben Sales: “They’re angry about the Iran deal [and] they’re more aligned with conservative positions generally,” said Rabbi Eric Frank, the Ohio director of Agudath Israel of America, a haredi Orthodox group. “There are some that are probably voting for Donald Trump because they like his message, but on the other hand, I would probably interpret it more as a vote for Republican leadership in Congress and other places they feel have had Israel’s back.”[JTA]
Trump kippas outselling Hillary yarmulkes: “My kippa (yarmulke) company sells Trump and Hillary kippas and are keeping track of who is selling more,” Uri Turk, founder and “chief kippa officer,” told WND. “We see it as an early exit poll of the Orthodox Jews, a type of bellwether of where this important community is leaning. Once the first debate came around, the orders started flying in, with much more interest in the Trump kippas.” [WND]
Marc Daniels tells us that he only sold a dozen yarmulkes at the Biden rally. “Right after the Washington Free Beacon and NY Post wrote about me during AIPAC in March, I received orders for 800 Trump yarmulkes within 48 hours,” Daniels said. “Since the primaries, things have slackened running 50/50: 300 Trump, 300 Hillary at rallies and online.”
**Good Friday Morning! Enjoying the Daily Kickoff? Please share us with your friends & tell them to sign up at [JI]. Have a tip, scoop, or op-ed? We’d love to hear from you. Anything from hard news and punditry to the lighter stuff, including event coverage, job transitions, or even special birthdays, is much appreciated. Email [email protected]*BUSINESS BRIEFS: It will be years before Slack goes public, CEO Stewart Butterfield says [CNBC;WSJ] • WME-IMG Taps NBA Exec as CEO of China Subsidiary [Billboard] • Roman Abramovich paid Robbie Williams to perform at a new year Moscow dinner for Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, hacked emails have revealed [DailyMail] • Jared Kushner is reportedly responsible for building the digital operation that brought the G.O.P. to its knees, and could give rise to a whole new Trump empire [VanityFair]
“Jerry Seinfeld on Trump, ‘Comedians in Cars’ and Larry David’s Bernie Sanders” by Frank Pallotta: This election has seemingly had everything including Seinfeld’s friend and “Seinfeld” co-creator, Larry David, who has played Bernie Sanders on “Saturday Night Live” during the election. “I didn’t see much adjustment there,” he laughed. “All old Jews are interchangeable.” [CNNMoney]
“Roger Waters’ Israel opinions are costing him millions” by Emily Smith: “Roger Waters is planning his most spectacular and expensive tour yet — but the Pink Floyd legend is facing backlash from some big-name sponsors over his views on Israel. Sources tell us that American Express balked at spending up to $4 million to sponsor Waters’ 2017 US + Them North American tour.” [NYPost]
“Mel Gibson on 2006 Anti-Semitic Remarks: ‘I’ve Never Discriminated Against Anyone’” by Arya Roshanian: “It was an unfortunate incident,” Gibson said on “Playback” when asked about the fact that there are many who feel they can no longer support him or his work. “I was loaded and angry and arrested. I was recorded illegally by an unscrupulous police officer who was never prosecuted for that crime… Ten years have gone by,” Gibson stated. “I’m feeling good. I’m sober, all of that kind of stuff, and for me it’s a dim thing in the past… I’ve never discriminated against anyone or done anything that sort of supports that reputation.” [Variety]
KAFE KNESSET — Bibi’s Dilemma: What to do About Oren Hazan? — by Amir Tibon & Tal Shalev: What is on top of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s agenda these days? A possible American move against settlements in the UN Security Council? The upcoming US elections? The fight over the future of Israel’s Broadcast Authority? Well, yes, all of those things, but also another question: what should the Likud party do about its troublemaker-in-chief, Member of Knesset Oren Hazan.
This week, an Israeli court strongly rejected a libel lawsuit by Hazan against Channel 2 News, after the channel aired an investigative report about his career as a casino manager before entering the Knesset. The report cited witnesses who claimed Hazan used hard drugs and hired prostitutes for his friends. The court basically accepted those claims as true, throwing Hazan’s million-Shekel lawsuit out.
An embarrassing silence has emerged from the ranks of the Likud since the ruling, as most of the party’s ministers and Knesset members choose to stay quiet on the matter. Yesterday, it was reported that Netanyahu and a number of party officials held a meeting in order to asses the Likud’s policy towards Hazan, who currently remains in the Knesset and continues to be a member of the ruling party. It’s not at all clear if the party will do anything to distance itself further from Hazan. If it does, he will surely try to rally some support within Likud against the party’s leaders. If not, Likud’s opponnents, most notably Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, will happily make him a campaign issue when the time comes.
Israeli journalist Ari Shavit admits he’s accused of assault, apologizes for ‘misunderstanding: “Danielle Berrin, a senior writer and columnist at the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, published an article last week detailing how an unnamed Israeli journalist, whom she described as a husband and father, assaulted her and tried to persuade her to come up to his hotel room during an interview in 2014. The column set Israeli media circles alight with rumors as to the identity of the accused. Ari Shavit, a prominent Haaretz columnist and author of the bestselling “My Promised Land,” confirmed the speculations Thursday with a statement carried by the newspaper, in which he said he had “completely misinterpreted the interaction” with Berrin and “didn’t intend to do anything that was unacceptable” to her.” [ToI; Haaretz] • Hillel International has suspended Ari Shavit’s campus tour[Facebook]
Yitz Applbaum on the Wine of the Week — Flam Noble 2011: I have not yet totally figured out how to discuss new vintages of wines that I have previously reviewed. However, last night while sitting with an old friend high atop the New York City skyline, talking about our kids and the state of Jewish philanthropy, we opened a Flam Noble 2011. This wine is sufficiently unique from the previously reviewed 2010 vintage that I thought it warranted its own discussion.
This wine is a blend of 61 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, part Cabernet Franc and part Petit Verdot. This is not an uncommon blend, but somehow these three grapes aged for 20 months in new French oak have combined to create a unique and masterful wine. The wine is thick, juicy, fruity, and has enough tannins to pack a real punch. I believe this wine will have impressive longevity though the tannins are not so thick that they preclude the wine from being enjoyable today. The color is as intoxicating as the alcohol. If available, drink this wine in a Riedel Vinum goblet. One needs no food to accompany the Flam Noble 2011 — an absolutely stunning wine. [Flam]
WEEKEND BIRTHDAYS: Actress Jami Gertz turns 51… Editor of the Drudge Report, Matt Drudgeturns 50… Larry Berlin… Director and screenwriter of animated and live-action films, Ralph Bakshiturns 78… Academy Award winning actor, who played Yoni Netanyahu in the 1976 film “Victory at Entebbe,” Richard Dreyfuss turns 69… Pulitzer Prize winning author and long-time editor of editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick turns 58… Pinny Ringel, senior community liaison for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office… Sports agent who has negotiated over $2 billion of NFL player contracts,Drew Rosenhaus turns 50… Mathematician, cryptologist, computer programmer and professor of mathematics and computer science, Daniel J. Bernstein turns 45… Leora Eisenberg…
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Actor, best known for his portrayal of “The Fonz” in the “Happy Days” sitcom, Henry Winkler turns 71… NBC’s anchor, reporter and commentator, married to former Fed Chair Alan Greenspan, Andrea Mitchell turns 70… Israeli, violinist, violist and conductor who appears in concerts around the world,Shlomo Mintz turns 59… Former Chief of Staff to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, David Kroneturns 50… Political correspondent for The New York Times and a political analyst for CNN, Maggie Haberman turns 43… EVP of Development and Acquisitions at the Trump Organization, Ivanka ‘Yael’ Trump turns 35… Founding Director at Tech Tribe, formerly Director of Social Media for Lubavitch,Mordechai Lightstone… | https://medium.com/jewishinsider/daily-kickoff-ji-interview-with-marco-rubio-biden-brags-im-more-jewish-than-hillary-is-as-she-dec3f38baad7 | ['Jacob Kornbluh'] | 2016-10-30 05:34:38.507000+00:00 | ['Politics', '2016 Election', 'Jewish'] |
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